adventures in sewing 2013

Recently I've felt the urge to sew.

ALL THE TIME.

I love making my own things, but I've only ever sewn about two garments in my life; my favorite being skirts because they're just so darn easy.

Cut a few rectangles, sew a line, gather, and sew it all together = fluffy gathered skirt like this skirt that I sewed for my little sister some time ago:

So I recently came up for a goal for myself...I'm going to try and make at least 50% of my wardrobe myself this year. That's going to take a lot of sewing, but I'm up for the challenge! There's so much that I want to learn and try~!

First up is a lovely pair of bloomers I made from an old pillowcase. I followed Sparklewolfie's tutorial with a few modifications made myself. You should check out her other tutorials and the rest of her blog; it's great!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the process but I'll probably try to put together a tutorial when I make another pair.

Here they are!

 Pretty easy to make and just so darn cute!

PLEASE excuse the fabric mess in the background...

I love these bloomers so much! They fit comfortably and actually aren't too short to wear outside. I plan on wearing these by themselves and also under a matching gathered mini skirt I'm going to make from the other pillowcase sometime next week.

Please look forward to it and thanks for reading!

quick update: $5 shoes from f21!

Sale items were half off! I'm so going back for more this week!!!

Alex is having an awesome giveaway!

I'm entering; you should too!

http://androgynousotaku.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/girly-giveaway.html

mall haul: accessories

I mentioned in a previous post that I recently bought a bunch of stuff from Forever 21 and H&M. I probably spent too much money, but I had absolutely no fall/winter clothes and I hadn't gone shopping for myself in a very long time.

I've decided to split up the haul into a few posts so I don't have to put together a super mega picspam of all the stuff I bought. Today's theme?

Accessories!

I am absolutely, positively in love with this collar necklace.

The details on this thing are just lovely. I can't exactly remember how much it was but I think it was around $12 at Forever 21; a steal in my opinion!

 Here's another one from Forever 21.

More details I adore.

Seeing as I almost always lose my earrings I decided to buy some more! These were only $5.95 at H&M so I won't feel too bad if I lose them too, but I'll try to always keep them in my jewelry box.

I don't quite know if this counts as an accessory, but I love it anyway. Who wouldn't want a gold, sparkly lash curler?!

 Last, but definitely not least...  

TIGHTS!!

The patterned ones are my faves, of course. I probably would've bought more tights, but then I definitely would have spent too much money. As it is, I already spent about $100 on all these tights haha...

These are my favorite out of all the tights I bought.

 Can't have tights without some basic solids as well. These look great, but they look even better...

...when paired with lace tights! I can't get enough of this combination.

And that's all for accessories.

I also bought some lip glosses and a nail kit, but I don't think those are very interesting so I left them out. Maybe shoes could go in here, but I'll probably throw those in with the clothes post since I only bought two pairs. 

I so love all my new stuff!  

another fotd

Just a quick post with today's FOTD. These probably won't be done too often since I'm trying to save money and really only go anywhere on the weekends.

No need for makeup if I'm just going to sit at home in my pajamas all day.

 Taken via Instagram. 

Here's yesterday's Instagram photo while I'm at it.

Mall haul posts, Ulta Beauty haul posts, an update on my bedroom, and more coming soon!

friday is british professor day + fotd & ootd

First day back to school in years~

It was a long day, but I'm ultimately glad to be back and to have homework and sit through super long lectures.

That being said, what are the odds that both of my professors today were British? I was seriously like...hm...wtf? Makes for interesting listening, though they're both completely different kinds of people.

Anywho. Here's my first day of school FOTD and OOTD:

 For some reason my makeup never looks the same in photos. Wearing a cheap pair of Sassie lashes that I doctored with the Ardell accent flare lashes. Not too visible in this picture, but I do have one with a better look at how much bigger they make my eyes look.

Big difference, no?

And here's the OOTD. 

Please do forgive my awful camera quality. My actual camera's battery died while trying to get a shot so I had to settle for my cell phone. Everything I'm wearing here is from my recent mall haul.

Top, skirt, boots: Forever 21

Stockings:  H&M

I've got an Ulta Beauty haul coming in the mail, too so I should be able to try a wider range of makeup looks soon. I really love the gyaru look so I'll keep trying to improve!

haul preview

I went crazy at the mall today; primarily at Forever 21 and H&M.

Here's the pile of stuff I'll show in detail later:

In my defense, I had pretty much nothing to wear for the fall/winter! I lost about 20lbs (about 9 kg) in the past year so everything I own (excluding my shirts) doesn't fit well anymore.

Also, most of the clothes I was holding onto were just....old and ugly. ┐('〜`；)┌

I look forward to sharing this stuff with you!

i'm not dead yet!

I haven't even gotten started!

Currently I'm in kind of a transition phase in my life. For the past four years I've been in a state of limbo...lazy and dispassionate about everything and not amounting to much of anything.

It's pretty much been me, my computer, and my couch.

Sort of embarrassing looking back on those years and realizing that I wasted almost half a decade doing pretty much nothing...

Originally, I had lots of goals after high school. I got into the art school I wanted to go to, made lots of friends, and everything felt like it was all on track. Unfortunately, paying for school became a problem after just one semester and I felt helpless. Someone had taken a credit card out in my name before I'd even turned 18 and I had really bad credit because of it so I couldn't even get a loan to help. I did try to dispute the credit card, but it was denied and I was stuck with it...

The school I was going to did nothing to help either. They wanted their money (that I didn't have) or I could go home...so I did. After that whole ordeal I was ready to give up on school and just live with my mom, my computer, and the couch. I actually did for four whole years. Instead of going to community college and trying for some scholarships, I convinced myself that I had no options and there was nothing to be done about it.

I worked on and off, here and there, and spent three years in limbo.

Last year is when things really started to change for me.

I got a job at Uniqlo on 5th Avenue in NYC and I loved it! I'd lived a pretty friendless and lonely three years and to have a chance to start over and make new friends was amazing. I enjoyed my job, loved my co-workers, and had a good time helping out customers. It was then that I decided it was time to dig myself out of this hole and start living again.

I quit Uniqlo in June for various reasons, but I still want to stay in contact with the good friends I made while there. After that I decided to get my ass in gear and give myself some goals. What goals? Well, a few but I'll probably mention them in another post.

Fast forward to now and I'm jobless, but back in school and holding onto the money I saved for dear life. I feel like I can do anything now and 2013 is going to be an amazing year for me.

This post is way longer than I wanted it to be, but I had to get that stuff off my chest in order to feel like I can actually start blogging. I don't have many readers right now, but I look forward to posting lots of fun things and meeting all sorts of new people!

on the subject of circle lenses

I love them. They're so fun, cute, and make pretty much anyone who wears them look like a doll.

My only problem with circle lenses is that I'm just lazy. I hate taking the extra effort to do anything, really. I just can't tolerate the extra few minutes during my daily routine it takes to put them in and that makes me pretty sad because they're lovely.

I never had any problems with comfort of wear (aside from my obnoxiously dry eyes) or putting them in/taking them out. It was just the simple fact that I didn't feel like doing it haha...

Here's a few pictures from my one year love affair with circle lenses (purchased without any issues from Pinky Paradise):

 EOS Candy Brown: 14.5mm

These were my favorite for sure even though I only tried two different kinds. They were so cute and dolly!

A better picture showcasing the interesting look these lenses gave me. I loved the enlargement offered by the size; made my tiny, squinty eyes look so much bigger. Just don't mind the ginger hair haha.

 G&G GBT Green: 14mm
There's no noticeable enlargement on these so I was pretty whatever about them...but the color was just fabulous. If I were to ever try circle lenses again, I would definitely gravitate towards green; most likely in 14.5mm though because it looks better on me.

Actually, this post is making me want to try out circle lenses again.....maybe. I've had my eyes on the Seeshell Cosmo Green lenses for a while now...

starting anew

Pretty soon (probably around the new year) I'll be deleting my few older posts and starting this blog from scratch. I feel ready to continue blogging now that I've gotten myself together.

Please look forward to my future adventures! Soon to come: shopping, style, Japanese, travel, art stuffs, and school.

よろしくお願いします！

I don't have a bedroom

currently feelingaggravated

I really don't have a bedroom.

I've been back in New Jersey for well over a year, but my mom had moved into my Nana's old house when I came back and I've been sleeping on the couch since. It sucks and I'm really ready to move on.

There's an empty bedroom (my mom's childhood bedroom) that my Nana used to rent out a while back, but it's so worn and full of junk that I just wasn't up to moving in there. Now, though, my mom has decided to start renovating this 100 year old house and I've gotten into the groove of getting things done.

I've decided to tackle the dreaded bedroom.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that room is a HORRIBLE MESS. It really is quite awful. The previous tenants didn't take care of it at all and, at some point, someone installed carpet which now smells like nobody has cleaned it in years. Quite nasty, but I'm feeling up to the task.

The last tenant had a horrible accident that left him brain damaged so he had to move in with his mother. She came by from time to time to pick up his things, but left the majority of it in the room. My mom says I can't throw any of it away so I've been tasked with hauling heavy crap down to the basement...should be fun.

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE:

 

 (What is that mess on the bottom of that mattress...?)

 (Junk, junk, junk, and more junk.)

 (Somebody's really bad attempt at patching a hole in the ceiling...)

(The border...ugh.)

Also in the room, but not pictured, is the gigantic hole in one of the windows, the awful carpet, and the broken closet door. I predict that good times shall be had fixing up this room.

I'll update later with more progress on the renovation and what I plan to do with this mess. I can say right now that I plan on doing some serious thrifting soon; I really don't plan on spending too much on getting this room done. 

Please look forward to it.