The past five months have been busy, stressful, but a much needed semester off from school (and unintentionally this blog haha)! This fall I'm going back to university to work on my Bachelor's degree in English and while I'm excited, I'm also very nervous. During the time I was gone though, I got my dream job working part-time in one of my city's public libraries and I plan on continuing work while going to school~!
As always I'm very active on my Twitter account and if you've kept up with me there, then you know how things have been going or at least some semblance of it :> This break from blogging and school gave me a lot to think about my future, to further enjoy my hobbies (sewing/working on cosplay, reading, eating...), etc. But enough about me, I hope you all have been doing well in my absence!
I'm planning on adding book reviews to my blog since I'm a serious bookworm, so if you're an avid reader or you want to read more and don't know where to start please look forward to them! I'm very excited to get it started and my book goal before the end of the year is to read 35-40 books and since March I've knocked out 14, so I hope that goal is reached as well!~
Due to financial reasons, I wasn't able to go to a convention like I had planned but I don't regret my decision at all except for all the friends I didn't get to see and meet of course :>. Next year I plan on going to Fanime 2017 with a few friends and I hope to see some people I know from online there also! Anime Expo 2015 was a bit overwhelming to me so I'm not really planning on going next year unless plans change.
Sorry this post is kind of all over the place, but I believe I got the majority of what I wanted to say out of the way so here are my recent purchases (I'm thinking of it as a belated birthday gift to myself because I turned 22 last week!) and a few cute finds!
I'm super excited for the new makeup and lashes, because I haven't bought myself anything in a while! I might even do a review on myColourpop order (it's not my first time ordering from them, they're definitely one of my favorite brands!) but I'll definitely put up a poll on my Twitter when the order arrives to see how many people would want it! Finally, here are a few cute things I came across while browsing the internet as I always do!
Thanks for reading my blog post! I'm gonna try to figure out which book to start my reviews with, but I think I have something in mind so stay tuned! If you want to keep up me on the daily be sure to follow my Twitter if you'd like!
Welcome back to my blog for another year!! I apologize for the rather abrupt hiatus for the past few months, but school last semester totally kicked my butt! Luckily, this semester I've decided to take time off of school to focus on other things (school-related and personal!) so I'll have more time to write new posts! :> I'm going to try and get in the habit of making more review posts for this blog (especially makeup!) and hopefully more lifestyle posts! I'm trying out a new layout for my blog (new header, buttons, etc.) and I hope you like it!~
It's already nearing the end of the first month of the new year and I'm a bit shocked at how fast it's gone by~
To start with, here are a few cute things I found online as a gift to start the new year!
I ordered this wallet two weeks ago and it's been wonderful! Good quality for such an affordable price!!~ nerdy essentials tote bag I ordered this just yesterday!! I've been in need of a tote bag with normal length straps and this fit the bill quite nicely! The seller only had a limited number available so I ordered as fast as I could! 'i'd rather be sleeping' buttons
Today's blog post is a small haul of my first order from JetPens! I'm a total pen junkie and I've been meaning to make an order here for a while, so I thought why not now? Anyways, on with the post!
Here's a picture of everything I ordered! I tried to focus on getting a few pencils, pens, and 2 highlighter colors I've wanted for a while! Clearly, my color preferences shine through with my purchases and it really makes it easier for me to wanna use everything at once haha!
The first things I got were pink ink refills for my favorite pens, Pentel EnerGel Deluxe RTX! I use the Breast Cancer Awareness type which isn't sold on the Jetpens site, but you can get it here on Amazon! (Jetpens doesn't seem to sell the Pentel pens I use, just the refills but I'm totally ok with that!~) I also got these bunny planner stickers that are reusable! I'm waiting for my new planner to come in to use them, so for now I'll just admire them. I also got the Tombow Mono 2way Correction Tape & Eraser! I write in pen a lot and I make a lot of mistakes, so I knew I had to get this (especially when I saw the pink one!), it's refillable but the refills are like a dollar less that the correction tape itself, so if I manage to use it all I might just opt to buy a new one instead of the refills!
I finally got to order the lavender and gray Zebra Mildliner highlighters that go with the other highlighters that I own and love! I tested these out and like my other colors they're pastel and not completely painful to look at like other normal highlighters. They're also very affordable (about $1.50 per highlighter and around $8 for the 5 color pack!). I also bought the pink and lavender Kokuyo mechanical pencils (both pencils use the lead size 0.5!) and the erasers twist up, are hexagonal shaped, and match the color of the pencil itself, which I find super cute ♥
I also got the pink and lavender Uni Jetstream Ballpoint Pens! I really needed to try out some 0.5 pens (my Pentel Energel pens are 0.7!) so I could have pens to write with in my planner! They're one of the most popular pens on the site and they were pretty cheap, so I just gave it a try! They come in a lot of different colors and they're really adorable in person! It's a definite change from my usual pens, but I think they'll work super well for my planner. I found the Zebra Fullst Mechanical Pencil (lead size is 0.5) only because I looked at Jetpens' "Back to School Favorites" collection! The green one was out of stock, so I got the pink color instead and I love writing with this! It was the main pencil I used today while taking notes in my Botany class and the eraser twists out on this pencil also. The little green stick that looks like a pencil is actually an eraser, called the Uni E-Knock! One of my favorite artists, Justin Wallis (owner/artist of Milkbbi), has this eraser (and also the Mildliners that I mentioned above!) and that was pretty much the only reason I got it. However, I have to say that it's super convenient! I usually use Pentel polymer erasers (they erase really well and don't make a big mess of shavings), but I can keep this in my pencil case along with all my pens/pencils and it doesn't take much of the eraser to erase.
I think this order went extremely well and I'm definitely gonna make another JetPens order soon! They give free shipping to orders that are over $25, and while it seems really easy to make, it was pretty hard for me to pick and choose to reach $25 haha!
I placed my order on September 1st, it shipped out on the 2nd, and I received it on the 5th! Almost everything I've seen on the site says that it ships out in 24 hours and I definitely agree with that claim. I was extremely excited to get my package and everything was either bubble wrapped or placed in a durable folder to keep from bending!
I'm finally back with another blog post! This one didn't take as long as the last because it's one of my favorite blog posts to make! I started another semester at college the other day and I feel like I've been shopping nonstop to get ready for it (and also to treat myself~)!
Today's blog post will be a showing of what I've gotten myself and I'll be linking you to cute things for your back to school shopping! Hope you enjoy!~
American Apparel Cities Bag Replica (Aliexpress) ♥ Crybaby Top (eBay) ♥ the POREfessional by Benefit ♥ Pink A5 Planner (Aliexpress) ♥ Pink Plaid Skirt (Storedogdog.net) ♥ Pink Ballerina Platforms (Taobao) ♥ Crying Eyes Crop Top & Skirt (eBay) ♥ Heart Purse (Bought from a friend on Depop, but it can be found on eBay!!) ♥ Pink/White/Mint Dresses (Taobao) ♥ Pink Coat (Aliexpress) ♥ Cream Cardigan (Taobao)
Here's a couple of things that I hope gets you into the back to school spirit! Cute finds for my precious followers ♥
Rilakkuma Post-It Notes (This seller is one of my favorites! Quick shipping and super cute sticky notes and whatnot!~)
I hope you enjoyed this post! I'm really excited for the things I ordered to come in (especially the Taobao items), so expect a few reviews coming your way! If you see something in my personal back to school shopping list that you want to see reviewed please let me know!
Good luck to everyone starting school (and to the ones who've already started it!) and do your best! I'm going to finally get back on track with my blog list on the left side of my blog!
This blog post is all about my experience and haul in Los Angeles, California! I'd been planning on going to Anime Expo since last summer and finally made the trip from July 1st to July 6th! (The convention was from the 2nd to the 5th!) I was my very first time not only to Anime Expo, but California so I'll be mentioning some feelings about how it was for me city-wise! I also went to one of my dream stores while I was in LA, Daiso Japan! It's kind of like a dollar store that sells a lot of very cute items for cheap! It's near Little Tokyo in LA, which I also went to!
Anyways, enough of my rambling on with the post!
The plane ride to Los Angeles took about 2 and a half hours! I haven't taken a plane ride in years before last week, so I was extremely nervous haha and take off really freaked me out. I had the window seat too, so it helped my fears and also made it worse if that makes sense haha.
When we finally landed we took a shuttle bus to our hotel to check-in and unpack! I really wanted to go to Anime Expo's Day 0 to pick up my badge and afterwards I wanted to go to Little Tokyo!
The line on Day 0 is known for being super long, but when I got there around 12 pm my mother and I only waited for about 45 minutes to pick up our badges!
When we picked up our badges we were directed to a shorter line where we were given free tote bags! I don't really have a photo of the bag, but it was black, with an Anime Expo booklet that had all the events, booths, sponsors, and maps inside! It was really helpful!
Venturing off into the streets of LA was both creepy and very interesting! I saw a lot of different people, different places, and smelled different things on the walk to Little Tokyo.
In Little Tokyo, there's a super neat anime/manga store called, Anime Jungle! I managed to visit it twice during my trip, the first time was really crowded and the second time I actually bought something! Here's a few photos of it that I managed to take!
(This was a picture of another branch of Anime Jungle! I didn't go inside but it seemed focused on cosplay and plushes!)
It was chock-full of various anime figures, artbooks, manga, posters, patches, pins, etc. inside which I found really amazing! I've been in shops similar to this, but this was the first time I'd seen everything strictly for anime/manga! The figure selection was really nice, but being a serious collector myself most of the prices were seriously hiked up (mostly because it's already imported, etc.!)! I didn't buy any figures from here because anything I was interested in I knew I could find online from a shop directly in Japan cheaper or I already owned the figure!! I wish I could've spent more time in Anime Jungle, but the time I spent there was really good enough ♥ I got one patch on my second trip that I'll show in my haul!
I managed to visit Daiso twice during my trip and it was my favorite place! Daiso Japan is a store where nearly everything is $1.50!! There's things from snacks, household items, makeup, school supplies, etc. and it was pretty big inside! The first time I visited was on Wednesday and it wasn't crowded at all, the second time I visited was a Saturday and it was more crowded, but not annoyingly so! Here are few pictures I managed to take on the inside!
Shopping in Daiso was almost heaven! I love getting things at a good price and since almost everything was $1.50 I got a good amount of things to last me for a while! I don't have a Daiso Japan where I live, but I heard news that one is being built sometime soon nearby! Like I said before, I visited Daiso 2 times during my trip and got as much as I could. Unfortunately, I tried to also limit what I could get because I had only so much space in my suitcase! All items that I got are gonna be included in the haul below ♥
Anime Expo was held at the L.A. Convention Center! It wasn't really close to the hotel that I chose, but the convention had shuttle buses that could pick up people to and from their hotels!
The convention center was huge and I got lost so much it was annoying haha! I had a map, but it was very hard to stop and try to figure out my location most of the time because it was packed inside.
Moving on, I had a 4-day badge and went every single day!
The 1st day, Thursday, I was Seo Yuzuki from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun!
(Sorry the picture is so dark haha! This is of me, one of my closest friends Hannah (she's an amazing cosplayer and you can see evidence of that on her Instagram!) cosplaying Sakura Chiyo, and a really nice guy who chased us down because we all were cosplaying from Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun! He was Mikoshiba Mikoto!~)
Day 2/Friday: Peko Pekoyama
Day 3/Saturday: Plugsuit Asuka Langley
Day 4/Sunday: Fem!Kageyama Tobio
I was very excited to see a lot of my online friends for the first time at this convention! Seeing them all in person and just clicking with them made me really cherish the time we had together! I also saw several people who recognized me from my Twitter and also my blog, which really made me happy ;v;!!
Here are a few of the several cuties that recognized me from Instagram/Twitter!! It was super wonderful meeting them all and so flattering ;w; I love you!!
The days at the convention were quite fast-paced and spent in the exhibit hall, or dealer room! The dealer room was the place I went to the most, but since it was the place to shop it had most amount of people usually :s. It was cramped and everyone was shoulder to shoulder, especially in the artist alley where artists sold their items (prints, buttons, charms, etc.!)! The exhibit hall was also home to many well-known companies in the anime/manga "world" like: Good Smile Company, Aniplex, Crunchyroll, Yen Press, Vertical Inc., and more! I tried to visit as many as I could because I love these companies and I throw hundreds of dollars their way every year haha! (Perks of being an anime figure collector and a big manga fan.)
(This was Good Smile Company's sale sign on Day 3!!!)
I knew a bit before the convention that Good Smile Company would be selling a few figures at the convention, some being exclusive and others being sold there because of recent release! One of the figures, or nendoroids ("chibi" or small, posable figures) I should say, that I was hoping to get from their booth was the 2-Star Fight Club Mankanshoku Mako nendoroid! The line on the first day was crazy long (it would've been a 2-4 hour wait I'm sure), so I kinda gave up hope on getting her at the convention! Luckily, I walked by again on Day 2 of the convention and the line was significantly shorter! I waited for about 10 minutes before I left the line with...
Mako's exclusive/limited edition nendoroid and a copy of Little Witch Academia's sketchbook! Little Witch Academia is an anime by Studio Trigger that I absolutely fell in love with! (There was a Little Witch Academia 2 premiere that I'm very sorry that I missed!!) The nendoroid was really adorable and very fun to put together, while the sketchbook ($10) had beautiful pictures and made me super happy that I got it!
Since Mako's nendoroid was limited edition she was only exclusively available at AX at the time and Good Smile Company's site! Her preorders have ended already though :c ♥
I managed to visit the booth of one of my favorite manga publishing companies, Vertical Inc.! Most of their manga is in the josei category, in my opinion, but it's very diverse and it deserves a peek through! They had a full table that I missed, but when I visited them they still had a good amount of manga left! ♥
They had a super great sale going on (2 for $20 and 3 for $25!) so I got a good amount of manga from them that I'll show below later! ♥
The cosplays at the convention were really amazing!! I tried to get as many pictures as I could, but here are a few for you all c:
One of my favorite cosplayers, Tofu!!!!! I've followed them on Instagram for like 2 years and was lucky enough to meet them at AX!!!! It was awesome and amazing and I adore them so much!!! Tofu's Instagram & Twitter!
I was also super lucky to meet one of my inspirations and friends at AX for the first time ever, April (or more commonly known as Jasmine Blu haha!) and her sweet boyfriend Christian!~ She was pretty much one of the main reasons I began blogging so I was excited to have met her! She and Christian are so sweet and I ran into them 2 different days!~ Their cosplays were great! April's Twitter/Instagram & Christian's Twitter/Instagram!
There were so many amazing cosplays fitting 4 days worth is almost impossible! I'm very happy these people were kind enough to allow me to take photos of them!
A few weeks before going to California, Crunchyroll announced a concert that would be opened by Anamanaguchi! They're one of my favorite bands, so I knew right off the bat that I'd have to get a ticket. Luckily, some of the friends I had planned on meeting loved them too and I was able to have someone to go with ;v; I didn't want to spend too much money so I opted to purchase a ticket in the very back on a higher plane than the pit (groundfloor and usually best place to listen to a concert in my opinion...).
This was my very first concert so I'm glad I spent it with people I really care about ;v;!
Outfit I wore to the concert!~
Crop top: Forever 21
Skirt: American Apparel
(PLEASE DON'T WATCH IF YOU'RE PRONE TO SEIZURES OR HAVE EPILEPSY!!!)
Please excuse my screaming, I was very happy and excited!! ;w;
In the middle of the show, my friend and I were able to go down into the pit for free because there were so many open spots down there! It really turned the night into something even more amazing and it was really breathtaking! I wish I had taken more photos, but I took more video clips so I could never forget this night's sounds.It was my first time experiencing Porter Robinson's music and I really fell in love with it and totally reccommend it to people who like groups like Anamanaguchi, Slime Girls, Meishi Smile, and Towa Tei (among some of my favorites)!~♥
All in all, I think I got a pretty good amount of items from this trip! I wanted to get as much as I could because it was my first time traveling in a very long time! Plus, many, many people I admired were at Anime Expo selling things I really wanted to make sure I got my hands on~ Anyway, enough with my rambling on with the haul!
I made 2 separate trips for Daiso which is why I have multiple photos! Like I said before, everything was $1.50 (unless otherwise stated in the store)! I wish that Daiso had an online shop, but I just be patient until one opens up near me!
The very first place I visited at the convention on Day 1 was the "Always Raining Here" booth in the artist alley! Hazel & Bell are the artist/writer duo behind this webcomic and it's been one of my favorite reads for over a year! They only has a limited amount of volume one copies sold at AX so I made sure to rush there as soon as the doors opened! Luckily, I made it in time, got a sheet of stickers and one of each of all the charms they were selling! Hazel also signed my volume! ;v;~ I really recommend this webcomic if you've never read it before! Here is a link to their website!~
These were the apparel items I got while at Anime Expo!! The Steven Universe shirt I got from the We Love Fine booth and the pink sweater on the right is from Omocat ;w; I've wanted to get this sweater for SO long. Sickboy is my favorite OC (original character) of Omocat's and this sweater has been on my wishlist forever! I'm gonna wear it so much during the coming winter months!
From We Love Fine's booth I also got the talking Puppycat plush (I think there are different sizes, but I got the biggest one!) He's one of my favorite pick-ups from the convention and he's little voice box is super adorable! ♥
Manga: What Did You Eat Yesterday? (Volumes 6-9) & Princess Knight (Parts 1 & 2) ♥
Here's all the manga that I got from the Vertical Inc. booth! Along with my limited edition 2-Star Mako nendoroid and Little Witch Academia sketchbook (which I mentioned above!)
This Asuka hanger was a little gem I found passing by a booth on the final day of con! Since the seller wanted to get rid of stuff last minute there was a whole box of anime character hangers in a box! There were pretty much only Levi Ackerman hangers left (from Attack on Titan) but since I'm not a fan of it I dug around and found the only Asuka hanger!~ She was only $10 (compared to her previous $18 price tag).
There was a super cute Gudetama ("Lazy Egg" and it's Sanrio's newest character!) booth at Anime Expo and they sold a few really cute things! The big stickers, little buttons, and chopsticks were given out free to everyone! The book, however, is an activity book! It was entirely in Japanese so I have no idea what it's saying but it came with tons of stickers!! The book was only $8 and I got it because April (Jasmine Blu to some of you) convinced me to! I'm glad I did because the stickers are so adorable!~
From left to right: Heart shaped Tenjou Utena & Tsukishima Kei buttons, Pompom Purin keychain, small Pearl (Steven Universe) pin, Gudetama pin, Sentai Works pin, Carter/Adrain/Carter&Adrian charms, Okita Sougo/Kagura charm, "Stupid Jerk" sticker, "Always Raining Here" sticker sheet, Elizabeth (Gintama) sticker, Motoko Kusanagi patch, Steven Universe sticker sheet!
These are all the small items that I got from AX, the Sanrio store in Little Tokyo, and Anime Jungle in Little Tokyo!
It'd be almost impossible for me to name every print or the artists (especially since I've totally forgotten most :s) but these prints really were lovely. I always get tons of prints during anime conventions, but this year I held myself back a little because of limited space ;v;
All in all, this trip was one of the most memorable I've had in my life so far! I met some of my closest friends, met some really sweet & wonderful people, and I felt really happy getting recognized by my blog or Twitter from a couple of people! I'm not really the traveling type so I was definitely pooped after this trip and currently I'm not planning on going to Anime Expo next year!
I'm sorry it took over a month to post this, but compiling an entire week of a trip gets kinda overwhelming and it was my first time! I start school again next week, but I'm going to try to post a review post, back-to-school post, and a Taobao order post before then! They won't be anywhere as huge as this, so I might be able to do it.
Anyway, thanks for waiting patiently and I really hope you enjoyed this post! If I posted your picture anywhere in this post PLEASE feel free to contact me (through Twitter or ask.fm or anyway you want!) so I can add your name and link to your photo :> I would be very happy to do so!~
♥ 1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 ♥
