Hime Creations Series, Prisila Half-wig, and Misc + Claires Haul

Hello everyone!

Time sure flies when you are having fun, especially when it is during the month of August and that the school term is quickly advancing. In some cases, it might've even arrived for a couple of you judging from a couple of posts that I had seen so far. ^^; Like I had previously mentioned, I want to savour what precious moments I have and get more to crafting in particular, since I have a feeling that I will not be able to do as much during the school year.

I had already created a couple of jewelery pieces, which so far consists of a choker and a couple of rings. Main inspirations were from Himena's Princess Melody line (in particular her early release chokers, but with a touch of lace) and PinkHime's famous rose or "crosage" ring. 

On the side, I had (finally) ordered a half-wig off of Moery and it had arrived a couple of weeks ago! The half-wig that I had ordered is the famous J-807 in the colour TBK to match with my black hair, since I honestly don't feel like dying it and what-not. I had only gotten the half-wig, since I think that 1) it is a great hair piece to start off with and 2) it will take me a while to get used to the weight on the back of my head.
 
Regarding Prisila itself, the half-wig came wrapped up nicely in a small bag. A "wig-net" keeps the half-wig secure in the packaging and preventing it from being tangled. Quality-wise,  it feels really nice and as you can see from the pictures below, it blends in nicely with my own hair. Now I'm not really an expert on hair pieces, so I will just leave it at that, but I will say that it is definitely worth the $60 something dollars that I had forked over.

Now if only I can find a way to make the bump bigger so hair accessories can sit perfectly without it looking all awkward...

    

Now for the hauls! For the miscellaneous one, I had helped place an order at Cool Pencil Case for my sister's back to school shopping, and had ordered a couple of items myself. If you are a huge fan of cute mechanical pencils like I am, you would quickly notice that it can be extremely hard to find cute yet cheap stationary outside of a Chinatown, and even then it would still be on the pricey side. Though I think that most of the items on the site err on the pricey side of things as well, I find a couple of their mechanical pencils to be quite reasonable. Shipping is quite pricey however for anyone that lives outside of the states.   

For the Claires haul, after finding a dotted bow headband in the same colour (and material!) as one of my Yumetenbo dresses and after a little bit of persuasion from family, I caved in and bought the item. Naturally since all hair accessories are part of the "buy one get one 50% off" sale, I bought a black rose clip along with it when none of the other hair accessories had caught my eye. I am very low on black hair accessories as it is, so it all worked out in the end. In addition to the headband and the rose clip, I had bought a tiara that was on sale at the time. I had missed the time when tiaras were used predominantly in Himegyaru fashion, so hopefully I will be able to use it in future outfits once I get fully into Himegyaru. 

Now last but not least, I had splurged on a beautiful pair of floral and lace oxfords. Up until now, I did not have a pair of decent close-toed shoes with the exception of my extremely ancient pair of runners that I had since my junior high school days. Now I finally have something that is function yet fashionable! ^o^

   

Hime Deco Storage Box

Hello everyone!

As I had mentioned in the corsage tutorial post, I had been working on a deco project on the side in addition to working on the corsage itself. I will now go over that particular project, which is in essence is just a fancy overdecorated box. I had decorated a box before a while back when my blog was still "new", but I have not done it up to this caliber until recently.

Why a box? Surely you might be wondering about that by now. Why waste time and effort on something so mundane when I could be doing something else, like say making more head bows. I do not know why, but I had been wanting to decorate a box for quite some time now, especially since I keep seeing a bunch of them lying around in the crafts aisle of Dollarama for very cheap prices. I had gotten the one that I had decorated for $3! Plus, boxes definitely make great storage containers, particularly prettified storage containers!

There will be no tutorial this time around. I believe decorating a box is quite straight forward. I did take some progress pictures as I was working through it however.

Before starting, I thought I would show off what my sister looked like on her graduation day! =^.^= I had glammed up the picture with a Purikura app called Kiradeco!

Isn't she so pretty? *_*

Here is the result of the deco transformation. 

Now for some progress pictures!

I noticed that even with two coats of paint, the marks on the front of the box still had shown through the paint as seen in the above picture. I think they were the remaining marks from the product sticker that used to be on there before. To solve this, I just simply cut out a felt heart to cover it. 

And there you have it! One of the many ways to glam up a plain wooden box! ^^   

Hime Deco ID Card Holder Tutorial

Hello everyone!

As I had mentioned before on a couple of previous posts, I was and am still planning a crafting post sometime later. Finally, I had done one, and I am quite eager to share what I had created in this post! I wanted to start out small, since I have not crafted in awhile. So why not start out with this plain ID card holder/tag?

This ID card holder was one of the numerous gifts that was given to me from my grandmother during one of her annual trips to China. It did not occur to me how frequent I was using it until typing up this post, since I often use transit. Actually, it is a combination of that and honestly not feeling like constantly pulling out my wallet out and having to dig around in the numerous pocket slots for the bus pass. The ID holder originally had a clip on the strip end of the ID holder that allows the ID to be clipped onto a top or shirt, but came off after a combination of moderate usage and some rough handling. I don't even bother clipping the ID holder onto anything, so it didn't really bug me, and I usually store the ID holder in a separate bag pocket anyway. However, after constant usage of the ID holder, I do realize that it is quite plain. So why not revamp it up Hime-style?

After some delicate and careful work, this is what I had gotten as a result!

Hanging out with a friend and a followup with Yumetenbo

Hello everyone!

I had been contemplating on creating a lifestyle post or "life-post", a post that basically goes on about the daily happenings that takes place in my life. I haven't created one as of yet, and am a bit hesitant to do so, since I am still a bit private when it comes to personal affairs. However, it doesn't hurt to try out new things, and that is exactly what I am going to do here! Also, I am pretty sure that you all might be getting bored from my constant haul posts, which I will be doing in this post later on anyway! xD Really need to start getting on the craft train already!

Anyway, I hung out with my friend on Victoria Day, which was on last Monday. I will not mention her name for privacy reasons, but we had mainly gone to H&M for our shopping needs. :) Here are a couple of outfit shots that I had taken while I was in the change room. I was very excited about this outfit, since I had gotten the opportunity to incorporate a couple of my latest Yumetenbo pieces into it.

An Extensive Rakuten Yumetenbo Review Part 2

This blog post is just a continuation from the previous review that I had done on Yumetenbo. The link to that blog post can be found here. 

Just like with the other part of the blog post, this part of the review is going to be just as extensive, though it will only "truly" be extensive in the sense of constant picture spamming of detailed product shots.

An Extensive Rakuten Yumetenbo Review Part 1

Hello everyone!

Before I start, I would just like to warn you that this review is going to be intensively and extensively long, since I will try my best to provide as much of an in-depth review on Yumetenbo as possible!

It seems that I had let time get the best of me yet again, but when you are in the middle of finals at the very moment anything goes! Anyway, lately I had been finding myself lacking the motivation or the drive to "frill-up" and dress myself up in Hime clothes. Not only that, but I realized that I have not changed up my wardrobe in over two years! In fact, some of my clothes were leftovers from my junior high to high school days! Yes I had added some pieces here and there, but generally overall it hasn't really changed.

To keep my wardrobe from getting even more stagnant, I had cleaned it out a while back and am now on an online shopping spree. One of the websites that I had been eying for quite some time now is Rakuten, specifically Yumetenbo. Apparently being well known for their affordable prices and cute clothes, Yumetenbo is pretty much the "Forever 21 or H&M" of the Gyaru world. Now I am absolutely sure that this is all common knowledge to most of the people by now, and I had actually been aware of this site for what seems to be ages. I just haven't gotten around to placing an order up until now, though why haven't I done so earlier is beyond me.

Before actually placing an order, I had done some thorough research on basically everything you can think of under the sun. What are the precise shoe sizes? How exactly do the clothes fit in terms of sizing? Did the order process drastically changed from the old reviews commonly found via Google? To make a long story short, it seems to me that I had found more of old reviews compared to new reviews. In addition, I noticed that a majority of the reviews did little to help me answer the questions posted above. Not saying that all of them did not help me out in some sort of way, since I did find a couple of exceptions. Just simply saying that most of them were not really helpful in answering questions in terms of sizing.

A sweet post Valentine's haul

Hello everyone!

I had just gone through two midterms in a roll this past week, and never in my whole entire life did I feel so free after finishing them (though it did felt like a long battle during those two days, what with not being able to eat, sleep, or even shower right). Anyway, before any of the school work or other commitments builds up again for this upcoming week, I should get to work on updating asap!

Unfortunately with a busy schedule, one cannot really afford to go anywhere or have eventful social lives, so I don't really have any tutorial or craft posts in the making despite my passion for the arts and crafts building each day, but I can still post up what I had gotten the past two to three weeks.

I had also noticed from the comments and past posts that I have the tendency to make extremely long posts from the backlog, and therefore will try to limit those to make them easier to read. Sorry about that! ^^;

Without further ado, let's get started!

A little bit after Valentine's Day was over, I had quickly gone over to Walmart to see if they were still selling their huge heart pillows on clearance, particularly the ones with the word "Princess" on them with a crown. Usually regular retail price are dictated at $14 for a pillow, but they go down to $7 after Valentine's Day is over. I had really wanted one for quite some time, since I tried before and couldn't get them last year. Unfortunately, I still couldn't get them this year, which it seems like I never do, but I did end up walking away with a couple of cute things to compensate for my time searching.

Sparkly Black Shoes and A Hime Birdhouse Wall Decor Tutorial

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I had made a post, and my apologies for that! For the past few days, I had been, for all intents and purposes, busy with work while at the same time diligently working on yet another craft project. Since the upcoming school term is approaching very quickly, I only have a couple of weeks left to get some major projects done as well as prepare myself. I had finally finished my latest craft project, but before I get straight to it, let me show you my latest haul from Spring! Though to be honest, it isn't much of a haul as it is a gift from my mother! <3

Basic Hime Pillowcase Tutorial

Before I had started Lavender and Roses, I had came across one of Himehood's videos on how to sew a basic princess pillowcase. (For those interested, the video can be found here) The video is already a few years old now, but I find that Himehood's videos still do a decent job of inspiring those interested in creating a couple of Hime-styled items, as it had done for me. At the time, as often as I had watched the video over and over, I could not replicate the style or even create my own style because 1) I did not have a sewing machine, 2) My sewing skills were pretty much non-existent, and 3) I did not know how to properly create an actual pillowcase without having some sort of nervous breakdown on the progress. I had given up as a result and ended up not doing it.

Fast forward to after I had started up the blog. I used to have a plain purple bed set before my tastes changed and I eventually gotten the Hello Kitty bed set. At the time, I had found and bought a purple cushion at Sears that had undergone a dramatic price cut from $50 to $9. Since I had switched out my purple bed set for a pink one, the cushion does not exactly match the bed set anymore so I decided to change that by trying to make a new frillier one! Despite it being my very first time trying to sew a pillowcase, I decided to go ahead with it anyway. Hence, a new tutorial was born!

Warning: This tutorial can be long or short depending on how you approach this tutorial. I had actually sewn this pillowcase by hand (since I still didn't have a sewing machine), so it took me quite some time to finish it. I imagine that you could possibly finish it within a day with a sewing machine, so it is recommended that you use a sewing machine. That of course doesn't mean that you cannot sew it by hand since I had just done it myself, but it means that this could take you a while to complete. Please keep this in mind when trying out the tutorial and only attempt this when you have a lot of spare time on your hands. ^^; Sorry.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I will be assuming that you are going to make a pillowcase for your cushion and hence the usage of the term "square". Also, I will be assuming that you are going to be hand sewing the pillowcase.  

 The end results

Hime Picture Frame Tutorial/Guideline

Hello everyone!

Presenting my ever-first tutorial in a long time! It has been a while since I had done a tutorial and I have been missing them, so I am planning on creating new ones in the near future. Personally though, I don't think this is truly more of a tutorial than a detailed guideline on how to approach a project from my point of view.

Anyway for this post, we are going to be changing an old wooden picture frame into a princess bedazzled creation worthy of sitting on your shelf or where-ever you feel like putting the frame. I'm not quite sure if you all still use picture frames or not, but for me I love using picture frames. Ever since my childhood, I recall having a ton of photo frames sit on top of my bedroom shelves. Particular attention will be on two golden frames that I had for a long time.

To make a long story short, the two golden frames didn't age well. They were constantly flopping back onto the shelf because of the kickstand, which was made out of a flimsy cardboard-like material and was essentially the same material that the back was made out of. In fact, the back was one of those cardboard "cutouts" and was not a separate back stand that was built in like other picture frames. Eventually the stands were no longer "usable" and I had to lean them against the wall that's behind the shelves. Even then, the frames occasionally fell flat whenever I made a slamming sound or bump against the drawers, which are connected to the shelves.

After a long while of putting up with constantly falling picture frames, I finally had enough. Plus I think it is high time that I start personalizing the frames to make them fit my tastes, which is of course is in the hime style. Making a short trip to the nearest dollar store, I bought two black flat wooden frames for $1.50 each.

New Jesus Diamante Lovelies and Two (In-depth) Japan Shopping Service Reviews Part 2

Hello everyone!

In the previous post, I had decided to do an in-depth online review on two of the shopping services I had used as well as post up the items that I had gotten from the services. If you have (or have not) already read the previous post, I had already covered Shopping Mall Japan and now will be doing an in-depth review on the second shopping service that I had used, Japonica Market! Hopefully this post won't be as long as the previous one.

Warning: Long post up ahead. Keep scrolling if you want to only see the haul.

New Jesus Diamante Lovelies and Two (In-depth) Japan Shopping Service Reviews Part 1

Hello everyone!

As I had mentioned in my last post, I will be posting up a few Jesus Diamante things that I had gotten over the past couple of months. In addition, I will be doing a review on two shopping services that I had idiotically used in the quest to obtaining the items. Back before I had even started contemplating on using a shopping service based in Japan, I was browsing around on the internet trying to find what services existed out there. Of course, when you type in "japan shopping service" into the Google search engine, you will tend to get a ton of results as I had did and I had ended up getting results such as OohJapan, Noppin, Rinkya, Shopping Mall Japan, etc. After what seemed to be a long decision making process made out of going through what reviews there are out on the web, I eventually decided to use Shopping Mall Japan (from now on will be referred to as "SMJ"). Of course as hinted in the title, it will not be the only shopping service that I will use later in the month.

Warning: Blocks of text ahead! Keep scrolling if you only just want to see haul.

Top Alteration, Outfits, Claires Haul, and a Gift

Hello everyone!

First off, I would like to say Happy belated Valentines Day! ^^ I know that it is quite late for it (and by five days no doubt), but it is better than never right? I hope that you all had plenty of time to spend with that certain special someone or that you were celebrating being single by loving yourself. I had just finished a midterm, so I am currently in a relaxed phase at the moment. Of course, that will change once my break ends and I will have to write midterms for my other classes. In the meantime as of now, I am on "vacation".

Ever have one of those problems where you just cannot find a cute hime top anywhere or you don't know what to do with your old clothes once you had acquired some cute ones? Well I had been going through that. Lately, I find that ever since I had gotten some cute tops from Taobao and I had been gradually moving myself into the hime scene, I had been neglecting my plainer tops and leaving them in the drawers collecting dust. I figured that this calls for a modification or alteration! Changing the clothes to better fit your personality! :D Plus you won't have a guilty conscious of carelessly throwing your old clothes away.

So here is my first attempt at modifying a "scrunched" short-sleeve top that I had gotten a long time ago at Stitches:

Before

Of Sparkly Heart Sets and Lovely Bow Creations

Hello everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I am currently undergoing what seems to be the busiest part of the school term. Project deadlines are fast approaching, final exams are looming closer, and assignments are just around the corner. Now I currently have enough time to make a short post before getting swamped by yet again the pile of schoolwork. So while I'm still alive here and blogging, let's get straight to the good stuff shall we?

What I had been up to for the past few weeks...

I had gone to Claires earlier around the beginning of November to see what new products they recently have in stock and of course their sale items. I absolutely love their sale items around this particular time of year, where they would usually have an additional 50% off certain clearance items. Now that's a sale!

Surprisingly enough I didn't buy anything on the first visit. I did see this pretty vintage floral cameo-like locket when I was first there, but I passed it off in favour of buying an earmuffs and glove set at Ardene. This was before snow had hit the ground and I had wanted to prepare myself for the upcoming winter. I felt that I could just buy the necklace later, since it isn't really "needed" at the time. I will post a deco post of the earmuffs and gloves hopefully sometimes soon.

Now it was on the second visit where things got a little different. After what seemed like a countless and tedious decision making process on whether or not I should buy the floral cameo locket, I eventually conceded and headed back to Claires to see if it's still there. It wasn't, so I ended up getting this sparkly heart set to make up for the time taken to get to Claires. Of course, being that it's pretty counts too and it's just $5! (It may not show in the pictures but they are really sparkly)

 

   

After that, I pretty much didn't buy anything for a while. I however did make some stuff, which are essentially more hime bows! *_* You can't go wrong with having more hime bows, though I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the lolita-like bow. I had originally planned on making it into a hair bow, but it looked a bit awkward while I was positioning it around my head so I decided to use it for something else. Any suggestions?

If you had seen my previous craft post, I had made some hime bows before. They were a lot smaller in comparison to the new ones I had made. 

    

Apparently I had greatly underestimated the actual size of a typical JD hair bow. xD The one on the left is more size accurate, which I was really floored at, considering that I had never thought that their bows would be THAT large (but then again, this is JD we are talking about). For those who want to know the actual size, the dimensions are 19cm W x 7cm H.

Just last night I had finally received the earrings that I got from eBay! I had ordered them a while ago with the cash certificate, which wasn't really that much. 

I love them, from the gold border to the curly love handwriting. They were a bit smaller than I had expected, but for around 99 cents and something that I didn't even pay for, I can't really complain.

Until next time!