Haul with Japonica

Happy New Years everyone!

I hope everyone had a good holiday!

Yes, that's right! It's not another taobao haul, but a haul from Japan this time! I used Japonica as my shopping service. I've used them a few times before and I've never been disappointed. They give you updates every step of the way. And especially with auctions that end within 24hrs.

~*Timeline*~

30/11/14: Order form sent for mbok and amazon items.

01/12/14: Japonica reply and payment request. I also added the Liz Lisa 3-way Bag fukubukuro pre-order and paid for that.

02/12/14: Amazon item arrived and won all the bids. 

03/12/14-07/01/15: Everythin arrives and ask for final invoice. Liz Lisa fukubukuro was the last thing to arrive; everything else arrived on 2nd week of December.
08/01/15: Invoice recieved and paid.
10/01/15: Shipped.
12/01/15: Received!

~*Price Breakdown*~

Auction/Order Subtotal = 14714yen 

Commission Subtotal = 3150yen

EMS ~3.0kg = 5400yen 

PayPal international fee 3.2%+40yen = 318yen 

(8360yen*3.2%+40yen)/(1-3.2%) 

Total 23 582yen

~*Packaging*~

It came in a pretty big box. Everything was bubble wrapped, which I thought was very unnecessary since nothing is fragile. But, great packaging! No chance of anything arriving damaged! Cool box too LOL

~*Item List*~

Angelic Pretty 2015 Planner

Smells like plastic

d.i.a Items + Cross-Front Tanks:

The top turned out to be a LOT smaller than I had imagined but I still love it.

The dress is amazing- everything I thought it'd be and more. It is the sole reason I started this order.

I've been looking for cross-front tanks with the little diamond and I haven't been able to find it anywhere else (maybe I just suck at searching) so I implused bought it in two colours. I originally only wanted black but I thought WHAT THE HEY let's spend another $10 more (white not pictured).

2015 Liz Lisa 3-way Bag Fukubukuro:

I've wanted the trunk for so long...but this year's just wasn't worth it and I had already ordered the other things so I opted for the cheapest one.

But yooooooo- when the previews came out, I was so bummed! I ordered it before the previews came out so I when I saw, I almost regretted it. ALAS, IT'S EVERYTHING I WANT AND LOVE!! This really has been a lucky pack for me! The original price for the one piece was 8700yen and 6400yen for the cardigan. I paid 5400yen for all of this so this was super worth.

I'm super happy with the service. They usually don't hold items in storage for you for more than a month. But they did it for me without extra charge so I'm very grateful!

Did you guys order any lucky packs this time? Tell me about them!!

Thanks for reading!
JAN

Halloween and F+F Order

Hello everyone!

Fanplusfriend had a sale back in early October and the items I was eyeing went on sale! Lucky me! Just in time for Halloween, too. I wanted to try doing something more gothic since I usually go for a more sweet classic look.

Odering was fast and easy. They said it'd take around 2 weeks to make the skirt since its made to order, but they finished it within a week! They're online chat replies are helpful and always polite. Shiping was quick. This was my first time purchasing from F+F and it was a breeze!

So this is the set I got. Initially, I thought the price was for the set, but turns out I had to get the skirt seperately and it was more expensive than the jacket! The skirt has 2 draw strings on the sides so you can get 2 mini bustles. I thought that the skirt was made with the same fabric which is almost the only reason I got it instead of a cheaper option. It doesn't clash or anything so not a big deal. Unfortunately, this jacket is now discontinued, but you can still get the skirt.

Indoor Light

Natural Light

Now the nitty-gritty. I hate the ribbons on the sleeves. It just makes the set look extremely cheap. The weirdly cut sleeve ends, too. And the lace...I wish I knew how to fix this. The fabric choice is okay. It's pretty thin, although the skirt was pretty heavy. Sizes were all true to the measurements given. Lace is great for the most part.

For the purpose of my costume/coord (costume, in this case), I sewed lavender fabric roses on the sleeves instead.

I made the overskirt with 6 layers of tulle. Can you see the gradient or were my efforts in vain?

Sorry for the crappy quality photo ^^" (also sorry to all the lolis cringing of my sockless-ness and overall costumey outfit) I actually don't have another full body picture of my complete costume. In fact, this wasn't even complete haha. I made the horns myself from some old coat hangers, plastic cups, and lots of newspapers (don't use plastic cups...its a nightmare. I only used them because thats all I didn't have any paper cups at home). Full outfit would have had tights and lace gloves.

The horns took me around 5-6h total to make and that doesn't include waiting for the papermache and paint to dry. I watched 2 tutorials and basically combined the 2 methods. It's not super gorgeous or anything as it was just meant to be worn once for Halloween. Thats right, all that blood, sweat, and tears for ONE day. 

Bestie was a fawn and I was supposed to be a succubus 

I'm pretty happy about how it turned out. They ended up being really heavy and keeping them on my head for the day was extremely difficult. Not being used to having horns (haha), I actually hit the door frames around campus quite a few times. And this is the wig that I bought in my last TB haul. I love love lovvveee it! The ombre is so smooth and natural and the colours are just amazing. I didn't even have to trim the fringe! 10/10 would recommend! 

Wearing gothic makes me feel powerful. I look forward to making a non-costume coord with this jacket!

JAN

Taobao Haul (again)

Hey Everyone!

I hope y'all are having a good day. This whole past month have been pretty craptastic.

No thanks to DHL, I got hit with customs and had to pay nearly 50% of the total value of my items. Not cool.

I used TaobaoMode this time too because eh why not. They have good service, too. I totally reccomend them!

So yeahhh...Here's what I got this time =_=

I finally got around to getting some blouses since I have a serious lack for them. The top left pile is 2 scarves. 

Black Scarf/Red Scarf:  Nice and thick and wide. I can wrap it twice, tuck the ends and I would get circle scarf. My mom says it's too big. Good.

La Maison Blouse/Mini Tie Blouse/Scallop Collar Blouse: I don't have much to say. It feels like the standard chiffon blouse materal. The La Maison blouse's sleeves are huge. It definitely looks bad so I wouldn't reccomend you getting this blouse unless you can sew or if you have bigger arms. The scalloped collar one is not quite chiffon...more like crepe I think(?).  The ribbon pinned on really half-assed-ly so I fixed it before taking the picture. 

Pearl Collar: Feels flimsy. I am so scared of it coming apart. But otherwise, it's okay.

Velvet Dress: Not what I expected lol. Kind of like costumey-shiny, cheap velvet materal. Has a mini "petticoat" thing that doesn't really do anything. But I do like the tiered, gathered skirt. I can put my own petti in it. Looks kind of frumpy on me so I don't even know if I want to keep it. (This is the picture of the back, btw. The front has no embellishments.)

(edit: I cut off the sleeves. looks 8735984% better)

Harness: I reeeaaally like this harness. I've been wanting this one for awhile and I finally got it! I actually wore it backwards in the first photo. 2 in 1! Can't wait to wear it out~ Quality-wise...it seems sturdy. The edges are a bit rough, probably because it's not real leather so it can be a little scratchy.

Fabric: I got this to make a overskirt for my Halloween costume. It's not the scratchy tulle stuff, its cotton and super soft. I got 8 meters total. 

I also bought a wig, but I don't have a good photo of it yet. Stay tuned?  See my Halloween post1

JAN OUT-

[I realized my reviews have been getting more and more vague. But if you have questions or anything, feel free to comment~]

Nikkei Matsuri and Taiwanfest!

Hello everyone!

Last week, I went to Nikkei Matsuri and Taiwanfest on the same day. I wore heels so my feet hurt after...^^"

The outfit~

I finally got to wear lolita again after 3 months and man, it feels awesome. I was so close to selling off my entire lolita wardrobe for new pieces but I just love them too much (though, I'm selling one here). I wore my much adored Royal Melty Chocolate salopette and DreamV OTK boots. Everything else is off brand.

she made such cute patterns!

I got the guy's okonomiyaki, so little mayo lol

Takoyaki!!

Food! The okonomiyaki looked really good so we tried it out! It's just kind of like a giant squished takoyaki. It has the same toppings but it has beef instead of octopus and lots of cabbage. Oh, and how can you not get takoyaki? It's different from the ones you get from the night market. It's slightly more expensive but I feel like it's worth. The shell is actually kind of crunchy versus the soggy night market ones. I was suprised with the pickled ginger they added.

The Nikkei Matsuri is more catered towards families. They had mainly activities for children that I felt a embarrassed to participate in haha. Lots of food stands and lots of live performances that everyone can enjoy! Too bad the weather was mediocre that day.

You can see the eh weather-

After going to the Japanese festival, I had to head downtown to pick up something and thought hey, let's check out Taiwanfest. I was only there for the latter part so I didn't get to see much. There were food stands (obviously) and many other organizations that put up stands. I got a mango jelly slush drink(?). This is my favourite thing to order. There's just so much to chew on and it tastes so good! 

That day felt like going to the night market lol. Maybe I should order other things next time-

Did you attend any of these events? Tell me about it! Especially the food :D

Toodles~

JAN

High Tea Time: Secret Garden Tea Company

Hello everyone!

Last week, I got to visit Secret Garden Tea Company in Kerrisdale. It's the first time I've been here and out of the 4 high tea services I've had, this tops my list.

The place is not big, but it isn't cramped either. Reservations are required and are at 3 time slots each day. The interior is mostly white, with cute dainty decorations. The chairs at each table were different. We got seated at the "main" tea room with the windows. I didn't notice the tables in the back until I went to pay.

Super pretty tea cup =w=

The tea service is a set menu which changes with each month but we get to pick our own tea. I chose the Avalon Blend which I previously tried at a friend's house. This is my favourite. I haven't had more delicious tea at previous tea houses (maybe I'm just bad at picking haha). I don't quite remember what was in the blend, but I do know there are rose petals and I love anything with rose.

3 tiers of endless deliciousness 

Service was nothing short of amazing. They came around to refill our teapots once in awhile and asked how the food was or how we were doing.

the bottom tier

The savouries featured Silican tuna and avocado on mini croissant, mini calzone sandwiches, and egg salad pinwheels. Hands down, the tuna croissants were the best thing. The croissant had the right amount of crunch and tuna. The calzones were really yummy too. There was more than I expected. We each got 2 of each, and 3 of the pinwheels.

middle tier

Middle tier had scones and berry tea loaf slices with rasberry jam and devonshire cream. I will almost always pick devonshire over any jam. It's just the best. The tea loaves were sour and super refreshing after the savoury food. Scones weren't too dry and it had sugar crystals at the top to add sweetness without being overbearing.

top tier

Finally, dessert! The outer triangular pieces are salted caramel pecan pies. I'm not sure what I was expecting but it was pretty heavy. I neither dislike or like it. The yellow ones are lemon curd tarts. Super sour! Took us awhile to finish, we had to constantly sip our tea. Last but definitely not least, the white chocoalte lime mousse with coconut cream on poppy seed shortbread. The green icing made it look really sweet but it was surprisingly light. Great way to finish off. 

I hear there is a garden seating outside for larger parties? I've seen pictures but never seen it for myself in person. 

outfit~ 

flower braid uwu

I wore basically all Taobao stuff. Didn't really feel like wearing lolita that day. Like my hair? :3

Would I come back? Definitely. Secret Garden is now my favourite tea house! Service is great. Food is great. Atmosphere is great. I literally have nothing to complain about except that seating time is limited to 2h. I was bummed I had to leave so soon!

You guys should tell me about their other menu items for the other months when you visit! And tell me what tea you guys like. I never know what to pick ^^"

Until next time, toodles!

JAN

High Tea Time: La petite cuillere

Hope everyone's having a good summer as school is coming (too) quickly =A=

This will be a rather short review since I never intended to do one for this location when I went. Today's tea house is La petite cuillere, a hidden gem I was told. I did not get any photos of the interior but the style is very different from Fur Elise. La petite culliere's colours are much more earthly. It makes for a more inviting and casual environment while still maintaining class.

The high tea menu has 3 choices and seeing as there were 3 of us, we got one of each. The tea pots come with little jackets, one cup of sugar cubes and some cream. Everything felt fresh and the savoury ones were still warm. The devonshire cream was amazing, it hardly lasted us.

Would I go back? Maybe. But it's all due to personal taste. I much prefer the mousse and the presentation of Fur Elise. 

I didn't get to wear lolita that day, but here's my outfit:

No brand :P the bow is fake.

o3o 

JAN

High Tea Time: Patisserie Fur Elise

Hello everyone!

I'm gonna change it up a bit and do some food reviews! I want to try every high tea service here, and so this will be something like a checklist.

(I visited Fur Elise in 2013, so the information may not be up to date and I don't know if they have made any changes as of late.)

The interior was amazing o3o

This place actually took me awhile to find because I wasn't expecting a house. This tea house is not just part of a commercial building, it's a Victorian-esque house renovated into what it is now. I believe the owners are Taiwanese? The first floor is like a patisserie shop, the top floor is where the tea service takes place.

The tea sets!

Sweets on top, savouries on the bottom.

I don't have a picture, but we also received an appitizer. It was a pudding with blueberry sauce (I believe) and a piece of gold foil on top. The tea was...not amazing. I was a bit disappointed with it. I'm not the most knowledgable with tea, but I remember it tasting like tea I get from dimsum? Maybe I just made a bad choice ^^" 

bottom tier

top tier

The size of the savory selection was a bit big. Trying to eat it daintily was quite a challenge. I don't quite remember what the brown desserts were, but they weren't my favourite. The green squares are green tea mousse with red bead. The pink ones, strawberry. the white ones in the back were the same as the appitizer so I'm not too sure what it was. The macarons were awesome, strawberry and lemon.

Couldn't find an outfit photo where I looked decent...

I wore Chess Story's Mariage d'amour JSK with a Mystery Garden blouse. The "headband" is actually a F21 necklace I fastened onto a plain headband haha- Shoes are from Taobao. Bracelets were giveaway prizes from a local online shop (not sure if you can see them).

Would I go back? Yes. But the price is off putting. So far, this has been one of the more expensive places. Still, I'd totally comeback for the whole atmosphere. 

Thanks for reading!

JAN

~*♥Here's a bonus photo of my dear bestie♥*~

She wears Meta's Room print way better than me.