Hello 2015!

A bit of a late hello, but finally a greeting to the new year at long last!

I got back from my trip to Japan a couple days ago, and am still feeling the faint withdrawal of not being able to get yummy drinks at vending machines and walking everywhere.

I honestly wish I could walk everywhere because I have been getting so. much. fatter. since I got back. It's unbelievable how fast I'm gaining this weight ;;;


Anywho, I thought it would be appropriate to do a bit of a new years resolution post, so here goes!

In 2015:

• I want to travel more! Not sure if I will be going America at the moment, but it's still a possibility at this point~

• I want to succeed in my graduate programme. I know it's not a competition, and I don't want to face it like a task or something but I want to do well and be rewarded. Graduating is a big change in lifestyle and I want to start off healthy!
  
• I want to maintain all my friendships. This is a difficult one, because there was so much more time in university. Even if people's schedules were different, they were still fairly flexible. Now that most of my friends have graduated it's going to be a lot harder to get together. At least most of us are still in the same city!
  
• I want to stop buying from taobao. It just aint healthy how much stuff I have and how little of it I can actually use. I think I still have some accessories and stuff at my shipping proxy hmm...should probably get those shipped over soon....
  
• I want to maintain nice nails all the time! It's a lifestyle, not just an accessory! I do make a resolution like this every year (keeping myself tidy/makeup done), but so far I've slacked off every year. I found out in Japan that it wasn't actually that much of a hassle to just put aside a little extra time to do my hair and makeup every morning, so hopefully this will actually keep up this year!
  
• I want to be able to do full sculpt long nails, and improve my nail art skills! This is purely out of interest :3
  
• I want to stay fit. So I can actually fit the clothes I bought in Japan and look good in them. >>;

^yeh gonna need some luck with that last one aye hahaha......

7 is a good number, so I will stop there :3

I'm halfway through washing all the clothes I bought from Japan, and one/multiple haul videos will be up on my youtube sometime. I took a look at all the stuff I bought and it just wasn't feasible to do photo haul post lol. I've literally stocked up enough clothes for the entire year if not for next year too x'D



=^.^=

My 22nd Birthday ~

I thought this year's birthday would be quite toned down, as last year's 21st is supposed to be the big shebang as per western tradition and all.

But no, this year my mom decided I was finally starting to look adulty! Lol

My actual birthday (5th Dec) was pretty chill. We had a Christmas lunch at work, courtesy of manager (thank you JP!) where everyone talked about Christmas traditions and children and I realised I had neither *sob*

But that aside, I really do love the people I work with, so it was really nice that the Christmas lunch happened on my birthday!

For dinner, mom said we could go anywhere I wanted. I have been wanting to try places around Britomart for the longest time, but could not justify the hefty prices of those restaurants just for the lols. Birthdays are a great reason from that aspect, to try out places I usually wouldn't go!

We had dinner at Ebisu, ordering a platter for four (lol) and umeshu.

The sashimi was amazing - my mom was so happy with the fact that her very delicate stomach did not reject the raw seafood haha. Quality Assurance test: pass!

The pink umeshu is fruity and very very sweet, while the 'standard' one was pretty nice. I do like some umeshu once in a while :3

The platter was just the perfect amount that we didn't need to order anything else! So afterwards, we went to Milse for dessert. I have always been meaning to try out their evening menu items, so my birthday was the perfect reason for indulging in all the fatty goodness!

We ordered the tasting menu set above, but they also included an extra appetizer - the passionfruit cream stick thing. No idea what it was called, but it was yummy (and fatty cough cough)

My favourite is the pumpkin (top right image) , with the valrhona kalingo (bottom right) coming close second. Would have liked a little more spice in the pumpkin, and a little less sweet in the valrhona kalingo, but anywho we got bar-type seats so it was very entertaining watching the everyone working in the kitchen. My mom was so amazed by the fact that they put away every little container even if they bring it out only half a minute later for a different dish! X'D

We went home after finishing dinner and a brief tour of downtown for my mom. She doesn't come into the CBD too often, so it was a nice chance to do some exploring. Sometimes you miss a lot of details when you see things every day!

I found my gift waiting on my desk when we got home -

The box is the OBAKU watch I reviewed in my previous post, and set with the most fragrant and cute bouquet of roses! I usually don't like to spam money on flowers cause they're hella expensive in Nz but these were sooo cute and it was a present so I can't complain right haha

My mom also decided that this year, I should have a party. I really did not have the brain power to plan something during the semester, so it was really nice that my mom went about and arranged everything! The party was a fairly closed affair - some family friends from out east and central came over, had a feast and caught up on life. Most importantly, had a nice drinking session LOL

My mom ordered me a super yummy coffee cake. One can never escape from coffee after the love of coffee has set in right!? XD

And I received some more gifts - the new OPI gwen stefani 18k gold speckled top coat and a Estee Lauder lip gloss set (with travel bag)

I might review these later, but anyway I've had a try with the red lip gloss (photos on my twitter @snowrii) and I love it! I usually never wear lip gloss because they are 99.9% too sticky and impractical for NZ winds, but these felt pretty good. Giving them a true outdoor run on Monday (tomorrow) though.

The gold top coat is pretty nice for subtle designs, and should only be applied in one coat or else the gold glitter overwhelms the gold pieces. I always love getting new nail polish though *v*

So thank you DJ (& fam) for your presents!! Super loving them ~

Also ty for your present MC! ;)

And so... That's pretty much what happened for my birthday! It was very pleasant and lively, mostly thanks to my mom for taking care of everything! So many thankful feelsssssss~ thank you mom!

=^.^=

First outings this semester!

Uni started this week, but I am sooo totally not ready to get down to business!

It's like, every holiday needs to have at least a week of doing absolutely zilch, and I just haven't had that yet haha

So this week, I've been meeting up with friends here and there and just catching up with everyone and eating way too much QAQ

Warning: much of this post is just food photos! X'D

On Monday, LL and I revisited Sushi Factory on Vulcan Lane (Auckland CBD). They had pink umeshu!!

Ok we didn't buy it because we went at lunch time and we both had to get back to uni in the afternoon. But the bottles are really pretty, no??? Hopefully we can try it another night, but we've planned for a Sake night which will (fingers crossed) go ahead next week. I need hot sake in my life <3

Sushi Factory also had some dodgy as sushi on the conveyor belt when we first got there... Honestly conveyor belt sushi is not that great in NZ. There just aren't enough customers for the sushi to continually be fresh! Not to mention the prices are like, what.

Sketchy as heck black medium-rare beef.

I ordered some kind of fried crumbed chicken katsudon thing which made me miss Japan cause it was (as typically) hella expensive lol

Oh hey it looks good in the photo! XD

We were actually supposed to go to Mamak (a Malaysian restaurant at Chancery) but we got there and it turns out the place is closed on Mondays wtf.

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

I ended up going there (Mamak) on Tuesday with Tenshi instead, and it's a really nice place!! Super small but absolutely lovely in every way~

The laksa I ordered is really photogenic right? \(//∇//)\

Portion sizes are actually very decent. This bowl was over 1/3 the width of our 1 person wide table so it's really massive and the contents appear small. I could barely finish it, that's how big the bowl was!

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Finally found a chance to catch up with VYL this (friday) morning after what feels like forever. We checked out Federal Delicatessen which is possibly the only American Diner-esque eatery in Auckland or New Zealand for that matter. I was really excited for their poutine as it's the first time I have seen poutine in NZ, but unfortunately it failed on many levels. In particular, the chips weren't even done as well as a regular fish and chip shop, and that gravy was just SAD.

The Toasted Reuben that VYL ordered was pretty good, but it's a tad expensive and honestly I don't think it's possible to screw up on a pastrami and swiss sandwich in rye bread with sauerkraut (which I'm pretty sure is canned). 

Surprisingly the place was really packed when we left at noon too! It's probably because the diner is right opposite the sky tower. What a convenient location...

Interiors are pretty cool. The waitresses wear cute little dresses too! And it's nice and clean.

Oh yeah, an uncle sitting at an outside table waved me and asked if I had a good meal .-.

I don't get waved down often, so it was a bit odd. I'm convinced that man is the boss in disguise, but VYL thinks he's just a random hobo. What hobo would be allowed to occupy a table (for hours and hours just to smoke) at a diner that sets such high prices though?? He's definitely the boss! >:|

*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*

Also today, Hana Emi Doll members planned for a meetup in the evening, but Pat and AP couldn't make it in the end so it was just me and Roxy ;-;

We went corset shopping as planned, and actually ended up buying corsets! I originally wanted to look and try first, but somehow I got swept away and ordered one lol *no self control*

Roxy's corset was already made, but they didn't have one to the right length for me so I ordered one. It's going to take about 2 months for it to be ready!! 2 long painstaking months to wait </3

I can't wait to start waist training eep!!! >w<

Anyway we were planning to go ktv afterwards, but since it was just the two of us, we decided to go shopping (for lashes at Ippondo), pool (at KISS which is surprisingly in pretty good condition compared to the other pool places around), and dinner at Nol Bu Ne!

Speaking of shopping, on the way to Ippondo we walked past this weird art display on the walkway! When I was in Zurich there was a super awkward and view obstructing crane as an art display in the middle of the city. I was telling Roxy about it when BAM out appears a random art display in NZ wtf

It's a couple of kiwis or ducks under a danbo looking box @-@

I have no idea what it's about, but the entire thing is rock solid. You can find it on Queen St just up the road from the White House, in front of Myers Park.

Ok back to dinner! I ordered fish roe soup thingy which is supposed to be spicy but I think I've developed an immunity to chemical chilli </3 

Perhaps BT chicken (super super spicy BBQ chicken wings) killed my tastebuds last semester after all lol

Their potato is just as sweet and perfect as ever. I usually visit the place just for the purpose of having their sweet potato lol. It's the first side dish on the left and doesn't look great, but tastes delicioussssss!

After dinner, we made a quick trip to daiso for my cheap but really good to use daiso eyelashes haha. I buy the really sparse long lashes with a thick band from Daiso as a base, to get my lashes to face up (and create a round eye shape). It saves me having to curl my lashes hehe. Although the effect isn't quite the same, but at 8am on the way to uni with very little sleep I honestly don't care~

We thought really really hard about what we could do after that, but apart from drinking and/or clubbing there was nothing else to do. The weather today was also ridiculously typical of NZ with sun showers, sudden downpours and random gusts of massive winds so we couldn't even venture out on to the viaduct. I can't wait till shops start opening to 9pm as a regular thing. We need it in NZ. Need it bad.

I haven't done much uni work this week, so I'll be really busy next week putting my life back together. Hopefully I can start releasing my travel posts soon though! They're going to be hella long with wayy too many photos~

Don't worry, not many photos will have my face xD

=^.^=

Chocolate Boutique review & Velvety Vanilla Almond Lindt Creation

Last night I finally got to meet up with some friends I haven't seen in forever! I think it's become a cycle of just meeting up every couple months or so when we all miraculously have one evening free together lol QAQ

Even this time, all of us almost forgot we set the date ==;

I remembered about 3hrs before we were supposed to meet because I set a reminder on my phone calendar. I make up for my cruddy memory by being prepared, yeah~✌️ (Can iPhone emoji show up in blogger posts? We shall see when I publish this...)

Anyway, since I finally got to go to the Chocolate Boutique that I swear every single girl in Auckland that's not legit broke has probably been to, I thought it'd be good to share my first impression of the store.

Unfortunately I was there with not only my friends but also a few of their friends and I didn't want to be the weird girl that takes photos of absolutely everything, so no photos of the store :(

The shop is quite cosy, most of the tables are for around 4 people, our table could fit about 8 (we took the largest table out the back on the porch). If you stay in the store for ages, it feels a little cramped. There's a million and one items on display and it's super adorable, like a Christmas candy store, but I wonder how they keep inventory and make sure every item is within expiry date. Every flat surface is actually packed high like a treasure trove O.O;;

The store is in Parnell, so it kept with the cosy Parnell "cobblestones, wooden bridges, and pretty vines" theme from the outside. The shop is a cottage painted white (cute!) with a red standalone public telephone hut thing right out the front! Watch out for that telephone booth when you drive by and you definitely won't miss the shop like I did ><

The drink I ordered was a butterscotch hot chocolate. Silly me was overwhelmed by the variety of drinks they had and just randomly picked one in the end. orz

Butterscotch in hot chocolate is just wayyy too sweet, I couldn't even taste the tiramisu after. Yeah. Like, waaaat.

The hot chocolate itself is pretty average too. I'd recommend getting their melted chocolate drinks, at least that's difficult to find elsewhere (forgot what they're called).

At least it looks really nice with the cream on top!

Between myself, EW, and S_, we also ordered a chocolate fondue and a (slice of) tiramisu. For chocolate fondue, you can choose between melted white, milk, dark, or bitter chocolate. Bitter chocolate is probably 80% cocoa. We went with dark chocolate and it was pretty sweet ><

Even though it was freakin cold outside, our fondue didn't freeze up at all! How do they do it!?!?

For dipping, we got pretzels, banana, marshmallows (my fave of the lot), dried kiwifruit, apricots, the kind of cherries you would see on a cake, lady fingers, and wafers. The irony here is that we got lady fingers for our fondue but not in our tiramisu .-.

The tiramisu was nothing like any other tiramisu I've tried. The texture of the cheesy layers was much like that of a cheesecake, and the thin thin layers between were probably chocolate sponge, soaked in perhaps a little coffee. No mascarpone flavour at all, and the texture was quite thick. It was an interesting experience...
 

All in all, my split of the bill was about $11 which is alright for what we got I think? I'm not thaaaat keen to revisit though.

Also i saw people on the tables close to us look at us multiple times cause we were 1. Being stereotypical loud asians 2. There was much dissing. In English. Sometimes fail English. 3. WL accidentally called out to a customer on TWO separate occasions thinking they were staff. Can I just never go to Parnell again plz? (Jks WL, I just wanted to note this on my blog forever so I can bring this up at your wedding kay)

All in all, I think the Chocolate Boutique is worth visiting if you haven't been before. There are few establishments around Auckland that have such a nice ambience, but don't go expecting high tea quality desserts.

Now tonight *drumroll* I finally discovered a pack of Lindt's new Creations flavour on my coffee table!!! LOVE YOU MOM! *Q*

It's probably been out and advertised for over a month now, but they weren't stocked at Pak'n Save (Albany) so I never got my hands on it till now. I am SO excited over this because it is EVERY BIT as delicious as I imagined.

My thigh is so unflattering I'm sorry. But who can resist this delicious Creation! ( am I punny yet?)

Crisp almond pieces in vanilla flavoured truffle, a layer of caramel, all encased in Lindt milk chocolate. DOES IT NOT SOUND ABSOLUTELY TANTALIZING!?

I managed to stop myself at 1/5 of the block, but I will definitely finish it by the end of the week. It's so flippin good, I'm not even exaggerating.

Go and try it if you can. It's worth every cent! <3

=^.^=

Revisiting Milse - disappointed! :(

Last Sunday, LY organised a meetup to celebrate her birthday (even though she didn't want us to sing happy birthday we ended up cornering her against a locked door and singing it in the train station hahahaha)

I didn't get many photos unfortunately, but I managed to snap some of the food since other people were taking food pics too ^^

This is just copied from my instagram post (@snowrii).

We had dinner at The Conservatory in Wynyard Quarter. It's my first time eating over there, and my second time in Wynyard Quarter since it opened in...2012 or 2013!? LOL I am so behind ~.~

The restaurants there all seem pretty nice, at least the view and ambience is great! The only downside is that the restaurants don't show their name very obviously, so I walked into a random restaurant before finding The Conservatory. Awkward.

Just a quick review of our dinner - the lamb (18"?) pizza was delicious! They cut it in huge slices and I felt so hungus, but omg it was so yum. Chips seasoned with rosemary is also quite nice! They didn't prepare it very crispy unfortunately (same goes for the calamari), but the idea of rosemary and chips is new to me and I love it! The garden platter was pretty average, the cabbage wasn't fresh enough and the artichoke heart was average. I wonder if their chef took a day off yesterday?

Now on to Milse! For those of you that follow Confetti, you will know that I had posted about the store several times (first review, second documented visit), mostly favorably. TL;DR on the links - when we first started the blog, Cora and I had a little celebration reviewing the store and it was truly lovely! Then, the verrines became much smaller than they used to be. This time, it was even worse!

Macarons of all different shapes and sizes, messily displayed.

Beautiful shot capturing the ONE giant macaron sandwich and the sloppy presentation of the green tea gateaux, courtesy of JY.

Let me just number them to make it easy for reading:

1. The presentation is inconsistent and sloppy - macarons were all different sizes, placed inctheir rows messily, and some were almost half a size bigger than others! If you think I'm being picky here, please visit my first review of Milse and you can understand why I have my expectations.

2. The cabinet was unkempt, even though it was a Sunday and they were really only moderately busy. Considering all the tarts sit directly in the cabinet, I would think that cleanness should be of high priority?

3. Macarons (the only thing I bought this time) varied in quality. The salted caramel JY bought was just as good as I remembered, but the other 3 that we shared (including the 2 in my photo collage at the top of this post) were very crumbly, hollow, and hard. Inconsistent, yet again.

Unfortunately I didn't try verrines or tarts or a gateaux this time, so I can't comment on those, but at least the presentation of the gateaux was pretty bad just like the macarons.

It has only been just over a year since they opened. I am honestly quite disappointed, and probably will not visit Milse quite as often as I used to.

Just FYI.

=^.^=

Hotpot is the best in a cold autumn ~

Recently my newsfeeds have been flooded with super gorgeous photoshoots in sakura, summer outfit hauls and OOTDs, kawaii little girls in yukata (thank you Humans of New York （≧∇≦）) and gorgeous girls in bikinis. Thinspiration much? Haha~

While the northern hemisphere has settled in to the swing of carefree summers of bbqs, beaches, massive-cosplay-making-plans etc., NZ is officially in autumn. Only, Autumn this year is weirdly bipolar. If you heard about NZ, chances are you will have heard about out wickedly unique weather; most days we get all 4 seasons, and occasionally multiple seasons at once. It's not uncommon to see a beautiful blue sky with the sun shining brightly at 20 degrees celsius, but rain is absolutely pouring down.

This week marks the start of the second term of first semester. I'm super excited that my travel plans are drawing closer (have I mentioned that I will be in Europe June 26-July13 and Tokyo July14-15?)! But at the same time, the sudden drop in temperature has been quite the shock.

Last Sunday, the night before uni, I finally got to visit a hotpot buffet for the first time in YEARS. Some people call it steamboat but directly translated from mandarin, 火锅 is actually 'fire pot' so I call it hotpot.

Photo from Google. We were way messier than this LOL

I got to catch up with some uni friends whom I never seem to meet up with anymore even though we go to the same uni lolwtf. Chinese hotpot restaurants in NZ are usually buffet style, so we completely pigged out and ate wayyyyy too much!

Our buffet area looks something like this stock image, but there was a loooot more meat. And actually just a much larger food variety than this image.

I gained 2.something kg from dinner. Yes, I weighed myself before and after >> << >>

This restaurant was extra awesome because it's the first hotpot I've been to where they serve scampi!

This is scampi. And scampi is delicious.

Unfortunately we were too far from the buffet area to catch the big ones, but the smaller ones were nice too ~ next time I will sit my arse right next to the buffet area for those scampis!! >:|

Is anyone else in the Southern hemisphere btw?@@ it feels really awkward uploading thick winter OOTDs when most of the people I follow are in summer right now QAQ

=^.^=

Thoughts :: Career vs. Gyaru

TL;DR is the last paragraph.

Yesterday I finally checked my Snow Rii facebook after a couple days of hiatus. I used to be logged in on Snow Rii on the facebook app, and my private account on the safari browser, but recently there's been too much random stuff on Snow Rii's feed so I changed accounts.

It was really shocking to be greeted with a link to ameblo, where egg was officially announced as ending in a month.

Honestly, it's like the drama in the gyaru community never ends. before something ends, something else would start up. And even if there's nothing, something gets stirred up anyway. It's kind of tiring :/

I like meeting all the girls in the gyaru comm, or at least most of them (plain truth: some people are just unpleasant) but it's so abstracted from the needs of daily life that when I look back on what I have done this past year, I really noticed how much time was wasted doing....nothing? Nothing of value anyway. Just opinionated people posting stuff 20 times a day, saying things that make them all high and mighty but are actually irrelevant to probably 99% of the people that skim it.

The energy has also been so low in the gyaru comm what with all the magazines going. Tbh I was a little sad about it too, but life goes on, and it isn't the end of the world. I liked egg too - don't get me wrong, it was one of my favourite gyaru magazine. And it will always be the most fun gyaru mag in my eyes, but I guess because the past 2 issues have been dreadful, I wasn't too sad to see it cut before it gets worse. #nofilter lol.

Recently I also bought some more clothes to fill my wardrobe. Looking at this cart, I bought about 1/4 mainstream clothes/accessories. Gyaru obviously is quite expensive, especially since I really really want to own something with ma*rs' gorgeous prints, and it's reaching the point where I actually cannot/should not be funding both work, Lolita, and gyaru clothes. They're all expensive wtf, and combined together is just unmanageable .-.

Lastly of course, there is also the fast approaching issue of finding a post graduate job. I study IT which opens a huge number of career opportunities ranging from a nice small 9-5 job, to positions in massive firms. I still don't know if I want to work those 80hrs+ a week jobs, but at the same time if I settle for a 9-5 job it feels like I'm actually just....settling. Both have their perks, so it's a real struggle trying to decide what would be the best approach. After all, it's a lot harder to do a career change once I am officially out in the working world...

And how does it all tie together? Well, I'm mostly trying to decide where I want to go in the gyaru community or perhaps withdraw from it, and how to balance reality with the gyaru lifestyle! Both are so consuming, I'm really torn! Are there any gyaru people that work high profile jobs? I really need to find some people I could look to and see how they got to where they are, and whether it is actually possible to juggle both?

#AVeryLostChild

=^.^=

I can blog from my phone now!

So today I finally sniped a good deal on an iPhone (64gb 5s gold) and am back in the land of non-lag! This year I've been having such terrible luck with technology- 

- first, galaxy s3 dies

- then my brick phone has a line of dead pixels

- then my iPod touch lags sooooo bad (no exaggeration. Even Apple products lag if you use them for long enough)

- this week my netbook of three years died (something corrupted on c drive, will have to reinstall windows again)

- also this week, managed to burn the capacitor inside mom's desktop computer monitor.

So I'm reeeeally glad right now to have this new phone that DOESN'T LAG!! Pretty sure this is on the lower end of first world problems yeah???

Hopefully I will be blogging more now (and be more active on IG) since I can post on the commute to/from uni!

Also, now that I have secured a phone, I can buy kawaii My Melody cases for it! Seriously a huge part of why I wanted an IPhone. :)))))))

More shopping / wtf I'm going broke QAQ

I don't remember if I mentioned in my last post that I had also placed an order for clothing on taobao? I wanted to try the replica Ma*rs items before I consider buying the real product - after all, the replica price is far more acceptable and perhaps it's a little more un-asian-sized?

Here's a quick snap of the items I'm ordering

Some of the items are a different color to the displayed image

Didn't order too much, but this still came down to about 250NZD QAQ
OK tbh 250 isn't much for 11 items of clothing and 5 accessories, but I'm just so used to bargains on taobao that spending over 100CNY for an item of clothing is weird .-. #toostingy

There are a few other items I want, but aren't ordering yet. They're mori style clothes, and wig pieces for dark hair. Since I'm not ordering them yet till probably May or June, I'll post them up as a wishlist post later :)


Anyway today I went shopping again, because a few friends' birthdays are coming up and I needed presents. But while mom and I were in the mall, we found more clothes that were cute and on sale! These are my buys:

belt I spotted in Pagani!

Pagani again, size 14 lace blouse which I trimmed the sides off into a long top

Dress from Forever New. I finally have a black dress *v*

Seriously I have been searching for a simple-ish semi-formal black dress forever, so I was super happy to find this today! For 70NZD, this was a pretty good find *v*

Now I have 2 dresses from Forever new in the same style, except the other one is white and doesn't have this chiffon skirt outside... Well, it looks good so whatever ~

Oh and I appear to be sick with some kind of bug fml. Not so much runny nose / sore throat / hacking lungs out, but I'm half asleep all the time, super uncoordinated, tired but not sleepy and just overall feeling really meh. Did I mention a literature review is due in 2 days? yippeeeee.......

That's probably why I've been shopping like crazy this week. Retail therapy to make up for being sick and the work that's piling up hahahaha

OK time to sleep this bug away. night night~

=^.^=

x-plain NZ designer brand buys && evening fun

At the university my mom works, there's this admin/PA who dresses in 100% designer clothes. TBH I didn't really know about this, but today my mom said that lady had recommended an outlet store on 7 Triton (Rosedale) that opened not too long ago.

I was pretty skeptical cause my taste in fashion is pretty....different from most NZers .-.

BUT the store was actually super nice!

The interior design was super minimalistic but bright and fresh and spacious~
For once, my mom didn't complain about waiting for me to try clothes. She usually hates the stores I go to and would never wait for me >>"

The clothes in the store weren't that cheap, they were all indie NZ designer brands. But the selection of items there were all really nice. The overall style concept of all the clothes in the store is probably retro/hipster/high fashion. It's an interesting mix, but I will definitely visit again!

I splurged quite a bit today. Not something I'm particularly proud of, but the quality of the clothing was so nice, and the design so unique that I had to buy them! Besides, the clothes my mom buys are about this price anyway >> << >>

So I bought one jacket - the Kibosh Jacket (link is to the brand's e-store), and one skirt - Boggie Skirt.

love the asymmetrics on this jacket and the mix of textiles!!

without chiffon attachment

long chiffon attach

base skirt

shorter chiffon attach

nice minimalistic packaging ~

the designer of the shop, which also sells other brands such as the one I bought o.O

I super loved that the jacket and skirt had detachable areas which completely change the look! The design is just so awesome, it was totally worth the $170 I paid! (Yes, in store price was even lower than the webstore 50% off price!!!)

So all in all, my wallet is bleeding, but I'm feeling pretty smug. These pieces definitely improve the style of my "normal" wardrobe~

KTV & Pool

Man it feels like forever since I last went ktv!! Actually I went several times before uni started. There was a period where I just wanted to sing so much hahaha

Anyway this evening, went KTV with some friends and met many new people *o* Funny story, some of the friends I did know were from online gaming years ago! It's so awesome to meet up again offline and have mutual friends from offline wtf haha

So we went ktv and played pool after, and it was so much fun! Pool was so competitive lol. We booked two tables and my table had the most serious game I've been in these few years! My team won 5-3 though *hi5 to my awesome teammate RC who totally ownd* >:D

Today was so much fun, I hope there will be more days like this! Hanging out with friends is so rare now wtflol!

=^.^=

Retail Therapy, and I'm getting a new hairstyle!

So I know it's Wednesday, but I am sooo tired of the uni work that's piling up and I just really needed to take a break and clear it all from my mind for a bit.

I was actually supposed to buy some clothes for work and interviews and y'know, more formal occasions. However I made the mistake of checking out Tatty's first (it's a resale shop on High St, Auckland CBD) aaaaand of course I ended up buying *sorta* not work-able clothes.

Ok the blouse is kinda cute, it could work.

Very light pink, with a hint of peach. $30

The brand of the blouse is SOUP which apparently is big enough in KR to warrant a dedicated e-store. Pretty happy with this buy, knowing the brand LOL #BrandHoarInTraining

Tatty's prices are a little high, but resale in NZ doesn't seem to have the same idea as resale in US/Canada soooo This blouse for $30 was pretty ok. I gave in and bought it before they slashed the prices since it's cute ;v; zero self control there.

Then I found this adorable skort which I really did not actually want to shill out for, because let's be honest - I'll most likely never wear it out. It's too short. But that's ok, I still happily bought this for homewear :')

Who can say no to onespo *brand new condition* at $15?

I especially love onespo's Daisy items. Super wanted the apron-type dress and the matching wedges (or was it heels?) Anyway the series is super damn cute la!

Tatty's is the only store I've seen japanese brands in. I previously spotted Princess Melody and Sugar Gloss, and today I also saw a Bodyline skirt so I'm suuuuper addicted to this store atm. Gonna check it out again next week to see if there may be any new goodies >w<

I swear the store is run by an Asian person. How do they judge brands like these eh!? There's a surprisingly large amount of asian-style clothing!

Anyway, moving on.

I also bought some hair dyes and cut my hair today.
No photo of my hair yet, but I am super happy with my hairdresser right now. He cut it perfectly <3

Freshlight Passion Blonde | Champagne Pink

Passion Blonde & Champagne Pink color charts

The pink is quite subtle... TBH when I went dye hunting I wasn't too sure what I wanted. I actually wanted to cut one side of my hair super short and then dye the whole thing ash, with red streaks, but then I saw this pink and decided to try it since I haven't done so before.

Plus, I have been waiting for Ippondo to stock the Freshlight creme dyes for forever. The texture of these are gorgeous, and they are so so so much easier to work with than the freakin bubble dye >:|

Unfortunately I didn't end up cutting my hair super short, but I did dye the blonde today. I didn't go even close to blonde - not even close to orange! - but it did lift my hair a tiny bit....

I'm really rusty with hair dying now. I look at my hair and it's like "...I knew this was gonna happen, why was I so stupid with applying the dye eh" ==
So my hair isn't exactly what I had had hoped it would be, however I will be applying the pink on Friday *fingers crossed* and if the pink does what it should, then the overall effect should still be pretty good ><


We're finally halfway through the last week of uni urgh! Thank goodness holidays begin in 2 days - unis in the northern hemisphere should be in the midst of final exams now? So jealous of my friends in Toronto who are planning their summer vacay at the moment ;v;


Speaking of vacay, I may be visiting Europe in Late June / Early July! It's not very ironed out yet, but if I do go, I will be travelling around Prague and possibly surrounding cities/countries for about 15 days!!! ><
If there is anyone in the region, I would love to meet up!
Also, if anyone lives in that area and can recommend me good restaurants/eateries I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER!!!!! :D



OK now to begin that literature review due next Tuesday...*flubber flubber die* Dx

=^.^=

A weekend of getting back into the swing of life

The past few weeks have been a bit of a drag. I keep wanting to, and attending, events - but never get around to editing and uploading the photos for them. As one would expect, putting things off here and there, and one day you wake up and realise that everything seems to be behind schedule.

Well I finally decided to take a small break and breathe, so yesterday my mom and I went around for an afternoon of eating!

Even though I brought my camera, I didn't end up taking any photos of our food. Rare right? xD
We had a huuge gelato at a new gelato store in Browns Bay (it's beachside), with Coffee Walnut and Pistachio on a waffle cone. The coffee walnut was actually really good!
Then we swung by Mairangi Bay to get cookies and fish from a fish & chips store that mom has been craving for at least a month now. Can't nobody stop a craving woman! >:|

Browns Bay! It was such a gorgeous day. Behold my great panoramic photo-taking skills. :P

Daylight saving officially ended today. Even though I got an extra hour of sleep and feel really good now, I'm also a bit sad that summer is over :'(
Super envying those of you in the Northern Hemisphere who are entering summer, some going on summer vacay soon! Ahh a holiday would be so good right now...

Style

I've also been taking a break from my usual style. I really needed to ground myself for a while, and properly fix my frame of mind for studying/working and all that shebang. Midsemester is coming up; the pressure is on!

I cut my nails too! It's been a while since I had *short* nails, but they're going to stay like this until perhaps midsemester break starts...or when I'm ready to jump back into the gal life (completely) again ><

Makeup these past two days. Really toning it down ><

I really miss being flashy, but I'm so un-inspired with my wardrobe recently. I don't know if I should get more clothes or what.... actually who am I kidding, of course I need more clothes. But until then, I think I will coord my more mainstream clothes for a while and take a break from the kawaii life. I will definitely be returning though ;-; can't live without all that glitz and glamour and frills and lace!

I also bought some new stationery today - the japanese store downstairs in Albany Mall stocked up on a lot of sanrio merch, mostly hellokitty and little twin stars! Of course, much of it is entirely useless (in NZ for sure), but I did get a few anyway. The cardboard shelves are also gorgeous!

taking a break from the kawaii lyfe wuuuuuuuut? xD

I hope to start doing and posting more interesting stuff soon ;-; life seems so plain atm! ><

=^.^=

Update / Should I do wishlists?

Hiya everyone!

Seems I haven't posted in a while!
Actually, I know it's been a long time because I have this huge collection of photos on my USB (probably 2gb???) that are waiting to be resized and blogged, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet! QAQ

It's now the 5th week of uni- which means this week and next week are filled with tests, assignments, and presentations before our mid-semester break. two weeks of time to catch up on work - YES PLEASE

Yep, so that's the state of my life at the moment- lots of procrastination and putting off work till the last minute, resulting in a lack of blogging ;^; SORRYYYYYYY

On a tangent: does anyone watch Revenge? The new season just started airing in NZ not too long ago, and we're on like the 3rd ep or something and it is just as good as ever omg! In comparison, I'm rather disappointed with the current season of Scandal, which happens to air right after Revenge on Tuesdays. Thoughts? Opinions? :/


Through the past few months of blogging on Blogger and really connecting with other bloggers through bloglovin' and whatnot, I've come to realise that many people seem to post wishlists / favourites once in a while, if not monthly. Should I post my wishlists? I spend so much time looking through shops online, I could probably come up with a decent wishlist every month LOL. Would anyone be interested though?

I gotta get back to finishing my assignment (due Friday and I haven't even started eek), but please comment and tell me if you would like to see wishlists from me!! Also, if you do want wishlists - would you like it to be 1 style / month or just everything? For those that follow me on Instagram (@snowrii) you will know that I like many styles so... not sure how I should approach this whole wishlist posting thing @-@;;


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My newfound dessert obsession

I've always been pretty obsessed with desserts. I love everything, like actually EVERYTHING. Even licorice (at times).

Recently though, this year, I've started making desserts!

I think it's because I don't have as much time to do my nails anymore, and I swear the UV is making my hands extra wrinkly / ageing, so I have to put all that creative energy into something else? The wait time (48hours) for my craft glue to dry on my crafts is also a downer :(

So in January of February, I started making wasabi icecream, chocolates ~ (see some on my post here), and today I have officially stepped foot into desserts that require heat!

Yes - all of the desserts I have made so far require no heat. Even just melting the chocolate I managed to burn it the first time ==

No jokes, I am a serious fire hazard in the kitchen.

Today after dinner I decided that sitting at home for the evening is just too fattening. I definitely gained some weight recently, largely due to my lack of self-control. Last night I ate 2 waffles. With icecream, blueberries, and plum jam. :(

Hopefully I will get over this craving soon, cause I had 4 chocolates today too. It's not looking too good right now...

Anyway, the pan was on sale so I had to get it! Half price down from $40, and it's scratch-resist ceramic coated on the top! I am so excited to try it~

from my instagram (@snowrii)

The entire time I was in the supermarket with my mom to look for the cupcake mix, my mom was trying to convince me to buy some cheese instead of choc chips for the cupcakes == (too lazy to make the batter myself for now. Perhaps if I really get into it...)

It got really irritating, and in the end I snapped and said I will not make savory cupcakes and if she wants them she can do it herself.

Even thinking about it now makes me irritated. I want my sweet cupcakes dammit. ==;

Anywho, now I need to find cute mini cupcake cups, and also a piping/syringe thing to decorate cupcakes with. Oh yeah and buttercream/icing, and food colouring .-.

Gosh the list just keeps growing...

This year though, I will definitely have a tea party with Tenshi and wifey!! GOAL FOR THE YEAR! And I WILL make something that was baked and is edible and pretty and yummy!!!

Ok it's 1.25am. Goodnight!

=^.^=

Side story from JL's B'day

So this is something that happened on my friend JL's birthday (main post here), but wifey said this story is so epic that it deserves its own post. So yup, hope you enjoy this story of me and my wife's silly times :')

When we went to Movenpick in the evening for dessert, my wifey and I decided it would be very romantic if we shared desserts.

Thus, being the dessert crazed people we are, we cheerfully barged into the store arm in arm whilst totally disregarding the queue waiting to be served. We pasted our faces pretty much literally in front of the cakes cabinet - where three of the desserts called out to our hearts. We painfully narrowed our selection to the Chocolate Espresso Cake and the Mocha Tart.

Then we directed our attention to the ice cream cabinet and simultaneously agreed to get 3 scoops of ice cream as well.

However, as dinner was really filling (curry does that aye ;w;) we could only pick one cake.. 

Wifey had been in love with Mocha tarts since the start of our uni days, but the Chocolate espresso cake looked too good to pass up too, and so we decided to paper scissors rock for it. The conversation that occurred next went something like:

Wifey: "Lets paper scissors rock for it"

"PAPER SCISSORS -

Wifey: "- wait! Are you espresso cake or mocha tart?"

Me: "I'll be espresso cake and you be mocha?"

W: "Sounds good, so..."

"PAPER SCI-

W: "-waaaaait! Best out of three? Or first to three?"

M: "First to three, and winner gets their cake"

Then the epic PSR battle occured with scores as follows:

Wifey:me 

- 1:0

- 1:1

- 2:1

- 2:2

- 3:2

So wifey won, and I was fully prepared to get the Mocha tart since I like both anyway, but then:

W: "...but I kinda actually want the espresso cake..."

==; WHY DID WE PSR THEN!?!?!?!? ./fliptable

And, of course, after that statement, we couldn't help giggling like crazy as we relayed this entire conversation to our friends who were waiting in the queue like all the other normal people. >>;

At this point, I should probably reiterate that this whole thing occurred in full view of not only the store staff, but also every single other customer inside.

This day, wifey maintains that the PSR was so she could know which cake she truly wanted (just like the whole "you'll know what you truly want when you flip a coin and it's in the air" philosophy).

Thinking back, if we hadn't been so indecisive about our choice in desserts, would the guy serving us have given us such massive portions of icecream? hmmmm..... #awks

didn't take a photo of our icecream though. It was in a really basic Movenpick cup :/

Thank god we unanimously agreed on the icecream flavours without having to battle at the counter....


=^.^=

JL's Birthday (last Sunday) and upcoming posts

I've come to realise that several of my friends' first name begin with J so it's going to become terribly confusing down the line.
I'm too lazy to go back and fix my earlier posts, so fingers crossed I never forget anyone's name (heh hehe), and from now on I will reference by first and last name, except for wifey and Tenshi because those aren't their actual names anyway .-.

So first of all, I should say that I'm really not supposed to be blogging right now, but it feels like I haven't posted anything in a loooong time. Is it really only week 2 of uni!? Somehow time flies too fast, and the mountain of work is being continuously pushed off to the side and replaced with mindless scrolling through facebook and watching all of eatyourkimchi's FAPFAP videos. ;-;

Upcoming posts

• Metamorphose fukubukuro 2014 reveal / Presents from wifey and Tenshi from Japan
• D.I.A belt review
• Nivea deodorant review

So many reviews wtf. Goes to show I haven't been out much ==

Anyway, the Nivea deodorant is from KnotJustAScarf who received several of them from BeautyReview - if you're reading this Arietta, thanks!

JL's B'day

JL is a friend I made in like, second year of uni through infosys, which he majors in and I take many courses in. His birthday was actually yesterday, but we celebrated it on Sunday. Unfortunately it happened to be iceskating in the afternoon, and I have pretty bad memories associated with iceskating and zero good ones, so I had to skip that ><

Later, I met up with them for a bit of pool, and dinner~

wifey took this photo...I look so noob wtf ;-;

I didn't expect many photos that day, so I went ahead with my half-assed uni-level-effort makeup... Actually jokes, I can't even be bothered with blush or eyeshadow anymore. So yeah, be prepared for nubface & mean eyes :<

We had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Albany. This was probably the first time I've had Thai in the last 5 or 10 years...

It was very strange having such runny and sweet curry, as I've recently been frequenting to an Indian restaurant in Browns Bay with my mom. Their $10 mains for dinner are just such a bargain, it's hard to say no after a long day.

Nevertheless, dinner was really enjoyable, and I met/caught up with some people I rarely see these days~

Photo for wifey's instagram

Duck curry! really nice *w*

Our flaming chicken which stopped flaming as soon as it got to our table :'(

group photo!

The last photo was taken after some people left, but that's ok since it's pretty much everyone from this group that I hang out with anyway ~

We also went to Movenpick for dessert, where wifey and I binged on 3 massive scoops of icecream (the guy working at the counter was so nice!!!) and this chocolate espresso cake.

I think I've already posted it on instagram, but I really need to reinforce that this was taken with hardcore lighting. 2 lights from different phones. lol.

/can'tgetoverit

so beautiful, delicious, and fattening.

I definitely ate too much that day. My stomach hurt all night ==;

Wifey and I also gave JL a tie, and a moustache car magnet.

Which he (amazingly) managed to put on his car upside down wtf.

I hope it's correctable, since I don't know if it's actually just magnetic or if there's glue involved...

What it looks like. Photo taken off google images

While looking for the above image, I stumbled across this.
This would have been pretty epic for JL's car too. heheheheheeee

Anyway, that was last week's little adventure. I now have the larger part of my 50 page infosys paper on Tweets during Social Crises to read and summarize, fun timez!

=^.^=