Hyper Japan Christmas 2016

So I am going to fill in the last few months not quite in order! I will start with all the Christmas related things as that makes most sense to me as we are still only a few weeks after Christmas. Matt and attended Hyper Japan Christmas Market again this year. You can see previous Hyper Japan fun here. What with all the lovely train problems we are having here in the UK we decided to drive up and I would happily do it again as the parking was so reasonable. We got there pretty early as there were some live performances we wanted to see and we wanted to make a whole day of it.

We started off by watching the The Hoopers live who describe themselves as “eight girls dressed as beautiful boys,” and they are an androgynous J-POP band. They were amazing and I really need to download their album as I REALLY enjoyed their music! 

We then did lots of shopping, much to my dismay most the Yuri!! On Ice things were sold out, but I got a badge. However I bought plenty of other things! I really enjoyed looking around. We watched some live performances and thoroughly looked over all the stalls and shops. I also had the most amazing waffle cone thing that I have and expect will ever have again. Seriously it was just heaven in a waffle cone thing. mmmmmmmmm........

We then ended the day by watching The Tomboys, who were a sort of Japanese/English punk band influenced by the Sex Pistols. Although the music wasn’t to my taste they were amazing! They were also the happiest looking girls I have ever seen ever. They were fantastic to watch live!

One thing I do really love about the Christmas Market is when it gets dark and all the Christmas lights come on, so we stayed long enough to see those. Seriously they are sooo pretty and really get you in that Christmas mood! After that we jumper back in the car and then headed home after a very long tiring day. 

I was rather happy with my haul! I managed to get my first dōjinshis (Makoharu and Kurotsuki) I also got a lovely Free! (Makoharu and Reigisa) Christmas decoration. Along with a Victuuri badge, sweets, a choker and a Himouto Nendroid. All in all a good haul if you ask me! I also picked up some Christmas gifts for people that went down VERY well! 

Anyhow, I cannot wait for the summer one now! I MIGHT even cosplay for that one but we shall see as I never got to wear my Totoro dress I made. 

Oh Hey there 2017

My blog has gone to die in a dusty corner the last half a year, and now with 2017 coming around I would like to revive it with a slightly new outlook and theme. Ok I have a long rambley post coming up for you.

I'm gunna start by getting a little deep here, I have terrible self-confidence and self esteem which I have mentioned in other posts. I know I've always compensated with my lack of self-esteem by focusing on what I wear and the way I want to look to people, but I finally realised that is damaging to my mental state and I am just so tired and fed up with feeling this way. So I sort of lost interest in blogging as I kind of started this blog as a documentation of outfits.

I decided to unfollow a lot of fashion bloggers over social media websites. I realised that looking at these gorgeous well put together woman who looked perfect was really taking a toll on how I viewed myself and putting unnecessary pressure on myself to look a certain way. Days out were over powered by an urge to put together an outfit and take pictures to blog about to be part of this community, that I had managed to drown myself in every day. I know most of these bloggers enjoy what they are doing and it makes them feel great and brings them happiness, but it doesn’t for me. I feel kind of enlightened to realise that.

What I wanted was to just relax, I want to grow out my blonde hair, I want to chuck on a t-shirt, skirt and just go. And I want to enjoy whatever I’m doing that day and just do it and not focus on what outfit I am wearing. Does any of this make sense? I hope it does. I sat and wondered why I just don’t do this….. really I had no reason.

However I don't want to loose this blog and its posts as its also serves as a great place to remember great memories from the last few years. So as of 2017 I will use this space to document memories I want to save forever and also share what makes me happy.... I may even get back to reviewing movies and other shows and books I enjoy.

On a different note last year I also went from 'yeah I like Anime' to OH MY FUCKING GOD I FELL DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE AND I CANNOT GET OUT. I have been consumed and you know what I am so happy with that.

It started way back in July I think after Hyper Japan. I’ve always been shipping boy/boy as long as I can remember. It started with Placebo back in my early teenage years, and has followed me through into adulthood. At the summer Hyper Japan (I was in full Cherik overdrive) and was busy looking for any artwork made for them when I found a Junjou Romantica art book. If you are unaware of what that is, it’s a yaoi (boy love) manga/anime. Matt bought it for me as he had seen World’s great first love (Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi) and said it was good which is set in the same universe as Junjou Romantica and we watched it when we got home.

It then exploded from there and before I knew it I was obsessed. And I am ok with that, because it bought me a lot of happiness and made me realise that actually what I was putting my energy into wasn’t bringing me happiness. So it kind of acted as a turning point for me haha!

What I love as well is it is never ending. There are so many genres and styles once you have finished an anime there are mangas and it is just never ending. I’ve absolutely fallen in love with Haikyuu!! And Yuri!!! On Ice. As well as Ten count, Free!, Love Stage, Kiss him, not me, Barkamon the list seriously just goes on and on.

Anyway, that’s a small update of why this blog has been so quiet. I have a few posts from 2016 that I want to write and update over the next 2 weeks (destination Star Trek, Placebo, Hyper Japan and Christmas)

So Happy New Year bloggers and expect to see more adventures, collectables and things that bring me a lot of happiness.

No Man's Land and day trip to London

This autumn I have a lot of things planned. October is going to be crazy busy with the NFL, DST, Nottingham, The Libertine and MCM every weekend is jam packed with things to do! It is exciting times and also scary times for my bank account eep.

However to kick it all off I had booked tickets to see No Man's Land up in London. A chance to see Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen perform together live was too good an opportunity to miss out on so we booked tickets back at the beginning of the year.

I had to get a travel card and as they aren't particularly cheap from where I live now I decided to make a whole day of it. We got up early and headed to Toby Carvey to have a breakfast buffet. Afterwards we headed up to London and went straight to Camden to have a good look around. As soon as we got there the heavens opened up and didn't stop all day!

I haven't been up there in a while and I wanted to have a look as there is lots of clothes and trinkets that I love in Camden. Matt got himself a lovely new Pokemon T-Shirt and I got a cardigan ridiculously cheap in the sale in Collectif.

Camden croughnut 

Afterwards we went straight to the theater for the 2:30pm showing. Ian McKellen was running half an hour late but it was lovely to spend time inside a beautiful venue and also to be out of the rain and wind. The show was amazing and I really enjoyed it. The chemistry between the two actors was as good as I imagined it to be. I was left with lots of questions and a bit 'bamboozled' by the play at the end, but from what I can tell you take away what you want from it.

The characters were great and they were really funny too. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it if you have chance to see it while it is on in London. The whole play is just 4 people in one room but its still feels like a grand play and is interesting thought provoking all the way through.

Afterwards we headed to the nerd haven the Forbidden Planet Mega Store, where we took full advantage of their 3 for 2 on their manga and I also got a Captain Jack Harkeness POP Funko too!

Mini Haul

We finished the evening with a Wagamamas and got home around 10pm. I have a lovely day despite the pouring rain and wind.

I am really looking forward to lots of days out in October, things have been pretty quiet over the summer so I can't wait for lots more trips and days out with Matt!

Totoro dress cosplay.

It has been a while since I have updated on here! It’s been quiet for me socially and insanely stressful and busy for me work wise, so all free time as been spent trying to relax and have some me time. Also I have rediscovered my love for Tumblr and a lot of of my free time and passion has been sucked up there. Actually I have found a new fandom that has fueled my inner fan girl and that too has sucked up my time.. I might write about it on here soon.

Work wise (I work as a designer for a publishing company) I have spent the last year redesigning the magazine. Last week we went to press with the first issue and it was really exciting but also a lot of pressure. However it is all done now and we are going back to a more normal pace of life as of this week thank goodness. It will be busy still for a few weeks but it should be ok!

So I am feeling quite proud of myself because I finished my big redesign and I also made a new Cosplay yaaay! Oooh smooth transition to the topic of this post!

My friends are having a fancy dress party in October with an 80’s movie theme. Matt doesn’t like to dress up so I was trying to think of something we could do together that would be subtle for him. I then suddenly remember that Totoro was out in 1988 and we could do that together as it is one of my favourite films.

That was months and months ago but October is fast approaching and I thought, bugger I need to make costume asap! So last weekend I finally started to buy some bits and pieces. I bought lots from hobby craft which included:

• Googly eyes
• Pompoms
• Glue gun
• Felt
• Wire
• Interfacing
• Dress pattern
• 22inch zip
• Plastic leaf

I also got some nice grey fabric and some cream velour type fabric, and then last weekend I set to work. I started by measuring myself and then cutting out the dress pattern and then I cut it straight out of the fabric. I was a little lazy this time and didn’t make a test dress first. I ended up with so much extra fabric I was confident that if it went wrong I had enough to cut new parts. This was my first attempt with using a dress pattern, I decided to go with a pattern to make it easier for me rather than trying to guess as I went along.

I made the bodice first and worked out how to sew on the furry tummy. That took the longest and also making sure the bodice fitted. Once I was happy I hand sewed the ‘beans’ as I kept calling them on to the tummy bit.

It was happy that it fitted so well first off, I just had to edit the darts slightly to fit. The capped sleeves were slightly awkward too but after a lot of head scratching I worked out how to do it! Then came the skirt part and that actually went on quickly and easily.

Then it was time to sew on the zip. Now I have NEVER sewn on a zip before and I found out that I didn’t have an invisible zipper foot but thank goodness for YouTube I found a video showing how you can sew on an invisible zip with a regular zipper foot.

It was tricky but I managed it and then came the moment of truth, I put it on and zipped it up for the first time. I was so happy when it fitted. It is a little snug across the chest and arms when I reach up or move a lot but nothing that is that noticeable. I came running out of the bedroom twirling and jumping with excitement.

It all came together very quickly and I finished the dress on Saturday. I planned on leaving the head band until another weekend but as my sewing machine was still out I ended up starting the ears and then before I knew it I had made the whole thing haha!

I made the ears and then sewed them together and turned them inside out. I then shaped wire to the shape of the ears and pushed them inside. They were a little floppy so I used some cotton wool to pad them out a little and sewed them up at the end. I then used the wire sticking out of the bottom to wrap around the headband to attach them. I had to massively trim done the leaf I had bought to go between the ears that I also attached with the wire. Then with the help of my new glue gun I wrapped some grey fabric around the headband to hide the wire and the headband and then stuck googly eyes to a pompom and stuck that on the leaf to hide the wire.

I am so pleased how it came together and how it looked. I am proud and impressed with myself with the dress I made and also the headband. I now have a wig on its way and MANY sprites to sew onto a t-shirt for Matt. I am also considering making an underskirt to attach pompoms to that too! 

I also have some elastic and netting to make an underskirt so I can attached more pom pom sprites to it. I plan on doing that one weekend soon as I don't think it will take too long. I also need to hand sew a lot of felt sprites onto Matt's t-shirt. There is also a lovely grey wig on its way too so once it is completed I will do a full finished cosplay post.

I am so pleased with how this came out and also how quickly it came together. I cannot wait to get it all finished and to wear it to the party now!

London Film and Comic Con 2016

I am sitting here with post con blues as I usually do after Comic Cons! The Saturday just gone was London Film and Comic Con 2016 and I had another fabulous day. I wasn’t going to go originally with saving my money this year but when Famke Janssen was announced I gave it and booked a photoshoot ticket with her.

So Saturday morning rolled around. I had done my Con preparation as usual the night before which I wrote about last year. I had ironed my dress, packed my bag and bought plenty of snacks and food for the day. I got up at 6am and headed to get the 7:21am train first stopping for my usually mccy d’s breakfast.

My outfit of the day

This year was quite different with the queueing, you had your ticket scanned on the way in to join the queue and we queued inside this year which was a nice change as previous years I have stood out in the heat or rain before. We arrived just after 8am and got in just gone 9am as tickets were already scanned it was just a case of filing inside.

My first photo shoot wasn’t until 12:40pm so we hit the stalls. This year I really liked how they laid out everything. The stalls were all downstairs spread across two huge halls. There were massive gaps between the stalls which meant the congestion stayed down to a minimum which meant stress levels and the heat was also kept to a minimum. We got round both halls fairly quickly as it was nice and quiet to start with.

I then headed up to the photo area which was on level 1 and queued for my photo with Famke Janssen. I got into the first photoshoot which I was pleased with. Unfortunately this was the first shoot I came out feeling a little disappointed. On my way in the crew stated that Famke wasn’t doing handshakes, hugs or any touching which I was ok with. I am really not a touchy feely person so I didn’t mind. However when I went it I felt this stiff atmosphere straight away. People were just standing awkwardly next to her and then leaving straight away. It was my turn so I gave her my biggest smile and a bright Hello! I got a very sniff Hi back and she looked straight at the camera and then I thanked her with no response and left.

I would be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed. The photo is quite awkward and I left feeling more of a burden to her than anything else. I don’t mind no touching as I said before but she seemed more annoyed to be there than anything else which left me a little sad.

After that it was only half an hour until Sean Maher’s photoshoot so we finished our lunch and just hung around until it was time to go to his. He was completely different from Famke, I was greeted by a huge smile and a hand shake. He then told me he had the same necklace as me but forgot to wear his and pulled me in for a good photo. My face did something kind of weird in the photo but I don’t mind too much as I was half smiling and laughing as he was so friendly and nice. He was busy playing with peoples props too and posing with them for photos which I thought was fab! I was really glad I meet him he was so friendly and lovely. I’m a bit gutted as he did a free talk on Sunday but I only had Saturday tickets alas.

Afterwards we just spent the rest of the afternoon looking around all the stalls and spending far too much money. Matt actually got more than me this time which I was pleased about as I hate leaving with bags full of things for me and nothing for him.

I managed to get a SDCC exclusive iZombie POP Funko and the amazon special captain America too. I also got a new backpack and some candy. Matt got some quite rare Vocaloid POPs and an Overwatch one too! They had some Gundam bits as well and he picked one of those up along with a new wallet which I am quite jealous of!

My haul

Matt's haul

All the POP Funkos we got!

In total we were there for 9 hours (10 if you include the queuing) and stayed till it closed. I had such a good time again and it only felt like we were there for a few hours not the whole day. We headed home exhausted where we ordered a take away and then fell sleep pretty much straight after dinner.

I can’t believe another year has come and gone! That was now my 5^th year at LFCC! I really hope they do another one before Christmas, if not I will have to hold out for DST and MCM!

Peaceful week off

As you may of read in previous posts my holiday was cancelled this year so I joined Matt in taking a week off. He gets considerably more holiday than me and he had an exam so decided to take the whole week off. I haven't had a break this year so far so I decided to join him. I had no real plans just wanted to relax and unwind a bit.

I will start by saying Matt sat his exam on Thursday and he passed. I am really proud of him! We went out and ate waffles to celebrate.

I won't write a long detailed post as we really didn't get up to anything exceptionally exciting. Since Hyper Japan a few weeks ago I am thrown myself head first into the world of Yaoi anime and manga so I wanted to mostly overindulge on those and re-watch Black Butler. So the week involved a lot of pajama days in front of the TV or curled up up somewhere reading.... very relaxing and perfection!

Sunday Matt and I went to Bluewater and he managed to talk me into getting a new iPad. Oops..... I also got some manga and then in the evening I FINALLY saw STAR TREK..... I won't lie it was epic and I loved every minute of it. We went up to the BFI Imax to see it as we have done with the previous Star Trek movies. I loved how the characters really shone in this movie and I loved the story line as well. The whole thing was awesome....

Monday I insisted we took a trip to Brighton for the day.... this day was probably my favourite. We got the train down, ate lunch and then shopped. I got more manga (you see I have developed a problem here) and a dress in the sale for £15 that I fell in love with. We then laid on the beach in the sun reading and cuddling before going and getting ice cream and then having dinner on the sea front. It was hotter than I thought as poor Matt got sun burnt.

The next few days were really lazy days and on Wednesday Matt took me out for dinner to my first ever Indian restaurant. I'm still not a curry lover but I did really enjoy the meal we had and it was a beautiful restaurant. On Friday I insisted we go and do something so we had lunch and went to play mini golf. The day wasn't quite as exciting as I had hoped. The weather was crappy and the mini golf was super small and underwhelming for the distance we travelled. However I still enjoyed being out with Matt.

So that was pretty much my week off and here is a bunch of photos I took throughout the week.

New shiny gadget and mangas.

Star Trek was amazing and I want to see it again

Brighton was so hot and perfect

Brighton Doughnuts on the train home

More manga and the dress I bought

Matt and I out for dinner

Mini golf in my new dress

I do love dinosaurs 

Matt and I playing golf, he won :(

I would of liked to of had a few more things planned but at the same time I really enjoyed the quiet down time. I was feeling pretty burnt out so just needed a break I think for a little bit. 

I cannot believe the week has come and gone. I am not even sure if we actually had all the days off we were meant to it went that fast..... I really did enjoy some quiet time though and although I am gutted I have to go back to work, I am hoping I will feel a little more charged and ready to go! Well maybe haha! 

Hyper Japan 2016

This Sunday Matt and I headed up to Hyper Japan. We attended the Christmas one and also the summer one back in 2014. Matt is a  huge fan of Japanese culture and Anime and Manga so I thought it would be a great day out for both of us.

We got Sunday tickets and headed up to London for about 10am stopped for a huge breakfast on the way there. The trains were absolutely manic on the way up there and the weather was really warm too so we were a little frazzled by the time we got there. However we got in there quickly and it was nice and quiet inside.

I picked my little green foxy dress from Hell Bunny and paired it with a green cardigan I picked up from New Look. 

We got to have a really good look around all the stalls before it started to get crazy busy. There were a lot more stalls and art stalls than previous years and I really enjoyed looking around those. I picked up some really cute Firefly badges and Matt was the one this time round that got some POP! Funkos and a Gundam figure.

We mostly spent the day wondering about and attended a talk by Kihara Hirokatsu, who showed us some original sketches from Studio Ghibli films. They were awesome and I really enjoyed that. Mostly we did shopping and I demanded Matt take lots of photos which I shall share! 

Matt and I, I demanded a selfie. 

DOMO

My favorite candy ever.

The clawwwww

Domo dancing was pretty awesome

We always spend too much money on Japanese candy 

At the end of the day we also attended IA 1st Live Concert in Japan -PARTY A GO-GO and that was really fun to watch too. 

I really did have a fab day out, Matt and I haven't had much to the last few months so I was super excited for this. The weather was absolutely amazing which also made a nice change as here in the UK the summer so far has literally been a wash out.

Like all conventions I go to the atmosphere was great and I really do wish there were more out that as this is my favorite way to spend my free time.... although it also seems to be my favourite way to spend my money too so my purse probably thanks the lord that it isn't an every week thing.

I also have found a whole new obsession that has sprung to life very quickly. I found an Illustration Collection art book for the Anime Jyunjo Romantica. I didn't know what it was but Matt had watched World's greatest first love which is by the same author.... and it just reminded me so much of how I picture Charles and Eric when I read my Cherik fics so I bought it and started watching the Anime as soon as I got in and I am now 100% hooked. Oops... 

My little fan girl heart is beaming right now and I just want to stay at home curled up on the sofa watching these back to back. BUT ALAS, I have to get up and do adult things. Luckily I have a whole week off next week so I will be over indulging it then.

ALSO Star Trek is next week too, I am going to watch it at the BFI IMAX which I am sooo excited for... 

I hope you have a lovely week ahead and can concentrate more than I can at the moment!