Holiday Giveaway Winner!

Well, today's the day!  The winner has been picked!

 

The winner is Megan of The Craftinator!

There's so many things I love about the holidays, it's hard to choose just one! I really love giving someone the perfect gift and you can see it on their face when they open it. I love the decorations, the snow, the food and spending time with my family. The only thing I don't like is how sometimes the holiday can bring out the worst in people.

Please send me an e-mail at kirakirajenjen@gmail.com to claim your prizes!

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! 

2010 in Review

It's hard to believe that the year is almost over.  It seems like it only just began!

The highlight of my year was definitely my trip to Tokyo.  I went almost a year ago at the end of January for 2 weeks with one of my roommates.  I had an amazing time and I want to go back as soon as possible. 

Myself at Tokyo Disneyland Resort.  I went to both parks on different days. 

Myself with the statue of Hachiko at Shibuya Station. 

In February I went to a Tune in Tokyo event where I met Sisen and Moon Kana

Sisen told me that my wig was fabulous (it's actually my roommate's wig haha!)

Then I proceeded to be very boring and didn't really do much for a while.

In July I cosplayed at Anime Expo.  I wore a new Euphemia costume that I made.

In August I turned 23 and went to Disneyland with Ashley

In front of Sleeping Beauty Castle

In October I went to Sweet Streets II and tried out 6% DokiDoki Style

I wore this to Fan Day

In November I attended PMX and began wearing Innocent World

I went to Disneyland a lot, I became a big fan of TRON Legacy.  I saw Tangled and loved it.  My style changed: I went from Sweet Lolita to Classic, and now I'm scaling back on it since I don't wear it as much as other fashions.  Sanrio celebrated its 50th Anniversary and I was fortunate enough to be there to celebrate it too.  I got in a terrible car accident, but was lucky enough to only have some stitches in my head and some bruising and minor cuts.  I got to go to Japan, something I had hoped to do for several years. 

This year was mixed.  There were hard times and wonderful times.  It was made better by my wonderful friends and family, whom I am incredibly grateful for. 

I hope everyone has a fabulous New Years! 

Tomorrow I will be announcing the winner of my giveaway, so make sure to enter by then!

Disneyland and TRON makeup

I went to Disneyland twice in the past week.

I went on 12/23

Kim and I saw Rapunzel and Flynn.  Also a good shot of my outfit.
Jacket, T-shirt- Disney
Skirt, Sweater- Tralala
Socks- Angelic Pretty
Boots- Secret Shop
Leggings- Forever 21
Necklace- Sanrio

I did double buns for the first time in a while.  I used to do them pretty often when my hair was longer, but they are harder to do with shorter hair.  I was afraid they would come out, but they stayed pretty well. 

Myself with Eckhert, owner of the elecTRONica club.  Unfortunately the flash didn't go off.  He told me I got the award for dancing because I literally danced for all of elecTRONica (4 hours).  I just really love to dance!

I went again on Sunday for a friend's birthday.  I wore a TRON themed outfit.

I didn't get any good pics of my outfit :(  I was wearing my jacket here because it was cold all day.  I finally figured out a way to hang the disk off my belt easily and so it was easy to remove and modded my disk to be in "normal" mode instead of "battle" mode.  I like it much better this way!

I also entered a TRON makeup contest.
The contest was to replicate the makeup from either Quorra or one of the Sirens.  I chose to do the Siren makeup. 

Siren Gem

My version.
I tried to replicate the hair as well.  They have huge buns so I used extensions around the base to make it bigger.  The base was made by mixing BB Cream with different MAC pigments to lighten it and add some shimmer.  I also mixed some pigments in with m setting powder.  The eyes were done using heavy eyeliner; I used pa for this one since the brush tip is bigger and I needed to fill in a larger area.  The top lashes are pa and the bottom lashed are MAC and Diamond Lash (I used some that I usually wear on top and flipped them upside down).  I also drew the brows in since they pretty much got covered by the base and I wanted the proper shape.  For lips I used MAC Viva Glam Gaga with a thin layer of the base over it. 

I was pretty happy with the makeup, although my photos didn't turn out too well.  I don't use photoshop, so the only adjustment was to the lighting.  I also wish there had been some way to replicate the lighting, but it would not have worked with my camera and skills. 

I also found another picture of my Holiday Hot Mess outfit that I really like

Picture is from LookBookLA.com


Remember there's still a giveaway going on!  The winner will be picked on Friday!

Christmas Giveaway

Merry Christmas!!!

In honor of the holiday I am hosting a give away!

It's simple:

1: Be a follower of this blog

2: Comment with your favorite thing about the holiday season (it doesn't necessarily have to be Christmas, whatever holiday you celebrate)

On Friday, December 31st I will use a random generator to pick a winner.

The winner will receive  a glitter tulle headbow and a custom necklace- the winner gets to pick the colors and style!

The bow and examples of necklaces can be found at my etsy shop:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/kirakirajenjen

Thank you so much for looking and good luck!

Some New Outfits

Earlier this month I went to a Christmas party with Ashley.  I tried to dress in a Holiday-ish theme, which basically means I wore tartan lol

Dress: Love Culture
Shoes: H&M
Necklace: Vivienne Westwood
Other stuff: Offbrand

Last night I went to Holiday Hot Mess, presented by Diamond Gyaru Circle and Tune In Tokyo.  I dressed in a ballerina outfit, with the idea that I would be someone from the Nutcracker.  Unfortunately no one else really dressed in costume, so I felt a bit silly.  Next time I will just wear GAL.

Dress: Watercolor
Shoes: Sansha
Tights: Capezio
Tiara: Offbrand

It's been raining non stop here, so I haven't been going out much because driving in the rain is kind of scary, and I'm not going to Disneyland or anything like that in the rain. 

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! 

Cosplay

One hobby that I used to be very involved in is cosplay.  I used to make multiple costumes for each convention I attended and entered masquerades.  However, I haven't been very involved in the hobby for the last few years. 

The most recent costume I made was an original design of Princess Euphemia from Code Geass

I am actually quote proud of this costume... I spent several hours hand beading it and it is very well made.  I only wore it once though, since I didn't like how the skirt fell and I need to re-do the wig.

This was actually my second Euphemia costume, my first being this one:

However, that costume was really badly made.  I literally made it in 2 days before AX 2009 because I felt like cosplaying again after over a year of being away from the hobby.  I enjoyed wearing it, but I never liked it as much since it wasn't well made.

Probably the most complicated costume that I've ever made was Super Sailor Saturn.  I made this when I had been sewing for about a year, and I was really happy with it.  There are some things I would do differently now, but I still consider it one of my best costumes.

I actually used to cosplay Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist and Orihime from Bleach a lot.  I did about 4 costumes for each one.  Unfortunately I don't have many good pictures of those costumes.

I miss cosplaying a lot, but I often get distracted from making costumes that I want to.  I have a list of costumes that I want to do:

Rapunzel will probably be my next costume since I actually had planned to make it for Halloween, but I couldn't find the proper fabric and wig.  Now I have most of it planned out and just need to search out the fabric and get started on it.

I have wanted to do PGSM Sailor Moon since I watched the show 5 years ago.  The biggest issue I've run across is finding white neoprene.   I also would like to do it as a group with friends to have the whole inner senshi since it would be more fun.

Euphemia Angel Dress

I love this dress, however, I haven't made it because I haven't found a pattern that I felt would work well and because I never decided on how I would do the gold patterning on the dress.  Everything that I thought of seemed too tacky.  So I'll probably never make this dress.

I have wanted to do Giselle's curtain dress from Enchanted since before the film came out.  Unfortunately I have never been able to find a suitable fabric and I won't do it unless I can find one that is close enough for me.  I look for it every time I'm in a fabric shop and online ever so often, but I have yet to find one. 

There are others that I'd like to do (Susan's dress from the end of Prince Caspian, too many Disney costumes to name them all, a Princess Tutu costume) but these are the ones that I think about making the most.  I also want to make a TRON inspired costume based off of the Sirens, since there's no way I'm wearing a pleather bodysuit! 

Just some random thoughts on a hobby of mine.  This probably came to mind since I'm working on a costume for an upcoming event.

TRON Legacy!

Tonight Disney treated TRON fans to a big surprise!  They had a surprise free screening.  The way they did it was that an e-mail was sent out to members of a website (www.flynnlives.com) and by word of mouth, and it was first come, first served.  My roommate heard about it and we decided to go to Downtown Disney to see if we could get in.  Fortunately we made it just in time and were some of the last people to get in!

The movie is a sequel to the original TRON film, but can also stand alone (I have never seen the original movie). 

The movie is about Sam Flynn, who goes to find his father who has been missing for 20 years.  In the process, he gets transported to the Grid, a world within a computer.  That's all I'll say about the plot since I don't want to spoil anything.  

I thought the movie was awesome!  The visuals were really well done; the movie takes place mostly within a computer, so the world is completely different.  I'm sure a lot of it was filmed in greenscreen, but the actors worked well within it and fit in.  The costumes were also really cool; they used actual LED wire in the suits, so it actually turns out that they could only film max 12 minutes at a time before the suit ran out of power and they had to change the battery!  I had originally thought that they did the lighting through CG, but the suits actually lit up.

The acting was really good as well.  The standout in my opinion was Olivia Wilde, who played Quorra.  I won't say much about it since it's an important plot point, but she plays her role really well.  Michael Sheen was also very good in his portrayal or enigmatic club owner Castor.

 One of the most exciting things to fans was the fact that Daft Punk composed the soundtrack.  As a fan of soundtracks in general (I listen to movie scores all the time) I was interested to see what they would come up with.  And I was really impressed.  I had heard the soundtrack before seeing the film and liked it, and I have to say that the music really works well with the action of the film. 

All in all, I really enjoyed this film and I recommend that anyone who enjoys action and science fiction see it!  It comes to theatres on Friday in the US, and you can check for other countries. 

Fear

On Wednesday night, I got into a really bad accident on the freeway.  I'm pretty sure I blacked out because I can't remember any details, but in short, my car got destroyed.  It looks like this:

As you can see, there is no door there.  They had to cut it off of the car to get me out.  It looks like this:

Now, I knew things were not good when it happened, but I was more concerned with the fact that I was trapped in a car that was leaking gas and I had just felt a hole in my head (I've got some stitches), but seeing it today, I seriously wondered how I lived.

When it happened, I was taken to the ER as a trauma case despite the fact that my only injury was my head.  It was there that I was told that had I been hit just a few inches back, things would have been a lot worse. 

I guess you could say that this is the closest thing to a "near death experience" as I have ever had.  Not in that I got close to death, but in the fact that it was only a few inches that saved me. 

While I am in quite a bit of pain physically (my head hit the window pretty hard apparently, cutting it open and also causing some bruising, so anything involving the left side of my head kind of hurts, and I'm bruised on my left arm/shoulder and leg), the emotional toll is much worse. 

I'm worried and afraid to drive now.  I have driven, but I feel scared and I'm pretty jumpy about it.  I'm worried that I'll get hit again and wont be as lucky this time.  I'm worried that whatever car I get won't protect me the way my car did (I am really sad to lose that car, because I loved it.  Ironically a couple weeks ago I was thinking about what car I would want when that one died, but I couldn't think of one, because I really loved my RAV4).  I have been having trouble sleeping, partially because of physical discomfort, and partially because I keep thinking about it, trying to remember what happened, even though I can't.  I keep remembering the fear I felt, and it's horrible. 

This isn't an exciting or happy post, but just a sort of update.  I probably will not be updating (at least not with fun pictures) for a few weeks since I am not in good shape.  I'm hoping I will be alright soon. 

Bridalplasty

I'm going to mix it up and post an editorial sort of post rather than a fashion or events post.

There is a new show on E! called Bridalplasty.  It's premise is that it is a competition among 12 brides.  Each has a list of plastic surgery that they want done, and if they win challenges they get these procedures.  Whomever wins gets all their procedures done and their "dream wedding".

Now, this show has gotten A LOT of flack.  It's been chastised for promoting using plastic surgery to change oneself, for promoting the idea that you can't be "perfect" unless you have plastic surgery and doesn't exactly promote the idea of being happy with yourself the way you are. 

I have had plastic surgery, twice to be exact.  However, it was of the reconstructive variety.

I was born with a craneo-facial cleft.  To put it more basically, something went wrong when my face was closing up before I was born, and I was left with a malformed left nostril and a fatty tumor on my forehead.  I had 2 reconstructive surgeries at the ages of 6 and 12 to fix this (although it did not fix it completely, my nose is still not symmetrical, but it's infinitely better than when I was a small child).  The surgeries involved taking cartilage from my ear to help reform my nose and I had liposuction on the fatty tumor, although it later came back. 

I do not regret the fact that I had these surgeries, because I get enough crap for my looks without being given more for having a deformity, however slight.  I am immensely grateful that my parents had the means to have these surgeries done, and for the fact that I was able to have it done by one of the best reconstructive surgeons in the world. 

Still, I cannot imagine ever having more plastic surgery!

For one, it was painful, particularly the liposuction.  As I mentioned, the fatty tumor returned, and my parents wanted me to get it removed again, but I refused.  The first time was so painful, and it just came back, so no way was I gonna do that again!  And that was just on a spot the size of a quarter.  I cannot imagine getting it done on a larger scale.  In fact, the only thing I can conceive of having done is dental veneers because I hate the shape of my teeth and several have been broken or chipped. 

Back to the show, the women on it have different reasons for wanting surgery.  Some are not completely shallow in my opinion: one wanted a nose job to help with scarring that she had there, another wanted breast augmentation because she had had to have parts removed due to cancer.  In these cases, I can't say anything, because their surgeries are really not all that different than mine.  Others simply just seem to want a perfect body; they want liposuction and breast implants and nose jobs just so that they can be "perfect".  This is not a good idea in my opinion, because if you get all these procedures, you might not even look like yourself!  And considering this is for a wedding... the man you're marrying already loves you for who you are, why would you want to change yourself like that!

To clarify, I am not anti cosmetic surgery.  If there is something about yourself that you can't change, and it will really change your quality of life to change it, I'm not going to hold it against you if you do so.  However, when people go overboard and come out looking like a completely different person, I think it's a bit excessive. 

It's hard not to get caught up in looks, especially in a society with a "fix it" mentality.  However, people should learn to be as happy with themselves as they possibly can in my opinion.

Disneyland and such~

I went to Disneyland again last week!  Can you tell it's one of my favorite things to do?

My outfit for the day~
Jacket, Skirt- Tralala
Leggings- Forever 21
Boots- Secret Shop
Bow- Disney
Necklace- Selfmade with Angelic Pretty Charm

I went to see Rapunzel and Flynn.  It was a different set this time, and they weren't as cute as the other ones.

Not too many pictures because it was really cold!

I also saw Tangled this week.  I really loved it a lot.  I was excited for it because it stars Mandy Moore as Rapunzel.  She's my idol whom I've been a fan of for many years.

Here's a picture of when I met her at the "Because I Said So" Premier.  I waited 6 hours in the rain, and you can see my poster that I made, which said "Mandy, You're my Idol, We <3 You!"  It was an incredibly special moment because she came right over to me, gave me a hug and thanked me for making her such a sweet sign! You can't really tell here, but I was crying!  She was so sweet!

Anyway, the movie was great!  Besides Mandy's great voice acting (everyone's voice acting was great actually), the animation was beautiful and really well done!  At times I was thinking that it almost looked like real people!  The story was also super cute and heartwarming, and I laughed and cried.  I definitely recommend this movie if you haven't seen it yet!

In fact, I loved the movie so much that I am planning on cosplaying Rapunzel for my next costume!

I hope everyone is doing well and that those of you who celebrate Hannukah are having a good one!

The one that got away

I'm sure we all have it, that one dress that got away.

Whether it was snatched up by someone else before you could get to it, you got outbid on auction or you decided to wait for it and it sold out, it hurts just as much.  Sometimes it's easy enough to find a replacement, sometimes it's hard. 

In my case, it's a dress that I tried on while visiting in Japan.  We happened to visit the Innocent World shop and I noticed a dress in the sale section that I liked.  I tried it on, and while it fit well and was nice, I couldn't commit to it because the color scheme was so different from the rest of my lolita wardrobe.  As time went on, I began to regret not purchasing the dress, and at the time, didn't even know what dress it was. 

Recently, while browsing auctions, I found the skirt and discovered the name of the series: Ribbon Tape.  With that title, I was able to find a stock photo of the dress:

I actually tried on the beige version, but only was able to find the black stock picture.

And now I go about trying to find the dress.  And I realize that it won't be easy.
Judging by the fact that it was on sale while I was in Japan, it was not a terribly popular dress.  Pair this with the fact that a great majority of international lolitas are strictly sweet, and my search is going to be quite the pain. 

Once I get my holiday money, I'll be on a hunt.  My desire to own this dress has only gotten stronger since I visited the Innocent World boutique at PMX and fell in love with their clothes.  And while I know I may not find it, I sure am going to try!

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  I hope everyone will be having a wonderful day tomorrow! 

Earlier this week I went to Disneyland with some of my friends.  It was quite crowded but we still had a fun day!

We went to see Rapunzel and Flynn.  You can see my outfit pretty well here.
Sweater: Tralala
Skirt: Gap
Necklace: Tarina Tarantino
They were posing like that with us because Rapunzel was getting jealous that we were talking with Flynn too much haha!  So he was proving his devotion to her awwww

We also saw Aladdin and Jasmine.  I'm taller than everyone except Aladdin D:  And I'm not even that tall!

We tried to see Duffy Bear in California Adventure but he had gone in for the day, so we took pictures with the large stuffed Duffy Bears.

At night It's a Small World was all lit up with lights.  It's very pretty and the picture doesn't really capture it.  We also watched the Aladdin musical at DCA, danced at ElecTRONica and watched Fantasmic! twice.  The downside was that it was very cold!  I wished I'd brought a coat instead of just a sweater. 

Fashion

These days, I'm not sure what direction to go with my fashion choices.

I have decided that sweet lolita, as cute as it is, is not the best look for me.

Take this outfit for example.  It is a pretty straight forward sweet coordinate, all Angelic Pretty. And while the dress is super adorable, if you look at it, it doesn't fit me properly.  Due to my, er, ample bosom, the dress has become empire waisted on me and therefore is too short lengthwise.  While I've always been able to fit into quarter shirred items, they were always maxed out at the bust and often pretty short.  I tried to go with it, but I've come to terms with the fact that most of it just doesn't fit me properly.  The only really "sweet" item that I'm keeping is Baby Swan Lake since I really love that print and altered it to fit me. 

This is probably the closest I will come to sweet: Hime style.  I consider it a completely different style than sweet, but others would consider it a sub-style.  Fortunately, the A-line look is pretty flattering for my body shape.  In fact, if I was able I'd wear a lot more of this style of dress from brands like Mary Magdalene and Victorian Maiden (although really those are classic).  Unfortunately though, those brands don't fit my chest. 

As of now, I'm moving in a more classical direction, since I think it suits me better.  The longer dresses and bodices are much more forgiving to my body shape.  It also suits my face better; while I feel like I look like someone trying to wear kids clothes in sweet, classic is more mature and I feel like it fits my look more. 

But now I'm not sure if I should stick with lolita.  I love it but I don't wear it all that often, since I only really wear it for events and such.  I'll probably just stick with it for events, but I wish I wasn't so lazy and wore it more often sometimes.

But lolita isn't the only fashion I wear, more often I wear gal or other cutesy coordinates.

This is actually from last summer when I went to Disneyland with some friends, and is a good example of how I'll dress on an average day.  I love plaid skirts and I like to spice it up but wearing accessories and shoes from Japanese brands.  It was really hot that day, hence only wearing a simple t-shirt.

Another casual coordinate, the skirt is Tralala and the tights actually have gold stars on them.  I think I was just wearing a black tank top underneath the sweater, but it was cold. 

A picture in actual gal styling.  The dress is from Cecil McBee and the sweater is from Tralala and the rest is offbrand.  Dolly still looks much cuter than me though!

Another coord, this is from when I was in Japan at Takuya Angel's shop.  I love a schoolgirl look... pleated skirts and blazers and stuff.  I would love to be able to wear MA*RS but it's so small T_T Why do I have to have such a much bigger frame than Japanese people?

I've been wearing my more casual/gal-ish coordinates lately, and I kind of want to get more of those clothes instead of lolita right now.  Usually I just want to get new brand dresses but I want to get more clothes that I can wear more often. 

What do you all think?

November Events

This month has been quite eventful!

Last weekend was particularly busy, as it was both the opening weekend of Sanrio's 50th Anniversary Event "Small Gift", as well as PMX.

The first event was the Sanrio VIP party, which I was fortunate enough to attend as a volunteer for Japan LA, who curated the art exhibit.  While I spent most of the night watching over the art, I was able to get some pictures.
I wore my Swan Lake JSK and tried to coordinate it like a ballet costume, with a bun and such.  I'm not sure how much I liked it, I wish I could have worn pointe shoes to get the full effect!

 Myself and my friends on the red carpet!  I am in the center.
Outfit Rundown:
JSK: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
Blouse, Shoes: Angelic Pretty
Tights: Capezio

We were also lucky enough to meet a few designers.   The first was the designer of the character Cinnomonroll, who happens to be a lolita as well!  She was wearing a lovely Baby JSK and wanted to take a picture with us.  Because of the language barrier we couldn't talk much, but she seemed very sweet.

We also met the designer for Alice and the Pirates, who was attending the event before attending PMX as a Guest of Honor.  She was very nice as well and seemed quite excited that I was wearing Baby.

All in all the event was fun although I didn't experience much of it due to working.

The next day was the first day of PMX.  I went and was excited to see that Innocent World had no markup.  I ended up buying a JSK from them, and I really love it.  In fact, I've begun to transfer over to classical.

JSK, Socks: Innocent World
Blouse: Metamorphose
Shoes: Offbrand
I actually wore this on Sunday.

Saturday was the I <3 Nerds party at the Sanrio event.  I was working again, but I decided to dress in theme.  So I dressed as Hermione, because she is the biggest nerd I could think of!

Myself and friends at the party.

Sunday was the final day of PMX and I wore the Innocent World coordinate above.  It was a pretty laid back day.

On Thursday night, it was time to camp out for the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.  I saw it with my friend Ashley and dressed up as Hermione again!

A picture while sitting in line.  I was glad for the robes since it was cold!

Friday we woke up and got ready for the TRON Legacy Pop up Shop at Royal/T.  Myself and 2 of my friends wore TRON themed outfits that we coordinated.

Us in front of the pop up shop.  All of our outfits were coordinated from mostly items from Forever 21.  The shop was pretty cool, but also expensive, so we didn't buy anything.  Maybe one day when i have more money!

They even had TRON themed furniture, so we posed on it.

Later that night we headed to ElecTRONica at Disneyland for dancing and fun.  They now have a prop lightcycle on display, so I took a picture with it.

Saturday was the 80's Prom themed party at the Sanrio event.  I didn't really dress in theme, I just wore a prom dress I had from high school when I did cotillion.

Ari was a super awesome Glam Rocker and took a prom date pic with me!

Today was the last day of the Sanrio event, which was sad.  However, the Holidays are upon us, so I'm sure many new adventures will be on their way!