Sunday, October 27, 2013

Outfit of the Day: Pie Date

Bf and I went to check out this hip, not-so-new eatery called Windowsill Pies. Its a quaint, cosy eatery and was fairly packed that Sunday when we went.

Of course we ordered pies, mine is the Morello Cherry while the Bf's is Grasshopper. Mine was filled with cherries and had this lovely sugared shortcrust that complemented the tart flavours of the cherries. The Grasshopper was a chocolate cake base, mint cream and surprising little nuggets of salted cookie crumble on top and sandwiched between the cake and cream portions.

Ordered the Eggplant Tower as I was famished, however, I didn't expect the plate to be this huge! It was like an entire eggplant sliced and coated with breadcrumbs and fried and then smothered with a tomato sauce. I couldn't finish the entire plate despite tasting so good, so the Bf helped out and despite usually disliking eggplant, he actually liked it!

Bf's Mocha, kinda meh... nothing really special

My chai latte, wished the spices were stronger
 
It was the first time in a long while that I felt cheerful and happy that day. I wasn't quite sure what to wear, so I settled on something simple.

Woolen Sweater: Uniqlo
Shorts: Spiral Girl
Satchel: Taobao
Velvet Ribbon Hairband: Taobao

Camwhore that day. The ribbon and my short hair reminded me very much of Kiki from the Studio Ghibli film, Kiki's Delivery Service. I'm actually quite tempted to cosplay her haha
 
It was a fun and fairly relaxing day, just what I needed after leaving the unpleasant situation I was in. My moods still yo-yo quite a fair bit, I could be cheerful and happy one moment and then I'm depressed and crying the next. I'm trying to get back and my feet and its taking me longer then I anticipated, but no matter what, tomorrow always comes and I still have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, no matter how slowly, in order to move on.


Wednesday, October 23, 2013

New Haircut, New Beginnings

If you haven't seen my Instagram yet, I chopped my hair short a few weeks back. There isn't much reason why I did it, I was just mostly frustrated with life in a lot of things, cosplay, friends, work, and just life in general. So I felt an overwhelming urge to change something, anything, at that instant. So I figured the easiest way was to simply cut my hair short as I had been having long hair for over 5 years now. I figured a new look would help my waning self-esteem and confidence and also see myself in a different perspective so that I could learn to love myself all over again.

I researched abit on some styles I wanted, took the pictures to the salon and just told the hairdresser to snip away. Naturally, he was abit hesitant at the drastic change, but after I told him I had set my mind on it, he just did it.
Last picture of me with my hair nicely styled with abit of volume and wave to it


After snipping, I was left with this hair style.


I chose to perm my hair as I was worried I would be too lazy to style it on certain days.

End result. Kinda like a mushroom but I like it

Steph sweetly came and accompanied me through the process, she also saved me from starvation and thirst by helping to get some snacks and a bottle of green tea. Thanks a lot bestie! She looks like she's either leaning on an invisible pole here or, playing hide and seek with the camera haha.
 
Outift consisted of:
Lauduree X Uniqlo Shirt
Pleated skirt: Snidel
Belt: Can't remember
Jacket: Forever 21
Satchel: Taobao
Shoes: Jeffrey Campbell
Necklace: Vivienne Westwood

Camwhore with Lovely Steph
 
After that, we had an early dinner at Dulcet & Studio.


Laughed at the Adult Cake name, we learned shortly after that it had abit of alcohol in it, hence the name.
I had the Beef Stroganoff pasta. It was heavenly, the pasta was handmade and slightly chewy, the thin beef slices was meaty but didn't over power the texture of the pasta and the bell peppers gave a slight crunch to the dish.  

Steph had the Salmon with Special Sauce. Sje said it was good too and seemed to enjoy the extra roe that they placed in the sauce

We shared this light but flavourful chocolate marble cake after our fantastic main courses. The cake was spongy and light but the chocolate icing gave it just the right hint of sweetness without being overwhelmingly sweet.
 
After I got home, I was randomly surfing the internet about Shingeki stuffs when I suddenly realised that my hair looked similar to this minor character called Hitch! 

Pics to compare haha
 
Her hair is longer but has the same wavy texture as my current hair. A few of my friends actually asked me to bleach my hair ashy gray-brown after I showed them this picture so that I could just cosplay her hahaha! 

Friday, October 18, 2013

Shingeki no Kyojin Cosplay Photoshoot

Did a cosplay shoot for the incredibly popular series, Shingeki no Kyojin, also known as, Attack on Titan. Unfortunately, a lot of my stuff that I needed for the shoot were still incomplete or in the middle of the ocean on a ship, so I dug out what I had and made do. But I still think things went incredibly well as I had lots of help from a variety of people.

Cosplayed Annie, I'm very happy with the makeup I did for her that day, will do a tutorial in the future.

Towards evening, I changed and redid my makeup and became Crista or Historia, which ever name you're more used to.

Shinji kindly came down to help at the shoot at the last minute. Silly pic of him having fun while Mini poses for a picture. She's cosplaying as Levi/ Rivaille.

He also loaned me his amazing 3D Manoeuvring Gear as I wasn't able to make mine in time for the shoot. I have no idea what I was doing in this picture

Rescend doing what he does best

Posing with Esther, this pic came from her friend and helper, Jeremiah.

End of Shoot! And took this derpy picture with Rescend while we were waiting for dinner to be served. I hadn't removed my makeup when this pic was taken, hence the more intensive lashes.
 
 
Lots of love and help went into this shoot. I was starting to crack under the pressures of my job by then and was going nuts as I had the stress of the job combined with the stress of the shoot as a lot of things were incomplete. Luckily, a lot of people kindly helped me out with so many things that somehow everything magically worked out in the end. I'm bubbling with gratefulness to these people so I'm just gonna thank them all here:
 
Shinji: For loaning me the gears, suggesting an amazing location for the shoot, coming at the last moment to help out and doing pyrotechnics to create the smoky effects for the pictures.
 
Rescend: For being an amazing photographer and friend
 
Astellecia Skye: Loaning me the jacket that fit like a dream, skirting and straps
 
Esther: Being an encouraging friend, giving me the boots that I needed, loaning me a wig and  giving advice whenever needed
 
Mini: Helping to give the base layout for the 3D gears and straps
 
Selicia: Helping me to go shopping for the materials needed for the gears and suggestions for improvement
 
Jeremiah: Assisting in the shoot, offering suggestions for the pictures and posing and giving me the opportunity to be in your book
 
 
If you read all that, yes, Esther, Mini, Selicia and my Shingeki cosplay pictures will be published in a book produced by the talented people behind Collateral Damage Studios. It is a compilation of works including fanart centred around the Shingeki series and will be sold at the upcoming AFA event. The book is printed and shipped from USA and a cute keychain is sold together with it, so you can expect really good quality work. So please support and purchase one, thanks!!

 
To encourage you further, here's a sneak preview of one of the shots from the photoshoot. Its Rescend's and my personal favourite out of all the shots taken that day. This picture is completely unedited so pardon my chubby tummy, minor details will be edited in such as changing the logo to the Military version. But on the whole, it is a beautiful picture and I'm in awe that Rescend captured such an incredible shot that day.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Outfit of the Day: Museum Trip

I went to the museum awhile back as I was really keen to have a look at a particular exhibit, Princely Treasures from the House of Lichtenstein. Basically, looking at the furniture and paintings and stuff of European Royalty. 
  

They mostly had oil paintings but even so, the artists layered the paints to create 3D effects on certain areas such as jewellery and light, delicate feathering to show the texture of soft fur.




This is a rug.... no seriously, a floor rug.





This is actually a clock that was able to tell you the year, month, date and time. But I'm not quite sure how it does all that and it wasn't in the explanations. Still a beautiful piece to look at.

Bf's favourite painting


Found this outside the museum's restaurant.
 
I took the opportunity to dress up abit but I wasn't quite sure what to wear, so I stuck to a few basic pieces from my wardrobe.

Lace Dress: Cotton On
Jacket: Jouetie
Bag: Nadia
Pin on Bag: Taobao
Shoes: Taobao
Socks: Can't remember
Lace Cuffs: Baby the Stars Shine Bright


Also wore this Osewaya necklace I bought from JRunway. The ribbon is actually a light, kinda like seafoam(?) green with a tiny green gem in the middle of the gold pendant. Was deciding between that colour and white but Steph said green was more unique, and the light green colour fits most outfits effortlessly. 
 

 

A selfie pic that day. Make up was basic, no contouring, onlu used Dollywink No. 2 upper lashes, Kate glitter liner and a lip stain. It's also the last time I curled my long hair as I eventually cut it away. Will explain and show my new look in another blog post.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Moving On for the Better

I know I haven't updated for a long while and to be honest, I don't know how many of you are actually regular readers of my blog anymore. If you've stuck around from awhile back, you've probably seen me transform from gyaru style to now occasionally dabbling in Cult Party, Mori, Dolly etc. and picking up Cosplay as a regular hobby.

I've also grown from a polytechnic student, to completing University and obtaining a degree to now gingerly stepping out into the working world. Unfortunately, things haven't quite worked out the way I had planned. I started out as a wide-eyed fresh graduate, full of confidence and optimism, and eager to learn as much as I could from my first job. It took me longer then I had hoped to land a decent job, and I was starting to get frustrated when I saw many of my University friends scoring jobs like it was the easiest thing ever. I jumped on the first job that accepted me, and it turned out to be 3 months of horror. I had no goals, no clue what I was doing as my job scope changed each month, given KPIs (Key Point Indicators) that were ridiculously high and my boss's moods changed constantly. Looking back, I realised my boss made a lot of crude, sexist remarks too. After I gave my resignation letter, I was unceremoniously kicked out of the company 2 weeks before my supposed last day when I came to work only to find my computer password had been locked and my company cards were removed from my stationary drawer (which means he went through my things).

I held my head high, took my last pay check and decided to search for something with better prospects. After throwing myself into job interviews, within a month I managed to find myself another job. I learnt a lot as I had a strict boss who had pretty high standards, so everything was learn fast or die. I taught myself to get around problems I had and my colleagues did help me out a lot whenever I was stuck. However, despite the profits we were making, my department was small, it was alright initially and I enjoyed my work despite fumbling occasionally. 

However, things changed. I had a new director and I was initially very optimistic. New administration and sales people were brought in to achieve higher targets, but I was still kept as a one-man marketing team. I requested for help but my request was only met with laughter as they considered that I alone was capable enough. Soon, all the sales people were coming to me with requests to produce more marketing materials with shorter timeframes. I was designing, writing, handling the department website, dealing with media, marketing new courses, helping the sales team achieve their targets etc. and it was alright initially. But soon, my director started giving me other departments work, I couldn't really reject them as he was big boss after all. But soon, it became unbearable, I had 3 superiors, all giving me different duties, each insisting their work was more important than the other. I was so busy and tired trying to finish them that I couldn't squeeze my brain for any form of creativity to produce new ideas to push the department further. I started having insomnia, and could only sleep 3-5 hours a night.

I was constantly tired, my face started having lots of pimples and I lost interest in most things. I was constantly angry and frustrated at everything and everyone, and I couldn't do shoots properly. I knew what this job was doing to me but I wanted to stay on, I wanted to complete at least a year so that I wouldn't look like a job-hopper in my resume. However, a simple visit to my doctor for my eczema meds ended up with me bawling my eyes out and my doctor diagnosing me with depression. He told me that naturally the best solution was to leave, but I was still adamant about staying as I was in the middle of several projects and didn't want the burden to be dumped on my other colleagues. I decided to persevere on, but the straw that broke the camel's back was when my director sat me down in his office and gave me an incredibly negative performance review. He listed many faults, some that I admit to, but some were completely unfair such as claiming people felt that I was unfriendly and showed attitude and that I was slow in my work (despite knowing that I had 3 departments worth of worked dumped onto me), that if I complained about the workload, why didn't I stay back to complete them (the company had a no over-time pay policy). I knew enough was enough, a few days later, I gave my resignation letter.

I thought I could slowly, finish up my duties and hopefully, train the new person who was taking my place. I was wrong. I was told my work attitude was poor and a lot of my colleagues started isolating me.

Soon enough, my last day came and went and now here I am, free from my suffocating job and hoping for a new future. I'm starting to mend my emotional and mental states and yesterday was the first day in months that I felt cheerful and happy. I'm still having some self-doubts and fighting the urge to feel like a failure, but I know that all these will just hold me down.

I wrote this post to not only explain why I haven't updated in awhile, but also as a form of self-release, to finally let out all the pent up frustrations and emotions I've been having for a long time. I'm on the mend and I know the road ahead probably will not be easy, but I'm starting to find the courage to face it once more.

I have many backlogs which I'm trying to complete now that I have the time to sit down and write, so please be patient with me. If you want faster updates, just head to my Instagram. In the mean time, I don't know how many people will read this and I know I'm opening myself to a lot of negative remarks but I still choose to write and post this as I don't want to hide myself behind a façade any more.