♡ メリー・クリスマス! ♡

You can certainly tell that I'm really behind on things with the fact that I'm writing my Christmas blog on the last day of 2012... d'oh (*´_ゝ｀) Also I would like to add this note - because strangely people have been asking me about it this year and never in the past six years? My religion is Shinto, which is a branch of Buddhism and whilst Buddhism never celebrates Christmas; I celebrate my family's and friends traditions because this time of year is not about my religion but theirs so it is a mark of respect to them that I do this. Also in Japan - where a large percentage of the population is Buddhist / Shinto it's just a holiday for them to exchange gifts. Most countries in Asia that I know celebrates it, it's not a cultural thing, just a "foreign" holiday that has been adapted. They decorate trees, exchange presents, eat (chicken), but they do not pray or anything on Christmas Eve. So after this long note; it's all basically about giving my family the presents I have bought for them... oh and the food because well I'm a fatty and I love food!

The festivities started in my house on the 21st of December as it was the last day of work for the holidays as well as in the evening we had our work Christmas party meal. What's nice about Christmas time at work is receiving cards and edible gifts food from parents and it makes you feel a bit more appreciated in this line of work. All the gifts get collected together and divided up equally between all members of staff and because mum and I work at the same place, we get given ours together! It's nice what we received this year because my dad likes to eat biscuits... a whole lot of biscuits (_ _ll) so it's like he's received something from my work too!

That evening for our meal; it was absolutely freezing outside and so I wore many layers to keep myself warm and inside the pub - we went to The Green Dragon that is located somewhere between Braintree and Great Leighs I believe - it was sweltering and I instantly regretted my leather jacket... d'oh ヽ(#`Д´)ﾉ

I also didn't get many pictures of the night but we had lots of fun! Loads of us were making paper areoplanes out of cracker cardboard and throwing them like naughty school children oh and the food was pretty mediocre... the only thing I liked out of the whole three courses was my smoked tomato and lentil soup because my main meal was too bland and I had to put extra salt onto it - and I NEVER add extra salt to any of my food!

The dessert wasn't so bad though... but it was overly sweet though and I felt like people had to peel me off the ceiling because of the sugar high ∑(O_O；) At the end of the night we all exchanged our Secret Santa gifts and I received a great pair of bed socks with 3D dogs on the front! They were so cute and my (real) dogs think they're absolutely fabulous to play with... when they're attached to my feet.

On the Saturday 22nd we managed to FINALLY put up and decorate our Christmas tree! We have a mixture of old and new ornaments in my parents 'Christmas Box' and so it was basically a higgelty piggelty of... stuff! But still, it did look very pretty and festive with the coloured lights turned on （＾ω＾）

In the afternoon; I had some time to myself to wrap all my presents to my family but somehow that ended up with me wrapping up EVERYONE'S gifts except for my own... I need to learn how to say 'no' to my parents a bit more often (；￣Д￣）

So an hour worth of work turned into eight hours of paper cutting, sellotaping and tag sticking... oh and with the result of a sore back too! But I had a 'helper' for most of the time:

Who am I trying to kid? She's no helper but she is majorly cute when she's trying to be nosy! Gah I love my furry baby to pieces - and yes I did buy my animals presents... even the horses because no one is left out in our family!

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day kind feels like that it blurred into one whole day because of how quickly the time flew by! Despite the fact that I couldn't help out with walking the dogs as I had severely cracked my toe and I couldn't wear any shoes / flip flops / slip on shoes of any kind - I thought it was broken at first but nope just cracked and bruised! So I actually thought the days would go by really slowly but because I helped out with odd jobs around the house and with the cooking; my boredom was pretty surpassed and before I knew it we had opened our presents and eaten dinner...

Despite my wishlist in another blog post; I was surprised that my mum took notice of what I had asked for from her and with a few extra goodies I was extremely happy with what I had received from all of my family and friends /throws heart shaped confetti everywhere/ （＾Ｏ＾☆♪

Oh, for once in our lives, my brother and I agreed that we liked Boxing Day food the most because it's mainly cold cuts, pickles, crisps, crackers and CHEESE. LOTS AND LOTS OF CHEESE GROMIT ʘ‿ʘ who can now guess that I am a cheese-a-holic?

All in all; this holiday turned out really well and there were no arguments and 'accidental' deaths of my uncle (I swear all I want to do is a smash a plate over his head to shut him the fuck up) and everyone had a really good time. My other uncle's girlfriend was extremely sweet and asked me if we wanted to be facebook friends and so I accepted and ta dah... now I'm hoping they don't break up because that would be extremely awkward ('-'*)

Did everyone else enjoy the holiday season and get what you had asked for? Cannae believe that it is New Years Eve already though... hope you all have your resolutions (or goals, whatever you prefer) at the ready to GO GO GO ☆彡

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ Scream For Me ロンドン! ♡

みなさん、こんにちは! 

This blog is certainly overdue... three weeks overdue to be precise! But it's usually a rare occasion for me to have another chance to go into London in a short space of time and on the 14th there was a gig happening at Wembley Arena that loads of my friends were interested in going to... especially two of my overseas friends Anima and Henna ヾ（*⌒ヮ⌒*）ゞ

The weather was absolute diabolical that day! It down poured from the moment I left home until the time I arrived at the stadium itself... then it magically stopped raining after about half an hour but we were still being dripped on because of the building! GAH ﾟ(ﾟﾉД｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡I only stayed there for a little over an hour because despite being given a hot chocolate by a lovely guy who worked there; my fingers, toes, butt and basically everything was cold and wet so I said goodbye to my friends (who I didn't want to leave to be honest) and headed over to Piccadilly Circus to meet Sharan.

I was so happy that it still wasn't raining when I crawled out of the station... I almost had to physically crawl up the stairs because of how wet and slippery everything was because of the weather! By this point I wasn't in such a great mood but the heat and warmth of Japan Centre soon improved my mood; as well as a lovely store clerk who complimented on my wig and we spent five minutes talking about hair dye and styles... her hair was amazing though and didn't need to be touched fff.

I only bought some donburi, cheap sale sushi, custard buns (which I shared with my mum and she loved it which was surprising!) and Arena37c magazine because there was Vivid on the front cover! I got an IV photocard though... and I couldn't change it because it was the last one left b'awh ﾟ(ﾟﾉД｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

Seeing Sharan again made me a very happy bunny because the last time I physically saw her in person was back at the SCREW gig in May so it has been an extremely long time since I've seen her face. She had her friend Bichan, who is from Italy, with her and we immediately hit it off because all we could talk about was j-rock... and then Jay Park. Now I am not a fan of Jay Park because I have never listened to any of his music but I was made an honoury JWalker that day because... I actually don't know the real reason to be honest but I did try on Sharan's hat that she bought because Jay Park has one like it I believe? Anyway I quite liked the outcome of the pictures that I took of my face:

Afterward our long session in Costa having a catch-up etc, we headed over to M&M World in Leicester Square as Bichan wanted to go inside - as it was her first time visiting London - and I had never been inside either and it was just so much fun  and the smell of chocolate, peanuts and pure sugar was enough to get adrenaline pumping through everyone's veins ʘ‿ʘ The three of us had fun running around all three levels of the store for a good amount of time but after a while we were all thirsty and I was getting pretty hungry as I had not eaten any food since breakfast at this point...

So we headed to Boba Jam for some bubble tea and then afterwards we went via bus towards Tottenham Court Road to eat at Seoul Bakery. I ordered the ramyun set and holy crap it was seriously the spiciest thing I had eaten in a while... I almost downed a whole bottle of water to cool down the pain but it didn't help... so I used a cold can of drink to help keep my lips from swelling up! That made me feel better ヽ(；▽；)ノ

At this point is was getting pretty late and as it takes me forever to get home, I said my goodbyes and made my trip back to Chelmsford where I had to wait 50 minutes in the cold and rain for the next bus to come and take me home... but luckily there was some nice people at the Tesco's Express that let me mooch around their store and read some magazines to keep myself warm! I'll be going back into London next Saturday (the 5th) when there is a UK Gal meet going on - which honestly to say I am crapping myself about going because I am not Gal but I was invited by a friend... and other friends that I know are going so it'll be nice to get make-up / clothing tips from others!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo

♡ December Glossybox ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!
I'm actually rather sad that this month's Glossybox was the last in my subscription pack... Maybe one day I'll invest myself another 3-month subscription before I move abroad?

I loved the silver box that the goodies were packed in this month as it felt rather Christmas-sy and even the leaflet with all the details about each product had been super sized into an A3 size paper that had been folded over twice to make a small booklet.

Three of the products were completely new to me this month and getting a bonus gift that was a blusher by Glossybox themselves was rather a sweet surprise. The lemon fragrance wasn't very nice in all honesty though...

I think the product I am most excited about trying is the milk_shake conditioning whipped cream as it is certainly intriguing!

Thanks for reading!

xoxo

♡ Etude House Princess Etoinette Collection ♡

みなさん、こんにちは!
I know I am probably behind in finding out about this collection but I am seriously screaming in happiness at the latest collection by Etude House. I adore the whole pink princess theme and it certainly appeals to someone who enjoys this sort of stuff on a day to day basis.

The fact is that this collection doesn't stop at just make-up such as blusher, lipstick, highlighter and eyeliner etc. It incorporates other items such as bath bombs, make-up brushes, make-up cases and candles which I feel makes a great change so you can have other things to make you feel like a Princess everyday that is not just make-up.

I like how with the make-up, they show all the colour systems that they have included as well as give you ideas on what you can do with your make-up style. Aish it is certainly very hard to decide which one I like the best!

Ahhh I honestly want the whole collection! And luckily I've found a site that ships this collection abroad so I am pretty chuffed that I can access this collection via somewhere else and not having to pine exceedingly at their online store!

Buy here and look here for Etude House homepage

Please note that all pictures displayed here are from the Etude House homepage and are NOT my own work. Thank you!

Thanks for reading!
xoxo