Sakura Matsuri 2014

Washington, DC


Next stop in the travelog! I honestly wish I traveled like this for a living instead of a passing thing. I've been dreaming of going to a Sakura Matsuri for soo long now. My friends would always rave about it and gyaru bloggers would go all super dressed up yet I never had the opportunity. I got so lucky that the offer came up.

                  

So I decided to fly out for the one day event. The huge deciding factor was the weather. New York had a very extended winter this year and we still had cold fronts way into April. The DMV had temps in the high 70s already. I needed that warmth! 

A lot of people flew out for the event too! The shuttle flight is usually very empty on normal days especially at 7am. But the flight was packed. 

                      

This was the first time I've seen DC packed (this is my second trip there within a year) and man did it get hot.
Sakura Matsuri literally means Cherry Blossom Festival. This festival is a reminder of US's diplomatic ties to Japan.  I have an obsession with Sakura flowers so it's was important for me to go and have a hanami. Hanami is a sakura viewing party usually enjoyed by having a picnic under the cherry blossoms.

                           

Spring #ootd 

Lace Crop Top and Textured Skater Skirt from Charlotte Russe. 

Being my first Sakura Matsuri, I didn't quite what to expect. I firstly was expecting sakura everywhere. Hardly the case, the long winter had delayed the blooms.  However the spirit had still stayed alive. Plenty of cosplayers, families, lolitas, and so many others had gather together to celebrate the festival. 

Lolitas <3 

                        

Girl cosplaying as Fairy Tail's Lucy 

                            

And I took pictures with strangers like a boss! 

                               

Her cosplay was the defination of dedication. 

And I met very talented musicians straight from Japan! 

Troll face selfie with the very cute Hideking Project. I swooned at how cute they are and extremely energic singers.  They did soo much despite the heat and their  garments. I fell in love. Especially the one with the glasses, omg he was so cute. If only he spoke more English, I was sooo going to chat him up like the crazy fan girl I am (lol don't tell my boyfriend :P)

I got an autograph and everything. Hopefully they will perform in New York soon.

                                     

Well next year hopefully I'll be able to get to go again. It's was wonderful and I'm very grateful that I had the opportunity to travel to DC for a second time.  Next year I will definitely wear a yukata, gyaru style and everything.

Life on the Edge

Chapter 2, College was the beginning of the next chapter. The start of my roller coaster ambitions, the start of finally knowing what it's like to be an adult, the start of romance, the start of bills and other money things. Now here I am 19, very little savings, a lot of debt, 2 semesters of college down, 4 jobs later, and no clue where I am going with life.

If you have read this blog enough you know I get a lot anxiety when it comes to school.But luckily it's Summer Vacation, I have about 4 months to get my life together again before a stream of anxiety comes my way. Travel some more, start a business, get a handle on things you know.

                                  

So to start the summer, I got tatt #2. Its my wings :). This may be my last tatt since I don't take pain very well and lord this was painful and the healing process had proven to be a bitch.   I still might go back for a second session to clean up the lines and detail because I was moving soo much and I gave my artist a little bit of a hard time.

                        

Also my belly ring healed enough for to be able to change the ring! So happy about that!

                             

My belly piercing was an intense journey and I'm glad I finally came to a new marker in that journey.  So to celebrate I put up a vlog on my youtube channel.

I'm finally updating that channel so please subscribe and leave comments!

Toodles Loovies <3 br="">

Confessions of a F-List Blogger

If Sean Santiago is a D-List Blogger, than inadverently I'm an F-List Blogger ---the one who doesn't get invited to NYFW. To even call himself D-List is completely humbling when this guy has great quality and consistency. But that does not the defer how bloggers calculate success, front row during Fashion Week.

Whatever, Fashion Week and A-List Bloggers. Being F-List is way better

1. You invite yourself to events.
You don't even have to check your mailbox for invites. There won't be any.

2. You can write whatever you want without public scorn.
Because you have no traffic

3. And the best for last! No expectations.
That for the most part explains itself

I'm a moderate F-List blogger in a way because I do get invited places and I do get good seating when I go.

So almost 2-months ago I was semi-invited to Uptown Fashion Week Closing Night Fashion Week. Based in Harlem, the closing night show took place in famous gay club, El Morroco. 

So me and my plus one went to our third ever red-carpet event.

Posing on the red carpet. There were proffessional photos but I can't seem to recover them. 

The show featured celebrity supermodel Diva Davana's collection. 

I found the collection surprisingly mature since the creator is only 12 years old.

Since I, myself, am not a designer it would be almost rude of me to call this collection bland (which it was) but since I am me, I will say it anyway. 

 The outfit Diva Davana wore herself was better than anything she put on the runway and she slayed all her models with her catwalk.  I have a video that I'll post later.

Next Echo Chic

I believe the focus was suppose to be on their jewelry.

I did like the choosing of fabrics. Light, fluttery, sensual.

The kimono aspired asethic was really nice. It worked well.

I swear I was more partial to the clothes than the actual jewelry. It just didnt strike me interesting enough. 

My 2nd most favorite line was an Eyewear line, sadly I didn't catch the name. 

It was so creative and out there! 

I appologize that my photos couldn't really capture the magnificence of the line.

They were soon followed by my favorite line of the night "Versailles". This line was the effort of Charles Dejuste. Hes a Haitian-American designer who has really inspired me artistically over the years. 

My favorite dress!! Its so beautiful in composition!!

How it looks from the back!

This segment was absolutely breathtaking!!

The show closed with a not-so-great segment. The clothes were okay but excessiveness of having the designer sing a crappy opera-pop song was less than amusing. 

I mean it was a good line.... I just was distracted... 

Overall it was a good night... Until we missed our train and ended up taking a train to another town and getting home at like 3am.  

Welp, remember to follow my instagram, twitter and tumblr for daily updates!!

Press Tea Bloggers in Wonderland Event

So you know I am expert of draining my youth away. You know 2 jobs, school, and full time blogger. I had a professor who once told me "Well I had 3 jobs in College, no excuse for you." Bitch, I'm a Visual Merchandiser and a Blogger, your college years ain't got shit on my life. Albeit you can imagine that I dropped that class.

Surprisingly, I do manage to have to have a social life. I mean when my manager is not blowing up my phone and I'm not working open to close in a damn mall, I do get out! Have a drink or two with a few friends, catch up and hang out once every other week. 

But believe it or not, I never managed to hang out with other bloggers. I mean, I do live in Small Town America, but I'm not far from the city and I do occasionally get invites to events (SHOCKERS!). 

Well a friend of mine is an active reader of  Lace and Combat Boots who with partnership with Press Tea, was hosting a blogger's event. 

Press Tea is a little tea shop which is like the tea version of Starbucks. Like omg their menu is amazing with so many drinks and deserts made from tea. 

I was a little hesitate about going because I'm not quite a fashion blogger (I failed at that soo long ago), I consider myself a lifestyle blogger who has a flare for fashion (like who niche blogs anymore anyway). But luckily, I had enough courage to go. 

You can see my nappy head standing in the back. I was probably the youngest and the tallest. I kind of felt awkward speaking at times because my shyness I got the better of me but I can't help but feel I met some really interesting people who had interesting stories (way more interesting than mines) 

I felt so under prepared too. I lost most of my makeup that day, my outfit was slightly ill fitted, and I decided not to wear a bra and just flaunt a bandeau (worst idea ever). 

While we mingled and talked about ranging topic such as travels, love life ans of course tea! 

We were extremely lucky to able to drink samples of their menu. My mother kinda ruined tea for me early on but I still some polite sips of the Caramel Teacuchinno. It amazed me how good it tasted. 

Our amazing barista, Allison just kept the drinks coming! 

The funny thing was when multiple bloggers shouted "Wait don't drink yet, we gotta snap pictures" 

Inception! 

And of course we ended the event with the classic shoe photo.  

Such a good event and Melanie made promises to do more events soon so that'll be cool to look forward to. 

My schedule is kinda full with Sakura Matsuri, A makeup launch event, a fashion show, and a dance show so please forgive me but my blog posts will be backlogged.