If there is one thing I’ve been told many times and is repeated quite often on self-development blogs, is that one of the main steps to becoming more positive is being grateful. And that one simple way to start being so is by keeping a journal and writing on it every single day.
I don’t have a clear idea why I always shrugged off the idea, like it wasn’t a good thing. I guess I was scared of change. After all, human beings are creatures of habit, and a sudden change in my routine obviously made me feel unsafe and insecure, because being negative and a pessimist about life had actually become a habit for me. But as time passed, I noticed that I indeed needed a change, because I couldn’t cope with my own negativity anymore. It drained me: I didn’t have much energy, I couldn’t get good quality sleep at night, I was being each day less creative… I didn’t even want to eat anymore. It was time to do something.
I’d like to say that we entered autumn little by little, but it wasn’t like that! Around last week we had spring-ish temperatures (around 20°C), but look at us now: wearing thick jackets and scarves wrapped around our necks. I wouldn’t say it’s cold though; it’s chilly, but still it is a big change. Thankfully I had already brought back into my bedroom’s wardrobe my autumn/winter clothes, or else I wouldn’t have had anything to warm myself up out in the city!
This is what I wore to yesterday’s Korean class. I went for something warm, comfortable and stylish at the same time. I think it gathers most of my favorite items in my wardrobe! But I’d say my top favorite one is my red scarf; even though you can’t see it I must tell tell you, it’s HUGE! In these photos it is actually folded in half!
Also, I have noticed that, the more outfit pictures I take, the faster and easier it gets to pose and find the right angles. What does this mean? It means that I should take outfit pictures more often and stop slacking off!!
Sora.
I believe there’s some sort of magic in thrift stores. Whenever you walk into one of them, even if it’s the one you constantly go to and are a regular customer, it’s always like you never know what you’re going to find. It’s not like shopping at brand stores, where you have an idea of what you’re going to find in the racks because you have researched the trends on the internet. No. In my opinion, thrift stores are like kindergarten kids: full of wonder and magic; like Alice’s Wonderland - you never know what will happen there!
I found myself thinking this way as I walked into this thrift store in Villa Adelina that I hadn’t visited before. They were full of vintage items - and not only clothing! They also had everything for decorating your house (a man bought a pair of tiny porcelain shoes that could have gone so well with my room ;-; if only I had seen them fiiiiirst~ *punches the air*).
I ended up buying three items that looked just as new!
Sora.
Liking the current trends too much has its ups and downs: on one side, the item you adore so much becomes available in many places, in different colors and patterns. But on the other side, it makes you want to have every single design out there!
I knew I was doomed when creeper shoes became a trend and arrived to Argentina. I can’t help but love them, because they are perfect for me: I have very sensitive feet (well actually my entire self is sensitive, hahaha :P) and I can’t wear stilettos or high heels without a platform because my metatarsus starts hurting like a b*tch. And aching feet = bad mood. Creeper shoes have a really thick platform and your feet are practically perpendicular to the floor. All this = comfortable shoe (and if it has a higher heel, it will still be comfortable because you have a thick platform supporting the weight <3).
Today I want to show you my tiny family of creepers that I love so much. They’re only 3 pairs, but I’m so happy with them because they are the ones I’ve always wanted :3 I still want the classic black & white ones, but I have no idea why they haven’t released those here yet! (and no, I definitely don’t trust the internet for creepers *lol*).
Sora.
It is well known that, after fashion, decorating is my next favorite thing to do. I have my whole room decorated in the style I love, and I’m gradually doing the same with the rest of my house. I would define my style between minimalist and rococo, leaning way more towards the later one. I love how serene the minimalist looks, but after a day or two living in a house like that I’d feel really sad and lonely. I find the rococo or victorian styles more cozy; they give me the “Ahh, I’m finally home” feeling you get after a long journey out.
Yesterday was the 6th Expo Hobby 2013 Edition, where artisans exhibit their best works and the most important stores here in Argentina offer the latest supplies for doing crafts. From stencils, to stamps, to decorative napkins, scrapbooking material and acrylics, it offers an amazing spectacle even for fashion designers.
I went there with my mother (who is an artisan herself) to look for some supplies and also some amazing inspiration. Prepare yourselves because this is going to be a huge picture post!
Yep. Call me a nerd if you want but, to me, knowledge is fun! (and also power). It makes you grow a lot as a person and it gives you the chance to become the person you’ve always wished. In my case, it helps me to become a better professional at fashion design, and I can’t wait to aquire even more!
I usually don’t dress-up fancy for college; I wake up at 5AM to get there (yes, I have a 2 hours ride in 3 different buses to get there, and 2 to come back home) and, even though I’m naturally an early riser, I can’t put on much make-up while I’m still half sleep :P So when today I pulled an outfit that I liked enough to photograph and show you guys, it was expected that I wore only wore foundation, concealer and blush for make-up.
It’s no secret that I love going shopping. Fortunately, I am not really fond of the trends that we get here, so there’s only a handful of things I feel like ” I must have them” (what would be of me if I went to Japan and Korean, omg). So today’s haul is rather little and from both February and March.
First of all I’d like to apologize for the lack of updates these past weeks. I’ve been without internet for, literally, 2 weeks: my old modem died from a power cut and I had to get a new one. Short story: I waited for a week for a modem that never arrived because the employee that apparently took my purchase didn’t really load it into system. Oh well.
But hey, I’m back! And I have so many things to show you guys…! Like my fall/winter closet! I’m super excited about this because I LOVE fall & WINTER! It’s chilly, it’s the layering season, ahhh~ how I love that. The only thing I don’t like about the cold is that clothes tend to be more boring, with less colors. But my goal for this Fall/Winter is to try and dress in something else that isn’t black and brown, and bring some color to the boring city!
Sora.
It’s amazing how one can change a lot in such a short period of time. We don’t really notice because that change is gradual, until we look back at how and who we were back then, though. Then we get like “wow, was that really me?” and start laughing awkwardly. Yes, it was you, trying to be the best version of yourself. And hey, look at where you are right now, closer to achieving that goal than you were back then!
It’s been a goal of mine for a really long time to be the best version of myself. I can’t help it: I like growing up, learning new things and improving the ones I’ve learnt. I absolutely love improvement. And for the last couple years in college, I realize I did nothing but improve. Even during those terms I felt like I was stuck and had nowhere to belong, I got better. At everything. At being true to myself, at life, at being a better friend, daughter, human being.
But what I want to talk about today, is about how much I improved professionally as a designer and illustrator. I’ve been studying Fashion Design for 4 years now, and I just recently started my senior year at college. My first subject this term is Computer Studies for Projects Presentation, with a professor that has known me since I was a freshman (been wanting to have a subject with her for a long time!), and one of the first instructions to start this subject is to gather all our previous works, because we’re going to work on them.
And, wow, looking back at those I realized just how much and how fast I improved my designing and drawing skills.
The people who has known me for a couple years (college professors, classmates, my family, my friends, etc.) have this defined idea of my style being all romantic, frilly, lacey, with flower patterns and prints. Even though that’s true, there’s more to my style than they know: I’m a very creative person and I like to experiment a lot, specially with clothes. There are styles I wear more often than others, and the rococo one is definitely one of my most frequent ones, but I also like to switch dramatically from something sweet, delicate and elegant to something more agressive or boyish.
This outfit showcases another side of me, a side that has a weak spot for animal print, polka dots, creeper shoes and a unavoidable habit of showing off my socks (I don’t have a rather big collection for nothing! Gotta show the babies~).
I wore this to my first day of college past Monday. My professor, who has known me for 4 years now, commented on how different I looked that day (she’s one of those used to my rococo style :P).
Sora.
My mom has been doing craftwork for around 7 years now. She works with paint, brushes, decoupage, fabric… whatever you give to her, she will transform it into something really beautiful and feminine.
While right now she’s trying to make her pieces more colorful, her style is definitely recognized for being vintage, for having flowers, butterlies and birds, for the pink and white color combination and the crackle style on most of her works.
The box craze started with her! She basically got me used to store most things in boxes, hahaha!
And today I want to show you something she made for me a couple days ago: a beautiful scarves hanger, rococo styled. It’s perfect for me! I’ve never had my scarves so organized; they were always scattered around, all tangled in a drawer, sometimes even forgotten because the mess would make me give up wearing them.
I must confess though that this one isn’t really good for the thicker scarves, so I’d recommend the other type that brings bigger holes (she’s currently making me one of these!).
We don’t realize how much we have grown and learnt until we look back at the things we used to do months or years ago. I personally experienced this today, when while lurking my photos folder I came across this really old photoshoot I did with two friends of mine back in 2011 for college.
I had to make a calendar for my final exam of the subject “Visual Language”, and my concept was something along the lines of “stopping the time”. I did pass, but I wasn’t really happy with the results; the pictures alone looked nice, but all together they didn’t match at all.
On the contrary, when I came back home, all sad and pouting, I realized that some of them actually did match, but for totally different concepts! :D One of them was “The Sleeping Beauty” (you can see it here on my deviantArt) and the other one that I’m showing you today, is “Who Said that Autumn was Boring”.
When I saw these photos, I realized how badly I had editted them, how I didn’t blur the background, how I didn’t save the originals and saved the picture with the watermark only, and oh! the horrible processing… how could I not realize the pictures turned out GREEN?! *facepalms*. I had no idea back then, but I do know now.
So today I decided to re-edit them and make them look better than before. I hope you like the results!
Poupeé Girl ( or プーペガール ) is a Japanese Fashion community where the users dress-up their poupées and earn ribbons (which is the site’s currency) to buy more clothes at the market or at Katherine’s shop, which also holds special events such as Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Christmas, New Year, and more. One of the most exciting ways of getting ribbons is uploading photos of your closet items and comment each other’s purchases/belongings. You can see my poupée closet here.
You can also get ribbons by dressing up your poupée everyday. This is what I want to start sharing with you guys on my blog, my poupée girl snapshots <3.
Foundation is one of my favorite things make-up wise. It evens out the color of your skin and, in my case, it keeps me from getting my face really oily like it usually does when I’m not wearing it. Nevertheless, I don’t like heavy foundations - I want it to look as natural as possible, I don’t even want to feel it! And it has to match my skin color perfectly (picky much? *lol*).
Why am I saying all this? Because a week ago, while I was doing my make-up, I realized my bottle was kinda empty, which meant I needed to check out again the one I had gotten on September last year: Rimmel’s Clean Finish 100% poreless foundation. The only thing I can say is… WHAT WAS I THINKING WHEN I BOUGHT THIS?! Omg, really people, this foundation is… just no. I think the only thing that was attractive about it back then was the price, and because I had tried some of Rimmel’s products and they were generally good (in fact, one of my concealers is Rimmel’s Match Perfection and it’s really good!). I’m not here to review this foundation, so I will say what I thought of it shortly: it’s not the right shade (even though it looks really light even when you open the bottle), it really darkens my skin (around 2 tones) and it’s ORANGE. Yes you read right, ORANGE. It achieves the poreless look; not 100%, of course, but it does minimize them.
I was so, SO angry about this I almost threw the bottle away XD. Even though it was really cheap I still spent money on it and… *sad*. Well, at least I could use it as a bronzer or blush? *tries to give the foundation some usage*.
Anyway, going back to the main topic of this post, after realizing this foundation wasn’t going to work for me at all I decided to go back to the Pigmento drugstore and get a new one. Must say that I spent a good share of hours watching videos and reviews on different foundations on the internet *lol*. The product I chose was Maybelline’s Super Stay 24 hours foundation (no really? Maybelline again? YESS).
Intense pink + light pink + aquamarine blue + polka dots = LOVE. I love so much polka dots you can not even imagine! I love how fast and easy they can be done. It’s specially good for me because college doesn’t really let me have nice, complicated designs - all the assignments where I have to cut, paint, rip… my nail polish always ends up chipping ;^;
So yeah, this is probably going to be my new favorite way of doing my nails every week <333.
Violetta Fabiani’s intense pink n°92 (“Silk Kiss” collection) | Colorama’s aquamarine blue | Heburn’s light pink | Heburn’s protection coat | Thuya’s top coat | Heburn’s nail polish drier.
I finally learnt how to make animal print nails! I’m going to keep trying with other colors in the future :D
¡Finalmente aprendí cómo hacer uñas animal print! Voy a seguir probando esta técnica con otros colores en el futuro :D
Maybelline’s foreverstrong +Iron nailpolish. (doesn’t say which color, but it’s the bottom one).
Heburn’s nlack nailpolish.
Violetta Fabiani’s “Silk Kiss” nailpolish N°90 Melocotón.
Heburn’s top coat.
Heburn’s nail drier.
Sora
I love Maybelline (and yes, this is the best way to start a post). I haven’t tried all of their make-up; just a few mascaras, eyeliners and lipsticks. But I think that’s enough to say that Maybelline is the best drugstore brand, in my opinion. They have the best mascaras out there in the market and it’s one of the few brands that really does what it says it does, so I highly recommend it to absolutely everybody.
Amo Maybelline (y si, esta es la mejor manera de empezar un post). No tuve la oportunidad de probar toda la linea de maquillaje; solo un par de máscaras, delineadores y labiales. Pero creo que eso es suficiente para decir que Maybelline es la mejor marca de perfumería, en mi opinión. Tienen las mejores máscaras en el mercado y es una de las pocas marcas que hace lo que realmente dice que hace, así que la super recomiendo para todos.
As you can see, the mascara works just wonderfully. It really fills my lashes and makes them longer (I mean look at them! ajsajhs *spazzes*).
I still think that nothing can be compared to false lashes, but for a person who isn’t used to wear them (like me), this is just a magical solution. And for only $70 (14USD).<i Totally worth it! ♥.
Como pueden ver, la máscara funciona de forma maravillosa. Realmente hace parecer que tengo más cantidad de pestañas y las hace aún más largas (o sea, ¡miren esas pestañas! ashjsb).
Todavía sigo sosteniendo que nada se puede comparar a las pestañas postizas, pero para una personsa que no está acostumbrada a usarlas (como yo), ésta es una solución mágica. Y tan solo por $70 (14USD). ¡Lo vale totalmente! ♥.
Sora.
I’m a HUGE creepers fan. If I had a lot of money, I’d buy EVERY SINGLE DESIGN out there. But since I don’t have any money at the moment I decided to customize my old high school shoes. My inspiration were a pair of leopard print creepers that blew my mind a few days ago while doing some errands. They were the classic ones, like these.
Soy SUPER fan de los creepers. Si tuviera mucho dinero probablemente me compraría CADA DISEÑO QUE EXISTA en el marcado. Pero como no tengo nada de plata por el momento, decidí customizar mis viejos zapatos de la secundaria. Mi inspiración fueron un par de creepers de animal print que me volaron la cabeza un par de días atrás cuando estaba haciendo algunos mandados. Eran uno de los diseños clásicos, como estos.
