What I have been up to for the past two weeks

Hello everyone!

It has been a long time since I had posted! In fact, it has been roughly two weeks, give or take. So why so long? Well, it all comes down to this: during the past two weeks, my parents went on a cruise trip to the states and took the camera with them, leaving me camera-less for those two weeks. Pretty fun right? Not really. Not if most of your posts are pictures-related that is. I'm quite sure that I can do a post without having the need to post up pictures all the time, but I find that it will not be as "fun" as if you were to post a blog post with pictures. Not as much enjoyment, since what is the joy in reading a blog post without pictures? There must be a sort of balance, just like there is balance in every aspect of life.

Bodyline Haul and Review

Hello everyone!

Halloween is fast approaching around the corner, and if you are as excited as I am, you would probably be scrambling around and trying to look (or make, for the crafty type that are out there) for a costume to get into the action! Frankly I love Halloween. Other than the copious amount of candy and the scare fest, Halloween is that time of the year where you get to be something else for the day. Whether it be your traditional vampire or something out of a fairy tale, there are definitely a ton of costumes and stuff out there that, on a regular day, will leave your head spinning.

After what seems to be some serious contemplation on what I wanted to dress up as, since there will be an upcoming Halloween event coming up that I will be attending. For quite some time now, I had been thinking of wearing Lolita, which I eventually decided on, since I admire the aesthetics.

Ok, so I wanted to wear Lolita for a day. Now what? Well, now it is time to do some serious research on the "components" and generally what makes up a Lolita. After getting the hands of the basics (such as maintaining a bell-shaped skirt or dress, quality of the pieces, and the importance of outfit coordination), it is time to hit up a Lolita store.

This is where Bodyline comes in. I've heard of this particular online store enough times to get the words "Body" and "Line" permanently stuck in my head. Basically from what I have seen from around the web, Bodyline is the ideal store for first time or starting Lolita, with prices more than reasonable while at the same time maintaining decent quality. I'm not going to lie, but I had seen the store back when they still had DHL and SEA as shipping options, and I was a bit iffy potentially ordering from them. I'm still a bit iffy ordering from them, due to the horror stories about ripped packages and what-not. But I figured, well, if the good reviews are still flowing in by the dozen and nothing majorly bad has happened, it must be okay! So chanced it I did.

Interesting Craft Finds: Let Them Make Cake!

Hello everyone!

^^ Please pardon the altered Marie Antoinette saying, but I felt that it would fit very well with the craft find in the blog post. Anyway, if you had been lurking around my blog during late August, I had posted up a (mostly) Dollar Store haul, and one of my finds was a 3D Origami Sweet Cakes set as shown:

Well fast forward to today and we finally get to see what is inside! I'm currently on a long break right now, and, while my homework amount is still tame and the sun is still shining brightly, I figured why not get the set opened up and bak-err fold some sweets! ^^;

Warning: The following content are picture/photo heavy. A fast connection (and a sweets tolerance) is strongly advised!

Changing a Headband into Something Beautiful

Hello everyone!

Sorry to disappoint, but this is just going to be another short post, at least until all my priorities are done or at least until I have some more free time. Anyway, just as a short "recap" from this post in case you have not seen it yet, but basically my two good friends had given me a beautiful ring and decorative headband. The unfortunate thing is that the beads on the headband had broken off during transit and therefore I had to "salvage" it.

Fortunately after what seems to be multiple attempts at getting the beads to stay on and failing horribly (;_; the horror...), I was able to successfully repair it and now it is in (relatively) good condition!

As you can clearly see, there are a couple of flat-back pearls on the headband. Why is that, you may ask? Well, it turns out that while I was in the stage of repairing it, I had ran out of the available beads in the bag. Apparently, it seemed that a couple had fallen out during transit, and while I could've left it empty, it does not seem right so I just ended up just filling up the rest of the section with pearls.

Now I am just going to conclude with a short "moral of the story" and a somewhat cheesy saying. If something is "broken" or flawed, not all hope is lost! With patience (and lots of it...), perseverance, and creativity, just about anything that exists under the sky can be fixed! And who knows? Something beautiful might come out in the end too! 

Surprise Gifts from Friends

Hello everyone!

This is once again going to be just another quick post. I'm trying to get into the habit of posting as frequently as I can, and an easy way for me to do that is basically through quick posts. That does not mean that I will be stopping my beloved long posts however. It just means that they will be postponed for the time being. ^^; So bear with me there!

Anyway, this time I had received some surprise belated birthday gifts from two very good friends of mine, which was very nice of them since I was not expecting such things. xD I had gotten a ring and a headband.

The ring is very sparkly and has a big pink gem in the center. 

The headband is very nice. It has two big pink gems on either side surrounded by rosettes and sparkly glass beads. I like how the center has a white rose along with some "dangly bits". It adds to the whole girly look of the headband. 

Unfortunately, it looks like some of the beads came off during transit, as seen here. :( But where are the rest of the beads?

Oh.... there they are...

Fortunately, not all hope is lost, for I can easily repair it back up and possibly make it better than ever! Anyway, those are my gifts! I cannot wait to wear them, but not until I finish fixing up the headband. 

Guess Amour Bag Haul

Hello everyone!

This is just going to be a short post on my latest bag! To be honest, I did not really want or need a new bag, since I already have way too many in my closet. None-the-less, if it's cute, might as well buy it right? Nothing you can do about it. xD

Anyway, my latest bag is the Guess Amour Dome Tote. It has just about everything that a hime could want in a bag. Quilted pattern, check. Cute dangling charms, check. Pink or pastel colour, check. Lots of space for the bare essentials, check! I had seen this little beauty when I was shopping with my mom and my sister at the Bay. (Actually I lied. It was my sister that had seen it first) With me being a poor sucker for cute bags, I just can't resist getting it, plus it was part of a sales promotion as well! The original price was $160, but with the addition of $50 dollars off and a 15% discount, I only had to pay around $93! Not bad for a bag that was not really on sale at the time. I will probably use this as my new school bag.

I usually don't buy Guess bags. None that I had seen up to now had really appealed to me, though I like their Amour series. (the same series that this bag is part of) From what I can glimpse from another blog, apparently the word "Amour" means love in French, which is really fitting for the collection.

Anyway, with that being said and done, what are your opinion on Guess handbags?  

Hauls Galore! Featuring A Rose Necklace, Dollar Store, School, and a Carousel!

Hello everyone! Sorry for not blogging lately, but I had been taking Driving School for the past week to obviously learn how to drive. Up until now, I never really had a need for a car since almost any place I wanted to go to was accessible by transit. But I figured that learning how to drive is not really a bad thing. Plus, persuasion can be a very powerful tool. :/ Hopefully I will be able to do well on my driving test once the courses are all up.

Now with that done, I have a couple of hauls to show you! ^^ I had been waiting eagerly for my last purchase of the month to arrive and now that it is here, I can finally do the haul post!

Sparkly Black Shoes and A Hime Birdhouse Wall Decor Tutorial

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I had made a post, and my apologies for that! For the past few days, I had been, for all intents and purposes, busy with work while at the same time diligently working on yet another craft project. Since the upcoming school term is approaching very quickly, I only have a couple of weeks left to get some major projects done as well as prepare myself. I had finally finished my latest craft project, but before I get straight to it, let me show you my latest haul from Spring! Though to be honest, it isn't much of a haul as it is a gift from my mother! <3

Beep Beep! Hello Kitty Wants You to Wake Up!

As you may all be aware of, it is that time of the year where everyone would start heading back to school. I will be taking early classes, so it is pretty much important that I have a good alarm clock that will do the job and will keep waking me up throughout the year. I already had an alarm clock in the beginning, as shown in the deco post here. However, I had been noticing that I did not wake up during the set alarm time. With this in mind, I decided to buy a new alarm clock.

First, I decided to go look through eBay and changed the listings to show "prices + shipping: low to high" so I do not have to pay too much for an alarm clock. I quickly noticed that the ones that were cheap did not look very nice, which was to be expected, so I decided to skip a few pages. Eventually I had found and saved a couple for the "considerations pile". I did not just look through only eBay however, as I usually sometimes check my local stores and Chinatown to see if there is any possible way that I could get one for cheaper. What I had quickly found out was that the ones in Chinatown were too expensive (I saw one that went for $40+!) and that the ones in my local stores did not look cute at ALL. After finding this out, I went back to eBay to decide between a heart shaped My Melody one and a classy looking Hello Kitty one.

During what seems to be eons of deciding, I decided to take a break from the whole thing. Deep down, I had already made a decision and wanted to get the My Melody one. I was a bit hesitant on actually buying it though since it runs on AA batteries. Batteries aren't cheap nowadays, and it might cost me a lot more in the long run if I keep it in operation for a long time. After being practically late to work one day and getting panicky, I decided to just buy a HK alarm clock from my local Toys R Us for $35 for convenience sake.

 Front

Basic Hime Pillowcase Tutorial

Before I had started Lavender and Roses, I had came across one of Himehood's videos on how to sew a basic princess pillowcase. (For those interested, the video can be found here) The video is already a few years old now, but I find that Himehood's videos still do a decent job of inspiring those interested in creating a couple of Hime-styled items, as it had done for me. At the time, as often as I had watched the video over and over, I could not replicate the style or even create my own style because 1) I did not have a sewing machine, 2) My sewing skills were pretty much non-existent, and 3) I did not know how to properly create an actual pillowcase without having some sort of nervous breakdown on the progress. I had given up as a result and ended up not doing it.

Fast forward to after I had started up the blog. I used to have a plain purple bed set before my tastes changed and I eventually gotten the Hello Kitty bed set. At the time, I had found and bought a purple cushion at Sears that had undergone a dramatic price cut from $50 to $9. Since I had switched out my purple bed set for a pink one, the cushion does not exactly match the bed set anymore so I decided to change that by trying to make a new frillier one! Despite it being my very first time trying to sew a pillowcase, I decided to go ahead with it anyway. Hence, a new tutorial was born!

Warning: This tutorial can be long or short depending on how you approach this tutorial. I had actually sewn this pillowcase by hand (since I still didn't have a sewing machine), so it took me quite some time to finish it. I imagine that you could possibly finish it within a day with a sewing machine, so it is recommended that you use a sewing machine. That of course doesn't mean that you cannot sew it by hand since I had just done it myself, but it means that this could take you a while to complete. Please keep this in mind when trying out the tutorial and only attempt this when you have a lot of spare time on your hands. ^^; Sorry.

For the purpose of this tutorial, I will be assuming that you are going to make a pillowcase for your cushion and hence the usage of the term "square". Also, I will be assuming that you are going to be hand sewing the pillowcase.  

 The end results

Everything is Better with Roses! and H&M Haul!

Remember a while back when I had made that review on Wild Orchid Crafts? Well I had basically put some of the flowers in action with two of my mirrors. Not sure what I'm talking about? Well let me elaborate...

Previously, my mirrors were still just mirrors. Plain old mirrors that you could find just about anywhere in any general store, even though one of the mirrors was given to me as a gift. Eventually, I started up a major project to have my room completely renovated to match my Hime tastes, and in turn deco-ed two of my existing mirrors, as shown here and here. At the time, I did not really have a lot of roses on me and I did not have much luck trying to find regular fabric roses or even foam roses! I did not know how you all did it, since I had already seen a couple of tutorials incorporating rose heads. So for the sake of this blog, I am just going to assume that you all had (have) better luck than I do. Due to the lack of roses therefore, I do not have much artistic liberty when it comes to decorating the mirrors.

This is where the WOC review comes in. Luck turned my way once I had discovered the website and ever since, had basically gone crazy with the things. I had been crazily gluing roses onto everything that I can set my eyes on and the mirrors are no exception. Here are the before and after shots of each mirror, and the detail shots.

Before and After (Desk mirror)

 

Details

 

 

Before and After (Full length mirror)

 Can you play "spot the difference"?

Details

  NOTE: First five pictures are details from before, next couple are details from after

 

What do you think? I think the roses had greatly improved the look of both mirrors, especially with the blue one. I thought it was too plain with only the blue butterflies and lace. 

On another note, I had made a small purchase at my local H&M after watching the Dark Knight Rises! By the way, it is a very good movie and definitely something movie-goers should check out if they had already checked out Dark Knight!

Anyway, H&M had a few pink tops on clearance for $5 and after trying the bigger size on and finding out that it fitted perfectly, I just HAD to get one! It is in the shade of pink that I love too and has a lot of Hime deco potential! 

Liebster Blog Award

Hello everyone!

I had been given the Liebster Blog Award by the Glass Princess a few days ago! One thing I did not mention however was that she had actually given the blog award to me twice, but since I figured that I haven't done the actual award post yet, it would be treated as one time. Isn't that a convenience?

Anyway, I had been following the Glass Princess for a while now and I think that she is an excellent Lolita! With impeccable coordinates and a wonderful personality, how can she not be awesome? Plus, you can't get anymore awesome than modeling on an occasional basis! Please feel free to check her out here: http://the-glass-princess.blogspot.ca/

With that being said and done, let's get onto the award. Here are the rules:

1. Each person must post 11 things about themselves.

2. Answer the questions the tagger has set for you, plus create 11 questions for the people you've tagged to answer.

3. Choose 11 people and link them in your post.

4. Go to their page and tell them.

5. Remember, no tags back!

First off, for the 11 things about myself:

1. I have an admiration and fascination with waterfalls. They are breathtaking and beautiful creations of nature.

2. My favourite food is pho and noodles.
   
3. I have a little sister.

4. Most of the time, I can come up with a multitude amount of ideas in one day and maybe only one of them comes to fruition.

5. I have a bad habit of buying things that I don't need as of the moment.

6. I procrastinate a lot.

7. I usually have an intense decision making process going on in my head and therefore it takes me a long while to shop, even online.

8. When I buy something, I don't usually get back to it until at least 3 days later unless it is something I really love and can't wait for.

9. I like keeping things as new as possible.

10. My zodiac sign is Gemini.

11. I love Hello Kitty and friends. (No surprise there huh?) 


Now here are the questions that the Glass Princess asked me and my answers to them:

1. Do you have any pets?
Nope.  

2. Whats your favourite beauty product?
Don't really have a favourite, but I guess I'm particularly more inclined to eyeshadow and eyeliner.

3. Whats your favourite song?
As of right now, Day By Day by T-ara.

4. Whats your next purchase?
An alarm clock for sure! I want a new one and I need to prepare for the upcoming school year!

5. Whats your favourite band?
Don't really have a favourite. I just listen to what I'm in the mood for.  

6. Have you ever been to any music festivals?
Nope.

7. Whats your favourite picture of you?
One of the pictures in my past outfit shots. I really love this one: http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb350/alexandrite_silver/Outfits/IMG_0486.jpg.

8. Do you like where you live?
Yes.

9. Whats your dream item?
A Jesus Diamante dress.

10. Who is your favourite celebrity?
Don't really have a favourite. (Wow do I live under a rock)

11. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?
Japan! I'll die happy if I'm able to visit a Jesus Diamante boutique at least once. Of course, visiting other places like Shibuya 109 is not so bad either.


Now I present the award to 11 lovely people:

1.  Hime Gyaru Geisha
2. Closet Voyage
3. Cupcake Doll
4. Magic Pearl Heart
5. Nuella Source
6. Princessly Living
7. Star Princess
8. The Princess in Training
9. Jennifer's Blog
10. Like Candy Floss
11. Lita's Blog


Here are the 11 questions to the lovely people that I had picked:

1. What is your favourite colour?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What is the fashion style that you are currently into? 
4. Are you content with your life right now? 
5. Have you visit an anime convention before?
6. What do you do on a daily basis? 
7. What would be your dream pet?
8. Short or long hair?
9. If you were given 1 million dollars, what will you do with it?
10. Have you made any major purchases lately?
11. If you were to dress in a drastically different style than the one that you are currently in, what would it be?

With that done, I would like to personally thank the Glass Princess for presenting me the award and I would like to congratulate the winnners!

Bringing Back the Forgotten Beanie Babies

Back when I was still a child, I recall seeing these small stuffed animals sitting on store shelves behind glass windows. To the regular human naked eye, these would have just look like any other ordinary stuffed animal that are commonly sold in toy stores and toy departments, that is if it were not for the large bright red heart tags that are found on the plushies. Having the familar name "Ty" on the red heart tags, these plushies were known as the Beanie Babies back in the nineties and they used to be quite the popular toy. They were in every specialty store and quite a few had even showed up as a McDonald's happy meal toy. I had gotten a few of them before, mainly in the form of a black cat and a white tiger. Being priced at only $5, they were quite cheap and hence were easily affordable. Basically just about everyone had at least gotten one, and from then on had went on to being a collectors item. Most people had "cashed in" and collected these adorable critters in mass quantities in the hopes that they would increase in value. With the exception of the "rare" ones, they had not, at least from what I had searched up on Google. What also had differentiated the Beanie Babies from other plushies was that they were very soft in texture, and as hinted from the name, were filled with small beans.

I Just Bought a (Small) House!

Hello everyone!

Now before anyone goes all crazy on me and starts demanding for my "credentials, papers, and credit rating", no it is definitely not what it looks like or sounds like. Yes I'm aware that it sounded like I had actually bought a small house, but it really isn't. Allow me to go into farther detail!

Hime Picture Frame Tutorial/Guideline

Hello everyone!

Presenting my ever-first tutorial in a long time! It has been a while since I had done a tutorial and I have been missing them, so I am planning on creating new ones in the near future. Personally though, I don't think this is truly more of a tutorial than a detailed guideline on how to approach a project from my point of view.

Anyway for this post, we are going to be changing an old wooden picture frame into a princess bedazzled creation worthy of sitting on your shelf or where-ever you feel like putting the frame. I'm not quite sure if you all still use picture frames or not, but for me I love using picture frames. Ever since my childhood, I recall having a ton of photo frames sit on top of my bedroom shelves. Particular attention will be on two golden frames that I had for a long time.

To make a long story short, the two golden frames didn't age well. They were constantly flopping back onto the shelf because of the kickstand, which was made out of a flimsy cardboard-like material and was essentially the same material that the back was made out of. In fact, the back was one of those cardboard "cutouts" and was not a separate back stand that was built in like other picture frames. Eventually the stands were no longer "usable" and I had to lean them against the wall that's behind the shelves. Even then, the frames occasionally fell flat whenever I made a slamming sound or bump against the drawers, which are connected to the shelves.

After a long while of putting up with constantly falling picture frames, I finally had enough. Plus I think it is high time that I start personalizing the frames to make them fit my tastes, which is of course is in the hime style. Making a short trip to the nearest dollar store, I bought two black flat wooden frames for $1.50 each.

Wild Orchid Crafts Haul and Review

Sui Princess 1000+ Followers Giveaway

Hello everyone!

Sui Princess of her self-titled blog is currently hosting a giveaway in celebration of gaining 1000+ followers! Here are the prizes:

Though if you are planning on entering, enter quickly since it is going to end soon, in about less than 6 hours last time I've checked!

Good luck to those that are planning on entering or have already entered! 

Link: http://www.suiprincess.com/2012/06/new-blog-layout-1000-follower-giveaway.html

Bag Modification, Cute Stationary, Outfit Pictures, and a Juicy Couture Surprise

Hello everyone!

After what seems to be a month full of blood and sweat and tears, I am finally finished with modifying the bag that I had gotten a while back. Now if you had been around back when I had first started the blog, you would've noticed that I had gotten a large black "The Bay" bag from my mom that looks like this:

Introducing Lavender and Roses V2.0!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick short post as of now, since I am technically posting this at around 2am. Not exact ideal blogging conditions except for the sleep deprived and/or the usual insomniac...

Anyway, as you can tell by the title, I had been secretly working on revamping up the blog. In total I think it took me about 4 days? At least it feels like 4 days anyway. This was also why I have not been updating recently. I figured that I might as well get the revamp out of the way before posting up any new content. Perfect sense right?

Now with that being said and done, what do you think of the new layout (a.k.a. V2.0)? Feel free to leave any feedback in the comments below. Also, I had just found out while updating that apparently Blogger had now integrated the threaded comment feature, so now I should be able to reply to you all properly compared to the "archaic" method that I had been using before. I'm quite aware that in this aspect, I am "late to the party", but I guess that it is better late than never. Going back to the layout for a bit, it is not fully done as of now, so please be aware that there might be some tweaking here and there. Of course, that is for later when I have the time to work on it rather than 2am in the morning. None-the-less, something I thought that you should all know about or be aware of.

Other than the whole layout news, I had finally gotten off my lazy butt and created a Twitter account! My address is here: https://twitter.com/#!/lavendernroses

Thank you for hearing me out! 

A Sight for Sore Eyes along with the Old and the New

Hello everyone!

How have you all been doing? It has been a long while since my last post, but I haven't really gotten the chance to blog ever since I had started taking spring courses. They actually go quite fast what with only lasting about 6 weeks or so, so let's just say that a ton of studying has to be done and leading me to having no life what-so-ever. Major apologies for that. Fortunately for me, I had managed to find a little bit of time in between all the studying and actually got some stuff over the month of May! Both old and new! Yes I am aware that I am "suppose" to be currently on a budget, but I figured that I deserve to get something after going on a month or so without actually buying anything. :/ Yes, a month no joke, though I suppose that having a distraction that goes by the name of school can help out a lot. 

Anyway, I had first bought a cute ring from Forever 21 for around $6. It was after watching I believe The Hunger Games I think? (Which was a good movie) As you can tell from the picture, I really love the bling circling around the face of the ring along with the flower gem in the center. Really lovely and it was one of those "must haves" for me, especially if it is pink. Plus you can tell that you really love it if even your friend picked out the exact same ring for you. 

I then got some essence nail polish and Maybelline Masterprecise pen eyeliner for a total of $14 from Shoppers Drug Mart. I had a $10 off card last time I had made a purchase there and I wanted to use it before it expired.  The nail polish were really cheap, less than $2 for each.

A couple of days later, I got this nice 1920s style nude dress from H&M for $19.95. I really love the style and had been looking for one for a while now. However it was not really "love at first sight" when I had first seen it in the store and had been trying to decide which dress I should pick out of three dresses. Eventually I had decided on getting this one not just because of the style, but I don't have a nude dress yet. I guess now is a good time as any to get one.   

Detail of the front and the torso

Detail of the back

There is where I had finished my old haul and took a long break from the shopping world. Of course by the time the end of May came along, I started having a feel to get back to shopping and my new haul started up. I stopped by Urban Planet after work and I found out that they were actually selling what looks to be bandeau tops for $5! I had been obsessing over bandeau tops ever since I had purchased one off of Yesstyle and had been wearing it constantly. So to actually see them in the stores and in a lace pattern no less got me straight to buying one in black and white (so they could go with everything). 

Lastly, the latest purchase that I had gotten was these cute clay rose earrings for $10! After seeing how cute they were just sitting on the rack and in the colours pink, purple, and blue, I knew that I just had to get them. I had been on the hunt for some cute cheap earrings for a while now to fill up my earring hanger, and in particular I had been looking for earrings that come in a cute design along with some pastel colours to go with my hime wardrobe. I had been specifically looking for ones in pink, purple, and blue because those are the main colours that I had been using, more-so pink than the other colours naturally. Now these earrings were not on sale originally, but who cares! The design more than makes up for it and when I usually see something in the store that I love and did not buy, I usually never see them again! Might as well buy them while they are still "in bloom".

    

I was dressed up the day I got the earrings, so I decided to take some outfit shots. I also decided that when it comes to outfit shots, I will be taking more "detailed" shots. When it comes to outfit shots in general, I value small details like the accessories used, the hair piece, etc. I had been wondering on how to approach the concept of detail shots however. Do you think I should alter the photos to make them fit into one large photo via collage style, or do you think I should post each photo individually to keep them large enough to see the details?

Top: Zellers

Skirt: Yesstyle

Cardigan: Urban Planet

Shoes: The Bay

Tights: Ardene

Accessories: Ardene (Headband), Urban Planet (Necklace), Forever 21 (Ring), Gift (Bracelet/Bangle), eBay (Earrings)

Bag: Coach

I really love this photo, especially with the fringe!

Take care everyone!