I made my own jewelry!.....sorta...

I went to visit a friend in Kyoto last week, and while there, she took me to a store in Kobe where I made my own jewelry... sorta...

Well it was all that she told me it would be, and more! See, she's a designer - one of those artsy type of girls; great at drawing and really creative. So when she showed me this hair clip she had, I immediately asked her where she got it from. It had flowers and lots of pretty things on it, and matched a dress she was going to wear to a wedding.

She told me she can take me there, and the place was amazing. A whole wall full of jars on shelves which had everything from beads to flowers and chains, etc. My jaw dropped. Not only that, each shelf had about three other shelves hidden behind so that when you slide it to the side, you can see another shelf full of more items you can use.

There were two areas in the store where the store employees can be seen working over a table full of tools, making the jewelry items that the customers request. You can get a small bowl, where you put in the beads, lace, or whatever material it is that you want to use to make your bracelet, earrings, necklace, hair piece, or whatever it is you want to create! You go around the store, gathering those items, looking at various samples already made, and getting advice from the employees who are readily available to give you tips and ideas. All the items were so unique, and since you can pick how you want them arranged, the length of the chain or whatever material you choose, you get a real unique piece that no one will have.

The prices were okay as well, less than $20 for the necklace I made, and about $30 for my earrings.

I was nervous and overwhelmed at first, and did feel a bit of pressure because I could be so indecisive and my friend was waiting on me to make a decision. I had no idea about what theme I'd pick, or where to even start for that matter... It took ages, and I finally decided to go with something simple (I didn't know how much it would cost me anyway). So I got this gold wired ball, put in this purple gem, and asked them to put the chain on it to make a necklace.

Once I handed it over and had some time to look around while it was being made and no more pressure, I started to look at the things differently. In fact, I could suddenly see all the potential and ideas would pop in my head from everywhere. I saw this snowman piece, which you can attach any type of pearl on the bottom as its body, and thought I wanted to make a christmas/holiday piece. I found a present and a star, and thought, "Ah, perfect!" My friend recommended which chain I should use (the thinnest one I think) and the lengths of each chain to hang the pieces, and a store employee recommended some of the actual earring types from which it would hang from. I just picked a plain studded earring.

The lady took the measurements, and we waited once more for it to be made. I could have kept going, but my wallet kept reminding me that I better stop, haha. I loved the way it came out, and it is hands don my favorite earrings that I own. I am going to wear them all the time once Halloween is over! I want to go back and make more the next time I go down near Kyoto =)

It was super fun! You get to make your own personalized jewelry without the hard work, haha! I love it because a few months ago I went to buy pieces to make my own personalized earrings, (the total was over $40 bucks too) and never actually went through with it. It's still somewhere in my room (I should probably start on that too now)...

Anyway, I hope you guys had a great weekend~

Eyelid Trainers

I recently went to look for some pet food here in Japan and while strolling towards the pet isle, I saw these dangling down and thought I'd get a closer look at this peculiar looking item.



Now I wasn't sure what to think. I know here in Asia the double eyelid is desired and many even have surgery just to get that crease.

I've seen many gadgets that they sell such as tape or glue that one can apply daily and now even these eyelid trainers. It sort of looks a bit scary in my opinion, but you have to admire their creativity in their products. Lol.

Anchor/Rockabilly Nails

Lately I've been really loving the rockabilly look. So I thought, why not do "rockabilly nails" too? So the outfit I wore just had this simple stripped top that was tucked into these high waisted shorts. Now I didn't have red wedges or pumps, which I really wanted to wear, so I just used the red on my nails instead =P

You might not be able to see it in the picture, but I have little anchor earrings that I also used for the nail look.

I have been looking in to buying bright colored pumps or flats recently, so I think I'll start with red~ 

I hope you guys are having a great week!

Cinco De Mayo Nails

I was thinking about nail looks, and since it's Golden Week here I was thinking about Children's Day (a Japanese holiday) nails. But since I already did that before I thought I'd give another holiday a try: Cinco de Mayo! 

So first, I thought I'd use colors from the Mexican flag - green, white, and red. I was initially going to blend them together (gradation) but... I didn't lol.

So I'm using gel instead of polish today, so I used a couple of brushes. You can use one or two (one for light gel colors and one for darker ones) but since I was going back and forth with the colors I just decided to use one brush per color except for the gold and yellow.

So this week I am resting my nails, so I am using fake nails. Unfortunately, I wasn't very careful and so I got some of the gel on the tape under the nails which stayed on the sides of the nails after I peeled the nails off...

So I started with one coat of the green on the left...

followed by the red on the right...

then the white in the middle to help straighten the lines too. You can cure the gel after each color to help the colors not blend in together, but that might take a while. 

After paining all three colors, I cured it for 30 seconds then put on one more coat.

 

Next, taking a super thin brush, I used black to make these prints and then cured it for 30 seconds once more. All nails except for the thumb and ring finger's ended there.

Both the sombrero and the maracas had this metallic gold color.

So I started by making a somewhat triangular shape, then something like a sideways 8 or infinity sign underneath and color it in. Then I cured it for 30 seconds.

Lastly, I outlined the hat with black, shaded it a bit and added a line of yellow on the bottom on the triangular shape we first drew. Cure.

Same with the maracas on the ring finger's nail. I started with two round balls and draw a line with a smaller ball at the bottom. 

Again, I outlined it and used yellow for some details on the maracas and cured the nails. 

After adding on the top coat I cured them, this time for 2 minutes.

And finito! That's it! It took a bit of time with the black, but I like it =) I wish I didn't have to wait to do my own personal nails... Happy-soon-to-be-Cinco-de-Mayo!!!!

Baseball Fun

So I was not dressed to go to a baseball game, it had actually gotten chilly after the sun went down... But my boyfriend surprised me and took me down the street to see a game. It was the Yokohama Bay Stars vs. the Hanshin Tigers. Since we live in Yokohama, we decided to cheer for the Bay Stars, even though they generally suck... And it was pretty much our only choice since all the seats in the visiting team's section was pretty much sold out!

So if you saw my last post, you know I had to get me some of that!! lol I got some fries and BBQ chicken, cause the alternatives were some bento boxes with rice balls or noodles!

The Bay Stars actually did great today!! They actually started with 2, 3 home runs while the other team had 0 throughout. Even the other fan sitting behind us were like, "Wow, we are on a roll today. This is so unusual!!" They kept making comments about how unbelievable it was lol, and I was just thinking, "Jeez, they must really suck if even their fans are in disbelief that their team is in the lead". 

Well if you guys know anything about Japanese baseball games, then you'd know all about the fans. They make songs for each player on the team and sing/chant for them when they are batting (trumpets, drums and huge flags included). It's just such a fun and lively atmosphere that anyone can enjoy the game even if you don't really know what's going on =). 

This upcoming week is Golden Week, and pretty much everyone is going to be off for the week! Fun times await us as prices go up for vacation deals and everything's booked up and over crowded =P. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Spring in Kyoto

I totally missed hanami (cherry blossom viewing....or rather having a picnic under a cherry blossom tree with friends who mostly get wasted lol) this year. So when my best friend from elementary invited me to visit her this past spring break, I was happy to know that I could still get a chance to at least go see the cherry blossom trees in Kyoto.

The weather started out real badly, it had rained the whole previous day as well. But by the time we got to her work place (That's right. She gets to work by this beautiful garden everyday. How peaceful...) the rain started to stop and the sun even came out briefly once in a while.

That's obviously her hand lol.

Someone at her job made these and were just outside (drying?) but it looked so pretty so I snapped a shot. 

I went to see a traditional Japanese dance performance later that day with my best friend who got some great tickets.

Those special tickets included some Japanese sweets and tea. The maikos, as seen in this picture, served us some tea! I'm not much of a fan of Japanese sweets (toooooo sweet) but we got to keep the little plate as a souvenir.

That was the stage, which also extended to the sides. It had some trap doors lol, it was hilarious and unexpected to see them pop up or disappear. I enjoyed the show so much. The colors, make up, kimonos,... it was really beautiful. 

Please tell me I'm not the only one who got hungry reading that bus stop's name, lol =P

Anyway, I'm still anxiously waiting for warmer weather... I hope the weather is a lot better wherever you are<3