New boots!

One pair is for H-ween but I will definitely wear them outside of that marvelous holiday.

Could you just die!  I ♥ supercheap eBay!

P.S. - You should know that fur boots are supertrendy in Japan right now.

I still want to get a pair like these:

Swoon!

Welcome my newest follower:  ♥Nur KissKat♥!  If I reach 20 I'll do a giveaway.  Tell your friends.  :) 

Cute hair + unflattering light...

My word fluorescent lighting is horrid!  I usually take my face close ups at home in flattering natural light but I was running so late this morning (shocker I know) and didn't have time.  So I took some pics at work and this is the best of four even though my bangs look a little messed up.  I'm wearing one of my new hair pins from Forever 21.  :)

I was told I "look tired" today and yes I do because I have to get up at the crack of why am I awake and am such a Bitter Betty about it.

Giraffe love...

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this top!

Giraffe top from Forever 21, overshirt from Japan and necklace picture up close here from JCPenny.

Today I got some black skinny jeans and ripped them (on purpose).  Hopefully they look okay.  I cut one tear a little high up so I hope I can still wear them to work.  It's still too hot for them right now.  (They're saying unseasonably warm.)  Plus, they need to be washed so they'll fringe.

On another note I'd like to thank my new (and old) followers!  Thanks for taking an interest in my blog!

Momo
Shiva
m。m。
Luna
Bridget Beaver
Cherry_Bombb
xoxohime
Gee
Ai
sirensexy
kyoheikun


Thanks so much!

It's just another manic Monday...

Seriously, why was this day invented?  I hate getting up and I always end up leaving late because I just can't get going. 

Regardless, I managed to get myself into this outfit:

I was superexcited to find these leggins last week and wanted to wear them ASAP.  This was not the top that I had envisioned with this outfit but I think it turned out okay.  The verdict is still out on empire tops.  Sometimes, I think they are okay and other times I just think they make me look awful.  As cute as it is this outfit is it's somewhat impractical but I didn't shave.  It's supposed to be in the triple digits all this week.  I don't know about you but I am so over this summer.  It needs to cool down and now.

New York and Co. top and INC top both from Goodwill.  Polka dot leggins $6 from Wal-Mart.

Also, four pictures and my face was still not post material.  Ugh.  Mondays.

New furniture...

So, for the summer my tights have been shoved under my bed in a box and my sweaters in a suitcase.  Seeing that (hopefully) winter might make an appearance soon I needed some sort of storage unit for those items as my regular dresser is jam packed.  On a whim I went to Goodwill in the hopes of finding some cheapo shortie dresser.  Instead I found this weird antique:

It might be a good time to mention that I have a Sentra.  With the help of the Goodwill attendant and some bungee cords I shoved this into my trunk and drove a mile home at about 30MPH.  Oh and by the way this was $7.49.  Yes, you heard me right, $7.49.

Now, what the heck is it?  I think it may be one piece of three.  Add a piece on each side and you have a nice corner buffet or dresser.  What do you think?  (Note: There are no manufacture marks on it.)

Power Saturday!

Today we had to hustle to get the last items for Homecoming.  Those being shoes and jewelry.  We stopped at Forever 21, Claire's and H&M.  Lucky for me, I managed to pick up an essential item for Halloween.  Two more items to go.

Here are some things I got.  Green tiger top from H&M:

Ridiculously cheap hair accessories from Forever 21:

Thanks for having a tight sale Claire's:

I also got a military style top (totally trendy right now in Japan).  I totally came home and took like a 2 hour nap after that shopping trip.

Later, my sister who is in beauty school came over to do my child's hair & make-up for Homecoming.

Long beautiful curls!

She looks so beautiful!

Week end...

This week was ridiculously crazy busy.  I think I made two dinners this week and maybe three lunches. 

This week my WONDERFUL friend さきこ sent me these:

October More, CanCam and Scawaii with the おまけ in the background.  I have been so busy I haven't even read them yet!  I love きこ and I need to send her more things!

Oh by the way, I got my hair cut!  Welcome back to my head...bangs!

(Not the greatest mirror pic but you should notice the obvious bangs and shortened layers but not length.)

Both Old Navy tank and JCPenny shorts from Goodwill.

Next, you may remember this fashion disaster.  Well, I'm certain I found a remedy for that mistake and it totally worked because compliments were flying at me so fast I had to beat them off with a stick!

I got many a compliment on my hair and outfit.

So JCPenny decided to send me $10 in the mail.  I love those coupons (Kohl's sent me one for next week) $10 off a $10 purchase makes so much more sense to me than $10 off a $50 purchase.    Of course, I decided to exercise my mad shopping muscle.

These shoes:

This price tag:

Yes, that says $4.97.  Originally they were $50.  I also got this:

I got out of there spending a little over $7.  Yes, $7.  I am awesome.  My child got a supercute dress for Homecoming.  Pictures soon!  :)

I fell in love with these booties after seeing them in a Japanese magazine and man they are hard to find!  I mean a lot of eBay sellers from China had them but after the horrible experience I had with the faux Fergie shoes, I am wary of buying from Chinese sellers on the eBay.  So, I found these from a US seller and snatched them up.

Some not so fun shopping that I have to do early tomorrow is tire shopping.  Tires for my car are ridiculously expensive and I can't get them at Wal-Mart or Costco.  I have to go to Discount so I'm not looking forward to waiting around there.  However, Homecoming shopping continues tomorrow and we're going to look for shoes and jewelry to go with her dress.  We will be stopping at Forever 21 and H&M and probably Sprinkles Cupcakes.  ;)  Of course, if we can't find anything at those two stores there are others but I am excited about Forever 21 since I perused their site and saw all the supercheap things.

Polka dot...

I wore this today:

Oh black is such a magnificent color.  Top from H&M and skirt from Goodwill.

Here's a picture of my twinner (my daughter Kiki) and me:

I can't disclose why but yes this was planned.  Aren't we adorable!

I totally wear hats...

Today was hat day so I wore this hat from Kohl's that I've never worn before.

Kinda sparse on the accessories today, sorry about that.  Shirt from Japan, hat and leggins from Kohl's.  Fergie shoes.

Sunday I got this adorable pedi (sorry for those who don't like to look at feets):

Complete with jewels and glitter.  :)

Pretty Friday...

I was over at Universal Doll yesterday and found this post.  So I decided to try it.  :)

This is my day wear:

This is my evening wear:

I can't even remember where I got the scarf from since I got it AGES ago.  Boots from the Bay, vest from XI, necklace from Kohl's and the pink shirt is a packaged tee that I dyed.

Mag ♥...

So I just downloaded a couple Japanese magazines.  ♥!

Anyway, in addition to finding new fashion ideas I found my Japanese doppelganger.

Yes?  No?

Curlz...

I wasn't even updating my blog.  I was just catching up on all the blogs I follow when I passed out.  It's not even funny how tired I've been lately.  Every day this week it's been come home, let dogs out, pass out.  I haven't even been going to bed any later.

Anyway, sleepiness aside, here's me today:

My hair was supercute and puffy for about an hour and then it started to relax.  By the end of the day it was damn near dead.  Not really a super girly outfit but I tried to girl it up with the hair and necklace and these shoes (from Japan '09) were not the shoes that I wanted to wear but a last ditch effort.  I need to get some black chunky wedges.  They are a standard that is missing from my closet.  (Ugh, I hate that I don't weigh 300 lbs but still have chins.)

And here's the back view because it's cool:

Leaning tower of fashion...

Today, I demonstrated my uncanny leaning ability.

More attempted gyaru hair today; it turned out cute but hurt my head!  I know that I wear a lot of black.  It's slimming okay!  (I mean seriously.  I look slim.)  Black and white set from Japan and bow necklace from Kohl's.  The hair bow which I oddly got a lot of compliments on today was part of a 80s costume headband.  It was shocking pink with that bow on top.  I just ripped it off.  Gracefully, of course.

Oh and I entered a fashion blog competition on H&M so if you stop by here vote for me please.  I don't think I'll win.  Not with all 6 of my readers.  I don't think they are actual readers anyway.  Appreciate the vote though!

I don't wanna talk about it...

Actually, I do want to talk about it.  I want to bitch about some things so beware!  I have to get up at the crack of "Why am I awake?" aka 6AM.  This leaves me approximately 40-45 minutes to get ready provided I don't screw up.  Examples of AM screw ups are as follows: changing outfits 6109264892 times, getting on the internet or doing other non getting ready related things.  The biggest time killer is changing.  During this time I am reminded of things like how gigantic my thighs actually are which makes me want to cry and in turn makes me not want to get dressed but just crawl back into bed.  Now maybe you're wondering why I don't get up earlier.  Maybe not.  Maybe you're wondering how Silly Putty picks shit up.  I am not a morning person.  I don't start functioning properly until about 9AM.  Like I seriously wish my occupation was college student (who starts at noon).  Let me give you an example of my inability to barely function in the AM.  Today I went to sit down in a chair where there was no chair.  I totally fell on my ass in front of God and everybody.  This was about 8AM.  So, the fact that I get up at 6AM is nothing short of a miracle.  If I mess up where time is concerned what usually suffers (since I am hell bent on maintaining this blog no matter how few readers I have) is anything above my shoulders read hair and make-up.  To be gyaru I would have get up at 4AM and probably have to go to bed at 8PM and where's the fun in that?  I could pick out an outfit the night before but I hate trying on clean clothes after the gunk of the day has accumulated.  And I don't want to rack up the bills by taking multiple daily showers.

I remember, once upon a time, I worked a job with normal hours.  In fact, aside from the two or three times I opened Bashas' this is the earliest I've ever had to get up.  The PI job was 9-5 and before that at my records job I set my own hours which usually meant 9-2.  Now granted I wasn't very fashionable at those jobs but I had the opportunity to be (however fashionable the early 2000s could have been).  I just wish someone would take into account that maybe my current job would best start at 9AM instead of 7:30AM which they recently changed from 8AM.  Thanks by the way.

So this morning, I woke up at my normal time.  I let the dogs out, showered and then changed outfits 389201 times and so both my make-up and hair were rushed.  Above the shoulders I looked like a pile of garbage on top of a pile of garbage which sucks because I bought some new make-up and unfortunately looked horrible because my face did.

At least I ended up with a cute outfit:

The skirt and necklace are from Kohl's and the tank (Old Navy) and Sweater (New York and Co.) are both from Goodwill.  Shoes and socks you know are from Japan.

Bottom line: I hate mornings and I wish I worked normal hours.

Ruffles!

Ooh shiny face.  :(

So I saw this skirt at Target ages ago and didn't buy it because I already had too much stuff in my cart.  Well, a couple weeks later I found one on the clearance rack so I bought it.  It's been in my closet ever since.  I guess I was feeling girly today so I broke it out.  Well, I'm glad I did because I got a TON of compliments on it.

The overshirt is from Japan.  Bow necklace from Kohl's.

P.S. - I am totally ignoring the fact that it's still too あたたかい to wear boots.

(Seriously, what's wrong with my face?!?!?)

Weekend wear...

Fashion watch (with bling)!

J★Style on the weekends?!?!?  Madness!  Day wear:

Top from YesStyle, overshirt from Japan and my signature pink purse and boots from the Bay.  The boots were a good idea when I put them on but became a bad idea the longer I wore them.  (It's still a little warm here.)

Evening:

So I tried my hand at skinny jeans and sandals.  Not bad if I do say so myself.  LC skinny jeans from Goodwill probably $5.  Overshirt part of a set from Kohl's.  Here's I'm pictured with my lovely daughter, Kiki and my wonderful sister, Karen.  Both fashionable ladies.  (Nothing says AZ like a cactus in the background.)

Thursday...

So this is the best of like five poses.  The knot top is from YesStyle and the shoes Fergalicious.  I tried my hand at another gyaru hairstyle.  A lot of people called me Pebbles; they're not schooled in gyaru I guess.  I am not kidding when I say that my head hurt the rest of the day after I took out this hairstyle!  I guess pain is beauty.

What I didn't wear and what I did...

The above is the "didn't wear" outfit.  When I have meetings I do my best to cover the chest tattoo for I'm afraid it might turn people off to me (like I need that any more at work).  I always forget how hard this is until I actually have to do it.  Sadly not many cute pieces are high necked.  Anyway, shown are the supercute Payless shoes and my dogs.  I tried this on last night.  This morning, however, I just wasn't feeling it.

So I opted for this:

Aska shirt from a magazine in Japan as well as shoes an socks.  I'm pretty sure this is my favorite picture ever.  I look so かわいい!

Then I goofed around with gyaru poses.  How weird am I.

I was so inspired by that last post of mine I attempted to do my hair in somewhat of a gyaru style.  Unfortunately, I was super rushed and it didn't come out as polished and together as I had hoped.

Gyaru...

I've been meaning to write this post for sometime.  I am just getting around to it on my lovely day off.  You should know by now that I am fascinated by Japanese fashion.  The gyaru trend is no different; I am definitely intrigued by it.  Now let me preface this by saying I am not a gyaru (aka gal).  I compare my style to theirs and see no similarities so for now I will continue to call my style J★Style until I can figure out what the hell it is.  My Japanese friend, Sakiko tells me the (Japanese) magazines I read are for ladies in their 20s and 30s so at least I'm age appropriate.  (And thank goodness I look younger than I actually am!)  Some are popular among office ladies. 

I think (though I am definitely no expert) that gyaru fashion is popular amongst girls in their teens or early twenties.  I imagine that these girls spend an ungodly amount of time on their appearance much like American teenagers.  They always look so flawless.  They have perfectly manicured nails, big full hair and prominent make-up.  There are a couple reasons that I don't think I could pull off this style. 

1. I look young sure but not that young!
2. My hair refuses to gain any sort of height and/or fullness.
3. I already wake up at an ungodly hour to at least be put together before I leave.

Nevertheless, I do adore this style that graces the pages of magazines like Popteen, Jelly, Egg, Ageha, Popsister and Edge.

Here are some pics:

End week...

I got a lot of compliments on my appearance while wearing this outfit.  I was shocked.  I don't think I look stellar, mostly disproportionate.  :/

Go Kohl's for their J★Style top.  It's all one piece.  Shoes and lil socks from Japan.

Wednesday...

The sour look on my face is courtesy of the rash of shite that's been happening lately.  J★Style inspired overshirt from Kohl's.  It has lace in the back.  The ADORABLE robit dog tank is from Goodwill.  I'm not sure if it's actually a tank or jammies but I'm wearing it as a tank!  Shoes and socks from Japan.