Today has been a superb mail day! 👏

I just wanted to post a few pictures from day 1 at FFXIV Fanfest EU 2023 because honestly I had one of the best weekends of my life. I was so lucky to get tickets, and although I wasn't hugely into FFXIV when I bought the tickets (we were going for my husband mostly who is a huge fan), my dedication to finishing Endwalker caused a whole new hyper fixation, and then being surrounded by an incredible community for 2 days has just made me love FFXIV so much more and now I am happy to say I am a big fan!

I cannot put into words how amazing the whole experience was, but I will be posting some more pictures and videos from the weekend!

Also Matt and I 3D printed and painted Goobbue earring for some ears I bought way back in the summer. Of course we left it to the very last minute to paint and finish him, but I was so pleased with how he looked!

LEVEL 50 SUMMONER ACHIEVED.

I am very proud of myself. I hope to hit 60 by tomorrow and then 70 by the weekend and 90 by end of next Monday. Pray for me.

Fat cat with a fat cat...

My Wei Wuxian childhood figure arrived and he is beautiful... My danmei shelf is looking pretty good *chef kiss*

I wanted to make a dress out of this fabric for Halloween and I noticed a lot of places were running low. So I thought I would start my Halloween crafting early and ordered it's as I found a place it was on clearance.

I started last night after work and planned to get the basics done ready to sew at the weekend. But before I knew it, I had made the whole thing! 🤦🏼‍♀️😹

I have one more Halloween dress planned this year. Just waiting for the fabric to come in stock. 🎃👻🎃👻🎃👻

Day 7 - I lost my shit when I saw that there was going to be a Mo Dao Zu Shi collab café. I sat up until about 2am trying to figure out how to make an account, use a VPN etc etc.... However obviously by this post you can see I was indeed successful and here we are!

The day started MUCH LESS stressful than the day before. Again this was at a Sweets Paradise so at least this time we didn't have the added stress of HOW DOES IT WORK. We made a plan of what we wanted and what we were going to do before we got in.

We headed there fairly early so we weren't running around like the day before, this one was located in Shinjuku. We found it super easy and had a look in the Bic Camera a few doors down to kill some time and then headed up.

We got in a little early and took our table. It was quite dark in there and it was located underground on the basement floor. There of course was lots of MDZS décor around where we were sitting. Matt didn't want anything on the menu so ordered a main for me and I ordered a dessert too for myself and we each got a drink. He then helped himself to the buffet which he enjoyed.

While waiting for the food I went to the shop and got some limited edition bits including a really cool acrylic stand pictured above.

My food came out and I had a Wei Wuxian spicy curry which although was cold it was tasty and had a kick to it. I then had Lan Wangji's dessert which was super tasty, it had wangxian bunnies made out of ice cream and the little house where they stole the chicken and THE BATH TUB SCENE ahhh it was so freaking cute.

I really enjoyed this café, and I loved that they had the actual suits for Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji on display too. They were beautiful.

Afterwards, I had plans to go to Harajuku and walk to Shibuya and do some shopping for the day. Unfortunately I miss judged how insanely busy it would be, and to be honest it was way too much. We did walk through Harajuku and I went to my fav anime shop there. But it was too much so we decided to leave quickly. And then we walked to Shibuya and went to the Donki, Animate and Mandarake there. It was just so busy and crazy as it was a Sunday, after this trip I would 100% not try any shopping at the weekend, it is honestly unbearable.

We manged to get a table quite quickly Ichiran and finally had a big bowl of ramen, where I ate 3 eggs cause I bloody love eggs. It was absolutely delicious and I enjoyed every bite. It ended up being fairly late when we headed back to Akihabara. I really enjoyed the café in the morning, but I did end up feeling like I had slightly wasted a day as the shops were so packed we spent most the day just walking. You live and learn I guess.

Day 6 - Our first full day in Tokyo... and it didn't start well. We had a reservation at Sweets Paradise, Oshi no ko collab. This was our first ever time at a Sweets Paradise, so we were sure how it worked. The booking was for 12:00 so we had a light breakfast and headed over to Ikebukuro. This is where it started to go wrong.

My google maps did what it did to us last time we were in Japan. And what should of been a 5minute walk, turned into a 30-40 power walk all round Ikebukro.... It was really hot that day too and we were worried we would miss our slot. We were indeed about 20minutes late, hot and snapping at each other, but it was fine and we were allowed in. That was also stressful as we had no idea how it works. Sweets Paradise is an all you can eat buffet. So you have to buy the buffet and then order the special food on top of that.

It ended up working quite well as we only ordered desserts and got to eat actual lunch at the buffet. There were unlimited drinks too!

The day started super stressful but ended up being really nice. I prefer themed cafes as we were just in the corner with all the regular guests around us, and the theming was a bit meh compared to actual themed cafes. However I did love the buffet aspect.

Once we were, calm, feed and rested we head out to Ikebukro for the day. The plan was to shop for the day, but Ikebukro on a Saturday was a nightmare. We went to the world's latest Animate and it was just chaos inside. The queues are mental and honestly it was too much. I did however find this Sakai and Miyano exhibition upstairs that was super quiet. I got a couple of limited edition stands from there and got to look at all the artwork. It was a little surprise I didn't expect.

After that we escaped the hell that was Animate and headed to more shops in the area. I love Ikebukro as it is fan girl themed shops and found lots of cool mech and doujins. We stayed there pretty much all day thanks to the likes of Mandarake that can take up hours of your time. Stopped in a nice Family Mart that had a seating area to get a pizza bun and drink before finishing shopping.

Before heading home we stopped at an arcade and Matt won me a SpyxFamily plush, that was so so cool! Back in Akihabara we headed out to get a our first proper bowl of Katsudon for the evening!

I had such a pile of figures to unbox. I have been putting it off so I could update my insta and make reels. Honestly I don't enjoy it. I have a few that have gotten a good chunk of views, one went over 20k! But most of them get a couple of hundred max. So I thought whats the point, especially when I don't enjoy it? I hate the pressure social media puts on everything we do.

So I sat down and unboxed them one by one and the joy that was missing came back with the pleasure of slowly unboxing each figure and taking my time apricating every one I set up.

Of course I snapped some pictures to share afterwards.

I got 2 TGCF figures. The nendoroids and this chibi figure. Then I got Anya, and Kyo (to go with Yuki) nendoroids too.

I read recently that 'twee' fashion is making a come back. I learnt two things from this article. 1. I used to be twee and it's my favourite way of dressing and I never left my 'twee' phase. 2. This explains why it's so hard to find clothes I love when I used to be spoilt for choice and why my favourite brands make clothes I don't like now. Unfortunately I haven't seen twee come back but instead been sadly waiting. I need some new clothes for my Japan trip in May and I've been struggling to find stuff I like. I regularly for YEARS eye up an American brand that I drool after. Cotton dresses, cute patterns but based in America with a steep price tag before they've even gotten to the UK put me off. And I always think damn it I could make that. Turns out I was right. After seeing a Xmas dress they had for over £100 in the UK and finding the fabric online. I decided to stop complaining and take the plunge and I dusted off my Simply 6262 pattern and my fabric I had hidden away (I had planned to do this in the summer, but I got overwhelmed and hid it with other projects never to be touched again) and I got to work to see if I could do it. And I can, and I am soooo happy with the outcome.

The collar is detachable (I didn't make that) but everything else is made by me. I have added some close up pictures below too as I was really happy with how neatly it came together in places. It was easier than I thought and I'm definitely making more. I went for a looser and longer fit than I used to like. I prefer that nowadays comfort is key. It's not perfect but tbh it looks better than clothes I have bought from fast fashion places so I'm ok with that. I think if i had an over locker the inside would look much better. But for now we will stick to the zigzag stitch.

I've only ever made one full fitted dress before years ago (Totoro cosplay) and the sleeves went wrong. So for my first attempt at a dress I'm pretty pleased.

Right as I got to the end of the first dress I ran out of thread so made a dash to the fabric shop. While there I grabbed some of this space fabric (I already made a skirt with it) as I always thought it would make a awesome dress. I swore I would rest Sunday and make this over the Christmas break. But then I thought maybe I'll just cut the pieces out. Then I thought I'll just start it and finish it during the evenings this week. Before I knew it I spent all day and did it all. I'm not sure why I thought I would take it slowly 🤷🏼‍♀️ AHH well I am so so happy with it 😍

My cute dress possibilities are now endless. I have some Christmas cat fabric on the way, which is actually what spurred me on to try. I want to make quite a few more for my trip to Japan so I have lots of nice things to wear there. I think that is very do-able I have over 5months!

I am very excited and cannot wait to make more.

Does advertising work? Yes it does. Did I buy this cause all the BL dramas I watch advertise it? Yes I did. Is it delicious. Yes it is.

Yesterday we went to artbox cafe to the Hello Kitty theme. I thoroughly enjoyed the food and it was a lot of fun. I did however fall on my way home on my face and my ankle is so swollen 😭

Sakaguchi San thanking Yoshi-P for making Final Fantasy better and making him cry was just so 🥰

I was meant to visit the Hello Kitty café before Christmas, but I caught Covid. I got to go the week after though! The food as usual was soo good and cute!

I dream to be as relaxed and comfortable as this cat.

Gift from a friend, approved by Sebastian