December Favourites

2018 is coming to a close and that means it's time for my December favourites!

Gaming
I've been playing a variety of games this month. Style Boutique 3 was one of them as if you could've of guessed. I unlocked a lot of amiibo items this month and will get around to posting them on my other blog soon. I'm sad that fashion shows are not in this game as I'm missing the challenge of finding perfect outfits.

Besides Style Boutique 2, I've been doing my town up in Animal Crossing New Leaf the past few days so I could update my dream address. Luckily none of my villagers moved out whilst I wasn't playing. I would've been upset if Frita moved out as she's my favourite. Been grinding away on Disney Magical World again. I hate how it's impossible to get certain items in that game and how furniture costs stupid amounts to build. 
 

Ah! I'm stuck!

Now for games that are not on the 3DS. Steam is currently having a sale and you know what that means? Yes, buying lots of games and never getting around to playing them haha. A friend sent me Goat Simulator and a Nancy Drew game which I'm looking forward to playing. I got a whole bunch of other games during the sale as well: the Nancy Drew Collectors Pack, Space Channel 5: Part 2, Voodoo Garden, Find This and Castaway Paradise. I love Castaway Paradise as it's super cute and similar to Animal Crossing. I don't get why Steam never recommended it to me earlier, it's totally the type of game I play! It has some amusing quests, one villager made me sort out his debt and then burying letters from the tax man. Such a crazy game.

Castaway Paradise has some interesting quests.

Music
This month, I received E-girls Lesson 1 album in the mail and it is amazing. I've been listening to it frequently and Ready Go is one of my new favourites. I got the Taiwan Limited Edition that comes with the CD, DVD and Photobook. And I love the fact it came with the plastic sleeve! It's always great when albums come with one as it helps protect the album when in storage.

Another E-girls album for the collection.

I've actually been listening to an album that's not J-Pop or K-Pop related this month. Omg! I know, I think it's crazy. I've actually gotten back into a band called the Kaiser Chiefs. I used to be a hardcore fan back when they first came on the scene with their album Employment. I remember hanging out with my friend years ago waiting to buy their second album Yours Truly Angry Mob. We each got the Limited Edition version but I could never work out what was so limited about it. It was literally the same as the normal one. Their second album is the one I've been listening to a lot recently and it's an excellent album. 

Art 
For Christmas I got a copy of the Everyday Watercolour book from Jenna Rainey. It looks amazing and very informative. I'm excited to start it in the next few weeks. One of my resolutions for next year is to be more creative and I've got a few instructional art books to work through which should be exciting!

Sewing
Picked up a few new sewing patterns recently and looking forward to making some of them early next year. Most of these were Christmas presents but I picked out the patterns I was after as I wanted useful ones I would actually wear. I got the matching accessories pattern for the Lolita dress pattern. I've made my own Lolita dress before from scratch, so it will be nice to try making one based off an actual pattern.

   

My K-Pop Collection 2017

During 2017, I focused mainly on building up my Japanese Pop collection and didn't really work much on my Korean Pop collection in terms of physical albums. I did purchased a lot of digital albums this year from a variety of groups. This post will only look at my current physical album collection though. Here is a photo of all my albums which are a lovely selection of crazy sizes.

The albums in my collection include:

• Crayon Pop - Evolution Pop_Vol.1
• I.O.I - Mini Album Volume 1 - Chrysalis (Special Edition)
• T-ARA - Mini Album Volume 11 - So Good
• Strawberry Milk - The 1st Mini Album 
• Crayon Pop - 2015 Mini Album Volume 2 - FM
• Orange Caramel - The Fourth Single - My Copycat/Do It Like Me
• Orange Caramel - The Third Single - Catallena
• I.O.I - Single Album - Whatta Man
• Crayon Pop - Single Album - Uh-Ee
• Hong Jin Young - Mini Album Vol 2 - The Most Beautiful Moment In Life
• AOA - Vol 1 - Angel's Knock (Taiwan Version A)
• April - Single Album Vol 1 - Boing Boing
• Red Velvet - Vol 1 - The Red
• Girls Generation - 2011 Girls Generation Tour (2CD + Photobook)
  
• Crayon Pop - Mini Album - Streets Go Disco (Australian Version)
• Girls Generation - The Boys (US Version)

Crayon Pop makes up the largest part of my collection as they were one of my favourite groups whilst they were still together as a five-member group. Nowadays they don't release anything, so I haven't had anything new to add to my collection. The Evolution Pop album I ordered from KpopMart which I had never used before. I enjoyed getting the free poster, but I was surprised the order reached me as the box was badly beaten up when I received it. I also found (and I know other fans found it as well) that the product was faulty and the CD's weren't held in place well. I easily fixed mine but I heard you could've sent it back or something. I was lucky enough to get the Australian version of Streets Go Disco a few years ago when the group had a deal to sell the album at a local music store chain. The one thing that I don't like about the Crayon Pop albums is the fact they don't come with photocards (the ones I have didn't come with any). FM would've been an amazing album to have photo cards for!

Crayon Pop collection

Orange Caramel is another favourite group of mine and I'm so disappointed that they no longer promote as a group. Cmon on Pledis, just announce that After School and Orange Caramel are disbanded already and put me out of my misery!! Anyway I only have two physical Korean albums from the group and I would collect more if they weren't ridiculously overpriced. One day I like to get the rest of their Korean singles and albums, but for now I'll just stick with the digital versions.

Orange Caramel collection

Style Boutique 3 Play Journal: These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

The holidays have come and gone for another year. Didn't get much time to play Style Boutique 3 over the recent week. So I though I'd share some pictures of new items in the game that I think are amazing.

Marzipan Sky is my number one favourite brand in the game and Styling Star features a range of new items to the brand. My first favourite is these dresses which are available in multiple colours. I've already talked about them a few times in other posts but I just love them so much!

Another item that I'm in love with are these cute jackets from Marzipan Sky. I'm usually not a fan of the whole crop look or three quarter sleeves (ugh I hate them), but I love the design of these. I'm always using them in outfits when I have some in stock. These jackets come in a range of colours as well and similar designs can be found at other brands.

One of the best new items in my opinion is this cropped jumper from Brooke Bridge. I've never worn anything like this in real life, but as soon as I saw this in the game I feel in love with them. I think it's the colour combination used as you can never go wrong with navy and red. The neckerchiefs can be found in a few brands, like the Brooke Bridge one shown below. I never used scarves much in Fashion Forward, but I've used the neckerchiefs a few times now.

More quirky designs and strange items have been added to Retrobeat. One of the best ones are these bizarre outerwear items. It reminds me of ponchos or rain jackets that you used to wear as a kid. These look great when paired with some thigh/knee high socks. The second pictures shows the cat face knee boots from Marble Lily. I haven't really used these yet and find some rather strange. I would've preferred if they stopped below the knee rather than be thigh high boots.

My J-Pop Collection 2017

This year I added quite a few new albums and singles to my Japanese Pop collection. 2017 was the year I started getting into collecting albums from E-girls and Dream Ami. This month I finally got the last Dream Ami single I was missing to complete my singles collection! Besides those artists, I got a few new albums from some of my favourite groups such as After School and KARA. I got very lucky and managed to get a set of Girls Talk and two Super Girl albums extremely cheap from a seller in Japan. I was so happy when I found them as they are hard to come across, especially the limited edition ones. Here is a photo of my J-Pop collection at the end of 2017. These are all the physical single and albums I have, I have a lot of musically digitally as well.

The albums in my collection include:

• KARA - Girls Talk - Type C (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Super Girl - Type C (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Super Girl - Type A CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Girls Forever - Type A CD+DVD (Taiwan Edition)
• KARA - Best Girls - Type C 2CD's (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Mamma Mia! - Type A CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• KARA - Girl's Story - CD+DVD (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Bang! - Type C CD Only
• AFTERSCHOOL - Diva - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Heaven - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• AFTERSCHOOL - Lady Luck/Dilly Dally - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition
• AFTERSCHOOL - Dress To Kill - CD+DVD+Photobook (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - RaRiRuRe - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Dancing All Night - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Crayon Pop - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• Crayon Pop - Pop!Pop!Pop! - CD+DVD (First Press Limited Edition)
• AOA - Runway - Type C CD+DVD (Taiwan First Press Limited Edition)
• Kyary Pamyu Pamyu  - PAMYUPAMYU Revolution (Hong Kong Edition)
• Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Pika Pika Fantajin (Australian Edition)
• CocoSori - Itoshi no Mermaid - Type B
• Pungdeng-E - Pungdeng-E 1st Japanese Album Ppi Ppi Ppa Ppa
• Orange Caramel - Lipstick/Lum no Love Song - CD Only (First Press Limited Edition)
• Orange Caramel - ORANGE CARAMEL - CD+DVD (Hong Kong Edition)
• Orange Caramel - Yasashii Akuma - CD+Photobook (Taiwan Edition)
• E-girls - Lesson 1 - CD+DVD+Photobook (Taiwan Limited Edition)
• E-girls - E.G. Time - CD+DVD (Taiwan Edition)
• Dream Ami - Dress wo Nuida Cinderella - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Try Everything - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Lovefool - Sukidatte Itte - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Hayaku Aitai - CD Only
• Dream Ami - Kimi no Tonari - CD Only

Kara makes up the largest part of my collection and they were the first k-pop group I got into many years ago when I first started listening to the genre. I'm hoping to collect the last album I'm missing which is Fantastic Girls next year. I have a number of After School and Orange Caramel (After School's subunit) singles and albums, but I have some more in digital form and haven't got the physical ones yet. Dress To Kill was a great buy that I found this year. I brought the Taiwan edition which was about $40 cheaper than the Japan edition of the exact same CD+DVD+Photobook edition.

KARA Collection

AFTERSCHOOL Collection

Orange Caramel Collection

When buying J-Pop singles, I usually get the CD Only edition as it comes with the instrumentals and occasionally bonus tracks. Plus they are always the cheaper edition to buy. With albums, I try to get the DVD edition and occasionally the photobook as well if it comes in the same edition. However these editions often are extremely expensive or out of print. I often buy the Taiwan edition of albums as it is a cheaper price than the Japanese versions and comes with the same content (sometimes more!). I recently got the Taiwan edition of the E-girls album Lesson 1 and it was a good buy as it came with the CD plus a DVD of the music videos and a 64 page photobook. I also have the Taiwan edition of E.G. Time which came with the CD and DVD of the music videos. This year I managed to collect all the singles from Dream Ami who is my favourite solo artist. The covers of her singles are just gorgeous, I just can't pick which one is my number one favourite. I did not buy her recent album though as it was quite expensive for how many songs I didn't own (was only missing four which were new ones), so I just brought the seperate songs on iTunes. I'm hoping maybe one day to find the CD+DVD+Photobook edition cheap second hand if I ever go to Japan.

Style Boutique 3 Play Journal - Cute Cow Outfit & Story Line Completed!

The new Style Boutique game has so many gorgeous and adorable new items. It's great that a range of new items were added into the game that featured designs that weren't previously included. The top category has a cute crop top sweaters available from brands like Brooke Bridge and Marzipan Sky. The first dress pictured below has to be one of my top favourite new items, I can't stop wearing it in the game! I like the colours and the Lolita-esque design of the dress. It is available from Raven Candle and comes in a range of colours. The Rice Ball Earrings are a quirky item available from Kanokoi and if I wore earrings in real life, I'd totally wear them! The bottom picture shows one of the crop tops available from Brooke Bridge.

Dress from Raven Candle

Dress from Raven Candle

How cute are these Rice Ball earrings?

You may have also noticed in the picture above that you can buy 16500 clothing items. And that's not even the total number of stock space you have! You have over 18000 spaces available of stock which is crazy compared to the previous amount in Fashion Forward. I just had to share this picture below as the funny face bag from Brooke Bridge has returned. I know it's not meant to look like a face, but if you look carefully enough, the dots at the top are the eyes and the red part is the mouth/tongue. It's so hilarious that it turned out like that!

The cosplay brand Purple Moon doesn't unlock until later on in the game and it features a range of costumes that were included in the previous game plus some new ones. There's some cute panda qipao (cheongsam) and this amazing cow outfit! Just look at it, so cute! It comes in a range of colours as well.

Cow outfit from Purple Moon

Style Boutique 3 has a new range of animations when you select Try It On. There's only a few in the game now and they took out the awesome rock animation. I also loved the sporty one but the whole sport brand and style got removed unfortunately. The pictures below show some outfits I created and I really liked how they turned out. The first one showcases a psychedelic outfit and the skirt is a new item from Retrobeat. The second is chic outfit from Enid Chen and ARIANNA. The third photo shows off a cute eastern style outfit from the Kanokoi brand.

November Favourites

I know it's a bit overdue but here are my November favourites! I've been so busy playing New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star that I totally forgot to post this list.

Gaming
All I've pretty much been doing in my spare time is playing New Style Boutique 3. Already have over 30 hours of play time, I think I'm addicted. I believe I'm near the end of the main story which is surprising incredibly long. The new game has so many amazing clothes to list and I haven't even had the chance to experiment with a lot of the features like online as I've been so engrossed in the story.

This dress is too adorable!

The new Try It On animations are great!

Music
The local post system is delivering on weekends here to get through all the Christmas orders and I was lucky enough to receive an order from YesAsia the other day! I thought it would take a lot longer as they said it wouldn't ship until November 29th but shipped on the 21st. Hey, I'm not complaining as it means I get my parcel earlier. So this time I got some J-Pop albums I've had on my wish list for a while and these were:

• KARA - Girl's Story CD+DVD
• Dream Ami - Try Eveything CD Version
• Orange Caramel - Yasashii Akuma CD+Photobook

I'm excited to finally have KARA's album as I've been after it for a few years. I finally built the bullet and brought it as I was worried I wouldn't be able to get the version I wanted if it went out of the print.

Toys
Got two new sets of Barbie Fashionista outfits recently. I literally brought them right after the lady pulled them out of the box to put on the shelf. It's getting pretty hard to find sets here and it's annoying I'll have to wait months for new sets to arrive as now I have all the ones I can find.

I am super excited for the Barbie outfits that will be released soon. I know the Hello Kitty one is already available overseas but I'll have to wait a billion years for it here. A Nintendo line was also announced and I really want to get this one for my collection. How cute is the biker jacket? 

 

Style Boutique 3 Play Journal - Too Many Cute Dresses!

So I've been playing New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star non-stop whenever I've had free time. Clocked up about 17 or 18 hours in it so far and I think I'm about 3/4 through the main story line. It's a fun game so far and definitely not what I originally thought it would be like. I thought from the marketing that it would focus more on the idol part and performances, but I've found it's more about serving customers and learning more about their lives.

First off, I have to say the new items in the game are amazing! My favourite items have to be the new dresses that are available from brands such as Marzipan Sky and Raven Candle. They are absolutely gorgeous and look stunning on your character. Here's some photos of some of the ones I've come across and there's many more to be found in the game.

Outfit from Marble Lily.

Dress from Marzipan Sky (comes in a range of colours)

Example of a dress from Raven Candle & the customers dress is from Raven Candle as well.

The addition of watches, bracelets, bangles and headphones was a great idea and they add that extra pop to an outfit. There's a wide range of new outers that are quite interesting and some look like giant sacks with bows. Streetflow was removed and the items are been spread across different brands such as April Bonbon. The stock space at your shop has been increased so there's plenty of room to buy as many items as you wallet will allow!

What on earth is this top from April Bonbon?

I regret giving the customer this outfit, that sack outer is terrible.

I'm still yet to unlock the last two brands at the Exhibition Hall and I like how they brought back the sale feature there. On the 5th, 15th and 25th of each month, two brands hold a sale and it's a good time to stock up on items. So far, Connie from April Bonbon is my favourite brand representative as she looks so adorable and I love her hair colour! The outfit she gave me as a gift was an interesting combination of items.