September Favourites

I was thinking about what to talk about in this month's favourites and I couldn't think of much. This month went past pretty quick with work and stuff so I don't remember much that went on. The weather hasn't been very spring-like here as it has been raining most days with temperatures in the tens. Some days we even had stacks of hail which I haven't seen for a long time. Hopefully it will warm up soon and we can all get some use out of our summer attire! Just a quick monthly favourites this month as I don't have much going on.

Gaming

This month I've mainly just been playing some 3DS here and there as well as some Sims 4. Found a bunch of game packs on clearance at some stores so I was able to get some more content for my game. Picked the perfect time honestly to get into the game as I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for the content. 

The other day Nintendo announced some exciting things in their Direct video. First off is Brewster finally in Animal Crossing New Horizons! I'm happy he is coming back as I miss all the old characters and I'm sure others do to. I was actually playing New Leaf the other day on my 3DS and it made me sad that so many cool characters were removed in New Horizons. I wonder what content Brewster will bring to the game and I haven't played for ages so it gives me an excuse to try the game out again.

Another piece of interesting news was the Disney Magical World 2 remaster for the Nintendo Switch. My friend sent me a messaging asking if I had seen the new Disney game for the switch they announced and I was over the moon thinking it was a new game or a port of the arcade version exclusive to Japan. Then all my excitement went down the drain when I discovered what it actually was. Like who was asking for a rerelease of the 2nd game? I've already played that one and still own it! I read about some DLC being included which is just clothing and items. Nothing worthy of being called Enchanted. At least the first game had DLC that added new regions and that would've been worth the remaster or just combine both into a set. I'm waiting until it comes out in December to see if anything new has been added but I just don't have the time nowadays to grind at a game I've already completed. I do miss taking cute screenshots in the game :( The pose mechanic in that game was hilarious!

Outfit of the Day - Shopdo Set-Up

Earlier this month, I posted an update to my Shopdo boutique in New Style Boutique: Styling Star. Today's outfit of the day is the very outfit that my character was wearing in that update. I went with a blue themed look to match the blue theme of my boutique! I am absolutely in love with this outfit which is one from my scrapbook collection. I have previously posted about it in my Scrapbook Outfits post and I must really love it if I still had it saved. The blue tones are lovely and soft which make it the perfect outfit for a mild spring day. This jumper and skirt combo looks great and I kept the accessories limited to just jewellery. At first, I thought of doing a blonde tone for the hair but when I selected this dusty pink colour, I just fell in love. It matches the sweet feel of the rest of the outfit and makes it really pop!

Daiso Haul - Finally Washi Tape!

It finally happened! Daiso restocked their washi tape sets! I'll get more into the washi tape journey later on in the post. Looks like my closest Daiso got a whole bunch of more stock in which I wasn't expecting. I was excited at all the stock they got in during my last Daiso trip post and couldn't believe it when I saw they got more in. Here are all the items I picked up and this was all about $15. 

I have been searching for ages for this particular item and they must've just got them back in. The item is this great set of washi tape that comes a number of colours and patterns. I brought a set when Daiso first opened a store here in the city and could never find it again. So when I was visiting the store this month thinking it would just be the same stock they had in last time I went which was just after their restock, I found the tape! I was so happy as I love this type of washi tape due to its thin size and you get a good range of patterns in one pack.

The remainder of the items were stickers of course as Daiso is my go-to for stickers. I picked up a few sets that I passed on during my last visit. First up are these gorgeous stickers that feature a brown background and cute drawings. I didn't have anything like this in my collection yet so that's why I picked them up. Decent size and you get two sheets in the packet! The 2 sheet sets are getting harder to find in Daiso so it was good to find some.

Girls Mode 3 Glitter ☆ Coordination Book - トルテポルテ Clothing Items

More content from the ガールズモード 3 キラキラ☆コーデ  book (Girls Mode 3 Glitter ☆ Coordination in English) is here for this week's post. I've decided to post the Retrobeat pages as they are just so colourful and exciting. This brand is known as the psychedelic brand and features a wealth of clothing in every single pattern you can imagine! Plaid, shapes and even bread! The title of the brand in Japanese is トルテポルテ which translates to Torteporte. Very interesting name for an interesting brand! In the western region games, the brand is known as Retrobeat.

As I mentioned before, the main image/style of トルテポルテ is the psychedelic style and the brand also features the following styles: lively, girly, boho-chic, sporty, bold, rock, chic, feminine and preppy. That's quite a lot! I think the number of items available at トルテポルテ is quite decent and you can always find a few favourites from it. If they ever make a new Style Boutique game, I've always thought this brand or Soy would be on the chopping block. You know how the developers love taking brands out rather than adding new ones. I feel sometimes トルテポルテ doesn't get enough love in the game and fashion trends have evolved so more unique items could be added to the brand. Does anyone else feel like Retrobeat was a brand they ignore in the game but came to love it eventually? I felt that way as I tended to avoid it and once I starting making more outfits in Styling Star, I got really into the brand! You do have to spend time experimenting with the brand's items and you can find some good sets and combinations!

Outfit of the Day - Purple Plaid

Felt like a classy rock themed outfit for today's outfit post! Once again, I picked out an item that had the 'new item' tag on it meaning that I'd never used it before. The item was this cute plaid dress that I felt gave a stylish appearance. Turns out there was quite a few accessories that matched perfectly with it! When I think about it, most outfits I make in the game are always based off colour. Must be what my brain gravitates towards when making decisions. That's pretty much how I picked out the shows and jewellery. There was even a bag to match the plaid print of the dress and it was purple as well! For the hairstyle, I went with something funky and this side hair is a classic. It gives this rock themed outfit a more girly feel.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Play Journal - Artsy Villager Photos

Even though it is now Spring here, it's still winter in my Animal Crossing New Horizons play journals. These photos are from my backlog of snaps from the game during 2020 and I love looking back at them to see how much my island has changed. I thought we'd start off with two cute photos of my character chilling with the snowboy I just made. Get it? Chilling! I'll see myself out after that bad joke haha. The snowboys look amazing when the light catches their shadow like in this photo. I left this area open so I could have lots of space to create them. The second photo is of Eugene just being Eugene. I caught him staring out into the ocean and took this photo. I love when the villagers do this as it feels more unique than just running around like an aeroplane.

Opened up a new bridge on my island and this one is located by the Able Sisters. My great idea was the have a waterfall by the shop and I haven't done much else with it. It's a bit of a difficult area but I love this small river part where the bridge is by the waterfall that leads off from my house area. All the villagers came out for the bridge opening and today I only have 2 of these villagers left on my island. Amazing how many animals you can cycle through during the early parts of the game.

Outfit Of The Day - Girly Returns

Since I am getting back into posting more Style Boutique content, I thought it would be a great idea to bring back my outfit posts! I'm experimenting in trying to create outfits from items I rarely use so this is a perfect opportunity to do just that. Sometimes it's nice to just create a basic outfit and not be tied to a challenge or theme. I've got the first outfit for the revival of the series here today and it's a lovely girly themed look!

That was the main focus of this outfit is the colour maroon and I picked out the skirt first and went from there. I never noticed before how basic this skirt design is and that it would work well for a few styles such as pretty or psychedelic. I selected this inner and outer as I thought the colour matched perfectly. Do you think this is a shade of maroon or a really really really dark red? I thought it was more maroon kind of like a wine colour. 

I threw on some accessories to complement the outfit before heading off to the hair salon. I wanted to go with something I don't use often as I tend to stick to my safe hairstyles. This style is one that I've been interested in lately especially with the side fringe. I think it looks cute with the beret and has excellent volume! I didn't change my character's make-up as I always use the same style cause I'm boring. Honestly I like how it looks and cannot be bothered changing it back to this perfect combination every time I do a new outfit or challenge. Fashion Forward was great how you could save make-up and there was so many crazy combinations. The make-up feels a bit toned down in Styling Star but at least it looks great for photos!

T-ARA Jewelry Box - Album Review (Pearl Edition CD Only)

Time to share one of my favourite albums from one of my favourite classic K-Pop groups - T-ARA's Jewelry Box! This was a title I was trying to get my hands on for ages and I finally got a good copy with the extras from Japan. I feel sometimes new K-Pop fans forget about how big T-ARA was and this release is a great one to get if you want to get into the group as it covers so many great songs from them. Let's take a look at the Pearl Edition of Jewelry Box!

Jewelry Box is T-ARA's first Japanese album and it was released in June 2012. The album was released in three editions: Diamond, Sapphire and Pearl. I'll talk more about the Diamond and Sapphire Editions later on in the post. I brought the Pearl Edition which is the cheapest edition retailing at ¥3,000. I got mine through Yahoo Auctions second hand along with the Pearl Edition of the group's second Japanese album Treasure Box. My copy came with the following contents:

• Member Plate CD (1 of 7 members) - 13 track album
• Lyrics booklet
• Jewel case
• OBI strip
• Event information cards
• Photocard (8 to collect)

The Pearl Edition of Jewelry Box is my favourite of the three just for the concept and design. The colours are beautifully vibrant and I'm always drawn to anything pink! The outfits are very on point for T-ARA and you can see each member's charms come through in the photos. The front cover has the girls lounging around in a cute bedroom and the back cover has another fun photo. The track listing is noted at the top and there is the usual production credits as well.

Shopdo Update - September 2021

Updated my Shopdo after what seems like an eternity! These outfits will be up for all of September along with the blue boutique theme. For the update, I wanted to go with something that felt like Spring even though the weather is still cold here. Been absolutely freezing lately and lots of rain! I decided to have a blue coloured theme for this update and went with some fresh looking outfits. 

First up is Blue Spring which is inspired by the type of outfit I'd love to wear if the weather was warm. I've always been a big fan of this skirt from Marzipan Sky so I went with it as main piece. The look is a fun youthful outfit perfect for a day out! The second outfit is a more feminine inspired outfit and I tried to use items I rarely use. Are these types of jeans back in fashion now? I feel everyone talks about them coming back and I'm dreading it. Had enough of them back in the 2000's! The outfit is a casual look ideal for shopping in an outdoor shopping area or on a spring date. The final outfit is a lively look using some items from April Bonbon that I've never really used. I picked out the shorts first and then I discovered this camisole matched them perfectly. I wonder if I've just missed this combination all these years.

You can find all these outfits at my Shopdo ID 0006271056 in New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star (EUR/AUS Region).

MyNintendo Merch!

Does anyone else remember Club Nintendo? It was that old point system Nintendo had ages ago which made you hoard up those little red cards from games and redeem the codes for points for sweet merch. I got some cool stuff from that old club such as a Pikmin bag and a Mario memory challenge game. Well Club Nintendo was discontinued years ago and the replacement for it is MyNintendo. I had been saving up points on my account all year to redeem for some merch and it arrived recently so let's take a look!

The main reason I was saving up points was for this Pikmin bag. I love my calico bag from the old Club Nintendo as it is super durable and quite stylish. Nintendo has done away with the fabric style bags and gone for a more environmentally friendly polyester/rubber material bag. The best thing about this bag compared to the old one is that it folds down super small! It's always a pain trying to carry a shopping bag in a small bag so I was over the moon to discover this was super tiny and I got fit it in my main handbag. For those not aware, the part of Australia that I live in has banned plastic bags so when you go to the shop it's recommended to bring your own reusable bag. Shops still have bio-degradable bags but you have to pay for them. My car is literally only filled with calico bags as I've gained quite a collection over time. Then I always forget to put one in my work bag when I actually need one :P

I cannot get over how adorable this Pikmin design is! It's too cute for words! I love the colour scheme and little character designs on the sides of the bag. The bag looks durable so it should last for a long time (the recommended maximum weight is 7kg). I can see myself getting a fair bit of use from this bag and taking the Pikmin along with me for a shopping adventure!

The next bag I got from MyNintendo is this Dodo Airlines design from Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This was the first thing I saw on the points store when someone posted about it in our Nintendo group. I thought it was super unique and a more interesting Animal Crossing design compared to the usual logo things. Don't get me wrong, I would love a bag just like that on the points store as well! But this Dodo Airlines bag just screams 'Are you ready for a water landing?!?!' haha. The blue, white and yellow colour scheme is lovely and this bag is a nice contrast to the cute Pikmin one.

One Item Challenge - Enid Chen

Picking back up my One Item Challenge series for Style Boutique: Styling Star! I searched back through my old posts to find a brand that I hadn't done yet and Enid Chen was on the list. So I decided to go with a versatile item for the challenge. It had to be something that works with a variety of styles and can be used with different items. I went with this luxe bandeau in a simple black tone as I knew every brand has something to match it. Plus strapless tops allow the use of lovely accessories like necklaces!

I had fun creating all these outfits as it has been forever since I did this challenge or even really played Style Boutique this much. Honestly I love all the outfits which I think is just due to me not seeing everything for such a long time. First up is the chic themed outfit to match the image of the item and I tried to go some contrasting colours for this look. White and black always look elegant together and that was my inspiration for this outfit. Had to chuck in my favourite glasses from Enid Chen of course because they are perfect!

Who knew this luxe bandeau would work so well in all the images in Style Boutique? I had no trouble at all thinking of outfit combinations and made all of these up pretty quick. I tried to focus on using items I hadn't use much in the past as I want to try to start making more outfits outside my comfort zone. I noticed many items still have the 'new' mark on them, like how on earth have I not used some items? There's just a wealth of them in the game! All these outfits are amazing but if I had to pick a top three I would choose Purple Moon, Glam/Flirty and Gothic. I enjoyed how lovely these three in particular turned out and I can't get over how the glam one looks kind of trash but totally works!

Lively