Halloween Time!

The spookiest time of the year is here for it is Halloween! I thought it would be fun to share my favourite things about Halloween. Halloween isn't that big in Australia but in recent years it has been growing in popularity. More shops are now selling decorations and costumes and I've even seen a few houses all decorated around the suburbs. I think because Christmas is pushed so early in the shops that people forget about Halloween. I am totally over seeing Christmas stuff in August so I'm all for Halloween.

First off on the Halloween list is one of my favourite characters, Rilakkuma! Japan always goes all out for holiday themed anything and Rilakkuma is no exception. San-X brought out some super adorable Rilakkuma and friends Halloween plushies this year. Just look at these costumed cuties! Rilakkuma in the ghost outfit would be my favourite. 

When I was younger, Halloween wasn't celebrated at all over here. So my only exposure to it was through American television shows. I grew up watching Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Cartoon Network so I loved around Halloween time when the channels would play the Halloween specials. Big Time Rush was one (and still is) one of my favourite live-action Nick shows and the Halloween specials of that were so hilarious. But the ultimate Halloween special would be the Sabrina the Teenage Witch ones. The show was perfect for Halloween and the Halloween episodes were always well done. Planning on marathoning the Sabrina specials on the 31st for Halloween.

Halloween seems to be the hot topic for Youtubers around this time. A few of my main Youtubers put out good content for teh spooky season. I'd say Ashens has the best Halloween videos where he buys Halloween themed junk (or tat as he refers to it as) and reviews it. Looking forward to seeing the horrors he finds this year. Another Youtuber that I quite like is Mia Maples who is a Canadian Youtuber who reviews clothing websites, does make-up videos and other fun things. She's down to earth and gives honest reviews of the products she tries. I'll leave her recent costume try-on video below where she tries out costumes from Fashion Nova.

Couldn't forget Disney in a Halloween themed post! Halloween shows up in Disney Magical World and it's probably my favourite holiday in the game just because of the cute costumes the main characters wear. It's a shame that you can't craft the outfits that Mickey and friends wear for yourself. I really want Daisy's outfit!!!

Shopdo Update

Here is the final Halloween themed Shopdo update and I'm a bit sad as I had lots of fun with this theme. I went with some classic gothic and baby-doll lolita coordinates for the final week. The first outfit features one of my favourite items from the Raven Candle brand which is this jacket. I wanted to go for a dark witch inspired look with the dark purple tones in the outfit. The second outfit is just the same outfit that my character is currently wearing. I added this outfit to the catalogue as I thought it was colourful and fun. The third and final look is another gothic Lolita look titled Velvet Cupcakes. I wanted to go with a dark red toned outfit that was elegant. These new dresses and capelet's from Raven Candle are perfect for matching looks. So if you would like to visit my Shopdo for Halloween, you can find it at Shopdo ID 0006271056 if you play New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star (EUR/AUS region).

Colour Outfits Collection - Black

This type of post was going to show up sometime as the colour black is a staple for many outfits. I thought it would be appropriate to post my collection of black coloured outfits in Styling Star as black is one of the spooky colours of Halloween. Headed off to the Live Music Club for this photoshoot as it's not a location I use often and the dark backdrop matched the tones of the outfits. My favourite outfits from this collection would be the bold, chic and glam/flirty ones. I love the contrasting patterns on the dress in the bold outfit, the pink looks stunning with the black. I was quite pleased with the glam/flirty outfit as my least few tries at this style haven't been that successful. You can never go wrong with a sparkling gold top! So here are all the outfits in the black toned outfit collection.

Lively

Eastern

Basic 

Zenmarket Haul - AOA, KARA & WJSN

Time for another Zenmarket haul! I received this package a few weeks ago so I thought it was finally time to share it. In this order, I got a bunch of AOA, KARA and WJSN albums and singles. When I was typing out the name of this post, the title made me laugh because all the groups are written in capitals. That rarely happens and this time it was just luck that all three groups I got CD's for had capitals in their group name. Anyway, here are the CD's I got from Zenmarket!

First off, here are the AOA singles I got! All these came in a set from the same seller I brought my AFTERSCHOOL set from. All the albums were in great condition like the last ones I received. The main reason I brought this set was because it contained four editions of the group's 胸キュン Mune Kyun singles and I have been after them for a long time. 胸キュン Mune Kyun is favourite AOA song and it is the Japanese version of Heart Attack. The editions of the single that I received were Sexy Version Type A CD+DVD and Type B CD+Photobook and Cutie Version Type A CD+DVD and Type B CD+Photobook. The original listing stated that there was 2 photocards included which were the group one. But when I opened up all the cases, there was an extra 3 photocards! So now I have 5 of the same photocard. The photobooks for 胸キュン Mune Kyun are a removable book nad I'm not sure what I think about this. I'm usually fine with this concept if the single/album comes in a box but 胸キュン Mune Kyun isn't that so the photobook just comes out. I do love the pastel colours of the photobook though, they're stunning!

胸キュン Mune Kyun - Sexy & Cutie Type A and Type B editions

胸キュン Mune Kyun photobooks for the Sexy and Cutie versions

The other AOA single I received was  愛をちょうだい Ai Wo Choudai (Give Me Love feat. TAKANORI NISHIKAWA (T.M.Revolution]) in the Type A CD+DVD Edition. This is another one of my favourite AOA releases and I did not yet have any edition of this in my collection. Love the concept of this single and looking forward to collecting the other editions of the single.

Shopdo Update

In keeping with the current spooky boutique interior, this week's Shopdo update includes gothic themed outfits. The first outfit is a casual gothic look in a ouji fashion style. I tried going for a masculine looking outfit and wanted to experiement using some shorts from Raven Candle instead of dresses and skirts all the time. I titled the outfit Nightmare Bunny after the cute black and white bunny bag. The second outfit is a musical themed gothic look. I love these gorgeous music note print skirts in the game and they even have inners to match. It's great when the developers made these matching sets as it makes it easy to create coordinates that look well put together. For the final look, I wanted to go with a girly outfit but I put a twist on it. I picked out one of these new giant outers to use and then I thought it kinda looked like a ghost. So I thought why not create a ghost costume? It's the perfect thing for Halloween! I really liked how the outfit turned out as I totally wasn't expecting this concept to work. If you would like to visit my Shopdo, you can find it at Shopdo ID 0006271056 if you play New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star (EUR/AUS Region).

Style Boutique 2 Room Address Update: October 2018

This month's room has been available for download since the start of the month, but I've only got around to posting the update on here until now. I've been quite busy lately creating guides for my Style Boutique blogs which I'm quite pleased with. Managed to get a whole stack made this week so there should be lots of updates going on up the Styling Star one over the next few months. I'm going to try to finish off some guides for the Fashion Forward one as well. I was so busy with work that last few months that I didn't have enough time to do guides for both games. I want to finish off all the Purple Moon sets so that's my main goal at the moment.

Anyway back to the room update! For this months Caprice Chalet room, I went with an office layout. This is one of my favourite room designs as it's quite unique and a bit out of the box design wise. So I thought 'Office Space' would be a nice room to upload for October.

The main design aspect of this room is the photocopier which was available through the Animal Crossing Happy Home Designer DLC. Seeing this item again makes me sad that Styling Star has received zero DLC compared to Fashion Forward which had a decent amount of DLC releases for the West and stacks for Japan.

For the room design, I pretty much just placed miniatures around the space to create a messy office environment. Fashion Forward has quite a few writing themed miniatures so I put those to good use as well. Actually used a window in this design, they tend to be a miniature that I avoid using. If you would like to visit 'Office Space', you can find it at room address 180-239-9851!

One Item Challenge - Raven Candle

Haven't posted one of these in a while since I was doing the 30 Day Cosplay Challenge last month, so I thought it was time for another One Item Challenge. This time, I shall be taking on the gothic and spooky brand Raven Candle. I decided to go with a all black pannier skirt from the brand as it would be the most versatile item to use with other images. Here's a picture of the Rose and Ribbon skirt from Raven Candle that I will be using as my one item.

Gothic
First off is the matching image to the skirt: gothic. Used one of the new jackets to the brand for Styling Star as they are my top new items in the game. I just love the embellishments on the jacket and stylish gold buttons.

Lively
I like to call this look 'Minnie Mouse' as that was the inspiration for the outfit. I wasn't sure at first how to match a gothic item to the lively theme as they are complete opposites of each other. Then when I selected this polka dot t-shirt, I was suddenly reminded of Minnie Mouse's outfits in Disney Magical World so I went along with it.

Eastern
I have to admit this is the first time I've used a hair piece of both sides of the head. I've never really done it before but it just matched this eastern look perfectly. Went with a red and black colour scheme with some hints of yellow. 

Pungdeng-E プンデンイ Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay - Single Review (Type B Edition)

After months of searching, I finally got my hands on a copy of Pungdeng-E's first Japanese single 側にいて Stay. I came across the Type B edition of the single on Zenmarket and jumped at the chance to purchase it. So let's take a look at the elusive Japanese release from Pungdenge-E.

Pungdeng-E Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay

側にいて Stay is Pungdeng-E's 1st Japanese single and was released in May 2017. The group had previously released a Japanese album titled 1st Japanese Album Ppi Ppi Ppa Ppa ピピパパ in 2016 which was an amazing release. I've posted a review of the album here so take a look to find out more about the group. 側にいて Stay was released in two editions: Type A and Type B. I purchased a copy of Type B in excellent condition from a seller in Japan. Now this single is incredibly difficult to find and I believe that is due to it being one of those releases you can only get at certain events/stores in Japan when the group is promoting. I've been looking for a long time for the single and only seen a copy available recently. These types of releases are always such a pain to find. At least the group's Japanese album was available for purchase through online stores. The copy of Pungdeng-E's Japan 1st Single 側にいて Stay I brought includes the following contents:

• Jewel case
• Plastic sleeve cover
• Lyrics booklet
• CD - 4 track album

Front & Back Covers

The front cover of the album features the three group members in their representative colours: Red, Yellow & Blue. The artwork features a graffiti style print with some musical images such as speakers and music notes. The groups current logo is used on both the front and back cover as well as the group name プンデンイ being printed in Japanese. The back cover features another set of pictures of the girls along with track listing and single information. The 4 tracks on the CD are listed up the top and the publishing information is listed on the bottom. The RRP for the single is ¥1500 according to the group's Japanese website but I got mine for only  ¥280 (excluding shipping and fees).

Track listing on the back cover

The inside of the jewel case has a simple black and white colour scheme and contains a lyrics booklet and CD. The CD features the group's beetle symbol as well as the group logo and single name. I quite like the design of the CD as it ties in well with the group's image and branding. The jewel case was sturdy and held the CD in place during shipping. I talked more about the shipping in my original haul post of the single as well as my AFTERSCHOOL albums I received.

Australian Wildlife Park Visit

Last weekend, I visited a local wildlife park to check out all the cute Australian animals. I hadn't been to this wildlife park for a very long time so I was interested to see how it had changed. The park had a great variety of Australian animals which you can get extremely close to and even touch some of them. The park is popular with tourists and the day I visited was the first warm day of the season so it was nice to finally get to experience some summer style weather for once. If you love cute animals and would like to know more about the amazing wildlife Australia has, please keep reading on to know how my adventure went.

First stop was to visit the Koalas of course. These cute guys are the star attraction of the park and there was a huge line to hold a koala. I've already done this experience at Featherdale Wildlife Park in New South Wales so I wasn't too interested in doing it again. Tourists just love koalas when they visit Australia, they go crazy for them! There was lots of enclosures for the koalas including this one which had quite a few chilling out. Koalas are extremely lazy animals and eat 1 to 2 kilograms of eucalyptus a day! You often see them asleep in the wild, the one near my place is always asleep.

After a quick stop for a hot drink, we headed off to one of the areas where you can hang out with the kangaroos. This was the area I remember the most from my last visit, it's on the side of the hill with kangaroos just lying about. There was a large number of roos in the area, most sitting in the shady spots near trees. You can go right up to the kangaroos and pat them as they are quite tame. At the entrance to the park, you can buy a bag of feed which you can give to animals around the park. I've heard quite a few stories of kangaroos kicking people for their food so I wasn't game enough to buy some because I'd rather not take on one haha. These roos weren't the biggest ones I've ever seen, you see much bigger ones in the outback or national parks.

Nearby was the wombat enclosure and there was a adorable little guy having a feed. Wombat feeding was earlier that morning so he was just finishing off his food. There were two other wombats but they were asleep in the burrows which you can see from a room that is lit up.

This wombat got a bit angry at his food bowl

Shopdo Update - Halloween Boutique Interior

Since Halloween is only a few weeks away, I thought I'd give my boutique a spooky makeover and create a gothic themed interior for the spooky season. I've got some new gothic and baby-doll themed outfits to match the new interior as well. The first outfit is a grey toned gothic coordinate featuring the quirky clock handbag. I originally wanted to build a sleeveless gothic outfit around this inner but then I discovered that this skirt from Purple Moon matches it perfectly. So I went with this gloomy grey themed look titled Clockwork after the bag. The second outfit is one of my favourite new dresses from the Raven Candle brand. I've used this dress a few times in my Shopdo updates and this time I've gone for a blue themed coordinate. I named this outfit Moonlight after the dark tones in the dress. For the final outfit in this week's update, I decided to included a cute Baby-Doll lolita coordinate. It's not as spooky as the other two which are gothic themed but some people go for a more pastel look for Halloween.

I decided to go with a gothic themed interior to celebrate the Halloween season. Also I just wanted an excuse to use these stunning rose-embossed coffin's. It's annoying that the unique Halloween DLC items from Fashion Forward were not included in Styling Star because the graveyard themed wall would've been perfect for creating a scary boutique. Placed some Raven Candle dresses around the room for decoration and placed a little black cat on the floor because you can't have Halloween without a black cat! 

April Bonbon Challenge

A few months ago, I posted a Retrobeat Challenge for New Style Boutique 3: Styling Star which was a fun challenge revolving around outfits based off items from the Retrobeat brand. I thought it was time to create some new outfits from another brand in the game. Today we'll be looking at the lively and fun brand, April Bonbon!

Rules of the April Bonbon Challenge are as follows:

• Only items from the April Bonbon brand can be used.
• Any style can be used - not just psychedelic.
• Interpret the theme prompts as you like ❤

Presenting the seven themes of the April Bonbon Challenge:

1. Pyjama Time
2. Summertime
3. Animal Print
4. Over The Rainbow
5. Hit The Slopes
6. Headphones
7. A Different Image

Now that we've got the basics covered, here are my seven outfits for the April Bonbon Challenge!

Pyjama Time
I came up with this outfit idea as these new dresses from April Bonbon remind me so much of nighties. You always see clothing like this in the sleepwear section at Kmart and Big W here. I can never take them seriously as dresses so I thought they were perfect for sleepwear! The fluffy uggboots finally came to good use and they match the colour palette of the dress quite well.

Summertime
Oh boy do I wish it was summer already. It's currently Spring but the weather is taking forever to warm up and we're having more storms than we did in winter. Summer is one of my favourite seasons as you can finally wear cooler clothes and not a billion layers. For the summer themed outfit, I went with a green, orange and yellow colour scheme. I've always liked these shorts with the braces from April Bonbon and it matches well with the inner.