August Favourites & Blog Update ♡

August seemed like a long month for me and it didn't fly past quick like everything else has this year. I felt like I got a number of things done this month and had some fun experiences. Made a list for everything I wanted to post in this month's favourites and there was quite a few things. I will be posting a blog update at the end of this post so please give it a read if you are a follower of Marzipan Wonderland ♡ ♡ 

First up because it doesn't really fit anywhere else are these cute Barbie patches I found! My friends and I were in Big W recently when I came across these. I thought the price was good for three official Barbie branded patches and I've been collecting patches for a future sewing project. Of course I had to have a Barbie one on there as I love Barbie! I was actually looking in the Barbie area as I've been on the search for Barbie So Extra #6. She is impossible to find!! I went looking for her today in a few shops that had the new So Extra line listed on their site but when I got to the stores, they only had older dolls. Going to hit up some other stores closer to work tomorrow and I just know she is going to take forever to find as it took me 6 months to find Doll #3.

Gaming

This month I've been playing my 3DS quite a lot and I've really missed the console. It's so easy to pick up and get into a game. I enjoy playing it for short periods when I'm bored or I get some inspiration for an outfit. I have been playing heaps of Style Boutique which I'll talk more about in the blog update later on. Another game I've super been into is Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop! I actually brought this ages ago and totally forgot about it as I must've gotten my Switch. I remember picking it up on the eShop as it was on sale and it's a fun game to play quickly. The recipes are easy and a bit repetitive, but the deserts are gorgeous! Definitely give this one a try if you are a fan of the series.

Reading

I never thought I would get into reading as much as I have this year! Getting a Kindle has made a huge difference and opening my eyes to the world of ebooks! I never really got the appeal of them but once I spent more time researching titles I was interested in, it was easy to just start books and read them on the go. I've been using my local library app to read ebooks and it has been amazing. I used to use the library a lot but I found it hard to return books once I switched jobs as I wasn't next door to a library anymore. So I thought app would be good and it's the best thing! My library uses Overdrive and it works great on my Oppo phone. I enjoyed reading this book called Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction this month. The cover looked appealing as it reminded me of Babysitter Club books which the book actually talks about. It was a longer book than I was expecting but I learnt a lot about teen fiction and I never knew there was so many titles! We didn't have most of these here in Australia when I was younger as children's/youth literature is very dominated by certain authors and always deals with gross or weird humour. I wasn't a big reader as a kid but I do remember reading Babysitter Club books from school fairs.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Play Journal - Snow Everywhere

Since it is still winter here, I thought I'd share some more Animal Crossing New Horizons screenshots were it is winter on my island. These are from 2020 as I'm still working through posting all my adventures in play journals. First up is this lovely photo of my character hanging out by Nook's Cranny after some shopping. I found these cute Japanese QR code designs that have a shopping theme to them so I stuck them in front of Nook's. I've tried to make this area themed like a Japanese convenience store with the vending machines. When this photo was taken, the area wasn't finished yet I believe. I know most people online are begging for upgrades for the Nook shop but honestly I love how it is now. The style of the building matches the area I've made well and I like the simple design of the shop. The final design of the largest shop in New Leaf was a bit gaudy.

Winter is my least favourite season in Animal Crossing because I get over the snow quickly. I miss seeing the grass and the flowers look nicer without snow. Plus it's a pain having flowers spread everywhere and then having to dig them all up. It's so slow in New Horizons as you just can't shovel them out of existence! I did take this beautiful shot of a tree blocking a bridge. What on earth was I thinking? I'll just say it's for artistic purposes.

Here is Apple being weird as usual. Seriously lay off the coffee! Or drink more of it? I don't know haha. All I know is that when my co-workers are feeling out of energy, it just means to drink more energy drinks. They sure love their energy drinks, I think our workplace runs on them sometimes. I included another great conversation from Apple who has some excellent dialogue. The other photos are some lovely snaps of Butch chilling out in the farm area. The filters you can add to photos are cool and I love trying them out of my villagers doing boring stuff.

SELFY COLLECTION - Outstanding Outfits

SELFY COLLECTION - The Dream Fashion Stylist is one of those games I pick up every now and then to play. It's a nice game to play when you just want to zone out. My last play journal for the game can be read here and now I'm just grinding through the game to unlock all the collections. Not the funniest part of the game and I listen to videos whilst just spamming the buttons to earn money. I do enjoy creating outfits in the game as it has many beautiful and unique clothing combinations. These two coordinates were favourites of mine and I adore the colour tones I used. The lilac works great with the darker purple hair tone for the first character and the second one reminded me of Snow White. The third coordinate was one that I admired the selection of accessories. SELFY COLLECTION has an amazing range of backgrounds to add to your outfits and these eastern inspired ones are my favourites.

This heart letter themed outfit as I've dubbed it has been my top favourite that I've created. I've never changed this girl's look since I made this. It's just too perfect! I love everything about it. The way the colour tones blend together, the love letters floating about and the little rabbit hiding in the corner. It's like a cross between cupid and Alice in Wonderland. I had to add some items to it briefly to score the S rating for my collection but I changed it back to the original look right after as I love it too much.

K-Pop Haul - TWICE & Oh My Girl

My first K-Pop haul for 2021 is here! I've been taking a break from buying albums recently due to shipping costs and storage constraints. As my co-worker loves to say 'treat yo self!' so I decided to do just that and ordered some albums! I got these as imports through JB HiFi and it only took a few weeks for them to come in. I wasn't able to purchase them due to lockdowns which is understandable because safety is important. I picked them up recently and it was exciting to open all the goodies! The three releases I got are TWICE's 5th and 8th Mini Albums and Oh My Girl's 3rd Mini Album.

Never thought I would own so many TWICE releases! Like years ago when they first debuted, I enjoyed their songs but wasn't a group I thought about collecting. Their releases are quite easy to get hold of so it was only time. I already have a few mini's and Japanese singles from the group but wanted to build on my collection. I really wanted to get Yes or Yes but it wasn't available for order. So I went with some other mini albums that I enjoyed. You don't get to pick which version you get through JB HiFi as the supplier sends a random one. The first TWICE release I got was their 8th Mini Album Feel Special. Originally I wasn't planning on getting this one but after doing some research, I quite liked the album design so I decided to get it for my collection. I got given version B which is my favourite of the three as I love the outfits. A very early 2000's feel because I remember having clothes like this back then. Photocards galore which is typical of TWICE and you get some member specific items. I'm happy to get any member of the group as they are all so beautiful. Love that you get 6 photocards as my new photocard album which I posted about here has exactly 6 slots on each page. Now Feel Special can have it's own special page!

Dreamnote 1st Single Dreamlike - Single Review

A new group has arrived to join the Marzipan Wonderland review club! This group is the wonderful Dreamnote who a K-Pop group debuted in 2018 and this post will look at their debut single Dreamlike. I quite enjoy this release so I thought it was a perfect one to share. And also because this single has a beautiful design and concept.

Dreamlike is the debut single from Dreamnote and was released in November 2018. It only comes in one version which is usual for smaller nugu groups like this and I love single version releases. I brought my copy from an authorised seller on ebay so that the sale would count towards the chart. I don't think I ever posted a haul for this as it was during 2020 when I got it and we all know what 2020 was like. Anyway the Dreamlike single comes with the following contents:

• CD - 6 track single
• 72 page photobook
• 2 random photocards (9 in the set).

As I mentioned earlier, I love the aesthetic and design of this single. I'm a bit fan of anything pastel and gradient pastel tones have been something I've been into in recent years. Korean and Japanese releases with this colour scheme are always ones I'm drawn to. Another factor I adore about this release is the group photo on the cover! Can we normalise group photos on albums again? Like I'm over this trend of plain colour or logo front covers. Albums are expensive enough so give me a nice photo to display when I keep the album out. Everyone thinks plain covers are so artsy but I think it's just a cost cutting method sometimes. I enjoy originality and researching interesting album covers so it's always something I look for. With Dreamlike, you get a lovely photo of the group members on the front and a quirky photo on the back cover.

The interior of the single is just as beautiful as the exterior with the pastel design continuing. The photobook is placed on the right side and the CD is held in place on the left. Points for a stylish CD design which features a key design. Their 2nd Single Dream:us has the same design set in the colour scheme of that release. I like this attention to detail and if I could mount CD's safely on a wall for display, I would definitely choose this one!

Shopdo Visits - Nice Outfit!

The other day, I booted up my 3DS in my boredom and decided to visit a few Shopdo's for old times sake. Boy it's been forever since I last played Style Boutique 3, I was even confused at a few of the menus haha. I thought I'd try visiting some players online as I haven't done a Shopdo post for ages. Starting off, I decided to visit a few Owner ID's from my Style Boutique blog and these players were all gorgeous! It was so fun seeing how everyone had dressed up their characters and there was a diverse range of styles.

Daiso Trip & Sticker Haul!

A miracle happened and Daiso finally got stock in!!! I've been visiting the store over the past year and it seems the company got a big shipment of stock in. The store I visited was packed full of stock and I even saw some items I've haven't seen for ages. I could've spent ages just going through everything but I restrained myself and didn't buy too much. The main purpose of the visit was to stock up on stickers and Daiso did not disappoint in the sticker department! There was even some I'd never seen before! I shall share my haul in this post along with all the other stickers I've acquired lately. First let's take a look at what Daiso has on offer! 

Gotta check out the snacks of course! I wish there was a Daiso closed to my workplace so I could eat the cookies & cream and choc banana flavours all the time. Once I tried the hundreds and thousands flavour and it was too die for! Never been able to find it again as I believe it's limited edition. The snack sections at Daiso have shrunk over time and you need to go to the city store to get the better range. I tend to stick to the Pocky or biscuits however Daiso does stock the Poppin' Cookin' sets which are fun. When I made my purchase today, the sales assistance didn't ask if I wanted Koala cookies. They must've run through their supply as they always ask you to buy them.

So many snacks!

Next up was the check out the stationery section for washi tape. I couldn't locate any so maybe they didn't get any in this shipment. I brought a nice set from the store once that had 10 different styles in the pack and I've been searching for it since! No luck so far but hopefully they will get it back one day as there was a green version of the set I want to get. Daiso did have these amusing animal notebooks on display and I've never seen anything like this. It was like a weird squishy cover and everything about them is just so weird. I don't buy any notebooks from Daiso as I'm not a fan of the paper in most of them. I used to buy all my stationery from the Morning Glory stores which stocked Korean brands but they all closed ages ago (still sad about it). Nowadays I get all my notebooks cheap from work as I go through so many and you know, staff discount is a huge selling point haha.

Over in the craft section, there isn't anything too exciting. I usually check out this section to see if Daiso has anything unique or crafty hack things. The pom pom maker looked interesting but I have no use for it. There wasn't any new needle felting stuff either, just the same old stuff I already have. The knitting markers looked cute due to the pastel colour. Mine are fluorescent colours and are super easy to use compared to these. The Disney stamp sets aren't new besides the Zootopia one. I hadn't seen that design yet so it must be a recent release. I have the pink cat one on the right already and a Winnie the Pooh one that is an old style. Stamps are something that are fun to collect, but I find myself not using them too much now. I really should try to incorporate them into my notebooks more.

Style Boutique 2 Play Journal - Fashion Show Outfits Part 3

I've been talking about the 3DS with some friends recently and it reminded me of Style Boutique 2. So I thought it was the perfect excuse to post some more fashion show pictures from Fashion Forward! The first set of pictures makes me remember fond memories of the game. I remember these were some of the first photos I took in the game for the fashion shows. The first picture is honestly a smashing looking psychedelic themed outfit and how on earth did I make something look so good?!? The second picture is one of my favourite game screenshots ever and I use it quite often still! All the lively themed outfits look just like the typical April Bonbon styled outfits I would always make. I was so obsessed with these star cardigans from April Bonbon in Fashion Forward and I can't believe I used the same headband in multiple outfits. Guess I really liked it!

July Favourites

Can you believe August is finally here? July seemed to be a really long month for me. I guess it was because we had a lockdown and I lost track of the days. I kept working the entire time due to working in online logistics and it was nice to hang out with my co-workers on a casual basis. Luckily the lockdown was only short and everything was able to reopen but with restrictions. It feels like I did a lot of things this month so I'll get right to it!

Gaming

I brought a bunch of Sims 4 expansion packs early this month as I felt like getting back into the game. I've actually been enjoying it a lot and I don't mind Sims 4. A lot of people complain about it, but I find it fun and it's nice to see something different to the previous games. It gets boring with the same thing over and over again and it's interesting to see the unique packs the developers are bringing out. I've been playing the Eco Lifestyle pack the most and been working on different careers. My sim kept getting set on fire by their toilet though which was silly. I think I upgraded it too much so it kept causing fires every time someone used it. Sold it straight away after the third fire!

Reading

This month I've been obsessed with reading and it's all I think about! When I was at school, I wasn't much of a reader and usually avoided it outside of reading sessions in class. After year 12, a friend got my into the Janet Evanovich books which were the only thing I really read for years. But since I got my Kindle, I've been really into it! Like I search for free kindle books and read those. All the ones I've read so far have been great and I even brought more in some series! I quite enjoyed the Bennet Brothers series from Staci Hart and I'm starting the second book in the series soon! Other than the Kindle, I use the Overdrive App with my local library so I can read at work or on the go. The app has a decent selection and I've read some good comic books on there especially Sarah Scribbles who I actually have the first book from.