Valentines sugar - Sweets Paradise cake buffet!

Hello and Happy Valentine's Day everyone! It's the sweetest day of the year, with super cute red and pink decorations! I know not everyone like Valentine's Day, but it is a great day if you remember it is meant to celebrate love *3*

Though of course we should treat our loved ones with courtesy and affection everyday, I think Valentine's Day is a good opportunity to go a bit out of the way to show your love. As I have said before, I don't see Valentine's limit to just romantic love, it includes platonic and familial love too! Why else would we give little cards to our classmates? haha!

But if you do happen to have a significant other today is a good date day haha, and why not have a date that's more unique than eating at a fancy restaurant or getting chocolates/roses?

Inside the Sweets Paradise Yokohama Vivre

In Japan Valentine's Day is basically just about ladies giving chocolate to all the men in their lives, friends, co-workers and boyfriend. But if you are a foreigner staying in Japan perhaps you want a more interesting experience, so I would recommend going to Sweets Paradise with your SO or friends XD

At the buffet line

Sweets Paradise is cake buffet! Which means for a flat price you can go and eat all the cake you possibly can within 70 minutes. The nice thing about Sweets Paradise is they have other food besides cake, such as ice cream and spaghetti, curry and salad for those who aren't total sweet tooths haha!

The food I chose!

Though the time limit may make you feel compelled to jam in as many sweets as possible in my experience you will get to the full point long before you reach 70 minutes. The cakes are all cut in small slice and are not very sugary so you can try many. And even if you don't need a plan for Valentine's Day it's a nice place to check out in Japan.

There are Sweets Paradise locations all over Tokyo (and Japan), including all the major areas like Shibuya, Harajuku, Shinjuku etc. So check it out XD


Not everyone would like to go out and eat sweets so I came up with some other ideas for Valentine's dates/activities . . .
* Try something your partner likes to do but you don't (Hiking, arcades, paintball etc)
* Play a round of mini golf
* Hand make gifts for your loved ones
* Have a pizza party with your friends
* Go on a bike tour of your city
* Volunteer at an animal shelter, food shelve, nature park etc
* Get a make over at the department store and try fancy clothes on

Happy Valentine's Day!

Xmas hauling, before during and after

Hey there friends, wow it's really over. Christmas has come and gone once again, its really quite a let down if I may say so. Christmas is my favorite holiday, it just gets harder and harder to enjoy it. Perhaps the constant stimulation from the internet makes it too hard to enjoy something simple and heartwarming like Christmas?

Well today I'm just going to write a boring braggy post because getting new things is always an easy thing to blog about, and that's basically what Christmas is all about now. I mean I know its not about materialism, but that's what its becoming.

Starting from Black Friday the merchants just make us feel we have to keep scrambling to buy more and more, to get the best bargain possible. So I will start with a couple things I got before Christmas:




I finally got a Clarisonic, everyone's getting one and it seems that everyone has good opinions of them. I've only used it a couple times because I have sensitive skin and I don't want to mess it up, so I haven't noticed any change.




Also picked up some new nail polishes - the black crackle top coat, some random colors and a free clear top coat. I got on the crackle train a bit late, but I'm still gonna use it!

Luckily I was pretty good curbing my spending and putting it toward gift buying the past month. I wish I could have bought more gifts for people though, I always get so much from my loved ones that I would like to reciprocate. Well that's all over now, so here is the Christmas haul:




These were my Christmas gifts to myself haha. I did spend some on myself :/ But everything together cost the same as the pants alone normally do after sales and coupons. From top left - Ivory lace tank, White miniskirt, Non-leather moto jacket and Skyscraper jeans. If you want jeans that slim and lengthen your legs I recommend Express's Skyscraper jeans.




Gifts from friends and family, from top left - 3 ponies, Jessica Simpson Beckery platforms, Zara black tote, Lighted makeup mirror, Sailor Moon manga, Burt's Bees hand salve, Jessica Simpson fragrance samples, Bath & Bodyworks fragrance oils, Philosophy Hope in a Jar, OPI Rainbow Connection and Excuse Moi nailpolishes, Eye makeup remove, TIGI dry shampoo, Lip Service bra cami.

Moving on, today was another huge shopping day apparently because the malls were nuts!! We tried to get to the Mall of America but the highways leading to it were all backed up and there were police directing traffic. So we went to some other malls and shopped more. I guess gifts are not enough to satisfy modern people, and they need to shop more after (I know it wasn't just returns either).




So here's was today's haul. These were really great deals, nothing cost more than 13$ haha! From left - H&M fringe cardigan, Bath & Bodyworks Apple Crumble candle, Matthew Williamson top, Free People bustier top, Bath $ Bodyworks Dark Kiss bodywash and lotion, Betsey Johnson wallet.

Well certainly that's more than enough for a month and a holiday right? Haha! I still have to exchange gifts with one more friend and then it's all over. I hope noone minds the bragging gets post. Its the last of Christmas posts for this year, so things will be back on track now.




We had a bonus shot of Micky last time, so now it's Rugby's turn. She looks very sweet but don't let it fool you!

The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights

Merry Christmas Eve friends! It's not yet Christmas here, but I know it is in many places around the world so I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays with friends and family! Today has been rather nice so far, I was cut from work though I would've appreciated a simple call before I arrived there, it gave me the chance to help cook the Christmas feast.

I hope everyone is in the mood for another post in this week's Christmas theme, we've seen homey illuminations, Disney decorations and pondered some past traditions. Now lets go back to illuminations!

The Osborne Family (no not those Osbornes) Spectacle of Dancing Lights is a gigantic display in Disney's Hollywood Studios. After dark the display is lit up and choreographed to music, thus the lights dance!




Conductor Mickey on a Christmas train


All the fake houses/shops are completely covered!




Under a canopy of lights


Santa and Mickey are good friends of course XD






Well that's all I really have for tonight, there's not too much to say really the photos speak for themselves XD I'm sorry I haven't been able to reply to comments on the past couple of posts, I will work on that after Christmas day!

Christmas traditions of old

Good evening. Well it's only a couple days more until Christmas huh? I can't believe its already here, I feel so deflated honestly. To me Christmas is the best time of the year, no wonder it's in the last month everything leads up to it haha. But whatever reason - my job, graduating, age, lack of snow - it just doesn't feel right.

Perhaps it's because of the things I used to do, and my family did, that we no longer do make it seem less Christmas-y. This year I had some plans to do Christmas activities and events but they never worked out, so I thought it might be good to atleast write about some of my family's Christmas traditions XD


Cookies!


I think this is very common holiday activity, but it is something very rewarding haha, you get to make something with your own hands and then eat it! I remember making Christmas cookies with my Grandma every year when I was young. We would make little wreaths made out of corn flakes and green colored marshmallow (like rice crispies).

The photo above was taken on Christmas 2008, some of the cookies were given to us, but most were made by my mom! Oh and there also some bars and fudge. I can't look at it any more, hungry!



The Christmas Toy

img via Muppet Wiki

The Christmas Toy is a Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, one hour Christmas special which came out in 1986. Kermit is in it a little bit, but it's basically about toys who are alive, and one thinks he is supposed to be his owner's Christmas gift again.

Well I used to always watch this at Christmas time when I was a kid, and recently I have been watching it again. Not this year, but the past couple of years we just watch it some evening in December^^



Department 56's Dicken's Village


Another tradition we had was to display our village collection from Department 56, we had the Dicken's Village which were lighted houses, scenery, and figures modeled after the Victorian period in England. Every year we would put the houses out on a sheet of fake snow with hand carved "hills" on the entertainment system.

Well we got rid of the entertainment system cabinent, so there was no place to assemble the village and the tradition died out. But my mom recently bought a new bookcase which may work so next year hopefully we can put the village out again!


Christmas Eve gift


Another Christmas tradition we had was I was allowed to open one gift on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve I used to go to my paternal Grandparent's house to exchange gifts, visit and have a nice dinner. When I got home I would show my mom all the gifts I got and tell her about the evening, then I got to pick a small gift from her to open.

That was always very fun and exciting, my mom always got me the cutest toys I wanted, and it just made the wait for Christmas morning harder haha!


Relaxing


This may sound like an odd tradition, but in the past me and my mom would just relax on Christmas day. We didn't have family come over (we always went to visit them), so we didn't cook a meal or have a party. We would just open our gifts and enjoy the free day.

Now my dad and maternal Grandma come over on Christmas day so we quickly have to unwrap gifts and get them out of the way so we can start cooking dinner. The photo above was some of the food we bought and had to prepare (all that for 4 people yes) You can read about that in this old post.



Wow this post took me so much longer to write than I expected! I didn't think it would be difficult to write about things that are personal, but each sentence took forever to form haha! I still have some things to finish before Christmas, but I work the next two days (yeah on Christmas Eve TT) so I have to manage my time well!

Well just to make this post more fun, here's a picture of my cat Micky from Christmas 2009, with a Christmas candy wrapper on his head as a hat:



I guess he's sticking his tongue out at the hat haha

Christmas time in DisneyWorld

Good day everyone! I'm sitting here with knots in my stomach because I can't bear to go back to my job one more day. Anyhow, there's still alot to do before Christmas, I can't believe it's going to be here in just a few days. It really seems like it was just the first day of December and I was submitting my thesis rough draft :/

But as I promised I'm here with another Christmas themed post, so far I'm keeping on track with the Christmas countdown posting. I hope everyone will enjoy it and not miss the other types of posts I usually do.

We saw homey illuminations in the last post, to change it up today is going to be all about DisneyWorld and how festive it is this time of year!! These photos are from last year, but now I finally have the chance to share XD

Here is the Christmas tree at Disney Hollywood Studios, each park has it's own main tree like these which are all huge and impressive XD Hollywood Studios doesn't decorate so much, but they have the Osborne Family Christmas Lights which I will blog about later this week^^/

Wreaths and garlands spruce up Disney's Animal Kingdom, they feature ethnic type of ornaments. It's fun to see Christmas decorations on this type of architecture!

The parade at Animal Kingdom gets a makeover as well, called Mickey's Jingle Jungle parade, all the floats have decorations

This is the Animal Kingdom's Christmas tree, looking lovely all light up!

And now we'll take a look at the decorations at the Magic Kingdom, which are of course the best and most plentiful! These toy soldiers stand around the Christmas Tree

These garlands are hung all the way down Main Street, and the lamp posts feature Mickey shaped wreaths

And this is the Magic Kingdom's Tree, it's the cutest I think with giant gingerbread men and popcorn garland!

The Magic Kingdom gets a holiday themed night time parade, featuring floats shaped like gifts and party hats. There's a better parade during the special Christmas party which costs extra and goes later than usual park hours!

Here's what those garlands over Main Street look like lit up, very beautiful!

And as the final touch Cinderella's castle gets covered with "ice" after the parade!

I hope you liked these photos, if you want to see some of the Christmas decorations and festivities at Epcot Center check out this post! I hope you liked these photos, of course one could write posts and posts about Christmas at DisneyWorld, but hopefully this was a good overview haha!

Christmas illuminations in my neighborhood

Hello hello! Yes I was cut from work again, really I need to make some decisions about this job. I could have certainly been productive today, but all I have to show for it is a sloppy manicure haha...TT Well at least I am being a decent blogger and posting something today!

This week leading up to Christmas I would like to do posts everyday that revolve around Christmas or have a festive theme. I think it will be fun, and hopefully get my Christmas spirit going as I currently have none!!

All these photos in this post were taken in my own town, but from 2 years ago. For some reason I never used them before :/ This year we have no snow, so luckily I didn't taken photos this year.

This is the illumination on a house very close to mine, just a couple streets away. I really like the large hanging lights in the trees

Here you can see some of the inflatable displays better. These inflatable type decorations have become popular over the past few years^^

This display doesn't have a nice design like the last one, but the large pine trees with all those lights look great!

Some displays have a religious theme, like this one, but the star is so high and impressive!

Here is a good example of a mid-level illumination. It's very cute and homey.

This display is a bit different because it features a lot of painted wood figures mixed with lights.

The owners had a big floodlight on the display so the wood figures would be visible. The penguins are adorable XD

The home invader Santa figure is the highlight of this display haha!

Their big lighted tree and inflatable snowman were cute too.

A lights only display which is so pretty!

But don't get the wrong impression, I would say like 85% of people do not illuminate the outside of their houses or only put out one string of lights. My neighborhood has an illumination contest so some people really go all out trying to win XD

I hope these photos brightened your day and made you feel more festive. I would like to take more illumination photos now! Sadly this month passed so quickly and I haven't done any Christmas activities.

Big shopping day at the Mall of America

Oh whew, hehe, I got my thesis almost totally done today! Just gotta clean up the references page, print it out and hand it in tomorrow evening. It's the last night of class ever for me (unless I go for a masters XP) and we are having a pot luck so I made oatmeal cookies drizzled with peanut butter chocolate.

I hope my classmates will like them, luckily there's only 15 of us in the thesis seminar, so I didn't have to make many. But this is just the beginning of our Christmas baking, me and mom plan to make a wide variety of cookies this weekend.

Another usual Christmas activity is shopping, it really is the biggest shopping time of the whole year. Usually it's for gifts to exchange on December 25th but yesterday we went out just to shop for fun and relaxing. A staff at some clothing shop told us 90% of the people she talked to that day were shopping for themselves, not gifts haha!

These giant Christmas bulbs are so cool!

The Mall of America always has lovely decorations for the season, so its very festive and fun just to walk around. Also they have recently remodeled several areas, with new tile and high-shops so it looks much nicer now. It's been so long since it opened TT it was time for some sprucing up.

There are lots of silver-y trees like this all over MoA 

(and thats what I wore for the day)

We went to several shops we always frequent, plus some others we rarely shop at. One of the highlights was the Bettie Page store which features all retro style clothing from the 50s. Very cool to see something out of the normal trendy or casual clothing XD

Me and mom did a lot of window shopping, but the great thing was because we went in the middle of a week day there was quite a bit of elbow room^^

And this is one of two "main" trees in the rotunda, seems big right?

That's because they reach all the way to the forth level *O* there was a highschool band playing at that time

It was a long day of shopping, but it didn't wear me out at all so I would say it was a great day. Just enjoying the season, looking at nice things and checking out all the new things in a familiar place. Well here's what was purchased yesterday:

From bottom left: MAC Snowglobe palette in Sultry, MAC Desert Rose blush (m), Lorac Oh La Lace palette, Philosophy cleanser sample, black glitter pouch, copper color watch (m), Bath & Bodyworks Dark Kiss and White Citrus (m) body washes, and Fresh gift set (m).

The items marked with (m) are my mom's gets.

And my clothing gets (the stock photos are better than what I'd take). I also got a plain black shirt and bodycon Tshirt dress.

Well I really wanted the white colorway of the bare top but it wasn't in yet (I'll get it someday!) It was a fun day and I hope you also enjoyed seeing the decorations in Mall of America. A few more days of work from tomorrow then I have some truly free days to enjoy next week!