50th Post

As you've guessed by the title of this post, it's my 50th blog post. I actually never expected to get past ten, nevermind 50 so this is kind of bizarre. I suppose I'll be doing a lot of rambling in this post.

Back in August shortly after I started this blog I wrote a blog post called Blog Goals. Let's take a look back.

♚ To learn and become a better gyaru; I really want to develop a better style and have more confidence to go out and wear it in public. At the moment I'm so paranoid people are looking at me.

To be honest I don't believe my gyaru style has improved in the slightest. I decided that I'm not aiming to become a certain style; I'll wear what I want and how I please. Gyaru style is something that does inspire me a lot. In fact, it's inspired me to ditch the old jeans that I used to wear all the frickin' time! Certain gyaru brands inspire me such as Liz Lisa (cliche, I know) and Gilfy. I love what those stores have! But I don't like the negative image that comes with gyaru and that only started bothering me in the past few months. Therefore I have decided I am an ordinary girl who is inspired by gyaru culture.

♚ To get at least 100 blog readers! I don't think I write anything too interesting, so it'd be really nice to see that! I might have a giveaway then.

This is still an ongoing dream. I have 9 followers and I love you all very, very much! Come here so I can give you a big hug.



I could promote this blog to make this dream faster. I could but to be honest I don't really know how to. So I'll continue to let people stumble across this blog in the hopes of finding something interesting. Maybe they will like what they see and continue reading. Maybe not.

♚ To just keep this blog going, really! I have a whole folder of blog ideas to write about, so as long as I keep that up I shouldn't have too much of a problem.

As you can probably tell, I emptied that folder a long time ago hahaha! As I said earlier, here we are at fifty posts so I haven't had too much of a problem keeping this through. Sometimes I don't feel like blogging and that's okay, right? I'll always be back! Sometimes I don't have anything to blog about or I'm out of ideas. That's okay too, isn't it?

♚ To use this experience to gain some self-confidence.

In some ways yes, this has happened and other times no. Before fully starting up this blog I dressed like a slob, seriously! Nowadays I try to dress nice so that's a bit more self confidence right there! However, since starting this blog I've been reading blogs of some of the most gorgeous girls I've ever seen and I'll never be as pretty as them. Maybe one day I'll have surgery, then maybe I'll feel better.


Now I've that out of the way, it's surprising how little of those blog goals I've achieved. That's okay though, it just means I've gotta keep blogging!

Catch you all in 2012 and have a fabulous new year everyone!

I am an idiot.

Hi guys.

I did something really, really bad. But before I tell you about it look at the below gif. Doesn't it make you happy? It's a penguin and everyone knows penguins are adorable. Over the holidays I watched Happy Feet and it really reminded me about how cute these little guys are. I snagged this from tumblr if you're wondering.



Back in November I did a post about going out for a meal with my family to celebrate my younger cousin's birthdays. That night I had my little digital camera with me which I carry around because it's impractical to always use my DSLR. After that night I noticed my MAC lipstick and this camera was missing. Whilst the MAC lipstick did turn up eventually, the camera never did. I'm certain I had it at the end of the night so it was possibly lost when I was in the taxi home!

I'm really mad at myself because most of my photos have to be taken on my Blackberry now. I was going to buy myself a new camera this month but I spent that money on a TV for my Nan as hers broke and I felt awful about her sitting alone listening to depressing music.

I had photos of my old cat, Fluffy, on that camera which I will never see again. How sad!



I'll do a Christmas post shortly, I haven't felt like blogging too much.

Merry Christmas (Eve)

Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad, or however you want to say it in your language. Although it's still Christmas Eve in the UK, in some countries it will now be Christmas. I hope Santa gives you everything you've asked for if you're on his nice list. If not.. well, you can always try again next year? Haha.

Be sure to eat lots of Christmas dinner and lots of cake and I just genuinely hope you all have a nice time. It's been a long winter so far so it's nice to have a day like this to look forward to.

The pictures I've attached are some of what I've bought for other people. I wonder what's inside them~

Kitacon Planned List

As promised a few days ago, I said I would reveal all on what those blue shoes were. I am planning to go to Kitacon in April next year and as you've guessed those shoes are for a cosplay!

I enjoy cosplaying a lot as it's nice to be someone else for just a few hours. It also lets you represent your fandom and lets you to show people how cool a show can be. It's important to ask maturely and sensibly though as immaturity makes people think ill of your fandom. I'm pretty stoked about my planned cosplays and I genuinely can't wait to go to Kitacon. Most of my cosplays are just for the day time apart from my cosplay for the ball.

I did write about cosplay earlier this year so if you haven't checked it out you really should!

My planned list so far is:



Inori Yuruziha - Mami Tomoe - Nia Teppelin - Princess Aurora

I've cosplayed Nia before but last time I forgot to take my sleeves with me to the con so I wore it a little incomplete. I want to wear the outfit properly this time so I will bring her with me. The rest sort of speak for themselves, if you know me. They're all such girly characters haha.

Christmas is coming soon, isn't it? I'll make sure to do a little blog tomorrow for you guys.

Windy Weather!

I'm running about three weeks behind with this blog, sorry guys.

A few weeks ago I went out shopping with the other half. It was lovely to see him again, honestly, it was! I was to meet him in town so I tried to put a warm code together.



Not very stylish, I know!

Jumper: H&M
Dress: Select
Tights: Select
Boots: Select
Necklace: ViVi Accessories
Bracelet Primark
Headband: Off-brand

I know I don't look too good. Even with my fur coat on this was freezing cold to wear! My poor nose was running and everything. It was also really windy that day so my hair got messed up and my eyelashes tried to blow away! Luckily they stayed fixed on and I'm kinda glad I didn't do much to my hair as it would've been messed up straight away.

It was very busy in town so we pretty much windowshopped. I did buy some designer-like cupcakes though, I wish I had taken a photo! I bought a few and treated people to them all. It's the season to be giving, after all.

Later that evening we went out for a romantic meal. I say romantic, but we had a very rude taxi driver! We told him the name of the restaurant and whereabouts it was and he tried to take us somewhere 20 minutes away and them left us in some residential street claiming it was the restaurant! Excuse me mister, that housing estate was not the restaurant! He was also 30 minutes late because he was 'lost' and we almost lost our table reservation. We rang the taxi company up and complained so they sent someone to come pick us up and take us to where we were supposed to be. Sorry for the rant but it was very annoying!

We didn't feel like staying out after the meal so we came home and watched a movie. All in all a very busy day, wouldn't you think?

Make it... Blue!

I haven't felt like blogging much recently, sorry! It must be the winter blues. I received these shoes through the post yesterday. They're from Dorothy Perkins and the picture definitely doesn't do them justice. They're not very comfortable though, I'll have to practice walking in them! I can't wait to start wearing these babies out.

They're for a cosplay, actually. All will be revealed next time. Well, that is if the blog title doesn't give you a clue!

We're Back!

Hey gals and guys!

I apologise for deleting my blog without warning and keeping it offline for the last week or so. I won't go into reasons why but it was caused by my own stupidity. We're back now and I have a couple of posts lined up for you all so please watch out for them!

Thank you to everyone who understood and please continue to keep watching my blog, Hippogrape!

We Found Love... ❤

It's December! I remember that this time last year on my old blog I tried to blog every day. Maybe I'll try and do that this year too!

On Sunday I went to see Rihanna live in concert. I've had the tickets for almost a year now and I was so excited!

My code for the night:



Playsuit: Liz Lisa (replica!)
Belt: eBay
Usamimi: New Look
Shoes: New Look
Ring: Versace
Stockings: eBay

I know you're probably thinking, "huh, those are stockings?!" I bought them online and it turns out they're so huge that they're bunched around the top of my legs. I didn't expect that to be honest haha...
I honestly wanted something comfortable and light since I knew it was going to get warm and my poor feet would have died if I had worn heels. Therefore, I chose flat shoes.



Camwhore~ I was trying to get a good picture of my make-up but it never seems to show up well! I look a little like Snow White in this picture haha.

I also tried again to get a picture of my eye make-up but my hooded eyes and inability to use my camera properly made it come out bad.

I wore my eyelashes on the corner of my eyes.

I took plenty of pictures but Twitter doesn't want me to see them so I can't post them here. Maybe some other time? Rihanna herself was amazing and the crowd reaction was phenomenal. She can really, really sing! I won't be happy if someone tries to tell me that she can't sing in the future because she really can!

The Very Best of Versace

Sorry for the late blog post guys. Something bad happened the day I actually went to H&M and I didn't feel like blogging for awhile. But I'm back right now! I apologise for these pictures. I started editing them and I forgot to save the PSD file and I didn't want to mess about recreating it. Sorry!

Firstly
Last Thursday, The Very Best of Versace for H&M Collection was released. I was fortunate enough to have won early entry into the collection but public transport into the city failed me and I missed my time slot! Thankfully the staff let me in but most of what I had been eyeing up (the fur waistcoat and purple and black ra-ra dresses to be exact) were gone! It was manic. We were also only allowed ten minutes to browse the collection so there was a lot of pressure to find something you liked.

The rules were that you could buy each item in one size only. There were people there with the shop staff running after them as they picked up one of everything and didn't bother looking at the sizes. It's clear what they planned to do with them. I don't agree with people buying things to put on eBay because it's unfair to people who want to actually purchase items to wear at their retail prices!

The particular branch I went to didn't let people try the clothes on so I ended up playing it safe with what I got. I could have gotten something outrageous but if it didn't fit then that would have been no good.



What did I get, I hear you at? I'm sure the two boxes above are quite revealing!



In this box, there was...



This bracelet! I actually really like this and can't wait to wear it out!



Then there's this little box. If a bracelet box was bigger than this, I'm sure you can guess what was in here!



I really liked this on the website so I'm really glad I managed to buy it. In red too, which is what I was wanting! I don't really have too many rings so I'm glad to add something so nice to my ever-growing collection.

I didn't just buy jewellery as I'm sure you guessed. I also bought a dress which came in it's own protective cover. This really surprised me and I thought it was a really nice touch since I don't really own any dresses which have their own protective bags! If you haven't seen them, please see below!



I got this dress. It's a little bland and a very safe option but as I stated earlier we couldn't try them on and neither of the dresses I wanted were there. It looks really good on, actually.




I'm sure it'll come in useful for when I need to be classy!

There we have it. It was worth waking up at 7AM on my day off and the stress and upset that day was causing me. At one point I was crying in the bus station when I realised there was no way I was going to get into town in time for my slot haha.

Until next time!

First in Line

Tomorrow it is 17/11/2011, or in fashion world terms: The Very Best of Versace at H&M. I'm sure all of you gals can appreciate a few designer items once or twice, can't you?



Despite being left disappointed at my last shopping trip at H&M I will be battling the cold and crowds in order to take a real life peek at what Versace has to offer us. Not to worry though as I won't be standing in a long queue all day. I blagged myself early entry into the Newcastle store so I can browse for uninterrupted.

Whoever said I wasn't good to you?

Dog Eat Dog World

Forgive me for doing a more personal post! In our family we have four dogs and I thought it would be nice to introduce you to them all. They're my uncle/cousins dogs although I do see a lot of them. My stepfather is allergic to cats and dogs so we can't have any, although we used to have a cat which had the most original name ever:

Fluffy.

First up is Minnie, my uncle's dog.



This is actually a really old picture of her from 2009 but she hasn't changed at all! She's still the same size! She's a minature Jack Russell and she's the loveliest dog I have ever had the fortune to meet. She's the sort of dog I can sit on the floor and eat food in front of and she won't try and eat the food. I actually have a bit of a phobia of dogs and she is one of the only dogs I will cuddle up to or play games with. She's really placid and is afraid of most other dogs. She also only likes women; the only man she likes is my uncle. She is almost three years old.

Next up is Alfie.



He is my cousin's dog and is only nine months old. He's been featured on this blog before!. He's a little placid and wary around other dogs and prefers exploring to actually playing haha. He's a big cry baby as well! I'm a little wary around him but he's super friendly and likes being cuddled. He's a King Charles cavalier. He's such a cutie pie, isn't he?



This is Amber. She's also nine months and is just two weeks younger than Alfie. They're pretty much best friends. She's also a King Charles cavalier and is extremely friendly. She likes playing with other dogs and likes people a lot. She's so hyperactive it's a little scary. She's also really smart. If she knows something will hurt her or taste bad she knows not to go near it, unlike Alfie who seems to forget every time. She's adorable.

As a bonus, here's my favourite picture of the two of them.



Next up is Bruce.



He's owned by my other cousin and is only a few months old. As he's a puppy he's still only learning what is right and what is wrong but... Truthfully, I am terrified of him. I've only seen him once and I spent that time sitting somewhere he couldn't get me. I'm not sure what breed he is... I'm not very good at dogs, am I?

That's all for now!

Friday

Last Friday I went out for a meal for my cousins. They're twins but they have different birthdays; how bizarre! One was born before midnight and one after if you're wondering. Also, they have really different personalities. One of them is such a nerd and he's quite quiet and placid and the other is a little troublemaker! It was their 18th birthday so we took them on a big old drunken family night out hee hee.

I came home from work and had an hour before I had to be at their house. I'm not sure how I made it... but I did! I cut a lot of corners though.

This is what I wore.



I don't really know what the hell is up with my face in this picture. Ugh.

Dress: Pixie Lott @ Lipsy
Shoes: Garage Shoes
Bag: Garage Shoes

I was literally dragged out the door a few seconds after this was taken! I couldn't get my hair the way I wanted, or my make-up, or my face apparently. This look really requires some circle lenses imo but I can't really get them in my eyes still. :(

We went for a meal at an adorable Italian restaurant and I can honestly say the food was so delicious! I don't eat much Italian food so I was pleasantly surprised.

There were lots of photos taken but I don't feel comfortable posting my friends and family on this blog just yet. Maybe some other time, eh?

I left early as I was so tired from work. I must've gotten home and fallen straight asleep because the next thing I knew it was 11am the morning after, woops! Overall it was a nice night, with many in-jokes and giggles.

How Far is Too Far?

In both the West and the East, it seems as though being thin is in. In most magazines you can see thin girls pouting and preening and in gyaru, there's really no difference! Gyaru magazines often advertise weight loss programs to encourage people to try their products; I would too if I lived in Japan. The results are simply amazing!

But how thin is too thin?

Recently, whilst reading Ageha, I came across the following girl and automatically winced.



Whilst being thin is a stereotypical asian trait, this thin is not. She doesn't look healthy at all and looks as though she could snap if the wind so much as touched her! Her legs are like sticks and it's almost surprising that she can support herself on those legs. She looks like a skeleton; not sexy at all.

Photoshop does play a factor in these sort of ads but for that to be used to make a girl look this painfully thin, there has to be some sort of truth behind it.

I also spotted the following girl in Ageha:



Once again this girl is painfully thin. I actually winced when I saw her ribs and her legs are also scarily thin lke the previous girl's.

I'm all for being thin but this is taking it a step too far. Neither of these girls look particularly healthy and instead look rather sick. Whilst we don't know what sort of issues these girls have, it's very sad to see supposedly confident gyaru reduced to looking like this. In fact, the Ageha models themselves had more weight on than these girls.

I didn't see any girls this shockingly thin in 'egg' which I am relieved about. Maybe one day the industry will wake up and see that these girls don't need to be this thin. Even the models, who are thin, aren't this thin and it's a shame that girls feel the need to look like this.

If you or anyone else you know suffers from an eating disorder please go seek help. I personally wouldn't want to see you looking like these girls.

Yellow Diamonds in the Light

Hello everyone!

As promised, I've taken the photos from my camera from when I went to Edinburgh. I only had outfit photos on there sadly, and of only one outfit! I completely forgot to get photos of my second outfit which really is a shame.



Dress: New Look
Tights: International
Shoes: No idea! They're a really common (and comfy!) design though.
Ring: No idea.

I absolutely adore this dress; it's one of my favourites. It's little baggy on me but it's one of those things I saw and knew I just had to have in my wardrobe. It's a little thin but it was warm enough as I had a big fur coat and wool tights! I chose flats because I knew I'd be doing a lot of walking... shame I didn't think of this when I tried to do a two mile walk in heels the next day! I basically wanted to be comfortable wearing this.



I pretty much wore basic make-up since I knew I couldn't touch up for a few hours. Also, I've started to run out of fake lashes! I'm using them sparingly until I can afford some new ones, which is one of the reasons I'm not wearing them. I wore a lot of mascara though, on my top and bottom lashes. It's disappointing that this little camera didn't pick that up.

Edinburgh

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been updating much!

I went up to Edinburgh this weekend to see the other half. I was expecting it to be really cold so I packed all my winter woolies and it turned out not to be! I meant to take photos of my outfits but I forgot to, woops. Maybe I'll wear or improve the codes and show you all again, yeah?

Edinburgh was really nice! We went shopping and I managed to snag this bag and a necklace from Urban Outfitters for only £20, instead of the £70 they should have cost! Call me Miss Bargain, ok?



This was taken in the Princes Mall foodcourt where I was waiting for the mister to come back with food, haha. I love this bag!

That night we went out for a meal at West Coast, but it wasn't very nice. I was a little disappointed. I tried bacon (which I still dislike) and sweet potato fries which were super yummy. After we went to this neat little bar and sat in a corner. I was very impressed with the drink glasses!



Vodka and lemonade, yes please! Funny story, I had one of those and a Smirnoff Ice and managed to walk into a wall. I wasn't even drunk, honest!



The mister and I after one too many drinks. I'm wearing a pink Lipsy dress here.

After this we went to a casino. I wish I could have taken photos but it was against the casino's policy. It was huge and really posh looking; the drinks were super cheap too! I didn't play anything as I have the worst luck in the world. We walked home as well and my poor feet are bruised now so it hurts to walk.

The next day was a recovery day and I forgot to get photos of my code. I'm disappointed because I really loved it!

Of course, now I'm back home. I have a tummy virus so I'm a little poorly...

This is Galoween

It's October and I'm fairly certain that you all know what that means - Halloween. Whilst Japan may not be quite as in love with the holiday as the Western world is, in recent years it's started to gain more and more popularity. Bring on Ageha and their Ageha Koakuma Halloween Cosplay to help gyaru celebrate the most spooky time of year in style. The outfits are pretty cute as gyaru don't want to cover themselves in all of that gross fake blood... or do they?









My personal favourite is the classic devil, or koakuma if you like, costume. A few of these are cute but there are some others which are a little tacky (police woman, anyone?) which I'd avoid like the plague.

What do you guys think? Would you wear one of these?

SPLIT: Tsubasa Masuwaka & Naoki Umeda?!

Rumour has it that Tsubasa Masuwaka will be divorcing her husband, Naoki Umeda, by the end of the year.



Their reasoning? Differences, of course. Apparently there has been a big change in their values and sense of money since Tsubasa became popular, and they have supposedly been living apart since February of this year. Since Naoki was missing from Tsubasa's birthday party on October 12th, it's starting to look as though these rumours have some sort of truth behind them.

If this is the case, that's pretty sad. They've always managed to look as though they've been living a happy, healthy family life. It's also pretty sad on their son since they'll definitely both want custody over him.

It's expected that the divorce will be finalised by the end of the year.



At least, that would be the case if this story were to be true. Both Tsubasa and Naoki's agencies have denied these reports and claim that they won't be getting a divorce as they're not seperated. Tsubasa has also took to her blog to deny these claims.

To be honest, I would prefer for them not to have a divorce. They look fantastic together and it would be the best for their young son. Time will only tell.

UPDATE: This story has been rubbished and I am super glad to hear the two aren't divorcing. I'm wishing the happy couple all the best!

Dance like a Ballerina~

This is a bit of a lazy post. I recently fell in love with a half Japanese, half American singer named MAA back around the time her Monkey Kingdom album was released. Once upon a time MAA was the lead singer of MarBell, but then became a solo artist after the group disbanded. MAA goes for a 'witchy' sort of image which is really intriguing.

She's recently released her first full length studio album which is called (I kid you not) BUBBLEMAN ENGINE.



The cover is a little provocative! As you can guess she's a very... kooky sort of person. That's not a bad thing though; it works perfectly for MAA. Some of my favourite song titles on the album include 'no bra sleepwalk' and 'F.B.;' if you're wondering that stands for Favourite Bitches. One of the song titles on her Monkey City album that stands out is 'Virgin Killer Santa'. With the sound she goes for it works perfectly!

MAA isn't full out kooky though. Some of her songs touch on the more serious, such as OKay and Hangover Payback whereas some are straight out peppy such as Ballerina Brain System. She's definitely an artist to check out!

Gyaru Nail Spam

If you've ever seen gyaru, you'll know that their nails are always really fabulous! They wear them asaprt of their outfit and some of the results are amazing. I'm pretty sure they'd be really expensive to have, and I'm also sure that doing simple tasks may be made even more difficult but they're definitely eye-catching!

Actually, this post is more of an inspiration post for me since I have horrid little stubby nails!













One of my favourite singers, Ayumi Hamasaki, was once crowned Nail Queen for her love of fancy nails. Nowadays she mainly sticks to toned down styles.






Koda Kumi has also worn some pretty interesting nails in her time too!




So, how about it? Would you wear these or would you not be seen dead in them? Let me know!