Favorite Purchases
My favorite purchases from 2016 in no particular order -
Row 2: Another bought on a whim item (sensing a trend?), this Liz Lisa fur collar cardigan worked perfectly for my Spring Japan trip and I've been loving using it as an option for blog post variety as well because it somehow makes the outfit instantly more "winter" haha. The One Spo heart buckle set was love at first sight for me when I saw it on twitter but it sold out early on the website and I painfully had to keep checking back for a restock. Effort well worth it. I love the pieces together and separately paired with other items, especially the top with a long chiffon skirt! The Liz Lisa glen check cape OP was hard to resist and I'm glad I had the opportunity to get it after hesitating for so long thanks to all the TKL restocks. The fit isn't A+ but I also didn't expect it to be and I'm really happy with it for what it is.
Row 3: The Liz Lisa paper can can hat was my first hat purchase in a while and I knew I wanted to purchase it during my Spring Japan trip. It was a great accessory on the last day with my Delyle Noir outfit and I love it for summer looks! Thank goodness I was able to snag these pink Liz Lisa pom pom pumps on Yahoo Auctions and didn't miss out on them completely. I love the IRL color and they're great for travel bc of the straps and stability and the ease with which I can match it with other Liz Lisa items.
Row 4: Ofc bordeaux was a highlight this year for me so I have to include two major accessories purchases that bolster my bordeaux (detailed) outfits - Liz Lisa lace up pom pom pumps and Liz Lisa x Yui Kanno collab ribbon barrette. They also match really well with each other even thought they're from different years.
Not pictured: My gold Michael Kors purse which I started using almost daily for work. I love the color, shape and size and it's quite versatile! It ended up being useful on my East Coast trip as well.
Favorite Outfits
My favorite outfits from 2016 in no particular order -
Travel
Compared to last year, I didn't travel as much (to Japan)! But I guess you can say I traveled way too much last year, so that's not really a fair comparison.
The East Coast trip was a family trip and I didn't have enough to blog about it to make it a full series but it ended up just being an elongated photo dump lol. I had so much fun dressing for autumn weather with all of my new Liz Lisa AW16 European Time Trip items with the featured color being bordeaux. I broke in my lace up pom pom pumps and also legitimized my trench coat purchase!
Blogging
I have to admit that my love for blogging wavered at times throughout this year. Idk if maybe I was just putting too much pressure on myself for certain things or maybe it was the feedback that I received on different occasions, but I did find myself questioning whether I really wanted to continue to consistently do this a couple times. That being said, I managed to pull through with the minimum 6 posts per month that I was aiming for, with about half the months of the year having more. Since I only went on one major trip this year (blogging-wise), I feel like that's pretty good since major trips usually have a long chain of related posts as well.
The biggest change for my blogging this year was my new affiliation with Tokyo Otaku Mode (TOM).
I also added a little section at the bottom of the sidebar of my blog to include a "Keeping my eye on/Wishlist" list and a "Purchased/In the mail!" list after someone on Tumblr requested to know what I was (thinking about) purchasing and maybe what would be in an upcoming blog post (that I was backlogged on). I'm sure most people just scroll past it, but I think it's kind of just fun to have for myself and even if I'm the only one who uses it for reference, it's still useful. My "Related posts" widget also decided to malfunction at some point this year and I never went back and tried to recover it/find a new code that worked wtf. Oh, and I almost forgot about the huge fit I had when something happened to Blogger's Simple template that mussed up all of my photo alignment lmao. I was on the Blogger help forums every day for a while trying to figure out a solution that didn't mean me going back to every single post and trying to manually fix the coding. Turns out, it righted itself and I just had an ugly blog for about a week.
Like last year, I wanted to include a few of my favorite blog posts from 2016 here (in chronological order) -
- "Tulle midi skirt (Charlotte Russe) - Liz Lisa alternative"
- "Lookbook - 10 current favorite outfits"
- "One Spo online order 3 - Heart bucklet set up in pink"
- "Wearing Liz Lisa in public & self-confidence with (Japanese) fashion"
- "Japan trip Spring 2016 Part 1: Packing (Liz Lisa outfits) for Hokkaido to Osaka in May"
- "My experience visiting Japan as a Japanese (/Chinese) American"
- "Liz Lisa x My Melody 10th collab vol 1 sweet cake OP"
Personal Life
I always have a lot to be thankful for. 2016 was a rockier year compared to 2015 in a number of ways with some family stuff which I don't feel comfortable (and actually shouldn't be) fully addressing in public, but we were able to get through most of it although it will still be ongoing in many ways with the after effects. Sorry to be so vague, but I think it really is for the best. I purposefully try not to bring that kind of stuff into my blogging anyway if I can help it.
In any case, I finally got a permanent position with my employer compared to the contractor position I started at the end of 2015, and it's panning out pretty well. I started working a lot of overtime hours starting from July and continuing throughout the rest of the calendar year (and it will probably continue to the next as well), but it's not taking over my life completely and I mostly enjoy it. There's some critical thinking and problem solving involved, and I feel like I learn about little parts of the job every day. I've been able to bond a lot more with my coworkers and feel a lot more comfortable in the office. Overall, I don't really think I can complain.
The friendships I've held onto have only become more concrete (or grew a bit stronger) and I was happy to do a small scale holiday card exchange with #WSS! Mine were a bit late, but I hope everyone still enjoys getting them. I'm so grateful to have people like you in my life that deal with my constant bitching and complaining lmao.
Thoughts for 2017
Have I achieved what I wanted to do in 2016? A little lol.
I wanted to "keep my wardrobe under control" and I have to admit, I really didn't do that, especially with all the items I couldn't resist from Liz Lisa's Autumn 2016 collection. The holidays snuck up a little faster than I expected this year, so I've stopped really pushing my secondhand sales for the moment because I don't want to deal with the post office and extended shipping times/volume during this time if I can help it, but I do fully intend to pick up the pace once Christmas passes.
I don't see a lot of my wardrobe really transitioning to the otona kawaii side yet, but it's slowly getting there with a handful of pieces that I picked up, especially in spring/summer, and I also branched out a little from my same-old-same-old by ordering from One Spo and blanc Closet. I don't have any real goals in this area but I look forward to seeing where my fashion sense will be in 1 year.
For travel, I was able to check Hokkaido off the list with my spring trip, but Okinawa, Taiwan, Hong Kong and/or China are still on there. Not that I expected to knock off a bunch in 2016, but I am making a small amount of progress! There are a few things in the works for me in 2017 travel-wise but none address the "bucket list" and I'm completely okay with that. (Plus, who knows what'll pop up by the end of the year?)
I did try and introduce a few more posts to the blog that weren't just shopping haul type posts, and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. If I can think of more things to write about, I definitely want to continue doing that. It's also just nice to not have to force myself to take blog posts every weekend, so when I don't have a new item to shoot, I can really focus on the written part. They usually take a little longer to write on a whole, but I don't mind that at all. If I can get one of those type of posts done every couple months or so, I'd be really pleased.
As always, I want to continue to work on my patience and keeping my emotions in check with certain situations. I know I get overly irritated with small little insignificant things, so I want to make sure I do what I can to rid my life of the unnecessary distractions and just focus on the people and things that are important to me.
Last but not least, thank you to all of you who read through my ramblings and continue to visit my blog. Please always feel free to leave feedback or suggestions or just interact with me in general. I know I can come off standoffish at times, but I think it's because I feel the need to present myself a certain way (the internet is forever after all), but I'm almost always open to discussion and conversation!
Last but not least, thank you to all of you who read through my ramblings and continue to visit my blog. Please always feel free to leave feedback or suggestions or just interact with me in general. I know I can come off standoffish at times, but I think it's because I feel the need to present myself a certain way (the internet is forever after all), but I'm almost always open to discussion and conversation!
