19 posts tagged “kawaii”

A lot of Blythe people are doing their dolls' favorite fifteen items on Flickr. I decided to do a photo for Plum! She has so many favorite things... It was difficult to fit even just fifteen of them into one shot. o_O

And actually, all the items in this photo are Plum's favorite clothes and accessories, not just the fifteen that are tagged on my Flickr. I cheated a little! But I only tagged fifteen of the items, haha. ^__^

I can't wait to take more photos of Plum in the outfit she's wearing right now. She's totally dressed for autumn and winter. I dressed her and Jinkies the other day and they look so cute next to each other. It's been super cloudy and rainy every day this week so there haven't really been any opportunities for me to go outside and get good lighting for photos. I was lucky I got a chance to jump outside for this quick photo today. In fact, I almost didn't get any shots in because the tiny dresses started getting blown away. x_____x Shawn stood outside with me and made sure it all stayed in order, tee hee.

So much has happened since I left for BlytheCon. I'm not sure I can go through every single thing I've experienced, but I'm definitely going to try. To sum it up in a sentence: BlytheCon was amazing. I can't believe how busy I was over the past few days!

When I arrived at Rebecca's house in Indiana, everything seemed to fall into place. All my insecurities disappeared... She made me feel so welcome and I'm really thankful for that. As soon as Shawn and Ryan left, Rebecca and I got down to some serious dolly business. We talked for a long time as we got ready for our trip to Atlanta the next day. I helped her make a sign for her booth while she cut up some business cards, and I showed her all the dollies and toys I brought with me. I really felt like we had known each other for years.

Sherri arrived early the next morning. Like I told both her and Rebecca, I was so nervous about meeting Sherri. O__O She's been one of my idols ever since I started collecting Blythes; her saran and mohair reroots are incredible-- one of the absolute best rerooters in the world! I felt intimidated before Sherri arrived, but as soon as she arrived, my nerves settled down. She was so down-to-earth and so much like me... I immediately felt like I could relate to her, and that doesn't happen very often when I meet new people.

Our ride to Georgia was extremely long: about nine hours. Surprisingly, I didn't fall asleep once. Haha, Sherri, Rebecca and I talked the entire time-- about dollies, Pet Society, our lives, and so much more. In fact, we talked about so much, I'm almost afraid I'm going to forget some of the details. A long car ride was the perfect way to get to know Rebecca and Sherri even more.

We were able to settle into Rebecca's mom's house really quickly. I think it's because we were all so tired and hyped up for the next few days. For a while, we sat around exchanging dolly clothes and stories about our girls. I've never had the chance to talk for hours on end about dollies in my pajamas before... I wish I could do it more often. I felt almost spoiled for having such a great vacation so far. My sleep was wonderfully deep and comfortable.

Friday was the day dedicated to the Georgia Aquarium. Sherri, Rebecca, Rebecca's mom and I all went. We were all a little disappointed at how little there was to do at the aquarium, but everything that was there was really beautiful. My favorite part of our visit was definitely the tunnel that's underneath water. To be surrounded completely by water, fish and sharks was incredible. We all loved that part so much that we decided to walk through the tunnel a second time before we left.

One of my other favorite things about going to the aquarium was how interested people were in the Blythes we brought with us. Sherri brought Penny (her @Nai custom); Rebecca brought Tallulah (Betsy's crazy cross-eyed custom); and I brought Nami. We not only had visitors coming up to us to ask us about our dollies, but the aquarium's staff expressed even more interest. A security guard wanted to hold one of our dolls. A few of the staff members in charge of taking photos asked me a bunch of questions about where Blythes could be found. And the absolute best Blythe experience was at the end of our aquarium trip. As we were paying for our items in the gift shop, cashiers started piling up behind the registers to ask us all questions about Blythes. They couldn't get enough of our girls and left customers waiting in line and at registers so they could see the dolls! Rebecca, Sherri and I all took turns showing them our dollies. They loved changing the doll eyes. Rebecca and Sherri got a few photos of all the staff people (like seven or eight, I think) asking us questions.

Dinner that night was fun. The four of us went to a restaurant where we had some delicious meals. I had a shrimp and alfredo meal. *drool* It was so delicious and it was a relaxing experience to have before the busy day ahead of us.

Finally. Saturday was BlytheCon. All of us were so antsy before we left! We had packed most of our stuff up the night before so we got to the con on time. Because Rebecca was a vendor so we could get into the building before any of the other attendees (which I was happy about because I didn't want to be stuck outside in the cold). The girl she was supposed to share a table with was sick so Rebecca had the entire table for herself. I helped her set everything up and went back-and-forth between the convention room and outside, where more and more people were starting to arrive. I switched between taking my three girls out; a lot of people seemed to already know who they were, especially Pigeon! I had fun posing for photos with my dolls and everyone was incredibly nice. <3

The convention was so much fun, but it all seems like a blur now. Everything was so fast paced. I somehow lucked out and was one of the first people to register. Because of that, I got into the con fast enough to check out all the vendors and their items. I snatched up everything I was instantly attracted to-- oh gosh, my loot is all so cute! I keep looking at all the clothes and accessories I bought.

I was constantly meeting new people. A lot of the people are friends I've had online for a few years. I felt like crying a few times because I was so excited to actually meet some of them in person. After all these years... finally! Pigeon's customizer, Megan, was there. She was one of the main reasons I knew I had to attend BlytheCon. She was such a sweet person and I feel like I know Pigeon more because of meeting Megan. I feel bad about not remembering every person's face; so much was happening at the time so I knew it would be impossible to remember everything.

One of the most exciting parts of the day was the raffle. I only bought five tickets but THREE of my numbers happened to get picked. O____O Because one of the items I won was a double, I only got two of the prizes-- I didn't mind though. The big prize I won was a free mohair reroot for a Blythe. The second prize I won was a free Blythe application for an iPhone. Because I don't have an iPhone, I gave my prize to Rebecca. I was so excited (and surprised) that I was shaking the entire time after my numbers were called.

Needless to say, the entire event was more fun than I could have ever imagined. Like I told Rebecca and Sherri later on, the BlytheCon trip was the best vacation I've ever had. Getting to know both of them is probably what I love most from the experience. Unlike the friends I had in high school and college, I connected with Rebecca and Sherri. They didn't make me feel socially awkward and we shared so many interests. I think it would have been impossible to not love those two girls.

All of my photos can be viewed on my Facebook BlytheCon 2009 album and in my BlytheCon 2009 Vox Collection.

Many thanks to Shawn and Ryan who drove me all the way to Indiana. Many more thanks to both Sherri and Rebecca for being the sweetest friends ever. And a lot of other "thank yous" go to those of you who followed my adventure on Twitter!

I first started playing Pet Society on Facebook about four or five months ago. I was bored one night, and I remembered how Celena had urged me to start playing even months before then. So I hopped on Facebook, thinking that I would just check out the new game. After five minutes of playing around with designing my own pet, I was hooked.

A little while after that, my pet Tea Leaf was born. (Actually, it may have been a long while since I couldn't decide what I wanted my pet to look like.) Tea Leaf's resemblance to Yukimo and Fru, my past and present hamsters, was no mere coincidence. I wanted to have a virtual, pixelated representation of my love for white hammies online. Pet Society provided me with the perfect opportunity! ^___^ Everything about Tea Leaf reminds me of my hammies-- ahh, such love! I will admit that I went through an "adjustment period" where I kept changing the way Tea Leaf looked, but I eventually settled on the way she appears above.

Once I was happy with my pet, I moved onto other important business: designing my pet's house. I wanted to kick myself for not starting to play Pet Society a few months earlier, because I missed out on some great items. Thanks to some really close friends, I was gifted a lot of the kawaii items I now own. <3 These past couple of months have given me the chance to accumulate a ton of house items, as seen in the screen shots below.

My house currently has seven rooms, but these three rooms are the most developed ones at the moment. The first image displays Tea Leaf's main playroom-- hence, all the plushies! The second image shows Tea Leaf's bedroom (pink, of course). And the third image shows the kitchen. I'd still like to do a little more remodeling with the kitchen in the future, but I'm satisfied with its current appearance for now.

As I've mentioned on other online communities, I am very particular about how I do things on Pet Society. For example, while Tea Leaf's appearance changes from time to time, I'm extremely critical of what she wears. I usually don't like throwing together set items (since everyone else always does that; I like to stand out), so I like to coordinate items in different ways-- like according to color and/or theme. Also, I don't get every single new item that comes out. I mostly just buy things that appeal to me at first glance. Once I'm happy with more rooms, I may start buying items that will increase in value so I can start trading for rarer kawaii items. ^___^

All in all, I highly recommend playing Pet Society. It's available on both MySpace and Facebook, although I, myself, prefer using it on Facebook. It's a great way to socialize online; there are amazingly cute pets to make and play with; and there are new things (items, stores, etc.) released all the time.

In other Facebook news, I would like to introduce my new URL. Recently, Facebook allowed its users to create usernames for their accounts. I was going to go with my actual name, but after thinking about it, I realized that my name would be changing once I'm married. (Facebook isn't allowing people to change their URLs after the confirmation step.) Anyway, I went with the following URL:

facebook.com/happilycandied

There was a specific reason I chose this name, and I'll talk about that some other time! ^__~

I received an awesomely amazing package the other day, full of presents from a friend that I met through my Vox blog. It's pretty wonderful how blogging about my kawaii adventures has become not just a hobby, but a way of life for me. <3

I'm planning to go into more detail about the crazy-fun package that I received in an upcoming post, but I just had to share the first photos of the package's contents today. I don't want my happiness to go to waste! Tee hee.

The little sweetheart in this post is my very first nendoroid figure. She's sitting right next to me as I type up this post, and I can't seem to get enough of her cuteness. Like my friend told me in the letter he sent along with the package, I'm going to be starting up yet another very expensive hobby now, all thanks to him!

Note: My cubby shelves, which are full tons of my toys (including most of my Blythes), are peaking out in the background of one of my photos. ^^

I've been spending a lot of my free time playing "virtual" games lately. The latest one I'm hooked on right now is a combination of plush and virtuality: Littlest Pet Shop (LPS) Virtual Interactive Pets.

Shawn and I have been up to our necks with stress over buying new furniture and necessities for our new apartment, and while on our search for that stuff, I came across some incredibly adorable plushies with big eyes and pretty fabrics. I think the reason I was attracted so much to them was because of their big eyes and sweet faces. (Shawn said I have a thing for toys that are top heavy, haha.)

I first came across the LPS bunny when Shawn and I were at Kohl's a few weeks ago. I saw that there were more animals available so I started searching for them at the stores we went to. I immediately fell in love with the panda, and after noticing how rare it was in my area (I had only seen one in all the stores we visited), I snatched her up when I realized I couldn't live without her. Normally, I go for the pink plushies, but there's something about her dark oriental print that really draws me to her. I've named my panda Moshi Moshi (which can mean "hello" in Japanese in certain contexts).

Plushies aside, I found that I could delve even more into Moshi Moshi's world by visiting littlestpetshop.com to interact with her virtual character. I just plugged her special access code in the LPS: VIP system and Moshi Moshi's life started coming together.

Even though the games and plushie sales in general are geared more towards younger, teenage girls, I'm actually not that great at all of the activities, haha! In fact, Shawn had to help me out for a while until I got the hang of it. As I play more games, I gain more points to spend in the stores for clothes, furniture and plants for my garden.

There are some features I haven't accessed all of the features yet. There's an option where I can "meet" other people on LPS, but I'm thinking that I'll rawk out Moshi Moshi and her friend, Chiisai (a pink mouse) and their houses first so I won't look too silly in the LPS virtual world. ^__~

Chiisai (which means "small" in Japanese) is the newest addition to my LPS family. I looked up all of the plushies online, and I thought the mouse was very similar to Yukimo's build (tee hee). Of course, I couldn't resist.

This last Sunday, Shawn and I made it our mission to hunt down and find the mouse. I really didn't feel like ordering her online when I knew that at least one could be found in stores just a few miles away from me. >__> I think I have a kawaii sickness or something.

Anyway, we ended up finding Chiisai at the very first store (a Toys 'R Us) we went to, and there happened to be only one mouse on display. Just like Moshi Moshi, Chiisai was one of a kind for me.

I'm still working on building her wardrobe and room in my house.

Besides playing my newfound LPS love, I've been working on a new Maple Story character. Kathleen decided that she wanted to try playing on a new server, so our friend and I decided to try it out with her.

Now, I'm not a huge Harry Potter book fan (the writing style seems too simplistic and I get bored easily), but I do enjoy watching the movies. So when Kathleen said that she wanted to create a guild dedicated to Harry Potter characters, I was in. I would take a bullet for Luna Lovegood and Kathleen was nice enough to let me take that character while she took Nymphadora Tonks, and our friend taking Professor Moody. We had to think up names that sounded similar to the book characters, yet were original enough to enter into the MS system. As it turned out, Luna Lovegood became LunieLove; Nymphadora Tonks became NymphyTonks; and Professor Moody became MadMoodDood.

I don't think I'm as attached to LunieLove as my other MS characters (Minkka and Roonies), but it's been fun starting working on a character of such a low level. ^__^

I've also gotten into the routine of playing Animal Crossing after I finish my work shift every day. There's something extremely relaxing about sitting down and playing in a world that contains absolutely no worries. I can get money for my house's furniture just by collecting fruit around the village, and I can pay my mortgage at any pace I want. In fact, I don't even need to pay off my house if I don't want to! Living a simple virtual life is so much more enjoyable sometimes.

Update: The Heart Day packages are being sent out in two batches. The first batch consists of everyone who lives within the states, and it was sent out this last Saturday. Several people have already written to me to let me know that their gifts arrived.

The second batch is made up of everyone outside of the states (which includes places from all over the world, like Thailand, Russia, Hong Kong, Canada and so many more!). This international batch will be sent out this week.

I'd like to ask everyone who particpated in this event to let me know that their packages arrived safely. You can either leave me a comment, send me an email or drop me a private message. I just want to make sure everything worked out for you.

Thankies to everyone who participated in my little Heart Day event here at Vox. For some reason, I didn't think there would be a huge turnout, but boy, was I wrong! As the first few days and then week or so passed by, I realized that I should have known better, haha.

I have to be honest, too. Receiving so many great comments, emails and private messages probably had to make up the best bunch of Valentines I've ever received. So many thanks are going out to everyone who sent such sweet words. ^____^

Heart Day has come and gone (very quickly), but I just wanted update everyone on how the whole process went. Due to the crazy and horrible Wisconsin weather I've had to deal with for the past month or so, I had to delay a lot of the happenings for the event. Since so many Voxers expressed an interest in getting a little card, I had to make sure that every expectation was met. ^^;

I had all my Valentine Day cards, but what I really wanted to do was include a small gift to each person. Of course, the gifts couldn't be any old objects laying around! They had to be totally and completely kawaii. In order to do that, I made a special trip to my "local" Sanrio (which is about an hour away from my house). Bad news soon hit me hard, because I found out that my beautiful, lovely and much needed Sanrio store was gone. All that was left in place of my Hello Kitty Haven were empty walls, no lights and a huge iron gate. *cries* I was devastated. Not only did I not have a place of kawaii to go to every now and then when I needed it most, but I started to worry about where I would find my presents for Voxers.

After a lot of thinking, I decided to go to another store that had a Sanrio section. I was extremely grateful for the chance to redeem my kawaii standing, tee hee. By last Saturday, I finally had all of the gifts, so it was time to write out the cards and package everything up.

Everyone will be happy to know that not only will they be receiving a very adorable Heart Day card, but they will also be getting a small kawaii gift-- and everything is packaged in a very stickered-up envelope! *grin* I had so much fun personalizing each and every package. With over 35 people who participated in this event, over $150 was put towards Heart Day this year. I figure that this amount equals out what is usually my December/Holiday event anyway, so it all evened out in the end. Yays.

The gifts range anywhere from small notepads to sticker sheets to little booklets to small stationary sets. I tried to make sure that everyone received an equal amount of gift-giving. ^o^

Even through all of the bad weather and the disappointment of the disappearance of Sanrio (which I'm still mourning), I'm very happy with how this event turned out. I really hope that I could help spread the kawaii love at this time of the year.

Please note: As for everyone who was interested in sending me back a present, I thank you very, very much. I might be sending out an email to everyone who asked for my address, but if you're still interested in sending me a letter/package, you can always refer to the envelope I sent to you, which has my new, spanking P.O. Box address. I'm now an owner of my very own mailing address. This is very exciting for me.

Being away from Vox for so long has caused a very unnatural feeling to settle in. I don't know why, but I let the guilt consume me even when I know that I have a perfectly good reason why blogging has to be put on hold. Yet, through the weeks of extreme labor put towards projects, papers, my dreaded exam, and no blogging, I've survived. I think that all the panic and stress built up over the whole semester are the reasons why I feel like I almost don't exist anymore. My life for the past few months has consisted of two things, and two things only: school and work. In my mind, I keep thinking, "Am I really here right now? What work do I have to do next? What is going on?" In fact, I still feel somewhat confused about the sudden amount of time I have for myself for actual relaxation. And then the best part happens; I take a step back, just like Mom taught me to, and I let that ever-so-natural feeling-- the one I know I deserve-- take the place of that unsettling feeling. I'm finally, finally home.

Despite the stress, the last few weeks' worth of work I put into my classes paid off. I didn't think that I'd be able to keep my grade point average (GPA) as high as I normally do, but shockingly enough, it's about as high as I normally get it: three A's and one B. Needless to say, I'm relieved that I can multi-task up until a certain point. One thing I have learned, however, is that sometimes the job of multi-tasking means dropping one of the important tasks in order to really pull through. And you know what? I've also learned that not being perfect makes living life one step closer to perfection in happiness and satisfaction.

As the exam period started to take over my life even more, I just knew that I'd need some time for myself. I decided to request for some time off as a little vacation reward for all the work I've put in to the last year of my life. There were some major landmarks that took place in 2007 for me, personally, and I thought that deserved some recognition. Here are some of the personal goals that I reached, ones that I'm totally and completely proud of:

• Shawn and I had our five year anniversary in September, and I've almost known him for half my life. I realize that not many couples are as lucky as we've been so I'm really proud of how far we've come.
• I finally got a job that I'm content with. I used to get "made fun of" (or teased, I guess) by Mom, Beth and Kathleen because of how, er, lazy I was with being responsible. I think I'm still considered the least mature out of my sisters, ironically enough. Either way, I have a job and I'm finally making my own money.
• I've chosen a major and a career path that completely suits my skills and passions in life.
• I found out when I'll be graduating college. *jumps for joy*
• I've maintained a blog (for the most part) that I'm happy with and pretty consistent with.
• Kitties have finally entered my family, after years and years of waiting and wanting.
• My toy army has grown to amazing numbers! It's made up of dolls, plushies, vinyl toys, plastic toys, paper products, oodles of Sanrio products.

Speaking of my kawaii army, its numbers have especially grown in the past few weeks. Thanks to the holidays and my birthday, I received some really awesome gifts from family and friends. I haven't been able to take photos of everything they gave me, but I did get the opportunity to capture a few. Shawn's family surprised me with a huge box stuffed with vinyl toys (Dunnys, toy ink cartridges, Moofia figures, etc.); Mom gave me ten Dunnys; Kathleen gave me six huge sheets of Sanrio wall decals (which now adorn my room) and a Gloomy Bear puppet; Shawn gave me ten more Dunnys and my new white fawn plushie, Purin; Beth gave me six Re-Ment sets (accessories for my dollies); Celena sent me two adorable Maffy figures and a bunch of clothes for quite a few of my Blythes. It's been an exciting few weeks!

Like I've mentioned in the past, I'm a firm believer in rewarding myself. (Everyone should feel that way once in a while. ^__~) I wanted to have something to look forward to so I decided to splurge on a huge birthday present for myself by using some of the money I received from Mom and Grandma. With their money combined, and a little of my own, I was able to buy a dream ball-joined doll (BJD). I've waited a couple weeks and I was just notified that she's on her way to me this very moment. I haven't looked forward to a new doll in such a long time. I'm anxious to see if the faceup I requested is done the way I'm hoping for. *crosses fingers*

Today was my last day of work for a whole week. It's the first time in about a year that I have more than a weekend to do anything I want. I don't have a schedule to live by or a deadline to get work done by. I just get to relax and spend time the way I want to. I think a lot of naps, reading and dollies will be involved. This is what life should always be like.

November has included one of my longest absences on Vox, and after all this time has passed, I'm starting to wonder what even happened to November. It was here and now it's almost gone.

I have a lot to catch up with and a lot to say, so I thought I'd sum up how my month has been going through a series of little snippets from my life. I feel like I often share huge chunks of my life at Vox, and switching a post around to a small medley of events might be fun for a change.

Kawaii design. I thought I'd start off by introducing my new banner. Kawaii (at) Vox (dot) com finally has a new look and feel to it. I've been struggling with what kind of banner I wanted my blog to have. I'm extremely picky and very obsessive over the appearance of my Vox. The content is important, yes, but the whole look of my personal space at Vox is just as essential as the rest of it. The usual routine for making and choosing a banner for my Vox usually consists of: having a photoshoot, editing old photos, experimenting with color schemes, finding fun brushes to use (if needed), and then either trashing the results or actually settling on using a banner. The entire process usually takes a couple of days. I don't like switching around my banner a lot, so whatever I decide on means that it will be around for a while. After a lot of work on this last banner, I finally decided on Kawaii Pink Medley:

I wanted to include a lot of the elements in my life, especially ones that I love right now. I figure that Lola the fawn stands for my plushies; Yukimo shows for my love (of Yukimo!) of pets; and Plum represents my adoration (for Plum!) for dollies. Being the narcissist that I am, I like including a photo of myself to kind of, I guess, represent my blog as a whole. (After all, I'm the voice, tee hee.)

The kitties. As I mentioned in a past post, Beth and I decided to keep our sister kitties. Falling in love with them took a little longer than usual-- a lot longer than it usually takes me to fall for a cat. Even though it took a while, the wait was worth it. Both Edgar (Ed) and Isis are pretty awesome companions, and although they're a little insane, I like their craziness around the apartment (sometimes). After all, unpredictability is priceless.

As much as I hate to admit it, Beth and I have had an easier time bonding with Ed. Even though the sisters were raised the same, Ed has a much more friendly personality, and she's a lot more willing to be happy. She's the only cat I know that will pur for no reason at all. I'll walk into a room and Ed will be purring so loudly that I can feel the floor shake.

Isis, on the other hand, has really stayed in her shell-- and not in a good way. An example of this is when I get up from the couch to go to the kitchen. I won't even be heading towards where Isis is laying down on the floor, yet she'll see me coming and run away and hide under the bed for hours. If I get up and go to the kitchen when Ed's around, she'll either follow me or affectionately rub against my legs. Beth and I are still giving Isis the same amount of attention as Ed, but it's hard having such an unfriendly kitty around the house, especially one that hates to be held and scratches. (I have some painful pieces of evidence on my stomach if there's any doubt about Isis.)

Despite their differences, Beth and I love Ed and Isis. It's great having built-in friends. ^__^ More of Ed and Isis can be seen in my My Kitties collection.

The work load. I wish I could say that the stress wasn't as much of a problem anymore, but to be completely honest, it's about the same. I've been working my butt off at school. On the days that I'm not in classes, I'm either working or doing schoolwork (projects, papers, presentations, etc.). On the days that I do go to school, I'm working in between the classes. This time of the year is always crazy, and this November is no exception.

Blog, blog, blog! One of the benefits of working and being a Professional and Technical Writing major is that I can have some fun by combining both worlds-- that of school and that of work. Throughout the semester, I've been doing a lot of interviews for papers and projects with fellow bloggers, friends and co-workers. Like a lot of the projects that I've chosen to do, one of the last projects I worked on focused on blogging. My Technical Writing professor assigned the class a huge project where each person had to write a technical description. I chose to focus my descripion on networking at Vox.

As long as I've been at Vox, I've noticed that a lot of the articles and people who help others expect the new people at Vox to be familiar with everything blogging has to offer. Unfortunately, this isn't always the case. A lot of new Vox members are often unfamiliar with what blogging is and how it can be used as a networking tool. They sign up for an account but then never return because no one explains to them what they can do to get their blog "out there." Bloggers not only want to write, but they want to meet people and share their thoughts with them. Because of new members' lack of networking know-how, I decided to create a description on how people can get to know the ropes of Vox for networking uses, whether it be for social or business reasons. Some of the results can be seen here:

Here are little pieces of my project. The entire technical description was several pages long, but as long as it took to create, I found that I really had fun when I wrote this. I'm a huge fan of screen shots and creating tutorials for helping people, so I guess that's why this project didn't seem as painful as some of the other ones I've had to do. Plus, I was able to focus on a topic that I love: blogging!

I'm currently working on an article that involves many Voxers and their thoughts on blogging. The article is for my Creative Nonfiction for Publication class. I'm thinking about posting it here once I have it completed (which should be sometime later this week).

Mapling it up with gaming. So after my long days of work, work, work, I realized that I needed some sort of release. I resorted to one of my on and off obsessions: Maple Story. I decided to pick up where I left off with my very first character, Minkka. Instead of going out every weekend, I've been sitting in my cozy apartment, zoning out by playing MS and finally leveling Minkka to 50. *grin* I couldn't be happier with her level right now. MS is great for not only relaxing, but for socializing as well. A lot of my old online friends started to slowly come back to the game, and I've been able to get a lot of energy out just by chatting with them through the game.

... And when I "socialize" on MS, that also means that I'm spending money on making my character super kawaii. I hate to admit it but I've spent a good chunk of change on Minkka-- her appearance, her accessories, and her pet(s). This last round of playing has resulted in a lot more clothes for Minkka. (I decided to go pink this time.) Her outfit includes: the Starry Pink Beanie, the Pink Sunglasses, the Pink Camo Hoodie, the Brown Plaid Pants, the Pink Ogg Boots, the Heart Tattoo Gloves, the Bunny Doll Cape, and the Seal Pillow Weapon.

The above screen shot shows Minkka in action: kicking some Master Chronos ass by using her Holy Arrow power.

My month. November has been a long month. The main thought that's keeping me going at this point is the middle of December-- when all of my classes end and some of the stress is gone. I'm so pumped for the holidays and my birthday right now. As much as I hate to admit it, I love this time of the year.

Exactly one year to this day, Vox made its public launch. The website opened its doors to the public and let thousands of people into one of the greatest blogging networks around. I'm so proud to be part of such a great community, and I'd like to dedicate this post to Vox and every single Voxer out there.

I've received countless gifts throughout the past year; Vox is to thank for many of them. I think my favorite gift of them all has been the opportunity to express myself to people I've never even met in person. To know that I can use my blog as a creative and personal outlet in so many ways is pretty extraordinary.

My passion for photography was strong before, but it's grown even more since I started posting photos here at my blog. I know that I've mainly focused on a small portion of my life (with dollies, my sisters, Shawn and things I come across in my everyday life), but I've been able to slowly pick up new photo subjects that catch my eye. I think that one of the great things about Vox is how willing to encourage every reader is. With the encouragement and small pushes in new directions from awesome friends here, I find that my confidence is building day by day. I don't consider myself a very social person outside of the internet, but blogging at Vox has made me feel a little stronger. The fact that I can step outside, taken in my surroundings, and then form new ideas about what images I want to capture is a confident step in the right direction. I no longer feel the need to socialize in the way that other college students do anymore. I've realized how great it is to strengthen what I do have and what I really enjoy-- and that's the quiet atmosphere of my blog in the company of people that I call close friends. (That's you.)

My blogging life extends to amazing highs, ones that I can really say I'm proud of. About two months after Vox made its public launch, I hosted my very first Kawaii at Vox raffle. Over 80 people participated at the time. I was ecstatic! Then, only eight months later, I threw my second raffle. By then, after Vox's community had grown even more, over 100 people joined in on my event. Knowing that people in just one community on the internet could have fun through such a simple event like a raffle really made me smile.

It was the events and the dedication Voxers had to their friends here that have made Vox what it is today. Like I've said before, the amount of community participation between each other and Team Vox is incredibly strong. I think that community is what makes Vox stand apart from every other blogging website out there. I've had the pleasure of being able to see both sides of the spectrum. On one hand, I was a simple blogger who enjoyed her occasional blog post, and on the other hand, I was given the opportunity to work with a great group of hard working people who have dedicated their working lives to better the entire idea and vision of Vox. I take a look at the leaps that I've made in my life thanks to every single ounce of luck (and fate) that has come my way, and I can only say one thing: thank you-- to Vox and to every Voxer who has been able to participate in this great blogging experience.

Vox, you are my favorite blogging place and I don't know where I'd be without you today. Watching you grow up into the strong and healthy community you are today makes me so, so proud. Happy anniversary, Vox!

Thankies to everyone that entered my Kawaii at Vox annivesary raffle! The event was extremely successful. Before I get to the results, I'd like to talk a little about what my experience has been like here at Vox, and I'd also like to show how much has happened in the past year-- through me, a person, and through a website as wonderful as Vox.

A year ago, one of my best friends, Celena, wrote about switching over to a new blogging site in a Livejournal post. (Yes, I used to be an avid LJ fanatic!) I was curious about the site called Vox and wrote an email to her to ask for more information about it. She immediately sent me an invite, and I got down to business, meaning, I had to pick the aboslute perfect name for my brand new blog. The cool thing about starting up with a site that's in its beta version is that all the names that a person wants at a site that has been up for years will most likely be available at a new website, like Vox. Sure enough, the name "Kawaii" was available-- I snatched that baby up.

I had picked up the term "kawaii" from a lot of my dolly friends. We're all into the same cute things: dollies, vinyl toys, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), adorable stationary, etc. I figured that "kawaii" could somehow bring together everything that made me happy in life. According to Wikipedia, kawaii is "cuteness has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms. Foreign observers often find this cuteness intriguing and sometimes strange because the Japanese employ it in a vast array of situations and demographics where, in other cultures, it would be considered incongruously juvenile or frivolous (for example, in government publications, public service warnings, office environments, military advertisements, and commercial airliners, among many others)."

Through the alias, Kawaii, I've been able to grow as a Vox member by expressing myself, sharing my interests with others, and learning new aspects of cuteness through other members. As I've continued to post in my blog, I've been able to share many parts of my life that aren't so cute, which has allowed me to come into my own as an individual more than anyone may ever know. So for this, I thank all of my Vox friends who have given me the privilege of sharing their lives with me, and allowing me to share personal parts of my life with them in return.

I've never been able to chart my life in such detail before. In fact, I don't think I've ever grown so much in just one year! The Narcissist in me won the rest of me over and decided to pull together a collage of photos to show how I've changed from August 2006 to August 2007. Although I may look the same on the outside (for the most part), looking at all the photos together makes me realize how much I have changed, on the inside and outside. I feel good about myself because I know I'm finally an adult in the working, blogging and friending (heh) world-- the real world.

My appearance and inner self isn't the only thing that's been slowly evolving. My actual Vox blog has been, too. ^__^ The beta version of Vox didn't allow its users to use their own banners to design blogs, and even without that option, I found that I was able to express my personality through the templated designs. Knowing that I can look back at Vox and my life, and combine the two together to show how much we've grown, is a pretty cool thing.

The main goal I had with this blog was to share the fun and creative parts of life with other people, whether the people were friends or strangers. That's why this anniversary event was so meaningful to me. With this event, I was able to actually share, in a physical way, bits and pieces of what I've shown you through the internet. Over the year, I've shown you my dolls, vinyl toys, photography, cute pieces of stationary, and other miscellaneous items. I hope that this event allows all of you, whether you're the winners of the raffle or not, how important it is to have fun with life-- be colorful, be creative, take photos like crazy, look at the positive even in the pinnacle of negativity. Like I say in my video (several times, I think), you guys are awesome.

And without further delay (as if this entry wasn't enough), here are the winners of the Kawaii at Vox anniversary raffle!

I wasn't planning on doing a video to announce the winners, but there seemed to be an interest for another raffle video, so I went ahead and did the drawing of winners that way. ^^ So people who can't view the video still know who the winners are, here's the list:

First Place: Maggie, extraordinarilynice
Second Place: Jen, tristessa
Third Place: Cindi, cynddylan
Fourth Place: Ayana, sillyani
Fifth Place: Cindy, mms0131

Again, congratulations to all the winners! I really hope you enjoy all of your prizes. I will be contacting you within the next two days (probably on Sunday) with an email of congratulations and questions about addresses and wrist sizes (for the bracelets). I will hopefully be able to send out the packages early this week. ^_____^