Collection of Taipei Christmas Photos!

Despite not being a Christian country, Taiwan loves to get in the holiday spirit and jumped on the holiday bandwagon!  It's not nearly as over-the-top as in America, but rather a tasteful celebration in my opinion (mostly for children.)  I've not attended any of the Christian churches here so I don't really know if they've gone the "Happy Birthday Jesus" route or the "No this is pagan burn the witches" route.  It is more likely to be the Happy Birthday Jesus one in my opinion ;)

Without further ado, here are just a few pictures I snapped!

This is Taiwan Teddy actually :D

Outside a restaurant by my school

At a night market

OK so this one is by me :P

In a restaurant

At my school

At one of the stops along the metro line

Regardless of what religion or holidays you celebrate, I hope you've all had a lovely day!

Hibernation in Taipei

I've been back from India for about two weeks now, but haven't done much because I needed to catch up on schoolwork (oh no three weeks of missing school!!  Right during midterm tests!) as well as the sudden temperature change between Mumbai and Taipei has made me into a hibernating bear.

This is Rambo.  I met him while we were painting the Mt. Mary Steps project

This is the Graffiti Jam

This is my first time taking Mumbai trains.  NO SAFETY so it is up to you to be wise!

This is the most tragic photo of my trip.  These kittens were fending for themselves.

There was some trouble with my schooling because I am on the brink of failing out already, but it may have been fixed.  I am still in the danger zone and may not graduate, but this has given me much time to think about my future.  I do not plan to continue schooling regardless of graduation results.  This is my final year, and that is all.

  

 

I also no longer wish to do a traditional shop, or even online webshop because I am unsatisfied with the current marketing format of trying to fight for customers who do not understand the work and money invested into products, and instead we are all (myself included) more interested in getting the most amount of stuff for the least amount of money, a la TaoBao.  My interest in fashion began because I wanted to make clothing for myself, and one-offs for friends.  Now that I have spent so many years doing this, I think I want to go back to these one-offs, making whatever I want without considering its market value, as well as taking custom orders from people who are willing to understand the value of work.  I am aware this means I will probably need to take another job in order to support myself financially, but in the long run I feel it will make me happier!  Trying to work out the market has aggravated all the anxiety and depression issues I was previously dealing with.

This also means I will probably not be focusing on as niche a topic on this blog, though I still adore traditional Lolita fashion so no worries, I will still be updating with it ;)

Additionally, I am exploring other styles I've always admired but never tried!  So hopefully more news will begin to update here.  Thanks for following along and for leaving comments.  It is always a light in my day to read them!

Picture Story

TADA! OK, I don't think you can really tell from the photos, but this is my trip from Taipei to Bangkok (breakfast plane food and Thailand airport) and then from Bangkok to India (vegetarian plane food and then Mumbai airport)

So, really I will not be able to update much because internet connection is not guaranteed here but I hope at least it is interesting for readers :)  I am here with my boyfriend for the st+art Mumbai event, so he will be busy doing his artwork and I will do translation work at the headquarters and go shopping and such when others have time because it is safer to travel in groups for women.

Hope everybody else is having a grand time!  India is vastly different from any place I've ever been before; still very distinct culture of their own, extremely mixed rich and poor places, and worse traffic than Taipei... Autorickshaws are pretty awesome transport here!

Work in progress

Been so busy making a mockup of the first outfit I will make for my final line.  I'm going to India for three weeks so I will probably have to hurry my progress and will do a more complete update!

This year my line is called Sweetie Love and is basically just ice cream and cakes mashed with Teddy bears and bunnies because why not? (My teacher did not like my theme...)

Life had gotten so busy!  I have two Lolita meetups this month before I leave on the 17th, need to do this cute fashion line, and have a fitting and completion of a men's vest for a singer in a local band.  Haven't got time to even go to work haha.

Art Taipei 2014

On Sunday I wore Lolita and went to fun international art exhibit at the world trade center

There weren't too many artworks I really loved but I took photos of my favorites!

I took this photo with a stranger who was very sweet and polite when asking for a photo

Pretending to be on candy drugs

This artist had a series of melting sweets that I found fitting for my current fashion design class line

Two different artists.  The first photo is masked off acrylic and the second and third are multidimensional pictures that change as you move!

Fishing!

I loved this floating cloud series which was made with layers of glass that each had a different pattern sprayed on so when viewed from the front it appears to be a fluffy cloud

House of knives and extreme farsightedness

Adding Teddy to the artworks

Floral Music Lolita Meetup

I only just realized my last mobile post failed (please recommend reliable Android mobile app for blogger?) so I'll skip right ahead to the Lolita meetup on Saturday, October 18!

Not a real dog :(

The theme this time was more complex: flower + grass/leaves + music notes (not instruments!)

Bulbasaur covered the grass theme portion (hey, it is grass-type OK!!!)

We met at an absolutely adorably quaint little shop called Victoria Garden and all the details and decor in the cafe were SO cute and elegant!!  The lowest price requirement is a bit much; each person must order a set.  Not a problem if your original intention was to eat a full meal, but I wasn't very hungry.  Luckily, they had a nice salad option that wasn't too heavy.

My boyfriend is also wearing flower + grass theme

Full outfit shot.  I think ANO (bf) used a filter because the light there was very yellow.

Detail shot by Doro (sorry for the blur!)

It was quite a small meetup, but everybody already knew everybody so we ended up having lots of really funny conversations and time flew by so quickly!!  We even forgot to take a group photo, shoes photo, and finger photos.

While meeting new people through common interests is fun, groups of familiar faces seem to bring a more lively atmosphere.  Plus, the owner and waitstaff were all very sweet and let us sort of drag out our exit even though they were closing ^^;

Currently I'm quite overwhelmed with schoolwork and may make a Fashion University post :)  It was lovely to take some time off and just be goofy and frilly with friends!  And thinking of more themed-Lolita challenges.  The next one is "snow fairy/elf" though I may be in India if the date is too late.  Haven't got any idea how to work that theme given that I'd binned my only snowflake Lolita skirt!

<b>What is your favorite Lolita theme?</b> I personally adore Lolitas who are able to work completely non-lolita things into a proper coordinate and keeping the "fashion" aspect rather than "look at my theme."  I proposed a Pokemon-theme and a fruit theme (no repeated fruit, or everybody will show up with only strawberry and cherry!) as well as a predator animals (bears, tigers, eagles, etc.) theme.  I don't even know if I'd be able to make it...

World Chocolate Wonderland

  On Sunday I went to an exhibit in 淡水/Tamsui ALL ABOUT CHOCOLATE!!!!  So exciting!  Originally Kamiko and I planned to wear chocolate-themed clothing ,but since I sold my Little Bear Cafe, I had Teddy wear her Little Bear Cafe dress and I wore a bear-themed outfit.  That is sort of like chocolate, right???

The exhibit is split into "worlds" and you receive a little paper suitcase with three chocolate coins you can exchange for gifts at different places.  Before even entering the exhibit, there were many statues so we took photos with them!

First up was Maya Chocolate!  You could step on a scale and see how many cacao beans you weighed.  I will not reveal my cacao weight, but Teddy's was two beans.

Maya Chocolate had a little section you could roll out the cacao beans from the fruit.  Kamiko, Teddy, and I gave it a go.  We all ended up smelling of chocolate afterward!!  At Maya Chocolate world you could exchange a chocolate coin for SPICY HOT CHOCOLATE which was surprisingling delicious!!!!

After all that hard word, I had to have me a cigar.  Just kidding, this is a cinnamon stick!

Next up was Fantasy Forest!  I make the most attractive faces.

There was an adorable little house with props you could put on!  They were all children-sized so only the wings fit me....

After Fantasy Forest was a fashion Champs-Elysee room and a Future World but the lighting was very poor so we couldn't take many photos.  There were shoes, bags, masks, and hats made of real chocolate! 

The last world was a romantic one where you could exchange a coin for chocolate-covered marshmallow or a postcard.  There was also a photobooth you could take photos in!  It cost money to print, but you could scan the QR code and download for free.

There was also this game show below where you slide a digital coin on the small screen and it will fly into the big screen!!!  Like magic!!!  The goal was to hit the little white angel at the top of the fountain.  If you hit any of the other character they would still react so it was funny.  It took me many tries to hit the angel, but only took Kamiko three tries....

Hitting the angel would earn you an extra chocolate coin!  I earned two and gave one to a small child who didn't understand the game haha.

There was also an upstairs where two foreign chocolate artisans made chocolate items.

Here is a Mario spider: 

And then a KING SPIDER:

There was also a DIY class to sign up for.  We made these chocolate lollies, and the molds are gifts you can take home!  Super fun!

After leaving was a fun gift shop with loads of chocolate-theme goods such as molds, stationery objects, candies, etc.

By the time we left the chocolate world, it was dark already!!

The bridge back was shut off for maintenance, so we took a ferry instead :3

It was my first time on such a small ferry, and the roof was INSANELY low.  I'm so glad the waters were relatively calm otherwise there would be many headaches going around....

It was a really great and fun exhibit and definitely recommend everybody visit if you've got the chance.  The ticket prices are NT$240 for students and NT$280 regular.  Very worth it!  And try the spicy hot chocolate ;)