I drew new mascots. They're dogs with swirly cakes for ears. The left one is afraid of being eaten so he painted himself blue.

I chose to do a portfolio for my Fashion Illustration class final. It's the alternative option, since I didn't want to do an A3 panel drawing. It requires too much movement and surface area to cover. I tend to always start drawing the head too low, and the feet are always cramped a few millimeters from the bottom, if not cut off. It's kind of funny.

I set up some of my dolls and miniatures. I went with my friends to the Yoshitoku Dolls store, and I bought the re-released showa stuffed toys, i got the rabbit and panda.

I made these flower patches? for my entrance ceremony outfit. I removed them and use them as coasters now, though I dont actually use coasters so its more of a decorational coaster. But I also thought it would look cute as a rug.

We switched seats in class recently and I sit in the back next to Reika, and Enya sits behind me too. Reika seemed like she had similar interests so I asked if she wanted to go to the shop with me sometime. I invited Koharu too, who sits in front. I'm happy we got to seated next to each other, Reika speaks a little english too, so she helps Enya and me out a lot in class. Ren sits behind me next to Enya and she's pretty skilled in sewing, so when we get lost we can ask her for help too instead of getting yelled at by the teacher :)) Koharu bought a triceratops plush that has a wristband on it. She uses it as a pincushion!!! hahhahha After the shop we wanted to get fried chicken but the restaurant closed early lol so we went to Komeda Coffee. I ate a katsu sandwhich and Reika and Koharu shared a fat pancake that had soft serve on top. All the food was so massive honestly.

(Yoshitoku Dolls rabbit,panda; Nakayoshi Barbie 1995, Pink Barbie House (Japanese release, 1995?), mixed Re-ment & recent gacha miniatures)

I went shopping for supplies. The shopping cart had a cute cauliflower blue handle with a nice message. I bought interfacing, which came in this really cute pink paper wrapping that has a "USA made" label. Lovely color! Lace and thread for sewing toiles.

I went by myself to an exhibition about Mahou Shoujo animation and toys, held at the Yokohama Doll Museum.

The exhibit started with the origin of witch and magical girl iconography in the genre, and went through several series showing pictures and featuring merchandise from each. To be honest, I'm not someone who watches a lot of media in general, so I actually haven't watched most of the series featured here. The most is probably Ojamajo Doremi. But I love the design of the gadgets and clothing of Mahou Shoujo, and the packaging design too. I have a book about it that I often reference. Many are on my watchlist though, some have been for years...

These were my favorite display cases. As you know I love dolls, particularly 5 point articulated fashion dolls, i think the stiffness in their posture is really charming and really expresses "doll" (in my mind, definition being the mascotification of the human form). All super cute. The color schemes are both great, pink, teal, cream, reds...the child-size costume hat was especially lovely. I only own Barbies, Jenny and Liccas, but I'd love to get a Mahou Shoujo doll one day. They're just always really expensive lol!

The Doremi items are always great, and they're a bit more pop than others as its more modern compared to the 70s-80s ones. But the cute elegance of the items from the first image, Chukana Panema, are maybe my favorite. I really love the light warm pink with gold and a pop of red. The Mahou no Ribon items are also really great, also a bit pop in the packaging, I love the check. There was a display case of Sailor Moon things too, and while I love the art and costume designs of it, the gadgets aren't my favorite, so I'm not sure if I took pictures.

Some more images of the room, and a few of my select favorite items. There were a lot and I can't put them all, but i have some others featured in my instagram post. I'll make a vlog with the videos I took, and show everything in detail there. I'd like to imagine my heart looks something like the item in the last image there.

I made my hair wavy on photoshop because my perm had washed away after several months. I was planning to cut it and keep it in a layered straight style, so I haven't re-permed it. After the exhibit, which I was probably at for 2 hours or so, I went to the nearby Motomachi Shopping Street and rested at a cafe. It's a really cute street that feels western, I think it's pretty rare to see a walking street like this in Tokyo with stone floors and benches LOL, and the architecture of the shops are all interesting too.

The exhibition poster and ticket on the cafe table. Some cute Licca dolls and shirts in a clothing shop I went into.

Some cute flowers i walked past.

I styled a wig myself for the first time. I bought a wig in Ikebukuro (Assist Wig). I was sad to see that Maple had closed down, even though I visited the store a week or 2 prior.

I debated between shades of blonde and copper. Even though the drawing is blonde, its a harder shade to match to different skin tones, & since my model wasn't there to test them copper seemed to be a safer choice. Copper is my favorite hair color in any case! You look like a pretty penny!

My fashion drawing. I think you would need more internal structure to get this exact type of shape, so I'll just do what I can. Lol if you are wig artist though and can do something like this though hmu.

hahahahah! i am so sorry I thought I took many more photos of the process but there are only like 2. I was really busy trying to get everything done for my graduation show: clothes, styling, accessories, so I guess I couldnt stop to take more pictures during! the hustle!! Anyways, it was a medium length wig with long bangs. I trimmed ~7cm off to about shoulder length. My mom and her sisters are hairdressers, so I tried to section and cut it like I've seen them do. Gave up and eventually just trimmed the ends to be generally even, since it was going to all be curled up anyways.

You can use boiling water or a steamer (don't have one) to set the hair after you pin it into place. I twisted up sections of hair into pin curls all around the front and top, and for the sides I rolled them into small curlers. Then I put the wig & stand in my shower and poured boiling water over. It took a long time to dry lol, a steamer would have been preferred.

Some parts like the bangs were set nicely while the sides didn't. I learned artificial hair doesn't function with heat exactly like normal hair. When it's hot it just kinda goes limp and straight, so instead of heating it into the position you want, its really about cooling it into the desired position. I used my hair straightener to heat the hair, and then curled it around my finger, which burned, and held it in position till it cooled. You should really use like a stick, pencil, or something, but I just kinda didn't care lol. more control. maybe the grit makes you love it more. And somehow, the hairstyle came out similar to how I wanted.

I'd have loved if I had a photo of me bringing this to school. We had a dress rehearsal that day, so I was testing out my own hairstyle. I was still letting it set on the way to school, so I was walking through the streets & train full of pins, clips, and curlers in my hair, and holding this wig on mannequin head. I actually love the look of the hair supplies as accessories. But it must have been so funny too. hahahahah! I ran into Reika on the way and she also had a wig she styled with her. We always have similar thinking in our projects.

Here's the wig styling with accessories I made. I made the doll's blouse, which was the inspiration for the actual look, and I got the doll's brush and shoes from the Licca Castle Shop a week before and turned them into hair clips. It's cute like a little doll/elf/imp/fairy lives in the mess of your hair, and they're messy themselves. Leaving their clothes and things all around.

And here is my model and friend Yuri wearing the wig on show day. It suited her so well, and also made her unrecognizable since it was so different from her usual style LOL. In other photos on the website you can see my other friend Arino wearing the wig as well. It really suited both models really well!

I need to try the wig too, because copper is actually my dream hair color. I'll become a pretty penny too!

I saw kawazu-zakura at Miura! I wore my coat. I've tried to come here every year I've lived in Tokyo so far! It's a really relaxing seaside town with lots of fresh air, sakura along the train, and delicious fish.

I made a small blouse for my doll. I'm making another one as a hair clip for humans.

I went with my friend to a kissaten I wanted to visit for a while. It's located in Itabashi, which is also where I stay, but its surprisingly far to get to by train or foot. About 30 minutes. Today I'm wearing a pink crochet top over a ruffled white blouse, and Pink House overalls. My bag is Dooney&Burke with some stuffy charms. I think I visually match but not sure about thematically, but I like that I look like a strolling neighborhood girl.

The exterior is really cute, its a warm pink with a chocolate looking door. I like the fake brick and the red accents. There are cute objects in front like the cat mat and hello kitty schooter, and chalkboard. with cute plants.

The interior is amazing also. It's a very eclectic mix of elegant, cute, and gaudy elements. There's classical music playing, and classical European and Oriental decorations, but there are also lots of Hello Kitty items from the 90s and 2000's too, its a little gyaru. The seats are lined with leopard print faux fur.

Most of the time I don't really enjoy the food at kissatens, which I will expand upon in another post. But this one was amazing!! Probably my most recommended kissaten overall. Not only beautiful & well designed, but delicious too, and not in a sickenly 1-dimentionally sweet way. We ordered the panna cotta, cinnamon toast, and i got an earl grey tea float. My friend got ginger ale. But the flavors like cinnamon and earl grey have the hint of spice and elegance to them, alongside being creamy sweet. It tastes more multi-dimensional, it really suits the cafe. The panna cotta was delicious, and the syrup came in a cute blue spotted cow pitcher. But, I love sugared buttered bread. My favorite snack is a high quality butter on sourdough, with Sugar in the Raw on top. So my favorite thing here was the toast by far, aside from the look, it was delicious too. The roses were buttercream, with cinnamon and sugar on the bread.