Sacred Night by Lief Review

My first lolita arrival of 2011, Lief's Sacred Night in black, showed up today! (Meanwhile, my 2 other R series JSKs are on their way... but that's not what this is about)

First off, I got the black JSK in S/M.
Construction:

• The velvet is very soft
• Lined about halfway down
• Straps are spaced correctly
• Includes waist tie and detachable bow with pin
• The print is a very tasteful gold, not crazy glittery, but shows up crisp
• The zipper is a little uncooperative going up.
• I'm 5'5" (165cm) tall and it falls halfway between my knees and my ankle I'd say.
• Official Measurements: bust: 86~96cm; I am only 84cm, but the shirring isn't bulky
  

Customer Service:

• Invoiced with no issues
• No notice of shipping, albeit that is standard procedure for Lief (I ordered the Aster Cafe before).
• English rep is very considerate, informative, and accommodating (I switched my colorway after they notified us the colors became solid)

Detail Shots:




Overall: Lief is my favorite indie brand and I'm pretty glad I passed up the Regimental series for Sacred night. It's really warm too, naturally as the whole thing is velvet.

PCOS Study

(look, my nails match!)

I finished up the PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) study I participated in since last year. It was an extended study to test the effect of estrogen on women with PCOS and without. It was time consuming in the sense I had to complete 2 overnight admissions. For each admission, it went like this:

4 days prior: Blood sample to check blood count, start estrogen patches
Evening of admission: Admitted, about 1cc of blood drawn every 10 minutes.
26 hours later: Released!

Conveyor Sushi

Sorry there's been a bit of a lull in posts. Between having guests, driving back and forth between my apartment and my parent's place, and getting ready for the new semester, I haven't had a lot of time for posts. Not to mention that my R Series order pretty much *just* shipped form my SS to me. But there will be a lengthy and detailed review post when that arrives, so that's what's coming on the lolita front.

From a food perspective, when I was back in Norther Virginia (Nova for short) I went to the conveyor belt sushi place at the mall. It opened up last winter, if I recall. These places have been popular in japan and in big cities like new york, so I was surprised that they opened one here.

The video is just a 13 sec shot of the dishes as they go by. You just pick whichever one you want as it goes. The edges are color coded by price. Besides sushi, sashimi, and maki, they have edamame, fresh fruit, and mousse, haha. It's a pretty cute place. The quality of the fish is somewhat lacking (but I've been spoiled by places with REALLY excellent sashimi) but the maki is decent and its more of the novelty factor.

Would you eat at a conveyor sushi place?

The Cost of Nothing

I started devising an experiment last year, called "Could I make money off buying/selling lolita clothing". The premise was simple and fairly logical: buy low, sell high. On many auction sites like yahoo japan and mbok, brand is sold fairly cheap. On the comm sale, the same items can go for almost 2x the listed auction price. I decided even if I wouldn't go through with it, I could still design an experiment.

The Concept:
- Start small. Start mid priced items that both fit my style, were in good condition, were exceptionally cheap, and were brand. If I followed these conditions, in the event I couldn't find a seller, I didn't mind keeping the pieces myself.

The Process:
-Find auctions on mbok, which is a little cheaper than yahoo japan. Also, a shopping service.

-Invest x amount of money and after getting the items, see if they can be sold for more than I bought them.

The Projected Results
- While a nice concept in theory, due to the poor exchange rate, the need for a shopping service (which charges shipping+comission), one would be lucky to make a profit by this process.
- Living in Japan would make this more of a viable concept. In that case however, it would just be a small scale Closet Child because those stores must use the same idea to make a profit.

Have you ever sold anything online and made a profit?

Yujacha

This post is being published from my new android phone. Hooray! Seriously I'm way in love with it. (samsung captivate).

Anyhow, snap of the day is from my favorie korean bakery called le matin de paris. They have really tasty pastries and stuff. Plus, orange citron tea called yujacha. Just what one needs on a chilly january day right?

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