You like how I’m wearing the same shirt in all three photos? I swear they were different days.
You know, I never intended to do a “Part 2,” but here we are, more than a year since my last post, so another recap is in order. Life has been busy! In a good way. Things that have happened since my last post:
My husband and I bought a house in the San Diego area — a cute house in a nice community, hidden away at the edge of town. I wish I had one more bedroom, but houses are expensive in CA, so I’m lucky to have even this much. An elderly couple lived here before us, and you can tell the wife did all the decorating. It was literally a grandma’s house. Pink living room, pink kitchen, flowery window trims — perfect for me! The office was painted a muted green and was clearly the husband’s sanctuary. Too bad for my hubby, we had it painted white, and it’s now my sewing room. There is a small garden with roses in the back and azalea, myrtle, and camellias on the side. ♥ The garden is just big enough for me to grow my favorite flowers but still be manageable for a busy lady who’s not much of a gardener. My parents have been helping me a lot, and I’m learning. Even though it’s been more than a year, we still aren’t done organizing the house and decorating. Taking care of a house is a lot of work, but I love my new home and this neighborhood. ♥
My husband and I finally went on our honeymoon to Japan. Two and a half years later. Better late than never! With all of our moving, we kept having to put it off, but we finally went last March. We spent three weeks in Tokyo and Osaka, cramming in as much as we could. We were literally on the go all day, every day, for the entire three weeks. It was exhausting, but it was the first time there for both of us, and we weren’t sure when we’d ever be able to go back, so we wanted to make the most of it!
My husband and I adopted kittens. KITTENS!! YAY!! \(*w*)/ Two little boys from the same litter, Tassadar (blue longhair tabby) and Zeratul (blue shorthair). Yes, their names are from StarCraft. We adopted them from the Humane Society last July. They are cute, crazy, and full of energy. (I mean… they’re kittens.) Things are a lot livelier (and messier) around here now!
My husband and I bought a new car. In July (actually, the weekend after getting the kittens), we got a shiny new Toyota Prius V! Both my husband’s and my cars were more than 17 years old, so it was time we got a new one. Fuel efficiency is important to me, both for economical and environmental reasons. We wanted a Prius Prime (in that beautiful teal!), but there just wasn’t enough cargo space for it to be our main vehicle. The Prius V is very roomy and still gets great mileage. We sold my 2000 Honda Civic to some friends, as a first car for their daughter. I’m glad it went to a good home. ♥
Conventions and Cosplay: Last year was a little more active for me than the year before. I got to be a part of some big cosplay groups, threw together a number of simple costumes, competed in a couple masquerades with some great people, and did a big dance show at Fanime as usual (probably Angel Hearts’ last big production, as we are all getting older and busier). I also went to the Anisong World Matsuri ~Japan Kawaii Live~ concert at Anime Expo, which was a dream come true. Wake Up, Girls! blew me away with their talent, they were hands down the best act of the night. I also went to…
BlizzCon: Actually, I’ve been to two BlizzCons since my last post. 2016 was my first BlizzCon! I’d always wanted to go, but in the early days of the con, my friends told me it was mostly World of WarCraft oriented (which I don’t play), so since the con is expensive and hard to get into, I never bothered. With the releases of StarCraft II and Heroes of the Storm, BlizzCon is more relevant to me now, and I finally got a chance to go. I wore themed outfits to show my fandom (mostly Protoss, but also Nova), but didn’t make any costumes. The tournaments kept me occupied anyway! My husband and I like to watch StarCraft tournaments online, so being there in the arena for the global finals was an awesome experience.
The Tea Party Jus Cuz Society: I missed the Lolita tea parties we used to have up in NorCal, so I organized a tea party “Jus Cuz” with my LA area friends, and it became a regular thing. At our first gathering, a stranger asked us what the occasion was, and one of my friends answered, “I believe the exact wording on the invitation was ‘Jus Cuz'”. So, we became The Tea Party Jus Cuz Society, and we try to meet once a month, unless everyone is busy (like during convention months or the holidays).
Adventures with hair color: After a few years of ombre hair, I thought, why stop there? Why not pink? And THEN I thought, why stop at one color? Why not pink and blue?? I cosplay Chihaya from THE IDOLM@STER so much, some people actually thought I had blue hair. Unfortunately, I’ve learned bright hair color is only semi-permanent, and washes out in a few months. I’ve had my hair recolored twice since, in varying combos of pink, blue, and teal. It’s a lot of fun, but the upkeep is expensive if you go to a salon to get it done, so I’m not sure if I’ll continue. I enjoyed experimenting while I could. I may try coloring my hair at home.
Ethereal Hearts: You may have noticed some re-branding around here. I’ve been trying to come up with a name for my brand for YEARS (seriously, way too long), and I finally settled on a name that I feel really captures the style of the brand I hope to build. I have renamed all of my social media to match. In the future I hope to make clothes, costumes, accessories, and other fun things, but on a limited basis, and probably not for a while yet, since I’m still busy in my personal life. So for now, Ethereal Hearts will be focused on this blog.
Blogging: Those who knew me back in the LiveJournal days may remember how I liked to write long posts about random things… I really miss those days. I do love writing, I always have. So I decided to start writing more seriously on this blog (I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me earlier). I hope this will be a good place to share my style, art, and interests, and connect with others who share the same interests. I have reorganized my entire website to be contained within this blog. Hopefully that will encourage me to actually update it. 😉 Stay tuned!