Quote of the Day

One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.
- Antoine de Saint Exupery 

Back to Business

Now that I've taken a much-needed break, what with all the natural disasters and school piling up with alarming frenzy, it's back to business; cracking my knuckles and getting back to blogging while I still have the time...ish.

 

So being on a little hiatus for a while made me realize that I was fresh out of ideas for a new makeup tutorial. Then it also hit me that I hadn't done a tutorial since the Miss Stardoll World competition. I think what I'll do is put a poll up and start gathering some ideas. I've been carrying my sketchbook nearly everywhere lately to get some inspiration, which I have been sorely lacking in for these past few weeks.

 

If you have any suggestions below, or anything new I could introduce to the blog, just comment down below or contact me via the information listed under the tab. 

Back from my hiatus.

With the start of the school year and intense workload that comes with it, I felt like it was time to take a little hiatus for the first month or so. And during then, I also felt as if I'd missed quite a few good blogging opportunities, especially with October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But, alas, life goes on, and fashion waits for no man! (or woman!)

 

So with that, let's look forward to our next upcoming holiday that's just an excuse to dress up in a costume no matter how old you are: Halloween!

 

Since Stardoll really isn't making as big a deal about Halloween as they normally do, I feel compelled to compile a few tips and ideas that will help jazz up your Halloween costumes, and maybe throw in a themed makeup tutorial, as well. 

Klimt takes Tress-Up by storm...

So it appears that Klimt's eccentricly colorful artwork hasn't just graced the floors of Museum Mile, but the mannequins at Tress-Up, as well. A random search of the Starplaza revealed the haute couture wigs that are now available for purchase.

 

At first glance, they have the look of those items that look good on the mannequin, but not so great on your dollie. After trying on a few, I was fully convinced that they should just stay on the mannequin. Some of them look like they could double as clown wigs or something of a more humorous nature, while others were just strange. Although I did find some ways that they would work in more haute couture ensembles. They're more catwalk-esque, rather than everyday wear.

 

Leaving it to that, one of the most famous pieces of Klimt's creation is "Judith", whom many may recognize as a doll that you can dress up on the Dress-Ups page. His use of strange proportions and colorful eccentricities make him the perfect candidate for a new Starplaza collection.

Article on My Favorite Season (Trial Article for TTT)

When you think of winter, you normally associate it with some cheery, seasonal memories; cozy nights by the fire, hot chocolate, and that week-before-Christmas where everyone scrambles to the mall to get their last-minute shopping done.

 

And then there's me, hiding in a closet with my laptop and a blanket, checking the latest updates on vogue.com, because I am a self-proclaimed fashion addict, and holiday cheer always brings with it the annoying commercial ads on television, coupled with some stroke-inducing meals and deliciously fattening desserts. 

 

Winter also brings the comforting promise of the ceremonial "changing of the wardrobe", where my summer clothes end up shoved to the back of my dresser drawers and closet, making room for the long-sleeved V-necks, puffy vests, and knit-berets. I also look forward to Alexander McQueen's models on the catwalk during this season, engulfed in the most creative kind of winter outerwear. Their winter catwalks are always enjoyable for the fashion addicted. 

 

Winter is a pleasant month for standing beside your window and gazing out at the perfectly undisturbed snow settling gently on your front steps. After the snow plow comes through, all bets are off. Seasonal cheer, Christmas tree-shopping, and those obnoxiously cheesy, yet nostalgic holiday songs tend to somehow "magically" lift my spirits and keep me from cursing the beautifully cold, wintry bite of the great outdoors.

 



Having a chat.

A lot of us may remember a time when the Stardoll "Chats" was originally just called Stardoll "parties" or just plain chatrooms. It wasn't that long ago, dollies. Now that this is a decided appendage to the actual Stardoll chat system, and named rightly so, I've felt the need to bring it up with the personal complaints about it.

 

Being on my laptop and getting access to Chats is virtually (no pun intended) quite difficult, as if the program didn't load slow enough. Secondly, there is a much higher limit to how many people can be in a chatroom at once. This not only slows your computer down significantly more than normal, but heaven forbid one party-goer has an animated item on their person, all bets are off, compadre.

 

I know this really isn't something to complain about for one particular feature such as Chats, but the users that frequent these chatrooms tend to frighten me a little. It seems like most of the older, more mature generation of Stardoll tend to stay away from Chats, due to the fact that it is practically overrun by trolls and 9-12 year old girls, half of them pretending to be males on Stardoll. Many of the aforementioned parties are looking for "boyfriends/girlfriends" for their virtual dollies. Charming.

 

In any case, despite the cons of Chats, there are some decent features that accompany it, such as the ability to create your own chatroom without having to name it. I personally thought making rooms was such a hassle, because you had to pick from a list of pre-chosen words, and there was always that one person trying to spell out the word "single" with the only letter choices available. Thankfully that is no more.

 

Aside from that, nothing is particularly awful about the Chats system. It's a good way for younger users to interact with users on Stardoll their own age (and get some first-hand experience with trolling while they're doing that.) 

September 2012 Hotbuys Review

*Cracks knuckles* Let's get to work, shall we? I think we all know the drill by now. Oh, and look at this season's oh-so-original pieces! Just some random accessories and clothing thrown together last minute with halfway-decent graphics and no solidifying theme! Well, color me surprised.

 

 

Forget what I said just now; I think I've finally found out the theme for this month: seizure-inducement!

 

First, just to kick-start everything on an average note, the HotBuys Runners (sneakers) is what we'll be starting with. I really don't understand it, but they kind of resemble the Skecher's Shape-Ups, you know, the ones that old people wear? Except these lovely sneakers were duct-taped into a dizzyingly-colorful...pattern...if you even want to call it that.

 

Moving on to the HotBuys Chevron Pants (grey pants with pink hearts on them); these honestly aren't too bad. I expected worse, to put it simply.

 

Next is the HotBuys Romper, which seriously resembles the aftermath of an artists' smock after a long day of painting. You know, how they just get random smears and splotches of paint all over their clothing? It's not intentional, Stardoll, please don't even try to attempt the splatter-paint look. Like I've said before, their experiences with rompers hasn't been significantly good enough for me to comment nicely on them.

 

Now we are left with another piece; the varicolored skirt with the black bow belt. I honestly could say worse about it, but my creativity is draining out of me just by looking at it. Not awful, but certainly not good enough to be considered a "Hot Buy" either. It looks like a first season DKNY reject.

 

 I really don't understand the geometric elements of that neon-blue gradient dress. The dress would actually look pretty nice, minus the peach and teal lines zig-zagging across the front.

 

The denim bustier "top" if you can even call it that, looks like something I could see a street hooker wearing. Seriously, it has the appearance of a DIY gone horribly wrong. Someone was trying to combine a bra and the ripped pieces of what used to be denim jeans and obviously didn't do such a good job.

 

Don't even get me started on that next "watermelon" dress. Did someone call a circus ringleader?

 

The Bizou purse really was the trainwreck on top of the car-crash. I don't even know where that came from; did someone just put it in there as a joke? I'm very confused about its classification as a "Hotbuy". Try "Notbuy".

 

Well, I can honestly say that was a huge failure of a masquerade mask, Stardoll. My grandmother probably could have thought of something more original while taking a nap in her lounge chair. Word of advice: never try to mix sunglasses lenses with the outside appearance of a masquerade mask.

 

That neon-pink hanging finger-bone necklace is kind of skeeving me out a little. I'm not a savage who chops off people's hands and bleaches their bones in a pink solution, thank you very much. 

 

 

Well, that just about concludes my rant on this month's Notbuys, or Don'tbuys. Whichever you prefer to call them, because let's face it: the only reason they're selling is due to the decent graphics that aren't on regular items of clothing. What ever happened to the really nice Hotbuys from a few years ago? Boy, do I miss those.