10 Favorite Etsy Shops Part One!!

The holidays are near and it’s time to stock up on gifts and stocking stuffers for your family, friends, or yourself! What better then to give to two people at once - the gift recipient and the gift maker? This is why I love Etsy.

Etsy is like an Amazon or Taobao for homemade and vintage goods as well as crafting materials. It’s most known for having lots and lots of stores by artists on it. You can find anything there, from zines, to wedding rings, to artwork, to clothing…pretty much anything you could think of. 

I am probably going to buy most if not all of my friends’ gifts on Etsy this year. As an artist, I want to do everything I can to support other artists. So I’m going to recommend my favorite Etsy shops, ten at a time. Note that I may or may not have ordered from each of these shops so I cannot always speak for quality and timeliness and such. Also, I’m going to provide a link HERE to my general Etsy favorites list, which is very diverse, and not everything in that list is from a shop I’ll be mentioning.

Kawaii Power Up

Kawaii Power Up is actually the first Etsy store I ever made a purchase from, and a favorite with me and my friend. My review can be found HERE. This shop specialized in cute and nerdy accessories. My favorite items from this shop are the dust plugs! I feel like they are the most reasonably priced - although her shop is very well priced for what you get - and the most unique. The shop includes free goodies with every purchase as well! 

Nerdy Little Secrets

Much like the previous store, Nerdy Little Secrets specializes in kawaii and sometimes nerdy accessories perfect for all cute fashions. However, this store’s accessories are much more softer in appearance. I feel like this shop is a little more diverse then Kawaii Power Up, and has also been open for longer. Their prices are very fair, although wait time for certain items is a little bit long. 

Starlight Deco Dream

Starlight Deco Dream is a wonderful shop. It’s main draw is jewelry and accessories based on anime series, such as Madoka and Sailor Moon. Again, the prices are very fair. My favorite item from the shop right now is the giant “mahou shoujo” necklaces! This shop is a must for fans of magical girl anime!

Miss Alphabet

“Your one-stop shop for all things Barbie, Fairy Kei, and pastel goth!” Miss Alphabet is mostly a clothing store that caters all shapes and sizes. With sparkling fabrics and bows and lace everywhere, this store is great if you want clothing to catch the eyes of others. The prices are a bit high, but everything is custom made and very high quality. 

Bity Kity

Bity Kity is another accessory store, and everything is very pastel pink and purple! I don’t have much to say about this shop that hasn’t been said about the others, but this shop also offers very fair prices. They also have custom and pre made decoden phone cases!

Beagle Cakes Art & Illustration

This shop focuses on very cute and stylized stickers, prints, and cards. Most of the art is original, but there are also sets of Sailor Moon stickers. The shop also offers custom chibi prints! For what you get, the prices are extremely reasonable.

Mayshallwin

Mayshallwin is another store that offers cute stickers, though this one focuses on characters from anime and the like, especially Pokemon. The art is very cute and stylized. The only qualm I have is that the prices are a bit high. For example, for one dollar, you can get…one sticker. However, the owners seem to be students, so it’s a bit understandable.

AW Recycled Journals

I’m a little hesitant to list this shop, because there are so many one-of-a-kind journals in this shop that I don’t want bought up, hahaha! This store features recycled journals, as in, journals that are made from VHS covers, record sleeves, and there are even a few made from board game boxes and cereal boxes! For something this cool, the prices are great. As a journal/sketchbookphile, this store is heaven. 

Ready to Stare

This shop features plus size clothing and statement jewelry, and wants for others to rock the way they look, no matter how that may be. My favorite item of theirs are earrings made from giant dinosaur toys. The prices are great and their models and stock photos are beautiful. This store has a very street fashion/soft ghetto feel.

Thanks for reading!! See you later!!

Music Recommendations for November - I Haven’t Posted Here in a While

Uuuuu yes. I’m sitting on a pile of excuses on why I haven’t been blogging lately (or vlogging, or anything else I’ve said I’d do) but I’ll keep them to myself because no one wants to read paragraphs of that :P Instead, I’ll jump right in with something I haven’t done since May, a music recommendation post! 

Since I haven’t posted in a bit, I can’t quite think of a good theme for this month (I guess I’ll have to wait until next year for Halloween…) so I’ll just post my top five (I haven’t listened to much lately!) current favorites! As always, no download links, but feel free to listen via YouTube!

Musunde Hiraite Rasetsu to Mukuro - Hatsune Miku

Sometimes I’m a very avid Vocaloid fan, and sometimes I’m not. Right now I am not, but this song is still wonderful. If you don’t know what Vocaloid is, I highly suggest you look it up, it’s quite a wonderful thing. This song combines pop music with traditional Japanese themes in a very spooky way!

Anime Janai - Arai Masato

The title of this song translates to “It’s not an anime,” as in, what you are dealing with is really happening and it’s not just a cartoon on the television. This song is the opening to the show Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ from 1986, and it definitely has an 80s anime feel. I’ve never actually watched the show (like a lot of music I’m introduced to nowadays, it’s a favorite of my fiance’s), but in looking it up, it appears it will be released in North America next year! Unfortunately, there isn’t a clean version of the extended version on YouTube, so the live version will have to do.

In the Year 2525 - Zager and Evans

This is a song from the 60s, but I never remembered hearing it on the radio when I was a kid and only listened to what my parents listened to. Instead, I think I heard this in a flash video (again, with the fiancé)? I’m not sure. This song is so very haunting and foreboding, and honestly makes me cry more often then not. But I love it. I love it and it inspires me so much.

Can You Feel the Sunshine - Sonic R Soundtrack

I never had a video game console until I was 9 or so, and it was a Nintendo. I’ve never owned a Sega console and only in the past few years have I played a Sega game. Sonic is one of my fiancé’s favorite franchises, and I remember the first time I heard this song, we were driving around with the windows down, one of his hands holding mine. So it has a happy memory attached, plus it’s just ridiculously happy. This is from the American soundtrack of the very difficult racing game. I was told a lot of people preferred the Japanese soundtrack but I kind of like the peppy, if not somewhat corny, songs from the American release.

Nuclear - Metal Gear Solid V Soundtrack

I should rename this the “songs my fiancé introduced me to somehow” list. The Metal Gear series has always interested me, but I never felt I would enjoy playing it too much. I remember watching the video for this song as it aired live, the living room dark, and covered in chills. While this video I’ve linked is not the same one (I couldn’t find it, and also it makes me cry, haha), it’s still very powerful and morose. 

I hope you enjoy!!

May Favorites 2014

I'm only a week and a half late...anyways, May was a kind of stressful month at the beginning and great during the end. So here's five things I was loving during the month of May! Um, this month is a little unconventional - no makeup or fashion products, and some of the favorites aren't exactly things you can purchase...sorry haha.

First up is more of a concept then an item...it's a newer art style! I've been having artist block for who knows how long. I recently got inspired by a new favorite artist, Kaiami, to draw a bit in her style. The more I drew, the more it evolved from a copy of her style into something of my own. It's not perfect yet, but I'm actually making art and I'm liking what I'm doing! If you have a deviantArt account, you can follow me there at MeltyBunny and my tumblr art blog at meltybunny-art.

My second favorite is kind of weird? SWEET TEA. For the longest time I hated sweet tea. I liked iced tea with flavors, but not just straight, Southern sweet tea. And then I was at Thornton's and instead of coffee, I had the strangest desire to get some. And it tasted a little gross, but I liked it. Now I'm drinking it non stop. I know that it's no good for me because of all the sugar but I. Can't. Stop.

Probably the most normal favorite on my list is a new anime called Is The Order a Rabbit? It combines slice of life with rabbits and coffee, so I really don't see any faults with it at all. If you love cute, fluffy anime, I highly recommend it. The ninth episode was just released, and the fifth is up on Hulu+.

My fourth favorite...is the lack of spiders in my apartment. You can see why I didn't put an image there, yes? We had an incident with a giant spider in our apartment. No, you don't get it. Giant. In the bed. But it was taken care of, and we got pest control to come and search, and they didn't find anything. It most likely came from a box I ordered from Poland. Thanks, Amazon!

Lastly is...this blog post that I made XD Why? Because it got liked and reblogged over six hundred times on tumblr and got almost twice those views on the post itself, so that means it reached a LOT of people...and hopefully that means it helped a lot of people as well! That's what I want - to help people.

I know this was a really short and not so organized/cool favorites post, hopefully next month will actually have interesting favorites on it.

Are you watching E3? I got up early to watch Nintendo's segment. I saw Sony's and was pleasantly surprised.

Music Recommendations for May: It's Almost My Birthday so I Choose What I Want!

I love sharing my music tastes so much with others. So, I decided to make a monthly post showcasing new favorites and old loves. This isn't so much a "top x" list as it is a themed list. I won't be offering download links (sorry, this isn't the early 2000s) but I will have youtube videos up, except for the first song where I couldn't find a YT link and I'll link to the Bandcamp page instead.

Since it's my birthday month, the theme for this month's music recommendations are songs I'm really into at the moment! No really correlation from one song to the next other then I like them hahaha. This month I'm showcasing six current favorites and six older favorites!

I'm going to put the disclaimer here that I am not a music person…I like it, but the extent of any music studying was a mandatory class in sixth grade. So if I describe things weird or mis-genre anything, I apologize.

Dreams are Gone (outro)

This is from Lake R▲dio's newest EP, Dreams Are Gone, which I fully recommend. In fact, I recommend Lake R▲dio in general. Their songs are usually triply and dream-like, erratic and calming. This EP, and this song in particular, are more like traditional songs, however, while still retaining a dream-like quality. While the message of the song may be thought of as sad, I love to dance around to it.

Ninja re Bang Bang

I got into Kyary Pamyu Pamyu late. I liked the idea of her and her Pon Pon Pon video, but I didn't like how over-hyped she was and how everyone thought she was the most unique thing ever. My favorite group is another group produced by Kyary's producer, Yasutaka Nakata, called capsule, and like many other capsule fans, I felt Kyary was stealing the limelight and not very original. But after seeing her art director, Sebastian Masuda, speak at my old university, I gave her another chance and fell in love. I love many of her songs; they're all very cute and catchy and somewhat calming, despite their high energy. But I think this one is on this list because it's the most catchy to me!

Spooky Scary Skeletons 2spooky Remix

Yes, this is a very silly song, and it's not Halloween anymore. I heard it first during Halloween, so maybe this doesn't really count towards my recent favorites, but I only recently found this video with this particular remix. I know this is going to sound so ridiculous…but this song kind of speaks to me. Because I want to be a spooky scary skeleton, too!

Doctor Who theme trance remix

The theme to Doctor Who is obviously not a new concept to me, but while looking up music remixes the other day, I found this. I think it's the well-placed "EXTERMINATE" that really got me hook don this song, as well as the fact that they used the classic theme instead of a more modern one.

Summertime Sadness Remix

It took me forever to find this version of the song. Apparently this isn't the "official" remix, but it's the one I know and love best. This is such a gorgeous song by Lana Del Rey and the remix makes it even better. I love dancing around to this and feeling like I'm in a breezy meadow somewhere remote.

Obedear

This is the last of my "current" favorites. Purity Ring has quickly become one of my favorite groups. This song is so dream-like and oddly comforting.  This song kind of wraps around you like smoke. It reminds me of music festivals and summer nights. I'm glad they're becoming more well known, I hope they release more music soon!

kimi wa suteki

The first of my old favorites! This song I discovered on a whim from an old LiveJournal music community maybe back in 2008. It's by the band FLOPPY! It's so happy and colorful! The title translates to "you are wonderful" (which is where I get my Twitter handle from) and it's just very all-around positive.

Dream a Dream

This song is by the late Captain Jack, who has done several songs for the Dance Dance Revolution franchise, this being one of them. It was instantly my favorite from DDR Max 2 (my first DDR!). It's such a fun party song. Secretly, I imagine this being the opening song to my comic that I want to create. It sounds like adventure and fun!

Armonica Elettronica

I'm not quite sure how I found this song by Kodec. It's definitely a clubbing and party song. It's kind of like…futuristic. It reminds me a bit of robots. Gosh, I'm terrible at describing music.

I Can Walk on Water

This song is the English version of another song by Basshunter. I also don't remember how I discovered this song, but I'm glad I did. The lyrics are very simplistic and repetitive, but they helped me keep my chin up during a hard time. It's also fun to dance to!

Hey Baby

This song by Pitbull is purely sexy. It reminds me of being at the club with a lover (I say this like I've been to a club with a lover) and having them push you against the wall and make out with you. The music video is unfortunately really boring.

Illuminati (p-type)

(TRIGGER WARNING: Blood and mild nudity in the video)

Oh, Malice Mizer. They were my first band obsession. I'm sure I'll talk more about them later, but when I hear this song, I was instantly hooked. It's such a hypnotic, circus-y song. And no, this song isn't about the secret organization that doesn't really exist. Just give it a listen.

I hope you enjoyed some of these! What are your favorite songs right now?

Kawaii Power Up Review!!

This shop can be found HERE!

(Apologies for not posting in a few days again...work just wears me out so much that I pretty much fall asleep right after I get home and completely neglect everything else...)

So! This is my first review on this blog, and unfortunately it's a short one because I only ordered one item! But, I know I'll definitely be ordering from this store again, so perhaps I'll post another review once I do. 

This is a review of the shop Kawaii Power Up, which can be found on Etsy. It can also be found on FaceBook, Twitter, and on Instagram, @kawaiipowerup. This shop specializes in kawaii and nerdy accessories! I found Kawaii Power Up when I was looking for cute dust plugs, and that is what I ordered, which I will get to in a moment. The first thing I noticed was the adorable and unique banner with the sweet mascot! This shop has very varied items, not just the usual things that your typical kawaii accessories shop seems to have. Also, while the quality is very high, the highest price I saw on any of the items was only $18! Here is an example of some of the products I really like:

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

Buy HERE

There are a lot of things at Kawaii Power Up I really like and I'll definitely be ordering myself a few things from them as an early birthday present!

Onto what I ordered. I ordered "Fairy Kei Moon and Star dust plug" in the shimmery lavender colorway (center). I needed something dangly for my new phone.

Buy HERE

It's listed as seven dollars, and I believe only went a little over eight with shipping. As with most Etsy stores, buying was easy enough, I didn't have any additional instructions to add, I just clicked how many and which color and that was that. I ordered it...I believe on Saturday night (because Friday night wen I got my money I was fast asleep...) and I received it today, on Wednesday. Wow! That's super fast. It came in a standard, small bubble wrap packaging, and was small enough to be left in my mailbox. 

The first thing I pulled out was the well-designed business card (again, cute!) which is made out of a nice material...and there was a gift attached! A cute, sweet cupcake hairpin!

I find that when shops like this give little gifts, it really gives me more incentive to buy from them and recommend them. Also I like to keep the business cards, not only as a reminder of where I got something from, but as decoration!

The owner also included a little thank you note on cute paper, another sign that this shop really cares about your business (excuse my short, unpainted nails...work...).

But what really made me squeal was that under the green bubble wrapped mass that was my order, there was...

A BUNNY BAG!!! I will definitely be keeping it, and if not using it for myself, using it for sending something to someone else!! It's the little details that count. Now, onto the actual order...

It looks exactly like it did in the picture, which is good. The actual plug, as you can tell, is tinted slightly purple, which I didn't realize when I bought it, but I really like. Details! There is a clear, blue star hanging close to the moon and three smaller stars making their way up to the plug. And how does it look dangling from my phone?

Very cute, of course! It fits in very snugly. I would say almost a bit too snugly, because I was afraid that if I tried too hard to pull it out again it might snap the ring attached to it. But I know that it will stay in, at least, until I get more to change it out every now and then. Past dust plugs I've had would occasionally get pulled out in my purse. 

So, overall, Kawaii Power Up get's all tens in my book! The only recommendation I would have for the shop is to offer various sizes of lucky packs (but I'm a sucker for lucky packs, so...)! The packaging was fantastic and kept the product safe, it was shipped quickly to me, and the dust plug is super cute! I highly recommend checking them out!!

Depression Sets In? Top Ten Favorite YouTubers!!

Apologies for not posting in the past few days. I've been kind of down, and yesterday was literally the worst day in ages. Ugh. I remember when my depression first really took over me. I couldn't do anything. I was a lifeless shell, pretty much. But one thing that made me smile a bit was certain YouTubers.

This isn't necessarily a list of those YouTubers who cheered me up then, but rather my all time favorite YouTubers right now. Of course, many of those people who made me feel alive again are on this list! Some of these people are well known, others aren't, and they all make videos about different things. I hope you find someone you like here!

And you can find my new YouTube account here. Where are the vlogs I promised? Well…I filmed two more, and now my computer won't recognize the SD card or the cord. Huh. One day?

10. Drew Disaster

Drew is a new find for me, but she still makes the list! It will become evident as you read this list that I like vloggers who make fashion vlogs! I love her goth-y, cute style. She is absolutely beautiful and her personality is so fun! Definitely check her out if you like alternative fashion.

9. Piinksparkles

Sammie is one of those vloggers I found when I was in my dark time. I don't remember how, but one of her videos popped up in my recommended videos list and I gave it a watch. This is when I fell in love with beauty vloggers. Sammie is absolutely adorable and has a really unique fashion style. I've been following her for a while, and I've really seen her grow. A lot of times with beauty vloggers, I watch then not necessarily for the video content, but because hearing their voice and seeing their smile is like having a friend talk to you. She's one of the "bigger" beauty vloggers, but still check her out. She doesn't let her popularity go to her head and remain true to herself. And she was going to school (I don't know if she finished yet or not) to become a mortician, how cool is that??

8. Sycra

I found this user through a tumblr post. Someone was saying he had discovered the "secret" to drawing perspective much easier. I gave it a look and…yes he did. He has a lot of cool drawing tips and hints that I never would have thought of! Sycra also reviews art programs and critiques art, as well as showing his own art and doing art tutorials. I honestly haven't watched many of his videos yet, but definitely recommend him if you are an artist!

7. Princess Peachie

Peachie is one of my favorite two lolitas! She's a sweet girl and sweet lolita, and I just love watching her sugary, frilly videos. Her world seems so interesting, she's one of those people I really just want to be friends with. She's also a very strong girl, for many reasons. I love everything that she does, if that doesn't sound too creepy, haha. She's an excellent lolita who wears mostly Bodyline and offbrands, also, which is really cool in a fashion filled with brand snobs. If you like lolita fashion, give her a watch!

6. Blogilates

I've mentioned Blogilates before in my "Weight Loss for Beginners" post! Cassey has revolutionized making exercise fun with her pop pilates videos. She is so happy and bubbly, and in each of her videos she is very encouraging. It really helps you complete the workout! And if you don't have a lot of time, her videos are short, so you can just put on a few and get a whole workout!

5. JonTronShow

Oh, Jon. I was introduced to him through my fiance, who watches more gamer videos then I. Jon has a great sense of humor and his editing is just fantastic. He doesn't do let's plays, but rather reviews, both on YouTube and Normalboots. I can't really give him enough praise, so just check him out.

4. ‪愛川こずえ‬

Kozue is a lovely girl and a fantastic dancer. And did you know she played KozKoz in Akibaranger? Anyway, she was another wonderful person I found when I was truly down, and her smile and dances really cheered me up. I can't explain why.

3. Caddicarus

Like Jon, Caddy has a very unique sense of humor and his video game videos are so different from the norm. Me and the fiance just started watching him about a month ago, but we've since watched most of his videos because they're all so great! As you can tell, I'm not good at describing video game vloggers, haha.

2. blndsundoll4mj

Yes, I disagree with a lot of this girl's views and actions. But Trish is such a lovely, wonderful person. She doesn't just make beauty videos, but those are probably the videos of hers I like the most. Trish has dreams of making it big, and I really want her to succeed. And before you insult her intelligence, you do know half her current videos are jokes, right? I don't recommend Trish for everyone, but she is a lot of fun.

1. grav3yardgirl

Her name is Bunny, too! Honestly, she annoyed me a bit at first, but I thought, "Her name is Bunny, so I have to watch one of her videos!" So I did, and I fell in love. Bunny is probably the most unique person on this list, both in terms of fashion and personality. She also suffers from depression and anxiety, and I think that's one reason why I connect with her on a deep level. To be honest, I'm not liking a lot of her recent videos, they seem to be aimed more towards what her viewers want to see rather then what she wants to make, and she always says certain phrases because that's what her viewers want. But her videos from about two-three years ago…I must have watched her old videos at least five times each. Like I said, it's not always about the content, but about having someone there, talking to you. My love for this girl is endless. I want so badly for her happiness. I'd recommend checking her out, maybe watching some of her outfit of the day videos first.