There's been a new addition to my household recently, and it is marimo. 5 of them!



Look, they're smiling! Anyway, marimo are just moss balls so my love for them is probably over the top, but I honestly think they are really cute. lysanderpuck/Massiel helped me decide on naming them after the Japanese group Arashi. Which was perfect since I love Arashi, and their 5 members equals the amount of marimo I have. Clockwise from the one at 12 o'clock in the above pic they are: Aiba, Sho, Ohno, Jun, and Nino. Biggest marimo for tallest Arashi member; smallest marimo for shortest member.

( More pics and babbling. HELP I'M MARIMO OBSESSED. )

( One WIWT post and a manicure I did earlier this month. )

Links.

× DIY: fold-over clutch

× DIY: conditioning hair mask

× George Blagden's livetweets during episode 3 of Vikings.

× From Buzzfeed: 33 hilarious dog pictures | 27 cute animal pictures.

× Cats can be such creepy photobombers.

× DIY: tie-dye nail art tutorial and vintage flowers nail art tutorial.

× Look at this two-headed shark!

× Fashion Zoo Animals are digitally manipulated images of animals in various outfits. The raccoon one is my favorite, I think.

× From makeup artist Lisa Eldrige's recent series of videos, all on foundation:

How to apply foundation
How to find the right shade of foundation | Choosing the right shade of foundation
Foundation recs for combination and oily skin | Foundation recs for dry and very dry skin
Quick tips for perfect foundation

× A general guide from sewpetitegal on how to decide whether to DIY or buy when it comes to clothing.

× DIY: striping tape manicure tutorial

× DIY: how to line a top

× DIY: elastic-waist A-line skirt with pockets

× DIY: princess-roll hairstyle

× New Whiskas ad campaign has cats acting like big cats.

× How to convert a fit-and-flare dress into a peplum-esque top.

Two of the Zoya polishes I got from Zoya's 3 Free deal: Evvie and Storm (another pic here

( 3 What I Wore Today entries. )

Links.

× Video: Cat-Friend VS Dog-Friend shows how your friends would act if they were like cats and dog. (I consider myself a cat-friend btw.)

× Speaking of cat-friends: Japanese grandmother Masao and her cat friend Fukumaru are so damn cute. Here's another article JUST BECAUSE I ADORE PICS OF THEM TOGETHER.

× Let's get nostalgic and look at 50 toys we will never get for Christmas again now that we're grown ups. (Although if you have awesome friends/family you might still get these!)

× More cats, because I can't get enough of cats: Sam the cat has the saddest, most adorable eyebrows ever.

× Beauty tutorial from The Beauty Department, how to darken your eyebrows.

Allure looks at 8 different monthly beauty boxes, discussing price, examples of products provided in past boxes, etc. I, myself, am currently subscribed to Glossybox, and previously was subscribed to Birchbox, so I anyone wants to know what I thought about them please let me know!

× Map Made of Dirt is about a man who made a map of the US, with each state filled in with soil from it. Its really interesting seeing the variety of colors.

× Did you know there's scientific studies done over why cute animals make you want to eat them?

× ( More... )

Blue/blue-green gradient manicure (click on each image for full size)

( What I Wore Today: April 24th; May 1st; May 5th. )

Links.

× Recipe: Microwave cake

× Cute waffle mold that makes tiny furniture

× Vintage photos of cats.

× ( More... )

So this morning--well, yesterday morning since its now 1AM--a storm caused the electricity to go out for the briefest of brief moments. And it completely set off the old alarm system in the house and there was no way to turn it off! Even if we did remember the pass-code (which we didn't), the alarm console wouldn't even recognize any attempts at pressing in the keys.

Had to call mom to come back home so we could try to figure out what to do. ("Should we call the old alarm company?" "But we don't have an account with them anymore!" "JUST DUCT TAPE A PILLOW OVER THE SOUND BOX" were some of the few things yelled over the loud alarm.) We--the bro and I--kinda just paced around for 30 minutes and futilely pressing at the alarm console in the hopes it might finally work, until mom came home and remembered the neighbor was an electrician, and he came over and unhooked the wires leading to the sound boxes or whatever those boxes are called. THIRTY MINUTES OF EAR KILLING ALARM NOISES. Mom was lucky and only had to deal with like 10 minutes of it. But she complained as if she was there the whole time lol.

Anyway, all the cats freaked out when the alarm first went off and bolted to the room farthest from where the noise was coming from. All except Old Cat since she's pretty much completely deaf, and the dog Sam, since he's just, um, a simple-minded dog and assumed the noise was because of YAY PLAYTIME :D


Left: Old Cat where she was chilling on top of a covered printer during the entire event; Right: the damn sound box with the wires pulled out of it.

We're gonna have to eventually hook the wires back up again to fix it properly, though. Not looking forward to it since the alarm was never, you know, never turned off in the first place. :( To be completely honest, when it first went off I instantly had the paranoid thought that lightning had struck the home and it was on fire. Man, experiencing one house fire was bad enough, you feel anxiety it'll happen again forever.


...BONUS CAT PIC FOR NO REASON

She managed to figure out how to unravel the paper towel roll to make a bed for herself.

Tomorrow I'll try and put up the list of interesting nail blogs I follow. And possibly the fashion blogs as well? But definitely the nail blogs.

Things That Have Caught My Eye Online: Etsy Edition

IScreenYouScreen


GLOW in the DARK- Constellations of the Northern Hemisphere star chart - hand pulled large screen print 22x28 inch Astronomy Poster ( + prints, jewelry, crochet crafts, more.... )

Links.

× A horse head mask has the funniest customer images gallery ever.

× Scary Stories to Tell in Dark to have its haunting illustrations replaced. Noooooooooooo. The illustrations are what made the series!

× ( More.... )

I have such a backlog of photos to post here. Mainly just random ones that have been sitting on my hard-drive. Let's start with some of the merch I bought at A-Kon!



( +26 more pics. )

Links.
( omg remind me not to go too long again without posting link recs. It feels like I took forever coding this part. )

Ahhhh, this entry took forever to put together.

Ito Junji's Cat Diary


From the master of horror manga comes his most terrifying work yet: the daily life of being a cat owner. SCREAMING. Cat owners will completely understand this manga: the trepidation when cats don't want to sleep with you at night (DO YOU HATE ME); the dread when a cat becomes king (or queen) or your household (i.e. the moment you realize you are not the boss); the crazed glee that a new pet can bring. Seriously, this has become one a favorite of mine very quickly. So hilarious, so perfect.

Also: I find it incredibly hilarious that Ito Junji has a cat with a skull pattern on its back. Only you, Ito Junji, only you.

Read scanlated chapters HERE.

Links ( to Etsy shops, videos and more under the cut... )

You guys, I think my room is in the beginning stage of becoming Yomiko Readman's. I'm running out of space and have started stacking books and doubling up on shelves. I HAVE AN ADDICTION TO BOOKS. щ(✧◡✧щ)


This corner has become my language books section. I keep on searching Half-Price Books for interesting finds, so this corner will probably expand soon. ( A few more pics of part of my library. )

Links.

× Video: Insooni (feat. DY) performing Uppercut on Music Bank (110304). When it comes to Korean entertainers I'm not familiar with on music shows, I tend to skip past those videos on Omona's weekly posts. But I kept on seeing comments on how Insooni "killed it", and out of curiosity I watched one of her Uppercut performance and OMG I'M SO GLAD I DID. She is so fierce and amazing and I love her. (I think I rambled on tumblr about wanting to be her version of Pteradactyl? lmao) This song makes me feel so energized! She's proof that you can be over 50 and fucking bad-ass. /stan

× Ten most disturbing Pokedex entries

× The 20 weirdest fish in the ocean.

× Ever wonder how you you'd fare in the Victorian Era? Okay, you've probably never thought about that, but play this online game to find out anyway! Oddly fun and sooo hilarious, seriously, try it out. You pick to play either a man or a woman, and depending on various social situations, your goal is to choose the appropriate response for that era. Even though I accidentally threw my undergarments at someone on the train, I am apparently a picture of politeness!

× Japanese graphic design from the 1920s-30s

× Study shows that cats are manipulators. Cat owners around the world go, "Pffft. I knew that already."

× Strange toilets from around the world.

× ( Tumblelog recs )

× The Cambridge Face Memory Test tests your ability to recognize unfamiliar faces. I got 70 out of 72 correct (97%), how about you?

Remind me never to go to Half-Price Books when I want to "just browse around". I end up coming home with the most random pile of items; my brother says its like I walked in and blindly grabbed stuff off of the shelves. This is what I bought!



Japanese and Arabic language books, an art book on the Pre-Raphaelites, The Nazis and the Occult (I'm placing the blame of this purchase on the History Channel), and The Phantom Menace and the pilot episode to Beverly Hills 90210 on VHS. Yes, VH-FUCKING-S. My bro wanted them lol.

Bookstores make me so giddy, you guys. Books! I love them.

( A few more What-I-Wore-Today-type shots and also one of my cat. )

I'll get around to posting the link recs I've been collecting soon. Too lazy right now.

I think its time for another round of "Things Online That Have Caught My Eye"--mainly from Poketo and nervoussystem since I'm being lazy.


icon watch

( More stuff! )

RELATED: Poketo's limited time collection available at Target. I think I might go back and pick up one of the umbrellas since I like the designs. Plus, my current duck umbrella is kinda bent and it looks awkward when I use it. :(

---

Links.

× Crazy military experiments are so crazy. From dolphins trained to attack enemy ships with explosives to Goo Guns, its insane the types of ideas that made it to development.

× Kotaku calls these iPad mods 'bizarre', I call them awesome. I like the Macintosh Classic one a ridiculous amount.

× An Arashi-themed textbook wuuutttttt. Apparently it aims to "teach children about the beauty of Japan and Japanese culture, and to encourage them to visit different parts of Japan". The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has already been overwhelmed by fans calling in to request the textbook.

× Princess Peach portrait created from over a thousand plastic bottle caps.

× Rainbow Roses are real, and really amazing. I found this via mklutz, and I stared at the pictures forever.

× I would totally buy this Gundam phone. Because it so cool looking. Also: I am a Gundam dork. /sobbing

× I've seen some pretty unusual markings on cats (my favorite being a cat-shaped spot. Cue the Xzibit voice-over, "Yo dawg, I heard you liked cats, so I put a cat on your cat..."), but this cat has the word 'cat' on its fur!

× This tutorial shows how to re-create the skull cut-out from Pleasure Principle sweaters onto your own clothing. Very cool.

× Pink Tentacle posts pictures from Good Design Expo 2010 held in Tokyo--I die and go to design heaven. ♥

× Some post-ANTM modeling jobs for past contestants (this is from several years ago, but it is hilarious). Joanie as a fucking wig model omg. In a terrible old lady wig! And Robin looks like she walked straight out of Zamunda in her shots.

× Want to know how to make a Silent Hill nurse mask? A tutorial for you!

× How about a Super Mario picnic. Sorry Mario, your picnic is in another park.

× Eveything you wanted to know about Fashion Week, but were afraid to ask, a sort of primer from Jezebel.

× Sharpie is coming out with a liquid pencil this month. Or has it come out already? Anyway, I'm really excited by this, since I've obviously a big ol' dork.

× Anyone else watching On The Road with Austin and Santino? If not, here are reasons why its an awesome show. Two designers from my favorite season ever of Project Runway, LOOOOOVE~