Tag Archives: Jewelry

Montreal Comiccon 2019 Haul

Posted in Montreal Events!, My Weekly Adventures by

Montreal Comiccon is come to an end! As our final wrap-up piece after all the coverage, its going to be the fun shopping haul!

There was quite a few really nice vendors this year. They may have been there previous years but I just missed it because if anyone has been to any Comiccon, you know that its just a world of everything and information overload. I went back to the Artist Alley every single day and I kid you not that I always noticed something different that I didn’t in the previous day. Lots of creativity going on which is something that I love to see. It took quite a bit to restrain myself from buying everything that I liked (just take a look at my Day 1 on all the Artist Alley that I liked HERE).

Regardless, here is the shopping haul! If you follow my Instagram, then you probably have already seen it.

Ruin World by Derek Laufman

Derek Laufman

One of the things I’ve loved to find during Montreal Comiccon is the books and comics/graphic novels from indie artists and authors, because they are really interesting to see plus its always nice to discover something new. I’ve been into cute things lately (well, always have) so not only did the art attract me over to Derek Laufman’s booth in the first place but then I saw the colorful cover for Ruin World and just loved it. I’m really looking forward to reading it soon (and then I’ll have a review for it go up as well).

Fairy Bell/Fairy Glow Necklace by The Emerald Cauldron

fairy Bell Necklace The Emerald Cauldron

The Emerald Cauldron first caught my eye because of its pixie light necklace, which they call Fairy Glow on their site so I’ll use that. Of course, the debate behind that is battery power and when would I want to wear a necklace that glows in public. In the end, after a chat with them, I decided to get a smaller size pendant (sadly did not have a rose gold or titanium finish, which I would have preferred) so went with a silver finish and then chose the sacred heart shape along with Fairy Bells instead which just ring a little instead of glow. This option at $30 came with a replacement Fairy Glow LED light, which I honestly didn’t want so I asked to change it to another replacement fairy bell (which she asked for $5, which was fine since practicality mattered more than getting something I wouldn’t use). Still, she was great and still threw in a blue LED fairy glow. Service and patience here was fantastic. Not to mention, they had a good choice of colors both for the chimes (and some glow in the dark options) as well as LED light colors (and one that changes colors slowly). Anyways, I got the blue chime and the mint green chime with a sacred heart cage with a silver finish.

Pins by Art by DaDa

Pins at Art by DaDa

Seeing as I already have a lot of art and we are running out of wall space for any more prints to hang up and I wanted to support a college friend and her business, I went to Art by DaDa and got two pins. I’m a big fan of Lilo and Stitch and Fox and the Hound so these worked fine for me. I like them a ton. Plus, I think that her Disney art concept is brilliant and so creative. I always look forward to see what else she comes up with. Those pins went right onto my bag (which I use for work and going to cover events).

Tea by Sense and SensibiliTea

Sense and SensibiliTea

I honestly think its the first year we’re seeing tea booths at Montreal Comiccon. Being an Austen fan, the store name caught my attention right away. While I didn’t get any Austen themed tea, I did end up getting an Absinthe-flavored Green Tea, which is derived with ingredients from the vintage Absinthe mix which turned into this blend. The tea smells really good and I love green tea so it seemed like a good choice. When I was drafting up the Artist Alley highlights for Day 1, I landed on their Facebook page which talked about their new modern tea called Demogorgon’s Bane. I also happen to be a fan of Stranger Things so it was a decision between this one and their Princess Peach Tea (which smells like a fruit garden tisane). I’m not going to lie that I wanted to buy both but then I’m not a huge fan of tisane and who can resist the raspberry chocolate flavored Ceylon black tea, which is what Demogorgan’s Bane is. I have yet to try either of them but fun fact, all the teas are vegan which is nice for myself who has lactose intolerance.

That’s it for this shopping haul!
Definitely toned down from previous years but I think I made some pretty awesome purchases!

Montreal Comiccon – Day 1 Recap: 16 Booths at Artist Alley & Exhibition Hall

Posted in Montreal Events! by

Montreal Comiccon 2019

The first day of Montreal Comiccon ended. While today wasn’t heavy on panels and too many activities, it gave time to go around to explore the Artist Alley and the Exhibition Hall which covers a great many square feet. While some vendors were the same, there were quite a few unique booths that stood out.

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Here’s 17 of the booths that I’d like to share as well as some of their info so that those interested can check out their stuff further! I split them into categories of interest.

Prime 1 Studio

Just scraping the tip here with these four, Prime 1 Studio showcased almost an entire exhibit of a lot these huge collectibles of pop culture characters from anime, comic books and movies. Its pretty amazing because of its large scale and just how delicate the detail is.

BOOKS

Derek Laufman

Derek Laufman

Derek Laufman is at the comic book areas showcasing both art and his graphic novels. RuinWorld: Eye For An Eye is one of his works which really stood out with his cute little heroes on  the cover and the vibrant colors.

Mathieu Bellemare

Mathieu Bellemare

Mathieu Bellemare shows a French CD-Book called Chants des Marais et des Morts which is a French illustration book paired up with a CD which has a full song for each story where the lyrics match the story on each page. At the booth, you can hear a snippet of the concept and its actually pretty cool especially.  It has a bit of the Jack and the Cuckoo Clock Heart sort of feeling except instead of a movie, its a book and CD.

TEA

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Sense and Sensibilitea

Full of both modern themed teas and vintage varieties, Sense and SensibiliTea is quite the discovery for tea-lovers and pop culture lovers alike. Not only are there Austen theme teas but also some planet theme ones as well as a lot of more modern ones like the one in the Instagram post above for Stranger Things.

Thesaurus Tea

I’m not going to lie that the reason this one caught my eye was its very catchy dinosaur logo. However, at a closer look at Thesaurus Tea, they have quite a few nice varieties. Some are blends in various bases while there are also some classic tea choices.

PLANTERS

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Beton Neotek

Creation Beton Neotek is all about making pop culture themed concrete planters. With anime themes like DragonballZ or Star Wars theme like Darth Vader or Star Trooper. There are also other ones for younger audience like Pokemon while it also has some for Power Rangers as well as superheroes, both Marvel and DC Universe.

Mille Nuages

With the Pokemon craze going on right now, its hard to miss out on Mille Nuages booth. It is full of Pokeball designs which looks like little terrariums but with all kinds of little unique packages. Its very pretty and looks incredibly delicate.

ART

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Lea Matte Illustration

Lea Matte Illustration is always a wonderful highlight. Who can miss pop culture turned into adorable cats in disguise, right? Its also so adorable to see and very interesting to see all the creativity gone into each of them.

Geek at Heart

While having seen Geek at Heart previously at Toronto ComiCon a year or two ago, her work always is one that is really cool. It has beautiful drawings, a lot of it based on Disney characters on both sheet music and storybook pages. Its a very unique idea which works on so many levels.

Monsieur Pooky Design

https://www.instagram.com/p/BziyIX3nfxq/

While most of the art so far has been fairly colorful, whats catchy about Monsieur Pooky Design’s artwork is the dark back palette and how the characters pop out. Disney villains, Alice in Wonderland and How to Train My Dragon along with so many other beautiful drawings.

Pixelam

Pixelam is all about handcrafted 2 layer art pieces. To be more accurate, the concept is a drawing on the bottom while the clear layer on the top layers some other objects or characters on top to complete the look. It has this 3D pop-up look to the whole frame.

Xanworx

Remember all those fantasy worlds that we’ve seen in movies, books, anime, TV series and games, Xanworx Studios is all about bringing them into legit size maps. It has a very classic navigational feel to it. Some nice examples are the Marauder’s Map from Harry Potter or Narnia from The Chronicles of Narnia and even Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda among some of the many choices.

Art by Dada

Art by Dada is by one of my college friends and she is incredibly talented. She makes this beautiful combination of two characters from the same stories. Its super creative and talented. She’s already launched a few successful Kickstarter campaigns and has expanded her line from art to other items as well.

JEWELRY

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Fox & Feather Creations

Glass drop necklaces filled with preserved flowers is the concept behind Fox and Feather Creations’ jewelry.  With all kinds of flowers and the little creative designs, there aren’t only pieces with one type of flower but also whole garden designs in some of the larger pendants. Its so beautiful.

The Emerald Cauldron

The Emerald Cauldron

The Emerald Cauldron is probably one of the most fantastical booths in terms of jewelry. There are many elf ear designs with the most notable being Sailormoon themed and Alice in Wonderland theme. On the other side, there are some beautiful pocket watch designs. While they also have some beautiful Pixie Lights necklaces and Fairy Bells necklaces also.

Boutique 1906

Boutique 1906 is a very classical jewelry design. It has little hair accessories. One that caught our eyes was the Oriental designs to put into your hair and has a little origami crane hanging from it. There are also an assortment of other jewelry which are very classy and many Victorian designs as well as steampunk, gothic and whimisical ones as well.

That’s it for the rundown of the Artist Alley and Exhibit Hall booths that caught our eyes.

Unboxing: FabFitFun [Spring 2017]

Posted in Unboxing by

It’s finally here! FabFitFun boxes never fail to make my day (or my week) in this case!

I love doing unboxings. Unfortunately, with a myriad of other editing, we’re going back to the handy camera and pictures format for this one. It has been a crazy week and I’m a tad sleep deprived. Everything feels a little out of place this past week but hey, the box got here and I’m always excited to see what is inside. On top of that, we’re in for another year of FabFitFun unboxings because my annual subscription renewed with this box. So far, this box has been incredibly worth it.

Let’s check it out!

Unboxing: FabFitFun – Spring 2017

FabFitFun Spring 2017

Just look at this darling box! Bright colors and beautiful designs – looks great! Let’s open it up!

FabFitFun Spring issue + FabFitFun TV announcement

FabFitFun

As usual, there’s a few cool articles on the products in the box, which is always a quick and fun read to learn a little more about the item or the company that made it. FabFitFun TV is a workout extension for members. Totally up my alley.

Dr. Brandt – Microdermabrasion Age Defying Exfoliator

FabFitFun

I don’t use exfoliators a lot mostly because a lot of times it doesn’t work well with my skin. However, it is good to use exfoliators before using masks. I always do give these products a chance because I’m hoping to eventually find one that works for me.

RealHer – Lip Kit (Liquid Lipstick, Lip Gloss & Lip Liner)

FabFitFun

RealHer was built on a beautiful thought from a father to empower his daughter and that cosmetics are to add courage and strength and not to feel like girls are not beautiful enough. Its a really nice concept. There’s an entire interview with the man behind this brand. I love sayings and little encouraging statements like that. It reminds me a lot of movies like The Help. Plus, I do like these items as well.

Briogeo – Rosarco Milk Reparative Leave-in Conditioner Spray

FabFitFun Spring 2017

The best item of the box goes to this conditioner spray mostly because I’ve been researching these stuff for my incredibly long and much in need of a haircut hair. Its all the way down to my waist now. While I love my long hair and I did leave it long on purpose to be able to do braids, the fact that it is super thick makes it so heavy and kind of strenuous on my neck when I work out. However, hair care is one of those things I always don’t think about so much, especially when these days, I’ve felt like it needs to be strengthened more. Split ends and such are showing up.

Karuna – Hydrating+ Face Mask

FabFitFun Spring 2017

I started doing masks the year that that I got married. I really like it a lot because its such a refreshing feeling afterwards. However, I’m more of the lotion type of mask and not really these actual masks that you leave on your face. There’s always this illusion and worry in the back of my mind that if it doesn’t work, my skin will just be horrible and that would be scary. Maybe I’ll be giving these away to someone who likes them more. Its a pretty irrational fear, I know. But sharing these things make me happy also. I actually think my mom would like this.

Deborah Lippmann – Nail Polish Set

FabFitFun 2017

Nail polish! I have so much nail polish and yet only darker tints tend to work with me. Dark purple, Midnight Blue and especially darker shades of red. I’m not sure how good these will work with me but hey, if not, I have tons of friends who like this stuff and they might want to use it. My guess is the pink one on the right might work okay but the one on the left, which I have a similar one, probably doesn’t match with my skin tone.

Emerald + Duv – “Joshua Tree” Cage Bracelet

FabFitFun Spring 2017

Another item that I love in this box because I’m a sucker for pretty shiny jewelry. Simple and elegant is exactly how I like it and this one embodies all of that. I’ve actually gained a recent fondness for gold accessories so it could match well for an upcoming wedding that my husband and I are attending for a childhood friend.

Gypsy 05 – Roundie

FabFitFun Spring 2017

I’m not going to lie that when I first picked this up, I had no idea what it was. It looks like a tablecloth and it kind of is because they refer to it as beach roundie. So I guess its something we sit on and yet there’s pictures of it being draped over shoulders like a scarf or pashmina. Not sure what to do but it could be a nice adornment to something or a nice thing to sit on for hardwood floors. Probably not its purpose but beach time over here is a little limited.

Milly – Zip Pouch

FabFitFun 2017

“Slay all day” – love it! Pouches are fun. They are particularly useful on trips for like cosmetics and skincare products, etc. I know that this one probably can be used a clutch as well but I carry lots of stuff with me when I go out and I like the practicality of that. However, I do like this one. Its pretty cute.

Overall, this box is a little less useful than I’d expect however there are some items here that I can work with or share with family and friends.

That’s for this unboxing!
What item caught your eye?

My Weekly Adventures!

Posted in Everyday Randomness, Movies, Travel by

First, a massive THANK YOU to Laurie at Pride in Photos for suggesting to give my weekly personal updates this title 🙂 Now, I don’t need to get all fancy and can just use this lovely simple My Weekly Adventures.  I just learned the whole  acronym of KISS –> Keep It Stupid Simple.  This however is not stupid in any way and its recaps exactly what the weekly posts are about.  Thank you for being so awesomely genius, Laurie! I owe you one! And if you haven’t visited Laurie’s blog Pride in Photos, I advise you to because she is an amazing photographer and I love her posts to bits.

From now on, this segment will now be MY WEEKLY ADVENTURES.  I will add that on the menu some time this week (hopefully tonight).

Lets see what adventures I went on this week 😉

1) Moon Festival!

Moon Festival

Dinner for Midautumn/Moon Festival!

Midautumn Festival

Moon Cake

Last Monday was Midautumn Festival or more commonly known as Moon Festival. Its a time for family and symbolizing the arrival of a new season.  The moon is like a completion of something mostly in the complete family being there and the blessing behind it.  My mom made a delicious dinner and then we had moon cakes later on at night. We even stepped outside for a walk together and to look at the lovely full moon 🙂

2) Another room finished!

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Thanks to my boyfriend being super awesome at picking up the pace for painting. Another room in the basement is done 🙂 This color is absolutely adorable and actually turned out way better than I expected! Only 3 more rooms to go and one of them is already in progress.

What do you think of the color?

You think it’ll make you feel energetic? This should eventually be a workout room..haha! So thats kind of important 😉

3) My first Montreal Comiccon!

Montreal Comiccon

On Saturday, I went to my first ever Montreal Comiccon! After finally having to go alone, I ended up spontaneously meeting up with fellow blogger and one of my very awesome girl friend, Day’s on the way to the line-up.  She was there alone as well so we paired up and went together 🙂 Very nice turn of events.  I ended up going to 4 Q&A panels and then checked out some exhibits and took tons of pictures of some awesome costumes.  I’m still shifting through my pictures but the detailed post on that one will go up tomorrow!

I’m totally going again next year.  If there is someone awesome, I would love to go do a photo op.  This year, the photo op was full by the time I decided I would like to dish out the money to do it.  Plus, I’m planning on going to Toronto Comiccon next year if I can arrange my finances and find some friends who would like to road trip with me.

4) Little Finds at Comiccon!

Although I did spend most of my day at Comiccon running back and forth between Q&A panels, we did find time to eventually hit the exhibition hall and check out some merchandise.

Our first find was this Moonglow Jewelry.  The concept behind it is that you can use whatever date you choose.  I chose my birthday and looked up the code for the moon that was on that birth date and it a photograph of the moon on it.  Then you can attach it to either a bracelet or a necklace (in various models).  I eventually chose a bracelet and added on my boyfriend’s moon on his birth date as well.  When you buy this, it give you a little card with a description of the personality of the person born on that moon.  I was born at the 3rd quarter of full moon while my boyfriend is the new moon.  These little charms absorb UV light and at night, they glow in the dark.

Pretty neat, right?

Moonglow jewelry

Moonglow Jewelry

After debating on getting some artwork to decorate my new place, I eventually came across a place, where I bought a T-shirt (which is going to be delivered to me in 2 weeks) from TeeTurtle but they also sold posters and this one caught my eye. The Totoro bus with a bunch of Ghibli characters on board just stole my heart away.

TeeTurtle

TeeTurtle Posters

Luckily this poster is still in one piece.  This was a free poster from Warner Bros booth celebrating the 75th anniversary of Batman.

Batman

Warner Bros free poster: 75th anniversary Batman

5) One Day Road Trip to Charlevoix

Charlevoix

Along the shore of La Malbaie

After taking a few months to figure out when to do it, my friend and I finally decided to go on a one day drive through Charlevoix to take pictures and see the area.  I’ve already been before with my boyfriend a few years back but when my computer got attacked by a virus, those happened to be the only photos that were not backed up AT ALL.  So this trip was essentially for me to do a reboot of those photos except this time, I have a more powerful camera on hand 😉

I’m still sifting through Comiccon pictures so these ones are the next ones to go through.  This post will go up nearing the end of the week 😉 Prepare for some breathtaking moments!

6) Finds in Charlevoix

Charlevoix SAQ

I love going to different regions and looking at some wine stores because some times they carry some alcohol different from the ones in Montreal. This time, I stopped at the SAQ in La Malbaie before turning around and heading home and found a Rose wine La Rose Gabrielle and a Dry Gin made from herbs called Ungava.  I haven’t tried the gin yet but we did open it to smell (when I got home, of course) and it has a very distinct smell.  I’m intrigued as to what it would taste like 😉

7) Some Funny Moments!

Some of you may have missed my funny moment on TV and the post and that was pretty much the most funniest moment of my summer.  YouTube offers mostly hilarious moments from Ellen Show channel and I’m so happy that its back because it means I get to share those again! This week’s video that cracked me up the most was Channing’s Biggest Fear…

Fears, my friends! No matter how awesome you are, it just destroys you.

8) Awesome Music!

You all know by now (if you’ve followed me a while) that I love Youtube artists or in general, independents artists.  I’ve talked about Sam Tsui, Kurt Schneider and the whole crew.  This time, the spotlight is the extremely talented Daniel de Bourg.  This guy has such an amazing voice.  I love listening to his originals and his covers and its pretty crazy that I haven’t mentioned him yet.  Maybe its because he doesn’t have as many covers come out.

I’ve never heard the original yet so I can’t really compare but I’m liking this one a lot 🙂

Thats it for this week! Life’s adventures just never stop and they almost always give me inspiration for something new to check out.

How was your week or weekend, my lovelies? Happy Monday!

Handmade Necklace with Swarovski Elements

Posted in Crafts by

I did about 3 hours of shopping for craft supplies this past weekend in preparation for the gifts I was going to make for Christmas.  Luckily, on Sunday, after being overwhelmed at everything sitting in the bag, I sat down and got straight to work on the first gift.

Its not completely handmade but I did have to stick on all the individual crystals and arrange it myself.  I thought it looked pretty nice.  I think I probably spent an hour arranging and rearranging the crystal beads on the pendant to see how it looked.

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This was testing phase and final choice

Originally, I was going to make a semi-precious necklace but seeing as my local Walmart didn’t have anything I particularly needed and was overloaded with people.  I managed to find the pendant and crystals to put on.  I thought it would be pretty  nice thought.  I started regretting immediately that I didn’t go to an arts and crafts supplies store right when I got home.

If you are at all interested in making this, which I think is a pretty nice thought, here are the supplies I used:

– 18 inch (45.72cm) nylon cord necklace

– Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements Pendant

– Swarovski Elements Flat Back Non-Hot Fix Crystals

– Crystal Glue Pen

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This is the final product.

You need to give it a little time to dry though. The gluing might have taken me an hour or so.  Glue pens I actually don’t regret doing this because when my boyfriend saw it, he gave me the approval.  You can’t see it clearly with the reflection but I used two different shades of blue crystals and white/clear crystals.  The blue ones were somewhere along the lines of aqua and sapphire.  The clear crystals are the ones that are looking  a bit pink in the light.  It’d say its pretty.

Also, you don’t have to get this at Walmart or whatnot.  I was researching this online and saw that the Create Your Style with Swarovski Elements is actually something you can customize for different events and more choices are available online.  Here’s the link if you’re interested: http://www.create-your-style.com/Content.Node/index.php?  I’m not advertising for them but they seem to be nifty design projects that I’m definitely going to look into for future reference.

One day, I will actually get that jewelry making skills down.  I am quite pleased with this one and it was really fun.  I’ll probably go ahead to learn more complicated ones eventually.