California

 hi family. I haven't been in the writing mood at all these last like,... 2 months.. forgive me~

 In August I had gone to California for HDLA to hang with Ari again 😸😸 I had soooo much fun 😸 I can't wait for next year :-3..

 Anyways.. this was my first time getting to travel totally by myself. I wish I could do that more often; I kinda hate my family. but I have no money, so it's not really an option. sad!

 My mother gave me money for this trip (yaaa~y :-3) since there were quite a few shops I wanted to go to while I was there. As opposed to being my regular 'trip style' blog posts, I want to write this as one, and have it be more of a haul/recap post and thoughts on my purchases since I'm so late to writing it.

it's more yellow irl..

 On my first night there I wanted to go to The Grove since it's right by the hotel. They got a whole lot of strange uppity bullshit brands there that you can't find anywhere else in the country. The first shop I visited was a pop-up for Princess Polly. I'd never heard of it but some of their stuff was cute~.. I tried on a few things that were bright, and I ended up getting a dress. I like it, but now it's like.. when am I gonna get a chance to wear this.. like my dresses from Marcaino's 😔.. good 75$ purchase because I'm a beautiful young lady, bad 75$ purchase because I have nothing going on and nowhere to go.

I liked the butterfly detail..

 Then I went to the same store I'd visited last time, Edikted, and tried on more fun looking clothes. Again, I only got 1 thing, but it's visually interesting and it's mint, not my usual. I'm fairly certain it was a collab with Barbie, and I think this line was exciting because it actually looked like clothes Barbie would wear, as opposed to the usual lame stuff collabs will pull.

 Last shop I hit up was a brand I'd seen online a few weeks prior, Brandy Melville. I'd seen a tiktok and this girl had bought a shirt in my most favoritest color, printer ink blue, so obviously I had to look it up. Buuuut, much to my dismay, printer ink blue was an in-store exclusive color!! fuck my life!!!! I ended up buying it on depop, but then I was set on going to the physical location to see what other colorful clothes they might have.. but I swear to god family! everything I bought ended up being the only colorful items in the store. I was so shocked! Also, that was easily and by far the worst store I've ever been to in my life. You could stand pressed into the corner and at least 3 other customers and 2 employees will wander aimlessly into you and not understand what happened. hoooooly shit. like, the whole of Los Angeles is like that, but it was like a concentrated energy of it in there.

 Anyways, I bought quite a few pieces. 7 things I think? I don't have a whole lot of 'normal' clothes, and even then, I don't own any truly casual pieces, so this is me branching out 😭😭. I don't know that they had fitting rooms there, so honestly I tried everything on when I got back to my hotel, and I was elated!! first pair of sweatpants I've ever bought that fit perfectly 🥹 and they're candy apple green 🥹. Terrible, terrible store to be in and 98% of their clothing I found strange or ugly, but the stuff I liked and bought I would give a 9/10 😸.

 Then I had pizza and went back to my hotel〜 oh my god, when I was in the bathroom that night, the fucking tv fell halfway off the wall. scared the shit out of me.

my life 😍😍

 Saturday was HDLA, and I got tons of awesome stuff 😸. First thing I got tho... changed my fucking life. Watch necklace 🥹🙏.

right now only the middle face works.. I want to get them all going though

 There were tons of awesome booths, and Ari and I walked around to see all of them before heading over to Little Tokyo. I got a super cute little rabbit at one cus Ari said it looked like me lolol. But my most favorite booth... oh my god... might be better than the watch necklace, that's how excellent it was. I wish she hadn't run out of business cards 😿😿😿!!! I genuinely can not put into words how obsessed I was with everything at this woman's booth; just know I was going, "so fucking cool" every 15 seconds family. I'd've bought everything she had if I had the money, trust.

she had so many monkeys, I wanted to get all of them 😭😭!!!

  Shortly after, Ari and I made our way over to tha photobooths~ but before we reached them, there was this super cute store across the street that we went to~ and apparently, jaywalking is a crime and you can get a ticket for that (new information (my first time hearing about this (I don't think Ari would lie to me tho))). And we got toooons of awesome shit there. And yummy ice cream that we got all over our hands LOLOL!! 

part of my haul from this store

Ari 😸

I had the mango ^ #yummy

  And my puri haul #thankyougod 

 We got dinner and took more pics before calling it quits :-3.

showing off our phone charms 😸💖

we both have little hamsters, isn't that so cute 😸~

my Tama_Kid haul 💖

 On Sunday I had 2 goals, and I did both 😺 yaaa-y! I wanted to stay in California an extra day just to do this honestly, so I'm quite happy 😸. I've been a fan of Evelyn (her insta 😇) and her work for a while, and I've bought stuff off her website previously, but I really wanted to visit the shop that she's got a section in, It's Deco Day, down in Anaheim. Like, buying off her website is fine and all, but I feel like it's a cooler experience to be able to go down to the actual shop and physically pick things out. Plus then you can get multiple of the same thing and you don't have to worry about something being sold out before you get the chance to even see it.

 I ended up buying a lot of stuff 😭😭...!! The whole right side of the store I thought had more interesting products, and there was so much I wanted to get, but while on this trip I wanted to get stuff for my friend Mia too, so I had to really think about how I wanted to spend my money here! My haul is still epic tho, trust. 

my stickers & my stuff for Mia~...

 I walked around the little downtown plaza after shopping~ and got a pineapple dole whip thing and walked around taking pictures before setting off for Santa Monica. 

don't even joke lad

 Honest to god I was down there for like 4 hours doing absolutely noooooothing. I stood in the same spot for probably an hour. it was breezy 🤤. I'm not from California, but I'm from a state with seasons, so not having the luxury of seasons or the water or a nice breeze is something I'll legitimately kill myself over. I don't play about my outside time..

 I had an older man take a few nice pictures for me while I was stood there tho. #win. 

this one is my favorite from the whole trip..

 I took lots of pictures, and I also walked around a lot. There's like, an outdoor mall or something close to the pier, so I walked through quite a few stores. I'd totally forgotten tho! A few months back, I'd seen something about the first Licca dolls being sold in the US being in Santa Monica, and I stumbled upon the store totally by accident :D!!! It was a gachapon place, I can't remember what it was called, but I did get a super cute Licca that I haven't seen available at the places like Hot Topic :D! hello Licca-chan~ isn't she super cute :D??

 Pier time~

 I actually didn't get many pictures from the pier. I mainly just farted around again. But cus the sun was setting and I was right by the water, it was cold, so I walked back to the area I stood around at earlier. Me and some other guy went back and forth taking pics for each other lol, we both kept going, "This sucks, take it like this" LOLOL!! From this, I've learned guys want their pics taken like, almost the exact opposite of girls pictures. the more you know family. 

 My example pic for him of what I was wanting ^. I swear we went back and forth for like 20 minutes trying to get the perfect pictures for one another LOLOL!!! 

 I went to scrounge for a steak after the sun set. helloooo~ Inglewood Red Lobster. They had like 4 people working and the restaurant was packed, but my food and drink were perfect, and my waiter was hot and asked for my insta #anotherwin.

 All in all I had a super fun happy excellent trip. oh my god I just remembered. The morning I left I went back to The Grove to get empanadas from the place my hairdresser told me about; and while I was sat eating, this fucking european family like, comes in from the left, and is stood in front of my table and taking pictures of me.. and then they go sit at the table to my right, and I can see out of the corner of my eye, they've, again like, positioned themselves so,.. like the woman looks like she's taking a picture of her son and husband, but it's like... they're too far to the right for where you are, she was still taking pictures of me. And then after like 2 minutes they get up and leave. I wait like 10 seconds to turn in the direction they've left, that woman still had her fucking, little camcorder thing raised up and pointed at me. What the fuck??? What was that about??! I was sat facing forward the whole time till they left, but you think I can't see that you're doing that?? man I finished that empanada and hauled ass outta there, I'm not letting some perv europeans get me at 11am on a Monday, heeeeellllll noooooo.

 The other thing. In the like, collective day and a half that I was out by myself, I got asked if I was from Ukraine like.. probably 25 times. that's crazy. This was a strange trip for me. I was assumed to be european by everyone, and I had a lot of men and women try to strike up conversations with me or ask for my socials. Opposite of Las Vegas LOL!

 ok sorry for rambling at the end, I lowkey forgot about that shit. and sorry for such a late post 😭😭!! I haven't been in the mood for anything. ok, love you family, see you next time バイバイ