14; This is where I become a total geek.

I had been shopping on Lulu*s daydreaming as if I had enough money for anything on their site (well, I guess I kind of do, but I really have trouble lately with finding anything I like immediately) and stumbled upon this amazing tank top:

Insight's "Chakra" tank -- not pictured: chakras, interestingly enough, but it's showing what appears to be some awesome depiciton of what I initially gathered was a woman ascending into nirvana or something to that effect, which still won points with me. I can dig that. Plus the artwork's pretty awesome and I love the colours.

However...it's $45.00. I can't dig that.

So, I threw it into my Amazon wishlist, knowing no one would look (probably because I haven't linked it anywhere in a while) and I might not ever spend that much money (god know's how much the grand total would be with shipping).

The next morning I'm scrolling through my Amazon wishlist to check up on how much the camera I'm planning to buy is when I see this tank, and Kathryn's home, so I decide to show it to her. With her behind me on the bed, she asks me to pull up the close-up image of the tank, and proceeds to ask me, "what god is that?"

I blink. I hadn't really thought to ask myself that question when I looked at it the day before. I look back at the image, trying to overlook what looks to me to be a woman, for some clues. Maybe it's Lakshmi or something, y'know? Lets see, seven-headed snake, a conch shell in the right hand, oh look, a symbolic chakra (discus) in the left...

...Oh wait, it's Vishnu. Well, hell yeah! Suddenly, $45.00 is a price I'm willing to pay  for this tank; why? I seriously, really love Vishnu. Out of all the gods, even out of the the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu), and the Destroyer (Shiva), Vishnu's my favourite. I love the stories about him and his kindness towards humanity and the creatures that they share the earth with. He's this overall nice guy who protects everyone and is basically the most compassionate dude around. And yet, he isn't above having to actually fight if need be. (As seen in his incarnation, Rama, who's totally badass.)

I just really like this certain god. (I may even have a couple of more personal reasons for liking him.) Though, my second favourite is Ganesha, because he and his story are just so adorable...once you get past Shiva having decapitated him as a kid (mostly by mistake) and then having to find him a replacement head, which explains why he's depicted with an elephant head. Otherwise, he's kind of like "the ICanHasCheezburger? of Hinduism." (In Kathryn's words.)

But I digress. This tank top and I were fated  to be mated, and guess where I found it for $37.50? I worry a small won't fit, though (going off of Lulu*s measurement of a small) and yet, this site offers an extra small...but why doesn't Lulu*s? Did they sell out, or not order extra smalls? Well, whatever. I'll place the order next week for an extra small and hope it all works out.

Now, if I can find an online coupon for free shipping, or something...


EDIT: well, a size 2 (small) sold out on Lulu*s. Now I'm worried it'll sell out on the other site before next week. Geesh...I do have enough money for it, I'd just rather not spend that much at the moment. We'll see what I decide.

EDIT 2: okay, I ordered it...only because I have this bad luck about waiting to buy something and going back to find it's gone.

o4; Thrift stores, and Free People.

So I tried to make this post yesterday, and essentially did, except something wrong went on with some html and the whole thing died on me. Managed to copy the coding into Notepad so I have all the links I need, it's just a matter of digging through the messy wall of coding to extract what I need. I have a feeling that remaking this post will take me a little bit of time...lets hope I don't give up. (But considering the fact that my very possessive cat has parked herself down in my lap and looks like she intends to hang out for a while, I won't be leaving the computer any time soon...)

Last night I was going to mention that I went thrift shopping on Tuesday and bought some great stuff. However, I don't have pictures yet and was hoping to do that today. Not sure if that's going to happen, but I suppose we'll see. It all depends if we can work it in today. (Kathryn's working hard on studying for a final exam tomorrow, see.) We'll see what happens.

In the meantime, I found this really cool store by accident online called Free People. Their prices are pretty steep for some things, but their jewelry prices aren't too horrible, and they do have a sale section. ♥ Some of their stuff is simply amazing. (It's both a blessing and a curse to find a shop with prices out of my range, because I can window shop without running the risk of spending my money, but I then also find stuff I absolutely love and face the painful knowledge of never having enough money. It's a love-hate relationship.)

Definitely worth checking out. Maybe it's a site worth hitting up when it's bonus or tax-return time, at least.

Some examples (photos are linked back to their respective pages):


$48; Perfect with a maxi dress, am I right?


$98


$88


$148; Oh my lord, I need a shirt like this in my life.


$108; Scrap that last bit, I need a shirt like this in my life!


$128; Makes me think of ABBA. ♥


$428; This bag is perfection.


$98


$138


$38


$28


$28


$28; For that price, I'm giving some serious thought to buying this in a couple of weeks or so.


$28


$38


$128; HELLO, RING OF MY DREAMS. WHY SO EXPENSIVE?


$28; Giving this some consideration as well. (Though I may just hit up ebay and see what else I can find in this style.)


$28


And that's not even considering the sale section, either. ♥

o3; CatWorld Fashionshop

I wonder if I was Asian in my last lifetime? I just seriously can't manage to explain why I'm so enamoured with Asian fashion. I can't. (To be honest, every time I look up my favourite clothing line from that region, I wish that I were Asian, because goddamn I wish I were so cute!)

This year I discovered CatWorld Fashionshop, via CutieCode.com. CutieCode's a pretty nice website. Based in Canada, they manage a wearhouse in China so that all of the items ordered are directly from the manufacterer, to avoid people buying knock-offs and fakes. (I had this happen to me once on ebay, unfortunately, but luckily what I ended up with suited me just fine so I didn't complain, especially not for the price.)

Their prices are fairly the same for a lot of things. 'Casual tops' run between $18.85-$25.85, jackets run about $27.85-$29.85, dresses go for $24.85-$35.85, tees are $17.85-$25.85... So nothing over $40.00, for sure. (Or, at least, I haven't seen anything for that much.) Accessories run for a lot less, too.

Oh, and shipping, for the most part, is free.

The only downsides to this site are the organising system (looking through 'cocktail dresses', I found shirts, and going through 'casual tops', they label tank tops as 'vests', and found some jackets in there, et cetera), and some other minor issues that I myself experienced. Once was never getting the tracking information emails after a while, and when contacting Customer Service about them, discovered my items hadn't been shipped at all -- however this was probably due to the fact that I ordered during the span of time where the Chinese New Year was coming up and everyone was on holiday, so my order was obviously backed up and no one had gotten to it. I suspect something like this wouldn't happen again, but I haven't ordered anything else since, so I can't speak of this... However, they did get my stuff shipped and the tracking numbers to me (which was another issue: the website included in the emails are broken, but going to the site itself and finding the English option solved that all together) and I was very happy.

The only other thing is that...I'm not entirely sure who runs Customer Service, but I really do wonder if English is their first language. I'd been emailing them back and forth a bit when my orders were in limbo, and when all was settled, I sent them an email thanking them, and they replied with my tracking numbers...when they had already sent them to me. (?) But that's hardly an issue, just...kind of odd.

Oh and another oddity: being Asian-based, you'll run a risk of running into screened tops with text that just...plain doesn't make sense. To put it bluntly: there be Engrish ahead.

But that's not the point. Point is, I love this site for it's price ranges and clothes.

Even more, I love CatWorld Fashionshop. This site offers a lot of Asian brands, but CatWorld, at the moment, is my favourite. They make tees, dress-casual tops, chiffon tops, pants, skirts, dresses... Some tops are two tops as an ensemble, and some tops are 'two in one' tops, thus cannot be separated. This bugged me, but for the look, I was able to accept it.

Despite the fact that basically everything is 'one size', they make quite a bit of stuff that's 'oversized', so that a lot of people with different body sizes can buy. This isn't just CatWorld, either. Despite the fact that I'm actually smaller than the models in the pictures, the two tops I bought fit me pretty loosely. (My first post here features one of the tops I bought, in fact!) I'd think a size up from me could at least wear the sweater tops. Measurements are included on all item pages.

Basically, I'm in love with this brand, and I'll just show you why. (This is all mostly fall/winter stuff for last year though.)

All photos are linkbacks:



Out of stock, but oh my god, I really want this romper when they come back!






I can see my finacee wearing this top, since she loves tigers... Not sure if she'd like it though. Hmm. She'd rock it so well, though.




I've been searching high and low for the shirt modeled with this sweater. I know it exists, I just can't find it. I need it in my life.






It kills me that this is sold out. I can't wait until it's back!












I'm seriously considering buying this sometime. Two tops for the price of one, and they could be worn separately with so many things.


All of CatWorld's stuff is here.

CutieCode.com is here.


I'll probably do a post about another brand there, I'Miusa, sometime soon.