My first ever "outfit post"! Feels very strange...

Yesterday I decided I would base my outfit around this necklace:



You may have seen it on Not So Fickle, oui? I am not ashamed to admit I wear the stuff from time to time - If I've bought it for the shop that means its caught my eye and I've fallen in love, and since its all second-hand anyway it would be oh too cruel to deny myself the fun of "testing" the products out, don't you think?!

Well this necklace I thought was a particularly nifty find, but its been on the shop for longer than I expected. It occured to me that maybe its difficult to imagine how the jewellery will look from the pics I've posted on the website (I know I know, photography is not my strong point, terribly sorry about that). Lots of my favourite blogs, like Fashiontrain, Gemfatale, and Magpie Girl regularly do outfit posts and I love reading them and looking at the pics... could I do the same?!

I felt very very silly taking a picture of myself and am somewhat perturbed to notice I have a lazy eye. Come on leftie, keep up. Thank God none of the hippies came round the corner and saw me posing away!


Yep only one - it took me a while to get a grip on the whole self-timer thing. God I'm useless. So I'm wearing... Necklace: www.notsofickle.com - £7.00 ; Jacket: Topshop; Belt: A relic from my Dad's youth; Skirt: Primark et c'est tout!

I am all too aware that I have no fancy clothes or fashion-sense to speak of, but hopefully this helps to illustrate how awesome this necklace is! Please let me know what you think of this idea because I still feel very very silly ;)

Ciao ciao xxxx

Life at the Commune

So after the freezing winter of North Japan, I decided to reward myself. I watched the Nanny Diaries and thought "I could do that" (yep its Legally Blonde and the law degree all over again). I had a bit of a Google and found "Come and be a big sister to our 5 year old girl on idyllic Elba Island, Tuscany" complete with my own room detached from the house, internet, food, a bit of pocket money, and (the clincher) a SCOOTER!Just imagine it, waking up to beautiful sunny views every morning, blogging and tweeting and skyping and facebooking before lunch, scooting around and exploring the beaches, playing with a little girl in the afternoons, and hunting down Not So Fickle finds in the markets...
Well, yes, it is a very pretty place, but I appear to have somehow, inadvertently, ended up in some kind of hippy commune. Gasp! The markets on the island are non-existent and plans to visit the mainland on my days off are met with disapproving grumbles from the other commune members. The internet only works in the communal areas (all of which double as a bedroom for at least one hippy - in fact I am typing this in the kitchen at 3.30pm and am probably disturb this poor girl's nap. Oh well) and to top it off, its really not very warm. At all!

Anyway, enough whining. There are still plenty of Not So Fickle treasures coming atcha from my last few weeks in Japan, and I have a masterplan to get to Florence where I am sure I will find an abundance inspiration and worthy trinkets. Fear not! Not So Fickle shall live on!

A week in Engrand.

Yes, that is a box of chocolates with my face on it. Made by Kenji, the guy that spends his life helping clueless foreigners in Kuji just cos he was a foreigner once and remembers what it was like I guess. I wanna be him.
After the rather wonderful Harajuku shopping experience I had a rather traumatic Japan-leaving experience and, to quote one of my students who I think captures it perfectly, "I didn't cry intend. But I flow down a lot of tears". I will never forget that quote it's just too wonderful.

But then yay happy family reunion times and a dinner that I don't remember (even though I wasn't the one who had too much Prosecco). Oh yes, look, I'm home for Easter - totally knew that it was Easter and coincided my visit for ultimate grandparent visiting and family activity-ing... well I would have if I'd thought of it...Look at the Englishness of the tea my mum made - cho cho kawaii! I wish my students could've been there.
It was totally weird to be back though, and the trip to Sainsbury's the next day was just too much - total culture shock! And I'm sorry England but you NEED to sort out your manners. Like, thrusting my change at me with only one hand, what's that about. I was bowing all over the shop and gesturing everything and for the first time feeling a little self-conscious about this... Took a trip to London to see Legally Blonde (understudy, not Janet from 2 pints, but she was totally AMAZING) and went to the Japan Centre (http://www.japancentre.com) and felt more at home.

Now I was only in England for a week, but I wanted to do some Not So Fickle investigations. Finding stuff in Japan was all well and good but (tempting as it is) I can't live in Japan for ever. I have family members and friends and a need for cheddar cheese. I wanted to see if I could find equally great stuff in England with a bit of extra effort. Well, I didn't have much time, so could only look in Bath, and was mostly unimpressed by the snazzy new look charity shops. HOWEVER, just as I was on my way home, the lovely Shaw Trust Shop, which looks gorgeous and different from the others even on the outside, came up trumps with these beautiful treasures:

line line dot dot - £7.00

three by three - £7.00sticks and stones - £8.00

... maybe I can live in England one day after all!

Sayonara Kuji - Forever Love!

Gosh, I left Japan. I finished my contract and thought, do I want to freeze my arse off for another winter? Not really, no. Also, my Japanish friends tell me that during the summer, which is hotter than the average British summer (not hard), this cold front comes in over Kuji, like a really heavy mist, so Kuji doesn't get much of a summer. Great! I'm off.

But never fear, I am fully stocked up on delicious trinkets to keep Not So Fickle going for a while yet. My too-cool-for-school Japanese bad-boy friend (Japan doesn't have chavs, but if they did...) drove me 2 hours to the night bus, bought me dinner, AND carried my bags before showing real life emotion and saying goodbye! It was all too much. After a suitable amount of snivelling and disturbing my fellow passengers I fell asleep somewhere in Iwate and woke up at 5.30am in Tokyo.

Rainy Tokyo, at 5.30am, btw, is probably not something you wanna be doing in a hurry. I went to the Starbucks from Lost In Translation, which is actually tiny even though from the outside it looks like the Starbucks of all Starbuckses, and what a place that would be! Then I headed to Harajuku, which eventually yawned and stretched and sprang into life about 11am.

This is Takeshita Dori, or Take a Shit Street as my sister calls it. This is where the love is. You should go here pronto.

This is one of my favourite shops. The downstairs is lush but the upstairs... it all gets a bit weird, and the number of dolls is just unhealthy.

Mickey knows what's what.

Please take off shoes. The try on is possible to 3.

Creepy. Really really creepy if you've seen Inland Empire.

Pants Shop Laa. Just a great name for a shop.

I love Not So Fickle. It's the best excuse ever for me to go shopping crazy in the shopping heaven that is Harajuku despite my evil evil 20kg baggage limit and lack of money. It's not for meeee, it's for the website! Thank you Not So Fickle, I could enjoy many many happy shopping!

And here is the result. Introducing... the Harajuku Collection!

actually i'm a barn owl

http://notsofickle.bigcartel.com/product/actually-im-a-barn-owl

nothing but a pack of cards!
http://notsofickle.bigcartel.com/product/nothing-but-a-pack-of-cards

tick tock
http://notsofickle.bigcartel.com/product/tick-tock

trainspotter

http://notsofickle.bigcartel.com/product/trainspotter



ship shape

http://notsofickle.bigcartel.com/product/ship-shape

Happy Harajuku Love xxxx

Oooh, hello free time!

So Polyvore's awesome. I feel like everyone already knew that except for me cos I've been living in a bubble since forever. But I'm there now - and just in time for the end of the Japanese school year. Last couple of weeks were crazy and filled with kimono-wearing and giving speeches in Japanese and saying goodbye to the graduating students (yep, tears all round), so now that I'm freee I've resolved to spend the rest of the week engaging only in activities that can be done in pjs (minds out of the gutter, pur-lease). The first of these shall be Polyvoring.

April Showers by NotSoFickle featuring TOMS shoes

Items in this set:
Petite Lilly Skater Dress, $70
Zip Up Short Parka, 25 GBP
TOMS 'Classic' Canvas Slip-On (Women), $45
Round Sunglasses - Coral Rose, $85
Brighton Rock, 13 GBP

What do you think? I think everything I make is gonna involve either skater dresses or playsuits, because I am obsessing.

I've also been adding the new stuff to the Not so fickle shop. Particularly excited about the crazy fish locket and the pearly cross:

I've also got a magnifying glass necklace coming up, oooh. But not yet. First I'm gonna have a spring clean - there are coffee bottles and Kitkat wrappers (maple flavoured) everywhere. xxxx

Shiny Shiny Gift Wrap!

Valentine's day in Japan is a big deal - even for me, the eternal romantic. Rather than giving a present and card to your lover, girls give chocolates to boys, and get nothing in return. You give shop bought chocs to men you respect, and homemade for men you love. I was therefore obliged to give chocolate to all the men in my office. Except that being in Japan (where gender equality isn't quite what it is in the UK) has brought out an inner feminist that I didn't know I had, and so I gave chocs to everyone in the office - 60 people! Yikes.

Despite being hopelessly and desperately in love with one teacher at school (whose out-of-tune karaoke rendition of MJ's "Heal the World" I will hold in my heart forever) I wasn't brave enough to express my passion to him by way of homemade chocolate (also, bf may not have been overly impressed). He got shop bought like everyone else. But I did enjoy hours of browsing the rows of tiny gift boxes, bags, ribbons, and stickers (favourite: "Imagine the happiness that feels the human it sees the contents after open the box)" that filled the shops in the lead up to the big day.

So I stocked up on pretty gifty stuff and spent hours playing with ribbons and shredded paper to soothe my aching heart. Look how pretty!

Aaah. I feel better now. Jewellery and ribbons always love you back.

A Tale of Two Brooches

So these are the culprits that set me off:

I nearly died when I saw them lying there in that dodgy shop that has since become my mothership, and resolved to rescue them from obscurity - I know, how noble of me!

I'd tagged along with a strong, willing Japanese guy with the intention of buying a fridge and having him carry it up to my 3rd floor apartment in exchange for pizza. An hour later, (and after an appropriate amount of squeeling, OMG-ing, deliberating, and rhetorical opinion-asking) I left with armfuls of random Hello Kitty appliances, vintage bags and sunglasses, a rather special Disney denim jacket, all birthday presents for the foreseeable future and the two brooches upon which I intended to base some kind of online shop. Strong, willing Japanese guy was less than impressed.

I can't decide which brooch I prefer, but the bow was the biggest bargain and I don't know why - bows are such a cornerstone of Japanese fashion! But I have to admit to having a soft spot for the bow, because I was wearing it the day I became an art project, and I just love the way she painted it:

I'm so excited because the jewellery I've found is easily as good as the high street, but cheaper. You also lose the "oh my mum has that necklace - Zara, right?" factor. And for me the best part - this is recycling at its best - nothing added and nothing wasted! These treasures are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So I shall start my little experiment and try to spread the love and give people an ethical but affordable alternative to the norm. And if it doesn't work... well then golly I guess I'll just have to keep it all, won't I!