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!