Belated 1 year blog anniversary post

Hello♥

2/22/10 was my 1 year blog anniversary! Which I am late blogging about due to being sick for the past week :( so I finally put together a collage of my past posts to just glance over at my 1 year of blogging :D

I cannot express this gratitude that I have to all my readers and the amazing ladies I have become friends with, I am truly thankful for all the LOVE I have gotten over the year of me starting this blog.
I originally started blogging to fill the loneliness I had from moving from FL to MN away from all that I knew of and the friends/loved ones that I have left behind to start this new journey of my life with my BF Zach *which this is his home state*

As I stated in my first post "I have decided to write a blog to share portion of my life with friends and family. I have just made a big move to a new state,city so its a new chapter of my life. I donno if I'll be a good blogger but Im just gonna be me here" I start blogging to write about my everyday things and hoped to make new friends in the process and that is what exactly happened and more, I never expected my blog to be interesting to others nor that I would have so many followers. ^__^
I cannot tell you how much this blog have brought joy to my lonely soul, it really do mean alot to me to know that you see me as I am, here to meet lovely ladies and share common interest and most of all I am happy to know that we can share the same love for another!♥

with the 1 year of blogging I have gotten nothing but LOVE from all of you! I never had one single hate comment nor hate mail and I am really grateful for that because my blog/me are here to LOVE and not to spread hate or negativity, so THANK YOU SO MUCH for keeping my blog a place of LOVE and a place for us to all connect :) Really I am so thankful for everything, I just wish I could find more time to do more like posting, repaying love packages and get to know more lovely ladies but time have been the main issue :(

as I was putting together this collage it made me reflect on all that happened this past year and I think having a blog is a plus to remind you of what happened and makes you appreciate things that happened even more. I really cannot believe that I got to meet so many amazingly sweet ladies here on blogger when we are all complete strangers but with the common interest we have become friends and can share the love for one and another, that is the one magical thing about blogger is that we can connect with people that you can share a connection with whether its your love for beauty, art, craft, photography or anything else that we can all feel a connection with :D

Thank you so much for the amazing 1 year, Im not sure if I am a good blogger since I talk about whatever I feel like and I dont have set criteria theme for my blog but I am just being me here and that is why it makes me more thankful is that you guys find it interesting XD
Thank you♥

well enough of my nonsense, back to my topic of this post :D
I have this photo of my cork board that I started putting all the letter I have received from all the sweet ladies I have met through blogger to remind myself of how much love there are in this place, and how we can share the love for one another even if we all started out as strangers. Keep me positive and happy when I see this board♥




You might get tired of me saying LOVE and LOVE and more LOVE but LOVE is really important in my life. when I was growing up, I grew up with little to no love. All I knew of was sadness, disappointments, being robbed of my childhood and innocence. I dont really talk about my past but I went through alot of hardship and bad events growing up which left me with heavy depression but what made me continue with life is to stay positive at all time and follow your dream no matter what. SO spread love and not hate at all times ♥

In the beginning I started entering other bloggers contest which I was new to blogging community I had no idea how things worked at first but I was desperate of meeting people so I thought it was such a amazing idea how people hosted contest, see other girls creativeness and meeting new people at the same time. Now blogging community have kinda changed I feel like people have made their blogs more commercialized and is there to get big with sponsorships or something....with no heart in their blogs. I miss seeing more personal blogs and where we can host contest just to see other girls creativeness and talk about whatever we please.

here are some look I have done in the past for contests not much since we kinda all stopped having fun with contests which I am planning to host another contest sometime in the near future :D

LOVE for makeup & beauty





I get lost in what to write about sometimes but I just end up making a post about what interests me and the stuff that I wanna share with other girls that I think that is amazing*beauty related stuff usually* :P I do have alot I wanna post about but been either too tired or drained to put any effort which I am trying to fix at the moment by finding more time and managing my time better :3
keep your passion alive!! wow that came out of nowhere LOL but its true dont let your passion die that is one of the things in life that will keep you happy is your passion for things you love.

my passion as you know if you look over my posts are*not in any special order*
1.art/photography
2.crafting/creating anything with my hands/designing
3.anything beauty related stuff :3



In march before my birthday last year Zach have surprised me with Dslr Nikon D90 since he knew one of my passion was photography since I work alot with photographers he thought it would be nice if I start my own as well it was really thoughtful gift which I have been neglecting lately =_=;; I need to start taking up photography again!

here are some items I took last year

LOVE for photography




Thanks to my blog I started up drawing again after years of not drawing, I truly feel a sense of joy when I draw but my hands are so rusty it hurts after a while :/ I wish I was young again when imagination just came freely and your hands just worked with you as one :P

so I really want to start drawing more often but sometime I feel like my mind is just too blah and not inspired and stressed from life...I really want to follow my true dream of becoming an artist of some kind either in digital art or traditional,, just dont know yet but if the time is right I would like to go back to art school again :)

just a round up of doodles XP

LOVE for art




since March of 2009 with the love of kawaii and crafting ekiLove was born♥ now over 400+ orders served and is fully registered business thanks to all your support :D
It all just started with things I thought was kawaii and wanted to share my kawaii to others since I was consistently asked where I got my hair piece or other items I created so I decided to open a mini shop to share some of my creations. Just started with small hair pieces and bows and then grew into sewing items with now features jewels. :D

I am very proud of my creations and the design that I put my heart into all that I create, its alot of hard work too since I create, take photos of all the items, maintain web store, taking orders and making sure everything gets shipped accordingly since I am the only one running ekilove but its all worth it when I know that the item I have created is loved and have put a smile on someones face♥ thats what keeps me creating and sharing my love for kawaii and Hime style items!

My creations/designs have been imitated/copied by many other craftier and claimed as their own creation/designs which every time it is disappointing to me since if you create something you should really put your heart into it and not take other persons hard work since all of my creations have alittle of me in them, everyone should put their heart/soul into what they make with their own 2 hands and be proud of what they have just created.... be original and respectful of ones works please.


to all my ekiLovers thank you for all the undying support and love, it means so MUCH! ^0^
I will continue to create items that you will love and will continue improving my skills and craft!

here is alittle timeline of ekilove ;)

LOVE for kawaii, crafting and designing

well that is it for the recap of 1 year of blogging, it has a been really a pleasure to be here and I want to thank you again for your support, I wish I had more time to personally say thank you to everyone. Another thing I would like to address, Im so sorry if I never get back to all your questions, it have been really hard trying to answer questions when its everywhere from emails,comment box to cbox,, I dont want to open formspring since I am already having hard time finding time to answer all my emails but if its going to make it easy for everyone if it in one place please let me know. Please know that I am not trying to neglect anyone and questions, life just gets too overwhelming sometimes.

I hope to keep posting more interesting post to come Im not sure if it will be but I will try :)
sorry for the LONG post but thank you for reading them hope you got to know me more if you are new readers♥

take care everyone! Im still recovering from being sick but Im glad I finally made this post~ hope everyone is have a happy blogging time also♥

XOXO
eki

Paul & Joe mascara Primer review FOTD

Hi♥

finally some review huh :P
I am so slow of posting reviews and tutorials,, Im so sorry X3

Here I wanted to share Paul & Joe mascara primer I got not too long ago which I have been loving the results I get with the Prime+Fiberwig. Makes my lash so defined and LONG~ seriously makes it look like I have false lashes on!

my take on P&J mascara primer:
I have used many mascara primers in the past and I do love the results I get when I use primer+macara, this one is like applying fiberwig before the actual fiberwig itself since the primer contain fibers just like fiberwig which extends my lashes greatly. I am really liking this primer alot :3

The trick
I found with using this product is that you have to apply individually on the lashes where you make sure that they are all separated or else you will have big clump of mess but if you make sure that the lashes are nicely separated the mascara goes on it nice and defined just like false lashes. :)

I use the volume side with the fibers, Im not sure the curl side do yet I dont see any difference when I use the curl side I have to play around with it more I guess to figure out whats its good for.





with fiberwig it makes my lashes super long and so defined without having to apply so many coat of Fiberwig~







then I curl with panasonic electric lash curler and it keeps my lashes curled without melting the fibers off so the primer works really well with electric curlers.






With primer on the left you can see that my lashes are short and not so noticeable, after with fiberwig and curled with panasonic lash curler, see the big difference, right! :D








Left: without anything Right: with P&J mascara prime+fiberwig+curled





what am I wearing:

Face:
Lioele BB cream
DHC Q10 face powder in yellow
NYX concealer jar in beige
Jill stuart mix blush in 02

Eye:
Dolly wink liquid eyeliner
canmake four shiny eyes palette in 03
MUFE aqua eyes pencil in 2L
P&J mascara primer
Fiberwig mascara
Dollyeyes Lens in grey

Lip:
canmake Nudy glow in 02

popteen march 2010 issue *pic heavy*

Lots of cute looks on this issue of Popteen 03/10 :3

the cover seems to be always feature Kumikki nowdays on their mag,, I think they should start changing it up alittle since there are other gyaru models in popteen that are equally pretty as her,,, :/

*click to enlarge*

Kumikki does step by step tutorial of how she does her makeup

some nice springy looks :D
Im so ready for spring to come X3

some red lip looks,, I personally look weird with red lips hehe :P
but some girls can pull it off really well~

some lower false lashes looks,

girls are so pretty I love their looks :)

Love packages~

Hi♥

I wanted to thank my Lovelies for sending me some Valentine LOVE! I felt really loved and has really warmed up my soul♥

Thank you SO MUCH for all the love you give me!^0^
I feel very honored to be your friend XD

I am really surprised that my ekiLove customers have shown me so much love and support in me and my creations, I am so touched to know that you feel some love from me in my creations and to return the LOVE to me by sending me such thoughtful message and gifts. I hope to continue to make my ekiLove customers feel alittle bit of my love in all the I make.

Thank you so SO MUCH for the LOVE!

I cannot thank enough, really~ >0<

First is Very sweet Sandra who I have become really good friends with through ekiLove and she has been such a great supporter of my craft and to me, I feel very connected to you and am a lucky girl to have met you♥ :3

Thank you so much for the super sweet handmade card!! I think anything handmade are such meaningful and special thing to receive! The love just pours out of this card♥ "Made for you with LOVE....♥" awwwwwwww

I am a straight person, but I have true love for my girl friends and I feel so happy when I really connect to girls that can share equal love back to me and in Sandra I feel that strong connection :)

sometimes even my BF get jealous of my girl friends since I give more love to them than to him LOL

but thats how it should be...right??

Friendship is very important to me :D




such cute card!!! its so well put together no store bought card can beat this! :D





OMG when I opened the package I was shocked to see this wallet!! remember I posted the photos from my trip to sanrio? well its that wallet! X3
I told Sandra I saw this wallet that was so kawaii and she went and searched and got it XD
I was in need of long wallet and I didnt get it since I am saving money to my trip to Japan,, you are too sweet to have gotten me this, thank U♥ ^___^



its so kawaii makes me happy when I open the wallet hehe




She also included her favorite items! Nars gloss in Turkish delight, such a pretty pink shade! I LOVE baby pink lippies♥





also her favorite nail polishes, PA nail glitter with kawaii pinks hearts! perfect for valentines theme :3 the glitter is really pretty~

Thank you *muah*~ love ya!!~♥~







Love from Lisa~

She is fellow handmade craftier/jeweler of He Qi Designs, who I admire her creativity and also she is super sweet!! She is also proud owner of ekiLove :D

Her creations are always so gorgeous with top quality materials and you can tell she is very dedicated to her craft and to her store even though she is full time student!!

which I admire also since its ALOT of work to maintain a store, to create all the items and keeping up with customer orders to make sure that all your customers are happy and loved ♥ :D

Thank you Lisa for the gorgeous piece I love it! its so me~!






also she made handmade caramel!! ohhh its so good and creamy! its her first ever batch of caramel and its better than most caramel I've had :3















Love from Angelique♥

She surprised me with this package since I havent been feeling well to cheer me up! :)
she is also proud owner of ekiLove♥


Thank you so much for the thoughtful love, I really really LOVE tea and you knew that! that make me happy!♥
thank you for thinking of me! ^__^







Love from Katie♥

I got a little thank you gift from one of my ekiLove cutomer Katie! Thank you so MUCH for showing me love!!
She is going to Japan in March~yay!
I hope you have GREAT time in Japan!! I think you will love it there and people are pretty kind and helpful there so dont worry :) Also the food is amazing so try anything that interest you, you cant go wrong :D

if you have any questions about Japan please let me know!









Also LOVE from LuLu

I joined Diana's secret Valentine swap and LuLu was my secret Valentine~
I got my package way early like 2 weeks? so It was hard not opening it since we needed to wait till the day so I put it away in my closet so I didnt get tempted LOL XD





If you know me from my blog or know me in general I LOVE UME*plum flavor usually refers to picked plum*~!!
its one of those thing that everyone have in food you LOVE and your mouth salivate just thinking about it well thats what ume does for me LOL

I donno why I love ume so much its weird obsession.... :/
I think I really love shiso*perilla leaf* flavor and I think thats why I love Ume I donno hehe


yumm ume candy and ume tea~




ohhh tea tea and more tea!!!
another thing I love.....TEA!! weird person here.... I know :P
but really I love tea, if you grow up in Asia or Europe I think most of us LOVE tea right?

obsessed with matcha!!*really good source if pure antioxidants"
I been buying any matcha that I can get my greedy hands on but they are really hard to find here :(





all the beauty goodies too~ :)




she didnt forget the chocos!!
Thank you for being my valentine LuLu♥





Played around with my photo since I felt artsy fartsy today LOL

also Kim K inspired look here showcasing ekiLove couture line that is coming up for sale♥
I never do any looks anymore so I made a tutorial for this look :)

will try to get it edited soon :D




what am I wearing:

face:
DHC Q10 foundation in pink ocher 02
Mac translucent setting powder
Jill Stuart mix blush in 02
nyx concealer jar in beige

eyes:
dolly wink liquid eyeliner
MUFE aqua eyes in 1L
canmake four shiny eyes palette in 03
Urban decay 24/7 pencil in yeyo
paul & joe mascara primer
fiberwig mascara
princess cutie false lashes in 217

Lip:
YSL volupte rouge in #7
canmake nudy glow in 02





also Zoya is having a special~ buy $10 and get 2 polishes of your choice free!

Place any Zoya or Qtica order of $10 (on http://www.zoya.com, http://www.qtica.com or http://www.artofbeauty.com/)
and get any 2 Zoya Nail Polish shades (0.5oz bottles) as our Free gift to you.

Simply add all the items that you want to purchase online to your shopping cart.
Enter the code NYFW in the "code" field and press the "update" button.
A $14 discount will appear in the shopping cart for the value of the 2 Zoya Nail Polishes.

Offer valid from Wednesday, 2/17/2010 Friday, 2/19/2010, at 5PM ET. Standard shipping charges apply.
Offer valid for consumer online orders only. Free ground shipping for orders over $55 in Continental USA only.
Not valid with any other coupon code or offer.

well that is it for now, Thank you for always supporting me♥

XOXO
eki

ps. its my bf Zach's birthday today!! Happy Happy Birthday! Thank you for being a wonderful you and being my bestfriend!♥