Outfit no. 24

Dress: H&M, cardi and necklace: F21, shoes: New Look, glasses: Ray-Ban

This photo makes me look like I have no arms. Ha! But yeah. I was going to wear my Oasap shoes today but my feet were just like, "No." So I wore flats. I'm trying to train my feet to be okay with heels more often, but sometimes they yell at me and I have to obey. Nobody wants angry feet all day.

Moving on... I can't express how in love with this new cardigan I am! I went a little bit crazy over the weekend and bought three new cardigans and three necklaces (which were on sale, in my defense) at Forever21, and then this dress at H&M. I couldn't resist the color or the fabric of this dress -- it's kinda shiny but not gross shiny, and it's soft and thick for winter. And only $25! H&M has fallen out of favor with me recently (they seem to stock the same styles over and over and I've gotten bored of it), but I've got to admit, you can still find some amazing pieces there. ANYWAY, back to the cardigan! Just for you I went to the F21 website and found it; I do believe it's this one. I'm so glad I went into the store and saw it, because based on the online photo I'd have been underwhelmed. However it's much bigger on me than the model, yay, so it's super oversized and comfy and I love it! It's also darker in person than it looks on the site, and quite soft and thick. I think everyone should get one because it goes with everything! 

I'm also trying to link to more items in my posts, because people have asked me where certain things are from, i.e. the coat from whole-dress.net! Since a couple people asked, you can find the coat I got right here! I got it in medium, and it fits perfectly well. I did want a bigger, more oversized feel so that works for me, but all of the clothes from that site are ridic tiny in the first place so a medium will likely work for other small girls.

I realized today that I'm going to have to invest in some sort of light source out on the balcony, or move my photo sessions inside. Now that the days are getting shorter and the clocks turned back, it's almost too dark to take photos outside. Nooooooo. I had to poke around on Gimp and lighten these up considerably. I think they look okay, kind of, but I'd prefer to work with better light all-around. What do you guys suggest for photos inside and/or outside in low light? I'd super appreciate any suggestions!

In WoW news (nobody cares but I'm writing it anyway?), I've started healing heroics! It's super fun. I love priest heals; I've been doing them since near the end of Burning Crusade and haven't changed since. Holy all the way. I've pretty much gotten the hang of it for the new expansion, although my gear is atrocious. My biggest problem is that I'm running out of mana during boss fights when the DPS is a bit low, and then I run in circles going, "AARRGH I'M OOM ARGH!" Sadly Greg isn't tanking this time around, so I get to deal with second-rate tanks a lot... not that I'm biased. I don't know why I'm writing this here, as nobody understands what I'm saying except maybe two of you, but I love WoW and I have nowhere else to talk about it!! I'm sorry, blog readers!

I will leave you alone now to your confusion after that paragraph, and finish off by announcing that I'm GoJane's BFF of the week on the GoJane blog! Check it out! I love GoJane and their blog, it always has adorable and inspiring things on it. So go, go look! ^^

Outfit no. 9

Dress: F21, jumper and shoes: New Look, necklace: H&M, blazer: River Island, tights: Target (gift)

Quick post today, as I'm suuuuuper excited to level my Magical Crawdad in the new WoW pet battles! I don't kid when I say this is all I have ever wanted out of World of Warcraft since the beginning. Pokemon with vanity pets. ALL I EVER WANTED. I'm clasping my hands together and vomiting rainbows! Everyone come play WoW with me! I'm on Alterac Mountains if any of you magically play, and are on the same realm.

And another reason to vom rainbows: Ellie Goulding's new album Halcyon came out today, and it is uh-mazing. She's one of my favorite singer/songwriters ever, and you should all listen to her new album! Perhaps I'll do a post about her one of these days.

Aaand that's about it. My first day of work went quite well, and I'm super looking forward to the time when I won't be confused about what the hell is going on all the time!

p.s. Sorry all my images are blurry; I am the worst.

Homesickness

Guess what! One of my favorite places in the world isn't actually real. It's in a video game. BIG SURPRISE. I've already done a post about Mass Effect and how cool I found that one spaceship to be, but my relationship with World of Warcraft goes much deeper than just a casual fling with some BioWare RPG. Okay, yeah, for a few years there I was pretty addicted to it and put off doing normal human things like eating and bowel movements in favor of leveling my mage or raiding on my holy priest, but let's forget that for a moment! Let's forget that I abandoned my friends for a year for this game, and just remember the good times. And there were many of those.

Sometimes I try to tell people about WoW, and how much I loved it, and I basically always come off sounding like a meth addict or an unforgivable loser. The fact is, though, and I've come to realize this more clearly recently -- I don't miss the gameplay of WoW so much. I don't miss the PvP (although twinking around in Arathi Basin on my 49 hunter was always a good time), and I don't miss raiding, unless you count the golden days of Karazhan when Greg was shamelessly flirting with me in whispers, and that crazy-eyed Australian girl kept copying my mage specs because I was clearly the cooler female in the guild. No, those were just perks. What I mostly miss, I've found, is the world itself. The landscapes, the magic, the inhabitants, the music -- they all go together to create this pretty badass world that you can explore in its entirety. I feel like the world of Azeroth is a place I actually used to live in, and now I've left, but I miss it because I'll probably never experience like I did the first time.










Admittedly a lot of the appeal for me was also in the social nature of WoW. I got to spend time and interact with Greg while gaming, which is pretty fucking neat. We also had several out-of-state friends who we knew mostly through WoW or other online games. Now Greg is living with one of them in Salt Lake, so clearly we made some legit connections in game! (That, or Greg's roommate is waiting patiently for the opportune moment in which to kill and eat him.)

The thing is, though, I really do miss the world of the game. I particularly miss one continent that was introduced in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, called Northrend. I remember boarding the zeppelin from Undercity to Howling Fjord for the first time, and becoming totally obsessed with the music that played on it. I mean, how can you not be obsessed with these glorious harmonious strains? Scandinavian music is the best.




I could make an entire post on the music of WoW, but I won't, unless you want me to, and then I will. Because seriously, it's the best game music ever made, not counting Ocarina of Time, and selected music from Fable II. I used to go to certain zones in WoW just to listen to the music there. Or I'd be in the middle of questing or something, and my favorite bit of the song would start, and I'd drop everything just to sit and listen. I know. I'm just that cool.












Northrend is such a great place, though. It's dark and snowy and Scandinavian, mysterious and full of hulking viking-like creatures. I have dreams about it. (I know. I'm just that cool.) Maybe these screenshots I took years ago will give you a tiny insight into how beautiful and enthralling WoW, particularly Northrend, can be. I just feel like people don't pay enough attention to how lovely the game is. I wish it were a real world that I could live in. I feel homesick for a place I've never been. Sigh.