Hiatus until June-ish. (*****)

Good Afternoon,

Announcement:

I'll be taking a break from this blog to focus on my studies... I may be away until June 11 (submission date) depending on how well I manage my time. I'll still be 'micro-blogging' here and there on Instagram (@ellennakamura) . Also, I'm off to Japan for 5 weeks from June 12 so Naruhodo Ellen will be pretty quiet this winter.

お知らせ：

大学の勉強を優先してこのブログをしばらく休ませていただきます！全プロジェクトの提出日は６月１１日でその次の日に５週間日本に遊びに行きます．

▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲

Monday:

This is that XL men's jumper I got from the Vanishing Elephant sale last week!

Free food from uni and yucky rice paper rolls from the food court on campus...

So I drew that photo of me painting a copy of Philip Guston's piece in his style for my own original painting...

I'm about half way done, pretty happy with it so far!

After class my brother and I met up with my dad at Cookie (my dad's favourite meeting place) for drinks and then we went out for dinner.

I ordered this beer for my dad by ear, he said, "Get me the RAFFE blonde" so when I went up to the bar the girl laughed at my fob pronunciation...

We went to this Japanese place called Horoki, it was like a fusion between Japanese, Korean, and Italian... Not bad but not amazing either.

▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲

Tuesday:

Dean and I as stickers on Line! We always chat on Line now, their stickers are so much fun... We're a little obsessed and even bought a set.

Yes! Free chippies!

I wanted to experiment with a spot varnish for my next publication project so I went to Print City to do a test print... Turned out a lot more faint than I had hoped so I'm scrapping the idea of applying the varnish to my titles... I'm still keen to use it somewhere though!

Went to buy my folio box too, it cost me $178 for the folio and the sleeves! Had no idea folios could cost so much...

At home that night I did some fun embroidery for my front cover of my annual report for Craft! I'm either scanning it in or I'm hoping to get the actual thing glued onto my book! I'm no good at it but Embroidery is so much fun, I could do it for hours and not get bored.

Everyone, this ice cream is amazing! Possibly the best ice cream I've ever had! The texture is soooo good.

▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲

Friday (skipped Wed+Thurs):

After work I was looking through my Instagram feed and saw that Alpha60 were doing a 75% off sale so I got my mom to drive me straight away... Got there 20 mins before closing time so I was rushed but I walked out with 4 garments! I really, really, really, wanted more time there.

Dean picked me up from the sale and we drove to Lazat for a light dinner. He had a haircut at Dylan & Co. (in Richmond) and he was transformed into a spunk, haha, I quite like it!

Yummy.

▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲

Saturday:

I was so keen to go back to the Alpha60 sale that I rode my bike in the rain to have another look! I got there on the dot at 10am and was the first person to get in, luckily because it was really crowded when I left and there was a big line to the changing rooms.

I purchased another 3 pieces... So in total I got 7 garments for $345! At their original prices it would have cost me $1440. I am so happy!

Since I was already on Chapel St I stocked up on Natto (fermented soybeans) for my family at FujiMart.

Okay, so see you guys in a few weeks!

Gaishoku (*****)

Good Evening,

Between class and work I went out for lunch at Middle Fish with Takoyaki and another classmate.

I had the pork neck dish which was okay at first but the meat was pretty tough and kept getting stuck in my teeth. The green curry my friend had was a much better choice, the chicken was crazy tender.

Despite the man at Middle Fish wanting us to stay for dessert, we went next door to Seven Seeds instead.

On my bike ride to work my knees started to feel as though they were a tad out of place so I'm thinking I should rest my legs for a few days (conveniently it is forecasted to rain all week).

▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲

I had an all-day date with Dean on Saturday, probably our last for a month because of uni commitments for the both of us. We'll have loads of time together during the holidays in Japan so it'll be good.

We went to check out the Vanishing Elephant warehouse sale in Fitzroy on its second day (out of 3)... I overheard that most of the good stuff was gone in the first day and most of the stuff was menswear (as expected, since they only started doing a women's range recently). I managed to find a cute dress and a x-large men's sweater which was too big for me but I really liked the colours...

We had lunch at some Deli on Brunswick st, these corncakes were so flavorsome and delicious!

Dean's house always stocks the best ice cream! We pigged out on a Weis bar each and finished off the tub of Ben & Jerry's. We finished watching season 2 of Hotaru no Hikari... Seen it 3 times now but I still find it hilarious.

It was really difficult finding a nice place to have dinner that night since it was the eve of Mother's Day. Dean called his foodie friend and he recommended a Tapas bar tucked away in Yarraville, "Dig a Pony". The atmosphere was great, very warm and romantic! I was pleasantly surprised to be served by a girl I went to high school with, she had really matured.

The food was gorgeous! Each dish we ordered was a success! I especially liked the paella stuffed squid and my peanut butter, salted caramel, and raspberry parfait. This is somewhere I'd want to go with my dad, the king of tapas. Thanks Deanie for the lovely dinner.

▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲▽▲

This is my new dress from Vanishing Elephant, it's a sample piece so it's one of a kind.

My brother and I actually had plans for Mother's Day this year! We took our mom (technically, she took us in the car...) to Lux Bite for their Mother's Day high tea dessert buffet.

Their front counter was covered in beautiful cakes and sweets!

Each guest got an assortment of gourmet sandwiches, a hot, and cold drink each and the sweets were all you can eat.

My cloudy apple juice and jasmine green tea... Cutest tea bags.

The sandwiches. It was a timed session of 90 mins but they took 30 minutes to serve the sandwiches so I got a bit frustrated but it worked out in the end... The lady apologized, it was their first session of an event they'd never hosted before.

This pavlova actually tasted just as good as it looks! I'm not usually into macaroons but they were done really well too.

Everything was tasty and I managed to eat my moneys worth (heh), they also gave us goodie bags to take home!

Yay! (Not going to write a cheesy message to my mom, sorry)