Spooky Basket: My 'Corset Story' -- A Purchase Review.

I was trying to save this next post for something crafty... but I just received a special something.

I love corsets... but I also love saving money where I can-- these two concepts rarely ever meet. You can be the judge here, as I really haven't decided yet on the matter.

So we all know that I celebrated my 2nd year anniversary with my husband. We decided to splurge (even though I already did) on gifts for each other. We pre-odered him the collector's edition Witcher: Wild Hunt, and I a corset.

Like many people, I was lured by the absolutely gorgeous corsets at low prices from Corset Story-- the promise of feeling sexy on a dime. Sounds a little sleazy, but it sounded good to my wallet... which has been making me feel incredibly guilty.
Funny thing is, this was not my first encounter with Corset Story-- once upon a time, I tried ordering a very beautiful and very affordable purple corset (a real one)... alas, they hadn't updated their database and they promptly emailed me with a refund. So their customer service is exceptionally communicative; I give them 4/5 stars on that front. Docked one star for failure to fix their stock numbers.

This obviously did not deter my desire to return and try again.
I received an email (like usual) beckoning me with sales, but no corset really piqued my interest enough to follow through the link. Until a week ago, the Cleopatra Black "Steampunk" (not very steampunk) Corset popped into my inbox. I was baited and hooked.

I ordered it with an excitement one can only feel by finding that special lil' something they've been waiting for at the right moment.

I noticed that their regular shipping didn't offer tracking. This does not agree with me at all. I shop online far more than I do in actual shops and I know that for a quarter of the cost of their tracked shipping (about $45! Ouch!) you can send anything with tracking; hell I've even sent items internationally with tracking.

For a week I waited and worried about my precious cargo, but it came right on the 7 business day dot. When it did come, I wasn't very pleased to see that it simply came in a bag (that my rather careless carrier just stuffed into my tiny mail box). Luckily nothing seems ripped or damaged. 3/5 stars for shipping.

Then came the real test. I had ordered a 24" because that is what I always was, and thought this was still the case because my weight has never fluctuated so badly as to really warrant a size change in any of my clothes. Unbeknownst to me, I had packed on a little more bulk than anticipated during that hotel stay.
The most unfortunate thing is that it is just my waist and thighs that felt that brunt of this weight gain, thus my corset fits very awkwardly... though it doesn't seem this way in the photos.

The corset is small and large in all the wrong places. The laces are nearly all the way loosened in order to achieve actual buckling up. It's too loose on the bust area that if I didn't wear pasties or some kind of nip protection, they would surely be visible. However, if I try to tighten the top portion, I can literally barely breathe and it doesn't help at all. The straps on the front are quite long, and I believe that this may be adding to the gaping occurring on the bust. Ultimately, I believe that this corset, although small in the other areas... was made for women with no less than a C cup, or at least a high B and a relatively long upper torso.-- neither of which I am (mid to low B cup, and short torso).

So now the question is posed: what is left to do?

Certainly most people would tell me to cut my losses and return it, and I would agree... if I didn't I have some ideas to try and make it fit. The first is the most obvious one; lose the excess weight that was gained.

But since losing weight means losing more bulk from my bust also (which is opposite of what I need for this to fit "right"), I think I might tack in some padding. 

That's right, I said it; padding. It likely won't give me cleavage, but at least the color and size of my "apexes" will still be a mystery to everyone but my husband.

Have you shopped at Corset Story? What's your story?!

Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: LFG For Wonderfully Unexpected Life.

Wow...

One can never say enough, that there isn't enough time in the world.

9 years ago, a lvl 60 night elf hunter (16 going on 17 year old me) wandered into Ironforge in the hopes of finding a raid party for Lower Blackrock Spire. Not for beaststalker's pieces like many hunters did, though that would've been neat to get (but gear hated this toon)... but to finally complete that stupidly long and arduous Kibbler's Pets quest in Burning Steppes that rewarded the worg pup. Why was it arduous? Except for the fact you had to run around all of Azeroth with your thumb up your butt doing menial things up close to opposing faction npcs, during that time they did not lessen the aggro radius of those npcs... so you almost always got hit, and then flagged for pvp... and then pwned by some high geared douche who had nothing better to do with his time than camp those doing this quest.

"lvl 60 hunter, LFG for LBRS!" I announced in gen chat, among the hundreds of LFG requests crowding the channel.

Minutes passed. *sigh*

Maybe if I state that I just want to do the quest, I thought to myself. "lvl 60 hunter LFG LBRS! Just want to do worg pups"

Instantly I got 5 whispers, and an invite. The invite was from a character named 'Meneldor'... at least it wasn't a stupid name like Ballzdeep, or god forbid Drizzt (or some variation of).

I joined the party.

"Meneldor: Welcome! Good to have you. We needed two hunters but our other one did not want to invite another hunter that needed the shoulders."

"Hi, hello... yeah, I just want to get my worg pup."

Upon arrival they inspected me and noticed that in fact I did not have the shoulders, or any piece of beaststalker set sans the bracers (which were bind on equip and totally buyable off the auction house) which sparked some doubt on their end. After reassuring them for the hundredth time, we finally fell into agreement that I was not a ninja...

"At least you're not geared the wrong way, just badly lol" the other hunter quipped. Yeah thanks...

When we came to War Master Voone we finished him with a swiftness most impressive, that I scarcely even remember the fight... and then the beastalker's gloves dropped.

"Uhh... so, is anyone opposed to me getting those? I would sure love them, heheh..."

Marianella looted [Beastalker's Gloves]

Things were looking up.

"Congratz!" I get in a whisper from this strange Meneldor person. "Thanks! This is just the cherry on the cake, if we manage to get the worg pups now, my month will be made." I whispered back physically jumping up and down in my chair.

Making our way towards Gizrul and Halycon... it was the moment I've been waiting for: Worg pups! It was a difficult task ahead of us, and very few people managed to catch a pup in the mess of the fight before everything died from over zealous aoe'ing mages. I think some did it just to screw with people on this quest.
Anyway, this Meneldor character was laying down the rules. Kill not the little worg pups, for the very reason he brought us all together was not to gain gear, but to get pups for everyone.

Score! A worg pup raid?! They are few and far between. Only a special kind of vanity pet lover would ever go to such extents (and I did-- after several years of playing Wow, I had over 300 vanity pets in my roster. Including all collector's edition and special event ones).

"Hells to the yeah, man! Thank you!" And suddenly the fight started... worg pups everywhere snapping at your heels while this giant mofo of a mother worg tried to kill the rest of us for disturbing the nest, and once you killed her and her pups, her even bigger lover would come and finish the raid off. It was one of the busiest fights in all the game at the time. Killing the worgs meant you could actually play, and possibly beat the Upper Blackrock Spire end boss-- whole other ball game, though. One would never PUG Upper, unless you wanted to die all the time. The last boss to Lower was a cake walk compared to the worg fight... I never understood the logic behind that, but I guess I never needed to. But anyway, I digress.

Once everyone was beaming with cages full of worg pups, I got another whisper from Meneldor. "I see you like worg pups-- how long did it take you to finish the quest"

I lied. "Oh, just a couple hours or so", but it was really a whole day affair for that unsolicited pvp...

"You must really love animals"

"How do you gather that?"

"I don't know, I just sense it"

"Ok..."

"Hey, I lead raids all the time, and I could use another good hunter. You're lacking in gear and I know how hard it is for hunters to find groups and all. We can help each other out."

"That would be great :)"

"It's settled then! My name is Travis IRL"

"Mine is Marianella"

"Oh I thought you named your toon from some book! It sounds exotic. Mine is from LotR"

"Thanks, I couldn't think of a name and my real name sounded elvish enough lol"

--------------------------------

A year after those humble beginnings, we decided to meet. And that, my friends, is how I met the love of my life.

So young, and full of hope.. and he with a full head of hair...

June 2, we celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary as two gamers/nerds would... spending the whole day gaming and catching up on Game of Thrones. Life is good.

I could never live a richer life...

Spooky Basket: Treat. Yo. Self.

I have inadvertently went on a "no shopping" month because of the closing of the house, and getting that job, and trying to find energy to unpack after working my shifts.
Side note, getting back on the work horse after a year hiatus is excruciating-- landing the type of job made matters a little more difficult. Dealing with heavy groceries and a mass volume of people, standing for hours on end... yikes. My muscles screamed at me by the end of the day.

Anyway, that is besides the point.

After realizing I haven't treated myself in a tiny bit over a month, I decided I would buy a special something from my "invisible" wishlist.

This lovely little number was purchased from Tattoo Apparel. It's an Egyptian cat hi-lo dress by Jawbreaker.
This website was the only place I found it where it wasn't sold out in my size. I was a little skeptical of  the site, I must admit. Mainly because I have never heard of the store in the slightest... but I paid with paypal, and prayed it was good!

My prayers were answered with some super fast and awesome service!

I unpacked it a few days ago and swooned for a while before wearing it to a lunch date with the boy. The fabric is perfect for the summer, very soft and light jersey knit. We'll see how long the print lasts, though I won't be shoving this in with the regular laundry-- I prefer to handwash all my expensive garments, regardless if the care info states I can treat it normally.

I was half expecting the long tail of the dress to be too long on me, as these off the rack garments tend to be for me... but I was very happy to find that this wasn't the case. Finally! Something that didn't need altering after purchase!

The price is also a few dollars less than the rest of the other sites I have searched, so there's another bonus for ya if you're thinking about buying this dress-- snatch it up, you won't be disappointed.

And now for another month or so of no shopping-- for myself at least! Heh...

Fashioning My Cyber Microcosm: Home Sweet-freakin' Home!

Can I get an awww'yeah!?

After all that time spent going a little more than mad sitting in that hotel room day in and out-- I can finally call Carlsbad, NM home sweet home!

We have been living in the new place for a little over 2 weeks now, one of which was spent without our possessions, the other week finally receiving them but then also finding work so that the process of unpacking has become super slow...

The good news is that we're finally home, I have work, and the kittles have settled in just fine-- Poe took a little longer than Khan... as is apparent by this (blurry-ish) picture:

I had only just put down the cat bed during the first day of getting the keys... Khan is stoic, that's all I can say.

Poe on the other hand, took his time feeling at home, but we didn't help his mood much once our things arrived...

He's so freakin' adorable, even when he is casting his death glare. No, Poe, I will not burn this costume...ever!

The best thing about this house aside from the fact that we have a giant backyard, double the square footage and a pimped out kitchen? We get a game room and I get my craft room! Squee!

Before the arrival of my things

After...

There is still so much left to unpack. I have seriously underestimated exactly how much we have accumulated into our apartment-- geez! So much stuff!
I think perhaps it was the hotel that gave us perspective on that... living so minimally and all. Thankfully that is over-- I like my decadence, and I love my crafts, I love being able to sit down and pick a movie out of our hundreds or just spend that time gaming, leveling my paragon on Diablo 3 or some other game.

There was one good thing that came from being in the hotel for so long. I did draw quite a bit.

I think this tattoo concept might actually be the first one I get. After I had finished, I gave myself a jolly good pat on the back. There's just something about raw lines that makes my heart flutter. I'm thinking my forearm might be a good place for this one.

Like I mentioned, I do have a job-- I worked at the local grocers as a cashier... it's tough work, and there's so much to lift and remember. It gives you quite a physical and mental work out, though it does become second nature very quickly for how repetitive it is. Thankfully, the owner of a fabric store called me back just a few days ago offering roughly the same pay and hours! I am so freakin' elated to have landed a fabric store job... words fail to express the happiness I feel for having landed such a perfect job.

That's about all the related news I can think of... but there's so much more to update on, but it deals in different topics. It's good to finally get back to blogging!.

^v^ XOXO ^v^