Sporadic Life Update & Liz Lisa Sailor Dress in Blue

I don't often use this place to share more personal details in my life, but since these three changes are rather big, I do wish to mention them here. And when I'll go back to this article in a few months or in a few years, it'll be great to remember how the beginning of the year 2018 was a peculiar one that had brought significant changes.

In two weeks, I will finally be graduating (for the second time) from university. I have this final paper to give which I've almost finished writing (needs some last editing and revising) and I'll be done with school (for good, or at least for a good while). This is one of the reasons why I haven't written something here for more than one month, although I did have some content to write about. Thing is, I still had time to blog even when I was in the middle of the process of writing this paper, but I don't enjoy writing here while being conscious of the schoolwork I need to do.
Anyway, it's a strange feeling talking about graduating when I'm reminiscing about the time I started this blog, which was in the summer of 2013. That time, I was entering university in August for the first time. My bachelor was in East Asian Studies, by the way.

Additionally, I started working almost two months ago, and it's harder than I imagined... The nature of the work requires much more analyzing and reading than I expected. It's also hard to show how I can contribute to the organization when I have zero (relevant) work experience. Basically, it's been really stressful and depressing since I started (not really a good sign nor encouraging I know). I would like to be more autonomous, but I feel I'm not experienced enough and that would just make me even more anxious and most likely result in some really poor quality work.
While I've been doing my best to learn and gain experience, I've also told myself that it's not the end of the world (although still regretful) if it doesn't work out in the end.

Finally, I officially moved into my first apartment to be closer to my workplace. It's okay, but I miss the proximity of downtown Montreal where I used to live (I didn't live in the downtown area but if I took the subway, getting there was fast thus convenient).

I could go on about my fears and distress, but I'll end this personal segment here.

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So a couple of weeks ago, I bought the Liz Lisa sailor dress in blue. I already owned the pink one and it was my favorite out of the three colors (the dress also exists in brown/beige).
I initially didn't really like the dress in blue, and pink was my favorite, but gradually, my mind changed and I started liking the blue one also... The purchase was, however, totally unexpected as I was casually browsing Liz Lisa items on eBay when I saw it for sale.
There weren't a lot of details given on the dress condition other than "really good", which seemed suspicious, but I still impulse bought it (and shortly after sent a message to the seller to ask if the dress had any dirt or damage -- should have been asked before buying I know, but I was too worried someone would buy it while I'd still be waiting for the seller's response.)

I received the dress last week, and I was really impressed with its condition. I don't know whether it's because the dress has truly not been worn a lot, or it's just Liz Lisa quality that makes it look flawless even though it's secondhand.

It's my second dress in the same model, but I'm still in awe of the details and the soft plaid.

The fit is also lovely. It fits even better than the pink I already have (which is a little sad because I also love the pink.) I'm incredibly satisfied with this purchase.

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This weekend, I also dyed my hair for the third time with this natural hair dye (well, my mom did):

You can see from the price sticker in the upper right corner that it's not the cheapest hair dye (yet still cheaper than at the salon), but I've been loving it since I used it for the first time—approximately one year ago.

Unlike the regular hair dyes I originally used to dye my hair with, this one doesn't make my hair feel thinner nor make the ends of my hair brittle.

I buy this dye at a naturist shop, but I'm certain you can find it elsewhere also.

Before (excuse my greasy hair)

Uh, I don't have an After picture right now because I forgot to ask my mom to take one... I'll post one once I have one... sorry.

Update - here's a picture, albeit taken quite late, on May 26th. You can see some brown reflections peeking out already, but the lighting is also very light.

As you can see from the picture, I recently cut the ends of my hair. Back in January, my hair was past my butt, but the ends were what they call "fairytale ends" and it was atrocious.

Taken back in December

You can see korilakkuma's face through my hair—unbelievable.

I despised how my ends looked in the above picture but I absolutely didn't want to shorten my hair by cutting them. I eventually got sick of it and therefore, chopped the ends.

My hair is shorter now, but the ends are thicker, which all in all looks much healthier. Now I'm eager for my hair to grow out so there isn't any hint of past brown dyes and bleaches left anymore. Weird to say this considering that until October 2016, I was desperately striving to have blond hair...

Thanks for reading.