modeS4u reached 10.000 fans on their facebook fansite so they decided to make a kawaii giveaway! ♥Â Take a look here to see it’s worth it 
Besides that their shop is worth a visit anyway. They sell a lot of cute stuff from Japan and I’m crazy about the Helloween fabrics. Matryoshkas, cats and cute other things combined into one pattern – adorable!
Good morning, dear readers. (I suppose it’s alright to use ‚good morning‘ around noon on a Saturday) I’m sitting here with a cup of pear tea and want to give you a brief summary on what books I’ve ordered recently and those who ended up on my to-read list.
Reading is one of my most important hobbies and has accompanied me since I was little. From time to time the passion about books is even stronger, especially when I get inspiried by people like Rena or Miss Bookiverse (I only discovered via this post). So two days ago I ordered several books at once and put some more on my to-read list.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K.Rowling
It’s time for the next Harry Potter movie in theaters soon. I thought that’s a good opportunity to go on with my current Harry Potter re-read-round and so far I’ve only read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in German. With this my English HP-book-set is complete, though the editions differ.
I remember reading book no. 6 only days before no. 7 was published and (in combination with the Deathly Hallows) it left me breath- and speechless. The whole Harry Potter universe with it’s human and loveable characters, all the tiny bits and pieces that slowly seem to fall in place and the final twist I hadn’t expected made this book a great reading experience. I wonder how it’ll feel to read it once again, now that I already know how the story ends.
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
Goodreads summary:
High in his attic bedroom, twelve-year-old David mourns the death of his mother, with only the books on his shelf for company. But those books have begun to whisper to him in the darkness. Angry and alone, he takes refuge in his imagination and soon finds that reality and fantasy have begun to meld. While his family falls apart around him, David is violently propelled into a world that is a strange reflection of his own — populated by heroes and monsters and ruled by a faded king who keeps his secrets in a mysterious book, The Book of Lost Things.
A Great and Terrible Beauty (Gemma Doyle #1) by Libba Bray
I had already stumbled upon this book somewhere, mabye at Hugendubel. The cover cought my eye and Miss Bookiverse featured it as one of her favourite books; that’s why it came back to my mind and should arrive with The Book of Lost Things within the next couple of days.
Goodreads summary:
A Victorian boarding school story, a Gothic mansion mystery, a gossipy romp about a clique of girlfriends, and a dark other-worldly fantasy–jumble them all together and you have this complicated and unusual first novel.
Sixteen-year-old Gemma has had an unconventional upbringing in India, until the day she foresees her mother’s death in a black, swirling vision that turns out to be true. Sent back to England, she is enrolled at Spence, a girls‘ academy with a mysterious burned-out East Wing. There Gemma is snubbed by powerful Felicity, beautiful Pippa, and even her own dumpy roommate Ann, until she blackmails herself and Ann into the treacherous clique. Gemma is distressed to find that she has been followed from India by Kartik, a beautiful young man who warns her to fight off the visions. Nevertheless, they continue, and one night she is led by a child-spirit to find a diary that reveals the secrets of a mystical Order. The clique soon finds a way to accompany Gemma to the other-world realms of her visions „for a bit of fun“ and to taste the power they will never have as Victorian wives, but they discover that the delights of the realms are overwhelmed by a menace they cannot control. Gemma is left with the knowledge that her role as the link between worlds leaves her with a mission to seek out the „others“ and rebuild the Order. A Great and Terrible Beauty is an impressive first book in what should prove to be a fascinating trilogy.
Wildthorn by Jane Eagland
A future to buy, yes, because of the cover. Covers are a very important part of my decision-making-process wether to buy a book or not. Additionally you can find a good review over here.
Goodreads summary:
Seventeen-year-old Louisa Cosgrove longs to break free from her respectable life as a Victorian doctor’s daughter. But her dreams become a nightmare when Louisa is sent to Wildthorn Hall: labeled a lunatic, deprived of her liberty and even her real name. As she unravels the betrayals that led to her incarceration, she realizes there are many kinds of prison. She must be honest with herself – and others – in order to be set free. And love may be the key…
Shiver (The Wolves of Mercy Falls #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
Oh my God, oh my God, I’m so excited about Shiver / Nach dem Sommer, only that I don’t know which edition to buy. Take a look at them. Of course the English paperbacks are, well, in English 
and cheaper. But the German cover is gorgeous. Which one would you buy?
Goodreads summary:
the cold.
Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn’t know why.the heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace…until now.the shiver.
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it’s spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.
I spent a lot of my free time in 100 Yen shops but from time to time A. and I went for some quality shopping. It’s a pity we only discovered shop ilex (follow the street behind Feel News south [right for all the girls out there 
] and you’ll find it on the left side after approx. 10 minutes by bike) in April when it was almost time to go back. Shop ilex was stuffed with zakka. The sortiment ranged from bento boxes to natural style clothes. Simply looking at the pictures gives me a funny sensation in my stomach that is a wild mixture of happiness and „I wanna go back“.
bento boxes
more bento boxes
and even more bento boxes
bunny umbrella ♥
calendar with clever German saying
„Ich schnitt Rasen“
Shop ilex does have a website: 
shop
Unfortunately it’s only in Japanese and you can only find a small selection outside their clothes range. It’s a pity because in my eyes the shop’s strongest point was the stationary department. Japan loves masking tapes with all kinds of colors and patterns. Here are some examples:
I especially adore the one with the weekdays on it. Would be a great addition to any diary, calendar or schedule.
If you are in love as much as I am you wanna buy them…now So here’s another online shop called UGUiSU (found via decor8). The entire website is in English and they offer shipping worldwide. Have fun shopping!
Three weeks ago I decided to look for a new student job. I have to admit I’m always lucky when it comes to stuff like this. I aplied for the job, was invited for an interview and chosen as the new staff member for the online team within only four days.
The office where I work serves as a kind of umbrella company for several publishers and deals with all service tasks that come up, e.g. marketing and website maintenance. The latter’s where I come into play. 
I was always curious how it is to work for a publishing house, so here I am, one step closer to what I want to work after university.
Alles Liebe,
Well, actually this post is more about a space to learn, but because I picked up my copy of Elizabeth Gilbert’s „eat, pray, love“ today it was too tempting to make up a titel with a hint to the book.
Tonight I’m here to show you my work space for a minute. This afternoon I removed everything from my desk and the shelf above and started to clean, sort through everything and throw a whole bunch of things away. It’ll be the start of the new semester soon and I wanted to free my writing desk from all the clutter that had piled up over the last weeks. I need a place where I feel good, where it’s easy to concentrate and fun to learn. Maybe it’s the most personal place in my apartment and I wanted it to be perfect. 
Time managment isn’t my strong point. That’s why I bought a Moleskine Daily Planner (via ebay, because the clerk in the book store looked shocked when I asked for a 2010 calendar in September >< ) I’m prepared for fall with some adorable stickers and have started to integrate all the stuff I had bought in Japan, hence for example the basket and the cute fairy tale index markers.
But it’s the little details that make everything so adorable and fresh, like the pinky street figure Kotori had given to me as a birthday present 
ã‹ã‚ã„ã„ã§ã—ょã†ï¼Ÿ
I’m in a very good mood today. Tomorrow’s my first day in the online department of a publishing company (GeraNova Bruckmann) and I’m really looking forward to my new job
Have a good night everyone!
If I keep going with that pace six or seven „weekly“ retrospects will be enough to cover all of 2010 XP
In my universe I’m the sun
In Japan I started to love Sundays. It was my day of the week with tea, ham & eggs, some letter writing and crocheting. Now that I’m back home and don’t lead a single life anymore (♥) things have changed a bit of course ^^ Now my shiny Sunday’s start with sleeping in and a good breakfast in bed (no moaning about crumbs in the bed, please ;P). Actually I wonder if there’s anything better than to start your day with a yummy breakfast in bed.
And yes, we do this every week. It has already turned into a kind of habit, I guess. There…look, in the right corner of the next picture, it’s the ripple blanket I’m working on. But more about it in another post. (Ch. just saw the „we“ and had to smile, because he’s got a place in my little, magical world now: on- and offline ^^)
My quite and relaxing weekend with good food, crochet and my Xbox was important contrastive program after an eventful week with A.’s visit, meetings with some of my friends, a birthday and work – all of this in combination with a slight cold. You can see it’s getting stressful again, so I have to find ways to compensate.
Studies
I’m at a point with my Japanese studies where I don’t spend hours over grammar and Kanji books but can enjoy what I like most about mastering a foreign language – read novels in the original tongue. Well, actually the book I’ve started to read is a non-fiction book called 「自分ã€ã‚’変ãˆã‚‹100ã®è³ªå• which means 100 questions that will change „your self“ (buy at amazon.jp). I look up every word I don’t know and create vocabulary lists. It’s a nice way to study and memorize new words. The plan is to read one chapter = one of the 100 questions every day.
Entertain me
Finally I bought an Xbox 360, the new slim model and I simply love it ♥ It’s connected to my old TV so far which means I can only play games that support 50Hz ( I’m so lucky I can play Final Fantasy XIII) but even with an old television it’s pure eye candy. If anyone wants to add me as a friend on Xbox live: my username is as usual schildmaid.
This weeks Oricon single charts are even better than usual. I listen to SMAP’s No. 1 hit This Is Love over and over again and can’t get enough of the catchy tune that reminds me of Michael Jackson’s Black Or White. Besides that you can find Plan B – Prayin‘, Fettes Brot – Jein and Tocotronic – Im Zweifel für den Zweifel on my playlist.
This week’s Top 10 in Japan
Those songs marked with a heart got a five stars rating on my ipod, so this weeks charts are worth it ^^
Alles Liebe,
