hiatus on yukulicious ♡

I've been offline here for so long that I don't even remember how to start a decent blogpost...

It's been in fact almost 3 months since I last set foot on my own blog and while I did think about it from time to time, there are just so many other things on my mind right now.

I was thinking about restructuring my content and giving this blog a new face for almost 6 months now but I just can't find the time to make up my mind and think everything through right now - let alone get my hands on any HTML/CSS related stuff.

Beside the time I spend on my part-time job, I need to concentrate on my research for my B.A. thesis right now and will take two other classes for my graduate-programm this summer, too.

Moreover there are a lot of other creative projects in my head right now (I've been rather active with my fanfiction writing, for example) and I want to take the time to work on these because the immense joy I find in writing has resurfaced after years of writer's block.

source ♡

I don't want to give up blogging for good, but right now there is just too much other stuff to take care of, so I feel like there is no way around me taking a longer break from blogging.

It's a hobby after all and while I like to be dedicated and invested in keeping everything up with a schedule I don't want to make it feel like a chore.

It just feels wrong to force myself to create content I know I'm not content with right now.

I don't want any of my followers to feel sad because after all, I'm still around. But I hope that this will shed some light and will make it easier for everyone to understand why yukulicious has been lacking updates these past weeks and probably will for another couple of months.

I'm pretty active on my tumblr and twitter, though so feel free to join in on my shenanigans there!

- yuku ♡

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.12

The last weeks have passed like a blur and after realizing that I haven't done anything for New Year, let alone a year or at least December in a nutshell, the two first days of the new year are already over. 

For the sake of completeness, I'm here to send in the last (horribly belated) month in a nutshell for 2016 today, which only consists of a handful of highlights that I captured last month.

   

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.11

As you can guess by the lack of updates and the fact that even this résumé is a couple of days too late, November turned out to be crazy busy - all the more reason to share some impressions of how it was like; November in a nutshell.

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.10

It feels kind of weird that it is already time for another month in a nutshell again. 

After life has been kind of slow the last weeks of September it sped up rapidly in October and there is so much that changed or is in change right now, I can't even grasp it completely yet - standing in the middle of it all.

It's actually so much going on right now, that I struggle to write coherent sentences right now - there is still so much whirling around in my head.

I hope that sitting down and writing about October and remembering some of the things I did the past couple of weeks will slow me down a bit. Maybe this will make the spinning stop (it's a great excuse to not do my homework, too - even though I will most probably regret it tomorrow).

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.09

Though it may seem like it, I haven't abandoned my blog completely yet.

Admittedly, I have spent the last couple of weeks in some sort of creative low tide and can't say I have recovered from it when it comes to my blog. 

However, I want to keep these résumés as an active part on my blog to show that I'm still alive, until I have made up my mind about yukulicious' future.

This weekend is followed by a holiday that has a lot of historical meaning for my country, but I'm busy with a lot of things and won't rest during the long weekend.

September has passed like it lasted only a couple of seconds, though looking through my photos for today's update makes me recall quite a couple of activities I was occupied with the last couple of weeks.

Click read more and check out my September in a nutshell!

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.08

Checking the amount of photos I uploaded to twitter this month contrasts highly with my general impression of not doing anything this past month, but actually this shows that I was up to something this summer after all and have a more or less legit excuse for the lack of updates here.

I'm not sure how much damage this did, since I didn't receive a single comment or any form of reaction from anyone the last two updates but I still promised myself to finally get back into blogging and update more regularily again.

I desperately need some structure in my life again, so I can't wait to overcome my weaker self and start going to the library more often again and start to work on my research and the internship report that's still due, starting next week.

   

Anyway, let's have a look at what August looked like for me - trying to pick the highlights out of more than 40 pictures between landscapes, food and lots of PokéGo. If you are curious and want to see all of them, feel free to check out my twitter (@ yukuchan) and follow me there!

Catching 'em all ♡ Pokémon Go Adventures

Just as promised in my last month in a nutshell a few days ago, I will share some impressions of my adventures with Pokémon Go.

source ♡

I'm far from being an expert in this game and compared to a lot of my friends I'm not as absorbed in it
(my brother is around LV 22 or something while I'm at LV 10). 

I guess I never was the person to play a lot of games on their phone - beside GPS eats up my phone's battery like it's nothing and seeing that I live about 2km from the next PokéStop or gym doesn't make it more appealing or easier for me to play. 

I literally have to drive into the next city to be able to enjoy the game and catch more than Pidgey, Rattata, Weedle and the occasional Venonat.

I generally feel like the game is best enjoyed with a companion anyway, which brings us to today's topic: I had an amazing time when I met up with my best friend s.a.m two weeks ago to sound the bell for our summer break and catch some Pokémon together.

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.07

It's almost August, so it's time to gather all the impressions and small adventures I undertook in July and bring it all together in this posting.
If you follow me on twitter (it's @ yukuchan), you already saw all of that but since I am not limited to 140 characters here, you might get a little deeper insight anyway.

   

경주 ♡ temple run

It's been literally months since I uploaded the first part of my day in Gyeongju and seeing that today, a year prior, I was already in Korea makes it even more obvious that it is about damn time to continue this series.

Today I want to talk about our adventureous trip to Hwangnyongsa and Bunhwangsa, as well as our night trip to Cheomseongdae and other sites around Gyeongju. This post will be really picture heavy, but as always, I will try to include some information about the sites I visited, as well.
And since I can't recall the last time when I visited so many historical sites on one day, I came up with that rather corny headline - I hope you don't mind...

After visiting Cheonmachong in Tumuli Park (you can read up on that here) we took a cab to Hwangnyongsa. Unfortunately I expected what I had seen on photos - like that one - before and couldn't find the pagoda - naturally since it's not there anymore.

my favorite things in AnimalCrossing ♡ 20

It's hard to believe that I started this series several months ago already and that it is finally coming to an end. I still haven't released my dream town but I am close to finishing the landscaping and only need to finish my character's houses then, so I guess this challenge went along with a lot of change in my actual game, too.

As announced in part 19, I will talk about parts of the game today, that are so closely connected to the game itself that they become invisible sometimes and we forget them easily because they are just there all the time (at least some of them seem kind of meta - if you know what I mean).

So this part will include the last couple of favorites; Q67 ~ 70.

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.06

I can't believe it's already time for a month in a nutshell again... life has been so busy this month.

I can't wait for my summer vacation, that will start in a couple of weeks - though there will probably be a lot to take care of the next couple of months, too.

Let's start with a small résumé of June.

spring reminiscence ♡

After it's been 2 months and 4 days since I posted the follow-up of catching spring, cherry blossom capture, I thought it was about damn time to finally post the great finale of the impressions and flowerage I deeply breathed in and captured on camera last spring.

The photos will include shots from around the Chinese and the Korean Garden in the Gardens of the World park that we visited, with lots of cherry and magnolia blossoms.

my favorite things in AnimalCrossing ♡ 19

Here I am again, with the next to last update of this series. I'm almost done talking about one of my favorite games, Animal Crossing: New Leaf and my favorite things in it (though I could probably talk so much more about all the things that make this game so irresistable and exciting).
After I've gone through all the different villager specimen and kinds, one might get the impression the game is only about your neighbours.... and while that might be true in some contexts, there is a lot more to the game in the end and a lot of unanimated objects and things you can have a lot of fun with.
In this part of the Animal Crossing Challenge, I will talk about Q 63 ~ 66 (you can check out the full overview here).

Garnier Micellar Cleaning Water ♡ skincare review

It's been quite some time since I last did a review and since the products I want to review are literally piling up, I thought it was about time to hit you with one of my frequently used products today.

Though I really like Korean makeup and skincare products I can't afford to buy all my necessities online and being dependent of things that take more than a month to get here makes me kind of nervous.

This and the fact that I am annoyingly thrifty are reasons why there are a couple of products I am not ashamed of purchasing in local drug stores.

I'm sure there must be differences quality-wise but most of the products I've tried aren't half as bad.

Beside, most of the products available in drug stores these days are from some kind of brand, anyway.

Today's product is what I use to remove my makeup. 

It's the Garnier Skin Active Micellar Cleaning Water for dry and sensitive skin.

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.05

It's been so long since I was able to do an update. I'm sorry and it is frustrating me, too but these months have been crazy!

One of my university classes ends sooner this semester, which ultimatively means I'll have 4 more hours a week after next week, when the last lecture is.

I'm actually kind of sad that it ends because it's been one of the classes in my university career so far that I feel really had a positive impact on me and even if I had knowledge and were aware of most of the things we've discussed and learned, deepened my understanding for the matter.

So if you have the chance to take a class or be part of a project about Gender and Diversity, I warmly recommend it (I can't promise that your teacher & the whole program will be as great as the experience I made, though).

On the other hand, I look forward to it since I've been pretty much juggling with language classes, lectures and working hours of my internship all week since April and having one class less to worry about sounds like a dream.

University work piles up like crazy these weeks and I am actually two essays behind in Japanese class, that I still need to hand in asap...

Enough explanations and apologies, today I will finally give a small résumé of May and what this month was all about, in this (slightly delayed) May in a nutshell.

my favorite things in AnimalCrossing ♡ 18

Once again, I'm sharing with you some of the many things I love about one of my favorite games, ever - Animal Crossing: New Leaf.

You can find a full overview of the questions here. 

We are close to the finish line and after today, all my favorite villagers will be introduced.

After having splashing, small and fluffy, wildlife and exotic editions, today I'll talk about Q 60 ~ 62, the snappy edition.

As always I borrowed the small pixel sprites from A forest life, the original creator can be found here.

경주 ♡ dipping into Korean history

After I put up my Korean notebook haul and the special post about my visit to the SM popup store in Myeongdong, it's finally time to continue on and talk about my day in Gyeongju.

I actually just recently realized why I like to do my travelogs that detailed and late... they help me revive the memories and in some cases help to sooth my wanderlust. Sometimes it makes it worse but usually it freshens up my daily life that tends to be really hectic and uneventful (at least most of it isn't really blog-worthy).

my favorite things in AnimalCrossing ♡ 17

We've come a long way. After today, threre will only be three last updates about my favorite things in one of my favorite games: Animal Crossing: New Leaf (for the question overview click here).
I feel kind of accomplished, though it seems like not many of my readers actively followed this series.
I'm not sure if or which kind of series or challenge I could start after I'm done with this one and I'm not even sure if I am in the mood for yet another madness like that... but we'll see about that. If you have any ideas, feel free to let me know in a comment below.

This and the next part will introduce the last missing villager specimen to you and of course I will show pictures of my favorites, borrowed from the A forest Life - blog, the original creator's blog is here. Today's category includes question 57 ~ 59 and is the exotic edition.

a month in a nutshell ♡ 2016.04

After I skipped Wednesday's update because I had a deadline to deal with, it's time to welcome the new month and talk a bit about all the things I've done in Apirl - though you will have a small piece of April swooped over into May anyway, because I still haven't uploaded the last part of my spring blossom hunt.

 With the first of April came the first blossoms and just like last year the purple-leaf plum in my front-yard transformed into my favorite photo motive for the following three weeks.

cherry blossom capture ♡

After I've posted the first couple of impressions of my cherry blossom capture in my catching spring - post, I decided to share some more photos and impressions of the bloomage we had the chance to marvel at when we visited the Gardens of the World park two weeks ago.

I will only include the photos I took in the Japanese garden though. I went a little crazy and still have another 15 photos shortlisted but I don't know if I should include them in another posting, too.

Just because I can look at them without getting bored anytime soon, this doesn't have to apply to anyone else...