by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 12, 2009 | Life
Update: Additional details on my problem with Dominos Pizza can now be found here.
Seeing as I’ve been really busy this week with the last of moving and cleaning the old apartment I thought that I’d share an interesting experience with you all. Normally on this blog I talk about stuff that I love but today I want to talk about something that I hate: bad customer service.
People on my Twitter has already heard this story but for the rest of you… last Saturday we had spent the entire day cleaning and packing boxes. James and I were pretty tired and my school friend Milissa was staying with us so we all decided to get Pizza. The decision was to get Dominos and I decided to try out their new Puff Pastry Pasta Bowls.
Sounds delicious right? That’s what I thought too until I got 3 bites in and discovered this in the box…
A squished COCKROACH!!
Up until this point I hadn’t really been paying attention to my meal but on closer inspection the fork that came with the meal had already been used AND had a hair on it. EWWEWWEWWEWW!SO DISGUSTING! I was so horrified with all of this that James had to call Dominos for me *_* The manager didn’t even apologize! WTF?! He just said “You can either get sent another one sometime tonight or get a free pizza next time”. What am I expected to eat this one and get a free pizza next time? How ridiculous! |
So 40 minutes later the new one shows up and the delivery guy shoves it through the door and walks off. By the time he got there I was feeling like throwing up more than eating another pasta bowl *_*
Bad customer service makes me so mad and they are really only shooting themselves in the foot. Had they been apologetic about it and offered free garlic bread or refunded my money I wouldn’t be nearly as angry as I am! In fact I probably wouldn’t have made this post or reported them to the health department (anyone know where I can do this in Aus?). Sincere apologies count for a surprising amount.
The lesson: if you own a company bad customer service will always come back to bite you. Guess where I won’t be ordering from again? Oh yes, Dominos Pizza.
by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 9, 2009 | Craft, Hair, Hime Gyaru, Nails, Outfit Of The Day
Well as promised here is my outfit for the Nuffnang awards in all of it’s minute details!
I put so much time and effort into this outfit that I think it deserves it’s own post if only for my records heeheee!
The dress:
I was so torn on what dress design to go with. I wanted something Hime Gyaru obviously but I wanted it to also feel like I was wearing a million dollars rather than something I’d made. Originally I wanted to buy a dress but I couldn’t find anything I liked so I improvised.
This is how it all started out:
I cut one of my basic patterns out of a stretch cream satin for lining.
Then I added the pink flower silk chiffon over the top in the pattern I wanted. I had no end of trouble with the chiffon, I wanted to throw it out the window so many times!
I feel the need to tell you all that I hand pleated the ribbon for the straps (and back up shoes). That’s right hand pleated. No where that could ship fast enough/was within driving distance sold pre-pleated ribbon! WTF?? I really wanted it though so I stubbornly decided to do it myself.
This is the neckline of the dress (yes blacked out the cleavage for protection of your eyes :P) The flowers are all hand sewn on and made of paper, in the middle is a giant heart shaped pink jewel which I just LOVE. The bust has a slight sweetheart line with a row of gathering to make it interesting.
There is also a 3 layer tiered petticoat which I made for this dress specifically. It’s out of cute dot tulle similar to my wrap. I wanted it to have a slight bell shape but nothing as extreme as Lolita so I kept it to 3 soft layers.
The whole outfit
I think this is one of the only photos of me without the wrap. I don’t normally show my shoulders or cleavage so I was a touch uncomfortable without it ^_^ James is taking a photo of my nails.
I made my wrap from some lovely dot tulle (different from the petticoat) which was edged with white pom pom fringing. The pom pom fringing was a super large pain to get as well! I swear that all the fabric shops in Brisbane keep a list of things that I desperately want and all collude with each other to not stock them…
The bag
This is how my bag started out. I got it on sale at Charlie Brown for around $20
I hated the ugly gold chain on the straps so I removed that and added a rose to make it match the rest of the outfit. It’s made of the softest faux leather I think I’ve ever touched.
The alternate shoes:
I found 2 pairs of shoes on sale at Wittner. This first pair was my back up pair, it took me forever to decide whether to wear these ones or the others because these were more comfortable but they didn’t go with the dress well while the others were stunning but were half a size too small *_* |
Anyway these were $40 marked down from around $170. Before decoration…
After decoration… Notice the pleated ribbon again 😉
Detail shot: Yep I’m so detailed obsessed that I glued diamantes to the buckles ^_^
The real shoes
Now this is how the shoes I actually wore started out… On sale for $30 originally like $150ish.
After the Violet treatment…
They are so pretty but holy bajeebus are they painful! Seriously I think I hobbled around for half the night but it was totally worth it XD
Detail shot:
Interestingly enough these shoes tested by deco abilities. I couldn’t use plain old epoxy glue because it was too brittle, every time I put on the shoes a bunch of jewels cracked off. So I came up with the solution of glueing with epoxy first and then doing 3 top coats of plain old craft tacky glue. This gave it the flexibility to move with my feet 😀 Totally interesting right?
The nails
I didn’t get too many detail shots of my nails because I completely forgot about them ^_^ The are a pink base with a touch of glitter, white lace with ceramic flowers in pink and white on the very tips. The white lace even has little roses on it!
Funny story- I ran out of nail glue so I had to rush and get some for the flowers. They didn’t have my usual brand so I just grabbed one marked “Professional”. Turns out what they meant by “proffessional” was actually “rubbish and doesn’t stick to anything”. This lead to all kind of shenanigans with little roses flying off and having to dig around under heavy cabinets to get them back before the night. Lesson: Once you find a good nail glue stick with it!
Thought I’d show you my other nails for the trip while I’m here 🙂 These are blue and blue glitter stripes with silver tips and blue/silver diamantes.
Some of the small diamantes are heart shaped.
The jewelery
My choker, brooch and one of my bracelets were all custom made by the beautiful Celeste from Little Waltz. I commissioned Celestewith a jumble of ideas even before I had a dress and she made the most beautiful pieces for me!
This was the package that arrived from Little Waltz. Everything was packed super well.
The choker is pink pearls with a silver crown backing and a large flower over the top. There is a little chain with more pearls hanging down. The brooch has Swarofsky crystals dangling down in a vintage metal base and a beautiful pink cameo. She also included 2 absolutely beautiful bracelets with diamantes and little bells which jingle whenever I move. When I wear them I feel like a fairy!
I would absolutely recommend Little Waltzfor anyone needing custom or off the shelf jewelery, the designs are wonderful and the craftsmanship is just beautiful. Celeste handled all my panicky emails wonderfully and couldn’t have been easier to work with! The craftsmanship on the jewelery is immaculate and the prices were really reasonable, I’d give it all a 10/10!
The face
I decided to keep my make up fairly simple for the night with some false lashes and a hint of pink eye shadow. Lip gloss was of course a must too! 1000 Hoursent me some lashes to test out so I decided it was the perfect night to take one of the sets for a test run.
This was the set I was wearing, “Wild Damsel” you can buy them at Priceline for RRP $8.95. I used a different glue because of my allergy.
Of course here are some shots of them in action…
I found the application of these to be very easy, they held their shape quite well so it wasn’t a pain to reuse them next time. They were very easy to clean with warm water and with the help of my heated curler they were the perfect shape. I think if you wanted them more or less curled it would be quite easy to achieve. 1000 Hour sent me a couple of other products so I’ll be reviewing them soon for you all too!
Shot to see the length…
Well that’s a wrap everyone! I’ll be back to blogging as normal now that most of the move is out of the way 😀
Hope to see you all at the next Nuffnang Awards next year!
by VioletLeBeaux | Nov 6, 2009 | Hair, Life
So this is a regular old ACEO Friday post but I also have to let you all know that I’ll be without internet for a few days while we move in with James’ parents so I won’t be able to reply to comments until I get my internet connection back.
Everything is a mad house here at the moment! I’m knee deep in boxes and packing tape at the moment which is fun. I’ve got around half of the house done but the rest looks like a bomb has hit it ^_^There is row upon row of bejeweled bits and pieces in piles of “Keep” and “Throw out”. I went through all my hair and make up bits and pieces yesterday… here is a snap shot of the carnage!
So when I see you all next week I’ll be living with James’ parents ^_^ Have a great weekend!
As always click the image to be taken to the ACEO etsy store.