Lolita 30 ~ Day 12 ~ Before Lolita

Day 12 – A picture of yourself before lolita came in to your life.

Ergh I went through a 'wearing lots of bright, clashing colours' phase before discovering Japanese fashion in general (rebelling against the goth I was for years beforehand). Then I became better dressed, I swear.



lol bad posture is bad (trying very hard to correct it haha)

Lolita 30 ~ Day 11 ~ Lolita Day

Day 11 – One day in your lolita life in pictures.

Eh...I don't see how I can do this in pictures. Not least because I can't have a lolita life until I move out again.

But most of my lolita days are exactly the same as ordinary days, just with different clothes. Apart from meets, but that's just meeting up with frilly friends and having picnics, going to tearooms and sightseeing, which are all things I'd be doing with regular friends, no?

Well, I suppose I take much longer getting ready on lolita days. I always wear make-up and try to accessorise a little when wearing lolita, when I don't always other days. And all the layers take ages to put on. And I'll get slightly more dirty looks and mean comments from strangers when out, but even when I wear ordinary clothes I get these things a little too (I really don't understand why =/).

Ha sorry this post has been boring. I just don't see the point in the question and I'd have to delay the entry by a month if I was going to do it properly, and I've already fallen behind!

Lolita 30 ~ Day 10 ~ Lolita Bag

Back on the challenge now! I'd been being a little lazy and couldn't muster the energy to take a picture of the contents of my bag, especially since my usual lolita bag is my black Angelic Pretty one which isn't at my house right now. So instead, here's my Metamorphose tote bag that I use for university (though when at uni it has additional pencil case (with pens and highlighters) and notes).

Boo bigger pictures look odd with this blog layout. I suppose I should stop being lazy and make my own layout soon.

Below my Lolita 30 post here is some info about my new laptop! Yippee.


Day 10 – What’s in your bag?


1. Book or manga, in case I have to wait around somewhere when out. Just finished reading the Yu-Gi-Oh R series that I borrowed from my other half.

2. Pen, as it's useful to have one. Plus this one doubles as an intelligence test (I'm yet to find anyone who has worked out to turn it on yet haha), although owning it makes me a weeaboo. Apparently.

3. 4head, as I get headaches regularly. I usually have some ibuprofen knocking around too if I get fed up of trying to ignore my headache.

4. My iPhone <3 For long trips I usually bring along my iPod Touch or Nano so I can listen to music without draining my phone battery.

5. Headphones, for the musics yo.

6. Pokéwalker! When in lolita I rarely have safe pockets for it, so in the bag it goes.

7. FOOD. Usually Skittles of a bag of crisps, but I still have Easter chocolate left right now too.

8. Glasses cloth, so I can see! My glasses get so dirty.

9. Purse. Currently favouring this heart shape one as the colour matches my tote. Also my old favourite (a flamingo print one) recently broke and I have been too lazy to fix it yet.

10. Card case containing my library card, bus pass, debit card, NUS card, nectar card, provisional driving license and notes. I love the cats on it, and the colours, which is why I bought this small case instead of a plain one with more slots.

11. Pepsi Max. Or other drink. This is the empty can from my last outing (I always bring them home for recycling).

12. Keys. These are a little boring as I lost my old set!! So no more unicorn key case, pikachu strap or pink memory stick. Have yet to replace my memory stick and no keys for new term time accommodation yet either.

13. DS Lite. For playing Pokémon (and occasionally Yu-Gi-Oh).

14. A magazine. To be perfectly honest, I rarely even flick through them when I take them out as I have so much other (more fun) stuff in my bag. Really it's just there to keep my tote tote-shaped xP Currently loving Kera as I keep getting free copies when I use my shopping service, but I also love GLB, Egg, Popteen and Popsister (I read Glamour too, but that doesn't work as a tote-shaper).


Also, I'd like to share with you my new laptop! You may remember that my old pink Dell Studio died recently as the charger overheated one too many times and proved difficult to replace. My dad kept nagging me to just get a new laptop as the old one was sluggish and had a penchant for overheating and freezing, although obviously this doesn't affect him as it's my laptop and I'm the only one that uses it. I caved in eventually, and took forever in the store to decide on a new one. I wanted pink again, or at least pretty, but the majority of laptops fitting that specification are rubbish, bottom- to middle- range models. Since I wasn't allowed a MacBook (even though dad had said I should get one as Macs are better...but I can see why he changed him mind. So expensive D=) I ended up picking the girliest top-of-the-range laptop I could find (and dad insisted I get the higher-spec model despite additional £100+ cost. But oh well, I wasn't paying so I don't mind!).


Kinda girly, don't you think? It was difficult finding a dainty one as most of the high-spec ones were manly-looking things that were probably too heavy for me to lift! I'm not keen on the keyboard on this one as it has additional number pad which my old laptop didn't have which I find pointless, but I'll soon get used to it. It'll take longer getting used to the lack of backlit keyboard, finger-print scanner, touch keys, top and side bars that my old laptop had though. This one doesn't even have Blu-ray player *le cry* (although I could never get it to work on my old one haha). But hey, IT WORKS and that's the important thing. Will start transferring my files tomorrow if I can figure out how to unzip them all!

Trying to find a cute bag for it, but the one I wanted (Stitch, to match my DS) only comes in 10in and 13in. Anyone know where I can find a cute, colourful, printed laptop case for a 15in laptop?

A Lolita Day Out

Soooo last Saturday I met up with my friend Sophie for a frilly day! I'd feared it would rain but it ended up being cloudy and VERY WARM.

We went to Tintern Abbey and had yummy food and took some derpy pictures =P (Just click on them to enlarge).


I decided to wear my Baby, The Stars Shine Bright Circus Tutu since I figured I'd match Sophie a little that way. And for once, wearing no Angelic Pretty! Blouse, headbow and parka are BTSSB; tote and parasol are Metamorphose; blouse is Bodyline; all else offbrand.




Don't you think she suits Alice And The Pirates perfectly?

Afterwards we decided to be totally clichéd and watched Kamikaze Girls! I still love that movie so much, but going to try to avoid watching it for a few months now haha.

Bumped into Annie in the train station on the way back, such an odd coincidence!

Looking forward to future lolita days =D

Biffy-ham

New hamster. We named him Biffy (my suggestion).

So yes. We now have a hamster with the same name as my Samurott haha.

Momo-ham

My dearest Momo passed away in my arms last night. As such I am taking a short break from the Lolita 30 Day Challenge and instead posting in his memory.


He was an adorable little ham, and he missed me when I was away at uni! I'm rarely missed so that meant a lot to me.


I can't really say much more as people don't really understand my love for my hamsters and I don't want to get upset again!

We just got a new ham, I'll post about him tomorrow when we have photos and he's settled in.

Lolita 30 ~ Day 9 ~ Lolita Nevers

Such a stilly question. I wouldn't do things I wouldn't do anyway, or things that are messy. Nothing really specific.


Day 9 – 10 things you will never do in lolita.

1. Go to a proper gig. Like, I'll wear it when I see Kanon Wakeshima as that's at a con and it won't be like a gig, but obviously I wouldn't want to be somewhere sweaty in lolita and mosh pits are a definite no-no (I try to avoid them anyway as I usually get elbowed in the face and my hair pulled out).

2. Take out the rubbish. Especially true for the food recycling...usually ends up leaking. Gross.

3. Go paintballing. I'd never do that anyway, but definitely not in expensive clothes that would make me a rather larger target than usual haha.

4. Sunbathe. Too many layers and sun cream stains!

5. Go on a ferry or other fast-moving boat. I'd blow away for sure.

6. Go on an aeroplane. Trains and buses are bad enough, but cramming myself into an airline seat would be impossible!

7. Painting, pastels, chalk. Anything of that nature. I'd covered many a clothing item in acrylics...

8. Flirt. I don't do it anyway (don't know how) but if I was trying to impress someone I wouldn't be wearing lolita. Not at first anyway!

9. Rigorous excercise - too sweaty and movement a little restricted.

10. Revise. Have to be all cosy and snugged up or I'd just sit uncomfortably and never get anything done.

Lolita 30 ~ Day 8 ~ Lolita Songs

What?! How can songs inspire me in lolita? I don't understand this...so I'll just do the best I can haha. Will probably be mostly Kanon Wakeshima as I don't listen to much other loltia-esque stuff.


Day 8 – 10 songs that inspire you for lolita.
1.

Moon Kana's 'Lolita' - haha well the name ¬_¬ Kana was the first Japanese artist I found and I love her edgy style and matching edgy vocals.

2.

Moon Kana's 'Moon Wings ~ Tsubasa no Hikari' - it just has a magical ethereal quality which I feel reflects some branches of lolita fashion.

3.

Kanon Wakeshima's 'Still Doll' - come on, she's singing to Alice =P This was the first song of hers I heard. I feel so loli when listening to her (and I get to see her live next month!!).

4.

Kanon Wakeshima's 'Lolitawork Libretto (Storytelling By Solita)' - just so enchanting.

5.

Frank Turner's 'Photosynthesis' - just listen to the lyrics, the song speaks for itself.

6.

Muse's 'Starlight' - I just love Muse so much. This song has a dream-like quality to it which is why I chose it for this list (I prefer their louder stuff =P).

7.

Goldfrapp's 'Ride A White Horse' - Creepy and surreal, but her vocals just scream lolita.

8.

Lady Gaga's 'Hair' - I just love this song! And the 'being yourself' bits are very inspiring. The 'trying to be cool to fit in' bits make me want to claw out her eyes, but if you ignore those bits...

9.
Link to FaceBook as no video.
Fabric's 'Smiling' - Anna's vocals are amazing and I think everyone in lolita must have experienced people being mean but they continue to smile anyway.

10.

Olivia Lufkin's 'Starless Night' - I love all her stuff that I've heard (mostly from Nana haha) but they're all very lolita-like I think.

Lolita 30 ~ Day 7 ~ Lolita Inspi

Hmm I wouldn't say all of my lolita idols inspire my style, but they do inspire me to continue to wear lolits and to try to be more creative! So the people below may not inspire my style directly, but they are great lolitas. In no particular order and these were just the first 10 people I thought of, and so is by no means an exhaustive list.


Day 7 – 10 people who inspire your lolita style.

1.
Rainbowbak3r - She has been all over my Tumblr dash this week and all of her coords are totally adorable!

2.
TempestPaige - I loved her style since I saw her photos on AsiaJam and my love for her style has only grown!

3.
Lunie-chan - another girl with cute style! That coord may not be lolita but I think it's my favorite coord EVER.

4.
Chokelate - not styles that I wear but she always looks so amazing.

5.
Mintymix - colourful cuteness! I wish I could do cute this good.

6.
Pixielate - she just always looks absolutely perfect in everything she wears!

7.
Cadney-chan - such an ispiration to see a fantastic lolita rocking her glasses!

8.
Xbauldelaire - this coord isnpired me to do my first lolita art!...that I never finished. I'd worry about not doing her justice anyway, she's gorgeous.

9.
Mana-samatemple - always looks perfectly gorgeous.

10.
Vanillablitz - always wearing gorgeous and quirky coords that never fail to inspire.

Edit:// *le scrolling on Tumblr* -OH SHIT I FORGOT FAUNKEGIN! May my head be struck from my shoulders. I love how you can tell it's her from her cut images just because of that incredible petti shape...so she's my sneaky #11:


Edit edit:// OH JEEZ AND CRAZY_KITCH TOO.

You see my problem here. Too many amazing lolitas! Though how I missed 2 of my favourites the first time I don't know...

Lolita 30 ~ Day 6 ~ Lolita Necessities

Moved out of my Bath home yesterday so I missed a day. Bit of an odd one this, I wouldn't say I couldn't live without anything in lolita...but I'll try to come up with 10 things!


Day 6 – 10 things you can’t live without in lolita.

1. Petticoat. It makes lolita lolita, and anyone who says otherwise would be hard pushed to change my mind!

2. Bloomers. I always wear bloomers with lolita and very often wear them with non-lolita dresses and skirts if shorts would show through. Don't want my plump posterior showing to anyone (not by accident, anyway!).

3. Feeling comfortable in my own skin. It's pretty scary some days being out in lolita alone.

4. The people I've met through lolita! They inspire me and I'd feel really alone without them as it's great to know there are people out there with the same interests and tastes as I do.

5. Cute prints. Mentioned them before, but here they are again =P

6. My favourite brands!

7. Kamikaze Girls/Shimotsuma Monogatari. I didn't watch or read it for a while after beginning my lolita journey, but the film and book have become firm favourites and it cheers me up any day.

8. My black Angelic Pretty bag. I use it all the time and it goes with pretty much everything!

9. Long nails. I always have my nails long anyway, but since my glasses hide my make-up and I am totally fail at doing my hair, they are the only bit of my cosmetic appearance that can be made to look lolita.

10. The Internet! It is the gateway to knowledge and friendships and a lot more besides.

Chess Chocolate

A few days ago I saw the new Angelic Pretty print, Chess Chocolate. My first reaction was that it was ghastly, shortly followed by the thought that it looks rather similar to Bodyline's Antique Clock OP:


However, after the initial shock of Angelic Pretty releasing a print which isn't a sugary pastel explosion sunk in, I think the print looks promising from what I can see. Not too keen on the diamond pattern, but I suppose that is supposed to mimic a chessboard (although I would have preferred it to have a real checkerboard black and white look).

I think that if they release a true skirt (unlike that weird not-skirt-not-JSK thing) then I might be interested. I love that duck-eggy teal colour. The designs up already seem oddly shaped though, and I definitely would never buy them as they look unflattering and a little...cheap even. Also the lace looks a bit weird to me, especially the triangular type, but I think that may just be a prejudice due to the Melty Chocolate replicas, which look awful. A tad iffy about the gold for the same reason. Although thinking about it, Starry Night Theater has gold triangle lace and it looks amazing, so it is highly probable that I am worrying over nothing! But one thing that definately bugs me is the lack of brown in the centre of the dresses. That bow could do with being brown, or at least have a brown ribbon section underneath the bow that leads into brown waist ties.

The idea of a chess print is good though, as I have thought before that there should be one considering how many prints with playing cards designs there are. It's great to see what other things Angelic Pretty can do as well, as people often overlook many of their prints and come to the conclusion that all of their prints are diabetes-causingly sweet. And that just is not true.

And so on first look I am undecided and look forward to seeing more about this print! Perhaps by the time this has posted more information will be available and I shall have to edit my post! (Just discovered scheduling which is handy as I have a lot of things to write today it seems).

Edit://Looks like that weird looking thing is a skirt. Damn. HOWEVER! I have just seen on Tumblr that there is a brown colourway, and the JSK is looking mighty promising. Even so I must not buy it (even if I may want to).

What are your opinions on this print?

Lolita 30 ~ Day 5 ~ Lolita Wishlist

Going to focus on dream items that I don't currently own =] In no particular order.

Day 5 – 10 items from your wishlist.

1.
Angelic Pretty's Sugary Carnival! I have the skirt in black and JSK in pink, but I'd love the JSK in black and sax too! Total dream print.

2.
Metamrphose's Swan Lake high-waist skirt in black. This is the print that won me over. If I had never seen it I probably wouldn't have even started wearing lolita and I wouldn't have been as interested in it.

3.
Angelic Pretty's Holy Night Story switching JSK in green. It is pretty hard to get hold of so I had to settle for Offwhite which is still gorgeous, but I love this colour so much.

4.
Innocent World's Antique Book Bag. It wouldn't go with anything I own, but I adore it so.

5.
Vivienne Westwood Rocking Horse Shoes! Not sure which colour...either white or black. Probably black actually as I have white Montreal ones.


6.
Angelic Pretty's Milky Planet in sax (although I love it in yellow too). Because when it came out it was like the new Sugary Carnival haha.


7.
Angelic Pretty's Wonder Party in black. It's sweet, but more mature than most of the stuff I like!


8.
Baby, The Stars Shine Bright's L'Oiseau Bleu in mint. Because the colours are gorgeous.


9.
Alice And The Pirate's Kuro Neko No Dance JSK in bordeaux. I loved it the moment I saw it but can't fnd it anywhere! I love ths colour, I think it'd suit me too. The halter style is darling.


10.
Baby, The Stars Shine Bright's Royal Velveteen Antique JSK in royal green, because it's one of my favourite colours on one of my favourite fabrics and looks so elegant!

Dream of Lolita Review ~ Little Bear's Café

When I saw that UK group order for Taobao was being hosted I couldn't resist making a little order. I had so much difficulty deciding what to buy, you wouldn't believe! In the end I settled on a Little Bear's Café replica (Angelic Pretty) and a Merry-Go-Round replica (Innocent World). However, the second got left off of my order which annoys me a lot as I'd wanted that dress much more and I'm dying to get some red in my closet since people keep telling me I look good in red! I don't know which stage the error was made at so I can't go round blaming people...

The group order was put up at either the end of December or beginning of January. 'But why, if set up so long ago, are you only now posting this review?', I hear you ponder. Well. It only arrived at my house yesterday morning when nobody was in so I had to pick it up this afternoon. I can see why a group order would take a long time - getting people's orders, invoicing, contacting the shopping service who would then order the items from Taobao, items being sent to the service and then to the organiser and then to the buyers. But things somehow got a lot messier than that. People kept changing their orders. This went on for months at a guess, at least one month. Probably it was this confusion that resulted in my dress being dropped. I was very irritated and wanted to cancel my order but I was pretty much told I wasn't allowed to (despite the fact that loads of other incosiderate people did) and I didn't want to push it as I didn't want to delay it further for others.

Time went by.

Dream of Lolita seems to be the source of the next cock-up. They pretty much forgot to do our order, cancelled it and the service had to replace it. This was probably to do with the release of the Sugary Carnival replicas at a guess, but that isn't really any excuse. The order was posted from the shopping service on the 26th of May and arrived around the 2nd of June, avoiding customs by some kind of miracle.

Finally it reached me on the 14th June. Of course, sorting out, packaging and weighing the orders took a lot of time. However my package was posted 2nd class by accident when I'd asked for 1st class. This wasn't too much of an issue as I had to wait for Dream Sky to arrive anyway and my postage was refunded, but I am trying to move out right now. If I didn't live so close to uni I'd have had to move out without it though.

So after all that polava, the items themselves!


At first glance they look well made.


...Oh dear. Fabric is upside down. Wire headband that I will have to replace. Wonky.



However! The fabric itself and the print and colours are lovely. The fabric is a lot thicker than I expected, so I'll have to wait until Winter to wear it.


The JSK is reasonably well constructed. The materials seem quite nice for a replica (the Milky-chan replica I had from K.Star was awful) and it is lined. However when held up it does feel decidedly wonky.


Bad stitching in the shirring, but should be stretched to look normal when worn (and my hair will cover it anyway).


The lace holding the ribbon at the back looks ready to break the second the ribbons are tightened. Not the end of the world, but pretty annoying.


Ribbon not stitched on straight. The other side is stitched along the seam but this one is pretty screwed up.


A few stray black threads in some areas...


...Not least on the headbow. My god, this is the worst sewing I have ever seen. It is really not difficult to sew so that it doesn't show, even I can do it! And black thread on such a light print, WHY?! It won't show, but still. It's the principle!

You may wonder why I am being so harsh on a replica, but it did cost me around £60. I don't remember the true figure as, let's face it, I paid for it A RIDICULOUSLY LONG TIME AGO. If I had realised how much it would cost overall I would not have bought it as I could have bought a really nice brand dress for that price! I even found the real version of this for only £100 but couldn't buy it as I was stuck with my money tied to this rubbish!

That said, it isn't a bad dress. I haven't had a chance to try it on but it looks like it should fit fine and it isn't too long (although I'll need a good petti to keep the weight of it up, especially as it's long enough to hit my knees without one). The problem is me here, I've changed a lot since I ordered it and don't really agree with the idea of replicas anymore as I'd rather buy the real thing wherever possible. However since this was desired but not a dream piece I'm not going to be too hard on myself. If I get lots of wear out of it, then I may buy the real thing. But this is good enough quality to be getting on with, and to be honest when worn it'd probably be impossible to tell the difference between the real and the fake.

I have been very put off of using these kinds of stores again, however. I had been tempted by the Milky Planet replica as I have no chance of getting the real one (also so I could get a Sugary Carnival replica headbow as they are few and far between as well), but I will certainly have to think long and hard before taking the risk.