Lolita 52 Challenge: Week 16

~ 10 facts about my Lolita wardrobe ~

1. Most of my main pieces are brand, whereas my accessories and lesser pieces have a much higher percentage of offbrand.
2. The most prevalent colour is pink.
3. The sole fell off of my favourite shoes - a pair of pink Angelic Pretty tea parties! I have to wear my Antaina replicas now.
4. My clothes are actually spread between 2 wardrobes, some drawers, and a ton of boxes that are in the loft as I have far too much stuff.
5. I use items from it once a month at most D=
6. I have far too many pieces that I haven't had an opportunity to wear yet!
7. I have several print doubles (Sugary Carnival, Jewelry Jelly, Lyrical Party).
8. My favourite brand piece is my Angelic Pretty Sugary Carival skirt in black.
9. My favourite offbrand piece is my Bodyline Fruits Parlor replica...that I bought before I realised it was a replica.
10. I don't think I own anything non-sweet!

I delayed posting this as I had planned to add photos, but I'm too lazy right now (^_^')

Lolita 52 Challenge: Week 15

~ 3 things I wish I was told when I was a new Lolita ~

1. You WILL buy brand, no matter how much a waste of money you think it is at first. My first skirt cost £12, and I felt bad spending that much on a piece! But my lust for brand soon took over. My first print cost £150 and I felt so guilty until it arrived. Haven't really looked back since.


2. The rules aren't absolute, but you'd do well to follow them. This is something a lot of new lolitas don't really understand. It wasn't much an issue for me though.


3. Lolitas are normal people! I was worried I'd be too common or whatever at meets, but then turns out we're all as bad as each other and very far from lifestylers. I think most lolitas think everyone has a certain lifestyle when they start out, sometimes it takes far too long for the cold reality to hit!

Angelic Pretty Summer Lucky Pack

This year I actually knew about Angelic Pretty Summer packs, so I decided to get one as a gift to myself for graduating. I used Yunni Sweet Like Candy SS again as it was on her Facebook page that I saw the announcement, and I'm too lazy to find a different service. Plus, I know where I stand with this service now after having used it twice previously.

The announcement reached her page on the 20th June, and I placed a request there and then. I received confirmation the same day. I must have gotten in quick as she picked up 2 packs and one was mine! I got my pack confirmed on the 22nd, although full shipping quotes weren't given to me until 3rd July. Tracking given on the 8th.

Apparently there were only 15 or so packs in store, and the packs seem to have been Shinjuku only. The pack cost ¥10,500, I ended up paying ¥13,261 for the pack and fees, and the EMS shipping was ¥4,600. I managed to avoid customs, so the total cost was around £120.

I actually had no idea what would be in this until it came as no one seemed to know anything. I just knew that usually they are special sets of prints with 5 items total, and I was told that the dress was heavy and causing expensive shipping. This disappointed me as I was hoping for a miniskirt, and it meant that it couldn't be anything Dream Sky as they are light as air. Not knowing made me nervous, and had huge worries that I'd have to sell it all straight off the bat. I should point out that all this information is what my SS said... some of which was a lie. Special sets are announced, and apparently ordinary lucky packs happen all the time. I find it hard to believe that she honestly didn't know that, but ho hum.

It arrived today, boxed well.


I was so surprised (and a little horrified!) when I lifted off the tote that I forgot to take a photo. It wasn't a special set. It wasn't even a happy pack with matching items. I didn't know that Angelic Pretty even did true lucky packs anymore, but that's what it was. That means that I got all the crap nobody wanted to buy from the store!

These were my items. My first impression was 'itaaaaaa'!


Thankfully on closer inspection, I love the JSK.


It's quite a bright pink, with regular straps and a halter. While I like the style, velvet is very heavy and impractical so I won't get many chances to wear this.


Lovely button detailing.


Asymmetrically placed bow and corsage, which are joined to a bow and tassle on the back with ribbon. The necktie also has a tassled bow on it, and the waist ties are tassled.


While I wanted a short skirt, this wasn't what I was hoping for.


Red gingham reminds me of primary school, and all the broderie anglaise isn't helping matters! I think it'll be wearable though, especially once I've moved the bow pin to the side. I have some AP broderie anglaise hairties which will match this nicely, although I may look a little too childish.


Bonnets look stupid on me because I don't have a fringe/bangs. That said, bonnets look stupid on most people. I'd have been okay with it were it black, but this won't really match anything. I wasn't sure what print it was but had a feeling it had bottles of some kind on it, and after a google it is in fact Glass Bottle of Tears. While it isn't a print I like much, it does have lovely details and fabrics.


I don't like this blouse at all. The pleats are a bit messed up already and I hate ironing! I literally never iron anything. It's not sweet enough either, and the black buttons look a bit out of place. But I guess that doesn't matter anyway as it's unshirred and I doubt it'll fit nicely over my shoulders/bust.


Pointless tiny tote bag. I do love Fancy Box in this colourway though, so I'll try to find a use for it!

While very disappointed that it wasn't a special set or print (there have been so many cute prints lately!), I feel that my money wasn't wasted. That said, I probably wouldn't have risked the purchase had I known. The tags were all removed, but original cost of the JSK was probably around what I paid for the whole set including shipping so who knows what the combined value could have been. I'll probably keep hold of everything except maybe the blouse (if it doesn't fit) and the bonnet (if I can find no use for it).

Lolita 52 Challenge: Week 14

~ Lolitas I would love to meet ~

Again, sorry for dropping this! I haven't done one of these posts since March, and I had lost interest in lolita. I still don't wear it (I have no chance as I live back at home and my mum would bully and harrass me until I changed if I tried), but my interest is definitely coming back. So I'll try to finish this off, slowly but surely.

There are no lolitas I want to meet in particular. That said, it would be nice to meet Maki and Asuka for obvious reasons.


I also want to meet lolitas I met a long time ago again. One girl I haven't seen since my first meet-up, yet I miss her all the same!

Graduation

On Thursday last week, I had my graduation ceremony. That means I now have a BSc in Psychology with upper second class honours! It's odd that my four years of university have both dragged and flown by.

The ceremony itself was in Bath Abbey. I was really worried about falling over, walking there my heel got caught in my dress and there were grates we had to walk over in there, and we had to walk around the whole room to go up to the front! It was fine though, and no one tripped! The robes were uncomfortable and it was really hot all day, and it drizzled before the ceremony so my hair went a bit mad. Plus they didn't bother telling us lower-classers that we needed to wear buttons, so I stupidly wore a fancy dress and had to look scruffy and be strangled by my cardigan all day as the collar kept pulling it up =[


The ceremony was online so I capped me shaking hands with the chancellor haha. I don't really have many photos from the day as nobody has bothered uploading any yet, and I didn't have anywhere to put a camera so I couldn't take any myself.


Afterwards there was a reception in a church a little way down the road. It turns out I won an award! The Helen Haste prize, which was apparently a lot more bigged up than I thought it would be. It was awarded to me because the essay I wrote for the optional exam was the most creative and original one. I think they were rewarding me for a being a weirdo, really. But I got to accept the prize from the legend herself, and I also got £250! Winning.


We didn't stay long after that as we were staying away from home, but it was a much nicer and less boring day than I thought it would be, and I'm glad I went. Don't regret not getting pro photos though...waste of money!

Download Festival 2013!

On this occasion I didn't write a diary when I was there, so this will be quite a bare-bones overview of my time at Download! Plus it was over 3 weeks ago now, so my memory may fail me. I was pretty excited to go though, as I've been wanting to go for 8 years or so but it always clashed with exams (GCSE for 3 years, AS/A-levels for 2, and then uni).

Wednesday
We ended up leaving after 10am as Rob locked his ticket and keys inside the house when we were trying to leave at 9am...ugh! But we go there pretty easily and were all set up by 2pm or so. Rob camped with friends in Red, but I plumped for Gold with Fran, Rosie, and Louis.


This was a good decision, as it was reasonably quiet and we had lots of space, and the tents were easy to find. Then the drinking, oh dear. First there were umbrellas...


Then a good old game of Flunkyball, that I chose to observe rather than participate in:


And of course many of the planes that people apparently found annoying (was only a little louder (and less frequent) than the trains I was used to at uni):


I paced myself well in terms of drinking, but sadly Rob didn't. I came back from the portaloos to find him throwing up in my tent after apparently throwing up in theirs, and then he had me dragging him away from barbed-wire-filled ditches and trying to reason with him until around 2am where he decided to run off. I couldn't find him and went to sleep not knowing if he was even alive. Yeah, I was pretty damn annoyed about it the next day!

Thursday
Thursday wasn't overly eventful. Rob wanted to go into town for breakfast but took us the wrong way, so we walked for 2 hours in the heat and on empty stomachs for no goddamn reason. After an annoyed lie down I drank a bit with my tent neighbours who were working on can swords and making plans for a can throne. The weather was really odd on that day, alternating between scorching sunshine and rain. There was a huge thunderstorm at one point where the sky went almost black and sheets of rain came out of nowhere! In the evening I met up with Bexy & Amy (who were camped in White) for a bit of a dance, and then we saw Andrew O'Neill (a comedian).

Friday
Friday began with a wildcard - Dir En Grey. We thought we'd see them for a laugh since they were the only Japanese act on the bill. It also started raining really heavily, and was raining on and off all day.


We wandered off for a bit and caught some of Patent Pending when having a sit down. Unfortunately we had to endure a bit of Asking Alexandria on our way past Main Stage as well. Then was Papa Roach, who were good but didn't play the best song. The singer also dived into mud for some reason.


Then we caught a bit of In This Moment who put on a great show, before highlight of the day which was Korn.


We took some selfies.


Bullet For My Valentine were a bit dull...


...but we wanted to keep our good spot for Slipknot! It rained heavily again at this point, but they were pretty good so I can't really grumble. I couldn't see at all though! I was lucky to get any photos at all.



Saturday
On Saturday we mostly just hung out at the tent. The weather was great so we sunbathed and derped around drinking until almost 6pm.


We finally went to the arena to catch the first few songs of Jimmy Eat World's set. We stayed more than we were supposed to as I was a little over-enthusiastic in my drunken fangirling! I feel embarrassed now as everyone around us was just standing there whereas I was singing all the words and jumping and waving my appendages around. Especially during Get It Faster as it's one of my favourites and I was surprised it was still in the setlist.


More derping!


We missed most of the first Queens of the Stone Age song which is annoying as it was Feel Good Hit of the Summer, which we'd been singing all weekend.


Afterwards the girls headed back to camp so I caught the end of Enter Shikari by myself. I tried to see Iron Maiden but the sound quality was terrible so I only stayed until I heard a song I knew, which was thankfully the second one they played.


Saw The Hives instead, and it was the best decision as they were so much fun to dance along to, despite poor view and getting elbowed in the face several times (#shortpeopleproblems). Some crazy guy climbed up one of the poles inside the tent and jumped off!


When I got back to their tent I was already sobering up and getting a hangover so I didn't hang around and went to bed istead!

Sunday
Since Rob's phone was running out, I stayed with him on the last day. We packed up out tents and took them back to the car in the morning and then went to the nearby village for proper breakfast and cup of tea. We were both really tired so we sat at Main Stage most of the day, catching Five Finger Death Punch who weren't my cup of tea, Parkway Drive who were a little better, Stone Sour, and Gaslight Anthem. They played their best song first but the singer's voice sounded butts until the second song Dx


We had planned to stay for 30 Seconds To Mars but as soon as they started we gurned at each other and went to see A Day To Remember instead, who it turns out I like and I knew a bunch of their songs from music channels. Limp Bizkit were next and I had a great time! I almost peed myself laughing at Fred Durst's gigantic black beard. Rob was a bit annoyed as he wanted to see Rammstein but I wanted to stay until they played Break Stuff which was their last song, I think.


This photo was taken before the mass-exodus of people leaving to see Rammstein as soon as they played their first chord.

We could kinda hear Rammstein at the same time though, and we headed straight there afterwards. Hope I get to see them again as they were good live, although I don't really approve of the giant fake dicks and pretending to jerk off and all that sick shit. They pyros were cool though.


Monday
After a very stressful journey (it took ages to leave the carpark although it could have been a lot worse, and Rob was barely awake while driving and it took me ages of nagging to get him to pull over for a nap), we eventually got back to Rob's at 6am. I was so tired that I'd been hallucinating pretty much the whole way back, and I have stayed awake for so long before. It was almost a full 24 hours! So naturally after a cuppa and some toast we slept all day.

Even though it was tiring, I'm looking forward to the next festival now! Reading is only a month away. Probably going to volunteer at Glasto next year as dad did this year, and if friends go to Download again I'm up for it again! I preferred it to Reading in terms of layout, it's just that Reading tends to have more bands I want to see. That said, Reading line-up is going downhill fast wth all the hipster shit they're bring in...but we'll see!