Belated May Day & ILD Meet Post

On May Day we had a nice little picnic at the Royal Crescent!


Maria made the most delicious little cheesecakes!


The weather was very warm so I put together the coolest outfit I could.


Excuse horrible lighting and face, this was taken in the pub after I'd been melted by the sun! Got lots of compliments on my skirt, and I do love this skirt. I had forgotten just how short it is though! It's from Angelic Pretty, and the rest is offbrand. I also had a Hello Kitty serviette strapped to my ankle as my shoes rubbed and I didn't want blood on my clothes D=


Detail.

I also picked up this cat bag from Monika. So much loooooove ♥


Haven't had many chances to wear lolita recently. On International Lolita Day I met up with Bexy & Amy, but we didn't wear lolita once again! Was nice to have a catch-up and a shop, along with some Bubble Tea, lolified cups, and a few pints though, as always!


It was actually the same day as Summer Ball, but I decided to sell my ticket and use the money for chilling out with friends instead which was a great decision.

My lolita future is looking shaky due to the need to clear out things, no job, no money, and really poor transport links (I can get to Bristol only unless I take the train on from there, but the bus to the station is £7 by itself!), but I'm hoping that I can attend a few meets in the Summer even if not many. I have many items that I want to wear to a meet before I can part with them! I *do* have a ticket for Frock On, but most of my friends have dropped out and it's so much money and will probably be boring, but hmmmm I don't know whether to go or not haha.

Hyper Japan, 2011 ~ Day One

Yes I know, late post is late...but it took a while to sort out my photos! I still haven't managed to get the photos for the other days yet as they're stuck on the camera. Also if you click an image, larger versions/original source will appear =3 (need to change my layout so larger photos look okay).

Last weekend I had my first experience of a convention! I really had no idea what to expect, and in the morning I was grumpy from having to get up early and my suitcase was MASSIVE and would barely close as I hadn't realised how much space lolita outfits take up. Travel was a bit of a nightmare too. Our bus into town got held up as a Sainsbury's lorry crashed through a wall on the main route to town, so we had to wait a while before reversing all the way down the hill and taking the long route, resulting in us missing the train we were supposed to get. Thankfully we had general off-peak tickets so we didn't have to fork out any more money! Trains were fine and so was the tube, but we took a while to find the hotel we were staying at (even though it was right under our nose the whole time!)

Once we'd ditched our luggage there it was off to the convention! I was a bit freaked out at first as there were so many people there and I hadn't expected it to be like that. We arrived some time after 1 I think, so we had a little wander before I headed to watch the talk show with Kanon Wakeshima (Rob wasn't interested in it, I don't even know what he was doing at that point). Her voice was so cute, and outfit so beautiful! I was a little offended though as she said that anyone who wears the clothes but doesn't live the lifestyle isn't a real lolita, but over here it's more that the clothes make the lolita (or at least you can't be considered one without the clothing). But I don't want to get too much into the lifestyle/fashion debate...or at least not today!



I also dropped off some things to sell at the Lolita Bring and Buy stall...it was great to see so many lolitas and so many items for sale. I also finally met Chrissii for the first time!

Afterwards it was soon time for the tea party with Kanon Wakeshima! I was a little nervous as I didn't know any of the other lolitas and they all seemed to know each other, but I met some lovely people. I'd also worried that my outfit wasn't good enough as I was dressed casually for travel in a rather toned-down mix of lolita and fairy-kei. I didn't get a photo and I haven't been able to find a full one of me yet (there must be some, when we were waiting to enter the cafe loads of randomers papped us), just this one from the tea party.



I was wearing Angelic Pretty's Dream Sky skirt and barrette with Asiajam tee, Hello KittyXNike sneakers, BTSSB bag, Hello Kitty necklace and cupcake earrings from Claire's, Primark legwarmers and offbrand tights. Need moar accessories!

While there was no tea at the so-called tea party (there was no tea =P), we had the most delicious cakes! Plus some free cleansing oil and cute place-marker.



Kanon looked lovely and was so cute. It was so nice of her to agree to come and answer some of our questions...my heart beat so fast! These were my delightful table buddies, Clare and Kyra:


With Kanon! My face is so happy-derp haha:


And all of us together with Kanon! (Photo by Saoirse Clohessy Photography)


Afterwards I found Rob again and we looked around the stalls. I ended up buying 2 Chibi Vampire novels and a Cardcaptor Sakura manga from the Tokyopop stall that day, as well as acquiring a number of cards and leaflets. I also picked up a Hangry & Angry keychain - I was reluctant to pay £4 for a keychain, but it's really cute and it was the last of that type there.


Irritatingly there was nowhere to get free water, so we had to buy expensive cans of Diet Coke. For tea we had Yo! Sushi which was going cheap at the end of the day...so yummy. And we had blueberry Pocky for when we got back to the hotel OMNOM.

After meeting up with our hotel group (Aisha, Vicki, Kai, Rai, Rob and myself) we went back to the hotel for check-in...but we weren't all in the same room despite us changing which nights we were staying so we could be grouped together. They wouldn't move the other so we had to be separate. I didn't mind too much, but their policy made no sense - surely you'd fill up rooms before putting people in new ones, and you'd try to keep groups together? Apparently not.

So there's my summary of 22nd July! Hope it wasn't too boring to read ^_^'

Oh and if anyone finds blogs or pictures of the event please link me! I want to see everything!

Angelic Pretty USA Review ~ Dream Sky

Please forgive the blogging spam today...still have yesterday to cover, my Dream Sky arrived this morning and I picked up my Taobao order from the Post Office depot earlier too and it's all too much for one post I feel!


So my Angelic Pretty USA order arrived bright and early this morning! Their website was easy to use, especially since I had already made an account with them. The only issue I had (other than almost everything being sold out already) was that the black skirt (my first choice) still came up on there but was apparently out of stock. When the other colours sold out they were taken down completely, but the black wasn't =S No biggie though.




Quite well packaged, nice sturdy box and then sweet pink tissue paper. In the AP bag is the order summary!


The barrette! (Yes, I took a photo of it upside down haha). It's actually pretty big which I am glad of. Will look cute in front of a high side pony.


The skirt! I fabric is lovely and the print is gorgeous, although it doesn't show up very well on this colourway (black was my first choice, then navy, then lavender, then a tie between pink and sax). I'm glad I love it so much as in addition to this pink one I got the sax one using a Japanese shopping service (they said that they had been unsuccessful. Then they changed their minds *facepalm*). I was surprised that the ribbon wasn't attached though, which means I'll probably end up losing it or being too dumb to figure out how to tie it!


The tags are in Japanese. I'd half expected them to be in English and priced in dollars, so I was a little surprised.


I love the details AP uses!


Small shirred panel in the back and the cute little AP label (tempted to get it as a tattoo but can't decide where or what colour!).


Little bit of built in pouf.


The outer fabric isn't sewn at the zipper which is a shame, but it won't notice when worn and I was expecting it to be like this as Powder Rose was the same.

The most disappointing thing was the lack of socks, which will be impossible to hunt down (I asked my Japanese shopping service to get them for me but they only got them in sax...at least I got the pink barrette as I was unable to get the sax one).

The order ended up being very expensive, which should come as no surprise. The skirt was $216 and the barrette was $35.50; shipping to the UK was $40.65; import taxes and duties £65 *ouch* - total cost in the region of £245. Confirmation by email was quick and it was arrived reasonably swiftly. I ordered on the 29th of May, the item was shipped on the 2nd of June and tracking number followed later that day (it didn't work for another few days but that isn't AP USA's fault). Arrived on the 14th June. Took a little longer than it should have but that was due to customs and Parcelforce chosing to try to deliver it the one time no one was home.

The whole experience was pretty pleasant. I would say I'd order from them again, but due to the cost of getting the package out of customs I'd prefer to use a Japanese shopping service next time as the value could be marked down to avoid them. However I probably will use them again nonetheless, if they have something I really want (their choice is always limited, the Japanese website stocks loads of things that don't even make it to the International website, let alone the US one) and if I have a lot of money to burn.

Sorry for not having a worn photo yet, all of my lolita clothes are either back at home shoved wherever I found room, packed up waiting for the same fate or in a big box heading to Rob's house! So I haven't even tried it on yet. Thinking that because it's more casual I might risk wearing it over the Summer to try to get my parents used to the idea of me wearing pink patterned things.

Stay tuned for Dream of Lolita review!

Dream Sky Dilemma

Super tempted to just buy it...it'd be my last brand purchase until after uni is totally finished pretty much since rent has gone up by LOADS.

But I don't know which colour to get!

Had originally wanted navy but after looking at the pics it doesn't seem to pop out that much. I think I like black most but I have lots of black already! The sax is nice too but I already have my mint Soap Bubble skirt which is maybe a bit too similar.

Please give me your thoughts, I don't have long to decide.

Knowing my luck it'll have sold out completely by the time I decide. Went back for that usamimi band today after waiting to hear bf's opinion and him saying it looked stupid and then thinking 'fuck it, I'll get it'. But it was gone so I had to order online and pay £4 p&p =/ GAH. Wish I was a decisive person but it will never happen!

Dream Sky~Kattobingu!

My day today has been rather centred around Angelic Pretty. (Of course, it should have been centred around revising for my imminent Cellular Neurobiology exam that I am doomed to fail, but I digress).

I happened upon scans from the new Angelic Pretty catalogue (see here) and my goodness. It was love at first sight.

THIS SKIRT! THIS. SKIRT.

Dream Sky.

And what a dream it is!

I’d been interested in it since seeing a few scans floating around Tumblr, but that skirt is simply divine! And the navy isn’t a colour I’d usually plump for, but I think it really suits the print (although if buying I’d be tempted to go for lavender instead since I already own things to coord with it. But then I guess there *is* pink in the print...)

And so I’m in yet another dilemma! Do I try to buy it or not?

If I decide to I’ll need to act quick to get someone on board to go fetch it in store, since I’m usually far too slow for the online things and reservations would probably need to be done through a shopping service anyway. But the skirt is £130 not including all the faff that comes with buying online. That’s quite a lot for what seems to be a few layers of see-through material. But there is no denying that my life would be greatly improved with such a glorious skirt in my arsenal, no? Merely cropping the scan to just the skirt and posting it on Tumblr has gained me over 200 notes and a few new followers!

But then it would just be one treat to get me through the Summer. Which I could do with since it looks like my planned Bodyline order needs to be postponed until DHL comes back since EMS is far too expensive.

Hmm...

Also I watched RinRin's interview that was posted on the US site and golly am I jelly. I know it's silly, but I wish I could be an Angelic Pretty model! But naturally that is impossible for many reasons...the fact that there is no store in the country, that I'm short and plump and unattractive and painfully camera-shy. But a girl can dream. Dream Sky. KATTOBINGU~