Finished Christmas Cards!

So a few posts back I mentioned I'd started a design for my own Christmas cards for this year. If you follow me on tumblr, you might have seen the WIPs and samples I posted as they developed.

Well here they are, finally printed and finished off with a touch of silver and gold!

I'm so pleased with the outcomes! I had suggestions to sell them, and while I love the idea that people would actually buy my work to give out as festive greetings, I don't really have the time to promote/package/send them out what with the massive amount of work I have to have done at college before the end of next week (cries).

Maybe next year, if I start earlier. But for now I'm happy just sending them out to my friends and family.

Winter Loliday 2010

Click for bigger!

A few months ago I decided to jump in the deep end and organise my first meet... and I would be daring and choose International Lolita Day, wouldn't I?

It took a lot of planning and changing and replanning and updating constantly on loligothuk, but I'm pleased to say it all went beautifully smoothly! We had 14 in attendance--including two boyfriends--and it was a sight to see on a cold winter evening. The day out included a trip to the theatre to see The Nutcracker ballet performance and afterwards a wander around the Christkindlmarkt--the German Christmas market that comes to Leeds every November-December.

It was such a wonderful day out; I met some amazing and absolutely beautiful lolitas and got to see again some I already consider good friends--Beth, Abbey and Lola.

Thank you to everybody who came! I know I'll carry memories from winter Loliday 2010 with me forever.

Photographs by Abbey-Jade Birden - thank you!

Cuppa Raspberries

Today I'm snacking on my favourite fruit, raspberries! I decided to ignore the norm and put them in one of my favourite mugs instead of just into a bowl. I also sprinkled them with sugar for a little extra sweetness!

I bet this would be lovely to do with strawberries and cream too~

It's not much, but it's made my sunday feel a little prettier already.

First Snow

Last night it snowed properly for the first time here this winter. Of course, I just had to venture out in it--I blame it on being a winter baby! This is my ultimate favourite time of year; chilly weather, getting dressed up in my best winter-warm clothes, snuggling up on dark evenings in front of the fire with lots of blankets, Christmas lights on in the city and the German market here for the festive season.

Here's what I looked like today then:


Outfit rundown:
Blouse, JSK: Bodyline
Boots (not pictured): Dr. Martens
Everything else: Offbrand

 I'm a sucker for experimentation within lolita, and I especially adore leather jackets to contrast those beautiful frilly dresses. You can't see, but I also wore my Docs with this coord, mainly because of the snow--but again I like the contrast.

I also managed to find a few loliable bargains today! These gloves, with the cute but elegant little bow, were ₤2 from a Chinese-owned shop in the market, and the blouse from a fairly new vintage shop for just ₤5!

Speaking of the 'fairly new vintage shop', Birds Yard, I met Abbey for the first time today! She volunteers in there, so I said I'd come by to check out the shop and see her. Abbey's a girl I met on MyAsianFashion.com, added on tumblr and then facebook later, and we've become great friends over the internet. She's interested in Lolita fashion and is getting her first dress this Christmas. I'm really glad I got to finally meet her, she's even more lovely in real life; I can't wait until she starts coming to meet-ups now!

I took my mama to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows too, as she hadn't seen it yet. I packed tissues for the end, because Dobby's her favourite character and I was expecting her to cry... but instead I ended up crying over it again. I don't think I'll ever be able to watch that scene without doing so, it's even more powerful than in the book.

So yes, all in all, a fantastic day! I'm just gutted I didn't get any pictures in the snow.

Of Wishlists and Christmas Cards

For almost a week and a half I've been practically under house arrest (apart from friday... nothing could stop me seeing Harry Potter on its release date) because of my horrible tonsils. They like to play up a lot, but this time they got infected and I've been really ill. So I got bored, as you do when you're bedridden.

And my mind began to wonder.

And I thought, hmm this year I'm going to make my own Christmas cards! So today, to rid myself of boredem and to try and keep myself away from Tumblr (it didn't work very well) I started on my first design.

They'll be Lolita-themed, of course!

Also in the picture you can see the Christmas Wishlist I started to take my mind off the college work I should be catching up with. It got a little bit out of hand...

Halloween!

Just a quick photo post! I forgot to share with you my Halloween outfit!

I was originally planning to do Guro, but I had to tweak it a little when I was invited to a movie themed party--can you guess who I am?



Hanging out with Bellatrix Lestrange and Bruce Lee here, if you were wondering (':

Yep, Momoko from our beloved Shimotsuma Monogatari! Too bad I didn't have my beautiful RHS on for this picture.

Parents & Lolita



Click on image for source



I'm pretty sure you'll all have read about parents' reactions to their children wearing lolita fashion generally being quite negative, at least to begin with. There must be hundreds of articles (okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but it feels that way) out there giving advice about how to persuade the old ones to let you wear it, or to help you build up your wardrobe or even just to have a little acceptance and encouragement.

Well I'm not going to add to that list. Know why? Because I would have no idea where to start.

I've never had to go through that, you see. My mama's always been pretty supportive of my fashion decisions and experiments--even if I look back now and think they were disastrous and why did she ever let me leave the house dressed like that? In fact, she's always been wholly supportive with most of my decisions. Now and again I'll hear about friends' parents going round the bend if their child didn't get a high enough grade on an exam, or urging them to take a subject or go into a profession that they don't want to, and it used to shock me. Now it just appalls me. My mother's always encouraged me just to do my best and take whichever path I enjoy most, without ever pushing me. When I took my GCSEs, I ended up with A*s in my favourite subjects right through to Ds in my worst. I put my all into the things I love, and if that means I don't do well in the areas I don't enjoy then so be it--and my mother has the same mindset, so she was happy with my results rather than disappointed that I didn't study hard enough. When I chose to go to art college rather than follow an academic route, she didn't complain that I was wasting my time and that I'd never land myself a proper job, like some of the parents of my college friends did. And now that I've chosen to apply for a Japanese & Linguistics course at university instead of furthering my graphic design knowledge, she's supporting me yet again.

In fact, she's been more than supportive; she's been enthusiastic.

But I'm getting off the point. What I mean to say is, she loves lolita. She loves it to the point that she sits browsing brand sites with me, drooling over new items way beyond our budget. She gushes over my latest dress purchases and wistfully tells me 'if only I were a few decades younger.'

Don't get me wrong, I'm not meaning to brag. I appreciate that I'm incredibly lucky in this aspect and I suppose I just wanted to rejoice in that. And please don't get the wrong idea: I'm not spoiled, my mother doesn't buy all my clothes for me--I work hard to save enough to buy them myself.

So I'm interested--what do your parents think of lolita, and more specifically your involvement with the fashion/lifestyle?

Visit my Polyvore!

I've recently become a little addicted to Polyvore, despite the fact that it crashes everytime I've almost finished a set and I end up having to redo most of it.

Click to go to my Polyvore profile


 

Here are all my sets so far--you can definately see my love for gothic and classic in these. The top left set, Midnight Stroll, would be my absolute dream coordinate. I imagine myself decked out in BABY and AatP, adorned with delicate crosses on fragile chains, holding the arm of a tall, well-dressed, mysterious man while we stroll through the cobbled streets of a rainy, Victorian-era London in the dead of night.

Get creative, and show me your dream coord with your own Polyvore set--and if there's a story to go with it, I'd love to hear that too!

First Meet

Ah, so much for keeping this place updated frequently. It’s not like I had nothing to write about either, I’m just letting old habits die hard. Laziness, in this case. You have permission to hit me.

Well back to business!

About a week after I started up this blog I went to my first Lolita meet-up! There were six of us in attendance, ranging from the basic gothic to sweet.

Group shot outside the art gallery, taken by a helpful stranger.

Bethanie and I were the goths of the group, both of us decked out entirely in black (excluding Beth’s white tights) with some lovely lace and ruffles for an elegant flare. Hannah, the organiser of the meet, and Beccy, the most experienced Lolita of us all and the only one among us wearing any brand, wore somewhat old-school black and white sweet styles. Sara wore a beautiful ensemble somewhere between sweet and classic, while Lola was our sweetest in a handmade dress of strawberry-printed sax Cath Kidstone fabric.


Gothic Beth and Classic Sara

We met outside Leeds Art Gallery for midday, where we progressed to the Henry Moor institute for the final day of the exhibition. It was interesting work, but much smaller than we had expected so we didn’t end up spending much time there. We headed off after an in-depth chat with one of the female staff about our ‘beautiful dresses’—apparently she was already aware of Lolita as she’d studied in Japan a few years ago! It was refreshing to find someone who wanted to know how we’d come to find the fashion and how it was for us as such a small subculture, rather than the usual ignorant ‘where did you get a dress like that?’ or ‘Halloween’s not for another few months!’ as I’m sure the majority have experienced a fair few times.

An intense Pokemon battle... Beccy on the left, Lola right.

Beth with our Balloon Buizel!

From there we went for a wonder around the shops… and found ourselves outside a Pokemon Village. Needless to say we were all pretty damn excited! We let our (not-so-)inner-children go wild and helped ourselves to the consoles, distraught to find out that DS’s are much different to our old Gameboys and we lacked the skills to play anymore. Once again, the staff were very interested in our choice of fashion but were all extremely pleasant and genuinely curious. We got a lesson on Pokemon card battles (which was very interesting for me—all I remember about them was my cousin and me playing something resembling snap with them when we were younger) and then the lady we’d all been waiting for arrived. The balloon lady! Since we couldn’t decide which Pokemon we wanted, she decided to create any and see if we could guess as she was building it up.

Since we were planning to eat at Little Tokyo after browsing the shops, we donated our Buizel to Forbidden Planet. The poor shop guy was a little baffled, but at least he offered it a good home where it would be appreciated!

There’s not really much else to report from this outing, other than mentioning the wonderful food at Little Tokyo and the cheesecakes Sara generously treated us too when we went for drinks afterwards.

Group picture in Yates'. Sara was taking the picture, it's a shame she's not in it.

 All in all, it was a lovely day out! I’m a naturally shy person so I was worried I’d retreat back into myself around five people I’d never met before, but honestly, it felt like we’d known each other a lifetime. They are all such beautiful lolitas and amazing ladies, I’m happy to say I’ve made some genuine new friends!

Oh, and before I forget, here's my outfit shot for that day! Ignore the derpy face.

Bodyline JSK, everything else is offbrand/self-customised.

Why hello there!

How do I begin something like this? Should I say 'welcome'?

No, I should introduce myself first, I think.

How do you do, I'm Jenny Pearl. You can just call me Jenny if you like though. Or Pearl; either one's fine and both are my name! I'm a 17-year-old art student living in my hometown of Leeds, which is in the big county Yorkshire, in the little country England. It's the one that sees a lot of rain and still has a Queen.

But you probably know that.

This is me. I enjoy pulling weird faces.

What you probably don't know is that I've been in love with Lolita for almost three years now... but I've only just taken the plunge into this beautiful world of lace and frills and petticoats. Of course, since I discovered it I've been using Lolita as inspiration in some way or another in my everyday outfits, and I've done a lot of research on it, so I'd consider myself very well versed in the fashion. I knew from the beginning I'd primarily be part of the gothic subgenre, because that's just my taste. But up until a few months ago I'd never laid eyes on a real life JSK. When it arrived, along with my first non-vintage Loli blouse, I dressed myself up right away. I did my hair and make-up, pulled on my blouse, my then-pink petticoat, my lace-trimmed socks and then, finally, my dress. I donned all my favourite Loliable accessories - some silver rings, a cameo brooch at my collar and some fancy cross pendant earrings - and even my pretty suede wedges with bows. I had nowhere to go and nothing planned for the day; I just wandered around the house doing what I usually do when I spend a lazy day at home: a bit of drawing, reading, surfing the internet for new music or more fashion inspiration. I ate dinner and drank a cup of coffee or two. Texted friends and chatted with my mother. Nothing was unusual about the day. Except that I was really happy. Incredibly happy. I was overjoyed at wearing such stunning, elegant clothing. More than that, I was happy that I felt good in it. I felt comfortable and like this was me. I'd finally found myself.

A coord inspired by both Lolita and Visual Kei. VK was my first love, therefore I'll never have normal hair. Or eyebrows.

To non-Lolitas or people who just don't feel as passionately about any fashion or lifestyle, I probably sound mad. But I know many other Lolitas can empathise. By starting this blog near the beginning of my journey, I hope that both new and more experienced Lolitas will be able to relate to me and the subjects I post about. (I also hope that having to remember to update a blog will keep me interesting. But that's a whole other story!) I should mention that I'm an aspiring lifestyle Loli. If I could I would wear Lolita everyday already, but as it stands I can't yet, simply because at the moment my budget won't allow it.

I hope you'll continue to follow me as I grow into a better Lolita.