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

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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



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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?