day 3 - 10 things you hate in lolita

from tumblr

★ I hate "casual lolita" if it's just a lolita skirt with no petticoat and a t-shirt.  I feel like you've got to put some accessories in there somewhere, and just wear a cutsew instead of a non-lolita t-shirt...they're not hard to find and some of them can be really cute!  I've found cute shirts (not t-shirts) at Forever21 that could be worked into a lolita coordinate but aren't expensive or over-the-top.  Otherwise, I do like casual lolita, and I wear it all the time.

☆ I hate how little I can wear lolita during the summer.  I really can't; right now, it's 94 degrees Fahrenheit with a heat index of around 105.  I can't wear lolita in that heat!  So I feel kind of bad that I have so many dresses and stuff that I can't really wear year-round.

★ I hate that I feel bad for dressing in what I like.  When I wear sweet lolita, I get tons of glares, nasty comments, and snickers, and sometimes I just can't handle that.  Even within the lolita community, I feel like I'm somewhat shunned because it seems that it's cool to hate Angelic Pretty and those wigs that are so popular now.  I guess what I'm trying to say is that I hate feeling like an outcast where ever I go!  (but that sounds dumb when I say it that way.)

☆ I hate that awkward first hour or so at a meet-up.  I don't really know my local lolitas very well (I was one of the starting members, but the others have kind of dropped away and newer people have come in, so I'm not well acquainted with them) and I'm very shy, so this gets a bit uncomfortable.  

★ I hate that people assume that because I like lolita (something from Japan) I must like every single other Japanese thing ever.  Sure, I like Japanese food and video games, but no, I don't like anime or manga.  Don't approach me and talk about anime just because I'm wearing a Japanese fashion.

☆ I hate that I'm usually one of the only people around who doesn't like J-pop/K-pop.  People have these long conversations about that music and become friends, and I'm sitting in the corner listening to my Andrew Jackson Jihad and Decemberists.  Yes, I am a hipster outside of lolita.

★ I hate when I feel bad for buying something from Bodyline.  I don't know why I do this, but I always do!  I think to myself, "Oh, people are going to look down on me, I won't feel pretty in this like I do in my other clothes," but then it arrives at my house, I try it on, and it looks good.  I don't know why I always get so freaked out about buying from them though.  I'm feeling that still because I just bought my first Dream of Lolita replica and I'm kind of apprehensive about receiving it.  (Oh well, it should get here it 2 months, maybe I'll have calmed down by then.)

☆ I hate how hard it is to find loliable things in my local area!  I am always searching for cute and elegant things, but I can only ever find tacky things.  (Especially when I'm searching for plugs; yes, I know that the market for stretched ears isn't the biggest where I live, but I would really like to find SOME nice ones.)

★ I hate when people mix print head bows!  This sounds really elitist to say . . .  However, I would rather see someone with a plain head bow than one of a completely different print.  (If the prints are similar, this is okay, but I have seen people wear completely different prints and they just don't . . . look good to me.)

☆ I hate when people post fairy-kei outfits on daily_lolita.  I like fairy-kei, but it's a totally different style!  There is a separate community for fairy-kei outfit posts!

Honestly, most of these are just pet peeves, not things I necessarily hate . . .  If I hated lolita, I wouldn't be in the fashion!

day 2 - 10 things you love about lolita

from tumblr

★ I love twinning!  I love sweet lolita twinning, gothic lolita, classic lolita (though honestly, I don't know if I've ever seen that!  It would be adorable though!) any kind!  But I only like it when it's done all out: the same dress, blouse, socks, shoes, hairstyle, hair accessories; otherwise, it just looks like you accidentally wore the same dress as someone else.
☆ I love the OTT trend that has been so popular recently.  I'm really sad that it's on the apparent decline!  I especially love the huge wigs, and I really wish I could wear them all the time without getting as many stares as I would . . .
★ I love sweet lolita.  In any form: OTT, casual, old-school (I especially like old-school because it's easy and comfortable to dress in.)
☆ I love prints.  Angelic Pretty prints are usually my favourite, but I also really like BABY, The Stars Shine Bright and metamorphose's prints!  And when people design their own prints, because they usually end up being amazing looking and are super creative.

★ I love browsing daily_lolita and seeing what people are doing differently.  Although I tend to follow the rules of lolita pretty strictly (just because that is easier for me) I love seeing people bending and breaking the rules and coming up with their own form of lolita.  I also like when people mix styles and look awesome while doing it.

☆ I love that there are so many nerdy lolitas!  It makes me feel awesome that I can talk to so many people about fashion and, in the same conversation, talk about Doctor Who and World of Warcraft.

★ I love the sheer variety of sub-styles within lolita.  I really want to try them all out someday and hopefully I can get a wardrobe that could accommodate all the different sub-styles.  And, for this reason, it's a lot of fun looking at street snaps or photo sharing websites, because even though everyone is wearing lolita, it all can look completely different.

☆ I love meet-ups and looking at meet-up photos!  I always have fun looking at people's meet-up photos when they post them on EGL because I love seeing lolitas in action!

★ I love the common motifs in lolita, like Alice in Wonderland, tea parties, cakes, macarons, cookies, bunnies, kittens, puppies, toys, etc.  Some people say that this gets repetitive, but I really like seeing how different pieces with the same motifs can look really different!

☆ I love the idea behind lolita.  I was always interested in Victorian attire when I was younger and finding lolita was one of the greatest things that I have discovered on the internet.

lolita meme - 10 things about my lolita bubble

Well, so I haven't posted in a very long time!  Sorry about that~ (though I'm not sure if anyone reads this, this is mainly for myself.)  So I'm going to try a 30 Day Lolita Meme!  I've done one of these before (although it was about The Legend of Zelda, not lolita) and it really helped me focus on blogging, so hopefully it'll help here as well.


Day 1 – 10 things about your lolita bubble.
Day 2 – 10 things you love in lolita.
Day 3 – 10 things you hate in lolita.
Day 4 – 10 different kinds of food you like.
Day 5 – 10 items from your wishlist.
Day 6 – 10 things you can’t live without in lolita.
Day 7 – 10 people who inspire your lolita style.
Day 8 – 10 songs that inspire you for lolita.
Day 9 – 10 things you will never do in lolita.
Day 10 – What’s in your bag?
Day 11 – One day in your lolita life in pictures.
Day 12 – A picture of yourself before lolita came in to your life.
Day 13 – A picture of your favorite sweets.
Day 14 – A picture of your dream item.
Day 15 – A picture of your last lolita purchase.
Day 16 – Your outfit for the day.
Day 17 – What do you want more then anything right now?
Day 18 – A picture of your favorite lolita style.
Day 19 – What’s in your make-up bag?
Day 20 – A picture of a lolita friend.
Day 21 – Your favorite fictional lolita.
Day 22 – A picture of your room.
Day 23 – A picture of your handwriting.
Day 24 – A picture of you from a meet.
Day 25 – Your favorite lolita themed artwork.
Day 26 – Your Facebook profile picture.
Day 27 – One song that fits your favorite lolita style.
Day 28 – A picture of the perfect lolita location.
Day 29 – A picture of a lolita you would love to meet for real.
Day 30 – A photo of yourself taken today and 3 good things that’s happened over the last 30 days.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

from tumblr

★ I was first introduced to lolita when I was 12 or 13 and I picked up a copy of the photo book, FRuITS.  I fell in love with the late 90's-early 2000's style that was represented in that book and I drew it all the time when I was younger.
☆ I got my first skirt the summer between 8th and 9th grade.  It was a gingham skirt with cherries on it, from the now defunct American brand, In The Starlight.  I wore that like crazy!  (I wish it still fit, I would still wear it.  I might try and redo the waistband to make it fit me again.)  My first brand dress also came from that summer; it was the navy version of metamorphose's Apple Print one piece.  I also wore that all the time, and I still do!  In fact, my mom says I wear it too often.
★ I went to my first meetup when I was in 9th grade.  It was in December, and also the first meetup of our very new community.  It was in Lexington, Kentucky, and I was lucky because I was already going to be there that weekend for a debate tournament with my school, so I just hopped over to the coffee shop after I was done!  I still think fondly of that day, even though there were only three girls and we were all hella shy.
☆ I tend to dress in sweet lolita, although my favourite colour is black, because it's the easiest for me to wear.  For that reason, I like "bittersweet lolita," although some people complain about that title.  I think it's a cute idea though, and I definitely like to dress in it.  I also really want to dress in proper gothic (I love looking at the gorgeous moitie dresses) but I won't until I get a job and are able to afford it.
★ My favourite brands are Angelic Pretty and BABY, The Stars Shine Bright.  I love AP's colourful explosion prints, and I love BABY's subdued sweet prints and elegant solid-coloured dresses.
☆ I've been to meetups in my home state, Kentucky, and in Canada.  Hopefully, I'll be going to more meetups all over the south/mid-west this year, as my local community is not very active at all.
★ I would LOVE to wear lolita every day, but I just don't feel comfortable in doing so.  I'm a very shy person and becoming a lolita has helped me a little bit with that, but I still have physical trouble dressing up sometimes.
☆ When I move out of my mom's house, I plan on becoming an every day lolita.  (That gives me a year to become more confidant in myself.)  I have these big plans for myself, like I'm going to wear pretty clothes every day and decorate my room and live a sugary-sweet-princess-cupcake life, and so I really hope I can do this!  I want to be a lifestyle lolita, and hopefully I can do that, despite how silly it sounds.
★ My lolita clothes are all in a little closet.  When I move out, I want to get a white wardrobe and paint pink details on it, and put my clothes in that.  I have these grand ideas about what I'm going to do when I move out, but I have no idea if I'm going to be able to do any of this . . .
☆ I don't really have any good lolita friends that I can just hang out with.  I make friends easily with boys but not so easily with girls, so this might be part of it.  I'm sort of like a lone lolita, even though there are a few others in my city.  We just don't hang out very often.

macarons!

In recent times, French macarons have risen in popularity, among sweet lolitas and the rest of the world.  I really like baking and I think that macarons are really fun to make because they're a bit of a challenge!  When my French class was having a food day, I decided to try a new recipe and it turned out really well!  Here's the recipe that I used and here are some pictures from my test run!

the finished product + massive photoshop!

the filling!  my mom said it tasted like scrambled eggs, but I thought it was pretty tasty.

finished!

As you can see, the color didn't turn out too well!  They were supposed to be purple but they turned out a kind of disgusting grey color.  The filling was mixed berry which is why I wanted them purple, but it's no big deal!  Even if they looked gross, I think they tasted good.  I think this was the best recipe I've found.

japan needs your help (as do other places)

interrupting my usual lolita ramblings to bring you something important~

I'm sure you've seen this everywhere you frequent and by now you probably know what's going on with Japan.  Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, homes, and the death toll for the recent earthquake and following tsunami keeps rising every day.  There are many ways for everyone to help, mostly through donations; any amount of money can help.  This post on egl has many tips and resources for those wishing to help out with relief efforts in Japan.

However, during this disaster, you can't forget about the other atrocities happening in the world at this time.  Libya is in the midst of a serious civil war and thousands of men, women, and children are being raped, tortured, and slaughtered every day.  This New York Times article gives a good timeline of what's been going on in Libya currently; in fact, the newspaper is reporting issues a little too well, as four Times journalists have gone missing in Libya.  While there are definitely not as many opportunities to help those in need here, just being knowledgeable and spreading the word can help.

Everyone should know about the issues going on in their own country as well.  I live in the United States and there are many charities here that need help too.  Everyone has been hit by the global recession and charities are not excluded.  Approximately 3.5 million people in the United States experience homelessness every year, and 1.4 million of those people are under 18.  Homeless shelters and food banks are having serious problems keeping up with the growing demand of the increasing homeless population, and every single one of them would be grateful for any donations.

While the earthquake in Japan is definitely a big issue, you shouldn't forget about the other problems plaguing the world at the same time.  Definitely donate to Japanese relief charities if you are financially able to do so.  However, don't forget that other nations and even people in your own country are struggling and there are so many things that everybody can do to help.

bow from waist-ties tutorial!

Hey everybody!  Sorry again for not posting for a while, but my life has been really stressful as of late.  Today I was home sick so I caught up on a lot of stuff I needed to, like drawings that I've wanted to do and studying for the ACT, which I am taking soon!  Also today I wrote this tutorial for making a headbow from waist-ties!

One thing I really hate about lolita dresses is the waist-ties.  They are so pointless, and even if you can figure out how to tie them into a decent looking bow, they hurt your spine when you sit with your back against a chair!  Another thing I hate is how expensive matching headbows are; I can justify spending $300+ on a dress, maybe $30 for matching socks (although I feel that often times, the matching print socks are usually not worth it . . . ) but I absolutely cannot bring myself to shell out $40+ for a headbow when I know how easy they are to make. So I feel like it's a good thing that I hate wearing the waist-ties because I can just take them off and make a matching headbow from them!  Honestly, this was the first time that I've made a bow this way, but it was really easy so I'm definitely going to do it again.

You'll need a few things to start with:

• waist-ties
• a sewing machine
• a thread and needle
• a headband
• an iron

I'm going to be using my Merry Making Party JSK's waist-ties for this!

winter and lolita!

Sorry for not updating for a while!  I've been really busy with school work (my next post is going to be about that very subject) so I haven't been on the computer much.  I'm actually supposed to be studying for a test on the French Revolution, but I need a break!  So I'm just going to write a (relatively) short post today.

from the Angelic Pretty Sendai blog!

It's winter-time and I love winter!  I love wrapping up in tons of layers and wearing scarves and coats.  The only bad thing about winter is that I can't stand wearing lolita!  It's so hard for me to get out of bed 30 minutes (or more!) early just so I can wear lolita to school.  Don't get me wrong, I love wearing lolita more than anything, but it's gets increasingly difficult to wear in cold weather.  Where I live, it doesn't get too cold (usually around 15 - 30 degrees Fahrenheit on a particularly cold day) but still too cold for me to wear lolita.  I'm really envious of the people who can still wear it in the winter -- I think girls look adorable when they're wrapped up in poofy skirts and fluffy scarves and cardigans!

There are so many adorable winter wear items that I see on the store blogs, personal blogs, and in outfit shots, and it really inspires me to grab my petticoat and wear a bunch of layers!

I really love super casual coordinates like this one from the Angelic Pretty blog.  When I'm at school, I usually only wear casual coordinates, usually pairing a skirt with a cute t-shirt or cardigan!  So I love seeing casual coordinates from brands, because they give me inspiration on keeping my toned-down lolita style interesting to me.  This combination of the apron skirt (which kind of looks like their popular and casual salopettes) with the comfortable looking hoodie is just adorable!  Though I'm not too fond of the Candy Border socks with this, but I think everything else is cute, and I do like the idea of mixing printed socks with a different print dress.

from the BTSSB Shizuoka blog!

This outfit is from the BABY, The Stars Shine Bright Shizuoka blog.  Even though there aren't many components to this outfit, I still think it's really adorable!  I never really loved long-sleeved blouses, but I really like how this looks under this JSK/one piece.  I also love how, even though this dress isn't inherently winter-y (it is short-sleeved after all, and probably not made of any specifically winter fabric, like wool) the red and green tartan screams "this is a winter dress!" to me.  I love simple coordinates like these just as much as I like casual ones, like the above one.

Do the seasons ever affect what fashions/styles you wear?  What's your favourite winter lolita coordinate?

again with the carnival!

Angelic Pretty's Trump Carnival JSK

This is a slightly different than usual Angelic Pretty dress.  The print is called Trump Carnival and the print is very detailed with images of playing cards and ponies all over, and letters spelling out "ANGELIC PRETTY" falling down the dress!  It has tulle lace at the bottom of the ruffle, a large black bow at the waist (except for the pink version, which has a pink bow on it!), a small black bow at the top, and a ribbon brooch at the strap.  This is a pretty unique dress for AP!

close-up of the ribbon brooch

I think this dress is really cute, especially because of how different it is from AP's normal sugary-sweet-pastel-vomit, and as much as I like that (in fact, I love it!) it is always nice to see something different.  While this is similar to their other dresses in that it comes in pink and black with pink accents, the other colour choices are much different.  It comes in red and black and blue and black, as seen above.  These two colours might be seen more often in other brands (especially the moitie-esque electric blue!) but they are fairly rare for Angelic Pretty.  In fact, I think the last time I saw these colours in one of their prints was 2009's Starry Night Theatre, which this print actually reminds me of!  Since this print is called "Carnival Trump" and Starry Night Theatre has to do with a carnival, they are actually quite similar.  If you look closely, they also have a similar bodice and both of them have felt brooches that came with the dress!  However, I still believe that they are pretty much entirely different, except for those few similarities.  The colours were, to me, the sole-defining feature of this dress.  If this dress was released in typical AP colours (pink, sax blue, lavender, yellow, mint, or any other pastel colours) this dress wouldn't have been nearly as interesting, and I don't think it would have worked as well either!  I like the more goth-y elements to this dress, like all of the black accents and the vertical stripes that are created because of how the print was produced, and if it had been made in pastel colours, it wouldn't have looked nearly as cohesive and just plain appealing.  My favourite colour in this print has to be the blue; it is just so bright and fun!  That blue colour makes me think that this is what a moi-meme-moitie dress would look like if they designed a sweet carnival print -- highly unlikely, but that's what I think of!  (Of course, they would make it much, much more elegant than this ridiculously cute and ruffly piece, but ah well.  Maybe this could be a jumping-off point?  MmM, make a carnival print dress, it would be your new Iron Gate for the borderline sweet-gothic crowd!)

AP's coordinate!

I also just flat out love how AP chose to coordinate this on their website.  Red is my favourite colour, especially bright shades of it like this dress, so I really liked seeing this coordinate; I think it's awesome!  I'm really glad that they didn't shy away from using black in the coordinate, because they could have easily made this super-sweet by pairing it with lots of white and hardly any black. I also love the ridiculous star wand (I am such a sucker for stars!) and the playing card purse, though I think all the white of the purse is sort of distracting.  I am also a huge fan of blouses with gigantic bows at the neck, so that's also a plus.

Sadly, I haven't seen anybody actually wearing this dress, besides the AP models.  I haven't even seen any street snaps with this dress or this print!  Which is too bad, because I think it's truly a lovely dress and so I wonder why more people don't like it.  When it was first released, there were discussions on angelic poodle and EGL about it, and the general consensus was . . . nobody liked it!  But I fell in love with it at that point (I was definitely in the minority) and when it was posted to the website and I saw this coordinate, it made me love it even more!  I'm hoping that in a month or so (for my birthday!) I can find this for cheap on mbok or Yahoo! Japan, because I love this print.  Since nobody else seems to love it, that makes me more hopeful that I can find it for cheap somewhere!

a (almost) photo-only post!

The current monthly theme circulating around EGL has to do with wardrobes and taking pictures and posting everything in your lolita wardrobe!  Since I'm home sick from school today, I decided to do it!  So here's my wardrobe.

the plethora of carousel dresses

I'm going to start doing one post a week dedicated to an item that I love!  I find items like these very often, so I don't think this will be a problem!  This week, I'll talk about . . .

ALICE and the PIRATES carousel applique jumper skirt II

. . . this ALICE and the PIRATES jumper skirt!  I think this is absolutely beautiful.  It's made of velveteen fabric and is detailed with cotton lace and velvet ribbon, with pompoms and dot tulle at the hem.

the print on the black dress!

The print/applique on this dress is super cute; it's of a carousel horse underneath a carousel top with real black ribbons pulling the curtains back on the sides!  I think the bow at the bottom is a really cute touch, as are the roses at the bottom of the curtains; it gives it a more classic feel to an otherwise hard-to-classify dress!  It's hard to tell from their pictures, but I believe that the print is black and very pink-y lavender.  I love black and lavender together, so this is another selling point for me!  I think this colour scheme makes the dress more of a sweet one, even though the other colour ways (wine red and emerald green) make it seem more of a gothic dress.  The appliques on the other colours are also much darker; the red one has mostly red and silver with a touch of black, and the green one has green and silver with hints of black.  I think that's what makes the black version stand out so much; the colours are unexpected!

BtSSB's El Dorado JSK in black!

This is, of course, an ALICE and the PIRATES dress.  However, way back in 2008, AatP's mother company BABY, The Stars Shine Bright made a dress with a similar print!  It was called El Dorado and also was an appliqued dress (as opposed to screen printed or the print woven into the fabric) that featured a carousel and horses escaping and running off!  On top of the carousel, there's a flag that says "Revolution, Revolution" which I think is funny; it makes me think of lolitas wearing this dress while performing a coup d'état!  In all seriousness (well, as serious as lolita can get!) I think this is an equally beautiful dress and the blue version is definitely one of my dream items, and it has been ever since I saw it in person at a convention in 2009. Also, I believe that Angelic Pretty probably got some ideas from this dress for their famous Sugary Carnival print!  (this, conveniently, is also a dream dress of mine!  I absolutely adore the lavender version.  I guess I just love carousel prints, who knew?!)


I absolutely love ALICE and the PIRATES; they're definitely one of my favourite brands.  When I lose a bit of weight and get down small enough to wear their things, I'm probably going to do most of my shopping from them.  (I just need 1-2 more inches lost before I can wear most of their stuff!)  I love seeing them do sweeter, yet still gothy, things like this dress!  I hope to see more things like this in the new year.

buying lolita (on the cheap)

I'll start out by saying that buying lolita clothing is not always easy.  You have to struggle through Engrish-filled websites, fill out endless text boxes of information, use translators for websites entirely in Japanese even if they sell internationally, or even use a shopping service for those brands that just refuse to ship overseas!  However, more and more Japanese stores are opening English website, resellers of Japanese brands are popping up all over the place, and brands are even opening stores all over the world!  But if you don't want to pay upwards of $400 for an outfit, there are cheaper possibilities out there.  Whether you're a brand-new lolita trying to get your first outfit or someone old and experienced trying to pad your wardrobe, there are many places to buy cheaper lolita clothing so you don't have to break the bank to look cute!

 



EGL Sales community artwork by ruin_hci!

• The sales community.  The egl_comm_sales is my absolute favourite place to buy clothes.  While most of the things on there are used, lolitas tend to take very good care of their clothing (since everything is so expensive, why wouldn't you take good care of it?) so you can bet on most things being in pristine condition.  I generally feel very weird buying used clothing, but even I feel comfortable buying things from the sales community.  I have found many cheap things on there as well; I've bought an almost perfect Angelic Pretty skirt from someone for only $60 (a piece that I've been looking for since I first saw it!) and an older, but still perfect, AP dress for only $80!  The sales comm is definitely the best place to buy cheap clothing, because you don't need a shopping service and you can probably find someone selling in your own country, maybe even your own city!  The only downfall is that you need a livejournal account and a paypal account to buy anything, but those are two easy things to get!
• Japanese auction sites.  While a bit more inconvenient than the sales comm because of needing a shopping service, Y! Japan Auctions and mbok are both great places to get really cheap things.  Both of these places work just like eBay; you find something you love, it's probably really cheap, you bid on it, and when the auction expires, whoever has the highest bid gets the item.  I have found MANY extremely cheap items for sale both of these places, many of which were dream items of mine (curse my non-existant income!)  Since lolita is, by far, much easier to get in Japan, there are many more girls who resell their clothing.  I'm not sure why people sell for such low prices, but I'm grateful for it!  Usually things are in very good conditions as well, but there are the occassional pieces that are stained or torn, which you might not know about until you receive the item (unless you can read Japanese!)  There are a few downfalls to this method though; there is a definite language barrier that translator services might not help you with, you need a shopping service, and sometimes people won't sell to known shopping services.  This is a problem if you use a company as a shopping service as opposed to an individual person shopping service!
• Closet Child and Fairy Angel.  Closet Child is a great store with branches all over Japan and a webstore with international shipping.  They are basically a consignment store; people bring in the clothes that they don't want anymore and Closet Child sells them.  While their prices aren't the cheapest, especially for prints and rarer pieces, they have a lot of sales where they reduce their prices sometimes as much as 70%.  You have to be quick though, the best pieces sell quickly!  Fairy Angel is another used clothing website, though there prices tend to be much more ridiculous than Closet Child's.  They sell prints for exuberant prices!  However, they do have cheap accessories and blouses.  The problem with these two websites are the shipping prices; since they ship from Japan, there's usually about a $20-$30 shipping fee.
• Bodyline and Taobao.  If you're not looking for brand or are still iffy about buying used clothing, then Bodyline and the stores on Taobao are definitely the places to be.  Bodyline used to be a sexy-shop back in the day, and so lolitas tend to look down on it because it stuck with its roots for a while after they started to make lolita clothing.  Bodyline used to be known for its replicas and awful-quality clothing made of satin and rachel lace.  However, in the past year or so, they've really increased the quality of their items.  They have started making their own prints, using better lace, and using higher quality fabrics, so people are changing the ways they look at Bodyline!  Taobao is basically an internet mall; it has many different stores all selling different products, though they have a lot of lolita clothing.  One great thing about the Taobao stores is that everything is made to your size!  However, you need a shopping service.  Qutieland is the most popular, but they have very inflated prices.  If you are cringing at their prices, then you can go through the much cheaper Taobao Spree shopping service, though it's a bit harder to use because you need to hunt down all the items that you're interested in.

These are just a few ways to do lolita while not spending enormous amounts of money on it.  There are definitely other ways but I can vouch for these four ways!  What's your favourite way to buy lolita?

new year's resolutions!

New Years has come and gone, but every year, people around the world make resolutions to help keep them through the year.  Most people set out to make them but never follow though; I, myself, do the exact same thing.  However, I've been making promises to myself recently that I've been keeping, so I thought that this might be the year of me actually keeping some of my resolutions!  
 

 
Here's a picture of mine.  I wrote it on the piece of stationary that I received in my metamorphose Crown Label Honey Picnic Special Set!  (Which I absolutely love, by the way; it's the best $150 that I spent all year because it included a print that I absolutely adored since it's initial release, matching socks, a blouse, and a necklace!  Here's a photo of me wearing most of it!)
 

If you can't read what it says, here's what I wrote:

• exersize 30 minutes every day (at least!)
• keep up my blog!  post every other friday
• keep updating my etsy
• sell at a convention!
• make better use of my current wardrobe
• stop cutting corners when I sew for myself
• sew more in general
• expand my wardrobe
• buy brand that I LOVE!  (more prints!)
• settle on a favourite colour scheme and stick to it
• expand my lolita style!
• be a more loving person to everyone
• stop being mean
• be more helpful
• learn to love myself
• more generic ones!

As you can see, most of these are related to lolita!  (I have more personal ones but I chose not to include those, as I was trying to keep to only lolita ones because they seem more achievable!)  I reallywant to start exersizing to get into shape and to be able to wear more lolita; while I am perfectly fine with my body the way it currently is, I am aware that at my current size, I am not able to wear all of  the dresses that I want to -- in fact, I know that my dream dress would not fit me!  By exersizing, I hope to get healthy while losing some weight.  I don't need to lose much!  My goal is to lose two inches on all of my measurements by the end of the year, so that gives me some time to work on it.
 
One of my dreams recently is to sell my wears at a convention.  It just seems so fun to me!  I'm not that into anime or manga, or Japanese music to be honest, but I like going to conventions because of the atmosphere (along with the lolita programming!)  I would really love to sell at one of them; even though I don't make a lot of stuff and I don't sell a lot either, I want to sell at one so that I could kind of get my name out there in the general public and so that I could feel more professional!  Those seem like silly reasons, but I would really love to be able to create things at a professional level, and I have ever since I was little.  In relation to that, even though I love to sew, I haven't been able to lately because of how busy and stressful my school life has been recently!  A lot of my lolita wardrobe is handmade and I always get lots of compliments on my handmade items.  Plus, sewing is really fun and it usually takes my stress level down, so I would really like to get back into that!  I just bought four new fabrics to make a dress and two skirts out of, so I'm pretty excited about that.  My first projects of the new year!
 
I have a habit of wanting a lot of things, so one of my goals this year is to stop buying things I just like and only buy things that I love!  Usually I see something, and if I like the price, then I get it.  This usually ends up with me reselling whatever item for a considerably lower price, which results in me being sad!  So I'm going to make a concious effort to only buy things that I am absolutely in love with.  (Luckily, Angelic Pretty hasn't been putting out appealing prints recently, so I'm definitely safe there for the time being!)  My wardrobe is also completely eccletic in terms of colours, so I usually only have a few things to match a few other things!  One of my definite goals for this year is to kind of reorganize my wardrobe, sell thing that I can't really match, and try to settle on a few colours to buy stuff in.  I'm leaning towards pink, black, and mint green right now!

These are just a few of my lolita-related goals for this new year.  What are some of yours?

hello!

Welcome to my blog!  I'm starting it this year (2011) as a resolution; I wanted to create a blog for various reasons, including the following:

• I want a place to post updates about my webshop, called je moi mien, so I can update the world about my store!
• I want to have a place where I can post tips and guidelines for lolitas and maybe create interesting posts to read about.

So, here's a little bit about myself.  My name is Gina and I love sweet lolita!  I've been dressing in it for about three years and, even though I can't wear it all the time, I always am dreaming up new coordinates and outfits to wear.  My favourite brand is Angelic Pretty, but I love many others, including BABY, The Stars Shine Bright and metamorphose.  I also love playing video games, my favourites being any game in the Legend of Zelda series, the Kingdom Hearts series, and, of course, Pokemon!  I've been playing video games since I was about 5, and I always carried my Game Boy around with me, everywhere I went.  I absolutely love watching movies and TV.  I have so many favourite movies, it's not even funny!  I can't even begin to name them all.  My list of favourite television shows is much easier to contain; I love Modern Family, The Office, The Big Bang Theory, Mad Men, and Arrested Development, among many, many others.  I have a wide range of musical interests, ranging from rock to metal to classical.  My favourite bands include The Beatles, My Chemical Romance, Bright Eyes, and Andrew Jackson Jihad, though I like so many others!  One of my favourite things to do is draw and create art, and I hope to one day become a comic book illustrator, because I love reading and writing comics.  I also love to sew and I am starting work on a hair accessory brand called je moi mien!  I sew a lot of my own clothes and I've been sewing since 2006.

Thanks for reading my blog!  I hope to update every other Friday (excluding today, of course!) so look forward to my first real post on Friday!