Pre School Blues

So tomorrow morning, I am going to go to my first class at the University of Phoenix. I am finally starting work on my bachelors degree. I don't know whether to be excited or pissed that I'll be in school another two years, as most people my age got their degrees years ago. I do realize that I'm extremely fortunate to be able to get an education in the first place, and will do my best. I picked the University of Phoenix because if I had chosen a public school like a cal state, I'd be stuck trying to get a degree for at least twice the time it'll take me at Phoenix.

I also have one last class to take at PCC, MATH. :-( I start that at 7am Monday morning. OHH well.

I've made a couple of impulse buys over the last two days, which I'm about to share. I am going to try and ban myself from the EGL sales for the next two weeks, as I have absolutely no more money to spend on myself anyway. After I pay my last bill and put gas in my car, I'll have about $21 left over until the 10th. Which is OK, I can live off of that. I bring lunch to work, and make my own coffee at home. I have no other expenses throughout the week.

Now on to the fun shit.

IMPULSE BUYS

Impulse buy #1:
I saw these on a girl on Daily Lolita about a week ago. She was in OTT sweet, and was wearing her clip in the same pink x blue mix wig that I have. These came up last night and I jumped on the opportunity to buy them. Usually all you see from chocomint on egl are the star clips. These are pretty bitchin:

These look like balloons! I bought mine in blue. I can attach this to the middle bow on my Candy Treat JSK. So pretty!

Impulse buy #2:
Today I found this on EGL for a flat price. Meaning the price included shipping and paypal fees. Usually something like this would cost a lot more with all of the fees.

It's an Angelic Pretty donut necklace!! I'll be able to wear this with my casual black Soft Cream coord. I feel kind of bad, because there was another girl inquiring about it before me,  but I left my pay pal before she left hers. This is the second time  I've done that to that user in the last month.  Oh well. 

I also like this donut necklace because donuts were one of the first things that I tried making out of polymer clay two years ago. They came out lookin' like crap. To celebrate my purchase, I fixed up an old donut charm that I made 4 months ago. It's a huge mickey mouse donut, and I attached a marshmallow chain to it and turned it into a hair clip. I attached it to my purse for school tommorow. 

(Kind of) Impulse buy #3:
My black kawaii goods star. I don't really know if I can consider this impulsive, as I needed it for my casual coord anyway.

I'm thinking about pinning this on my melty chocolate bag to make it coordinate better with the rest of the outfit. 

I seriously can not wait for all of my stuff to get here. My casual coord is going to be so wonderful. I think I probably went a little over my $150 spending limit, but that's because I kept coming across stuff that would go perfectly with it! I LOVE planning out every detail. I would never wear anything out if just one of those details was missing. 

My plan for my next check: 

1. Get those damn mint shoes for my Milky Berry coord already. ($70)

2. Put away hopefully $150 for my next JSK. 

3. I need to buy my tickets for PMX, though I have all Sept. and Oct. to do that. Will wear Milky Berry to PMX most likely. 

Oh, and I also signed myself up for a lolita pen pal. I'm going to feel bad that I'm going to send my first letter on notebook paper and not cute stationary. She'll hopefully understand, once I explain what I spent all my money on :)

Goodnight!!

Damn you, Melty Chocolate

I mentioned earlier that I'm trying to digress away from brand.

And then I found out today that Angelic Pretty re-released their Melty Chocolate bag:

I don't have anything that would coordinate with this. 

But I still want it.

Bad. 

UPDATE: Broke down and bought it on 8/20. I just got promoted at work so it's a present to myself. LOL, I could have bought a camera (which is what I needed) for the same price.

Casual Loli Coord

So after spending an entire summer being completely broke from buying brand, I've decided to lay off of it for a few months. Now that I have my two brand dresses, I don't feel the need to get anymore for a while. I'd say I'll wait until maybe January to buy brand again. Lets just see how well that works out...LOL.


While I'm putting a halt to my brand obsession, it doesn't mean that I am going to stop buying lolita (or a few small brand items here and there). After going to a couple of meet ups and interacting with other lolitas, I've realized that brand isn't everything. Therefore I will not feel uncomfortable wearing bodyline around the other girls anymore. By coming to this conclusion, I was able to put together a casual loli bodyline coord in my head. I've never even considered wearing lolita casually, but now that the fall semester is coming up, I'd like to wear lolita to school. The cool thing about casual loli is that I will not feel the need to wear a wig with my coord.


Now on to what I have planned out! I still haven't bought everything for Milky Berry, but I have a lot of time to do that; as I'm not really planning on wearing it until at least October. I am hoping to do my casual coord for $150 or less.

The  focal point of this coord is going to be the skirt. I am planning on buying Bodyline's soft cream skirt in black. I already have the JSK version of this in mint. At $25 + EMS shipping, it shouldn't cost
more than $50. I can't find a good photo of the skirt by itself, so I found this from another blog. I'm blotching out the faces of the girls as I don't personally know them.

I am going to buy the skirt on the left. 

For my top, I am going to wear a black blouse that I already have.

This isn't the blouse that I have, but it's just to give you an idea!

 I need to buy a light pink cardigan to go over it, where I can probably get at the mall for less than $20. 

In order to make the cardigan not as boring, I initially thought of pinning my pink chocomint stars to it. However, I think it would be far to much pink on top. A simple solution to this is a "bittersweet" fuzzy star from kawaii goods, which I still have to buy. The star will really pop in the pink backround, and coordinate wonderfully with the base color. Kawaii goods recently dropped her fuzzy star prices, making them considerably more affordable. 

LOVE THESE! 

As for my socks, I would like to buy Angelic Pretty's Toy Parade socks in black. I really don't like the Toy Parade series, as I find it a tad childish, but the socks are outfitted in conversation hearts! 

I'm planning on ordering these along with my Berry Berry socks from Angelic Pretty USA's website once I get paid again! 

As for my shoes, I am going to wear my pink RHS shoes that I already have. 

Mine are at the bottom right. 

So far, this coord will run me about $90 with the socks and skirt. So that leaves me with about $60 left over for acsessories. My biggest issue is which bag to get. Bodyline has this weird lookin' apple bag that I'm considering:

This is only $6 on bodyline's website. If I bought this I'd cut off the handles and cover up the weird green leaf thing with something. I'm thinking black, lightly deco'd felt stars. 

Also, for my hair, I'm going to wear the ice cream cookie clips that I made. The "frosting" on the cookie is going to be be pink, to coordinate with the rest of my accessories. As for my necklace, I'm going to wear my bear ice cream parfait from kawaii goods. I'm still debating on what kind of earrings I should make. 

And of course, if I REALLY want to spoil myself, and if another one of my Amazon books sells, I'm going to buy these totally bitchin rings:

I'd be able to wear these with just about anything.  

I'm also going to try to make some bracelets, as I just bought a huge bag of cute plastic stars. 

Until next time! 

Update: After spending about an hour and a half on Angelic Pretty's website trying to figure out why it kept declining my debit card even though I had money, I finally got through and ordered my stuff! I got my 2 rings and 2 pairs of socks. I'll buy the skirt, star, and cardigan next pay period. 

Angelic Pretty Lace

I attempted to blog about Angelic Pretty's lace in my last post, but decided that it is far too interesting a subject to only mention briefly. While lace may seem like something minuscule to outsiders, it is in fact what makes our lolita brand dresses special. It is the reason why I wear sweet lolita, and why I can justify spending the money on my dresses. 

Lace is also one of the reasons I decided to not wear replicas. While some of the replica brands do an OK job at replicating Angelic Pretty's lace, its just not the same. Additionally, replicas can be relatively expensive too, and I'd rather just save my money for the real thing. 

In this post, I am going to show five of Angelic Pretty's prints and their lace. Two of these prints are so loved and popular that they are somewhat difficult to find and incredibly more expensive than the others. This post is meant for outsiders to perhaps understand an aspect of this fashion that makes it so unique. 

 I found some of these photos from other fashion blogs, so if one of these is one your photos, I thank you for taking these pictures! Also, some of these pictures might be big, but it's so you can see the beautiful detail in the lace. 

Milky Berry

 As I mentioned in my earlier post, I don't particularly like this lace. I realize it's because it isn't the typical colorful mesh material. Since I posted my Milky Berry JSK in the last post, I'm going to put the lace in here only. You need to look closely to see the detail: 

Milky Berry's print is covered in strawberries. Note how the lace matches that theme. 

Sugary Carnival 

Sugary Carnival is one of Angelic Pretty's most popular prints. Used, Sugary Carnival costs one to two hundred dollars more than the original release price. It is detailed with carousel horses attached to marshmallow "poles". Pictured is a Sugary Carnival skirt: 

And now for Sugary Carnival's lace: 

Notice the carousel horses in the lace! How adorable is that? 

Milky Planet:

Milky Planet is also a relatively popular Angelic Pretty print. There is ice cream everywhere on this print, even little ice cream rocket ships.  I couldn't find a picture of a dress or skirt that had a good view of the print itself, so here is a swatch of it:

Now for Milky Planet's lace: 

Can you see the ice cream cones in the lace? Kind of makes you hungry doesn't it? 

Jewelry Jelly 

I like Jewelry Jelly because unlike the last two prints, it isn't as crazy in demand. It usually sells quickly when it's in the EGL sales, but it isn't as expensive as Milky Planet and Sugary Carnival. Since I have a Jewelry Jelly JSK in an earlier post, I'm going to use the swatch as an example of the print. Its somewhat hard to see, but there are jello molds on platters. 

                                  Look closely and see how the lace matches the print: 

Candy Treat

I thought I'd post Candy Treat's lace, as I blogged so much about this print. If you haven't noticed from earlier posts, Candy Treat is adorned with lolly pops and other candies.  Heres the print swatch: 

Now for the lace, which I can't get enough of: 

More lace to make your mouth water!

So now you see one of the reasons why I am obsessed with this fashion. Theres no way in hell you can find this kinda stuff at the mall! 

Milky Berry Coord

Today I purchased my second Angelic Pretty set. It isn't Jewelry Jelly like I had initially wanted, but it was my second choice. I've been saving up and living frugally to be able to afford more Angelic Pretty, and I'm happy that I found this dress in the colourway that I wanted! For anyone who doesn't know how Lolita sales work, we either have to buy directly from the stores, or buy used on EGL sales. EGL is a livejournal community devoted to gothic and lolita fashion. They have a sales portion where girls can put up their used clothes and accessories and sell them to others. This is a great tool for us, as brands usually only release a certain amount of items in a particular series. Anyway, I think Milky Berry was released a few years ago, so there is no way I'd be able to buy it direct from their site. I happened upon it this morning  in the EGL sales! I thought I'd share with you my plans for my Milky Berry Coord.

First, and most importantly, this is the set that I bought:

I lucked out and got the JSK and hairbow in one set. No socks though :-(

The one thing I do not like about Milky Berry is the lace. It has strawberries in the lace, but it's white and doesn't stand out as much as prints like Milky Planet and Sugary Carnival. I will post another entry about Angelic Pretty lace today. 

I will be able to wear this with the mocha latte wig that I already bought from GLW. Or perhaps my plan old boring brunette wig that is similar to the one in the photo of the bow. 

Now on to the things that I still have to buy! I'm hoping to get away with spending only about $100 more. 

To make my life a little easier, I am planning on buying Angelic Pretty's Berry Berry socks instead of their Milky Berry ones. The socks in the Milky Berry series might be a little difficult to find, as Angelic Pretty doesn't produce them anymore. However, Berry Berry socks are currently available on their website. I am going to buy them in white because it's one of the coordinating colors in the outfit. 

Next, I need to buy a bag. Angelic Pretty released a strawberry bag that would go perfectly with this coord. However, as I mentioned earlier, I don't want to spend more than another $100 on Milky Berry. Bodyline, Angelic Pretty's poor second cousin, released this bag.  I'm hoping and praying I'll be able to find it in EGL. 

                                                            

Next, I will need a red blouse to go under the JSK. I can probably find that for cheap either at a thrift store or Ross. 

Finally, I need rmint shoes to complete this look. I'd like to try another type of shoe other than RHS, so I'd settle for tea party shoes or anything else lolita-esque: 

                                                      

These shoes are Antaina, which is the same ebay seller I bought my blue rocking horse shoes from. Their shoes average about $55 shipped, and I trust them because of the good experience I had with them last time. 

As for accessories, I've been planning them out for a while now. Perhaps I convinced myself to buy Milky Berry before Jewelry Jelly because of all the creative freedom I'll have. I am going to make giant strawberries for hair clips. And at dinner on Friday, I saw strawberry tarts and got inspired. I'm going to make a huge strawberry tart necklace. I also happened to pick up this Angelic Pretty gingham ring for a really good price on EGL: 

I hate gingham, but this will go so well with my coord!

As I mentioned earlier, after I shine my boots for work tomorrow, I'll post an entry about Angelic Pretty lace. It's much more exciting than you may think :0) 

Comic Con 2011

This Saturday I went to Comic Con in San Diego. It was quite an experience. I wore my candy treat coord, which turned out nicely. My sax RHS from ebay were much more comfortable than my pink ones from Bodyline.  I walked around in them for 12 hours and didn't get very tired. Comic Con was insanely huge, with so much crap to look at in the exhibition hall. We went to a PeeWee Herman panel, and a Dr Who meetup as well.
                                          
Here's Erica cosplaying as River Song from Dr Who. I really wish I had some pictures from their meetup. There was probably about 25 Dr Who cosplayers.

And now on to my CANDY TREAT COORD!

I brought three different dresses for comic con, but ended up wearing Candy Treat the entire time. On Thursday when we went to the actual con, I wore my wig without the pigtails.

That day I got invited to a photo shoot for Entertainment Weekly, and I got to take professional photographs with a bunch of other cosplayers. I only let them think I was wearing a costume. 

On Saturday, I went to a Lolita meetup at Seaport Village. which is right across the street from the convention center. That day I did end up wearing my pigtails, and I got mobbed by people taking pictures while walking through the outside of the convention. The pigtails really brought the look together, and although I fear they make my face look too round, I think I'd wear them again.

This is a photo from facebook.com/deliscousbuzz. I actually won a contest because of this photo, but the prize was to some weird party in San. Diego that I had no interest in.

 There must have been about 20 girls at the meetup. I have never seen so many girls dressed in lolita at once. The ones that I talked to were so nice, and everyone looked amazing. 

Heres a nice candid shot of us walking to the carousel 

Before we left for seaport village, this strange lady with a german accent made me and my friend Amy pose for weird photos. It turns out she was the wife of some famous german filmaker named Werner Herzog. I've never heard of him. Anyway, apparently he's quite famous. Here he is standing around some of the girls: 

His wife was really weird and wanted to take pictures of us holding hands and hugging as if we were little girls. Just because we dress like dolls doesn't mean we want to act like children! 

                                                  Anyway, heres a good shot of most of the group:

This is most of the group. I'm over on the far right. 

All in all, I had so much fun at Comic Con. It was a priceless experience and I hope to go again next year.