May Adventures

May has proven itself to be a good month!

I'm currently in the process of training for a new job. It's at the same place I work now, but is a lot more responsibility (and more pay!) I'm still in training though, so I will not count on that raise until I successfully pass.

On to the fun stuff.
A couple of weeks ago I went to lunch with a couple of folks from the LA Lolita community. We went to Royal T! The place is closing in August, so it was nice to get out there before it shuts its doors.

I wore a casual St. Mephisto's coord. I threw this together at the last minute, and I'm not pleased at how it turned out. I used pink and black to coordinate it with, but I feel like I could have used more lavender somewhere in the coord.

I wear it with a cardigan because I do not like how the front part of the jSK looks (ribboning, bows).
It just seems a bit boring with the cardigan. I definitely need to get this JSK tailored a little bit. I'm hoping my tailor will be able to remove the ribbons and bows, and maybe lengthen the straps a bit to make it longer.
Here's a group shot:


This last Saturday, there was a meetup at the Old Zoo at Griffith park. It was HUGE! There were girls there from all areas of Southern California. I had so much fun. I wore my Melty Mermaid Princess coord. I initially wanted to wear Amelia's Locket, but I lost the mint blouse i was going to wear with it.

Picture dump time!

This picture was taken by a professional photographer named Nelson. I believe he's married to a local lolita and he comes to most of the big meets. His work is AMAZING, though a little depressing. I wish I looked like I do in this picture normally!

Here's a group of us hiking through the park!


Sara's wearing St. Mephisto, she looked so pretty in it!



Aurora, Flora and I:


And this girl was wearing sax Wonder Story! She had so much poof. She said she got her petticoat for around $15 in the fashion district in LA, I'm gonna have to go check it out. 

The meetup was a swapmeet and pot luck. I brought a bunch of my stuff to sell, but only ended up selling my black bodyline soft cream skirt. Just to give you an idea of how big this meet was, here's a shot I took before it started to get really packed:



I am so glad I went, because I got to see all my old friends and meet a bunch more.

I am hoping I'll be able to go to Anime Expo in late June, it all depends on my new work schedule. However I will for sure be going to a small tea in Pasadena in June.

The Cthulhu Project

Before I go into any plans, I feel that I should lay the groundwork first. If you can't already tell, I get a bit obsessive over things I'm interested in. This is something I have interested in for a while, so I feel a background in the subject is appropriate. 

About ten years ago, I watched a movie called Dagon. 

Dagon is a horror movie about half fish people. It is loosely based on HP Lovecraft's story, and it definitely stuck with me. In 2005  I found a band called Dagon with an evil looking mermaid on the cover of their CD. I fell in love with the mermaid artwork, and the guy at the record store was awesome enough to let me keep the cover without actually buying the CD. A few months later I got the mermaid tattooed on my upper back. Unfortunately I can not find a picture of the art for the life of me.

I decided I wanted to read Dagon. I went to the library to get it, and while I was there I saw this, also by HP Lovecraft: 

I was absolutely amazed by the artwork on the cover, so I checked the book out along with Dagon. I read Dagon, but never ended up reading anything from this book. It is full of short stories, and I had no idea where to read about the giant monstrosity on the cover. 

Over the years I never forgot the art. I really wanted to get this tattooed as well, but could not think of a less graceful thing than a giant squid like apparatus on my back. Over the years I did things to get try to get it out of my system so that I wouldn't get it tattooed; I traced over it a couple times, I even tried painting it. Nothing really worked. 

So recently I started researching it a little bit more. I found out the artist of the portrait is Raymond Bayless. I also found out that the monster is called Cthulhu. Researching it more I found out that it is apparently the god of Lovecraft's characters. I also found out that the book has the story on Cthulhu, which is appropriately titled "The Call of Cthulhu". Metallica's song from Master of Puppets called "The Thing that Should Not Be" is based off of Cthulhu as well. I've heard that song dozens of times before, and I had no clue! 

So what do I do? I decide to turn this art work into a lolita skirt. 

By using Spoonflower, I will be able to print this portrait onto fabric.  Cthulhu and his cavern will be on the front of the skirt, and the rocks will be along the bottom of the fabric the rest of the way around. 

My first step in doing this was buying the actual book. My dad said I needed a high resolution photo instead of pulling it off of the internet (something to do about pixels). That version of The Dunwich Horror has since been discontinued, so I had to order an old library book from Ohio. I'm glad I did, because I was then able to read the Call of Cthulhu. According to the story, Cthulhu was sent down from the stars and has been around for eons. He's been in suspended in time, dead but dreaming, waiting for the right time to awake.  By reading the book, I found other things that I'll be incorporating into the skirt: 

Lovecraft developed a language for the Cthulhu cult (the cult are the people who help Cthulhu awake when the 'stars are aligned properly') This is their chant: 

Ph'nghui mglw'nath Cthulhu R'ley wgah'nagl fhtagn

It means, in his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming. 

I want to put the chant on the bottom of the skirt, underneath the rocks. I want it to be in some nautical looking script. 

I also found the latitude and longitude coordinates for R'lyeh, which I want to incorporate into the skirt as well. I am still kind of stuck about how to do so. 

I know of a couple girls in the lolita community who can sew, so I'll be seeing if one of them can help me turn the fabric into a skirt. 

As for the coord,  thats an entirely different story. The color scheme is going to be pale green and gray. I see this having the potential to be both a pirate and mermaid coord. 

Either way, I'm pretty excited. I can actually say that I'm content with my lolita wardrobe in a way that I haven't been before. I don't feel the need to buy new stuff anymore, and all I have left to do is sell off most of my old sweet stuff. I'll only have 3 JSK's and 2 skirts, but I feel that's enough. My wardrobe is still versatile enough to wear sweet when I want. 

Oh, and the Royal T meet next week, I don't know what to wear yet! 

What I Bought Selling my Dreams Away

I mentioned in an earlier post that I had sold Candy Treat and Jewelry Jelly (my first dream dresses). I took the money I made from those two dresses and replaced them with things to adapt to my changing style.

St Mephisto Cathedral in iris by Alice and the Pirates:

This dress is a lovely color and print. BUT there are a few things I don't like about it. For one, the bow and lace right dab in the middle makes it look more childish than it needs to. Also the straps are a bit short. However I may be able to remove the bows/lace and get the straps extended. Until then it goes wonderfully under my black pirate jacket.

Amelia's Locket in sea foam by Atelier Enchanteur

This skirt is an absolute treat. It is definitely one of my favorite pieces. The amazing thing about Atelier Enchanteur is that it's just one dedicated girl in Maryland. She even sent me this as a free gift: 
How cool is that?
Anyway, this skirt is amazing. When I was putting together my Melty Mermaid Princess coord, I was trying to achieve a mermaid theme, but no matter what I did it kept coming out pirate-y looking. But this skirt is so whimsical that I'm easily able to put together a mermaid coord out of it with my blonde Rhapsody wig. It's also versatile enough to go pirate with my Farrah Showstopper wig.

I also picked this up for my Wonder Story coord:



More stuff that I'll be selling that I've blogged about:
Milky Berry (after all that work, I decided I've outgrown the print. At least I got to wear it once!)
Aurora headband
An*tai*na blue rocking horse shoes
Chocomint love balloon
Bodyline soft cream skirt in black
GLW pink x blue split
Bodyline "mint" shoes


I'm in the process of making a sales post, who knew it could be so much work?

Brewery Art Walk Lolita Meet + Other Stuff

On Sunday, I attended a meet up in Los Angeles at a place called the Brewery.
The Brewery is a lot of hundreds of artists lofts. They open them up two times a year to the public, and so a group of us went out there!

I had a lot of fun. I wore my OTT pirate coord with my new Rhapsody wig from GLW. The coord was a mix of pirate and mermaid!  The best part about it was seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

Here's a closeup of my outfit, kind of lol



I felt far more comfortable in this coordinate than any of my sweet ones. I felt more my age too. So I'm definitely switching styles.
I sold off Candy Treat..won't forget about my old obsession with that any time soon.

I also sold off Jewelry Jelly. It's still in my closet at the moment, but there's someone paying for it via payment plan. After searching for it for months and finally finding and buying it, I don't consider it mine anymore. I've seen too many bad pictures of myself in it.

I considered selling Merry Making Party too, but after seeing this photo I decided to keep it around for last resort OTT coords:



 As for Milky Berry, I think I'm going to keep it, just because of the mint and red clash. Plus it took me around 8 months to get the coordinate together, so it would be a shame to let it go.  I'll keep Wonder Story because while it is a sweet print, it's a tad more sophisticated and grown up than some of the other sweet prints I've had.
Chocolate Chess is definitely sticking around, because I love it too damn much to let it go.
I am so grateful that I never bought Decoration Dreams.

Now that I have loads of money from my  sales, I am going to invest in Alice and the Pirates. Melty Mermaid Princess is by that brand. The really cool thing about that skirt is that I can wear it as normal clothes, and no one thinks anything weird of it. I figure that prints that, as well as ones a  little more on the classic side are a little more adaptable into every day wear. It makes spending the money far more justifiable.


Well, I'm off to bed!

March Activities

March has already prooved itself to be very busy!

The first Saturday in March, I attended a lovely meetup at the Huntington Library. It is so beautiful, and was perfect for a meet! I recently bought Wonder Story, which is an Alice in Wonderland inspired theme. It has books on it, and is was perfect for the place.

That's me, Iris, Suzanna, and Grace. There was only four of us, but there was a group of high school kids doing a documentary on the fashion. They followed us around for a bit and were pretty nice company. 

The Huntington Library proved to be a place for excellent photo opportunities. 

Here's a closeup of my coord!

Last weekend, I participated in another fashion show. I wore my Chocolate Chess coord. 

I got pretty nervous and didn't stop for long enough at the first photo op. We're supposed to stop for 3 seconds before we move on, and I think I must've been there for  1 1/2 seconds. I slowed down a bit after that though. Overall, i had a really good time, met a lot of new people, and decided once and for all  that I hate wig caps! 

As for the rest of the month, I don't really have too much planned. I am still working on reconstructing my red blouse so i can wear Milky Berry. I am also in the works of selling all my head bows, as well as my Candy Treat set. 

Oh and I must post the newest addition to my closet!

PIRATE TIGHTS! The print is pretty unique, as most pirate/sailor things just have pictures of boats and anchors. These tights have squid and narwhals on them! Narwhals were always my favorite species of whale, because they remind me of unicorns. 

I am putting together a pirate coord using my Melty Mermaid Princess skirt and some old items that I've found lying around in my closet. These tights are a perfect addition. 

Until next time! 

Event Photos/Scarlet Tea Room Review

As I posted earlier, Febuary has been busy with events.
On Wednesday I walked in my first fashion show at Royal T for a Tune in Tokyo event.

The whole experience was....blah.
For a couple of reasons.

First, I put my makeup on in the dark. Since I'm pretty unskilled, it came out looking pretty bad. I also had a circle lens malfunction, so I had to go without those. Also at the last min. I stupidly decided to wear my JSK the normal way, instead of wearing it as a halter like I normally do. Because of my size, when I wear most JSK's as they should be worn, they are too unporportionate and short. Because of that I ended up looking stocky and unportional. Additionally, I should not have left those two peices of hair out of my wig. It would have looked fine without that.
On to the group pic!

Everyone else looked fabulous! You can totaly see how my pettis are not proportionate at all. On the bright side, it was amazing getting to see a lot of the local girls together in one place.

So I learned from that experience and learned what not to do if there is a next time.

On Saturday, the Valentines Tea rolled around. I wore my Chocolate Chess coord. I love Chocolate Chess more than any other JSK I own, it's fits so beautifully and I actually feel comftrable in it.

Here I am with the lovely Sharon!

And here's a group shot:


The event was hosted by Molly and Paige, who are located on the far left. They did an excelent job through the whole thing. From picking the venue to organizing the event, it all went off wonderfully. They even had lolita themed bingo, which was a lot of fun!

On to my review of the tea house!
The Scarlet Tea Room is located off of Green Street in Pasadena, right on the outskirts of Old Town. The accesability is alright, I had to park in a structure and paid $6 for the whole time, which isn't too bad. As for the price of the tea itself, I paid $35. It included 3 courses.
The first course was scones and preserves. There were four different types of scones to choose from, and I had a chocolate chip one. It was amazing!
After the scones, we were given tea sandwich trays. The sandwiches were roast beef, turkey/cranberry,chicken pesto, and some apple thing. I ate the first three but not the apple one. The three sandwiches that I did eat were very good!
Later we had some sort of berry thing. It was pretty good too, though I have no idea what it is called.
So the price included the food, tax and tip. I thought it was a bit steep, but the atmosphere in the tea room was pretty nice compared to others I've been to, so I didn't mind too much. There was a man on the piano and the whole place was really clean.

That's it for now. Next week I'll be attending another meetup at the Huntington Library in San Marino. I'm pretty excited about that!

Chocolate Chess Coordinate Plan

Chess Chocolate is mine! I made a bit of overtime in January, so I was able to afford it. I bought the mint
jabot.



Coord wise, the light mint will be my base color. I am going to bring in pink as a secondary color, even though the JSK doesn't have any in it. I am going to use brown as another secondary color. White and gold will also be brought in slightly.

From the bottom up!
I'm going to wear my pink rocking horse shoes.


Mint royal chocolate socks! These work perfectly, because I won't be missing out on the brown towards the bottom of the coord.

I also just bought this pink bolero from BTSSB. I will wear this with Chess Chocolate until I buy a long
sleeve pink blouse. The white in the trim will coordinate with the white chocolate pieces in the print.


On the bolero, I am going to pin my mint fuzzy stars. In order to bring out the gold in the jsk, I am going to pin my gold chocomint stars in the middle of the fuzzy stars. It's a pretty cool technique to use. 

And my AP chocolate donut necklace!

And of course, my Melty Chocolate bag!




As for my hair, I'm going to wear my blended choco-latte base wig, with my toned down mint bow. I'm also thinking about constructing some chess chocolate inspired bows. I bought some mint-ish colored ribbon the other day, but I'm not too sure if the colors are right. I should just go with pink bows instead, to bring the pink color up into the top of the coord.

I also need to start thinking about earrings, since my wig will be worn up. I'll likely just do some dangly chocolate truffles.

Update 2/19/12:
Chocolate Chess came in the mail a few days ago! It's definitely the most beautiful dress I have. Here I am trying it on and taking an ever tacky mirror shot!