rose tea sugar

Pastel Hair

2012-01-29T16:34:00.000+02:00

Hi hi!

Recently I've been really bored with my hair. It's always been long, straigt and blonde. Occassionally I have bangs but that's about it. I'd really want to do something fun and cute and now I'm considering colouring them pastel coloured, probably pink. I wouldn't colour them completely, that would be a bit too radical, though :D

Here are some inspirational pictures:

This is a lovely picture <3

Aww, candy cotton!!

This is the exact colour I'd want (this is a wig though).

Pastel mint green is also lovely (you might have noticed that I like it, no? :D)

Another lovely picture <3

She's super cute! I love both her hair colour and style.

Light pink? Baby blue? Mint green? Lavendel? Which colour?

Giselle

Desucon Frostbite

2012-01-24T18:54:00.001+02:00

Hi,

I wrote this post a week ago, and then my Internet connection disappeared and I lost the whole post... Oh well. I was there and it was really fun. That's pretty much it ^^; I was going to cosplay on Saturday but I managed to forget my wig home, so no cosplay. At least it's ready for the next convention so I don't have to spend the previous night finishing it as I usually do :p

Here is my outfit:

skirt: Dream of Lolita
blouse, tights: random
shoes: Bodyline
hairbows: Classical Puppets
pearls: Ninja
wig: Gothic Lolita Wigs

One always looks so fresh and unshiny after a whole day in a convention...

I also had matching nails with yellow, light purple, mint and pink stripes but I forgot to take pictures. Of course.

On Saturday I had light pink contact lenses because I had put them on for the cosplay and didn't want to remove them after putting on my make up. And I fell in love with them so much!!

I usually have Saaga with me, but this time I took Yuki, because my friends Hannele and Christina also had their Senior Delf -girls with them so we matched ^^ Yuki's outfit is completely made by me.

Next time, a hair style posting ^^

Giselle

Tea time!

2011-12-14T15:29:00.003+02:00

A tea post is a must in a lolita blog. Here's mine!

I've always liked tea, even though I'm not as refined as many others. I don't have high understanding when it comes to water temperature, cups with right shapes, the quality of tea leafs and such. Still, I'm very interested in Western tea traditions. It's such a pity that you can't find a tea house in Finland where you could get afternoon tea (at least I haven't found one). I've also always wanted to host a tea party meet up - I just didn't own some necessities such as a tea pot... But now I do!

I was randomly searching for Christmas presents yesterday and came along this pale blue tea pot at Clas Ohlson. It was only 15€ so I had to buy it! I've been looking for a tea pot since... hmm, forever? And this one was just perfect. It is the exact colour of my Arabia KoKo tableware and even the style is quite similar.

...and it also goes well with my Green Gate cups! (The camera changes the colours, in natural light there seems to be no difference at all between the pot and the polka dot cup).

It is big enough to serve at least for four and can be washed in a washign machine.

Of course, I'd love some cute flowery tea set with gold decorations, but they are both super expensive and impractical. I also don't have the space to store multiple tableware sets and they are hard to come by. So this pot is just perfect!

My favourite tea is black tea, even though I drink some green ones too. I like Earl Gray a lot, it's what my father prefers so I've always been drinking it and it's quite nostalgic. Many flavoured teas are lovely too, at the moment I especially enjoy Spring Flower tea from Indiska (I know, not very Christmas-like ^^;). It's a black tea flavoured with almond crocant, fudge, egg liqueur and cream. Very sweet and the scent is heavenly <3 I also like chai tea and everything else with spices like cinnamon, cardamom or vanilla. I prefer my tea with sugar, no milk, lightly infused.

I'd love to try scones with clotted cream and jam, one of the most traditional treats to go with afternoon tea. Anyone tried them? I'd also make cupcakes, sandwitches, pastries and a cake to go with tea ^^ ...and now I'm getting hungry.

It seems it's time to go and eat something :D

Breaking Dawn

2011-12-04T13:26:00.001+02:00

Hi!

I went to watch Breaking Dawn with my friends (I won't even bother to tell in how many ways it was a lousy movie) and I wanted to wear my Milky Planet ^^ This is yet another casual coordinate, but I prefer oversweet prints with everything else toned down.

skirt: Dream of Lolita
cutsew, tights: H&M
shoes: YesStyle
pearls: Ninja
hair bow: Classical Puppets

TaoBao order

2011-11-30T15:04:00.001+02:00

So! My TaoBao order finally arrived.

I used DollyPoddle's shopping service, she can be found on Facebook by "TaoBao and Anna House shopping service". She was very kind and helpful and it was easy to communicate with her. I would recommend her if you need a shopping service ^^

Here's my order:

A blouse from KidsYoYo. Originally I was going to order a simpler one but then my sweet side got me... This is a good basic blouse anyway, it's good to have other colours than white too.

A close up. Lots of bows... I might remove some of them ^^; The buttons are heart-shaped <3 There is also a snap-on button at the highes point of bust to prevent the blouse from opening between the buttons. A very thoughtful of them, as western lolitas often aren't as flat as the easterns ones.

The Sweet Little Chocolate -skirt from KidsYoYo. I think the mint base makes this a bit more versatile as it can be coordinated to both mint and pink, as well as brown. The quality is very good, there are no mistakes, even tiny ones, at all.

I love the details!

They had a brand name lace made for them! The quality is also very good.

I ordered the necklace in both colours. They were shipped in adorable boxes as shown in the photo. These are handmade my the company owner. I intended to take one apart and make earrings and such, but I'm not sure I have the heart to do so...

As you can see, they vary a little. These are totally adorable.

Details.

More details.

The headdress and a removable bow from the skirt. The heart is from the headdress, it is detachable. The bow is loose enough to move along the hairband so it's very variable.

A Milky Planet -replica from Dream of Lolita. They are often referred as a low quality seller, but this is a very nicely done. The sewing is good, colours at least to me seem to be just like the original and the lace is soft and pretty. There's also a slim built-in petticoat. For a casual coordinate I'd love to combine this with pink UGG boots and thick knee-high wool socks with pompoms ^^

The print. The dark pink isn't actually as bold as in the photo but the bad winter light makes it look like this.

Lace close up.

Removable bow from the skirt, Milky Planet headdress and three hair bows from Classical Puppets. They are a perfect colour match ^^

The big bow (in the picture above it's the one placed highest).

One of the small bows, on the back you can see the one from the skirt. The colour match is quite nice, isn't it? :)

Boots from Antaina. These were quite necessary, as I don't own any loliable boots except for a couple of brown, very old ones that doesn't actually match anything I own.

Black shoes from Antaina. Black ones are a must-have even though I don't have that much black loli pieces. I love the heart buckles.

Pink ones from Antaina too. Until now I only had white and mint ones, so it's now easier to coordinate some of my dresses.

I also bought a petticoat for casual use, it isn't very poofy. It also isn't very pretty so I didn't take a photo ^^;

Now I have two more complete coordinates as the blouse can go with both Sweet Chocolate and Milky Planet. Too bad these both have a very spring-like feeling in them ^^;

For Christmas I'd love to have a red velvet skirt, maybe with embroidery. My mother has a sewing machine that can do embroidery and I spotted the perfect velvet at the fabric store, but it was just a liiiiittle bit expensive so we'll see...

Giselle

Less Expensive Brands - KidsYoYo

2011-11-23T13:11:00.001+02:00

Long time no see ^^;

As I've told, brand clothes aren't my piece of cake (or my wallet's, as it is...) so what to do when there's something I just can't make myself? To turn to the less expensive "brands", of course. These less expensive ones include places like Bodyline, FanPlusFriend and shops in TaoBao, like Rose Melody, Infanta, Dear Celine and KidsYoYo. I have ordered clothes from Bodyline and FanPlusFriend and also talked about them previously. I'm now intending to focus on TaoBao brands, starting with KidsYoYo.

As I've neither personally communicated with them nor received my order yet, this won't be a review. I'll just highlight some of my favourite pieces from them.

KidsYoYo is one of the most high-profile Chinese lolita brands. Their quality is good and prices higher than most, for example their JSK prices ranging from 45€ to 70€. (Not very expensive, but when compared to brands like Dream of Lolita or Lolita Princess with their JSK's priced 30€...)

They are also a personal favourite of mine, with their sweet-classic style and lovely colours. Here are some of my must-have-these -items:

This set of skirt, jacket and headdress is my number one love at the moment. It's a part of their Classical Violin series, available in dusty mint and dusty pink. I adore both colours, but would probably end up with this dusty mint. The jacket could be worn with regular clothing too.

This is sold out at the moment, but one can hope they'll re-stock. Luckily they usually do ^^

A coat with a cape, a beret and a muffler, also Classical Violin series. This isn't available at the moment either, at least not in pink. Oh well, wouldn't have the money anyway... But I love it to pieces!

A blouse and a skirt from Sweet Little Chocolate series. These are also available in mint and pink. I ordered the skirt in mint, a headdress and a necklace a while ago ^^ As this series is more decorated than many other of theirs, I decided to go with the skirt instead of a JSK. This way I can downplay it to everyday use with regular shoes and top. The sweets motifs on the bottom are totally adorable. I ordered two necklaces, I'm going to make other accessories with one of them and keep the other one.

This one is gorgeous. Not actually lolita (the lower hem is removable, though, so with a petticoat it's totally loliable), but a very beautiful and detailed piece anyway. I could never wear this, because grey looks horrible on me and I'm not slim enough for this kind of loose, full-lenght dress (one needs to be absolutely tiny to look good in this). But nothing can stop me from loving it!!

Now I can just wait for my Little Chocolates to arrive <3 I'll be sure to share them with you.

I also made a new layout, there are me and my friend Christina in the banner picture. How do you like the new look?

Giselle

Outfits and nails

2011-10-09T13:18:00.000+03:00

Hi!

I was planning on making a little chance on Rose Tea Sugar: to post pictures about non-lolita outfits too. Not too often, but sometimes I wear something I think might be interesting enought to share.

Here's my Tuesday's school outfit. On Tuesdays and Fridays I go to Technical University for my Japanese lessons. It's extremely fun to wear something colourful and make all those boys-wearing-black-hoods go blind by all the colours ^^

One of my favourite aspect of Bodyline's skirts is the removable bow. I think it's supposed to be worn on the waist but I prefer to put it on my hair or even use it as a brooch.

This outfit I wore on Monday but I didn't have the time to take a photo so I took this one on Tuesday too. Luckily I wore my hair the same way both days.

I'm totally in love with this huge cutsew/t-shirt. I paid 2€ for it and it's size 42, hehe. I think it looks great when combined with skinny jeans like in this picture, or with a short skirt like this - I own a skirt like that too.

I also made my nails yesterday (ignore my ugly cuticles...) I got inspired by this post at Cupcake's Clothes, it was highlighted at F Yeah Lolita a while ago. I had some difficulties, like the lack of colours - the only non-seethrough colour is mint, blue and pink needed a white base to have any colour at all and I had to mix white and dark purple to get light one. But I'm quite happy with the result ^^

And lastly, I finally ordered some clothes and shoes from TaoBao. I've been planning to do so for a while now and finally did! I'll post a review when I get them.

Giselle

Tracon

2011-09-13T23:14:00.001+03:00

Hi!

Umm, this is a little late, ehehe ^^; But anyway:

The picture quality isn't the best as we totally forgot about the pictures until it was too late so the light was lousy. Sorry ^^;

Here's my outfit for Saturday. A classic coordinate with a hint of steampunk. I was going to make a gearwheel print for the white skirt, I had it all planned and ready in my computer but I could find an ink printer anywhere! Only laser printers... So no gearwheels.

...I did draw some on the corner of my eye, though. I love the jacket, it is from Lindex but for this coord it's absolutely perfect. On the hat, there's a big bow made of satin ribbon, some hat lace and an ostrich feather. I love ostrich feathers <3

My outfit for Sunday. This one was quite simple, but OTT still isn't my thing. I love the old-fashioned way when it comes to the amount of accessories (though OTT is fun too). I rather go over the top with my hair (I love GothicLolitaWigs!) and the amount of fabric (the hem is six meters!)

Another picture, just because the light was beautiful <3

And the a totally random picture that's got nothing to do with anything.

And that's it for the photoes. I did take a lot at the lolita fashion show (loved that, by the way), but I had to zoom in a lot, light was bad and flash didn't reach the stage, so they didn't turn out well at all.

I also got an invitation to visit Crème de la Garderobe, a lolita fashion market on November. I really want to go, hopefully I have time for that!

Giselle

Cut-and-paste

2011-08-31T13:11:00.000+03:00

Hi!

I made myself a new calendar and decorated a notebook and a folder to match it. These aren't exactly lolita, but I think they give a nice classic-steampunk feeling (by the way, I'm going to wear a steampunk coord to Tracon next weekend ^^) I used decoration cards I got from a bookstore and added some stickers. The gold lace on the corners is cut from a cake decoration (the thing you put between the cake and the plate, I don't have the faintest idea what it's called in English). I also added a matching bracelet to my pencil case. (The notebook is for my Japanese course - I finally managed to get it into my curriculum. I'm so happy!)

What do you think of these:

Next post will probably be about my coords to Tracon ^^

Regards, Giselle

Yesterday's look

2011-08-18T21:34:00.001+03:00

Hi! Here's another casual coordinate. I wanted to use all the pastel colours from the print to make it as sweet as possible ^^

Here's a close-up of the brooch - the same I wore for the concert.

That's all this time!

Giselle

Arboretum photoes

2011-08-16T21:05:00.001+03:00

Hello!

Here are the photoes from the Extreme Edges -meet up. Photo credits to SilkSucre.

And when we were just about to leave, the wind started. Really, it was hard not to fall down! But the meet up was great <3

Giselle

Gackt!

2011-08-13T23:57:00.000+03:00

Hello!

On Tuesday I travelled to Sweden to see Gackt's concert!! I've always liked Gackt, but never been a huge fan. My boyfriend's been his loyal fan since, hmm, forever so I took the chance and went with him. I'm so happy I did, as it was totally awesome.

Gackt <3

He's so cute <3 (Not to mention the "I'll remove my shirt and hey, maybe even my pants...!!" -part. Well, he also has a great body :p)

<3 <3 <3

/end of fangirl-mode.

I wore lolis, this is how I looked like. (I had to remove the not-so-pretty background.)

The picture isn't the best quality: my boyfriend is great but taking photoes isn't one of his strong points. The print is actually a lot bolder, the dark pink parts are exactly the same colour as my top. The brooch is quite similar to the candy jewellery I made for my mint x pink -coord for Desucon, it's actually made at the same time. The skirt is from Bodyline, I got it on April but I had to change it a little and I didn't have the time to finish it until now.

For the longest time I've had troubles with making pretty, lasting curls. Either they don't curl at all or they'll be flat in a minute. This time I managed, though, these made it through the whole concert! A tiara has been on my wish list since I first started wearing lolita and now I finally got one!

I would have loved pink shoes for this, but I don't have any. They are the next thing to buy. I think I'll try TaoBao, someone recommended a good shopping service.

Here's a close-up. This print is absolutely lovely, maybe the best from BL. Originally I don't like black but for casual coords it's the best as it tones down even the sweetest prints. Imagine this one with mint instead of black - makes my teeth ache from all that sugarness. Not that it would be a bad thing, though, just not so casual :D

Curls!!

I think that my meetup photoes can be saved, so I'll probably post some of them in a few day's time. See you then!

Giselle

Chess Chocolate

2011-08-06T20:55:00.000+03:00

Hi hi!

I know that I just posted a couple of hours ago, but I just have to post this! As I've been totally off-lolita recently I just noticed this now, but...

Oh my good, my absolute dream dress. It's sweet, classic and a little hime at the same time, I love it love it love it <3 If I'll ever buy a brand dress, it's going to be this one. This is so gorgeous!

I. Want. This.

The end.

Picture post

2011-08-06T15:46:00.000+03:00

Whoa, it's been a busy month... Including an meet-up and a convention, here are some pictures from my Animecon outfits.

My outfit for Friday, a quite simple one. A pink skirt, blouse and my Wavy Mint wig.

Here's Saturday's outfit, a more classic one. As you might notice, it's inspired by Mary Magdalene, it's also almost exactly the same with the green one I'm wearing on my first blog post. Mint Chocolate is one of my favourite colour combos <3

A close-up of my face. I love this wig to pieces, it looks so natural.

Here's Sunday's dress. The Carnival Wappen -replica I wore on my birthday, this time combined with a brown bob. I really like the bob with this one, it gives the dress a hint of classic style but is still very sweet.

It seems that all my pictures from the meet-up have been damaged somehow :( I'll try to look for them again and post some of them later.

That's all for now!

Giselle

Desucon

2011-06-19T21:53:00.000+03:00

Long time no see,

I've been busy making my outfits for Desucon, which was held this weekend. I had great time! There were lots of other lolitas, everyone was very pretty. Here are my outfits:

My dress for Saturday, pale pink JSK and white blouse, with mint coloured shoes and wig. I wore three petticoats! I was twinning with my Saaga, it was fun - although not actually the easiest thing... It was rainy and gray on the first day and the dark background made it hard to get a picture where one can see something else than a huge shining poof. I'll try to find a better picture when they start appearing in the Internet.

A close-up of my jewellery: a headdress and a brooch. I also wore earrings and for an upcoming meet up I made a small hairbow, another brooch and a ring (the theme is "Extreme Edges"... :D)

Saaga. I'm so happy that I can make her cute clothes!

This is what I wore today. A-kind-of replica of AP's Marionette Girl. This isn't the best dress I've made... I feel like I've wronged the original one. Maybe I'll remake this later on. Today was very bright and sunny and it was hard to keep my eyes open. The dress doesn't look like it, but it's pale blue :p Actual colour can be seen below, on Saaga.

I liked the headdress, though. I often seem to go way over the top with these, don't you think? :D

Saaga, wearing Marionette Girl. The hem is too short for her; luckily the stripe socks trick one's eye enough so it isn't very obvious.

Now Desucon is over and Animecon is in four weeks! I have to start making my dresses for that. Plans, plans...

Giselle

Saaga Aurora

2011-06-10T19:44:00.002+03:00

Hello!

Remember me talking about surprises? Well, here's one of them! The Midnight Madness got me and this girl just arrived about a week ago. Her name isn't Clara as she's not as childlike as I imagined her to be. I ended up naming her Saaga Aurora. Her eyes are random because the eye group order organizer is super slow: ordering was postponed for over two months just because she was busy with school and went camping and went to holiday (placing the order would have taken 15 minutes...) The clothes aren't hers either. I made her dress to match mine for Desucon, but the pictures were bad so I show you these instead.

Wig styling

2011-06-02T21:50:00.000+03:00

Hello!

I went out for dinner and wanted to wear a wig. I decided to wear one that couldn't immediately be recognised as a wig, so I wore my Choco-Latte without the extensions. I tried two different styles to make it look as non-wiglike as possible using two basic rules: first: tie down, partially or completely, second: use hair accessories.

First, double plaits and a flower hairband. I wore this to the restaurant. I liked it very much, it's easy and carefree.

Second, a bun placed near my neck. (Ignore my weird-looking eyes...) I left one lock free (I had to re-curl it though, as it wasn't very pretty) and tied the rest on a bun.

I added some flowers.

I wanted the result to be a bit ruffled and unruly.

What do you think of these? Would they pass as my real hair?

Giselle

New layout

2011-06-02T14:08:00.000+03:00

Hi!

I decided to try a new layout. I'm totally lousy with both coding and photoshopping so I mostly use Paint :D Gimp is my enemy number 1 so I only use it when there's no way with Paint and even then I have to swap back to make some simple adjustments I just can't manage with Gimp (it seems that Gimp can't think simple...) This isn't very summery look, but as my choice of photoes is quite limited... And I like pale blue! All in all I'm quite happy with this look ^^

Giselle

Sneak Peek

2011-06-01T21:11:00.000+03:00

Hello!

The flu finally got me (I've been expecting it since April :D) so I've been at home for the past two days. Yesterday I was just sleeping but today I felt much better and finished my first dress for Desucon.

This is the one I'll wear with my Mint wig. I'll try to get the fabrics for the other one as soon as possible.

Giselle

Sweets for a rainy day

2011-05-30T14:02:00.001+03:00

Hi!

It's cold and rainy outside and I wanted something very sweet for today. So I ended up listing my favourite AP prints in my favourite colours. There are quite many of them :D These are in no particular order.

Dessert Collection: I love how this print is so simple and elegant but still very sweet compared to other prints in similar style, like Chanderier. Gold + cream can never go wrong ^^ Twinkle Ornament is also gorgeous but as it is so clearly a Christmas print...

Dreamy Dollhouse: Just adorable. I love dolls and dollhouses and all those toy bunnies are super sweet. Mint x pink, do I need to say more?

Memorial Cake: Can a print get any sweeter? I've always loved cake prints (half of my Bodylines are those) and this one is just too pretty. I'd love this even more if it was available in mint but sax blue x pink is adorable too.

Toy Parade: Just like Dreamy Dollhouse, super cute.

Sugary Carnival: Surprise!! Or maybe not? :D The all-time favourite, who could resist carousel ponies? Simply lovely.

Fancy Melody: I love stripes, period. This print is probably my most favourite one as it is very sweet but well-balanced, not OTT, kind of modern old-school style. It was very hard do decide which one I like most, pink or red but as red x silver isn't my favourite, the pink one wins. And I love stripes.

Milky Berry: Very fresh and summery print. I love strawberries and they are just adorable here. Ice cream parfaits are also <3

Starry Night Theatre: Different from most of AP's prints as the hem is clearly divided by the curtains. Very playful print, I love playing cards -theme.

Miracle Candy: Sweets are another of my favourite themes. I'd love to make accessories for this one. Also, the stripes! The red and white ones remind me of Marianne-candies <3 I think it's a tie between this and Fancy Melody.

Cosmetics: An older one, I've always loved this. Very simple, cute and elegant. The sax blue version is also lovely, but this one is the best.

Among these ten favourites, four are red x pink combinations. Until just now, I thought that those two colours are an absolute no-no. I still wouldn't wear them in my regular clothes but for me they seem to be a perfect combination for sweet lolita. Red gives energy and pink is, well, pink. As I don't feel comfortable wearing all pastel colours and bows and ruffles and toy prints (even though I love them), adding some red into a pastel print would be the perfect solution. It also gives more options when it comes to coordinations. We'll see, maybe one day I'll find myself owning one of these. I'll try not to, though... :D

Giselle

Wavy mint

2011-05-26T14:24:00.002+03:00

Yay, my new wig arrived! I love it so much, the colour is just gorgeous. I had to wear a matching outfit immediately. The clothes aren't anything new, this was just something to match the wig:

The wig is Wavy Mint from Cosplay Wigs USA / Gothic Lolita Wigs. I totally adore their wigs, my choco-latte is from them too. The only problem with their wigs is the colour range - most of their colours are very warm whereas my face requires cold tones. I'd love to have their Light Blonde Hime Gyaru, but the blonde they use is too golden, so it looks horrible on me. Maybe I'll get a custom one with platinum blonde...

A close-up. The colour is a very pretty and a little bit see-through, it's like water. The fiber is very soft and non-shiny and as I've mentioned before, it's heat-resisting so it can be styled with heat.

Without the clip-ons: still very full and pretty. In this picture, it's unstyled but I might backcomb it a bit and maybe make low pigtails or make a soft bun. I love mixing up sweet and classic - this wig is perfect for that as it can be styled to be very classic even though the colour is definitely nothing but.

I'll wear this wig to Desucon on June, I think I'm going to make some kind of pink-white-mint -coordination (oh so original :D), probably this jsk I talked about earlier, with cupcakes and other sweets as decorations. We'll see ;)

Giselle

The picnic

2011-05-21T20:41:00.001+03:00

So!

Here is it, quite a lot of pictures from the picnic!

My outfit, the Carnival Wappen -replica. (It's not an exact replica, though, as you can see.) I remember mentioning something about head-eating bows a while ago, but oh well... :D

A little closer look. The light was bad, sorry.

Another close up. I really like the lace I got for the collar of the blouse, and it wasn't even expensive!

The Candy Heads, me and Hannele. Our wigs make a perfect couple :D It was really, really windy so they aren't as perfectly arranged as they were when we first got out...

This is us!!

...really, no. This is us, but for some reasons, about half of the pictures were like the one above. And The Ugly Door Strikes Back! The panel isn't big enough to hide all unphotographic backgrounds and there was no stand for the camera outside (besides it was quite freezing).

We had cake, sandwiches, salty cupcakes, meringues, tea and strawberry juice (I happened to forgot to bring sugar so we didn't drink any tea though :D) I love my thermos bottles, I have two similar ones. One of them I found in second hand store in Jyväskylä, the other one I got from my mother who had found it in some flea market and got it for me. They don't look like they can be used for real but the tea was still almost boiling hot after we got back.

All in all, we had lots of fun even though it was quite cold. I got a super cute hairbow, two pairs of earrings, body silhouette notebook for planning new outfits and a lovely ballpoint pen. Afterwards we watched the Eurovision song contest and hated most of the winners like always :D So it was a day well used <3

As I told, I visited Rome last week. The trip wasn't lolitaish in any way so I'm not going to talk about it. But I got something from there that's surely going to be very lolita in the near future. I love the idea and try to keep it secret until it's ready ;) And there's also another secret coming!

See you soon,

Giselle

Nothing really

2011-05-16T16:57:00.002+03:00

Hi!

I was about to write a post about our picnic on Saturday, but as I have no pictures (I had no camera, and someone still hasn't shared them), there'll be nothing yet. And as I'm travelling to Rome today (yay!!) the picnic post won't be up until Friday or Saturday. See you then!

Giselle

New wig and some fabrics

2011-05-09T16:16:00.002+03:00

Hi again!

As I told before, I got my latest wig a few days ago. It's a lovely strawberry milkshake colour, with short base and two wavy detachable ponytails. I totally love it!

I'm going to have a birthday picnic on next Saturday (my birthday's today, yay!!) and I wanted to have a new outfit and wig for that. I've been sewing a super-bubblegum-barbie-pink skirt and I wished to have my mint coloured wig by then. But that's not going to happen, so I'll wear this wig instead. But! No way this kind of pink will go with that super-sweet pink of my skirt... So, a new coordination too. I've wanted to make an applique dress for a while now so this was a perfect reason to get some fabrics for one. I love AP's appliques the most, so I went to steal some ideas:

Carnival Wappen! I think I'll make mine to be an almost exact replica, with different colours though. I'm also debating whether to make it JSK or OP. I'd like JSK more but I don't have a fitting blouse as I have bright white striped fabric. My absolute applique favourite is the Carnival applique but as I love those pom pom ribbons the most and couldn't find similar one, I'll have to postpone that. But I found the cutest ribbon online shop, Sugar Pink Boutique, selling pom pom ribbons in different sizes and colours. I'll probably order some and make something similar to Carnival for Desucon which is held in mid-June. We'll see. But anyway, here are my materials for Carnival Wappen:

I'm in a hurry with this, though, as I have to both work and study this week. But hopefully I'll manage to make it! ...and then we can hope that it's not going to rain. It's been lovely for these past few days and forecasts have promised it's going to be warm and sunny for the whole week, and then it's going to rain on Saturday >_< But I'll have my thumbs up!

Giselle

1st of May vol. 2

2011-05-06T15:20:00.002+03:00

Hi!

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been awfully busy this week as I had a huuuge exam yesterday and I've studied night and day for it. But here are some pictures from last weekend:

My outfit on 1st of May

My nails matched with my skirt! I glued on some tiny fake fruit slices.

On 30th of April, wearing the Ugly Student Overalls not showing in the picture.

I also received the wig I ordered from eBay a while ago. I'll post pictures soon!

Giselle

1st of May

2011-04-29T23:02:00.000+03:00

Picture from weheartit

Hi everyone!

So, soon it's 1st of May celebration. What a perfect opportunity to wear super colourful loli clothes, the carnival and all <3 Although tomorrow I'll be wearing student overalls... (for those who don't know, it's a weird Finnish tradition to wear ugly, bright-coloured overalls for all kind of student happenings and 1st of May is the biggest one :D) But I'll wear a cute wig and a headbow! I'll add a picture later. And then on Sunday, we'll go to see the carnival market (mostly for kids, but hey... :D), maybe buy balloons, and go to picnic with my friends. The Bodyline package arrived just in time, now I have the perfect skirt ^^ But unfortunately my camera got broken so I don't have pictures. My old one had run out of batteries and charging them takes the whole day.

I really wish that we had more carnivals here. Actually, 1st of May it's pretty much the only one. I'd love to have something like they have in Japan, lots of games and food booths and fireworks and maybe a carousel or ferris wheel or something. That would be the best ever. Do you know of anything such in Finland? Or are there any other happenings that are especially lolita-suitable? I'd love to hear <3

Giselle

Fan+Friend order!

2011-04-22T22:18:00.001+03:00

So! My order's finally here! I was quite exited, as I have been waiting about six weeks.

The coat is lovely, my favourite part is the asymmetric hem. I love the laces too! In my winter coat the lace was bright white and the coat off-white so I ended up removing it all. But this time they match very well ...the same thing can't be said about the buttons, though. The buttons are very bright white and very plastic. I'll probably remove them and sew on something more matching. They are pretty and heart-shaped, they just don't match the coat. The fit is good and they made the back a little shorter than usually as I asked.

The bag is pretty, but the handles are asymmetrically sewed on. Also, there's an ugly scratch and some smudge on the bow. I'm not very happy with this one...

The hooped petticoat! In the first picture, no petti (*gasp!*), in the middle with my bigger, "traditional" petti and the last with both the hooped and traditional pettis. The hoop is adjustable and really offers a possibility for a huuuge poof. A great help!

All in all, I'm not very happy with F+F this time... The coat is nice, but I have to change the buttons. The bag has two mistakes in it and even though the petti is what I wished it to be, it really can't save the whole order. Too bad, F+F.

Then a couple of words about my new wigs. The other one finally arrived last week. The first one you've already seen in my Tampere Kuplii -post, the other one was this absolutely gorgeous Strawberries and Cream:

Unfortunately, it looked horrible with my skin. The pink was kind of peach-tinted and those kind of warm colours don't suit me at all. I save you from the pain and insert no pictures... Luckily, it looked lovely on one of my friends and she bought it, along with my music notes -skirt.

Both of the wigs were of exellent quality: thick, soft and not shiny at all. The fiber is heat-resisting and CosplayWigs USA mentions that low settings on curling and flattening irons can be used. I have both flattening and curling iron from BaByliss, I used setting 2 out of 3 with flattening iron and 2 out of 2 with curler and the wig was totally fine. Actually, the cooler settings were of no help. So great quality!

Their custom service is also best I've ever came across. They're very friendly and helpful, I really want to support them. And they have lots of gorgeous wigs, I totally recommend visiting their web pages or Facebook.

I wasn't supposed to buy anything lolita-related for a while as I'm poooooooor. But oh, funny thing. The group hystery (I totally blame my friends) got me and now I'm waiting for two skirts from Bodyline again. And The Morning After Group Hystery I went and ordered another wig. Oh dear...

That's about it this time!

Giselle

Spring meet up

2011-04-17T23:14:00.002+03:00

Hi!

Yesterday I participated in a spring meet up! I had so much fun again and everybody was very pretty <3 First we took photoes - the weather was so lovely and sunny - and then went to a cafe.

As I was very busy, I had no time to make new outfit. I decided to try on my music notes skirt from Bodyline. I mentioned before that the bright white in the print is a trouble for me and it really was so. I had no coat, no bag and no shoes for a bright white and baby blue coordination. Next time I surely have more time to make a proper coordination!

Here's my outfit:

(My nose isn't that big!!)

Skirt is from Bodyline, everything else is Totally Random. I changed shoes before leaving because those gray ones have 13cm heels and we were supposed to walk a lot. Well, we did so it was a good decision :D

Something else too: I ordered lots of lace from Etsy. Some of them are for lolita clothing and some for doll clothes. This was my favourite:

I ordered the ivory one. This should be perfect for skirt hems :)

See you soon,
Giselle

Tampere Kuplii

2011-04-11T17:53:00.001+03:00

Hi!

So, I visited Tampere Kuplii on Saturday. This is my outfit for the occassion:

Blouse is the same I wore for the winter meet up, I just adjusted the sleeves a little (they were too long) and added some ribbon to collar and cuffs. The skirt is a new one, very simple as I had a huge exam on Thursday and had basically no time to make it. I'm also wearing a slim headdress decorated with roses and ribbons, and a slim ribbon around my neck. Luckily it was warm outside, as my spring coat has yet to arrive. I ended up wearing only a very short cape (somewhere between my shoulders and elbows).

As it was warm and sunny, I was able to use summer shoes too! <3 And one of my new wigs arrived on Tuesday so I wore it too. I know that it would have been more classic if worn without the clip-on extensions, but I wanted them! As this photo is taken after the con, the wig looks a bit untidy. It was in perfect order on the morning but I had no time for photoes... When the other wig arrives, I'll make a review.

Tampere Kuplii isn't one of my favourite conventions, maybe because it's not anime and/or Japan-related, it's mostly about western comics. And as the convention place is open for public, there are lots of people who don't know what's going on and then they stare and point and take photoes without asking for permission. But as Kuplii is located on my hometown, I visit it every year. There are always lots of people I know and I like it despite its "flaws". And of course, it being the first con of the year (at least for me), it's special :) Now I'm looking forward for the upcoming conventions of the summer!

Giselle

Headdresses

2011-03-31T20:27:00.001+03:00

Hi!

School is a killer once again (just one more week and it gets so much easier!) so I have no life of my own. Today I had some free time after finishing my exam at 6pm (yeah, when I said 'killer', I meant it :D) so I went to buy some fabric for that new skirt I talked about earlier. I couldn't find anything close to dusty rose or gray-blue, so I ended up with... red! But I really like red and white combined together in a sweet-classic style. Too bad I don't have red shoes, they would be perfect. I think I'll make a slim, rectangular headdress to match the skirt. I could never wear a lolita outfit without a headdress - a perfect reason to wear something overly cute on your head and you waste it? No way!

I love hair accessories, whether lolita or non-lolita. I own lots and lots of different headbands, bows, flower pins, decorative pins... I wear something on my hair almost every day. When talking about lolita headpieces, what I don't like are huge things like super-wide headdresses, head-eating bows and bonnets. Sure, these things look gorgeous on some people but I'm not one of those. I like to use small headdresses but fill them with details up to almost OTT look (if such a thing as OTT classic lolita can excist). This headdress from Antique Beast is like a dream come true:

(Okay, I could have all their headdresses and die happy.)

Basically, this headdress is simple: quite small, only one colour and no ruffles. The richness comes from all the different ribbons used for the bows and that gorgeous black lace... Do I need to continue? *insert some ladylike drooling*

My favourites are small top hats (or any kind of hats actually) and classic rectangular headdresses. For a casual lolita, I prefer basic hairbands: I have one with white roses and one made of white pearls, those are my absolute favourites. My biggest problem when planning an outfit is the headdress: I have so many ideas that it's difficult to decide on only one. That means my only option is to make them all and use them one after another!

Today I got a notice that my wigs have been shipped! If I have any luck, they should reach me before Tampere Kuplii so I can wear one of them. By the way, is anyone else going to come? Hopefully I'll meet other lolitas there too :)

Giselle

Nails

2011-03-24T21:39:00.000+02:00

Hello!

It's actually funny how small a part of a human body one's nails are compared to the attention they get. Messy nails can make the whole outfit look incomplete, on the other hand prettily done ones can be just as important as jewellery or headdress. Just a simple, one-coloured nail polish can work wonders but some decorations can make your nails look even more cute <3 Or what do you think about these:

(Pictures from Pinkynail and Geez.)

I really, really love pretty nails. A part of it is probably because I haven't been able to use basicly any nail polish for three years because my part-time job, but now I won't go to work until June (and hopefully not then either) so I can decorate my nails to my heart's content! As I have had no chances to play with my nails, I'm not talented at all so I started with something simple, polka dots! ...or so I thought. How to make tiny polka dots? Not with the regular nail polish applicator, that's for sure. I need something with a sharp edge, I thought, maybe a toothpick? Okay, I managed to make the polka dots, but it's not as easy as it might sound... Because the polish doesn't want to leave the toothpick and when it does, it really leaves and makes a huge spot instead of a cute polka dot. But oh well, I managed. Here's the result:

Mint polka dots on pink and the other way round. (Ignore my camera lens cover trying to get some publicity...) The problem was, I don't own mint coloured nail polish so I mixed this using bright turquose and pearl white. The result is quite okay, but I'm happy I bought an actual mint coloured nail polish today ^^

Anyway, I'm very happy with my nails <3 But to make sure the next time I'll be able to make even dots, I bought a set of nail painting brushes and a dotting tool and rhinestones, 3D-roses and tiny fruit slices for decoration from eBay (I only paid about 15$ for all this including shipping, so it was a great deal!) When my order arrives, I think I'll try to make something similar to those black dots on mint -nails above. I might add a tiny bow made of satin ribbon ^^

I've used fake nails a couple of times and I must say it's much easier to decorate them. While waiting for the polish to dry, you can just leave them be and meanwhile do whatever you wish with your own nails. And there's no problems occuring from using your left hand... But just like nail polish, long nails have been forbidden for three years so I feel totally handicapped with fake nails. They also tend to say "click" and fall off and it really doesn't look nice: eight pretty, decorated nails and two with remains of glue and all the dust in the world stuck to them. As to growing my own nails... They do grow very fast but are sooo ugly-shaped when long that no thank you. But luckily not all decorations require long nails ^^ So I'll be waiting for my parcel to arrive so I can start practicing!

Until next time,

Giselle

Dress designs

2011-03-20T15:48:00.001+02:00

Hi!

I'm really waiting for summer! I have lots of ideas for different spring and summer outfits for cons and meet-ups. It's also almost the time for the first con (which, though, isn't officially a convention but is similar to them), Tampere Kuplii. First, when planning this year's cons with my friends, I was going to do a cosplay but now I've decided to wear lolita. I want something new, but I have a difficult exam just two days before, so I have no time to make anything big. So I think I'm going to wear an old blouse and just make a skirt. A quick sketch about what I was thinking:

I'm going to use a long-sleeved blouse since it's probably going to be cold. The skirt is going to be high-waisted, I might add a corset lacing to backside. The hem is going to be scalloped with ruffles. I try to find some decoration roses to the hem and waist, but if I can't find any, I'll probably make bows instead. I haven't decided on colour yet, I have to go and see what my local fabric store has to offer. I'd like dusty rose or gray-blue, though. The skirt below the main one is white and is also made before. (Sorry for the low quality of the picture - I'm still not the artistic one, and I have some severe disagreements with my scanner so this is a photo of the drawing.)

I'd like to share the following three dresses with you too. They are something I've been planning for a while now, and they are to be my "main dresses" for this year. Meaning that I'm going to make them from the beginning, use lots of time and to make sure that I have all the matching accessories from socks to earrings for a perfect coordinate.

First one is a JSK with a high-collar blouse. The design is quite simple and the main point is the very full hem. I'm going to use 3 meters fabric for it, and the ruffle is going to be six meters. The hem is going to be very heavy so the hooped petti I was talking about earlier is in place here. I'm going to use pale pink cotton for this and the main theme is going to be "Tea party". I'll make some treats out of polymer clay and silicon and buy a doll house tea set and make a headdress, a brooch, earrings and maybe a bracelet too.

The second one is simple too (almost all my dresses are, actually), this time a OP. A princess-shape, with double ruffles at the hem. A satin ribbon going around neck is one of my favourite details in loli dresses but as I usually prefer JSKs I can't use it. I drawed the bow brooch in this one, but I'd probably leave it out and use bird theme in this one. I bought four small decorative doves from eBay and I'll try to find a miniature bird cage and feathers to make a Marie Antoinette -styled headdress and brooch. I'd like to use pale blue fabric for this, but as the next one is going to be blue, I might use pale green instead.

The last one, strongly inspired by this Mary Magdalene dress. I'll use light blue cotton for the JSK and chocolate brown for underskirt and blouse. I'll try to make a heart-shaped piller box hat like this for a headdress. If you liked that hat, remember to check the artist's other works on DeviantArt at apatico.deviantart.com. She's the greatest headdress inspiration ever <3 I'll probably make something matching with the hat for a brooch instead of the bow too.

These three are my dream dresses for now. I really can't decide which one I like the best ^^ Hopefully I can find pretty chocolate coloured cotton for the last one, that's usually incredibly difficult to come by. The pearl cottons I mostly use have a very wide range of colours but no pretty brown at all.

If you have any plans or dream dresses for this summer, I'd like to hear about them too :)

Until next time,
Giselle

Dolls

2011-03-18T11:00:00.111+02:00

Hello again!

Another of my rather expensive hobbies is BJD's. BJD's, short for ball-jointed dolls, are resin-made dolls with ball joints to make their bodies poseable. They are very ethereal-looking and often seem to be almost alive. They are also very variable as their wigs and eyes are removable and clothes of all kinds can be both bought and made.

I own six of these lovelies. Three of them are SD-sized, meaning that they are about 60cm high. Two are MSD-sized (around 40-45cm) and one is petite (about 30cm). Here are some pictures:

The SD-sized ones are Yuki (blonde girl), Ryuu (redhead boy) and Aoi (gray-haired boy). MSD's are Sae (light brown hair) and Rin (dark brown). And the small one is Halla, white-haired fairy. I also used to own the one in the first picture, Akira, but I sold her.

As I mentioned above, these dolls aren't cheap. A basic SD-sized one costs something between 300$ and 600$ and basically none of these can be found under 100$. Taller ones are more expensive and the most wanted limited edition -dolls can cost more than 2000$.

Dolls are very often associated with lolitas. Some of the brands even offer doll-sized dresses or dolls with compete lolita outfits. I really like it when I see photoes of girls and their dolls having matching outfits! I've done it a couple of times myself. The problem with this is that all of my dolls have their own characters. Yuki is a lolitaish character and her style is close to sweet or pirate lolita but she weights awfully lot and after carrying her around through one convention... Well, I'm not going to do that again :D Halla is a bit too small and also difficult to pose, so that leaves Rin and Sae. Sae is a total monkey who hates dresses and Rin is very shy, she'd rather wear a paper bag on her head and talk to nobody. After thinking about this for a while, I ended up with a solution: I need a new doll!

...as if I'm not poor enough without paying 300$ for another doll. But my imagination was on the move already. Her name would be Clara and she would be LUTS Kid Delf Cherry (I have a thing for LUTS, all my dolls except for Sae and Ryuu are from them) or Fairyland MiniFee Chloe (not the 600$ full set though...) She would have pink hair (and another wig for those dresses that don't match with pink - or maybe several other wigs :D) and dark chocolate brown eyes. And then I could make her all the super-over-lolita dresses I can't imagine my other MSD's wearing. She wouldn't be a part of the story unlike my other dolls, or if she was she would just be a cute neighbour.

As I mostly make my lolita clothes myself, making clothes for my dolls is a big part of my hobby. Everything they were wearing in the previous pictures was made by me. Here are some most lolitaish dresses I've made for them:

There are also many places to buy dresses: Caro-chan from F Yeah Lolita has written a great post about that.

Maybe sometime in the near future I'll have the money for my Clara. While I'm waiting for that time, I might buy her wig, eyes and shoes so when the Midnight Madness gets me again, I only have to wait (and pay...) for the doll :D

Until next time,
Giselle

Outfit pics

2011-03-17T20:30:00.000+02:00

Hello!

Just a quick post again, I wore my new skirt to school today:

skirt, cardican: Bodyline
everything else H&M-randomness

Tomorrow, a post about dolls :)

Until then,
Giselle

Shopping vol.2!

2011-03-16T19:23:00.001+02:00

Hi!

Sooo, a couple of days ago, I was just looking at some lolita wigs at CosplayWigs USA and couldn't help noticing that two of my absolutely favourites were both available! I should have gone to bed hours ago, but I decided quickly order one of them. But which one would I like to have the most? And then the Midnight Madness got me and I ordered both of them >_< But they were pre-order -wigs, so I'll receive them... by summer? So I'll talk more about them when I actually have them.

My YesStyle order faced some difficulties... The shoes I ordered had run out (hehe, pun not intended) so they'll refund me. I wanted those shoes! And this is the second time (out of my two orders...) they didn't have the shoes of my wanting after I've placed my order. So I'm not very happy with them at the moment.

But my main subject today: my Bodyline order arrived!! That was super fast, less than a week after I paid them. Here are they:

Shoes, two skirts and a cardigan. For a "cheap" company, I think their shipping bags are really cute <3

The skirt with music notes. (Sorry about wrinkles, the sun was about to set so I didn't have the time to iron these if I wanted pictures.) This one is exactly my size. The waist is very high, just below my bust. The bow is meant for the dress but I think I'll make a headdress out of it.

The white colour used in this is bright white instead of cream and that's aproblem for me too because I mostly have cream white loli clothes. This is a very cute skirt (or is it a dress?), almost too much so. As I'm more of a classic lolita instead of sweet, I might end up selling this one. Too bad, because this one really fits me perfectly!

This one is perfect! The colours are just as I wished them to be and the print is one of the most beautiful ones out of all Bodyline has. The waist is a bit too tight, but that's easy to fix.

The print. Totally adorable!

These shoes are actually more a mint green colour than sax blue, so they don't mach with the music notes skirt. But they do match perfectly with my cookies'n'cream -skirt, also from Bodyline (seen in one of my daily outfit -pics earlier). Happyhappy!

The cardigan is made of soft strech cotton so it's perfect for spring and summer. And the trimmings are very nice.

All in all, I'm very happy with my order! And because we have no laboratory exercises at school tomorrow, I can wear one of the skirts :)

Until next time,
Giselle

Outfit pics

2011-03-13T18:43:00.002+02:00

Hello!

Today was my godmother's birthday party and I decided to wear something lolitaish since she likes it. The skirt kind of suffered in dryer and it's maybe a tad too short, but I like it! The shoes are lovely, too bad that they are so dark in the picture. The whole outfit, again, is quite casual and the light was difficult, but anyway:

cardigan: Bodyline
skirt: self-made
others: H&M and such

Just a small post this time!

Until next time,
Giselle

Shopping!

2011-03-09T17:54:00.001+02:00

Hello again!

It seems that the sunny weather really makes me go crazy: I ordered clothes worth almost 300$ today from F+F and Bodyline. And tomorrow I'll make my YesStyle order with my little sister - that's another 100$ making their escape. I'm going to eat spaghetti and canned tuna for the rest of the spring...

And then the happy part: what did I order? The coat and petti I told earlier, from F+F. Lovelove the coat, and it will be custom size! I also ordered the handbag I told earlier:

(I'll get a white one, but this was the best picture.)

From Bodyline I ordered two skirts, a pair of shoes and a cardigan. Finding pretty shoes in right size and with decent price is a pain. I know, Taobao would be great, but I'm kind of afraid of it, it's so difficult! I've checked eBay too, but they seem to have only white ones and prices starting from 60$. And I like this shoe model best, I already have these in cream white and now sax blue ones:

These are the skirts:

The one with music notes I'll have in sax blue, so it will match with the shoes <3 That was the only colour left but it doesn't matter because I would have chosen it anyway ^^

The other one I ordered in pink. I love pink and brown together, it makes me think about cakes and other sweet treats.

This cardigan I ordered in cream white. It's a nice basic cardigan and can be worn with pretty much everything, both lolita and non-lolita.

Lots of new clothes! And to think that I used 270$ and got a coat, shoes, a handbag, two skirts, a cardigan and a petti. Thank you mr. Yan!

Until next time,
Giselle

Springtime! Springclothes!

2011-03-02T14:44:00.000+02:00

In the few last days, the weather's been lovely, sunny and warm (well, at least when compared to that -20 degrees I mentioned earlier :D). Sun is shining to my apartment the whole day through and all the light makes me think about spring and summer. So it's time to buy, plan and make new clothes!

A couple of days ago I came across Baby's spring fashion show video. I believe most of you have already seen it, but here it is anyway (also a good reason to practice putting videos on my blog).

I totally loved those outfits <3 Especially the headdresses were gorgeous, lots of flowers and ribbons and lace. Reminded me of rococo style, I love lolita-rococo combinations. Also the colours were very cute. Actually, earlier this year I planned a dress with a birds-and-roses theme. I'm going to use pale pink cotton and white paper roses and cute decoration doves I got from eBay. I must watch the video again to get some extra ideas for the headdress, which is going to be the main part of the outfit. But I'll talk more about this when I get my scanner back so I can show my drawings too!I've also found lots of clothes and accessories I'd like to buy. As I've told, I always prefer making my clothes and buying off-brand. This moment, things I want include these lovelies:

A coat from Fanplusfriend. It's made of wool but it should be possible to change it to corduroy or thick cotton. I'd love to have this in pale blue or pink but because I doubt they have matching lace or fur (the fur collar is detachable) I'll probably end up ordering a cream coloured one. But I love the design!

Shoes from Yesstyle. I'll get these ones in pale pink as I just recently bought both black and white ballerinas, and there are only those three colours. But I also like the pink ones best! I dont like shoes with almost non-existing heels - why to bother making them at all? - but since these are so cute, I want them anyway.

Have you ever noticed how it's close to impossible to find a cute, lolita-matching white handbag? I've been looking everywhere (non-brands again...) and there's exactly one existing bag. Okay, places from eBay to Bodyline are full of different lolita handbags. But I need a simple one, white, maybe with a bow accent or something that I can use with everything. What I don't need is a furry teddy bear bag or black and white violin shaped one or something Alice in Wonderland -themed. Sigh. But happily F+F offers just the bag I need. (Which, with my luck, will be out of stock when I'll place my order :D)

It also seems that I'm never happy with my petticoats. At the moment I have two, one made of tulle and good for everyday coordinates and the other made of both organza and tulle and good for bigger poof. But sometimes I want a totally huuuge poofy skirt (an important part of the dress I'm planning to make too). So I think I'll buy this:

A petticoat with a metal hoop from F+F. By wearing both this and my tulle-and-organza petti I should get the ultimate poof! The price isn't that bad either, just 20$. And the waist is adjustable, not just with a rubber band. I hate those rubber band waists, it says that the skirt will fit, say, waists from 65cm to 90cm but if you are one centimeter over that 65cm you are going to be choked because it's so tight. They are mostly easy to fix, though.

Hopefully I'll get to order these soon. The next six weeks will be a hell at school though, no time for anything else besides laboratory work! But after that it'll be warm enough to wear all my new clothes :)

Until next time,
Giselle

Penpals and other lifestylishness

2011-02-24T14:10:00.002+02:00

Oh my, I've been lost for almost a month... I blame school! And also that -20 celcius degrees outside, every time I go out I look like a Michelin man. Not very lolita.

Today, I'd like to talk about letters and pen pals. I originally got the idea from the EGL's post 101 Lolita Lifestyle Ideas. Of course, writing letters to your pen pal is a gorgeous lolita hobby. I remember reading lots of Jane Austen's books with her main characters corresponding with their relatives or friends or suitors. I can imagine the girls, in their pretty dresses, sitting on a bench in a sunny garden, writing letters and maybe adding a small gift like a dried flower. Their handwriting would be sophisticated and the letter paper maybe scented with their favourite parfume. Isn't that the perfect lolita image?

Okay, I'm not writing my letters in a garden (and the frost might be a problem too...) but I try to find pretty letter paper and be careful with my handwriting. I also love pretty post stamps <3 These, for example, are adorable:

I just started corresponding with three lolita girls from USA. All three seem to be very different from each other but still they all like lolita fashion. It's really interesting, how we lolitas can be so different, also from different countries, cultures and religions but we have all come to love this fashion. It makes me very happy to see how people around the world find common interests and share their experiences with each other.

I've had lots of pen pals since my childhood but every time we just stopped corresponding. I think that the main problem was the lack of common interests. Okay, we both love horses, great! But then I also love reading and cooking and handicrafts, and she loves football and absolutely can't stand to stay still long enough to make tea (don't even talk about making apple pie). When looking for a lolita pen pal, it's very easy to find people with lots of common. Most of us like other Japanese things, like manga, anime, J-pop, or traditional arts like tea ceremony, calligraphy and ikebana. It's also normal for many lolitas to like baking or handicrafts or reading novels.

It's often said that lolita is only a fashion and no lolita lifestyle is needed at all. But to me - and I believe, to most of us - the lifestyle is a big part of the hobby. I admit, it's just not possible to be a 24/7 lifestyle lolita but it makes me feel good to be able to add some aspects to my own life. Having pen pals is a nice way to add some lolitaness to my life (between the Michelin man and school, sigh).

If you wist to find a lolita pen pal, I recommend Lolita Pen-pal Association. I wish you happy corresponding!

Until next time,
Giselle

Hairstyles

2011-01-25T18:17:00.001+02:00

Sooooo, I'd like to do something with my hair, but am out of ideas. Sounds familiar? I decided to make a list of lolita-suitable hairstyles, with pictures and tutorials. These are all styles I have made and worn myself. My hair is long, about to my waist or hips and it's always been so, so I dont have much ideas for a short-haired lolita, but all of these styles can be made if your hair is to your shoulder blades or longer. Remember to always add heat protection to your hair! Also, making different styles is much easier if you first apply styling foam or something similar. Clean hair with no styling products is usually very slippery and thin-looking. But to the styles now:

Of course, the most common hairstyle with lolita is curls. Whether tight sausage curls, loose princess curls, messy braid curls or anything in between, these hairstyles can be seen almost in every picture of a lolita there is. Curls match to every style there is and are very variable. Lots of tutorials for making curls can be found. I recommend YouTube for this, type "curl making hair tutorial" and you will find tons.

You have your curls, you wear them, then go to bed and the next morning they are still there. Someone might be lucky and have them nice enough for wearing the second day. If not, a bun or a pile might be a nice style. To create a pile, collect all your hair on top of your head, twist the roots tightly and secure with hairpins (you can also use a rubber band instead of twisting). Then tease your hair a little and secure random curls around your head to create an effortless-looking style.

Another popular lolita style, especially for sweet lolitas, are pigtails. These are very variable too, and can be made with shorter hair too. Here is a very good tutorial for the most common sweet lolita curly pigtails -style. Here are some inspirational pictures:

All kinds of French twists are very becoming especially for classic lolitas. I would recommend making a twist horizontally and placing it low near your neck. To make a twist, tease all your hair a lot, then simply roll it to a place and secure with hairpins and a lot of hairspray. Would look especially beautiful if decorated with flowers (and they can also be used to cover some of the not-so-smooth parts of your twist - I do this all the time :D)

Basic buns are always a good choice: they are easy but give a sophisticated look. Big buns look great when decorated with a bow. Here is the basic tutorial. You can easily variate this style by moving the bun up and down, placing it left or right, making two buns and adding decorations.

Braids are a classic too. Be it one or two, French or normal ones, they are great for classic styles. Don't forget the second-day curls you can get! Here is my quick drawn tutorial for a forehead plait. (Forgive me the ugly faces, my little sister is the artistic one in the family.)

So, to do this, first separate your hair close to one of your temples. Then take two sections (1) and take the lower one over the upper one (2). Take a third section (3) and take over the now middle one. Then again take the lowest one and take over the middle one (4). Now comes the twist! When again taking the highest one to take over the middle one, add some free hair to the highest section (5). Repeat this until you reach the place you wish. Every time take just the lowest section to the middle and then the highest and some of the free hair with it and repeat and repeat and repeat... You got it. When you are about to reach your ear you might notice that your braid is somewhere close to your chin. This might look nice too, but if your intention is to have the braid with tied hair, then it's better to be careful and keep the braid tight.

(I had extra space, thus the heart ^^;)

The forehead plait can also be done with just two sections of hair. Here you can find a tutorial for that. Remember to check binosusume's other tutorials too, she is brilliant.

I saved my personal favourite to be the last: hair bow! Everybody knows it, right? Lady Gaga and Poker Face... Also originally from binosusume, but nowadays I make it bit differently as I find my way easier. Here again a drawn tutorial.

First tie your hair to where you wish your bow to be (1). If you've got lots and lots of hair it probably looks the best placed on top of your head. A smaller bow looks best when placed to right or left. When tying your hair, leave a strand free in front of your ponytail (see the red arrow). Then separate the ponytail into two (2). You might want to clip the other side down to prevent it from mixing to the other one. Take your section and tease it from roots to ends (3). Be thorough so you'll get enough volume. Then carefully comb the hairs to create a smooth surface. Just a little so you won't unfold it! You can also use hairspray or wax for this. When you are ready, roll the whole section (4) and pin down to the size of your wishing. Then "open" the bow with your fingers (5) to create fullness and use more hairpins to secure. Repeat to the other section, and you'll get a nice bow! (6) Now remember the section left out in the first step? Use it to cover the middle part of your bow and pin the rest of it inside one of the bow loops. Hairspray! The backside of the bow seldom looks very pretty, I usually cover it with a flower hairpin. This might take a couple of times to master, but is not really very difficult :)

Binosusume's tutorial can be found here.

Whoo, that was a whole lot of hair! Hope this was helpful ^^

Until next time,
Giselle

Casual Lolita

2011-01-20T20:46:00.003+02:00

This was my outfit to school today. I never wear full lolita to school, it's too difficult and time-consuming. And I really don't feel like sweeping someone's plate in cafeteria with my skirt with extra-poofy petticoat. Actually, mostly I wear something completely normal and non-lolita. But today I felt like wearing something cute. The skirt is from Bodyline, everything else is self-made or H&M or such. (Sorry for the stain on the mirror, I do wear a headdress too.)

So, the problem with casual is to wear something that's not going to visit in your classmate's pea soup while you pass her table but still is lolita. These might be self-evident, but here are my tips for a casual look:

1: The Easiest Way

Like I did with my outfit. Wear a cute skirt with everything else simple. Wear matching colours, maybe small accessories. A simple hairstyle - though "simple" does not mean "do nothing".

2: The Elegant Way

This might not be so clearly lolita, but if you feel wearing something beautiful but can't or don't want have your petticoats along, then you might want to wear a nice lolita blouse with normal skirt or pants. The problem with this is that one easily looks just overdressed so be sure to have something different. A good coordination could be a cute blouse with lace trimmings, lolita style boots and jeans, trouser legs inside the boots. Hair in a big messy bun, backcombed to look wild.

3: The Undetected Way

If you don't feel comfortable wearing big, colourful skirts or full-of-lace -blouses, simplify it more. Wear normal clothes together with lolita-ish shoes, put on a small hairbow and an ice-cream necklace. Or a one-coloured, little bit poofy skirt with everything else normal.

In my opinion the most important parts of a lolita outfit are a petticoat and one's hair. A lolita skirt is meant to be worn with a petticoat, if worn without it just tends to look like something was forgotten. So if you wear a skirt, wear a petti too! Even a small one, like I did in the picture. Then about hair: there's a big difference between "leaving your hair free" and "wash-and-go". I had my hair free today, but I blowdried my bangs with styling foam and then flat-ironed it. This took about 5 minutes, but the outcome is radically better. So even when wearing your hair simple, be sure to pay some attention to it. And whatever you wear, remember to be happy about your outfit and the time you spent choosing it <3

Until next time,
Giselle

Pink Cupcakes

2011-01-19T18:57:00.002+02:00

So, I decided to bake cupcakes. I love baking and, unfortunately, eating what I've baked ^^; Cupcakes are especially nice to make as they are easy and there are tons of variations. These were raspberry and chocolate with pink frosting. Here's the recipe if you want to try them, I try to explain it so even if you have no baking experience before, you can do this!

for 12 small cupcakes:

4 1/2 dl flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons cocoa powder (not cocoa drink powder)
2 dl sugar
3 dl raspberries (frozen or fresh)
2 eggs
3 3/4 dl buttermilk
90 grams butter, melted

frosting:
100 grams butter (soft)
100 grams cream cheese
2 dl strawberry-flavored powdered sugar (if not available, use normal powdered sugar - I used the strawberry one just to have the pink colour ^^)

If you are using cups instead of desilitres, here's a help.

Heat the oven to 210 celsius degrees. Have your cupcake liners nearby, if using the normal ones you might want to have two of them together so they don't unfold in the oven so easily. If you have the ones with a folding, feel that yours are sturdy enough anyway or are using a cupcake mold, then worry not.

Mix together flours, baking powder and cocoa powder, then add sugar and raspberries. If your raspberries are fresh, then be careful while mixing. The frozen ones are easier to handle. Then in another bowl, mix eggs and buttermilk. Add the liquid to the flour mix, then add melted butter. Mix, but not too much or you'll get chocolate dinner rolls instead of cupcakes. Scoop the batter into the liners, about 3/4 full. Small liners should be sized about 1 1/4 dl when completely filled. Bake your cupcakes in the oven for 20 minutes. While they are in the oven, make the frosting. It's easy, just mix all the ingredient together. Be sure to use soft, room-temperature butter or it won't mix evenly with cream cheese. Put your frosting in the fridge. When the cupcakes are ready, let them cool down or your frosting will melt. To spread the frosting, you can use a piping bag like I did, or just spread it with a spoon. Enjoy with a cup of tea and a good friend!

If you wish to find more delicious and interesting cupcake recipes, visit Cupcake Bakeshop. All the cupcakes you've ever imagined will be there!

What is your favourite treat? Please share with me!

Until next time,
Giselle

The Meetup

2011-01-17T21:12:00.004+02:00

So, as I told before, on Sunday I participated in a meetup. This is my attire, simple grey skirt with fake fur trimming and a round-collared blouse with pearl buttons (that were hell to sew on) and lace on collar, front and cuffs. As the meetup theme was "frost flowers" and we were asked to wear something with flowers, I decorated my hair with lots of white rose hair pins. (Forgive my ugly-coloured door...)

The plan was to first have a photoshoot and then go to a cafe. As it was freezing (almost -15 celcius), we quickly moved to the cafe, but I hope we had some nice photoes. The cafe was a nice place called "Nostalgia". I had a pink doughnut, very lolita indeed <3 Everybody was totally lovely and I wish to meet with them again. The hostesses had drawn everybody a card as a thank-you. They were so cute!! Mine looked like this:

As I had such a great time, I started planning on hosting my own meetup. I'd love to have a tea party meetup. Even though it's the most common idea associated with lolitas, in reality those kind of meetups are very rare. Maybe because nobody actually owns a pretty tea set, at least one suitable for more than four people. Also, in Finland there are no tea houses or such to order a tea party at. But my mother has this lovely blue-coloured tea set! Every cup and plate is a little bit different from others but all white with blue decorations. I love them! Maybe if mixed a bit more, I could host a Mad Hatter tea party. I'd love it <3

Another dream meetup of mine would be a picnic at an old graveyard. One can't just select a random graveyard and go to have a picnic, that's really not appropiate. But we have this 200 years old graveyard, not used in, like, 150 years in my city. All the graves are beautifully decorated and located here and there, not in rows like nowadays. And as it is an open park, it's a totally acceptable place for a picnic. And as the graves are really pretty, it would make a nice place for a photoshoot too.

If you have a nice meetup idea, please share it with me!

Until next time,
Giselle

Lots of Lace

2011-01-12T15:44:00.006+02:00

Hello!

So, yesterday was my pay day, and I went shopping! As I told before, I was planning on buying some fabric for a new blouse. So I did. I also bought pearl buttons and some lace. Here they are:

The lace is about 2cm wide and good for a blouse. But. I would have wanted something a bit wider, closer to 5cm, as I was planning on making a big, round-edged collar with lace trimming. As the collar is going to be wide, I'm afraid a thin lace like this will be a bit off-balanced. However, this lace was the only one in my local store that was both soft-looking and priced below 5€/m.

For me, this is a problem I face every time I plan on using lace. As I refuse using "plastic" lace and mostly need off-white or cream coloured ones instead of bright white, my choices are limited. Recently I've been turning to the internet while searching for beautiful laces.

The place to look for craft supplies is, of course, Etsy. Here are some beautiful laces I came upon:

I'm surely going to order that pink cotton lace for a summer JSK I'm going to make! And the one with music notes (even though they are mirrored :D) is absolutely adorable, I'd love to use it, even though I'm not a black-colour-wearing person. All these are adorable <3 If you wish to buy these laces, here are they: music notes, pink cotton and pink embroidery. Prices for these three are between 0,85€ and 1,50€ per meter, plus postal fees around 3€. So, next time, when my clothes are not due next Sunday, I'm surely going to order the lace I need, as I can find more beautiful ones at lower prices. If you know any good lace suppliers, please tell me!

Until next time,
Giselle

Let's get started

2011-01-10T15:59:00.003+02:00

Hello!

I've been about to start this blog since, hmm, forever. I was just facing some minor problems, like "no name" and "no ability to make layouts". But here we are, finally!

First, some information about me: I'm a Finnish university student, recently quite disinterested in studying. I also work part-time and go in for horseback riding lessons. I've been interested in Japanese culture for years, since junior high. I've cosplayed for a few years and a little by little I found myself falling in love with lolita fashion. I love especially all "traditional" styles, sweet, gothic and classic, but as I've always preferred wearing light colours, my own style is a mixture of sweet and classic, mostly a casual version of these two.

With my clothing, I'm always on a budget - for a lolita, anyway! Even though I love Mary Magdalene and Angelic Pretty, there is no way I'm going to pay hundreds of €uros for a dress. As I am a decent seamstress myself, I prefer self-made clothes. They also fit me better than those "one size fits all - or not" -brand clothes. I also admit buying print replicas now and then. For me, the most important piece of a lolita outfit is a PETTICOAT and I think no lolita should go out without one. Or two. Or a whole lot, so your skirt will truly be bell-shaped...!!

A newbie in the internet community, I'm trying to find my way into it, as well as to the local lolita community. My first lolita meetup is on next Sunday! Last week, I made a skirt with fake fur trimming, and tomorrow I'll go and buy some cotton to make a new blouse to wear to the meetup. I'll try to have a nice picture of my outfit!

Until next time,
Giselle