1st of May

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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