Bats and Bunnies

What brand are the circle lens that you liked?

2012-02-27T11:35:00.001-08:00

They are from Dueba (also called G&G).

Glowsticking

2012-02-27T03:37:00.003-08:00

Since a couple of weeks I have found a new interest: Glowsticking!

A couple of years ago I discovered poi and I really liked it, but in my small living room it is very difficult to practise those moves, since I easily knock over my stuff. And I am not really a kind of person who goes outside to practise.

Via poi, I also discovered glow-poi, which is poi with glow-in-the-dark stuff. And I found that really amazing too (I am easily mesmerized by the beautiful patterns that the glowpoi create in the dark), but at the Dutch poi webshop I only saw Stardass, which have a rubber cover. And I am allergic to rubber, so no Stardass for me.

And then a couple of months ago I was just checking back at the poi website, wishing I could do poi more. And I found that they also had some things called Glostix, which were kinda like LED glowsticks. But I found them quite expensive, so I searched with google to find any cheaper alternatives.

Through google, I suddenly ended up at glowsticking.com, a website all about glowsticking! And I discovered that glowsticking had some similarities with poi, but is still a different thing. There are 2 types of glowsticking: glowstringing (where your sticks are on strings, like poi) and freehand (where you just keep the glowsticks in your hands).

I first started with stringing, but then soon I discovered that I had the same problems with poi: my living room is too small to practise! And then one day I tried some freehanding, just for fun, even though I didn't learn any moves yet. And I had a lot of fun indeed! A new world opened up for me and then I knew: this is what I want to do! This is what I want to practise! And I had no problems with freehanding in the small space of my living room too! :D

So now since about 1 or 2 weeks I try to practise freehand glowsticking every day. I really enjoy it! Though I still have a lot to learn too! ^__^

Now glowsticking has a bad reputation. Many people automaticly think that glowsticking is done by people on drugs, because it has its roots from the rave culture. But just like any culture: there are people who take drugs, and there are people who don't take drugs. A lot of glowstickers don't take drugs. And glowsticking isn't limited to the rave culture either. For example I really enjoy dancing with my sticks to cyber/industrial music (such as Combichrist). I don't consider myself to be a raver (though I try to live by PLUR nonetheless). And I am very much against drugs.

But I really like the glowsticking.com website. It is really filled with great tutorials which really help me to learn new moves. And also the people there are really nice and friendly. Glowsticking.com is against battling and preforming for money, because they share the opinion that glowsticking should be something for fun, and keep it friendly, that every one is equal and some may have more experience than others, but generally people try to help eachother with positive concrit instead of bashing them down, and not try to see who is the best glowsticker and cause a hostile enviroment. (which you can clearly see in the gyaru and sometimes in the lolita communities...)

So even though I have still a lot to learn, yesterday I was trying to take some pictures of me glowsticking just for fun. And most of the pictures didn't turn out great (I was still experimenting with the right camera settings) and I had a low battery so I could only take about 10 pictures in total, there was one image which I was very fond of:

VelvetBat initials, drawn in the air! ^__^

I really want to try and take more pictures of me glowsticking and I also plan to make a movie every now and then to record my progress too.
But overall it really makes me happy and it is also a great workout to keep myself active, which is also very good for my fibromyalgia. Although due the fibromyalgia, some stuff are still a bit more difficult because my arms and wrists are sometimes very stiff, so not all my motions are fluid yet - but I keep working on that too! ^__^

Outfit Snapshot: Gothic Aristocrat

2012-02-23T03:05:00.003-08:00

Long time no snapshot! But before I get to that, I first want to say thank you for following my blog! :D I noticed that I have 208 followers now! Big yay! :D

Blouse and bowtie: Alice and the Pirates
Skirt: Raven
Corset: Bodyline
Hairclip: offbrand (local store)
Boots: Pleaser
Fingerless lace gloves: made by me

This is my outfit for today! I decided to dress up in gothic aristocrat again. I really love this style and I think it also suits me well, so I really should wear it more often I think!
I don't know why I don't wear it that much. Before I dressed lolita I started with aristocrat (because it felt more safe than lolita, I was a little afraid of petticoats) and my love for aristocrat always stayed.

But if I will wear it more often, I ofcourse need better clothes. Skirts mostly. (and a better corset too) Since aristocrat clothes are not much around (only Moitie and Atelier Boz? But I don't like all their aristocrat stuff), I think I will try to sew most of it myself.
Though I really hope that some day I will be able to own the long ron Gate skirt from Moitie. Since I got into aristocrat/lolita around 2008 I fell in love with it. Too bad it is so rare and expensive! O_O

Iron Gate skirt from Moi-Meme-Moitié

On the other hand, recently I have a LOT of inspiration for various dreadwigs for myself, to combine with cyberlolita outfits and also with deathrock-ish outfits and just general cybergothic outfits. And I also have some inspiration to mix deathrock with gyaru (basicly a full deathrock outfit with gyaru curly hair + make). Too bad I don't have the dreadwigs yet, but soon I will start making them. For the other outfits I sadly don't have the needed items, nor the money to buy them or buy materials to sew them myself. And for some outfits the weather also needs to be a lot better. For some of them it is too cold now. :(

So I have written down my inspiration and hopefully I will be able to do them all later this year!

PVC Mask

2012-02-16T02:11:00.002-08:00

Yesterday I finished my bloomers and PVC mask for my Elf Fantasy Fair outfit! ^_^

This is a picture of the mask:

And this is a picture of how it looks worn:

Yeah I know, it doesn't suit my outfit for today at all! XD But I just put it on for the picture.

Funny detail: I bought the PVC fabric about 3 or 4 years ago, when I was still a cybergoth, planning on making a short tight skirt for myself. But I never did.
And the PVC from the mask is the exact same shade of white as my new PVC boots! ^_^

On the event itself, I will wear a lot more heavier make-up. About a month ago I watched a couple of episodes of RuPaul's Drag U and I got really inspired by drag make-up. So I will practise that soon and hopefully look really fabulous on the Elf Fantasy Fair! :D

How did you learn to sew? Through youtube films or are you just doing something with all the stitches?

2012-02-13T00:48:00.001-08:00

I learned how to sew when I was still a cybergoth. I started out with very, very easy things: legwarmers, rectangle short skirts, circle skirts, panel tops... For some items I used online tutorials on gothic websites (like http://natronundsoda.net) and for others I just did what I thought would work. (And ofcourse sometimes it didn't work and then I learned a new lesson).

After the easy items, I just tried something a bit more difficult the next time, to build it up. And sometimes I encountered a certain thing which I had no clue how to do. Like installing invisible zippers for example. But then, the internet is your friend! There are so many good tutorials out there, some on youtube, some on regular websites, which explained these things.

Then when I started getting into lolita and sewing lolita items, I used pattern scans from the Gothic and Lolita Bibles and similar magazines. Ofcourse on the scans you don't have the patterns in full scale, but it helped me to figure out the general shape of the patterns for a dress. And I just adjusted it to my size.

Later I also bought a Dutch book explaining the basics of drafting your own patterns. Some parts are helpful for me, and others not so much.

And overall it is just starting easy, get more difficult later, and a lot of trial and error. I sometimes sew things which look nice, and I sometimes sew things which end up looking awful. :p And I still make my mistakes, because I still have a lot to learn. But with each item you make you'll get more and more experienced. :)

Ask me anything

The dress is finished!

2012-02-12T02:19:00.000-08:00

So, after many hours of sewing, I have finally finished my dress!
It has a couple of flaws, but I am happy with it. And even proud too! I mean, I have never made a dress with so many details, with a flat chest, and with detachable sleeves. So it were many things I did for the first time and like always, I did not use any patterns but drafted my own. And I am by no means an experienced sewer (I have never taken any sewing lessons) so everything I do is trial and error. So those flaws don't bother me that much since I have learned a lot by making this dress and I never expected it to turn out 100% perfect when I do it the first time.

But onto the pictures:

Front of the dress

Back of the dress

Close-up of the bodice part

Close-up at the skirt part at the front

Detail at the top sleeve part

Detail of the bottom sleeve part

Dress worn by me - because it is missing the other cyberlolita parts it makes the boots look really out of place here XD

Sadly I can't take a picture of the dress worn by my dressform since my dressform has breasts. So this dress doesn't fit my dressform.
At the picture where I wear my dress you can see that the boots looks slightly offwhite next to the dress. This probably has to do with the difference in the materials. (just as velvet looks more black then black leather for example)
But ofcourse in the end when the whole look is complete I will have more different white materials: the PVC mouthmask, the white dreads, some white cyberlox, a white bag... So I think it will balance it all out.
I am still a bit unsure if I am going to order a white bag or an offwhite bag. I don't want the offwhite bag look too yellow compared to the rest of the outfit, but I think I will wear an offwhite bag more in the future compared to a white bag.

And yes, I really have to cut my fringe. XD But due the cold weather here my hair is FULL of static electricity, so when I tried to comb it, half of my hair goes up and the other one sticks to my forehead. Which makes cutting your hair quite difficult. (and cutting it while it is still wet is not working well because it always ends up differently when it is dry again. :/)

And on this picture it isn't really noticable that my chest is completely flat because the way my hair is draped (by accident). But it is really flat! :D

And as you can see I have a white flower hairclip in my hair. I bought it about a week ago (I also bought it in black too!) and I like hair flowers better than hairbows. So I will wear this hairclip with the complete look as well. Which means I might add some goggles too. And then clip the hairflower to the side of my goggles. ^^

Also, I have decided not to buy black lenses for my outfit. Last times I tried my lenses, I had difficulties getting them in because my hands are shaking a lot in the morning. And the lenses are only allowed to wear them for about 8 hours, which means I should officially take them out somewhere during the event. :/ (which is diffult since it is an outside event and there are no places to wash your hands and keep it clean and such)
So no lenses for me. And instead I'll try to find some really dramatic (dragqueen-like) lashes to make my eyes still pop out!

Anyways, upcoming week I will try to sew my bloomers and PVC mouthmask and after that I can start on the dreadwig! ^_^ I am really looking forward to make dreads again!

4 Years ago I became a doll owner...

2012-02-08T11:44:00.001-08:00

4 Years ago I became a doll owner. An asian ball jointed doll owner to be precise (I don't like other kinds of dolls). My first doll was a Dollzone Cherry, ordered during Dollzone's Christmas event, so I got a dollzone coney/bunny for free. And they arrived on February 8, 2008.

Normally I forget my doll's 'birthdays'. And I don't celebrate them either. When I first got into this hobby, I wanted to celebrate each birthday with a photoshoot on their day, but that just didn't work.

But today, I suddenly realised what day it was and that I have my first doll for exactly 4 years now. Which made me go back down the memory lane...

4 Years ago I was still into cybergothic, which you can definitely see in my doll collection: my first dolls are cybergoths too! :D

Picture of one of my cybergoth dolls:
Yelena - Luts Delf Dark Elf Soo
Dreads, face-up and outfit by me

It was a very big step for me to start on collecting ball jointed dolls. Because they are really, really expensive. So ordering my first doll was taking a big gamble. Would I like it? Did I just throw away a couple of hundred euros? Luckily my first doll was one of the cheaper kinds, so that's why I took the big step for me.

But funny detail: before my first doll arrived, I also fell in love with a second doll (Lu-Wen) which was labeled as "limited edition" on the Luts website. And at one point there were only 6 left in stock. So I didn't want him to be sold out, so I ordered him even before my first doll had arrived! XD
(However, somehow he still got restocked a couple of times, so limited edition...? Not that much.)

Anyways, the gamble turned out really well, since I really LOVE my dolls. And for quite a while I spend almost all my money on new dolls.

In the Ball Jointed Doll hobby there are different kinds of people. Some only want a couple of dolls and spoil them with several wigs, shoes, outfit, etc. They take their dolls with them, they talk to them, they cuddle them.
I am a different kind of doll owner. For me, the collecting of dolls and turning them into this image I have in mind is the most fun for me. And ofcourse I love doing photoshoots as well. But I really love a big doll collection. And all my dolls only have 1 outfit. Because that is the outfit I have in mind, which suits them. If I make them a second outfit, it feels wrong to me. Like they are not fully themselves anymore.

So now 4 years later, I have a doll family consisting of 28 full dolls, 2 floating heads, and several other spare parts (like wings, feet, legs, hands, talons).
And there are still more dolls coming soon. I am currently waiting for a Doll Chateau Alberta which I ordered in January, I have a Dollzone Anson on layaway (bought secondhand from a girl in my country), and within 2 weeks I will order 2 Angel Fantasy Alices (to make identical twins) during the Angel Fantasy event where I will get 1 doll (an AF Niki) for free.
So yeah, my collection is ever growing.

I am really glad I took the gamble and got into the bjd hobby. I have met a lot of nice people, went to a couple of doll meet-ups, I improved my photography skills, I am creative with painting their faces and sewing clothes for them... And the dolls just give me a very happy feeling in general. And a lot of positive energy.
Without them, my life would be very different.

And my dolls give me more self-confidence too! Because I can clearly see improvement in my doll photography, in my face-ups, in the outfits I sew... And sometimes when I have a bad day, I think that I really suck at everything. But the photos can prove me wrong and turn my mood. ^_^

One of the first pictures of my first doll
(when the "Yelena" character was still on the Dollzone Cherry doll, but I didn't find that suit the doll so I chose a different type of doll for my Yelena (the Dark Elf Soo) and changed the Dollzone Cherry into something else.)

One of my latest shoots with Ysabella (Soom Pel), at the end of 2011.

(and ofcourse my latest shoot with Alexis which I posted here a couple of days ago)

And you can even see my watermark changed over time as well. XD

So yeah, they really make me happy and I hope I will still be into this hobby for a long, long time!

- - -

And on a side note: my dress for the Elf Fantasy Fair is starting to look like a dress now! I only need to install the zipper, add the sleeves (which are already made, but I just have to attach them to the dress) and then do the finishing touches (add a couple of bows, a little more lace, some button holes and the buttons themselves).
Once finished, I'll show you the pictures of my dress. ^^

where do you shop for boots in Montreal ? Cruella ?

2012-02-07T07:39:00.001-08:00

I have several boots which are from the brand called Montreal, not the city in Canada.
And I buy them from the internet: http://stores.ebay.nl/Little-Chili-Lolita-Shop
^_^

Ask me anything

Review: Pennangalan Libby Plate Ramp Boots

2012-02-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

This is my review about my Libby Plate Ramp Boots from Pennangalan and about the service from Pennangalan itself.

Warning: This post is going to be long since the wait was long as well! I ordered them at June 20 in pink and I recieved black boots at January 26.

At June 20, 2011 I ordered a pair of baby pink Libby Plate Ramp Boots from Pennangalan.
Because I ordered them in pink, which is a custom colour, I had to pay a 50% deposit. Or, if I wanted the boots to arrive faster, I could pay the whole amount up front. And I did the last thing because I was hoping that they would arrive before the Summer Lolita Picknick (end of July) and I definitely wanted to wear them at the Abunai Convention (in August).
I was told that it would take about 2-5 weeks before the boots would be shipped to me.

At July 11 I recieved an email:

"Production of the LIFT and RAMP soles at our new sole supplier is completed, and they are shortly to be shipped to us.

To ensure there is as little delay as possible, we have begun manufacture of all LIFT/RAMP orders, including yours. The boots will be manufactured and lasted this week ready for the soles to be fixed onto next week (when they re due to be delivered).

We expect to be shipping orders by the end of next week. Due to the large number of boots to assemble, they won t all ship at once. We do expect most pairs to be shipped out by 29th July at the latest.

As we are manufacturing the boots now, we will be collecting payment from you for your order this week. If you paid for your order by card we will charge the card on Friday 15th. If you are paying by Paypal we will be sending payment requests to you shortly."

But since I already paid the whole amount up front I recieved a second, manual email telling me to ignore the part about the payment. But I was happy to recieve the email and hoping that my boots would arrive shortly.

But they didn't.

At July 27 I recieved the following email:

"Things never seem to go as planned. The courier firm moving the soles to us across Europe \ left them on the wrong truck\ , and delivery is delayed by 5 whole days :-(

We had expected to be shipping boots this week, but that is not put back to Thursday next week."

I was sad to hear that because it would mean I wasn't able to wear them on the lolita meet-up. But oh well, mistakes happen, so I accepted the fact.

At August 12 I emailed them, asking when my boots would be shipped, since I was having Abunai coming up and I was hoping to recieve the boots in time.
I got a reply that the soles were in stock now and some boots with these soles were already delivered and more could be expected to arrive that day. But they couldn't tell me if my boots were in that load. But they would try to get my boots be there on time, though they couldn't promise me anything.

So I kept my fingers crossed. But I didn't hear anything again.
So at August 30 I emailed them again. I wrote that I didn't want to be rude, but my boots would be promised to arrive within 2-5 weeks after ordering and at that time, already 10 weeks have passed. (And I already missed them for Abunai...)
I got a reply that they were very sorry but that the manufacturer was having a lot of delays. But they would speak to the manufacturer the next day and try to get some details about my boots.

But I didn't hear from them again, so at September 6 I emailed them again, asking if they had any news about my boots. And I recieved no reply.

At September 13 I emailed them again, asking the same thing. This time I got a reply saying that the delays were unacceptable and that their boss was having words with the manufacturer. There were some large deliveries expected that evening, another on Thursday and one on either Friday or Monday.

But again, no news. So after a month waiting again, I emailed them on October 14. I recieved a reply that my boots were still not there, but they were placed on the priority list and that the boss was insisting that my boots would arrive as soon as possible. They were certain that the boots would arrive soon.

But then another month passed by and I was getting quite annoyed. So at November 16 I emailed them again, but I also asked why it was taking so long. Especially since they were talking about all other boots arriving and such...
And then I recieved a reply that the pink colour was giving trouble. The manufacturer couldn't find baby pink synthetic leather with high enough quality. So they couldn't tell me how long it would take.
They notified me that they also had a Custom Made service available; so if I had some baby pink synthetic leather here I could send it to them and they would make boots out of it for me.
But I don't have such material here. So I replied that I had no material and that I would wait a little longer, but really hoped that the manufacturer would find some high quality material soon.
They replied to me that usually if the manufacturer was thinking it was a hopeless case to find it, he would notify them. So because he was continuing his search, they were sure he would find it some time.

Now I was happy to hear that he was still searching for high enough quality material and not settle with some cheap stuff. But I was not happy that it took 5 months and an email from my side to get to know the real reason for the delay.
I'd appreciated it more if Pennangalan emailed me with the real reason for the delay right when they knew about it.

But then I waited another month and still heard nothing. And it got me thinking... They couldn't tell me when the manufacturer could get his hands on some baby pink material. So it could easily take another 6 months. Or even a whole year before I got my boots. And every time when I had an event coming up I was hoping for my boots to arrive so I could wear them, but each time I got disappointed.
So I made a decision. If the problem was the baby pink material, and the black boots were still arriving on time, I would try to change my order from pink to black. (the boots are exactly the same price in black or pink.)

So at December 20 I emailed them, saying that it was already 6 months since I placed my order and that if the colour pink was the problem, I wanted to change my order into black leather instead. If that was possible.

I recieved a reply that they asked the factory to change it and they were waiting for the confirmation.

I was expecting a second email from them telling me something among the lines of "The factory has confirmed the change", but I recieved none. So at January 18 I emailed them again, asking if they could tell me how much longer I still needed to wait for the boots.

And I didn't recieve a reply...

And then suddenly out of nothing I recieved an email at January 24, saying that my boots were dispatched and should arrive within 7 working days.
Sadly, there was no tracking information. (I really want/need a tracking code with my orders since the Dutch Post messes things up very often.) But luckily the boots arrived at January 26 without any further problems.

So... In short about their service:
I really think they should have informed me much more. And I don't like the fact that a couple of times I didn't even get a reply from them.
But I am glad that I could change my order (since a refund was not possible, as stated in their Terms and Conditions).
And I am definitely very unpleased by the LONG wait. I mean, if I kept my order being pink, I would probably still waiting for my boots.

But now about the boots themselves

I already posted this picture of me wearing them, but because of the review I will post it again:

The boots are exactly as they are on the picture.
They don't have a zipper, so I have to undo the straps on one side to get them on/off. But on the website it was already stated that the boots were only having straps and no zippers, laces or speed laces.

As for size, their website says:
"This style runs small. Please order one size larger"

I have a European size 40, and my feet are 25cm long. (So I have JP size 25)
Ordering boots online is always risky, especially since different countries have different sizing systems and not all size conversion charts are correct.
So on the Pennangalan website they also have a Size Advise page, which said that if I had a European size 40.5, I have a UK size 7 ("(Use this to order)" is said at the UK sizes).
Now comes the tricky part. So the chart says I need to use size 7 to order. But the boots page says that I need to order a size larger. What to do?

Since walking on shoes which are too small is killing my feet, I decided to take the risk and just go with a female size 8. I'd rather have boots which are a size too big than too small.

But at the end the size 8 fits well and I should definitely NOT have bought a size smaller.

The boots themselves are very sturdy and the quality feels good and strong. Ofcourse with all platform boots they are a bit rigid when walking in them for the first time. But after 1 evening and 1 day of wearing them, they became well adapted to my feet and I was able to walk in them comfortably.
So at January 28 I had the gyaru meet-up where I wore them the whole day, and they didn't even hurt my feet. So even with my fibromyalgia I can walk in them easily.

So I am really positive about the quality of the boots!

And overall, if I would have got them in black at the first time, I think my order would just go normal. I mean, after I changed my order to black it took them about 2-5 weeks to get ready, like they promised in the original email after ordering. But just because I wanted them in pink and the pink was giving all these troubles, I am very negative about this ordering process.

Would I recommend Pennangalan to others, or buy from them again?
Well, maybe... since the quality of the boots feels good.
But only for black, non-custom, boots.

If you want to order a custom colour I highly recommend you to first email them and asking if they are 100% positive that they have the material available in the colour you want.

And it still surprises me that they have the pink option available on their website, and no message saying that if you want that colour, it would take longer. I personally think that such information is important and should be on their website somewhere!

You Have Changed... (Alexis - Peakswoods Goldie)

2012-02-01T07:23:00.000-08:00

Today I suddenly had the urge to have a photoshoot with one of my dolls. So I picked out Alexis. Alexis is a girl which I own for 3 years and almost a month now and her last shoot was back in 2010, where she came across as a shy girl. But she has changed... Somehow she ended up not looking that shy anymore.
(Funny how such things go, I mean... she is not an alive person or something. O_o)

Anyways, here are some pictures of the photoshoot:

I am really happy with the results. ^_^
I really want to try and improve my photographing skills this year, and also do more shoots with my dolls in general. So this is a good start!
And I decided to post all future shoots on my blog as well, since my dolls are a very important part of my life. So I think they should be on my blog too. ^_^

By the way, Alexis' face-up is one of the two dolls I own whos face-up is NOT done by me. Her face-up is done by True Crimson / Rosered. I got this doll second hand and it already had a face-up. The face-up is so beautiful and detailed (much better than my own face-ups, lol!) so I decided to keep it. And it suits her well anyways. :)

2012 Lolita Challenge: First month is over

2012-02-01T02:24:00.001-08:00

So, one of my new year resolutions is the 2012 challenge (inspired by the Filthy Victorians challenge) where I would dress up in lolita at least 6 days a week.

And I wore lolita every single day except January 28 (gyaru meet-up) and 29 (too tired after the gyaru meet-up) and I posted my outfits up 'till January 27. So far, so good.

But there is a part that you don't know. The behind the scenes part, so to say. It was not easy to wear lolita every single day. I have a lot of problems with my fatigue lately, it feels like it is getting worse. So dressing up was already a big challenge for me. And because I also posted my outfits online, I wanted to try and make different coords as much as possible. I put a lot of pressure on myself for doing that. Because honestly, in real life I don't mind if I wear the same coord 2 times a month, or wear the same skirt 4 times a month, or even 2 days in a row. But for my readers, I wanted to vary a bit more.

And because of that, my joy of wearing my frills fade away. The last two weeks, when I went to bed I was already worrying about next day's outfit. And I wore coords, like a pink blouse underneath my cherry berry bunny, where I didn't feel comfortable wearing those anymore.

So I decided to take a break on my outfit snapshots. I will continue to wear lolita at least 6 days a week, but I won't take snapshots daily. Because I want my joy in wearing lolita back. That is more important for me than to be able to post 6 or 7 pictures every week.
So I will continue to wear lolita for my personal joy. And occasionally I will take an outfit snapshot, if I am very pleased with my look for that day or if I came up with a coords I haven't posted yet.

I also planned to buy some different coloured blouses next month (for varying my coords), but I have to delay that for one or two months... Angel Fantasy is having an event where you can get a free doll if you buy their products over a certain amount. And I already wanted to buy two of their dolls somewhere in spring, but I don't want to let a free doll pass. So I decided to buy the dolls first and then buy new blouses later this year. ^_^

The good thing so far about this challenge is that even though I have to work myself through the fatigue to get myself ready, I do feel pretty once I have my clothes on and make-up ready. It boosts a lot of self-confidence. ^_^
But still the clothes themselves are quite unpractical; I keep knocking stuff from tables with my petticoat inside my small living room, so generally I don't wear my petticoat inside my house anymore.

Where did you buy that bauhaus patch?:))

2012-01-30T07:34:00.001-08:00

I bought it from the online webstore of http://www.secret-oktober.com. However, I don't know if they still have those in stock, since I ordered mine back in 2009.
(And I also ordered most of my other patches and buttons that are currently on my jacket there as well.)

Ask me anything

Gyaru Gift-swap Meet-up

2012-01-30T04:41:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday I attended the gyaru gift swap meet with the girls from my gyaru-sa HYPER. The circle was almost complete, only two members were unable to come sadly. But we did have a lot of fun!

For the meet-up I decided to wear a goth gyaru outfit, with hair inspired by Morimayu. This is the outfit snapshot I took before leaving the house:

I am very pleased with my outfit and hair. ^_^ But sadly the air was very humid in my city, so before I arrived at the train station, my hair turned straight (instead of wavy) and it lost some of the volume too. :(

Anyways, at the gift meet-up I had bought a gift for Elise, and I was very glad that she liked the gift!

And I recieved a gift from Kari:

Leopard leggings, snowflake mascara, black wristband with small black rhinestones, 4 leopard hairclips and a black bracelet with leopard heart charm.
I am so happy with the gifts I recieved! So thank you very much, Kari! ^__^

Also, Gigi has made some pictures of everyone, and these are the two picture she took of me:

(you can see my hair is a lot messier here due the weather and such :/)

And also a group shot: (also picture from Gigi)

From left to right:
Kari, Estherbel, me,
Charlotte, Josephine, Rox,
Gigi, Juul, Elise

And another group shot with the HYPER flag:

So it was really a great day! ^__^

Another outfit snapshots round

2012-01-27T04:29:00.000-08:00

So, here are the outfit snapshots from the past week again!

January 20: Bunnies with platforms
Blouse: Anna House
Jumperskirt: Angelic Pretty (Lyrical Bunny)
Boots: Montreal
Hair accessory: H&M

January 21: Classic kuro with braid
Blouse: Anna House
Skirt: Made by me
Shoes: Montreal
Hair accessories: both offbrand (local stores)

January 22: Classic in black x white + matching dog
(My dog was sleeping at the place where I wanted to take my snapshot and she didn't want to leave. Silly dog. XD)
Blouse: Anna House
Skirt: R-series
Cardigan: Metamorphose temps de fille
Shoes: Montreal
Hair accessory: Innocent World
Dog: Medium sized white Keeshond (also known as German Spitz)

January 23: Kuro with teased and crimped hair
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
One-piece: Alice and the Pirates (Reticella)
Boots: montreal
I didn't wear a hair accessory this time because nothing did fit into the hair. XD

January 24: Pink bunnies
Blouse: Angelic Pretty
Jumperskirt: Angelic Pretty (Cherry Berry Bunny)
Boots: Montreal
Hair accessory: Innocent World

January 25: Gothic lolita
Blouse: Anna House
One-Piece: Alice and the Pirates (Vampire Forest)
Boots: Montreal
Hair accessory: Alice and the Pirates

January 26: Somewhat classic, with curls
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Jumperskirt: Angelic Pretty (Classical Rose)
Shoes: Montreal
Hair accessory: Offbrand (local store)
Sadly the curls vanished shortly after I took this picture when I walked my dog. Stupid bad Dutch weather! -__-

January 27: Incorporating my new boots in a gothic coord
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Corset skirt: Atelier Pierrot
Boots: Pennangalan
Hair accessory: Metamorphose temps de fille

I hope you like my outfits!
Tomorrow I will attend a meet-up with the girls from my gyaru-sa HYPER and then I will do a gothic gyaru coord with my shiney new boots. After that, around Sunday or Monday, I will write a detailed review about the boots and about Pennangalan itself (and the fact I waited since June for them to arrive!).

Allycat Metal Ware stuff for my EFF outfit

2012-01-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Today I have ordered the futuristic accessories for my Elf Fantasy Fair outfit at Allycat Metal Ware.

These are the things I ordered:

A collar

Two lower arm guards

Two upper arm guards which can (and will) be worn as boot guards

These images come from the Allycat Metal Ware website.

The ones I ordered are in different colours though: I have ordered them with a black button and black tubing (since they didn't have the option white).

It will take about 28 days for the items to be made. I am really looking forward to get them here and try them on!
I have been a fan of Allycat Metal Ware for quite a long time, but I never bought any items from them. (Mostly because I didn't have the money back in my cybergoth days XD)

And since I have really small wrists, I also asked them to make the lower arm guards fit mine. A time ago I emailed them asking if that was possible, and back then I recieved a reply that it was possible if I'd write down my measurements on the order comments. And so I did. So I hope they will fit me! (I once tried them on in a store but their standard size was WAY to big for me)

Lucky pack and lace

2012-01-22T05:29:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went to the local fabric store to buy some lace and satin ribbon for my Elf Fantasy Fair dress. I wanted to have different types of lace instead of just one, to make it visually more interesting. And this is what I bought:

The top lace however is for my bloomers, since the lace is really soft. So it won't irritate the skin on my legs. ^^

And for the ribbon, I bought some extras because I didn't know exactly how much I am going to use. For example, I am going to make some small bows for the sleeves, but I have no idea how much I use for that. I usually just tye the bow and then cut off the extra part I don't need. :p

And I have been using a lot of white for my ball jointed doll outfits lately, so all the lace and ribbon I am not going to use in my outfit will probably end up being used in a dress for one of my dolls.

Yesterday I also spend the rest of the day serging all the ends of the fabric parts of my dress. So next week I can finally start sewing it. ^_^

- - -

A girl from the local lolita community had a lot of accessories and stuff to sell, so she came up with the idea to make lucky packs out of it. You could order a small or a large one, and choose the style.

I decided to get a classic lolita pack, since I want to move on to classic lolita. And I know that I usually concentrate on buying dresses, but forget about accessories and stuff, and ending up lacking them.

Yesterday my lucky pack arrived! I was really excited and this is what I got:

A hairpin and hair comb featuring Alice in Wonderland, a small bracelet (which is too big for me, so I will make it smaller soon), a pin with a bow and pearls, a small navy bow, a black small headbow with key charm, and a pair of socks. All items are from Innocent World, I believe.

I am really happy with the pack! Especially the headbow: I am not a fan of large headbows and I wanted to buy a small elegant one soon. But I don't have to anymore because I now own one! :D
And normally I don't wear socks with prints, but I might try it in the future if I have a skirt or dress which match the socks. Same with the navy bow: I don't have something navy yet, but I really like navy so I want to get one or two navy items in the future. ^_^

And 8 daily outfit snapshots

2012-01-19T04:29:00.000-08:00

Here are the outfit snapshots from the past 8 days (including today).

January 12, a kuro lolita outfit.

Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Skirt: R-series
Shoes: Montreal
Headclip: Offbrand (local store)

January 13, another kuro outfit! ^_^

Blouse: Anna House
Jumperskirt: Handmade by me
Shoes: Montreal
Headdress: Metamorphose temps de fille

January 14, wearing my Chandelier dress.

Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Jumperskirt: HMHM
Boots: Bodyline
Headdress: H&M

January 15, a bit more classic lolita coord.

Jumperskirt: Handmade by me
Cardigan: Metamorphose temps de fille
Shoes: Montreal
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)

January 16, another kuro outfit (but a bit more gothy one)

Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Skirt: Black Peace Now
Platform boots: Montreal
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)

January 17, wearing my favourite dress: Classical Rose

Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Jumperskirt: Angelic Pretty
Boots: Offbrand
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)

January 18, wearing my Powder Rose jumperskirt

Blouse: Anna House
Jumperskirt: Angelic Pretty
Shoes: Montreal
Headdress: H&M

January 19 (today), trying something which is very new and unusual to me: wearing a white blouse underneath a black jumperskirt! ^^ But I didn't want to go too sweet, so I tried to tone it down.

Blouse: Angelic Pretty
Dress: Alice and the Pirates (Scent of Rapunzel)
Boots: Bodyline
Headdress: Metamorphose Temps de Fille.

Next week I am going to try and experiment a little with different hairstyles too. ^^

And sorry about not writing much here last week. I had some issues with my home (due one of my upper neighbours the drains in my kitchen were clogged, and because I live on the ground floor, my kitchen was flooded) which caused a lot of trouble and were also very stressful for me. Luckily the problem was resolved quickly, but I had a lot of cleaning to do and some water damage and such. :/

But I also recieved some good news last Monday!
At the beginning of this month I contacted the health centre where I am on the waiting list to start my therapies to learn how to live and cope with my fibromyalgia. I was told that the waiting lists were really long and that it would take MONTHS before I could even start. Not before April for sure.

But last Monday I got a phone call that I can start next tuesday!!! O_O I was really surprised! And I have no idea why the other lady at the beginning of the month told me that I would need to wait so long...
But that really made me happy, because the pains and the fatigue are getting worse, which annoys me even more. So I can finally start my therapies there soon. :)

And I am also working on my dress for the Elf Fantasy Fair, but because of the stress and fatigue, I haven't made much progress yet.

Moving on to Classic Lolita and some outfit snapshots

2012-01-11T04:08:00.000-08:00

For about a year I am questioning myself if I should move on to classic lolita or not. I have always loved that style (especially Mary Magdalene dresses), but I didn't want to wear too many styles and just stick to a couple to work up a nice wardrobe.

But when my Angelic Pretty Classical Rose jumperskirt arrived and I tried it on, I felt so much more pretty than I do in my sweet lolita dresses. Even prettier than in my gothic ones too. So that's when I said to myself; ok, now it is time to get serious into classic lolita.

However, because a whole wardrobe change would cost a lot of money, I decided to put a stop on buying new sweet or gothic dresses and first slowly get some basics in classic (black & white shoes, black and ivory blouses, black and white a-line petticoats, black and white classic shaped bags, etc) so if I buy a dress I will always have at least something to wear it with.
And still wear the sweet dresses I already own, but in a more toned down way.

Today I wore my Kidsyoyo Marionette Girl OP in pink, with a pink AP blouse, pink socks and pink rocking horse boots and a small pink hairclip. But I felt really uncomfortable and ugly in it. :( It cleary shows that I have grown out of sweet lolita in pink...
So I have changed my outfit for today.

Though I won't sell any of my pink dresses. I am always emotionally attached to my stuff and I like to keep all my dresses because I still have good memories of them and I don't want to part with them.
And who knows, maybe some day there will be a meet-up hosted with a theme where this dress would be perfect to wear.

But from now on, no more sweet lolita for me.
And starting with Classic lolita.

I am really looking forward to buy more classic lolita pieces, but first I need to order some stuff for the Elf Fantasy Fair and a new ball jointed doll. So I need to wait about 2 months before I can get into a new shopping spree.

That said, here at the outfit snapshots for the past couple of days:

January 6, my Classical Rose jsk. I had to pair it with some comfortable boots instead of more elegant ones, because I had a shopping meet-up that day (which was a lot of fun by the way!). Ad I can't walk much around in my other shoes without getting too much in pain.

Outfit rundown:
Jumperskirt: Angelic Pretty
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Boots: Offbrand & customized by me
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)

January 7

Blouse: Anna House
Skirt: Baby the stars shine bright
Belt: offbrand (local store)
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)
Shoes: Montreal

January 8, oldschool kuro lolita

Blouse: Anna House
Skirt: Handmade by me
Boots: Montreal
Rectangle headdress: Handmade by me

January 9, another kuro outfit (with the hem of my skirt folded up a little, showing my petticoat... I noticed it too late -__-)

Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Jumperskirt: Handmade by me
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)
Shoes: Montreal

January 10

Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Skirt: Kidsyoyo jsk altered by me
Necklace: offbrand
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)
Shoes: Montreal

January 11 (after re-dressing up)

Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Jumperskirt: Alice and the Pirates
Boots: Montreal
Hairband: Metamorphose temps de fille
Necklace: Fly Away Fashion

BatFit 2012 Update: Daily Dancing

2012-01-10T14:10:00.000-08:00

And an update about the BatFit 2012. At the beginning of January we got the first challenge: just go freestyle dancing to your favourite music for 20 minutes per day.

Now this was already on one of my list of things I wanted to do to improve my health this year, although mine was more like "at least twice a day, 30 minutes".
But I tried nonetheless.

At first I was a bit afraid that ever single day would be too much for me. But it looks like it is going even better! I am dancing for about 30~45 minutes every day actually. Usually after that time I get cramps and pains in my knees and ankles, so I have to stop.

I also found a time of the day where I could easily add my daily dancing to a routine. Routines work for me; if I can do stuff at the same time every day, I can do it. If it doesn't have a set time, I either forget or I am too busy with other things and I am not able to do it.

But I found out that for me, at the evening works best. Because of several reasons:
- At the end of the day, my muscles aren't that stiff anymore, except for my back. However, after dancing, my back is a bit more loosened up, which gives me less pain when I lay down in bed to sleep.
- At the end of the day, I know how much (or little) energy I have left and how much pain I got during the day, so I can adjust my dancing style to my current state of health.
If I'd go dancing at the beginning of the day, I could easily drain too much of myself, having no energy left for the day. And somehow I often have a peak of energy at 9 PM.
- I have incorporated my daily dancing routine to be right after I walked my dog for the last time of the day. I walk my dog 3 times, so after the last time I am also able to change my clothes. I don't want my lolita clothes to get all sweaty ofcourse. So I have a black long wide skirt (which I use if I am in a bellydance mood) or my pink wide rave pants (if I am in a cybergoth or techno mood).

So yeah, that really works for me. ^_^
So far I have been dancing every single day after I started this year, except for one day: last friday. I got hit by another bike that day and I had a shopping meet-up with a lot of walking, so at the end of the day I was in too much pain and I decided to skip the dancing. And to be honest I feel proud of that decision, because for me it is also a very important thing not to cross my body's limits too much.

And as for the music I dance to... Well I have a mixture of different songs on my mp3 player and I just put it on shuffle and dance to whatever comes up. (and occasionally skip a song if it really doesn't match my mood)
Usually it is cybergoth if I want to go really dancing hard/wild, techno/eurodance if I feel more bouncy and hyperactive, and a bit darker and slower cybergoth and darkwave and such if I want to practise my bellydance again.

And ofcourse there is one song which I really like and dance to quite often as well:

Which kinda fits this challenge, because I am dancing all alone at my living room!
Forever alone level: Billy Idol
^_~

Elf Fantasy Fair 2012 outfit plans

2012-01-07T11:46:00.000-08:00

In the Netherlands there is a yearly event called the Elf Fantasy Fair in Haarzuilens -EFF for short-. It's the biggest fantasy event in our country, with a big market place full of shops selling gothic, fantasy, larp, new age and more stuff, with some fantasy autors selling autographs and some fantasy style music groups preforming live. But the best part: almost everyone is dressed in goth, fantasy, larp or whatever alternative and crazy thing you want! People wearing normal blue jeans and white tees are the ones who are kinda out of place.
(and recently it also started to have a second Fair in an other city which is too far away from me)

I have attended the event several years, except for last year and some year before that. Usually I was dressed in goth, gothlolita or something small fantasy-ish. And one year I was dressed as some demonic thing with a PVC outfit and self-made big wired wings at my back.

But most of the time I dressed 'easy'. I know that there are quite a lot of people planning their big outfits months on beforehand, and spend months of sewing and crafting their costume/outfit together. But I was never one of them. And this year I decided to do something different and to really put some effort in my outfit.

I decided to wear an cyborg lolita outfit, in white. (well, about 97% white)

Cyborg lolita is a kind of over the top version of cyber lolita, where I really want to look not-human. And because when someone is dressed in complete white, it often looks a bit out of the place, a bit surreal. And cybergoth itself can also look very unhuman.

So the basic concept is a cyborg, neither boy or girl, dressing in a white dress, with white hair (dreads & cyberlox), big black eyes and heavy black make-up, bit platform boots and several metal accessories giving off that futuristic cyborg vibe.

I really need to sew/make/order/practise several things before the event (which is held at April 21 & 22, although I will only be there one day and I don't know yet which one, probably the Saturday I think...). So in the next months I will make some posts about the progress so far.

The Clothes
The dress will be an oldschool lolita dress. Although the cyborg lolita idea is borderline lolita, I still want the clothing part to be as lolita as possible so it will stay within the boundaries of lolita. I made a design, heavily influences by the older Angelic Pretty one-pieces, and I already bought the fabric and a zipper. I still need to buy the lace, draft the patterns and sew the whole thing.
The dress will have detachable sleeves since I have no idea what the weather will be. In the Netherlands, April can be a really hot month, or very cold, and there is always a big chance of rain.

Also, because to me a cyborg is a gender neutral being, which is unable to reproduce. And therefore it has no need for breasts so I will bind them down, creating a nice flat chest. Sadly the binder I already own is black, so I need to order a white one for that. And I already have a nice one in mind from T-Kingdom by the way, which I will order soon.

And ofcourse I also need a pair of bloomers, which I will sew myself, and a white cupcake petticoat, which I will order (probably the same one from Classical Puppets which I already own in black).
And I will sew a matching headbow in white too.
I also need to order some white tights. I might put a pair of white fishnet tights on top of it.
And I will also order a white lolita bag, probably from Loris (a heart-shaped one). I hope it will held up during the day, because I have read some bad stuff about those bags in the beginning... (though they say that Loris has improved their quality since then...)
And I will also sew a white PVC mask. I already have some white PVC here which I bought a couple of years back, but only used a small part of it for an android outfit for one of my ball jointed dolls (Zorana - Feeple Ashley).

I already ordered the boots!

Demonia Stack 301 in white PVC. I already own them in black and they are so really tall! When I wear these, I am about 190cm (6'3") tall! ^__^
They are currently on backorder at the manufactory so I am still waiting for them.

At the end of this month I will also place an order at Allycat Metalware for a pair of lower arm guards, upper arm guards (used as boot covers) and a collar. They all will be made out of stainless steal with black tubing.

Also, when the boots have arrived I need to start practise walking in them again. I am not used to walking in platform boots again because I quit wearing my platform boots on a daily basis when I got diagnosed with fibromyalgia, more than a year ago. And I really need to be able to walk on them for several hours again, so I better build it up slowly!

The Hair
I am going to make a white dreadwig with a white fringe. Then I will put the dreads up into pigtails at the back and add some white cyberlox (both metallic and non-metallic) falls to it. I might need to order new cyberlox for it, I am not sure about that.
in 2 weeks I will be ordering the synthethic hair and the wig to start making dreads again. I already have my new steamer (which seals perfectly by the way! Much better than my previous ones), so when the hair arrives I can start right away.

And like I said, I will be wearing a white headbow on top of it. I decided to not use goggles this time, since I will be wearing other several cyber accessories, and the bow will help balance back the lolita part in the outfit again.

The Face
As I already mentioned, I will wear a white PVC mask, covering the bottom part of my face. This will balance the PVC from my boots, and also make it look more unhuman. And because you can't see my mouth and nose, it will also focus more on the eyes. Because the eyes will be really black and heavy. I will order some black lenses (not the really huge ones, but still some larger black circle lenses from Dueba, since I know that my eyes can handle Dueba but have trouble with other brands), and also add quite a lot of black eyeliner, thick black false lashes, also my Diamond Lash lower lashes and some black eyeshadow.
And I will remove my eyebrows for a day. (Because without eyebrows the whole thing will look even more creepier and unhuman.) I won't wax them off because I want to keep my brows. But I have seen a really great tutorial on youtube from a dragqueen which shows you how to cover up your eyebrows with glue and then a lot of concealer, foundation, powder and such. And ofcourse I will practise that part on beforehand too!

And because the eyes will be black, bigger, with heavy black make-up and lashes, it will look even more out there because it is surrounded by the white fringe, pvc mask and white dreads at the sides.

And my nails will also be painted black by the way, to balance the black throughout the total look.

I am really looking forward to this because if the end result look like I have it visualised in my mind, it will be like an inner dream come true. It really means a lot to me, since the concept also has a very personal meaning to me. My whole life I have felt different, even a bit unhuman myself. Now I know that this is probably caused by my Aspergers, but still... It is also the reason why I love cyborg and androids so much, my I love the fake and unhuman look of cybergothic (and even gyaru!) and why I love the idea of looking like a doll in lolita. And it is also an outfit where I can combine my love for both lolita and cybergoth again. And just walk around being really tall. :D

So I will keep you updates about the process!

Lolita wardrobe meme

2012-01-05T05:45:00.000-08:00

And this month EGL has the wardrobe meme again! I really LOVE wardrobe memes since I love to see what lolita clothes other people own. And I just enjoy watching lolita clothes in general. ^_^

And so I also decided to participiate in the meme again. Last year I posted my wardrobe on my blog only, but this year I'll also post it on EGL itself.
If you compare this post with my older one from 2011 you can see my wardrobe only got bigger. ^_^ My motto is to only buy lolita clothes, not sell them, so that's why! :D And also because from January 1 on I am going to wear lolita at least 6 days a week, so I really need a big wardrobe for that. (but my wardrobe is still not that big, so this year I am planning on adding more and more to it!)

Anyways, onto the pictures! :D

Coats & Jackets

Really think black coat from Fan Plus Friend (my favourite and most worn!) and my pirate coat from Infanta

Aristocrat jacket from Fan Plus Friend, two leather offbrand jackets (one upside down so you can see the back patches - the front only has a couple of small buttons). I wear my leather jackets with everything, including lolita. :P

Pink coat from Metamorphose temps de fille and jacket from Baby the stars shine bright

One-Pieces

Alice and the Pirates One-pieces: Reticella, Chain Bouquet, Vampire Forest

Kidsyoyo Marionette Girl OP, Angelic Pretty Lyrical Polkadot OP (which arrived yesterday! :D)

Jumperskirts

Two kuro dresses handmade by me

Moi-Meme-Moitie Silent Moon (black x white), HMHM Chandelier (black x silver)

Alice and the Pirates Scent of Rapunzel, Angelic Pretty Powder Rose, Angelic Pretty Classical Rose (my dreamdress which arrived yesterday! I'm so happy!)

Angelic Pretty Cherry Berry Bunny and Lyrical Bunny

Angelic Pretty Memorial Cake, Dream of Lolita Wonder Cookie

Baby the Stars Shine Bright, Angelic Pretty, Baby the Stars Shine Bright
The Angelic Pretty one keeps reminding me about the reason why I fell in love with lolita clothes: all those pretty details!

Skirts

R-series, Atelier Pierrot, Kidsyoyo (which used to be a jumperskirt which looked awful on me, so I turned it into a corset skirt)

Black Peace Now, handmade by me

Baby the stars shine bright Sweet Cookie Alice (but the print has run because a wild rain appeared on my way home once - though it is only noticable on close-up), baby the Stars Shine Bright (I don't know the name of the print but I love it!), and handmade by me

My 3-tiered Bat Corset Skirt which was also handmade by me. But I am not totally happy with it... because of the fabric it is really volumous and heavy, so I might remake it in cotton later this year.

All handmade by me, but I am not satisfied with them either due different reasons, so they all will be altered some day.

Long aristocrat bustle skirt from Fan Plus Friend

Tops

Lace bolero handmade by me, offwhite cardigan from Metamorphose Temps de Fille

Both blouses are from Alice and the Pirates

Handmade by me, Fan Plus Friend, Fan Plus Friend

Both from Anna House

Both from Angelic Pretty

White blouse is from Baby the stars shine bright (though I need to take it in, it's too big for me - and I originally planned to tea dye it, but I decided to keep it this white.)
Pink blouse from Angelic Pretty

Bags

Pink Bunny from Fan Plus Friend, Poodle from Angelic Pretty, pink heart from Dream of Lolita, black heart and black evil cat bag from Fan Plus Friend, bottom two black bags from Bodyline, and the plushie bags are offbrand (local plushie/toy store), H&M, Miffy.

Offbrand tote bags, Hello Kitty bag from Sanrio, shoulderbag with blue bunny handmade by me

Accessories

Top row: H&M, offbrand, bodyline, Kidsyoyo, Surface Spell, floppy half bonnet from Anna House
Second row: All handmade by me (including the 3 HeadBats on the right - the top Headbat has a eyes and a pink bow, the others are plain)
Bottom row: Alice and the Pirates, Metamorphose, 3x Angelic Pretty, Fly Away Fashion.

Corsets: Bodyline, 2x offbrand
Jabot: Fan Plus Friend, white wristcuffs: Angelic Pretty, black wristcuffs: Fly Away Fashion, Small lace gloves and large lace gloves: handmade by me, satin fingerless glove: offbrand,
Bunny scarf: Heart E, pink ear muffs: Angelic Pretty

Random detachable stuff.
Fake fox tailand 2 small black bows: made by me
Black rose clips and pink bow: bodyline
pink satin bow: Metamorphose
4 black leather bows with studs: montreal
Black bow + roses corsage: kidsyoyo
Black velvet bow: HMHM
Black satin bow at the right: Fan Plus Friend
Black bowties at the lower right corner: Alice and the Pirates

Jewelry

All offbrand

Necklace and ring: Chocomint
Pirate necklace: Fly Away Fashion
Stuff at the right: handmade by me

Footwear

Pleaser, Bodyline, Offbrand, Demonia
Montreal, Montreal, Montreal, Offbrand (but I made the fluffy part and bow with pearls)
I have also the big Demonia platform boots ordered in white. I use them for Cyberlolita.

Montreal, Montreal, Montreal, Montreal, offbrand
and the shoes in front are from Custom House.
And at the back is my dog, Gwen. :p

Parasols

Last but not least:
Moi-Meme-Moitie, Metamorphose, baby the stars shine bright.

And that's it!
I'm also working on a white (oldschool) lolita dress at this moment and later this month I'll order some white classic boots, a white petticoat and a white bag. So my wardrobe is ever growing.

Also, I didn't include my pettioats and bloomers because they are boring, and I also didn't include my legwear since I mostly wear solid coloured tights and over the knee socks and I only own 2 pair of brand socks (one solid pink and one lyrical bunny black, both Angelic Pretty). So those are quite uninteresting too. :p
And I didn't include the accessories and fluffy legwarmers I use for cyberlolita, because I think that would be a bit too offtopic.
I also decided not to include my wigs, because I actually barely wear them. :p

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my post!

A couple of outfit snapshots

2012-01-04T04:04:00.000-08:00

Finally I have been taking outfit snapshots again! So here are the of pictures from the outfits I worn the last couple of days:

December 31:

I went for a look which is probably between gyaru and goth. I crimped my hair, but it is not very visible on the picture. Same as you can't really see my make-up or lashes either... But it was quite late already and very dark, so I couldn't make a better picture than this. :/
But I must say that I quite like this outfit. I like to experiment with goth-gyaru, even though I believe that isn't an 'official' substyle of gyaru so far. But if you have rock-gyaru, I don't see why you can't have something like deathrock-gyaru or goth-gyaru. :p

January 1:

Starting off the year with one of my favourite dresses: Angelic Pretty Powder Rose! In a not-that-sweet coord.

January 2:

Wearing my Scent of Rapunzel dress from Alice and the Pirates, also one of my favourite dresses.

January 3:

I decided to go for a more classic doll look, with my Reticella OP from Alice and the Pirates, but without the lace part. And the (fake)suede boots with heels give off a more mature look as well.

As you cans ee this picture is taken with my tripod. I wanted to start taking more pictures like this so that I can put them on my lookbook. But I am not sure about lookbook anymore. Most pictures that are up there are more artistic, as if the picture was taken with the main focus on the photography itself instead of the clothing. But I don't have a photographer which I can use for my daily outfit snapshots and make fancy looking pictures. So I feel my outfit snapshots are out of place there, and therefore I decided to just continue posting them here, on my facebook and on daily_lolita every now and then, and forget about lookbook. :p

January 4:

And today I am wearing my Vampire Forest One-piece, also from Alice and the Pirates. And the hair corsage and lace gloves are made by me.

I'll try to continue taking outfit snapshots with my tripod from now on, but it takes more time than the normal mirror outfit snapshots. So on days that I am in more of a hurry I'll probably use the mirror again.

You should join the wardrobe meme this year too. I really liked it last year! I'm curious how your wardrobe has changed.

2012-01-03T06:02:00.001-08:00

Thanks! :D I am planning to do the meme once my closet child package has arrived. It is currently in the Dutch customs so I expect it to arrive soon. ^_^
But I really love the wardrobe meme (both to post mine and to see what other people their closets look like) so I definitely join it! :D

Ask me anything

For this upcoming year, you should make a resolution to wear more pink. I came across your blog, and think you'd look super awesome in OTT Sweet. :D

2012-01-02T00:18:00.001-08:00

Thank you! :D
Well in fact, I indeed planned to wear more pink: wear my pink blouse more underneath my black dresses with sweet prints, wear my total pink sweet outfits, try really OTT sweet lolita in pink, and wear pink cyberlolita too! ^__^

Ask me anything

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T04:11:00.000-08:00

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! :D
I hope for everyone that 2012 will be a year full of good health, luck, happy things and more! ^_^

And I also want to thank you all for following my blog. I have 173 followers now, which is a LOT compared to a year ago!

And I also want to thank those who take the time to leave a comment on my post. Reading them really makes me happy and I try to reply to them all. I really appreciate that you take time to write something, because I know that personally I read a lot of blogs but don't always comment on them. ^_^;;

And I hope you'll all keep on reading my blog in the next year (and hopefully also the years thereafter :P) and still enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing here. ^_^

BatFit 2012 1st Challenge and a Steam Cleaner

2011-12-29T01:58:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a nice Christmas (or nice days if you don't celebrate Christmas or celebrate something else)!
Now the end of the year is getting closer and closer, which means that the BatFit 2012 and the Filthy Victorians 2012 challenge will start soon!

- - -

For the BatFit 2012, we got our first challenge:

- Get a notebook/journal to use as your health journal.

And inside your journal:
1. Write your health goals for 2012.
2. What means good health to you? And how does it relate to your goals?
3. And every day: Write no less than five things that you are grateful for, or that you've accomplished during the day and are proud of, or that you like about yourself.

I decided to use an old black ring binder.

I always prefer ring binders because you can easily re-arrage your paperwork. And my inner perfectionist loves to re-arrage everything multiple times.
And now I can make categories; the challenges, my health journal (about my food patterns, exercizes, mood/mental state, trips to the doctors, medication, etc), and my daily 5 grateful/happy things.
In my previous BatFit 2012 post I already wrote what my health goals are and what good health means to me. So I won't repost that here again. (But I did wrote it down in my paper journal ofcourse!)

So I am ready. ^_^

- - -

And yesterday my new steam cleaner has arrived!

This means I can finally start making dreads again! ^_^
And I need to make a white dreadwig for myself before 20 April for a Dutch Fantasy event (more about that in a later post), and finish a pink and green dreadwig for both me and my future ball jointed doll (a Doll Chateau Alberta) before June 3, a Dutch BJD Convention. And since making dreads cost me a lot of energy and will take its toll on my body for a day of making dreads, I better start soon so that I can take breaks in between for my body to recover and still finish it all in time.

At this moment I don't have any white kanekalon (I will order that at the end of January) but I do have some pink and green hair so I'll try out my new steam cleaner today. ^_^

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T06:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Tagged meme post

2011-12-19T06:57:00.000-08:00

I was tagged in a random meme post, so here it is. ^_^

Here are the rules of this tag :

- You must post these rules.
- Each person must post 11 things about themselves on their blog.
- Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
- You have to choose 11 people to tag and link them on the post.
- Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her.
- No tag backs.
- No stuff in the tagging section about 'you are tagged if you are reading this.' You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

--

I was tagged by Rox / Woxje.

First the 11 things about me. I am quite open about myself and I have already posted a lot about me, so I'll try to see if I can find 11 things which not everyone knows yet. ^_^

1. I am a huge plushie animals / stuffed animal toys addict. I have over 200 of them, in all different sizes. Mostly bunny rabbits.
2. I am in love with platform boots since I became a fan of the Spice Girls. Which was around 1996, with their first single Wannabe.
3. I have a huge interest in androids and cyborgs. That's probably also one of the reasons why I love cybergothic.
4. The body part which I am most insecure about is my nose. It is big. -__-
5. I don't feel like a girl nor a boy. Even when I am dressed in very feminine styles such as lolita or gyaru.
6. I have long hair since I was young. I am afraid to cut it into another style, but I love my current hairstyle so that's not a much deal. But I'd also love to have a huge deathawk which shaved sides. However, since that hairstyle isn't compatible with lolita (the style I wear most of the time) and the knowledge that if I regret shaving it, it will take at least 7 or 8 years before it is grown back to my current length, has kept me from shaving a hawk. I still love hawks.
7. My favourite plant is the cactus. Not only it is an easy plant (if you forget to give it water it won't die that fast), but I really like the spikes. ^_^
8. My grandmother originally came from Süd-Tirol, the upper part of Italy (in the Alps). Even though it is part of Italy, they speak a German dialect there.
9. I still want to learn Italian though, because I really like the language and I also love Rome. (especially after I have been there once with my highschool class).
10. I don't want to keep up with the newest gadgets and such. I still prefer my non-smart phone, my old non-apple mp3 player, my old discman and tape recorder. Not because I think it is cool (or that I am a closeted hipster or something), but I have a hard time adjusting to new things. I am afraid of changes. (must be my Asperger's) And I hate telephones in general.
11. I really have trouble recognizing people. Especially when they put on different wigs. So if I ever see you and I don't say hi, it is not because I am arrogant. I just didn't recognize you. (or didn't hear you, which is also a very possible thing, especially when I have my mp3 player on 99% of the time when I am outside).

And now the random questions that Rox came up with:

1 If you could be any animal which one would you be?
I could ofcourse answer this one with a bat or a bunny. But I think I would be a wolf. I really like wolfs. Or a white tiger. I also love them very much. I can't decide!

2 if you were a superhero, what would be your power?
I think I would be able to regenerate. That would be awesome. ^_^ Saving people from burning fires and then seeing my body heal (that would be really interesting to see too).

3 Do you like coffee?
No! My parents always said that I should need to learn to drink coffee, so when I was younger they forced me to drink it, but I really, really, really don't like the taste of it. No matter how much sugar or milk I add to it.

4 If you were a cupcake, what flavour and color would you be?
I'd be a pink chocolate cupcake. With green sprinkles on it. <3

5 In what kind of picture frame would you put a picture?
That's a difficult one... I don't really own many picture frames. And the ones I do own are never used. I think I'd put a picture inside it that inspires me. Or a picture I made of my dolls which I am very very proud on.

6 and in the holiday spirits; what is your favorite christmas decoration?
I have this black and kitsch-y angel:

I believe if you put batteries in it, it has a light and a christmas song, but I never use that so I don't know that for sure. But the smile is just creppy-ish happy and it is standing next to my computer screen every December. ^_^
And ofcourse I also love my Christmas tree!

7 If sheeps would come and take over the world, what would you do?
Start eating more Shawarma (=Shoarma in Dutch). And join some rebellion group. :D

8 Mayonaise or ketchup?
I don't really use any of them, but if I have to choose I'd say mayonaise. I dislike ketchup more than mayonaise.

9 What did you want to be when you were little?
I wanted to be a homeopathic vet for small animals (guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, etc). Yes, very specialized. XD

10 Your favorite fairytale?
When I was little, I really liked Rapunzel and Mother Hulda (better known as Vrouw Holle in Dutch). And after the movie Tangled and the Alice and the Pirates Rapunzel dress, Rapunzel is even more my favourite!
Maybe also because I have long hair myself? :p

11 If you were a make-up product, which one would you be?
I'd be black liquid eyeliner. Since I use a lot myself too. I love liquid eyeliner because it can make eyes look very mysterious and 'out-there'.

---

Now I don't want to tag other people, I'm sorry. Because other people are already tagged and I also don't know who likes to do these meme-things and I don't want to bother anyone with stuff they don't like.

So if you like this meme, feel free to do it on your blog too!
And for those who want to do this meme, here is my list with 11 questions for you to answer:

1. What is your least favourite movie and why?
2. Name your favourite Christmas song.
3. If you were any type of footwear, what kind would you be? Please describe (which much details as possible please!)
4. Do you believe in miracles?
5. If you had 3 wishes, what would you wish for? (except unlimited wishes ofcourse ;) )
6. What was your most favourite toy from your childhood?
7. What's your all time favourite band/singer?
8. Why did you start blogging?
9. What's the biggest compliment that someone ever gave you?
10. What was/is your favourite subject in highschool?
11. What would you do if you woke up tomorrow morning and notice that you were turned into a pink bunnyrabbit?

Please leave a note if you answered these questions on your blog, I'd love the read the answers! :D

Snow Boots

2011-12-17T03:21:00.001-08:00

I really don't like the look of snow boots. Especially the Ugg-type ones. But it is getting much much colder these days, and for me it is really important to keep my feet warm (or else I get cramps and pain and such).

So I went to a local cheap shoe store and I bought some very cheap boots, which are very warm because they have short haired fluffy black fabric inside. ^_^

But still I didn't like their look, so I decided to decorate them. And this is the result:

Basicly I have made a fluffy legwarmer/bootcover to put on top of the boot, and added a little bow with some pink pearls. The bow is detachable.

So far I think they look much better. I'm not 100% I'll keep them this way, or that I might add some more decorations to it. ^_^

BatFit 2012: for a healthier life

2011-12-14T12:42:00.000-08:00

Today I stumbled upon this challenge, called "BatFit 2012", started by Le Professeur Gothique.

A lot of people start the new year with resolutions like "I want to lose X pounds" or "I want to go to the gym weekly" or "I want to eat healthier next year!", but most keep it going for a couple of weeks, maybe months, and then they quit / give up.

BatFit 2012 is a Goth Healthy Living Campaign, where a bunch of goths joined eachother for their healthy goals for 2012. For some it may be weight loss, for some maybe weight gaining, others want to exercise more or just eat healthier. However, when stick together, acting as some sort of support, they are hoping that it will be easier to continue and not give up.

And I decided to join in.

Due my fibromyalgia I have constant pain, which makes exercising very painful. So I haven't really exercised much last year. And because of that, the condition of my muscles have worsened, giving off even more pain. Which makes me even want to exercise less. It's really a downward spiral.
Different times I have said to myself: I will start exercising again! Dance to my favourite music for half an hour every day! Get back into belly dancing!
But each time I failed. When my body is hurting, it is very difficult for me to stand up and do my exercises. Or do anything at all. Sitting behind the computer screen every day is much easier.

But I know that doesn't help me. And because I am going to start at the medical centre next year working on my muscle strength and condition, and learning how to live with the fibromyalgia, I know I will be facing a HUGE change. Because I am not used to exercising anymore. So to make that change a little less huge, I want to start doing some exercises myself as well.

But, it is not only about my physical health. I really hope that if I work out more, get back into physical shape, I can do more things that make me happy. Things that I either couldn't do anymore at all and things I could only do for a short time. Things like going to concerts, to cybergothic parties (dancing my ass off all night long! <3), wearing my biggest platform boots and highest heels, making dreads, sewing, etc etc.
And if I will be able to do those things much more, I hope that also will change my mood. Make me happy again. Make the depression go away.

And I also want to eat healthier. Especially eat more fruits. I often simply forget to buy some fruit so I haven't eaten much fruit in the past couple of years... But I already started with buying fruit and from now on I am trying to eat at least one apple a day. ^_^

So here it is, another goal for 2012.
In BatFit 2012 there will also be some weekly challenges which I will try to participiate as much as I can, and I just really hope I am not going to give up this time. :)
So I'll keep you updated every now and then. ^_^

And what about you, do you have any healthy resolutions for the next year?

Hair Corsage Tutorial

2011-12-12T09:12:00.000-08:00

Since it was requested, here is my tutorial for this hair corsage I made recently:

Materials

For this project, you will need the following materials:
- a fake flower. Size and colour can be anything you like!
- some lace. Depending on how much you want to use, but I used less then 1 meter for this tutorial.
- Some cotton fabric (or similar material). You need only a small amount of this, so it is perfectly fine to use any left-overs you have in the colour you want.
- some chiffon. I used less than half a meter here. You can also use lace fabric if you want.
- a (plastic) hair comb
- a glue gun
- a compass (or something else to draw circles with)

And then you will also need the usual stuff like scissors, pins, a measuring tape, paper (for the patterns) and a pencil, a ruler, iron, thread, needle and a sewing maching (but that one is optional).

For the hair comb, try to find one which is roughly the same width as the flower. If you use a small flower, you need a small comb, if you use a large flower, you'll need a large comb.

As you can see, for this tutorial I am using a red rose now.

Step 1 - cutting your flower

If you have a fake flower which is attached to a stem, you need to cut it off as close to the flower as possible.

Step 2 - measuring the base

Take your measuring tape and measure the back of the flower, deciding how wide you want the base to be. I decide mine to be 10 cm.
Also measure the width of the hair comb. This needs to be a little smaller than that.

Step 3 - drafting the base pattern

Now it is time to draft the base pattern. Draw a line of the length you decided in the previous step. Mine is 10 cm, so the diameter of my circle will be 10 cm. Then use your compass and draw a circle around it. (ofcourse you need to place the compass at the middle of your line).
Then, add some seam allowance around it. I use 1 cm.

Step 4 - Cutting out the pattern and add lace

After you have drafted your pattern, cut it out 2 times from the cotton fabric.

Next, take 1 of the cotton pieces and pin your lace around it, facing inwards. Be sure you put the edge of the lace within the seam allowance part.

Step 5 - Sewing the pieces together

Then, take the second piece of cotton and lay it on top of the other part. The lace should be in between the two cotton parts. Now sew both pieces together, but leave a small gap to turn the right sides out again. Best you can do is to place the gap next to the place where the beginning and end of the lace meet. Make sure your gap is big enough to pull the whole thing right sides out, but not too big or else it will be too much noticable.

Step 6 - Pulling the right sides out and topstitching

Now pull the right sides out. If you find out your gap is way too small, you can remove a couple or stitches to make the gap a bit bigger.

After you got the right sides out, press the whole thing flat with your iron. Then, topstitch next to the ends. You can close up the gap too.
From now on, the place where the beginning and end of the lace meet, will be the bottom side since it will be covered with the veil part.

Step 7 - Drafting the pattern of the veil part

First, use your measuring tape and decide how long you want the veil part to be. I decided mine to be 35 cm.

Next, draw a diagonal line of that same width. At the end of the line, draw a small square of 5 by 5 cm. (this will make the veil part wider and fall down with a nice fold).
Then, draw a quare around the diagonal line and square. And add your seam allowance around it.

Cut out your pattern and also cut out the smaller square.
Your pattern should now have a similar shape as mine shown in the picture.

Optional: If you don't like the pointy veil, you can also make it round.

Step 8 - Hemming the veil part

Best would be if you had a serger which could make really nice small finished hems. But mine doesn't (it is an older model and only makes those normal wider finishings), so I have to hem it myself.

Just fold the outer sides inside and pin them. Leave the small square. Sew the long edges.

Because chiffon unravels very quickly, you need to hem it double. So fold the edges inside again and pin it.

Then sew it again and you'll end up with something looking like this:

If you want you can also add lace to the hem of the veil. But I choose not to.

step 6 - Attaching the veil part

Now you need to add the veil part to the base. The top part of the veil will be attached to the middle of the base. First, take your veil. The place where you have this small cut out square it the top. First, pin down the edges (where your hem starts). Then, pin the middle part, folding neatly over the sides. Then sew it.

I tried to make a small schematic drawing which (hopefully) explains better what I mean:

Step 7 - Adding some lace

I like to add 2 pieces of lace. You could add more, or less (or none).
First I take the lace and lay it down from the top part of the veil (at the corsage base) and then down to the end. Then I decide how long I want it to be. I wanted to have mine a little shorter than the end of the veil, so I cut it at the place where I placed my small scissors in the picture.

Repeat for the other side and then sew both pieces at the base, on top of the edges of the veil, like this:

Step 8 (optional) - adding a chain/pearls

For my last corsage, I made a small strand of pearls and a bat charm which I could attach and detach it to the base part. The pearls can be attached to small loops made of thread. First I decide where I want the chain to be added. Then I put down the pins to mark that place and then with a needle and thread I make a few loops, and it will look like this:

I am not going to explain how to make the chain part. This is because my chain is made with metal wires, bending them in loops, adding the pearls/beads, etc etc and that's a whole different technique. If I want to explain how that works, I would need to make a whole new tutorial on its own since it is simply too much to add here in this tutorial. And I have no idea how this technique is called in English. (In Dutch it is called 'kettelen'). Maybe some day in future I will make a whole new tutorial about this, but that won't be happening soon. I am sorry for that!

You could also add a simple chain part bought from a fabric or hobby store, or make a chain with normal beading on a thread. Or you could leave your corsage without a chain decoration.

Step 9 - Adding some ruffle

If you hold the flower onto the corsage part so far, you'll notice a gap between the base and the flower: (unless you are lucky and have a different shaped flower ofcourse)

So that's why I am going to add a ruffle, to fill up that empty space.

I want my ruffle to be 1.5 times bigger than the circumference of the base.
My base had a diameter of 10 cm. To get the circumference of a circle, you'll need to multiply the diameter by π, which is roughly 3.14. So the circumference of my base is 10 x 3.14 = 31.4 cm.
And 31.4 x 1.5 = 47.1 for the length of my ruffle. I round it down and make it 47cm.

From the middle to the outside, my circle is 5 cm. So I want the ruffle to be a little bit smaller than that, so that I will keep some space in the middle to glue on my flower.
So I decide the width of my ruffle to be 3.5 cm (and keep some space for my 1 cm seam allowance as well).

And since I want my ruffle to be folded, I am going to draw a rectangle of 47cm by 7cm, with 1 cm seam allowance all around.
Then I cut that out from my chiffon fabric.
So you'll have a black rectangle like this:

Step 10 - Making the ruffle

Fold the fabric in two, like this and sew it:

Then fold it in half lengthwise again, and pin it.

Now with a basic stitch sew the ends together by hand, but within the seam allowance. (So my seam allowance is 1cm, and my thread is here about 0.5cm from the edge.) With this thread you will be able to gather the fabric together, creating your ruffle. I used a contrasting colour because I am used to take it out afterwards, but since in this case of the hair corsage your thread won't be much visible. So if you don't want the extra work and don't want to take the thread out again, just use a thread in the same colour as your fabric.
make sure you have a knot at the beginning of the thread and leave out about 10cm of the thread at the end. You'll need this to pull later on.

Pin the ruffle on the base at the 4 sides (top, bottom, sides):

And now the fun part: Pull the end of the thread gently. Now your fabric will gather, creating a very nice ruffle. Make sure the ruffles are evenly.

Tadaa!

Now sew the ruffle in place (at the seam allowance, so 1cm from the inner side). Personally I prefer this to do by hand instead of my machine.

And then take out the thread you used for gathering. (in my case, the white thread)

So far, your hair corsage will look something like this:

Step 11 - Glueing the flower and comb

Now it is time to warm up your glue gun.
I always use an old newspaper to cover up my table when I am working with my hot glue gun.

Once your glue gun is ready, take your flower and glue the bottom of the flower. I have marked the places where you need to glue with the colour blue:

Once you have covered those places with glue, take your base and put the flower on top of the ruffle, neatly in the middle. Press it gently down and wait a few moments for it to try before releasing the flower.

After the glue from the flower is fully dry, take your hair comb and put some glue at the top part: (again, marked with blue colour)

Then glue the comb at the back of the hair corsage, slightly above the middle:

Press it on gently, to make sure that it is attached to all sides. Usually the hair combs are a bit rounded, so make sure you press on the middle and both edges.

Then, let it dry.

Finished!

That's it, you're done!

Now you can always make a few changes ofcourse. Use different fabrics, add more or less lace, maybe 2 rows at the base, maybe different types of lace, maybe do some embroidery on the veil... Whatever you want! Just be creative. ^_^

And I hope this tutorial was helpful to you!

2012 challenge and goals for next year

2011-12-09T02:37:00.000-08:00

A while ago I wrote that I would not participiate in the 2012 challenge anymore because I felt it would limit my gyaru progress.
However, after I said that to myself (and posted it on my blog) I felt a bit sad, because I still really LOVE the challenge. And every time someone else on their blog posted something about the Filthy Victorians challenge, I felt some sort of regret for not participiating anymore.

In October, Kitty Lovett (writer of Bloggery of a Gothcat and person who started the whole Filthy Victorians challenge), posted a set of rules for the challenge. But they should be more taken like guidelines anyways.
Here they are:

-You may have on your Victorian Person 3 modern/Time Traveller items (I would suggest mewsics, phone and your sonic screwdriver)

-Once a week is your Timetraveller Day. Constant 1800s is tiring. To help me carry this through, I am instating that once a week, you are Anything Goes Goth. Steampunk, cybergoth, industrial goth or Jeans And Tee goth - everyone needs a break! I bet most of these will be me in my 40s gear....damn you time travel!

-If for any reason you can't dress Victorian, you can use an Emergency Pass. (I will literally print and laminate a card saying "To Whom It May Concern; Please Excuse Ms. Lovett's Improper Dress. Her Chameleon Circuits Aren't Working Today.")

-Every two weeks, have a burlesque day. A break from long skirts and bustle pads will do you good (but going a day without a corset when you're used to it every day SUCKS A MILLION DICKS. Try to avoid that!), and some good ol' teased hair will give you a well-earned boost. Extra goth points for doing historically accurate Victorian burlesque gear. ;3

-If you can't acquire a suitable handbag, any old one you have would be fine (but check second-hand shops for old leather satchels!)

Well, as you know I am not doing a victorian thing and give it my own twist of wearing only lolita. So handbags aren't much of a problem for me. I don't know if I am going to stick with a burlesque day since burlesque isn't really my thing. But I might change that to an ero loli day, who knows. ^_^

But the second point, about the "once a week is your Timetraveller day", will be a perfect opportunity for me to dress gyaru on that day. Once a week in gyaru is enough for me, because I love gyaru hair and make-up most and clothes come second for me (my number 1 love of clothes is still lolita). Because I can do gyaru hair and make-up with lolita as well, I can still improve those on the lolita days and then dress gyaru on my Timetraveller day. ^_^

So I will be doing the challenge and I am really looking forward to it. My wardrobe still doesn't have enough clothes to wear all different outfits every day, so I still need to fill it up even more. But ofcourse I don't need to have a complete wardrobe at January 1, I can still add new stuff whole year long.
And that brings me to the next subject of this post...

My goals for 2012:

- Sew more clothes!
I really want to sew more myself and improve my sewing skills, but also just fill up my wardrobe with more pretty dresses! :D

- Make more accessories and jewelry!
Yes, I really want to make 2012 a big DIY year. And make tutorials about simple accessories as well.

- Do more ball jointed doll photography
I haven't really photographed my dolls in a while and at the beginning of this year I started the 100 themes challenge (where you have a list of 100 themes and you need to make a work for each one in your preferred medium, like drawing or writing, or photography like mine), but I only did 2 themes. So I really want to work on that challenge and do more shoots of my dolls in general.

- Improve my English
English is not my first language (Dutch is) and I know that my grammar is not always correct and that there are some words which I ALWAYS spell wrong. So I am really going to try and work on my spelling and grammar.

- Make daily outfit snapshots again
I haven't made those in a while and especially with the 2012 challenge coming up, I want to make snapshots of my outfits.

- Make videos
I also want to make a few videos on my outfits, since videos often show more than a picture does. And maybe I'll make some other videos as well. I don't know yet. ^_^

- Go to meet-ups more often
Due some anxieties I don't go to meetups often and I wish I attended more. So for upcoming year I am really going to try and get over the anxieties and attend more meet-ups, also getting to know the girls from my local community better. :)

- Buy a new steamer and make some dreads again
My old steamer broke so I still have a lot of unfinished dreads while I was working on my pink dreadwig. And after I finished my dreadwig I also want to wear cyberlolita more often, especially in pink. ^_^

And that's it for now.
For the next year I already have tons of inspiration for outfit coordinations and stuff I want to sew, so I am really looking forward to it! :D

Lolita x Dolly Kei

2011-12-05T10:34:00.002-08:00

It has been about a year ago when I came across Dolly Kei fashion. For those who don't know what dolly kei is, here is a nice page which explains it a little and shows some nice pictures.
Basicly it is a street fashion style from Japan, started by the owner of the Japanese store called Grimoire, which uses a lot of vintage items and layers them, looking like an antique doll. It takes its inspiration from Eastern Europe folklore, dark fairytales and gypsies. It often uses dark colours, like black, deep purple, deep red, etc.

I really like the look of dolly kei, but I don't feel comfortable in their style of clothes. However, the thing which I love most of this style are the accessories and jewelry. They have this antique and often mysterious and even macabre vibe. So back at the beginning of 2011 I decided that I really wanted to mix dolly-kei (inspired) jewelry with lolita fashion, especially the oldschool kuro lolita style.

But sadly, this is a thing which I keep wanting to do, but I never manage to do it. The biggest reason is my depression. With the lack of energy and inspiration, I couldn't really get myself into creating dolly kei inspired jewelry and sew kuro dresses.
And later on I also had some other things to do which had a bigger priority, like finishing an outfit for an upcoming meet-up.

But still I would really want to try this out. I have this image of what I want to do exactly in my mind, but I found it hard to find the perfect pictures to show it to you. (I really wish I could plug a printer into my mind and print my ideas and mental images!)
But I tried nonetheless.

So what I want to do, is wearing kuro dresses. This could be the more classic style of dresses, or the more sweet ones. That just depends on my mood.

Dresses from: Victorian Maiden, Mary Magdalene and Angelic Pretty

Then, add some dolly-kei / macabre / vintage / gothy accessories and jewelry, like these:

All found on Tumblr, I don't know their exact source - Sorry!

And some lovely hairpieces:

First one from the brand Dolly, from Grimoire, second one I forgot the source...

And an inspiring picture from Kera magazine I believe, with a lolita example. I really like the girl in white:

In Dolly-kei I have often seen these 'scarfs' from fox fur, with head and paws and such still on it. Although I do like the look, I would never be comfortable with wearing a real fox (even if it's dead) around my neck. So I want to make a similar thing myself. I have already seen a faux-fur fox stole on Candy Violet, with tassels as the paws and a head from different material, but I found that rather expensive (about $200 with shipping, not inclusing the roughly 30% of custom fees I would need to pay...). So I want to make my own version some day. And ofcourse, with black faux fur.

What I also like about this complete look is that I can do a lot of things myself. It is a really great style for every DIY lover. I want to sew my own dresses, make my own head accessories, jewelry, bags... <3
The idea still makes me very excited. So even though I didn't succeed in trying to mix these styles this year, I'll definitely try it in 2012!

Hope you had a fun International Lolita Day! :D

2011-12-05T10:34:00.001-08:00

Thank you! :D
Well, I did have a fun day (I was doing a face-up on one of my ball jointed dolls and I am really pleased with the results), but I totally forgot that it was International Lolita Day that day! XD I always forget those things...
So even though I wear lolita quite often (almost wore it every day for the past week), that day happened to be my non-lolita-dress day. And when I read a message from someone on my facebook wall that it was ILD that day later that day, I didn't really feel like dressing up anymore. :p So maybe next time I will do something lolita related that day!

And I hope you had a fun ILD as well! :D

Ask me anything

I've been into gyaru for a while, but i dont really understand al the rules and what not. Could you direct me to a site where i could learn more about the fashion and how to dress and do my makeup before i try to jump on in? Also, your sence of style rock

2011-12-02T01:49:00.001-08:00

First of all, thank you for the compliment!

And about gyaru... It doesn't really have strict rules like lolita for example, nor there is one big website full of tips, tricks, how-to's and rules. Gyaru has a lot of different substyles and they differ very much from eachother. Some are more plain and natural (like general gyaru-kei), some are more over the top sexy (like agejo or some Ora-Ora-kei), some are very girly (like himegyaru), or more tough-looking (like rock-style) or just over the top crazy and creative (like manba).

I think it is best if you first try to see if there is a style you like, because if you pick a style, you can go from there.

A few months back, two members of HYPER (Roxanne and Charlotte) have held a lecture about the different gyaru substyles and I think it explains it very well; it shows good pictures, a rundown of points for every style and also lists magazines targetting the style and some girls who are an inspiration to many in that style.
The lecture can be found here: The Gyaru Lecture

Once you have found a style you like, I would suggest you read gyaru magazines! Gyaru is a style with a lot of trends. It is important to keep up with those trends, or else you are 'out of style'. So recent magazines can show you what's 'in style' at this moment.
You can buy magazines from ebay, some local book stores or stores with a lot of Japanese items also carry gyaru magazines, or you can download them from the JMagazinescans community at Livejournal

Also, the magazines usually provide a lot of hair and make-up tutorials. Hair and make-up is most important for gyaru. For example even if you are dressed up in full Jesus Diamante clothes and accessories, with flat hair and little to no make-up, you don't look hime gyaru.
And with hair and make-up, it is a lot of practising. Barely nobody gets it right the first time. You'll get better over time.

As for the clothes, you can use the magazines for inspiration, but it is not needed to copy them 1 to 1. Nor it is a must to have only Japanese brand items to be gyaru. Keep an eye out at your local stores and you'll find a lot of items which can work with gyaru as well. With the clothes you have a little more freedom to experiment and give it your own personal touch. Just as long as you keep the hair and make-up gyaru. But ofcourse having only gyaru hair and make-up and wear clothes that are totally non-gyaru, still won't make you a good gyaru. Experimenting with your own style is always a fine line balancing between gyaru and not-gyaru. (For example a beautiful victorial gown with a large crinoline and gyaru hair and make-up would look totally awesome, but won't be considered gyaru).

And most important of all: Have fun!

I hope this was helpful to you!

Ask me anything

Welcome to December: Christmas Tree Time!

2011-12-01T06:07:00.000-08:00

So, today is the first day of December. December to me means: Christmas decorations! Personally I love the December days before Christmas more than the Christmas days themselves, since on those days are always filled with visiting family and stuff and the days pass by before you even know it.
And I really enjoy all the Christmas lights at the streets, all the decorations, the Christmas trees, and I even love those cheesy Christmas songs!
I especially love the John Denver and the Muppets Christmas CD called A Christmas Together. You should really check that one out. I really recommend it to everyone!

Anyways, since I am living on my own I am always putting up my Christmas tree at the first day of December. My tree is white and it is decorated with all black items:

I am always very proud of my tree. ^_^
When I grey up, my parents always had a green tree with all different coloured decorations. But when I was shopping for my own Christmas stuff a couple of years back, I had this idea and I was sure that it would look nice. (My mother didn't believe me, she thought it would look really weird or ugly. But later when she saw it, she agreed that it does look nice.)
So I am really glad I followed my own idea. And still every year when I put it up, it looks quite the same as the year before, but that is just exactly how I like it. ^_^

And I usually leave the bottom branches of my tree rather plain and empty so that my dog doesn't ruin my tree when she walks by. As you can see, the tree is standing next to a door with a large window, and my dog usually sits there and barks at everyone who passes by.

Other than that, December to me means also a time to think about the past year. With 2011 almost being over, what have I accomplished this year? Am I satisfied with the things I've done? Are there still things left I wanted to do? What are my plans for the upcoming year(s)?
But I'll go into detail about those things on later posts this month. ^_^

Bats and Bunnies now has its own domain!

2011-11-24T02:59:00.000-08:00

I am proud to announce that Bats and Bunnies now has its own domain name. So instead of going to bats-and-bunnies.blogspot.com, you can also go to batsandbunnies.com and you'll end up here! :D Much easier to remember and shorter to type! ^_^

And don't forget to update your bookmarks! :D

But ofcourse you can also continue using the old address. However, I am thinking about moving my blog to self-hosted wordpress some day, so the old url won't work forever.
(But then again the plans to change to wordpress are only in beginning stages, so if I want to switch over, it won't be soon and ofcourse you'll be noticed in advance.)

Are you ever going to make a tutorial on how you made that awesome haircorsage?

2011-11-23T00:44:00.001-08:00

Sure, I can do that! In fact it is rather easy to make. ^_^
I don't know when I am able to make a tutorial for it, but I'll try to make it before Christmas.
And I am glad you like my hair corsage! ^_^

Ask me anything

Are you going to do pastel/pink-sweet again some day? It looked absolutely TERRIFIC you're my sweet idol :D :D

2011-11-22T01:02:00.001-08:00

I am sorry, but I think that is not really going to happen. I don't feel so comfortable in pinks... I feel too old for it. -__-
Maybe I'll try it someday again when I have a more mature pair of heels and smaller pink headwear.

I still love (OTT) sweet lolita in pink though. So I haven't sold my dresses and I keep trying to figure out a way that I can still enjoy my pink frills without feeling uncomfortable when I wear it. ^_^

And thank you very much for the compliment! =D

Ask me anything

Angelic Pretty Classical Rose Jumperskirt

2011-11-19T02:55:00.000-08:00

I managed to get one of my dreamdresses today!

I thought that the chances would be very very slim to own this dress some day. The dress is called Classical Rose jumperskirt, from the brand Angelic Pretty. The dress was released in 2007, so it is a bit older one. And it is not a typical Angelic Pretty dress. Angelic Pretty is (especially today) known for very cute prints in bright pastel colours. Stuff with ponies, bunnies, stars, cakes, rainbows, etc etc. And this one looks a bit more like a classic lolita dress.

Now for buying lolita brand clothes, I usually limit myself to Closet Child and the dutch Lolita community. On Closet Child you can find a lot of cute Angelic Pretty dresses with prints. But older black solid colour dresses and this Classical Rose dress are a lot harder to find there. (Maybe it is easier inside their physical stores, but I am only limited to their website unless I use a shopping service to look for me inside their shops, but I have never done that yet). I have actually never seen the Classical Rose on their webshop before.

So even though I had taken a break from buying new lolita stuff, I just couldn't let this one pass! But then again I was already thinking to slowly start buying some lolita again and to end the break. ^_^

And the good thing about this dress is that it is so versatile!
With a black blouse, black stockings, a hair corsage and platform heels it would look more gothic (or dark classic), with lace tights, a lace cardigan/bolero and a tiara it will give off more of a hime-lolita feeling, and if I want to go for a sweeter look I can wear a pink blouse underneath and add a bow in my hair. ^_^
But I will probably wear it the gothic/dark classic way most of the time. :p

Closet Child will hold my item for a month before they ship it, which is a very good thing. The Dutch Post is really slow during November and December (because of the upcoming holidays) and a lot of packages get lost during these months. So I hope that the biggest Christmas-rush is over when Closet Child ships my package, so that it will arrive safely. ^_^

So yeah, I am a really happy VelvetBat now! ^___^

Infanta Pirate Lolita Coat + Classical Puppets Petticoat Review

2011-11-16T06:25:00.001-08:00

Today I recieved my package from Qutieland. I ordered a black Infanta Winter Elegy Rose Embroidery Coat (but since the name is so long and I want to wear it for my pirate lolita coords, I just call it Infanta Pirate Coat) and a black Classical Puppets bell-shaped petticoat.

I placed my order at September 24, a week before their Wedding Celebration.
The coat was said to have an estimated making time of 30 working days (excluding weekends) and the petticoat was said to have 35 - 40 working days (excluding weekends).
And at November 14 I recieved an email with the tracking number of the package and the package was delivered today (November 16).

So far I always have good experiences with Qutieland and honestly I prefer them over Clobba online and Taobaospree because they make everything much easier: the pages are English with all the information about the items (size, materials, colours, etc), several pictures and they got a shopping cart system. I always prefer webshops with shopping carts instead of manually emailing them.

But onto the items.

First, the petticoat.
This is the stock picture (in white, they didn't have a stock picture in black):

And this is how mine looks:

The petticoat was packed in a very small package. So when I took it out I gave it a good shake, it instantly got its volume back!
It had a bit of a funny smell, but if I'll air it a day it'll probably go away.
The petticoat is made of a cotton underskirt with 2 layers of organza on top. The top layer has lace at the hem. The lace looks a bit cheap, but then again the petticoat self is rather inexpensive too. (and maybe only the black ones have cheaper lace?

The reason why I have chosen to buy this petticoat is because organza is much better than tulle: it barely loses its volume. I once got a petticoat from the gothic brand Raven (which doesn't has a proper shape for a lolita skirt, but I didn't buy it for lolita anyways) and it was so poofy that I tried to kill it by packing it into a very small bag and leave it at the bottom of my closet underneath a large pile of clothes for about 3 or 4 years. And it didn't loose any poof at all.

And my current tulle petticoats are dead and flatten, so I really needed a new petticoat. But there is no fabric I hate more to sew than organza. So that's why I bought the petticoat instead of sewing one myself. :p

Here is a picture of the petticoat worn onderneath a dress:

(Dress and blouse from Alice and the Pirates)

So I am really happy with this petticoat and I would really recommend it to others!
And in the future if I am going to order an a-line petticoat I would go for a Classical Puppets one as well.

And now the Infanta Pirate Coat.
Here is a stock picture of the coat in black:

And my pictures: (Sorry that the coat is wrinkly! I was so excited that I started to take pictures and such and didn't even think about ironing it first)

Front

Back

Side

Close-up of the chain and rose part

Embroidery close-up at the other side

Close-up of the pretty buttons

Close-up of the loose buttons at the middle

My impression:
As you can see at the middle underneath the 3 straps and golden buttons, there are 3 small black buttons for closing the coat. But they are very, very loose. So I need to re-sewn them on. But that's a very easy thing to do, luckily.
The embroidery itself looks beautiful, but it does look darker than on the stock pictures.
The chain and rope is very different from the stock pictures. Since the chain and rope were packed seperately (but the chain and rope are attached to eachother permanently, both in a loop), it took me a while to figure out how to attach it. Especially because it is impossible to mimic the stock pictures because the chain and rope are shorter and just completely different attached to eachother. So I still have to find a pretty way how to attach it. The rope part also needs to be straightened a bit.

When worn, the coat is a little short, so the hem of my dress peeks out underneath:

(With a hand in a pocket to show you that the coat has pockets as well! It also has a pocket on the other side. Pockets are a big plus for me!)

Even though I am not bothered by that very much, I would still have seen the coat being longer.

However, Infanta doesn't take custom measurements for making this coat. So also when you want to order it, be sure you fit into the measurements. The coat doesn't have shirring or anything, so it isn't giving in size. You either fit in it, or not.

The fabric itself is ok. I have two other wool coats, a heavy wool coat from Fan Plus Friend and a slightly thinner woollen coat from Metamorphose temps de fille. I would say that this coat is just a bit thinner than my Meta coat. So in colder places it will keep you warm, but if it starts freezing you might need to wear thicker layers underneath to keep yourself warm.

So overall I am really happy with both my items and I think they are really worth their money. ^_^

(And I can't wait to make a pirate tricorn hat and find a pirate bag to complete my pirate lolita outfit! ^__^)

Hello Kitty x HYPER gyaru meet-up

2011-11-13T04:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a gyaru meet-up, organised by Rox. A lot of the girls from HYPER showed up, plus a few other people. At first we went to the Hello Kitty exhibition at the Siebolthuis in Leiden. After that, Gigi, Charlotte, me, plus a few other people from the group which I didn't really know, went to a symposium about the Kawaii culture in Japan and how it is spreading outside to other countries as well.
The rest of the group went shopping in Leiden I believe.

Anyways, it was lovely to see the girls again, and I really had a great time! The symposium was very interesting, but I'll go a bit more into detail about that later in this post. Because first, I'll show you some pictures! :D

This was my outfit:

The dress, belt, leggings, fluffy legwarmers and fluffy jacket are all made by me! :D
Goggles are from ebay (cheap as hell!) and boots are from Montreal, but they are covered by my legwarmers anyways.
And yes, my doggy is also peeking. She wanted to have her few minutes of fame too. XD

If anyone is interested about the hairdo, it is basicly looped pigtails which are then teased at the roots. I used this tutorial from youtube for it.

And here are some pictures of the meet-up:

Me with the lovely Rox, who had a really awesome wig!

Everyone was busy colouring Hello Kitty stuff, such as a sort of hello kitty crowns/headbands:

Me with my Hello Kitty headband

And last but not least, a groupshot. Which is not taken by me by the way.

Everyone looked really great!

So now about the symposium. There were 3 people talking about the subject in their own way. At first I thought that there would be some conclusion, about Why the Japanese Kawaii culture is growing so fast within Japan and also outside Japan nowadays. But that wasn't really the deal.

The first person talked a bit about Kawaii culture as an introduction, and about the double meaning of lolita: at one side you have the girls who dress cute, just because they like it, and on the other side you have guys who also like girls to dress up cute, but then in a more sexualized way.

However, this person also said a few really weird things. For example she said that Mana was the lead singer of Malice Mizer (Mana was the main person from the band and plays guitar, but he doesn't even speak in public, let alone sing. O_O), when she talked about sweet lolita, she showed a picture of a La Parfait shopgirl (= hime gyaru, didn't even look like sweet lolita), and later on in a discussion she said that gyaru was dead in Japan. O_O I know the ganguro and manba are kinda dead (but still some people do it in Japan!), but gyaru has evolved from then and it is even bigger than ever! With all the different kinds of styles, shops and magazines...
So yeah, even though she was said to be researching the Kawaii culture since 1995, she obvious didn't really researched all the things she talked about. So because of this, I really doubt the other things she said as well... :/

The second woman who spoke, explained more about the gothic lolita subculture and also about the economical strings that are attached to it: Because lolita is growing outside Japan as well, it turns from a national economy to an international one. And because lolita is not only found in clothes, but also in magazines, anime, manga, movies, etc, there is even a bigger market attached to it.
This woman really did her research well. To explain gothic lolita, she also explained the gothic subculture a little. And usually when some non-goth person talked about the gothic subculture, they say stuff like "all goths worship Satan and/or Marilyn Manson", but she actually had is all right, and even named Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus as examples for goth music. Really, if she had a Like button for her lecture, I'd sure push it.

The third one who spoke was a young woman who actually didn't talk about the Kawaii culture at all. She talked about the the opposite: 'cool' guys fashion, with the example from the Tune magazine.

Picture from a Tune magazine volume:

Personally, I do like some guy fashion styles very much. (Especially deathrock and aristocrat / victorian goth). But this... I don't really find it interesting. So when she started off telling that she would talk about this instead of kawaii stuff, I thought "this isn't going to be interesting....". But actually in the end I found it the most interesting one, because it really touched some interesting subjects which gave food for thoughts.

For example she said that she asked a Tune photographer what made these boys 'cool'. And the answer was surprisingly that it wasn't really the clothes that made these boys cool. (there aren't even rules for their style of clothes) It was the fact that they expressed themselves in their own way, and they had great confidence about themselves and their look, and that confidence that was considered cool. That was the reason why they were cool.

Now this is totally the opposide from what you see in the lolita fashion, from what I feel. In the lolita community, there is a certain vibe going on that you are only cool / a pretty lolita when you have the latest brand designs, especially Angelic Pretty (for sweet lolitas) or Moi-Meme-Moitie (for the goth lolitas). Handmade is less cool than brand to a lot of people, and offbrand and replicas are really looked down on. And it doesn't matter how confident one is in their clothes, as long as it is not brand, it is not cool.
(ofcourse there are exceptions to this! In my local community I know quite some girls who don't mind offbrand and who really respect handmade stuff as well)

And in both lolita community and gyaru community there are a lot of rules. Now because I know lolita a bit longer now, I sometimes try to stretch the boundaries and try some new stuff, but still try to be within the lines to be still a lolita.
For gyaru, I am still quite new so I still have to learn the rules to do it right.
And the funny thing is, before I got into lolita and gyaru, I dressed cybergoth and I really did not worry at all about if my clothes were cybergoth or not. I just did what I like and enjoyed it, and just make it work in my outfits. (sometimes I really wish I can get back to that freedom of mind that I had back then, because I KNOW I shouldn't worry about what other people are thinking of my clothes, especially within the lolita and gyaru communities, but somehow somewhere in my head I still do worry about it every now and then.)

But then I was thinking... even though my outfit of this day was inspired by the gyaru brand tutuHa and that furry legwarmers are 'in' these days, I am pretty sure that the whole outfit would be not gyaru enough for many people. That it would be 'too goth' or something.
But you know what... I really like my outfit. I felt really pretty in it, and comfortable. And most important of all, I felt like Me. Not like 'VelvetBat who is trying to be gyaru' or 'Gyaru VelvetBat' or something. I felt just 'VelvetBat'.
And personally, I value the feeling of being comfortable in a way I like to dress more important than to be sure that it is really gyaru.
So maybe it is not gyaru enough. Maybe it is gyaru goth, or just goth with gyaru make-up and hair. But it is me. A happy me. And that is most important. ^_^

And maybe we need to look at those 'cool' guys from Tune magazine more often. Follow their example of just dressing what you like to wear, and not dress too much if it is [certain style label].

And ofcourse I know that rules in fashion exist for a reason. That showing up in a ripped skinny jeans and Bauhaus tee to a lolita meet-up doesn't make you lolita. But still, I think that some people (including me sometimes!) worry too much about the rules and boundaries, seeing them as strict lines, and stress too much about fitting in the ideal type of a fashion style (and being afraid of people -online- flaming you for what you wear), while in fact the boundaries are more flexible and there is still room for experimenting. And those who flame you for what you wear... If they don't give constructive critisism about your outfit and you felt happy about the way you looked, they are not worth of your time and energy and should be just ignored.

And also another interesting thing from the third lecture:
There were pictures shown of a second hand / vintage shop where next to the clothing racks, there was trash displayed: tin cans, plastic cans, etc... "Because the line between trash and treasure is very thin".

So overall I really had a great and interesting day! :D

Faux-fur jacket and bat wings belt

2011-11-09T01:44:00.001-08:00

Last two weeks I have been sewing some new items!

First of all, I made a belt, inspired by this belt from TutuHa, from the same fabric as my recent leggings so that they match. ^_^ And this is the finished result:

As you can see the end result is different in shape than the tutuHa one. I didn't really like the downward points at the tutuHa one, I prefer a straight belt.

And then I made a short faux-fur jacket, with long sleeves and leopard lining:

Jacket closed up

And showing the lining

The sleeves are really wide! They actually turned out wider than I initially wanted them to be, but then I liked the way they looked so I decided to keep it this way. ^_^
The jacket really gives a lot of volume (which I really like), so in my opninion it looks best combined with fitted/tight clothes underneath, like a fitted dress or skinny jeans. If I wear it with a lolita skirt, there is just too much volume everywhere. :p

I had some troubles making both items, because of my lack of any sewing education. So I won't make any tutorials for these items.
However, I am really happy with the results and I really like both items very much! I will wear them on the gyaru meet-up next saturday, so I'll post some pictures of me wearing these items later.

I hope you like these too! ^_^

Valentine + some new items

2011-11-05T04:30:00.000-07:00

Today when I woke up this morning, I saw that I've recieved a lovely valentine on the Lolita Valentines community:

I really want to thank the person who made this valentine for me! I was so happy to read it, it really brightens up my day! So thank you very, very much! ^___^

- - -

Remember the Alice and the Pirates Reticella Rose OP I bought about half a year ago from a girl in my local lolita community?
It is this dress:

The girl who sold me the dress contacted me about a week ago, telling that she was also selling the matching headpiece now. And because I bought the dress from her, she wanted to know if I was interested in the headpiece, or else she would put it up for sale at the lolita community.

Even though I said to myself a couple of weeks ago that I would take a break from buying new lolita stuff, I couldn't resist this one. It is really beautiful and chances are rare that I'll find it somewhere else. And the girl is living in the Netherlands too, so shipping is a lot cheaper than buying it from Closet Child for example. And I just know that if I would have said no, I'd definitely regret it later.
So I bought the headpiece and 2 days ago it arrived:

Beautiful, isn't it? ^^

And also a faux-fur leopard coat I ordered from ebay has arrived:

I really love leopard! I can't wait untill I have some leopard boots or wedges. I think this coat will look great combined with a black dress, black tights and leopard boots/wedges. ^_^

I also recieved a package with acrylic nail bases. I really want to try the whole deco nails thing. I have seen so many pictures of pretty fake nails! So hopefully I can also make some nice nails. ^_^ I've never tried it before so my first set of nails will be very plain and easy, just to try things out. Hopefully I'll be able to finish my first set of nails upcoming week, since next Saturday (November 12) I'm attending a gyaru meet-up. We will visit a Hello Kitty exhibition! ^_^

Update about medical stuff

2011-11-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

Just an update about the fibromyalgia and the anti depressants.

First the anti-depressants. At this moment I am taking Valdoxan for 2 weeks and a day now. I've had the second ecg to see if the medication wouldn't affect my heart. And luckily everything was fine! So that was such a big relieve! ^__^
I still have to wait four weeks untill I can take the blood test to see if the level of the liver enzymes in my blood is raised or not.

However, it still feels that the medication doesn't work, so from yesterday on my dosis is increased.
So far I haven't got many side effects, only intense dreaming and having nightmares. At first I got nightmares for the whole nights! O_O So when I woke up during the night from a nightmare and fell back asleep, a new nightmare started, etc. But after one and a half week, the nightmares became less frequent; I had about 1 nightmare per night. The other dreams were just very intense and weird. Really weird. :p But I usually can't remember much of them in the morning.

Now that my dosis has increased, the nightmares also started to increase again. But I am positive that it will also become less frequent again.

And even though this is very annoying, I can live with it. And sometimes I can still remember the dreams (or parts of them), and because they are so weird and bizarre, it is just starting to get funny. :p

So I hope they will start to work soon and that my mood gets better again. ^_^

And then the fibromyalgia. Today I had my interview with the doctor to see if I can start the 'learn how to live with fibromyalgia' group therapy program.
It was a very good doctor, very friendly and he really understood me and took time for me instead of rushing through everything.

He said that fibromyalgia is like a false alarm from your body. Because for example, when you get your finger caught between the door, you feel pain. That pain warns you that your finger is hurt and that you shouldn't do it again.
But with fibromyalgia, the brain constantly tells me that I have pain (and the pain I feel is very real), but without a real cause. So I have to learn how to get on with my life and ignore those pain signals because they are false alarm.

And even though I tried to keep my muscles in shape by continuing walking my dog, cycling and occasionally bellydancing, the doctor said that my muscles are still less strong than they used to be, and that my lower back muscles are in quite a bad shape.
But, with therapy and training they can get stronger again.

He also aknowledged my depression and Asperger's Syndrome and he told me that depressions and fibromyalgia can intenify eachother. Which I already know from experience. So he said that starting the fibrogroup wasn't the right thing for me: it concentrates too much on the physical aspect. And because my depression is also in the way (and my Asperger's a bit as well he said), it is better for me to get personal therapy and training.

So now I'm on the waiting list for a therapist to decide on what my goals are, to see what kind of therapy would be best for me, and how much I (mentally and physically) can handle at this moment.
I have no idea when I will start the therapy, but at least I know it will start and that things will get better! It really gives me good hopes. :)

And, also a very important thing (for me)!
I asked the doctor if I could still wear high heels with the fibromyalgia. And he said that I could wear heels as high as I wanted!
I just need to get my muscles back in shape and then learn how to ignore the pain signals, but then I will be able to do everything just like a normal person without fibromyalgia, including walking in high heels!
So I am really happy about that, since I really LOVE high heels and platform boots.

So now I can look forward to wearing heels again! <3 After I finsihed therapy, I will treat myself with a new pair of heels or leopard wedges. Or maybe both. ^__^

Also, the doctor also said that it was best if I don't use my crutch too much anymore, because one can become easily dependant on them. And then things will only get worse. So I'll try to go to meet-ups again without the crutch from now one.
He also said that after the therapy I will probably don't need a crutchanymore anyways. ^_^

New circle lenses

2011-11-01T10:04:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday my new circle lenses have arrived!

So far I didn't have much luck with circle lenses, so I was really hoping that these would be comfortable!

My first pair of circle lenses were from the brand Geo. Back then, a lot of people were saying that Geo was a really good brand, so that's why I tried them out. I got a pair of 14mm black lenses. However, when I first tried them, they weren't that comfortable. But I thought that I just needed to get used to the feeling of wearing lenses - I had never been wearing lenses before.
But after 2 or 3 times wearing them for a very short while, one of the lenses got ripped. I don't know how that happened, so I decided to order them again.

When I got my second pair of lenses (the same type as my first one), I wore them a bit more often, also for a longer period of time. I was hoping to get used to it, but I didn't. Everytime when I blinked, the lens slipped up or down and then a second later it slided back into place. But because this was happening every time, I was getting a headache from wearing them.

So then I thought... Maybe I need to buy bigger lenses! I thought that if I would get bigger lenses, they would have less room in my eye to slip up or down, so they would stay in place and I would not get a headache. Sounds logic right?

But then I got scammed by the store and never saw my lenses. So I filed a paypal claim and luckily I got my lenses back. -__-

So I ordered Geo Bella Extra brown, which were 15mm large, from a different store (Pinky Paradise).
When I got my lenses I tried them on. But it felt like I put a hundred of small sharp knifes into my eye! O_O I could literally not open my eye for more than 5 seconds. My eye was all red (which went away after I removed the lens) and tears came out.
So yeah... I decided to never wear them anymore. So that's why I also don't have a picture of me wearing them. Because I just can't. :/

However, I was told by someone else that she also didn't find Geo lenses comfortable and that she has a much better experience with G&G/Dueba lenses. So I decided to give that a try.

The lenses I ordered were G&G/Dueba MX21 brown. These lenses are 14mm so I already knew that they wouldn't really enlarge my eye since my eye is already that size. So I decided to pick a pair with a really dark ring on the outside, to make my eyes 'pop' more.

When they arrived, they came in a small bottle that said AmieI instead of Dueba. So I first thought that Pinky Paradise sent me the wrong lenses, but after a bit of googling around I read that these were the correct lenses. I really don't know why they put another name on the bottle instead of the brand name...

Today I first tried my new lenses.
And they were indeed very comfortable! I wore them for about 4 hours and they didn't slide around like the Geo ones, nor they made my eyes tear. In fact, I didn't really felt them being in my eye. And no headache! :D

Some people say that you can be gyaru without circle lenses and some people say that you can't be gyaru without them.
Personally, even though these lenses don't enlarge my eyes, but they do make my eyes pop out more, I really think I look more gyaru with them than without lenses. So I am glad I finally found a pair/brand that my eyes can wear!

(and in the future I also want to give the 14.5mm lenses from that brand a try)

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T02:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone! ^__^

Going to get more serious in gyaru

2011-10-25T05:53:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you very much for all the comments at my previous post and thank you all those who have shared my blog's link at facebook for more exposure! And I am sorry that I didn't include something about demi-sexual. I totally forgot about that since I don't have any experience with it and I don't know much about it other than that it exists. But thank you all! It made me really happy! ^_^

A couple of weeks ago, Woxje had made a post on her blog about her improvements into gyaru. She is really an inspiration to me for gyaru in general, but this post inspired me even more. You could clearly see that she made a lot of improvement from the start and that her style is really developping. But, it didn't came out of nowhere. She is putting so much practice and effort in it to get where she is now.

Like I said, her post really inspired me. I am interested in gyaru for over a year, and a few months back I decided to really give it a try. But to be honest, I have been a bit lazy. Ofcourse, my depression is also an obstacle, but still I have been lazy too. I have practised my make-up skills just a couple of times and I practised hairstyling even less. Because of my fibromyalgia I can't hold up my hands for a long time, which makes hairstyling difficult, so I went on with wigs instead and turned two ordinary wigs into himegyaru wigs. But I didn't really explore which hairstyles are still possible for me to do. (and I honestly believe there are still posibilities left, like the big hair of Morimayu!)

Do I think that I am a perfect gyaru already that doesn't need much practise? No, not at all! I don't think I am even close to a good gyaru yet. But if I want to improve (which I really want!) I really have to step it up and put more effort in it. Like Woxje did. Practise, practise, practise, and get better after time.

So I decided to really get going and take a break on buying new lolita stuff for me (except for 1 item; Leyla from Mfashion is currently in Japan and I asked her to look out for a black AatP treasure bag for me :p). So no more closet child, Mbok, Y! Japan and looking at the sales posts of the Dutch lolita community.
Instead I want to spend my money on more gyaru stuff: I ordered a new pair of circle lenses (hopefully my eyes can wear these - I didn't have good experiences with my previous ones), I ordered the new Ageha (2011/11), and I ordered a bunch of clothes from Yesstyle and got a couple of things from ebay and local stores.

Which doesn't mean I am going to quit lolita! Don't worry about that. Just taking a temporary break of buying new items and I will still continue wearing my lolita clothes when I feel like it. ^_^

But I do have decided to not tkae the 2012 challenge of dressing up lolita every day with a few exceptions for gyaru meet-ups. I feel like a challenge like this would limit my progression in becoming a better gyaru. So I don't want to limit myself. I want to dress gyaru a lot more often.

Other than that, I am still working on my tutuHa gyaru inspired outfit. So far I have finished my leggings and my dress and I still have to work on my belt and jacket.

This is a picture of the dress and leggings I finished:

I feel a bit like a sort of space ranger escaped from an 80's synthesizer popsong music video. :p Which is not really a bad thing, because I really love those 80's space synthesizer popmusic. XD

Anyways, the leggings are made of a shiney pink fabric and they are the first leggings I've ever made. So I am really proud of them.
And the dress is a bit hard to see, but it is a simple black a-line dress with a second layer over it. The fabric of the second layer was called 'lace' in the store, but it doesn't feel nor look like the lace you see in lolita dresses. It is really soft and just a general fabric with cut-out parts. The dress can be worn with a small petticoat underneath for a bit extra volume. (but on this picture it was worn on its own)

Picture of the fabric:

I'm really proud of my dress too, even though it was a very plain and simple one. But I've never made a dress like this before either.

The belt I am going to make is inspired by the tutuHa corset belts, with those bat-wings on the back. (I posted them a few posts back in my general tutuHa/Morimayu inspiration post) It will be made from the same pink shiney fabric of the leggings. But mine will be a bit different shape than the original tutuHa ones.

And the jacket I am going to make will be made of long-haired black faux-fur, with awesome leopard lining inside! The jacket will have long sleeves, but the overal length is a bit short. (the hem will hit somewhere around the waist)

Now that I want to get more serious in gyaru, I will also post more about it; show my gyaru item gets and I will also make more pictures of my progress of doing my make-up and post those too. ^_^ And ofcourse some coordinates.
But even though I want to become a better gyaru, I still want to keep my personal style too. So expect a bit of goth flavour too. :p (which means: a lot of black, leather jackets, faux-fur and big boots <3)

Asexuality

2011-10-23T01:47:00.000-07:00

This post is different from the posts I usually write, but the subject is very important to me so therefore I decided to write about it.

Today is the start of the Asexual Awareness Week. Asexual is a sexual orientation (like heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual or pansexual), but it is not that known to most people. So that's why the Asexual Awareness Week was created: To let the world know that Asexuality is also a very real sexual orientation.

But what is asexuality?
Asexuality is the lack of sexual attraction to others.
A heteosexual person is sexually attracted to people from the opposide gender.
A homosexual person is sexually attracted to people from the same gender.
A bisexual person is sexually attracted to people from the same and opposide gender.
A pansexual person is sexually attracted to males, females and any other person outside the so called 'gender binary'. (this one may be difficult to understand for some people, but I am not going to explain this one further, because I would be going too much off-topic then)
And an asexual person is someone who is not sexually attracted to males, females and other persons outside the gender binary.

There are many different misconceptions about asexuality and asexuals.
Some think that asexuals ALL and ALWAYS had bad sexual experiences, such as sexual abuse. But that is not true. Yes, there are asexuals who have experienced sexual abuse, but this is not the cause why they are asexual. A lot of heterosexual/homosexual/bisexuals/pansexuals have also experienced sexual abuse, and it didn't turn them asexual either. (Sadly sexual abuse is just happening too much in this world)
Some say that an asexual person 'just haven't found the right person yet'. (And some guys may even add the 'But I can turn you into a nymphomane!' - Really, don't get me started on that one!) But again, this is also not true. There are a lot of asexual persons who have had sexual intercourse but that doesn't change anything about their lack of sexual attraction to others.

And there are some people who can not understand it when you say you are asexual, 'because you don't look asexual'.
But, your sexual identity is different from the way you dress. There is no certain way to dress heterosexual, homosexual or asexual. An asexual person can dress 'sexy' as they please, and it will not change anything about their sexual orientation.
Even more: An asexual person can also do things that are considered sexy, like bellydacing, taking pole dancing lessons, burlesque... Just because they like it!

Roughly there are 2 types of asexual people: the romantic ones and the aromantic ones.
The romantic ones are the ones who do not feel sexual attraction to a person, but they can romanticlly fall in love with a person and get into a relationship. The relationship may be a platonic one (which means there is no sex involved), or the asexual person chooses to have sex every now and then just to make their partner happy.
Those who are romanticly attracted to other people can be hetero-romantic, homo-romantic, bi-romantic or pan-romantic.

The aromantic ones are the ones who don't feel romanticly attracted to other people either, thus spending their life without a significant other.
However, an aromantic asexual is not a lonely loser or something like that. They still enjoy life on their own or with their friends ofcourse!

My personal experience

For me, I also identify as an asexual. I have already somewhat known about it my entire life, but when I was younger I didn't know about the term asexuality. So I thought that I was different than others and that I should get into a relationship and that the sexual attraction may happen later. Which never came.

A few years ago I suddenly came across the term asexual and I was so happy! Finally there was a name for me! And since that moment on I identify as asexual and I am also very open about it.

I wish I knew about asexuality earlier, so that some negative things in my life didn't take place. That's also one of the reasons why I really want asexuality to be more visible and aknowlegded by the general population.

Some people find it weird to hear me saying that I am asexual, since I used to dress cybergoth (mini skirts, corsets, PVC, showing a lot of skin) and because now I am also getting into gyaru as well. But my choice of fashion doesn't say anything about my sexual identity. I dress myself the way I want (whenever it is lolita, gyaru, or something else) I do that because I like the look and the clothes. I do that for myself. Because when I look in the mirror, I want to feel pretty and confident about myself. I do not dress up to attract any guys or girls.
But these days, a lot more people (sexual people!) also dress up the way they want instead of only pleasing other guys/girls anyways. And that's a good thing for sure! ^_^

I personally choose to not label myself as romantic asexual or an aromantic asexual. There are a lot of people that I find aestheticly pleasing (but that's just the same as I like a certain piece of art). However I did fall in love/have a crush on someone a few times in my life, but I never wanted to do something with the crush. My crushes only lasted a couple of days anyways. :p

And at this moment I do not want to get in a relationship with anyone. I really like being single, doing the things I want the way I want, and I have all the time and space to explore myself and develop my own personal style (also fashionwise).
And as for the future... I don't know what the future brings me. If I do end up finding a special person whom I fall in love with and want spend the rest of my life with, that's fine with me. But if I do stay single the rest of my life, I am completely happy with that as well! ^_^

If you want to know more about asexuality or if you feel asexual yourself and would like to get in touch with other asexuals, I can really recommand AVEN (Asexuality Visibility and Educational Network). They have a good website which explains a lot and a very large forums with a lot of friendly people. ^_^
AVEN

New medication

2011-10-18T00:44:00.000-07:00

Since my clinical depression is not getting better, I finally had to face it... I need to start taking medication again to fight the depression.
But, medication is not something I like. There are usually a lot of side effects and my body is very sensitive to medication, meaning that I usually have a lot of side effect.

But, getting new medication is not an easy thing. There are different kinds of anti-depressants. Some groups are not working for me. They simply have no effect (besides side effects - somehow I still feel those even though the medication itself is not working -__-). And there are other groups which do work, but I get an irregular heartbeat, or a so called qt prolongation, which can lead to heart faillure and sudden death. Not something you want...

So, my options for anti-depressants are limited.

Yesterday I went to my psychiatrist to see what my options are. He said that there was a newer kind of anti-depressant called Valdoxan (or Agomelatine) and this one doesn't fall into the categories I tried to far. So there is hope that this one should work.

However, in very rare cases it can still lead to qt prolongation.
And, there is also a more common side effect on the liver: the liver enzymes can be raised. When it isn't raised very much there is no real damage yet, but when it is raised too much there can be liver damage.

So today I have to get my blood tested and get an electrocardiogram (ecg) to see how my liver and heartbeat normally are. Then from this evening on I have to start taking the new medicine and upcoming friday I have to get an ecg again to see if I have the qt prolongation or not. I'll probably get the results the same day.

If I don't have the qt prolongation, I can continue taking the medication and then after 6 weeks from start I need to get my blood tested again to see if the liver enzymes are raised or not.

Good thing is that if they either spot the qt prolongation or the raised amount of liver enzymes, they found it in an early state. Which means that if I quit taking the medication, all will go back to normal. :)

So I am really nervous now! I really hope that this medication will work because I really hate the depression. It has been going on for too long now.

And once my depression is away, I finally can do the things I want to do; be more active on my sewing machine and with other DIY projects (I still have so many things on my to-do-list!), dress up more in lolita style and gyaru style, improve my gyaru style, and many many more. And I just can enjoy the things that I do and create.

So I am really looking forward to that. ^_^

New skirt and blouse

2011-10-14T07:09:00.000-07:00

Today I recieved my package from Closet Child. ^_^

This is a black pleated skirt from Black Peace Now. It was on sale for only 2200 yen! O_O So I really had to buy it! XD The fabric is really thick and I love the chain detail at the front. However, the lace is quite cheap quality. It doesn't bother me much (yet), but if it does I can always replace it with better lace ofcourse.
And I need to press the pleads again, they are kinda gone during shipping I guess.
Other than that I couldn't really find any flaws so I have no idea why the skirt did sell for so low. XD But I am not complaining! ^__^

And I also got this white blouse from Baby the Stars Shine Bright. I wanted to either buy an offwhite blouse, or a white blouse which I would tea dye myself into an offwhite blouse, to match my BtssB skirt which I bought at the lolita trade meet recently.
So when Closet Child uploaded this blouse I decided to buy it. I like the blouse, it looks really pretty and the sleeves are at good length too! But it is a little bit roomy at the bust, so I'll probably take it in a couple of centimeters.

I'll see if I can try to tea dye it tomorrow. I have never tea dyed anything before, but I have seen a couple of good tutorials and it doesn't look that difficult. So hopefully it will turn out the right shade that I want! :D

I also took a picture of me wearing my new blouse and skirt. (yeah sorry I am suffering from heartface again. :p I was too lazy to put on some make-up today)

Somehow I always thought that a white blouse would not look good on me. But now that I have tried it, I actually like it. So I might buy a second white blouse in the future and keep it white.
(it does give a lot more versatility in outfit coords to have a blouse in a different colour ofcourse)

Though the downside of a pure white blouse is that I have to find a bra which doesn't shine through. XD I took the lightest bra I could find in my drawer (a very pale pinkish one with soft pink leopard print <3 *I love leopard*) but in real life it shines through a little. But it is not showing on the pictures luckily! XD

Lolita outfit snapshot - Oldschool kuro

2011-10-13T04:58:00.000-07:00

Today I wanted to wear an oldschool kuro lolita outfit, with clothes I made myself. ^_^

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Handmade by me
Skirt: Handmade by me
Headdress: handmade by me
Necklace: offbrand
Boots: Montreal

I made the blouse a few years ago. It was my first blouse I've ever made, with half the knowledge of sewing that I have now. So it has some small details which aren't very pretty; the collar is a bit thick and wonky and I should have made the button holes vertical instead of horizontal. But for a first blouse it was pretty good and now I am wondering why I never wear this blouse and never made other blouses as well. XD Maybe I should do more in the future.

And the skirt is the one which I initially made as an underskirt for my red bustle dress.

And lol, the picture looks really yellow. But that is because my walls and floor are light yellow, and if the morning sun in Autumn and Winter months shine into my room, it turns everything bright yellow! :D

Vampire Forest arrived! ^_^

2011-10-06T07:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday my Vampire Forest from Alice and the Pirates has arrived! :D I got it off Y! Auctions, with the help from Japonica Market.

And today I decided to wear my new dress. ^_^
I made my hair a bit curly. But it was raining outside very bad, so not long after I took this picture, all my curls were gone. :(

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Dress: Alice and the Pirates
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal
Hair corsage: Handmade by me

I am really happy with my new dress! ^__^

Red dress finished!

2011-10-04T06:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening (or this day very very early to be more precise), I finally finished my red dress! I was working on this project for several weeks now, but I was heavily delayed for over a month because I wouldn't buy the right materials. The market stands I usually go to were all on vacation or just didn't have the stuff I needed.
And since previous week, a fabric store has opened in my city so I am really excited and I could finally buy the materials to finish my dress! And so I did.

The dress itself is a gothic lolita dress made out of very bright red fabric, a lace overlay and a bustle at the back. But the bustle can also be worn down.
I know that in lolita, bright reds are usually more often used in sweet lolita and in gothic lolita you don't see much red, or they are more of a darker shade. But I really wanted to use this very bright colour.
And the dress is made out of 2 pieces: a dress and an underskirt. The underskirt can also be worn as a skirt alone.

On to the pictures:

The underskirt: (a 3-tiered black skirt with a 1/2 shirring waistband)

And the dress:

Front

Back

I am very happy with this dress and I am also very proud. I think it is the prettiest garment I made so far. However, there are still some small flaws, like the lace at the bottom which is a bit too tight, so it flips over constantly. So next time I should use a bit more lace. But oh well, those are mistakes I can learn from and improve every time! :D

And today I decided to wear my dress:

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Jumperskirt: Handmade by me
Underskirt: Handmade by me
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal
Headdress and wristcuffs: Fly Away Fashion
Necklace: Offbrand

- - -

And today it is Animals Day! So give your pet an extra treat or hug and be nice to all animals you see today! :D

This is an action picture of me giving my dog (Gwen) a cookie:

Lolita Trade Meet-up

2011-10-03T05:32:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I went to the Lolita Trade Meet-up, which is held every year and organised by Leyla (owner of Mfashion, though she is there only with her personal stuff, not with stuff from the store.)
The idea of the meet-up is to sell, trade or buy lolita stuff. Mostly secondhand, and some handmade items. It is always nice to see an item in real life instead of judging a picture on the computer. And you can also try things on, feel the fabric, and you don't have to pay postage costs! :D And generally it is just a lot of fun because you can also see your lolita friends again. ^_^

I wanted to wear my Rapunzel dress with my long sleeved AatP blouse and my new blonde hime wig. But it was very very hot! O_O So I decided to go for a bit more casual look.

This is my outfit snapshot I took before I left my home. But after about 7 minutes walking outside it was so hot that I took off my sleeves and continued with short sleeves. (I love detachable sleeves!)

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Jumperskirt: Alice and the Pirates
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal
hairclip: Offbrand (local store)
And I was also carrying my pink Fan Plus Friend bunny bag with me. ^_^ I really love my bunny bag and I also feel less alone when I am traveling with my Bunny. :p

Actually I didn't really want to buy much at the meet-up because I want to save some money for new fabrics (I will be making a new gyaru outfit soon). So I set myself a budget of the day, and even though I have been buying quite a lot, I was staying under my budget! :D But I was really lucky too. Recieved some friend's discout. :p (Thank you girls! <3)

Anyways, my new stuff:

A set of wristcuffs and a matching headdress from Fly Away Fashion (a small Dutch brand which sells handmade lolita items). I fell in love at first sight with the wristcuffs at the moment I walked into the room. And I have really really small wrists. So usually when I buy bracelets or wristcuffs or stuff like that, they don't fit (or I have to go to the children's department). But the fit of these was perfect! As if they were made for me! :D
And I really like the look of them. It is a bit gothy and classic at the same time. ^_^

Three necklaces: a bunny one, because I just can't resist to buy bunny things. A deer one, which gives me a good excuse to finally buy Milky Chan (a print I secretly/semi-openly love for a long time!), and a pirate one, which will be perfect for my pirate lolita outfits. ^_^

A very bright pannier from Bodyline. But the poof amount is very minimal and the total skirt is really short, so I want to wear it with tutuHa style gyaru. At first I was a bit hesitant to buy it. I really liked it (and I love the bright colour!) but I was unsure if I would wear it. And I don't really have anything to match it with yet. But I tried it on, and then I decided to buy it. I'll just make it work in an outfit some day. :p

And last but not least, this beautiful skirt from Baby the Stars Shine Bright! I really love the skirt. It was on sale at the Dutch community before and I was already in love with it, but I decided not to buy it since I really don't have anything to match it with. I mean, it is a classic skirt in offwhite and dusty pink. But I don't own either of those (except for an offwhite Meta cardigan)
And when I saw this skirt today in real life I fell in love even more. But still, nothing to match it with...
But at the end of the day it was still not sold and then the seller (which is really a sweet person!) said I could have it for a discount. At first I was like "Are you sure? You are crazy, you spent more money on this when you bought it!". But she was very sure, and I was really happy! :D And I am still very happy! So again, thank you very much! ^__^

And now I have a good excuse to buy some offwhite stuff and give classic lolita a try! :D I really like the look of classic lolita, but I have no idea if it suits me. I know the shape and look of the dresses suit me better than, say OTT sweet lolita in bright pink, and it also suits my age. But still, I am not really a light-coloured person. I usually stick to black and dark colours. So yeah, I am really looking forward to try it! But I really have to get a blouse, tights, shoes, and hair accessory for a coord. And maybe a bag, although I already have a white bunny bag. But if I want to go for a mature look, I may need a more mature bag as well. :p

So overall the day was wonderful and I really enjoyed myself! I had a lot of fun seeing my friends again and to talk with them, and meet other people too. ^_^ And I am also very happy with my new stuff! :D

Tutuha and Morimayu

2011-09-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

When I first started getting into gyaru, my first love was himegyaru. Because of lolita I already loved frills, lace and ribbons. So there are quite some similar things in those two styles which makes the leap to a new style not that big. And many lolitas who are getting into gyaru first start with himegyaru. :p
I also liked agejo and manba very much, but I don't really feel comfortable in those styles. Agejo because of the mini skirts, and the heels are a problem because of my fibromyalgia. And manba because I really don't look good with a fake tan or dark skin from concealer.

For himegyaru... I don't really feel comfortable in himegyaru anymore. It is very girly and when I dress himegyaru, I always feel like I am pretending to be a girl that I am not. I don't feel ME when wearing hime.

I've never been really a girly person. Not because I wore boyish clothes or something, but because most of my friends were guys, I am more into 'heavier' kind of music styles (deathrock, industrial - though I do like classical music too), before gyaru I was never really interested in hair and make-up, and I am just a crazy person who just isn't polished or elegant.
(That's probably why I also like to experiment with crazy things in lolita, like deathrock lolita and cyberlolita. XD)

So I have been searching for a different style. I also encountered rock gyaru a couple of times. But the descriptions of rock gyaru are usually things with skulls and plaids and such. And I don't like skulls and I don't like plaids either. XD

And then, not long ago, I came across Tutuha. I heard the name 'tutuha' before and at tumblr I also saw a few pictures of Himena wearing tutuha dresses. But I thought Tutuha were only petticoat skirts and so I never really looked into the brand or the style.
So at the Abunaicon in August, I was at the gyaru lecture and I heard Roxanne and Charlotte talking about tutuha being a substyle from rock gyaru, which was more over the top rock gyaru. More crazy things. And I really liked the pictures from the slideshow.

So then a few days later I looked up the brand Tutuha and I saw some really awesome things! :D
Googles, platform boots, bright and vibrant colours, blacks, dresses...

To me it feels like Tutuha is gyaru mixed with some rock and goth where you can be very creative! So that really made me excited to try out the style myself. But I had no money left after my previous spendings on lolita, so I had to wait untill I my next paycheck, which was last Friday.

And Friday I immediately bought some silver pilot goggles from ebay which are very often seen in this style. I also got 3 rock-ish tops (2 with skulls, but those were more cuter/friendlier skulls) and today I want to try and see if I can find some nice rock boots (without a platform). And once my pink pennangalan boots (which are HEAVILY delayed - I am waiting for 15 weeks now. ;__;) are here, I think I can also incorporate them in this style.

And recently I have also taken a more closer look at Morimayu, one of the shop staff girls from Tutuha and kinda the gyaru icon for this style.
And I fell in love! She really is my new gal inspiration! :D

I mean, her hair looks so big and crazy, which is really something I already love for ages:

So I am really glad to see this hairstyle used in gyaru as well.
And I also like her outfits.

Now Tutuha isn't a brand which ships overseas, but I have already seen some cheap stuff at mbok and Y! Japan and such. However, I have decided that I want to sew most of the stuff myself. Some of the stuff I saw from Tutuha aren't that hard to make. And when sewing something yourself you can also change some details and give your own personal touch to it.
And I am taller than an average Japanese girl, so if they have a dress who is already short on them, it will show half of my butt if I wear it. And I really prefer my butt to be covered.
But maybe I'll buy a printed top some day since I can't really make those myself. (I suck at drawing so if I can't find a good stencil I am hopeless. XD)

So at this moment I have a lot of inspiration! :D
Also for mixing rock gyaru with a bit more glamorous style (like Agejo), like a skinny jeans with a leopard top and maybe even leopard wedges for a more mature look. I saw some really awesome leopard wedges on ebay, but I am afraid they are too high for me. (damn you, fibro! T__T)
And I really like a mature look every now and then, because some tutuha coords seem to me more suitable for people in their teens. (Same as Liz Lisa)
And ofcourse there are days when I want to look more crazy and days when I want to look more mature and glamorous, depending on my mood. :p

Anyways, here a small picture spam of Tutuha outfits and clothes which I like: (pictures are from Tumblr or from Morimayu's personal blog)

But before I can start sewing some more gyaru clothes, I first have to finish a bright red lolita dress. ^__^

A crutch

2011-09-26T11:39:00.000-07:00

Meet Kruk, my new (and first) crutch. (Kruk = the Dutch word for crutch)

Due my fibromyalgia, I have pain in my whole body. There are places where I feel pain 24/7 (like my back and shoulders) and there are places where I feel pain every now and then. My left hip is one of them. After a long and intensive day, like a meet-up, I always have a lot of pain in my left hip. But I also have periods of time in my normal life where I suddenly have pain in my left hip and it stays for a couple of days and then suddenly disappears again.

Since Monday/Tuesday last week, I have terrible pains in that hip again. So much that I tried to not put much weight on it when I was walking, but it only resulted in pain in my other knee. -__-
So I just had to accept the facts and get my first crutch, so that I have some support for walking on the days when I have those pains in my hip.

For me it is really a big step. I still haven't fully accepted my fibromyalgia and I still have a lot of days when I get mad, start crying and wishing I didn't have it because it troubles so much in my life. I can't do a lot of things anymore that I used to enjoy. And the pains sometimes drive me insane.

So getting a crutch meant for me that I had to be honest to myself and aknowledge that I really have fibromyalgia and have to live with it. And make the most out of life together with the chronic pains.

Today, I got my first crutch. In the Netherlands, this type of crutch is not that common. (most common are the forearm crutches, but I really have weak wrists so those weren't really an option for me.) Even though it relieves a bit of pain on my hip, I still have to get used walking with this thing. I walk a lot slower than usual, and also my dog finds it a weird thing and doesn't dare to come close to it when we are walking together. XD
I won't use this crutch every single day from now on. Only on those days where the pain in my hip is really bad.
However, I'll probably bring it along with every meet-up (gyaru, lolita and/or doll meet-ups) just to be sure and because I already know for experience that those days are just very intense for me. So you might see it on meet-up pictures as well. I don't want to hide it, it is now a part of me because the fibromyalgia is a part of me.

However, this crutch won't be with me for very long time. I have borrowed it from the local health supplies store. When I am more used to it and be sure that it is the right type of crutch for me, I'll order one which I will be able to keep forever. Which means, once I have a crutch to keep, I can customize it. Because I really want to personalize it. I hope I will be able to order one in black, and I have been thinking about wrapping some black roses around it, and maybe a few rhinestones for extra sparkles. ^__^ Just going to make the best out of it.

I also finally applied for a referral letter from my doctor to sign up for a special program for people with fibromyalgia to learn how to cope with the chronic pain and how to live with it. After I have signed up I'll be invited for an interview (to see if I can fit into the therapies) and then I'll be put on the waiting list for the next group. So hopefully I can participiate on the program soon because I think it can be really useful for me.
The reason why I didn't apply earlier was because of my depression. I think my depression is now going just a little bit better now (but still far from 'normal healthy' though) and I feel now is the right time to start the program. I am really motivated to learn how to deal with it because it really has a HUGE impact on my life. It might be difficult to understand for outsiders, but I really have obstacles because of the fibromyalgia on all levels of my life: I can't rest well at night because of the pain (so I always feel tired), in the morning I feel stiff and have a lot of trouble putting on shoes and I also often drop things. I can't walk for long distances, I can't really style my hair (because I can't lift up my arms above my head anymore), I can't lift heavy things, I have trouble sewing and doing crafty because of the pains in my fingers and back... And some days are better than others. On some days I really can't do anything at all.

So yeah, it is really time to start accepting this chronic illness and to learn how to live with it. Because it will never go away. (and will usually get worse after time)

Sorry about the long post! Next post will be about something totally different and with more pictures: about tutuHa gyaru style and tutuHa charisma gal Morimayu (my current biggest gyaru inspiration! <3)

Lockshop blonde himegyaru wig review

2011-09-24T04:56:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I ordered a blonde himegyaru wig from Lockshop. Lockshop is a fairly new webstore for wigs and accessories, based in the Netherlands. But they ship worldwide.

The reasons why I decided to buy the wig is because I am not fully satisfied with my current blonde wigs. Because they are cheaper quality, they tangle really easy. And since on the lockshop website is says that the himegyaru wigs aren't prone to tangling and it looked way fuller than my current blonde hime wig, I decided to give it a try!

First of all, the website url for Lockshop is: http://lockshopwigs.com

I placed my order (wig + haircomb) on September 21, very late in the evening.
The day after, on September 22, I recieved an email that my order was shipped!
And then the day thereafter, on September 23, I recieved my order.
Together with my order I got a free wigcap and an wig instruction list.

When I unpacked the wig, the first thing I noticed that the fibers were really soft and the wig was really full! The hime bump has flattened, but I knew that would happen so that wasn't a surprise. I spend just a few minutes teasing the roots of the bump and the wig was alive and kicking again! ^__^

The fringe was kept long, so I decided to cut it. I prefer my fringe straight, not swept away to the side.

And here is a short picture spam of the wig:

First, front and side without hair accessories:

Then, with my Vaned Ribbon headband from Metamorphose Temps de Fille:

And a last picture with my selfmade headcorsage. Different headdresses can give a total different look, so that's why I included this picture:

Conclusion:
I think the wig is really great! It is really really full, the hime bump is easy to style to your preferred height and the fibers are really soft. The wig isn't shiney and I love the colour. The only downside is that the fringe isn't that full. So I have to be careful with the edge of the wigcap not showing through the fringe by tucking it underneath the wig.

And for Lockshop: They shipped my order really fast and the website is easy to use. They don't have much different stuff for sale at this moment so your options are a bit limited. But that is only because the shop is really new. So I really see a lot of potental in this shop and I will definately order another wig from them in the future! :D

(And next week there is a lolita meet-up in the Netherlands where I will be wearing this wig together with my Rapunzel dress ^_^)

Putting outfit snapshots on a temporary stop + Dreamdress

2011-09-22T06:54:00.000-07:00

I decided to take a temporary stop on outfit snapshots. The reasons for this are:
1. I have not been feeling well last days
2. The weather is really bad; rainy and clouded, so I don't have good light to take my pictures
3. And I am noticing my repeats on outfits these days so I don't want to post the same 'black blouse + jumperskirt + black socks' coords over and over again. :/

About the weather, sadly I can not change it. Usually when I take my outfit snapshot, it is in the morning before I go outside/leave the house. But then it is still a bit dark (due the morning) and the room with the best light is still too dark. (Small house with small windows = not much light, especially when there is no direct sunlight because of the clouds)

So I could try and take outfit snapshots again in my black standing mirror in my living room at the end of the day (because then the sun has turned and my living room is the place with the most/best light of the day). But my standing mirror is a lot slimmer than my wardrobe mirror, so I am afraid you won't see the details very well then. But I'll give it a try soon!

Sadly I don't have anyone else who can make a good outfit snapshot of me. And I tried self-timer with a tripod, but then I always end up looking very angry because I am so concentrated on standing still at the right time! XD So that just doesn't work.

So I decided to have a temporary stop on outfit snapshots and I will continue them when I feel better and try the living room mirror again. And then I won't take a snapshot every single day because my wardrobe is still too limited. :/ So I just do like twice a week maybe? I don't know. We'll see. :p

I am really sad about the bad light part. Last tuesday I had this really pretty coord and I really liked what I saw in the mirror. But the pictures are soo dark, there is just no option of lighten them up in a painting program because then they still look terrible and grainy. :/
(Tuesday's theme was Rebelious Princess with a gothic/kuro coord and crimped big hair)

So sorry about that, but I hope I can continue my snapshots soon!

- - -

And that also leads me actually to a question.
Dear Readers, do you actually mind seeing repeated outfits when I do take snapshots every single day throughout the year?
I'd really like to hear your opinion about this, especially since I am working towards wearing lolita every single day in 2012 from the Filthy Victorians challenge.
Ofcourse I do try to change my coords every time and make them interesting and such, but I just love the black blouse + jumperskirt + black socks and shoes the most. So even though I use different black blouses and black shoes, I feel they still end up looking the same.

- - -

And then at the beginning of this week, I won this beautiful dress on an auction at Yahoo Japan, which is one of my dreamdresses:

Alice and the Pirates Vampire Forest black

I have no idea why they call it the Elizabeth JSK since in my opinion a JSK has no sleeves and an OP has sleeves. Anyways, I got this dress and I am really happy about that! =D It still needs to be shipped to me, so when it arrives I'll post some pictures!

I also bid on a AatP black treasure bag, but sadly I was outbid. :( So hopefully I will be able to get that one somewhere in the future!

Pirate Lolita for TLAPD! Arrr!

2011-09-19T01:13:00.000-07:00

Ahoy mateys!

Today I am wearin' me Pirate Lolita outfit! And me hair is big, since for me Pirate (Lolita) is wild, crazy and free and backcombed hair is too!

Sadly me outfit is still not complete, but I'll continue completin' it! Hopefully I'm able to get me an AatP treasure bag one day (I'm in an auction for that one right now) and next week I'll be orderin' my pirate coat!

Anyways, onto the pictures:

'Cause the back is bein' a beauty too! Arrr!

Sadly me fibromyalgia didn't like me footwear, resultin' in a terrible cramp in my legs and feet. So I had to change to me plain ol' black rocking horse boots:

Now this is what I am wearin' today:
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Onepiece: Alice and the Pirates (Arrr! One of me favourites!)
Tights: Primark
Socks: Offbrand
Heeled shoes: Offbrand
Rocking Horse boots: Montreal
Haircorsage: Made by me
Necklace: made by me
Bracelet: made by me

Hope yer likin' me outfit and havin' a happy Talk like A Pirate Day! :D Arrrrr!

Being crafty: A necklace, bracelet and hair corsage

2011-09-18T05:47:00.000-07:00

Last couple of days I have been very busy with small crafting projects.
Actually I was busy with making/sewing a very very bright red dress with black lace and a bustle, but I couldn't get all the materials needed. And since we don't have any good shops around for that, I am dependent of the local market in my city and the one at a nearby village. But somehow they didn't show up last week, so I had to come up with a different project untill I am able to get the materials needed to continue with my dress.

And so I decided to make a necklace, a matching bracelet and also a hair corsage.

First; the necklace:

Front view

Side view

As you can see, a very gothic necklace! For gothic jewelry, I am not really a fan of crosses, so I went with roses and bats because I love those and they fit the gothic aesthetic very well too. ^^
I am actually quite proud of this one, since I only made 3 necklaces before and those were just plain 1 'string' of pearls with a hello kitty hanger.

And my matching bracelet:

I am not used anymore to wearing bracelets at all. After a time, they start to irritate me because they always slide up and down a bit when I move my arm. So I hope I will get used to that again after I wear it more often. (I did wear bracelets every single day when I was in highschool)
I didn't add a bat to the bracelets because loose hangers on bracelets just keep annoying and irritating me and I just can't get used to that. :/

And today I finished my hair corsage:

I like the way it turned out! It is not 100% perfect, but it is the first haircorsage I've ever made. I wanted to make one like this for quite a while, but somehow I just never did. The haircorsage is attached to a black hair comb by the way. And the pearls and bats are removable, so I could also change them with a different kind of jewelry. Or a different colour.

I am planning to wear the hair corsage and my new jewelry tomorrow and the day after in two very different coordinations. And ofcourse I will post pictures of that. ^_^

And I must say, making the necklace has really inspired me to make more. I really like doing it. And I have been thinking, if I make a lot more and get more experienced with making them, I might make a few to sell too. But I am not 100% sure about that. And I don't know if anyone would be interested too, since there are so many people out there in the lolita community on etsy, egl_comm_sales and such who sell their own jewelry.
But if I would, I think I would limit myself to gothic jewelry mostly. So no selfmade cupcakes and other clay stuff. :p (I once tried it myself but me and fimo clay is not working - I fail at working with clay.)

Lolita Outfit Snapshot

2011-09-15T23:48:00.001-07:00

Today I was feeling like wearing my Cherry Berry Bunny again, so I did. ^^

Outfit Rundown:
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Jumperskirt: Angelic Pretty
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: montreal
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)

Lolita Outfit Snapshot: Ero Gothic Lolita

2011-09-14T23:49:00.001-07:00

Today is the first time I tried the Ero Gothic lolita style, with my new Atelier Pierrot corset skirt. And I like the result. ^_^

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Skirt: Atelier Pierrot
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Boots: Pleaser
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)
Bat necklace: Offbrand (some gothic brand, but I can't remember which one XD)

Like I said in my new stuff post, the Atelier Pierrot corset skirt is shorter than normal lolita skirts. But it is so short that my black petticoat peeks out underneath, so I had to wear my pink one instead (which is slichtly shorter). XD But normally I try to match my petticoats with my outfits. Oh well, I want to order a new black organza petticoat soon, so maybe that one will fit underneath this skirt too. :p

Anyways, I hope you like my Ero Gothic Lolita attempt! :D

Dress Altering Project + Lolita Outfit Snapshot

2011-09-14T04:27:00.001-07:00

About a year ago I have bought a black jumperskirt from Kidsyoyo. The dress looked beautiful on the stock pictures, with a corset part at the bodice and the skirt had a beautiful cutout with flowers on it. But when the dress arrived and I tried it on, it looked terrible on me. Because the skirt was gathered and the top part of the bodice was gathered too, I looked like a lump. And I felt like one too. So I never worn the dress and it was just hanging in my closet. And I felt bad about it, because the corset part and the skirt still looked very nice.

So about a week ago out of the sudden I got this idea: I would alter the dress into a corset skirt! It seemed very easy; just cutting off the top part. So I did it. And I finished it this weekend. And today I wore my skirt, and I really feel happy now! And pretty too. ^_^

So on to the pictures and details of the process:

This is the picture of how the dress looked, right after I unpacked it: (sorry, I hadn't iron it back then.)

And this is the result:
Front:

And back:

And this is how I did it:

First I had removed the lace which seperated the top part of the bodice and the corset part. Then I just cut the top part off.
I didn't feel like taking out the whole zipper and add a new one, because if I wanted to take out the zipper, I had to take out the whole skirt entirely. So I did it the lazy way: I added a bit of glue on top of the new zipper's end. :p

At the jumperskirt, the back had a shirring panel. But after cutting off the top part, the tunnels for the elastic were uneven placed. So I added 2 more tunnels and used the elastic band and the fabric loops from the top part.
I also used the lace on top of the shirring panel of the jumperskirt and added it to the new top of the shirring panel of the corset part.

And after that I finished the hems and put the lace back on the top of the corset part. ^_^

So I am really happy with the result since I was able to keep the things I love most about the skirt: the corset part and the beautiful skirt fabric.

And today I was wearing my new skirt, in a kuro and casual pirate lolita coord:

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Skirt: Kidsyoyo (customized by me)
Tights: primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Boots: Montreal
Headband: H&M

Rapunzel and Pascal

2011-09-13T01:15:00.000-07:00

Like I said in yesterday's post, today I am wearing my Scent of Rapunzel jumperskirt!

It is definately one of my favourite dresses now! I already loved the Rapunzel fairytale when I was a little kid, and I really loved the Disney's Tangled as well, and this dress also has my favourite colours black and pink and my favourite flowers (roses) on it! ^__^

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Jumperskirt: Alice and the Pirates
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)

And a bonus picture, just for fun, because what is Rapunzel without Pascal?

^__~

New stuff! + Lolita outfit snapshot

2011-09-12T05:30:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been buying all kind of new lolita clothes, so here are pictures of my recent arrivals:

Alice and the Pirates black blouse with high collar. It also had 2 small detachable ribbons on a seperate band, but I have removed them and forgot to add them for this picture. I got the blouse from Closet Child in one of their 30% sales.

And here is a close-up picture of the vertical lines, they have beautiful small detailing:

And then my second blouse:

Again, a black blouse from Alice and the Pirates from Closet Child. The ends of the sleeves and collar do unrafel easily, but that gives a nice pirate-y touch to it in my opinion. And I just love bell sleeves! :D
This blouse also had a large bow around the collar, but again I taken that off and forgot to include it in the picture.

Then, a skirt:

This is a black Atelier Pierrot corset skirt which I got from Yahoo Auctions (with help from Japonica Market). The fabric is really soft and the whole skirt and corset are beautiful! The skirt however is definately shorter than usual lolita skirts, so it gives a nice ero touch to an outfit. I think I will incorporate this skirt both in an ero-ish gothic lolita outfit and pirate lolita. ^__^

This is one of my dream dresses, I have been in love with it since the day it was released! Alice and the Pirates, Scent of Rapunzel in black. I really really love it! Again, Closet Child get. (I love Closet Child! <3) The print looked already amazing in photographs, but it does even look better in real life! :D
Though I was surprised to see it came unlined. Now the fabric itself is quite thick, but somehow I always expect to see lining in a dress, unless it is either a very summery dress, or a cheap replica. But this one came without lining. Oh well.

And last but not least:

Moi-Meme-Moitié Silent Moon Jumperskirt in black x white.
It is such a beautiful dress! At first I wanted to reserve the black x blue colourway, but sadly that one just gone out of stock before my shopping service (chibi_tenshi, who did a wonderful job!) could reserve it for me. So my second choice was this colourway. At first I was a bit afraid that when the dress would arrive, I would have mixed feelings about it, because I didn't get my first choice colourway. but now that I own this one, I think I like this colourway even more! The contrast between the black and white is so start, it really makes the print pop out! It is really a beautiful dress.

Sometimes I read people getting their first Moitié dress and then fall in love with Moitie so hard that it would become their favourite brand. But that didn't happen with me. (Thank god, since Moitie is damn expensive XD) I really love this dress and I love how it looks on me, but I think it will stay my only Moitie dress for quite a while. :p I really like it, but I am more into the multiple colour prints (and maybe with a little bit more sweet to it like AatP and Angelic Pretty).

- - -

And then today I could finally wear lolita again! My knee has healed now, but sadly I have a really ugly red scar left. Luckily it isn't visible when I am wearing my black tights and socks, but I don't know about lace tights... I haven't tried them yet. And maybe the redness will go away after a couple of months.. I don't know. We'll see.

Anyways, because I was able to wear lolita again, I decided to wear my Silent Moon dress today, with gyaru make-up. Now the weather here is really bad (rainy and cloudy), so the quality of my pictures are bad. Sorry about that! I wish I had better light to take my pictures, but sadly I don't.

Outfit

Make-up shot (sorry, grainy cellphone picture)

The make-up (especially the false bottom lashes) make me look a lot younger! XD The make-up is not that visible on the picture sadly. :/ It is always hard to get a good picture of your make-up. For make-up shots, good lighting is even more important than for outfit snapshots.. :/

Anyways, outfit rundown:
Blouse: Alice and the Pirates
Jumperskirt: Moi-Meme-Moitié
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal
Hairband: Metamorphose temps de fille
Jewelry: offbrand

Tomorrow I want to wear my Rapunzel dress and Thursday I am planning to do a (slightly ero) Gothic lolita coord with the Atelier Pierrot corset skirt and the second blouse.

Pirate Lolita

2011-09-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

Even though I like many different styles of lolita and I have tried different ones as well, I have never been really into pirate lolita. Untill recently. Due a post at the blog SweetLolitaDoll, I started looking more into pirate lolita. Because to be honest, I never gave it much attention because I thought it was too costume-y, like guro lolita. And I prefer styles for every day wear more.

So I started reading the pirate lolita page at Hello Lace to see what really makes an pirate lolita outfit. And ofcourse I also browsed the Daily Lolita Pirate tag. And I learned that pirate lolita is more than bottles of rum and treasure chests. :p And that the style could also be adapted to a more normal daily look. (and ofcourse you can still go over the top on meetings and such with the bottles of rum, treasure chests and eye patches ofcourse ^__~)

And most important of all: I completely fell in love with the style!

Here is the Pirate Lolita style overview, taken from Hello Lace:

Follows the traditional Lolita silhouette.
Items are sparsely decorated with lace, chains and pearls.
Motifs includes skulls, pirate ships, crowns, crosses and roses.
Headdresses commonly seen are corsages, bonnets, feathered tricorns
Vests and jackets come with buttons and belts.
Blouses has jabots, are often high-collared with large bows or attached chains.
Skirts and dresses are often tiered, or has a bustle.
Accessories includes eyepatch, rum bottles, treasure chests, cameo pendants, crown rings, pearl chokers etc.
Socks and tights are often striped, containing pirate motif patterns or plain with crown embroidery.
Shoe examples are shoes with wooden soles, tall high-heeled laced boots, ankle boots, or button-decorated buckled sandals.
Bags are plain or in imaginative forms, such as treasure chests.

Now what is it that appeals to me so much of this style?

First of all, the creativity in the style. Pirate is a concept, but not a strict guideline of how to look pirate. You can go different ways, from a more sweet and sophisticated look (like with a pink AatP dress and a curly wig) or a more funky, dark and raw look (like with a black AatP dress and heavily crimped and teased hair) or very dark and mysterious (dark curls, black/navy/red dress and beautiful rose corsages and a corset).

And I can incorporate many things in this look that I really like: boots, roses, hair corsages, jabots, high collars, (manly) vests, Alice and the Pirates clothing (Sorry Angelic Pretty, but since a month or something, Alice and the Pirates is now my favourite brand!), lots of black, chains, bustles, corsets... Quite a lot! And although I really like elegant styles like EGL and gothic hime lolita, I often feel incomplete and not really myself when wearing it. I have an inner RAWR as I usually describe it. I need an edge, something funky or crazy, something 'RAWR!' like a dinosaur. Or more 'Arrrr!' in a pirate's case ofcourse. :p Yeah I suck at describing it. But basicly I am just not that elegant and sophisticated enough to be totally me in EGL or hime and that I have this crazy side which wants to break free every now and then.
(Same with hime gyaru btw, that's why I want to try out tutuHa style - that also has the kind of RAWR! I like)

So now I really want to try out Pirate Lolita. In a more gothy way; so more blacks and reds and such and not really the ivory and pink colours. (Somehow recently I have really been into the colour red.)

I already have a beautiful Infanta coat on my wishlist which I can hopefully order within a few weeks:

Other than that, I also want to make a few black bustiers / corset tops myself, and ofcourse some rose hair corsages. And also some jewelry. So yeah, a lot of stuff! =D I don't need to be afraid of being bored soon I guess. And I want to expand my wardrobe with a lot of beautiful AatP skirts. Especially their corset skirts like Queen's Coatch, Vampire Requiem and Beauty and the Rose Promise. Those are such beautiful garments! <3

And secretly I really like the Alice and the Pirates treasure bags too, although they are a bit costumey... And expensive too.. So hopefully I can get one second hand some day for not too much money. ^^
And although it is a bit costumey as well, I also want to try and make my own tricorn hat! ^__^

Anyways, I will keep you updated on my progress of becoming a Pirate Lolita! Arrrr! =D

where do you buy your wigs?

2011-09-10T08:23:00.001-07:00

Ebay! The wigs I bought so far are all from the same shop/seller: http://stores.ebay.nl/superiorstyle2010
But so far I have styled my wigs myself, so you can't find the exact type of wig in that shop. But their wigs are cheap and their quality is not bad (not thát great either though). ^_^
And soon I'll try a wig from Lockshop (http://lockshopwigs.com/) since they got a lovely new wig in stock and because they are based in the Netherlands, the shipping won't be that high for me. ^^

Ask me anything

New blog layout

2011-09-10T04:04:00.000-07:00

I have made a new layout for my blog!

The old one was nice, but I was getting tired of it. And also because it was a pre-made layout, I wanted to have a bit more personal layout for my blog. So I decided to make a new one!
And I also wanted to have more space to add more widgets and such! :D

Anyways, I hope you like the new layout! And I also hope it won't give any errors or such. If you find any errors, please report them to me by leaving a comment or something. ^_^

2012 Lolita Challenge! (inspired by Filthy Victorians)

2011-09-09T05:04:00.001-07:00

Yeah I know, I recently finished the 30 days Lolita challenge and yesterday I finished the 30 days Goth challenge and now I am going to post about another challenge! :D

A few weeks back I saw this very interestnig and inspiring post at Bloggery of a Gothcat:
Filthy Victorians - a challenge to dress every single day in victorian clothes in the year 2012.

Now personally I am a big fan of victorian clothes - on other people. They are absolutely pretty, but I don't feel me when wearing something victorian-ish.

But the idea really inspired me. To wear a certain style of clothing every single day.

Now you may already know that I really like the idea of a lifestyle lolita: to wear lolita every single day (and maybe even at night). (Personally I don't believe in the other lolita lifestyle like sewing and drinking tea, because I have been doing that since my cybergoth era -even before I discovered lolita- and I really wasn't a lifestyle lolita then XD)

And I am in the 'lucky' position that I could dress up in lolita every day if I wanted too. I have no school and no work (I am fully disabled for work due Asperger's syndrome, depressions and my fibromyalgia). But still I don't dress up in lolita as much as I want to. Why? Because of my depressions mostly -I don't feel like wearing anything pretty- and also the lack of energy due the fibromyalgia.

But when I do dress up, I feel pretty and I feel confident - two things I am lacking when I wear casual stuff. (casual for me usually means I feel blergh) So wearing lolita more often would be very positive for my mental state.

So I decided to create my own challenge, inspired by the Filthy Victorians, to wear lolita every day throughout 2012!
Now that doesn't mean that once the calender hits 2013 I will throw away my lolita clothes or whatsoever. Instead I hope that because of the challenge, wearing lolita will be much more natural to me. That it doesn't cost energy anymore to dress up every day because it has become a routine. And that I will keep wearing lolita every single day from then, untill I get tired of it. :p

However, there is one exception for me: I am a member of the Dutch gyarusa HYPER, which frequently hosts meetups and the like. And I don't want to quit gyaru or be a shame of the circle, so I will still continue going to gyaru meetups and dress gyaru then (because you can't show up in lolita to gyaru meetups ofcourse - same as you wouldn't attent a lolita meetup in your normal clothes or a cosplay outfit or whatsoever), and improve my gyaru style.

Other than that, my rules for the challenge are simple: Dress up lolita every day, and all styles are accepted. Though I am going to try and keep away from the casual lolita style as much as possible. Boystyles are accepted, though I am not really a fan of kodona and such. But I do like the Aristocrat menstyles and I still want to dress up as a perfect aristocrat gentleman some day. So those are okay too. And ofcourse mix styles like cyberlolita will be included as well, as long as they stay lolita! =D

I'll try to make as much outfit snapshots as possible. But with my current wardrobe - which isn't very large - I will probably repeat different outfits multiple times. I do want to try and change the coords as much as possible, but since I am a big fan of black blouses and not very fond of white blouses, most of my coords end up looking the same even though I use a different black blouse. :/
I am still deciding if I will post the snapshot every day, or that I will post a week full of snapshots at a certain day of the week. (I don't want to clog up your blogrolls too much. ^_~)

And ofcourse I will try to expand my wardrobe as much as possible. But I prefer brand over bodyline, quality over quantity. And lolita is an expensive style as you know, so it will take some time. But recently I have got some nice new stuff which I will post soon. ^^

Other essensials which are still on my wishlist (and to make my wardrobe more interesting):
- an organza petticoat (my tulle ones are kinda dead)
- more accessories and headgear to create different looks with the same kind of clothes
- a blouse in a different colour than black or white (I really want a red one for example)
And ofcourse more skirts and dresses! =D

So next couple of months I will try to prepare myself for the challenge, get my essentials, get more clothes, and make more accessories and headgear. I'll also try to get a few more wigs to make the outfits also a bit more different from eachother. ^^

So wish me luck!
And if you want to do a similar challenge, please do! =D

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 30

2011-09-07T23:15:00.000-07:00

Day 30 – Make a list of blogs you regularly read and link to them.

I got into reading blogs and blogging myself through the lolita community, so I mostly read lolita blogs. And then when I got into gyaru as well, I also started to follow some gyaru blogs. Somehow it never came to mind that goths could be blogging as well, so it was only recently that I discovered some nice goth blogs. So that's why this following list will mostly contain lolita blogs, some gyaru blogs and very few goth blogs.

The list:

† Niesje7002 †

Woxje

Toothless Tigers

SweetLolitaDoll

Rosa Nitida

Mori Mori~

Moitié Rori

Miroir Joli

Miradell

Kari-Chan

Milk Gloves

Chrome Pistols

~*Spitting Rainbows*~

Bathina's Kreationen aus Leidenschaft

Black Rose Dreams

BN-Chan's Life

Ephemeral Beauty

Frilly Little Rave Girl

Her Curious Elegance

I live the Victorian Life

Innocence and Cyanide

~Les Fleurs Noires~

Leyla Fashion and Beauty blog

Lost in Lace

Pink Milk Tea

Poppy Noir

Rainbows 'n Sparkles

Romantic Doll

Songe Soigné

Sweet Indeed

The Castle of Nightmare

The Dark Victorian

Whimsical Adventures of Me

Red-Tonic

Moar Lace Please

Macaron Hearts

F Yeah Lolita

† Dixmacabre sewing Chronicle †

Miss Lumpy

Kirei Kross

BitterSweet

Strange Girl

Moss Garden

Agepoyo

Universal Doll

Star Princess

Neutrois Nonsense

Adora BatBrat

Bloggery of a Gothcat

DarkStalker Girl

Juliet's Lace

Sincerely, Boots

The Everyday Goth

The Ultimate Goth Guide

Yeah I follow a lot of blogs! I have too much spare time I guess. XD But I just love reading them!
And this list didn't even include the blogs that haven't updated for several months or longer.

And I also follow a lot of blogs on tumblr, but I didn't include those here or else the list would be twice as long!

- - -

And this means that the 30 Days Goth Challenge is now finished! It was very fun to do, so I hope it was also fun to read for you all. ^__^

I also have a few posts in mind already for the next upcoming days, about Pirate lolita, about some beautiful new stuff I got, and about the Filthy Victorians 2012 challenge. I decided to wait untill I finished this challenge before I would post them, because else it would be a bit too much at once. ^^

And if you are wondering why I didn't do any outfit snapshots recently... Well I was still waiting for my knee to heal and in the meanwhile I was only wearing long skirts, the same ones over and over again becasue I simply don't have much of them. So those outfits were way too boring to post here.
But tomorrow or Saturday I will try if I can wear tights again (and thus lolita) to see if it doesn't hurt my knee too much. ^_^

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 29

2011-09-07T00:27:00.000-07:00

Day 29 – What do you think will happen to Goth in the future?

First of all, I think that Goth will never die out.

I think the style will evolve and that new substyles will arise, just like cybergoth and gothic lolita did several years back for example. But I also think that there will still be people who love the older styles, like deathrock. So no substyle will completely die out.

Besides that, I also think that the popularity of Goth will rise and decline like a wave, the same as it always did. For example, some years ago some metal band called Within Temptation became popular in the Netherlands. The female vocalist wore big dresses, and was portrayed as 'Goth' by the media. Because of this, there was some sort of hype around goth and you could definately see new people became interested in the substyle.
Some of them learned what real goth music is and sticked around, while the majority of people (usually teenagers) went away after some time to follow the next big trend (like emo for example).

And I think it will always be like that. That every now and then, because of the media the interest in goth will arise and decline again. And arise again and decline again.

And then ofcourse with the internet goth clothes and music is more widely availible and when a certain substyle evolves in a certain country, other countries will follow much quicker than the past, spreading the new style in a fast rate.

And I think that goth will never become mainstream. Even though it is quite recognized nowadays by 'normal' people, it just isn't a style for everyone. I have had nice conversations with several people who said to me that they wouldn't dress goth because it is too dark, too weird, that they don't like the music or the platform boots, etc etc. It is a style for a specific taste, and therefore a specific group of people. So I do think that goth will become somewhat accepted by mainstream people, but I also think that because we will still stay a minority, there will also still be negativity around goth, like being called names (or worse...). I'm afraid that such things will never completely go away. Which is very sad ofcourse.

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 28

2011-09-06T00:40:00.000-07:00

Day 28 – Do you consider yourself an eldergoth?

No, I do not consider myself an eldergoth. I am not a newbie either.. I just consider myself something like an 'older goth', not because I am that old, but because I am into the scene for 10~11 years now. :p

But for me, an eldergoth is someone who really knows a LOT about the music. About the bands (and knows a very long list of bands), but also who knows the small differences between certain substyles (ebm, synthpop, noise, aggrotech, industrial, etc etc) and who is very active in the scene itself and probably also well known by others.

Now I do know quite a lot about the music and such, but I do not know the minor details. When I hear a song I can definately tell whenever it is a cybergoth song or a more deathrock song, but I can't really tell if it is more deathrock or glamrock or horrorpunk or whatever label you can put on it.

And I am just not that active in the scene itself. I barely go to parties, most of all because of my fibromyalgia (I don't have a car and if I do go to a party but get a lot of pain within a few hours, the public transport system is down, so I need to wait untill the next morning before I can take a train back home - so I am afraid of that and therefore I don't party anymore T__T), and I don't really go to big concerts or festivals either. (also because it is too crowded for me, and honestly I prefer the afterparties instead of the concerts itself, because it has more variation of music and most bands sound a lot worse when they are playing live.)

So that makes me not an eldergoth in my opninion.

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 27

2011-09-05T02:07:00.000-07:00

Day 27 – The worst thing you ever did to a newbie.

Actually I am quite nice to newbies. As long as newbies are open minded and willing to learn, I have no reason to be unfriendly to them. And I must say I like newbies. Because after all, they are fresh meat in the subculture. And without fresh meat, the subculture will die out.

And after all every newbie makes mistakes. We all had to start somewhere, right? So like I said, if a newbie is willing to learn, I have no problems with them.

But... if there is a newbie who keeps insisting that [insert some black metal band] is "tr00 g0th" (especially when they type that way), or that a velvety miniskirt which barely covers your butt is real lolita, and they keep insisting (especially when done in a rude way) that you are wrong if you try to correct them in a friendly way, I give up. And I ignore them. So ignoring annoying/rude newbies is the worst thing I have ever did to a newbie.

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 26

2011-09-04T00:32:00.000-07:00

Getting closer to the end...

Day 26 – Show a photo for every year (or month if you're new) that you've being into Goth.

Sadly I don't have any pictures of my earliest days/years of being goth, because I didn't have a camera back then. (from 2001~2004) But I am going to post more than one picture each year since I wear different styles and all have changed throughout time.
The years may not be totally correct since I can't remember it very well...

This picture is around 2004/2005 (which I already posted at Day 2, the baby bat pictures post):

Then from 2006 (with selfmade dreadfalls):

Then I got into cybergoth, with my first pair of cyberlox falls: (also around 2006 I believe):

Then in 2007, I got a pair of blue cyberlox:

And at 2008:

Together with one of my bjds:

And I got into wearing aristocrat, because I was still too unsure of wearing lolita: (this was my first try)

2009 was a year of changes. I got tired of cybergothic, did a Japanese inspired cybergoth outfit once (totally selfmade), got my first lolita outfit (though the picture shows my second one), did some deathrock in between...

And then 2010, I got more serious into lolita:

(Me at the Elf Fantasy Fair -Dutch Fantasy event- with a selfmade dress)

And last but not least, 2011, the year where I definately wore more lolita and also tried mixing styles and experimenting, and started wearing wigs: (but still wear 'normal' lolita too ofcourse)

And I got more serious into gyaru as well (though I am still trying to find which style suits me most and soon I'm going to try tutuHa style):

So I hope you liked my trip down memory lane! Some of the pictures are already posted earlier, like on the baby bat days and on the 30 days lolita challenge.
But this is the most complete timeline I have done so far. :p

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 25

2011-09-03T02:04:00.000-07:00

Day 25 – Did you ever consider leaving the subculture?

Yes, I did.
About 2 or 3 times in the past 5 years I wasn't happy with my style anymore. The style of clothes I wore wasn't inspiring me, I felt unhappy wearing it, or uncomfortable and 'not me', and I was just suffering from one of my depressions. (severe depressions and unsure of my personal style of clothing -and identity in general- seem to go hand by hand)

So yeah, then I was considering to give it all up. But for what? There wasn't an alternative. There was no other style of clothes which I found more suitable at that time. And I certainly don't feel happy or comfortable in 'normal' clothes.

Except for one time. One time when I had discovered gyaru, I was so in love with the style and became a little obsessed by it, by browsing webshops, websites, blogs and the like all to get inspiration for gyaru. I was thinking if I should leave the goth/lolita style for gyaru.
But a bit later I realised that full time gyaru isn't for me. I like gyaru very much, but use it mostly as an inspiration for my other styles (for example gyaru make-up really works in other styles like lolita and goth too!), and just prefer to dress gyaru occasionally.

So even though I considered leaving the subculture, I never did any real attempts of doing so. And now I think that it is not even possible for me to leave the subculture. Even if I would ditch the goth from my wardrobe, I am still in love with goth music (and listen to it every single day) and drawn to alternative styles of clothing. And big platform boots. And lots of eyeliner. You can't get that out of me. ^_^

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 24

2011-09-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

Day 24 – Name the best websites for Goths.

Well, here it goes...

For gothic lolitas:
- Closet Child (second hand store)
- Alice and the Pirates
- Moi Meme Moitie
(somehow the Moitie link isn't working for me right now, so I don't know if that's just a temporary error, or that they have closed/removed the whole shop...)
- Hello Lace (for lolita eye candy and reference ^__^ I love browsing this website and looking at the pretty dresses that are still on my wishlist.)

For cyberlox and other fake hair materials:
- I kick shins (USA)
- CyberloxShop (UK)

Online radio stations:
- Real Industrial Radio
- Radio Ghoul School

I really like listening to online radios; it is a great way to discover bands you didn't know yet. ^__^

This is my list. ^_^ But since I am wearing lolita mostly, I spend most of my time on lolita communities and lolita websites and such. And other non-goth websites such as neopets.com, facebook, poupee girl... :p

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 23

2011-09-01T01:24:00.000-07:00

Day 23 – Your favourite artist or photographer.

This is an easy one. My favourite photographer/artist is Viona-Art. Her photographs are so beautiful, mythical, and the outfits are also gorgeous! Her pictures are often breathtaking.

Here is an example: (click for a larger image)

And this is her website: http://www.viona-art.com

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 22

2011-08-31T00:48:00.001-07:00

Day 22 – If you could attend any Goth event what would it be?

There are 4 events that I'd like to attend some day.

1. Wave Gothic Treffen (Germany)
For years I have been looking at pictures of this festival, looking at the beautiful people in their beautiful outfits pass by. I'd love to go some day as well, but I have my dog which can not stay so long alone, and she doesn't like strangers so I can't let other people doggy-sit her while I am gone. :/ So no Wave Gothic Treffen for me anytime soon. Oh well, I am still very nervous of going out of the country myself anyways.

2. Drop Dead Festival (changes location every year)
I've heard all different kind of positive stories about this one. Nice music, nice people, deathawks all around... <3
But again, same as WGT, I have my dog. :/ So unless the event will be hold in the Netherlands some day, I don't think I can attend this one.

But now the two events which I cán attend and some day I will:

3. Bal Du Masque (the Netherlands)
Bal Du Masque is a masked ball with a strickt dress code. I know this party for a few years already, but somehow I could never attend. First because I was still living at my parents and they considered me too young to go partying all night long all by myself (I don't have a train-travel buddy) and then later because I always forget to check when the next Bal is going to be - so I keep missing it every time. -_-
But now after last Summer Darkness (another Dutch goth festival), I saw party pictures of people and that Bal Du Masque was integrated to the Summer Darkness festival, so now I have set a reminder to myself that I really need to check out the next SD for Bal Du Masque. And then I definately need to go there!

4. Vampire Ball (the Netherlands)
There are different Vampire Ball events around the world, and recently I jointed a facebook page which is all about organising one in the Netherlands as well! (In Amsterdam, which isn't that far from my city ^_^)
So yeah, I really want to go there too! And I can't wait. There is no clear date set, but it will be somewhere in Summer 2012. So I am quite excited for this one too. ^__^

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 21

2011-08-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

Day 21 – What body mod do you have or have you considered?

For piercings, I have always liked the snakebite very much. However, my body doesn't respond well to piercings and such. My body doesn't heal scars very well. I end up with hypertrophic scars, which means the scar tissue is red, swollen and very ichy. The only way to stop the growing, redness and ichiness is to inject cortisone into it, which is a quite painfull thing to do. Then the redness will go away and the scar tissue will be a bit less swollen, but the scar tissue is still visible. So that is not pretty.

Now with piercings you only make small holes in your body, so you'd think it would be fine. At least that is what I'd think too. But I when I got my ears pierced, my body had a lot of trouble with healing. My earlobes stayed red and swollen and became ichy and painfull for a very long time, but there wasn't a visible infection or something. So I don't know for sure if it has something to do with the hypertrophic scars, but I assume it does.
Nowaways (about 5 years later) I still have ichy and earlobes every now and then and after a day wearing earrings, I have to take them out because they get painful.

So that's why I decided to not pierce anything in my body again.
And my earrings are my only body mods so far.

And I don't know for sure if tattoos are considered body modification as well, but I really love spinal tattoos. I have been thinking about getting one quite often too, but then I am afraid that because I change my mind quite often on certain things, it wouldn't be wise to get a tattoo.

Here is a picture of the gothic bellydancer Sashi which I really admire, she dances really beautiful (I do a bit of bellydance myself too and I hope to be able to dance like her some day) and she is also very pretty herself, ánd she has a beautiful spinal tattoo:

Picture taken from her myspace

And her tattoo continues to the front like this:

Picture taken from her myspace

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 20 + Abunaicon gyaru fashion show video

2011-08-29T05:05:00.000-07:00

Day 20 – If you could dye your hair any colour what would it be?

This is a hard question. Not long ago, I really wanted to try pink hair and bought a pink wig. I liked how the wig looked on me, but it is not something I would wear often. Pink looks cute, but it is not the style for me.

I also like white hair on other people very much, but I have no idea how that would look on me, if it suits my skintone and face and such. So buying a white wig is still on my wishlist.

And then blonde... I always wondered how I would look if I were blonde. So now I have 2 blonde wigs, both with black streaks, one with a hime bouffant and the other just a casual curly one. And I really like how blonde looks on me.

So if I could dye my hair any colour, I might go for blonde; either normal blonde like my wigs or platinum blonde, which I like very much as well. But I would never dye my hair blonde in real life. The bleaching is not very good for your hair and I really love my long hair so I don't want to risk ruining it.

So I am really glad that wigs exist! ^__^

---

And here is a video of the gyaru fashion show at Abunaicon last Saturday (thanks to Sascha for filming it!):

So I am the first person coming up on stage in my hostess outfit, and then around 6:13 I am there again, with the blonde wig in a rock outfit. ^__^

I hope you like it!

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 18 + 19

2011-08-28T03:13:00.000-07:00

Because yesterday I was too busy to post the challenge, I do both challenges today:

Day 18 – Worst hair experience.

I don't really have a worst hair experience. Many people like to change their hair cut and colour often, but not me. When I was a little kid, I always had straight hair and a fringe. When I got a bit older, I decided to grow out the fringe and dye the tips red. (which wasn't that noticable because the red isn't that visible against brown hair) A bit later I died my hair black for several years and after that I decided to cut a fringe again and grow out the black. So now I have my normal brown hair colour and a fringe again. Just like when I was a little kid. XD And I always had long hair, I never cut it short or anything. So as you can see, my hair history is quite boring and didn't really have any radical changes... And nothing went really bad as well. So no hair disaster stories! ^__^

Day 19 – Share beauty advise and take a photo of your make up.

My beauty advice is: Try to stay healthy as possible (get enough sleep, no smoking, don't drink too much, eat heathly with a lot of vegetables) and ALWAYS take off your make-up and clean your face before you go to bed. Even though you are dead tired, just came home from partying or anything, just take off the make-up before you go to bed.

And then I have a rather odd one, which I use not that often because I don't think it is very healthy for your skin... ^_^;;
When I go to a special occasion (event, fashion show, meet-up and such) and I wear full on make-up with foundation, concealer, lots of eyeliner and eyeshadow and such, I always spray a small layer of hairspray on top of the make-up to 'seal' the make-up. This way it stays on really well for the whole day, even when it rains! But I don't do it that often because when you spray hairspray on your face, your skin can't breathe well. So I don't do it very often and when I do it, I make sure I carefully clean everything at the end of the day and then the day after I wear no make-up at all to give my skin a break.

So yesterday I did the hairspray routine again and now I am having a day off. So for this challenge today I can't take a picture of my make-up because I am not wearing anything. ^_~
I really wish I had a picture of yesterday's make-up to show you, but sadly I don't.. -__-

So instead I'll post a picture from June 23's meet-up:

This is my gyaru (inspired) make-up which I often do when I go to meet-ups and such. ^__^ I wear this kind of make-up with gyaru, lolita, goth... just anything! I really like gyaru make-up. But, I am still quite new to gyaru make-up so I am still improving. And for gyaru make-up I always prefer the bolder, darker eye make-up found in ageha to the more natural looks. Guess that's because of my goth side. :p Everytime I want to try a more natural look with just a little eyeliner, I always add more and more layers of eyeliner because when I do a small line, I don't think it suits my eyes. With more dark around the eyes, your eyes pop out more in my opinion. ^_^

Abunaicon

2011-08-28T02:04:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I went to an anime/manga convension in the Netherlands called Abunaicon. Normally I would never attend such con because I am simply not interested in manga/anime. I don't hate anime, I kinda like the style of drawing (it looks really cute, those big eyes), but it is just not my thing. But the reason why I went to Abunaicon is because HYPER was helding a gyaru lecture and fashion show!

The lecture was done by Rox and Charlotte, who gave an introduction about gyaru and all the different substyles. It was really interesting with a lot of information!

And later that day, the fashion show! :D I wore two different outfits; a hostess one and a rock outfit. So that means I had to swap outfits (and wigs) in a few minutes! So it was really hurrying and it was all chaos backstage! XD

At first I was really really nervous. Especially since I was walking on really high heels (which I hadn't walked in for a long, long time). But all went well. ^__^ And the fashionshow itself was really fantastic! I don't know how it looked for the crowd, but from stage and the side of the stage, it looked really nice. ^_^ and it was a lot of fun to do as well!

Outside the fashion show, I wore a gothic lolita outfit, with my self-made bat corset skirt. However, because I had to get up really early in the morning to get myself ready and travel to Abunaicon (it took a little over 3 hours to get there O_o), I had to leave home before the sun was up. So I tried to make a quick outfit snapshot just before I left... And I ended up with a totally black picture. XD Fail me. And I forgot to take pictures later that day. Which I really regret because I was really really proud of my make-up that day! Oh well...

I don't know if other people have made clear pictures from my outfits that day, but I do have one picture of me in my hostess dress and wig a few days before the con:

But no gyaru make-up on this picture though... I was really happy that I finally had a day to wear this dress! I really love the dress and I own it for over a year now, but I never had the chance to wear it sadly. I got it from Japan, from a store which sells all kinds of hostess dresses. (I saw the add from the Ageha magazine for this shop) It is really a beautiful dress, don't you think? ^__^

But there was one sad thing that day. In the morning, when I was traveling to the Abunaicon, there was a train station where Roxanne would jump in the same train as I. So I got out of the train to search for her, and I really ran down the train platform... And I fell on the ground! D: I really fell flat on the floor, with my trolley included. Luckily I didn't break something, but I did got a nasty wound on my knee which hurted all day. And when I was changing my outfit for the fashion show, I went from my hostess dress into my skinny jeans with ripped holes in it, so it ripped off the plaster and even made the wound a bit more bigger and bloodier. -_-
So now my knee still hurts a lot and when I walk, I really look like a crippled old lady. -__-

And I will continue the 30 days goth challenge posts later this day. ^_^

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 17

2011-08-25T23:32:00.000-07:00

Day 17 – Your favourite Goth brand.

Outside (gothic) lolita, I don't really have a favourite goth brand. Within lolita, my favourite goth brand is Alice and the Pirates. Now it isn't realy considered a true goth brand like Moi Meme Moitie and Atelier Boz, because it also stocks sweeter items.

However, there are some very gothy pieces from Alice and the Pirates:

Queen's Coach OnePiece in black

Vampire Requiem Jumperskirt in red

St. Mephisto Cathedrale Jumperskirt in black

But they also have some dresses with prints that may not be considered gothic in the first place, but I think some can look very gothic when co-ordinated well, for example with a very gothic blouse, gothic jewelery, heavy eyeliner and goth boots/heels.

One of them is the Scent of Rapunzel which I got from ClosetChild recently, and I really think I can make it work in a goth coord.

Scent of Rapunzel Jumperskirt in black

And they also have all black dresses which are very gothic as well ofcourse. ^_^

And sorry, no outfit snapshot for today! It is just moments away from heavy rainfall, so all dark clouds have gathered and it looks more like 10:00 PM instead of 8:45 AM... So I couldn't make a decent picture of my outfit, it was way to dark. :/

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 16 + Lolita Outfit Snapshot

2011-08-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

Day 16 – What's the most casual you've ever dressed?

I don't have any pictures of it, but when I dress most casual, I wear my black skinny jeans with a black girly T-shirt (which might be a Joy Divison shirt or a very cute giraffe or hello kitty), combined with my black rocking horse boots, my leather jacket and no make-up. And when it is sunny I wear my big black sunglasses (to hide my make-upless-ness. I guess that isn't an official word right? :p)

----

And today I decided to wear my Powder Rose dress again. ^_^

Outfit Rundown:
Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Jumperskirt: Angelic Pretty
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Hairclip: Offbrand (local store)
Shoes: Montreal
Necklace: Chocomint

Sorry if I bore you with the same outfits over and over again, but I don't have enough variation in dresses yet. XD However, I have an Atelier Pierrot corset skirt in black, 2 Alice and the Pirates blouses in black and the black Jumperskirt of AatP Scent of Rapunzel coming my way. <3 So more variation soon! :D

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 15 + Lolita Outfit Snapshot

2011-08-24T01:01:00.000-07:00

Day 15 – Your favourite or most expensive item in your wardrobe.

I can't decide! XD So instead I'll show a few of my favourites.

First of all, my leather jacket!

back view of the jacket

I love deathrock leather jackets in general because they are a really creative piece of art which also shows what kind of music you love. And I really love mine because it is very comfortable and I also like to show the world what kind of music I listen to. :p However, I still find my jacket a bit plain so I really want to add more patches and also paint some bats around the bottom line or something.
I really wear my jacket very much, almost with everything. =D

Then, another coat.

This coat is from Fan Plus Friend, custom made size (because I love longer sleeves <3). I really really love it because it is so thick! I only have one other coat, from Metamorphose, but it isn't that thick for the strong winters. And I always feel cold, so this coat is perfect for me! It really keeps me warm. And also: everytime I wear it, with lolita, gyaru or just with my black skinny jeans, I feel pretty. ^_^

Then, a dress:

My Angelic Pretty Powder Rose jumperskirt in black! It was never one of my dreamdresses, but suddenly I saw it at the website of Mfashion.eu and I really liked it. So I went to their store, tried it on and it is such a beautiful dress. I thought it was a cotton dress like most AP dresses, but IRL I saw that it had a chiffon layer on top. The dress itself is very comfortable and pretty, and can be washed in the washing machine without a problem! :D
So even though it wasn't a dreamdress to start with, it ended up being my favourite dress to wear.

And last but not least, another favourite dress which is also my most expensive one:

My black Cherry Berry Bunny jumperskirt from Angelic Pretty. When I first saw it I fell in love because of the ubercute bunny rabbits at the bottom! :D I really love pink rabbits. ^^
So because the dress was sold out from the Angelic Pretty website, I had to search elsewhere. And I saw the dress at Starry Candy Box. I paid 254.51 euro for that dress including shipping, and then I got hit by customs... and had to pay another 120 euro on top of that. So at the end I paid around 375 euro for the dress. T__T
But it was worth it. Because the dress is really cute and the print is also safe to wash and even in the biggest rainfalls it doesn't bleed! =D (You can learn from that, Baby the Stars Shine Bright! *shakes fist*)
The only downside is that because I am a bit taller, the waistline of the dress is above my own which looks a bit off. :/

---

And then the outfit snapshot for today:

I wanted to go for a bit more classic look. Sadly my classic-looking bodyline boots are too worn out (after about 6~8 months of wearing :S) so I wore these shoes, but I think the outfit would look better with a nice pair of classic heels.

Anyways, the outfit rundown:
Jumperskirt: Handmade by me
Cardigan: Metamorphose Temps de Fille
Hairband: Metamorphose Temps de Fille
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 14 + Lolita Outfit Snapshot + Thank you

2011-08-23T00:41:00.000-07:00

Day 14 – What was your best and worst DIY disaster.

My best DIY projects are some of my sewing projects. The one I am most proud of is my Bat Corset Skirt which I made ealier this year:

(I actually wanted to crimp + tease my hair again today for a deathrock outfit, but with terrible rains expected today, I decided to skip it and do it later this week. So hopefully I can post a new deathrock lolita outfit snapshot soon!)

It isn't perfect (many of my projects are still not perfect) because I am still not that advanced in sewing. I never took any sewing lessons, so I am self-taught mostly by trial and error. But I am really proud of the skirt!

And my worst DIY... I haven't really have any disasters where I set my house on fire or made a big mess or something like that. But my DIY gone bad is a blue corset skirt... The skirt itself looks quite nice, but it just looks aweful on my when I am wearing it! Somehow either the cut doesn't flatter me, or I messed up something else. But I look really frumpy when I wear it. So note to self: make a new one (with a different cut) because the colour is gorgeous.

And another DIY gone bad are my last batch for patches around March. The paint wasn't good anymore so the whole thing turned out to be really bad. So I threw them all away.
But I am still working on new patches, I started cutting out my stencils recently. But because I also started a new sewing project (a jumperskirt in bright red, with a black lace overlay at the bodice, some ruffles at the hem (with 1 of black lace fabric too) and then a bustle at the back), so I am not making much progress on the patches. :p

---

Then an outfit snapshot for today:

Sorry for the bad quality here. The weather outside is really bad (all grey and cloudy, today it will be raining a lot with thunder and lightning and such) so i didn't really have good light for the picture. :/

And as you can see I am wearing heels again. I haven't worn these for over a year so I am now trying to see if I will be able to walk in them again with my fibromyalgia. So starting with small distances today.

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Anna House
Jumperskirt: HMHM
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Hairclip: Local offbrand store
(invisible) necklace: Ebay (offbrand)
Boots: Pleaser

---

And I also saw that I have 101 followers today! ^_____^

Thank you very, very much for everyone who decided to follow my blog! I am really happy and I feel honoured as well! So thank you so much!

Lolita outfit snapshot - Oldschool kuro

2011-08-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to wear an oldschool kuro lolita outfit.

Blouse: Fan Plus Friend
Jumperskirt: Handmade by me
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal
Rectangle headdress (gotta love 'em! At least I do. ^_^): Handmade by me.

I had a hard time picking a good outfit for today because the weather is weird. One moment it is very warm and sunny and at a second moment it is clouded and a bit windy. And overall it is just very humid. :/ But tomorrow it is going to rain and have thunder and lightning and such, so I really don't have an idea what I'll be wearing then. T__T I do want to wear lolita because I promised myself to wear lolita more often now. Oh well, I'll decide for that tomorrow and you'll see my next outfit snapshot to know what I have decided. :p

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 13

2011-08-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

Day 13 – What was your first band t-shirt?

Before being goth, my first band t-shirt was a t-shirt from the Spice Girls. :p

But my first goth band t-shirt was from Bauhaus, the Sky Has Gone Out. I was at a Dutch Fantasy fair called the Elf Fantasy Fair, and there was a stand with different band t-shirts. Mostly metal stuff. So I didn't gave it much chance, but I looked anyways if I could find a nice goth band t-shirt. And so I did. And I was really happy and I bought it, even though it was size M (and I was a size XS at the same).

A few years after that, I entered a goth shop in a nearby city. The shop usually had velverty dresses and metal band t-shirts. And when I walked in, the shop owner said to me that he had a goth band t-shirt! He didn't know the band but he heard that goths liked the band very much. So skeptical as I was, I looked through the racks and I found... Bauhaus - Bela Lugosi's Dead! ^__^ Even though that was a size L, I bought it. (At that time I also liked big wide shirts combined with wide legged pants... -_-)

And a few years back I ordered a Joy Division girly from Love Will Tear Us Apart (one of my favourite Joy Division songs and definately my favourite picture) and I made a DIY t-shirt (black girly again) where I painted the name Joy Division at the front of the chest.

And that are all the band t-shirts I own. I am usually not really a band t-shirt person, because I don't really like to wear t-shirts. I prefer to wear dresses and such. ^^
Though I still want an Alien Sex Fiend t-shirt some day.

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 12

2011-08-21T03:16:00.000-07:00

Day 12 – What's your gothic inspiration?

I don't really have a certain person who inspires me. Generally speaking, I am inspired by different pictures I see, different outfit combinations, or beautiful artwork which gives off a certain vibe/emotion which inspires me.

So it sometimes happens that I see a picture of a person wearing an outfit which really inspires me, while the person itself or their other outfits don't inspire me at all.

These days, Tumblr is my biggest inspiration. I see a lot of beautiful pictures passing by and some really inspire me for a certain thing. Like dolly kei pictures may inspire me for certain types of jewelry, while I don't want to dress dolly kei in any way.

However, for gothic inspiration there is one person which always has beautiful outfits, hairstyles and make-up... And even though it is not the way I dress, somehow she still inspires me and I just love her style. Because there is a lot of creativity in her outfits and pictures and she just does her own thing.
And this person is RazorCandi:

Picture from RazorCandi-Art @ LJ

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 11

2011-08-20T01:36:00.000-07:00

Day 11 – Is Goth a lifestyle for you?

Yes.

I'm a goth for about 11~12 years now. And because I was around the age of 11 when I got into the whole goth scene, I grew up with it. And during puberty your identity is set and stuff like that, so goth is just a big part of my life and myself.

Almost every day I dress goth. On the very rare days I don't, I still have some goth elements in my outfits: goth shoes, my leather jacket, ankh or bat necklace..

And my online nickname VelvetBat is more than just a online alias for me. It is my real name, just as real for me as my parent gave me. (Though it isn't my legal name - I have been thinking of changing my legal name into Velvet or VelvetBat, but I think that is just too expensive and I can still ask my friends to keep calling me Velvet instead of my real name if I really want to go on as Velvet.)

Other than that, there isn't a day that I don't listen to goth music, my living room looks very gothic (black x blue, with decorative swords and dragon statues), some other rooms have gothic decor touches as well, I feel more comfortable in the company of goths and other alternative people instead of 'normal' people, I always go to the Summer Darkness (biggest goth festival in the Netherlands)...

So yeah, goth is really a lifestyle for me. It is just part of who I am. ^_^

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 10 + Lolita outfit snapshot

2011-08-19T05:36:00.000-07:00

Wh00t, 33% finsihed of this challenge already! ^__^

Day 10 – What do you hate and love about the subculture?

First, let's start with the things I love. I really really love the clothes! There are so many beautiful clothes in gothic (in all kinds of goth, from deathrock to cybergoth to victorian to lolita and anything in between), I really like to wear them and watch other people wear beautiful clothes.
And I really love the creativity in all the outfits of everyone. For me, gothic is a beautiful style of clothes where I can put all my creativity in it, and I also love to see other people outfit combination creativity and also the clothes that some other people sew, or the DIY projects, like leather jackets. There is really so much creativity found within the gothic subculture!

And another big love for me is the music. I really love goth music. My favourites ganres are deathrock and new wave, but I also like other kinds like aggrotech and ebm. Listing to the music makes me happy, comforts me when I am sad, and offers a way to express my happiness when I want to dance on it! :D
(and dancing on aggrotech/cyber/industrial music is a really good way to stay in shape and burn those calories. ^_~)

And in general I just love the dark and myserious aesthetic and also the futuristic look of cybergoth... and the big stompy boots! :D

Oh, and another thing I love: Usually the people in the goth scene are realyl friendly. I have been to cybergoth parties a couple of times and I have never been harrassed there and I had a wonderful time, talking to really nice stangers and such. ^_^

But then the things I hate...
Sometimes I encounter people (online and offline) which have a better-than-you or a gother-than-thou attitude. Because they own more cyberdog clothes or they can list more deathrocks bands and stuff like that. And honestly, I don't care if you have more cyberdog clothes or know more bands than I do. It doesn't make you more goth and it doesn't make me less goth. I don't want all my cybergoth stuff be from the brand cyberdog; I really enjoy sewing my own. And I don't care if I can't list 100+ goth bands. There are quite some bands I enjoy and listen to it every day, and that is what makes me happy.
And it doesn't make me less goth either if I want to wear a pink dress covered with bows and cakes on it when I feel like it.

Other than that, I hate the negative reactions from strangers. Because I enjoy a certain type of fashion which is different than yours, you should call me names? I just can't understand why.

A third thing I hate is that many clothes in the subculture (not limited to lolita fashion) are expensive yet aren't very good quality. Seams that fall apart only after 1 or 2 times wearing, heels/soles that break off within a month, expensive dress which cheap quality fabrics and plain design, plastic boning that poke through the edges after 1 time of wearing, clothes that can't be worn in the rain because the print will bleed/run badly...
It really annoys me and that is one of the reasons why I started to make my own clothes. Because if I buy sometimes, I want it to last for a while so I can actually wear it often.

---

Other than that, just an outfit snapshot of today:

Blouse: Anna House
Skirt: R-series
Tights: Primark
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal
Hair accessory: H&M
(invisible) necklace: Offbrand

I am slowly starting to walk in these shoes again. Because of the fibromyalgia I haven't worn them for about a year, but I really miss wearing them. So I am slowly training my body to be able to walk on them again, starting with short distances. Because I really like these boots and they are perfect for a more gothic look. ^_^

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 9

2011-08-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

Day 9 – What genre of music do you dislike?

There are a few genres which I really don't like. Those are:

Dutch music doesn't really is a genre of its own I think, but it is just songs in Dutch. Somehow I just can't stand it. I know 2 Dutch songs which I kinda like (Klein Orkest - Over de Muur (from 1984) and Boudewijn de Groot - Als de rook om je hoofd is verdwenen (from 1968)), but I really, really, really dislike all other bands and stuff.

Metal music. I know a lot of goth people also listen to metal, but I really don't like it. The gruning, the way their guitars sound, the drums... I tried listening to it, but I just don't like it. (with the exception of 1 or 2 songs which are okay-ish for me)

And then I don't like jazz, soul, R&B and rap. But I must admit that I haven't listening much to it either. So I don't really know much about it.

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 8

2011-08-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Day 8 – What's your worst and best experience with non-Goths?

Luckily I haven't had really bad experiences with non-goths. The worst experiences I can recall are being shouted at. Things like "You're fucking ugly!", "[censorbadword]goth!", and once when I was wearing a PVC outfit I had someone who yelled at me "how much do you cost?".

So I am happy that these are the worst things, and that I have not been beaten up or anything like that.
But the sad thing is that I keep hearing these things over and over again. These days it is not that bad anymore. Maybe because I am not that much outside anymore, or it is because I am a bit older now? I don't know. But when I was in highschool, I kept hearing these things every single day. Multiple times a day. From people at my school and people outside. Mostly teens, in a group. When they are alone, they don't say a thing.
So now I only get yelled at when I wear something elaborate. Or sweet lolita, then I am also being yelled at, but different things than when I am wearing goth. In sweet lolita I get things about looking stupid and such.

My best experiences are when people say that I look beautiful, that I brightened up their day, that they admire my courage to look different and that I must keep doing it no matter what other people day. And often people want to take a picture of me when I am dressed in lolita or cyber. ^_^

The funny thing is that while last 1~2 years the bad reactions are getting less frequent, the positive comments really increase. And the positive comments are usually from people of (30~60) or eldery people.

And when I am wearing my leather jacket with patches, I sometimes get reactions of people too, saying that they used to like that kind of music too when they were younger. And some are still listening to it. Oddly enough, these kind of responses usually come from men.
And sometimes a good conversation comes out of it. Because some of them have really seen those bands in real life. And sadly I haven't (yet).

Oh, and one more funny thing:
I also had a couple of times a guy asking me to marry them. And one man (a foreigner) was really serious about that. And ofcourse I decline all marriage proposals. :p

Finished wig and about a meet-up

2011-08-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I finished my casual blonde wig with black streaks. I really liked how blonde hair looks on my after I finished my first blonde wig with the hime bouffant. But I don't always want to wear a bouffant, so I decided to make a more casual wig.

Dress and headdress: Made by me
Blouse: Anna House
Socks: Fan Plus Friend
Shoes: Montreal

the back of the wig

I really like the wig! I'll probably wear it a lot more often. ^_^

And today there was a lolita meet-up planned with 'oldschool lolita' as a theme. Now I really LOVE oldschool lolita (especially oldschool dresses and rectangle headdresses <3) so I really wanted to attend.
However, tomorrow I already have a gyaru meet-up planned, upcoming Saturday I will go shopping with my best friend in Amsterdam, and last Monday I had a very important appointment with a doctor and I was really really nervous about it. So to be short: one really stressfull and busy week for me.
Now the lolita meet-up was originally going to be a picknick in Amsterdam, but due changes of plans it was decided to move the location to Utrecht (= more in the center of the country, so more people could attend) and instead of a picknick we would be going to a cafe. And the group was also bigger than I first expected. Now all those things (different location, longer train travel, more people, inside a cafe) are things that add stress to me. So that, combined with the stressfull week, made me to not attend the meet-up.

I feel really sad because I was looking forward to it, and it would be nice to see the friendly lolitas again and such. But meet-ups in general are already stressfull for me, so let alone all these extra factors. At the end it was a wise decision to cancel, even though it was not what I wanted. :/ I really wanted to attend...

Luckily I will see some (many/a lot?) of the girls at an upcoming anime convention at the end of the month. Hopefully I will be able to talk to them then. ^_^

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 7

2011-08-15T23:44:00.000-07:00

Day 7 – Ten of your favourite goth bands.

As for my favourite goth bands, I always have a couple of bands which are on my top 10 for ages, and then I usually have a few which change after a while.

My top 10:
1. Joy Division
2. Alien Sex Fiend
3. Gary Numan
4. Bauhaus
5. Xmal Deutchland
6. Jacquy Bitch
7. Specimen
8. Cinema Strange
9. Sopor Aeternus and the Ensemble of Shadows
10. Sex Gang Children
11. Welle Erdball

Sorry, I just had to put number 11 there. :p
As you can see (apart from number 11) there are no cyber/industrial bands. I still like to listen to that occasionally, but I don't have any favourites there at this moment.
If I'd make a top 20, I think 1 or 2 more cyber/industrial bands would be added. And I'd also add The Cure, Sisters of Mercy and Siouxsie and the Banshees. But in the past years I have listened so many times to them that I don't really like them. XD So I just take a break from listening to them for a while and then I'll probably like them again.

But yeah, Joy Division is definately my favourite. I have their best of CD stuck in my cd player and I listen to it almost every day. It is also great music to listen to while you're washing dishes. It makes the time (and dishes) go really fast! :D

And I love to sing along with my favourite music too. ^__^ (though I don't believe I am a very good singer, but I just keep practicing. ^_^)

By the way, soon I'll try again to make some patches for my leather jacket. I printed out some stencils earlier this week and hopefully with different paint it'll work out.
(stencils I printed out are: Gary Numan, Cinema Strange, Xmal Deutschland, Sopor Aeternus, Specimen and Alien Sex Fiend)

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 6

2011-08-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Day 6 – Hand write your favourite lyric and take a picture.

And a close-up:

As you can see, my handwriting is quite small.

And the lyrics I wrote down are from Sopor Aeternus and the Ensemble of Shadows - In der Palästra.

However, the song did not fit the whole paper, so I continued on the back.
But it is a beautiful song. So that's why I'll leave the youtube video here too:

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 5

2011-08-14T05:22:00.000-07:00

Day 5 – Is there a local Goth band or group in your area?

I really wouldn't know.
The last 3~4 years I haven't really been looking for new bands. I just keep playing the same music I always do, and sometimes I put on an online radio.
And I am not really active in the Dutch goth scene, so honestly I really don't know.

The only Dutch band I know (out of my head) is Clan of Xymox. :p They make really good music. ^_^

One of my favourite Clan of Xymox songs: Jasmine and Rose

30 Days Goth Challenge: Day 4

2011-08-13T02:05:00.000-07:00

Day 4 – Name a stereotype or cliche you can relate to.

There are 2 gothic stereotypes or cliches that I can relate to:
1. Goths love vampires
2. Goths love bats

My love for vampires and bats started from a young age. (Mind you, I am not telling you that I 'have been a goth since I was born' :p These are just things I started loving as a child and they are just considered to be part of the goth scene as well.)

When I was a little kid, around the age of 6~7 years old, I once saw a tv program about the grey long-eared bat. And I fell in love. The bat was so awesome with the big ears which reminded me of a bunnyrabbit! :D And then at the same year at school we were supposed to be creative and make a bat out of a toiletpaper-roll. And ofcourse I made a long-eared bat (although mine was black and not grey). It was my favourite project in that year and proudly I put the bat in my room and from that moment on I love bats. With the grey long-eared bat still being my favourite.
I still have that crafty-bat somewhere at my parent's home. XD

Grey long-eared bat - I used this picture as an avatar at many different goth forums in my early days/years

And then vampires. My love for vampires also started young. Again when I was a little kid (I guess I was around the same age as the story above, but I don't remember exactly) I watched the tv show "Der kleine Vampir" (The Little Vampire). I watched the show in German (even though I am Dutch) so I didn't understood everything they said, but because I was a little used to German (I have family/relatives living in Süd-Tirol and went on vacation there every year) I understood a good part of it.
From that series on, I was really fascinated with vampires. And in the Netherlands we have a holyday called Carnival (but not celebrated with a parade like many countries and places do - in my place kids just dressed up in costumes) and I dressed up as a vampire once. And I got a very awesome handmade-by-my-mum black cape with red lining and I even worn it at home after the carnival. :p

When I got older, I read the Vampire Chronicles from Anna Rice, watched vampire movies (except Twilight, but I don't think I should watch it from what I've heard XD), and also loved gothic songs about vampires. Especially BlutEngel has some nice vampire songs.

And within a year or something I also want to to have custom vampire fangs made by Sabretooth. I know their fangs for a few years already, but due the fact I had braces in the past, which changed to a metal wire behind my teeth, I was unable to get them. The fangs are made exactly to fit your teeth, but the wire constantly breaks off. So the back of my teeth change a lot because of the wire needs to be reglued every time. So I don't want to spend 100 euro's for a set of fangs which only fit for a couple of months. -_-
But recently they have removed the wire at one of my canine teeth and soon they'll remove the metal from the other one as well. So then I'll be able to get the sabretooth fangs! :D (and ofcourse I also need to save up for them first and hope that Father Sebastiaan attends an event nearby some day)

I really love the vampire aesthetic. Dark, mysterious, sensual, beautiful... And I also think that gothic lolita is a good style to mix with vampire elements as well. ^_^

So yeah, I still love bats and vampires very much. And I love vampires even more than bats to be honest. :p (but VelvetVampire doesn't sound that good. XD)

My pants are now 20% cooler

2011-08-12T07:01:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I bought 2 new pairs of black skinny jeans. One to wear normally, and one to rip!

So today I went ripping my jeans. It was the first time I ripped some jeans, but I am happy with the results. ^_^
Ofcourse after wearing it a couple of times it will fray some more.

(I didn't wear any make-up today, hence the sunglasses :p)

View from above

It is not that visible, but the rips go down till half of my lower leg.

I hope you like them! ^^