Lolita Blog Carnival: Romantic Coordinate Ideas

For Valentine's Day, I decided to base my coordinate ideas around three JSKs containing motifs common to Valentine's Day: flowers, chocolate and candles. Each of the following coordinates are based on three types of romantic outfits: dreamy romantic, elegant romantic and vintage romantic.

First, APs Sugar Pansy is an elegant print that could be paired with lace tights, a flower hair accessory and some pearls to make an elegant coordinate. To cover up bare arms, a shawl or a delicate bolero could be used with a pair of simple Lolita shoes that are in a pastel colour to finish the outfit. The hair would be done in a curly style that is simple and innocent.

 Next, AP's Radiant Candlelight could be used to create a coordinate that could be worn to a nice restaurant even though it would be eye catching. For this, the arms would not be covered and there would be no necklace due to the pearls. Gold/faux gold jewellery would go well with this JSK as well as a pair of flesh coloured/dark tights with a pair of elegant shoes. For the hair, I would choose an elegant updo with a small but classy hairclip if needed.

For the last JSK, Excentrique's Chocolate Box, I would create an outfit based on its vintage feel. First, I would place an off white vintage or vintage inspired blouse under it, then find some vintage accessories including an old fashioned hat that would go well with a bun. For the lower part of the body, I would find some lace tights and choose a pair of Classic Lolita shoes.

Note: All pictures are from Hello Lace and Lolibrary.

 

Lolita Blog Carnival

 

Other Blogs Participating

 

Under the Parasol

New Vogue Children

Pretty Little Habits

Northern Star

Sweet and Simple

Beyond Kawaii

Whimsical Adventures of Me
Breidholt
Lolita Glamour
Daily Fuckery
 Vanillas Traumfabrik
Her Lumpiness
Hello Batty
Lady Atropa




 

 

 

 

 

 

Pink lace + Glitter's 1st Birthday

 

I can't believe it's been a year since Pink lace + Glitter started. First, I am going to talk about how this blog started off and what the themes of the most popular posts are at this time.

I first thought of writing this blog after I watched the film Julie & Julia. I didn't think I would like the film but I did. After watching it, I began to set up Pink lace + Glitter. Originally, I wrote this blog in order to express my thoughts about and my journey into Lolita. Reading the introduction, the only thing that I may not have covered in it is about the struggles I have with being different. That is because I am not ready to talk about that yet. Maybe I never will be. But I did write about Lolita in most of my posts anyway.

Next, I am going to talk about my five most popular posts (according to Google Stats). They are: My Favourite Print Theme in Lolita, Decorating your Lolita Inspired Holiday Party, Angelic Pretty's Candy Fun Fair series, Angelic Pretty's Fancy Paper Dolls and Angelic Pretty's Promenade de Paris. Interesting how all the posts are either Lolita Blog Carnival ones (the first two) or brand print reviews. It could be due to the fact that this blog is only a year old and according to some blog experts, it could take a few years for a blog to get high traffic. Let's see what happens over the next 12 months.

Finally, to celebrate, I found this glittery wedding cake that would be nice to show as a virtual cake for Pink lace + Glitter's first birthday. Even though it is a wedding cake, I think it could be used as a birthday cake.

Above: Glitter wedding cake (Photo credit: Pearl Events)

Starting off

One day, you wake up in a strange room. However, the room for some reason, looks like yours. When you come downstairs, your mother begins talking to you in your second language (In my case, Japanese). You think you can manage it at first, but it seems to be more difficult than you thought it would be. Then she starts speaking about a "Saihorn". You look up what it is then you see a picture of a Rhyhorn. Then you make new friends and they too speak the same language your mother was speaking. Now, you've just received your second badge and each day, you are gradually understanding more and more. In time, you will be able to manage the language barrier with the occasional need to look up a word.

In the previous paragraph, I was talking about a challenge I am taking with Pokémon X (which I recently bought). The challenge for me is to complete the game in Japanese. Even though I do not have the Japanese version (Unfortunately, the Nintendo 3DS does not like using games not from its region), you can choose from a list of languages for your game. From the top of my head, there is English, French and Japanese as well as some other languages.

By the way, for anyone living in a country where the national language is/ blogging/reading blogs in a language that is not your mother tongue, what were your experiences at the beginning in terms of the language barrier? Did you formally learn the language beforehand or did you have no knowledge of the language previously?

Speaking of, this relates to my experience of starting to wear Lolita as I have to learn how to create co-ordinates even though you have seen many of them done by others. Also, as in playing Pokémon in Japanese, you start off with a vocabulary/pieces that you think would be sufficient but they end up being a bit insufficient. For example, For my first Lolita outfit, I did not have a petticoat and everything I was wearing was offbrand/handmade. Also, the cutsew I was wearing was too long, in my opinion (Do clothing manufacturers think that all Australians are tall?).

In the future, things will improve. Now, armed with a petticoat (and a slowly improving knowledge of Japanese) as well as more experience, I feel that the next Lolita co-ord will be better (as well as my ability to be immersed in Japanese).

New Year's Day 2014

Happy New Year everyone!

First, I will reflect on what happened with my Lolita life during 2013. On the beginning of February last year, I started my Lolita blog, Pink lace + Glitter. Next, I created my first Lolita skirt, which formed part of my first outfit, which was posted in Two Lolita Firsts. Finally, I ordered some items from Taobao which arrived after Christmas. It included two shoes, a petticoat, a blouse, a hand bag and Infanta's Creamy Cat JSK with a matching head bow (more on Creamy Cat in a future post).

In 2014, my goals are as follows.

Lose weight

I would have done a post on Creamy Cat/shown a worn photo of it today, but it does not fit me at the moment. Because of this, I need to lose weight in order to wear it. This is the same problem with my pink Bodyline JSK too. Besides those two items, at my current size, I am worried that many Lolita clothes would not fit me well.

Wear Lolita again

After wearing Lolita for the first time, I want to wear Lolita again. Maybe I could try wearing my blue skirt with/without a petticoat in a Casual/Sweet co-ordinate whenever I can (e.g. the weekend). Next time I wear Lolita, I am going to consider wearing one of my brand new An*tai*na shoes. I don't know how many times I am going to wear Lolita this year though.

Build my Lolita wardrobe

Currently, my Lolita wardrobe is becoming substantial, with my handmade skirt and my recent Taobao purchases as the additions for 2013. However, I am currently making a headbow to match my handmade skirt. After that, I am considering making another skirt and during the course of this year, before I buy anything else, I will wear Lolita a few times. However, this does not include random offbrand finds that could be incorporated into a Lolita outfit.

And finally, one wish:

Attend a meet up

As I have not felt like a true Lolita until I wore it, I did not feel comfortable going to a Lolita meet up. However, I would like to go to a meet up sometime this year.

Two Lolita Firsts

On the previous weekend, two Lolita related firsts happened to me.

First, I went to Sydney matsuri and wore a casual Lolita coordinate there. I enjoyed the festival and saw the Kawaii Fashion show. It was interesting seeing the Australian brands as well as the Baby outfits. Also, I liked Misako Aoki's outfit for the day. As there seems to be plenty of photos of said outfit, I am not going to place any on my blog. However, this is the link to her post about the fashion show. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo with Misako as I had no idea there would be such an opportunity. Maybe she'll come back to Australia one day. It was nice seeing her on stage and I was able to understand a lot of what she said in Japanese.

Anyway, the photo below is what I wore on the day.

Outfit Details

 

All of this except for the skirt is offbrand. The skirt is hand made. No petticoat is worn though because I do not own one at the moment.



 

Even though everything is offbrand, I think it is decent enough to pass for a casual coordinate. Wearing Lolita for the first time was an amazing experience once you get used to the attention it brings. Despite the bit of extra effort for Lolita, I really want to wear it again.

During the same weekend, I found the Angelic Pretty mook in Kinokuniya, which came with a Sugary Carnival tote bag. Due to the only way of buying brand in where I live being online and the cost, this is my very first brand piece and I love it.

 Seeing it for the first time, I was surprised at how it looked with a black background. Unfortunately, photos of Sugary Carnival don't do the black colourway justice. I wonder if this is true for other AP prints. Also, I would like to use it in the future, as part of either a Lolita or a non-Lolita outfit.

International Lolita Day December 2013

Happy International Lolita Day everyone.

Today, I am going to review the post from the last Loliday and write about each goal.

1. Increase Lolita wardrobe to a decent size

Regarding this goal, I have bought some things from Taobao but I have not received them. In terms of the items I specified in the previous post, I have ordered a petticoat, a blouse but not the pair of white shoes. Instead, I bought a pink pair and a blue pair. Along with those items, I have bought a few other things as well but they will be revealed when I review the items and the shopping service I used. That's not all I have done for this goal though.

 2. Create at least one basic Lolita skirt

I have achieved this goal fairly recently and below is the result.

 

Excuse the bad shot though. This skirt was made using the tutorial mentioned in my first International Lolita Day post. The only additions I made to it were the lace and the ribbon. Overall, it is pretty good for a first completed skirt. It is a simple design but it is something that could be used in a Sweet/Casual co-ordinate.

Above: Close up of the bow and lace.

Again, sorry for the photo but this is the first time I have photographed a garment. Despite it being a simple skirt to make, the amount of fabric was tricky to deal with as well as not having a pattern to cut the pieces from. However, I completed it and just started my second Lolita sewing project: a head bow from a GLB pattern.

 

3. Wear Lolita at least once

 

This goal has not been achieved yet but I did say before the end of the year and it is only the end of the first week of December. Anyway, I do have plans to wear the handmade skirt featured in this post and currently looking for anything that could be used to make a co-ordinate with it. If relying on mainstream stores, it is difficult to find suitable items but I should be able to find a few things though. I will probably do a post on my first Lolita outfit.

 

 

Lolita Blog Carnival: Decorating Your Lolita Inspired Holiday Party

I can't believe it's less than a month until Christmas. The start of the silly season.

If I had to organise a Lolita themed Christmas party, I would first decorate the tree with various decorations such as pink, purple and silver baubles; tree lights and a few Nutcracker/ballet inspired decorations. Also, the tree would be white instead of green. On top of the tree, I would place a star. Below the tree would be fake presents that are wrapped with paper that is printed with various Lolita prints.

Above: A white Christmas tree as an example to the one I would be using.
Below: Pink decorations that may be used on the tree.

With the "presents", the featured prints would be a mix of the main substyles (Sweet, Classic and Gothic). Also, within the presents would be the party bags for each of the guests. However, those bags would actually be boxes and would contain a pair of knee high socks as well as anklets for the coming Australian summer as well as some lollies that are nicely wrapped/from a lolly shop.

The table would have an elegant but festive tablecloth with fancy serving plates. One of those plates would contain any Lolita/Loliable jewellery that I own (At the moment, I only have Loliable ones though). Next to that would be a bowl with lollies in it. As the centrepiece, there would be some flowers in a vase with Christmas crackers standing up around it.

Above: Not exactly Lolita, but is an elegant Christmas design that could be incorporated into a Lolita Christmas party.

 

For the lighting, I would use fairy lights as well as candles instead of normal lighting in order to bring out a Victorian yet modern atmosphere (something that could describe Lolita in a way).
But at some point, the normal lighting would go on if any of the Lolitas wanted to take pictures under ordinary lighting.

Finally, I would do something loosely based on an article that was advertised on the front cover of an issue of GLB. The cover said  "Doitsu no kurimasu" (in katakana, obviously. I also do not vouch for complete accuracy here). This means "(A) German Christmas" in English. Instead of German traditions, I would use a few Finnish traditions instead. For example, I would serve Gingerbread biscuits following a recipe based on how my late great-grandmother used to make them. They would be shaped on various Lolita motifs (think bows, cute animals, flowers etc.). Another delicacy I would serve would be pulla (for an idea of it/recipe, click here).

Link to LBC facebook page

Other blogs participating

The Cute Lifestyle

 Hello Batty