30 Day Random Challenge Day 5: Spend 30 Minutes doing Yoga

Yesterday, my challenge was to spend 30 minutes doing yoga. As I haven't done yoga for a long time and don't exercise as much as I should, I thought this would be a good challenge. I was right as yesterday was a pretty bad day for me and I didn't feel like exercising. At first, I thought about doing this in three 10 minute sessions but I ended up doing the 30 minutes in one go.

It was interesting seeing how even something as simple as sitting cross legged was hard. I guess that was because I haven't done it for a long time. Overall, doing yoga was invigorating and I will try to do yoga at least once a week from now on. During the 30 minutes the hardest pose for me was warrior III, which is where you stand on one foot with the other leg being at a ninety degree angle behind and the rest of your body being in line with the non supporting leg. It was hard keeping myself still in that pose. Here's hoping I can hold the Warrior III pose for at least 10 seconds in time. Another pose which I found hard was the Shoulderstand. I have never been able to even achieve that pose but if I practice, I should be able to improve.

The easiest pose for that session was doing a straddle pose called the Seated wide legged pose. It was easy to do but still a stretch. At the end of the session, I decided to do the splits to finish the session.

Above: Warrior III pose. (Source: Yoga Life Journey)

30 Day Random Challenge Day 4: Wear a Scrunchie

On Thursday, my challenge was to wear a scrunchie. I have several scrunchies from Japan but I have never worn them until yesterday when I wore one. I can't believe how well a scrunchie can hold a ponytail even though it's a gathered tube of fabric. No wonder why female gymnasts seem to wear them quite often.

When I was a teenager, I thought that only children wore scrunchies until I saw some young mothers wearing them in Japan. From now on, I think I'll wear the scrunchies I have every now and then.

Above: A photo of me wearing the scrunchie. As this is my first time doing a selfie of a hairstyle, please forgive the quality. If anyone has any tips on how to take good selfies, please share.

30 Day Random Challenge Day 3: Wear a Hello Kitty Accessory

Today, my challenge is to wear one of my Hello Kitty Accessories. Even though I have a few of them, I don't wear them that often. Because of that, I chose that as one of the mini challenges.

I decided to wear my Hello Kitty studs because they were easy to put on and different from my usual choice of earrings, sleepers. Even though it was nice having a change from what I usually wear, not much changed today. I guess some challenges will not be as interesting as others will be. I hope tomorrow's challenge will be something that will be more challenging.

Above: One of the Hello Kitty studs. I haven't worn these a lot but I do want to wear them more often. Sorry about the quality of the photo, mainly the earring.

30 Day Random Challenge Day 2: Search For Something in Japanese

Today, my challenge is to search for something online in Japanese.

I thought of looking for kombucha in Japanese. In English, kombucha refers to fermented tea. For an explanation of it, please look at http://www.foodrenegade.com/kombucha-health-benefits/. It explains kombucha and provides a link on how to make it but keep in mind the health benefits are anecdotal. At first, I thought kombucha (こんぶちゃ) was the same thing in Japanese as in English. However, it refers to seaweed tea. With the help of Wikipedia, I soon realised the correct term is (紅茶キノコ), which literally means "Black tea mushroom". It does make sense because the microbial culture that grows looks like a mushroom.

Above: A jar of kombucha with a glass of it. From the website featured below.

Before I introduce the website that I found, I would like to talk about why I decided to use kombucha as my topic to search for. Ever since I heard about kombucha and its reported health benefits, I wanted to try making a batch but finding a SCOBY (the starter or "mother" culture) is difficult because I don't know anyone who makes kombucha and I haven't been able to find any bottled kombucha for sale.

The Japanese website I found from a search of 紅茶キノコ is here. It first talks about the benefits of fermented food and gives yoghurt as an example. However, it talks about how dairy is full of hormones and other things that are supposedly bad for your health (personally, unless you are lactose intolerant/allergic to dairy etc. I don't see any problems with dairy). It also goes on about how dairy can taste good but it isn't that good for your health. It talks about how kombucha offers similar benefits to yoghurt and gives instructions on how to make kombucha.

It was interesting to see how similar Japanese health food lovers are to Western health food lovers. Nevertheless, it was quite a provoking blog post and made me think about how lucky I am to live in Australia, where the use of hormones in livestock is more or less illegal. It was also interesting to see that it was published in 2011, before kombucha became popular among health food lovers in Australia.

30 Day Random Challenge Day 1: Find 5 Lolita prints featuring Ice Cream

To push me out of my comfort zone, I have designed a 30 day challenge of various challenges that I have placed into a box and will pick a different one to do each day.

Today my challenge is to find 5 Lolita prints featuring ice cream.

 

First is Meta's Crown Label's Sweets Parade Apron Pinafore Dress, which was released in 2012. Adding an apron to Lolita would be difficult to pull off because it could end up looking a bit like Maid Cosplay in my opinion. I do like the various types of ice cream on the print with some lollies and coffee/tea. Having back shirring on the JSK does make it fit a variety of body shapes.

 



Next is AP's Milky Planet OP, released in 2010. It is one of my Dream Prints. The reason why I love it is because the print is a world full of ice cream and I have such a big sweet tooth. Unlike most prints, the print is all over the OP as there is smaller motifs above the main print part. Because it is very colourful, Milky Planet can be coordinated with many colours.

 

 



The next piece is Baby's Creamy Soda Pop Skirt, released in 2010. It has ice cream sundaes in a tall glass as well as milkshakes. One thing that is nice about this skirt is that three of the four colour ways (mint, offwhite and pink) are similar to the colours associated with ice cream flavours. The tulle and bows near the hem of the skirt also add to the ice cream effect, which is making me crave a sundae right now.

 

 

 The next dress is AP's Strawberry Parlour Tiered JSK. The background of the print partly resembles a French Café exterior. I like how instead of multiple ice cream flavours of the other prints, this one focuses on strawberries and strawberry flavoured ice cream. Instead of using tulle lace at the hem, this JSK uses eyelet lace, which is different for AP JSKs.

 

 The last piece for this post is Baby's Ice Cream OP, released in 2007. Compared to the other pieces in this post, you can see features that are rarely, if ever included in current OPs. They are the sleeves and the front corset lacing on the bodice. The print is also different as it has smaller motifs all around the fabric and there is stripes and polka dots at the same time on the OP.

 

From this post, it's interesting to see how different prints portray one theme in a different way from each other. I wonder what's next for ice cream prints: maybe chocolate and ice cream will be combined just like that found in AP's Strawberry Parlour? 



 

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)