Valentine Thank you!

Yay! I got given a Lolita Valentine today! I have only just seen it because I went to the V&A meet today. Of course, there will be a blog post about that coming up!

http://loli-valentines.livejournal.com/121234.html#cutid1

I am part of 113 with Sammi! In case you were wondering, we were doing mock "gangster" faces in that picture because we were showing off our bling! Thank you very much to whoever made my valentine. That was really sweet.

Angelic Pretty Paris (Facebook Store) Review

So I recently did a review for the International AP Site, and today I will be focusing on the order I placed with the Paris Store. I noticed on Facebook that the Paris store had one of my wishlist items and so I went ahead and placed an order.

Ordering Process

I ordered via the Angelic Pretty Paris Facebook page. They have an online boutique on there. The shopping cart was easy to follow, although Facebook was being a pain, so I had to do 2 attempts to add my item to the cart. It was still relatively quick to order though. I paid with Paypal. I thought that we had paid with Eurors but it turned out Paypal sent over British Pounds. After a few days, we contacted AP Paris to ask if everything was okay and they explained that they had received the payment in pounds. So we had to be refunded and then we paid the invoice they sent us. This was our own fault for not realising Paypal hadn't sent the right currency, however, it was a little off-putting that AP Paris hadn't said anything to us until we had contacted them first. But luckily, they said that they had kept my item aside, which is very lucky because it was the only one left! It is worth mentioning though, that when they responded to me, they did so fairly quickly and in fluent English.

Shipping Process

I really hated this part! AP Paris used La Poste to send my item. I have never used La Poste before and I really hope I don't need to use it again for a while. For starters, I could only use the French version of their website because for some reason, the tracking didn't work on their English language version. I don't know if this was a website issue or an issue with my specific parcel. Oh well, that is what Google Translate is for! But what really concerned me is that La Poste's tracking did not provide a massive amount of information on my parcel and it was worded in such a way, that it was hard to tell where exactly the parcel was. In fact, I didn't know where my parcel was at all until my postman came knocking at my door with my package. This is a little unsettling, especially when you are not familiar with the shipping company.

My order was simply wrapped in an AP shopping bag with lots of parcel tape. As I said in my last AP review, their bags are quite strong, so I knew my item wouldn't have gotten damaged by the weather or anything like that. I did feel the insides moving about a little bit.

After I opened my parcel, I was greeted with this postcard. It turns out my order qualified as an entry in to their tea party raffle! Aww... they even dot their exclamation marks with hearts! I didn't know about this and it will be interesting to see if I get picked. If I do get picked, I promise I will get loads of photographs!

Despite moving around a bit inside, the item was wrapped securely in bubble wrap and the item was not damaged at all.

And here it is! My Sugar Hearts bracelet! I absolutely love it. The writing on the hearts is so clear. It feels quite strong, so I think it will be very durable.

I did quickly try it on. The clasp was a little fiddly because the chain holes are quite small. It is so cute in person. I adore it!

So whilst Angelic Pretty Paris were relatively helpful, I dislike the shipping service they use. Angelic Pretty Paris get a positive score from me, but La Poste definitely does not get my seal of approval. Would I order from Angelic Pretty Paris again? Well, as far as I am concerned, the Paris online store is right at the bottom of the AP food chain. I consider using AP Paris as a last resort and if this bracelet had been on the international site, I would have used them instead. That is not to say that I dislike the AP Paris store, but that I feel more comfortable with the international website. So yes, I would use AP Paris again but only if the item was not available elsewhere.

My Little Red Riding Hood by BABY

Today I will be taking a look at the new series from Baby the Stars Shine Bright. This series is called My Little Red Riding Hood. This series has 2 dresses, a skirt, a hood, a blouse, socks, a head bow, a bag and some various bits of jewellery.

This is the Polka Dot Ribbon JSK. The bodice looks very well fitted and a nice shape. The dominant feature here would be the 3 large bows running down the front. The bows have a sturdy shape to them and they look like they have been constructed well. The bows have lines of polka dot ribbon sewn on them. The use of polka dot ribbon is interesting because it is not something I would usually associate with Red Riding Hood. I think it is brilliant that Baby have chosen something a little different and I do think the polka dots work well with the dress. It is really refreshing compared to the typical gingham you usually see with this sort of themed print (speaking of which, see the next dress). I like how the lower down bows are a bit smaller. Some may say that the 3 bows are too much, but I actually like them. The top bow near the neckline is removable but I think the dress looks better with it on. The bodice has a raised panel which is mainly concealed by the top bow. It is lined with thin good quality lace, which is not overly distracting, and there is a line of polka dot lace running horizontally all the way across. Whilst the panel is pretty, as I said before, I think it looks better with the detachable bow left on. The waist area looks plain, but perhaps the dress would look too overcrowded if there was some detailing here. The straps are a decent width but I think the strap's edges look a bit rough. The back has a panel of shirring concealed well by a ribbon corset. On the darker colours, the ribbon blends in very well. Unfortunately, the waist ties only have the print on one side, which is a little disappointing. The skirt has a lovely subtle bell shape to it and it will hold a decent amount of petticoat. I like how the skirt part has been kept simple and the gathering is not overdone because it means the print is displayed really nicely. There is a line of polka dot ribbon along the bottom hem, which is a good idea because it really helps to balance out the polka dots and helps to finish off the bottom well. The bottom hem is then finished with some good quality lace.

This is the Gingham JSK. Sometimes dresses in the same series can look too similar, so I think it is interesting that this time the dresses do look different. The bodice has a nice shape to it, but I don't find it as appealing as the other dress. Unsurprisingly, Baby did include gingham somewhere in this series. I suppose for some people, going for a more obvious choice in design can be a good thing, but I like the polka dot ribbon idea better!

I think the bodice on this dress is suffering from 'gingham overload'. Whilst all the bodice details probably sound good on paper, I dislike all of the details used together. There is the large waist bow which looks like it has a good shape. But judging by some of the photos, the waist bow might be prone to drooping a bit. I do like the criss-crossed ribbon running up the bodice and the rose lace is pretty. This then meets the gingham panel along the neckline. The scalloped edge makes it look interesting and the rose lace running across it help to tie in the rose lace used elsewhere on the dress. This panel is topped by a cute bow, which I think looks a lot better than the waist bow. So overall, I am generally positive about the bodice details but I do think that one of the gingham bits should be removed. It is difficult to say which one to remove though. The straps are cute, although they do have an apron-like appearance. Personally, that doesn't bother me too much though. The back has a panel of shirring concealed by a ribbon corset. Again, this area looks very tidy and it blends in well. Thankfully on this dress, the gingham waist ties are double sided. Yay! The skirt has a wonderful bell shape to it and I think this is more appealing than the skirt shape on the other dress. Again, the print is displayed well because the skirt is free of cluttering details. The bottom hem has a gingham ruffle. It looks pretty, but I think it could have been gathered a bit more so it looks a little less flat.

And here is part of the print close-up. This print is available in ivory, pink, mint, red and black. I think the deeper red and black colour ways work best with this print. The other colours are also pretty, but the print doesn't stand out as much. I think the print is very cute. I love the house and the apple trees, especially the way there are also cute bows attached to the tree. I do find the objects floating around in the background a little strange. I can't help but wonder what a pair of scissors have to do with Little Red Riding Hood. I must have missed/forgotten that part of the story! They do however, help to fill out any gaps in the print. My favourite part of the print is the cute little bunnies. However, I dislike the non-border part of the print with the random straight lines.

 Out of all of the jewellery pieces my favourite is the double ring. It has one of Baby's usual bows (which I think are cute) and the apple is really sweet too. I think it looks interesting and a little bit different.

I am unsure I like the bag that is part of this series. For starters, every time I look at it I think it looks like the bag has a surprised face! I also think that there are other house shaped bags out there that perhaps have a bit more structure to them. This bag looks a bit slouchy. I personally wouldn't buy this bag because I know I could find nicer bags out there or I could go down the stereotypical Red Riding Hood route and find a nice country style straw basket to carry.

Whilst I like this print, I don't see this as a "must-have" for my wardrobe. It is just not to my personal tastes. I do know that an older Baby Red Riding Hood series has its fans though, so maybe this series will be a success. I would definitely go for the polka dot JSK. It is a bit different and is not overly crowded design-wise. For me, this series is all about the deep red colour-way, although maybe that is a little too obvious considering the print theme! So I would consider the black too. Once again, Baby have come up with some lovely jewellery too. I predict this series will sell fairly well, but wont be as popular as the older Red Riding Hood series Baby released.

Ox Loli Meet April 2012!

It is time for another Oxfordshire Lolita meet post! We were meant to be having a picnic but sadly, the weather was not being nice to us. I had made these really nice cheesecake brownies and now my husband and I have a whole batch to ourselves! I even dyed the cheesecake bits pink! Have you ever eaten pink cheesecake before? It is definitely more fun. Sadly, the weather stopped a few people from coming, which is  a shame.

I wore my Bodyline strawberry cream skirt. As you can see, I was wearing the bow my friend kindly made for me. Sadly, because of the wind I was unable to do my hair in the way I wanted, so please be aware that I know the bow looks a little bit unbalanced! I also think that the colour is a bit unbalanced but I didn't leave enough time to go and change my bolero for my red cardigan. Aside from those 2 points, I do quite like this outfit. It is pretty much all Bodyline and off-brand.

I own so many bits of strawberry themed jewellery, that it was great to actually use some of them! My favourite is of course my Angelic Pretty Strawberry Chan bangle. It is one of my favourite pieces. The sparkly bow ring is Chocomint and I am also wearing my Lyrical Bunny gumdrop ring. The rest are off-brand. The Swablu bracelet was a little off-theme but I wanted some blue jewellery to match my skirt!

I was so happy to see Beau in lolita again. And of course, I had to get a piece of her bag! Nom!

Oxford is a beautiful city, but we struggle to find sheltered areas to take photos. Stupid weather! We ended up outside the Ashmolean Museum in this little pathway bit. It has these alcoves, so we were able to pose in them.

Considering the wind, I think it was pretty brave of us all to put our parasols up. There are actually some silly photos of me on Facebook attempting to put up my Baby parasol and failing miserably... Now, I forgot what some people were wearing so I can only do the people I remember for this. Here it goes...

In the middle- Raine in DoL Fantastic Dolly
Clockwork (starting from me)- Me (Bodyline), Sammi (AP Happy Garden), Nicola (handmade), Roxy, Amber (Bodyline Antique Clock), Beau (AP Polka Dot Chocolate), Olwen (Bodyline floral dress) and Louise.

I didn't get any good shots of my nails until the following day and they were looking a bit rough by then! I basically used my nail art pens to draw dripping cream on to my blue nails. Then to finish off, I drew a strawberry on both of my thumbs.

It was a real shame about the picnic being cancelled but hopefully, we will be able to have a picnic some other time. But it was really great to see everybody again. I didn't go to the March meet and the February meet feels like ages ago now. I did have a good day and hopefully, so did everybody else there.

Busy busy busy...

Sorry about the lack of post today. I am rushing about like a mad woman ahead of a meet tomorrow! Some day, I will be one of those uber-organised bloggers who has a back-up of posts available. But I am not that organised yet as my life has been a bit hectic. I will be back on Monday as normal. Sorry sorry sorry!!!!

Lolitas Who Help Each Other Out

I have met a lot of amazing people through lolita. I have been getting a lot of reminders lately about how lucky I am to have my friends. I have quite a lot of lolitas on Facebook and it is fair to say that I know some lolitas better than others. But despite this, I have discovered that people are willing to help you out.

An example would be when I recently discovered that one of my dream dresses was going cheap on a Japanese auction site. It was one of those dresses that is very popular and normally sells for well over the original retail price. The only problem is, the dress was a bit damaged. So I posted a status update stating what was wrong with the dress and asking people if I should take a risk and bid on it. I thought somebody would just give me a 'yes' or 'no' answer and that would be the end of it. But what I wasn't expecting was several different people offering to fix the dress for me. It was really great to get these offers and it made me feel good about myself. It showed that people were taking an interest and wanted to help me. I was really grateful for this unexpected help.

Then a few weeks ago, I came to the sudden realisation that I didn't have a matching head bow for an outfit I am wearing to a meet. Me being the Facebook junky that I am, I updated my status. I started searching all the sales communities for a suitable bow, but then somebody commented on my status saying they would make a bow for me.

And here it is! I can't thank my friend enough for her kind generosity. She even re-did the bow after I was unsure about one of the details. The bow was also neatly made and I can tell a lot of thought and effort was put in.

The skirt I want to wear it with!

And then this week I got a message asking me if I wanted some bow brooches that somebody didn't want. She didn't want to see them go to waste and so she gave them to me because she thought I would find somebody to do with them.

I really want to do something nice with them now, otherwise I feel like I would be letting her down!

Now aside from this post showing that I spend far too much time on Facebook, I think it also demonstrates that there are wonderful people out there who are willing to help out a friend. I would like to think that this is a sign that our friendship goes beyond a common interest in lolita fashion. And I want you all to know that I am very grateful to everybody that has offered me any help.

I would like to think that in turn, I am trying my best to be a good friend too. So here are some suggestions of things you could do to say 'thank you' to those who have selflessly helped you out. I already do a lot of these things myself.

1. Make a Lolita Valentine- Pretty straight forward. Sadly, this is something that I don't do as much as I should! But even if I don't make a Valentine, I do try to leave nice comments on photos that I like or on Daily Lolita posts. It is easy enough to do at any time.

2. Look out for your friend's dream items- If I spot an item I know my friend is after, I will tell them about it. Sometimes I will do a specific search just for their item, instead of casually browsing for myself. It is really great when you do eventually find an item because your friend may not have spotted it.

3. Make/bake something- I am not an excellent crafter but I do enjoy baking. So if I have been doing some random baking, I will usually take some over to my friends or family. Nobody has complained yet!

4. Offer to host meets or volunteer to help out a host- It is really nice being able to plan out all the fun things your group can do. But due to work/school/money etc, sometimes people don't feel up to hosting a meet. I think that by offering to host, it takes pressure off of the people who usually host a lot and it also shows you are willing to give something back. However, you should never take on more than you can handle!

5. Check with people before throwing something out- Like the person who gave me the bow clips did, you could try and see if anybody wants those items you were about to throw out. Somebody with a crafty or imaginative mind could find something to do with it, even if you can't think of anything.

6. Give people a hug- Simple, but it says a lot.

7. Lend a hand when getting dressed up or be somebody's guinea pig- Are you one of these people who is really good at hair styling, make-up? Or do you have a friend who is? Whatever your strength is, you could try helping out by styling your friend. Alternatively, if your friend wants to try out a new hair/make-up style but wants to practice first, let them practice on you. It is good to practice because it gives you more confidence.

8. Show people how to order from websites- This is something I actually get asked about a lot. I have helped people navigate websites such as Bodyline in the past and they have managed to get the hang of it. Foreign sites and those you are new to can be very daunting, so getting help can be very reassuring.

I am sure you can think of more ideas than I can. I am feeling a bit tired today, otherwise I would probably add more to this list. But more than anything else, I think it is important to just say 'thank you' to people. How you go about this is completely up to you.

AP's Little Bird's Symphonia

I apologise for the increased volume of Angelic Pretty posts lately! Today I will be looking at the new AP print called Little Bird's Symphonia. This series has 2 dresses, a skirt, a bonnet, a head bow, a valletta, an eco tote, socks and a few bits of jewellery.

This is the OP. The bodice looks well fitted and it has a nice shape. I understand that some people dislike bell-shaped sleeves but I think it suits this dress. The OP is very dressy and full of detail, and so the sleeves help to balance the design. It does look OTT but considering the size of some bell sleeves I have seen, I am just relieved that AP didn't make them any bigger! I do like the lace used on the cuffs, but I wish they had left the shiny bow ribbon off. The waist bow is big, but it does have a very interesting shape to it.

There is a lot of lace used on the bodice. However, the lace is good quality and it doesn't stick out too much. The lace has been used neatly and I think it looks more OTT than costume-like. The lace curves around the arms and gives it a cute look, as if the wearer is wearing a bolero. However, I dislike the bows. The ribbon used is shiny and despite it being a sweet print, it almost looks a little too cute. I believe this dress could have worked without the ribbons there.

I think the choker on this dress is very stuffy and frumpy. It just doesn't appeal to me at all! I don't think it will flatter the wearer that much and I would also be concerned that it wouldn't feel very comfortable. Plus the lace may be good quality, but I would hate having that lace at the top tickling my chin!

The back has a panel of shirring concealed well by a ribbon corset. Also on the back, there is this ruffle detail. The ruffles are spaced out well. The use of the printed fabric does mean it blends in a bit, but it does give the back a bit of extra texture and detail.

Just like the rest of the dress, the skirt shape is also OTT. The skirt flares out so much and it will hold loads of petticoat. Halfway down the skirt, there is a horizontal line of lace which doesn't cause a harsh break, but I do worry about whether the print will be lined up properly. The bottom hem is finished off with beautiful bird lace, which looks very cute. For some reason, this dress comes with an additional drawstring pouch. I am sure you could find a use for it but it seems like a strange item to include! One of my main concerns about this dress is that OTT sweet is not as popular now as it once was. Is that going to limit the appeal of this dress?

This is the JSK. The bodice is a nice shape to it. There is rose shaped lace running up the bodice, but due to the lace in the print, it does blend in quite a lot. The horizontal lace does stand out a bit more. It is good quality lace and it looks soft. This lace is also used along the neckline. I think this dress does need a bit of lace here to stop the bodice looking too dull. However, the bodice does also have the large bow on the neckline. The bow is very nicely shaped and it looks very sturdy, not floppy at all. The bow is decorated with lace and pearls. The pearls are a nice finish to the bow and they work well with the print. The waist is plain but it would look a bit ridiculous if there was another big bow there as well! The straps are fairly thin, but are decorated with the cute bird lace. The back has a shirring panel concealed by a ribbon corset. The skirt is once again, very flared. The good thing is, it will hold a decent amount of petticoat underneath, but I was hoping the skirt shape would be a bit rounder. The waist does have to small ribbon bows and a line of lace continues down the skirt from these points. It does blend in a lot but it does have small bows running down it. The bows are very shiny and I don't think they add that much to the design.

Like the OP, this skirt is divided in to two parts by a line of lace. I couldn't help noticing that the lace changes with rose lace between the bows and different lace used for the rest of the way around the dress. I am unsure I like this detail. Again, I think the print doesn't line up exactly, which is a shame. The bottom hem is finished off with the pretty bird lace.

Here is the print close-up. I fell in love with this print from the very first time I saw it! This is definitely my style of print! The combination of bird cages and roses is a great success in my opinion. The birds in the cages and flying around are very cute. Despite being a very busy print, I think everything fits together so well that I am not worried about it looking too OTT. I really wish AP would use roses in their prints more often. I love the alternating roses and lace lines in the print. All four colours look beautiful but for me, the sax blue is my favourite. The sax blue just stood out to me. However, I would be quite happy to get any colour!

There are 3 different hair accessories released for this series but I think the valletta is my favourite. I like how it is a little bit different from the standard AP hair accessories. The bird perched on top of the roses is just so cute! The valletta focuses on the main features of the print and it looks beautiful.

I was talking about the free gift necklace event on Friday, but I have to admit that I prefer this necklace! I do love this style of jewellery. However, it is worth noting that you could probably find similar pieces on the high street. The AP necklace is still lovely though.

So overall, this series is one that I am very excited about. However, I do think the OP design lets the rest of the series down. I would definitely go for the JSK or skirt and I would try to go for the sax blue colour. Ever since I first saw the scans, I have been waiting desperately to see all the items go up on the AP website. This series gets my seal of approval and I have already added it to my wishlist!