Recent Outfits Summer 2017

Life has been a bit hectic as of late, but it hasn't stopped me from dressing up from time to time. So I thought I would share my most recent looks with you all today. I didn't bother to include my birthday outfit, seeing as that was already featured in a post. But here are the outfits I have not posted on here yet.

First is a little casual affair with my Bodyline Rose Bouquet skirt. I really desperately felt like dressing up. The only trouble is, it was really humid for a long time here in the UK. So I am aware that my hair looks very plain here, but curls would not have lasted in this heat and it was too hot to wear a wig! You can't really see it that well, but I attached some rose clips to the blouse to make sure that the colours were a bit more evenly distributed. 

Then I finally got around to wearing my beloved Moon Cat set by Metamorphose. I wore this intending it to just be a casual street fashion look, rather than lolita. If you are wondering how I am keeping my RHS straps up, the secret is a pair of fishnet tights layered over the top of my normal tights (top tip!). The only thing I would potentially change is adding a red bow to the beret. I feel the hair accessories are a bit lacking here. But like I said, this was only intended to be a casual outfit anyway.

Next is... a happy accident. I am currently attempting to slowly downsize and I was sorting through piles of clothes that I wanted to get rid of. This floral Bodyline dress just happened to be sat on a pile on top of the purple blouse. I thought they looked really great together, and so this outfit was born! I am not really sure what I was going for here... girly style larme? Otome maybe? I chose the sheer polka dot socks because they matched the dot details on the dress bodice. The purple shoes were to balance out the purple blouse. I also used the Whale Fall bag I got off Taobao recently. I can confirm it is very roomy and so far it has been holding up well. Whatever this outfit is (I am not too fussed about labeling it) it is one that I really enjoyed wearing. I am still intending to sell the dress though!

I got the chance to see some of my friends and decided to try out some larme kei. I think my make up is just about visible. The sunshine made it difficult to photograph, but the under eye blush and nude eye shadow is there! I wore the H&M skirt with one of the lace tops from my recent Aliexpress order. Although I am still not 100% sure which direction I want to go in with larme kei, I am really pleased with how this outfit came together. So maybe this is the sort of larme style I am going to be aiming for in the future. I got a lot of positive feedback for this outfit, which was really encouraging.

And just when I go casual and tone things down, I then go all sugary sweet again! I wanted to wear some 2012 era sweet lolita, so that is exactly what I did! It had been a while since I last wore Sugary Carnival and it seemed like the perfect dress to suit my whims, seeing as it was released around that sort of time. The Shadow Carnival tights worked just as I had expected them to. I had forgotten how badly the applique on the tights stinks of cheap plastic though! Recently I have fallen back in love with this AP biscuit bag, so I was happy that it matched the theme of this outfit. It is an item that doesn't match that much of my wardrobe, but I can't bear to part with it. It is also a good size, perfect for when I am going on one of my cake eating adventures.

Here is an accessory close up. I was having mixed feelings about wearing this necklace. Sugary Carnival does have a tiny bit of yellow on it and there are stars in the print as well. I was worried it looked a little out of place next to all the sweet themed items though and wondered if the candy themed necklace I also had picked out would have been better. Still, I don't think this is the worst decision I have ever made outfit-wise. At least I had put some thought in to it.

And that brings us up to mid August (how is it mid August already!? It is almost time for the annual Tea Party Club event). Considering how unpredictable the weather has been and how busy I have been, I have managed to pack a fair few outfits in! So hopefully there will be many more outfits to share with you all soon!

Recent Outfits- Spring and Early Summer 2017 Edition

I am back with some more of my recent outfits today. I was wearing a couple of pieces one more time before selling them and other outfits were just about dressing up and having a bit of fun. Recently I have been increasingly feeling the need to de-clutter and down-size, which is why I have suddenly been selling more stuff. Also, I need to make room for the new stuff I am buying! I have a new lolita skirt coming soon, which I am very excited about. So it is very much a case of out with the old and in with the new. Do you have anything coming in the mail? I always get a sense of anxiety where I pray my stuff will arrive safely and hopefully not get hit by customs charges. But when it arrives, the rush of excitement makes up for that! So, on to my recent outfits...

First is this Candy Star Rabbit outfit. I have to admit, I don't regret selling this skirt at all. I fell out of love with the print. The skirt is a very difficult shade of blue as well, which means I always ended up pairing it with my AP Shooting Star necklace and some felt star clips I made. But I decided to give the skirt one last outing before selling it. For some reason my buns went a little floppy. I think that makes them look a little bit like puppy ears! It was not intentional! I didn't go too OTT this time because with the odd exception, I have been favouring less 'showy' outfits as of late. I have worn this skirt with both red and pink. This time I went back to pairing it with red. When I was looking up inspiration, I found myself quite drawn to this outfit that used red in it. It is strange, but I sort of feel this skirt looks better with red than pink, even though there is very minimal red on the skirt. Maybe it is because red is quite a bold colour and it fits with the bright blue? 

An accessory close up. I tried to put a little bit of effort in to which rings I wore and wrist wear as well. The good thing is, there are so many different colours in the skirt that choosing jewellery to match is pretty easy. Those little bursts of colour are bound to match the skirt somewhere!

Next I decided to finally wear Milky Swan. I got it last year and have been waiting for an appropriate time to wear it. This was another casual affair (if you can call the Milky Swan JSK casual...) because if you haven't gathered from the photo, it was very sunny! I had to keep ducking and diving in to shot whenever the sun went in enough and after all that effort, this was the best shot, which is still a bit washed out! I wore this for a little outing. As it was going to be hot, I went for light layers. I thought the Glass Doll cutsew worked quite well with the pink colour of my tea parties. Despite being a difficult shade of lavender and a bit short in length, I really love this dress. I was really glad that the Primark socks I brought on a whim turned out to be the right shade to match! Although you can't see them, I am wearing white polka dot tights as well. I thought it would be a good idea to acknowledge the small bits of white on the dress. I am looking forward to doing something a bit more extravagant with this dress in the future.

This next one is a bit of a sad tale. I really love Meta's Magical Moonlight but unfortunately I decided now was the time to part with it. It didn't fit me correctly before, but then I went and lost some weight and it fitted me even worse. There was just no point me keeping it. I don't like the other dress cuts as much as this one. I had a lot of plans for this dress which I never got to fulfill. It is the interesting bottom hemline which first drew me to this dress and I intended to use my red under-skirt with it. But the blouse that went colour-wise was not ideal, as it was chiffon and because of where this dress sits, chiffon blouses are a big no-no. I did try it out with a camisole underneath to protect my modesty but it just didn't look right. But there was no way I was buying a new non see-through red blouse just for one outfit. Feeling a little defeated, I paired the dress with my Ciciworks witch hat (which has the most ridiculous hat to veil ratio ever) and the moon themed bag I got from Swimmer recently (I really need to re-arrange my wardrobe because the bag got a bit squished in storage). On the subject of Swimmer, I just heard the news that they are closing. I am really devastated about this. They had some really cute accessories and there was a time when their biscuit bags were everywhere. It is a shame, because they are closing down because of rising production costs and not being able to maintain their low prices. To be honest, I found their prices cheap to begin with and would have been happy to pay a little more for their stuff.

Finally, another hot weather outfit! For the first time ever, I wore an outfit without a blouse. I was wearing a chiffon bolero though. Not that I personally find exposed shoulders especially scandalous! This is a really comfortable dress to wear in hot weather. The jellyfish print reminds me of Summer too. I had a more elaborate hair style and hair accessory planned for this outfit, but my hair was refusing to behave in the humid weather. Sigh. In the end I threw on my navy bowler hat and called it quits. Considering that this hat is my most worn hair accessory, it has actually been a really long time since I had last worn it. It is good to have 'old reliable' favourites, but it has also been fun to try out different things. I do want to get more adventurous with my hair, because whenever I curl it the curls fall out really quickly, especially in humid weather. As this was quite a busy day for me, my curls fell out super quick. But it is good to know my trusty hat is always available during these hair emergencies!

So I believe that is me all caught up with my outfit round-up for the moment. I am not intending to sell any more dresses or skirts for the moment, so after this post I will probably be wearing things more for fun and not because I wanted to give pieces one last outing. I am genuinely devastated about saying goodbye to Magical Moonlight (or Satan Summoning as I and a few others nicknamed it) but sometimes you just have to accept that a dress just doesn't work for your body shape. Despite a few hints of sadness, I have been feeling a lot more positive lately and I did enjoy dressing up in these outfits. I have been having quite a lot of non-lolita adventures recently, but I still love the fashion as much as ever and I hope to have more outfits to share with you all soon. It might not be for a while though, as it has gotten really hot here recently and it has been making me feel less enthusiastic about dressing up. I think I need to put on some of my lighter pieces and get myself back out there! I don't envy all of the people who live in countries which get hotter than here. How do you handle it? Feel free to share some of your thoughts and ideas. Fingers crossed I will get over this 'slump' soon.

Recent Outfits- Late Winter/Early Spring Comeback Edition

I have been thinking more recently about how I share my outfits online. Even though I am still on Tumblr, I have been wary about sharing my outfits on there recently. There is this fear of them getting reblogged on NSFW blogs, which incidentally happened to me less than a week after I first joined. I have no issue with kinks, but it is really disheartening to see my pictures taken out of context in that way. I still post my outfits on Facebook, but then only people who are friends with me can see them. A lot of the Closet of Frills outfits end up getting posted on cgl. As for Lookbook, I fell out of love with that site a while ago. So I thought I would share some of my recent outfits on here, seeing as this may be the most relevant audience for them.

First up is my 'Comeback Outfit' after taking a few months out of the fashion to recover and do a bit of soul searching. I must admit that even getting together this super basic outfit was quite a challenge. After so long out of the fashion, I had forgotten how much effort goes in to wearing lolita! So I didn't bother to curl my hair and I wore a bit less make up than usual. I suppose more than anything I wanted to be able to focus on the bits of lolita I enjoy so that I was more enthusiastic about dressing up again. I didn't want to immediately plunge in to the deep end. So I ended up wearing a casual outfit with Angelic Pretty's Rose Toilette. The weather was still a little chilly at this point, so I could get away with wearing my Wintery boots and a beret. I have always thought this dress was quite a Spring/Summer kind of dress, so it felt a bit odd wearing this dress in this way. I think for a casual outfit though, it turned out okay. 

Next up is a bit more of a sad story. I am selling Wonder Cookie! Apologies for the washed out photo. It started to rain as we took these pictures, so I quickly had to dash inside and use the photos I had! The truth is, I have been wanting to sell this dress for a while but I always felt as though I had unfinished business with it. I have always wanted to team this dress with purple, but I never had the courage to do it. So I made it my mission to give it a try before I sold the dress. On reflection I wish I had worn purple shoes as well, but I think this lavender bolero is a good match for the lavender cookies on the dress and the socks. It was also a good excuse to finally use the biscuit bag I have owned for a few years but have never used! Maybe I should eventually sell the bag as well, but it is so cute that I want to hold on to it for the moment. 

The other thing I wanted to do before selling Wonder Cookie is use the detachable lace from the head bow to make this strawberry maid themed outfit. After I brought this strawberry hairband from Ciciworks, I came up with the idea of using the head bow lace and wearing my hair in buns. I felt this had quite a 'maid' look to it, so I teamed it with an apron and Bodyline wrist cuffs. Out of all my recent outfits this is the one I put the most effort in to. I already had the idea and had been mulling it over for a few months beforehand. I am happy with how it eventually turned out. It is always fun to see your ideas turn in to reality. Here is hoping that this will see me returning to being a bit more adventurous with my outfits. I am definitely back in the lolita frame of mind and picking up my old routine again now. 

I wanted to get a picture of the accessories but annoyingly, a bobby pin was in shot! My hair started to collapse as this picture was being taken, so I decided to give up and wear my hair down for the rest of the day. I am glad I managed to get pictures of the hair buns beforehand though.

So aside from the outfits I have shared in other recent blog posts, these are all the outfits I have worn so far this year. I think I can see an obvious progression as the post goes on. Whenever I am going through a stressful time, my outfits suffer as a result. I guess I am an emotional dresser. But I am feeling really positive going forward, despite having a couple of setbacks in my private life recently. I hope I will continue in a similar vein as my confidence continues to grow. So hopefully I will have more outfits to share with you all soon!

A Bizarre Adventure in London

As both Sammi and James have birthdays in April, we decided it was about time we held a joint celebration for their birthdays. We decided on a trip to London, where we could visit some of our favourite shops and try out a different pub as well. To say the day was eventful is a bit of an understatement...

I was wearing Innocent World's Astronomical Clock for the occasion. I was really unsure how casual or dressed up I should go, and I was also having a bit of a legwear crisis. It turns out I really need to buy more ivory tights! In the end, I layered my star print tights over ivory tights to match the ivory lace on the neckline of the dress. Sadly, it turned really cold as the day went on, and we all ended up dashing in to Primark to buy some emergency tights! So I was glad I was at least able to get some photos of my starry legs before they got covered up. The shoes proved a big mistake too, and my feet were killing me by the evening. But overall, I was pleased with how my outfit looked. It just maybe wasn't the best choice for going to London.

Throughout the course of the day, we encountered a lot of strange people. Right at the start of the day we had people trying to force their way on to the train, without letting the people on the train get off. Common sense would surely mean letting people off, so that you could get on? There was also this very rude old man at Paddington who ended up attacking James with his walking stick and even now, none of us are quite sure why this situation happened. There were the usual buskers and people handing out leaflets in Leicester Square. I ended up being given this leaflet by some sort of church, which had some strange quotes about naked turtles in it. It made for interesting reading at least!

As we went for lunch, the presents and cards were doled out. Sammi seemed to really like the brown and gold Teja Jamilla tights that we got her. I didn't realise that Sammi and Shalisa had got a present for James (there was a lot of sneaky Facebook messages going on behind the scenes!) and he seemed really pleased with his gift. 

James also got us some cupcakes. I thought I had taken a photo of the cakes without the plastic on them, but clearly I hadn't. But I can confirm that the cakes looked really cute in person and they had somehow managed to survive being shoved in a bag and the massive squeeze on the train to London. I was feeling very full from our Chinese food, so I saved mine for later on.

After going shopping, we ended up at a pub called the London Stone, which I can pretty much guarantee I will never be going back to. The pub was recommended to us and to be fair, the actual pub itself is really cool. It is done up in this gothic style with loads of gargoyles and stone pillars. I wish I had gotten some more pictures of the place, but sadly it felt a bit awkward taking pictures when there were so many people in the way. We went for cocktails, as the London Stone has this Seven Deadly Sins and 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse cocktail menu. Sadly, it did not live up to our expectations. The very first cocktail we got tasted like nothing but juice. So to rectify this, we decided to order the 'Death' cocktail from the 4 horsemen menu, which had 3 different shots of rum in it. It is basically a Zombie cocktail. Alas, even this cocktail tasted super weak to us, and we are not exactly heavy drinkers.

Despite this disappointment with the cocktails, we were having a good time. Look how happy we are in this dark photo! And then it all ended on a sour note when a random guy supposedly called Ian came over and decided to try talking to us "young people" as he kept putting it. For all we know, he could have been perfectly harmless, but it was a bit creepy and he wouldn't leave us alone. He was probably only at our table for 20 minutes, but it felt like an hour. It did sadly put a bit of a dampener on our evening. We ended up legging it out of the pub as soon as we could, which meant I couldn't use the bathroom facilities and made for a very uncomfortable tube ride. So yeah... cheers, Ian!

Sammi and I didn't even get the chance to enjoy our cupcakes in the pub as planned, so we ended up eating them on the train home! They were really tasty, so that was at least a positive. I went for the red velvet cupcake, which had the most amazing frosting on it. I think these Waitrose cupcakes may be some solid competition for the Sainsbury's cupcakes that all of our group are really fond of.

I didn't buy much myself. I got a few sweets and a curry pan from the Japan centre and a new book from Treadwell's. Sammi got loads of stationary from Artbox. Whilst she was paying, I found these free postcards from Tofu Cute (who have a concession in the Artbox store in Covent Garden). They had these cut-out-and-keep characters on them. I was initially a bit amused to see that poops are apparently kawaii now, but to tell the truth, this little poop character has grown on me! Seeing as random everyday things like fried eggs are now seen as being cute, I guess a poop with a smiley face can be cute too. And yes, I did cut out the characters! The poop and tofu are in fact on the shelf right next to me, as I type this post. Whether they will stay there or not, I am not sure. It might be a bit difficult explaining to people why I have a random cardboard poop on my shelf.

So the day was a bit of a mixed bag. We seemed to get really unlucky with some of the people we met throughout the day, but I would like to think there were some good moments to the day as well. It has just made us more determined to have a better time the next time we meet up. It is a shame we were not really able to get many photos (Shalisa lugged her massive Instax camera to London for nothing) and our day would have been better if "Ian" hadn't turned up, but at least we were able to visit all the places we wanted. And I got a free cardboard poop and insightful messages about naked turtles for my troubles!

Recent Outfits

I thought today would be a good chance to have a bit of a catch up with some of my most recent outfits that I haven't showcased on my blog. Although I am generally quite good at writing about my mini catch ups with my lolita friends on here, I don't think people realise that I do wear lolita a lot more frequently, even if I am just lazing about the house! I try to post my outfits to Tumblr, but my Tumblr is quite small and modest and to be honest, I have never quite gotten the hang of posting at the optimum time and tagging efficiently. I need to get back in the habit of posting on LaceBook as well. There are so many different places you can share things now, it is hard to keep on top of it all!

So I thought that first I would share a few outfits from when I have just been at home or doing small, boring errands. This outfit was one I was actually meant to be wearing on one of my meets with Sammi and Shalisa, but unfortunately Shalisa was sick. I was really eager to wear this outfit though, so I got dressed up anyway! Ever since I first got hold of Meta's Nostalgic Chess, I have always wanted to do an outfit that involved pinstripes somehow. If you look at the trim on the dress, you will notice that the dress does in fact have pinstripes on it. I recently managed to obtain the blouse that came out with this series, so I knew I had to get it! I felt the pinstripes needed some balancing out though, so I looked online and found some pinstripe tights to match. Although the pinstripes are not the same width, I still quite like how it turned out. I ended up adding red to this outfit because when I initially tried it without red, it felt a bit too bland. I think the red helped to pull the outfit together.

I was having a bit of a "princessy" moment with this next outfit! Although I wrote a post late last year about how I wasn't so fond of wearing OTT lolita any more, there are still times when I feel like dressing up a bit more. I am glad I was at least able to get a few photos of this outfit, because not long after this photo was taken, my hair style decided to completely collapse! I wore a similar hair style to Regalia last year, but I was using a different hair tool which doesn't have the strap of elastic going over the top of my head, which meant that there was less support to hold my hair up. It really does suck having thick, heavy hair that refuses to stay put sometimes! There was no real theme or plan behind this outfit. I just really wanted to look like a princess for the day. Fancy Egg is actually one of the dresses in my wardrobe that I seem to struggle to co-ordinate, so I was glad this outfit was not a total disaster.

Next up is Cinderella Jewellery. This dress had been hiding in the back of my wardrobe for the longest time and I felt it was time it got some much needed wear time. I am not really sure why I decided to wear the tricorn... I just sort of ended up putting it on my head and quite liked it. It gives the outfit a very slight pirate vibe, which I like. I have always wanted to wear pirate lolita and I think this is the closest I have gotten to being a pirate so far. Maybe this is a goal I need to work on in the future.

And finally, I will give you all a look at what I ended up doing on Saturday with Sammi and Shalisa. It was a lovely, sunny day so it was time to break out yet another strawberry print! I got Chained Berry Memoir around about the same time I got AP's Strawberry Ribbon, but I didn't want to wear them one after the other, so I ended up waiting a few months to wear this outfit. This is pretty much my go-to style when I am wearing strawberries, but I did make a few subtle changes. I wore the berry wrist cuffs Shalisa kindly got me for Christmas and a few weeks ago I discovered an old Bodyline strawberry keychain that had been hiding away in one of my drawers for ages. I decided that as I had made this discovery, it was some sign that I should include it, so it ended up getting attached to my bag.

It was also my first time wearing the strawberry hat I got from Infanta. It still bugs me that the strawberries don't always stay in place, but it is still quite a cute hat and I don't regret getting it. 

After going to our regular hang out for food, we headed to the Oracle riverside to head to the Reading branch of Slug and Lettuce. By some curious twist of fate, we all ended up wearing berry prints! We did think about going to the Purple Turtle, but after seeing the Slug wasn't actually that fully packed, we ended up at the Slug instead. Although the cocktails are 20p dearer here than the Oxford branch, I think we all ended up agreeing that the Reading branch was really good. So chances are, we will be back again! The staff were really lovely too and we were not really bothered by anybody, which is a massive bonus. The lovely Christopher even complimented our hats!

I tried a Dune Bug cocktail for the first time. It is rum based with midori in it. I have previously avoided it because it contains Creme de Banane (I don't like bananas!) but in the end, the staff were happy to make it with this ingredient omitted, which made me so happy. I was so glad I went for it because it had a lovely, fruity taste to it. And it just goes to show that sometimes if you want something, all you have to do is ask.

So I hope you all enjoyed my mini outfit round-up. Hopefully soon I will be able to get a bit more on top of sharing my outfits. It was great to see Sammi and Shalisa too. I always have a fantastic time when I see them.

Birthday Adventures!

I have recently been out and about a fair bit, as I was celebrating my birthday! It was great catching up with some of my close non-lolita friends in London, and I then had a separate meet last Saturday with Sammi and Shalisa. I then spent my actual birthday with my husband James and we went out on a little adventure of our own.

This was my outfit for my little meet with Sammi and Shalisa. I obtained Rose Toilette by Angelic Pretty a couple of months ago. It is such a lovely dress. I put off getting it for ages, because I have the Bodyline perfume print, but Rose Toilette was definitely worth getting! The pink colour is quite an interesting shade, so I mixed it with some peach coloured items, as they seem to compliment each other quite nicely. Shalisa has warned me that the tea barge we were visiting was small, but I vowed to take off my petticoat if need be! Luckily we actually had plenty of room, so nobody had to witness me panic undressing! I am really happy with how this outfit turned out. The only thing I wish I had done was ditch the ankle socks, as I feel they made my ankles look chunky.

We went to the Whittingtons Tea Barge on the river. It proved to be a lovely little venue, although some road works and a closed pavement meant we had a few issues walking there! We ended up all climbing over this blockade and crossing this blocked off road 5 times because the barge had changed locations to the other side of the river and we didn't realise (that is the only downside of choosing a moving venue). We all had an afternoon tea but most of us switched to elderflower cordial instead of tea. It was quite hot that day and none of us fancied tea. I was quite pleased with how much food I got for the price we paid. It was really delicious too. This barge is the top rated food venue in Reading on Tripadvisor and I can definitely see why!

We encountered this baby goose on the riverside. But despite being very cute, we had to back off as its protective mother looked like it was about to launch at us!

And here is a small group shot from the pub. As you can probably tell from the table, we indulged in some Pimm's! We tried the new strawberry version and it tasted amazing. We were all feeling very drowsy after our afternoon tea, so we ended up lazing in the pub for a few hours. It was all perfectly pleasant until we witnessed this couple doing some very, erm... 'affectionate' PDAs and this guy who kept wheezing on another table! Later on we went to Mr Chips, and instead of just getting bubble tea, we actually tried their chips! (I can confirm they were amazing chips). Eventually we parted ways with Shalisa and the rest of us endured a bunch of drunks on the train home. I am looking forward to seeing Sammi and Shalisa at the next meet!

And a few days later, it was my actual birthday. I went and had another afternoon tea! This time it was just James and I, and we went to The Manor Hotel at Weston on the Green, which is a little drive away from Oxford. 

I have to say that I didn't feel the afternoon tea was worth the price we paid (I did say in a recent post that places in Oxfordshire charge extra just because of the Oxford reputation!) but the food was very yummy. I especially loved the scones which were stuffed full of jam and cream. Just look at how packed they are! The scones were warm and flaky. As somebody who is obsessed with cream, I was very pleased with the generous helping.

Here is the rest of the afternoon tea. It looks quite sparse but actually, there was more than enough food for the 2 of us (this picture doesn't include the 2 scones I had).

What I really loved about this trip was the venue. The hotel was stunning and I really want to spend a night here. James and I spent some time waking around the grounds and taking photos. We spotted a swimming pool and there is even a massive croquet lawn. We didn't feel like having a game though, seeing as we had just eaten.

And this was the outfit I wore for my birthday. I had a hard time deciding how "dressed up" I wanted to look, as there were a lot of guests walking about. I decided to go for a more sweet-classic look and I still kept a few fancier elements and a generous petticoat. This time I tried to use all of the colours in the skirt and attempted to spread them out according to how much the colour appears on the skirt (if that makes sense). I used the peach beret again but switched my white gloves for peach ones and I added lavender flowers to the shoes. I used slightly different tights and a different blouse too.

And these are the lolita-relevant presents I received! I haven't been getting as much lolita stuff recently, as I am currently having storage issues. So I ended up with plenty of new books and DVDs to keep me going instead! I like that James kept the 'royal' theme going with all his lolita purchases. The wrist cuffs are from Stocking Shock, who now let you choose which way up you want the bows. I really love the crown charms and the chains of beads. I think out of all the Stocking Shock cuffs I have, these ones are by far the best. I wasn't sure which colour I wanted, so I asked for both! The Teja Jamilla tights are perfect. The size guide seems pretty fair. I am not at the maximum size for these tights, but I could tell that the tights would stretch a fair amount more. They are pretty opaque when worn, apart from right near the top of my thighs. The tights material is thick and feels soft too. I love the screen printed emblems. They lined up really nicely on my legs when I put them on. So the quality is very good and I would definitely consider getting more tights from Teja Jamilla in the future.

So I ended up having a fantastic time. And thank you again to whoever made me the lolita valentines for my birthday and all the people who texted, messaged me, sent cards and left greetings on my Facebook wall. The messages really meant a lot!

Summer ILD Oxfordshire Lolitas Meet!

Happy Belated International Lolita Day! Shalisa, Sammi and I decided to combine our hosting skills and put on a party for the Oxfordshire Lolitas. We hired the upstairs of the Mitre, as it is a really large venue and there is always a pitcher of Pimm's waiting just downstairs. And we definitely needed the Summery drinks because the weather was hot and lovely.

It felt like ages since I had worn full-on sweet lolita, instead of classic or a more casual take on sweet lolita. So I decided this would be a good time to wear my Sweetie Violet JSK from Angelic Pretty. I teamed it with some of my favourite lavender items and the hat I ordered from Akilya. I used white to break up the pink and lavender, as I felt the colours were a bit overwhelming on their own. It was a light and airy outfit which was perfect for the weather conditions. I curled my real hair instead of wearing a wig. Sadly the curls did not last all day but I was just grateful not to have sweaty wig-head!

As part of the ticket price we provided a buffet. There were also gift bags and many prizes to be won. My Taobao order from last month could not have been timed better! I was quite pleased with how the food turned out. Sammi had made some macarons, which tasted amazing and she also brought along her infamous cous cous (she is the queen of cous cous). It doesn't look a lot in the picture, but I can confirm I was completely stuffed by the end of the day.

We did many different activities including a quiz that Shalisa kindly made. Our guests had to pick out the real brand print names. Some of them were really difficult. I sat this one out because I kept winning and decided to give somebody else a chance!

Next up was the Lolita Assault Course! This was my invention and it is based on etiquette advice given by the English Gothic Lolita Bibles and the silly videos that Misako Aoki has been doing recently about the rules of lolita. Our guests had to do their most composed walk around some cones whilst they had balloons chucked at them. Then they moved on to a posing station, had to sit down in the most considerate manner, tie some waist ties in to a bow, add some sugar to a cup of tea without making a racket and then finish off with giving us their best "lolita laugh". Judging by the reactions, people seemed to enjoy my course, so perhaps it will be making an appearance at a future meet...

And there was also a Pass the Parcel! Samm, Shalisa and I completely forgot how many layers we had wrapped, so it went on a bit longer than anticipated. And the random CD we had borrowed from the Mitre had the most peculiar music choices on it! Somehow we managed to get to the end and eventually Laura won the socks that were inside. Laura said she needed some new socks so I am glad we were able to help!

There was also a cake decorating contest. Some were certainly more inventive than others and everybody voted for the best cake. Laura won this contest as well, with her cute bird themed design (bottom right). There were some really cute designs. At least everybody got to eat cake afterwards.

And then there was Lolita Print Charades. Some of them proved harder than others and I had to omit some very embarrassing photos! There was a cake stand full of mini prizes to be won. Nicola and Hayley did especially well with the charades.

And finally, a group shot (minus both of the Lauras who had to leave a bit early). I really love how there was a nice balance between sweet and classic, as usually one style seems to dominate our meets. Everybody put a lot of effort in to their outfits and a lot of us wore our favourite pieces. I just hope everybody enjoyed themselves.

Afterwards the hosts went to get a drink and wind down. I think we earned it, as we were all exhausted afterwards. I don't think I will be hosting any big meets soon but I am hopeful to see the Oxford group again soon. I had a great time! I hope everybody reading had a great ILD too, no matter what you ended up doing.

Casual Outfit- Plotting and Eurovision!

Today's post is a bit of a quick one because it feels like ages since I last posted anything about my outfits. To be honest, with my holiday and lots of stuff going on, I haven't really been wearing J-fashion much at all. I have vowed to myself to change this soon and give my wardrobe a chance to shine.

To break my J-fashion slump, I have been wearing more casual looks which are not remotely lolita. I am gradually building myself back up to more elaborate outfits where I actually bother to do my hair and make-up properly! I am wearing my DreamV cutsew style dress. I am not sure what style this would even come under, so I am calling it Casual J-fashion, as that is essentially what it is. I was having Sammi and Shalisa over and I didn't want to look out of place. I teamed my dress with my Ciciworks constellation beret and casual black. I would have used my moon embroidery cardigan as well, but it was surprisingly muggy. 

Shalisa and Sammi were pretty casual as well so thankfully I didn't feel out of place! I always have a great time with these 2 anyway, regardless of what we are wearing.

Our little gathering was partly to watch (In other words, laugh at) Eurovision and partly a chance to plan our International Lolita Day meet. The 3 of us are co-hosting and we planned out all the party games and everything else. We ended up getting sweets all over the floor!

We wrapped up a pretty large pass-the-parcel parcel. These sort of things are always more fun to prepare when you do it together! Guests will have to wait for the meet to discover what is inside. We have also come up with some interesting games to play. If lolitas had super powers, mine would be my ability to scare lolitas with only a packet of sugar cubes (as witnessed at Alice Day 2013!) so I predict there is going to be a lot of silliness involved.

Once we had finally got all the meet stuff out of the way, we celebrated with our own Pimm's punch and we watched Eurovision with a pizza takeaway. I have to say, I found this year's Eurovision a bit disappointing, what with all those ballads. The Pimm's definitely made it more interesting though! It had felt like ages since I had last seen Shalisa and Sammi, so I was so grateful to see them. I am looking forward to ILD a lot more knowing we have put this meet together as a team.

Here is a random photo of the last time I wore lolita. This was over a month ago, so I definitely need to resolve this situation, especially seeing as I have been buying a fair few new accessories and some new dresses lately. I am hoping today's post will give me the prompt I need. I love this fashion so much, so it is about time I started enjoying it and actually wear it again!