I haven’t shared a lot of videos here lately! I thought this one would be pretty interesting to post. It’s a “Lolita Transformation” they’ve been pretty popular videos around Youtube for a while now and I thought I’d try my hand at it. This is basically my standard makeup routine and a bit of hair styling and accessorizing. The video description has a list of products I use if you’re curious! Also, feel free to subscribe to my channel if you want to see videos more regularly. I’ll try and post them here more often! They’re a lot of fun to make.

Atrocious picture skills aside, Moitie’s designs are normally tasteful and pretty. So you can imagine my surprise when I happened upon this. Oh yeah. That’s essentially a tie-dyed aristocrat blouse. There’s also this:

Awesome picture of Mana posing strangely with terrible flash. Oh Mana, never change.

• JSK & Shoes: Bodyline
• Bow & necklace: Handmade
• Bracelets: Charming Charlie
• Rings: Forever 21 & Handmade
• Shrug: Target
• Socks: Sock Dreams

So I went to see John and Hank Green of vlogbrothers fame last week, and this is what I wore! I had a great time, and it was so amazing to meet them. Here’s a closeup of my necklace:

“DFTBA” stands for “Don’t Forget to be Awesome” if you’re not familiar with the vlogbrothers. I heartily recommend their videos if you haven’t watched them already!

Overall I’m really happy with this outfit, I’ve been wanting to mix things up with some lavender for a while now, and I love the way it looks with the black x white.

• Make sure you want to run a panel. If the idea of public speaking makes your knees turn to jelly, this is definitely not the gig for you. If you’re very new to the fashion, it’s probably also not the best idea. Make sure that the dates of the con are free for you as much as you possibly can.
• Decide what kind of panel you want to run! There’s a lot of options as far as panels go. I think the easiest to run is a general intro to lolita panel, it’s a good panel to start out with if you haven’t done anything like this before. I’ve done a budget panel and also a lolita social, which was kind of like a meetup. I’ve seen people run tea parties, but make sure to pay attention to your con’s rules as far as food goes and make sure to bring enough of it if it’s okay! I’ve heard about Iron Lolita panels, which is where you separate contestants into teams and have them make “lolita” outfits out of things like duct tape, toilet paper, etc. You could also cover multiple Japanese fashions if you’re into others, or focus specifically on one facet of lolita like lifestyle or making your own lolita. You could even plan a full fashion show if you’re ambitious. There’s endless options, it’s really just all up to you and your preferences!
• Help? After you’ve decided what sort of panel you’re going to do, you’ll need to decide what kind of help you need. Do you need panelists to answer questions? If you’re a bit nervous about public speaking, it might help to have a few friends up with you to make you feel more comfortable and talk when you feel stuck. If you’re looking into any sort of fashion show scenario or any larger operation like an Iron Lolita panel, you’ll need some volunteers to help organize things! Your local lolita community is a great source for that, or if there’s not much of one you can try asking around the convention forums.
• Technology. So now that you’ve got your panel idea and your helpers, you’re going to need to figure out what sort of tech you’ll be using. My local con has a little check list when you sign up for the panel of tech stuff you’ll need, but it’s a good idea to think about before you get to that point. Most of the time they’ll have microphones and a projector set up, but you’ll need to bring your own laptop and make sure all the cords they have are compatible. If you’ll be needing audio or anything else more specific, make sure to keep that in mind when signing up.
• Practice! Especially if you’re doing the panel by yourself. This is a great way to see if your timing is good and also to see if your powerpoint flows well if you’re using one. If your panel is an hour long panel, I’d suggest having your presentation be about 35-40 minutes. That gives you time for questions at the end and for the panel after you to have some set-up time.
• Time is a really important consideration when signing up for a panel. I try to have a list of cosplay photoshoots that I’m planning on participating in before going to sign up for a potential panel time if I can. Try to avoid any major events like Cosplay, and if you’re staying in a hotel try and rule out check-out time (I’ve done that a couple of times, stressful as hell). Friday can be a little hit-or-miss because a lot of convention traffic is high schoolers and they won’t be there until the afternoon, so if you’re doing a panel while school is still in session keep that in mind. Other than that I find that most other panel times are pretty good. Sundays are nice because there’s less going on, but I’ve had panels work just as well on a Friday night or Saturday.
• Sign up! Most panels have an online form set up for people who want to do panels. It varies from con to con when it goes online, just pay attention to their website is my best advice. It might also be a good idea to do a post on the con’s forums about what you’re planning to do or at least skim over the posts to make sure there’s not a panel that’s the exact same as yours already in the works.

Whew! That’s a lot of information all at once, I know. I hope this was useful, and look out for the other half of this series soon!

So a month or so ago my friend Derin called me up and told me she found my dream dress! She is Sleeping from Baby has been on my wish list since it came out in 2006, so I was thrilled to finally have it. I got a chance to wear it this past weekend at Ichibancon, here’s the coord I put together:

• JSK: Baby
• Belt: Meta
• Headband: Claires
• Tights: Target
• Bag: H&M
• Shoes: Some department store

I’m pretty pleased with how my outfit came out! I wanted something a little more hime style, so I did my hair to match. I’m really happy with how it looked and it stayed pretty curly all day. I just cannot get over how lovely this dress is. The design on the bottom is all applique and embroidery. Here’s a few closeups:

(Click for bigger!)

I also hung out with Pikachu for a while. The con was pretty fun! It’s still small, but the panels we went to were good and I picked up this guy at the dealers room:

These Arpakasso alpacas have been all over Tumblr, so I was really excited to find one at the con. It’s so fluffy and cute :D

Favorite Fancy Outfit:

This was something a little more gothy and different than I normally wear, and I really enjoyed wearing it! Best of all it was comfy, I love me some comfy outfits.

Favorite Casual Outfit:

It’s got R2D2 in it, need I say more? Seriously though, I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable wearing my nerd stuff with lolita this year, and I’m hoping to continue that trend in the new year!

Cool stuff I did this year: 

• Went to Colorado! Family vacation to visit my brother, took some lovely pictures of mountains :D
• Grew my hair out! It’s grown like half a foot. I’m hoping to continue this, I’d like to get better at styling my own hair. Of course knowing me I’ll probably just chop it off in a year or so haha.
• Wrote a novel! Well kind of. I don’t think I mentioned it here, but I participated in NaNoWriMo this year and made it to 50,000 words! It’s terrible, but it’s novel-length terrible haha.
• Started vlogging! It’s been kind of tricky keeping up with it, but I’ve really enjoyed learning about making videos :D
• Got addicted to Charming Charlie! No seriously. BUY ALL THE ACCESSORIES. I’ve been trying to expand my jewelry collection and I think it’s worked pretty well! I still want more though haha.
• Expanded my wardrobe! Of course. I’ve added quite a few more skirts, and got my first dresses from h.Naoto and Angelic Pretty!
• Read 50 books! This was one my one resolution, and I just barely made it! If you’d like to see what books I read and what I thought of them, there’s a list over here.

It’s been kind of a rough year to be honest. Losing my Grandfather has been very hard on my family, and most of the summer was very hectic and stressful. But making it to the end of the year always feels like a bright shiny new slate to me, so I have a lot of hopes for 2012. How has your year been, dear readers?

• OP: Emily Temple Cute
• Cardigan & Bag: H&M
• Tights: ?
• Shoes: Bodyline
• Bracelet: Chocomint
• Bow: Bodyline

I got this cardigan years ago and haven’t worn it very much because it’s a little tricky to coordinate. Grey isn’t that common in lolita, and I certainly haven’t had much grey stuff in the past. I have no idea why I hadn’t worn it with this dress yet though, the card suits match the Alice print perfectly! The little hints of red were a last minute idea, I had just finished altering my rhs a day or two before and wanted to test them out. They held up perfectly, but if I wore this outfit again I’d add a few more red accessories to balance things out a bit.

I’m currently battling a cold, so while I’m all cooped up in bed I’m planning to do another year in review post so look out for that!

• JSK: Handmade
• Cardigan: Forever 21
• Bag: Baby
• Shoes: Bodyline
• Necklace: Chocomint
• Pin: Her Universe

Okay so this wasn’t worn today, but I thought it was only fitting to post on Christmas! I actually wore this for Wear Star Wars, Share Star Wars Day, which also coincided with a Christmas party. Here’s a closeup of the festive R2 pin on my hat:

I hope you all are having wonderful winter holidays with family and friends! I’m off to enjoy some pumpkin pie :D

Today I embarked on a little alteration that made me very nervous. Above is a picture of my Bodyline rocking horse shoes. I love the look of the straps wrapping up the legs, but they never stayed up! I tried a few of different methods of keeping them up. Sock glue and double sided tape did no good whatsoever, and safeypins worked but ruined a pair of socks. So, I decided to chop the straps off.

First I attempted to pick off the original velcro, which didn’t work because it was actually glued on under the stitching. So I cut pieces of velcro I had around and estimated where I needed to sew it.

This is the most important thing if you’re doing this, make sure to check where each piece of velcro hits because the straps will not be even in length. The way they wrap and cross over each other means that there’s going to be a slight difference in length, so just measuring the same length on each isn’t going to work when they’re this short.

I sewed each piece on and was pleased to find that my sewing machine had no problem sewing through the straps and velcro.

Once both pieces of Velcro were sewn on I tested them out to make sure the shorter straps would support my ankle well enough. Then I cut the straps!

Dun dun dun! That was definitely the most nerve wracking step. I knew that if I had just sewn velcro on and something didn’t work out I could always just pick out the seams and remove the velcro. But once they are cut, there’s nothing you can do!

And here are my finished shoes! I’m so happy with them, the straps are much more manageable now. It was a pretty unnerving procedure but totally worth it.

The first piece that caught my eye was this clever little OP. I love the simple design with the lovely overlay. The lace makes little lattice bars that mimic a cage skirt, complete with a little bird screenprint. I love how simple it is, and the little bird detail makes me smile!

Another simple but beautiful piece is this military inspired jsk. I love the little details in the collar and the slightly sloping bodice!

But where Shortcake Poodle really excels is their beautiful (and sometimes a little crazy) headwear!

Faux deer fur is like the thing to have lately, and Shortcake Poodle utilizes it really well with their charming fur headdress. What’s that you say? That thing on the right? Oh well that’s just a book headdress. That’s right. A book to put on your head. Awesome and ridiculous.

On the left is a lovely little birds nest hair clip. I just love how much detail they packed into one little piece! Did you notice that the little bird is wearing a crown? Too cute! On the right are some present box hats! I love that the tops are slightly askew so little candies can peek out.

That’s just a little bit of what they have to offer, so feel free to browse around their website and their blog to see what other goodies they make!