Hiatus? You Don't Say! LLC #160

     I am literally the worst when it comes to commiting to something, like keeping a blog active. I know, I've missed well over 100 days when it came to my goal of completing the Lifestyle Lolita Challenge, but I've been busy while I was gone, I promise! Over Easter weekend, I attended a convention, I've been working my butt off, and last month, I got a chance to visit Portland! (I also sent my computer in to the shop because the back was broken beyond my abilities.) I spent some time with a friend of mine who used to live in the area, as well as some of the Portland lolitas! It's always a treat to get to meet gals from other communities, and I got a chance to wear one of my newly aquired dream dresses while I was at it, so I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

     In regards to the Lifestyle Lolita Challenge, I won't lie when I say it isn't exactly what I expected when I began it. I had thought the focus would be more on ones' wardrobe or coordinating styles, but some of them, I would say are quite a reach to even be related to lolita (Day #147: Accessorize one of your meals with an ambiance being an example.) So from now on, I may skip several of them, and focus on the challenges more directly related to the fashion. I did miss quite a few days I would have loved to do, so my plan is to hopefully create a few master posts that cover some of those as well!

     For now, I'm jumping back in with Day 160:

Share five facts about your lolita wardrobe.

I'm pretty content with my wardobe right now. It's taken me a long time to get it where it is, and it's not perfect, but I have most of my top-priority dresses, and that's pretty satisfying. It also made this challenge sound like a fun one! I'm hoping I don't sound too braggy, I'm just proud of it, haha.
Fact 1: My wardrobe is a hot mess
It's true that I have no theme, color scheme, or set style, but I have enough items that I can make at least one finished coordinate for every main piece I own, and that's good enough for me.

Fact 2: My wardrobe is worth over¥794,000
That's only my main pieces, at what they were worth when released. A lot of them I have gotten good deals on, so I haven't spent that much, but I was curious to find out what it would be! That does not include blouses, shoes, accessories, etc. With today's conversion rates, that's almost $7,500! Wow!

Fact 3: I use Pinterest to keep track of everything

Not even kidding, I forget what I own sometimes, haha. I still don't have everything on there.

Fact 4: I own more blouses/cardigans/tops than I do main pieces

My count for tops is currently at 51, while my JSKs OPs and Skirts add up to 48 right now. I'm currently in the process of downsizing those because some of the tops don't even get worn. I'm not sure where coats fall in those categories, but there are 10 of those.

Fact 5: My favorite themes are animals and food

At least according to my wardrobe, those are tied for "most common reoccuring theme", followed by flowers and sky stuff. 

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 67

Hello all! I'm sorry about the unexpected hiatus, I had a lot come up in the past month. I wanted to go back and make posts to catch up on all the challenges I've missed, but I'm afraid it would get to be much too overwhelming for me, so I'm picking up on the current day instead. 

Day #67: Share your favorite picture of yourself in lolita.

I really wanted to do this challenge because I don't have the greatest self confidence. I don't find myself photogenic, and can always pick out a million flaws in my photos, so I don't often have a photo that I REALLY like. Instead of picking my favorite photo, I decided to challenge myself to pick out my top three photos of all time!

Number 3:

From Easter a few years ago. It'n not the most perfect photo, but 

I really loved this coordinate.

Number 2:

One of my Birthday coordinates from annual tea at the Brown Palace. 

It's not the fanciest of coordinates, especially compared to more 

recent birthday ones, but I really loved how I looked in this photo, and 

just think it's a nice elegant picture overall.

Number 1:

This is from one of the first times I wore Cat's Tea Party! I had gone to the botanic
gardens for a photoshoot with a friend, and wanted to portray a sort of fairy princess
 look. There's a few things Iwould change about the coordinate now, but I think this
photo captures the sort of look I was going for.

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 34

Day 34: Watch a homemade lolita video.

Since January's wardrobe posts are finally over, I decided to watch a few wardrobe videos on youtube! Since te challenge mentions only one, I decided to share my good friend Jamie's! This is her first time making any sort of wardrobe post. Feel free to check it out!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 33

Day 33: Go back in time to the first iterations of lolita webstores.

So, orginally I was planning on going back in time to Angelic Pretty's original webstore, or find some sort of reference to the old days when they were still "Pretty", but me searching skills have rendered me useless on this challenge, haha. Instead, enjoy the very first capture of Angelic Pretty's English site, back from October of 2007!

Gotta love that oldschool art! I still print off the coloring page version of this every once in a while!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 32

Whew, I made it to February, and got caught up just in time! 

Day 32: Write about your perfect Valentine's Day lolita meet.

While I'm always kind of on the fence about how I feel when it comes to Valentine's Day, I always love the aesthetic of it! Lots of heart and flower motifs, and red and pink! I think my perfect Valentine's Day meet would have to be something along the lines of an afternoon tea in a cute rose garden! Everyone could exchange handmade valentines, and baked goods! There's already a Valentine's Day meet scheduled for my comm this year, we're going to a free day at the doll museum, and exchanging valentines with everyone like we did in grade school! It'll be lots of fun, but perhaps one year I'll have to make that rose garden tea a reality!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 31

Day 31: Browse through the latest wardrobe posts on egl.

Since I've been working on my wardrobe post this last month, I've been checking back on egl occasionally as well, to see everyone else's posts, and to inspire myself to post as well. I loved seeing all the different ways that people came up with to show off their wardrobes! As January comes to a close, I decided to share a few of my favorite wardrobes that I've seen. ❤

These are all recently added to cgl since there's so many, they aren't all the wardobes I enjoyed, but just a couple!

Iowngameware's Mint Chocolate Wardrobe- Lots of chocolate and mint, one of my favorite color combos! I also like all the details taken for each piece.

Themugence's Sweet & Chocolate Wardrobe- Her style is a bit similar to mine, so I enjoyed her wardrobe quite a bit. There's also lots of detail shots of her room, which is super cute!

Raine Dragon's Huge Wardrobe- I love that she included a reference for each item so it was easy to find on lolibrary (Makes added it to your own wishlist easier!) I also like the way she formatted the photos. I get bored of scrolling when it's one item for each row, so I felt like this was a bit easier for me to look at, especially with so many pieces!

If you made a wardrobe post of your own, please share it with me! I'd love to check them out!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 30

Day 30: Tidy your closet.

I've actually been in the process of doing this right now! For the last month, I've been digging through all of my things, lolita-related or not, and doing a complete overhaul of everything I own. So far, I have at least 8 bags of things to give away or donate. Of course, I'm not quite finished, but here's a glimpse of my closet at the moment, and this is after I've already cleared a lot out! 

Blouses and skirts are to the left, JSKs and OPs to the right.
Up top is wig heads, bags, and hats, and shoes are everywhere!

The hardest things for me to get rid of are my stuffed animals, and my lolita things, and since I'm too torn on what frills to part with, I decided I needed to get rid of some stuffed animals at least! While it was really tough, I'm proud of myself for making these decisions, and de-cluttering my life a little bit. I'll likely donate anything that isn't lolita or BJDs to a local shelter after my friends have a look through them!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- day 29

Sorry I'm a bit behind, it's been a bit crazy the past few days!

Day 29: Write a letter to yourself 5 years from now.

I honestly got stuck on this one, besides certain events that have happened lately, and wanting to do this challenge properly, I haven't been able to keep up! I plan to write an actual letter to myself, on some cute stationary I have lying around that I never get to use, and seal it up for me to read later down the road. Since I haven't had chance to write one proper, I guess I'll use this as a bit of a placeholder until I can. That way I can get caught up with the challenges as well! As for in the future, I'd definitely be interested to see what I've done with my life. At the moment, I'm still in that phase of deciding what I want to be when I grow up, haha. I'm also interested to see how my lolita style will have changed throughout the years! I'm not sure of everything I will ask myself, but I'll be sure to report back when I'm finished!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 28

Day 28: Learn how to prepare a new entrée.

This one is going to be brief. I had an endoscopy done today, and I'm still feeling a bit under from it. While it's not an entrée, a couple days ago, I did try out a recipe for macarons! I recieved a kit for them over Christmas, so I decided to give it a try. Sadly, they didn't turn out and all flattened during the baking process, so I'll have to try again soon, but they still tasted good! I gave the macarons a little strawberry flavoring, and filled them with a strawberry marshmallow creme, inspired by the Strawberry Guimauve macarons from Ladurée that I got to try while in London! If they turn out next time, I'll be sure to share a photo with you!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 27

Day 27: Look up the performance schedule for your local orchestra.

I admit, I've never been to the orchestra before! I prefer something a little more visual, but I have heard good things about the Colorado Symphony, so I took a look at their website. Sadly most of their performances are on weekends, which aren't good days for me since usually when I have a weekend off, I have a meet or other plans already. It'd be super cool to see a performance one day though! The one that looked most interesting to me was their performance of music from Harry Potter! I love the series, and think it would be awesome to see them perform it live!

Photo from the Colorado Symphony

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 26

Day 26: Photograph your newest lolita purchase.

Technically, I wasn't the one who purchased it, since it was a Christmas gift from my mom, but my most recent piece is Le Petit Prince- My Tiny Horoscope Rosé JSK in Blue from Alice and the Pirates! The Little Prince is one of my favorite books, so I got extremely excited when I found out they were releasing this print. There's actual pictures from the book printed inside the stars!

The JSK! I didn't realize one of the edges had flipped until I uploaded the photos, haha.

Illustrations from the book! My favorite illustration is the one of him flying with the birds,
you can see part of it on the right side, but it takes up two stars.

The little star charm is adorable! Such a cute detail.

A clock with both names round the edges, and a constellation of an elephant being eaten by a boa constrictor.
The fox is also one of the constellations, along with a few other charaters from the book!

If you couldn't tell, I really love this JSK!

I also recently added Mallorca Cutsew OP in Lavender, and the Dramatic Rose Special Set JSK in pink, both from Angelic Pretty, to my wardrobe when I visted San Francisco back in December. I got a cardigan from BTSSB, and a couple cutsews from AP as well!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 25

Day 25: Spare some time for an indulgent wash.

     Okay, this one I found a bit weird, haha. I don't take baths, mostly because I'm too tall to fit in most bathtubs, but I do like to take long showers. I'll take time to reflect on my day or the past or whatever's on my mind, and I like to use a sugar scrub to scrub it away! 

     I guess I'll also share my favorite body wash while I'm at it. The Sugar Crush scent by Soap & Glory is my absolute favorite, and I use the body wash, body butter, and just about whatever over product thatcomes in that scent! It smells a bit like key lime pie, but I'm not usually a fan of key lime, so I'm not sure what it is that attracts me to the scent. There's just something about it that I really love!

365 Daily Lolita Challenge- Day 24

Day 24: Wear something with lace.

So, I cheated on this challenge a little bit. I had today off from work, but instead of going out, I decided to finally get around to photographing my wardrobe for EGL's annual wardrobe theme! I didn't get a chance to wear lace, but I did bury myself in it all day! I'll be sure to share my post with you guys once it's all finished too!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 23

Day 23: Learn about a renegade princess.

This challenge was a bit fun since I actually enjoy history. On the challenge, it suggests trying out Rejected Princesses, which talks about a lot of cool women throughout history who do things a bit out of the norm. While I read through a few, my favorite article was on Dr. Gisella Perl, who was a prisoner in Auschwitz during WWII. She was forced to become a doctor for the camp, and ended up having to prevent pregnant women in the camp from giving birth in order to save them from becoming guinea pigs for all sorts of tests they practiced there. When she was later freed, she became a well known gynecologist, and put effort towards helping as many babies as she could to make up for what happened during the war. It's not a recommended read if stuff like that makes you uncomfortable at all, but if you have interest in Holocaust survivors and their stories, it's definitely interesting.

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day22

Wow! I made it three weeks into the challenge! I'm pretty proud of how I'm doing, and a bit surprised I haven't given up yet, to be honest, haha. 

Day 22: Share a favorite book that other lolitas might like.

While technically a children's book, I honestly cannot stop recommending this book to people, because it's one of my favorite books of all time. If you ever get the chance, please read The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. 

Image from goodreads.com

It's a story of a pilot whose plane goes down in the Sahara Desert, and is greeted by a Prince who comes from the stars. I don't want to share too much, but the book talks about the Prince's travels, and how he managed to end up in the desert. I really love ths book, and I feel like it could fit with lolita easily. Both Haenuli, and Alice and the Pirates have made prints based off the story! (And of course I own them both, haha.) A movie adaption was also released in some countries at the end of last year, and is making it's way to the US in the next couple months.

The Little Prince series from BTSSB/ AATP

The Little Prince by Haenuli

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 21

Day 21; Doodle your current dream print.

Whew! I barely had time to finish this challenge today! I managed to whip up a quick sketch, though it's not my greatest work, I promise I'll still share it with you guys. I haven't drawn anything in a while, so I'm a little rusty, haha. It's not a dream print per se, but currently, my top wislist item is Angelic Pretty's Melty Cream Donuts in Ivory. I'm hoping this is the year I get my hands on it!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 20

I'm not gonna lie, I suck at writing these little intro blurbs, haha. Does anyone read these anyway? I may skip them and go straight into the challenge from now on to make things a little easier for myself. Also, new blog design! yay! I wanted t make things a little more simple, and keep it easy on the eyes!

Day 20: Look up the performance schedule for your local ballet.

So, coming up in February, our local ballet will actually be performing Alice in Wonderland! Our community is holding a meet for it, but I have to work that day, and would be cutting it super close to the time the performance would start, so I may have to go and see the show a different day. It looks super cute however, and I would definitely love to see it!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 19

Whoops! I usually finish the challenges at night and schedule them to post during the day, but I accidentally schedule this one on the wrong day! Sorry about the tardiness! Here's day 19.

Day 19: Photograph your handwriting.

I wasn't sure what else to write, so I wrote down my current lolita wishlist for this challenge!

There's a few items missing from it! Lots of Angelic Pretty though, and lots of blue and ivory. I usually keep track of my wishlist on Pinterest. It's super easy to add new items and switch them over to a "bought" list once you aquire them, plus you get to see pictures instead of just looking at the titles!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 18

Day 18 is here! How is everyone coming along with their challenges? 

Day 18: Learn how to press flowers

This is another easy day for me, because I've done it before! I scrapbook every once in a while, and when i go on trips, I like to take a couple local flowers, and press them to add them to my book! I even had some gorgeous ones from when I visited Scotland last year, but sadly, they seemed to have disappeared on the trip home. Instead, here's some primrose I picked in South Dakota. I believe these are about 2 years old now?

I pressed some flowers I had recieved for my birthday from one of my friends as well, but it ended up crumbling before I got it into my book. Next time I get my hands on some flowers, I'll definitely try again!

365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge- Day 17

Day 17 is here! 

Day 17: Make a travel wishlist.

This challenge is one I'm particularly fond of! Travelling is one of my favorite things next to lolita. I've been all over the United States, and last year, I was lucky enough to leave the country for the first time on a trip to Ireland and the UK! Of course, I have many more places I want to visit, but I'll just share some big destinations, or I may drag this post on forever.

• Versailles, Moulin Rouge, Disneyland Paris, and BTSSB in France
• Rottenburg, Dresden, and Berlin in Germany
• Redwood Forest in Northern California, and Portland, Oregon
• Harajuku, Sanrio Puroland, and Tokyo Disney Sea in Japan
• Prince Edward Island, and Edmonton in Canada
• Disney World in Florida!

Of course, there's a million other places I'd like to visit,or even revisit, but these are a few I would like to knock off the list. Perhaps I'll even meet of with some of the local lolita comms along the way!