Calendar Plans

Well, I mentioned a while ago that my major goal for this year is to produce a lolita calendar for the year 2010! I've decided on the themes I've assigned for each month, so I figure I should list them here on EdP:

January: Space, stars, planets, New Year
February: Valentine's Day, sweet lolita, hearts, love
March: St. Patrick's Day, green and gold (In celebration of my brash Irishness)
April: Country lolita, gingham, blue and yellow
May: Flower-themed classic lolita, pale pinks, yellows, and greens
June: Hime lolita, crowns, royalty
July: Sailor lolita, sea, blue and white
August: (My birth month! Therefore assigned the best) Pirate lolita, treasure
September: Ero lolita, sexy, in order to stave off hatred for school
October: Halloween, costumes (Alice in Wonderland), pumpkins, autumn
November: Gothic lolita, red and black
December: Christmas, festive, snow

So hopefully I will be able to handle it! I've always wanted to do my own calendar, since I faithfully keep up with one every year (this year was Speed Racer <3) My major problem right now is figuring out which style in which to draw each month. It's a difficult thing, since my regular style isn't very cutesy, and that's what I want the calendar to be like. But I'm working diligently on it! I'll also need to find a fairly inexpensive, quality printer for the calendars. No rubbish like cafepress. But the plans are in motion!

The ballet awaits!

_{(Image: My design for my Royal Ballet JSK. I really love the crown theme, can you tell?)}

There will be a Boston Lolita Society meetup in about a month! It's awfully exciting, planning my outfit, thinking about what we'll be doing. This time it's a trip to the ballet! Sleeping Beauty in Boston, accompanied by dinner and a night out. I've never been to the ballet, but it's always intrigued me, so I'm anticipating it greatly!

I decided that I wanted a dress all my own. My first choice was the Beranger JSK by Mary Magdalene, shown in the post below. However, I'd need to get it commissioned with my measurements, and it would be both too costly and time-consuming in order for me to be ready in a month. Fortunately, I have a dress pattern with a nice shape lying around, and a very generous, lovely aunt, and an imagination!

My Royal Ballet JSK with sash and headbow will be made of red empress velveteen, which is a lightweight velveteen and good for spring and autumn. Trimmings are of a sheer gold fabric, and I bought gold glass pearly to adorn it with. I will screen print my own crown design onto it myself, having had a good deal of practice in the past. I will also need to make three bows of varying sizes, so hopefully it won't all be a disaster.

I think t here's nothing more fun than designing my own lolita dresses! It's really a blast, deciding where frills and bows should go. Hopefully I'll leave a good impression!

And now...art!

_{(Image: It's gonna be Valentine's Day soon! This is really a picture of me in my dream dress, the Beranger one piece from Mary Magdalene. Happy V-Day everyone! <3)}

I have decided to turn this into a Lolita Art Blog! I don't have much to add to the fashion aspect of the subculture, but art is something I can do (maybe not as well as I could hope, but it's still a skill I try to hone). I also hope to keep this thing more frequently updated, and I plan on making more lolita illustrations as part of my New Year's resolution of upping my productivity. Take that, laziness!

Hopefully I'll even be able to use my cafepress shop, which I registered like, four years ago :/ Even if no one else buys anything, I'd really love to own a cute lolita mug or something. My biggest plan is a 2010 calendar, which I got the idea for this past December. Here's hoping.

So! A blog devoted entirely to lolita art, I hope I don't get cramps drawing all those frills D:

Fruit in lolita

When you think about it, lolita can be kind of food-centric. Sweets and fruits are the most popular candidates, of course (who would wear a dress with a roast ham or something on it?). Of the fruits, strawberries seem to be the most popular choice, though. I think they're overdone, and they aren't even that sweet when compared to others.

Over the summer, I came up with so many ideas for fruit-centric lolita outfits and accessories. My favorite by far was the peach, because of course it's my favorite fruit and it is super cute and sweet. Pear was another top candidate, mostly because green is considered a commodity in lolita. Raspberries, green apples, plums, and blueberries were the other ones I liked. I'm not really familiar with the native fruits of Japan, but I certainly wonder why a lot of different fruits haven't been represented in the many prints and designs available.

Angelic Pretty's Fruit Parlor design sort of hit upon the fruits thing. From what I can tell (through looking at pictures, I don't own anything in this print myself) there's a pretty good representation of different fruits...and sweets of course XD Angelic Pretty is pretty well-renowned for their use of food. Metamorphose had a whole apple line (I actually got to see one OP in person, it was super cute). Baby doesn't dabble too much in food, but there's the occasional print or accessory from them.

The reason I bring up my surprise at the lack of fruit designs is that they would be so easy to coordinate in the west! Walk into any Claire's or cheap jewelry shop, there's a ring, pair of earrings, necklace, and bracelet for most basic fruits. Probably no raspberries or peaches, but apples and cherries are bountiful. I'm planning a cherry outfit right now, and there's so much out there, it's crazy.

I plan on making a series of short comics about three lolita characters named Peach, Plum, and Apricot eventually. Maybe I can attempt to stir up some fruit love! Besides, what would Enfant de Pêche be without the pêche?

Winter time

_{(Image: Superhero lolita! I desperately wanted to design Supergirl and Batgirl as lolitas, and translating their outfits was fun. I really want to make and wear these outfits now XD)}

Oh winter, when thoughts turn to romance, snuggling up in front of a warm fire drinking hot chocolate and eggnog, walking outside wrapped in many layers, enjoying the drifting snow in the mounting darkness with a loved one. Truthfully, I don't do any of those things. I tend to spend winter wrapped in my pajamas cursing the ice that cakes the sidewalks. Not very romantic, but single people don't have to be.

One way that I want to be romantic (barely) is by concocting a new coordinate to go along with Christmas! (And not "the holidays," I'm not even Christian and the only one I celebrate is Christmas. If someone wants to make a Hanukkah coordinate, I would love to see it, but this is Christmas colors) And so I spent most of yesterday picking through websites and I finally decided on a cheap, enjoyable ensemble. And so the list goes:

• One-piece red dress from Anna House - $75
  
• Red and white Hot Topic Mary Janes - $17 (on clearance!)
  
• In the Starlight headbow - $13 (this is tentative, I usually change my mind on headwear a million times before I settle)
  
• White knee-high Baby, the Stars Shine Bright socks - $35
  
• In the Starlight white eyelet lace bloomers - $22 (I still need bloomers D:)

Outfit total comes to $162, not including shipping charges. I haven't even picked out a necklace or other accessories. Hopefully I'll be able to get most of this stuff second hand or through group orders. I hope I can get some extra money together to buy this before any winter meetups, I still need to sell a few ill-fitting blouses.

I can't wait to see other coordinates for the winter season! As grey as everything gets, it's still so fun to see how people dress, and I have a feeling the lolita community isn't going to disappoint. I wish I had the scratch for a nice coat to go with my cute stuff, but those are expensive buggers. I guess I'll just go with my marshmallow coats XD New England winters are brutal.

That said, I hope I'll be able to fit into that stuff after Thanksgiving. I think my mom's baking five pies for godssake. And I have no will power.

Of Halloween and Harley Quinn

_{(Image: Me in my Harley Quinn costume! On two different nights, my first mask kinda sucked so I makeuped it on the second night. Looked way better 8D)}

And first to answer Adriana's comment (which is so weird to me because I'm usually commenting with stupid crap on Super Future Friends 8D), Lolita is like a super calculated process when it comes to ordering ANYTHING, since sizes are really different from country to country and Japanese people tend to be super small compared to us westerners. Anna House is great for a lot of reasons, including reasonable prices (for lolita clothes of course, rarely would you find me buying a skirt for $50 in any other style), the custom-sizing system (which is sweet for us with "hella boobs" XD), and the good communication. I didn't place the order myself, I joined a group order, but it was still handled really smoothly. Since the blouse I ordered had to be custom made, it took two weeks longer than usual, but I'm assuming that if I had ordered on my own it would have taken about three weeks to get my items. And thus, I hope that helps you buy something, because we need more lolita superhero fans. 8D

So Halloween was overall a success! My costume went well, even if there were a couple of malfunctions along the way. Didn't see too many Jokers during my time as Harley, which is a bit of a letdown, you'd think loads of people would wanna jump on the bandwagon. Went to the school Halloween Ball on the 31st, and went to costume night at Club 313 the day after where I was complimented by drag queens and a Man Fairy. Good time.

Yesterday I went to Boston Comic Con. I got there really late so I could only stay about 2 hours :( Enough time for me to get a sweet Superman action figure, though. At one point I took a photo with Batman (who was in a group with some other awesome cosplayers), who asked for my email to send the photo to. He also asked if I'd be interested in doing that sort of photo-op at comic conventions as Batgirl or Harley Quinn, and I said I'd have to think about it, because as awesome as that would be, that particular group goes all around the area and I'm still in school. The Joker handed me their business card, and their website is FalseFace.net. I would totally be Barbara if I had a good enough costume, my Batgirl last year is not only unoriginal, but a really poor representation of the character. I'd love to do the animated series version of the costume, and I have a feeling I'd have to make that too. Plus, their Harley was sooooo cute, and I wouldn't dare to wrestle in on her territory.

I am definitely doing lolita for Anime Boston in March, though :P

At long last

_{(Image: Finally, an actual outfit of mine! Outfit: Blouse, skirt/Anna House; Shoes/Montreal; headdress/In the Starlight; Petti/Candy Violet; Socks/Offbrand)}

At last! An outfit post. This is my Anna House outfit, courtesy of a group order that was placed a while ago. I apologize for my hair, I spent about an hour trying to curl it and it's gone in less than five minutes. At least it's got a little more body than normal. Haha, I'm going swimming with my friends tonight, it'll be gone soon anyway.

Halloween is in one more week! I'll be sure to post my costume, which will hopefully be around on Tuesday or Wednesday. It'll be a hoot! No idea what my plans are past going to the dance, but I suppose I'll have to find things to do in my sweet threads.

Not much more to speak of, but you can always check my livejournal for really mundane, everyday things :D