The Midnight Ballroom

Of sweet red witchery and sheep

2012-02-13T02:29:00.000-05:00

Last night I went with a friend to a Valentine's event in Koreatown, called Shibuya Lovers Night. I was still recovering from lack of sleep, but it was fun people-watching. They were very all prettily dressed. The event had a sort of a cute yet morbid theme, which I think Valentine's Day lends itself to very well. Not morbid exactly, just...gothy? Anyway. Like Sweet and Gothic loli combined.

They also had some amazing chandeliers, like the one that was maybe ten or twelve feet tall (the ceiling was really, really high) and made of a million little prisms, so it was all rainbow-strewn and sparkly. If I figure out how to get pictures from my phone onto here, I'll show you.

However, I do have a picture or two (finally!). I discovered the one place in my house that is currently fit to be seen--my bedroom. Which is conveniently where my Versailles poster is, so I sat on the bed for what felt like a very "portrait" style outfit snap. In this you finally get to see the bat dress worn, along with my first successful headdress. I love headdresses! *sigh....*

I felt either like a willful whimsical doll, or a very fancy witch in this outfit. It was marvelous. I wore my cloak too, which made it more witchy. Oh! And there's my Sheepie (also known as Annabelle Lee), whom you can see there beside me. Since she was there, I thought she'd make a fun addition to the portrait.

Also: a makeup shot, because I finally managed to do something I've been wanting to since I started lolita. I had seen a beautiful makeup tutorial on egl in which the eyes were painted in a vivid red or blue on the inner half of the lid, and then black on the outside. I went with red-black and blue-silver, which was a bit more vivid than you can see here.

I didn't quite manage to finish my dress this weekend, but I brought it with me to do some handsewing. Because with out all the subtle elaborate embellishments, it's just meaningless frills. Yes, I made a Kamikaze Girls reference. It even fits, because I plan to embroider on it along with other elaborations.

So, I shall retire from your lovely company for now, and bid you a fair midnight. Does that work, grammatically I mean? I say it does. Yes.

Of short updates

2012-02-08T06:05:00.000-05:00

This weekend I meant to take some in-progress pictures of of my new dress, but spent that time sewing it instead...which makes sense I suppose. Anyway, I don't have the lovely exciting frills and flourishes on the dress yet, so hopefully next weekend, when I'm closer to that point, I can post more interesting pictures.

Also, I just discovered a blogger Valentine's Day event, which seems very gothy and darkly romantic, as it involves vampires. You can bet I'll be joining in.

Oh dear, it's 3 AM and I have classes at 11 tomorrow, so I suppose I should sleep now. But I didn't want to leave you update-less much longer, even if I don't have pretty pictures quite yet. Anyway, have a merry Wednesday!

Of Brands that READ MY MIND

2012-01-21T16:39:00.000-05:00

Winter quarter has started and I'm still getting my new routine under control, so thanks for being patient with the delay! I hope everyone had a good winter holiday.

Sadly I have no camera with me, so this will be a bit of a shorter update. But anyway, since this quarter promises to be rather busy, I made a list of my creative goals and it's hanging from my shelf now, so that might be a nice concise anecdotal summary of my plans. Those of my plans that my Ballroom guests might care about, that is.

"List of fun endeavors in case of hima toki! [free time]

--Etsy
--Crafting
--Blog
--Songs
--Write
--urzai"

Bet you can't guess which one I'm doing now. Oh, also, "Urzai" refers to my favorite Avatar pairing, meaning that I need to update this one story (okay, fanfic) I have that centers on them.

It just occurs to me though that I forgot to write a Very Important Goal which is: make more lolita! I'm planning to make a dress heavily inspired by AatP's La Fee de Rose Noire (I've linked you to a post dedicated to this dress on akumaxkami's blog, Les Fleurs Noires). From the name, "Black Rose Fairy," to the opulent ethereal design to...to just about everything, I'm completely in love. It's rare that I find my "dream style" of lolita in the brands, but in case you were wondering, this is it. Well maybe not the lace overlay at the very top (though it's pretty), and I plan to change the roses on the bodice to black ones (of course). But seriously, when I first saw this dress I felt like Momoko did when she first lays eyes on a dress from BtSSB, which promptly slays her old self.

I think I'll leave you with that, and hopefully an update with pictures will be forthcoming!

Of cloaks at last

2011-12-17T00:49:00.000-05:00

Happy Loli Day to all of you! I've had flu for a while, but knowing it was ILD did lend a festive air to that particular sick day.

I'll be out of town for a while after this, but I may have time to update so I'll try to do that. We're going where the winter is colder than in California (though it does get chilly here, don't get me wrong) so this year, instead of looking for a winter coat, I fulfilled a long held dream and made a cloak! I showed you fabric pictures before, but here are some worn pics.

It isn't perfect, but I love this cloak. It's so gorgeous and warm. In fact I'm wearing it right now, "because I can."

Recently I've also put a lot of my time into crocheting accessories to (I hope) sell at the next swap meet. These aren't quite finished, but I thought I'd show you what I have so far.

~Two different chokers (they're supposed to involve beading lace, but I haven't added the ribbon yet)

~Wrist cuffs (from two different sets) and a headpiece.

It is a bit tedious but I like how they're turning out. Sometimes I've been crocheting while watching anime, or documentaries about space. I am such a space nerd. Did you know that our lovely moon was formed by another planet the size of Mars crashing into the Earth? It was awesome.

...Alright, I'm done now. Have a happy winter holiday!

Of cloaks and knitted white roses

2011-11-21T22:15:00.000-05:00

This weekend I was able to take a few pictures, not to mention venture forth to the fabric store, so let me elaborate on a few crafting plans, shall I?

So first, here is half a finished pair of my easier-to-knit alternative to knee length socks (which I love, mind you), for which I'm avoiding the term 'legwarmers' because it might be harder for me to argue they have true loli potential, which I personally feel they do. OH! And they're going to laceup, hence the rectangular (non tube-ish) shape.

The lighting was not good, so I edited a bit. I'm not familiar with this editing program, so I hope it's not too hard to see! That's supposed to be a window in the center, with chandeliers and rose vines on the sides...

For my winter coat this year, as a cheaper and so much more nerdily fantastical alternative, I'm making a cloak. I have always wanted one, ever since I fell in love with The Lord of the Rings at twelve. Here's my fabric for the outer layer (black with swirlies and points) and the lining (snuggly red fleece).

I used the lining as a backdrop for the clasp (as you can see). I love white gems, and I'm probably influenced in this by the Elves.

Also, I picked up a package of black and white fleur-de-lis appliques that I have been eying for the longest time.

I also acquired a handy little book about embroidery, which I've discovered I love like some people love knitting or crochet or...or flower-making... Anyway, it's "my" craft, if you know what I mean, the one that really feels "right." I think it's because it's a bit like drawing.
Thanks so much for reading, my dancers--I've got to run at the moment though, so I'll see you again soon!

Of legends cloaked in moon and shadow

2011-11-17T18:07:00.001-05:00

Terribly sorry, I didn't realize my polyvore account simultaneously publishes to my blog. o.O

Anyway, I was creating a few sets yesterday to spice up my posting in lieu of pictures. I used my characters as inspiration, which made it really fun.

Rivarwe Doom-raven by duskrosedreaming on polyvore.com

Rivarwe is the Reaper to one of my races, and also the Dreamweaver. She's very much a spiritual mentor too, quite dreamy, perkygoth-y and wise.

Dark poet and the Raven King by duskrosedreaming featuring gothic necklaces

The Raven King is a mystic legend in my world--at one point he managed to save most of the galaxy (this is fantasy-with-outer-space, you see), but to do so he had to give up his wings. He's from my race of Anwi, which are a bit like Elves with white (or black in this case) swan wings. "Dark Poet" --or, Yetue, as that's her name--is his beloved, who would have gladly joined him in sacrificing her wings as well, but circumstances prevented it. They rule the West Anwi together in a twilit land separate from the main part of my world.

Ah yes, and that top picture (the cloaked praying figure) is Rivarwe again--I had to include her since the above-mentioned king is her oldest disciple.

I hope you're all having a pleasant Thursday!

Of being picture-less (sadly), accessory plans, and late Autumn's grey charm

2011-11-15T20:11:00.000-05:00

Lovelies, once again my computer is broken, so let me see what I can post for you in the mean time. I really meant to take pictures of what I could, crafting-wise, this weekend--but I promise to catch up on that next weekend.

I've become known around campus as "that girl who knits"--since kneehigh socks take so long for me to finish, I've decided to start making legwarmers. Now, mine are the kind that lace up (since I don't have boots that do that, yet) and have lace patterns of chandeliers, windows and rose vines, and whatever else I can figure out how to 'draw' with my knitting. So 'legwarmers' might be a bit misleading, but anyway I think they'll be great for the cold season ahead, with kneelength skirts presenting their usual chilly problem.

I'm finally read to start making accessories to sell, probably just at swapmeets and so forth at first. But I'll be posting pictures here, so if you'd like to buy one, do let me know.

Well, since I'm boringly pictureless, let's hear from you, dear Ballroom dancers! What are your favorite things about Autumn, or favorite ways to enjoy it? When I was in Kentucky, I loved the look of the black almost-bare branches against the soft grey sky. In fact I have an entire faerie clan based on that image, in my books (the crow fae). Another fun thing is, of course, all the new varieties of coffee and tea and whatnot that come out around this time of year!

So. Do tell. *stirs tea and waits*

Of that Spooky Day's happenings and a few woes, and a haunted ballroom

2011-11-01T14:47:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone had a lovely one. (Also, happy first day of NaNoWriMo/National Novel Writing Month!)

I'm terribly sorry to have such a long absence. My computer decided to break down, randomly, and while we think we finally know what's wrong and how to fix it, for a while longer I'll have to make use of my college's computer lab, as I am now. And then there were midterms, which are thankfully over now.

But! I have exciting things to tell and show you, when I finally have access to a camera and a computer at the same time. Those include the Death (of the Endless) costume I finished, my sister's Halloween party in the park, the headpieces we made as prizes for the party (I never formally took pictures of all the finished pieces, so hopefully I can find some!), my first coordinate with the red x black bat jumperskirt (on Halloween), and a few ramblings about going trick-or-treating last night with some friends, and the anime club's costume party/contest, in which I won third place despite only two people recognizing me (you know, I think the scythe really helped).

Well, I really must get on to writing, so I hope everyone has a good All Saints' Day! In lieu of pictures, I'll leave you with a Halloween-friendly poem (well, song), written by my character Taralyn.

His soaring windows glimmer clear!

Stars fill the chandelier--

Crystal shadows daze the seer!

In purple, indigo and crimson gowned

They waltz, around, around...

Like a music box dancer--

(Oooh, ooh)

Give the Myst'ry her answer!

(Oooh, ooh)

My Silhouette of shade

In midnight's cloak arrayed

Said “Come, the Moon is fading.”

My Shadow Prince of raven hair

Held one black rose from his garden fair

And bowed--

“My own blood dyed this flower.”

“Dear prince, are you the dreamer in my haunted tower?”

“If I am, will you dance till Faerie chimes the midnight hour?”

Take a chance, come join the dance!

Let Dreamscape wilds hide a lost romance...

At the midnight ball, stars haunt us all--

Shall moonlight call your enchanted glance?

The Raven haunts you with sombre decree--

Don't fear his wings, for the Raven is me.

I am Never More to the Sun gone away--

Dusk Star, Butterfly—stay.

Bell chimes rock the dancing floor--

We slip away by secret door

Like starfoam on a distant shore.

“Dear Dusk, my dreaming never wish could stay--

They fade away, away...

For your prince is enchanted--

(Oooh, ooh)

By these faerie balls haunted.”

(Oooh, ooh)

Surprising butterflies,

My prince of starlit eyes

Said “Hark! My roses, rising.”

Briar roses criss crossed the sky--

“Sweet shade, I'll find where in Time you lie!”

Once glance--

“Will you wing, my sorrow chancing?”

“I'll tell the darling Dreamer of our midnight dancing.”

He twirled me by the roses, stardust Moon romancing.

Take a chance, come join the dance!

Let Dreamscape wilds hide a lost romance...

At the midnight ball, stars haunt us all--

Shall moonlight call your enchanted glance?

The Raven haunts you with sombre decree--

Don't fear his wings, for the Raven is me.

I am Never More to the Sun gone away--

Dusk Star, Butterfly—stay.

When I cross the gate, will the organ boom?

Will the rain fall soft in my twilight gloom?

Black-clad romantic, on Tokyo ways he goes--

In his eyes, stars slumber, for they hold such rue.

In a rainbow-hued fantasia, he has brought me to the Rose

Shadow Prince...is he you?

Take a chance, come join the dance!

Let Dreamscape wilds hide a lost romance...

At the midnight ball, stars haunt us all--

Shall moonlight call your enchanted glance?

The Raven haunts you with sombre decree--

Don't fear his wings, for the Raven is me.

I am Never More to the Sun gone away--

Dusk Star, Butterfly—stay.

Of masquerades and one cloaked in shadow

2011-10-04T16:03:00.001-04:00

Happy October, my lovelies! May the spooky whimsy of Halloween find you even if your country doesn't celebrate it as a whole.

This weekend there was a lovely meetup at the LACMA art museum, which is currently hosting a Tim Burton themed exhibit. Very regrettably, my online ticket order didn't go through, and I found out too late. But my sister and I got to say hello at least to a few of the other lolis, and it was sorta fun walking around the museum in our finery. It was also fun playing Spot the Tim Burton Inspired Outfits, as quite a few people had lovely gothy or at least stripey clothing on.

Not to mention I discovered I'm really, really in love with traditional Japanese art. (If you're in LA and visit the LACMA, do see the Japanese Pavilion gallery! The building's circular, with a ramp that spirals around, and opens onto platforms where you can view a few paintings on each 'floor'--the floors really look more like balconies, because you can look out past the paintings to other floors. Also the walls are made to look like Japanese sliding screens, so the light is rather soft and mysterious.)

Here are some pictures from the meetup on our group's page at Meetup.com. I don't know if non-members can view photos, but it's worth a try hopefully.

After that, we went and explored the Halloween section of Target. I picked up a gorgeous black velvet hooded cloak (pretty good quality for a costume!), which I'll use for--among other things--my Death costume. After years of beloved but fairly obscure costumes, I want non-Sandman fans to at least be able to tell I'm some sort of Reaper. Plus I just need a cloak and scythe. You know the feeling?

My sister was absolutely entranced with the selection of masquerade masks we found at Target, and I don't blame her. Take a look at these~

Haha, I didn't realize I would be visible.

Also, I found these shoes~

It's a bit hard to see, but they're Victorian-style! At Target!

And while we're at it, an outfit snap~

The actual shoes I wore for this coordinate are black mary-janes with a bit of a heel. I love them. And they're brand new. Sadly no pics of them, though.

Speaking of Death, the day before the ill-fated meetup I went to a thrift store and put together most of an outfit in which to emulate our favorite supernatural perkygoth in a few weeks' time. Moar pic spam! *throws confetti*

This isn't for my costume, but it has skulls and roses on it! I approve.

I'll layer the above two skirts in some sort of hopefully awesome and Death-looking way.

This tee shirt is way too big, but as you can see it's gorgeous, so I'll remake it somehow, maybe by cutting apart and then lacing up the sides.

That's all my news for now, except that I've decided to start making accessories to sell. I'll probably start with local customers, but if you see anything you MUST have, do let me know! Seriously. (Nothing will be priced above...well certainly not over 15 US dollars, at least while I'm still starting out.)

Also, I enjoyed reading everyone's lace-themed posts for Sophistique Noir's October theme. I wanted to participate, but I was a bit low on energy when the actual day came.

Of another choker (black and red this time!)

2011-09-27T15:39:00.000-04:00

I've moved into my dorm at last, so maybe I can update more often, yes? Anyway, I appreciate each and every one of you, even when I go a while between posts.

Last week I had a sudden crafting urge, so on looking through my box of stuff and things, I made this choker.

I've had a shortage of chokers for...well, my whole life, basically. I love them.

I can't wait to show you pictures of my dorm decor. I'm not finished decorating the walls and so forth, but it's nicely gothic and fanciful so far. Unfortunately I don't have a camera, so I'll try to bring one from home and snap some quick photos next weekend.

Until then, please accept this drawing of my characters Taralyn (a goth girl), Umeko (a gothic lolita) and Etsu (a wearer of boystyle Aristo).

They're working on a Doctor Who meme I filled out recently (my version is here on deviantart if you're interested), because I had no one in real life to tag, so...I tagged them. I assure you, what Tara, Ume and Etsu lack in nonfictionality they make up for in enthusiasm!

Of shiny things and Polyvore!

2011-09-13T19:29:00.000-04:00

First of all, Happy Halloween! Because for those of us in the States, that season is distinctively approaching, with its air of spooky whimsy. And for those of my dancers in a country that doesn't celebrate Halloween, I send my love and a massive platter of chocolate cupcakes with orange frosting and bat sprinkles. (When virtual goodies are all you've got, make them extravagant.)

Happily I've discovered a source for post material when I'm out of ideas: Polyvore. Last night I started making 'costume sets' to represent various characters, partly to celebrate the arrival of spooky season. But this one in particular is inspired by a character of my own, a goth girl whose style is very loli-esque.

Black Butterfly~

Black Butterfly by duskrosedreaming featuring goth boots

Her name's Taralyn Brennan, and she's from the US but recently moved with her family to Tokyo. She chose black butterflies as a personal symbol, hence the title. She's a romantic and a dreamer, but can be subject to bouts of extremely giggle-inducing silliness.

Since she's one of my main characters, I'm kind of excited to have Taralyn as the theme in the Ballroom's first Polyvore set--not least because she named the Ballroom, essentially. In the books-in-progress, she has recurring dreams about a ballroom (that turns out to be real, naturally), and she wrote (in-universe of course) the song lyrics over there to the right. That ballroom is the one I visualize when thinking of this blog as an actual place.

Thanks for reading, and stay ruffly and spooky till next time!

Of much crafting and one goth loli who's all grown up

2011-08-22T19:33:00.000-04:00

Ah my lovely roses, it's so very good to be back. Did you know it was my birthday yesterday? I'm officially allowed in goth clubs now (21 years old, that is), although I'm not sure when I'll have the opportunity to visit them, just yet. Anyway, somewhat by chance I chatted for several hours at Starbucks with a couple of my Japanophile friends, one of them a fellow lolita. Thanks again, if you two are reading this--you made it a wonderful birthday.

So, as to recent craftiness--
Rather than give up on making Wonderful Things for three weeks, this trip I decided to bring my crafting supplies in a box and keep it with me in the car (we had a few 12 hour driving days and many more partial days). I will be doing that on (car)trips from now on.

I've been dying for a choker or five. Here's my first so far, which I love. (Also, I'm obsessed with beading lace, which is what I think you call that lace with ribbon threaded through).

I bought that charm in January. I'm happy I can finally wear it!

Another of my oldschool loves is wristcuffs. These turned out with...slightly uneven lengths, but they'll do. They'll do quite nicely, in fact.

No worn pics yet, because I haven't created an attaching method for them... Probably I'll go the loop-and-button route, 'cause you can do that with one hand.

Also I finished a headdress that's been sitting in my crochet bag for a while now. Behold, more beading lace~

I've decided to give ankle socks a go, as they take less time and potentially wasted effort. I love the idea of socks lacing up like boots (plus it makes them a bit more adjustable) and so I experimented with it here.

I started to add a crochet panel because the gap on top of the foot turned out way too wide for me to lace up in the way I'd planned. But I made several other mistakes on this one (I was figuring out the stitch pattern as I went) so I think I'll start afresh and let this sock be a prototype.

You know what's really exciting? I made little knit roses on this sock, along with thorny vines. The roses are a modified "popcorn" stitch. I'll tell you how if you like. (I heightened the contrast to make it show up better.)

But this sock's main purpose was that I wanted to figure out a way to make a chandelier design with the stitches (I'll do some two-color versions too), so this is my first try at that.

The chandeliers are made of yarnovers (the holes) and purl stitches, so they don't show up very vividly. I have an idea for a more visible pattern for next time, though.

Ah yes, the coffin purse.

This has been relegated to crafting/jewelry box duty, because I need something much stiffer for the walls of a purse. But I love it anyway.

Did I show you the lace for my red x black dress before? Anyway, here it is... I'll get around to sewing it on the dress soon, I promise.

And this is an outfit snap from yesterday~

Although I'm repeating myself, your Ballroom host is quite glad to be back among all the lovely dark dancers who visit her. Do have some more tea before you go--it's my rose chocolate blend. (I wish it would materialize in real life as well as cyberspace!)

Of shimmery black ruffles and thorny windows

2011-07-13T19:54:00.000-04:00

In my absence, I've accomplished a few loli-related crafty things, which I'm excited to show you. I've also been decluttering the kitchen counters and various other areas of the house. It's difficult at times (I'm not naturally organized), but strangely enjoyable and very worth it.

Returning to craftiness, I give you my first attempt at embroidery. I'm really quite proud of it.

(This is embroidered on the lower right side of the bodice.) There are roses too, but they're embroidered in red so it's harder to see them.

I'm getting closer to finishing the coffin purse, but it's being recalcitrant at the moment so I'll show you pics when it's done.

But! I have another exciting project to reveal! It's been sooo hot lately, I can hardly wear anything but skirts. But I don't have many, so I made myself another one.
Front~

...and back. The spiderweb fabric from my first skirt returns, you'll notice. I wanted to use what I had left after being inspired by the jumperskirt OpiateVampire made out of this material.

Granted, satin and taffeta might not be summer-friendly, but...but they're so pretty. You know, it's fun finally having a stash to delve into, which is what I did for this skirt. Also the waist is elastic, so I don't have to worry about blending in a zipper. I need a bigger stash though! Don't we all.

I'm crocheting a lace edging for the waist of my red x black JSK, so look forward to seeing the finished dress! (Give or take a few other embellishments.)

Also, starting late this month I'll be out of town for about three weeks, and I probably won't be able to post, or at least not very much. In any case, keep goth-ing and loli-ing till next time. Yes those are real verbs. At least now.

Of a fairytale meetup

2011-06-24T15:54:00.000-04:00

Last Saturday was the long-awaited fairytale potluck and swap meet meetup, organized by Oli of Lemon Tree and Mandie of Geek + Glam = Love. It was fun! As usual I was terribly shy at first, but I made some wonderful new acquaintances. Also, I recognize more and more lolitas now, but I'm also starting to get recognized! Quite exciting.

There were so many gorgeous coordinates there. Let me share a few pictures my sister took (she was the camera-bearer).

As always, if you see yourself in one of these and want me to add your LJ name or take the picture down, please let me know!

I loved this girl's makeup (on the right). I believe she said she had dressed as a goblin for the theme. The lolita on the left put to beautiful use one of my favorite color schemes, silver and white.

One of our co-organizers, Mandie. She looked fantastic. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of Oli, but she was a very charming unicorn for the theme.

This lovely couple were dressed as the Beast and the fairy who cast a spell on him. My sister especially loved this idea.

We met this lolita right at the end. Isn't her son adorable? It's always fun seeing those with families come to meetups. It's like a glimpse into my own future, you know.

Also, you finally get to see a coordinate with this dress. I was planning to go as Ori hime from the Tanabata legend, but I ran out of time to make a crown of tinsel stars and paper wishes (out of construction paper).

So, here's one last picture of the four of us (now including my sister), graciously taken by the husband of the lolita in blue.

There were several other lolitas I regret not having a picture of--and to those lolitas, thanks for conversing with this shy loli, and I hope to see you next time!

Also, unless otherwise inspired, I believe I'll leave the rest of the 30 day challenge to the other bloggers who have taken it up. Good luck to all of you!

Of red bats and digital art

2011-06-09T17:14:00.000-04:00

I've still been celebrating Sophistique Noir's Red and Black Week, even though I didn't get to post yesterday.

Anyway, I'm proud to announce the functional completion of my red x black jumperskirt!

I say functional because I plan to add some trim, such as lace around the waist (haha, no one will ever know that the top of the skirt meets unevenly in back), and I'm going to practice embroidery on a section of the bodice.

Yesterday I used Red and Black Week as inspiration to mostly finish coloring the foreground of this picture. (Click for larger.)

I don't know much about digital coloring yet, but I'm really happy with it so far! That's my character Castal, having a "I come back to you as Gandalf the White" moment.

He's kind of hard to sum up, but that makes it even more fun trying to figure out a short description for him. I call him my "Italian punk opera nerd" and in his own words he's a "Rennaissance zombie punk." I did some research and it turns out he's closer to horror punk than anything (I think). He's usually more smiley than fierce, but this is a pivotal plot point. Love you, Castal. <3

And last but not least, I'm wearing these earrings today.

Of a darkly dramatic color combination

2011-06-07T18:49:00.001-04:00

Welcome (midweek) to Red and Black Week! And also, welcome and thank you to my new followers!
The above-mentioned week's icon, from Sophistique Noir~

I meant to do a catch up post yesterday, but in the course of anime-watching I got myself traumatized by accidentally wandering into what TVTropes.com calls a Cosmic Horror Story. I was not impressed.

Anyway, on to lovelier thoughts. On Sunday I didn't manage to pull an outfit together, but I did start on another red-and-black project I've had in mind.

A coffin purse! Here's the outside half-completed...

And the lining.~

Yesterday I only got a mirror shot of my outfit, but most of the red/black details were in the upper half of the outfit, and I really am getting fond of mirror shots (at least to show details like earrings.)

...But next time maybe I'll clean the mirror first.

Today my coordinate is Fire Nation -inspired (referring to the show Avatar: the Last Airbender). At least that's what the red and gold top always makes me think of, so I ran with it.

Since I added the vest to add more black, this outfit makes me think of Mai in particular--an added bonus, since I love her and she's been called the Avatar equivalent of a goth girl (I think).

Also, another mirror shot.~

Happy belated International Lolita Day to all of you, by the way! I didn't do much, but I did wear a lolita skirt and worked on my writing (which seems a rather lolita pasttime especially considering my genre). But anyway, I've had fun reading about all of your loliday celebrations, and red/black posts!

Of Day the Eleventh and some art

2011-06-02T01:44:00.000-04:00

You'll have to excuse your Ballroom host--I was distracted for a few days by a rather wonderful anime series called Wedding Peach, wherein a young girl transforms into a Love Angel in order to save the Angel World. I adore the magical girl genre. I suppose a similar reason drew me to lolita, which lets me transform into my "magical true self," to put it in terms of the genre.

Anyway, a day in the life of DuskRose.

First, an outfit snap. It's not lolita (obviously) but I decided to put a bit more effort into it than usual. I've been wanting to experiment more with accessories and things. I like how this outfit turned out.

(This was inside, so no shoes to show you.)

But you can't really see my earrings--this is significant because I don't wear them that often--so I tried my hand at mirror shots.

This is the red x black JSK I'm working on, which I hope to finish in time for Red x Black Week. Princess seams are difficult! But worth it.

It's my first time using lining. You may recognize the black x white lining fabric I also used in that one skirt a while back.

And randomly, a shot of the window and outside.

Tea time! I usually drink tea and or coffee several times in a day. I really have a weakness for hot drinks. <3

I don't have a picture for this, but I spent part of the day revising a pivotal scene in my novel. It takes place in an enchanted ballroom, which gave this blog its name. You know, actually I do have a picture.

Behold Lorcan and Taralyn, my protagonists. I'd like to make their silhouettes into a background for this blog, perhaps.

A while later I attached the skirt to my JSK. (It was only pinned before.) The top layer is a light crinkly embroidered, er, cotton (?) and the lower layer is iridescent red bats on a black background. It's one of those shiny Halloween fabrics, which I could not resist.

I figure the cotton will tone down the underlayer, and the red bats will keep it more gothy than country. Country lolita is adorable, but I'm not well suited to it.

I leave you with a farewell from the bats.

Of a completed black dress and Another Challenge

2011-05-27T15:59:00.002-04:00

Today I'll be documenting "one day of my lolita life in pictures," for Day 11 of the challenge. But that's still in progress (the day's not over yet!) so I'll share a bit about my recent meetup at a Japanese restaurant. It was a small meetup compared to the picnics I've attended so far, but I was very happy because it gave us more opportunity for in depth conversation.

A lolita / photography student had brought her camera, and took each of us outside for a mini photo session. All the photos I have from the meetup are hers (I forgot my camera), so since she didn't seem to mind, I'll link to her flickr photostream in case you'd like to see them. Here are a couple of my favorite shots (actually they're all my favorite) inside and outside If you're reading this, Amy, thanks for taking such pretty pictures of all of us!

I took an outfit shot before I left, but I can't seem to find it anywhere, unfortunately. If it turns up, I'll post it then.

So here's the dress itself, with a few of my own detail shots (excuse the lighting / mess).

The skirt is chiffon over medium weight satin, which creates a lovely subtle lustre even with the bustles let down.

I love how the bodice turned out, although I'm still working on fit. That lace at the neckline is evidence of my success (finally) in learning crochet. Sort of

For my fellow darklings, VictorianKitty of Sophistique Noir has proposed a fashion challenge for all of us--namely, Red and Black Week, which will be June 5-10. Oddly enough, I'm making a red x black JSK right now, so it must be fate that I join in this event, yes? That aside, I adore this color combination--so what about you? Will you join us in Red and Black week?

I'll leave you with the extremely cool icon that VictorianKitty has given us the code for.

Of Day the Tenth (with that title I'm getting a Narnia vibe?),,,and a video

2011-05-23T16:07:00.000-04:00

Hello lovelies~ It's really amazing how visiting campuses and so forth can take so much out of you. Anyway, for Day 10 (I'm skipping days again) of the 30 day challenge, I took the opportunity to do a video, which I've been wanting to do for a little while.

Day 10~
What's in your lolita bag

Thanks for watching! Did I sound different than you thought I would? Other bloggers have asked that, so it made me curious.

I attended a meetup at a Japanese restaurant a couple days ago, so I'll post pictures soon of the dress I made and wore for the occasion. By the way, the "Narnia vibe" was because "Day the Tenth" made me think of the character "Caspian the Tenth," on whom I have a teensy crush. Well not teensy...but you know.

Of Day the Eighth and Muchly More Musics!

2011-05-14T02:11:00.000-04:00

After a brief interlude (and a brief bout of Blogger being down), I'm happy to resume with another very musical post, full of clicky links.

Day 8~
10 songs that inspire you for lolita.

1. Let's start with the obvious one: Lolitawork Libretto by Kanon Wakeshima. When I listen to this song, I get a sense of...completion, or maybe of an exciting, ongoing journey. This song really seems to express what lolita means to me, or what my world as a lolita is. It's not just on an individual level, though. Lolitawork libretto gives me a sense of being part of a massive global community of lolitas, all with our unique version of a fairytale world.

2. The Little Fugue in G Minor for the organ is my favorite classical piece ever. It sounds so haunting and unearthly. It reminds me more of my characters' world than of my own 'lolita bubble,' but the world of my stories is in many ways a part of my own internal dreamscape, as is lolita. (And on the occasions when breaking of the fourth wall is had, my characters and I all live together in a lovely gothic mansion, dancing in the ballroom or taking tea at midnight.)

3. Futatsu no Kodou to Akai Tsumi (or, Two Beats and Red Sins) is the opening song of Vampire Knight, my favorite anime series. Like the above-mentioned fugue, for me this is one of those songs that makes a perfect soundtrack to my idea of a gothic dreamworld (if that made sense). I love the sense of forward movement in this song, juxtaposed with the nostalgic haunting loss that fills the lyrics and melody.

4. Seishoujo Ryouiki, the second opening of the Rozen Maiden anime, is one of the few songs in this list that reminds me specifically of lolita. For those who don't know, Rozen Maiden follows the story of several Victorian style dolls who have been magically brought to life.

I love the way the words and melody express the thoughts of a doll (or maybe a maiden that dresses to look like a doll). To me part of the message is that a yearning for beauty and wonder can coexist with more down-to-earth fears and worries, and even petty jealousies. It's a fascinating juxtaposition. And a beautiful song besides.

5. Let me introduce you to my favorite vocaloid song, Trick and Treat ("Reborn!" version). This song fits perfectly my idea of spooky whimsy. It's mysterious, lighthearted, and a bit melancholy all at once. The two characters in the video remind me very much of my fae characters--it seems like the sort of thing my faeries would do.

6. Lacrimosa by Kalefina, better known as the second ending of the anime Kuroshitsji, is so beautiful and haunting it gives me chills. I love it when songs or stories--or...just anything, really--do that. This song has a very eerie beauty--it's filled with sorrow and some amount of internal conflict, and yet very serene and untroubled. This was my "themesong" for my NaNoWriMo novel, last November.

7. Versailles (whom I had to include sooner or later in this list) helped me "find myself" again, when their music first came into my life. They made me remember my love for the roses and the moon--in short, the internal dreamscape I've been wittering on about. By doing so, they paved the way for my entry into lolita fashion.

So I almost feel as though Aristocrat's Symphony is "our song," referring to my own experience with the band and their music, because it was the first song I listened to over and over when falling in love with Versailles. It tells a story of bringing someone into "the world of roses"--which is what they did for me. So by watching this music video I'm reminded strongly of my own story of coming into Versailles' world.

8. Versailles has another song and video I absolutely fell in love with (more than usual I mean). The passion, drama and yearning of Ascendead Master resonates with me in a way I can't really explain. The storyline, a combination of antique and modern worlds, is one I find quite fascinating. And the music is not only gorgeous, but pretty exciting too!

9. Last time I didn't get to show you the song that might be my favorite of Nana Mizuki's, Dancing in the Velvet Moon. (There's no live action music video to showcase her style, so sadly it didn't fit with the style post.) The ending song of Rosario + Vampire, this song centers on my favorite character, Inner Moka--the title vampire.

For those confused by my referring to "inner" Moka--Moka has two selves, courtesy of a magical seal (the "rosario") that keeps her true powers (and ferocity) bound. I like her "outer" self pretty well--she's cheerful, sweet and idealistic--but I'm practically in love with the fierce, aloof, and downright cool vampire princess she becomes when the seal is removed. I don't know what this has to do with lolita, except that while in my dark frills I'd like to have the same confidence and mysteriousness as she does. Plus she grew up in a gothic castle. Which is totally cool.

10. Time for more vocaloid. Another of my favorites is Cendrillon, which has a few references to Cinderella. In addition to the fairytale references (which are always nice), I love how this song is filled with idealism yet also with a haunting poignance.

Well now, it seems almost all of my songs are in Japanese. I suppose it's no surprise, knowing me! A lot of symphonic metal can be found on my lolita soundtrack, as well as many pieces from the gothic instrumental band Nox Arcana (which I highly recommend). But that's a post for another night.

Of Day the Seventh and Music

2011-05-09T21:15:00.000-04:00

I have a sneaking fear I'd start to repeat myself if I listed ten things I can't do without in lolita (headdresses, corset lacing...you get the idea!) so perhaps I'll move on to:

Day 7~
Ten people who inspire your lolita style.

1. Kamijo (-sama) of the band Versailles. He usually dresses with a different color scheme than I do (in blue, gold and white for example) but I admire his love for archaic opulence, and his quest for beauty. Also, although I had already decided that roses were my favorite flower, Kamijo...shall we say greatly encouraged my obsession with roses. The music video for Aristocrat's Symphony, one of my favorite Versailles songs, will illustrate why.

2. Jillian Venters, also known as The Lady of the Manners at Gothic Charm School. I believe she identifies as more goth than lolita, but her charming Neo-Victorian style has the lolita silhouette, and I admire the spooky whimsy in her wardrobe.

3. Kanon Wakeshima (big surprise, right?) is my idol for shiro. The video for Suna no Oshiro (Castles of Sand) will illustrate why. Beyond that, I admire that she wears such lovely coordinates while making beautiful music (and playing the cello!), especially since becoming a lolita-wearing musician is a dream of mine as well.

4. Speaking of female Jrockers, let me introduce you to the first Japanese musician whose music (and style) I fell in love with, before Kamijo and Kanon. I discovered Nana Mizuki through her work voicing anime characters, particularly as Moka in Rosario + Vampire, and Hoshina Utau in Shugo Chara. She has several beautiful songs in each series.

Now, as to being influenced by her style: I would link you to the PV for Eternal Blaze, but it doesn't really showcase what I love about her style (it's a gorgeous video though). What I've always admired is that some of Nana Mizuki's videos showcase two of my favorite, very different looks. Her ethereal white costumes, in 深愛 ("Deep Love" I think?) for example, remind me of the way I wanted to dress before goth--sort of in an Elven medieval style done all in white and silver and crystal. But at the same time, Nana Mizuki has a few edgier, slightly more gothy-looking costumes, such as in Wild Eyes.

These aren't her only two looks, but these two in particular reminded me, when I first discovered her, of the strange divide I felt in continuing to love the otherworldly white I'd preferred before, but realizing that I was moving primarily to a new, gothic style. And yes, she deserved three paragraphs.

5. Asagi, from the Visual Kei band D. Simply put, I think his outfits are gorgeous. I'll keep this one short, and let the quite lolita-friendly Yami no Kuni no Alice ("Alice in a Dark Country") speak for itself.

6. Anime and manga have definitely influenced my style, particularly in the form of Suigintou from Rozen Maiden. Being a living doll herself, she perfectly embodies the spooky, stylized doll look that I love in lolita. I espeically love the way her overskirt laces up across the white underskirt.
The whole series is full of beautiful style inspiration, if you want to take a look at the opening song (of the second season, but it's my favorite of the openings).

I've run out of ideas to complete the list at present, so maybe I'll just leave it there. For those who have joined in this challenge, I look forward to seeing your style inspirations.

Of Day the Fifth and a Secret Vice

2011-05-08T18:20:00.000-04:00

Hello again lovelies--and dear M, if you're reading this. (M is a non-lolita friend of mine who had expressed interest in my blog.)

Despite my love for DIY and handmade loli, there are quite a few brand items that have caught my eye...so let me show you ten items from my "just for fun" wishlist. No pictures, I'm afraid, but the links lead to Lolibrary, the lolita stock pictures Flickr pool, or the Tokyo Rebel blog.

Day 5~
Ten items from your wishlist.

1&2. Atelier Pierrot's Bustle Corset onepiece, in black. If you scroll down to the second dress (the Cup Bustle one-piece), I'd love to have that one too. This is my favorite brand, so really I'd like to have all their dresses.

3. Vampire Requiem. I don't guess we need a clicky link for this one. *wink* The black is gorgeous, but I also like the lighter colorways. I love the way Baby/AatP pictures winding thorny rose-vines.

4. Just for fun (and because I love it so much), here's my favorite Atelier Pierrot dress again in some different colors, and with new trim!

5. She Is Sleeping (aka the Sleeping Beauty print). I would choose the onepiece in black. I adore this print, not least because Sleeping Beauty is my favorite fairytale. And again, the rose-vines! I think they surpass Vampire Requiem for sheer stunningness.
(Note: According to Lolibrary, there seems to be another She Is Sleeping print? Odd... Anyway I mean the one that looks more Alice and the Pirates-y.)

6. Baby's Chocolate Fascinate Fairytale (with corset lacing!). This might seem odd, but I love the delicate whimsy of the print. Baby in general gives a very light dreamy feeling to sweet lolita, which makes them my favorite non-gothic brand.

7. Continuing the Baby trend, Cinderella Jewelry. I'm not usually one to wear blue, but the blue colorway seems especially luminous. I guess I really do love fairytale references, especially when they have the ornately dreamy quality this one does.

8. I don't usually swoon over Angelic Pretty (except for my so-called "secret vice" print that I will reveal in a moment), but I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks the black colorway (and probably the red, too) of Marionnette Girl has a marvelously "gothy circus" feel.

9. I may not be a Moitie girl, but I have to include one of Mana's beautiful prints. So here's lovely Iron Gate for you to oggle over. You know, it looks a lot like the wrought iron gates (except, not twined with roses) that surround the mansions of my faerie characters.

10. And now, my secret vice. I have a huge weakness for AP's Melty Chocolate, particularly in the new mint x chocolate x pink colorway. It looks so much like a dainty tea cookie. <3 I think what drew me is the balance between dramatic and delicate, which this print achieves very well (see, I analyze and learn from my weaknesses, or...something). Not to mention the candy stripes on the skirt.

Well. That was quite a fun post to write. (Not surprising, I suppose!) Thanks for sticking with me through this challenge so far!

(By the way, I believe "secret vice" is a reference to something Tolkien said. Referring to his love for making languages. Of course it's hardly a secret, and I wouldn't say it's a vice, since my saying so would be hypocritical...)

Of Day the Fourth

2011-05-06T20:18:00.001-04:00

I feel so fancy, posting so often. (Don't worry, you didn't miss Day 3--I skipped it out of personal preference. Dear me, how whimsical and flighty that DuskRose is...) Anyway:

Day 4~
Ten foods you love. (What? I have to narrow it down to ten?)

1. Anything Japanese or Chinese

2. Chocolate fudge! For several years this has been my "official" favorite food.

3. Blueberries, peaches, strawberries...I suppose I should just say "fruit."

4. Ice cream. Especially Moose Tracks and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough... *sighs happily*

5. Instant coffee (this totally counts as a food! No, really). I like all the interesting flavors you can get, like double mocha, English toffee or peppermint.

6. Baked goods, including bread. And muffins, cookies, scones...

7. Cheese, both "raw" and cooked into things. Right now I'm thinking of cheese danishes. And getting hungry.

(How creepy is it that when I left just now to look at Google Reader--to brainstorm for three more foods--a recipe for a cream cheese danish appeared on my blogroll?)

8. Little sandwiches that seem like they'd belong at a tea.

9. Tea itself (i've listed coffee, so...)

10. Hmmm I'll go with the beverage theme and say: juice. Especially the canned juice that comes in flavors like "orange mango" and "tropical punch."

Seeing how much I love food, it's surprisingly difficult to think of ten different foods that I particularly love. Anyway, tell me--are there any delicacies you're particularly fond of?

Of Day the Second and the things I sigh over

2011-05-05T00:02:00.000-04:00

Hello again, lovelies~
I thought I'd make today a two-post day. Or night. If you're interested, Meagan of Dreaming in Lolita is also doing the 30 day meme--I knew I'd seen someone else start it too, but I couldn't remember who for the life of me.

For Day 2, I wanted to just copy and paste Sammy's entire list, but instead I made my #1 the thing to which I said ZOMG YES when she mentioned it.

...Knowing me, you'll see why.

Day 2~
Ten things that you love in lolita.

1. Roses. Black, red, white; lace roses, ribbon roses, embroidered roses--I make no distinctions. <3 (I suppose Kamijo sama would be very proud of me.)

2. Winding thorny vines, like the ones (I think) in some of AatP's prints.

3. Headdresses (a thousand times yes). I love the really elaborate ones best--they have that stylized doll look.

4. Beaded/beading lace. I'm fuzzy on the exact name, but it's that lace that has a ribbon threaded through the openings. So pretty!

5. Chandeliers. They go well with my Ballroom decor, after all. *nods mysteriously*

6. Arching windows, particularly of the kind that tapers to a point at the top. The houses of my characters (and by houses I mean mansions, manors and gothic castles) are choc full of these windows.

7. Utter opulence, by which I think I mean OTT gothic. I love a look that's delicate and ethereal, but also stylized, ornate and a bit wild. Fay/fey in every sense, I suppose.

8. Lace-up boots, particularly with rounded toes (again for that doll look). I want closets filled with them!

9. Corset-style lacing. My default image for designing blouses/bodices involves corset lacing across a center panel. I think I've seen this most often in AatP, another reason they rank among my favorite brands. <3

10. Wristcuffs/gauntlets/fingerless gloves. I plan to knit/crochet a lot of these. Soon.

That wraps up Day 2. These answers came to me much quicker than in the last post, oddly enough. What are some of your favorite things in lolita?

Of a meme and a lolita bubble

2011-05-04T23:38:00.000-04:00

Sammy of The Random Lolita has embarked on a most exciting-looking 30 day meme in which one shares tidbits about oneself and lolita fashion, and I have decided to join her. If you'd like to join in too, please do so! Here is Sammy's post with the 30 days' topics.

Day 1~
10 things about your lolita bubble.

1. I fill lolita cliches without even realizing it. At this moment I am sipping tea while working on some handsewing for my onepiece, and browsing lolita blogs. Oh, and this morning I baked a coffee cake. (It was a new-to-me recipe but it turned out pretty nicely!)

2. I love the idea of people choosing a symbol or motif to "represent" them, or to incorporate into their wardrobe/surroundings. I love black roses, so they've become the dominant motif in my wardrobe--though not the only one, certainly.

An interesting aside: in the world of my stories, "dusk rose" is another name for a black rose, so I suppose I named myself (online anyway) after my favorite flower.

3. Speaking of which, I'm slightly strange perhaps in that I've named different sides of my personality as they relate to a specific fandom or subculture/alternative fashion. I think of "Dusk Rose" as my lolita and goth girl self. But I also love boystyle, so my Aristo self is "Rainshadow." (I love the rain. Overcast days are my favorite.)

4. Blogs have always been a huge part of my connection with the lolita world. Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm (the first blog I discovered) was a major influence on my decision to become a lolita (Thank you, Victoria! <3). During the months last spring when I didn't have the resources to begin sewing my loli clothing yet (I was at college across the country), lolita blogs gave me a window into the lives of other lolitas, and a connection to the lifestyle I longed for.

I've always hoped this blog would do the same for other aspiring or solitary lolitas. I'd like to be a lighthouse, if you will, so my fellow rufflebutts know they're not alone in their struggles to bring beauty and frills (spooky or otherwise) into their lives.

5. This blog is officially one year old! I thought its birthday was later this month, but apparently I first posted April 30th. Well I suppose this 30 day meme will be a sort of birthday gala, in that case. Thanks for making this an amazing first year, my dear Ballroom dancers! <3

6. Two of my characters wear styles similar to myself (well lots more do too, but that's beside the point). Umeko is a gothic lolita who loves black roses, and Etsu dresses in boystyle Aristo; she was first inspired to do so by the aristocratic attire of a (fictional) Visual Kei artist whom she admires.

7. It's strange, I can picture my dream wardrobe very clearly in my head (well, reasonably clearly), and so sometimes I think of it or refer to it as though it already exists, although I still have to pull my dream dresses out of my imagination with a needle and thread. Do any of my fellow wardrobe builders have this experience sometimes?

8. Despite having a somewhat unusual style (or so I've gathered), I've seen a lot of gorgeous lolita clothing that would fit right into my dream wardrobe, and I wouldn't mind purchasing some items when I have the funds. But for now I most enjoy wearing things that I made myself.

9. Eventually I hope to take on some leadership roles in my local loli community, partly, I think, because I'd like to extend the "lighthouse" concept beyond cyberspace.

10. I dream of taking commissions someday, and of having my own lolita brand. Some of the designs will be inspired by my characters, so I'm looking forward to creating them.

That's all for Day 1 (although I should warn you that Day 2 will be coming along shortly). I hope you enjoyed reading these, and again, feel free to jump in on this meme at any point of you'd like.

Of "the lady in black"--as they called me at the Faire

2011-04-29T20:11:00.000-04:00

Having finally finished hemming the chiffon layer of my skirt (that stuff is so finicky to work with! And this is my first ever rolled hem), I should go on and post a few pictures from the Faire.

Near the entrance to the fairgrounds, we fell into conversation with a group of young Elizabethan soldiers, and they insisted we take a picture with them. They also said "Our knees are for sitting (on)--"hence kneeling on their part and the sitting down of my sisters and me.

I especially loved watching the Middle Eastern dance performance that we saw.

This next dancer I absolutely loved. She was so mysterious and graceful.

Afterwards, they called us up onstage to learn a few steps. I learned that it's particularly difficult to swing your hips with a corset top on.

Later we watched a performance of traditional English folk dances.

Thats all of my pictures from the Faire, but I kidnapped my little sister to take an outfit shot afterwards, partly so I could show you the black and red headwreath I bought from one of our favorite Faire vendors. (Even though it's blurry...)

I know a lot of people go to Ren Faires in goth (which I did) or lolita, which I'd like to do sometime (go in lolita, I mean). What about you? Have you attended a Faire in alternative or historically inspired garb?

Of being thought Versatile by a fellow blogger

2011-04-24T21:08:00.000-04:00

Zounds, 70 followers? Here, let me give each of you a (virtual) black rose. Twirling and clapping of hands set aside, I must confess it doesn't seem to work for me to just decide to try and post more often. Lately I've been sidetracked by sewing and writing...and, I admit, by a minor epidemic of fangirling over Ben Barnes, best known as Prince Caspian from Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia.

*ahem*
Anyway, the marvelous OpiateVampire of The Dark Victorian, whom I very much admire, has given me one of those Versatile Blogger things that's been going around lately. I know I promised you some Ren Faire pictures, and I'll get those up as soon as I can. But for now, with many thanks and without further ado, let's attend to this award.

7 Random facts... Let me pause to muse a moment. Here we go, then...

1. I started creating languages (for the world of my stories) at age 13. It's a part of worldbuilding that I really want to start doing again more than I do these days.

2. The first time I cosplayed, I crossdressed (I was cosplaying Zuko from Avatar: the Last Airbender). I love crossplaying! (Cosplay + crossdress)

3. Weather-wise, I'm happiest on an overcast day, or at twilight just after the gold of the sunset fades to silver blue.

4. As evidenced by #3, I find it much easier to be poetic and prettyful than down to earth and humorous. Ah well...

5. One of my cats will steal canteloupe off the table, if you let him.

6. I love to meet new people that share my interests, but I'm very shy when it comes to going up and talking to them.

7. As to building a loli wardrobe, I have forsaken prudence in favor of opulence--what I mean is, you know how we're advised to get a lot of skirts and tops because they're more versatile? I absolutely love dresses, so for me it's actually wiser to just keep making dresses till I drop, at this point anyway. Tra la!

Sorry, the tra la came out of nowhere. My brain does that sometimes.

You know, I'm supposed to nominate fifteen bloggers, but many of the people I would have nominated already have been given this award... Well, I'll just list fifteen of my favorite gothic and / or lolita blogs (in no particular order).

1.OpiateVampire of The Dark Victorian

2.akumaxkami of Les Fleurs Noires

3.SkyBluePink of Goths Just Wanna Have Fun

4.VictorianKitty of Sophistique Noir

5.Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm

6.Megan of Makelovely's Blog

7.Sir Isaak of Visual Aristokei Core

8.The Fool (aka Sammy, I think) of The Random Lolita

9.Kaitlyn of If Alice Were Into Platforms

10. Caroline of F Yeah Lolita

11. indigo_tide of Cheap Frills

12. Alice of Pink Milk Tea

13. Boots of Sincerely, Boots

14. Amy of The Ultimate Goth Guide

15. crimson of The Bloody Fashionista

There are many more blogs that I'm not very familiar with yet, but which I suspect will become great favorites in time.
Speaking of my fellow bloggers and most notably, my readers, what sorts of posts would you like to see on here? I've run into a blogging slump, you see, but I'd rather not go into quasi-hiatus mode when my blog seems to be thriving. Anyway, for any ideas you have, feel free to make a suggestion. I can't make promises on what I'll post, but your suggestions will be much appreciated!

Of oddments that delight me

2011-04-15T19:06:00.000-04:00

Or, Things I Love Thursday, minus the Thursday bit. I'm a bit tired of feeling like I've run out of energy and ideas to blog, so I'm going to experiment with posting more often on potentially random-seeming (but still lolita/goth related) subjects, just so I can figure out how to broaden my posting options.

The above-mentioned Delightful Oddments~

~Finally getting started on my first lolita dress

~Working towards a readable second draft of my work in progress novel

~On that note, I've discovered that my protagonist gets to interact with the faerie folk / the magical world a lot sooner than I'd realized, because she's a seer (unknowingly) and goes to Faerie in her dreams.

~The cosplay picnic tomorrow, at which I get to meet other cosplay fans in my area for the first time

~Getting called "the lady in black" at the Ren Faire (we went today, and I'll post about it in more depth soon)

~Learning a bit about how to bellydance at the Faire, after an absolutely gorgeous performance by the dancers. (I've been wanting to learn some form of eastern / middle eastern dance for a while now, but now I'm convinced: I must learn to bellydance! And ballroom dance. And maybe flamenco...)

~The music of Kalafina, one of my favorite Japanese groups. Anime fans might recognize their song Lacrimosa, the second ending song for Kuroshitsuji. The music is poignant, beautiful, and makes you shiver.(Interestingly, this was also the themesong I chose for my NaNoWriMo novel, because I love it and the song fit so well.)

Of her mental soundtrack

2011-03-26T22:40:00.000-04:00

Well my waltzing dancers, in the absence of any crafting adventures to recount (though there will be soon, I hope), and because I don't know if you'd be interested in the mild drama of realizing one has to choose between a lolita tea party meetup and a cosplay picnic (for this blogger, that's a very hard choice, you know!), I've decided to tread the path of other bloggers and recommend to you a few bands that might appeal to my fellow gothic and lolita types.

I suspect most of us lolis are somewhat familiar with the gorgeously frilly side of Japan's music scene, and might recognize the names Kanon Wakeshima, the band Kalefina, and (my all time favorite) Versailles. But outside of Visual Kei and Jrock, I'm a diehard metalhead--symphonic, gothic and doom metal, to be precise.

Recently I've been looking for new metal bands, and also I've explored some new (to me) genres, so let me show you what I've found so far. Since I'm not too familiar with these styles of music, I'm a bit scared to ascribe genres (I'm afraid someone will bite me, upcoming mention of vampires notwithstanding). However, I'll let you know when something is metal--usually in the symphonic or melodic styles. Unfortunately, I'm not sure of the protocol of imbedding youtube videos in a post, so I'll leave you with clicky links.

~Sirenia
A female-voiced metal band from Norway. I've fallen in love with their dreamy, wistful sound, exemplified in songs like Winterborn 77 and Sister Nightfall. To me this group has a rather atmospheric quality, but retains the energy and brilliance of sound that makes it metal.

~Svenia
An Italian band. I discovered them during National Novel Writing Month, and they immediately went on my novel playlist. They have a very melodic sound combined with the "ponderous romantic gloom" (my inner poet has an odd way of describing things) that's one of the qualities I've been looking for in my music-listening ventures. Two of my very favorite songs of Svenia's are Death is Waiting for Your Heart and My Nuptial Sepulchre (the other thing I love about Svenia: their song titles!).

~Alucard
A group from Belgium. I've only heard a few songs by this band so far, but I already love them. I can't think how to describe their sound, but it reminds me a little of Lareine, former band of Versailles' vocalist--probably because Alucard's vocalist has a similar tenor quality to his voice. (Is it strange that the singer of this group even looks a little like Kamijo, to me?) I'll start you off with the music video for Cold.

~Amberian Dawn
Another gorgeous metal band, this time from Finland. If you love pure, soaring female vocals, I strongly recommend them. So far the songs I know are He Sleeps in a Grove and River of Tuoni.

And last but not least, I imagine some of you darklings might have heard of this next group, but they deserve to be mentioned anyway.

~The 69 Eyes
Also known as the Helsinki Vampires (see, I told you there would be mention of vampires--and that's not even counting Kamijo). Remember the "ponderous romantic gloom" of Svenia? This band has it in spades, along with a dash of sarcastic spunk. I have several favorite songs, but I'll confine myself to mentioning Brandon Lee and Devils. If you're not sure you like deep-voiced vocals, Jyrki will convince you otherwise.

That's all for now, my Ballroom guests. In writing this, I thought of several more artists I would like to recommend, so maybe I'll do posts like this in the future. But now, go forth and listen to music! (And no biting.)

Of a King who found his voice

2011-03-14T21:17:00.000-04:00

This isn't strictly lolita-related, but it has to do with something lolitas might enjoy. Have any of my Ballroom guests seen the recently released movie, "The King's Speech"? If not, I highly recommend it. The film centers on King George VI, and it's filled with the sort of beautiful period dress and settings that lolitas (and goths) tend to love. However, I personally have another reason to love the film besides my love for England and historical movies.

I assume most of you have heard the movie synopsis by now, but anyway: King George VI stammered quite severely, and this made it very difficult for him to speak in public. He found an Australian speech therapist who was able to help him gain enough fluency to give speeches to England--quite a feat for anyone with a stammer (or stutter, as it tends to be called in the USA).

I don't know much about this part of history besides what I learned from the film, unfortunately, but it resonated with me in several really profound ways. All my life, I have stuttered, and my stuttering has often taken on the form of blockages (an inability to get sound out), similarly to the king's. I'm much more fluent now, but it's still an issue sometimes (now you know my secret reason for not rushing to do a vlog, though I wouldn't mind in the future).

Besides the accuracy of Colin Firth's portrayal of stammering, two things profoundly struck me in watching the film. One, it was the understanding and friendship of the king's speech therapist that helped him the most towards fluency--not a cure (there is none), but he does indeed "have a voice," in the sense that he can communicate.

Two, the final speech made an excellent climax to the dramatic arc (there's my writer side coming out), because the movie succeeded in portraying that speaking really is that scary and dramatic for people who stutter, whether in addressing a nation or ordering fast food. I feel that this film has not only shed light on the subject of stuttering, but really ennobled those who do--it's given us back our dignity, if you will. At any rate, do see the movie! And if you'd like to learn more about stuttering, let me give you a link to the National Stuttering Foundation's website.

Of picnics, writing, and A Slightly Personal Confession

2011-03-12T23:13:00.000-05:00

Note: I've delayed posting this for a couple days, as it felt strange talking about personal matters in light of the recent disaster in Japan. I can't tell you how troubled I am, along with many others, that this has taken place. Thankfully everyone I know in Japan (at least that I have contact info from) is safe, but hearing about this sort of event, especially in a country I love so dearly, leaves me quite shaken nonetheless. I'll certainly be keeping Japan and those in and from it in my thoughts and prayers.

++++++

My dear ballroom dancers, I feel as though I've been abandoning you a little bit, what with all that's going on. I can't remember whether I'm posting any less often than usual, but I've certainly had less energy than usual for blogging and the like, which I wish wasn't true. The worst part is, I know it isn't just the (admittedly very stressful) outside circumstances. At the risk of getting slightly personal (which I've been told is a good thing for bloggers), let me say I can empathize with those of you who have anxiety and/or mood disorders. And I know it isn't fun. I have OCD and, I strongly suspect, a mild form of depression (don't worry, I have help I'm getting). Currently both of those things are wreaking metaphorical havoc, so if I do post less often or less energetically, at least you know what's probably the cause. I DO intend to continue blogging, however.

NAO, for some funner stuff. I tried to organize a small, local meetup about a month ago, but while a few people expressed interest, no one ended up being able to come. But it was nice sitting in the park with my sister, munching on the red bean muffins I'd made, and sipping Arizona iced tea.

My coordinate, which is the fourth one of the seven~

I've decided I'm a bit bored of this challenge, so while it was a great idea, I won't force myself to complete it. Plus I've discovered one of my favorite gothy dresses has room for a petticoat, and I've been dying to try out that theory...

Fun Thing II
Remember that writing blog I threatened to start? Well, I have! If you're interested in reading about my WIP (Work In Progress), a fantasy series full of faeries, vampires, gothic dreamers and midnight teaparties (and ballrooms), feel free to visit me at The Dreamer's Raven Quill.

Of Coordinate the Second and Third (and rain)

2011-02-27T18:56:00.000-05:00

It's certainly been raining quite a lot over here! I love the rain, which makes it easier not to mind the chill in the air (even in California, winter can be cold). A couple days ago, I took advantage of the colder weather to wear a longsleeved piece in my second of the 10/7 challenge coordinates. I didn't go anywhere, but it was still fun being dressed up.

I like how it came out! I think of this as an "almost shiro" coordinate. It has a lot of black in it, but has the aesthetic I would look for in a shiro outfit. And I love the ethereal look of this picture.

The hairstyle is somewhat monumental for me, as it's the first time I've succeeded in putting up my long, heavy hair in some fancy way. But with bobby pins, it becomes possible!

On a whim, I put together a third coordinate yesterday. This one is a bit punk-inspired. Excuse the lighting in my kitchen. Also, I've been using my regular socks because I have very few (read: one and a half) pairs of loli socks.

And a detail/headshot (just to show off my choker, haha)~

Hopefully I can complete the rest of the challenge soon, but we'll see how it goes. I haven't been feeling up to blogging or wearing lolita very much lately, due to issues unrelated to my love for either of those things. Classes finally started this week (we start and end a month later), and the beginning of a semester always tends to aggravate my tendencies toward anxiety and general "down"-ness. Don't worry, that's as personal as I'll get, but I thought I'd like to let you know.

On a more positive note, I'm considering--well, planning on--starting a second blog in addition to this one. I've been told writers should have a blog, so this one would focus on my stories and characters. It would be positively brimming with faerie folk, vampires, midnight tea parties (and ballrooms, of course), and gothic dreamers. Interested yet? I'll post the link when I start said blogging adventure.

Of Coordinate the First (and passing mention of a library haul)

2011-02-17T21:17:00.000-05:00

Today I did something I haven't done in far too long: I went to the library and checked out slightly less than my usual sky-high pile of fantasy novels. I found several books that are on my Amazon wishlist, mostly about faerie folk and vampires. Interestingly, I happened across a book set in Venice, which I was excited to find because I have a character from Venice, and I don't know nearly as much about the city as I'd like to.

My library haul, while fascinating (to me), is not the main reason for this post. Last weekend I wore the first of my seven coordinates, when I attended the Rilakkuma Valentine's event at JapanLA. I knew hardly anyone, so it was a bit awkward at first (I'm very shy). But Oli of Lemontree was working at the door as a greeter, so I stood with her for a while and felt much less out of place.

Actually, for most of the afternoon I joined the greeter squad and conversed with a delightful deco lolita (I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name, but it was nice meeting you!). We both agreed that when it came to our personal styles, the more accessories the better! There is a reason I call myself an OTT gothic...

(For those who don't know, OTT stands for Over The Top--as in accessories, hair, etc--which is usually applied to certain kinds of sweet and deco lolitas.)

I didn't take my camera, but before I left, I asked my mom to take a snapshot of my coordinate.
Coord #1

You can't really see my vest (ah, the hazards of wearing all black), so here's a close up.

I doubt I'll wear all seven outfits before February is over, but we'll see what happens. To me, the important thing is the small-wardrobe-coordinating skills that I'll be learning through this challenge.

Of a monochrome challenge accepted

2011-02-12T00:45:00.005-05:00

(Picture heavy!) Doubtless you've heard this by now, but EGL's theme for February is the 10 items 7 outfits challenge, wherein one creates 7 coordinates with 10 main pieces (shoes and cardigans etc count, but accessories don't). I've enjoyed seeing different challenge accepters post about this on their blogs, and now its my turn! Edit: Here is the post on EGL containing the challenge rules.

Seeing as it's a very good challenge for learning to work with a limited wardrobe, this is one of my favorite themes so far. It's fun brainstorming about what kinds of outfits I could create. But before I start "7" part of the challenge, let me tally up my ten items. I was very surprised: I had enough items that it was hard to pick just ten!

(By the way, I've just about sworn off using flash photography, because it will probably never give me a decent picture shine-wise of the glossy shimmery fabrics of which I'm so fond. So instead I'll be making use of the best natural light that I can, and lightening the photos as need be.)

A. Black two layer skirt (handmade)

B. Black and white skirt (handmade)

C. Black longsleeved blouse (I've had it for years; it's probably from Walmart or somewhere similar)

D. Black corset top (Charlotte Russe)

E. Black vest (thrifted)

F. White longsleeved top (altered thrift; this was part of my lolita Sleeping Beauty costume for Halloween)

G. Black blouse (handmade)

H. Black bolero (thrifted)

I. Purple mary janes (Rack Room Shoes)

J. Black boots (Payless ShoeSource)

Well, let's see what kinds of looks I can create from these! It'll probably be easier to wear lolita more often now, as I've just about finished that new pair of bloomers I mentioned before. I still need more than two pairs (I'd like to have twelve, ideally--yes, really, for wearing loli everyday!), but it's something. And the prospect of wearing lolita seven times in rapid succession is very exciting!

Of the thrifty aristocrat and Fifty+ Followers(!)

2011-02-06T21:47:00.001-05:00

Over fifty followers? Wow! Thank you all so much! I want to do something a bit more special in honor of this... Unfortunately I can't do a giveaway just yet, but maybe a video log? (I've gotten inspired watching Makelovely's vlogs.) I'm working on sort of a thank you art piece, but it's not quite done yet. Anyway thank you all for reading!

The other day I mentioned that I was going to a thrift store, and the time has come to reveal what my main purpose in going was. From the beginning, I've wanted to build a boystyle aristocrat wardrobe as well as a lolita one. I was able to find almost a full coordinate while thrifting, including shoes (not pictured unfortunately). The latter is especially amazing because I'm usually a US size 9 1/2 or 10. I say usually because I found a pair of 8 1/2 shoes that fit pretty well, although I'll have to soften up the tops of the toes somehow.

The full ensemble (almost)~

This one is clearer...

...but I like my expression better in this one.

I feel so dashing.

I was afraid the shirt would need altering, but it fits pretty well, and with shoulderpads I think it will be almost perfect. (I have small shoulders and long arms, making ready made clothes a challenge sometimes.) I will be changing the buttons, though.

You can't really see it, but the pants (or trousers as some of you may call them) have red pinstripes that pretty much exactly match the shirt. I was stoked to realize this.

Thanks to those who left encouraging comments about my fabric issues. I'm glad to know I'm not alone! Things are looking up, though. I visited a big JoAnn's yesterday and while browsing, I realized that there's a lot more black fabric there than I'd thought. It just helps to know what you're looking for (which can be hard to figure out, sometimes). You're mainly in luck if you like fancy fabrics, which I do--I found some pretty good quality taffeta, brocade, satin, organza, and so forth. So, it's time to experiment!

I didn't get any more materials for my JSK/OP (I'm trying not to buy too many things at once), but I was able to bring home some lightweight flannel for another pair of bloomers. Elasticized, this time...

Of crafting successes and fabric woes

2011-02-04T15:53:00.000-05:00

First, the good news.

These past few days I've felt more crafty than in a while, so I finally made a couple things from materials in my stash. Knowing my love for headdresses, you shouldn't be surprised at this one. (I'm sorry to say the flash washed everything out--that pillow it's lying on is a dark green. I love silky ribbons, but flash doesn't tend to do them justice.)

It isn't done yet, but it's coming along better than my previous one. I plan to make quite a few, partly to get the hang of it (making headdresses is harder than we've been led to believe, as Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm pointed out in this post), and partly because I intend to have a vast, darkly beribboned collection of them. Vast, I say. Along with my collection of lace-up boots and frilly parasols.

I'll add a crocheted lace edging on top of the ruffle (to hide the ribbon edges), and to that end I've been learning to crochet. I was attempting this edging pattern, but I've realized I need a lot more knowledge of the craft before I can do something that complicated (sigh). So I think a simpler pattern will be just as nice, especially for a practice headdress.

For the longest time I've wanted to make a shiro corsage out of some things I had laying around, and I finally have.

I love the way it turned out, if I do say so! I mostly part ways with JoAnn's when it comes to lace, but I love this lace. It's the roses that do me in. <3 I made wristcuffs out of the rest of the lace and some of that white-embroidered ribbon you see on the bow, but I don't have fastenings sewn onto them yet so I'll wait to dazzle you with worn pics.

Now, the disheartening news.

My samples from Dharma Trading Co came, and they're nice, but not as heavy and/or drapey as I'd hoped for. Partly my problem is just figuring out what type of fabric I'm looking for (a surprisingly difficult task). So far I'm intrigued by this fabric at Favorite Fabrics. The vines are so pretty! I like working with plain fabrics better than prints, but I don't at all mind (in fact, I love) having a swirly intricate print as long as it's black on black.

Thankfully, we have some lightweight black suiting fabric that my mother has decided not to use, and it looks like I can use that for the bodice. Of the samples, I like the rayon challis best (it's quite soft and supple) so I'll probably pair that with a lining for the skirt.

I'll also be keeping an eye out for promising material and so forth when I go to the thrift store in a little bit...but I'll save that for another post.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions as to where I can find good quality black fabric, do let me know!

Of other chroniclers...

2011-01-30T18:49:00.000-05:00

Not to spam you, but I wanted to note that I have added a new section, "Other chroniclers from the darker side," to the side bar over to your right there. This section will consist mainly of blogs written by (and in many cases for) goths and/or gothic lolitas. Not all of them will be specifically goth or gothic lolita; some of these are simply blogs that I thought my fellow goths and goth lolis might enjoy reading. I know that it's hard sometimes to find blogs that cater to one's own substyle (or subculture), so I hope this will help sort out the wonderful mad mass of my "lolita blogs" section.

If any of you have a blog that you would like added to (or removed from) this new section, please let me know! Also, note that any of the lolita blogs listed under "Other chroniclers" will remain in the lolita section as well. Lucky you, getting listed twice!

For that matter, if you have any sort of lolita blog, let me know and I'll be happy to add it to the lolita blogs section!

Of outfit photos from Meetup the Second

2011-01-30T13:50:00.001-05:00

(Picture heavy!) Thanks to all the lolitas who allowed me (and my sister) to take pictures of them! As always, if you see yourself in a photo and would like your name/ljname added, or the photo taken down, just let me know. (Sadly I can't remember most of your names or lj names. I'm terrible with that.)

I love her tights and shoes, and the bat necklace!

That corset is absolutely beautiful, and I love the violin purse too.

I met these two at the last meetup. Hurray for gothic!

On that note, we have a couple more fabulous gothics here, along with another lovely lolita.

The lolita on the right remembered me from last time! At both meetups she had a darling coordinate, and I love her friend's kodona outfit.

I had a delightful time chatting with this fabulous lolita. (And even here, I cannot remember her name. Cue the facepalm of shame.) She said she had DIY'ed her blouse, and so I was happy to find a kindred spirit in that regard.

I love how fairy kei the middle coordinate looks (and its wearer is adorable!) and I applaud these two gentlemen for donning the frills of prince style.

My sister had brought along several of her handmade dolls, and she asked a lolita "lookalike" to take a picture with each one.

This doll has batwings and an all black ensemble. Incidentally, this lolita's coordinate was my favorite of the meetup! I loved seeing all of the gothics that attended, as there were quite a few.

This doll has a rather punkish outfit, so my sister was happy to find such a lovely punk lolita. Click on the picture and you'll see (I hope) the skulls on the doll's red overskirt.

And last but not least, the pink-clad doll had a photo taken with Oli (of Lemon Tree), our amazing host. Thanks again to Oli for hosting the meetup!

Of Meetup the Second

2011-01-26T19:26:00.001-05:00

(Warning--picture heavy!) I know I start every post with by exclaiming over my growing number of followers, but...forty?!? Wow! I'm so honored that all of you want to visit me here at the Ballroom!

Also, I want to thank everyone who commented on my last post, regarding the family situation I had received news of. Things seem to be going pretty well, but in any case it was very encouraging to read your comments.

Now, on to the meetup report!

This past Saturday, we had a meetup of truly epic proportions, hosted by Oli of Lemontree. I've heard various estimates as to the number of lolitas who attended: anything from 50 to 100. There were quite a few boyfriends and husbands in attendance as well.

Anyway, I arrived at the meetup with my sister, who was wearing fairy kei. We're both shy, but we did manage to talk to a few people even before things really got going. I saw a few familiar faces, but started getting to know quite a few new lolitas as well. I was surprised by how many said this was their first meetup! (Yay, I'm not the only newbie!)

Picture time! In between chatting, eating, and buying/selling at the swapmeet tables, we played a few games. I missed the first game, but next we played Stop and Go (or Red Light, Green Light). Look at all the lolis racing down that hill--or rather, doing their best to stand frozen. I think I caught them at a "red light" moment.

My sister is the girl in the pink skirt and striped tights, by the way.

Soon after, we played a game where everyone had to stand in a circle and pass around a couple of prizes. Whenever the meetup host said "Stop!" the people caught holding a prize would have to drop out, and the last ones standing got the prizes. People got pretty enthusiastic in the course of this game!

Toward the end, a pinata was hung--which took a bit of hassle since the rope they had at first kept breaking. I didn't swing at the pinata myself (I admit I was too busy taking pictures for my readers), but it was fun watching.

Despite my determination to go the offbrand/sewing route, it was fun to see brand dresses up close at the swapmeet. There were several tables full of stuff! Here's one of them~

I didn't expect to purchase anything, but my sister fell in love with a mini top hat that had been handmade by (lj name) chiiyo_rin, I believe. So I bought it from her.

This post has gotten long, but in the next post it might be fun show you a few of my snapshots of the various lovely attendees. My sister brought along three of her handmade softdolls, and for each of them she asked a lolita "lookalike" to take a picture with the doll in question, so if she doesn't mind I might post those as well.

But first, I'll leave you with a picture or two of my coordinate. It was a little experimental for me, but I'm proud of how it turned out, especially the hat. I received several compliments on various parts of my outfit, which does make a new loli feel rather special.

Oops--please excuse the slipping bloomers. As I've said before, it can be hard getting these to stay up.

I didn't realize I hadn't gotten all of my hair, so you can only see part of the lacing on the back of the blouse. But I wanted to show you the layered bows, which you can't really see from the front. The bow does not look that orange in real life! At least, I don't think so...

Rundown~
Everything is handmade, except my shoes and most of the accessories on my hat. I bought the red bow from The Funeral Parlor, Etsy shop of akumaxkami of Les Fleurs Noires.

...And we'll end with a shot of my sister, just because.

Of brand inspiration for a dark faerie princess

2011-01-19T19:02:00.000-05:00

39 followers? Wow, thank you all so much!

Now, as to this post~

I'm sure that many of my readers have a favorite brand, possibly even those readers who (like me) prefer to be sewing and offbrand lolitas. It never hurts to get style inspiration, right?

Up until recently, I had thought of Alice and the Pirates as my favorite brand. I like their nonprinted items fairly well, but it was really their gorgeous prints that caught my eye. Over all I prefer elaborately detailed, nonprinted designs, but aside from that I would fill my closet with pieces like Vampire Requiem, and the Sleeping Beauty and Midsummer Night's Dream inspired prints.

Still, the fact remains that the "look" I really truly love the best is that of an all black ensemble with as many ornate details and light-catching textures as one can fit in, without looking too busy. I mean the types of pieces that give a delicate, ethereal shimmer to a kuro gothic outfit.

So lately, I've realized that I would probably feel much more satisfied with my small wardrobe if I turned my attention to making pieces that fit what I think of as my primary style. I've had fun working with fabric and patterns that are a little odd for me, stylewise (for one thing it's hard to find solid black fabric at JoAnn's), and I would certainly like to branch out and try different looks as they catch my eye.

But oh, to look like a dark princess of Faerie...

That being my goal (as it has been all along), I've decided to make my next big project an elaborate kuro gothic JSK or OP. Yesterday I was able to purchase a pattern (Simplicity 4015--a costume pattern, or that's what they think) with the type of bodice I'll need: one with princess seams, so that decorations such as my beloved corset lacing can be added across the center panel. Handily, it also comes with pattern pieces I can make (or alter) into a capelet and/or cape, pieces which I've been eagerly waiting to bring into my wardrobe.

As to brand inspiration, however, I've finally discovered a brand that seems to capture pretty well the look I'm after. That brand is Atelier Pierrot, which I had heard of before, but I really discovered them through the Tokyo Rebel blog. To give a visual example of what "dark faerie princess" means to me, let me link you to a couple of posts on said blog.

~The Bustle Corset One-piece in black (scroll down a bit) could easily be one of my dream dresses. You may remember the first skirt I made, which had a similar bustle effect to this one. This onepiece (or is that jumperskirt?) inspired the design of my next project. It was already going to have corset lacing (that's my default in blouses or bodices!), and I've made a skirt like this once already, so there you go. I may add poofy sleeves--can't get enough of them, either.

~The Cup Bustle One-piece (the second and third pictures down) is a bit more unusual, but I like the girly look of the neckline ruffles, and it's neat to see other ways that a bodice with corset lacing can be designed. The skirt is pretty cool too, I have to say.

Well. Somehow I feel better just by having resolved to pursue the lolita style that's most "me," even if it takes a little while getting there. (Fabric-acquiring is in the works, though. Yes. Hopefully.)

On a side note, please do wish my family good luck. I found out this morning that my grandmother probably has cancer. However, as Jillian Venters (of Gothic Charm School) has said, distraction is very good at times like these, and I'll look forward to telling my lovely ballroom guests all about my second ever meetup that happens in three days.

Of a beret, socks, and a skirt

2011-01-15T22:23:00.000-05:00

Well, I've just about finished my coordinate for the meetup, and I still have a week to wait. Maybe I can do some more crafting and sewing (or house cleaning and reorganizing) in the mean time.

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a few of the pieces I've finished this week. I was able to knit up the beret in a surprisingly short two days, using the "Beret Tam" pattern (the English version) by Tricofolk. This pattern can be found on Ravelry.com, but you have to log in (accounts are free).

The finished beret~

Worn~

Next time I'd make the portion before the decreases (just after the ribbing on the edge) a bit longer; I think the beret needs to be a bit deeper to keep its "beret shape" on my head. Anyway, I'm pleased with the result over all.

At long last I finished those laceup knee socks I've been knitting. I borrowed the mini-melon lace pattern from the "Victorian Lace Socks" pattern by Lorri Ann Romesberg, also on Ravelry.

(Ugh, please excuse the floor--the lighting was best in here. And excuse the flash. Which we had to use anyway.)

I like the result, but they're a trifle on the loose side--something to watch out for next time, I suppose. The socks, I think, fit especially well with the theme I've decided on for my black white and red coordinate. I'd like to go with a "mad circus" theme, since it seems like a fun theme and one that would lend itself fairly easily to looking gothic.

Anyway, to conclude, I have at long last sewn that black and white fabric into a skirt! Worn, without a petti:

(Please excuse the background! Also, I might ought to say that's a Tshirt, not an actual vest ensemble. I wish it was!)
It looks long, but next time I will add four extra inches at least to allow for petticoat poofage. Oh well, if my bloomers show despite all efforts, we can call it ero? It might fit with the mad circus look, anyway. I need to make some bloomers that have elastic in the legs; my only pair so far does not (they have drawstrings instead) and it's hard to make them stay up where they won't be seen.

Problems aside, I'm proud of this skirt in part because it's the first piece I have been able to completely finish on the inside (yay for French seams!). And the fabric is just really beautiful. I'll leave you with a button detail shot.(The metal is more silver in real life.)

Of goodies, plans, and a Special Anniversary

2011-01-10T13:54:00.000-05:00

Hello, my dear Ballroom guests, and welcome to the first post of the year! I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday. Mine had its ups and downs, but in any case I'm very happy to be back in the blogging and sew-loli-ing swing of things.

Speaking of the new year, I'd like to mention that these first couple weeks in January are a rather special time for me as a lolita. I don't remember the exact date, but around this time one year ago, I realized that I belonged with the frilly beruffled masses. At that time I didn't foresee starting a blog, much less having 35 followers! Thank you all so much! Thank you also to all the wonderful blogs I follow, which have inspired me so much along the way.

To start with, I suppose I should share pictures of a few goodies I've acquired since last time. One of my favorite gifts was a Harajuku Lovers bag from my cousin, which works perfectly for a knitting bag.

My sisters and mom all love to craft and sew, so we took a trip to A. C. Moore, a craft store which we unfortunately do not have here in California (in my corner of it, anyway). I picked up a couple of charms--a rose cameo by Blue Moon Beads, and a rather awesome angel wing + dangling chain charm from Rebel Shine.

I'd like to put them on necklaces or chokers (I need more chokers!) but I'm not quite sure yet. When I acquire something this fabulous, I have to ponder awhile just what to do with it.

Last month, I had talked a little about my resolutions, which include a whole bunch of sewing type projects. Somewhere recently I read about the idea of setting monthly goals for yourself, so as to not become overwhelmed. So by the end of January, I would like to:
~Finish knitting my red lace-up kneesocks
~Finish a black lace pair that I'm also working on (pictures to come!)
~Add a ruffle to the skirt I made for a loli Halloween costume (it's a bit too short)
~Finally make a skirt out of that black and white printed fabric I have (which reminds me a bit of an ornately decorated garden--I can't wait to wear it!)

I'd also like to send off for samples to a fabric website I discovered, Dharma Trading Co. It seems to have good reviews, and I'm quite excited because they have plain black (and plain white) fabric, which is very hard to find at JoAnn's. I figure if I want embroidered fabric (which I do!), for me the best way would be to just embroider it myself. I've been itching to learn how, anyway. That, and crochet. Mark my words, I'm going to have rose lace and beaded lace somehow, and I've seen some really pretty examples of crocheted lace. <3

Some of those goals have a slightly sooner deadline than the end of the month, as it happens. Right now I'm ecstatic, as I'm finally going to a second meetup! This one is a picnic potluck, as before, and once again coordinated by Oli of Lemon Tree.

The meetup doesn't happen till the 22nd, so by that time I hope to finish my red socks and the black and white skirt. You know, I was wondering how in the world I would build a coordinate around blood-red socks when most of my small wardrobe is black and/or white. However, I have a few red accessory pieces, such as that red and white bow I purchased from akumaxkami of Les Fleurs Noires. So a red, black and white coordinate could be very interesting to put together, I think. It'll probably be chilly, so I'd like to knit a beret or some other hat on which to pin my bow. (I just realized I'll be channeling Misako Aoki and her fabulous berets.)

I'll keep you posted as I complete projects, so look out for completion pics and worn pics! Also, I've learned that the theme this month for EGL is "showing your wardrobe," so I may do that here. I have very few lolita pieces, but it would be fun to lay out and photograph what pieces I do have.

I hope you're having a darkly frilly January so far. <3

Of Resolutions and Dreams

2010-12-11T21:48:00.000-05:00

It's a little early for New Year's Resolutions, but there are several long-held dreams of mine that seemed like they would make good resolutions. In fact, I've already started on some of them. Although fulfilling any resolution or goal requires effort, these particular ones are the kind that don't seem like work at all (all though they definitely are, I can attest), because they mean so much to me.

Even so, sometimes these aspirations seem more far off than ever, so I thought making them into formal "resolutions" might spur me on. I know that often, making up your mind to do something, or taking the first step, can be one of the hardest parts of meeting a goal. So I'd like to invite you to think about any dreams of yours, lolita-related or otherwise, that might seem a long way away, and let's both try to get closer to that final goal in the coming year.

Some of my resolutions:
~Turn more of the stories in my head into rough drafts of novels
~Make demo recordings of some of my songs (songwriting is a hobby of mine)
~Keep improving my drawing, and learn how to properly color with Gimp2
~Expand my lolita wardrobe, thereby improving my sewing in the process.

Recently there was a post on Daily Lolita in which a lolita mentioned her intent to wear the fashion everyday for three weeks, as part of "breaking a social norm" for Sociology class. This inspired a narrowed down version of "Expand my lolita wardrobe." By next Loliday six months from now, I would like to have made (or loli-fied) enough clothing so that I can wear lolita for three weeks straight. Just thinking about it now is making me go all dreamy-eyed...

And when I start this ambitious project (the three weeks of actual wearing), the Era of Daily Outfit Snaps shall begin! In the meantime, be sure to expect a steady stream of sewing related posts. Of course, I'll be wearing lolita more and more as my wardrobe expands, so I do believe the Era of Slightly More Often Than Not Oufit Snaps will segue nicely into the other, aforementioned Era.

In other news, sadly I shall have to neglect this blog for a few weeks around Christmas. Every year my family takes a trip to visit grandparents and cousins, and its a bit hard to update when you're in a house with 24 other people. (Oh yes, I'm the oldest of 15 cousins...and I love every one of 'em.)

So if I don't post again before we leave, I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!

Of Loliday and the sewing it inspired

2010-12-10T18:47:00.000-05:00

Oh my, over thirty followers? Thank you all so much! <3

I must say, this week I've been dying to show you my Loliday coordinate, and now that the time has come to post again (what's this? Dusk Rose has a semi-schedule?), I can. The lighting wasn't great, so I messed around with it just a tiny bit in Gimp2.

I stayed home all that day, so excuse the lack of shoes.
My new petticoat really seems to bring out the potential in that skirt, both in poofiness and, well, I just like how it looks over this petti a lot better than my other, more casual one. All in all, I'm happier with this coordinate than I've ever been with one. (I've been saying that for the last several coords, actually, so let's hope the trend continues!)
And a rundown:
~corsage and necklace: handmade
~bow: Hot Topic
~blouse: Walmart possibly? I've had it for ages.
~bustier top: Charlotte Russe
~skirt: handmade
~socks: Target

Loliday made me remember just how desperately I want to work on new pieces for my wardrobe, so this week I finally set to work on that blouse pattern (New Look 6599). Here you can see it almost finished.

Ta-da!

One of my favorite parts of of this pattern is the lace-up section across the back. I haven't laced it up yet, but here you can see the loops.

I've also begun making my first shiro piece, from one of the thrift store blouses I showed you before. Let's see if I can find that picture of the unaltered blouse...

And after a few alterations...

As you might have guessed, I borrowed the sleeves' pattern pieces from the black blouse.
I hadn't yet unpicked the pockets (you can't really see them here), but they're off now. I'll have to add some lines of thin white lace and ribbon to disguise all the tiny holes where the thread attaching the pockets was.

I mean to finish at least the black blouse before Christmas, so I can wear it on our annual trip to visit family back east. At any rate, I hope those of you in cold climates are staying warm, and those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, try not to let the Daystar get you down. <3 I know summer can be hard for us loli and gothic types!

Of other places to find me

2010-12-04T20:36:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a good Loliday! If you like, tell me how you spent your day in the comments.
Partly because my non-loli plans for the day were canceled, I went ahead and dressed up (thus debuting my new extra-poofy petti) even though I spent the day at home. I'll be sure to post pictures soon.

But for now, this is mainly a quick post to ask, are any of you on Tumblr or Twitter? I've started trying to become somewhat active on both, but I'm a little networking-challenged, shall we say (or we could say: shy). I'd love to get to know all of you better, and in general to meet more lolitas online (or gothic types, or non-lolitas, just to make sure none of my dear followers feel excluded). So if any of you are on said sites, drop me a link in the comments and I'll follow you.

Speaking of links, here are mine:
~Twitter~Tumblr

Hopefully those links work. If not, let me know!

Of my new bow!--and some personal Loliday musings

2010-12-03T22:57:00.000-05:00

You know, I had the strangest dream last night. I was in my living room, conversing with two of my favorite gothic lolita bloggers, namely akumaxkami of Les Fleures Noires and OpiateVampire of The Dark Victorian. (No, I don't usually dream about the blogosphere, really--I don't even remember most of my dreams for that matter!) We were chatting about whatever lolitas usually chat about, as though it wasn't at all peculiar that we were all there in person (we live very far apart in real life).

I suppose this unusual (but rather pleasant) dream had to do with an obstacle many lolitas face, especially when starting out--that of being isolated, outside of the internet, from others who love our fashion. You'd think I could get involved in my local community in no time, seeing as we have a lot of lolis where I live. But it's been surprisingly difficult to keep an eye out for meetups I can attend, not to mention amassing enough of a wardrobe so that I don't always have to wear the same outfit.

At any rate, with International Lolita Day fast approaching, I suspect many of us may feel that we're going to be left out of the festivities for one reason or another--whether it's a schedule conflict (it is for me), or not having a lolita community in your area, or for some other reason. On the one hand, it can be quite rewarding at such times to do something that brings lolita into your own life, even without a meetup to go to. Others have beat me to this topic, so I'll wait to give my thoughts on making bringing lolita into one's daily life (though as a lifestyler, you can be sure I have a few ideas on the subject--or I should). But like many others have, I encourage you to keep on the look out for a hobby or activity that makes you feel like the world of frills and whimsical beauty is a little closer, whether you're a solitary lolita or no.

Still, I know that even so, it can be very hard to be alone in what you love. And to those who are, I want to say: I know how it feels. I'm there too. Let's wish ourselves good luck that we won't be as solitary by June's Loliday. And in any case, I hope all of my readers have a wonderful Loliday!

And a note: there was certainly some amount of truth in the above-mentioned dream, because I must confess I've been wishing there was some way to meet up with all of my fellow blogging lolitas in person, gothic or not. Well, if and when I have the funds to travel alone, perhaps I'll try to come visit your cities/countries. I'd certainly like to!

Speaking of the fabulous akumaxkami, you may recall that I bought a bow from her Etsy (The Funeral Parlor). A couple of days ago, it arrived! And I have battled through Japanese homework, college transfer applications, and an irksome cold in order to finally take pictures. Behold:

And on my head:

(Sorry, it's a bit blurry, and the lighting isn't perfect.)
The center part of the bow has a nice open slit in the back where some kind of attaching-to-head device can be slipped in, so I've been thinking about how I'd like to attach-to-head. I've decided, although it's a bit of an unusual method (of course, your ballroom host is not known for being usual), that I'll try making a cloth headband that can be tied under my hair--a bit like a bonnet. Except with the ties in back rather than under my chin. Although, a "bow-bonnet" might be interesting.

Now I'll leave you with one more shot, in which I succeed in balancing the bow on my head.

Yay!

Once again, a wonderful Loliday to all of you!

Of art (and roses and batwings!)

2010-11-27T19:58:00.000-05:00

Recently I've had quite a few new followers, so thank you very much! I hope you enjoy your stay at the Ballroom.

Last month, I participated in a couple of art contests on Deviantart, so this is essentially an art post. The two contests had to do with very different fandoms, but the common thread was Halloween (but of course).

The first contest was related to Avatar: the Last Airbender. In fact, it was hosted by the Ursa x Ozai (or, Urzai) fanclub on Devianart, of which your host is a proud a moderator/co-founder. I love Urzai at any age (or timeframe, or universe, or....), but most especially teenage Urzai. So for the Urzai + Halloween contest, naturally I had to combine it somehow with gothic-and-lolita.

In Night's Arms

Isn't Ursa adorable in her loli? While I admit that I couldn't decide what sort of sleeves and so forth to give her, that isn't the only reason for the conflicting features of her coordinate. You see, I decided that I liked the effect of having having bits of different outfits combined. It's as though you can see two separate sides of her, or two interpretations of her "fate," or...I can't really explain.
You may recognize the reference to the "red string of fate," a bit of Japanese folklore that I'm not nearly as familiar with as I'd like to be. But it seemed fitting: sort of ominous and romantic at the same time, which is very fitting for Urzai.
Speaking of ominous, yes, Prince Ozai does indeed have batwings. And claws. (And fangs, though you can's see them...) A form in which I can never pass up a chance to draw him. In fact, the first time I drew him in this incarnation, he singlehandly inspired an entire race of batwinged, fire-affiliated spirits that have haunted my stories ever since. <3

Do any of my readers, by any chance, like Visual Kei? How about roses? The band Versailles? Their vocalist? Speaking of that last one...the second contest's theme was "Kamijo + Halloween" (hosted by The Kamijo Fanclub on Deviantart). I drew inspiration from Versailles' song Zombie, as it's very Halloween-sounding (albeit rather atypical compared to the band's usual sound).

Graveyard Prince

I never knew it would prove so useful to know how to draw someone sitting with their legs crossed! (That seems to be the preferred pose of Kamijo-sama, so I ended up incorporating it into the piece.) Those boots of his actually weren't quite as hard to draw as they looked, thankfully. Which is a good thing, as those are Quite Some Boots.

I love using bits of red (especially for roses and blood--they're both so romantic! Yes, I'm serious) in an otherwise greyscale piece of art. One of my favorite things about this picture, though, is the splash of gold and blue for his hair and eyes. It's so startling in the context of a spooky haunting scene, you know? And odd as this may seem, it makes me think of a "rose that blooms even in the shadow of the grave"--which seems like an idea Versailles would like very much, even though I'm not doing a very good job explaining it, I fear. I guess it's because golden hair makes you think "prince on a white horse" sooner than "gothic vampire." (Although Kamijo tries to be both--and succeeds, in my opinion--and of course, nothing says that gothic folks can't be blonde. I'm proof of that. If I count as blonde.)

The text is from Zombie; it says (roughly translated) "By the master's orders, beat the bones! Sing along with the song of the bats!"

If you'd like to view these pieces on Deviantart, please step right this way (er, click right this way?):
In Night's Arms
Graveyard Prince

I've been wanting to produce more finished art, especially art featuring my characters (most of whom are gothic or lolita -esque in some way or other). So if I complete any more pieces along the lines of these, I'll try to remember to post them.

Of recent coordinates and A Proper Petticoat

2010-11-26T18:25:00.000-05:00

My dear readers, I have just come from experiencing true cupcake poof at a new level. You'll recall the petticoat I was planning to make (albeit of tulle, not lovely never-apparently-dying organza or chiffon), which I loosely based off of this article and this EGL post?

Well, it is (essentially) finished! And it stands up on its own hem! If asked to stand like this, my old petticoat would gently melt into a circular puddle of black floof. (I apologize for the sun washing things out.)

Eh?!? Is it alive? Seeing as it is a gothic lolita's petticoat, I can't answer that for sure one way or the other. But the poof comes from 8 and 1/2 yards of stiff tulle being gathered as tightly as they'll go. Sure it'll die eventually, but at least I'll be poofy until I can make my organza or chiffon petti.

And now, worn pics, "before and after" style. The "before" is actually one of the recent coords I wanted to show you. A couple weeks ago, I felt like dressing up for a NaNoWriMo write-in my sister and I attended. (Write-ins/WriteIns are sort of like meetups, where a group of amateur authors comes together to work on our novels for National Novel Writing Month. They have write-ins all over the world, as NaNoWriMo has become a global event.)

I was partly inspired by the headpiece I made for Halloween--I wanted to wear it again! This is my first truly kuro gothic coordinate, which is big news because I consider my style primarily kuro gothic when it comes to lolita (or goth)...but haven't been able to realize said style very often, until now.
Also, new boots! They were purchased during the sale that Payless Shoe Source had in October. I still want to collect or even DIY copious amounts of loli-style laceup boots, but I like these to start with. Despite their seeming modernity, they give me that "antique doll feeling" when I'm wearing them, which for me is important in footwear.

Outfit rundown:
~headpiece, necklace, armwarmers and skirt: handmade
~blouse: Target (I think)
~boots: Payless Shoe Source
Perhaps I'll even make this coord my debut on Daily Lolita, if I'm feeling bold...

And now, the "after"! This isn't a complete coord--I just wanted to try out the petticoat and finally see my skirt poof to its full potential (oh, did it ever), so I put on the skirt and petti over my regular clothes.

Zounds! I'm a living (undead?) cupcake!

Now, for the other coordinate, which I wore for Thanksgiving yesterday, and which is much more goth than lolita.

(I apologize for the picture quality. It was very dark, so I tried somewhat unsuccessfully to lighten it with Gimp2. The bow has a netting/veil attached, though you can't really see it.)
Seeing as my primary "style inspiration phrase" for both lolita and goth can be summed up as "dark fairy princess," I was rather proud of this coord because I felt that it captured a certain haunting, fay quality that I'm always looking for. It helped that I have a new set of four eyeshadows (from Target, so nothing too special) to play with, one of them a shimmery white. I used that one liberally along with black eyeliner and was quite pleased with the result.

And another rundown, just because.
~Tshirt: Target
~skirt: thrifted
~necklace: handmade
~headpiece: either Hot Topic or Icing
~knitted overcoat: hand-me-down (probably either a thriftstore, Target, or somewhere similar)

In other news, I have ordered a gigantic red bow with white lace from The Funeral Parlor, Etsy shop of akumaxkami (of Les Fleures Noirs). I know, it doesn't seem very like me--until one realizes just how fond of red the lady of this Ballroom is. In addition, DuskRose is also very fond of experimenting, and she would very much like to have a few Classic outfits in her wardrobe--while never forgetting, of course, that the darker side of Faerie is her true home. (I seem to have wandered into third person, just now. Ah, well. It happens.)

At any rate, I admire and feel myself drawn to the elegance and understated romance of Classic. While I'll
always be a gothic lolita first, I feel a certain kinship with the classic substyle, from what I know of it. And the bow, while more sweet lolita on its own, might work nicely, if unusually, in a Classic coord. I shall have to experiment.

So yes, expect pictures of said headpiece when it arrives! (And do investigate akumaxkami's Etsy.)

Also (in the second piece of "other news"), I have reached the goal of 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo! Having started late, I didn't even think I would finish, much less with a week to spare! Well, I shall have to see how much farther in Ayava's journey I can get before the month ends. (For the curious, take a look at my novel synopsis and excerpt over on the NaNoWriMo website. They'll be under the Novel Info tab, half way down my profile page.)

Of a friend in need

2010-11-15T23:18:00.001-05:00

This will be a shorter and rather more serious post, as the title might suggest. Akumaxkami of Les Fleurs Noires, one of my favorite gothic lolita blogs, would very much like you to visit her Etsy account, The Funeral Parlour, and see if anything catches your fancy. She has a somewhat pressing predicament, and there's a time limit: nine days, to be exact. If you'd like to know more, I'll direct you to her post here.

If possible, please do consider whether you'd like to or be able to purchase anything from Akumaxkami. If not, she asks that you encourage others to visit her Etsy account.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this, my dear readers.

Of black roses where she slumbers

2010-11-12T01:23:00.001-05:00

Well darlings, I hope you had a lovely Halloween. For those of you who have blogs, I've enjoyed reading all of your Halloween-related posts. Mine wasn't perfect, but it turned out rather nicely, all told. But more on that in a bit.

Also, I do apologize for the lateness of this post. I've been very much spirited away by the arrival of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short), a mad, starry-eyed endeavor in which thousands of writers worldwide attempt to write a full novel (50,000 words) in the thirty days of November. That's 1667 words per day. And yes, you can start late and still have a wonderful time--the important thing is starting to write a story.

Doubtless you shall hear more dreamy ramblings on this subject in the future, as I travel along with my protagonist Ayava in his quest to discover what he must sacrifice to keep his world from falling into chaos. To learn more about his story, visit my profile over at NaNoWriMo.

Now, back to the topic at hand.

The week leading up to Halloween was, I must admit, quite stressful. Sewing on a deadline is something I can do (I've watched my mother do it for years), but balancing that and classwork is Not Fun.

At any rate, I'm sure you recall my plan to transform a few thrift store finds into a (antiquely romantic but non-lolita) Sleeping Beauty costume, as inspired by Lareine's song Kyokutou no Koibito ? Well, I realized that it would be very easy to make those two skirts I had into a lolita skirt, and found that I could not resist the enchanted call of loli!

The two layers of my skirt, spread out to their full width. Unfortunately they wouldn't quite fit on the sewing table, so do pardon that.

And now, an "in construction" snapshot of my blouse. I had just taken a trip to the fabric store, so that's my newly acquired trim you see there.

I had a bit of a time figuring out how I would take it on and off, but in the end I cut off the strip of fabric that had the buttons attached to it, then took some spare fabric from one of the skirts and sewed in an extra wide panel, over which to put corset lacing. The idea was for the extra fabric in the center panel to fold under the sides of the blouse, but still be able to expand and allow me to slip out of the blouse. Well, wriggle out of it. It works pretty well, but next time I shall consider either a zipper or shirring for my beloved corset-laced style of blouse.

It took a lot of work, but on Halloween night, the transformation was worth it. I think I achieved the ghostly, whimsically melancholy look I was aiming for, and that's a big milestone for someone who's not even sure how to style her own hair.

I had a full-length outfit picture, but it's on my other camera, and I didn't want to delay this post any further. So I shall have to content you with this photo (and stay tuned for a full length ambient shot at the end!).

I like to think you can see the influence from Yoh's art, as well as this exquisite rendering of a slumbering maiden, by Matayosi. My costume wasn't perfect, but I'm very happy with the result considering the time and materials I had.

I won't overload you with pictures, but here's a detail shot of the corsage and necklace, both of which I made from materials I had stashed away. (A stash is something every sewing or crafting loli should have. I'm still working on mine, but it's getting there.)

(I used flash, so it's a bit more bright and shiny than usual.)

You'll recall that I've been wittering on about black roses ("twined in her hair," as my costume's inspiration-song says), and well, these didn't turn out too badly, if I may say so. Lately I've become intrigued by corsages, and I wanted to put this scrap of lace to good use in making one. I stitched one of those snap open barrette/clip thingies to the back, and braided the ribbons into my front braids, to give the "twined in her hair" effect.

The necklace is actually a remake of one I made this spring, but lost soon after I made it. Although it took only a few minutes to make, I hadn't had the heart to remake it until now, but I'm so glad I did!

Perhaps next time I should go ahead an take a detail shot of the blouse's trim. My hair seems to be in the way. Erm, yes.

Having been away at college for two years, I had missed being with my family for Halloween. We don't decorate much (I will change that in the future, mark you) but we've started carving pumpkins. I'm afraid I don't have a picture for you, but they looked lovely out in the front garden and on the gateposts.

I walked around for a while with my sisters and a couple of children from down the street as they trick-or-treated. I didn't carry a bag this time, but it was fun seeing everyone in costume. I saw the most adorable Draculaura, in the same group as a Mad Hatter. Very fitting that I should meet the latter while in loli! As to the former though---for those who aren't aware, Mattel is producing a new line of charmingly spooky Monster High dolls, presented as the highschool-age children of famous monsters. All of them are darling, but Dracula's daughter ("Draculaura") is my favorite of the bunch!

And now, I leave you with one in-character shot. After coming home, I grabbed a knitting needle to be my spindle. You can't see it very well, but the "spindle" is a deep blood red--one of my favorite colors, and wonderfully spooky against all the white (or so I think).

Of roses and a slumbering princess

2010-10-23T20:05:00.001-04:00

With Halloween fast approaching, you know what that means for us gothic types: it's time to put together a costume worthy of the most otherworldly fantasies of our spookily-inclined hearts. At least, it does to me. With that in mind, several days ago I headed to a recently opened thrifts store (Acts Thrift Store, for any interested readers here in LA).

Perhaps because of the approaching holiday, or possibly as a result of my improved thrifting skills, I came across many goth-and-lolita-friendly finds. For those who, like me until recently, were mystified by the elusive Way of the Thrift Store Goer (so to speak), I've found that the way to find treasures is to keep firmly in mind what types of material you are willing and not willing to have in your wardrobe.

You don't have to have extensive knowledge of various types of fabric (heavens, I can't claim I do either). But when you consider a certain item, look at the fabric and try to decide if you're willing to wear that type of fabric. If not, there's not much you can do except use the item's design as a pattern for a similar item. On the other hand, a horrible item made of wonderful fabric can be used for raw materials, even if your DIY skills can't salvage the item's original design.

(Note~ Much of my thrifting knowledge has been gleaned from more experienced thrifters, such as The Lady of the Manners and Miss Lumpy. Their names link to a thrifting post from each of them, in case you're interested. Actually, to tell the truth, I couldn't find an entire thrifting post from the the Lady of the Manners, so in her case the linked post is merely one of several Gothic Charm School columns that has a paragraph or two of wise words about thrifting.)

Now, what treasures did I find? First, I have to tell you a bit about my planned Halloween attire. For the longest time I was torn between several options, but I believe I've happened upon a costume idea that incorporates them all. In short~ gothic Sleeping Beauty, thus combining one of my favorite fairytales with one of my favorite subcultures (the other being lolita, naturally).

For a longer explanation, well, I shall explain. Have any of you heard of the Visual Kei band Lareine? They aren't active any more, but I found out about them because their singer, Kamijo, went on to create the band Versailles, which is my very favorite musical group. If you like roses, vampires, French aristocrats, and a dash of symphonic and power metal, all mixed together in a fantastical epic saga, I highly recommend Versailles.

Little by little, and especially in the past few weeks, I've come to love the sentimental, romantic atmosphere of Lareine as much as I love the dramatic, unearthly grandeur of Versailles. One of my favorite Lareine songs is "Kyokutou no Koibito," which I have seen translated as "The Far Eastern Love." Judging from my still developing Japanese skills, it could also be translated "Lover from the Far East." Take your pick, my dears.

To tell you the truth, I'm really not sure how exactly the title ties into the rest of the song (although I love the title all the same). The song seems to be about a version of Sleeping Beauty with black roses twined in her hair, slumbering "in the midst of briar roses" while her prince searches for her with a sword of glass. From what I can gather, at least. Here are the romaji lyrics at Jpopasia.com, and an English translation at this website, if you'd like to read them. And of course, a link to the song itself on Youtube!

Rather than wearing loli, I planned to put together a long, flowy gown type of costume--the kind of thing in which you might imagine a princess slumbering. At first, while wandering around the thriftstore, I was trying to make up my mind between a kuro outfit, to go with the roses, and a shiro outfit, which besides having that lovely ghostly look I've been craving, would also feel more like a costume.

That came out strangely, but I mean that while I love kuro gothic, and I'm sure I could pull together a kuro outfit that felt fantastical enough to me, it would take more work because kuro gothic makes up the greater part of the wardrobe I'm putting together. Shiro, however, while it will eventually have it's own place in my wardrobe, lends itself more easily to the "strange and wondrous" feeling a costume should have, simply because I haven't worn white in so long. Dear me, I'm not explaining this very well, am I? Ah well...

In the end, in true Dusk Rose fashion, I picked...both! Well, I will have a mostly white costume, with a few black accents. In addition to tying in the roses, this will give me another dose of the Yoh-esque black x white asthetic I've been craving recently. Speaking of Yoh, I've figured out another piece of art that probably influenced both my love for the black x white look (not exactly the oldschool type of black x white, though I love that too) and my costume choice. I present to you this gorgeous piece by Mayatosi, which I first discovered via Tumblr. Doesn't it have a gorgeous, sentimental air of melancholy about it?

Is it picture time? Yes, at last!

I found a couple of skirts each made of the same, slightly crinkly material, and will use fabric from the all white one to make the other a bit longer and fuller.

(Is that a "bubble skirt," I wonder?)

(Sorry, I couldn't get this one to completely stay on the windowseat.)

Speaking of black and white, I love that embroidery at the bottom. The design uses white (or silver?) thread as well as black, which is delightful because one of my favorite types of fabric is the kind with embroidery in the same shade as the background, such as white on white or black on black. A detail shot~

For the top half of the outfit, I took my own advice and sought out an average button down shirt with fabric I love. It's full of the above mentioned white on white embroidery, you see. Even if I can't salvage the blouse, I have Big Plans for that material. I just haven't figured out what said plans are, yet.

I also found this blouse, which has the virtue of poofy sleeves. (Always a good thing. Always.) We will see what DIY can do with it. In order to spare you yet one more in this deluge of pictures, I laid out my third blouse option along with it. Well, not really a blouse option--I bought this one mainly for the sleeve material.

The one feature I knew my costume had to have was long flowy sleeves that gathered at the wrist and just below the shoulder, so I plan to use the lace material to achieve that effect. The lace (which unfortunately you can't see very well) isn't perfect, but it's pretty soft and it has a pattern of roses! To go with the (to be DIY-ed) ones in my hair! Er, excuse my squeeing then, if you will.

If you're like me, you believe that corsets and the like are always a good thing (kind of like poofy sleeves, but even more so--if you can believe it that is). Accordingly, I've found some sort of corset belt-ish thing made out of the most lovely silky black fabric, which will tie in the other black accents very nicely.

The nice thing is that when I'm done with this costume, the separate pieces will fit will into my regular wardrobe, so all my sewing work won't be in vain. Speaking of my regular wardrobe, though, I found the most amazing tee shirt while costume hunting.

It has a chandelier! Besides featuring one of my very favorite motifs, this will make an excellent cutsew to go with my socks (see previous post)! Really, I've been needing more chandeliers in my wardrobe...but then, don't we all? (Oh all right, I mean that all of us probably have some outlandish motif or design feature we adore--such as carousels, or cake hats, yes? Or black roses.)

Of kneesocks, lace and chandeliers

2010-10-23T18:51:00.000-04:00

So then, what has your ballroom host been up to this past week or so? Well, a substantial portion of the answer would be: knitting. Do any of you happen to remember that tiny strip of red knitting from one of my early posts, which I promised would someday transform into a lace-up knee sock before your very eyes?

Well, so it has...

I haven't added the ribbon to lace it up yet, but almost-completing this inspires me to get finished more quickly with the other sock! I loosely followed the "Victorian Lace Socks" pattern by Lorri Ann Romesberg on Ravelry.com. The primary stitch--the mini-melon stitch--is based on a Victorian lace pattern. The yarn is Country brand.

Not many of you besides my fellow A:tLA fans will appreciate this, but I must admit that whenever it came time to make the "melons" I had the urge to declare, "I am Melon Lord! Mwa ha ha!" ~a la Toph. An urge I gave into more often than not.

Speaking of knitting, recently we took a trip to Micheals' (a crafts store here in the US) and my portion of the spoils were mostly of the yarn variety.

I already have some Vanna's Glamour yarn in black with golden metallic flecks, but I fell in love with the grey and silver version too. This yarn reminds me of delicate, spider-web lace--the kind my spider-fay characters would spin.

I remain fascinated by the Yoh-esque black x white asthetic I mentioned before, and I'm in the process of putting together a coordinate that captures it. I have the perfect kneesocks--a pair black with white chandeliers, which may be seen on this page (scroll down) at Goodgoth.com, but there's just one problem. The socks are not the best quality, and to my dismay they're getting holes in the toe. So, I have attempted to recreate the pattern in black and white yarn. It took a lot of stitch-counting and close examination of the sock, and I had to write down the pattern of black and white stitches in each row as I went along. But I don't think it came out too shabbily.

As you can see, the scale of the pattern is much larger in my knitting, because the yarn is so much thicker. (I'm using two different brands of yarn for this practice piece: the black and slightly finer yarn is Simply Soft and the white is, I believe, Bernat Satin). I would like to see if I can adjust the stitch count to make the chandeliers small enough that they would look good on socks. Of course, using a smaller yarn would help too.

All the same, I plan to use this piece of knitting as some kind of decorative...something, probably for my room. You see, I'm in the process of organizing and loli-gothify-ing my things, and it's still in the hectic stage. But if I start with the decorative crafting now, it will give me a head start--and besides, all organizing and no DIY makes DuskRose a very dull goth loli.

So, have you been knitting anything lately? Is there anything that you'd like to knit but don't quite have the courage to begin? I hadn't worked at all with different colors of yarn before making this chandelier, and replicating the sock pattern was another new challenge. That's to say, don't be afraid of trying something new. I know it sounds cliche, but I a little encouragement is never a bad thing. So if you've knit or crocheted anything recently, or just want to, let me know in a comment!

Of Other Cyber-Castles

2010-10-23T14:40:00.001-04:00

Thanks, once again, to my new followers! I noticed several of you have lolita blogs, and I'm always glad to discover more of those!

A short list of my recent followers' blogs, for those interested:
~The Dark Victorian by OpiateVampire, a lifestyle gothic lolita whose views about lolita blogging and lolita in general I can very much relate too, because they are (for the most part) not too different from my own. And really, you should see her tips for gothify-ing one's living space!
~Lemontree by Oli, the lovely host of that first and only meetup I've attended (so far), a lolita who enjoys the lighter substyles and very adorably coordinates them.
~Bloody Fashionista by Crimson, who seeks "dark romanticism" (as she put it) in her preferred style of lolita--a quest to which I can certainly relate!
~Pretty Kiss by Firefly, a sweet lolita (I believe) whose appreciation for other styles, such as classic and even gothic, I very much admire!

My lovely Ballroom-guests will find these and many other lolita blogs in my blogroll, there at the side. If any of you have a lolita blog (whether or not I already follow you--yet, that is!) which you would like me to include here, do let me know in a comment! (Likewise, if any of you to whose blogs I've linked would rather not be featured here, let me know and I will edit the post accordingly.) I don't have a myriad of followers, but if I can help you get word of your lolita blog out there, I'd be glad too. Besides, I always love discovering new lolita blogs!

I should note, of course, that the idea of having a lolita blog listing post came from Miss Caro-chan of F Yeah Lolita, a gothic lolita with strong classic leanings. I'm sure many of you already follow her, but if not, why don't you check out her corner of the loli blogosphere?

Of monochrome flowers

2010-10-19T00:57:00.001-04:00

A myriad of thanks and welcomings to my new followers! I do hope you enjoy your stay at the Ballroom.

Now, then. Recently I took a couple of excursions to one of the farther-away-but-massive Jo-Ann's Fabric stores, and you know what that means: picture time!

Browsing with the eye of a kuro gothic, I was unfortunately not able to find much useful fabric. It seems Jo-Ann's suppliers have not realized that subtly embroidered black-on-black wovens (or even just plain polished cotton or cotton sateen) are Absolutely Essiential. Next I will have to try looking online or dying fabric that's already close to black in color.

However, the visit proved useful in other ways.

Lately I've been craving more of a black-and-white aesthetic--not so much oldschool (though I like that too) as "delicate details in black white and grey scale, all mixed together." It's hard to explain, but perhaps you'll understand when I explain that part of my inspiration for this new greyscale craving is the Japanese artist Yoh, who creates beautiful and delicately morbid artwork without a hint of color in sight.

With that in mind, I decided to have a look at the quilting fabrics (which are generally stiffer than you'd want for regular clothes, but not bad for lolita skirts, or so I've heard). They actually have quite a few black and white prints, and in the end I purchased this one.

I love how bold yet ornate it is. It doesn't hurt that flowers and curlicues are some of my favorite motifs. I may try making just a simple rectangle skirt this time, both to show off the print and to hone my skills in skirt-making (drat that waistband).

On the next outing, I discovered some ribbon that almost matches the material. I'd like to figure out some sort of headpiece to make with this, to match with the skirt.

Speaking of the skirt, I found some buttons that will look lovely as fastenings for the skirt. They had several black and white button designs, but after deliberating I decided these pearl buttons would show up better than a button with such a similar design to the fabric.

I also bought a couple packages of these buttons, a while back. I don't know what I'll do with them, but I know it should be A Special Project. The blossoms are so pretty; they remind me of Japanese art.

And last but not least, I have now purchased ten yards of stiff tulle! It was only 2 dollars per yard, and with a 50 percent off coupon we were able to cut the price in half again. I must admit, so much tulle in one place is quite a formidable sight.

I shall use it to make the petticoat from the tutorial posted here on EGL by LJ user adriannrod (based on the petticoat in this article about 50s singer Alice Lon), and maybe my heavy two layer skirt will finally poof to its full potential! The new tulle feels quite stiff and scratchy, so I might use my current, relatively-un-poofy petticoat beneath it. But I am quite looking forward to moving closer to becoming a dark, frilly cupcake.

Of clothing alterations and October's arrival

2010-10-02T17:50:00.001-04:00

At last we return to October!--the one time of year when the rest of the world realizes that yes, indeed, "every day is Halloween." I hope to find suitably spooky and whimsical ways to celebrate this month, such as going to look for treasures among all the Halloween merchandise at places like Target, JoAnn's Fabrics, and thrift stores.
If any of you gothic-and-lolita types would like to read a really wonderful article on Halloween shopping, let me direct you towards the latest column by the Lady of the Manners, a delightful, gothy rolemodel of mine who writes an online etiquette and advice column for the spookily inclined, at Gothic Charm School. Some of you might know her better as cupcake-goth at LiveJournal--she posts sometimes in the EGL and Daily Lolita communities.

While we're on the topic of inspiration for making the most out of October, I urge you to visit Les Fleurs Noires, a wonderful loli blog of the gothic persuasion, by akumaxkami. The most recent, October-and-fall themed posts have already given me quite a few ideas.

So how am I celebrating October so far? Well, in the last few weeks, the wish to properly gothify and lolify my wardrobe has grown stronger than ever. And so a week or two ago, I sorted through my clothes to divide them into a) the "keeper" pile, b) the giveaway pile, and c) (most exciting!) the DIY pile.

Here's a snap of my closet as it is now (after the sorting process). I had to use flash, as my room is quite dark.

And here is the DIY pile! My first ventures into accomplishing said DIY plans will be chronicled later in this post.

Yesterday my sister asked if I had a spare corset top she might borrow for a special occasion, and what do you know! I have two. Moments like these make me feel legitimate as a Romantigoth, don' cha know?

Anyway, my favorite one (which I bought from Charlotte Russe a couple years ago) had frayed at the top of one of the tubes that the boning goes through, so that the plastic boning piece would work its way up and out every time I wore it. So yesterday I took a needle and thread to that, and was able to fix it very quickly. I used what I believe is called a whip stitch, so that the frayed ends would be covered by thread.

And now, it's almost as good as new! I can't wait to wear it again. I love the lace panels, and the lacing up the back. <3

I would like to incorporate this into a gothic and / or ero coordinate (worn over a blouse in the case of the former). Recently I tried it on with the skirt I made, and was pleased to discover that, of course, a corset top takes a way the problem I've been experiencing of strange wrinkles in my blouses, just above the skirt. Hopefully the blouse I've been planning to make soon will have less of that problem, but until then...

Around this time last year, a family member purchased a very pretty Halloween-themed shirt for me, at Crackerbarrel. (For those of you who haven't visited the South in the US, that's a Southern-style restaurant chain which has a shop full of curios and knicknacks as its front portion. Until this semester I had attended college in Kentucky, so I had ample opportunity to visit Crackerbarrel.) Oh, and do excuse the pile of mail there in the corner.

As you can see (providing the picture isn't too small), the shirt is inscribed with delightful slogans like "Spooky," "Halloween fun," and "Ghouls Night Out" in the kind of delicate Gothic script that I love. I think this would make an excellent cut-sew, but it has languished in my "to be DiY-ed" pile until now. The three-quarter length sleeves are too tight at the openings and too loose at the armholes, and the shirt is too wide acress the bust (I have a very small bust and shoulders).

So I spent the morning unpicking one of the sleeves, and the other soon shall follow. I would like to see if I can use the sleeve fabric to make a short gathered sleeve, and I may change the neckline as well (not to mention fixing the fit of the shirt). And trim! You can never go wrong with adding silky black ribbon.

In case any of my sewing and possibly pattern-drafting lolitas out there were wondering, this is (apparently) what a sleeve-shaped piece of fabric looks like when you lay it out flat. The wider end is where the armhole was.

And lastly, here is Elf-tiger (Elfy for short), who was napping on my bed when I took pictures of the DIY pile.

Of a meetup and a birthday, part II

2010-09-30T16:50:00.079-04:00

First of all, a thank you to Miss Caro-chan of F Yeah Lolita, who included The Midnight Ballroom in her list of new lolita blogs, in a recent post on starting one's own lolita blog. In that list, I was pleased to discover a few more delightful blogs that I hadn't known of previously, so do have a look! I especially enjoyed reading a very new blog entitled Doomicorn Rainbow.

And now, let the meetup report continue!

For the rest of the time until I left, we chatted and took pictures. Here are a few candid/"through the crowd" shots I took. They aren't perfectly posed of course, but I like the feeling of depth or being "in the moment" that they portray (to me at least). Once again, if you'd like your LJ name added or anything of that sort, please let me know!

Pretty soon after, I had to leave, but I look forward to our next meetup! For more (and better) photos, check out the pictures that Oli posted on EGL

And since I didn't get outfit snaps of myself any before, I asked my mom to take a few outfit snaps of me when we got home. I wore my casual mary janes because casual loli was suggested. Also, the headdress tends to fall forward--though it doesn't seem to have been doing it too badly in this picture.

I love headdresses. At the meetup I decided that I rather enjoyed being the only headdress loli there, with my quaintly antiquated obsession with them.

And before I forget:
Skirt and headdress (and necklace, which you can't see very well)~handmade.
Socks and blouse~Target?
Shoes~?
Gloves~Hot Topic.

I don't believe I've posted a picture of the complete skirt, so here it is. (I had to lighten the picture a bit--and do excuse the clutter. It seemed the light was best ontop of this table.)

It isn't perfect, but I'm proud of it for a first major sewing project. Here's the button detail...

Well, I do hope you enjoyed my meetup report! There's been talk (on the Orange County lolita meetup group at Meetup.com) of having a meetup in which we sing some Japanese karaoke. I hope I can go, and maybe even sing something from Versailles (my absolute favorite Visual Kei band).

Here's an amusing anecdote for you. Currently I'm studying Japanese, but much of my vocabulary came from various songs I've taken it upon myself to memorize. So as you can guess, it's always great fun when the textbook introduces a word or character that I already knew from Versailles, which causes me to promptly begin singing the song from which I learned that word. The current chapter has quite a few vocabulary words and kanji from Versailles, including no less than three kanji from Aristocrat's Symphony! That was the first Versailles song I really loved, so 'tis quite fun.

Most recently I'm in love with "Prince." It would be very nice indeed if they had karaoke of that song...

-Ahem- Back to lolita, lest I go all dreamy-eyed (again).

In the near future, I hope to tackle some more loli-related sewing. I have some lovely black on black pinstriped fabric, with which I'm looking forward to making that blouse pattern I posted a few posts back (The New Look one).

And skirts! I must sew another one!

Of a meetup and a birthday, part I

2010-09-22T17:45:00.001-04:00

At last, the long awaited first meet up report! (Warning--heavy on pictures.) The past few weeks have been full of pleasant and not so pleasant business, so I apologize for the wait. For pictures of my newly sewn petticoat and bloomers, refer to the post just below this one.

The Saturday of the meetup was my 20th birthday, so I was doubly excited. The day before I had baked zucchini muffins for the potluck picnic, using this recipe. (I cut the basil in half, and it was plenty strong enough.)

(I had a picture to show you, but at the moment I can't seem to find it.)

This is the second time I've made these, and they turned out pretty good both times. I don't think I should have doubled the recipe though, as they started to go bad before we could eat them all.

So, I got dressed, and we (my mom, ten year old sister and I) were off to the Santa Monica pier! It took us a while to find the loli group, as we were a bit late. But then a very cordial young man saw us and asked if we were looking for the meetup. If I remember correctly, he was the significant other of the host. He pointed us in the right direction (for which I was very grateful), and soon after, we came upon a grassy bank right in front of the beach, where a multitude of Frilly Ones were sitting on picnic blankets.

Upon seeing me, a group of them motioned me over to their corner, which greatly helped this shy loli to get over her nervousness. My mom and sister went off to enjoy the beach, and I went over to the group that had waved. We chatted and picnicked for a while, and I just sat there taking it in. Later the host, Oli, joined the group where I was sitting. She was an excellent host all through the meetup, and I'm very glad she put this meetup together!

After we were finished eating (the ones who tried my zucchini muffins seemed to like them! <3 ), it was...picture time! Everyone was so adorable. I snapped a few shots of the various corners of the picnic...

And now, some non-candid ones of the lolis I was sitting with. I didn't catch everyone's LJ name, but the loli on the left is Oli (of the blog Lemontree), who hosted the meetup. The loli on the right was my partner in a game we played later. If anyone would like their LJ names added, please let me know!

To my left...

And to my right...

And to my left again! Several of us were quite thankful for our parasols, as it was very sunny that day.

Later, more lolis showed up, including the girl who wore my favorite coordinate at the meetup. I was very excited that a) I recognized and knew the name of the print on her skirt, and b) it was the Midsummer Night's Dream-inspired print from AatP (my favorite brand)! Later I asked to take a full coordinate shot.

I love her blouse too. Aren't those sleeves to die for? When we were chatting, she confessed that butterflies were a favorite motif of hers, and complimented my handmade butterfly necklace. She had a butterfly necklace too, so I guess in a small way we were twinning. ~

After the picnic was finished, we stood in a huge circle and introduced ourselves, saying our name, our LJ name, and one interesting fact about ourselves. I told them it was my 20th birthday, and they all sang Happy Birthday to me! <3 I was quite charmed.

Then we played a few games, including Red Light Green Light, and... Well, I'll have to pause to explain the next game, as I don't know the name. Oli handed out "name tags" that would go on each person's back, and we had to guess what was written on our tag by asking other people "yes or no" questions. Then we had to find our "partner." I was a Pokemon called Plusle, and my partner was "Minum" (the loli in the pink tartan JSK). I don't know much about Pokemon, so I'm glad I had her to help figure it out!

I especially enjoyed the irony when a sweet loli was "Gothic Lolita." Then another sweet loli was "Maki" (very fitting, no?)--but her partner ("Asuka," of course) was a very beautifully Moitie-esque goth loli!

I believe the creator of the Pink Zombies Etsy shop supplied many of the prizes that were handed out. I received a blue bow (not as dark a blue as in the picture) in a pink bag, along with her card. The bow was crocheted, I think.

After that, we played one more game where we stood in a circle, and sent one person out of earshot. Then we elected a "leader" who would decide what motion we would all do, and then change the motion whenever they wished. The person who had been sent away had to come back and guess who the leader was. It was fun--some of the leaders got quite energetic and disco-y (notably our lovely host).

That's all for now, but do come back for part II!

Of sewing pics and a solitary loli outing

2010-09-22T16:40:00.000-04:00

Well, I am now the loli in residence at my local community college! A couple days ago, I wore loli out for the second time ever, for a presentation in which my partner and performed a dialogue discussing our love of street fashion--in Japanese. Both of my classes at the college are Japanese this semester. I'm hoping to transfer to a state university and complete a major in the language.

My only other time wearing loli was the meetup--of which I shall indeed make a report, never fear. So as I walked solo across campus, attracting curious stares (but nothing more), I rather had the empowering sense of joining all the brave lolis before me who have worn the frills alone. Unfortunately I don't have an outfit shot, but this coordinate was similar to my coord for the meetup, which you will see ere long.

In class, I had the chance to explain to my partner why my skirt was so poofy (in English, after the presentation). When I was leaving campus, a girl called out "I love your dress! That's awesome." I wished I could have stopped to strike up a conversation with her instead of just saying "Thank you," but I was afraid my ride was already waiting. Maybe the girl will be sitting there again next Monday, who knows? I hope so.

So now--sewing pictures! First, the bloomers... (Keep in mind that I used flash for these.)

Instead of elastic, I used a silky cord (I found it in the "trim" section of Joann's Fabric Store) as a drawstring in the waist and the legs, and that ribbon on the legs functions as a casing, with an open tube in the middle between the ribbon and the bloomer fabric. Here's a detail shot of the cord.

It's fairly easy to thread the string through a safety pin, but very tedious, as I have to repeat the process every time I wash my bloomers (I'm afraid to wash the drawstrings, as they ravel easily). I believe, for my next pair of bloomers, I will just bite the bullet and use elastic!

And now, the petticoat! (Excuse the shoes everywhere.)

It could be a lot poofier, and next time I shall make it so. I'd like to make this petticoat, in particular. Being so heavy, the skirt needs a much more hefty petticoat, but I didn't realize quite how much tulle I would need at the time I was buying the petticoat material.

I used same drawstring cord/trim for this one, and it works a bit better because I don't expect to have to wash the petticoat very much. But I didn't have enough of the cord, so I have to hold tightly to each end when I pull the petticoat over my hips, or they disappear in to the casing!

This is the inner layer, made out of a different material (no flash this time, but I did have to lighten it).

Whoops, that's my hair in the corner. Anyway, I like how it has silver flecks like the night sky with stars. On the same note, there are tiny black polkadots on the other two layers! Hurrah for whimsical fabric that no-one but you will see. <3 Of course I'd love to put together a few gothic fairy kei outfits, and maybe I'll use this as a skirt.

You know, I would like to start writing in "bite size" chunks and posting more often, as I have seen other blogs do. So I will end this and go set to work right now on the meetup report post.

Of dressing for a winter fairyland

2010-08-17T16:33:00.001-04:00

First of all, thanks to all my fifteen followers! You make me encouraged that this blog is coming to be loved. <3 I want to thank everyone for the hits, as well!

In the last post, I promised you some sewing pics, but I'm afraid they'll have to wait till next post. I've almost completed my coordinate for the upcoming meetup (yikes! this Saturday! and it's my first meetup too). And so in the future, I will certainly bring to you pics of my full coordinate and a meetup report, as well as pictures of what I've sewn so far. But for now, I wanted this to be more of a "musings" post, as I was inspired by a recent post on another lolita blog...

Not long ago, Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm wrote about choosing personal themes to incorporate into Lolita, for the upcoming fall and winter season. I quite enjoyed her fanciful and very sweet loli take on the "Season of the Lolita". But now, if you will, hear a goth loli's version of a winter fairytale.

Because I am only just starting to build my wardrobe, some of these will be themes that I'd like to add to my wardrobe regardless of the season. Still, I've selected a few that I think would be especially appropriate for winter. As a loli in Southern California, unfortunately I don't get to see much snow, but I have visited Kentucky numerous times at Christmas, and these past two years I lived there for college. The experience of living through two rather surprisingly snow-filled (for Kentucky) winters has not dampened my love for the mystery and stark beauty of that season. And so, several of my themes will strive to bring the cold loveliness of winter into one's personal aesthetic.

Symbols/Motifs:

~Roses. Deep bloodred for romance, and for the strange lingering poignancy that memories of summer leave behind. White roses for sorrow and snow, and ghostly innocence. Black roses for, as always, dusk-shadowed, lovelorn whimsy.

~Black thorny stems. Winter is a time of "sharp" contrasts (so to speak), and this motif reminds me of one of my favorite winter contrasts: the dark, leafless branches interlacing against the pale grey sky.

~Chandeliers. Bejeweled with crystals and lights, they suit the festive decadence of the season. But I adore chandeliers in any season.

~Spiderwebs. Although you wouldn't find many spiders in winter, their delicate silvery webs give an abandoned, desolate air to whatever they adorn, which suits the frozen world. Although I didn't realize it when I first wrote down this theme, the skirt I'm working on incorporates it! The bottom layer is all covered with a pattern of spiderwebs.

~Windows. Tall, tapered windows with many panes, and perhaps the moon or a tangle of rose-vines peeking in through the glass (can you tell I'm thinking of Alice and the Pirates? Specifically, and very ironically, their new Midsummer Night's Dream-inspired print, which has won a solid place on my "If I ever buy brand" list, just behind the exquisite Vampire Requiem.) Windows like these make me imagine Christmas parties at a great house, filled with a vision of sugarplums and glowing candles and guests shimmering in satin and brocade.

~Music boxes. Often in stories (at least in my own), a music box or the tune it plays will hold a wistful memory of a more idyllic time, perhaps a character's relatively carefree childhood. The above-mentioned Christmas parties seem a fitting time for those fanciful, fairytale memories to be created, to hold in one's heart like a melancholy jewel even amidst more troubling times.

~Other motifs that seem to suit winter: swans (both white and black), Victorian cameos and lockets, brooding towers and castles, ravens and perhaps other symbols from the works of Edgar Allen Poe. Speaking of whom, I have discovered (well, re-discovered, as I knew about them already) Nox Arcana, a wonderful gothic instrumental group that creates stunning music. Haunting, poignant, melancholy and beautful. One of my favorite piece so far is The Raven on the album Shadow of the Raven, which consists of music inspired by the writings of Poe. This piece's ageless, wistful sorrow reminded me of a character of mine, who as it happens is called "the Raven" among his people--it's a title of sorts--and the coincidence quite delighted me.

Now, on to the color themes!

~Red, for winter cheer. Possibly combined with white, silver, or black.

~White, by itself or with silver. I have wanted to try gothic shiro for a long while, and I think it would perfectly suit a fairy world of snow and ice, beneath the pale cloudy sky.

~Black, of course! Being primarily goth loli, it may take me a while to add other colors into my slowly building wardrobe. However, I'm of the belief that frilly, decadent black suits any occasion. Still, although gothic kuro remains my number one love, I would like to try accenting black with silver (one of my favorite color combinations. Silver is so pretty with anything).

Wardrobe pieces/Design features I would like to try:

~At least one OP. I have a secret longing for at these, never mind how us new lolis are advised against them (based on the fewer mix-and-matching options they give than skirts and blouses). They make me think of party dresses! Of course, who needs an excuse like a party to dress up?

~Vests. Lately I've found that I love the look of a vest over a frilly blouse. Sadly though it's been too hot to wear them here!

~Possibly more hats. I would love to make or find a tiny top hat. (In her latest post, Yajaira at Lolita Poupee directs us to a wonderful top hat tutorial by Tom Banwell at his blog.) Then there are always cake hats, gothic style! I saw gothic cake hats on live journal a while ago, but unfortunately I don't have the link at hand.

~A skirt with the top layer caught up to reveal a ruffled underskirt. Something about this look seems very princessy to me. Which reminds me! Gothic hime is another style I would like to try, and I do believe it would suit the winter season, whether at festive gatherings or alone in the twilit winter forest.

~Detachable sleeves, possibly. It does get cool in the winter in California, and of course there's our annual Christmas trip to colder states. I'm looking forward to said trip, not least because I'm starting to miss the winter in Kentucky.

In any case, for obvious reasons this goth girl is looking forward to the return of cooler weather! I've come to believe that summer is California's winter, in a way--that is, it has some of winter's less-than-preferable traits. Many plants die or hibernate in the heat, and being outside becomes rather uncomfortable. Anyway, I hope I've inspired my dear guests in planning their own fall and winter wardrobes, whether lolita or gothic. After all, the "Season of the Lolita" is also most definitely the Season of the Goth.

Of frills and the what-not with which to make them

2010-08-04T23:58:00.000-04:00

And she pauses to ponder whether the deluge of crafting and sewing photos she brings this evening will cause any problems in terms of computer speed for her dear guests (she hopes no problems will be had).

Recently we took a trip to the fabric store, so I'll start with the items I bought there. Most of these will be a little dark, so I apologize in advance.

It's always fun looking through the bin of remnant fabrics, and I've been wanting to make some doll clothes, so I purchased a couple of remnants. I don't know if you can see it very well, but this is a rolled up scrap of black lace.

I thought this was too cute, in a delightfully gothic way, to pass up. I might make a doll dress or skirt out of this, and then maybe put a layer of lace over it. However, I'm tempted just to make accessories for myself with these!

While browsing the red tag (clearance) fabrics I found this tulle-like material, which I plan to use as the bottom layer or two of a petticoat I'll be making in the next couple of weeks. I used the flash so you could see it better, but it's much blacker in reality. I love how soft it feels, and there are tiny sparkles in the fabric! It reminds me of the night sky. Of course no-one will see it, but (to loosely borrow an idea from Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm), why not wear a petticoat that reminds you of the stars at midnight, even if you're the only one who knows?

Just as she needs a petticoat, this beginning lolita will need bloomers too--so I found a soft black knit in the sale section that I plan to use. The fabric itself didn't seem interesting enough to warrant taking a picture, so I'll wait on that till I start sewing up the bloomers.

I found a lovely and very loliable pattern for a button up blouse (New Look 6599), so I bought that as well. Usually, in and outside of loli I like scoop-neck blouses that don't button up, but recently I've started to think that on occasion, I'd be quite willing to wear a button up blouse, provided it was sufficiently frilly.

Now, what else have I been stitching up? Well, I decided to make a headdress, out of an old skirt from a thriftstore and some ribbon. I love headdresses, and made this one to practice both for headdresses and for making other trifling fancies such as ruffles, ribbon roses, and bows. By the way, this video is an excellent rose-making tutorial.
I'm really quite proud of how this headdress came out. All I need to do now is make the ties out of a few more strips of that skirt's fabric.

As you may remember, I'm making a skirt (which I hope to finish in time for the meetup on the 21st, although that will be interesting since I have a petticoat and bloomers to sew before then as well!) The past few days I've been attaching The Endless Ruffle to the hem.

Here it is! It was quite an experience sewing on the ruffle, so I'm rather proud of the results. The room where I photographed it is very dark, so I had to use flash. The material is much darker and much less shiny in real life. That open side (on the right) is where the zipper will go. I have a feeling this skirt will be very poofy once I gather it all!

Speaking of (a different kind of) stitches, I'm knitting a pair of lace knee socks, using a sock pattern from Ravelry.com. For the top few inches, I plan to lace them up, so that's why they aren't being knitted in the round quite yet. Unfortunately I am plagued with very sensitive skin, so socks that press too tightly against my legs can pose a problem. However, it can be fun to find ways to work around problems like this, and I rarely pass up a chance to add "corset lacing" to a garment!

Of spiderwebs, ruffles and cosplay

2010-07-30T22:21:00.001-04:00

And she returns to the ballroom with an array of long-promised crafting photos, and with thanks to her dear guests who have waited so patiently for an update!

Ah, Real Life. Busy, as usual. But not entirely in a bad way, as evidenced by the photos below of my excursion to Comic Con a couple weekends ago. (Wait...does Comic Con count as "Real Life"? It does for me!) Of course, I can't entirely blame my absence on real life, as various fandoms hold their share of the fault. (Yes, I do admit to writing fanfiction, and I blame that on my obsession with Lady Ursa and most especially Prince Ozai of the Fire Nation.)

Now, onward to a group of sewing photos that have been waiting quite a long time to see the light of day--er, cyberspace. As mentioned in the last post, I have been working on The Endless Ruffle for the lower edge of my first loli skirt. Somehow I feel that last sentence needs a <3 at the end, for maximum whimsicality. Which I am quite in favor of!

At any rate, here is the ruffle all spread out on my floor. It looks a bit shinier than it is, because of the flash. Pretty endless, no?

From what I've read, the hem of one's skirt should be four times the circumference of the waist, and then a ruffle is two to three times that! So you can imagine the fun I had basting, especially with that stiff material. (The fabric is synthetic, but I've been told it resembles taffeta, which I suppose lends a bit of that "richness" I'm looking to include in my coordinates. The next skirt will probably more of a natural fabric--partly because I live in very hot Southern California, after all.)

Despite the sewing tribulations, I persevered, and gained victory over The Endless Ruffle!

Here is a close up of the fabric.

Again, the flash makes it look extremely shiny. I fiddled with it a little in Gimp2, but couldn't seem to do much about it (perhaps when I become more of a Gimp guru). My carpet is a much darker green, for that matter.

The spiderweb design is a raised "fuzzy" material. This skirt will be two layers, and for the top layer I have a variation of the same fabric, with a patter of blossoms instead of spiderwebs.

At this point, I still had the basting thread in the ruffle. I like that shade of blue, though. It made me feel very Moitie, even though the thread's a bit lighter than the Moitie shade of blue (even without the flash).

The skirt still needs quite a bit of work, but I hope to complete it by the third week of August. You see, there is a meetup planned for the 21st, which as it happens...is my birthday! What better way to celebrate turning 20 than to don my first complete coordinate and attend my first meetup? Pictures of all this sewing and meetup-attending will be forthcoming, I assure you.

Now, onto a little bit of non-loli crafting. Last year for Comic Con, my mother and I (mostly my mother) made an Ursa cosplay that I am quite proud of, as it turned out rather gorgeously. So for two years now, I have attended Comic Con as young Ursa from Avatar: the Last Airbender.

At the convention, Ursa found her favorite student from Monster High: Draculaura (at the Mattel booth)! I'm sure you see why a whimsically romantic goth girl such as myself can identify with her.

This year, I made myself a few new accessories for the cosplay--hence the mention of crafting. At Micheal's (a craft store) I found some lovely beads from Blue Moon Beads, specifically their Asian-influenced line of beads, called Orient Express. With these I made two hair clips, a matching ring (looped around my finger with a ribbon), and a necklace. The pendant makes me think of the Fire Palace, or perhaps Avatar Roku's temple!

Young Urzai (UrsaxOzai) has a special place in my heart, so I mainly cosplay young Ursa, specifically during her betrothal to Prince Ozai (i.e. before she became Princess Ursa). I figure His Highness totally decked me out with jewels--do excuse your host's girlish giggle--and said assumption did rather add to the enjoyment of working on my cosplay! To complete the "decked out" look, I bought a few more accessories, from Target as it happens. There I acquired two more hairclips, a hair elastic (for the back of my top knot), and a ring made from a zipper!

I have a few more crafting pictures for you in the near future, which will include the goods from a recent run to Joann's (my favorite fabric store). I hope to post them very soon, but I believe I should end this post before it gets much longer! In the meantime, do look over the long list of tutorials which the marvelous Miss Caro-chan has compiled over at F Yeah Lolita. As a sewing loli, I know that I at least shall find this compilation quite useful!

Now, happy sewing or however it is that my dear guests like to amuse their darkly frilly hearts. <3

Of strawberries and apples

2010-07-05T14:59:00.000-04:00

And she assures her dear guests that she is indeed working on said loli skirt, and will post pictures soon, but first she has a rather more lifestyle-related post to make. (She also wishes to thank all of her followers--fourteen before her seventh post! She never expected that...) And now--

Baking, my dears! Of course, nothing says that you have to like baking or any other "lifestyle" hobby to consider yourself a lifestyle loli (just as a fondness for bats, The Addams family, or any number of traditionally "oh-so-gothic" interests are in no way required to consider yourself a goth). Still, my younger sister (the one that made the lovely Fire Nation doll clothes from a previous post) has been baking a lot recently, and a couple weeks ago she inspired me.

That evening, my parents were to attend a bible study, and my mother wanted to make an apple and strawberry crisp but didn't have the time. So I decided to give it a shot, and by all accounts the people at the bible study quite enjoyed it! We still had enough apples and strawberries left over to make another one, so I did so the next morning and halfway through decided to document the process in case any of you darlings should wish to try it.

I used this recipe, which is very simple. At first I couldn't find our canister of cinnamon, so after a little research I discovered that ground cloves can be substituted, although one must use markedly less, because the taste is so much stronger. The first time I made this, I hadn't ended up with quite enough of the topping (I used brown sugar to fill in the gaps after baking, both times) so I tried to add proportionately more of each ingredient. I only roughly estimated, but it seemed to turn out all right.

Now, for the fruit! This is where I started taking pictures. Having had lots of practice by this point, I was getting better at cutting up apples (which is hard!). I thought I remembered using three (green) apples the first time, but this time two were almost too much for the dish I was using. Maybe it was my (somewhat) improved skill in cutting apple slices.

The strawberries were much easier to slice (if you have a small, sharp knife)--and I must say, I felt very loli while doing so! I cut them into thirds or even fourths whenever I could, and ended up using a one-pound container of strawberries for each crisp.

You can see the strawberries over a layer of apples (which you can't see quite as well). It already looks delicious, no? For the first crisp I ended up using several teaspoons of lemon juice, so the apples wouldn't brown in the air. I'm told it that the first crisp tasted a little tart (though apparently not in a bad way) even though I had tried to compensate with sugar, so this time I used less lemon juice and sprinkled lots of sugar on the apples as well as on the strawberries.

Here are the strawberries with sugar (which was melting, so I had to take the photo quick)! I thought this looked like the perfect sweet loli dessert. Even this goth loli thought it looked delicous!

After this I sprinkled on the topping, and then it was into the oven! As you can see, there was plenty of topping, but after it baked some of the strawberries still showed through. The recipe didn't say whether to preheat the oven or not--but I did so and only baked the crisp 35-40 minutes instead of 45.

While it was baking, I decided to dress up. Till now my wardrobe has been more goth than loli, but I have added several pieces that (to me) fit the loli asthetic, while not being loli themselves. I don't usually dress this fancy (though I intend to change that very soon), but I was somewhat inspired by knowing that I would post this...besides the fact that none of my long pants (better known as trousers to some of you) were clean at the moment.

red tartan top: Target

black shirt underneath: thrifted? (I believe I got it from my sister--a different sister from the aforementioned one)

skirt: originally a long skirt that I found at a thrift store, which I altered quite a bit last summer (practicing to create garments that "fit the loli aesthetic" despite not being loli themselves). I cut off the lower part and sewed it back on a few inches below the waist line to create the illusion of an extra layer.
Then I gathered the sewn on part vertically in several (well, three) places for a scalloped effect, and sewed on several little roses of red ribbon to match the printed ones on the fabric. One of the gathers broke, so I've been using a safety pin to hold the gather in place (you can't really see the safety pin here). I've decided I rather like the punk-y effect of the safety pin, despite it's being unplanned!

bows: either Hot Topic or Icing

bat necklace (hard to see): Hot Topic

Also: In this photo I'm sporting second day curls from Michelle Phan's tutorial for paper bag curls on Youtube. They were quite a bit curlier before I brushed my hair.

I know the peacock feather looks like it's in my hair, but it's really behind me! The effect of the "feather in my hair" does quite amuse me, looking at this photo.

Here's the crisp after I took it out of the oven. After it cooled a little, I filled in the holes with brown sugar.

Later that night, I tried a piece.

It wasn't too bad--and others of my family, my mother for one, seemed to like the crisp very much. However, something seemed a little bit "off" to me. It's a little hard to be less vague than that, as I'm not sure whether it was "too bland" or what. I may have to experiment a little with this recipe. Still, I'm glad I was able to make a dessert involving fruit--especially strawberries, which are my favorite--and I hope to bake more things like this in the future.

That notwithstanding, chocolate will always be this goth loli's first love. Especially fudge, and truffles...!

Ah, yes--a word of warning to those of you planning to use ground cloves: If you know that the crisp may not be eaten up right away, be careful to use a very tiny amount! The taste of the cloves tends to get a lot stronger after a few days.

Well then, next time I shall regale you with tales of my deathly struggle to gain victory over The Endless Ruffle, and perhaps also post pictures of the goods from an upcoming (and long-promised) trek to the fabric store...

Of gothic gowns and spookily quaint Tshirts

2010-06-22T16:14:00.000-04:00

And she snatches a moment of quiet amid the aftermath of her little sister's slumber party, firstly because she wishes to welcome all the lovely new guests to her Ballroom who have become her followers!

I am extremely pleased to spread the word of a new, multi-lingual Lolita blog list over at LiveJournal, instigated by the marvelous meiki (LJ name). A few days prior, skyblue_pink (LJ name), whose own blog I quite enjoy, had thrown open a query to the general EGL community inquiring after a mysterious and strangely elusive kind of Lolita blog--those by gothic lolis, such as yours truly. I had been wondering at the scarcity of Gothic Lolita blogs myself, and so, like several others, I posted my blog's link on this thread.

I cannot say for sure whether or not this Lolita's query had anything to do with inspiring the later blog list. However, to my great delight, The Midnight Ballroom was listed under the English-speaking blogs (right there among the Ms)! I promptly combed through the list, looking for lolita blogs that I had somehow missed in my great quest to...well, to acquire the long list of blogs you see there to the right. Knowing my own love of perusing my favorite loli blogs' latest musings (and knowing my own slowness to update this blog), every blog that I add is added with my dear guests in mind. Yes, truly. (Your host is sentimental as well as strange.)

I shan't witter on much longer this time, but all of this is to say that I want to welcome all my new followers, most especially those from LiveJournal! I do hope you will enjoy the ecclectic goings on of this darkly fanciful place.

And now, I promised you pictures, didn't I? For those who have only just wandered into our enchanted moonlit tea party, I will reiterate that my Loli Day this June closed with a formal dinner for a friend of mine who is graduating high school. I do not yet have any Lolita clothes whatsoever, but my gothic side got a chance to darkly shine, in a long gown of black lace that I acquired a few years ago.

I truly apologize for the (sloppily drawn) face mask. I will try to avoid such practices in the future. However, all of the pictures taken at this time were candid shots, and while I do love candid shots, in this one I had a rather strange expression that I would prefer not to be your first impression of me.

Now, this may not be loli, but that doesn't mean we can't do an...

...outfit rundown! The opportunity to do such a thing for any outfit, even a gothic, non-Lolita one, does make one feel very loli, I must admit!

dress: Aardvark's Odd Ark, a vintage and secondhand clothing store. I believe they have more than one in the Southern California area.

gloves: Hot Topic

necklace: handmade (with a butterfly pendant and a length of thin black ribbon, which ties in back. Oddly enough, I'm wearing that necklace again today!)

hairclips: possibly someplace like Target? I've had them for a while.

And here's a full outfit shot!

Although, admittedly, my hair covers much of it. Yes, that is my real hair! Anyway, my shoes are unfortunately not very visible, but I wanted to comment that I bought them at a store called the Rack Room this spring, which had several different styles of low-heeled Mary Janes! Hence my newly discovered love for this style of shoe. I like to call this particular pair my "doll shoes," because they make me feel like a quaint and charming doll while still retaining that air of spooky mystery. Perfect for a goth loli, no?

Ah yes, and that is my younger sister (one of them) in the white gown. She isn't a loli herself, but that is a "head-eating bow" of sorts that you see--I believe it's the one I bought for her from Icing this Christmas. I hope she doesn't mind being featured in my blog!

Now for a bonus shot! In my last post (earlier on the day of the graduation dinner), I had mentioned that, while I did not truly dress up, I had donned my most loli Tshirt in honor of Loli Day. After posting that entry, I asked yet another of my younger sisters to snap a quick shot of me, just in case visualizing said shirt was as hard as describing it was.

There! Isn't the print darling? I bought it at Walmart last year, around Halloween. It makes me want to make an ensemble like the one pictured!

It's a little hard to tell, but I was experimenting with this makeup tutorial on LiveJournal by the stunning sweetsailormars (LJ name)...as well as trying to look suitably melancholy for the photograph. I shall try out said tutorial once more when I have a type of makeup more conducive to vivid colors than my present powder-based eye shadows.

I shan't keep you much longer, but I do have one more bit of exciting and truly Loli-related news. During Christmas break, I began taking my first foray into loli sewing, in the process of making an as yet unfinished rectangle skirt. Today I feel inspired to finally recommence with this project. I have been longing to get started on all the loli-related creative undertakings that have been whirring in my brain, so the prospect of working on this skirt once more is quite exciting. As always, expect pictures of the finished product (and possibly during construction as well)!

Now, I do hope I've inspired my lovely guests to undertake their own creative projects, gothic-and-lolita related or no.

Of Lolita Day, and a Fire Nation prince and princess

2010-06-05T18:34:00.003-04:00

And she wishes everyone a marvelous Lolita Day! For those who may not know, this is the first of two International Lolita Days that take place every year: on the first Saturday in June, and the first Saturday in December. As of yet I have no lolita clothing with which to create a suitably fancy coordinate for the occasion (which my dear guests already know, of course, because otherwise I would have posted pictures of said clothing, most likely during as well as after construction). However, perhaps when December rolls around... And that will almost be more fitting as my first Lolita-Day-with-a-wardrobe, because winter is so very gothic, after all...even in Southern California, where, ironically, the blazing summer is the season during which plants hibernate and people stay indoors.

However, my lack of loli clothing does not mean I am not celebrating, in my own small way. Do my lovely guests (that is, the US-based ones) by any chance remember all those Tshirts at Walmart during Halloween last year, that were printed to look like spookily fancy gothic outfits? I have two (having elevated them from "costume" to "everyday wear," as they obviously were meant to be worn, no?) and today I donned the more loli of the two. Let's see, I do believe it has printed on it a pinstriped button down blouse; a purple and blue vest with madly ornate "points" (on the hemlines), which laces (corset style!) down the center; another vest, this time with a pattern of grey curlicue leaves, which fastens with a large ornate cross; and at the top (just under the neckline), a strand of pearls and a big red bow. Very rori, no?

I must say, this Tshirt makes me want to sew an outfit like the one pictured on it! Speaking of pictures, I will have to take one of this shirt sometime, if picturing it is as hard for my guests as describing it was for me.

Besides that, I have celebrated this day by finally trying out a lovely two-tone gothic makeup tutorial that the amazing sweetsailormars (LJ name), whose style I greatly admire, posted for us less makeup-practiced lolis, over on LiveJournal. (And if that gracious lady wishes me to erase the link for any reason, let me know and I shall.)

I have no picture of my attempt at this makeup style, unfortunately, but hopefully during later attempts I shall take and post one. It came out fairly well considering my less than ideal materials, but the two-tone effect gave way to a general smoky darkness around the eye. (Which, mind you, I am quite happy to wear nonetheless!)

That brings me to the slightly loli-esque event that I shall be attending this evening. You see, I was practicing my makeup in part for a dinner party in honor of a dear friend (and two others), who is graduating from highschool! Although she is not a lolita herself, many of her interests and certainly her marvelous creativity seem to fit with our fashion/subculture's ideals, and make me admire her very much.

Despite my lack of lolita pieces, being a Romantigoth for so long has proven very useful in choosing tonight's outfit. I have a long strapless gown of black lace, which I plan to wear with my "doll shoes"--a pair of slightly-heeled, purple maryjanes. Not a loli outfit by any means, but certainly gothic and romantic, or so I like to think. I shall do my best to post pictures after the event.

Speaking of pictures, I promised you photos of that pair of re-costumed dolls (young Ursa and Ozai, formerly Mulan and Shang) that my little sister presented to me, now didn't I? I haven't gotten a chance to take pictures of them myself, but she had done so previously, and so here are a few!

Thumbelina, anyone? The wings are a detachable pair we have (the only thing not made by my sis in this picture), and admittedly not completely Fire Nation...but this picture does remind me of the song Let Me Be Your Wings from the animated Thumbelina.

Can you believe my sis made these outfits out of scraps from my Ursa cosplay (of which Mulan!Ursa is wearing a mini version, essentially)? Her dollclothes always amaze me!

So does her photography...

I think she really captured the spirit of why I love young Urzai (UrsaxOzai)! Well, I don't wish to overwhelm you with pictures (although I suppose they could count as a photoshoot, of a sort?) so that's all for now. Incidentally, we are still busily cleaning house, hence my lack of posting, and lack of creative projects about which to post. However, very soon I hope, the gothic-and-lolita
lifestyling will be back in full force!

And last but by no means least, I wish to thank everyone who is following my blog so far! I didn't expect to get an audience very fast, but I appreciate all who come to listen to these dark, ecclectic musings of mine.

Do have a wonderful Loli Day!

Of claws, cards and crosses

2010-05-18T15:25:00.002-04:00

And she pauses in settling into her own dwelling again, to invite her lovely guests for a spot of tea.

My, what a whirlwind the past few weeks have been! The last days of a semester always are, I suppose. Well--I have completed two full years of college, over at a darling little liberal arts school in the South/Eastern part of the country (not wishing to sound ethnocentric, I will clarify that "the country" refers just now to the USA--sadly, I am merely a devoted fan and not a citizen of Great Britain or Japan, my two loves when it comes to the nations of the world). I live on the west coast, however, and let me confirm that it is quite something to move all of ones things across two thousand miles!

The logistics of moving (and of course the stress of final exams) was not the only exhausting facet of these past few weeks. Sadly, I have found it necessary to look for a school elsewhere for my junior year, in order to pursue a Japanese major and also...well, I shall only say that if any of you have experienced how truly horrendous homesickness can be, you have my deepest empathy. Be that as it may, I realized in those last days that I will very much miss many things about the college, such as my dear friends there, which include the eccentric, closeknit Music Department, my...rather incorrigibly funloving Japanese class, and many others.

I will not wax poetic on this subject at the moment, so allow me to move on and give you a glimpse of my gothic and lolita related plans for the summer, as they regard this blog. In a strange and marvelous turn of fate, I and the rest of my sisters (I have four of them, actually, all younger then me--no, no brothers--yes, indeed, quite fun it is) have simultaneously been inspired to tackle the enormous task of cleaning out and lolify--er, decorating the house this summer. I really must thank Lolita for making me view cleaning up as an enjoyable endeavor! At any rate, partly in keeping with the theme for May on EGL (the Elegant Gothic Lolita community on LiveJournal), which is "What have you lolified?", I shall post pictures of any house-cleaning-related accomplishment I deem sufficiently cute and spooky to interest my dear guests.

Aside from that, this ballroom shall continue to be a home to any of my other creative pursuits that relate to those two favorite subcultures of ours. In fact, I have my first batch of pictures right at this moment. You see, with partial inspiration from the March style tips over at Lolita Charm, I began regularly filing my nails for essentially the first time in my nail-ripping-and-then-clipping existence. Instead of changing the shape into which I file them, as the generally awe-inspiring Victoria Suzanne suggested, I decided to pursue my secret wish for gothic claws! So for the last several months I have been diligently filing my nails long and pointy, and occasionally freaking out the dear normal people. Tis quite fun, I assure you.

Unfortunately, claws and piano do not mix, and so I will have to clip them again whenever I resume playing. But I most likely wait till after the San Diego Comic Con, at which (just like last year) I plan to cosplay young Princess Ursa from Avatar: the Last Airbender, because claws are very Fire Nation, you see. Later, I would like to create sets of fake claws--having been inspired by the nail art of Violet LeBeaux over at Tales of an Ingenue!--which would neatly bypass the whole issue of claws versus ivory keys, and of course when I make anything of that sort, I shall post pictures.

Speaking of which, a couple days ago I experimented with painting my claws a dramatic combination of black and dark red. Being unused to the art of nail polishing, I did not achieve perfection by any means, but please feel free to draw what inspiration you can from my attempts.

Being right-handed, I tried something a little more tricky on my left hand nails--namely, red card symbols on a black background (spade, club, etc). I drew inspiration from a recent post on EGL, although mine came out nowhere near as neatly as that poster's did. Here is the whole hand...

I do hope you can see it all right, and that it won't crash anyone's browser. Perhaps I'm being a little over paranoid, but I am very new to all of this. Anyway, please excuse the messiness of the back porch--besides being good for natural lighting, I thought our French doors might make a nicely lolita background.

From right to left, the symbols are (supposed to be): spade, heart, club, diamond, and rose (unsurprisingly, knowing me). If you wish, here are a few links to closeup pictures of the individual nails.

Thumb (spade) (Sorry, it's quite blurry, despite my efforts with a graphics program)

Heart (I tried reinforcing the lines, but alas, blurriness persists...) Sadly, this nail is the most recent of three that have recently broken, and this one hasn't had time to grow back.

The rest are frankly embarrassing, so I'll move on to the other hand. I confined myself to (somewhat sloppy) crosses across each nail on the right hand, and as a whole I like how this turned out better.

The fingers...

...and the thumb (not quite as blurry as the other closeups, thankfully).

Well, that's all for now. It has been quite an adventure, figuring out how to post pictures! I feel so loli, here with my blog and my nails. <3 I will say that having these claws gives one a delightfully disturbing thrill, especially considering that a certain demon butler (namely Sebastian of Kuroshitsuji) also has black claws, under those elegant, prim-and-proper white gloves.

As a side note, as I was sitting here wrapping up my post, several of my family members came and presented a welcome home present to me. My sister (one of them, that is) has the wonderfully lolita hobby of making doll clothes (although she is not a lolita herself--not yet, anyway), and she redressed a Shang doll and a Mulan doll as none other than Prince Ozai and Princess Ursa, using fabric remnants from the afore-mentioned cosplay of mine! While their connection to lolita is debatable, I shall have to post pictures of them next time, because it is simply wonderful, after all, to be suddenly presented with a miniature, fantastically outfitted version of one's favorite pairing in the world. ~

Of the first haunted dream

2010-05-01T20:03:00.001-04:00

She wishes all of you a lovely May Day, with sincere hopes that her lovely guests are nowhere near so ill as she feels at the moment.

Horrendous sore throat and incessant homework aside, today has been a nicely restful day. It's been raining since sometime in the night, about which I couldn't be happier. I adore rainy days, don't you?--they're calming and a little wistful all at once.

At any rate, if my vaguely folkloric memory fails me not, May Day is traditionally celebrated with songs and dancing. We have all the dancing we could wish for here in our ballroom, do we not?--so today seemed fitting for the first post of one of my gothic-and-lolita-friendly songs. Specifically, the one that solidified the midnight ballroom as the usual haunt (so to speak) of the shadowy, fay creatures from my stories. By the by, you may recall that I spoke of poems rather than songs in the first post. The truth is that they are actually songs, but with such a heavy emphasis on lyrics as well as melody that I use the terms interchangeably.

This particular song-poem is essentially the first of those written about (or by) my characters, and so it requires a very brief explanation. You see, my main character, a quirky, wistful romantigoth girl named Taralyn, is herself a songwriter, and wrote this song about a dream that came to her one night. It was quite a fancifully spooky dream, as you will see--worthy of any goth girl's subconscious imagination. What Taralyn didn't realize is that she had dreamed about a real person, amidst echoes of a long ago fairytale. You'll have to find out the rest for yourselves, dear guests.

Nonetheless, shortly after dreaming her dream and writing her song, Taralyn met Lorcan, a fellow gothic poet (and in future posts, you will be hearing quite a bit from his own quill.) She never guessed--at least, not at first--that Lorcan was born very much a part of that dark fantasia that she yearned after, or that he had forsaken it long ago, dooming himself to wander as an outcast.

Now, was that quite melancholy and sentimental enough for you, dear listeners to this tale? If I have in fact intrigued you, by all means, read on. My wonderfully clever guests will recognize this song as the one from which I took the quote underneath "Herself," over to your right there.

Haunted Dream
by Taralyn Brennan

I dreamt...a fantasy in shadow--

Crimson darkness, crystal chandelier:

Alone he's waiting at the window--

A silhouette of midnight glimm'ring clear...

They were dancing

In a ballroom cast from Time...

Song entrancing--

Nightingale and evening's chime!

Arm in arm, ghostly charm:

Cold and pale and far from harm...

My heart forgot the sunshine--

No dream for dawn remains:

One kiss--enchanted ice-wine

Has crystallized my veins.

Haunted wonder, and a lost heart sings--

Deathly angel, fold me in your wings!

My hallowed eerie haven: “Forever,” sighed the raven,

On prism'd glass engraven like the moon that Winter brings...

From this dream I know I cannot wake--

You take this dance, and bind it in my blood.

My heart...grew hushed like a cathedral--

It beat as soft as falling snow.

The incense burned—my rose-red candle:

Lovelorn moth, imperiled long ago...

We were dancing--

The shadow-prince (my silhouette):

Gaze entrancing--

And mortal sunrise I forget.

His raven dove looked above,

Caught by hunger and by love...

The dusk-lit eyes glowed crimson--

He gently kissed the prey:

Each vein a scarlet ribbon,

He drank my heart away.

Haunted wonder, and a lost heart sings--

Deathly angel, fold me in your wings!

My hallowed eerie haven: “Forever,” sighed the raven,

On prism'd glass engraven like the moon that Winter brings...

From this dream I know I cannot wake--

You take this dance, and bind it in my blood.

Silver fades in a gloaming sky--

Her sweet, elusive lullaby--

Rainstorm-fragrant wind, a gravestone flower:

Melancholy reverie in grey.

Black the branches—tattered lace--

Pretty crystal mirror hides my face:

He changed me in the darkness of his tower,

And held me close in starlit mercy fae.

I am dancing

On wings that glitter in the dark!

Ice entrancing--

To living Dawn I'll never hark...

(My prince, come greet the moon's white arc.)

Haunted wonder, and a lost heart sings--

Deathly angel, fold me in your wings!

My hallowed eerie haven: “Forever,” sighed the raven,

On prism'd glass engraven like the moon that Winter brings...

From this dream I know I cannot wake--

You take this dance, and bind it in my blood.

Of herself and lolita

2010-04-30T22:22:00.000-04:00

And she returns, because it is Friday night, and she intends to take a break from homework and indulge her present, creative mindset. (And moreover, she is sick with a scratchy throat, and hoping it will go away before the performances in which she must sing, as part of her vocal music minor.)

Now that you, my dear ballroom guests, have perused my formal introduction at your leisure, I thought perhaps you might like to become better acquainted with me as a lolita. A lolita at heart, that is. Like others (whenever I say "others," it often means I'm referencing the wonderful lolita blogs I follow, but am not quite sure of the exact quotee), I steadfastly believe that one does not have to have present access to any lolita clothing in order to consider oneself a lolita. It's being drawn to the beauty or the ideals of the fashion that counts, isn't it?

Well then, let me chatter a bit regarding my favorite styles of Lolita, and what I love about them.

Obviously, I adore Gothic. As a goth, the type of outfits that gradually enticed me more and more always displayed Lolita elements along with the gothic. Sometimes I like to call myself an OTT (over-the-top) goth loli, because I am (or I want to be) just as frilly and be-ribboned as any of my OTT sweet counterparts. Just, you know, more dark and spook-ish.

I can't tell you what type of goth loli clothing I wear, because (sadly) I don't have any yet. But I've spent ages reflecting on the future development of my lolita style, so let me impart a few of my favorite outfit elements to incorporate into my version of gothic lolita. My (ideal/future) goth loli style tends to share the characteristic of all-black outfits with kuro lolita, though I like some elements from the oldschool black and white look. I especially love those white lace wristbands beaded with black ribbon--provided the lace is good quality, of course! I shall be making some very soon (along with Many Many Other Projects), and posting pictures when I do. By the way, the device of capitalizing words for emphasis is one I picked up from The Lady of the Manners at the Gothic Charm School website, a goth etiquette columnist whose wise and delightful advice I heartily recommend to any of my dear guests wishing to seek it out.

Below are some other elements I love in goth loli. If you like, consider this my version of the lolita checklist that went around on the blogs a while back.
~headdresses, especially black, with roses and / or ribbon
~lace or ribbon chokers, perhaps with delicate charms on them
~the "peasant blouse" look--poofy sleeves and scoop necklines
~corset lacing just about anywhere: bodices, boots, sleeves, skirts, you name it. Last summer I knit myself a pair of black arm warmers that laced up with black ribbon, following a pattern from (I believe) a knitting site called Ravelry.
~wristbands and fingerless gloves/gauntlets
~"fancy" skirts--two-tiered, decorated, etc
~knee socks and fancy sock toppers
~boots! Especially lace-up and Victorian-looking.
~"doll shoes"--elegant Mary Janes with just a slight heel, so that they look like shoes a Victorian doll might wear
~fabrics with a sumptuous texture: either soft like velvet, or with a subtle shine (so that it looks rich, not cheap)
~motifs of:
gothic architecture (castles, wrought iron gates etc),
crosses, chandeliers, roses and thorns,
spiderwebs, butterflies and moths, bats, the moon
trees with bare, spidery branches
~roses, especially black. As my pen name suggests, I adore them. Indeed, for me, black roses have become a personal symbol of sorts. Their spooky, romantic quality rather enchants me.

Now, why don't we wind our way to...
Shiro Lolita: Before I discovered gothdom, I loved the all-white look. I had created a race of beings similiar to Elves, except with tall white swan-wings, and they mostly dressed in graceful white gowns (with a touch of silver, and lots of delicate beading and embroidery.) For me it gave these Anwi (for so I call them) an ethereal...illusiveness, like a ray of starlight (to paraphrase a metaphor used, I believe, by the marvelous costume seamstress for the Lord of the Rings movies).
With my new, gothic frame of mind, I still find myself drawn to the ghostliness of shiro. In our culture, white symbolizes innocence and purity, but in some Asian cultures, I have heard that white denotes mourning. The combination of innocence and sorrow seems very gothic to me...and the combination of the West and East certainly fits with Lolita!
I would especially love to develop a gothic shiro wardrobe, to embody the above-mentioned combination of ideals / meanings. Actually, one of my lolita characters has done just that. I hope to follow in her footsteps.

Aristocrat: The feminine version can be beautiful, but I adore the masculine Aristocrat look--a preference influenced, I must admit, by the elegant, aristocratic style of my Visual Kei idol, Kamijo-sama of the band Versailles. (I highly recommend the songs Ascendead Master and Aristocrat's Symphony.)
I've always been intrigued by the idea of crossdressing. After all, why envy your favorite characters' girlfriends when you could just BECOME your favorite characters themselves? Anyway, said characters inspired me to create my own identity as a princely Aristocrat, and so I will most definitely be building a wardrobe for this style.

Ero lolita: Rather than 'sexy,' to me ero comes across as downright adorable--granted, in an edgier way than most loli styles. I'd have to become a little braver before wearing it out anywhere (although I would like to eventually), but I love the idea of sweetheart necklines, off-the-shoulder tops, and lacy/ruffled bloomers peaking out from under shortened skirts. Perhaps it's my goth roots showing, being as I am part of a different subculture as well, where pvc, fishnet, and corset-tops are considered perfectly suitable attire. (What great fun I have, looking at each fashion through a lens of the other.)

I also find myself intrigued by hime loli (the childhood princess in me surfaces), and guro loli (what's the next best thing to a charmingly spooky doll? A charmingly broken doll, of course!). Despite my lingering childhood love for pastels, I usually stay away from sweet. Still, sometimes I can like it, especially the oldschool pink and white look. Even so, if your heart draws you to OTT and Angelic Pretty, you'd best hurry and chase down that dream, and plant it in your garden so it can blossom into a rosebush. Hurrah for creative, albeit it confusing metaphors! What I meant was : go for it. Heaven knows I pursue OTT in the spooky direction, as stated before.

Oh, I forgot classic! I find I'm coming to appreciate it more and more, with it's understated elegance and penchant for floral designs. I suppose in some ways it's almost like gothic, but in color.

My interest is also piqued by Wa and Qi loli, because of (as to Wa) my love for Lolita's country of origin, and (as to Qi) my deep and avid fandom of, well, the Fire Nation, from Avatar: the Last Airbender. Fire Nation clothing sports high Chinese-styled collars, you see.

Now now, don't you laugh. My Avatar fandom gave rise to my love for anime, which grew into my love for Japan, which has focused on my love for Visual Kei and Gothic Lolita, so as you can see, it all leads back to Prince Zuko, Avatar's antihero. Who made me love the show. (Oh, but then young Prince Ozai took my heart by storm, thus making UrsaxOzai into my One True Pairing...)

Yes, that was rather off topic, wasn't it? Seeing as this is the blog of a lifestyler writing about her-life-and-lolita, however, I'm not too worried.

Let the dancing recommence.

Of the beginning

2010-04-30T20:09:00.000-04:00

Good evening, friends.

To starry-eyed Lolita, melancholy Goth or wandering stranger on your virtual way, I bid you welcome to this lovely haunted castle I call home. You, dear stranger (although, I hope, not a stranger for long), seem to have stumbled upon a rather dark and fantastical tea party. Here, between the first stroke of midnight and the last, this castle and its occupants touch hands with the real world, through the written medium of a blog.

And this, to speak briefly, is the blog of a Gothic Lolita, a Romantigoth, a Japanophile, a writer-composer-artist-(aspiring)seamstress, and most of all, a dreamer. First and foremost, I wish to record my thoughts concerning Lolita fashion in general (on which I am no expert, as you will soon discover), and my experience in it. Nonetheless, these other passions of mine will most likely escape my quill—that is, keyboard--at one point or another.

Make no mistake--I adore many of the blogs already written by sweet and classic Lolitas (and indeed, you will find a good dozen of them on my profile page, under “Blogs I Follow”), and I consider invaluable the information and encouragement which these blogs have often given me. Still, I find myself wishing for a greater number of Lolita bloggers of the gothic persuasion, who understand (as I'm sure you do, my dear guest to this ballroom) that wrought iron gates and brooding towers make the perfect complement to our beruffled finery.

Beg pardon? Ah, my blog's name, is it? I understand your curiosity. Truth to tell, a few weeks ago I was busily looking to concoct a suitable name, one that would eloquently suggest my whole identity as a creatively-minded, gothic-and-lolita dreamer. A tall order, no?

The answer came to me out of the gothic fantasy tales that sometimes glimmer their way through my imagination, simply insisting to be told. Whenever my more unearthly characters—the ethereal dusk-fay, or the aristocratic vampires—find themselves lacking a quest to pursue or a mortal to enchant, they like to dance here in the midnight ballroom, beneath that crystal chandelier above us, while the ghostly moonlight pours in through the tall, arching windows.

You'd like to meet them, you say? Perhaps I merely imagined that you said so. Still, I daresay these darkly magical folk—my beloved darklings, as I call them--will be flitting in and out of my reflections on Lolita and Gothdom, from time to time. They tend to do that in the daily course of my life, and I doubt they'll soon change this habit of theirs. As it happens, whenever I start posting a few of my poems, those of my readers who wish will get to know our fay visitors much better. Many of the works I'd posting here not only relate somehow to sentimental, magical gothic-ness--of which this Gothic Lolita, and therefore possibly others, simply cannot get enough—but moreover, quite a few of these poems are written by my characters themselves. (Have no fear, dear guest—I have complete confidence that you do, in fact, follow my logic.)

One more secret to be told, and then I invite you to dance with us. It's true that I have considered myself a Romantigoth for several years now, and thus have had time to build a somewhat respectable gothic wardrobe, although this project remains very much a work in progress. In searching for my own style, even before Lolita, I always gravitated toward ruffles and ribbons, bows and roses, and “poofy” kneelength skirts—all in romantic, spooky black, of course.

As to Lolita itself, however...I must confess that I only just fell in love with it at the start of this year. As a poor and busy college student, I have not been able to build a wardrobe yet. Very soon, when I return home, I intend to set to work bettering my skills as a seamstress, initially with the invaluable help of my mother, who is herself highly experienced in sewing rather fanciful clothing.

By all means, yes; brand is wonderful. But even aside from cost, I'm afraid brand is not for me. Perhaps because of the DIY aspect of Goth--my first subcultural love, after all--I find myself yearning to try my hand at selfmade projects, perhaps (eventually) like those which other Lolita seamstresses have completed so masterfully. Besides, in the few gothic DIY pieces I have made, I often enjoy wearing my home-made pieces more than I do donning something fancier or prettier and bought from a store.

Therefore, I invite you to come with me in my journey into Lolita, and continued wanderings through Gothdom--not to mention the occasional occasional revealing of my Japanophile side, which is almost as much a part of me as Lolita and Gothdom. I cannot promise how often or how usefully I'll post these next few weeks, amidst the simply horrendous stress of college finals and so forth. Until that's over, I won't be getting to the fancy stuff either, sadly, like posting pictures or documenting my clothing-and-craft experiments. All in good time, then.

At any rate, with the introductory post over, I feel that it would not be improper for me to chatter here and
there about any further goth-or-lolita-related subject that should catch my fancy. Sometimes, I assure you, the tone of my writing will come slightly more down to earth than in this first post. However, I should warn you: I view this blog as a license to indulge in the kind of ornate and metaphor-strewn poetic language which I wish I could speak in real life--without people looking askance at me, that is.

“Come away, O human child

To the waters and the wild

With a faery hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.”

--W. B. Yeats

Ah!--the stroke of midnight... Do you hear it chiming?

Let the dancing begin.