Blue and Purple Lolita Wallpaper

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It has been a little while since I have made a Lolita wallpaper so I spent a little time this morning and came up with dark and lovely one. I was able to use scans of the latest Gothic and Lolita Bible. The latest issue had so many lovely dark and gothic dresses. I know spring is coming quickly but why not use a dark wallpaper for the time being. I am using it now and I rather like it.

PAX East 2012 Outfits

It is almost that time of year again, the Penny Arcade East 2012 convention. This year it is on Easter weekend April 6th-8th. I really look forward to PAX East because it is the only con that I go to and it is nice to have a weekend of fun in a new city. Seeing all the video games, buying geeky stuff, playing new board games, and being around cool and nice people is too much fun.

Since I so look forward to a fun weekend I like to make outfits to make it even more fun. A cosplay and a Lolita outfit. Last year I made a female Ezio Assassins Creed outfit and a Mario themed Lolita dress. The Ezio cosplay was well received and I really loved it. I worked very hard on it with many long hours and took pride in showing it off. This year I am going to be doing the same combination. A cosplay and a Lolita dress. After long deliberation and hemming and hawing I have made my decisions.

 Gordon Freeman from Half Life 2 and Minecraft. I will be making a Half Life 2 cosplay and a Minecraft Lolita dress. Both are well known amongst the video game community and popular. I think people will really like them. I have 2 months to make both of them so I have to make sure I start now and keep on track. Last year I waited till the last minute and I ended up working till 3 in the morning for 2 weeks straight. I don't want to do that again. 

I have been sketching up a storm and designing both outfits. I have come up with my designs and I am happy with them. I will being doing posts in the future about these outfits and how they are coming along. I can't wait for them to start coming around and see them coming together.

Lolita on the Poster for Are All Men Pedophiles? Movie

I don't write serious posts very often because I want my blog to be a happy place and I prefer to write about light hearted subjects but sometimes you have to address certain issues. Last night I was checking my blog roll and I spotted a movie poster with a Lolita on it and I got excited. I thought we were getting anther Lolita documentary and I think, "The more, the merrier". Once I started reading the post I started getting a little concerned. The movie, Are All Men Pedophiles?, features a Lolita dresses in Angelic Pretty on the movie poster. 

My first thought when I saw and now see this is just, "Oh dear." Lolita fashion is already misunderstood by most people. I can't even tell you how many times I have been asked if I am in a play, wearing a costume, or just asked what am I wearing and why am I wearing it while they have confused and strange look on their face. If this movie and its poster gets picked up and gains popularity like the Super-size Me movie I will be really concerned for Lolita fashion. We don't need people automatically linking Lolita fashion with pedophilia. 

 Since  yesterday people have been talking up a storm about it and about their opinions of it. There have been a few posts on egl and several posts on Lolita blogs. I highly recommend taking a look at what other people have been saying about the issue.  An e-mail was sent to people involved with making the movie letting them know about Lolita fashion and how it has nothing to do with men, pedophilia, sex, or anything remotely to do with them and this was their response.

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"The documentary does not offend Lolita nor does it compare it to pedophilia. Wild assumptions about what pedophilia is or isn't is why the documentary was made in the first place.

The reason why we choose Lolita is because in the film we do a section about Japanese culture.

If you are in New York in march we can gladly invite you to the World Premiere on the 3rd of March."

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I see a few flaws with this statement. One, the Lolita community is not upset about the movie (it isn't even out for viewing yet) we are upset with the above poster. If this movie does indeed talk about Japanese fashion that is fine, and that is actually great if they know their stuff and speak of it correctly. We just want to protect our fashion from being misunderstood and mislabeled.

The other problem I have with their response is the invitation to the premiere. I feel they are saying it to be positive and have good PR but who wants to go to a movie dressed like the girl on the poster of a pedophilia movie. Not many. 

You might notice that on many of their pages they have an alternate poster featuring a young woman's face. I like this poster and think it might accurately represent the movie better. Since it sounds like Lolita and Japanese fashion is just a part of the movie it might not be the best choice for the movie poster. I don't want them to do anything crazy like not showing the movie (I am sure they worked very hard on and they deserve to show it) I just would like to see the Lolita poster done away with. Use the other one. Everyone is happy. I think. I am not claiming to know what is best or how to fix this "problem", I just feel a certain way I wanted to let it be known. 

So I say read, watch, and inform yourself on the issue and form your own opinion. If you feel the need to let the makers of the movie know that you are displeased with the poster with the Lolita on the cover you can go HERE and sign a petition. It has gained thousands of signatures over a short amount of time and it might get the message heard.

What I Would Like For My Birthday!

Much like Christmas, your birthday is a day when you are going to gt some gifts and presents. And much like Christmas, you get to dream about the goodies that you would like to receive. I don't make a big deal about my birthday because I don't want people to really go out of their way and I don't want to inconvenience them. But that doesn't mean that I can't dream about getting awesome stuff. So here is what I would like to receive on Feb. 18th. 

A gift certificate to Tokyo Rebel in NYC would be amazing. I have only been their once and I didn't get to spend as much time or money as I would have liked. I scooped up a pair of wrist cuffs and a pair of socks which I love and wear on special occasions. I only got to wander and look around for 20 minutes and I would love to have an hour to really look around and try a couple things on. They have really nice parasols which I would use on a regular basis. 

Just like I wanted a subscription to My Glam for Christmas I would like one for my birthday as well. They send you make up and a bag every  month. What is not to like about that? It is the gift that keeps on giving. It is like cheese of the month club but with make up.

Books. Nice and simple. I love to read. I don't think a day goes by where I don't crack open a book and read. Nora Roberts, Dean Koontz, and Patrick Rothfuss are amongst my favorite authors. A gift card to Barnes and Nobel or Amazon would be great. I know my book shelf is over flowing but I always want more. You can never have too many books.

I don't think I have ever purchased anything from QutieLand but that is not because I have not want to. They have lots of really cute things and I love spending time on their site just browsing and imagining having everything. The things in particular that I am wanting at the bags and boots. I have a weakness for boots and a nice bag. I am a girl, how could I not?

I don't expect to get any of these things. This is just my dream list. If I had the money I would buy these things for myself for my birthday. I don't want people spending this much money on me. One thing I do want to happen on my birthday is to go to Moe's for lunch. You get a free meal on your birthday so I am going to get a Tofu Bowl with extra black olives. Yum!

Amazing Make Up Haul From Rite Aid

As I wrote yesterday in my post, I stopped off at my local Rite Aid that is moving. Since they are merging with another store close by they are selling their stock at 75% off. Amazing, I know! I was able to grab some make up and a few misc. items when everything was 50% off a couple weeks ago. But yesterday I did really well.

The store was baron. The whole make up section which was 3 aisles was condensed down to a small wall but it was packed with great stuff. Make up, nail polish, perfume, and other girly things. I spent 15 minutes digging through bins, scouring shelves, and sifting through the cluttered chaos and here is what I walked away with. 

I have super fair skin so I always have to buy cover up and concealer that is as pale as I can find it. I was lucky enough to find several items in the appropriate hues. I got the above products and I think I am most excited about the Physician's Formula Healthy Wear 50 SPF cover up. Since I have fair skin I burn very easily. If I go out side and the sun is out I am going to turn a little pink if not red. It is hard to find any facial product that is not sun screen that has a high SPF. Plus, the cool orange and pink bottle is really nice looking. It was only $3.75! Yes! I am super happy that I didn't have to spend $15.00 on it. The other items are great staple cover ups. I am starting to use age defying products now since in your twenties you are supposed to use prevention products that slow down the appearance of lines and wrinkles.

There was so much lip stick but I was not really in the market for any so I scouted out ti find a lip gloss or two. I was lucky enough to get one of the last Baby Lips Maybelline lip balm. It is a grape flavor and is a dark purple color and I was a bit worried it would turn my lips purple but it has almost no color at all. Just a juicy smell. I really like it. It set me back 95 cents. I know, I spent too much. I was also able to grab one of the last L'Oreal Color Juice gloss. It has a really nice cherry smell and the shine it gives is really nice. Like my lips are wet. That one was $2.12. 

Wearing false lashes is something I don't too often but sometimes I like to feel extra pretty and I will slap some on. I practically bought everything they had left in this department. It was almost all gone. 2 pair of lashes and glue. The long blue lashes are really cool and will be a really fun pair to wear. I will have to save them for a special day or event. I got all this for $4.00.

Here are all the miscellaneous items that I scooped up. The light pink eye shadow at the top left  is so pretty. It doesn't really look it in the picture or even in the container but I tried it out and it is lovely. It is so soft and has a little shimmer to it. 90 cents. How could I not buy it? I bought Sally Hansen Salon Manicure Cuticle Balm. I did not even know that this was a thing until I saw it yesterday. I love it so much now. I have long nails which I don't paint often at all but I like my nails and hands to look nice so I take care of them in other ways. So this is just another way for me to make my hands look better. It has a really nice fresh scent and it feels great. 

The little lavender mirror compact is so small and thin it is perfect for my purse/bag. I think I am going to do a little deco to it. Some pink little bows and sparkles and it will be the cutest mirror ever. 

The Cover Girl Tru Mineral Blends, above and in the middle, is a very feminine and pretty pink shimmery powder. It has a little puff in the container. It has a nice light pink color to it and will come in handy when I don't feel like wearing a blush with a lot of color. It adds a nice glow and shimmer to my face. I will use it on days when I am feeling less than glowing.

The red curlers at the top right are for an experiment. My hair does not take to curling with a curling iron so I am going to try these. My hair is thin and perhaps using these with my wet hair and allowing it to do with these will be the trick to making curls stay longer than 30 minutes.

The last things I bought were green mascara, black eye liner, and super fun blue eye liner. I can never have too many eye liners and never enough mascara. 

I am sad that the Rite Aid is closing but I thankful that I was able to grab these things at great prices. It is nice to hit great sales and save lots of money. My make up collection grew quite a bit yesterday and I can't wait to use it all.

Sweet Lolita Etsy Treasury

I love Etsy! It is so much fun to browse around and see all the fun things that people have made. There is just so much and people are always adding more. One the front page there is always a selected bunch of items that have been rounded up by a user. It is called a Treasury. They are fun and easy to make. Just come up with a theme, find the items you want, and build your Treasury. Easy.

Last night I got the itch to make my own and I wanted to make a Lolita one. Why not? So, I scoured all the sweet and pink items I could find and put together this cute collection. All of these items come from shops with oodles of cute things that any Lolita would love. Click here to see the Treasury and check all the shops out. All of the prices are more than reasonable and within most everyone's budget.

On a completely separate note, the Rite Aid down the road from me is moving and they are selling everything at 75% off. This includes make up and certain hair accessories. I am going to check it out today and see what I can scoop up. The store is really selling its good fast so I have a feeling it might be slim pickings. I will show you what I was able to grab tomorrow. See ya!

Angelic Pretty Wallpaper

I was in the mood to design a Lolita wallpaper so I was browsing through my pics and scans. I found quite a few nice dresses and different things that would make a nice collage. But then, I saw a half page of Angelic Pretty stickers and it was like they already designed one for me. So, here it is. It is busy, fun, and bright. 

Just click on the above image.

Colorful Zippers for Sewing Dresses and Skirts

  I have been sewing a lot these days and when you are sewing you need zippers. In the store zippers are expensive ($3 to $5 a piece) and I don't have the money to spend that kind of cash. So, I looked on line and found some great zippers at a lesser price. It is great saving money. I took a few pics of the colorful zippers that I scooped up. They are kind of pretty when you see them all together.

These are all the zippers I picked up. I ordered several specific colors and quantities but then I had the seller choose 8 colors of their own choosing. They gave me those bright yellow zippers (which are so bright, I love it) and several other colors I am sure will be used. The black, light pink, and light blue are the ones that I think will get used fastest. 

Ah! So pretty! I can just picture the dresses and skirts that will include these zippers.

How To Save Money: Wait A Few Days

One of my and many peoples downfalls of spending money is impulse purchasing. It is so easy and fast to just buy something up, but many a time I have buyers remorse after my quick purchase. So, to stop this I have come up with a waiting period for purchasing. I am not talking about spending $5 on a cute little bag but on bigger things. Say I see an amazing pair of boots in the store and they are $75. I really want them right now, but will I feel that way in a few days? I wait and mull it over. If 2 days pass and I still can't live without them, I will get them. Sometimes all it takes is time and some thinking to realize that you don't need an item.  Many times I don't even remember what I wanted.

I understand this does not really work well with auction sites and other sites like the egl sales comm. Even there you might find your time waited worked. There have been several items that I have seen and immediately wanted but I waited and 2 days later it is still up for grabs. And because I waited a few days I asked for a cheaper price and got it.

Try it. If you don't save a little money I would be very surprised.

Non Lolita Fashion Inspiration

These days most of my fashion inspiration comes from looking at Lolita. It is a very large part of my life. But, every now and then I find some one or something that is not Lolita and it just calls to me. I find Tumblr is a perfect way to find any kind of inspiration. I stumbled onto the page of a very fashionable young Asian woman, Dotthy Wong. 

 How cute and lovely is she? She has got multiple pages where you can see her great coordinates. Tumblr and Look Book.  I would kill to look through her closet and play dress up. My favorite thing of hers is her collection of bags and shoes. I hope she has well executed organization because I feel like she has quite the collection.

I love that fur collar she is wearing. Check out her awesome pages and see for yourself. You will not be disappointed.