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Friday 12 February 2016

A whole new bunch of stuff

At the beginning of this year many lovers of lolita fashion started posting so called "wardrobe posts". These are pictures of which you can show off all your dresses, skirts, blouses, and other fashion stuff you have in your wardrobe. I'd like to make such a post. But as a friend of mine told me, it took her more than three hours to take the pictures and wasn't even finished with all her stuff yet, I knew that I don't have enough time at the moment to even start taking pictures. But I will try to take photos of new stuff. That's why I started today :)

My long awaited new lolita jacket finally arrived. Sadly tought it was reduced by 50% in the Innocent World winter sale, it got over the limit of 150 € for textiles and I had to pay 12% customs additionally to the 19% taxes. Though it was about 3 € too much. The exchange rate from yen to euro got better for the yen and worse for me.
But I really like it!

The jacket is made of wool and has a fluffy detachable fur collar. It also had bows on the pockets which I removed to be able to wear the jacket casually. But I will sew clasps pins on them so I can attach them to the jacket when I want it to be more cute.
I'm still a bit unsure about the colour. Though I really love the color to classic lolita stuff and lolita stuff in general, I have to get used to wearing a red jacket. Normally I wear colours like blue, green, black, grey, beige... Red is new for me ^_^
Only thing I have to complain about is that the sleeves are a bit to short for me. But the material is a bit streching so I think that it will be better after having worn it a few times. And I can also wear gloves that are long enough.
Overall I'm really happy to have bought it and can't wait to wear it with my lolita dresses.

But there's more!





Yesterday I also went to Roermond Outlet Center with my mom. It's about 1 hour away from my parents home. Its a shopping center where they are selling reduced brand stuff there. Normally the prices are only a bit lower than the orginal prices (about 10-20%) but when there's Sale things are on a whole new level!
From the outlet prices go off additional 40-70%. This way the brand stuff comes near the price range of H&M.
So I bought 2 pullover from Tommy Hilfiger for 19 € each, a Nike top for 15 € and GANT boots for 50 €. I really love all of these.
I think when winter suprisingly arrives again in Germany I will be ready! (except with the sports top) I can also imagine wearing the boots with lolita.



Saturday 2 January 2016

Lolita Christmas Parties

Happy New Year and a big time jump from june to december 2015.

Maybe I will post some pictures that were taken during this time. But not today. Today I want to write down my experiences of the two Lolita christmas parties I went to last month.

First there was the "Golden Pott" Christmas Party on december 6 which I organised with Natalie. We were on short budget as it was our first time oragnising one. We wanted to sell the tickets for not more than 20 Euros. That's why we had to watch our budget and leave some things out that we wanted to do.
The hardest thing was to get all the decoration and small gifts for only a few Euros. But it was really impressive how many things we found that were pretty and cheap. Next year we will definetly buy things online and in advance and we will get a bigger kitchen and more people to help baking cookies.

The day of the christmas party itself began in a little mess. First we were a bit late for picking up the cake, then I realised I forgot part of the decoration at home: the little christmas tree. So we had to drive back the 15 km. Then on the way to the location we got in a traffic jam which got us stuck for annother 10 Minutes or more. When I finally arrived everyone was already busy arraging the tables and the Bring&Buy.

Then the guests arrived and everything went the way it should. The party itself was great. I think everyone enjoyed themself. We took photos outside in a small improvised picture corner and chatted a lot.
I though the room was big but it was still a bit to small for so many lolitas. Furthermore the owener of the restaurand was pissed all day long. From what he said I'm guessing that he thought that he was missing out on gaining more money. I told him multiple times what we wanted to do, but he did not wanted to write it down. Next year we will definetly find another location for the event. Not only because of the owner. We would like to find a room more beautiful and which will fit the event better.

©Kari       Compfty Christmas Outfit
All in all it was a good day and I'm really looking forward to oragnising one again next year with the experiences I made, so it will be even better next time.
For my outfit I chose something comfortable with full-shiring. First I wanted to decied whether I wanted to wear either the hairband or the little bows. But then Vera said: Why not both? - I think she was right. In Lolita you can just but all the stuff you want on your head. I still have to learn that. ;D
Im not smiling on the picture, but I liked that you can see the headdress on this one. 
When Natalie and I went shipping for decoration we spontanously bought the dear I'm holding on the picture. We were queueing up to pay when Natalie found the dear. 10 seconds later we had bought it. There are also photos of me derping around with the dear but I think these pictures should stay where they are.
The cutes thing was that some of our community bought little presents for Natalie and me. They filled little christmas stockings and crafted a christmas card with group pictures of our events. We decieded to make the card a cup that wanders around everytime we meet, so Natalie and I can both enjoy it part time. In my stocking I got cange and a broach with flowers. Thank you so much! We never expected this.

Second christmas party was the Candy Day Tea Party in Seligenstadt on december 19. This time I could relax as I was only attending but still the day was too short.
© C. Rösch
We decieded to save money and drive to Seligenstadt in the morning and therefore only paying a room for one night. We took off early in the morining around 9, but not fully dressed. When we arrived we luckily could enter our room and get ready for the tea party.
I hadn't check every part of my outfit in advance and now that I see the pictures, I know I should have. For example I should have chosen the more fluffy petticoat, maybe another blouse, but it was okay. Fun fact: It was the same with my hairstuff. I brought my clips and an additonal bonnet in case I would fail with my hair. After I adjusted the clips, I was convinced to also wear the bonnet. More is more! :D I'm still not quiet sure about this though I notice everytime that it looks better when you add more details.
Furthermore I learned that fishbone braids look more full than normal braids do.

I hadn't had breakfast that day so I was worried I would stay hungry on the pary but luckily enought there was plenty of food. Maybe because some ate less but all in all I got enough of the food that was not sweet and enough of the sweet food, which was only one piece of cheese cake. The pieces were huge and I can't eat more than two pieces of cake a day. I this case only one. My dessert stomace is not that big, but my normal one is!
Enough food = happy.
© C. Rösch
While we were not eating, we looked around a bit and then wrote some valentines. I was so busy that I did not had the time to chat a lot. I will have to change that next year.

There was also a secret santa and the raffle. I got really cute stuff. A choker, a notebook, a necklace and a snow globe with a merry-go-round pony in it.
The event took place between 2 and 6 p.m. But though we stayed until about 7 p.m. it still was too short. Luckily we found two other girls from our community that were also staying the night in Seligenstadt.

While they got changed, Natalie and I just brought our stuff, removed all heavy hairdresses and then headed for the center of the little town, still in our lolita outfits.
We had planned to drink some cocktails but as it was saturday night all the locations were full. After a little walk we found a hotel next to the Main. The food sounded delicous, expensive but not unaffordable. Where I live doof food in restaurants is always expensive so I think I'm getting used to paying good money for good food. When we entered we found out that they also had a cosy bar where you could order cocktails. We decieded to stay. Later the other girls arrived. The cocktails and the food was very delicous and the evening was funny. I could also imagine staying in the hotel next time, tough I would have to save up for this. Its about 65 Euros a night. The room where we stayed was only 30. Damn, I will have to finish my masters and get a well paid job!
 
Obligatory cocktail selfie


Thursday 30 July 2015

Sweating in the heat (Photoshooting in Hamm)

I haven't post recently because I had a lot to do with other stuff, but here it comes: My delayed post about my photoshooting in Hamm on 5th june.

© Allsvartur
When I saw a facebook post in our Lolita group about a tfp (time for pictures/prints) photoshooting, I thoguht about appling, because I haven't had photos of my lolita outfits in good quality and I really love to take pictures on meetups when I'm in the mood. So I tried and wrote an email to the photographer, not knowing if it will work out or what kind of shooting it would be. I had neither  a plan or expectations.
It took a time, until me and the photographer Oliver could agree on a date, because he planned an outdoor shooting which is far nicer in summer.
After some missunderstandings because I didn't read carefully and some changed dates, I finally drove to Hamm for the photoshooting.

I had asked in advance, what kind of photoshooting Oliver had in mind. He suggested to shoot in a small wood, near Hamm, because the light was decent there. So it was up to me to pick an matching outfit. Like every time before a meetup, I decieded what to wear on the last minute.
What made things difficult was, that the wheater forecast on the shooting day was really hot. 
The temperatures on that day rose up to 33°C.
© Allsvartur
Having the temperatures of the last days in mind, at the time im writing this, that was nothing! Not the 39°C it was last weekend (3.7.). But in full Lolita it still was not the wheater I had hoped for. At least it didn't rain!
Additional I'm regulary comfortable with hight temperature. I feel best with temperatures above 23°C, but for me it doesn't have to be above 28°C.

Thinking of the temperatures on the day of the shoot, I was reminded of one really hot meet up I had in Maastricht in summer 2013 and noticed that I haven't worn the outfit of that day for a long time, though I really like it. Furthermore I wanted to wear a rather classic and turned down outfit.
The outfit contained of a chiffonblouse without a collar, a classic jsk and light tights. 

The main problem was, that I wanted to curl my hair and wear it open. Curls in may hair usually faint as soon as the weather becomes a tiny bit wet. But with setting mouse in advance and 3 times hairspray in between and afterwards,
the curls survived the way to Hamm and the shoot.
© Allsvartur
At least most of them!
Nevertheless I'm not sure whether I want to but so many stuff in my hair before a mettup. I like my hair more, when it is natural and feels that way. Though it look better with styling products...

So fully dressed up, I took the train to Hamm. I even had some additional outfits with me, because Oliver, the photographer, said it could be usefull. He picked me up at the trainstation, we drove to his home, to sign the contract and put some additional make up on. He was very poltie and explained everything in detail to me. I'm not used to beeing threated like a girl or a lady or whatever, but I think, that it is the best way to approach a model, when she is new to all that stuff. It tooks the nervousness away, though I think he was a bit nervous too, he talked a lot. Maybe also, because I didn't said much? I don't know, but I'm also a good listener. ;-) I will see, in the future.

We drove to the little forest and started the shooting; first without much posing. We did some protrait shoots for warm up. Oliver had great ideas for photos. I tried my best to look good on the pictures and at the same time natural.

© Allsvartur
After a short time it became easiert not to focus on my face or look. And then I started to feel like a princess. The location was beautiful. The sun shone gently trough the tree tops and it was very quiet in the forest.
Many pictures were taken that day and a hugh amount of them is totally lovely. Except the ones on which I look bored, or stupid or whatever.

© Allsvartur

The second location was a little waterfall in the Maximillian Park in Hamm. The photos where also great, though I feel you could see, that I started to sweat a bit.

Overall it was a great experience and I got so many nice pictures. I learned that it is hart to have a real shooting but not a diffuclt as I imagined it to be.
I really like to have a shooting again.

© Allsvartur


 All the edited pictures you can see in his facebook gallery. And I also have many pretty pictures which I will upload eventually.



Tuesday 9 June 2015

Dokomi


Just the weekend after the 2. Golden Rhenania, the Dokomi took place in Düsseldorf. It is an anime & manga convention with more than 10.000 visitors, many programm points, a huge shoppng area with commercial sellers and poeple that sell  their handmade stuff and many comic artists.
I went there mostly for shopping and meeting up with friends. I almost succeeded in meeting everyone I know who was there.
I bought some accessory and a cute casual and handmade dress from Li-Paro. I love the combination of pink, extremly cute and a touch of nerdy, because the top is made of a fabric with little pixeled ghosts on it. I will post some worn photos later.
And since I bought it, so many girls told me, that it's a beautiful dress. Worth it!

dress from Li-Paro. Pink, cute, nerdy
I also took derpy pictures that day. Sadly there are no single pictures that I like. My petti was too flat that day, because I had back problems and didn't dare to wear two pettis. Luckily the back pain didn't last long and didn't bothered me much during the whole day. Pain killers, yip yip!

On sunday I went to Dokomi with an old friend of mine that I know from school. It was so cool seeing her again and I am glad, that she enjoyed the day though she isn't into the anime&manga scene. So are we. I know less and less grils that still watch animes frequently. But we still love to got to the conventions, as there is so much to see and I still love cosplaying. Also the conventions are not only for animes but also japanese pop culture which includes Lolita.
Thank you for seeing you again guys. It was a funny weekend and the weather was nice, as always on the Dokomi weekend.


2. Golden Rhenania

On 17th May I was at the 2. Golden Rhenania meet-up in Neuss. We went to a flea  market, which was held near the racecourse for horses. The flea market it self was intersting and the other girls found some really nice stuff. I wasn't in the mood of buying anything and the clothes i liked were too expensive. So I didn't buy anything, but I am really happy for the others.
As the flea market was a lot smaller than we expected, we were through far too early. That's why we headed over to the racecourse and took a lot of photos. Even silly ones. For me mostly silly ones. I wore old-school sweet lolita that day and I don't know how to pose in it.

©sira Wush!
The location was perfect for Classic Lolita. Too bad, it wasn't wearing it.


Afterwards we went to a restaurant called the "Spaghetti Haus", there you can order various pasta dishes, pizza and some other Italian food. I ordered pasta due to the name of course. It was very delicious. We chatted a lot. It was beautiful day and I had a lot of fun. I hope we can have such relaxed meet-ups more often.  (If I had time for it ;-) )

Tuesday 28 April 2015

It rained on the 3. Loli Pott... like always...

Recently I organized the thrid "Loli Pott" lolita meet-up, this time in Herne and Bochum. As there had been less and less meet ups in the eastern Ruhrgebiet, I started this row of meet ups. It will take place about every second month in an other city.

For the frist Loli Pott we visited the museum of "Kunst and Kulturgeschichte" in Dortmund in November and went for dinner afterwards. On this meetup it wasn't raining, but it was freezing. Luckily we were indoors. But we forgot to take a grounp picture that day...
The second meet up was in the Unperfekthaus in Essen. We had a Swap and Buy and chatted a lot. It was snowing badly that day, but we got to the house by underground and it was just a short walk before we reached the dry shelter. 

group picture of the 2. Loli Pott
 
But there also is a long history of me oragnizing meet ups, that fell through because of the rain. Or like we say in german: literally fell into water. Jülich: There was so much rain, we had to take our group picture, as the rain stopped for a few minutup es. Rombergpark Dortmund: It was raining in the morning, so we weren't able to have a Picknick. I would say, I never had good wheather on a meet-up, when it was me, planing it.

Normally I therefore have a backup-plan. This time the back-up plan was to go into the museum in the castle Strünkede, when it would rain. But the problem was, as soon as we arrived in Herne, it started to rain heavily, just like we asked for it. And the museum wasn't opened yet. We headed towards the next cafe in the park of the castle, but though it should have been opened by that time, it was closed. The only good thing about it was, that they had a tent in front of the cafe where we could shelter for a while.
Next backup plan was a greek restaurant on the other side of the road. It was big enough for more than twenty lolitas and it was open. Just as we arrived, the rain which stopped for a moment, began again. But we were dry and warm and drank some coffee, tea and soft drinks.
And it I took the chance to take some group photos, worring we wouldn't have the time afterwards.


In the restaurant it was not problem to find room for 22 Lolitas (including me. I also want to sit and drink).
The problem was the little cafe to that we wanted to got later that day. It is really small and I only reserved for 19 people, though I thought, that with this amout of people two or three more wouldn't be a problem.
After a very stressful meet-up where half of the attendents (about 8 people) spontaniously agreed to come to the meet up the night before, I decieded that the attendend should announce that they will come to the restaurant at least two days before the meet-up.
But sometimes you cannot plan. So two people weren't able to come at the last minute, but four (or so) people decieded to come.
As expected it wasn't a problem to be more people than I reserved for. But we had to take the last chairs to give everyone a seat.

Back to the meetup. After having a drink, going to the loo and being warm again, we headed to the the museum. 
As the rain stopped again for some time, we quickly had our group picture.
We had so many cameras that it took a while.

group picture of the 3. Loli Pott

In the end, it even started to rain again. So there was no chance to take pictures in the park. But there were some beautiful photo locations inside the museum too.
Inside there was an exhibition of old stuff like furniture, some informatons about the region and an exhibition of artwork of Cornelia Funke, a famous German childrens book author.
As always, we chatted more than we looked at the exhibition, took some photos and admired the location.
The most impressive thing was a skeleton of an ancient stag.

Next on the programm was the most important part: Food!
We went back to Bochum to visit a small cafe near the main station, the "Cafe Besonders Bunt",
They were really excited when we entered and even a bit upset, that I didn't tell them it was a Lolita meetup. How should I have known, that they know what Lolita is? It's not like its a common fashion style or that everyone is into Japanese stuff.
All in all they were really friendlich and the food was very good and compared to other cafes the prices were more cheap, which pleases the purse.

One by one, a Lolita left as everyone had to go home at some time. In the end, we were only seven people left, that decieded to have a falafel for dinner.
I told them about an snack bar I read about on the internet. I never hab been there, but I knew they made libanese food, that I know is very good.
No sooner said than done. We headed to the snack bar. It was far more little than I expected, We took the whole place but the food was good.
And the owner was so happy that  we came, he gave us drinks for free on top.
As we headed back to the main station, it was raining. As I got home, it was raining.

But it was a wonderful meetup. I met so many new people and finally learned the names of people I already knew.
I hope to see you all on the next Loli Pott in June/July!

Thursday 26 March 2015

My yield from Paris and 1. Golden Rhenania meet-up

Except of the cold I got in Paris, I also brought some clothes with me.
Two blouses in ivory and creme. A darkblue trenchcoat and a beautiful black high-waist OP.
The trenchcoat doesn't look that spectacular on a hanger but worn with a petti it's really pretty. I'm still waiting for the weather to get warmer so I can wear it. But spring will not come...
The black dress, I want to wear it at least at the wedding of my friend in September, but I hope to get a chance to wear it previously. I'm waiting for a good opportunity to come.
But I already got the chance to wear the two blouses. The one with long arms in creme, I wore to the 1. Golden Rhenania meet-up in Krefeld at Burg Linn.
© Phantom of light
I forgot, that my hair looks better if I pull out some longer hair from my braid, so my face doesn't look that strange. And the shoes with 10 cm heel killed me. But nevermind. The location was beautiful. :)