DIY: Pleated skirt with a zipper

Hello! This weeks video is a requested tutorial: a pleated skirt with a zipper. Not so long time ago I complained about zippers, but with pleats, they're essential. So when I saw this fabric, I knew that this would work really well for this project. Step by step instructions are in the video :)

Just books :)

I haven't talked about books for a while :D I have a small story, so bare with me. Recently I bought a huge pile of books at once (I think 12 books?) for reasons. I put them in a bag and it was really full. I then put the bag on the foot area of the backseat of my car. I drove to my destination, and when I got there, I got out of my car and opened the backseat door. Now, while I was driving, the book on top of the pile had come out of the bag and on to the bench. So when I opened the door, it fell from the bench - in to a puddle of icy water. MY NEW BOOK. IN TO WATER. Not to mention it was indeed dirty, sandy car park puddle. So now the pages are all crinkly and some still have a bit of sand in them. And it was the book I wan most exited to get... Robin Hobb's & Megan Lindholm's (who are the same person, but two pen names) Inheritence, which has two cats on the cover and was the last missing book. It was to complete my Hobb collection and it's ruined... It wasn't expensive so I could just get a new one but since it's still readable it would feel awfully wasteful to do so. So, I kept it as it is and tried to get it as straight as I can, but it's still wobbly. Oh well. At least it now has a story to it :D I already read the Hobb novels and loved them, and read the first Lindholm novel and it broke my heart. Lavender <3

As for what other books I got? I've read a lot of Terry Pratchett books (Dodger and Amazing Maurice and educated rodents being my favourites) but never really delved into Discworld. I felt I had to rectify that, and decided to start from the Death novels. So I got them all, convinced I'd like them and so far, I have. His choise of words and style of writing is so compelling and entertaining. I bet that I could read a 1000 page analysis about rocks if he wrote it. Plus the hard covers looks amazing! Too bad some were out of print so I only got four. The slightly banged up paperback is from a second and book store, I have to research where it belong in the Discworld timeline but it was 3€ so I got it ^^ I'm so sad he's gone now, there won't be any new books from him...

I have the first book, Lies of Locke Lamora in Finnish and had hoped to continue reading them in Finnish but since the apparently won't be translated, I had to change language and got the second and third books in Englsh. I mean I prefer to read fantasy in English, but I hate changing language in the middle, especially in fantasy; a lot of the places and herbs and other "made up words" are translated (like quidditch is "huispaus" in Finnish) and I dislike having them change in the middle of a story. So I like to stick to a language I've started with, but alas, it was impossible. And again since I had the first one in Finnish it felt wasteful to get it again in English.

Here's a random pile of Stephen Fry and Roman emperors :D Rest are books about samurais, North Korea and China. Asian countries intrigue me so I have quite a few books about them. I also studied Japanese for quite a long time, but I have to admit that I've forgotten a lot of Kanjis since I don't use them anymore. I keep my Japanese book with my cooking, sewing, art books and Western comics in the living room so they're not in the photos.

Stephen King is still one of my favourite authors despite some of his newest books being so-so (especially with endings). I'm halfway throurgh Revival and had to stop, because it didn't intrest me. Way too much talk about God (one character is a priest), Bible and sermons until it starts talking about heroin and old American musicians. I don't know if they're real or imaginary since I have no idea abut past American music. But, the Kennedy time travel book was recommended by three people with similar book taste so I'll give it a shot :) I also got some classics, It and Pet cemetery. That and Misery, Doctor sleep and Salem's Lot are my favourites.

I've wanted to read Wheel of Time but since it's so long, it's kind of intimidating to begin but when I saw this prequel I had to get it. We'll see it I like his writing style :) The first one of the Demon Wars trilogy is at work, I read it during lunch and coffee breaks (we only have one person on a break at a time so I always read a book while I eat) and I have to say I like it so far. As for the Pullman books, I've always loved them so when I saw this all-in-one it was MINE :D The movie was super awful, but I've come to accept that it's how it goes. The only book that was better as a film that I can think of was Stardust, though I also love Neil Gaiman's work and plan on getting them on my shelf (Coraline is on it's way).

I'm a big fan on Harry Potter books. First movies are good for nostalgia, but the last ones I had to make myself watch. But the books <3 I have them at my parent's place but thy're in Finnish (and the cover art is awful) and I'd want them in English (because of what I said earlier about translated names and places). However getting them all in hard covers with the cover art I want would be quite expensive and since I already have them in another language, it would (again) feel a bit wasteful. So I made a compromise - I would buy them second hand, only for 5€ per book and with whatever cover art or format is available. It won't look as pretty on the shelf but I'll still have them. I found these three at my usual store, and now I'll have to remember what parts I already have ^^'

My last new-ish purchases are sci-fi. I've read some sci-fi and liked most of what I've read, so I want to read more of it :) I'm not so into post apocalyptic scenarios or "space pew pew stuff" (description by a friend and it's perfect) but love alternative realities (I've read the first two of 13th reality by James Dashner and loved them a lot) and alien-human societies and interactions. There are a lot of sub genres that I'm still unfamiliar with but plan to fix it.

Anyway, I also mentioned I got a new, small book case but didn't show it yet, so here it is! It has most of my non-fiction, detective and murder stories and biographies. The bottom shelf has mostly books I'm not in a hurry to read and few of my boyfriend's books, plus the huge dragon story book that didn't fit anywhere else ^^'

So this is what the Wall of Books looks like at the moment. I keep my jewelry boxes on the small one, and on top of the big ones are some of our board games, art supplies and more books :D Behind the doors are my boyfriends books, photo albums and stuff like that so no photo ~

Here are my Kera magazines and some paperbacks. Fantasy in Finnish and English, and the small size means they stand up well between board games and the stopper.. My sister gave me that book end and from the weight of it I would guess it's a door stopper(?) but it works perfectly! In the side it says "The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul... Books". I love my sister <3 

Robin Hobb, my all time favourite writer. I can't wait for the second and third book of the Fitz and the Fool trilogy, the first one was so good and Fool brakes my heart! No spoilers but Bee is awesome and I love Molly and I was pleasantly surprised. I hope the next one comes out soon <3

The second shelf has my Big Name Books, such as Tolkien, Pullman, Lovecraft, Pratchett and Eddings. I don't know if Scott Lycnh is a Big Name yet but he is for me, so his books are here as well.

First shelf has my dragon fantasy, Stravaganza, Salvatore and Martin. The Random Books are here as well, as well as the Haven't Read Yet.

Second shelf has my Death Gate Cycle and other Weis & Hickman books (Mathew from the Rose of the Prophet <3). Bartimaeus trilogy is still very high on my favourites list and I got the first Redwall novel for nostalgia.

Top shelf is Potters and sci-fi, bottoms is horror. It has mostly King and books from his son, but I have some others as well. And yes those are VHS tapes, and yes we still watch them.

The book case in our living room has mostly games on it xD Some movies, decorative items and the bottom shelf has a box full of house things and papers.

Here I keep my cook books (since I'm allergic to a ton of things, I can't eat ready food), sewing, drawing, Japanese and Kanji learning books plus some comics.

Wow that was a wall of text... I just love my books and reorganize them and plan what to read next and what to buy, where to expand ^^ I just keep running out of room! And we're running out of wall space so I probably can't get a new book case unless we get rid of something else... Luckily I now have a good storage of unread books so I'll try to control the "must have" urge!

And to wrap it up, here's something that I found beautifully true. Have a nice day. 

Bodyline skull dress L580

Hello! This weeks video is an unboxing and review for a Bodyline dress. It's one of the newest ones and the "name" is L580, and to be honest, I was positively surprised. I was expecting it to be too high waisted and short so that I would have to make it into a skirt, but it actually fits quite well. True, the waist is a bit high and it doesn't quite cover my knees, but I'll still keep it as it is. Except I'll remove the tummy bow :D

The print is quite good, and the main reason I bought the dress. (The print has a bit of lavender that I'm okay with, but the pink is a stretch. Luckily there's not much of it, mostly on the "sailor moon" bits ^^')

The dress is not lined but has a good, sturdy zipper and the fabric feels nice. I like a bit thicker fabrics and this seems like it won't wrinkle to easily, which is always a plus. Here it's a bit rumpled up since I just took it out of the package.

The back has looots of shirring! I bought the size 2L to get extra length on the dress, and the shirring isn't stretched the least with my ~92cm bust and ~68cm waist. It still fits well, I just have a lot un-stretched shirring as you can see in the video. :)

I've never understood pintucks on printed fabric. I mean they look gorgeous on a solid color, but on a print they just make the print look odd... But the center of the diamonds is perfectly in the center of the bodice, so good job on that. :)

Here is a quick snap I took when I wore the dress to a friends house. The lighting is bad but gives you an idea what the dress looks like on me. :) I coorded it with blue since the print has blue stripes on it. I adore blue + gray outfits, and this dress is perfect for it. <3

Anime and board games

I had five (!!) days off due to Easter, and even though I don't care one bit about the holiday, I was more than happy to take the time off. I made things around the house that needed doing, read a good book and made two videos for you guys :D So hopefully I can keep up with weekly videos!

On Sunday I had friends over and we watched anime and played board games. I play with my boyfriend a lot but sometimes it is fun to play with more people, and sometimes we arrange play evenings with coworkers. I really love my job.<3

Anyway the gathering was also a good excuse to bake! I've been trying to bake less since I've gained a bit weight (and since my boyfriend isn't so keen on sweet things I usually end up eating almost everything myself), but I have to bake for friends, don't I? ^^ So I made chocolate muffins, tuna pastries and popcorn with coconut oil - that way they're a lot less greasy but don't taste like coconut, fear not. Also cookies were essential.

Nail art tutorials?

So recently I've received a lot comments about my nails on Youtube (questions and compliments), so I made this short video where I ask this question: Would you be interested in nail art tutorials? If so, I can make them, but if not, there's not much point is there :D So comments will decide! If I do decide to make these kind of videos, they will not overtake the lolita content on my Youtube channel: I'll probably upload them about once a month and not on Wednesday. So some weeks there would be two videos..? If I do make these and want to make them more often, I'll dedicate a new channel to them. 

I used to take photos of my nails every time I did them, but for some reason I haven't done that in a while so I don't have photos of some designs I really liked, and that sucks. Now I don't have reference photos to have as a model to recreate them...

Anyway, here are some reference photos of the nail art I've done over the years so you get the idea. :)

Lolita Level Up Quiz

Hello! I uploaded this video on Wednesday, but here it is! It's a (long) quiz about lolita and the result tells you how far you've come in the fashion, with humour of course. I decided to do it since it was requested in my 150 subscribers video. I haven't had the time to do it, so now that I reached 500+ subs, it was a good time to do it :D Warning, it's half an hour long! There are over a hundred questions, and I linked the quiz in the video. :)

I spent my Thursday and Friday in Helsinki. I'm studying to become "libristi" (there's no translation, but basically it's a fancy title that says I know a lot about books) and go there every two months or so. My fellow students are very pleasant company so Thursday evening fly by at the hotel! Friday evening I visited the museum of modern art Kiasma (and met a coworker! Small world :D) and enjoyed the exhibit. No photos because I didn't bring my camera. But yeah, that's why I was away from my computer so the video was linked here a bit later :D

Birthday

So, I'm 23 now. I've always thought of age as just a number, and so I continue to think :D Anyway, I had relatives over on Sunday and got some nice gifts from them and from my boyfriend. Mostly movies and books (and a board game Mastermind which is just as awesome as I remembered!) so nothing ground breaking. I did manage to add up to my Helsinki Lolita Convention Dress Fund, so I'll be able to buy something from there ^^

I did buy myself a gift as well, I ordered it on Sunday also so it'll ship out on Tuesday and - hopefully - come here quickly. It's a new dress from Bodyline. When I saw it I instantly knew I had to have it! I got it in grey (obviously) and love the print. Diamonds, stripes, skulls, roses and playing cards on one dress? Yes please! So I spent 42€ from my Dress Fund. I love free shipping ~

It looks a bit short and high waisted, so when it comes I'll try it on and decide whether to keep it as a dress or make it into a skirt. Time will tell... 

L580

I also got this fabric which I plan to make a skirt! I'll make a tutorial as well, this time with pleats and a zipper. So soon you'll see how bad I am at making zippers xD 

And on the topic of zippers... *sigh* Oh my god how much I hate zippers. Especially in lolita. Especially in lined dresses. They ALWAYS jam at the mid seam (since there's so much fabric) and usually I ask my boyfriend to zip them up for me. Well, he wasn't at home on Sunday, and I had massive trouble with the zipper. I battled for twelve minutes trying to get the damn thing all the way up (and no it's not a small dress, it jams even when I zip it empty on a hanger) and expected quests at any minute and my hand was getting sore from the awkward position. Eventually I got it up with a mighty roar of joy. But damn I hate those. I don't mind a visible zipper if it means I can actually zip it up. 

Anyway I'll celebrate with friends later on and will show you the dress once it gets here and do the skirt tutorial when I have time to do it. This week I have to work six days and two of those are in another city so yeah tough week, but I'll try to make a video for Wednesday.

Have a nice week! ^^

Tutorial: easy wristcuffs

Hello ~ I made a video today, and it's a tutorial on how to make easy wristcuffs. They take about five minutes to make and you can decorate them however you want to! ^^ The tutorial is a video.

All you need is good quality lace, elastic, thread and the decoration of your choice.

Stuff

Hi. There was no video this Wednesday because life kept me busy + I had a day off that I wanted to dedicate completely to being lazy and doing stuff for the house. I have a new awesome keyboard that's cordless so I can use it while playing games by the desk or take it and cordless mouse to the couch and use them with the big TV. Good for watching anime ;) I also finally got speakers (with adjustable bass, you're welcome neighbours); before if I was at the desk I had to use headphones or put it to the TV to get sound. Yay improved lazyness! The desk is getting a bit crowded though, with two sets of everything. I also want a new monitor but I don't have over two hundred euros to spend on it so this will do ~ 

Speaking of computers and games, have you ever played Lego games? They may seem childish but are really well made! We've been playing Lego Hobbit (on PC but we use controllers and put it in the TV) and the co-op and split screen work really well. It has a lot of interesting mechanics that are well executed, all the dwarves (and other characters, of which there are plenty) have different abilities and the world is so full of loot and collectibles that collecting them all would take ages. Plus the first time you play through an area you have only few characters to use according to the plot, so some places you can't reach until you replay it while you have access to all of the characters. It has the voice acting and plot from the movies and it flows really well, and Sir Christopher Lee (aka Saruman) is the narrator for skipping some boring stuff. A really awesome game, especially for co-op.

I also saw Chappie, and it wasn't that bad. I had mixed feelings about it beforehand but I really loved some aspects of it. It was nice and different, and Chappie was both adorable and admirable. I recommend checking it out if you want something new but not perfect. (And by the way the new series The last man on Earth is pretty hilarious)

Lastly as  a bit of lolita, my youtube channel has over 500 subscribers so I'm going to do something special :D Not next week, it will a craft video but maybe after that. Making craft videos has turned out to take a lot longer than I anticipated! It takes time to set the camera and explain things that I normally would just do, plus I have to wait for good lighting conditions. So even though I originally planned that every other video was going to be  craft video, it's more likely that one of every third or fourth will be one. Plus bigger projects take more time. I will still do them because I would do the projects anyway, but it won't be as often as I thought. 

Loliable offbrand haul

Because I bought two over 100€ dresses in the beginning of January, I've tried to spend as little as possible. I did buy some cheaper things, so here they are (also on video):

A wig that I actually bought before Christmas but I got it after my last haul so here it is. It's from ebay, and surprisingly good quality! The netting doesn't show through, it's not too shiny and it doesn't tangle. 

A black hat because I didn't have one :D

A brown beret because I need more brown items to coord with. 

Chocolate fabric! I really want a choko print but since they're expensive (and my favourite, Chess Chocolate is 80-something cm long so it's too short for my taste) I decided to make my own ^^ Also comes in a brighter milk chocolate colorway.

A dress that is hand-made by someone else than me. I won't wear it since I realised I don't like short sleeved OPs, but it only cost 17€ so it's not a big loss.

Rest are second hand from local places: a black vest with military-ish details, beige jacket, beige and green cardigans. I'll make a DIY video for the green cardigan once I have all the materials I'll need to do it ^^