Kitties and Ikea

Hello! I had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I went to Ikea with my big sister and bought some small stuff (she got me a frying pan and other stuff for making pancakes, thank you <3) and .... a new book shelf! Is anyone surprised? No? Oh well, I thought so :D It's just a small one since we're out of wall space (106 cm tall and ~40 cm wide). I'll show it once I put it together (read: watch and help my boyfriend as he puts it together) and fill it with books. God knows I have too much on my current ones.

I also had two cats over! A good friend of mine is moving so her cats were at our house for two nights, and it really made me want a cat (or two) of my own. I can't because my boyfriend is a bit allergic. He was mostly out helping a friend fix his car so the allergens weren't too bad, but we can't have a full-time cat. But I had a lovely time with these ladies ~ 

Meet Domino. I had to nail-proof my "leather" chair, so I used a blanket and a snuggie. No clawing marks, so plan was successful :D

Belly rubs! And I kept my hand! Fasu is really gentle, she lets you pick her up and really pet her. I still have cat hair on me for petting her so much. Domino too, of course. 

Watchful eye of Sauron ~ 

And that's the last one so I won't drown you in kitty photos. 

I'll try post stuff like this (maybe a bit more interesting though) as well, not just what video I made and a link to it. I want this blog to be more personal and update to a certain degree what's going on in my life besides lolita. But now that I mentioned lolita, I can say that I almost finished my wardrobe video today (only a few things left), and I'll post a photo version here as well once it's done ^^ 

If you celebrate Valentine's Day I hope you had a good one ~

(Fun fact: here in Finland it's "Friend's day" so we usually spend it with friends or family, not lovers.) 

Buying affordable shirts and blouses

Hello, this time I wanted to continue my "where to buy affordable" series for lolita, and focused on blouses and cutsews. I hortly explain the difference between the two, what sort of qualities and details you should look for and stuff like that while showing examples from my own closet. Anyway, here's the video if you're interested! And a photo of my outfit so the post won't be just another link ^^' 

I own a dream print!

Story time! When I first started to really research what lolita was really about (about two and a half years ago), the first dress I truly fell in love with was the Stained Glass print from Moi Meme Moitie. Ever since then I've adored all the different stained glass prints from different brands, but it's always been wishful thinking. They were always too expensive, and I didn't think I would buy any  brand. 

 

 

(Three Archangels ; Westminster Choir)

Let's skip ahead: a while back I already owned some "true brand", even one (now sold) bought straight from Innocent World. And lo and behold: IW comes up with two adorable stained glass prints! And I didn't have enough money for them, because the shipping and tax (for items over ~20€ 24%, items over 150€ 36% + you pay tax for shipping fees as well) the cost is often pretty much doubled. So here I was, lacking stained glass and dreaming of one day owning it.

Then, one the first day of This Year of To-Be-Awesomeness, I saw a dress on Lacemarket. 'Twas a dress of fine detail and beautiful cut, and, to top it off, precisely my size. So without any pondering or consideration, I hastily clicked "bid" and it became mine. $118 (no tax!) and ten days later it was mine! And I was happy. <3 As you can see from my little unboxing happy dance.

This is a "TaoBao brand" called CEL, and the print is St. Augustine's Abbey (lolibrary). It came out in 2013 when I barely knew that ebay existed, so I had never heard of TaoBao. The length is the annoying standard of 93cm instead of my preferred 100cm, but I can work around it; I can wear it with an underskirt to make it longer or then I'll sew something to the hem to make it so permanently :3 I like the waist tie, since it gives me extra material to either use as it's supposed to be used or as raw material to makes accessories from. The white collar thing I probably won't use very often, but it's nice to have ^^ The bodice fits well and I love the square neckline.

In all seriousness, this type of print has been on my "me wants" list forever. The brand ones have been too expensive and though I've noticed some indiebrands with this type of print, there's usually something wrong with the color, cut, length, size or then the shopping service and all extra costs has made it too expensive. So to have this now in my hands is a dream come true ~

I also tried to make four coordinates! A toned down, old school one; One that has more white than my outfits usually do; one using the detachabe collar; and one for summer. This surely isn't a "summer dress" but since it comes every year, I thought I would give it a go. Outfit rundowns are in the video. Which was your favourite? ^^

And now if I can get my hands on a book print and a brown or ivory chocolate print I have my holy trinity.... One down, two to go!

How to lengthen or shorten a skirt

Hello! Another tutorial. A little background: I made this dress over two years ago for punk lolita, so I thought an asymmetrical hem would be "cool". I did use this for a while but haven't worn it in over a year, so I decided to fix the hem. So in this video I show you first how to make a dress (or skirt) shorter, and then I show how to make it longer :D Enjoy!

I've found this to be very handy in lolita since some of lolita dresses can be a bit too long or short on you (depending on your height and preferred hem length) but also in making offbrand or vintage fit in your lolita wardrobe. Just because something isn't lolita when you get it doesn't mean it couldn't be! ^^

Q&A (video)

In this video I answer to a question tag, as was requested on my 150 subscriber video. I won't write the answer to here as well, but here are the questions:

1. What´s your lolita style?
2. What is your favourite brand?
3. What do you think about lolita trends?
4. Do you wear lolita to school or work?
5. What's your favourite bag to wea with lolita?
6. How do you deal with getting "weird looks" fro people because of the way you look?
7. What do you think about printless clothes?
8. What do you think about clothes with print?
9. Current lolita favourite?
10. What prices do you find reasonable for lolita clothing?
11. How do you afford lolita?
12. Do your friends wear lolita?
13. Favourite coord you wore this year?
14. What do you want to do more in Lolita fashion?
15. New lolita goals for this year? 

Metamorphose Swan Lake OP (video)

Hello! Ah I'm so grateful for my friend ~ She went to Japan, visited Closet Child and brought this piece of awesomeness with her. And now it's mine. <3 Here are some photos, but if you want, you can also check out my video. 

Without further ado, Swan Lake Princess Sleeve OP by Metamorphose. 

A close-up of the print. I love the gold details, it gives me an excuse to use my gold jewelry that I so seldom have a reason to dig out.

 A new wig from ebay! I'll do a review when I do my next "loliable offbrand" video, but this is a good one.

Accessories. These are from ebay, the gold glass necklace and earrings are souvenirs from Venice. 

Socks and shoes, can you gess from where? Ah yes, ebay ^^' I need to get new stuff from some place else.

I'm really happy with the dress, it fits nicely (I can actually lift my hands without the shoulder seams ripping, god I love shirring) and is just like new even though it's a 2012 dress. I've wanted more beige, ivory and brown for a while now, so this really hits the spot! A nice break from my usual goth / aristocrat dark dresses. 

I want more classic pieces <3

Lined lolita skirt tutorial (video)

Hello! Here is a quick tutorial on how to make an easy, fully shirred skirt with a lining. Linings can be a bit annoying to make (since they double the work you have to do + lining fabric isn't free so it pumps up the cost) but sometimes it's necessary. For example my fabric was so thin and "flowy" that if I made it without lining, the skirt would have hugged every bump of my petticoats and stuck to it. Another reason for lining is see-through fabric, and I don't think I have to explain why.

This takes about 2-4 hours to make, depending on what sides you have to hem and if you have to re-do some seams. It's quite easy, I'd say a 1.5 (one being super fast and easy and five being hard and time-consuming), most of the work is easy if a bit repetitive. For a full tutorial and the pattern, check you my video :)

Long time no rant

Hello! I know I've been lazy about writing here for a while, I've basically only linked my videos here with a sentence or two. I'm going to fix that! And as you can see, I'm dropping Finnish. Most of my readers (at least according to Blogger statistics) are from non-Finnish speaking countries, and it's tiresome to write everything twice. I hope that my Finnish readers will understand my reasoning and most of us understand English quite well.

Anyway, on to the boring stuff. I've mostly bought a massive pile of books, picked up (and dropped) some new games and been sick, gotten better and worked my butt off. Now that I have five (!) days off, I have time to actually get bored or do things that I want to do, not things I have to do. Yay ~ 

Let's start with games, shall we? I've been replaying Ratcher & Clack 2 and 3 with PS2, and those are still some of my favourite games. The first one as well of course, but I've played that one through so many times I'm taking a break from it. I just love the combination of (easy) action, platforming, puzzles, gear / bolt grinding and the priceless humour. Hours of fun. Sadly the ones for PS3 were (in my humble opinion) not nearly as good, and after the first trilogy I've tsopped buiyng them. Instead, I replay the old ones for PS2. <3

Aside from console gaming, we finally got our second gaming PC completed, and what I play the most is Terraria xD Even my laptop could run that so no need for the high-end machine there... But it's surprisingly fun to co-op, especially since our computers are right next to each other so we can spy on both monitors at once. Bosses are way more fun and mining is faster as well. Another fun co-op game is Don't Starve Together, the concept is simple and art beautiful. Both are easy and simple :)

The other genre I've been into lately are otome games. I hardly have to mention that I play these by my lonesome, as the other half is understandably not so keen on these. I played Hatoful Boyfriend, and yes, it's a dating sim where you're the only human and you try to date birds. Yeah. It sounds super retarded but is actually quite good, each arc / route is quite short. After you get all the endings you get a long, super deep and slightly creepy bonus thing, and it's good! Like legit good.

The weirder one is Everlasting Summer, where you magically transport to a Soviet camp and while being super confused either try go get out or accept the situation and try to get comfy with the girls at the camp. I haven't played this one as much yet since some of the events that repeat in almost every route are a bit boring, but if you want to check it out, it's free to play and on Steam. 

What I still want to get into is World of Warcraft. I've been interested in it for years and since my boyfriend is very good at it, we can play together and he can teach me. Path of Exile seems like a better version of Diablo 3 (that I have played through, wich doctor and demon hunter were my favourites). 

I'll rant about books an other time or put them slowly at the ends of my future posts as there is quite a pile. I need new book shelves but we have no room.... We'll see what can be done, since I won't stop buying new ones! I sell some of them but very few so the situation is slowly getting out of hand.

I'll try to be more active here as well and not only on Youtube ^^

Fan+Friend haul (video)

Törsäsin vähän aikaa sitten aivan liikaa rahaa ja tilasin tämmöistä. Linkit ja selitykset löytyypi videosta ^^

Unboxing: Fan + Friend OP, skirt, shirt, beret (with links and reviews)

A while back I spent way too much money and bought these. All links and descriptions are in the video ^^

Haul: loliable offbrand (video)

The idea behind this "loliable offbrand" is that I buy some lolita clothes and accessories from many places - other than indie brands as well - but I feel they don't need a video per item. So, instead, I'll make a combined video every month or two to show and review the things I got during that time. :)

HAUL: loliable offbrand (with reviews and links) December 2014