I Have Not Felt Like Interacting Online

I haven't posted in a while.
I haven't posted on Instagram much lately either.

I had a rough week or two.
This other weird thing happened. I didn't like many coordinates I saw posted by others. Nothing was inspiring me. Maybe it was just because I was in a funk.


Or maybe I'm looking for something very specific in the fashion now?
Is it authenticity? I don't know how to describe it. A certain coordinate, gives me a certain feeling.
I'm not sure I ever get that feel about my own coordinates, even.

A very simple coordinate I wore last week. 

What else. I have a package with Japonica. I'm a fool and asked them to buy one more thing for me. Restrictions on shipping inclines me to expect they wont be able to ship it. T_T Maybe people will think I should not be complaining because there are people dying. I'm not especially complaining, more like lamenting over my choices. We each in life experience our own troubles.

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Hopefully, I can start to wear lolita fashion a bit more again. I want to wear it tomorrow, but we are supposed to go for a walk in the afternoon. Ideally, I would wear lolita on the walk. This is exactly my perfect vision of the fashion. Myself in the forest or a field. Footwear presents a problem, of course. I want to be okay with ruining my clothes.

I did a flat lay of a coordinate idea last night. At least "the gears are turning".

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Also, unrelated but I have been exercising and stretching every day and I'm way more bendy than I used to be! (which was actually already quite bendy) I can place my palms firmly on the ground in a forward fold. My feet are able to lay flat on the ground in a downward dog pose. 

Some Crafting

Before the pandemic became serious, I went to the fabric store to buy some crafting supplies to keep me occupied. Some things I bought were specifically for creating an accessory to go with my Marshmallow Bunny <3 jumperskirt from Angelic Pretty.

I wanted to make something using dark green because there's dark green in the print. It's a bit unusual for this colour to be present in a pastel print. Last year (or maybe it was two years ago), when I was originally trying to decide if I wanted to buy Marshmallow Bunny or not, I decided against it because of the green. At least that's what I remember being the deciding factor. Now, I've come to realize that I love green in lolita clothes.

Voila.

The greens do not match perfectly, but this is fine with me. I am not very concerned with colours matching perfectly these days. I do really appreciate the people that pay close attention to that kind of detail, though.

The bow is light enough that it can be held in my hair with a bobby pin. It would probably look very good clipped to the strap of the dress as well.

I also bought the green ribbon with the intention to make something for my Classic Fairy Tales dress (also from Angelic Pretty). I haven't thought about what I'll make yet. At one point, I was considering making the bows on the ends of the bow (pictured above) removable with little clips so that I could replace them with a different colour that would suit Classic Fairy Tales. However, I loved the look of the blue ribbon going down the tails of the bow. Blue doesn't suit Classic Fairy Tales at all, so I ditched the idea (though I thought it would be a great idea otherwise).

I want to make at least one more accessory to go with Marshmallow Bunny. Today, I looked at the lace at the bottom of the dress and compared it to some crocheted lace I have. It seems to be a good match. One of the blue fabrics I bought (pictured) looks like it will go well with the print.

The real lace on the dress is an embroidered lace (? not sure what this type of lace is actually called!), not crocheted.  Normally, I do not like to mix lace types in coordinates but I am starting to deviate from that standard of mine. Experimentation is a good thing!

Anyway, I am thinking I will use this crocheted lace and fabric to make my next accessory for the dress. I have an idea, but I don't know how to explain it.


Today I tried wearing a jumperskirt without a blouse and with only a bolero instead. I saw someone do this with Happy Garden high waist jumperskirt and I thought it looked quite nice so I wanted to try it.

Not wearing a petticoat because comfort reasons (another reason to get a petticoat from MeLikesTea. I heard viole is a very nice and soft material). The neckline of this dress is too high to matter whether I've got a blouse on or not anyway. A very comfy outfit. I've cut my bangs myself btw.

Wish List Update

I finally have the Blooming Snow White Underbust jumperskirt! :D
But... I am having some difficulty coordinating it. At least, nothing came to mind right away... :<

I have so many prints with deer on them now:

• Classic Fairy Tales (Angelic Pretty)
• Delft Lotta (Innocent World)
• Forest Harvest Festival (Innocent World)
• Bambi (Innocent World)
• Alice & Bambi (BTSSB)
• Blooming Snow White  (BTSSB)
• Milky-Chan the Fawn (Angelic Pretty)

Disclaimer: Just because a print has deer doesn't mean I instantly want to buy it! Somehow, it needs to fit a certain aesthetic. Milky-Chan gets a pass. It doesn't fit the aesthetic; it's just a sweet lolita print I always wanted.
For example, Metamorphose's Lovely Forest or BTSSB's Bambi de la Forêt Secrete aren't on the list of prints I want to get. Even though they have the woodland forest theme and deer.

Also, I bought two new pairs of boots:

Axes Femme

Clara Short Boots

Perfect in time for winter to be over. :| But at least I'll have them for next year. The Clara boots are darker than I would like, but at least they are shorter than my other boots. I think I'd still like a pair of cream coloured boots.


I meant to post this last week! I forgot that I hadn't posted it yet ><; 

Now that I have acquired some things on my wishlist, I can remove them!

Some Food Related Topics

I recently received Peter Rabbit's Cookery Book in the mail and it inspired me to want to write out some recipes and put them on this blog. There is now a Recipes page. I was intending to just write recipe posts, label them and then create a page that links to posts with that label. However, I don't want recipe posts showing up in the main blog. I'm not posting anything spectacular. Like the rest of this blog, it's just for myself for fun.

On the topic of Peter Rabbit's Cookery Book: It's a cute book (it is made for children). The recipes are frequently things with pastries, eggs and meats with vegetables here and there. I think I will endeavour to make a vegan version of each recipe. This particular edition of the book is from 1987.

On the general topic of food: People in my country are starting to go a little bit crazy over the spreading COVID-19. There is footage of a grocery store lineup that circles around the store. My husband and I stopped at the grocery store last night and it was busier than we've ever seen. We have a good supply of non-perishables but I wanted to buy longer lasting vegetables as well.

I don't know why, but I want to list what vegetables we've "hoarded" and their estimated shelf life given proper storage:

Potatoes ~ 2-3 months
Sweet potatoes ~ 1 month (outside of fridge), 2-3 months (in fridge)
Cabbage ~1-2 months (fridge)
Rutabaga ~ 2-3 weeks (fridge)
Carrots ~ 1 month (fridge)
Onions up to 6 months
Apples ~ 1 month (fridge)
Tangelos ~ 2 weeks (fridge)

Also, I have things in the mail and I am a bit concerned about what might happen to them. One package contains Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Blooming Snow White underbust jumperskirt. Seems like a frivolous thing to worry about, I suppose.

Collective Winter 2020 Haul

I was going to make a post on my most recent haul but I've decided to actually do a collective Winter 2020 haul. The reason for this, is to keep track of what I have received this season. I sold quite a few things as well after my wardrobe post. After the wardrobe post, I sorted through just about everything (except for shoes).

Marshmallow Bunny JSK in pink

From left: Sugar Dream Dome OTKs, Hanikami (Shyness) Bear OTKs (2013), Marshmallow Bunny OTKs 

Closeup of cuteness

Double Ribbon Sneakers

This was an amazing buy. With the tags, in the box (still stuffed!). For 8K yen. 

Fairy Bunny Coat
Look at those ears! So cute :)

Nile Perch blouse.

The Nile Perch blouse was a totally spontaneous purchase. I had seen photos of the seller wearing it on Instagram and just really loved the look of the blouse. When I saw she was selling it, I took a chance knowing that it's kind of unusual and might not go with my wardrobe that well. Happy to have it.

Both necklaces from Sweet Dolly House.

Left: Angelic Pretty unknown socks
Right: Innocent World Cross Ribbon High Socks

Triple Ribbon Lace Head Bow and Ladder Lace Mini Ribbon Head Bow

I would love to find the triple ribbon lace head bow in the "pink" colourway because it includes yellow and blue so I think it would work really well with Happy Garden.

I also received the Innocent World Apron with Skirt and a pair of Bodyline shoes but I haven't included any photos of those. Instead, here is a me wearing both of them:

That should all the new additions. At least, what I can remember. I should probably try to document things a bit more regularly. ><

What I sold this winter:

• Kiss Me! Cat Marie OP
• Seraffi JSK
• Bright Starry OTKs
• Glitter Ribbon OTKs
• Triple Ribbon Bolero
• Maria Antonio OP
• Sweet Girl Head Bow
• Lace Up Ribbon OTKS
• Marie Parka
• Toy Fantasy Print Parka (I kind of regret selling with whenever I look at it)
• Toy Fantasy Skirt
• Toy Fantasy Socks
• Victoria Princess Cuffs
• Bodyline Polkadot OP
• Polka Dot Milk-Chan Applique Skirt (sad to see this one go but I want a different colourway)
• Milky-Chan Socks, black colourway

Obviously, I made some headway in closet cleaning. A lot of that money was used to buy things in this haul post. There's still more I want to sell but I'm not sure what the best method of selling things is. If it's not a hot item, do I just keep relisting it or what?

Another thing I wanted to note is that this was a very "sweet" focused season for me. Very few things were classic/sweet-classic. This is fine with me. It felt good to let go of some things though :)

Minor Update

Things I should buy before buying anything I don't need:

• Boots (something like what is currently on my wish list page). 
• New petticoat
• ..

Okay, this list isn't that big. (maybe will add things later when I remember them)

I am thinking about creating a neocities website.

Also, I got Marshmallow Bunny Ribbon JSK with the matching socks (but no headbow boo)
I want the white colourway. But! I got it in the pink colourway because a listing came up with the matching socks.
Now that I have it in pink, I really like it. If the white comes up, I think I'll still buy it and then compare them and hopefully come to a conclusion about which I like best. This isn't the first time I've bought a dress in order to obtain matching items being sold concurrently. 

Trying the dress on. It's a crummy picture but I wanted to point out that I felt the combo of the blouse with the stripes at the bottom of the print was interesting.

I want to do a proper blog post of what else I received in the mail with this dress. I basically went on a buying spree because of missing out on both Vanilla-Chan accessories and the Milky-Chan bag. The humorous thing is that I spent less on everything in the haul than if I had bought those things so~
I got some things for quite cheap because they were dirty so I want to launder them first before photographing them. (feeling inspired by some recent posts about cleaning lolita pieces).

Melancholy

Technically, I could afford to buy any lolita dress or item that I want. So why do I agonize over things I want but refuse to buy them?

I went through a period of my life of having little to no income and no savings. It forever left an impression on me. Now, I compulsively save a high percentage of my income even though my future (and current) prospects are positive.

Recently, the Milky-Chan the Fawn Bag came up for auction. It went for 501 AUD. That's around 450 CAD.

This morning an auction for the Whimsical Vanilla-Chan ring and necklace ended at almost 300 CAD on Yahoo! Auctions Japan.

I 100% could have afforded to win both of these auctions, but I can't bring myself to spend this amount. I feel I can't justify it, but then here I am moping around. Both these auctions started at reasonable prices, so this situation isn't the result of scalpers. What something is worth depends on what people are willing to pay for it. So where does that leave me? Melancholic with all this money that doesn't bring me happiness (because it would never be enough), apparently. It's ridiculous.

Something I've been thinking about is how Honey Cake was re-released but such releases as Vanilla-Chan and Milky-Chan have not been re-released. Would there be an interest in a re-release? Milky-Chan and Vanilla-Chan dresses go up for sale frequently, but they're often not in great condition due to their age and I expect their prices reflect this. Milky-Chan jewelry doesn't perform above average in terms of price, it's generally at what you'd expect for most AP second hand jewelry that's not from a highly sought after release (there are outliers).
When it comes to Vanilla-Chan, it's a bit more difficult. LaceMarket only has history of two listings for the Vanilla-Chan ring, and two for the bracelet. Again, they are listed at comparable prices to Milky-Chan. I own the Vanilla-Chan bracelet which I believe I paid 100 USD for, which I would argue as being slightly expensive compared to non-sought after pieces. It seems Vanilla-Chan jewelry is significantly rare, even though it was released a year after Milky-Chan (which goes up for sale very frequently). Those listings I mentioned above are from 2016 and 2015. Could it be that the Vanilla-Chan jewelry is less frequently up for sale because it's more versatile than Milky-Chan? Think of all the prints with white cats on them.
As for the Milky-Chan bag there seems to be some variation in listing prices, but I would say the overall trend is for an increase in price.
When I see prices like these, I think about the possibility of a MTO/re-release.