Just indulging my sweet tooth here

I seem to be stuck on sweet themes, especially chocolate.  I just bought a whole bunch of stuff to match with my Royal Chocolate skirt, which I plan to coordinate for my outfit for the tea party <3  I might end up going with the royal chocolate socks instead of these ones.  We'll see.  The party is still like two months away.  I think I just enjoy planning outfits.

Here was my outfit for the last AP mini-party:

It's kind of weird that I'm posting so much about Angelic Pretty when that wasn't the intention of my blog.  I guess it's because they have a lot of cute non-lolita things there that I can wear in a more otome-kei style.  Not to mention I can actually visit the store and try things on, and I usually go to the events.  The SF brand stores are a blessing on my wardrobe but a curse on my wallet ;_;

By the way, the reason I haven't been posting much lately is because I've been in the process of moving!  Things are still kind of a mess here.  I've unpacked most of my stuff, but uh... we'll see when he does the rest.  We're still working on furnishing and decorating it too.  I'm not going to be making any more big clothing purchases for a few months because the whole process has been such a drain on my bank account.  I'll still try to keep up with new releases and post more pictures of stuff I want though :3

It's been a while, but I've got new stuff!

I have been super busy lately since I'm covering a lot of shifts at work.  This is my first day off in two weeks.  The upside to that, though, is that I have some extra spending money.

I was lucky enough to get the Royal Chocolate skirt I wanted when AP USA put it up for sale online <3  The pink socks were the only ones left, but they seem to match well enough, so I ordered those too.  I just went into the store today to pick them up. 

 

The details really make this piece, between the buttons, the "dripping" scallops, and the pleats that look like candy bars.   I can feel a little bit smug knowing this probably won't be replicated because it's textured rather than printed.

I also stopped by Baby the Stars Shine Bright to check out their summer sale.  A lot of things are 30-50% off.  I ended up getting a gorgeous pearl and crown necklace and an adorable parasol pin.  They will definitely be part of my coord for the fashion contest at the J-Pop Summit next weekend.

Here are my outfits from the past two days.  They're not lolita or otome, but they're cute, so close enough.

 The pants were a lucky find at H&M, the cardigan is Forever21, the shoes and purse are Angelic Pretty, and the t-shirt was from a BtSSB lucky pack long ago.  It's kind of hard to see the bracelet, but that's 6% Dokidoki.  I felt ridiculously cutesy since I'm not used to wearing all pastels.

I went goth today with h.Naoto (the t-shirt) and Black Peace Now (the skirt and sweater).  The tights are a brand called Look From London.  I want to order more, but they're $30 :/

Tights!

I just ordered some tights (because knees are ugly).  They're definitely more flattering on me than any kind of socks, and they're great for shorter skirts.

 Here's my order from We Love Colors, excluding the diamond tights.  The patterned ones are one-size-fits-all.  I'm 5'8" and they're just barely long enough on me.  In the past I've cause runs and snags by yanking my tights when trying to stretch them vertically, so I'll just have to be careful with these.  They seem pretty sturdy though.  The mint and lavender tights are "tall size" so hopefully they'll fit better.  I haven't worn those yet.

I got tired of asking my boyfriend to take pictures, so here are some mirror shots.  I like that the patterns on the tights are subtle, but now I'm thinking they just look too subtle at a distance. 

I also got these from Happy Socks (only because they were 70% off though):

There need to be more tights with diagonal stripes.  It seems like they're in a lot of Emily Temple Cute ads, but they're actually really hard to find. 

And now for some more stuff I want but can't justify buying at retail price:

Jane Marple jewelry

 MILK Fantasy Mermaid OP and accessories

 Five strap sandals

 Vintage Stamp skirt

Shoes, skirts, and a Sugary Pansy coord

I ordered from Bodyline for the first time a few weeks ago.  I'm not a huge fan of the store, but they seem to have a few good things if you know what to look for.  They're a decent source for cheap lolita shoes.  The quality is not quite as good as Secret Shop shoes, but they seem perfectly adequate if you don't scuff them up.  Anyway, this is what I ended up getting:

I wanted mint too, but they only had this yellow-green color :<  Oh well.  The shoes arrived with a few scuffs since they were just shipped in a bag without padding.  I guess that's what I get for going with the cheaper shipping option.

I also ordered two Emily Temple Cute skirts from Labyrinth Garden, a thrift shop based in the Philippines that carries (mostly offbrand) pieces for lolita, otome, and mori fashion.  I got an amazing bargain - they were $13 each *_* 

The facebook page for the store is here: http://www.facebook.com/labyrinthgarden
It lists everything from the web store that is available for international shipping.

Last Saturday was Angelic Pretty SF's Royal Chocolate party.  The in-store parties are fun, but I think I should just save my money for the bigger parties at nice venues, like the anniversary party :p  Sadly, they did not have the Royal Chocolate series.  I didn't really expect them to, since it hasn't gone up for sale in Japan either, but I still wanted to try to reserve it.  No luck there either, although they were taking reservations for Chocolate Rosette. 

This is what I wore to the party:

I'll admit it's not my best coord.  Ankle socks look unexpectedly awkward on me, so I'm thinking I should stick with tights or otk socks instead.  The vest wasn't a great idea either.  The green doesn't quite match and the sleeveless look emphasizes my shoulders way too much.  I was just trying to create some kind of shape because the dress fits like a tent.  I think what I'll probably do is turn the (rather ineffective) waist ties into a high-waist belt and add some belt loops.  I'll be sure to post pictures of the modifications on here if I do.

A trip to the brand stores

I went to Angelic Pretty today to pick up my online purchase and ticket for their Royal Chocolate Party!

They're having a 20-30% off sale right now.  Fortunately nothing really struck my fancy, so my wallet was safe for the time being.   I'm hoping they'll the new Royal Chocolate series in before the party.  I have a purse from the original series and the chocolate bar texture is totally amazing. The dress or skirt (most likely skirt though) is a big item on my wishlist.

Anyway, this is what I bought to get the ticket:

....and the scarf and scrunchies are what I bought at Daiso later.

Of course I had to stop by Baby the Stars Shine Bright to see what new stock they got in.  I'm pretty much a window shopping addict ;_;  I saw a cutsew dress that I really liked.  Here's a picture from one of the Japanese BtSSB store's blogs:

I already have a star-themed dress in my wardrobe (BtSSB's Milky Way jsk), so buying this would be redundant.  I am thinking about selling it and buying this, but I don't know.  I feel bad cycling through my wardrobe so much, just selling to make room for something else.  I'm hoping to get to a point someday where I'll have a perfect wardrobe and won't want to sell anything because everything will suit me perfectly :)

One last thing - this is what I wore on my outing today:

The coat is Metamorphose and the skirt is Emily Temple Cute.  I'm glad my hair has finally gotten long enough to where I can braid it because braids seem to be a great look for otome kei.

Umbrella skirt outfit and two recent sewing projects

As promised, here is a simple coord with the lovely Emily Temple Cute umbrella print skirt.  The blouse is from Baby the Stars Shine Bright, but it works surprisingly well with ETC.  The shoes are American Eagle from Payless and the headband is Claires.

I wore my handmade sailor cutsew for the first time on Sunday.  My mom helped me modify a pattern from one of the old Gothic Lolita Bible issues (like, one from last summer, I think).  I believe it's the same as the Rose Lace Sailor cutsew on the Innocent World website: http://innocent-w.jp/shopping/112806/index_e.html  Mine is longer and made for a smaller waist.  It just so happens to match perfectly with this Innocent World jsk :)

Now that I'm not really into lolita anymore, I don't feel obligated to wear socks when it's really hot out.  I could probably do with more tights though.

My other handmade project was a simple empire-waist dress.  I mostly just wanted to showcase this amazing fabric.  I still have some left over.  It's enough to make a skirt, or a handbag.  I'm not sure what I want to do with it yet.

I haven't worn it out yet except for a mini-photoshoot that I haven't gotten pictures back from yet.  I'll have to post again when I do.

Japonica Market review + recent purchases

Last month, I used an auction service for the first time to buy a little birthday present for myself.  I'm pleased to say that it went very well.  I really have no experience writing reviews, but I'll try my best to explain the process.

I looked up some otome brands including Emily Temple Cute on Yahoo Japan using this handy guide: http://frozen-yjapan.livejournal.com/567.html#cutid1 and came across something that had been on my wishlist, ETC's umbrella print skirt in mint <3

The auction started at only 3,000 yen.  I emailed Japonica about this item, using the form provided on their site (auction url, maximum bid, paypal, address, etc).  I listed my max bid at 6,000 yen and they sent me an invoice for that amount + paypal fee.  However, someone else bid 5,000 with a few days still left, so I figured I should up my max bid to keep up.  They raised my bid without asking for another deposit - I just paid the extra along with shipping and commission at the end.  I ended up winning the auction at a little under 9,000 yen, which is not exactly cheap, but also not bad for a rare print like this.

The commission fee was very low since Japonica is doing a special offer of 50% off their regular rate.  The offer runs through the end of August, just fyi :)  My total with shipping, commission, paypal fees was 11,103 yen or $139.  All in all, it was well worth it.

My package arrived only a few days after I made the final payment.  I'm sure it helps that I'm on the west coast, but it was still pretty fast.

I also recently ordered from ModCloth.  They seem to have a lot of cute blouses, so I thought I'd order one and see what the quality was like.  They offer free shipping on orders over $50, so I bought a necklace too to bring up my total.  They threw in two hair pins as an extra.

The blouse was a lot wider than I expected it, based on the stock photos.  It really doesn't look that great with skirts, so I figured I'd wear it under dresses instead.  That's exactly what I did today <3

The Emily Temple Cute dress is a recent purchase from egl_comm_sales, the purse is Angelic Pretty, the pearl headband is from Claire's and the shoes are from Payless.  I guess I do go a bit cheap on the accessories sometimes.

I'll try to post a coord with the umbrella print skirt very soon!

Emily Temple Cute summer dresses

Dying from adorableness *_*  Get in my wardrobe now.

The first two are from the ETC Nagoya store blog, the second two are from the Kyoto blog, and the last one is from the Osaka blog.

Closet Child order

I just got my order from Closet Child in the mail a few days ago.   I've placed tons of orders with the store, and they've always been super reliable - highly recommend it for 2nd hand lolita shopping :)
I've been looking for tops with non-poofy sleeves and flattering necklines, and these were perfect <3  The lavender top is Metamorphose and the peach one is Emily Temple Cute.  It's been way too hot for long sleeves recently though, so it might be a while before I can wear them.  I'm waiting for some more summer-appropriate things in the mail right now, so I'll be sure to post those when they arrive!