Saturday's Specimen

Sweets!

2012-01-27T06:40:00.001+11:00

Look what I'm putting together for our (belated) Australia Day party tomorrow here in Piteå. Lamingtons! I bought a sponge cake which was already cut into three layers and put jam in between before cutting them into rough rectangles. Add sloppy chocolate icing and coconut! Delicious!

A day in snowy Piteå

2012-01-16T21:05:00.001+11:00

Today we went for a walk along the river. The ice was cracking up near the bridge. Then in the evening we went to a friend's house for Charles to do website programming and I watched Hyperdrive on my iPad! Fun day!

Christmas at home!

2011-12-27T18:46:00.000+11:00

This year I was celebrating Christmas at home with my mum, dad, brother, and sister-in-law. It's so nice having Christmas at home for a change! The weather gets beautiful and hot and it really feels like Christmas!

My outfit for about half the day. I got this dress last year in London at Camden Town markets. Sorry you can't see my legs, and my hair's all weird-messy!

Presents under our tiny Christmas tree. See the Santa sacks? He's BEEN!

Closeup of the Christmas cake. Mum makes the best Christmas cake - mostly fruit. You can see the cherries peeking out of the icing. We're still eating it and it's so lovely.

Jubes! A Christmas tradidion at our house.

Santa gave me a little night light in the shape of a birdhouse! It's got native superb blue wrens on it. I think Santa knows I like They Might Be Giants.

My brother and sister-in-law got me this cute handbag! It's an owl! I wore it out today and got a compliment from a complete stranger :-) so nice.

A cute top!

Finally, two darling old ladies at church gave me a coathanger each, independently of each other. They are lacy, scented, and beautiful, and are both intended for me to hang my wedding dress on. Now what am I supposed to do? My dress doesn't even have sleeves!

So Christmas was lovely at home. We ate loads of wonderful food cooked with love, played badminton in the backyard for a while, napped, and had a great time together.

I'm about to make the trip over to Europe - to London for a few days and then Oslo and Sweden. Charles and I are going to be doing some awesome music projects while I'm there! Please wish me luck on the plane trip :-)

Thanks for reading :-)

Sewing outside on the loveliest day of the year!

2011-12-23T19:18:00.001+11:00

Making yet another blouse! This one is light pink chiffon with pin tucks on the front. I'm worried it's going to turn out weird!

I was inspired by this gorgeous blouse from DreamV... I would have bought it but it's sold out!

Same chiffon type fabric, but my pleas are much bigger. I guess I don't want everyone seeing my underwear? My chiffon is quite sheer so I made the pleats without gaps in between.

This time of year is so lovely as its not too hot to sit outside in the shade.

The best photo of my blouse so far...

2011-12-18T11:32:00.001+11:00

Is also hilarious for other reasons. This is a screenshot taken by charles when we were talking on skype.

But yeah I made that blouse and it's cute. Yay! It fits too!

Cute fabric I'm making a blouse with!

2011-12-07T21:31:00.001+11:00

I had such trouble with the pin tucks, you wouldn't believe! All sorted now. I'm using a pattern from a Deco Alice A La Mode magazine, which turned out to be a mistake because I can't read Japanese and they hardly have instructions anyway!

New dress

2011-12-04T00:16:00.001+11:00

Terrible photo! iPads don't take such good photos... Especially at 11pm in my mum's hands!

Emily Temple Cute, closet print jumperskirt. Dresses on a dress. Bought today at a local Lolita swap meet!

Yo dawg, I heard you like dresses. So we put a dress on your dress so you can dress while you dress!

More pics soon! I've been sewing this past week and have already made 2.5 skirts and half a blouse, and have started planning a cute dress and chiffon blouse! SUCH FUN.

Tis the season for making wishlists

2011-11-30T12:10:00.000+11:00

Okay so I'm going to stop being lame and start blogging again. Now semester is over (yay Honours done!) I can actually start thinking about nice bloggy things again!

Like my wishlist! It's nearly Christmas, which is a perfect time to let the whole world know what you like! So I'm updating my wishlist with a bunch of things. First, the modcloth things! Click on the pictures to go to the product pages.

This plum wedge is gorgeous, I love the ankle strap!

This dress is pretty different from my usual style, but I really like how it drapes on the bodice. I also like how it has deer on it!

This is a lovely sandal. Unfortunately they don't have it in this emerald green colour, they only have it in a brighter blue-green and a red. I'd love this green though. I'm into green right now. My school uniform was green so it's taken a long time for me to wear green again. I've been out of school, what, six years now?

Engagement ring!

2011-11-29T19:05:00.001+11:00

Charles and I bought my engagement ring while we were at This Is Not Art, in Newcastle. It's an antique, made of silver and sapphires. The stones are very dark, but when in the sunlight they sparkle beautiful blue.

It was far too big for my ring finger when we bought it, so I had it re-sized to fit. Charles went to Sweden while it was still being fixed, so it was a wonderful moment when I finally collected it. It's a constant reminder that I'm loved, even though my fiancee is not with me!

I'm rich!

2011-10-23T15:34:00.000+11:00

I'm the 682,571,530 richest person on earth!

Discover how rich you are!

I don't feel rich, that's for sure. I feel like I'm a struggling student who is on the verge of having a LOT more expenses. And to be sure, the cost of living in Australia is more expensive than the majority of places in the world.

But looking at the Global Rich List made me consider how lucky I am to live here. Australians love to whine about how poor they are (read this great article on Heathen Scripture for more insight) but compared to many people, they really aren't.

So I encourage you to click on the above link and see how rich you are. It certainly surprised me!

Hot rollers experiment!

2011-10-18T19:07:00.000+11:00

I used hot rollers for the first time today. My mum helped me put them in! I only had to leave it for fifteen minutes to get it to this stage!

Then I went out in the wind and it all fell out. Oh well. We knew that was going to happen!

Look I have a website now!

2011-10-06T23:04:00.000+11:00

You may have notice that when you go to saturdaysspecimen.blogspot.com, you get diverted.

To...

Cutieful Christina dot com!

I love the new name for my blog. It matches my Cutieful Snippets mini blog! Yay!

New stuff yay!

Ragtime Recital videos and wrap-up.

2011-10-05T21:25:00.000+11:00

So I did my ragtime themed recital early last month, and I was lucky enough to have heaps of help from my great percussion friends!

Here's the youtube playlist of the entire thing. There are maybe 6 videos and ten pieces in total! They're all totally fun.

Playlist:
Spanish Waltz (with Marimba Band)
The Whistler (with Charles)
Triplets (with Charles)
Jovial Jasper (with Charles)
Dance of the Octopus (with Adam Cook)
Xylophonia (with Marimba Band)
Cross Corners (with Adam)
Rainbow Ripples (with Adam)
Fluffy Ruffles (with Marimba Band and Krystle Innes - singer)
Now Unto Him (with Charles)

Now I want to particularly share this one, because it's my favourite and it went so well. Fluffy Ruffles is probably my favourite piece of ragtime music right now!

There's a published Xylophone solo with marimba band accompaniment, which I actually played in my first year of university. When I went to America I found out that it was originally a song with lyrics, and I could find the lyrics and use them! It was a revelation! So in this version I played minimally when Krystle was singing as well, and played the published xylo solo when she wasn't singing. I think it turned out exceptionally well!

I'm wearing my Victorian Maiden Rose Stripe Shirring dress. It's a fantastic dress, so versatile and comfortable.

So Thanks friends for supporting me! It was a wonderful concert and everyone had a great time! I want to play more ragtime next year so watch this space!

This Is Not Art!

2011-09-29T19:48:00.001+10:00

Charles and I drove all the way up to Newcastle today to perform in the This Is Not Art - Electrofringe festival. We took my car and I drove for 2 hours! First time I've driven so far.

We arrived at 6:15 and had to be at an opening party by 7! So I put on my skates and got ready super quick. I invented a hairstyle which I call the "put it up and pin it all around".

It's hard to see but I'm wearing purple tights and short socks that are lack with pink spots just lime the dress!

We got to the huge pub where the party is and there are all sorts of interesting folk around everywhere. So many arty types! It's crazy and loud and pubby here.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

I spend too much.

2011-09-29T00:14:00.001+10:00

It seems like as soon as I get my pay, it's already gone.

Back when I first was saving up to go to Japan, the money seemed to accumulate at a normal rate, going up every pay. I earned much less then than I do now, and yet now I'm poorer! Why is this?

Some of these expenses are not evil OR necessary. That's okay. It's interesting to work out where it all went!

1. Lolita. I found it after I went to Japan. Or rather, it found me. The wand chooses the wizard.

Just a picture of my most recent purchase. Not arrived yet!

The thing with this fashion is, you don't have to buy much to be much poorer. I love all the clothes I have bought, probably because I think so hard before I buy. It's a big purchase all in one go. So even though I hardly go out to civic and buy three tops for $50 all up, my clothes bill is probably as high as normals who do! I'm quite stingy with normal clothes and generally only look at buying specials. I'm a bit of a sucker for shoes though.

2. New expenses.
This year I've started paying board to my parents, and even though it's not a big amount, it certainly takes a toll on my purse!
I've also had to buy public liability insurance twice this year for teaching. Gotta be liable! Publicly!
Since I bought an iPad (expensive but worth every penny) I also need to buy data credit. iPads are great. I use mine all the time!

3. I'm too generous.
I keep finding myself buying lunch or concert tickets for friends when they are strapped for cash. I think "at least I'll have a friend with me!" without realizing that I am also strapped for cash! Sometimes it comes around and I get a free meal or whatever, but sometimes it doesn't! Once $100 was not repaid because they had no money, so I just dealt with it. Then they bought a new computer or something the next week. Inconsistent! Oh well, better to have friends right? Right?
I also bought expensive presents for my parents for mum's birthday and Fathers day. Also worth it.

4. Petrol.
My goodness. Recently I've had to drive lot because of teaching and work and stuff. No excuse here, it's just a punch in the guts to have to pay so much. Not whining though - petrol should be expensive because it is finite. It would be wonderful to run a car on renewable energy!

5. Charles has been here. I'm not blaming him. It's good really! It just means I do a lot more and go out a lot more. When I say "go out" I don't mean we hit the clubs, but we go to concerts, get takeaway, go to town etc. Little food stuffs and parking add up. That said, I'd rather Charles than money. He's my world.

6. Coffees and hot chocolates and caramel tarts!
Self explanatory really. I love cafe treats! The other week my friend and I went to a trendy cafe and got two hot chocolates (requested marshmallows and didn't get any!) and one biscuit. The lot cost $14! What? I paid for the lot because I'm stupid (see above).

Next time I want to write about how to make the most of what you've got and save money. It'll be mostly for me because as demonstrated, I suck at this so far!

Cutieful Snippets

2011-09-25T14:13:00.000+10:00

I have started a new blog! I won't be shutting this one down, of course, but this new blog is for snippets and pictures from everyday life!

Here it is: Cutieful Snippets! Feel free to follow that blog too!

I was totally inspired by Violet's Cuties blog to start this. I love looking at her cute photos and cute outfits even when they're pretty poor quality pictures - unlike her normal blog where the photos are really great but the posts aren't so frequent.

I'll be taking the photos for Cutieful Snippets with my iPad 2. Pretty lame quality photos but oh well! I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with the world via this new frequently-updated blog!

Cutieful Snippets!

Rehearsing!

2011-09-23T14:00:00.001+10:00

Rehearsing with Charles for our set at Electrofringe next weekend!! Yay a trip up to Newcastle!

Cutie!

Charles is the master of cords.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Growing out a fringe - with JJ magazine!

2011-09-18T13:37:00.001+10:00

Growing out a fringe is hard work. You want it to look like you're not growing out your fringe, like you just got it styled like this yesterday. However, hair goes through stupid and annoying phases where it's hard not to give up and chop it off again. I've given up quite a few times, and as a result have never grown out my fringe since 2008. I'm trying again!

I got a JJ magazine from Kinokuniya the other day. It's my favourite Japanese magazine, because the models are relatively normal-looking (compared to all those bizarre Lolita and Gyaru magazines), and they have beautiful clothes. So I've looked at all of their hairstyles and it looks like they're growing out their fringes too!

You get your hair cut in a straight fringe. It's gorgeous! So cute! You look youthful and sweet!

Unfortunately, you also have to straighten and blow-dry it every day. If it gets greasy it ruins the whole look, and because it's so short it gets greasy much quicker than the rest of your hair. So, gorgeous but impractical.

Start sweeping it to the side. Just use your round brush to blow-dry it with a curl, and then sweep it to one side. At first it won't look much different...

And then all of a sudden you have a side parting. Isn't she sweet! She has the nicest hair.

As the fringe gets longer the side part gets deeper:

A styling option is to pin it back. It can look very chic and also hide greasy roots or stupid hair.

Pinned to the side can look very sweet, but you have to have the right kind of face, I think.

This girl has french braided her fringe to the side to join with the rest of her hair. A huge hair accessory does wonders...

Finally long enough to part closer to the middle, pinned back on both sides. Very cute!!

Not my favourite look, I think your hair needs to be longer for this to work well. Centre parted with soft waves:

Just pin the whole thing to the side!

Is it this long yet?

I feel like my fringe will never grow out.

Conditioner only experiments.

2011-09-16T14:03:00.000+10:00

Recently I found a forum called the Long Hair Community, which was a great website with a lot of haircare tips, hairstyle tips, and tips on how to grow your hair.

There was a lot of talk about "Conditioner Only" washing. Lots of people claimed that conditioner actually cleanses your hair, and you don't need the nasty chemicals that are in shampoo. Shampoo is basically detergent with nice smells!

Importantly, you need to have conditioner with no silicones in it. That was so hard to find! The silicones in the conditioner coat your hair, and that's what makes it feel silky. It also leaves a build up, which doesn't matter if you use shampoo because it just washes out. I think I found one, a Garnier one, without "cones". Anyhow I gave it a go.

First time I washed my hair with conditioner, it was pretty good. Hard to dry, but cleanish. I actually thought the length of my hair felt very soft and lovely. But the next day it became really greasy and stiff. I washed it with Shampoo to get all the gunge out of my hair.

Next time I washed, I tried conditioner only again, but left it in longer, thinking that time is what was needed. Turns out it doesn't work for me at all. My hair was greasy still. Not only greasy, but very flat and boring. I dried my hair upside-down to get the most volume but it was really useless.

I think what happens on me, is that the conditioner just spreads out the grease from root to tip, so your roots will be less greasy than before, but the hair is difficult and generally gross. Perhaps if you used conditioner twice in one shower, it would manage to rinse out more of the grease. But that would take ages. I try to keep my showers short to save money (since the drought water is really expensive... even though the drought is over, prices stayed high!).

I've heard that "conditioner only" works better on curly-haired people. What I want to know is, what works best for me? So far, I shampoo my hair every four days, and try to use as little heat to style as possible. But the split ends are ridiculous. It's like a jungle in there!

What works for you?

Modcloth dress!

2011-09-14T09:15:00.000+10:00

Oh my goodness, could someone please buy me this dress? I am sure that the XS will fit me!! I am totes adding this to my wishlist.

Modcloth.com, Fair and Square Lemon Dress.

Don't go buying it for yourselves now!!!

Jacket done!

2011-09-12T12:42:00.000+10:00

I finished this jacket finally! I think it turned out really cute!

I cut everything out super precisely and was so careful sewing! I wanted the tartan to line up but it doesn't really. My seam allowance turned out to be bigger than I thought and it ended up not lining up properly. But it looks okay regardless!
I also used press studs instead of button holes because I didn't want to muck it up. I sewed buttons on top to complete the look!

I wore this out the other night with a black dress and it worked really well.

Somehow this photo is upside down...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Gig for the Music Council of Australia

2011-09-11T14:30:00.000+10:00

Last night, I got a wonderful opportunity to play in front of the Music Council of Australia for their cocktail party. They're having their annual assembly here in Canberra.

The DRUMatiX Percussion Ensemble came together and we played Music for Pieces of Wood (Reich) and my ragtime recital piece, Fluffy Ruffles, with my friend Krystle singing. It was great! We got so many compliments, and spoke to the local arts minister, and it was pretty good fun! Free nibblies!

I wore my dress from Melche Shutilforc, with my ruby slippers and a cute blouse underneath. A bit like this!

Why I don't wear dresses so much now.

2011-09-08T23:13:00.001+10:00

Don't worry, I still love dresses a lot and wear them as often as I can. This seems like a bit of a sad post, but it's not really! I'm just trying to sort out my thoughts so that I can start dressing well again.

I think it comes down to three reasons why I don't try so hard now.

1. My work colleagues. Just over a year ago, my supervisor moved away. She was also pretty much my best friend, just a couple of years older than me. We had all three weekly shifts together. We used to browse dress websites, and we both bought this dress from modcloth.com - mine is purple and hers black.

We also both got a robot necklace!

We wore them to work together. So cute! I used to dress up for her a bit. She also used to look at lolita websites with me and tell me what not to get. When she left, I was promoted to supervisor and my friend Yvonne was hired in my place. She's super fashionable, and we used to dress up together. We even started an outfit blog called Professors in Dresses! But then she quit and now I work with two men, one my age and one a lot older than me. I'm not comfortable wearing my frills around them! They're both nice people, but I don't want to draw so much attention to myself when we can't have a dialogue about the fashion. Once I wore boots to work and the older man said I looked like a rock star. Boots! Boots and jeans!

2. I don't go to church as much. Last year there was a bit of a schism at my church and I was so unfortunate to be on the losing side, so there were a lot of hurt feelings and as a result I don't go much anymore. I used to wear my "Sunday best" and enjoy getting compliments from all the lovely old ladies. Now if I do go (and that's like once in a month), I'll probably dress down so that I don't attract so much attention.

3. I got used to Charles not being here. While he was away I didn't dress up as much because I felt like there was no point if he wasn't going to see me. It's just so easy to put on a pair of jeans and a cute blouse or t-shirt! It turns into a habit and you forget how to wear dresses and things. Anyhow Charles has been back for a while now and I'm beginning to wear dresses again. But he's going again in like a month! Sad face!

So what can I do about it? Maybe I'll try a bit harder on a daily basis to wear nice interesting outfits without being over the top. Maybe I should dress up and take outfit photos for Charles even when he's away.

Things have been going really well for me! The other day I did my ragtime recital and I got a high distinction! Thank goodness! I'll write a blog post about it soon!

So I had two of the weirdest dreams last night.

2011-09-04T13:22:00.001+10:00

Dream 1.

I came home to find that my mother was having afternoon tea with April Winchell, who is a reasonably famous American lady who I would love to be friends with. You kind of have to be an internet nerd to know who she is, so I played it cool and pretended I didn't know. She was very pleasant. After the meal she went to the toilet and then started to leave. I saw her out and said "CF4L" or something and she was all excited about me knowing who she was. As she got into her car to leave I noticed she was wearing my handmade hairbow that was in my room. She must have nicked it when she went to the toilet!

"YOU STOLE MY HAIRBOW!!!"

"IT WOULD SELL WELL ON ETSYYYYYYYYYYYYY" as she drove off.

Dream 2.

Charles and I were in Tokyo at some kind of goth club, and we were all wearing awesome goth outfits. It was intense. Then someone came up to me and said "All the goth boys like you the best, Chrissy". How flattering! I was such an awesome goth they all liked me best. Then Charles got all jealous and told them all, "She wears pink underwear with hearts and stars and ponies on them!!". All the goth boys retreated in disgust. I'm not a real goth after all.

26-08-11

2011-08-26T10:23:00.001+10:00

Teaching... My first student didn't show up! I'm expecting my second because he always comes to his lessons. There are exams in the hall so I could only get little instruments. I like using glockenspiel in lessons... It has such a cute sound.

Today is Daffodil Day which raises money for the cancer council. Today when in parked my car a student stood outside my car door and watched me while I put on my coat and then pounced and got me to buy a daffodil. I don't mind buying one... But a little privacy in my own car please!

Today is the first day my fringe has been long enough to pull back into my ponytail (with a bit of hairspray help)! I'm growing it so that I have my options open for my wedding hairstyle. I can cut it then or leave it long! My hair is now halfway down my back. I'm really happy with the length! But now I want to start taking better care of it. Has anyone used the Conditioner Only (CO) washing technique? I think it sounds good! And half the price haha!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Possible reception venue!

2011-08-22T16:53:00.001+10:00

I've been quite stressed with Wedmin (wedding administration, keep up!) recently. I know our nuptials aren't for another year, but I still want to get things ready ASAP so that I can get on with the rest of my life. In particular, the reception venue worries me, because you have to book mega early and they are also super expensive generally. Places usually charge a hire fee, and then a per-head cost, usually above $100. I don't want our parents paying upwards of $10,000 for a party! Since I have never actually possessed more than about $5000 (which was because of a grant and I had to spend it), spending more than twice that for half-a-day's worth of a party is mind-blowing.

When I look in bridal magazines etc., the cheapest featured weddings are about $17000, and the most expensive $60000. What? Am I missing something? My parents are retired. It's too much.

Luckily, I don't want a big 3-course-meal, 400 guest, stage band, Elvis impersonator, red carpet, seat-covers, calligraphy nameplates bonanza. Really! I have never been a big eater so my nerves wouldn't handle a sit down meal too well, and Charles and I tend to get tired of big nighttime booze-up parties, so we have decided on an afternoon tea reception!

Tea, coffee, scones, cakes, sausage rolls, spinach triangles, cheese and dips! Doesn't that sound lovely? I think we've decided where to have it too!

The Oaks Brasserie in Yarralumla looks like it will be a lovely venue. It has a permanent pavilion with a wooden floor and is basically on the lake's edge. There won't be many flowers out at the end of winter, but it's probably the prettiest place in Canberra.

The pavilion all decorated:

The lake view:

Pretty!

Tonight's makeup and hair!

2011-08-20T19:14:00.001+10:00

Tonight I'm going to a farewell so thought I'd go to some effort with my face and hair! Photos are taken with my iPad so aren't the best quality.

I did my hair in a high bun by teasing a high ponytail and pinning a billion times. I curled the side bits :-)

My eyes! Using an electric blue shadow by Rimmel and the Maybelline Give Me Gold pallette.

I'm going to wear my newish little black dress from Cue! This is all a new look for me so I'm excited.

Back home from America! Some outfits.

2011-08-17T10:22:00.001+10:00

I'm finally back from my big trip to America. We had a really great time! First we flew into New York and spent a couple of days there before heading down to Delaware to attend the workshops.

The initial jet lag was pretty brutal. The working day in New York is literally when I want to be sleeping at home. So that was hard. We pushed on and visited Tokyo Rebel which was super nice, and we had fun exploring the city. At Tokyo Rebel I bought a Baby bag, which is really beautiful and practical.

Newark, Delaware, is a university town and is really small. Charles attended the Jazz Vibraphone workshop with Tony Micelli and I went to the Bob Becker Ragtime Xylophone Institute. It was amazing and he was super nice. I was the only person from overseas in my workshop. I was also the oldest, everyone else was not even drinking age! I learnt a lot. The last day of the workshop was a concert, and this is what I wore:

Victorian Maiden Rose Stripe Shirring Dress. That was the only time I wore it.

We rented a car from Hertz and drove up to Boston. What a crazy thing to do! Charles did super well. We stayed with our friends who live north of Boston in a town called Hamilton. It was lovely and green there.

We also drove into Boston city to hang out with some other friends. One friend is also getting married soon and she took me to a wedding dress shop! I couldn't believe how expensive the dresses were - like over $6000. It was interesting anyway.

Next we drove back to New York to stay in Brooklyn. This time in New York we went to Central Park, Tiffany's, and a jazz club called Small's. The only bad thing was that it was so stinking hot in the subways!

Anyway a lovely time was had. Charles and i made headway in our Wedmin too.

I'm in America!

2011-08-01T08:43:00.000+10:00

I'm blogging about my travels at our travel blog: Christina and Charles' Travels. Have a look! So far I like it here but gosh it's hot!
We've been to New York and Newark, DE, and next we'll go to Boston.

Yumetenbo and Wedding Shoes!

2011-07-21T17:44:00.000+10:00

This post is mostly a stream of consciousness and some shoes I like. It has opinions.

So I find most "Bridal Shoes" kind of ugly. I don't really like the satin-covered look. Doing a quick google search of "wedding shoes" and a couple of clicks later I get this:

Which is pretty much an embodiment of all the stuff I hate about wedding shoes. They often seem to have that shape - elongated and pointy at the toe, stiletto heel that's not high, boring back and strap. Not only are these fabric-covered, but also embroidered! Lumpy. Other types are mostly strappy heels, which I also don't like. My toes are not for public display. I suppose these heels would be comfortable, which is a massive plus on a day when you don't want to get sore feet.

I know some women get the shoes covered to match their gowns, and I agree that it's a nice idea. But by the same token, there are lots of amazing normal shoes that I'd love to have for my wedding. Normal shoes might be better because you can actually wear them again. Normal shoes won't be damaged forever if you get them wet or *gasp* muddy.

Ideally, I would like these Baby, The Stars Shine Bright shoes for my wedding. They're the Princess Drop Chandelier shoes or something like that. They're out of stock everywhere. I think I saw them in Paris but never bought them :-( Silly. I love the gold filigree touches. A very elegant shape too.

So today I was browsing Yumetenbo - a site I often browse but have never bought from. It's all in Japanese. Some girls can manage to navigate well enough to buy but I'm not that confident yet. I found some lovely shoes I'd totally wear to my wedding (or anyone else's)! The great thing about this online store is that a lot of the shoes are available in many colours! Click on the pretty pictures to go to the websites!

Probably these would be good in beige or white, depending on the dress colour. I love double straps - super cute.

Just simple Mary-Jane pumps. SO MANY COLOURS. These would go with any outfit.

I love these. So simple and elegant. The bow is detachable so you can wear them as normal pumps or as cutie cute cute pumps!

And inevitably I start looking at other kinds of shoes...

These have an interesting wedge heel. I think it's totally weird but also awesome! Plus, more double strap action! I'd get it in pink or in spots!

These shoes are just gorgeous. I'd be almost as tall as Charles in these! I love the red shoes best. Most of my wardrobe is red or black.

Oh dear! It just occurred to me! Maybe I just love the shoes because the models are so cute! Look at them! Awwwwww!

Ding Dong The Bells Are Going To Chime!

2011-07-16T23:43:00.000+10:00

Charles and I are now officially engaged!

Yay!

Although we both knew for a long time we'd get married, we have started telling people. Everyone has been very kind and happy for us, so it's been wonderful. Today we received two engagement cards and a vase of beautiful flowers!

We will wait until we've both finished our studies. For me that's the end of this year (with a bit of luck) and for Charles that's June next year. So there is plenty of time to plan, and as my parents and married friends have assured me, I have to start planning NOW.

This post is just some inspiration pictures really. I like dresses and would like a knee-length dress, because I'm young and short. Does that make sense? Pictures.

The skirt is quite nice here. Not fond of the bodice though.

I just like this picture.

Can't remember where this is from but it's an antique dress and I like the bodice.

Yes, Milanoo! I wouldn't buy from there but they have thousands of pictures of wedding dresses. I like this one particularly.

I adore these shoes from Baby. Unfortunately I only found them when they were out of stock!

Melissa shoes. Always nice.

Victorian Maiden lace gloves. Not a necessity.

Victorian Maiden hair clip.

Pearls!

Victorian Maiden hair clip.

Yellow and pink flowers!

The following four photos are from a cute little exhibition held at my church last week. It was the Women's Fellowship's annual lunch party and they had a wedding dress exhibition with about 16 dresses. This was my absolute favourite, from the thirties! Sorry the photos are blurry, I didn't use flash and was too excited to hold the camera still.

I love the buttons down the front. It's not the opening but it's a nice detail. I'd like this bodice but lower cut.

My lacemaking teacher thinks that the lace was made specially for the dress, as it curves out at the front perfectly and forms a beautiful train.

The skirt doesn't even need a hoop because it's held out with stiff tulle.

That's it so far! I'll post photos from everything I do about it from now. Of course that won't be much for a while because we have a long time to go, and lots of other stuff to keep us busy.

Refining my Wardrobe

2011-07-15T10:14:00.001+10:00

Every few months I go through my wardrobe and toss out a whole lot of clothes, thinking "why on earth did I ever wear that?" Even to clothes I used to love and wear all the time! I guess fashions change, and my taste changes all the time.

Despite this, there are some clothes that I've always loved, and I can't see ever going out of fashion. My lolita clothes are all classic style - predominantly Victorian Maiden or cheap offbrand (KidsYoYo, Infanta, R-Series). Since the Classic Lolita style is based on vintage fashions anyway, it's not going to go out of fashion - it's never actually in mainstream fashion - but rather it's just going to get more vintage-looking, which is the aim in the first place. I've seen photos of old (well, 2002 old) Victorian Maiden and Mary Magdalene dresses on HelloLace, and those dresses are very similar to the current ones - meaning that they only refine the fashion, and don't really change the basics that much.

A little comparison! (Photos from HelloLace.com)

Victorian Maiden Rococo Boquet Dress from 2001

And Victorian Maiden Rococo Something dress from 2011

Probably a bit TOO similar for being a decade apart. Be more creative VM!

I'm sure a lot of girls feel the same way about their latest sweet styled Angelic Pretty print - but I honestly can't see those dresses standing the test of time. They're too pastel, too bright, and when those things go out of fashion they'll have to find something new. I guess that's exciting too, always being on the cusp of fashion!

An interesting observation is that older Angelic Pretty dresses are more classic in style than current Angelic Pretty dresses. The brand has changed so much! Who's to say it won't swing back to Classic, or to something else entirely?

2001 Angelic Pretty dress (back then it was just Pretty)

Isn't that lovely!? I hope they start making this style again, it's just gorgeous.

So here's a few items that I can't imagine not having in my wardrobe:

ALL my VM stuff - 2 skirts, 2 blouses, 2 one-pieces and two jumperskirts. All 100% gorgeous and never going out of style, all make me feel amazing.

A white short sleeved blouse - looks good under dresses, over skirts and jeans, under jumpers and cardigans.

Skinny jeans (not TOO skinny - need to breathe). Can be worn with boots or heels for a glam look or just casually.

Cardigans - for me, they must be long sleeved, scoop necked, and just above hip length. So you can show off a blouse underneath and wear a skirt without it looking weird. I hate 3/4 length sleeves and I don't see the point of short sleeved cardigans.

Businesslike knee skirt - this will never go out of fashion. Charles bought mine for me in about 2005 and it's still wonderful. It's a grey wool tartan pencil skirt from Oxford!

Warm casual clothes to snuggle in at home - it's so cold here in Winter, currently it's only about 4 degrees! My house is not centrally heated so I need a big fluffy coat.

Black tights - go with everything. Wear them under jeans for warmth and under skirts for class.

A nice cropped jacket - I have a great red one that cost me about $10 somewhere years ago. Currently sewing myself a new blue one (fingers crossed!). The one pictured is from Vivienne Westwood.

And SHOES of course!

Apart from those, I think everything else in my wardrobe comes and goes with fashions and tastes. It would be wonderful to have a wardrobe filled only with things I can see myself in forever - but that's unattainable. You need to have expendable things like t-shirts and converse and hoodies and summer dresses. Life would be boring without all the choice!

What couldn't you live without in your wardrobe?

My Etsy is up!

2011-07-02T17:24:00.001+10:00

Yesterday Charles and I took photos of my collars and today I put them all into my Etsy shop!

Please go and have a browse and let me know what you think!

Christina's Cute Things on Etsy

ABC of me!

2011-06-30T12:46:00.002+10:00

I saw this cute little meme on a blog recently and thought I'd try!

A. Age: 24 as of yesterday! Yay it was my birthday!
B. Bed size: Single.
C. Chore you hate: Cutting my toenails. Not really a chore but I hate doing it. My tootsies get cold!
D. Day: I like Saturdays!
E. Essential start to your day: Cup of black sweet tea!
F. Favourite colour: Maybe some kind of red?
G. Gold or Silver: Both are good for different looks!
H. Height: 163cm
I. Instruments: Percussion and piano.
J. Job title: Library Girl, Percussion Teacher.
K. Kids: 0
L. Live: Canberra with my parents
M. Mum’s name: Same as my middle name - Elizabeth!
N. Nicknames: Chrissy.
O. Overnight hospital stays: Never really overnight, but I've been AT night.
P. Pet peeve: No shoes. Just wear shoes! It's totally gross. I don't want to look at your feet.
Q. Quote from a movie: What the flip are you looking at?
R. Right or left handed: Left
S. Siblings: 1 older brother and a sister-in-law
T. Time you wake up: Whenever I have to! Usually around 8am.
U. Underwear: What? I wear underwear.
V. Vegetables you dislike: Olives? Are they vegetables? Anyhow they're gross. I also don't like pineapple, but that is what I call a *fruit*.
W. What makes you run late: Charles.
X. X-Rays you’ve had: Just on my jaw to figure out my stupid wisdom teeth. Why are "Wisdom" teeth so dumb? Always causing problems.
Y. Yummy food you make: I make a pretty good chocolate cake!
Z. Zoo: What does thes question even mean. The last time I went was about 10 years ago and I liked the penguins.

In Other News...
My lovely boyfriend Charles has been fixing up my blog and my etsy so that they look nice! There is a link to my Etsy shop which has nothing in it at the moment, but I will update with cute goodies soon. We're going to do some photo-shooting this afternoon or tomorrow so that I have cute product photos!
I'm considering changing my blog name (and address)... "Saturday's Specimen" sounded cute when I was 19 but now it sounds a bit medical. What do you think? I'd have to find a nice cute name to call my blog!

Mary Magdalene Survey

2011-06-21T20:38:00.004+10:00

While looking at La Vie Classique recently, I came across this survey from Mary Magdalene. They have released pictures of their releases and requested that people fill in a survey to indicate which ones they would like re-released.

Of course, I filled it in with the help of Google Translate, indicating that they release the Muriel Jacket (ミュリエルジャケット) again in cream! I really hope they do because I've pined after that particular jacket for a loooong time. I just copied and pasted the name of the item in Japanese from the huge list of products.

Here are some instructions for filling out the survey, which I found from a lovely Livejournal member on La Vie Classique. If you run out of things to request, why don't you put in a request for the Muriel Jacket to help in my quest?? I hope everyone gets what they desire from this little opportunity!

Click "こちら" where it says "パソコンからのアンケートフォームはこちら" (Click "here" where it says "for computer")

Then:

1) Click "ID登録していない" (Non-registered ID)

2) 姓 = last name / 名 = first name

3) Email

4) Email, again

5) Don't do anything for this one

6) 第一希望 = Name of the item you want

7) 希望カラー = colour you want of the item you stated above (optional)

8) 第二希望 = Another item that you want (optional)

9) 希望カラー = Colour you want for the item above (optional)

10) 第三希望 = third item you want (optional)

11) 希望カラー = colour you want for the item above (optional)

12) その他 = miscellaneous comments (optional)

Love and Hate

2011-06-13T11:18:00.001+10:00

Things I love and hate about Lolita

Warning: opinions ahead.

Love

1. Victorian Maiden. When I became interested in Lolita fashion I didn't really know anything about brands. I saw Kamikaze Girls and then knew about Baby, and when I went to Japan I learnt about Angelic Pretty and Bodyline. But through looking at EGL and the blogs, I found Victorian Maiden. I fell in love! Such beautiful detailing and such a cute model! I just adore the Classic Lolita style. It's much more wearable than any other style and it just appeals to my sensibilities so much. Victorian Maiden does Classic Lolita so well!

2. Stepping out with my baby. I am quite shy and don't like dressing over-the-top when I'm with friends or by myself. But when I'm with my boyfriend I love dressing up. He always wears lovely clothes and I love walking together arm-in-arm knowing that we both look great and that we deserve each other. I feel proud when I'm in my best with him.

3. Deco Alice A La Mode.

I found this magazine in Japan and now have the first 5! It's such a creative magazine, mixing up the style like nothing I've seen before or since. They dress their models in Lolita styles with a dose of Deco and it turns out looking amazing. I don't know if I could pull off these looks but the models look so natural and crazy and playful and fantastic!

4. Getting a dress in the post. It's a rare treat, but so lovely when it happens! The delivery guy comes to the door, and he has no idea what wonderful things the box holds, but I know that it holds a beautiful blouse that I've been planning how to co-ordinate for months! I love carefully undoing the sticky tape. I especially love it when the seller includes a note or a gift! Then pulling the dress out of the box and gasping in delight at how gorgeous the fabric is! It's always so luxurious! Then running to my room, throwing my clothes in a pile and carefully stepping into my new delight. I go through all my shoes, trying them all until I find the ones that look the best. Which tights will work with this dress and shoes? How will I wear my hair? Such fun!

5. Blogs. I love looking at Lolita blogs. I love looking at sewing posts, purchase posts, reviews, essays, advice. Sometimes they do say dumb stuff, and often they copy each other and repeat themselves (here I am doing a lolita meme), but generally I love looking at them. I particularly love well-done outfit posts and DIY posts.

6. Brand loyalty. It's just wonderful loving the brand you love. When girls wear their brand they wear it with such pride! People get so excited and thrilled when their brand releases new items! It's a lovely happy kind of feeling. Wearing a different brand just doesn't feel the same!

Similar to this is model loyalty. There was such an uproar when Innocent World changed their model to a new one who looked almost the same except a bit shorter and wider. I got really anxious recently when there was a new VM model on some items, but it's okay, the old model is still being used on the newest items. Phew. She's so cute!!

7. Stereotypical "lolita" interests. I love it because all of those "lolita" interests I was already interested in before I started wearing the clothes! I love classical music, sewing my own clothes, crochet, embroidery, tea, cakes, fashion, Japan, and reading. They're just typical "Christina" interests that just so happen to go with my fashion. Plus I love being polite and kind, which are attributes that a lolita is "supposed" to have, but it seems like a normal proportion actually possess.

8. Communities. Not that I actually interact much, and my local group doesn't have meetups often (the last one was nearly a year ago haha). But I love that on EGL and Sew_Loli and Daily_Lolita, people can ask questions and get honest answers, and people can have discussions and learn about the fashion. My favourite community is, of course, La Vie Classique, because people post when Classic Lolita brands have new releases, and when people are selling some Classic stuff. I also love the EGL Sales Community. It's hard for me to get bargains (everything's in America and there's a time difference, always asleep when the good things get sold!) but it's always interesting to have a look!

9. Lolita Secrets. Guilty pleasure! Some of the secrets are sad and some are nasty, but I'm always on the lookout for the secrets that crack me up. For example:

I saw this great secret this week about classic lolitas being like hipsters, and it was hilarious to look at all the rage that happened in the comments!

I thought it was cute to call us hipsters. We are! Some people were just SO OFFENDED!

10. It's so girly! Nobody is ever going to accidentally call me "sir" while I'm in my finery! (Not that it's ever happened…). It's just an excuse for me to indulge my girlishness and be as cute as possible!

Hate

1. The clothes are sometimes impractical. I do love being comfortable, and most Lolita clothes are just not. High collared blouses look great on me, but make me feel like I'm choking. Corset lacing looks gorgeous, but can be restrictive no matter how loosely you tie it. Shirring makes me feel uncomfortably tight around the middle. Petticoats are hard to function in. It's hard to go to the toilet in Lolita. It's stressful when you put so much into your outfit, because then you feel you have to be super careful not to wreck it. The fabric is often thick and hot. Corsets are ridiculously uncomfortable. Etc.

2. Angelic Pretty. Sorry everyone but I actually don't like anything this brand has ever produced. The colours are often sickening - gross greens and pinks that are just not classy. All their dresses have that gross lacing and shirring in the back that looks messy They all have horrible fronts with bows and lace all over them. Completely over-the-top and unflattering on any body.

3. Bad grammar and spelling on the blogs. What a silly thing to get so worked up over! But it is so widespread it's kind of depressing. People use way more apostrophes than necessary. Even if you're using a plural acronym, don't put in a rogue apostrophe! e.g CDs is correct, CD's is not. Apostrophes are to indicate ownership and contractions.

Another thing I've noticed recently is blogs that use incorrect sayings. Like, "for the time bean", or "for all intensive purposes". It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad.

4. People who don't appreciate it. I'm a musician studying performance. Occasionally, we do a concert where we get to wear "smart casual". Last time that happened, my teacher put in a word for me saying "Don't wear any of your floofy tutu dresses". Several things: as if I would dress inappropriately anyhow; and my petticoats are of the A-line, classic silhouette - nothing like a tutu. Imagine if I were a Sweet Lolita. He would wet his pants.

5. The emphasis on beauty can be exhausting and depressing. There are so many beautiful lolita bloggers. They always have perfectly coiffed hair and false eyelashes and are so lovely. I just can't achieve that look and it's depressing trying. My face just doesn't look like theirs! I suppose they take ages doing their hair and makeup and only put up the good photos.

6. Tea Party Shoes, in fact most lolita shoes.

Tea party shoes are super flat and wide, and are completely inelegant. I'm sure they're very comfy and easy to walk in. But, being quite a short person, I really need heels to not look like a child. Tea party shoes make legs look stumpy and dresses look too long. However! They are pretty cute and are more appropriate for tall girls, and do achieve a certain look. But SO NOT FOR ME.

7. The 'rules' and people who are bossy about them. I think it should be completely up to the individual how they wear their own clothes, and constructive criticism can be offered but can also be ignored. If it's hot, don't wear bloomers or a blouse underneath your dress. If you like, wear sneakers. I sometimes think that blouses under dresses look a bit school-marm-ish anyhow, and bloomers are a bit of overkill really. But - that's okay too! I don't like high-horses much, even though I suppose I get on one sometimes.

8. Everyone's so young! This really does get me down. I discovered Lolita somewhat late - when I was about 21. Everyone else seems to still be a teenager. I can never achieve that kind of youthful beauty because I'm just not that youthful anymore. However, I can still wear great clothes and feel good about them. And I'm by no means old!

9. Cyber bullying. Apparently people suffer from this? I've never been a victim because I don't really put myself out there to be attacked, but even if I did… would I get so upset about it? Maybe not. People only bully to upset you, so if you don't get upset, they won't bully right? Maybe? I don't know. It's awful anyhow.

10. I feel guilty about some of my purchases. I don't have nearly as big a wardrobe as many girls. But I do have quite a collection of VM now and I feel kind of guilty! I should be saving up for other things. I hate feeling guilty.

That's it! How depressing to end with some hate! Here's another thing I love then:

11. The exquisite detail on my dresses. Lace trim, ruffles around the collar, a delicate print, sweet waist ties, and silky lining. It all goes towards making your dress a piece of luxury that you are happy to wear.

Yay dresses!

Beauty Minerals Eye Cream and Exfoliating Scrub reviews!

2011-06-06T18:43:00.000+10:00

Oh man! I am SO CHEESED OFF.

So! Many months ago now, I blogged about how the Beauty Minerals salesgirl sweet-talked me into buying $150 worth of products from her little stall in the middle of the shopping centre. That $150 only bought me 2 products - the eye cream and the exfoliating face scrub. Both claim to have minerals from the Dead Sea which makes them super amazing for your skin (the science says, just because).
I've been using the exfoliating scrub for ages, whenever I have the time to do so, but only just started with the eye cream as I only just finished my previous stuff.
Here are my reviews (click the links to go to the Beauty Minerals product page):

Exfoliating scrub (the one I got is not on the site any more, but this one is similar).
The directions are as follows: Apply to face and neck in a thin layer, leave for 15 minutes, and then rub it off in circular motions. When you rub it off, it actually feels like it's exfoliating your face, and it comes off like eraser rubbings. Do this over the sink! Afterwards, your face really does feel smooth and fresh. It's a lovely feeling! I really like this product.
Packaging: Comes in a nice little glass jar with a screw top lid. Easy to access the product.
Product: It's like a creamy moisturiser with little bits in it - the apricot grains. That's what is the exfoliating agent. It smells really nice! Super easy to apply.
Amount: A pretty good amount! You don't need too much to apply all over your face, so it will last ages.
Effect: Great! It really leaves my skin feeling clean, exfoliated, moisturised, and soft.
Price: RIDICULOUS.

Eye cream (This is what I'm so cheesed off about.)
The directions are as follows: Pat around the eye area. Easy!
This eye cream claims to do a whole lot of things: reduce dark circles and puffiness, stop wrinkles forming, cleanse pores, etc.
Packaging: Again, in a little jar, smaller than the other. Not the best packaging for an eye cream, where you are aiming to get a very little amount on your finger.
Product: It's very thick, for an eye cream. More like cheese than cream. Very difficult to get a small amount on your finger, due to viscosity and packaging.
Amount: You get a good amount, it would last a long while.
Effect: I've only used this for two nights. It's irritated my eyes so much they've been watering and burning all night. I've hardly slept at all! So it has NOT reduced dark circles and puffiness, because I've been awake all night crying basically! I'm really upset by this stuff. It felt like there was acid in my eyes and I couldn't wash it out. By morning I had cried most of it out. I don't even know why I used it twice!
Price: RIDICULOUS.

That's my review! One very positive, one very negative. I have sensitive skin!

Nivea Q10 Night Creme and Eye Creme review!

2011-06-03T18:41:00.002+10:00

In my constant quest to find a product that lessens or eliminates my dark under eye circles, I came across the Nivea Q10 range. I bought the night cream and the eye cream. I know that Nivea spells it 'Creme' but we all know that they only do that because it's fashionable, and it's not actually how you spell cream. This is what the Eye Cream blurb says:

With age, skin loses its ability to produce energy deep within the skin's cells. As a result, wrinkles appear and deeper wrinkles are further accentuated.

Now enriched with twice the amount of skin’s own CoEnzyme Q10 as part of a high performing Anti-Wrinkle System, NIVEA VISAGE Q10 PLUS Advanced Wrinkle Reducer Eye Creme activates skin’s energy metabolism from within thereby continuously fighting wrinkles in the deeper layers of the skin’s surface. The fragrance-free light, caring formula is easy to apply and quickly absorbed.

Result:

Appearance of dark under-eye circles is minimized.
Fine lines are visibly reduced within hours.
Mimic wrinkles are visibly minimized within3 weeks.
Deeper wrinkles are visibly reduced in only 4 weeks.

And the night cream adds:

During the night, when skin is most receptive for moisture intake, the intensively moisturizing formula replenishes & regenerates skin most effectively from daily stress for soft & supple skin in the morning.

So! It says that appearance of dark under-eye circles is minimised. I'd like that! So I started applying both products every night. Here's what I thought of them:

Packaging: Win. The night cream comes in a lovely little glass jar which made it easy to get out. It's also blue! The eye cream comes in a squeeze tube. Easy to get out but hard to get the dregs at the end. A bit like a tube of toothpaste.

Amount: Win. They both lasted me about 4 months, with the eye cream lasting longer by a few weeks. That's a pretty long time, and I am fairly generous when I apply this kind of thing. I want it to WORK dammit!

Dark under-eye circles: No effect. The only reason it would make your dark circles diminish is because the cream is white. It doesn't actually DO anything to your skin colour or anything. People still told me I look tired.

Fine lines: No effect. I have fine lines around my eyes - have done my whole life* - and almost have some on my forehead. While these creams didn't promote wrinkles, I also didn't find them diminishing, even after 4 weeks as advertised.

Moisturiser: This is such a good moisturiser! If you want a great luxurious moisturiser, then this is the stuff. It's thick and absorbs well and really does leave your skin soft and velvety smooth. The reason I stuck with this stuff for so long even after it had no effect on fine lines or dark circles was because it was such a great moisturiser.

Price: A bit pricey I guess. I think it was around the $25 mark for the night cream and $12 for the eye stuff. It would be more worth it if it actually worked.

Originally I tried Olay's product range, but it always burnt my skin. Nivea doesn't irritate at all. All in all, a really nice moisturiser! I would buy again - but after I finish using my next trial run! Now I'm using Beauty Minerals eye cream for a while! Review to come!

*When I was in year 7 I went to a friend's sleepover and we did each other's makeup, and the girl who did my eyes said "you have really wrinkly eyes." I thought it was such an insensitive thing to say, and it's really stuck with me. People don't realise that the things they say can make such a huge impact for a lifetime.

30 Day Lolita Challenge

2011-05-27T18:47:00.001+10:00

I saw this post on Millions of Bows for those who want to blog about Lolita stuff but aren't sure what to blog about. This is the list of topics:

Day 1 – 10 things about your lolita bubble.

Day 2 – 10 things you love in lolita.

Day 3 – 10 things you hate in lolita.

Day 4 – 10 different kinds of food you like.

Day 5 – 10 items from your wishlist.

Day 6 – 10 things you can’t live without in lolita.

Day 7 – 10 people who inspire your lolita style.

Day 8 – 10 songs that inspire you for lolita.

Day 9 – 10 things you will never do in lolita.

Day 10 – What’s in your bag?

Day 11 – One day in your lolita life in pictures.

Day 12 – A picture of yourself before lolita came in to your life.

Day 13 – A picture of your favorite sweets.

Day 14 – A picture of your dream item.

Day 15 – A picture of your last lolita purchase.

Day 16 – Your outfit for the day.

Day 17 – What do you want more then anything right now?

Day 18 – A picture of your favorite lolita style.

Day 19 – What’s in your make-up bag?

Day 20 – A picture of a lolita friend.

Day 21 – Your favorite fictional lolita.

Day 22 – A picture of your room.

Day 23 – A picture of your handwriting.

Day 24 – A picture of you from a meet.

Day 25 – Your favorite lolita themed artwork.

Day 26 – Your Facebook profile picture.

Day 27 – One song that fits your favorite lolita style.

Day 28 – A picture of the perfect lolita location.

Day 29 – A picture of a lolita you would love to meet for real.

Day 30 – A photo of yourself taken today and 3 good things that’s happened over the last 30 days.

Now, I'm not too keen on doing a few of these because some of them seem a little boring, or are things I could literally only write one sentence about. So I'm not going to post about a picture of my handwriting, or my favourite fictional lolita (everyone's is going to be that chick from Kamikaze Girls anyhow - although now there's Deka Wanko too).

Another thing is that I'm not one of those "lifestyle" lolitas. I like reading the blags and I like wearing pretty dresses, but I'm not super heavily into the culture and I don't do things like wear false eyelashes or do pincurls. I like going to the occasional meetup but don't like wearing knee-high socks or nail art.

Despite my shortcomings as a Lolita, this is a good list of things that I can blog about from time to time. I've edited the list quite a bit, but here are some posts I'm going to try to complete over the next few weeks:

About my lolita bubble (whatever the heck a bubble is)

Things I love and hate in Lolita

Favourite foods

Another wishlist post

Inspirational people

Favourite songs

What’s in my bag?

A picture of my last lolita purchase

Your outfit for the day

A picture of my favorite lolita style

What’s in my make-up bag?

A picture of me from a meet.

A picture of a person I would love to meet for real.

A lot of this depends on having a good camera or a good friend to take photos for me and - yay - Charles is coming back in 12 days! Unfortunately, I'm going to be super busy for the few days surrounding his arrival, but that's okay, because he'll be there for me to come home to! Anyhow he has a good camera and will probably take photos for me because he's a sweetheart.

Yay blogs! I've been reading other girls' blogs following this list and seems nobody else knows what a "bubble" is either. Huh.

Music for 18 Musicians

2011-05-22T19:34:00.000+10:00

(Photo from the 2004 version)

For the past few months, our ANU Percussion Ensemble (DRUMatiX) and some other ANU instrumentalists have been rehearsing Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich. We finally performed it today at the Fitters Workshop as the grand finale of the Canberra International Music Festival.

I personally have fond memories associated with Music for 18 Musicians. It was performed by the DRUMatiX back in 2004 when Charles was in first year and I was still in year 11 (See above photo from GaryFrance.com). It was in a concert with lots of pieces, and I went to see Charles perform mostly. He wasn't in 18 Musicians so we could sit and watch it together. It blew my mind! That was my first Reich exposure.

It's a piece with lots of instruments: 3 marimbas, 2 xylophones, vibraphone, 4 pianos, 4 singers, 2 bass clarinets, a violin and a cello. It's a minimalist piece with not much in the way of melody, so I would call it a sound work rather than a regular instrumental piece. It's exploring the different sounds that the combinations of instruments and harmonies can create, in a very repetitive and mesmerising way.

I was the Xylophone 1 player - that meant I had the easy part of playing on the beat while my friend the Xylo 2 player had to play off the beats. Difficult for her!

Today it was kind of cold in the venue so I wore my cardigan - but that turned out to be a huge mistake! I got extremely hot playing and almost died. I managed to take off my cardigan in a resting part and felt better. The piece itself went very well indeed! All the wonky bits went very smoothly. We got a standing ovation and each got a flower.

The performance was in the Fitters Workshop in Kingston. There has been a lot of fuss recently in Canberra about that venue, because it is going to be scrapped as a music venue and turned into a gallery or something. Musicians from all around are throwing hissy fits because they claim that it's a wonderful venue for music, acoustically and visually. There have been petitions and letters to the paper and blogs and speeches. I agree that it's okay acoustically (if you're a singer or a solo guitarist or something) but the problems associated with performing there outweigh the benefits. Charles wrote a great blog about it recently, and I have some thoughts to add to his.

(Fitters Workshop, Kingston. Basically a barn.)

I've been rehearsing and performing there on and off for over two weeks now. And I have to say it's one of the more unpleasant places to play in Canberra. During the day, the sun shines in the giant windows and blinds everyone - players, audience - and also is really hot on whoever it hits. At night, it becomes super cold and the drums all tighten up.

All the venue is, is a hall. Everything else has to be provided - toilets, seating, heating, lighting, ushers, even the stage needs to be brought. There's no backstage area and no foyer. No toilets, you guys!!

Why do people like it so much? It's trendy because it's in Kingston, the venue has an arty sort of history, it's next to the Glassworks and the Markets (two very fashionable places to be seen), it's nice to look at, it has free parking, and it's cheap to hire. Oh, and apparently it has a nice acoustic. When rehearsing 18 Musicians in the venue, we've been having enormous trouble hearing each other from just metres away. The sound is good out in the audience, but it's extremely difficult to stay in time.

So in short: today they had a petition to save the Fitter's Workshop and I didn't sign it.

Here is the link to some Photos! All photos by Greg Marginson.

Me before I took my cardigan off! I had a hot flush! But I played very well nevertheless!

Christina Style Evolution! Photo diary.

2011-05-20T14:04:00.001+10:00

I used to be an absolute dag. I didn't care about clothes or appearance at all. My clothes were all bought for me, and although my mum is extremely stylish, I was fairly stubborn. I refused to wear skirts or the colour pink. I just didn't care. When boys started coming on the scene though (well, the one and only boy) I started to pay more attention to how I looked. Problem was, I still didn't have much taste! My favourite item of clothing was a pair green wide-leg trousers with patches on the knees and embroidery on the pocket. You would never catch me in high heels!

I continued being a total dag for many years. I had (and still have!) a boyfriend who loved me anyway, and I could scrub up all right if I made an effort. I had grown some taste in fashion but still didn't put much effort in on a daily basis. Cardigans and jeans daily. Gross hair. Weird t-shirts.

When I went to Japan at the end of 2008, it was a real eye-opener. There are seriously NO dags in Japan. When I look at my trip photos, my evolution over those 3 weeks is astounding. I discovered Lolita, having never really considered it before, and bought my first blouse and skirt from Bodyline (the blouse was so ita I reconstructed it last year, but the skirt is still a winner). I also bought a buttload of magazines (hair, lolita, regular fashion) and clothes and a really nice winter coat, makeup, plus a couple of pairs of shoes. I even got a cute haircut with a fringe! I think that going out every day and seeing how beautifully people were dressed made me want to fit in, that really did it for me. At home in Canberra it's okay to be a dag! In Japan it's not done.

So on my return I started trying harder to look good. I started wearing skirts with tights instead of only jeans, and I kept my hair looking much nicer. My second trip to Japan really cemented my idea of how to dress well. I'm not saying that I dress perfectly now, or that my style won't change at all. It's constantly changing! All I'm saying is that now I'm way more aware of how I dress and look.

Here's my style evolution over the last few years in 9 photos!

This is probably from about 2007. Walking my beautiful dog in a TERRIBLE coord.

Getting off the plane in Japan - our first trip! End of 2008.

In Akihabara - nice new coat, scarf and haircut.

Home again and trying to make a cute skirt! Early 2009. That's my Bodyline shirt pre-modifications.

Japan trip no. 2 at the end of 2009! At a cafe post-haircut. I just like the haircuts I get in Japan!

Looks like I bought a beret! First photo of me in tights and a skirt.

First shopping service purchase - my favourite dress, the Adele Bustier dress. Early last year my man friend.

Late last year, going to see Bill Bailey.

Early this year in Sweden, wearing my new Milk dress! Quite a change from the first photo, but more casual than most of my other recent photos.

Well! This blog is kind of embarrassing!

Mother's Day

2011-05-17T13:42:00.000+10:00

Unfortunately on Mother's Day I had a concert and couldn't spend much time with my mum, but this is what I bought her!

My mum is very fond of Royal Albert china. This particular jug was released as part of the 100 Years of Royal Albert collectors items, and I think the print is called Country Roses.

Aww it has a little rose on the handle!

You can look at more beautiful Royal Albert and Royal Doulton china here.

Photo from the radio peeps!

2011-05-16T15:29:00.000+10:00

Last Thursday, some lovely chaps from ABC Canberra's local radio station came and did some interviewing, recording, and photographing of a rehearsal for the Harrison Organ Concerto.

Here's the link to the page on the Triple 6 website - Clicky!

They took a great photo of me playing my boxes (and a bass drum):

These are boxes that my dad hand crafted according to instructions in the score. They took him ages and ages to make! They are cubes, 21", 16" and 11" (not that I usually use Imperial, but that was the specification). The striking surface of each cube is a thinner gauge plywood. It took a lot of calculations and measurements and tricky pre-drilling of holes, but we made them and then my mum varnished them. Aren't they good?

My dad is the best.

Yay craft!

2 Concerts on Friday!

2011-05-15T14:06:00.000+10:00

It was a dark and stormy night... on Friday the 13th...

On Friday the percussion ensemble met at uni at 9am to begin our giant day of concerts. We had two to perform in the one day - one in the High Court, and one in Albert Hall.

Each concert was to use a giant percussion setup, none of which overlapped at all. We hired a truck and started packing for the first concert, which needed lots of cymbals, two marimbas, two vibraphones, and a giant tam tam, amongst other things. We played that first concert with Synergy Percussion, which was fun. They played a great piece called Good Medicine which I really liked.

After that concert, we packed up all our stuff and shoved on over to Albert Hall. Gary took some boys in the truck back to uni to get the rest of the gear (sooooo much stuff...) and left us girls to set up what was left. Eventually everything was there and we set up for the concert.

It sounds so easy when I write it down! It was super exhausting.

Then we played the concert, with a huge re-set in the middle. Photos:

This is the first piece we did, you can juuuust see me in the back there. This was the Lou Harrison Organ Concerto we played with the amazing organist Calvin Bowman. It says on the website it was with Synergy, but it was NOT. Every time it says "DRUMatiX", that's us!

Next piece: Carmen, as arranged for small string orchestra and percussion ensemble. More gear!

After the concert, the organiser said "We need to have the stage clear in 20 minutes... there's another concert on" so we had to run around like hairy goats trying to pack everything down. Then it was back to uni to put everything back! Two truck trips!

So we eventually got to leave at about 10:30pm after starting at 9am that day. Long day! But it was good fun to be with my percussion friends all day!

Lego cake!

2011-05-10T17:07:00.000+10:00

My friend had his 21st birthday party the other night and we threw him a surprise party with a Lego theme! He's really into Lego, which is awesome, because Lego is the BEST TOY EVER.

I was given the task of a Lego birthday cake. I'd seen a few on the internet which looked amazing, but mostly used fondant icing which I don't like. So I made do with buttercream icing (sooo delicious - I always make too much on purpose).

First I baked two vanilla cakes - a rectangular loaf cake and a square cake. I cut them into pieces, after planning it out. I made a 2x4 block, a square 2x2 block, and two 2x1 blocks.

Here are the bits of cake prior to putting the knobs on. That pile at the back is my offcuts!

Nobbly bits cut out of cake. They were a bit uneven but that's what happens when you're not a baker.

Finished product! Looks a bit homemade, because I had trouble with the icing not wanting to stick to the cake. But gosh it tasted delicious!

I like making themed birthday cakes! The birthday person is always so thrilled!

Pics from yesterday's concert!

2011-05-09T11:23:00.000+10:00

All photos are by Peter Hislop.

The stage setup. Pretty cool!

Percussion crew with Peter Sculthorpe. Bryce Leske, Jonathan Griffiths, me (Christina Hopgood), Peter Sculthorpe, Cary Finlay.

Canberra International Music Festival - Concert 1!

2011-05-08T18:57:00.000+10:00

Today I played in the first concert of the Canberra International Music Festival. It was mostly a choral concert, but one piece had 4 percussion as well. It was the three first-year boys and me. My teacher wanted me to be principal percussionist as a learning experience. I felt like I was their mother.

The piece we were in was Requiem by Peter Sculthorpe, a renowned Australian composer. It was for a large SATB choir, timpani, 3 percussionists, organ, and didgeridoo. The choral parts were fairly straightforward - lots of "kyrie eleison" and "sanctus" and stuff. Percussion parts were nice and easy and we worked them up well in only one rehearsal.

The composer, Peter Sculthorpe, was there for the concert and made a little speech too. He's a really old lovely man, and quite famous. My workplace, the ANU Music Library, has so many Sculthorpe scores. People love it.

As Principal Percussionist (or maybe just as the one with a car) I was the driver for the boys - that meant a lot of driving over the last few days. I also made sandwiches for them today. Once, I made a musical suggestion to one of them. And that's how you be a section leader!

Lots more concerts coming up for the festival too. On Friday we have 2 big concerts on the same day and then we have another in a couple of weeks. It means lots of rehearsals and lots of packing and unpacking trucks full of percussion!

Jacket work in progress!

2011-05-04T13:09:00.000+10:00

The other week, Vogue patterns were 40% off at Spotlight for VIP members, so mum and I hurried off to have a look!

I intended to buy some of the vintage Vogue patterns but they were all a bit ho-hum. I ended up getting this pattern for a jacket, dress, pants, and skirt. Find it online here!

I got it for the jacket, but I also really like the dress! The pants and skirt are super boring.

I also bought some of the lovely blue tartan fabric you see in the background. My intention is to make a jacket similar to this Vivienne Westwood one! In blue, obviously!

It is pretty similar to the pattern!

This is pinning pattern pieces. I have to be super careful to line up the pattern on the fabric or I'll end up with a weird looking jacket. A lot of thinking was involved in placement of pattern pieces!

It was long.

I'm terrified to start sewing! This will be the most complicated project I've ever started. I have lining, facing, interfacing... gosh! But I'm looking forward to having a rad jacket!

Concerto is done!

2011-05-02T11:05:00.000+10:00

Well last Friday I finally performed my concerto. Thank goodness it's over! It was video recorded (unfortunately the video was small and cut out my lovely accompanist!) and I uploaded it to youtube.

It went well! I did fluff some bits and I did make some bits easier for myself (by taking it at a slightly slower tempo etc.). But the most important thing is the music, and communicating that to the audience.

More than being just a performance, it was actually an exam worth about 25% of my final Honours mark. I had three panel members! I was nervous!

It was really wonderful that so many friends came to see me play. Even though I feel lonely and sad a lot of the time without Charles, it's a reminder that people do care for me. I appreciate every member of the audience! Particularly my old piano teacher, who actually has WHOOPING COUGH and sat right at the back and waved to me from afar so I wouldn't catch it. Isn't that crazy!

So here's the recording! I particularly like the second movement, but a lot of people said that they liked the third. All up it goes for about 24 minutes!

Movement 1 - Water Running in High Mountain:

Movement 2 - Reflections and Dreams:

Movement 3 - Walking on Clouds:

Dressing up a dress

2011-04-30T18:53:00.000+10:00

I was thinking about how some of my dresses I only wear very rarely, because they're not versatile. I don't go to cocktail parties very often (or never) but I do go to university, to work, to the shops, to church, and occasionally to fancy events like performances and parties. So if I want a dress to really work for me, it needs to be able to be worn casually and dressed-up. I made a few polyvore coordinates using a dress I own from UniQlo. I liked it because it's cute and spotty, and also because it's a collaboration with the cute Japanese brand Milk. Plz excuse how it looks in the coordinates, it looks way better on a human. Most Milk dresses are like that I find!

First coordinate: Casual.

This is the exact coordinate I wore in Sweden when we recorded Maria's piece. Grey jeans, cons, dress and cardigan. The dress is short enough that it looks good with jeans, as long as they're the skinny variety. This is a good look for going shopping or whatever, because it's comfy.

Casual by Chrissaah featuring long sleeve tops

Next: Fun!

In this coordinate I wanted to play up the cute pink and blue spots on the dress by pairing it with pink tights and cardigan, and a blue brooch and shoes. Love those shoes! They're Melissa.

This kind of coordinate is good for parties (fun colours yay) or a casual day where you want to add a bit of colour (except maybe not with those heels!).

Fun by Chrissaah featuring a cropped cardigan

Lastly: Classy.

What is a classier colour than black? There is no classier colour! This coordinate is pretty simple, the belt and necklace are the only items added really. It's still fun though, with the spotty shoes from Irregular Choice. I'd wear this coordinate to dinners, cocktail parties and the like. This dress is still a fun dress no matter how you wear it!

Classy by Chrissaah featuring a sheer hosiery

Maybe I'll make some more posts like this. It's the kind of thing I like to do!

Library Changes and Protests

2011-04-27T11:16:00.000+10:00

As most of you know, I work in my university's Music Library.

Here's me at the library a couple of years ago. Shelving some CDs, wearing a skirt! Photo taken by the wonderful Lisa.

ANYHOW

Recently there's been a proposal approved to move the Music Library up into the Art Library space due to financial problems. Obviously there's a lot of upset over the proposal, because it would be super inconvenient for us music students to walk to the Art Library to get our stuff, and because the new combined library will have to house twice the amount of books and twice the amount of students. It's simply not going to work. Anyhow there are lots of reasons why I think it's a bad and shortsighted idea. I won't go into it here.

We had a fun "study session" protest the other week where all the Music and Art students crammed into the Art Library space to show how crazy it is and how it won't all fit. We music students all brought big scores to "study". It soon became clear that it would never work as a library for two sets of students - and that was without all the extra materials in the library itself. Then people made speeches and there was cheering etc.

Pictures!

Here's my friend Yvonne (of Professors in Dresses) studying a giant score that is more like an ironing board. She's wearing the original collar - the one I made the replicas of! And there's my laptop about to get trodden on.

So many people!

Even more so many people!

There was a video taken of the protest that has been put up on youtube.

Now the challenge is to keep the protests happening to alert the public to what is going on. We have a new Vice Chancellor so hopefully he'll disagree with the merge and take steps to keep the libraries separate. We need to make it clear that SOME THINGS ARE WORTH PAYING FOR.

NYAN FOREVER

2011-04-25T19:00:00.000+10:00

Dresses for the Summer

2011-04-24T21:44:00.000+10:00

Since I'm going to America in their Summer (my Winter), I'll need some nice cool dresses to wear! And all the great brands are coming out with new dresses for Summer in Japan! Here are my two favourite that I'm considering buying:

First is another Melche Shutilforc beauty. It comes in two colourways, this gorgeous brown X pink, and a cream top X light blue floral skirt. This was only released today I think!

It also has a detachable halter neck with frills. Cute! I also really like the underskirt peeking out.

Which colour would be best on a paleface like me?

And this lovely Victorian Maiden summer dress. It comes in three colourways: this one (cream and purple flowers), cream and yellow flowers, and black and white gingham. I think I'd go for the cream and yellow colour. This is still on reserve, due to come out in May.

I'm not usually a fan of fully shirred items, but this is done very well. It's nice and understated. I like the ruffled neckline. It looks so cool! Able to be worn without a blouse for maximum air flow!

One thing these dresses have in common is that they're quite casual. I could wear these to the shops, or to a cocktail party, depending on my shoes and how I wear my hair. I like clothes like that!

To be able to wear them in America for what I'm doing, it's important to be able to breathe and move easily. A lot of dresses I've bought (thankfully not the expensive ones!) are really pretty but constrict my giant rib cage* and so never get worn. It's kind of a shame! I would like to fix them but don't want to fail and ruin a lovely dress. The Melche Shutilforc dress looks a little constricting but the VM one looks amazingly comfy.

I added these two dresses to my Wishlist, because in all honesty, I wish I had them.

Haven't updated in a while whoops!

2011-04-21T14:37:00.000+10:00

It's going to be a busy month ahead for me!

I'm performing my first recital of my Honours year next Friday the 29th. It was a bit of a rushed decision to put it so soon, but I realised that next month is going to be amazingly busy with rehearsals and performances for the Canberra International Music Festival and I'd better just get it out of the way.

So! I'm playing Marimba Concerto no. 2 by Ney Rosauro. He's a cool dude! I saw him play that piece in 2009 when he was visiting Sydney (he's from Brazil) and all the Canberra kids trooped up to hang out. He also was judging the Percussion Eisteddfod which I played in the next day. He was really nice and interesting - just like his compositions!

I just had a rehearsal with my accompanist (and friend) Ella this morning. I think it's going to be okay. But gosh I'm nervous! And I seem to be getting a cold just in time for the Easter weekend!

Here's a lovely blurry photo of me and Ney Rosauro at the Percussion Eisteddford in 2009. See how long his arms are compared to mine? They're like twice as long as mine. No wonder he puts so many big intervals in his piece.

I can't believe I've had that skirt for so long. I need to make a new one.

Time to spill the beans...

2011-04-14T20:47:00.000+10:00

I am going to America!

(Just for a couple of weeks).

I have been accepted to the Bob Becker Ragtime Xylophone Institute which will be held in Delaware this August! Ragtime xylophone music is something I've always had a lot of fun playing, and I've even decided to do a themed Ragtime recital this year. Ragtime is old-timey jazz. So, it's fitting that I'd want to go to this workshop this year. Bob Becker is The Guy for ragtime xylophone. He's a famous percussion dude! I'm going to learn a lot from him.

Conveniently, there's a simultaneous workshop on Jazz Vibraphone which Charles has been accepted to! It's being held at the same university and we can share a room! This will be living the dream - we'll both be going to do awesome separate things in a cool place with famous people! Learning lots and playing music all day! Then coming home and being together in the evening!

While I'm in America, I'm thinking of going to New York for a few days to see all the things! I'd love to see Central Park where Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers roller skated. I'd love to catch a They Might Be Giants show - but I don't know how to do that. And I'd love to go to Tokyo Rebel, since I'll be there a lot sooner than I'll be in Tokyo. Fun times approach!

Here's a video of a great percussionist Morris Palter and his group playing a rag called Jovial Jasper.

Here's the video of my last Recital (third year). I played a rag at the end BY BOB BECKER, so skip to 35:40

Christina Recital 2009 from Charles Martin on Vimeo.

But I really want to be able to play like this guy!

Labyrinth Polyvore coordinates?!

2011-04-12T20:57:00.000+10:00

So a while ago when I was bored, I made up some co-ordinates on Polyvore of my favourite two characters: Jareth and Sarah! Since I'm a girl, I made the Jareth outfit out of girls clothes! A girl Jareth!

I am really very fond of those boots by Demonia. The VM blouse is my favourite blouse in the whole world, which I own! Then I thought I'd prissy the whole thing up with pretty gloves, sparkly nail polish, and eye shadow. Of course you can't do Jareth's hair without a bunch of hairspray, so that's in there too.

You would think that Sarah's co-ordinate would be easier, her being a girl and everything. Not so! I wanted to do the ballgown look, because her normal look is so 80s it hurts my eyes.

So I had no choice but to use a short white Lolita skirt. I'm not sure if this is a petticoat or outer skirt, but it's quite pretty. The blouse is VM of course. I think I did much better with Jareth - this looks too much like a wedding ensemble. It's hard to wear white dresses without looking like a bride!

Mind: blown

2011-04-10T15:04:00.000+10:00

I just read this blog over at Painting The Roses Pink about lolita weddings. She posted up the usual stuff, churches, cakes, invitations, and dresses. But some of the dresses blew my mind! They're by a Japanese brand called Sugar Kei, which as far as I can tell, rents out amazing wedding attire. Maybe that's what Japanese people do for weddings - rent dresses instead of buying. Sounds sensible, but a bit sad to give it back afterwards! Anyway here's the eye candy:

Speaking of wedding dresses, my parents brought my Nana's wedding dress from 1940 home from Melbourne. She left it to me when she died in 2009. She actually wanted ME to get married in it a few years ago, but I politely explained that I wasn't getting married and I also wanted to buy my own dress. It's 70 years old so quite dated! It's a bit damaged, but in pretty good nick for something so old. I might steam the creases out and take photos some time!

Dresses!

Woolen Things

2011-04-08T23:25:00.000+10:00

I do lots of craft sometimes. I like to have something in my hands when I'm watching TV or something. I like crocheting mostly!

This is one of my two ripple blankets. The ripple is the kind of stitch - it's like a wave. This one has a weird colour combo - purple and camo blue?! What was I thinking. I picked out the colours ages ago, because I only crochet my blankets rarely. They're nice to come back to after ages!

This one is knee-rug sized. I still have to make it about twice as wide. That'll take me another year or two at this rate!

While in Sweden I started knitting a jumper for Charles. I managed to do the whole torso! I found the pattern online at GarnStudio. They have thousands of free knitting patterns online, it's an ad for their yarn. I saw some of their yarn in Sweden (it's a Swedish company I think) and it was really nice.

The bottom is ribbed and the top section is moss stitch. The rest is stocking stitch. Made on a circular needle! So now I have to do the sleeves, but they're supposed to be done in the round on double pointed needles. I find double pointed needles WAY TOO FIDDLY so I'm thinking of just doing it flat and then sewing a seam up the arm. I also need to do the neckband.

Stuff Doing! All The Time!

Outfit Post!

2011-04-05T21:12:00.000+10:00

This outfit is from Saturday. I couldn't wear the long blouse the whole day because I got too hot!

Fence shot

Head shot

Full shot

Back shot to see the cute bow on the back of the dress.

Dress: Melche Shutilforc

Blouse: Victorian Maiden

Tights: H&M

Shoes: Vintage

Dorothy polyvore edit!

2011-04-03T13:40:00.000+10:00

So I did that Dorothy polyvore coordinate a few days ago but I just have to change the dress.

Innocent World have released a new dress on reserve, which is a much better match for Dorothy!

Dorothy by Chrissaah featuring hair bow accessories

What do you think?

Cute present!

2011-04-02T21:02:00.000+11:00

My percussion teacher has recently been to America to visit his family, and while he was there he went to Disney World! He was thoughtful enough to buy all of his students a present, and check out what he bought for me!

Minnie Mouse hair clips!

I AM MINNIE MOUSE

Wishlist

2011-04-01T23:38:00.000+11:00

Everyone seems to have a wishlist on their blog. I love looking at them, and well, I do have a few wishes myself. My wishlist is quickly diminishing because the style I like is becoming more and more focussed. I used to want all the pretty things - now I just like a few things that suit my style. Let's get this show on the road!

Click on the pictures to go to the websites!

The number one thing that I want, the thing I'm pining for daily, is this cream coloured jacket from Mary Magdalene.

Sometimes I check their website to see if they've re-released it, but never! They so rarely release anything. It never comes up on the sales community either. I guess I could post a Want To Buy! VM did a similar jacket but it's just not good enough!!

Next is a dress I tried on when I went to the Victorian Maiden Press Room in 2010, the Dorothy Doll Dress.

I like this burgundy colour. It has little frill sleeves and a collar part with detachable bow. The ruffles are full and glorious. Looks lovely with or without a blouse underneath.

This dress is also sold out. I have high hopes of them doing a re-release sometime in the future, because this was originally a Beth dress back in like 2008.

Next - a replica of a Victorian Maiden dress by Surface Spell - available through Qutieland. The reason why I haven't bought this one is that I don't know what colour would suit me. It's available in heaps of colours!

I like the silhouette of this - it's not too puffy and you could wear it for a vintage look.

This coat from Melche Shutilforc - a brand that I discovered for the first time a few weeks ago. I really like all of their stuff, but this coat looks really nice and warm.

It's got lovely embroidery and a detachable fluffy collar. And pockets! I need pockets.

Also really like this skirt from Melche Shutilforc. I really like that brand now!

It's really pretty and tasteful, falls nicely and isn't too fussy.

That's all actually. No other wants! I expect this post will be added to periodically.

If anyone has any of these things they'd like to sell me, my feedback is here!

Dorothy Gale outfit on Polyvore!

2011-03-30T21:32:00.000+11:00

I've been looking at this wonderful blog (which unfortunately hasn't updated in almost a year) that my friend sent me. This author looks at old films and recreates great Hollywood outfits with a modern twist using Polyvore. It's so cool! So I did a similar one with Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. She's done one too, but it's a bit too modern for me. Obviously!

This one features two of my favourite brands: Victorian Maiden (the blouse) and Irregular Choice (shoes). The dress looks a bit weird because I cropped the model out and it's still got her hands!
I know lots of people do these polyvore outfit posts, but I really enjoy them and thought I might do a few!

Stock photo found!!

2011-03-28T20:35:00.000+11:00

A bit less than a year ago I bought a Victorian Maiden skirt off the sales community. I couldn't find a stock photo of it anywhere and neither could the seller. I just found one - in the weirdest place!

I found it on Gothicplus.com - it's apparently selling this skirt. Except, when I read the description, it seems they're selling a cheap Chinese-made replica. It says that it comes with corset lacing at the back - which mine doesn't have. I guess the makers only saw this one stock photo of the front of the skirt. Who knows if it has corset lacing? It's called a "Black and White Retro Lolita Dress".

Here's the link to not-my-skirt on Gothic Plus.

Weird. You can tell it's the true VM stock photo because a) it's my VM skirt, b) it's a VM blouse, and c) the backdrop is the same they always use.

So if you're planning to buy from Gothic Plus, I'd stay away from the clothes as all the photos are real brand stock photos, and they clearly have no idea what the back of the dress looks like. The shoes they sell look like they're legit as they say what brand they are. I like some of the Demonia steampunk boots!

I love this skirt. It's totally wearable without a petticoat for a more casual look and it's still beautiful. It's just the right length. This is probably my most-worn piece of brand, and I haven't had it that long!

More lacy collars!

2011-03-27T19:37:00.000+11:00

I've been sick in bed the past two days, so I spent some time refining my designs for my crocheted collars. First thing I tried was putting glass pearl beads in there! I'm really happy with this, it turned out lovely.

It took me so long! None of my crocheting hooks go through the beads so I had to use some fishing wire as a kind of needle-threader arrangement.

So they're in-between each group of trebles.

I did a white one a bit bigger, somehow it turned out a bit crooked at the edges? Anyhow there's one more row than my other ones.

Yellow! I like this yellow.

Neck view.

So this brooch is another hand-me-down from my Nana who died a year ago. It's particularly precious to me, because it belonged to Nana...

And it was made out of a penny by my Pa! It reminds me of both of my grandparents. It's very special! And pretty too :-)

Crocheted collars

2011-03-22T19:30:00.000+11:00

My friend bought a lovely crocheted collar from a super talented designer at Hand Hook Yarn. It cost her like $60! But when I looked at it I thought... I could do that! So she let me have a look at it and I made my own version last night (after two total fails)! I also found a pattern for a crocheted collar on The Ongoing Project, but it's also different.

My version is not exactly the same (I couldn't figure out what she'd done in some places), but it worked out pretty well! I wore it to uni today and got at least one compliment. Other people complimented in the way that means "Chrissy why are you wearing such a pink thing".

It's actually NOT that bright a pink, the colour came out a bit wrong in this photo. It's more of a dusky pink colour. That's a brooch I inherited. I thought a brooch fastener is much more versatile than a button because you can change it! Obviously!

I'm starting a yellow one.

And this is a red one I made on the bus home. It's red, I promise! Weird lighting playing tricks again.

Me wearing my pink one in the bathroom.

This is what I wore to uni today - my spotty dress. So maybe the pink collar is too much with this outfit! Anyhow I'm pretty proud of how it turned out and I think it looks sweet. I'm going to make this yellow one and then I'll see what other yarn I have.

If they turn out to be good, I might sell them at the Arts and Crafts show. We had our first Committee meeting yesterday so I'm looking forward to it already! How much could I charge for these?

So last night I went to see Weird Al again...

2011-03-13T19:33:00.001+11:00

Weird Al Yankovic was playing at the Royal Theatre last night in Canberra!

It was pretty hot yesterday - 27 celcius. This is what I wore:

Dress: Camden Town markets,

Shoes: Irregular Choice.

Somehow I found a headband that matched exactly the fabric of my dress.

I printed out two copies of the photo Charles and I took with Al last time and wrote a letter to him on the back. I wanted to give him one copy and get him to sign the other copy.

This time I went with my friend Kyle instead of Charles (for obvious reasons). We arrived literally an HOUR early because I was so excited.

Since we were so early, we bought merch before the show. Kyle bought me Weird Al's new kids book (so now he's an acclaimed author AS WELL) called When I Grow Up. I bought his Amish Paradise t-shirt because it is awesome. Kyle bought The Saga Begins t-shirt. ALSO AWESOME.

Okay so the show started and I was super excited. It was everything I wanted it to be (apart from him not singing Everything You Know Is Wrong or Melanie) and the costumes were rad, the music was phenomenal, and the video clips in-between songs were hilarious. Here are links to some of the film clips...

Alanis Morissette - Al's Joyride

Our Friend Dirt - from The Weird Al Show

Madonna interview - They only showed an excerpt of this but the whole thing is funny.

Titanic spoof - Again, only showed an excerpt

"Weird" - SO FUNNY

The encore was "We All Have Cellphones, So Come On, Let's Get Real", and then the REAL encore was The Saga Begins, complete with dancing storm troopers. It was the stuff!

After the show we hung out in the foyer for about half an hour waiting for him to come and sign stuff. Yay he did! I'd been building it up in my mind for so long that I just kind of prattled on and forgot Kyle was there (sorry Kyle..). I gave him the photo I'd written on and thought that was "really nice" and I asked him to sign the other one so I could send it to Charles in Sweden and he DID, and then I asked if he would sign the storybook for me and he said "of course" and DID, and then I asked if he's going to do shows in America in August and he said no, only in September, and I said I was going to Delaware to do a ragtime xylophone course and he thought that was cool. Then we got a photo together! Yays! Sorry Kyle I guess I completely forgot you were standing next to me. I was SO EXCITED AND HAPPY. Then he shook my hand with BOTH of his hands and said "It was really great to see you again!"

YAYYAYAYAYAY

I giggled all the way to the car and grinned all the way home. I'm wearing my Amish Paradise t-shirt now! Now pics of my haul:

T-shirt front:

T-shirt back:

Book:

Book title page SIGNED:

I really like the book! It's all rhyming and it's about all the cool things this boy wants to do when he grows up! It makes me feel a little better about the fact that I have no idea what I want to do when I grow up - and I'm a lot older than 8 years old!

Old photo signed! He signed Charles' shirt!

Interesting Earrings Story!

2011-03-10T14:56:00.000+11:00

So I was at work the other day at the music library, and a girl came up to the desk to borrow something. I noticed first that she was wearing mismatched earrings that looked *kind of* the same but were obviously different. I looked closely... and one of them I had definitely made, and sold at my church's Arts and Crafts show! It was pretty much the most exciting thing ever. But I had to keep my composure.

I asked her where she got her earrings. She said she couldn't remember, but they were mismatched because she'd lost one of each pair and they'd gone reasonably well together.

Anyhow the truth came out and I told her I'd made one of them. And then I offered to take it home and make her a new matching one. So I did!

It was a really nice little run-in!

One dress three ways!

2011-03-05T18:38:00.000+11:00

Today it was finally cool enough to wear this dress without worrying about sweating! I have a low heat tolerance. I bought this dress a few weeks ago from the EGL sales community and have been dying to play around with outfits since. It's by Juliette et Justine, and is called Fleur et Rose.

It is quite a long dress with an A-line shape, so it's not the puffy "lolita" silhouette but a much more demure, elegant shape. I curled my hair :-)

First, a simple co-ordinate. This dress is so pretty you only need shoes and pearls to make it work!

Shoes: Vintage, from a cute shop in Perth. I love them, they're my sparkly ruby slippers.

This one is a bit teacher-ish. Offbrand blazer and brooch, shoes from MaruiOne in Shinjuku (can't remember the brand).

I think this works quite well but is a little harsh with the black x florals.

Shoes: Betts

Gloves: Vintage

Bolero: ValleyGirl

Choker: Diva (I think)

The room is actually about to get new carpet in, and has just been painted! So it's a good place to take outfit photos.

Cross posted to Daily_Lolita

Blouse making!

2011-03-05T12:51:00.000+11:00

I am making a blouse. The pattern is from Deco Alice a la Mode Summer 2009. It's an Innocent World pattern. Super cute with pintucks at the front and a nice small collar.

I have been running into a few problems.

This is the first blouse I've ever made, so I'm not familiar with how the pattern pieces look. The blouse has 10 panels. 10! Other blouse patterns I've looked have either 2 (back and front) or four (back, back side, front side, and front). The front panels of this blouse have 3 pintucks each. I've chosen some really cute cream coloured cotton with tiny purple flowers.

Problems: I can't read Japanese (although I can speak a little). This means that both the instructions in the book and on the pattern pieces are unreadable. I have to work out how to do it from common sense, indicative lines on the pattern, and looking at other blouse patterns (I have a few). Why did I choose to make my first blouse essentially without instructions?

So I ironed and sewed the pintucks but it's so close to the edge I assume I must have done it the wrong way. Mega confusing. I also don't know how they do the sleeve cuff or inside collar or placket. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A BLOUSE.

I keep trying, but it's so depressing realising for the umpteenth time that I have to unpick something.

SS shoes and an outfit

2011-02-25T14:35:00.000+11:00

I ordered these Secret Shop shoes from Qutieland back in June. It was a pre-order, so it was always going to take a while for them to come. They ended up arriving on the 11th of December, ONE DAY after I left the country. So I only got to see them when I got home 2 weeks ago!

They fit super well! And they're very comfortable. I wore them at uni all day yesterday, and did a lot of walking and standing up and playing marimba.

The heel is big but it's nice and thick too.

Sorry this photo is so bad. Bad camera I guess, or bad lighting.

I curled my hair but you wouldn't know it.

Look! I have a new present hanging on my bookcase!

I've been wanting to do more outfit posts but it's been hot! I don't like wearing my really nice dresses when it's hot.

Non Stop Butter Biscuits - a walkthrough for Charles

2011-02-19T15:15:00.002+11:00

Since staying with Charles in Sweden for so long, I got pretty good at making biscuits. Cakes were kind of difficult and took too long to eat, so biscuits were perfect. Despite using the same recipe every time, the biscuits always came out different, but delicious. I don't want Charles to go without this treat, so I've made a walkthrough for him.

In Sweden I found a delicious chocolate bar called "Non Stop" which was a milk chocolate bar with smarties through it. Later I figured out that the smarties are what's called Non-Stop, and the chocolate company just mixes it together. Anyhow I loved Non-Stop chocolate. In Sweden I added the Non-Stop smarties to the biscuits. You can also use glacé cherries, chocolate buds, or chopped nuts to your taste. In the photos there's chocolate buds instead of Non-Stop, because I'm not in Sweden anymore!

Ingredients:

125g butter or margarine (about two tablespoons full). Butter makes the mixture more firm, with Margerine you need more flour.

2/3 cup sugar - any type is fine, but I prefer brown for maximum deliciousness

1 tablespoon vanilla sugar OR a splash of vanilla essence

1 generous cup plain flour mixed with 1 teaspoon baking powder OR 1 generous cup Self-Raising flour

1 egg

Non Stop (or whatever)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C

2. Prepare baking trays. Either use clean baking trays or line a tray with foil. You don't need to grease the tray because there is butter in the biscuits.

3. Melt butter in saucepan. Swirl it around to make sure it's all melted.

4. Take butter off the heat, add sugar, and stir in.

5. Cool mixture for a minute and then stir in the egg and vanilla essence. I sometimes cool it by placing it in a sink of cold water.

6. Add flour and mix. Add more flour if it is too runny - it should hold its shape. Test for taste and add sugar if necessary.

7. Add some non-stop to the mixture and stir in. Instead of mixing in the chocolates, you can also arrange them on top of the uncooked biscuits in fun designs.

8. Using a teaspoon, ladle dollops of mixture onto baking trays - not too close together! Makes around 20 biscuits.

This is for me:

9. Remove from oven when they look golden brown and have risen - takes about 10 - 15 minutes depending on the oven. Leave to cool for a bit. Use a spatula to get them off the tray. They should easily come away from the tray when they're cool. Careful of getting hot chocolate on your fingers!

Too much sugar will cause the biscuits to spread out all over the baking tray and become brittle when cool. However, this can ALSO be delicious and fun, so no problem. These ones didn't spread much at all!

Yum yum!

My Crazy Alphabet Book

2011-02-14T18:51:00.000+11:00

The other day, my friends and I were talking about how everyone knows what a Xylophone is. I realised, of course, people know what a xylophone is because it's the X-word in all the kids' alphabet books. A is apple, B is banana, C is cat, X is xylophone.

Then I remembered MY old alphabet book.

Here's the X page...

Look again...

Extra large mouse?! That doesn't even start with X. I think the reason I've kept this book for 15 years is because this page is so bonkers.

Hittade

2011-02-14T07:44:00.000+11:00

Here's the video we recorded in Piteå for Maria!

Hittade for solo marimba and 3 percussionists, by Maria Finkelmeier

Home.

2011-02-13T23:03:00.000+11:00

I've been home for two days now, and I'm slowly putting my life back together.

Leaving Charles at Arlanda was the hardest thing I've ever done - harder than leaving him at Perth, because this time I was also dreading my giant flight. It totally tore me apart and I'm still very sad.

The flights were much more tolerable this time round. Flight no. 1 from Stockholm to Bangkok went through the night, but to everyone on the plane it felt like day. They turned off all the lights and stopped serving meals to make us sleep, but those crazy Swedes drank all the alcohol on the plane and talked the whole way. There was also a very naughty little girl in the seat behind me who kept playing with the tray table and kicking my seat and yelling. GOSH. Anyhow it didn't matter much because nobody was tired. Bangkok airport was much easier because my phone had reception this time around! Such a feeling of reassurance when one's phone works.

On the second flight I sat next to an Irish dude who was visiting Australia to see his girlfriend. He drank 5 beers and then fell asleep. I watched a cool movie called "Not You Again" or something. Anyhow I just endured it for long enough to get into Sydney and meet my parents. They kindly picked me up from Sydney and drove all the way home to Canberra.

I was kind of sick the next day... jetlagged and bilious. That kind of flight is quite an ordeal to get over, for someone wimpy like me. I'm both physically and emotionally drained. I felt so lame I didn't even try on my new dress until the evening.

I had fun making outfits with my new Victorian Maiden dress and my new Secret Shop shoes. I ordered those shoes back in June, and they arrived the DAY AFTER I left for Sweden, in December. Worst timing ever! Photos of both these things to come, when I feel more energetic. The dress fits me absolutely perfectly. They only have one size, which is kind of unfairly exclusive. There must be lots of girls who would like to wear VM but don't fit. It would be nice if they could introduce a couple of sizes.

Today I amused myself by throwing out lots of old clothes. It's something I really enjoy doing - the chance to clear out all the junk and stuff I never wear, the mistakes, the worn out clothes I loved to bits. A chance to make room for new, more awesome clothes. I always try to throw out more than I bring in, because in the last few years my wardrobe has become kind of ridiculously bloated with unworn clothes and shoes. I also like having a clear wardrobe so that I can see clearly what I actually have. Lots of clothes get forgotten because they're simply not seen.

While I was away my parents painted my brother's old room and fixed the carpet so that now it actually looks nice! It's bigger than mine, so I've decided to change rooms. A change is as good as a holiday, and even though I just had a holiday, I feel I need a change. Going away and living independently for so long has made me realise I really need to sort my stuff out, and this is ONE step along my process. It will probably make me realise that I have a lot of stuff that's not wanted any more.

Once all my stuff is sorted and I'm no longer busy organising, I hope to get back into craft and stuff. I have actually been knitting a jumper, but haven't taken photos. I'm worried it'll turn out weird!

Last night in Piteå

2011-02-08T08:21:00.000+11:00

So the other night we had our friends over for my farewell party. It was a dessert party, so I made a lemon merengue pie and biscuits, and everyone else brought cakes and stuff. It was amazingly filling and nice. We have some really nice friends here!

Today the four of us percussionists recorded a piece by Maria. She played the solo marimba part, and Charles, Jake and I were batterie. It was great! We used nice cameras to get good angles, and used the University media students to record the sound and do the lighting. We ended up having a very professional setup. It only took three takes to get a really good recording. Then we had to bump out and move heaps of percussion and other gear. But after that it was like 6pm and it was home time! It was sad saying goodbye to Jake and Maria - we've become really good friends. Maria gave me a signed copy of her piece - parts and all - so when she's rich and famous I can say "I knew her!". The recording will be up on the internet in the next few days, so stay tuned!

Charles and I came home super tired from standing up and playing and moving gear all day. Had dinner and then our OTHER friends Margrét and Gisli came round to collect their cups (we borrowed them for our party - Charles only has 4 cups) and had a coffee. I'm going to miss them heaps! They are special people.

So now it's almost bedtime and tomorrow we're off to Stockholm! We'll be there for two nights and then I'm off home to Australia. I really do love Australia, so I am looking forward to being home. But it just will hurt to leave Charles here. I know he misses home more than I do!

Last VM dress co-ord (possibly)

2011-02-06T05:13:00.000+11:00

My dress has finally been delivered to my house. Even though I'm still in Sweden, I'm happy that it's there waiting for me. So to celebrate I made one final coordinate on Polyvore.

My mum opened the package for me to check that it was the right dress, and commented that it would look nice with a pink skivvy underneath! Well this isn't a pink skivvy but it's pink and cute. I love that jacket, it reminds me of Vivienne Westwood. Those shoes are Irregular Choice too, and we know how much I like them!

(I like them so much, I bought a pair.)

Tonight we're having a farewell party for me... oh no! I hope I don't cry!

Fascinating fascinator

2011-02-05T04:57:00.000+11:00

The other night, my friend and I were looking at Polyvore and found some cool looking hair bands. We said "We could make those!" So yesterday we walked into town and bought some supplies from craft stores.

I bought a shoulder pad, some lace, feathers, paper flowers, paper leaves, little hair clips, and matching fabric. I was going for a natural, mori-girl kind of style. Here's what I ended up with:

I covered the shoulder pad with fabric and sewed in place, then glued on the feathers and paper stuff, and then sewed on the lace which I'd gathered into little rounds.

Then I used scissors to cut two tiny holes in the back of the shoulder pad, and inserted the little clips. Complete!

It just clips on! Shoulder pads are nicely curved and fit well on a head.

I got loads of compliments on it today. People were astonished that I made this! Dudes and ladies: it's not that hard! It was fun because I was with a friend!

My friend chose a red colour scheme and she pleated her fabric and used black and red feathers as highlights. Hers was much more of a classic look. We had such a nice time last night making stuff together!

Polyvore is the most fun thing in the woooorld

2011-02-03T21:55:00.003+11:00

Number 1: Brown outfit because I like brown things!

Number 2: Purple outfit to match the purple check in the fabric of the dress!

Why yes, I AM looking forward to receiving my dress! It's been shipped now yay!