Pastel Drippy Nails

A few weeks back my friend did a fabulous job at doing my nails. Unfortunately, after about 2 weeks, the polish started cracking and chipping and I decided it was time to redo them. With intentions of going to AWA at the end of this month and hoping to pull off a mint and lavender coord, I went about bought out those colors.

Okay, so they're a bit lighter than I had hoped but they didn't have the exact shades that I was looking for. China Glaze did but because there was a sale for ORLY, I went with this brand.

I had no issue painting with the lavender (that actually looks more like a pink and lavender combination). The mint was a different story, it was very runny and it painted on fairly clear and I hate when nail polishes do that. I feel like I had to paint on several layers or take large amounts of the paint and then smooth it out like I wanted.

Excuse the slight mess on the cuticles... 

I found that the lavender one dried more pink than purple while the mint stayed pretty true to its color. Unfortunately, the colors turned out to be an eyesore together. Unless you're in slightly dimmed light, it's hard to make out the colors correctly; like right now as I type they look pretty decent.

As I mentioned with the mint, it was hard to paint with so painting a bat on the thumb nails didn't turn out well, even when using a smaller brush. I don't even have a black to attempt to outline them with. I think I'll keep my nails like this though, I hate to waste nail polish especially when it's not cheap stuff from the cosmetics section at Walmart or Walgreens.

Frill 2013: Part 3

The last day of Frill was a lot of fun but it went differently than expected. Considering we had a long drive ahead of us, we had been hoping that the tea party would be in the morning and that we could leave by noon. It didn't turn out that way. If I remember correctly, tea didn't start until about 4. I'll carry on with that a little later though.

There were some more panels that morning, I think there was a cake decorating one. I missed it but I did get to see the end result of it on display and it turned out awesome. It features a mermaid print (it looks like AatP to me) and Alice Doll's Twinkle Candy Bone:

I decided to check out the consignment shop one more time so see if there was anything else that I wanted to buy. I eyed the lavender rhapsody wig again but in the corner of my eye, I spotted a print that I really love - AP's Little Bear's Cafe.I turned my attention to it and checked the price tag, pretty much expecting that I didn't have enough money for it. I had to do a double take on the tag's price... $90. What? You're kidding me. It turns out it was a DoL replica so that explains it. I'm not one who hates on replicas or replica wearers, but I do understand why a lot of people are against them. 

I was a little hesitant at first because I've heard lots of mixed reviews of DoL's stuff. I examined it and noticed that it was missing one of the back-ties, I didn't mind that because I could easily make my own. I examined the fabric, it felt pretty thick and similar to the original and the construction seemed different. I had a friend with me and she told me to go for it if I really wanted it, so I did.

My friends were all nice enough to let me borrow some accessories to match:

After running back up to my room and getting dressed up in my new dress, I came back down to the dealer's room and managed to catch Nekkon Daioh's stand which was open for commissions. For only $5 or $6 I got this adorable picture drawn of me, she even drew in little bear ears on my head to match the theme of my dress.

I can't talk much about the tea party simply because I didn't get to attend much of it. I heard Andrea's speech about how happy she was with the outcome of the con, how much work was put into it, etc but after that I had a panic attack and had to run off to the bathroom. This cycle continued a few times but I did my best to keep it under control. I'm not even sure anymore what had set me off. It doesn't matter.

Here's what I was served:

Going clockwise starting at the top: a square-shaped chocolate truffle, a mini chocolate chip cheesecake, and meringue flower all with raspberry sauce drizzled beneath on the plate.

This was the second course and it consisted of a salad, a tea sandwich, and some sort of paste on a slice of toasted bread.

From the opinions of friends who went to Frill last year, they thought that the tea party this year wasn't that great. I don't have a say because I didn't get to attend it last year but I was told that Frill 2012 had more selection of food and better tea. I heard the hotel kind of screwed Affrilliation over for whatever reason, but that could just be a rumor.

I can't remember what time tea ended but I know that we didn't leave until about 6:30 or 7. We had a 7 hour driver ahead of us and that excludes bathroom stops, food, and taking turns driving. We arrived at Rosie's house at 2:30 am and everyone was exhausted. 

I had a lot of fun though and really look forward to going back next year. Andrea had asked everyone to send some feedback so that they could improve for next year. From the girls who went in our community, we came up with a decent list of ideas and suggestions that I hope they take into account next year.

Frill 2013: Fashion Show

I hope you're ready for a ton of pictures because on this post I'm not holding back.

Saturday evening was the day of the fashion show. I was a model for Lilly's indie brand, Clockwork Rose, along with 3 other girls from our community. I was really happy that I was offered the opportunity to do this because I really love her dresses and it was a great step for me on overcoming my anxiety.

We were called backstage at 5 pm and the fasion show was scheduled to start at 10. It sounds like a long time but there was a lot of models back there and everyone of them needed to get dressed, get their hair done, and have their make-up done. The time went by fairly quickly since I talked with Nova and Tyra.

I'm not sure what I'm so excited about here but it's amusing. At this point, other girls were still getting ready and since we were ready, we just stood around and took pictures. 

Here's my coord, excuse the picture quality of this one, I think it was taken with a phone.

JSK: Clockwork Rose's Twinkle Bat

Blouse: Lethe's Castle

Socks: Offbrand

Shoes: Bodyline (I think...)

Purse: Moi-Meme-Moitie

Accessories: necklace - Clockwork Rose; spikey headband -offbrand; hair bow - offbrand; bat wings ring - offbrand

One of our members (who now lives in another state) got to model too, I believe she's wearing a Belladonna dress. If you can't see it too well, it has jellyfish floating around in colorful clouds.

Around the time that everyone was done, we were put into a single-file line based on order of appearance for the show. I got a picture of the girls in front of me but it turned out pretty blurry so I won't be posting it, but here's what it looked like behind me.

We got called up on stage and somehow I managed not to panic during all this. I walked on the run away and did three poses, I wish I would have been a little more creative but I'll remember that for next year if I get the opportunity. I will say that I did stumble a bit because I was borrowing my friend's shows and her feet are slightly bigger than mine but I didn't make a scene about it, I carried on and hoped that no one caught it.

I'd love to post photos of my friends but I don't want to do it without their permission, so if I get an okay, I'll do so. All-in-all it was a lot of fun and I would definitely do it again. I do hope that next year they make the dance a little later so that models can participate in it. I know that while backstage I had heard an awesome 80s coverband and would've loved to have been out there taking pictures, dancing, and singing along.

After the fashion show, we headed back to our room to relax. Even though I had eaten backstage, I was starving and so were my roomies. Alex, Blaze, Jayne, and I walked to a bar a couple of blocks over called Taco Mac. The name threw me off, I really through that it would be a Tex-Mex place, but they offered so much more. We figured that we'd collect money from everyone and order something for everyone. I ended up ordering a reuben sandwich.While waiting for our food, I got hit on by some older guy at the bar and it made me feel really uncomfortable because he was touching me. I think my friend noticed and got my attention so that I could ignore the guy and he'd walk off.

Here we are enjoying our dinner at midnight.

Frill 2013: Part 2

Day 1 of Frill

This day was pretty fun. The night before I had looked at the schedule and figured out which panels I wanted to attend and how much time I had before I needed to get ready for the fashion show. Here was my coord for the day:

Dress: IW's Ashley Embroidery JSK in Cafe au Lait

Blouse: Lethe's Castle

Tights: Offbrand

Boots: Offbrand

Hairbow: Borrowed

I can't say that I look great in this and I think this is what made me realize that classic lolita just may not be for me, but I tried. I do have other ideas for how to wear this dress in the future, I think a burgundy blouse and tights would look better. On a sidenote, Nova looks adorable here.

I didn't have a VIP pass so I didn't get a sneak peek at the consignment shop but I did find many things that caught my attention. The first place I checked was the dress rack, I figured that all the nice brand and indie brand dresses had been bought already, but it didn't kill to check. I didn't see anything in there that really called to me, I saw a Toy Fantasy JSK in white replica, but I really hate white because of how easily it gets dirty.

I went over to the area where they were selling wigs and saw a lavender rhapsody wig but I ended up not buying it because I wasn't sure how it'd look on me... I didn't have any friends near by at the time and I couldn't just run out of the area to go find them with it on. I could've just set it down and looked around for one and asked them to come back with me, but meh.

My first purchase was a Alice Doll's Melty Bat necklace. Aside from Frill, I've never seen this series sold in this color way so I like to tell myself that this one is special. I had bought this with the intent to wear it during the fashion show because it matched the dress I was modeling perfectly but I don't know what I was thinking, considering I was modeling for Clockwork Rose and not Alice Doll. I ended up not wearing it which is just fine, it would've been rude to anyways.

I also purchased an adorable bracelet and necklace from a vendor. I really wish I had picked up a card from the lady so I could credit her.

I was able to attend a few panels, I can't remember all the ones that I attended but I know for sure that I attend the hair styling one and the decoden one. There was one or two that my friends and I wanted to attend but couldn't because the host couldn't make it in time.

These were the fabulous ladies who did the hair styling panel. I'm fangirling so hard over the ouji.

Frill 2013: Part 1

Day 1 of Frill - The Trip and Arrival

So in the beginning of the year, the head of our community decided to plan a road trip to Frill. I had never been to a lolita convention, or a convention in general so I was really looking forward to this. We planned on leaving early in the morning on May 31rst, so I ended up staying the night t my friend's house the day before. It all worked out because she helped me pack my suitcase better to ensure that everything I brought (in a medium-size suitcase and duffle bag) would fit into one.

The drive to Atlanta went pretty well. Lilly had us bring CDs to listen to in the car and we'd all take turns choosing which one to listen to. I brought a couple CDs and burned two, but the burned ones didn't play which was a shame because I had Backstreet Boys and Aqua on one.

Nova brought some pretty awesome CDs, one of them was Grimes and I remember how all of us kept commenting on how awesome Oblivion and Genesis sounded. Which reminds me, if you've never heard of Grimes, I highly recommend those two songs.

We arrived around 5 or 6, not much time for all of us to shower and get dressed for the walk around the town we were in. I was a little bummed by that but I realized that I just wanted to relax and unpack. Which reminds me, you should've seen our closet, it was glorious.

That was just one side of it. We had 6 girls in our room and enough clothes for Friday-Sunday, including outfit changes throughout those days. I alone brought several thing: IW's Ashley Embroidery, a crochet bolero, 2 blouses (1 short sleeve, 1 long sleeve), a pink handmade skirt (not handmade by me) and matching accessories, a navy blue dress, and AP's Chess Chocolate (replice by Oojia) along with matching accessories for it, brown Antaina tea parties, white Bodyline shoes, and off-brand brown boots. I admit that, like always, I definitely over-packed because I didn't end up wearing all of those things.

There wasn't much to do that evening - okay I lie, there was actually a pool party later in the evening but none of my friends were going so I chickened out. I ended up running errands with Lilly to find a steamer because she had to steam her indie brand's dresses before 11 and bring them to the consignment area. I ended up talking with my roomies and offering to help Lilly since I could tell she was stressing, but there's only so much one could do with one steamer (2 girls, 1 steamer... That just sounds awful).