Valentine's Meet individual pictures

Hello! I know, I know... I've been so terrible at updating this darn thing. lol. Just have been so busy fighting off illness (slightly succumbing to it) and working on lots and lots of outfit stuff. lol.

Have alot to post about like an awesome Zoo adventure with my family, Anime Matsuri (which was a Lolita filled weekend) and this past Saturday I attended the Japan festival in our city <3

This post is not about any of that though >< These pictures are actually from my first Lolita meet/experience that I posted about earlier.

Two of the lovely Lolitas had taken photos of each of us in addition to our group shot. Since she had over 500 pictures to sort and edit through they were done in sections. Mine came out so thought I'd share them with you.

Just a warning before hand... This was my first time doing pictures like this especially in front of people so I was very awkward yet Jessamyn did a great job making me look cute ^-^ Thank you Buddy!

Not sure why I was standing like this... Told you I was awkward. lol

 

There was two photographers so that's why not looking at this camera. lol

 

 

This one was my favorite <3

And a bonus pic of me blowing bubbles. My face shape is too long for that. lol

Check out Fox and Lion Photography's photostream they have lots and lots of pretty pictures <3

HLC Valentine's Tea Party Meet

*Just a small warning this post will be pretty long*

My previous post was on my love for Lolita fashion how I finally took the leap to try it out. But this one will actually be on my experience wearing Lolita for the first time; and of course my outfit details.

The Sunday after Valentine's Day a couple of girls from our local community (HLC) hosted a Valentine's tea party meet. I was a bit nervous attending an event by myself; but thought that it would be the best opportunity for me to get out of my comfort zone and try to meet new people, so I left the hubby at home. One of the girls from the community had offered to car pool with people in her area and I was lucky enough that I stayed in her vicinity so I didn't have to make the almost hour drive alone.

When she came to pick me up I walked down the sidewalk of my neighborhood a good 200ft - 300ft and already felt the awkwardness of being so poofy and bright, but luckily once I saw my "driver" those emotions went away and instead I was flooded with other ones. I had never actually seen a Lolita up close and personal. There was only once when I saw one but of course I was too shy to go up and compliment her so I kept my distance and passed her by (and regretted it for a long time after)... But here I was staring at a very lovely almost princess-like girl and I almost cried and asked her if it was ok if I hugged her. She probably thought I was crazy but still she agreed and after I piled myself into an already almost filled beetle.

The drive over was great. The four of us talked about ourselves and of course the fashion; which I think helped ease me even more once we arrived to the meet.

The meet was held at one of HLC member's gorgeous home. We were escorted upstairs and outside to the balcony that was overlooking a nice pool and even better a beautiful view of the surrounding wooded area. It was very pretty <3

After I stared at the view for a while, I  came to the realization that I was surrounded by lots of lovely, beautiful Lolitas. A dream come true but at the same time very trying because I was being tested to not get scared and run into a corner.

We arrived a little late so not long after getting there they announced that we could all help ourselves to the food being served. I waited a bit, enjoyed the view a little more and finally headed over to the goodies. It was awesome! Mini sandwiches, cookies, cupcakes, fresh lemonade and so much more. I fixed a plate and found myself somewhere to sit. Everything was delicious. And I even got the courage to talk to some of the other ladies. Everyone was very nice and the times I spaced out and stared at everything going on I couldn't help but feel that I really was dreaming.

After everyone finished eating we all went downstairs to the pool area to take a group picture. I haven't felt so a part of something since high school with my sports but there was such a sense of comradery in the air that day and it made me want to be around everyone even more.

Took this from the balcony. Socializing Lolitas <3

And this is our group picture from the event

Picture by Fox and Lion Photography

 After our group pictures two of the lovely ladies offered to take individual pictures of everyone. I thought that was so awesome. Mini photo shoots and lots of beautiful clothes <3

When my turn came up I tried my best to not be awkward but I doubt that I came out ok in my shots but I will try more for the future. Usually I'm the person that takes pictures and really enjoy it so I got the courage to ask a few of the girls for pictures. After individual pictures little by little each of the lolis went their own way.

Me (left) and Tia (right) Our coords almost matched. Sax x Red & Mint x Red <3

Our carpool group (left to right) Me, Becky, Amanda and Noelle (visualheroine)

Our carpool group was one of the last people to leave and that made me happy because it gave me more time to meet and socialize with these great people. And the drive home gave us just a little more time.

I was the first one dropped off and when I walked back to my place I was smiling from ear to ear and even gave a big smile to a young boy who stared and pointed at me curiously. That day really was a day that I hope I can remember for a long time. It was the start of something so exciting and scary at the same time but after it was all said and done the only feeling that was left was the elation I had from finally being able to realize something that I had wanted for so long.

I hope I can continue to dress in this fashion and meet lots of awesome people in the process.

What was your first experience with Lolita? Have you ever wanted to try the fashion?

More outfit pictures/details under the cut

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was even more hectic then I was expecting it to be. lol. We were in charge of bringing the green bean casserole and dessert (chocolate candy cane cupcakes) to my family and brownies to Adrian's family. Luckily I did the brownies and cupcakes (-the toppings) the night before.

Of course I had to wear a super Holiday-e outfit

Dress (Plato's Closet) Cardigan (Old Navy) Stockings (Sock Dreams)

We first went to Adrian's parents' to open gifts :) His mother did such a great job decorating

My Secret Santa got me Minne footie pajamas, sock monkey slip on socks and pretty stationary (which I will put to good use) :)

After we opened gifts we went to my family's get together

Got a colorful lamp from Santa this time; which I am now using at my workstation

Had a blast hanging out with my family as usual and Santa even surprised the boys and girls with a Spongebob (which actually was a pineapple) and Barbie gingerbread houses.

Little Sister helped the boys (the rest of the boys were outside playing with one of my nephew's new BB gun)

And I helped the girls. Ginger bread houses are so hard. You have to let the frame dry properly (which we didn't) before overloading it with stuff. Our's almost collapsed several times; but luckily we had enough hands to hold it together long enough to get pictures. lol

Pretty good and very colorful <3. We almost gave up (which the boys ended up doing) but kept on going. Yay! Girl Power!!

Two of my Beautiful Nieces

After we got "proof" that we finished it; we didn't waste anytime tearing it apart and eating it.

 

Later in the evening we then went to Adrian's family and ate, hung out, opened white elephant gifts and then played pictionary (which we won on a come back of 4 points. Woohoo)

 

Family, Food and Great Memories everything you need to make it a perfect Christmas.

 

Did you have a good Chistmas? Have you ever made a gingerbread house? Love to hear about it..



Christmas Eve

This year me and Adrian tried to get all our holiday and grocery shopping for Christmas done early so that we didn't have to venture out of the house on Christmas Eve. And we actually did it :)

Since we were staying in and I knew the next day we'd been running around alot, I decided to try to keep the day pretty lax. I threw on some red and green clothes and finally tried out Usagi's hair. lol

Don't think I will be using my camera for mirror pictures anymore. The phone ones come out better I think; these came out kinda weird.I have no makeup on (although I don't very often) and I need to practice teasing my hair more because I really suck at it (and these buns should be poofier). lol After I had my outfit complete I noticed that this hairstyle with this outfit didn't look very good. Hahaha. Good thing I didn't have to leave the house. Although now I put it on the internet so...

This year really went by quick; and I procrastinated alot! If you've read any of my Holiday related posts you know I love a good excuse to decorate or dress up so the fact that I didn't put up and decorations at my house might have been contributing to why this year didn't seem as festive. So on this day I decided to put up at least some of my decorations, not as much as usual but I at least got up the stockings, Christmas tree & snowflakes :)

I love my Santa picture; made it over 7 years ago. Maybe I should redo a bigger one.

I also really like my snowflakes. I made some these a few years back, but last year me and my friend Talin re-glittered them on both sides and added more. It took a while but I love how sparklely they are. I like to sit and watch the colors as they spin in the air <3

I attempted to take a picture of the sparkle but this picture dosen't do it justice

And our Charlie Brown Christmas tree (since we can't have a real one because of the cats)

Also got around to finishing the gifts I made for my nephews and niece. Zombie Pandas (in their favorite color) and Hello Kitty pins. They liked them :)

And here's a picture of all of our gifts (for other people) that we wrapped. I love wrapping paper and only bought two new rolls this year. Usually I buy more but I tried to contain myself.

We were up late (after midnight so we opened our gifts that night! Me with the gift Adrian got me. He wrapped it all by himself and did a really good job this year. He even added sunglasses to my tag so my penguin was cool :) And it was a laptop! Yay! Now I can blog on my own computer <3 (also got awesome Hello Kitty and Domo socks... I love socks!!!)

Adrian spent the day giving the dogs a haircut so when he was done we put on their holiday Pjs. They actually liked them this year (bought them a few years ago. lol)

This is Kazama . He's our first born and the baddest, but he also loves attention. lol

And this is Kiyami our sweet little girl who is also the police of the house. lol

If she know's you're doing something you shouldn't she will let you know.

I'm falling behind with my posts. Oops. But hope to catch up soon. Christmas is next :)

Outfit Post #22 & #23

Going to make this a short post with- a couple of outfits I wore before Christmas Eve. On Friday the 21st I used my last vacation day of the year; and Me, my Mommy, Big Sister and Little Sister all got the day off so we could spend it together. We've never done anything like this but boy was it alot of fun. We went to my Brothers first to spend some time with him and my nephew, then I introduced them to Plato's Closet (They had never been and really liked it. I also bought a dress, very New Girl style) and afterwards we went to Toys R Us and Academy to help my mom finish her Secret Santa shopping. I think were going to try to do something like this again. It was like we were kids again <3 This is what a wore.

Accessories: Scarf (DSW) "Mittens" & Spiked Bracelet (Hot Topic) Purse (Ebay) Red Bracelet (Shasa) Black/White tights & Navy Socks (Sock Dreams) Red/White OTKs (Spencers) 

Earrings (Asian I Candy) Boots (Sheik)

Love my Pandas, and these are cool. One side has an angry panda (see top picture) and the other side regular <3

And without all my winter gear. lol. Dress (Plato' s Closet - Hollister) Under Dress (F21) Jackets (Sears & F21)

And here's the outfit I wore the next, next day. It wasn't as cold so I skipped all the layers and wanted to feel "Holiday-e" so went with red and white/cream :) Kinda reminds me of a casual outfit Mrs.Clause would wear. lol

Dress (Plato's Closet - ) Sweater (American Eagle) Stockings (Leg Avenue)

Going to be posting more Holiday stuff since I'm sure nobody has had enough yet. ;P

Santa's Little Helper

This past Sunday me and Adrian headed over to Petsmart to help with pet pictures with Santa. We didn't have to bring anything but since I knew Santa would need some elfs to help and I love a good reason to dress up in theme; I busted out all of my white, red and green and narrowed it down to a casual "elf" inspired outfit.

Dress and Sweater (Plato's Closet) Thigh-Highs (Sock Dreams) Chucks (Journeys)
Rings (Shasa/GlamourGeekBoutique/DIY)

I love my candy cane chucks <3 I've had them for over 5 years now and always bring them out for the holidays. Adrian got them for me when he was working at Journey's as an assistant manager. They gave all the employees a pair and when he showed them to me I knew I had to have some too. Maybe one day I'll wear them not during the holidays. Oooooh. Maybe I'll do Christmas in July??? lol

Those are the tips of Adrian's shoes <3

I've always wanted to do a little volunteering and really wanted Adrian to join me so when I was looking for opportunities I knew this one would be one that he wouldn't completely despise (he's not one for keeping kids or the elderly company) lol.

A few people showed up to help and there wasn't alot to do (unless you went and looked for stuff) but we really enjoyed ourselves and even offered to help with future opportunities. And the BEST part? Adrian ended up being Santa at one point *(^-^)*

Hehehe... He actually looks "jolly" in this picture <3

After this great experience I really want to do more. Can't wait for this upcoming year; maybe I can do more volunteering although I think I will look for stuff with kids and the elderly because I love them. :)

Have ya'll ever volunteered before? If so where is your favorite place to do so?

More holiday stuff to come *(^-^)*

2nd Thanksgiving

This year my family got together Friday for Thanksgiving. I'm really glad because it gave us the whole day to hang out. Family time is really one of my most cherished times and almost all of my siblings made it out :)

My Little Brother's Bday was on Wednesday and my Step-Mom's was Thursday (Thanksgiving Day)so I surprised them with a cake and of course we sang Happy Birthday :)

More Thanksgiving food... Oh yeah! Kinda want more now

 

To get everyone in a more thankful mood we cut out some paper and everyone wrote down what they were thankful for. I then strung them up with some ribbon for display

Close up of some of them. That ribbon came handy. I bought it for a dollar at Michael's a while back and matched really well :) Ended up a great back drop for pictures, which I made everyone take ;)

And my outfit shot. These are cell phone pictures so they didn't come out that great -_-

 I wanted to dress festive so I busted out my fall colors. Of course my family was like why are you a pumpkin when it's Thanksgiving. I told them that pumpkins are fall not just Halloween and Thanksgiving is Fall ;P

Dress (Hautelook - Jack, BB Dakota) Undershirt (Marshall's) OTKs (F21) Cardigan (Old Navy) Shoes (Shoe Dazzle)

Bonus: I usually don't put my family's pictures here but my Nephew is too cute and getting so BIG :)

I can't believe we are in the last week of November and I know it's going to fly by and we'll be in the New Year (o_o) Have to try to make the most out of every day then ;) How did everyone else spend Thanksgiving? Did anyone else had a double Thanksgiving? Love to hear about it...