Mini Update!

I haven't had the time to update this blog in several months, and even though I've had plenty of great ideas swirling around in my head, I haven't had the energy or the time to make a solid post. My health has been in decline since the spring, with lots of new, subtle, and unpleasant symptoms bogging me down. I was really depressed for a while, and my anxiety and OCD were driving me crazy (hahah). I also began to notice that I was tired all the time, and that I was beginning to have a lot of problems with memory, concentration, and speech. As it turns out, those new symptoms were actually really scary side effects from a medication that I'd been on for the past 2 years. My medication created such a disturbance in my sleep patterns, that over the long term, I was actually beginning to experience various forms of cognitive impairment. (<_<);; I've fired the doctor who put me on that crap, found a new one, and am actively working to get transitioned off of that medication. It has been a rough road, as anyone who has experienced Antidepressant/SSRI Withdrawal Syndrome can attest, but I'm starting to feel optimistic about the coming weeks. I am out of work right now, and taking some much-needed time for myself, so expect a lot of updates in the coming weeks.

Here are some of the topics I'll be discussing soon:

• Lolita Sewing Project Updates - Burgundy Corset Skirt, Headbow, Matching Bolero
• Making a Matching Headbow Out of Waist Ties
• Bodyline's Best Bets - Pieces Sure to Satisfy Even the Most Picky People

I also hope to join the Lolita Blog Carnival, and over the next two weeks or so, I'd like to debut my own webshop for handmade Lolita accessories and jewelry! I've toyed around with different branding ideas and names in the past, but I think I finally have something that I'm happy with, and I'm really excited to get started. I will also be remodeling my crappy sewing room over the next month or two and turning it into a proper Lolita sewing room with white furniture, curtains, and decor. :) I'm going to post lots of pictures when I finish!

Woo! New Layout!

I know pretty much no one reads this thing (yet), but for anyone who does *coughMadelinecough,* I decided to change the layout! I got really sick of the pixel art x Imai Kira art that I had before - it was just too busy, and didn't really reflect me or my personal aesthetics anymore - so, I took it down and made a new one. This new layout takes the background from my Tumblr, which I'm in love with, and a lovely new header image that I made myself with a collage of vintage clip art from the fabulous Graphics Fairy. I wanted the new header to reflect all of my different Lolita and Quaintrelle interests; basically tea, flowers, bows, fruit prints, bird watching, sewing, and vintage things. The color scheme is all pale blues, duty roses, olive greens, and golds... all colors that I enjoy, and colors that remind me of Versailles and Classic Lolita. I know my layout probably doesn't scream "LOLITA" the way other blogs do with a ton of pastels and kawaii motifs, but this blog is more than just a Lolita blog, and I really want it to represent me.
I have to give a lot of credit to Caro-chan and her blog, F Yeah Lolita!, because her old layout is really what gave me the idea to make a vintage clipart collage. Yeah, at one point, I kinda went "DUDE! I wanna make my website look like that!!," but in my own design, I was going a lot more for the general kitschy, vintagey look that incorporated vintage clip art elements, as opposed to a carbon copy of it (which would just be wrong). Our individual layouts have ended up being fairly different in terms of size, color scheme, content and arrangement, but I still owe her thanks for the inspiration.

d00d! Fr00tz!

After the past few posts of mine being all super serious, I thought it would be a nice change of pace to post something fun and a bit frivolous. Anyone in the Lolita community who knows me IRL knows about my obsession with cherry and strawberry prints. If you look around a Boston or RI meetup, and you see a girl all decked out in a fruit print, it's probably me. I don't know why, but there's something about fruit motifs that really strikes my fancy. Ever since I was a kid, I really enjoyed cherry prints, and now that they've become a common and popular motif in Lolita fashion, my enjoyment has bloomed into a preoccupation of sorts. While I'm not going super out-of-my-way at the moment to collect fruit prints, they do  The past few summers' releases have done nothing to help this obsession, nor have a number of fabrics that are currently available for purchase at JoAnn Fabrics or Walmart. This Tumblr, called "F!Yeah Fruity Fashion," also doesn't help me, because it gives me new things to drool over on a regular basis.
That being said, I'm going to start doing a review of a fruity dress or accessory every Friday  whenever the mood strikes me. Fruit Friday will cover the good, the great, and the just plain "WTF Burando?" Yes, it's biased, and highly subjective, but I'm doing this for fun. :D While it's not possible for me to post all of the  cherry / strawberry releases that have come out over the years, I can post the popular ones, the absolutely awful ones, and some of my favorites, too.

In the meanwhile, can anyone tell me what this dress is? I've been searching all over Lolibrary, but my search-fu seems to be failing me. As far as I can tell, it's AP, and a slightly older release, maybe 2009ish.  Next Fruity Friday: AP Berry-Chan JSK!