NYAF/NYCC '10 Recap: Day 1

Well... NYAF/NYCC is over. It was a really good time and equally exhausting! All three of my days start with getting up super early so I could catch a cab with Eric down to the convention center. I wore lolita all three days so I had to get up even earlier than I normally would so I could be ready in time. We got to the convention center around 9am but ran into a couple minor issues involving our badges, but things got fixed fairly quickly and easily. Eric ended up starting on his piece around noonish. We had to wait for electricity and all our other typical fixings to arrive which led to a bit of a late start.

Being the lolita shopping addict I am, I wandered away from Eric fairly early to scope out the dealer's room for any lolita related goodness. I was fairly disappointed. Kinokuniya had some stuff from Baby that seemed to be mostly leftovers and were a little overpriced in my opinion. I did buy a bolero coat because I had been looking for one exactly like the one they had. I was lucky/misfortunate enough to have the h.Naoto booth right by Eric's work. I was lucky because I hate having to search for booths when I like to keep visiting them and unfortunately because they had a lot of awesome stuff I really wanted to buy. I liked seeing the Hangry and Angry mascots keep walking by.

I imagine it sucked to wear them as I assume they were blind since they had to be led around while wearing them. On a non lolita note... I did buy a Squishable T-Rex. He's very bright but I need a name for him. Any ideas? Once the convention had been open to the public for a while, I did head down to the anime Artist Alley. I checked out Lolitas and Cream and bought some really cute stuff from them like a broach and a huge cupcake ring. Every year I see their booths at conventions their stuff looks better and better!

I eventually came back to check in on Eric (I am supposed to be assisting him after all) He had gotten quite a bit done on his mural, but as Eric always does, he was stressing about finishing on time. In reality, it looked great and he finished perfectly on time because it's Eric and that's what he does. Most people were really pumped about the subject of the mural being YuGiOh. I personally am not a fan but it was fun to hear all the people yelling out things and almost reliving their childhood. I think the best part was when a younger kid (probably around 8 or 9) got upset on the last day about the mural stating that it is the 10th year anniversary of YuGiOh when the copyright dates that were also in the mural said that YuGiOh was created in 1996. He was pretty pissed off and immediately went to Toonzaki to question them as to what the hell that was about. He was on a mission, but since Eric was really just recreating the art we didn't have an answer for him.

I also went to the Lolita panel on Friday. It was a little bit boring, but it was really aimed more at girls who were just starting out in lolita. I met a few other lolitas who were really nice at the panel though and they did have a giveaway. They gave away a ton of stuff and I thought that it was quite nice that a lot of newer lolitas seemed to be the ones winning the prizes (even if I didn't win anything XD)

While the panel was a little bit uneventful, I did get to see a lot of lolitas on day 1. They were all dressed quite wonderfully. I figured I would just post a few photos here of some of my favorites. If you see yourself and you'd like your username posted or a blog linked, please let me know in the comments!

Frozenmotion9 making AatP look stunning. This was my favorite coord. hands down. I would love to have that whole outfit XD

This girl had so much poof under her skirt. It was pretty amazing!


A girl from Tokyo Rebel. I loved everything about her outfit.

A really awesome mostly offbrand coord.

A really nice handmade DBZ JSK. Fantastic!

I did also run into a few nice cosplays that I took photos of. Same policy stands here though, if you'd like me to link to you please let me know in a comment!

I love seeing Utena cosplays ^ ^

A really HUGE Chewbacca!

The Queen of Hearts

A fantastic Captain America

Probably the best cosplay of the show!

All in all Day 1 was great. I met a lot of great people and had a lot of fun. I'll be posting Day 2 and 3 recaps ASAP so please keep an eye out for them. And please check out more of Eric Maruscak's work at Pepperink.com!

Pre-NYAF/NYCC Blog

I'm quite excited for the upcoming NYAF/NYCC this year. I plan on wearing lolita all 3 days of it and am looking forward to the fashion show (even though I didn't make the modeling contest T_T) and swap meet. Most of all I'm excited to be going with my friend Eric Maruscak who is going to be doing what he does best... Chalk art! I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a surprise or not so I won't talk about the piece, but I'm hoping it will be a hit just like every other year has been.

Now, I know I said I was planning on wearing lolita for all three days. I just need to decide what to wear. I've got a couple of ideas I'm throwing around, but I don't know for sure what I want to wear yet. I think I'm gonna try to wear my newer dresses that haven't gotten much love yet. I'll be sure to make a post once I know how I'm gonna coordinate them!

A Bi-Annual Wardrobe Post

I've seen a lot of blogs lately doing wardrobe posts, and I feel like hopping on this bandwagon. So off we go! Here's my wardrobe as of September 1st!

Short Blouses:

I've got a slightly larger variety of brands when it comes to my blouses than I do the rest of my wardrobe. A few of them were thrifted or clearance rack buys. I've got one each from BTSSB, AatP, Meta, and AP. I'd like to get a few more styles of short sleeve blouses. I don't really ever wear long sleeve blouses so it'd be worth it. I'd really like a black blouse with a slightly lower neckline. The one I have now is pretty high and not super comfortable in the summer.

Cutsews:


I prefer short sleeves for my shirts. I like my cutsews to have the option to be worn with my everyday clothes since I don't get to wear lolita everyday. I always try to work my brand into my dailywear. I especially love my sailor cutsew. I'd love to get a hold of something that will go better with some of my skirts.

JSK 1:

These are my JSKs and 1 OP ^ ^. I mostly wear JSKs instead of skirts. I've got a larger bust as far as brand is concerned and that unfortunately keeps blouses from fitting nicely. The JSKs are a nice remedy to that. I especially love my Marie Antoinette JSK, my black Pocket Embroidery JSK and my Gathers Frill JSK. As one can see from my collection of dresses, I'm a very big BTSSB/AatP fan.

Skirts:

I don't wear skirts very often because I don't look very good in them. I don't like how they look on me with a blouse tucked in. Unfortunately, wearing my blouse untucked often looks just as bad. Oh well, I at least can wear them casually. I'm very grateful that my mum altered my BTSSB Border Print skirt to fit me though! I don't know what I should actually coordinate it with, but I'm excited to wear it.

Purses:

I need some new purses. I'd love to get a black school bag. On retrospect, the piano bags were a bad choice. I figured they would match just about anything I bought, but that ended up being very far from the reality of it all. I need a basic or plain black bag. I've got my eyes on the lookout for one.

Shoes:

My shoe collection recently doubled and I'm quite happy about that. The first pair is An~Tai~Na. The 3 pairs in the middle are from Montreal. The sneakers on the far right are from AatP. At some point in time I'd like to maybe get a nice pair of brown boots or shoes along with maybe a pair of pink shoes to go with the one pink JSK I have.

Accessories:

Socks:

This is my brand sock collection. I tend to buy printed socks from brands since I can find other pretty knee high or OTK socks at mainstream stores fairly easily. All of them are from BTSSB, AatP, Meta, and AP.

Parasols:

My parasol collection is small, but I don't really have a need for a ton of parasols. I really only need a black and a white one. I may invest in a pink one at some point in time simply because the white one is a bit too elegant to go terribly well with sweet lolita. I love parasols though, it's sad I don't get to use them more though.

And that's the bulk of my wardrobe ^ ^ Thanks for looking. I'd eventually like to find a few filler pieces like a bolero or a cardigan that didn't look frumpy on me. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a hold of something like that soon. Perhaps at NY Comic Con this year? Have any of you gone through your wardrobes lately and what pieces do you feel you need or are going to cut from your wardrobe?

Minkyshop An*Tai*Na Frill RHS Review

I fell in love with these shoes the moment I saw them and was really happy when I came across them on Ebay (Minky Shop)at what I feel is a fair enough price. I had a choice between the oval or heart-shaped buckles. I preferred the heart shaped buckles, but decided to go with the oval buckle because I noticed that half of the stock photos of the various colors had the heart buckles on upside down. I don't know if this is an easy remedy, but I didn't feel like dealing with it. I placed my order on 8-13-10. On 8-14-10 I received an email from them letting me know that they were making my shoes and that they would ship in 1-2 weeks. It says that it can take up to 15 days for the item to ship. On 9-2-10 I still hadn't heard anything about whether or not they had been shipped. I sent an email to ask what the status of my order was. They responded on 9-4-10 saying that the shoes had been shipped a little while ago and that they should arrive with 5-7 days. The postmark on the package stated that the shoes were shipped on 9-3-10. They arrived on 9-7-10. They were packaged well inside a box. Each shoe was individually wrapped inside a plastic bag.

I ordered the shoes in size L (24). They fit fairly well. They seem to be a bit smaller than my other size L shoes, so they might end up being not very comfortable at first. This must just be how An~tai~na sizes are. It is my hope that with some wear, they will stretch just the tiniest bit. I tried to look into their sizing a bit before I made my choice, but couldn't really find much information anywhere.

As you can see in the photo below, they did not honor my request for oval-buckles. Since the heart shaped buckles are on the right way and the ones I preferred, I'm not upset, but I do think that it is very sloppy of them to ask me which ones I would prefer and then ignore my answer.

Other than my sort of complaint about being given the wrong buckle, I can't find any issues with the actual construction of the shoes. I do noticed that the straps to really sit flat when worn, most likely because of the snap under the buckle. The shoes are easy enough to buckle on and off, so I'm not really sure why there needs to be a snap there. I think it's a problem that will eventually fix itself with wear though.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. I don't think I'll be rushing over to buy from Minkyshop again any time soon though. To me, it appears that they may have hurried up and shipped my shoes once I finally emailed them about it. That on top of the heart buckle mix-up, I'm not sure I feel that they are a terribly reliable seller. The end product is in perfect condition, with little to no flaws, but the service was not anything to brag about. I probably won't buy from them again unless they have something that I have to have but can't find anywhere else.

A Trip to the New York Renaissance Festival

Yesterday, I went to another Renaissance festival in Tuxedo, NY. This was my first time to this festival and aside from some terrible parking, it was a very enjoyable experience. There is a decent walk from the parking lot to the actual festival, but if you want, you can take the shuttle bus. We decided to walk it. I say we, but I really mean Travis, I wanted to take the shuttle because I was wearing my new shoes and didn't know whether or not they would be comfortable for the entire day. Luckily, they ended up being decent walking shoes.

I was surprised that at the entrance someone recognized my JSK immediately as lolita and asked me if it was Angelic Pretty. Another girl later correctly identified it as BTSSB. Usually when I meet someone who is familiar with lolita, they comment that they recognize the fashion. It was pleasant to hear people recognize that I was wearing an actual brand. We went from the entrance accidentally headed right to the joust. We had good timing as it was just about to start.

The joust itself seemed a lot less planned out than the ones I've seen at the Sterling Renaissance Faire. I'm not sure if this was for the better or not. Both shows are quite nice. I noticed that the commentary and the lines from the knights (whether scripted or unscripted) were a bit more adult oriented than the ones at Sterling. At one point, one of the knight's horses threw him, but the horse also fell backwards on top of him. I'm not entirely sure it was a part of the show, but the knight got right up and continued with the show like nothing had happened. What a champ either way, I can't imagine having a horse land on you is fun.

After the joust we wandered around a bit and just checked out the vendors. I liked that this festival had a very large number of vendors. It seemed to also help keep the prices down as well since there was more than one shop selling most wares. They also had a little pathway where there were a bunch of psychics to do tarot readings, palm readings, and other divination. The games section was also pretty large too. We stood and watched the tomato man for awhile. He was way better than the one at Sterling this year but the one that was at Sterling last year was the best.

After wandering for a bit we went to the food court area to get something to eat. I got a pickle and something to drink and then we did some more wandering. This place is huge. There are a lot of shops to see. After finishing my first pickle and wandering even more, I decided I wanted another pickle. We lucked out and ran into another pickle guy. He told me I had a pretty smile and should wrap it around a pickle. XD As creepy as this pickle dude was, the second pickle was just as awesome as the first. After some more window shopping, we found a shop that sold "dragons" which was kind of cute. They were actually geckos, since, you know, Dragons don't actually exist.

After we felt we had sufficiently wandered the faire, we decided we'd head out. We walked the hilly path back to the car and then found that the cars had been parked three deep. Luckily we were on the edge and were able to get out without much difficulty despite having a car parked next to us on all four sides. I really enjoyed this festival. I hope I can get back there next summer. It was well worth the 2 hour trip. I'd recommend you go!

Now for the quick outfit rundown!

JSK and Bag: BTSSB

Socks: Meta

Shoes: Montreal

Everything else: Offbrand

An Interview Avec Moi

I was interviewed by Interview with the Lolita today. Please check it out!

http://lolitainterview.blog132.fc2.com/

Another Renaissance Festival Coordinate

I have finally gotten to confirm my plans to go to the NY Renaissance Festival in Tuxedo, NY. I'm quite excited as this will not only be my first time there, but It'll also be my first opportunity to wear my new Marie Antoinette JSK. Sadly, I don't really have the time or money to run out and buy all new things to go with it, so I'm only working with what I already have for this coordinate.



While the socks and the bag aren't perfect matches, they match much better than a lot of my other socks and accessories would. I'm glad that I'll actually be able to make use of the Perfume Bottle socks from Meta since I received them in an LP and I kind have this thing where I don't like to sell socks new or used. The bunny bag is the only thing I'm not completely happy with though. I figure that a pink bunny bag will match a lot better than an AP Piano bag in pink or black, as those are really my only other options.

So what do you think? I'll be posting pictures when I blog about the festival of course. Please feel free to tell me what you think!