The Last Few Months

 I moved a few months ago, those of you who follow my blog closely probably remember. It affords me more time to spend with my awesome cat pal Gawain. Isn't he huge? He sheds like crazy and drools when he's happy.

Teal sent me a house warming package filled with Sentsy tarts and a night-lite tart warmer. I dearly loved the wrapping.

Since my move I've gotten into crosswords and puzzles, this one Anissa, Randall, and I finished in about 6 hours, but it was only a 500 peice.

My favorite puzzle so far, 1000 peice Alphonse Mucha.

1000 piece Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night. Just the most difficult puzzle I've ever happened upon. Impressionists...bah!

 

I spent Easter with Brenna and her awesome family. We had dinner, candy and watched Kamikaze Girls, I dressed like the best Easter Egg ever.

Lipstick is Geek Chics Back to the Fuchsia.

Upon my return from California I realized I had too much random fabric in my bin, there was no room for the new stuff I'd bought. Most of which was too small to make an outfit out of so I made a bunch of small projects out of them. I used left over pieces of my Spoonflower Black Forest print to make these cute pennants to hang my pins on. I have an awful lot of pins and I forget to wear them because I never see them, this way I'll have an easier time remembering.

 

Anissa spent the evening rolling dozens of balls of yarn because she's been heavily into knitting lately and she got a deal on a bunch of really nice soft skanes. It's kinda pretty, like a pile of pastel planets.

My new boss is amazing! He makes me lunch when I work, this is cherry tomatoes with saffron rice, sprouts, and a baked dumpling with an egg and cream cheese inside. It was delicious!

Package From Teal

It was a big surprise when I got this package in the mail, Teal actually phoned me about it like two days before it arrived, but it wasn't like a holiday, or my birthday, so still a big super awesome surprise.

Addresses have been covered, but you can see that cute details Teal included on the outside like the pink bow and my name was written with a calligraphy pen on some artwork of girls with robot hats!

Once I opened the box I was assaulted with scents, scents galore!

The card was a just this super beautiful 3D teapot and teacup with flowers and berries. And no you all do not get to read what it said, but Teal, I totally keep all the letters from you Maura, and Rose too, and there's no way I'm getting rid of something this cute anyway.

So what smells so good? Scentsy tart warmers! All cutely wrapped and labeled! Its hard to pick a favorite since they all kinda smell like each other right now, but when I eventually melt them I'll know which one is which, right now my vote is for White Tea and Cactus, it sounds fresh and watery.

TEA!!!! These are both fantastic, Teal sent me Celestial Temple Perks, and Budda's Cup. Celestial Temple I believe is Yunnan, and Budda's Cup I think is Yunnan blended with Assam. Yunnan is hands down my favorite type of tea, it's robust with hints of cocao and holds up nicely against milk.

Last but not least Teal sent me makeup, in a cute box too! Most of these are blues from Meows holiday collections. The full size is Meows Calories, Teal bought it specifically for me, it's pretty much the perfect orange shade for my skin-tone see here and here. Swatches well be coming shortly so watch out for them.

Smelly things, tea, and makeup. Does Teal know me or what?

Chocolate Fest: 2012

Chocolate Fest was delicious as always, I went on a Saturday this year and it was super busy but I think it would have been busy no matter what day you went. They had tons of samples, cooking demonstrations, oh it was so awesome. I might say my only disappointment was the Cocktail at the SakeOne booth this year. I usually look forward to trying what they come up with but this years was really just boring.

I totally dragged Brenna with me and made her dress up, her goal was to find delicious hot and spicy chocolate, which was actually pretty easy since just about every booth had a variation of it, just a continuation on a theme I saw last year. Bacon is on the out, but interesting flavors like curry, rose, and pink peppercorn are on the rise.

These are the truffles from Coastal Mist, I bought a big box of them and they were delicious, my favorite was the Blood Orange and Honey truffle.

JaCivas cute booth babes, this company excels in cute.

I got my Chocolate Salted Caramel French Macaroon. I was soooo happy, it was delicious.

Brownies from Heaven booth display.

Beautiful chocolates from Forte.

Brenna found Some delicious spicy toffee from Melting Pot Candy, and a bar of Ghost Chili chocolate from Lille Belle Farms that includes Pain as an ingredient. Along with my box from Coastal Mist, I bought a bar of Root Beer Fudge from Brevin's Solid Gold Fudge (OMG SOOO GOOD!). I also meant to buy a rose flavored gummy from Willamette Valley Confectionery which of course they don't have on their website. I also have big plans to buy a bag of toffee from Tea-Time Toffee, because it's they best toffee I've ever tried.

On our way out we spotted the Energy Cow and took a picture with it.

It matched me!

Afterwards we went to Boke Bowl for something of substance. I had the pulled pork ramen with an extra slab of pork belly on top. It was good, not as good as Yuzu I think, but still really good after a hard day of eating chocolate.

Brenna got the Seafood Ramen with some shitake mushrooms on the side. Her broth was really good, but I liked my pork better then her seafood.

You can see her makeup in this picture, it's so lovely, I used Meows Greed, Permafrost, and a few others I can't remember.

Good day all around.

Harry Potter Themed

I was thinking about what I could get Maura, Rose, and Teal for Christmas, they are all Harry Potter fans and I've had my eye on this etsy shop Mud In My Blood that sells Butterbeer syrup among other Harry Potter related items. I circled it for awhile before finally breaking down and buying three for them and a sample size for myself. I figure even if it didn't taste good they would still look adorable.

They came quickly and very well packaged with each bottle in it's own little box with packing material and then in a bigger box to ship all together.

The back of the syrup bottles suggest several ways of preparing the syrup, I mixed my sample with hot water. It wasn't bad, not robust. I might suggest mixing it with milk for anyone who feels like they need their own Butterbeer, and topping with whipped cream.

Butterbeer only is kind of a boring gift SOOO I thought about what else I could include, and cute inspiration struck.

I made labels, and made them AWESOME!

I taped the wings to Ferrero Rocher chocolates to make golden snitches.

I made Acid Pops out of lollipops dipped in blackberry honey and rolled in Pop Rocks.

I had three different flavors so everyone got one of each. They stuck to the cellophane I had them wrapped in but they were really tasty, like they should start marketing and selling these in stores good. The Acid Pop label was also my favorite of the bunch.

The boxes were gift card boxes from the Dollar Store, I gutted them and put my version of a Cockroach Cluster in them. I went with chocolate covered dates as my version, not really a cluster, and I realize most people probably would have used nuts, but I like to be different.

Licorice Wands were dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with Nerds candies.

Wrapped like a tamale with purple ribbons.

Bertie Botts Candy Ceans were just packed into a cellophane gift bag with their label attached, and then I packed all the items into a box with colored packing grass. These were really fun to make, and I very much hope everyone enjoyed their gifts.

Guro Lolita Christmas

Guro Loli Christmas by brushfire0

Christmas Tree
Hands down a white Christmas tree is best, you could go with silver as well, or one of those Lighted Twig Trees. You're white tree could have some sparkle to it, but if you're really want a Guro Loli tree it's got to be white. The lights should be white too.

Ornaments
I would stick with mostly red, white, and silver ornaments. Any other colors can work but must be few and far between, you can go as gruesome or not as you'd like. Pointsettas, holly berries, and icicles would still look innocent and not freak your parents out. Hearts fit the Guro theme, you could even make them bleed if you'd want. If you want to get more themed try fake plastic knives, felt cut out of bloody hand prints, start collecting light weight body parts and organs at Halloween to attach to your tree. For a tree topper it depends on your sensibilities and what you've got on hand. A ghost, zombie or vampire angel, a Brain, Halloween Mask, my personal favorite would be to attach a bloody hands grasping a candle thrusting from the top.

Stocking Stuffers
Think spooky but remember Guro Lolita is not Goth so try to think of items that are spooky with a Victorian edge. Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs fit's the theme and there are enough scents that anyone could find something they'd like, the Mad Tea Party is recommended. Movies like Coraline, Rocky Horror, and Nightmare Before Christmas, which are spooky but not gory can work well. If you know this person well and know how much gore they can stand try Battle Royale, Sweeney Todd, or the 1978 version of Dawn of the Dead.

Avoid black items or at least try to stick with items that have very little black in them. Try typing Memento Mori into Etsy, but remember to think about what you're Guro Lolita friend could handle. This kind of necklace looks really cool, as does this, and this, but they might not feel comfortable wearing animals parts. Maybe give this a try instead, it's on theme but not too gruesome.

Pirate Lolita Christmas

Pirate Lolita Christmas by brushfire0

Last year I tackled the big three Lolita themes: Sweet, Classic, and Gothic. Even though they weren't popular posts I still really liked putting them together, and with some encouragement from Teal I've decided to put post on some of the less popular Loli themes. Pirate Loli has some of my favorite coordinates this is probably one of my favorite looks ever. On top of that it makes for a really bad ass looking tree, growing up I always wanted an "Under the Sea" themed tree and this is pretty close.

Christmas Tree
Although I think any tree color would work depending on what colors your Pirate Loli wardrobe contained (got to be match-y right?) I still wholeheartedly believe a dark blue tree is perfect for every Pirate. It mimics the rolling waves of the open sea and the adventures that await. Pair with blue and green lights with maybe some small white lights embedded deep into the tree to mimic the murky mysterious ocean.

Ornaments
Use green tinsel garland, or shiny curled green ribbon as tree "flotsam". You can make your self ornaments out of shells, tie them to the tree as is, or cover them with your choice of glitter and rhinestones. Sea life shaped ornaments can feature heavily, crabs, mermaids, you could make your own felt fish. There must be a pirate ship on the tree somewhere sailing her open branches. Lego makes some neat pirate ships if you're interested, and can't find anything you like better. Treasure chests, gold doubloons, skulls, and cutlass could also work.
As a tree topper you have a lot of options available to you, a large grinning skull, a Pirate flag (make your own Jolly Rodger design for an added touch of creativity). My favorite idea was to place a "Kraken" on the top of your tree. If you make your own you could give it long arms and tie them so that they wind around the tree like it's attacking it.

Stocking Stuffers
If it's in your price range and you have taste I would suggest boots. If there's one thing a Pirate Lolita cannot live without it's several pairs of fancy kick ass boots. Tickets to an aquarium or a special trip to the beach. Look for themed jewelry such as skulls, cutlass, ships, peice of eight, and sea life. As a general rule you should stay away from dolphins, whales, seals, and penguins unless you know she likes them already, though often cute they are not considered Pirate-y. Other ideas are ornate compasses, leather, or leather like harnesses for her sword and muskets, poofy poet shirts, eye-patches, and tricorn hats. She could decorate plains ones to match her outfit. Of if you REALLY like her you could get her THIS! Maybe it's not to everyone's taste but damn I wish someone would buy that hat for me!

Presents!

Don't get me wrong, my favorite parts of birthdays and holidays are spending time with friends, and if they happen to be around family, but I do like presents! My first presents received were from my mom. The box came the Thursday before my birthday.

• Top left picture was what I saw when I first opened the box, Jack Sparrow looking out at me. It was a leaflet from a magazine with several celebrities dresses up like Disney characters. Try typing in "Queen Latifah Ursula" into an image search engine. That is an impressive picture!
• Top right is a new hoodie, no tags so it probably came from the Fashion District. It's really comfy, but most hoodies are.
• Bottom left are some shirts and a pair of pants.
• Bottom right is my new Betseyville purse doesn't hold much but it's very pretty.

Mom often throws in random stuff she picks up, she's pretty obsessed with the Year of the Rabbit right now, so I get bunny items often. I'm wearing the bunny earrings in my birthday picture and yes they are smoking. They're KidRobot by Tarina Tarantino, and very light, I wore them all day without any problems.

The next set of gifts came from Heather who had plans on my birthday so surprised me by borrowing Randalls key and setting up a private little surprise for me.

Balloons.

Cupcake shirt!

Cupcakes! I'm sensing a theme.

Afterwards we went to Mint Tea who was serving food that day, Heather got the Mint Tea plate.

I got a piece of spanakopita a Greek spinach pie with herb honey drizzled on top. Mint Tea, when they serve food, they know what they're doing.

Randall got me a new shoe rack. My old one fell apart in the middle of the night a few months back. They do that a lot I guess, so I did some research and this standing shoe rack from Rubbermaid had some of the best reviews. I'm really happy with it!

Randall also bought me a bunch of Hellboy, B.P.R.D, and Abe Sapien items, because he knows me well^^!

Also received were the first 4 season of No Reservations, a nice new petticoat, Costo sized flat of Oreos, Adagio and Joann Fabrics gift certificates. Becky got me a beautiful cardigan, I think I made out like a bandit this year!