Whitby Goth Weekend April 2015

Hmmmm...it's been 2 weeks since Whitby Goth Weekend and only now am I getting round to posting about it. Well, what can I say it's been one hell of a comedown ;D

I love Whitby Goth Weekend, even though I don't go to the planned events and most people don't even consider me a Goth (though how anyone can dislike Siouxsie is beyond me!), I still try to go whenever I can. Seeing everyone's outfits, wandering round the markets and of course seeing beautiful Whitby itself, what could be better?!

 

We went for both days this April, which is unusual for us as we usually manage to get everything seen in the one day. First day was Saturday, I'd been working my butt off trying to put the last finishing touches to a really epic co ord, but alas, t'was not meant to be and I went with my Happy Garden, an old favourite and perfect for Spring, right?...Right? Wrong! It was a horrid day, rainy and stormy the whole afternoon, the tiny amount of leg I had exposed to the elements was perished! Luckily we managed to spend pretty much the entire afternoon we were there eating Lunch in the fantastic Botham's! Anyway onto some photos! I'll be honest, I stole most of these off Mum!

Inside Bothams! We had trouble deciding what to get to eat, the menu had so many delicious things on it! In the end we both settled for pork pie, chips and mushy peas, it was delicious, but there was a lot of food! There was also a Daenerys Targaryen sat on the next table along, it was an amazing Cosplay! No photos though, we didn't want to interrupt their meal (or ours for that matter! ;)


Mum couldn't resist a touristy photo outside!


We saw a fire-eater performing, he was amazing!


Whitby was as beautiful as ever! Perhaps more so for the terrible weather!

And oufits!

Mum wears a lot of Steampunk so went with a fantastic outfit inspired by dressmaking and sewing machines! I'm pretty sure all clothes are handmade and accessories are all storebought/offbrand.

I managed to brave taking my coat off long enough to snap this outfit shot, I'd had a hot coffee and a very brisk walk up the hill! It's the Easter co ord I snapped a couple of weeks ago plus my Angelic Pretty heart pochette.
OP, socks, headbow, bunny ears, wristcuffs, necklace and pochette: Angelic Pretty
Shoes: Ebay
Bolero: Handmade by meee! (The Frilly Ninja)

Mum managed to snap a photo of me on the phone XD


On Sunday we managed to get round the market stalls there especially for WGW. We started out in the Leisure Centre, we weren't in there very long as we didn't find much that took our fancy, Mum bought a couple of charms to put on a Blythe custom she's working on. Sai Sai were there but had brought a lot less Lolita than usual, a couple of vintage stalls turned our head, but nothing we truly adored. Next up was the Rifle Club, it's where the Steampunk stores usually are, which of course is Mum's favourite market, but also mine. All of the stalls in there are very small companies who usually sell handmade or very small run items, I love the creativity in those items and the care that goes into making the more one of a kind pieces. They also usually fit in better with the Lolita aesthetic for me.


I managed to snag an awesome Bat plane kit to build myself. Here it is in pieces, but I've since built it! Mum got an airship and two little planes to make a mobile out of.

In amongst one of the beautiful millinery stalls I spied this cute little bowler hat in a striking blue and knew I had to get it! The colour tones beautifully with the very unusual shade on my Popping Balloon jsk from Meta! It's a favourite print of mine, but I've struggled for a few years to find a hair accessory to match with it!

I also want to give a mention to another INCREDIBLE millinery stall we saw Diamantequeen Designs, they had some fantastic designs and I even tried on a couple of hats. Mum took a photo of one headdress, but I didn't think it fair to share it without permission, it was truly amazing! If I wasn't flat broke I could have spent A LOT of money, but alas I couldn't rush to anything ;_; Definitely on the wishlist!

We walked down to the Pavilion to visit some more stalls there, by then it was getting really late and a lot of shops had started to pack away =( we still got round a couple of the rooms and even bumped into my friend Jo of Skittycat Designs, I talked her about a potential commission - I was bowled over by the quality of her work since winning the Jolly Holly hat in her give away at Christmas! She also gave me some flowers off her stall, they actually go really well with my outfit!

After mad dashing all over to visit the stalls, we sat down for a spot of Lunch - some sandwiches - before heading out into Whitby for an early evening stroll around.

It's not Whitby without a photo of the Abby! As you can see it was a more pleasant day on the Sunday!

We also passed the Sophie Lancaster memorial bench. I wish it wasn't there, not because I don't want Sophie remembered, but because I wish she hadn't died =/ It's always nice to see the flowers. Feel free to check out the Sophie Lancaster Foundation here.

We snapped some outfit photos outside:

Mum wore Steampunk again, she looks fantastic! Again pretty much everything is handmade!

My co ord! I also laid it out on my bed for a photo:

Outfit rundown:
OP: Angelic Pretty Princess Silhouette (AKA Snow White)
Bolero: In The Starlight
Underdress: The Frilly Ninja
Pochette/bag: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
Boots: Clarks
Hat and accessories: Vintage/offbrand/handmade

I'm really pleased with how this outfit turned out, as I said waaaay up there, we were only planning on going for one day, so I had to pull this together last minute! Snow White is one of my favourite characters and is beautifully represented in this print <3 I made the underdress earlier in the week to go with my original co ord idea, so I'm really pleased I managed to work it into this outfit!


We wandered about looking in all the shop windows around Whitby, I now have a wishlist as long as my arm, haha! We got asked to join an amazing group photo too!

As you can see there were some amazing outfits in Whitby that weekend! Everyone looked fantastic!


I hope you enjoyed looking through all the photos from the weekend! Sorry the post came out so long, as you can probably tell I really enjoyed myself! ^_^

Hoppy Easter! And late night inspiration!

Hello! Hope you are all having a lovely day and enjoying Easter Sunday! 

I've got to be honest, I usually don't bother all that much with Easter, but this year seems different and I was inspired to make a co ord for it:

Outfit rundown:
OP, socks, headbow, bunny ears, wristcuffs and necklace: Angelic Pretty
Shoes: Ebay

Bolero: Handmade by meee!

Spring seems to have taken a long time to have sprung this year, so I was getting pretty desperate to make a spring themed co ord using Happy Garden (one of my favourite sets!) and my new Bunny Toy head band and Lyrical Bunny wristcuffs. I feel like I did it justice, I just wish I'd managed to get the bag I was working on for it finished! >.<

Which leads me onto another thing:

Last nights late night inspiration! I got this crazy idea to just make a bolero at around 10pm last night, one thing led to another and before I knew it I was clearing scraps up off the floor at 3am! I'm really pleased with how it turned out, it looks seriously adorable on. The only thing I might change is the sleeve elastic, it's the one thing I never remember to buy, so I was stuck using the only thing I could find, a really stiff elastic and it pinches a little! But other than that, really chuffed, and considering perhaps offering it as a preorder item in a variety of colours on The Frilly Ninja!


Are you glad that Spring seems to have finally sprung?

Five years with my Sweet Jams!

Okay, so late to the party once again! Today I'm writing a short post about the 12th of February...on the 21st of March! My personal life has been mega disorganised of late, so I've been more busy working on that than anything else!

Anyway, back to the point! On the 12th of February my partner James and I celebrated spending 5 years together. I thought I'd write a short and sweet post about what we go up to!

We didn't get up to much, we went to the tea house and had a spot of afternoon tea:

Delicious!

And took a selfie together:

Adorable!

And I wore a frock:

Cute!

Rundown:
Jumperskirt: Emily Temple Cute
Shoes: Clarks
Headbow: Handmade
Blouse and tights: Offbrand

We also exchanged some little gifts! I got him some Harlequins for his Warhammer, he gave me a beautiful new Blythe doll (well, sort of!).

She's still currently nameless unfortunately, but she's a TBL doll with gorgeous Dark Blue and Olive Green blended hair:

It's pretty difficult to see her hair here, but you can see the cute dress, hairband and boots she also came with! I'm hoping to some minor customising once I've finished my current custom girl...

New Year, New Topic and Cleocat!

Hello! Hope you had a very happy Festive season and are enjoying the New Year so far! I had intended to do a Yule/Christmas (we celebrate both!) catch up and present haul, but that seems to have led to A LOT of procrastination, so I'm just going to carry on blogging as normal! I've also decided with the New Year and a rekindled love of my Blythe dolls to include a new topic on my blog, DOLLS!

One surprise I received for Christmas was from my sister:

It's a Zelf! And Dandy-Lion the Zelf at that. A Zelf that is a Lion...if you hadn't guessed!

At first I wasn't sure about it, Lottie said she got it for me because she was seriously stuck for what to get me  and I had a small collection of various Dam, Russ and Weetos trolls when I was a kid, and these look a lot like trolls. I'll certainly agree that he does have that Troll charm to him that I always loved as a kid! I unpacked him and looked through the little collector's leaflet that was included at all the different Zelfs you can get, and decided then and there that I wasn't going to get into collecting them all, I can't really afford it and between the Lolita and Blythe dolls already stuffed into my tiny terrace house, there was just no room for another collection.

So I plopped him down on a shelf next to my TV, with those eyes staring at me:

And I caved! Oh no! So I decided to get one a month, in January, James treated me to Cupie, the Cupid Zelf.

Then I joined the Zelfs buy and sell group on Facebook. I lurked, a couple of days went by. Then I noticed a couple of topics cropping up about sending off for a Cleocat and receiving email, letters and the Zelf itself back. I looked it up, you have to send off receipts for purchases totalling £30 and a form you can either print off or cut out of the magazine. Our printer's bust, I dashed out and bought the magazine, then trucked down to Toys r Us for £30 worth of Zelfs. I settled on Two scented blythes, Frostette and Spellinda, and a playset to get the exclusive Ribbita Zelf - thought I might as well since it was such a big purchase! I'm not overly fussed on the playset if I'm honest, but it's a cute way to display 3 Zelfs, so it can stay for now - Ribbita is ADORABLE though!

I sent off and waited a couple of weeks...then an email arrived saying that Cleocat was on her way and would be a few days...
I missed the postie, another day to wait...
Then finally...

She's here!

Her packaging is gorgeous, it's trimmed round the edges with gold and an Egyptian theme print:

 You can see some of it here, and her phrase "Glam yourzelf up and feel like a queen!", also her the Limited Edition label, her name and type of Zelf - Cleocat the Pharoah Zelf!

A close up of Cleocat herself and with her charm and comb:

The back of the packet with all of her information, I like that her birthday is listed as "3000 years ago (give or take)" it's a nice touch!

Now, personally, I hate when toys are left in their packet, it doesn't seem like the right place for them! I like to see them played with at least a little - even if it is by a collector like me! So out of the packet she comes:

On her little backing tray. I tried to keep the packet as intact as possible because I like to keep the boxes for all my Zelfs but the glue was super strong on this one so a fair bit of it got torn, most of her illustration is still okay though!

Fully liberated and sat in my hand:

She is really beautiful in person and much easier to see all that gorgeous detailing out of the packet! She has white hair with gold tinsel, which is nice, but a little odd as the tinsel tends to droop at the back where it isn't supported by the hair and is much more flexible, a few twists of the hair to mix it in mostly solved this problem though. Gorgeous blue jewels on her headdress and chestplate and beautiful blue eyes to match. She also has a Loincloth which is made from a very flexible like rubber material - I did worry when I saw this that she wouldn't be able to sit down or pose properly, but as you can see it doesn't hinder positioning her at all. There is gold and turquoise detailing over her headdress, chestplate, loincloth, around her eyes, on the inner parts of her ears and on the back in three rings towards the end of her tail, the loincloth belt and her "cutie mark". Very glamorous! Cleocat's dark blue/grey colouring means that these details also stand out really nicely and are not overpowering.

Here's some shots of Cleocat's back, it felt strange taking photos from this view!

As you can see her "cutie mark" consists of the Zelf "Z" with the Eye of Horus just above it - an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health - very fitting for this Pharoah! 

Cleocat's comb and charm:

A golden yellow comb continues the theme and a golden Pyramid with blue jewel matches purrfectly!

But what's this?

The back of the Pyramid has Cleocat's number out of 10,000, as you can see I got 635! The charm is a really nice weight, and slightly cold to touch, so made from some kind of metal/plating.

Next to look through the collector's leaflet pack:

There's a little collector's certificate which again has the number out of 10,000 on and offers congratulations on the "lucky find" - well maybe not so in my case since I sent off for her, but there are only 750 available, so maybe so?

I haven't seen much about the Series 4 Zelfs available, so I was actually excited to have a look through the leaflet too!

There's quite a few new Zelfs which I'm looking forward to seeing more of and a couple of repeats such as Pandela who I really want a chance to get hold of, so I'm glad she's in another series!

So that's the new Cleocat Zelf, I hope you enjoyed looking through all of her photos and reading my small review. I really love this Zelf and am glad I managed to get a hold of her, she sits pride of place next to my Catsby on the Zelf shelf!

(L-R: Ribbita, Dandy-Lion, Cupie, Cleocat, Frostette, Catsby and Mint Spellinda)

Ooooh, which leads me onto one other Zelf related thing!

My other half James, doesn't believe in Valentine's day, he thinks its a Hallmark holiday and I do agree with him to a point. We were discussing it whilst walking through town a few weeks ago and glancing round at all the usual soppy tat. James was being particularly harsh about it all and basically saying that people who fall for the commercialism are all morons, so I set him straight and said that sometimes people need a set day of the year to celebrate the love and appreciation for their partner, otherwise it could easily be forgotten with the busy lives people lead. Anyway, I didn't think much of it and wasn't expecting anything, especially since we celebrate out getting together anniversary 2 days prior and he'd already bought me a Blythe for that, until he came home from work on the Saturday with a little gift bag! It had an adorable written card and The Great Gatsby on DVD in. I was so touched! He knows I've been wanting to watch The Great Gatsby for what seems like an age, so we even sat and watched it together with a delicious dinner we'd made together. He's a keeper ;D What a fantastic evening, makes me well up with tears of affection thinking about it!

A few days later, we popped out for some bits for the house. On the way home James said he wanted to pop by the big Sainsbury's for some donuts, I sighed, he eats a lot of donuts so I'm pretty sick of the sight of them. I waited in the car since Zac had nodded off in the back. He came back with a shopping bag, I peered into it, no donuts...but there was...a Zelf! On closer inspection I noticed he'd written "The Great..." above Catsby, I was very very amused! You might be able to see it in this photo:

But if you can't, don't worry, here's a picture I snapped before freeing The Great Catsby:

So you see perhaps the mysterious Great Catsby is worthy of sitting besides my Cleocat...perhaps...

FromJapan Mega haul

A few months ago I put in a substantial order with the shopping service FromJapan. Now, I'll be honest it was a complete impulse splurge in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep and I should say I regret it, but I really really don't, I got some hella cute stuff! Onto what we're all waiting for, the haul!

**Dream dress alert!!!**

Metamorphose Wonder Card / Card Playing Kitty OP and headbow set [Lolibrary].

I saw this exact set come up on the Mbok last year, it was relisted a few times before the seller everntually pulled it. I couldn't afford it at the time and was devastated when it was no longer available, so you can imagine how excited I was when I saw it pop up again! I knew I was meant to have it! I was particularly interested in this set as it has the matching headbow and the OP is complete with waist ties, detachable black ribbon bows and the collar and cuff set. It also all seems completely unworn, the headbow even still has its tag! I probably paid far more than its really worth now, but come on? A set that's this complete? I also now have something to match the Parka I bought a while back [if you remember?]

Next up I put an order through for some items from Maiden Clothing I could probably have managed to order direct from them, but I kinda felt like I was saving something on the postage by ordering through FromJapan.

Angelic Pretty Trick Girl Set [Lolibrary]

As I was ordering around August time, I decided to get my Halloween outfit sorted early. This is one adorable dress and fits perfectly! I did wear it out on Halloween and I got a lot of compliments! I've only worn the mini hat for halloween, but I've actually worn the dress a couple of times, its perfect for more casual frilly outfits! The velvet is so soft and beautiful <3

**Another dream dress alert!!!**

Baby, the Stars Shine Bright Chocolate Fascinate Fairytale [Lolibrary]

I knew when this dress first came out that I had to have it! I'm not really a fan of chocolate theme prints personally (love how they look on other Lolitas though!), but this one is different to me as it's done in Baby's more traditional Fairy Tale style depicting the story of Hansel and Gretel, so I think I'll be able to work it =D Up close the print does not disappoint, so detailed and pretty! I didn't actually realise this came with socks until it arrived, so that was a nice surprise when I opened the box! 

Maiden Clothing is a really good site to buy from in my opinion. They have a scoring system for the condition of their clothes and it is beyond accurate! All of the items were in better than expected condition, I'd almost go as far as to say nearly new!

I also grabbed some accessories off of both Yahoo Japan auctions, Mbok and from Metamorphose's webstore.

Socks:

-Wonder Card socks in blue. These are new with tags. They aren't my preferred style of socks for this print (these are) but since I didn't think to order my preferred socks when I saw them on sale on Meta's website they'll have to do =/ They complete the set at least!

-Crown Label Bubble Bath socks. I don't have this print, but I really want the Pinafore jsk and since I already have so much regret over the Wonder Card socks I didn't order, I decided to snap up the socks while they were on sale! I could have ordered direct from Meta's website, but thought going through the Shopping Service may work out cheaper on shipping in the longrun (Who knows?).

-Angelic Pretty Fancy Paper Dolls OTKS in lavender [Lolibrary] Socks with ears?! Yeah, I HAD to have these! They were released for Fancy Paper Dolls, which is a print featuring Lyrical Bunny, so I knew I needed these to go with my Lyrical Bunny lucky pack print! They are so cute! Though not in the greatest condition, I bought these second hand and unfortunately they do have a feeling of wear, I'll be sure to wash them before wearing!

Close up of accessories (all Angelic Pretty):

-Lyrical Bunny Wrist cuffs in Lavender [Lolibrary] Yeah, I know, I just bought these in white! But I just couldn't resist getting the lavender too! Besides they go perfect with the socks!

-Bunny toy headbow [Lolibrary] This was released this year to go with the Melody Toys print, but I just knew it would go fantastically well with both my Happy Garden and Lyrical Bunny (though I thought of putting it with Lyrical Bunny first!)

-Magical Lyrical Bunny Necklace in pink [Lolibrary] Released for last years Halloween, but I am a complete sucker for AP's Halloween jewellery! Also, Lyrical Bunny again! =D Aaand its new with tags, win!

These were all sat on my dream item list too, so its always good to tick them off! So happy to have them all! ^_^

FromJapan are a really good shopping service and I do definitely recommend them if you need to buy anything off of auctions or webstores in Japan. I've always found them super professional, communication is fantastic, postage is very quick, and their website is very simple to use - your orders update quickly and accurately!

Hope you enjoyed sharing in my box of delights! I cannot wait to wear it all!