Let's Join the Lolita Blog Carnival! (One JSK, 5 different outfits!)

Dear Sparkly Eyed Dolls,

I am so excited to be writing my first Lolita Blog Carnival post! I didn't sleep last night to ensure everything would be done on time. The task is, "Take one staple wardrobe item, like a skirt, JSK, or OP, and make 5 different coordinates with it. May also be great to talk about budget." I thought this was the perfect topic for me to start off with. My blog is all about budget and making what you have stretch as far as you can! I can just about guarantee that every one of the outfits pictured in this post were bought for 50 dollars or less (Not including shoes, I only have a few pairs of shoes and they are an investment always.) and with a shared JSK that really can save money. Being able to put together different looks with one piece of clothing is a key part in wearing something like Lolita regularly. Okay! On with the show. Let's start! 

Outfit 1- Fairy-Loli Fun Fun FUUUNN!! 

This was easily my favorite outfit! Can you see I made use of that Tunic I bought for around 4 dollars at Target.com. This outfit is incredible fun to wear and just brings me to life inside when I wear it. I think this one suits me the best. Remember that pink Bodyline JSK because you might be seeing a lot of it very soon!

I felt I looked like a Lala Loopsy here myself! Can you picture it? I can! Suzette La Sweet's silly cousin Skiteanna LaSweet! (My pen name last name being the same as hers was unintentional, but I'm not bothered at all by it~! I love the Lala Loopsy doll line.)

Outfit Rundown 

Bow-Kroger (1.50$)

Glasses- Rue 21 (Free, but one get one free sale!)

Wig- Bodyline (bought from a seller online for 15 including shipping) 

Pink Confetti Tunic- Target for about 4.17$ on clearance ~ 

High Waisted Pink JSK- Bodyline (I believe I think I spent about 25 a few years ago) 

Cupcake necklace- Gift from my Japanese teacher (She made it!)

Tights- Rue 21 (I think the pack of pink and black was around 4)

Shoes- Bodyline (They were 40$)

Other jewelry is thrifted, given to me, or from Mcdonalds (The watch)

Whole outfit total- 89.67$, without the shoes it comes to 49.67$

Next up! 

Outfit 2- Little Lavender Dreamer

This was my favorite shot in this outfit! I really wish I had a matching purple ribbon to tie around the waist of the dress to finish off the look.

Outfit Rundown 

Bow- Kroger ($1.50)

Wig- Bodyline (bought from a seller online for $15 including shipping) 

Blouse- Goodwill ($4.19)

High Waisted Pink JSK- Bodyline (I believe I think I spent about $25 a few years ago) 

Backpack- Goodwill (It was a long time ago I think it was around $2)

Tights- Walmart ($1.50)

White Shoes- Walmart ($8)

Without shoes- $49.19 With shoes- 57.19

Wow stuff really adds up, huh?

Outfit 3- Causal...Fairy-Loli...thing....I guess (XD")

This would be a good outfit for a day out at the park, a walk, or to go to school in.

Bring a jacket for when you get chilly.

In this outfit I'm using the JSK as a skirt by putting a shirt on over it. This is one of my favorite JSKs to wear as a skirt! The key to this look is less poof, lower poof. This would be a great time to layer short petticoats/panniers like I do. I used one pannier with some lift and wore it midway down my hips to give it the casual shape I wanted.

After school on the walk home (or just when it gets a little colder if you didn't wear it to school) a simple hat like this fit right over the double bun hair style. I stuck the hair bows in my lunchbox (I use it as a regular bag.)

Outfit Rundown 

Hat- Target ($10)

Glasses- Rue 21 (Free, but one get one free sale!)

Shirt- Walmart (I think it was around $7)

Jacket- Christmas gift one year (I think it was around $16 and bought at Walmart)

Hello Kitty Lunchbox- Gift from Mckinley

High Waisted Pink JSK- Bodyline (I believe I think I spent about $25 a few years ago) 

Polka dotted Leggings- Goodwill ($2) 

I don't have the foggiest clue how much those socks were, but they were from Goodwill

Shoes- Goodwill (I think they were $7 or cheaper)

Overall price with shoes-$51  Without shoes- $44

OH I forgot  to add the bows, they would only be $1.50 each, I get most of my bows from Kroger.

Outfit 4- A More Traditional Sweet Lolita Outfit (Caps everywhere because they just look nice, some things are titles and such yadayada~) 

I really wanted to do more hair styles, but you know how it is when your curler breaks and you loose all your hairpins in a move right? Made things a bit harder as far as hair is concerned. No one is more disappointed than me that I couldn't use my real hair more.

.....I am sensing a pattern here...

Bow and ...oh what else? "I guess I'll get the matching bag!"

Outfit Rundown

It can be difficult to remember actual prices,  bought a lot of this stuff a long time ago! (XD")

Bow- This came off my Bodyline Carousel Skirt and I think the bow is a free add on to the skirt~

Wig- Bodyline (bought from a seller online for $15 including shipping) 

Blouse- Goodwill ($1.50)

High Waisted Pink JSK- Bodyline (I believe I think I spent about $25 a few years ago) 

Carousel Bag- Bodyline (I don't remember what I paid, maybe $7?)

White Tights- Walmart ($1.50)

Shoes- Bodyline (They were 40$)

Total without shoes- $50 With shoes- $90

Outfit 5- Winter ...erm... Wonderland?

Winter is coming soon so I decide to do a warm outfit last.

Outfit Rundown

Earmuffs- Bodyline (I think they are $6)

Bow- Kroger ($1.50)

Scarf- I got that for Christmas long long ago in a galaxy far far away

Blouse- Given to me by Louise

High Waisted Pink JSK- Bodyline (I believe I think I spent about $25 a few years ago) 

Tights- Walmart ($1.50)

Shoes- Gift for my birthday one year

A lot of gifts this time! Let's add it up~

Total- (Shoes cost me nothing so it would be useless to do a separate total) 34

So to do a quick recap we had

1.

2.

3.

4.

and 5 outfits from one JSK

The JSK I picked, I picked because the simplicity. The simpler the skirt, dress, or JSK the easier it is to coordinate the way you want. When the piece is one solid color you can choose your own color scheme more freely. In a dress with a loud print you can be slightly limited in color selection. When first starting, it may be better to buy simple pieces that you can dress up any way you choose! It is easy and quick when your just starting out to buy just a dress or 2 in colors you like to wear, so will therefore own a lot of or have plans to own more of. Also, did you notice the shoes and JSK usually almost made up the whole price? Other things can be picked up very cheap and you never know what you will accumulate over the years! 

 A few tips

~ If your using a print dress and your at a loss for how to coordinate it, look at the colors in the print. Bringing colors out of the print can really make the little details stand out more. You could also accessorize around a theme, I always find that to be fun and easy!  

~ Don't worry about making a million different perfect outfits when your just starting out. When you just start in Lolita you are still deciding how exactly you want to look in Lolita and your still in the early stages of collecting pieces you may need to create different outfits. Just wear your new JSK without a blouse when it first arrives if you want! Sure it may be against the rules, but I sure didn't wait to buy a blouse before I tried on my first JSK (This one, actually). If your worried about being perfect on your first try, just remember. The fun part of Lolita is the journey! (Though the end result is still pretty fun too!) 

~ Don't worry so much about doing everything right!  I think you should learn the rules, gain inspiration, then brake the rules a little! If it looks good to you and you love it then that is absolutely all that matters! You shouldn't be too afraid to be yourself because of what people might say. The point of fashion is to be yourself and express yourself. Your awesome! Be proud of it!~ 

~ Don't worry be happy! That can be hard advice to follow. Things get bad for everyone, some more than others. Everyone has had at least one bad day. Even if you don't feel like smiling smile, even if you don't feel like dressing up in your favorite outfit, do it anyway! Sometimes you have to force yourself to think your happy on bad days and it can turn into being happy! That works pretty often for me, but that isn't always the answer. A thing to remember is that fashion should make you happy! If it isn't making you happy anymore find out why, maybe you found you took an insult to heart and it's been dragging you down. It can be hard, but try to remember tip 3! At the risk of rambling I'm going to leave it at that. 

So, which outfit is your favorite? Do you have any tips you would give about coordinating outfits around one piece of clothing? I had a really good time with this post and I hope to do more Lolita Blog Carnival posts in the near future! I hope my first one was a success! 

Other super blogs who also joined in on the fun! 

Swirly Purple and Green Crayons

Sparkling Girl

A Lace Jail

Hello Batty

2 Teaspoons of Sugar

RedTonic

Make Lovely

Liz Juice Melting Mind

(I was up all night AGAIN, so) Sleepily Yours,

Skiteanna La~Sweet

(Wrote this yesterday, but posted today as soon as I got up! I actually got some sleep tonight~)

Let's Go Trick Or Treating! (Improvised Halloween Costumes, Happy Halloween!)

Dear Cutie Oogie Boogies,

Happy Halloween!!! (uhh...sorta! Pretend it's still Halloween I had so much trouble with my sister's phone and getting the pictures we took from Halloween on my computer :( )

This year I wanted to go as the ever adorable and fantastic Draculaura from the wonderful like of Mattel dolls, Monster High. Though at the store if I wanted the full costume (a 14/16 in girls they had and a wig) I would of been set back at least 45 dollars (YIKES!!) I would rather spend that on clothes for all year! So I decided to think of something else. I put together a costume entirely with things I already owned! Let me show you...

This is the Draculaura costume I wore for Halloween! I have the doll that I carried around also. Let me tell you what I did. I looked through what I had and put together the closest thing I could to her actual outfit, I also had another outfit ready that I thought looked like something she might wear since of course people and monsters don't always wear the exact same outfit every time! I wore the outfit that looked like the doll I had since I thought the twinsies would be cute! For a Draculaura costume all you really need is a good mixture of pink and black in an adorable outfit! If you want a costume that looks like mine I'll tell you each outfit component I used. 

Head: I actually picked up this pink pigtail headband from Goodwill since it was cute and charming and only a couple dollars, since my hair is fairly dark I just put it up in pigtails with my hair and it turned out pretty good, a lot better than spending 25 dollars on a cheap wig I would only wear a couple of times. If you don't have something like this, you could just get pink ribbon to tie in your hair or color strips of paper pink and put them in your hair. If your hair isn't dark you could get just black hair spray and then do the former instruction (Though I think buying black AND pink spray would be better in price than the wig, but I don't know for sure.) I added a bow even though she doesn't wear one because I thought it topped off the outfit well. I did simple makeup, just sunscreen and pink powder over it then drew a pink heart with sharpie on my cheek. My lips have a simple red, but you can't go wrong with pink, dark purple. or black lipstick. After that I wiped off a little off the bottom lip and drew on fangs with some of Megan's face makeup (You could use white eyeliner or anything you feel would work really.) 

Neck: That is just a cute flowery shawl my aunt let me borrow for Halloween!~ You could use anything you want. I think a filly handkerchief or anything white and frilly would work great, actually anything white a splash of white is all you need so anything white you can find should work fine.~

Torso: I am wearing this pretty lacy black long sleeved shirt that, again, my aunt let me borrow. Over that I have a simple hot pink tank top from Rue 21. ( I actually think the black shirt was bought at Rue 21 too) Just whatever long sleeved (or short sleeved) shirt you can find should work, over that anything pink and with less sleeve (a hotter pink preferably) She wears a pink vest, or you could add white buttons to your pink top it would help.~ 

Bottom: I have a black tulle skirt borrowed from my sister under a white Bodyline petticoat that I almost never wear because it lost it's poof right away and isn't really cute enough to wear as a fairy kei tutu. If you have a white skirt, that would be perfect. Something white is the most accurate, but another color could be worn. I have a below picture of another version of this outfit with a different skirt. 

Legs and Shoes: Just whatever you have should be fine. If you can find black tights and some kind of pink shoes. If you can't find black tights, that isn't really a big deal (she's wearing short fishnets anyway) you could use a different color tights, socks, or go without whatever you prefer. If this is for Halloween it can be harder to see your shoes when it gets dark and if you plan to be walking a lot you want something comfortable. This category is the easiest to not be perfect on. The shoes I have on are from Bodyline and the tights I think I got in a pack at Rue 21, I have all kinds of black tights that come packaged with my white and pink tights and I almost never wear them so this gave me a chance. 

When picking an outfit take the weather into consideration! I was hot when the sun was out, but was perfectly cool once it went down. I live in Texas and it can still get pretty hot this time of year! <3 

This is the same outfit with a different skirt! Skirt is from Goodwill~

This is me with Mckinley! All this costume he wore is a sharpied mustache ( I drew it on for him) 3d glasses with popped out lenses and a hat (normal clothes otherwise) He wasn't feeling well and didn't go trick or treating, but I wanted him to feel included. I made him a name tag also, it says Hi, my name is Mr. R Butts (He wanted it to say that so why not? XD) He went as a fancy pants fast food employee I think! Easy improved costume if you don't wanna spend money~! 

Another picture of us in our costumes, also for a candy bag I just used my purse because I thought it matched and it was plenty big enough~

I went quite a few places this October! This is me with a group of friends we just threw together last minute this group costume idea. We went as kids on the Polar express and just wore night clothes a robe and carried stuffed animals! I brought my giant Cheer Bear, wore my big pink night shirt, frilly bloomers a borrowed robe thing, and my cute fluffy pink kitty slippers. I also just threw my hair up in cute pigtails~ Also, LOOK WE MET BATMAN :DD

Sadly, this was the best picture we got of Mckinley wearing his Clawd Wolf costume :( (Clawd is Draculaura's boyfriend) All he had was a wolf mask he cut the face out of and some nice clothes. (I actually went trick or treating twice this one rich neighborhood did trick or treating early and Megan had friends there that invited us. Mckinley went this time, but was sick on Halloween.) 

We also met Tony the Tiger! We went to this little Halloween carnival thing. This was the day I wore the Draculaura costume with the peachy pink skirt and I actually won the best costume for kids 10 and up! I think it was more the smile and hopefully cheery look on my face that won it, rather than the costume itself. (I got a pink monkey doll and "winner" plastic metal thing, I was really happy to have won, haha!) Megan (In the purple shirt) went as a volley ball player which is a pretty easy improved costume too! 

So there you have it! My improved, cheap, Halloween costumes this year! I hope this can help you for next year if you happen to want to go as anything I did this year~! <3 I hope your Halloween was super happy and you got a lot of candy, just don't get sick eating it all!!! <333333

Also, if you were wondering my guinea pig, Sugar, has started improving a lot! She can move on her own now, just not as well, but it's a start! I should resume blog entries after this one very soon. 

Spookily Yours,

Draculaura, I mean Skiteanna La~Sweet

Let's Be Creative! (Simple and Easy Tutorial For Decorating Your Cellphone!)

Dear Chocolate Coated Truffle Pigeons,

Do you have a boring cheap phone that you just don't like that much? Do you wish your dull grey phone would match your colorful personality? Do you like everything in your life to be cute, but think you just don't have the money or skill to do anything yourself to MAKE the things around you cute and pretty? Well then, stay tuned to find out how my phone went from cheap and boring to a pink sparkly gem among my possessions! I am don't have a lot of money or skill, but did have a lot of success!

Here again for another glorious Friday! Today I will be writing a mini tutorial on how I turned my simple cheap grey cellphone into a cute pink cellphone that I just love!

This method isn't for everyone and may not be good for your own cellphone. I would recommend something else for the newer cellphones that are expensive with a huge touch screen. This is more for older phones, usually flip phones, with a lot of area for color! Let's get started!~

(Pictured is the Samsung Gusto 1) This is what my cellphone looked like before~ (This is the picture from the internet since I didn't take a picture before I started since I got the idea to make a tutorial after I was finished, but it is this model.) Look at the cute kitty~ ovo


~Step 1~ Read the instructions of the tutorial before you begin so you know what your getting into. If you need to, ask permission from your parents first. (I am not responsible for you ignoring that instruction XD) After you do that and you are sure you can and want to do this let's begin!

~Step 2~ Make a plan and find a nail polish!

Picture from http://www.thepolishaholic.com/2010/07/organized-stash.html 

I suggest picking a nail polish color that would match your wardrobe, I used a pink because most things that I own are pink, that is my favorite color!~ If you are a person who likes nail polish, it will be a lot easier to find a color, though if you really wanted to you could stop by the store, a garage sale, or a friends house and buy or borrow some nail polish(Which would usually be rather cheap) I recommend picking a nail polish that does well on your nails before you go putting it on your phone! A good quality nail polish will make it easier, but I wouldn't stress terribly about it. Also, make sure the color is one that will look good on the phone! I would suggest not using too many colors or getting TOO crazy, sometimes being simpler can really help the final product. Get a piece of paper and draw your cellphone, find crayons or colored pencils, or even markers that are close to the nail polish colors you want to use and color it in! Once your satisfied with the design you can move on to the next step.

~Step 3~ Now that you have your phone, your nail polish, and your plan it's time to start painting! Make sure you only paint in one direction and are VERY careful around areas you do not want to paint. I would have cue tips and nail polish remover handy just in case. Also, you can use tape and tape off areas that have screen showing. When I did my phone I cut off tape to place over the front screen, but I found you must be VERY careful or when you take it off it could tear holes in your paint job. I think it may be best to cut the tape smaller than the screen so there are still gaps between the tape and the paint job so that most of your screen is protected, but you won't ruin the paint job. Still, be VERY careful around the screens. This is the most difficult part. Apply an even coat and at this point you may be panicking because it looks like a complete mess! Do not panic little ones <3~ This project requires a lot of time and many many coats of nail polish. I spent at least 2 or 3 hours with my phone open painting it. Let each coat dry and apply a new one evenly until it looks good! At the end I had about 6 color layers. I painted my phone in the open position and painted right onto the dark grey surface and none of the color still shows through. Just make sure you have a good amount of nail polish, but when I did it I had already used a good amount of the tiny bottle of nail polish to do my previous phone that looked almost exactly the same, but was stolen! (It was very sad, but I think it says something about the paint job! Who would steal a 10 dollar minutes phone if it were plain? BUT a pretty one I guess is worth stealing to some people :') ) I had barely any left in the bottle when I started the project this time and though it didn't look as good, it was still very effective. Now that you have your phone painted and you are pleased with the result, lets move on! (Let it dry overnight at some point before you add things)

~Step 4~ At this point you should have a dry phone painted the color of your choosing looking FABULOUS! If you had some slightly uneven coats you may see bumps or imperfections in the coat when you look closely. Do not fear! This next step will make these things unnoticeable! I strongly recommend selecting a clear nail polish with sparkles in it and applying it generously all over the phone's coat of nail polish.

Something like this would be good, actually if you could find a nail deco kit that could come in handy too!

Let the coat of sparkle dry and you'll see that it really helped the overall look! Once you are finished with that and everything is completely dry, I suggest a top coat! Something that will really seal in the color.  

Pictures of my phone took on my less than amazing camera at this stage in the process~ See how the sparkles really help even things out? 

~Step 5~ (This is the most optional step and if you are already completely happy with the product, skip it) Time to decorate!! If you are the kind to collect stickers or things like that, they would be great to add at this point! Think again about where you would like things before you place them. Again, make sure the phone is COMPLETELY dry! Place down stickers and bits and bobs and decide where you would like to put things!  You could glue just about anything on with some craft glue, just place it on and see where everything looks good before you glue it. My phone isn't finished with this step, but when it is I will add some pictures of that stage in the process! Instead, please settle for some creatively customized phones for a bit of inspiration. 

Image from http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5212/5454824836_5295e0fb84.jpg

Image from http://www.ioffer.com/c/Collectibles-150000/hello+kitty?page=3

Image from http://chiralicious.blogspot.com/2010/09/deco-den.html

And then your done!! You have a phone that is almost as cute as you are!  I would love to see pictures of your phones when your finished, please send me some <3 

~!TIPS AND WARNINGS!~ 

* You must be aware of any camera, screen, and flap thing (Like those things that go over your charger slot to protect it and stuff) Be VERY careful in those areas, it can make side buttons harder to push if you don't take a toothpick and slide it along the sides of the buttons where there is now nail polish right away! Just be careful and aware of those things and look over your cellphone well. 

* I'd imagine you could use acrylic paint if you are an artist and had more of that than nail polish and I'd think it would work pretty much the same way, but I don't know a lot about acrylic paint so you may want to do some light research. 

* It can be slightly messy so make sure you paint somewhere you will not make a huge mess. Make sure you   do it over a styrofoam plate or something (that's what I used) and have some paper towels handy. Don't paint in clothes you love love love and would be sad to get messy just in case. 

* I didn't paint the inside of my flip phone and I would NOT suggest it! It seems like a disaster to paint anywhere with all those necessary buttons, plus you need to be able to read them. 

* You could use this method on things that aren't a phone too. I just used my phone as an example. It could work on small things like an MP3 player and stuff like that. I wouldn't suggest trying to paint something like your laptop with fingernail polish! (>v<) 

* If you were concerned about ruining your phone, I would suggest buying some kind of plain cellphone covering and doing it on that and it works just the same and you could have different "clothes" for your phone to wear with your different outfits if you wanted to make more than one. 

(My phone has been done this way a long time and hasn't faded or chipped at all, I don't think that is going to be an issue and will update this post as soon as I have any problems with my phone. So far it is as pink as the day I painted it! )

That is about it for today! I hope you all have a lot of fun with this and will show me the results~ 

Also! I was thinking I might start updating twice a week. Tuesday or Wednesday with something more personal like poetry, short stories, or some of my thoughts and things and then again on Friday with tutorials and reviews like I have been providing. Tell me what you think and vote in the comments what day I should so my other posting and what you would like to see in it. (Also, go ahead and tell me what you would like to see next Friday, open suggestions!) 

Thank you for reading~!!! I was very pleased with my phone after this and I hope you will be too. Also, happy Friday the 13th!~ >V<

Sweetly Yours, 

Skiteanna La~Sweet