Let's Buy On A Budget! (Skiteanna's Guide To Everyday Fairy Kei and Sweet Lolita on a Budget)

Dear Frilly Colorful Angel Food Cakes,

Hi everyoneee!!!! I had an idea to do this guide in the shower (where all great ideas seem to happen!) I thought that since I was using these same tips to help myself maybe I could help others too! This is a living post and I will be adding more to it as I think of new ways to better it! Now on to the guide I was talking about!!)..

Princess Skiteanna's Guide To Fairy Kei and Sweet Lolita on a Budget 

This picture is from http://img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire1/6d7f272e68ed59764b4bec9d45c6fb391233270632_full.jpg and Shugo Chara! <3

(This is written under the assumption these readers I talk about want to increase the size of their wardrobe quickly or want to wear everyday or as often as possible.)

Step 1- What Do You Have Already? 
This is more of a step for fairy kei girls/boys(Though, a lot of accesories and things can easily be used for both fairy kei and sweet lolita), you may have many things perfect for a full fairy kei outfit already in your own home. If you had an interest in things that pretain to the style before you even knew the style existed you could have plenty of workable T-shirts you bought at the mall, thrift stores, or even Walmart! Many places sell accesories, tutus and tights that would be perfectly acceptable as well. Even if you are thinking right now that you have nothing and are going nuts just waiting for more money, you could very well be wrong. Fairy kei is all about 80s retro kid culture, ask your family members that may have even lived in the 80s if they have their old clothes stored some where then if you can maybe have some and have a ball! Even if your first couple of tries aren't what you are even willing to label "fairy kei" yet, you could always call it fairy kei inspired and wear it while still feeling good about it. I still suggest going through everything you own and laying it out and examining it. You may not see it's usefulness now, but once you learn to look at things for what they could be rather than what they are you may find you have more already than you ever thought. A good way to do that is to gather a since of what clothes can become through inspiration, which leads right into my next step!

Step 2- Do Your Research!! (Gather as much knowledge and insperation as possible)
Look up the style you love, research it, look at all the pictures of it you possibly can, and save the ones that inspire you the most and look at them as often as possible. I have one folder for outfits others out together and a folder inside it for specific items I may want to add to my wardrobe someday that are affordable and not insanely out of my price range. (Though, then I do have a folder for dream items that would be GGREATTTT to have, but right now it would be a bad investment to buy.) Good sites to just sit and look at outfit ideas are lookbook.nu, livejournal communities (Will list some), fashion/personal blogs, and tumblr.

Step 3- Buy Smart! (What can you use in several looks rather than just a few?) 
One of the most common early mistakes people make is just deciding to work really hard and spend all the money on one outfit and the matching accesories and what they end up with is one outfit. If your on a budget and hungry to get started (like many are) you may want to save the big outfits for later when you already have plenty of outfits and accessories you can mix and match infinate ways. Thrift stores and sales communities have things for very cheap and many starter fairy kei and lolita outfits can be made solely using Bodyline.co.jp, I have very few complaints on the things I have bought from Bodyline over the years and think that it is a great place to shop. If you can't shop online I would ask around your local fashion communities and see if anyone is selling and maybe you could meet-up and exchange money and items, that is a way to save on the shipping if the gas isn't too much as well. When you are ready to buy ask  yourself this question before you close the deal, 'How many outfits can I make with this useing what I already have?' This is a very important question if you want to wear any fashion daily or very often. You likely don't want to be stuck wearing the exact same coordinate, you want to be able to mix and match and always keep it fun and exciting, right? I want that and I think a lot of others do too!

Step 4- Play Like Polyvore! (You can skip this if you can just do it in your head!~)
You could use Polyvore for this, but I have noticed not everything is on Polyvore and if you want specific items you could just do it like this, take photos of all your clothes and load them on to your computer, (like Poupee girl) if you don't have a camera you could try to find pictures online that are of the clothes you own and save all the pictures to a folder to keep them easy to find. After you do that you save pictures of things you want to buy and have decided you could do something with (Possibly in a different folder). You could use paint and put together as many possible full outfit coords you can using the clothes until you decide buying whatever it is you have in mind would be a good investment.

Step 5- Build Your Wardrobe! 
Now that you know the basics, you are ready to buy! I think it would be a good idea to have the goal of at least a weeks worth of seperate fairy kei outfits and a weeks worth of sweet lolita outfits (if your interested in doing both like me and if not just a week or two of one of those fashions.) The outfits can be mixed and matched around so you can successfully wear it everyday! If you have a weeks worth of both that gives you plenty of time to do laundry and prepare outfits for the next days. I am currently in the process of reaching my goal with very little money right now, but I have very high hopes that someday I will reach it and then go even further!

I have found this to be the best way for me personally to reach my goals and I thought theses steps might be helpful to others as well~! I am so so happy to have some people checking on my blog I have seen a few views here and there and I am so glad to know that someone somewhere is reading this! <3 Much love to the readers out there!!

If anyone has other helpful tips please comment with them and help everyone reading and me to better our wardrobes~ (Please tell me if there are any spelling or grammar mistakes at ALL, this was all written really early in the morning before I lost my train of thought!

Links
Fairy Kei Sales Community- http://80s-cuties.livejournal.com/
Sales For Just Bodyline- http://bodyline-love.livejournal.com/profile
Daily Lolita Outfit Ideas- http://daily-lolita.livejournal.com/profile
Good For All Things Lolita- http://egl.livejournal.com/profile
The Sales For The Above Community- http://egl-comm-sales.livejournal.com/profile
Community for Popkei/Fairykei- http://popkei.livejournal.com/profile / http://fairykei.livejournal.com/profile


You can also just look up the community that may exist locally for you! (If one doesn't exist make one and hope for the best! Facebook pages are also good for getting the word out about your comm.

Sleepily Yours, (Again...come on it's 3am!)

Skiteanna La~Sweet

Let's Go Shopping! (Online Shopping Site That Gives You stuff For FREEE!!)

Dear Sweet Lovelies,

Today I came across a site that seemed like a lot of fun to try! It claims that if you don't want stuff you can give it away for free and get credits to get stuff for free that other people are offering! It sounds wonderful in my opinion and I thought many of you would love to give it a try as well! The most you ever pay is shipping and most postings I've looked at while browsing have FREE shipping!!

https://www.listia.com/signup/1919241 This is my invite link, it claims to give 100 more credits to people who I invite(or that are invited by a member in general) so if you join through the link it helps us both out!

Please tell me of your experiences with this site in the comments!! I'd love to know how it turned out for others~! (:D)

I have a few ideas for new posts and I'm going to try to post several times a week to make up for lost time. I just recently have been sent a few things including fairy kei tutus and lolita petticoats and have been so grateful for that! Hopefully the rest of my stuff will be coming right around the corner! Also, I just started watching this season of America's Got Talent, I didn't have regular cable for a while and ended up missing when it started and just thought to watch it. I love that show! It is amazing to see all the creativity people have and is always a lot of fun (Especially the audition stage)! I don't know about you all, but the outfits are always one of my favorite things to see on the show! Some of them are so wild and original (remember Prince Poppycock? :D)

Anyways, that is really it for this post I just thought I would share the website with those of you that haven't seen it.~

Look at this amazing phone case listed here on the website! SOOO cute! http://www.listia.com/auction/5681434-kawaii-deco-lolita-harajuku-style-bling

Hoppily Yours, 

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

Let's Review Bodyline! Episode 1

Dear Sugar-Nuggets,

I'm back for another Friday! The winning topic for today's blog is a Bodyline review! I bought things from Bodyline around my birthday in January and soon after actually made a video review, but I have a funny sounding voice and was really embarrassed so I made it private. This is just going to say similar things to that review plus a few new things I learned after having them and wearing them for a while. Enough about me~ Let's Review Bodyline~!

First item: Squirrels eating cake and drinking tea (Squirrel party?) dress in pink (purchase price 55$ current price 47$)

The picture of this dress on the website. (I have those socks, one of my favorite pairs!)

Though the dress looks very pink in the picture it has more of a lavenderish undertone in real life, but I actually like it like that and it gives my closet more of a variation with shades of pink so this color difference wasn't any points off.

Picture from my original review video of me holding up the dress. 

The dress itself has one of the cutest motifs of any dress on bodyline. It is very angelic pretty inspired and I just love the super cute print! Though, in some places the color on the print seems smeared and is out of the lines. I don't know if that an intended part of the dress, but it just looks like a stain to me. The lace is of average quality for bodyline, but after wearing the dress for long periods of time I find the lace is rather scratchy and it makes me sad to have scratchy lace against my skin for so long ):. Also, the bows and ribbon are of rather poor quality and look cheap. 

This is a close up of the bow quality, I don't know if you can see. (My favorite nail polish!)

The bigger bow it came with to go on the middle is just adorable though. I love the little fake pearls on it, it is a very cute part of the dress and really adds an extra little accent to it! (it is a detachable bow too incase you were curious about whether I ripped it off the dress to get this picture or not :D) 

This is the bigger bow, hard to see because I couldn't get a good screen cap of it!

Overall, the cuteness of the dress is so powerful that it defeats any negative things about the dress easily! This is my favorite dress I own and I even wore it to prom and got a lot of compliments~ 

Verdict- If you are into cute prints and sweet lolita I say ORDER IT! It is reasonably priced and really really cute!! (I also think the dress is cheaper than the JSK, but which ever kind you like more you can buy since they have an OP version and a JSK version.)

Next item: Tea party shoes number 256 in pink (purchase price 40$ current price 40$) 

The picture of these shoes on the website. 

I had been wanting tea party shoes for a long time and finally ordered some off bodyline! I really liked these shoes, the main issue was the sizing. I found they were a little snug around the toes so if you were to order these you might want to order a size or half size bigger just in case. I don't know if it is a very complicated science or if I'm just a little slow, but it took me a while to figure out how to correctly wear the ankle strap. (You can twist it around and hide the button.) Let's not beat around the bush here, these shoes are CUUTTTEEEE! 

SHOES IN REAL LIFE!!!...ovo they look the same~ :D

They are good quality, they look great on, and they were a really good price! The ankle strap can get kind of annoying and if you have thick ankles I'd imagine it would be very uncomfortable, it can get uncomfortable overtime anyways. I also just checked and I don't think the ankle strap is detachable. They also scuff up very easily, extremely scuffable! I suggest carrying some kind of wet wipes in your bag with you when you wear them, because otherwise you'll have black and grey streaks all over your shoes the whole night! The scuff marks are easily cleaned with a wet cloth of some kind so, if you were somewhere with a bathroom you could wet down paper towel in there whenever you needed to clean your shoes, but that seems a little impractical. Other than that I was very happy with my purchase of these shoes! They are the cutest shoes I own and I would gladly buy shoes from bodyline again! Not only did I have a good personal experience, but I hear a lot of good things about their shoes. 

Plus, it came in a box! Imagine my surprise X3 <3

Next item: Bow Tutu (pan016) in purple (price 17$ I can't remember if that's what I bought it for or not.)

This tutu/petticoat/pannier is my favorite one on bodyline, okay I liked, the pastel colors version of this tutu/petticoat/pannier is my favorite on bodyline. The reason I bought the purple one was because the pastel ones were not in stock when I ordered. I liked purple best out of all of these darker colors. The style of tutu/pannier..thing is my favorite for a lot of different reasons. I had a more expensive, white, dull bodyline petticoat and it died almost right away and now provides no lift at all! I got a pink version of this style pannier from the pastel collection almost right after I got the more expensive white one and to this day the pink one still provides lift.

Purple one IN REAL LIFE next to my pink one which is on me (I happened to wear it that day 8D)

Also, these pretty colorful bow panniers can be used very well as fairy kei tutus, so for those of us who where both lolita and fairy kei that is a win win. With lolita I find it works best for me to wear both my tutus like this at the same time for the right amount of poof. I generally always recommend this type of pannier (usually in the pastel color way) to anyone who asks and with good reason! They are the most effective for the price and they are easily the cutest! I don't really have any negatives for this particular item except sometimes they have a random black dot from a marker on them, which is strange. When wearing these with a lolita dress just take the sides of the dress and shake a bit if your dress is loosing it's poofy shape and it should be perfectly fluffy again! :D (I recommend doing this in a bathroom if your in a public place)

AHH I HAVE NO ARMS!!!!!! 

That is what the dress I bought looks like with the pink and purple tutu underneath it! it kinda looks very clearly like my arms are cut off 0-0..... BUT I have arms I was just jumping on the bed :D I couldn't get a very clear screenshot. 

FUN FACT- The pictures of the items were screenshots from the review video I did with my cheap hello kitty video camera. It isn't that good and I only bought it cause I'm bad with money and it was so cute sitting there all lonely in toys R us o;A;o...SO I BOUGHT IT :D It was only 40 dollars and you have to think of it mathematically 30 dollars of that is for the cuteness, so that makes it a 10 dollar camera as far as quality, but I love it X'D <3

SUPER DUPER CRAZY PICTURE DUMP TIMMEEE!!!~ :D 

One Spring day~ (wearing the dress, panniers, and shoes)

                     EMPTYY SPACEEEEE

SO MUCH EMPTY SPACE

  TEDDEH!! 8D

Then I was passing out, well time to go to bed see you next time! Just kidding 8D 

Pictures, WHY YOU NO GO NEXT TO EACHOTHER :(

Prom!! (these pictures are really dark and not just because I took them with the camera on my cell phone, but it was REALLY dark in there) 

WHEEEE~ Rocking chair outside the prom room

My friend in Gothic Lolita and her date

I FOUND A KITTY! My dad made us wait 40 minutes after prom was over before he came to get us and it was dark and scary~ (But on the bright side I found a cute friendly little kitty to play with)

WANNA SEE MY NEW HAIRCUT I GOT LAST NIGHT :D It looks better in real life~ 

This was fun huh?! :D Well, now I'm all done! See you next time! We can do some more fun stuff together~ 

For the next entry I could do the easy cell phone prettifying tutorial or if you have anything else I own you would like for me to review just tell me and I will~ Though if I review things I've had for a while the benefit is I know how well the items do long-term. Vote below and tell me what you would like me to do next! (Also, if you have anymore questions about what I reviewed in this post please feel free to ask and I will get right back to you! :D) Welp~ I hear Sugar squeaking so she must want me to pay her some attention! Bye bye till Next Friday! 

Hyperly Yours, 

Skiteanna La~Sweet