Happy Moon Festival! 中秋節快樂!

The Moon Festival is on September 30 this year! It is the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar. I made a post two years ago (gosh, is my blog that old?) about the legends and traditions here

This year I managed to order a set of ICE CREAM mooncakes from Coldstone! They were quite expensive at NT$995/~US$30 for six, but I was very excited about them! Having grown up with traditional mooncakes all my life, novelty ones seem like so much fun!


I bought this set because it could be delivered to your nearest 7-11 for pickup, which is so convenient!

Though ice cream mooncakes may seem indulgent, they actually have less calories than some traditional varieties <_<;; This set contains two strawberry flavors, two coffee flavors, and two Tie Guan Yin (a type of tea) flavors. Each mooncake is less than 300 calories, which is still a lot, but if you split the mooncakes with others it's OK! Unfortunately this set is probably not available outside of Asia ;) Sorry to my international readers! You can buy traditional mooncakes at your local Asian grocer, though! Here is my outfit from today:
Click the photo to make it larger

I wore bunnies for the Jade Rabbit! Such a selfless fellow!


In addition to eating mooncakes, a new, modern tradition that has been added is barbecuing! It's only a couple decades old of a tradition, but barbecues are a fun get-together activity! My family is more traditional, so we didn't barbecue and just had a family dinner with my mom's side of the family instead.
My mommy made this feast all by herself!


Photo of the actual mooncake take on my HTC Radar phone and edited with Photogram:

I am pretty sad to say that they weren't very good. The ice cream portions were really lovely, but the chocolate shells were too sweet and drowned out the ice cream flavors. In order of sweetness, they go Tie Guan Yin at least sweet (very delicious - I don't think this flavor is available outside of Asia, though!), coffee in the middle, and strawberry at the top!

My mom was clever and just scooped out the ice cream centers and left the shells. Next time, I'll just buy the ice cream!

Perhaps next year I will give the Starbucks or Mister Donut mooncakes a go ;)

Some more traditional mooncakes:

Pineapple with egg yolk, mung bean, and more pineapple with salted egg yolk

And yet more mooncakes!!

Taro, red bean with salted egg yolk (I love salted egg yolk!) on the right, and pineapple with salted egg yolk and mushroom with meat on the left

This is a pomelo:

Even though the outside shape is oblong, the inside is actually round! It is like a grapefruit where the fiber part is inedible. I carefully peeled it all apart while trying to keep the pulp intact~

Check out my (messy) handiwork below:




Will you be celebrating the Moon Festival? Even if you are not Chinese, it is a great time to get together with your friends and family and enjoy viewing the moon together. The holiday falls on a weekend this year, which is really lovely!

With the Strength of Taipei...

We will blast off into the future!
Today I had Fabric Printing Design class. Our teacher had us all join a T-shirt design contest where the topic was "Taipei's Strength/Power." Not going to lie - I am awful at computer graphics and really didn't want to do this contest, so I made a really, really silly design!



The images are all Googled (Taipei 101, Rocket Blast, and Cute Cartoon Dinosaur) and then I used Photoshop and Illustrator to put it together.

OK this is a really silly post, but it is one of the things we did in fashion design school. You don't always get to design the things you like. Last week we designed wallpaper. One of my designs was chosen, so hopefully there will be a small, monetary prize!

Next week we are going to start designing our actual fabric prints. I want to do one with dinosaurs, fossils, and/or cake and sweets. Dinosaur Sweets!

Gothic and Lolita Alice in Wonderland

BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT, Alice and the Pirates, and Crystal Ball have done a collaboration with Disney to create a charming collection of Disney Alice in Wonderland goods!

Click on the image to take you to the site.

Though I am actually not that big a fan of the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland (especially the Cheshire Cat!), I really love this collection!

In addition to the usualy clothing and accessories, there are also household goods to get!


A Crystal Ball wallet



Collaboration with BABY THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT
I really like the art style of this print. There is a close-up on the product page here. It seems to be a nice balance between the animated art and art one would expect to find in a book!


Collaboration with Alice and the Pirates
At first glance I wasn't a big fan of the frames along the bottom, but after looking at it for a while, I think I really do like this design. The illustrations are done in the original, wood-engraved Tenniel style, but with the characters replaced with Disney's versions. It's really quite charming! The product page is here for more images.

Some of the other products I like include:

The increasingly-popular book bag!


This large, roomy clock bag

Check out the size!


A travel case I wish I could have!


I definitely thought this was a real sofa at first!!! It is, in fact, a jewelry box.

There are also some things that I think could be DIY'd if you really wanted!

These earrings are super cute! You could add your own embellishments onto hoop earrings. The Alice charm would be more difficult, but you could either glue or dangle a charm from the hoops.


This lace necklace also wouldn't be too hard to make. Find a pretty piece of lace and attach it to a chain. Embellish it as you like~


This ring holder would look lovely if made out of thrift store china teacups!

There are also some items of the Cheshire Cat and White Rabbit. I never did really like Disney's version of either, but if you are a fan, you may like them!

Here is a Cheshire Cat makeup pouch (Sorry, but I really don't like his face or voice!)

The chibi version of the White Rabbit is totally adorable, though!!

Check me out! Poor rabbit is exhausted from running around all day!

Do you like Disney's version of Alice in Wonderland? What's your favorite version of Alice? I really like American McGee's Alice and the original story. Most people seem to mix up the Red Queen with the Queen of Hearts, though they are from different stories. That secretly bothers me a little ^^; I also really enjoyed Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland retelling. Especially his version of the Cheshire Cat!! So cute and cuddly!

First Week of School Style~

First week of school is over! How has school been going for everybody?
I wanted to share my outfits from this first week~ No photo for Monday, though!


Monday: English and Dance
Yes, I am taking an English class. The school wouldn't let me test out of it, so easy A for boosting my GPA~

Tuesday: Printed Fabric Design

Blouse, Socks: offbrand
Skirt, Hair Ribbons: handmade by me
Petti: Classical Puppets
Shoes: An*Tai*Na

Wednesday: Chinese Clothing Construction

I love these bone tights! Unfortunately, they ripped and got runs... so I may save them for them for Halloween and then trash them.

I had to change out my tights so I wore my stomping boots

Thursday: Family Science

Blouse: offbrand
JSK, Wrist Stoppers, Hair Ribbons: handmade by me
Petti: Classical Puppets
Shoes: An*Tai*Na

Friday: Fashion Design (my teacher turned out to be out of the country so we just went home!)


Check out my necklace! This picture is supersaturated ^^;
JSK, Headband: handmade by me
Blouse, Socks: offbrand
Petti: Classical Puppets
Necklace: I got the charm from Coldstone and made it a necklace
Shoes: An*Tai*Na

Saturday: Fabric Dyes; Accessory Design; Jewelry Design
My two design classes were cancelled =_=;

I just got this fluffy skirt as a part of a group order! I think it's so cute!

Thanks for looking! How have your school days been? Do you wear Lolita to school? Or is it not OK for your school to wear anything not mainstream/school uniform? Feel free to share photos! I'm trying to incorporate more Rock style into my daily wardrobe~

Guide for New Lolitas: LO娘新人志 —少女笔记本—

On the mainland China forums there has been an online "notebook" guide. It is all in Chinese, but there are a few pages that may be of interest, namely TaoBao shops with the styles they cater to. The artwork is quite beautiful, too!

The clickable links and descriptions can all be translated in Google Chrome.
There is also some handy tips and information about petticoats and materials, how to remove various stains, etc.


This is one of the pages of tips on removing various stains


Petticoat shapes - A-line, Bell, Circle/Round


Tips and warnings about shopping online


Socks vs. Gravity!
Tips and reasons for socks falling down!

I think this is super cute and very handy! Ever since the English Gothic and Lolita Bible has been out of print, there hasn't really been a cohesive guide or publication for Lolitas who don't read Japanese. I would love to see something like this in English. I know there were a few attempts at online magazines, but nothing ever really became a huge success.

Though printed magazines may go out of date, I still prefer them to online versions. There is simply something comforting about a real, touchable mook. Plus, it's fun to go through old Bibles and see how Brands and styles have changed!

Do you like printed mooks like KERA, the Gothic and Lolita Bible, etc.? Why or why not? Would you like to see another attempt at an English Gothic and Lolita Bible-type mook?

Admin Note: Comments

This is just a quick note to let you all know that I have reinstalled the IntenseDebate commenting system. Unfortunately, it didn't keep all the old comments at all!
However, this should fix any commenting issues that were happening before.
Sometimes the comments and/or commenting form wouldn't show up, but that should be fixed now! If there are any more issues, feel free to contact me at theabclolita on gmail.
Thanks for following and reading along! Have a lovely day~

Update:
Hm, it may have been an issue with cookies on my end - the old comments are showing up again!

Pre-Halloween: Angelic Pretty and Elegant Cat Ears

Even thouh it is a month and a half away, I am excited for Halloween!
Angelic Pretty has just come out with a collaboration of [NEU] 華遊×Angelic Pretty, which I think could work as a fun, but still wearable, theme outfit!


Check out those bedazzled ears!


The stock photo of the outfit

To be quite honest, I am not a fan of the velvet portion. The blouse looks quite nice, though! This outfit seems to be leaning towards Gyaru style. Indeed, I have seen similar (though smaller) rhinestone cat ears in some Gyaru communities as well as mainstream stores.

ASOS has a sweet-looking headband in a more manageable size, though it is currently out of stock.





The location of the back bow seems a bit low, like it would be in the way of sitting.


I really quite like these cat ear accessories, though! A bit more grown-up, a bit more wearable, and less "teenage otaku" feel than regular fur or plush clip-on cat ears. Though this pair happens to be quite large and would probably require a more elaborate hairstyle to pull off (but hey, Lolitas aren't afraid of elaborate hair!) they seem simple enough to DIY. A smaller pair would be adorable!


This close-up of the ASOS headband shows how the headband is constructed. With a metal headband and some nice wire, you could creat the basic shape and then use A/B glue, super glue, or metal glue to adhere rhinestones on the frame. Add a cute ribbon like the Angelic Pretty ears for a cuter feel!


Another variation is to use pearls instead of rhinestones.


In this full body shot, the outfit looks very stylish, though more over the top than most people would wear regularly.

I love to see what the Lolita Brands put out around Halloween. How do you feel about this new take on animal ears? Do you like the more elegant, metal ears? Or are the furry or plush ears cuter? Or perhaps animal ears just have no place in fashion? I'm curious as to what others think!

Time Warp

Oops! I just realized that due to the time difference, it may actually not have been the 10th yet when I posted my last post!

So if anybody else has any dresses to post, comment here and I'll add you to this post!

I got off of work early so I finished my dress :P It was a lot more difficult that I had anticipated and I learned a lot! If I ever make a fully-shirred dress again, I'll have a lot of things to keep in mind...

Click on the photos to make them bigger:

The front
Haven't added the ribbons yet. I need to find which box they're in...


The back!
Again, no ribbon because I haven't unpacked them yet ^^;

I'm off to get ready for the first day of school, now! Have a wonderful day, everybody!

Update:

Eithne has got her dress finished, too!


I love the colors~


In different lighting


The back

Photoshoot:



BlackOnyxHime has a blog post here with her lovely entry. Thanks for joining us!