I freestyled some very delicious bell peppers, I was inspired by some food creators I saw on Instagram. I can’t quite remember their names, so if the end result looks familiar to you, please let m know!
How I personally made this was.
1.) I started a rice cooker of rice.
2.) I sautéed 1 onion finely diced
3.) while that was sautéing, I preheated the oven to 350 Fahrenheit
3.) I set 1lb of turkey to brown in the pan
4.) I cleaned and gutted 10 bell peppers and carved faces on them.
5.) checking the browning as I went I added about a cup of halved cherry tomatoes to the pan.
6.) when the rice was done I turned the heat off and mixed together the rice and a 1/2 cup of pasta sauce for moisture.
7.) I put 2/3 a cup in each bell pepper one third of a cup at a time.
8.) I then baked them for 20 min just straight on the pan (a lot of stuffed pepper recipe suggest covering them, I prefer they keep their crunch.)
9.) then I put a handful of shredded cheese on top of each one and back in the oven for 5 minutes.
I have this amazing strawberry themed Fanplusfriend skirt from awhile ago. But it is in and of itself an egl hypothetical. What if you had an amazing adorable perfect strawberry themed skirt but it wrinkled if you sneezed and the lace will catch and rip on everything everytime you wear it?? That’s this skirt
Also, finally mended an ill advised Amazon blouse I got a few years back that lost all its buttons. The blouse itself fits very well. I added these dark pink heart buttons I got from my local craft store and honestly it’s now become one of my new favorite pieces.
I admittedly struggled a bit with incorporating this theme into J-fashion, but I realized I recently incorporated a lifestyle element that fits quite well!
I recently read a very good book about seasonal decorating without getting a bunch of clutter into your home. They reccommended seasonal plants, music and scents! I have a cat so I do worry a bit about how normal scented candles may affect her and as I get older I worry a bit about how it could affect me too.
I actually found a cool company called Enviroscent! (I’m not sponsored, I just genuinely like what I got) it was actually affordable and pet safe. I got an apple cinnamon wall plugin and a tropical auto air freshener for my car. (The hope is the car one might help with some seasonal affectations I have, we’ll see)
I’m very happy to have the nice warm smell when I come back home and will likely be decluttering my candles.
Also on the theme of scents, my favorite perfume scent is Strawberry Pound cake from bath & bodyworks. I always get a ton of compliments when I wear it and it matches my style well.
I successfully chose what I want to declutter! Actually getting it out of my home has been another story. There are a lot of little pieces I need to mend before posting. I know I could sell them as is, but it just feels off to me to knowingly post something I could fix in 5 minutes. After I write this post I plan on finally ironing all the waist ties and putting on the detachable bows and actually listing them on LM or depop, whichever makes more sense for that particular item. (There are things that wouldn’t fit into the LM category very well)
Last time I tried to sell an Angelic Pretty piece at what I thought I was a good rate (a salopette for 50$) I got questioned to death for months in my PMs about it to the point where I just got fed up and gave it to a comm member for free. My husband and I are going on our honeymoon soon so if I could get some cash for my dresses that would be nice.
If things don’t sell for more than a month, I may still choose to give things away. I now know isn’t really the best timing for selling things anyways.
What troubles have you had selling or buying before?
It’s been slowly time for me to face the music, the majority of my Lolita dresses are now clutter. That is heartbreaking to realize. The hours of love and care and saving of money put into obtaining them just for them to sit in my closet for months on end at this point.
It’s not that I am “leaving lolita” or “quitting the fashion” as those sales on Lacemarket often exclaim when people are trying to sell large lots of items. It’s just that lolita fashion has slowly no longer become a central part of my life. I still love dressing up, but what fits me and who I am has changed as I have changed and it’s hard letting go. I mentioned in my last post that I have been really drawn to Gyaru lately, and I have been! I also haven’t really let myself collect pieces with the same fervor that I did when I got into egl.
Honestly, that’s probably a good thing. I have greatly refined my tastes and spending habits. I am much better with money than I was when I got into Lolita fashion. However, even if I were to fall in love with the fashion again head over heels the same way I did when I first discovered it the dresses in my closet no longer fit my style even within EGL. I now know that I prefer the way drop waists and A-line silhouettes land on my body, and that empire waists are a nightmare for me. This unfortunately eliminates 80% of the dresses I own!
I brace myself for selling 80% of the dresses I own. In some weird way this feels like a failure, even though I know it’s not. I’ve just grown, my tastes have changed. There is nothing wrong with that. Lolita Fashion in its own way often feels like a way to stop time. To give ourselves the girlhood we may have never had, to make up for something we missed. To become women who never gave up the privileges of girlhood or chose to take on the burden of the expectations of womanhood. Honestly, I think that’s part of the appeal.
Maybe once I sell what no longer fits who I am, I’ll discover that I’m not quite ready to move on in the way I think I am. But maybe I will, and that’s okay too.
If anyone has any tips for moving large amounts of items on Lacemarket, any comments are greatly appreciated.
First things first, this is absolutely not a technique that would be approved by a nail tech. But it works well for me, and my nails seem pretty okay. I take no responsibility for if you try this and it goes wrong.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, my personal style has been drifting a lot more towards gyaru than egl these days and it’s been a bit of a learning curve, as well as interesting to try to find my way back to this blog. Gyaru has been fitting my much more active lifestyle better in general, however there is one little problem with it. The nails! For my day job I work blue collar work, for hobbies I play the guitar and do martial arts, the iconic long nails just do not work for those moments in my life. I do still very much enjoy the look though! I like wearing nails for filming, taking photos, and going out, but I do kind of need a way for them to be secure for the duration of the activity, but then be able to be taken off. Here’s the method I have recently developed!
Putting the Nails On
1.) Gather your supplies, you’re going to need nail polish remover, brush on nail glue, a hydrating/protective base coat and possibly nail clippers and a nail file.
2.) Clean any nail polish or glue residue off your nails, cut and file if necessary
3.) Apply 2-3 layers of a hydrating/protective base coat. You want it thicker so it better protects your nails when you take them off later.
3.) After that use brush on nail glue to apply your nails, the kind I have dries surprisingly fast so I usually brush the glue then immediately press on the nails after each nail has had glue applied.
4.) Nails are applied!!
Removing the Nails
Honestly, removing the nails is very simple but can take some time, patience and good sense. These will not just “pop right off” which is sort of the point, I wanted temporary nails that could survive a night out. I did due to that forget to take pictures during this process.
Very basically we are going to gently slide a tool under the fake nail and gently separate it from our natural nail. Do not force or tear. You’ll do that until each nail is off. I personally reccommend using an ingrown toenail tool like this one and using it curve side down to gently separate.
Image from Walmart.comMy nails after removing the fake ones
Honestly there will be some glue and polish left on your nails, (which is kind of what we want since it means we didn’t get our actual nailbeds) if it bugs you just use some nail polish remover to clean off. Sometimes I honestly just paint over it since the glue can be a good “rough up” to grip it without having to buff into my actual nail.
So there we have it! A perhaps unadvised temporary nail tutorial, do this at your own risk, but it worked well for me!
I decided to take old Instagram photos and edit them with a new photo editing app I got to make something new! The photos here are pulled from my Instagram between 2020-2023ish and then edited with Juxtaposer and stock photos!
I’m in the candy dimension! Among the tea-cats! Having a rococo moment! Dancing on a piano~🎶Giant snack!!!!
Oh my goodness, I am so happy that 2025 is done!!! First day of 2026 has gone very well for me! I’ve filmed a YouTube video, hung out with a friend, and taken time to relax. I was absolutely charmed by the fact that “Good Riddance” was a theme for the New York celebration last night. That was hilarious. The spring and fall of last year was quite difficult. There was deaths in the family as well as some mental health challenges that took a lot of my attention. I was really just in survival mode for a while. I’m feeling good about this new year. It’s going to be a good one, even if that has to be achieved by hook or by crook!
I wish I had had some really cute glitter sandals or something to complete this look.
I’m really looking forward to this year. I have some fun goals. The only one that’s really J-fashion related is wanting to post more on both this blog and my other socials. My big one is wanting to be able to life (on the machine not free weights) between 120-160lbs by the end of this year! I had been up to 40-60lbs, but after some family stuff this fall I had to take a break. Sadly when I tried going back to the gym the past couple weeks it looks like I’m back down to 20-40, hence it being a more flexible goal. Ideally it’ll be the full 160 though! If I can do that, I’ll finally be able to fireman carry my husband and pick up my best friends.
I really love this headbow, it’s from Adorkabows and she makes each one one of a kind, this one is black & pink and although you can’t see it there’s a cute resin heart that says “Brat” on it.
Another goal of mine is to give myself more credit. Honestly, self-praise is way more motivating than being critical of myself ever is, but it feels so weird to try to be that way! I was raised to always be humble and I feel like it veered into being way too hard on myself. A new habit that I love is using a planner! But kind of backwards, you don’t write what you’re going to do then check it of, instead, you write everything you did that day big and small until you run out of space. It’s hard to beat yourself up when you count everything you do, you probably do more than you think.
Today’s outfit! Grabbed some crepes with a friend.
My favorite planner to use is the POPFLEX one, I was a huge fan of Blogilates in high school and college. I actually would do one workout before I left for school and one when I got back as a way to help me with the transition. Honestly, working out is still the best way for me to manage my mental health personally. I love how much space there is to write in the planners and all the little bonuses between months. It’s expensive as a planner but I haven’t found anything comparable.
I am so looking forward to all the adventures I’ll have this year! Drink some water, eat good food, and get some rest! See you soon!
There’s nothing wrong with being a solo Lolita, but comms and therefore meet ups have been a pretty integral part of our community for quite some time! Many comms seem to develop a default “meet planner” and it’s good to be able to help them out, or become that planner! The more meets you help plan, the more meets there will be.
1.) Look at what there is to do in your area for your comm! There may be lots of tourist traps, restaurants, parks, recurring festivals museums, etc. One of my favorite parts of being a Lolita is getting to do and see all of the local things I would otherwise not be very likely to do in my area.
2.) Consider the mean budget of your comm, does your comm typically do extravagant meets or potlucks? If you mostly do potlucks, there is nothing wrong with having a more extravagant meet more aimed at the members with larger budgets but now that you will have smaller attendance and possibly make some members feel left out. I find that it gets easier to balance this as time goes on. Especially if you make sure to plan a range of meets. If you’re comm does do more extravagant meets, there may be some members who are very relieved if you do schedule something like a potluck! Nothing wrong with either kind of meet.
3.) Choose what you’d like to do based on the prior information! Other things you might want to consider is any accessibility issues your comm may have. It’s not uncommon for there to be a few members with disabilities in a Lolita comm and they will greatly appreciate it if you consider them in your planning.
4.) propose the meet to the group! Also, propose some dates, and be sure to set a date once a majority or consensus is reached. If you don’t the meet is liable to never happen. If you have the ability to help with transportation, offer a hand to those who live near you! It helps keep the meets alive. Double checking logistics also helps keep any last minute snafu’s from occurring. Always double check dates and if you need reservations.
5.) Have fun at the meet! Take pictures, talk with friends and enjoy whatever activity is at hand.
