Mermaiding and Sweet Lolita Fashion!
I have started reading books again for fun! It’s been amazing! It’s largely small novellas on prime reading but I’m really proud and happy that I’m able to do that again, I used to rip through 75+ books a year in middle school and as I got older it got more difficult. I used to love fantasy novels however I’m now more into domestic mystery books
So I decided to try one of the hairstyles in the video below!! It seemed a good cross of some of my interests!
I decided to try to do the heart buns!! They’re a bit messy since my hair is shorter but I think it’s cute!
Like many Lolitas I struggle with both overspending and mental health issues, it’s often a common theme in jokes in the community and I have talked about it before on my channel and in this blog but due to a recent bout of extreme overspending I thought it was due time I talk about it again.
I don’t want to be a hypocrite, I’ve talked about financial responsibility and Lolita fashion many times on my platforms and I always say I want to do better and I have overall gotten better but I’m still not where I want to be yet and sometimes that makes me feel fake when I want to have these discussions. Also my improvement can feel agonizingly slow or minute, the biggest example is that my last spending binge was on blouses not dresses and that genuinely felt like a win for me even though it caused me to be late on paying my car payment.
Admitting that so publicly feels embarrassing but in a space where overspending is normalized and sometimes I feel like it’s glamorized too, I think it’s important we talk about these things in a serious way from time to time. It’s okay to joke around to cope but I feel like there is a serious lack of looking at the actual consequences of overspending in this community which for many of us is linked to mental health issues.
My overspending happened when I had to take a break from going to therapy until my new health insurance benefits kick in, and although I was debating whether the hard work in counseling was worth starting again this recent spending binge answered it for me.
There’s nothing wrong with impulse buying a dress that you can actually afford from time to time but when it starts to seriously impact your life you need to take a step back and ask why you are actually doing this. It’s hard and uncomfortable and trust me I’d rather find a new way to transform into a frilly cupcake than to examine deep seated emotional issues (I’m writing this article just as much for me as for you) if you can afford it, I highly reccommend getting professional help and if you aren’t in a place where you can reaching out to a friend who won’t judge you but won’t let you bullshit them.
For this month I’m going to try not to buy any new items, I thought about trying a 6 month spending freeze but I think baby steps will suit me better. Once I start therapy again I’ll definitely be talking to my therapist about ways to avoid this
Jfashion is meant to be fun and a distraction but it’s escapism can easily crash back to reality if it starts to affect your financial health. Take care of yourselves. Have a wonderful night.
My comm has a discord that we use with a dream dress channel! I didn’t want to share anyone’s peesonal info so it was perfect! Below is some of the dresses on the channel, but by no means all of them
I want to write more on this blog this year! Far too many of my favorite blogs I read when I first joined lolita fashion have been disappearing and I feel traditional blogging is an important part of our subcultures history.
One of these blogs is what I am pulling from for many of my posts this year! I plan on participating in the 365 Lifestyle Lolita Challenge from Lace a la mode!
Without further ado!!! My goal for my wardrobe this year is to get some leg wear!! I have pretty well filled out getting blouses and shoes this year however I am still lacking quite a bit in the leg wear department. I have recently acquired cream and white knee socks but at the moment it is all that is workable in my wardrobe. I have a bad tendency of losing socks
I also want to get better at caring for my clothes overall, it’s something that I struggle a lot with. Hopefully that will make it so I lose less of my socks going forward, I use to have a pretty full collection of ankle socks before I lost the majority of them.
I have been extremely busy this month! I’ve been doing Vlogmas on my YouTube channel and have yet to miss a day! I’m really proud of keeping on top of it. I also just started a new job. It’s my first time doing overnights so I’m a little nervous. It’ll be good though.
Vlogmas has helped keep me occupied my first holiday season living on my own. It’s been a bizarre year. I was absolutely delighted when I saw that there was a vaccine being distributed earlier today. I know it’ll still be awhile before things can go back to normal but it feels like hope on the horizon
I’ve been keeping holiday spirits up decorating around the house and calling family and friends. I’m happy that I don’t usually feel alone. In some ways I feel more connected than ever and I am so grateful for that.
I had a little bit of a hard time with my life transition and stress ordered a lot of blouses. At least I got wardrobe staples this time 
After finishing watching a long slew of Princess Peachie videos, videos from when Pixielocks still wore Lolita Fashion, and reading ParfaitDoll through the wayback machine. I realized that I have been really embracing the 2010 sweet aesthetics that I adored when I first discovered Lolita Fashion on the internet when I was a teenager. I think clinging on to things that gave me comfort before can be helpful, especially when I had to catch myself looking at triggering content for two days before I realized I was doing it. Nostalgia seems the much healthier alternative, the bright colors and familiarity just warms my heart and emulating the idols who helped me get through some of the hardest times in my life in my existing memory has brought me more peace that I could have realized. I love seeing people embrace the things they love and I should be more careful not to deny myself of that.
In the past week I am delighted that I have finally figured out the perfect way to do heatless curls for my high pigtails, although I should get one of those classic twin tail wigs at some point. I also want to create more moodboards and allow myself to really dive into living the lolita lifestyle more. I had been really burned out from work and living in a pandemic but going wild and saying you know what a lace headdress and false lashes are okay for work if it’s a saturday has helped me remain excited about life when things seem really bleak. Lolita has always been this way for me but I think it’s exaggerated with everything going on.
Here’s the coord I wore to work today!
I will include a mix of books that I have read and also still want to read, some of these are actually gothic literature and some are just things that remind me of the aesthetic
1.) Dracula
I have actually read this book and there is a lot of surprising details inside of it, at one point a man eats a spider. It is a bit more confusing than I expected but all around highly entertaining and I reccommend
2.) Coraline
It’s a children’s novel but it is genuinely very spooky, it’s a short read and a delight. Also the movie is very cute as well.
3.) Frankenstein
An amazing book that is largely misrepresented in media. I really loved reading it and now understand how it was so frightening to Shelley’s colleague’s at the time. The main theme I gathered from it is if you create life don’t be a deadbeat dad.
4.) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
I can’t believe that I still haven’t read this book, it’s been on my list for awhile and I want to promise myself to read it this month.
5.) The Haunting of Hill House
I’ve only recently become aquainted with this novel’s existence but the premise of a haunting is a classic and it is on my want to read list
6.) We Have Always Lived in the Castle
This is another on my want to read list as I love psychological thrillers in movie form but haven’t experienced any in book form
7.) Edgar Allen Poe’s Poems
I love all sorts of his poetry and I believe his work to be fairly standard of gothic literature
8.) The Yellow Wallpaper
This is an amazingly disturbing short story that I adore and illustrates a lot of the horror of being a woman in that time period
9.) The Phantom of the Opera
At this point the musical is much more famous but the original novel is very compelling and much more disturbing
10.) The Picture of Dorian Gray
This book is a delight and I didn’t know it was considered gothic literature until very recently, I read it for AP English in high school and it still sticks out in my mind
1.) Have a Spooky Movie Marathon over Zoom, you may need to restart the meeting a few times if no one in your comm has the premium version. Make sure to pick movies ahead of time that people feel comfortable with and that people are willing to talk over, as it is a social affair!
2.) Play a spooky rpg session over discord! Have a DM in your comm? Plan a D&D or other rpg session and try to plan your coords around the theme and your character!
3.) Have an Animal Crossing “Trick or Treat!” Animal Crossing seems to be a very popular video game among lolitas and there’s a good chance that people in your comm have it! Try to collect the seasonal items throughout the month and decorate your islands in a festive way. Make sure to visit everyone’s island who wants their island to be seen!
4.) Have a bakeoff in your own kitchen with spooky treats!! Talk while you bake and and show off your treats when you’re done!
5.) Share directions of a craft with the group, perhaps bat embroidery or flower crowns with skulls inside. Chat while you make them and show them off if they go well and laugh if they go badly
Luna By The Lake With Cake 