Sweet Matryoshka Skirt Release

The skirts are released!

Like I mentioned in the previous post, they come in both a standard lolita length and the currently very popular tea length!  They also have matching accessories available.

The Sweet Acorn Jewelry line has also been released.

The Sweet Matryoshka line will be available until June 1rst, when it will be retired to make way for the next one!

Daily Outfit: Easter

As someone with a love of vintage hats and a small but hopefully growing collection how could I pass up the chance to don a appropriately Easter 'bonnet".

Please excuse the mirror photos, I usually try not to use them, but we had 12 people for Easter dinner, and I didn't have my tripod; so these will have to suffice.

My most appropriate vintage hat is a difficult to match spring green.  I really like it even though it could probably be mistaken for half a head of lettuce instead of a hat.

I chose a 50's inspired dress I made quite a few years ago to go with it.  It's actually made out of an old bed sheet I saved from the rag pile.  It has such cute tiny green polka-dots all over it.

Like most of the things I made years ago, this dress no longer really fits.  So hence the cardigan even though it was really really warm!

I think my favorite thing about this outfit is that other then the petticoat (which you can't see) nothing is new.  The pin and hat are vintage,  the shoes and cardigan are thrifted, the dress is made by me, and the pearls were strung by my Mother.   It was a sort of exciting thing to realize.

For those wondering these photos were taken at my Mother's vanity table; it's so lovely!  If you squint you can see a littler version of me in the frame in the first photo.

Detail of the top of the dress and my hat.

This Coord on Lookbook

Since the dress doesn't fit me anymore, and I still have some of the sheet left, I'm planning on remaking it when I have the time.

I want to keep the 50's feel with the full circle skirt, but add some additional sailor lolita charm.

I am editing the images for the Sweet Matryoshka skirt release and hope to release them either tomorrow or Thursday.   I also have quite a few irons in the fire for this blog: tutorials and recipes.  As usual, please let me know if you have a specific request!

Recipe: Candied Violets

Happy Easter!  Surrexit Dominus vere, Alleluia!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Easter so far.

Since my front yard is currently awash in violets I thought I'd repost this tutorial from my website.  Candied Violets are the perfect way to capture spring in a dainty sweet.

Daily Outfit: Red Bridesmaid Dress

This past friday we had a dance at the school I work at, so I of course used it as an excuse to dress up!

It may sound corny, but I love the dances we have at the school.  Because we are both a small school and have students of all ages the the activities are varied and charming .  We usually have waltzing, swing dancing, the Virgina Reel (my favorite!), musical chairs, and miscellaneous dancing.  Nearly everyone from the littlest student to us staff members are involved.  Besides I love to dance!

While nearly all of our dances are "casual" (except the last one of the year), those who want to dress up.  I decided to wear this bridesmaid dress I made for my friend Thera's wedding.  It's an infinity dress and I helped the other two maids make theirs.  Paired of course with my vintage mink stole, which I wear as often as I can!  

You can't see it because I'm holding the skirt out, but this dress is much slinkier then I usually wear.  It is a blast to dance in though because of the huge circle skirt.  

This coord on lookbook.

It's a cliché that bridesmaid dresses are ugly and never worn again.  I've been a bridesmaid 3 times over and have ended up with 3 very lovely and wearable dresses.

Heres two coords with the other two.  Click for full size.    

A rose pink dress that I wore for my friend Kristina's wedding.  It has a wonderful 50's feeling and is also a delight to dance in.

This coord on lookbook

I wore this green brushed cotton dress with oodles of pin tucks for my friend Molly's wedding.  We actually found them on sale at Macy's!  

This coord on lookbook

My friend Autumn recently got engaged so I'm looking forward to another surprisingly wearable bridesmaid dress, most probably in blue! 

Do any of you have bridesmaid dress stories, good or horrible?

Fresh from the Forest

Or should I say my Mother's garden.

Fiddle heads: those immature baby ferns, delicate and curly, eaten and enjoyed in many different parts of the world.  And my new favorite veggie!

Every Wednesday night I spend with my parents, visiting and talking, catching up, and often trying some new interesting food!  As a 3rd generation epicure how could I say no when my Mom suggested picking some fiddle heads from her garden and trying them with dinner for the first time.

They were excellent, rather like asparagus, but without the strange texture.  Also they were ridiculously cute, and seemed the the perfect "mori" food!

First we washed them to get the brown papery "scales" and dirt off.

Then we steamed them until they were tender.  Most sites seem to suggest 20 minutes

We ate them with some simple butter and lemon.  Yum!

While we picked ours from the ostrich ferns my Mom planted years ago, these ferns grown wild over most of the northern hemisphere.  I'm hoping to go for a walk in the woods sometime soon to find some more!  

If you are interested in eating wild fiddle heads here is some additional info on them.  A warning though; there is some worry that fiddle heads are carcinogenic if eaten in large quantities.   As it has a very very short harvest season, eating enough fiddle heads to cause this seems unlikely to me.  With all wild foods, please be careful and use your own good judgement!

Daily Outfit: Sakura Sunday 2011

This past Sunday I got together with the (now huge!) Philly lolita groups for a meetup at Sakura Sunday at Fairmount Park.  I hadn't been to a meet-up in nearly half a year and was shocked and delighted to find that our once small group has grown to well over 25 lolitas!

The cherry trees were in perfect blossom and the weather although overcast was warm enough to be comfortable!

Sadly I seemed to got out of the practice of making sure to get everyone's photo!  Next time I will capture the cuteness better!

Some of the many cute lolitas who came.  If any of you read this blog, please if you wish leave a comment so that I can follow your blog or add you to my friend's list on LJ.

My good friends and fellow Philly lolita veterans: Kristen and Mary.  We ended up taking a bit of a jaunt  into the now amusingly "cherry blossom free woods" to take photos.  

Apparently pink and green alway seem like the right colors for a cherry blossom festival to me. 

I decided to make a pink chiffon ruffle underskirt and waist sash to make this outfit a little bit more classic rather then sweet.  I really like the versatility and more mature feeling that they add.  You can be sure that they will be popping up again with other outfits!  

I'm also thinking on doing a tutorial on them sometime soon!

It's too bad these came out rather washed out,  I had pinned a vintage pressed flower brooch to the sash and it matched the mink stole perfectly!


This outfit on my Lookbook with outfit list


So I have some recipe tutorials planned and I'm currently working on a tatted purse and will do a tutorial for it when it's done!   Have any of you tried tatting since I posted about it?  I'd love to see what you come up with.


Please let me know if there are any specific tutorials or content that you would like to see.


I hope you all had a delightful weekend

Tatted Daisy Giveaway Winner!

All the sweet comments on the giveaway post were really wonderful!  Thank you so much!

The winner is:

Lolla!

Congratulations Lolla, send me an e-mail with your contact info please! 

I'm going to a Philly lolita meetup tommorow at the cherry blossom festival.   Here's a little rough sketch of my outfit.

I frequently sketch out more complicated and special outfits.  It helps me see the color balance of them!  Like this one: I originally planned on wearing a pink blouse, but then realized that the white would be too bottom heavy.

So look for some pretty photos tomorrow of the meetup and some outfit photos!

Tatted Daisy Giveaway

To celebrate this blog officially going "public" I'm having a giveaway!

The prize is a hand tatted accessory set made by me, one daisy headband, and one daisy brooch/haircip.    I think it could go well with Lolita, Mori, Natural-kei, Dolly-kei, or otome!

To enter please comment on this post.  Then this Saturday I will announce the randomly selected winner and post it in a new entry.  

This giveaway is open to both international and domestic contestants!

Good luck and thank you for reading!

Sneak Preveiws: Sweet Matryoshka and Unnamed Nautical Line

A little preview.  As you can see the Sweet Matryoshka skirts will be available in in a tea length as well as standard lolita length.  This is a mock-up of how one will look.  I'll be releasing the skirts for sale as soon as I can finish the prototypes.

I've also been working on my next line, which will be nautical themed!  Here are some sketches of the proposed  monochrome embroidery.    Open them for a full veiw.

Intro to Tatting and Two Patterns

Doily made as a wedding present

I have to admit to putting off writing this post; it's a lot of material to cover.  But since I'm stuck at home with a spring cold; I figured I'd take advantage of it.

Tatting is a lacework technique that is done with a shuttle or sometimes a needle.  It's also somewhat of a dieing art: I've never actually met irl someone else who tats.

I have been tatting for a little over a year myself.  One of the things I love most about it is that you can make something beautiful and priceless that can be handed down for generations for literally a few dollars.  All it takes is a shuttle and some thread or yarn.

Here are some of my tatting tools: shuttles, yarn, thread, small scissors, shuttle for thick yarn, and crochet hook  for connecting picots (not shown, oops!).

You can find plenty of tutorials and video tutorials on how to tat online so I'll skip that part.  Heres a good one though.

This and Tat Tutorial

Here is the tutorial that I personally figured tatting out from.  Something about how the hands are drawn made it click for me.  Click on it to see it full sized (as usual).

From The Reader Digest's Guide to Needlework circa 1970s.

In an attempt to incite some interest: here is a tutorial for a matching daisy headdress and brooch perfect for country lolita, classic lolita, mori, otome, dolly-kei, or even gothic or sweet lolita (in the right yarn colors).