Christmas Reflections

First a reminder: This Saturday is the deadline for ordering the lolita t-shirts!  Please help us make this a success!

Also coincidentally, the "Neptune's Domain" line is being retired being retired on Saturday as well. 

Originally I had planned to do a post about Christmas during the 12 days of CHRISTMAS!!  I was apparently too busy messing about with presents and enjoying delicious goodies.  

Sooo each day of procrastinating makes this post that more silly.  That said, it's not Lent yet, so victory there!

Here's some pretties from this year's Christmas:

This was the first Christmas my family celebrated since I inherited my great grandmother's china and green stemmed crystal.   They were usually used for Christmas dinner when my Mom was young so I was very excited and nostalgic to be able to use them.  

They are so elegant and pretty.  The set is Floreal made by Noritake and is proably from the twenties.  I'm going to keep my eye out for more pieces; I have tons of saucers but sadly few tea cups!  

An artsy photo taken at the Hagley estate on St. Stephen's day (Boxing Day).  One of my presents was a very surprising DSLR camera from my parents.  I'm making an effort to make the transition from a basic point and shoot to understanding all the new advantages of the DSLR.  I'm very excited for taking photos of my future lines with it!

Of course the stark and very functional black/white/red strap the camera came with is not at all too my tastes. I'm in the midst of tatting a new one with some very sturdy cream cotton yarn.   The pattern you see will be mirrored when I'm done.

And finally some photos of a Coord I wore to a Christmas party.  I just love dancing in this dress!

This look on Lookbook

The Headpeice is actually the vintage Linser necklace that I got for my birthday this summer!  

I hope You all had a wonderful Christmas and are enjoying a good New Year so far!

Tutorial: Straw Bonnet

The winners of the EGL Hair Accessory contest have been announced!  Congratulations to the winners.  

So here is my entry, broken up into 3 images.  Click on them to full veiw.

For a first attempt I am pretty happy with it.  I do want to make another if I can find another hat to take apart; and maybe play with the brim shape and how the crown sits on my head.  

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).  

Flower Show Report: part the first

Of course I have to start this post with a photo of the completed jewelry piece!  I'm very very happy with how it came out, it's something I'd love to wear if it was an actual jewelry set!

Here is the materials card, for those interested in seeing what exactly we used to make it:

On Friday we went to the Convention Center to have our piece passed and pin it to the display board.  We had no trouble with the passing and got some very encouraging comments from a veteran of the category.  

You can be sure that on Saturday my Mom and I rushed over to the Jewelry Competition section with a very nervous excitement; to find that we had not placed but had gotten a very respectable honorable mention (the only one in our section to receive one).  

I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed, being a very competitive person, but I quickly got over it.  My Mom and I are now fired up to try again (and WIN) next year!  The theme will be Hawaii. 

As usual when I go into the city, I took my chance to dress up !   Here's Friday:

You might remember this look from the 7 item 10 outfits challenge.  I changed up some elements and to my frustration forgot to put on the brown leather belt.  It really would have tied the outfit together more!

This coord on my lookbook with outfit list.

Slightly unflattering accessory shot!  Why yes, that is acorn jewelry you spy!  Yes it did take 4 month for my findings package to finally leave that mysterious Hong Kong post office!  

That means that the Sweet Acorn jewelry line will finally be released with the Sweet Matryoshka Skirts (soon!)

That flower pin I made out of scraps and is one of my newest favorite accessory.  

The hair pins are another new item.  I was unsure how to do my hair and picked out a few of my  Grand mom's buttons from a collection of her's that I inherited and just glued them on to a flat back hair pin!  I like the subtly vintage/mori look of them!

I got this hair stick as a Christmas present from my friend Autumn and have since been wearing it nearly everyday.  It's such an easy and comfortable way to put up my hair. 

I wanted to dress up the style a bit and added a braid to one side as well as the button hair pins; while still keeping it messy for that mori look.

For Saturday I wore another slightly changed challenge look.  I wanted to wear the beret for the Paris theme, even though the Matryoshka dolls on my skirt are of course Russian!  

This coord on my lookbook with outfit list.

This is my first time wearing a beret with lolita, and I can see why they are so popular.  Cute and comfy!

You can't really see them too well in the coords photos but I added some removable "tassles" to my boots.  I've been hankering for tassle boots for a while, but I can't really justify buying a new pair just for some fiddly bits.  So out came the fake leather, glue, and thread.

I'll be posting a tutorial for them soon.

Part the second will have photos of our competitors and of the prettiness of the flower show in general!

Gilded Lily

A lovely flower, shiny as a jewel.  But what is it made of?  I'll give you a hint; it's not what you expect!

Onion skin, papyrus leaves, clove, tangerine peel, some paint and nail polish, and a bit of wire to give it stability!


Wait! What?!



Welcome to the world of the Philadelphia International Flower Show, and more specifically the Jewelry Competition.

The Philadelphia International Flower Show is one of the largest and oldest horticultural shows in the world, and also one of my family's annual traditions.  There are lots of spectacular displays and hundreds of different competitions.  The fairly tiny jewelry competition is been my Mother's and my favorite.

The rules are deceptively simple: use plant material to make something that looks like jewelry.  You can use glue and paint (most commonly nail polish) for color, and non-plant material for structure as long as it doesn't show.

The results are usually breathtaking, and very surprising.  The artists have scoured their gardens and wild areas, scoped out the grocery store, and raided their spice cabinets for the perfect pearl stand in, the most interesting shaped seedpod to incorporate.

here are some example from past years.

Every year my Mom and I crowd around the bright cases, talking about how we would have judged differently or changed the piece this way or that.  With my Mother as a fine arts jeweler , and me as a seamstress we couldn't resist it's siren song.  This year it's our turn!

The Flower Show theme this year is "Springtime in Paris" and the specific competition we entered is "A brooch and earring set inspired by a French jeweler"

We chose René Lalique an Art Nouveau  artist from the turn of the century who did quite a bit of 

Plique-à-jour: transparent enamel with no backing.  We both love Art Nouveau, so it's a perfect match!

Here is some of our inspiration: 

We chose lilies as our inspiration as they are the traditional flower of France (often depeicted as the symbolic Fleur de Lise.

We are mostly done the piece, and planning on finishing with a final work session tomorrow; which is good because we must drop it off at the show this coming Friday.  

The plant materials we are using are: 

• Onion Skin
• Tangerine Peel
• Papyrus Leaves
• Clove Buds
• Sago Palm Leaves
• Lentils
• Corn Husk
• Hazelnuts
• Chick Peas
• Bamboo

We will find out the results this coming Saturday, so expect to hear about them (and the rest of the show) sometime Sunday.

Here is an early "work in progress" photo to give some idea of what we are using.