My Secret Garden

July 1st, 2003 Well, originally I came across this post during my regularly scheduled EGL archiving, but it made me think... "Hey, it's almost summer! I live in Satan's butthole! We've had record breaking summer weather this year! I should talk about this!" So, per usual, lets first look at this post's comments. After all, we cant' really ignore a post from ye ol'e days with 23 whole comments. "You turn into a white loli in the summer :P Black absorbs!! I got lucky and I live in a relatively cool climate. :D" Umm...no. While wearing "white loli" more correctly known as SHIRO LOLITA, or lolita in head-to-toe white, may help to deflect the hot rays of sun, that's like telling your friendly neighborhood goth to give up black in the summer...do they ever? No. "Cute sundresses and sunhats!" Ehhhh...almost, but still no. SO, let me begin with my number one summer tip... Left is my large Meta tote perfect...

The last meet my comm had before the Covid crisis hit my state full speed was a meet to the local art museum during it’s monthly free day. Unfortunately a few days after that, things began to change for the worse, and meets for the next few months were cancelled. So, as a long time admin of my local community, I suggested that we start having bi-weekly themes: a new, revolving theme to change once every two weeks, to keep up morale and promote community participation to offer a distraction in these trying time.  Our last theme was 1 item, 4 coords. Some members choose to choose items that that had been forgotten at the back of their wardrobes, but I chose one of my go-to pieces, a Moi Meme Moitie piece from 2010, my Cross Gather OP. The first coord I did was something reflecting my regular, go-to styling. Something simple, casual, and comfortable. The main reason I wanted to use this piece for this challenge was because I wanted to force myself out of my comfort zon...

May 1, 2003 Ok, so lets start at the name of this entry first of all. "Kawaii male EGL."  Honestly I had a hard time even deciphering this post, if you haven't noticed, pretty much everyone back from the old school EGL days was an absoluse kawaii UwU weeb nya~!!!11 I hate that I was apart of this, but oh well, here I am documenting our past, the good, the bad, the illegible, and the obnoxious. Anyways, per usual at this point, the link didn't work. I use to be into manga back in the day, though I hadn't heard of this particular manga,  Matantei Loki Ragnarok , before, so I decided to look it up for myself. So after looking through a few images, I can definitely see the historical influences in the character design, especially the male characters, though I wouldn't necessarily call them male EGL or whatever. but, I must remind myself that this was 2003, fashion sources were very limited, and we took what we could get back then. Apparently it's a...

So recently I ended up making a new video on YouTube for a quarentine/stayhome collab with other Lolita YouTubers. Joëlle of  FluffyKawaiiJo  on YouTube, and Designer of  Fluffy Tori , has put together a collaboration project to share bring entertainment and give ideas to lolitas who are dealing with isolation. Other YouTubers who have also contributed to the project are  Fallen Princess ,  Clover ,  Embroidered Doll ,  Cupcake Kamisama ,  Lou Graves  and  Lovely Lor . The whole playlist of videos in this collaboration series can be found  here . I ended up making a DIY/sew-along for face masks, as I mentioned in my previous post about  things you can do in quarentine as a lifestyle lolita, I mentioned how recently I have been sewing face masks for my family members who work in hospitals, so I figured it might be helpful to others who might be interested in doing the same. Besides, sewing more often has helped calmed...

Well, not really, just the post. Just the latest development in the 2020 Apocalypse. Japanese post has suspended shipment of EMS and Airmail to the USA. Now everything I’ve posted before the last few weeks has come true. It is officially 2004 again. There is no longer any way to buy from brands overseas. We must make due with the leftovers of our own local secondhand market. Nothing new is coming in. I guess it’s a good thing I have almost the entire collection of Gothic & Lolita Bibles complete with sewing patterns. The only new Lolita will be at the expense of my pricked finger tips rather than my bank account. I remember when I first discovered Lolita in middle school. I taught myself how to sew so I could hold a little bit of this perfect world I discovered in my own hands. I would raid my step mother’s scrap fabrics to sew my own maxi pad styled headdresses to wear with my fishnets, camo mini skirts and big stomps boots. Wooo boy am I glad I never got any photos of that mess...

April 9, 2003 There is a post asking if there are any Jenny dolls with legitimate Lolita outfits. They say that they think they saw one wearing a "GothLoli styled outfit." Well, while I'm not completely familiar with the Jenny dolls of the past, I know for certain that Baby the Stars Shine bright had at least one collaboration with the doll brand. I have seen these dolls in two different color variations of the Sugar Bouquet print series. The last one I am including in this segment is a much newer version, which is a new collaboration with the brand Sanrio for the anniversary of the Little Twin Stars. However, because these are a Japanese brand, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there were many more lolita looking dolls just because, of course, Japan is where lolita and "kawaii" styled clothing originated, these just happen to be the two.

As I’ve discussed previously, as the world has mostly shut down during the COVID 19 pandemic, many Lolita’s have turned to remote twinning and holding virtual meetups. This has led me to both twin with local and non local Lolita. Most recently I had the opportunity to to do a tripleting coord with some long-time LiveJournal era friends. We coordinated our matching Meta skirts from their 2000 “Thorn Print” series. In addition to coordinating outfits together, we talked about how the world of Lolita has changed. The younger generation is obsessed with social media, likes, and influenced culture. It’s so strange. Many people seem to get into the fashion for aesthetics or because it’s flashy. I see so many people posting about engagement and followers and it’s so strange to me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just different and no one is bad or wrong for doing things differently than me. I’ve met a lot of amazing people who have gotten into Lolita more recently. In fact, most Lolita I know be...

Originally I had hoped to be a lot more active here. I enjoyed writing and recording what I could find about the years past. Even if it’s just for myself to look back on and no other audience. Unfortunately due to stress, anxiety and enevitably depression, it became too much for me. When I was finally able to  pull myself out, I was so busy with social and family obligations, making the rounds after becoming engaged(oh yes! That also happened while I was away!), I had even less time for myself even now that I was feeling better. Well, as I’m sure you have noticed, most of the world has stopped in the wake of the covid 19 pandemic. Now we all seem to have even more time than we even know what to do with. I’m currently working only part time, waiting for the day it becomes so bad due to the total incompetence of our world leaders that I myself am either sick, or our entire city is forced to shut down. All of our local meets in the comm I moderate have been cancelled for the fore...