♥ Lolita Lifestyle Challenge - Day 3! ♥ ~ A Friend's Wishlist ~

 

One of the things that we often get sidetracked by is the fact that we are a "lolita couple"; we wear lolita together, we go to meets together, we get asked to hang out together. We share a wardrobe! We buy things that we think will fit both of us and both of us borrow each other's . . . well, everything, to be honest. 

So it makes sense that we know exactly what each other wants, that we link each other to items we've been looking for when we're in separate places looking up, when we search things out specifically . . . we have pretty similar taste, but we don't have exactly the same taste. 

Probably most of you recognize this dress; it's AP's Toy Parade JSK in mint! Here's the thing; Haz loves elephants. She collects them, she loves them, she squeals over them daily. So it makes sense that she would have a desperate need to own an AP dress with toy elephants all over it! She's also been adding a lot more mint to her wardrobe, so having it in mint would be perfect for her . . . and also, it fitting well would be a bonus! So during my *cough cough* weekly* wunderwelt searchings, when i came across this dress for under £100, it was as if all of the lolita Gods had conspired to make Haz's day a good one. 

We umm-ed and ahh-ed about buying it for a while (as someone does when they're going to drop a lot of money at once!) but eventually bit the bullet - and it was so exciting when it got here! Plus, she looks adorable in it, and that's what's important, right?

In the same order, I also found Classic Melody, which is one of my dream dresses - violins and music notes? Yes please! It doesn't quite fit the theme because Haz didn't find it for me, but she did pay for it, and that is just as important in the grand scheme of keeping your wardrobe full of desired dresses!

As well as each other, we keep an eye out for things for our friends too (at least, when we remember!). A couple of things we're always on the look out for are music themed prints - especially chocolate and music themed prints together! - and a couple of other specific dresses that we've heard people mention!

Another thing we do is remember who sometimes comments on a post after it's already been sold, and if we see it being sold again try and let them know! It's so nice to help someone get their dream items and then see them enjoying it!

 ✿Love,✿

♥Haz & Nat♥

♥ Lolita Lifestyle Challenge - Day 2! ♥ ~ Loli-able Museums in the Local Area! ~

This is one we've actually done a lot! Both of us love museums and as we were originally in a long-distance relationship/friendship, the first time Haz came down to Hull we made an attempt to squeeze in as many of the museums and sights as possible in a two week period! It's honestly not that many though, Hull isn't actually very big!

The first picture is from East Park, which whilst not actually entirely a museum, has a few historic places to visit as well as being really pretty and a good location just to hang around for a few hours! There's an animal sanctuary area, various historical things to read about, and a lot of green space to wander around and explore! We've always meant to hold a lolita meet there but never quite gotten around to it - maybe this year? Who knows!

The second picture (featuring an outfit not at all lolita but with a cute Bodyline sailor dress we used to own!) is from the Hull Transport Museum/Streetlife Museum. This one is in the "Museums Quarter" which also has a Museum of Life and Wilberforce House (the house that William Wilberforce lived in); all of them have varying degrees of interest - my personal favourite thing in museums is interactivity, which none of them have too much of - but they all do offer lots of cute places to take photos in! We've actually been to a lolita meet aimed at doing the museums!

Also in Hull is The Deep, which markets itself as the "World's Only Submarium"! They have a lot of sea creatures - including penguins, which we haven't had a chance to visit yet. It's definitely one of the places that tourists visit when they come to Hull, but it's still very pretty and there's quite a lot to do when you're wandering around.

The second picture is from my favourite museum in Hull, the Hands On History museum! Unfortunately, it's now closed most of the time and only open on some Saturdays out of a month, but it was very interactive and a lot of fun to explore. There were various old-fashioned toys, an old-fashioned schoolroom, and lots of things hidden around to find out about. 

There are a few places in Hull I didn't mention above; there's the Holy Trinity Church, which you can go around to look at the beautiful architecture. There's also a whaling museum and an Art Gallery, both of which we've been to but I don't have any pictures to share, unfortunately! There's also a dinosaur themed museum here, but we've both heard it's not worth the money it costs to get in and probably won't be going to it!

A brief mention to the fact that, seeing as Hazel lived in and her family still live in Bristol, we have been there a few times (and are planning on going there again in a few days!) so we looked up a few places to go and things to do in Bristol; we're hoping to go to the zoo and also to go to Noah's Ark Zoo Farm! Last time we were in Bristol we took a day trip to Bath and went to the Roman Baths and the Fashion Museum (which I loved!). 

Also, allow me to leave you with a photo we took during a London day trip in which we visited the V&A Museum of Childhood, which whilst not very interactive has so much to look at and think about! We personally spent a lot of time looking into the dollhouses and marvelling at all the beautiful and intricate miniatures. 

 ✿Love,✿

♥Haz & Nat♥

♥ Lolita Lifestyle Challenge - Day 1! ♥ ~ Wardrobe Resolutions ~

Hi! Long time, no see, right? We started university (and had to quit due to various medical and health reasons!) in the time we were gone, and altogether haven't had the best 2015 we could have - but let's take a moment and hope that 2016 will be a better year for both of us! To get us back on track with blogging, we've decided to take on the 365 day Lifestyle Lolita Challenge from Lace a la Mode! We've both definitely been feeling a little discouraged from both blogging and lolita recently (even our instagram feed, which was probably our most active social media, hasn't been updated since August!) so we're hoping that taking on such a challenge might push us out of our slump!

So, before we get on to the challenge, let's just take a minute to review our lolita goals from last year's new year's resolution post! 

• Stop buying things just because they are cheap and might not be available again. I'm not really sure how well we managed this, although we definitely in general did buy more expensive items! We didn't buy as many bodyline pieces, which was the main reason we set up this resolution in the first place!
• Buy a lot more basics; blouses, tights, and boleros spring to mind before all others! We definitely bought a lot more blouses! We also bought a lot of ankle socks, though not so many tights. We're having a bit of trouble finding cute loli-able boleros in plus size, though, so if anyone has any recommendations we'd be glad to hear them!
• Get a big, good, bag that will work with most of our co-ords and will fit all of our stuff in! This one we did pretty well! We bought a lot of bags, most of which fit quite a good amount of stuff in!
• Look at how pieces coordinate with our outfits and wardrobes before we buy them. Okay, this one wasn't such a success; we spent the vast majority of 2015 talking about how badly we needed to buy a pair of brown shoes. Really badly.
• Attend more meetups and try and wear lolita at least once a month, as well as becoming more active in the online loli community. We did really well with this up until September, basically! The last few months we definitely did not have the motivation to wear lolita, but up until then we were getting there! We posted a lot of coords on tumblr and Haz posted her first Closet of Frills post! 

• More shoes! Always, always more shoes. We bought a lot of shoes! We both got gold shoes, eventually brown shoes, but we could both still really do with some pale pink shoes.
• Try and get at least one wish list item each, whether it be something as small as an accessory or as big as an OP! We both did this! I got one of my Ultimate Dream Dresses (AP's Classic Melody!) and so did Haz (AP's Toy Parade!). As well as that we picked up some other wishlist dresses; Sweet Cream House, Dolly Cat, and more than a few others!
• Try out an indie or a taobao brand. We didn't go out and buy any indie/taobao brand specially, but we did end up getting a really cute elephant dress from one of our friend's brands, Camellia's Closet! It's really cute and Haz collects elephants so it was perfect for her! 

Okay! So, this challenge originates from Lace a la Mode, a cute lolita and lifestyle blog! I think the idea is that there'll be a different challenge/prompt etc. posted every day to do with lolita/lolita lifestyle, and we're going to do our best to follow along with this blog. Without further ado, goals for our wardrobe for 2016: 

• Buy more blouses! Because really, can you ever have too many blouses? 
• Buy more dream items and less stuff just because it's cheap and easy to get to - a resolution we made last year, but still a resolution to go with!
• Make more things to go with our dresses and outfits; we both obviously make a lot of jewelry for the shop but we don't often just make something just because we want to. 
• Attend more meets and events and conventions! That way we have somewhere to wear all of the cute things we're making! I'm not really sure what's going on with our local community, but there are a few comms close to us that it would be easy to go to meets at! 

Well, I think that's it! I hope you all had a wonderful new year and I hope that 2016 is going to be your best year yet! We have tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in June and we're trading at our first two-day convention in the summer too, so we already have something to look forward to! 

I hope we'll be posting a lot more next year!

 ✿Love,✿

♥Haz & Nat♥