Amy, 24, Melbourne, web designer, piano student, Slytherin, nostalgia (and chocolate) addict, and languisher in all things baroque, rococo, and Tolkien.
I love making plans. Something will come to me spontaneously and I’ll get so enthusiastic, imagining a concept, an atmosphere, the place, time and the people to involve. I get so convinced that it will be easy, that people will want to join in, and that I can use my resources and researching skills to intuitively create these events or start personal projects. The motivation usually dissipates quite soon if I don’t start writing it out, or designing the layout, or telling a few friends.
This year’s Rococo-themed Lolita picnic was supposed to be a success because I had a better grasp on the logistics from last time. I intended to arrive on time (or earlier), not to spend as much money, to visit the venue in advance to secure a suitable area, and to involve a couple of other people who could take charge for a bit if I was indisposed.
We visited the lovely Rippon Lea Estate in Summer:
We settled on the nursery lawn as a nice private picnic spot:
And took some more mediocre shots of the grounds, lake and truly enormous greenhouse!
We had games planned, a magic show, all the usual picnicking fare, and the bookings manager was really helpful and lovely so we were all looking forward to another great day. But, as usual, Melbourne weather conspired against us, and it was set to be a very wet weekend. However, I’ll cover the picnic in the next post! The point of the above is to give an idea of how excited I get over plans with friends, but how tricky it can be to actually coordinate 40+ well-dressed people (and still enjoy yourself). It’s quite okay to overthink things, and to have some sort of backup plan.
Frock Talk
The day before the picnic we had beautiful weather, and we spent it with three gorgeous friends from interstate! Julija, Golide and Elliot joined us for tea, piano-playing, wine and liqueurs, and relaxing in my humble house for an afternoon. I would love to make a habit of this, but I live so far away that I don’t usually get visits from anyone but one or two close friends!
All these photos belong to Goldie & Elliot.
Whiskey, cider, moscato, and a rousing round of Winkle’s Wedding
Hairrr! Mine needs a wash!
Only weeks before, that ground (and all surrounding trees and shrubs) was absolutely covered in millions of soldier beetles.
Flowering tea failure. Unfortunately the prettiest ones I find taste most bitter, or I would replace these with fresh ones.
If only we could have tea parties all the time! Hurry up and move to Melbourne, Goldie and Elliot!
Continuing on from the Cloudehill post, I’d like to present a spamload of self-indulgent photos, eek. There were little things about each shot I liked, so I found it hard to cull any more…
For my coordinate I went for a soft blue-green with chocolate brown and cream. I know the bonnet is on the huge side – I love it but it’s not the shape a bonnet should be! The theme is about a girl having received a love letter from a suitor. 
I wasn’t completely happy with the look but the idea was a) to attempt over-the-top classic, b) to use the bonnet at least once, c) to use our new camera (thanks Julija!) and d) to have my real hair out for the first time in lolita!
I wore the dress again to a Chocolate High Tea event last weekend and was happier with the way I coordinated the outfit a second time in a different look – the waist is a touch high on me (would be flattering if it tapered down a bit) and the underskirt feels a bit cheap and rustles when it rubs against the but otherwise it’s very beautiful and I have a love affair with those trumpet sleeves and the way they come up like a jacket.
Outfit rundown
Dress: Mary Magdalene
Bonnet: Etsy
Socks: Innocent World
Bag: Midophi
Accessories: Surface Spell, ODIP, Diva, random
Up in the Dandenong Ranges you can find plenty of nurseries and gardens, but Cloudehill is a favourite we’ll be returning to, hopefully each season! To christen our first DSLR we shot in the gardens at the end of January on a sunny afternoon. We actually visited to get photos I could enter in a lolita fashion competition, but I decided I’d split the set and post garden (and miscellaneous) pics first. We still have a lot to learn, but it’s so nice to be able to post higher quality photos that I don’t have to borrow from others!
These sheep garden ornaments were very expensive but I’d never seen anything like them – imagine putting a few on the lawn!
This post comes months after finishing the game (depending on your definition of “finished”) but I still need to talk about how awesome Skyrim was. Each Elder Scrolls game should be considered as a standalone game, not as a sequel or just an improvement on the previous game. Here are a few thoughts I had while journeying:
- First, it’s gorgeous. It was very easy to lose yourself in the atmosphere and the landscapes, to just stare up at the sky or bask in the surrounding icy vistas. I loved standing on glaciers at night. However, graphics cards and processors can handle a lot more these days so I want TES6 (multiplayer?) to be a game I need to upgrade my computer just to play.
- An absorbing storyline made it so hard to just quit and go to bed. I rarely felt “stuck” because there was always another quest to move to, or location or cave to be explored. Politically, I let my thief side with the Stormcloaks, though I didn’t approve of Ulfric’s methods. It didn’t even feel like a choice between the better of two evils, because the subtle choices I did make eventually cut out the option to side with the Imperials.
- Trying to create even a moderately attractive elf was impossible. I know mods have addressed this but I remain a vanilla girl and won’t use any mods until my next playthrough!
- I initially hated the console-game feel, especially in the UI/menu, but it was still an improvement. I highly recommend replacing the menu system with SkyUI. The levelling system took a little while to get used to, especially with only three main attributes, but other than it being really clunky to navigate I loved the perks, especially with bows. You end up so overpowered!
- Annoying: Carefully arranging all the food/ingredients in your house only to come back and find them sprawled about like someone had trashed the place.
- Even though I seemed to be carrying hundreds of potions, I only really used the healing potions.
- Hearing “Silt Sunrise” for the first time in-game.
- So many draugr, ugh.
And finally, there was no shortage of gore, so I saved a few gruesome images:
I still need to finish my series of Morrowind caps, but I have two Lolita-related posts coming up! Check back for a photo shoot and some snaps of this year’s (wet and dismal) Rococo Picnic.
Time for another wall of photos! I’m afraid this place has become just a conversational, visual journal without much text of substance, but it must reflect what is important to me these days – experiences as opposed to opinions. There’s nothing like being able to easily scroll through the highlights of the last year or two and remembering all those experiences, especially when things aren’t going so well. I could say that I’m doing “great”, but I’m not quite out of the woods regarding health problems and other stress factors yet. It probably seems like I get up to an awful lot of interesting things and dressing up, but, a) there is a rarely a birthday I attend which isn’t themed (and costuming has been an almost lifelong hobby), b) I have interesting friends who take it upon themselves to organise usually-inexpensive events at interesting places. Finally, my lifestyle allows me to accept invitations to all these little things and to turn each into a sort of adventure.
Well, enough waffling. I have been preparing several posts but thought I’d start with a run-down on the last 5 or so weeks. It’s mostly happy snaps and instagram pretension, and at this point you’ll see my abuse of “hip” filters to try and make average pictures look more exciting.
My sister had a “Gods & Goddesses” birthday:
With my niece and Kimmy
Chocolate and pistachio-coated strawberries
“Baldur”
The Pantheon
Rose and raspberry cupcakes with rose/vanilla buttercream and chocolate garnish – YUM
It was a very balmy night with much dancing. I was supposed to be Pandora.
We took a visit to the venue for our next “Rococo Picnic” to organise the booking:
I wore my R-series Rococo underbust dress – wasn’t very happy with this look either! The wig is nice but I don’t think it looked quite right on me.
My grandmother had her 90th birthday:
She complains about “looking a hundred” but is always impeccable…
Trying something different outfit-wise (a pencil skirt!), father, grandmother and sister
Later…
Left: My best friend GOT ENGAGED, and so she had a little celebratory dinner. Right: Lovely Indian restaurant on Valentine’s Day. The reason I leave feeling sick is because I always order too much food and can’t stop eating the delicious fare.
We went to a boathouse for a friend’s birthday:
Between my bossing, the up-and-down weather, the wind changing the current, and Adam’s fears of capsizing, it wasn’t the most relaxing ride. But I’d do it again!
Trying to get it “right” but still not happy. I don’t think the wig colour suits me, should’ve scrapped the hair band, and there isn’t enough contrast between the light socks and shoes. The dress is a bit long for my liking (though the angle above makes it seem more so). Photo by Clara.
Whoops, naughty blouse! Photos by Sam.
My dashing man! Photos by Sam.
I attempted a few new looks with clothing and accessories new and old:
This one was just for taking my Nanna grocery shopping, but dress-ups can bring excitement to any day!
This was really comfortable but I wasn’t entirely happy with it. I believe you CAN have too many flowers. :S
The day of my Slytherin-inspired look I helped my sister knock up a quick patisserie portfolio. I designed each page with a fairly minimalist magazine-look which I think offset her oft-phone-captured grungy kitchen shots. We stopped at a French patisserie straight after but they weren’t looking for any new employees. I bought a small sort of buttercream/hazelnut layered square which was amazing.
Sister Blog
Juliette at Classical Doll