Red floral outfits.

Outfit post? Outfit post. I decided to have a play with my wine-red Bodyline high-waisted floral skirt. It's a beautiful skirt, especially for Bodyline, and I love how it can be dressed up or down.

For some reason, it's hard to get the colour exactly right in photos; the picture above is as close as I could manage. It's a lovely fabric which works really well with the skirt design.

First up... fawn fur! I really wanted to use my new beret in an outfit and this is what I came up with. It's quite a simple outfit, but it's something I could definitely see myself wearing.

And now an outfit that I have completely fallen in love with! I recently appropriated this blouse from the model wardrobe and haven't used it yet but it seemed like a good pairing for this skirt. This is a more elegant classic outfit, while still begin very typically lolita with the velvet and pearl headbow. I think some kind of big, hime-ish hair would be awesome with this, and I'm contemplating wearing it for a photoshoot or something sometime soon.

I am getting a lot of wear out of my brown bolero! And, on the flipside, the black one I made immediately after I haven't worn, or used in flat-lays, once. Ah well. I've worn something similar to this outfit, just with different socks and headwear, to uni and the basic combo of skirt/blouse/bolero works quite nicely in a casual-classic way. This is my more typically lolita take on it.

And, as a bonus because I don't normally post actual outfit snapshots here, this is another way I've worn this skirt! Trying to bring out the peachy tones of the flowers rather than the red of the base worked quite well, I think.

Meal Prep #11

Last Wednesday [yes, yes I'm being a very late and lazy blogger] was meal prep time again!

First up, and no picture because it didn't come out well at all, was a repeat of a meal from last week: satay mince on beans, corn and carrots. However, we couldn't get kangaroo mince this week so we had to use regular mince and wow... cooking normal mince  really makes you appreciate how lean kangaroo is. It still tastes good, but it's nowhere near as healthy.

This was salmon and sautéed spinach and zucchini with garlic on a bed of baked potato, sweet potato and carrot. As usual, the sweet potatoes were fresh from the garden. The sautéed greens are absolutely delicious and I'm already thinking of making them a regular addition.

Another repeat from previous weeks: satay celery and beans over brown rice, topped with chicken. Still a great meal. And so cheap! For reals, these work out to maybe $3 per meal which I think is pretty good for something with meat in it.

Lastly we have honey soy chicken and corn on a bed of baked potato, sweet potato and carrot. Simple yet tasty.

The more we do this the more I'm finding that, as a general rule, we need to put one "exciting" thing into each meal. That is to say one thing that makes you eager to eat that meal. If it's just plain meat with plain vegetables yes, it's very healthy, but it's not particularly appealing. I find I'm way more likely to stick to eating just these meals and not cooking up something different if there's something to look forward to in every box.

Florals for spring, groundbreaking; or, Green gingham outfits

I'm really happy with the title I came up with for this post, but I have no idea how to punctuate it correctly... don't judge me! Anyway, I was inspired to come up with these outfits after rescuing my pretty green Bodyline L411 OP from my to-sell pile. I'd always thought it was cute, but it was designed for a smaller bust than mine so the top line of shirring sat on my bust instead of underneath, and I didn't like how it looked. And only a week ago did I realise the simple solution; remove that row of shirring! So I did, and now it's back in my wardrobe and I've started planning different ways to wear it.

First off, as usual, I wanted to share a close-up of the print. The green is lovely, bright yet subtle, and the flower are really pretty.

The first coord was an attempt to come up with a different simple, summer-y way of wearing this OP than my usual white, white and more white. The blue shoes add an interesting touch and though this outfit is still very simple, I think there are enough details in there to make it quite lovely.

Second, I tried a more autumn-appropriate outfit. The IW socks are a very good match because the flowers are blue and pink, like those on the skirt. My handmade bolero and a brown beret help tie in the socks, while the cream shoes and flowers on the beret provide some lightness. I'm not sure how well this will translate worn, I have a feeling the socks and beret maybe be too dark to work well, but it was still good to experiment with something completely different.

Also, as a side-note, this is probably the most accurate photo of the dress, colour-wise. My phone does not like capturing colours the same way twice.

This last coord is my absolute favourite. It's a perfect early spring coord, a bit warm but still light. The floral piece is one of those bands designed to be worn around a bun, which I think would be a really cute hairstyle for this. It's a little dressy with the lace socks and the lace on the bolero, but still quite sweet. To be completely honest, I think this is the best sweet-classic hybrid coord I've ever come up with and I can't wait to wear it!

A slightly steampunk-y lolita photoshoot

Photoshoot time again! These are actually nearly a month old now... ooops ^__^ 

James and I did another shoot in my Lyris JSK. I know I always say this, but I really love how versatile solid-coloured pieces are, and this dress in particular just goes with my wardrobe and personal style so well.

This time around we went for a more steampunk inspired look which I thought turned out really cute! I've been getting a lot of wear out of this offbrand blouse lately; I've had it for ages and never really worn it until now and boy, am I hitting myself for not appreciating its awesomeness earlier.

I shall leave you, as I often do, with links to our respective facebook pages:
James's photography: www.facebook.com/JamesTheEnthusiast
My modelling: www.facebook.com/CarolineRoliCherry

Ooops! And I almost forgot to give credit where credit is due... James also did my hair for this ^__^

Meal Prep #10

Anoher week, another meal prep. This is from the day before yesterday because I've been a good girl doing uni work and haven't felt like blogging about it until now. it was an overcast day, so ym photos aren't great, but wahtever.

Above, both served on brown rice, is satay green vegetables and chicken and stir fry mixed vegetables. The stir fry isn't that great but the vegetable mix has been in the freezer for ages so I finally bit the bullet and decided we had to use it up. By contrast, the satay vegetables are amazing! I diluted the sauce more this time so it mixes delightfully with the rice.

This one doesn't look like much, but it is also delicious. Satay kangaroo mince over corn, carrots and green beans. Can you tell we're on a satay kick at the moment?

Lastly we have sausages with beans, corn and broccoli. What's funny is that sausages have featured somewhat regularly in our meal prep... but only because our mums give them to us! Given that the meat portion of one of these preps is easily the most expensive, and we try to keep them as economical as possible, free meat is always welcome.

I was quite happy with this prep and also very proud of myself because I got it all done in 2.5 hours and planned it out in such a way that I used only a single saucepan, a single frypan and a single baking tray. I rock.

A Wardrobe Challenge: Sweet and classic

It's been a while since I've wanted to do another wardrobe challenge due to, you know, real life doing its thing, but lately I've been feeling to urge so here we have the wardrobe of someone I've nicknamed V-chan and my suggestions for how they can improve their cohesiveness and get more outfits out of their clothes.

This is what they already had, which they had saved to a pinterest board for me to download and work with. The peasant-style blouse is my approximation of a blouse they had as there was no stock picture of the black colourway. V-chan also had a few requests when it came to my suggestions; no brown, simple headwear, a more casual style and preferably taobao brands.

These are my suggested additions to make their wardrobe that bit more versatile. I didn't pick out the simplest hair pieces, but as usual my suggestions are for types of things rather than specific things so V-chan can use their best judgement on what specific piece to get... though I do like the two Infanta tops I picked out! This is also one of few wardrobes where I felt their shoe collection was ample. However, depending on the real-life shade of the red shoes they may need a brighter or darker red pair in addition. The red ones they have seem to be a perfect in-between shade that can work with both brighter and darker reds in an outfit, but they may not in real life.

Overall, their wardrobe didn't need many pieces to round it out. Ideally beyond my suggestions above a couple more blouses, maybe in bold colours for a more otome vibe, and a few more legwear and headwear options would really make their wardrobe pop, but what I have suggested will definitely help get them more variety into their outfits. And, speaking of outfits, I've conducted my usual test of ensuring I could make three fairly distinct outfits with each main piece before declaring the wardrobe "complete".

These coords are all a bit same-y, but varied enough to not look like the same thing,

This JSK is adorable! But, as the sole pink item in V-chan's wardrobe and with the colours in the print being hard to match exactly, these outfits all run with either neutral or complimentary colours.

To be honest I'm not completely sure of the far right outfit because matching black and navy can work well, or not at all.

This OP was one of my favourite pieces to work with, it's so simple yet so lovely!

At first I struggled a bit with this OP, but in the end it was easy enough to come up with three looks. The first is meant to be worn with the matching headdress in the dress picture.

I used to own this skirt too ^__^ A sax blue cardigan might be something for V-chan to look into getting eventually, since these coords are a bit same-y, but still sufficiently different, I think.

These coords are fairly similar to the ones above, but adequately different, methinks.

This skirt is so pretty! I'm not 100% sure how the middle coord would translate to real-life as the black may be too jarring against the creams but I wanted to give it a go anyway.

I really liked this skirt. Simple yet elegant and very easy to coord.

I may not have gotten the colour exactly right here, but V-chan also has an emerald green version of the red skirt above and I sing similar praises for it.

Surprisingly, I found this skirt a little tricky! I'm not sure how well adding navy works in the right coord, but I wanted to do something that wasn't monochromatic.

Lastly we have this pretty skirt! I'll confess that I wasn't sure if the cardigan in the centre outfits was navy or black, but I thought it was more likely to be black so I used it as such.

All in all V-chan's wardrobe didn't need many big additions. Mostly they needed a few more accessory options to be able to get the most options. As I said earlier I feel more legwear, headwear and a few more coloured tops would give them a lot more variety and interest but that have a fairly solid collection as-is and with my few suggested additions have a very cohesive wardrobe.

Review #37: Peacockalorum

Even though I'm posting a new review after vowing to not buy much lolita and to sew more instead [which I have been!] I haven't abandoned my principles. This gorgeous new wardrobe addition fits both my criteria of being under $50 [before shipping, at least] and something I'll get a lot of use out of. Presenting my new fawn fur beret from Peacockalorum!

Yes, yes... I know it's not that exciting when just laid out :p

I've been wanting a fawn fur beret for ages. I had one bookmarked on taobao, but it sold out. I saw a BTSSB one for sale second-hand but as I deliberated, it sold out. I had some fabric bookmarked on etsy to try and make one myself, but when I went to actually buy it, it was sold out. I contacted Sweet Mildred to see if I could commission one but she stopped getting back to me so after a few attempts I stopped trying. And then, like a gift form the internet gods, I saw a post from Peacockalorum in my facebook feed and mentally hit myself for not thinking of it before. Where better to get a matching beret for my fawn fur collars than from the very person I got the collars from?

First of all I must say her communication was fantastic. I contacted her asking if it was possible to commission a fawn fur beret, and I never had to wait more than a day for a reply, even when she was making up a sample! And she did actually make up a sample, because apparently I wasn't the only person asking about such things.

This is the sample picture she sent me, and I thought it was awesome and after she answered another question of mine I said I'd like to go ahead and order. At this point, it was the 20th of February. I'd first contacted her on the 15th. I think that's pretty good. On the 23rd I paid and on the 6th of March she sent me the following picture of my completed beret!

On the 7th of March she marked it as posted and I received it on the 11th of March. As far as a review of the actual product, it's really nice and very neatly made. Due to being fur and lined in fleece, it is a bit bulky but that's entirely due to material choice, not any flaw of construction. It fits my head quite comfortably and is both warm and cute!

Here's a quick shot of the inside to show the lining, which is cream fleece. The brown fleece band looks a bit puckery when not worn, but that happens with circular thing, and it lays perfectly when worn. All in all I'm really pleased with it, and am happy to have grown my fawn fur collection a little bit!

Meal Prep #9

Another day, another meal prep. This one isn't technically finished yet, because I need to make up some salads, but the interesting part is done. Picture lettuce, cucumber, celery and cherry tomatoes with salmon on top and then you've go the complete picture of our prep.

Above is beef mince with onion, spinach and peas served with broccoli and baked carrots, sweet potato and [just a little] potato. The potato and sweet potato were fresh out of our garden!

This is a very simple, but tasty, meal. Broccoli, corn and satay chicken thigh. We both like corn, a lot, and broccoli is so good!

Lastly we have chicken thigh and satay green vegetables served over brown rice. This was our first time doing a satay vegetable mix and it turned out really nicely!