Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blogging. Show all posts

Lolita Blogging: Keeping Yourself Inspired

My posts have been pretty sporadic lately due to a bit of a blogging slump, as much as I hate to admit it! Most bloggers get them every now and then and I've been trying to get reinspired and remotivate myself into posting more frequently. For me, this has lead to a lot of googling around for blog posts about, well, blogging. I've found that the Lolita blogging world is quite different from the rest of niche blogs out there, we're not quite as quirky as your average fashion blog, and we're not as serious as other hobby blogs, for the most part, Lolita bloggers are somewhere in the middle. I'm not trying to sell you the brand of my particular style of cool with instagram photos of cat-themed shirts and cute food, nor am I interested in creating a site that's engineered to get the maximum amount of hits possible.

 So taking a little bit from both camps, I've decided to make my own how-to list to becoming a better blogger. Will I follow it? I hope to! 
  • Read other blogs- To be honest, I feel like this was one of the large reasons why I sort of slipped off posting, I got out of the habit of checking out all but a few specific blogs. I love reading blogs an seeing people's opinions on topics and seeing someone post something really cool usually inspires me to make a blog post in response to it, or to blog about my view on the topic.
  • Schedule- Ha! Hahahaha, good one! I am so bad at this. So many times I'll sit down and make a cool and easy schedule to post by and I'll be good for about one post before just totally skipping on it. And I don't know about you but I sort of feel like "Well, I already broke one rule, so now let's break them all!" so when I miss my first scheduled post, I tend to miss every single one that comes after that.
  • Try something different- This is definitely something I need to do! I know I sort of fall into ruts with posts and will be afraid to try something different because I feel like people might get blog-whiplash. I would like to do some more personal posts about my own coordinates and Lolita activities (Got to remember to start bringing my camera places again!) as well as possibly start trying to do a few vlogs. 
  • Stop spreading it all over the place- Usually, when I'm not blogging here it's because I'm too busy goofing off on Tumblr. Sometimes I'll make a post of useful information over there, either answering a question or just because I want to share it, then I'll realize that with very minimal work I could have made it into a pretty good blog post. But since it's been posted on Tumblr no one is ever going to be able to find it in a weeks time. Instead of making fluffy quick posts about stuff on Tumblr, I should learn to consolidate them into a single, meatier, blog post. 
  • Actively search for inspiration- If I'm feeling like I'm in a slump, I'll usually google around for some sort of inspiration on what to blog about, and 9 times out of 10, I'll find something, whether or not I end up making a post about it. Personally, I absolutely love lists and finding great big lists of even generic things to blog about is usually enough to spark a chain reaction of ideas. I've actually been hoading links to Lolita memes for quick ideas on what to talk about, you can find them on the resource page linked in the header!
  • Discuss something- I find that by leaving comments on other Lolita blogs or engaging in a conversation about something with other Lolitas it helps get the creative juices flowing, and sometimes once they start, it's hard to stop!
  • JUST POST IT!- My number one post killer is when I just stop writing it! I have tons of posts that are practically finished laying around. They usually just need some sort of wrap-up and some pictures, but for whatever reason I stop just before I'm completely finished and they just sit around forgotten. I need to just learn to just finish these posts up and get them up!
 

  As I've mentioned, it's really easy to bring up a list of generic ideas to blog about. A quick google search will turn up dozens! While most things are generic enough that there's a Lolita version of them, wouldn't a list of Lolita specific blog post ideas be great? You can start by trying to come up with your own list. These are great because they're something you can reference at any time, and I've made a number of blog posts from pulling from my big list of ideas. Too busy to make a list? Well I'll share one of my own with you:
  • Share a collection- Do you have an impressive collection of socks? Or maybe some unique brand novelties? Or perhaps you have an unusually high number of purple dresses in your closet? Whatever it is that you happen to have a Lolita collection of, share it with the rest of us!
  • Give some advice- Lolita is a learning process, and even those of us who are very new to the fashion have still learned a lot! Pick something particular that you learned about, be it how to keep bloomers from bunching up, how to keep warm in the winter, or how to untangle a wig and teach someone else to do it.
  • Attempt to define or pinpoint something- Maybe it's general musing on what makes an outfit spooky cute, or the differences between Old School Sweet Lolita and OTT Sweet Lolita, or perhaps try to pinpoint the exact moment in time when knee high socks went out of fashion.
  • Share something personal- For many of us, Lolita is a personal fashion and we experience a big chunk of our life through the lens of Lolita in one way or another. Perhaps it was the nicest compliment you ever received while wearing Lolita, or the worst postal service mixup you ever experienced, share something personal with the Loliblogging world.
  • Share something interesting- In contrast to the above, this can have nothing to do with you, just something that you happen to find interesting. It can be a tutorial you stumbled across, a post on someone else's blog, or a particularly creative photoshoot.
  • Discuss a new print/release- The Lolita fashion has been releasing new pieces on a frequent basis for well over a decade now! And we have all sorts of opinions about what these brands are doing, even if you only ever blogged about new releases, you would never run out of things to talk about.
  • Discuss a trend- There's always some sort of trend sweeping through Lolita fashion, I'm sure you feel one way or another, even if that feeling is "meh". Why does it make you feel that way?
  • Make a prediction- Where will Lolita go in 6 months? A year? Two years? Five years? A decade?
  • Solve a problem- Just as sure as there will be new releases and trends, there will be problems with the fashion. How would you solve the lack of Lolita stores outside of Japan? How would you solve the problem of internet drama? How do you keep your petticoat from deflating?
 These are the sorts of things I've been trying to do to stay inspired, and the sorts of things I think about when I'm stuck in a blogging rut. Often times I find the motivation and inspiration to get out of a rut just by going around and searching for tips, whether or not I follow through with the actual tips. I see so many people being so enthusiastic about blogging that I get myself really hyped up about it, blogging is definitely infectious!

To all the Lolita bloggers out there (and regular bloggers as well!) what sort of things do you do to get back into the habit of blogging once you find yourself in a creative rut? To those lucky few that never find themselves in a rut, what is your secret!?



Micro Post: New Layout!

If you haven't noticed, things are looking a little different over on F Yeah Lolita! I recently commissioned a picture to use as a banner from SugaryCarnevil and gave the blog a bit of a makeover. I was getting a little bit bored with looking at all that dusty salmon pink, and as much as I loved the previous banner from PetiteDeath/DarkDevi, it was time for a change! I know it's a pretty drastic change from the old theme, but I hope it's a little cleaner to navigate now. The only layout had a couple previous layouts worth of junk accumulated all over it!

I figure this is also a good time to point out some of the blog pages that I have linked up at the top that I haven't really mentioned before and have instead just sort of added to the blog without notice.

What is Lolita?: This is the place to go if you've sort of just stumbled onto the blog and Lolita in general. It has contains a collection of links called  F Yeah Lolita's Crash Course In Being A Successful Lolita, which features links to all the blog articles that a newbie might find useful if they want to get into the fashion and they want to get into it now and still know everything they possibly can.

Lolita on a budget: This section is just what it sounds like! A small collection of links that might be of interest to the Lolita who's on a tight budget.

Blogging resources: This is one of the newest pages I've added and it started as just a collection of links I was keeping for myself. It features a variety of links that might be of use to the other bloggers out there, including some links aimed specifically at Lolita bloggers and a collection of miscellaneous Lolita memes that you might find fun.

Tutorials: This section has been up for a while and it's definitely one I have fun updating! It's a pretty massive list of various craft, sewing, and beauty tutorials that are of use to any crafty Lolita out there. Anything from sewing your own dresses, to styling your hair, to doing makeup, to decoing everything you own will be found on this page!

Translations: I really enjoy reading translations of Japanese articles and even just web chatter about the Lolita fashion and this is a collection of various translations I've found. These range from Novala's essays from the late 90's, to translated Gothic Lolita Bible articles, to newspaper articles, to Japanese forum posts.

FAQ: Frequently asked questions! I love getting questions and emails from people, but I do tend to get a lot of the same questions, and some of the more frequent ones are answered here. The FAQ also answers some questions I've been getting about reviews and advertisements or promotions on F Yeah Lolita.




Giveaway Reminder!


Just a quick reminder that there are about 6 hours left to enter the giveaway! Contest ends at 11:59pm EST tonight! I'll be spending Christmas eve morning counting up all the entries to get the results as soon as possible.

Thank you in advance to all those that have entered and have updated their URLs! I really appreciate all the entries, and I'm pretty excited to choose a winner!

Back to Blogspot Giveaway!

As I'm sure you've noticed, I haven't yet gotten my .com address back, and I have a feeling I wont be getting it any time soon! If you haven't yet heard me complain about this on Twitter, what happened was I let my domain lease expire and if I want to buy it back I'm going to have to cough up $8,800. Yeah, I was completely shocked when I saw the number too! Needless to say, I don't have almost 9k to blow on domain names so I'll be sticking to blogspot.

Now, I'm not going to be doing something silly and crying "injustiiiice!" because it was completely my fault for forgetting to renew my lease and it's not uncommon for domain leasing places to do stuff like this, as completely and utterly silly as I think it is. So instead of whining (any more!) about it, I figure I'll do something a bit more constructive and host a giveaway to help get the word out about my change of URL!

Up for grabs is a whole bunch of stuff I've made, stuff that normally ends up in my Etsy shop! I've tried to include some stuff for the Sweet Lolita and for the Classic Lolita as well in this giveaway and it includes:
  • pink & pale yellow fuzzy star dual brooch.
  • green & blue lollypop brooch
  • cookie brooch
  • purple/pink/yellow ice cream scoop ring
  • pastel rainbow star necklace
  • "Memento Mori" resin & rose petals lace bow brooch
  • antique brass rose & bow necklace
  • Alice resin & rose petals necklace
  • Mad hatter puffy cellphone strap/key chain
These are all things I frequently sell in my shop or at conventions, and this haul would cost you over $75 if you were to buy it yourself!

Some slightly better pictures of the things I'll be giving away! Sweet in the top picture, and Classic in the bottom!
Sorry about the fact that I just sometimes completely suck at taking pictures :(

To win this giveaway you earn points, and each point is one shot at winning! You can get a total of 27 points, that's 27 chances to win! There are lots of different ways to earn points and you can do as many or as few as you want!
  • Leave a comment on this post- 1 point
  • Tweeting about the giveaway and including a link to this post- 1 point
  • Reblogging this post about the giveaway on Tumblr- 1 point per reblog, max 5 points. Please don't spam your dash though :( Keep it limited to 1 reblog per day!
  • Make a blog post about the giveaway and the change of domain name- 10 points
  • Linking F Yeah Lolita on your blog's sidebar or link page with the new updated URL- 10 points
Since I can't be everywhere on the internet at once, and I'm certainly no psychic, if you do any of these you're going to have to let me know! In your comment on this post, if you've done any of the things to get extra points, please include your Tumblr username, Twitter username, a link to the post you made on your blog, and note whether or not you've updated your links, whichever you've done to get points! Just so I can check to make sure I'm giving you the points you've earned.

If you just want to leave a comment now and get your first point and then go do the other stuff later, feel free to! Just when you do do anything else to get points, please don't forget to comment again with the details in a reply to your original comment. Just click the little "reply" link on the lower right-hand side of your original comment!

Entries into the giveaway will be accepted until 11:59 Eastern time on December 23, 2011. After that I'll use a random number generator to choose the winner and announce the results on Christmas eve! I'll be contacting the winner (make sure you include your email in your comment! Either in the email field or in the actual comment!) and the winner has exactly one week to respond or I'll have to randomly choose one of the remaining entries.

Thanks again to all my readers for sticking with me through this obnoxiously confusing domain change, and thank you in advance to every one who enters! If you have any questions about the rules or how to get points, don't hesitate to ask!

Temp Blog URL!

I'm sure some of you have noticed, because practically as soon as it happened people started letting me know, but going to fyeahlolita.com just brings you to godaddy.com. Sadly, a major oops on my part (insert wacky tale of a credit card change and forgetfulness here) as lead to my domain name expiring. While I work this out, you'll still be able to visit the blog at my blogspot address!


Hopefully I'll get this worked out soon enough! Sorry about the confusion!

Lolita Blogspiration

I am pretty addicted to the world of cute, creative, and Lolita blogs, I love spending a few hours browsing around them, reading new articles and exploring new blogs by clicking around on links. I've tried to find ways to promote the various blogs I love, and articles I find interesting, from occasional shout outs, to the short lived "weekly prompt" thing that you may or may not have noticed on my sidebar. But I think the best way to send some blogging love out there is just to make a post about it. Will this be a new series? I have no idea! I would like to do this regularly, but, as I am sure you have noticed on here, I love to drop new series just as quickly as I start them.

Even if I just do it this one time, or every now and then, I hope you'll check out these blog posts and hopefully get as inspired by them as I have been!

Over at Cupcake's Clothes check out this amazing shooting star nail tutorial! It's done on fake nails, but it's simple enough to do on your own nails. While my own Lolita wardrobe is not exactly the most colorful one, I am a complete sucker for cute pastel combos, and an even bigger sucker for stars!


Being Badass: Having Self Confidence is a post over on Geekminina (formerly Ramble Rori) about, you guessed it, being badass and having self confidence. It has some great tips for those of us that sometimes feel like we are not being the awesome person that we could be, as well as some tips on walking the fine line between believing in yourself and being a jerk. Christina has actually started a series on being badass, something I will be looking forward to more posts about!


Over at iHanna, which is a crafty blog filled with eyecandy that I love to browse, she made a post about a neat little internet gizmo that makes fancy color splotches based on search terms through an image bank. Using things I don't quite understand, like technology and math and the internet, you just punch in a word and it makes instant art! I had fun punching in a variety of Lolita words, trying to guess what the resulting picture would look like, then being surprised at how wrong I usually was!


This post is a bit old, but even though it's from a blog I follow I somehow managed to miss it until now! Over at Moss Garden, Martha posted a wonderful Brothers Grimm fairy tale with a Mori Girl inspired coordinate. Her coordinates are definitely some of my top favorites, so this post was a real treat. Check it out for both the fairy tale and some more amazing photos of the coordinate!


 I don't know about the rest of you, but I am sort of a craft fanatic. If you can make it, I want to learn how to do it and make it for myself. My newest craft obsession is perfume oils. Some time ago I was trying to hunt down a very specific scent and was turning up empty handed so thought "Hey, why don't I just... make it?" so I did a bunch of googling and found that it was something I figured I might be able to do. I now have a small army of single notes and plans for releasing some signature scents in my Etsy. My experimentations are on hold for about a week though because I managed to spill a bunch of oil on my desk, so now my work space smells like a cupcake, making blending quite difficult! For those of you out there who want to possibly try this somewhat daunting task (It's not really harder than it looks, just more time consuming and fiddly) check out this tutorial over on Indie Fixx for making your own signature scents. I'm actually really loving Indie Fixx for their tutorials right now, I'm practically drooling over this one on infused sugar!

That's it for now! I am constantly reading blogs and hunting down tutorials and finding things I want to share with everyone, so hopefully I'll remember to feature some of the more fantastic finds on my blog here!

Hello Hiatus!


Well, I've gone on a little bit on an unannounced hiatus this month! So i figure I might as well announce it. I honestly didn't even notice how many days have gone by without an update because I have pretty much been sewing and crafting non-stop in preparation for my artist alley table at Anime Boston. I am hoping to get at least a few bonnets done for my table and they take an ungodly amount of time! My days, at the moment, are pretty much a blur of buckram, lace, pricked fingers, and episodes of Avatar and The X-Files playing in the background to keep me from going crazy. I will probably have a somewhat sporadic update schedule until the first week of May, after Anime Boston, and after NYC's Sakura Matsuri.

Until then, I'm sure I'll see some of you around! If you happen to be going to Anime Boston this upcoming weekend, stop by the artist alley, row T, to find me! I'll be selling under my shop name, Ophanim, and on Saturday Miss Lumpy will be there at my table with me selling Amaranth Opulent jewelry!

Goals for 2011

Happy belated new years everyone! Since everyone else is talking about their goals I figured I would share a few of my own, and since it's 2011, and since I fancy 11 my lucky number, I'll make 11 goals for each category.

11 F Yeah Lolita Goals
  1. Update my banner. I have been meaning to change the "Fuck Yeah Lolita" part to "Fyeahlolita.com" ever since I got my url!
  2. Make some blog business cards featuring that fat little unicorn up there!
  3. At least10 posts per month. Hopefully 2011 will have no more sad months with only 5 or 6 posts.
  4. Make my layout better. My layout's coding is kind of bloated because I've been editing the same layout for about a year now. I really do hate coding though.
  5. Post more outfit and coordinate shots. Even if it's just clothes of mine laid out all fancy on my bed or something like that. I enjoy seeing other people's coordinates so I would like to add more to my blog.
  6. Make at least 1 tutorial every month. I have a feeling this is one of the goals that I won't succeed in!
  7. Host at least 1 more giveaway and 1 contest. Giveaways are always fun and I've been just dying to make you all compete against each other some how XD
  8. Get 1 million hits and 1,500 followers Halfway there to a million and only a few dozen more followers till 1,000, so I'm going to be ambitious and hope for 1,5000 this year.
  9. Clean up my tags. My tags are kind of all over the place and I think I have way too many of them listed on the side bar. Ideally I would like to have more specific tags for each post and only have about a dozen of them listed on the side.
  10. Add more of my original art to the blog. I would love to do the occasional post related doodle, instead of just using photos from the Bibles.
  11. Take nice pictures of all of my Lolita clothes and get them posted online. Either as a virtual closet on my site, or just on my neglected Poupee.

11 Lolita Goals
  1. Learn to sew! Last year this was a goal of mine too and, you know what, I sort of succeeded in it. I got a sewing machine a couple months ago that wasn't 30 years old and found out that sewing isn't as frustrating as I thought it was. I've been making little things on it like bows and soft bonnets, and I would like to work up to larger pieces like skirts and JSKs sometime this year.
  2. Add more red to my wardrobe. Last year I added a few red pieces to my wardrobe because I wanted to add some more classical colors to my wardrobe. I now have a very small (compared to my black or pink and black Lolita clothes) collection of red pieces and I just love it! I hope to add more red accessories this year, like a nice pair of red shoes.
  3. Try a few crossover styles. I'd like to step outside of my loli comfort zone and try something like Mori x Lolita or Dolly x Lolita or whatever new fashions that pop up in 2011 and are the next big thing to mix into Lolita.
  4. Do more stuff with my hair. With my everyday Lolita style I tend to just wear my hair down and I'd at least like to start curling it a bit or even wearing it up every now and then.
  5. Hunt down some more old school pieces. I recently started collecting older Lolita pieces and I would like to try to add a few more to my wardrobe in 2011. My oldest piece is a 2001 Meta dress, if I can, I would like to find something older than that!
  6. Either get rid of the last few rarely worn pieces or get everything into a dresser or on a clothes rack of some sort. It's kind of sad, but I have so many Lolita and goth clothes that I am actually keeping some just piled in hampers in a spare bedroom. I hope to put an end to that this year buy at least buying a clothing rack.
  7. Rotate my wardrobe a bit and wear some stuff I rarely ever wear. This has to do with my problem above. I have so many clothes that I just forget about a lot of them! Sometimes things that are just in the back of my armoire or in the other room get forgotten about for a very long time! I hope to rediscover a few pieces this year.
  8. Add some more indie pieces to my wardrobe. There are so many great indie brands out there, both in the West and in Japan, and I would love to add a few of their pieces to my wardrobe.
  9. Design a fabric and get a dress made with it. I've always wanted to have my very own custom fabric, and I even have a number of ideas and sketches and even some half finished designs. This year I hope to actually finish something and get it made into, at the very least, a skirt.
  10. Get more socks and tights. I'm pretty boring when it comes to socks, I have 4 or 5 different pairs of black OTKs and a small number of socks with fancy designs on them. This year I really need to get some more! Especially to go with my ever expanding Classic Lolita wardrobe. I could really use some cream colored socks.
  11. Wear narrow headdress more often. I really love them and I'd like to get a few that I can wear with my everyday Lolita wardrobe. For 2011 I'm going to bring them back!
Can I do all this?! Maybe, maybe not, but I'm hoping that I can. And at least for the first week or two of January, before I forget about it completely, I'll try.

What are your goals, hopes or resolutions for 2011? Both for Lolita and, if you have one, for your blog?

I Do Declare's Giveaway, Some Sold Out Lucky Packs, and 500k Hits

A few weeks ago Kelsey of I Do Declare was having a give away on her blog. I commented on the post not expecting much, since I never (and I mean never) win giveaways. But about a week ago as I was going through my blog roll I saw she was announcing the winner. I almost skipped over it because I thought "Oh, well that has nothing to do with me XD" But I clicked anyways and was quite surprised to find that I was the lucky random winner of a couple totes and a tee shirt, all of which are screen printed with I Do Declare's unique designs!


The prize, all bundled up and pretty! I loved the card, it was so elegant and fit Kelsey's designs perfectly.


I promptly tore into the package to see what I got! Even though I already knew what it was XD I was still surprised to find two totes in the package (only 1 pictured, the other is identical, I just didn't have room in the picture for it).


The screen printing is awesome. On the totes it's thick and gorgeous, and on the tee it's much lighter and sort of vintage looking, which suits tees much better than thick printing, as thickly screen printed tees tend to crack and shrivel the first time you wash them. The design, as you can see, is an amazing unicorn. Angelic Pretty can keep their plump little carousel unicorns, I love badass medieval unicorns!

The tote bags are really great, if you want one for yourself you can pick them up at the I Do Declare Etsy shop. The very first thing I did with my totes? Filled them up with a dozen packages. What was I shipping out? Why, Ophanim lucky packs! I was completely prepared to announce them on my blog, I even made a fancy graphic and everything....


But, as you may have guessed, the lucky packs are all sold out. They actually sold out within a half hour! Something I was definitely not expecting! These were so successful I definitely plan on doing some more lucky packs once it gets a little closer to Christmas. If you want to grab one the next time I put them out, follow me on Twitter, since I'll be tweeting about them as I make them and when they are posted!

In keeping with this post's hodgepodge of awesomeness, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for reading my blog :D You might not notice it, since it's aaaall the way at the bottom of the page in a tiny little font, but my hit counter hit 500,000 sometime two nights ago. I tweeted for people to be on the look out for that then went to sleep, the next morning I got a few screen shots of counts reaaaally close to the 500k, including one of 499,999 by Zeloco of the Etsy shop Eat Me Ink Me. I figured the 500k went unnoticed until later that day Neena commented on my lucky pack sales post letting me know that she actually got the 500k but couldn't send me a message on Twitter about it! She sent me a full page screen shot, but I've cropped it just to show you the magic number.

500,000 hits :D That's half a million! Thanks again to everyone who reads F Yeah Lolita!

Some Technical Difficulties :D

F Yeah Lolita now has it's own domain name! You're not going to need to do anything special with any old links, as fyeahlolita.blogspot.com will still work, but so will fyeahlolita.com, or at least, fyeahlolita.com should work in the next few days. These things take a few days to work, I guess, I haven't owned a domain name in years, so I have to relearn everything!

Because of this, I'm having a few technical difficulties with the updated URL when it comes to comments, some widgets, and individual blog posts. So for the next day or so things might be a little off. Everything's still readable, of course, but comments & widgets might not be showing up.

Hopefully things will be back to normal in a day or so!

New Layout and Sponsors

Finally! My new layout is up! It's been so long since I've had a new one. So thanks to everyone who put up with a few hours of text drifting too far off to the side, eye-bleeding half-finished colors, and all the other stuff I was messing around with.

The new banner is an image I've been working on for the past couple of days. I hope you like it :D I tried to cram as many over-the-top motifs into it as possible. While it's a pastel rainbow clusterfuck of a design, and I made it intending it to be ridiculous, as I was drawing it I found myself growing more fond of it and eventually thought that it would make an awesome print. Who knows, maybe one day I'll get to wear a super special Fuck Yeah Lolita dress XD

You may have noticed the new sponsors section over on the side bar.. Having paid advertisements on my site is something I've thought about for a while now. I've signed up for a couple systems, one on Amazon, and one with Google, but I really dislike the way I have no control over what I am advertising on my own blog. So instead, I decided to sell individual buttons and links to those who are interested. I will only be selling a small number of these advertisement spots, check out this page with prices and information if you are interested in advertising on my site.

This is a bit of an experiment for me, I have no idea how many people (if any!) will be interested, and I hope some of my readers wont be annoyed too much to see a couple buttons in the side bar.

I have also added a contact me page, because I realized my blog was lacking one completely!

New Layout In Progress

Just a little notice that though out the day I'll be giving this blog a much needed makeover. I haven't updated the layout in months! So if things start to look funny, that's why.

In Lolita news, I'm sure all of you have heard that Angelic Pretty is opening a store in San Francisco, apparently it's opening next month! This was announced sometime yesterday I think, I'm just surprised that they plan on opening so soon. When BtSSB opened there were rumors that AP would be opening shop next, and all of us East Coasters had our hopes up that it would happen in New York, but sadly, I guess that wont be happening. We're just going to have to settle with Tokyo Rebel.

So You Want To Start A Lolita Blog?

While this isn't from my backlog of Ask Miss Caro-chan questions, it is a question I have been asked a lot. That question is: how do you go about starting a Lolita blog? I've had this blog for over a year, and if I do say so myself, it has been pretty successful, at least, a whole lot more successful than I ever thought it would be when I started! So with this post I will be sharing a few tips and tricks that I picked up along the way.

Before you make your first post
There's really not a whole lot of prep you have to do before you make your first post, but there are a couple things that really help.
  • First of all, you're going to need a blog name. Now, judging from my own blog's name, I don't really have a lot of tips for picking a good name! But toss some ideas around in your head and try to pick something both fitting and something that isn't already taken. Do a Google search for your future blog name to make sure that there isn't anything else with that name.
  • Make a list of blog posts you would like to make. You don't even have to have any idea about what you want to write in those posts, just do some brainstorming about what it is you would like to write about, or even what you would like to read about. I do this every month or so, I don't always follow my list, but it's really handy to pull up whenever I'm a bit lost about what to write about.
  • Set up your blog. Before you even make your first post, you're going to need somewhere to put it! I use Blogger and I would highly recommend it. Personally, it has everything I think I could ever need. Wordpress is also a popular choice, but I have never used it. Some people use Livejournal, but honestly I wouldn't suggest it for a public blog because Livejournal is seen much more as a personal journal site, and some people are hesitant about reading other people's Livejournals.

Tips and tricks for starting your own Lolita blog
Once you have a name, a place, and some ideas for your blog once it's time to get started!
  • Comment on other blogs. The best way to get your blog's name out there is to comment on other blogs. Remember to fill out the whole form box, especially the one for your site before leaving a comment. And, of course, leave a genuine comment about the post you are commenting on, don't just ask them to visit your blog or spam their blog with obnoxious self-promotion.
  • Link to other blogs. Be sure to keep a blog roll of all your favorites on your own blog. Blogger has a handy widget that will automatically post all the blogs you follow. As well as that, link to other blogs in your posts if you found them helpful while writing yours, or if you just think they are interesting. Remember that these other bloggers aren't your competition, they're your peers, readers, and muses.
  • Be active in your online community. In the case of Lolita, that would be EGL or whatever forum you happen to frequent most of all. Post a link to your blog on your profile page or your signature and start participating in discussions. Eventually, so long as you don't make a habit of arguing with everyone for the sake of arguing, people will start recognizing your name, and your blog.
  • Be helpful. My main reason for starting F Yeah Lolita was because I have learned a lot about Lolita over the years and I really wanted to share all the things I've learned, and this, I think, has been one of the biggest reasons why my blog has been successful. I most often find that my most linked and talked about posts are ones in which I share some kind of advice or tips. Even if you consider yourself a Lolita newbie, there's still something helpful you can share! Maybe a handy tutorial for making something cuter, a review of your latest purchase, or a cute Lolita find in a mainstream store, share your knowledge of the frills and people will really appreciate it and come back looking for more.
  • Don't get too personal. Of course, it is up to you how personal you want your blog to be, but a good rule of thumb would be to avoid treating your blog like your own personal diary. People might love looking at your daily coordinates and hearing about local meetups, but most people are going to feel awkward and shy away if you start ranting about your boyfriend or parents or any problems you might be having. If you feel you absolutely have to type up these things, consider a separate, lockable place to write them up, such as Livejournal.
  • Post often. A rule I certainly need to follow more! Make it a point to post at least once a week, it keeps people remembering your blog if it pops up on their blog roll frequently. If you need some motivation to post more, draw up a list of what to post on what days. For example you might post a tutorial or a link to a tutorial on Mondays, a review of something on Tuesdays, a great find on Wednesdays, a personal reflection on Thursday, and your weeks worth of coordinates on Friday, or something along those lines!
  • Get some Analytics. Google Analytics is a really handy tool to know where your hits are coming from. You can find out who's linking you, how long people are staying, and which posts people are reading most of all. It's easy to install and very useful for knowing what your most popular pages are.
  • Just enjoy blogging! My final tip is to just enjoy blogging, don't make it a chore. Try not to focus too much on how many hits and comments you are getting, just focus on blogging about what you love!
Personally, I don't think there can be too many Lolita blogs. Everyone has their own take on the fashion and their own experiences to share so the subject never gets old.

If you want some more advice about starting a Lolita Blog, especially advice that goes a little more indepth about the whole blogging world and finding your place in it, check out Miss Lumpy's series Operation LoliBlog.

To all my fellow Lolita bloggers, how has Lolita blogging been for you? Do you have any tips and tricks for getting your blog's name out there? Do you think that one particular thing, such as getting linked on a particular blog or site, was the start of getting a lot of hits? Are you simply thinking of starting your own blog, if so, what's holding you back?

To the right of this post you can find a list of a lot of Lolita blogs that I've been following for a while, but I know there are a lot of new blogs out there, and I would love to feature them in this post. So if any of you have a new blog, leave a comment with a link to it and I'll make a list of up-and-coming Lolita blogs and link them at the end of this post!

Up-and-coming Lolita blogs

Happy Blogaversary Giveaway

Finally! I got all of my stuff together for the giveaway! This giveaway is in celebration of my blogs one year birthday, 250,000+ hits, and 500+ followers. Since these are all big milestones for my blog, that all happened within a couple weeks of each other I want to make this giveaway a big one.


This is all the stuff I'm giving away. Now, as awesome as it would be if one person won all this, I decided I wanted to share the wealth, so instead of one winner there will be five winners. Two grand prize winners: one Sweet Lolita pack and one Classic Lolita pack, and 3 runners up who will win a pin and some stationery destash. With the exception of the stationery and the craft supplies, I made all of the things in this giveaway! I plan on adding a few of the items in these giveaway packs to my shop eventually, so you all are getting a sneak peek! Now, let's see what the individual prizes are!

Classic Lolita Grand Prize

This set includes a pink and red rose corsage with an ostrich feather, a pair of Mori Girl inspired hair bows, an Alice in Wonderland puffy cell strap, and an assortment of beads from my personal mix of amber and bronze colored beads, because I like to make themed bead mixes so I have an easy source of inspiration when it's craft time.


This is the bead mix, it's an assortment of new, vintage, and handmade beads in an assortment of materials. The 2 big things are domino pendants I've made, there's also a few freshwater pearls, brass stampings, shell pieces, hand-blown glass, and semi-precious chips. Anything that has a decadent antique feel goes into this bead mix!


Here's the rose clip, not much to say about it, I just wanted to get a better picture of it. It's a small-ish rose corsage on a barrette with a white ostrich feather tucked into it.


While it's not my personal style, I really do enjoy the vintage, girly elegance of the Mori Girl style. These simple, and I do mean simple, hair pins were made with the Mori Girl in mind. They are simply raw edged bows, made from vintage floral fabric on little silver hair pins. A quick note about these, the backs, where the hair pins are attached are not pretty. These were an experiment in adding bows to a hair piece and next time I would definitely go with a hair pin that doesn't have a little round glueing pad on it.


The last item in the Classic Lolita prize pack is a puffy Alice cell charm. A while ago I came across some Fairy-kei/Spank cell charms and pins that were cute printed fabric that was made into a little shaped pillow. I loved the idea and thought it was adorable, but I am not too big on the sweetness of Fairy-kei, so I decided to Classic it up a bit with some Alice themed fabric. The fabric is custom printed with a colored illustration from Alice In Wonderland. The backside is covered in vintage calico fabric. As you can see (I put this next to my own puffy cell charm that I made of the Mad Hatter) these are quite large, so unless you don't mind giant cell charms this might be better suited as a key chain. The plus side is they are very light because they are just little pillows, so they're fun to squeeze. At least, I'm always squeezing mine.

Sweet Lolita Grand Prize

This set includes a big pink bow brooch, a gummy bear cell charm, a cupcake ring, and a little deco'd tin filled with deco supplies.


This is the assortment of random deco supplies. It's a hodge podge of stuff from my deco box. There are resin cabochons, metal roses, ribbons, puffy bunny heads, and an assortment of rhinestones. It's not a huge amount of stuff, but it's definitely enough to cover something like a compact or a small container.


Here's a closeup of the brooch. It's made with an iridescent pink fabric, reminiscent of the ballgowns Barbie wore in the 80's, covered in pink tulle with iridescent sequins sandwiched between the layers. It's decorated with a couple gold chains and a sweet and glittery bear.


The cell charm in this pack features a couple little polymer clay gummy bears. These aren't real gummy bears coated in resin or gummy bear shaped cabochons, I made them myself! First, I made a clay gummy bear, baked it, then made a mold from it. I then used translucent polymer clay to make a ton of gummy bears, which I then coated in lots of gloss.


I've deco'd a small tin in a black and white theme. There are lots of black rhinestones, white pearls, and cute cabochons covering this tin.

Runner Up Prize

Besides the two lucky people who will win one of the above prize packs, 3 people will win smaller prize packs that include a little pin with a little chibi self portrait, because I know you all want to wear a picture of me pinned to your bag XD Recognize the picture from the Blogaversary post? Also included is some destash kawaii stationery, because I have way too much of it. Destash, for those of you that don't know, means that these were from my own personal stationery stash, thus I am de-stashing them by giving them away.


A close up of the pin, it's about an inch and a half tall and is from my adventures in Shrinky Dinks. The pins are not all the same color, 2 are black and the other one is dark red, you won't get to pick which one you would like, it will be random.

Now, onto the rules and the how-to-enters. You will get 2 entry points just by leaving a comment on this post, each entry point you can put towards either the Sweet or the Classic prize pack. You may either split up the points or put them all on one pack, the more points you put towards one pack, the more entries you get when it comes time to pick a winner. You can get an extra 2 points by posting a link and giving a shout out to this giveaway on your own blog, livejournal, myspace, facebook, twitter, or other personal website and giving a link to the page you posted the shout out on in your comment. You may not spam communities with links though, that will get you zero points. These extra 2 points can be split up however you want as well. You cannot put your points towards a pin and stationery pack, as those are a second place prize and everyone will just get one entry point for them. If you forget to mention where you would like your points to go, I will just split them evenly between the 2 packs. Each person who enters may only win one pack, no one can win both packs, and either of the 2 grand prize winners cannot win a pin pack. It will be 5 different people winning each prize pack.

Each point would be, so to say, a name in a hat for either of the prizes. If you put all of yours towards one, you have a much greater chance of winning that particular one, but if you split them up, you'll have a chance at both of them. You won't have a chance to win a pack if you don't put at least one point towards it. It's to keep someone from winning a pack that is not their style.

With your entry, please include your name and email address (it can be in the name/email fields of the comment box, you do not have to write your email address in the message,I will see it privately) and to prove that you read this far, a brief note about what Lolita means to you, whether you wear it, or simply admire it. Comments without this simple little request will not be accepted!

Here's a quick rundown of what you need in your comment to enter:
  • Your name and email address (doesn't have to be in the message, just so long as those boxes are filled out in the comment)
  • A link to where you mentioned the giveaway (optional)
  • How you would like your points divided up
  • A brief note about what Lolita means to you

I hope this isn't too confusing to you! If it is, hopefully this will help, your entry should look a bit like this:
"Hi! I would like to enter! Lolita means a lot to me because it is pretty and I like pretty things, such as unicorns :D I posted a link to your giveaway here www.my-awesome-lolita-website.com I would like 3 of my points to go towards the Sweet prize and 1 towards the Classic prize!"

The grand prizes are only eligible to people within the US. Sorry, but I don't want to be hit with high shipping prices by shipping overseas! However, if you live outside of the US you can still enter for a chance to win the stationery and pin. Please note if you are outside of the US.

Entries will be accepted up until 11:59pm Eastern time Thursday, August 5th. After that I will randomly select a winner and post the results within the following few days. When I select a winner I will contact them to let them know, if they do not respond to my emails within a week I will select another winner.

Don't forget, in honor of F Yeah's blogaversary I'll also be having a sale on my Etsy shop, Ophanim, and giving 10% off to readers of my blog. Just include the code "F Yeah Birthday" with your payment and I'll refund 10% of the price before shipping. This sale will last until August 14th!

Wow, that's a lot of info for one giveaway XD I hope you're not too confused? If you are, just leave a comment and I'll try to clear any thing up for you!

Happy Blogaversary!

Yesterday this blog celebrated it's one year anniversary :D When I first started this blog, or even before then when I was sitting around in my friend RayRay's room talking about starting a blog I never imagined it would have come this far, or have been this successful. Of course, I secretly hoped it would XD but seeing it actually happen has been a very pleasant surprise.

Not only has my blogs birthday just past, but a few weeks ago my hit counter has also passed the 250,000 mark and my followers have just reached above 500. That's a quarter of a million hits and a hell of a lot of followers!

To celebrate all of these milestones, and a way of saying thank you to all my readers I want to do something special. I sadly haven't really had time to get a giveaway in order to announce in this post, but stay tuned for one in the next week or so.

Until then, I'll also be having a sale on my Etsy shop and giving 10% off to readers of my blog. Just include the code "F Yeah Birthday" with your payment and I'll refund 10% of the price before shipping. This sale will last until August 14th, and I hopefully plan on updating my shop with a few new things before then!

Lolita means a lot to me for a lot of different reasons. Quite some years ago it started to mean more to me than just frilly clothes that looked pretty and started to mean a lot to me in my personal lifestyle. It has, somewhat recently, even begun to transcend things like having Lolita-appropriate hobbies and decorating with a Lolita touch. It now has managed to take root firmly in my heart and it gives me a warm fuzzy feeling just to think about some Lolita things. Older volumes of Lolita mooks and certain styles and cuts of dresses have now taken on a nostalgic feel for me, which is probably why I've so recently been interested in acquiring old school pieces, especially pieces that were released when I first discovered the fashion some 8 years ago.

The Lolita fashion and lifestyle has changed me quite a bit in the past few years, and I'm really glad that I started this blog to share what I've learned and what I love with all of you! It's been a great year, and even though over the past few months my posts haven't been as frequent as they sometimes are, I hope to make it to another Fuck Yeah Blogaversary!

Back From Anime Boston!

First of all, thank you to everyone who is interested in being featured on my site! I got so many responses from some really awesome people while I was away for the weekend, the whole convention I kept checking my email on my phone to read them XD. Keep an eye out for some upcoming interviews!

Now, about Anime Boston. It was both a nightmare and one of the best cons I've been to in a while. The nightmare happened getting to and from Boston. What was originally going to be a two hour train ride turned into a, I kid you not, eight hour train ride due to track flooding. And despite the fact that before they gave us our tickets they assured us the tracks would be back in tip-top condition on Saturday, by the time Sunday came around all trains to where we needed to go were cancelled. We ended up having to take a very cramped bus back home. In conclusion, you suck Amtrak.


A bunch of the Lolitas attending the meetup. There were so many more Lolitas at AB than this though!

The convention itself was awesome though! So many people recognized me from my blog, which was really exciting for me. I actually managed to miss both the Lolita fashion show and the real meetup though, which kind of sucked for me, but I still got to see everyone. I bought home a fair amount of loot too. Those new shoes, a bento box, a few volumes of manga (I'm currently reading Mushishi, which is awesome I might add), a Hangry & Angry cellphone strap, and a few little things. I have a really bad plushie addiction and had to seriously resist blowing all of my money at the Hangry & Angry table in the vendors room and on Sanrio or Gloomy Bear plushies.


One of my outfits. Excuse my completely durrr pose and expression. Caro-chan seriously needs to practice her loliposes. And lolifaces

Besides that I also managed to commit a pretty big Lolita no-no and bought a pair of fairly overpriced Lolita shoes from the vendors room. Hey, they were emergency shoes, I forgot to bring my flats and my current black sensible heeled Lolita shoes were pretty much falling apart. They could have made it through the weekend, but not any longer than that. So I sucked it up and spent $50 on a pair of $37 dollar shoes. Hey, I guess with shipping it would have worked out to about 50, and I really did need them right that instant. After I put them on I happily marched over to the trashcan and tossed out my old shoes.


A chibi portrait of me by Iris Chen of Deathful.net. She actually recognized me from my LiveJournal XD

There were so many Lolitas this year at Anime Boston! I kept thinking I had snapped pictures of them all and then I would notice new ones that were too fast for me and I couldn't snap a picture of. But here are all the ones I could get a picture of.



Wow! Going through the pictures, there are a lot more than I thought there were XD I remember my first convention , years ago, I saw a mere two Lolitas, but now there are just so many. I can't wait for next year, hopefully we'll manage to get up there in a timely manner and not have the threat of being stranded in Boston looming over our heads on Sunday. Next year I am going to remember to sign up for a vendors table too!
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