Blogspiration: Juliette et Justine Fashion Shows, An Indie Lolita Design Contest, Lolitaopoly, and some upcoming Conventions!

Look at that! I managed to make another one of these link roundup posts in considerably under 6 months. I have a few random things to share with you all, in addition to some neat stuff I've stumbled across online, that I didn't want to bother with a whole new post with, so why not more blogspiration posts?

The UK Lolitas have a pretty large and active community, adorably called the Tea Party Club, and a few months ago they were lucky enough to get the chance to host a Juliette et Justine fashion show. They pictures are just now hitting the internet and you can check them out here. Juliette et Justine is such a stunning and opulent brand, so it's really amazing to get to see so many dresses from them all in one place, and done up so elaborately for a show like this! I seriously wish I had a local community that was able to pull off a feat like this!

If there are any aspiring designers and artists out there, the indie brand Pop Princesses is hosting a contest that is open for just a couple more days, that allows artists to submit their portfolios for a chance to work on an upcoming print with them! Check out this post for some more info on it. It could be a great chance to work with a skilled seamstress and make those burando dreams come true!

So, I was going to make this post earlier today, but I got a bit lazy and I'm really into MST3K and Rifftrax, so I kinda slacked off today because it was frozen and snowing out and watched a bunch of old Rifftrax, but I am really glad I held off (not just because I got to watch those Rifftrax) because I stumbled across this completely amazing project by Misirlou, of a Lolita version of monopoly called Lolitopoly. Seriously, check out this post! It looks completely stunning and hilarious. I want to be able to play this game so bad, it looks like a complete blast to play!

I absolutely have a soft spot in my heart for old school styled Lifestyle Lolita lists of cute ideas, so I was pretty pleased when I stumbled across this list of Princess Tips: 25 Spring Lifestyle Ideas. Spring is actually a lot further around the corner than I want to even think about, but these ideas are still really adorable, and a lot of them are really appropriate for any time of year, provided you're into the Lolita Lifestyle.

I actually stumbled across this post, It's Cosplay, Not C******, on an otaku culture blog I am particularly fond of, and it's about Cosplay vs. historical costuming, but I feel like a lot of what she says is very relevant to the Lolita too. Obviously the major difference between Cosplay and Lolita, is that Lolita isn't always, or even less than 90% of the time, a costume but more of a "Yeah, this is just what I wear" thing, but it's still a very interesting read and definitely something a lot of us have heard before coming from other people who dress outside what is considered "normal". I'd like to share the following quote from the post:

"It doesn’t matter if you play a character who was a queen 400 years ago, or you play one who will be queen of future Tokyo in a millenium. What matters is this is a hobby people are drawn to for their own reasons. As long as they’re having fun and not harming anyone, lets knock off the elitism and let them have their fun. It’s a big enough sandbox for us all to play with our toys together."

In F Yeah Lolita news, I've added an extra, and hopefully helpful, page to the site! Blogging Resources is a one-stop page for, you guessed it, resources for bloggers. I have been hoarding a lot of useful sites for myself to reference now and again, so I figured I would share them with the rest of you. The sites linked range from helpful blog coding sites, to Lolita specific memes, to blog posts others have written about being a blogger, to just sort of useful kawaii images. I'll be adding some new stuff as I find it, so if you're a blogger, you might want to check back now and again!

My final "OMG, guys, check this out!" is some fun news for me! It's just about convention season and I've managed to snag a couple tables at some upcoming conventions.

The most recent convention is actually only a couple of weeks away! The third year of U-con at Uconn is coming up on February 16th and 17th. U-con at Uconn is a completely free convention that's put on by our state's college. It's a small-ish 2 day con that has, I believe, between 700 and 1,000 people in attendance for the previous years. It's free and it's fun, and I'll be selling some stuff in the dealers room and just generally hanging out and doing con stuff. If you're in the area, stop by and say hi!

 The next con is actually a few months away, at the end of May, but it's one of my absolute favorites of the year, Anime Boston. I just got the news that I will get the chance to have a table in the Artist Alley this year, and I'm very excited for it! I have no idea where I'll be yet, or even what sort of stuff I'll be selling, but I just know I'm happy to get the chance to go back. I absolutely love the Lolita events that go down at Anime Boston!

I'd also like to mess around in this post a bit with link parties. If you're unfamiliar with the term (and you probably are unless you lurk around a bunch on craft blogs like I do!) it basically just means you get the chance to add your link directly to this blog post!