Mail Day!

Squee! I love love love getting things in the mail! One, I live in a small town and can’t get the special things I like to get – typically anything Japanese. Well . . . okay, so it’s mostly just the one reason. But also packages! It’s like Xmas! ^.^

Firstly, I got my delicious new stationery from Kawaii Depot, an online store with a shop based in Northern California. I bought two letter sets from them, because I just started with a pen pal exchange for Lolitas on LiveJournal. I have three pen pals now, and I thought how great it would be to use special stationery! And it’s SO sweet.

My husband informed me that I CAN put the stamp on the indicated left side if I wanted to. USPS will take it anyway, so long as the mailing address is legible and in the center. I just LOVE the envelopes being vertical. They’re different, and so so cute. And as we all know, I love being cute and different. :P

For my penpal adventures, I went ahead and got a set of return address labels from VistaPrint.com – all cutified with a cupcake. They were pretty cheap too, on special I suppose. 8 bucks with shipping for 250+ labels. I was also thinking of getting really personal stamps from Zazzle. Support the post office, and artists!

So I got my first letter today from a penpal (whom shall remain nameless in this blog – unless she says otherwise, but yeah – privacy and stuff). I was super excited to get this cute envelope. I love traditional letter writing, and all the cute stationery out there, how could you not??

I was ecstatic with the gift that was included in the package, too. 
I’ve been wearing it since I got it. ^.^ I hope she likes what I sent to her in return! Can’t wait to send out more letters. Such a sweet way to communicate. Yay, Lolita.

 

Experimentation Today

So I’ve reopened my Etsy shop, after figuring out what I really want to do with it. And what I’m really good at. I thought that if I just take it one day at a time, and focus on what I like to do instead of forcing something I have no experience in, I could be successful. And successful doesn’t mean “riches beyond my wildest dreams”, so I’m keeping it real here. So long as I’m happy doin’ what I do, maybe I can do it well.

So I like sewing. And making things with my hands. Mostly sewing. I’ve got a couple skirts that I plan on fixing up nicely to sell. Haven’t decided on prices, but I’m going to be modest to start. My dad insists I should price high. (-_-0) I love my dad. Again, though with the keeping it real – and knowing that most Lolitas are on a budget.

Anyway, here’s some pics of my progress there:

On the clockwork skirt, I needed to keep that border down. I wore it once and realized the little numeral border kept flipping up because it wasn’t stitched down. Well, it so happens I found some amazing stuff: Heat n Bond!

I’m usually all for stitching the seams. But since there was already a top stitch showing, I didn’t want to mar the numerals any more by sewing another line over it. So I happened to have some Heat n Bond Ultra and sandwiched it between the numerals and the bottom ruffle, iron over it, and magic happens. Yes! It IS Washable and dry cleanable. Yay!

So I played with that stuff a little more. And found that I can attach a beautiful trim this way as well!

With the trim, I had to put a piece of fabric OVER what I was ironing on, or else my iron got the Heat n Bond on its plate – and then it was a sad iron. But after cleaning my iron and doing the over-fabric thing, it was perfect. We shall see how my dresses come out with this method!