Comfort shopping

I tried comfort shopping. It helped a little. It's especially useful to drive away boredom and endless empty afternoons, when you could have been doing homework. Well, I can't concentrate anyways.

It's very typical that I should end up with 5 books and no clothes, although I did search for clothes. I couldn't find any to my liking, and book stores always keep me entertained. If you don't care for reading, just skip the next part ;)

The top one is a Dutch book which is some sort of adaption of a very famous work of Dutch literature: The Discovery of Heaven. I don't suppose any of my followers have read it, but it's quite brilliant. This is the diary of one of the characters, whose true feelings you don't really get to know in the original book. It's written by another author, and she's really good. She really grasps the style of the original, while still giving the character her own voice. The author of the original book passed away recently, his name was Harry Mulisch. Everyone in Holland always hoped he would get the Nobel prize for literature, but he never did (I'm not surprised, actually.)
The title translates as: "Make yourself ready" and is a quotation from the original. In this case, it could have a double meaning (something which Harry Mulisch would have loved). It can mean either: "prepare yourself", or have a sexual meaning as in: make yourself have an orgasm. In that case it has a really negative sense, because it's said to the main character by her lover. It's like: I don't want to be bothered, just do it yourself. Even in the original book, it was not clear to me what exactly he meant by that, so I hope this book will give me more explanation.

Then there's The Hobbit by Tolkien, which I'm pretty sure everyone knows already. I can't wait to see the film!

And two novels by Jane Austen, naturally. I had not read these ones yet, though I watched the movies last weekend. It's Persuasion and Northanger Abbey. I'm reading Northanger Abbey at the moment, and I really like the main character Catherine. She's much more innocent and cheerful than Austen's usual heroines. I think she reminds me most of Emma in cheerfulness, and most of Jane Bennet in good nature.

Lastly, The Marriage Plot. There are advertisements for this book everywhere at the moment, so I supposed it was good. I think I can identify very much with the main character. Even our names are kind of similair. Feeling out of place in modern times, reading Austen, being very romantic and believing in true love... That could be me. I'm eager to read it!

~book talk over, back to clothes~

I also bought a lovely hat: round, black felt with a bow on the side, and a Hermes-lookalike silk shawl that I've wanted for ages, but found too expensive. It was half price now~! Long live mid-season sale. I will take pictures of those soon, or you will see them appear in my outfits ;)

And... *drumroll*

Sorry, my hair is in dire need of shampoo, I'm going to shower after I've written this.

Of course I also had to buy the adorable fawn fur collar from H&M's children's section. I've seen three other bloggers already who also have it, and I think soon everyone will have one and we will all grow tired of it very quickly. But until then, I will enjoy it. It's very warm  and was only 8 euro!
I removed the pink bow and pompoms because I thought they were a little childish and didn't suit my style. Instead I pinned on a vintage brooch.

And a quick coordination, in which I think I can survive a very cold winter:

Shopping in Tokyo~

When I was in Tokyo, I spend two days shopping (note: only two out of the six days I was there!). This meant: searching for every Closet Child shop in town. On the first day I went to Harajuku, of course.

I was told you'd see Takeshita Doori in front of you when you'd walk out of the station, but I took the wrong exit so I ended up on Meiji Doori. Which wasn't a disaster because I had studied the map in advance and knew LaForet was situated at Meiji Doori. It was raining a little, and I admired all the cute umbrellas. After a short bit of walking, I saw a lot of girls in very interesting clothes seeking shelter from the rain under the canopy of a big department store. This, of course, had to be LaForet. I immediately went to the basement and spent some time exploring the shops there. Putumayo surprised me, the quality and designs are great, especially their jewelry, and the staff was super friendly. I bought a necklace for a friend there, and chatted a bit with the shopgirl. Metamorphose had some beautiful dresses, I never noticed before how pretty their clothing really is. The stock photo's don't do them justice. Baby and Alice and the Pirates were somewhat disappointing. There was very little in stock, and I didn't really like the dresses they had. I only looked at Angelic Pretty very shortly. Atelier Boz (or was it Atelier Pierrot? I always mix those two up...) had absolutely stunning dresses, skirts, and headwear, and also sold some Mary Magdalene, Julliete and Justine and Victorian Maiden, as well as Triple Fortune hats! I spend a lot of time there, but it was all too expensive for me. In the end, I bought hair ribbons from Alice and the Pirates, because I wanted to buy at least something from them.

Then I went outside again and walked down Takeshita Doori. It was quite an experience. I hadn't seen that many tourists in any other part of Tokyo! Strangely I didn't see any lolita's, but there were a few mori-girls and quite a lot of gyaru's. I was able to find Closet Child quickly, but their stock disappointed me. I couldn't find any dress I really, really liked. I did buy a Sex Pot Revenge shirt for a friend of mine.

Then I decided to try my luck in Shinjuku, but that did not turn out well. I spend an hour searching for Closet Child, and then another searching for Marui 0101. In the end it turned out I had already passed Marui 0101, but just hadn't recognized it. I was so disappointed and tired from walking in the heat, that I went home.

ignore the Starbucks; it's the third floor that matters! CC Ikebukuro

But the second day brought more luck! I went to Closet Child Ikebukuro first. It was super easy to find, on my way to the shop I spotted the first Tokyo lolita, and their stock was a-ma-zing. They had so many beautiful items, I had a really hard time choosing. I knew I was going to other shops as well, so I didn't want to spend too much in the first one, but it was all so pretty... In the end, I didn't buy the black IW blouse I wanted, but I did buy my beloved Mary Magdalene dress and two skirts, Baby's Paris Window and Metamorphose's Perfume Bottle.

<3 <3 <3

Then I went back to Shinjuku. This time, I went straight to Marui 0101, and spend a lot of time just exploring the 6 floors filled with alternative fashion. There were not only lolita, but also otome, punk, goth and gyaru shops. I bought a skirt from Emily Temple Cute (I don't have a picture yet...), but nothing else. It was great to explore all the different shops. They were quite small so they didn't have much in stock, which was why I was again disappointed by Alice and the Pirates. The only print they had was Melty Mermaid, which I'm not super enthusiastic about.
Moi Meme Motie was very interesting. The shop was completely empty exept for the shopgirl, and there were racks upon racks filled with the holiest of lolita-ness. There were a whole lot of Silent Moon dresses, and they were super pretty and I was very tempted to buy one. But they were more than 380 euro, and I won't pay that for a dress, no matter how jealous it would make all the other lolita's!

Jesus Diamante just scared me.

After having explored Marui 0101 from top to bottom, I tried searching for Closet Child Shinjuku again, but again to no avail. I did see another lolita, and I even wanted to ask her whether she knew the shop, but she looked at me as if I was really scary and quickly said that she didn't know. Foreigners are sooo scary, right? But she's probably got some negative reactions from tourists before.
Anyway, I couldn't find the Shinjuku one so I headed back to Harajuku. I had fun walking around on Takeshita Doori and just looking at all the people. I also went back to Closet Child, just to see if they had any new items. It seems like they did, but I probably had just missed it the previous day. I bought "Alice's Portrait" skirt and a headbow. I already knew I liked Alice's Portait, I had tried on the JSK in Singapore but it didn't fit me then. But the skirt fits fine :) The headbow is the 'Dance of the Black Cat' one, a print I also really like.

I think that's about it... It must have been one of my biggest shopping sprees yet, and I don't want to know how much money I spent, but I'm very happy with everything. I finally have some more brand in my closet ^^

The only thing that still bothers me is: where the f$#@! is Closet Child Shinjuku?!

Shopping

Innocent World made the Charity Packs available yesterday. I considered buying one, because I would love to own something from IW, and because they'd donate a part of the money to Japan (even though it was only a small amount). But… It would be 150 euros for a blouse or bolero and a jumperskirt, which I wouldn’t even be able to choose. I know it’s less than you’d usually pay for IW, but I still think it’s a lot of money for only 2 items. (I also can't believe some people pay 300 or 400 euros for dresses. I know they're pretty, but I really couldn't pay that much for only a dress!)



               unattainable Dream Dresses...

 On the other hand, I could buy 10 items from Taobao for less than that, and donate the rest of my shopping money to the Red Cross. In that way, I’d have more things for less money, and I’d be able to give even more support to Japan! My decision was made, and I just submitted my order on TaobaoNow ^^
Let's see: 3 pair of socks, 1 headdress, 1 necklace, 2 cutsews, 2 skirts and 1 blouse. 10 items for the price of 2~ Of lesser quality of course, but I do think it's not a bad deal. (Though I sound like a terrible scrooge now...)

This is the original. I'm a little sad I won't get that awesome lace, but my wallet is happy.

I’ll be getting a lot of lovely things, including the Sugary Carnival replica skirt from Dream of Lolita. It’ll be the sweetest thing in my closet by far! I don't really like replica's (unless they're handmade by an admirer), so I was hesitant about it at first. But when Angelic Pretty re-released SC and it sold out in less than a day, I thought they wouldn’t be hurt very much if I bought the replica...

It'll take a while before my order will arive, but I'll post a review once I have it!