Delicious Pumpkin Pie!

Actually yummy!

Hello you guys!
It's been a while! I went on holiday at my grandparents' house this fall break, and I was supposed to go to a meet up that I was meaning to share with you guys, but sadly, it was cancelled (I really wanted to spend some time with my family, and that day was the only chance.. Oops)

However, I'm back home, and yesterday I decided that it was finally time to carve my pumpkin, which of course leaves one with a lot of pulp that you need to figure out what to do with. I decided that it would be the perfect idea to turn it into a delicious pumpkin pie that I could give to my neighbors as a big "Thank you!" for taking care of my kitty all week! It turned out really good, so I decided that "Hey! Maybe I could share the recipe with you guys!"

So, here you go!

The crust:

250 grams of regular flour
110 grams of salted butter

1 tablespoon of sugar

6 tablespoons of lukewarm water
(if you want to use storebought pie dough, skip this step)

Mix the flour and the butter until it turns kind of "crummy" in texture. Then add the sugar and the water, and mix until the dough is.. well, dough-y. Put it in the fridge to sit for about 20 minutes! Pre-bake for 10 minutes at 200 degrees celsius.

The filling:

350 grams of pumpkin pulp
2,5-3 dL of brown sugar
1/2 dL of regular sugar
50 grams of white chocolate
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
A quarter of a teaspoon of crushed cloves
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of nutmeg

1 and a half dL of skim milk
1,8 dL of skyr or cream (depending on if you want a light or more heavy version)

You can add in some hazelnuts if you want to.

Blend the pumpkin pulp, brown sugar, regular sugar, spices, hazelnuts and white chocolate until creamy and lump-free. Transfer to a pot and bring it to a boil while stirring. Then put in the cream and milk, and bring it to a boil again. Remove from the stove, and whisk the eggs briefly, before stirring them in the still hot pie filling. Pour it onto the pie crust, and slap everything in the oven for about 25 minutes at 185 degrees celsius. Enjoy the smell of christmas come early while it bakes! When you take it out, it should be firm enough that you can poke a knife in there, and have it come out clean. Let it cool a bit before you take a piece!

Enjoy, and have a Happy Halloween!

LBC: How Your Style Has Evolved

Okay, you guys! I've tracked down as many bad and good photos I could, to document my Lolita style evolution, in honor of this week's Lolita Blog Carnival theme!

You're in for a rocky ride. Don't say I didn't warn you! I'm gonna take you as far back in time as I've been able to. Which would be around 3½ years back in time, for starters. The timeline is from left to right, for each year.

2011

I have no pictures of my first half a year or so in Lolita. Those dissapeared along with the first Lolita message board I was on. We'll have to make do with the earliest pictures I could find. The first one is from when I'd acquired my second Lolita first (and my first serious addition to my collection). It's taken at my second or third meet up, in the early summer of 2011. Not too bad for a sweet Lolita coordinate, actually. But I really needed some work in the make up and hair department. The second one is from a Lolita fashion show I participated in at the anime convention, J-Popcon. My style was kind of all over the place, that year. Except for OTT sweet Lolita, which was too sugary for me.

2012

 Now we enter 2012. As you can tell from the badly cropped photos, I didn't really bother with actual outfit photos, except for the ones taken at meet ups. I continued down my path of Gothic Lolita with Bad Make Up and Hair. Because hats are of course a good excuse to not try and do something about that (nope)
The second outfit was my first time wearing Lolita with a wig. I decided that wigs were not for me, because it washed me out completely. I felt uncomfortable about the way I looked all day, which was actually unusual for me, in Lolita. The third photo is unfortunate. I refuse to believe that my petticoat was that sad!
From the fourth to the fifth photo, was a dramatical change. There's half a year of a US trip and a massive weight loss between them, and I actually became inspired to try and put my hair up in (tiny) bunny ears!

2013

We're edging closer to a style that I kind of recognize as my own. The first photo is kind of the last time I've worn Gothic Lolita. From then on, it was a slow transition over a less-than-sweet Sweet Lolita, to Classic Lolita. My make up skills slowly evolved a bit, but I still stayed away from fake eyelashes or anything of the sort, which of course is not a necessity in Lolita, but none the less, a part of my current style. I don't know how it happened, but I feel like something went down in 2013 that took my style up a notch. 

Now prepare for a massive photo spam..

2014

This has been my 2014 so far, and if anything, I think I can truly say that even just this year, I've come a long way (even if my bad quality outfit photos don't show me clearly)

These days, I'm in love with a very princess-like Classic style, and I have never been happier with the way I look. I'm slowly selling my old Gothic Lolita wardrobe, and I'm not looking back. I don't think the only change is that now I use false lashes and wigs and such, even if to me, they're the cherry on top. I've simply just learned to coordinate, with a little room for experimentation.

Back in the day, I had no idea where Lolita was gonna take me, and today, I'm still not sure where I'm going. It's an exciting journey!

I hope you guys will follow me, as I continue into 2015, and how many years there may come!

Wanna see more Lolita-volutions? Check out the other participants below!

The Literary Lolita
Breidholt
New Vogue Children
A Heart's Sound

Halloween, Costume Lolita and Themed Outfits

Picture from Wikipedia

The Halloween month is here, and what would be more appropriate than having a chat about the topic "costumes" and Lolita fashion? Those two concepts have been in conflict for as long as most of us have lived our frilly lives, and to many, the line we walk between the two is still thin. 

We may all agree that Lolita is not a costume. 

But what about bunny ears? Themed coordinates? Wearing Lolita on All Hallows' Eve?
What makes a Lolita outfit a costume?

Follow me, as I dive deep into the deep, dark well that is the discussion of costumes and Lolita.

Actual "Lolita Costume"

And the girl in jeans shouted "Little Bo Peep, where are your sheep?!"

And the Lolita shuddered in secondhand embarassment, for little did the girl in jeans know: Lolita is not a costume at all!
But what defines a costume? What makes Lolita so different from wearing a Little Bo Peep costume, when it comes down to it? Some people think that it is all a matter of not taking the outfit too far into OTT territory, lest it becomes "costume-y". Some people believe it's all about the quality of the materials. Others swear by the elements of the outfit, for instance lace gloves or bunny ears. The viewpoints are many and varied, and no completely consensus has been reached about when we reach "costume Lolita", and when something is just plain "ita". 

(I've even seen the two expressions used interchangeably)

To clarify, I disagree with all of these statements entirely. "Costume Lolita" is a thing, and so is "ita Lolita". They are, however, very different, in my opinion. In this post I'm only gonna talk about the term "costume Lolita".

First, what defines a costume?

I looked it up in the Cambridge Dictionary online, and there, it is defined like this: A set of clothes suitable for a particular historical period or activity, or a set of clothes worn to look like someone or something else. To clarify, what is given as examples of "activities" are things like dancing or swimming.

Lolita does not fit any of these labels. Lolita is a fashion, not a costume. The quality of materials, choice of accessories or amount of stuff worn on your head, is irrelevant. It is the purpose of the clothes that is key, and even the most shiny satin Milanoo piece is therefore not a costume.

Ita, but not a costume. 

Adorable bunny-themed outfits by Angelic Pretty

But, what about themed outfits, then? Aren't they costumes?

No, they are not. Not even if you wear your BtSSB cat ears and take fashion que's from the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. You see "Steal Her Look!" articles in mainstream fashion magazines all the time and nobody's calling that "costuming". 

I think what confuses people about this is that there are certain elements of Lolita fashion that suddenly become appropriate at certain events or certain holidays. People become unable to withstand the allure of bunny ears around easter, and that's when the arguments pop up about whether or not those are Lolita or costume articles. They are certainly not costume articles if you're not in costume, but the discussion about whether or not they are Lolita appropriate is a different topic entirely. 

Personally, I go with a "Yes!" if they are good quality and part of a themed outfit. 

BtSSB's halloween "Merrymaking in the Ghost Town" print.

But what if I wear my outfit for Halloween?

That depends! Is your outfit just themed around a certain character, or are you actually dressing up AS a character?
Or are you just taking advantage of the occassion to go out and enjoy yourself with a lot fewer stares than usual, to melt into the crowd of actual costume-wearing happy folk and fly under the radar?

Wearing Lolita on Halloween does not make it a costume. Some people worry that it is "disrespectful" to the fashion to wear it on Halloween, or to similar events. In my opinion, it is everything but disrespectful! Themed outfit or not, Lolita-fied costume or not, Halloween gives us an occassion to go all out without sticking out too much! Wear your most oppulent gothic Hime Lolita dress and put a mini-version of the Flying Dutchman on your head. 

As an adoring fan of the Halloween month, it's just twice the sugar and no bees to take my fashion one step further on Halloween.

These are just my opinions!
Are you gonna dress up for Halloween? If so, what are you gonna do?
Let me know in the comments below, and have a really spooky Halloween!