LVF Loves: DIY Jewelry - Taking The Old and Making It New Disney Style!

Sure sure, so many people know what DIY is and "Do It Themselves" anyway, so why does this post even matter? Well with my recent discovering mynostalgic objects and the upcoming D23 Expo approaching more quicker then ever, I thought this post would be tiny yet fun and a bit of a change from the usual.

Since My mom has been on a kick of finding things that'll keep her innocent image of me alive, she seemed to find a collection of treasures of my Disney loving back in the 90's and seems to have been reawakened just in time for D23! But what treasures are these exactly?

Do you remember being so into the Disney Princesses as a kid that you'd want to dress up as them? Maybe this was the beginning stages of me wanting to become sort of a "frilly girl" stylin' lady as I am now but I was definitely into the Princess Dress Up sort of play and these toy sets were my life. Luckily, the thing that my mom happened to find was a variety of these items all in a small box. Somewhere yucky, some were a bit too damaged, but many were just right and have now become newly made pieces that'll be coming with me in some form to D23!

This piece came from a Cinderella playset probably around 93 or 94. It's a lovely baby blue plastic locket with a bow decoration at the top and a picture of Cinderella inside. I'm pretty sure there might have been a picture of Prince Charming as well, but seeing as he wasn't a favorite of mine I probably ripped him out hoping for a Prince with more personality (Look, even then I was specific with men!) I've already put a cute gold ball dot chain to it, bringing out the lovely yellows of Cindy's hair! It just happens to go lovely with my Twinkle Princess JSK!

This piece is probably my favorite I found! This little castle comes from an Ariel Playset from 1998 - around the time of the Little Mermaid re-release to theaters. It came as a series of items in which you could change the trinkets on the necklaces and bracelets within the set. Maybe it's just my fascination with pink and blue together, but this piece was always my favorite - probably also cause if has a working door! It also happens to go perfectly with Jelly Jewelry!

So what about you? Have you found anything nostalgic lately and made it into something part of your everyday where or just found something cool? Tell me about it, I'd love to hear!

Dress Up Time #14: Marie from the Aristocats

In celebration of my big Disney trip in only a week, I thought it would be fun to make a series of post based upon the characters that I'll be dressing as at the D23 Expo! First we'll take a look at my character Disney animal, Marie from The Aristocats! Marie is a little white fluff ball with tons of spunk and style. Though young, she has a lot of attitude and knows who clearly is the lady of her other family members. She dreams of being like her mother Dutchess and loves to show off more then her brothers. Marie is just adorable all around!

Probably the neatest thing about Marie is Disney's insane line of merchandise featuring - especially that coming from Japan. If you are at all into Marie, you can find pretty much

anything featuring her coming from any of the Disney parks or stores, especially Tokyo Disneyland. I'm lucky to be a owner of a few of these items but my favorite is most definitely my Marie Popcorn box. Now I know this sounds odd but trust me, it's the cutest thing in the world.

As you can see though there's even more things Marie that you can't even imagine to have her on. I'm lucky to be an owner of a few of these rare items and will be sporting some of them at D23 if you're curious to see more!

But now how does one capture the cuteness of this kitten heiress? The great thing about Marie is she's super basic so there are lots of ways to go about doing an outfit inspired by her, below is my current version of an outfit for her but trust me it can be dressed down a lot more or dressed up to the nines! Check out below!

This is one of the many many ways you can do Marie in a lolita format so don't take this as any sort of official have to's. First chose a Pink jumperskirt - I went to Angelic Pretty's Assorted Cookie JSK (an alternative version of Wonder Cookie!) then I went with an off-brand blouse that I originally bought from Mashimaro Girl. Though technically it's supposed to be bear eats rather then cat ones, I love the giant detachable bow which goes so well with Marie's personality and love of girly bows all around!

Next I chose to go with something a bit more fairy kei (and comfortable) with wearing some pink converse and legwarmers. Granted you can go with the more traditional Lolita roots of Tea Party Shoes in Pink, but I think this works for Marie especially with her being a kid - wanting to go on adventures and all! The best part with wearing Chucks is they come in a variety of styles and you can dress them up or down whenever with putting on some bow clips into the shoes, which I also did when I went to Pony Con this last July!

Now we come to accessories! I decided to play into the more french themes of things like Presents and Parfaits but including my Present Box bracelet from Angelic Pretty and an off-brand Parfait brooch (actual not shown). Finally (if you can find them) look for Marie themed jewelry such as the special face ring they made as toys in Japan. You can easily find them on ebay along with Dumbo and Mickey styles!

Finish the look with the perfect hair! Instead of going with the traditional cat ears or a wig, I chose to go with this adorable double bun style (great tutorial by VenusAngelic here) You can add tons of little pink bows or charms all around or go with a big pink head-eating bow at the very top!

As mentioned, there's tons of different ways to go bring about this adorable kitty in your outfit! Whether it be Fairy Kei inspired or a very elegant try - you can't ever go wrong with Marie! Now go show them why "Everybody Wants To Be a Cat!"

LVF is going to D23 Expo

So if you haven't noticed I've been a bit MIA for the past couple of days. I just returned from Otakon '11 (report post on that eventually) and been working in preparation for the greatest vacation I'll have had thus far in my whole life. It's coming up in only 10 days and by jolly am I excited more then a little kid at Christmas. Because what I'll be attending is my Christmas, My College Graduation, and a million trillion Otakon's worth of excitement rolled into 7 days of pure epic fantastic times, especially with 3 of them being the bestest of any day in my life thus far. I speak of my dream convention, my number one fandom celebration that I can't even express: The Official Disney Convention, The D23 Expo!

For those of you that don't know one thing about the D23 Expo, it's a weekend of celebrating everything and I mean EVERYTHING Disney. The movies, the parks, the TV channel, the characters, the merchandise and even the coolest fans. With new additions like Marvel and more, there really is something for everyone (even my boyfriend, who without him I wouldn't be going to the convention!) I'll be there to celebrate all of these aspects and to finally be in the center of my most favorite fandom in the world. I probably will scream, cry and smile harder then I ever had AND I'll be in lolita the whole time while doing that!

I also will be getting to Disneyland, Universal Studios and Hollywood while I'm at it! While going on my various adventures I'll be hopefully meeting up with the CA Lolita Girls, including Julie of Bonjour, I'm Julie Doll !! We Disney girls gotta stick together and I'm beyond excited to be with such an expert as this lovely lady!

So are any of you going to D23? If so let me know, I'd love to meet any fellow Disney fans or readers! If you aren't going to the Expo and or are wondering what things will be like, put down a request and I will do my best to get something back for you. I also will be heading to Little Tokyo if I can and if you're wanting pictures I can bring those back too. Either way this will be epic and I'm beyond freaking out from the excitement - Mickey won't be able to handle my little kid spunk!