I did a little sampler with some knotted threads I had made on my new shuttle, and since a good few people were still wondering what you do with all those knots here are a couple of photos of some rough embroidery I did with them...


Sadly I tried turning these into a headdress and failed, the good news is they didn't take too long to do and I got a few photos to share out of it all!

We went down to Cookville Tennessee for a week to see Dusty's parents on the 4th of July. We had a fun drive down and back up!

We bought a pretty large arsenal of fireworks, there was a scary moment when Dusty's dad accidentally put 2 mortars in the tube though, one went into the air with a spectacular pop, the other blew up on the ground >___<. This might make me a sad person, but I was super excited for the snakes after seeing them on South Park years ago, I'd never seen one in real life before but they were way cooler than expected!

We took a few trips out and about, ate at a wonderful communal restaurant called Monell's in a neat Victorian house and got to hang out with some great people as well as eat some great food! Took a trip to see a dairy, and a neat heritage museum filled with things i wanted to pull out and get a better look at!

On the last day I did a little craft stash building. I'm kinda itching to make something after a week of not really getting stuck into a good project!

So that's my week in a nutshell! Back home now and getting stuck into work, though still really tired from the trip. Apologies for the lack of photos, I need to learn to take my good camera with me on trips.

I finished up a new period lolita outfit this week, my new lolified chemise a la reine!

The dress itself was a nice easy project, but I just didn't feel it was done till it had a hat to match!

At first I started the project out of fascination because i didn't really like these dresses much in the past, and also because I thought it would be nice and light for Summer. I found however that I do like these dresses, but for most people myself included, they do need a corset, so not so much for a modern Summer day.

Much more romantic that I normally like, I wasn't expecting to want to wear this once it was finished, but now I've tried it on I'm looking forward to wearing it out!

Also happy because the hat looks great with nor traditional lolita dresses, and even with regular street clothes! I bought a book on millinery recently and looking forward to wear more hats!

So I was playing on Poupee Girl and they have had the cutest Teru Teru Bozu in Catherine's Shop lately. I was looking at mine and thought, "I wish that were real" and so i made myself a little one! I wonder if he will work?


Teru Teru Bozu are little dolls said to cheery away a rainy day! People in Japan hang them up in their windows during the rainy season, I might hang this little fella up in my window if I can bare to stop playing with him!

Any one on Poupee girl can visit him in my closet here too, it would be nice to get him some votes for the rainy season!

My knotting obsession hasn't died down at all, I was looking at some old portraits of ladies knotting a little bit back and thought it might be fun to make a knotting shuttle and accessories to go with different outfits. Back in the hey day of knotting shuttles could be any where up to 6" and very ornate, since just like a fan they were very much for show.  I thought it might be fun as a modern knotter to have some rather ornate shuttles to play with as well!!

For the first set I thought it might be fun to marry to of my current craft loves, of knotting and sweets accessories, so I made lots of little sweets pieces out of paper clay and sculpey to embed in the resin molds for the shuttle.


I had a little silicone left so I  made an extra mold to make matching brooches to go with the sets!

I still probably love my plain bone shuttle the best since it was my first and we've done a lot of knotting together, but this one makes me feel just a little more like my knotting hero Mrs Delaney.

I few months back I had the bright idea of making an 18th century style fichu to go with my big dresses, and to wear with my lolita dresses. Then I figured I'd embroider one!

I've been working on this since March, most of the time was spent on the embroidery and trying to work out how to get what where on it. 

It's been my fist embroidery project since I was about 13 and the first time I ever tried any whitework embroidery. The idea is to take a light fabric and create your own "lace" through pulling threads tight to make little holes and textures. It was fun to do and a great experience, I just don't know I'd have the patience to do something like it again!

So that's what I've been working on for the last 2 months, just glad it looks cute I was kinda expecting it to be something I'd look at but not be able to wear.

I wore it out last weekend when I was out for tea with some friends if any one wants to see it in action!

My journal sometimes slips out of real time when things get busy, so I apologize for it's being all over the place as of late.

A couple of weeks ago it was my birthday and I wanted to thank all my friends and family for making it such a fun one this year! Since it fell neatly on memorial day Dusty had off work so he whisked me off to my favorite vegetarian Chinese restaurant , then for bubble tea and lose tea shopping!

I suppose if belated birthday wishes are sometimes kinda sad then a belated birthday post is really sad! Still for my family and friends back home, that's what I got up to and thanks so much for such a great birthday!

A new Kids section added to Cute Salad today so now you little friends can dress as spiffy as you do!


Also new a Pick n Mix article added to the Violet Life at Candy Violet as well as new customer photos. I hope you'll take a look as see how you can mix and match your Candy Violet dress sets to create so many new and unique looks all of your own (because that's what street fashion is really about)!

Saturday was Loli day so myself and the Nova lolis went out for tea in old town Fairfax!

We started out at The Sweet Life Cafe for afternoon tea, and then went up to the old courthouse built in 1800 for photos and some shade!

We were originally going to our favorite local tea haunt Sweet Christina's, but with only outdoor seating and the crazy heat that day we moved on to explore a new place (and found a new tea haunt)!  It's amazing how many good tea places there are in the neighborhood! This place had their own special blend of tea, and had an adorable room set aside for us with a table set with so many different patterns of Royal Albert china!

After tea and the court house and cannon adventure every one headed for </a></b></a>kalisafish 's house for Kamikaze Girls and toy macarons! I went home to Dusty who had been making strawberry jam. I see scones in the future!

(Also a thanks to </a></b></a>freakshownia for taking so many lovely photos, This trip my camera had dead batteries, who knows what camera malfunction I shall bring to the  next meetup!)

Special Candy Violet dress set in time for summer, Daisy Daisy...

Inspired by memories of sitting on the grass making daisy chains in Summer I'm happy to launch the new Daisy Daisy set!

The wide Daisy lace is quite special, the little "bobbles" that stand up off the design are only possible when using the traditional techniques for making cluny laces and this one (like all our most lovely laces) comes from Nottingham the historic lace making capital of England!
I hope you enjoy this bright new addition, and that you will make some Summer memories of your own in one!