Category: blog

blog

30 Day Lolita Challenge

christinahopgood
I saw this post on Millions of Bows for those who want to blog about Lolita stuff but aren’t sure what to blog about.  This is the list of topics:
Day 1 – 10 things about your lolita bubble.
Day 2 – 10 things you love in lolita.
Day 3 – 10 things you hate in lolita.
Day 4 – 10 different kinds of food you like.
Day 5 – 10 items from your wishlist.
Day 6 – 10 things you can’t live without in lolita.
Day 7 – 10 people who inspire your lolita style.
Day 8 – 10 songs that inspire you for lolita.
Day 9 – 10 things you will never do in lolita.
Day 10 – What’s in your bag?
Day 11 – One day in your lolita life in pictures.
Day 12 – A picture of yourself before lolita came in to your life.
Day 13 – A picture of your favorite sweets.
Day 14 – A picture of your dream item.
Day 15 – A picture of your last lolita purchase.
Day 16 – Your outfit for the day.
Day 17 – What do you want more then anything right now?
Day 18 – A picture of your favorite lolita style.
Day 19 – What’s in your make-up bag?
Day 20 – A picture of a lolita friend.
Day 21 – Your favorite fictional lolita.
Day 22 – A picture of your room.
Day 23 – A picture of your handwriting.
Day 24 – A picture of you from a meet.
Day 25 – Your favorite lolita themed artwork.
Day 26 – Your Facebook profile picture.
Day 27 – One song that fits your favorite lolita style.
Day 28 – A picture of the perfect lolita location.
Day 29 – A picture of a lolita you would love to meet for real.
Day 30 – A photo of yourself taken today and 3 good things that’s happened over the last 30 days.

Now, I’m not too keen on doing a few of these because some of them seem a little boring, or are things I could literally only write one sentence about.  So I’m not going to post about a picture of my handwriting, or my favourite fictional lolita (everyone’s is going to be that chick from Kamikaze Girls anyhow – although now there’s Deka Wanko too).
Another thing is that I’m not one of those “lifestyle” lolitas.  I like reading the blags and I like wearing pretty dresses, but I’m not super heavily into the culture and I don’t do things like wear false eyelashes or do pincurls.  I like going to the occasional meetup but don’t like wearing knee-high socks or nail art.
Despite my shortcomings as a Lolita, this is a good list of things that I can blog about from time to time.  I’ve edited the list quite a bit, but here are some posts I’m going to try to complete over the next few weeks:
About my lolita bubble (whatever the heck a bubble is)
Things I love and hate in Lolita
Favourite foods
Another wishlist post
Inspirational people
Favourite songs
What’s in my bag?
A picture of my last lolita purchase
Your outfit for the day
A picture of my favorite lolita style
What’s in my make-up bag?
A picture of me from a meet.
 A picture of a person I would love to meet for real.
A lot of this depends on having a good camera or a good friend to take photos for me and – yay – Charles is coming back in 12 days!  Unfortunately, I’m going to be super busy for the few days surrounding his arrival, but that’s okay, because he’ll be there for me to come home to!  Anyhow he has a good camera and will probably take photos for me because he’s a sweetheart.

Yay blogs!  I’ve been reading other girls’ blogs following this list and seems nobody else knows what a “bubble” is either.  Huh.

blog, life, percussion

Music for 18 Musicians

christinahopgood

(Photo from the 2004 version)

For the past few months, our ANU Percussion Ensemble (DRUMatiX) and some other ANU instrumentalists have been rehearsing Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich.  We finally performed it today at the Fitters Workshop as the grand finale of the Canberra International Music Festival.

I personally have fond memories associated with Music for 18 Musicians.  It was performed by the DRUMatiX back in 2004 when Charles was in first year and I was still in year 11 (See above photo from GaryFrance.com).  It was in a concert with lots of pieces, and I went to see Charles perform mostly.  He wasn’t in 18 Musicians so we could sit and watch it together.  It blew my mind!  That was my first Reich exposure.

It’s a piece with lots of instruments: 3 marimbas, 2 xylophones, vibraphone, 4 pianos, 4 singers, 2 bass clarinets, a violin and a cello.  It’s a minimalist piece with not much in the way of melody, so I would call it a sound work rather than a regular instrumental piece.  It’s exploring the different sounds that the combinations of instruments and harmonies can create, in a very repetitive and mesmerising way.

I was the Xylophone 1 player – that meant I had the easy part of playing on the beat while my friend the Xylo 2 player had to play off the beats.  Difficult for her!

Today it was kind of cold in the venue so I wore my cardigan – but that turned out to be a huge mistake!  I got extremely hot playing and almost died.  I managed to take off my cardigan in a resting part and felt better.  The piece itself went very well indeed!  All the wonky bits went very smoothly.  We got a standing ovation and each got a flower.

The performance was in the Fitters Workshop in Kingston.  There has been a lot of fuss recently in Canberra about that venue, because it is going to be scrapped as a music venue and turned into a gallery or something.  Musicians from all around are throwing hissy fits because they claim that it’s a wonderful venue for music, acoustically and visually.  There have been petitions and letters to the paper and blogs and speeches.  I agree that it’s okay acoustically (if you’re a singer or a solo guitarist or something) but the problems associated with performing there outweigh the benefits.  Charles wrote a great blog about it recently, and I have some thoughts to add to his.

(Fitters Workshop, Kingston.  Basically a barn.)

I’ve been rehearsing and performing there on and off for over two weeks now.  And I have to say it’s one of the more unpleasant places to play in Canberra.  During the day, the sun shines in the giant windows and blinds everyone – players, audience – and also is really hot on whoever it hits.  At night, it becomes super cold and the drums all tighten up. 
All the venue is, is a hall.  Everything else has to be provided – toilets, seating, heating, lighting, ushers, even the stage needs to be brought.  There’s no backstage area and no foyer. No toilets, you guys!!

Why do people like it so much?  It’s trendy because it’s in Kingston, the venue has an arty sort of history, it’s next to the Glassworks and the Markets (two very fashionable places to be seen), it’s nice to look at, it has free parking, and it’s cheap to hire.  Oh, and apparently it has a nice acoustic.  When rehearsing 18 Musicians in the venue, we’ve been having enormous trouble hearing each other from just metres away.  The sound is good out in the audience, but it’s extremely difficult to stay in time.

So in short: today they had a petition to save the Fitter’s Workshop and I didn’t sign it.


Me before I took my cardigan off!  I had a hot flush!  But I played very well nevertheless!
blog, fashion, life

Christina Style Evolution! Photo diary.

christinahopgood
I used to be an absolute dag.  I didn’t care about clothes or appearance at all.  My clothes were all bought for me, and although my mum is extremely stylish, I was fairly stubborn.  I refused to wear skirts or the colour pink.  I just didn’t care.  When boys started coming on the scene though (well, the one and only boy) I started to pay more attention to how I looked.  Problem was, I still didn’t have much taste!  My favourite item of clothing was a pair green wide-leg trousers with patches on the knees and embroidery on the pocket.  You would never catch me in high heels!

I continued being a total dag for many years.  I had (and still have!) a boyfriend who loved me anyway, and I could scrub up all right if I made an effort.  I had grown some taste in fashion but still didn’t put much effort in on a daily basis.  Cardigans and jeans daily.  Gross hair.  Weird t-shirts.

When I went to Japan at the end of 2008, it was a real eye-opener.  There are seriously NO dags in Japan.  When I look at my trip photos, my evolution over those 3 weeks is astounding.  I discovered Lolita, having never really considered it before, and bought my first blouse and skirt from Bodyline (the blouse was so ita I reconstructed it last year, but the skirt is still a winner).  I also bought a buttload of magazines (hair, lolita, regular fashion) and clothes and a really nice winter coat, makeup, plus a couple of pairs of shoes.  I even got a cute haircut with a fringe!  I think that going out every day and seeing how beautifully people were dressed made me want to fit in, that really did it for me.  At home in Canberra it’s okay to be a dag!  In Japan it’s not done.
So on my return I started trying harder to look good.  I started wearing skirts with tights instead of only jeans, and I kept my hair looking much nicer.  My second trip to Japan really cemented my idea of how to dress well.  I’m not saying that I dress perfectly now, or that my style won’t change at all.  It’s constantly changing!  All I’m saying is that now I’m way more aware of how I dress and look.  

Here’s my style evolution over the last few years in 9 photos!
This is probably from about 2007.  Walking my beautiful dog in a TERRIBLE coord.
Getting off the plane in Japan – our first trip!  End of 2008.
In Akihabara – nice new coat, scarf and haircut.
Home again and trying to make a cute skirt!  Early 2009.  That’s my Bodyline shirt pre-modifications.
Japan trip no. 2 at the end of 2009!  At a cafe post-haircut.   I just like the haircuts I get in Japan!
Looks like I bought a beret!  First photo of me in tights and a skirt.
First shopping service purchase – my favourite dress, the Adele Bustier dress.  Early last year my man friend.
Late last year, going to see Bill Bailey.
Early this year in Sweden, wearing my new Milk dress!  Quite a change from the first photo, but more casual than most of my other recent photos.
Well!  This blog is kind of embarrassing!
blog, life

Blag

christinahopgood
So I went to the coast with Charles for a few days, a couple of weeks ago. I had a really nice time! It was good to forget about that frigging essay for a little bit. The weather was warm and we went swimming twice! Somehow I forgot to bring a t-shirt to the coast. I wore a blouse and had a singlet-top thing, and pyjamas. So I had to wear my pyjama top in swimming. But seriously. Who does that?

Apart from looking like a total dag, we did some fun stuff like visit antique* shops, where I bought some vintage children’s books to use in my NEXT BIG CRAFT PROJECT. We also made a fire and had a barbeque outside, which was lovely. After having watched lots of Ray Mears’ Bushcraft, we thought we could make a fire without matches. We couldn’t. I think Ray Mears might be a wizard?
Here’s a link to Charles’ flickr where he’s uploaded some of the digital photos. They’re really small on the website? We actually took millions of photos but two rolls aren’t developed yet.
When I got back, my head cleared and I was able to finish my essay. I’d been working on it for months, and yet I could only write anything about 4 days before the deadline. My dad said “Nothing crystallises thoughts quite like a deadline”.
The best thing about the Psychology department is the automatic stapler. You feed in your assignment and it goes BANG! I think I shrieked the first time I did that, 4 years ago. Sigh.
And then I went and looked at some duckies.
Thanks for kind words, dudes and ladies. In the words of T-Rex, I am always impressed by your wit, your beauty, your intelligence, and your sense of humour.
In some other words by T-Rex, HEY YOU! ACROSS THE STREET! I LIKE YOUR FRIGGING HAT!
*junk.
blog, giveaways, gothic and lolita

Giveaways?

christinahopgood

So the lovely Ra at Gothic Lolita Sewing and other Amusements is having a rad giveaway – leave a comment and she’ll make one lucky person a lolita winter coat pattern. I would really like to make myself a winter coat so of course I left a comment. It’s a really kind thoughtful giveaway. The occasion is that her blog is 2 years old. My blog is almost 2 years old too – so I’m thinking about some giveaways.

But what the heck could I give? One of my leftover pendants? How crappy. A handmade skirt? As far as I can tell, there’s only one girl who follows my blog, and that’s Ra. If I had a million loli girls following my blarg, I’m sure that would be fine, but also I think they might *hate* me for not wearing socks. Alack me!
Anyway. You should follow Gothic Lolita Sewing and Other Amusements because it’s highly amusing. I know I do!