knott's berry farm

We had a holiday on Monday, and since it is so very unusual for our district to take an October holiday of any sort (it was actually a furlough day for us and a teacher work day for the boys' district), I was feeling in a festive mood and wanted to really make something of it.  We decided on an overnight trip to Knott's Berry Farm!  We drove up Sunday, spent the night in the Knott's Berry Farm hotel (and played in the pool there) and went to the amusement park on Monday, where we suspected it would be uncrowded.  It really was uncrowded!  We practically had the place to ourselves and there were very few lines. 

I'm not a huge amusement park person, but I love seeing the boys' wonder at them.  And Knott's Berry Farm has a certain appeal to me, with its history.  It started as an actual berry stand and  a chicken dinner restaurant.  The restaurant was so popular that Mr. Knott started adding attractions the amuse the diners lining up for their chicken dinners.  Eventually more and more attractions were added and it changed into an amusement park (but they totally still run the restaurant and people still line up for the chicken dinners, ourselves included).

Knott's has an old feel to it.  I think the central part of the park, with its old West theme and old buildings, is largely unchanged over the decades.  They still have a blacksmith there and a glass blower and an old schoolhouse with a "school teacher" who will tell you about the history of the park.  I was disappointed to learn that the park is no longer owned by the Knott's family, but a big conglomerate now.  Oh well! 

The boys loved the whole experience.  I was weirdly fascinated by the crazy modern roller coasters and kept staring in wonderment.  I would NEVER go on one, though.  The log ride is as daring as I get (it has a big drop at the end!), and those swings in the top photo.

I'm still meaning to post about our Disneyland trip too, which was this summer and was very different.  Do you go to amusement parks?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Book Review: Fashioning Japanese Subcultures

After seeing a post on egl about a book about Japanese subcultures, I knew I had to buy it.

Generally speaking, books on this subject haven't been too great. They've been picture-heavy (often with incorrect pictures to represent certain styles) and devoid of information.

Fashioning Japanese Subcultures by Yuniya Kawamura is very different. It is almost entirely text, with in-depth analyses of various subcultures such as lolita, gyaru and mori girl. Instead of simply describing what these styles consist of, Kawamura has delved into the communities of these cultures (taking a Japanese insider perspective which can often clash with those of western followers of these fashions and subcultures) and has quoted many people for their personal opinions.

The book is very well referenced, suggesting Kawamura spent an awful lot of time and effort on her research.

What I found particularly interesting was the first section of the book, which handles an investigation into the economic climate of Japan, shedding light on the mindset of the people. Kawamura then makes connections between how the changing and increasingly bleak Japanese economy has impacted the way people view their lives, and caused the development of subcultures.

Those interested in the fashion industry as a whole will enjoy the chapter on the deprofessionalisation of fashion. It makes note of some obvious things I never really paid attention to-- how it is young people in these subcultures creating the fashions and making the rules, rather than waiting for high fashion brands to tell them what to wear.

Where the book falls down is its inclusion of photographs. There are a handful of colour plates shoved in the middle of the book that really don't need to be there, with one being a repeat of the book cover, and others being poor quality, cheap digicam pics that add nothing to the book whatsoever. If photos were to be included, they should have been carefully chosen and integrated with their appropriate chapters to make the book more cohesive, and add a visual appeal which is definitely lacking. This is not a book you can flip through to gaze at the pictures, but first and foremost an academic research book.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Japanese subcultures, or who considers themselves part of them already. Yes, there are moments where the commentary is a little vague or downright incorrect, but I have not been able to find anything else out there that comes close to what Kawamura is giving us here. Plus, the cover is pretty damn cute.

I rate this book with 4 hearts out of 5!

 ❤❤❤❤♡

Navy Blue

The label on the bottle says it is "navy" blue, but it seems like you've added half the bottle before it bears the slightest resemblance to the colour you're aiming for - don't get blue!
There's a trick to navy blue, and it is called black. And patience.  Okay, not very magical. But there you have it - it works : )

So, If you are using gel food colour to get navy royal icing - add a drop or two of black (not too much) - it may not look very navy at first (more like a dark blueck!), but leave it overnight and that brooding blue will have a chance to come out of its shell and show its true colours - you'll be pleasantly surprised at the result.

Octopus design inspired by Yankee Girl Yummies (and her octopus did have 8 legs - a true professional!)
Beach scene from a tutorial by the amazing Amber of Sweetambs.

Happy decorating!
xxM

Ganache

If you were to ask me what my favourite icing is, I'd have to say it depends. That's a tricksy little phrase that we learnt in med-school. It bought you some breathing space before you committed to an answer. (Of course the inquisitor wouldn't stop there, and would continue to grill you until every last drop of knowledge you possessed on the subject was wrung out of you!) 

So, what does it depend on? What it's going to be used for: 
My favourite icing to eat is chocolate cream cheese icing. 
My favourite icing to pipe is Swiss meringue buttercream.  
My favourite icing to use for covering a cake before applying fondant is ganache. (Which tastes heavenly, too - it's definitely a strong contender as the answer to question no. 1). 

I love to use ganache on cakes because it glides on so easily and smoothly, and sets hard - creating the perfect surface for applying fondant. 

simply ganache...

To make ganache you need chocolate and cream. And it must be "heavy cream" / whipping cream - which has a 35-40% fat content.
You vary the ratio between the chocolate and cream, depending on the intended use of the ganache and also depending on what chocolate you're using. 

For covering cakes:
-with dark chocolate use a ratio of 2:1 chocolate to cream - gram for gram/ ml's 
-with milk chocolate use 2.5:1 
-with white chocolate use 3:1 

(Not everyone uses these ratios, but they're the ones I've had success with.) 

Dark Chocolate Ganache

500g dark chocolate, cut into small, even sized pieces.
250ml cream (it must be whipping cream - 35-40% fat) 

Place both ingredients into a double boiler (a heatproof bowl placed over a pot of simmering water) OR in a microwave-proof bowl.
Heat slowly, stirring frequently until all the chocolate has melted. 

OR bring the just the cream to boil, then pour over the chocolate. Leave undisturbed for a few minutes, then stir until smooth.

Leave to cool down at room temperature. Place some cling-wrap onto the surface of the ganache to prevent a crust forming. 
Spread onto your cake once the ganache has reached a peanut butter consistency. 
If it sets firmer, microwave it for a few seconds to soften it again. 

If you want to calculate the amount of ganache you need to cover a cake, Jane from "I Want Sprinkles"in Australia has created the Ganacherator to help out:
https://www.facebook.com/theganacherator

Isn't that neat?!

Happy ganaching!

xxM 

A Casual Vintage Fair Meetup!

Last Saturday I met up with some of the Ox Lolis plus a couple others to check out a vintage fair in Oxford.

To be honest, the fair was pretty naff! It was more of a jumble/car boot sale kind of deal rather than good quality vintage clothing that is actually stylish! There were heaps upon heaps of Christmas jumpers, putrid ball gowns and dirty coats. I was so disappointed! I expected so much more seeing as there was an entrance fee. They could learn a thing or two from The Reading Vintage Fair...

Anyway, after leaving the fair, mostly empty-handed, we headed over to Noodle Nation for lunch. I had an amazing Singaporean style stir fry dish. The reverse sides of the menus had a dragon picture you could colour in so, like the mature people we all are, we fetched the cups of crayons in the corner and began customising our dragons.

I called mine Henrietta and coloured it in pink and purple so it matched my coordinate XD

A super unflattering photo of me but somehow I like it!

After we'd all eaten, chatted about all sorts, and coloured in our dragons, we decided to have a wander. We ended up in Primark but it was pretty rubbish so we carried on.

We finally took some outfit pictures and group pictures outside. There were some really lovely pictures on my phone from the day but I regret to say that when I plugged my phone into my laptop to upload the pictures just now, all the files were corrupted ;__;

I don't really know what had happened. I knew my laptop didn't like my phone much, and I experimented yesterday with sending pictures from my phone via e-mail, but it was a ridiculously slow, battery-draining, and faulty process. I'm glad I had attempted that though because it meant a handful of photos were rescued, though none of the nice ones of myself, sadly.

It was by no means a lolita meetup but somehow most of us wore lolita anyway!

I think we were trying to look like penguins at this point.

After pictures, our group dwindled and a few of us hung out in the Debenhams cafe, just talking and nibbling on fudge we'd bought from Fudge Kitchen earlier (mine was strawberries and cream flavour and positively divine). And then, we went back to the train station where we said our final goodbyes.

I had a really lovely day and I can't wait to see everybody again soon ❤

fruit salad ice pops

These "fruit salad" ice pops were so fun to make!  We got the idea from this video (via Everyday Food).  We had been wanting to make these since last summer, but only just now got around to it for the popsicle party.

We made these the morning of (they take 6 hours to freeze) and the children were highly involved.  I cut up the fruit and they pushed the pieces down into the popsicle molds.  You can see that they are lovely, even without any special arrangement or skill whatsoever.  We used kiwi, fresh pineapple, and strawberries.  The ice is white grape juice.  They were surprisingly yummy and very popular at the party (although some kids didn't finish theirs).  We also had regular popsicles.  These were just for the fun of making them and because they are so pretty. 

It was so fun unmolding pop after pop at the party and to see how each one turned out.  Unfortunately I was handing them out, so unable to photograph more of them.  They were all pretty, though.  I'd love to try these with more and different fruits, especially blueberries, although I'll always use the kiwis because they are just so gorgeous. 

Autumn is here!

Hey everyone! It's been a few weeks since I last posted. I was pretty bogged down with getting uni assignments finished in time for the end of term so I didn't have a lot of time (or inspiration) for a blog post.

I'm still feeling pretty uninspired so I thought I'd do a quick post of random little things that have happened.

For starters, I turned twenty! I feel proper old! Well, not really. It's just a little weird not being a teenager any more but I guess I'm ok with it. I had a pretty understated birthday celebration at home with my parents.

Despite my leaving teenagerdom behind, I got the most adorable owl cake!

You can see where I placed the candles before changing my mind. The cake was from Tesco, surprisingly. I never expected to find something so cute there!

Another significant life event is that my laptop died. The hard disk drive was clearly on its way out so I rescued all my data and bought a new laptop-- an Asus X75V. I really love it! I feel kinda sorry for my old Dell Inspiron. It had a complete and utter freakout, making bizarre melodic beeping noises with the screen flashing in rainbow colours! I wouldn't recommend those laptops to anybody. That's the second one I've gotten through in the space of three years.

Next up is a recent coord with one of the handmade skirts I bought at Frock On.

My mum reckons the fully elasticated waist band is unflattering but I love this skirt regardless! Perfect for bittersweet lolita and super comfortable!

In other news, I bought my first tarot deck last week! I decided to go for the Crystal Visions deck because I was incredibly drawn to the rich, feminine artwork. It arrived on Saturday in time for Mabon/ Autumn Equinox and I've been practising ever since.

Don't they look beautiful? I really enjoy the whole process of doing different spreads and interpreting the meanings of the cards. It's very calming.

I've been pretty pleased about the weather lately. It would be nice if it were a bit sunnier, but I've enjoyed the cooler temperatures. It has made me feel as if I need a new coat, though. The only lolita-specific coat I own is black, so it would be nice to have one in pink or even white but I haven't seen any that I like or think are worth the price lately. The other thing I've been eyeing up lately are bonnets! I think I'll take the plunge and see if they suit me or not.

That's about all that's been going on with me lately! I have a lolita meet to look forward to on Saturday so I need to prepare my coord for that!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time ❤