Amaranth Opulent has been consuming my soul since June, and I can't be happier about it. I've spent days dreaming about flowers, scouring roadsides while driving (don't try this at home!), and mostly trawling Etsy for new supplies and suppliers. For my settings and bases, the entire website is fair game, and I don't really have any particular seller that I currently prefer above others; findings, however, is a completely different story. Ever since my first purchase, I have been a loyal customer of Steampunk Junk Supply for all of my chain, clasps, and jumprings, and I wouldn't have it any other way. While Brenda, the store's mastermind, does not make the findings herself, she is definitely still an amazing business owner and an absolute joy to work with. The products are always of amazing quality and very easy to use - I've yet to be disappointed with a single purchase.Brenda has worked with me via Etsy conversations ever since my first order, and is always quick with recommendations whenever I need them. Every order I receive from her comes packed in a bubble enveloped securely and safely, and I've never received a damaged product. Brenda also includes little free gifts for purchasing - other findings that are related to the ones you purchased, like charms that coordinate in theme or color. This was actually really great for me - my jewelry is pretty simple and straightforward, and I never really thought of other ways I could make it more elaborate until I received some toys to play with. Since the charms she sent already matched my chain, I have the opportunity to experiment with and inspect the new materials, like I was shopping her store in person.Speaking of freebies, a recent order I placed was really a shining example of Brenda's excellent customer service. I had previously only purchased findings in bronze, but was starting to expand my pedant-making to silver as well. Since I couldn't decide on a style in her shop, I messaged Brenda to ask for a recommendation based on the chain I had already purchased. She recommended a style that was not currently in stock, and when I expressed interest, kept me updated on the availability. She ordered the supplies, received them, and listed them within a week and a half or so, and sent me a quick note through every step. She offered to include a sample of the chain with the order I'd just placed and I accepted, expecting maybe six inches or so to arrive. Well, imagine my surprise when I received not only three full feet of chain, but a handful of jumprings and a lobster claw clip as well, so I could work with the chain and get a feel for it, as well as a few charms to work with. Needless to say, it was included in my next purchase.
She's also been supporting and promoting for me since I first opened; she Tweeted a few of my first items, flat-out doubling their views and adding a handful of hearts, and is even commissioning a few Christmas presents from me. She's done more for helping and encouraging me than even some of my close friends have, and this from someone across the country whom I've never even met! I absolutely, 100% recommend Steampunk Junk Supply; Brenda sticks with the customer before, during, and after, and is eager to help in any way she can at any stage of the game. If you have any opportunity to purchase from this store for crafts or art, do so immediately. You won't regret it - at least, I haven't yet.

I've been a Facebook addict pretty much since I joined in High School. I remember the days when I was turned away from registering because I didn't have a University network to join, but now it seems like everyone and their dog has a Facebook page - Tina, I'm looking at you! That may sound negative, but don't get me wrong: I'm all for any website that unites people (or canines!) with common interests from all over the Internet, so Facebook's growing popularity has nothing but positive connotations for me (except all of my weird aunts and uncles trying to add me - awkward...). Further proof of this international popularity is Poupee Boutique.

Almost all of the lolitas I know have tried out Poupee Girl, and I'd say it's split pretty evenly between girls who are totally obsessed and those tried it for a while and now only check back every few months to dress up and leave a few comments - I'm somewhere in between the two, personally. When I asked my friends who left the site why they did so, the answer was almost always that the confusion between the two monetary systems and the inflated prices that came with them had really turned them off to the game, even devoted followers with whom I'd been dressing up for years. The cuteness was not enough to keep them, it would seem.

Poupee Boutique kind of remedies that. Instead of having a doll that you dress up, you own your own poupee boutique, though you do have a shopkeeper you can attire as your please. You level up by racking up "hearts," which you can earn from selling items, suteki-ing your friends' shops, and even dusting your store or others'! Each level offers different items you can sell, and each costs a different amount and stays in your store for a set period of time, until it automatically sells. Once it's gone, a little Piyo-encrusted money bag appears on the floor; clicking it adds your earnings to your shop. You can decorate your store with wallpaper and shelves of knick-knacks, and the clothing displays are really quite adorable as well. Even though the clothing you can sell was chosen or created to appeal to a more mainstream audience, there are some really adorable and lolita-friendly looks you can create.

There are a few pitfalls of this game, though. There is a lot of down time where you just have to go do something else for a few hours or even a whole day; some of the higher-level items take hours upon hours to sell out of your shop, suteki-ing shops only gets you heart points once a day as does dressing up your shopkeeper, and you can only clean every so often for points. I like that Poupee Girl can always be a way of killing time since there's so much to browse through, so that was kind of a bummer. Also the entire application is in Engrish, which means that I don't even know some of the features it offers because I just can't understand their descriptions. If you're not used to reading Japonified English, you may be very confused and frustrated at first, but most of it kind of explains itself eventually.

As if I needed another way to waste my time on the web! This game is great for anyone who loves Poupee Girl in theory but maybe not necessarily in practice, or even anyone who just wants another way to wile away the hours on Facebook. There are some drawbacks, of course, but that's true of everything, and despite these I still think that Poupee Boutique is a sweet and fun game, for Facebook standards. Just make sure you keep up with your shop - don't want any of those unsightly cobwebs or broken mirrors!

Last Sunday I was lucky enough to participate in a photoshoot for Amaranth Opulent with Carolyn of Ophanim Gothique and Lindsay of Lolita Nouveau/Lolitas-N-Cream. At Carolyn's suggestion, we settled on the mind-blowingly stunning Harkness Park as our location; even though we had to trek it across the state, as soon as I saw pictures I knew it would be the perfect showcase for all three designers. Our model line-up changed a few times due to time constraints, long car rides, and sudden illness, but we still ended up with four amazingly talented ladies: Crystal, Jesi, and two non-lolita friends, Cate and (another!) Lindsay. It was such a wonderful day; everything went spectacularly, so much better than I had every hoped for.

Crystal

Doing a spot of modeling myself for Ophanim:

I had given my petticoat to one of the models, so that's why I'm so deflated!

Fellow designer Lindsay offered her modeling services to Carolyn as well:

Jesi

Cate

Lindsay

The lovely Lolita Nouveau girls:

The Aftermath - well, no, just a picnic:

It was such an amazing day, spent around so many talented people. I hope we can do this again someday soon - a winter line, maybe?

Amaranth Opulent is a line of eco-friendly, one-of-a-kind jewelry by Miss Lumpy. Drawing inspiration from a slew of alternative fashions such as lolita, mori-girl, and steampunk, Amaranth Opulent is inspired to taking organic, sustainably-harvested materials and combining them with findings purchased from independent businesses to create jewelry of beauty and luxury. Every flower and leaf used in this jewelry has been hand-picked and hand-pressed by Aly herself in a sustainable manner, meaning that the entire plant is not picked so that it can continue to live as an important part of its local ecosystem. Jewelry findings such as bases and chain are purchased solely from either local craft stores or Etsy shops because it is important to us that we support small businesses.Amaranth Opulent is devoted to the idea that the corruption of the world humans have created for ourselves can be purified by combining man-made materials with natural components taken straight from the Earth. The society I've found myself is not one I'm particularly fond of, and I can't be alone; call it escapism, but I've realized that I need to contribute something to the world that reflects the old-worldly, the otherworldly, that anything-but-here. If you like getting lost in the woods, if you notice the flower growing between the sidewalk cracks, if your heart wrenches at the beauty of abandoned buildings covered with vines, Amaranth Opulent was made with you in mind.

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This story beings in the ancient way: Once upon a time, there was a young woman who lived on the outskirts of town, near where civilization ends and the Wild begins. She went about her business every single day; she did her spinning and mending, haggled with farmers at the market, and spent the mornings in her herb garden. She went to the well to gossip with the other town girls and braided her long curls in the style popular among them; she smiled at the local boys and farm hands like she knew she was supposed to; she imagined that someday she would be married off to one of them and bear him children, and her young life would fade as quickly as the beauty it took with it. This was the life of all the town girls, and no one had ever complained about it, that she knew of; how painful could it be?
But somehow something felt wrong. The maiden would sometime pause from her embroidery, look out the window, and be caught up in the beauty of the chicory or the sweet pea flowers growing along the dirt road. Somehow, something felt just slightly off: there was something about lowering her eyes from the sunbright window to the dark rows of tiny stitches she was slaving over that just felt horrifically unnatural.
One day when she rose from her bed, she noticed something different in the air, a kind of magical anticipation that stung her eyes and ran fingers of static through her hair. The girl walked to the door of her cottage, still barefoot and nightgowned, and her eyes were drawn to the edge of the wood. There, standing among the yellow toadflax and daisy fleabane, was an elegant doe, her rump speckled with dew and glistening in the early morning sunshine. Their eyes met, and somehow without the young woman's command, her feet started to move towards the animal. Together they fled into the forest; running side by side, the thumping beats of their footfalls were the rhythm of freedom to which they marched.
The young woman fled to the forest, and this is where she remains to this very day. Sometimes the town-dwellers and farmers caught glimpses of her, long blond curls unruly and tangled around twigs and flowers. Her eyes are beyond wild; they are elated, overjoyed, full of life and purity and freedom. Abandoning herself to the forest, she elevated her mind beyond the horrid confines of society and truly become what she was destined to be: The Wild Woman of the Wood.

Psst, remember that project I've been coyly mentioning all summer? The unrelated eye candy, are from a photoshoot for it with Ophanim Gothique and Lolita Nouveau. The lovely models here are my wonderful friends Crystal and Cate. Please stay tuned this Friday, 8/13/10 when I'm going to officially announce this project!


photos care of Sean Walsh