.the princess portal.

A Princess leads a very busy life. She has to attend all sorts of events, from parties to ceremonies to tea with the Queen. Her various duties keep her busy every day and she must make time for lessons and charity work and a little time for herself! Sometimes all of this can be a bit daunting, I know it causes me a lot of stress when there are a hundred things I need to do and I worry I might forget something.

This is why its so very important to be organized. I am not a naturally organized person myself, I tend to daydream too much and not pay attention to practical things, my desk is always messy and my chambers tend to get a bit untidy if I’ve had a busy week. However I do make an effort to keep my life organized. I feel this is very important not only because I have so many commitments but also because it helps me to take the little steps necessary to follow my dreams and goals.

The Inbox. Gone are the days when our mail was brought to the breakfast table on a silver platter. Now we wake up to an inbox full of electronic mail that needs our attention. I have four different email addresses, my Princess Portal email, my private email, my work email and one I use for notifications from various social networking sites. I stream all of these in to Outlook which has a few handy features that make it easier for me to organize my mail. I have separate folders for things like ‘Ask the Princess’ questions and competition entries. I also make use of the red flag system to pin emails that need responding to at the top of my inbox and check them off when they’re done.

To do Lists. I have a terrible short term memory so I always keep To-do lists. Usually I make one up each morning in my little notebook and list everything I need to get done that day. The sense of achievement I have as I tick each one off makes me feel productive and it helps to remind me of some of the less exciting jobs as well. Sometimes if I don’t finish my list in one day I will carry over the tasks to the next day. Lately I’ve been splitting my tasks into different categories such as ‘Chores’, ‘Errands’ and ‘Princess Duties’ (tasks for the portal!) If I have any quiet patches in my day I just reach for my notebook and find something that needs to be done.

Weekly Schedule. Another thing I can’t live without is my weekly schedule. It has a section for each day in which I can write the times I’m working, any appointments or classes I have and the times and locations for parties, performances, lunches and other events. Whether you use a calendar, diary or organizer for this I think its a great way to keep track of what you have coming up to to make sure you don’t double book anything!

Address Book. This is something that I don’t have but really should! Its common for us to separate our contact details, keep email addresses in our contact list, phone numbers in our cell phone and addresses scribbled quickly on a piece of paper or napkin. Keeping in touch with friends and family is important though, so having all their details in one place is very handy. It helps when planning invite lists or if you just want to send someone flowers for their birthday.

Check Lists. Slightly different to To-do lists, Check lists are for things that you do every day. Many work places have these lists for opening and closing procedures and if you work from home, run a blog or simply have a lot of commitments each day you may find them very useful. I find its best if they’re printed out or written on a nice piece of paper and pinned up somewhere you will see and read them each day. It can also help to phrase them as questions, like a friendly little reminder from yourself. A Check List for Princess Portal might read: Have you filed your emails? Replied to comments? Made a new post? Updated Twitter? Checked Facebook notifications? etc.

I’m actually reorganizing my system at the moment, and combining my To do Lists and Weekly Schedule in to the one notebook to make it more convenient. I always love finding new ways to simplify and organize my life, and tend to be happier and more positive when I’m not stressed about unfinished tasks. What techniques do you use to stay organized?

photo by Daylight

I want to thank all of you for the amazing response we’ve had to the Your Princess Style Competition. We’ve received over 60 entries so far and they are all gorgeous, original and stylish. I know we’re going to have such a tough time picking a winner, so I’m glad I have Sab and Mousse to help me judge!

A few of you have asked if we will get to see all the entries after the competition is over. I think we’ll definitely have to arrange some sort of gallery, because these sets are too beautiful not to share and I know I’ve picked up some inspirations for my own wardrobe just by looking through them!

This is a quick reminder that you still have 12 hours to get your submission in, if you haven’t already. The deadline is Midnight on Wednesday 5th November GMT. You can check the time here: Greenwich Mean Time.

Mail me your entry!

Five beautiful, simple, not-quite-necessary things I could not live without:

Twilight Walks when the sun is just about to set and the sky is streaked with fuschia, walking along the river is just about the most magical hour of my day. The water is like rippling silk, if I’m lucky I will see a black swan or snowy egret lifting off in to flight. The frogs begin croaking hidden in the bullrushes and the swamp hens stalk across my path, giving me curious looks and disgruntled honks. There is a huge grassy hill that I like to climb to the top of and lay down, just to watch the clouds, the world looks so big from that spot. My walks let me escape the busy world for a little while, to just be alone with my thoughts and daydreams.

Flowers It may sound cliche, but I don’t think I could live without flowers. At the moment there are red climbing roses blooming in my little courtyard, jasmine pouring over the trellis, a thousand little white stars that smell like the night and a huge bush of english lavender outside my window, the warm scent of which helps me sleep. I love cut flowers in tall crystal vases and spring flowers that pop up from the earth once a year in celebration. Where I grew up in the forest we have wildflower season, for a few weeks of the year the dull Australian bush is lit on fire with gold and red and cobalt. My favourite wildflowers are fringed lillies.

Books People who know me very well, know that the gift that will please me best is usually a book. I have so many books that I have to keep some in boxes under my bed, someday I would like a whole room dedicated to them, a personal library! I love to read fantasy, historical fiction, non-fiction books on herbal medicine, botany, mythology, philosophy but most of all I love fairy tales. I am usually reading at least two books at a time, they come with me wherever I go, my silent companions and constant inspiration.

Music Right now I am listening to the Macross Frontier OST, it has been so long since I have had some new work by Yoko Kanno to listen to (one of my favourite composers) and I am wrapped in a sweet nostalgia for when I first discovered her enchanting and unique style. I do not listen to music very often actually, because I am overly sensitive to it. I find it can change my mood too easily, influence my thought streams and distract me, carrying me away from the present. I rarely listen to it while writing or working, I prefer to simply sit back and soak it all in, immersing myself in the melody and mood.

Memories A very clever someone once pointed out that the thing I collect is not dresses or jewelry or dolls but memories. I realised as she said it how very true this is. I like to fill my life with experiences, every day I try to do something special and wonderful that will stay in my memory as a beautiful moment. These treasures are far more precious than any jewel and they can not be taken away from me. I think our experiences are what creates us to an extent, deep and meaningful experiences give us an insight in to life, sweet and poignant experiences show us the beauty and sadness in the world and warm, fun experiences bring enthusiasm and love for the people we share them with. Without my memories I would cease to be me.

What Beautiful Unnecessary Things could you not live without?

photo by CLMinc

October’s challenge is now over, were you able to face your fears and sum up the courage to complete the task you set yourself? If you’d like to share your experience and help inspire other Princesses, please write a little something about your challenge (a paragraph will do!) and email it to me. I will be posting the results of October’s challenge on the Princess Challenge Page in the next few days.

November 2008 Princess Challenge
(if this is your first challenge, please read the original post here)

This month we’re going to get in touch with our fairy tale side, leave our castles for the enchanted forest to explore gardens, climb hills, walk through meadows. Thats right, I want you to get outside and explore the magical natural world. If you live in a city, find a park or visit the zoo, you may even like to take a weekend away to visit the countryside. There is so much beauty and magic in the wild untouched places, have an adventure, write about your experience and maybe take a few photos to share with us!

Fashion week is nearly over here at Princess Portal, its been a lot of fun! Thank you to everyone who has entered the style contest so far, we’ve received heaps of great entries and I’m glad I have Mousse and Sab to help me judge because I know its going to be very hard to choose a winner! If you haven’t submitted yours yet you still have until next Wednesday. Details here.

I’ve been playing around on Polyvore as well, and have come up with three more Princess Styles of my own. A few people requested Gothic Princess, so I hope you like my interpretation. The Sweetheart Princess is sure to please a lot of you and the last set is from my list yesterday, wear grey and yellow together.

Gothic Princess

The Gothic Princess lives in her own dark fairy tale. Where apples taste of hemlock and the roses that grow up the castle gates catch errant knights in their thorns. With layers of jewel toned silk and satin roses to highlight the raven’s wing shades of her wardrobe, she is as mysterious as she is enchanting.

Sweetheart Princess

The Sweetheart Princess is still a girl at heart. She likes innocent pretty things, hearts and bows and kiss-me candy. You will never see her without her pearls. This Princess’s style is a little bit quirky and she loves novelty handbags and accessories. She both stands out and fits in the the trendy crowds of her favourite shopping district.

Corporate Princess

The Corporate Princess dresses in professional black and grey. While at the office she always looks elegant and modern, but throws in her own playful little touches. When she leaves at the end of the day she throws on her bright yellow coat, scoops up her matching bag and trots down the street dreaming of Paris.

1. Go beachcombing, find the prettiest shell and make a pendant of it
2. Learn to French Braid your hair
3. Improve your posture, practise by walking around with a book on your head
4. Tie ribbons around your wrists, your ankles, your neck or braid them in to your hair
5. Find your signature scent
6. Wear something with a tiara on it every day, a badge, hair clip or necklace, declare your royal self
7. Find the cutest umbrella you can and get matching gum boots
8. Start a charm bracelet, add a charm for every Princess Challenge you complete
9. Carry a monogrammed handkerchief everywhere
10. Brush your hair 100 times each night until it shines
11. Find the perfect shade of lipgloss, ruby red, pastel pink or something with sparkles
12. Match your heels to your headband
13. Find a long, wooly, handknitted scarf in your favourite colour
14. Wear fresh flowers in your hair
15. Replace the buttons on an ordinary shirt with pearls or hearts or jewels
16. Perfect your curtsey
17. Wear a full length cape in public
18. Attach cute and sparkly charms to all you gadgets, phone, DS, ipod, pretty up your technology
19. Put stickers and diamantes on everything
20. Indulge in a faux fur hood, feel like an Artic Princess
21. Paint your nails in different colours
22. Replace your shoelaces with ribbon
23. Smile at everyone you meet, even if they don’t smile back
24. If you’ve never used one, invest in a good eyelash curler
25. Sleep in an old fashioned nightgown and cap
26. Glue jewels on to your shoes
27. Wear grey and yellow together
28. Have spontaneous conversations with elderly folk, young children and birds
29. Sprinkle rose petals on your salad and bake lavender scones
30. Carry a book as an accessory, match it to your dress (you can read it too!)
31. Bow to the Sun, kiss your hand to the Moon and make wishes on the Stars
32. Wear more hats
33. Wear skirts that swirl when you walk, spin around in them!
34. Dust your eyelids with shimmering powder that makes you look like a fairy
35. Everytime you look in a mirror, smile at your reflection, for you are the fairest

I have a teeny tiny question of my own..I hope you’ll be able to answer sometime.
My question is: Are you still a lolita? The thing is, since a long time ago your sense of style changed…you stopped wearing your lolita clothes. - Rosebud

I’ve chosen this question to answer from Rosebud, partially because its fashion week and partially because I’m surprised more people haven’t questioned my gradual shift away from Lolita Fashion! If you’re new to this blog, or unsure of what ‘Lolita’ is you can read a brief explanation here.

To answer Rosebud’s question simply, yes I am still a Lolita. However it has a different place in my life these days. I first discovered lolita fashion about four years ago. I was working at a trendy little cafe and a girl walked in wearing the most amazing costume I’d ever seen. I couldn’t help but ask her about it, and she told me it was from Japan, by a brand called Putumayo and that the style was known as ‘Lolita.’ I went home that night, did some research and fell in love with the look. Things were a lot different back then, the online community was smaller and more DIY inclined because it was still hard to access brand clothing outside of Japan. Most of the people interested in the fashion were also keen on Japanese rock and Visual Kei, Mana being a hugely popular icon and the gothic substyle was by far the most popular in the west.

It wasn’t long before I found myself wearing my first lolita outfit, a black one piece dress by Metamorphose. I also had a parasol which I still own and handmade headdress. I wore this ensemble with carefully curled hair to the first Perth lolita meet up and tea party, which I helped organize with a friend. From there I taught myself to sew, started getting interested in classic and sweet styles, ran panels on japanese fashion at the local convention, made friends both local and international who shared by interests, started to write about the fashion and lifestyle, ran an online PbP RPG with a lolita theme (It was called Spilt Milk) joined a lolita photo posting group called Himitsu no Niwa and eventually created this blog! As you can see Lolita has had a huge impact on my life.

Four years is a very long time to be devoted to anything however, and as I see fashion as a form of self expression I think its natural that our style should change as we grow and develop as Princesses. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your look has to become more mature, for some people its quite the opposite, but having fun and experimenting and trying different styles is a great way to discover parts of you that you were previously unfamiliar with. For example when I put on a full length vintage dress, feel the soft folds of cotton sweep around my feet as I walk it puts me in touch with a romantic, naturalistic side. When I try something darker, or edgier it makes me feel more intense, or a little cheeky. Casual clothes allow you more freedom of movement and can be cute and playful.

So where am I headed right now? I’m developing my own style with a mixture of influences, from fairytales to the 50’s, romantic, unusual, natural, unique. I love trying new things and dressing up to suit a theme or character. Thats part of what attracted me to lolita in the first place, the novelty, its a fashion with a very distinctive personality and you feel different the moment you put it on!

Lolita still has a very special place in my heart. My wardrobe is full of Baby the stars shine bright, Angelic pretty, Mary Magdalene and I have no intention of selling them any time soon. I’m still organizing lolita meet ups and running panels and wearing it now and then to events, just for fun! I no longer wear it on a daily basis, or have it as an exclusive style though and I haven’t been keeping up with the new season’s lines or adding to my wardrobe. Who knows though, the wind may change again and I might find a resurge of interest in the style! Right now I’m just happy being me and dressing in whatever makes me feel like a Princess.

I am super excited to announce that as part of Fashion Week on Princess Portal we’re going to be running a little competition! This is the first time I have ever run a competition here, so I really hope you’ll join in and participate, we have some great prizes up for offer and I’m really excited to see what you creative and fashionable Princesses can come up with!

Your Princess Style Competition

• Instructions: To enter you need to create a set on Polyvore that displays your own ‘Princess Style’ and send the link to me by Wednesday 5th of November.
  
  Your coordinate can be anything you like, something you would wear every day or your dream outfit. It can be vintage, lolita, punk, gothic, casual or any other style you love. We will select a winner based on originality and aesthetics and it wouldn’t hurt to include something that ties it in to the Princess theme. See my last entry on Princess Style for ideas.
  

• How to Use Polyvore: You can sign up for a free account at polyvore.com and start creating! Click on ‘create a set’ and use the browser on the right to search for items. You can search by category, colour and keywords. For example if I want a blue handbag I might enter the keyword ‘hand bag’ and select a shade of blue. Once you find the items you like, just click on them and hit the ‘add to set’ link, then arrange to your hearts desire! Once you’re done hit ‘Publish’ and send me the link to your new set.
  

• Rules: You can only send me one set each. Multiple entries are not allowed. All entries must be in by Midnight November 5th, GMT. Late entries will not be accepted. This means you only have a week so hop to it!
  

• Judges: The contest will be judged by Sabrina, Mousse and Myself.
  

• Prizes: We have an adorable little hamper of goodies ready to ship off to you, it includes a collection of handmade jewelry and accessories from my label, Petit Miel. Some japanese stationary, Disney Princess products, official Princess Portal button badges (these are so cute!) and courtesy of Mousse au Chocolat, a custom Bow scarf in the colours of your choice and a $10 voucher to spend at her store!
  
  
  Submit your entry!

How should a Princess dress? I think the answer to this is fairly simple, in whatever makes her feel beautiful, comfortable and royal! Finding your own Princess style is all about dressing in a way that expresses who you are inside. You don’t have to wear silk gowns and lace gloves every day, and in this era we have so much freedom to be creative with our fashion choices, it seems a shame not to fully enjoy that!

I’ve put together a few looks that are all very different, but still connected with the Princess ideal. There are as many different styles as there are Princesses, and they’re all beautiful and unique in their own way!

Fairytale Princess

The Fairytale Princess is a classic romantic, wearing floor length gowns that brush her embroidered silk slippers. She has the Little Mermaid’s pearl earrings, Beauty’s magic rose in her loose flowing hair, carries a gold ball purse which she may just lose down a well and wears the key to the Secret Garden around her neck. Layers of soft chiffon, antique gold filligree and silk flower petals.

Punk Princess

The Punk Princess has an edgy individual style. She mixes her tough look, stark colours and studs with a few feminine elements. Hot pink tulle and black leather, chain and ribbon, checks and polka dot hearts. Bold and not afraid to make a statement about who she is, we can imagine her zooming through Tokyo on her bright pink Vespa!

Casual Princess

Not everyone likes to dress up all the time, can you wear jeans and a T-shirt and still be a Princess? The Casual Princess knows that taste and elegance can be dressed down as easily as up. Its all in the details. She mixes cute basics with pretty accessories and subtle jewelry. A monogrammed polo, soft cardigan with ruffle detail and adorable heart motifs. Who said beautiful things weren’t meant to be comfortable?

I’d love to hear about your own personal Princess style!

photo from the Alannah Hill spring/summer collection

I’ve been receiving a lot of questions about fashion lately, where can we buy beautiful Princess style clothing online? What are the most elegant designers? Do I still wear lolita? What is Princess style? I want to answer all of these and more so I’m declaring this week Fashion week here at Princess Portal! I know I’m going to have a lot of fun sharing my favourite looks with you, and I hope you’ll enjoy this theme as well! Please feel free to send me more fashion related questions.

To start things off I want to share with you some of my favourite designers!

Alannah Hill An Australian designer who won my heart the first time I walked in to her Claremont shop. Alannah Hill creates gorgeous feminine clothes with the cutest prints, colours and motifs. Lots of florals, pastel tones, antique lace, pearls and bows on everything! She’s even used some of the same fabrics as japanese brands like Emily Temple Cute. The quality and rich textures of her fabrics are a pleasure to touch. Her website is simply charming as well, it has a secret garden theme right now!

Betsey Johnson A pretty big name in the US at the moment, she designs cute flirty feminine gowns with wide skirts and lots of ruffles! Satins and organza, velvet and silk, yards and yards of tulle! This designer has her own style with a touch of prom queen, barbie dolls and rococo ruffles. You can even buy direct from her online store!

Valentino Very often when I see a photo of an amazing gown on a red carpet or runway (or lately in Gossip Girl) a dress that takes my breath away, I’m not surprised to discover its Valentino. Synonomous with class, elegance and delicate beauty, all Valentino gowns make such a statement and look gorgeous on whoever is wearing them. Its a far off dream for this Princess, but one day I would love to own one!

Alexander McQueen Something a little darker and more mature. Alexander McQueen designs beautiful gothic faerie tales, tattered gowns of ravenswing black, elegant suits with tailcoats and braid, high collars, wide skirts, nipped waists and a beautiful array of fabrics that show just how much you can do with black. Definitely check out the video of his latest collection.

Wheels & Dollbaby I’m so happy they have a store in my city now, Sab and I went there last week and drooled over the gorgeous gowns and antique furniture (not literally!) Their look is more mature and Femme Fatale though they have some sweeter, more innocent pieces too. I adore their ballet skirts, so much tulle! Feminine and luxurious with a mix of burlesque and rocker chick. I also fell in love with their little embroidered cardigans. Take a peek at their website and online store, and do go in to one of their boutiques if you get the chance!

I would love to hear about your favourite designers, send me picture links! I’m always excited to discover something new and inspiring in the fashion world.