Halloween / Lucca Comics & Games outfits + purchases!

Hey <3 I'm back <3!

(I really wasn't gone for long, but since I was away from home and didn't have the time and Internet connection to update my blog, it really feels like I'm back to me XD.)
So!
This time I have pictures of the usual comic convention I go to every year, Lucca Comics & Games. This year I decided to really dress up, and in fact I was taken pictures of along the way, which made me very proud and gave me a considerable ego boost… XD
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to take legit outfit pics. I really didn't, 'cause it took six hours and a half to get there (it usually takes three and a half), when we got there we were super late and had to visit places in a hurry, and when I got to the hotel all I wanted was to take off my clothes (my wig especially) and take a shower.
While the second day it took us more than two hours to drive through 30 kms, which is insane; and our and a half was spent a hundred meters away from the toll booth. There was that much traffic. And when the second day ended we had to head home, so, again, no proper outfit pics.

But! I have some pictures where you can see my outfit. I'm going to show them to you, even though I'm aware that you can't see the first day outfit very well. That's too bad 'cause it was my favourite XD

(right-click and open in new tab for better quality & details :D)

This is the only pic where you can actually see my blouse D: by the way, it was the same I was wearing at the Harajuku Fashion Walk :D

(Oh, and that one on the right is Creamy Mami. Did you watch the anime too when you were children XD?)

Castiel from Supernatural <3 he doesn't really resemble him, but I have to say his face was totally in character.

Also, here you can see I was wearing that pink&black thingy I bought ages ago and never got the chance yo wear XD

And these are Chip 'n' Dale XD I learned to read in italic thanks to them.

Here you can see the mini-hat even better <3 oh, I wish I could wear it more often T__T

And this is all I have for the first outfit. What you can't see is the earring and nail stickers I was wearing, so here they are:

And these are the rings; the first one was part of an Alchemy bracelet that got broken, so I kept the ring and the bracelets separated.

I bought the other two at Lucca Comics & Games.

One features Daenerys Targaryen from the HBO show Game of Thrones (I was looking for something with Cersei on it, but they had run out of Cerseis. On the second day…! Which is good because I've always loved her but couldn't find someone who shared my love for her; now that she's starting to grow on people, they're all buying the merchandise featuring her and they're stealing it from me ;O; and I deserve it more because I've loved her since the very beginning!).

The other one features Oscar and Marie Antoinette from Versailles no Bara. My very first otp.

Please note that I wasn't feeling entirely fulfilled with this ring, so I went looking for figures. I found a too expensive one of Oscar, and then I found some gashapons. I only bought the Marie Antoinette one, but there was Oscar too.

And this is the minihat.

 I have more pics of the second outfit - and, more importantly, they were taken in the daylight.

This time, no black hearts on other people, since cosplayers are well aware that their faces are going to end up all over the Internet. So.

This is me in the place I really belong to. With a friend cosplaying Tyrion, and who told me I should cosplay Cersei. I would gladly if I thought I had an ounce of the beauty it would take to do that.

Ok, I only wanted to show you this one because FOR FUCK'S SAKE LOOK AT THAT LOKI. He's fucking identical. It's fucking him!!

Oohh, there! Here you can see my outfit. Right click and open in new tab for better view :).

Aw <3 she's my favourite character from Shingeki no Kyojin (whom I was also asked to cosplay. I don't know why people keep asking me to cosplay beautiful blonde ladies, which I'm not).

Mikasa, my other favourite character from Shingeki no Kyojin, plus a decent view of my outfit.

And Hanji, another character from SnK. In this pic you can see my accessories properly.

As you can see, I was wearing the black cross ring from the day before, my two new rings (which you can't see here XD but when I got to the The Walking Dead stand for the second time, the owner recognized me by my rings XD!) and THIS.

HERMIONE'S TIME TURNER!

Oh, I had been looking for that for ages! Or better: I had been looking for a cheap one for ages, and I found it. That booth sold some really amazing stuff, I should really retrieve their business card 'cause I'm definitely going to buy some more stuff from them.

And then I'm wearing that red wig I bought some time ago. I'm a bit annoyed that you can't see my stockings 'cause they were really cute with their lace and their bows :D but the important thing is that you can see my cutsew, which I bought, I don't know how many years ago, spent tons of money on, and never got to wear because it has a lolita cut and I didn't know it, and I had nothing to match it with XD

Oh, and then there's this lovely choker Audronasha gave me when I purchased that jsk from her :)

And finally, my Halloween outfit.

I really didn't put much effort in it; I had just come back from Milan, after being in university all day and a three-hours travel home. I had to come home early 'cause we were getting up early the following day in order to get to Lucca at a reasonable hour (which we didn't manage to), so we just had pizza with our friends but didn't go out with them later, so there was no point in dressing up.

Actually this is just an everyday outfit… XD

You can't even see the spiderweb pattern on my tights… gah D: well, I hope at least you can see the shredded shirt :D I was going for a kind of witchy look, but I just wanted to hint at Halloween, not to put on a costume, so I guess the ensemble was ok after all.

I'm wearing my Alchemy pendant:

The lovely necklace Madame Mari Mortem handcrafted:

And a few rings, I guess one was the same I was wearing in Lucca.

I didn't even put on a wig, I'm so ashamed D: but I was so busy preparing for Lucca Comics I totally forgot about Halloween T__T

So that's it for today <3 next time I'll show you a few new purchases, and there might even be a review ò_O
Have a nice weekend :*

Challenge!

Lesthi tagged me in this challenge, which means there's going to be a LOT of information about me XD

This is mostly personal stuff and no outfits, just so you know :D

1. Thank the person who tagged you to this challenge and post a link to their blog.
2. Choose five blogs with less than 200 followers and pass the challenge on.
3. Wish them to pass the challenge onward.

I'm not going to tag anyone, just do it if you want to ;D let's say I'm tagging whoever's reading this right now!
5 things you need everyday

1. Tea.
2. Pasta.
3. The Internet.
4. A good book.
5. My boyfriend <3

5 books you would recommend

"The Hours" by Michael Cunningham
"Hygiene and the Assassin" by Amélie Nothomb
The entire Harry Potter saga
The A Song of Ice and Fire saga
"About a Boy" by Nick Hornby

5 materialistic wishes for Christmas presents

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 

(Except for the first two, I picked quite randomly among the 50 figures on my wishlist.)
5 places you wish to visit

Rome (yes, you got it right. I'm italian, I've been to LAS VEGAS but I've never been in Rome.)
Tokyo
Scandinavian countries
New Delhi
Latin America

5 adjectives that describe you somehow

Short XD
Feminist
Strong
Curvy
Sometimes I'm a bit of a spendthrift XD


5 things you'd say to people about life

1. You've only got one, so live it according to your desires.
2. Please do not waste the short time you have on earth discriminating others. Not only you're wasting your time, but most importantly you're wasting and making harder other people's. Not cool. Don't do it.
3. A friend of mine's grandmother used to say: "The only thing that can't be fixed is your neckbone". Meaning, do not desperate, you're probably going to heal, whatever it is you're struggling with.
4. And this is something a teacher once told my class: "Seek for knowledge, 'cause someone who's more cultivated than you will always be able to fuck you over".
5. And finally, be kind to others, 'cause you never know what's going on in their lives. A teacher I had in middle school once responded to someone who said I talked a lot about myself, "no, that's not true, she never talks about herself. One may talk incessantly while never saying a word about themselves". That's so true. People always assume they know you just because you chat about meaningless or even meaningful stuff, but you can never really know someone and you don't know what they're keeping to themselves.


And that's it :D! Of course you're not obliged to do it if you don't feel like it ;) but I'd be glad to read your answers!
Have a nice weekend ;*

Lucca Comics & Games

Last weekend I was in a comic convention in Lucca, Tuscany. It's the biggest comic convention in Italy (more than 180.000 people came from all over the country) and I go there every year.
This convention takes place on the outside. Not entirely, of course: stands are in sheds, but the cosplayers' stage is on a promenade. The city is encircled by its medieval walls, along which there's this promenade, where there are stalls, bars and, of course, cosplayers.
Every single year, it rains on the sunday. It's like a curse. I don't even know why they keep doing it in november, since it's clear that the weather will be bad, cosplayers will be cold, events will be cancelled, and everyone will be forced to stay stuck in the sheds with thousands of other people.
By the way, I was there and I had a lot of fun. I missed Takeshi Obata (Death Note, Bakuman) but I found some friends I hadn't seen in a while. But what's important is that I finally had the chance to wear my shiny new Mollflander dress :D!

These are the only pictures where one can properly see my dress ;_; (click for a better resolution). That's too bad because it is so beautiful. I'm wondering whether I should wear it again at the next comic convention on November 17th, or if I should go there in lolita and then wear the Mollflander again on New Year's Eve. It's killing me ;-;

 Sitting on the Iron Throne surrounded by my two ASoIAF favourite characters. I couldn't possibly ask for more.

Yes, I'm a Lannister. Unfortunately they'd run out of Lannister t-shirts in size S.

 This is a Cersei cosplayer. Our encounter was quite fun, actually.

"... may I ask you... who are you portraying?"

"I'm Cersei Lannister."

"OMG REALLY? OMG CAN I TAKE A PICTURE WITH YOU??"

"OMG OF COURSE YOU CAN! OMG YOU'RE THE FIRST ONE TO ASK ME! I was so sad!"

"How's that possible!!"

"They were always telling me "die, bitch!" ;_; and you're the first one to ask me for a picture!"

Then she called Drogo and Daenerys and told them:

"See? See? Someone wants to take a picture with me!"

"Are you kidding, you're like my favourite character, I love you, you're the best!"

"Yea! Yea! She is, right? She's such a perfect character, omg thank you, really, I love you."

"Thank you! I love you too! Can I, I don't know, hug you...?"

"Oh you can do whatever you like <3!"

And then we took that picture and we said bye to each other.

"Bye! Thank you! I mean it!"

"Thank you! You're so lovely! I'm so glad I met you!"

(This went on for way longer, I summarised it for you)

On the second day I wore a pretty plain outfit, because the weather forecasts had announced heavy rain and I didn't want to ruin a good dress. But they were wrong, the weather was fine. And I lost the occasion to wear an amazing outfit T_T

This is me with a friend of mine after the presentation of her book, which hasn't been translated in english (but it really should be; if only I, as a translator, were allowed to translate in a foreign language, I'd do it right away).

I've changed my hair colour. I went to a new hairdresser because the old one just didn't get what kind of blonde I was asking her, and the new one told me that my hair can't get that blonde, because my base isn't an ash colour, but a golden one, which is a typical trait of mediterranean hair. I would never have thought that I had mediterranean features: my hair is a very light brown (dark blonde, actually), my skin is super pale, I have grey eyes and freckles, and I'm often mistaken for a German or an English. Why do my mediterranean traits show op only to get on my way to platinum blonde...?! -_-
Anyway. I was really sick of dying my hair blonde and never getting what I wanted, and I didn't want to be blonde if it wasn't *exactly that kind of blonde*. So I asked him to do my natural hair colour. Which isn't the one you can see on the pictures, but he said that's the closest he could get. Meh. I hope next month my hair will be the right colour, I don't want to do my dissertation with that blondish brown on my head -.-

Oh, I almost forgot: my haul.

 Nerv sweater. If you don't know what Nerv is, just go and look for Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes, like, NOW, in this very moment. You'll thank me later.

Pins <3

The first ones are Ichigo and Rukia from Bleach. I've been shipping them since 2008/2009 and I know they'll never be canon, but I still think they're one of the best love relationships I've ever seen in a manga.

The second ones... well, you should recognize them, by the way they're Oscar and Marie Antoinette from Versailles No Bara ("Lady Oscar" in Italy). I shipped them at so early an age that I didn't even know what "shipping" meant.

And the last one's Asuka Soryu Langley from Neon Genesis Evangelion (which I meant to buy together with Shinji, but I couldn't find him. That's too bad because I wanted to buy pairing-related pins). She's my favourite character from my favourite anime ever, her name's been my nickname for years, she's the character I've related to the most in my entire life, she's episode 22, she's... well, I don't have enough time and space to properly explain what Asuka Soryu Langley is to me.

And, yes, I brought home some Magic the Gathering cards which me and my boyfriend got from playing a demo, but they were for free, so they don't count as "haul" :D.

And I guess that's all!

Do some of you like anime & mangas, or like to go to comic conventions? How are the comic conventions in your area :)?

Of how I went to London to shop and ended up meeting J.K. Rowling

Omg, I haven't posted anything in a month. I'm a terrible blogger!
But I've got some excuses: my last exam (which took place on September 18th and drained all my energies until I finally got my grade), moving house, my trip to London... I'll just talk about the latter because the move and the exam are very boring subjects, and I'm glad at least one of them is over.
So! I went to holiday. I took it as a reward for finishing the exams, but the truth is my mother had noticed I really, really needed a break: my last trip was three years ago, but it lasted three days (including the flights), I had to do everything in a hurry and I didn't enjoy it at all. These last two years have been... well. Let's say "tough" would be the understatement of the century. University was the least of my problems, but it still took all of my time, and all I had been doing lately was studying locked in my room. I held on and tried to think "it's ok, come on, this is the last effort, it's going to be over soon" and eventually it was over, but I was so tired and I so needed to go away from my everyday routine.
I hadn't even realize how much I'd needed it until I was in this amazing city.

Aside from the usual places one sees when they go to London (which I wasn't really interested in, since I'd already seen them years ago, but it was my boyfriend's first time in London) I had planned a very detailed scheduled made of bookshops, manga shops, games shops and other nerdy stuff.

I didn't take pictures of all of them; too bad because the Orc's Nest was worth a pic, but I'll keep its memory in my heart u.u

Foyles

Just so that you can get its HUGENESS, what you're seeing above is *one* of the paranormal romance shelves. I was in awe.



Tokyo Toys

This is just the entrance; if I should post all the pictures of the inside, there would be no space left for anything else.

I couldn't buy it because it was so expensive, instead I bought Homura's Soul Gem, which you can see below together with a Sailor Moon peluche and Orihime Inoue's pins.

Sherlock Holmes Museum, 221b Baker Street

My horrible handwriting XD I was writing in a hurry on my boyfriend's back.

Of course, the reference is to BBC series Sherlock, of which I'm a big fan, but not in that slashy omg they're_so_gonna_have_sex way.
Oh, and I didn't have the time to go and see the Crown's jewels, which I deeply regret because I wanted to stand in front of it with a note saying "and honey, you should see me in a crown!".

Starbucks.

I bet Starbucks isn't that big of a deal to pretty much all of you, is it :D?

Well, sadly, it is to me: we don't have Starbucks in Italy.

Well, of course, we have actual cappuccino and caffellatte (and we pronounce these words correctly XD), but what do I care if I can't have blueberry muffins...?

Camden Town

Sweet mother of goths.
This is just Camden High Street, but you should have seen the markets. Like, I can't even. I was about to literally cry from beauty. There was a Burleska shop. I got to try the Mollflander dress. There was a Spiral shop T_T and there was goth stuff just everywhere T__T! I mean, seriously, how can people in London do anything other than shopping...?

This is what I bought from Camden. It's funny: of all the amazing stuff I saw, I bought a few super tacky Spiral tops. Well, actually I'd been eyeing the one on the right for months. And the other one, I don't know, I bought it because of the super strong gay content. I guess I just felt extremely supportive that day - plus I love Victoria Frances.

On the left, lace corseted hold-ups. Too bad I have to wait until next summer to wear them T_T

And on the right, tights with a pentagram. Because I'm a piano player.

Bracelet <3

52 Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury

Virginia Woolf's Memorial in Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury.
Apparently her house in London has been tore down and now in its place there's a hotel. I don't have any good pics of her former house or of the park, sorry :/

Forbidden Planet

I can't really describe this place, which is a lot wider than you can see from the pictures.

Look what I found there:

And Willow's not even my favourite character; it would be more accurate to say she's the one I hate the most of the whole cast (as a character; my crush for Alyson Hannigan isn't a secret :D) but I would have still killed for this coldcast.

I didn't buy it, of course. 235£: it's too much in pounds, let alone what it would have cost me in euros. *wipes a tear*

But I got off with these. A bottle of Tru Blood and a Buffy poster. I'm not very satisfied with the latter because of two reasons: first of all, there's Riley in my birth month. I mean, Riley. Of all the characters. If it were Willow, I would have said, fine, I hate her, but she's still a hell of a character. I don't hate Riley but he's the mehest character from the mehest season of the series. And second!, there weren't neither Faith nor Angel. I can understand Faith (well... can I? Really? When Oz gets a month all of his own? And frickin' Dawn has to share hers with her sister...?), but Angel...? How can they even think of a Buffy calendar without the love of her life, the one she could never forget, the only one who - ooook, I've been watching Buffy recently and I need to gain the control on my feelings back.

So, one afternoon I went to Oxford Street and I saw all of those shops other bloggers talk about all the time, like Topshop, Primark, River Island, Bershka, Claire's... none of which I can find in Italy. I wouldn't care this much if it wasn't for Topshop. I just fell in love with it.

Unfortunately, this is all I came home with from there.

And yes, I've just made a big jump on the nu goth bandwagon - but hey, I'm still quite far from hipster goth and, god forbid, pastel goth.

I have to say that the latest trends - you know, crosses and skulls and spikes in every shop downtown, not just in the alternative ones anymore - allow me to wear something that's close to my style even in my everyday life. Something that I couldn't do before - I was doomed to choose between a full goth outfit and just plain, boring black stuff.

It should also be said that when I was younger I was a purist and an elitist, obsessed with that not-goth-enough shit, but that's because I'd met many people who had that attitude towards me, so I just felt like I had to live up to someone's expectations. And even if there had been these things in the regular shops, I'd have refused to buy them, and I would have despised those who would wear them.

Like, at the time I would NEVER EVER EVER have worn Doc Martens. Now, instead, look at what I bought for my everyday life <3:

I mean, these boots saved me from my New Rocks. I would never have even imagined how much a pair of boots could hurt my feet.

That's me on my bed surrounded by half a dozen plasters. And a Warhammer Fantasy starter box.

By the way; the latest rock-chic fashion has finally landed to Italy, after a year of spikes and Jeffrey Campbells all over lookbook. I had felt so happy when I saw creepers and JC and the new limited edition of Doc Martens on a window in my town, and then I went to London and figured out that those things were everywhere, and on everyone's feet.

I mean, fashion in London is so great. Even the clothes you find in markets or in the malls have rock or vintage or retro details, and everyone dresses differently from all the other people. This just doesn't happen in my country, despite being known for the fashion and the shoes... it's sad to admit it, but abroad they've gone much, much further than us.

Whenever I ran into italian people in London, I could tell they were from my country for two reasons:

1)They were yelling and making stupid comments on people and being loud, rude and disrespectful;

2)They were all_dressed_the same. A jumper, a jeans and a pair of Converse/random sneakers. Maybe even quite expensive jumpers, jeans and sneakers, but still... everyone was the perfect copy of his/her peer. That was so sad. And hardly fashionable.

Here'sa few outfits I pulled off during the trip. The only thing that bothers me is that I could only bring a pair of shoes and I had to go for the stompy boots, which weren't exactly the best match for my lacy stuff, but I couldn't take more than five steps in my TUK victorian boots to save my life.

And finally... the J.K. Rowling corner.
I'll start with a picture of me on the 9 3/4 binary :D

Which really drew a line in my life, before which I just thought I "liked Harry Potter", and then, after making an ass of myself at King's Cross in the rush hour, I realized the harsh truth that I'm a Potterhead.
Anyway.
I knew, before leaving, that J.K. Rowling had written a new book and that it was going to come out on September 27th. I had checked if she was going to be at some bookshop to sign the copies, but she wasn't.
When I got to London, though, I had this great idea of checking the newspapers. And that's how I found out that she was going to sign copies at the Southbank Centre on thursday night, after an event which I couldn't attend because tickets were needed (and they had run out of them on August 3rd, the day they came out). But nothing suggested that I couldn't go there later and have my copy signed.
So I went there. The Southbank centre is a really big place, so I asked a few guys for help. They happened to be J.K. Rowling fans too, so together we managed to find out where the place was and went there.
There was an endless queue and they told us that we needed a ticket, and that we couldn't buy any. We were meters away from her and we couldn't reach her.

My boyfriend suggested that we joined the queue and stayed in the last places, but it was ten p.m., the queue was long and the tube stopped working at 11:30 p.m., so I decided to try my luck. Afterall, the newspapers didn't say you needed a ticket for the signing.

[Almost there and crossing my fingers]

And eventually, the guy who checked your tickets and opened your book at the right page told me that there was no need for tickets to get your book signed. And kids, this is the story of how I met J.K. Rowling.

That's me, shivering and babbling and repeatedly saying "thank you, thank you, thank you". She looked a bit cross to be honest XD. Maybe that's because I pretty much didn't say anything, while the girl before me had given her a present. But I hadn't even thought about it, and even if I had, what could I possibly give the richest woman in England...?

So I just took my autographed book and went away, with my trembling hands and my shaking knees.

And the funniest part of it is that in the previous days I'd never shut up about being in London and not having met a single celebrity.

Talk about celebrities, huh :D?

And that's pretty much it (well, if you don't count that I almost didn't leave because my ID wasn't valid in the UK, or that my boyfriend's dad almost got us all killed in a car accident on the way to the airport, or that my dad hadn't noticed that he hadn't paid the hotel and we almost got broke in London, and I still feel I should say something about the amazing food retail chains in London, but maybe in another entry, this one is getting infinite).

I'm definitely glad I went there. And, of course, I suggest you all to go to this wonderful (no... brilliant!) city.
And I promise the next entry won't take this long :D!
Have a nice day ^^!