Organization Powers: Activate!

Hello everyone! So I've been recently re-evaluating a lot of things in my life and decided it was time to reorganize and clean up my room again. I say again because I moved all the furniture in my room late last year (accidentally creating a zombie barricade and effectively trapping myself in my room as well) and have been somewhat unsatisfied with the layout since. For various reasons (lazy, stupid old browser, etc.) I'm not going to be posting pictures of my room layout or anything.


 So, let's start with some reasons for the (currently ongoing) organization going on in my room. As afore mentioned, I'm getting a little tired with its current layout. I don't have a lot of room and have a lot of stuff in my room right now and last time I kinda messed up and ended up shoving some furniture into odd corners where it's somewhat inconvenient. So, while I have yet to move any yet, I'm planning on rearranging my furniture to make it easier for me to avoid going straight to my computer and instead do important stuff (lke work on new shop products...). Second main reason is I just have way too much stuff right now compared to what I want to have and need to go through it all and decide what I want to keep and what it's time to get rid of. This is currently making my room more of a mess (boxes everywhere...), but I'm making progress in the direction I want to go: an ultimately less cluttered room.




 So now we know generally why, let's go over some of my organization tips and suggestions.




Tip #1: One thing at a time




 Alright, so when organizing, rather than focus on one area at a time, I find it helps a lot more to focus on one set of items at a time. For example, I pretty much just dumped my whole wardrobe on my bed to go through. Rather than work through my whole closet (which I have some non-clothing items in as well, like a toaster I can't use) I just focused on my clothing. Same thing goes for shoes, bags, makeup, jewelry, decorations, etc: Go through them one at a time instead of all at once so you aren't trying to organize five different things at once. It's a lot easier having a "Keep, "Get rid of, and "Undecided" pile of just shoes rather than having one pile for shoes, one for monsters, and one for.... wait, was I keeping these shoes or are these going to the thrift store with the monsters?


 You get the idea.




Tip #2: Keep Sentimentalism at bay


 One of the hardest parts of organizing for me is getting over sentimentalities associated with various items. "This shirt is so cute! I'm going to keep it!" With said shirt being too small, unflattering, or too worn for me to want to actually wear it. If it's something really special, like a class T-shirt, band shirt, present from a close friend, etc. Find a way to reuse it. One of my friends has a quilt made out of T-shirts hanging in her room and there are plenty of tutorials online if you decide to make your own. This can be harder with knickknacks and the like, so if you can, try to decide which actually have a sentimental value and which are just little gifts well meaning people gave to you that you never use or look at. If you can, try to make a photo album with pictures of the sentimentalities associated with something (like the birthday party where Aunt Patricia gave you that set of china deer you never liked) and then donate the items or give them to someone who would appreciate them more. Or if it's some dorky gag gift or accessory you never use that you got (I've been guilty of saving throwaway party hats) take pictures of the item(s) being used and get rid of them. I am rather guilty of taking pictures of presents from relatives to upload for their viewing pleasure and proceeding to never use said item again until I decide to donate it.




Tip #3: If it doesn't sell, donate it


 This is more for if you, like me, try to keep expenses slightly more minimal by selling clothing you don't use online. I made a post a while back about my experience with some selling apps. So, since I'm also rebuilding my wardrobe right now, I'm getting rid of a lot of clothing and am attempting to sell a lot of it. Sadly, this is not working especially well, so I've decided that anything up for more than a month will be donated so my floor isn't overflowing with boxes and bags of unwanted clothing. While I could just donate all of it now, I spend most of my spending budget on clothing and would like to make some of it back so I can save up a bit more (my money from selling doesn't just go straight into buying more clothes). While there are multiple ways to accomplish this, a lot of them seem to be failing me, so I've given up and set a deadline for myself that I have to sell items in before I donate them to a thrift store. And if you're procrastinating on taking donations to a thrift store, look up donation acceptance hours for the store you're planning on donating to and set an appointment for yourself when your free time and donation times overlap. No more procrastination!




Tip #4: Make use of vertical space




 Since I have fairly constricted living arrangements right now, I have to come up with creative ways of storing stuff. If you can, take advantage of walls and ceilings to store or display things. Get some shelves, paint them to match your style, and cram all of those trinkets you can't get rid of on them so you can use bookshelf space for books (or dolls... *shifty eyes*). I've recently been moving as much of my stuff to my walls as possible without having it look tacky so it's easier to store the rest of my stuff. I have a wall organizer for jewelry that currently has a lot of my smaller hair accessories and the majority of my non-pallet makeup in it hanging by my sink. It's not the prettiest, but it does the job. I also put all of my scarves on a closet hanger organizer that's displayed on the front of my armoire right now. If you have any dressers or armoires, I highly recommend using them as flat display surfaces. I have my ramune bottle collection happily displayed on top of my armoire as well as a toy dinosaur with a wire armature I made ages ago who is fascinated by my lamp.




Tip#5: Clear out clutter!


 This may well be one of the most important tips I have: Don't keep trash lying around your room! Throw out any wrappers, plastic bags, monster-eating dust bunnies, and general trash that you have laying around your room. And try to prevent trash buildup in your room by having a small trash you regularly empty to throw your trash into. If you can I would recommend not even eating in your room so you're less likely to have crumbs, mold, and ants in your room because of being a messy eater or crumbly food.




 Well everyone, that's all I have to say on room organization for now. Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to talk about in the future and I will do my best to fulfill those requests!




Check out my store: animelolitacouture.storenvy.com
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And Twitter: @animlolicouture

Pet Bunnies: Pros and Cons

About a year ago, my sister decided she wanted a new pet, as she had greatly been missing having a cute, furry little hamster to play with. Originally she had been planning on getting another hamster, but later decided to get a bunny rabbit from a local bunny rescue. As I write this article, I have a sweet little bunny cuddled up on my lap enjoying head pets. We've enjoyed having him in our family greatly, but he can be a little brat at times. In this article, I'll be talking about my personal experience with having a pet bunny around.

So, why get a pet rabbit? For starters, they're small, aren't too hard to take care of, fluffy, and sweet little animals. Our bunny is a very adventurous and smart little guy, making him a lot of fun to be around, but also causing him to be a stinker at times. He adjusted to being around us all fairly quickly after we got him and he behaves differently for each of us. For example, he likes to push his luck with my sister, his mommy, to try and get her to pay more attention to him whereas he tends to be on much better behavior for the rest of the family. Bunnies need a cage that is big enough for necessities such as a box, food and water as well as some room for them to move around in and a higher section they can jump on to. Bunnies also need plenty of time to run around and "shake their sillies out" to keep them healthy and in good shape. My sister and I like to let our bunny run around our room at night before bed, or at an earlier time if we'll be tired at night. We have wire shelf pieces strung together to block off areas we don't want the bunny to get to, such as under our beds as he thinks it's a bunny cave and doesn't like coming out. We also have a harness and a leash so we can let him run around in our yard and nibble on the grass there.

Something to be aware of is that bunnies like chewing on cables. Both my laptop and cell phone chargers have little nibble marks on them from when I wasn't paying close enough attention to him. The worst damage he's done is ruin a charging cable for my sister's laptop by chewing through a decent portion of it. Things like this can be prevented by setting up blockades that prevent the bunny from getting within tasting distance of cables. Also, letting the bunny run around in a room with fewer cables will make it easier to prevent damaged cables. As mentioned above, we have a cage made out of wire shelves set up to keep him at a good distance from cables. We also have a small rug covering cables on the ground. Our bunny sometimes digs at the carpet (or our laps) to point out he's unhappy or just to get our attention. He's never caused any significant amount of damage to the rug, though he has pulled up a strand or two and decided it was grass.

Over all, bunnies are very sweet pets. One of my other friends has a pet rabbit that he spoils with lots of fresh veggies and he loves his little bunny rabbit. He mostly just lets his bunny run around her cage, which is a fairly large cage, so it's not as necessary for her to run outside of her cage as much. Just make sure you have resting pads for your bunny's cage as the wires can hurt their feet if they don't have anywhere else to sit.

Lolita on a Budjet: Hime Lolita

Who doesn't want to be a princess at some point in their life? As girls, many of us dream of being a princess and with Hime, or Princess Lolita we can make dreams reality! Hime Lolita is definitely a extravagant style, so it can be fun to wear on occasions when one feels like going the extra mile to look glamorous. Perfect princess hair and makeup is only part of the look, and here I'll show you an affordable Hime Lolita look using items from Bodyline! This outfit costs $114 to $167 plus shipping and handling.

The base of a Hime Lolita look is always an elaborate dress. I feel that this pink flared sleeve dress is perfect for the Hime style and it's got the added benefit of removable sleeves, making it so you can wear it as a Sweet Lolita dress as well. And what outfit is complete without a great pair of shoes to go with it? These ribboned heels are pretty and cute and give you an extra boost of height for that added confidence as you stroll along. I felt that a pair of lacy tights would work best with this look and was pleased to find that Bodyline! offers cute bow patterned tights. For that extra touch of glam, a pair of pink lace and bow nails is just the perfect touch. And for icing on the cupcake, put on a cute flower headpiece that is elegant and cute. Or you can glam it up and get a tiara, which unfortunately can't be gotten from Bodyline!, but can be easily found at stores around Prom season. Not everybody has perfect Hime Lolita hair or the time to do their hair up, so if that's you you can also get a Hime wig from Bodyline! in just about any color you want! I hope you enjoy this Hime Lolita outfit.

All of the items in this outfit plus more in this style can be found on the Bodyline website. No pictures due to the fact that I haven't received permission to use Bodyline!'s images. Check me out on Twitter.

DIY Clay Decodens

Recently I've been getting interested in Decoden, cute little items such as kitty faces and cupcakes or other food or kawaii related items. Since these items tend to be rather expensive and a little difficult to find, I decided to try making my own with some colored clay I had. I started by making cherries, then moved on to cookies and macaroons as well as frosting and whipped cream. The cherries turned out alright, but my favorite items are the frosted star cookie I made and the macaroons. For all of the cookies I mixed some pale yellow clay with a bit of brown clay to get a color similar to other decoden cookies I've seen. For the frosting I mixed small pieces of colored clay and some white liquid clay together until the solid clay was mostly broken up, then drizzled it on the cookie. I attempted the same thing to make frosting, just adding more solid clay, but it didn't turn out especially well. This could be because I was using a oven bake clay instead of a self hardening clay like most home made decoden are made out of. It's also possible I didn't add enough solid clay to make a good mixture since I was getting rather tired of breaking up and mixing the clay. Anyways, here's a picture of the decoden I made minus the whipped cream which was added afterwords.

The larger macaroon is in half still because I put whipped cream in the middle after the initial baking. Sorry for the low image quality; I'll try to get better pictures of the items up later. All images were taken by me unless otherwise noted. Check me out on Twitter.

Lolita on a Budget: Punk Lolita

Punk Lolita is probably my least favorite Lolita, but that is mainly due to the fact that I'm not especially good at putting together punk outfits. Also it's partly due to personal preference since I prefer more cute styles of clothing. Here I've done my best to put together a Punk Lolita outfit using clothing from Bodyline! exclusively. The total for this outfit is $142 plus shipping and handling. Let's go!

The asymmetrical skirt, in blue and black, is one of my favorite parts of the outfit as I like the way that the blue underskirt stands out from the black over skirt. The blouse was a little difficult to decide on, but I eventually found one that I thought would work nicely. This ruffled vampy blouse  in off white is very elegant, but still works for a punkish look. To add a bit of color to the top I chose to use this dark blue ruffled pin at the neckline of the blouse over the ruffle. For a slightly Gothic feel, I decided to pair the outfit with a pair of spiderweb print tights, but a pair of lacy black tights could be substituted as well if spiderwebs aren't your thing. My next favorite part of this outfit is the shoes, chunky heels with chain accents. I love how these shoes retain the more innocent look of the mary jane shoes while having a punk accent with the chains and little skull charms on the backs. The last item is optional: take a couple chous or scrunchies in black and put them around the top middle part of your upper arms as sleeve garters to add a bit more color to the blouse. Alternatively, one can buy or make sleeve garters instead of using the chous. If you don't mind spending a little more, you can also get some cute skull accessories from Bodyline! to match the ones on the shoes. I hope you enjoy this outfit!

All of the items in this outfit plus more in this style can be found on the Bodyline website. No pictures due to the fact that I haven't received permission to use Bodyline!'s images. Check me out on Twitter.

Poll for Blog Content

Hello everyone!
 I've decided to do a little poll to try to find out what my current readers and any potential readers would like to see more of. To vote, simply leave a comment below. This specific poll will close in two weeks time, April 24th 2013, so I would appreciate it if readers would avoid posting comments after that date. Without further ado, here's the poll!

What would you like to see more of on Anime & Lolita Couture?

• Cosplay tips.
• Lolita looks on a budget.
•  Recipes for cakes and other sweets.
• Tutorials such as for hair and crafts.
• My home made clothing.
• Reviews of clothing and items I have.
• My various cosplays. (I don't have many cosplays to my name as of now.)
• Other stuff. (List your ideas in your comment please!)

 Make sure to leave a comment below telling me what you'd like to see more of. Thanks for your feedback!

Jelly Roll Time!

Recently I rediscovered my love for baking by committing myself to make a treat to share with my gaming group every week. At first I was just making cakes from box mixes, but then I decided to experiment with making a cake from scratch. It turned out wonderfully and everyone enjoyed it, so I decided to continue making cakes from scratch. One week though, my friend pulled out the cook book for me and just happened to leave it open with a pen pointing at the jelly roll recipe. Having never made a jelly roll before, I was a little worried. "Jelly rolls use a specific pan? where am I going to get one of those? Would a cookie sheet work, or would it be too shallow?" Fortunately, I was able to determine the size of a jelly roll pan and discovered that my baking stone from Pampered Chef would work perfectly. It was a big hit, and ever since then I've been trying out new fillings for my jelly rolls. Recently I decided to try a cherry filling and it turned out wonderfully. Here's some pictures:

And, since some of you are probably wanting to know how to make this, here's the recipe I used from Betty Crocker's Cookbook, Ninth printing, 1983:

Ingredients:
 3 eggs
 1 cup sugar
 1/3 cup water
 1 tsp. vanilla
 3/4 cup all purpose flour or 1 cup cake flour
 1 tsp baking powder
 1/4 tsp salt
 About 2/3 cup jelly or jam
 Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375℉. Line jelly roll pan, 15.5x10.5x1 inch, with aluminum foil or waxed paper; grase generously. Beat eggs in small mixer bowl on high speed until very thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Pour eggs into large mixer bowl. Beat in granulated sugar gradually. Beat in water and vanilla on low speed. Add flour, baking powder, and salt gradually, beating just until batter is smooth. Pour into pan.

Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 12 to 15 minutes. Immediately loosen cake from edges of pan; invert on towel sprinkled generously with powdered sugar. Carefully remove foil. Trim off stiff edges if necessary.

While hot, carefully roll cake and towel from narrow end. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes. Unroll cake; remove towel. beat jelly slightly with fork to soften; spread over cake. Roll up; sprinkle with powdered sugar.        10 servings.


Here's some tips on making this recipe that I've discovered while making it. First of all, don't use a terry cloth towel to wrap the cake in. It will stick and be very difficult to get off without damaging the cake. If you only own terry cloth towels, either try to use an old one that isn't very fluffy anymore or use a piece of cloth larger than the jelly roll you don't mind getting dirty. Also, I found that if I let the cake cool completely before unrolling it, it tended to crack making it hard to spread the filling on as well as to roll up. When mixing the ingredients for the cake, it's best to mix all the dry ingredients, minus the sugar, together before adding them into the batter.

For the filling, I find that using jelly or jam is a little odd since I prefer a sweeter filling. As an alternative, one can wither make a filling using the recipe below, also from Betty Crocker, or by slightly heating a can of pie filling, such as cherries, and a bit of cornstarch to thicken it up a bit. For the jelly roll pictured above, I cut all of the cherries in half and mixed about two heaping teaspoons of cornstarch in. I ended up with enough filling for two jelly rolls, which was fortunate since that's how many I was making.

Clear Lemon Filling
 3/4 cup sugar
 3 tablespoons cornstarch
 1/4 teaspoon salt
 3/4 cup water
 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
 1 tablespoon margarine or butter
 1/3 cup lemon juice
 4 drops yellow food color (optional)

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in saucepan. Stir in water gradually. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 5 minutes. Remove from heat; add lemon peel and margarine. Stir in lemon juice and food color; cool. If filling is too soft, refrigerate until set.

I find this recipe makes a bit more filling than is needed for a jelly roll, unless you want filling all over the place, so I put the remainder aside and enjoyed it later with some vanilla ice cream. You can also experiment with different flavors by replacing the lemon peel and juice with other flavorings, such as cherry extract and by dying it the appropriate color if you so choose. Enjoy!

Recipes from Betty Crocker's Cookbook, Ninth printing, 1983. I do not own or claim to own any of them. All pictures are taken by me unless otherwise noted. Check me out on Twitter.

Lolita on a Budget: Wa Lolita

 Wa Lolita is one of my favorite styles of Lolita clothing. The cute kimono styled dresses, geta sandles, and traditional Japanese accessories all add to make it a style that is a lovely combination between traditional Japanese clothing and the ultra cute Lolita style. Today I've put together an ensemble featuring Bodyline's cute and inexpensive clothing. The total for this outfit is $115, not including shipping and handling. Here we go!

 

The Kimono dress is definitely one of my favorite Wa Lolita dresses that Bodyline offers. It comes in multiple colors allowing for different looks to be achieved, but I like the blue one the best since it reminds me of cupcakes. n_n I felt that the over the knee socks would look best with this dress since it ends slightly above knee level. Unfortunately, Bodyline! does not sell geta sandals, but they have plenty of cute Lolita shoes that would work well with this outfit, especially the blue and off white ones. The small flower pins Bodyline! sells are very cute and simple as well as cheap allowing for one or more to be bought to adorn hair as well as modded for use as a bracelet or other accessory. The pink ones match the best with the one on the dress. For an accessory, I thought that the Neko purse was a perfect mix between kawaii and the Japanese style. The drawstring allows for a more traditional Japanese look as well as allowing it to be worn around the wrist.

All of the items in this outfit plus more in this style can be found on the Bodyline website. No pictures due to the fact that I haven't received permission to use Bodyline!'s images. Check me out on Twitter.

Loliable Hairstyles: No Bangs

 Please be warned that this post has quite a few images in it. If you have a slow internet connection I suggest you stop the page loading once you can see the text, then loading the pictures individually as you come to them.

 Recently I decided to cut my hair so that I have long bangs that frame my face, but before I did this I was still able to do cute loliable hairstyles with my long hair. Most of the time I'd wear my hair loose, but I came up with a few pretty and creative hairstyles that are easy to do. I've decided to post tutorials of a few of these for those with long, bang-less hair to follow if they choose. My hair curls naturally when I let it air dry, so if your hair doesn't then you might want to curl your hair before styling it or once you finish the look. Even if your hair does curl naturally you can always give your curls a little boost! On to the tutorials!

Simple Clipped

This first style is by far the simplest. Begin by sectioning off a small piece of hair from in front of both of your ears (See image below). 

 

Take both of these strands and pull them around to the back of your head and clip them into place (See image below). Alternatively, you can braid the two sections together and fasten them with a hair elastic.

 Liz Thompson Hairstyle

This hairstyle is based off of that  Liz Thompson's from Soul Eater. I like this style because it gives you the same look as loose hair, but it keeps it out of your face. If you are wearing this style for a Lolita look, you can curl it and add hair accessories. If you are cosplaying Liz Thompson, straighten your hair either with a straight iron or by another method then put your hat on after you finish the style. Start by sectioning off two sections at the front of your hair like in the Simple Clipped style. From here, take each section and tuck it behind your ear (see image below). To make sure it stays in place, you can also criss-cross a couple bobby pins over the strand behind the ear.

Pull the remainder of your hair forward to cover your ears (see image below).

Mini Twist
 I got this idea from one of my friends who showed it to me when I bought a pretty flower clip from her. Start by parting your hair on the side. I chose to do a part on the right side of my head (see image below).

Now, section off a small piece of hair from the side of your part with more hair on it (this would be the left side for me)(see image below).

Next, take this piece of hair and make a small loop in it that rests just above your temple (see image below).

Finally, clip or pin it in place with a decorative pin on hair clip (see image below). It can be a little difficult getting the loop to stay, but you can always criss-cross a few bobby pins over the top and base of the loop before adding your hair clip.

 Faked Bangs Ponytail
 For this hairstyle we will be using sections of our hair to imitate long parted bangs. Begin by coming a section of your hair forward, like you would if you were cutting your own bangs. I already have bangs, so I pulled more of my hair forward than someone without bangs would need to. Take the rest of your hair and pull it back into a low ponytail, but don't put a hair tie on. (See image below.)

For the next step, twist the ponytail and flip it over your head. Clip it in place. I find it works best to clip it at the point where you would position a high ponytail (see image below). I used two smaller clips for this tutorial, but you can also do this with a larger clip. Flatter clips work better than rounder ones. For more stability, you can instead use criss-crossed bobby pins (pin smaller sections of hair instead of trying to pin it all at once). I find this to be more comfortable and longer lasting than using a clip if I'm going to be wearing this hairstyle all day.

Flip the ponytail to the back of your head and position the hair so that the clips or pins are covered (see image below). Your hair will be shorter than usual pulled up this way, so you may want to adjust it slightly. If you want your hair to be longer, take out the clips and then adjust the height of the ponytail. Don't pull it up as high as a high ponytail would go though as this is where you will be clipping the hair. Instead, position the ponytail at least two finger's width (or the width of your clip) down from where you will be clipping or pinning the hair up. I recommend clipping the hair in place instead of pinning it the first time you do this style so you can make adjustments more easily. This way you won't have to take out and put in a ton of bobby pins three or four times before you are satisfied with the length of the ponytail.

For the next step, we will be teasing the undersides of your "bangs" to make them stand up a bit. Alternatively you can use a curling iron or heated curlers to give your "bangs" more volume. Pull the "bangs" up individually and gently tease the bottom four or so inches nearest to your hairline. Fix with hairspray. The finished style should look similar to the image below. If any of the steps are confusing, please leave me a comment below and I will try to clear it up.

If you have any questions or comments about the tutorials, please comment below. I will only be able to do hair tutorials for girls with long hair, but there are many very nice tutorials available on YouTube. Some of my favorites are some of Venus Angelic's more recent ones after she cut her hair. All images are taken by me and are of me. If you wish to use any of my images please receive permission from me first and do not alter them in any way. The fan in the images is one I made myself. Tutorial for it will be coming later on.

Lolita on a Budget: Bodyline Clothing

 Not too long ago, I discovered a very nice, inexpensive online store to buy Lolita from. Bodyline has many different types of dresses, most for under $100, along with blouses, shoes, and lots of different accessories. They also sell some cosplay costumes too as well as wigs, making this an excellent place for beginner cosplayers, as well as those on a budget, to buy from. Many girls into Lolita can be found wearing Bodyline clothing such as Living Doll Venus Angelic. She can be seen wearing the Bodyline polka dot dress in her Real Life Anime: Kawaii Cupcakes video that she made a few months back. I have yet to order from bodyline, but I look forward to increasing my Lolita collection with their cute affordable pieces in the future. Look forward to outfits I've assembled using Bodyline clothing that can be purchased for less than the price of a brand name dress!

Cosplay Tips 3

Hello all. This will be a continuing series of tips and suggestions I have for cosplayers and anyone interested in cosplaying or just dressing up for Halloween. I'll try to do a few examples if necessary for each of these posts. So, without further ado, here is

Cosplaying tip #3: When to Wear What Cosplay

I chose this topic for my cosplaying tips because of one of my friends. In my last cosplay tip I mentioned that I had altered a hoodie for a friend's cosplay. My friend wore that cosplay costume to a convention at the end of summer and got a case of heat prostration because of it. To help avoid this happening to others I chose to write this post as a tip and a warning.

DON'T WEAR COSPLAY COSTUMES WITH SWEATERS OR HEAVY JACKETS DURING SUMMER.

The main exception to this rule is if you plan on being inside an air conditioned building that is NOT overly crowded. Another cosplayer I met who was cosplaying as Death the Kid from Soul Eater at that convention was mostly hanging out in a less crowded part of the convention and highly recommended against doing a photoshoot in the desert in the middle of summer in a Death the Kid cosplay.


Another recommendation I have is to avoid wearing shorts, thin clothing, and other summer weather clothing at conventions taking place during winter or fall. The original shirt I had for my cosplay costume for Liz Thompson from Soul Eater was made from and old pair of stretchy pajama pants. As ingenious as this shirt was, I was freezing cold outside. And it was worse when I wore the same shirt with shorts for my cosplay costume for Patty Thompson, Liz's twin sister from Soul Eater. If you do wear shorts or a short skirt for a cosplay costume during cold weather, I highly recommend you wear pink or tan tights, depending on your skin tone. Not nylons, tights. Tights tend to be thicker than regular nylons and I frequently wear a pair of footless or convertible tights under my jeans when it's cold outside. They work very well for insulation without being too thick or bulky. One of my dance teachers used to take her old tights and convert them into a shirt by cutting off the feet and cutting a hole in the crotch for her head to go through. If you do this, I recommend using clear nail polish on the edges to avoid runs in the tights.