Paris - La Vie en Rose - Part One

Hello everyone,

I have been absent again, I know, unfortunately I haven't had a lot to post about lately. But this is not the case today as I am here to finally post about the hottest lolita event of the year for all European Lolitas, La Vie en Rose, the 2015 event by Street Fashion Europe (along with the local community of course).

Not sure if you know but I am the SFE representative for my country, Portugal and so it is partially a responsability to attend every year. Last year, for Enchanted, I could only attend the actual weekend events and couldn't help much in the days before, etc so when i heard that I'd have the week before off work, I was super happy and started planning as soon as possible.
Unfortunately I also found out that I was going alone. The Portuguese community is very small and only one or two people ever consider saving up for things like this and the ones that do were not going. I had to look for a place to stay with someone else and share the costs/to have more fun (because going alone is no fun).

I was super lucky because when i posted asking for room mates one of the people i love most contacted me and asked me if i'd like to stay with her and other girls. It was a bit on the pricey side for me but i could not pass on that opportunity, I still cannot believe how lucky I was to have spent those days with the coolect flat mates ever.

So I booked for a thursday - the event would be saturday/sunday.
I had no idea what to wear up to the last minute and ended up sewing the whole night before leaving because i just came up with a last minute concept. I was pretty inspired and loved working on the pieces but also freaked out a bit because of how different the whole thing was.

I did not sleep and just woke up my husband who would take me to the airport.
I used ryanair because it was the cheapest option. The problem is how distant the airports are from the city centers and Paris Beauvais is pretty distant. When I arrived the first thing I noticed was the cold, it was freezing!
The bus trip gave me some time to sleep which was good and when i arrived i remembered the stop and managed to get quickly to the subway. The trip was short, around 4 stops and the trains did not have a lot of people so the bags were not a problem (but of course i'd like some elevators to carry them with less effort but everyone knows how bad the stations are for people carrying bags, tons of stairs, no escalators and no elevators).

I got out and got lost for the first time, but eventually found the place (people had to help me though, thank goodness for my terrible french).

When I arrived at the building, i managed to go in, and get to the second floor  but after ringing the bell i discovered my room mates were not in. I managed to contact them soon after but they were at another location so i'd have to wait a while which was fine. I eventually got in before that because there is a connection to another flat for the care taker.

When the girls arrived I changed into something more fitting and we went to a café where we had something to eat. 

We walked a bit in champs elysees and then went back to the flat where i just passed out. The girls woke me up to go to a party at Alex's that night.

We were supposed to take food and drinks so we stopped at a supermarket and i bought a bottle of Port wine which wasn't expensive, a bit more than in Portugal but not a ridiculous price. I felt stupid though, "should have brought a bottle myself" - i thought.

It was a great party, I met some new girls there and everyone was super at ease and friendly. I drank a bit i must say and have no regrets.

Friday, the 20th February

The next day strangely we managed to wake up quite easily. It was still morning and we were all strolling around Paris. The plan was to visit the Parisian BABY, the Stars Shine Bright store, Axes Femme and then eventually I'd have to leave the girls to go to the venue location to work (as part of Street Fashion Europe).

Along the way we saw some lovely buildings, I found Paris to be rather charming, I always love the architecture as well as the smell of fresh bread and pastries everywhere.

Finally we arrived at the store. It was the same as I remember it except for some reason I couldn't really remember the street, it looked quite different from before, i think we just went there from a completely different side for me.

The store was almost empty, only two girls were inside but left soon after. I found the store to be reasonably stocked although there was nothing small that i wanted and I always find it impossible to afford the prices. I fell in love with the blouses of course and strangely I fell in love with one dress that Jo tried on and I asked to try on as well.

It was the Alice and the Pirates Rosier onepiece in dark blue and white lace and although i usually find white lace on dark colors a bit tacky i just loved it on. I wish i could find it again at a more affordable price but that's probably not going to happen.

Oh and I also fell for this dress, I have always wanted it and its as beautiful as I had imagined. Unfortunately it was in the store window so I did not have the courage to ask to try it on so I have no idea if it would fit me.

We were at the store for some time, the girls got some items and then we met up with other lolitas there was well, it was great because they knew exactly how to get to the Axes Femme store too. I really was having a great time and dreading having to leave their company to be honest.

Along the way (now it was raining a bit) we saw something lovely, live painting restoration being done by artists in a "school" or shop. They were so focused in their work they did not even notice that all of us stopped staring in awe.

Eventually we found our way to the Axes Femme store. We also met Kyra and some others at that time which was very good for me since i had no idea where the heck I was at that time and they would eventually have to go to the venue location as well. 

The Axes Femme was in a completely different neighborhood, in the middle of many other boutiques which made sense. I love how the store was lit and the decoration, it was very agreable inside as well. the store seemed reasonably stocked but for some reason while I was browsing everything kept disappearing, a certain girl in our party was doing some serious shopping. Honestly I was in awe and positively jealous. I believe the store girls were very happy with the visit, I myself got two things in the store. The prices were much more expensive than the japanese ones but for Paris it seemed super affordable imo.

We then went to have tea in a famous tea place neaby since none of us had eaten anything.

The smell when one went in is impossible to describe, it just smelt like... happiness, it was ridiculously fabulous. I just inhaled deeply a couple of times and I swear I saw one of the employees let go of an honest smile then. I wanted to bring back some tea but was unsure of how much I could spend and I have an inability to make choices when there's too much to choose from and there certainly was. I know they have branches in Japan so when I am there I will try to visit their location in Osaka. I really loved it.

The seating dispositions and the light in the area we got places were however much less impressive, i really do not respond well to yellow light which was what they had so that's why the photos are all so unimpressive. Still I took a photo of their meny as well as the food I ordered and will let you come to your own conclusions. Either way, if you are in Paris and you enjoy good tea, I do recommend a visit.  

After this and unfortunately the service was slow and it took a while to be able to leave we ended up arriving at our destination later than we had hoped and felt a bit guilty. Fortunately nobody seemed to worry much about that and I actually found that everything was set up and going well.

We stayed for hours and eventually everyone left for the organization dinner. We went to a crepe place and the crepe were divine as well.

The triple fortune staff came along and so did the photographers but not the Btssb staff which is understandable, it was a very tiring day for everyone. 

I eventually managed to get to the flat alone (thanks to kyra and dom <3).

The girls were still awake so we sat in our strangely decorated study room for a while and drank some wine. Everyone was excited for the next days to come. 

Oh and this is what I wore, I picked something confortable and the beret was the best pick because of the rain as well. Nothing too special. (and those are the venue bathrooms, i mean isn't that ridiculously awesome?!)

Hope you enjoyed reading,

Love,

Jo

Egl Portugal x Lolita en Nuncaxamais (Sunday)

The next day we woke up a bit late and actually ended up taking a bit too long with all the house chores etc to get ready and as a result.

When we left people were actually being very nice to us, but I did leave with my daughter since this was not the oficial day for the event and people are usually much nicer to me when i have her with me.

A very nice woman asking me why I was wearing what I was wearing, she was very nice about it which is refreshing.

The view from where the meeting point was, in the main Oporto avenue, Aliados Avenue.

We walked to our destination, the brunch spot, the famous Progresso Café. We arrived and as usual the staff was super nice, We took a while to sit down and even more to pick what to eat and they were still super nice and patient.
Finally everyone ordered and everyone just waited while chatting. I was pretty tired and I took that oportunity to put some makeup on since i did not have time to put any at home (haha).
When food actually came, Mari ended up eating a big part of my brunch order to an extent the girls asked me if i wasn't hungry. haha She eats so much!

Brunch time!

We were supposed to go visit a Museum but considering the delay and also what the girls would actually experience in terms of sight seeing, we decided to go for a stroll instead.

I love this photo. 

We ended up reaching a place that I love, the Palácio de Cristal gardens. It was sunny so it was crowded! It was still nice to spend some time there and to take the outfit shots for that day, there.

I am wearing my enchanted staff pin, can you spot it? It's so cute!

I finally wore the matching bow i got at enchanted and these grimoire tights that do not match anything... but are so pretty!

Me and Darkmaid again, she is such a cutie, she always looks perfect!

After this, we started walking back downtown and we finally parted ways soon after. I am definitely missing having these girls here and I hope we can see each other again very very soon!

I hope you liked reading about out weekend!
Love,
Jo

Last Feb weekends

Hello! How is everyone? I hope you are all well!

I am sorry but i did not post last weekend. I totally forgot and now my memory of what happened has faded a bit. I'm terrible when it comes to remember things. Please forgive me.

15/16 february Weekend
SATURDAY

As you know the 14th of February is Valentine's Day but since it was on a Friday and me and my husband work hard all week we decided we'd be too tired to arrive home, change and then go somewhere. We decided to have a quiet lunch just the two of us the next day at lunch time so we asked my brother to come over and take care of our daughter for a bit.

I feel as if we never do that and should do  that regularly for the sake of our relationship so I might suggest we do that more in the future.

My husband kept the location a secret but I knew we'd go to our favorite Japanese restaurant as usual. haha He or we are not really keen on change and like good stuff so when we know something is good we usually stick to it.

My husband ordered a lot of food and it ended up being rather expensive but it was, as usual, delicious. We took a walk but returned home soon, we didn't want to impose on my brother's good will.

Mari is super into phones and anything that resembles a phone. She loves to play with the intercom so that means people in the street will often hear a baby talking gibberish because I don't really mind that she plays with it. hehe

She also loves the light switches.

One of my friends told me I should wear something special for valentines day so I put together this outfit, the most red thing I could get. I felt really fat that day though and hated all the photos. :P

SUNDAY

My father invited us to go over and have lunch at his place. My father is a fantastic cook so we always know we'll be super well treated there.
My younger brother is studying quite far from my city and he was in town so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get everyone together.

Dad played with his grandaughter a lot this time, she always picks up some new tricks when she visits. Not sure this one was a positive new thing since it was basically to throw things everywhere haha but she had fun.

My father made a codfish dish and a squid dish, both in the oven. I'm not too keen on codfish but i love squid so I had the later. It was incredible, i'm not sure how he does it but his food is really great. I, however, am terrible in the kitchen. My husband does the cooking around our place, i'm in charge of cleaning which is worse imo. But since he cooks better than I do its the natural order of things.

We spent most of the afternoon there and went home at dinner time. I did some work that had to be done before that monday and everyone went to bed early. I don't really like sundays anymore, i can't say i'm going through a phase where i'm looking super forward to go to work. I do not hate it... but i'm very tired and I miss having as much free time as I did last year.

22/23 february Weekend

SATURDAY

It had been a while since we had any lolita meetings scheduled. Since I missed the previous one it seemed like ages really. So when the girls scheduled a new one i was terribly excited about it. I ended up going with my brother, Mari and my husband (I asked and they said i could take them) it ended up becoming a familly time thing as well. We ended up being 4 (i mean in lolita that is) and 3 of us went in some shade of red which was funny. Everyone was so well dressed! When that happens i just feel so proud of the Portuguese comunity... its not easy to afford lolita in this country, it really isn't. 

The place was a small coffee with lovely handmade cake and there were games for kids as well. It had an artsy feel to it. The occasion was also special, on the second floor a japanese music event was taking place. When I say event i mean there was a dj playing some music and there were some people selling handmade things as well. It was not like an anime con or not even any sort of music related to that at all. My husband actually enjoyed it immensely as the music was up his alley. 

I also saw some people I had not seen in a while and that was a bonus. I had fun, it was a quiet nice time but that's the sort of thing i enjoy best, i'm not much into big crowds and a lot of noise anymore.

SUNDAY

This day I figured we'd take a walk because it wasn't raining again. You have no idea how much rain we've been getting lately. I'm not a sunny weather sort of person but even I feel like its enough. Mari loves to walk so we went for a walk, i tried giving her my hand and letting her go on her own but she started getting upset and wanted to walk without holding people's hands which is obviously not safe so i ended up picking her up and she made a tantrum and started crying. Oh babies...

But we eventually got to an area where she could walk a bit and she had fun doing so. It was quite chilly though so we stayed only for a bit. It was still nice.

I spent the rest of the day home with my mother, my older brother and of course my husband and my daughter. 

I do not like sunday's very much but this one was ok I guess.

And now its weekend again. I know nothing much will happen today but hopefully tomorrow i'll have something to post about again. Please tell me if there's something you'd like me to talk about in the future. <3

Jo

Japan 2013 (Day 4 - 15th July)

Hello again everyone!

I'd like to thank those who are reading but especially the ones who take the time to comment, even if with just a line. I am always doing so but I am an honest believer that if one reads one should try to comment as much as possible. It's the only way I find that I have to thank the people who write the blogs I enjoy reading for the effort to keep their blogs updated.

I myself, after being super tired at night (now at 3.15 am) take the time to post for myself of course (I have a terrible memory so i want to have these on file) but also for whoever wants to know about what i've been up to (because that for me is what a blog is for). So again, thank you very much! 

Anyway this post might be the least interesting of the bunch, it was a day spent at home doing chores and just relaxing and doing other work. My husband and I have brought back work so we have to take some time to keep focused even though we are on our holidays.

The day started again with breakfast. This time i had some cereal with milk and a cup of coffee afterwards. I am not a fan of fruits in cereals and i do not like raisins especially so i fished them out and put them in my husband's bowl hihi. Without them these were super tasty, loved them!

But what are those little green triangles you might ask... well those are... wasabi cheese bars. Yes... w a s a b i cheese. haha Isn't that nuts? My father in law offered me one and I HAD to try it. It's not fantastic, it does taste like wasabi but i quickly discovered i like my cheese without it but its wacky and if you are into trying out wacky, get them. 

After that we played with Mari for a bit and fed her, the usual daily routine of course. She's playing with her favorite toy, a plastic bottle. It's always like this, they go for the basic stuff even when they have so many options.  

The day was gray, affected by the typhoon in asia for sure, it even rained that day. But don't be fooled by the looks... it was super hot. It's super odd here, you look from the car window when you have the cool air cond on and it looks gray so I just have the impression that its cold... but then you get out and its super hot.  

That is the view from the room I sleep in.

 One of the things I like about Japan is how people usually do not steal anything. This is an accssible balcony and my inlaws keep their umbrellas there and we also leave Mari's baby car there. Nobody touches them. If in Portugal... in case it starts raining, i'm sure they'd be gone and the car sold second hand haha. I'm laughing but that's quite sad...

Because we sleep on a futon which means basically sleep on the floor, we do cleaning regularly so that day I took everything out, changed the covers and started by lint rolling.

These rolls are a different kind from the ones we have back home and use only to get pet hair from clothes, these have an extensible handle and are used for big surfaces. It was also not paper but a sort of foam, the one we might use to pack things, such as electronics.

After carefully using it in the entire room its time to vaccum clean. My inlaws had a funny looking hand vaccum clearner so that's what I used.

It's quite handy if you don't mind doing it on your knees. The black part is where the filter is located and its detachable and cleanable instantly. 

 Because cleaning is noisy and unsafe, Mari went out with dad but i could see them and play with her through the window.

I seem to have a problem in Japan, i get bitten more often than not so my mother in law seems to have to give me something for it, its a feeling of constant deja vu. 

 After all the "hard work" I went to the living room and had a snack. I had gotten one of my favorite summer drinks at the supermarket, calpis. You must try it and tell me how you feel about it when you do.

I also had a delicious cheese cake, not cheesecake, a cheese cake.  

After that we all slept a bit, worked and went on with our normal business until it was dinner time!

I cannot really tell you the names of what we had for dinner so i'll just describe everything and if anyone wants to help out that'd be great!

The bowl with the orange thing is just pumpkin, boiled pumpkin, soft and sweet. The bowl next to it with the brown think slices is a sort of root... so its a root and bamboo maybe salad of sorts. I don't think its everyone's cup of tea but i liked it ok. The thing in the pastic container i did not eat so I have no idea!

The bowls in the front have, sashimi in soy sauce and something else, pretty normal and the one next to it is salad with that japanese tube like surimi(?) but it had a filling made by my mother in law. The pink thing next to it is obviously kimchi which i like a lot. And all that with amazing super tasty Premium Malts beer.

 After dinner we watched tv and spend some familly quality time which is the best!

 And I posted the Day3 update and went to bed. Might have done something in between but i do not remember. haha

Well because this post had nothing very exciting compared to the others I'm posting the other two dresses that were waiting for me in Japan when I arrived. Enjoy the eye candy. <3

Alice and the Pirates - Queen of snow and the magic of whiteness JSKⅡ (burgundy)

Again, I didn't want it in this colorway, I wanted the green or blue one but couldn't get it. So I was stuck with this one. Then Btssb had them again but they do not switch orders so i was stuck with it. 

I didn't think i'd like it as much as the other one but i like it more, not the colors... the colors will be a pain to coordinate, that purple.. and the bows do not match the dress so that'll be an issue too but I Love the fit. It's super cute. I also adore the details on this dress and highly recommend it.

Atelier Pierrot - Red riding hood jsk (black) 2012

I adore this dress except for the white lace, its harder to coordinate like that plus i am not a big fan of white lace on black dresses as a whole. I was scared about the fit because i do not own many pieces from Atelier Pierrot and the ones i own are fully back shirred which this isn't but it fits great, looks great and is by far my favorite of the three. I am so happy with it! I have only one major complaint. When I wear it the shirring doesn't stretch that much but it still fits tight on the bust. It's due to the cut, it wasn't made to accomodate.. well any bust really so unless you are flat chested which i am not, you'll feel the same way.

And that's it for today's post. I have something a bit more interesting to post about tomorrow... which means I'm super excited but super tired today. I cannot believe i'm going to sleep at 4 am again and i still posted this for you guys. Oh well I just hope you enjoy it (again, please comment if you read, it doesnt have to be a super long comment, just something to show you read and threfore care(?). 

Love,

Jo