Trying to bring a community together.

Hello everyone!

Not sure if you know but I am Portuguese. Portugal is a small country which has been deeply affected by the recent economic crisis to an excent IMF has to interveen for a while. We are now supposed to be recovering and people are struggling a lot, that includes everyone. Salaries are low and at the same time despite food still being somewhat affordable things like electricity and gasoline etc are super expensive. I think in terms of gas we have some of the most expensive prices in Europe? Something like that. 

On the other hand despite it all tourism is blooming and the country still has many monuments back from when we were big in Europe (discovery age and whatnot) and the food is super rich and diversified. Alcool is affordable and we have amazing wine. Because we needed EU help in pretty much everything our transportation services, airports, some concert halls, football stadiums etc are somewhat new and modernized. Because of the crisis people had to try to survive in other fields and have opened new and exciting restaurants, cafes, shops a bit around (at least my town) even though there are still a lot of stores closing and empty.

We have a gigantic amount of music festivals all year but mostly in the summer and they always sell out despite the expensive (for a portuguese citizen) tickets. I always find that amusing. I make more than min wage and cannot afford them the way people go to them at least. The average music festival attendee goes to more than one and usually buys the most complete ticket version.

Fashion is also blooming here with interesting new designers and people apparently caring more about what they are wearing. Its nice to go out and see everyone bringing what it is for them, their a game. But despite all of this and despite lolita numbers growing in the world and all the events and all the buzz around lolita everywhere in Europe and despite the efforts, in Portugal, lolita is close to dead. Numbers do not increase (people leave and then sometimes someone new comes around) but the level of committment and support surrounding a community and events has fallen. I suppose we can't blame ourselfs for that, society is changing but it seems like other countries have managed to obtain some number growth so this is disappointing. After being here and in the fashion for 10 years or more I cannot help but feel a sense of ... failure while at the same time I am fully aware that there is little I could have done/can do more than what I did and still do (not as much I am not afraid to admit). 

So how does all this rambling fit with the post itself? Well as an effort to cater for the community we do have and knowing some people are not able to move to attend meetings (because traveling for an event is not something we do here, trust me, even tried that "give away free stuff" technique and it still did not work) I decided to arrange for an online national meeting on the 18th of July.

People seemed excited and we got a wooping! 17 participants enrolled. Wow, imagine that, 17 people. I bet you feel excited for me heh? 

The problem was that on the date apparently only around 5 people remembered to attend and those 5 experienced some kind of tecnical difficulties with tinychat which is unfortunately the only platform I know that is free and enables multiple people chatting with a mic and camera at the same time. Out of all those 5 people I am not sure how many were wearing lolita. So it was a bit of a fiasco which is sad. 

Well I did feel pretty which is good considering I've been very sick which is something I will not bother you with in detail. 

I was inspired by Carmilla's style I think. One gets inspiration from what we have in our memory bank without realizing. I went to a local store the other day when I was still healthy and I saw this floral crown I've been in love with for a while. But now it was on sale so I finally got it. It is the hugest flower accessory I have ever worn and i think that's what reminded me of her. Also I got that underskirt as you know and I was dying to use it and Carmilla's dresses are sometimes on the longer side so that sealed the deal. 

 Anyway this is also not new because I have posted about Paris but I am really proud of the way it ended up looking so here it is in a bit more detailed. It took a couple of hours to make because its all hand sewn and I used things I had in my crafts box which was great! I really like it but it matches almost nothing else. Its a bit like that pierrot hat i made for the Lver btssb outfit too. There's something about Paris that just makes me wanna go crafty.

Anyway I hope this post doesn't get misunderstood because this is my personal diary and I do want to be honest but I do not want to be too negative or anything, I always see myself as someone who is just honestly speaking her mind and usually very strongly based on reality other than my opinion.
It can be seen as a positive thing too, at least when you hit rock bottom there's a place to... improve? Maybe now the local community will reflect with what's been going on lately and for a bit and move? I don't know, I hope so. Not sure if any of the people involved read or even care but ya know. One does what one can.

I really hope I can be well again soon, I honestly do not know what is wrong with me so I cannot give this health situation a name yet but i'll carry on with the testing and visits to doctors to see what is going on. I hope I don't have to go to the emergency again though, I hate going to the doctor to be honest, I feel very helpless there even when i'm being discharged.

I hope you are all well, I really do.
Love always,
Jo

I'm on holiday!

Hello everyone!

So I am oficially on holiday starting today and I already wore lolita because my local comm had a meeting scheduled (Saturday, 11th July) and they had a theme, Alice in Wonderland. I did not want to go in something super elaborate because it is summer but I was not sure of what i could wear in the theme... until i remebered I had this dress and so I decided to go as a classic version of Alice. I put it together right before the event.

I decided to take my daughter because my husband offered to give us a ride and was being super supportive. He really wants me to enjoy myself as much as possible which is basically one of the reasons I fell for him, his heart.

Everyone seemed cool about me taking her and she had fun, she ate so many sweets (I only had tea so that was fine). Not sure its good for a kid her age to eat stuff like that but i suppose one time won't hurt. 

Since I lost my favorite and only pair of sunglasses I had to get a new pair. It does not match lolita at all. haha

I am a bit worried about these shots to be honest, maybe my camera settings are wrong. I must ask someone who gets them to have a look. Photos come out a bit blurry and with little definition at the moment. 

After tea, cookies, confeito and chatting they called us for photos. I asked Gabi to take some shots with my camera too because she will only deliver hers in a couple weeks and that did not make sense to me since I'm on holiday and now is the time I can actually update (but she is really busy!) so that's why I have some photos. I could have taken more now that I think back.

The only shot I sort of like, look how blurry it is! Anyway this was my classic take on Alice.
Outfit info:
Onepiece: Atelier Pierrot
Head accessories: offbrand (stradivarius, aatp and chantilly)
Acccessories: handmade, offbrand (primark, bijou brigitte)
Tights/socks: offbrand (primark/tutuanna)
Shoes: offbrand (t.u.k.)

The "tea time" gigantic tea cup necklace really brought the look together.
My friend Paula made it so its dear to me too. <3

After the shots we spent some time chatting outdoors in a café because it was really hot inside the store. Braga is a city away from the coat so temperatures are higher there.
At 7-ish we were ready to go home, especially since we were 45min-1 hour car ride away from home.
We said our goodbyes and thank you and left.
It was nice spending the day with local lolitas, it had been a while.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my day and that you are enjoying yourselves too. 

Jo

Opposite poles

Hello again!

Today there was a japanese culture tiny convention happening in my town and, like last year, the portuguese lolita community was invited to participate in some way. I was the one in charge of these things before but I have left my position as administrator and am now just a normal user of the comm. So the girls in charge organized something and a couple of ladies participated as models. 

Because I did not want to attend this time I posted telling everyone who did not go that we should wear lolita and post an outfit in order to show support. This is the outfit I chose.

I absolutely love these colors and I adore this dress but unfortunately I hate the way the waist belt looks on my wide and long body and so all the photos that i find decent are all of me covering that area with my arms. I think I might have to sell this dress soon, it makes no sense to keep something I find doesn't look ok on. But selling will break my heart.

Outfit info:

Bonnet - Triple Fortune

Shirt - Mille Fleurs

Onepiece - Atelier Pierrot

Socks - Offbrand 

Shoes - Offbrand (Primark)

Underskirt - Victorian Maiden

I cannot wait to see the fashion show outfits and video. I hope everything went well. 

Love,

Jo

Paris - La Vie en Rose - Part Two

                                                 Saturday, the 21th February

I woke up very early, knowing what to wear makes it easier but I totally thought i'd have more time because I ended up having to leave the house with no makeup on. I put my hat in a bag, gathered all the makeup stuff and left the house on my own because my schedule was different from that of the regular atendees. 

I arrived at the venue right on time which was good. The minute I got there I left my things in the storage room and just started working.

The first thing to do was to take all the sales stall boxes downstairs so i decided I should take my shoes off and just went on barefoot which was somewhat strange i suppose. It made it easier for me and made me work faster. After that we then started putting all the merchandise on the tables. I helped with the japanese indies brand's stall but since there were already people there someone asked me to get the triple fortune boxes too. I ended up placing tf articles up for sale (omg those bonnets all went through my hands hehe). Fortunately I had help and soon we had finished. Me and Vief who also had had no time to put makeup on, managed to have some time to go back to the stock room and finally get ready. 

We sat there for a while and got ready, Vief helped me with the lashes because I am terrible with that sort of stuff (but I managed to put them on!) and then we left. My last official job before the opening was to great the guests at the entrance and to ask them to separate into 2 rows, the VIP and Valentines. 

And the game was on, suddently guests were finally checking in and LVER started. <3

First batch of guests! I took this photo right when i left the entrance after separating the lines. These are the first guests for LVER.

Once guests went down there would be two desks for ticket control. In this room there were 4 stalls in the 4 corners, Syrup, Btssb, Triple Fortune and Grimoire. There was also the place to leave guest belongings and the buffet area. 

That is where the triple fortune stall was, it seemed as if everyone just rushed to it first in fear that the bonnets would not be enough. Triple Fortune made a LOT of bonnets though so in the end everyone who wanted one had the chance to get one, unless they wanted a specific color.

Some of the beautiful outfits in LVER, everyone looked so amazing, it was a bit overwhelming!

This is part of the select shop stall. 

And this is one of the best bits of the trip for me, Moss Marchen. I have always known Martha online and we only met now and I love her, she is (I dare to say) someone i can clearly see me befriend if only i had been lucky to live close to her. I think she is awesome in every way possible. Her items are also perfection and I wanted everything. <3

And every time I see Fidel David in an event it makes me happy. He is a really nice person and his creations are incredible. 

Grimoire Stall. I honestly had almost no time to check things, I found myself to be like a little lost busy bee this year, I think it was the year in which I had less time for myself. 

The adorable Syrup stall, look at all the girly adorable accessories! I later regretted not having had the time to check everything carefully. I love what my friends got from the stall.

This is the outfit I chose for this day. I knew I'd have to move around a lot and work so I chose one of my newest dresses. I always wanted an Enchantilic Enchantilly dress because I love the fabric choice, the themes and also i love how fairy tale everything looks but when i tried it on I understood that having a designer/owner who isn't petite is a plus. The way this dress is cut shows that she understands the need for confort and the shirring doesn't squeeze me like others do and the shoulders are wide enough for my frame, its just perfect. I am not keen on the full shirring cuts now but I do love the fit. I also chose the hat because I knew I was going to work for triple fortune for 2 hours and I thought it would be respectful to wear something visible from them. I also wore a colar made by a Portuguese non-lolita designer to represent my country. I honestly love that i did not have to use a wig because it would be super tiring to have one on. Unfortunately none of the photographers asked me for a photo during the event so I have no decent shots of my outfit alone. And there goes one of my lolita dreams, to appear in a lolita major publication as a style reference and not in a group shot. This saddened me, I must confess.

After taking a walk around the room and chatting with some people it was then time for me to work at the triple fortune booth. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't go on stage to great the visitors in Portuguese but seeing as there were (that I know of) only two portuguese girls in the event - and one of those was me) not much was lost i suppose.

Working for triple fortune was interesting, I got to use my very basic japanese with Babi and Kaie and I hope they appreciated that I tried my best to help out that way. I did not get to speak to them about non business related things because I wanted to be professional and also because i'm shy and i was very busy haha. Rosalynn has a photo of me there, which I like a lot. It's the only one I have. <3

It was very interesting to feel how much the attendees wanted those bonnets and i tried my best to advise them on the best colors to match their styles/outfits.

After that I got to see a bit of the Mix brand / Indies brands fashion show which had a lot of very original looking items and also major brand pieces from brands I love like Atelier Pierrot and Juliette et Justine. There were also non lolita items of course since other styles were involved this year.

Here's a video of the fashion show by rosalynn - LINK

Girls seemed very busy and focused taking photos of one another and more than half of the guests were wearing lighter colors and princessesque coordinates, I felt a bit different i suppose.

There were also fashion shows from Triple Fortune (finally seeing the girls in the full coordinates made the rehearsal movements make total sense, it was a perfect show!).  love that green coordinate and i adore the male stule shirt. And I still want the black, red, ivory argyle pattern bustier.

After that I finally had a bit of time to get some photos taken with some friends or people that I have a connection with. I am glas i managed to get some photos, this year I honestly feel like I rushed so much it made it harder to enjoy myself although I could totally tell the event was a total success which made me happy of course.

I finally got to meet Rosalynn! She is so young and sweet and she is always super excited for everything and cheerful that i guess i cannot help but to adore it. She was wearing sweet lolita which is totally her thing and she looked adorable. I also met her mom and had the chance to tell her that i love how much support she gives to her and how much i wish i had the luck to have the same and that was also one of the special lver moments for me. At least looking back I always seem to remember that moment so I think it is.

Lempicka Maria was also there and I had met her already. We share a love for Moi-même-Moitié 

but although i branch into many other brands and styles she doesn't seem to which I admire.

She is always super sweet to me when we meet and she treats me with much care and respect and I value

that very much. I am so glad we got to take a photo together this year too. <3

Nana and Lea looked amazing of course, they always do and they are so nice, I really like them both. They are so pretty, its ridiculous really.
And on the right is Spiro, one of the amazing russian lolitas at the event. I am a big fan of their community, after being in love with the Finnish community I later fell for the russian in terms of fashion sense. They just really know how to do ott and fabulous coordinates as a whole and they are all such an inspiration for me. Spiro curiously is the only one that I managed to talk to for more than 2 minutes and she was just great to me during the whole event and I am going to be forever grateful.

There's someone I need to meantion in this post too with which I have no photos, Ada. Ada was amazing to me as well. Not because she gave me her raffle prize (how nice does someone have to be) but because I was feeling down, tired and just a bit odd at some point and she just made sure I got in a brighter spirit. Thank you Ada!

I managed to cheat my shy nature and ask Babi and Kaie for a photo when they came to me and gave me one of their catalogues with their autograph to repay me for the help that afternoon. I really like this photo too, i think we look really nice together I must say. <3

The other Portuguese attendee is Isuzu. She is actually living in Paris so technically I was the only one that went from my country which is kinda special but mostly very sad. It was really nice to see her even there, it made me feel more at ease i guess. 

Another great surprise this trip was that I ran into yourpervert who has always been those people who's photo posts i'd usually follow like crazy. Flawless style and great personality. Another one of those people i'd friend irl if only i had been lucky enough to be live near of.

Vief and Annso did not twin as usual but they were still a pair. Vief looked so adorable in Kodona, she totally can pull it off and they were just bubbly and nice as usual. Thank you for everything Vief. 

I also met Shannie Bee during this trip and I feel in love with her outfit for Lver, she added wings to the back of her dress, and the dress was to die for, the whole thing was flawless. She is super sweet, I barely knew her before but now I have discovered her blog and I adore it, I'll surely follow from now on. 

After this I went on stage finally to represent my community and after saying goodbye and helping clean up there was of course the group shots and such. I did not manage to be in the group photo for last year's SFE event so I was glad I managed to be in this years photo.

You can spot me if you watch at 5:40 <3 Thank you Cristina for the video. 

After everyone left I stayed and we took down all the items and made sure nothing was left behind. It was time to leave the venue. 

I then left home and when I arrived everyone was taking a rest but online people were talking about dinner and drink plans so me and Jo decided we'd go out. We made dinner plans with Kyra and got lost so Kyra and her husband came to us. Hah and we had a map! Not our best moment. The place we chose was closed but there was a japanese restaurant nearby and we decided to try it and we were lucky, it was affordable and the food was good. After that we got in the subway and met with the best people and had the (literally) worst Mohito I have ever had. 

But left with the best photo. 

I of course met and talked to many amazing people that day but unfortunately I took very little photos. Every time there's an event I always regret that I did not take enough photos and despite that this repeats itself. 

I have been looking at blog posts and I also talked to people at the event and everyone adored it this year. French Café and all the Street Fashion Europe members did an amazing job. It is an honor to have been part of it again this year. 

Hope you enjoyed reading this post.

Love,

Jo

Japan trip - Great people + too much shopping

Sunday the 17th of August

In Japan the "let's hang out" day is Sunday. In my own country we usually use Saturdays for that and Sundays to chill out at home or to spend with our family or have family reunions and special lunches etc.

Oh gosh I am salivating... I miss those sausages... how silly, to declare that one misses sausages but I do.

I had sheduled to finally meet someone I have known for quite a bit and grew fond of, Emma. We had tried to schedule to meet the previous year but I couldn't make it then and I was determined to rectify that this year. 

We decided to meet in my favorite shopping area in Japan, yes, again Shinsaibashi because i cannot get enough of it. 

Emma had asked if I was going to wear my new Emily Temple Cute dress and I said yes because I did not have another more of less complete outfit so she told me she actually owned the skirt in pink and that she'd wear it too. I thought that was awesome and it made me a bit more excited too.

My casual outfit for the day, in Sango station.

The meeting would be in front of Innocent World or accross Atelier Pierrot. Because we were a bit early I went in A/P and just did my crazy purchase of the day. I always want everything in that store and again the staff was super friendly.

Atelier Pierrot store window

After a bit I could finally spot her and we said hello. I was super excited and I was very happy because I liked her almost instantly which is always a plus, she really is super sweet!

I was told by the staff at Atelier Boz that there was some sort of colab event going on in a nearby café and Emma apparently goes there from time to time so we decided we should go check it out. The name of the café is Anamune. It was again in the upper floor of a building which was really in bad conditions, very crude but artistic. 

The entrance was decorated with anatomy related stencils I believe and set up the mood for what would be inside.

Me and the lovely Emma in matching ETC

Random medical related stuff,The place really was random.

There was a photo exhibition going on of a lolita in macabre background and clothing and the pieces were for sale as well, just like an art gallery. Here and there one would find medical or just strange pieces decorating the café, it was very interesting to look at since every bit would have something worth checking. Even the bathroom had interesting things inside it.

Overall view of the room

I chose a glass of wine and two mini sandwiches, they were one of the lunch menu picks. 

They also had this bjd doll on display. Apparently they keep moving it from place to place and at some point when Emma went there, they'd even let customers pick her up and "play with her". I do not know what sculpt she is and did not ask.

Another area of the café, really odd and random right? I loved it too. 

This is the entrance of the building, it looked quite nice until we got in the elevator i suppose. Very typical of this area.

After that we left and decided to take some purikura. I was really excited! I have always wanted to take purikura in Japan especially with another lolita! It was not much like what I was expecting though, the machines were very... glam and made me look like an alien haha and then its pretty stressful too I think. I did have fun though and I'm going to cherish my first purikura for sure!

Purikura boot

This is the end result. I realized we both picked this as the center shot. I love the randomly placed tooth best but the horns are nice too. :P

I asked Emma if we could step by Angelic Pretty too. Loyal Rosette had come out the previous day and since there was a huge hype around it I really wanted to check it out. 

We went in and again I had to look at Cameo Window which I love but in the only color they did not have in the store. I like the other colors too though but not as much.

The new series was at the store window in salopette and op. When I went in and checked it in person I fell in love too, especially with the most disliked colorway, brown. I loved the brown and the gold together, it was so... stylish. Fortunately for me they did not have the jsk (my fav piece) in any other color anymore so I knew I really loved the brown and didn't have to decide between them.

The problem came when it was time for accessories. I feel in love with the detachable bow in the hat but the hat itself on my head felt like a pasty chef's hat, i felt so silly with it on! I really wanted to get it but I couldn't bring myself to spend all that money on something that made me feel so silly so after thinking for a VERY long time, I decided to buy the bow instead. I also did not like the matching socks so those were the pieces I got. 

Emma tried the skirt on in green i think and decided not to get it even though she liked it a lot.

In front of Angelic Pretty Osaka, aka the very pink store.

Shinsaibashi was as lively as ever and it was ridiculously hot that day too.

Shisaibashi.

Emma suggested we could check out the new Alice in Wonderland store which apparently is very famous. I said that would be nice even though i had no idea there was one. 

When we arrived it was really cool looking from outside but the fact that they had a line to get in kinda puzzled me. 

The guard holding the entrance for the Alice in Wonderland store

Most of the items are either food goods to buy as presents or small decoration items and jewelry.

Inside the decoration was pretty amazing and in the candy area there was even a table set for the mad tea party but upside down. I thought that was cool. If you would like to see it better inside please click the Alice link above.

We also checked the second hand stores in the area and I was very pleased because I found them to be up to par with Closet Child so I am happy for the girls in Osaka. <3

I found a shirt I really wanted for a great price thanks to Emma and also managed to complete my newly bought Ap set that day as well. I shopped like mad but I had a blast.

Unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to her but I'm sure I will see her again. I wished I could live nearby so we could do that more often, it was a lovely afternoon.

See you soon dear Emma!

After this we went to Daimaru in Shinsaibashi. Daimaru is a department store. The reason why we went was because she suggested that we go to a thing called Zombie Defense University which is basically an horror zombie house. It seemed like a great idea so there we went.

When we got there however I really couldn't bring myself to go. Girls were coming out crying, 16 year old guys were telling friends and familly there's no way they'd go in there etc etc so I chickened out completely and did not do it. I got my husband a ticket and he went and he said it was not scary and came out laughing. -_-; meh. haha

It was now time to go home but not without eating something so we wandered for a bit deciding what to have. We went for Omurice which is basically just a omelette with rice inside. It was really tasty actually, it was a good pick for sure.

After that we got in the station which is close and rode a couple of trains until we got home. The last train, the local train to Oji was deserted at some point so I ended up having some shots in it, which i really like. I love that my husband still wants to take photos of me after such a long and tiring day, he is so sweet!

And that was it for my lovely lolita day, there had to be one, right? 

Thank you Emma for everything!

That day's shopping haul included:

- newest Kera 

- a paris kids mini hat (for my dolls)

- a bit of sewing/crafts materials for a project

- tweezers to put eye lashes on my bjd

- Millefleurs Georgette Shirring shirt (black)

- Angelic Pretty Loyal Rosette jsk (brown)

- Angelic Pretty Loyal Rosette headbow (brown)

- Btssb brown wrist cuffs

- Angelic Pretty Melty Chocolate socks (brown x gold)

- Atelier Pierrot Clown Palace Jsk

I really hope you enjoyed reading!
Love,
Jo