Vigo - My first Blythe convention

Hello everyone,

I decided to start using this again. I won't have the patience to write as much as I used to, I think, but hopefully it'll will still be appreciated.

I always wanted to try and participate in a Blythe Doll event but there are none in my country. When I discovered there was one in nearby Vigo, I became really interested. After asking my husband if we could make it a familly trip/weekend, It was decided that I would attend it. I decided to take two of my girls: my only custom and a very old hollywood. Because we decided going by train would be more confortable for us we had to go the night before the event but unfortunately the hotel did not have vacancies for that night so we stayed in a cheaper place.

We woke up really early the next day and headed over to the hotel where we would be sleeping which was the venue for the event. Fortunately the hotel let us check in earlier and we could settle and unpack what we needed.

Inside the hotel.

 The first thing we did was register. There was a table with the staff handing over people's goodie bags and some capsules that would result in a possible treat.

After this I decided to attend a panel on faceups. It was very interesting and I always leave wanting to do my own but then as the procrastinator that I am, I never do.

The super nice and talented girl that gave the panel.

I then took the time to browse all the different vendor tables and I drooled in every single one. I wanted to get everything and kept telling myself that these are just dolls and that I cannot overspend. 

Overall view of the room, 1/4 of the room that is.

There was even a table with some adorable treats to eat. <3 I'm more of a savory stuff girl myself but i still find cakes adorable to look at.

The raffle table. I wanted the two steampunk dolls so bad. Can you believe a single person won both!? People were kind upset about it, boy that girl is lucky as hell haha. She was one of the vendors I think.

One of the three custom dolls in the raffle.

Another one of my favorite stalls, Doll Boutique. They sell the cutest blythe carrier bags ever and the outfits were impressive.

look at all the shoes.

I don't love steampunk but these dolls were so well made they were my favorite in the place, absolutely incredible.

I also loved those dresses with the flowers and the shows and glasses they had in this stall.

Spot me.

Of course my daughter was in awe herself even if she is 4 years old.

I got the unicorn headbang, bag and glasses for my custom doll and a clothing set from doll boutique and a new pull ring for hollywood. Mint got some cute socks she can wear too.

The event tote bag and all the freebies. Since my husband went too I have two.

And we got lucky at the raffle and got two knits and an amazing carrier bag from that store i wrote about. I wish it was a bit more girly but the theme of the event was steampunk and the bag matched it. Cannot complain.

 For dinner we went to an American dinner my lolita vigo friends took me to the last time I was there. I decided to have something different and it was tasty!

 The next day we chilled out at the hotel and then walked around in town for the rest of the day. It was REALLY windy which was annoying and I was really tired.

I also took the opportunity to wear something cute. Would not have been practical to walk in a petti the day before and even bump into vending tables or something like that. haha

First time wearing the Angelic Pretty Princess Cat "set" I got in Japan this last winter holiday. I really like it but am not sure it suits me. Might be getting too old for this type of sweet. 

We also ate really yummy things as usual. If you are in Vigo you have to eat the octopus. <3

The girls on our way back, wearing some of the new clothes we got. <3

 I really hope I can attend the event again next year, it was really worth it and everyone was incredibly friendly, I loved it. <3

Hope you liked reading about my weekend,
Love you,
Jo

Who said only kids play with dolls?

Yesterday, saturday, I had a lovely day with my familly. We spent most of the day out. In the morning I, my husband and my daughter had breakfast in a cafe and then spent some time playing in a "park", making bubble balls and just rolling around in the grass. I took one of my blythe dolls with me and she ended up being photographed a bit too. It had been a while since I last took a doll with me and even more since I last took photos of one outside. I find that people think me more normal because I have Mari with me and maybe they assume she was hers. 

She is a blythe Fancy Pansy doll, she's quite old. She is slightly darker than my other blythe dolls. I find her very hard to photograph and her hair is a pain to style but i love her. <3

Friday I also got something in the mail. A new pair of Mako eyes. I got them second hand from a girl in my local community so they arrived really fast and without having to deal with any of the ordering process hassle. I do already have blue eyes for them but i love the shimmer in these. I wish i could have a ton more pairs but these things are expensive so i take a loong time to get stuff for them.

I decided my supia girl looks pretty meh in frilly stuff so I am trying to get her more casual, grown up, kinda sexy stuff because it matches her better. I love how this Leeke wig matches my living room curtains.

She still has no name, care to help me name her?

 I really hate posing them, i think its even worse than me doing poses myself which is another thing i dislike, a lot. haha but in their case its impossible to hold the hands in certain angles etc and i get really upset after trying (and failing) for a while. So they are always standing and seating in a boring way. It looks nice but its always the same thing over and over again. All my SD girls are single jointed.

It had been months since I had taken photos of one of my bjds too so i'm happy getting those eyes in the mail made me want to take them out of their storage space. <3

How many of you have dolls that you collect or just play with? 

Love,
Jo

Japan 2014 -Tokyo Haul

Thursday the 6th of August

Hello again,

Since I'm behing Schedule with these posts and a shopping haul means some photos and no text (exagerating here) it will be fast to get it done.

I woke up early and went to the living room like any other day. The usual breakfast here is coffee (with cream and sugar, freshly made), an individual salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato, ham and my fav sesame dressing!)and a thick toast with butter or jam.

I always get spoiled in Japan and then get a reality check when we are home. I often even skip breakfast.

 After that and of couse changing diapers, watching tv, rolling around on the floor with Mari and playing with her, I went back to the room and started organizing my purchases and taking out all the stuff from our carry on bags. Since I was doing that it made sense to take photos of all the things I got during this trip to post on poupee and also here of course.

The first item was a present from my husband. He knows how much I love Vivienne Westwood and we had been in the second hand store in Harajuku too but he wanted to give me something special so he tricked me, said he was going to the bathroom and went to buy me this instead. I love it, its colorful so its not going to be easy for me to incorporate it in my rock n roll sort of daily look but its amazing, i'm super happy! I now own my ring, a hat and a hankey haha - worse VW fan ever, right? :P

My new Vivienne Westwood 2014-15 fall winter collection hat.

 And this is what I got Lolita-wyse in Tokyo:

1. Mille fleurs petticoat
2. Emily Temple Cute dot (ivory x black) under knee socks
3. Emily Temple Cute Fairy Tale Frame Jsk (black)
4. Alice and the Pirates cardigan (black)
5. Accessories from Closet Child (2 ring bows, 1 rabbit ring, 1 rabbit hair acc/brooch - not cheap but i like them)
6. Mirror/charm from Q-Pot

 This is all my doll related purchases (VOLKS; Junie Moon, random shops):


1.Volks mook, came with their mascot.
2.Volks necklace for my dolls
3. Volks book kit so my dolls can have a nice looking hard cover book prop.
4. Tickets to dollpal in Osaka (not Dollpa)
5. clothes for my blythe dolls, special colab cotton drss, 2 pairs of socks
6. Last issue of Dollybird - this one comes with a chair kit
7. cute blythe notepad, can't resist stuff like this
8. 3 new rement sets
9. Random plastic bottles to use as props
10. cute kitty cat

 As I left before my new Juliette et Justine arrived here is a shot of it. I finally do not regret getting it, i hate the shirring and those black detachable things for the straps and I still find its too expensive for the lack of detail such as lace etc but I adore the print and it looks nice on.

Juliette et Justine ete des contes de grimm Jsk (black)

Some of you wanted to see my new bunny muchacha mook bag better so I took a photo of it too, here it is (I've been using it a lot here):

Ahcahcum Muchacha bunny bag

 We had one of those instant food packs for lunch, curry. Rice has to be made seperately but its still convenient.

I love the cute plate too.

 In the afternoon we did very little. I remember doing some cleaning and that my husband and Mari spent some time playing in the building's little kids playground.

This is the view from the balcony, that's Sango over there. To go anywhere we have to cross that bridge, unless we are travelling by car.

After taking a bath Mari got to play with her new toy, a kit that will help her train her skills to catch rea fish at a summer festival when she's old enough to try, cute!

 And before we finish the day of course there was yummy food as usual. Mari and myself love mushrooms and enoki, shiitake etc are ridiculously expensive in Portugal and so soooo cheap here. I just try to eat as much as possible.

I really like shabu shabu. Its tasty and not too heavy.

And that was my day after being so tired from all the walking in Tokyo. Calm days are nice as well, don't you agree?

Love,
Jo

Japan Trip 2014 - Tokyo day 3

Tuesday, the 5th of August

After sleeping like a baby I woke up super relaxed and we realised it was "late" compared to the previous days. It was fine this time since my plan was to do very little and just keep it easy.
Since that in the day before we had breakfast in Mos, we decided to try the place attached to it: .

Plastic food, shop window plastic food is so adorable and most of it looks very realistic.

Yummy breakfast

I realised we didn't even check the area properly so we took a walk, visited some stores and then got our luggage and went to our closest Shinkansen connection station which was obviously Shinagawa again. We looked for the lockers, left our bags there and left. There was this one store I wanted to visit and then I had no plans whatsoever so we went to Shibuya straight after.

Coin lockers where people leave luggage.

Gosh these looked delicious!

 

I hate this, when you go through a gate and it does not accept your ticket then most probably you have to adjust your fare and pay something extra. So you move to one of these, insert your ticket and pay the amount the screen will show. It will then issue a new ticket you can use to exit the station. Confusing.

 We arrived at Shibuya and it was ridiculously hot that day. We honestly tried finding our destination on our own but we gave up and just got in a cab. I like Japanese táxi cabs, i like how the door automatically opens for you and I like how big their gps are and how cool it is inside. This one was a private cab, this means that the driver does not work for a company but instead drives his own cab and works for himself. I like that but he for some reason did not turn the gps so in the end my husband was helping him with his cell gps which is funny... and it was kinda hot in there, I hated that haha but we did eventually get to our destination which was hard to miss because of its cuteness.

Inside a rather old japanese táxi cab.

Our destination was no other than the famous Junie Moon. The pink, the displays.. it was magical already from the outside. Due to the cuteness inside as well i believe that this store is (although smaller) much more adorable than the volks one was and it was already hard to top it.

Junie Moon

The main window had dolls celebrating summer and the Windows on the side had Blythe merchandise such as tote bags etc.

I used to hate blythe dolls, thought they were creepy and strange. After seeing a bunch live I fell in love.

Inside they had dolls modeling the items the store had to offer, i believe none of the dolls were standing there with their hair/clothes in their original form other than the ones sold in the box.

You could buy socks, shoes, sets made by individual creator, colaborations (such as hello kitty for instance), stock outfits and stands... doll wigs, little cheap accessories, middie dolls, neo dolls, little ones... (not much variety I'm afraid), merchandise (tooth brushes, pouches, tote bags, note pads, little cases.... etc), decorations and even a portable diorama. They also sold a line of food accessories for us grown dolls to look pretty.

I fell in love with so many things but most clothes sets were around 7000yen or more so i couldn't bring myself to buy them. I bought some simple things to remember the visit and left. The staff was also super friendly. <3 

I was super happy. Gad doll stores were making me feel excited since the Lolita ones were not

After that we decided we should relax at a nearby caffee so we searched nearby places and one sounded like a good option and we went in a search for Michelangelo Café. It was not that close but not that far away either and I had fun checking the area out since it was my first time there. Its very fancy and stores seem lovely but expensive as well. I liked it a lot and it made me feel more relaxed.

 

Entrance, how could you not love it?

 We checked the menu and they had some lunch sets that looked interesting and a couple next to us had just gotten their sets and the smell of cheesy pasta just sealed the deal. They also had wine so I ordered a glass. I love wine, i love beer too but i like wine more.

Glass of wine, water is always served and refilled even if you order another drink.

 I

Tomato pasta and Risotto

yay expresso, it had been a while! Almost 3 euros for expresso is funny because it costs less than 1 euro back home.

 While we had our meal we witnessed something odd, 1 girl, 1 guy and another camera guy just started filming on the outside, filming the girl arriving and whatnot, they then filmed inside and then went back outside. It was just...strange and the guy looked like Gackt which made me laugh.

It is beautiful inside, perfect location for a Lolita meeting so I'm wondering why its not done there all the time, its perfect, I was in love.

We finally left and just decided to walk back instead of taking another táxi and it was worth it:

My cats would look so cute riding a bike with me. Or not and this is just silly like a ton of other things you can find in Japan. I do love that you have the option to be silly if you wish.

This was a college, how cool is this building?

 

 

Apparently everyone there is into healthy organic foods so most coffees and restaurants always had the word organic in the description which was amusing.

When we got to Shibuya station again, in the back streets I saw a small corset advertising a store and it was Kikirara Shoten. How strange that I'd just bump into it. I decided to go take a look since I was there. It is tiny and full of items, it looks like a theater prop/vintage store all in one and everything is deliciously over the top. I would have bought two items if they weren't so expensive. I think most people do wear their stuff as stage outfits or something.

We then just strolled around.

Cute bus.

The famous Shibuya crossing

 

Some girls performing in a stage set in front of a shopping building.

Tower Records, when I was crazy for japanese music I'd go nuts if i saw this place, this time I didn't even go in. Life changes.

 

We also randomly found the Shibuya Grimoire store so I went in. I had never been in a Grimoire store before and it was small but very cute. I fell in love with their original design jewelry but it is a tad expensive for me and the tight section was small, i think i might actually own the same amount they had in the store myself, not kidding. The shop girl was ridiculously beautiful, friendly and down to earth. I like that. <3

 



My husband then spotted a small ramen shop in the ground floor and we went in for na early dinner. I wasn't very hungry but it felt great to rest for a bit.

I ordered some gyoza and a beer, it tasted great!

We still had some time so we walked towards Harajuku and decided to get the train from there. We saw some really nice things on our way there and I had fun just walking calmly instead of rushing like we usually do.

I also found the Merrybelle store which is adorable! The store keeper gave us some tea in really neat cups too and the designs were nice, the prints were stunning and the craftmanship was amazing as well. I really felt like buying something but I couldn't due to the sizes and because its not really my style but I told them I'd mention the store in my blog so please go take a look and if you can, order something!

Merrybelle

One of the things I like in Japan is the mix between old and new, i do the same in my own home with furniture so I guess i'm drawn to it. There's something about this being in the middle of two modern buildings that appeals to me.

Although I find Yukata's very unconfortable to wear I looove seeing other peple wearing them in the streets.

We decided to go in this very interesting and famous building for a simple reason: bathroom. We obviously wandered a bit around it, my friend su would have loved the sanrio themed café i am sure.

And that was it, we just got in the JR train to Shinagawa. We arrived quite early so we had time to relax, get our bags...

and obviously buy souveniers which means some sort of snack/food for our inlaws. We also got Mari something, a new book, she loves books!

The lovely elegante package we got for my inlaws, I actually already ate these and they are awesome, we picked well (and apparently famous... but we know nothing so it was just luck).

We actually waited around 20m in the platform for our Shinkansen to come which would probably be the last one that day. It was also pretty quiet in it because most people slept, so did I.

This is what the shinkansen looks like inside (same as any other train I'm afraid)

Our dinner. Husband's Obento and other things we shared. I also had tea.

Fortunately I had gotten a couple of mooks/magazines so I got entertained for a while which is always good.

Volks mook, Gothic & Lolita bible.

And that was it, we would soon be back in Nara. We arrived very late, got home at around 1am and my father in law was waiting for us in the train station so we did not have to walk back home that late. They are really good people, I am ridiculously lucky <3.

I hope you liked Reading about my day and I'm sorry for the delay (it's only been a week... :X). I will post my purchases in my next post. I didn't get much but if you are like me you'll still wanna check them out.
Love,
Jo