9th March

After an odd night that Saturday, (We changed, went out for kebabs and witnessed a robbery and waited 15min for the police to arrive while noticing that apparently nobody cared and reported it - despite a lot of people walking by - sad huh?) we had a more relaxed Sunday.


First my family was gone, so no mom and my brother also went to rest due to having gotten a cold and second Sunday's are always a bit... slow.


We hanged out at home a while and then in the afternoon finally left to walk around town a bit and for Mari to run around because that's her favorite thing right now.


I recently got another dress, its not really a new dress, but a dress I already own in another color way. One of the local lolitas has it in yet another color so I thought it would be fab if we did a trio. Sadly we never heard back from said Lolita so it ended up being me and fla twinning again. I changed the outfits in order for them to kinda be a twin and off we went. My favorite outfit is fla's. I just adore the burgundy ribbon on that dress, I think its pretty unexpected. Obviously I matched it with burgundy pieces and I think it works out quite nicely.

I am not really sure about this cut on me actually, for casual outings sure, for actual proper Lolita like this... I'm not sure it suits me. It makes me bulkier than normal. I do adore the print on the dress and the fabric though so I'm sad to let these go. They were not super cheap either.

Eventually fla had to get ready to leave which was sad.... we will miss having her around, I felt so... appreciated... actually no, I felt like someone considers me to be a good friend and wants to hang out with me which is something I have not had for a while nor did I know that I was not getting.
That made me get very gloomy these next days, I think you only miss things when you acknowledge them. I got so used to being with my family and only meeting certain people on some occasions that spending a whole weekend with someone dedicating their full attention to me kind of spoiled me.
I now plan to kidnap fla and her boyfriend and "force" them to move to the most amazing Portuguese city of them all, Porto.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading and looking at the photos.
I had so much fun twinning, I want to do it again soon!
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

Familly time

Hello again,

This Sunday we saw the sun peaking. Its been really grey and raining a ton every single day so I knew we should take this chance to go out.

We decided to go to a museum because on sunday mornings in Portugal some museums are free.
Mari seems to like art pieces a lot, we have a big paiting on the staircase and every time we are taking her to bed she holds her hands up wanting to touch it. I figured it wouldn't hurt to go to a museum.
Seeing as there are usually art instalations at modern art ones I picked the most notorious modern art museum in our city, Serralves. There was an exhibit from Ccildo Meireles which consisted mainly of large scale instalations and some were interactive as usual.

Mari fell in love with the "egg" installation. We took her shoes off and let her stay there and she was clearly feeling the egs with her feet and smiling like mad. She did not want to leave!

After leaving she felt a bit cranky (probably wanted to stay there) so I let her walk for a bit. I thought it would be for a bit but she was having so much fun walking while holding my hand that we ended up visiting that entire floor like that. It was fun.

We got tired a while after and left without seeing everything, the purpose of visiting was making Mari happy and estimulating her senses so our work was done anyway. We decided to go to the cafeteria to have a cup of coffee. Mari drank a whole glass of water.

We then visited the book store but Mari is so into books she started crying when we took the books she was picking up from her hands and we left a bit embarassed haha the life of a parent.

We then went to take a stroll in the gardens. They are huge and so pretty!

The reason why i like them so is that you can find any sort of environment, modern things, old trees, designed fountains, very crude ponds with ducks... everything. We spent some time there playing since mari loves water and taking photos.

We wanted to have lunch somewhere nice but when we arrived to the place we were going to try out they told us they did not have baby chairs and obviously we left. It's a very recent place so its a bit of a shock to hear that they do not have baby chairs... we just went for the obvious safest option: a nearby shopping mall.
Mari ate a MacDonald's bowl of soup and we both had asian noodles,at a Wok to walk franchise store. My husband likes eating there, and I told him to just grab me something while i fed her.

They also had a small park for kids to play in and we took Mari there for the first time. She really liked the horsie. I want to get her one now!

We did some grocery shopping next and went home.
My brother stopped by at night and we were not very hungry but i was obcessing over cake so my husband went to get some chocolate muffins to surprise and make me happy (<3) so we ust drank tea, had some toasts and muffins instead of a normal dinner.

That was basically the nice part of my weekend, on saturday i just took care of my daughter while my husband worked.

Hope you liked hearing about my weekend.
Jo

I'm back!

Hello everyone,

I am sorry for the absense. The reason why I have not posted recently is because I've been so busy at work. I honestly am not sure if i'll keep on having time to post anymore but i'll do my best to keep up.

Taking so long to post basically means all the details of the stories will be gone. I do not remember most of the things that happenes, I am like that.

I wore lolita a couple of times since the Iberanime event so I'm going to leave you with those shots, hope you like them.

Halloween 2013

Outfit Info: 

Bonnet: Chantilly

Corsage: Moi-même-Moitié

Choker: Moi-même-Moitié

Cutsew: Moi-même-Moitié

Dress: Alice and the Pirates

Socks: offbrand (ebay)

Shoes: offbrand (primark)

Accessories: Black Peace Now, offbrand (vintage, china, primark)

Not really sure when

2nd of November, rainy day

Outfit Info:

Beret: offbrand 

Shirt: offbrand (primark)
Dress: Innocent World
Socks: Juliette et Justine
Shoes: offbrand (C&A)
Accessories: offbrand (accessorize, primark, china)

Not sure when but I was feeling sick

Outfit Info:

Headdress: Alice and the pirates

Shirt: Metamorphose

Choker: Metamorphose

Socks: Moi-même-Moitié,

Shoes: offbrand (Seaside)

Dress: Alice and the pirates

10th November, movie day

17th November - brunch and shopping with friends

24th November - familly day

Outfit Info

Headdress: Moi-même-Moitié 

Dress Moi-même-Moitié 

Socks: Moi-même-Moitié 

Shoes: offbrand (Primark)

Accessories: Miho Matsuda, offbrand, handmade

7th December - International Lolita day - tea with friends 

Outfit Info

Hair accessories: Offbrand (H&M, promod) + Innocent World

Shirt: offbrand (primark)

Bolero: Innocent World

Dress: Innocent World

Socks: Innocent World

Shoes: offbrand (tuk)

8th December - Loliday part 2 - brunch with friends

Outfit Info

Hair accessories: offbrand

Dress: Juliette et Justine

Bolero: Innocent World

Coat: BABY, the stars shine bright

Bag: offbrand (Muchacha Achachumu)

Socks: offbrand (Lockshop)

Boots: Queen Bee

Wow that took a bit, I feel that i very rarely wear lolita at all so this was actually interesting for me to see, at least I'm wearing it once or twice a month, not that bad, right?

I hope you liked the post, see you very soon!

Jo

Lisbon trip (part 4)

Hi everyone, how are you? I hope everything is well. <3

This was the last day of my lisbon trip.
Since my brother was with me we decided to do some tourist like things before going back home. Being a little Diva (not really, we just had to go to the train station to get the tickets and i figured it would make sense to do what i'm about to say we did) we left our luggage in the storage area of the train station, got in a cab and started our adventure.
The reason we took a cab was because my mother in law had left her cellphone and mp3 player at the hotel and they had called to let us know and we wanted to have time for everything. After stopping by the hotel we asked the cab driver to take us to the famous Pastéis de Belém store. When we got there as usual there was a huge line of people waiting to buy them. The cab driver told us not to wait in line but go in instead. Apparently it is faster that way. But before stopping he started telling us that there's a store right next to the famous one that also has the egg tarts and that they are actually as good or better than the famous ones. I was so intrigued that i decided to try them. The cab driver continued talking about how him and the owner were friends and went to war together. He told us to say he was the one who talked to us about the place and whatnot. So we left the cab and went in. As soon as we went in the taxi cab driver came in as well, said hello to his friend and introduced us. It was so funny!

We got an egg tart and coffee each and I do admit that these are better than the other ones when eaten cold. the other ones get a bit mooshy when cold and these were still crunchy. So if you don't to wait and you just want to eat a Pastel de Belém, why not try these? It's the yellow coffee shop in the corner.

After chatting we left. It was fun.

One can imediately see the stunning (and gigantic) Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jerónimos Monastery) so we just looked at it for a while and took photos (like any decent tourist would).

One of the local lolitas (and friend) works in a nearby art center called Centro Cultural de Belém and we promised we'd visit if we happened to go there that day. So we did not break our promise and headed to CCB.

She was working in the Berardo collection section which was free of charge. We found her very fast and she gave us a quick tour of the place and the collection. It was a lot of fun but especially very interesting.
I was glad we went there.

Yay Submarine!

I am like a little kid, i like the interactive pieces the most.

After visiting the museum we said goodbye to the lovely Annie and decided to visit the nearby tourist attractions because even if i go to Lisbon from time to time, I rarely do that.

If you cross the road you can visit the stunning Padrão dos Descobrimentos which is a monument place in the exact spot where the ships would sail to India etc when Portugal was the most powerful country in the world. 

About 10min walk from that you can find the Belém tower which was of course the gateway and safety tower back in those days. It's rather pretty, I always liked it.

They also have this mini Belém tower next to it which i found to be even more adorable. I wanted to bring it home for my dolls. 

After that we walked back to the train station and got on the train. We decided to visit the Museum of the Orient which was just in the next station. The train ticket wasn't cheap but we were really tired so we didn't want to talk there. Its not that near if you're on foot.

The Museum has a very nice collection and is suited for people who do not really know a lot about asian history, culture and religion but I still liked it. One thing was pretty odd though, the museum inside is completely black. Everything from the walls, stairs and even the benches are black. 

My brother when we left told me he had liked it but he was kinda annoyed that there weren't any benches for him to rest. I told him that there were a ton of benches near the stairs and he said he didn't see them because everything is black. It's that dark. Yes it looks rather modern and misterious but... Anyway I leave you with some shots of what you could find there. The seasonal exhibit is on Tea btw.

After visiting the museum and the store we asked the reception if it would be ok for them to call for a cab which they did. We still had 1hour left before our train but didn't want to risk it. 

We got some food at a store there and got on the train. 

They still had "Happy holidays" bench covers hehe. 

I think we both sleep throughout most of the trip. When we got back to Porto it was rather cold. 

We changed trains and i finally got home. 

Well I hope you enjoyed reading about my trip.
Jo