International lolita day, winter.

9th of January

This day our community, the Portuguese Lolita community had organized a small gathering in my town to celebrate the winter loliday with a huge delay. Better late than never, right?

Anyway the weather was a disgrace, it was raining a lot and barely anyone was in the streets. 

It was scheduled at a lovely chocolate/cake store in which we had too many yummy sweets. It was great.

I had a lot of fun just looking at lolita magazines, eating and chatting with everyone and I love how everyone looked so different too. 

My friend Su came all the way from Lisbon to attend and stayed at my place which was a plus. <3 

Su, I adore you Su.

After getting dressed I went over to the meeting spot where soon all the participants arrived. Sadly it then started raining (a lot!) and we had to go all the way to the shop under heavy rain (my feet were super wet) but once we got there we got pretty confortable.

The counter full of tasty chocolates <3

We chatted and looked through lolita magazines and just spent a lovely afternoon. I really do wish we had these more ofen but the truth is, we just don't..

Group photo. Everyone looked super different, which is really cool. 

I am going to leave you with some photos of the goodies. The food was super yummy and just perfect for a dark and wet afternoon like that one. <3
I had my favorite drink (cappuccino) and a slice of chocolate / passion fruit cake, it was amazing!

Also Su brought me an adorable present, this cute cupcake shaped box which is now being used as decoration downstairs <3 My daughter also got treats, a princess crown and scepter which she loved.

You spoil me too much Su!

That was pretty much our day. 

The next day Su had to go back home but we booked lunch at our favorite restaurant, Ichiban.

Su loved it which is what's important. The view there is usually amazing because its right next to the sea but the weather was even worse on that sunday so just getting out of the car and into the restaurant was a freaking nightmare. 

Anyway I hope you liked hearing about my special weekend. I really want to have another one in my town just like that but nothing is scheduled for the rest of the year hehe.

I love you, thank you for following even if i'm too busy to post often. <3 I really really do appreciate it. <3

Japan 2015 Lolita Day

Hello everyone, how are you doing?

As only some of you know, I have been quite sick. I have been in and out of doctor's offices and taking a ton of tests to try and feel well again. 

I was in Japan for three weeks recently, we arrived last weekend to Portugal. I was unwell for the most part of the trip and even went to see a doctor there as well. Still I managed to have a handful of nice days out of this trip and one of them was the day in which I got to see my friend liemzie again.

My husband took some outfit photos before we got to the meeting point and I really like them, they remind me of Momoko living in the japanese countryside haha. I am almost 100% sure there's not even a single lolita in that small town. 

The pieces I am wearing were all gotten during the trip because I did not take anything lolita with me. Fortunately this dress does not need a petticoat! I did feel the lack of accessories but it wasn't too terrible wearing this outfit, it was sort of light and fresh.

We had to change trains in Tennoji station and there's a Axes femme store there where i got something i will need for a future outfit. The shop girl was super nice, we always made jokes when we went there.

We also had a lovely lunch there, it was like going to an upscale posh restaurant, the food was incredible and it was like 10 euros a person. It was cheap. I love eating in Japan, high quality for affordable prices. I have never had a terrible meal in Japan.

After that we went to Osaka station to meet my friend. I was a bit early but so was she! Great timing.
Since I have no clue on what to do when i'm in Japan, she, again, decided on what we could do.
We visited a limited store with really nice handmade things. It was a lot of fun and i wanted it all.

It was in this lovely mall with a ton of exhibits and activities. There was a train exibition too and I got a little something there too.

Me and the lovely Liemzie with... flamingos. :P

Picking out our favorites, look how focused we are! 

I liked this store a lot, i considered buying the straw hat with the black ribbon and bows....

When we got to this stall we got stopped by a bunch of older ladies who started complimenting our looks and asking us questions. It was really funny at first. They wanted to take photos with us and the artesan showed me a book she published...

... but then it came to a point where they wouldn't let us go and we got a bit bored. I even got something from the lady's stall in the end haha. look how unconfortable we both look!

After checking the pop up store out we left the mall and went to our next stop.

The Osaka (limited time only) Gudetama Coffee. How cute (and silly) is that?

Better photos on one of liemzie's fabulous blog posts.

The entrance for this café. 

my husband got the matcha pudding, it looked so sad!

Liemzie still had not had lunch so she had something more nourishing.

Our table! I misbehaved and had matcha latte.

 Fun facts about this place. There were only about 8 things one could pick so the choices were limited. Although Gudetama is an egg there are no egg related recipies which seems strange. The waiter did not place my cup on the individual paper in front of me. I thought it was odd but them Liemzie told me its because some people want to take them as souveniers. It sounded lovely but also silly because that means they serve no purpose.
Other than food there's merchandise on display and even statues of Gudetama around the place. The coffee will move to Tokyo next so that means all of this will be gone soon.

Hep Five has the most amazing Purikura area I had ever seen. There's a couple machines near the normal game and UFO machines but then there's a top floor that is actually exclusive to girls and or couples! So a boy cannot walk around there alone, ever!
They have costumes for rent and girls apparently come over with bags with clothes and then change clothes for purikura and then back to their normal clothes. There is an area with mirrors and beauty appliances (like hair curlers and dryers etc, not kidding!) for people to freely use to make sure they look their best.
Then there's a ridiculous amount of purikura machines of all styles! Unbelievable.

One of the purikura machine corridors.

We look so happy and silly, this is one of my favorite photos!

This machine was hilarious... it was about... being manly? I did not even understand but we ended up making a video punching a non-existant boxing bag. How silly is that?

And these were some of the costumes one could rent. They claim that one could dress in maid and lolita... so those maid outfits are both? So japanese people are confused on what lolita is too. XD

We then visited a bunch of nice stores! Most of them I never went to before!
Axes Femme, again! Liz Lisa, BABY, the stars shine bright, Ank Rouge... and some more. I saw a lot of things I wanted... shopping in Japan is so easy....

We also visited a Rilakkuma pop up store thing. You can read about it on liemzie's blog. 

She got the cutest Rilakkuma ever!

 And we took another silly photo, this time we couldn't do it together.

After this we finally said goodbye to Liemzie because it was getting quite late. It was so nice to see her again. It will be the last time we will be able to meet in Osaka too because she is moving back home. I am going to miss having a friend in Osaka but i'm sure we will see each other again in Europe.

When she left we went to a couple character stores where I spent more money. I mean common, look at how much fun these stores look! Look at the colors!

We finally sat down and had dinner. My husband wanted chinese and I ended up having a really yummy meal. I felt better these days, i thought i was better so I took some risks.

After that we went home, I was super tired but very happy. It was a great day, probably the best day of all the trip.

Thank you my friend!

Jo

Unexpected Visitors

Hello!

I have been prettty absent lately, the truth is that after LVER I had not worn lolita up till yesterday night. I am still in mad love with the clothes but the lack of a decent community here and the fact that I feel more and more unconfortable wearing it around my town for a bunch of different reasons (some known and some that not even I know) has made me grow a bit detached from the fashion this year.

Fortunately though I got the chance to meet one of the international lolitas that i consider my friends this week, another SFE member, Josine. She and her mom decided to visit my town, Porto and so we could at least see each other twice.
The first time we met the weather was absolutely terrible, the worst really, super strong abnormal winds, rain, cold but we still managed. My husband was kind enough to be our driver and we also took Mari. We met them at their rented apartment and then headed over to a local traditional cousine restaurant, Abadia. Josine's mom said she remembered having a codfish dish she loved years back so we ordered the closest thing possible. It was a really nice dinner, it was our pleasure to invite them. <3 After that we rode around town and i did a bit of the tourist guide talk thing.
Unfortunately I had to wake up super early as usual for work so we had to say goodbye after that. She was wearing a Juliette et Justine skirt i'd love to own myself (and the matching socks that I actually do own) and looked super feminine and cute. I wore pants and looked boring in comparison so I decided if we could meet again that i should try to go a bit more girly.

A couple of days went by and i was too busy so i didn't even try to meet up but finally yesterday night, and since my husband and daughter would arrive home quite late, i finally met with her again. I was lucky because she left in a flight this morning!
During the time we did not see each other the sun came back but, curiously, when we met it started raining again. I thought it was kinda amusing despite also being inconvenient. The weather sucked when we were together!
I wore casual classic and she was in the same style so we matched! I went to the place where she was staying which was about 10min walk distance from my place and we just looked for a place to sit and chat. We found a bar and just went it. We had sangria and talked for a long time, it was a lot of fun.
Unfortunately we did not manage to take any photos together other than a cellphone selfie that I posted on my facebook but when i got home I asked my husband to take a few shots of what I was wearing.

Beret: offbrand + bow from dress
Shirt: offbrand (Axes Femme)
Jsk/Cardigan: Innocent World
Socks: offbrand (calzedonia)
Boots: offbrand (c&a)
Corsage: SFE gift

 I wish Josine could come visit us more often, I have missed having someone who shares my love for lolita to talk to in person. It does remind me of how lonely it is to live here in that department. I wish I could go to another event this year but I do not think I can.

On another note I have gotten a few cases for my Iphone and I want more, i'm addicted to my phone for some reason. <3

Oh and my husband got me something yesterday too, i thought it was adorable. He said "I am sorry love but I had no time to get you a souvenir so I bought something on the plane instead. I hope you still like it!"He got me makeup! I loved it, and I actually do not own any eyebrow makeup kit so that's something new for me. 

Anyway that is all for now, I'm sure it sounds boring to some of you but it was a really happy event for me.

Love always,

Jo

[Vigo] The Lost Child Tea Party

Hello!  How is everyone?
It's been more than a month since I have last posted so I hope you will forgive me.

[8th November] Lolita event in Vigo, Spain 

I am going to post about something very special to me, the weekend me and my familly spent in the neighbor country Spain (Vigo).

The lolita community there invited the Portuguese community to attend an even they were planning and I made sure I organized my life in a way to be able to attend.
In the end only me and another girl, my friend Vania, bought the tickets and so I booked a room for us and we arranged all the details.

I packed the day before and just planned an outfit at the last minute as usual. We woke up very early because we wanted to be there on time. We put all our things in the car and we started our journey.

It was raining and we drove slowly for safety reasons but eventually i managed to get there more or less on time. I finally found the venue which was very central and got in. I was greeted by my dear friends and felt quite at home. I got instructions to get dressed in my own outfit first because I was looking dreadful in leggings and a top and no makeup. While getting dressed i found out that i had left all my makeup and my wallet with my husband so Maria saved me and helped me by doing my makeup for the day. <3

The table at the entrance with the gift bags and the photo corner.

The table with all the yummy prizes. Again I did not win anything, I am so unlucky... not even at such a small event *sigh*

Some of the guests

Indrolita and Fidel David stalls (can you see? Many things were sold, I was happy to hear that)

Maka's korean beauty products stall. She was super sweet and put up with my silly newbie questions quite graciously i must add.

When the time came, I was ready and i mingled and chatted with people as well as looked at the products the stalls had available. The stalls belonged to the special guests of the event:
Fidel David - facebook
Indrolita - facebook
Maka - Youtube
I couldn't buy anything which was annoying and i really liked some of the pieces there because of course Fidel is an amazing designer (his stuff was gone in minutes) and Indrolita makes some great things which are totally my style... and i was also very tempted to try Korean beauty products as well so Maka stall looked super interesting.

After this is was time for the munchies!

After eating I was still hoping that my friend Vânia would appear but soon lost hope. I later learned that her boyfriend had gotten really sick making it impossible for them to travel even though she had gotten the event ticket and hotel room for them both to take part in this. It was quite sad as I know i'd love to have spent the day with her.

I finally got called to go back stage where we'd change into our fashion show outfits. I did not get to practice like the other girls probably did because i arrived just in time for the event and it was my first time participating in a fashion show (ok there was another time but there were like 5 people watching and it was in the dark in a club a long long time ago) so I admit I was ridiculously nervous. 

I did not know how i had done until I watched myself on tape in Maka's vigo week report video (0:50). I was happy I didn't do too bad. It was actually a lot of fun and i'd do it again if i could!

We then sat for the panel and listened to the special guests intro as well as the Q&A session. 

Everyone got together and we took a group photo. I was a bit sad i didn't get to be in the group shot in my own outfit because now everything looks so black haha.

 After this everyone changed back into their regular outfits and returned the stunning pieces back to the designers! Nooo...

Anyway here's some photos of me and some of the really nice people that attended, some who are dear dear friends (hopefully forever).

I wore: triple fortune bonnet; mille fleurs shirt; MmM op; Btssb bag; Queen bee boots.

My dear friend Maria who looked absolutely beautiful in her handmade dress! and on the left is Míriam, she was picked by the guests as the best coordinate from the whole event. Her dress sparkled, it was so pretty! 

Me and one of the hosts and a dear friend, Cristina. She did such a great job organizing the event, I was really happy to be there to support her. <3

Fidel is so dapper, look at his shoes. Such a gentleman too. <3 The whole feeling of the event was very casual and friendly, just like I like it.

  

The next day we were supposed to have lunch in Vigo and walk around Vigo for a bit but ended up returning in the morning instead. We felt like something was missing and did not want to go home so we had lunch at our favorite restaurant (we go there way too often though haha), Ichiban. Definitely the best (by far) Japanese restaurant in my town. It's so authentic it feels as if we are on holiday (or home).  

We took a stroll around the area, it was nice out, i couldn't believe it had rained so much the previous day, the weather can really change dramatically in a night!

And this is my "haul" from the trip: 

1. Pack of cards and pins that everyone got from the event as a gift. 

2. A snail nutrition mask i got at Maka's stall. I already used it and its by far the best mask I have tried. I cannot vouch for the effect of it on my skin but I love the quality of the actual mask and how i felt when i used it. I've been wanting to order more and I think I will soon.

And here is Maka's video blog on her week in Vigo, I'm modeling at 0:50 and you can get a clearer sense on how the whole thing went by viewing it. <3

I really hope you liked reading about this special weekend, thank you for reading all the way till here. 

Love,

Jo