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
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
I was going to post a bit more, stuff other than just this weekend but I ended up procrastinating and I'll only post about the weekend in the end. I hope you will like reading, it was a very happy time for me so hopefully you will.
7th March - Friday
Two events took place on friday, my inlaws sent a package full of food again and that arrived which is always a colorful fun event for me and my husband. Mari had fun taking everything out of the box and putting everything inside again and so on...
Later that evening, around 10pm my dear friend fla arrived from Lisbon. She wanted to come over to visit me and my familly and would stay with us for the weekend!
8th March - Saturday
We woke up at decent time i suppose but took our time around the house. We decided we should go have lunch somewhere and everyone got ready.
Me, my husband, Mari, my older brother and fla all got in the car and my husband drove us to the nearby city of Vila Nova de Gaia to go to his favorite restaurant.
My friend fla brought gifts, yes i know.... what a nice girl!
She got things for Mari and also made some things for both Mari and myself. <3
She got Mari a set, a H&M red dress with pink dots and she made a matching bear headdress. How cute is that?
I keep telling her that I adore the floral headbands she makes so she made me one. She made it in red, white and gold. It is huge I wonder if i can pull it off.
She also made me a bear black headpiece. She did it out of a sort of spike things, as a dare. I shall wear it just for the lolz. :P I wonder if i can pull it off?
I also saw her wearing these tights and i loved them. I told her so and she got me a pair. I had no idea they were from Primark. They look amazing in pictures, everyone should get a pair.
In the afternoon we had scheduled a Lolita meeting. One of the local girls, Isabel, had scheduled it before fla even knew she'd come over. It sounded like fun but we had other plans so we knew we could only stay for a bit. Still we got dressed and went. We had decided to wear the same dress since we both own Metamorphose temps de fille room print in the white colorway. Of course for fla that means her confort zone: sweet lolita and for me quite the opposite. It's fun thought and i think i pulled it off.
We ordered one cake and shared. It was ok, i think the presentation is better than taste there but the kitchness of the decor of that place won me over.
We had to leave a bit earlier (aroung 5.30) because we had a classical music thing at 6pm. We got in the car and off we went. Unfortunately that weekend there was a ton of traffic and, in the end, we could not get there on time. So that means no show and leaving the meeting earlier for nothing! We decided not to let it go to waste and stopped in a nice spot for some shots.
So I guess since we got nice shots I cannot complain but i'm still sad because i wanted to take fla to the show. Oh well....
We both wore the same print (fla wore the op version and I wore the jsk), the same shirt, the same lace socks in different colorways, flat shoes, ankle socks and the exact same bag in different colorways, same accesories etc. I think it was a decent twin experience and it was a lot of fun!
Soon, the next day report. I wonder what we both wore.... :P
I hope you liked the post, i miss her terribly!
Love,
Jo
Today the country is on alert due to a storm we named Stephanie and so obviously I decided to stay in. I say obviously but I just watched the news and they were showing people actually taking strolls near the shore... with babies, dogs, jogging, etc. I think this is ridiculous to be honest, when someone tells me to not go to a certain place because there is a storm, i won't go. There might be no problem in doing so in reality but its the idea behind the action that bothers me, and its something I hope my daughter will not copy.
Anyway, I took the day to clean mold. I have mold at home, it has completely ruined the back of my ikea shelves in my living room and covered the stone near the windows and also another pices of furniture. It smells like mold when we go in the living room too. I cleaned so much mold I still feel the mold in my throat and its a horrible feeling.
Unfortunately i could not take everything out and the shelves are now ruined. I wonder what it looks like the other side, i didn't have enough strength to take them out of their place to check the back.
After that I had scheduled to meet online with my facebook friends and so got dressed. I felt like wearing something lighter today and this is what I ended up putting on. I never really know what I'll be wearing, i'm just like this, this is how i have fun with lolita.
The hair accessories are a mix of offbrand pieces, the necklace and socks are metamorphose, the op is Atelier Pierrot, the shoes are queen bee, the bolero is IW and the wig is cyperous.
The online thing was a bit less long this time because Mari was not sleeping and needed my attention but it was still amazing to talk to the few who decided to join me. Again a big thanks to Azu, Meow, Pam for the company!
My husband arrived and my brother decided to come visit (my brother smelled horribly of smoke and I got even more confident that I will not become a regular smoker sometime soon. I hate that smell ;_; he was sad when i told him that he smelled like that but i'm honest. :P
My husband brought some food from his lunch today which was nice and I just made dinner for my brother as well. Mari is now sleeping and we are just spending some time in familly in the sofa, seems perfect if it wasn't for the fact that everyone has to go back to work tomorrow and also for the mold in my throat.
I am about to post this and then i'm going to watch another episode of reign. I started watching it after someone in the bjd community told me about it. The reason I started watching it is that the other two series I follow have finished and I'm not sure when the next seasons will be made. I hate that, wish they would just continue the series until they ended and that'd be it. I don't like the wait.
I have been quite busy and will probably be even more busy in the near future so I am not sure if i'll be able to finish my Japan trip reports.
I am not back in Portugal and two days after returning from Japan (and heading straight to work) I had another trip scheduled. I would attend the London based event Frock On!.
There's many things I was looking forwards to regarding this event so i'll make a small list of the main ones:
- It would be my first time ever in a country that has english as its nº1 oficial language (and so, my first time in the U.K.);
- I'd be getting in a lolita fashion event (getting a new sparkle of love for the fashion) with my best friend, miss Lucythewhite (and we had a blast the last time we did this so I was looking forward to that);
- I would be meeting a lot of new lolitas and seeing some of my dearest lolita foreign friends as well <3.
I got off work earlier than expected. There were still a few hours left till the meeting time at the airport but i decided to go straight there anyway ("best not to risk anything go wrong", that was my reasoning). As a result I ended up sitting down and waiting for a long time. I took the oportunity to buy some flu medicin as I got sick before leaving which was much unfortunate.
Eventually Lucy arrived and we proceeded to the gate area where we ate something and waited a bit more since the flight got delayed. We also got our bus tickets to get from Stansted to the city center.
Lucy gets totally freaked out from flying so i tried to talk talk talk as much as possible during take off and landings. I wanted to chat with her during the flight too but i was so tired from my job that i slept during the entire flight!
When we arrived the plane was late and we were at risk of missing the last shuttle bus to Victoria Square so we had to run again which I hate doing but always end up having to do. -_-;
We finally figured out where it was and fortunately managed to get in the bus. The bus ride was long and i don't remember if i slept or not.
We finally got to the town center and I got the scare of the trip! As I got out of the bus this woman was leaving the are with a bag that looked like mine. I ran to her and asked "excuse me, are you sure this is your suitcase? Because it looks exactly like mine!" She looked at it and said "oh... it might be similar but not mine, you are right!" - I gave her a really scary evil glare because for crying out loud, who at 3am just takes any bag without checking? I mean what would she and I do if she had ran off with my bag? Gah.
After this ridiculous (but apparently it can happen to any of us) Vânia checked the address and we decided to walk to the hotel. It took around 20 minutes to arrive there but at 3-4am with nobody around i must admit it was kinda nuts. But the metro was not working anymore and we'd have to call a cab on purpose so this was the fastest and cheapest way.
We ended up getting to the hotel just fine and the reservation was confirmed and we could finally sleep.
Saturday 31st of August
We woke up with the alarm in the morning and started getting ready. I took a shot of the room. It's a student lodging "hotel" so the room looks just like that, a student dorm room. There were a lot of shelfs, two desks the whole nine yards.
The best part was the view! The window was pretty small as you can tell but damn, i wouldn't mind having that view myself.
We both took a bath and started getting ready. It did not take too long to get ready, having outfits already picked out makes it easy. I can see why most people plan outfits ahead of time.
This is what I wore and this what Vânia wore! We are matching in a way, colors and also my socks have the same print as her dress!
In the elevator! Love this photo, its nothing out of the ordinary but its one of my favorites of the day. We just look very excited and amused.
This is the façade of the hotel. If you ever are in london, want to crash in the town center and do not want to pay an extreme amount of money, I recommend it. (LSE)
And this is the other side of the street, there was a Sherlock Holmes pub that we did not visit. It was a lovely sight every day though.
We grabbed a latte and a cake of some sort as breakfast and spend a couple of minutes sitting and enjoying our breakfasts. After that we decided we should go as early as possible since we did have Super VIP tickets that enabled us to get in faster.
Outfit info:
Wig: Cyperous
Hair accessory: Triple Fortune
Dress: Metamorphose temps de fille
Socks: Juliette et justine
Bolero: Atelier Pierrot
Boots: Queen Bee
Bag: Ahcahcum Muchacha
When we got to the venue there was nobody outside so we wondered if we were in the right place. We were then greated by the doorman and got in. There were only around 10 lolitas there. I said hi and tried chatting with them for a bit but they did not seem too interested in carrying that conversation for longer so i met Lucy outside again.
After a while a lot more people were finally coming and soon the entrance looked a bit more crowded.
We chatted with some other people ( Isa <3) and met some others as well while waiting.
After a bit Kyra and Michaela came down the stairs and started telling us what we should do.
We got in different lines depending on each one's ticket and started heading over to the reception desk to get our tickets and our goodie bag. When i arrived they did not give me a tea party ticket. I noticed that a bit after.
The first thing we did was look at all the sales booths had and eventually spend some money. Vânia checked Juliette et Justine first and was disappointed because there was nothing from the old collections and the only new design she liked that was there was the dress she is wearing on these shots.
We fell in love with the milly fleurs amazing shirts (i always want one when i see them but they are out of my price range for shirts), the atelier pierrot high waisted skirts, the magnificent bonnets... then we looked at all the amazing off brand things. There were so many things i wanted! (incredible how being with vania makes me wanna shop while when i was in japan i was so un-inspired).
We both got grimoire socks before anything else.
Since we could not find anything we really wanted and we were on a budget with limite luggage space we then proceded towards the second hand sales room. We found one Juliette et Justine dress that looked terrible on the hanger (seriously, it does look aweful on a hanger!) but had the most delightful print. Vania said she liked it but wanted me to try it on and see if i could finally fit into a jj dress. I did so and it did fit. I do not LOVE it on me but it looks ok with a cardigan over it and i adore the print. I was happy i could finally own one of their dresses.
After shopping the staff announced that we should take our seating in the stage room. Since we had super vip tickets we were offered seats in the front which was a lot nicer than just sitting in the back since it was time for the fashion shows to start.
But before that Kyra and Michaela greeted everyone and there was a segment where Hitomi from Grimoire answered a couple of questions. She seems really nice. I do not follow her work besides the verum tights that is but she really seemed like a down to earth woman. I did not talk to her or ask for a photo because of the obvious (I tend not to want to ask for those things unless its one of my idols and absolutely have to do it otherwise i'll regret) but it was interesting!
I do not remember if there was a break after this or not so i'll pretend everything went in one go.
It was fantastic to see all those inscredible new designs first hand and i fell in love with a coupld of Juliette et Justine's new pieces and some Haneuli things too. I always love all the mille fleurs and atelier pierrot too and for me the mille outfits were the most stunning on stage.
Fashion Show 1
I'll leave you with some shots of some of the stalls in the event. The room was pretty cool too, it used to be a library so now because obviously the books needed to be preserved elsewhere, they have painted books to pretend that they never left.
I do not remember the name of this girl's store but she was super nice and i forced Vania into buying the most ott head piece she has ever worn with lolita, which she'll be wearing the next day.
General view of the room, some Pinkhime on the first two tables. Really not my style at all but you couldn't ignore all that pink.
Another lovely stall, this one was full of the cutest hair accessories. After a while you could see a couple of people wearing those gigantic keys on their hair.
We were waiting for the second fashion show to take place and while everyone else went out to have lunch me and Vania were starving but in good company. I took that time to hang out with my dearest Chrissi and catch up. She is one of the nicest people i met because of lolita, no matter how long we are without speaking to each other (because we do not see each other at all and because i'm terrible at keeping in touch with people, that's just how I am) when we do, its like time froze. And we were also kind of matchy.
Inside our Frock On! goodie bags we also had a couple of mini kit kats so we ate those to prevent from fainting from hunger haha. We sat with very nice girls with whom we chated but who i do not really know. If you are reading this thank you for being nice to us. <3
My dress's fabric (wrinkly because of the luggage and because i only found out that our hotel had an iron and board in the end of the trip -_-;) an our "pre-lunch" kit kats.
There were also some other things going on which i missed so i'll leave you with the videos anyway if you are interested:
- Michaela's Fashion Fix & Bow Tying lesson (+ a view of the event - can you spot me and vania?)
- Chokelate posing 1 on 1 (I am trying to find a video of this but there is not any, do you know of a place to find it? Vania was kind of forced to go on stage so i guess she'll be happy if there isn't any)
We didn't manage to catch these because we went out to get some food and i took that chance to also change shoes. My camera was almost dead so i was not expecting to take any more photos and it it would not matter if i had the boots on or not.
What my outfit looked like with my dear friends, my etc flats, the most amazing lolita shoes in the world! (if you have a pair for sale in size L let me know, i want them in all colors!)
We also took this opportunity to use the Photo Booth they had at the event. We thought we could only use it once but later found out some people got like a ton of shots! We got 4 which is a sheet of photographs. I really like them but we seem to have misplaced them :| Thank gosh there's a copy online otherwise they'd be lost forever.
Aren't they both silly and lovely? I hope we can find the original but one day i'll still print a couple.
After the video messages (i really liked that people had made these on purpose for the event). The one from Mc Melody doll can be found on youtube.
After this it was the goobye speech and the prize raffles. There were a ton of prizes, i was amazed. o.o
This time we actually won something. I keep saying we never win anything but we did. And now comes the karma screwed me over part:
- There was a box of chocolates for everyone, we each took one. They then announced that three of them had an extra paper inside so we all checked. I got one of the only 3 pieces of paper in all those chocolate boxes and headed over to the stage all giggly even though i had only won a signed postcard (hey! It's something!).
When i got to the stage... well they told us very quietly that they had misplaced the cards and that if they find them they'd send mine over. Still haven't heard from them so I assume they didn't find it.
So yes, first time winning something in these raffles except i didn't get to actually "win something". I guess its kind of funny.
Ok this might not seem like something special but I'm in the event's bathroom. You guys have no idea, i have never in my life seen such an amazing bathroom. I wanted to stay there all day. You can see it in the fashion fix video when they show the event.
And me and the incredible (she always looks perfect and she's stunning!) and super nice miss Aliki.
All of my photos with Aliki look terrible, blurry and terrible but i love her so much i need to include one in this post somewhere anyway. Also she has the sexiest accent i've ever encountered. She's part greek and i wasn't even aware of that. Anyway if you can meet her some day you'll see why i like her so much, she's a lot of fun, very mature and just overall a real and extremely nice person.
After this there was a dinner somewhere and Vania really wanted to go so we got ready and left but on the way there it was really cold and since i had a flu i asked for her forgiveness but told her i was going back. I wish we could have gone but i didn't take many warm clothes with me and i did not want to risk getting sicker.
We had dinner at macDonald's instead and before you consider that as a tragic end of day it wasn't. It tasted marvelously. I'm not sure if it was because i was so hungry but it was one of the most delicious fast food meals i have had in a while.
We then returned to the hotel, chatted, took shots of some of the things we got, and fell asleep really fast after that. It was a fantastic day, I was already happy I decided to attend.
And that is all for day one. I hope you could get a bit of an idea of how the event was and what went on. I had fun. I wish i could get in touch with everyone there but truth is I am sort of shy even though I have been told by a lot of people they do not think i'm shy at all. Oh well hehe.
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