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

Nasty weather

Hello everyone,

This saturday I had 3 things scheduled: get fake nails (i started biting them again and this helps), have lunch with my familly and a casual lolita meeting in the afternoon.

I got my nails very short because it will help me resist wanting to bite them, yes i'll even bit the gel nails. I'm that addicted to bitting them. It's my most nasty habit, in the sense that it is really not rational and I cannot simply stop.

I was going for black or red but I got convinced to go for a lovely dark plum tone instead. I like it.

We said goodbye to everyone and headed to the restaurant. On the way we saw just how the weather is terrible and scary at the moment, this is what the Portuguese coastline looks like now, actually today its worse and nobody can circulate in the area due to the danger. The sea is scary, one should respect nature. 

all that foam... 

 Instead of going for sushi again we went to another one of our favoritesPortvgália. My husband loves the steaks there so he ordered steak. As for Mari we just got her rice, some vegetables and an egg and mixed everything together in order for her to have a healthy meal. She likes eating alone now and will often start misbehaving if we say no. This results in a lot of food on the floor and her getting herself dirty too which isn't the best but it is good that she is getting better in eating on her own.

 I didn't feel like having steak, instead I took the opportunity to eat something I really love and haven't been able to eat for a long time, the typical Oporto "sandwich", Francesinha. When its well made its awesome even though after you always feel like you aren't going to eat another one any time soon, its very heavy and totally not the healthiest thing ever. It was not great but it was ok and it was really what I wanted.

Francesinha: two slices of thick bread, steak, ham, chouriço, etc covered in a lot of cheese, a pickle and spicy special beer sauce, Oh and it comes with fried potatoes that we dip in the sauce. 

 I started getting ready for the meeting and when I came downstairs I realized I was more than an hour late to it and that I also wasn't digging my hair (wig) so I gave it a cut and braided it. I like it more now. This means that for the first time I wore a wig so much that it really is close to not be wearable now. It used to be my favorite wig, it is from cyperous. I must buy new black and brown wigs soon.

I wanted to wear my MmM scallop lace op but I saw this one and since its velvet and its so cold i figured i should take this opportunity to wear my velvet dresses before summer comes along. Since the wig has a cute cut i figured a cute bow would be a good pick and then since it was a casual meeting i went with simple socks and shoes.

So I just stayed home (my husband was going to leave in 1 hour and something for a dinner and I would have to be home with my daughter so it made no sense to go. I was a bit sad i missed the meeting but happy I was still wearing something nice. I posted on my facebook that I'd like to chat and sent the Lacebook chatroom link and soon I had the company of three of the most amazing ladies on earth, my friend Lessie, the adorable Azu from nearby Spain and Josine who is very inspiring. I ended up chatting with them the whole end of afternoon and Azu actually stayed for the entire time. I got to know them better and I hope people will join in more often. 

So basically I ended up having a lolita meeting afterall! I even drank tea in one of my favorite cups and used my webcam which has been in some corner for the longest time. 

I had a fantastic day. I had so much fun and felt to nice the whole day that I actually went to bed early for a saturday. I'll explain: when i'm not satisfied with how my day went i want to go out at night or stay up very late to "make up for the lost time". There was none this time. 

I hope you liked reading about my day. I hope I'll have something to post about today even though i'll be cleaning most of the day. <3

Jo

Random post

Hello again,

I'm at work at the moment, it's the last work day before my vacation period and I'm so glad too because I am tired. There's so much work to be done though and when i come back my working life will have changed dramatically since I'm taking on new reponsibilities. Exciting, scary, overwhelming... i have very mixed feelings about this. I'm going into it with a 2 year experience promise because they are aware that me adapting will take time. Hopefully it won't and i'll be perfect in every way. One can dream right?

Anyway since life's so chaotic at the moment i can't seem to be able to place things in a timeline anymore so this post is going to be messy as well.

Sunday the 30th June
I visited my dad the other day, went to his place on a weekend to get those car race shots and videos to him. He lives by the sea and his living block has a swimming pool so its a fairly agreable place to be in.
He always cooks things he knows we like too and he is a fantastic cook so that's a plus.
We decided to go by train as opposed to using the car all the time which sounded like a good idea. We got our tickets and got in the train... and found out that the train didn't stop where dad lives so we had to get off somewhere else. The next train would only be there 45min later so I decided to call dad and ask him to come pick us up.

When we arrived my older brother was already there and soon lunch was served. Dad decided to make Rojões à moda do Minho which has tripes, meet, potatoes and lots of blood. It's the sort of typical dish some people might refuse to eat. My husband admited he wasn't a fan of the tripes because of the animal smell but he had to admit he liked it this time because of dad's cooking skills.

We went to a local café to eat some typical portuguese Bola de Berlim which is a version of the German Berlinger cake. They claim to have the best ones and they are good indeed. I hate half of it and drank an expresso.

We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and having some familly quality time.
Dad's passions include cooking, cars (alfa romeo as you know) and also other things like music and cameras. I took a shot of some of his cameras for you guys.

 Every time i visit dad i want to snatch this for my Ball Jointed Doll, Aléxia. ;_;

We checked the train schedule and went to the station, this was the train that took us home. It was a great day and extremely relaxing!

Saturday the 6th
Our national community got an invitation from an event organizer to attend a japanese music related event (Audiofilia) and they asked so nicely we couldn't say no.
It was ridiculously hot like its been the last month and some of the girls complained about having to wear lolita but i managed to get them all to wear it anyway he. After all when would we get together again, not soon for sure!
When we arrived at the place it was cooler inside and the architecture and decoration was perfect! I hope you can tell from the photos.

Apparently its a bar at night but sometimes host cultural events during the day. What a lovely bar, it made me wanna go at night too!

I had a hard time picking something to wear i must say, i never know what to wear in the summer, lolita or not, i just hate it THAT much. So I just went with the obvious op + ankle sock combo for confort and i am happy I did, it wasn't as painful as it could have been.

Everyone wearing summer outfits. We were all dying a bit. hehe. I wore a MmM op, MmM bag, etc shoes and offbrand everything else.

We sat in the bar for a bit too, everyone behaved and drank water but i wanted to try the new Sagres Radler.

The bartender said "if you want a beer, this is not what you were expecting for sure" and he was right, it tastes like... an odd cocktail. It's not bad though.

We then said goodbye to everyone that was still upstairs and left. Some of us had arrangements, some others had to catch a bus or train... Me, my brother, Duarte and his friend and Vânia went back through the same route so I took this change to take a photo at one of my favorite tourist spots in Porto, Igreja do Carmo.

In the end me and my older brother were left and decided to go to the downtown Costa café. He fell in love... its all very tasty but a tad expensive so that's why I do not go more often. It is usually very crowded but it was actually slow that day which was nice for a change. And of course extra points for the air conditioner.

I am going to Vigo tonight, i'm going to catch a plane there.

It'll be:

Vigo - Madrid - Amesterdam - Osaka

It will also be Mari's first plane experience. 

I hope she'll be a quiet behaved baby as usual but one never knows.

I apologise if any of you is on one of these flights and a baby is crying non-stop in advance.

I will be there until the 27th of August so if you have any photo requests, just let me know and I'll try my best to comply!

Thank you so much for the constant support guys. A big hug to all of you,

Jo

Loliday winter 2012

Hi everyone!

This time I'm going to post about how I spent this year's winter International Lolita Day. I was the one to organize it this time along with lucythewhite and we decided to go to an hotel in downtown Porto that we really like, the Grande Hotel do Porto. We decided to meet ther and have tea in a private room, play games and do a small giveaway as well.

The waiting room where we spent some time chatting and gathering everyone.

The tea room that they reserved for the group.
We only had tea and scones  but only because most girls wouldn't want to pay for the other,
more expensive, options

The whole group, only one girl missing (and the ones that weren't dressed according to the dresscode). 

I wore a simple forest green and black outfit.
I didn't have time to put any makeup on because i was late which was unfortunate
but there are more important things than how one looks when we have resposibilities.

One thing I actually took some time to do was to add a bow to my headdress
 and put some pearls and a crown to try and tie it better with the dress.
Takes 10min of one's time and improves an outit significatively.
I should pay more attention to details from time to time.

I looove lolita coats! I adore wearing lolita in the winter because of them and the mufflers and the scarfs and the mittens... I just love winter clothes. 

I was wearing:
MmM headdress + offbrand altered bow; Metamorphose shirt, Metamorphose jsk, MmM otk socks, Primark shoes, Innocent World coat, offbrand muffler.

After the meetup we were invited by one of the girls to go to her place and grab a bite for dinner. So we went home, changed clothes and headed over to her place.

We had a blast, it surely was a really nice day.
 I hope you can see how much fun we had from the photos and that you enjoyed reading about the Portuguese Lolita Loliday meeting. Girls came from all over the country too.

 Love, Jo

You got a pink dress?

Hello everyone, So this year I felt that i should get something for my own birthday so I got two pieces.

The first was a lucky find, i could have gotten it from the site but it would take a long time to get to me so i was happy to get it in europe for almost the same price as ordering it from the site. My first choice was the one with the white beads because I already own a blue stoned necklace from MmM but i'm just glad i could get my hands in any of them.
I also got a dress that is actually the first item in my online wishlist (meaning its been there the longest) which is something quite simple but that i liked a lot back then, a looong time ago. Back when everything i wore was fully shirred. I found it for an affordable price but it came without the detachable bow which made me sad, i have to say.

Anyway you're probably curious so here you go:

Moi-même-Moitié emblem necklace (blue)

Metamorphose temps de fille shirred floral jsk (pink)

Pattern detail

Bodice details

Fast coordinate that now is being used as decoration in my bedroom. <3

I really like the coordinate, classic lolita really makes me happy so i'm looking forward to wearing it. If not as is then with some modifications. I know it won't look as nice on me as it does on the dressform but I'm still looking forward to it. I am also engaging on a trade, i'm sending one of my MmM for a recent Btssb release. I hope it still fits me, I am... getting bigger lately but i'm hopeful. I also hope i love it on me, i'd hate to lose a hard to get MmM dress for something that not only doesn't fit but also looks bad on me. Oh well I wanted a chance and i can't spend a lot of money on lolita so I decided to take a risk this time. It's coming from the USA via priority mail so i'm not sure when it'l arrive. I'll keep you posted. Hope you liked peaking at my (very rare) late purchases and that you like them as much as I do. Kisses, Jo

Japan trip - Day 8

I really am starting to feel the stress of a time-line and have to get this done with soon. I am sorry if it will seem as if I'm rushing it.

Like I said, every time we want to go somewhere we need to get on the train.

This is usually the sort of train we take. The seats can be moved to chance the direction which is of use and the bottom of the seats is also heated.

My choice for that day. Awww i'm gonna miss you vending machines!

The next day I finally had the chance to go to Shinsaibashi and hit the stores. I fell in love with some things (fortunately not as much as last year) but decided to wait for the sales to buy something from the stores or at least wait till after going to the major used clothes stores due to budget.
We got up very late that day and it was alreasdy lunch time when we arrived at the "triangle" so we just had lunch (we had also missed breakfast because of that).

Having stores and restaurants in the underground floor is absolutely normal here. Not so ordinary back home.

The menu had a monster ice cream. I seriously do not understand how these girls are so tiny! I see them eat, they finish the places just like I do.

One of the few shots i have from that day, sorry about the quality. Figured I should post something else than food.

Lunch, tasty hamburger wish salad and white rice. it was yummy!

After that we hit the stores. It's a bit boring for him but he is a sweetheart. I'm going to leave you with some street shots and some store front shots with little to no text thing time.

Osaka BABY, the stars shine bright store front. Christmas decoration version. They always have things I want, you guys should check them out.

Mandarake signs at the door. I had a blast there and my husband found things he liked too so this was actually fun. I need to go there again.

Every year I take a snap of those street lamps because they are awesome.

Doesn't look like much but its one of the only two places i got stuff from that day, PureSound (one of Osaka's second hand stores). You can buy lolita, japanese punk and goth, cds (mainly visualk), visual k band "costumes", magazines and random merchandise...

Here you can see the Marble store sign. I used to go in every time I was there but seriously? I hate the quality of most things so i just passed this time. I didn't have a lot of time, it was already getting dark.

My favorite store in Osaka, Atelier Pierrot. They have Victorian Maiden, Juliette et Justine, Atelier Pierrot, Chantilly, triple fortune, Moi-Même-Moitié etc there. They are also some of the friendliest store staff I have ever dealt with, regardless if they change workers or not. I just love going there and of course almost everything these is my style.

Osaka's Innocent World. It's like a regular apartment in a building complex. I always find that odd.

Not a brand I am familiar with but who the heck names their store "gross"? Do they want us not to shop there? It works XD

h.NAOTO's stores are always fun to visit, there always seems to have a ton of people having fun on the inside, that's the idea i always get when i visit one.

Another one of my favorites, Miho Matsuda. I try to always by something there when i visit. Their accessories are very reasonably priced.

Random visual k costumes? I'm not sure which band but i thought they were corny as heck and needed a photo.

After this we were very tired (we basically spent a ton of time looking for the meta store but couldn't find it!) and found a lovely cafe that served gorgeous looking cake slices. Plus I needed a smoke and I hate how you can never find the right spot to smoke in Japan. I'm very carefully being polite and following all the rules so i didnt wanna be caught smoking somewhere where its not allowed and risk a fine or something.

The lovely cup of coffee that fit the atmosphere of the place.

My strawberry cheesecake with ice-cream and fruits. So pretty!

The shopping part of the day was over.
My husband wanted us to go see the town's Christmas lights like all couples do on christmas eve and so we did. We walked around that area but ended up going a bit far and it was fun but cold and tiring too. The photos are lovely though and it was insane, the amount of people there and the amount of people coordinating where citizens would move, etc. It was crazy!!!

Trying to show just how much people there was there!

After that, while people got ready to party I suppose, we left. We had promised that we would go home and celebrate Christmas together like we do in the west. We got on the train and left.
When we reached Oji I saw Oji Christmas lights too and didn't want them to feel inferior to the Osaka ones so I asked for a photo in front of it.

 

Awww at least its something!
It was soooo cold that my husband called his dad who was on the run anyway and so just picked us up. We waiting at the convenience store for a while so we wouldn't freeze and then got in the car.
we stopped by Kentucky fried chicken to get part of the xmas dinner and went straight home. Mom was already waiting and dinner was served. A different dinner from the one I have at home but no less delicious.

We even had a Christmas tree (of sorts)!

Tasty KFC chicken that needs to be reserved with some time in advance because its what some people have on Christmas eve.!

Delicious handmade food(etc): octopus (sooo tender!), chicken, salads, sashimi, sliced salame, corn soup and wine.

Every year on Christmas eve the national figure skating champion is on and i still remember watching last year. We did exactly the same this time. Everyone is so enthusiastic about it and its so nice to see that the newspaper and news focus on almost all sports and not just one (in Portugal is all about soccer soccer soccer).

After getting a present from my mother in law: she got me a magic stole that keeps me warm! It was time to go to bed again.
What a different yet full Christmas eve this is, in portugal I barely do anything at all (just buy last minute things and help in the kitchen).
It was fun!
That's it for day 8. I shall post what i got tomorrow with the day 9 post. Stay tuned!
Jo