A Chilled Out Day of Shopping and Food 🍲🍧

On Saturday 13th May, I met up with Sammi and her sister, Nicola, who'd I'd not seen in ages.

I was so in the mood for a weekend adventure, having had a pretty tough week at work. I started a new office job last month, and a mere few weeks in, the person mentoring me set off for a two week holiday to California, leaving me to blunder through despite not really knowing what I was doing. Somehow, I made it through this trying time, and things seem to be falling into place as time goes on!

On this day, we took the opportunity to do some shopping for this and that. Sammi and Nicola decided to do some fabric hunting, I collected my contact lenses from the optician's, and we also looked for the more mundane items like toiletries. After having sufficiently worked up an appetite, we headed to Bolan Thai, my favourite local restaurant.

I've never had a meal there that wasn't amazing, and the staff are incredibly friendly and accommodating. They are happy to leave you to chat for hours, and actually come back to offer you water if you're still there after ages! I wish more restaurants had such a relaxed atmosphere, but I do feel lucky to have this one so conveniently located for me.

The ingredients are always delightfully fresh and perfectly cooked. I particularly enjoy their sweet and sour dishes such as this one!

We stayed for a few hours, catching up on one another's lives. We talked work, relationships, friendships and much more. It was a lot of fun getting to chat to Nicola outside of a lolita meet, which was previously more or less the only environment I'd get to see her, and would always be a situation where we wouldn't get the chance to talk at length! She's an artist, so it was incredibly interesting hearing about her convention vending experiences, and thinking of potential conventions we could split table costs at!

After we had our fill of yummy Thai food, we decided to have a wander around the shops, and mainly found ourselves browsing homewares! We spent a particularly long time in TK Maxx, which is such a treasure trove of ornaments and decorative boxes and novelty furnishings that it's hard not to get carried away in there!

The lighting in there is surprisingly good so we couldn't help heading to a big mirror to get a group photo! As you can see, I got myself a really impressive toiletries haul that day!

Sammi and I ended up accidentally doing some Mickey Mouse twinning, so naturally, we needed to capture some evidence of it. 

Well, it's a good thing I was wearing bloomers, as unbeknownst to me, my bag hitched up the back of my skirt! This picture makes me smile because while having it taken, Sammi and I kept smiling for the camera... even though we weren't even looking at it.

After doing a bit more wandering around in candle shops and the like, we decided we were in the mood for dessert, and headed to the local ice cream parlour, situated most conveniently at the train station. I enjoyed my peach amaretto ice cream cone so much I forgot to take a picture of it! It was a lovely end to such a positive, relaxing day, and I'm very much looking forward to more days like this. 

An outfit shot. I think we've already established I have a huge love for monochrome! While I enjoy the dramatic contrast you get when you coordinate it with red, pink is my favourite colour, after all!

Hair accessory: gift 

Bunny bolero: Baby, The Stars Shine Bright

Necklace: Claire's

Dress: Lazy Oaf

Bag: Lazy Oaf

Shoes Bodyline

It's definitely easier to get through the working week when you have fun plans to look forward to at the weekend, and I've been doing my level best to keep my social calendar filled up! I was so grateful for this relaxed day out, and as we get further through May, I'm looking ahead to International Lolita Day coming up soon, for which I've got some plans for!

What are your favourite restaurants to go to? Do you enjoy looking at homewares? I'd love to hear all about your shopping preferences! As ever, thank you so much for looking and reading, and I'll see you next time! ❤

Lolita as Formal Attire 💜

I've seen a lot of discussions over the years in the lolita community about whether or not lolita is acceptable to wear for [insert event]. I'm inclined to say that it can be dressed up or down for pretty much anything, and all you really need to worry about is how practical it will be for you, and the attitude of the people who will be attending the event. As with anything in life, it's important to be respectful of other people's feelings. For example, it would seem a little inappropriate to turn up to the wedding of someone you don't know very well in a shiro coordinate. It may also be taken rather offensively if you turn up to a sombre occasion, such as a funeral, wearing an OTT sweet coordinate without asking anyone's permission. Balance is key, and you have to be sensible enough to realise when it's better to put the frills away that day.

Thus far, I've never run into any problems wearing lolita for various non-lolita occasions and events. I've worn lolita to a school prom, to two weddings, and a baptism, as far as formal events go, and I received nothing but compliments on my attire. One thing I do like about the fashion is that once you've amassed a cohesive wardrobe, you never really need to worry about buying dresses for upcoming formal events, provided your personal lolita style isn't too outrageous! But like I said, if the attitude of the other people going to the event is more relaxed where self expression through clothing is concerned, you probably won't need to worry too much.

My most recent formal event was a baptism, and for the occasion I wore Trick Hat, Pricked Heart. It's what I sometimes refer to as my "Holy Grail" dress, as the only time I ever saw it come up for sale is the time I bought it... and that was rather a while after I first wanted it! I'm not sure if it's a legitimate rarity or if those who first bought the dress on release simply love it as much as I do and would never part from it. Either way, I always feel so happy to see this piece in my collection, especially after I spent a while assuming I would never own it, and it was fun to give it an outing after having not worn it at all in 2016.

My family are totally unfazed by my alternative leanings, and my extended family don't even bat an eyelid when I rock up to events in a lolita coordinate, so I had no worries there. I went for something relatively casual, as honestly, I feel the print speaks for itself.

Hairbow: Handmade

Bolero: New Look
Jumperskirt: Trick Hat, Pricked Heart- Alice and the Pirates

Bag: Angelic Pretty

Shoes: Bodyline

I really like the way I match my bedroom here! I always love having the fairy picture on the wall, but it looks particularly lovely with this dress!

I ended up posting this coordinate in a casual, daily lolita coordinates group on facebook and was surprised by the positive feedback. I'm not sure if I'll post again, but it was fun to have that little bit of interaction with the lolita community at large for a moment, as it's not something I do much of these days. 

So... have any of you ever worn lolita to a formal event? How did you go about coordinating your outfit? I'd love to hear about it!

Thanks for reading and looking, and I'll see you next time ❤