Birthday Shenanigans!

I have just about recovered enough to type up what I did for my birthday. It involved a lot of eating, travelling and most importantly, spending time with loved ones. 

A while ago James booked afternoon tea for us in this place called the Vineyard, just outside of Newbury. He booked the day off work especially, which I thought was so sweet. I decided to wear my bird skirt from Le Miroir, as I had recently received it. It has already become one of my favourite pieces! I thought I would struggle with the more dusky shade of pink, but it turns out these shoes I ordered ages ago (which I was hoping would be a more AP- friendly pastel pink) were quite a good match. Maybe past me knew that one day I would require dusky pink shoes! 

I wasn't really sure what else to team this skirt with, so I threw on a floral veil and attached the matching hair clip to it. I added rose themed cuffs to make the floral veil a bit more balanced, although I personally don't feel that flowers look too out of place with the overall outfit theme anyway. 

After an adventurous drive to Newbury, which involved the sat-nav only telling us to take a turning when it was too late to take it, we eventually made it to the Vineyard. I went for a tea with apricot and passionfruit flavours which was absolutely yummy. I am not a big tea drinker, but this tea was pleasant and not overly sweet. James went for one which was meant to taste like Victoria sponge and it did indeed smell of the cake! This was the sweet half of the afternoon tea. Although Wimbledon had finished by the time of my birthday, the Vineyard was still putting on their Wimbledon themed afternoon tea, which is why there is a slight tennis theme to the sweets. We had a surprisingly strong Pimm's cocktail (it was small, but potent), a tennis ball which was made up of vanilla mousse and coated in white chocolate, a macaron tower featuring pistachio with orange cream and blackcurrant macarons, a random chocolate thing with gooey caramel inside and a berry and lemon mousse cake with brownie base.

I saved the best til last with this chocolate sweet! It tasted absolutely amazing, although I have to admit I was starting to feel a bit sick at this point! We were not sure if the flower on top was edible or not. James ate his flower, but after seeing his reaction I decided to not eat mine. I think we were given just the right amount of food. There were plenty of sandwiches and 2 scones with clotted cream and jam as well as the sweets. What I liked about this afternoon tea was the amount of variety and how the sweets were not just your typical bog-standard mass produced cakes which you can get pretty much anywhere.

It was raining slightly so I was unable to get many photos of the venue, but here is a random picture of a pigeon going for a dip in the water feature. We were sat by the window, so we had a good view of the gardens at least.

I wont share absolutely everything I got, but here are a few choice items from my birthday present haul! I didn't get much in the way of J-fashion, but I did get another old issue of Larme from James. After having a flick through, it seems like a good issue. The Swablu socks were discovered by me a while ago when I was looking for presents for our friend Matt, so James got them for me, as well as a pair with Goomy on them. The budgie necklace was a nice surprise. It looks very similar to one of my two birds. They do commissions, so I am going to get my other bird designed as well. If afternoon tea was not enough sweet stuff, I also got given sweets for my foreign snack review album by pretty much everybody. I think I have enough sweet stuff to last me until Christmas now!

The day afterwards we traveled down to Kent to meet up with friends. I finally got to visit the Chaos Cards store, where my friend Matt works! It is basically a Mecca of all things nerdy. There is all the Pokemon TCG stuff my heart desires. I am also trying to learn Netrunner at the moment, so it was fun looking at all the different packs and expansions. I couldn't get over how big the store was. The staff were also really friendly and I ended up chatting to this young boy in the queue whose favourite legendary Pokemon is Darkrai. He was very impressed with my Umbreon GX box purchase!

When we eventually got to Jo's house, there was a pitcher of Pimm's waiting for us (Pimm's is definitely the current alcohol of choice). There was quite a lot of fruit in the first pitcher! James then made a second one which had a lot more Pimm's in it. I have to admit, I did get a little bit squiffy!

We sat in Jo's conservatory with our Pimm's to open presents. I was given a book called Beautiful Chickens from Jo and Chris. There was this whole sequence of photos on my camera which captured my reaction perfectly! I am hiding in this picture because I was laughing so much. To be fair, the chickens in the book are indeed beautiful!

We also had homemade pizzas. This is definitely my favourite way to have pizza! Jo made a beautiful dough base and as they were all individual pizzas, we all got to pick our own toppings. No arguments about whether pineapple is a good or evil pizza topping were had! For the record, I am on the fence about pineapple on pizzas. I think there are better toppings.

After an epic Mario Kart marathon and brownies, we retired to bed. The following day we headed out in to Canterbury for brunch. It was absolutely amazing. I had a vegetarian all-day breakfast but swapped out the baked beans for extra mushrooms. The veggie fritter was incredible. I would quite like to learn to make my own. Although I kind of spoiled the veggie day by going to Macdonalds on the way home. I was desperate for food and Maccy D's is terrible for veggie options! Thankfully, it wasn't raining, so we got to sit outside. It was good to have a proper catch up and despite being next to a road, it was quiet enough that we could all talk easily. I absolutely adore all of the people around this table!

This was my first trip to Canterbury and I was stunned by how beautiful it is. There were lots of potential photoshoot locations I noted for when I next travel down. I will attempt to bring some lolita with me next time! Canterbury reminds me of Oxford, but if I am being honest I prefer Canterbury. It is less crammed with tourists and there is a more eclectic mix of shops. I found an amazing new age shop which was selling lots of witchy stuff and there was also a shop dedicated to retro gaming, which had a Pokemon card swapping station as well. It is so great knowing I have a friend who lives here and is willing to let me crash at theirs. I really want to go back and explore more!

So that was my birthday adventure for the year! I have just about recovered (although I am feeling tired from the step exercise class I did yesterday) and I have a lot of happy memories to treasure from my extended weekend. I am missing everybody already!

Birthday Adventures!

Last Thursday was my birthday! There has been a bit of a heatwave here in the UK and I am the sort of person who wilts at the first little bit of heat, but I was determined to get out there an enjoy myself. I am really glad I did, as I had a fantastic day in London with James, and then a fun Saturday with Sammi and Shalisa. 

For my actual birthday, I went to One Aldwych in Covent Garden for afternoon tea. I didn't wear Japanese fashion because I was a bit concerned the staff would take one look at me and turn me away. I wouldn't usually go for an afternoon tea as expensive as this one, but it was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory inspired, and I thought the menu sounded fascinating. Besides, we were allowed seconds on literally anything we wanted. We ended up with 2 lots of savouries and I feel that if we had really wanted to, they would have given us a third round. With the exception of the ham and horseradish on rye, the savouries were all lovely. I would say this was the nicest salmon sandwich I have ever had.

But the real fun came with the sweet half of proceedings! Here we had scones with hedgerow sauce, berry compote and clotted cream, blueberry brioche, chocolate financiers, chocolate and caramel milk, rhubarb and custard candy floss, golden chocolate eggs filled with vanilla cheesecake and mango coulis, lemon cake pops and Eton mess. My favourite item had to be the rhubard and custard candy floss. I cannot put in to words just how intense the flavour was, and it really did taste like the sweets you sometimes get in pick 'n' mix. The staff were friendly too and there was also air-con. I would definitely do this again, although I was almost in a food coma. I couldn't eat another thing, and I was so grateful when we were given a doggy bag for the leftovers.

Afterwards we went to the 40 years of London punk exhibit being held at the British Library. I was very pleased to see that my favourite band were acknowledged for being the main inspiration for the UK punk movement! 

When we got home, I had time to open my presents. As far as J-fashion related stuff goes, I got given these Mu-fish socks and Yidhra tights from James. I have to be really careful at the moment to not buy any more main pieces and some other things, as my wardrobe needs a bit of a clear-out, but accessories were totally fine. I also got given a load of budgie related stuff, as I have turned in to a crazy budgie lady as of late. I will just do a mini review, before people complain this post is not really that J-fashion related! The socks fitted me perfectly and ends a few inches above my knee. I wouldn't recommend them for plus-sized wearers though, as I get the impression the socks don't have that much stretch. The ivory colour is quite obviously white and the pink has a very slight peachy tone to it. The pink is a good match for several items in my wardrobe though, so I am quite content. The tights were a bit of a let-down if I am being completely honest. They fitted me, but it was a bit of a stretch. The navy blue colour is also quite hard to distinguish and they look almost black, although the blue shade is a bit more obvious when worn. The main issue is that when you put them on, the colour almost completely disappears, as does the constellation pattern. It was so faint and became to transparent in places, that could could actually see my skin tone in places.To get a decent colour, I would have to layer navy tights underneath. They are also a weird sort of mesh and they are almost like fishnets. So they are not completely unwearable, but I would not recommend them. I got lots of lovely other presents though, including the sweetest little locket from James. I opened it to discover a feather from both of my budgies inside. It was so thoughtful and I started welling up when I opened the locket for the first time!

On the Saturday, I met up with Sammi and Shalisa. It was another quite hot day, so I didn't want to wear lolita. Yet weirdly, you can still see the lolita influence a little in my "casual" outfit! I am not really sure what this outfit would be labelled as. There are definite retro, sailor and lolita aspects to this, but I am just going to call it casual street fashion! I used a skirt from Primark, which I decorated with some Sugar Trampoline bows. The cutsew is Cherie Cerise, and the rest is a mix of Bodyline and off-brand.

When we got to Reading, there was a "beach" that had been constructed temporarily by the train station. Aside from putting a bit of sand down, it was dire. I would say it was more like a fairground than a beach. There were a couple of stalls where you could win prizes and an over-priced pick 'n' mix stall, but that was pretty much it. The website had promised donkeys, but we never spotted any! The worst part was the ferris wheel, which overlooked a construction site! Isn't the main point of those sort of attractions that you can see a glorious view? After assessing the situation, we left abruptly.

After seeing how full most of the eating establishments were, we ended up getting a Maccy D's and eating it outside the Abbey Ruins. It turned out to be a good call. The food was far better than the disappointing meal we had at the Outlook last time and I got to have my beloved toffee sundae. It was also lovely being sat outside in the shade. There were a lot of Pokemon Go people going by, but we were mostly left in peace. We saw the prettiest little dragonfly flying around as well. Sammi also brought some mini cupcakes, which were much appreciated.

With our recent foray in to perfume buying, Shalisa got given some samples by her mother, who works at a department store. So she bagged them and labelled them in this cute manner! 

Sammi made this adorable budgie themed rosette! It looks a bit like one of my budgies. I pulled the most embarrassing reaction face whilst opening this. It was pretty hilarious, but I wasn't confident enough to share it here! 

During our perfume sampling session, Shalisa inflicted on Sammi the most horrendous smelling perfume ever. She had already tried it and knew how bad it was, but I think she wanted us to join in her previous suffering! Sammi's reaction? She said "it smells like death". The worst part is, this scent was very long-lasting! It was supposed to smell like lilies, but I have never been a fan of lilies and it reminded me of a crematorium. It definitely had a smell of funeral about it! Not even Sammi's strawberry laces smelling hand sanitiser could save her from the death scent.

As we had discussed it previously, Sammi and Shalisa were in casual fashion as well. I liked Shalisa's Banana Fish top and Sammi had layered this lovely dress over a green dress to create a pretty mint shade. I really like how we each took the more casual theme and went very different ways with it. I had to take off my petticoat eventually though, as it was getting way too hot.

I didn't get a good shot on the day, but these are the bloomers that Shalisa gave me. I have been meaning to get a pair for so long. If you would like a pair, you can get them from Shalisa's store Sugar Trampoline. I can tell you that they are very comfortable. As I have a digestive system condition, I can't stand having lots of layers pressing down on my stomach. But these bloomers don't dig in and they are very comfortable to wear. I also found that the elastic stretched comfortably enough that I could wear the bloomers low-slung if I so desired. These bloomers also featured a cute little rose detail at the waist and some bows on top of the gathering at the leg holes. I cannot recommend these bloomers enough and I will be buying myself another pair at some point.

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the well-wishers. I know a few of you who left messages may be reading this post. As you can see, I had a great time and I was so happy to spend some quality time with some much loved friends. I even got to do the Crystal Maze experience the week before with another group of friends, which was incredible. I haven't had the easiest of times recently, so I am so grateful that I have these happy memories to look back on.

Some Casual ILD Fun in Reading

I hope everybody had a good International Lolita Day on Saturday! There were many different communities hosting meets in the UK, which is always nice to see. As for myself, I didn't actually attend any meets and chose instead to just hang out with Sammi and Shalisa. I guess my attitude to comm meets has changed a bit lately and I need to have a bit of a break from them, especially ones that attract large crowds, which I am not so fond of. I feel really lucky to have some good friends I could spend the day with.

I chose to wear Lief's Gardenberries for the first time. I love this print! As you may recall, this dress was a bit big on me, but in the end I decided to wear it without bothering to do any alterations. I may still put a ribbon corset on the back to help make it go smaller, but I don't think the largeness of the dress is too obvious, like the photo above shows. As for my outfit, it turned out a lot more casual than I was planning because I chickened out of doing something a bit more daring. My initial plan was to use more red in the outfit, but it proved a bit of a challenge to get the shades of red balanced, even though there is some red on the dress. I did get a chance to use my Moss Marchen strawberry brooch though, which I pinned to the neckline of the dress, moving the detachable bow to the waist area. Also, please note that my tights were floral patterned ones, but for some reason the pattern wasn't really coming out well in the pictures! I was glad I was able to get one picture where my hair was curly, as the humidity destroyed my curls almost instantly. It was too humid to wear a wig though!

After checking out the selection in various supermarkets, we ended up with a satisfying picnic spread and headed over to Forbury Gardens. It was only after we had purchased our food that we realised Reading was holding their annual food festival that day! It was a bit devastating seeing all that gorgeous street food and the incredible smells coming from the stands, but I don't think we did too badly for food. It makes me smile to think of all the lolitas who sat down for nicely laid out afternoon teas and here we were with a casually thrown together picnic which didn't look too impressive!

Top food choice had to be the Party Ring biscuits that we picked up in Sainsbury's (reduced to 50p!). When we last saw each other we were reminiscing about children's birthday parties, and how it used to be a time where you could eat all the sugary party food that you couldn't normally have at your own home. Party Rings and Iced Gems used to be my favourites, so I insisted we picked up some Party Rings! To tell the truth, I enjoyed our cheap Party Rings far more than the chewy M&S macarons we also had (and M&S spelled macarons with 2 'O's which is always a big no-no!).

Choosing to have a picnic seemed to open up a world of opportunities for people watching and it is amazing some of the things people will get up to in public places. When we sat down it wasn't so bad, there was just one couple doing some intense kissing on a bench nearby. But suddenly, it seemed we were surrounded by couples! At one point there were 5 different couples surrounding us who were in various cuddled up positions and it got a little bit awkward. This couple got especially randy, and there was some bald head stroking going on and what can only be described as straddling and humping. As you can't see their faces, I decided to let this picture stay up on my blog for now! There was also a couple of mums with kids, who were smoking weed (the mums, not the kids!) until a couple of police officers decided to have a stroll around the gardens and a group of local youths on bikes. After a couple of hours spent in the park, I have come to the conclusion that people are very strange, just like the song by The Doors. It makes me laugh how anybody who dresses alternative is seen as weird, and yet we always seem to come across these quirky individuals who don't know how to behave in public.

A lot of the flower beds were barren in the gardens, but we can always rely on the rose garden part to have some nice blooms going on. I never feel like I truly capture how pretty the roses look in my photos. 

Okay, I promise this is the last of the flower photos! This was my favourite bloom that was out. The red was so vibrant. 

Here is a little group shot. I was glad we were able to get a good angle and not get any of the kissing couples in the background! Shalisa looked so cute in her handmade cherry skirt (it is making me want to add more fruit prints to my bursting wardrobe!) and Sammi looked her usual well put-together self in Melty Cream Donuts. 

We have finally mastered the perfect Instax shot! It is all about the distance and angle. It came out so well and I love the vintage feel to it. This makes me want an Instax camera of my own, but they are so heavy to lug about!

I was told there had been a duck in the pond earlier in the day, but I missed it! If I had known, I would have saved some of my bread for it. I know you are not meant to feed ducks bread, but I think it makes a nice treat for them every now and then.

Afterwards we headed to the Slug for cocktails. I went for flavour over alcohol content and got some Porn star martinis. I love passion fruit so much and it is such a nice drink to sip slowly. Our friend Will joined us for drinks as well, which was really fun. Will is so funny and easy to talk to. I think I may of had one drink too many but it was still good, despite the Slug being loud and a bit stuffy.

So despite not really feeling the comm vibe right now, I was still able to dress up and have a good time. I was glad we made the effort to do something other than going to the pub, even if it meant we ended up witnessing a couple getting their bonk on! I hope all of my lovely readers had a good day as well, no matter what you were all doing.

A Bizarre Adventure in London

As both Sammi and James have birthdays in April, we decided it was about time we held a joint celebration for their birthdays. We decided on a trip to London, where we could visit some of our favourite shops and try out a different pub as well. To say the day was eventful is a bit of an understatement...

I was wearing Innocent World's Astronomical Clock for the occasion. I was really unsure how casual or dressed up I should go, and I was also having a bit of a legwear crisis. It turns out I really need to buy more ivory tights! In the end, I layered my star print tights over ivory tights to match the ivory lace on the neckline of the dress. Sadly, it turned really cold as the day went on, and we all ended up dashing in to Primark to buy some emergency tights! So I was glad I was at least able to get some photos of my starry legs before they got covered up. The shoes proved a big mistake too, and my feet were killing me by the evening. But overall, I was pleased with how my outfit looked. It just maybe wasn't the best choice for going to London.

Throughout the course of the day, we encountered a lot of strange people. Right at the start of the day we had people trying to force their way on to the train, without letting the people on the train get off. Common sense would surely mean letting people off, so that you could get on? There was also this very rude old man at Paddington who ended up attacking James with his walking stick and even now, none of us are quite sure why this situation happened. There were the usual buskers and people handing out leaflets in Leicester Square. I ended up being given this leaflet by some sort of church, which had some strange quotes about naked turtles in it. It made for interesting reading at least!

As we went for lunch, the presents and cards were doled out. Sammi seemed to really like the brown and gold Teja Jamilla tights that we got her. I didn't realise that Sammi and Shalisa had got a present for James (there was a lot of sneaky Facebook messages going on behind the scenes!) and he seemed really pleased with his gift. 

James also got us some cupcakes. I thought I had taken a photo of the cakes without the plastic on them, but clearly I hadn't. But I can confirm that the cakes looked really cute in person and they had somehow managed to survive being shoved in a bag and the massive squeeze on the train to London. I was feeling very full from our Chinese food, so I saved mine for later on.

After going shopping, we ended up at a pub called the London Stone, which I can pretty much guarantee I will never be going back to. The pub was recommended to us and to be fair, the actual pub itself is really cool. It is done up in this gothic style with loads of gargoyles and stone pillars. I wish I had gotten some more pictures of the place, but sadly it felt a bit awkward taking pictures when there were so many people in the way. We went for cocktails, as the London Stone has this Seven Deadly Sins and 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse cocktail menu. Sadly, it did not live up to our expectations. The very first cocktail we got tasted like nothing but juice. So to rectify this, we decided to order the 'Death' cocktail from the 4 horsemen menu, which had 3 different shots of rum in it. It is basically a Zombie cocktail. Alas, even this cocktail tasted super weak to us, and we are not exactly heavy drinkers.

Despite this disappointment with the cocktails, we were having a good time. Look how happy we are in this dark photo! And then it all ended on a sour note when a random guy supposedly called Ian came over and decided to try talking to us "young people" as he kept putting it. For all we know, he could have been perfectly harmless, but it was a bit creepy and he wouldn't leave us alone. He was probably only at our table for 20 minutes, but it felt like an hour. It did sadly put a bit of a dampener on our evening. We ended up legging it out of the pub as soon as we could, which meant I couldn't use the bathroom facilities and made for a very uncomfortable tube ride. So yeah... cheers, Ian!

Sammi and I didn't even get the chance to enjoy our cupcakes in the pub as planned, so we ended up eating them on the train home! They were really tasty, so that was at least a positive. I went for the red velvet cupcake, which had the most amazing frosting on it. I think these Waitrose cupcakes may be some solid competition for the Sainsbury's cupcakes that all of our group are really fond of.

I didn't buy much myself. I got a few sweets and a curry pan from the Japan centre and a new book from Treadwell's. Sammi got loads of stationary from Artbox. Whilst she was paying, I found these free postcards from Tofu Cute (who have a concession in the Artbox store in Covent Garden). They had these cut-out-and-keep characters on them. I was initially a bit amused to see that poops are apparently kawaii now, but to tell the truth, this little poop character has grown on me! Seeing as random everyday things like fried eggs are now seen as being cute, I guess a poop with a smiley face can be cute too. And yes, I did cut out the characters! The poop and tofu are in fact on the shelf right next to me, as I type this post. Whether they will stay there or not, I am not sure. It might be a bit difficult explaining to people why I have a random cardboard poop on my shelf.

So the day was a bit of a mixed bag. We seemed to get really unlucky with some of the people we met throughout the day, but I would like to think there were some good moments to the day as well. It has just made us more determined to have a better time the next time we meet up. It is a shame we were not really able to get many photos (Shalisa lugged her massive Instax camera to London for nothing) and our day would have been better if "Ian" hadn't turned up, but at least we were able to visit all the places we wanted. And I got a free cardboard poop and insightful messages about naked turtles for my troubles!

Recent Outfits

I thought today would be a good chance to have a bit of a catch up with some of my most recent outfits that I haven't showcased on my blog. Although I am generally quite good at writing about my mini catch ups with my lolita friends on here, I don't think people realise that I do wear lolita a lot more frequently, even if I am just lazing about the house! I try to post my outfits to Tumblr, but my Tumblr is quite small and modest and to be honest, I have never quite gotten the hang of posting at the optimum time and tagging efficiently. I need to get back in the habit of posting on LaceBook as well. There are so many different places you can share things now, it is hard to keep on top of it all!

So I thought that first I would share a few outfits from when I have just been at home or doing small, boring errands. This outfit was one I was actually meant to be wearing on one of my meets with Sammi and Shalisa, but unfortunately Shalisa was sick. I was really eager to wear this outfit though, so I got dressed up anyway! Ever since I first got hold of Meta's Nostalgic Chess, I have always wanted to do an outfit that involved pinstripes somehow. If you look at the trim on the dress, you will notice that the dress does in fact have pinstripes on it. I recently managed to obtain the blouse that came out with this series, so I knew I had to get it! I felt the pinstripes needed some balancing out though, so I looked online and found some pinstripe tights to match. Although the pinstripes are not the same width, I still quite like how it turned out. I ended up adding red to this outfit because when I initially tried it without red, it felt a bit too bland. I think the red helped to pull the outfit together.

I was having a bit of a "princessy" moment with this next outfit! Although I wrote a post late last year about how I wasn't so fond of wearing OTT lolita any more, there are still times when I feel like dressing up a bit more. I am glad I was at least able to get a few photos of this outfit, because not long after this photo was taken, my hair style decided to completely collapse! I wore a similar hair style to Regalia last year, but I was using a different hair tool which doesn't have the strap of elastic going over the top of my head, which meant that there was less support to hold my hair up. It really does suck having thick, heavy hair that refuses to stay put sometimes! There was no real theme or plan behind this outfit. I just really wanted to look like a princess for the day. Fancy Egg is actually one of the dresses in my wardrobe that I seem to struggle to co-ordinate, so I was glad this outfit was not a total disaster.

Next up is Cinderella Jewellery. This dress had been hiding in the back of my wardrobe for the longest time and I felt it was time it got some much needed wear time. I am not really sure why I decided to wear the tricorn... I just sort of ended up putting it on my head and quite liked it. It gives the outfit a very slight pirate vibe, which I like. I have always wanted to wear pirate lolita and I think this is the closest I have gotten to being a pirate so far. Maybe this is a goal I need to work on in the future.

And finally, I will give you all a look at what I ended up doing on Saturday with Sammi and Shalisa. It was a lovely, sunny day so it was time to break out yet another strawberry print! I got Chained Berry Memoir around about the same time I got AP's Strawberry Ribbon, but I didn't want to wear them one after the other, so I ended up waiting a few months to wear this outfit. This is pretty much my go-to style when I am wearing strawberries, but I did make a few subtle changes. I wore the berry wrist cuffs Shalisa kindly got me for Christmas and a few weeks ago I discovered an old Bodyline strawberry keychain that had been hiding away in one of my drawers for ages. I decided that as I had made this discovery, it was some sign that I should include it, so it ended up getting attached to my bag.

It was also my first time wearing the strawberry hat I got from Infanta. It still bugs me that the strawberries don't always stay in place, but it is still quite a cute hat and I don't regret getting it. 

After going to our regular hang out for food, we headed to the Oracle riverside to head to the Reading branch of Slug and Lettuce. By some curious twist of fate, we all ended up wearing berry prints! We did think about going to the Purple Turtle, but after seeing the Slug wasn't actually that fully packed, we ended up at the Slug instead. Although the cocktails are 20p dearer here than the Oxford branch, I think we all ended up agreeing that the Reading branch was really good. So chances are, we will be back again! The staff were really lovely too and we were not really bothered by anybody, which is a massive bonus. The lovely Christopher even complimented our hats!

I tried a Dune Bug cocktail for the first time. It is rum based with midori in it. I have previously avoided it because it contains Creme de Banane (I don't like bananas!) but in the end, the staff were happy to make it with this ingredient omitted, which made me so happy. I was so glad I went for it because it had a lovely, fruity taste to it. And it just goes to show that sometimes if you want something, all you have to do is ask.

So I hope you all enjoyed my mini outfit round-up. Hopefully soon I will be able to get a bit more on top of sharing my outfits. It was great to see Sammi and Shalisa too. I always have a fantastic time when I see them.

Afternoon Tea in Oxford

I never thought I would see the day that I would be writing a post about going for afternoon tea in the centre of Oxford, but here we are! Some of you may remember a post I wrote last year about inconvenient locations and how I was saying that Oxford is not the greatest place for a lolita community. A lot of the venues are small and some places really overprice things, just because of the Oxford name. Well, it turns out you can have afternoon tea in Oxford, and it can cost under £10! Last year I became quite a fan on afternoon tea and I am still eagerly searching out new afternoon tea experiences around the country. It was when I was doing this searching that I came across a website for the Cotswold Lodge Hotel in Oxford, which had an afternoon tea priced at £8.95. I thought I was seeing things! So I suggested to Shalisa and Sammi that we investigate and give this afternoon tea a go. And that is what we ended up doing this past weekend.

It was very difficult to decide what to wear for this adventure. You never quite know how a venue is going to react to lolita. However, I felt such a strong desire to wear Chess Emblem, that I decided that this is what I would go with! I felt the colours were very smart and mature, plus I kept my accessories relatively toned down. I love this print so much and I am looking forward to planning lots of outfits for it. Incidentally, Shalisa was wearing Miracle Candy, which has been a dream dress of hers for a very long time. So there was quite a lot of enthusiastic dressing up that day! Thankfully everybody we encountered at the hotel was friendly, although we spent a lot of time getting asked questions throughout the day.

Our afternoon tea wasn't until mid-afternoon and as we were a bit hungry, we ended up purchasing some macarons in Marks and Spencer because they were on offer. I have to say, I am a bit disappointed that after several years, M&S still mis-spells them as macaroons on the packaging! We took pictures of Sammi holding a macaron because she was wearing a macaron print! She always knows how to dress for the occasion. 

Eventually, it was time for our afternoon tea. James and I decided to get one of the £8.95 teas and one of the £14.95 ones and then we split the difference. This was mainly because I wanted an extra scone, but the £14.95 option felt a bit much for myself! For the price, we got a fair amount of food. The £8.95 option came with a scone, a massive pot of clotted cream and jam, a mini brownie, a slice of cake and 4 finger sandwiches. Plus a pot of tea, of course! The scones tasted absolutely amazing. They were so fluffy and light, and mine was still warm. The icing sugar they were dusted with got everywhere though. The sandwiches were pleasant too, although I wasn't too fussed about the brownie.

The thick clotted cream was amazing, although very difficult to spread. If I hadn't already filled myself up, I could have quite easily eaten the rest of the cream out of the pot! I am getting hungry just remembering how nice the scones were.

We chose a window seat, which meant we had a not so inspiring view of the car park! The room itself was smart though. I have been to fancier locations than this one but the surroundings were still really nice. I did find the staff a little bit awkward though. I did notice that the woman who served us was a trainee, so perhaps that had something to do with it. Or maybe she was shocked about our clothing! We also felt as though we had to be very quiet, especially with another group of diners sitting nearby. We also got hassled quite frequently about whether we had paid our bill or not, which spoiled the atmosphere a bit. Overall I would say that the food was worth it, given the cheap price compared to the average afternoon tea. I do feel the staff could have been friendlier though.

A little print gathering photo I took when we went to the bathroom (we seem to have a thing for taking photos in bathrooms. They have the best mirrors!). 

This is what the exterior of the hotel looked like. It looked quite pretty in person. It is just far enough out of the city centre that the traffic noise is not too noticeable but it is still an okay distance that you can walk to the venue. Can you believe that about not long after this picture was taken it started absolutely chucking it down with rain?

As we were going past the University Parks anyway, we quickly popped in for some photos. There were some absolutely gorgeous wild flowers out, although you can't really see them that clearly in the photos we took. Shalisa got a lovely group shot of us on her Instax camera.

Afterwards we decided to be a bit less sophisticated and get a load of cocktails! We originally headed to this venue that boasted a large number of cocktails, but when we got there it was a grotty small bar with some of the locals playing pool and watching the football. Feeling well and truly out of place, we ended up at the Slug and Lettuce instead. After experiencing their cocktails at the anniversary meet, we knew we were on to a good thing. They have a decent selection on offer. The one that looks like a sluch puppy is a rumberry mojito and the one on the right is a long island iced tea (which I was surprised to discover, does not actually contain tea). We had such a good time and afterwards I was really sad leave.

So if this experience has taught me anything, it is that of you search hard enough, you can get a good value day out at even the most expensive of UK cities outside of London. You just need to do your research! It was a shame about the hotel staff though. I can't imagine the others wanting to go back there. This day has left me yearning for more afternoon tea days out and has also started a new quest to find the best cocktail venue. Although we were pretty content at the Slug! I am looking forward to seeing where we end up next.