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!

A Pause By The Riverside

I have been having a bit of a tough time lately, with a family illness causing me a lot of upset. A couple of months ago James and I booked an afternoon tea and after a discussion with my sister, we decided not to cancel it. It turned out to be exactly what I needed. After writing a blog post about afternoon tea back in January, I had really been craving a new food adventure! So I had a look at what we could try within a reasonable driving distance. We ended up in Henley at a hotel called Hotel du Vin.

I was having a bit of a dilemma about whether I wanted to wear lolita or not. On the one hand, I have gotten my groove back and am dressing in lolita regularly again (I do keep meaning to share my outfits. Maybe I will compile them for a blog post soon...) but on the other hand, I wasn't in the mood to attract a lot of attention. I guess I have been feeling a bit vulnerable with everything that has been going on. In the end, I compromised. I wore the Primark dress that years ago a lot of UK lolitas went out and brought. Obviously it is not a lolita dress, but I tried to style it in a laid-back lolita outfit. I added an under-skirt and matching red blouse. For some reason, I really love wearing the colour red with this dress. I tried to keep things looking a bit mature and I even ditched my petticoat later on in the day. It worked- nobody bothered me, but I still felt as though I had made a bit of an effort. After all, as I mentioned in my afternoon tea blog post, part of the fun of the experience is dressing up.

We went to Hotel du Vin. Pictured is the sweet half. The savoury half was really impressive. Rather than doing sandwiches there was a tart, a quiche, a croissant, brioche bun and bagel. There was quite a bit of food for our money! This afternoon tea is actually done in a few branches of the same hotel, but the chain is very small and there were some interesting inclusions which made it a bit more original. I especially loved the inclusion of a gin and tonic sundae and a rhubarb and custard doughnut. Candy floss seems to be increasingly popular as well! This candy floss was meant to be apple flavoured, but it tasted like standard candy floss to me. My favourite bit though, was actually the scones. They were still warm from the oven (a big bonus, in my opinion) and were really soft. The strawberry jam and clotted cream complimented them perfectly.

The raspberry and chocolate teacake looked like the Pokemon Pyukumuku! I was seriously tempted to draw a face on this picture! Pyukumuku is one of my favourites from the latest generation. After taking a bit of a break, I am getting back in to playing Pokemon Moon again. At the moment I am trying to breed a shiny Alolan Vulpix (another favourite of mine).

Afterwards we went around the town centre for a little while. Henley is quite a small town, so there isn't really many decent shops to browse in. There are a lot of "boutique" clothing stores which are typically aimed at woman of a certain age and wage bracket, if you get what I mean. There was however, a gift store selling a lot of Pusheen merchandise! We went inside to check them out and I was so tempted buy the fuzzy notebook. My favourite was the mermaid Pusheen, but James likes the one holding the slice of pizza. 

There was this random contraption being pushed around the town centre. I had earlier spotted signs saying "fun this way!" and naturally, I followed them. It led us to a bunch of kids playing with these small steampunk-like sculptures. I decided not to join in, but it was amusing watching this bicycle-thing getting pushed around.

I spotted these beautiful flowers in the town centre. At this early stage of Spring it is unusual to see such pretty flowers in bloom in town centres. The blossom is coming in nicely though and we spotted several beautiful trees with pink blossom. It is a bit of a double-edged sword for me though, as blossom gives me hay fever symptoms!

We finished our afternoon by going for a stroll along the riverside. Henley is famous for its annual regatta, so the river has a lot of beautiful bridges, tourist attractions and unusual boats. I even saw a boat with some solar panels on it, which I think is cool. Henley is definitely a good place to come for peaceful outings and quiet contemplation. I really enjoyed strolling hand-in-hand along the river.

After initially floating on the other side of the river, this pretty crested bird came a bit closer, so I got several photos of it. I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but I became very enamored with it. It is so pretty!

Believe it or not, these houses are not on the other side of the river, but floating on an island in the middle of the river! As I was saying to James, could you imagine needing to pop out for a pint of milk and having to take a boat? But most of the houses looked empty, so I assume they are Summer houses. I daydreamed a little, with this romantic idea of being well and truly cut off from the outside world by a wide span of river but realistically, I don't think I could live in a place like this!

We stopped in a cafe for a drink before heading home. I felt rejuvenated and a bit more at peace with my current situation. The coming weeks are going to be hard for me, but I will always be grateful that James and I experienced this quiet day together. This actually wasn't our first choice for afternoon tea, but I am so glad we came here. And we now have another afternoon tea experience to look forward to, hopefully in the near future.

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.