Great Lakes Lolita 10th Anniversary Tea Party!

Hello lovelies! As promised, I attended the tea party my state's comm was hosting for their 10th anniversary. I'd like to pre-face the longer post by saying it was a great time. It was my first lolita tea party (I'm not a big tea drinker, though I did have two cups at the event) and I felt very fancy. Ha ha. So my friend Ginny and I came down from Northern Michigan, almost three hours with the bad traffic. The meet was at the Historic Holly Hotel in Holly, Michigan.

As per usual, we were late and the last ones there. Whoops. I swear I'm never late for anything! The second I have a petticoat on I forget everything and my to-do list gets thrown to the way-side. Maybe some day I'll be able to dress cute AND be on time! (Yeah right.)

We signed in when we arrived and received our free gifts (there were door prizes, tiaras, pins that were customized for our community, and more!) We found our seats and waited for the meet to really start.

We were served fruit, a main course, and a dessert on top of the endless tea. It was more food than we expected for the ticket price! I'm a vegan so my food was different than most people's. I was on the fence about going until it was announced that the venue would work to make sure speciality diets were taken care of. For the fruit I was given a different dip, my main dish was quinoa and veggies and a few other small options, and my dessert was cherry sorbet made locally!

There was a coordinate contest as well. I opted not to enter after seeing the outfits some people had arrived in. I was very proud of my coord and worked hard on it but I was so in love with some of the coords there that I knew I had no chance! It was totally fine though because I enjoyed seeing all the amazing outfits. The contest was separated first by style (sweet, gothic, and classic; every other style was asked to pick the closest). Then the finalists went head to head for best coordinate over all! There were the winners of each category and classic won overall:

We did photos by table and then individually. I will post my individual photo on Facebook when I receive it! There was a drawing with amazing prizes and Ginny won one! (Congrats again!) Lastly there was a small swap meet. I sold a few items and bought a purse (which I will probably show to you all in a later haul post). Then we had to wrap up the party and leave. Unfortunately it was sprinkling when we left and Ginny & I had left our parasols in the car like dummies. We speed-walked to the car (as many others were as well because who wants to ruin a $400 dress, honestly).

Virginia (Ginny) and I had pre-decided not to attend the "official" after party at the restaurant the comm chose. The reasons for this were multi-faceted but mainly it was 1. a very very long drive home and 2. on the way we have to go right past our favorite sushi joint! We took some coordinate shots outside of the restaurant.

Outfit Rundown:
Dress, bow, wrist cuffs, jewelry: Angelic Pretty
Shoes, blouse: Bodyline
Everything else: Offbrand

Outfit Rundown:
Dress: Cloudberry Lady
Blouse: Glittertale
Socks, shoes: Bodyline
All hair bows: Innocent World
Accessories: Chocomint, A Gato Designs, Offbrand
Everything else: Off brand
















We always get the same order when we are there but I've included photos anyway. I get their miso soup and sweet potato tempura rolls. It is one of the few places I've found where BOTH are free of animal products. AKA, they're my favorite kind of people. The place is called Fuji Sushi in Midland, Michigan (in case anyone is curious).

Our last stop was Target. We don't have one by us but there is one right by the sushi place. I love Target but rarely get there. Surprisingly, I barely bought anything there but we did take some silly pictures. We also had an employee take a full body photo of us together. So thank you random Target employee! You went above and beyond for us.

Since the tea party I have made use of the items I received. I got some glitter nail polish that is a new favorite. Virginia and I have implemented "Tiara Tuesdays" at our place of employment and started it off with the tiaras we received at the event. I had a ton of fun and everyone really looked amazing. The coords were extremely inspiring and I can't wait to see everyone again! I don't know when my next group meet up will be unfortunately.

Coming up, either late this month or early next month, I will have a haul and a review coming of some new items I've obtained recently. Please stop back for that!

See you next time,
Kayla <3 

January 18th, 2016 Meet Up

Hello lovelies! Yesterday there was a meet up planned at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn. They had free admission and parking in celebration of Martin Luther King Day. There were about 20 people there I believe? Unfortunately we were late due to bad roads and unforeseen circumstances and never managed to find the large group! Though we did run into two other lolitas, we mostly stayed on our own but still had fun.

My friend Virginia came along with me. She is new to lolita and this was her first time wearing it out. Unfortunately for her we had more people come up to us with questions and wanting photos than I've ever had. We got so many compliments and people who genuinely polite and interested. Luckily, even the people who were not as polite were not out right malicious to us. There is a certain amount of leeway that needs to be provided while wearing alternative fashions because, no matter how silly it seems to us, people are going to want to know why you're dressed that way.

We explored the museum and saw some really great exhibits. I hadn't been to this museum since I was a small child and I didn't remember anything (except the Weiner-Mobile) so it was like going to a brand new place! Here are a few of my favorite pieces:

The Women's Suffrage Display

Antique Lamps & Wood Stoves

This plane made me smile!

JFK's car

Showing the anatomy of the Model T

When we were finished at the museum we drove to Midland to go to our favorite sushi place. They offer great vegan options and my favorites kind of tempura. Here is what I ate.

Miso Soup  (Fish free!)

Sweet Potato Tempura

Lastly, and what you probably wanted to see in the first place, are some pictures of my friend & I. I will include outfit breakdowns at the very end. Thank you for reading and have a beautiful week. <3

Greenfield Village was closed but made for a cute photo!

Virginia

Makeup! My first time wear falsies.

Virginia's Outfit:
Head bow, skirt (jsk actually), shoes, bag, and keychain: Bodyline
Blouse: Baby The Stars Shine Bright
Rings: Off-brand and Chocomint
Everything else: Off-brand

Kayla's Outfit:
JSK and head bow: Cloudberry Lady (See review here)
Blouse: Glittertale
Shoes and ankle socks: Bodyline
Twin Bows: Innocent World
Moon Clip: Chocomint?
Everything else: Thrifted or off-brand

Moonlight Dance Test Coord

As promised last week I did a test coordinate for my new Cloudberry Lady JSK. Please excuse the general lack of hair and makeup effort as this was not a coord for an event or anything, just a test with some accessories, I didn't feel the need to go all out. So here are the pictures from my coordinate. Most of the pictures were taken by my personal photographer aka my dad haha. :)

 I really love this dress! I want to find a few more accessories and swap a few out to make this coord better and a little more OTT. Thanks for looking and feel free to suggest ways I can improve this coordinate! Thank you for reading.

Cloudberry Lady Review-Moth Dress

Cloudberry Lady is an indie lolita brand running out of Finland. I wasn't really aware of them until I saw the dress I bought pop up in one of the groups I'm following (either lolita updates or rufflechat, I don't remember which now). I immediately fell in love with the dress and saw it came in custom size. There was no going back to be honest.

The ordering process was fairly simple. I sent them my order (color, style, and basic measurements). They asked me a few more measurement questions and I paid a down payment. Later, once the dresses were made and ready to ship, they invoiced me for the rest of the payment. Then they shipped it and it got here a week or so later. Easy peasy.

I took some unboxing photos for you guys, so you can see how it came packaged.

Here's the box!

This earned me a dirty look from the mail lady :))))

Wrapped dresses in tissue paper and a fancy envelope!

A letter and some wonderful post cards.

The pieces came individually wrapped in plastic.

Head bow

 

Back of head bow. Did not come with a headband.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dress has a pocket!!!!

 

Front bow. Not detachable.

The straps are adjustable!

There is shirring, back corseting, and a zipper.

The lace is a beautiful off white.

Overall I had a very positive experience. I was worried because the price was quite high in my opinion but I am a low budget lolita. I think it was definitely worth the money. It fits great and the details are so so beautiful. They included extras and the dress was made and sent in a timely manner. Honestly if you see something from this brand you like I highly recommend them.

Thank you for reading! Let me know in the comments if there is anything else you want to know about the dress.

I will post a coordinate I put together some time this week so check back!