Catch Up Post 3: Gift giving, A Mad Tea Pary and a cute Lolita Anniversaire!

 I’m sorry for not haven posted earlier as I had planned. I’ve been so busy moving and I don’t have internet yet either. I would like to wish you all a belated Happy New Year! I hope you had a blast and hope it was filled with lots of wonderful fireworks, bubbly champagne and much luck for the new year. I have another post about the new year coming a little later. First I want to finish some posts from last year. I hope you enjoy.

 Gift swap meet:

Every year around Christmas Danchelle organises her annual gift swap meet so this year was no different. I attended last year and it was a lot of fun so I decided to go again. For the ones that don't know what a gift swap meet is let me explain. It's basically a kind of secret Santa. Everyone that participates sends in a little information about themselves and the things they like and don't like. As soon as everyone has sent in their info the host will give everyone a random name of a person to give a gift to. You can then check their list in order to find/make the perfect gift.

Gift unwrapping!

This year I had someone really easy. It was my friend Dieuwke and I knew exactly what she liked. She's crazy about tea, bunnies, books, England and photography. So I bought a cute little penguin tea box and filled it with Autumn flavoured tea, a hand made glitter band with her name and cute bunny charms and lovely English soap. Because it was also Movember I made sure to include cute moustache wrapping paper.
I also had a special gift made for Tamara. She showed me a picture of her grandmother a while before and to my astonishment she looked so much like her. She told me that she had a special bond with her but she had passed away. So I made her a resin pendant with a picture of her grandmother. I thought that this would be a lovely memory for her.

The meet took place in Houten at Fly Away Fashion which was really practical and gave me another nice chance to take a whiff in the shop too.
I decided to wear a Gothic outfit this time as I was in the mood for darker colours. I hadn't worn Gothic Lolita to a meet up before so I was curious about reaction's I could possibly get. I decided to wear my new skirt and matched it with my FAF bonnet. I thought it looked really cute. I was ready an hour in advance which is rare for me so I made sure to leave a little earlier in order not to be late. Unfortunately the train was late and I ended up running to the train leaving towards Houten. I made it just in time and found the Lolita group too.
Once in Houten we all got out and waited for the rest of the girls wanting to walk together towards FAF. This was a great chance to give Tamara my gift. She really loved it and wore it straight away. I was super happy.
Once at FAF I went upstairs and beheld a table full of lovely colourful and glittery gifts. I was very curious which was mine. I neatly added my gift to the collection and tried to find a place to sit as all chair's were nearly taken. I quickly added my home-made onigiri to the table of delicious looking treats. There was even cake roll which was very popular.

Amazing bubbles, food, and photo time!

 Soon everyone was seated and Danchelle explained how the swap worked. As soon as it was clear the swap began. One by one everyone opened their wonderful gifts. Some were even hand made which is always a nice touch. You tend to appreciate it more because it's made with love. My friend Kimmy received the cutest little gifts from a girl. I burst out in auw. Kimmy, being talented herself, also made a beautiful headband for a girl called Ella. What a lucky girl she was.
I received a lot of stickers, Disney colour in and cover in glitter (oh I loves glitter) things and Disney princess boubles from my friend Mairin. Unfortunately she couldn’t be there herself so she sent a friend to bring the gift which included a little letter promising that I will still receive one other gift later. She wanted to give me this personally. I have yet to receive it and I'm very curious to know what it could be.

More photo time!

 Because we were such a big group we had a little break in between to drink and eat. Everyone jumped for the cake roll which was soon all gone. Renske really outdid herself. Hopefully more cake rolls in the future? To my surprise my onigiri's were gone in no time too. They were delicious if I may say so myself.
Once everyone's bellies were filled and everyone was refreshed we continued the swap. Many more interesting gifts followed and soon the swap came to an end.
I took one last peak at the shop down stairs and was once again in auw by all the cute stuff which I couldn’t buy.
Together with Tamara and Rosalynn I travelled back home. This would be one of the last times that I would see Tamara as she wouldn't be attending any future meets the rest of the year. I was going to miss her.

A Mad Carnival Tea Party:

Group picture!

The month November was filled with lots of meets which I really loved and of course I couldn't miss out on Fly Away Fashion's tea party. I had missed the summer edition earlier this year which I really regretted.
This year's theme was very interesting and the darkest and creepiest yet. The mad carnival and Alice in wonderland theme was really to my liking. The decoration matched so well as did the food. They even had cute bunny cookies and bloody punch. Which were very yummy.

To match the theme I decided to create a Gothic look in red and black. My outfit theme was the queen of hearts. Red and black is such a wonderful colour combination. I decided to wear my bonnet again and match it with red and black roses. "We're painting the roses red, we're painting the roses red!" Get it?!
Luckily I was picked up by Rowan and her friends Lisa and Emily so I didn’t need to rush as much to catch a train.
We drove to Rosalynn's house to pick her up too. It was a tight squeeze but we all managed to fit in. It was tight but cosy but I got wagon sick very soon after we took off. I was glad when we arrived at Fly Away Fashion so I could breathe in fresh air.
We were a little early so we waited outside until the rest arrived from the train station. Some Belgian Lolita's joined us again and every one of them looked amazing. Saltje was one of them and I was very eager to see her outfit. She had told me that she would keep it a secret until the meet. Her inspiration was the white queen. I really loved her dark make-up in combination with her white dress (hand made) and wig. Once everyone had arrived Katie welcomed us to come in. She looked amazing in her handmade red and black JSK. Her outfit inspiration was the white rabbit from Alice in wonderland. She really looked stunning with her bunny ears and pompom tail.

Chatting, food and cutie pie Katie!

We all entered the shop and after paying headed upstairs to find a seat. I sat together with Rosalynn and the Belgian girls. It was very snug and fun. As soon as everyone had settled down Katie welcomed us and told us a little about the days plans. She also told us she had good and bad news. The bad news was that Fly Away Fashion was going to stop. I was in shock. No more tea parties?? But the good news was that the shop will continue under another name, Summer Tales Boutique. She explained that that name fit better to her future plans and that everyone could look forward to many new exciting changes. I cant wait to see what the new shop will bring in the future.
We were then allowed to eat, chat, visit the shop, take photo's until the lottery and outfit contest later that day.
There was so much delicious looking food so I took a bit of everything. I loved that there were so many vegetarian options. My favourite’s were the bunny cookies and punch. I love cloves in drinks. It tasted really christmasy.
I spent most of my time upstairs chatting with Deborah, Liselotte, Natasje and Sanniya. It was so fun we almost forgot to check out the shop and have photo's taken of our outfits. Apparently Rosalynn had been quite busy taking pictures of everyone's outfit outside. So we also joined in. It was cold though and it wasn't long before I ran back inside for warmth.

A great day full of wonderful things!

Katie had restocked so many lovely things in her shop that I felt sad that I couldn't buy anything. They had a huge new collection of Alpacaso's. I really want... no I really need another one. Manila needs a friend to keep him company.
It was soon time for the outfit contest and so I headed back upstairs. The contest was very interesting as everyone looked amazing especially Sanniya who made her dress herself. Saltje was also participating along with the two other Belgian girls Joke and Annso. Anne and Yvette were also contest participants. It was very hard to choose just one winner because everyone looked absolutely wonderful.
Annso was the ultimate winner and she as very surprised she had won. She wore the same outfit as Rosalynn but only in a different colour way.

One of the cute Alpacasos!

The meet came to an end so we all headed outside for the last group picture. The signature picture to prove the tea party actually took place.

A Cute Lolita Anniversaire:

Every cute girl needs a cute Lolita party if she wants one. Rosalynn really wanted a Lolita birthday party after haven attended mine and I was very glad she did. Lolita birthday's are the best.

I was really happy when I received my invite for Rosalynn's birthday. I was also excited because she kept all her plans secret until later. The only thing she revealed was that it would be a Paris themed party, which is one of her favourite things.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any Paris or French themed outfits or accessories so I went for a simple cute look. I hadn't worn my Candy House JSK by Meta in a while so I decided to wear that. I really love its colour. I'm not one for baby pink but this was a deeper more mature pink which suits me really well. I had received my new wig from Lock Shop just a few days before. Again I chose a milk coloured wig but in medium length. I really like this colour and I've heard from a lot of people that the colour suits me well. I also ordered a gift for Rosalynn from Kawaii Deluxe. After haven read her Japan travel's I knew she loved Pocky. So I bought her strawberry flavoured ones. I also bought some cute little necklaces, sakura blossom earrings and two little iron on butterflies. The cool thing about them is that you can iron them onto a cute simple cardigan to decorate it.

The beautiful cake, Rosalynn and the rest!

Once I was ready I headed towards the bus stop. Unfortunately I had missed the bus again. I really hate buses in my town. They are always either too early or too late. It's so frustrating. Luckily I was only late by 5 minutes so I quickly joined the waiting group of frills. Rosalynn had curled her hair which looked really cute. Emilie was there too. It was so nice to see that she had come all the way from Switzerland to attend Rosalynn's birthday. It's true friendship.
Together we all walked to Rosalynn's house where her mum took some lovely group pictures outside the house. Once inside I took off my big coat and admired the decoration. It matched Rosalynn's outfit so well. Everything was decorated in pastel pinks and mints, even the balloons and even the cake.
We all sat down in a circle, with Rosalynn sitting on her birthday chair, while eating some of the lovely cake. It was absolutely delicious. She had it made at the same bakery I have my cakes done. They really make the best cakes in all of town.

Beautifully dressed girls!

After the cake it was time for presents! One by one everyone handed their gift to Rosalynn and watched anxiously how she opened them. The sweetest moment was when Emilie handed Rosalynn her hand made photo album of their adventures. Rosalynn nearly cried of happiness. It was so cute to see. It reminded me of my birthday gift from Naomie a year earlier. I just couldn't believe what I was receiving at the time.
We spent the rest of the day taking lots of fun photo's. Some of the group pictures turned out quite funny. Dieuwke also took pictures with her cute polaroid camera. I really love how its a cute souvenir at the same time.
Rosalynn also prepared a quiz about Lolita fashion and Paris. She told us that these would be the most useless questions ever so that we didn't need to think that hard about their answers. Luckily all question's were multiple choice. In the end there were two winners, Naomie and Kim. They both received cute gifts from Schwimmer and Claire's.
Unfortunately I had to leave early in order to help with the move to my new home. So I quickly said my goodbye's and hugged everyone.
It was such a lovely day and I had a lot of fun. I really hope Rosalynn has another party next year. Way to go you!

Everyone looked so wonderful!

All photos used in this post are either property of Rosalynn, Kathleen or Emilie. I do not take credit for photos that aren’t mine.