The Curiousi-Tea Party

Last week, on Saturday April 11th, my friend Michelle celebrated her birthday with a grand Lolita party for the first time and I was invited! I was quite excited to see what she how she would organize everything.
Since she had recently received her beautiful Mercator Antique Shop jumperskirt from Angelic Pretty, she decided to have ‘an old curiosity shop’ as her theme based on her dress (like I had done as well for my two birthday parties). For the theme, you can think of books, oddities, antiques and other mysterious things. She organised the party at her grandma’s house, since she has a beautiful living room with a very antique and nice atmosphere. ^^
I stayed over at Michelle’s house the night before, where we (mostly Michelle) prepared things for the party and played around with the wig she had ordered for her outfit and that had arrived just in time! It’s the same wig as MC Melody Doll always wears, so we had some good fun posing with big shades on!
The next day, it was time to party! We took the last things to grandma’s house and while Michelle went to pick up the guests, I got dressed. Unfortunately, I didn’t really have anything in my closet to go with the theme, so I decided to dress up as… a bunny!? Yes, really! A while ago I had discovered the cutest mini hat with bunny ears on them at Claire’s and I desperately wanted to wear it, so I decided to derive from ‘curious’ to ‘curiouser and curiouser’ to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to ‘the White Rabbit’! Yes, it is quite far-fetched, but well. XD It gave me the opportunity to wear my super cute Moon Bunny necklace as well and by putting on my wonderful pink glasses, I thought I looked quite curious. ^^ I hope you like my outfit! ♥

♤ Curious Bunny ♤
My outfit rundown:
Mini hat: Claire’s
Pompoms: WEGO
Blue bow: Paris Kid’s
Blouse: Bodyline
Jsk: Angelic Pretty’s Wonder Cookie
Tights: Primark
Shoes: Bodyline
Ear rings: Claire’s
Necklace: Moon Bunny
Bracelets: Bijou Brigitte, 6% Dokidoki and offbrand
Rings: Moon Bunny and Angelic Pretty

The guests started arriving and I took the opportunity to take some pictures of the beautiful table filled with food. As Michelle had ‘hired’ me as her official photographer, I couldn’t let anything escape my camera of course!

The beautiful table filled with sweets.
I helped making the sandwiches and then everyone got seated. We all poured ourselves some tea and the party had started. :3

The lovely guests (minus Michelle and me) sitting at the table.
Michelle had prepared a little gift box for each guest. I had helped her pack, so I already knew what was inside, but it was fun to see everyone’s curiosity and excitement to see what was in it (you can see mine at the end of this post). ^^

My beautiful cup and little gift box. ♥
Then it was time for cake! Michelle had worked very hard on her book-shaped cake, but unfortunately it didn’t come out the way she wanted to (I have seen the process, poor girl). I think it still came out quite well. Plus, my amazing writing with icing made everything perfect (ahem…)!

Michelle’s chocolate covered book cake.
After everyone had had a good look at Michelle’s masterpiece, she proceeded to kill… uh… cut it and everyone received a big piece. I was happy Michelle took the piece with ‘Mi’ on it, haha! Then it was time for presents! Michelle received some wonderful and thoughtful
gifts. ^^

The beautiful card and gift came from dear Rowie. ♥
After the gifts, it was outfit pictures time! I did my best to take pretty pictures of everyone and Eveline was kind enough to take some of me too. ^^ I especially liked taking detail shots of Michelle. Her outfit was so amazing!

The birthday girl, Michelle, in her beautiful Mercator outfit. ♥

Demi, looking sweet in pastels.

Books are Rowie’s favourite theme.

Menno looking truly dashing.

The always wonderful Iris.

Eveline in her gorgeous handmade dress. I am totally in love with it! *o*

Eline, classic and lovely as ever.

Maartje in black with hints of sweetness.

And me. ^^
I took a lot of detail shots as well. I really like to take ‘stock pictures’ as I sometimes call them. I often see pictures of models wearing the clothes on Taobao stores for example and sometimes I try to capture that atmosphere in my pictures as well. ^^

Some of my favourite detail shots.
But after all those outfit pictures, we weren’t done yet! I suggested to take some duo pictures with the birthday girl as well and Michelle wanted to take some… ‘stupid’ pictures too. XD Oh dear.
We started out with serious…

I think these portraits are pretty cute. ^^
… buuut we quickly moved on to this. XD

Hm, yes. x)
Michelle and I even did some kabedon! We managed to keep straight faces for I think..? Maybe five seconds. It’s a miracle Eveline managed to capture the moment. XD
Rowie’s boyfriend was kind enough to take a group picture of us too. ^^

Our group picture. ^^
Sometimes I want to apologize for all the pictures post, but then I think… what would this post be without pictures? Just an empty report! I hope you can appreciate my huge amounts of pictures every time. x)
You’d think the party would be over by now, but the best part had yet to come: we were going to play Just Dance!
If you don’t know JustDance: it is a game where you dance to popular music by following the instructions on the screen. Michelle had the Wii version, so four people could dance at the same time holding a Wii-mote and hilarious dance moves ensued. :3

Dancing with Demi and Iris!

Michelle and Rowie were very into it!

It was so much fun to dance with each other!
I had a lot of fun and hadn’t danced this much since the Lolita Kawaii Event!
It was amazing. ^^
The party was getting to an end and soon my parents would come and pick me up. Michelle handed out prizes for the best dancer and best dressed and I managed to snap a triple selfie before I went upstairs to get redressed.

With dear Iris and Michelle. ♥
I got redressed and greeted my parents, thanked everyone and went home.
It had been a fun day. ^^

Gifts of the day

Paris ’15, Day 4 – Arc de Triomphe and Ladurée

On Monday morning my mom and I woke up and bought some breakfast at the bakery a little further down. Today would be our last day in Paris, but since our train would leave around 3:30 pm, we still had loads of time to do fun things! But first, we had breakfast in bed. :3

Breakfast in bed. ^^
We finished our breakfast and packed our things. I had so much to pack! Not only all the things I had brought with me, but also my new things!
Even though it had been a short stay, I was going to miss our hotel room, haha. x)

Everything packed! Excuse my morning face.
We checked out of our hotel and left our baggage with the staff. Then we went on our way to the Champs-Elysées. We wanted to find the FNAC shop located there to buy my dad a present and I had offered to treat my mom to tea at Ladurée. ^^
We arrived at the Arc de Triomphe and the weather was absolutely lovely, so we stopped for some pictures. Endangering our lives by standing on the side of the road, we managed to take some nice ones. XD

The Arc de Triomphe looks so gorgeous in the sun!
We went on our way to find the FNAC. We passed a beautiful shopping mall my mom wanted to show me and after some more walking, we found the shop. My dad had asked us if we could look out for this specific vinyl album, so we went to the right department and asked an employee to help us find it. He went to look for it and never returned! Oh my God, he stayed away for so long! Apparently it was hidden in the dungeons of the shop or something, but the employee managed to find it! Yay~!

Mission accomplished! My mom in front of the FNAC store entrance.
Then we went on our way to Ladurée. I was quite excited to have tea with my mom there. We had planned to go there multiple times before, but somehow it never happened. The one time we did go, we ordered ice cream (which was heaven by the way!) instead of tea and pastries, so this time I was determined to do so. ^^

The beautiful, Valentine-themed Ladurée shop window.
We were led to a table at the front of the restaurant and opened up our menus. I’ve had tea at Ladurée once before and I thought I remembered the ‘one person tea pots’ were actually quite big, but I wasn’t really sure. So my mom and I ended up choosing separate teas. ^^

Ladurée fanciness!
I am not quite sure which teas we chose, but for pastries my mom chose a Saint-Honoré Rhum-Banane and I chose an Ispahan. Finally, after so long, I could eat my heavenly Ispahan again! *o*
Our teas arrived and of course we had to take some pictures! We both received a beautiful silver (and big, as I thought, haha) tea pot with pretty tea cups and a small Ladurée chocolate. But just a tip: if you’re not planning on drinking loads of tea, share a pot. XD One pot poured about 3½ cups! *o*

Isn’t this tea set cute!?
Finally, our pastries arrived too and I could hear angels singing~! My Ispahan looked just as gorgeous as I remembered and my mom’s pastry looked so pretty as well!

My mom’s Saint-Honoré Rhum-Banane and my Ispahan. ♥
I know Ladurée is very expensive, but I just wanted to have a bit of a fancy experience with my mom after my weekend of Lolita fulfilling. Plus, the pastries are just so damn good! I mean, just look at the picture! They are like pieces of art! *o*

Our faces say: ‘I am so ready for this!’ XD
Our teas were delicious and my Ispahan… it was just as good as I remembered. ;_; I ate it as slowly as I could, it was so amazing. ♥
Coincidentally, a couple of Dutch Lolitas who had attended La Vie en Rose as well, were having tea at the same time at the same Ladurée, but upstairs. What a coincidence! It was nice seeing them again for a brief moment. ^^
After I went to the toilet (which was quite an adventure because finding them was nearly impossible, but they were so fancy!), I paid and we left Ladurée. Since we had some time left, I suggested to go to the Eiffeltower, since I hadn’t seen it at all during our trip! So we went on our way.
When we arrived there, there were (again) lots of fences everywhere. I was very happy to see the Eiffeltower though. ^^ I really love it! We also bumped into two very pink German Lolitas, which was nice.
Suddenly, it started to rain reeaaally bad!

You have no idea what I had to do to this picture to get
something decent out of it. It was so dark.
Everyone fled away and I had to walk in the most awkward way to protect my dad’s album from the water. I was very happy when we reached the metro!
We returned to our hotel to pick up our stuff when the stress began: I had miscalculated the time and we had to hurry like hell for our train! I won’t go into details but man… we had to sprint so hard!
Thankfully, we made it on time after all and were able to breathe again! Since we didn’t have time to buy some food for the road back, we bought some stuff at the Thalys Bar. Ugh, never do that if you can prevent it. -_- Expensive and not worth it. But well, we were hungry.
While my mom was getting something to eat, I finally solved a mystery that had been keeping my busy for years: during our first trip to Paris (back in 2010, oh my!) I told my mom I saw the Eiffeltower from our train window, but technically that wouldn’t have been possible from the train. While I was staring out the window, I suddenly spotted the Eiffeltower again and I was 100% sure! Well, it turns out the Thalys tracks run in a curve, which makes sense. Mystery solved~! (Useless information, I know. XD But this was an important moment for me).

Food for the way back.
Unfortunately, I managed to spill hot chocolate all over my arm and dress. It hurt so much! I was sure I would have a burn mark for a long time, but I ended up totally fine! Pfew…
After a couple of hours, we safely arrived back in my country and took the train back home. My Parisian adventure had been awesome, a total dream! ♥ I hope you enjoyed my posts. ^^
I can’t wait for the next Street Fashion Europe event… :3