A Reflection Upon The Year and Resolutions

2013 is almost over and wow, what a year it was! Around this time, many people say: ‘Oh my, it’s New Year already!? Time flew by!’, but I never agree. So many things happened, both Lolita and non-Lolita (of course)! 2013 has definitely been a great year for me. Of course, sad things happened too, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons. I’d like to invite you to join me in my reflection upon the year 2013…

♥ In 2013, I modelled in a Lolita Fashion Show for the first time! I was honoured to be showing one of Fly Away Fashion’s original designs! Later in the year, I also walked in the MFashion Fashion Show at Summer Darkness, this time showing off my own Lolita style!
♥ In 2013, I visited my friend Emilie in Geneva, where we spent four wonderful days together. We visited the amazing town of Gruyères and we also had a lot of fun walking around in Geneva , both days dressed in matching Lolita outfits! It was so great to see my friend again and tob e able to wear Lolita twice together! :3
♥ In 2013, I did my first Lolita photoshoot, together with Cat! I was really nervous, but I think we both survived quite well!
♥ In 2013, on April 30th, our Queen officially abdicated and the new King got crowned! I spent almost the entire day watching tv, it was so amazing! I witnessed history and it was wonderful!
♥ In 2013, I went to two Fly Away Fashion Tea Parties! Both the summer and winter edition were amazing parties, where I had a lot of fun and got to know my community better bit by bit! ♥ In 2013, a new member joined our family! Our golden oldie dog: Oliver aka Ollie! My mom fell in love with him in Spain and couldn’t stop thinking about him. She loved him so much! My dad decided tob ring him home for her birthday. We love him all dearly, he is a total sweetheart!
♥ In 2013, I got accepted into my first year at the Conservatory of Rotterdam. I am now officially, fully, completely a Classical Music student! I was, and am, so incredibly happy! My best friend joined me and together with one of the new students we automatically formed a strong three people friendship. We’re like the trio from Harry Potter, only we are two girls and a guy! *o*
♥ In 2013, I went to Paris for the fourth time and it was the greatest trip of them all! I spent the first four days together with Emilie. We went to both Baby, The Stars Shine Bright’s and Angelic Pretty’s Tea Parties and we had lots of fun walking around Paris and shopping. My most beloved memory will bet hat we both won a dress set at Angelic Pretty’s last Paris Tea Party! I will treasure it forever…
After that, I got to spend four more days in Paris with my mom. We had the best weather ever (I will ignore the fact I almost suffered a sunstroke) and we visited so many places! This was definitely my best trip to Paris yet! ;_;
♥ In 2013, right after my trip to Paris, the Kawaii Event took place, in my own country! Emilie came over by plane to stay at my house and we had the most wonderful weekend ever! The event was more than perfect, both the afternoon Tea Party and the evening event. Emilie and I wore beautiful outfits (if I may say so myself :3), we got to meet Misako Aoki and Rinrin Doll, I made new friends and everyone looked so pretty and we danced and we had so much fun! This event will forever be one of my best Lolita-related memories and I am so incredibly glad and grateful I got to spend it with my Lolita Soulmate! ;_;
♥ In 2013, I got a job at my favourite shop in my town ever: Claire’s! I never expected it to happen, but it did! I got to work with wonderful colleagues and every time I had to wear jewelry from the store, which I didn’t mind at all! ^^ Unfortunately, my contract has almost ended and I am quite sad about it, but I am grateful form y time there! It’s been a blast!
♥ In 2013, we also lost a member of our family. Our old grandma dog Saartje passed away on September 6th, in my arms. I miss her a lot.
♥ In 2013, I went to Cat’s wonderful Lolita birthday party , Under the Sea-themed. I had so much fun and it inspired me to throw a Lolita birthday party myself for the very first time!
♥ In 2013, I sang with a big choir in a big church for the first time in my life! We sang the Messe Solennelle by Louis Vierne and it was just magic. We sang with two organs in a huge church hall and for me it was pure… amazement. I don’t know how to put it differently.
♥ In 2013, I organized my very first meet up for my German friends. Quite some people showed up and I had a lot fun. I was quite proud of msyelf for getting something like this done: organizing things is not my strongest side. ^^
♥ In 2013, I joined the annual Gift Swap Meet for the first time! I had so much fun and it was heartwarming and inpsiring to see how much work people put into their gifts for other people. I definitely want to go again next year!
♥ In 2013, I had two major breakthroughs in my singing within two weeks. It’s hard to explain what exactly happened, but for me it was wonderful and makes me feel so much better about msyelf!
♥ In 2013, I wore Lolita for the first time to school, on my birthday! I never thought I’d ever be brave enough to wear one of my dresses to school (not even because of people’s responds, but for getting it dirty. ^^’). But I did it and I felt so happy all day long! Totally worth it! :3
♥ In 2013, I got my first solo in a school choir project. It wasn’t very major, but I was still quite proud! ^^
♥ In 2013, I had a big, Lolita birthday party with my closest Lolita friends. I haven’t posted about it yet, but keep an eye out in the first weeks of the new year! ^^
♥ In 2013, I watched a lot of great movies: Catching Fire, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (among others) and we finally got news about the new Sherlock season, which will begin on January 1st~! I am so excited! *o*

Whoa, what a year it has been! Looking back at 2013 brings a smile on my face, it’s been such an amazing year!
Last year, I made a list of resolutions. Let’s see which happened and which didn’t.

1. Lose more weight! Not really, but I haven’t gained either… ^^’
2. Wear Lolita often! Now that is one thing that definitely happened. I still don’t wear Lolita as often as other people, but to my standards I wore it quite a bit!
3. Wear a Gothic Lolita coord! This didn’t happen, but it’s no big deal. It was more of a ‘it would be fun’ kind of resolution than ‘it has to happen’.
4. Visit my friend Emilie in Switzerland! This happened! :3 We had such a fun time! I wanna go back…
5. Read more books! Hmmm… I don’t think I read that many after all… I did finish the Hunger Games and I started re-rereading Harry Potter, but other than that… Luckily my parents gave me the Harry Potter series in English and I got The Hobbit for Christmas (and my brother Lord of the Rings), so I have plenty of things to start! ^^
6. Work hard for school and enter the first year! I did~! I worked hard and got accepted, so this one definitely came true!
7. Go to Paris again! Happened as well. :3

To finish this post, some resolutions for the upcoming year!

1. Travel somewhere far away! I’d like to go somewhere on vacation, far away. Plans are already being made, so we’ll see… :3
2. Work hard for school and enter the second year! In order to stay in school, I will have to work hard and do my best!
3. Lose more weight! I’m not even going to talk about this one…
4. Wear Lolita a lot! Because I love it and I don’t plan to stop yet! ^^ 5. Stress less! I stress about so many things, I need to try and tone it down!

I don’t know anything else to add, so I’ll just wish you all a wonderful New Year! May all your wishes come true and may 2014 be an amazingyear! ♥ HAPPY NEW YEAR! ♥

Merry Christmas~!

My dear readers,

I wish you all a very happy Christmas! I hope your day(s) will be filled with presents, surprises, happiness, fun, laughter, joy and sparkles!
Thank you for joining me in my Lolita Wonderland, travelling to far places with me,
leaving sweet comments and making my days!
You are amazing! ♥


Lots of love, xxx

✩ Rosalynn ✩

The Mad Carnival

Usually I don’t really like to post blog entries in the wrong order, but I’m afraid I’ll have to deal with it this time. ^^’ This event took place before my birthday.
On Sunday November 24th, the winter tea party of Fly Away Fashion took place! Contrary to last year’s theme, which was very wintery, this year’s theme was ‘The Mad Carnival’, a combination of creepy couture and Alice in Wonderland. Personally I don’t really like to dress up scarily (I am not the Halloween kind of person at all), so instead of going ‘dark’, I decided to go my usual, Sweet Lolita way. While I was at work, I got inspired by some of the cute magical wands in the kid’s section and I decided to dress up like some kind of fairy! I decided to wear my pink Star Night Theater dress, since the print has a carnival-like theme, and also because I hadn’t worn it in ages. I combined it with the matching pink socks, a red bolero, red shoes and gold accessories. I could finally use the golden tulle bow I had lying around from last year’s Christmas and I bought a cute little gold wand to match. On the day itself, my mom helped me do my hair and took some pictures of me. I was so happy with my outfit, it was just as nice as I had hoped. I hope you like it
as well! ♥

✩ Theater Fairy ✩
My outfit rundown:
Headbow: Angelic Pretty’s Star Night Theater
Cardigan: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
Jsk: Angelic Pretty’s Star Night Theater
Socks: Angelic Pretty
Shoes: BodylineNa
Earrings: Claire’s
Bangles: Chocomint and Hema
Wristcuffs: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright
Rings: Angelic Pretty
Wand: Claire’s

‘I want YOU to join the Lolita community!’
I shared a car with Rowan, Cat and two other friends and we went on our way to the Fly Away Fashion shop, where we had just been two weeks before for the Swap Meet. We arrived a bit early, but we were soon joined by other people. I am getting to know my community more and more, which is really nice!
This year’s party was very popular and lots of tickets were sold. There were even some Belgian girls joining us, like Annso! I was so happy to see her again! And she wore Star Night Theater as well, we matched! Her outfit was very different from mine, which resulted into some nice pictures. :3
Katie appeared, looking absolutely fabulous in her White Rabbit inspired outfit! *_* We went inside to pay for our tickets. On the walls there were signs saying ‘that way’ and ‘down the rabbit hole’, which was so cute and detailed!

Some shop pictures! ^^
Since I bought some things at Cat’s Halloween event from Fly Away Fashion, I didn’t have to pay for my ticket, which was a nice surprise. ^^ We all received a card from a card game with our name and lottery number on it. It matched the theme so well! I went upstairs and joined the Belgian’s table, soon followed by Cat. It was so nice to talk a bit with the Belgian girls. We rarely see them outside of Facebook, haha! ^^

No. 28 for me!
I took a look at the menu (everything sounded amazing) and soon everyone got seated. Katie welcomed us and told us a bit about the schedule of the day. She also told us she had some bad and good news. Bad news first (of course): Fly Away Fashion will cease to exist (Noooo! =O). Hold your horses: the good news is that Katie is continuing under a different name. ‘Summer Tales Boutique’ will not only include Katie’s self-made clothes, but also indie brands and maybe even Japanese brand clothes! I am very curious to see what will happen in the future!
When Katie was done, it was time for tea and food. And great food it was! *_* Katie and her cooking crew had put so much work into the food again. It was truly wonderful! The cupcakes were a bit too sweet for my taste, but the rest was a-ma-zing! I especially liked the bunny-shaped cookies. ♥

The amazing food and cute menu.
I talked a lot with different people, it was so much fun! Everyone looked amazing, one pretty person after another.
After a while, we decided to go take pictures outside. It was a bit cold, but since there was no sun I knew my pictures were very likely to come out well, so I took a lot of them! Everyone who wanted a picture got multiple, solo and together. This time, I also posed with a lot of people as well myself, yay! Here are some pictures of some amazing looking people. It was hard to choose from my many pictures!

Together with Annso! ♥ We wore the same print, but in such different ways!

Three of the six girls participating in the outfit contest: Saltje, Anne and Joke.
Don’t they look amazing?

Katie gets her own double frame because she looked a-ma-zing! *_* That bunny tail!

Taking pictures with Renske, Cat and Eveline! ♥

The Belgian card girls and queens with their Dutch Alice.

Everyone looked amazing, including the men (and dogs). :3

Me with the cutest twinning twins ever!

Another picture of Annso and Margot, because I like this one. :3
Eventually it got too cold and we went inside again. After I was brave enough to step into the cold again for some last pictures (haha) we went upstairs again to vote for the outfit contest. This time we had six people to vote for instead of five and it was so hard! ;_; I really had a hard time choosing! After the voting, we also filled in a little survey about Lolita and Lolita shops. After that, the winners of the contest were announced and Annso won first prize! She never saw it coming, but she totally deserved it! :3
After that, there was some more time to eat drink and chat and there was also the bingo of course. I didn’t win anything unfortunately. After that, we quickly took a group picture before all the light was gone!

We were with so many people this time!
Finally, the party was over and everyone slowly got their stuff together. Of course we were a bit slow (I hate saying goodbye ;_;), so I talked with some more people and I took pictures.

The girls in black and pink chatting.
I talked some more with Annso for a while, which is always fun. She is such a sweet girl. ♥ I was so happy to be able to match with her! I’d love to do a proper twin someday! *_*

Our matching prints. I love Star Night Theater so much!
I browsed the shop for the last time, but I didn’t buy anything. I needed to save up for Christmas presents! I did take some pictures in the little shop, since it makes for a nice background.

Together with my dear and adorable Kim! ♥
I had to wait for Rowan and her friends to get together so we could all take the car, which resulted into this last picture of Cat and her future husband.

Love at first sight. Don’t they make a cute couple? ^^
Finally, it was time to go home. It was a lot of fun to take the car back with other Lolitas, even though I was sad the day was over again. But an amazing day it had been! That’s for sure~!♫

A Casual, Frilly Birthday

Today, December 10th, it was my birthday! From now on I have to tell people I am 21 instead of 20 years old. It feels so strange…
Despite the fact I had to go to school from 10 am to 6:30 pm, I had a really fun day! I woke up early, took a shower and when I got down stairs, my dad congratulated me. Soon my mom came downstairs and they gave me a really pretty birthday card, followed by a totally unexpected birthday present, since my actualy present is on the way! I got a box set of all the Harry Potter books in English. I always said to my mom how much I want to read these books in English, so it was a perfect gift! I am so happy! =D
After that, I quickly had to go upstairs to get dressed. Now let me tell you: today I have done something I never thought I’d do. I wore Lolita to school! I wore a casual coord with my French Polkadot dress, combined with a red head band, a black bolero, black tights, Paris-themed accessories and my normal black boots. I was really nervous to wear Lolita to school. Not so much because of the reactions of my school mates, but more about getting my dress dirty! XD But everything went quite well actually. ^^ Here is my outfit, I hope you like it!!

Posing in the choir room. ^^

Conducting an invisible choir. XD

Many people congratulated me and I got many compliments on my outfit, it made me so happy! I felt really pretty on my birthday, yay~! ♥
My friend treated me on some Bubble Tea, I chose warm Coconut Milk Tea with brown sugar jelly. This combination is so perfect! And lucky me: my other friend had also offered me Bubble Tea the day before and I had the same! It is my official birthday drink now. :3

Coconut Milk Tea~!
When I went home, I bought some of my favourite Chinese food and had a quiet train ride. When I came home, I received presents from my brother: an amazing ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ poster and four volumes of the manga ‘Nana’. I was so impressed he had remembered I already owned volumes 1-4, so he had bought 5-8! Yay! One of my friends also came by and offered me some amazing Lush products! I feel so spoiled! :3 My 21st birthday was definitely a-ma-zing! And the fun will continue on Saturday, hihi… ^^

Polkadots for a Gift Swap Meet

On Sunday November 10th, the annual Gift Swap Meet took place! For this meet, every Lolita who signs up receives an email with the name of another attending Lolita and some information about her, after which you buy presents for her suiting her style. So you give something and you get something! I had really wanted to go to the meet last year, but unfortunately I couldn’t go. So when this year’s meeting got announced, I jumped at the chance! I was very lucky, because I was one of the last ones who got in! Soon I received an email with the girl’s name I got assigned, but I didn’t know her at all! It took me a while to come up with a present, but eventually I bought a cute double layered candy jar (that I decorated with lace stickers) and cute bow earrings. I filled the jar with marshmallows and put the earrings on top. I was quite proud of the result! :3
I really wanted to wear one of the dresses I hadn’t worn yet to the meet and pretty early on I decided to wear my French Doll dress, the black polkadotted dress I had won at the Angelic Pretty Tea Party in Paris! Initially I had decided to wear the dress with a simple, black bolero, but about a week before the meet I went shopping with my mom and I found the perfect polkadotted chiffon blouse! It fit the dress so well, it’s like they were made for each other! I finished the coord with simple black tights, red shoes and some French-themed accessories. I did my hair Misako style, from her cute book. ^^ I asked my mom to take some pictures of me outside for a change, which resulted into some (or rather, too many~) really nice shots! I really liked my outfit, I hope you do as well! ♥

● French Polkadots ●
My outfit rundown:
Beret: Primark
Blouse: H&M
Jsk: Angelic Pretty’s French Doll
Tights: offbrand
Shoes: Bodyline
Necklaces: Claire’s and Bijou Brigitte
Bracelets: Claire’s and offbrand
Ring: Claire’s

In case you were wondering: the umbrella is offbrand (bought in Japan) and the jacket is from Primark. ^^
Since my mom had to go somewhere that day, she offered to drive me to the Fly Away Fashion shop, where the meet was being held. I arrived very early, so there were no one there, except for Danchelle (who organized the meet) and her boyfriend. So I helped a bit by setting up the food and the chairs.

Food, glorious food~!
I put my gift next to Danchelle’s beautiful gift (a gorgeously wrapped box with a giant gold glittery bow on it) and she took an instant picture of me. We were soon joined by Katie (the owner of Fly Away Fashion) and we talked for a while. Soon we were joined by more people and I picked out a nice spot from where I could take pictures.
When everyone was seated, the game began! The first person took her present for the girl she was paired with and after that girl unwrapped her present, she’d give her present to her girl. There were also two boyfriends present and they had a (very amazing) gift for each other! It was a lot of fun to watch others give and unwrap their presents! Some people had bought something, others had made something. So many amazing presents! I wish I could describe them all, but that would be too much work (and I don’t remember everything either, haha).

There were many different Lolitas and many different presents! ^^
Now I will tell you about my present! It turned out that Danchelle’s gift was for me! I was so surprised, I never saw it coming!

My beautiful gift!
Picture by Danchelle
After I took the big gold bow off, I was covered in glitter! *_* The box contained: a cute paper bunny from Angelic Pretty’s print ‘Fancy Paper Doll’, a really sweet letter, Etude House ‘Sliced Cake Puffs’, Etude House ‘Sweet Recipe’ lip balm, four nail polish bottles in the shape of ice cream cones in the colours light green, yellow and two shades of pink and a super cute donut bracelet! I was so happy! ;_; ♥ I didn’t know how to thank Danchelle! The gifts were so perfect and wonderful!
After about half the girls got their presents, we had a little break for food and pictures. I took my tripod down the stairs and set it up outside. I tried to take pictures of everyone who wanted. Here are some of them!

Clockwise from the top left: Nina and Amy, Cat, Tamara, Kim and her boyfriend,
Kimmy, Stacey and Kimberley, Iris and her boyfriend and Dieuwke.
Choosing pictures was quite hard, so I decided to make two collages (even though they still don’t feature all the pretty people)!

Clockwise from the top left: Josine, Ella, Kathleen, Alice and Roos,
Joze, Anne, Katie
and Manon.
Don’t you think everyone looked pretty? *_*
After the pictures we continued our gift swapping. It was so much fun! Around 5 pm everyone had received their present and it was time to go. I thanked Danchelle for the wonderful meet and gifts and then I walked to the station with Cat, Tamara and Dieuwke. It had been a wonderful day, filled with fun (and presents :3)!