Counting down the days

It's almost the end of 2013, and there are a few things that I'm looking forward to! But perhaps the two most exciting things are: 1, I'll be finishing my last architectural design class - forever! (I'm actually avoiding my last assignment by blogging, haha~) and 2, 24 days until I depart for Germany and the Netherlands :D

As you can imagine, life is getting busy with huge assignments and preparation for my overseas trip. But I did try to enjoy myself a little too! Our lolita community decided to hold a 'Magical Lolita Transformation' day for some new girls who'd perhaps never tried lolita before. So many girls were kind enough to lend some dresses for others to try on. We helped with makeup and hair before taking a snap of their transformation :) I decided I wouldn't transform, and wore my own coordinate: Emily Temple cute's chocolate and ribbon jumperskirt with some Angelic Pretty accessories (beret, socks and bag).

Our community also decided to celebrate a super early Halloween and we held a very spooky little picnic in the Botanical Gardens. It was a super hot day in Spring, so it was hard to dress up. I decided to go for a creepy Snow White zombie. What if she died when she ate the apple, and the 'kiss of life' kept her undead?! I made a nice red ribbon headbow to match my Innocent World's Dward Story Jumperskirt.

The very next day, my sister and I were invited to a community festival celebrating the sisterhood between Salisbury (in Australia) and Mobari (in Japan). I wore a casual lolita outfit with my new bear hoodie and French Cafe by Angelic Pretty. :)

Since receiving my Musee du Chocolat by Angelic Pretty, I was keen to have a twins meet! I knew there were at least two other girls who also bought the print in the community besides my sister and I. And so I hosted a fun twinning meet where we enjoyed yummy burgers and purikura together!

 

I was so impressed with the Chess Chocolate triplets and Whyteleaf twins! All our dresses matched so well! Chocolate prints, ahoy~ Everyone had such a fun time, and so many passerbys loved our outfits and couldn't resist taking photos of us.

And lastly before I continue with my assignment, I spent a short afternoon enjoying Halloween cupcakes at my favourite cupcakery - BTS. Since it was the last day of teaching at University too, I decided to dress up a little and wore my newest wardrobe addition: Emily Temple cute's Chocolatier Bunny. It's so cute and comfortable. I love the pinkish red~

I hope you all enjoyed a scary Halloween! Next year, I hope to have some time to go trick or treating again, it's so much fun :) My little sister did! She was dressed as a zombie girl in a seifuku. I did her makeup and she looked so scaryyy XD What do you think?

And before I leave, here's a few photos of some super super casual outfit I wore to university that I thought I'd share~ My juju maxi shoes are so comfy and I think they look so cute with funny socks like my America ones on the left. My brother hates them with socks though, haha~ :P

Europe, I'm coming back! (this is mostly about food)

This is Heidelberg, but it's sort of related... Germany.

I'm ever so excited to announce, I'll be going on another trip to Europe in November/December!! I applied for the University's Law study trip to Germany and the Netherlands earlier this year and after waiting terribly long for a reply, I was granted an interview! And now, I've been accepted to undertake the two week course at EBS University, Mannheim University and visit the International Court of Justice in the Hague! I'm really happy and super excitedd~ I better start saving money againn!

I ended up being really really lazy during the past months (sorry about the lack of posts, too!), and I didn't do anything except eat! Haha! It's no joke though, here are some delicious pictures of what I've eaten of late, they happen to all be desserts too:

I had this shiny chocolate cloud from a dessert lunch date at Steven ter Horst with my good friends. It's a perfectly shaped dome filled with chocolate mousse and cream, coated in chocolate ganache and decorated with dark chocolate pieces. Perfectly sweet with a hot chocolate. Yum!

 

Another outing with friends led me to St Louis ice cream house. We shared a chocolate fondue set with the richest chocolate brownie, churros, fresh sweet strawberries and some not so delicious waffles. It was delicious overall, and even though I swear I could've had ice cream after all that, I really was full of sugar already...

And recently, I went back to San Churro twice for their yummy yummy sundaes! I shared the first one, a strawberry chocolate sundae with my sister. And I attempted the San Churro sundae on my own!! It was so rich and delicious, but I just couldn't finish all three scoops of ice cream!! I think I'll go with an empty stomach next time~

my big fat haul

I've been terribly spend thrifty of late! I think it's a becoming a small problem. Haha! This is what I've spent my money on during the past two months. I really spoiled myself for my birthday, plus I found some amazing deals on mbok and yahoo auctions, so I thought I shouldn't let a good price go! What do you think about that? Justified?

Firstly, to fulfill my tea loving and drinking, I asked my kind sisters to buy me a pretty teapot and some yummy teas from the popular shop t2. It took some weeks for the blue 'wonderland' teapot to be restocked, so I had to be quite patient. My sister took me in store to pick the teas I wanted. I chose some of the sweetest ones: Honey vanilla, Vanilla slice and Black rose. (rosy, vanillary, sweet aromas are my favourite!)

As a present for myself, I found some brand new beautiful teacups! The first is the famous 'Lady Carlyle' from the Royal Albert range. Now I can match with my sister, and we can have cute fancy tea parties together, heehee~

Secondly, I bought this 'Yellow Butterfly' teacup from Wedgwood. It came in such a pretty box as well! I love the chinoiserie motif, and the cute colours! I bought some earl grey tea leaves from Wedgwood too! Earl grey is definitely my favourite tea blend, so I'm looking forward to trying this in my new teacup!

With a recent eye test, came new prescription, and thus, new frames!! I had seen this pair of Bvlgari frames for a long, long time. So I was so glad to finally have them fixed up with the correct lenses for me. I'm still trying to get used to them, but I love wearing them all the time!

 

 Onto lolita purchases!! I found both these dresses for a very good price on mbok. I couldn't believe I spent about half the original price on Alice and the Pirate's Porz Kerchief on the left! It's a dress I really loved when it was released, and I managed to find it in my preferred colour~! On the right is Vintage Market by Emily Temple Cute. Given the condition and price, it was practically a steal!

Since I don't post as regularly (and because I'm just super, super excited), here are a few more items that I'm waiting for in the mail:

Emily Temple Cute's Cutlery and Donuts onepiece in sax
Emily Temple Cute's Cutlery and Biscuits skirt in white
Emily Temple Cute's Un Deux Trois cutsew dress in navy
Baby the Stars Shine Bright's blouse in brown
Baby the Stars Shine Bright's mini crown in gold
Angelic Pretty's Toy March beret in green
Juju jelly slipper shoes in gold and dark silver

Time to stop? Yes, I think so too. I might need to have a 'no spending' month soon. What are some tips on saving money?

lolita blog carnival: dessert outfit

I haven't participated in a lolita blog carnival topic for a while! But this week's topic: create an outfit based on a dessert, really sparked my interest. I have the biggest sweet tooth. Ever. And I have plenty of printed dresses that are dessert and sweet based! My only problem was choosing only one dessert to base the coordinate on!

 

In the end, I decided to base my coordinate on very unique cake that I actually had the chance of trying when I was in Paris last year. Invented by the maison Dalloyau established in Paris in 1682, this cake is called 'Echiquier', meaning 'chessboard' in french. No need to wonder why~ Created in 1993, the cake is described as: 

'Un petit gâteau ludique et moelleux aux trois chocolats et aux pions en chocolat. Biscuit aux amandes, génoise au chocolat parfumée à la gousse de vanille Bourbon de Madagascar, déclinaison de trois chocolats : chocolat noir 64% cacao - origine Equateur en chantilly, chocolat blanc et chocolat lait 40% cacao en mousse.'

'A small, fun and soft cake with three chocolates and chocolate chess pieces. Almond biscuit, chocolate sponge cake flavoured with Bourbon vanilla beans from Madagascar, variations of three chocolates: 64% cocoa whipped dark chocolate from Ecuador, white chocolate, and 40% cocoa milk chocolate mousse.'

It was both beautiful and delicious! I had a small individual cake, with a cute little pawn made of white chocolate. Actually, I almost didn't want to eat it because it looked so pretty!! You can see the larger version of the 'Echiquier' in the background of the above photo~! They have lots of beautiful cakes. If you are ever visiting the Pantheon in Paris, you'll find Dalloyau nearby: 2, place Edmond Rostand - 75006 Paris. They have many other shops around Paris, and even in Tokyo, Seoul, Dubai and Doha~!

So how did the 'Echiquier' inspire my lolita outfit? (I think you can guess) Angelic Pretty's Chess Chocolate, of course! I coordinated this beautiful print with a white blouse, royal chocolate socks and a hint of gold to reflect the little 'Dalloyau' label on the cake. I tried not to add too many accessories because the print itself was perfect enough on it's own, don't you think? And since we're going with the chess theme, I added a few geeky touches (middle part and oversized frames), heehee!

Outfit rundown:

- Blouse, JSK, socks, bag: Angelic Pretty

- Shoes: Secret Shop

- Headbow: handmade by me

- Glitter hairclip: 6%dokidoki

I apologise for the super terrible lighting and my lack of makeup. It's getting really cold and dark with winter in full swing. My room is the darkest, and has the world's worst lighting. Sorrryy! I'll admit I was feeling pretty lazy when I took the photos, so they are not very good at all, haha!!

If you are interested in seeing what the other beautiful girls created, follow the links below~:

abc lolita

lace a la mode
hello kitty loves disney
rainbow star candy shine
masquerade doll
the bloody teaparty
sunny macabre 

where have you been?

Hello, hello! I must apologise once again for the lack of posts, but I have been super busy. Not only with my architecture course, but I've also been doing lots of interesting things recently. This is another catch up post with what I've been doing in the past month or so since my last post. PS, watch out for a super, super loooong post!! 

First off, my good friends and I decided to visit the Barossa Valley. Have you ever heard of it? It's very famous for wine, and it's about an hour and a half drive from Adelaide. We booked a mini bus, and toured around some of the famous wineries tasting their best wines.We stopped by at Peter Lehman's for a very delicious and casual lunch, before continuing our tour. We went home, tired (and a little tipsy) with a few bottles each.

 Next up was a small lolita meet I hosted to raise money for 'Australia's Biggest Morning Tea'. We enjoyed a little tea party in the Botanic Gardens with lots of food, my sister's home brewed tea, and lots of fun. We raised over $250 for the Cancer Council, and I was so touched by everyone's generosity~ I didn't manage to take many photos as I was rushing about, but here are my outfit photos from the day.

Outfit rundown:
Chocolate beret: handmade by a lovely friend, Emma
Gold bow hairclip: 6%dokidoki
Blouse: Baby the stars shine bright
Honey cake jsk: Angelic Pretty
Cardigan: Taobao
Chocolate socks: Emily temple cute
Teaparty shoes: Secret shop
Biscuit bag: Baby the stars shine bright

My sister and I were really excited to watch 'The Great Gatsby', so when it opened in the cinema, we decided to see it right after a day at uni. It was a lovely film, in a very over the top style and it didn't deviate too far from the original book by F. Scott Fitgerald. I really enjoyed it~!!

I've also been doing some serious fooding! First off, is Fancy Burger, tucked away down Synagogue Place in the city. My sister and I visited it twice this week (once more with my brother).  I had the 'crispy bacon and cheese', and the 'hot spicy'; both burgers were with Angus beef and were absolutely delicious. Their chips were pretty tasty too!!

 As for desserts, I visited the chocolatier Steven ter Horst on Unley Road, which is famous for their Belgian chocolate. I tried the 'nuts for chocolate' cake (layer of chocolate cream, ganache, biscuit, and chocolate with nuts - yum!) and the hot chocolate with fruit de bois. Admittedly this wasn't as great as the chocolate salons in Paris or Brussels, but it'll do for now!

 And let's not forget my latest favourite place: St. Louis house of fine icecream and dessert. I had the 'churros martini' with salted caramel icecream, and delicious apple caramel sauce. The churros weren't made great this time, as they crumbled at my fingertips. I gave it a week's break, but couldn't resist trying their icecream again!!

 

The last thing I want to share is Law Balll!! The university (Law student society) organises an annual Law Ball, and my friend and I decided we'd finally attend one of them to see what the fuss was all about. We managed to find some tickets luckily from a friend of a friend. It's a really popular event that sells out within days. The event was held at the Stamford Grand in Glenelg, so we decided to book us a hotel room as well, to get ready and crash at the end of the night! We had some beautiful views of the beach and the jetty too. We enjoyed some delicious pizza (pumpkin with fetta cheese - best!!) at a restaurant nearby before putting on our prettiest dresses, highest heels, making up our faces, and heading down to the ball. Aside from the unlimited drinks and finger food, the best part of the night was the photobooth machines, which we made good use of!! We had a little bit (a lott!) of fun that night~~

 

The next few weeks will be even more busy with my last architecture project for the semester (worth 40%, eek!) and exams. But once that's all over, I promise to make a post about my 'latest' haul. Yes. It will be a lovely, big haul from over several months including all the lolita items, birthday gifts and taobao-ing. I'm excited too. Here's a sneak peek, with some Uniqlo tshirts I ordered. I couldn't resist getting a few Disney collaboration ones along with the much needed Laduree ones!!

Until then, keep safe! x