Fancy Lolita Tea Time - Royal York

This month's meet was a special one, we had a special guest who came back from Japan to see GazettE perform in Toronto in April, and it was decided that we should meet up and have afternoon tea in lolita. Becca is the reason I own Twinkle Journey because many years ago, I saw her dress in Japan and it immediately went on my 'need this in my closet' list. 

Becca told us she rarely wears lolita in Japan because she has no one to wear it with...so we told her to bring her lolita gear with her and we would dress up and she could have her first afternoon tea experience. 

Library Bar. Photo credit: Royal York

Initially, I had booked another restaurant for high tea, but it didn't end up working out, so instead, we decided to go to the Library Bar located inside the Fairmont Royal York. I had never set foot inside the Royal York before and the interior and ambience definitely had a lot of history and pride to it. 

They have set times for afternoon tea and they only allotted around one hour and a half for your sitting time in the Library Bar. It is recommended that your party arrives on time because after your afternoon tea experience, the hotel gives complementary tours of the Royal York to add to your experience. The tours are only on weekends and it was definitely a nice touch to our experience there. 

Library Bar

Sandwiches

The day prior to our reservation, the Royal York phoned up my sister to confirm the reservation and to ask if anyone had any food allergies. Thankfully she told them of my chocolate allergy and they said they could accommodate that.

When we got there, we were allowed to check in our coats and were shown our seats. They have a moderately sized tea list, however the selection includes unique and traditional teas.

They served the sandwiches first and brought the 3-tiered stands. It looked like most of them had been pre-plated and where sitting on the side of the bar area, and when they brought over the stands, they already had 6 portions on the plates. Since there was only 6 of us, my sister and I concluded that they must have forgotten about my allergy, which was fine. I could just eat the items that did not contain chocolate, no problem!

However, maybe 5 minutes after the servers had set down the stands, one of them came by and to confirm whether one of us had a chocolate allergy, to which I said yes!

They brought me my own separate afternoon tea set without chocolate. It was fabulous, I had gelato, Royal York's famous coconut macaroons, and a lovely fruit bowl. Definitely very surprised with the selection of sweets they gave me to replace the chocolate confections. 

After we finished our afternoon tea, we went on the tour of the Royal York hotel! They brought us into different ball rooms and the hotel kitchen galley. We also went upstairs to some private conference floors you can rent out for functions. 

The tour was only an hour and afterwards they let you explore the public areas of the hotel by yourself. We took some pictures and then set off for some evening plans. 

These photos are courtesy of Bosu. Thank you~

The Royal York's afternoon tea is $50, however the food was very good and the tour experience really helped make it more memorable and special. They have great service and are very accommodating. If you want to explore a bit of Toronto's history, swing by the Royal York and just walk around the lobby area. There are lots of pictures and plaques of historical moments that are intertwined with the hotel. 

For this month's meet I am wearing Metamorphose's Twinkle Journey as per Becca's request. <3 

 Until next time,
Drink more tea!

 ~*~

Bonus:
Look at this swan cream puff!

Yummy!

Fancy Lolita Tea Time - Yuzu & Macaron Day

For this month's meet, the lolita gods were against me in helping me get a location for us to have afternoon tea. I think I called around 6 places and they had no space for us...and I learned from then on that I needed to book these places probably weeks in advance if we were going to try to get a reservation for a group of 6 or more.

Chirashi

In the end, we decided to go to a Japanese restaurant, Yuzu no Hana, to have lunch and then head over to Butter Avenue (Queen St. W) for Macaron Day.

Yuzu has lovely and elegant interior space. I think the workers there were amused that a group of girls in lolita showed up for lunch, but nonetheless, they were very polite and offered great service. I ordered the chirashi and it was lovely.

Onto the main attraction! Getting those macarons!

By mid afternoon our main group headed towards Butter Avenue and then Bosu and Yumi met us there in the downstairs seating area. Butter had organized a fabulous line up of 30 new flavours for Macaron day with 30% of the proceeds going to charity. So many flavours to choose from...but I can't eat them all!

Photo credit: Butter Avenue

Butter Ave.

Our group managed to hog a nook in the corner in the downstairs seating area and other patrons were kind enough to let us use their empty chairs so that we could sit together and not squish ourselves in the bench seating. I picked up an extra box of macarons for my friend's birthday which was coming up, but my box contained these flavours; Butterscotch Rum, Strawberry Basil, Guava Plum x 2, Toasted Sesame (which I ate and is not in the picture), and Iron Goddess. 

Delysees

By far my favourite flavour is guava plum. They had it the year before...and if they bring it back next year, I should just get a whole box of them. I love them!

We relaxed there with some tea and water for a bit until part of the group had to leave and venture off to different destinations. A few of us decided to go to Delysees to get some of their donut macarons! They were so cute looking and a bit small compared to a usual macaron, but they were very sweet and hard to eat more than two at once. 

Did you enjoy Macaron Day and head out to get some free macarons? Let me know in the comments or just tell me if you love macarons too! 

At this meet I wore Angelic Pretty's Day Dream Carnival (Twilight set). 

Photo credit: Bosu

Until next time!
Stay fancy~!

~~~

Bonus:

I spotted a yellow bird at Prairie Girl cupcakes. I want it... 

So cute and fluffy!!

Fancy Lolita Tea Time - AnnVita Tea Room

It's been quite time since I've blogged, my last post being in 2013, but I think it's time that I come back to this in order to record the things that happen in my life. So many things have changed in the past 3 years, so let's get blogging!

I find with lolita, you have ups and downs. You are passionate for the hobby and then after you're satisfied with your wardrobe, you decide take a break. I took a break and when I came back to it earlier this year, I saw many things I had missed in the past few years. I never stopped loving lolita fashion, but with other things happening in my life, I just didn't have a chance to wear it very often and lolita took a back seat.

My friend, Whitefrosty, kept suggesting that I organize some meet ups so that we could wear our outfits. Dust off the frills and be fancy! 

It was also a coincidence that one of my other friends, Hiroko, was interested in lolita...but had no lolita items, so I told her to come over and have fun with my wardrobe. I said, "Pick whatever print interests you and I'll dress you up!" 

 ~~~

Previous AnnVita visit with my friend.

My brunch!

I organized a meet up at AnnVita Tea Room since I knew they had a lovely ambience and had some very nice drink selections and offered two types of afternoon tea sets. It was also around the time of Whitefrosty and Keiko's birthdays, so I figured it would be fun to celebrate in lolita.

I had previously came here on casual dates with my girl friends and with Whitefrosty before. I'll try to find some pictures of the tea room. It's quite lovely. One side has lots of natural light that streams in, which can be harsh on your eyes depending on the time of day and the amount of sunlight, and there is another side near the entrance that is a bit more secluded. For our meet, we were seated behind the entrance wall partition, which provided a bit more privacy for our group.

Scones!

When we arrived, they were serving brunch! I was really surprised...(and hungry). So the few of us who were there early decided to order some food while the rest of the group arrived.

I ordered the classic breakfast set for brunch and it was a generous portion and the price was quite reasonable. (I believe it was around $10-12?) I find with AnnVita, their tea and drink list is quite expensive, but the amount you are served is quite deceiving. The cheapest drink you can order is $11.99 if I recall. It looks like a little amount, but 4-5 cups later, you're bursting! On this occasion, I ordered the rose milk tea. It has lovely hints of rose and a creamy texture to it. It was served with a cute dessert...that none of us could figure out what flavour it was. Guava-mango?

Their afternoon tea sets are around $40 per person. One is the Victorian tea set and the other is the Jane Austen tea set. A few of us ordered the tea sets to try, but since I had brunch, I opted for an order of scones instead, they're small, but so filling!

Rose Milk Tea

Victoria Tea Set

If you're looking for a place to spend a comfortable afternoon at, AnnVita is a lovely choice. They take reservations and the staff are very friendly. They do not rush you or give you a time limit on your seating. I do prefer their teas and the a la carte menu for scones or biscuits. The tables are small so you have to be careful when moving your plates or pots around while in lolita.

At this meet, I wore a coordinate featuring Metamorphose's Happy Ending Story.

This is a first of a small series of group meet ups for tea time and wearing lolita.

Let's be fancy!

Until next time <3

~~~

All photos were taken by Archangeli.

 ~~~

Bonus:

 Welcome to the dark frilly side Hiroko... ;)

Juliette - My Volks SDGr Nono

It's about time that I introduce my newest addition to my BJD family! Juliette has appeared in pictures and some of my doll collecting friends have already seen her in person too, but I opted to not introduce her yet since I had not paid her off completely. 

Her back story is quite long and holds a special place in my heart. Juliette has special meaning to me and my sister, and she was adopted into my small BJD family with a bit of luck and fate. (^__^)*

Juliette, a Volks SDGr Nono

 Nono used to belong to D.ark who I had the pleasure of meeting a couple times during a visit to London and in Japan. Although I didn't know her very well, from my first impression she was a lovely person with a kind soul. The stories my sister would share with me when she met up with the doll collectors in London left me inspired because she was such a vital part of her community. 

It was during our trip to Japan in last May (2012), that my sister got the news that D.ark had passed away from her long term illness. It was so shocking and hard to accept because we had just seen her a few days before at the Volks Dolpa. 

Her husband, Fransgaard, decided to list her dolls for sale and I never knew her collection was so vast and diverse. I was a bit overwhelmed! My sister helped him one weekend while she was in London to piece together all the components and sets for each doll and showed me the listing for her dolls. I saw Nono and I knew I wanted to adopt her, but her cost would hold me back. It was based on sentimental attachment since it was the first doll I saw D.ark with when I met her and if it was possible, I would want to have her in my doll family.

I messaged Fransgaard about her price and told him I would think about it because it was quite a lot of money. I got back to him too late, as there was another buyer interested in Nono and she was sold. I was disappointed but I chalked it up to fate telling me that "It wasn't meant to be."

A month later I received an e-mail from Fransgaard asking if I was still interested because that buyer flaked and never made a payment. After initially spazzing out in surprise, I agreed to adopt Nono.

Juliette

 During my trip to London in November, Fransgaard was kind enough to let me pick her up and bring her home while I still had to complete my layaway. (I also went through D.ark's extensive amount of fabric to see if she had anything I could also use. The amount of lace and trim I brought home is a bit shocking (>o<); ) Bringing her home myself had good benefits since I could avoid shipping and customs fees.

I spent a long time trying to come up with a name for Nono. For months, that's what I called her anyways since I had not come to any decision. For some dolls, you just know what to call them when you receive them, while some, it takes a bit longer to that name to appear. In the end, I settled on Juliette, but I will probably still have a habit of calling her Nono. ^__^;

Winter Smile Nono

I can't do a traditional box opening post for Juliette since I didn't bring her her box with me. The SDGr box was too big for the suitcases we brought to London, so I left it at my cousin's apartment and I'll figure out when to bring it home...in the future. @_@;

Juliette is a Volks Grafitti Girl Winter Smile Nono, she's shorter than a SD16, but taller than a SD13. Her stringing and her joints are quite different from my other smaller dolls, and she can pose a lot better than I thought. Nono comes with high heel feet and optional flat feet. I have not changed her legs since I'm not 100% sure how, and I like that she can wear high heel shoes anyways.

Nono's default outfit

 I just changed her into an outfit that coordinates some of her default pieces with other items, so I did not feel like documenting her clothing pieces. We'll use the booklet images instead! Haha.. (>x<;)

I really like her default outfit, it's something I would wear! I love her twin-tail hairstyle since I have a soft spot for pigtails. Also, a couple of my smaller girls have pigtail wigs. The skirt doesn't fit that well along the waist band. I feel like instead of being a curved waist band, they just cut a straight waistband...so it doesn't fit nicely. 

The ankle warmers are a bit ridiculous, and I've opted to put them on as hair accessories as D.ark had styled her during last year's doll meet. (That meeting was the first time I met D.ark and the first time I saw Nono!)

By far, one of the best items of her default wardrobe are her shoes! They're super adorable and cute! My sister also has this same outfit and one day I'll make her dress up one of her dolls to twin with Juliette. Hehe! ( * v * );

Being my first large scale 1/3 doll, I initially didn't know how to pose her or play with her that well. At some point I'll need to get a stand for her since she does not stand well in her high heeled feet. Having a large resin doll fall over on their face is not ideal at all! 

I don't have an extensive wardrobe for her now since I'm trying to save money, I'll have to make some things for her to wear! Or I'll just borrow some items from my sister since she has so many outfits for her Dollfie Dream dolls. (*o*@)!

That's all for now, I'll try to take some more pics and catch up on the rest of my blogging in the next couple months! 

Until next time!

♥