Sweating in the heat (Photoshooting in Hamm)

I haven't post recently because I had a lot to do with other stuff, but here it comes: My delayed post about my photoshooting in Hamm on 5th june.

© Allsvartur

When I saw a facebook post in our Lolita group about a tfp (time for pictures/prints) photoshooting, I thoguht about appling, because I haven't had photos of my lolita outfits in good quality and I really love to take pictures on meetups when I'm in the mood. So I tried and wrote an email to the photographer, not knowing if it will work out or what kind of shooting it would be. I had neither  a plan or expectations.

It took a time, until me and the photographer Oliver could agree on a date, because he planned an outdoor shooting which is far nicer in summer.

After some missunderstandings because I didn't read carefully and some changed dates, I finally drove to Hamm for the photoshooting.

I had asked in advance, what kind of photoshooting Oliver had in mind. He suggested to shoot in a small wood, near Hamm, because the light was decent there. So it was up to me to pick an matching outfit. Like every time before a meetup, I decieded what to wear on the last minute.

What made things difficult was, that the wheater forecast on the shooting day was really hot. 

The temperatures on that day rose up to 33°C.

© Allsvartur

Having the temperatures of the last days in mind, at the time im writing this, that was nothing! Not the 39°C it was last weekend (3.7.). But in full Lolita it still was not the wheater I had hoped for. At least it didn't rain!

Additional I'm regulary comfortable with hight temperature. I feel best with temperatures above 23°C, but for me it doesn't have to be above 28°C.

Thinking of the temperatures on the day of the shoot, I was reminded of one really hot meet up I had in Maastricht in summer 2013 and noticed that I haven't worn the outfit of that day for a long time, though I really like it. Furthermore I wanted to wear a rather classic and turned down outfit.

The outfit contained of a chiffonblouse without a collar, a classic jsk and light tights. 

The main problem was, that I wanted to curl my hair and wear it open. Curls in may hair usually faint as soon as the weather becomes a tiny bit wet. But with setting mouse in advance and 3 times hairspray in between and afterwards,

the curls survived the way to Hamm and the shoot.

© Allsvartur

At least most of them!

Nevertheless I'm not sure whether I want to but so many stuff in my hair before a mettup. I like my hair more, when it is natural and feels that way. Though it look better with styling products...

So fully dressed up, I took the train to Hamm. I even had some additional outfits with me, because Oliver, the photographer, said it could be usefull. He picked me up at the trainstation, we drove to his home, to sign the contract and put some additional make up on. He was very poltie and explained everything in detail to me. I'm not used to beeing threated like a girl or a lady or whatever, but I think, that it is the best way to approach a model, when she is new to all that stuff. It tooks the nervousness away, though I think he was a bit nervous too, he talked a lot. Maybe also, because I didn't said much? I don't know, but I'm also a good listener. ;-) I will see, in the future.

We drove to the little forest and started the shooting; first without much posing. We did some protrait shoots for warm up. Oliver had great ideas for photos. I tried my best to look good on the pictures and at the same time natural.

© Allsvartur

After a short time it became easiert not to focus on my face or look. And then I started to feel like a princess. The location was beautiful. The sun shone gently trough the tree tops and it was very quiet in the forest.
Many pictures were taken that day and a hugh amount of them is totally lovely. Except the ones on which I look bored, or stupid or whatever.

© Allsvartur

The second location was a little waterfall in the Maximillian Park in Hamm. The photos where also great, though I feel you could see, that I started to sweat a bit.

Overall it was a great experience and I got so many nice pictures. I learned that it is hart to have a real shooting but not a diffuclt as I imagined it to be.
I really like to have a shooting again.

© Allsvartur

 All the edited pictures you can see in his facebook gallery. And I also have many pretty pictures which I will upload eventually.

Dokomi

Just the weekend after the 2. Golden Rhenania, the Dokomi took place in Düsseldorf. It is an anime & manga convention with more than 10.000 visitors, many programm points, a huge shoppng area with commercial sellers and poeple that sell  their handmade stuff and many comic artists.
I went there mostly for shopping and meeting up with friends. I almost succeeded in meeting everyone I know who was there.
I bought some accessory and a cute casual and handmade dress from Li-Paro. I love the combination of pink, extremly cute and a touch of nerdy, because the top is made of a fabric with little pixeled ghosts on it. I will post some worn photos later.
And since I bought it, so many girls told me, that it's a beautiful dress. Worth it!

dress from Li-Paro. Pink, cute, nerdy

I also took derpy pictures that day. Sadly there are no single pictures that I like. My petti was too flat that day, because I had back problems and didn't dare to wear two pettis. Luckily the back pain didn't last long and didn't bothered me much during the whole day. Pain killers, yip yip!

On sunday I went to Dokomi with an old friend of mine that I know from school. It was so cool seeing her again and I am glad, that she enjoyed the day though she isn't into the anime&manga scene. So are we. I know less and less grils that still watch animes frequently. But we still love to got to the conventions, as there is so much to see and I still love cosplaying. Also the conventions are not only for animes but also japanese pop culture which includes Lolita.
Thank you for seeing you again guys. It was a funny weekend and the weather was nice, as always on the Dokomi weekend.

2. Golden Rhenania

On 17th May I was at the 2. Golden Rhenania meet-up in Neuss. We went to a flea  market, which was held near the racecourse for horses. The flea market it self was intersting and the other girls found some really nice stuff. I wasn't in the mood of buying anything and the clothes i liked were too expensive. So I didn't buy anything, but I am really happy for the others.
As the flea market was a lot smaller than we expected, we were through far too early. That's why we headed over to the racecourse and took a lot of photos. Even silly ones. For me mostly silly ones. I wore old-school sweet lolita that day and I don't know how to pose in it.

©sira Wush!

The location was perfect for Classic Lolita. Too bad, it wasn't wearing it.


Afterwards we went to a restaurant called the "Spaghetti Haus", there you can order various pasta dishes, pizza and some other Italian food. I ordered pasta due to the name of course. It was very delicious. We chatted a lot. It was beautiful day and I had a lot of fun. I hope we can have such relaxed meet-ups more often.  (If I had time for it ;-) )

It rained on the 3. Loli Pott... like always...

Recently I organized the thrid "Loli Pott" lolita meet-up, this time in Herne and Bochum. As there had been less and less meet ups in the eastern Ruhrgebiet, I started this row of meet ups. It will take place about every second month in an other city.

For the frist Loli Pott we visited the museum of "Kunst and Kulturgeschichte" in Dortmund in November and went for dinner afterwards. On this meetup it wasn't raining, but it was freezing. Luckily we were indoors. But we forgot to take a grounp picture that day...
The second meet up was in the Unperfekthaus in Essen. We had a Swap and Buy and chatted a lot. It was snowing badly that day, but we got to the house by underground and it was just a short walk before we reached the dry shelter. 

group picture of the 2. Loli Pott

 

But there also is a long history of me oragnizing meet ups, that fell through because of the rain. Or like we say in german: literally fell into water. Jülich: There was so much rain, we had to take our group picture, as the rain stopped for a few minutup es. Rombergpark Dortmund: It was raining in the morning, so we weren't able to have a Picknick. I would say, I never had good wheather on a meet-up, when it was me, planing it.

Normally I therefore have a backup-plan. This time the back-up plan was to go into the museum in the castle Strünkede, when it would rain. But the problem was, as soon as we arrived in Herne, it started to rain heavily, just like we asked for it. And the museum wasn't opened yet. We headed towards the next cafe in the park of the castle, but though it should have been opened by that time, it was closed. The only good thing about it was, that they had a tent in front of the cafe where we could shelter for a while.
Next backup plan was a greek restaurant on the other side of the road. It was big enough for more than twenty lolitas and it was open. Just as we arrived, the rain which stopped for a moment, began again. But we were dry and warm and drank some coffee, tea and soft drinks.

And it I took the chance to take some group photos, worring we wouldn't have the time afterwards.

In the restaurant it was not problem to find room for 22 Lolitas (including me. I also want to sit and drink).

The problem was the little cafe to that we wanted to got later that day. It is really small and I only reserved for 19 people, though I thought, that with this amout of people two or three more wouldn't be a problem.

After a very stressful meet-up where half of the attendents (about 8 people) spontaniously agreed to come to the meet up the night before, I decieded that the attendend should announce that they will come to the restaurant at least two days before the meet-up.

But sometimes you cannot plan. So two people weren't able to come at the last minute, but four (or so) people decieded to come.

As expected it wasn't a problem to be more people than I reserved for. But we had to take the last chairs to give everyone a seat.

Back to the meetup. After having a drink, going to the loo and being warm again, we headed to the the museum. 

As the rain stopped again for some time, we quickly had our group picture.

We had so many cameras that it took a while.

group picture of the 3. Loli Pott

In the end, it even started to rain again. So there was no chance to take pictures in the park. But there were some beautiful photo locations inside the museum too.

Inside there was an exhibition of old stuff like furniture, some informatons about the region and an exhibition of artwork of Cornelia Funke, a famous German childrens book author.

As always, we chatted more than we looked at the exhibition, took some photos and admired the location.

The most impressive thing was a skeleton of an ancient stag.

Next on the programm was the most important part: Food!

We went back to Bochum to visit a small cafe near the main station, the "Cafe Besonders Bunt",

They were really excited when we entered and even a bit upset, that I didn't tell them it was a Lolita meetup. How should I have known, that they know what Lolita is? It's not like its a common fashion style or that everyone is into Japanese stuff.

All in all they were really friendlich and the food was very good and compared to other cafes the prices were more cheap, which pleases the purse.

One by one, a Lolita left as everyone had to go home at some time. In the end, we were only seven people left, that decieded to have a falafel for dinner.

I told them about an snack bar I read about on the internet. I never hab been there, but I knew they made libanese food, that I know is very good.

No sooner said than done. We headed to the snack bar. It was far more little than I expected, We took the whole place but the food was good.

And the owner was so happy that  we came, he gave us drinks for free on top.

As we headed back to the main station, it was raining. As I got home, it was raining.

But it was a wonderful meetup. I met so many new people and finally learned the names of people I already knew.

I hope to see you all on the next Loli Pott in June/July!

My yield from Paris and 1. Golden Rhenania meet-up

Except of the cold I got in Paris, I also brought some clothes with me.
Two blouses in ivory and creme. A darkblue trenchcoat and a beautiful black high-waist OP.
The trenchcoat doesn't look that spectacular on a hanger but worn with a petti it's really pretty. I'm still waiting for the weather to get warmer so I can wear it. But spring will not come...
The black dress, I want to wear it at least at the wedding of my friend in September, but I hope to get a chance to wear it previously. I'm waiting for a good opportunity to come.

But I already got the chance to wear the two blouses. The one with long arms in creme, I wore to the 1. Golden Rhenania meet-up in Krefeld at Burg Linn.

© Phantom of light

I forgot, that my hair looks better if I pull out some longer hair from my braid, so my face doesn't look that strange. And the shoes with 10 cm heel killed me. But nevermind. The location was beautiful. :)

Lolita-Shooting: Nordkirchen

Like I told you in my last post, I got stuck with Natalie before. It was at a meetup at castle Nordkirchen, which is called the Versailles of Westphalia.
Nordkirchen is a village north of the Ruhrgebiet. You can get there by train, but the castle is about 7 km away from the train station. We got there by bus, which wasn't a problem, as the bus waits for the train. We met up with the other Lolitas at the castle. 
Though the days before it had been raining a lot, it was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, but we thought something fishy was going on. We suspected that it was going to rain later that day.

The castle itself is really pretty from the outside and the garden is small but impressive, as you don't see french parks here a lot. Sadly the castle was bought by Nordrheinwestphalia in the early 20th century and converted into a buisiness school. Therefore the inside is rather renovated than what it used to be. In the rooms there are blackboards in front of the open fireplaces and it doesn't feel like you're in a castle. Some rooms are made to look old, though.

As we expected rain Natalie and I decieded after the guided tour through the castle to rather take pictures before sitting down and eat. So we headed to the park infront of the castle and had a really funny shoot. The pictures also turned out to be very good. Though it would have been better with professional photographer equiment like a better camera or a reflector.

 Just after Natalie shot this picture, she came up to tell me, theres a grandma in the background with an electric wheel chair. Brrrrrm. Also the one next to me is my new buddy ;-)

When we were finished, we sat down to eat something. The others had already finished eating. But we didn't want to hurry. We ordered something and chatted a bit. But when we look at the time, it was getting late. The busses in Nordkirchen don't run until the evening especially on weekends. But theres a bus that you must call and then it will pick you up at a certain bus stop.
We called the bus, but like I already said, this wasn't the end of the story. First we named a wrong bus stop, not the one we got out but the stop before that one, so we had to walk quiet a bit. Second: The waitress didn't hesitated to come to our table so we could pay. We waited over 15 minutes, before we just laid the money on the table and left.
Though we made our way to the bus stop fast, we missed the bus. The next one was sceduled to run 90 Minutes later. We didn't want to wait that long. We had been tired and exhausted from the day.
So we thought of diffrent ways to get to the train station.
First thought: taxi. It's the easiest way to go somewhere without busses. But not in the countryside!
The first taxi company we called told me, that their taxi was just on the way to Münster. Yes, their one and only taxi!
The second taxi company, which was locaed in the next village 15 km away from Nordkirchen. They wanted 25 Euro just for driving to Nordkirchen... That was way too much.
So we had to think of diffrent options: Hitchhiking!
We streched out out finger and tried to find someone who could take us with him.
It didn't work, so I said our only way was to walk to the train station. That wasn't easy in Lolita clothes and in Lolita shoes and it would have been quiet a long walk, if we didn't have the luck to find someone who picked us up after 500 meters.
It was an middleaged woman, who just came back from an art exhibition at the casle where she worked. She was really intereseted in our clothes and said it wasn't a problem to take us to the trainstation as it was on her way.
We thanked her a lot and she didn't even wanted some money afterwards. I have to thank her again for saving us from a long walk and beeing so kind.
We were at the train station too early but that we were there on time and got the next train home.

It was succesfull day. Not only we made cool photos, we also hitchhiked in Lolita clothing and saw a beautiful castle.

La vie en rose Paris - Sunday

Sunday was sightseeing day and day of the "Baby the stars shine bright" tea party. I didn't buy a ticket because it was 50 euros and that was too much for me at the time. Now thinking about it, it maybe was a wrong decision because I heared the tea party was great. But not 50 euros great.

As we didn't managed to go to the supermarket the other day, we got up early. It was a lovely day. It was sunny, quiet dry but cold. Most supermarkets in Paris are also open on Sundays. So we stopped at the supermarket, then headed to Sacre Coeur. It a famous basilika that was only about one kilometer away from our appartment - on the map. What we didn't know was, that it was build on a hill.
Around our appartment everything was rather flat, but after most of the way the hill begann. The last few meters were the worst. I may had seen some stairs on the map, but not these kind of stairs. They were higher than normal stairs and very long. But we were so happy when we finally arrived on the top of the hill and saw the basilika.

The first stairs Photo©Natalie

The second stairs... Photo©Natalie

We finallly made it! Photo©Natalie

It was really impressive, like all monuments in Paris: big, old, and tourist everywhere. I was glad we approached the building from the "wrong" side, the side where less tourists went there and had time to look at the basilika.
Basilika ✓
I instantly imagined how it would be to live in there. Like in a castle. But unfortunately it is a curch. You don't have to pay to get in there but you can donate money every 2 meteres.
We also visited the catacombs, where there are two more chapels under the curch. There were windows but it was rather dark, as the catacombs are below the wall that sourrounds the basilika.
Back in the daylight we made our way back to our appartment.

The tea party was about to begin at 2 p.m. so Natalie got ready and I had a nap, then we started our second tour for the day.
The venue of the tea party was next to the Panteon. So I also saw that.
Panteon ✓
I met up with friend of mine that also didn't attend the tea party. There were also two more people that wanetd to do a little bit of sightseeing that day: one other girl from Germany and a guy from Sweden. They had no fixed programm from the day, so we first went to the Louvre. We got out of the metro one station away from the Louvre so we could see the Obelisk.  
Obelisk ✓

This thing in the middle is the Obelisk

And the walk trough the park toward the Louvre. The Louvre is locaed in a former kings palace. So it is a beautiful building and like always: huge! The pyramid in the middle of the inner yard is boring compared to the old building. It is also strange to see the modern pyramid and artificial modern water installations between the houses of a former palace. And for sure: There were lots of people everywhere. 

Park in front of the Louvre

We have one in Berlin that's even bigger

As it would have taken us hours to get into the Louvre and hours to see everything inside we decieded to not go in there and instead have a closer look at the building itself.  
Louvre ✓ 

Strange contrast between the pyramid and the palace

After so much of sightseeing we were hungry and frist had some coffee in the second café we found. But it was very expensive. Nearly five euros for a cappucino. The prices for the cake were even higher. So we were left hugry and changed the café. 
A few houses next to the café we found a pizzaria. The prices were modest compared to the other restaurants. I paid 11,50 euros for a toast with salad. But it was huge. It took nearly half of the plates space. It seems everything in Paris that is good, is huge. Do they want to tell me something? Or do they have to compensate something?
Nevertheless the foog was great and we were restored to head to our next stop. The Eifel Tower.
My firend hadn't seen it yet and we didn't wanted her to leave Paris without having seen it. 
By day there are far more people at the Eifel tower. Especially as we approached it from a very popular spot.  
Eifel tower ✓

People everywhere!

Home feeling <3

It was less beautiful at daylight than it was at night, but I still love the steel construction. Home feeling.

We also did some hilarious group selfies that day but I don't show them as I can't ask the people first, whether it is okay that I will put them on the internet. So I will just look at them by myself thinking what a funny day that was.

A peek on the watch, told us that it was nearly 6 p.m. and the tea party was going to end soon. So we quickly headed to the next metro station, that is not as near as it could be and drove back to the Pantheon.
There we met the others again. Natalie and Leo who both attended the tea party told me that in the evening there would be a after party. They said they wanted to go there.
This was a good idea but I wasn't dressed in any way lolitaish and we also wanted to the Notre Dame.
So we first went by metro to Notre Dame, then back to our appartment.
But Notre Dame wasn't that easy to find. It was getting dark and from the metro there were no sign at all. So we managed to choose the way directly going into the wrong direction. But I would say, it was rather Natalie's decision. I had nothing to do with it and so it was definitly not my fault that we had to go one time round the isle to finally found Notre Dame. But we had a great view on the Seine and some old houses.  
Notre Dame ✓

Some old building across the Seine

Notre Dame. Finally!

Still have to work on this...

We did some photos of Notre Dame, a seflie, for reasons, and then quickly back into the metro. As it was freezing.

So we got ready for the after party at our appatment. I dressed up quickly: some make up, hair curled an throwed a dress over me. Ready! A quick selfie, then to the metro! And into the party!
The party was in a little bar that was called "Pub Fiction". You could eat burgers there, but we entered late. Over an hour after the party started and all the tables were taken.
But some Austrian and Swiss girl offered us to sit on their table. It was too full to order burger but we wanted to have some drinks.
Next problem: The drinks were so expensive. 7 € for a 0,5 l beer! And I am complaining about 4 € for a 0,4 l Hövels back here.
And I only took 8,50 with me. So I only ordered a small beer or in other words: I sent Natalie to the bar to get one.
It was also very loud in the bar, the music was so loud you could barely talk. But we managed to chat with the other girls, leaning over the table and shouting at each other.
By the time, the party got even better. As the level of alcohol got higher, the more started to dance. Finally nearly everyone was in the space between table and bar and danced. I rather wanted to chat, but in my back was the party of the weekend. It was fun to see all the girls in their beautiful coords just parting as always.
We knew the metro was only driving at least until 1, maybe just till 12. So we left early.

But Leo was still with us and didn't know where the girls from his appartment were, so we wanted to bring him to his appartment. We hoped the girls waited for him there. 
It was close to midnight. All the streets were empty and dark, it even started to rain again, and we were glad that we came with him. but unfortunately the girls weren't in the appartment. We found shelter in the entrance of a chinese restaurant. After waiting a few minutes in the cold, we called them. They told us, they will be there in a short time, so we waited. It took them over half an hour to get there and when they finally came it was almost 1 a.m. and we had been freezing in the cold. 
The girls told us they were just heading to the party when we called them. After midnight! When the metro only runs until 1! And the party started at 8:30 p.m. ...
They thanked us, that we called and they didn't stranded at the party, but now Natalie and I were stranded in Paris. We said goodbye very quick, though the girls offered us their floor (!) for sleeping... and headed to the metro. Closed. Next one. Closed. No Busses, no metro, no RER. 
Only a few people were on the streets. A typical sunday night, but wasn't that a big city? 
We decieded to go to Charles de Gaulle, as we thought on such an important place, there had to be some public transport.
Somehow it was funny to be stranded with Natalie again. We had a really similar problen in Nordkirch. So I complained, why this always happens when I'm with her. She told me the same.
When we finally arrived at Charles de Gaulle, we found only a sign for a night bus, but this one wasn't driving in the right direction.
We finally gave up hope to find public transport and tought about getting a taxi. Together we had 25 euros with us. We hoped that it will be enough to affort a taxi, as everthing in Paris was more expensive than it was in Germany.
As Charles de Gaulles is still an important place, but apparently to on sundays, we found a taxi really quickly. It was standing 10 meters away from us and I asked the taxi driver in bad french mixed with english how much it was, to get to the gare du nord.
He said it was 10-15 euros, what we understood after he wrote it down. But we quickly got into the taxi.
I expected the drive to be like in big cities in Germany. The taxi drivers there speed up to 70 km/h just to break at the next traffic light. But this drive was really relaxed. The driver knew all the traffic lights by heart and managed to get a green wave. After less than 10 minuets we arrived at gare du nord, which is on the other side of the inner city and the screen in the taxi showed a price of: 8,90€. Wow!
We thanked the driver, came some tip and hurried through the cold to our appartment. It was a few minutes before 2 and couldn't have been happier to finally lay down in my warm bed.

I catched a cold that night. On the next day we drove home with me coughing all the time. On tuesday everything got worse and I was sick till thursday. That's what I brought back from Paris: 1 coat, 1 dress, 2 blouses, some Oreos, 1 Orangina, 1 Salami and a cold! <3

La vie en rose Paris - Saturday

We got up early on saturday to have enough time to shower, dress up and get ready for the event. Everything went perfectly, till we went outside of our appartment. It was a beautiful moring and the sun was shining but the air was so wet. When we arrived at the metro most of our curls were gone.
Leo then later dared to ask whether we didn't wanted to do curls. But still, we looked very awesome that day. Just like everyone elese.

Obligatory selfie

We had VIP tickets as there was a viennoiserie buffet starting at 10. We hoped for more. There were only 4 kinds of pastries: croissants, some kind of milk roll, choclate rolls and "puddingschnecken". Most was sweet except of the croissants, there were great. So we ate us through the buffet, For vegans there were also fruits, three whole plates with apples, peras, grapes, strawberrys, oranges and eben a whole kiwi! Like we expected nobody ate that one.
To drink there was coffee and fresh orange or grapefruit juice. Unfortunately I noticed to late that I wanted a coffee and the orange juice was quickly gone when the event regulary started at 11. But it was really good.
With the VIP tickets we also got a small goodie bag. This was a jute bag in pink or dark pink, I got one in pink... but nervermind,with little gifts in it. There were postcards in it, a little heartshaped button with the eifel tower and the name of the event on it and a bow for the hair. My bow was a dusty pink while Natalies was beige. Just what we wanted!

The venue was in the basement of the hotel so there was no daylight which was a bit sad. There were many stalls with great clothes, acessoires and other stuff. But we quickly got through everything. Only the stall of the lolita shop in Utrecht got our attention more than one time as the continoisly added new stuff. I also saw a dress from summer tale botique which I really liked.
There were so many lolitas and mostly lolitas. The oraganizers came in diffrent styles and there were also one or two others not wearing lolita. But it was still great. Like I said, everyone looked so good that day. You could look around and never finish seeing stunning outfits.
Sure on those events everything could be a bit over the top. But the mix of every style was the best about the event.

The stage programm was  mainly Q&A panels and fashions shows. You could barely understand the Q&As as it was a bit too loud in the venue. So we skipped this programm and went for the bathroom.
Who thinks this was also boring, is wrong. It was awesome!

Each sink had it's own little mirror

We enetered a dream of gold, mirrors and marmor. The room was round with the sinks in the middel and around it mirrors everywhere. The toiletts were hidden in corners between the mirros and eben theirs doors where weakly mirrored. It was very confusing. But beautiful!
While Natalie did her hair, I had time for mirror selfies.

managed to get the angle right

My outfit this day

We later went to the the fashion show. It was cool to see the diffrent styles and interpretations of fashion. 

Later there was also a fashion show from tripple frotune and BBTSB and AatP. The tripple frotune part was pretty. But I don't know what they like about corsages. They are uncomfortable and nothing for everyday wear.

BBTSB and AatP was boring. You knew most of the design and the others weren't that impressive. 

Before the event closed there was a big raffle were you could win princes that were donated by diffrent brands. Therefore numbers were drawn that corresponded to the ticket number.

Valentine Tickets had a higher chanche to win. If somebody told me before, I would have gotten a valentines ticket.

We ended up winning nothing and some valentines two times. That was a bit disappointing. But nevermind. We still had fun at the event and I'm happy for all that got really excited about winning something.

The only thing that was annoying was that they called out the winning numbers frist in french then they tried it in English. You could barely understand the English. Sometimes there were several moments before they called it out in English. I understand some French but I don't understand numbers when someones yelling them really fast. And just because the event was in France doesn't mean everyone understands it perfectly. But they tried and in the end everyone understood what number it was.

After the event we wanted to go to the supermarket but were even more exhausted than the day before. As I layed down for a rest I just fell asleep. 

We got up later that evening far too late for the supermarket and watched French TV. 

One episode of the simpsons in Frech and afterwards an american "documentation" series about paranormal events and ghosts. During the second episode Natalie pointed out that the ghost may just didn't liked the new color of the wall. This was the point were we stared to joke around what it was like if every house had its own house ghost, You would have to ask your ghost in advance when you want to repaint the walls or buy new furniture. When friends come over you have to inform your house ghost first or when you move in with someone.

And what about the house ghost when your living in an appartment house? Does the ghost sit in the entrance hall watching everyone going in and out? What does he do all day? Calculating the water and electricity bills? 

Questions over questions. I will have to wirte a short story about it some day. That could be a really funny story.

Japanese street fasion event in Paris "La vie en rose" - Friday

Though I have exams to write at the moment, in november my friend Natalie and me decieded to go to Paris this weekend for "La vie en rose", an event for japanese street fashion, that also includes lolita fashion. Or should I say almost only lolita fashion? But I should start at the beginning.

Friday

As the event was going to be on saturday we went to Paris on friday by Thalys. As the only train departing from Essen and not Cologne was around 5:30 I persuded Natalie to take the train departing two hours later. As I didn't wanted to begin the day stressed because I would had to get up really early.
So we just had to go to Cologne with the normal trains. That was what I thought.
But the Deutsche Bahn decieded to get me stressed as hell by just decieding to completly cancel the train from my hometown to Cologne and leaving me no other choise than to take the car to be there on time. Thank you Deutsche Bahn. I love when this happens...
I never expected them to just cancel the train as there are so many people travel to work by train. But that's my hometown: it isn't important enough to have trains that actually are on time or even depart.
So I quickly got into the car and drove to Cologne. 40 Minutes left lane. Luckily there weren't that many cars on the highway at that time and I managed to be there about 10 minutes before the train departured. The journey was about to begin.

In thalys you get the seat reservation with your ticket (not like Deutsche Bahn, die Penner).  But I was very disappointed that there had only been a half of a window next to my seat.

Only half of a window :(

But the drive was good. Natalie took so much to eat with her that I survived the three and a half hours. I wanted to buy something at Cologne train station but as I was late, we rather wanted to get the train than buy me some food.
The train goes from Cologne to Aachen, then trought Beligium to Paris. We both expected Beligium to be more like the Netherlands with tiny houses. Everything was more like in France. There were old houses, that looked really old, as there had been done nothing on the front for too many years and among them big office biuldng with fronts made of glass. It was a strange view.

We arrived in Paris on time. But there was the next problem: I only knew the street where our appartment was, not the number. I knew it had to be on the beginning of the street but not which side. And it was raining. But I had an umbrella with me.
We met up with Leo at the train station and headed to the street where our appartment was supposed to be. Unluckly I decieded to take the wrong side.
As a helpful man, opened us the door of house number 2, we knew this was the wrong house, as on the door bells inside there wasn't the name of our hirer.
Yes, in Paris the door bells aren't outside the building, you have to go in there to ring! On the front door theres only a little numeric keypad, where you have to enter the right code to get in. On every single house! French...

So we switched sides to the number 3 where you could see the door bells tough the window. As we didn't knew the code we were lucky that a family living there arrived by the time and let us in, so we could ring.
Despite of our terrible french, the hirer came down. He was an old man, and was very confused at the beginning, but when he checked his papers, he knew who we were and led us to our appartment.
It was light, big and warm and as it was on the seventh floor you had a great view over Paris. We could see the Eifel tower from there. Seem like this is the main thing an appartment in Paris must have. It's a light house at night.

View from our apprtment

We went to the "Baby the stars shine birght" store and the "Axes femme" store that day. On Baby I saw three dresses that I loved, but each one was too expensive. So I spend most of the money I took with me at Axes femme. I was heavily breathing when I entered. So many clothes that are just my style. I want one in my city. Now!
I spend about 200 euros for a coat and two blouses. The dresses didn't fit me that well and my friends holded me back from buying more things like a backpack or a knit jacket.
We later heared that the shop assisants didn't know that so many lovers of japanese street fashion were in town that weekend. I think we all together nearly managed to buy out the whole shop.
In both stores we met other lolitas, but hadn't much time to chat, as we had little time and needed more to try on the clothes.
Afterwards we had a Crépe at Princess Crépe, also a very famous location for lolitas and then went to the venue where the event was going to happend the next day.
All the time it was raining. I was still glad I had an umbrella. With it, the rain wasn't that bad.

So after we finally got rid of Leo (Just kidding he had to go to his appartment) we went to do a bit of sight seeing.
I quickly noticed that my first impression of Paris at the afternoon was now completly turned around. Paris at day is dirty, ignorant and poor. But Paris at night is more quiet and really beautiful.
I think it's because in the dark you can't see the dirt and are reminded of a Paris that was once beautiful. Also there are less people on the streets and everything is lighted.

Arc du triomph

As the arc du triomph seemed to be nearby, we decied to have a look. It wasn't that close, as the building is far more bigger than it looks from the distance. Inside the arc du triomph is a little museum and you can go to the top, where you have a breathtaking view over Paris. Especially by night. You can see in every direction an the view differs from which street you are looking at.
This one was very impressive. It seems to be the bank quater of Paris, but at night and with the high buildings lighted and seeming symetric to the street it looked like it was from a science fiction movie.

View from arc du triomph

And for sure you could see the Eifel tower from up there. We couldn't get rid of the view but it was freezing tough the rain stopped, so we went to the Eifel tower afterwards.
It was the best decision to go there by night. It also was so impressive.

Golden Eifel tower

It's huge! I never expected it to be that big nor that pretty. Lighted at night it seems golden and from time to time it starts to sparkle *.* There are little lamps on it which go on and off with an offset.
I also felt homelike as it was a huge steel construction like the industry in the Ruhrgebiet with their furnances.

We returned to our appartment exhausted and hungrry. So we found a kebab shop near our appartment where we ate the best kebab and chicken sandwich of our whole life. Or visit.. Though the fries could have needed more salt... or at least some salt.
After we had our stomaces filled, we fell into bed as we had to got up early the next day.

My short history of "lolita" fashion

Besides from normal fashion, I love dressing in lolita style. Lolita fashion has nothing to do with the idea of a young child, dressing as a woman or reversed. It's mostly called lolita because the japanese people liked the sound.
It's a japanese street fashion which is inspired by victorian children clothes and other fashion before 1960. Therefore it includes wide skirts, long enough to reach your knees, frills, lace, and cute acessoires. Nowerdays the dresses and skirts often have a print on them and therefore are themed.

I've been into lolita fashion since 2011. As I made bad experiences with ordering a dress in an online store earlier that year, I decieded to buy brand.
My first dress therefore was from "Metamorphose temps de fille". The blouse I got second hand (also Meta), the petti on "dawanda", but I had no shoes. So I just wore the ballerinas I had. Luckily I found tights that fit the outfit.
I was desperatly looking forwrad wearing it for the first time. My parents, especially my mum, didn't understand why I wanted to wear clothes that were diffrent. So I explained it to them. It was very helpfull that I read many texts from other lolitas online, so I knew  what to tell them.
I told them, that I liked the dress, that I wanted to wear it, because I think it is pretty and that I didn't care, what other thinks. I wanted to wear ist for myself.
Quickly my parents admitted, that it looked pretty and were even a bit pround, when I got compliments for my look.
This is a photo of my first photoshoot with my parents in Italy:

No shoes, petti showing, but feeling like a princess

I'm lying if I say, this was my frist lolita outfit ever. I tried once to use normal clothes for an outfit, but you wouldn't reconize that it was ment to be lolita.

Since then I experimented with lolita styles. First I wore cute dresses. Much frills, and dresses that were princesslike, since I noticed, that I feel a bit better in dresses that are more feminine and casually.
The style most of my dresses belong to is classic lolita. It's called like this because you can see a bit of the historical background in them, They have modest frills and lace. But somethimes I also feel like dressing more like a princess.

In comparismn I like to also post a picture from my last photo shoot in the snow:

 The dress is more historically inspired.

I mostly wear lolita for meet-ups where other girls (and boys) that also love and wear the fashion meet and visit places like museums or castles. Afterwards we normally have a bite at a restaurant or cafe.
In everyday life I rarely wear lolita as it is too much effort to get ready in the morning. I just wear it causally or on weekend, when I'm sitting around the house by myself. 

Backpack and Rainbow

This blog will perhaps be mainly about fashion and accesoires. So I will start with one that I love since I bought it.

Due to problems with my back I am not allowed to carry heavy handbags anymore. As I only own a black Dakine backpack, that is not every cute thought it has a pink floral print, I was looking for a new backpack, that I could wear everyday. I found a few ones online, but this was the one I fell in love with, not only because it was cute, but also being very well crafted for the price of 30 euros. And it has owls on it!

You can also store so many things in it. My normal grocery purchase fits in there. Okay, sometimes I have to carry two or three things on my arms. But still: It is a cute alternative to my bigger backpacks. I was just a little upset, that it isn't avalible in pink... though I din't even like pink. Maybe a pale pink... now its green, which works every well with the brown.

And I recently baked a rainbow cake. Why? Because of reasons. I was not ecaxtly bored, but as a friend of mine mentoined a rainbow cake, I wanted to bake one.
Since I don't like most "dry" cakes, but love lemon cake, the decision, what cake it would be, was easy. And it turned out very well.
Here's one normal photo of it:

And one with hipster redering! Whoa! A rainbow cake in pastel colours. So hipster.