My First Two Meet Ups of 2015 at Camellias Tea House and The Geffrye Museum

So this year I decided to get involved more with the community but living in Bournemouth meet ups always involve some sort of travel however I met some lovely Lolitas at Hyper Japan and other similar events and this made it easier.

2015 has started well and the first meet up I attended was a lovely tea party organised by Pippa of the Tea Party Club at Camellias Tea House on Carnaby Street in January.  Camellias was founded in 2007 and is a healthy and quirky tea company which wants to make tea drinking fashionable whilst improving your health.   The cake I had was amazing and I was very impressed with the scones which I am fussy about as my family make really, really good scones which are hard to beat but these came very close but I have to say that Camellias are much, much neater than ours.

I made some new friends and caught up with some old ones. 

My outfit for the day was from our winter collection 2013, an OP with a pintucked yoke which I accessorised with a dark purple bolero with a fur collar and muff because my hands get so cold.  The OP was made for a smaller girl than me for the photoshoot however we removed the sleeves and did some alterations and  I felt like a Victorian lady, very elegant and it is one of my favourite coords so far.   My hat is one of our boaters, this one was the lace version and decorated with flowers and feathers. 

It was very well organised and I met some awesome people.

The next meet up was again organised by Pippa and her co-host Sarah for the beginning of March. We met at The Geffrye Museum near Brick Lane, London.  This museum is beautiful and illustrates how homes have changed over the last 400 years.  It has eleven period rooms which span 1600 to present day with each room representing a living space showing how people would have lived.

I think the blue room below is an ideal Lolita house and I saw lots of things I would want in my house if I had more room.

I love the quirky murals which I photographed, the horse is especially hilarious.

I travelled up on the coach this time, not my favourite transport, so I knew I needed my choice of dress to be simpler and not so frilly and also something which would not crease as I am a fidget bum.  I went for more of an Otome Kei style using up some fabric from my stash.  There is no clear definition of Otome Kei however it focuses on dressing like a young lady, looking girly and maidenly.  My dress has a squarish neck decorated with Guipure lace, three quarter length sleeves gathered into a cuff and is high waisted and fully lined in cotton for comfort.  My bag is a delightful mushroom, an off brand bag from Camden market. I felt comfy and cute in this outfit but next time I will wear something a little more extreme as hopefully next time I won't be travelling on the coach, flipping coach, I hate coach travel!

Because of the simplicity of my dress I went to town on my hair accessory.   I have started making animal heads and using these for decoration and you can see the two I made for my headdress  here, one in fur and one in silk.  I was amazed that they turned out such different sizes as I used the same pattern!

The teddies were set on a buckram base which I covered in fake suede and decorated with flowers, robins and ribbons. I love it, it is one of my favourite belongings now.

Here is a photo of us all outside the museum and I must say thank you so much to Pippa and Sarah for their hard work in organising this lovely meet up.  I look forward to seeing everyone and their beautiful outfits again.   I would strongly recommend a visit to both Camellia Tea Rooms and The Geffrye Museum, they are both beautiful places and I hope to go again.

Until next time love, love, love Shinkurose.