birthday tea and funny miis

last week, i turned 23 and celebrated it with a bunch of my friends! 

 

(fair warning - cool pic of animal bones in this post)

 

 

 a while before my birthday, i decided that i wanted to do a tea party somewhere fancy. i hadn't really done something like that before, let alone organize one, so i wasn't super sure what to expect! i did some furious googling and found a place that was decently budget-friendly so that people wouldn't have to break the bank just to come visit. i made reservations, and waited for the day to come. we all met up a little before noon and went in together. the site of our tea party was a historic hotel and it was super pretty!! it really leans into the historic aspect of the site.

i like the chandelier more than the george.

 

we were quickly escorted to a large dining room, where they'd set up a long table for our big party. this, too, was very pretty, and aside from three or four other diners, we were the only people in there. because it wasn't too busy, it didn't feel particularly hectic or stressful -- just relaxed, which was nice!
 

our tea consisted of four courses served over the course of a few hours. it was a pretty leisurely affair, and we had lots of time to sit down and chat. everyone came in their own version of comfortable tea party attire and looked wonderful! all our attire was fancy and floral, but the hangout and conversation topics were funny and deeply immature as always. and i wouldn't have it any other way har har  

my friend brought his lovely and unsettling homunculus to spend time with us at the tea party

the tea party itself was wonderful! i was too busy eating to photograph everything, but i did have the foresight to at least take a few pics for the memories lol. we were started off with an assortment of tea, of course. i had earl gray with honey, others had raspberry, mint, so on and so forth. then, we got these absolutely amazing cranberry-white chocolate-lemon scones with cinnamon butter, probably one of my favorite things from the whole afternoon. after that was a small cup of soup, then a selection of tea sandwiches. my favorite was the pork loin with mango chutney, but the raspberry-chicken salad one was good too. the cucumber sandwich was okay, which is actually really high praise from me because i don't care much for cucumber. 

the final course was a selection of assorted desserts! everyone got something different, so we all did a lot of sharing, exchanging, and trying each others desserts hahaha. the hotel knew ahead of time that it was my birthday (they'd asked for the occasion when i made the reservation) and they brought me a little tart with a candle, which was very kind!

after our tea party concluded and we paid our respective bills, i got a moment to take some photos in the lobby!

most of my friends aren't into lolita fashion, they're very supportive and appreciative of my hobby but they have their own things that they're into! however, my dear friend wyrm got into the fashion a few months ago, and so, showed up in an incredibly cute brown and navy coordinate. of COURSE i had to get a picture of us together  

my coord is mostly AP, his coord is mostly baby and AATP, but our blouse and cutsew sort of matched!!

and because i always always always get photos with them when we go out together, i got a picture with my lovely partner too, who matched me with a pink and brown color combo  

coord rundown
jsk - angelic pretty

cutsew - angelic pretty

hat - angelic pretty

socks - angelic pretty
shoes - LIEF
bag - baby, the stars shine bright
accessories - chocomint, Q-POT

i did enjoy wearing this coordinate, even if it wasn't the most balanced. i remain stuck in my "shoes in the mail" plight for the time being, and while i was hoping either my pink or white ones might arrive in time, they ultimately did not. still - that's no reason not to go out in your dream dress and have a good time with your friends. in the future, i'd like to revisit this outfit with more matchy-matchy shoes and more accessories! i'm in a bit of an awkward phase where i'm still building a cohesive wardrobe, but i've been really happy with my progress lately and hope i can continue to improve.

after our tea party, i invited people to my house for a few hours for a slightly chiller gathering and some birthday cookie cake, courtesy of my partner. some of us played smash bros on my gamecube, and everyone who wasnt interested in gaming their cube started watching minecraft yaoi animations in my living room idk these people kinda scare me sometimes. eventually i forced them to put the minecraft videos DOWN and watch my favorite movie with me, lupin iii: the castle of cagliostro, which i watch every year for my birthday with my captive audience. (this is a really fun movie even if you aren't familiar with lupin iii btw. it's hayao miyazaki's directorial debut! please give it a watch, it's great.) my cat, initially displeased by all the strangers in her home, even came out and said hello to everyone!

for birthdays, i always make sure people know that they don't have to feel obligated to get me presents. having people's presence is the perfect gift! that being said i did receive two very sweet gifts this year! the first one was from my friend lauren, who gave me a skunk skull!

 

it's from a small store that ethically sources all of their findings, so it's not a trophy hunting situation. i know some people find taxidermy and vulture culture stuff kind of disturbing, but i think it's a really beautiful way to memorialize an animal long after their passing. skunks are my favorite animal, but they get such a bad rap so i never see any appreciation for them. people even give me sideways looks when they find out that i like them so much!!!!  i'll save you a further rant about the undeserved poor reputation of skunks, but it makes me really happy that just this little skunk can be forever remembered and appreciated by someone. i named them jones.

from my partner, i received a very beautiful and very funny dress. about a month ago, i saw an astro regimen frill-style jumpserskirt on lacemarket. i had been wanting it for a while, but was going back and forth on if i wanted to spend so much money. and then, right in front of my eyes, i saw it disappear off the front page. i kicked myself over it for weeks!! i hadn't made up my mind fast enough so someone bought it right up. every couple of days i'd lament to my partner about how i wished i'd made up my mind a little faster and beaten that other guy to the punch. and then...

 basically the moral of the story is that your lacemarket enemy might just be your bfs secret account 

my birthday gift to myself was the new tomodachi life! i've been a huge fan of tomodachi life since i played the 3DS game as a kid, so i've been STOKED for this game ever since it was announced last year. it released the night after my birthday, so we had kind of a second tomodachi party. we were in the middle of replacing our bedframe, and the mattress needed to go SOMEWHERE, so just for a night we used that as an excuse to move it into the living room and have a tomodachi life sleepover. (oxymoron, because we didn't actually do basically any sleeping)

 

it's you!

we ended up making nachos, butter cookies, apple slices, and fried eggs for dinner since that was the selection of food from the demo hahaha. i made my household, characters from my personal art projects and DND games, and a weird little freak named aply jim. it was a blast and i don't think we got to bed until about 5 or 6 in the morning. it's been a few days and we're still feverishly playing it every time we have some free time (which is why i'm only getting around to this blog post now lala )

 

 to keep this blog lolita fashion related i should probably circle back and mention that the customization in this game is good enough to do this. if you're patient. really really patient. this took me 8 hours and a lot of pain. it was probably mostly worth it because look at it:

 

 now i just need some kind of headbow to show up in the clothes store!!

 

i had a really wonderful birthday this year. 2026 had kind of a rocky start for me and mine, so i'm glad we could have such a fun week of celebration. i hope my good luck continues well into my twenty-third year around the sun. thank you for reading my long, drawn-out report on my birthday shenanigans!!