I tried to keep myself occupied this weekend; it keeps me from moping around while my husband is out of town. My family kidnapped him and took him on a vacation I couldn’t join them on due to my work schedule. I am hoping that once he gets back we can have a few non-disappearing-husband weekends together. It seems like his busy schedule is always taking him off to some other place with one side of my family or the other!

So I met with Miss Lindsey and Miss ElleJay for lunch at one of my favourite places–Bittersweet! ♥ It’s a charming little bakery & café near my home. They sell delicious pastries and fancy desserts, and they serve breakfast and lunch at marble-topped tables in the sunlight from large windows. There isn’t a lot of seating and you can’t make reservations, but it isn’t counter service and the atmosphere inside is really great! If only we could make reservations I’d host a meetup there. It’s very popular, though, so we had to loiter a bit to find a table.

We had lunch and macarons~ I really enjoy the macarons there. Although they’re not Ultimate Perfect Unquestionable Macarons, they’re always good and don’t taste frozen. Frozen-tasting macarons are my least favourite, no matter what the flavor is supposed to be. I also had a piece of mushroom quiche. _ It was so delicious…they make a lovely quiche that isn’t overcooked and dry, but creamy and soft. ElleJay and Lindsey both brought a few of their ball-jointed dolls, so there were a lot of stares at the oddly-dressed table of girls with interesting dolls! I intended to bring my Claire but totally lost my nerve.

After we had finished eating we clearly weren’t ready to part ways, so we headed over to my house. We sat around on the carpeting (a staple of visits to Alice’s tiny house, as I have only kitchen chairs), drank tea, and talked about dolls~ It’s always a lot of fun to spend time with people that share the same hobbies, and thankfully we’re all pretty mild–no worries of hurt feelings or drama~

It was really enjoyable to sit around in the sunlight from the window, sipping tea and taking pictures of dolls. It’s only in that span of brightest-sunlight hours that my apartment isn’t too dim for pictures, and since I wasn’t at the office during that time–as is usually the case–we were able to utilize it. The wig my doll usually wears has this awesome habit of looking ridiculously adorable on any other doll, so it was passed around a bit to show off its amazing technique.

Lindsey, who sells really awesome doll clothing as Studio404 on Etsy, has been working with me to branch out to other sizes. Since I have a doll that’s considered to have fairly standard proportions for a 1/4-scale doll, she’s been measuring, drafting, and testing clothing ideas. It’s a lot of fun! ♥ I’m bribing her with tasty desserts and the allure of an Usamomo plush bunny–the ultimate in Alice currency.

This time she brought little bloomers for both my doll and ElleJay’s doll~ They’re so cute! Her doll was wearing the prototype, a faintly-striped beige pair, ElleJay’s doll’s are a deep purple dupioni silk, and the ones I received for my doll are white polka-dotted pink flannel! (Perfect for my general tastes.) They fit perfectly–now she just needs a cute top and they’d look like pyjamas.

We also took some pictures outside my building, to take advantage of the sunlight and nice weather while it lasts! Around here, you can never be sure what tomorrow will bring, after all~ The areas along the pathways and courtyard by where I live are always nicely taken care of, too–that’s why I’m always ready to take pictures there! It’s not a lush meadow or enchanted forest, but still better than a parking lot in my opinion!

I insisted that everyone take pictures with Monsieur Lait, which really doesn’t need much insisting. Usakumya are so soft and perfect for snuggling; no-one ever resists! He gets a lot of attention, and I get the feeling that it’s a-okay with the bunny bear.

When it was finally time for the tea and fun to end, I walked them back to their respective places of departure~ It turns out that another local lolita, who haven’t yet had the chance to meet, spotted me while she was at work. I got home to a “who was that” post on our local community; it was very entertaining to see that most of my friends immediately knew that it must be me based on the description of pink + pigtails. That is an accurate condensed description!

It was a really lovely time, and I can’t wait to do it again~ ♥