Spring Picnic Meet

Initially I wasn’t going to go. This meet was organised kind of as a spur of the moment thing (well, as much as 2 weeks’ notice can be spur of the moment) and it was shortly after my return from Belgium, so I anticipated myself to be tired and in need of rest. Plus I wasn’t optimistic that the weather would hold. And, as usual, I’m so glad that I went!

For the sake of comfort I went for a very simple coord. In true spirit of #lolitaproblems, none of my sax items match and I didn’t want to do red and blue again (as much as I love red and blue), so decided to white and brown. Innocent World does Sweet-Classic vibes like no-one else and I’m totally into this, especially with this dress, so even though the coord is pretty basic it works so well. I would’ve liked to have maybe a brown ring or white x brown OTKs, but even without those I felt appropriately Lolita.

The picnic turned out so much better than I expected! For one, the weather was really nice, warm with sunny spells – and during those sunny spells many of us took off our jackets and cardigans, it was genuinely that warm. But also, Leeds comm turned out to be expertly organised. We were due to leave the train station at 1pm – at precisely 12:59:57 the last member of our party arrived and we all departed at 1pm sharp. If you don’t understand why this is so shocking in Lolita communities, then you must be very new. And then not only did everyone bring something delicious to eat, we had a good balance between savouries and sweets and enough responsible people to think about the boring basics: cups, plates, cutlery, napkin, even a bin bag. Well done, Leeds, you have nailed that picnic thing.

Our spread (plus my foot spoiling the photo).
Photo by Kirsty.

The park we were in was right in the city centre, maybe 5mins walk from the train station (if you walked leisurely), yet it was pleasantly empty, which meant that we didn’t have to fight for any kind of spot to claim and were generally undisturbed. Apart from a wedding party, which took over the opposite end to take some photos, one random guy with his girlfriend who thought he was being swag and one man with a pugalier dog to the delight of most of our party, there was nobody there. This in turned allowed us to really enjoy the afternoon, chat amongst ourselves, browse through the magazines the host brought (mainly some English GLB’s, but also a few other things like Eternita or the Tea Party Club annual), play charades, take photos and, of course, eat copious amounts of food. We all agreed that food meets are smashing and food should be incorporated into as many meets as possible in an official form (leading the host of the next meet to change her mind and declare next meet ‘dumplings and berets’ rather than just berets). And if the weather holds, I’m sure we’ll have more spur of the moment picnic meets as more bank holidays and summer breaks approach.

At the end three of us broke away from the definitely-returning-home group to make a quick stop at Lush – mainly because every time I’m in Leeds I go to Lush, it works out cheaper for me than buy Lush things online. To my despair I learnt that one of my favourite products, hair oil called Shine So Bright (ah, that name always reminds of of Baby, the Stars Shine Bright) is discontinued, so on top of some compulsory bath bombs I ended up with a pot of R&B (to take care of my ends and keep them from splitting) and a very generous sample of Jasmine & Henna Fluff Eaze Hai, which is a pre-shampoo conditioning treatment promising to strengthen your hair and add shine. I tried it on that same day and while it was odd to put it on before washing my hair, but I think it’s done something. Based on the instructions, I probably didn’t put enough, but I was still wearing some of my Lolita and didn’t want the product to end up on my clothes, so I’ll try again next weekend for some extra pampering. I also returned home to my Charlotte Tilbury order having arrived, so extra luxury for me. I was a little hesitant about buying a lipstick from them since it was on the pricier side (still not the most expensive lipstick I bought), but having seen how much care went into preparing my order, including three complimentary samples, two of which I could’ve chosen myself, I’m incredibly impressed. Which means that I’ll probably buy from them again.

Look at the size of that sample - it's almost a full 100g pot!

Such luxury, much treating myself!

Have you been lucky with the weather recently? Did it result in a similar outdoor loveliness, either with your comm or not? Do you like picnic meets? I used to be sort of meh about them, but this one definitely changed my mind!