Spooky Month Meet

The Month of Halloween will be over shortly and while I couldn’t be happier about this, I will admit that I enjoyed Halloween this year. I’ve learnt to appreciate the social side of it and the cute aesthetic (black cats, chubby pumpkins, adorable ghosts and all that spoop), and realised that in fact many people who enjoy Halloween share with me the dislike of horror gore/genre/stuff. Maybe this will motivate me to be a little bit better prepared next year.

| Metamorphose Swallow-tail Jacquard jacket | Infanta Swan Lake blouse | Bodyline L380 skirt | Innocent World Union
Flag Lame OTKs | offbrand shoes, scarf, jewellery and barette |

The vampire boy's pre-vampire portrait.

With the teeth

Having said that, this is the coord I’ve been saving up and the meet I’ve been saving it up for. While I would’ve much preferred to have gone with the ouji version, the trousers I ordered haven’t even been shipped yet. This was going to be my Interview with the Vampire coord, so in the absence of pants I did a genderbent version. I must say, I am a little in love with this jacket, it’s such a flattering piece and the brocade-y/jacquard-y textured fabric feels so luxurious. It was also a comfortable look to wear all day, thanks to minimal hair and makeup and lower heels. Though while I layered like crazy underneath, it wasn’t quite enough for the chill that struck.

On Sunday the Leeds comm ventured out to Huddersfield. I’ve never been, despite it being right next door – mostly because there isn’t anything outstanding about it, so unless you have a reason (e.g. meeting friends) you get pretty much the same stuff as where I am. The plan was to go to the Northern Tea House for lunch and cakes, then head out of Huddersfield to Kirklees Light Railway to board the ghost train.

The Northern Tea House was really nice, I did not expect to like it as much as I did. The food was lovely (no pictures because I was too hungry) and upon many recommendations I tried the hot chocolate, which was indeed delicious! This is one reason for me to hang out in Huddersfield a bit more, which I may actually do.

For whatever reason, the music in the background was all musical theatre and as we had the entire upstairs to ourselves, as well as a handful of musical theatre students/ex-students/enthusiasts, much of the conversation revolved around that. As always, it was nice to sit somewhere cosy and just chat, especially as there were some people I’ve not seen in a long while.

Then we braved the cold and got a taxi to Kirklees Light Railway. It is a fair trek out of town, a good 20 minute drive, so we shared a taxi. But once we got there – the whole place was on top spoop that night! The green light made me almost look alive!

The welcome is almost like in Hotel Transylvania.

Decorations were on point!

The creature of the night has woken up from its slumber.

As a massive wimp, I was worried, since the website for this specified that parents with young children be aware it’s a scary event. What about wimpy adults, KLR, huh? In the end, all was good though. The baby-Goth Thomas the Tank Engine was quite amusing and the whole ride was definitely aimed at kids. There were some character decorations by the tracks, like ghosts and skeletons, all of which looked obviously ‘we went to a bargain shop and got all the Halloween décor we could find’.

Even the story was more of a mish-mash of all things vaguely spooky. While I didn’t catch everything (not sure whether because of the background noise or the speaker being a bit meh), but as far as I’ve gathered our train carried someone who was meant to deliver a jar with a cursed mummy’s liver to another museum. But halfway through that guy got distracted by the mummy’s tomb, which he opened, unleashing a bunch of mummies on us. After trading the jar for our lives, he turned the train back where we came from. In between there were some funny fillers, mostly playing up to any Yorkshire stereotypes or jokes, like saying the curse is that the mummy can’t have even a pint of ale without its liver. Along the ways there were a few moments where someone banged on the side of the train, but other than the mummy attack (where something came over me and I nearly punched one of the actors who opened our carriage door) the jump scares weren’t more than that.

Thomas the Tank Engine went through hell and back to be there that night.

The train was a lot more kiddy than I imagined from the description of the whole event.

So all was good in the end. It was a fun experience, which I definitely wouldn’t have done had this not been made into a meet. It’d be nice to check out some of the other themed events they do, although that might have to wait a while purely because of how awkwardly it’s located.

Did you have a Halloween meet this weekend? Or maybe you’re doing something tomorrow? Scary train rides – yay or nay? In all seriousness though, I am so happy that Halloween’s over now – just Bonfire Night to get through and then I can start my Christmas excitement. Because I stopped giving a damn and just do what makes me happy.

Bonus photos of the same coord but from the Friday. I wore it out to a family Halloween do, so one's together with my parents and Spy, our kitten (who wasn’t keen on selfies), and one's just me being spoopy with a Capri Sun - I mean, blood, duh!

Happy Halloween from the whole spooky clan! 

It's true, all blood does taste the same.

Your Most Worn Dress vs Your Least and Why

Once your wardrobe grows beyond a handful of pieces, you inevitably end up with some pieces you wear significantly more than others. Especially when you don’t wear these clothes daily, it can be a while before you circle back to some pieces.

My most worn piece is not a dress, but a skirt. Despite all the best intentions to wear it in lolita coords, since the day I got my Fairytale Library skirt from Song and Temple it ended up being worn predominantly on a daily basis. In the year and a bit that I’ve had it, it survived countless washes, hundreds of hours of wear and several trips with only one pulled thread you can’t really see. It’s paid for itself countless times over in wear and versatility. That’s why I wear it so much: with or without a petti, casual or fancy, lolita or not, matching pretty much every colour, this skirt provides me with countless options and I only scratched the surface here. Although granted, it is having some serious competition from the Innocent World White Double Braid skirt – it’s just that as I’ve had Fairytale Library longer, I had more opportunities to wear it.

I like travelling in this skirt because it means I can wear my petti
instead of packing it. Saves space! This one is from my Welsh Easter trip.

As for my least worn piece… I could cheat and go for something that I bought and physically haven’t got yet. Or go the easy route and pick something so new I just haven’t worn yet. But I feel like that would be a bit too easy. So instead I tried to identify pieces I’ve only worn once so far and pick from them. That left me with the following least worn pieces: Mary Magdalene’s Paulina JSK, Angelic Pretty’s Royal Unicorn JSK, Alice and the Pirates’ Sugar Plum Fairy JSK and Alice and the Pirates’ Rosier Fleur JSK.

The first of those is very special to me, as it’s my ultimate dream dress. I’d like to be able to say that every coordinate I put together with this dress is something I’m very proud of, which naturally means the dress is saved for more special occasions. Besides, even though it’s not a print, that style is a little bit too historical to be worn casually, so I can’t exactly throw it on just to go buy some milk. This makes me think that it might end up being my least worn dress in general, but you know what? As long as every coordinate with it would truly be special, I’m ok with that.

Actually, the last time I wore Paulina JSK was for this haul video.
I guess technically that disqualifies it, but I don't think 30mins
wear to shoot a video counts.

With Royal Unicorn the story is similar, but from a different angle. Since I obtained it, it was being saved for Myths of Our Own and because I was so hyped for debuting that coord and dress and that event, I deliberately didn’t do anything else in between. Since then, this print has joined my spreadsheet of ‘When did I last wear this’ and as Myths was only in August, it sits towards the bottom. So while there’s nothing actually stopping me from wearing it again, I want to give a chance to pieces that I’ve not worn in a year or longer first. Unless a pang of inspiration hits, it might be a short while before I wear it again. Although as the fabric is so heavy, it might be a good idea to wear it before spring and warm weather.

Myths was an incredible event and this might be the longest I've worn a coord. It's very special, but looking at this dress
gets me fired up and inspired to wear it, so maybe I'll break soon...

However, that spreadsheet is the same reason why both AatP dresses have only been worn once. I did very well by wearing them out pretty shortly after obtaining them (Rosier Fleur much quicker than Sugar Plum Fairy Princess). They’re now waiting for their turn in the bottom half of my spreadsheet. Although Sugar Plum Fairy Princess has the additional obstacle of being the only black piece I own and this Halloween I’ve had other ideas than the generic ‘Oh look, a non-Gothic lolita is turning Goth for Halloween’. Its time will come round though, I promise.

Still by far my most well received coord. 520 likes on CoF and 320 on IG,
it feels unreal! Not sure if any other Rosier Fleur outfit will come this close,
so I'm not even trying for now.

Generally, when I look at my most and least worn pieces, the pattern seems to be that what’s most worn is most versatile and blends easily with normie clothes, whilst least worn pieces are either special or a bit fancier and waiting for a fancier occasion. Which is a daft way of thinking about it, you should wear whatever you want regardless of whether that makes you over dressed. However, as I enjoy the additional challenge of matching pieces that haven’t been worn in a while to meets, occasions, themes and seasons that might not be so obvious (e.g. Diner Doll hasn’t been worn since DMC, it’d be nice to make a coord with it in winter), it would really have to be a strong pang of inspiration involving that one particular dress that would make me sway from that spreadsheet.

What are your most and least worn dresses? Are there any reasons for this or did it just happen? Did you anticipate that being the case? I’m very curious to find out. Make sure to also read about the least and most worn dresses from other participating bloggers!

Roli's Ramblings
The Mad Tea Party
Saxon Blues
Lady Tomoyo
Aries Kitsune 
Sanakanin

A Year of Writing for Wunderwelt Libre

On October 20^th was exactly one year since I started writing for Wunderwelt Libre. In that time I have published 28 articles, so pretty much two per month. In a way it doesn’t feel like this much – at the same time, it feels like much longer than just one year. I’d like to take a moment to reflect on what I’ve learnt from this experience and how it has affected me. If anyone is thinking about joining the Wunderwelt Libre writer squad, it may even be useful to you. If not, I just hope you find it interesting.

No Pressure – Except What I Put on Myself

To be honest, I didn’t need Wunderwelt Libre to know that I tend to put more pressure on myself than is necessary. Wunderwelt are very chill about how many articles you write or how often. The once a fortnight schedule has been thrown on entirely by myself. Part of it is that I like routine and consistency. It keeps me organised and actually keeps me going, even if sometimes for the pure reason of not wanting to fail (said failure being, of course, imaginary and only in my own head). I know that if I decided only to write when I felt like I had something major to say, I would barely write at all there because those ideas would compete with the blog. Which leads me to my next point:

Combating self-imposed deadlines is the biggest lesson here.

Not Everything Must be Major

In a way the once a fortnight schedule actually helped me relax a little bit. Before I would’ve dismissed some article ideas as too silly or ‘there’s already loads about that on the internet’. But if I’m holding myself to a schedule and don’t want to repeat ideas from my own blog, then I gotta be less strict with myself about topics. In the process I discovered that I really liked putting theoretical coords (Wunderwelt’s stock photos make it really easy to create neat collages). Besides, Wunderwelt Libre doesn’t seem like a place aspiring to lead in cutting-edge investigative journalism, so I could keep all those ‘serious’ ideas to myself and keep my posts there more light-hearted and relaxed.

I can sit back and enjoy writing 'silly' posts now.

Hoarding Points Like a Dragon

Wunderwelt rewards articles with points in their shop. At first they’d issue me a secret code for ¥500 off, which had to be used within a month, but whether because of my relentless pace or because that system didn’t work very well, they quickly switched to just adding the points to your account. And my hoarder dragon instincts kicked in almost instantly. It’s so much fun watching those points grow! It also makes it easier on my wallet, as I can supplement any purchases with those points. Although these days I tend to save them until I find something on Wunderwelt that I know I absolutely must have.

This is what collecting Wunderwelt points feels like!

Levelling Up Some Skills

The blog uses WordPress, which is a pretty neat little platform. I particularly like the SEO and readability tools. Each post is RAG rated (red, amber or green) based on how well it’s search engine optimised and how easy to read it is. At the bottom it breaks that down into individual criteria, which are also RAG rated. It took some time getting used to it, but after a year I have noticed big improvements in my writing. Whereas at the beginning my first draft would always be red in both categories, it’s now usually green in SEO and amber-to-green in readability. This means less time spent tinkering with the article to satisfy my perfectionist nature in getting those double green lights and more time for other things.

Gimme all them green lights!

I Miss Reader Interactions

However great writing for Wunderwelt Libre might be, I know that it will never replace this blog or entice me to quit here. For one simple, yet important reason: being able to interact with you, the readers. While I appreciate that having a comments section on Wunderwelt Libre would require more time to moderate it, there have been times where I really wanted to know people’s thoughts and opinions. I feel like if there was more direct reader-writer interaction (Wunderwelt’s FB page is a bit too much of everything to make that feasible), it’d help us make better content and cater to the kind of posts that the readers wish to see. (So if you have any suggestions on what you’d like to see over there, don’t hesitate to let me know in any way you can think of.)

It's thanks to all of you that I improve the most.

So what’s in store now? Definitely more Wunderwelt Libre articles. The entire experience is massively enjoyable, above all else, so I’d like to continue that whilst I can. I’ll probably also keep the once a fortnight schedule, although the aim is to be kinder to myself if I can’t think of anything to write about. As I was writing this post, I’ve had some ideas on what other posts I could do in the future, taking some inspiration from the Japanese version of the blog. My biggest wish in all this is that writing for Wunderwelt Libre never becomes a chore or eats too much out of my free time. As long as that’s the case, I will carry on writing for them. And if anyone out there has been thinking whether to join their writing team, I strongly encourage you to do so!

Giving Back to the Community

Recently Rufflechat surprised us with a little bit of positive energy. The thread asking how we give back to the community was full of inspirational people who do so much, including archiving, updating, organising and mentoring. However, there were also equally many people there admitting that they don’t do much – mostly because they’re unsure as to what could they do.

From the responses I read, I got the impression that in a thread full of lolita superheroes people felt intimidated and assumed that to give back would mean going to similar lengths. That’s not true! There are loads of things that every one of us could do which would give back to the community. Below are just a few suggestions.

Name, Share, Review, Promote

Big brands like AP or Baby don’t need any more promoting – they’re already dominating the market and every newcomer to the fashion is well aware of them. However, there are literally tonnes of lolita brands out there that many of us don’t even know of! Indie labels and smaller companies rely on any promotion they can get and word of mouth is usually the best form of advertising. So if you received or bought something you like, you can help by spreading the word. Post a detail shot on your social media with even a few words of a review. Tag the brand in your outfit shots. When complimented, say where you got the item from. If someone’s looking for raffle donors or vendors, suggest that brand (tag them so they can respond too). It doesn’t matter how many followers you have – ultimately, if even one person buys something from that brand because they saw it on your social media, you’ve helped that brand (and the individual designer) continue and grow. Don’t believe me that there are tonnes of brands local to every one of us you’ve never even heard of? Check out this video from Fluffy Tori where she visits the Porcelain Doll shop in the Czech Republic! Oh, and the same goes for content creators! Your $1 a month might be little to you, but if given to a site like Lolibrary (who do have a Patreon page), it means continuing life of our most beloved resource. Or more videos from your favourite YouTuber or new kinds of content from other creators.

This headpiece? It's by Sheena's Bella Bows! Totally check them out if you're
after wacky headpieces (and some less wacky ones too).

Organise a Meetup

This may sound scary if you’ve never done one before, but trust me – it’s not. Have you ever organised to go out with your friends to go shopping or lunch? This is exactly the same, just in different clothes. People in lolita communities are happy for any excuse to dress up and hang out, so don’t feel the pressure to do anything out of the ordinary. Simply say when and where to meet, what you’re expected to do and that’s it. Yes, sometimes things happen when the meet doesn’t end up happening (and there are ways to prevent that from happening). And yes, some people genuinely do not have any opportunity to do meets as they’re too far away from the nearest lolita. But until you make that post, you won’t know where it may take you. Also remember that the distance between point A and B goes both ways, so while it may be far for you to travel to see your comm, others may be happy to travel in your direction or meet you halfway. It all starts with a simple invitation to meet up.

It doesn't have to be anything major or fancy. You may be
surprised how many will respond positively!

Volunteer

Pretty much every time you attend any larger event there will be need for volunteers. Setting and packing up, running the stalls, carrying things, bringing items, even doing a round with refreshments – there’s a lot behind the scenes that anyone could get involved in. If you’re attending anything, look out for the volunteers call. If there isn’t one, you can still message the organisers and let them know that you’re available to help. It won’t eat much of your time at the event itself, but will ensure that it runs smoothly. Plus, you never know who you might meet whilst doing so! At Tea Party Club events I was lucky to help out Ayumi Watanabe from Rose Marie Seoir, I also got to meet Kunika, the Japanese sweets artists who is now based in London, and whilst behind that table met some people I recognised off social media. Never asked for that particular task when applying to volunteer, I was just lucky this way. And if you’re very lucky, you may even get a small gift for your help (just don’t expect one, that’s not the point). Giving up one hour to carry boxes or sit behind a table and exchange goods for coin is a very small price to pay, but it means the events can run smoothly and can be as great as they are.

Although modelling is one way to volunteer, it's not the
only way. Taking care of someone's stall may mean that
a vendor can get something to eat or to be that amazing,
sociable guest they're known as. Literally can't be done
without you!

Archive, Document, Catalog

This is a great way to help if you’re an avid internet lurker. Lolibrary is one of our best resources, but it is run entirely by volunteers. Helping to keep it updated and maintained by adding things or fixing past entries when you spot mistakes is not the most exciting of jobs, but it keeps it the great resource that we know. At the moment the option to add may be restricted, so drop the developer team an email to express interest. After all, every little helps – and Chinese brands seemingly do not sleep, they’re churning out so many designs that otherwise go uncatalogued. If you’re more old school, you can still help! Look through your collection of old GLB and KERA issues. Some issues are incredibly rare, so you could help preserve them by scanning if you have the means (most libraries should have the facilities to do so, if you don’t have a scanner at home). You could also combine the two and update Lolibrary entries with images and/or information from the old magazines, since there are many older releases that we know almost nothing about. Whatever you can do, will help the community preserve its history.

Analog or digital, there are so many pieces of lolita fashion history that need
preserving as magazines and websites hosting old scans disappear.

Help, Advise, Support, Report

From as big as coaching newcomer lolitas to as small as helping someone find the right link, any bit of mutual support and help you can show will in its way give back to the community. Not every deed needs to be big and often it’s the small ones that make the biggest difference. Yeah, people grow tired of linking the same resource page to newbie lolitas every time someone asks one of those questions. But it will take some pressure off the mods/admins if you do it once instead – and it may help that newcomer grow into a more informed, better-rounded member of the community in the future thanks to you. On the flipside, if you see anything that bothers you, anything inappropriate or that you think is a danger – report that. Whether you’re clearing Lolita Updates FB page of spam or getting rid of predators in a group, reporting these things to admins helps keep these pages and communities a clutter free and safe space for everyone.

Everyone started somewhere. Without you sharing that link
to a beginners' crash course, maybe you're stopping
someone from blossoming into an amazing lolita?

These are just some of the things that I feel anyone could do that would give back to the community we all love. Of course, there are all kinds of ways to grow your activity from there: host a bigger meetup or event, start your own brand to fill a niche in the market, create content to help other people, translate or recover old content from web archives, moderate a community… In communal projects like this the more people are involved, the easier it is to make the community an open and welcoming place that keeps everyone informed and engaged. This means that both big tasks and small help and we have equal need for people doing both (if not slightly more need for people willing to do those little bits that aren’t the most exciting, but that pile up and affect our day to day life most).

However, if you’re not able or ready to do any of the things I suggested above, there is one more thing that I encourage you all to do: say thank you to the people who contribute those big and small things. It costs absolutely nothing and makes it all worthwhile.

York Halloween Meet

I’m not sure if that’s the same everywhere, but it seems like lolitas are always waking up from a summer hibernation for October. Many genuinely love Halloween, many are just here for the cute sweater weather and either seems like an excuse to throw a meetup. So to kick off the spoopy season I went to a meetup with the York comm, who is also waking up from its slumber.

| Metamorphose Polka Dots Shirring Pinafore JSK | Innocent World Millefeuille Tulle Lace bolero | Cutie Creator headbow |
Peacockalorum underskirt | Low Down and Dandy choker | GlassesLit glasses | everything else is offbrand | 

One day I will actually take a course in how to photograph make up. I tried something different this time, inspired by
Okumura Yusuke's tutorial, but of course none of that is showing up, not even on ugly selfies :P 

Oh, putting together a coord for this meet was such a struggle! Halloween and spooky stuff are not my forte at all! While I have that one Gothic coord, since I hadn’t met the people at the meet before, I wanted to go with something that better represents my usual style. This coord literally went through so many incarnations, from Glinda the Good Witch, a Beauxbatons student, the White Dame, until eventually landing on this “ghosts are white, so why not shiro” thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still very happy with how the outfit came out, it was just a struggle to come up with something that at least tried to be on theme. And as usual my makeup didn’t photograph, even though I tried something completely different. Oh well...

The meet itself started off with a trip to York Dungeon, which is one of those actor-led tourist attractions. I’ve never been to this one before, I visited Mary King’s Close in Edinburgh years back, which is a bit different (it’s more historical, whereas the York one is more entertainment), so I was a little worried how I’d cope with the jump scares, however, it was perfectly fine. As in, there were only a few jump scares and there was nothing trauma-inducingly terrifying (for an adult at least, there was one kid who wasn’t keen on some parts). Plus, one of the friends I made at the meet was also not keen on jump scares, so when it got a bit much, we could support each other. If you’re in the area and actor-led, very-loosely historical entertainment with some jump scares and gloomy atmosphere is your thing, then it’s worth it, you’ll enjoy yourself. We had so much fun that we even decided to get the official photos (with four of us it worked out a £5 each to get all four photos, which isn’t bad at all).

Official photo 1: admitting our crimes. I am not ashamed! 

The Viking photo in Viking York. Pretending like I wouldn't be the first one to die...

After that we headed to the House of the Trembling Madness, which is something between a pub and a bistro (i.e. prettier than a pub, but boozier than a bistro). It was a welcome break, mostly for our feet, because even though we prepared for rain, wind and cold, only the wind was really there. I even carried my BtSSB parasol all this time to not open it even once. We had some food and drink at Trembling Madness and the event host gave us little goodie bags (such a cute gesture!). However, we didn’t stay there long. York is full of people and tourists on any given Saturday, but that one also happened to be Saturday of the York Races, which meant even more people. So since there was a family waiting around for a table and we were pretty much done, we got up and took some photos in the rest of the place, which was pretty fancy!

I've been expecting you, Mr Darcy!

Oh no, not the babies! (Well, actually, yes, the babies!)

A pumpkin photo so that you can't accuse me of not trying to be spoopy.

Goodie bag! 

The crow is not broken - I had to get his legs out to get the paper out to activate it. But then it started to annoy me (it's
motion activated), so I put the paper back, but lack the strength to push the legs back in. Oops!

Of course, when in York you can’t not go to the Imaginarium, so   that was our next stop. I always forget to take pictures of it, but sort of made up for it this time by taking some in their newly opened Christmas section. Imaginarium is kind of like a darker Alice in Wonderland shop, where you never fully know what you’ll find (will it be funny, will it be weird, will be enchanting or all of the above?), but you’re excited to find out. It’s great if you’re shopping for gifts or home décor. But now that the Christmas section is open, I simply have to go back there soon! Even though I don’t have: a) a Christmas tree; b) space for a Christmas tree; or c) hospitable conditions for a Christmas tree (for a week and a half now we’ve had a kitten who’d be more than happy to explore – read: destroy – anything like a delicate decorative bauble).

You can't stop me being excited at Christmas! 

Look at this winter wonderland! Look at it! It's perfect!

Too cute

This one I want for myself!

Describe lolita fashion in one Christmas ornament. 

So many Christmassy animal decorations, very whimsical indeed!

From there we went for yet more aesthetic window shopping and stopped by The Yorkshire Soap Co. This is another great place if you need cute gifts in a pinch, as their novelty soaps and bath truffles look good enough to eat (please don’t) and there is something for every budget. Some of these bits, both from Imaginarium and The Yorkshire Soap Co., will probably make it into the Winter ILD raffle, as well as maybe gifts for people, since these guys have also started stocking Christmas stuff.

Please, don't try to eat the soaps, even when they're displayed like cakes.

Perfectly glittery - still not edible.

A box of four of these bath truffles would set you back by a mere £10. They're not tested on
animals and vegetarian friendly too (some products use honey), so a perfect gift!

Floral soaps, such aesthetic, very Classic.

Looks divine and smells divine.

Little jars of bath fizzies - still look like from a retro confectionery.

Generally, it seems like this York outing was way more about Christmas than about Halloween, certainly in the latter half of the day. Most of us parted ways after that, promising to do more meetups in York and coming up with some ideas. Since I already came all that way braving the rail strike (and since I really, absolutely, wholeheartedly love York), I stayed a bit longer and did some solo shopping. That took me first to Betty’s, which had Halloween bakes on display (they won’t get into the Christmas spirit until November at least) and then to KätheWohlfahrt. Or in layman’s terms, the Christmas Shop. The company originated in Rothenburg, Germany, and is an all-year-round Christmas decorations shop, which now has several branches across Europe (and one in the USA). Many of their products are handcrafted and designed by independent artists, all made out of high quality materials. Unfortunately, photos are not permitted inside, but trust me: it’s a complete Christmas wonderland dream! It’s so gorgeous and festive, that it’s super weird to go outside after a visit and not see any snow. However, I will be writing up more about both of these in due course, most likely for Wunderwelt Libre, although if you’re very interested, then keep an eye out at the bottom of this blog, because who knows where things might actually end up.

This is the Small Betty's (the one which normally doesn't have a queue outside). 

Spooky chocolates and cakes!

They look magical and too good to eat. Though I still would...

Christmas all year round!

Lots of very traditional decorations for your Winter Wonderland dream

I just feel like a little kid again when I look at this, it brings me the purest kind of joy!

After an obligatory stop in Lush, where I also didn’t buy anything, I decided that it might be best to start heading home. Unluckily, while the strike didn’t get me in the morning and I got on my direct train fine, I missed the last direct one back, as well as the last one back from Leeds. But luck still looked after me and I caught both the fast train to Leeds (literally 5 minutes after me getting to York station) and from there, even though all Bradford trains were cancelled, I could get one to Shipley, from where it was only a short walk to a bus that’d take me right outside my home (and which was also patiently waiting as I got on). All this wandering around York had both satisfied my need to be there and awakened the need for more. Damn my plans for leaving Yorkshire!

Have you had any Halloween meets yet? Planning on attending any? Are you more of a Halloween or Christmas person? What’s your favourite place that you’ve been to that you can’t get enough of?