Glass Bottle of Gourmand Winter ILD

This is it, people! The day has finally come (and by now gone) and the Winter ILD I organised has successfully taken place. It was a dream come true for me and something I had wanted to do for a while, so I feel all the more happy that it was as big a success as it was.

| Resailan Jewelry Box JSK | I Do Declare blouse | vintage jacket | offbrand tiara, brooches, ring and tights | Deary shoes |
Metamorphose necklace | Voodoo Dolly ring | Brightlele wig | 

My best selfie was taken on someone else's phone. The lighting was a challenge at the venue. But you can actually see my makeup for once! 

Because I was the organiser, I tried to keep my outfit as simple and easy to put on as possible. And I haven’t worn this dress since July last year and I actually had it altered since then to fit a little bit better because the high waist was annoying me. I really, really wanted to finally use that vintage jacket and after one or two false starts I arrived at this combo – which while slightly sad to cover up the epic I Do Declare blouse sleeves, worked super well overall. Still can’t believe how many compliments I received on this jacket, best £15 I spent this year! I’m still not sure whether this look counts as Gothic. Some people think so, but to me it remains quite firmly in the Classic territory, just done in a much darker colour scheme than I would’ve normally gone for. It was comfortable and practical (I changed my shoes at the venue) and I felt good in it, even if I would’ve preferred a different hairpiece (that’s just my obsessions though).

After literally a year worth of planning, on Saturday December 8 I finally made the perfume-making workshop happen. If you follow this blog very carefully, then you will probably remember the idea from way back in summer 2017. When you really want something to happen, the best thing is to take matters into your own hands instead of waiting for someone else to do it. I will write a separate post about the things I learnt from the experience of putting on this event, but for now here’s what actually happened.

I picked the Leopold Hotel in Sheffield as the venue – it was easy to find and we could get a very lovely room all to ourselves for extra privacy. I arrived about an hour early to set everything up: lay out the raffle prizes, place plastic aprons on people’s chairs, move anything that needed moving etc. Having fully anticipated to do this on my own, it was incredibly lovely that I ended up having some people to help. Beccy, who made badges just for this occasion, helped me with the basics and later, when three more people who arrived early joined us, we were able to help our workshop lead with his setup.

I am definitely going to use that cheat sheet in the future!

At the beginning it was still quite organised.

At this point I would like to give a big, big thank you to Michael Borkowsky. His workshop was exactly the sort of thing I had envisioned and he was so patient when we, as a group, got a little bit too chatty. I slipped into my teaching voice a couple of times, yet he remained calm, welcoming and enthusiastic to share his art with us. After introducing us to the basics (and everyone got a cheat-sheet to take home with them) and doing a very Christmassy perfume to demonstrate, he left us to our own devices when playing with the various oils, assisting here and there when needed/asked. The choice of the various oils we could use was pretty overwhelming, though as you can imagine, some smells proved particularly popular with people (like marzipan or strawberry). While all of us would have more than happily continued making more and more, we only had time/resources to make one perfume each. However, now that we know the proportions for an eau de toilette (and the difference between that, eau de parfum and cologne), we could just as easily start making them ourselves in the comfort of our own homes. And it warmed my heart to see that some people did make perfumes as presents for others. Not me, I was the selfish, self-absorbed one making one for myself.

But things very quickly turned into a controlled chaos on the table.

Everyone hard at work trying to figure out which oils to use in their creations.

After that was the chill time. The hotel staff brought us our food – afternoon tea buffet – and we could chat, socialise and relax for the rest of the day. There were a few issues with the food/service – at first they tried to bring it a whole hour earlier (bad idea to have food around essential oils!), then it turned out that the vegan option was a bit half-arsed, and when we asked for some dairy-free meat option the person received a sandwich with cream cheese. Though I will give it to the manager on the day that she was easy to work with and she did genuinely try to resolve as many of the issues as she could. In the end, everyone was fed and watered, which is what matters most.

It was all Christmas themed. Not pictured are the sandwiches, which we could've done with more of compared to the sweets.

The vegan option.

Since we had 22 people in attendance (down from 25, as three people couldn’t make it at the last minute), it was definitely a bustling event. I did my best to chat, however briefly, to everyone and I hope that I managed. It was so lovely that the novelty of the meet brought together people from far and wide, and from across different comms. As well as catching up with people I hadn’t seen in months (some not since Dublin in August!), I was also able to meet some new people. It warmed my heart when, during introductions, one person said that was their first ever meetup and we also had a small group of frillies all the way from London, who were the most excitable bunch ever, it was adorable. While people often find it easier to make the effort to come to bigger/more unusual events, I hope that this won’t be the last time I’ll see those I met for the first time on Saturday.

After the food was time for Secret Santa and the raffle. Just like the last two years, I had done it Leeds style (you can read about the rules here). While people played nicely for the most part, would you believe that the most stolen gift was actually a set of Bodyline wrist cuffs (those in owh-blk to be exact)? It was stolen twice before finally settling on a new owner. People must be really scrimping on those basics!

This was definitely a rich and well stocked raffle. So happy that everyone ended with something that suited them!

And the raffle was a raging success! I did my best to get a variety of prizes, though somehow ended up with a lot of pinnable prizes (brooches, badges, pins). I guess I focused more on getting a good ratio of themed and non-themed, as well as catering to all three major substyles. Because I had people donate some extra prizes and we have had last minute dropouts, there were more prizes than people (after planning it out to be one per person). Though that might be for the best, as it wasn’t quite so obvious who would get the two biggest ones – the Swimmer bag and the Chess Story skirt – and everyone stood a fair chance at them after we distributed some new raffle tickets. Luck seemed to have been with people as I feel everyone won a prize that suited their style and/or personality somehow.

Since we had to leave the room at 5pm due to another function booked for the evening, we wrapped up a bit early, though still managed to find the time for some group photos, outfit shots and extra bits of cleaning. I am eternally grateful to everyone for such a positive response to Glass Bottle of Gourmand and for the support I received along the way, from donating your time/skills all the way to simple words of encouragement and kindness. It made for a wonderful first-time-hosting-a-big-event experience and reignited my love for the community.

I managed to vlog a little bit, which you can see below. Not a lot, since I was the host and had other responsibilities on the day, but it should give you a flavour of what the day was like.