Pusheen Mini Meet

This year the summer International Lolita Day fell on the same day as Children’s Day. It was also day 1 of SFE: Traumerei, which is why we’re holding the main ILD celebration meet this Saturday coming. Luckily, as many of us were not in Germany and my favourite fat cat, Pusheen, went on tour, the actual ILD celebration almost organised itself. (I say almost because, well, someone did organise it.)

| Haenuli Whipped Cream Kitty JSK | Angelic Pretty Candy Fun Fair OTKs | The Naked Lace Company barette | Rose Marie Seoir necklace | Milkribbon Misako brooch | Tea Party Club Dream Masquerade Carnival pin | Twinkle Kitty Boutique ring | handmade bracelet | everything else is offbrand |

I wasn't feeling red lipstick with this look, so I went with this rich berry pink one and some gloss on top. Only because the gloss is actually Pusheen as well.

Still in love with my phone camera's portrait mode and how well it lets me capture the details of my outfit. Now only to work on getting ready fast enough to have more time to take those detail shots before I leave the house.

Pusheen on Tour called for a cat print and I had to whip out my best one (pun intended). On the other hand, it’s not even been that long since I lamented how I basically wear it the same way every time (retro feel, some sort of tricolour scheme and with a cardigan) and I do feel like this was a bit of a cop out. In my defence, I couldn’t find one piece that’d make my other idea work, so it has to wait ‘til later. Still, I’m very pleased with how this one came out. After owning these socks for something like 3 years (and searching for these exact ones for God-knows-how-long before that), they finally got an outing thanks to the colour match with this cardigan. And while I love them to pieces, they are incredibly cute and playful, they also turned out to be super painful to wear. All because of the way the scallop at the top is woven – they stretch incredibly well up until there and the elastic itself is fine, but this one bit the weave has literally zero stretch and digs into my legs like a bitch. Bright side of that is that sock glue was unnecessary to keep these above my knees, though whether it’s enough of a compensation for the physical pain and discomfort, I don’t know yet. Of course, the socks are way too adorable to sell them because of that, but it pains me greatly (this time emotionally) that this one tiny part of design turned otherwise very stretchy and comfortable socks into little torture devices.

Enough with my moaning though, the day was great fun! The Pusheen Party started at 11am, which meant a very early start in order to get ready and then get to Leeds. Special gifts were promised to the first 100 people who came for that, though the only thing we were given were some paper bookmarks – I’m still unsure whether that was that or whether we just missed this part somehow. Still, it was worth getting there early as it allowed us time to explore and enjoy the party before more people gathered.

The most adorable window display ever!

Everything was so adorable!
Picture from Forbidden Planet Leeds FB page.

So many things I had to resist...

... though with this extra discount I did buy more than I probably needed.

Pusheens everywhere!

Most of my loots. This picture came out way better than I anticipated it to.
Photo from the Forbidden Planet Leeds FB page.

They had plenty of activities, mostly aimed at children, but when did that ever stop lolitas from taking part? And so we did the Pusheen Hunt, scouring the Forbidden Planet shop for hidden Pusheens with letters that together would create a word (I don’t think any of us managed to find the ‘super secret bonus friend hiding place’ though) and I also did the Pusheen Wordsearch (because I love wordsearches). There were also some drawing activities, namely a Design Your Own Pusheen and Draw a Cat, both of which were also competitions with prizes. None of us entered that one, however, though we did all get a raffle ticket for a chance to win a gigantic Pusheen.

Another activity was cake decorating, which we signed up for. The lady doing much of the running of the event helped us decorate cupcakes into mini-Pusheenicorns and while, like most activities, it was aimed at children, we still had loads of fun doing it. It also dawned on me then that despite having the nickname of Cupcake Kamisama, this was the first time I was doing anything with cupcakes whilst dressed in lolita. I keep meaning to rectify that, it’s just always being put on the back burner for later – or I simply procrastinate. Fun fact: I’m not massively keen on eating cupcakes myself (mainly because most people/shops put way too much buttercream on them), I just enjoy making them. The Pusheen ones were an exception though, as I was very hungry and we weren’t going to get proper food until after the raffle, which was scheduled for 3pm.

The trick is to have lots of sprinkles to cover up any mistakes with.

I probably would've managed to draw less derpy faces with a smaller nozzle, but they're not too bad I guess.

Braving doing that without an apron (mostly because I know Whipped Cream Kitty is machine washable).
Photo from the Forbidden Planet Leeds FB page.

By the time we were done with decorating our cupcakes, we had all bought what we wanted to buy and done all the activities, with good three hours to go before the raffle. So since the shop was pretty stuffy (it was a pretty stuffy day in general), we went outside – to eat our cupcakes and enjoy fresh air. Soon we realised that a small group of lolitas sitting down on a bench on a busy shopping street attracts way too many people to come over and ask questions, I suggested we do a bit of shopping. I had some empty Lush pots I needed to exchange for a face mask and that way we could kill some time by popping in to whatever shops we fancied. As one of our group members left her mobility aids at home for the sake of a look, we took it all at a very moderate pace, with plenty of breaks, which did get us right up to 3 o’clock, when we headed back to Forbidden Planet.

And oh boy, am I glad that we went in at the beginning! It’s safe to say that the shop was packed and even more hot and stuffy. Since I myself went for aesthetic shoes instead of practical ones, my feet were killing me, so standing in a hot, sweaty shop was not fun. Luckily, I was right by the counter, so at least I could lean on it – and I do feel sorry for everyone else who did not have anything to lean on. While none of us won the big Pusheen, one member of our group was lucky enough to win something at the raffle, so it was worth returning. And then it turned out that they also had a costume competition (which I do not recall being advertised anywhere). We only found out as most of us went outside as soon as the raffle was over, desperate for some fresh air and to get to the restaurant, but we kept waiting and waiting for the last two people – only for them to emerge with Pusheen prizes, having won.

Just look at that crowd! Have you spotted me yet?
Photo from the Forbidden Planet Leeds FB page.

Once we were all reunited, we went to Little Tokyo, which is probably the most famous Japanese restaurant in Leeds. I used to really love it and I still think they have nice food, though since Ippuku opened in York, they’ve taken the ‘most authentic Japanese food’ crown. The conversation moved in all kinds of directions, from Traumerei and organising some fancy big events ourselves (possible locations included a chateau in France) to mundane perils of work. This is usually my favourite part of the meet. There is something incredibly wholesome about a group of lolitas, all from various backgrounds, talking about literally anything, whether related to the fashion or not. It’s probably because our clothes attract all kinds of stereotypes as to what we might talk about and moments like this, when we can all bemoan current politics before getting excited about something frilly again, feel really humanising.

Little Tokyo's best selling point are their bento boxes. They're super filling though, I was stuffed by the end of this one!

Last stop was the Victoria Quarter, which I discovered has a very posh chocolatier. It’s been a while since I went that way, as it’s not really on my usual route and overall has more high end boutiques outside my budget or taste, so it was a very pleasant discovery. It’s also a fantastic place for pictures, because it looks beautiful, it tends to be on the quieter side in terms of foot traffic and thanks to glass roofs always has plenty of natural light. So I offered to take some pictures for the few frillies who went that way (our group sort of went their own ways from Little Tokyo onwards) and got a few taken for myself (that’s where the coord picture above was taken). I also went on a full on Treat Yo’Self mood, seeing as it was ILD, and bought four chocolates to try, which I ate later. To be completely truthful, I’ve had better ones, though I did give free reign to the clerk, having only give her one thing to go off from, so I’ll probably still try them again.

The bag listed three branch addresses: two in London and the one in Leeds. That's how posh it is!

 

And speaking of Treat Yo’Self – it seems that on Saturday the shopping gods have really smiled upon me. Either this or the money stealing demons were after my wallet. Not only did I buy Pusheen stuff (I was prepared for that though) and treated myself to posh chocolates. Having posted my lolita wishlist to my Instagram highlights the night before, I was contacted by someone offering to sell their Deborah Doll JSK – which I purchased, of course. And my Taobao shopping service informed me that my order from Dalao Home, a wig shop, which I put in on a whim, has arrived to their warehouse and was ready to ship. So overall money was spent, I have treated myself to various purchases and I do not regret a single bit of it. Though the biggest treat was being able to take my shoes off at the end of the day and jump into a hot bath to give them some relief from that pain.

My Pusheen haul. One day the Popcorn Pusheen will be worn with Diner Doll.

How did you spend summer ILD this year? Did you get the chance to dress up or did you enjoy the day in other ways?