Innocent World: Georges Rose JSK

 One of my favorite releases from Innocent World, Georges Rose features a border floral print that runs down in stripes. While the bodice is not my favorite, I love the lace on the bottom!

3/2019:

    Jacket and beret: Mary Magdalene
    JSK and socks: Innocent World   
    Blouse: offbrand (vintage from taobao)
    Purse: Vintage
    Shoes: Cobb Hill

3/03/19 - A case study in what happens when you wear a single layer in subzero weather. Oh, and we cooked squid too.

Winter continues into spring, and puts me in the mood for wool. However, I probably overstepped my confidence into my tiny wool JSK.

Continuing my affinity for wool, I chose this simple Tweed Rose JSK by Mary Magdalene to wear today. It is quite clearly an older dress, as it showcases a shorter skirt and less room for a petticoat. I paired this with a lacy chiffon blouse from the same brand, and doubled up on 'sweater stockings' and knit OTK socks by Innocent World.

The chignon was from a video tutorial by Fanny Rosie, and paired well with the Victorian Maiden floral corsages. A fox holding a book by Mulberry Chronicles seemed like the logical brooch to add, mostly to showcase my surprise that animals even survived the -65 windchill weather from three weeks ago.

Being cold was an understatement for posing in sub zero weather.

While the tweed JSK was a smart choice, the blouse was much less so. After approximately three seconds, it did nothing but blow cold air into my arms. Pretty soon I couldn't feel anything. And then after 3 or so minutes I couldn't breathe.

Never again.

Afterwards, we went for some obligatory Pokemon Go raiding. I wish I had taken a picture but at one point there were a group of us standing in the middle of little used park, stamping our feet in foot deep snow, trying to catch a Pokemon. It was absurdity.

That night however went somewhat better and more thought out. We had bought some squid tubes from the fishmonger (in the Midwest, I know right?) the other day, and I had wanted to attempt ikameshi, or squid filled with sweet rice. We followed a Cooking with Dog (rest in peace Francis) recipe.

Here is the squid before we cooked it.

And here it is, all cooked!

While some rice spilled out after cooking, the squid was surprisingly intact, and delicious. While it definitely could use improvement, I feel that it would be a great bento box addition! The recipe link is both above and here if you want to try it.

What sort of lengths have you gone to to get nice pictures?

3/2/2019 - It's still snowing, what else is new

Today, instead of complaining about the snow like I usually do, I decided to make the most of it by wearing one of my many Mary Magdalene wool pieces.

This particular tartan piece has more of a December feel, but honestly it still feels that way with temperatures still hovering slightly above 0 F (-17.7 C for the sensible countries).

I also love the grommets in the back. While most pieces don't need this detail, it makes the lacing a lot sturdier, and gives me confidence it won't split during my brunch binge!

I also wore an Axes Femme cutsew, and after a lot of trying hats on, decided to go with a simple rosette (also by Mary Magdalene) instead. The Peppermint Fox pieces were a nice addition, if not a bit out of season as everything is dead outside and thus she can't actually go out collecting mushrooms.

We went to brunch at the Boiler Room, a nice little cozy joint in downtown, located in a downstairs basement. I resisted the whole gimmick of making my own Bloody Mary and had some coffee instead. It was all right, a little burnt but I got free refills which was greatly appreciated.

My boyfriend decided to not be square and get a stroganoff. Since I love conformity with brunch norms, I got a crabcake hollandaise, a spin on the classic eggs hollandaise.

Yes, that was 16 USD, plus tax and tip.

My boyfriend got a much more generous serving of pasta for the same price, probably because it costs less than crabcake.

Overall, it was a decent meal. Despite my gripes about the size of my serving, it was quite filling. I still think it's overpriced for what it was. The crabcake was a little tough and dry, and the sauce was quite cheese heavy. I did not taste the stroganoff, but my boyfriend called it "a good balance of meat and starch. It could have used more mushrooms." All in all, I'd give the place 4/5 for atmosphere, 3.5/5 for food. As a new American place and as brunch place, I've had much better food. But it does have a 'quiet noisy' atmosphere, clean tables, and even in our small high table, we felt at ease and relatively secluded in the place.

Afterwards, we went playing Pokemon Go with a few other familiar faces. For those of you living under a bigger rock than me, Pokemon Go is a mobile game based off the wildly popular franchise. Their gimmick is attaching pokemon, gyms, and even legendary pokemon battles to landmarks. I've learned a lot about my city this way, and I actually have become much better at navigating!

I tend to have very low key weekends. I wake up quite late to begin with, and lolita can sometimes take a while to get into. But I think the most important thing is to be relaxed and have fun, especially if you have tough weekdays! What are your weekend days like?