Rose Festival

A popular flower for elegance, and definitely popular with Lolita prints, roses are widely loved!  This time, Kamiko and I went to the Rose Festival on a Friday afternoon.  It was EVEN SUNNIER than when we went to see sakura!!

I wore my Gingham Ribbon Rose OP to match the theme~  It was the first brand-name Lolita dress I ever got!  When BABY, THE STARS SHINE BRIGHT opened up for overseas lucky pack sales for the first time in 2008, that is when I got this dress in both pink and black.

The rose garden in Taipei had SO many different varieties!  I can't even remember how many different roses there were.  They were all labeled, but I forget as soon as I read the sign @_@

Luckily, I brought a parasol that day~

Though it was a week day, it was still rather crowded so we had to wait to get clear photos without background people.  That or use careful angling to block off the people behind us ^u^

Of course, Violet is able to keep her eyes open in the stinging sunlight because she's a professional model 💖
Also because she's a teddy bear 🧸

There were so many flowers, and some of them had a lovely fragrance.

The day was quite hot, but whenever there was a breeze, it was very comfortable.

Some of the flowers grew VERY tall.  It was difficult to get a photo of the taller ones without getting background people in the image as well, though.

I really liked the roses with the blended colors~

Kamiko was wearing a gorgeous and fancy dress; she looked like a total princess!!  I am still very much a daily/casual Lolita I think ^^;  I really want to learn how to do my hair better.  That is my biggest struggle when it comes to style, I feel.

I had tried to do a rose-shaped braid bun like I did for the Sinderella's Twisted Ball but I couldn't get it right on this day!  Kamiko had several smaller rose-shaped braids, and I think they looked lovely.  Maybe I will try the mini ones next time.

There were some aunties asked to take photos with us while we were there.  They were sweet and polite so we did take photos with a few groups of aunties.  There might be random photos of us floating around in their LINE group chats or facebooks now ^^;

Afterwards, we wandered around until we found a nearby coffee shop.  It had an interesting decor, but their kitchen was not stocked and we were unable to order any savory food.  The owner was kind enough to offer to let us buy food elsewhere and bring it in, but we just ordered some sweets instead.

We sat in the basement, which seemed to have a lot of vintage items and decor.

They were also sold out of the cinnamon roll I wanted, so I got some type of cheesecake instead.  It did not have a crust, and tasted like Japanese rare/light cheesecake, but a little bit heavier.  Like.... a medium cheesecake ^u^b

Kamiko got the tiramisu and a masala chai which looked really amazing!

It was a sweet ending to a warm day.  Going out and seeing friends really does take a lot of energy, but it is really different to seeing friends on the internet.  Plus, it feels like it gives me a reason to take care of my appearance, which makes me feel good about myself as well!

How do you like your cheesecake?  I really like the lighter varieties of cheesecake, and usually without topping.  Fresh fruit is good, or if the base is not too sweet, a little bit of a fruit preserve or light layer of sweet topping is nice.