Community; 365 LLC- Favourite Lolita Haunts

Hello, Darlings!

One of the biggest changes of 2015 was leaving my home in Hawaii, and moving to the Baltimore area of Maryland with my husband. At least as a Navy brat, this was nothing new to me; I am used to transplanting myself every few years.

Though I'm a veteran when it comes to moving, this move was especially hard for me, and mainly because of how close I was to my Hawaii comm.

Though I started Lolita in 2007, I was living in Connecticut, still in high school, and never went to meets. I mainly stuck to handmade things sewn by me, In the Starlight, a cheap find or two from egl_comm_sales, or Bodyline. Most of my interaction with Lolitas was done online, either on Live Journal or Vivcore Forums (hello nostalgia!).

Fast-forward to 2009. I graduated high school, and moved back to my home state of Hawaii for university. With the freedom of public transportation, and some semblance of adult responsibility, it became easier to attend meets and get connected with the comm. At the time, they only had an LJ group, where they posted their next meet. (You kids who grew up with Facebook will never know the anxiety of attending your first meet, and you only know people by their LJ names, haha!)

From that point on, a lot happened. Over my next six years there (one spent abroad in Japan), I became so close to the ladies and gentlemen I met through this hobby. Some introduced me to other hobbies, like cosplay, photo shoots, makeup artistry, tea appreciation, wine tasting... before long, a lot of that group felt like my family. Some of the girls were even bridesmaids at my wedding!

I did have a going away party though, for one last hurrah with my closest friends.

At Kahua Cafe, in Namea Books- an amazing, locally sourced cafe owned by my friend.

And then, it was time to get on a plane and say good-bye.

I'm used to packing up my life and putting down new roots wherever I go. But I had some pretty deep roots in Hawaii that were difficult to pull up.

But luckily, the Lolita community has changed online. Many Lolita comms started making their own groups on Facebook, through which people can RSVP to events, discuss local topics, organize local sales, and so on. Thus, it was much easier to find and connect with my comm, this time around.

Being in a new comm is very exciting! My first meet in Maryland was Winter International Lolita Day 2015: Frills and Film. I have a post queued up on that later, but it was more Lolitas than I had ever seen in one place all my life! Everyone was quite nice and welcoming, and I have a very good feeling about this comm.

This comm is very active it seems, with at least one meet-up a month. Since I organized a few meets back in Hawaii, I have been scouring around on Yelp for new meet-up ideas, and bookmarking them each time I find something promising. After all, I think the most exciting part of moving somewhere new, is to discover your new favourite places!

So when I saw today's Lifestyle Lolita Challenge topic, I felt it was quite relevant:

I haven't checked all of these out yet, but here are some awesome places I discovered locally!

(I am addicted to Yelp, so any other Lolita Yelpers out there, please add me!)

Tea Rooms:

• Sweet Simplici-tea - Skyesville, MD
• Tea by Two - Bel Air, MD
• Tea on the Tiber - Ellicott City, MD

Cafes:

• Caffe Bene- Ellicott City, MD
• La Madeleine French Cuisine and Cafe- Columbia, MD. Apparently our comm has dinner meets here quite often, but I haven't made it to one yet!
• Matcha Time Cafe- Ellicott City, MD
• Snow Cafe- Ellicott City, MD. I just visited here yesterday, and they have the best Boba tea I've had since I left Hawaii! It really lifted a bit of my homesickness, especially since the milk-snow was pretty big in Hawaii. The interior has an adorable chalk-paint wall, a set-up like the outside of a French Cafe, and tons of tiny polaroids on the walls. I can see myself hanging out here with Lolita friends, while my husband plays cards at the card shop next door!
• Sweet Hearts Patisserie- Annapolis, MD. Rumoured to have amazing macarons and Petit-Fours!
• The White Rabbit- Odenton, MD. Though this place doesn't look that fancy, the pictures of playing-card shaped menus and the name intrigue me! The White Rabbit is my favourite character from Alice in Wonderland, so I must make it a point to go.

I hope to work through the list above, and maybe add to it slowly. Hopefully there will be lots of colorful meet-up posts to share with you all!

And BONUS: If you're still in Hawaii running amok in frilly glory, well you're in luck. I've been compiling a list of Lolita-friendly places in Hawaii since before I moved. Check it out here! 

Oh, what's that? It's a colorful meet-up post hot out of the oven and queued up for you! Stay tuned for a recap of ILD 2015!