Birthday High Tea @ T-Buds & Butter Avenue

Last Thursday, Machiko, archangeli, Keiko & I went out to high tea in order to celebrate Keiko and my birthday, since it was only a few days apart. It happened to be my birthday and even though I had an exam and class that morning, I wasn't going to let that stop me! We all dressed up in lolita and met up for high tea at a place called T-Buds.

 I had never been there before but it was a lot smaller than I thought! It was really cozy and lounge-y like though, with comfy chairs and it had windows (it was located on the 2nd floor). There were a lot of tea blends on display along the wall that you could purchase.

We each ordered a different kind of tea. xD Mine was the lightest one, a green apple and pear green tea. I usually go for Earl Grey but this time I wanted to try something different! It smelled really nice but tasted like normal green tea, which was pleasant. It was also a lot cheaper than I thought... tea was only $2 with the purchase of a crepe.

I thought this place only was for things related to tea (their tea menu was huge, I had a really hard time choosing!!) but it had lots of other foods as well. Since I hadn't had lunch yet, I decided to try one of their crepes. All of them sounded really good but I went with something healthy lol...and ordered their "Aztec" which was a crepe stuffed with brown rice, avocado, salsa and had chipotle sauce. It was pretty satisfying!

Archangeli ordered the "Gladiator" which was stuffed with meatballs and was apparently very tasty!

If you're wondering about the lighting... once our food came, the power suddenly went out for parts of the floor, like a fuse went out or something. It wasn't pitch black, but the lights above our table went out so it was a little dim. Everyone whipped out their cellphones and focused their flash on the food so I could take pics of the food...thus the studio lighting!! xD

 If only I had reflectors to get rid of the shadows, haha. Machiko & Keiko had the afternoon tea, which came with quiche, sandwiches, fruit, scones and desserts... all arranged nicely on a tiered platter. It all looked really yummy!

The service was really good and most of all, the atmosphere was very relaxed and it was quiet. It seemed like a perfect place for a doll meetup - in fact, Archangeli actually hosted a Dollfie Dream meetup here once. I would love to come here to have afternoon tea and bring my dolls along too... and also be dressed in lolita too. ^_^ No fear or awkwardness of random strangers walking by to stare at you - during the time we were there, there were very few guests. The group of girls at the table next to us kept looking back at us curiously, hehe. ^^"








Since it was close by, we walked up the street to Butter Avenue, a patisserie/macaron place I heard about and had been wanting to try! It gave off an aura of an art museum! (Although I wonder why their logo is a bulldog?) I took home two cakes with me but sadly they did not survive the bus trip so well... x_x Next time I plan to try their macarons!

 You can also dine in. :) Here Archangeli is showing off the tiny cutlery, lol.

It was fun hanging out with you girls again! ;) Definitely need to high tea some more... (so I have an excuse to wear lolita more often because of group impact!!)

I forgot to take outfit pics of everyone...>_< but I posted a quick selca on twitter once I got home. We had another 20cm of snow the day before so unfortunately I couldn't wear my mary janes. I was also so looking forward to wearing my pink Chess Story coat but my parents wouldn't let me leave the house unless I wore something warmer. In the end I'm glad I didn't freeze to death, but seriously?! How old am I?! Orz... (but really at this point, I'm forgetting how old I really am...)

I went to school dressed in lolita but sadly I don't think many people know about lolita fashion. I got lots of compliments but I wonder if they'd appreciate it more if they knew it was a fashion style and not something that out of the ordinary...? Sometimes I can't wrap my head around the fact that so many girls at my college wear nothing but sweats and Uggs to school and nothing but dark, drab colors. (I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that - heck, I own a pair of Uggs myself) but I wonder if their view on life and in turn, society's views on fashion and "the norm" will change if there was more variety and excitement in clothing. (Ah..I've been watching too much Kill la Kill...I will save this for another post LOL)

Anyway, overall I had a great birthday!!! After Butter Avenue I went home and had dinner with my family plus my aunt and uncle who came to visit. My mom cooked an awesome dinner and my dad bought me a cake from the Japanese bakery in J-Town (which I ended up eating 2/3 by myself but... no complaints here).

Thanks for reading!! I shall work harder on blogging more frequently. :)