♡ London Day 2 | Natural History Museum and Many Pretty Desserts ♡

もしもし! 

Sorry that it's taking me a while to write these posts, I've just been a bit preoccupied with work/general tiredness ^^" However, I thought I'd take a bit of time to write another post for my London series! You can read about day one here, if you missed that~

Let's begin!

I confess... I woke up at 5 in the morning! I had a fairly restless sleep, and once it was finally getting light out, I couldn't stay in bed any longer ^^" However, I wasn't sleepy in the slightest, so it was nice to have a lot of time in the morning to drink some coffee, browse Instagram, read my book, and slowly get dressed for the day~ I was so excited, I could hardly believe that I was in London, at long last!

Once everyone else had woken up and gotten dressed, we headed downstairs for breakfast, since the B&B had a complimentary one (which ended up being very tasty!)

I wasn't feeling very hungry (I'm normally not in the mornings), but I saw crumpets, and I had to try one!

Sorry to those of you with trypophobia ;v;

Covered with black current jam, and accompanied by some black tea!

This was actually a thinner crumpet than usual-- my dad got one of the thicker ones, and I tried that and enjoyed it much more than this one... so I ended up getting another one hehe ( ◡‿◡ *).

I thought it would be yummy with cheese, but sadly it wasn't warm enough for the cheese to actually melt into all the nooks and crannies ^^" Oh well, it was very yummy regardless!

After that, we headed out! 

Our first stop was one of my top priorities in London... the Natural History Museum! 

Natural History Museums are one of my favourite sorts of museums-- I love the old atmosphere of them, and the architecture of the one in London was absolutely beautiful. 

^ A peek of it from the outside! The building was huge, and it was all just so gorgeous and old-looking!

The interior too, was absolutely breath-taking! I felt a bit silly constantly looking around and overhead, but I couldn't help but marvel at the place... even the ceiling was decorated! 

Huge whale skeleton hanging in the central hall!
This photo really doesn't do justice to how large the hall (or the skeleton) was ^^"

There was a cute monkey carving on one of the arches! And you can see a little bit of the beautiful panels on the ceiling here (each one had a different sort of plant on it!)

We got there quite early, so luckily I was able to get an outfit photo without having any people in the frame~

Mushroom Fairy Coord

Wig: Dream Holic

Cardigan: Liz Lisa

OP: Crucis (via Taobao)

Shoes: Nordstrom Rack

This was my first time wearing a wig out (to an event that wasn't a convention), so I was a bit anxious, but I feel as though it's a fairly natural-looking wig (Dream Holic really makes the best quality wigs) so I didn't worry too much ^^ I got this dress in my most recent Taobao Haul, and this was the first chance I had to wear it out! It's really such an adorable dress, I'm so happy I got it ♡ I thought it fit in perfectly with the theme of the museum!

The museum itself was amazing! One of my favourite bits was the "Treasures" exhibit, where they kept some of the rarer/most significant items, such as the first edition of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species", a beautifully carved nautilus shell, the earliest known fossilized bird, and more! It was a fairly small room, and there were only about twenty items in it, but it was really interesting seeing the significance of them all.
(I think my favourite was this glass jellyfish though-- it looked so ethereal and delicate!)

The other exhibits were all also very nice-- in particular I liked the one with birds! There was such a pretty variety *^*

You can't see the whole thing there, but there was a very old display of hummingbirds-- I think this was from the 1800s? The colours used to be much more vibrant supposedly, however over time they faded (in my opinion they were still very bright though!)
I also saw this huge elk skeleton-- it looked so majestic!

After a few more hours of wandering around, we had gotten a bit hungry, and figured it was a good time to go for lunch! 

(Before I move on to that though, here's a quick photo of the pretty and yummy-looking sweets at the museum cafe! I only got a coffee, but these were all very pretty hehe~)

When looking for places to eat in London online, I came across a very beautiful eclair place, which happened to be very close by the museum! However first it made more sense to have a proper lunch, so we stopped into a small pizzeria. I confess I'm not terribly fond of pizza, so for me it was only okayish ^^"

The top one had mushrooms and ham (maybe?), and the bottom one had zucchini, tomatoes, prosciutto, and a whole ball of burrata! (The burrata at least, was very good).

Then it was time for the eclair place! When I saw the photos online of the eclairs they served, I was amazed, and knew I wanted to go there! The selection was so pretty ;v;

I ended up getting a pistachio one, and my sister got a raspberry one!

They also included four small free choux bites, which certainly didn't compare to the eclairs themselves, but they were pretty good nonetheless~

A better closeup of mine! Inside there was pistachio cream~ 

After having our lunch and eclairs, we were ready to head out again! My dad and sister were a bit tired and wanted to rest, so my mum and I split off from them, and headed to the Victoria and Albert Design museum! It was quite nearby, so luckily we didn't have to walk far~
I was really impressed by it! It was such a huge museum with a really big variety of exhibits; old religious works, Korean pottery, paintings, fashion-- they even had a fairly large section dedicated to locks and keys! 
They had a really interesting looking Frida Kahlo exhibit going on (she's my favourite artist), but it wasn't free so I ended up not going ;-; The museum was massive though; I wish I had more time to see it! But after a few hours we were quite exhausted and were barely stumbling around ^^"
I didn't get very many photos from this museum, but here are a few!

Part of a huge altar-- it was so breathtaking! 

This dress was so pretty, I think it was from the Edwardian era..?

An old wedding gown! It looked so elegant ;v;

So ridiculously exquisite! 

I mostly just got photos of the clothes hehe... but they were all so pretty! It was interesting seeing the different fashions throughout the centuries.

After we left the museum, we quickly popped into a drugstore to refill on water (and headache pills... dehydration isn't fun ><). We felt a bit less tired, and headed to our next stop: Harrods!
Harrods is a designer department store, however what interested me most about them was their Food Halls! They had several huge rooms filled with gourmet chocolates, teas, cheeses, pastries, seafood, fruits, ready-made food... pretty much anything you could think of! (Including incredibly pricey things like foie gras, caviar, $300+ cakes, and very expensive bouquets of flowers)
Naturally, I was most interested in the baked goods hehe~

^ So many cronuts! They all looked so delicious... but I had something else in mind that I wanted...

Caneles! 
Caneles are one of my favourite desserts-- they're quite simple, but so delicious. The interior is sort of custardy and soft, and the outside is caramelized and crunchy (they're baked in copper molds coated with beeswax, so they caramelize beautifully!) I've only ever had plain vanilla caneles, but they had a really big variety of flavours here~ I chose four for that night's dessert! But more about those later on~

Some more pretty cakes that I saw ^^

After a bit more wandering around, we finally met back up with my dad and sister!
We were all quite tired and didn't have much else planned for the day, since it was already evening. We headed to the gardens nearby Buckingham Palace-- they were so beautiful! I'm still amazed by all the beautiful gardens I saw in London, from the small ones I saw the day previous, to these! 
There was a huge flower garden full of the most beautiful blossoms, as well as an archway made of roses! It was all so majestic and fairy-like ♡

Featuring a very tired but very happy Milkii

(I ended up having to change shoes fairly quickly into the day, since the heels I was wearing before were so uncomfortable... which was quite unfortunate ;-; )

After the gardens we began making our journey back home. Along the way, we passed by Buckingham Palace, which was quite cool! (I didn't get any photos though orz)

For dinner we didn't go anywhere particularly interesting, we just stopped into Tesco! If you're not familiar with them, Tesco is one of the main supermarkets in London, and they actually have a really amazing selection *^* Including their ready made foods! 

We got a crayfish and mango salad, spiralized vegetable and chicken salad, as well as a smoked salmon and prawn sandwich-- it was all so tasty! I wish the supermarkets here had such yummy food ;v; In addition to that, we got some very delicious and fresh strawberries ♡ (The produce in London was seriously so good ahhh *^* Everything was so incredibly fresh and tasty!)

After dinner, we had the caneles that I got at Harrods!

Not the best photo, but they came in such a pretty box ;v;

The flavours I chose were salted caramel, strawberry, passion fruit, and nutella! They were all so amazing-- nothing like any of the ones I had before! The caramelized edges were actually crunchy, and the flavours were absolutely divine... they were everything a canele should be ♡ These ended up being one of my favourite desserts that I had while in London!

And that was pretty much everything for day two! ♡ I was quite worn out from all the walking, and as such fell asleep very quickly, and very happily ♡

I hope you enjoyed reading about my second day in London!
Day 3 will feature afternoon tea at sketch, which I'm incredibly excited to write about, since it was my favourite thing I did in London! So I hope you look forward to that ♡
Thank you for reading! Bye-bye ♡

♡ A Very Large Taobao Haul ♡

♡ Hello everybunny ♡

You might remember that a few weeks ago I wrote about some of my recent Taobao purchases that I was waiting for in the mail... and yesterday they arrived!

I originally wanted to do an unboxing video for this... but I was just so tired after work, I decided to simply take photos and make a blog post instead! ^^

If you read my last post, you might remember my mentioning that a lot of the items I ordered ended up being out of stock... so this haul turned out a bit smaller than I originally intended (a bit sad because some of the items I was waiting for I was quite excited about, but ah... oh well...)

Nonetheless, I'm really happy with everything that arrived, and thought I would quickly share it with you!

I'll begin with the smaller items, and work my way up from there~

Accessories

I often wear ruffle socks, and I've been needing some new pairs-- so I picked up these tan and pink ruffly ones! I could have benefitted from getting a pair or two in white, but unfortunately they were out of stock ^^"

The Sanrio ones are replicas from a series from a little while ago-- I generally am not very supportive of replicas, but I think with small items like this it's not as bad ^^" These are adorable, and they came in a lot of other designs too! I might have to get some more the next time I order~

I also got these hairbows from the shop "Fox Cherry"-- they make a lot of really cute accessories, and they're quite cheap too! Each bow was only around $1 (and the pink gingham one was a freebie!)

The bordeaux ones with crowns are so luxurious feeling, and I love the way the tails of the bow on the pink one looks! These seem really nice quality, I'll definitely be buying from Fox Cherry in the future!

Lastly are two hair accessories! 

This dusty pink-coloured hairbow is so pretty, and made of such a lovely soft fabric! I like that the headband isn't very tight on this, since often headbands can give me headaches >< But this one is quite comfortable! I hope I'll be confident enough to wear such a big bow out ;v;

The flower crown looks so pretty and fairy-like, I really like it! I'm a bit worried about wearing this with wigs though, since I imagine all the metal bits on it would be quite tangling to the wig hairs... but I guess I'll see ^^"

Wigs

I ordered two wigs from the shop Dream Holic, which is probably my favourite wig retailer ever! Their wigs are such nice quality, and the colours and designs are just so beautiful and unique!

I ordered two 'natural' wigs, since for the most part I own really colourful wigs, and thought it would be nice to try something different for a change!

Their wigs always come in these really nice bags with the shop's logo on them~

My wigs!

I don't have any try-on photos, but here are the stock photos for the wigs!

"Miss Poppy" Wig in the Macchiatto Colour-way (Right)

"Miss Scarlett" Wig in the Cocoa Colour-way (Left)

I'm so excited to wear both of these! 

The "Miss Poppy" wig is a really pretty colour, a super light blonde with hints of baby baby pink at the ends!

I think it looks so sweet ;v; And the "Miss Scarlett" wig is essentially how I wished my hair would look right now, so I'm quite excited to wear it!

Look forward to seeing outfits featuring these two wigs soon ♡

Clothes

As I mentioned, many of the items I ordered were out of stock, and sadly most of those were clothing items, so I don't really have many clothes to share...

I got a new petticoat, finally! This is from the brand Chess Story, and it's quite a subtle amount of puff, which is perfect for me! I want to start wearing lolita more, but having a massive skirt can be a bit intimidating, so I think this is a good place to start ^^ It's really comfortable too, and not at all itchy!

I also got this simple tank top with lace detailing on the collar; I thought it would be nice to wear under other items~ The quality of it isn't great, but given that it was quite cheap, that doesn't surprise me ^^"

Next is the item I was looking forward to most in this haul... my mushroom dress!

This dress is from the brand "Crucis" (I think?) and ever since I saw it I fell in love... ;v;

It's a really lovely dress, and the print is quite pretty! I love the style the mushrooms are drawn in, they look a bit like vintage water-colours!

This dress came with two satin belts, which I didn't think I would need, but it's actually a bit baggy on the waist (and it sits a little higher than my natural waist) so they were quite necessary to make the dress look flattering on me ^^"

The dress itself is really nicely made-- the printed fabric is a sort of cotton blend and it doesn't feel cheap at all! Plus it's lined, which is quite nice~ It's very comfortable too!

I do wish that it had a slightly longer torso... but on the whole I'm very pleased with it!

~photo spam time~

I'm glad the belt was long enough to be able to tie it this way-- I think it looks really cute like this!

Also I'm wearing it with my new petticoat in all the photos ^^ 

It's a fairly subtle amount of puff, but honestly, that's perfect for me.

I'll be going to London soon, and I think I'll bring this dress on my trip with me! I really want to go to the Museum of Natural History, and I think this dress will be perfect for that~

Miscellaneous

Lastly, a few things I didn't really know how to categorize!

Stickers, because who can resist stickers! Two with Little Twin Stars theme, and one with a cat/chocolate cornet theme! One can never have too many stickers hihi~

Makeup organizers! The larger one is absolutely perfect-- I've been needing something like this, since I have too much makeup and not enough ways to organize it... ^^" I'm glad the size of this is perfect too! It looks really cute in my bathroom~

The smaller round one I haven't found a use for yet, I might keep jewelry-making supplies in it! 

Lastly is this cute little My Melody lollipop charm! Another Sanrio replica I'm sorry

I might hang her somewhere more 'proper' at some point, but for now she's hanging from my (nonfunctional) intercom system~ So cute!

And that's everything!

I'm really happy with all the items I got~ Overall Taobao can be a really nice and cheap place to shop, and I was able to get many cute things~ It ended up not being the cheapest of hauls, but that's due to the wigs and the mushroom dress (however I don't mind paying extra for high quality wigs and unique dress designs).

I'm very excited to use/wear everything!

I hope you liked seeing what I bought~ Thank you for reading!

♡ Which item was your favourite? ♡