Monthly review: June 2016
My June was full of purchases, knitting and sewing. meeting with friends and an annoying issue with the German post. And I will stop searching for a new job in the city of my boyfriend because we are hoping to be able to live together in my city in some months.
My lolita purchases in June
My friend SweetManiac was so kind to buy a short-sleeved cutsew in lavender by Maxicimam for me during her vacations in Japan. I own several cutsews by the Japanese lolita brand Maxicimam already because the lovely size line fits Western plus size girls ;)
I totally recommend to visit the shop in Harajuku because the shop girls are the cutest and always add a lot of gifts. ^_^ And do not forget to bring the "5% off ticket" from the previous link!
By the way, Maxicimam items are also available on cdjapan!
I got the following presents with my cutsew:
the 2016 Maxicimam calender, a business card, posters and the current catalogue.
The calender has two different motifs on each side. One is the "sweet" motif with the bear mascot "Cotty", the other one is the "dark" motif with the cat mascot "Jupirin" ^_^
I have bought more printed tights by Teja Jamilla: blue with black ink and red with black ink.
Now I have 7 pairs of tights from her. ;)
Teja has an etsy shop and a facebook page.
Non-lolita purchases
I made a second order at King Louie because shipping was for free. King Louie sells retro inspired clothes and accessoires. (With my first order in March 2016, I had bought a wrapped knit cardigan, a skirt and a blouse.)
I bought a tile blue blouse with dots, a black pullover with a crocheted pattern, a storm blue pencil skirt and a cardigan with a lovely heart pattern.
In the end I only kept the cardigan because all other items did not fit properly...
I am planning to wear some of my "retro items" combined with casual lolita items to the Flaneur Bonn at the beginning of September in Bonn. That is a trade fair related to retro and vintage fashion, organized by the magazin Vintage Flaneur and held at an event location with old caravans and motor homes. I am looking forward to the event ^_^
I bought the following "normal" items from a lolita:
a poncho, blue earrings, several "cute" tapes and Hello Kitty adhesive stickers
I ordered a knitted item from DaWanda, but there were some problems with delivery. Therefore I want to document the incompetence of the German post, especially the lack of communications.
(Please feel free to scroll over this ;)
21.5. (Saturday) I ordered and paid an item from a Dawanda shop. 24.5. (Tuesday) The seller shipped out the parcel as letter with registration (Brief mit Einschreiben). 27.5. (Friday) I was home all day, so I know that the postman did not rang the bell. He just put the yellow slip of the German post into my mailbox... Probably the task of coming to my door would have been too time-consuming. 28.5. (Saturday) I went to the post office that was indicated on the slip. They did not have my parcel. The items from the post man had not been delivered to the post office... The staff asked me to come again on the next working day. 30.5. (Monday) Well, my item was still not available at the post office. This post office had received items from a different post office, so their assumption was that my item was at the other post office too. (The staff already had customers who had to go to the other post office to get their items..) 31.5. (Tuesday) The opening hours of the other post office are not very friendly for people working full time like me. So I called the hotline, opened a complained and asked them to tell me the location of my item.
The call center agent recorded my name, address and phone number. He did not want to have the tracking number of the letter because the investigator would use my address instead. He said somebody would contact me today or tomorrow. 2.6. (Thursday) My boyfriend went for me to the other post office ;) (His working times matched better with the opening times.) The other post office did not have my item... The staff called the hotline, too and opened a complaint. ;) 2.6. (Thursday) My boyfriend went to a third post office that sometimes had items for me. They did not have my item. This post office in general never receives letters, only parcels. 3.6. (Friday) I called again the hotline and asked for a status of my item. The call center agent had only one complaint in the system, the one from yesterday that the staff of the other post office had opened. >_< (The complant that I opened might have been recorded inside a different system.) The complaint was without a phone number, so we added mine.
The agent said that the research might take up to ten days. The post office keeps items only for seven working days. He admitted that the complaint process would not enlarge this because the person responsible for sending back my item would not be aware of my complaint. So my item will probably be returned to sender on Monday.
I asked about the intended way to resent the item and get back the shipping cost: The sender needs to wait for the item to get back. Then the sender needs to open a claim with the German post and request the shipping cost due to "non-delivery". If the sender would refuse to accept the item resent to him, the item would be brought to the lost-and-found office...
I asked if the investigator would contact the post man and ask him what he did with the item. The agent said "no, the investigator cannot contact the post man". The investigator would just call several post offices and ask if the have an item for my name and address. (Note: The phone numbers of the post offices are not available on the post's website on purpose, therefore the investigator would have to do these calls.)
We already checked all three post offices in my area and they did not have my item therefore I assume that the investigator will not find the item. Maybe it got lost and lays somewhere on the floor or behind a shelf..? 4.6. (Saturday) My boyfriend went to the post office that was indicated on the yellow slip, just to check, but the item was not there. 6.6. (Monday) I checked the tracking of my item to see if it was sent back. According to the tracking, the item is still waiting at "the" post office. 8.6. (Wednesday) I checked the tracking. The item was sent back because it was not picked up. I am wondering at what post office it has been all that time... 10.6. (Friday) The item arrived back at the sender and was shipped out again with a different shipping company.
The sender contacted the post to investigate where the item had been. According to that, the item was sent back from the post office that was indicated on the yellow slip... 14.6. (Tuesday) The item finally arrived.
The sender is currently trying to get the shipping cost back. But the German post refuses to refund the shipping cost and claims that I did not pick up the parcel, while in fact the item was not available in the indicated post office...
Knitting
I finished the knitted scarf that I had started spontaneously in May. It is made of black cotton yarn in seed stitch (Perlmuster), 18 cm x 77 cm. It took me at least 15 hours to make the scarf, probably more. I use it to keep my neck warm and close it with a safety pin.
I even blocked it (nass aufspannen), that means pin it in place when wet to get a perfect rectangular shape.
I really liked working on the shawl, so I am planning to knit and crochet more items in the future:
I want to knit a triangle shawl with a "nature" motif like leaves, trees or celtic braids preferably with a yarn with a color gradient in green, a loop shawl in chess board pattern in gray and something with a Norway pattern in red x white.
But I have problems finding yarns in the desired colors and made of 100 % cotton. I do not like wool and polyester on my skin...
I want to buy some wooden knit needles like the ones I used back at school. They were made of a long spier with a wooden sphere at one end. But for some reason, these kind of needles have vanished from the local shops... I have found wooden needles in several online shops, but I did not order yet.
I created an account on ravelry on June 19. It is an international community for knitting and crocheting. Users can share their projects and patterns and ask questions in the forums. I like the "spirit" of the creators a lot, they really care for the users, have set up a matching advertisement strategy and communicate background informations. I always feel really happy and positive when logging in to ravelry while I always feel anxious when logging in to facebook.
Sewing
I finished sewing a new waistband from the waist ties for the Margueritte skirt by Innocent World.
I had started this one year ago (July 2015)...
I had made an apron for my boyfriend according to his wishes and measurements some time ago. He requested to have an additional decorative stitching (Ziernaht) in red, so after some search, I found fancy-effect thread (Ziergarn) in a local shop. My sewing machine was not willing to work when using the fancy-effect thread as the upper and lower thread because it is thicker, so I used a normal thread for the bottom side.
Two friends came to our apartment on June 11, 2016. We made burgers. This time, we made the patties AND the buns ^_^.
We used a receipe for yeast dough (Hefeteig) for the buns that was recommended by a colleague of a friend. It took quite long to make the buns because the yeast dough had to rest for over an hour, but the buns tasted good!
While eating the burgers, we watched Zoomania. (The film's title is "Zootopia" in most other countries.)
There was no evening with board games in this month due to time constraints.
We organised another private lolita meetup in June. You can read more about visiting a "clothes by the kilo" shop, Japanese supermarkets and an Asian restaurant in blog entry of its own.
Last month, I recognized that I had been searching for a new job in the area of my boyfriend for over a year without success. (We are living in a long distance relationship during the 9 years that we are together and only see each other on the weekends.)
In the beginning of June, my boyfriend and me discussed our options. We decided to discard the idea of moving together in the area around Ulm where my boyfriend lives and instead selected Munich as the center of our life (where I live). The rents are cheaper around Ulm and the shops are opened longer in the evening, but in Munich there are more jobs, more infrastructure, more "entertainment" and we have all our family and friends here.
Honestly, I was a bit sad because I had wanted to leave Munich (crowded, issues of the infrastructure of public transport, attitude of some Bavarian people) and "start a new life in a new city". But it really makes more sense to stay in Munich. And my lolita friends are here, too. ;)
My boyfriend will change to a different project in his company next year and could then ask to relocate his office to Munich.
I still want to find a new job, but it now has less priority for me. I also want to move to an apartment more close to work and where I do not need to use S-Bahn, but I will start searching only after finding a new job.