A New Quest: Make it Double! Cupcakes and Bookstores

Cupcakes:

I'm back with another silly quest: the search for my favorite cupcake! I love cupcakes more than regular cakes they're just so cute and perfectly portioned ❤️ there are quite a few places in the bay area that only do cupcakes or are bakeries that are known for their cupcakes and I aim to find my favorite one this year!

I feel like cupcakes are a little bit simpler to break down than afternoon tea which has a lot of components. Cupcakes will be evaluated on: Cake, Frosting, and Aesthetics (with bonus points if the bakery or packaging is cute but won't technically factor into the main rating)

I've discovered I can eat exactly two cupcakes in one sitting so in an effort of fairness I think I'm going to get two from each place. One will always be vanilla with vanilla frosting (if possible) as a kind of control, then I will ask the person taking my order what the most popular other flavor is and get that as my second choice.

Listed below are the non exhaustive list of places currently on my list:

• The Cupcake Shoppe
• James & the Giant Cupcake
• Cupcakin Bake Shop
• Frost Cupcake Factory
• C'est Si Bon Bakery
• Alexander's Patisserie
• Sprinkles Palo Alto
• The Cake Shop
• Sibby's Cupcakery
• Noe Valley Bakery
• Cupcakin' Bake Shop
• SusieCakes - San Carlos
• Kara’s Cupcakes Palo Alto
• Miette
• La Luna Cupcakes
• Mission Minis

If I've missed your favorite cupcake place please let me know!! I'll add it to the list for quest purposes. I'm excited to go on this journey and hope you'll have some fun and maybe find a favorite cupcake place of your own! 

Bookstores:

In addition to cupcakes I am going to start visiting and doing little blurbs about independent book stores in the Bay Area. There are actually quite a lot of them! This is less of a yearly challenge and more of a when I'm able to get to them. However I want to make a point to go to maybe one a month in the coming year/years. This will give me an excuse to get dressed up and go on a quest! Some are quite close together so I may make a few in one post. For this independent bookstore tour I'll be lifting my self imposed book buying low-buy and so if I see something I like from these local businesses I'll get it. Bookstores won't be rated in the same way afternoon tea or cupcakes will be- more like on a scale of 'probably won't stop by again' to 'I will actively go out of my way to visit again' and if there are any standouts of the ones I've visited that particular year that I would recommend. 

Here is a non-exhaustive list of the stores I plan to visit at some point in this journey: 

• Recycle Bookstore/Recycle Bookstore West
• Friends Bookstore
• Dark Carnival Imaginative Fiction Bookstore
• Walden Pond Books
• Towne Center Books
• Bookshop Santa Cruz
• Banter Bookshop
• Leigh's Favorite Books
• Christopher's Books
• Fabulosa Books
• Dog Eared Books
• Recycle Bookstore
• B Street Books
• Encore Books on the Square
• Books on B
• Marcus Books
• Pegasus Books
• Book Passage
• Kinokuniya San Francisco
• Comix Experience
• Amazing Fantasy
• Russian Hill Bookstore
• Green Apple Books
• Books Inc (various locations)
• Bound Together Bookstore
• Borderlands Books
• Mechanics' Institute
• City Lights Booksellers & Publishers
• Reach and Teach

Bonus bookstores:

• Read Between the Lynes (Woodstock, IL)

Again if I've missed your favorite bookstore please let me know and I'll add it to the list!

I hope that as I post information that some of you might also find a new favorite bakery or indie bookstore 💖

Tea Review: Blossom Tea Room

For my birthday this year I wanted to try a new afternoon tea place! Since I have basically exhausted all the ones that are close we ended up going pretty far out to Stockton to go to Blossom Tea Room

Tea Review Revisit: Son and Garden

I got the opportunity to go back to Son and Garden in Palo Alto! They change themes every once in a while, so while it's the same place with the same atmosphere several of the offerings were different this time around. 

Tea Review: Croissante Bakery

Long time no blog! I've been quite busy at work and going back to take some classes. Without a blogging goal this year and the stress/work from my job situation plus classes blogging has definitely taken a backseat. However I do still plan to try a few of these places that aren't dedicated tea places but offer afternoon tea now that I'm a bit farther out from my yearlong tea journey. 

First up we have Croissante Bakery! This is a bakery in Santa Clara that offers an afternoon tea if you reserve in advance. 

Tea Review: Muir's Tea Room

I was able to finally make it to Muir's Tea Room! It's located in Sebastopol so it's quite a ways away from me and most of the rest of the Bay. It's unique though in that is an entirely vegan menu and the theme changes around every month or so! This month happened to be Alice in Wonderland theme ♣️

Groundhog Day Theme!

It's a little outside lolita this month but the theme for Bibliotheca is Groundhog Day and I couldn't resist! I'm originally from Woodstock Illinois which was actually the filming location for much of the movie. I was very young when the filming happened and I didn't watch the movie until much later but every time I do I get a little thrill of recognizing the gazebo, or the opera house, or the bed and breakfast house. 

It's such a big thing in Woodstock there's quite a bit of tourism around it! You can take a walking tour (self guided/digital except on some dates in February) of the film locations, there are plaques at many locations commemorating the film and what role it played in the film on the walking tour. 

There's a whole bunch of events the first week in February you can do that are Groundhog Day Movie themed. These events include a trivia night, guided walking tours, a viewing of the film at the local theater, and more! Check out https://woodstockgroundhog.org/ for more info if you're in IL this February and are a fan of the movie! I actually think this would be a unique meet-up idea if people didn't mind driving or taking the Metra train to downtown Woodstock.

If you take the guided walking tour and want a more lolita specific event added on, make sure you get a reservation at Casting Whimsy for tea located just off the square! Or just stop by to grab some loose leaf tea if you don't want to do a full reservation. (You can find my review here if you want more information on what to expect).

For those of you who can't make it to a random suburb of Illinois at the beginning of snowy February there is also a Youtube video guided tour available:

Overall if you are a fan of the movie and happen to be in Illinois I'd recommend checking out downtown Woodstock! If nothing else you can get your picture taken by the giant Bill Murray Groundhog Day Mural located next to the Woodstock theater:

Photo from Real Woodstock

low-buy update 1 year later

Last year I made a goal to wear the things I have and try to only focus on wishlist items and I mostly succeeded! But did I keep up with a low buy in 2023? Not really unfortunately. I bought quite a few things. I did try to keep it to basics I felt were missing in my wardrobe, things that had been on my wishlist for a while that I got second hand, or purchases from indie brands. I still feel pretty good about my level of purchasing lolita items this year, I think I ended up going a little more to make up for not buying as much last year. I do track my clothing spending (all clothing spending) on a spread sheet because I want to see where my money on clothes is going and what I'm buying at what prices.