Channeling My Inner Susan

Susan Sto-Helit that is.

Yup, today I feel like I've somehow captured the aesthetic of Death's Granddaughter - especially of her adventures with Quoth the Raven! It's a sort of gothy governess look, because Susan discovers that 'Getting an education was a bit like a communicable sexual disease. It made you unsuitable for a lot of jobs and then you had the urge to pass it on. She'd become a governess.' (The Hogfather by Terry Pratchett). I've never seen the TV version of The Hogfather, but in my head, this is pretty close to how Susan looks. Although of course I'd need white hair with a black streak in it to really match, and my hair should also form a neat bun at will- something my hair stubbornly refuses to do - hence a french plait...

This outfit was worn for lunch and shopping with friends, which was a lovely antidote to the hectic time we've been having at work preparing for Middle Earth festival this weekend. I'll post pictures from that soon though because I'll be wearing fun things and I've made all sorts of children's dressing up clothes - including two pairs of hobbit feet!!

My hair is a bit messy and my makeup is rather tired in this photo because it was taken AFTER coming home, which you could probably tell from the horrible amount of flash used!

Outfit rundown:
Jacket - Primark via charity shop while on holiday in Bournemouth £3.99
Blouse - Ebay - you've seen it before here.
Skirt - Restyle - it was a birthday present from my mum for my birthday in April but today is my first outfit with it.
Bag - Also Restyle - I got it for Enchanted a while back, and I don't think it's available anymore. Sadly the shades of grey are very slightly different and that annoys me more than it should...
Belt - I've been looking for an elastic belt with a silver buckle for ages (because I love my brass toned one so much but it doesn't go with everything) and finally got this one in a charity shop for £2.50 last week, so chuffed - searching endlessly finally paid off.
Shoes - Deichmann last year for work, I think they were about £15... Very similar to this pair, but with a simple silver buckle. They turned out to be too slippery for the floors at Aston Hall (400 years of feet achieve quite a polish), but they are really comfortable and go with a lot of things.
Hair bow - Claire's, with added brooch - I don't remember where this one came from... It may have been the Red Cross Shop? I have so many brooches now I'm loosing track...
Brooch on neck -  Another one I've lost track of... I've had it a while - I bet I could find out by checking my blog posts, but I'm lazy today.
Crow pin - RSPB stand for £1 donation - the man was really pleased that I wanted this one and the Magpie because 'they are under appreciated birds, the corvids, they don't get a lot of fans.'
Skull Earrings - Present from my colleague and friend Stephy, for no reason at all - wasn't that lovely? The pair in my second holes are tiny silver mice I got in Bournemouth, but I missed them out of the close-up photo. We'll pretend they are Rats to stick with the Susan theme though =P
Tights - One of my pairs of trusty thick black cotton ones - Primark or M&S kidswear for sure.

Do you guys ever wear something and look in the mirror and realize you look like a fictional character? Or have you ever deliberately create a look inspired by one?

I think I'll re-read The Hogfather until bedtime! Goodnight all!

Something witchy this way comes

My lovely friend Anya arranged for us to do an room escape/locked room mystery challenge for her birthday, and although I was really tired from work I wanted to dress up for seeing my friends and having fun.

The weather has been really rubbish for the time of year, cold and kind of rainy, and so I wanted something with layers so I wouldn't have to wear a coat - because that's just sucks in August. I already wear my winter coat for at least 8 months of the year. In the end I based my entire outfit around a jersey dress, which I got a couple of years back in H&M pretty cheap - it's a hi-low hem which is tricky for me because the front is a fair bit shorter than skirts I usually wear. I'm not sure if it's shrunk since I brought it, or I've just gotten even less comfortable with my legs! A few times I've put another skirt underneath, but this time I put a skirt over instead. I don't like the waistband on that skirt so I added a belt, then threw together things which seemed to match - I didn't have a lot of time to get ready. I think the overall look is kind of witchy and fun - I guess all the dark mori and strega looks I've been seeing on my tumblr dash lately have been swirling around in my brain. I'm a sucker for adding a bit of magic to the mundane world!

Sorry for the photo quality - it's taken with my phone in the mirror at Wagamama where we had dinner after failing to escape (by about 4 minutes - we were kicking ourselves sooooo badly when we worked it out)! Yuuummmmyyy! I'm kind of glad it's not better quality though because I looked so tired and washed out!

Outfit rundown:
Dress: H&M £9.99

Lace skirt: I don't know the brand because I cut the lining out after I found it in a charity shop pretty cheap.
Crop waistcoat: h&M £2.99 in the sale about 10 years ago. It's falling apart and I can't button it up over my boobs anymore, but it's too cute to give up on. I'll patch it up at some point.... I think it works open for extra detail to outfits anyway.
Belt: My primark one that I use for everything
Wristcuffs: Atelier Pierrot £20 at Enchanted. Extra lace is always good right?
Jewellery: I wore two necklaces - the lace choker was a present from my friend Felicity and I also wore a pocketwatch on a long chain from my friend Meera, who also gave me the dangly Cthulhu earrings on a different occasion. I also wore stud earrings that my lovely boyfriend Ash gave me.
Bag: Primark satchel, £10 ish. This is the second one I've brought because the clasp broke on the first one after a year or so- but I'm going to reuse the strap for a DIY project. The style of clasp on the new one seems more durable. There's a scarf covering most of the bag in this photo, which I brought in case it got EVEN colder - it's a lovely light infinity scarf with a lace panel - was a present from Natalie a few years back.
Hair: I quickly twisted some of my hair back on one side and plaited some on the other, then added some roses and a bow to keep them in place. The bow was from Claire's, the roses were from a local high street discount shop I think. These kind of hairstyles always remind me of my hippie youth, and also of elves for some reason.
Shoes: These are work shoes I got last summer and they used to be super comfy, but they have gone a bit funny as they've started to wear out. I really need a new pair, but shoes that fit are so hard to find. I wanted flats for comfort yesterday, but I forgot that the lace skirt would catch on the buckle bit which was annnoying. At least I don't have to worry too much about it ripping though because really strong it's pretty much full of holes anyway so the extra ones don't show (it had a few holes already when I brought it). I loved this outfit, it was so comfortable and striking. I'll probably wear something similar again soon, but maybe try to incorporate another colour too to vary things more.

Has anyone else done a locked room mystery/escape challenge before? We tried this one. I thought it was really fun - but the decor was very basic and it was confusingly arranged (we wasted almost half our time trying to solve the second lock, because a clue for it was given straight away but not everything we needed to solve it, whereas the clue for the first lock was much much more subtle). There's a few other similar attractions in the city which have opened recently though, so we might try one of the others soon! I'd like to try Dr Wilson's Office, my taxi driver on the way home recommended that location - but he'd done the Room 13 one which sounded waayyy too gorey for me!

Holiday time!

Sorry I've been away for a little while again. I had a few days off work and visited Bournemouth with friends! I'm afraid I don't have any pictures of the town because I was too busy having fun! We ate a lot of good food and did some shopping. We also visited the Russell Cotes museum - which is housed in an incredible building. They also had a Mucha exhibition on, I was so happy!!

I tried to wear fun clothes on holiday so I'd have lots of outfit posts for my blog, but I completely forgot to take photos. In fact this is my only outfit snap! Ironic because it's taken in a dark room rather than a sunny beach!!

This picture was taken in the dressing room at White Stuff, just before I tried on a blouse - which fitted  really well. I'm hoping to wear it tomorrow in fact =] luckily it was in the sale too!

Outfit rundown
Dress - I got this in a vintage shop in the oasis markets in Birmingham, about 6 months ago. I haggled and got it for £15. I reaaaalllyy love the fabric.
Cardigan - It's an old New Look one. I like the tiny pockets and slight puff sleeves =]
Peter pan collar - it's a detachable one, also New Look, pretty old now so some of the pearls are loose.
Leggings - they are white fishnet with lace at the bottom - I got them on holiday in Weymouth in a shop called Limelight... about 10 years ago. They have a lot of loose elastic threads in the cuffs now, but they are so useful for warm weather and I have no idea where I'd buy anything similar today!
Socks - Primark £2 - the lace is falling off after only 2 washes, but I can easily sew them up.
Shoes - Converse - they were a present from my mum a couple years back. The shade of grey is slightly paler than the dress which is annoying me more than it should
Hair - white ribbon and a grey/black flower £1 in a high street discount shop
Necklace - Curiology bat cage design - it was a surprise gift from my friend Holly - she sent me a care package when I was ill a few months ago. Aren't I lucky?! The necklace isn't actually this long, but I liked the look, so it's safety pinned to my dress and hidden by the collar!
Petticoat - I have a very light petticoat underneath.


I hope you are all having a lovely summer! Don't make my mistake and take lots of photos!!

Light and Airy

We have had some nice weather recently, so when I'm not wearing my work uniform (this one is royal blue - not quite so bad as the yellow), I've been trying to wear floaty things and light layers.

This is a bit a of a different look for me - because it feels a bit Edwardian or even 1920's style. I even thought the bloomers with a baggy dress belted at the waist looked a bit like early 20th century bathing costumes. This is a dress I got in a sale and dyed black a while ago - I'm sure I've shown it before. This time, I wanted to draw out the stitching colour by wearing it with cream. I picked the tights and built everything else from there.

Outfit rundown:
Dress: H&M dyed by me
Bloomers: bodyline
Tights: brought from a friend
Lace bolero: Forever 21
Dragonfly brooch: from Whitby present from mum
Belt: it's two bits of ribbon - one cream and one peachy pink, from my stash
Pearls: from my friend Miriam, she got them in China =]
Bracelets: New Look and Primark
Flowers: H&M
Hairband: Discount store on the local high street £1.99

My hair was being uncooperative as unusual, so my bun was messier than I would have liked but otherwise I'm quite happy with this one =]

Missing Out

Once again I have been away for a very long time, I never meant to be gone for so long. I've been working so much, doing so many other projects, that I've really missed out on what's been going on in the blogosphere!

I haven't had much time to look after myself either. I fell back into my habit of just grabbing some clean clothes of the pile and being as comfy as possible. I got the internship I mentioned last year and it was completely amazing, but as it was a museum store I spent a lot of time wearing steel toe cap boots, jeans and warm jumpers! I had to blog about my experiences a little - you can read about it, here, here and here. That last link includes a photo of me looking especially glamourous!!!

I tried to round up outfit photos taken since my last blog at Halloween but I hardly found any. Even when I've managed to dress up nicely I haven't taken many photos! I think this is partly because I'm unhappy with the way I look at the moment - it's probably not very noticeable to anyone else but I'm out of shape - I've been eating junk and sleeping badly and it shows. I'm a little heavier than I'd like around the tummy and my skin is dreadful.

Here's the pictures I did find:

This was a trial run I did of an outfit for the Tea Party Club Calendar - 12 of the lolita comms in the UK each submitted a group photo for one month. The Midlands girls were given June so we wanted something of a picnic theme! A little hard to arrange with a winter photoshoot. We all tried to wear something food themed! In my case this was HARD. So this was my first attempt at Sweet Lolita. In the finished version have a cupcake on my necklace, an ice cream brooch and a teacup on the pink bag I made to match the outfit! I also made some pink bows too to better match my tights =] Because of the short notice, not many members of the comm could make it to the photoshoot, but it was a lot of fun anyway!

Outfit rundown
Grey and white stripe skirt: Metamorphose temps de fille, brought second hand, featured before
Grey and white stripe blouse: Miss selfridge via charity shop, featured several times too
Black pinafore dress: Miss selfridge - another old favourite
Pink tights: Primark
Boots: New Look
Wrist Cuffs: Atelier Pierrot, I got them at Enchanted
Necklace: Past times, with cupcake charm from Enchanted raffle
Headband: Primark with added pink bow
Ice cream brooch: present from my half-brothers mum =]
Other accessories: made by me.


The next outfit photo I found was one I had obviously planned to post. This was taken in January this year - It was the outfit I wore for a Saturday dong research in the library.

Outfit rundownDress: Primark, it was one of their pricier items - cost me a whole £10!
Turtleneck: New Look £9.99
Tights: probably primark or H&M
Belt: Primark - you've all seen in before.
Necklace: Present from Flick and Ed for my Birthday last year
Hair flowers: H&M

Then there is a gap - despite attending a couple of lolita meets and wearing some nice outfits for conferences, interviews and meeting friends, I didn't photograph any of them =[

I gave a talk on Death in Art for an exhibition in the Coffin Works Museum on the 6th June. Which also happened to be International Lolita day! This is what I wore:

Outfit rundown:
Blouse: Ebay - it was really cheap - I think about £4, but it did arrive very dusty so I wouldn't recommend the seller (it washed out OK though)
JSK: Funeral Procession of the Rose by Alice and the Pirates. I brought it new (my only new brand piece)
Tights: They were a Christmas present from my mum
Boots: New Look
Hair band: Ebay
Flowers: H&M and Claires
Necklace: New Look £8

I'm hoping to dress up nicely more now I've changed my job slightly - I'm working 5 days a week instead of 6 in the holidays and only weekends in term time. Best part is, it's a permanent contract!! I am so happy to have more job security - I love working at museums, but seasonal contracts suck!

I had better start making myself some dinner - trying to eat more healthily too, maybe I'll be happy with my skin again soon!

My Homework - Halloween at Home

I go crazy with the Halloween shopping every year, but this year it was slim pickings - and also I didn't have as much time to shop, so my contribution to this year's Professor Z Homework assignment is very small.

I did however find one cool thing in an unexpected place. In the pet section at poundland I found these fleece blankets with spider and bat designs:

I brought 4 - 2 bat and 2 spider ones. They are really quite small so I really want to make them into a patchwork throw. I already have a black fleece blanket and some leftover purple fleece (somewhere in a box...), so I just need to buy a small amount of white fleece fabric and then I will try be able to start stitching.

This is my design, please ignore the MS Paint drawing! The spotted bits are the pattern fleece blankets.

Hopefully it will be ready for next Halloween!

Witchy fun!

Sorry for another long absence, I've been doing so many things lately.

Did I mention that I got a paid internship? I've transferred to working at the Museum Collection Centre for the next 6 months, I was asked to write a blog post about my first week by the uni. If you are interested, you can read that here =]

Another of the things I was busy with was launching my academic blog, cemeteryresearcher.com, which I hope you'll all check out =]

I hope my Halloween outfit will make up for being away a little.

What I'm wearing:

Blouse: West One £2.50 via charity shop

JSK: Infanta £25 via egl-comm-sales

Tights: Claire's Accessories. I've had them since I was 15 lol

Bow: Handmade

Boots: New Look
Wristcuffs: Atellier Pierrot £20 at enchanted
Petticoat: ebay
Earrings: Claires and handmade.
Bag: Harry Potter Sorting Hat bag. I got it in a charity shop last year and planned the whole outfit round it's colour scheme.

Hat: Heavily modified Peacocks hat. It was £4. I took the sparkly frill off and added lace to hide the hot glue. I transferred it to a larger hairband because the kid's size one was digging into my head. I also stitched the cone into a crumpled shape and added the bat charm.

I'm going to try to do another blog post tonight too for The Professor Z's homework!