kittens!

I was going to post yesterday with something cool but I got distracted by the adorable kittens I'm looking after for my friend while she is on holiday.

They don't like me typing because it makes the light glint off my ring so they come chew my fingers with their tiny sharp teeth.

I'm typing this post in small sections when they fall asleep!

In fact photographing them is pretty difficult too! It's hard to take a picture when a kitten is playing with the strap on the camera!

Any time I get up one of them steals my warm seat too, making it hard to get to the laptop!

But they are so damn cute and so endlessly entertaining that I don't mind =]

I hope you are all having a good weekend and I will try to do some real blogging tomorrow night!

Goth in the Office. Phase 1. Outfit 3.

So it's the end of my first week and I'm knackered but very happy =]

This is also the end of Phase 1. No-one has batted an eyelid at anything I've worn this week so I'm jumping straight to Phase 2. I'm going to start introducing small obviously gothy elements to my outfits and but pairing them with colour to balance it out.

Here's today's outfit:

What I'm wearing:
Velvet blazer: Vintage. Present from Mum. I've featured it before
Black and Grey stripe blouse: H&M. I've had it for ages so I'm not sure how much it cost.
Velvet Skirt: Next. The one I wore for my interview.
Grey tights: yet another pair =P They are probably from Primark but I'm not sure.
Shoes: The same ones I've been wearing all week; I really need to get shoes with my first paycheck!
Brooch: Cancer Research UK, £1.95.

I really love collecting costume jewellery, especially brooches! This might be my new favourite.

I've also started to realise that most of the hairstyles I used to wear when I had a foot and a half of hair don't work so well now that I have so little of it =P So I tried out something new today; I decided to do something intentionally messy because that's the way it ends up anyway!

I like the way it turned out but my hair is so fine that it took half a pack of hair-grips to hold it; no so comfortable!

Any suggestions for a hair product that holds fine hair well without making it greasy or ikky looking?

Goth in the Office. Phase 1. Outfit 2.

I'm feeling a little better today although I am very tired.

I managed to take a non-blurry picture today too. I decided it was better to wait until after work when I'd have more time to arrange the picture.

I didn't actually wear this cardigan to the office but it was too warm to keep my blazer (the one I wore yesterday) on by the time I got home so I swapped it. I think it would have been a little too casual for the office without the blazer.

I actually had a slight wardrobe crisis this morning when I realised I hadn't ironed the blouse I wanted to wear! So this is what I threw together in 5 mins before I got on the bus. I thought that the dress was a little short for work so I put another skirt underneath and hoped for the best!

What I'm wearing:
Cardigan: New Look sale, 3 quid.
Dress: Local cheap shop. I got it for a tenner.
Lace Skirt: My old trusty New Look one you've all seen many time!
Tights: I'm not actually sure where these are from, I think they were a present.
Necklace: Present from Ashley 2 years ago.

I'm off to iron my blouse to avoid another disaster tomorrow!

Is everyone as disorganised as me or do you plan outfits in advance to save time (and panic) in the morning?

Goth in the Office. Phase 1. Outfit 1.

Today was my first full day at work and I really enjoyed it. I am however still feeling pretty ill. In fact I've been taking paracetamol to bring my fever down; this is probably the first time I've taken any form of pain-killers for 5 years. I just can't afford to get worse because I have to work again in the morning (normally I won't work Wednesday's but because I had plans to go away for the weekend before I got the job this week is different). At least it helps me sleep.

I hope this will excuse the poor quality of of photographs!

The first phase of Goth in the Office: Infiltration.

I'm sticking to greys and blacks with feminine touches and accessories this week to subtly ease my new colleagues into my style.

This is a horrible picture but I forgot to think of a good set-up for photographs and this was all I could manage early in the morning! I'll improve it tomorrow!

In the meantime here are some jewellery close-ups:

What I'm wearing:

Blazer: New Look 24.99. It's new!

Grey peter-pan collared jumper: Topshop. Present from mum last year.

Skirt: Topshop: Also a present, also from mum. got it for my birthday this year.

Tights: Primark 2.50.

Shoes: Primark 8 quid.

Dragonfly brooch: From Whitby also a present =]

Rose Necklace: Clare's Accessories. Present from my friend Pip many years ago =]

I think I must have been channelling Wednesday Addams at 7.30 this morning =P

For my wardrobe that's a remarkably new ensemble, I surprised myself. I often wear outfits that are older than I am; if you add together how long I've owned everything I'm wearing!

Am I the only one still wearing clothes they've had for a decade?

Tomorrow's pictures will be better I promise.

Bad timing...

I woke up this morning to find I'd completely lost my voice and have been coughing and spluttering all day. You'll have to forgive the lack of Goth in the Office picture because I felt too ill to take one. Sorry everyone!

Work is good do far though despite my illness and inability to communicate!

Hopefully I'll be better in the morning! I promise to take a picture no matter how I feel though.

I got the job!

First of all I'm like to say a really big thank you to everyone who wished me good luck!

 I start on Monday, so this week has been a bit hectic with preparations; especially as I am going away for the weekend! Hence my lack of blogging.

 However from Monday I can promise daily goth in the office pictures =] except Wednesdays (my day off), so I'm going to think of a special feature for those!

 I've also been celebrating the fact that I will soon have money by spending some! I brought a lot of clothes, mostly from chairty shops and cheap clothing stores!

Here's my haul:

Some of it is work-wear, some not so much!

I'm hoping to create a lot of new outfits to show you all over the next week or so =]

In the meantime I am off out with friends to celebrate! My outfit probably won't be all that exciting though because they chose a club which doesn't exactly cater to alternative types... I won't be able to wear my top hat, it'll still be fun though I hope!

I have an interview!

I'm really very excited right now because I didn't expect to hear back from this company at all! They are a local wholesale company that sell all sorts of cool giftware! The position I'm applying for is a web assistant post which would be so amazing =]

I only found out today and the interview is tomorrow morning but I'm quite glad because that means less time to get nervous!

I had a hard time picking what to wear for the interview because none of my black trousers fit properly at the moment (I have some that fit when I'm at my lightest and some for when I put on weight but right now I'm between the two sets!) and the only white shirt I own is really unflatteringly baggy.

I chose this outfit because (hopefully) it looks professional and still shows a little of my personality. I wanted to wear this necklace because the design actually reminds me of some of the cool things they sell and it's a bit  quirky =]

Once again please ignore my wet hair; when they phoned I was in the middle of painting the kitchen door! I had to jump straight in the shower and wash all the paint off!

What I'm wearing:
Jacket: My trusty Miss Selfridge one, you've all seen it before!
Shirt: Warehouse, I think it was about £20 but I'm not sure because I brought it in 2007 to wear to my interview at Oxford uni!
Grey strap top: Not sure you can see it, it's under the blouse to prevent cleavage display! £2 New Look via charity shop
Skirt: Next. Present from mum
Tights: Present from my auntie. I think they were from TK Maxx
Necklace: Handmade by a Welsh Jeweller, my brother's mum brought it back for me =]

For my make-up I'm just going to wear a minimum of eye-liner and some light grey eye-shadow (plus concealer!) and I'll probably put my hair into a low bun.


The lady that phoned about the interview sounded really nice so hopefully the interview itself won't be too scary!
Wish me luck?

Musical skeletons...

No, not the amazing dancing ones from this Disney cartoon:



Although I do love them, I even have dancing skeleton PJs which glow in the dark.

I'm talking about the skeletons in my musical closet!

Most people have a few (or many) guilty pleasures and mine are mostly pop-punk, nu-metal and indie bands that I grew up with, I'm a 90s kid, so when I was getting into music that stuff was all the rage and I love a lot of it because it reminds me of my misspent youth =P. Happy memories of hanging out with friends, going to gigs and getting drunk in the park =P. I didn't have any goth friends, so until I was old enough to go to clubs I had to listen to Bauhaus alone in my room!

Last night I went to see Blink 182. I finally got to make good on the promise I made to the 14 year old me, who cried in her room all night when her mum wouldn't let her go to the show because it was a school night!

It was a really great show and the set-list couldn't have been more perfect.

Although I go by Phoenix online and have done for many years (usually as Flightless Phoenix on message boards etc), that is of course (sadly) not my real name. My real name is Josephine and although Phoenix was a nick-name for a while (some kids used to call me Fina or Finie which turned into Phoenix), these days in the real world everyone just calls me Josie because I never could stand Josephine or Jo.

They played my song!!!!!!

This video is actually from a show they played last week, but there's no footage up from last night yet and I was jumping around and dancing too much to film it myself!



I had a great night  =] Almost worth the 8 year wait!

So today this is me embracing my questionable taste in music as a teenager:

What I'm wearing:

Velvet jacket: Vintage, Christmas present

T-shirt: a fiver from a dodgy merch guy outside the show (I can't afford official merch at the moment =[ and they didn't have a girls shirt I liked)

Lace skirt: New Look, many and many a year ago

Necklace: It's just a white ribbon and a heart charm I got free with some others I brought

I also wore: Grey cable knit tights and my star converse (see this post here)

Do you have any guilty musical pleasures?

I'm just a regular girl... honest!

This is an outfit I wore to hand out CVs a couple of weeks ago but forgot to post.

I wanted to fool potential employers into thinking this is the most black I ever wear (instead of the least!) in the hope that they'd be more inclined to hire me! I was applying for cafe jobs where I'd have to wear a black uniform to work anyway =P

What I'm wearing:
Lace cardigan: £10 Forever 21
Vest top and Skirt: Topshop, mum's choice.
Quartz crystal necklace: Oasis markets a long time ago- I think it was about £8.

Normally I wear this vest top beneath a low cut black shirt so you can only see a tiny bit of the pink and wear a black lace skirt with it as a petticoat. Wearing this much colour made me feel faintly uncomfortable! Don't worry I didn't go out job hunting with my hair looking like that; I waited for it to dry and then I even brushed it =P.

As well as the pink floral hair-slide, I dug out some other old accessories:

I wear the black bracelet a lot but the pink one had been in my jewellery box for years; I've decided I actually quite like it so I'm going to replace the elastic; it's gone loose and frayed with age, as you can probably see in the picture.

I really like the mother of pearl ring too, I found it in a seaside gift-shop- I stopped wearing it because it turned my finger green but I've applied a coat of clear nail varnish to the inside now which I heard stops that happening.

I didn't hear back from any of the places I applied, so I guess my attempts to blend in were unsuccessful, or my CV isn't as good as they told me it was on the CV writing course!

When you read this post I'll be in the British Library doing research for my thesis, because a girl can never have too many books about dead things =P

And I wonder why I can't  get a normal job...

How to survive a garden party...

So on Saturday it was the birthday of a family friend. The party had been planned since before the recent string of bad weather and so it was going to be a garden party, with hog roast; little old vegetarian me was a little appalled. There were also lots of garden games including a coconut shy!

 Despite the fact that it wasn't actually raining we knew that the garden would get pretty muddy and it would be a cold evening so I had to find a somewhat smart outfit, with boots, a hat and a coat:

What I'm wearing:
Trench coat: Rag market £25. It took me a long time to find one that fits properly to replace the old one which got stretched!
Belt: Primark, I think it was £4 I've had it a while.
Beret: £3.99 H&M. I added a scarf pin which was £1.50 from a charity shop.
DMs: £40 from Oasis Markets 4 years ago.

Please ignore my expression; I think I was trying to look dignified but I ended up looking angry!

What I'm wearing:
Jumper: £10 Forever 21. I really love this because it's so warm and comfy.
Waistcoat: £3 from a charity shop
Jeans: £20 from TK Maxx
Boot covers: Christmas present from my auntie.
Necklaces: cameo and pocket-watch both presents
Brooch: Present from mum

I ended up leaving the party early because they were going to make someone wear the pigs ears! I went to see my friends instead and had to sit through the football!

Red and Black week. Day 6

Finally a proper post, with new pictures! Here's a run down of all my red and black outfits!

Day 1
The weather was horrible, I didn't really feel like dressing up, or even drying my hair because it was going to get wet again as soon as I stepped out of the door! I was only going for a quiet family dinner and knew I'd probably spend a lot of time running around after my 4 year old nephew anyway =]

What I'm wearing:
Red and black lace top: hand me down from my friend Pip, I've had it since I was 13.
Black long sleeve top: Dorothy Perkins, present many years ago
Jeans: Rag Market stall, 5 quid, about 7 years ago. I have 2 pairs, these are the ones that still have an intact rear!
Necklace: Alchemy Gothic.Present from my brother.

Day 2
Another day with the family; my sister-in-law wanted to see me in a corset hehe! I was originally going to wear a floaty skirt, but the continuing rain made me want something warmer! I played pirate lego with my nephew and discovered that it is possible to play Swingball in a corset!

What I'm wearing:
Top: Tammy when I was 11. It's a little short on my now but otherwise still fits! It was supposed to lace up with red ribbon but mine didn't come with any. I use a couple of old chains and a charity shop pendant instead.
Corset: 20 quid from a model on VF who'd grown out of it
Trousers: My pirate trousers again
Wooly tights: M&S kids department; they are so warm!

Day 3
I had an important uni meeting to attend so I thought I'd try to look professional!

What I'm wearing:
Dress: 3 quid in Sue Ryder chairty shop. Originally Topshop.
Jacket: My trusty Miss Selfridge one, you've seen it before
Key Brooch: Vintage sale. It has a little red gem in the centre which sadly doesn't show in the picture.
Necklace: German Christmas Market. Present from an old boyfriend.

Day 4
My outfit was terribly unexciting, just black jeans and an old Alkaline Trio t-shirt (Black with red lettering) so I didn't bother to photograph it, but here is my swimming gear. The bag I made to go with my other swimdress, which is the same but in black and white polkadots! I lined it with waterproof fabric salvaged from an old pac-a-mac.

Day 5
I had to go visit my Nana (who I mentioned yesterday) so I thought I should dress 'nice'! We still haven't finished wallpapering the living room sorry!

I wasn't sure about the scarf:

What I'm wearing:
Jumper: 5 pounds in Primark
Skirt: British Heart Foundation, 3.99. Originally New Look.
Tights: More M&S kids, I have about 10 pairs.
Scarf: Market stall, about 2 quid.
I'm also secretly wearing a grey cable knit skirt underneath for added warmth!

In the end I wore a choker instead because I wanted to wear it once this week:

The choker has a vintage Parisian cameo button on it. It cost me 12 GBP, shockingly expensive for me!

Day 6
Today I was sad to see it raining again. I've been saving this dress since the theme was announced. I was hoping to go frolick in some meadows and pretend I was in little house on the prairie! I got this from a vintage shop for a tenner last year and added all the black trimmings.

Hopefully if the weather is better I'll wear it next week =]. For now though I'll curl up and re-paint my nails. I've been wearing red and black all week and they need re-doing again!

The CK nail varnish was a Christmas present, not really my shade of red, but it's all I had. Of course I have about 4 pots of cheap black nail varnish though!

I've had so much fun this week! I hope you've enjoyed reading my entries =]

Red and Black week Day 5

So this is my 2nd contribution to Red and Black week! I really loved looking through everyone's posts yesterday, although I didn't have much time so I'm sorry for not leaving you all lots of comments! I had a meeting to get to, in which I discovered that my department at Uni is being closed. They are splitting all the subjects up into different departments. I'm not sure what'll happen to me yet- I might have to move to another campus, over 40 miles away!

I've decided that I'm not going to worry about it right now though, because it's out of my control. So I'll distract myself with blogging =]

 As promised today I'm going to share some photos with you today from my illustrious acting career =P

I was in a youth theatre for 5 years, performing in 3 shows a year. We did everything from Shakespeare to modern comedies, each show had a cast of at least 40 (sometimes 100) young people aged 9-21. I had the best time, made so many friends and gained confidence to be myself. I owe the person I am today to the care, love and support of the people I met there, especially my director who is an amazing woman. She used to say "The people who say something is impossible should shut up and get out of the way of the people that are actually doing it" and I still try to live by that philosophy.

 These pictures are from a production we did of Two by Jim Cartwright. This play is set in an English pub and explores the lives of the pub's regulars and those of the Landlord and Landlady. It was originally written so that all of the characters would be played by just 2 people, but we performed it with a large cast. The stories of the locals are at times funny and at times tragic, including an unsuccessful womaniser, a sweet couple with learning difficulties, a woman waiting for her married lover and many more. Our set and costumes were entirely Red, White and Black and we even got 1000 free cans of Coca Cola for the production!

I played Lesley, a woman with a controlling abusive husband, trying and failing to escape from her marriage.

Despite being a youth theatre, we never tried to shy aware from difficult topics. In fact the director decided to make this part all the more tragic by portraying Lesley as pregnant (I had fun walking around in that costume, because everyone assumed it was real and gave my male friends evil looks for knocking up a teenager =P).

This role was the most challenging thing I ever did, because I found it so hard to leave the part on stage. For the 3 months of rehearsals, part of me was Lesley, and that was hard. I think it made the performance all the more compelling though. The guy playing the husband Roy is really a nice guy, but he's an incredible actor (now at LAMDA) and although he found the part as tough as I did, it worked. In the first rehearsal he refused to hit me; stage combat just wouldn't have looked real for most of the audience, so when he beat me, it was real. I had to slap him the first week, so he didn't feel so bad about it! Totally worth it though; we had the audience in tears every night.

The best part of the show for me though was an unintentionally funny moment. On the last night my grandparents were sat in the front row of the theatre. I didn't know they were there until the end of the scene when I got slapped. My Nana (who was 85 at the time) jumped straight up, waved both her walking sticks in the air and shouted 'Ooh, the bastard, I'll kill him!' fortunately my Granddad restrained her and the audience mostly didn't notice because of the loud music and action on stage (the landlord had pinned Roy to a wall and a fight was breaking out). I love you so much Nana!

I hope you've enjoyed this slightly unusual post. If not, never fear, tomorrow will be back to normal; I'll be uploading pictures of all my Red and Black outfits from this week =]

A late start to Red and Black week

Hi everyone, I'm really sorry I've been away so long.

I'm having some fairly big technical issues at the moment... I'm not sure when they'll be resolved because I have no money for computer repairs.

I'm going to borrow a friend's computer and do proper posts on Friday (expect MANY outfit pictures) and Saturday (hopefully a tour of my red and black bedroom!) but for today and tomorrow, you'll have to excuse me for poor posts. Luckily I have some suitable photos on my photo-bucket, so I can post this from a computer at uni =]

I like the colour combination of red and black; I wear it fairly frequently but because until starting this blog I never really took pictures of myself, this is the only red and black outfit I can find:

This was my Halloween costume a few years ago =] I really like the red winged make-up, I should do that more often! I still have that top and it'll be making a brief appearance in Friday's post. The wings have been on my wall for a couple of years. This was the night I discovered that they were really too fragile for wearing out and about! I had to carefully glue most of the feathers back on!

Tomorrow I'll be posting some pictures of my dramatic past, from a red and black themed play I was in, which I hope you'll like.

Now I'm off to read everyone else's Red and Black posts and go green with envy; which will make me clash with my dress!