Sunday 14 July 2013

Fabulous Modelling Debut!

OK, so this title is more than a little tongue-in-cheek, because although it was a shoot with a professional photographer, who is also a MUA and straightened my hair, the first time it's been pampered in like a year- when did it get long again?! Woohoo! I don't feel like a model at all, especially not a fabulous one! My lovely friend Olivia had just had her home studio finished and wanted someone to test it out with =] Check out her site here!

The original plan was to photograph one all black outfit and one all white outfit, but we couldn't be bothered with the hassle of changing the white backdrop to blue, so only the black got used.

Here is the black outfit:

Sitting on the suitcase I brought all my stuff in! Wearing the Camden blouse, with my black pinafore and petticoat (I would have liked to have a black skirt underneath too but didn't have one long enough).


Impersonating the pin-up girl photograph on the wall beside me:



We also took pictures of my new black and white skirt outfit:

The bow wouldn't stay straight for some reason.


So I took it off (next time I'll tack it down!). Also I swapped back to the top hat because the other one was a lot warmer under the stage lights! That's also the reason I'm wearing the lace tights - I think plain black might have looked better but I was already melting!

With teapot:
Olivia has the cutest teapot ever!



Close-up:



I found the whole experience to be pretty fun, strangely tiring (many failed attempts to get a picture that looked like I was flying Mary Poppins style probably didn't help there...) and more than a little embarrassing!

I think I thought that after all the work these pictures would be amazing, that I would look like a real model and feel really pretty, but instead a lot of them look a little awkward, because I'm quite a physically awkward person, the oddness of the situation doesn't help and I couldn't see myself and many of them have really goofy expressions! I hereby pass a decree that I'm never allowed to show my teeth when smiling again. It looks awful!

See?

In fact there is something I absolutely hate about every picture I've posted. Maybe practice makes perfect? Maybe I'm too self-critical at the moment? Maybe I should just stick to the day job =P Still it was an amusing evening and if Olivia needs a guinea-pig again I'll be happy to oblige!

One thing I won't be forgetting though - MAC make really good ghost pale foundation so at least my skin looks alright here!

Thursday 11 July 2013

SOS - Save Our Shoes

It been a long time since I posted a craft project, I've been so lazy lately! I've not done much that wasn't an emergency fix for a while.

These shoes are the ones which I brought when I started my job last summer, seen here.

I'm majorly clumsy though so the toes got wrecked by me tripping over all the time, I can't be trusted to walk even in this kind of heel! The shoes aren't real leather so when they scuffed it revealed that the leather effect surface was only thin and beneath the shoes are grey with a woven fabric appearance. Next time I'll check the label a lot more carefully before I spend £50 on shoes!

 I couldn't afford new shoes for the conferences I recently attended so followed this tutorial, with black cotton fabric and black lace. I also added black lace laces, which I got in Claire's accessories. 

Beware, this process is not really weatherproof, at least not when I did it! Luckily I took some glue with me to make running repairs! I've been patching them up for a month now (because I don't actually need properly smart shoes very often so I spent any money I could have spent on shoes on my lolita stuff instead =P

This is what they look like today:



Not too shabby eh?

I hope this is a useful tip for others too. If it saves you any money on shoes you should donate to Trystan of This Is CorpGoth and help her say F**k You to Cancer! I've made a small donation and hopefully will be able to do so again next month. Here in the UK, the NHS means that no one has to pay for medical insurance or treatment; it's free at the point of use for everyone (paid for by taxes) and I've never felt so lucky; I wish the rest of the world was the same (the NHS has it's faults and inconsistencies but the basic principal is wonderful). 

In the next week I'll hopefully be posting pictures from a recent trip to Wales and the long-awaited results of the photoshoot (once I get over my dumb facial expressions =P).