Halloween Costume Craziness and Arty Pumpkins

I'm saving my post about Halloween Jumpers for Friday to tie-in with Sophistique Noir's Monthly Theme so until then I'll be showing off my pumpkin and a sneak preview of my Halloween costume.

I went to my friend Olivia's last night to crave pumpkins, drink cocktails and make pumpkin soup. We had so much fun!

Here are our Edward Scissorhands and Bride of Frankenstein pumpkins!

They took so long but it was a lot of fun, we got the templates from this site, free to download =]

I'm going to post a close-up of Edward because I'm so proud of how he turned out! This picture was taken by Ash's sister who was really happy to find this pumpkin in the kitchen this morning!

I spent today working on my Halloween costume. I didn't have any idea of what I wanted to dress as this year at all then I saw someone mention Wil O' The Wisps on tumblr and my mind went into overdrive. So I'm going as a sort of Steampunk style witch who lures unwary travelers into the swamp.

I spent about 5 hours on this hat and whilst it isn't perfect I'm very happy with it anyway, especially as I know nothing at all about plumbing or electronics.

In the dark all you can see is the lantern glowing muhahaha!

Everything is completely detachable so as not to damage my hat. I made it from a paper lantern, plumbing supplies, black card, tracing paper, spray paint, a fake bird and real ivy among other things. I'll post a more detailed description if anyone is interested. Right now though I'm very tired and need to go scrub the spray paint out from under my fingernails!

Slithering by to say hello

This is just a very quick post, I promise to do a bigger update very soon; with haunted house tote bag repairs, new halloween jumpers and progress on my Halloween costume.

In the mean time I'd like to introduce you all the Persephone, a black sock snake with bold pink markings, isn't she a sweet little snake?

 She's available in my Etsy store here, I hope she finds a new home soon. Until then she's sitting on my desk, keeping Pumpkin company =]

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

Of Cats and Haunted Houses

In my last post I showed you a necklace which was inspired by the colours of the outfit I was wearing, this time the inspiration came the other way round!

I made this adorable sock cat a couple of weeks ago for my Etsy shop, I call him Pumpkin. I've only just got round to taking good photographs of him though, just in time for Halloween!

A few days later I spotted this hat in the children's section in a local high-street shop. Finally a cat ear bowler which fits my tiny head! Age 7-10...
For this outfit I wore it with a bow made from bat ribbon and striped Halloween stockings to match the colour scheme of Pumpkin the Sock Cat.

Do excuse the rather silly, poor quality photo!
What I'm wearing:
Dress H&M
Skirt New Look
Stockings Co-op Supermarket £2
Hat Peacocks, I think it was £9.99
Familiar: Pumpkin the Sock Cat available here

I love to wear little touches of Halloween inspiration all throughout October. I've been using my haunted house tote bag a lot, but I noticed yesterday that it's got a hole in it! I'm going to need to patch it I think, but I can't decide whether to try to hide the patch as much as possible or to make a feature of it. Star shaped maybe? Or bat shaped? Contrasting colour + add matching lace and/or additional patches? What do you guys think?

I'm also going to use bleach to try and get the stain out from where my apple juice leaked onto my pencil case and stained the bottom of the bag with apple juice and ink. I did wash the bag since then so it is clean, but it looks so grubby with the stain!

I may have the Halloween inspiration flowing strongly in my daily wardrobe but I'm still undecided about my costume for the night itself! I'm sure I'll think of something... How about you, got it all planned?

Gris Gris

Gris - is the word for Grey in Spanish.

Gris Gris - is the name of a voodoo talisman which brings black magic on its 'victim'. They are adaptation of an earlier African Islamic tradition of amulets to ward off evil spirits. In Haiti and some African countries such as Senegal, gris gris still refers to a good talisman.

This post contains things related to both of those definitions.

Do you remember that in this post, I mentioned I was going clubbing in Leeds? Well I didn't get to wear that outfit because it wasn't an ordinary club night at all. It was a Zombie Prom!

I didn't have much time to plan a costume at all, so I simply shredded some old lining fabric I had lying around and make an overskirt for my skeleton cameo dress. I also added a piece of it to the streamer on my top hat and made a tiny axe out of cardboard and paint.

It was such a fun night! The make-up looks very washed out with flash, but everything was darker in real life; especially the blood! I used make-up rather than face-paint (like my friends) because I'm allergic to a lot of stuff and I didn't want to risk a reaction, and made my own fake blood from flour, water and food colouring (red with a few drops of blue and black gives a good colour) so that I could have it around my mouth without worrying about ingesting it when I ate or drank. It goes delightfully scabby looking too! Be warned though it will stain your skin, so I had to wear foundation and red eyeliner underneath it. This photo sort of terrifies me because it looks like I managed to roll my eyes completely back into my head! I might have to get some white eye contacts if I dress up as a zombie again because I think it works well!

By complete coincidence I also got asked to make a prop for a play. It's for my friends production of Witches of Eastwick. I love that she needed someone to make a voodoo doll and thought of me! I thought white would show up best on stage, so he's just made from a pair of socks! I resisted the temptation to make it neat and even too as I think it looks more creepy like this.

I got sent a lovely new jumper by my mum, who wanted me to have a really cosy jumper for my cold office (isn't she the best mum in the world?).

It's so soft and snuggly! I think I'm a tiny bit in love.

What I'm wearing:
Jumper: Dorothy Perkins
Pinafore: Miss Selfridge
White Underskirt: Vintage, my friend Gabby gave it to me because she thought I'd wear it more often than her =]
Tights: Pamela Mann, her tights are so expensive that I never buy them for myself. These were a christmas present from my auntie in 2007. Which just shows that the quality is worth the price really!
Boots: New Look.

I was inspired by the colour scheme of that outfit to make this choker for my Etsy shop. When it was finished, I really wanted to keep it, but I can always make myself something similar =]

Winter Blossom Choker, available here in my Etsy shop.

I've been making a few more things and using the equipment at work to take better quality photos so expect new listings and photo updates soon!

I've also started using Tumblr at last! I've been updating it with my new posts and I'm going to start putting up some old photos too (as well as re-blogging pretty things). I'm always looking for cool new blogs to follow so please send me a links. You can find mine here.

First Day at Miss Cackle's Academy?

An outfit I wore last week.
The title of this blog is a reference to The Worst Witch because this dress worn with a tied belt reminded me of the uniform of her school. I loved these books as a kid and like Mildred Hubble I'm very clumsy!

In addition to showing you the outfit, I have to introduce you to someone who decided to photobomb me! Mika the dog =] I set up the camera, then she came out of the bedroom behind me (hence the open door) and set herself down!

Not a bad substitute for Tabby, Mildred's cat. She'd probably be just as bad at flying on a broomstick! Mika belongs to Ash's sister and is probably looking grumpy because her collar broke and so she couldn't go for a walk until we got her a new one!

Some detail shots of my outfit.

What I'm wearing:

Dress: All Saints, via a sale I think it was about £25.
Peter Pan Collar Jumper: Muji, Christmas present last year from Mum
Hat: Vintage via a local market, £12
Accessories: Charity shops, discount stores, gifts and rescued antique keys. The moon ring is new, it was £1.99 in H&M

I really love how warm and comfy outfit was. I do love the autumn! I'm going to be snuggling up in jumpers and woolly tights as much as possible now =]

What are your favourite things to wear when it starts to get chilly?