Middle Earth Weekend 2015

I've been horribly absent from Blogger again, and I'm really grateful to still have my faithful friends following me. 2015 has been another crazy busy year - and based on the number of notes scribbled in my diary for next year already... 2016 won't be any different! There's a few important images from this year I'd like to post though, I'm going to try to make at least one more post before the end of the year too because I don't have them all yet.

I have been meaning to post these since September though so without further ado, here is some of the fun I had working at Sarehole Mill during Middle Earth Weekend!

My face is super goofy here, but never mind! We were encouraged to dress-up and get into the spirit of the event... Well, I think what really happened is, me and Stephenie told out boss 'We are going to be elves' and he didn't seem to mind.... So this was my outfit for serving tea and running around like a mad thing for two days.

Posting this picture too because this is me and Jo - who is works with us sometimes when we are super busy and need a hand. Funny thing is, we are both cemetery researchers called Josephine. She used to work at my university too - and people got really confused about it when I started my PhD because she'd recently left, so we never actually met until this year. She's super lovely and has helped me so much with my research - thank you Jo!

Outfit breakdown:
It's almost the exact outfit I wore here, minus some of the jewellery and belt, I added my elf hoody too and a leaf brooch I found in a charity shop during August for £2.99.

I spent about two weeks beforehand in a panic making elf and hobbit cloaks, crowns, wizard hats and even feet for the kids dressing up. We put a donation box above the costume rack and suggested 50p towards the upkeep of the building (because it's a free event), we made about £15, so the costumes have pretty much paid for themselves, and I've already patched them up for next year (and hopefully the year after). It was a lot of fun, but very tiring. Sometimes I wish museums had some kind of budget for events... Here are some detail shots.

Gandalf and Radagast hats - of course for copyright reasons I labelled them 'brown wizard hat' and

'grey wizard hat'

A wood elf style cloak and crown of leaves.

A high elf style cloak with a wire crown. That took me so long to make. It's literally two strips of jewellery wire I made into wavy shapes, then tied together using silver thread wound all the way round and round. I then carefully glued a tiny blue star sequin over every joint. It held together really well! It did get very very bent a couple of times though - so I'll have to redesign for next year!

This is the 'brooch' I made for the hobbit cloaks. They are felt, stiffened with card and embroidered with silver thread. They attached on either side of the collar with press-studs, so there were no pins!

The Hobbit feet! I made them using adult sandals, covered in fabric and faux fur so that they would be big enough for the kids to slip their feet into with shoes on. I made the toes from felt (with embroidered toenails) and filled them with cushion stuffing. I thought they were funny but my uncle said 'hobbit feet are hairy, not furry!' and maybe he's right, however the children had fun so I don't mind =]

All the staff got into the spirit!

Stephanie made this amazing Gate to Moria design to cover one of the walls in the mill.

My boss created a full Orc camp in the woodlands next to the millpond - complete with recently abandoned fire, strewn weapons, and body parts. We were very lucky to have two real Orcs come to join in the fun and bring it to life! I kept telling small children to go see the camp, thinking it was empty. They mostly came back in tears... The Orcs stayed in character ALL WEEKEND! I offered one of them a cup of tea and he growled 'MANFLESH!' at me and left!

I'd been waiting to cut my hair for donation again, for the whole summer so that I could look more elfin! I feel this was somewhat above and beyond the call of duty! I've had long hair my whole life (with the exception of my last donation cut), but it got to a length that started to annoy even me! I should have had a trim to get rid of the split ends at least!

This is what it looked like just before Ash's sister cut it for me.

The bottom three inches were trash, so we trimmed them off. Then the next 12 inches of hair were cut off for donation, just like last time. I was really happy to be able to donate more hair this time! Last cut was only 8.5 inches =]

This is how it looked after the cut:

Sorry for the lack of makeup and sunburned face!

The last couple of months have been my own personal torture - in my enthusiasm for donating a whole foot of hair I cut my hair shorter than last time. So short in fact that I couldn't even plait it! Completely drove me up the wall until I worked out ways of getting it out of my face - especially during fieldwork. I'm rocking tiny messy 90's buns A LOT at the moment. I should really learn to do hair at some point - when it was long I could get away with just plaiting it everyday! I probably won't learn to do my hair for the foreseeable future though... I am 25 and I just finally got a 3 step skincare regime, THREE days ago. I'm just really busy all the time with my PhD and working 2 jobs, soon to be 3, possibly 4, plus teaching and more volunteering... Therefore I am not the best at looking after myself. That's also why I don't update here very often anymore - if I manage to wear one outfit that isn't jeans and a jumper in a month I'm doing well! I spent the entirety of the rest of September and October preparing for Halloween - I'll post pictures when my dad sends them to me...

How do you guys keep up self-care when you are busy?

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!

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!

Skulls and Roses

It seems I'm getting into a habit of planning an outfit on Sunday to wear on Monday, which is nice because it means I wear more interesting combinations from my wardrobe at least once a week (partly making up for having to now spend two days in YELLOW work uniform).

Today's outfit is based around this dress, which I got ages ago and don't wear very often. I find it hard to coordinate because of the shape - it's too narrow to wear with my usual a-line skirts, and slightly too short to feel decent on it's own. I have featured it on the blog before here, but I didn't actually dare leave the house in that outfit! I wanted to find something to do with it though because the print is so much fun.

Here's what I came up with:

 Some close-ups:

Sorry again about the lighting and the photo quality - I did try to clean the mirror but it's old and some of the silver backing has rubbed away!

What I'm wearing:

Dress: Topshop £10

Skirt: It's actually my velvet one, from Next, usually a corpgoth staple for me.
Jacket: Discount shop on my local high st plus lace added by me, featured many times before

Tights: £3 brought from Lizzie who had 2 pairs the same

Boot Covers: Present from Auntie Pam with lace added by me.
Boots: Doc Martins, with skull flock pattern, £90 in the sale
Accessories: Red bows from my Meta velvet skirt, Grey bow made my me for my enchanted outfit, flowers all H&M. The 'necklace' is a piece of lace I tied round my neck - I want to make chokers with this lace on them - so it's a 'does this itch?' test! 

I quite like it, although it's very odd to wear so much colour! I certainly look eccentric but I'm not sure it can be goth with so little black, even with skulls, bones and roses all over it... What do you guys think? 

Do you like to step out of your comfort zone with clothes sometimes?

Of Absences and Employment

First of all I have to apologise for being away so long! I have been meaning to take outfit photos and write posts, but working 7 days a week (even if those work days are short) was far less manageable than I had hoped.

I started my new jobs on my 24th birthday (in April) and other than 1 week of annual leave (when I traveled to Yorkshire to visit my mum and go to a meeting with a fellow academic) I have been working every day since. It was tiring, never having any down time, always having to get up to an alarm, getting buses every day (sometimes 2 buses or a bus and a train in each direction). I have a confession to make, I started grabbing clothes pretty much at random from the clean washing pile (thank you so much Ash for keeping on top of the washing), thinking only of how weather appropriate they were and feeling pampered if I managed to find time to shave my legs once a fortnight!

I used a lot of my time in the evenings to fill in job applications and do research for the local history group and tried to stay on top of my PhD reading on quiet days at work. Luckily for me, the job applications have paid off and I've landed another part-time museum job! But 'Wait!' I hear you cry, 'How does having MORE jobs help? Wasn't 3 enough?!'. The new job is only two days a week but the museum has longer opening hours, so I do 15 hours over 2 days. This means I can cut down to 6 days a week, and eventually down to 5 days a week (I'm needed more during the summer holidays). Hallelujah! Also this job isn't seasonal so I won't be completely unemployed in November!! I also have an interview in September for a paid internship which would be a big step forward in my career =]

I celebrated my first real day off yesterday (Sundays are my new day off) by lounging around in bed for hours, watching bad TV and FINALLY putting my clean washing away. Such luxury. I even planned an outfit for today =]

Here's the outfit:

I was working with the local history group this morning, and they are completely used to my odd clothes, so I could dress how I liked.

I forgot my camera so please excuse the phone camera pics. The light in my room at dad's isn't great either. Do you like my glow in the dark skeleton friend? I have 3 on different mirrors around my room =]

What I'm Wearing:
Leggings: Carousel Ink on Etsy (reducing to $25 due to one leg being an inch shorter than the other)
Bloomers: Bodyline £11.65 (yen trick + free shipping sale)
Blouse: Miss Selfridge via charity shop £4.50
Waistcoat: Dorothy Perkins via charity shop - I've lost track of what I paid for each faintly identical black waistcoat but it was probably around £3
Boots: New Look £20
Pentagram Necklace: Alchemy Gothic, present from my brother
Poison Bottle Necklace: Claire's accessories, present from my friend Bethany

Feels so good to look and feel more like myself again. Also I tidied my room at dad's as well so I now have order and serenity wherever I stay! The photos were taken after I found the floor under the piles of paper but before I put my 'bedtime reading' stack of books back on the shelf! What do you like to do on your days off  to pamper yourself?

I hope you are glad to see me back, I've missed reading all your blogs! I promise it won't be as long before my next post!!

Cat Tights!

So since I last posted I've completed my job training for the museums, endured turning 24 (nice family meal and presents though) joined a gym (to use the swimming pool) and survived my first week of working 3 jobs. I've had a wonderful time although I'm really tired! I've been a bit too rushed in the mornings to take photos of my Goth in the 'Office' clothes, but I promise I'll take at least one this week.

Instead here is the outfit I threw together when I woke up from a nap I wasn't supposed to be having and realised I was late to meet my friends at the pub for their birthdays (twins) on Saturday night. It's the result of a 5 minute mad dash around the bedroom. The photo isn't great but I didn't have time to take another one.

I really wanted to wear the Cat Tights I brought at Enchanted! I hadn't planned anything, so I made it up as I went along.

On closer inspection I realised the tights have grey stripes on the back, so I decided to have a go at wearing the same OP I wore to enchanted, but with different jacket and accessories. The jacket matched a little better in real life, the tights look a bit washed out here because of how bright the flash was! I had my hair half up with a black bow in the back because I REALLY can't do hair when I'm in a hurry!

I went for antique gold/brass toned jewellery, including a beautiful lace choker Flick and Ed got me for my birthday, added the star brooch to go with the tights and the cat too (although I wish it wasn't silver for this outfit). I wanted to wear my pearl bracelet too, but I couldn't locate it quickly.

Here is a collage of close-up shots of the tights which show the true colour a little better. They are so detailed and fantastic. I think my favourite thing is the fact that they have cat feet on the bottom at the front and then on the sole of the foot there is a paw pad! So cute =]

What I'm Wearing:
Dress: Innocent World via egl-comm-sales
Jacket: From charity shop - originally brown but I dyed it black
Shoes: Deichmann, just got them for work with birthday money (£17.99)
Tights: Lilly via Lorina Liddell stall (available online here)

I'm still not very confident with matching colours, especially more than one at a time...The curse of a monochromatic wardrobe? It's fun to try though! How do you think I did?
Do you ever buy something new and then want to wear it the first chance you get, even if you haven't thought it through? Maybe it's just me... Patience is not my strong point!

I hope you all had a lovely Easter! I'm off to sleep now, but I'll try to post again next week!

Black, Blue and Bats

I'm sorry I've been away for so long, life keeps getting in the way of blogging!

I've been meaning to post this picture for a while.

Taken by Elisabeth at the late Halloween meet up for the midlands lolitas, in front of St Martin's church in the Bullring. Funnily enough, I used to work in the tea shop here! I didn't get to wear nice clothes around the place then! They did let me lock the front door of the church sometimes though, with a giant iron key the length of my forearm =]. This picture was taken before Andie ran across to help me straighten out the chiffon underskirt on my dress; it was tucked up into my petticoats =S

What I'm Wearing:
Underbust JSK: Surface Spell £45 via lolita sales on fb. The blue bow came with the JSK.
Blouse: RQ-BL from Sai Sai in Camden £32
Bag: Living Dead Souls, originally had a large red bow which I removed years ago, I added the felt bat and sequin stars to match the JSK. The bag is a bit of a 'lace monster' but I thought that was appropriate for a halloween meet! My mum brought me this bag because I didn't have a handbag for my Brother's wedding in 2007.
Tights: It's very hard to see but I was wearing blue tights under black star print ones. The blue tights were a gift, and the star ones were from Primark.
Boots: New Look £29.99
Hat: I know it doesn't show in this photo but I had blue roses on he back of my hat (also came with the JSK) and lots of black lace.
Coat: It's new. I brought it off a friend for £20, because I was the only person with small enough boobs to get it buttoned up! Supposed to be a size 10 but really isn't.

As an apology for being away I'll be posting cute cat photos soon, so watch this space!

First Lolita Meet

These photos were taken a little while ago now, at my first meet with the Midlands Lolita Community, we were meeting to take a group photo for the Tea Party Club calender! Our month was September so we went for a back to school theme, with books and satchels, and tried to use autumnal colours in our co-ords =]

I don't have a wealth of autumnal colours in my tiny lolita wardrobe, so I tried to make it extra school-girly! My hair doesn't like co-operating though, so it was trying to escape from the pigtails! Also I couldn't find my fray-check to put on the ribbons so they are all messy at the ends =[

These pictures were taken by the lovely Florence of The Street Style Carousel; she did individual photos of us all while we were waiting for some late arrivals.

What I'm wearing:

JSK: Moi Meme Moitie via egl-comm-sales £85
Socks: Innocent World via egl-comm-sales £10
Blouse: Charity shop in Derby £3
Jacket: Miss Selfridge, gift
Petticoat: Ebay 5 years ago, I think it was £25. I really need a poofier one though!
Detachable lace collar: New Look, I think I got it for £5 with a special offer
Shoes: Primark £8
Hat: Peacocks £9.99
Cameo Brooch: Junk Shop in Minehead £2.50
Star Brooch: Sugarpinkmoon on Etsy £5
Flower Clips: H&M £1.99

I can't wait to see which group picture gets selected for the calender! Many thanks again to Florrie, both for these pictures, the group shots and having to put up with people stopping to ask her what we were doing all day! Also a big thanks to all the Mid Lolis for making me feel so welcome, you guys are the sweetest =]

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?

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?

Lace and Stripes

This is a simple outfit I threw together when me and Ash went out for a meal. We were supposed to be going out with a bunch of his work colleagues but they cancelled at the last minute so we decided to go to TGI Fridays and have dinner and cocktails instead =] I ate so much that I couldn't manage desert and had an ice cream cocktail called a Mudslide as a substitute! So so yummy!

I took this in a rush before we went out so once again it's in the hallway. I think this is actually quite a good location for outfit photos though because there is a huge window so the light is good and I can rest the camera on the windowsill. It'll be much better if we ever get it finished!

What I'm wearing:
Blouse: H&M, it was a gift from my friend Kelly, who grew out of it. I had to cut the cap sleeves off because it had narrow shoulders (or maybe mine are wide?) but it works fine as a sleeveless blouse under a jacket =]
Jacket: A cheap shop on my local high street, I've posted it before here. I added the lace a while ago because that's my universal solution to 'this doesn't look quite right, definitely needs something...' =P
Black skirt: River Island via a clothes swap.
Cream tulle skirt: New Look. Birthday present from my mum this year =]
Brooch: Charity shop
Hair flower: H&M, 2 for £1.99. I wore it with a ribbon as an alice band.

Of new boots, wonderful gifts and clubbing apparel

What is this you say? Another post from Cemetery Dreams, in the same week?! I'm surprising even myself!

The main reason I'm making this post is to say a massive and slightly overdue thank you to Victorian Kitty of Sophistique Noir for sending me 2 lovely blouses =]. I received them a couple of weeks ago but didn't immediately have a chance to wear either (it's back to woolly jumpers at work already). I put together this outfit using one of them today though. I really love this blouse but it's a little tight in the bust for me (shock horror) so I have to leave the top button undone. I started to think of ways of wearing it with something underneath and immediately thought of this dress:

Sorry for the poor lighting, this was taken in my old room at dad's and it gets a very bright at sunset! It makes my black tights look a slightly odd colour too for some reason. Also forgive me for not drying my hair before I took the picture.

What I'm wearing:
Blouse: Living Dead Souls, gift from Victorian Kitty
Dress: New Look, I got it earlier this year and I can't remember how much ti was
Boots: New Look. These are new. £29.99
Velvet Choker: Handmade by me.

I've just brought these great boots as a replacement for the shoes I repaired in this post which finally gave up the ghost. The soles split right across the toes on both feet so there was no way to save them =[. I couldn't afford to spend enough to get real leather, but at least these are cheaper than those shoes were! Also they are really soft and comfy with grippy soles perfect for the autumn weather.

This outfit is one I'd like to wear when I go to Leeds to visit some old friends at the end of the month, the goth scene is much bigger there than it is here and I've been promised a weekend of club nights! I'm very excited! This was just a trial run, I may decide that this outfit isn't OTT enough and add some more accessories though. What do you guys think? I wish I could order one of these ribcage belts to go with it but they are sold out at the moment.

I'd forgotten about this choker because it was hiding at the back of my jewellery box but I think I'll have to wear it more often again! I'm also going to try to get some nice soft narrow lace trim and make some more for my Etsy shop =]

Grey dress for a grey day

I've been to 3 conferences, attended an engagement party and toured an archive in the last 2 weeks, so although I intended to make some posts, including outfit posts of the cool things I wore to conferences (My top hat went down well), I managed to entirely forget to take pictures, except this one on the first day in York.

I thought it was best to start with a slightly more subtle outfit to gauge reactions! Another consideration was the weather, there was torrential rain all afternoon so I didn't want to ruin my hat. Also my hair is dry because I bundled it all up under my beret, something I can't do with the topper!

What I'm wearing:

Jacket; Miss Selfridge

Dress: New Look

Tights: Primark? 

Brooch: PDSA charity shop £1.99

A sax in the snow

You may remember that a while ago I ordered a black Gunne Sax dress from Etsy. It arrived just after Christmas but I didn't get around to taking pictures of it until yesterday.

I brought it because of the lace collar (my lace addiction is a serious problem right?) and it's potential for use in Dolly Kei style ensembles, but when I woke up and saw the snow I knew I had to take pictures, and thought it'd keep the outfit simple and warm-ish! I was only outside for 2 minutes and that was enough!

I even persuaded Ash to be my photographer! So a big thank you to him. Unfortunately I had a hard time standing up/walking in the snow which was so deep it covered my Docs right up to my frilly boot covers, so this is the only non-blurry picture!

I was really happy because I'd just found out that my brother's wife gave birth to my second nephew last night!

He was born at 10:01 pm on 17th January, weighing 7 pounds and 15 ounces =]

They have called him Lucas Karim Wall.

This makes me extra happy because I helped them pick the name. My brother is a huge Star Wars fan, as is my older nephew Logan (Ahmed Wall, he is the LAW!), so I said you should name him Luke as a joke! I think Lucas will have his name shortened to Luca though not Luke, which I think is a nicer name anyway! Also avoids the Luke Wall sounding like Luke Warm issue =P We're considerate in our family!

So now I have a nephew named after Star Wars to go with my nephew named after Wolverine =P (my brother denies that's why they chose the name, but they chose it after watching X-Men so he's lying =P)

Expect pictures when I can go and meet him - hopefully next week!
(advance apologies for me going all mushy - I'm reallllly not maternal or broody but my nephews manage to overcome this and make me coo like a mother hen anyway)

A goth wearing pastels?

I mentioned in my post about style experiments that I would be customizing a pink jumper I've had languishing in a drawer for years and including it in some outfits - to see if I can get into wearing pastels! Don't worry, I don't intend to drop any of my other style influences (or my mostly monochromatic wardrobe), but Fairy Kei and even Nu-Goth have shown me that pastels can look pretty cool. Not to mention the Lady of the Manners fondness for Black and Pink!

However, can pastels work on me?

You decide:

 
Once again, ignore my lack of head - It's a very bad skin week.

What I'm wearing:
Jumper - Primark a few years ago £10
Skirts - Black Pinafore dress - Miss Selfridge, Black lace skirt - New Look
Tights - Black Flower Print - Primark, Pink - Primark kids (they are a tiny bit short in the leg but I couldn't find any adult tights in pale pink)
Brooch - Isn't it adorable? And it's vintage. I brought it from SugarPinkMoon on Etsy, a shop run by Beth Leintz of Gathering Dust.
Detachable collar - made by me because I couldn't find a nice black one. It's made from some left over black cotton fabric, with interfacing between the two layers for a bit of rigidity. Then I stitched on lace trim and the ribbon ties. The back fastens with a lobster clasp and has an extender chain to make it a bit more adjustable.

In this close -up you can see that my attempt to customize the jumper was not entirely successful.
I used more of the left over cotton I used for the collar but despite the fact I ironed all the fabric onto fusible interfacing it still frayed quite a bit, so the edges aren't very neat.

If it continues to fray i'll have to make new stars and moons (don't worry I kept my newspaper pattern pieces) from different fabric - probably use an old black t-shirt.

I think it looks like something Hermione would wear to the Library at Christmas, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, right? She's cool =P

What do you guys think? Pastels yay or nay?