Enchanted Event

I attended Enchanted in London at the weekend - such a wonderful event. Got to see lots of friends and meet new people. I was in a fashion show too! I got an email about 10 days before the event to say that one of the models couldn't get a visa, and was I still free to do it. I jumped at the chance - despite being very scared about doing all the make-up and buying scary things like brown shoes!

In the end I didn't need the brown shoes, and a very kind lolita MUA helped me with the false eyelashes and retouching my lip gloss. My sister in law had helped me curl my hair too but in the end the designer had a wig for me for wear anyway. I really liked this wig - I want to buy one like it!

This is me on the cat walk!!! In cat tights hehe! (I couldn't resist buying a pair at the stall later on =])

(Photo taken from Lorina Liddell's twitter - follow the link on that post to their website)

None of my friends at the event recognised me under all of that make-up and hair! I put these photos up on facebook and even my own dad struggled to identify me!

(Photos taken by Hirokawa Yumi from Uplift Tokyo/Lorina Liddell, found here on their official tumblr)

Really had a lot of fun, although it was very surreal at times! Especially looking in the mirror and freaking out because the last time I had a fringe I was about 14! Maybe that's why no one recognised me, or maybe it's just that no-one really looks like themselves with this much foundation on! I've not done much facial make-up before but I think it looks OK, at least you can't see my spots!!

My co-ord for the rest of the event was very simple in comparison, but I was happy with how well my hair survived being unceremoniously shoved under a wig cap at the last second! Here are some photos Jing Li took of me and Lizzie =]. Those false eyelashes look a bit ridiculous without everything else to go with them, don't they!

All the models were really lovely and helpful and I had such a nice time seeing all of my lolita friends and meeting new ones too. I also brought a few goodies - I'll be posting about them soon! I'll be very busy for the next week though attending a friend's wedding and starting my new jobs, so you'll have to wait for a little while longer =]

Merry Christmas (with added cats)!

I've had a very busy Christmas, seeing my mum's side of the family, my dad's side of the family and Ash's family too. I'm back at work tomorrow and I have a cold. I've had a very lovely time, but I'm tired as anything, so a proper blog post will have to wait until I'm feeling better.

In the meantime, here are the cat pictures I promised. I looked after these beauties for my friends while they were flat hunting in Sweden, a few weeks ago. They are Maine Coon cats, so big and fluffy!

This is Poppy and Macavity.

This is Dinah, who also answers to Princess Dinah Bear

This is Tybalt, using Ash as a climbing frame. See how big he is? Macca is even bigger than Tybs. They are seriously giant cats! Although Poppy is a lot smaller than the other three, she's still on the large side compared to most domestic moggies!

They are really loving and friendly cats. We had a really great week playing with them.

However, sometimes they get grumpy if you take photos of them with flash. Which resulted in this photo of Tybs:

And so I couldn't resist making this image (very roughly in a couple of minutes).

I hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas, if you celebrate. Or Yule/Solstice, or Hanukkah (I know I'm very late) or Kwanzaa, or any other reason for celebration!

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 =]

Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!

I've been meaning to post far more regularly so this post feels very overdue! I've been promising an outfit post for ages as well, sorry folks! Also the outfit itself is very Alice in Wonderland inspired so I couldn't resist quoting the White Rabbit in the title =]

Sorry about the unglamorous location and lack of full body shot. Our room is a bit of a mess today and I was in a hurry so I took them on the landing even though it's in the middle of being redecorated (and may stay that way for a while, the plasterer never turned up to finish it off and didn't explain why!) The camera cut my head off in the picture but I was wearing a black ribbon as an Alice band with black rose clips on the side.

What I'm wearing:

Alice in Wonderland Socks: Innocent World via egl-comm-sales £10
Black Skirt: A Taobao shop (no label in it) via egl-comm-sales £15 plus ridiculous custom charge of £14!! I hate customs in the UK. Really puts me off ever buying things from outside the EU again!
Belt: Primark £3
Pocketwatch Necklace: Birthday present from Meera =]
Jabot: RQ-BL came with the blouse I got in Camden
Blouse: Forever 21 £18.95, altered by me.
Brooch: Flightless Phoenix Designs available on Etsy

I saw these socks a few weeks ago and just knew I had to get them. They looked pure white in the picture (as they do in my pictures actually...must be the flash) but they are actually an off-white/pale cream colour, so nothing I had really matched them well. I was going to tea dye a cheap white blouse to match but then I was passing through Forever 21 (I like the Costa coffee in there as a place to do uni work, it's quiet and has great views) and spotted this blouse. It's a similar shade of pale cream with grey stripes and a black insignia on the pocket so I thought it would match well. The only problem was the shape. It was so baggy!

I spent last Saturday taking off the sleeves and pocket,  adding bust darts, taking it in at the sides and then reconstructing it! I've never sewn a blouse and it's been about 8 years since I constructed anything with darts or sleeves (Oh my were my GCSEs really THAT long ago?!) so it's not perfect but I sure (re)learned a lot!

Has anyone else noticed how baggy everything is this season? I know the blouse wasn't supposed to be a larger size because of the length and fit of the sleeves but the body was like a men's small not a lady's small... I guess that's what's fashionable at the moment, but it looked very odd on me! Especially as the collar is really tiny; too tight to button up properly and be comfortable, also it sits funny because it overlaps a bit. I decided to leave the top button undone and wear the jabot instead of reconstructing that too.

I made another of the Curiouser and Curiouser brooches to go with this outfit, managed to be a bit neater with the glue this time, but still not perfect. Another thing to keep practicing! At least it doesn't show at all when worn because it's on the back =] Until I get it right I'll be selling them at a slight discount though!

Fur and Feathers!

I know I promised these photos a bit sooner but my camera battery died so I couldn't post them until I was home (I forgot to take the charger with me!). Sorry!

I'm very pleased to introduce you to some very special cats though.

This is Rosie, she's an 18 year old tabby. Ash described her as 'an old soul' and I think he's right. She's got the bearing of a great queen or a pharaoh's cat. Even if she drools a bit when she's being made a fuss of =P, it's hard not to drool when your 126 in cat years!

Hidden behind her in that picture is George. You can see him better here:

He's a great big ginger tom cat. He's getting old too, although he's younger than Rosie (I think he's 15). He loves snuggling up and is very affectionate but has an annoying habit of extending his claws just enough to be uncomfortable when he's perched on your lap! He's also very heavy to carry!

This is his twin brother Fred (yes they are named after the Weasley twins =]). He's a bit more taciturn and reticent than his brother, but if you sit quietly he'll come and rub his nose against your hand and purr like a steam-train. Unfortunately he has a nervous habit of pulling out his fur =[, it makes it easier to tell him and George apart but he must get cold in winter. I brought him some cat treats for 'healthy coats' to help it grow back and he went completely nuts over them so I hope they help!

So that's the furry companions, time to meet the feathered ones. We'd better take them some food...

They have hen food to eat all the time (mostly corn) but they like fresh vegetables too so here are the off-cuts of courgette and spinach from an omelette I had for lunch and a couple of tomatoes which were going a bit soft; they were home-grown but I didn't pick them in time and they fell off the vine and went squish on the greenhouse floor!

They are very eager to see us aren't they, I think they might be hungry!

It's very hard to take photos of hens, they move so fast!

They live in this brilliant fox-proof compound. The chicken wire on the sides goes under the ground too and the slabs around the outside stop foxes from digging their way in! There are 2 hen houses to choose from; 6 like to sleep in the big one and 2 in the 'upstairs apartment'!

They lay their eggs in the houses too, sometimes in funny places, I'm not sure how they managed to lay these against the wall...

Oh no, don't even think about it....Please don't go out there...Come away from that door!

They like to escape! On the last morning the wind blew the door and they all got out. I was nearly late for work because it took a long time to round them up. I sent my boss a text to say 'I might be a tiny bit late, the chickens have revolted!' I really felt like I was in Chicken Run! Besides, there won't be many times in my life when I'll have an excuse like that for missing the bus...

They were definitely plotting, very shifty if you ask me!

I'm going to miss the hens and the cats most of all. It was a very lovely week though =]

Home to Wales

I'm sorry once again for the delay in posting. I have a lot on my mind at the moment. I'm struggling with anxiety about my PhD; unable to work for fear that nothing I write will ever be good enough (my lack of improvement on the theory side of things in the last year is really getting to me). I'm worried that with the job market the way it is in academia, my PhD is fairly pointless, and that even if I can get a job in academia it may not be what I really want (I'm not sure that all of the networking, politicking, constant struggle for grants is for me, and although I love my research I'm not sure I'll still love it when I'm working a 70 hour week with teaching and admin). I'm having some counselling for the anxiety and then I may take a leave of absence whilst I work out what I really want to do.

Anyway, I'm sure none of you want to hear about my personal struggles and angst. You'd much rather see the photos I took when I went home to Wales right?

I went back to the village where my grandmother was born, where my mum spent her childhood holidays, a place I have only seen a few times in my life, and yet it feels like home; more than this sprawling city in many ways. As soon as I cross the border; follow the road which climbs up the Brecon Beacons and see the valleys spread out before me, my heart starts to sing. 'This is where you soul belongs' it says to me, 'This land is in your blood', 'You are made from the coal seams in the earth, the grass upon the hills and the wide open skies', and I want to rejoice.

It is a home-coming tinged with sadness though; the villages which nestle at the bottom of these valleys were built here for one reason only; the coal that lies beneath them. The mines have been closed for half a century or more and these ones bustling communities have a half forgotten air. Their rural beauty is marred by the slow decay of time and poverty. The people here have always been poor, but they were self-suficient and hard-working, now most of those left are old or must commute to Cardiff daily to find work. The few young people left here do not remember the mining past or respect it's history.

Now I only return to the village for funerals; as my nana's brothers and sisters who remained here dwindle. This visit was for the last such funeral, my grandmother is now the only sibling left of 13. I worry that I'll never see this place again, never have cause to visit, and walk down the streets where old ladies smile at my cheekbones and know what family I'm from.

Some things do not change. The views are still breath-taking; the valley sides are steep, the hills sparsely wooded with scars of land-slips showing dark against the green, a reminder of the fragility of the balance between man and mountain.

The sheep are still here and the wild mountain ponies; this is their land too and they thrive despite the hard slopes and uncertain weather.

Wildlife has returned as people have migrated; much of the slope above the village is a nature reserve now, with pools of clear water reflecting the hills, until the reflections are broken by the wings of a myriad of waterfowl.

Above the village, fenced off from the attentions of the sheep and horses, there are 2 graveyards where monuments to mine officials and others of local importance rise out of the long grass covered in lichen; the air here is clean now, no longer choked with coal-dust and smoke. Be wary; there are many hollows where the finally resting places of ordinary folk are marked only by wild flowers. Before you reach the main cemetery, there is a small, lonely group of memorials. This is the cholera graveyard; victims of the outbreak were buried here together, away from the rest of the villagers. Cholera was greatly feared and thought to be spread through 'bad air', deeming this precaution necessary.

The village cemetery is larger, with modern stones as well as old ones, their black granite gleaming in the sun. Some of my family are here; although not Auntie Iris I came to say goodbye to; her ashes are drifting on the breeze above the mountains, laughing in her soft warm voice, smelling of hugs and welsh cakes.

I make a promise myself; to return next year, to stay longer, sit upon the hills, sink my toes into the long grass and breathe in the sweet air of the valleys.

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!

A magical week in the cemetery

I've just returned from my fieldwork in Highgate Cemetery. I spent an entire week measuring memorials, drawing maps and photographing everything. I would love to show you all the photographs I took but I have an agreement that the photographs I take are for research purposes only.

However I also took some photographs of friendly local wildlife, who just happened to be in the cemetery... So I think it's OK to post those here! 

This fox was sunbathing on the catacomb roof on the first afternoon I arrived and after that he came to check on me whenever I was in his part of the cemetery; when he wasn't in the courtyard by the chapels (unsucessfully) begging for food! The cemetery is a nature reserve and so it's also something of a fox sanctuary, where an old mangy fox like this one can live out his days safe from dogs and other hazards. Apparently someone does feed him too, so he doesn't have to chase after the cemetery squirrels (who were too quick to photograph).

On two different afternoons I was followed around by a cheeky robin; he hopped from stone to stone, cocking his head to stare at this strange girl with her tape measure and compass. He was a very willing models for these photographs. 

I also spotted this beautiful black cat slipping between the memorials. He paused momentarily, fixed me with a look of pure cat-like disdain and continued upon his way, leaving me little time to capture him on camera!

I'm also going to include a couple of bonus images of the cemetery because this kind of image can be found in many other places and so I don't feel like I'm breaking the rules too much =]

This is the entrance to the famous Egyptian Avenue.

It is lined with catacombs.

And leads to the Circle of Lebanon; a ring of catacombs surrounding a Cedar of Lebanon tree which Pre-dates the cemetery, having been planted when the land belonged to a manor house.

Although I had a wonderful time at Highgate I am very happy to be home to my boyfriend, with my comfy bed and somewhere to put my tired, tired feet up. I could also finally get back to feeling like myself and put all my practical clothes in the wash! This is what I look like when I am doing fieldwork; very glamorous!

That's right, your eyes do not deceive you, I am indeed wearing a full set of waterproofs and carrying a hard hat (I only have to put it on in high winds when there is a risk that branches might fall on my head!) and a walkie talkie (so that if I fall down a vault I can call for help!). My trusty doc martens protect my feet from injury with their steel toe caps. The rucksack holds my equipment, notes, first aid kit and lunch.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and having a small insight into both this beautiful place but also the world of archaeological research! My next post will be about something lovely I brought on my one afternoon off in Camden Market!