Here in the UK, the BBC are broadcasting a series of programmes of all things gothic season, and the first programme The Art of Gothic: Britain's Midnight Hour was broadcast this past Thursday, the first of a three part series. It was an exploration of all art, literature and architecture of the gothic style, particularly how the Victorians were inspired by the medievil architecture that was once so out of fashion, and brought on the gothic revival style. I found this first episode immensely enjoyable, and can't wait for next week, as well as what the rest of the season has in store.
Click here for the link to the BBC's page which includes listings of when all the programmes will be broadcast. I highly recommend checking it out if you can, although I'm not sure about the availability for those of you outside the UK. There's plenty to look forward to, including more architecture, a closer look at Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (eeeeeeee :D) and Goth at the BBC:
BBC Four airs a compilation of performances from the BBC to explore the ‘Goth’ style of British rock and pop in the 80s. This was a period of music in which dry ice, doomy lyrics and dyed black hair tortured skywards were only some of the constituent parts of this very British ‘tribe’ that flourished alongside Stock, Aitken and Waterman. BBC Four delves into the archives uncovering classic performances from Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, The Mission and many more.
Saturday, 25 October 2014
Saturday, 18 October 2014
Caving adventures!
So the past couple of weeks my other half Rob has been working alot, meaning me and the little one haven't seen a lot of him. To make up for it, he decided we should take a family trip (also with our friends) to Cheddar Gorge. Cheddar is the birthplace of cheddar cheese, where it obviously gets it's name from. Traditionally the cheese is made from local West country cow's milk and aged in the caves in and around cheddar to give it that distinctive flavour. This apparently also means that only cheddar cheese made the is allowed to use the name, along the lines of the French champagne scenario.
One of the cheese vaults in Wookey hole caves, not actually in Cheddar but we visited here the same day. It's pretty smelly in there!
Cheddar is lovely because its little centre is basically one street full of shops and pubs and tea rooms, with a picturesque stream running through it. It also has a little cheese museum where you can watch the cheese being made, as well as eat samples and buy the produce at the end. We had a little walk up and down the shops, bought some fudge and had an amazing roast dinner in one of the pubs. It was all homemade and really tasty, and the Yorkshire puddings were HUGE. After that someone in the group suggested we go to Wookey hole, so we drove the short ten minute journey and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Being West Country natives we had all visited many times (altough a couple of us hadn't been since primary school age!) But it's a lot of fun revisiting some where as an adult that holds so many childhood memories.
A picture from our cave tour, we were lucky enough to catch the cave divers emerging from a dive! Fascinating! The only thing was that obviously we couldn't take the pram inside so Rob had to carry the baby around the caves, I was glad I had decided to put Reegan in her snow suit. The caves serve as a fairly large family attraction and so after your cave tour there are tons of other things to see and do. They have an old paper making mill, a museum with all the old bones and artifacts found in the area, and (my favourite) the mirror maze and Victorian penny arcade. They have a huge selection of old machines that you can play on, as well as the types that read your palms, tell your fortunes, or play funny little stories out with puppets. I had my palms read by the machine and also my fortune told by a scary gypsy puppet lady inside another machine. Luckily both readings came out very positive for me! Such fun!
The museum skulls, paper mill, and lastly a really cool jar I bought myself from the gift shop. This will go in my kitchen when I eventually have one. The housing situation is a bit of a pickle at the moment, we are still living with Rob's parents until the council help us out, which needs to be soon because Reegan is fast outgrowing her crib. Once she's out of that there's nowhere for her cot to go, so nowhere for her to sleep!
All in all we had a pretty awesome day out, but after the whole pram/baby carrying conundrum I ordered us a baby carrier so that for future trips we can simply pop her in and not have to worry about the logistics of anything else. Plus when we can use it when we walk the dog so my treasured SilverCross won't get all muddy!
One of the cheese vaults in Wookey hole caves, not actually in Cheddar but we visited here the same day. It's pretty smelly in there!
Cheddar is lovely because its little centre is basically one street full of shops and pubs and tea rooms, with a picturesque stream running through it. It also has a little cheese museum where you can watch the cheese being made, as well as eat samples and buy the produce at the end. We had a little walk up and down the shops, bought some fudge and had an amazing roast dinner in one of the pubs. It was all homemade and really tasty, and the Yorkshire puddings were HUGE. After that someone in the group suggested we go to Wookey hole, so we drove the short ten minute journey and spent the rest of the afternoon there. Being West Country natives we had all visited many times (altough a couple of us hadn't been since primary school age!) But it's a lot of fun revisiting some where as an adult that holds so many childhood memories.
A picture from our cave tour, we were lucky enough to catch the cave divers emerging from a dive! Fascinating! The only thing was that obviously we couldn't take the pram inside so Rob had to carry the baby around the caves, I was glad I had decided to put Reegan in her snow suit. The caves serve as a fairly large family attraction and so after your cave tour there are tons of other things to see and do. They have an old paper making mill, a museum with all the old bones and artifacts found in the area, and (my favourite) the mirror maze and Victorian penny arcade. They have a huge selection of old machines that you can play on, as well as the types that read your palms, tell your fortunes, or play funny little stories out with puppets. I had my palms read by the machine and also my fortune told by a scary gypsy puppet lady inside another machine. Luckily both readings came out very positive for me! Such fun!
The museum skulls, paper mill, and lastly a really cool jar I bought myself from the gift shop. This will go in my kitchen when I eventually have one. The housing situation is a bit of a pickle at the moment, we are still living with Rob's parents until the council help us out, which needs to be soon because Reegan is fast outgrowing her crib. Once she's out of that there's nowhere for her cot to go, so nowhere for her to sleep!
All in all we had a pretty awesome day out, but after the whole pram/baby carrying conundrum I ordered us a baby carrier so that for future trips we can simply pop her in and not have to worry about the logistics of anything else. Plus when we can use it when we walk the dog so my treasured SilverCross won't get all muddy!
Tuesday, 7 October 2014
Style icon: Helena Bonham Carter
There's something about this woman I find very inspiring, she is not only talented and beautiful but her style is dark and delicate, with a dash of hippy thrown in here and there. She definitely gets the goth points for being married to the legendary Tim Burton, and although she seems type-cast into that creepy leading lady typical of Burton's work, she is a great actress in her own right and does well across many genres.
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Not only does she get to wear the most wonderfully outlandish and whimsical costumes on screen, her red carpet gowns and casual fashion choices are also enviable.
This dress is unlike any other red carpet contender I've seen, and who doesn't love boots and skirts with a frock coat?
And may I also mention, she has bloody fabulous hair. I have serious hair envy of this woman. It's always very messy looking, but somehow effortlessly-on-purpose.
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She rocks the curls in a way I never realised possible until quite recently, as a curly-mop myself I typically always cursed my messy ringlets and spent alot of time in my early teens obsessively straightening it. I even bought a chemical kit for straightening hair at the cost of risking serious hair damage, but it was just never enough. I look back now and laugh because at the time I felt it was never quite perfect, when in retrospect my hair looked pretty tidy back then, when I actually spent the time and effort to do it properly. Even before I had a baby I would still rather have extra time in bed than wash, blowdry and straighten it every moring like I used to when I was still at school.
So my envy of Helena's messy 'do actually helped me to embrace my natural hair, and inspired me to style it in a way better suited to my tastes. Not to mention the amount of peroxide abuse my hair has suffered over the years, the fact that I now straighten it less than once a week (and I don't even remeber the last time my hair dryer saw the light of day. Probably when Rob realised it was great for styling his beard post-shower.) Now I can just let it be as curly as it wants to be, and when it's less manageable pin it up into something like this:
So I can just throw it up at the back of my head and pin it into place, and nestl accessories a-plenty in there. I this photo I'm wearing my skeleton hand hair clips, if you can see them. It's actually almost the same as the hairstyle in my previous post about Janis Ian from the film Mean Girls, except its alot less effort because rather than straightening my hair and using serum to make the ends silky and back combing the roots for volume, I just throw it up as is. I tried to find a tutorial to put a link for you guys, but to be honest there aren't many out there. As long as it's messy, just push it up at the back and put bobby pins in there until it stays. I use anything up to 20 of them sometimes.
As you can see from this older picture from the Janis Ian style post, I am embracing a slightly more natural look than i used to, lazy me!
Not only does she get to wear the most wonderfully outlandish and whimsical costumes on screen, her red carpet gowns and casual fashion choices are also enviable.
This dress is unlike any other red carpet contender I've seen, and who doesn't love boots and skirts with a frock coat?
And may I also mention, she has bloody fabulous hair. I have serious hair envy of this woman. It's always very messy looking, but somehow effortlessly-on-purpose.
She rocks the curls in a way I never realised possible until quite recently, as a curly-mop myself I typically always cursed my messy ringlets and spent alot of time in my early teens obsessively straightening it. I even bought a chemical kit for straightening hair at the cost of risking serious hair damage, but it was just never enough. I look back now and laugh because at the time I felt it was never quite perfect, when in retrospect my hair looked pretty tidy back then, when I actually spent the time and effort to do it properly. Even before I had a baby I would still rather have extra time in bed than wash, blowdry and straighten it every moring like I used to when I was still at school.
So my envy of Helena's messy 'do actually helped me to embrace my natural hair, and inspired me to style it in a way better suited to my tastes. Not to mention the amount of peroxide abuse my hair has suffered over the years, the fact that I now straighten it less than once a week (and I don't even remeber the last time my hair dryer saw the light of day. Probably when Rob realised it was great for styling his beard post-shower.) Now I can just let it be as curly as it wants to be, and when it's less manageable pin it up into something like this:
So I can just throw it up at the back of my head and pin it into place, and nestl accessories a-plenty in there. I this photo I'm wearing my skeleton hand hair clips, if you can see them. It's actually almost the same as the hairstyle in my previous post about Janis Ian from the film Mean Girls, except its alot less effort because rather than straightening my hair and using serum to make the ends silky and back combing the roots for volume, I just throw it up as is. I tried to find a tutorial to put a link for you guys, but to be honest there aren't many out there. As long as it's messy, just push it up at the back and put bobby pins in there until it stays. I use anything up to 20 of them sometimes.
As you can see from this older picture from the Janis Ian style post, I am embracing a slightly more natural look than i used to, lazy me!
Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Black and white theme post: matching outfits
I knew straight away what I was going to feature for this month's theme from Sophistique Noir.
At the time of the announcement I had just been shopping for baby clothes for my daughter, and had gotten her an adorable black and white panda outfit from H&M. It consists of stripy black and white leggings, a white longsleeve vest with a panda on it, and a little stripy hat with ears. And then, the first time I put her in it I realised I was wearing my black and white striped blouse, making for an accidental mummy-daughter outfit coordinate.
Funnily enough, my black and white blouse is also from H&M, which I usually wear over a plain black vest and leggings, also from H&M. Two whole oufits from the same shop! Still undecided on whether matching outfits are cute or weird though....
At the time of the announcement I had just been shopping for baby clothes for my daughter, and had gotten her an adorable black and white panda outfit from H&M. It consists of stripy black and white leggings, a white longsleeve vest with a panda on it, and a little stripy hat with ears. And then, the first time I put her in it I realised I was wearing my black and white striped blouse, making for an accidental mummy-daughter outfit coordinate.
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| One with the hat... |
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| And one without. She's much happier without the hat. Reegan doesn't like hats. |
Funnily enough, my black and white blouse is also from H&M, which I usually wear over a plain black vest and leggings, also from H&M. Two whole oufits from the same shop! Still undecided on whether matching outfits are cute or weird though....
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| Not the best photo, but it was near bedtime and baba was feeling grumpy! |
Sunday, 21 September 2014
It's that spider-y time of year again...
Autumn. It's finally starting to cool down here in the UK after a most horrendously hot summer. Yuck! Yesterday was unseasonably warm and muggy, and the heat held out until late last night when we had the most amazing thunderstorm. The pressure in the air instantly dissipated and the temperature dropped, it was quite lovely. But still most nights we have to keep the bedroom window wide open because our bedroom is the warmest room in the house, thus leaving us vulnerable to bugs. I'm not overly keen on most bugs, particularly the crane flies that seem to have bombarded us in the past week, but my worst fear is the spiders. I have been thinking of writing about this for a little while now, and have finally built up the courage to do it (just thinking about spiders makes me feel icky, and seeing photos make me panic) in the hopes that discussing them at length will help me get over the fear a little bit. I've wanted to try and do something about my phobia for years, but really would just rather not think about it at all. This is the most in depth look I have ever taken at spiders and their kind, even reading about them creeps me out.
I had a couple of traumatic incidents with them as a child, and have been afraid of them most of my life as a result. Just lately it seems as though everyone is spider obsessed again, as apparently the hot weather we experienced during the summer has produced some unusually large house spiders. Shudder. I've been growing increasingly paranoid about my chances of encountering a spider lately, as usually when I haven't had an 'incident' for a while I know I must be due to see one soon. And this time of year is the most likely time to encounter one because they are all making their way into our homes for the winter.
It's a funny thing really, to find them so scary. They make for wonderful imagery and are pretty goth if you ask me! Ha. Plus, the are actually very cool when you think about it. They way they can spin a web and use it to their own advantage to take care of all those other nasty bugs we don't want around the house is quite useful. Almost all spiders are venomous, because they are all predators that use venom to subdue their prey. This is because they cannot digest solid food, so they must use a digestive enzyme to turn their victims into a digestible liquid form.
However big and scary house spiders can appear, the ones you usually see scuttling across the carpet or climbing out of the plughole in the bath are more likely to be the males, who are smaller than the females. The females are usually in their web or nest waiting for a male spider to come along, although its quite likely that she will eat him before he has a chance to identify himself. Which is why they must use courtship rituals from a safe distance, for example the jumping spider will perform an elaborate dance to attract the attention of the female.
I was going to try and include some pictures in this post, but I just couldn't bear to even look at them! Just doing this teeny bit of research was pushing my limits, and it took me a little while to write because I could only write in by the light of day... pathetic I know! But maybe now I'm a teeny bit closer to feeling ok about spiders in general. I don't mind them living with me, I'd just rather not know they were there.
I had a couple of traumatic incidents with them as a child, and have been afraid of them most of my life as a result. Just lately it seems as though everyone is spider obsessed again, as apparently the hot weather we experienced during the summer has produced some unusually large house spiders. Shudder. I've been growing increasingly paranoid about my chances of encountering a spider lately, as usually when I haven't had an 'incident' for a while I know I must be due to see one soon. And this time of year is the most likely time to encounter one because they are all making their way into our homes for the winter.
It's a funny thing really, to find them so scary. They make for wonderful imagery and are pretty goth if you ask me! Ha. Plus, the are actually very cool when you think about it. They way they can spin a web and use it to their own advantage to take care of all those other nasty bugs we don't want around the house is quite useful. Almost all spiders are venomous, because they are all predators that use venom to subdue their prey. This is because they cannot digest solid food, so they must use a digestive enzyme to turn their victims into a digestible liquid form.
However big and scary house spiders can appear, the ones you usually see scuttling across the carpet or climbing out of the plughole in the bath are more likely to be the males, who are smaller than the females. The females are usually in their web or nest waiting for a male spider to come along, although its quite likely that she will eat him before he has a chance to identify himself. Which is why they must use courtship rituals from a safe distance, for example the jumping spider will perform an elaborate dance to attract the attention of the female.
I was going to try and include some pictures in this post, but I just couldn't bear to even look at them! Just doing this teeny bit of research was pushing my limits, and it took me a little while to write because I could only write in by the light of day... pathetic I know! But maybe now I'm a teeny bit closer to feeling ok about spiders in general. I don't mind them living with me, I'd just rather not know they were there.
Friday, 12 September 2014
What I read this summer
The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
I ended up reading this historical novel because I'd seen the tv show last year, the box set of which I also received for Christmas and I would highly recommend it. I had already read one other novel from the series; The Red Queen, and thoroughly enjoyed it. The story follows I think four women central to the cousins war in 16th century England, each book with the same basic plot line from a different point of view. The strength of these women is inspiring at such a tumultuous time in history when women had very little rights and what appears to be no control over their own fate. I say appears because with their fighting spirit they managed to cling to every scrap of power and dignity they could and who knows how different things would have been had they not tried to take things into their own hands. I loved this book because historic fiction and/or romance is a genre I really enjoy, the storytelling is beautiful and meticulously researched yet embellished with many fantastical extra details.
Rapture by Lauren Kate
This book is the final in a series of five books about a teenage romance between Daniel, a fallen angel, and Lucinda, your average troubled teenage girl. It is a very romantic story of true love spanning the entire history of mankind as Lucinda is reincarnated every 17 years due to an ancient curse. I started reading the series when I was quite young and back then it was just my cup of tea, and I greatly enjoyed them. When I found this book on sale it had been a few years since I had last read any of them and decided to revisit. Despite the rather juvenile style of the story I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them still. I think what held my attention was the religious elements of fallen angels, demons, god and the devil. I am not religious myself but found it all very interesting nevertheless. If you can look past some slightly cringy characters and teenage romance clichés, I would say this is a good read.
Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
I discovered this book when I read an interesting article online about vampires in gothic literature, it's only a short story but I devoured it quickly with great enthusiasm. The book actually predates my beloved Bram Stoker's Dracula by twenty six years, and although it has been adapted for cinema many times I had actually never heard of it before. Carmilla tells the story of a young woman and her mysterious house guest Carmilla, who just happens to be a vampire. This book is bursting with sexual tension and has a rather creepy atmosphere to it, something I have never found so easily in a book written at this time. I think I will have to track down some film versions and watch them all, this little slice of a story is awesome.
So what did you guys read this summer? What is your favourite genre to read and do you have any recommendations? I'm always hungry for more to read!
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
Monthly theme post: makeup
Being such a makeup junkie, this month's makeup theme post should have been all to easy for me, and I had a lot of ideas swimming about in my head when I was thinking about what to write. Alas, time got away from me these past couple of weeks, and having a baby has meant I have barely had any time to even apply makeup let alone blog about it!
So these days when I actually have a minute to put on makeup, I have to try and be as quick and efficient as possible. The way having a baby has changed my skincare and makeup rourine made me think about how else it has changed over the years, and how age, lifestyle and fashion tastes evolve over time and affect the way we present ourselves. It's hard to pinpoint just when my interest in makeup and other "girly" things first started, but I remember having "toy" lipsticks in ridiculous pinks and purples to put on, and kid-friendly nail varnishes that peel off when you wash your hands as a child.
But I think when I truly discovered the power of makeup was my 12th birthday when I had first started to gravitate towards darker music, clothing and fiction. My auntie went out and bought me a number of actual 'grownup' products, and taught me how to use them properly as a sort of starter kit. It was all pretty decent stuff, and I managed to create some good (and some not so good...) looks with a post-box-red lipstick and a dark rasin lipstick, a deep grey glitter shadow, a plum purple shadow and some killer liquid eyeliner. But that was just for weekends. I started using pencil liner on the bottom only for my every day look, I layered it very thickly and it definitely did NOT flatter.
I wish I had pictures to share my shame but my laptop is having technical difficulties at the moment. It wasn't until I was about 14 that a friend who had learned how to paint a decent flick and cat eye from her sister shared her secrets with me, and the discovery that cotton buds could correct any mistake is the most valuable I think I have ever made. To this day a thick upper line of eyeliner with a big flick and pencil liner along the bottom is still my signature look when I'm feeling lazy. I used to wear this makeup to school every day because it was just heavy enough for my tastes yet tiptoed the dress code boundaries. I have also branched out since then, with the discovery of false eyelashes (which have saved me HOURS of time obsessing over perfect mascara) and a return to eyeshadows.
When I was 18 I finally decided to give foundation a try and haven't looked back. It does wonders for my confidence about my freckles, and even when I'm pressed for time a smattering of foundation makes me look put together even if I don't feel like it. During pregnancy however my dry skin has been ten times worse than its ever been, so I've moved onto BB creams which still have a nice amount of coverage and are quite moisturising. I use the BB cream as a starting point, and anything else I have time for now is a bonus!
Before I went on maternity leave and I was still working evenings in the pub I used to wear tons of eye makeup, I experimented frequently because working evenings meant I had ample time during the day.
Hopefully as things with baby Reegan settle down a bit and I become used to motherhood and all it's challenges I can get closer to my old makeup routine and become more adventurous again.
How has your makeup style evolved over time? Do you have a signature look for everyday?
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