November homework assignment: my furry and not so furry babies

It seems our dear Professor is just too good at setting homework assignments! As most of you will know, this year I have embarked upon the hardest and most amazing journey of my life. My daughter Reegan was born in August and at almost four months old now she is growing fast!

Before I had my human baby though, I had my fur baby Inca, our soppy brown Doberman. Inca is actually Rob's dog, she was just under a year old when I first met him,  so almost fully grown but still entirely puppyish in her behaviour.  When I moved in with them and Inca and I spent most days together we got very close and eventually she simply became 'my' dog. I never had a dog before so for me Inca is very special.  She needs alot of loving from everyone,  but the guard dog in her makes her very loyal and protective. And she is absolutely obsessed with food. She will eat literally anything (including things she shouldn't.  I once found Rob's razor chewed up and thought she had swallowed the blade and I cried my eyes out on the phone to Rob for ten whole minutes before I found the metal part and realised she wasn't going to die). Before I found out I was pregnant her behaviour had started to change, and suddenly it was like she had grown up. (Except when she tore up the sofas when we lived in the caravan. I was mad but affectionately put it down to nesting instincts once I found out we were having a baby.) My whole pregnancy she was even more needy with me and would just sit with me as if to guard me.

Guarding her mama

Sunbathing in the garden, her favourite pass time second only to eating!

She loves our baby girl, and is always wanting to sniff and lick her. I hope when Reegan is older they will be very close.

Reegan is almost four months old now, and I can't believe how quickly the time has passed and how she has grown into this amazing little person. She has started rolling over onto her sides and really wants to move and do other things. She loves being sang to and likes to clap her hands and be bounced up and down. I remember the first time she laughed I was so surprised I cried with happiness. She really is my favourite little person and being her mama is the best job in the world. I can't wait for her to be bigger and doing more things for herself,  but at the same time I have to treasure every moment because she grows so fast!

Mummy makeup and "keeping it goth"

In my last post about makeup, I spoke about how life changes affect makeup habits and expressed hopes that as I settled down into motherhood I could adapt and find more time for myself, and wear as much makeup as I used to. I always make sure my nails are freshly painted once a week, and wear makeup as often as I can. It really does make a difference in feeling good about yourself, and I even managed to get a babysitter whilst my mum did my hair for me last week!

Behold! green hair  and makeup to match!

 I finally got the chance to bleach my roots! About time really, as it has been about a year now and I had at least four inches of regrowth. I've also been wanting to go green for such a long time now, and although at the moment it's rather patchy and yellow in places, its a work in progress and will probably take a little while of colour build up to get it where I want it to be. It was a perfect excuse to experiment with my green eyeshadow too. I'm lucky  because Reegan was taking a really long nap at the time. But when she isn't taking long naps I need something quick and easy because I can't spend too long blending and fussing with colours.

Like I have said before, a little bit of lipstick can really help when you are pressed for time and still want to look nice (and gothy...). But often I end up smudging it, or the wind blows and my hair gets stuck to my lips, not to mention having to reapply throughout the day. I recently discovered matt lipsticks though, and they are just what i needed. Specifically, MUA's velvet lip laquer (the affordable choice, in red and in purple) and Lime Crime's Velvetine in Black velvet (a little pricier, but worth it for THE blackest matt lipstick... simply superior in my opinion and a little more modern than the shiny black lipped goth stereotype. Plus its great to support indie brands that are cruelty free). They paint on like a lip gloss and dry completely touch proof,  the wear time is impressive and so very practical for the busy lady.

The Velvitines smell like cupcakes... mmmmmm!

Swatches of the MUA velvet laquers, it took about 24 hours of hand washes for them to fully come off.

Personally, I have a preference for false eyelashes, and having had a lot of practice applying them I can do it pretty quickly these days. But when a friend reccomended lash fibres to me I had to jump on the trend-wagon and get some for myself. The idea is a set including a "runny" formula mascara and a bottle of lash fibres, which I can only describe as a bottle of tiny hairs. You curl your own lashes and then then coat them fully with the mascara. Before it dries you tilt your head forwards and brush on the fibres before applying more mascara, and repeat as many times as you wish. The idea is great, but not all that time saving for me, and you have to be very careful not to get the fibres everywhere, if they get in your eyes or nose they itch like mad! Not to mention when stuck to the skin they make you look strangely hairy... However I do find this method useful on less fussy days when I wear only eyeshadow and mascara, like here (just bronze eyeshadow on the upper lid and lashline, finished with mascara):

I also recently tried out Barry M's black pencil eyeliner, both on the waterline and lash line it works well, and I even used it to colour the lids completely before patting black eyeshadow on top to set. Another quick one that works well with a huge pair of falsies and looks like you really made an effort.

Coloured-in eyes with MUA's lip laquer 

As long as I've taken a minute or two to exfoliate my face and apply at least two layers of moisturiser,  I find I can easily manage foundation now too. I'll be saving the rest of my BB cream for the summer or days when my skin is dry and I still want to wear makeup. I bought L'Oreal's Infallible 24H foundation about six months ago on a whim and actually have found that its perfect for me. I don't have to wear a primer with it (more layers equals more dryness for me...) and it is literally THE palest highstreet foundation EVER. Even paler than Rimmel London makes. The coverage is nicely full and it really really lasts. It's a shame it isn't a cruelty free brand because its so hard to find something that ticks every box.

Anybody have any speedy makeup tips or products they love when pressed for time?

October homework assignment: Halloween at home

It seems that the lovely Professor has chosen another theme that suits me just perfectly. Being as I just had a baby ten weeks ago, I haven't been on many nights out lately, so I can tell you all about my homely celebrations. I was eating a toffee apple the other day, and because it's something I only do once a year at this very time, it got me thinking about other seasonal habits I have that I always associate with Halloween, my favourite holiday. I'm not going out this year because my other half is a bouncer and therefore working,  plus I have no babysitter, if I can't spend the night woth Rob then I didn't really see the point in doing anything at all. I also can't decorate because we still live with his parents and there is no space for anything. Ever. So heres my little "Halloween checklist" of things I wanted to do in the week leading up to Halloween.

• Eat a toffee apple. Something I always remember doing as a child, as soon as they came on sale in the shops I would be begging my mum to let me have one and scoff it down in the car on the way home. 
• Carve a pumpkin.

Not all that original but this mama doesn't do sculpture for a reason.

• Watch as many halloween films as I can in one week. Well, my favourites at least.
• Bake something Halloweeny.

Chocolate and orange cupcakes. It's also my other half's birthday today so they're sort of for him.

• Try an orange eyeshadow. I had a bright orange eyeshadow sitting unused in my Sleek Matt palette and decided now was the perfect time to experiment. In all honesty, I don't actually like orange that much and feel as though it's a bit of a difficult colour to pull off, so I took to Pintrest for some inspiration and this is what I came up with:

• Go halloween shopping. I managed to score some cool leggings in Primark, but was disappointed that all they had in this year was leggings and t-shirts because I got a really cute ghostie jumper last year.

• Put Reegan in her Halloween outfit. I shall replace my urge to decorate the home by decorating my child. Ha!

This is only one of her spooky oufits because she has a couple. The bib says: "my first spooky halloween"

Hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween this year! I felt very productive indeed!

A celebration of all things Gothic

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

One with the hat...

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....

Not the best photo, but it was near bedtime and baba was feeling grumpy!