I'M PREGNANT!

And so the announcement is finally made. I am currently 12 weeks pregnant,  and pretty excited!

Our little jelly baby!

I want to carry on with this blog as much as I can, but I also want to start a new Pregnancy blog so I can kind of keep that stuff separate.  It is harder to blog as we don't have internet in the caravan, so I am constantly running out of data on my phone plan. I'm pretty gutted that having a baby means we can't stay in the caravan as long as we planned (2 years), but such is life! Nothing ever goes as planned but this surprise was definitely worth it. 

I will be posting details of the new blog very soon, and I hope to be very honest and frank about pregnancy,  and also talk about my hopes and fears as a gothically inclined parent. Soon!

Chepstow Castle (and other adventures)

So as to recover from the madness of the holiday season I took four days off work over the weekend in order to spend sone time with people close to me and just generally have a rest. On saturday Protector Of The Realm and I went to Chepstow Castle to do some exploring. 

I really love history, going to museums, visiting historic landmarks, houses and estates make me very excited. The castle is only half an hour away from where we live, my mother lives there and its also where we get our tattoos done so all in all a rather convinient location. They also allow dogs into all areas of the Castle, which is really nice for people with dogs as not only do you get to geek out on history but its great excercise for everyone and puppy doesn't get left at home.

Most of the visit went without a hitch, excepting the first window we stopped to look at, of course Inca wanted to get a closer look too. She jumped right up onto the window and halfway over the edge, and if she hadn't been on a leash we definitely would have lost her. Scary stuff!

Here are some pictures I took around the castle.

My favorite,  the low winter sun made for some beautiful views

And finally Inca and Protector exporing!

On sunday I travelled up to London to see my closest friend,who I haven't really seen since she moved up there three months ago. Its times like that you really appreciate those close to you in your life, which is a shame because we should learn to appreciate them every day. That's definitely what I do now. We had plans to visit a museum as well as (obviously) take a stroll through Camden and visit the wonderful markets there. In the end we only really had time to go to Camden, but I didn't mind at all. We had a lovely time and discovered many gothy treasure troves in the markets. We even went to the Cyberdog shop, which was fun and rather novel. I never realised hiw big it is either,  it spans three floors!

What do you guys like to do with your time off? :)

New purple hair!

New purple hair!! 

So after more than a year or dying my hair blue, I have finally taken the plunge and gone purple! 

 My chin looks rather large here, haha, but it was the best shot I could get of today's makeup and my new hair together! I ended up with a double-pointed flick and bottom lashes today, and its almost anime looking from the front.

I am wearing MAC studio fix fluid foundation with powder, it's the lightest shade they make and I think its NW10. Don't quote me on that though. On my eyes I have a shimmery lilac shade from Accesorise blended with grey, this purple is my all time favourite,  its so pretty and shimmery and it blends beatifully with other colors especially darker ones. On my lips I'm wearing the Mirror Shine lipstick from Seventeen in Roserie, it's a very pale lilac.

My hair on the other hand, has ended up a rather unusual colour. It's hard to explain as my crappy camera can't really pick it up, but because I started with Capri Blue from Crazy Colours, which was quite electric. When I decided I was tired with it I simply stopped dying it so much and let it fade. After a couple of moths it got to turquoise and I realised unless I chemically treated it (which I really didn't want to do) it wasn't going to fade any more. From experience and from other people I now know that blue sticks to hair as much as red fades from it.

I mixed a whole pot of Violet from Directions (my new favorite brand, the pots are handy for keeping leftovers and the thick formula is a dream to apply!) With two thirds of a pot of Cerise, and have ended up with an almost luminous dark purple with lots of blue undertones! I will try and get some better quality pictures because the colour is pretty cool.

Sorry for the rant... thinking about some new makeup reviews soon, and possibly even my hair-colour-journey-thusfar? In six months I went from black to blue, and it took patience but I want other dark haired ladies out there to know its not impossible to have whatever colour you want :)

Happy new year! 

Happy new year everyone, I hope Christmas was as special for all you people out there as it was for me! Lots of special family time and making people happy is what I love about this time of year. And I just know that this year is going to be really special, I have an announcement coming up in the next couple of weeks so keep your eyes peeled :D 

I want to get back into arts and crafts this year, and the tail end of last year  was not too productive with all the stresses of moving into our caravan and then Halloween,  birthdays and Christmas!  And I really miss having an oven!! So much. I love baking, plus when trying to provide nutritious meals there is only

so much you can do with a two ringed camping stove. Ha!

But on the plus side I made this Triple Chocolate Toblerone Cheesecake today for a family dinner. No baking required :)

Here is my recipe:

175g oaty biscuits ( something like hobnobs without the chocolate )
70g butter
Crush the biscuits in a plastic bag with a rolling pin until they are crumbly, melt the butter and then let it cool before mixing into the biscuit crumbs and pressing into your tin.

300g light cream cheese
200ml whipping cream
175g melted white toblerone
A handful of milk chocolate toblerone pieces, chopped into chunks.
A handful of dark chocolate toblerone pieces, melted for the topping.

Lightly whip the cream until it is just fluffy, stir in the cream cheese and the melted white toblerone, followed by the milk chocolate chunks.  Spread onto the biscuit base and refrigerate for a minimum of three hours.  You can then decorate with the melted dark chocolate,  I just used the spoon to sort of flick it across the top to get the messy look.

Enjoy!

It's been a little while!

The past month has been so very busy, what with festive preparations, settling into the caravan now that winter is truly here, and obviously the busiest time of year at work! Here is a picture of me in my seasonal work uniform! ;)

It has been truly freezing in our little tin box, the windows are almost permanently condensated, which we have yet to find a solution for. In the mornings (or any length of time we have been out and the heaters were off) you can almost always see your breath in the air. We haven't got our tree up yet but I hope to be doing that tonight as it's my day off :D

Our kitchen is also coming along nicely, we now have a whole new work surface on the other side, and a new fridge freezer! Woop! Feast you eyes on these before and after(but not finished) pics!

Before. Used to be a bedroom!

After. My new kitchenn :D

Things are coming along very nicely! I did a teeny bit of decorative work in the bedroom, but after Christmas I hope to do much more when we have the time and the funds. If I don't post again before Christmas, then have a good one! 2014 is going to be a good year and I can't wait!

Frank Usher velvet dress

OOTD: velvet Frank Usher dress

Finally managed to get a better picture of my new vintage dress, and here it is! Just a casual night out with friends. Still haven't found the perfect shoes to wear with it yet...

Charity shop and vintage haul!

Saturday a couple of friends and I decided to go on a huge charity shopping trip, a charity shop crawl if you will. We are very lucky as Bristolians to have the legendary Gloucester Road right on our doorstep, as it's pretty much the largest stretch of independent shops in the whole of Europe, or so I've heard. I never appreciated how cool a place it is to live until I moved to this side of town last year. We visited about 10 shops on our trip, and that's barely half of the charity and vintage shops there are on Gloucester Road.  

My friend Liv got about five skirts(two of which cost a pound), and three or four tops plus a really nice black and purple cardi. I bought a nice knitted black bolero for £3.50 in one shop, and hit the jackpot in  the vintage shop Billie-Jean Clothes. I will put their facebook link below, as I have borrowed the pictures from their site. I really do love this shop and it's a real shame that they are closing down, the sheer number of beautiful pieces crammed into one tiny shop, I could simply spend hours perusing the racks immersed in this fashion treasure trove. They have so many deliciously gothy items I feel guilty keeping it to myself! 

Outfit no 1: velvet Frank Usher dress with frill sleeves

Outfit no 2: black lace frill skirt with a lace sleeved blouse, a bit of a victorian gypsy feel to it.

The picture of the Frank Usher dress really doesn't do it justice, it is simply stunning. My friends weren't letting me leave the shop without it! It has a split up the back centre skirt, and the material is thick and stretchy but very high quality, and the sleeve frills are HUGE. I will have to do an outfit post when I wear it out. The blouse from outfit two is perfect, is fits very well and on the back there are buttons going all the way down. I have been looking for a blouse like this for a while but couldn't quite find the perfect one until now!

Here's the link to Billie-Jean Clothes, check them out!

Sorry for the super long post, I just love shopping ;) support small businesses guys!