~* Our Enchanted Gothic Cottage: Goth Home Decor and Renovating *~

Yay, we are now living somewhere new - we moved in last year into what I like to call our "Enchanted Gothic Cottage". We have been very busy with renovations and decorations this year! We definitely needed to "goth" it up as everything was white, disgusting green and cream and we were not comfortable with it. Of course, Bane's blog Goth it Yourself has been a big inspiration here.

The walls and ceilings we painted grey and the borders and skirting boards black. We also updated all the curtains, light fittings, power points, furniture, decor etc. Let me know your thoughts on the transformations.

BEFORE THE RENOVATIONS:
Here are photos of the house before we made any changes - in fact, before we even moved in.

AFTER THE RENOVATIONS:
Warning -- lots of photos ahead!! These photos are after we completed most of our renovations! We still have lots more to do to the house but that's all we will be doing for the time being.

 Bathroom Door

 Toilet Door

 Inside the toilet is a Batman poster and some magazines in a basket.

Our bedroom wall with all my Doors/Jim Morrison collectibles

 Our bedroom closet.

 Our bed with our Sin in linen spiderweb sheet set.

 Our daughter's gothy bedroom.

Wall in her bedroom.

 Her skull-covered bed sheet set.

 She has her own fish tank and pet fish.

 Close up of some of her gothy toys.

 More gothy toys.

 Her wardrobe.

 Another view of her room.

 Our dining room (complete with black high chair).

 Our gothic light fittings.

 Gothy table cloth and table decor.

 Liquor cabinet.

 Wall of wedding photos etc.

 Hall entrance with poster of Jim.

 Hall entrance.

 Hall entry with gothic light fitting.

 Hallway picture frames.

 Linen closet.

 Side of kitchen and fridge.

 My second wardrobe that I keep in the laundry as it is a very big laundry.

 Front of laundry.

 Side of laundry.

 Door of laundry.

 Lounge area - red velvet Victorian antique chairs.

Display cabinet in lounge area.

My wedding dress on display on a dressmaker's mannequin.

More stuff on display.

Chesterfield couch set.

The Crow poster, world globe and display cabinet - all in lounge area.

 The Lost Boys and Dracula posters in lounge/living room.

 Lounge/Living room.

Wizard poster in lounge area.

 Rumpus room (play room).

 Door to rumpus.

My desk in the study including laptop and sewing machine etc.

The Study with my filing cabinet and witchy supplies cabinet.

My wardrobe with coffin and skeleton decor etc.

Cot with Jack Skellington bedding set.

I hope you enjoyed this journey around my household! Seasons greetings to all of you, I hope you all have a lovely festive season and a happy new year! I hope 2014 is a better year for all of us...

~* Pregnant Goth Outfits *~

As you may have guessed, I've been struggling with the newborn baby bat so I've had zero free time to blog... So I thought I would show you some outfit photos from when I was pregnant as well as a post pregnancy picture (while I was still in hospital). I never got big in this pregnancy, and often people thought I was not pregnant at all. This was unfortunately due to my placenta and other medical issues. But I can assure you, I definitely was pregnant; and I now have a 3 and a half month old baby to prove it! :o)

One Month Pregnant -  Trip to Eltham Mini-Railway - I wore my black straw-like hat which I decorated with a handmade headband that my relative made; teamed with a lace cardigan, a Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirt, and a handmade fabric brooch!

 

4 Months Pregnant - I was off to a birthday party so I had to bring my new coffin purse with me! Also wearing a lace babydoll dress, leggings with jewels on the sides, and one of my new brooches that has a chain attached to it.

6 Months Pregnant - Family gathering for Mothers' Day! We went to a lovely chinese restaurant for lunch. I wore a skull in my favourite soft velvety hat, my rose tapestry skirt brooch, velvet short-sleeve cardigan, spiderweb top, chiffon-like skirt and my butterfly necklace again.

Post Pregnancy Outfit - pictured here in the waiting room of the hospital not long after my daughter's birth and my hospital stay. Dressed very casually here in my "We're all a little Mad" Alice in Wonderland t-shirt... 

~* Cemetery Outfit *~

I'm slowly going through all my files, photos, folders and junk - I do apologize that these are all old outfits! Better late than never I suppose! So, anyway, here is a recent-ish outfit from November last year when I attended an event at our local cemetery.

In sewing class, I also converted another vintage dress into this skirt (and turned the top half into a cardigan which isn't pictured here). I love converting dresses into two items! It's my "thing". I really love the fabric of the skirt and it is soooooo comfy and flowy. The butterfly necklace was given to me for my birthday from a friend. The shirt was also a gift for my birthday and I love them both!

I wore my Velveteen hooded cardigan as it was a bit of a chilly day - but wore my normal everyday make-up...

You can see how happy I look in these photos because I had only just discovered that I was pregnant at this time! Oh how little did I know back then what an immense journey ahead I would encounter!

Today I finally organised and sorted through all my fabric, fabric scraps and clothes I want to convert into something else! I've got so much junk...

~* Quick Update and a couple of Outfits *~

Thanks for your patience everyone! I know it has been forever since I posted to the blog - due to my pregnancy and the baby-bat's birth etc - however there are a great deal of future entries that I've been working on! Stay tuned! I just need time to complete everything and at the moment my baby-bat is not allowing me to do anything, including sleep.

In the mean time, here are a few recent-ish outfits:

I wore this ensemble to a child's second birthday party last year (before I was pregnant of course). In sewing class, I converted a vintage mourning dress into a top and skirt (since I never really wear dresses, I knew I'd get more wear out of it if it was a top and skirt).

With my cardigan on, here is the end result:

And with my cardigan off - you can see the interesting sleeves:

The fabric was sort of cheese-clothy, I can't describe it, but it was really comfortable for the hot weather. I'm also wearing my adorable choker that was handmade by a lovely lady and I purchased it at the Black Market (alternative goth market) last year!

Also, just a couple of weeks ago, I treated myself to an afternoon of delightful thrift shopping (known as opp shopping in Australia) and unearthed splendid stuff: including black eye shadow, a Buffy top, a Mad Hatter top (pictured below), a Lolita style skirt (shown below), & cute gothy shoes for the babybat! Bliss!

You can see how I look post-pregnancy here - obviously I need to lose a fair bit of weight but I haven't been able to exercise for a few months. I hardly have time to even have a shower these days! The challenges of looking after a newborn and a toddler have been a lot more difficult than I thought! Here's hoping things will improve soon so I can function as a human again.

Also, be sure to "Like" my Facebook page where I post interesting, gothy things quite regularly! And please note my new link to Bloglovin!

~* Organising my Wardrobes and House *~

Wow, what a cleansing feeling to finally finish organising my wardrobes and clothes! It has taken me about 8 months to get to this stage since we moved house! Yay, it's done now. The hard part is trying to keep it organised and not throwing my clothes in it sporadically with laziness like I sometimes do.

I have two wardrobes because I have so many clothes (I really need more than two wardrobes, since I don't like to throw things away). I have even labelled areas of the wardrobes for easy access and use. I categorised them in the following way:

This big wardrobe houses all my formal black clothes -- tops (both short sleeve and long sleeve, on hangers together with cardigans), dresses and skirts. On the bottom section I also have my pajamas and lingerie; shoe collection; tights, socks and stockings; as well as underwear. In the top shelves are some of my accessories such as hats, dressing gowns, dress-ups, gloves, masks, scarves, corsetry, handbags and purses...

Close-ups (I really need to find or make pretty containers instead of using the cardboard boxes, but at least it is organised for the time being):

This smaller wardrobe is mainly to house all my non-black (or coloured) clothes as well as all my large coats (with more black tops under them in the hangers); my casual clothes including long sleeve and short sleeve tops and singlet tops; sweaters; cardigan collection for all seasons and other scarves...

Close-ups:

I also organised my accessories (that I keep in my bathroom cupboards) and labelled all my containers so it will be very easy to find a certain item at any time.

Brooches and badges; Wigs and hair extensions etc...

Rings; nail polish etc; fake tattoos and bindis; sunglasses; glitter stuff; make up creams and powders; belts; bracelets; hair clips & accessories; lipsticks; eyeshadows etc...

Ribbons and strips of fabric (can be used for your hair or other decorating - for instance, of hats etc)...

More ribbons...

Make up brushes etc...

Regular / daily use make up for easy access...

I started to organise the study too, but it won't be finished until I get a new filing cabinet or two. I still need to organise the Rumpus Room (my daughter's play room) and the Shed. So still a great deal to get through before babybat #2 arrives! We want to get the house in order before the gothling arrives.

How do you all organise your wardrobes, clothes and accessories? Do you label things and arrange by colour etc? I'm very interested to hear how you all organise your stuff.

~* Pregnant Goth - Recent Outfit of the Day *~

Wow, the time has just gone by so quickly this time around. I can't believe I'm already half-way through the pregnancy. I am 21 weeks in 2 days. I suppose because you are more busy with a toddler and working etc that you just don't notice the time going by so fast. With the first pregnancy, it seemed like it took forever. This time it feels like the time is slipping through my fingers.

Anyway, here are a couple of pregnant goth photos of me from when we went to the beach with my daughter recently - they are from when I was around 13 weeks I think (can't quite remember).

As you can see I'm dressed in very casual goth attire since these days I just don't have the energy to get really dressed up. Also, we were at the beach, so you don't want to be wearing heaps of stuff.
The tent is my brother-in-law's and it was great for me as it kept me protected from the mighty orb.

Of course, the hat and sunglasses are on when I venture out of the tent. I also had a parasol with me somewhere. Yes, I am not a huge fan of the beach. But one must tolerate it if one has a toddler etc. I must admit it was fun to see my daughter frolick in the water, to play with her in the sand and see how happy she was!

Here I am also wearing my comfy skull cardigan (another recent thrift find)!