~* Festive Season Silliness *~

It's been a crazy and busy holiday season so far for us! We are currently renovating the new house we moved into - it is being painted as I type - the exterior and interior - plus lots of other decorating... But more about that in a future post.

The day after my last day at work we took my in-laws and my parents out to dinner to thank them for looking after our daughter so I could go back to work part time! We went to a lovely chinese restaurant and we shouted them all their meals! This is the casual outfit I wore:

As you can see I'm wearing my Tru-Blood t-shirt which I adore!

I also got to go to playgroup with my daughter for the first time (normally I'm at work and my Mum takes her there). That was a fun day. Then at night we went out for dinner with all the ladies at playgroup - it was a lovely evening out.

Here are some outfit photos from The Husband's and his Dad's birthday celebrations (their birthdays are both a couple of days apart so we celebrate them together). We had a BBQ at my mother-in-law's place!

Here you can see I'm wearing my new coffin backpack - I adore it so much! I'm also wearing my new corset-style top with my new sheer blouse (both birthday presents from my sewing friend). It's hot weather here nowadays (Summer)  so I wore my lightweight, sheer long skirt to be more comfortable! I'm also wearing my Emily the Strange skirt brooch that I made myself, and my Summer hat with a handmade headband decorating it.

The next day we went to the beach with my daughter for the very first time. She went in the water, collected shells and made sandcastles and had the best time ever! It was lovely! Then we went afterwards for icecream and drinks. I'm really enjoying this family time!

It was our anniversary of six years of marriage recently - wow - I cannot believe how quickly time flies! We have actually known each other for over 9 years but we've been married for 6. We went to a lovely mexican restaurant for dinner in Chapel Street and then to a cafe for coffee and cake and it was the same cafe we went to on our first date, so it was an enchanting evening and very romantic!

On Christmas Day we went to my Mum's BBQ with some family friends which was fun and the food was delicious! I also watched Nightmare Before Christmas with my daughter - we watch it every year on Christmas Day - our little tradition.

Happy Holidays to you all! More outfit photos to come (I just need to find the time to sort and crop them)!

~* Birthday Merriment, Frankenweenie and Quick Update *~

Sorry as usual for the lack of regular posts, we have been so busy lately (which is to be expected at this time of year I suppose)...

♥ Birthday Merriment ♥:
I honestly can't believe I'm another year older! Where did the year vanish to?

It was my 32^nd birthday (I feel so old!!) and I had many merry moments because it was a lovely, long, *birthday* weekend (I didn’t have to go back to work until Thursday of the following week).



Off to see Frankenweenie to celebrate my 32nd Birthday

To celebrate, we went out for delicious dinner three times; plus several afternoon teas with the family; fun and games at Eleni's 2nd birthday party; a date night to see Frankenweenie (I adored it, especially the character development, voices, animation & the fact it was in black & white -- 8.5/10);

...as well as shopping adventures for gorgeous birthday presents (a cute coffin backpack with PVC bat and a splendid Spin Doctor Victorian skirt ♥) at Victorian Gothic shop in Brunswick St.



Birthday gift 1: This is the gorgeous Spin Doctor Victorian style skirt (from Victorian Gothic)



Birthday Gift #2: This is the PVC Coffin Bat Backpack (from Victorian Gothic)



I can't wait to wear and use my gifts! So excited! Also, a huge thanks to my splendid sewing friends for throwing me a delightful post-birthday soirée in class the other day!

In other news, I have only one assignment left to do and then I will have completed my course - Yay! Nearly there...

Here is what I wore to see Frankenweenie (sorry for the bad photo quality):

My standard Vintage black hat, blouse and skirt with cameo necklace.

Also a pic without my hat on!

~* ::Old Photo of the Day:: Lady in Red *~

Here are a couple of old photos from 2010 when I attended a friend’s semi-casual afternoon wedding. It also displays a bit of the home decor of the place we used to live in (this is the way it looked before we repainted the walls pewter cup grey with shiny black borders and skirting boards etc).

I decided to wear a red and black outfit. As usual, I'm wearing a vintage outfit: a red pillbox hat from a thrift store (or opportunity shop as they are known in Australia); black beaded choker; red rose brooches; vintage cameo; red fishnet top under black top with red-and-black singlet over it; with a tiny red handbag. I'm also wearing one of my all-time favourite velvety skirts (you can slightly see the black and red striped legwarmers underneath).

We still have these antique Victorian chairs - they are ebonised wood from the 1800's with red velvet. I love them but they aren't very practical, especially with a toddler running around the house. We plan on getting another dining room setting very soon as well as other furniture we need. I will write future blog posts about our gothy home decor and renovation plans for our current abode.

We still have this rug also - it took us a long time to find it and decide on it - it has an ornate Victorian-style border and plain black in the centre.

~* Gothic Lolita Style - Recent Outfit of the Day*~

I apologise once again for the lack of posts, it was my birthday recently as well as a long weekend where I live (and also Halloween) so I have been super busy.

Here is a recent outfit I wore to a One-year-old birthday party. It is sort of Gothic Lolita inspired and I am wearing my lovely Retroscope Fashions skirt that I found and purchased at the amazing Black Market (alternative market) back in July this year!

 

I wore my black and white skull socks, high-heeled boots with skull laces, skully-dog badge, fishnet fingerless gloves, my gothic lolita black and cream coloured top, skull lady cameo necklace, tattoo choker, Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas badge, skull shoelaces in my hair, and my floppy hat again (decorated with heart and skull hair clips).

It was a cold day so I got to wear my vintage seond hand military jacket and my skull scarf! This jacket had a button missing so I just put a badge over it instead. It's one of those "Goth and Proud" pins which I think makes the jacket look better! I also wore a cameo ring and various other accessories (I personally don't believe in the "Less is More" philosophy - if it's done right I think More is good)! <3

Do you believe "Less is More" when it comes to fashion and outfits?

~* Polka-Dot Party Decor and Food *~

As promised, here are the photos of some of the decorations and food for our daughter's Polka-dot themed 2nd birthday party (sorry for the delay in posting this)! We went to a bit of effort organising it all and it turned out quite nicely I think! What do you all think?

I created the invites which were black and pink in theme (with polka-dots of course)... For the decorations, I created polka-dot-related posters on the computer and laminated them (the photos are from Google images)... There were also purple and black balloons around the place... On the food table, we had polka-dot straws, polka-dot placemats, polka-dot table cloth and table runners, polka-dot napkins, polka-dot candles for the cake (and for decor), plus polka-dot tea pot, saucer and mugs... For the favours, I put lots of candy and toys into a black and white polka-dot bag that was pegged together with a little ladybird (there were also ladybirds scattered on the table as decor)... In the back yard, we had colourful lanterns and a great deal of CDs (to go with the circular theme) scattered around the garden...

For the food, we tried to include "circular-style" foods such as: fairy bread in circle shapes, chocolate chip cookies, gorgeous hand-decorated cookies made by my brother-in-law's very creative girlfriend, marshmellows, circular candies, cold meats, punch bowl, apple pies, cherry tomatoes and other vegetabes cut in circular shapes, dips with crackers (circular of course), chocolate ripple cake, and a big birthday cake with smarties on top etc.

Activities were mainly just playing with toys and whistles etc, plus we had a lovely family friend doing some entertaining - she made all the children balloon-animals and also sang songs and played music on her guitar etc... Totally awesome indeed!

~* Outfit for My Daughter's Polka-Dot Birthday Party *~

Sorry for the lateness of this post, life has been so busy as it was my daughter's Second birthday party on the weekend and I've been busy organising it as well as other things. We had a Polka-dot themed party and it was a huge success - everyone was thinking circular and had lots of fun with the spots and dots!

Here are some photos of my Polka-dot outfit: I am wearing handmade polka-dot hair ribbons that I sewed myself; fascinator, skull hair clip, polka-dot earrings, polka-dot scarf; polka-dot singlet with my spider-web top underneath...

including my custom-made velvet and satin waist-cincher with a polka-dot belt over the top; silver pearls, a jack skellington badge; two polka-dot skirts on top of each other (layered); and skull tights!

Also wore fishnet gloves, polka-dot bracelets, red and black nail polish (one nail red then one black nail alternating) and fancy rings...

Here is a close-up of my spotty shoes and socks!

In my next post I will focus more on the party decorations and activities etc...

~* Recent Casual Outfit of The Day *~

Sorry for the lateness of this post. Life has been very hectic at the moment but more about that in a future post...

Here is a recent casual outfit of the day from a relaxed Sunday afternoon - going out for lunch at a Hotel Bistro with a group of people...

Most of this outfit is vintage, from a thrift store (except for the Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirt which The Husband bought me one year for our anniversary and the hair clip). I'm wearing a long sleeve skull top under the t-shirt, together with black beaded cardigan and synthetic shiny plastic skirt. The standard jewellery and accessories as I was in a rush!!
Also wearing my high heeled boots with shoelaces that match the shoelaces in my hair (that I often use as ribbons).

Close up of my broken-heart and bones hair clip - from Best and Less department store (one of my favourite shops at the moment).

Close up of the Emily the Strange brooch on my skirt that I sewed myself...