DIY Vest~ Work in Progress

Hello! It's been a while hasn't it? Partly because with summer here I've been fairly busy. Apparently 'vacation' is my cue to do lots of work around the house because my brain is no longer being crushed by math and the like. Also partly because my little brother managed to get our 'screen privileges' taken away from us for a fair amount of time. Granted, I spend a lot of time in front of my computer or ps3, but I never instigate these things! He does! *huffs*

Anyway, I have all of these patches that I've made lying around and I can never make up my mind as far as which item of clothing they should be attached to. I think it's because I've been holding out for a new leather jacket or blazer to customize, but since the thrift stores have been woefully empty I've begun to look at some of the pieces I already own. Considering how much I wear this black vest I'm sure you've all realized how much I love it. I was looking at it the other day and decided that if I were to customize it a little, a whole bunch of my go-to outfits would be a million times more fun. As a result, my vest is going to become very decorative, very soon.

You can't really tell, but there's a bat right in the middle of that coffin.
He's very cute, and I'm rather proud of that patch.

This is the layout I'm most fond of at the moment, though I'd consider changing the bat patch on the back with a Bauhaus one I recently made. I'm not really sure yet. Either way, I think I'll be hand sewing these on. I cannot for the life of me work the sewing machine and trust me, I've tried multiple times. I don't really know how to hand sew, but as long as my mom shows me the basics I'll be fine. Slow and steady wins the race, and I'm pretty handy as long as machines aren't involved. Technology is surprisingly not my area, unless it's my ps3 or perhaps something on the computer I'm interested in. Anyway, this way I can turn on the TV. Wish me luck!

On another note, I've been eying this coat from Fanplusfriend for a while, and it's appearance in one of my Red and Black Week posts has made my desire to buy it even greater. I'm going to work a bit next week at my parents' business in order to earn the money, but I'd also like to know what everyone thinks of Fanplusfriend. The coats in particular obviously. I've heard both good and bad things about the site, and I don't want to be unhappy with my purchase, especially since it's so expensive (And the shipping *shudders*). It's made of wool and I would probably fit very nicely into one of their non-custom sizes, but I can't seem to find many reviews on their coats. Help me out? Is it worth it? If not, then I'll probably end up purchasing a lovely skirt from Gloomth. But my heart is set on that coat.

The back-up plan~

It's already going to be difficult convincing my parents to let me buy the coat since Fanplusfriend is situated in China. They don't use child labor from what I can tell, but my family is very against buying things from places such as China as long as there's that chance. *sighs* Which makes it even more important that the coat is worth the money. Therefore, I defer to your judgement, lovely readers of mine ^^

30 Day Clothing Challenge~ Day 18 and 19

Day 18 is a piece of jewelry you made.

Well the one piece of actual jewelry I've made broke some months ago and since it wasn't salvageable (The whole choker unraveled) it ended up in the trash... So I'm afraid that while I do some DIY from time to time I don't have any actual jewelry. You've already seen my headbands and scarf so I'm ging to leave this without a picture.

Day 19 is all of your necklaces and bracelets. Let's see... my bracelets are all clumped together in a drawer with any gloves I own. I know, I know, not very organized, but as long as I can find things I'm content.

My necklaces were facing a similar situation until a few weeks ago, but unlike my bracelets I was constantly untangling these and cleaning the tarnish off any silver left in the bathroom. I went and bought a board I could hang them on. It's great because now I can actually keep track of all of them.

And here's yesterday's outfit. I had a bit of trouble sneaking this one past the school administrators because it's jut a tad too short for dress code, but this dress has lain in my closet unused for far too long. I put on a pair of tights and made sure to walk behind them at all times. It's a good thing they're normally wearing blue jackets ^^

And then later we went out to eat so I changed my jacket. The good thing about my almost entirely black closet is that everything always goes together. No matching problems for me! (The only problem I have is when I want to wear my boots with the gold buckles, and therefore can't wear any of my jewelry because it's all silver...)

I love the shoulders on this.

 Now I'm off to listen to David Bowie's new album, which is fantastic in my opinion. Especially considering how it could have turned out. Sometimes when older artists go and make new albums after so many years they turn out less than stellar, but Bowie is still strong and doing his own thing. It's great. There are very few songs on the album that I skip when listening to it and everyone should go give it a listen as soon as possible. I just....I love Bowie so much it's ridiculous.

New Hair

Well I'm just changing everything lately aren't I? One of my resolutions this year was to do something a bit more adventurous with my hair, and now I can scratch that off of my list. I wanted to get rid of some hair so I basically walked into the salon and told my hairstylist to chop it all off. She was terrified, but I think she did a great job despite her...reservations XD I went black because I wasn't too fond of the brown my previous color had faded to and I'm so happy I did. I think it suits me much better. My dad continues to lament over the loss of my blonde hair, but he's going to have to suck it up and get used to this, because I don't see it disappearing any time soon.

 I can't stop running my fingers through my short hair, it's such a foreign concept ^^

This is a super short post because honestly I just wanted to show you my new hair. Now I'm off to go watch Megamind with my little brother (I don't normally like animated movies, but that one cracks me up. It's fantastic.) I'll just spam you with pictures of my last outfit to make this seem longer ;)

By far one of my favorite jackets

We had a weirdly cold day, which means I could wear gloves~

30 Day Clothing Challenge~ Day 14: An Outfit you Wish you Had

 An outfit I wish I had? Geez, I don't really know here to start with this one. There are so many! Not to mention, now I have to go hunt them down.

*5 minutes*

Well! Here's a decent list of a few of the outfits that have caught my fancy in the past, and were actually laying about my desktop. They've been there so long I'm not sure where I got most of them, so I'm afraid I can't credit the models on the ones I should. If you know who some of the people are, drop me a line and I'll add their name and link to something of theirs.

Obviously a clothing brand.
I covet so much of their things.

That Jacket...

Good ol' deathrock

I would kill for his jacket.
I will never have enough jackets.

This. All of it.

Jacket...

That hat is so lovely.

So as you can see there's a lot of romantic type things with a small dash of deathrock and a healthy amount of Japanese influenced fashion, specifically Gothic Aristocrat. I love all of it so much and if I had money...well, you should see my wishlist.

On a little note before I go, does anyone in the U.S. remember that Buzz Lightyear show that aired years and years ago? The other day it just popped into my head and I remembered watching it when I was little. The only reason I remembered it actually, was because someone mentioned Nosferatu and my brain made a little connection I had never gotten as a kid. My favorite character in the show was a robotic vampire. He was British and snarky and very dapper for a robot. (Really! He had a monocle!)

 And get this.

His name was NOS-4-A2.

As you can imagine, I had a bit of a giggle over that.

Weekend in Tampa

I've just realized how behind I am on posts this month. It's all Tumblr's fault! I swear! I refresh my dashboard and suddenly there's enough to keep me occupied for another hour. Of course, being the fangirl I am it turns into several hours and then it's time for bed... *sigh*

This weekend my mom had a triathlon in Tampa so we drove up and spent the weekend there. When we were at a restaurant one of the waitresses with black hair rushed up to me and gushed non-stop about how she'd never seen someone else there (In that specific restaurant) with a Bauhaus shirt and how she'd seen Peter Murphy in concert like 22 times (She might have exaggerated a bit...) ....and then she ran back to work before I could comprehend that I had actually met another goth.  I didn't even get the chance to speak. Damn.

I like Tampa, I really do. People there are so much more open minded than the ones in the Orlando-ish area. I suppose some of it might have to do with the fact that there's a club called The Castle that has a Goth night that seems really cool. And don't hold me to this, but I'm fairly certain Razor Candi used to do something there on Friday nights. Why aren't I clubbing age again? *shakes fist angrily*

Here's a video I found about the club. Just in case anyone is ever around Tampa and wants something to do. All in all, for being an interview for the news this is pretty good.

Now have two outfit posts/pictures of me trying to not be blinded by the sun. The daystar and I are mortal enemies who have been at war for years. I'm losing. If you could see my tan from band....yikes.

I...don't like the beach.

My new band jacket from Trash and Vaudeville.

Do you see my roots coming in there? I'm getting my hair re-dyed this weekend. I'll either keep going blond or go a really, really dark brown. (Because I don't want to go straight to black) I'm a bit conflicted because I've been blond all my life (albeit, not quite that blond) and I'm trying to gather the courage to try something new. We'll see. I just need to make up my mind by the weekend.

Finally, I was browsing the interwebz and came across this interview which just about made my day. Some of the biggest icons of Goth sitting around and discussing Goth. Why have I not seen this before?

30 Day Clothing Challenge~ Day 8 + Spirit Week

Day eight is your most expensive piece of clothing. My most expensive item has got to be the leather jacket I bought last summer. It was new and the leather is amazing quality so I think the $200 is justified. The store had lots of different designs and believe me when I say I wanted all of them, but I ended up sticking with the classic moto jacket.

That right there is my 'school has mentally exhausted me' face.
Nearly nonexistent, melted makeup included.

I can't wait to start customizing it. My mom won't let me paint it until I've worn it out a bit. Apparently I shouldn't 'ruin' such a nice new jacket, but I'll at least be able to stick some band pins on there.

This week at my school has been Spirit Week and everyone's been dressing up. It's been pretty awesome actually. If you'd like to see my costumes so far...

Monday was Hero day so obviously I came as a villain. I sort of threw together this Harley Quinn outfit at the last minute. Unfortunately, my hair isn't quite long enough to do her pigtails which would have really completed the outfit. The mask is made entirely out of liquid eyeliner. Let me tell you, that was not fun to get off before marching rehearsal. What I hated about this day was that there were a million Batmans. Batmans everywhere. I would be fine with this if they actually knew something about Batman and weren't just people that jumped on the bandwagon after Batman Begins and The Dark Knight movies. While it was once 'nerdy' to like Batman now it's 'cool', but only if you're referring to the new movies. Don't get me wrong, I love those movies, but I hate how people have latched on to the fandom without bothering to learn about it's past.

Tuesday was sports day so I skipped that. I didn't even entertain the idea of hunting down one of those awful jerseys. Wednesday though, was secret identity day. No one really knew what to do with this one so we improvised. Some really handsome guy was the JOKER. Classic Joker too, not TDK Joker. I spent the nest hour lamenting over the fact that he hadn't dressed up on Monday so I could have had a Mr. J to pretend to latch on to/fawn over/glomp unashamedly. (And also repeating to myself under my breath 'Megan that is not attractive. Megan, it's not attractive' to no avail. Stupid fangirl urges. *sigh*)

I had planned on making a Slenderman costume for this, but I didn't have time to get to the store to finish it (It was so close to being finished too!) I dug around and found the gas mask we bought at Skycraft a long time ago and wore that instead. I guess my secret identity is a time traveling WWI soldier?

I don't wear that jacket too much. I think it's because I have some stupid preconceived notion that because I'm already blond wearing the green makes me look 'not gawth enough'. *shrugs* I've decided to dye my hair black soon, but I'm still going to force myself out of that way of thinking.

Finally, today was Throwback day. I was going to go as some incarnation of David Bowie, (Probably Aladdin Sane) but I lacked the materials and ended up as well, myself really. I hadn't had a chance to wear this jacket yet anyway and it's certainly at least a century out of style so it counts ^^ Also, less makeup than normal and having my hair swept back was a weird change from my typical styling.

Tomorrow is crazy blue and white day, but I won't do much more then wear my band shirt (mandatory on Fridays...) because honestly, I don't own any blue (and very little white) and even if I did I would feel uncomfortable and not myself wearing it. Spirit week really is fun though. It gives everyone a chance to show off and be creative. I'm opting out of Homecoming for Halloween Horror Nights this weekend so I'll let you know how that is once I've gone.

Friday the 13th! And Jackets!

Happy Friday the 13th Everyone! :D This is gonna be a pretty short post actually because my relatives are visiting from Sweden...and I apparently need to socialize more? I'm in denial. So first things first...I bought a new jacket on Ebay. Yes, another one...you know those people that have a million pairs of shoes?

 Heh, well I'm the person that has a million jackets, and no use for them because of the intense, makeup-melting, goth-toasting heat down here. I don't really care though. Jackets are the best item of clothing in the world. (well, then there are corsets and boots and...I'll stop now...) But now I have another lovely item to add to my collection. *cue happy dance*

Here it is :3

Too bad I can't use it until next winter... *sigh*

There's also this one that I plan on buying.

Stripes! I love stripes!

Ebay is my best friend. Seriously. This is just so Beetlejuice-esque! (Because that's obviously a real word) I must have it. I just adore short jackets for some reason. Who am I kidding? I adore all kinds of jackets.

And Finally....

I would kill for this. I really would.

This beauty is found at lovechildboudoir's Etsy shop if anyone is interested. I just don't have the money. Everything in that shop is gorgeous but most of it is over my measly price limit.

On the subject of clothes, I wore a new dress to school today. None of my dresses are in "dress code" (meaning the shoulder straps must be four fingers across) so I haven't bothered. But I went shopping the other day and found a short-sleeved bolero and now I can wear them! I would put up a picture if my phone wasn't being stupid. I'll figure it out. I promise.

However at school I got a comment from a friend that made me stop in my tracks. She said that it was "weird" that I had been wearing so many skirts, and now a dress, because "Goths don't wear that. They only wear black jeans and stuff."
...
...
...
... when exactly did this happen? I didn't realize we were limited to pants. I'd obviously better go correct my wardrobe right away.

She didn't mean anything by it and I still love her to death but this lack of knowledge of the subculture sent me on a half hour long, detailed rant. She is now thoroughly educated. I'm not sure if she's thanking me. I just wonder where all these assumptions actually come from...

Anyway, a final note. I used to play a game called AQWorlds. Anyone know it? I still go on occasionally, to indulge my inner nerd, but I just don't have the time to keep up with the constant updates. However, I always tune in every Friday the 13th. Wanna know why? Voltaire does a live thing with them! So I'll be spending the night listening to his wonderful sarcastic self. This makes me very happy.  *happy dance again*

I've been re-watching Buffy again so today I'll leave you with this amusing picture :3