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You are here: Home / Archives for red

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What I Wore: Mad Hatter’s Day/Red and Black Week

June 10, 2011 By Julianne 12 Comments

Happy Mad Hatter’s Day! Despite having a photography student for a sister and studying many an article on the subject, I still suck at taking outfit photos. Proof below, but first!

This is my favourite hat. I think it’s from the 1950s. I have never worn it out. Every time I think about wearing it out, I never end up going to the event I was planning an outfit for. I really struggled to get a picture of it in action – in the end I had to pretend that I was on Myspace circa 2004 and the hat was my face.

It’s in an erm, interesting state of repair. I bought it for £10 in a local vintage/secondhand shop that has since closed down. The feathers are awesome but not in the best condition, some of the rachis have been snapped. There doesn’t seem to be any lace missing, but it’s been torn a bit. When I first got it, it smelled of gravy granules. I am not even kidding. This is not the only vintage hat I’ve had that smelled like that either, it seems to be a thing, stench de gravy granules and vintage hats. But I put my limited edition precious Jungle soap from Lush inside them for a couple of weeks, and now they smell fine.

Grown-up goth blog Sophistique Noir has been hosting a red and black theme week, and I would have, ideally, contributed more than one post, but unfortunately I don’t have many red clothes. Don’t worry, I have already looked at my life AND my choices, and decided to keep both eyes out for more red clothes in future. Seriously, what was I doing? Now if it were purple and black week…or purple and black month…However, I do have red eyeshadow, of course, and my tights box contains three different pairs of Marks and Spencer red tights. I love M&S tights. Every pair comes in at least two different sizes, depending on the style, there many be four – small, medium, large and extra large. Why don’t other shops sell tights in varied sizes? ‘One size’ is the bane of my life. People are not ‘one size’!

On the right are the crazy bright ones, which are the oldest and were purchased when opaque coloured tights had just become fashionable. I used to wear them a fair amount to the students’ union for club nights with otherwise all-black outfits, and of course on Christmas Day, with some green! Still in their packaging are a pair I got last Christmas. They have not emerged from the packet because I have too many pairs of tights ‘on the go’ already. It’s a sickness. A really pleasant sickness. The pair I am wearing in this APPALLING outfit photo (I need to learn to use a tripod, stat) are the second pair I got. They’re darker, therefore more subdued. I usually wear them with purple and black.

This is not a particularly interesting outfit to say the least. But there is red. The camera was balanced on a pile of clothes. My facial expression shows that I knew how this would turn out.

Necklace: Vecona (bought at an Emilie Autumn concert in…2008, I think)
Dress: H&M via charity shop
Tights: M&S
Shoes: Nine West (yeah, there are shoes, scroll down)

I call this dress my ‘goth nurse’ dress as it is probably the closest I will ever get to wearing an actual goth nurse dress (if you like them, more power to you, but really not my thing). It doesn’t fit. It’s perfectly comfortable, but was probably designed for a much shorter woman as the waist section is right under my boobs. Don’t care though, as it’s got pockets at the hips! Gotta love a dress with pockets. Clue #1 that I would never wear this outfit out of the house unless I joined a band or something similar:

These shoes. Nine West size eights (US 10) bought during a sale at Debenhams a couple of years ago. As I’ve mentioned before, Nine West’s eights come up big, so I can sometimes squeeze my feet into them. These are a little small but as they’re strappy it doesn’t matter. I have actually only worn these shoes outdoors once – for one of my sister’s birthday parties. They’re quite comfortable, but most of my friends are significantly shorter than me, whereas my sister is half an inch taller than me. If I wore these clubbing with my friends I couldn’t hear the conversation! Also, I never go anywhere where it would be a good idea to wear these shoes with this dress. The dress is too casual for clubs where I might wear the shoes and the shoes are totally inappropriate for mooching around shops and pubs. To do: join a band.

Clue #2: I’m only wearing one necklace and no other jewellery, and Clue #3, it’s the Vecona Sacred Heart locket, which only leaves the house for Emilie Autumn gigs. I’m afraid of the ribbon magically fraying really quickly or something equally unlikely. If I were going out in this outfit, I would carry this bag, which, of course, came from a charity shop. I do love it, and hope to get a lot more use out of it this summer.

Now on to the make-up! At least I’ve worked out how to take decent pictures of my make-up.

Eyes (based on my current favourite make-up tutorial – I’ve already done a purple version twice):
Gold eyeshadow (inner corner): Sleek Sunset gold
Bronzeish eyeshadow (inner half top lids): Sleek Sunset bronze
Red eyeshadow that applies quite pink on me, your mileage may vary (outer half top lids): Sleek Sunset brightest red, on the right of the black
Red eyeshadow smudged into light application of black eyeliner (lower lids): Sleek Sunset, the red underneath the black in the palette

Lips:
Mix of It Started With A Kiss lip tint from Lush, Rimmel Diva Red lipstick, and Lush’s Let Them Eat Cake (2009 edition) lip balm. I didn’t want to go too bright, mostly because I was about to eat some cheese and I didn’t want to be eating a load of lipstick too, but also partly because I wanted to match the level of red on my eyes.

PS. I remembered that I have a red hat too (also secondhand, retro M&S). MYSPACE TIME!

This one is also in a bit of an interesting condition: it’s angora-fluffy but some of the fluff has worn away in patches. I think it gets away with it though because it’s so RED. Thoughts?

Filed Under: Fashion and Style Tagged With: black, blogs, challenge, cosmetics, eyeshadow, fashion, goth, gothic, hats, inspiration, lipstick, make-up, red, red and black week, Rimmel, Sleek, style, subculture, what I wore

Last Minute Christmas Spirit

December 24, 2008 By Julianne Leave a Comment

Twas the night before Christmas
And I could no longer pretend
That it was still October
The year far from its end

If I’d been prepared I would be now in my bed
While visions of domestic bliss danced in my head
Mamma would be happy, and Papa so pleased
And the holidays would feel just like a breeze

I crept around trying not to make a clatter
I’d be embarrassed if anyone knew what was the matter
“I’m too old for this,” I’d cried, “The magic is gone”
But in my heart, I knew I was wrong

I dug out my old tree; removed red and gold
The bedraggled remains from tinsel of old
Tied ribbons to the branches, draped paper underneath
I had no time to DIY a wreath

I was so hurried, I had to be quick
The thought of missing out made me quite sick
I cut paper snowflakes as I caught up on TV
For a few hours Twitter did without me

Now dashing, now dancing, prancing to the rhythm
Of free Christmas-themed music, that was a given
But I needed inspiration for my Yuletide craft
As I found it online, I happily laughed

“How silly I was, to believe it couldn’t be done,
The season isn’t over, and now I have won
My quick and cheap decorations cheerfully adorn my room
I have cleared away all my pre-Xmas gloom!”

It could be Christmas morning. Or the night before. Afternoon of. Boxing Day. Do not despair, you can still get into the Christmas spirit before it is too late. I speak from personal experience here.

Put Some Music On

Do it, right now. I recommend The Best Christmas Album In The World…Ever! but if you can’t bring yourself to embrace the cheese and/or it’s too late to obtain a copy of said CD, independent music is here for you. Filthy Little Angels have just made their most recent Xmas-themed compilation available to download, check it out here. They have been releasing a Xmas-themed free album every year for a while and you can find all the others, plus more non-seasonal music on this page. If that’s not to your taste, look around, ask your friends, or don’t bother with theming it, just turn up something you like so that you can boogie around and get in a celebratory mood.

Get Costumed

Wearing red and green together usually makes one look like one is celebrating Xmas, no matter what the time of year. Embrace this fact, dress up, then check yo’ fine self out in mirrors as often as possible. If you don’t own red and green clothing, try silver or at least grey instead. Get out those fairy wings, or make them now. Draw holly, Christmas pudding or present boxes on your face with eyeliner. Glitter is an absolute must.

Decorate

This is so easy. First, keep your music on or find yourself some Christmas telly to watch. I recommend that socalist masterpiece Mrs. Santa Claus (she helps child labourers and joins the women’s suffrage movement! Brilliant!). Next get a pile of magazines. You don’t have a pile of magazines? Junk mail will do, ditto newspapers, old wrapping paper, any kind of paper, but try to recycle, and printed matter will look more interesting. Cut out lots of circles of varying sizes, and then make paper snowflakes from them. Don’t remember how to do it? Papersnowflakes.com has more information on them than you can shake a candy cane at. I blue-tacked mine on the corners of my bookshelf and on my mirrors, but try attaching them to banisters and sprinkling them over tables – they’d look especially nice over a plain tablecloth. You can make other shapes as well, and if you like paper chain tutorials are all over the internet, but I find the snowflakes more fun and more modern looking than traditional paper chains. Perhaps you could make a snowflake-chain!

If you have any tinsel, find something unexpected to wrap it around. Get out a tree if you’ve got one and decorate – failing that bring in a dry log and cover it with glitter and surround it with candles for a centre piece. You can even just tie bundles of twigs together with ribbon and hang them about. I have a mini plastic tree, which surprisingly requires some imagination to decorate – most decorations are too small. This year I tied on some blue ribbons that I saved from crackers last year, sprinkled on some bits of tinsel, wrapped a piece of lilac velvet around it, and topped it off with some butterfly hair clips I bought as a teenager. It makes the perfect fairytale tree.

A snowflake made from a ancient supermarket magazine (the chain no longer exists!) adorns my bookshelves. Tree wouldn’t photograph well…will try again tomorrow!

Find A Reason

A reason to appreciate the holiday. If you’re not religious, research the secular traditions of the season. Think of it as laughing in the face of the credit crunch, or as embracing your inner child. Or both at the same time. Maybe you can find joy in the fact that Xmas means a Doctor Who special, and/or in the excuse to eat parsnips – I certainly do. Only engage in this serious thinking after you have done the previous three things – it will be easier if you’ve already cheered yourself up. If you sit down to muse on the meaning of Christmas to you without already being a little bit excited, it’ll be harder to get enthusiastic. Fake it til you make it, baby!

My sister’s guitar gets into the spirit, and the card I made her sits beside it

Make Cards

Even if you don’t actually use these ’til next year, it’s still a fun activity. My sister and I made each other cards, here is mine. It’s inspired by a tutorial in the e-book Stunning and Simple Seasonal Salutations: 10 Holiday Cards in Ten Steps or Less, which you can download for free, thanks to the lovely peeps at Artella.

Featuring 10 beautiful handmade cards, complete with photos and descriptive “how-to” instructions, showcasing a variety of techniques such as rubber stamping, collage, and innovative paper and mixed media arts. Download your copy here!

Make Gifts

Okay, so it’s too late to make it to the shops, which leaves you with few options:
1. Gift certificates that can be e-mailed to the person
2. Make something

The first option you should be able to manage by yourself! A great collection of tutorials to help you craft Xmas gifts can be found at Sew, Mama, Sew! Here is the Handmade Holidays 2008 list.

But let’s take a moment to be realistic. What can you make that is cheap, relatively quick, and created from, erm, ingredients that you actually have in your home? That’s right. Food. Biscuits and cakes in particular. Check the contents of your cupboard, and return to the internet to get recipes.

If you have any spare notebooks, decorate them for emergency gifts, or offer your practical skills as presents, you can easily design and print or hand decorate vouchers for your own services. Bargain Queen Meg has more ideas.

Make Drinks

You in the mood yet? If so, great, top off the cheer with an appropriate tipple or two. If not, this should do the trick!

I love mulled wine. This is Delia’s version, which I’m sure works very well, but personally I like to be a bit more experimental. Basically simmer for at least 20 minutes (I do it for longer so that I can taste-check) a combination of the following things: red wine, cinnamon (stick or ground), mixed spice, nutmeg, cloves, apple juice, orange juice, lemon juice, bits of the fruit instead of/as well as the juice. You can put water in as well if you want it to go further, and sugar if you like it sweet. I like to taste it as I go and add extra bits of anything I feel doesn’t have a strong enough presence. You can top up the alcohol after it’s done with gin or fruit liqueur, or alternatively you can use cranberry juice instead of red wine for a alcohol-free version. Or use cranberry juice and then add other alcohol once it’s heated. But one of the greatest things about mulled wine is that you can use the most hideous 3 for £10 wine and simply add plenty of juice to water down the strong taste of cheap!

“The cards are made, and given away,
I think I deserve some mulled wine today”
Merrily I cried, after sampling this delight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Chrismukkah, Christmas, costumes, crafting, DIY, food, green, interior decorating, Last Minute Christmas Spirit, Merry Christmas from The Dark Side, parties, red, the dark side, Winterval, Xmas

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Hi! I'm Julianne and I have so many different passions I have to be relentlessly organised to keep track of them all! On this blog I document my current obsessions and share my tips for juggling multiple interests while maintaining your creative energy. I believe that advanced planning brings advanced peace of mind - so join me, and plan to succeed in everything you do! More...

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