One hundred

One hundred blog posts down, can-never-know-how-many to go! Quite a lazy pace for a blog started at the very end of 2010, but well, I don't think I have to make excuses...

And one of the reasons why I don't update so often is the fact that I prefer to have some photos for the posts, but don't always have something interesting to show. And even though I love photography, I really hate taking photos of myself, it's so troublesome and difficult... Setting up a tripod and playing with the timer and all. :/ Either way, I did bother to take some photos of yesterday's outfit.

But I don't bother to put enough effort in these photos to make my wallpaper pattern match or something. :> Anyway, I had absolutely nothing to do, but I did leave the apartment dressed like this, something a bit peculiar of me. It was a nice, sunny day, but it wasn't too warm, and wearing that grey sweater was quite a good choice! It kept me warm enough but didn't leave me suffocating! The red skirt is actually a tube dress, buttoned up at the front, and most of the time I wear it without a shirt to hide it (though often with some top underneath). However, I have contradictory feelings about it... Even though it's short and can expose a lot of skin, it's not very elegant for such occasions that might call for a tiny dress. In my opinion, it's not particularly feminine, more girlish.

The shoes are nice canvas heels which are quite comfortable to wear! The only "problem" is that they're too big for me and cannot be tied tight enough. Insoles make the situation better though, I can actually walk without the shoes turning and twisting in my feet.

I also wore my hair in a very unusual way, a half braid, the bottom half open. Anything besides two braids (or pigtails) or a ponytail is exceptional for me, I'm not too good at making hairdos and I don't think my head is cut out for it either. :/

Perhaps this will do for my semiannual outfit post, let's see when we'll have another. :D So long!

Harnessing my superpowers

♫ Guardians of Time – Altered in Red

At the end of last year, I thought I could give myself sort of a Christmas present and since I had managed to find something after a long search, I placed an order online and began to wait with excitement...

I thought I had finally found a steampunk-style harness in a nice color, in my size and at a reasonable price. And knowing that new customs regulations would come into effect at the beginning of 2013 (which would result in online shoppers having to pay VAT in Finland more often), I didn't hesitate to buy the harness.

And things didn't go quite as planned. The harness was shipped particularly fast (=in 15 minutes!) in 2012 but unfortunately enough, it arrived in 2013 and got stuck at customs, and I had to pay the VAT. Damn. And then, even though the product turned out to be otherwise as described, it was more or less too "big" for me. Okay, not exactly loose, but certainly not very snug like it probably should be. I guess I can still wear it, maybe with some thicker fabric underneath...

The angle certainly flatters my arm!

The color is a nice grey – I guess it might be the best for me since most of my clothes are black, and a black harness wouldn't stand out well enough. I had thought about brown, but hesitated since I don't have any brown leather / suede / faux leather / faux suede items. (The harness is made of faux suede.) The lovely details include antique keys and some gears hanging on silver chains.

I hope I can put it into good use although it doesn't quite fit so perfectly. :x It's too cute to be left to gather dust in my wardrobe.

If I had some wishes...

♫ Axxis, Lakonia – Take My Hand

Some people have posted some Christmas wishlists in their blogs, so well, I thought I could make one too. I'm not sure why, maybe in order to tell myself what I'm truly dreaming of, matter-wise... 

The thing is, I could say I'm not getting Christmas presents. Or maybe one or two, but it's not like I would be asking for anything. Then again, I'm only giving one or two presents too. This, because we have made an agreement with the family not to buy any presents. Our Christmas celebrations consist of food and peace (and some drinks) and more food... And it's completely alright. I cannot say I ever really needed everything I used to get. Well, fortunately most of the things I ever got were at least nice or useful. But still, most people don't really need so much matter. It was always a pain to come up with something for cousins and aunts, and parents of course... Not to mention my brother.

I barely get any presents for any other reason either, let alone without a reason, but I really don't mind. Giving presents is nice, but mostly just when you really find something the recipient will truly appreciate. But this said, whenever I want something special, I'll have to purchase it for myself.

Now that I'm making a wish list, I decided to include only such things that I could accommodate at the moment – only realistic wishes, excluding fancy furniture, ponies, pirate ships, climbing frames (yeah, for myself), puppies, TVs, gaming consoles and such things.

An Ikea shelf, one that could be attached to a wall. This goes hand in hand with my next wish, because I would need some extra surfaces near my desk. Ever since my hobbies started taking up a lot of space, I couldn't place any more pieces of furniture on the floor, so I have to climb higher. I would put this above my desk. The shelf is quite massive indeed, and I haven't decided whether I want the dark one or the grey brown – would have to see them live to decide which suits my current furniture color better.

Recently I figured life would be easier with a printer of my own. I've never had one. I would need to print occasional Important Documents and every now and then some graphic proofs, which means I would need a color printer. And I don't know, probably a laser one, since I'm afraid I wouldn't use an inkjet printer enough so that the ink cartridges wouldn't dry out... If you have a good printer, I'm willing to hear some recommendations! 

...a bottle of Kraken rum. Yeah, I have a thing for rum bottles, ones which are piratey in some way... And I've been drooling over the Kraken bottle for quite a while. Unfortunately, the product is not available in Finland, so I'm in trouble. Even though I'm a rum drinker, I'm not even so interested in the contents, just the fancy bottle design and the label! My rum bottle collection will never be complete without this one. :(

Of course I need to wish for something even more vain than a bottle of rum – a pair of shoes by Zign. The brand is from Berlin, maybe that's why I fancy these shoes? Who knows, maybe I'll consider...

So yeah dear Santa, you know I've been good, right? And one more thing, I wish I got a nice job. I wouldn't even have been this lazy if I had one. So yeah, dear Santa, I've been a very good girl, rrrright?

All images © their respective brands

Socks to be me // Monthly theme post

Woah, Sophistiqué Noir threw a very interesting blogging challenge this time, and I barely even had the time to do anything! In the past I may have put quite a lot of effort into these theme posts, this time I took a few photos quickly as I have to concentrate on another design project again. And that's too bad, since the theme, hosiery, is quite close to my heart!

Since I only wear pants when exercising, I have quite a collection of hosiery. I don't wear fancy stuff daily because I'm good at ripping delicate stockings and tights, not to mention that I just bought several pairs of thick and warm tights for the winter... Instead, summer months are a real golden age to me since I get to wear short skirts and provocative stockings. That's probably the cornerstone of my style to begin with!

Because I really don't have so much time to spend on this post, I'm only showing off a few of my most favourite pieces or ways to wear hosiery. And they will be accompanied by some lyrics by Emilie Autumn, who is certainly quite a stocking idol for me (yet still I have never mimed her style...).

 I admit it; I'm not a very decent girl. My absolute number #1 trademark and cornerstone of my style in summertime is wearing certain overknee socks and a garter belt, with a short skirt so that they show. (Some evidence shows that I've been doing this ever since I was seventeen.) Although I own many socks and a few garter belts, I have certain favourite ones to be paired like this. It's comfortable for me, and good-looking. It's cool enough, yet covers the bruises I have. :D And I know; it looks either damn good or damn tasteless. I'm all for the first option. I may pair them with such casual clothes that I may not look particularly slutty. However, I know I can highlight the best part of my body by wearing those, a short skirt and high heels. Then my legs seem long, and people ignore all the flaws I have.

Very long socks with round holes all the way up! These are funny and quite eye-catching as well. (It was damn difficult to stand on my shoulders and take a photo though.)

Last but not least, some simple socks with vertical stripes. Long ago I was one of those who liked stockings with horizontal stripes, then I got a feeling they make my legs seem shorter. And well, not longer at least for sure. Vertical stripes are classy and quite easy to pair with some different patterns.

Summer in Berlin, it's alright PART V

♫ Freedom Call – We Are One

I think this may be the final Berlin post – well, unless my babbling becomes so uncontrollable that I had better make another post for it. So be prepared to read something inconsistent, I suppose the only properly introduced tourist tip will be...

East Side Gallery
There is not much left of the Berlin Wall, but East Side Gallery is a spot with 1.3 kilometers of the original wall. The eastern side of the wall was decorated by artists from all over the world in 1990, and it is sort of a memorial for freedom. Most of the paintings are more or less political, many of them referring to the wall itself. And the other side of the wall, basically the no-man's-land part, is full of traditional graffiti. :>

The gallery is located near the River Spree, on Mühlenstraße, near Ostbahnhof train station. Besides the art and the original wall, there's not much else to see on the spot. However, the mere wall would have been enough for me, I'm somehow so fascinated by it.

The graffiti side of the wall, as well as the first photo.

A cute graffiti.

Graffiti side, but damn – if this was authentic, it would be very impressive.

The gallery side

Okay, that was it for the East Side Gallery. I shall... talk about how I liked Berlin. Hopefully I can keep it short. In brief: I really fell in love with Berlin. Many big cities may fascinate me, but Berlin was just as awesome as I had expected it to be. And well, I don't like just any big city. I don't like Helsinki at all, although it is the biggest city in Finland (apologies to you who live there; I cannot quite explain why I don't like it).

A piece of wall near Potsdamer Platz

Berlin felt like home instantly. It was so strange, but not alienating at all. It was so easy to move there, so easy to find whatever you were looking for (except for good and cheap record stores, oh well). While some people say Berlin isn't beautiful, I would say it's interesting. There are beautiful buildings and ugly buildings, but it's much more interesting than a city with merely neutral architecture.

At Tiergarten train station

And I don't really speak German, I've forgotten everything I studied in two years in elementary school. :( I wish I hadn't though, I have learnt to like the language later on. But you can manage with English. And I felt very secure in Berlin. Seriously, I would dare to go there all alone and move about and trust that nothing too bad would happen and I wouldn't get too badly lost either.

Tiergarten

And now, in this situation, Berlin may seem more like a safe haven to me. I want to go back, I want to experience it again in a different way (probably in a more laid-back way this time; we were pretty much running from one place to another, though I liked it too, but didn't have much time to sit still and wonder, enjoy and feel...). I want to return to those moments when I felt that my dream had come true. Those moments when I felt so very happy. And then, like I already told you, on the day of my return I got to hear I would be temporarily laid off of work. And here I am still, looking for work, getting depressed without a single invitation to a job interview, feeling anything but confident about myself, feeling frustrated when days go by and I don't feel that I've accomplished anything. Then I just dream of Berlin, dream of the vacation I had, and occasionally even think of moving there – why, I don't know. I still don't speak German and I don't know what I could do in Berlin or how I could make a living over there when it doesn't seem to succeed in Finland either. It just gives me a feeling of so much better a place than, well, this.

Potsdamer Platz

However, at the end of the vacation I was happy to go home. My feet were so extremely sore that I couldn't have survived another day exploring the city, no matter how much I would have wanted. Each step hurt, but what was even worse was standing still. I had had two pairs of flats which I mostly wore there. While one pair was so soft that they couldn't possibly rub the feet uncomfortably, the other pair wasn't so nice on feet to begin with. The worst thing though was having such thin shoe soles. The shoes provided my feet with about just as much protection as walking the streets of Berlin barefoot would have. That left my foot bones sore after each long day spent mostly on our feet, and a short night spent resting didn't let them recover. Eventually I woke up to each morning with aching feet, and it took me several days to recover afterwards. Lesson learnt: good shoes do have thick soles for a reason.

A bridge across Spree near Schloss Bellevue

A detail in a work of art near Europa Center

I have yet to show what I actually purchased in Berlin, although I already showed a photo of the stuff I bought at Brandenburger Tor. Very well – we didn't really have much time to go shopping, but it's alright. I might have wanted to find some clothes or shoes, but maybe next time. I did end up trying some in one clothes store, being so much in awe by the fact they had size 32. In the end none of the fitting clothes pleased my eyes, and the only ones that did were a pair of, should I say, denim hotpants, which were just a bit too tight. Sucks.

I got a German flag, because I kinda like to own such to remind me of where I've been (not that I'd ever buy another one if I visited Germany again). Funnily enough, I don't own the flags of most countries I've visited... I wanted to buy two postcards with DDR related messages. At the TV tower I bought a tote bag which is quite a perfect carrier for my training gear. Yellow was quite an exceptional color choice for me, but the other option was green. I would have bought a T-shirt with that print if they had had my size! Then I got a small Hard Rock Cafe Berlin goblet, to remind me I've visited that place too, hahah. I had wished I could find a record store selling good and cheap German metal records, but that was too much to ask. I'd thought they'd have a lot of discounts for (a few years) old domestic CDs, but nah. :/ The only CD I bought was Powerwolf's Lupus Dei, not a bad find though. Finally, I found a pair of fancy fishnet tights for 4.99€ (and as a Finn I got dumbfounded when the clerk gave me one cent in exchange for my five euro bill).

Oh but I'm a Finn and I visited Germany? Must bring home some booze... This may make me seem like an alcoholic or something, which I certainly am not, but oh... Captain Morgan. I just had to get bottles which aren't available in Finland! The most important thing for me to find was a bottle of Captain Morgan Original Spiced Gold, which wasn't available in Finland until... I don't know? During the trip I still thought there was none available here, but a few days ago I found out 0.5 liter bottles are sold here as well – but as far as I know, they haven't been available for long. I'm not sure if it is good or bad news for me – I happened to fell in love with Original Spiced Gold and if it's too easy for me to get my hands on it, then... Seriously! It smells like candy and tastes like candy! And yes, on its own. The Black Label bottle was my tax free purchase, probably for the sake of getting a one-liter bottle to my piratey collection of, err, Captain Morgan containers. And the can with a mix of Captain&Cola was an awesome find – why don't they have such mixes in cans in Finland, especially not in grocery stores? Oh yeah, our alcohol policies are so strict. :( When some people cannot use it in a wise way, those who do (like me, believe it or not, see what I said here) get to suffer as well.

Okay, the end of my Berlin series is drawing near. I hope you enjoyed reading the stories – and thank you all who did! If you want to ask something about the city, I'd happily try to answer. So long!

May today become the day

♫ Winter's Verge – Old Man's Wish

...the first day of the rest of my life, nothing more fancy this time. I'm sorry I've been silent here, I cannot even say I've been busy, just lazy. And my actual posting ideas have been lacking a bit of this and that, so if you were looking for some interesting content... keep waiting. :D

I'm only updating to whore out myself some interesting bits of my style. And to try out some new ways to arrange photos in my entries, let's see if I can make these look good or even different to begin with. The process to renew and constantly improve my blog layout is, well, never-ending.

I thought about creating one of these funny reflected image collages, but then I ended up taking the easy route! This, because I have been photoshopping enough today and I'm going to work tomorrow! In order to gain an extra day off...

Anyway, the outfits! First, the one on the left – I had been looking for such a skirt for ages! I wanted to find a skirt with an underbust waistline, but it didn't turn out easy at all. Eventually I put up a message on a gothic flea market on Facebook, and much later one kind person offered their old skirt to me. The skirt had originally been the size L, but the previous owner had made it smaller to fit the size XS. Perfect! I had wanted one such skirt because I figured it would flatter my figure, the long back which doesn't always need to seem as long as it is. Last Sunday we went to see some dance performances (it was International Dance Day!) and I wore that skirt with a *gasp* red shirt. The shirt is not new, but I haven't been wearing much color lately.

And on the right I'm showing off my outfit of the day, what I wore to work today. I have a shirt and a skirt, not a dress, but I like those extremely simple and comfortable clothes quite a lot and feel good wearing them. The shoes I'm wearing in both photos are pure love as well, I just recently got a chance to start wearing them again after the winter. These photos don't flatter the shoes unfortunately, the heels don't even seem as high as they are.

By the way, someone could teach me to pose. I didn't know whether I should have laughed or cried when I transferred the photos from my camera. Uh-oh, one day at work my colleague jokingly introduced me to some guy (possibly a photographer) as "our graphic designer with a model's body" (this, because they were both men and shorter than me when I was wearing those shoes). (And in fact I don't have a real model's body either.) I just cannot seem to pose for photos without either standing too still or seeming to be overdoing it. :D And I assure you, I picked out the least ridiculous ones.

I've also purchased a new piece of ear jewellery. It's a dragon tailbone wrapping around the whole ear. It's quite funny, though it's shaped in such a way that you have to get a different piece for the left and the right ear. I only got one because my other ear has several piercings. Too bad I tend to wear my hair somehow covering that ear most of the time! :D Yet I guess that piece is for special occasions and special hairdos. I feel a bit bad for not choosing the octopus tentacle piece though! It would have been pirate credible, but I thought it didn't look as nice as the dragonbone. :x I feel I'm a bad pirate. So long!

P.S: I couldn't provide any interesting content to go with the topic, which is Sentenced's song. But then I figured Evil Masquerade's song "A Great Day to Die" would do here! Unfortunately, I couldn't find it on Youtube. I'm not sure I'm going to die today either, I would need to hurry up anyway, only less than half an hour left of this day.

Finding fashion in virtual wardrobes

♫ Freedom Call – Starlight

I've been thinking of making a blog post about my extremely girlish online hobbies, and now I got the ignition to do it. At first I'm going to introduce you to Poupeegirl, which is a Japanese fashion community and game, sort of. Basically, it has two purposes; showing off your clothes by posting photos of them and commenting on other people's photos; and dressing up your own poupee, your avatar, which often tries to represent the user behind the vector doll.

Meet Raphael ragdoll, my poupee, whose looks are loosely based on mine (yeah, I've dyed her hair when I've dyed my own) and whose clothes are based on what I could imagine wearing in real life if I had the chance. Part of the fun is dressing up your avatar once a day and taking a snapshot of it – one of the actions which earns you some virtual currency which you can waste on poupee clothes.

A screenshot of my poupee home page UI. This is actually not the profile page view, but you can go to see it here. I've been using poupeegirl quite long – for a bit over four years, I think. The site is five years old. I would have checked out when I actually joined, but their calendar system didn't work properly. To be honest though, the technology behind the service (*cough*Flash*cough*) is quite shaky, so... No wonder.

Yet the service is still quite fun to use, although I've been somewhat lazy lately, yet still taking snapshots. It's become a habit, sort of. If some of my readers are already using poupeegirl, feel free to add me as a friend there – however, please drop me a message, I don't add everyone back by default.

The pros and cons of the site:

+ Most of the content is in English these days as well – yet you can amuse yourself with some occasional Engrish. Would you like to see my "race-up" boots?

+ A vast variety of different alternative styles is represented in the community, yet it may be difficult to find the goths among the gyarus.

+ Users have very inspirational styles.

+ The avatars can easily be dressed up in alternative fashion as well.

– Most of the brands listed in service are either Japanese or particularly popular in Japan. However, one can enjoy the service without browsing the listed brands.

– Poupeegirl staff is (or at least was) known to be strict and probably difficult to communicate with in English. The rules regarding photo posting are strict, which is also good, but you gotta be careful not to post copyrighted material, photos showing people, items in wrong categories... 

– Most users leave boring comments such as "♥".

Today I found another fashion service on the internet; Dressipi.com. It's not a community like poupeegirl, but rather a personal tool for finding fashion items which might be perfect for you, based on your preferences, color choices, body type etc.

I wanted to give it a try although I had a feeling it might not have much to offer for someone like me who's not into high fashion but strongly into alternative stuff, and to some extent I seem to have been right. I started out by letting the service know this and that about me; my height, weight, body type, eye and hair color... And then I answered some extremely difficult questions about what kind of styles I might be interested in. It was easy to choose the option "I work in a creative industry" rather than "I'm a stay-at-home mum", but choosing my favorite brands from their lists was difficult since I didn't even know most of them! However, they have listed different types of brands; both in style and price, but nothing for those interested in dark (=gothic) subcultures (naturally, a few brands are swinging somewhere close). But otherwise they had brands from H&M to Vero Moda and from Alexander McQueen to Vivienne Westwood and DKNY.

The site would suggest which types of clothes flatter my body the most; it also tells me what to avoid. And then... it lists items from the brands I might want to wear and suggests them on the "Perfect for you" page:

I felt almost like a killjoy clicking "dislike" on most things it suggested. :/ The service is supposed to learn more about my taste the more I use it, and especially if I purchased something. Well, having gone through a bunch of suggestions I had seen a few truly interesting pieces, but nothing that I'd really really need to have.

The pros and cons:

+ The site seems like a very good tool for those who really are interested in fashion, especially the newest trends.

+ Easy to use.

– If you are strongly into alternative fashion and indies alternative brands, you might not find anything to your liking.

But I'll probably continue using Dressipi for a while to see if I can find anything truly interesting there. I'm so picky about clothes, especially if they're expensive... I'm into original and particularly imaginative designs rather than well-known brands! However, how do you, my dear readers, feel about clothes in general? Are you the type who might like a lot of different styles, but who would refuse to wear most of them anyway? Or would you wear anything that you like?

Personally, I'm the first type. In a way my taste is quite broad; I can easily like styles which differ from mine, I may enjoy fashion images... But no matter how nice a certain fashion item might be, I wouldn't wear it myself so easily. I'm picky; I have quite a clear idea of what kind of clothes and accessories tell those stories that I want to convey with my style. I'm not sure if some people consider it strange; perhaps it might seem like I followed some strict sub-cultural rules, such as those of the lolita fashion. However, I certainly have written my own rules, and I don't feel confined, I truly wouldn't feel comfortable wearing just anything although I considered the same clothes absolutely stunning when worn by someone else.

Yet I cannot deny it; being picky and particular about your clothing makes it difficult to find anything nice to wear. I don't have favorite brands or shops, and I can usually find at least some minor details in any piece of clothing that are not to my liking! Especially in alternative clothes; so many goth clothes have too many different details, in my humble opinion. I think quite many gothic brands end up making clothes which seem cheap due to being too over-the-top. A sad situation for someone who's both picky and absolutely all thumbs with a sewing machine...

So long!

Fears run rings – monthly theme post

It's time for another theme post campaign by Sophistiqué Noir! February is all about rings! Although I like rings, I don't have remarkably many to show off here. I've fallen victim to too many cheap rings in my life, and all those strangely brass colored pieces are barely worth photographing.

I have a few rings in everyday use, and a few which I wear whenever I remember to pick them up from my jewellery box. Anyway, I don't have fancy and huge rings because I'd probably find them impractical even if they were beautiful. I don't own any of these joint rings, and none of those meant for multiple fingers either. Some of them are very pretty, though. However, such rings which would best suit festive events don't usually end up in my collection, especially if they wouldn't look good with gloves. When dressing up, I prefer gloves to fancy rings. But now, onto my rings!

"Serpents and the tree"

– Waves Under Water

I think this ring is from some trip to Greece, but I cannot remember when I bought it – I've been to Greece so many times after all... This serpent looks best, in my humble opinion, when worn on the thumb. In fact thumb may be my favorite "ring finger", and I rarely wear anything on the actual ring fingers (especially in the left hand – I'm not engaged and wouldn't wear a ring there "for fun"; however, "self-defense" in a very tricky situation might be another thing).

"Stand your ground behind the times
and refuse to follow fashion"

– Skyclad

These two plain rings are my everyday pieces. However, diverging from the photo, I wear them in the right hand. I'd like to find similar plain rings for the rest of the fingers in that hand, and it wouldn't be difficult if I just popped to a jewellery store. Anyway, nowadays I only accept silver or stainless steel and not just some crappy... bronzecopperpewterglassshit with a silvery surface.

"Golstar come!
'Cause I can't resist here in this castle"

– Derdian

I'm quite sure I bought this one in Greece as well, but possibly not at the same time with the snake ring. In fact my preferred finger for this one is the thumb as well, unless I'm wearing it together with the snake one in the same hand.

That's it, I suppose. I only have a few rings worth wearing anyway. And apparently, rings are perfect for fingering when you're getting frustrated and need something to do. :D So long!

P.S: Good morning February! Today I realized it's no longer dark when I go to work in the morning! Spring's coming although it was –20°C.

A kind of magic

♫ Saint Daemon – No Man's Land

At the beginning of January I ended up online-shopping again, this time at Marty Magic. It was quite a... coincidence, I suppose; a friend showed me a photo of an ear wrap which was "so me", but the photo was not on the designer's website. A bit of research, and oops, I had ordered an ear cuff...

So, yeah. Marty Magic is the web store of an individual jewellery designer. The piece my friend showed was obviously this, but I didn't purchase it. Instead, I ended up buying quite a small ear cuff, and I got a dragon cuff thrown in as well! Yet the piece I bought was made of sterling silver, whereas the giveaway was pewter.

I don't think it's particularly easy to find such cuffs, but it was nice to find an individual designer who makes such. Supporting such designers is cool! I also think the prices are reasonable – however, I didn't want to buy one of those more expensive pieces because I'm reluctant to purchase expensive stuff from outside the EU... Don't want to pay customs. :/ But I can point out that the merchant had marked the value of the parcel to be only 2/3 of the real value.

It took the parcel quite long to arrive, however, it was quite promptly shipped. I'm also satisfied with the products; the silvery piece is easy to put on, it doesn't pinch and it hardly comes off, it seems. The pewter one is more loose, but I doubt it'll fall either. I suppose these pieces saved me from another piercing since I had wanted to wear something at that part of the ear cartilage, but well... Since my piercing has been sore for over two months now (I know it can take half a year for it to fully heal), I'm not too eager to prolong my (and others') suffering. :D

In other words, if you're looking for some fine jewellery, check out Marty Magic. The selection is perfect for goths, princesses and pirates! So long!

I raise my head and find my own way out of the dark

♫ Heavenly – Carpe diem

Oh well, I'm trying to move onto more positive things than the sorrow I described in my previous post. I have contradictory feelings on how I should actually spend the time while I'm alone – one voice in my head tells me to concentrate on grieving, while some voice of reason tells me I shouldn't do that. I feel like ignorance meant indifference, yet I know it won't do any good if I stop to mourn for too long.

I'll try to deal with as many events and topics which I've ignored lately in this blog post. A summary of what has happened during the past few weeks, then I can probably keep up with the things worth blogging about without stuffing them all into one single post.

First of all, All Hallows' Eve and All Saints' Day. I had the same idea for both parties I attended – an idea I had had for looong... Sugar skull make-up!

I don't have photos of my clothes, but they were quite simple. I wore the fishnet top which you can see in the photos, and a simple, short, strapless black sheath dress. Since I really liked this attire, I'll probably wear it again to some event, so maybe I'll also post it here eventually. If I just had the chance to take some photos with the daylight, but no, I'm in the office when the sun is up. I have some dresses to show off anyway!

Last night I went to see Stratovarius live. And I was surprised to see how "good" the photos taken with my cell phone can be. The concert was nice and long, a part of their tour to bid farewell to their drummer Jörg Michael. The headline of this post if a line from their song Darkest Hours. It's a good one, yet not my favourite, but I feel it suits my current mood.

Stratovarius – Darkest Hours

I also finished my Poe piece for the photo frames I bought recently. Inspired by The Raven, here's the result:

What else? Material needs I satisfied a while ago already, I guess. Many people know the Polish webstore Restyle, which sells funky gothic stuff cheap. I bought a few things too since the prices were so ridiculously low compared with what they would have been if I had bought them in Finland.

Firstly, two pieces of bone shaped hairpins. See the product in the store here. The item description confused me a lot, as well as the photos. In the first product image the surface of the bones seems smoooooth, doesn't it? As you can see in my photo, it isn't, they're quite roughly painted. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but I actually expected the bones to be made of plastic and only the pin parts being metal (as described) but they're fully metal (makes sense). The "Clips are automatic" part confused me even more, and my idea of "automatic" clips would be something like this, not this. I may be totally wrong, but I'd think that those pins which close by themselves with their spring are automatic while those which you have to snap close are not. I find the clip type impractical and was somewhat disappointed with it.

Then I got a nice brooch with a rib-cage. I could also attach a chain to it to turn it into a necklace, but I kinda like it as a brooch too.

And more rib-cages! These are very, very heavy, to the point of stretching the earlobe downwards with their weight. They are pretty, yes, but I think the weight they put on ears has slightly unaesthetic effects. But I guess I'll live with it.

I also got a Star Gazer lipstick in the shade of dark berry, but haven't worn it much yet. I don't wear lipstick daily, I'm not used to it. A bit newer purchase is a pair of Tamaris boots which escaped my hands once, but with some insane luck, I found my size again (or to be precise, I might have survived with a size smaller, but they didn't have that size). Although their quality is only satisfactory, they're pretty and COMFORTABLE. I've never worn high heels which feel so good even after hours of standing! I didn't have any problems standing through the Strato concert with those.

I guess that could be it for now. I'm getting hungry and could concentrate on something else too. Either way, I guess I have something interesting coming up sooner or later. So long!