There is a cosmetic company I have been eying for a while, it's another Etsy store (love Etsy!) and their products are all vegan and the pigments look amazing. I'm not really a wishy-washy, natural-look kind of girl. I like my eyes dark, strong, and smudgy. I wear glasses and I am *very* short sighted so my poor little peepers run the risk of looking alarmingly piggy unless I really put in some time back there.
Glittersniffer have great colours and fun names and I've just placed my first order! Along with the 6 pigment collection ($25!) I also got the Face Glue/Eye Primer. I've long been a fan of the famed Urban Decay eyeshadow primer, and while it does exactly what it should, I've never been a fan of that damn sponge tip. I can never get everything out of the tube and it only seems to last about ten minutes before it's all gone. Face Glue is actually compared to Urban Decay in the write up, so I am quietly hopeful!
I will be sure to update you once I get a chance to try everything out!

I got my new shoes in the mail. I am keeping the two pairs I thought I would keep (no's 2 & 3 in the entry below) I'm so predictable!
I think one of the things I'll find hardest to replace from my lost Greyhound bag is the jewelery. I had things my mum made me, things Brody bought me and just a whole collection of favourite stuff that I've gathered over the years, however, in view of remaining positive I wanted to share with you one of my favourite Etsy shops, they make really amazing affordable stuff and I had several things from them, lucky for me the prices are so good I can replace most of it in the foreseeable future, and get some new stuff too!
The shop is Moon Raven Designs. I had several of their bird skull necklaces, and also a black ravens head on a filligree ring that sadly looks to be discontinued... no matter, they have about a million other things I want anyway!

Today I would like to talk about shoes.
Non leather shoes have advantages, and disadvantages. The advantages being that they are usually cheap and plentiful. The disadvantages being that they are usually boring and don't last long. It's hard to find interesting non-leather shoes. There are some higher end options coming in here and there now, however, and I am hopeful that it will keep gathering steam.
For the gentlemen we have April 77, who never use real leather and word on the street has it that they are phasing wool out of their line too, which is always good news for the wooly among us.
They do not, as far as I know, make women's shoes yet, but my people remain hopeful.




For the ladies, we have Cri De Couer, which are definitely heading in a direction that I like, but have never quite engaged me enough to make a purchase.





We also have Olsen Haus, which I like in a similar way to Cri De Couer, but not enough to pay the $2-300 they go for.





And let us not forget Brazilian brand, Melissa who have had collaborations with designers like Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier and Alexandre Herchovitch and whose shoes are all made of plastic.






There are of course a million shoe companies who, by default use faux leathers for the purpose of keeping them affordable, and this is where I usually end up. I ordered three pairs last night, and yes, I know that the first two are similar but I need to try them on to decide if I will go with the brighter red of the first pair, or with the more toned down bloody brown-red of the second. The third pair are there because I have wanted a pair of cowboy boots for a long time, but I find mid calf length unflattering on me, and until now all the ankle height ones I've seen have been on the dumpy side, these ones look like good basics.





I suppose what I have mostly learned through my years of leatherless shoe shopping is that you can go to any given shoe site, and set a price window between $0 and $100 and almost everything under $70 is going to be man-made, about 50% between $70 and $100 will be safe... after that, well you're pretty much on your own my friend.

Kendra's video shoot went amazingly well. Although 6am is rarely a prelude to My Finest Moment, on this occasion it seems I emerged triumphant because it was determined that Sasha (Shu Uemura pusher & make up artist extraordinaire) and I made her look like the result of a passionate liaison between Motley Crue and Dolly Parton. I think you know me well enough to know I took that as a huge compliment.

I'll have better pictures/a link to the video soon enough, the release party for it is on March 4th, I'll post details as soon as I ask Kendra what they are again since I have a memory like a sieve.
I'll be in New York again on the 26th for session #3 on my cat-headed-bee neck. Speaking of tattoos, The Wyzzerd re-did the grey stripe down my face in a kind of henna-ish red colour. I've crammed that grey in 4 or 5 times now, every time it falls straight back out again, so I have admitted defeat and embraced a new look. So far I'm into it. She even got some of it to stay in my lip this time around. I'm not posting a picture yet, it's still flakey.
And now, on to what is arguably the most important thing to happen to me in, oh I don't know, forever. Kendra gave me a Motley Crue shirt. Not just any Motley Crue shirt, but a vintage, original, perfectly worn in, BLOOD STAINED Too Fast For Love shirt. Behold; the evidence!

I know, I know. It's ok to be jealous.

I confess, yesterdays project was a selfish one, aka; I made myself a belt. I had made one for my friend Joy for Valentines day and I got slightly irritated that it was better than mine, so I made myself one too, different colour, more studs, but basically the same. My mannequin, as usual is the model, the pictures, as usual are not good... but it matters less because it's MINE and won't be going in the shop anyway.
As a side note, if there is an apocalypse during the next fortnight, my mannequin is 100% sartorially ready for it.
Tomorrow I'll be doing my friend Kendra's hair ready for her video shoot this weekend. We'll just be doing the extensions for now, but I'm heading out Friday to style it for the shoot too, I'm pretty excited about that, it should be fun and I'll basically take any excuse to go to New York anyway.

RIP Alexander McQueen. What sad news to start the day.

Here's a couple of quick snapshots of what I've been working on today. I can never decide whether with or without flash is better for these type of sub-standard situations, but anyway...
The second is with the epaulets, I'm not really sure what occasion would warrant that level of accessorising, but I'd be the first to show up and the last one to leave. The first is just to show the chain detail. I might put another one, I haven't decided yet. It's hard to see in the pictures, but this material is really dark purple snake textured faux leather. The colour is great. Really muddy and sludgy looking. Obviously it's just pinned to the mannequin, I haven't put a fastening at the neck yet, I'll probably use a lobster claw, like for a necklace.


Also, this is Pieface helping me sew, just so you know the kind of hardships I have to put up with while I'm working.

I tried to find some pictures of the kind of stuff that led me to make a detached collar in the first place because I never save anything, but you try searching for 'leather collar' and see what happens.. yeah, go on and try it. Those are the kind of images you stumble accidentally upon, they cannot be searched for (the ones I wanted I mean, not the ones I got).
We had snowstorm Mk2 today. Yesterday I ran around in a state of panic getting supplies for the next few days because I'll be snowed in again, at least as far as heavy items like cat litter and stuff go. My little car is now parked safely up a side street under about 2 more feet of snow. I prefer the sidestreets in snowy weather because the ploughs are big and clumsy and I can't fold my mirrors in. Anyway, it looks the same out there as the last pictures I posted, except it's a lot deeper because the last lot hadn't melted yet.

Here is the result of my blood, sweat and tears over the last 3 days. You know when you start a project, and what should be relatively simple turns out to be the worst idea ever? Well, that's what happened with these epaulets. The first one took me two days, with many failed attempts, and then the second came together in only a few hours this afternoon. I'm pretty sure epaulet #2 did that solely to make me feel stupid about epaulet #1. Anyway, here's a quick snapshot, they come in a pair, naturally.



It is still snowy today, it is also two days since I left the house, I'm too delicate to dig out the car, so I'm taking the dignified approach and waiting till the snow melts. Yesterday was legitimately out of the question unless I wanted to be a walking snowperson, I suppose I could've gone out today but I was determined to finish those damn epaulets. Tomorrow will be more wristbands.

Last night came the predicted snowstorm. The first picture is taken at about 4 or 5 this morning, and the second one just now. It's a good thing I stocked up on groceries, nobody is going anywhere today!
It is still coming down fairly steadily, I'm not sure when it's supposed to stop and I'm too lazy to check... luckily I have projects to keep me busy. I have an epaulets pattern that I was working on yesterday that is coming together nicely, and I also have another, top secret project that may take me a few months before I'm willing to announce it. In fact I may never announce it if it doesn't work out, but I'm really excited and am going to have to limit my time spent on it or I won't get anything else done.
Also, did you know there is a "Goth Cruise: The Movie"!?! I didn't.
So many of my friends started out this way, I know I definitely had my time before I decided I liked metal better. I have a deep and profound affection for goth culture, people can say what they like about every sub-culture being a uniform, and that in striving to look different they all look the same, but being a goth is where I learned most of my hair tricks. It is where I learned a lot of my sewing tricks and it gave me the go-ahead to be creative.
It's a little easier now, but when I was 15, which was in 1988 (yikes!) it was really hard to buy those kind of clothes. They had to be made. Many a night I had my mother up late slaving into the wee hours to make me a pair of leggings with lace down the sides (sorry mum!), or putting together a purple velvet jacket in time for the weekly shuffle around the dancefloor at the Mayfair in Newcastle.
There was no internet in my teenage world, in fact there was no mobile phones even, all the clothes I wore had to be bought from the two 'alternative' shops that existed within my radius or made by me or my mum and I still carry that affection for making everything with me to this day. I alter everything I buy, even if it's something small like putting a different curve on a side seam so it fits me better. It's not even that I can't find anything I like anymore, fashion is a lot more diverse these days, and a lot more accepting and even encouraging of unique styles... it's just that I can't help myself!
These shots are all Gareth Pugh, of course.
The last is one of the only surviving pictures of my moment in gothic time (I am not wearing glasses, that is make up)

Dear Host,
Please take some pain killers.
Kind regards,
Your Lower Back.

(Or, give up and faux leatherize one of these)

Today I shall be focusing my attentions on making some epaulets. I am running on about 7 hours of sleep over the last 3 days though, thanks to my insomnia, so either I'll go into a creative trance and everything will come together nicely, or I'll be flinging oddly shaped scraps at the walls by 6pm.

Today was one of those days where I've gone long enough without human contact (and I don't require much) that the thought of spending it hunched over my sewing machine was enough to propel me wild-eyed and grasping into the street to reassure myself that I'm not the last person left on earth. And nobody wants that.
Instead, I decided to do the sensible thing and go and see my friend Iva, aka Team Europe.
I am English, Iva is Bulgarian. Together we are Team Europe. We like to discuss baking and beauty products and clothes and sunglasses. It's pretty awesome. We enjoy rolling our eyes at the silly Americans who interrupt our intellectual debates on the merits of cocoa butter (100% pure, of course) we swap stories of the rude things they've said to us, and the dreadful manners they exhibit. We shake our heads and we say 'that would never happen in Europe'.
We are completely unbearable, but I feel I should put a disclaimer, since this is the internet and people do tend to take things so seriously, that the superior attitude we cultivate is purely to amuse ourselves and has nothing to do with disliking Americans. We do both live in America, so what does that tell you?
Tomorrow I shall be making my bi-monthly pilgrimage to the mall to go to Sephora. I need a replacement shower filter and I want to seek out an oil based cleanser. In case you didn't know, your hair will feel much, much nicer if you invest in a filter. Especially if you wear extensions, in fact it is a necessity for extensions. It reduces the levels of all the chlorine, synthetic chemicals and VOCs which are the main culprits for drying everything out. It is also really nice to have if you suffer from allergies or asthma since the chlorine vapours aggravate that kind of thing. I personally don't have any allergies, because I am European.
This is Betty. She is a cat that I was forbidden to adopt in Arizona, apparently we already live with too many cats (total rubbish btw!). I see that she's no longer listed on Petfinder so I hope that she's found a wonderful home to grace with her little flatty face. I keep her picture on my desktop because I'm not yet ready to let go completely.

It is like that time my other half insisted that he wanted dreadlocks. I spent two days teasing and rolling, and let it be known before I continue this story that I am not a fan of dreadlocks. I sported them myself, back in the 90s and my opinion is firm when I say that is where they should stay. Anyway, I wanted this objectionable little fellow to have the hair of his dreams so I teased and rolled until I had to double dose the anti inflammatories for my tendonitis. Three days later he combed them out.
What is the moral of this story? No matter how badly you want something, sometimes it just doesn't turn out the way you imagined it.
That is what happened to me today. It's not that symmetrical hair looks bad on me, in fact it's really quite nice, but the problem is that 'nice' isn't really what I shoot for in day to day life. This new hair I used is long. It's really long, and it has lovely waves and a gorgeous shine... but I just feel a little bit too Ashlee bloody Simpson.
I'll sleep on it... mostly because I can't be bothered to take it all out of one side right now, but tomorrow the right side comes out. My mind is made up. I think I'll extend that side to about jaw length though... baby steps.
The real tragedy of this story though is that I cut off my tail. Yes, you read that right. I. Cut. Off. The. Tail. And I can't just put a new one in, because if there's one thing I feel strongly about it's faking a tail.
We shall see how strongly I feel about that in another week or so...
Anyway, I would post a picture, but I don't want anyone zooming in and giggling to themselves about how teen rocker I look.

Today is a nerve wracking day for me. If you know me, you'll be aware that I've been rocking the asymmetrical thing for years now. Myself and my very talented and stylish friend Gina developed a lopsided strategy to fend off unwelcome advances when we were out imbibing. I had the big red hair on the left side, she had the big black hair on the right. We'd tease the big side out to astronomical proportions and then we'd turn to face each other if we didn't like you. The undesirable would be effectively blocked by a massive wall of hair. It was brilliant and effective. We even have matching tattoos on our necks saying 'secrets' to hint at the mysterious treats contained within.
Anyway, it seems that my asymmetrical dog has had its day. I've worn it like that for... it must be close to three years now. Giant on the left side, short and messy with a tail on the right. I don't want to be all Pamela Anderson about my hair, so it's time for a change. My roots (ha!) are firmly planted in sleaze rock and dirty metal, so it will naturally be big, but what to do?
In addition to making accessories, I am also a hair extension Wizard (that one was for you, Joy!) and so this gives me the freedom to do pretty much whatever the hell I like. So, today will see the dawn of a new era. I am thinking, excessively long in the front (both sides) and kind of short messy hairline length in the back with a long, central braided tail in the middle. I am having trouble letting go of the tail, in case it wasn't obvious.
Anyway, it'll probably take most of the day, so here's a before shot. You cant really tell how big I wear it in that picture but trust me when I say that Dolly Parton is one of my idols for a reason. I'll post some afters... that is if I'm not crying hot tears of regret into my tint bowl by 9pm. Wish me luck!