Xmas Present Suggestions #2

Apologies to those in a Halloween mindset for posting this so early in the year, but don't forget about postage times!

Gloomy Tea Set by Rhissanna

Nyan cat scarf by EinavIzack

 Hester the Hare cloth kit by sarahyoung5

Saint Edgar Allan Poe prayer candle by GreaserCreatures

Wearable planter by wearableplanter

The Heart of Atlantis necklace by IrishSusco

Steampunk soap by RadicalWorks (there's also an eyeball one for Halloween!)

Dandelion wish necklace by RubyRobinBoutique 

Oak leaves necklace by MagicalAccessories

Siamese winged cat by DemiurgusDreams

Just a little update to say...

I am insanely busy right now so a bit behind in commenting on other's posts! Sorry! Hugs!

Xmas Present Suggestions #1

My personal Xmas present wish- faery wings! There are heaps of Etsy sellers including

Wild Plum Boutique

and

TheFancyFairy

BloodMilk- I love and want pretty much everything they make!

Felted Leaf Pin by HandiCraftKate

Fox and rabbit cushion by Kirbeeart

Seashell barrette by Nolemire

Owl earrings by Serrelynda

Water lily coaster by damsontreepottery

Elf/ faery coat by Euphoric Garments

Diddy Dragon Zara by Stefisboutique

Ouija board pillowcase by StuffoftheDead there are also a bag and other things in the print!

Hot air balloon leggings or one of the many other awesome prints by Carouselink

Don't forget to enter the Yizzimindi Halloween Giveaway!

Recent Outfits: Blue and Green

So much blue and green!

Bought this dress secondhand because the blues and greens match my hair!

Bird, butterfly and flower

Xmas is coming up quicker than we realise, so expect to be spammed with Xmas present suggestion posts! Coming soon!

And don't forget to enter the giveaway in the previous post!

Yizzimindi Profile and Halloween Giveaway

Yasmin of Yizzimindi is a good friend of mine, and I am proud to introduce her and offer a giveaway on my blog!

Tell us a bit about yourself:

I live in Newcastle, NSW with my husband, two dogs, two cats, and a ferret. We're lucky enough to own our home and recently I've been doing a lot of gardening. I enjoy a lot of creative pursuits, like craft and sewing.

Tell us a bit about your business:

Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to run my own business, selling the things I create. Yizzimindi is the realisation of this dream. Through my business I sell unusual jewellery, hair accessories and occasionally, clothing. My jewellery is classified as costume jewellery, and a lot of my pieces are made with colourful poymer clay. Most items could be described as looking as though they came out of a Steampunk sweet shop.

How did you decide to make things for a living?

I've always been creative, making things is my favourite thing to do! I want to get paid to do the thing I love most, and I mostly make jewellery because it's fun to do and easy to wear. I don't have to create patterns or make certain sizes like I do with clothes.

What inspires you?

I draw my inspiration from a lot of things. I love the Victorian era, and the subcultures inspired by it, like Lolita, and Steampunk. I'm also a huge sweet tooth, so a lot of my jewellery is sweet themed. You can also see pirate, geeky, and other themes in my items.

What is the best thing about what you do?

The best thing is hearing about how much people love the items they own from Yizzimindi, and seeing them wear them!

What is the worst thing about what you do?

The hardest thing about my business is trying to sell my items. I'm actually quite shy around strangers, and it's difficult to have people judge you on something you've put your heart and soul into.

Do you like to listen to music while you work?

I usually forget to put music on! I do like to listen to JJJ Unearthed playlists though, there's some great, local and indie artists and you can create your own playlists for free.

How has geeky/ alternative culture inspired you?

A lot of what I do is directly inspired by video games, or sci fi series, or collectibles. People who know the culture will easily be able to pick out the inspiration for some of what I make. Other things are just generally inspired by a lifetime of gaming, google browsing and cake eating!

Being self-employed how do you make sure you actually do your work?

I don't get a lot of orders, so it can be really hard to structure my days. Not having set limits for certain tasks can lead to procrastination, but I've never sent an item out overdue!

GIVEAWAY

Thanks to Yasmin I have a set of Bat earrings to give away!

The earrings will be similar to those pictured.

To enter, please comment on this post. Tell me what your favourite magical movie or book is and what your favourite item from Yizzimindi is! Leave an email address so that you can be contacted for postage details.

Winner will be picked at random on the 1st of October.

Lace and Candy: A Short Story

 

Lace and Candy

This Document Copyright ©2014 By Laura Morrigan  All Rights Reserved

My sister was always fanciful. She was born simply Anna, you know, but she had to call herself Arabella, and put on airs. Her and that silly name and her colourful lacy dresses, dragging everywhere and showing dirt! I always preferred the plain black clothes, no muss, no fuss, so much for suitable for our profession. We were born into it, like our mother before us, it was a proud tradition.

All we women lived under the same roof, singing, proud of our role in life. Not so Arabella. No, she had to go make her fancy dresses, and when we teased her, well then she did what not one of our family had done in generations, she took off on her own. She made her own cottage in a nearby wood.

I visited as often as I could, even though I thought she was snobby, and treated us like we were beneath her. I hated her blonde ringlet curls and primping ways. I hated the way she swept the floor with the broom, clutching it carefully so as not to chip the coloured beetle shells she wore glued to her fingernails, making them glitter and gleam in the sunlight. But I think I was a little jealous of her too.

But the house- the house was a monstrosity. It was made entirely of sweets! In our day, sweets were rare enough, and to make a whole house out of them- well, even for one of our kind, it was a frightful and embarrassing indulgence. Gingerbread walls and roof, rock candy beams, boiled sweet windows! What a thing! It was beautiful, yes, but stupid! She was asking for trouble!

I wasn't surprised when I heard what happened. The greedy little children, eating her beautiful house. Of course Arabella was furious. But she should have turned them into frogs, not just threatened. Still, she was never as good with spells as the rest of our kind. Only the sweet things, never the squirmy ones. So what did she do? Threaten to eat them, an empty and silly threat! Imagine sweet tooth Arabella trying to eat a child! She wouldn't even eat chameleon stew! Of course the silly creature ended up in the oven herself! She couldn't scare a newt! Humans! How they overreact!

I miss my sister, even though centuries have passed. Even though she misused her broom to sweep the floors, instead of flying high on the five winds, as one of our kind should. I remember her stupid, fanciful house and feel a little wistful. I remember her bright dresses, and sometimes, my charcoal garments seem a little dull. I kept one of her dresses for moments such as these. By day, when my sisters and mother are asleep, I sneak outside, black cloak over the red lace, until I reach a sunlit glade and twirl and dance to my heart's content. Sometimes, if I dance long enough, I hear soft laughter on the wind, and I could swear she is there with me.

Letting It Go

"Don't let them in, don't let them see

Be the good girl you always have to be

Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know..." Let It Go, Frozen.

I've been a perfectionist since I was a kid. The kind of perfectionist who cries when they do something wrong or don't get 100% in a test. Don't even ask how hard I cry if someone tells me off!

Since I finished university and the job market was NOTHING like what I was promised it would be, I have been feeling like a real failure. Trying to fight the idea it is somehow my fault. After all, if there are 100 candidates go for a job, 99 of them are going to miss out! (and apparently there have been for some of these jobs) But that's not really the way my mind works, and I keep thinking I must be worse than all those other people!

With the help of a counselor, I have been trying to change my way of thinking. And I am slowly getting better at it. I am trying to take life in the slow lane, worry less, not blame myself for everything that goes wrong!

Over the last nearly 5 months, I have been trying to change, to simplify, to accept imperfection, and to embrace the important things. I am trying to live life slower, more close to the earth. It's not easy but I am doing pretty well.

I know that society expects things from me and I am trying not to care what it wants and focus on what I want and NEED.

Some of the changes I have worked on recently:

• My new faery style is more comfortable and easy to wear than some of my previous Victorian clothes, cooler in hot weather, and more durable. I feel so much better wearing it, but it has taken a lot of courage, not because the style is out there, but because a natural aspect of shyness and uncertainty seems to include covering up and hiding myself away- faery style is about breaking out, embracing the magic inside and letting myself be free!
• Less clothes, possessions, I can't afford to buy a lot of books so I get most of them from the library anyway
•  Stop trying to be perfect- accept my imperfections and those of others- don't have to have perfect hair, etc. Live a simpler life.
• Changing career plans- don't want to be a cog in the corporate machine, sick of being told I have to dress and be a certain way- I want to work somewhere I can be me! I would also work with animals if I can!
• Embrace gratefulness for all the amazing things I do have. Family and friends. Being close to nature.
• Plan a simpler life- writing, garden, animals- realise that with less money you have to live simpler but being ok with that. 
• Getting rid of old books to secondhand bookshop so I can reuse the money for more books.
• Trying to be more positive
• Saving up positive sayings
• Trying to like myself better
• Getting colour on my tattoo finally and stopping worrying about it being seen through my sleeve during interviews.
• Being who I want to be- not letting other's judgments get to me
•  Realising how important I am to others
• Learning to live in the moment. Trying to not overthink, worry and stay up all night planning how everything will go. This is one of the hardest things for me, I am trying very hard!
• Stop letting the worry of bad things that could happen stop me from living!
• 
  

Time to Let It Go! Or at least do my best!

Bark Faery

Please click on the images to enlarge the pictures

All clothes secondhand.

Saw 3 yellow tailed black cockatoos, these are large and awesome looking Australian birds.

 Also orange and a white butterflies/ faeries.

Hugs and fairydust,

Laura.

Blue Faery

Still being the Blue Faery

Turquoise necklace: secondhand

Light blue beaded necklace: secondhand

Elf coat: Euphoric Garments on Etsy

Dress: HolyClothing.com

Worn with my usual ankle boots

 Gabriel wants to be a faery too! He is borrowing the removable wings from one of my faery statues.

Hugs and fairydust,

Laura Morrigan.

Week in Review

 

Monday 1st September to Sunday 7th September
Monday 8th to Sunday 14th September

I haven't been up to much except for reading and watching movies. Being a writer, there is always the great excuse of exposing yourself to other's work to get inspiration!

Movies
Thor: The Dark World
Spiderwick Chronicles (based on the books by Holly Black)
Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim Jarmusch)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Frozen
Tiger Eyes
Maleficent (One of the best fairytale retellings I have seen!)
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Kill Your Darlings (Ginsberg, Burroughs, Kerouac)
Rewatched Beautiful Creatures
Total Eclipse (about Rimbaud and Verlaine)
(Oscar) Wilde
The Adjustment Bureau

Reading
Finished Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevey (fantastic, pretty much like the series)
Hemlock Grove online graphic novel prequel
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
A Flight of Angels graphic novel by Rebecca Guay
Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter
Started reading Courts of the Fey short story collection
Fantastic short story Brimstone and Marmalade- read online here

Random stuff 
Met up with awesome friend Natalie who was getting a tatt and found some cool stuff at the op shop.

"Goth Types"

My style is constantly changing and evolving, and I have had many many clothing styles over the years. While still thinking of myself as a Gothy type person, I am definitely more of a Faery or Hippie these days. Of course, these things are not all pervasive, while I love all things faery and listening to Loreena McKennit, I still love 80s Goth music and Victorian Gothic.

Of course, I don't think that a type or stereotype can ever really explain all the layers that go into making a person, but I have always loved the cute little infographics that Trellia makes.

Click on picture for larger image.

I have definitely been more into Dark Mori style this year. 

Romantigoth was the influence that originally inspired me, over 10 years ago.

Victoriana has been a huge influence on me since childhood watching BBC miniseries based on Dickens books, but I am not as drawn to that style currently.

See all the "Goth Types" here. Do you have a "Goth Type" that describes you?

Hugs and fairydust,

Laura Morrigan.