why yes, i am dressing for my eyeliner

I HAVE GOT MY CONTACTS BACK. This is a source of great and unending joy, as much as I heart my crimson geekspecs -- not only do I prefer my face without glasses, but I also no longer twitch my nose constantly to keep glasses from sliding off my face, and I can wash my face, shower, put on makeup, open hot ovens, and don turtlenecks without undue discomfort. And wear dramatic eye makeup. 

Anyway, I've been wearing favourite dresses of late -- it is definitely the weather for long dresses that will flow nicely in the wind. I've had this one for three years or so and I love how I don't even have to wear much with it to look very impressive. The pattern on this dress, guys. My oh my.

 

All items thrifted, save the cameo necklace, which is from a pendant I bought at Michael's and the cord to another necklace.

 

 This next dress has been my favourite item of clothing this autumn. For whatever reason I tend to latch onto a particular outfit every autumn, and this seems to be this year's -- I'd passed it up at Goodwill several times, thinking it was too large and not very fitted, but I love vintage floral housedresses, so I finally tried it on and it fit like a dream. Also, by then it was twenty-nine cents. \o/

I've probably worn it about ten to fifteen times since I bought it about two months ago. It is cosy and pretty and suits multiple aesthetics! Somehow, it has always resisted being blogged, however. No more!

I've been wearing it in a sort of rural, New England-gothic way mostly, although with my heavy brown boots and a cardigan it passes for something cosy and gentle as well. 

Dramatic eyeliner (how I've missed you!!) + Forever 21 Celtic-esque headwrap, hooray!

You've seen this necklace before, but I do, in fact, love it incredibly. Bonus close-up on dress pattern.

 And yes, I'm still highly enamoured of my wee Hot Topic bat necklace. And my lovely owl ring, which is beginning to be a bit tarnished. Perhaps absurdly, I tend to like my jewellery more when it no longer looks new.

It was actually quite chilly outside when I took the last set of pictures, but it's been cosy in the house all day, really! I didn't want to hunt for a jacket that I hadn't even been wearing! It would be disingenuous.

pretty things from last week

 Backlog tiiiime! A slightly grainy photograph -- taken on the way home from a shopping trip as the sun was going down -- of an outfit which greatly pleased me. So many autumn favourites coming back to play! That brown sweater with its very distinguished buttons was a mainstay of my wardrobe-of-ultimate-cosy last winter. The stockings I must have bought at some point, but I found them in my drawer last week with no memory of how or when they arrived there, and have been wearing them almost incessantly since. Skirt thrifted by way of Rue 21 two autumns ago -- I have the same skirt in a different, softer-and-darker-coloured pattern which I bought on clearance, but I missed this one and was pleased to see it turn up later. It has pockets! And large buttons showing you wear the pockets are, although both of them are off at the moment, as one fell off and I can't find it, so I cut the other one off so I can actually wear this very lovely skirt.

 

Autumnal gothic streak activate! I found this lovely blouse with corset lacing up both sides at Goodwill (of course) and can finally bring myself to throw out my former little black blouse which has holes in the lace at the neck. (I... get very sentimentally attached to my clothing.) All things thrifted, save accessories (Hot Topic, Rue 21, Claire's).

 

And once more, with my lovely long red jacket! I wore this to my weekly open mic session at the local coffee shop, although I hadn't remembered it was That Day when I was dressing. When I show up tonight in a slightly oversized cable-knit sweater, dark jeans, brogues, and a flat cap, the other denizens may be confused.

 

GLOVES OF MY DREAMS. From Claire's, ring from Rue 21. 

 

 The true root of the outfit was, of course, this exquisite little fur collar from Hot Topic -- my best friend alerted me to an online clearance sale by linking me to things I might like. Usually I say "ooooh" and then hide my wallet from myself, but. But! I have wanted a detachable fur collar for an age! And had no idea where to get one, though I keep seeing them on blogs. It ties with a little ribbon! Also it was less than three dollars. It kept slipping, so I fastened it with a cameo brooch my mother bought for me on eBay two Christmasses ago.

There are no Hot Topic stores near me at all. This is a source of great sadness.

 The root of this next outfit? I HAVE BROGUES. I HAVE BROGUES AT LAST. Real proper cosy leather ones, which I will never, ever take off. I was so close to spending irrational amounts of money to snatch some very similar ones up on eBay, but a pair finally turned up at Goodwill -- you can find anything at Goodwill eventually, but rarely when you actually specifically want it -- and I am over the moon.

 

 

They have a very slight heel, but not so much that a day of walking in them bothers me overmuch. I also ordered a lace scarf from Hot Topic with my fur collar (it made the shipping charge count for more, okay -- and it was approximately two dollars), and it was very entertaining digging around for the right sort of girl!Englishman pieces to suit everything. 

 Cosy button-down sweater, a staple of two winters ago; stripey shirt (I have a weakness for stripes), beloved peacoat, lovely lovely brogues: thrifted. Scarf: Hot Topic. Gloves and hat: Claire's. (The hat I just bought at full price omg because I have been eyeing it for months and there was ONLY ONE LEFT, HORRORS. I adore flat caps, but for whatever reason a lot of them do not fit me properly, and this one did. My father used to wear these all the time, and I've been rather cross that I could never find girl ones in the nifty patterns his came in -- no more!) Trousers: Ross Dress For Less.

Cameo bracelet, below: Walmart, from back when I occasionally found wearable jewellery there -- three years ago? Four? One of the bits fell out and it's sat in my jewellery box for several years until I suddenly remembered a) it and b) the existence of super glue and fixed it.

 

holidaying in the woods

This last weekend Dad took leave of work, we packed up the car, and drove far far away (well, three hours) to have a little autumnal oasis of a holiday in the woods. I read four books in two days, collected several hundred acorn caps, went hiking in a dress, sang old ballads around the campfire, and made tea every day.

Also I became a wizard.

 

Current favourite boots, my already-beloved winter coat, favourite autumn dress -- yes, all thrifted. (Someday I will get decent outfit pictures of this dress. I have worn it about ten times already, it is my very favourite thing for this autumn, and yet it resists being blogged!) 

I actually made an effort to get an outfit picture on Tuesday. Still all thrifty goodness! Except for my belt, from Rue 21, which is so useful and lovely that I have three in different colours. (I missed snatching up a white one, boo.) And I spent a lovely evening drinking Earl Grey and reading The Last Unicorn perched on a flat rock amidst autumnal bracken.

(I have a backlog of outfit posts, all edited and ready to be posted, thanks to my procrastination and not managing to post before running away on holiday, so expect those soon!)

bright bright bright

October does not always mean that I flitter about, dark and fey. Crisp weather and copious amounts of tea occasionally call for brighter colours.

I've usually styled this little dress more elegantly, with lace blouses and lace stockings and mary janes, but I was looking for something-not-pants to wear a new blouse with and decided to stretch my self-created rules a bit. Then I found some extremely cosy stockings my mother found for me last year, hooray! (I've wanted cheerful, colourful, absurd stripey stockings since I was little, but by the time I was old enough to even afford them, I couldn't find any that weren't in children's sizes, especially in the days of yore before I had a debit card and could order things off the internet without a go-between. Fie!)

dress, stockings, boots, blouse, beret: Goodwill.

bat and owl necklaces: Kyra, Hot Topic and Forever 21, respectively.

wild wind, take me home to the mists of down below

My acre-wide goth streak isn't exactly buried: but it is especially prevalent in October. It is windy and fey and dead leaves skitter eerily across the road! It is high time I pretended to be a gothic heroine! 

Yes, it's another case of having stored away a summer-bought dress till cooler weather permitted the wearing of it: I have always wanted an old-fashioned black dress with a white Peter Pan collar, and Goodwill discount racks always have what you are looking for: you know, eventually. (Sometimes it takes a few years, but hey! Surprises are fun!)

I have been having difficulty not wearing my little bat necklace every day this month. Kyra got it for me at Hot Topic, and my new hobby is wearing it with otherwise very non-gothy things and seeing if it suits (and it often does). Today it was just right and nestled neatly under my collar like a brooch. And yes, I have removed my spectacles for Exciting Eyeliner Action! (Of course when I am stuck wearing my glasses for a month is the time to finally buy and try out liquid eyeliner. The application is going to require more practise, but I am liking what I can do.)

I wanted to wear my black button earrings, actually, but could only find one; and anyway I just snatched up a set of multiple earrings from a Rue 21 clearance rack, including these pretty, elegant little crosses.

I try never to be without striped stockings of some kind: these are thigh-highs, as they were about a dollar at Rue 21 and my trusty old black and white stockings are/were in tatters. The problem is that these keep rolling themselves down. Ah well. And my beloved granny boots, thrifted by my beloveder Kyra.

 And while I've shown off my little skull-and-crossbones owl (Rue 21) before, I quite liked how this picture turned out, and I quite like the lace on these sleeves.

hello, october

Ah, month of all months! Scarves and stockings and sweaters, huzzah! On Friday I wore my favourite weird thrift-store dress to properly celebrate the onset of my favourite month, and traipsed about in the graveyard for an hour or two looking for a ghoul gate.

 

Perhaps a little awkwardly this meant that I was dressed like, well, a fantasy novel escapee, when I went to the local coffeehouse's Friday night open-house. Next week I will try to just dress like an indie kid; I feel as though I am alienating people sometimes. 

I do adore this dress with all of my being. It's handmade, so I have no idea where it came from or how it ended up at our Goodwill.

Saturday saw me dressed rather more approachably in my Good Housekeeping t-shirt and cosy elephant thermal. I wish I'd gotten better photographs, but I was so held up by various shenanigans that I couldn't get a photograph till the sun was setting. (All thrifted: except I think Anna sent me the stockings.)

 On Saturday I bought a seriously delightful necklace, and hence spent the entire fifteen minutes between waking and having to leave for church attempting to put together an outfit to go with it. Somehow I managed: and made my bed and applied makeup and sustained no injuries in the process. A new record! Anyway I'm incredibly thrilled with the finished product: it is perfectly autumnal. And I do love to use my Little White Dress as a pallate. (All thrifted save bow and jewellery and gloves.

 

THE NECKLACE. I paid full price for this, which I rarely do, but I knew it wasn't going to last till clearance, and there were only a few left. I was lost when I saw the little button-eyed owl, to be honest. But I love clustered, multi-textured necklaces a lot anyway, and this is just so fantastic I want to cuddle it. (I also have profound weaknesses for buttons and locks.)

Both gloves and ring are from Rue 21; the gloves from last winter and the ring from a clearance bin on Saturday.

And finally: new hair! I basically dyed it the same shade my more vibrant red had faded to, which is nice and pumpkiny, but now free of awkward grown-out roots! And my marvellous friend Anna sent me a package full of hair dye products she couldn't use, including the exact shade of midnight blue I have wanted to try. The effect is definitely one of my favourite hair dye results.

  

 Goodnight, lovely readers.