Lycanthropica - Creations and Dementations

Yup I got hit by a car :/

2012-02-02T14:44:00.002+11:00

So I had all this exciting stuff planned and part completed for you guys for this weekend including a video about nail stamping and some really cool make up looks.

Then yesterday disaster (yes more disaster) struck. One of my little baby ratties is really really sick. He has a horrible flu but is also really old so I am worried he is just not going to get better.

I worked from home to look after him and after I had finished work I went to a friends house to paint some warhammer (don't know what that is, look at my warhammer blog). It was nice and relaxing and I was on my way home feeling optimistic. I was crossing the street at the crossing and then BANG! halfway across the street I was hit by a taxi turning right into the street I was crossing. I flew through the air and landed on the road. I was lucky no other cars were around or it probably would have been so much worse. Some strangers called an ambulance and the police.

The ambulance took me to the emergency room and I was there for about 3 hours. After a bunch of xrays and pain killers it turned out that nothing was wrong with me except my wrist is sprained and my fingers are all bruised.

It could have been so much worse! The taxi hit my wheelchair on the right hand side and that wheel is totally ruined so I will have to get another one which is expensive :( but if I had been walking instead of in a wheelchair I am sure I would have had a broken ankle or knee so I think I got off lightly.

The most upsetting part is that because I am not 'majorly injured' the driver will probably only get a ticket, not be charged in court and he may not be held liable for the repairs that need to be done to my wheelchair.

At least I am alive!

NOTD - minty moon manicure

2012-01-25T16:29:00.001+11:00

So I am experimenting by posting this from my htc while stuck on the train! How exciting.
Here are my nails for today.

China Glaze - Re-freshmint
Picture Polish - Violet Femme
Konad leopard print stamp

FOTD - Green Goth Geek w/ Purple Contact Lenses

2012-01-24T21:30:00.010+11:00

Hai everyone!

I don't know if I have mentioned but I pretty much never put on make up for the specific reason of blogging. All the looks I post are just the make up I happen to be wearing that day/night.

Today is a different story! This one is just for you!

I pretty much realised I don't do make up just for this blog because I am always in a rush to go do something! Half way through this I had to rush off so I have no eyebrows or mascara on! (I fixed that up on the train to my destination)

On my Face:
Illamasqua Powder Foundation
Smashbox Softlights Powder - Dolice Vita

On my Eyes:
TFSI
NYX Jumbo Pencil - Royal Mountain Green
Sugarpill Eyeshadow - Tako
Make Up Store Cybershadow - Gingerleaf
Smashbox Eyeshadow - Digital
Fyrinnae - Pixie Epoxy
Shiro Cosmetics loose e/s - Bulbasaur
Morgana Cryptoria loose e/s - Isis
Morgana Cryptoria loose e/s -Lady of the Lake
Eyeko Graffiti liner - Black
MAC Mascara - Haute & Naughty

(omg how badly have I applied this! hahaha!)

On My Lips:
Venomous Cosmetics Lip Poison - Hysteria

Contact Lenses
Random ebay -Doll E.Y.E Violet

I am pretty dissapointed with how subtle these lenses are :( they are just a bit too dark for my taste I think.

I had to post these pics while I had them shadows out.

Poor Make Up Store, they are so under rated, I would say easily as great at MAC, same price here in Australia and with more usefull diversety and less token limited edition stuff.

These are two of my fav of their Cybershadows. Buzzer and Gingerleaf, I used Gingerleaf in the above look but not buzzer. Buzzer looks totally liquid holographic when applied over a black base. I will have to do a look like that for you!

Here is a nice lil pic of the loose shadows I used. Bulbasaur, Isis & Lady of the Lake.
I love this combo!

I had to include this pic to show off the reason I am wearing a blue shirt. (I never where blue) Do you guys know what shirt it is? :D

Pink/Purple FOTD and Lens Review - EOS Pop C Green

2012-01-20T17:05:00.007+11:00

A typical Lycanthropica face that I make daily.

Hello everyone! I went to a friends birthday picnic last Sunday and did a quick make up job to wear as it was going to be hot and possibly rain I didn't want anything too la-di-da.

Pink and purple is so my standard go to look lately and now with the blue fringe I have been doing blue or teal eyebrows. Since much eating was to be done (I had baked cupcakes) I went for a toned down pink lip.

-On My Face-

Face: SK-II moisturiser
OCC Tint - Y1
Illamasqua Blush powder - Lovers

Eyes: TFSS
Sugarpill Eyeshadow - Tako, Poison Plum & Dollypop
Afterparty on eyebrows
Eyeko Graffiti Eyeliner pen - Purple
Eyelashes from ebay
MAC Haute & Naughty Mascara

Lips: Mac Lipstick - Gaga 1Viva Glam
Lenses: EOS Pop C. Dark G204 Green

- Lens Review -

EOS Pop C. Dark G204 Green

These are really comfortable lenses, 38% water, they feel way better.

They are enlarging but only 14.5 mm diameter so not like some bigger pairs that are less comfy.
These blend fairly well with my natural colour and I don't find the black outsides to overbearing.
I got these from Kiwiberry1 and the cost $20US which is a steal but they don't seem to have them listed on their site at the moment in the dark green.

I love these as they are natural looking but still a bit insane, I am not really a fan of lenses that are too normal looking or too dark. These are a nice midpoint.

Here is just a pic to say I LOVE MY HAIR RIGHT NOW hahaha :)

Also pictured is one of my fav headbands

Serious Industrial Dance Video

2012-01-16T18:46:00.003+11:00

So remember how I said that my friends and I made a video of our very totally serious industrial dancing?

Weeellllll ............ here it is. :)

Best Cyber Wig Ever - Videos are fun

2012-01-08T12:33:00.003+11:00

Hello hawt interwebs people!! Look at my wiiiiggggg!

Goggles and glasses together looks werid!
Ahhh Monday morning here, Yay (I think :s)

What a hilarious and awesome weekend! Much fun and sillyness was had with my housemate Rachel aka Cold-Blooded Angel and our friend Mellie.

Have you heard of Industrial Dancing? It is a kind of dancing, that funnily enought is done to industrial music. The latest goffik internet craze is making cute/funny or just cool videos of people doing these dances, sometimes in hilarious places or just out in public.

Here is an example I like (it's both good and bad, serious but also funny)

We all love these videos and can't enough of watching them, and since our group of friends and funny and cool(of course hah!) we decided we would make one of these videos. We had about 8 people lined up to do it but of course everyone piked on us so it was Just Rachel, Mellie and me.

What a great excuse to wear my new wig and contact lenses! I did sort of simple make up with big bottom lashes as the video was being done at night and I wanted to draw people into the contacts.

Unfortunately I was sober during the whole event ( I am not drinking till June and have already gone nearly two months without drinking!) but Mellie and Rach were drunk enought on my behalf. After the video making we watched Backstreet Boys videos on youtube and danced to them.

I got two great photos of Rach and Mellie while we were filming, you can't see their make up but the photos are awesome so I am going to include them! I will have some pics of Rach and Mellies make up later on as they looked awesome with Mellie being all white and Rach all black :)

Rach Rocking out

Mellie doing her thing

I'm back from Holiday!

2012-01-05T18:46:00.002+11:00

So I am back from holidays!
I swam with sharks, petted stingrays and got a new hair do!
Proper post to follow as I am about to go shopping for my new secret(not so much) shame!
Which I will tell you about soon :)

I hope everyone had a nice holiday!

Drag tastic! Lycanthropica does Drag Make up

2011-11-30T20:58:00.007+11:00

So I am back after a while away. I will post about that later, right now I am too excited and want to post about the Drag make up class I attended last weekend!!

It was held at 3 Arts Make Up College in Sydney (which is luckily a 10 min walk from my house) and is also where I did my beauty and fashion make up course.

This was my teacher!!!! Philmah Bocks! She was amazing!

She makes all these wigs herself, from foam they are super light and super amazing looking and completely drenched in glitter!

The main reason I wanted to do this course was to be able to use the skills I learned here on girls. Most goths / lolitas are into having biiiiggggg eyes and HUGE eye make up. Not to mention drawn on eyebrows. So covering up existing eyebrows was a big thing I wanted to learn here.

I initially wanted to do this class on my own face but my teacher at 3 arts said that it would be in my best interest to use a model so I could really see what I was doing, to be less influenced by my normal make up routine and also because it is harder to do make up on other people as you are not used to their face shapes.

Hmmmmm, This was going to be difficult to choose, most of my friends who are boys have beards or are REALLY feminine looking goth guys. I didn't want to use either of those as it would be too hard or too easy.

So I think, hmm who has an sexy male face without face hair who would be willing to be my victim?!

Mr Reptilian, jaw line to kill for.

This guy! My awesome friend, lets call him Mr Reptilian (to protect his identity) I constantly catch myself staring at his jaw, lips and INSANE eyelashes!

Seriously his bottom eyelashes are bigger than my top lashes! Also Mr Reptilian has quite manly eyebrows which will be a challenge to cover which is what I am after. Yay!

The class was in my favourite sort of format, the teacher shows you each step on a model and talks about it, you go do it and the teacher walks around asking if you need help and giving you tips.

Philma was in drag while teaching the class but had a neat goatee and was a lil bit masculine so we were told to refer to her/him as Bocks which is apparently the more masculine side of the persona.

I was trying to be pretty delicate applying make up to Mr Reptilian as I have been told that I can be a bit heavy handed, Bocks came over and told me I am was being too delicate and that I should be a bit harder and use mroe product, he grabbed Mr Reptilians face and smeared it with paint stick foundation, Hahahaha it was pretty funny and awesome seeing him being man handled.

Covering the eyebrows was done with spirit gum and SFX wax which was awesome. I had used wax before but never used spirit gum, it really makes the difference, letting the wax set is also important. What you cover the wax with is SUPER important and I would suggest a thick oil based foundation, like the paint stick. I used Ben Nye Cream foundation which is pretty thick and I only wear for going out and dancing as it is quite thick but it was not thick enough to cover the wax on Mr Reptilians face!

This stage is after the foundation, contouring and eye shadow is finished

Here is Bocks model Vince, I was wondering where he found such a normal 'blokey' looking guy for a model and it turns out that Vince and Bocks are married. Wish I was married to an amazing make up artist!! Bocks did use his hands to apply make up which terrified my teachers who were also doing the class haahahha, but it's his husband so meh hahaha! He was very happy to share his products if you didn't have the correct ones in your own kit which was great. Most of my kit is Ben Nye as that is what 3 Arts mostly sells but Bocks used almost exclusively Kryolan, man was I jealous!!! So getting some of their oil based foundation colours for contouring!!

I am not going to go into the whole class but there are a few main tips fot this sort of thing which I will write a post about for each one. These aren't just drag concepts, they are just pretty much fashion make up taken to the extreme.

1. Heavy contouring to create the face shape (high cheekbones, soften jaw etc)

2. Creating a false eye socket (this will be higher than your normal one, requiring you to cover your eyebrows) This makes your eyes look MASSIVE yay!

3. Using fake eyelashes on the new lash line you created rather than your actual lash line

4. Creating amazing eyebrows

5. The type of lighting you apply this type of make up in (esp if you are using this for stage)

6. Making your lips big but not clown face.

Bocks used all browns and neutrals on Vince and did a lot of soft shading on the eye shadow (which you can see in the picture) I have never really been in to 'soft' things and don't really own many neutrals (on purpose so I don't feel tempted to use them) so mine was a little more extreme and Mr Reptilian decided it would be cool to be egyptian or a geisha so I did a bit of egyptian eyes with smaller geisha lips. So mine does not exactly reflect the teachers look but it certainly does use the concepts :)

I will say for these sorts of looks you need MASSSSIIIIVVEEEE fake eyelashes.
I was using sort of big ones on Mr Reptilian but his natural eyelashes are SO HUGE that they just looked the same length :/

Also as he is a boy who has never worn make up it was IMPOSSIBLE to get near his bottom waterline and even hard to apply make up to his bottom eyelid, later on in the night he claimed to have flash backs to this 'traumatising pokeage' which gave him phantom flinches hahahaha!

What do you think?

Halloween - The sexy luciferian deamon

2011-11-08T13:06:00.005+11:00

Sooo I haven't posted in ages. I have been going to the hospital nearly everyday for a bunch of crazy tests. I am actually glad about this, which might seem weird but it's important that I get checked up because I have HHT and this can cause AV malformations in my body and they are bad.

Anyway now all my tests are done and I get the results this Friday I can be back to blogging!
YAY.

Here is the ONLY picture of me from Halloween. It was dumb of me to not take any pictures but I was rushing and wasn't very well.

I was pleased with my outfit as it made an old lady on the train scream, which was so worth the total uncomfortable feeling and limited vision I experienced wearing these contact lenses haha!

I did want the thing on my chest to be the sigil of lucifer but I had to settle with a pentagram as I was rushing and that was far easier to do.
I made the horns and antlers myself and am pretty happy with them but looking at them in a flash photo makes them look a bit shiney so I might repaint them and take some new photos.

I am also going to write a tutorial about how to make your own horns

Hope everyone is good :)

Circle Lens Review - WM-209 Max Neon Blue

2011-10-20T21:52:00.005+11:00

So I got a bunch of lenses from Kiwiberry1 Collection.
They had a buy 5 get 6th pair free so how could I resist!

The first pair I have tried so far are WM-209 Max Neon Blue.

The colour looks very different to the website but they say that can happen, I actually like the real life colour more so YAY.

These are 14.8mm diameter and the largest I have worn so far.
They were a tiny bit hard to put in due to size and softness but they are soooo comfy I hardly feel like I am wearing them.

In the vial

In the lens case

These are REALLY opaque which it awesome if you have dark eyes (I don't but still prefer opaque crazy looking lenses to natural ones) They make my eyes look MASSIVE.

I love these and would recommend them to anyone! :D

In my eye and my normal boring eye BIG difference!

both mah eyes :)

Sexy Wounds for Halloween - Tutorial

2011-10-18T10:01:00.009+11:00

I originally started just writing about my make up from last Saturday night but then thought I should make a little tutorial for you all. I did the pictured wound on the inside of my fore arm and it took probably 5 mins max so this is a good quick trick for halloween or any other time you need to look gross :D

Om Nom Nom Holly flavour!

Wooo Hooo Halloween! My housemate and I were getting psyched up for halloween.
It's a bit special to goths here because they sort of get into it more than anyone else, because Australia doesn't celebrate halloween, so it's basically a time for goths to be more goth. :D

The weekend just gone there was a goth club which was medical themed, I decided that there would be too many nurses present (that being a goth chick favourite) so I thought I might be a patient. I sort of imagined that I had been scratched by a werewolf hahahaha. So I wore some purple and black outfit with my skeleton singlet and made some wounds on my face and chest.

Vodka and rasberry red tounge! Clearly I have drunk many at this point.

So these wounds are so easy to do! I have seen a few tutorials about doing them, which are all pretty good but I will still do a little run down on how I did this and what I used.

First thing; some of the beauty bloggers who have done tutorials suggest using eyelash glue to do these types of things. That is fine if you decide on having a wound on the night that need one.
The problem is that eyelash glue is very expensive and not as adhesive as liquid latex.

So if you have a few days notice that you might want to do this, find some liquid latex, you will not be disappointed. I got some from my make up college in Sydney, it got about $9 for a small bottle (compared to $15 for a tiny tube that's nothing)

latex vs eyelash glue

You can use your hands, a brush, a stick or anything to put it on your face. I used an old paint brush (not a nice make up brush). It's so easy, seriously, you just blob it on your face, paint it on, once it dries a bit blob more on.

2 layers of latex

If you want to build it up a bit stick some torn up tissue on your face where the latex is and then paint more latex over it. For a freshly injured look tear a bit of the latex up. That's it for the latex.

Stuck on some tissues, paint latex over then tear it a bit

Next is painting the wound, this is really the make or break part of this process. If you are doing it at home with your normal everyday make up DO NOT USE SHIMMER. It will look fake and wrong! Matte WTF with this type of thing. So if you use normal make up use eye shadows, eyeliners and blush in reds, burgundy, browns in matte.

Some Indie companies have made some cute zombie kits that might be good for this if you don't have the colours but don't want to buy SFX only make up.

I normally use Ben Nye oil based Cream Foundation normally and this is great for covering the parts of latex you want to be skin coloured too(lucky me!) You have to powder it to set properly. You can just use normal foundation but it will need to have good coverage, tinted moisturizer probably won't be heavy enough.

Ben Nye Creme coverage!
Obviously this does not match well on my albino inside arm haha

I used a BenNye Severe Exposure Wheel to colour in and around the wounds

In all seriousness, this made the difference. The colours being specifically developed for this, you hardly had to try to make it look great.I used the very red in the centre moving out with the darker colours then then fleshy pink colour around the very outside. I also powdered the wounds so stuff didn't get on my clothes and wig!

After a quick go with the BN wheel.

My well loved Ben Nye foundation and new colour wheel

Now you are all coloured up you can add the Blllooooooddd. This is he fun bit right!
Because I can see myself doing this a fair bit for friends (and myself) I bought good quality SFX blood. I got two kinds, Ben Nye Thick Blood and Stage Blood(mint flavor nom nom!)
The Thick blood is what really sells this I think and for $11 sooooo worth it.

which blood type are you? mwahahaha

The thick blood is so thick, it's thicker than jam which means it stays where you put it (it also stays wet) and looks amazing for ages. You only need a tiny amount as well.

This is with just Thick Blood pushed around the inside with a stiff brush

Next is the stage blood, it is like the cheap fake blood but it is yum mint flavor!
I squirted a bit on with a syringe and then carried it around in my handbag to top up my gross factor through the night.

The finished wound!

If you make a wound I want to see! Post a link in the comments!

My housemate Rachel and I, Yeah we aren't wasted

Possums, Fun Times and Assemblage 23

2011-10-07T14:15:00.005+11:00

So I have been a bit absent lately just due to so much going on IRL really.

Good and bad so that is ok. A fair bit in between also which keeps everything interesting.

Last weekend Assemblage 23 played in Sydney. It's a bit of a deal for us because not so many bands come to Australia and they were one of my first fav goth electro bands.

They were fracking awesome! I have seen VNV 2 times and A23 were way better than both!

Usually I am shy of meeting bands but I was pretty drunk and super excited so had to tell them they were WAY better than VNV and get a photo.

Holly meets A23

My friends Terry, Wendy and I were a bit annoyed at the prices of drinks at the venue so we went down the street to a bottle shop and got some vodak. We mixed it with powerade and drank it in the park. In the park we saw a Possum! I was so excited.
Australian possums are cuter and nicer than the American ones and he was so close!
A lot of people think there are animals everywhere in Australia and I suppose that is sort of true but I live right in the city so I don't see any really so it was exciting to see one in the city.

Holly and Terry

I have been into pink lately? Can you tell? Terry and I both have contacts in so we couldn't see anything, it was hilarious. Also it was windy and raining in the park and we were all in our trampy goth gear so we were freezing, it sounds crap but it was actually fun.

Later in the night after the show we went to a goth club where I fell down some stairs, spilled a coke on myself and Wendy and Terry threw up. We then walked home yelling about how hot all the people from Game of Thrones are hahahaha! Good Times!

Here is a questionnaire that I yanked from CottonCandyINK, I think they are fun and sometimes give good insight!

Makeup:
Blush or Bronzer? Blush for sure
Lipgloss or Lipstick? Both for me but must be highly pigmented
Eyeliner or Mascara? You have to have both!
Foundation or Concealer? light foundation
Neutral or Coloured Eyeshadow? Coloured no question!
Pressed or Loose Eyeshadow? Pressed for ease, loose for colour options
Brushes or Sponges? Brushes mostly

Nails:
Long or Short? Long
Acrylic or Natural? Natural - everyone thinks my natural nails are acrylic anyway
Brights or Darks? Bright Neons
Flower or no Flower? NO FLOWERS!!!!

Body:
Perfume or Body Splash? Perfume, ususally essential oil perfume.
Lotion or Body Butter? I thought they were the same thing!
Body Wash or Soap? I hate soap, love body wash!!

Fashion:
Jeans or Sweat Pants? I ususally wear stockings and skirts
Long Sleeve or Short? Short please!
Dresses or Skirts? skirts all day everyday
Stripes or Plaid? both! but always grey ahahah
Flip Flops or Sandals? YUK neither!! I always wear boots, except at the gym!
Scarves or Hats? I love scarves and only have one hat
Studs or Dangly Earrings? I don't really change my earrings
Cowboy Boots or Riding Boots? combat boots!
Jacket or Hoodie? I wear a lot of jackets with hoods hahaha

Hair:
Curly or Straight? Straight
Bun or Ponytail? none my hair is short
Bobby Pins or Butterfly Clips? I only use clips for decoration
Hair Spray or Gel? Hair spray all the time!
Long or Short? short 4 lyfe!
Light or Dark? Any kind of crazy colours!
Side-swept Bangs or Full Bangs? Bangs above eyebrows!
Up or Down? Down, up is a waste!

Random:
Rain or Shine? overcast and windy!
Summer or Winter? Winter though I don't know if you call it that in AUstralia it's not that cold.
Fall or Spring? Fall is my fav season EVAR
Chocolate or Vanilla? Hazelnut!

I Tag: Cassy from Cassykins Vs the World
VijiiS from Fierce Nerditude
and Vulcan butterfly!

Will this year end?

2011-09-22T16:23:00.003+10:00

Well I haven't been posting much as stuff has not really been getting better and I have been really depressed

Today is the first day I have worn make up since the weekend.
I had a great weekend but then the start of this week was horrible.
I have been crying everyday and my eyes are so puffy and sore that I can't wear eyeliner and am a bit worried to put mascara on in case I cry again LAME

You know when every aspect of your life just seems to suck, that's me right now.

Look at my puffed eyes and crappy skin from stress! :o

Hopefully my eyes feel better on the weekend and I can try out the new lenses I got in the mail

Asajj Ventress Costume!

2011-09-13T09:46:00.004+10:00

Don't know who that is?

Well she is a super cool chatacter from Star Wars Clone Wars.
A Sith who hangs out with Count Dooku and tries to kill Anikan Skywaler a lot.

My friend was having a Sci Fi dress up birthday party and was going as a TIE fighter pilot so I thought great time to dress up as a star wars character!

I had been working on my costume for a few weeks here and there and was getting excited as I had made most of the thing myself YAY.
I also bought a bald cap and some eyebrow was to cover up my eyebrows.

Ventress in the comic

Ventress by PlanetDarkOne and Ventress by Shadow--ArtisT

Here are two of my favorite fan art for Ventress.
These I used to base my costume on for the most part.

So the weekend rolled around for the party and it was a very full weekend.
I had to go to the 'first annual gothic picnic' in the morning and then watch a friends band in the afternoon and then leave to get ready for the party. By the time I was getting ready
I was tired and annoyed and couldn't be bothered but solidered on for the sake of my friend who's birthday it was.
I had run out of time to mess around with the bald cap and with the eyebrow wax so I had to put body paint in my hair and hairspray my eyebrows down.
So here is my rish job with no good pics of my costume.
I think I will do a better photo shoot when I have some more time to do it properly.

Clearly my boobs aren't white enough either hahaha. Still I was happy for a rush job.

Turned out hardly anyone was in fancy dress either so I was annoyed at them and sad for my friend (whos party it was)

my rush job

Also look at the amazing cake she made!!

EXCITED!!! Morbid the Merrier announce Halloween scents!

2011-09-07T14:48:00.003+10:00

Hey lovely people!

After my Morbid the Merrier post yesterday I was so excited to see that today Lysa has announced the Halloween range for this year.

I am so getting them all!!!!

They should be in the shop tomorrow.

GEIST PERFUMES:

Wraith - wispy purple flowers, creamy vanilla, 3 pale musks, and sweet lemon tea.

Diablo - The devil, indeed! Fiery cinnamon paired with blood red roses and incense

Goblin - A juicy, sweet caramel apple.......with a wormy center.

Fiend - Buttery, spicy pumpkin cookies, layered over black, wet wood

HALLOWEEN LIMITED EDITIONS:

Quoth the Raven - Fruit orchards, a sharp spike of clove, and the remnants of chimney smoke on dirty wings.

Thorn - Church incense, candle wax, and red animalistic musk

Romero - A wreath of funeral flowers, leather seats, vetiver, and mahogany.

Little Drop of Poison - Dragon's blood, plump dark berries and red wine barely conceal a rich, resinous and very poisonous base.

We All Float Down Here - Lemon drops, raspberry hard candy, bubble gum, gutter water, and the fleeting smell of a red balloon.

Which ones do you like?

I'm not dead, I promise!

2011-08-09T15:28:00.001+10:00

See see I am not dead!

I was dying of a chest infections and blood was coming out of my face.
I'm ok now.

As proof I submit this photo of me drinking beer and my friend Beck.

I did manage to get some cool stuff in the mail and do some great looks while I was dying so they will get posted this week :)

Hope you are all good

The Best Perfume for the Alternative Individual Ever

2011-07-22T09:50:00.012+10:00

...well the one of my top three. I can't really pick which is my favorite out of my top three.

It can be difficult choosing perfume online because obviously you can't smell them.
Some descriptions are really great but the simple fact is some things smell different to different people. Due to this fact some people may be hesitant to buy perfume online.
To these people I would say 'Don't be!' Most awesome places sell samples very cheap with very reasonable shipping.

Some people might think 'why would I buy something I might hate?'
Well chances are that if you have read the description and like the sound of it you won't hate it and the chance of finding a scent you love it so worth it. Also if I hate it after all that it's usually easy to find someone who does like it and I just give it to them.

Perfume is so important to me, I love to be sitting at my desk doing my not exciting IT job and catching the smell of a mossy stream or a ripe apple tree.
Even better is hanging out with people, meeting new people and them commenting on how great you smell :)

Today I want to talk about The Morbid the Merrier.

Firstly, is that not the coolest shop name ever in the world?!
Yes, Yes it is.
Also Lysa the owner/maker is super nice and genuine, and drives a hearse!

Also they have a little sort of mini brand called Odditoria which is sold in the The Morbid the Merrier shop and it a little bit different from their normal stuff.

They have a great range of oil perfumes as well as some Eau de Parfum.
More recently they have released some solid perfume, lip balms, bath salts and lotions.

I have been writing this post for weeks and am kind of glad it delayed because in my most recent order I purchased two things that are nearly my favorite items from TMTM.

Lets start with the older stuff that is my favorite.

Lip Balms! this is just one of the ones they have that REALLY stood out to me.

'Embrace your inner harlot.
Juicy Apple + ooey gooey caramel
This balm is made with high quality oils, creamy butters, vitamin E, and organic beeswax. Glides on silky smooth, not too greasy, not too waxy.
Each .15 oz ROUND tube comes wrapped lovingly in pretty tissue.'

It smells exactly like gooey caramel and delicious apples. You actually want to eat it.
It's smooth and moisturizing but not sticky or so smooth is just melts right off.
It smells amazing for ages!
My other fav lip balm is their Caravan Flavor, Mint and Clove YUM CLOVE!!!!

Ahh the perfumes. I am hard-pressed to pick a favorite. I love pretty much all of them
So I have picked three very different ones to talk about.

Pretty much before I got into my top 3 indie perfume brands I thought words like this were just fluff people made up to describe the 10 different kinds of patchouli remixes they made.

Turns out I was completely wrong.

I can't speak for brands I haven't tried of course but if TMTM say something smells like how your heart feels, or like a cold forest or whatever it might be I will 100% believe them. Then when I actually get it in the mail I will make an excited *squeeeee* sound because it smells even more like that thing than I thought it could.

El Corazon:
Like the heart, fickle and a bit deceptive.
A heavy, dark, smoky scent with a taunting core of sweetness.

Explaining smells is so difficult, that is the problem with online perfume and I knew it but I don't think I understood until having to do it myself. This is the hardest post I have ever tried to write actually! El Corazon is so smokey that when you sniff it you think *kwaarrr smokey* then just as you are about to go 'no way I could wear this' it changes into a sweet lighter smell, every now an then while you are wearing it the smokey darkness rises up a bit. I love it, compex and so different to everything else I have tried. This would be great for boys and girls

DHANYA
Key notes:
orange blossom, blackened amber, blood orange, whiskey,
and a most decadent Indian white amber.

This one is a has the very signature The Morbid the Merrier, sticky ambery dark heady smell.
A few of their perfumes have this hevey base but with different lighter notes that change each perfume into it's own little creature. This one has a super sweet orange tang. I love orange so much and it's freshness creates a really interesting interaction with the amber smell, very much a girl perfume this one I think.

HORSEMAN

Fiery jack-o-lanterns, black leather boots, temple incense,
and the edge of a dark Autumn wood. Opens sweet, almost caramel-foody,
but after only a few minutes on the skin, it darkens dramatically,
almost changing into a different scent altogether.

This one is probably my most worn TMTM scent at the moment (especially because it has been winter) It smells exactly like it says. Fire, pumpkin, leather, leaves,incense, AMAZING.
I wear this a lot because 1. I love it. 2.EVERYONE comments when I wear this. Things like 'Can I smell pumpkins?', 'What is that yum smell?', 'What is that warm cake smell?' hahaha.
Peoples reaction when you say it's your perfume range from total excitment to people being sure it's not until you push your wrist in their face. It's a pretty man-ish smell but I wear it anyway.

So I had been writing this post for about a month and a bit but have been taking ages due to life stuff but I am glad I did because while I was dealing with real life I got a new order from TMTM and it contained this baby!

PATCHOULI AND MOSS!!!!

Yes I know patchouli is for hippies, and I am certainly not one, but this really is it's own thing!
You can smell the moss in the damp pathouli earth smell. I want to lick it! I usually hate solid scents as they are either too oily, too dry or just don't smell enough. This is the exception. It's formula is great and it smells for ages! Lysa makes this fragance as a base for some of her creations but decided to sell this as it's own thing and I am so glad she did, it's great by it's self or with another perfume. Very unisex.

I will go over more products at a later stage but that this point in time I will mention one more thing that is is awesome about this brand.

For Halloween, Lysa held a competition on her blog asking all the TMTM fans to submit new ideas for the halloween range. This was so fun and so many great things got suggested. I was so excited when I saw the winning ideas! I can't wait for Thorn to come out, I am a huge Omen fan!

The winners were:

Romero

Thorn (for Damien)

Quoth the Raven

Little Drop of Poison

We All Float Down Here

Check out the store HERE

and check out the Lysa's blog HERE

Goth Swimsuit

2011-07-17T01:09:00.004+10:00

Just a quick one because it is 1am and my eyes are burning from being awake but i felt the need to share :)

I got these swimmers (that's what we call a swimsuit or bikini) in the mail from hot topic this week.

They are Iron Fist brand. I love Iron Fist because the make stuff with werewolves on it :D
I LOVEEEE these swimmer soooo much, to bad it is winter here at the moment and about the coldest week we have had so far.

If I look at my iphone I see next week looking better but still 9 degrees and raining!
How will we ride our kangaroos to the beaches in that weather?!

Slytherin Make up

2011-07-15T17:05:00.002+10:00

Ok so if there ever was a time for me to wear green eyeshadow, it was this week!

With the final Harry Potter movie coming out everyone is excited! Weeeeeeee!
When I thought it couldn't get any more exciting yesterday some stuff I ordered from Hot Topic arrived and what was in there?! A Slytherin Varsity cardigan!

Here I am thinking snakey thoughts :)~

I was going to juggling practice in the afternoon and then into the city so I decided to wear my awesome new anti-muggle garment with some matching make up (a no no, I know)

For this look I used a bunch of small pressed shadows from Venomous Cosmetics
OCC tint on my face and Mac Briar Rose Beauty powder as blush.
I was wearing an inglot lip gloss but later switched to.....

...me new favorite lip thing ever, High Voltage Cosmetics Lip Candy in Devious

And I thought I should include some pics of my with my glasses on as I don't really ever go anywhere without them on (unless very drunk!)

Mah Fur Babies

2011-07-11T23:33:00.003+10:00

Just a quick one.....

You know when something is just so cute you want to explode.

Sometimes I feel like that about my cats, they are so cute!!!!

So here are two pictures of them!

Luci (short for lucifer)
Flame point Himalayan x Persian

Odin
One eyed seal point Himalayan

Cutest kids ever!

Shiv-r * make up * drinking

2011-07-11T23:01:00.004+10:00

So it seems I am getting a trend where I do make up to go out take some drunk photos of me with it on. Hahaha this post is no different!

I got a reaaaalllyy amazing Lip Candy from High Voltage Cosmetics and I wanted to wear it.
So I did my 'go to' look which is a red yellow orange eye with black liner.
This time I wore my new Solar Blue contacts.

I am not yet drunk in this picture!

I wasn't drunk yet becasue my friends band was playing.
Shiv-r, and I was doing the make up for them.

I might be drunk here, Wendy (from Shiv-r) probably is hahaha

Here are the drunk photos I took later on.

On my eyes: Sugarpill burning heart palette, Illamasqua precision ink, Mac Haute & Naughty mascara, Grimas no5 lashes.

On my lips: Kyrolan lip liner with the HVC Lip Candy in Devious

On my face: Ben Nye matte foundation in CE5, Belle Visage contour powder in Mocha, Ben Nye cream blush in Dark Tech

I will post some pictures of the make up I did on Shiv-r tomorrow :)

NOTD - Pink Leopard

2011-07-07T14:48:00.003+10:00

So went out a bit on the weekend which was fun, didn't take any pictures of my make up :(
Had a bit of a mopey week so far but took some pics of my Konad nails I have this week.
Ignore all the chips on them, it's from making WarHammer Minis :)

Saturday Night Phoenix

2011-06-28T22:44:00.003+10:00

Again with the not blogging often! Gah!
Mainly I blame my life being ultra messed up at the moment.
My boyfriend and I broke up and he moved out of our house. A mutual decision but still really hard to realise that is the end of a chapter of my life.

Anyway here is a cool photo. Wendy and I at a dubstep club last Saturday.
This was a bit into the night so our make ups are a bit messed up and sweaty.
I couldn't really see anything properly because my contact lenses were blocking the minimal light in the venue hahaha.

Here is me at about 3am after getting home thinking I should take a pic of my outfit haha.
I thought I should post a full body shot thingo, even if I am a bit fatter than I'd like.

Proper post soon I promise
PS: I just got some OCC Lip Tar in the mail THEY ARE AWESOME

X - Men equals Sex Men!

2011-06-22T10:16:00.008+10:00

So I thought I would write just a weird post because I was thinking about this in the shower this morning hahaa.

My friends probably think I am sex crazed or something because the main way I rate how much I like things is generally how 'cool' it is and how 'sexy' it is and how dangerous it is.

Like the other day I said how cool it would be to have sex with someone dressed up as the Alien from Aliens. Hahah really.

So I was in the shower thinking which X-men character I like the most and which I want to be the most.

I blame this on the fact that I saw X-men First Class the other night. I really loved it. I love prequals and I think it is due to my overwhelming need to know everything about anything that I like.

I have always loved x-men. I have comics, cartoons, art, dvd's ect.
The movie is such a different thing from the comics and cartoons so I have to address them sperately. Boys first.

Professor X

Easily the hottest in this movie I think. He is sooooo cool and really sexy. He is a bit of a smart arse which is awesome and how super great are his powers. NOM NOM NOM.
He is too nice in the other movies if you ask me ( tho I still like him

Azazel

Well I had never heard of Azazel in the comics but he also wasn't mega popular and involved so I'm not surprised. In the movie he was Hot with a sexy Russian accent, red! Red guys are hot (hello hellboy!) Also he is evil so gets extra points. His powers are awesome and how great is he dressed?!

Beast

Ahh beast. I always thought he had the cool factor in the cartoon but not hot factor. In the movie he has the HHHOOOTTT factor but not much cool. I really love werewolves and to me the movie version of beast is a blue super smart werewolf :D

Banshee

First, I am afflicted with major ginger weakness. I luv them! Banshee is pretty ginger. He is also a but cute and dorky with a smart arse edge. His power is multipurpose and flying is cool.

COMIC TIME!
well there really are sooooo many cool characters in the comic, most of the ones I like only have little parts really but there are two mega stand out as my absolute favorites.

GAMBIT

Seriously does anyone not like gambit? He is a hot bad boy with a cute accent and totally has that dark mysterious thing going on.

MAGNETO

Ahhh really probably my favorite. Magneto. He is the baddest, smartest but you can totally sympathize with his cause. Super powerful mutant powers and a sense of refinement and culture hahaha. LOVE HIM! I think he is great in the movies and the comic.

I might make a girls post next :)

UPDATE: I started writing this post yesterday and last night I had a dream about Azazel! I had a dream he was going around impregnating people secretly as after he had impregnated people he erased their memory of it. I was annoyed when I found out he had impregnated me then erased the experience and followed him around telling him off, very funny!

Woah! I am stylish!

2011-06-16T14:25:00.005+10:00

First, I have been away a bit! Sorry.

I had a big time party weekend then got a bit sick from being out in the cold all weekend.
Work has been stressful because my co worked who knows everything is trapped in Tasmania because a volcano in Chile erupted and there is ash all in the sky so no one can fly anywhere.

But on to blog stuff

Oh look I got a stylish blogger award from super awesome Vulcan Butterfly.

I don't often think of myself as stylish, more like crazy with a tiny hint of style hahaha!

So now I have to write 7 facts about me.

1: From the age of 8 till 17 I was an international athelete. I competed in Track and road racing all over the world and competed in the 2000 Paralympics. Even tho I was very good (ranked 8th in the world and 2nd in Australia) I quit because I felt I had other more creative things with my life.

2: I am in a wheelchair because I had a blood clot on my spinal cord when I was in the womb. It blocked some nerves growing and damaged some that were already grown. When I was 3 days old they cut me open and cut part of the clot off and stapled the rest down. So I have 5 staples in me right now! :o

3: It turns out the blood clot was caused by a weird genetic flaw that has been passed down through my mums side of the family. It's called HHT (it was in an episode of House! )

4: Here in Sydney we had a gothic festival every year called Under the Blue Moon. I was the markets coordinator for 4 years. I got interviewed for the newspaper in the 3rd year.
Here is the funny picture that was in the paper (How long is my hair!!!)

5: Eels are my favorite animals EVER. I also like sharks, squids, Cuttlefish, goats and koi fish.

6: I often get depressed that I am not: a. a werewolf
b. a real redhead
c. someone with a cool accent
d. a wizard
e. a mutant in the xmen (more likey the brotherhood)
f. married to James McAvoy

7: I reallllllllyyyy love ridiculous shoes. HUGE stiletto heels crazy unwalkable shoes. I also like the sort of toned down versions of these but it's VERY hard for me to wear these. As I am not actually standing up they don't make me taller they just make my feet sit higher on the footplate of my wheelchair, this means I have to find a higher cushion to go on the seat, which is annoying.
I buy these shoes anyway! A lot of them sit on a bookcase for me to drool at.

My latest pair are actually wearable as they have a bit of ankle support.

Sorry this is a crud iphone photo as I have lost the cable to my camera :*(

I will pass this nomination on to Cassykins vs the World cos she has awesome ginger head style!

Breaking all the make up rules - BLUE!

2011-06-10T14:56:00.006+10:00

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!! WOOOHOOOO!!
I can't believe I am 27! It all seems down hill from 25 if you ask me.

Last night my super best friend ex boyfriend Aaron took me out for dinner.
I decided to break some beauty rules and wear only blue eye shadow with blue eyes :o

Gah! My fringe (bangs) soo long!

Aaron gave me the best present in the world! I was so excited I screamed and jumped up and down in the car!

Yes! 7 lady Gaga 7 inch picture disc records!

Some people hate Lady Gaga and some people love her. A bunch of my goth friends and I are bbiiiggg Gaga fans, one of these fans is a DJ so we often get to dance to Gaga/Metallica mash up techno songs at goth clubs hahahaha!

Here are some more make up pictures, blue makes me look a bit like a zombie (not in a cool way)
so I will be wearing pink and purple tonight(my actual birthday)
I do like the blue with the gold liner tho :)
Also an excuse to wear that blue MAC peacocky lipgloss

I figured I should post some with glasses because I wear them almost constantly.

Here is a great example of my crazy crimped hair!
My colour is washing out and I have been too busy/lazy to recolour
I love this new shiny headband from ebay.

As it is Friday night, my birthday and I am excited, I am now off to go to a metal show. YAY
Lots of people from interstate are coming to Sydney, which is exciting because Australia is HUGE and we have to travel ages to hang out with eachother.
Have a nice weekend people!
What are you doing on the weekend?

Bringing back the CRIMP!

2011-06-09T16:50:00.006+10:00

Well, the other day on a whim(like anything I buy from ebay is not on a whim haha), I got something amazing off Ebay.

A HAIR CRIMPER also called a crimping iron. I love it!!!

My one is a Vidal Sassoon Total Crimp.
I feel naked without crimped hair now. hahahaha! Here are some pictures!

Usually I have to get up early to do my hair every morning because I have to wet and blow dry my hair into a pedantic concave bob. It have to do it everyday because my hair has an annoying kink around the tops of my ears and a big cow lick in my fringe. (shown in the pics above)

It's weird that the crimp will stay in my hair for DAYS before I have to wash and redo and that only leaves my fringe to blow dry and occasionally dry shampoo. Soooo low maintenance
Looks very crazy and a bit 80's but I love it and people on the street keep coming up to me so it must be ok. I want more people to bring crimping back.

Why should I have to endure MC hammer pants but crimped hair is still a but "80's"

Also my hair is a fair bit more red than usual due to my lack of orange hair dye, must reorder!

Also I haven't posted a lot because last Friday my best friend Shane left Australia to go to Mexico for 8 months, he is getting married and having a holiday then coming back with his awesome wifey Nadia. So I have been a bit sad.

Here are some photos of us, very drunk.

Shane, Tim and I (Guna hiding in the background)

Nice view of our table (which had JUGS of cocktails)

Shane, Tim and I
I think I wanted to do a sexy pose but also get my Ironman shirt in a photo haha

I drank a lot of Long Island ice tea :s got home at 3am
Who likes cocktails and what kind?

Werewolf Party Time

2011-06-01T22:19:00.004+10:00

So the other weekend I went to my friends housewarming party.
I had a friend coming over to have some make up done for a show he was doing that night (singing in a glam rock band) so I also invited some friends over to hang out before we left for the party.

Here is the make up I did for the party, Pink and Purple smokey eye.
Also all my lipstick has come off due to drinking cider that was given to me by my friend who I did some make up for and you can see where is is left on the outside of my lip.

Who can guess where my necklace is from? (it's a movie)

For this make up I used: Sugarpill Poison Plum
BenNye Fuschia pressed eyeshadow
BenNye Royal Purple and Fuschia creme (as a base)
Urban Decay 24/7 eyeliner (the purple one)
Illmasqua precison ink in Abyss
BenNye cream foundation in Beige
Illamasqua Blush in Lover
Ben Nye contour powder (forget the name)
Some random eyelashes
'Green Werewolf' Contact lens (I think Crazy Eyes brand)

Of course when I am drunk I have to play Rock Band on Xbox.
Here is me drumming up a storm in my loungeroom with my friends.
I do not recomend drumming if you are in a wheelchair (like me) and can't use the kick pedal.
You can see here I am using one of the sticks to hit the kick pedal hahaha

Here is my co worker Ben, he is a roller derby ref.
Here we are at the party.
We were talking about how I hate superman and who would win out of superman and hulk.
I was sitting under a HUGE superman poster and I didn't even realise :o

Oh Very Orange Hair, I love you.

2011-06-01T22:16:00.002+10:00

The other day I dyed my hair and I was super excited about how orange/red it turned out.
It's usually very orange but today it was especially orange. So I figured it would be a good time to talk about as people often ask me about it.

I used Directions Coral Red in the front and Directions Pillar Box red in the back
Oh and I blow dried it well for once hahaha

Nice view here of the puffy back, I love when the back it big.

It is more orange in the front (also eeep no make up!)

Good old bathroom mirror pic! including cliche Japanese tattoo.

It's quiet often people come up to me in the street to ask how I keep my hair this colour.
I tell them "It's a pain in the arse" and it really is. To really keep it ORANGE I dye it about once a week, twice if I have a special midweek event.

I bleach my hair maybe once a month to keep the roots bright and if the previously bleached sections have gotten dull or discoloured.

I only use Directions colour. I find the range is the best, the most colours, and nice proper orange reds instead of pinky reds. They also last the longest and have the most colour out of all the dyes I have tried (this includes: Manic Panic, Fudge, Stargazer and drugstore colours)
I use sulfate free shampoo and colour lock conditioner that actually contains a light colourant (red of course)
Once I have used product in my hair I try to to have to wash it until I am nearly ready to dye it again as it strips out the colour.

I usually wash my hair and colour on Friday nights so it's nice and fresh for the week end :)

Who dyes their hair?! how often? what with?

My poor rat baby

2011-05-27T13:26:00.002+10:00

I was going to organise some good make up posts today but I had to postpone that as one of my rats has become sick.

I had to take Elric to the vet today. We came back from the vet with two kinds of antibiotics.
The vet says he has the flu and that I also have to start force feeding him more food with a syringe as he seems a bit weak.
Here he is all wrapped up in my scarf after the trip to the vet while I ate a sandwich.

NOTD - Like a ........... leopard aka Konad time!

2011-05-25T17:47:00.003+10:00

So this afternoon after work I actually sat down to do some real Konad nails!

Since my nails and small and crap lately due to removing my acrylic nails I figured it would be a bit easier.

I have always had trouble with Konad-ing due to having BIG nails (due to having big hands)
I was right, smaller nails made it much easier. YAY

After looking at a bunch of nail blogs yesterday I decided to go with a multi-colour leopard print.

Leopard print is good because it doesn't have to be really precise or neat (unlike lace or sharp lines) so I was happy I chose this pattern

I did slip once (yellow nail) I applied top coat too soon to one nail (green nail) and didn't pick up the pattern on the stamper properly on one nail (purple nail)

For my first proper attempt at a Konad mani I am pretty happy with it.

Polishes are:
China Glaze - Sun Worshiper
Color Club - What a Shock
Color Club - Warhol
Color Club - Lava Lamp
Sinful Colors - Dream On
Konad Black

Meme Thing + Cute Animal Pix!

2011-05-23T16:29:00.006+10:00

So everyone was doing this question thing and it looked a bit fun so I did it.

A. Age: 26
B. Bed size:Queen futon, black timber YUM
C. Chore you hate:I really hate washing up, it ruins your nails, I am allergic to a a lot of soap and I hate getting my sleeves wet.
D. Day: It's Monday
E. Essential start to your day: SHOWER, I can't function with out one!
F. Favourite colour: Orange/Red
G. Gold or Silver: Silver, don't like gold at all really
H. Height: About 5 foot 3
I. Instruments: I played keyboard and guitar but was rubbish, I am learning harp at the moment.
J. Job title: System Support Analyst (IT stuff)
K. Kids: No thanks. Pets please
L. Live: Sydney, since I was 14 before that, Batemans Bay on the south coast of NSW
M. Mum’s name:Claire
N. Nicknames: Hols (hate that one) Miss Holly, Holly Monster, Hollycaust, Skwid, Fissel
O. Overnight hospital stays: Lots and Lots, being born with a blood clot on your spin will result in that tho :s
P. Pet peeve: People who chew with their mouth open or talk while chewing.
Q. Quote from a movie:'I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain'
R. Right or left handed: Right but I try to be Multidexterus for two reasons 1. It makes harp easier as you have to use both hands a lot.
2. I feel like it might unlock some secret hidden power in my brain hahahahaha!
S. Siblings: One little sister and a younger brother in law
T. Time you wake up: 5:30 weekdays 8 weekends
U. Underwear: I always wear boyleg crazy coloured ones (Hot Pink, Red, Black, Bright Blue)
V. Vegetables you dislike: I like nearly all vegies but I don't like Sweet Potatoe and I really had pine nuts (if they count at all)
X. X-Rays you’ve had: A MILLION of my spine, hips, knee, feet, head. One of my face when I broke my nose. A few of my teeth and recently my toe I broke
Y. Yummy food you make: I make a really great capsicum and artichoke fritatta and I make awesome cupcakes.
Z. Zoo: I LOVE the Zoo and go to all the Zoo's here. Taronga

Also here is a totally cute pic of my cats Odin and Luci, they don't usually hang out so I was so excited when they lay near each other and stretched out their little paws to each other nnnaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

Also, anyone live near a sephora or will be ordering from them anytimes soon?
They don't ship to Australia and I need hourglass extreme sheen in Siren or I will die!

Weekend Ended - comedy, party, latex

2011-05-23T13:36:00.011+10:00

Wow so It's Monday again already! The weekend went so quickly.
I had meant to write up a few posts about all the things that had been going on make up wise.
Life totally got in the way and I was busy all weekend. Friday night I went to a comedy show at Sydney Entertainment Quarter. We went to see one guy in Particular, Steve Huges.

Above is Steve Huges, he is a stand up comedian and used to play in some amazing heavy metal bands, if you don't mind swearing a lot look him up on youtube.

There were a few supports, and being that I am not very impressed with many comedians (mostly because I am frigging hilarious all day every day Bwhahahaha) I was prepared to be bored. Then out onto the stage comes Rhys Nicholson (pictured above) My first thought was 'hmm this guy looks like a really gay version of Matt Smith from Dr Who" which is awesome. In addition to that he was soooo gay and totally hilarious. I laughed my face off, so that was a nice surprise. We went out into Newtown for some drinks after but everyone was a bit tired and our energy petered out and we all went home at about 2am.

On Saturday I had make up college which was 'smokey' eye which I found infinitely easier than the normal shadow in the crease look. Probably because I am used to packing dark make up around my eyes. Hahaha!

Saturday night my friend Chris was singing with a glam metal cover band and wanted me to do some Pink and Black make up on him. I also had to go to a housewarming party and a bunch of friends came over beforehand so we drank and played Rock Band while I did some make up then I played too while we wasted time before we went to the party. I will have to post some pics because my hair looks great heh!

Another cool thing is last week I weighed myself and found I weigh 72kg, I have lost 7kg since I started Weight Watchers in Normal0 falsefalsefalse EN-AUX-NONEX-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 February. I have lost 500g a week every week, that's half of what I want to be losing per week but at least it's constant and I am not being very strict or exercising that much, so I am happy.

For motivational purposes I have been checking out some latex outfits I LOVE. Both the below are made by Ooh La La Latex on Etsy. I haven't bought anything from them yet but I have been asking questions about items and their responses are always quick and the items are custom made.

I think I am going to get the spiky bra for myself when I get my bonus next month, the other I will have to wait till I get rid of a bit more weight. I plan to wear my waist cincher corset with them as no matter how skinny I get I don't like showing off my tummy :o

Anyone else love/hate live comedy?
Who loves/hates latex?

Lord of the Rings Cross stitch - who wouldn't love one?

2011-05-19T11:14:00.005+10:00

Non make up post for today!

In summer which was over in March it is far too hot to knit many things, and I get bored with things far too easily. So I decided to learn cross stitch.

Cross stitch is a sort of different kind of relaxing to knitting, I find the actual act or stitching much easier because you are pretty much just doing crosses. I suppose it can be likened to Gater or stocking stitch in the knitting world but I hardly ever knit something that simple.

The harder part is that you have to stare at little squares to see where you are and you have to thread a needle all the time which is annoying.

Anyway, this is my first attempt and I am pretty happy. It's a birthday present for a friend who loves Lord of the Rings (it's a Gandalf quote)

I got the pattern from super cool Etsy store Bombastitch.

There are other great patterns like these:

Kristy from Bombastitch also has completed cross stitches for sale for very reasonable prices :)
$4 for a pdf pattern and instructions is great! Check out her store!
BOMBASTITCH ON ETSY

The Nail Tradgey

2011-05-18T21:49:00.004+10:00

So one of the things that was not so cool about learning the harp is that I had to cut all my finger nails off, and crack them off as they were acrylic.

Now my nails are short and ugly *pout* and waiting for them to grow out is very annoying.
It has made me depressed and I am unhappy with any polish I wear at the moment :(

Until, when I was going through my blog reader and there was something extra interesting on a great nail polish blog called All Lacquered Up. Michelle's latest post was a link to another nail polish blog - Chloe's Nails.

WOW Chloe's blog is full of interesting and amazing scotch tape manicures!

The two below are some of my absolute favorites! (click on them for the link)

I am a big fan of scotch tape manicures, I used to do my 'Burlesque - naked moon' manicure using tape.

Check out Chloe's post about using Scotch Tape here.

Needless to say they has inspired me to do something a bit more exciting once my nails grow a bit.

The MAC Incident

2011-05-16T08:25:00.003+10:00

So you see a lot of people who love MAC, people who refuse to buy MAC and a bunch of degrees of between the love end to the hate end of the spectrum.

I like some MAC products, others I think are fad-ish and a waste of space and some are just unremarkable.

Nail polish is a good example, over priced and not very unique is what I think of most MAC nail polishes, however I LOVE Biker Blue (from Jeanius) and it is one of my fav polishes at the moment. I'm wearing it right now! Tricolour Lipglass is another item I don't really get, it doesn't really go on tri coloured at all.

They have great things too, Viva Glam 1 lipstick, CCB's, Naughty & Haute Mascara.

I like the penultimate Eyeliner (but the jumbo one is unusable as it is MASSIVE)

Also selling eye shadows in just pans is awesome if you want a lot and want to take them places.

The other thing that doesn't sell me or totally turn me off MAC are the collections.

They Disney villains was amazing, and quite cute was great, but I find collections like Jeanius and this new beach one very boring and sort of tacky.

A few people complain about customer service, I have never experienced really bad service, and on one occasion the Sydney PRO store saved some of the Villains items for me for a day so I could buy them, which they don't have to do and items were selling out fast to that was nice.

So being an 'I think MAC is ok' I was happy to buy the new Quite Cute lipstick Candy Yum Yum. Hot pink is my new obsession and this lipstick is the IT of hot pink!

I went to my local MAC counter to try it. It was sold out there but I knew it was still available on the Australian website but I thought I should check it out IRL before I bought it. I swatched it on my arm then went around to all the other counters swatching their other pinks, there really wasn't anything like it.

Needless to say I rushed home and ordered it (along with Morange and Lady GaGa Viva Glam 2) I was sooooo excited but 9 days later my order had not arrived.

I logged into the website to check my order status which was still in 'Received', meaning they had received my order. You can’t email customer service so I had to call ( I hate calling people!) The girl who answered (Mandy) was really nice and helpful, took my details and said she would call me back. Within 20 mins she had called me back saying that she had the warehouse looking for my order and if they didn’t find it she would get the items and express post them to me herself and email me letting me know by tomorrow morning.

The next day I hadn’t heard anything by 2pm so I called back again, got Mandy again, she said she that she hadn’t heard back from the warehouse and she would check and get back to me. 10 mins later she calls back saying she was express shipping my items now with a gift. ‘OOOOOOooo yay’ I think, it’s Friday so I will get it on Monday!

Monday I get my items YAY. Candy Yum Yum is awesome, I look around in the box, no free stuff! I got a bit sad, I don’t need free stuff but it’s a bit sad when someone tells you that you’re going to get some then none turn up. I emailed Mandy back and she told me that the gift had been mailed separately on Monday morning. ‘Ok weird but ok’ I thought and was a bit sad.

That was until Tuesday when I got another MAC package, what was in it? I thought maybe some samples or an ugly lip gloss. NOPE. It was travel size duo fibre brush and palette with 4 eye shadows. WOW awesome I was so excited.

So even though my stuff got lost I got it, and more cool stuff to boot.

Now Candy Yum Yum is sold out online too, I will treasure mine!

I write more about the actual products but for now enjoy and iphone photo of me at work enjoying my new lipstick!

M I A . . . Where is Holly?

2011-05-09T14:06:00.003+10:00

The end of April and the start of May have sucked for me.
I have been battling a flu virus for weeks and it was slowly working me down.
Just on easter it struck, I had to have a few days of work.

Unfortunately, one of the coolest industrial shows ever was on on Good Friday.

The killer Band Nachtmahr was finally in Australia with Grendel and Cervello Elettronico, who I also love.

Nachtmahr

To make it even cooler my besty best friends band Shiv-r were supporting.

Shiv-r pics by Jacqueline Jane

Whenever they play and I am free I end up being their, make up/costume/ merch bish.
It can be stressful and a bit of work but also super fun and we get to hang out backstage and get really drunk (and watch everyone change out of their sweaty stage outfits!)

Here is Wendy from Shiv-r and I with Thomas from Nachtmahr, all quite drunk being nerd backstage.

Here is the token waaassttedd iphone photo of Pete and Wendy (Shiv-r) and I
We are so drunk we are actually drinking beer!

I will post a few more pictures of us later as my make up and hair was awesome.
Needless to say we stayed out quite late, it's winter here, so it's cold and this made my flu very very bad.

I was barely surviving and getting through work, sleeping as soon as I got home.
Then last week I was soooo sick I couldn't get out of bed, so I decided to go to the doctor.
I noticed my little toe on my left foot looked bruised so I figured I would ask about that too.

Turns out it was broken! Who would have thought!

'OMG Holly how did you not notice your toe was broken?!' you ask?
Well if you don't know me IRL and haven't noticed in the above pictures I am actually in a wheelchair. I can't feel my legs from my knees down so had NO IDEA that my foot was even hurt.
Poor little toe! I have to go back for an x-ray in 6 weeks to see if it healed ok.
I was surprised that they actually don't do anything for a broken toe, they can tape it to your other toe but that's about it. Since I don't walk around on it there was no point taping.

Unfortunately I had chosen this time in my life where I was dying of the flu and broken myself to take the initiative to start a few thing I have really wanted to do.

So a few weeks prior I mad an appointment with a Harp Teacher!
Owen Torr, he is awesome and has played with the Sydney Symphony and Australian Chamber Orchestra plus more.

Here is me sucking at harp practice while dying of the flu.

The other more exciting part of my new life initiative was to enrol in the Make up college 3Arts here in Sydney.
It was the first make up school in Australia, is awesome and conveniently is a 15 min walk from my house. I will post about this a bit more soon, with pics!

Cute Kitty Pics

2011-04-05T21:36:00.003+10:00

Breakage of camera resulted in me not posting. iphone pictures are so horrible, I decided I'd rather post nothing.

So I thought I would post a bunch of things from my new camera to make up for it.

Here is little Odin looking so cute with his one giant eye and his sticky out lip.
Awww I just want to kiss his little face, but his breath stinks so he is going to the vet tomorrow.

I was so excited when I saw this picture! Odin licking his nose! Too cute!

More stuff coming soon

Cute Pet Picture Friday

2011-03-04T12:37:00.004+11:00

If you first look at this picture it looks like a picture of a cat on a bed covered in toys.

But look closer......

Here is my rat Elric hanging out on my knitting bits box.

And here is Marvolo the rat hiding out in the toys, the third rat Horatio is in there somewhere too but hiding under all the toys.

I love seeing my pets get on. The cats and the rats have a nice little truce going at the moment which means we can let the rats out t hang around with us more. We never leave them out with the cats unless we are supervising, that is asking for trouble.

Cute Pet Picture Friday

2011-02-27T00:23:00.003+11:00

This one is extra super cute.
Here is Lucy the Himalayan/Persian cross cat.
She is asleep in my wheelchair.
I was in bed while this was taken. It seems Lucy thinks any time not sleeping on my chair when I am not in it is time wasted. Very cute but means I get white fur on all my clothes :(

NOTD - Zombie Wagon - China Glaze

2011-02-20T19:38:00.006+11:00

For ages I have been meaning to get China Glaze Wagon Trail.
It is a great black-ish, goldy, bronzey shimmer.
I did a big order online and bought it.
I also got a polish I hadn't planned to but was a great surprise.
China Glaze Zombie Zest! total impulse buy, but I love it

Here is Zombie Zest over Wagon Trail in the sunlight.

Zombie Zest is like a gross-ish zombie green colour glitter in blacky/green polish.

Green is not really a colour a wear much but I really love these nails!

Cute Pet Picture Friday

2011-02-20T19:18:00.005+11:00

Again not on Friday but a bit closer.
Today's stars are in a cute little rat pile.
These are (l-r) Marvolo, Elric and Horatio

Marvolo and Horatio are brothers.
We took them from a pet shop where they were both very sick with rat flu.

Little Elric was bought a bit later after the other guys got rid of the flu.
Having three makes them a bit less territorial.

They like going out for walks on my shoulder and going around in my handbag.

NOTD - OPI Suede Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees

2011-02-16T22:20:00.005+11:00

Ahh look at it, So lovely and Suede-y! I really love this colour, it's depth and complexity is awesome whilst not having one million different colours in there.

It looks really granite-ish and very suede.

All these pictures were taken inside my office which has fluros overhead but a lot of natural light too. The only thing about this polish that is annoying is that the awesomeness of it doesn't last very long, maybe a few days if you go easy on it. After that the natural wear and tear on your nails buffs the suede down to a matte and eventually a bit shiny.

This picture is a blurry one(sorry) but I wanted to include it to show the other great thing about this polish. It's really multi shaded, in different light it can look nearly black or very light grey.

Despite it's short nail life I still love this polish.
It dries SOOOOO fast it's not a problem to pop on another coat every few days.
The formula goes on great too. I would love to try a matte top coat over this but don't have one.
If anyone has tried a matte top coat over OPI Suede colours I would love to know how it went.

Cute Pet Picture Friday

2011-02-15T12:11:00.005+11:00

Okay so I know it's not Friday, but I thought I'd catch up on the cuteness instead of omiting it.

Here is my cutie cat Odin, Very relaxed on my/his office chair.
He is so relaxed for only having been with us for 2 weeks, previously been in an animal shelter for 3 months prior. naawwwwww cute!

NOTD - OPI Ink!

2011-02-08T11:57:00.003+11:00

So I am not usually a purple fan but lately my love of make up and nail polish have been making me attracted to all these colours I wouldn't have worn in the past.

Which is why I decided while at the nail salon getting my broken nails fixed that I would try OPI Ink.

This polish is from the Night Brights collection. I love My Private Jet from that collecton.
Ink is sort of a purpley blue-ish colour with a crazy pink shimmer.

It really looks very different in all different lights. I couldn't stop looking at my nails!

Sorry for the horrific iphone pics but even in this dodge picture above you can see the hints of pink shimmery goodness.

In the below picture it looks totally different, way more blue!

Try this out if you like shimmer, blue or purple. It's great.

Sorry for the iphone photography but I am trying to keep to my posting schedule even while my camera is broken. :(

Cute Pet Picture Friday

2011-02-04T17:34:00.002+11:00

This cute little one-eyed boy is Odin. He is our new cat.
He is a seal point Himalayan. He had to have his eye cut out in December after he was dropped off at a shelter with a burst eye by people who couldn't afford to look after him.

We adopted him one week ago and he has already settled in amazingly.
He plays, eats, purrs and loves to sit on laps as well as sleeping right next to me in my bed.
His one downfall is his fish breath hahaha

Cute Pet Picture Friday

2011-01-27T22:17:00.006+11:00

I thought that in an effort to get some routine in my life I would blog more as this inspired many thing downstream, thinking, writing, taking photos and documenting things I would probably not bother to and forget.

An easy one that inspired love and a tiny bit of creativity, PET PICTURES!!!!!

This is my cat Luci, she is a Persian X Himalayan, flame point, 3 years old and a big sook.

She loves to sit on stuff I need, so while I am bringing in my washing she feels the need to chill out in the basket.

You don't know the power of the dark side, I must obey my master.

2011-01-24T19:16:00.008+11:00

...I had been meaning to do some posts about make up that doesn't get blogged about much and so when Ana a reader of Greys awesome blog asked for Yellow swatches I had to obey!

There was some discussion on Grey's blog about Inglot. I love Inglot and think they are totally unappreciated in the make up blog world so was happy to show some swatches of their stuff compared to other yellows.

So below you will find some yellow swatches and a bit about the products.

So the pressed shadows are over TFSS and the loose are over Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy.

The colours in the swatches are:
Pressed shadows:
Sugarpill - Buttercupcake
Inglot- AMC eyeshadow - #60 (this is the pressed eyeshadow)
The Make Up Store -Cybershadow - Ra

Loose Shadows:
HiFi Cosmetics - Rise to fame
Inglot - AMC Pure Pigment - #29
Ben Nye - pigment - Sun Yellow
Shiro Cosmetics - Weepinbell
Spectrum Cosmetics(the one on etsy) - Submarine

A bit about them:

Well originally Ana posted that she wanted a yellow off with Mac, Inglot and Sugarpill.
I don't have any Mac yellows and I think that Make Up Store is not represented enough on the blog scene, they are great! So I threw in Ra cybershadow and some other yellows I had lying around.

Sugarpill - Buttercupcake: What can you say about it? It is SO yellow. Matte-ish with tiny tiny sparkle. This goes on amazing even without primer.

Inglot- AMC eyeshadow - #60: This again is just very yellow but in the container is looks like it has more sparkle to it by a long way. This sparkle doesn't really come out on your skin at all.
I have to use a good primer or base to get this colour out without looking sheer and is it not nearly as blend able as Sugarpill or Make up Store, I put this down to it's sheerness. I guess it's not as pigmented as it seems, would be good if you wanted a subtle yellow but not a light yellow.

The Make Up Store -Cybershadow - Ra: If this was food I would eat it for every meal! Really this is as good as Sugarpill and sugarpill is as good as this one. The only difference is that Ra is way more shimmery. SO blendalicious and yellow and strong *luv*

HiFi Cosmetics - Rise to fame: I threw this one is as it was a cool yellow I had. It is slightly lighter and cooler than the other three above and very very shimmery/sparkly, I think it would go great in a chartreuse / green look. It is very strong over PE and blends well.

Inglot - AMC Pure Pigment - #29: Over PE this is like a yellow punch in your face. I love it. It's very true yellow, very shimmery and very very pigmented.

Ben Nye - pigment - Sun Yellow: Everyone knows these pigments are good and plain and what they say they are really. This is a plain sun yellow very strong pigment, works well with PE.

Shiro Cosmetics - Weepinbell: I threw this one in because it's new and I am excited about it.
I love Pokemon. (Remember when that weepinbell kept eating James head?!)
This is a light cool yellow that would probably go awesome with the HiFi shadow or any green look. Very shimmery nomnomnom!

Spectrum Cosmetics(the one on etsy) - Submarine: This is so yellow that sometimes when I put it on it looks more of a cool colour some how, I'm not sure how that happens. It's a plain matte yellow loose shadow. The Payoff over PE is so different to just normal base. You must use PE with this!

For a pure yellow pressed shadow I would have to vote for Buttercupcake or Ra, depending on what level of shimmer you want.

Here they are in the containers
(top, left to right) Inglot #60, Sugarpill Buttercupcake, Shiro Weepinbell.
(bottom, left to right) Make Up Store Ra, Inglot #29, Ben Nye Sun Yellow, Spectrum Submarine.
oops I left out Rise to Fame sorry!

Proud of my babies in the Cyber Monday Sale

2010-11-29T18:40:00.003+11:00

My etsy Store Ordo Atra Serpentis is having a cyber monday sale, 30% off everything.

It's been going pretty well, mostly selling Moleskines. I am pretty proud as I have really stuck to the theme and beliefs behind this store, making what I loved and not really compromising on that. It's very satisfying to see other people are loving them as well so I thought I would post a few of my faves.

Goatish - Large Moleskine

Chaotic Ouroborus Small Moleskine

Anatomiee Tentacular Extra Large Moleskine

Lava Nails

2010-10-21T11:01:00.003+11:00

This year has been the first year I have had acrylic nails. I have naturally long and strong nails but acrylic nails keep polish on so much better, and I love polish.

Nothing pleases me more then knitting and looking at my cool nails. Also if you knit in public (like I do) people are always looking at your hands so why not make them look great?

Red and Orange are my fav colours (apart from black..duh) So I so excited when I found out my nail salon have this cool crackle nail polish.
I originally had it done with darkish red (OPI St petersburgandy) but it was too dark.

So this time I used Colour Club fluro orange underneath :)

I am Treasured! (on Etsy)

2010-10-20T21:07:00.003+11:00

Lately due to my day job, TAFE (College) and being the markets co-ordinator for Under the Blue Moon Festivals Markets I have had little time for my creative side.

It's pretty suffocating and depressing, so I was really excited when I was contacted by some Etsy sellers and buyers who had made treasuries featuring my items.

If you don't know, Etsy is a website where people have little shops selling handmade and vintage items. Treasuries are collections of similar items that people make, usually to a theme. The best of these are displayed on the front page of Etsy.

My store Ordo Atra Serpentis has been featured in these Treasuries:

Horrible Terrible Evil Bad..

Featuring my Inverted Cross girls Tee

Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Featuring my Anatomiee Gauntlets

The awesomely named Men Who Stares at Goets

featuring my Wings of Samael Girls Shirt

In the Night

featuring my Morte Aqua Equine Gauntlets

Crochet Car

2010-08-17T15:47:00.002+10:00

I was checking out the funny site You Drive What? while passing time at work and found the best car ever!

Bob & Weave

I own a stationwagon so I think it would take far too long to knit or crochet a cover for it

I Love Knitted Mittens

2010-08-10T23:32:00.003+10:00

I live in Australia; it's seldom cold enough for gloves in the moderate city or Sydney, let alone Mittens. But how cute are mittens? Too cute! I also have the added benefit not knowing how annoying it is to have to wear them so I love them.
These musing on mittens were brought on by Morehouse Merino releasing this very cute Owl Mitten pattern as part of a knitting kit.

In celebration I thought I would share some of my other favourite mitten patterns.

These cute owls are the Owlie Owl Mittens by Betsy Farquhar
Click on the pic to check out her other designs.

Both the above Fishermans Friend and Cat Mittens are by Jorid Linvik
Click on them to see more Norwegian knitting awesomeness.

I love the above mittens and their creators are amazing but the below two are my absolute favourites, for totally opposite reasons.

These are called Glitten by Laris Designs.
They are called this because they are glove/mittens.
I love the technical cable style and the fact that they are a revolutionary clothing item!
Also they remind me of Spock!!

Deep Blue Sea Shark Mittens by Breeanna Sveum (click on sharkeys for her blog)
TOOOOOOOO CUTE.
Simple simple knit but so cute and funny.
I would wear these in summer at the beach!

Aquatic Cuties

2010-08-05T18:48:00.005+10:00

My employer Optus is running a competition for photos taken of Australian wildlife to print in a calendar.

I thought I would submit some cool/cute aquatic creatures to combat the horrifically predictable fuzzy animals that are sure to appear in the competition.

Here are three little cuttlefish hanging out waiting to be fed at Manly Oceanworld
The must have been about 15cm long SO CUTE!

The common Moon Jelly looks totally awesome under the fluro lights at Sydney Aquarium.

This has to be my total favourite! This is an epaulette shark.

They are a cute nocturnal carpet sharky. This one is only about 20cm long.

They don't get much longer than a meter.

Chateau Bizarre - Blog Featured

2010-04-08T12:27:00.002+10:00

One of my items got featured on a great alternative design/fashion blog.

Chateau Bizarre - check them out, lots of evil to alternative to cute weird stuff featured on there.

I got my All-seeing Eye gauntlets featured in the Etsy Highlights: A gauntlet of armwarmers.

It's great when other people take time to recognise what you do is good.

All-Seeing Eye Gauntlets

Cute Knits V1.0

2010-02-12T13:38:00.004+11:00

Filling up a blog with just all ugly isn't that hard or interesting so I had to add some cute!

I'm not often a fan of knitted things for animals but this one is awesome.

This cute free pattern is from Drops Designs. (aww puppy!) If you check out the ravelry projects for this there are also some really cute cat coats!

The cutest thing I think I have ever seen are these baby goats in sweaters (jumpers)!

Machine knit for the kids so they don't get cold. These pics are from Fias Co Farm, A goat husbandry site.

Ugly Knitting V1.2

2010-02-12T12:33:00.004+11:00

I don't want to seem to negative. I love that people offer patterns for free, even big yarn companies with their pdfs saturated in advertising.

I only have one issue with it; when these big companies offer a pattern for free they don't really have to stop to think 'Why would someone pay for this?' This seems to give birth to some delightfully horrendous knits.

These two patterns make me feel funny inside, both from the same designer I stare at them wondering 'Why?'

Team Norge

Don't get me wrong, I love Norway and can even speak a bit. Also they completely are gods of knitting. Even if I was a Norse knitting goddess I don't really think I would want to wear this around(esp in winter brrrr!)

Cold Much Mantle

I don't thing I would want to wear this to Antarctica even though there is no one there to see you apart from pengiuns and seals.

Ugly Knitting

2010-01-09T21:23:00.001+11:00

Lately I have been relying on Regretsy to get my through the working day

It's hillarious the stuff people actually try to sell.

I also found and old and no longer maintained, but great all the same, blog about ugly knitting called you knit what?

After a few hours of avoiding work thanks to these sites decided to change to looking at some knitting patterns and BANG there was my own ugly horrific patterns to blog about!

So here for you are two horrible ugly knitting pattern abominations.

First up - The knitted goldfish toilet seat cover.

ONE: I hate toilet seat covers. Why do people use them?
Isn't that why you have a lounge room with a couch in it? to sit comfortably in?

Why would you want to spend any more time that you need to on the toilet?

What if it gets dirty? :-s

TWO:Who says thats a goldfish? It looks like a peach toned blob.

THREE:If that is meant to be a goldfish, Why is it looking half submerged in water?

Why would I want to spend my time knitting a totally useless item thats intention is to make it look like there is an orange blob floating in my toilet?

All I can say is at least the pattern is offered for free (by a big USA yarn company)

The other gross ugly pattern I found was on the same site but is from a book. It's actually a book I want and fundementally not a horrible pattern really but....... well you look

It's just a capey thingy, which I like, but I really think people get a bit mad with embellishing.

Random colour/size and style buttons is a hard look to pull off particularly when most of them have 0% functionality.

What's with the blanket stitch egde? why is it white? it looks like the pencil case I made in kindergarten.

Then there is the age old issue with knitting patterns, What the hell was the director of this photoshoot thinking? The hat looks ridiculous and her shirt looks like it's made from old sheet turned into a pesant blouse.
Mind you, I will still buy the book :)

Some info for traveling scarves on HPKCHC

2009-09-11T10:04:00.002+10:00

So this is a circle? • Exactly. You will always be sending the scarves to the same person (the person “downstream” from you) and you will always receive from the same person (the person “upstream” from you). The order of the list remains the same all the way through. After your scarf has been all the way around the circle, it will come home to you, where it stays.

Do I have to buy new yarn for each person’s scarf? • Not at all! This is a good opportunity to reduce your stash. You might use the same yarn on several different scarves, or you might have different stash yarn you can use for each scarf, or you might use this as an opportunity to go out and yarn shop. Whatever works best for you, but you are not required to purchase any yarn.

How wide should my scarf be? • Approximately 3-5 inches (8-13 cm) wide. Between 25 and 35 stitches, but that depends on needle size and type of yarn. If you want a longer skinnier scarf cast on less and do more and let your downstream partner know in your scarf note

How many rows do I add to each scarf? • Work the scarf for about 3-4 inches (10 cm). Be sure to check for notes from the scarf’s owner, they may have noted that longer sections are just fine.
Do I just go ahead and start my pattern, or am I supposed to do something else first? • Before you start, be sure to check which side of the scarf is the Right Side and which is the Wrong Side. Check your pattern, Row 1 may not be the Right Side row. If this is the case, do a row of plain stitches before you start your pattern. This will keep the Right Side in the correct place. Also, when you’re at the end of your section, if you’re a knitter and you’ve had a fancy pattern with yarnovers or stitches passed over or similar, add two last rows of stockinette, so that it’s easier for your downstream to move your stitches onto their needle and work them without dropping any stitches.

Can I increase or decrease on someone else’s scarf? • Most groups are ok with some minor increases or decreases (one or two stitches either way) as long as it doesn’t change the overall width of the scarf noticeably. This is very important, don’t make your section an obviously different width from the others. As an example, sometimes you find the perfect pattern to use but it requires multiples of 6 and there’s 35 stitches. You can increase to 36 stitches in order to use your pattern. If you do increase or decrease, make sure to include a note to that effect with the scarf as it continues. If every participant increases one stitch on the same scarf, it’ll come out with a noticeable slant. You can also consider returning the stitch count to the original amount in your last row (if you increased one at the beginning, then decrease one at the end, or vice versa). Keep in mind that a lace pattern will be wider, and a cable or rib pattern will also change the width, regardless of how many stitches you have.

If 11 people each knit or crochet 5 inches, that’ll be a 55” scarf. I like longer or shorter scarves; can I ask everyone to do more or less? • You can always start your scarf with a longer/shorter section, and when it comes home to you add another section onto the end, to make it the length you’d like. You can include a note with your scarf that people can work more/less than 5 inches, but remember that most people are working on other projects, too, and may not have time to work a larger section in the two week time period.

I’m in a knit/crochet combo group, how does that work? • All participants have several options. If it’s ok with the scarf owner, these scarves may be growing off both ends! In that case, crocheters can work off any bound off edge they find, even if that means their section isn’t after their upstream’s section. For crocheters, the other option is to crochet into the live knit stitches the same way you would work into the loops of a SC stitch. Knitters can either work off any live stitches, or pick up stitches from a bound-off edge. The best matches for knit & crochet are either lace or ribbing/stretchy stitches. Those are NOT your only options, just they fit well together in the two related fibercrafts.

I don’t like xyz type of yarn/such-and-such colours/this-or-that pattern. Can I instruct people not to use those in my scarf? • You can be somewhat specific about colours and yarn content, but keep in mind that not everyone in your group will have an extensive stash, so we should try to keep the requirements as basic as possible. There have been members who sent a pattern with their scarf and requested that everyone work the same pattern in different yarns, or preferred a lengthwise scarf, or sent their yarn in the package and requested different patterns in the same yarn. If you want to do something different like that, check with the other members of your group beforehand. Some members are just sending their scarves out into the world and saying “surprise me”, so they’ll get back a very individualized piece of wearable art. Please, please take a moment to think before listing your requirements. If a member of your group is on a tight budget and you have narrowed their options down to only a few colours and a particular fiber content, it may be difficult for them these scarves are intended as an experience, not a professional finished product. If you don’t like the looks of the scarves that have already been completed, then send your yarn with your scarf and let everyone use it with different stitches. To sum up, having some preferences is just fine—“no fun fur”, “I love bright colours”,”I am allergic to wool” etc—but don’t get carried away with restrictions.

What about the ends, do I leave them hanging? • When you receive a scarf, weave in your upstream’s working yarn, and the tail from the beginning of your section. Leave the tail at the end of your section for your downstream’s use. This way, when the owner gets their scarf back home, it’ll be ready for them, without them having to waste time weaving in a bunch of ends.

What information should I include with my scarf when I send it out? • Make sure it’s clear to whom the scarf belongs. You should Include some or all of the following: size of needles used, weight of yarn, content of yarn. If there is a definite right side/wrong side to your scarf, pin something to your scarf to indicate it. (Remember when scarves arrive, be sure to check which side of the scarf is the Right Side and which is the Wrong Side. Keep them correct!) If you have allergies to smoke, pets, or wool, please note that. The other members of your group will do their best with that. I think it would be nice to include a note from each person who has knitted so that when you get your scarf back you have a note from each person who has knitted/crocheted on it

If you’re going to be late in shipping, please pm the moderator for your specific group and your downstream scarf (person your sending to) person to keep everyone updated.

Die Dye

2009-08-22T22:36:00.002+10:00

Welllll after all the heated disscussion about dying yarn on Ravelry and getting an issue of Knit 1 with some info about dying with plants and stuff I decided to try to dye some yarn.

I had some nice hand spun 100% Australian Merino 110g skein made by Golden Gryphon which I had bought at a medieval fair. It had been dyed with onion skin and was pale yellow, I don't really like pale yellow so I decided to dye it orange-ish.

So I put a pot on the stove to boil, put in some tummeric and saffron and put in the yarn, it was kind of going more yellow which annoyed me so I added some Red Chai tea I had sitting around (from T2)

This made it more reddish but also a bit greenish, in my frustration I added every red thing could find in my kitchen cupboard. The final ingredient list is long.

Red Chai tea
Red fruits tea
Tummeric
Saffron
Paprika
Red wine
Cherry Juice

I was amazingly lucky and the final product came out nice and reddy orange, definitley a fluke but YAY!

Aliens anyone?

2009-05-26T15:32:00.003+10:00

After watching an awesome episode of Dr Who Series 3 (Fear Her) with an really inventive alien (the Isolus) I really wanted to make one. I thought it would make a great Brooch.

It fitted in with a HPKCHC subject on Ravelry so I crocheted one up.
Honestly I think it is too chunky and heavy looking so I will probably make an organza/cotton sewn version...eventually

IMG_9238
Originally uploaded by lycanthropica

Reality

2009-04-10T11:34:00.002+10:00

I watched the movie Watchmen last night. It was great, long, but great. I want to marry the comedian. A lot. It reminded me of how I don't feel like dating 'normal people' and i really want to go out with an evil elf, superhero/villan or a werewolf :(. Damn reality

Ravelry

2009-04-08T08:07:00.004+10:00

If you haven't joined Ravelry, do! It's awesome and totally inspiring :)

viking beanie

2009-01-20T22:56:00.001+11:00

viking beanie
Originally uploaded by lycanthropica

Finished this one today.
A present for my friend who loves Vikings.

Pattern i bought off etsy by candy pop creations
it's an ok pattern but probably a bit on the expensive side and i noticed that the completed hats for sale are $85 which i think is overpriced.

I made this a bit larger and longer by adding a few more rows
I also added a second slip stitch row as i thought it looked a bit cooler
NB: do your slip stitches LOOOOOSE because they make the beanie really tight otherwise :)

Oh yeah i also ommited the funfur bit and instead did those rows with the main colour as i thought the fur was a bit tacky and using MC looked like it was joined better and easier to hide my stitches.

Amigurumi Fox - Crochet fame!

2009-01-02T21:01:00.004+11:00

Wow! My crochet fox from Tamie Snows book is being used as the pic for the pattern on Ravelry
Go me! here are some picture of my cute version of this amigurumi fox!

first blog post!

2008-10-17T11:36:00.002+11:00

So i finally managed to grasp how to work a blog.

this is gooing to be a place to record my creations and their inspirations.
also tracking ideas and hopefullty getting some feedback :)