He’s making a list…

…and checking it twice! Some little christmas (or maybe for other occasions, too?) gift and not so many wrapping ideas for Lolita friends or beloved ones, as one can never have enough inspiration for those little things that make others smile. ^^

1. Some spools of thread or embroidery floss for a sewing friend, wrapped in a nice blank linen, tied up with a velvet ribbon.
2. Fine marmalade or jam. If you don’t want to cook it yourself, try your local (or favourite) tea shop for some nice and extraordinary flavours. They might also sell unusual honey (such as mimosa or rose petal) or rock sugar in rum! A piece of nice fabric clutched over the lid will make it more personal.
3. A poem, written in your best handwriting. Deck the paper with an Art Nouveau ornament or something related to the piece of poetry and put it in a nice frame (you can find those at several home decoration stores or IKEA). I’d recommend something like a Shakespearean sonnet, some Lewis Carroll or lyrics of a song that this friend likes.
4. Tea. There are the most delicious sorts in the stores at christmas time! Apple and Cinnamon, Citrus flavours, Gentleman’s Toffee, Irish Coffee or just a fine Earl Grey will surely be a welcome gift that can be delivered in a pretty cup with a ribbon at the handle. ^^
5. A cylinder music box. You can often find these in toy shops featuring a pretty array of melodies.
6. Unusual soap or bath ingredients. Try Lush, The Body Shop or your local eco supermarket or store for aromas like chocolate, rose petals, star fruit, sheep’s milk or green tea. You could wrap it up in a washing cloth of some sorts or a nice handkerchief…
7. Home-made winter biscuits! Sweet shortcrust pastry biscuits, speculaas, macaroons, chocolate chip cookies with an extra pinch of cinnamon, the list is endless!
8. A pot of rather unusual ink. There are colours like silver and gold or very vivid yellows, blues or even greens and pinks, but also white (good for Gothic Lolitas who use black stationary), pearl-like shimmer or sympathetic ink.
9. Polymer clay pendants. Easy and fun to make and perfectly personal. Nice motives could be gingerbread, sweets, bunnies, cats or Christmas stockings.
10. Nothing for the boys (or maybe it is… hm.), but a nicely designed eye shadow or lipstick. Sometimes you can find pretty designs in the seasonal collections of favourable-priced, small brands in your local chemist’s shop.
11. Syrup in nice bottles. I still keep some of the rose hip syrup I made a month ago, you get pretty much out of two pounds of them (the rose hips). And it is healthy and tastes grand!
12. A charm for a charm bracelet. Not very innovative, but you could a) make it yourself or b) reference to something that makes your relationship special.
13. Chocolate! The most obvious! You can get seasonal cinnamon-and-gingerbread flavoured bars in December as well as pralines. Plus: It’s fun to rummage in chocolateries or old-fashioned sweet shops for nice gifts, dressed up in Lolita!
14. A pretty hairbrush and/ or pocket mirror, small enough to fit into a handbag, tied up with a pretty ribbon and a card or gift tag showing a vintage style hairdo tutorial.
15. Some seeds, a seedling or a single flower and a nice tea-cup full o’ earth. You could also look for some nice little garden pottery, but I think a cup would be perfect. There are ways to get holes into the bottom of the cup for the water to drain off, so you could watch out for a matching saucer, too. Nice plants could be a rose, lavender, violets, nasturtium or even a couple of pumpkin seeds as a base for a Cinderella carriage.
16. Fabric book wrappers. Best if you and the one you are making it for share the same favourite book so you will know the size in which to make it. It could be very personal with a name, coat of arms or specific symbols or related to the book it is meant for.
17. An old-fashioned fabric tea bag, embroidered with rosebuds, tea leaves, Asian ornaments or terms associated with tea.
18. A case mod USB stick, e.g. in a stuffed toy, started up with cogs and some brass paint, with motives of Gothic architecture or polymer clay and silicone cupcakes and cream.
19. A nice bottle of bubbles. If there aren’t any nice designs, just fill a nice glass with the liquid, give it a tag saying Fairies’ Tears and add some glitter. Don’t forget to decorate the blower with a ribbon!
20. Something you found outside: An interesting pebble, a pretty feather, dried leaves or flowers, nuts or a snail-shell.

Preparing for… Christmas!

Picture from weheartit.com

It’s nearly December now. Which means that Christmas, Yultide, Midwinter Festivities or Hogswatch are drawing near, the jolly season of the year when all the world should echo of songs of winter, snow and happiness, when the air should be filled with the scent of fresh biscuits, ivy and with real mistletoes to kiss beneath – well, if one has one to kiss at all.

But hark! There are some dates before December 25th to celebrate:

• Saint Nicholas’ Day on December 6th (German). Put your boots outside the door and hope he’ll fill them with sweets and citrus fruits!
• Saint Lucia’s (or Lucy’s) Day on December 13th (Swedish). Eat lussekatter (a kind of saffron buns), wear a Shiro Lolita dress (or just something white) with a red sash around your waist and something sparkly in your hair (nobody wants you to catch fire through wearing a wreath with candles all day long!) or dress up as Tomte (a household spirit), a gingerbread man or a star boy. I guess you could also go to your next IKEA, they’ll surely have some Lucia items.

But now: Off to christmas! It’s pretty a large holiday to celebrate, so I will make several post on the topic through the next days to keep it well-arranged. There will be posts on literature, music and pictures, gifts, baking and decorating.

I’m so excited!

‘Tis the Season to be Jolly!

First Christmas Shopping and Last Moving Preparations

I was this pleased by my poupeé girl outfit today that I wanted to share it. ^^

University was a little bit depressing today – our tutor (we only have to attend the Old Irish tutorial on Thursdays) arrived at the tower at 9 AM instead of 8 AM and we didn’t know that before. Which means that I had to travel about three hours for 45 minutes. Not that nice, but I’m taking comfort in the fact that this was the last time that I had to go all the way of 100 km for one lesson. ^^

After I was back here in Frankfurt I had the chance to get the first Yultide present at the Christmas market: liquid honey soap for my mother, the same kind that I gave to her one or two years ago. She loves nice soaps, but not in bars as they make a mess, if you ask her. I’ll sew a bag for her, too. Oh, and I got on with my DIY-presents-for-everyone-list.
This is it:

• Japanese knot bag for my mother. She always says that she couldn’t have enough solid, large yet pretty bags.
• Rose hip syrup for my grandmother and my father.
• A wits pouch for my grandfather with chestnuts, raw wool, perfumed oils and other things he can explore with his sense of touch.
• New university bag for Bambi as his old laptop bag is not only ugly, but also falling apart. With an integrated velveteen pocket for the notebook and a deer or roebuck (the literary Bambi is a roebuck, Disney’s a deer. A deer’s antlers are way more impressive and interesting to design. Hard decision).
• Stuffed troll toy for Bambi’s sister who is studying in Norway at the moment. Is already sewn but needs clothing and a proper face.
• Miniature felt Scottish terrier for the Scottish wereterrier (plus some tea).
• “Real men haven’t got hip joints”-T-shirt for the Goblin as a quote from a film we watched together.

Well, Lilibeth, Jules and the Satyr will get their gifts, too, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise if one of them is reading this list, so I won’t say anything about them. ^^

I also bought two spools of white-and-red striped wrapping paper – a little break with my brown-packing-paper-with-stamped-on-names-only habit. And I got me the first hot chestnuts of the season on the Christmas market!
Forget fast food and sweets, forget sugar canes and giant doughnuts, forget marshmallows and candy apples.
Hot chestnuts are better.

But now I’ll end my entry for the packing of just more stuff’s sake. I hope I’ll be able to post again before next Tuesday.

Till then!

All my Bags are Packed

Well, it is more of boxes. And they are not packed yet, at least not all of them. But the day of moving is approaching faster and faster, and I am really nervous now. Only 6 days to go!

I already packed my old suitcases and some cardboard boxes, full of drawings, books, dinnerware and art supply (and some clothing, too) and started carving the pieces of my bed’s frame.

Goth, I am just so excited! The Satyr seems to keep it quite cool, a thing that I simply can’t understand.

There’s s much to do and so little time at the moment, but when I don’t have to commute any longer, I’ll have time for all my projects! *phew* I also have got to start making yuletide presents, but I couldn’t find something for everyone yet…

Awww, next week at this time I will be there, in the little white house at the banks.

Preparing for… Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day

The 8th of December is “Pretend to be a Time Traveller” Day!

Ladies and Gentlemen, please fasten your seatbelts and lay back in your paisley velvet chesterfield seats. This flight through time will take off in a few minutes…

And the question that it is all about is: Future or Past?

Travellers from the Future

Dystopian or utopian? You may either go in rags ‘n tatters or wear something that could come from the set of Star Trek: TNG, come either from a world that is torn down everywhere except at the core, where everything is shiny and splendid like in Firefly Serenity or somewhere completely different and out-of-space. Or you can just go for a tinfoil helmet and act like a character from Futurama.

Travellers from the Past

This one is quite easy, even if you don’t own any period clothing. For the girls I’d recommend a ruffled or lacy blouse and several skirts of different lengths. Just gather one or two of the upper layers to imitate a bustle skirt. It’s even easier to find a boy’s outfit as the patterns changed not much during the last twelve decades. One thing that is really important is the headgear. A top hat of any kind will do, or a fascinator for the ladies, as well as complex headdresses. It’s mostly the accessories that make the outfit (at least in my opinion).

Oh, and don’t wear trainers.

You may find other information and advice here.

And please remember: Let nobody know you’re a time traveller! This project is an entirely secret service.

Packing Thoughts

As our moving date is drawing really nigh, I even started packing my clothes. And realised that my wardrobe is pretty much a mess. It is now my declared objective to completely update it by modifying, using for something different or simply throwing away the things that I don’t wear that often or don’t wear at all.
I really want the “perfect” closet.

This sounds kind of weird, I know. But if you leave the “sounds like a quite complicated problem and a weirdo” thing out, the concept is pretty simple:

Only wear what you love.

You won’t even be able to do not so because your whole closet only contains those clothes you love most.
I just want to feel good, no matter how much time I spent on my outfit. I don’t want to have a bad day just because I had to ponder in front of my closet for hours only to dress up in something that is not absolutely perfect.

It still sounds like nonsense, but I didn’t sleep too much during the last nights and had a little to much of lacquer, spray-on glue and paint vapours in my room, so you might excuse me.

My plan contains amongst others these tasks:

• Re-dye my black double-breasted dress and sew in the gathering straps
• Re-dye my black lace blouse and change the old, worn down lace for great, new crocheted lace
• Fitting my men’s shirts to my own shape
• Finally alter the old black coat for Steampunk
• Sew a new bodice for the fragile vintage hippie blouse
• Find a nice end for that certain jumper

I’ll do the dying this weekend as I want to wear the dress at the 3. of December (I’ll need an additional velvet skirt).
Only 12 more days until I can call the chambers on the banks my own!

I’ll finally get some rest now, without the urge of the alarm bell before 6 AM, so

Good night unto you all!

Bonnie

Packing Delusion

An old-fashioned alarm clock, a game of domino, The Settlers III plus Quest of the Amazons, a set of memory cards, fabric paint (red, blue, red, dark red, ochre, green, yellow), lacquer, pigment aquarelle colours (red, dark red, blue), Loreena McKennit – To Drive the Cold Winter away, Celtic Wonder CD, Sagas of the Middle Ages, an old-fashioned candle holder, tuner, three and a half beeswax candles, old pencil-case from the 60s, small Baoding ball, small crossbow and vacuum bolt, roller cutter, star globe lamp, an unpainted polymer clay steampunk hand pendant, a yet unpainted cameo ring and brooch, a persea americana seed, a little woolen plush mouse from my grandmother’s time at the theatre, a black net glove, calligraphy nibs, a west my mother brought from Egypt long ago, five Clamp chess pieces, a pair of bunny ear hair clips, a toothbrush stick, self-spun wool, a little sheep doll (souvenir from Scotland), an antique hairbrush, a miniature latin dictionary, a glassful of buttons, soft pastels, three boxes of watercolour, a box of wax sticks, a bundle of old teeth brushes and a screen, a pair of compasses (the math kind), eyelet tools, soap bag with three soaps, a note-book (souvenir from Paris), a doll, the Leprechaun Barbie from the Goth Barbie swap, ink (sepia & black), menthol ointment from the Halloween swap, small fish statue, little Hindu goddess, a wooden toy alligator, a wooden hang-up duck, a package of black henna, a wooden yo-yo, The Dresden Files DVD, American McGee’s Alice, Neverwinter Nights, some seasons of Doctor Who, Terry Pratchett audio books, The Darkness – Permission to Land, another spindle of CDs, caramel for tea, blackthorn-cinnamon tea, Grandfather’s berry harvest (isn’t the name lovely?) tea, a papier mâché figure I made in 11th form, a self casted candle that looks like honey, a dress clasp, a stone from Denmark, a miniature hippopotamus, wooden stamps, a tiny round metal capsule I got from my father, a little clay figure I made at school, a set of false lashes, my name stamp plus letters, a wooden pear-shaped savings box, sheep-shaped soap, three batteries, a cupcake-shaped India rubber, a Warhammer figure I got for my seventeenth birthday, dried slices of orange, a wooden riddle, blackcurrant pastilles, red satin band, a rope, a top, white eyeshadow, two more note books, my fairytale curtains and now the cardboard box is finally entirely full.

Sealings, Words and Soap Bags

I am indeed not posting much lately, but this is caused by the little time I’ve got during the week: University is keeping me busy.
I’ve got to say that I really like Old Irish – it sounds very unusual if one is not used to it, but I like the slightly rough sound – like a quite cool zephyr grinding on the cliffs that point out to the sea.
New Irish is also nice, but the lessons tend to be a little unstructured sometimes. At least I already finished my homework for both so I will be able to study at the weekend.

Speaking of the weekend, I planned to get the material for my bed and shape the pieces today. It’s only 17 more days until we’ll be able to call the small white house in the green lane our home! I already started packing with some dinnerware and other smaller stuff at my mother’s castle and about 90 books here – I stopped because of a lack of cardboard boxes. Hopefully I’ll get some empty ones tomorrow.

On Tuesday I gave my first university presentation at Celtic Studies at the subject of the medieval Celts of Scotland, Wales, Brittany and the Isle of Man within ten minutes. The thing is: each and every time I’ve got to hold a presentation I get the most forcible adrenaline rush. I also had this when I was still in school, on stage at the drama club, when I’ve got to sing in public, at my graduation. Most people seem to consider me very confident, but inwardly I am pretty shy and always worrying the making of mistakes (and nobody believes it when I say so). But when I am there, standing out, speaking in front of dozens of people, it is all gone. No, not gone, but the unhealthy excitement is blown away, leaving just the leading lady, the lead singer, the drama queen at centre stage. The Satyr called it “an otter on drugs” (but I think he meant it favourably) as I tend to be very lively, blithe and awake in these situations. Well, at least nobody fell asleep.

Love gets words...

I also crafted a little bit-  if painting my seals (I couldn’t get a better picture of the sealings. It’s: black/ closed rosebud, teal/ coat of arms, red/ anchor and crown) counts. They are made of polymer clay with buttons as sealing part and laquered with nail polish. I had to get the teal paint just yesterday morning, but it had to be some kind of green! I also sewed a soap bag for Marburg, just to use that fabric I had left over for over a year now. I’ve got to reduce my fabric reserves anyway. Next week I think will be wholly dedicated to organise my closet, sorting out what I won’t wear any more, repairing what has to be repaired and making a list of what I’ll need furthermore. Maybe I could do some of the darning, darting and patching on the train…

So long,
Bonnie

10 Pleasures in November

1. Marc Warren – incredibly creepy and insane as Mister Teatime (“It’s Teh-ah-tim-eh, Sir.”), cute and caring as John Smith in Ballet Shoes, dark and daring as Dracula. He has very an unusual face and the fact that one rarely sees him smiling in the pictures makes him just more fascinating.
2. The Welsh flag – I’ve got two of them, one at the wall of my room at my father’s and one at my mother’s (the first one will move along to Marburg), each of them over my bed. In my opinion, there isn’t any other real flag as cool as the red dragon. I also have to admit that sometimes, when I’m all alone in the flat and I am overcome with fear of the creatures that lurk in the dark I imagine that the red dragon is protecting me, coming to life and building a nest for me by curling up around my mattress, warming me with his breath and scaring away all nightmares.
3. Gothic and Gothic Revival Architecture – I really like Gothic architecture, but the revival is very nice, as well. The Old University of Marburg is built in this style and often nicknamed as “the Harry Potter Castle” or described as “looking as a university should look like”. The most famous Gothic building in Marburg would be Elisabeth Church, dedicated to the saint with one of the most enchanting stories about holy people at all, the miracle of the roses.
4. The Cold Weather – Finally a chance to wear layers and woolen tights again! I also love my military-inspired black coat and boots that make an awesome couple.
5. Cheese. I admit it. I’m a cheese lover. Even if it’s not a dairy but a supermarket where you buy your cheese, have a look-out for more “oddly” varieties of cheese with herbage, mould or nuts.
6. Thinking of Yuletide Presents! Indeed, every year I’m starting earlier (mostly about May to August) by noting down what my beloved ones could need or like. For example the friend, who’s worn-down bag didn’t last trough the first weeks of university could use a bag or backpack that fits his black coat better than that ugly thing he is carrying around at the moment (not as if this was the matter with one of my friends, never… ^^).
7. The Smell of Leather – The vegans will loathe me for this, but I just love the flavour. The one of shoe polish, too, by the way.
8. Doors. I keep dreaming of them. Large, white doors in buildings I know in places where I never saw them before. Doors at the back of stairs, to crawl though a house’s bones, doors to unknown white rooms of my old school, covered in paint. Tolkien once said that cellar door was the most beautiful word of the English language.
9. Astrid Lindgren. The swedish writer who made up all those heroes and heroines of my childhood – Ronia the Robber’s Daughter, Britt-Mari, Emil of Lönneberga, The Brothers Lionheart, The Six Bullerby Children and of course the unforgettable Pippi Longstocking and my favourites, the Children of Seacrow Island and Kalle Blomkvist (Bill Bergson in English).
10. The Fog. Quite early in the morning, around 5 AM, the sky I can see trough my bower’s window is nearly yellow with mist that is illuminated by early or very late city lights. When I get on the train, it travels through the thick white morning haze, letting me think of a bridge, as I can’t see the land surrounding us, that leads to Marburg which lays like an island in all the nebula, encircled snugly by its hills…

After All Souls’ Night

I hope you all had a really nice Halloween, All Hallows’ Eve or Samhain.

Mine was pretty funny and neat although I got newly nicknamed “Mother Hulda” (it’s Frau Holle in German, which sounds somewhat nicer) by the Satyr as I covered our whole castle in snowy white fluff from sewing my costume and we didn’t play GRIMM at all (we were too busy with eating up the sweets that were left over as Halloween is not very popular amongst the German children any more  and our sushi when it came to Jules and me or Thai Food for Satyr and Bambi). Well, we re-made the date to happen next Saturday. ^^

I love how my pumpkin turned out. Typically, I carved it last-minute, when my costume was ready and the Satyr was already sitting in our castle’s kitchen. To be fair, I’ve got to say that he helped me very much with the basic carving when he could have sipped his tea and watched me making a more or less pumpkin-covered fool of myself.

Oh, the one you can see in front of the château at the mosaic (second row, right) is Jules who wore a magnificent blue glacé frock he made, with false fur trimmings and beautiful reddish-golden lace. I hope he’ll post some pictures at his own blog soon.

As for my costume: I got the idea from the wonderful Victoria Suzanne of Lolita Charm who posted a set of 50 very cute and extraordinary costume suggestions lately. I decided to dress up as a kind of older female Max from Where the Wild Things are by the genius Maurice Sendak. I really love the book and the illustrations, I just had to think of a way to get the costume within two days. It came out as an open-front hooded jacket of white microfiber from a pattern of my own and matching gaiters together with black basics and a huge cardboard crown. I sadly had no chance to try the great vampire make-up I showed you some posts before, but applied some brown eye-shadow and  some dark lipstick. Well, nobody tried to convince me to disguise myself as a deadly attractive Snow White :P , so… maybe one fine other day.

Did I forget something?

Yes, the burying of an apple for the dead. Sadly. I think those (neo-)pagan rites are quite earthing and let one think of the things that wait for us in the otherworldly shadows…