In which there is a little ode to Halloween

Uma Thurman as Medusa in The Lightening Thief. That's a costume to try.

I really love dressing up. I've always loved it. I've always chosen to host fancy dress parties at any excuse. I dressed up as a Native American at a 'Cowboy and Indian party' I had when I was eight (we were very friendly cowboys and Indians who liked climbing trees and playing pass the parcel together). And ten years later, my eighteenth was a huge costume party, and my twenty second was themed on 'things you'd find in a forest' (red riding hood, fairies, Big Bad wolf and Princess Mononoke were among the costumes), I have been to comic conventions in cosplay, but most of all I am always excited by Halloween. It's the time of year when d it is acceptable to get all dressed up, to make an effort, and to revel in it.

I thought I'd share a few Facebook snaps of me in costume from some past times at uni and such. Neither the pictures nor the costumes are all great quality, more snaps in the hallway on the way to the party! What you can see is my progression from first year university student to now: graduated three years ago and still loving to dress up.

And now? This Halloween? What's next?

A little while ago I funded a Kickstarter called Take Back Halloween. It was a response to the over-sexualisation they saw in a lot of Halloween costumes, meaning Halloween costumes for girls. There's a beautiful cartoon that illustrates this concept:




 Jillian Tamaki has an awesome webcomic at mutantmagic.com.

Personally, I quite like looking sexy and am not adverse to wanting to wear things that make me look good. What I also like though, is imagination in costume concept. The idea of the 'sexy broken doll' or the 'sexy Alice in Wonderland' is part of an idea that women always have to be conforming to a patriarchal beauty standard. It's also really boring. I want to do more like my Death outfit, more fully realised characters. Take Back Halloween offers surprising ideas for new, interesting character costumes for women. It also gives detailed advice on how to make them and where to buy the material's. It is also incredibly informative and fascinating. There are so many names on there that mean nothing to me, so many awesome women of history and legend that I've never learnt about, reminding me of just how much more there is to know. They fill in that gap by providing alongside the costume ideas, a mini-biography of that woman. So they are worth checking out, even if it is just to learn a little more about women who have been pirates and philosophers and genius nuns. The site isn't perfect and I find it lacks some of the scarier characters that might be fun to spook people with on Halloween, but it's definitely fun for ideas.

In the mean time these are my current favourites:

The Morrigan




Anne Bonny/Mary Read



Hypatia

So, do you love costumes? Do you dress up at Halloween? And if so, what are you doing this year?

In which I'm looking for some reading material

I love reading all the blogs I do and getting to know folk from across the world and the most varied collection of clothes, ideas, crafts and eclectic styles and personalities.



Most of the blogs that I love to read seem to be girls who live somewhere near the countryside or some kind of small town (strangely often Midwest America or Melbourne). They like to thrift and frequent charity shops or make their own clothes and do outdoorsy photoshoots. They share a little of themselves and smile in their photos. I like all this.

I like their blogs and I like these people through the little glimpse of them that shines through the internet.

I am generally less keen on blogs where people just put pictures of catwalks or show off their collection of Miu Miu shoes. Oh, of course to everything there is an exception, but I want to feel like blogs offer inspiration and connection. Essentially something magazines can never provide.

However the blogs that I have found of people who live near to me seem to fall into the latter category. They also intimidate me a little with their classy looks and large shoe collections. Oh I live near London, but I'm not a city girl. I'm a country small-town girl at heart who went to university in Wales and whose parents live in North Yorkshire. London is still a spectacle not a home. The town I live in on the outskirts, that's home now - but I doubt there's a whole collection of fashion bloggers here!

*Getting to the point* I would love to get to know more people round here and join some kind of London group for people who like fashion but not Fashion and clothes but not Vogue. SO:
Can anyone recommend some good blogs that are based in London?

I just want to re-iterate, there are some City blogs I really like. It’s just that most of the fashion blogs people share or that I have come across tends to be American or Australian focused and I’d like to find more English ones in the hopes of making more friends in a city I am new to. I also love finding new blogs so please tell me what I should be reading below!

 Second point coming up!

Most of my reading list are about fashion, but I throw in some blogs on cakes, feminism, theology and comic books as well. However, I would also love to find more good blogs that are about those kinds of things, whilst also being personable, if you know what I mean. After all a blog of cake recipes and decorating is just so much more interesting if they share the stories behind the four foot luckdragon made of icing. So please let me know if you have any interesting quirky blogs to recommend too.
For instance on:
-Feminism
-Toys
-Cosplay and costume making
-DIY, crafts and making it yourself clothes
-Books, but passionate about them, not just objective calm reviews
-Cake decorating
-Comics; about comics or containing comics
And just to share the love! Some of my favourite non-specifically fashion blogs/tumblrs are:


The Lady Nerd
 Amazing and striking cosplay outfits and costumes that are totally different from anything else. Even if you are not normally into cosplay, she also writes really well about conventions with all the little encounters and witty moments. She makes me smile with every post, plus she great photoshoots.

 

 The Lady Nerd in her Vogue-Loki look. Heart.

Stoya
Definitely NSFW this one. This is the tumblr of Stoya, international alt porn star. Sometimes she blogs about upcoming films, sometimes she makes clothes, sometimes she writes about acrobatics training and sometimes about feminism. She is very intelligent, witty and all-round interesting. I learn a lot from her blog.

We Mixed Our Drinks
A blog about religion and feminism and life thoughts written by the news editor of BitchBuzz.  Very well thought out and articulated views on theology, feminism, literature and life.

Krisatomic
Blog by an illustrator/photographer who does cute drawings and interesting photographs and a bit of life blogging.

Diane Duane tumblr
She’s the author of the Young Wizard teen fantasy series. One of my favourite childhood authors who I am re-reading at the moment. She’s amazing because whilst being successful and famous she is a fan. She doesn’t place herself above her fans because she squees over Loki, Sherlock and kitten pictures like the rest of us. Interestingly she has also written some Scooby-Doo and Star Trek books.
What else do you enjoy reading beyond the fashion sphere? (or even crossing over into that realm but residing in another)

Do you read tumblrs too?

What English blogs do you recommend?

In which I list the prettiest websites I procrastinate on

My list today is: Sites that I use just for the pictures.

It's partly a lie as I do read some stuff as well, but mostly the pictures then.

Here goes.

1. Cosplay.com

When I have spare time and no particular blogs to be reading I like to go on cosplay.com and search for books, films and anime that I love and just see if anything comes up. I once spent an hour going through all the characters in Super Smash Brothers. I love cosplay to bits. When done well it is breathtaking and beautiful. I have a few bits and pieces I have made myself and hope one day to go to a convention and swelter away all day like everyone else. If you go on the site I reccommend looking through photoshoots.

2. Bookshelf Porn
   

Anyone who knows me will know that I am obsessed with reading. I have read pretty much every children's book worth reading. That sounds boastful, but I have read over 250 on the 'Children's Books to Read Before You Grow Up' list if you want evidence and I've read more than that.

Anyhow, I am a bit prissy when it comes to books. I like them to be treated properly, kept in height order or some other logical system on a book case with the only ornaments near them ones that compliment the books. I feel kind of uncomfortable in a house where people have the Harry Potter books kept out of sequence. A site like this one makes me very happy. All of these people clearly care about books.

3. Off-beat Bride
   
   

I have been reading this site for a couple of years now and it is influencing my life in terrible ways. The website features unusual 'off-beat' weddings and wedding ideas. They are splendid and filled with happiness. The site always makes me smile because it is filled with photos of happy people in love and cool and quirky ideas and ways they show that love. On the other hand though it was recently pointed out to me that it may be making me judgemental. I have read all these horror stories of wedding planners refusing to help someone because they had blue hair or walked with a cane and have scorned that judgementalism, but I have begun to expect off-beat from other weddings or at least some little tradition rebellion somewhere. I'm glad that it has been pointed out because now I can obsess over traditional and unusual weddings and make sure I have no expectations either way!

Oh and the other reason I have been on this site. My very close friend got married recently. Her wedding was definately cool -she had a bouncy castle and not a kid in sight. Need I say more?

4. I ran out of time. Sorry guys! Got to go to work tomorrow... I mean save the world right.

In which I stop a forest fire

I will tell you adventures from last week today. I will also shut up about Halloween shortly but I just want to show a picture of my friend dressed as an elf from the dead marshes.
How awesome is this?
-->

We went outside an had a little photo taking exchange, including a much better one of my Princess Mononoke costume, but I don't think I can let you see it. It reveals my face and I just don't have time to faff with Photoshop and draw on a mask. Sorry guys.

I also finally put some new jewellery up with this Christmas necklace, I am so very proud of the photo. It's taken on the fur I used for my Princess Mononoke costume. -->I also used a little playmobil Father Christmas in the background. I have decided for this Christmas display I am going to mix my winter sets and my zombies and have all the playmobil zombies opening presents. When December comes I will create this and photograph it!

So a while ago now there was a small forest fire in my area. I say small because this is Britain, our forests don't get very big. I went along to deal with it and found 5 guys all standing around gazing at the fire in awe, a bit like zombies.

Turns out they had all been infected with 'pyromania.' Yup some typical evil doctor has found away to give people crazy obsessions. However he clearly planned on them getting further with the fire lighting than staring at it and saying 'preeeetty.'
Fire is a bit of an issue for me in some ways. Paper doesn't take kindly to being burnt. Once my creations are made and transformed they are fine, I just have to ensure my satchel of washi paper doesn't get harmed first. -->

I'm still searching for the ideal solution to this so suggestions are welcome. I also simply don't like fire very much.

I took them down by doing a beautiful origami model of a duck on a pond. I made it take form in the air above the fire and so the duck could fly away and the pond water fell flat over the burning trees and soaked the infected guys.

I may have to look further into what caused that situation. When I interviewed the pyromaniacs afterwards they have no memories of the last 48 hours. I'm not sure I want anyone getting up to sneaky science shenanigans.

P.S. This is fantastic! Made by a guy after my own heart! He sells paper crafted creations on Etsy.