A little home decor tutorial

Hi again. :3 This week I finally had a little time to spare and even though I was still a bit tired after IIK!! related sleep deprivation, I decided to do some DIY stuff for a change. I've been meaning to get some candleholders or lanterns to hang on the bathroom ceiling, since in this house it is forbidden to make holes to the bathroom walls. I haven't managed to find any good ones that would fit our current color scheme, but then I suddenly had an idea.

 

I've had these two candleholders for a long time, but they were in pretty bad shape and the color was a bit off too. The paint was chipped and one jewel was missing. However, they had potential, so...

I took some nail polish remover and removed the chipped paint with it (and a rough sponge). It came off pretty easily.

I also happened to have some clear jewels left from another DIY project that I did years ago. So I replaced the purple ones with clear ones.

And here's the result! These fit much better to our current bathroom color scheme. They were in use first time today and I'm really satisfied. :) I also bought a mini speaker for my phone the other day, so we can listen to music while we are enjoying the warmth of our sauna with candle light and cold drinks. Ahhhhh is there anything more relaxing than that? ♥

Wear it like armor

Usually I'm a huge fan of this time of the year, especially when the snows still haven't arrived, but right this moment I really, really hate the darkness, since it is virtually impossible to take good pictures with my crappy camera with so little light. Sure, there is some light during the day, but that is during office hours meaning I'll be at work... Agh. I should probably invest to a better camera and a tripod, but there is so many other lovely, lovely things to buy... like clothes!

I finally became fashionable, and decided to get an over-sized see-through knit to be paired up with leggings and skinny jeans and oh my do I love it! The knit is from H&M, ~20 euros, definitely worth it. I also bought one pair of regular black leggings from H&M and another pair from Goottikirppis. These babies are originally from Gina Tricot and they have some pvc on the sides. ♥ 

After all this sensibility I naturally needed something totally unnecessary, some new pvc-wear! The jacket and pants are both Lip Service (I ranted about the pants already in the last post...), from German Ebay. Totally love the jacket, but the pants definitely still need some adjustment.

Last but not least, something I really, really needed: a new winter jacket! Well, it was second hand but you get the point. I bought the bat scarf earlier this autumn from Seppälä sale. :3 I'm really bad at wearing scarves, but this one is suck a cute piece I'm really learning. ♥

I really need better photos of the pvc pieces, maybe I'll ask a friend to take some next week. Now I'd better slip into that lovely coat up there, since I need to drop by at a few local bars to drop off some IIK!! festival flyers. :3 One thing I'd really like to ask from you readers though, do you usually buy clothing like steadily, or in a bigger bunch every few moths or so? I tend to do the latter even though I think it's not the smartest thing to do... but somehow I kind of like to feel a bit naughty every now and then, even money-wise. :D How about you?

Everybody scream!

Monday. Usually Monday is just another day for me. I don't hate them and usually I feel pretty rested after the weekend so they tend to just fly by. Today however the day felt more like a stereotypical Monday. I had to do so much research for a project at work and it took way longer than I had expected and then the results weren't that pleasing either, bah! But tomorrow I'll roll my sleeves again and get working, at least now I have a plan, even if it took the whole day to figure it out.

However new pieces of clothing always have the power to cheer a girl up, don't they? Well they do, if they fit... I ordered some pretty expensive (=overpriced) items from lip service last week and today they arrived. I'll make an official post about them later, but now I must rant! I checked out their size chart as I always do and everything was supposed to fit well. The jacket I ordered did, pretty well at least, but the pants... well, otherwise as expected but the waist was like enormous compared to the size they give out. Like seriously, the pants are size small, but the waist is more like a large, wtf?! See for yourself:

So, I had to take up needle work once again and do something about that by hand (my sewing machine has been broken for ages now and I have no idea how to fix it, probably have to take it somewhere to be repaired...). The pants are wearable, but they still sag a bit and there is pretty much nothing I can do about that, since the size difference was so huge... well, I could if I was more skilled, but I suck at sewing really. I'm pretty bummed about this though, since they were a really expensive pair of pants so you kind of expect that they are what you ordered, right? Have you had similar troubles with Lip? I have managed to avoid them so far, but these pants were definitely a disappointment.

Well, if the new clothes didn't manage to cheer me up, the next weekend will for sure! Once again there is the IIK!! horror movie festival at Ii and I'll be working there (and watching movies on my free time of course!). This year we have some very interesting pieces, including Carrie, Blood for Dracula, Kiss of the Damned and Orlacs Hände. Ooooooh I can hardly wait! I hope Mr. Wolf will attend also as a guest and join in for a movie or two, I do love movie dates. ♥ If you happen to be around, join in as well. You can view the full list of movies here and buy the tickets in advance as well. :)

Darker side of life

Hi again (so soon too)! I wanted to drop by to talk a little about how I have been recently and simultaneously upload some Instagram photos here as well.

So, the last couple of months have been super busy for me, with my new job, burlesque gigs and everything that comes with that as well. Next weekend I'm going to go visit my parents and in-laws, maybe some friends as well if I have time. Last time I visited my parents maybe six weeks ago or so. This picture pretty much sums up my visits there. Good food, good reading, relaxing and having a good time with relatives and friends. Somehow I find that the actual physical distance of my life here really is the best way for me to relax. ♥

...Although I have found ways to relax here at home as well. Good red wine always helps!

I have been forced to find time to relax on my own when I can. Sort of force-relaxation you know? :D I have had so little time to relax that I have actually had to put that on my calendar, haha.

During the comic festival week I was at Valve (a youth culture center here in Oulu), drawing comics with people, mostly children. There was this awesome 3-year old kid who, like, scribbled something at first, then took a red marker and started coloring EVERYWHERE. After like five minutes or so, he suddenly said: "Bwahaha, he died!". :D Ahhhhh, such cool kid. Reminded me of my own childhood... ;3

Last weekend we were celebrating Halloween at Heta's place. I guess it became a sort of unofficial North Finland Goth Bloggers Meet or something, since Horros and Sereijan were there as well, along with other cool people (It was so nice to finally meet you for real!!). I went there as a succubus, since I wanted something comfy and simple. Damn me for not taking a decent picture of my outfit, but here's one of my makeup and horns. Haha, we are pretty drunk at Hevimesta in this pic, lol. We had really awesome time there, huge thanks to lovely Heta.♥ 

Oh my, look at the time! I'm gonna go to sauna to my neighbor's place today, actually I was supposed to be there already... yikes! Now, better go! So long! (Ignore the stupidly arranged paragraphs, they just won't go the way I want~)

Edit: Totally forgot this, but remembered again in the sauna: if somebody is interested in following me on Instagram, my alias there is batsinthe_belfry. Go follow! ♥

Get them off and they'll let you go

Hello little batty bats, hope you had the best All Hallows' Eve ever. As you know, I spent my Halloween night in Nuclear Nightclub, spinning tassels at our burlesque show. ;) I had really awesome time there! Our shows went really, really well, awesome people came to watch us perform, we had really good time on the backstage with Nicole (who also did a great job performing I hear!) and we even sold three pairs of pasties (made by yours truly and sold by lovely Lolly Poppins).

So, without further a due, some pictures of my acts! One act was with lovely Rawrs Berry as Siamese twins and another a solo act with some vampirism... ;)  These photos are all © Pauli Tavasti, including the last one, which we took at his home studio couple of weeks before the show (I did the 'shopping though). If you'd like to see more, well be putting them to our Facebook page (go like!).

Even though I had the best time at our show, I'm also sort of glad it's over, since I have had virtually no free time for months! Our next gig will probably be in the beginning of March, so I'll probably just take it pretty easy until Christmas. :3 I simply need to spend more time with Mr. Wolf and Béla and most importantly MYSELF. Speaking of spending time, we are off to the movies to watch Thor: The Dark World (a friend gave me tickets as a thank you present for borrowing a corset for her). Let's hope the movie will be good, I didn't particularly like the first one, but I'll give this second one a chance anyway. :3 Puh-bye! ♥

BOO-tiful burlesque

Hello darklings! Phew, I have had a very, very long day! Today after a very hectic day at work I went to print out posters of our next burlesque show, which takes place on, you guessed it, Halloween! Our previous show in Oulu Comics Festival went really really well so the pressure is on for this one! So I was out spreading posters for three hours today, then came home to do some updating on our social medias and shop photos to promote the event and I should still practice a bit before bed. I have had virtually no time for myself in weeks, but it'll be worth it when the spookiest night of the year arrives, I hope. :)

So, without further a due I'm posting out poster here as well! I actually made it myself (heh, I didn't have too much time as you can probably tell, but at least it's informative).

Oh! Almost forgot! Here's the link to the upcoming show,s'il vous plait! And if you are interested in seeing pictures/videos of our shows, our check out the dates to our upcoming shows, do like us on Facebook! My personal profile is here and the profile of our group Madam Hardware and the Kinky Carnival is here. Go like! ♥

Who's That Pokémon?

Hi there! Ooooooooh, I have been waiting ages to publish these news for so long! Our little burlesque group, Madam Hardware and the Kinky Carnival, has a new gig coming up in less than a week! We'll be performing in Oulu Comics Festival, on 19th of October! If you happen to be on the area, do come see us go wild in Never Grow Old, Oulu! ♥

Here's also a link to the Facebook event and if you happen to be a total comic geek (I know I am!), check out the whole festival as well!

Summer tidings

It seems that finally autumn has arrived and summer is just a warm memory for the next seven to eight months... sigh. I really should be going to sleep by now, but I thought that I'd drop by first to post some Instagram photos ranging from May to September, to reminisce the past, wonderfully warm and sunny summer and welcome the darker seasons again.

In May we celebrated the anniversary of our engagement. ♥ That chocolate cake was pretty good and we ate it at our favorite café called Bisketti. :)

In August for some reason I got inspired and did my nails! I'm usually super lazy with them and just paint them plain black most of the time but this was a nice exception for that. :)

August was really productive month for me, well, except work-wise (or maybe because of that, hahaha!) and I even had time to pluck berries at our summer cottage. ♥

In August there was also the Night of the Arts and I was there also, this time illustrating post cards and fridge magnets with guys from Oulu Comic Club. That triskele skull I made for Mr. Wolf. :3

I guess Mr. Wolf must have loved this little gift, since soon after he took me to dinner at Harald! It is a viking themed restaurant and really good at least here in Oulu! I had salmon, vegetaables, this pancake thing and cider, nom nom nom!

We have also traveled a bit, with Béla of course. He seemed a bit bored at our in-laws, poor thing. :D Should have brought his toys with us I guess... :3

This same weekend we were spending time at our summer cottage, celebrating the season ending. I simply love being there, I wish I could stay there longer and more often.

The ending of summer season also means a bonfire. It is so beautiful when all people there at their own cottages light bonfires and candles and it all reflects to the pitch black sea... love it. ♥

 Just a little while ago we went to movies! I love eating Ben & Jerry's at the movies with that adorable shovel... haha! We watched RED 2 and actually I liked it really much! Over the top, but just the right way!

Finally, last Saturday I spent a couple of hours at Fantasiapelit Oulu, selling vanity press edition comics, made be me and bunch of other cool people. We sell them there every third Thursday of the month, if somebody's interested in coming. :) There was also some sort of Magic the Gathering tournament at the same time, which seemed quite fun, so if I dare I think I'll take part in that at some point also!

So, my summer in a nutshell, or at least some highlights. How was your summer, dear readers and are you looking forward to autumn and winter? Personallu summer is my favorite season, but I also love the darkness and falling leaves of autumn, perfect season for drinking red wine and do something creative (indoors). ;)

In the wind of change

Yes! I finally did it! After three and a half months of juggling different part-time jobs I finally found permanent, full time job from my own field of expertise. ♥ Actually this was quite a surprise, since I just got a call from the CEO of this local advertising agency asking if I would like to come to a job interview. My previous teacher had recommended me and, well, a few days later I was there, working. :D Of course I have this four month try-out period but I just can't help but to be super-excited about this huge opportunity!

Truth to be told I was already getting a bit desperate, thinking of weather I should just find some other full time work (which basically means cleaning for me) to support myself and my little family, but I'm proud that I stayed strong and gained experience finding odd jobs that were supporting my chosen profession. Words cannot describe how happy and relieved I am! The office already feels like home to me, I really like the people I'm working with and I'm actually feeling really good and confident about the future.

Now I'm going to clean a bit and then just relax. I think I haven't felt this relaxed for months (over a year actually, haha) and I'm going to enjoy every second of it. Have a wonderfully relaxing weekend, dear readers. Good things come for those who wait. ♥

Dream Home Heartache

Ah! I have had really awesome couple of days! I got a call on Friday and it was the CEO of the advertising agency, where I used to be a trainee. I was asked to be a temp there again (I helped out a few weeks ago also) starting from Monday, so there I am once again, fondling InDesign, doing my dream job, yay! Ahhhhh what I would give to work there permanently, it really is my dream place to work. I hope I can at least be a temp there every now and then. :3

But yeah, I also have another agenda for this post! I finally got around taking photos of our new batcave, so a little show and tell can be arranged. I'm personally a huge fan of home decor, I love finding new pieces to our little home, especially second hand, and also reading and looking at pictures of other people's homes, especially gothic, victorian and fetish themed homes. If you know any good blogs, tumblrs or sites about beautiful home decor, please let me know! I would also love to see your homes. :) But now, it's picture time!

So this is what you see when you walk in! Shoes, pole, gaming Mr. Wolf... :D

And this, when you look back. Pretty bare still, I would like to get a new lamp at least, and maybe some small table on top of Béla's litter box. Then again I love the space, it is really handy when practicing burlesque routines!

A closer look of the living room/office/kitchen. We finally got a new couch when we moved in (for the cat to destroy, obviously, haha). ♥

My tiny work spot. I really need a bigger desk, but so far I haven't found a decent one, blah. I could move that one to entrance hall if I could find a replacement. :p

The kitchen. Love the tiles, the cupboard doors... not so much. But yeah, it's decent and surprisingly spacious. I would like to get more lime elements to it (haha, my secret love: neon colors ♥). 

And here's our living room from opposite direction. Got room for climbing on my pole, exercising, playing with Béla... Btw, gotta love Matlock. :D

Next up, toilet, shower and sauna. Super spacious, almost too spacious actually, otherwise really nice.Except that white floor! It get's stains really easily and I have already destroyed it a bit with hair dye... shiiiiiiiit.

Same room, another direction. I would love to get more storage spaces, like some sort of cabinet...

Last but not least: the bedroom. It's small, but I like it a lot. :3 Behind the bed we actually have a miniature fridge for storing cold drinks! :D Oh, the hedonism... ♥

Next to the door, my bone collection. ♥ And four very, very narrow cabinets for clothes! Definitely need more room for them... The cabinet for my fetish wear is actually in the entrance hall, next to our main door... u_u;

So! This is our new home. :3 What do you think? Also, I would love for you to show and tell me about your homes, rooms, cottages and, well, any house decor really! ♥

Venus in Furs

Hello, little darklings!

This is the 100th post of this blog, WOOP WOOP! Can we have some applause?  To celebrate, I finally added some personal information about little ol' me, you can access it by clicking the picture on he sidebar. ;)

Anyway. A while ago my very good friend Pauli Tavasti took some photos of me once again. I wanted to have some photos of  a few new latex pieces in my wardrobe. Somehow this set reminds me of the book called Venus in Furs (which I really enjoyed, by the way).

I was  quite nervous to purchase these latex pieces, since I could not try them on beforehand (which sucks! In my opinion latex should always suit it's wearer perfectly and there is no real reason why one couldn't try the clothes on in the shop. I understand not trying panties and such on for hygienic reasons, but come on, a skirt?? ). Luckily the pieces fit me well enough. ♥ By the way, as you might have noticed I happen to love fetishey clothes and I actually have one closet sanctified just for them in my apartment. Would you readers like to see it? It is one of my dearest possessions and a huge part of my happiness. So? A little peek to the dearest of my closets, yes/no? :3

Ps. Venus in Furs is also a song by The VelvetUnderground, do have a litsen, it's beautiful. ♥