Some new eBay findings

Ebay and Etsy are big big friends of mine. We get along really good and communicate often. I buy craft supplies, accessories and clothes from both of them. From eBay, mainly used clothes, though.

I wanted to share some of my latest eBay findings with you. Ebay is so big, that it is difficult to find good stuff without knowing exactly what to look for.

A sugar skull type bag. It was really cheap. The quality is okey, altough the strap ending broke as soon as I tried it on. But what can you expect for only a few dollars? And it was easy to mend.

I have searched for a similar necklace for some time now. I had several listings in Etsy in my cart, all rather pricey, and I was trying decide between them and also bring myself to give so much money. Most of them were laser cut acrylic necklaces. But then, while looking for something else, I found this! It is perfect and the cost was only a few dollars again. I have worn it a few times and the color has not faded yet, but I suspect that it may. 

I have many skull print items made by the great China, but not this cardigan yet. It cost about 7 dollars and is one size, as usual.

Whoever said money can't buy happiness, simply went to the wrong shop.

Uh, I finally found some missing pictures from summer. This pack of things is special in two ways - I found a great pair of boots and I also went to a real mall with new things! Haa. Altough I did not buy clothes, it's still worth something.
From the usual once-a-month-second-hand-shopping I got a black longsleeve with a cute white lace collar and sleeve puffs, a shortsleeved leather jacket, an adorable black lace blouse with a bow on the collar ( I love it to bits!), a black dress I already sold cause it was a wee bit small from the chest and as a funny addition for me, a pair of pink pajama pants with skulls. Funny, because I do not wear pants at all. But they already proved to be useful when it went suddenly cold and the heating system couldn't keep up.

So, my new boots! I still cannot believe that I am so lucky to have found them. They are real leather, so-so good looking, so comfortable, well-kept and had a very reasonable price. I bought them in the summer and could not wait for the weather to go colder so I could start wearing them. It does not show on the picture but they are actually really high, so not everyday boots for me as I am rather tall.

And finally, a few small things I got from "regular" shopping. Some hair clippings and a pair of pantyhose from Seppälä. Actually, I recently went to mall-shopping once again, got some nice jewelry, I have to make pictures of them too.

A new home for all my shoes

I have had a dream. For a long time now. To have a huge shelf for all of my shoes. But everything else came between me and my dream. Until one day I decided - no more! I need my shelf NOW. All of our shoes were cramped up in a small shelf and spread all trough the house in different boxes.
I contacted the guy who had already made my wonderful handicrafting station (a desk, alright, just a really pretty desk) and asked him to make me pieces for a huge shelf. So he did. After that it all took some more time, I painted it over and over and yesterday, after months of waiting and work, it was finally finished!

We put it up and although I had a very busy night, I still decided before going to bed that I HAVE to fill it with shoes. Who cares about sleep when you have shoes, right?

Who has a lot of shoes? Me? Oh, no, dear, the last shelf was just too small.

I also had a good chance to count my shoes. Counting the ones what are not on this picture, like about 6 pairs from work and some still in the boxes, I have about 60 pairs of footwear. Ohboy.

But I still made room for everybody else's shoes. For example my husband has a total of 3 pairs of shoes on the shelf...

Anyway, here's my new deary. Love it to bits!

My new favorite handbag

I was looking for a cheaper version of a dress for a friend and while doing that I found a handbag I instantly fell in love with. I knew I had to have it, but as I am not the person to easily buy new (as in not used) stuff and money was really tight, I made I deal with myself. I will sell some of my handbags in order to come up with the money for this new one. The one, not just any bag, amiright?
So, I sold both of my Restyle bags. I haven't even gotten to wear the striped one really. But I had gotten used to a bit bigger bags and they did not suit my needs anymore. I also sold two embossed skull bags I had gotten from one of those cheap UK sites. I sold them all in one evening and I had my money! Four for one, but the one!

Here it is: Banned Cameo Skull bag. And I could not be happier! I do not regret the deal at all. This bag is bigger and fulfills my needs exactly. It is also very pretty and much better quality than the Restyle ones. The fabric is not so fake and seems much more durable. Love it!

The summer of collecting stuff

So, we have a row of these secondhand shops called Humana. They have new merchandise days every month and I am in the habit of visiting them for...oh, over 9 years already. At first I was in high school still and skipped classes on those Monday mornings. Later on I arranged my things so I could still go. I think I have only missed about 5 times during these years, when I was abroad or something really important was happening in the same time.

They have really gotten their prices up during the last years, but I still manage to find something. I believe in second-hand shopping and I also just can not find interesting items in regular shops. And it would be too tiresome to visit all of them. So these Humana-trips are good ways to boost my wardrobe, actually all of my family's wardrobe. I try to look at every item and it's price in a way if it is okay for me to pay that amount for that certain item, I do not care that they are already used by someone. And I often find new or almost unused items too.

Sometimes there are many months in a row where I don't basically get anything, but this summer was a really good one, I got lots of items.

Guess now is the time to mention that I have got two daughters. So some of the items on these pictures are for them. They are not all black and goth like me, but I see no point in showing you the "regular" stuff they get.

So here is a dress, a shirt for the gym and a skirt for cycling. All black, I am boring that way.
I do not wear pants anywhere outside the gym, not even while cycling or during the coldest of winters. And as I am more of a mini or maxi girl, I need some reasonably long skirts for cycling to feel comfortable. I use my bicycle for transport, not for working out, so I like to stay chic on it.

And two pictures of stuff for my girls, lots of dresses, shirts and a skirt. All the items have different sizes, because I often buy a bit bigger items too - they grow up so fast, that when I see something pretty and reasonably priced, I cannot leave it in the store.
Oh, the black shirt on the second picture is for me, it has lace shoulders, really cute. It is rather cold at work, so I wear long-sleeved tops underneath my dresses. And shrugs and cardigans also.


The prices are different, I usually spend about 20-30 euros alltogether. In here the first two pictures are from one haul and the third from another.

I am definitely not a good photographer, but you get the idea. And I have lots and lots more to show you!

A new coat for the winter

We have this cute almost-national clothing brand called Monton (they send all over Europe, I think) and they had a birthday game in Facebook. I won! I am so happy. You could choose the prize yourself and I chose an adorable wintercoat, as I desperately needed one. I chose this one:

Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to try it on before. As I visited another city, I went to try it on in the shop with my friend who works in the same brand. She told me that the coat was too narrow for my body and she was right. It did not fit my hips nicely. So I contacted them and asked, if I could change it (for a cheaper version, of course!) and they said yes. Altough I love the first coat and especially the pattern, I know that I would not feel comfortable in it.     

My friend also told me that when she heard of me entering the competition, she immediately thought of this coat for me. So this is the new one I (or shall I say we) chose:                                                                

Winter, you can come!

Gorjuss "New Heights"

Sometimes I get attached to things. Altough, to my defense, it used to be much worse. Now I only get attached to really cool things and not so often.

This year it would be Gorjuss and especially the "New Heights" series. I love books and this picture really talks to me. Last year it was shoes... Well, in this picture you can see most of my stuff from Gorjuss I have collected over the year.
Half of the stuff is for handycrafting, so they are truly useful, not just pretty.

I have a couple of notebooks, a binder, a pencil case, two wallets, a thermos, set of postcards, two pencils, two sets of stamps, two sets of papers and pictures for scrapbooking. And maybe also something I cannot remember at the moment.

Not very gothy, but oh-so-adorable, right?

Also, this spring I decided to make my own dayplanner for 2014. I have a fanatic relationship with my dayplanners (and lots of different notebooks), I could not function without one in my professional nor private life. I have tried lots of different ones, but none of them is IT. Also, there are a lot of useless pages in most of them.
So, I made my own. I made the layout (in MS Word, oh dear...), calculated the order of the pages, printed it out, binded it in coptic style and finally, one night, made the covers. And, tatarattaa (trompet sound), of course it is "New Heights".

But I love it. Cannot wait for 2014 to start using it.

Comeback

The good news is that I am not dead. The bad news is that I am a lazy-lazy blogger. Sorry!

I really enjoyed my summer, basically doing nothing and being away from home most of the time. I also have lots of news, but all that in due time.

Another good news is that altough I did not blog, I took some pictures of my new stuff. So hopefully I will get back on track and show them to You.

***
I discovered eBay about five years ago and went crazy with it. I do handycraft and the stuff there is not two or three times cheaper than in here, but ten and fifteen times cheaper.
Fortunatelly after bankrupting myself I got the hold of everything. Now I use eBay when I need or want (but ofcourse) something, but I dont go on crazy killing sprees, sorry, shopping sprees!

I mostly still order handycrafting things, I will not bore You with, but from time to time I will order some used dresses from eBay UK and some Korean stuff.
Over the summer I bought 2 dresses, but I don't have pictures of them, sadly.

But I bought a huge wierd cat handback and also some cat-faced tights and I got my husband's old phone and blinged it up.

A giveaway!

http://bonesandlilies.blogspot.com/2013/08/500-readers-giveaway.html?showComment=1375566931510#c7404781863635962495

GIY is having a giveaway!

http://gothityourself.blogspot.com/2013/06/400-followers-seven-giveaways.html

The little things

This time I got my inspiration from another blogger. It started out as a blog comment to her, but I think it got a little bit too long...

http://www.theeverydaygoth.com/2013/04/9-quick-ways-to-make-your-life-more.html

I so agree! Alltough I am the person who does not think you can be inside something 100% and you don't have to.
But I have those days or even periods of time where I think I have driven away from the dark things and interior I love.
As I have a lot of interests which influence my life (e.g. fashion) and I also am a handycrafter, I have times where I find myself happily screaming over a pink glittered thing. There is nothing bad about it, absolutely, but at the end of the day, that is not something I want to carry with me. I don't really care about what others think or where do they but me in their own subcultural latter, but I care about how the things around me make me feel and if I like them for a longer period of time (rather than just "ohsocute").

So at one point I started to think more about the little things around me and what I carry with me. If everything in my clothes and accessories have to match a certain style, then why does it not apply to the little things like my stationary etc? They also give a certain expression of me, right.

I also narrowed down my crafting, which I sell, to a certain style and handwriting. Its not all goth and dark and skulls, but it has some dark style, I hope. I still have pink glitter things what I make as presents for little girls and all sorts, but making a name for myself comes from things I deeply and truly love.

So in conclusion, it's not about what others think, it's about how the little things around you make you feel. If you want more spooky in your life, make them spooky!

A summer(y) breeze

It has been really-really-really cold here for quite some time. Its already April and there were no signs of spring until a few days ago.
But even before it went warmer, I grew tired of the heavy winter coat and scarves and hats and... So I gave up and took out my favorite spring coat. I decided to wear it even if I had to put three jumpers under it. But fortunately it went SO warm in here, that it's even too much.

Here are some old pictures of my favorite spring coat. It was sewn by a seamstress, but the design is all mine!

Restyle bags

One of my many many weaknesses is bags. About a year ago I tried to take control, sorting and matching and thinking and sorting, and I think I even got it under control, by selling and giving away more than half of my bags. I kept only the best ones.

Then I discovered Everythingfor5pounds.com page. A silly page, in so many ways, but oh the cheap shoes and skull embossed bags... So I quess now I do have too many bags again. But I really like to change bags and match them with my outfits, so I need different bags.

And I am a bag person in every way you can imagine. I basically never leave the house without a bag and usually it is a big purse full of so many things. I will make a post about what my bag contains some day, so You will see.

As said, I usually buy cheap bags, because they last enough time, as I change them from time to time. But last year I started craving for a bag from Restyle. I finally pampered myself and bought it.

Love the bag, really. It fits so much more than it looks.

But now Restyle had some new bags coming in, and oh, I had to have another. I have a stripes mania this winter so I have been looking for a black-and-white striped bag for quite some time. I ordered one from the EF5P page, but it was too big even for me and quite not so pretty as in the picture, so now I can sell it.

Anyway, here's my new honey Can not wait to get it!

http://www.restyle.pl/product-eng-1061-GREY-DOLL-gothic-lolita-handbag-black-and-white-stripes.html

I think I shop too much

All right, all right. I know I shop too much.

To my excuse, 90% of my shoppings are second hand. Truly. I just rarely find something from regular shops around here and after a while, I kinda stopped looking, it just became too boring. So I stick to many different thrift stores, second hand boutiques and ofcourse online shopping. I buy alot from eBay UK and local FB groups and auction sites. I like the idea of buying second hand, I like the friendlier prices and a much more interesting selection than we got at the shops at the time.

Especially now, I think, because the new spring/summer collection peeping out of every window in the mall seems rather horrible to me. Too colorful and too many weird shapes. I still remember 2008 when everything was black, studded and leather...

Anyway, I buy a lot, but I sell a lot. I am very pretentious when it comes to my clothes and accessories. So buying online means a fair chance that the item does not fit. So I sell them. As clothes cost a lot here and altough it has became really popular to order from all those cheap UK sites like Everythingfor5pounds, justfor5pounds etc, it's mostly really easy to sell stuff, especially brands we don't have. I also have a dark or alternative fashion selling group in my native language, what makes the selling easier.

Around the ending of last year I felt really uncomfortable with myself, so I sold and gave away quite a lot of my clothes. So i guess I am trying to make up for it now.

Yesterday I had lots of free time to spare hanging around the city so I visited some second hand shops. I got a longsleeved top and a black hooded shrug. I am a sucker for shrugs! They only cost 2,,50 euros, as it was sale day.
And I also received two cardigans which I ordered from Miss Rebel. They are really basic but I needed something like that for work and hopefully they will last forever.

Welcome to my world!

Hi! So, here I am. I think it's been more than 2 years since the day I first tought about creating a "goth blog". I do blog actively about my life and family, in my native language - or to be fair, not so actively anymore. But still, I consider myself a rather experienced blogger.
But a dark fashion blog... What took me so long? Why now?

At first, I did not have a camera. It seemed essential to me to have one. When I got it, other suspicions arised. English is not my native language, so is it good enough for blogging? Do I have enough ideas and enough shoppings to show? What are my goals? Do I have enough time? How to get readers for a new and small blog?
And every time I tought about starting another blog, all those suspicions came back. And I put my wishes to sleep.

So, at one point I started to not have so much time for my other regular blog. People started whining. And I do want to blog more, it's just...it's like I don't know how all of a sudden. So I quess it's not fair of me to get myself another blog instead of keeping in touch with the old one. But who knows, maybe I will start to love blogging again and all's well that ends well? A girl can dream.

Who am I? I am not a babybat, which would make this a lot easier and peole would let me off the hook more with this primitive blog. I have "been dark" for over 10 years. I have grown and developed a better sense of fashion, as we all do. It's been a wonderful journey. And I like to call myself goth, even tough sometimes I might dress boring - because I HATE mornings.

It's a rather small country where I live and a rather small community of alternative fashionistas. Altough thanks to the Internet, capitalism and postal service we have a lot more things and easier access to things than when I started, I am still not aware of any active goth blogs or sites in my native language or even from my country. I do have a Facebook group for dark fashion online flea marketing and it's rather popular. So, we have hope. And a one really wishful me.

I gave a lecture in a youth seminar last fall. It was about goth, history and styles and also goth in my home country. I got asked about five times if I have a dark fashion blog. Whoops.

So, why now? You know how sometimes the smallest of things can make you act? Well. Here I was, having a sleepy morning, reading blog posts from my reader and suddenly:

"Start a blog."

http://www.theeverydaygoth.com/2013/04/5-things-i-wish-id-known-as-babybat.html

Not a babybat, still, but hey, I just started a blog.