More Gray on Gray

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Here’s another Venus find that required some alterations. I’m starting to suspect that they have recently modified their sizes, as the XS used to always fit me perfectly and now in my latest order everything is too big in the sides. Anyway, it was worth the effort because the stripes are so fun, as is the ruffle down the placket. The best part is the zipper closure, which, unlike buttons, prevents any kind of gaping in the front.

Today I'm wearing the simple side bun with gray hair flower, one of the styles I featured in my Simple Hairstyles post.

Grey tights turned out to be a perfect match for this blouse, along with my trusty black satin pencil skirt that I wore a while back.

Check out the cool wide cuffs with cufflink detail.

I’m looking forward to pairing this top with my Daytime Satin long skirt, in hopes of the top making the skirt look a bit more casual.

Have you ever found trusted clothing companies to suddenly change their sizing?

Monthly Homework Assignment for November: Naked Face!

Today is Le Professeur Gothique's first Monthly Homework Assignment.

November's assignment appeals to my belief in the importance of self-confidence: Strip down to your bare naked FACE! I love this idea because it's a great chance to show that we don't wear makeup because we think we "need" to, but because we WANT to. Let's show that we are confident women who are not afraid to display our natural beauty. And yes, you DO have natural beauty! Humans are beautiful creatures, one and all: even those of us who like to be creative with our appearance. :)

A while back I posted my Skin Care Routine.  I included a couple of face shots but didn't think to photograph the post-routine clean skin results.  I now present to you VictorianKitty in her natural form!  This is after my morning routine but before starting the makeup process.

Yes, my hair is also untamed and straight out of my sleep cap in these photos, hence the random bumps.  I did brush it, anyway.  :)

Now head over to Le Professeur Gothique's blog and see all the other lovely naked faces, and post your own!

Black and White Party!

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Let me preface this post by saying that in real life, I can be quite a poor sport.  :) Usually when I attend a club or party with a theme, I ignore the theme completely. Themes are fun on Goth blogs, but in real life they usually enter the realm of Disco Attire and such silliness, and I just don’t drink enough to make things like that okay. ;) When we were invited to a friend’s birthday party and told of the Black and White theme, I knew I could live with that one. In fact, I was quite excited to wear my newest Stop Staring dress.

Upon selecting my outfit for the party, I immediately jumped on the Greatlookz Web site and ordered some white crocheted gloves to match my white scarf. Wow; who knew that whites would be even more difficult to match than blacks?!? I had three different shades of white in the end. I still was delighted with the overall end result.

I made the giant hair flower from a stem I picked up at Michael’s. It wasn’t the prettiest flower they had, but those stems can go up to more than $15!!! This one was $6, which I thought was pushing it for a DIY thing.

Nude fishnets and ankle-strap platform shoes were the finishing touches to this forties-inspired outfit. Oh, and glasses. I normally love to wear my glasses (that’s why I never got Lasik) but I don’t like them when I am trying to go glamorous. However, the morning before the party, Perseus happened to do Happy Feet right on my eyeball, and I happened to already have an eye doctor appointment scheduled for that day, so there was no hiding the “corneal abrasion.” No contacts for a full week: doctor’s orders! :(   Mr. Kitty made me feel better by calling me a “Sexy Gothic Librarian Vintage Movie Star.” I can live with that.

This dress is a prime example of why it sometimes better to save up for a few quality pieces than to blow your whole clothing budget on a lot of little, cheap items here and there.  A dress like this never fails to make me feel amazing and self-confident to a degree far beyond what I feel wearing a top from Forever 21.  Of course, I like the variety (obviously) that can be achieved by mixing these fabulous, quality items with a fair amount of more affordable things.  It's all about the balance, and right now I'm focusing on shifting the balance a bit more toward quality over quantity.

What's Better than Purple? Purple with Black Lace Overlay!

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Sometimes I don’t give Target enough credit for their clothing designs. I have to say; they win again with this purple sweater with black lace overlay. I picked this up years ago and love it still. Here I’ve paired it with a seed bead necklace and bracelets made by me, and a straight skirt also from Target.

This is Casual Thursday wear for me. We work a 4/10 schedule at my office, meaning we do four 10-hour days and then we are off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Our staff begged to be allowed to wear jeans on Thursdays in lieu of the traditional “Casual Friday.” Human Resources finally caved in. Of course, I usually can’t bring myself to wear jeans to work even if I am told to, so sometimes I break out a more-casual-than-usual top and a very plain skirt. Other times, I wear a blazer or extra-Gothy outfit just for the contrast. ;)

Do you get a "casual day" at work?  If so, what do you like to wear?

Lace and Jersey Knit

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Today’s top is a repeat, but the rayon-spandex jersey knit skirt from Spiegel you haven’t seen before. I have two of their jersey skirts, and I love them for their classy comfort. However, allow me to tell you the two things I do not like about these skirts. First, they are cat hair magnets! Somehow they are even worse than regular cotton jersey. I remove all the cat hair before I leave the house then remove it again when I get to work, yet every hour I still find this fabric covered in cat hair even though there are no cats in my office!!

The second issue with these skirts is that, despite only containing 5% spandex, this fabric stretches a lot on any pressure points throughout the day. By lunchtime, the rear end is totally sagging and there are stretched spots over my knees. Not a very flattering silhouette.

This top is one of the few that I really like for either work or the weekend. I’ve worn this one before in my first car show post. For work, I just add a shrug to cover the sheer cap sleeves.

Do my readers have any tips on how to prevent clothes from stretching out of shape throughout a long day?

The Other Giant Cat

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I wasn’t thrilled with this outfit, but I thought I should share my fashion failures just the same to keep it interesting. :) I love this strapless top. It’s cotton with a thick lace overlay and a lace tie in the back. However, this skirt never fails to disappoint me. It’s just too fluffy around the middle, and it really needs to be a couple of inches shorter. I wore it once before and it worked slightly better, but I think I had it hiked up that time… I think this skirt will become a “strictly around the house on chores day” skirt. Although I’ve been known to wear much cuter things even under those conditions… Maybe it’ll be a sick day skirt. :) Cat hair doesn't stick to it, which is a good thing when you don't feel well and just want to snuggle with the furry ones all day!

Don’t ask me what’s up with the half-on-half-off shrug. I have no idea what my reasoning was there, except it was still quite warm out (yay for California!) and I was only wearing it to keep the sun off during errands. I guess for the photos I couldn’t decide what to do with it. Lol!

Perseus really has the sweetest face ever, but he’s quite angry here…

Without further ado, I present to you Perseus, the other half of our Maine Coon set. You recently saw a post showcasing the great Prometheus is all his gigantic splendor. Perseus weighs a full four pounds LESS than Prometheus, but at 18 pounds he’s still *well* above average house cat size.

Despite being twin brothers, these boys couldn’t be more different in terms of personality. While Prometheus is all about love, Perseus is the adventurous one (really living up to his name!). He’s very loving as well, but with a shorter attention span. The best adjective for him is “spirited.” That’s the nice way to say he gets in trouble all the time. :) It really tried my patience at first, but as he’s matured and we’ve fully bonded I’ve learned to love him for his “yeah, I broke that, but aren’t I adorable” attitude. And now everything in our house is glued down with earthquake putty. EVERYTHING.

Perseus is also the charismatic one, greeting everyone at the door and tripping them with ankle rubs. Prometheus, on the other hand, has to get to know you a bit before he smothers you with affection.

Here’s another great necklace that was a gift from Mr. Kitty, and a choker made from a scrap of fancy trim from the fabric store. I’m also wearing a Morgana Cryptoria lip balm in Diabolical Druscilla. Out of the five colors I discussed for my review, this one is my favorite. It also wears the longest and fades the most evenly.

OUTTAKE: This is what happens when a Maine Coon gets mad and doesn’t want his photo taken!

So who's your favorite?  Perseus or Prometheus?

November 1 Theme: Gloves/Armwarmers

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Mr. Kitty and I tend to hang out at the local Barnes and Noble occasionally due to a complete lack of anything else interesting to do in our immediate area. While he pours through car magazines, I flip through craft magazines. Usually paper craft magazines, but one evening a crochet issue caught my eye. While perusing it and vaguely wishing I possessed that particular skill, I saw an ad for the pattern for these gorgeous opera-length armwarmers. So naturally I called my beautiful sister, who is a mom and therefore required to know how to crochet, and somehow talked her into creating these for me.

With an immense degree of patience on her side, and after several adjustments due to my short, tiny arms (fittings were especially difficult since we live many, many miles apart), she completed this amazing masterpiece. In exchange, I made a beaded chain to hold her glasses. I definitely got the better end of that deal!

Although they are covered in holes, these armwarmers are extremely warm. I could only wear them in the evenings over the past weekend because we’re still enjoying a lovely, 85-degree Southern California fall. To those of you shoveling snow right now, I apologize. ;)

I wore these armwarmers in a very early post on this blog, but I didn’t really pair them with much of an outfit. Hopefully most of my followers haven’t seen that previous post so these can get the grand debut they deserve.

The new boots are Demonias. But since this is Gloves/Armwarmers day and not Boots day, we’ll talk about these another time. :)

The November theme was suggested by Celeste of Fade to Black. Be sure to stop by Celeste's blog and say Thank You for this idea!

Want to participate in this month's theme?

Now it's your turn! You know what to do (or if you don't, check out the full details). :)

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