Vogue Loki

Otherwise known as the Vogue-ki, this absolutely stunning and outstanding cosplay was done by The Lady Nerd and I'm totally in love. It's not hard to see why - this is a look I could wear to a formal event and not seem out of place. I really need to make this.

November day

I don't know how two months went by so quickly. I've been at my new job for about 3 months now, and things are pretty awesome, especially my coworkers. This is my coworker Jordanna's tumblr exclusively featuring cats in sailor costumes. They're adorable.

I have so many crafting projects in my inbox it's kind of overwhelming. I did succeed in making some cool pleather vambraces from pleather place mats from the dollar store for Nerd Fest last Friday. My friend Steph loved them and now I have two on order to make for Christmas. Pictures later! I'm thinking of making them for my Smaug costume that I'll be debuting at the Hobbit "midnight" premiere on the 13th (I dislike this whole business of assigned seating and 10pm showings. Kind of takes away the excitement of lining up super early to get good seats).

Speaking of which: STEEL PUNK - is a thing that Steph and I are totally going to start. Inspired by this article here. I am totally inspired to wear and hopefully make clothing like that! It's super funky and I love it.

I pitched the idea to my fashion major friend Jordanna (of the cats in sailor costumes tumblr above) for the collection she's working on and she's actually making it. I'm so excited.

So back to fashion. I've decided that this winter is all about luxe. Fabrics: leather, velvet, heavy wool, silk. Prints: tapestry weaves, damask. Colours: oxblood, emerald, sapphire. All jewel tones, everything that invokes Pre-Raphaelite and heavy curtains and mahogany walls and swishing gowns. It's all about luxury. I want an emerald or ruby velvet dress. That's my next target. But here is a picture of some tapestry wedge heels I got at Aldo for about 40 bucks on sale (with the obligatory outfit picture of course).

Emerald is my new seasonal colour. It's seductive and beguiling and dangerous. I'm in love. Also: snakes. I bought the necklace in my polyvore mix pic below. for 4 dollars. Not telling you where though, it's a secret ;)

Winter tapestry by elenna-elemirre featuring platform wedge booties

This is my first time using Polyvore! Please excuse the shabby first effort. 

Hopefully more inspiring outfit sets to come on the way :)

Fencing Fashion

 So, not sure if I mentioned that I picked up a new hobby while in England last year - Fencing! I joined the fencing club at my university upon returning home and have been more or less at it since then. I had practice this evening and just randomly decided to google fencing fashion when I got home and a whole lot of cool photos popped up so I thought I'd share them here.

By the way, my weapon of choice is épée, but I've recently started doing a bit of sabre and I've really enjoyed it so maybe will work on that a bit more since I've got to work on my offensive, footwork, and judging distance.

But without further ado, here we go:

From the May 2009 issue of Elle Italia by photographer Ruven Afandor
'Dame e Cavalier' (via Homotography)

Also discovered on Sassy Fencer that Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender also did a fencing editorial spread which is really cool. The full photos are on her blog but here are some of my favourites:

I love you Michael Fassbender.

And hey look! An Edwardian fencing costume (so Alice in Wonderland!) - via Monical Murgia

There were a couple more things that came up with fencing fashion but I felt they were more like models holding fencing equipment and less in the spirit of fencing, so they were not included. But just for good measure before I go, here is a picture of my fencing buddy Ramona and I at our last fencing practice together in the UK last December (haven't really had any photos of me taken while fencing since then):

Look at my attractive yoga pants under the fencing knickers.
And yes, we were in fact posing for this shot.

And here is a stunning shot of my fencing mates at UBC by photographer Josh Curran. Janice is easily recognizable on the left by her socks, but I'm not sure who is fencing her (I was not present for this particular practice session). This is just outside the partyroom in the rooftop courtyard of the Student Union Building. We like to fence outside when it's hot. And just because it's cool (HA unintentional pun).

En garde, prête, allé!

It's my Birthday!

It's my birthday today! I'm turning 23 :)
It's also Hobbit Day and Bilbo and Frodo's birthday.

Other notable birthdays include Tom Felton and Billie Piper. I also know 4 other people with the same birthday as me.

Today is also the Autumnal Equinox, with precisely 100 days until the end of the year.

My birthday is pretty sweet.

Tonight, I will be celebrating Hobbit Day at our local geek pub, the Storm Crow Tavern on Commercial Drive, singing Hobbit drinking songs and playing LOTR chess with a few special friends (and The Boy). I've got all the song lyrics printed out already. I've also downloaded the complete LOTR soundtrack (all 9 discs worth) onto my computer for music. Plus The Cat and the Moon for the LOTR musical.

It's going to be so so epic.

:) Happy Birthday to me.

Adopt a Stray Book

Found this today, was too cute not to post :)

original by Grant Snider

Blue and Gold and Bibliophiliac Fairytales

Short intro: I am watching Hellboy 2 right now which is way way way better than I ever thought it ever would be. I mean, the none of the Hellboy movies were really that big of a hit when it came out and nobody really made a point of watching it in theaters, so I was totally not prepared for the awesomeness level. BUT I watched Hellboy on netflix last week and was blown away by the orgasmic conglomeration of mythic saturation (including magic-obsessed Nazis), steampunkism, and chilling Lovecraftian monsters. Lovecraftian monsters! If you ever wanted to make scary, evil monsters, giant divine tentacular beings in space are the way to go. Basically, I was in love. So, I decided to watch Hellboy 2 which actually turns out to be EVEN MORE AWESOME because they added elves and trolls and fairytale creatures into the mix. Those tooth fairies? Man, even creepier than the scarab beetles in The Mummy.

"Welcome gentlemen, to the Troll Market."

And it was totally like WHOA.

Nevermind MORE steampunk and amazingly beautiful cinematography.

Also Nuala, who is the reason why I've paused the movie in order to post this.

Now, at the beginning of the story, they'd already show one gloriously illustrated leatherbound fairytale book with gilt pages (which Professor Broom reads to a young Hell Boy as a bedtime story - please let me take a moment to extol the gorgeous fairytale story animation with wooden puppets that follow), but this image kind of killed me right there and then:

That is Nuala and Abe in Professor Broom'S glorious library. Where she recites Tennyson. from a gorgeous gold and blue copy of Tennyson's poems. in the most beautiful blue and gold dress I've ever seen and jealously covet.

Let's see that book up close now:

Now I really want a copy of Tennyson like that. It kind of reminds me of an old edition of "The Blue Flower" that I bought last month.

But here's the dress in its full glory:

Seriously, this movie is gold. Watch it. I love the Lovecraftian monsters and all the gears and fairytale things mixed in. It's like a dessert filled with all my favourite things.

Anna Dello Russo for H&M

I just needed to share this because I was silently flailing on the inside when I saw this collection that's coming out at H&M on Oct. 4. I am seriously in love with every single piece in this collection. O_o The full article can be found on here collegefashion.net