Our Gothic & Victorian wedding portraits.

Yesterday, we celebrated our four month wedding anniversary with awe.

It was not a particularly special date, of course, but we are amazed how quickly time goes by. So, I decided this week was a good moment to share with you a few pictures from our big day professional photoshoot. They were taken after the ceremony, on the 20th of September. As our scenario, we chose a recently restored Victorian house in Bucharest. The reason to select this particular manor house was we felt it perfectly fitted the Gothic and Victorian theme of the wedding.

Blogmas Day 13: A christmassy give away.

Welcome back to Blogmas!

 As I mentioned in my previous post, I was feeling a bit sick for a couple of days at the end of the week, but I am happy to say I am better now. It is nice to be back! To celebrate I am happily keeping my Blogmas event alive in spite of mishaps (and feeling quite festive in general) today I want to announce the official opening of my little christmassy give away!

The birthday girl.

Guess who is back. 

And on her bday, nonetheless!

It´s amazing how quick this year has passed by.

My 31st year of existence has been full of laughs, love, magic and beauty (and although there were some bad moments too, I´m happy to say the good ones were more abundant).

So here I am again: all difficult moments gone, and really glad to make you all witnesses of a new stage of my life.

Happy 32 years to me!

Late Christmas loot (third edition)

It´s being a while, but I am back from my Spanish Christmas holiday (which consisted on

tons of social interaction, and food too. Actually, it also consisted on tons of drugs against influenza, but that´s a far less interesting story unless you enjoy fever & chills horror stories), and this means I am back to upload about my latest adventures too. Althought it´s been a while since Christmas Day, I thought following my old January tradition would be ok.

I already told you about my festive season presents back in 2013 and 2014, and for some reason people looked to like those, so I decided to go ahead this year.

Belated Halloween post

It took me a few days to collect all the pictures from Friday´s Halloween celebrations,

which is always a double special ocassion for me, as The Gentle One and I

celebrate our anniversary at midnight.

Yes, what a cliché, right?

A gothic couple celebrating their romantic relationship on All Hallows Eve...

Well, all I can say in our defense is we ACTUALLY started dating that night, so we consider it as an amusing coincidence (although all our non-gothy friends roll eyes when the subject is brought into conversation and can hardly believe on our innocence).

What I did in August

I can’t believe it’s been (almost) a month since I last did one of these posts. 

 Another thing I can’t believe: the fact that I’ve kept a monthly series going for a full four months without giving up on it! 

The most remarkble is I am not bored of it at all (and really hope you are not bored either...)

Although August temperatures were quite extreme, I managed not to weaken

and could enjoy great adventures. 

Also, some lovely news made this month the best this year!

In between, this month I...

Victorian deviations

One of my favourite deviations hobbies consists on looking for places where I can sit, have a good cup of tea, and pretend I am the first beta-tester for a time machine prototype to be successfully transported to some point between 1900 and 1929. Well, yes, that can be considered a little weird, but you weren´t expecting anything different from me, were you?

Enchanted

I managed to collect all the wonderful pictures I could find about the great Lolita event from the oficial photographers. It looks like somehow all my own photos looked blurry and quite dark.

But the important thing is that here they are: FINALLY.

I do hope you enjoy my lolita adventures as much as I did, darlings!

Martie Soare

It looks like Father Winter has decided is time to go.

We haven´t had any snow lately around here (yay!) and Spring has come, not just like weather, but also under the shape of calendar festivities.

At the beginning of the month we celebrated Martie Soare  or the Spring party in Romania.

Late Christmas Loot (second edition)

It begins to look like a tradition to me posting about my Christmas presents when the new year has already begun. 

But you know, I´m the kind of person who spends the holiday jumping from one to another, so planning a proper blog entry during Christmas is actually difficult.

So here I am again this year, merrily showing my Yule loot to you in the first fortnight of January.

I hope you enjoy it!

Its beginning to look a bit like Christmas

Instagram pictures: 1) Snowflakes on my tree. Those are the first snowflakes I could find onn my entire life/ 2)Wrapping The Gentle One´s presents/ 3) Huge Christmas Day dessert/ 4) Sparkling red nails/ 5) Nut latte at Starbucks/ 6) Early gifts with black orchid scent.

How should I your true love know From another one?

 I told you about the Celtic roots of my people many times.
Therefore, it won´t be a total surprise if I say that, even nowadays, some fellow countrymen are still getting married by the ancient pagan rite. The custom dictates that weddings must be celebrated on Lughnasadh, and we respect this old belief.

Following the tradition, my friends Ana and David joined the multiple ceremony last weekend.
So I had the rare privilege of documenting the whole experience as a photographer, which made feel really honoured.
It was one of the most special occasions ever.
I had the chance of trying archery, eating lots of traditional food cooked on a bonfire under a huge canopy and drinking mead, as well as wearing a gorgeous customized gown mildly inspired by the
House Tyrrell of Highgarden  (thanks mum, you´re simply the best! ♥).
It was very pretty to witness how two of my long-term friends decided to unite their lifes on this very romantic way, attaching their hands with a red ribbon under the moon and stars, all their beloved people around in such a romantic location.

At the end of the night I was given the bride´s bouquet, so who knows about next year?

Now you have the oportunity of joining this beautiful event at Sophistique Noir.

Let the world know about the most precious moments of your life!

Big Mistake Notification: It looks like I accidentally erased some comments while I was trying to publish them this morning. So my apologies to Faísca, 1666 X 30, Linnea-Maria, Shannon Rutherford and all the other charming people who left a comment. Technology can be a pain in the ass.

Aurum Masquerade

 Happy Sunday, everyone!

I´ve been pretty busy lately as a consequence of  job overload.

Pre-Easter evaluation is a nightmare for teachers, I can tell you: suddenly you have a large pile of exams to correct, plus half a hundred reports to write. Besides (and as an English teacher), you are charged with the responsability of deciding who is going to take the Cambridge exams and who is not.

Result? No time for reading, sleeping or eating properly.

But now I am done with it and I have one entire holiday week (hurray!) so finally I can tell you about the great masquerade ball which was celebrated last 9th of March.

♥ The Gentle One and I plus my friends Ana and Sade at the photocall, based in one of the Venetian gardens of the palace.

Aurum Masquerade was born as an annual event (this year was its first edition) and designed to gather recreationist, steampunk, lolita and fantasy comunities in a dream location. For this purpose, the amazing Hostal de los Reyes Católicos, a beautiful 15 th century palace in the heart of the city, was chosen. The place is a mixture between Renaissance and Baroque arquitecture, full of charming ballrooms and gardens that inmediately transport you to a glorious past.

 ♥ Some of my favourite assistants (amazing ensembles, don´t you think so?)

 ♥ The amazing organization team. I love her Marie Antoinette style!

We were received by a royal crier, who announced our names before entering to the great ballroom.

After that, The Gentle One  and me were blessed with the honour of opening the ball as dance teachers!

Well, we got really nervous but I have to say that it was an amazing experience to see all the guests following the minuet steps together. 

♥ Funny ball-opening!

After a lovely music selection formed by precious waltzes, minuets and polkas, we could taste the supper.
Dessert was yummy, with lots of cakes and fruit brochettes.
 We could also participate in a draw!
Many amazing prizes were raffled, such as brand lolita gowns, steampunk appliances and historic jewelry.
I was not lucky this time, but my friend Ana got a beautiful necklace.

♥ The girls of the local lolita comunity together.

♥ This moment looks like stolen from Sofía Coppola´s Marie Antoinette.

♥ I truly love her hairdo!

♥ My friends and I (and too much red wine at that time).

I can say that we had the most wonderful of the nights.

The general feeling was the one of being inside the pages of Cinderella and I can´t really stop thinking about next year´s edition.
 

So if you truly want to experience a fairy tale, come to the north of Spain next year!

Creep in, said the witch, and see if it is properly heated, so that we can shut the bread in

 Just in case you are wondering: yes, we celebrated the great Carnival season here in Spain last week.

 It is kind of a great event in the whole country but, in this little northern corner, it is something truly special.

We have our own traditional celebrations which include four days of non-stopping party with lots of food and crazy regional costumes. 

And the reason why it is so different from the rest of the country is that we (and I am very proud of it) have Celtic roots. 

Maybe that´s what makes me get dress as a witch every year, our folklore is deeply coloured by beldam stories. 

And when I say every year I really mean it. 

As time goes by, I collected more than a dozen witch hats. Believe or not, my parents have a fitted cabinet in my room that they call The Wicked Witch of the East cupboard and I suspect that:

1. They are going to sell them all as soon as I move to the UK to recover the ridiculously huge space the hats occupy.

2. If I try to keep the hats in there it will constitute a solid evidence of my mania.

3. I will finish my days at Arkham Asylum, where I´ll be known as The Dark Witch Hat Lady or something like that.

  

Going back to the party itself and, unfortunately for us this time,  

The Great God of Rain decided to spoil the fun.

We had a wet weekend and just one day of sunlight (well, indeed I am trying to keep the positive tone because calling sunlight to that sinister bunch of clouds we had all over the week is a little otherwordly).

The Gentle One and I really did our best to mantain the festive spirit considering the circumstances.

We went out for a walk in our costumes and even tried to go and see the parade, but it became pretty much like a nightmare with all the windy, cold and wet atmosphere. After a while we had to acknowledge our defeat and, as good soldiers, we retired into the warm and charming nineteenth century club, when one can simply spend hours by drinking tea and eating chocolate cake (which of course we did).

I think I didn´t have enough of masks, but I am happy I will have the chance to repeat it next month:

Some wonderful people is organizing a victorian-inspired masquerade for March in one of the most beautiful baroque palaces of my city. So if you are planning to visit Spain this Spring, that can be definitely the opportunity to step aside from crowded beaches and doing something memorable.

The Aurum Masquerade

Tell me, do you celebrate the carnival season in your country?

Born under a Bad Sign

Do you know those days when you realize how lucky  you are?

Yesterday was one of them, The Gentle One was turning thirty two.

 Yes, you guessed: he shares his Birthday with Edgar Allan Poe, so maybe that constitutes a clue about how special he is.

I thought about posting a few pictures of my outfit for such a lovely night, but then I reconsidered the whole situation and decided to keep it in the charming zone of the little impressions.

So there you have just a couple of snaps of our lovely date in a romantic restaurant, as well as the post-celebrations-Sunday-breakfast.

♥ Adorable detail of the lillies in our dinner table last night.

  ♥ Sushi is alway too good.

♥ I am trying not to eat too many treats this year but, who can say no to clover-shaped waffles?

I hope you are as happy as I am, sweethearts! ♥

Late Christmas Loot Post

I dont´know if you think the same about yourselves, but sometimes I feel like a terrible blogger.
I mean, I seriously try to keep clear that very attractive post schedule that I continuously delineate in my mind, but it looks like, somehow, there´s always something trying to frustrate my golden plans.
Call it whatever you want: seminars, deadlines, job, academic reading timeline...
And finally, at the beginning of 2013, I decided I had enough of this.

I am not the kind of person who makes too serious New Year´s resolutions, but If I was, one of them would be stop complaining about the conspiration of the faerie of bad luck and start doing what I really want to.
In this case, honouring myself and my ideal post schedule (which would include, at least, one post a week).

So, in order to begin doing so (and after finding the perfect inspiration in Bella Morte´s lovely blog), I am going to tell a little bit about what was under the Christmas tree this year.
Because I have the cutest family ever, and even though many days passed through since Christmas´ Eve, it hasn´t been so long since 6th of January (which in Spain is another oficial date to be given presents) ♥

♥ This beautiful spiderweb necklance is one of my favourite gifts ever, not for its big value, but for it was given to me by my youngest sister. She is just thirteen years old (her birthday was last week) and she deeply knows my personal tastes and always does her best to find something genuine.

♥ Here you can see the precious ringstone that forms the body of the spider a little better, as well as the precious Venetian mask that The Gentle One bought for me. A girl cannot posibly have too many masks. Ok, I know I say that every single time about opera gloves, shoes and dresses but what?
Raise your hand if you don´t have one several personal fetishes. Shoes, pencil skirts, bags? Yes, then you know what I am speaking about. My man also got me a new blouse and a fake fur shrug. But I´ll show them to you in some future outfit post.

♥ Continuing with my legendary little sister´s contributions, she also got me a huge Yves Rocher Christmas pack. It basically consists on three awesome body milk lotions (vanilla, raspberry and Malasyan coconut) and three matching fragances. Once again: she is totally amazing! She knew I do love Yves Rocher organic products, not only beacuse they are free of any potential animal ingredients, but also because they leave a soft fresh touch in your skin.

♥ My mum, meanwhile, gave this great skin care regime products to me.
I have to confess that I am not a big fan of  L´oreal bussiness politics right now, however their products are still awesome and though I won´t be giving more money to them myself, I cannot reject a present like this from mum, right?

♥ This gorgeous pearl tiara is another gift from mummy.
She is always giving tiaras to me, mainly because (as she says) I am still a little princess to her eyes. Yes, my mum has to be the only one in the world for whom a grown up gothic lady is nothing but a little princess.
Yeah, you´re right, she´s the best!
Daddy contributed with a pair of wellies and a good quality vaccum bottle. Because if mum sees my like a little girl, for dad I am the girl with the eternal cold.
And do you know what? Damn, it´s true!

♥ Going back to The Gentle One he got these two second hand books to me. They are special because Anne Bronte´s works are really hard to find in Spanish, and the edition of Those Little Women is the one of my childhood, so many emotional memories are connected with it.

♥ And finally, my boss gave this cute box of handicraftsman soap just before holiday.
They smell SO good which is hard of define (strawberry, vanilla, lavender...).
I am still trying to avoid to eat them!

I have to say that I received an extra gift last week from my mother-in-law.
She got me a great coat with furry neckline, but ey, you´ll see it here someday, so no worries!

So tell me darlies, were you in Santa´s nice list?

Another Year in the Jar

Now the candles are extinguished and the golden days and nights full of champagne, roses and treats are over, I can sit down and think.

It looks like magic how fast this 2012 has flown away.

Sometimes I wonder if, by some dark spell, I am sleeping in a high tower as the time goes by. 

But ey, that would mean that I am not getting older anymore (and unfortunately I am, that´s for sure darlings).

No regrets, though.

Glancing back,I can see how many things I´ve done this year without even noticing:

• I passed some tedious exams, so I am really close to get my degree now (in the past some subjects were pretty much a bunch of Horror Cruxes to me). 

•  I found a great job that helps to mantain this gorgeous apartment and my quiet lifestyle together mith my better half.

•  I met new friends. It´s so nice when you are able to connect with people who are just your cup of tea.

And what do I wish for this new 2013?

Good question, indeed. I´d like to think that I will be totally finished with my degree and my academic research by the end of this year.
I also want to find a good opportunity to move to the UK (my boyfriend and I have several projects about this).

Adulthood is a funny moment in life, because basically you never know what you are going to find in the path, right? I hope all of you find your own destiny this year.

I send you all my love.

                                                               

Please, don´t forget to check charming Victorian Kitty´s blog as long as she is organizing a month event about New Year! 

Do thou snatch treasures from my lips, and I'll take kingdoms from thine.

 Birthday presents have an interesting connotation, because they reflect the way in which we are perveived by our loved ones. Additionally they symbolize all the affection, respect and consideration about the honoree. And of course gifts always will have that kind of magic aura capable of transporting us back to childhood and transforming a reasonable grown-up in a laughing toddler.

This year (because I am always such a good girl) I have received lots of stunning treasures, those includying a luxury beauty treatment that I could probably not afford myself at the moment (thankie mum), a sparkling tiara, earrings, broochs and bracelet (yes, I am as a magpie fascinated by shinning stuff) , and a dinky customized ex-libris showing my name and a bunch of Art Noveau flowers ( I need to sign all my beloved books with a decorative sign).
Everything is so lovely!

The Gentle One gave me a long-term wanted set of straightener and curling irons. So yes, as you guessed lots of funny (and disastrous, I am sure) hair experiments are coming.

I also was gifted with an exquisite Elisabethan corset, a dainty lace top and a gorgeous silk scarf but I thought those would be better portrayed in many future outfit posts. 

This way all fun is not wasted, is it?