The Story of a Pair of Shoes. And donating blood.

So, I had really good plans for today: I only have one class of Uni on Tuesdays (I know, right? Sometimes life just loves me!) and it's basically in the middle of the night. 8:00 am. Okay, okay, I am exaggerating... but I have to get up in the middle of the night to be there (05:30 am) and after that one class I don't really have anything to do because my friends are all at Uni and I am a lazy shit and don't have a real job ( I tutor kids on Wednesdays and Fridays). So I decided to do something good for society and my bank account and donate blood. Normally, I do it for free at the Red Cross but I missed the last date because occasionally I do have Uni so I went to the University clinic in Bonn where they give you 25 €. 

Normally. 

Normally doesn't seem to work that good for me though. After going to Cologne central station after Uni and eat a way too early lunch at 10:30 to be fit for losing half a litre of blood and after going to the Uni clinic which was a trip that took me over a hour to get there, after nearly getting lost at the friggin' clinic grounds and after preparing myself to not get a panic attack when they come up with those huge needles they didn't want my blood. 

Let me repead that: They. Didn't. Want. My. Blood. They didn't even test me for asiderosis ( the deficiency of iron in the blood). They asked me which asthma sprays I use, discussed for a while whether or nor not I was a suited donour and that was it. 

I was a little perplex. As I already said I do have donated blood before (3 times) and my medicine had never been a problem. I was afraid that maybe the Red Cross had made a mistake those times and that my blood wasn't suitable for transfusions so I simply asked why it was a problem that I use those sprays. The lady on the counter gave me a quite annoyed look and said: "Well, we aren't the Red Cross, we give the blood to very ill patients, there mustn't be anything in there."

Oh really?

What do you think does the Red Cross do with the blood? Sell it to occult sects? Give it to My Chemical Romance so that they don't have to youse paint in their photo shoots anymore? Paint walls with it?

Or maaaaybe they give it to "very ill" people who have lost a lot of blood? Well, no, that idea is far of!

Don't get me wrong. I am not pissed because I couldn't donate and didn't get the money, I am pissed that I used my free time to get there and do something good and they treat me like an idiot. The counter lady was annoyed the whole bloody time! I tought my question was a valid one, I should know why my blood isn't good for transfusions, shouldn't I? Argh!

So I went back. I took the bus to Bonn central station and then remembered that there are no train connections to my home town from there, only to Cologne. Therefore, I decided to walk through the city and do some window shopping because on the other side of the city I could take a metro to the city next to mine and from there I could easily get back home. 

Long things short, I suck at window shopping, I always buy stuff.

I have been looking for a decent pair of flat shoes for weeks now. I am not exactly a fan of shoes without heels, I mean where is the point in wearing them? On the other hand, I have to do quite a bit of walking on some days of Uni and I still have problems with my right metatarsal ( or rather the tiny extra knuckle that is next to it and that shouldn't be there. I am a mutant...) since January so heels are not always an option. 

Unfortunatly, I haven't seen any nice shoes, neither high nor flat, during the last weeks. I don't like mainstream shoes but getting and overpriced pair of gothic brand shoes isn't really worth the money as I "only" needed flat shoes. 

Luckily, I wasn't allowed to donate blood and luckily I was pissed and wanted to cheer myself up because I found the perfect pair of shoes. At H&M. Seriously. I try not to buy at those kind of chains of stores because I do not like the conditions under which they produce their products. The workers are often minors and underpaid. Urgh! On the other hand, I cannot afford to buy my basics at my favourite gothic store where I know where everything comes from, so...

Well, back to topic. 

I found them.

They are perfect.

I think I am a little in love with them.

Here they are.

Patent-leather goodness with ribbon shoe laces

And a wannabe plateau

 Aren't they just awesome?

The correct answer is yes.

I also had another lucky finding. A black agate ring with a diamond pattern. I got it at Bioux Brigitte for less than 2€ which is really cheap. Did I mention that I love semi-precious stones? Well, i do.

Ihad to take about 100000 photos in order to get two decent ones

Did you have any lucky findings in the last time? Or are you more the organized and structured shoppers?

Have a great evening, 

The Countess

A concert outfit

On Thurday I went to see Schandmaul (malicious tongue), a German medieval folk rock band with my boyfriend. I gave him the tickets about eight months ago for his birthday and the concert was supposed to take place in Feburary but unfortunately it was rescheduled due to an illness the singer had. So of course, when we finally got to see them I was really excited. Excited for me means that I want to wear an appropriate outfit to honour the occasion. As I am not really in medieval wear I decided to wear something Victorian inspired instead. 

I had to make sure that my outfit was still comfortable as I wanted to dance and jump. I saw many girls with corsets, ankle long skirts and platform shoes during the concert and even though they looked really nice I pitied them. A concert should be attended to enjoy the music, to dance and to sing, not to look pretty and to show off.

Here is what I decided to wear:

The jabot is handmade

Inside shot because the colours come out more vibrant here

Have a great weekend,

The Countess

I almost forgot...

...to show you my favourite charm. I sent it to a dear friend of mine for her birthday but unfortunately I didn't take a picture before I sent it... Luckily, she has taken one and allowed me to use it (thanks <3).

I only made the Sherlock charm, the rest is hers.

Have a great day,

The Countess

On being goth

During the last weeks I have stumbled across some interesting posts about being goth so I thought why not give it a go for yourself? First of all: Stereotypes. There are various clichés and stereotypes that are shown on television and that are stuck in peoples minds and most of them a rubbish BUT: Some of them are true. They are what I call my guilty pleasures.

- I only wear black. Even if I see a clothing item that i like I won't buy it if it isn't black. It's my colour and I will stick to it, full stop. I do wear coloured tights occasionally or some coloured accessoires but that's it basically. My standard question in shops is and will always be: 'It's nice, do you have it in black?'

- I love, love, love platform shoes. I have tiny feet and huge platforms make them look weird and unproportional, I like it.

- My style rolemodels are Wednesday Addams from the Addams Family and Abby Sciuto from Navi CIS.

- I think bats are cute. I don't really wear bats as accessoires but the real life ones are simply adorable.

- I'm pretty crafty, I make my own jewelry etc...

- I am constantly overdressed and I don't give a damn. My clothes are not practical ore useful, they simply look good.

- I enjoy old literature such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, Oscar Wilde, Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I even took a class called 'Gothic Fiction', it was amazing because we got to discuss popular gothic motifs, psychology (e.g. why Freud sucks), the modern vampire and why Twilight is neither spooky nor gothic.

-I like graveyards, I think they're pretty.

-I also like old churches and chapels, my favourite being the Cologne cathedral and despite the fact that the Count says otherwise, I CAN enter churches, thank you very much.

- I love the victorian era. As a feminist I, of course, would never want to actually live in that time but it still fascinates me.

- The goths shown in mainstream television are often nerds that would rather spend the night reading a book and drinking tea instead of going to a club. I myself have never been to a club, I have occasionally visited cocktail bars with friends but that's it. I'm pretty indoorsy.

Ok, so much about stereotypes but there are also many, many ungothy things about me:

- I don't like gothic music. So, 'why are you a goth then' you might ask. To me being gothic is a lifestyle and a lifestyle needs more than just music. Even though there are very popular gothic festivals here in Germany such as the Amphi or the WGT I don't really have the wish to go to any of these.

- I don't like skull motives, I don't find them appealing at all.

- I like pink. Yes, seriously.

- None of my friends are goth. They're all kind of alternative but not in a bat-loving, black, spooky way.

- I tan extremely fast and therefor I have given up trying to stay pale.

- I own about 70 different nail polishes and even though 11 of them are various colours of red most of them have very non-gothy colours.

- As the Count says: I'm not a night-person. Neither am I a day person. He says I'm asleep constantly.

- I have a spider phobia and I don't really like cats. They're kind of cool but scary...

- I'm also afraid of the dark.

You can probably see now why I don't only classify myself as goth but rather as a Quaintrelle. Who cares about labels, anyway?

Vintage bag

Yesterday my grandma came to visit and she had a lovely surprise for me. When my great grandmother died in 1974 (so way before I was born) my grandma who is the oldest of three sisters agreed to take care of all the things from my great grandmother's posessions that no one else wanted. Of course, many things were simply thrown away but some pieces are still in my grandma's closet and basement because they're are of personal value. 

One of these things is handbag. Not a regular handbag, a black handbag with a flower pattern that my great grandmother handstitched with gobelin stitches. She made the pattern and then had it made into a handbag. My grandma told her that her mother was very proud of this bag and therefor my grandma never threw it away even though neither she nor my great aunts wanted it. 

So yesterday she gave it to me. She knows that I love sewing and stitching and more than once she has mentioned that it makes her very happy to see me working with a needle or a sewing machine. She also said my great grandmother would be very proud and happy that I like tthe bag. 

She wasn't fortunate enough to be still alive when her first grandchild (me) was born so I never had the pleasure of meeting her but owning something that she made and knowing that we shared at least one interest is amazing and heart warming to me.

But enough talking, let's have a look:

I admit it, it is old fashioned but I think it could look lovely combined with an elegant all black outfit. Or with a pink underbust corset I own.  When I come up with a nice outfit I will take a picture and frame it for my grandma. 

 

detail shot

Look at those stitches! I cannot find a single mistake. The colours work so well together and even though I am not a fan of the combination of black and brown I still love this special colour combination. Perhaps I will buy some (fake) gold jewelry (I only have silver and antique gold) to match the handle. 

I still cannot really believe that I own something that seriously qualifies as vintage. And that is part of the family heritage, of course. Thank you grandma, thank you great grandma. <3

Thoughts on wearing black

I wear black. Every single day.
Black is the absence of colour, it doesn't reflect light. So much for the simple facts. Now the problem:
Whenever I meet new people for example at university classes the topic of the colour of my wardrobe (or rather the absence of it) will come up at some point. Mostly the question is broad up by someone in a rather shy manner: "I don't know if I can ask you this but...Why do you wear black?"


The honest answer: I don't know.
For a long time I didn't even realize it, I just wore black more and more and at some point all the other colours just vanished from my closet. I simply prefer black over everything else. It's elegant, sophisticated and aristocratic. The point of it being elegant is probabl what strikes me the most about it. It suits everyone, very fair skin types as well as dark ones. It doesn't distract from the piece of clothes at hand, it leaves room for the farbic and the pattern to stand out. Additionally, black goes with nearly every colour except for brown and beige but that's simply my personal preference.

Source: we heart it

Black goes with a wide range of fashion styles in society such as conservative suits, cocktail dresses and the robes in the justice system of various countries but of course it also has a huge part in the world of alternative fashion. I identify as some sort of goth-ish victorian quaintrelle and black underlines that perfectly. I don't think of it as the colour of mourning, sadness and death as in some parts of Africa and America white is the mourning colour.

Source: we heart it

Of course, my favourite colour has often brought me in some weird situations and sometimes  I have to answer the most ridiculous questions. No, I don't worship satan, in fact I am an atheist, no I don't do drugs, yes I am smart. Black is the colour of the academics by the way. Some people cross the street when they see me, others but come up to me to congratulate me on my wardrobe. Small children tend to be afraid of me, older women love me. all in all, I get the most various reactions but that is not what wearing black is about.


 It's about me. 
Me being happy with how I look and what I wear. 
And that's what clothes are about, right?