Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead

A few months ago I  impulsively bought this mannequin to display my clothing on. On the picture below the mannequin is wearing part of my Dominatrix party outfit, last March. My lovely friend Skeletons in the Closet let me borrow her handmade neck corset with black pearls and latex under-bust corset. The knee-length hoop-skirt (without skirt) is also by her hands.

The pink shoes are part of another party outfit I wore last March. Since I wasn't sure which pink would match better, I bought both pairs and since there was super-sale I thought it wouldn't hurt to also purchase those black shiny summer-wedges!  

The picture above is of my crafting table. This is where I like to sit with my sewing machine or any other crafts I feel inspired to from time to time. I like to surround this corner of my house with inspiring items, like these shoes, like fake flowers and real ones alike and these (very nicely priced) black frames I found recently with cock-feathers from the local petting zoo.

For the past two years I had a large painting of a boy with a colorful bird hanging above my purse-dressoir. Even though I loved that painting and still do, it was time for something less 'heavy' my lighter creative-room. This beautiful bronze cameo double candle lamps are the perfect replacement! They also help lighting the inside of my closets (that are both left and right from this picture).

 

Lately I have really been into buying black home decorations, mostly flower pots and vases. I also found this adorable black bunny! And by accident I ran into this decorative shelve with matching shelve holders in a DIY store and got the idea to make it into a shelve above my bedroom door.

The mirror is a present from mom.
This absolute goth-must-have is decorating my bedroom wall. 

Another gothic must-have: black baroque chandelier. 

Early spring look; Modified coat from H&M, big black scarf (also H&M), black high heel hoots (V&D) and black leggings with shiny filigrees on the sides (New Yorker). The brooch is a beautifully unique thrift shop find (better pics in the future!).

This frame holds a print from the The Resurrectionist (The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black) by E.B. Hudspeth. This book is totally on my wish-list! I have several prints from it in my house. There are many interesting drawings from this book on the internet, google it! It is a fictional biography of Dr. Black who digs into the possibility of the existence of mythological creatures and investigates their anatomy. Creatures we never expected to really be real, like mermaids, minotaurs and satyrs.

The purple tin contains a Amethyste scented candle that was brought to me from Germany. The fragrance is so smooth and sweet. I absolutely love it and it matches so well in our house!

Alchemy Amethyste Candle

by Fringe Atelier

Les curieux, Les rares et la belle No.8

My most recent purchase: this beautifully hand blown glass bell with bunny ears (V&D) and it magically fits on the black metal platter! Not sure what to put under it yet though! 

The items with the anatomical heart drawing and monsieur Owl are actually wooden boxes that you can put your own photos in. I secretly stole these pictures from the internets. The boxes contain bunny candies for my bunny-buns. Nom nom!

The title of this post refers to the into of Pretty Little Liars, that I have recently started watching and totally got addicted to! I am currently half way season two, but fortunately there are plenty of little and big lies to discover, since season 6 is aired this year.

Anyone else watching it?

A collection of death

A lovely bouquet of roses

is now drying,

heads down, with strings attached.

One day I came home to this exquisite bouquet of soft pink roses and I wanted to preserve their beauty. This is my first attempt to dry flowers. I've been told to hang them upside down, not touching each other. First remove the outer leaves that may have signs of decay and them hang them like that in a dry place. They are still hanging from my living room chandelier. They've been here for about two weeks now and they do seem dry, but their color is not the virginly soft pink it used to be.

On the background you see my current project; a collection of death and macabre. The collection started with the beautiful centerpiece Elselien offered me for my birthday; the deer skull. After that I  got all inspired to add more death and serene decay to my wall. I spray painted all the frames. In the picture above, the frames are still empty. The small ones are now decorated with white on black prints of skulls and the larger frame holds a crow or rook feather I found in my childhood home town.

The cuckoo clock is an item I purchased a couple years ago.  I bought it secondhand from the internets, for a lovely price of ten euros! However, neither of us at home can stand the ticking of clocks, so it is always showing ten to twelve. The charm hasn't worn out yet, and this clock will never strike twelve, so no rush.

The seahorses are one of my recent creation that I am very proud of. They are a souvenir from Bulgaria that my grandfather brought from one of his journeys when I was only a few years old. When I told mom about my wall of pretty references to death, she dug these up and gave them to me. I made a deep frame for them, by attaching two frames back-to-back. The sea horses are held in place by tiny pins. The back is high quality velvet on a couple of layers or cardboard, so that the pins hold well. Then I painted the outside rim of the frames so they match together.The inside of the frames was of course painted beforehand.

My next idea it to hand a tiny shelve under all this, so I can display my cow horn and possible other relics.

Right next to the death wall is a stairs going up. Already a while ago I started decorating the stairway, but I never got to post pictures of it.

The collection is inspired from the wall stickers that I matched together; a chair and a classic lamp psot with a clock. The lamp post was originally much shorter, but I made it longer. The chair gives a funny optical illusion when it comes to size. From downstairs it seems to have a reasonable height, but standing next to it, its back hardly reaches up to hip-height.

The three oval frames are from a flee market and have no purpose yet, that is, they don't have a content yet. The two round clock frames are a second hand find as well. I printed Alice pictures to in them and colored the flamingo pink and the pocket watch purple.

The decorative key comes from the local handy shop. I love that they sell such keys, even though they cannot carve them. I wonder if anyone ever buys those for real usage.