What's a whimsy goth anyway?

                                

Its the one week countdown until I start back at work, (having had ten months of maternity leave) and well, I guess I'm feeling pretty mixed up about it. On the one hand it'll be lush to see my work colleagues, and make my positive mark in the world of mental health again. On the other hand, I'll be missing spending every, waking hour, with my baby and I don't think I'll ever get over the heartbreak of that first day away.   

The way my brain works when an impending change is looming is to get more creative, losing myself in writing. So this week I've been busily writing away at my novel in-between wrangling the kids. 

My novel is set in 1970s Cornwall and is both a little bit witchy and also about the emerging surf scene there. It centres around Billie Joslin a young woman estranged from her mother and trapped in a loveless relationship. Her very hemmed in life is suddenly upended when she gets wind of her mother's passing and learns of a half sister she never knew existed. Its about female relationships, discovering your hidden powers and I hope will make it onto Doctor's read well booklists! I guess none of that makes sense but hopefully it'll pique the interest of a publisher before now and you'll get to read it! I'm 60,000 words in and nearly there. A lot happens before its ready for a literary agent, so I'm enjoying this part where I just get to use my imagination and not over think who might read it, or whether it has commercial appeal. Wish me luck! 

Speaking of good luck, the thrifting Gods have been extremely kind this week, check out my recent uploads to Vinted: 

My first find was this 90s Nightingale dress, I love the vivid orange of this dress and when teamed with black lace up boots and 90s sunnies, just oozes teen angst! 

Please excuse the horrendous posing, I always try to channel an Asos model when I'm listing things for Vinted, in the hope it'll attract customers. I find the times I 'style' an outfit often leads to sales. I've had some lovely comments from people on Vinted saying how much they like my style, which always is a wonderful morale boost, especially because it does take a lot of work to source, style, photograph and upload my treasures. 

This dress my husband loves so much he said he's going to buy it from my stock so I can keep it. After nine years together, anything that makes him googly eyed is a keeper!  

The last dress I found is another 90s Nightingale example. I really loved the shape of this but as you can see the beige colour does nothing for my skin tone. 

Last week I promised you I'd show you my full outfit that I wore to meet some new friends. Since moving to a new town I've slowly been making friends, (which always seems slower and harder in your 30s)! I've never been shy about asking if someone wants to hang out and have prided myself on making friends anywhere and everywhere. One of my closest friends I met in a group interview for Lush cosmetics! It's been lovely making some new, 'mom friends' at baby group, who are fascinating, interesting women I've had the pleasure to get to know on a few suppers out now! 

This outfit is a thrifted Zara top from a charity shop and Monki jeans from Vinted. 

With the May weather being so inclement, on Tuesday I ended up bringing out a winter coat again. I'm wearing the find of the century my 1970s £30 afghan coat, All about Audrey recycled sari dress and repaired cowboy boots. 

Anecdotally, my husband heard on a radio show that a basic £10s worth of groceries are now costing us £16. I don't know about you but I've definitely noticed the increase in the cost of the weekly shop. Ever the credit cruncher I've been experimenting with buying bulk online and decided to explore getting dates which in supermarkets are always expensive. The Medjool dates I got were rather pricey at £13.00 for 1kg but are utterly delicious (worth the moment of madness), the pitted dates were £5 and I can see will last a long time. I've also bought nutritional yeast which I use to make a lot of vegan béchamel sauces or sprinkled over salads. It always hurts paying more for bulk items but you definitely get your moneys worth. 

Being only two years into living in our new town we're still having the excitement of discovering new places around our home. The photos below were taken on a recent hike to a beautiful area covered in woodlands (we'd got to vista and decided to take a pic in the sunshine). 

Its not a look you see me in much on this blog but I thought it pertinent (especially since giving up Instagram), that you see me on my dressed down days too. I LOVE wearing my hippie clobber and for most of my life, I really do wear what you see on the blog out and about. Occasionally though, a girl needs to dress practically and this is what you're looking at! I'm wearing ten year old Vegan hiking boots, a Dolly Parton t-shirt and very, very old, stripy GAP yoga leggings. 

Its been about a week or so of no Instagram and in all honesty, despite my phone saying my screen time is down, I feel like I've been on Pinterest and Vinted a lot. I think I've basically given up cigarettes and am vaping instead?! I think its going to take a while before I really notice an improvement, perhaps it was naïve of me to expect my wired brain to suddenly go cold turkey! One positive is that I'm definitely reading more so that's been a nice win from weaning myself off socials. Now that I've bought a few necessities for my girls off Vinted and a few treats for myself for going back to work in, I'm definitely going to cool it for a while. Throughout this whole process I'm trying to be kind to myself, life in 2023 is complex and we're pulled in a million directions, occasionally allowing your brain to be porridge by looking at a social media app isn't sacrilege, its understandable. With this in mind everything I'm endeavouring to do with modifying my behaviour around socials is going to be gentle. 

So onto the title of this blog post. With work impending and the fact that I'm writing a bit of a witchy story, I've been falling in lust, with the whole 90s whimsy goth vibe, (think practical magic, Stevie Nicks, dark academia decor). This is probably spurred on by my recent devouring of Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman, (I'm so enamoured with her writing I hot footed it back to the library and have ordered in the next in the series)! It also feels so young and freeing to dress his way, when my life is in fact very structured and suburban (hahaha), its my watered down version of anarchy!  

Here's my spiral into a Pinterest vortex looking at the fashion and style of 'Whimsy Goth,' these are  a few of my favourite images which has been inspiring my wardrobe of late: 

I love this decor but all I can think about is how chuffing hard it would be to dust... 

I've snaffled from Vinted, a £3 black lace maxi dress that I plan to wear something like this. With two kids under three, I feel gleefully smug at the prospect of wearing an outfit that will hide baby sick, tomato bean stains and grubby paint fingers haha!  

How cute is this outfit?! I think whimsy goth isn't a far departure from hippie/boho which is why I like it so much. The fact that chunky lace up boots are a staple, also makes it super practical for inclement British weather! Love, love, love this look! 

Last but not least Queen Stevie, the maven of all things whimsy goth! 

And with that I bid you farewell. 

Until next time love bugs! 

Sophia xxx