Mysterious findings, shiny things, and things involving unemployment

Isn't it funny how  sometimes you can trawl through the charity shops, intent on finding something exciting but leave with absolutely nothing, when other days you pop in for something and leave with an armful of stuff you don't really need? Well this week was an armful sort of week.

Shitty photography time...

Ignore me. Ignore my stupid hairstyle. Ignore the mirror. Ignore the lack of flash. Focus instead on the pretty brownish velvet top acquired for £3 from a chairty shop. It's pretty huge, but it looks quite cool over black jeans.

Here it is viewed with flash. It's got pretty braids, rickrack and cords sewn into it and then tie-dyed along with the velvet. I think it's the first time I've ever seen rickrack look elegant. It also has little panels of floral velvet which have been tie-dyed over the top, gives quite a nifty effect.

So yeah, this is another one of those garments to wear when I feel like being a fat hippy, I suppose. Talking of hippyish garments...

Indian cotton jacket in yellow and purple. Slightly too small on the arms for me, but absolutely adorable.

The detail is worked as satin stitch which gives it a nice glossy tone and it has a raw fringe at the bottom. It's incredibly cute and wonderfully psychadelic. I love it.

Here is a picture of me, loving it. Like I said, ignore the hair, I'd bigged it up as scruffily as possible to try and avoid getting a certain job, the details of which, if you're interested, I'll discuss below.

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, I'm jobless again. My contract at the theatre ran out and although I'm still doing voluntary work for them, they can't afford to pay me so I'm stuck on jobseeker's again. It doesn't seem to be as bad as it was before, there are more apply-able jobs out there at the moment, but it doesn't stop me from making incredibly silly mistakes. Case in point: I sort of accidentally applied for a job at a chavvy nightclub, not quite realising quite how chavvy or objectionable said job was. This company was (is?) looking for people to take photos of club-goers and dupe them into spending £3 to £10 on cheap little print outs and key-rings of said photos. And seriously, whether they're chavvy and have no taste or not, they don't deserve to be duped out of £3 for a cheap photo the size of a credit card taken by some phony photographer.

Worst of all the company doesn't do interviews as such but does "training sessions" instead, a cheap way to get people working for nothing in the name of "trials". These training sessions are four hours long and during the busiest hours of the club on the busiest days (talk about getting free labour). I decided that, even though I needed the money, I didn't need this job. This is clearly one of those jobs for driving people mad. So I decided to rat out my hair and do my makeup to make myself look as unwell as possible. Besides, the dress code didn't mention hair and makeup, just black t-shirts and black trousers or skirts. When I arrived at the club, the "trainer" wasn't there and I couldn't get hold of her since they're apparently not allowed their phones on when they're working. So I was left outside this ghastly place for half an hour, with ghastly people in ghastly outfits sneering, jeering and threatening me. Nice.

Thankfully when I did finally meet the trainer, a sullen young woman who eyed me with great suspicion, announced that I wasn't dressed to fit the dress code (I was, technically, I was dressed fairly smartly; long full skirt and black t-shirt, only I had my leather biker jacket over the top) and sent me home, telling me I could phone the manager chap the next day and arrange another session. My plan was to phone him and say that since I'd been verbally abused by the club's clientelle I wasn't willing to undertake such a trial, but by the time I got up this morning there was an email telling me they "weren't persuing my application at this time". In other words, "sod off you weird gothy freak and take your high moral standards with you."

Anyway, to finish off I promised some more Alchemy reviews, and Alchemy reviews you shall have.

First up, Raven Spith a fabulous but sadly discontinued hairband. It seems to have been designed to compliment the Ravenskull earring with the same emerald green stone and cascade of feathers. It looks great, I tend to wear it with big hair to add some height but it could easily be worn with a sleek style for that flapper look. The feathers drape quite nicely. My only fault with it is the hairband itself is a little bendy, it feels like it's going to break, and though this might just be to counteract the brittleness that a lot of cheaper ones have, it does bother me.

Next up The Raven. Alchemy say this is a "graphic representation of Poe's most celebrated and tragic poem", in other words, it's inspired by The Raven. The photos make it look huge, it isn't; the raven skull thingy is under an inch, the purple crystal is about... an inch and a half (ish?), which is fine because if it were any bigger it would be a bit tacky and overly "LOOK AT ME I'M SPOOKY!" Instead it's fairly tasteful, suitably macabre without being showy. The only problem is, I in my infinite wisdom took it to M'era Luna and now the feathers are coming loose, it's nothing a bit of glue won't solve, just bear in mind, this one's a bit fragile. It's a bit of an unusual shape, too, and suits scoop necks or sweetheart necklines (or corsets, I suppose) as opposed to V-necks, so this is not one to wear with your Victorian dress shirts.

That's your lot. Next time: the return of Bloody Gorgreous with several special posts full of pretty gentlemen and corn syrup.