A tiny ditty I wrote for a class in '05. 

Twelve o'clock and light has fled
Withdrawn from sky and from my head
Eleven was a wondrous time
Love was ours and not just mine
Velvet curtains were your hair
Encased now in the dirt you wear 

I just love tea! 
Making and serving teas can be a healthy, delicious, and relaxing activity. Sometimes, a hot, tasty cup of tea is the perfect for soothing you after a busy day. Or, it's a great way to start your morning off with a warm feeling in your belly. No matter when or how you take tea time, why not enhance your Earl Grey with these grim and gothy tea pots, cups, and accessories!

Most of the items can actually be purchased, while a few are merely artistic or not for sale.
This is just a small collection! 

(Click on the photo to follow its link)

Here's a neat fact about tea! The term for curled or twisted tea leaves uncurling when they steep is called agony of the leaves. The whistling of a kettle could be their painful screams. :O

Warning - May contain NSFW and/or disturbing/triggering material.
(This post is not for everybody. If blood or bruises makes you squeamish or puts you off in any way, then this is not for you, my friend. If this post disturbs you, then I apologize.)

There's just something interesting about blood. With a shocking splash of colour, deep or bright, orange or red, blood can seem sickening or, to some, rather pretty. I find it amazing that a sticky, vibrant fluid keeps our entire body pumping, moving, and alive. 
Bruises too. Where blood rises to the top of the skin and decorates us in painful reminders of bad memories or of frightful escapes or simply of fun sports that make us tougher. I find them lovely even if they can be ugly; a time our skin decides to abandon the ebony to pale shades and becomes the colours of the sun setting. So, for those intrigued by blood and bruises, I bring you blogs. :)

For some children, it was the infamous purple dinosaur. For others it was Mickey and Minnie in deformed costumes that strove to be authentic. Some had clowns, balloon animals and colourful scarves in tow. My husband's birthday parties had a different caliber of guest entirely. 
Or at least he did in his dreams.
Last night, Jon told me about a funny dream he remembered. Apparently, his parents knew Jonathan Frid, who played the famed Barnabas Collins (from the original Dark Shadows series, for those who lack the pleasure of having seen the show before).  Dream Jon found photos of his old birthdays, and lo and behold, Mr. Frid himself was there in full vampiric costume, complete with a pale complexion! He had forgotten that Jonathan Frid would come and entertain him for his childhood parties, pretending to be Barnabas, pointing at presents in that   refrained, proper way of his. He even brought him gifts - children's toys instead of the antique trinkets his character was known for. Overall, it was a dream I'd dream of having, to be graced each year by an ageless vampire that lights candles on my cake instead of having my blood as the milk to wash it down.

R.I.P.
Jonathan Frid
12/02/1924 - 04/13/2012

"It was Cinco de Mayo
Pillow case on his head
No more breathing time
An ambulance sped
It sped 'round every corner
Calling out his name..."

I have been having a love affair this the mesmerizing sounds of the duo of sisters known as CocoRosie. They sing in strange, but beautiful ways. Sometimes haunting, sometimes blunt, sometimes light and airy. Besides their voices and interesting instrumentals, I adore their lyrics. They stick in my brain and melt my mood until it becomes obsessed with the song.
I especially love these songs, and they also fit a gothic or Victorian mood. Please, enjoy them and, if anything, come to notice this dreamy band!

"Lemonade" is so enchanting! The video is gorgeous, with a home I'd die to live in, words that tease my imagination, and a reference to Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal that wraps the whole bit up brilliantly! I find myself singing the first part almost daily. FYI: The video references the sisters' childhood memories.

What can words say for this song? "Gallows" is a song that silences the tongue and enters the soul. Or for my soul anyway. It is so deliciously gothic and spooky, like a Sleepy Hollow love story. The animal sounds and dream-like noises that pepper "Gallows" are simply too perfect. The video is a saddening, delicate, taking experience. The Johnny Depp-like love interest is a mysterious, but bewitching character. I want to leap right into the background and ask them about their stories. Who are they, and where can I buy their dresses?

"Milkman" has a very haunting quality to it. It mixes oddly, but appropriately with the piano's timbre. Again, the lyrics and their execution are my favorite. They are melancholy and pleasing. For me, the song has a cleansing quality to it. It soothes and heals wounds.

With bottomless wells, And terrorized yells,

And gargoyles all in a row.

I ♥ gardens! Jon and I recently moved from an apartment to a home with a tiny yard, but a yard nonetheless. We’re very excited about planting a box garden and making this space our own. Gardening is a beautiful and rewarding way to become more in-tune with nature, improve your surroundings, and express your personal creativity. Growing and constructing your own garden and landscape is also a great way to add a rich, elegant, and gothic flair to your home. Landscaping can be as difficult or as easy as you make it. There are endless resources for lawn guides and tips. However, you don’t exactly see a section for gothicy gardens filling the shelves at Barnes & Noble, now do you? So, as we try our best to transform our yard from weedy to whimsical, I’ve decided to share my ideas for fitting gardens, lawns, and patios. From stylized themes of fantasy to fearsome, to the average mix of gazing balls and blood red pansies, I’m mentioning it all in this series on the “gothic” garden!

Next “How does your garden moan?” – Growing Produce with Style

I love the darkness you possess
it goes so well with mine
we are like shadows of two twins
lost as one within the night
as one within our minds
in crepuscule and shade
one with wants of mysteries
left by bats and bits of brick
from some old home left dead to time
you please me with that morbid sigh
it goes so well with mine
come with me, my gentle stake
and pierce my heart with words
of how you thought of ghosts today
whilst lying in the sun
surprised you did not burn away
a haunt now turned to dust
but now my heart is gushing forth
seeping sanguine sounds
whispers of my love to you
a darkness most profound

written 1/26/12 for my husband. <3

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

“Look I probably should have told you this before, but you see… well… insanity runs in my family… It practically gallops.”

Dark humor and goth go hand in hand. They practically skip down the street together, heading on their way to have tea with the Grim Reaper. There’s just something fun and comforting about dark humor. It lightens that serious side of life that can bring such pain. Or, it simply brings a smile to those that enjoy the thought of kindly, gentle, sweet elderly ladies poisoning equally elderly gentlemen with elderberry wine and arsenic. “What?!,” you might ask. Well, then you haven’t seen the wonderful and very funny B&W film, Arsenic and Old Lace. This black comedy (directed by Frank Capra) was born from the Broadway play with the same name, which ran from 1941 until 1943. It follows a famed anti-marriage drama critic, Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant), who suddenly finds himself married to his childhood neighbor, Elaine (Priscilla Lane). When he goes to visits his gentle aunts (Josephine Hull & Jean Adair) to announce to them the joyous news, he makes a disturbing discovery – there is a body in the window seat.  But who’s the old stiff, and what is the corpse doing hiding in his aunts’ house?! These two sweet ladies know however, they put it there! To Mortimer’s horror and disbelief, Aunt Martha and Aunt Abby have been poisoning and burying (and holding respectable services for the dead, of course) their “gentlemen” as a form of disillusioned charity towards elderly, “lonely” men.  Suddenly, our protagonist has his blissful moment turned into a world of trouble, but not just by this new discovery. Mortimer’s violent and psychotic brother, Jonathan (Raymond Massey), returns home while on the run from the police, bringing along his associate, a plastic surgeon named Dr. Einstein (Peter Lorre). Jonathan bears a striking resemblance to Boris Karloff thanks to Dr. Einstein’s drinking habits and the recent theatrical release of Frankenstein.  (Karloff himself actually plays Jonathan Brewster in the play, which ran whist the movie was being filmed, but could not reprise his role in the film due to him being the biggest draw for Broadway.) Once Jonathan discovers that his aunts have made just as many bodies as he has during his crime spree, he decides to add one more to his list as soon as possible. And Mortimer is the perfect candidate, whether he likes it or not. Add in an insane but harmless Uncle Teddy (John Alexander), who believes himself to be the Teddy Roosevelt, and a blushing, frustrated bride awaiting her honeymoon, and you’ve got one hectic, crazy cocktail on  your hands! Arsenic and Old Lace is a delightful comedy, made perfect by Cary Grant’s over the top acting (a fact which made this one of his least favorite films of his) and Peter Lorre’s adorable desire for a drink. I love this movie. It’s dark, very funny, and never lacks interesting characters. It would be wonderful to attend a showing of the play. There are currently several different videos of the play version on YouTube, so feel free to check it out if you want to compare the film with the original script. If you like black humor, as any goth should, or just want to see an older film and have a laugh, then add this movie to your list! I’m sure you’ll enjoy watching just how much trouble madness and arsenic can make.

I believe every website like this deserves some historical introduction. So, here goes mine:

I suppose my view on being gothic is a bit selfish. Everyone feels a little different about it, I think. I never went into a gothic phase and never came out of it. I didn’t don black clothes just to walk around the mall with my friends. Nor did I become a teenager that rebelled and locked herself in her room all of the time. I’m not saying that most goths are like this, but I think that’s what people who don’t understand it like to imagine. This was never a fad for me. I was becoming a “goth” my whole life. I know this thanks to my earliest memory, when I was three or four. My mother always charmed me with different voices, especially when she read books. My favorite thing for her to do was to pretend to be the villains from Disney movies and cartoons. I loved villains and always have. I was a cute, little three-year-old asking my mother to voice the evil wizard, No Heart, from the Care Bears. I enjoyed that show for its fun colours and happy music as well as its dark side (and the main villain’s bumbling assistant, Beastly). In its prime, Care Bears, run by Nelvana, was a wonderful mix of dark and light for children. It had evil magicians, talking spell books, shadowy minions, and realistic problems that children faced. It fed a parents need for a cartoon with morals and cute things, and it fed my apparent early love for the darker side of fantasy. That apparent love became less apparent and more obvious as time went on. It never faded, only strengthened. I cannot exactly say how loving cartoon baddies turned into loving graveyards, black humor, and all things spooky, but I can say what it means. I was made this way. It seems that God enjoys bats and fog-covered full moons just as much as the next goth.