Strawberry Milkshakes And Adventures In New York City

Desert goth adventures in Nevada.

H

ello from an overcast New York City. After teasing us with soaring temperatures, the city has cooled back down and it’s back to leather jackets for this girl. Le sigh! I’m so ready for it to be summer! Bring on the heat!

I just came back from Las Vegas, where I spent 5 days with Kat and Shauna, otherwise known as my original partners in crime. We had an incredible trip, but that’s a story for another time. Here’s what I’ve been up to lately…

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We currently have five planets in retrograde and Mercury is just one of them. Oh my. Thankfully, I was invited to a Mercury recovery lounge at The Alchemist’s Kitchen, where they had teas, tinctures, herbal lollipops, and an incredible tarot card reader who gave me one of the most illuminating readings I’ve had in ages. It was awesome! The event is on every day until Mercury goes direct, so you should definitely check it out!

This has really been such an intense month. As a Sagittarius Moon and Rising, Saturn has been all over my chart… And Saturn is known as the hard task-master. Disciplinarian Daddy energy. It’s good for you but it feels rough. I have been really putting myself through so much emotional torment, but I think it’s all building towards something good. At least, I hope it is! If you’re a subscriber to Mystic Medusa’s site — and you’re a Sagittarius Sun, Moon or Rising, comme moi — you should definitely read this. For example: “Resist grinching yourself over the past. This is a rather grotty side-effect of Saturn in your sign. Like a non-stop forensic audit. But pull yourself up with a swift, sharp “is this productive?”” I love that. IS THIS PRODUCTIVE? Good question to pull yourself out of an emotional quagmire!

Five things I love so much right now:
Views From The Six, Drake’s new album. It has been on repeat for weeks.
 Doing something for my mind and body every morning, namely meditating and doing a miniature workout. Try these: Tess Whitehurst’s Aura Cleansing Meditation and Patricia Moreno’s 5 minute Intensati workout!
Having the same dream as my friend Colin! Psychic twinsies!
Buying tickets to see Louis CK at Madison Square Garden! AHHHHH! He’s my favourite comedian ever and I could just cry with excitement. Even better? We’re going the day before my birthday! Happy early birthday to me. So so happy.
Seeing my book for sale at Enchantments, my favourite witch store in the city! It was seriously one of the highlights of my day. The owner told me she bought all of the remaining stock from the distributor and they had already sold half of them in a couple of days. So exciting!

So it has been a tricky month on the emotional side, but it’s not all bad. I’ve been having plenty of fun, too! I’ve been taking outfit photos in my living room mirror lately. It reminds me of those old outfit posts I used to do (way, way, way back in the day), except it’s less time-consuming! Hahah. I may not be fashion blogging anymore, but DAMN do I love to dress up! Plus, having these photos is so helpful for those days when I just don’t know what to wear, and need a little inspiration!

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T-shirt from Forever 21 (hahah I mean “Forever 32”), Femme Fatale Pencil Skirt by Black Milk Clothing, and my trusty Schott Perfecto. I love grey with baby pink. What a luscious combo.

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I wore this on a visit to Hay House (my publisher): dress by Jonathan Saunders, purple turban (bought it on Amazon!) and ye olde leather jacket.

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I’m obsessed with this Aaliyah/Anthrax shirt by Sex & Death (it was a gift, thanks Garnett!). I’ve had this purple/pink wrap skirt for a year or two now and it never gets any less delightful to wear. And I paired it with Uniqlo Heattech (because it is still BRRRRR here) and my leather jacket, plus tights and new suede ankle boots by Joie. (They’re cute and comfortable. Bonus!)

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The hat is from Forever 21 and the dress is by Killstar. I had been meaning to buy it for ages but was on the fence. I’m so glad I did — it’s really fun to wear and I swear, I have never had more compliments on an outfit in my entire life! The only problem is that it’s a maxi-dress with no split in the back or up the side. This is pure craziness since it means you have to literally hobble your way down the street! (I made a video of me doing exactly that on Snapchat, hahah.) I’m going to have to get it altered, but that’s okay. A small price to pay for an epic dress!

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I’ve been getting some crazy cool mail recently. This is a package from Tiffany Pratt, who helped me decorate Darling HQ and is one of the most inspiring, colourful and fabulous women I’ve ever met. She hand-painted the parcel she sent me — no one has that much attention to detail! Her book, This Can Be Beautiful, comes out soon, and you should pre-order it if you know what’s good for you! (I got a sneak peek. It is SO GOOD.)

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A card I pulled at the start of the weekend. Very appropriate. It was totally a few days of grabbing an opportunity and running with it, and using the spark to create more.

My friend Chloe — who now lives in Florida and works for Disney as a photographer! — came to town, and we went on an adventure. Most of our silliness was captured on Snapchat (my username is gala-darling)!  It was such a good day: we took an Uber to the Bronx for the Jonathan Adler warehouse sale, where we rubbed ourselves on candy-coloured couches and loaded up on awesome things. I bought new bedding (Malachite), a huge Eyelashes canister, and a little Dolls canister, and my total was $95! SCORE. Chloe bought two sconces which we promptly shipped back to Florida. His sale happens once a year, and you should definitely go to the next one if you’re in town!

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This purple velvet chair was really calling my name. I felt like I was sitting in a box of chocolates. All our houses should feel like that! I was wearing a Missoni turban (I went a bit nuts last year in Florence), a grey t-shirt, a black maxi-skirt by Alice & Olivia, and my Schott Perfecto leather jacket.

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This velvet couch was a real temptress, too. My pink bucket bag is by Kate Spade… And I love it.

After the Bronx, we came back to the East Village for frozen Nutella Fitzgeralds at The Bean, and a browse around Flower Power…IMG_4597

Flower Power is legitimately like the witch’s kitchen of your wildest childhood dreams: packed to the gills with herbs and flowers, lotions and potions, and staffed by kind and helpful people. It’s tiny but it packs a punch — visit and you’ll see what I mean!

Next stop? Juicy Lucy, where Chloe got juice and we both bought hot pink fake moustaches, then wore them downtown. We wandered all over the Lower East Side, discovering parks, meeting dogs, and stopping in little plant shops…

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Before we reached our final destination, Magic Jewelry in Chinatown, where we got (almost identical) aura photos.

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And then that night I went out to karaoke with some friends and saw Alber Elbaz walking down Second Avenue, but that is a story for another time!

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In other news, Kat and Shauna and I booked ourselves a trip to the Amalfi Coast! We’re staying in an old convent built into the cliffside — Grand Hotel Convento di Amalfi — and I can’t wait to wear big hats every day and get a tan. Meow!

Radical Self Love Coven has been going so well. There are 300 witch babies in the program, which blows my stripey socks off, and everyone has been doing spells, reporting back on their progress, meeting up in cities across the world, and making SO MUCH MAGIC! I’m so excited about our community and the massively positively environment we’ve created together. It warms my sparkly heart!

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Okay. We NEED to talk about this dress. It’s the Downtown Dame dress by Pinup Girl Clothing in faux pink leather (aka vinyl). I saw it on a very sassy girl on Instagram and then obsessively stalked the site until the dress came back in stock.

I had no idea about sizing but took a gamble and went for Small, which turned out to be perfect. (You need to size up a little bit because it has veeeeery little give.) I also thought it might be hell to wear because it’s plastic, but thankfully, it is beautifully made and fully lined, so hopefully I won’t be a sticky mess come summertime. Anyway. I am obsessed!

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That belt! Lord above.

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I’m so happy with my new wrist tattoo! I got it as a matching tattoo with Kat in London, and it was done by Keely Rutherford at Jolie Rouge. She’s ace!

I really feel like a strawberry milkshake in this dress. Shimmy shimmy ya, shimmy ya, shimmy yay. I took it to Las Vegas for a photoshoot in the desert and it felt like all was right in the world… You know?

Love always,