A Little Bit of Monday Shine

Oh what a weekend. Which started with our department's annual offsite on Friday -- in CorpSpeak, an "offisite" is an event where employees go somewhere away from the office for some kind of fun, presumably team-building activity that may also blow off some steam. Ideally it's a reward for hard work. Last year, our department went to a goat farm, which was both educational and tasty (mmmm.... goat cheese!). This year, we went to a place called the Crucible, and half the team did some kind of glass-fusing activity, and the half I was in did blacksmithing.

Yep, we worked with a furnace and hammered hot steel! It was crazy, intense work, seriously hard labor. My arm still aches a little from all the hammering. But we all did finish our projects -- we each made an iron hook in about 2 hours. What started out as square rod of metal became an elegantly twisted hook with a hole in one end.

Friday evening, I left from the blacksmithing for a weekend of portraying a lady of leisure with my friends, Bella Donna Venetian Courtesans at the Folsom Renaissance Faire. While I'm not a singer like these fine women, I've been acting at renfaires for 20+ years, so they welcomed me into the fold for this event, and we had a grand time. I used an old gown from my closet -- French, not quite Italian, but close enough to blend into their look. I hope someday to make a pretty Venetian gown.

But now it's Monday, back at work. Our department has move to a new building at the company, and I'm settling into a new and larger cubicle. Yay, I get to decorate! At some point, I'll try to get pix of my work environment. But for now, today's outfit.

What I'm wearing:
Dark grey denim jacket with belled sleeves, Newport News | Black T-shirt, NY & Company | Tiered plum velvet skirt, NY & Company | Pink rhinestone bib necklace, random accessory store | Black tights, unknown brand | Black patent square-toed pumps, second-hand| Pearl & garnet earrings, artisan at a convention

Oh & I kind of hate Blogger today. It ate a post I've been working on for MONTHS with my top tips for dressing goth at a casual workplace (because most 'wear to work' guides seem to be for environments where suits are the norm; I wanted to answer the question of 'how goth can / should you go if you want to still be considered a professional and yet fit into the casual office' -- tons of work, down the blog drain!!!! I guess I have to go old-school and write my posts in a Word doc and carry them around in a thumb-drive, instead of relying on The Cloud. Feh.).