Pahl and I had such a wonderful time at the Frost Moon Feast last year, we decided we really wanted to go again. The Frost Moon Feast is a dinner theater event where the cast of characters represent a noble fae court and its attendants that come out during the winter months. This year the main differences were that it was at a completely different venue, and instead of having us solve riddles and small games individually or at our tables, we were all invited to solve a murder mystery within the cast. Luckily, the cast was the SAME as last year, and they had pamphlets this time that gave information about each character. We were only slightly less clueless, and mostly interacted with the same character all night, and did not successfully solve the mystery completely. It's hard when you're just having such a wonderful time spending time with friends old and new at your own table!

The first friend I found at the event was Aletta. I met her while going on past Steampunk club adventures. She had come to the Frost Moon Feast with another friend. Aletta was inspired by Nordic style fashion when she selected her outfit for the feast. We must have been thinking the same thing when we thought Frost and Moon = Royal Blue and White. I really like the attention to detail in her accessories like the beaded crown, necklace, and drinking horn hanging from her belt.  

Another friend that ended up sitting with us was Nicole and her husband Josh. Nicole I had met previously when she attended my Chocolate Factory Tour and Tasting meet up last year. Nicole is super crafty. She makes all of her own clothes, from EGL fits like at the chocolate factory to this stunning lace and beaded over dress/ skirt. It was so nice to see her and catch up with her! She apparently knew the cast of the dinner theater very well, and probably knew the whole story line, but deftly concealed it from the rest of us so we had to figure it out (or not) on our own!

And we can't forget Mike and Colleen! They were the only two people we knew at the Frost Moon Feast last year! Mike wore a similar outfit as last year and Colleen whipped this one up for herself apparently last minute. Another crafty friend, I'll say!  (I tried to make a dress like this in high school and by the time I was ready to go back into, I was a completely different sized person). Also, apparently Colleen is the only one who can look at the camera while someone is taking a group photo. Mike was about to say something, I'm looking at Colleen, and Pahl is lost in a wonderful daydream. 

I put a tremendous amount of thought into my outfit for the Frost Moon Feast this year. Pahl had initially said to "wear the same thing as last year" as it was a more Renaissance themed dress, but I like to change things up between years so that I remember things better. I wanted to bust out my custom sized Surface Spell Nocturne Brocade Puff Sleeve Dress. I had ordered this dress in March of 2024, and guess when it arrived...AUGUST. It's made of a heavy weight lined black brocade with beautiful royal blue shimmer embroidery at the skirt as well as black beaded pearls all around the neckline as well as the bottom of the skirt. The back has a corset style tie in the same royal blue color. 

I easily could have coordinated it with black and gold and called it a day, but I didn't. I have been collecting a capsule wardrobe of black, blue, and white items, specifically in gothic styles, and I had to add some white for the winter theme of this event. So first I ordered a new headdress from chinese indie brand Fox Cherry. The one I ordered has small white rams horns wrapped with royal blue ribbon, blue roses, a small silver crown decorated with pearl accents at the top as well as hanging down over the top of the head. There is also a white veil with silver and gold stars.  To repeat the white and blue again twice over, I added fingerless white gloves with royal blue lacing and white tights with a blue criss cross flower design. The jewelry I am wearing is vintage costume jewelry with "gold" metal and "sapphire" stones. 

I wanted to look a little otherworldly, so I did my eye makeup in cool blue and silver colors, my face highlight as a cool shimmer, and my lipstick as a dark purple (a combination of a cool medium pink and a dark blue shimmer). I finished my look with Strangecvlt Coven boots in black with silver buckles. I suppose I have other shoes that would have worked, but the forecast was threatening a real snow storm and I didn't want to wear something that might be hard to walk through snow in. 

Pahl wore a full suit of armor. Wait didn't he wear a full suit of armor last year? Yes, he has more than one suit of armor. He is wearing lightweight chainmail under a red and black tunic that he embroidered himself. It is a red rabbit leaping!  He is also wearing shoulder epaulets as well as the neck armor and leg armor. I am certain it took him much longer to get dressed than it took me!  In fact, I helped make sure the cape still moved under the armor and got the shoulder armor to attach to the neck armor. I even carried in his helmet at the door. I am a  princess squire in training!  

I especially loved the sound of Pahl going up the stairs. So much metal clanking! He could not sneak up on you!

The lighting inside the venue was exceptionally dark in most places, and I had to use every ounce of Photoshop magic I possess to even get this much exposure. It's not perfect, but at least he's no longer a knight in the shadows!

I think it's obvious at this point that we have a lot of fun at the Frost Moon Feast regardless of our ability to follow the story line or solve the puzzles or murder mystery. The feast is always excellent and as I continue to attend I am sure I will know more and more people! We look forward to the event again every winter. What will I wear next year? Not sure yet, but you can count on Pahl to be a Knight. 

The second time we dressed up in January 2025 was to attend the Winter Lantern Festival held at Lyman Orchards. The Winter Lantern Festival was a celebration for the Chinese Lunar New Year. Not only were there beautifully designed intricate but also large sculptural lanterns and walkways to pass through, but there was also entertainment from an acrobat troupe as well as live music. I knew it was something I wanted to attend and opened up to a meeting with my fashion community. A few people bowed out last minute...I mean 18 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill is just not comfortable, even with thermals, thick wool and polyester fabrics, and strategically placed Hot Hands in your shoes. Jax was the only brave soul outside of Pahl and I. They had an adorable sweet style outfit on with a matching gingerbread house back pack. I wish I remembered more of their outfit, but it was so cold and I only have this one picture of all of us and well...it looks good for scale purposes, but the details are lost.  

We learned our lesson about surviving in the cold outside at the Mystic Aquarium Home for the Holidays event in December, so we made sure we got ourselves hot beverages right away. At Lyman Orchards, you could get shots of alcohol added, but we had ours plain. It was a really excellent hot chocolate that cooled down way too fast. We decided to walk over to the entertainment tent before doing the official walkabout while we were waiting for Jax to arrive. 

You had to follow a lit up path with different robots and when you got to this sculpture of the woman with wavy hair, you hung a right. This brought you up to the back side of the 1741 Pub & Grill, which we had attended a Bridgerton themed Brunch at the year before. However, we were still outside the entire time. They did have some gas fire places to stand around, upon which we huddled around near the performance stage. The acrobats were really impressive. First a woman dressed in a panda onesie came out and did various balancing on a see-saw barrel while stacking bowls on her head. Then the clowns came out and did various stacking and spinning of plates. Each performer took turns a few times, but the entire act must have been a good 15-20 minutes. I loved it and was so impressed that they were even performing at all in the cold with the wind. They noticed my admiration and insisted that I take this cute bunny balloon as a souvenir.

They gave balloon swords to the children, but they insisted that I should take the tired bunny star wand. They didn't offer one to Jax or Pahl. I still have it and it's March. It's still fine and has all its air. It must be a magic wand. 

After the performances, we decided to go on the lantern walk together. This was pretty much a field with the most intricate and largest fantastical sculptures. There was a foam square walkway all around the perimeter. I briefly attempted to go off trail to try to stand closer to this frost fairy whom I loved so much, but there was a ton of ice and mud and holes in an uneven field, and I almost tripped and landed on my face somewhere near some electrical cords. 

Pahl was going for a more tailored version of the captain look he had when we went to Mystic Aquarium, (the big difference is that he shaved). This time he wore a deep navy and black waist coat, black jeans, black shoes, and a black tail coat. He is wearing a purple paisley cravat, another one of the birthday gifts I gave him. 

​I am debuting a deep blue velvet dress from Canadian designer Gloomth. Gloomth coins itself as "Victorian Grunge" and "Modern Mourning Attire", and this is the first of three designs that I own from the brand to appear in this blog. This dress in fact, was my Christmas gift from Pahl. You never need to worry about finding me a gift. I'll tell you exactly what I want and expect you to buy it for me. This is the "Dauphine" Blue Velvet Gothic Party Dress and what I love about Gloomth designs is not only the piece itself, but the various ways that she styles each piece. Each dress will have at least 20 different photos and poses with different models and accessories. 

As far as my own accessories I am wearing the blue, silver and pearl Luxmira eye necklacewith dangling blue and silver heart made and designed by Minori (who is a Japanese fashion designer and model). I found the earrings at a thrift store and I had the hat custom made on Etsy for me last year. It looks gray or white sometimes, but it's actually off white with light brown and black streaks. It is fully lined with fleece and is faux fur. I get a lot of compliments on it wherever I go and due to its height, it helps keep in heat very well. I was also wearing thermals and lined boots, but that was more of a survival choice rather than a fashionable one.

It was a novel idea to try to dress up to go to an outdoor winter lantern festival, but if I were to do it again, I'd definitely follow the lead of the acrobat and start with my fleece parakeet animal onesie as my base layer and add leg warmers, a heavy coat, and a hat. It was a really fun event, but I kind of wish it had been like 20 degrees warmer. 38 degrees Fahrenheit would have been amazing. But it was very much winter in Connecticut and that just doesn't happen until late spring. 

Now to be honest, I'm not really a horror movie kind of person. But Nosferatu hits different for me. Nosferatu (the Romanian word for vampire), is based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.  The two stories share many similarities, such as a vampire who becomes obsessed with a person and terrorizes their family, the setting of a crumbling castle in the Carpathian mountains, and a vampire traveling by ship to a new home.  However, in Nosferatu, Dracula is known as Orlok, and Orlok is rather susceptible to sunlight, while Dracula is only weakened by it. 

There have been 3 film adaptations of Nosferatu so far. First, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (1922) the original silent film directed by F.W. Murnau. Then, Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) directed by Werner Herzog that combines Nosferatu and Dracula. And lastly, Nosferatu (2024) which is a remake written and directed by Robert Eggers and was released on Christmas Day in December 2024.  Nowadays, I feel like we are lucky if a movie is in theater for a month! We saw it as soon as we could after the release date, which turned out to be on Pahl's birthday in January. 

Pahl loves to dress like a vampire. It is one of his specialized looks. He had a completely different outfit planned to go see Nosferatu in, but then I got him this dead head moth bolo tie and belt buckle set for his birthday and he had to change almost his entire outfit to wear them! Of course you need a certain collar on a shirt to wear a bolo tie, and he had to wear a waist coat that did not cover the tie nor the belt buckle. He kept his fit in all black so that the silver metal of the tie and buckle would really stand out. 

Now of course I had to wear EGL fashion. Transilvania Moonlight by Chinese indie brand Krad Lanrete was the absolutely perfect choice for a nod to the movie. The Transilvania Moonlight JSK features a high waist, partial shirring, corset lacing in the back, as well as imagery of castles, roses, crosses, trees, churches/cathedrals, staircases, angels, bats, moons, and coffins. The black over skirt is attached and adds to the spooky feeling. I paired it with the Atelier Pierrot Shirring Princess Sleeve Blouse in Black. This blouse is pretty iconic for gothic EGL fashion. The black is always going out of stock and is hard to acquire used. So I bought it in October during a pre-order and luckily received it in December! You would think that the princess sleeves get in the way, but they never do. They always look great, and if you do need to do a task like the dishes or something, you can stuff them into the shirred sleeve parts. Very stretchy, very versatile. I am also wearing a headdress that I had custom made from an American Etsy seller named Junyvette. Junvyette specializes in made to order gothic headdresses.  Another amazing part of my outfit is my stained glass coffin rosary necklace from American brand Neant Glass.  These necklaces are very popular with those who wear the Gothic style. Neant Glass is even a partnered vendor with Japanese brand Atelier Pierrot. Despite my geographical proximity to the maker of Neant Glass pieces, they always seem to sell out rather quickly (like within minutes) of a drop. However, I got really lucky on small business Saturday and was one of 17 people to nab a special set. The seller also made our set a surprise, but we could send her photos of our Instagram page to get a feel for what would go with our coordinates. As I understand it, this was one of her tamer looking pieces, and she was very happy to find the right person to wear it!  (Again--proving I'm a select horror film lady). 

I paired it with patterned tights and my trusty coven boots from Strangecvlt. I didn't wear makeup this time...we were going to the movie theater...who was going to see it anyway? I've seen every Nosferatu movie and I really enjoyed Egger's version for the gorgeous costumes, drawn out atmosphere, and character development.  A lot of people complained about how Nosferatu looks in this version, but if you've ever seen a drawing of Vlad the Impaler, there is definitely a resemblance with the mustache and the furs. 

Honestly I was just so happy that it wasn't TOO SCARY for me to watch it in the theater. We made sure it was a matinee anyway. It was just so fun to dress up for the film. I had never really done that before and it was also fun to finally debut my "LEGIT GOTH EGL" pieces and accessories together for the first time. So if you're not a horror movie person, but find yourself somehow okay with the vampire genre and really like fashion, then this movie is for you!