Silent Menagerie

This post might be a little (a lot!) overdue but I just couldn't leave it to rot in the endless pit of blogs that I mean to do but for some reason or another never quite get around to! You may recall during my trip to Edinburgh back in October of last year (see here) that I had mentioned we'd visited a few museums during our break, one of them being the National Museum of Scotland!

If you are ever around Edinburgh then I highly recommend a detour to this wonderful museum, it's possibly one of the most fascinating places I've ever had the pleasure of visiting! We spent hours browsing the different galleries but the one that captivated me the most was Animal World, not surprisingly because of the wonderful displays of beautiful and magnificent taxidermy animals, including a few of my most loved (deer and owls!)

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I made a chance discovery this week in the form of female folk singer, Laura Veirs. I've found myself listening to her a lot over this past week, her wonderful music, coupled with the rare and exceptionally sunny weather we've been experiencing here in England, has been a much welcomed change!

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Deadly Nightshade

Lately it feels as if time has been slipping through my fingers and disappearing into a vast void, I'm not quite sure where the last two weeks have gone but I know that at least one of them has been spent with my nose stuck in a book or two. The best place for it in my opinion. To tell you the truth blogging has not been at the forefront of my mind, I guess you could say I have a little writer's block. That being said, I just wanted to drop by and say 'Hello and welcome!' to my new followers and to share something quite special which has crossed over from that alternate reality known only as Tim Burton's Halloween Town!

A hunt began around 5 months ago after discovering that Sally's 'Deadly Nightshade' jar in fact really did exist and was being sold exclusively at Disney World. Of course when it comes to eBay exclusivity doesn't mean a thing and sure enough I found a handful of them ranging in price from £40-£60, over half of which was postage from America! Not willing to pay that amount I resigned myself to the idea of never owning one until earlier this month when the strange and magical ways of eBay dropped one right in my path for under £20, and from the UK no less! ♥

I hope you're all having a wonderful week so far, I find myself wishing away the rest of mine as I can barely contain my excitement for this coming Sunday! Take me Game of Thrones, my body is ready!

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Hallowed Age

I discovered artist Tom Bagshaw last year and immediately fell head over heels in love with his work. Tom, who is based in the Georgian city of Bath, not far from my home town, specialises in the medium of digital painting through which he explores the themes of fantasy, beauty and mysticism. Feminine beauty plays a large role in his work, but the women he depicts are never frail damsels in distress. More often than not they are strong, intriguing characters, with an air of mystery to them.

After admiring his work for a long time I decided I had to have at least one piece in my life and that chance came after I had spotted one of his newest works in progress via IG and became totally infatuated with this particular piece which was dark, mysterious and extremely captivating!

'Hallowed Age' was created specifically for the Kingdom Animalia show, hosted last June in California to raise money for the Big Life Foundation, a charity which was set up in response to the escalation in poaching across much of Africa. Alongside works by artists such as Camille Rose Garcia, Mark Ryden and Travis Louie, all proceeds from the show were donated to the Big Life Foundation including 50% of the profit from each sale of his limited edition 'Hallowed Age' print!

I had been emailing/stalking Tom for updates leading up to it becoming available to buy as I was terrified that it would sell out before I got the chance to nab one, but to my surprise he very kindly offered to reserve number 1/25 for me as I was so keen to get my hands on it!

The thing I love most about Tom's creations are the little hidden details, the small parts that don't necessarily make or break the piece but are there nonetheless. They draw you closer to take a second deeper look! I have my eye on a few more of his works and hope to add them to my walls in future!

Here's another beauty which I scored from eBay last September after a rather heated bidding war! I had been waiting to get a new frame for it as the original light wooden frame didn't match the living room decor but as I was getting impatient I decided to save some money by painting it black instead!

Being a great lover of Alice and her adventures I was lost for words when it stumbled across my path, I've never seen anything quite like it and I'm sure I won't again! I've tried researching into who made it and when but I haven't turned anything up, all I know is that the previous owners had it for quite a while. Either way, I'm just glad it's mine ♥

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~ The most beautiful inspiring song in my life right now ~

Bound in Leather

Early this morning there was a long awaited knock at the door which I had been anticipating for what seemed like an age! I placed an order with Barnes & Noble just over a month ago for three more books from their utterly beautiful leatherbound classics series. As I had previous experience with Barnes & Noble (you may recall my last order here, in which I purchased Dracula and The Picture of Dorian Grey) I knew the wait could take quite a while, but once the books were in my hands that was soon forgotten about!

I am quite an aesthetic creature at heart and these covers are purely breathtaking not to mention amazing quality! I couldn't really resist placing an order after showing my other half the Star Wars trilogy book which wasn't on the website last time! It has to be the coolest book in existence, I'm sure some of you fellow Star Wars lovers might agree after seeing it in more detail, especially the back cover!

I half read my Dad's copies of The Vampire Chronicles when I was much younger, but being young (and dipped in folly) I never ended up finishing them before my parents divorced. I've always intended to get copies for myself and have found the odd book whilst thrifting in the past, but they've mostly been too worn out to even bother! Thinking back, it was probably a blessing in disguise now that I've got this gorgeous edition!

I found a hardback edition of Wicked whilst thrifting last year but that didn't stop me from getting this one too! Besides, this edition has book one (Wicked) and book two (Son of a Witch) of 'The Wicked Years' and as I found book three (A Lion Among Men) on my birthday back in January, that just leaves me with book four (Out of Oz) still to get! I just adore the steam-punk gears and vines and of course that amazing back cover!

Now for the pièce de résistance!

*Picks up jaw* Isn't it wonderful?! Just everything about it is gorgeous and I was completely wowed to find the original concept art by the late Ralph McQuarrie on the inner front and back pages, it adds a whole new level of splendour to the book and I can definitely see it becoming quite the collectors piece in years to come!

My dreamed about Barnes & Noble leatherbound library is coming along quite nicely! I won't be adding any more to it for quite a while yet but I already know my next purchases will be Stephen King: Three Novels (the cover is exquisite, bent skeletal trees and a spooky Queen Anne style house!) and Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales!

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