Goth Online Directory

Bittersweet

The companies I have listed have kick-ass clothing and accessories, and they are worth the recognition, so let's get started-please do take a look at these links, they do have some awesome items that will fit just about anyone's style who is a little on the darker side, and/or naughty side depending on who you ask. On most sites, if you sign up for their newsletters you usually get a certain percentage off of your purchase. Plus you will get notifications to upcoming sales!!

The Black Angel

Our online store is your one-stop shop for all the best brands in Gothic clothing and accessories, famous for quality, unique designs and outstanding service.

Black Moon Cosmetics

Black Moon Cosmetics has some of the most fantastic makeup products that smell like fresh baked vanilla cake!  The lipsticks are very pigmented, has a creamy formula, feels great on your lips and they are long wearing.  These are among some of the my favorite lipsticks. Try them and come back and let me know what you think.

Cryptic Cosmetics

This is one of my most favorite companies that sell great lipsticks. Their lipsticks are matte, Smell freaking divine!! Last on your lips and they have the most delicious colors you could dream of.  Two of my favorites (which I have been wearing almost daily lately) are 'Tortured Soul' and 'Rust in Peace.'  They do sell out fast so if you see something you like, grab it fast!

Vegan

Darkside

We design and hand print in England our own range of world famous clothing. Inspired by our love of alternative music and fashion we create Punk, Rock n Roll, Lowbrow, Kustom Kulture, Rockabilly, Tattoo and Gothic clothing.

Dysfunctional Doll

Dysfunctional Doll is one of my favorite online stores. On the site you can earn 'Bat' points to use towards future purchases.  Dysfunctional Doll sells beautiful jewelry, clothing, makeup, home decor, accessories and so much more.

Good Goth

Another one of my favorite online shops.  Everyone that knows me, knows I am a boot addict! This site has a wide range of great clothing, shoes, BOOTS and so much more! 

Gothic Angel

Welcome to Gothic Angel; the UK's number one specialist retailer for women's Gothic clothing and footwear. We stock the latest collections of ladies Gothic brands including New Rock, Demonia, Spin Doctor, Hell bunny and Iron Fist. We also stock new up and coming Gothic designers as well as cheaper alternatives for bargain shoppers.

Heavy Red

Gothic Fashions for men & women. Escape into the decadent world of love, darkness, and Romance.

HolyClothing

I found the exact skirt I was looking for at this place. They have some really pretty cloths. If you get a chance you should check them out.

Hot Topic

This is one of my favorite places. I have made some purchases from them and found their products and service both very good. They also ship pretty fast. Check them out especially the Sale Category!

Kate's Clothing

At Kates Clothing we aim to bring you an outstanding service with fast dispatch to ensure your selection flies from our arsenal into your wardrobe as soon as demonically possible. With the hottest brands from the darkest labels we're here to suit all your alternative tastes.

 Korpse Kosmetics

A makeup company that sells cruelty free, vegan mineral makeup products.  They specialize in super glittery eye shadows, bright pigmented lip paints and much, much more. Everything your little korpse heart desires... you will find here!!

Rivithead

Gothic clothing, creepers, platform shoes & boots, alchemy jewelry, accessories and much more

Spooky Boutique

This site had some pretty awesome stuff. Love the front page!!

Starlets Harlots

Visit us for Swing Dresses, Rockabilly 50's Clothing, Punk Clothing and Burlesque Clothing and; Accessories! They offer a $5 off $50 order by using code: HARLOTS at checkout

Goths for Sophie Buy or Donate

Who are we raising money for?
The Sophie Lancaster Foundation

On August 11, 2007, Sophie Lancaster and her partner were attacked by a gang of teenagers in a park in Lancashire. Instead of feeling, Sophie went to her partners aid.  The couple were kicked, stamped on and left unconscious for nothing more than looking different.  Sophie later died from injuries.  If anything positive is to come from her death, Sophie's family and friends would like it to be you.

Please click on the link to see more information!!

Sophie Lancaster-Backstreet Merchant

ALL SALES GO TO THE SOPHIE LANCASTER FOUNDATION

Greeting Cards from FineArt

I am mainly trying this new feature from FineArt and wanted to see how it works:  Below I am going to place some links for different pages of my artwork to see how it goes:

The first link is for my Greeting Cards.  I work with two different media, photography and graphic arts.  I have several different categories, so if you have a moment stop by and take a look around!

Greeting cards: eva thomas greeting cards

RedGage Experiment

RedGage Experiment

When you are trying to make an income online, it is very hard and often discouraging.  You are most likely on several different sites trying to figure out which ones are working and which ones are not.  One of the biggest problems doing this is you cannot give the proper attention to all of the sites that you need too.

Also, often you will be doing fantastic on a site and all of sudden a lot of changes are being made and because of the changes you drop and are thrown right back to the beginning.  I have had this happen on two different sites, which at one time I feel I was doing pretty good (financially speaking).

I have been with RedGage for 4 years now.  I have to admit in those 4 years I have come and gone.  I would pop in and get involve with the community than get side tracked on another project and leave RedGage behind.  One of the biggest things that surprised me by doing this is even if I did not do any updates or uploads, or was active in the community, my pages were still viewed and they were still making money.  Now do not get me wrong, I did not make enough money to retire on but the fact reminds, my page made money even when I had not visited  it in awhile.

That is what brought me to trying my experiment.  Before my husband and I homestead, I came up with this experiment to see where money was being wasted-whereas it could have been saved. The main objective in doing this is you have to be committed to keeping up with this experiment every single day.  What I did was kept up with every single penny we spent.  I did this for a while and it did not take any time before we seen where we were wasting money and where we needed to make changes. Long story short, we were able to save a good bit of money for our homestead move and used it for important stuff. Which brings me to my experiment with RedGage.

 

To be honest I have to say that I have become very discouraged with all of my online businesses.  To a point I wanted to throw my hands up and quit, but the stubborn side of me refused to be a quitter so I just keep on keeping on. A couple of weeks ago, I decided to visit RedGage and do a few uploads and noticed the one thing about being on this site is everything continued. Even though I haven't been to the site for awhile I still earned money and I still received page views. I did a few uploads, got visitors, made comments and responded to comments that were made.   Those two days being here on RedGage gave me a chance to breathe.

This site does not pressure you, or push you to a point where you feel like your blood is being drained.  It is calm and you work to the beat you want to work.

After visiting two days in a row, I decided I wanted to do an experiment-I will be a 100% honest, I wanted to see what I could accomplish and if spending my time on this site was going to be worth it.  Face it, we work online to make money and find a place we belong and/or fit.

After those days I started my experiment Saturday-May 11, 2013, so today May 18, 2013 is my first complete week of the experiment.  What I did was wrote the date, money earned and the amount of visitors to my page. Each morning I collect the data and will add everything together at the end of 7 seven days.

This is my first week (May 18, 2013) for the experiment and the results are:  I had 4663 visits to my page, and made more money in one week, than I have in 2 1/2 months on another site I am on.  Now I am not talking about being able to retire tomorrow, but what is that line in that movie:  'If you build it, they will come.' Well, that is how life is, if you work on something hard enough it will work.  If you reassurance about what you can do on RedGage, take a look around the community, that will give you enough encouragement to get you started on this site.  If nothing else, try this experiment you may be surprise.  Almost 5,000 visits to any page is a good bit of traffic, don't you think?

Until next week's results-happy uploading!

Day Trips in Athens, Georgia-Part One

Planning an Itinerary 

Spring break is approaching pretty fast, and summer  vacation plans are already being planned. With the economic system being so bad and money being pretty tight, you are wondering what you can do for a vacation, yet be able to afford it.  This article is a set of links to several articles that help you make plans in the Athens, Georgia area.  The day trips are not expensive, they are great for the nature enthuses and it is an opportunity to spend good quality time together. 

The State Botanical Gardens of Georgia:   This day trip is especially good for the photography enthuses.  You could spend a long time in a day walking around exploring this 313 acre of land.  There are several different sections each displaying an unique spread of flowers and plants.  Each season brings new spreads of different flowers and plants. Spring is my favorite time to go to the gardens because of all of the fresh bloomed flowers.  Summer would be my second choice because of the hummingbirds and butterflies that gathers around a lot of the flowers. If you click on the link above, you can read more about the gardens.

Wildlife Zoo in Athens Georgia: Do you love wildlife animals? Bears, bobcats, owls, hawks and deer's oh my!!! I love going to this wildlife trail to photograph the bears and beavers.  Each will give you a wonderful show, just to have their pictures taken.  The bears are always into something, climbing trees,  playing with sticks, wrestling with each other.  You could spend the better part of a day just watching the bears and the beavers.  If you click on the link I provided, you can read more about Bear Hollow Wildlife Trail, I am sure you will find it interesting. 

Prayers of Protection

Image Credit: WhiteOak's Photography

With today's popular Ghost Hunting shows, Paranormal Teams and Paranormal Investigators-you often wonder if they use protection.  I know that Paranormal Investigators who have a lot of experience know how to protect themselves.  It is the beginner groups or those who are new to the paranormal, that I wonder about. Do they understand the dangers of spiritual attacks? Spirit Attachments? Do they understand that Earthbound Spirits and Dark Energy Forces are some of the entities that can attach to them?

Paranormal researchers need to be very conscientious about the everything to do with the investigation.  There is a lot of planning, research and of course plans of protection that is involved before each investigation.  I asked a wonderful Facebook group Paranormal Unity how they protected their selves before going on an investigation. The main response was prayers.  When I did a search on Google, I found a few prayers and other ideas for protection that I would like to share.   Please Note: I did NOT write these prayers I found them during my research. 

Image Credit:  WhiteOak's Photography

The Prayer of Saint Michael

"This Prayer to Saint Michael is mainly used by Catholics, which is addressed to Michael the Archangel.  Pope Leo Xlll added it in 1896 to the Leonine Prayers, which he had directed to be said after Low Mass.  The practice of reciting this prayer after Mass was suppressed in 1964."

Saint Michael the Archangel,

defend us in battle;

be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.

May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;

And do thou, O prince of the Heavenly Host,

by the Divine Power of God

cast into hell, Satan and all the evil spirits

who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of the souls.

~Amen

I believe strongly that before prayer at a paranormal investigation and after an investigation, each person should be smudged fir with White Sage and the group should chant the prayers together.  When smudging with sage, it is the warrior that drives away and all negativity. 

~WhiteOak

The Lord's Prayer

Our Father which art in Heaven, hollowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come, they will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive those who trespass against us.  Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

~Amen

Image Credit: WhiteOaks Photography

The Hail Mary

Hail Mary,

Full of Grace,

The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit

of they womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary,

Mother of God,

pray for us sinners now,

and at the hour of death.

~Amen

A Protection Prayer for a Child

I as (child's name) to be signed, sealed and protected by God's Presence so that nothing can get through to hurt them in Jesus name.

I sign (child's name) with he sign of the cross, seal and cover them with he blood of Jesus and surround them with God's glory light and presence so nothing can get through to hurt them in Jesus' name

~Amen

Closing Prayer

(after you are done with your investigation)

In the name of Jesus Christ, I command all human spirits to be bound to the confines of the cemetery.  I command all inhuman spirit to go where Jesus Christ tells you to go, for it is he who commands you.

~Amen

Homesteading Part-2

Part-2 Homesteading

The Animals

To read part one the beginning of our homestead journey click here: 

Self Sufficient Homestead

Besides living out in the woods when my husband and I homesteaded, some of our favorite memories were of the animals. 

I have a little yorkie and on the homestead we called him the "Lizard King".  We called him that because that is how he spent 85% of his time, chasing the lizards or waiting for them to come out from their hiding places so he could chase them. I have to tell you, I am not really sure what was funnier, my yorkie chasing the lizards around or my husband chasing the lizards that ran up the trees.  While I watched my husband do that was funnier than hell!!

One early morning while my husband and I were sitting outside drinking our morning coffee, we looked over and seen an amazing sight. This huge mama opossum was walking across our yard with her little babies riding on her back.  Another morning while we were sitting outside, we watched this coyote running through a section of our woods,  like a flash of lightening trying to get to its home before it became full daylight.

We use to put piles of seeds out for the chipmunks that hung out in our yard. It was so funny watching them pack their cheeks, than run to their home, empty the seeds and come back for more.

We use to have a lot of hummingbirds.  They sat on the tree limbs and watched for when the coast was clear, than dash down get some sweetness from their feeders then zip off back to the tree limbs.  These little hummingbirds were so competitive with the feeders.  One of them got hurt and fell to the ground.  My husband gently picked him up and we tried to nurse it back to health, but it ended up dying.  It was so sad, because we watched the life force drain from this beautiful little creature.  All I could do was cry when my husband buried it.  That was the first time in my life I ever held a hummingbird.

At night there were these huge opossums that kept getting into our compost pile.  Oh, my goodness, everything we tried to do to keep them away never worked.  So my husband stacked a pile of small stones on the deck and when the opossums came back, he would throw rocks off in the distance to scare them away.  Oh, it only worked a couple of times, because they kept coming back and nothing was to going to stop them.

A beautiful site we seen one morning was when this beautiful doe was walking down our driveway with her little fawn.  Honest to goodness it melted my heart seeing something that beautiful.

We use to have this deck walk-way that lead from the house to a little shower room. One night while walking across this deck, my husband turned around and yelled for me to stop!! There was a little copperhead snake peeking up through the spaces between the wood on the deck.  Needless to say, I felt my heart leap up to my throat.  Eeekkk, it still gives me the hibbie-jibbies just writing about it.  A few days later, my husband walks up behind me holding that snake so I could see what it looked like up close! That was nothing new with him~my mother-in-law warned me that when he was a small child, he use to bring all kinds of little critters home in his pocket!!!

I believe one of the most beautiful memories we have about animals on our homestead was, one night while we were lying in bed, we looked out our window and watched this deer that was right under our window. Of course not having any electricity the only sounds you really heard were Natures sounds at her best!  We just laid there very quietly, enjoying watching this beautiful creature. Thank goodness it was a full moon night!

It got to the point on the homestead that seeing wildlife became an everyday thing.  But neither one of us ever got tired of seeing or hearing the wildlife especially at night.  We have heard bears in the near distant, my husband adopted a opossum and named him "Gimp".  It was this opossum that began to show up every NIGHT! We knew it was the same opossum because it walked with a limp and it showed up almost at the same time every night.

I believe the quiet and seeing the wildlife are two of the things I miss most from our homestead.  The only sounds you heard were Natures' sounds, and all you could see at night was what the moon light allowed you to see.  We did have flash-lights but we tried tried to save the batteries. Besides, there is something very magical about the night-time when you live back in the woods.

WarWoman Dell

I have always said, if there were ever a picture that could describe my soul it would be this one.  WarWoman Dell is located in the Northeast section of Georgia in a wonderful town called Clayton.  The drive to Clayton reminds me of of the mountains in Colorado, they just seem to be right in front you, calling to you to keep moving forward.

Clayton is located in Rabun County and you will see a little of everything there, mountains, waterfalls, springs, forest, lakes and so much more.  Rabun County is nestled in the southern tip of the scenic Blue Ridge Mountains.  It is a convenient drive from the major metro areas of Atlanta, Georgia, Asheville-North Carolina, Greenville-South Carolina and Chattanooga-Tennessee. 

History of WarWoman

WarWoman was a beloved Cherokee dignitary who voiced the decision of the Council on war and peace. Legend states that each spring this woman visited the Dell to preside over rituals.  

America's first natural born botanist, William Bartram, explored the area in the 1770's.  He documented the plants, climate, geology and culture of the people of this period and paved the way for future development.  A railroad bed was constructed here which would have connected the south and mid-western markets in Cincinnati.  Work stopped suddenly at the beginning of the Civil War and no rails were ever laid.  Unmanageable logging in the late 1800's and early 1900's degraded the forest.  The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCCs) went to work restoring the land by planting trees and controlling erosion.  Enrollees in Company 457  built the original picnic shelters, fish holding tanks, latrine and stonework drains in WarWoman dell. 

I was introduced to WarWoman Dell after attending a  Woman's Ceremony that was held in that general area, many moons ago. The second my feet touched the ground at WarWoman I was in love.  This is a place that no matter where I moved, it always stayed in my heart and has always been considered my sacred sanctuary. 

In 2008 when I visited there shortly after returning to Georgia, my heart sank.  The trails were no longer taken care of.  There were many trees down, the energy was extremely low and somehow it had lost a huge part of its spiritual energy.  Sometimes, I often go there and just sit by these huge hemlock trees often referring to them as my elders.  Those trees have heard many of my stories, my sorrows and stories of my spiritual path.  One of the most favorite times I had at WarWoman was when I was walking a trail and as I looked down to the ground I found a Hawk feather.  Many people that I have gone there with; always tells me the same thing, they say: "Oak, watching you here (WarWoman) is like seeing you walk right out of Nature as if you were a part of it."  To be truthful, often I felt like I was a part of WarWoman.

Many times, I would go there and walk this small trail away from  everything and sit by this tiny waterfall and just play my drum.  I always felt spirit activities there often wondering why I was always drawn to a certain place where there was a spirit of a young girl.  She would always stay at a distance from me but she was always near me.  The stories are endless when it comes to WarWoman Dell.  If you ever visit North Georgia, put WarWoman on your list of places to visit.  I hope you will love it as much as I do.