A Very Spooky Birthday

Hello dear readers! Its been a packed few weeks for me. On the first of the month, I celebrated my birthday! My boyfriend and I had a special day planned, but it seems that New Years Day in Los Angeles is not the best of date days - almost everything we tried to do was closed! In spite of all the cancellations, we had a great day anyhow!

Our first stop of the day was a visit to the Hollywood Museum of Death. I was quite excited to visit this location because it seems like the perfect gothy tourist destination, but to be honest, it was a little intense for me. I don't consider myself a squeemish person, but room after room of autopsy photos, and the smell of embalming chemicals was a little too much for me. I did really enjoy their collections of death-row art and poetry, their amazing skull collection (they have a giraffe skull!!!!!), and their really interesting Heaven's Gate and Manson Family exhibits. The owners were really nice, loved our outfits, and even gave me some free buttons for my birthday! They had a really adorable (live, and 20-year-old) siamese twin painted turtle in the lobby. I'm glad I went, but I don't know if I'll be going back any time soon.... 

The infamous Hollywood Museum of Death... visit if you dare!

DEATH parking, teehee

You aren't supposed to take photos inside, but I snapped this
photo of a "family" quilt made by the Manson girls. Nothing pairs like crafts and murder!

After the museum, I wanted to go shopping at LA's oddities emporium, Necromance on Melrose in West Hollywood. Unfortunately, Necromance was closed, but we were able to browse some of the nearby shops that were open. I *almost* bought a pair of skeleton leggings, but I decided against it at the last minute. I should have bought them! There were so many cool stores on Melrose, including a branch of the Asian street-fashion brand JOYRICH, but most of the ones I really wanted to visit were closed :(.  

A shot of the inside of Necromance from Google. I'm so bummed it was closed.... 

After we'd had our fill of Melrose, we headed over to Little Tokyo to indulge in vegetarian Japanese food at Shojin, LA's only all-vegan Japanese restaurant! We ordered stuffed shitake mushrooms, yuzu-cured seitan, eggplant and burdok maki, and a vegetarian dragon roll! The Shojin staff were so sweet! They brought me a fruit dessert with a candle, and gave us our polaroid in a nice, personalized card. They also gave me a CD with the jazz music they played in the restaurant! 

I took my own pictures at the restaurant, but they didn't really turn out. I snagged this from Google. 

After dinner, we had planned on going to do purikura, but it was also closed :(. Luckily, many of the Little Tokyo shops were open, so we got to browse a little after all. My boyfriend bought me some delicious macarons from Lette and a really adorable spoon ring from an Osaka-style vintage shop, and I treated myself to a cute pair of lashes. 

My birthday haul!

Here is what I wore! In celebration of my birthday, I wore my most sumptuous gothic coordinate. Blouse: Victorian Maiden / OP: F+F / Hairpieces: AATP, F21, H&M / Rosary, stole, gloves: Vintage / Shoes: Bordello

Simple makeup.... I put a lot of roses in my hair.... 

Eeeeh, demon face! It was dark by the time we got home, so my pictures are a little blurry! I love this dress so much!