After Dinner Dance Party // Paint it, Black

Groomed by the Jack White school of monochrome & mystique, The Black Belles are an all-girl, 60s garage inspired quartet formed in Nashville. 
With a bewitching goth aesthetic of wide brimmed hats, matching pale complexions and shrouded in black lace, the first reason we love them is because they have clearly taken tips from our halloween style. 
The second reason has to be for their interesting back bio, or lack of, veiled in mystery, the only thing we've been able to find out about them is that they were allegedly all kicked out of girl scouts for poisoning cookies. We're not sure we believe this but we like a band who's a bit bad ass. 
Most of all we just love their authentic nod to the dark side of the sixties, championing the roughness of fuzz, analogue & layered with screeching organs. 
We're loving their fabulous cover of The Knickerbockers' hit, Lies... Enjoy!

Much love, Lauren xx

Trick or Twee // Horrorpops!

What happens if you put Red Riding, Bo Peep, Sweeney Todd, Malice, Snow White & the Mad Hatter in front of photobooth? This...! A couple more snaps of our gruesome gang before heading out to a horror-ific house party...

Time to put the wigs away for another year, such a fun week!
As one last treat, here's The Horrorpops with Ghouls...

Much love, L&R xx

Trick or Twee // A Fairytale Nightmare

We had loads of fun on Saturday night dressing up and partying with friends for Halloween. We debated several themes during one of our Monday wine nights and concluded that we'd look best as a band of fairytale misfits! So here is our Fairytale Nightmare... and a bit of back story on our characters for the eve!

Starring:

Rhi as Red Riding Hood, Lola as Bo Peep, Ellie as Malice in Wonderland, Carla as Snow White, Chris as The Madhatter & James as Sweeney Todd.

Here is Red Riding Hood, sick of waiting for the hunter to arrive and fight off the blasted wolf, Red Riding decides to take matters in to her own hands... with the aid of a machete. She fashions the wolf into a stylish wrap.




Little Bo Peep had lost her sheep and didn't know where to find them... so when Doris the littlest sheep arrived home days later, Bo Peep decided to make an example of her and speared her with her crook.




One of the earliest urban legends, Sweeney Todd the demon barber of Fleet Street, swapped styling for slashing.




Wrapped up the nonsensical world of wonderland and fed up of hosting never-ending tea parties, our Mad Hatter rebels, quits and finds himself addicted to anything that makes him forget the tumultuous world he escaped from...




Malice in Wonderland... What a sweet girl Alice was, unfortunately on her way out of the rabbit hole she was bitten by a hallucinogenically poisonous spider and went a little bit mad!



When Snow White uncovered her wicked step-mother's plan to poison her with an apple, she decided to bite the hand that feeds her... literally. Discovering cannibalism was a good way for Snowy to deal with her family issues.


Check back tomorrow for a few more snaps...


Much love,
L&R xx

Trick or Twee Troubles // Pumpkin Carving

Darlings,

We're troubled, once more. We were planning on having an adorable intricately carved pumpkin to share with you all tonight for All Hallows Eve - our facebook/twitter/instagram feeds have been a-glow with the most creative & finely carved pumpkins we ever did see...

So with eager anticipation we selected a design, in keeping with the theme of of our Halloween costumes (more to come from those this week...) - Cinderella, one of our favourite classic fairytales, what could have been more perfect that a tweely beautiful carved carriage - complete with wheels...

Um... not quite. How is it 2 creative and usually crafty girls failed where so many others excelled, weilding knives to create the most wonderful pumkinery... and we turn out this monstrosity.

Ta-da!

Perhaps we were over ambitious... Perhaps we should have stuck to the scary face convention and within our comfort zone. Sculpturers we are not.

Perhaps we'll just hang our heads in shame and return to watching Hocus Pocus...

Good night guys and ghouls. Happy spooking.

Much love.
R&L xx

Trick or Twee Outfit Post // Double Trouble

Well well well my lovelies, what do we have here? Nearly time for Halloween! We're all pretty excited for tonight as we're heading out to a friend's halloween party, we'll keep our witchy lips sealed about what we're dressing up as just yet (hint: fur, sheep, apples & spiders are just a few of the props that we'll need) but thought we'd get ourselves in the mood with a quick Halloween outfit post! Ever wondered where a witch buys her broomstick? If you're like us and your wardrobe is stacked full of black lace dresses, it's a pretty simple get up. It also made us feel a little like Nicole Kidman & Sandra Bullock in Practical Magic, can we dress like this all the time?

Lola wears black lace & silk dress, a one-off from a boutique in Leicester; over the knee style tights, House of Holland.


Rhi wears black lace dress, Matalan(!)


Lola & Rhi wear exceptionally pointy witch hats, Morrisons. Skull, witches own.


Broomstick (not on fire thankfully, just an illusion!), Morrisons.


Pose, model's own.

Practise your sulks & scowls to complete the look!



Lola wears black winklepickers, Underground via Urban Outfitters.


Rhi wears green velvet shoes, Office.

Have a lovely weekend whatever you're doing sweets! Be sure to check out some of our other Halloween Tricks or Twee, our bloodcurdlingly good chocolate & beetroot fudge recipe or take a look at our first video blog an eerie reading of Poe's 'Spirits of the Dead'!
We'll leave you with a Saturday song, if you haven't gave the brilliant 'I'm Gonna Haunt You' by Fabienne Desol a listen, do it now! Only stumbled across this French beaut this week and we've been hooked ever since, one of the few contemporary albums to genuinely excite us in a while! Such a cool, genuine 60s garagey sound and she does a mean France Gall cover too...


Much love, L&R xx

Literature Love // Trick or Twee V-Blog

In a dark dark town, in a dark, dark street, Twee Towers lurked gloomily under the evil glare of a full moon. Inside, two witches donned their pointy hats, wiped the dust off the vast gothic volume nestled among the potion bottles and spiders to share with you an eerie tale... oooo!

As the second best thing about Halloween is scaring yourself silly watching creepy movies & immersing yourself in terrifying tales of hauntings and spirits (the first being getting dressed up) we thought we'd the combine the two for our very first video blog! Eek.

A sorcerer of spinning suspenseful & frightening stories of tormented souls and the unsettled deceased, it would only be fitting for our trick or twee week to share with you this poem, written in 1827 by Edgar Allan Poe. First titled 'Visits of the Dead', Poe's 'Spirits of the Dead' follows a chilling dialogue between a dead speaker and a visitor to his grave.

So let us introduce, 'Spirits of the Dead' read by Lola & Rhi...

Poe's original manuscript!

We hope you enjoy the slightly horror show twist to our literature love this week lovelies! More tricks and twee to come!

Much love,

L&R xx

Trick or Twee // Chocolate & Beetroot Fudge

Sink your teeth into this sweets... Wickedly tasty but surprisingly low fat as the beetroot replaces extra chocolate and gives this such a curiously brilliant flavour and incredible purpley-brown colour... the earthy aroma when chopping and cooking your beetroot is also wonderfully Halloween-ish, like you've taken a wrong turn and ended up somewhere a bit spooky...

You Will need...

200g peeled and cubed raw betroot

450g caster sugar

30g unsalted butter

335g condensed milk

1/2 tsp salt

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids essential!)

For decoration:

Melted white chocolate

1. Line the base of a deep brownie tin with baking parchment & grease it lightly

2. Place the betroot in a saucepan and cover with water, boil for about 8minutes until cooked through, drain and then purée in a blender - try and get it as lump free as possible.

3. Put all the ingredients (excluding the chocolate) in a non stick pan and heat on a low heat, stirring with a spatula to combine

4. Warm on the lowest possible heat until the sugar has dissolved - this will take around 15minutes. You should stir at roughly 2 minute intervals - take your time with this to ensure the sugar has fully dissolved and the butter has melted.

5. Add the chocolate chunks once the sugar has dissolved. Turn the heat up a fraction once the chocolate has melted and stir for the next 15minutes exactly.

6. After 15mins take the fudge off of the heat and beat by hand for 3 minutes to thicken it up.

7. Pour into the tin and decorate with the melted white chocolate.

8. Leave to set for half an hour - and it should then be ready to cut up and serve :)

Probably best not to cut up your betroot before heading to work - or you may spend your day in the office looking a bit like a mass murderer as its hard to get all that red off of your skin!

Hope you like it :)

Much love,
R&L xx

Trick or Twee // Free Printables :)

Hey Sugarplums,

We've designed a very wicked one off 'Ex Boyfriend' print... You know when you've had your heart trampled on by some glittery moody guy who's ditched you for a wet blanket called Bella - you can hold your head high and say "Pssht, I only loved you for your fangs"

Click to download & print :)

As its Halloween - the season to be generous with your treats or risk being tricked, we didn't want to leave the boys out... Your mates always told you your Ex-Girlfriend was a right witch... Well now you can express your new found relationship closure with this cheeky print... "I only loved you for your Pointy Hat" - even if you do still miss her black cat!

Again, just click to download.

Hope you like your Twee Treat :)

Much love,
R&L xx

After Dinner Dance Party // All Hallows Beats

BOO! Its all Hallows week - we've prepared a host of spectre-tastic tunes and beats for you to get your freak on to this week guys and ghouls!

Enjoy...

Dusty's version of 'Spooky' is oh so cool - "love is kind of crazy with a spooky little boy like you..." - gives us the chills!

The Sonic's garage classic The Witch is sure to have you stomping - 'she's gonna make you itch!'

The Cramps' Human Fly - this video features wickedly creepy footage from the classic horror film of the same name. Eek - why are people always so careless in science labs, don't they know it never bodes well...

The king of horror - Bela Lugosi's dead. We do love the Bauhaus version but this Nouvelle Vague version works so, so well with Lugosi's Dracula footage we couldn't not share... Watch your necks ladies...

Lord Sutch creeping on his audience. What a performance, love the ladies cowering in the front row in giddy terror.

We did have Screamin Jay Hawkins here but couldn't resist featuring this, from THE BEST Halloween movie of all time - We've put a spell on you Sanderson Sister style. NOW YOU CAN'T STOP DANCING. Muahahahaha.

We've got an exciting week of 'Trick or Twee' lined up for you all - recipes and DIYs, even a little freebie or 2!

Hope you're having a frightfully fantastic day...

Much love,
R&L xx