LIFE: February/March Instagram Round Up

Welcome back, readers! It's so great getting to post more on here - I haven't regularly blogged for the past year due to a mixing pot of stress, a busy life, and frustration, but it's like a mental block has been removed and all I want to do is write. I hope I can keep it up!

Today marks April 1st, aka the day the internet becomes totally unusable. As ever this month is a fresh challenge, as I enter the final countdown to dissertation submission; whilst I'm proud of what I've achieved so far, this is going to be totally different.

With that in mind, it's worth looking back at what's been happening in February and March. I feel like I've been bouncing around Scotland for the past two months, and it's been a eclectic mix of new experiences. I always enjoy reading Instagram round ups, and I'm pretty active on there, so let's take a look back at what I've been posting.

Top Left Taking a Voigt Kampff test, aka Helping my flatmate out with his psychology research.

Top Right February was really tough work wise, as due to ethics bureaucracy my research was delayed and had to be tweaked (not my fault!). I triumphed nonetheless, in time for the first signs of Spring!

Bottom Left I was also down in Edinburgh for the national student psychiatry conference, and in a spare hour completed my first room escape game. I got to pretend to be a Russian femme fatale spy master, so overall 5/5.

Bottom Right Dundee ran its second swing dance workshop of the academic year, Valentine's Swing, so naturally I went with some vintage inspired styling.

Top Left Volunteering at a creative arts group for chronic pain in Perth. This was watercolours week!

Top Right I was back home in Glasgow for a impromptu blues workshop (dance has been the main reason I've been flitting about Scotland so much), which in contrast to the last minute nature of my attendance was revolutionary in how it impacted my dance. If anyone gets a chance, I highly recommend learning blues from Justin Riley!

Bottom Left A look I wore for shopping recently. I've had a bad spot break out recently, so I've not been feeling like posting selfies, but look forward to seeing more in future.

Bottom Right Spending easter with my parents in the highlands; it really is witch country up there.

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You can find more on my instagram, username @anhonestdrug. How has everyone else been finding the start of the year? Do you like this type of round up post? I quite like reflecting back on what's been happening, but I always like finding out how readers feel. Let me know below!

STYLE: Vintage Florals

Gosh, I haven't posted an outfit in five months. As a fashion blogger, that's surreal - you must have thought that I stopped wearing clothes. I finally decided this week, after months of camera frustration, that for taking pictures maybe I should just use my perfectly acceptable god damn phone instead; magically, the lack of light was no longer an issue, the photos looked better, and everything went ten times smoother. Sometimes the easy route is the best. 

I haven't shown a vintage look on here in even longer; they do sit somewhat incongruously next to the rest of my very black wardrobe, but given how much time I spend Lindy hopping (and how much I love vintage) it's a division I don't mind. This gorgeous 1940s inspired floral playsuit seems particularly appropriate given the recent Spring Equinox; I leapt at it in a new look sale with the plan of wearing it to dance workshop socials, but quickly realized my mistake of not checking the tag. Never wear polyester at over 200 beats per minute. 

I do get wear out of it however, even if it's still a little cool for bare legs. It's not very goth of me, but I love Spring - it gives me so much energy after sleepy, wet winters, and a drive to get outside and get moving.

How is everyone else finding the change in seasons? Do you have any clothing that you ended up wearing for different reasons than you bought it? Let me know below!

Fiona C. 

CONSUMERISM: Pin Me Up

Inner Decay: Ecstasy of St Teresa pin - [link]  Punky Pins: Black Moon pin - [link]
Little Whip: Trois pins - [link] Wasted Effort: Mystical Pyramid pin - [link]

God knows I've been sticking patches on my jackets since I first knew what punk was, but pins? I could make my own badges. Why on earth would I go buy pins?

Turns out lots of reasons. It feels almost silly to do a shopping feature on such a tiny accessory, but they have a very charming retro vibe, and I've been noticing a lot more cute and covetable pins popping up on my radar of late. And where there's cute there's weird, and where there's weird there's all black versions for the chromatically challenged. A lot of these shops also have other great accessories, and honorable mentions go out to Inner Decay's Medusa and Wormhole patches, as well as Little Whip's very NSFW Try Me Shirt and Punky Pin's Death's Head Moth pin,which I sadly didn't have space for up there.


Are there any pins you want out there? Any other unusual accessories you like? Let me know below!





Fiona C.

DIY: Heart Pasties

You need -

• Paper
• Scissors 
• Craft Foam
• Crystals
• Super glue
• Paper clip/hair clips

Step 1 

Make yourself a template for the pastie from the paper; I drew around the top of a beer glass and shaped it into a heart from there, but the size will be individual to you. Make you cut a slit up to the centre, and check how well it fits in the mirror.

Step 2

Trace the outline of the template onto your foam sheet, and cut around it. 

Step 3

Fold one side over the other, and glue it in place; hold in place with a pin or paper clip. 

Step 4

Bedazzle. 

Lining the inside can be an additional step, which is best if you're performing with them (i.e. you're sticking them on with glue), but you won't need to if using double sided tape. Happy Valentine's Day. ❤






Fiona C.

Art: Soren Häxan

Top to bottom: 'Monstrum', 'Dead Hands', and 'The Spiritualist'.

Until I either hang/frame/do something with the pieces I already have or move into my new flat, I've had to enforce an art ban on myself; no buying any new prints, which I have responded to by... looking at lots of art. I guess the heart wants what the heart wants. 

The most recent of my guilty late night binges is the work of Soren Häxan, Washington-based artist and writer. Häxan's oil paintings and ink illustrations blend illness, the abhuman and the occult, and homoeroticism to create unique works on faith and sexuality.

As well as prints and original artworks, you can also find hand bound books and patches in Häxan's etsy store, The Hands of the Corpse (warning: some art NSFW). Additionally, keep an eye out for his soon-to-be-published book, Our Queen Milk.

All images by Soren Häxan. Soren is also on twitter (where he's a joy to follow), as am I! Has anyone else found any new art recently? Let me know below!




Fiona C.

Articles I love: January

• Katie Halper - For black americans, US is about as dangerous as Rwanda
• Sean Faye - Fashion Victims: In the fitting rooms with trans femmes
• Tayo Gesinde and Rita Okonoboh - What's in a lady's bag? The contents, the contentions
• Jo-Ann Furniss - Domesticity Deranged: The Interior World of Rick Owens

I've been reading some really good articles recently, interspersed with slaving over ethics applications and reminding myself how great Sandman is. Since coming home from the blessed tv and newspaper-free environment of my flat, conventional news platforms have been somewhat... jarring to return to, so I've been mostly looking off-grid for new perspectives as opposed to current events. Anyone who's been keeping track of my style and queer-culture interests know that I'm fascinated by femme identity, and it's probably even less surprising that I've been reading about Rick Owens like he's my teenage heartthrob. There's also some sobering statistics there too, so stay #woke.

Thus far the new year has started as a productive success, even with dissertation wobblers and the gradual realization that a month of merriment hasn't been quite so kind to my fitness levels. After some outside advice I've realized that, though not entirely my own fault, I need to be more aware of my own limitations as a researcher, and also get a move on. Deadlines wait for no one, bitch.

Has anyone else been reading anything interesting lately? How have your new years been going? Let me know below!



Fiona C.

2015: A Retrospective

Failte readers, and happy holidays! I hope you've been spoiled, and that you've been doing some spoiling of your own in return.

I was already feeling the Hogmanay vibes earlier on in December to coincide with the solstice, and the urge for a seasonally appropriate purge is become stronger with each day. Part of these rituals is saying goodbye to the old year, and good grief it's been a wild ride. For anyone who's been wondering about the reason for the lack of updates on here - hold onto your hats.

The year started off tumultuously, but even through the difficult times I was grateful for the good it brought. I furthered my interest in the occult, leveled up my make up game, and rediscovered a lot of old passions I'd been neglecting. I watched the eclipse with an (I think, anyway) ingenious combination of a pin hole and a sheet of paper, and fed my excitement for the approaching new series of Twin Peaks with a 25th anniversary party. 

Academia always comes into play, but after a stressful month of revision and exams I grabbed my bags and high tailed it to the Amsterdam markets for my first holiday abroad in years. It's a fascinating city, and definitely one that benefits from some insider knowledge - another visit is definitely happening.

For my self selected projects, I did some art therapy experience and completed a crash course in BSL (life lesson: do not confuse the verb and noun forms of the word 'dog') - I didn't quite realize it at the time, but it kickstarted the direction my research and professional work has gone on to take. It wasn't all hard graft however, and on discovering I'd passed my exams (with a good grade!) I celebrated with a week long art and clubbing extravaganza, and found out that the djcad students had been working just as hard. 

The summer was a very Scottish one, but I was that busy fighting the system and moving into a flat I'm over the moon with (still no real photos of it on here, somehow) the awful weather didn't distract me too much. I fell in love with Barcelona and its relationship with art in my second holiday abroad of 2015, and started a commission piece of my own that I'm still working towards finishing. 

I kept dancing through the year, even teaching my first class in burlesque in the autumn (having only started about a month before - how did that happen?), and I discovered a real talent for solo blues. The new semester saw a fresh haircut and a new research degree, as well as my officially becoming an adult - I watched the pagan Samhuinn display, greeted the blood moon, and realized that if you take care of your skin it will look better. 

Whilst on An Honest Drug we missed most of this crazy productivity, after a spell away from blogging we got the camera working again and welcomed some firsts on the blog. We were featured in a magazine, and ran our first interview with the absolutely lovely Tyler Thrasher. I am sad that I didn't post as much over the past months, but it just makes me more determined to do so next year. 

It's been a far more colorful and varied year than I realized, and I'm glad I put so much effort into taking care of myself so that I could do it. 2015 definitely feels like a year where I got more comfortable settling into my skin, and seriously dedicated my time to shaping a life I love. 

Till 2016,





Fiona C.