Officially!

I was officially 30 weeks pregnant as of last Wednesday...

The Burly Q Babies Burlesque and Cabaret show is officially booked for June 27th at The Martini Bar...

I will be officially putting in my notice to move tomorrow...

I have my first fluish/cold thingie since I've been pregnant and as it took over 7 1/2 months I believe that is officially the longest I've ever gone without getting a case of the sniffles...

I can officially say that church rummage sales on a Saturday morning are the best and cheapest flea markets ever and I always love them...

and...I am officially and obviously, blindly carrying on with these new random posts and I can say for sure that I'm not sure why, or when this all may go back to normal if ever. At least you can be grateful of the fact that I don't seem to be as much of a sorry sack as I was last week.

Picture: Feather fascinator and red flower pasties. I know I know...what's that got to do with anything ....nothing silly.

Cracking!

In the next couple of months I will be producing a burlesque show, moving to a new apartment and then topping it off by giving birth. These are all things I feel like I can handle I'd just really prefer they weren't all happening at once. I was sort of forced into producing this show and as much as I know it will be great and a lot of fun, I would avoid all production work if I could. The move is also not so bad, cheaper rent, bigger kitchen (for baking!!!), I will still have a small studio to teach in, all good things but it's really shagging up my ability to nest. I am a nester by nature anyway and of course that instinct is now being compounded by being close to 30 weeks pregnant. I will survive and I have to say I find a lot of joy in packing things away in boxes for some reason so I'm hoping that will help keep me satiated. It just would have been nice to do a little pregame decorating. I'm not going to get into the pro and cons of birth because well that just doesn't seem to be a good idea does it? I guess the point of this post has been just to vent. I've been feeling more then a bit stressed and panicky and haven't been able to relieve this knot in my chest so if burdening the blog land peeps will help then so be it!

Picture: Hula girl pasties and fascinator. Inspired by my love of Hula Girls and my own Hula burlesque routine. Even though we all know I'm not going to take off my coconuts I guess I'd just like to see you do it :)

Letting go

I'm looking to find ways to let go and no I don't really mean relax. How do you let go control over things that you have no control over anyway? Typing that out makes it sound rather redundant.

I worry about the baby, about my choices, about how everyone seems to have an opinion about how things should be done and I'd much rather it was the same as mine...at least when it comes to carrying, birthing and raising a child. I have to say I think this is something I'm normally pretty good at. I believe it takes all kinds of opinions and people to make the world go round. I'm normally not bad at seeing the other side and never needing to bring you on to my team. Saying that, since I am now magically and bizarrely two people at once and all those motherly protecting my young instincts have kicked in, I'm having a much harder time when the world and I don't see eye to eye. I know that this will always be the case and maybe it's more about not feeling supported while I'm making such important decisions.

So for now I'm searching for my mommy zen...it's no where to be found right now but I'm sure it will pop up somewhere.

Picture: White Flower pasties. These unrelated pictures are making me feel a little insane but they are probably the best way to represent my life right now...so completely at odds with it self.

Practicing

Patience, self awareness, Buddhism, yoga, empathy, compassion, kindness....

There are so many things that I believe belong in my day along side breakfast and brushing my teeth but somehow I have so much more trouble implementing them.

Picture: Sequin Pasties with blue feathers. I own and have made so many sets of these but getting to see me in them is like getting a glimpse of a once thought extinct animal, not entirely impossible but extremely unlikely.

Good Morning!

After a long night of techno music pumping through the floor in the bedroom I am miraculously rather bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. The sun is pouring in the studio windows, the cats have each found a sun beam and I have the place all to myself, which if I'm honest I quite enjoy most of the time. It's mornings like this, when I will have my orange juice and english muffin on the patio, that I can really let everything go...even if it is just for the morning.

Picture: Flower fascinator and matching pasties. Not everything means something.

Things that make me happy

incense, fresh air, CBC radio, sheep, buttons, clean sheets, blank canvas, matching hangers, going out to eat, live music, paper dolls, old furniture, second hand stores, JO lying on my open book, pictures of people kissing, a good poet, wanting someone badly, finding things, stop motion, yoga, painting...........................

Picture: Pink Puff Pasties and Pink Button Fascinator on a hairband. Random yes but happy looking so somehow related. Bare with me people!

Big Changes

My mind is boggled right now by how drastically my feelings have changed about living in this apartment. So many wonderful things have happened here over the last couple of years and I really thought I would somehow be here until I found a real home/house/thingamajig of my own.

Since I have temporarily become two people everything is so different. The music that I used to enjoy or sleep right through as it pounded up through the floor from the bar downstairs now seems like never ending torture.

This place that has been so great for someone as bizzarly antisocial as myself has now become such a burden. To be able to sit out in the sun, smell the food cooking in the restaurant, hear the live music as if I were there, watch the people walk by all without having to leave the house....really so perfect for me.

But now I'm tired and the music is irritating in the evening, and makes me so aware of the fact that even if the baby could sleep through it it would keep me up in the few hours that I might get to sleep in the evenings. The patio that seemed to be such a selling point feels like a death trap now, not to mention being Kitty suicide attempt central...who needs it.

I wonder if in two and half months when the Kidney Bean arrives into the would if I will still feel like two people. Will that last forever now or until she becomes a person of her own and pulls away in Independence?

Why do I feel so afraid to leave this place when I don't really want to be here anymore...I don't mind change but I hate breaking plans.

Picture: Feather Fascinator, hair piece on headband. I know so random!

You can never have too many flowers...right?

More flowers!! Holy moly!! I'm going to try and promise that this will be it for a bit...no more hair flowers...I promise... really! There have been a lot of multiples of things being posted because I'm heading into the fair but be patient with me I don't imagine this will keep up for much longer. Keep in mind that if you come in and buy them that I won't have any left to take pictures of and I will have to move on to something else. It would be like a good deed, you could save me from myself and then we would both feel better.

One for you, one for me.

It's sometimes hard to sell or give away everything you make and every once in awhile I have to keep something for myself. I love both of these but settled on the dragonfly to keep. I used the excuse that I should be wearing some of my own stuff when I'm out selling and advertising, as much as I do really think that it was a bit of a scam because I totally would have kept it for myself anyway.

The crown design will be selling at the fair! I have a lot more clothing coming with me this time then I will normally have but it will be interesting to see how everything is received and to hear peoples feedback about everything. I'm a bit nervous... I'm surprised I'm even going into the craft fair. Between having to sit in there on my own and talk to people for five hours and selling or NOT selling my stuff the whole thing is extremely not me, scardy pants that I am.

The great sister snatch...

I've been really lucky over the last couple of years to have received tons of local support in terms of media coverage in newspapers for dancing, production work and cake decorating. One of those papers being The Current. My sister and I were featured on the cover for our cake decorating for the Buttercream Babies blog. We got invited along with tons of other people to be a part of the ten year anniversary cover. I had a show the night before, it was raining the day of the shoot and we were walking together to the studio. We were in no mood to be all dolled up so we decided it would be cute and maybe make up for the damp hair and lack of sleep if we wore a couple of the bright scarves I had made. It was a good idea and the pictures turned out great, thanks Terry! Plus I sold a scarf...mind you it was only to my sister but every little bit counts.

Still lovin the creative purge

Yay for found fabric! I used to work in a fabric store and have the strangest collection of stuff in the stash because of it. I don't know how any of us ever had any money left over to pay rent because we would be lined up on pay day with stacks of weird things we had tucked away on the back of a self, hoping it would still be there at the end of the week. I remember finding this on the clearance wall and buying it all. I had BIG plans for it...of course I found it folded up two or three years later piled in with everything else I had BIG BIG plans for and never used. In my new found use it or lose it attitude about all the things lying around my apartment I was forced to cut it into scarves to save myself from tossing it away. Thank goodness I like scarves.

They are different sizes, I have a bunch of the wider one above and one of the narrow ones. They will be for sale on Sundays in the craft fair at the mall. See you there!

Girls like roses... right?

This is just another experiment with mixing colours on these coffee filter roses. I'm sure you are all getting sick of seeing these by now...so am I really but I don't have many things that I can just sit down away from my work table and not really think to much about while I'm working on them. Making roses is my version of knitting. I can carry on a conversation and watch a little T.V. so it doesn't feel like I'm squired away on my own or locked up in the studio. I guess what I'm trying to say is that you will probably be seeing more roses in the future, I just can't help it.

If anyone would like to see them done in a particular colour combination let me know and I'll try it out.

Oh Scary!

I've been trying to finish things long ago left abandoned as well as use up fabric and supplies I have handy. I have a terrible habit of starting new and completely unrelated projects and having to buy whole new batches of supplies. I've promised myself to unearth all the great stuff I've already got laying around and use it up before I go out and buy new things.
In my sort, shuffle and toss I found all the stuff I needed to make a bunch of flocked t-shirt scarves. You'll see more to come and despite the fact that they will be hard to part from I will have them for sell at the fair.

P.S. The sort , shuffle and toss also inspired a girls night clothing swap, happening tomorrow night. I know I've been taking about getting rid of things but it won't hurt to let a few new things sneak in will it?

Craft Fair Prep

I've been huddled away in this apartment long enough and the strange collection of bits and bobs grows larger everyday. It is time to bring GWS to the world....or at least to a table in the craft/flea market in the mall. For those of you haven't heard I'm in the middle of growing a little one...a bun in the oven as they say. This seems to have turned me into an organizer extraordinaire. I seem to have lost any urge to hold on to long ago crafted items. It seems to make no difference how much time or money went into some thing's creation, my need to make room for a creature that will weigh about 7-8 pounds seems to override all emotional attachment to inanimate objects. So I am planning an adventure to the fair. The first week will be a mish mash of everything I happen to be getting rid of but after that I plan to stick it out and sell newly made crafts and such.

You've seen these coffee filter roses before but I've started to make a few more to put into the fair and I've been experimenting with my colour choices a bit.

I'll leave this one up to you.

I don't think I need to say much about this. It's a bunny ear bonnet and bunny tail underwear to be worn together with a white corset. See! Like I said there is nothing left to say. You are already seeing this in your head and depending on who you are you are feeling a little dirty or laughing your ass off. Please also keep in mind figure skates are the foot wear of choice with this little number.

Living in a dye vat frenzy!

I'm guessing I'm going to start kicking myself when there isn't a single white item left in the house, but as with most of my creative bursts this too will pass and make room for another temporary obsessive outbreak of some other kind. The waist cincher underwear came in a pack of two and I promised I'd leave the other one white, wish me luck. I imagine I'll keep dying gloves for as long as I need them because once you break away from the standard black, white and red gloves you can't ever go back.

Raffle Prize!

I'm donating this little gift box as a raffle prize for the Vaudeville for Daffodil show. 100% of the proceeds are going to Daffodil Place. The flower is a handmade coffee filter rose on a hair barrette and the pasties have white lace appliques on pink cotton with hand dyed tassels.

Burlesque Part 4

Do I even need to say anything? They have ruffles! They are florescent! They light up! They will be glued to Miss Jezebel's nipples in Vegas! Enough said.

It must be spring time

Well I guess it's that time of year again! My mail box is full of wedding invites and every girl I know including myself is getting fitted into her bridesmaid dress or picking out her new and versatile cocktail dress for all the different wedding rituals she will be attending in the coming months. This little cover up is one of three that myself and the other bridesmaids will be wearing when we stand for my sister's wedding on May 12th. All black head to toe, how modern. My My!

Sorry about the bad photo it was taken in the middle of the night..I think I'll try and get a better one later.

Here comes the bride!

These little ladies are another custom set of pasties. These are being made as a gift for a bride to be from her bridesmaids. I just hope she uses double sided tape and not glue. I'm not so sure that having to pull these babies off is going to make a good start to a wedding night.