Palais de Steff: September 2011

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

When is a Butterfly Not?...

Hello Dhaaarlings....

As I was telling you all the other day... I have been working on some very individual costumes for the cast members of a local school production of

Alice in Wonderland...

The Kids wearing them designed them themselves and princess has managed to bring them to life!

So... Here's the Question...

"When is a butterfly not?"....

When it's a "Bread 'n' Butterfly" of course!

Smeared with lashings of Vegemite...

or when it's a....

"Spotty Moth with green legs!"

Or it doesn't fly at all...

Because?

It's a Venus Fly-trap!

I just hope I don't have to create a "Rocking-Horse Fly" so that the Venus Fly trap has some prey!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Haiku Monday...

Hello Dhaaarlings...

And welcome to Haiku Monday.

Head on over to the front porch at Aunty Belles and show Uncle your best shots for this weeks theme of

"Hunting/Hunted."

1.Momma Grizzly Bared...

Fox Lies: Laughable!

Release the media pack

Vixens’ ruse revealed…

{Via}

2. Dick Shoot...

“Hey Dick!... Over here!”

Bang!... “What did you do that for?”

“The Quale suit looked real!”

[via]

3. A Hand in the Bush...

[via]

In Afghanistan…

We play “Find that Bin Laden!”

Pakistan

!... Who Knew?

Happy Haiku Monday.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Hello Dhaaarlings...

I love the smell of racing silks and sound of thundering horses hooves racing toward the finishing post as much as much as the next person...

And I'm not even adverse to the occasional flutter with a bookie in the mounting yard... though at present my passionate yearning for a day at the races has somewhat been curtailed and instead... my passion has been rekindled and replaced by mountains of tulle, satin and crystal organza...

As you are probably aware... I am in the process of designing and making the costumes for a local whole of school production of

"Alice in Wonderland"

The School ranges from grade prep primary age to year 12 senior High school which makes for a lot of kids and a multitude of costumes.

fortunately most of the costumes have been made as class projects through the year and I have been one of the costume designers asked to put the final embellishments to them an bring them up to standard for the stage production.

In the past few weeks I have been working on the costumes for the Prep, Grade 1 and Grade 2 kids who are a variety of Flowers, Butterflies, Dragon Flies and Blades of grass ready for the Garden Scene.

Below are some samples of the Flower costumes....

The Butterflies and Dragon flies are also completed.

There are one or two stand alone costumes which are very creative and have been designed by their wearers and I will post about them at a later date

but for the moment think "Moth", "Bread 'n' Butterfly" and "Venus Flytrap"

Go on let your imaginations run wild darlings...

There are also 2 minor flower roles that act as the wranglers for the junior performers in the scene and they have special costumes for their part.

These being

A White Rose...

And a Red Rose

Consisting of a tulle skirt, an apron of wired and shaped rose petals and an elasticised headband...

In the meantime I've been conjuring 13 more flower hats for the supporting cast/chorus in the garden scene...

And here they are...

All fitted to an "Alice Band" and combined individually with a plain underskirt and over-skirt of tulle and patterned netting....

So... That's what I've been up to...

One down.... with only 12 more skirts to go!

I think I'm ready for a stiff drink Dhaaarlings...

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

A Passing....

An Uncle died early Friday morning. The Empresses Brother. It was not unexpected. He had had a long battle with cancer. May he rest in Peace

As a kid I never really liked him much. He was often loud and dismissive, yelling at us kids rather than talking and always giving orders."Get outside! Do this!... Go there"... I didn't know at the time but, as I grew older I recognised that his behaviour was sheer and utter bullying. Reflection confirmed why I didn't like him much and at about the same time, I realised where his bullying came from. His Father. My Grandfather. He was the master bully. Always right even if he was wrong. Domineering. Quick to temper and never far form becoming loud, abusive and belittling in his manner toward anyone in the family. As a kid I used to become frightened of him when he would come to visit or we would have to go to visit him. It got even worse when through circumstance my family had to move into his house I don't think he was ever happier than when he had orchestrated situations whereby the whole extended family would be at each others throats in reaction to his manipulation and troublemaking. My Grandmother, Bless her, managed to keep him on a very tight leash and would often diffuse ugly situations by causing food to magically appear, managing to distract him from his tirades. However, on her passing his behaviour became more erratic.
To anyone outside the family, he had the reputation of being a "wonderfully caring old man" But with his family he was a manipulative controlling Old Bastard who used bullying as his primary tool of operation, managing to have the whole family constantly at his beck and call, never showing any gratitude or thanks toward them for doing his bidding.
My Uncle inherited these traits. As an adult I can see this clearly. I can not blame him as he had no other option at the time and had such a wonderful role model and teacher in his father. But I can forgive him now and forgive myself for not trying to mend bridges before now. But "Life" it is what it is.

In the past few months there has been a lot of healing between estranged families. The Empress spent some Quality time with him and his family earlier in the year while he was still well enough to be at home. Many
phone calls and Loving goodbyes since he returned to hospital a month ago. He was not expected to linger as long as he did and had his medical team baffled as to how long he could maintain the struggle to continue.

Fortunately for him and his family watching him die, the agony is over. My Aunt phoned the Empress last week to say that he was lapsing in and out of a coma and that she had said to him while keeping vigil at his bedside. "It's OK darling, you can just close your eyes and go now, we will all be fine." he opened his eyes and said to her with a slight smile on his face "What? Do think I'm not trying? Some people just don't know how hard it is to die....

I'm putting the Empress on a flight in the morning so she can be with the family at the memorial service.