Get Your Dancing Shoes.... It's JITTERBUG TIME !!!

Hello Dhaaarlings...

Tho not fully recovered.... Princess is back on her feet and "Jitterbugging" 

all round the Palais...

The costumes are coming along swimmingly

See!....

All lit up and rearing to go....

Imagine 25 of these little numbers 

in a Rainbow of various coloured breast plates with contrasting lime green/yellow orange shorts in a similar pattern...

Lit up and flashing on the darkened stage...

I think it should look pretty darn spectacular! 

Anyway darlings... I've got more stitching to get on with as the light packs and wings have to be hand stitched on to the garments. My fingers are calloused and bleeding as a result!

Whoever said "One must suffer for ones art!" ....

obviously never heard of thimbles.... Cue Princess!

Hello Dharlings...

What day is this?

I've been ill for the past week and seem to have lost all track of time. 

It's the Empresses fault and thoroughly blame her for passing on the contagion. 

She spent the previous weekend in bed drifting in and out of consciousness with high fevers and a terrible cough, I couldn't get her to the doctor til late Monday when we could start on some antibiotics... Fortunately they started to kick in by Wednesday and she had started to improve a little but by then I'd started to come down with a similar symptoms...

It has been quite an awful bug really, Headaches, aches and pains all over, high temperatures that cause you to shiver as if you are really really cold then breaking out into sweats that leave you and your bedclothes soakingly wet through.

 Sore throat, itchy watery eyes and every time you cough it feels like either your head will explode or you will pee yourself!. But then how would you know if you had peed yourself as the bed is already awash with sweat. All you are able to do is remain in bed and waft in and out of consciousness which tends, as i have discovered to cause one to lose track of time.

The days and nights just seem to meld into a continuous blurr...

I haven't touched a costume for over a week now and time is running out. 

Hopefully I've turned the corner with this bug as the sweats have stopped and the cough and headaches are improving... I just feel drained. 

The empress has been slower to recover but is still making small gains daily.

I just hate winter. This one has been particularly colder than past years and seems to have started much earlier. I am missing the sunshine and so is the garden.

The Jutterbugs and Cyclones were coming along nicely up until this bug hit. I'll be trying to pick up from where i left off over the next day or so.

And hopefully will have some photos to share once they are done. 

In the meantime more sleep is looking good!

FLY!.... Fly my Pretties....

Hello Dhaaarlings....

Well! The "Flying Monkeys" are all fed watered and ready to fly!!!

I know! Who would have thunk they would have come together so well?

Of course they will look much better with a person in them... We managed to purchase some latex monkey face masks that can be painted... you guessed it blue! 

From the front...

From the rear...

They still have to have strips of fur stitched to the back of the arms and legs of the body suit and some small patches of fur attached to the cuffs so as to cover the hands and feet... and just finish the whole thing off!

But I will need some bodies to be wearing them to get the right placement.

I've really surprised myself at just how good they look!

I'm figuring that the producer will be blown away by them when she sees them on Tuesday when she will be here to help cart some of the completed costumes over to the rehearsal venue for storage and further fitting...

I'll be very glad as we only have limited space here and the Empress has wardrobes so full of finished costumes that we are rapidly running out of closet space.... My place looks like the dressing room back stage...

The next project will be constructing some cyclone costumes... Followed by the jitterbugs... I'm still waiting on the arrival of the battery light packs before I make a start on them otherwise I might have to re think the whole design and I don't want to make extra work for myself.

There are a few Munchkin and Emerald city costumes to keep me busy enough

In the meantime Darlings... Here's something else to feast your eyes upon

Bottoms Up!

SURPRIZE!!!

Hello Dhaaarlings...

As promised I did say that I'd be back with an update on what's been happening with Princess... Well here goes...

I turned fifty as planned on Tuesday and spent much of the day answering the land line and speaking to well wishers from near and far... and making cups of tea or coffee for those that "Just dropped in" It was lovely to talk to everybody,catch up, and take a day off from slaving over costumes at the phaff.


However....

 On Monday morning my hard drive had crashed big time... 
Happy Birthday to Me! I thought... so that afternoon
I took it off to the computer "pox doctor" who informed me that the news was not good (I figured that when the damn thing refused to even boot up, instead it just kept getting so far with the start program and would shut itself down and re boot all over again) and that it would cost me about $200 to replace the hard drive.


I must admit that it did take me back to my child hood not having a computer at hand. Finding myself looking for things to do to entertain myself without having to log on, in or out!
I got so much more done this week without the distraction... Though I must say I did miss doing the rounds of your blogs... Missing a marvelous birthday party with you all at MJ's... oh... and the porn surfing.... But I digress

For the remainder of the week I continued to slog on with costumes for the show

Friday Night the Empress surprised me with a Party under the guise of...

"Just going out to a restaurant for dinner with the family"

Failing to mention the 40 or so other invited guests eagerly awaiting my arrival in one of the function rooms at the nearby pub.


 The Empress had out done herself having the room decked out with rainbow balloons, Sparkly "50" center pieces and trails of glitter and sparkles up and down the length of each table.
The family and extended family were there, old family friends that have known me since birth, neighbours, old work colleagues and friends and some of the team from the theatre company...
I was quite gobsmacked!


But the thing that caught my eye the most was this!....

A most taastefullly decorated chocolate mudcake....


 Palm tree swizzle sticks and all... When I clapped eyes on it I suddenly thought... Oh Dear... the Empresses tumour must be affecting her style and taste glands! She is symptomatic after all.... There is no possible way that the Empress would produce such a monstrosity, beast ... er... whimsical creation as my birthday cake and well.... fortunately I was quite wrong...


The Empress must have seen the look of utter disbelief on my face when I spotted the confectional folly.... and out the side of her mouth proclaimed
"The cake is not of my doing"....and nodding her head in the direction of the culprit added "What could I do?... She insisted..."


"Thank God for that!" I whispered back to her... "I thought it was a product of your tumour" To which she laughed.




The "CAKE"... as it turned out... was my gift from one of the Empresses dear friends who is in her eighties... The darling absolutely insisted that she 


"Would love to do me up a little birthday cake for the occasion! It will save you some of the worry Empress" 


It was to say the least.... a masterpiece!


But wait! There's More!!!

Not only was there the chocolate decorated mud cake which would have been quite adequate...but it was sitting there balancing precariously atop a mountain highly decorative cupcakes... Yes! Miss Scarlet... I do Declare! CUPCAKES!!


Strewn among the cup cakes were all manner of critters... lizards, butterflies, ribbons, glittery stars, strings of beads and little knitted angles and dolls with hand made dresses... "Because you make dresses don't you Princess"
And finally a random placing of  hot pink foil covered love hearts!
The cake itself was topped with ribbons sprinkled with silver stars, bunches of native wattle and gum nuts hand made from icing and finished with an array of candles and sparklers shaped in the number 50!
Each cup cake was individually decorated with frosting and smiley faces, some even possessing candy dentures.... at least i think they were candy... and others that looked a little like breasts complete with a frosting nipple...
I referred to one of these as "A nipple of Venus" to a friend as the cakes were passed about later in the evening... Her response "A nipple of Venus Williams Perhaps" staring at the chocolate-nippled cupcake in her hand...


Truthfully... I was tickled pink by all the effort that Mums friend had gone to!
And made a point of her thanking her profusely for her gift.


One of my young Nieces, had put together a slide show of photos of Princess growing up which gave all concerned a very good laugh and a walk down memory lane... which almost ended as a hobble... Well there was 50years of memory to walk!

This is Princess really really wanting to take a knife to the obligatory "Signed Teddy Bear" which seems to be the "must have" thing on such occasions...
And then turning the knife on the cake/s! 


No.... Really!


It was a lovely night and most unexpected. The Empress did very well to keep it all a secret... I suspected that there was plotting afoot as for weeks now there have been several strange and unusual phone calls and lots of giggling behind closed doors with grandchildren and whispered conversations when her friends have called over....


For the first time in my life I received Flowers for my birthday!
Not just one... but Two lots!
One from my sister and her family...

A large bowl of Protea's...arrived on Tuesday (photographed upon another dead computer)


and...

A bunch of poppies from the Theatre Production Team...
Yes Poppies! I wouldn't have guessed either! They were both lovely and are adding a nice touch of colour to the winter gloom here at the moment...


Fortunately the Empress "forgot" to invite the Head Costume Wench  ... er...the more "difficult" members of the team...


All in all I had a most wonderful birthday and it continued over the weekend.
Several corks were popped and my liver is now thankfully hanging out on the clothesline... I must finally be getting old!


Once again I thank you all for your well wishes, emails and cards


I am a most greatfull Princess...


Ps. The Mudcake Spectacular made divine eating...