Photo shoot

I love having my photo taken.
However, it has not always been so.
Like most women, I was for many years completely camera shy, and cringed at photos of myself with red eye looking gormless because I was talking at the time so my mouth is open, and with every lump and bump exaggerated somehow. Yuk.
But over the years, I've made myself be photographed, especially by professionals. These guys know what they are doing, they shield you from the less successful shots (even supermodel photoshoots have a high attrition rate) and it is fun! Every photo shoot I have done has marked a place in the journey of my life - stilted glamour ones 22 years ago, more relaxed glamour ones a few years later, wedding photos, professional head shots when I was at my most ambitious, in a crazy early morning shoot. Each shoot has been more and more about who I really am and not bout trying to look beautiful.
I have been lucky that all the photographers I have worked with are great people willing to build a relationship, indeed most have already been friends.  This latest shoot was with Ataahua Pinups, with the wonderful Ngahuia Riri. She is a beautiful woman with lots of empathy and humour, and she is very clear and directive, which I found useful, still being a bit unsure about my best angles.
Anyway here are some of my favourites. I pull lots of faces, because I like the silliness and character of a face pull over a serious photo. I m not in this to look beautiful or young, I am in it to express the crazy inner diva that is Constance, and so I've included some of the whackier shots too. :)

I hope I may inspire some of you to go get photographed. It can be such an empowering experience!

Liebster Award *BLUSH*

Oooh, new artwork! I've been offered a few of these and most recently by the lovely MaryLouise at http://thanksimadethismyself.wordpress.com/

So, here are my answers to the 11 questions she made up to be really annoying! LOL!

1) What do you enjoy most about blogging?
I don't really know. I guess that reading other people's blogs is such a wonderful way of feeling connected all over the world, and having a blog means I am putting something back into that community.

2) Who would be at your ultimate dinner party ? (5 people…)
It would be a potluck, and I would invite: Nigella Lawson, Ann McCaffrey, Marianne Williamson, Sarah Ferguson and Kathy Bates. All amazingly interesting women for completely different reasons, and I think we would get along like a house on fire!

3) What are your favourite pair of shoes you’ve ever owned?
SOOO not a shoe person, sorry M-L! I wear the same shoes all the time until they die. So, my answer is, a pair of flat Ecco slip ons in Mexican red leather with blue stitching that I wore nearly every day for nearly five years. SOOO comfortable!

4) What is your proudest creation?
Another tricky one. I am simultaneously proud of and mortified by most of my creations. That mixed sense of how great it is and how many flaws you know it has, you know? But looking at it from the point of view of how much happiness and satisfaction did it bring to the most people I care about being happy and satisfied, it would have to me my mother's wedding suit.

 Goodness me, that little flowergirl, my niece Zoe, is 11 now and looks 16!!

5) Would you rather have a bath of snakes or a bath of spiders?
What kind of a question is that??? Snakes. Utterly loathesome but the idea of spiders getting into everywhere...

6) What did you want to grow up to be when you were a kid?
Slim. Heh.

7) If you could only have one more overseas trip, where would you go?
Back to the UK.

8) What is your favourite outfit? Go on, give us a photo….
I wore it today - my boteh dress with a short off the shouder linen jacket by Mossimo and a head scarf. Tres Boho. Use your imagination.

9) What sewing or music related thing do you want to have done this year?
I am doing it!!!!!!! Being Constance and wearing gorgeous me made costumes!

11) Star Trek or Star Wars?
Erk. Different things for diffferent times. Probably Star Trek by a sliver, as the follow up series made are all rather good, whereas the second round of Star Wars movies... erk...

I'm meant to nominate 11 blogs with under 500 followers, but all the ones I follow who qualify have had this award several times already.
So instead I drink a toast to all the little blogs. Blogs that for whatever reason have never struck a populous chord but are enjoyed by their followers. New blogs, still unsure whether they will go gangbusters.
Here's to you all, my lovely followers. I appreciate you! xo

Oscar Wilde is in my kitchen!!

He is going to be looking thoughtfully at me every time I use the oven!

Our lovely friend Kerry put the tiles up this afternoon. I found the two feature tiles years ago and we've been planning to do this tiling for that long. Three years maybe? Heavens! The one with the pic of Oscar says, "I can resist anything except temptation" and the other one says, "Life is too important to be taken seriously." I also have the one about being talked about and not being talked about, which will end up being a pot hob. At some time.
So, tomorrow I am grouting!

No more horribly denim blue splash back tiles, instead we have lovely white ones. That will show every mark and splash. Of course!
The apartment was covered in plaster dust when I got home and I just spent two hours vacuuming and mopping and wiping. SO worth it though! :)

Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates

So who out there has seen this series? And/or reads the original books by Kerry Greenwood?
Years go I started emailing Kerry with suggestions for actresses to play Phryne when the series was finally made, but we forced to agree it would never happen. That was back when the ABC paid for 6 hours of fiction based programming a year. Things are now very different apparently, and I for one am very pleased to see the work of one of my favourite authors on the small screen.
Of course, the TV version is a highly reductive version of the original. The pool of characters has been pruned severely, omitting second adopted daughter Rose, Mrs Butler, Tinker, and sadly, reducing Lin Chung's role in her life to a two episode incident, not the long term partnership of body and mind in the books. AND they cast an actor whose diluted Asian heritage was hardly apparent. I think this says more about the perception of the Australian audience's tolerance for diversity more than it does anything else.
But, we're not here to grumble about what TV producers do to our favourite stories, we're here to have a thoroughly indulgent droolfest about the costumes, which are fantastic.

This coat!! I want one in my life very badly! I am a sucker for a beautiful coat and, well, it's that and more!

source

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This suit is so glorious. I suspect it started life as a silk sari, and the borders have been lovingly used. Of course, it is red and gold so it got me straight away.

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This ensemble is exquisite. The cut of those white trousers is perfect. Watching Essie Davis on screen moving around in this, it just sways and moves and generally supports our understanding that Phryne only dresses in the very best clothes.

The tumblr page I am sourcing these images from has a whole lot more, but stills do not do them justice. I love this imagining of the late 1920s in Melbourne, the lines of the costumes are very believable for the time, showing the transition to the styles of the 30s. 

So, any other fans out there? Any other takes on the book vs the TV series?

A new jacket for Constance

I've had it with black PVC! It looks good but it is so hot, and it takes forever to lace up. Plus it is black, which on stage is boring.
So, I am using it as the basis for a new jacket - far more outrageous, and super, shiny pretty!

And here is my fabric. Yes, it really is both leopard AND lurex. The pattern is quite big - that sequin trim is about 40mm wide, and I LOVE the way it has so many colours woven through it. The fabric itself is a surprisingly cottony feeling suiting. This is such a find, as so many lurex fabrics are really ligtweight and fray like mad. The piece is 2m long and about 160cm wide.
The PVC jacket is slightly stretchy, so when I copied it, I added a teeny bit to it all, and it is almost perfect.

Not that you could tell from this terrible photo MrC took. He can't get his head around the way the focus works! I am experimenting with the idea of draped cups, so I butchered an old bra to get the wires out of it. I left the lace in the cups in case it turns out to be useful. The whole thing looks like a mess but it really isn't. When it is in focus! ;-)
More soon!

Debut Video

Well of course there was our earlier 'set up' video, but this one is a genuine live performance.
I am not happy with this costume at all by the way, but I needed a change so I made do with what I had. I did two numbers, the other one was so fraught with technical issues, I haven't posted it anywhere. Not my fault and I soldiered through, but it doesn't show either myself or the venue to great effect.
So, you get this one! :) Introduction by the incomparable Sadie von Scrumptious, music recorded by Michael Nicholas Williams, lyrics by me, the rest is down to Constance!

Random Friday Make - Organza Boa

Well! I missed last week, too busy rehearsing (or let's face it, writing the last of the lyrics and trying to remember them!) and also making a boa.
I REALLY wanted a long, thick boa and I really don't care for feathers, they shed! 30 years ago when I first started making showgirl costumes, I made boas out of tulle, and I decided to try that technique this time, only using organza.
I used two rolls of 47cm wide organza floral wrap - which is just like organza ribbon only REALLY wide, and each roll is 10m long. I used purple and red, and laid one on top of the other. Then, I zigzagged 3mm silver bungy elastic down the middle, stretching it like mad as I went.
A tassle on each end, and pulling the layers apart resulted in a very pretty, OTT boa for Constance.

And there it is! Big, long, fluffy and sparkly.kinds like me! ;-)

My live Debut!

 Well, Constance's debut really! At Caburlesque show, The Mad, Bad World of Madonna, Fringe Bar last night, I sang two songs and had a ball!

 This is  me at half time in my robe, anything better than wearing PVC a moment longer! I think I look like a plump and ageing J H Lynch model! Between poses of course.

Woodlands Goddess, source

 This is my Rock Star photo, note the arms waving in the air, holding led tealights! hehehe. And some standing ovation stuff, which of course I can't see from up there.
The shiny costume and the bad light means I look like a white blob. Luckily, a real photographer was on hand and set up to get great shots of us on stage. I love them and I am so excited as I am off to have a photo session with her next Sunday! Yayhooey!

 Sooner or Later from Dick Tracy. Photo courtesy of Ataahua Pinups*

 I love this because I really look like a drag queen, which is the whole idea! :) Photo by Ataahua Pinups

 Don't Copy Me, Lady Gaga from, er Evita? ;-) Photo by Ataahua Pinups

This one is truer to the actual colour of my coat. Photo by Ataahua Pinups

I will do a post about my costumes and hair soon, promise!
*Ataahua means Beautiful in Maori, the indigenous language of New Zealand, which isn't actually Elvish ;-)