Merry Christmas!

 Twenty plus family for Christmas Dinner today, which meant lots and lots of turkey, ham, potatoes, kumara, peas, beans, carrot and salad, Christmas pud with lemon sauce, trifle, pavlova, jelly and...icecream.
Yes.
All that.
But with plenty of kids to boss around, we got everything ready, everyone fed happily, dishes done, and entertainment provided.
I adore my nieces, they are three very clever young ladies and awesome fun. And all have inherited their parents' double dose of musicality. Genevieve and Millie from Melbourne have been members of the Australian Girls Choir and gone on international tours. Zoe has been singing along in perfect pitch since she was a tiny dot. When they get together, music is inevitable.

Here they are performing Winter White Hymnal with a complex and clever percussion counterpoint done on paper cups.  My sister Jo, Zoe's Mum, is a great encourager of this musicality - and here she is singing with them. Achingly beautiful, it nearly brought tears to my eyes.
After that, the grown ups got a chance to make eejits of theyselves. Jo and I did our little party piece about our obsession fondness for quilting fabric!

 Me and my little sister - whose costume is a clue as to the song being sent up, or at least the band ;-)

We had fun. We enjoyed good food, good company, and that's what Christmas is all about.
Happy Birthday Jesus xo

Video footage finally!

Thanks to the amazing editing work of Andrew, the techy half of the Caburlesque producer team, I bring to you videos of my two latest acts. Well, Constance's acts. Of course, ahem.
I am merely the lender f wedding dresses, the constructor of unicorn slippers and "Eye" of Sauron crown.

Sauron is NOT happy about Tolkein rewriting 'history' to say she was a male. GRR!

Lady Gladyournotreal, putting a different perspective on the immortal life of an elf.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas preparations

Ho ho ho! How are your preparations going? Mine are...interesting!
This year, with Christmas being later in the week on a Thursday, it's like everyone thinks they have a whole extra week, so it took a while to gain momentum but has become a frenzy. Today (Sunday) is the biggest Sunday we've ever done, before Christmas or not. So, I am very busy at work, but it really is fun.
Every time I ask, "Would you like that gift wrapped?" I hope they say YES, and I can wrap another gift. SQUEE!!! We don't sell that many things for gifts, so the novelty won't wear off by Wednesday.
We have a "no gifts" policy among the adults in our family, for us it is all about the preparation, the shared meal and the time together.
In that regard, I have a turkey thawing in the fridge, along with the bits needed for preparing it, the wreath is on the door, and the few gifts I do give are nearly sorted. A little later than ideal, I hope the P.O. delivers them on time!

Mine's a 5.5 but pretty much the same as this one :)

Frolicking Photos

I just received some official action photos from Frolic Lounge.Lovely black and white ones. Kind of cool though, very vintage feeling!

Straight after the fan dance, which we do in our robes so as to keep costumes secret. I've not divested myself of mine yet. It looks quite exotic but it is just made of quilting cotton in a lovely red Oriental pattern.

 And we're off! I am not clutching a chicken leg, but a closed feather fan.

 I'm Tired, tired of being an elf!

The fan dance. Wils on my left was seriously getting into it! I was just trying to remember the moves!

A happy moment! From left, Tasty Tingle, Miss la Belle our teacher, Ophelia BonBon, Constance Craving, Jazz Tre-Belle, Amber de Luze, Deadly Flutter.

We had a lovely night, I worked my butt off - in a 70 minute show, 35 minutes of it was me! Erk!

I get to see the video next week, and if it is not totally embarrassing,  I may post bits.

I'm still patiently waiting for photos and video from Caburlesque Middle Earth Madness - that is gonna be a doozy!