Mary Poppins, but not as you know her!

Video from our Demented Disney show came through, and here is my interpretation of Mary Poppins, introduced by the effervescent Sadie von Scrumptious, with guest appearance by K.T.

Costumewise, it was the easiest to date by FAR. The usual skirt, a modified jacket and a new hat.
The jacket was a black one I used to wear in my corporate days. I trimmed the collar with blue satin bias, turned the fronts back and under and trimmed the new line. I subbed out the buttons with daisy ones and that was it!
The hat I made using the same method as my hat tutorial here- it's just black calico. I found the three yellow gerberas at a discount store, and just glued them on. Easy peasy.
She needed a more Edwardian hair do than Constance normally has, so instead of the huge ratt on top, I used a bunch of curled hair extensions wound into balls as padding to build my hair up and out. It was just right, and the hat only needed one hat pin through the top layer and then all tha extra hair to stay put.

In case you are wondering, the baggies contain lemon sherbet. We made it ourselves, and here is the recipe:

 Mary Poppin's "Special Sugar"

1 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon each of tartaric acid, citric acid and baking soda
1 packet of lemon Raro or Tang powder (sugar no artificial sweetened)
Just stir it all up and that's it!

It really is quite delicious, and quite the pick me up!

We won!!!

My shop Made on Marion, won the Top Shop Award for Small/Single Store. How cool is that?!

This is me accepting the award and having a lot to say as per usual -behind me from left, Melisa, Karen, MrC (pretty much hidden) Ben, and Mark the CEO of Retail NZ.

It was an awesome evening - lovely company at our table from an online beauty products shop, a lovely dinner and the excitement of winning!! Yay!!!

For a laugh, this is me on the left, up until 4.30pm. Right is me after an hour of serious interventioning at the mirror ;-)

Melissa, me and Karyn all glammed up in red and orange goodness. I am wearing the silk and velvet evening cape The Dreamstress made for me last year. So pretty!

Now to my top. It is made from a strange silk fabric, like a really coarsely woven organza but it is still beautiful quality. It behaves like organza - floating and billowing instead of draping. I fell hard to the print, which reminded me of inlaid wooden tables, but with a slightly tapa cloth vibe too.

The top is a standard MrsC empire line, A-line skirt with uneven hem jobbie, with rather odd split sleeves.

It was a mare to sew however. I tried to narrow hem the bottom and sleeves on the overlocker but the fabric kept pulling away from the stitching for inches at a time. Grrr. I tried overlocking it and it did the same thing. This is all the night before of course.

In the end I got a grip, reminded myself that I have Mad Skills, and worked it out. Firstly I stay stitched the raw edges about 5mm in, to help the warp and weft to settle. Then I changed the way I was drawing it through the overlocker - putting some tension behind it as well as in front. This really helped. I also lifted the cutting blade so it really did roll - I don't usually do this but sometimes it is the best.

FINALLY, I got a nice rolled edge. It held together for the evening, looked nice on stage, looked good as we danced our way UP to the stage to the Happy Song (everyone had great boogie music but we were the only team that danced!) and I didn't slop gravy down it so win!

I am so ridonculously proud of my people and of us :)

On Touring, Thrifting and Coffee

Well in the past 72 hours I have driven 1200km through snow, rain and sunshine, performed, bought amazing things en route, and made new friends. And now I am relaxing for a day before another big week.
After our first show in Whakatane was postponed because the weather meant we couldn't get there, we rescheduled for Friday 7 August. So at 7am on Friday, I headed off to pick up my two companions and fellow performers, Moxie Fizz and Lady Sane.
We drove nearly 600km in wonderful weather, for which I thanked many lucky stars, and got to Whakatane by 4pm as planned.
The saga of the show began when we walked into the room, saw the stage and all of our hearts sank. All being the three of us, our wonderful leader Cherry Boomb, and Pussy Galorrez. Real names withheld to protect the innocent. I am not going to go into the details of the next three hours, wherein LadyPower transformed an almost unworkable set up into a passable venue, nor of the show itself which was pretty damned good in spite of said venue and because of us! And the great staff there who did their best to help us out. We were a Test Case for them so the boss didn't want to overinvest, you see. So we got paid the worst and had to deal with the worst conditions. From now on it will probably be fabulous. And this is why I would quite like to go back, in spite of it all.
ANYWAY, what I wanted to show you is the loot I scored on the way home!!! We stopped for a good break in Taupo, which for the uninitiated is a gorgeous little town on the shores of Lake Taupo the population of which increases 20x over in summer. It is winter here but it is still hummy, and Moxie and I went off to find junk or craft shops as we love to do.
We ended up in an antique/junk shop where the owners were enjoying a fish and chip lunch on the counter because classy. Smelled good though! Scanning the crammed cabinets of china and knickknacks, I spied buttons. BUTTONS!! Czech glass, old buttons. Just a few but so pretty. Mrs Fishnchips said, there's more in those drawers - and soon we had the little shallow drawers flung open on hundreds of twinkling glass buttons.
Between us we bought about 70 buttons and this is my haul:

Aren't they pretty! The big leaf ones are 32mm across (1 1/4 inches) and are what drew my eye. 

Glass buttons make the most incredible sound when you move them around together. I am immediately reminded of the precious glass marbles so popular when I was young. I took this photo on my kitchen bench, and as I never wear blue, it's probably not the best backdrop to show them off - they are chosen to wear with rich red, purples, golds and blacks, cos that is how I roll.

After beating the snow front on the Desert Road, where State Highway 1 runs across a volcanic plain of extraordinarily wild beauty seen many times in the LOTR and Hobbit movies, we ended up in Taihape. Here we found a junk shop so unappealing I nearly walked out, until I saw that among the total rubbish were some gems, at proper junk shop prices. I could have filled a trailer with charmingly ugly, oak modernist furniture for a few dollars, but I restrained myself to one oak Queen Anne stool that would fit in the back.

I am so torn between giving this a chalk paint treatment or leaving it as oak. I think I'll re-cover the top and then decide. It is so lovely - and useful too! 

Lady Sane came away with a bag of clothes and Moxie found some sewing patterns so everyone felt the opshopping love.

Now on the way up, I got my first speeding ticket since 2000. So, my first in this century. MORTIFIED was I, as I am a nana driver, but it was a straight bit and I got carried away. This happened on the outskirts of Hunterville, where we also stopped on the way home for a hot snack. I did what I have done many times - putting a hot coffee on the dash while I get into the car and move it to the cup holder when BOOSH, off it fell, spilling its smelly, milky self all over me, the driver floor, door and dash. Many tissues later, the worst was cleaned up but I am never stopping in Hunterville again as I feel it is not on my side.

 

In spite of speeding tickets, rickety stages, microphone batteries dying mid song, coffee spills and because of fantastic company, show camaraderie, a great audience, sequins, comfy motel beds, beautiful snow and op shopping, it was a fabulous weekend.

And to come - this week is the Award Ceremony for the Top Shop awards, in which Made on Marion is a finalist, and I have a posh top to make for it so double reason for a follow up post - new outfit AND outcome!

Happy Sunday everyone! xo