Up to my old costuming tricks!!

 People, my new costuming tricks are all about dressing my alter ego. But my old ones were costuming for theatre shows. 

So, recently I've done a tiny bit of costuming. Basically I am a sort of shadowy resource who has tried, and sadly failed, to remain anonymous at a local community theatre. 

My contributions are generally millinery, but a couple times I've busted out something more. Here's a breakdown:

Pride and Prejudice:

This is how it all began. I got wind of a production and offered to insert headgear, as it always gets overlooked but I think it is more important than dresses for setting the scene and tone. (grr, looking at you, Bridgerton)

All of these hats are made from a range of cheap hat types - bowling fedoras, bowlers, molded plastic "top hats" you name it. I now keep a supply on hand just in case. They are useful as they have the crown to brim join already made.

Full bonnets are no good in the Gryphon theatre which has steep lighting lines so they'd cast shadows on faces. So these are all back of head types.

Lady Catherine de Burgh's extravagant tall hat. She was wearing purple and orange so I figured, get in there and lean in on the crazy! It won an award for the best showstopper of the year!

A wee ruched velvet hat, and a shallow bonnet. That was the only straw hat I could find, hence the other solutions I found to the hat making process.

I think this is my favourite. No idea what I based it on! It has a lovely pleated lining though.

Another ruched hat with turban vibes and ostrich feathers.

A little cutie based on a very cheap white top hat. Silk taffeta with organza and fake flowers. It also has a gorgeous pleated lining.

Gabriel

Set in the Channel Islands during WW2 occupation, Gabriel the play needed a period credible brassiere. Trouble is, the wearer would have worn a binder style bra, not the dainty peach and lace ones we love to think of, so I decided stuff it, and built a pretty one on top of a modern skin tone bra.

For the 4 seconds it is on display, I think it would have gotten the idea across. Lightweight silk I overdyed with food colouring as it was a bit wishy washy, and chantilly lace from my stash also dyed with food gels.

 Persuasion

Persuasion just closed after a sell out season. A mammoth effort that was costumed from scratch. I was asked to make a bicorne,and  also ended up making a second, not shown.

This is made from a black $12 sombrero - I reduced the crown down, steamed it into shape, covered it in felt using Steamaseam, bound it with black bias then glued on authentic metallic trims. The metallic trim is too heavy for a machine and I knew the stitches would be super obvious from the back row. And no way was I sewing this on through all that nasty synthetic.

So, it turns out my lovely friend Janet was also cast in it and so I undertook to make her overcostume too. She doubled as Lady Russell and Mrs Musgrove. The show wasn't trying to be super authentic, but it definitely captured the vibe, I feel. Sadly my pleas to incorporate shawls and bonnets weren't taken up due to the seamless style of it all, no time for transitions - but I DID get headwear onto my friend.

The only thing I made in this image is the cap Janet is wearing (second from right) but don't you love the puppets for the annoying Musgrove Children! The rest were made by a local lady who is incredibly clever, and had a month to do nothing else. The things people do for community theatre...Anyway cap made from self stripe silk organza and a couple of other laces. The Dreamstress donated some lacy offcuts for this, thank you as always!

Funny, Janet is in the same position in this pic as the last, but this time as Lady Russell. I made her red overdress and turban. The fabrics are velvet and a heavy Indian cotton with metallic crewel embroidery. Everything Janet wore has come back to me and that dress is going to become a jacket at some stage!

And that's my foray into theatre costuming! I did assist with another professional production but I'm not spilling the beans on that one!

Out and About

WELL, it's been a while! As usual, I'm busy, and also get a bit cringe about talking about my life.

 Here's a pic of the cast of a show I did at Shantytown, a tourist attraction just outside of Greymouth in the South Island on April 13.

A quick wrap up since last April: I have a new job - I'm now a consultant on salary instead of a gun for hire. It's really different and I like the continuity and having a team behind me. Last year I worked for a business in the South Island and got to travel down there every few weeks which was really good fun. A welcome break from govt work. Anyone following kiwi politics will understand this, nuff said.

Constance is still busy - no overseas travel since 2022, and none until 2025, when I'll be heading back to Canadia, with husband this time as he deserves a break. April was a show out of town every weekend and it was too much, but sometimes I just need to do the shows that I need to do, and they clump together like this.

My love of quizzes has persisted - Hans and I hosted a fundraiser with performances in November last year, I've still done the odd music round, and now I am writing one!

 I've done a fair bit of sewing, and not posted any of it. I'll try to redress this as I've made some really fun and gorgeous things!

That's it really. No minutae of life, that requires remembering to post more often. 

I'll try to do better! xo

Quiz Mastering and liking blogs

 On Thursday last, I Quiz mastered the music quiz at the Southern Cross for the first time!

Hans on acoustic round, me on the rest!

I did the acoustic round 11 times since April 22, which is a fair few, and because our beloved quiz master Vorn wasn't able to attend, nor his usual back-up, I volunteered.

SUCH FUN. It was a lot of work doing the research and assembling play lists, but as this whole quiz is about listening to songs and answering things like artist and title, as well as in one case, which movie the song was played over the credits of, it's fairly straight forward. 

So now I want to be a quizmaster somewhere every week. It's lots of fun, and I can do it with a 20 minute hair and face makeover instead of a two hour one!

Of course in spite of this it was not plain sailing -  I had bought all of the songs off a website and all was well until an 80s hit came up and it was so quiet we could hardly hear it. Realising this was going to be an ongoing issue, Hans quickly assembled the playlists in Spotify on his iPhone and played them off there. OMG WHAT. Thank goodness for having a millenial by my side

Lots else has been happening too, of course. I'm giving up lone contracting and joining a consultancy company with handover mid May, I've taken up aqua jogging, and I'm still sorting out how I want to focus my spare time, while squandering it on games on my phone.

I'm finishing with a thanks to those who still blog, and read blogs. I'm not an instagram kind of gal, I like a good chewy read. I subscribe to a few newsletters that are basically blog posts that get dropped into our email aren't they? And Youtube, with its longer form chatty videos. But I really like blogs.

Free time!

 Well, I am no longer a person who owns a shop. On 1 January it became Wendy's baby and no longer ours.

It's pretty idyllic really - I love it still and love our team, and I am still welcome and will be teaching hopefully, later in the year. 

BUT, I have my Saturdays back!!!! Hallelujah!!! We went to Martinborough this past weekend with friends and didn't have to worry about what we were leaving behind. Amazing.

While we were there we went to see Graham and Sons Upholstery about our sofa. It is in good nick, except the cushions which are borked. As replacing it with like is a $6k investment, we are looking at just having the cushions done and these are the two stand out options, either side of the original.

I am a big fan of mixing up patterns and having a stripy frame and patterned seat cushions is fine with me. Which one do you like best?

Hair and PM refresh

So, after four months it was time to get my red, pink and purple edge streaks refreshed. It's all new for me, well it was 1998 when I last had any hair on my head bleached, and that was sort of bandy streaks of sunset orange.

It is really hard to get into a hair salon in Wellington. So many of those wonderful senior stylists in their late 20s and 30s have taken off overseas (including my darling Harlie) at the same time as the lock down messed up the more gradual rotation. So I was over the moon to get an appointment within two weeks with the lovely Nicole at Hair Ministry (it's near Parliament) and she was so lovely and the salon is lovely too. All the great service and experience but none of that inner city baditude that I have experienced.

The regrowth was impressive! The colour looks strong still as I refresh it every few washes, but it was getting dire.

First up, bleaching those roots. Nicola did this in two stages, the very base against my head was second as the product works faster close to the warmth of the head. Such care.
I really loved the Trelisse Cooper robe, it even had hand holes in it.

Bleach washed out, colours painted on. So many processes! That's Gowry the other stylist (boss lady?) in the background. The guy whose hair she is cutting came in with the biggest mop, she cut SO much oout of it, it was fascinating to watch in the mirror. Yes, I am nosy.

The finished look. It is a 2.5 hour process and I eschewed getting the offered curls because I was running late and Nicola's next client was waiting. Next time.
Hard to tell in this pic but the top if red, and the next section down is pink, and under that is purple. So on the right of my part (my right) it is just pink and purple. It works!

Well, our PM has resigned. Her daughter is starting school in a few weeks and she wants to be a Mum. And a wife - not like she just wants to be a wife and mum, but she wants to do those things justice. Jacinda Ardern is amazing, and part of that was, she never really wanted to be PM in the first place. And she's so burned out, she is doing the right thing. Chris Hipkins is our new PM and I think he'll do well. The new deputy PM is Carmel Sepuloni, first Pasifika person to be DPM. they are all great mates, from the 2008 intake into opposition that brought Jacinda into Parliament too.

New beginnings eh.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from a New Zealand summer! A lovely day of family and friends and lots of delicious food.

Pictured, a tower of mini pavlovas -rose, orange with black pepper, and coffee flavoured. Slices of orange and plums, and berry coulis to garnish. Toasted almonds in the wee bowl on top.

What do you call a tower of pavs? Apparently, it's a Pav-illion!!!!
 

 

 

What are you getting up to - or what did you get up to? There's no right way to do Christmas!

Sneaky Christmas gift opening before the 25th!

 I had a couple of outlier gifts arrive - one from a "Secret Glitter Elf" exchange with other people in the burlesque community in NZ, and one from a darling friend who also happens to be a performer.

Look at this lovely gift! The budget is $20, and the did so well.

This one was a really cool idea - a chain decoration made from fabric. Each loop has press snaps and I enjoyed organising what order to put them in enormously. Ellen knows me so well and chose the perfect colours. I have draped it artistically over the gifts around my tree. The rhubarb coloured mohair rug is thrown over all of the boxes and containers of makeup so the tree has a nice background.

SO artistic! Thank you Ellen! <3