What To Wear When You Realise The Party Is 70s Fancy Dress At 6.45pm.

It's amazing what one finds in one's wardrobe.

Although, to be fair, they weren't actually in my wardrobe, more in my dressing up bag...

That shirt has an interesting story though. My dad bought it for my Mum in China. Yes....I know. She was going to send it to the Op Shop but I rescued it for my collection. I mean, it's just too deliciously awful to throw out! Her comment at the time was "What in the world made you think I would EVER wear a shirt like that!" Dad looked mournful, "And I made the lady in the shop climb up a ladder to get it because it was the last one left on a model right up on the top shelf!"

One does wonder what was going through his mind at the time, however, I think I may have solved the problem. A careful look at the front placket will reveal three, what appear to be, soccer balls! And my Dad has always loved his football....... Happy Birthday Dad! I will always think of you when wearing this shirt :-D

Brightly Dawned Her Wedding Day

After about ten years solo, my Bestie has finally tied the knot with The Amazing Mumford.

Sunday afternoon saw us arriving in the parklands under a savage 36C sunapproaching the vine covered gazebo and witnessing their exchange of vows.


Afterwards we retired to a local hotel for a cocktail reception. That's all I have time for tonight. More juicy details to follow when I am back on en even keel.

Get Me To The Church On Time*

"Mum, I had a terrible nightmare last night. I dreamed it was The Bestie's wedding and I didn't have a dress to wear..........."

"What's your point?"
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At the tender age of forty something, my Bestie has finally found the man of her dreams and on November 1st they will tie a rather unconventional knot in an outdoor ceremony in Adelaide's East Parklands. You see, at forty something and with one wedding behind you, you can afford to do things your way. There are no more maiden aunts and grandmothers to please; there is no sense of having to do it 'right' in case you regret it later and no fear of 'missing out' on something if you abandon the odd convention. No, at our age, one can indulge one's pecadillos.

Now I am not one to give away too many secrets in advance of the big day (much) but I can tell you that the Bestie has appointed The Diva and I her 'Old Tarts of Honour', Mumford is dry cleaning his 'Matrix' coat and planning a spectacular entrance and my Baby Angel has been given the job of escorting Q, beloved Jack Russell x Fox Terrier and ring bearer, down the 'aisle'. I told you it was unconventional.

The Bestie is opting for a dress to die for; big, bold and very 'Her'. A dress like this
(do not look if you don't want a spoiler). Due to the disparate shape and size of the other Old Tart and I, our dresses are linked by colour only and, since her best and most gorgeous dress is black, that's what I'm wearing too. So we have the boys in black, the OTs in black, the Bride in an 'unspecified colour but not white' and then we have The BA and dog.

So what will she wear?

The problem we face is that my Baby Angel already looks much older than her 14 years and I feel a black dress is too sophisticated and will make her look even older. Whilst this is a thrill for her, I am in no hurry to rush the aging process. I was in the same position at her age and inevitably people expected more of you than you were either capable of or comfortable with! She is a delightfully 14 year old fourteen year old, if that makes sense, and I want her to wear something that will be pretty, flattering, fun and yet dressy. Oh and the colour has to complement the Bestie's 'unspecified colour'. I want her to land somewhere between 'fairy princess' and 'funky teen'. Surely not that much of an 'ask'?

On the very first shopping day it became evident that our choices were more limited than we thought. Most of the dressy, formal dresses were very strappy or indeed strapless and she is not very comfortable with that yet and the price tags were, at times, insurmountable! I suggested making her a dress but she seemed less than thrilled at the prospect. We went out again last Thursday to try and find something in the right vein with a manageable price tag and brought a couple of dresses home on 'approval'.


Here is the first. Retail price tag: $ 90.00 AuI favoured the young, girly style of this one but felt the cotton material left it looking insufficiently 'fancy' for a wedding. She really liked it.

Here is the second. Retail price tag: $ 80.00 Au


This was a good combination of dressy and fun with the obvious problem of length (what length?) and a dubious top half which, as Himself said, left the dress looking like it didn't know what it was meant to be! From the back view you can see that there is a longer 'tube' style skirt poking out underneath the frou frou layer. I wondered about attaching another tulle layer underneath to add length but in the end the top half was not sufficiently inspiring for me to bother.She really liked it.

Naturally she wanted to keep both but as I pointed out, the first one I could make at half the cost, the second...well, where would she wear it? So the mean, Flaming Sword mother took both dresses back.

She hated me for about 20 minutes then she got over it.

So where does that leave us? Well, I want to do something like the first one but in a dressy fabric so I have been to a lovely fabric shop and picked up 3 m of a gorgeous crepe georgette style fabric (reduced from $30.00/m to $10.00/m) and half a metre of black lace for $10.00. I plan to make a full, swing skirt in the cream fabric and overlay the bodice (similar to the first dress) with the black lace. With the addition of a pattern for the bodice ($15.00) I should be able to put the whole thing together for around $55.00. In theory.

I think I'll do the whole thing in calico first just to make sure I cut the pattern correctly but hopefully we'll end up with something that is just right for the occasion and didn't cost an arm and a leg. I'll start when I've finished the top of the quilt :-D




* Stanley Holloway sings 'Get Me To The Church On Time (Lerner and Loewe)

NaBloPoMo #22:The Slightly Disturbing Disney Outfit

Christmas aged 5 and a half. The Cinderella dress (purportedly) sent from Australia in the Christmas parcel by BA's lovely Dad . Boa of unknown origins but I do remember she got two that year, pink and white, and I found feathers all over the house for MONTHS!!!

This photo is highly representative of most of The Baby Angels' play for the next few years. She was BIG into dressing up!!! And while previously she had been happy to be Virgil from Thunderbirds or Robin Hood...by 5 and a half it was all about pretty dresses. Nothing to do with me...I made her the Robin Hood outfit!!!!!

Here's To Halloween Past

The first time we dressed up for Halloween, the baby Angel was about 4. There was a party at a friend's house (the Brits don't really do public trick or treating..or if they do they preface it with a flyer to all the intended houses warning them that the ghoulies are coming. If you don't want to participate you put the flyer up in your window!! Very organised) and we had to throw together a costume. Being fairly broke at the time, I opted for recycled and home made costumes.The robe was a velour maternity smock from the second hand shop, gathered at the neck with elastic and shortened appropriately. The cape was an old black half slip of mine (probably inherited from mum!!), cut up the middle with a silver tie added. I think we also decorated it with glo in the dark and puffa paints! The hat. Well, it was a good idea but we ran out of time. Lovingly constructed out of cardboard, I had intended to paint it black but left it to the BA to colour instead. You can see her efforts. But she was very happy with the hat and I figured...why knock myself out? Perhaps she is a white witch!! It would be fun to photoshop it now and mske it black!! The face painting was the 'piece de resistance' I think :-D No matter how homemade we looked, we had a great time at the party and the dress ups were used again and again in many different guises over the years.
This is two years later and involved ME going to a Halloween party!!! Similar makeup you may notice. I had managed to pick up a cheap black plastic hat so I looked a good deal more glamorous than BA had in her white cardboard hat heheheh. Somehow I don't think she minded and I think she inherited the hat in her dress ups anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In a way I miss the old 'opportunity to dress up'. On the other hand it simplifies life a lot not having to come up with something different year after year!

Have a great Halloween all my American Blog Buddies!!! We're thinking of you!!!!

The Musical: Part 1

I woke up yesterday and realised there are 5 weeks until our school musical 'goes on' and we currently have costumes for, oh, maybe ONE character!

I am in charge of costumes. What was I thinking?????

Now, I have done musicals before. I have directed, designed and painted sets, choreographed, acted, danced, sung, stage managed and worked in lighting BUT I have never been solely in charge of costumes before. I may be out of my depth.

Today I must go op shopping and look for 'stuff'. Our musical (being a good Christian school) is 'Pilgrim: The Musical'. Yes, dear reader it is the story of 'Pilgrim's Progress' set to modern music and modified to include a cast of thousands of dancing girls. Do try NOT to laugh. I wonder how many Quaker's hats I'll find at the local Goodwill?

Wish me luck :-D

Eds Note: The above atmospheric but totally unrelated photo is the 'Peartree Players' 2002 production of "Robinson Crusoe and the Pirates" directed by yours truly, sets painted by yours truly, yours truly in title role (they INSISTED) and standing third from the right. A lavish production by our local Church, this annual Christmas entertainment extravaganza made up in enthusiasm what we lacked in talent. Which was quite a lot. Of both.