A weekend of pure magic is over… and I’m looking back and sighing with happiness at every moment of it.
On Friday, The Night Circus arrived at Tea and Sympathy, my favourite place in Colchester. The dress code was black and white and circus-appropriate, with a red accent for the reveurs – those who had read the book. (And if you’ve read it, you’ll know why!) For those that haven’t had the pleasure, the theme was around the book The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern.
My red accents were my sequined shoes, scarlet lipstick and a peek of a red bra… 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever felt more thoroughly myself, though my outfit wasn’t entirely appropriate for the multi storey car park where we put the cars when we arrived… lol. But I’ve always been fascinated by the circus – my burlesque name is a tribute to my obsession with Enid Blyton’s circus stories!
I arrived with Gabby and Chris, after the quickest house tour in the history of the world, and we wandered in a haze of happiness through the shop, up and down the tiny, twisting staircase, to hidden rooms, magic and wonder at every turn…
There were fire dancers, burlesque from Miss Fanny Darling, magicians, fortune tellers and some cocktails, which I’m told were lethal… I declined to sample them, as I quite fancied getting home without getting arrested!
Here’s Gabby and Chris, looking like they belong with the Cirque…
Miss Fanny Darling as the Raven…
And the incredible fire dancing duo (I have plans for a skirt just like that one… I LOVE IT!)
I’ll leave you with the video of the fire dancers – a little taste of the most magical evening I’ve had in a long, long time! With thanks to Tea and Sympathy for making dreams reality 🙂
A weekend of pure magic is over… and I’m looking back and sighing with happiness at every moment of it.
On Friday, The Night Circus arrived at Tea and Sympathy, my favourite place in Colchester. The dress code was black and white and circus-appropriate, with a red accent for the reveurs – those who had read the book. (And if you’ve read it, you’ll know why!) For those that haven’t had the pleasure, the theme was around the book The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern.
My red accents were my sequined shoes, scarlet lipstick and a peek of a red bra… 🙂
I don’t think I’ve ever felt more thoroughly myself, though my outfit wasn’t entirely appropriate for the multi storey car park where we put the cars when we arrived… lol. But I’ve always been fascinated by the circus – my burlesque name is a tribute to my obsession with Enid Blyton’s circus stories!
I arrived with Gabby and Chris, after the quickest house tour in the history of the world, and we wandered in a haze of happiness through the shop, up and down the tiny, twisting staircase, to hidden rooms, magic and wonder at every turn…
There were fire dancers, burlesque from Miss Fanny Darling, magicians, fortune tellers and some cocktails, which I’m told were lethal… I declined to sample them, as I quite fancied getting home without getting arrested!
Here’s Gabby and Chris, looking like they belong with the Cirque…
Miss Fanny Darling as the Raven…
And the incredible fire dancing duo (I have plans for a skirt just like that one… I LOVE IT!)
I’ll leave you with the video of the fire dancers – a little taste of the most magical evening I’ve had in a long, long time! With thanks to Tea and Sympathy for making dreams reality 🙂
Come and visit Ducking Fabulous at the Junk Jamboree on 4th May – there will be cake, and a ukulele set, and all sorts of dangerous but wonderful stalls alongside mine.
Burlesque (well, a Ducking Fabulous stall while wearing my burlesque gear, to support the girls who were performing at the venue), zooming around in Poppy with the roof down, puppies, lunch with a dear friend and lots and lots of SUNSHINE… it’s been a thoroughly brilliant weekend.
She generally has a sweeter expression than this – I think she was unimpressed by the camera shoved in her face!
While driving around in Poppy, roof down, singing (badly) to 99 Problems, I realised that even with sunglasses and a convertible, I will never be cool. This is rather a relief.
Talking of roof down, I nearly wet myself laughing when I stopped at traffic lights and a random chav yelled “oi, someone’s nicked yer roof” – I’ve certainly had more original heckles. It amazes me how much attention she seems to get, especially in this part of the country where there are much more expensive, shiny and generally showy cars around. (It’s ok – I still love her best!)
This is serious market research. Does your outfit affect your sales?!
The Pamper Yourself Vintage fair was great fun and I finally got to meet Hattie of Whats your tale, nightingale? which was fabulous. Lovely to catch up with some of the Jems, and Annastasia was an absolute star and helped with my stall as well as dancing 🙂
I’ve done at least half my admin outside, and I even managed to sit and read a book for a bit this morning. Acquired a hammer (Dad will be relieved, he’ll have sole ownership of his again), a blue beach type chair for garden relaxing, a photo tent, another copy of the Free Range Humans book and a copy of my door key so that friends don’t have to leave when I do if they stay during the week. Excellent.
I even managed to make a summery casserole (oxymoron, no?!) in the slow cooker – so my only fail of the weekend would be choosing and writing cards for two of my favourite people in the world, whose birthdays fell on Friday and today… and then in the madness of stallholding, forgetting to take them with me to post. Silly girl… so if either of you are reading (I suspect you’re not, lol) – they’re going in the post tomorrow, I promise!
And on that note, having filled the blank page (and many others) in the fading sun with notes for Ink Drops, the Ducking Fabulous shop and my two super secret projects, I am off to bed with a book.
I hope you all also had thoroughly fabulous weekends!
This weekend, I’m mostly in absolute awe of anyone with a toddler or two. My best friend (and old housemate!) came to visit for the weekend, and after a Friday night spent drinking gallons of tea and catching up, we headed over to Layer Marney on Saturday for a spot of babysitting.
Her niece and nephew are both under 4, and I’d only met them briefly at her wedding last summer… the children’s parents were off to an adults-only wedding and I have to confess that despite my multitude of cousins, who I’ve looked after unsupervised for years, I was a bit nervous.
However, they were as good as gold and after popping to the beach with their mum in the morning so they could get to know me, we spent a very rainy day making cards (translation: covering things in glitter glue), playing pirates using beds as ships (surprisingly fun, I may introduce this as an after-dinner game) and watching Shrek. Because dragons and pirates are a really big deal when you’re three and a half 🙂
This evening I have mostly been doing a stock take for Ducking Fabulous – I have two fairs coming up and will shortly be reopening the Etsy shop… and I have plans to also open shops on Folksy and ASOS. Exciting times!
Having worked out what I have, I’m now on a mission to find new suppliers for chains, and I’m also experimenting with metal stamping…
Coming up on the blog in the next few weeks…
Incredible chocolates from the very talented Fran at B Chocolates | Essie nail polish and buyapowa review (hint – it’s a good one!) | chicken, tarragon & nutmeg pie recipe | adventures in aromatherapy | experiments in crafting | a super secret project 🙂
PS The photos are in black and white because the light in here is appalling!
So I’ve blogged the overview of my new home, here are some of the details. More will emerge in the coming weeks and months – as is probably obvious, I seem to have a ridiculous amount of stuff!
Kitchen and conservatory details:
Wall art and my amazing route 66 clock. The Pepsi sign is actual vintage and has the rust to prove it, the Marmite one much newer.
Fridge with my 2013 things list on it (and it’s magnetic, which for some reason is a massive novelty)
The cakes I made last night and iced this morning with my very exciting housewarming gift from my lovely family, and the mixer itself – squee!!
A tour of my new home – overview today, details tomorrow. I’m completely in love 🙂 Welcome in – the kettle’s on, don’t forget to wipe your feet…
My living room from the door:
The dodgy looking cupboard in the middle will become my pin up girl bar; the mannequin was a leaving present from my old work; the Stetson is the one I wore when I competed in Worlds line dance in 2000; I frequently knock the hanging bird cage candle over and spill hot wax on myself.
From the stairs looking towards the front door. The carpet entirely accidentally matches my colour scheme. The helicopter throw on the sofa (more visible in tomorrow’s details post) is a nod to helicopters having been around my whole life – I know a shamefully small amount about them but Dad works with them so I’ve always had them around.
Took this a couple of days ago on the way home from work. There are still patches of snow and ice around campus, and there were snowflakes in the air when I left the house this morning.
And because it seems like an appropriate place to put it, here are some snaps of the new house in the snow. Wasn’t expecting to see it so soon!
And while it’s very pretty – snow, for the sake of the little plants desperately trying to grow in the last picture – please now DO ONE!!!
Wishing you all a very happy Easter… enjoy the four day weekend!
Oh, it’s been a whirlwind of a week. (I wonder how often I start a blog post with that?) I’ve finally moved, I’m in, the keys have been handed back to the old flat’s agents and my new house feels like home already!
Here are the fabulous daffodils (I ADORE daffs) that Mum and Dad brought me to celebrate moving in. I feel I should point out that the curtains will be changed shortly, and I really should have been buying them flowers – couldn’t have done this move without them!
And my very first visitors this weekend…
Here are some (probably blurry) photos from the move – am hoping Mum took some of the chaos of boxes, as I completely forgot in the excitement!
As I’m fairly sure you all know by now, I have been moving house this week. Proper update coming soon, but in my absence, the lovely Jenny has written for Ducking Fabulous…
This is Jenny and I on a friend’s Krakow hen do. *Grins*
Over to Jenny…
Recently there have been a few occasions where I’ve stopped and thought, “I’m getting old!”
Before some of you get annoyed at my suggesting I might be old at the age of 26 (nearly 27!), I know I’m not old and there are many people older than me, but don’t you sometimes get the feeling the world is trying to remind you that you’re getting older?
My moments of age realisation have included:
· Waiting for my brother outside the secondary school he works at and realising I left education nine years ago and the pupils are at least that many years younger than me.
· Remembering the days of dial up internet and times before social media existed.
· The shock on the face of a girl in her early teens when I told her Facebook wasn’t around until my 20s (possibly marginally earlier for those of my age group who went to University) and I chatted to friends on MSN, which no longer exists.
· A Facebook moan of mine about road closures in Wokingham being printed in the local paper on their letters page – surely only ‘old’ people moan in papers!
I'm Carla, a quirky thirtysomething with a penchant for unicorns and glitter. I believe in magic and make-believe, and the gorgeous rebellion of making your life absolutely your own. And I'm a proud multipod!
Proud to be both girly and geeky, when I’m not writing, photographing or daydreaming, you can find me dancing burlesque, riding my bicycle Bluebell, growing herbs and collecting typewriters.
2020 Things
Things I want to do in 2020. Partly from my Daydreams To Do list and also from my general goals for the year.
~ Steampunk events
~ experiment with film cameras
~ walk more
~ explore Colchester
~ beach time
~ kitty portraits
~ western riding
~ spa days
~ silversmithing
~ learn to make bath bombs
~ recreate Lush's Angel's Delight soap fragrance
~ work in sterling silver
~ build a catio
~ handwritten letters
~ photobook of the house project, the cats, Poppy & Dad
~ print my own photos
