The Gatsby Afternoon Picnic 2014

Finally getting around to posting photos from the Gatsby Picnic a couple of weeks ago, but first...

I also returned from my hometown of Seattle last night, where I was honored to perform in the annual Steamposium convention. It ended up being a sort of unintended Seattle Burlesque reunion for us, and we had Seattle's best all on one stage; yours truly Vienna La Rouge, The Shanghai Pearl, Waxie Moon, Evilyn Sin Claire, Iva Handfull, Inga Ingenue and more. We had a great time, the people at the venue were lovely and accommodating and we hope to do it again next year. No performance images I know of yet, but here are a few silly backstage photos...oh, and a couple of cast members from Firefly just happened to stop by!
Feathered friends; Inga Ingenue and me hamming it up:



So, on to Gatsby photos;
I wore a vintage dress in a soft seafoam color with an ivory satin chevron stripe, from around 1936-37. The hat is a sheer ivory brimmed halo style from the same time frame. Anders wore his WWII Canadian uniform, complete with the Blackwatch kilt.
My dress has a matching jacket, but it needed a cleaning, and it was way too warm that day for anything more than just dresses and light fabrics, or kilts ;) My Edwardian linen parasol came in handy!
And as always, there were so many beautiful automobiles on display:

Same as last year, Johnny just happened to pull up at the entrance to the 'Gatsby estate' in his lovely car to give us a lift to the picnic site...

With Anders

 Daniel, me and Laura enjoying the cooler hours later in the day.

Michael, Anders, me and Aaron.

 It's not a wedding, but it makes for a nice photo. Some kind gent handed me this pretty bouquet of white flowers before we took this photo

At some point the heat (and possibly that second pimms cup) caused much silliness. Here I am spoiling Aarons Deco GQ cover shot.

So many lovely cars (I apologize for blocking them with my fashion posing ;-)

The ghost of Gatsby. Sneaking to the old pool area on the estate grounds with Autumn, Katrina, Erin and Breanna.

Excuse the blurry quality of the following photos, my camera lens is on a rather well worn iPhone...

 Deco deviants!

 Ending the day with some impromptu golf and possible pineapple throw.

Mr. Mosher and an un-thrown pineapple. Good night, Gatsby. Until next year!

Gathering No Moss

'Like a rolling stone' as they say, I've been busy.
Ever since returning from Dragon Con at the beginning of the month, it seems my schedule has been less than relaxing. I thought there would be a nice chunk of down time to do some post con cleanup, and start on my growing list of projects.
Alas, between work and other events such as the Gatsby picnic (which I'll make a post about here soon!), the time is slipping by faster than expected as we race toward Dickens Fair season once again.
I leave for Seattle next week to perform in the burlesque showcase at the annual "Steamposium" convention.
This visit to my hometown will be nice, and I get to see my dad, too.

Before that; however, I need to make at least one item over the next few days, to update one of the costumes I'll be performing with. The Valkyrie act will have a headdress change, from the crystal antlers to 'classical style' Valkyrie wings. The image below is one example of the concept I'm going for, but perhaps without the helmet.
I may just make them super light, and mount them on a headband base that ties under my hairdo for stability.

I'll keep the sparkly antlers, of course. They will get worked into another similar act.

DragonCon: Lagertha Part I

Anders and I not only had a successful DragonCon, but an insanely fun experience, too!
While this was not our first rodeo when it comes to cons, this was very likely the largest with a record-breaking crowd that topped out at somewhere around 62,000 attendees. That's the last number I heard, but it may have been more. The following posts on Dragon Con are in no particular order, but posts will most likely go up depending on what, and how many photos I have of each costume.
Above: One of my favorite shots from the main floor of me as Lagertha and Anders as Floki; we literally bumped into a guy that had a perfect Ragnar impression. His lady friend also had a pretty awesome first season Lagertha look going. The four of us spent the rest of the evening together raiding various con parties. (and yes, I know my sword is on the wrong side)

I don't have a lot of professional shots where you can see details of the Lagertha battledress, but there are possibly a few in the works.
I also didn't have time to really do my hair the way I wanted. It needed more oomph and while the knot work on top and the braids look ok, the rest looked a bit flat. However, we were dealing with Atlanta humidity and LOTS of people making it even warmer indoors, which is no help to hairdos. I added the little chains too, but next time I'm going to try the softer braided look for the 'fauxhawk' top as seen in this screencap from the show....

I went with this look instead, and added the chains to the side braids that hang down:

Mine. Not perfect, but I haven't mastered doing the tiny french braids on the sides yet:

 I plan to don this ensemble again soon to get more photos, but here are a few of my favorites so far:

Once again, I'm noticing how blue(!) the leather dress looks in some of the photos. particularly the outdoor shots taken in the shade. In person and indoors it looks more muted, and I did indeed weather the surface with a deep tint. In the outdoor shot below the color looks more accurate:

Earlier in the day with Laura as Astrid from "How To Train Your Dragon"

Photo: Mary Anne Butler

Floki and Lagertha taking a rest before the madness of the evenings festivities begin.

Photo: Mary Anne Butler

Floki had to take a time-out in the Ball Pit...

And then Floki made a friend....

And so did I!

So as you can see, the indoor lighting isn't very kind but we all had a blast regardless.
More photos are on the way xoxo