Lost out to a lick of paint....

So Sis has blown me out next week in order to redecorate! Hmmm. Still, it at least gives me the chance to go for another 'girls night out' to this:




The "Worlds Greatest Showgirl", Princess Farhana, is coming to my little town, to one of the smallest theatres in the country! She's giving a stage make-up demonstration, a talk about the history of bellydance and burlesque (which is quite an eye-opener I've heard - she leads a wild life!), and performances by her and by other other dancers.



So the night should be a good laugh. A girls night out is always fun! I'm looking forward to the stage make-up demo. Oo, and 'the guy' turned up to belly-dance class again last night! It's funny watching him trying to emulate hip shimmies and chest lifts. The teachers instructions to imagine lifting up from the middle of your bra left him totally confused. Guys just don't have the 'bits' to make these movements graceful. Or lets face it, to even be able to make the movement at all. Hip slides are an example of a movement that most blokes just can't do. I have seen a male dancer before though and he was quite flexible - he bent backwards much further than I can *lol* but there were alot of movements that he just didn't do as part of his routine. Hmmm. Now I'm curious. I might have to search for male dancers on YouTube to see what they normally do. Has anyone else seen a male bellydancer?


Anyway, before I get totally distracted by that idea, I have to tell you that I've finally finished the Tassel-edged Wrap! Hurray! Here it is being modelled by Chia'ana (who has recently sprouted fairy wings - 'thanks M' - his idea of a joke!) Here it's folded in half because I wouldn't have been able to get it in the picture otherwise. It's really long! I can wrap it twice round myself! Got to figure how to block it now. Well, not how, I know the 'how', but where. And is it worth blocking acrylic? As you can see, Chia'ana is still wearing the velvet jacket. I haven't got around to embroidering it yet. I'm still mulling over the possible designs. I'd like a henna type design, or maybe Celtic, or possibly just a floral design. So many possibilities, so little time!

My socks? They're still on the needles. I've just turned the first heel. I'd be useless at the Sock Wars which have just started. I'm knitting these so slowly I'd be assassinated before I had a chance to even get to the first heel! We have another Ravelry group meeting this weekend, so they'll get another outing then probably. I'm looking forward to meeting up with the yarn girls again.

And surprise surprise, the postie bought me two packages today! The first was this light tent which pops out to form a cube made of light diffusing material with four different coloured backdrops. You pop your item in that you want to photograph and it diffuses all the available natural light so that you can take good quality photos without a flash, showing true colour. This will be excellent for my glass since I struggle to get good photos as light tends to bounce off.

Pippin quality checked it for me.

'Ooo, what's that Mum? Should I kill it?'

Does it make a difference to the items that I can photograph? Well, lets do a compare and contrast. The second package I got in the post was my FOC swap package from Sevsonlygirl and one of the things in it was this gorgeous shawl. Here it is showing true colours in natural light without a flash (my camera has the facility to take two photos at the same time, one with a flash and one without so that you can chose the one you prefer)

And here's the same shawl, at the same time, in the same light, but with a flash. Check out the difference. To see the rest of the wonderful things she sent, check them out here.

I still have a few Hufflepuff goodies on the go, my partner Kathleenalice has flown these grey shores to sample the delights of Amsterdam, and will then be travelling to Tunisia to sun herself for a week *sigh* Jealous? Me? Completely! I contented myself with buying these tiger lilies today. I know they're cheap and crappy silk flowers, but they're destined to become tribal style hairpieces for the next Hafla, or maybe next week if I get them done in time, or maybe just for weekly dance class :-) But for now, they're a tropical flavour that my winter weary heart needs at the moment.