Gardens without torture

Now I know how to pace myself and breathe correctly, running was a lot more enjoyable!

I went all the way to Zoo again and since I still had some time and energy left I then ran to the lake and turned back when it got too hard to avoid all the French tourists and ducks, which puts my second run at 3.6km, almost one more kilometre than four days ago! :D

I had no clue my legs and lungs could do this!

Still no sexy bare chest men to motivate me, maybe they all have swine flu, I just don’t know... And there was no Celebration chocolates either when I came back to work this time round. Instead I was welcomed by the remains of cold pizzas and garlic bread, hmmm not for me I prefer the chocolates but I know some people who can eat cold pizza at any time of the day or night, you know who you are! ;)

This week end I will try to make more of the Dark Empress chokers since they were so popular ^-^'

And I will work on a project morbidfrog and I have together that will hopefully turn out good so we don’t cover ourselves with shame once it’s finished!

Sarabande 2009

As always I am the last one to post my pictures but here they are at last! I think they pretty much speak for themselves.

Poeke Castle is simply stunning,vampyresheep and I just could not taking pictures of it. We also have a fair amount of “tart pictures” (not Aly and me but Rob anddemondaz obviously) of us posing in front the fairytale pink castle.


Photo by the so talented Viona! No wonder why I look a bit petrified!







A little swap and here we go: vampyresheep and Rob!


Chateau de Poeke, floating on the surrounding water.


And again, under a menacing sky...






vampyresheep & Rob


Live drawing session in the castle


Dancing lessons


One of Viona's fantastic creations


Ironing bagels, a Belgium speciality or so we were told... o-O'


Chocolate!!! Needless to say that the fountain needed to be refilled after us!


Rob got the fountain all for himself, I have never seen him with such a big grin!


Taking a break from the chocolate, absinth and mead!


Rob's an expert at tying up corsets, demonstrating here his "knee technique"


I think it means it's too tight...



My dream coming through, a picture with Viona after hesitating and sweating of admiration all night!

And many more on my Facebook if you have not had enough! :)
You can also view all the pictures taken by Viona on her website.

A baroque outfit in the making or the art of recycling

This is it, no time for remorse or new ideas, this is my outfit finally completed for Sarabande.


A small detail of the gown to pique your curiosity ^-^'



After looking extensively in my wardrobe I decided to use my royal blue overskirt and blue corset as a base. I then simply used a long white skirt I got for a pound at sample sale to make a first under skirt.


Not very impressive so far, especially with all my mess at the back!

I then pinned a few white ribbon roses on the corset as well as the skirt and started drafting a matching lace choker:


In goes some pearly white glass beads all around the corset:



I carried on with the corset by making an opulent pendant using white mountain jade cabochon, pewter bees and crystal clear Czech glass beads. Most of these can be found on the fantastic Fire Mountain Gems's website.




Close up of the pendant.

I then sewed a very simple shrug decorated with the same white ribbon roses as the corset and added deep blue mountain jade cabochons to the choker:




I then added the last touch to the choker by adding blue Czech glass beads and more bees. This is quickly turning into a Napoleonic propaganda! ^-^'



I also quickly made a matching cuff:



In goes the petticoat and the second white under skirt made out the same fabric as the shrug. If you are in need of gorgeous affordable fabric and a bit of inspiration at the same time I strongly recommend you a little trip to Goldhawk Road, following a very good tip from fracture ^-^'


Almost there!

And last but not least, I knocked out a virtually free and recycable pannier in 10 minutes to adjust the shape of the overskirt. If the pannier does survive the whole ball I will post a picture of it but you will have to swear on your lives not to tell anyone who attended the ball how cheaply and badly it was made! Ah well, it does the trick so I won't mind :)


Tada! Now it'd better fit me! Haha!

I can't think of anything else to add to the dress and if I do I'm never going to fit into Rob and vampyresheep , I'll have to travel on the roof!

Sarabande: Outfit panic!

If all goes according to plan my outfit for Sarabande, the Baroque ball vampyresheep, Rob, demondaz and myself are going to on Saturday, should be ready just on time and should look like this:



Wahooo! Who knew I was that good at drawing!! lol... Seriously I am going to hide now...

Don't even try to decipher my hieroglyphics as they are written in Franglish, a secret language only known by us frogs! ^-^'


How to make my own pannier... Yes, I am that confident! Haha!


Finally, a few embellishements to add to my corset

Well this is the plan, we'll just have to see if I can make it... ^-^'