Trying Not To Fall Down The Rabbit Hole

When I was a little girl, kids enjoyed simpler things. I loved fairy tales. I still love them. I have a lovely, very, very old edition of Grimms.

I think the two fairy tales I liked the most were Cinderella and Alice In Wonderland. I liked and identified with Cinderella because she was very poor and lived in rather harsh circumstances. But she managed to overcome that.

I liked Alice best though. She wasn't a princess, she was an ordinary girl who just sort of went along falling into things topsy turvy, doing things sometimes against her better judgement (or lack of it) and made the most of her unusual circumstances. I still identify with that!

When it was announced that the new Alice movie was coming out, I was terribly excited. I just can't wait to go see it this week. Some of the critics have been rather hard on the movie, but I don't care. I want to go, I would go now, right this minute if I could. But I want to wait and see it in 3-D at the IMAX.

Last month I made a post telling you that I decided it was time for me to set the proverbial stage for where my bears would live in order to better define what I want them to be. So keeping in mind what I had decided on as an influence, I set out to make a new layout for my website. (You can see a sneak peek in the new blog header.) It was all going along fairly well, then I got stuck. I have been stuck for a week now.

While I want a bit of a fairy tale feel to it, I don't want it to be inspired by Wonderland. It's proving much harder to stay out of the rabbit hole than you might think. Wonderland has all those elements that I love. There is the life size chessboard, giant mushrooms, tea parties and characters living in fantastical places.

I just don't want anyone drawing the conclusion that I made the change to coincide with the movie coming out. Maybe if the movie wasn't coming out at the same time I wouldn't focus on it so much. I know I want the bears to live in a forest that has a perfectly integrated steampunk-esque town. While in my head it doesn't resemble Wonderland that much, it keeps translating to that on the screen.

Until I dig myself out of the rabbit hole, I guess the new layout won't be put in place. I just hope when I do see the movie, it doesn't influence me even more.

Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

We are all born with talents. Those things we don't seem to have to learn because they are inherent. Some of those talents can be pretty obscure. Some of mine include being able to mix the perfect shade of paint on the first try nearly every time. As an artist that one is pretty handy. I can belch at will. That one I don't use unless I have a trapped gas bubble because it's pretty disgusting. Another gift I was given was that I have always been able to do that high stepped catwalk strut that runway models use. I can still do it.

One afternoon when I was 15, my Mother and I went grocery shopping. A man had been following us around the store staring. I assumed he was interested in my Mother. She had forgotten something and sent me back to get it. He approached me at that point and started taking stock. He said I had excellent posture and carried myself well. He grabbed my face and went on to say that I had great facial features and perfect bone structure. I stood there like a deer caught in headlights because I had been rigorously taught the pitfalls of talking to strangers. Also because I was really shy at that age.

But all he did was hand me a business card for a modeling agency and tell me to give them a call. My Mother didn't let me do it. I don't know why, maybe she thought I was too young, or maybe she didn't trust it, or maybe she simply didn't want to deal with the whole thing. Whatever the reason, I didn't care. As much as I loved clothes and fashion magazines I never aspired to be a model. It's probably just as well, I doubt I would have "made it" because I have never been very photogenic and at 5'7" I was barely tall enough for runway work. I cherish the fact that I was asked though.

However a few years later, through my job doing singing telegrams I did get offers to model locally, which I did a few times. (I also got a strange offer once to mud wrestle, which I did NOT do despite the crazy amount they pay for that.) One of the things I did was a lingerie show. It was tasteful and pretty, and along the lines of what Victoria's Secret offers. Back in the 80's you didn't have to have a negative number for your dress size to model. At any rate I know how those girls feel. It doesn't matter how tasteful the lingerie is or how confident you are, you are still out in public in your underwear and it's a bit disconcerting, especially since everyone is staring at you.

I recorded the show from two nights ago. I really like to watch it. I get a lot of inspiration from the show every year. The wings and extras they put on the models are fun, and I really loved the steampunk inspired wings in the enchanted forest part this year. I always tuck away a few ideas for bears. I know...lingerie show to bears...quite an odd pairing. But I have told you before that I get inspiration from everywhere.

They said that these are the most beautiful women in the world. While I don't dispute that they are pretty, I think there are beautiful women the world over...most of whom never make it into ads or on TV because they lead ordinary lives. Besides I think aside from Doutzon Kroes, most of them have gotten too thin. You need a little meat to pull off lingerie properly. A bone bag wearing lacy undergarments isn't attractive, and some of those girls looked as if they were nothing but sinew with zero body fat. I do like the fact that they encourage their models to show personality though. I get tired of watching models with a blank expression on their faces.

All in all though it was a pretty show this year, and there was a tweed teddy that I really fancied. (Not the corset shown above, I couldn't find a pic of that one.) If you missed it, you should go check it out on their website. You might get a little inspiration too!

Mystique

Mystique has been added to my website on the animals page of my website if you would like to visit her.

~*~ Mystique ~*~

I made another bat since the first one had already flown away. Mystique isn't on my website however, because I have a customer interested in purchasing her. But you can still have a peek at her.

~*~ Tallulah ~*~

At last I am ready to unveil the first of my new Halloween pieces. To see another picture of her, you can visit Tallulah on the animals page of my website.