Tea & Crumpet

Okay, time for a couple of pictures from the Ladies' Tea at church and an introduction to the newest fluffy member of the family.

First up, we have a shot of my tea table, done in blues, since that's what my china pattern is. I got napkins rings this year from good ol' Wally World & placed a red rose in each for a touch of Christmasy color. Above the forks, I placed favours for each guest. They were squares of Ghiradelli dark chocolate in a sheer bag, tied with a tea-themed charm on a ribbon.

The center-piece was a miniature scene of a living room, complete with a tea set, Christmas tree, gifts & nativity set. There's also a pair of red high heels by one of the chairs & a curious kitty checking out the bowl of strawberries (made years ago by your truly) on the coffee table. The blue & tan thingy in front of the tree is a Jill-in-the-Box that I made in a class, also years ago.

The Mothership's table, done in her Old Country Roses pattern.

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Well, that was the 'Tea' section, now for the 'Crumpet' part.

Meet Crumpet.

We adopted her a month or so ago from the local Humane Society. Mom & I went to give Peanut 'moral support' when she went to pick out Lexi, her new house cat. We saw this adorable little Siamese mix who kept kneading the other kittens she was curled up with & just had to hold her. One thing led to another & Mom talked Dad into letting us adopt her.

She is a deal. Her motor is loud as all-get-out & she has enough energy for 4 cats. She's also a cuddler & is slowly winning Boo over. Boo just doesn't like getting caught letting Crumpet lick her or play with her. Must keep up the aloof & dignified reputation, you know.

Fun, Fun...

Take a gander at the forecast for next coupla days here in Dorothy-Land...

Wichita Weather Forecast
Tonight: Heavy freezing rain, with significant ice accumulations. Wind: SE/E 5-10. Low: 29.
Tomorrow: Freezing rain likely with ice accumulations nearing 1 inch. Wind: N 5-15. High: 31.
Tomorrow night: Freezing rain or sleet, mixing with light snow late. No snow accumulation expected. Wind: N 5-15. Low: 22.

Uh, not really looking forward to an inch of ice. Nope...

We Interrupt This Blog For A Very Important Announcement

There will two new hobbitses in the family come next summer.

Peanut & Belle are both expecting, due about a month apart. This will make 6 nieces & nephews all 5 & under next Christmas. Fun times, indeed...

Oh yeah - YAY! ;-D

Judgement House - Prank

I completely forgot about the prank that Matt played on everyone the last night!

Matt was one of the guys who played the "dead" kid. He's the one in the video of part 2, below. Anyway, he set it up with Mom beforehand to have some fake blood there & told those of us playing the hooded demons to really go all out when we were attacking & dragging him out in the last 4 or 5 scenes he did.

After his last turn, he just laid on the ground (they always did this a certain extent after each time, but he stayed longer this time) & then curled up into a fetal position. Before all the lights came up, Mom went over & put a couple dabs of fake blood on his nose & the corner of his mouth. Then she hid the blood bottle & said she thought something was wrong with him. Once the audience was gone & everyone came in the back, Matt groaned & slowly picked himself off the ground. You could see where some of the blood had dripped onto the floor & everyone started freaking out. Greg, who playing Satan that night, started going "Get Security, we need a first aid kit, we need band-aids!" Poor Abby, his sister, ran outside & was very upset. Once I realized she had left I followed & saw Tina trying to comfort her. I said "You do realize that was a joke, don't you?" Abby stopped for a second & then went "That jerk!" One of the other guys didn't realize it was a prank until Matt licked the blood & went "Mmm, minty..." & offered him a taste.

Overall, I think it went off quite well. I can never keep a straight face when I know about stuff like this so I was covering my mouth in mock horror while trying not to laugh.

Matt & Abby are in the second picture down in the Makeup Removal post below.

Ahh, the fun we had in Hell...

Tea Time!

We had another ladies tea at church last Sunday & Mom was assigned to make all the scones this year.

Which means I was assigned to help make all the scones. (I'm not really upset, just think it's funny that Mom being on a committe means I am too.)

We used the same recipe as last year & made 7 double batches. That's a lot of cream cheese. Dad helped mix several of the batches up.

Anyway, I started mixing batches about 6:30 Friday evening, worked from 12-8am at UMY, then took a couple hour nap before starting again. Mom & I took most of our dishes & decorations out to the church Saturday evening where I also did the PowerPoint announcements. When we got back home, I got my second wind & played music videos on youtube all night while I baked. Until 6:30am. I slept until 9:45-ish while Mom finished up the scones, then got ready to go. We had to have our tables ready to go by 3pm, so we decorated & then the shindig started at 4pm.

After the meal was over I tried to stay at the table for the program, but the long hours were catching up to me. I ended up crashing on the couch in the fireside room for about an hour then it was time to clean up.

I crashed so hard when we got home. I have pictures that I'll post as soon as I find my camera in one of the boxes.

Oh yeah, I've been home sick from work the last three nights, but at least now I have my voice back.

Oh. My...

I am not a nurse. I am not trained or equipped to deal with recently post-operative children who have holes in their throat. Especially when said hole is draining mucus at an alarming rate. I don't recall "cleaning mucus out of a hole in a client's neck" being in the job description, but they would probably say that falls under the "and anything else needed" section.

I so want to gag right now...

Judgement House - Hell Scene Videos

PS. This here is post #500.

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Here are the videos that I tried to take of the Hell scene. It was just with my little camera so the quality isn't very good, and as you can tell, it was really dark in there. You can see enought to get the gist of it, though. Keep in mind that it was around 110 degrees & smelled of burnt hair.

Scene 1...

Scene 2...

And now for a little humor - the promised disco dancing demons playing in the strobe light...

Judgement House - Makeup Room - Removal

After it was all over, they got the joy of removing our masterpieces. Most of it came off with Pond's cold cream & eye makeup remover. Sometiems we had to use this stuff called Bond-Off that was supposed to be able to take off anything. It didn't work so hot on Tina, but I think the collodion just really liked her or something.

Andy hamming it up for the paparazzi...
Matt peeling his sister Abby's latex off...Kelsey removing his face...
And then there's poor Joel...

We decided to do something a little different one night with him. I don't remember whose idea it was to make deep scars with the collodion (stuff that puckers your skin as it dried - really does look like a scar) but it was a bit of a mess to take it off.

Umm, yeah... he had bruises the next day from where it had been puckered. Oops...

Judgement House - Makeup Room - Demons

I did some of the demons' makeup, mainly Tina's. Each demon was kinda half & half - one side normal, the other demonized, to demonstrate how Satan & his demons are deceptive & dont' show their true sides to the world. We started with liquid latex on the icky side, layering that with tissue paper to give it a nice wrinkly effect.

Partially latexed Tina...
After the latex dried, I would use my Leatherman to pull holes in the latex to make it look like it was burned & blistered. Then it was time for the makeup. I put red on first & went around the rest of her face a bit, 'cause Hell was hot, y'know. Then came the black & a deep burgandy red went inside the holes to look raw. The last night, I also used the burgandy to draw scratch marks across her face & neck like she had been clawed.An up-close shot of the final result. I started doing her eyes in a kinda cat-ish look. We kinda got hooked on that & joked that she would have me do her eye makeup for prom. The final touch was red & black charring on the one hand & leg. We did run into a bit of a problem with Tina, as the latex was really hard on her skin. She accidentally pulled a bit of her own skin off when removing the latex one night. We used less latex after that & tried bandaids that I ripped up & painted over. It didn't look quite as good but at least it didn't give her a unintential chemical peel.
Another shot of the final result. We sprayed her hair on the dark side black. Abby, who was the other female demon, has black hair, so we sprayed white stripes on her dark side.
Mason, one of the hooded demons - he was also in the Judgement Room scene & they wanted plain black faces on them in there. We just did straight black on him & then set it with black powder. It stayed really well, even with all the sweat & the hoods rubbing up against them all night.

Judgement House - Makeup Room - Crash Scene

I didn't do any of the crash victims. Those folks were Mom's specialty, as well as several of the other makeup ladies. They used lots of blood. Lots & lots of blood.

Mom bloody-ing up one of the kids.
Mint flavoured blood - yum! At the crash scene... Just ignore the glowy red eyes.
One of the girls who was 'thrown' out of the car at the crash scene.

Road rash... looks so lovely.