fanbloomingtastic

What Christmas means to me - and my Christmas 2011 Bucket List

I love Christmas. Some of you might have noticed that.

I also have a saying that I live my life by in recent years - "Life's Too Short not to....(fill in the blank with some experience or risk I'm about to take)".

For some reason, and no-one quite knows why, I don't remember a lot of my childhood. Despite numerous sessions with high trained mental health experts and psychoanalysts I've still to piece together a lot of the memories that a lot of people take for granted. I'm sure I didn't have an unhappy childhood, I just can't remember it. This is one of the main reasons in adulthood for mine and my kids sake I'm slightly obsessed with creating traditions and making memories :)

When I first got married and was an upwardly mobile suit of the early 90s, I have to confess I totally fell into the "Christmas has to be perfect" trap. I bought all those Good Housekeeping type magazines, I spent too much on decoarations (especially as we were trying to dig ourselves out of crippling debt after university), I got behind on sending Christmas cards and beat myself up about it (mainly because I used to spend ages writing a horribly braggy Christmas letter about mine and Mr D's exploits during the year). And of course, I got down when Christmas wasn't "perfect".

 

Luckily growing older has brought slightly more maturity (though some, me included, would argue not much) and living through some deep depressions and gaining two wonderful caring silly children has chilled me out somewhat.

Christmas doesn't have to be perfect anymore, because I know that's not an achievable goal. HOWEVER Christmas HAS to be lived as if it's my last - we have to MAKE TIME to have fun together, to simply be together, to make some memories for me if I'm lucky enough to be here in the future and for my children to hopefully look back on and remember fun times.

My favourite Christmas quotes are from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol:

 

And Dr. Seuss's How The Grinch Stole Christmas:

 

I'm also a sucker for any Christmas 'redemption' stories/movies - Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Elf (an absolute classic of a movie, Will Ferrell is just superb at reminding us about having childlike wonder and joy), It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch (Chuck Jones & Boris Karloff version being my favourite but Jim Carrey wasn't bad either), The Santa Clause etc.

So this year (with the help of Mr D. being stuck in England a while back due to Hurricane Irene and having nothing to do with his time but do our Christmas shopping for relatives early) we got our Christmas shopping and Christmas carding done before Thanksgiving so that this Target advert wasn't too dissimilar from our house last Thursday:

 

 

As you can see from the photos above, we pretty much had all our Christmas lights and decs up in the front garden before the calendar even turned onto December...

And I'll show you some of our Christmas trees inside over the next few days. (Do you know I found out recently that not everyone is as obsessed as I am about eventually having a Christmas tree for every room? I KNOW?! Personally I was shocked).

And although there are some things I plan to do that we've had as Christmas traditions for years now (making and decorating Christmas cookies for Father Christmas on Christmas Eve, staying in our pyjamas all Christmas Day, watching Christmas movies under duvets with hot chocolate and marshmallows, tracking Father Christmas on Christmas Eve on the NORAD site, Elfing ourselves, making paper chains in front of the telly together, going on Christmas lights safaris etc). I've drawn myself up a Christmas 'bucket list' for this year of fun things I'd like to do instead of a 'to do' list I 'have to' do.

These are the things on my list:

• See how many Christmas movies & tv specials with a Christmas theme I can watch in one day
• Do a 'Christmas letter' for 2011 on fanbloomingtastic.com
• Write a letter to Father Christmas 
• Go with Melchett to meet Santa (Melchett can't remember meeting Father Christmas as a small child and I don't think I've ever actually talked to him)
• Make Christmas cards for all the children in the school classes I volunteer in
• Buy some more Christmas books for a Christmas book advent calendar next year
• Make some new geeky and/or glamorous tree ornaments for my white tree
• Decorate Hartley my car for Christmas
• Bake mince pies
• Go to Zoolights
• Go to Glendale Glitters
• Go to the Tumbleweed Tree Lighting Ceremony and Parade of Lights
• Make homemade gifts for friends and Melchett's teacher
• Make a gingerbread house (I want to try something like this, this year)
• Go on a Christmas Light safari
• Have a random acts of kindness marathon
• Watch A Christmas Story all the way through (this is a very American thing, like Morecambe and Wise means Christmas to Brits....but I've never watched the whole thing)
• Make paper snowflakes and decorate a room like in Elf
• Scan Christmas past photos and put them on electronic frame
• Make Christmassy frames for some Christmas past photos
• Bring Christmas photo albums up to date (currently only have up until 2003 in albums)
• Make fudge
• Change ringtones to seasonal ones and find some seasonal apps, wallpaper etc
• Decorate Bessie the trike

You'll notice there are 24 things. I've written them on slips of paper...

 

And then popped them sort of randomly in my advent calendar:

 

The reason I said 'sort of' randomly is that there were some things that needed putting on specific dates eg. the Tumbleweed Tree Lighting Ceremony and Parade of Lights, and some things that needed to be on weekends so the whole family could join in eg. Glendale Glitters and Zoolights and visiting Santa with Melchett......but other than these I popped them in the pockets of my advent calendar pretty randomly.

So I'll explain more about each one as it arrives and have some big fun making memories.

I'd love to know what things you plan to do during (as the Americans say) the holidays. Let me know in the comments section won't you, in case there's anything I need to add to my list next year :)

2 years ago....

.....we moved to America.

I've been trying to get this post written for over 2 weeks now. It was supposed to be published on our 2 year anniversary day - 9th November, but as you can see I've been having some difficulty doing that. I'm not quite sure why this is so hard to write. I know I couldn't write it 2 years ago when I first started blogging again but I thought I'd be over all that now. Apparently not. You'll notice I have absolutely no pics of the actual moving here. That's very weird for me. I usually want to document everything, you and I'd expect photos of the airport, the suitcases, the girls, but I have nothing. I think that in itself tells a story.

Anyway, I need this out of my system so here goes...

.....................

After months and months of 'issues' that needed sorting (especially a lot of hiccups with Mr D's HR department), we were finally moving.

About 4am in the morning we drove from our beloved cottage in Shropshire in a hire/rental people carrier/MPV/mini-van with 8 large suitcases and 4 backpacks to Heathrow airport.

When we dropped off the car, the lady behind the counter asked if we were going anywhere nice. We said we were moving to the USA. She looked shocked, "Really?" she asked. "Really" we said. We told her we were just coming for 2 years because that's all we were at the time.

We were exceptionally lucky that Mr D had accumulated enough airmiles from business flights and had begged his work that we could all stay together on the flight (if we'd done what we were supposed to Mr D would have been in 1st class and the girls and I in economy) so we all got to be together. Which for a 16 hour journey (including the drive to the airport) to a foreign country was pretty important. The girls were jittery to say the least. Full of excitement and fear, happiness and sadness.

I can't remember much of the flight, I know I had to hold Melchett's hand a lot and she got a bit tearful at times (to be honest, so did I). I suppose it didn't help that one of the movies I watched on the way over was Pixar's 'Up'.....I can't even see a clip of that movie without tearing up now (they were showing it in the opticians the other day when I went for an eye test....I had to wipe the tears out of my eyes before I could see anything).

When we got to Phoenix Airport we snarled the immigration check lines up as they had to check our passports and visas and make sure everything was ok as we weren't just visiting. By this point it had been a VERY long day and we were all pretty stressed. But luckily everything was ok and they let us into the country.

We collected our suitcases and got on the courtesy bus to go and pick up a rental/hire mini-van/people carrier. As we hadn't been able to access any emails during the 16 hour flight, we now checked them to see if everything was ok. We'd been having severe problems with Mr D's HR department being finickity about what things we were allowed to rent for our rented accomodation (as all our furniture was now somewhere crossing the Atlantic Ocean). They'd given us a website of a company we were allowed to rent from and a budget. We'd worked pretty hard and fast trying to get this sorted (as like oh so many of the arrangements we'd had to repeatedly nag to get the information) and had drawn up a list of the items we wanted to rent - stuff to sit on, to sleep on, to eat off - settees, tables, chairs, bookcases....and the website had electrical equipment to....so as we wouldn't have any of our stuff coming via the ocean for at least 2 months we selected a couple of tvs, a vacuum cleaner, toaster, kettle and I think a couple of lamps.

This was the problem.

No one had told us we weren't allowed to rent electrical equipment. As our electrical equipment from the UK would be 2 months away, we didn't see the point in buying any of it from our relocation package, and we'd been told to order stuff we needed from the rental company. So we did.

We weren't allowed to. So whilst we were on a flight to America with nothing but our clothes, some books, some teddies etc that we could fit in our suitcases, HR had decided to cancel our entire rental order with ever talking to us about it or explaining that we couldn't order electrical goods, that we had to buy new from the relocation package money. I'd like to say this was one of the last straws with our dealing with HR but there was more to come in the future months.

If we had been given the opportunity to discuss the matter then we would have held our hands up and said we were sorry but we didn't know we couldn't order electrical goods and that we would take these off the list and either wait for the shipping at the end of December  or buy some new. I'd like to say a lot more here about how we were treated, but I probably shouldn't.

So.....we arrrived in America, absolutely exhausted from the travelling, emotionally drained from leaving our friends and family behind, worried about leaving everything we knew behind, due to move into our rented accomodation in 2 days (we had 2 days booked in a hotel) and now we we faced with nothing to sit on, sleep on etc etc. You can guess how much I cried.

Long story short, we had to personally sort the mess out (like oh so many things over the next few months....you can read about the language difficulties, suddenly finding out we had no credit rating, you might possibly think we might have been warned about this so we could make provisions, but no, so we had to borrow money from family despite having absolutely perfect credit for years in the UK).

But we were here, and we had each other as a family and that's probably all I should say about our first couple of days, I've probably said too much anyway. By Christmas our furniture and things to make the house feel slightly more like a home arrived from across the ocean.

 

 

Melchett happy to be in our house, I tried to get out of living out of suitcases as soon as we could.



After we'd been out and bought a tv and 'phones. We'd brought the wii from the UK in our suitcases. The girls contented themselves with Pippa Funnell for the first few days in America.

 

Day 2 and day 3 were huge shopping days - going out and buying all of us mattresses (I really wasn't convinced about renting mattresses - my decision) and as you can see buying equipment to get us on the internet....even if we'd brought our modem etc from the UK in our suitcases it wouldn't have worked.....setting up the internet in the first few days was essential when having to contact our UK bank who'd 'lost' our money transferred to a new American bank, Mr D had a lot of mornings that week getting up ridiculously early to shout I mean negotiate with our UK bank to find out what had happened, what we could do about it etc. Having the internet and 'phones was also essential to contact my lovely parents who bailed us out with money when we discovered we had absolutely no credit rating in the USA and therefore COULDN'T buy cars, mobile 'phones (cell 'phones) etc etc.

 

Melchett in the front room with one of the garden furniture set we bought for something to sit down on and eat from....it wasn't actually that small, we were part way through assembling it.

 

Me trying to put a brave face on it, Goth Child being disgusting and eating some of the supply of British chocolate we'd brought in the suitcases.

There, the post I've been trying to write for two years, done and dusted. Ok, let's get on with the rest of our future.......

...........................................

Just revisiting this, blimey I'm a moany old bitch aren't I? I mean, we were never homeless, we still had a family who could help us out of serious but only temporary financial difficulties. These really are first world problems aren't they. I'm sorry. I promise I'll try to get some perspective in the future.

Goodbye Sallys (but thanks for a whole load of sewing projects for 2012)

One of my favouritist fabric shops is closing on December 5th.

 

Sallys Fabrics has been open serving the public for 40 years. You might remember when I first discovered it last September and even told you I was going to buy this material:

 

Well, being the Queen of Procrastination, I never got round to buying it. Doh! And now they're closing.

Luckily, I've been on their email list for a while now and on Friday night I got an email saying that from 5th November EVERYTHING in the store was 40% off. And all their patterns (Simplicity, McCalls, Butterick, Kwik-Sew) would be $1.99 each (that's £1.24 each).....for brand new patterns that usually sell for about $15-$17.

So though I'm seriously upset that Sallys is going (they're going to leave a big hole in my fabric sourcing and more importantly haberdashery/notions sourcing in years to come), I had to pop along to make the most of the bargains to be had.......and get stuff for my 2012 sewing projects.

(By the way Dear Family.....if you're reading this......pretty please can I have money for Christmas, because I've just been and bought my Christmas presents from you ;))

I've got some nice stuff this morning and am wondering whether I should have invested in more.....yes, seriously wondering if I should have been bolder and bought more.....ah, well.

This is what I got:

 

Do you see that in the middle? Yep, I got the end of the roll, 2 yards of the flamingo fabric I've been thinking about buying since last September. Every time I've been to Sallys (which is a LOT of times) I've popped to the appropriate shelf at the back to see if it was still there. And I've watched the roll getting thinner and thinner. If I'd bought it last year there would have been enough for a whole dress....now 2 yards, it's going to be a full circle skirt I think. I think I might have to knit a coral or pink mohair cardigan to go with it.....possibly.

I also got 5 yards of something that might well become a day dress for a future Burlesque Hall of Fame in Vegas (I haven't decided whether I'm going next summer or not yet):

 

And 4.5 yards of interesting zip print fabric:

 

I have the urge to do something special with this, possibly sewing in some real white zips as well.....or zip pullers as fringing haha.

Speaking of zips, I bought a few for projects I've got planned and some extra thread in colours I'm short in.

But then, and here's where I'm beginning to feel I should have been bolder and invested more, I bought some patterns. They were only $1.99 each and the ones I wanted were Simplicity ones that are usually $15.95 each.

I got Goth Child a Neo-Victorian (I'm not allowed to say Steampunk according to Goth Child as it's not clockwork or steam-powered) costume pattern:

 

Remind me to show you the last-minute Neo-Victorian (sssssh steampunk) costume I made her for Halloween.....I'll show you what we made and how. But she's planning to go to some Cons next year and wants more to her costuming, so we can definitely adapt this.

Then I thought ahead for my needs, and bought myself some 60s like patterns:

 

I know the Simplicity 4014 isn't marketed as a 60s style suit set, but one of my favourite vintage outfits when I was a size 12 teenager was a 60s tweed shift dress and jacket not dissimilar to this design, a little straighter at the hem but I quite like the flare.

And I got a Katherine Hepburn-esque (please don't shout at me vintage purists) pattern, Simplicity 4044:

 

So if BurlyCon 2012 has a Vintage wear night you might see something of the above :) Probably the 60s stuff.

And then I decided to get some standard dress patterns that I can adapt, an evening one and a day dress:

 

And to be honest, I've got various other patterns I've bought in previous sales and quite a lot of fabric sitting waiting to be converted into something fab-u-lous (as Melchett would say, whilst snapping her fingers, she watches too much Teen Nick) that I think I'm well set up for keeping my sewing machine busy in 2012.

But I might have to pop back for a few more patterns before Sallys finally closes it's doors on Dec 5th....

Thank you Sallys, I sincerely hope all your staff find new jobs (sad to losing your job whenever, but some of the ladies have worked there for so long....and just before Christmas.....I can't begin to imagine what this be like).

I. AM. THE BLOOMING QUEEN. OF. PROCRASTINATION!!! #nanowrimo

Bow down at my feet, oh mere mortals who think that procrastination involves just sitting around not doing stuff.

Oh no, this takes years of hard work and practice.

This involves signing up to NaNoWriMo for a second year despite all that I went through last year and then deciding that EVERYTHING is more appealing than actually sitting down and writing a novel. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Nanowrimo is the National Novel Writing Month (except it's very much International now). The aim is to write a 50,000 word (roughly 175 page) novel in 30 days...November to be exact. You can find out lots more about it at www.nanowrimo.org

 

(My badge I earned from completing the 50,000 words in a month last year)

And procrastinating about doing this is crazy (hmmm see here for why it being crazy isn't actually so crazy) because I actually seem to be enjoying writing this year's novel far more than I enjoyed doing it last year (well, so far). I decided I would start out with no plot, just start free writing and seeing where my story led me (hopefully not into a whole baring open of my soul like last year). I also decided that I would hold in reserve, in case of emergency a giraffe who wanted to be an astronaut. As you do.

And I actually enjoy writing fiction, when I ACTUALLY get down to it. It's an indulgence. I make it fun. I go to places I wouldn't normally go. I make efforts to find nice places I can go and sit and write. Coffee shops (with the added bonus of coffee and cake), libraries (and my local ones are designated 'Come and Write Your NaNoWriMo Here' spaces), ball parks, by lakes with ducks, play parks, shopping mall food courts etc. It's fun. It gets me out of the house which is something very important for me to do (see posts about cyclothymia and social anxiety on here) AND living in Phoenix I've spent the summer hibernating inside our house trying to keep out of the 109-115F (43-46C) temperatures, so now I need to make the most of more decent temperatures (mid 70s). And I reward myself with little treats when I hit my required word targets (or before I hit them, see below....).

So NaNoWriMo started Tuesday 1st November and I excitedly started writing decided I'd go and buy myself a notebook so that I could write wherever and whenever I wanted without having to arguments with the kids about getting off the computer or being antisocial in the evenings. But of course, it had to be the RIGHT notebook. So I had to go to several different shops before I found it. And then I eagerly started writing. Aaaaaand I had to look out for half-price Halloween decorations in the sales because they might all get sold out before I had a chance to look again. Aaaaand I had to do a weekly food shop to make sure we had stuff to eat and especially lots of treats that I could reward myself with when I hit my NaNoWriMo targets.

Then I started writing. No, actually then I DID start writing. Well, at about 2pm I did. Then I had to break off for the school run, and play with Melchett, and nag Goth Child about her homeworks, and then nag Melchett who'd said she didn't have any but did. And then obviously I had to cook tea, put kids to bed etc.

So Day 1 target = 1,667 words. Day 1 actual = 851 words. Not a total fail but not a great start.

And the week has carried on that way really. Including these classics first seen on my Absobloominglutely tumblr blog & Twitter:

 

"At the ball park. I have this cunning plan that I can bribe myself into getting more #nanowrimo wordage down….." (3rd Nov 1.34pm)

 

"Oops, plan failed…. #nanowrimo #carrotapproachworksbetterifyoubuyitAFTERyouhavedonework (3rd Nov 1.42pm)

 

"Pretty....treeeee..... #nanowrimo #attentionspanofagoldfish" (3rd Nov 1.45pm)

...........

"Just found myself pen cap on lip seeing if I could get other end up a nostril whilst smiling at leaves floating on breeze. I'm 14 again." (3rd Nov 1.57pm)

...........

Luckily at this point lots of people 'kindly' shouted at me to get off the internet and get writing.

So here we are nearing the end of Day 4. In theory I should have about 6,667 words written by now if I'm to finish my 50,000 in time by the end of November.

Instead I have:

• an exceptionally tidy kitchen;
• repaired a teddy for Melchett she's been asking me do for about a month;
• all the washing and ironing up to date;
• some initial research on two new costumes I'm going to make for future burlesque acts;
• half of our household filing pile that's been sitting staring at me for months actually filed;
• signed up, installed and configured Pandora internet radio, TuneIn internet radio and Spotify on computer and cell/mobile to help research music for future acts;
• surveyed friends/followers on Twitter about their favourite happy songs to start off serendipitous song discovery on Pandora;
• started pimping my ride (Bessie my trike who I've started riding to school with Melchett 2-3 mornings a week);
• caught up on the backlog of Pan-Am, EastEnders, Fry's Planet Word, 2 Broke Girls, Good Wife and The Mentalist episodes that 'needed' watching;
• taken down, packed away and bought a few new extra Halloween decorations;
• slept;
• slept a bit more;
• and many, many more things that weren't writing a novel.

Luckily I also have 4,569 words written as well. Not as many as the 6,667 I should have by this point but it's not a total disaster. The helpful statistics on the NaNoWriMo site tell me I'm on course to finish on December 13th at this rate....hmmm, not good. That's not a win.

Soooooo if blog posts are a little erratic over the next few weeks you'll understand won't you?

Unless I decide that blogging is a 'useful' procrastination from writing my novel too. Thinking of which I might tell you a bit about the plot..........noooooo, stop, don't do it, get back to writing NOW! OK inner voice of reason (mortal enemy of procrastination).

You just know I'll be back soon to tell you, don't you ;)

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21st Century Burlesque's Top 50 of 2011 List

It's that time of year again, the voting is open on the 21st Century Burlesque Magazine's Burlesque Top 50 of 2011. Time to try and whittle down our long lists of burlesque performers, academics, legends, writers, stage managers, volunteers, comperes/emcees, maids/stage kittens, teachers, promoters, producers, film makers, convention organisers, festival creators etc (did I leave anyone out?) in fact anyone we think has had an influence on making our beloved art form that little bit more special in 2011.

If you need some inspiration there's always the Top 50 of 2009 and Top 50 of 2010......though those won't necessarily remind you who the movers and shakers of 2011 might have been.

I've hit send on my 10 choices.....shall I tease you with some facts about my faves for 2011?

My 10 choices include:

• 3 blokes
• 14 people in total
• 1 troupe
• Amazingly only 1 redhead
• 1 duo
• 1 living legend
• 1 posthumous vote for a legend
• At least 3 who are/were over 48 years old
• 6 who've won titles at Burlesque Hall of Fame weekends
• 2 who run the best burlesque convention in the world ;)
• 1 vote for a routine that blew me away at BurlyCon 2011 and made me realise I had to seriously up my game
• 2 that blew my mind with routines at the Burlesque Hall of Fame this summer and made me realise I had to seriously up my game...
• 3 non-Americans (this I feel bad about, but having only 10 votes and living in USA now I've only seen UK burlesque on youtube and burlesque on youtube never blows you away like seeing live performances)  
• However, 14 people from countries that have been part of the British Empire (giggles naughtily)
• 13 who do neo-burlesque
• At least 5 who do classic burlesque
• 5 with 3-part names
• 2 regular emcees/comperes
• 8 who teach classes to burlesquers
• 1 who has stars in her name (yeah I know.....I'm a rubbish tease)
• 1 who uses an exclamation mark in his name (as I said, rubbish)
• At least 3 who've appeared in movies about burlesque
• At least 2 who do performance art as well as burlesque
• At least 2 who use circus skills within their performances

and....

• 8 who I've talked about on this blog or it's sister blog Absobloominglutely

Is that enough clues? ;)

As I say, I'm sad that I have to narrow down all the amazing people I've seen, read, met this year from our wonderfully creative and diverse art, but it twas the law :( I'm also sad that because I've been in USA and been so inspired by some fabulous Americans I might be seen as letting the British side down with not enough Brits in my list. I definitely feel sad I haven't included enough off-stage movers and shakers....ah well.

However, I'm really happy that 21st Century Burlesque Magazine despite the huge amount of work it is to compile the Top 50 from thousands of votes, have decided to run the List for the 3rd year running as it is an incredible resource to see and find out about the best of the best in burlesque.

OK, off you go now, go vote for your top 10:

www.21stcenturyburlesque.com/the-burlesque-top-50-2011/