Top of the Crops - July

Here are the most popular celebrities featured on this blog for the month of July judged by the number of visitors from Google.

5. Helen Chamberlain

Short blonde hairdo

4. Stephanie Waring

Cindy from Hollyoaks cute short bob

3. Kate Garraway

Ever popular bob with heavy fringe

 2. Helen Flanagan

Rosie Webster dies her short hair brown

1.Frankie Sandford

Super-chic new crop

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Video of the Week

For those of us who love to see a good makeover I can recommend the YouTube channel of Dutch hairdresser Theo Knoop: http://www.youtube.com/user/theoknoopkapper. There are some fantastic styles and great videos. I've included a little preview below.

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Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf

We booked ourselves a walk-around gig as Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf for the ISES NCC gala in SF on July 19.  I had a little too much fun making the Red Riding Hood cloak, since I don't imagine I'm going to wear it a whole lot.  But, then, who knows?  It is a truly wonderful cloak..  :) :)

Here was my concept sketch:

I like how she's kinda bad-ass.. with her hatchet and her basket full of wolf puppies.  :)  I drew the inside of the cloak all patchwork, and envisioned having lots of pockets and magical symbols and such, but just plain simple red on the outside.  Here's how it turned out!

The lining was made out of scraps of fabric that I already had.. what can I say, I *love* red and black fabric.  I used a lot of chinese brocades with (what look like) magical symbols and dragons and Chinese characters printed on them.  There are maybe 20-30 pockets in the lining of varying sizes, which I found incredibly handy at the gig (business cards, cameras, phones, keys, wolf puppies, and smuggled hors d'oeuvres, not to mention eye of newt and spleen of worm).  The only trouble was remembering which pocket held what.  I made a red mesh pocket too, which just tickles me to no end, for some reason.

More pix on Picasa.  Aaaaand.. the photos are still coming in, but here are a couple from the gig!  People liked us a lot.. especially the Wolf.  He looked amazing, and he's just an amazing performer - really engaging and interactive, and he loved every minute.  

I painted him up and I painted some claw marks and scars on me (as though I'd been mauled by him already).  We had a great time running around chasing each other as the guests watched and giggled.  Fun times!!

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Satyr / Beast Stilting Pants

We've got two shows coming up in the next week or two where Darrell, my fabulous hubby and partner in crime, will be performing on his jumping stilts.  This was my first attempt at making costumes for jumping stilts - I've made regular stilt pants before but this was kind of a new challenge.

For the first gig he's going to be the Big Bad Wolf (and I get to be Red Riding Hood, oh MY.. what big ears you have..) and for the second, he's going to be a satyr.  For both gigs I'm going to body paint his upper half and add appropriate costume bits.  I'm gonna have to think about the claws..

But here are the pants I came up with.  I like the design a lot.  They are convertible - they work great as regular floor-length pants, and have two pieces that velcro securely onto the back and bottom to extend them down to cover the stilts.  I left the bottom of the stilts visible - for safety and also just because, well, the stilts look COOL.

I made a silly little video of him bouncing in them.  With the paint and the rest of the costume, these are gonna look HOT!

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SALE on the Quiddich Hoodie

I need more room in my closet.. just marked down this Quiddich Hoodie to just $69.  What a bargain!

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Here is my entry for this week's Thankfulness journey, in no particular order . . . .

434. Fantastic trip to Bath to visit our eldest son for his 20th Birthday.

435.  Youngest son had a successful first day of his induction at sixth form college.

436.  The lady who tried to put her car where our car was, having not checked her blind spot, saw us just in time and managed to avoid us.

437.  Cute, cheap fabric, and the ability to reign myself in and only buy 2 metres.

438.  A week off from school assemblies last week.

439.  Exciting news that this week's Monday assembly will be with Ofsted inspectors present. 

440.  Eldest finishes his internship on Friday and we will have him back for the summer.

441.  Seeing all the positive comments in his thank you card from the church he was an intern at.

442.  Finally getting to see the house eldest has been staying in since December and the amazing incredible, awesome views!

443. 

If you wish to participate in blogging about your list of 1000 gifts or in Thankful Thursday, you can do so by clicking on the banners at the top of this post.

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Ofsted Assembly

Those of you who have been around my blog for a while will know that one of the things that I do is give assembly talks at local schools.  Mainly primary schools (5 - 11 years old).  I have a pretty full week coming up with 4 assemblies.  The assemblies are of a mainly Christian nature with some of them having more content than others.  Some make no mention of God or the bible at all but talk about things that are important to people of all faiths, such as making a positive difference in people's lives.  Some may talk about a topic such as bullying and mention a particular bible verse that fits in or have a prayer that finishes the assembly.  For Christmas and Easter there is always more overtly Christian content as i find creative ways to cover those stories.

I received an email last night from the head teacher of the school I am in on Monday.

They have received notice that they will be undergoing an Ofsted Inspection this week.  Ofsted is the government schools inspectorate.  Schools used to get a few weeks notice but now only get one or two working days notice and in some cases, where there are serious concerns, can turn up unannounced. So the inspectors will be in school from Monday morning and the head teacher STILL wants me to come in!

I can't tell you what a big deal this is!  For a school to still want me to come in and do my assembly during Ofsted is huge!

I have to head over to the school tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) to run through the assembly with the head teacher and work out any kinks in the plan.  I'm excited and a little nervous.

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Cheryl Cole's New Blonde Bob

Cheryl Cole stepped out at her 28th Birthday Bash sporting a gorgeous honey blonde bob after removing those extensions and chopping back her brunette locks. Here's some pictures.

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