Fabergé Friday and Full Moon

The moon is full, and what better way to celebrate than with the last Imperial Easter Egg - number fifty-six: the "Blue Tsarevich Constellation Egg", from 1917!

Due to everything that happened to Russia, and the Imperial family during WWI, this egg was never completely finished. It is made of dark blue glass, engraved with the star constellation of the day of Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich's birth - the Leo sign. The stars are marked by rose-cut diamonds, and the cloud-shaped base is made out of opaque rock crystal. 

Inside the egg was a clock mechanism. The clockwork and the dial - which was to be placed around the egg like a ring around a planet - are missing though, together with most of the diamond stars.

The "Constellation Egg" was long thought to be missing, but was found in 2001 at the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Moscow.

Burlesque Fall

If you live in - or are planning to visit - Sweden this fall, there are so many burlesque events happening in Stockholm during the coming months!

First we have Burleskapader (Burlesqueapades) September 1, at Kägelbanan. Created by Lily DeLuxe, this festival is now running for the third year in a row! Amazing artists like Ruby Lu Scious, Yvette Les Fesses, and Magic Thor will grace the stage!

Then we have Fräulein Frauke Presents: Under The Sea on September 8. But since I did a whole post on that event here, I don't feel I have to say so much more about that!

After that comes Burkläsk Presents: Welcome To The Jungle, September 22. A fun evening among palm trees, unicorns and tigers at Boulehallen!

On September 29 the fourth Burlesque Flea Market will take place at Blå Bodarna. A very popular burlesque/vintage flea market created by Marika Smith, where you can make great bargains at the same time you get entertained by burlesque artists! 

Then, on October 12-13, the 2nd international Stockholm Burlesque Festival - presented by Fräulein Frauke, John Paul Bichard, and The Amazing Knicker Kittens - will go off with a blast at Södra Teatern! This festival will have "an amazing line-up from ten different countries, covering everything from smoldering, classic and beautiful burlesque vixens, to boylesque, pole dance, comedy and politics with more glitz and glamour than you can imagine!"

I already know I will have to work some of these days, and so will miss some of the fun. But I still wanted everyone else to know about it so you won't miss it! And maybe I'll see you on at least a few of these events. All these burlesque parties just which I could perform on them myself! But maybe some other time...

Fashion Illustrations

During the crayfish party I wrote about yesterday, out hostess Liv brought out two sketchbooks full of the most gorgeous fashion illustrations from the 40s! They had been made by her grandmother, Berit Braaten, who was a seamstress, so she hadn't just designed all these lovely clothes, she had actually sewn them too! The illustrations are so well kept it looks like they could have been made yesterday, with vibrant colors! I just hope me and Tifa didn't ruin them with our drooling...Here comes some pictures of my favorites!

"To mother Christmas 1940."

Risqué!

The lady who created these drawings - and clothes - is actually still alive! I wouldn't mind sitting down to have a little chat with her...

Crayfish Party

When August arrives we Swedes feel the need to stuff ourselves with crayfish - and so we arrange crayfish parties! I was invited to one of these traditional feasts last Saturday, and this is the story about how well that went!

Since we had such a wonderful midsummer's eve celebration at Liv's and Rikard's place earlier this summer, we we're all happy when we heard these two people were going to arrange a crayfish party at the same place! When we arrived the traditional paper-moons were already hanging in the windows!

When I stepped in through the front door it took about four and (maybe) a half second until a glass had magically appeared in my hand. We started with the good stuff - champagne!

Then Tifa gave me something blue - which also turned out to be good stuff!

I wore a black, 50s inspired dress from *cough* H&M *cough*, here seen matched with the necessary crayfish party-hat! You might want to ignore the fact that I'm already on my third drink here...

Our hostess, Liv, showed us how proud she is of her Norwegian heritage!

Usually it's too cold in the evening for outside-eating this late in August, but we were lucky enough to get some really nice weather! Around the table we hung multicolored lamps. And then it was time to eat!

My crayfish might not have been as big as some other people's. But at least they had a nicer color!

La table! Full of candles, wine, food, and happy people!

A bit later. At this time of summer the nights have started to get darker, and with the help of a few blankets we were able to sit outside until the sky was completely black and full of stars!

The candles and the colored lights created a magic ambience...

...and all by a sudden Tifa started feeling holy!

It rubbed off on me too, and for a while we were holy together...Then we went inside and danced and drank more wine! Even though people started going to bed, me and Tifa had decided we wanted to watch the sunrise. So at 6:30 am we took our wine and went down to the water - and this is what we saw...

The water was like a mirror, covered in mist that was moving over the surface in a pink light. We sat on the landing-stage for quite some time, just gazing at the beautiful scene!

Last picture before we went back to the house for a few hours sleep...

Oh yes, there were two cats too!

Blind Penti...

...and the not so blind, but very cuddly, Milton! You should always acknowledge the cats!