Stripped Scared and Sacred Episode 14: Women in Horror

To help celebrate Women in Horror Month the dynamic duo is joined by good friend and rising scream queen Little Miss Risk, aka Tristan Risk of American Mary fame. Much wine is consumed as the three dicuss the different female horror tropes as well as famous female horror characters that are good examples of strong females.

Listen here: http://voodoofortuna.podbean.com/e/episode-14-women-in-horror/

Or download us on Itunes, just search voodoo fortuna!

ice age

The Capricorn full moon can mark the end of a long run or dry spell. Perhaps you’ll feel it as the end of a personal, social, or professional era and the crystallizing of a new reality...

Read more at Walk Softly, Witch!

Scars and Secrets Part 2

Warning! These photos are NSFW and might be gross to some people.

Want to know something interesting?
It's been almost a month since I had surgery on my breast and only now am I starting to feel like myself again.
Strange isn't it?
Then again maybe not.

The surgery itself was...okay. I mean, it's never going to be fun but I seem to remember that this one was more difficult compared to my ear surgery. I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything past midnight the night before and I didn't go in for my surgery till about 2pm so I was STARVING. Not to mention extremely anxious and scared, I cried a lot before they finally took me in. Luckily I have the best mother in the world who drove into town and stayed with me as well as took me to the hospital.
She also kept me calm by being silly with me.

If you're wondering why I'm wearing a mask it's because I'm THAT mysterious! No, really, it's because I didn't get a flu shot this year so I had to wear it.

When they finally took me in I struggled to not have a panic attack, laying on the stretcher with all these strangers around you, strapping you down and marking you with pens.They actually gave me the option to not be put under, to just have heavy sedation and freezing but when I asked my surgeon if there was a chance I could wake up in the middle she said yes.

"Knock me out then. I don't want to go through that."

Sewing Stuff - Summer Hawaiian Dress

The other weekend I was cleaning my apartment and going through my costumes, getting rid of the smelly and old ones, when I came across a pile of fabric that I had totally forgotten about. It was this black and cream Hawaiian pattern that I had originally bought for my sister so that she could get our friend Melody to make her a swishy dress. That never happened and its just been sitting there waiting for me to find it.
All 5 meters of it....

I think we bought so much of it at the time was because a.) it was on sale and b.) my sister is VERY chesty so we wanted to make sure there was enough to go around. On reflection we totally bought waaaaay too much. Oh well.

Sewing Stuff - 1960s Jumpsuit

A few months ago my friend Diva asked me and a bunch of other friends to come visit her after hours at her work, which normally wouldn't be that much fun except that Diva works at the fabulous Watts Costume store. It seems that the website doesn't have a lot of photos that actually show what a HUGE amount of awesome costumes they have there and she had taken it upon herself to remedy that.

What this meant of course was that I got to play dress up for like 4 hours straight while drunk on pink wine.

While we were there Diva presented me with a costume that I fell in love with and didn't want to take off, like....EVER. It was a silver 1960s disco jumpsuit. Sounds awful right?
WRONG.
It was amazing, comfortable and looked fantastic on my ass.
See?

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah! The best part about that jumpsuit was how wide the legs were, it was so swishy and so fun. So of course I decided that for my second sewing project I should make my own.

Stripped Scared and Sacred Episode 13: Listener Questions

Updated the podcast, this time it's just me and Mama but we discuss questions that were sent in by regular listeners to the podcast.
Check it out!

Sewing Stuff - Blues Skirt Part 2

So because Monday was a holiday I actually had spare time to sit down and start my sewing project, something that I've been looking forward to ever since I made the first post about it. I put some fun swing music on and decided to get started. So here we go, step by step the construction of The Blues Skirt.
(Complete with hipster camera filter!)

Step 1: I laid out my fabric and folded it over, wanting to cheat a little and use the fold part as the bottom section so that I wouldn't have to hem it. I figured it would look cleaner this way and would probably lay straighter.

Scars and Secrets

"Scars are just stories in sexy places"

This is what a friend of mine said to me recently and I have to say that it has really stuck in my brain for a few reasons.

Sewing Stuff - Blues Skirt Part 1

One of the things that I've noticed that comes with doing Burlesque is that you tend to only use your sewing skills for costumes and the occasion hemming of pants/skirts. This Christmas though my trusty sidekick (aka my boyfriend) bought me a sewing dress form and a gift card to dressew and while the tempation to use it for show stuff was there (wooo totally free fancy costumes!!) I decided to ONLY use it for/on myself.

By this I mean I want to use it on things that I want to either learn how to sew or things I will wear in my day to day life. Some examples are:

 swing trousers

these adorable dresses (I don't want a moose pattern but I love the style of the collar and the bust line of the second one)
and of course the one I've chosen for my first project:

The Blues Skirt.

A few weeks back a friend of mine sent me a video of a blues/swing dance competition, and while the first thing I did was get inspired from the amazing dance moves I also found myself loving the outfit that the one lady was wearing. I re-watched the video and took screen caps and decided that was not only a very cute style (the buttons are adorable!), looked easy, but most of all the skirt looked super comfortable to dance in.
Which is something I like to keep in mind when buying/making clothes for myself, I do a lot of swing and blues dancing and nothing looks more hilarious than doing the 'i need to adjust my hemline or bra' dance while you're out and about.

So off I went to dressew and bought myself some fabric and buttons, originally I wanted to get a nice dark blue jean material but none of it was stretchy enough for my liking. And if I plan on dancing in this skirt it's going to need some give to it, the 'adjusting hem' dance is bad but the 'I split open my skirt' dance is even worse. So instead of getting jean material I wound up with a nice true blue stretch material that I think will work just as well, I also got some white buttons.

In total the materials cost me a whopping 15$. Woaaaah big spender right?

Next up will be the actual construction of the skirt which I hope to do either this weekend or next. So stay tuned to see what the results are!

Podcast Update

Newest podcast up: Winter Stories. Guest starring David Quast and Andrew Harron!

(Don't forget that for more updates you can look for Voodoo Pixie on Facebook, or follow Mama Fortuna on her overly esoteric blog.)

Stripped, Scared and Sacred: Ep.11 - Risky Business!

Updated the podcast once again, and noticed that I haven't been numbering them. Ooooops.

So! We're on episode 11 people and this time we are joined by the beautiful, talented and fellow spooky gal, Little Miss Risk! 
We discuss such things as growing up as the spooky girls in the neighbourhood, cat videos, horror movies, david bowie's penis puppet and much much more!

If you'd like to know more about Miss Risk please visit her blog which can be found here.

The Valiant

So I have a friend who is a fantastic photographer but is also a little strange, a few weeks ago he sent me a text message that just said "leave the 30th open for me".
Why?
"photoshoot."
Nothing else was said, not the idea or the costumes or the location. This is one of the strange but fun things about doing photoshoots with this man, it certainly keeps you on your toes and forces you to adopt a somewhat carefree attitude because you have no idea where or what you will be doing or what you're going to look like.

In this case I wound up being naked and body painted in a sort of Ziggy Stardust style in a vintage Valiant car.

......have I mentioned lately that I love my life and friends?
:)

Warning, some photos NSFW

Love that Lovecraft Part 2

Part 2 of our discussion on Lovecraft!

This time we are joined by Andrew Harron (aka co-writer/producer and star of 'An Evening with Professor Byron Price') as well as Spectral Theatre alumni and all round Lovecraft know it all, David Quast.

Warning: Lots of foul language and spikes of loud laughter

A tale told through photos [Warning some photos NSFW]

There is a place where the membrane is thin, where worlds collide and reality begins to shift and over lap.
It was in such a place that I found myself a while back.
Was it years ago? Months? Days?
I can no longer tell.

Love that Lovecraft!

The podcast is back and updated with part one of our Lovecraft episode. In this first instalment we discuss the history of Lovecraft and some of our random thoughts on him, plus we have a  new microphone and bad ukulele music!

Lovecraft Part 1

Mad Men Style

So I've recently gone back to work which means I've been watching a lot of Mad Men which might seem a little strange but I watch it for both style ideas and as a way to get myself back into 'work' mode. I don't work in the advertising business but I do work in a male dominated industry which is obviously not as bad since it's 2012 and not the 60s, but I can still emphasize with the female characters in that show as well as see some similarities when it comes to office dynamics.

It's also fairly obvious which character I connect with:

It's the guy on the far right. Can't you see the similarities between us?!!

I'm kidding of course, it's Joan. Duh.
She's strong, independent, professional, and not afraid to be harsh when she needs to be. She also always looks fucking gorgeous, I mean....wowza.

So who better to take inspiration from when I found myself going out for an evening of cocktails and live music? I based the hairstyle on some of her more recent looks in season 4/5 ala this kind of look:

First step of course was to wash my disgustingly greasy hair, blow dry it and then slap some hot rollers in it. As a general rule I don't use hot rollers since the curl falls out far too quickly for it look good for long but since this was going to be a semi-up do I thought it would work.

If you're curious as to the pattern it's basically everything rolled towards the back, using small rollers for the sides and medium ones for the crown.
Step two was to let the rollers sit for about 2 hours, long enough to be totally cool and then I hairsprayed the shit out of it before taking them out.

That's the initial result, look at all those soft curls!

This is after running my hands through it a few times, see what I mean about my hair not holding a curl unless it has been wet set? Damn you hair, DAMN YOU. Ah well.....
Next up I teased the crown, rolled up the back in a series of soft pin curls, and then teased and swept over my bangs.

The back view

All that was needed next was a Joan-esque dress which was exactly what my sister gave me for Christmas, talk about your bizarre coincidences!!

I was pretty happy with the end result, it lasted pretty much all night and didn't need a lot of fussing with. So I'm considering it a win in my books.

I will now leave you with one of my favourite Joan clips.

Gross to Gogo

Dita Von Teese once said “I advocate glamour. Every day. Every minute."

And when you look at the woman you can really only nod your head and agree, she always looks perfect. Be it on the red carpet, getting off a plane, or running everyday errands. Every hair is in place and her make-up is flawless. It's strange to think but as a burlesque performer there is a certain amount of expectation when it comes to being seen 'out and about', not on the level of Dita of course but there are times when I've felt a little bit of pressure to dress up should I go to a show/club where there could be potential clients or connections.

However,  being glamorous "every day, every minute" is fucking exhausting. Hell I could barely do it every day at BHOF, plus part of me doesn't want to do it every day. That isn't to say that I like looking like shit every day because I don't, although I will say that the people at Starbucks and the guy at the 7-11 have seen me at my worst on more than one occasion. We're talking no make-up, freaky hair and bad clothing choices here people...but really, I'm only human right? Besides those random crap days though where I just really want a london fog and a ding dong I take a lot of pride in my appearance at work and in life, but I'm certainly not going to do show level of make-up every day for a few reasons.

One: My skin would hate me and probably explode.
Two: My co-workers would think I'm even weirder than they already do.
And three which is the most important reason: It would take something away from when I get to do show make-up. There's a certain amount of work and creativity that goes into my show look that not only makes me feel more prepared but is enjoyable. I enjoy the ritual of it, it's creation and glamour mixed together on my vanity. I have certain things that I like to do while I'm doing hair and make-up for a show, certain things that allow me to get into the right mind set for the night and if I were to do that every day it would become less special.

And again, it's a lot of work to look so polished and perfect. Don't believe me? I didn't think you would so I decided to document my make-up and hair process tonight so that you can see just how much work goes into all this glamour stuff.

OHMYGODITSAHIDEOUSMONSTERKILLITWITHFIREWUAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH!!!!!

Oh wait, that's just me without make-up on and my hair super greasy. Phew. I thought it was a Deep One or something....
So first we need to cover up that blotchy skin and adjust those eyebrows, so on goes a layer of foundation, powder and orange eye-shadow on my brows.

Okay so that's a little bit better, holy fuck my flash makes me look pale but at least the redness is gone now and my eyebrows match my hair. Woohoo! Okay next up, time to add eye-shadow, liner, mascara, blush and fake lashes.

Ka-Blam! Starting to look a little more human now....

Ooookay maybe not! Check out what three days of not washing your hair when its been pin curled will do!

Lots of back-combing will help right? RIGHT?!!!

Yes, so long as you smooth it out and curl it into something fancier than a fucked up mess. All right, hair and make-up all done.
It's amazing isn't it? We went from THIS:

To THIS:

And all it took was a little make-up, hairspray, and invoking the Dark Lord and sacrificing twenty virgins to him. Wait....I didn't take a picture of that part did I?
Shit.

Braaaaain Cupcakes V1

This year for Halloween we did another baking adventure in which we made 'Brain Cupcakes'. The recipe was a little more complicated than our Pillsbury Pumpkin cookies so thus it is both a longer adventure as well as a much more drunken adventure.

Enjoy!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Parts 4 and 5 to come next week!

Stripped, Scared and Sacred - Episode 7

Abra-Cadaver Promo with myself, Mama Fortuna, Melody Mangler and Aleister Crane!

That's right, this time we have guests over who are getting drunk and podcasting with us!

Behind the Scenes

It's that time again boys and ghouls, yes, it's October so that means the Abra-Cadaver Cabaret is coming October 19th!!! Get your tickets now!
Event Listing: https://www.facebook.com/events/547970265218646/?fref=ts

Here are some very special behind the scenes footage to get you all jittery and excited for the show. It's of us during the photoshoot for the poster which was done by the fabulous Anathema Photography and Deadly Nightshade Makeup.


Melody and I getting beautiful
Mama and Crane discusses our choice of beverages
I feel pretty, oh so pretty!

All that blood, gore and beauty paid off, because here is the final shot.

Isn't it beautiful? I'm in love with it.