Wedding bells!!

Just did a shoot in Emma's bedroom as I wanted to put the wedding dress I made on ebay. Camille modelled and really did the dress justice although at fourteen it is scary how she embodies the perfect bride with such ease, THEY GROW UP SO FAST!!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300521139987

Bright lights big city!

 Friday night and I was London bound for sister bonding time. Kept things low key the first night except going to get a curry from her local Indian ON A BIKE!! Now this may sound like no big deal but take one person who hasn't ridden for years, add the fact that they were never much good anyway and then throw them on a bike two sizes to big in Central London - hair raising indeed but really exhilarating (especially once I returned back to her apartment alive). The next day we took a two hour bus ride down to The Lanes in Brighton for the Saturday, wandering the flea markets and vintage shops. Brighton is indeed the most culture rich UK seaside town I have ever visited and we relived our youth on Brighton Pier, enjoying a heart stopping ride on the waltzes.

In the evening my sister, some friends and I all went to eat at their local Vietnamese which was indeed a new experience, delicious and most suitable for my new part veggie lifestyle. Next we visited a fabulously dingy coffee house for some pre dancing caffeine and then off to the 100 club. Northern soulites from all over London had gathered for a nights hardcore dancing and as my little gang and I crept out onto the dance floor we felt like we were intrepid travellers trying to be liked by the super cool in-crowd. Much practise and dedication is required for this to happen so we left feeling inspired to come again with some polished moves and attire. It remains one of the few purist scenes in the UK and the music and atmosphere charged with energy and spirit.

The whole weekend was a fabulous treat and I returned home with new inspriation for this weeks projects. However I was glad to reunited with the family on my return to White House, Sunday evening. There's no place like home and no matter how mad your darlings drive you, you miss them like mad when their not with you!

Lou Reed is a god!!

What is the best cure for PMT? Chocolate is good, I agree but loosing yourself to a really good album is better I think. Poor Quin (my three year old boy) has a cold and is feeling under the weather too but has allowed me the luxury of enjoying some Lou Reed while I sew and he draws fire engines. Which album? BERLIN!! Written after the applauded Transformer, Lou went such a different direction that it was very poorly received initially by both press and fans alike. He refused to perform it live from that point and it was only last year when decided to revive it and take the album on a small worldwide tour. I was lucky enough to see him at one of his two Uk gigs and it was defiantly the best gig I've experienced in my time on earth. He relives the crazy time he had in Berlin and his experiences there, highly recommended! Kat x

Northern Soul count down!

I am counting the hours until Saturday night when my sister Annika and I travel to Oxford Street in the West End to take part in a Northern Soul All-nighter. If you have never heard of the scene its no wonder as its one of the most sacred uncommercial, underground scenes currently in the UK. Northern Soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s at the now notorious Wigan Casino. The music mainly consists of a particular style of black soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamala Motown sound. The northern soul movement, however, generally eschews Motown or Motown-influenced music that has met with significant mainstream success. Anyway, the dancing is equally important and I have been practising like a trooper where possible although the days when the spits came easily were back in Primary School, ouch! You require a slippy floor and even slippier shoes (non of which I have utilized, double ouch). I have been taking instruction from this guy below courtesy of YouTube. If you fancy it yourself this is the place to be: http://www.6ts.info/allnighters.asp Yours dancing while blogging, Kat x



Poor Alpha Male!!

We would value your opinion!

Last night was spent talking rubbish over some G and T's until Katryoshka came up with an exciting  idea amongst all the babble. The story starts with our visit last Sunday to our favorite psychic Linda Lancashire. One thing she told me was that someone was going to ask me to make a wedding dress. This had always been an ambition so this conversation prompted this weeks project, see photo below. As a result weddings became a theme in white House this week and last night Emma and I were wondering if we could create a fabulous gypsy style wedding venue.We have an area opposite the house which currently houses our four vintage caravans, all elaborately painted and ready to host guests. They could accommodate about 10 guests overnight and then we could cater for and host 50 or so guests for the big day. Would anyone enjoy such an experience? Whilst being mostly an outdoor venue we could provide shelter against the sometimes compromising English weather and arrange live entertainment performing from the huge farm trailer Emma salvaged last year. Could this work? It would be an incredibly intimate experience, an antidote to the huge formal marquee affair and a lot cheaper too!! If anyone has opinion on such an idea we would love to hear from you...!! Kat x

 

The Tarotvan has a busy night!!

Just returned from an evening of spiritual enlightenment, the Tarotvan being a spectacle to behold once again. Many thanks to all the lovely ladies who came to experience a glimpse into 2011, hope you all enjoyed yourselves. Hope to see you all again sometime - The Tarotvan will be at our next studio gathering on February 5th, Kat x http://thetarotvan.co.uk/

Alpha male sleep talking!!

So Alpha male had to go to London on Friday for several business meetings. He said it was best he caught the last train home to save on ticket fare although the meetings finishing at 4 o'clock. His brother took this video on the train back to Lichfield, Kat x

LOVELY LINDA!!!

Kat and I did our second pilgrimage to Heanor yesterday afternoon to the home of Psychic Phenomenon Linda Lancashire; we were given a very very warm welcome and introduced to Hilda and Tallulah her beautiful year old gingerbread coloured poodles. They did bear an alarming resem blance to my ludicrous handbag which I had thought was 100% Saquatch Mirkin but may well be poodle!!
I watched Columbo with H and T (the conductor DID do the murder) and then fell asleep in a pile of poodle whilst watching Midsommer Murders and Kat had her cards read....
then it was my turn; it was truly fascinating how Linda homed in on my 'issues', answered some very pressing  questions, but most importantly she made me feel very positive about the future and to believe in myself and what I was doing. She also gave me some very useful advice about my filling that had come out!! What more could one ask for??
Kat and I gabbed away about our respective readings on the journey home, both clearly very buoyed up by the whole experience.
Song for the Road was 'Rococco' by The Arcade Fire; played over and over again VERY loud! Amazing.
Thank you Linda! We will be back and have already recommended you to our close friends.
EMMA's bolg

Katryoshka and the lovely Linds Lancashire

Who needs a mobile when they have a blog!

Overnight the blog has become number 1 technological communication tool between White House East and White House West. NO APPLE SAUCE, YES POTATOES. This afternoon Emma and I shall venture to Nottinghamshire to visit the renowned LLLLLLinda LLLLLLancashire and find out what our future holds....... super excited and scared in equal measure!! Kat x

Good Morning!!!

Hello Neighbours!! Do I need to make apple sauce? I am going to peel some potatoes for dinner but not much else. Em x

Where to start...

I have issues from top to toe this morning; last night my festive pork scratching related tooth problem decided to go to The Next Stage and a huge lump of amalgem fell out of the molar. Dentist appointment not till a week on Friday.....then there is the painfull ingrown toenail issue which is protesting at being made to go for a run yesterday morning and then being encased in a patent leather high heeled boot all day. I have not dared tell it that it is going to be taken out for another run in about 10 minutes and then put straight back in to the offensive jack boots. In between all this I have a beastly hangover and no medication.
Projects from yesterday are crying out to be continued but I have domestic matters that need to take priority this morning. How dull. Em x

What DOES one wear for writing a blog!?

I am wearing appropriate blog attire; Virgin of Guadalupe dress (Courtesy of Get Cutie) and a bantam on my shoulder. A parrot would be better but hen is v blog friendly.

Have really enjoyed my day of shutting myself away with too many projects...randomly dipping into day of the dead crucifixes, prepping and starting a design on a random piece of wood that I found in the waste wood pile of Steve's workshop. and some mini mini canvases that are crying out to be painted in random, jewel colours and adorned with something. Totally inspired by the crucifix project and am amazed at the (for want of a better word) SHIT that I have accumulated over the years in the form of old earrings, trash jewellery, cracker detritus; gems from the early learning centre. Best of all is some wrapping paper I brought in Mexico; covered in little pictures but like Tarot cards; everything from ketchup bottle  (La Botella) to a mermaid (La Sirena) and then a human heart!! (El Corazon). All of which are large stamp size and can adorn the crosses. Am also learning some random Spanish phrases for summer holiday (a bonus skill courtesy of Mexican gift wrap). i can already say 'My mermaid has had a heart attack' & 'my flamingo can play the mandolin'. Flamingo is La Garza; mandolin is el Bandolon. According to my trusty gift wrap at least.
Hope to build on good work of today manana..
Listened to great music all day; songs of the day provided by Temper Trap and Villagers.
Kat has just come into my kitchen and made me feel totally inadequate and old by practising Northern Soul moves! killer!!! Em x

Saturday afternoon bliss!

After a couple of busy months what heaven to have a Saturday afternoon at home. Emma's kitchen was the location for indulgent sewing and painting projects while the children were playing hide and seek elsewhere in the house. The end result were three reworked skirts that shall be on ebay in a day or two and some beautiful embellished crosses for our Etsy shop, Kat x

I WANT A PADDED ROOM!

Two nights ago I watched Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey(classic, love it!!). It completely inspired me to pick up an obsession I had several years ago for hanging fabric on my walls floor to ceiling. I now want to go a stage further and make some sumptuous padded walls with huge covered buttons.

Our main social room at White House is Bar White House, the first room you enter through the main porch. It has a high ceiling, an old wooden floor and a rather dilapidated sixties bar I have carted round various flats and houses for over a decade now. Next project will be paint the floor, refit the bar and....................you've guessed it - a silk padded wall!! I will keep posting updates. In the meantime check out the bar being utilized for a recent family get together, they do like to start them young these days! Kat xx

White House winter wonderland :)

Today the weather has felt infinitely barmy in comparison to recent weather. Never have we experienced such lows, the most extreme being a couple of weeks before Christmas when temperatures plummeted to an astonishing -14 degrees. We awoke that morning to a magical Winter Wonderland and if I hadn't taken these photos I would be sure it was all a strange dream, Kat x.

** Tarot reading number 1 **

I drew a card today to represent the first person to follow my blog and what a surprise! The Ace of Cups represents the beginning of a new friendship or relationship. The cup over flows with emotion and who knows where it may lead but what is significant is its a beginning, how exciting! Kat XX

First contact!

Even with no followers so far this is quite the unnerving experience but I have begun the Katryoshka journey to connect directly with the outside world, a warm welcome to you and thanks for stopping by. Katryoshka has until now been all about Emma Stubbs Hunk and myself, Katharina Stubbs submerging ourselves in our obsession within the confines of our family farmhouse with little thought of any commercial endeavour. However, the cards have other ideas (tarot, more about those later,) and have foretold that 2011 is going to be a year of great changes and lots of new interaction. The door is opening on our gilded cage and a wealth of projects are about to be revealed!! The pics were taken at White House East, Emma's half of the house. Thanks for reading Kat xx