Edwardian Ball Night 2009

My Edwardian Ball History

This coming Saturday we will be attending the 2009 Edwardian Ball. This will be our 5th time at this fabulous event that celebrates all things Edward Gorey. People dress up in period clothing anything goes from Victorian to the roaring 20's or sport their unique Circus, Vaudeville, Cabaret-Punk style. There will be Ballroom dancing and fabulous circus acts, as well as the live music by the great Rosin Coven, the pagean lounge orchestra that instigates the Edwardian Ball every year (Eight musicians blend violin, two cellos, bass, guitar, harp, vibraphone, trombone, drums & lush vocal harmonies in a strangely beautiful mix of classical, jazz, chamber, tango, klezmer, sultry lounge, theatrical cabaret, and cinematic dreams.). This event has been getting bigger and bigger and this years ball has been moved to the Regency Ballroom. It has been one of my favorite events of all times: the music, costumes, performances are a fairy tale dream come alive. If you have never been, you should check it out. I will be there for sure.



2005 our first Edwardian Ball, when it was still held at the Kat Club.





2006 the Edwardian Ball moved to the beautiful Great American Music Hall
We had our portrait taken there. I am wearing a vintage flapper dress.



2007 I wore my He/She costume




2008 we took Valentina along

A Most Memorable Halloween Party

Our good friend, the talented Mr. Lucky was so kind to take us along to an extraordinary Halloween party. The party was held in a mansion and the decor was absolutely over the top. I was told that all the Halloween decoration will be gone the next day, but as you can see from the photos there was enough none Halloween related items that would stay. I have never seen more stuffed animals, dolls and taxidermy in one location, except at a store. It was an awe inspiring scenario, but also made me reflect critically on my own collectors bug. Obviously the designer's tenet of "less is more" wasn't followed in this mansion.

Mr. Lucky and the skull covered piano bar, where he later sang and entertained the guests.

Cool taxidermy!
More is more!
The surreal set ups often rivaled modern art installations.


Mr. Lucky, Abe and Ivory. In front Scott

I came as a dead girl, freshly bitten by a vampire, but not yet one myself.


This scene reminds me of the movie Blade Runner, when Daryl Hannah pretends to be a doll in the inventors apartment. David also looks like he is part of the decor and blends in perfectly!



Yes, it is a real moose!

Love Pee Wee Dolls!

Dead girls have fun with tigers.

Many babies are climbing up a giraffe: unsettling!

Scott is enjoying the company of the fabulous Allison Lovejoy and her friends. Allison performed some songs from her musical "The seven deadly pleasures"

My darling husband

Celebrating my birthday in the moon

My dream come true: I am sitting in the moon

Having a blast with Mr. Lucky and the Cocktail Party

Last Saturday I celebrated my 44th birthday and it was amazing! All my wonderful friends came and joined in the fun. Everybody got their picture taken in the Paper Moon, that was set up in my office. It was a dream come true for me, since I always wanted to have my picture taken sitting in the moon. Thanks to my lovely husband and my wonderful father, who made this dream reality, so I could share it with my friends. (see all the fantastic moon photos from the party here)
To top it off, my dear friend and charismatic personality Mr. Lucky performed with a group of amazing musicians. The best jazz band ever right in my living room - that explains why I was the luckiest and happiest girl that night. I danced a lot and laughed a lot and in between got my picture taken. It was a night I'll always remember and the love and caring I felt from all my dear friends filled my heart. Thank you all for coming and celebrating with me. I fell asleep that night with a smile on my face.....

Paper Moon in progress

For my birthday party this year I had an exciting idea. I always loved the old photographs of people sitting in a moon. (Check out this blog it has a link to a flickr stream of such photographs.)
I asked my husband and my dad, if they could built a moon for my party, so I and my guests can sit in the moon and get their photo taken. well, the guys are busy building and here are the first photos of the moon in progress.

Halloween party

Last year's Halloween party was a tour de force. I went all out and created this ghoulish buffet. My inspiration came from the old Baroque still life paintings, called Vanitas. I worked on this set up for a week and borrowed many items from my friends. Catharine was so kind to give me some items from her taxidermy collection, Ellie offered her vintage silver, Pam had a crocodile's head. The beautiful, but scary flower arrangement (who knew that a flower arrangement could be scary) was designed by Svenja. Scott and Valentina baked terrible finger cookies and Ellie brought her amazingly decorated cupcakes. When Halloween was over, it was hard to take it all down and restore my studio to it's usual set up. somehow I wish I could live like this all the time. After this Halloween extravaganza though, I felt burned out and Halloween was celebrated this year rather quietly.

How I set the table for Papa Paolo's 80th

Patterned scrapbook paper was used as place mats and for napkin rings. I used the same paper and cut circles for a garland that spelled out "Buon Cumpelanos - Papa Paolo"

Rita's Graduation

Everybody was involved in our friend Rita's retirement party. My job was to make the party decorations. After visiting the site where the celebration would be held, I realized that any decoration needed to be simple and bold. Here I am working on two types of garlands. The top one spells out the title of the event and can be read from a good distance away. The garland on the floor consists just of circles in different patterns. I also worked on a visual time line or bio of Rita's life, scanning in old photographs and hanging them up like on a clothes line.



Rita's bio hangs from a cloth line

Close up of her bio


As a special surprise Rita's couch was moved from her classroom to the park where she could sit and enjoy the well wishers.


We baked and decorated 300 poetry cup cakes as dessert for the party