crooked house

Alice and Dorothy

This made me laugh. (I can't figure out where it came from.)

Vivi's Tea Party Pictures

(By the way, we bought these personalized invitations from Lisa Kay on Etsy. I love how Sylvie's face appears on the little flower in the corner of the invitation and on a set of stickers we used on the favours and on her thank y0u notes.)

Find of the Century: Sylvie's Tea Party Dress

We found Vivi's Indian tea party dress for ten bucks at Kinder Klozet, a local children's consignment shop. The owner Lyn's good friend is from India and her father sends his granddaughter TEN fancy Indian dresses every Christmas. The tags were still on this one.

We were going to have her dress as Alice in Wonderland and I had a special blue full tutu skirt made for the occasion, as well as an apron just like Alice's, but Vivi took a dislike to the expanse of the skirt. (The outfit probably cost $100 in total and she preferred the $10 one -- take note, other mothers with Ideas.) I'll try to get a photo of her in it later, when she's up to it. She even has a pair of white gloves to go with it.

The Cake

Mama really loves the cake, which was made by the lovely and talented Yumi of Sweetie Pie Cupcake Boutique. Yumi also made us a dozen chocolate cupcakes, half topped by white roses, half by red, in honour of the Red Queen, of course.

Vivi really loves the cake, too. That's Chelsea, apparently Barbie's daughter, who is holding a rabbit on the top of the cake and playing the role of Alice. We had a blast. Tons of pictures to come.

 

The Best Laid Plans: That Skank Barbie Tries to Destroy My, I Mean Sylvie's, Tea Party.

So Sylvie's having a vaguely Alice in Wonderland themed tea party for her third birthday this week, and I have been having a lot of fun planning it. Perhaps too much fun. One of the things I was most excited about was making (or ideally, having someone else make) this pink cake iced with roses (found here). I just showed Vivi the photo and she smiled and said she liked it but that she wanted a Barbie cake. Horrors. First of all just ugh and secondly I  am not a big fan of Barbies. But it is her birthday, after all, not my own personal fantasy extravaganza tea party day. Do you think I could get away with cramming a Barbie doll into the top of that thing?

Vivi Models

We got this fancy dress at the Giant Baby and Children's Sale last Saturday for 4 bucks and it may very well have been the best 4 bucks we have ever spent. Vivi has worn it pretty much every day since then. This is the selection of jewelry she almost always wears with it. The pony bandaid is a deliberate choice.  She asked me to take pictures of her in this outfit today. The pursed lip thing is something I'm afraid she picked up from me when I look in the mirror.

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This is one of her more artistic shots. When she viewed this photo, she expressed displeasure about the slightly rolled sock so please keep that in mind when judging the styling here.

Anguish.

During the shoot, she inexplicably ran to get a comb, which she matter-of-factly inserted in the keyhole and proceeded to pose next to. During further discussion I gleaned it is supposed to be Alice's key.

Fiddling dramatically with the "key."

Pose with light switch.

Solitude.

A slightly Toulouse Lautrec effect.

Alice in "Underland" Shoes

Vivi has officially switched her allegiance from Dorothy to Alice, as evidenced by the fact that she now wears black Mary Janes all the time instead of ruby slippers. She's also been toying with headbands. Time to purchase a blue dress with a white apron coverall. Do you think she got all those cuts and bruises falling down the rabbit hole?

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

 

A gorgeous new edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland with artwork by Yayoi Kusama. Via Sophia Whitfield, thanks to Sara O'Leary.

 

Alice Illustrated

I get the Dover Pictorial email sampler and this week they shared some images from Alice Illustrated: 120 Images from the Classic Tales of Lewis Carroll. I'm adding it to my wishlist.

Citizen of the (Other) World

One of these things is not like the others. Or is it?

So we've been home from our vacation for a full week now and I'm only just beginning to recover. We had a blast -- the five little ones and their amazing grandmother did, in particular -- but it was tiring, especially the two days of sixteen hours of travel. (All I'm going to say about Air Canada is that it has got to be one of the worst companies in the world. It should be put out of its misery. Seriously, just scrap the whole thing and start over. Thank god for fellow travellers who are kindness incarnate. Young man travelling in business class I'm thinking of you.)

I'm fantasizing about taking a solo vacation to one of the other countries for which I recently acquired passports. If you had your choice, would you go to Utopia, Wonderland, Oz, or the Garden of Eden? (I'm thinking I haven't lost quite enough weight to carry off that last one just yet.) Note to self: I also need to apply for citizenship to Neverland, Paradise, and the Unconscious as well.

I picked up these notebooks, produced by the Unemployed Philosophers Guild (is that not one of the best names for a company ever?) at one of my favourite bookstores in the whole world, Bolen Books in Victoria, B.C. I have a lot of favourite bookstores but on this visit, this one reminded me of why, even though I love the idea of electronic books and e-readers and I do expect publishing to change significantly over the next few years, I also expect good independent bookstores to stay around. The best ones -- and Bolen Books is one of the best -- are almost like beautifully curated museums. They make you fall in love with books you never thought you'd be interested in. Bolen Books also has a tantalizing selection of paper goods, gifts, and toys. I almost never leave the place without a book and something else.