an elegant presentation

In addition to being the evening's pièce de résistance, Michelle L'amour was also the event's organizer. I believe she trained and choreographed the opening troupe too, The Chicago Starlets. She has a studio in Chicago where you too can take lessons on how to take it off seductively. Pretty cool, huh?

Sorry guys, girls only.

For more pix of Michelle, you can search my tags as there are some shots of her from a Minneapolis show a few years back...enjoy!

en nutz

This was Evil Hate Monkey's solo piece that garnered him the title King of Boylesque, 2010. He's obviously had some formal ballet training. Safe to guess his parents are very proud of the fact he stuck with it.

mover

Dirty Martini has mastered her craft. Who among you can get just one tassel going at a time? I though not. Plus, she's about as sweet as punch! We stayed around after the show chatting with a few of the performers and she is just a doll! Both my husband and I received sincere and sweaty hugs. Unfortunately I didn't get many photos of her. We remembered to charge the battery, check the lenses and empty the memory card in the camera, but neither of us thought to make sure there were extra cards in the bag, so all we had was one 4gig card. We filled the card as Dirty was taking the stage! So, I had to quickly unload a lot of them. Fools.

We managed to finish the night with plenty of visual stimuli locked in though. I still have two performances and a few after-show shots to share, so those of you who are growing weary of all this t&a, come back about Wednesday...

keep at least 20 feet from the stage

I'm assuming Tigger! got his name as a child from jumping on the furniture. Discovering along the way, he could leap into full, horizontal splits. I admit, it hurt me just watching. If ever someone comes up with the nude Olympics, Tigger! will certainly take home gold. Not sure which event though.

Holy crap, I just looked and the nude Olympics already exist. Of course they do...

blond bombshell

Kitten Deville came to the show via Los Angeles and was voted 2002 Queen of Burlesque. In case you can't tell, she's donning a full body stocking along with a strategically placed jewel keeping it a family show. Well, for my family anyway. Fortunately, she's blond otherwise people would've been confusing the two of us all evening. What a hassle that would've been.

i believe some future-telling was going on here

And now, some indescribable ridiculousness from Trixie Little and the Evil Hate Monkey...in three parts.

strength training

The Bendable Poseable Dolls of Doom. Two powerful little packages! I'm lucky if I can lift a thirty pound pug onto the bed.

note his pants around his ankles

Hot Toddy's act left me in tears. Stripping while drinking has never been sexier. The man has created a new art form. Strinking.

flying feathers

We couldn't get a hotel room, so Saturday night we drove down to Chicago and back to get a gander at the lovely ladies (and men) who performed during Superstars of Burlesque. It was quite worth the effort as they put on a tantalizing show. We got there early enough to get front row seats! Close enough to get a few feathers in our face.

I'll be posting shots all week, so either come back and pretend you had a great seat, or don't come back until next week if feathers aren't your thing.

happy monday, everyone!

Guess what we did this weekend...

he doesn't appear to be a cat in pain

Isaac showed up the other day, with a open wound in the area of his arm pit. We wouldn't have even noticed except he was rolling on his back and started licking it. Gross. The vet said it was a clean wound, gave him antibiotics, and that instead of wearing a "cone of shame" we should purchase some infant t-shirts to discourage licking. Not sure, but if he did get in a fight, I think his chances of getting his ass kicked are even stronger. I mean if we, the people who love him are making fun of him, think of what the neighborhood cats are saying.

the kill

She can sit holding a toy in her mouth for a solid ten minutes. Cat poop, on the other hand, gets swallowed immediately.

a little self promo

This toy sat in our booth this weekend. Knowing there was a car show connection, we figured we'd promote our auto detailing. The problem with this theory is classic car owners remain within ten of their car at all times.

Time to put our booth on wheels.

Visit us here if you also refuse to leave your car. ;o)

nyc...

Often at vintage car shows, owners have the hoods up so they can show off what's inside. In the case of this '55 Chevy, it made for a nice trompe l'oeil. If you can use that term to describe a photo.

I just looked up the the actually translation, and am giving myself the go-ahead.

All clear for take off! (ugh.)

dive

I'm not sure who decided that August was the best month to celebrate Stoughton's Coffee Break Days. But that's what they did Saturday and we were foolish enough to be part of it, sitting in a booth all day whoring ourselves out to the locals. We're members of the chamber of commerce though so it was free advertising (not counting member fees), so we'd be more foolish not to take part. There were several things going on including an auction, a craft show and a vintage car show. Which you'll be seeing a few more images of this week.

Also did I mention there was coffee? And it was 85º?

expanding

My laptop decided to take a summer break this past week. It went to summer camp to meet other Macs who needed simple fixes and make fun of all the pcs loaded up with viruses. "Eew, cooties!" It's back now but honestly, I didn't really miss it. Got it back Friday evening and I'm first updating tweets, fb, flickr and blog today. Let's refer to it as the positive side of unpopularity. Pressure is off.

Don't cry for me, Agent Tina.

Spent a busy week of cupcake baking, visiting friends in town for the week, sampling classes I may (or may not) take, my introduction to acupuncture, and sitting in a booth yesterday promoting our business, Duck Soup Signs & Design.

Took lots of photos too. But that's just a given at this point.

pug in repose

far

I had asked hubby to get me some infrared film for my old film camera several months back, which he did, but he never got around to loading it for me, before our buddy, Steve loaned us his converted Power Shot. Yay! If you're not familiar with infrared film, it's a fickle mistress. So with digital, caution can be thrown to the wind! So, while running errands this morning, we came upon a rustic road we'd never encountered. (I guess my tourism book is a little out of date as it still lists our former governor.) We didn't drive the whole length of it as our gas was low so a return trip is required.

Hubby walked a little farther into the field for this sweet shot. (His near to my far.)

nom nom nom

On my day off from making cupcakes, what would I do other then make cupcakes, right? Fact is, I don't bring that many home, plus I had been wanting to make these since Ms. Humble posted them. They're chocolaty delicious, but I think I'd change a few things before making them again. The gooey marshmallow center is yummy, but I don't recall the center of an actual Hostess cupcakes being marshmallow-y. My husband and I agree that it's more of a creamy center, like a twinkie, which I'm sure I could find a recipe for easy enough. Then her white (binary) topping is white chocolate. I went with the authentic (and probably copyrighted) swirls, to which I lined up the cupcakes so I could continue the swirls without stopping. Once they dried, I had to snip them apart otherwise I could've lifted all of them off in one piece. White chocolate is runny if too hot and hardens when cool. A white icing would work just as well, and would be easier to keep at a good temperature for piping.

That concludes my baking for the day! Except it's already tomorrow so I'll be baking again in a few hours. Well, there are much worse things I could be doing.

putting the horse before the cart

We headed up to my hometown this weekend. It's safe to guess, central Wisconsin is Amish territory, so their horses and buggies are a fairly common sight. Especially on days the local farmer's market is taking place. These guys were biding their time, hoping sales were low so there'd be some leftover rutabagas.

cheating

Didn't start with a photo here. Was just messing with filters in potato-chop.

broken snowglobe

in his element

My husband draws daily. I don't have that much dedication to anything.

See links to his work below.