Carnaval 2008 - An overview and a few photos
Carnaval 2008 was better than ever. As I was last year, I'm really, really late getting the photos online, but that's just starting to look like par for the course in my new(ish) role as stay-at-home mom. I did lose a period of time waiting for all of the various photos to float in from my friends, but I hope you will think, as I do, that it was worth the wait.
Carnaval for me this year began almost immediately after last year's show, when I had an idea to put disco balls on my head. I had a silhouette in mind, one I'd seen girls do with afros, sort of two puffballs on your head, and I wanted to do it with disco balls. I think it is the first time ever that I've gotten an idea for a costume and followed it through almost exactly to the subsequent Carnaval. After the headdress, I just pretty much took the disco ball idea and ran with it. But more on that later!
I had originally intended to have a white and silver costume this year - I keep WANTING to do an all white costume - but as I progressed, I realized that I wasn't actually using any white, but only silver, so that's where I had to start. Will I ever do a white costume???? Who knows. Stay tuned....
J9 returned to the Carnaval Fold this year, after taking a year off to have a baby - Kadian was delivered roughly two weeks after Carnaval 2007. J9 got to experience the complicated joys of planning and executing costumes while entertaining and caring for a small child. I think there was a part of her this year that thought she might not be able to see it through, or thought it wasn't possible, but in the end - YOU'LL SEE - she rocked the costume, as if there were ever a doubt.
Jennifer was back at it too, and it was delightful to be together again as a group after being just the two of us. Tim joined us last-minute (like with 24 hours notice!) and it was the first time he'd been with us in years!! What fun!
I'm not sure how much time went into this year's costume. Not nearly as much as last year, I think, as I didn't have to sew much of anything - it was just paper mache', glue, paint, rotary cutting and maybe a few whip stitches here and there. The logistics of my headdress were more difficult than I had anticipated, but it all pulled together and I was so pleased with how things came out. I watched about a zillion hours of "The X-Files" this year, as opposed to my normal schedule of "Hallmark Hall of Fame" movies and Christmas specials. I'm so into Mulder/Scully right now, I can't even tell you. I digress to ask if any of you is watching "Bones"? Talk about a fantastic partnership. I love that show.
ANYWAY!
I am THRILLED to report that we have found our Carnaval Home Base Hotel - after being kicked out of that horrible Hotel Whose Name Shall Not Be Spoken - OK, it was the Hyatt! Don't stay at the Hyatt. Listen up, boys and girls, because if you're traveling to Austin for Carnaval, you need to stay here: Embassy Suites - Downtown/Town Lake
Shall I say that again? Stay for Austin's Carnaval at the Embassy Suites - Downtown/Town Lake location.
I will tell you honestly that I was very anxious about Carnaval this year. Jennifer had made reservations at the Embassy Suites, and I practically forced her to call more than once to BE SURE that they weren't going to have a problem with us at the hotel in our costumes. They assured her that things were fine, but I was still nervous. (I suffer from anxiety in general, and so I was especially feeling it for Carnaval.)
I worried for NOTHING, because from the moment we walked in, the staff at the night desk were so friendly, and all of the people at the hotel were nice. Heck, the HOTEL was beautiful and clean and they had a great lobby for photos. They didn't mind when we stood up beside their water feature and up on chairs to get higher for photos, and when all was said and done, I ended up talking to the night manager, Gilbert, and telling him that we were going to be Embassy Suites Folks forever, and that I was going to tell everyone I knew about their hotel, and he said that Embassy Suites welcomes Carnaval folks and that they are all part of the "Austin flavor" they are so proud of. They treated us like honored guests, and we couldn't have asked for more. Please, if you are traveling to Austin, show this place your support. I can't tell you what a difference it made to our experience to start out the evening with such a positive experience.
Once again, I was linked off the official Carnaval website and received a lot of email from folks just saying hi or people looking for costuming tips. Lots of people asking me what I was wearing so they could look for me there. It was so nice to head to Carnaval and be looking for friendly faces to put with screen names. My intro page I made for the Carnaval website was the highest hit page in Jan & Feb on my site; lots of people are sweet enough to stop by and visit! I'm sorry everything is so late this year, I really am. It's ridiculous and I know it.
I have to break in and tell you that the guy I call SAMBA MASTER, Mike Quinn, the Dude In Charge of Carnaval in Austin, has moved to Portland, OR, and is producing a NW version of Carnaval there for Feb 2009! For more information, here is the temporary website: www.CarnavalPDX.com. There is also have a MySpace page: CarnavalPortland. Seriously, Portland is gorgeous. If you live in the area, check it out!
Also, don't forget to shop at The Bazaar for all of your costuming, makeup, wig, false eyelash, glitter, risque' clothing needs. Whether you need a full costume or just a few little embellishments, you can get a lot done with one trip to the Bazaar. Don't forget to ask for Johnny at the Back Stage for help with makeup and wigs. Johnny is the best! The Bazaar is the best!
That said, let's get on to why you're here: the PHOTOS!!! I hope you enjoy. Thank you to all of you who "donated" your photos to my Worthy Cause of a website. So many of you made your photos available to me this year and allowed me to pick and choose from your personal photo albums. Thank you! Because of your generosity, I am able to present a really amazing selection of photos that I never would have had otherwise. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you also to Mac, who was my "unofficial editor" for all of my pages! He caught many a typo!! Yay Mac!!
Let the Photos Begin!
Here I am, lighting up the night. Lane and I were really rushed for photos this year, despite all of my best intentions. I have a new rule now, and that's for me to take all of the photos of me I need to, before I leave the house, just in case things don't go well at the hotel. I took longer with my makeup than I had anticipated (what else is new?) and so we were a little harried getting out of the house. It's not as though we ended up with any dearth of photos, but early on, I was worried.
So, you know I'm all about the lights now. I have continued my love affair with the LED lights sold by these folks at Six Star Sales - select "Battery String/Fairy Light LED" from their Store Categories. They have a great variety of colors, including these vibrant, almost "black light" blues. Check them out if you need your own lights! You won't be disappointed. I think that J9, Jennifer and I all got our lights there this year. They're fantastic!
Here I am, lit up. I was a solid ball of light in the darkness. I have seen photos of myself from across all of Carnaval, shining out in the darkness. You really couldn't miss me! Lane said it was so helpful to keep track of my location. :)
This is the back of my headdress. Sondra had this amazing mirrored trim on clear plastic line that she gave me for my costume. I used it in a lot of places, and it was really a nice touch. I'm sorry you can't see it very well here.
I will tell you that my headdress was made with two paper mache' balls, covered in just under 1000 mirrored tiles that I found online in a mosaic shop - sorry, I don't have the energy to plow through emails and find it. If you are really interested, email me and I'll try to find it. Interspersed in each disco ball there were 32 or so of the blue LED lights that I had to use a power drill for the holes and then hot glue to set. I really had started to think that I had used too many lights, but Lane said it was lovely and brilliant and so I listened to him. :)
I'd say the headdress was in excess of 10lbs this year. Those tiles were heavier than I thought they'd be, but the fact that I accented with feathers helped a lot with the weight. My center of gravity was really low this year, as opposed to prior years, especially last year, so I didn't have as many problems with keeping my head steady. Originally, I had planned to use styrofoam craft balls as the base for my headdress, but I couldn't find any large enough. So on to Plan B: paper mache'. Getting the balls the same shape was difficult - I had to do one ball twice as it was just too wonky - but once I figured it out, it was smooth sailing. I will say I forgot what a mess paper mache' is. I guess I had blocked it out after my Queen Bee hive headdress!!!
Here is a good shot of my gauntlet/gloves, made a new way this year with little thumbs and going farther down on my hands than just ending at the wrists as we normally do. I had glued little half disco balls on the tops of the backs of my hands, and everyone kept calling them my "rings", which made no sense to me as they were on my wrists, but whatever. :)
More on my bracelets below.
My top or bodice or whatever you want to call it was a base of foam covered in spray tack and adhered to some awesome swimsuit fabric (all that hot pink shiny stuff). I was a little at a loss for this year's pasties. I knew I was going to have a lot going on on my bodice - as opposed to wearing a fairly plain corset - so I wanted to stay simple with the pasties.
I came up with this one idea to have little dangling disco balls, but it wasn't practical or attractive, so I switched to this idea, where I replicated the natural shape of a nipple, using the blue as the base and the ball as the little pokey part (how's that for technical bodily terms??). I felt a little more self-conscious about my pasties this year, because they seemed somehow more "naughty" than years before! Isn't that crazy??
Personally, I somehow blame my father, who went on a very short-lived campaign this year to get me to realize that I was "too old for pasties" and "when was I going to quit showing my breasts" and the like...I will share with you that I am now one year younger than my mom was when she got breast cancer and had to have a double mastectomy. I have adopted the attitude that I am going to show my breasts off at Carnaval until I just can't anymore, because, as a woman, and especially as the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, I have to be aware that they may not always be with me in their natural state. I quite like them as they are now, and until that changes, I will keep bringing them out to play, if only once a year.
Now I have to tell you a funny story....one of my mommy friends was saying that she and another mommy friend, both of whom had some changes they're not wild about in their breasts after having children, were looking at my Carnaval photos and finally the second woman said something like "I can't sit here and look at her perfect breasts any longer" LOL - and when my friend repeated this to me, I told her "would you like me to send you both a picture of my stomach???" because that is the total truth. My breasts survived the pregnancy, but my stomach did not. Pregnancy giveth, pregnancy taketh away. We all have our "scars", so bear that in mind....I try to work with my strengths... :) Wouldn't you?
PS, as another note, I apologize to those of you who are basically blocked from my site because I use words like "nipples", "breasts" and "pasties". Really, you'd be surprised how many places block my site for how obscene it is. LOL. As if. I block all actual nipples in the live photos, so the worst you'll see on my site is pasties, big black bars, and maybe a little naked hiney. FYI. I should be SFW in case you're wondering.
OK, so my disco ball bracelets were one of the second things that I came up with after imagining my costume. I had seen a photo in a magazine of a model wearing perfectly round bracelets, and I had that image in my mind somewhere and thought "DISCO BALL BRACELETS"!!! These wrist balls, as well as all the smaller accent ones, were purchased as Christmas decorations that I hacked apart and bent to my will. The only balls I actually made by hand were the giant ones for my headdress.
So I had these two large disco ball decorations. I split them apart with an Exacto knife and hollowed out each side to accommodate my wrists. I covered all the exposed Styrofoam with some shiny silver fabric, then used the Incredible and Amazing and All Powerful Commercial-Grade Velcro. AWESOME STUFF. I had to use a little silver trim to mask the edges so they would look like one solid piece in photos. I ended up glueing the balls to the pink gloves to prevent slippage during the show, so it's like one big piece, balls and all. I just had to split the Velcro a little to get them over my hands. It's really quite cool. :)
I have to break in here and tell you that I started using another glue this year in addition to my Glue Love of My Life, Fabri-tac. Stephanie T. from last year sold me on the Power of E6000 Multi Purpose Adhesive. It works better with glass than FabriTac (SORRY, MY LOVE!!!) and so was invaluable to me as I worked with the glass tiles of all sizes.
One big change for me from last year is that for the first time ever, I wore something other than my Trusty Black Platform Hightops. Jan, one of my fabulous Carnaval Grrlfriends, turned J9 and me on to a local shop called "California Connection". It has what I like to think of as "stripper shoes". I truly have never seen shoes like this for sale outside of specialty catalogs, like HUGE clear lucite heels and shoes I would never in a million years be able to walk in, but somehow girls can pole dance in. ??? It's amazing!!
But I digress.
J9 and I went to get our boots. It was such fun. She got bright red ones and mine are silver (obviously). I spent two nights glueing tiny mirrored tiles (pried off of the Christmas decoration balls I purchased) to the heels and platform fronts of the boots. I LOVED how they turned out, I really did, but I have to tell you that my feet were killing me by the end of the night. I looked better in photographs than with my black hightop platforms, but I had to SIT DOWN during the show, which I haven't had to do in years and years and years.
I will tell you that I have come up with a new rule for Carnaval: don't let them photograph you sitting down. Because I have seen those pictures of myself, and believe me, it's not pretty. DON'T SIT DOWN!!!
Next year, I'll be back to my old boots, even though I really, really love those silver boots. :( It makes me sad.
The little cuffs along the top of the boots were made from the same foam with swim suit material on top. I used the Velcro to fasten them, and glued little dangling decorations to the sides and feathers to the top. I quite like the results, plus, the cuffs hid the boot laces wrapped around the tops.
This is like the Unknown Part of my costume, because no one ever saw it, not even once I bet, during the whole show. Basically, I really wanted to go with no corset this year, but I have such issues with my midsection since Lila that I still felt the need to have SOMETHING there masking my Problem Area, so I made this almost superhero belt with a "buckle" in front.
It's funny, I also ended up wearing a control-top smoother underneath all of it, I was so paranoid. I just felt more comfortable, and I think that's really important for going to Carnaval. Even if your costume causes you actual pain, if you feel COMFORTABLE in it, you'll have a great time and be relaxed and happy. If you're uncomfortable, for whatever reason, it's going to show in your photos.
PS, do you love my hot pink "rhumba panties"? :) I do!!!
Here is a closeup of the fringe on my top. This was so easy to do; I learned it from the fabulous Hula Girls from last year. It's just this certain kind of fabric cut with a rotary tool. It's SUPER EASY and is fantastic in the dark. It looks like some kind of liquid sparkle or something. I may use the idea next year too! You can't tell very much from this photo, but I totally whacked one side shorter than the other when I trimmed the fringe. Lane had to try to even it up, but it was still obvious to me when I saw myself from behind. Oh well. :) Such is life and costuming.
A view from the back. My costume closed around the back with Velcro. Gotta love that Velcro.
OK, here is a good shot of my front. The curlique at the top kept giving me trouble. I had it reinforced with florist wire and I used flash tape to stick it to my chest. All of this is well and good until I started to dance, when it came unstuck and began to flop forward. Because I had used the wire, I was able to bend it back a little to have it support itself. I was really lucky, as otherwise it could have been a costuming disaster!
Toward the end of my costuming, I started putting tiny little mirror tiles all over everything. Here, you can see them on the headdress and on some of the feathers by my face.
I think that the feathers down the side of my face were the most fun to do. I had to place each feather individually, styling them almost like curls of hair, working the hot pink in with the turquoise. I only had a few feathers at first, but added more and more and more, as is the Way of Carnaval Trimming. :)
I'm sassy!
Full-length in my driveway. :)
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