There was a very sleepy marathon hula hooper, a bed of nails, snake charming, tap dancing, burlesque, a breakdance battle, and a very sneaky magician…

Visit Red Riding Photography for lots more photos!

Friday, after a full day of circus work and play I ran home for a quick nap, changed clothes and headed back downtown to meet Mandy for The Detroit Burlesque Company Presents “Teased to Meet You.” Irina was parked in front of the stage the whole night and took all these fantastic photos.

Michael Dallas stole the show with his nerdy, sexy striptease. The crowd lost their minds as he loosened his tie and slinked out of his suspenders. There was also a crazy cat lady skit and a sing-a-long to ‘Sweet Transvestite.’ It’s inspiring to watch such talented performers and I’m always thrilled to be part of this big, crazy circus community.

Mandy and I got all fancy on Friday for dinner in Mexicantown (complete with a rockn’ mariachi band serenade) and the Wonderland DVD release party, a local sideshow type production based on Alice in Wonderland. We set up the camera and as Thriller came on, had a little dance party and took outfit photos.

When we arrived at the theater for the screening there was a line down the block, so we sat in the car for a bit to keep warm,  critiquing the outfits and poor shoes choices of the guests. It was NOT the weather for heels as you can see by our combat boots. Irina even showed up in a floor length gown with combat boots too!

There were a few live performers before the movie started which included the brilliant Satori Circus as Conrad Lee who sang a few songs and got the entire audience to join in on ‘I’m your venus, I’m your fire, your desire!”

Dress: Betsey Johnson
Boots: Olsenboye
Jewelry: Kohls
Fishnets: dance store
Fascinator: Claire’s

Eating massive amounts of cheesy potatoes and tofu chocolate peanut butter pie

 Mom making us big kids popcorn and hot toddies + secret undies from Santa

Loud, silly photo sessions with my cousins

Christmas poppers and goofy hats + my brother laughing so hard he spit water all over the table at Christmas dinner

Getting a little JamBox and a big Hello Kitty for Christmas

Waking up to breakfast in bed + finishing two site designs

Christmas cartoons + floors completely covered in paper

Meeting Pants’ parents at the casino where everyone lost money except me…the non-gambler + drinking too much & downing Taco Bell…a bad combo

Watching Pants get his hair cut at a cool little ’50s style barber shop +  seeing The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (SO GOOD) & getting started on The Girl Who Played With Fire + walking the piglet through big, wet snowflakes

Sunday was the third annual gingerbread house building party at my parent’s.

My sister and I decided we were really only interested in building things to eat…like sandwiches.

So we played with all the kids instead, chasing them around the house, over furniture and under tables.

My mom dug the Lego town out of the basement and we launched little plastic people off a sinking Lego boat.

Slayer made a friend, but only liked her while she had a sticky, slobbery Dorito in her hand.

And he got an early Christmas present, which he wasn’t terribly interested in, so my mom helped him climb inside.

Yesterday was such a fantastic day. I don’t have a house full of people very often, so I was a little nervous inviting 15 friends and family over for brunch, but it couldn’t have gone better! I’m so thankful Pants is a whiz in the kitchen and turned out two pans of bacon, three pans of potatoes, and almost two dozen eggs. I took care of the baking with vegan blueberry muffins and vegan banana walnut waffles, plus we loaded the buffet with all the fixings for bloody marys and mimosas.

[ My sis, me, Piglet and my cousin, Maria ]

[ Piglet needs his Christmas sweater! ]

After stuff our faces and downing a few drinks, Pants and his sister, Jaime, decided they were putting up my tree and decking out my house. I’m fairly indifferent when it comes to decorating, but now that all the lights are strung I’m kind of loving it :)

[ They even put lights in my front window - adorable! ]

We spent the rest of the afternoon with 6 of us + Slayer cozy on my giant couch, drinking, eating peppermint bark (home made by Pants and Maria) and watching Home Alone, Ghost Busters and The Three Amigos.

Yum!

Last week Jessica and I had a little Double Trouble date and hunted down ornaments and holiday decorations.

I ended up covered up in sparkles and bought a bunch of little poinsettias and pine cones to make hats for our holiday show. By the time I was done me, my couch, my coffee table and floor were completely covered in glitter!

The end result turned out pretty fantastic though! On Friday we dressed up as elves and performed at the artists market near my house. High five to Claire’s for once again saving our butts with the candy cane suspenders and striped socks. We had such a great response from everyone at the showthey asked us to come back again in January :) I’ll have pics and video soon!

On Saturday Nicole and I had a nerd lunch and I helped her figured out some blog stuff. So hop over there and say hi :) She’s got mad style and sells vintage on Etsy.

After lunch we stopped at the Rust Belt for a little shopping. Aren’t these magnets so stinkin’ cute??

Sunday Pants was home from visiting his fam, so we went to Christine’s for brunch where I finally killed my craving for waffles.

I was so very happy to have a weekend off. Preparing for a show is a lot of work with putting together costumes and searching for new music, not to mention actual rehearsals. I’ve also been working on four site designs at once, so I feel like I have to use every minute of every day to work through my to-do list. I’m really terrible at taking time off, so Saturday night I decided I was staying in and not working at all. I ordered a whole pizza for myself, painted my nails and watched Christmas movies.

What do you do to turn off your brain and step away from work? I can give out tons of advice on staying motivated and getting ish done, but taking a break….not so much >_<

* You can follow me on Instagram @sillygrrl of course!

Big curls and my new crocheted headband, teaching my first aerial class (it went really well!), pizza dates & sweating garlic, Pants and Nick teasing each other like 5-year-olds (per usual), brunching at a spot we’ve never brunched before, locating people by the sound of their laugh, raking lots of leaves, puppy walks, Pants and Piglet falling asleep watching football, being lazy on my giant comfy couch, mint chocolate cookies from mom, concocting outfits and playlists, roasting squash & making soup, rehearsing for our show on Friday, and a post-workout trip to Taco Bell.

Saturday afternoon was for meetings, but I managed to squeeze in a mini date for a trip to the fancy beer store and vegan chocolate peanut butter ice cream in a waffle cone. After site designs and rigging for our black Friday show was squared away I met Mandy and Mae downtown for dinner. Finally got to see Mandy’s cute little apartment complete with a wall of windows, a tiny stove and tons of security guards. I’d move down there in a second if I didn’t have this whole mortgage thing going on.

For dinner we hopped  over to Le Petit Zinc, a tiny French cafe in Corktown. I had a mushroom crepe, which I made disappear in an instant, and when the server came back to ask about dessert I couldn’t resist a Nutella crepe too. They served water in wine bottles and canning jars and tea in big bowls.

Sunday I loaded piglet into the car, picked up Pants and headed to my parents for a pierogi party. It’s family tradition passed down from my great grandmother to her granddaughters and then to me and my cousins. We let Pants in on the family secret and he helped us roll dough and fill the pierogi before promptly passing out on the couch. The rest of my very loud and rambunctious family showed up around three and by the time everyone arrived we had seven dishes of potato/cheese & sauerkraut/cottage cheese pierogi. There is always a good amount of shit talking over whose dough is most tender and filling is most flavorful. My cousin got an earfull for using instant potatoes, but his blend of four cheese made them pretty damn good.

Next up in competitive family traditions…gingerbread houses!

Saturday night was our biggest Weird Sisters show to date at Theatre Bizarre: The Initiation. After weeks of rehearsal and preparation by the TB family over at the Masonic Temple it was amazing to see everything come together. They built stages, hung banners and huge art pieces, switched out hundreds of light bulbs to give all SEVEN floors a spooky glow.

The morning of the show – we met at the Masonic for one final run through and wandered through the building as the morning sun crept through the halls.

At 7 p.m. the doors opened and cleverly costumed pledges began to filter in. People get really creative with their costumes – store bought is just not an option for Theatre Bizarre.

Mae, Mandy and Nate came to show their support.

The zombified Detroit Party Marching Band wandered through the halls, stopping in the middle of the lobby for an enthusiastic breakdown, complete with clapping, dancing and silly string.

Pants was a well dressed horse for the night and was stopped multiple times by random people for photos.

There were multiple stages, spooky lounge singers and burlesque dancers, the Odditorium full of magicians & sideshow freaks, suspensionists hanging in glass boxes, undead elevator operators manually moving the cars between floors, a ghost train (which I never managed to locate).

The Detroit Fire Guild, painted like steely-abbed devils, were positioned throughout the building and on the columns out front spinning fire and flipping on stilts.

Only way to drink wearing the horse mask :) Pants was one sweaty mess once he took that thing off.

My mask for the party, which I made a few nights before. I threw on my ‘target for a knife thrower’ outfit in between shows.

There aren’t many people in these pictures, but I assure you the place was packed. I saw a ship full of pink-horned vikings, a sexy female Elvis, a space girl wearing a lighted bubble helmet, far too many black swans, Maurice from Little Monsters, the Wizard of Oz w/his hot air balloon, multiple yip-yips, and my favorite of the whole night…the priest from Beetlejuice.

Last two photos are from Detroit photographer Joe Gall, so you can see how freaking cool the place looked :)

Photos and video from our performance are coming soon :) And thank you to Mae and Irina for the pictures as I was running around most of the night and only had a couple on my iPhone.