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Category Archives: Events and Performances

Lincoln Steampunk Asylum 2026

Lincoln Steampunk Asylum 2026

Alice Strange on the Castle Stage

What a weekend! Not even rain could stop people coming out in their stunning outfits. I even had some furries and a fabulously soggy audience, braving the weather to watch me perform at Lincoln Castle!

Kitten Von Mew on the Castle Stage, Lincoln Asylum

On Saturday I went in my pirate outfit with bloomers that matched the lining of my frock coat. I made the hat myself a couple of years ago and it was the perfect ensemble for such a wet day.

The beard competition. Men and women were both invited up.
Nimrod and his wife always dress in the most incredible outfits. This year’s was especially breathtaking!
The audience enjoying the entertainment
You can almost see her cogs whirring, trying to think of next year’s outfit….
One of the many unique artisan stalls at Asylum 2026

It was great to see plenty of unique stalls in and around the castle grounds. I especially liked talking to the authors in one of the marquees and ended up buying a ‘penny dreadful’ which I am very much looking forward to reading!

There were not only Starwars Steampunks…
But a Star Trek group as well! Can you spot the Klingon?

Another exciting thing on Saturday was giving Paul Randall the hat that he commissioned! As some people may remember, I used to have a stall at the show selling unique hats! It was too much with singing at looking after Betsy, but every so often I get people ordering custom creations. I had already created a Joker hat for Paul, many years ago and he wanted an updated version! I was so happy with house this came out and enjoyed making the joker look like an old rusty theme park sign. Inside is a Bluetooth speaker, so that he can play music or a crazy laughter track through his top hat. The arrow has colourful lights that can flash or chase.

Paul and his Steampunk Joker Top Hat

I now have 3 more commissions to complete for next summer!

Sunday was a better day weather-wise and we started it off with some life drawing, before getting yummy food from the Indian food stand.

Life drawing at the castle
One of my favourites!

Unfortunately each person was only posing for 10 minutes, which was a bit too short for me. When wearing such great outfits, you need more time!

Who y’gonna call?

My outfit for the day was my Back to the Future inspired ensemble! The backpack is a flux capacitor with a Back to the Future 2 inspired Pepsi bottle, there’s a mini Pizza, western accessories as a nod to the 3rd movie and I made my bustle jacket out of 2 doctor’s coats. I stained them with tea and coffee and created real leather patches of which I riveted on.

As I was singing at the Wild Wild West dance that evening, I thought it was fitting!

Would you like a straw with that?
Such a great droid, made with projectors and other scrap!
Another gorgeous couple
My 11yo trying on a new accessory
Meet Smog the dragon! Such a wonderful sculpture!
Don’t worry everyone, I found the cake and it was amazing.

So that evening I was a little later getting to The Assembly Rooms as we had a MA-HOOOSSIVE thunderstorm over our campsite. Sheet lighting, hail and people being flooded out of their tents. Luckily I got to the venue on time, but no one knew about the storm as it skipped the city!

Kitten Von Mew and The Brass Brothers before the event!

The Country night was a fantastic challenge for both myself and The Brass Brothers; learning a whole load of new songs!

The energy of the room was great and people were practising line dancing before the live entertainment.

The Brass Brothers were superb and chose some great tracks. I got to join in on one of my favourite ‘I Wanna Do Bad Things With You.’

Sometimes seeing an empty dance floor in front of you is intimidating, but I soon found out that that doesn’t mean people aren’t enjoying themselves! In ‘Dead or Alive’ everyone shocked the life out of me by shouting out “I’M WANTED!!!” at the correct parts. I got so many wonderful compliments, it was overwhelming!!!! My final song had everyone up and dancing, so I couldn’t have wished for a better night! Yee-haw!!!!!

Warwick Christmas Lights Switch On 2025

Warwick Christmas Lights Switch On 2025

It was such an honour to compère at Warwick’s famous Victorian Market and Christmas Lights Switch On this year! Thursday saw thousands of people mingling festively throughout the town to be part of this historic event.

My latest Yule Hat!

I originally made the hat above (custom hats available to order from 2026, just look for Cogsmith’s Curious Creations on Facebook!) for last year’s event, but it never got seen as I was so ill and had to cancel. It was wonderful to finally don my wintery titfer and step onto Warwick’s stage!

There was a primary school choir, members of I Sing I Dance I Act, the St. Mary’s Church Choir (beautiful!), a Victorian costume competition, the winner of Warwick’s Got Talent and more besides! I had a wonderful time singing and chatting to the audience, who were in high spirits and eager for the Christmas Lights to be switched on!

Taken by Charlotte Doran Davies 2025

As the bagpiper led the town crier, Warwick Mayor, court leet and various members to the front, it was like trying to organise children for a school photo as we herded and lured the dignitaries onto the stage. The town crier got his career for good reason and after a short spell of tinnitus, I looked out at the crowd and made sure to take in every single amazing and magical moment I was experiencing. One especially fabulous moment was the fact that I was asked to push the plunger down with Father Christmas and the mayor! Can you flippin’ believe it?! I sleighed it up there.

Image by Warwick Nub News

I have been away from the area for a little while now due to family stuff and this time helped me recharge, recoup and feel a little like myself again. It was so wonderful to see a few familiar faces and friends popping up to see me with a huge hug and a smile, your support is absolutely invaluable right now and you made me feel very loved/ made me looked fantastically famous and popular, so thank you.

Video taken by Christie Russell

I will add more images as I find them, but until then I will leave you with the above. You will find me in Weymouth next; at the Steampunk Yuletide Weekend on 6th December at Northe Forte! Huzzah!

Folkingham Remembers Operation Market Garden 2024


I must apologise for my long absence on here. I’ve had issues with my site and am also having a life declutter; finding myself once again and regaining my inner strength and confidence.

Wearing an original vintage tie and 1940’s hat

I had a wonderful time at Folkingham Remembers Operation Market Garden recently. The weather was astounding on Saturday and a constant downpour in the afternoon on Sunday! Did that put me off? Goodness no! I was the last entertainer standing and sang in the rain to a hardcore audience in a little orchard.

Kitten Von Mew singing before the rain started!

The church housed some incredible artefacts from Folkingham’s WW2 past, including photos, American airman uniform pieces, letters and insignia. There was even a piece of aircraft that had taken off from the airfield and unfortunately crashed in bad weather.

I was incredibly impressed how the whole village got involved. It very much felt like a community event, which was so lovely. What an incredible piece of history to have on your doorstep. Thank you for letting me be part of it!

Original 1940’s dress, telephone cord bag, 40’s hat, 30’s red glass beads and Remix Vintage Shoes

Avoncroft Museum 1940’s Weekend 2023

Avoncroft Museum 1940’s Weekend 2023

Gossiping with with girls

Avoncroft is an open air museum in Bromsgrove that hosts several events throughout the year AND has a little light railway to boot!

One of the most popular events is their 1940’s weekend and time there were a few changes. We were treated to vintage stalls (huzzah!) and a fashion show, that I was proud to be part of.

1940’s Post Woman Uniform

I was incredibly nervous on the Saturday as it was the first time singing since Severn Valley Railway and only my second singing event since my operation! I have to be so careful with my voice now and can only do short sets or I could permanently destroy my singing voice. Luckily Guy Roles (Avoncroft entertainment organiser and UK 1940s Radio Station presenter) completely understood. He did all he could to make sure I did everything right! Last time I sang I lost my singing voice for 4 months, so I’m following my surgeon’s strict advice from now on.

I managed to look around a few of the displays on Sunday, but vintage heels and boggy grass don’t mix! The buildings make a fantastic backdrop for the troops though and some groups even stay in the barns overnight! Remember how chilly it gets in October?

American troops in the Tudor barn

So keep your eye out for events at this lovely museum. They have a fabulous windmill, a 1940’s prefab (my favourite), a cafe selling gorgeous handmade cakes (the lime and passion fruit was amazing!) and so much more to wander round and see.

Miniatura Show – March 2023

Miniatura Show – March 2023

This weekend I had a wonderful time, exhibiting my dollshouse, steampunk diorama and hats at the Miniatura Show! Nestled between artisan sellers of furniture, teddy bears and food, I really didn’t think that my eccentric house would get so much interest and positive feedback! I was rather overwhelmed by everyone’s comments and reactions. It’s a very strange feeling when you create something that just stays in your house, doesn’t get seen by more than a handful of people…and then you present it to the world in a large hall.

The same goes for my steampunk diorama! I created it for the Hornby & Bassett-Lowe competition in 2021, but this is the first time that I have shown it to the public. Just hearing the giggles and gasps coming from the front of my stand was music to my ears.

I would like to say thank you to EVERYONE who came by and to the sellers that were so lovely and welcoming. A huge shout out to the 2 ladies who made me cry because of their kind words, not only to me but to the organiser. A complete confidence boost and they appreciated all the tips on using EVA foam! I even had a lady stallholder come up to me today and say “We’ve decided that this isn’t the Miniatura Show anymore, it’s the ‘What has Kitten got on her head today’ Show!”

It’s an absolute honour to say that I have been invited back to the show on 30th September/ 1st October 2023! I’m hoping that I can do a free workshop, where you can try out some of the techniques I use to add a personal touch to your projects. Stay tuned! If you would like to see more of my creations or even order your own bespoke headwear, then please visit my Facebook page Cogsmith’s Curious Creations.

Avoncroft WW2 Weekend 2022

Avoncroft WW2 Weekend 2022

This weekend I sang at Avoncroft Museum’s WW2 Weekend! The event had only been organised in 6 weeks, so I knew it wouldn’t be as rammed with reenactors and stalls as it would’ve been. The open air museum is vast and has a large range of buildings from 1800’s to a 40’s prefab! They even have a vintage showman’s carriage (my favourite).

There were some allies forces (Brits and Yanks), with a spattering of military vehicles. The setup looked great against the old buildings and you just couldn’t take a bad photos!

Mr Mew
Kitten Von Mew taken by MJ Wartog!

Remember folks… please don’t clamber on/ in or touch people’s vehicles without their permission! It’s very bad form! ALWAYS ask permission and they are allowed to say ‘no’ as it is their pride and joy. I asked obviously!!!

It was wonderful to catch up with my good friend Mark and see his new (to him) Willy’s Jeep name Bouncin’ Babe! Mark also overseas my official Facebook page when I’m too busy, so he is ace.

Mark and Kitten
Bouncin’ Babe! This set was taken by Mr Mew.

I managed to do a bit of modelling for Heyday Vintage at the same time, which was swell! This is the new Josephine dress I have teamed with Lulu Hun shoes, a gorgeous crocheted bag by Doodlebug Bags and a vintage hat.

As ever, I was super-nervous about my voice coping! Last weekend I lost my voice and last year, at a different Avoncroft event, I lost my singing voice and couldn’t do the second day! So all week I was inwardly panicking, drinking my weight in hot ginger and trying not to raise my voice too much.

Huzzah! My voice held up beautifully and I made sure to take care of it between sets too. I had great feedback both days and met some absolutely wonderful people. it was super to see Guy Roles once more and to meet The Vintage Class Singers for the first time.

Lindy Lou Shelby and Kitten Von Mew in the Guesten Hall on Saturday.

As well as the buildings, Avoncroft also has a mini railway; much to the joy of children and land girls alike!

Betsy and I had a go and it was lovely! Only 50p a ride and a nice little bit of fun to end the day.

Although a very much scaled down event, it was superb and everyone I spoke to has a brilliant time. Thank you to all the organisers and volunteers who pulled off the event in such a short amount of time!

Purple Eyebrows at Bletchley Park

Purple Eyebrows at Bletchley Park

Things have gone a bit pear shaped recently. This week for instance; I had been desperately getting a steampunk outfit ready for next weekend. As they were planning a 1000 Leagues Under the Sea Dance, I thought I would create mermaid-y hair and tried a temporary purple with green hair wax. The same evening I got a message stating that the event had been cancelled and I was devastated. So much so that I didn’t wash out the colour. The next day I was playing badminton with some chums, so had a shower and…it wouldn’t wash out. Well, the green came off my hair, but stayed on my scalp and the purple had actually turned dark blue, that had now gone blue and grey.

Betsy getting her ID card stamped

I got some extra strength colour stripper for my hair and some of my favourite orangey-red hair dye, ready to go back to my normal vivacious tangerine! Sooooooo, the hair stripper didn’t work particularly well and neither did the hair colourant.

Kitten Von Mew entertaining one of the stallholders!

Skip forward to today and there I was, going to Bletchley Park, with grey-blue, browny-orange hair that I tried desperately to camouflage in victory rolls and a hat. This was bad enough, but I also had a wardrobe malfunction before leaving. I had wanted to wear my original 1940’s green suit and the metal zipper broke when I was doing the skirt up. So I quickly put on a dress that was too big (but didn’t need ironing) and some 40’s style platform shoes…nope, the platform soles decided that now was a great time to disintegrate. I swapped to my Miss L Fire’s and we hot-stepped it out of the door.

Alan Turing’s Office

Cut to the car journey, where I was FaceTiming the folks and I caught a glimpse of myself in the sun visor mirror.

“Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me I had purple eyebrows?!”

Children’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ Gas mask. they were blue and red with a nose flap that made a silly noise when you breathed out.
Hurricane flypast

I was in such a panic to get ready and makeup on that I hadn’t been paying attention to the brush I used to apply the brown tint to my brows. It has obviously been used for pink or red lipstick beforehand and I hadn’t realised.

Cut back to the car journey and scrubbing with a wet wipe only seemed to create a brighter purple and a lilac haze on the skin around my brows.

Karen, The Heritage Milliner and Shona of Heyday Vintage!

So I went to the Bletchley Park 1940’s Weekend with bluey-grey, orangey-brown hair and purple eyebrows in an oversized dress and still had a wonderful time. Sometimes you just need to suck up the stress, see the funny side and enjoy each splendid, silly, memorable moment.

And hey, I can always desaturate the photos!

Ironbridge 1940’s Day at The Boat Inn


We are just in the car, heading back from a wonderful day in picturesque Ironbridge.

The 1940’s Day was hosted by the team behind the annual WW2 Weekend and was another great way to raise money for COMBAT STRESS.

There were vintage military vehicles, information stands, reenactors with American, British, German and French Resistance setups and myself and Ava Evergreen entertaining!

I have, as yet, not been able to sing at the full weekend event because of other bookings, but it was a wonderful little setup and certainly attracted a good amount of people.

Just a 5 minute walk away was an amazing craft centre (squeal!!!!!) that I didn’t have time to explore, but the coffee shop did a lovely breakfast to fuel our day and prepare me for my first set.

The Naval Officer’s car (or command car?) was certainly my favourite there and I could have quite happily trundled home in that beauty!

Everyone had very good, informative dioramas and we chatted to the French Resistance people for quite a while. Each group were very approachable and eager to answer question or show you interesting artifacts.

The chap smiling above was amazingly knowledgeable about British kit and we had a great chat about hand grenades. I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t know anything about the Bakelite ones. Now, my reenactor friends will be rolling their eyes at me right now, but I’ve only ever seen the pineapples and the sticks. I may have just not realised until now what they were!

The idea was to unscrew the cap, throw the grenade and then a cotton tape would unwind. The weight of the lead tab at the end pulled out the pin to detonate the grenade.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed this little post. Thank you to everyone who came, Dave Adams for booking me and Rosie and everyone at COMBAT STRESS. I hope you raised lovely amount of money!

The dress I was wearing today is by Heyday Online and is a BRAND NEW Mary dress, with long sleeves! I’m wearing a size 14, with a corset underneath to accentuate my curves. Because of the cut, it frames my cinched waist as well as fitting beautifully at my natural waist size too!

24th June Stratford upon Avon Performance!


I will be singing at The Officer’s Mess, The Fourteas, Sheep Street from 8.30pm on 24th June!

Join me for a night of vintage music, cocktails and fun! It will be the day after my Birthday, so I may make you all sing to me instead…

Book your table by emailing bookings@thefourteas.co.uk or phone 01789 293 908.

The Severn Valley Railway Jubilee Weekend 2022

The Severn Valley Railway Jubilee Weekend 2022

I had a wonderful morning, entertaining everyone at Kidderminster Station, The Severn Valley Railway today! I felt like I should be singing a slightly puntastic rendition of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ (🎼purple train, purple traaaaaaaain…).

Kitten Von Mew singing at Kidderminster Station, SVR

The Taw Valley was in desperate need of a repaint, so SVR decided to temporarily paint her purple for the Platinum Jubilee and Commonwealth Games. Along with this colourful transformation, the loco has been renamed Elizabeth II.

No.70 Elizabeth II

Although the unique engine was unfortunately quite a way from the platform edge, I was lucky enough to be able to have a few snaps taken on the track itself! I’m sure many puffer nutters and chuff chuff buffs will be shaking their heads in dismay at the non-traditional shade of the Elizabeth II locomotive, but I thought it was a jolly tribute and a splash of well needed colour after the last couple of years of Covid AND the recent cancellations of many wartime railway events due to the Ukrainian war.

As well as the No.70 Elizabeth the stunning Lady of Legend is also working at the Platinum Jubilee event! Parts of a Hall class loco were used to create the magnificent Saint class at Didcot and the works were completed in 2019. She is an absolute beauty as you can see!

Lady of Legend

Be sure to join me again tomorrow at 10am and 11am for more rock n roll on the concourse!