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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!

The Joys of Zoom Gigs


Well firstly… HAPPY NEW YEAR! Let’s hope this year holds better news for all of us!

Just before my New Year’s Eve gig

Obviously in light of Covid, all my booked events and care home gigs were cancelled last year. It was a miserable feeling and unsettling time (notice how I’m using past tense as I’m determined that 2021 will be slightly better?), but I did receive a couple of Zoom gig requests, which made me feel slightly less useless to the world.

It is always funny, watching videos of other people’s dysfunctional Zoom meetings on YouTube. Children interrupting news reporter parents, cats deciding that world domination should start by destroying one laptop at a time, people forgetting to properly leave meetings; subjecting their workmates to nakedness, preparation of online porn watching and more besides.

See a hilarious Zoom Fails compilation here!!!

Luckily I haven’t recorded my own personal experiences, but they will certainly be embedded in my memories for a long time!

My first online gig was for a wonderful felting group. They could meet for their annual summer meet-up, so hosted an online version with tutorials and chat. I was the half time entertainment for this fabulous fibre-pricking faction and set myself up in the garden with backdrop, props, PA system and laptop. I asked Mr. Mew to entertain little one whilst I was singing, but this seemed to loosely translate into ‘please let her go into the garden, play loudly, then fall over.’ I tried to carry on regardless, but had to excuse myself and pick up screaming child myself. The show went on and I added a couple of extra songs as way of apology to the filters. They were wonderful, fun, great company… and I haven’t heard from them since…

Cut to yesterday when I was booked last minute to perform a 49 minute singing set on zoo for a care home! Huzzah! With a little help, I was set up in a quiet room with a PA system, spotlight and laptop. No children, no cats, no problems! All was going brilliantly until about 3/4 of the way through. I was mid song when I heard a ‘POP!’. It threw me for a second and I had to fight to remember the lyrics, whilst pretending to absentmindedly look behind me. I thought I had accidentally knocked a glass bauble off the Christmas tree behind me, but there was no evidence on the floor, so I turned back to camera. As I carried on, my eyes got distracted by a wispy movement above the laptop. Suddenly I focused on…SMOKE. It started to plume rather generously from the spotlight unit and I realised that this wasn’t just a little ‘pop’, the unit was on fire. I excused myself for a second, whilst we got the light outside. The room was full of smoke, but I apologised and continued the concert as windows were opened around me and frosty air filled the room. I tried to control my composure as all I wanted to do was burst out laughing! An extra song was added and I had a brilliant time entertaining them all from my cold, smokey setting. Thank goodness things didn’t get more serious!

Have you had anything crazy happen in online meetings or chats? I would love to hear yours!

Daily Mail Article


Click here to read the article.

Ah yes, another corker of an article released today about our lifestyle; full of misquotes and fabrications to make us look weird. Always take this type of thing with a pinch of salt and a smirk! 

Apparently we eat like they did in the Blitz (you know…powdered egg, rationed bacon, spam, pizza, tiramisu, korma…)

Betsy’s Bing and Peppa Pig toys are from an ‘erstwhile age.’

Kitten von Rew????
Oh and of course Betsy loves the wartime classics (?!), like this fairies book from 1950 for instance (blatantly on the front cover)…

The grammar is impeccable…if you aren’t fussed about punctuation and sentences making sense…

This wonderful image below was used in the article and not credited. It was taken by the talented Candee Photography!

As you can see from part of this email, I previously contacted the company about misquotes and other info. Some of it was taken onboard… I mean, they corrected my name.

Finally, thank you to Koray Erol the photographer. He did a great job on the day!

Meet and Greet and Lemurs (oh my!)


marie antoinette costume-kitten von mew

On Saturday last I was asked to do a meet and greet in my Mewy Antoinette and Songbird outfits for a fabulously Burlesque-Rococo Birthday party in a rather swish part of London. This camp and classy bash was held in a gorgeously elegant house with the best paintings I have ever seen and the most beautiful Rococo tapestry chairs. Argh. Gorgeous….

Annnnnyway. I got into my Mewy Antoinette corset and thanks to the weight gain, my ‘hubba hubba boom booms’ have inflated themselves enough to create a classic heaving bosom worthy of any 1970’s romance novel. Unfortunately Mr. Mew was banished to the dressing room and I only had the company of the hired clown and his Lemur, so was unable to recreate such passionate book covers.

It didn’t take long for me to become completely obsessed with Curtis, the 20 year old Lemur, people watching on Mr. Anon Clown’s shoulder.  His rabbit-like fur, beautifully large eyes and passion for dried cranberries…all I needed was the ‘GSOH’ and a date between us may have gone surprisingly well if I were not about to be wed.

I asked Mr. Clown whether I may have a photo of Curtis on my shoulder and before he could say “He doesn’t really like sitting on strangers”, the Lemur coolly walked onto his new perch and placed a territorial paw upon my chest (much like Brian Blessed planting his flag on the peak of Everest). And there Curtis stayed for an hour as we welcomed guests into the party wearing anything from a dinner suit to just the suit jacket. Some people noticed my furry parrot and others completely missed him and jumped when they realised they were stood next to a ‘wild animal.’ A lot of people thought poor Curtis was a monkey, which I liked to the fact some people think Canadians are American.

At 9.45 I changed into my Songbird costume, complete with pasties, to work the room, packed with gorgeous bodies of varied sexual preferences, these gorgeously groomed men and women were a sheer delight to prance around with and speak too; even the Birthday boy’s mother let her guard down and asked me to twirl my tassels!

kitten von mew corset lemur

Tis the Season to be a Wally…


I seem to have odd spouts of accidents at the moment. Yesterday I knocked my brain into the sink when I walloped my head on the corner of the kitchen cupboard door and an hour later smashed the glass salt seller too. I decided to vacate to the sofa lest I turn the light on and burn the house down.

After reassuring myself that hemming my knuckles with the sewing machine would be a highly unlikely situation I altered the rest of my beloved Heyday trousers to fit, mended 2 vintage dresses and watched Hart’s War with Mr. Mew; balancing an ice pack on my head.

It is most peculiar when you bosh your bonce. In horror movies, blood spurts out of the wound like an Italian courtyard fountain. This creates a visual spectacle equal to the pain. Although the pain was excruciating, there was no blood, no graze, no bump… nothing to show anyone why I was shouting ‘Ow’ other than holding my head and pointing at the cupboard door like a 3 year old. In fact I was so stunned I couldn’t even say owt.

I am sure as a child we were made of sponge balls.  I would have knock after knock; suffer bruised knees, picked scabs and fashion a plethora of first aid plasters, but after a quick hug from Ma and a loving squeeze I would bounce back ready for the next accident.  As an adult, I hit my head and I’m not able to do anything for half the flipping day. Where have my sponge balls gone?!?!

Pets are the Funniest Things…


My fish at work...yes that is an Easter Island head...

As many of you know, my family used to have 2 gorgeous cats called Rupert and Rosey who were larger than life characters. I adored having cats around, but unfortunately where I live now, we are not allowed any! The landlady has a huge dog who is so sweet and gentle, but she roams freely in the grounds and turns wicked when faced with felines apparently. So cats are not allowed. The pussycats had incredibly strong personalities. Rosey was an utter flirt, would shout and chatter to everyone and loved having men in the room. She loved rough play and there were many occasions where guests would look on in sheer horror as we pummeled her ribcage like a masseuse, whilst she dribbled and purred in appreciation. Rupert was a complete lap cat and had a bad habit of biting noses when he was younger. A pure ginger tiger with huuuuge padding paws, this was one mog who craved cuddles, food and plastic bags or wrapping paper to rustle around in. On so many occasions I half expect 2 furry friends to bound over to me as I come down the drive to visit my parents. I don’t think you ever get over losing pets you have known for so long.

I finally decided to get some fish as I have a little fish tank with 4 Minnows in it at work and love them to pieces (Churchill, Liz, Rommel and Miller). I bought a fish tank and added Dame, Vera and Lynn who didn’t seem to appreciate our efforts to keep them alive and happy at all. We decided to start again with 4 smaller Minnows – Dame II, Vera II, Lynn II and Glenn who have been living happily in their tank for 2 weeks. We decided to change 10% of the water so popped the top off and skimmed the top of the tank on Saturday. Sunday I was getting concerned as Glenn seemed to be missing in action and would not normally hide himself in the cave-like barracks at the back of the tank. After a lot of searching we discovered he seemed to have vacated the tank and neither of us could figure out how as we know we had not taken him out whilst changing the water. Late yesterday evening we discovered the mystery of Glenn Miller’s disappearance. Upon taking the top off of the tank and starting the cleaning process, the fish sometimes get a little over-excited and flick their tails at the surface. It seems that Glenn, in a moment of territorial vigour, had hurled himself out of the water. Inconveniently for him, he landed by the china cabinet instead of back into the tank and we found his body last night whilst watching King Kong. Twasn’t beauty that killed the beast it was stupidity. Poor Glenn.

To be honest, the girls seem relieved about his removal. Having regained the stage, they seem more full of life and colour as they swim around their submerged battle tank. One came to the glass and I am sure I saw her mouth ‘We’re back ladies!’

I came into the office this morning (I am a creative writer in the week at a gift company) and my work friend Becky had gained herself some chickens over the weekend. She discovered when they were dropped off that they were in fact a chicken and 2 cocks, so it looks like she will have eggs flying around like ping pong balls at a Thai lap dancing club. Im looking forward to the prospect of fresh poached eggs on the odd morning!

There is something very therapeutic about having pets, something to look after like a child, take your mind off of life’s problems. One of these days we will buy a place and get 2 kitty-cats, but until then Glenn (R.I.P), Miller, Dame II, Vera II, Lynn II, Liz, Rommel and Churchill are an absolute pleasure.

Star Wars Silliness…


This video was shot at Gaydon Heritage Motor Centre. I had just come up with a few new lyrics whilst we were sat having a cup of coffee, watching the rain coming down. In a caffeine fuelled dash of genius and lunacy, we went to the sci-fi exhibit and shot this little number. Not Albert Hall worthy, but hopefully someone will get a giggle out of it.