Tag Archives: kitten von mew
Ich bin ein Burl-iner!
Kitten von Mew waving to the crowd with The Berliner military steam train behind.
Burlesque in Berlin! Just incase you didn’t get the title of this blog post!
I had been looking forward to this legendary trip for a good year! A chance to see and ride on an original military steam train, see Berlin and be part of this amazing journey…the first of it’s kind in fact!
Having flown from Birmingham to Hamburg (thank goodness they will start flying direct to Berlin from June!) and figuring out the trains (ignore the boards and ask the ticket information guys), we headed to our hotel! After around 9 hours of travelling, we were looking forward to getting refreshed befor eheading out at 6.30pm for my performance at RAF Gatow!
This collection of aircraft hangers and military displays is now in a maze of new housing estates, which have been built on part of the old airfield. A complete treasure hidden away, RAF Gatow is a wonderful museum and was the perfect place for the Airlift Spirit Evening. It brought together ‘puffer nutters’, war veterans and people who wanted to do something unique with their weekend; all of whom I would see again on the locomotive.
RAF Gatow from inside the hanger, taken by Kitten von Mew
The Black Kilts Pipe Band (hilariously only 1 of the guys is Scottish and the rest are German, wonderful chaps!), some Irish dancers (also all German) and a choir were entertaining that evening and I was to do my RAF Fancy Fan Dance, extended with a few songs to lift the mood and ease the Vets in to the fact I was wearing rather little under my wool coat. Atleast most were sitting down, but I wanted them to be of fit enough health to enjoy their steam train trip too…
Kitten von Mew with some of the Black Kilts Pipe Band, Berlin 2012. Taken by Mr Mew
The performance went without hitch and although my little RAF cap refused to behave, I mentally ‘had words’ and it decided to more or less play ball. I sang a couple of my favourite Gracie Fields numbers before slipping into my regular burlesque act, but this time having my spitfire shaped nipple pasties to greet the crowd with a wiggly-jiggly fly-past.
Kitten von Mew at RAF Gatow, Berlin. RAF Fancy Fan Dance performance. Photo taken by a shy fan!
Singing in my RAF outfit at Gatow. Taken by a shy fan!
You ask for security and this is what you get…
The next day was the start of the big event! Our first look at the awesome steam train with 15 carriages and a diesel engine on tow! We all placed outselves on the platform, awaiting the arrival of a looming loco, only to realise that it had pulled in behind us at the wrong platform. I had to laugh as it was a very ‘It’s behind you!!!’ moment. I was wearing my ATS corset for photos and kept it on for a good couple of hours before needing to change into something a little more practical. The weather on Friday had been rather a heatwave, so I think a lot of us were surprised how chilly the following day was!
My ATS corset outfit made by G.Hodder out of an original (moth eaten and no good for wearing) uniform. She did an amazing job and this corset will be making an appearance at War and Peace Show this year!
With a quick stop at Marienborn Station to take a look at the engine and derelict building, it was time to jump aboard for our next stop at Helmstedt. On the Saturday, this stop was particularly lovely! The sun shone and the crowds greated us at the station waving Union Jack flags! The Black Kilts Pipe Band led a procession to the pretty town square where the major and other VIP’s gave a speech from the balcony of an old building…briefly interrupted by the adjacent church bells ringing out God Save The Queen as it struck on the hour.
By this time my feet were rather aching as I forgot that although my 1940’s style shoes look gorgeous, inside the shoe itself, my toes are boshing into each other like a rowdy pub brawl. It was starting to get a little chilly, so after a quick picture with Peter (an artist we met on board who painted a special picture for the journey), Mr. Mew and I staggered back up the steep hill to the station. Luckily we had bought a rather whopping piece of strawberry sponge at a market stall as we didn’t have time for breakfast that morning!
Peter the steam train artist with his specially commissioned painting of The Berliner
After kicking my shoes off in carriage 13 and rearranging my ‘Little Piggies’ into a respectable line, I was soon asked by the official photographer to go to the front of the train, so that when when we arrived at Hannover, we could hop off the train and do a PR shoot at the front of the engine. I put on my Iron Maidens again and staggered drunkenly (but glamorously) to the front carriage. We then tottered to the front of the train for photos and I even managed to get up to pose with the engine driver!
With the engine driver of The Berliner at Hannover Station
After the shoot I asked Mr. Mew for his photo before we got back on the train…Just after pressing the shutter button I realised that the train was pulling away from the station…
Mr Mew by The Berliner at Hannover
Unfortunately we hadn’t realised that this was a scheduled 2 hour stop and in our haste to do the shoot I had left my handbag, money, phone and coat in the carriage. As my toes waved white flags of surrender, Mr Mew and I made our way down the steps to the shopping mall to shelter from the cold breeze and find a seat. Unfortunately unless you were at one of the eateries, there were no seats at all and as we wondered around the shopping centre I stared enviously through the windows of shoe shops with comfy soles and comfy souls in coffee shops enjoying a warm drink.
After an hour and a bit, we managed to blag our way into the 1st Class DB lounge at the station, where we flopped into comfy red leather chairs for half an hour. I had to verbally lash Mr Mew to the seat when he saw the complimentary drinks available as we had already pushed our luck with the manager!
Poor feet. That is the look of someone who doesn’t want to play anymore…
At last we got back on the train and the shoes came back off! Once warmed up my spirits rose again and at 8.10pm we made our way to the restaurant car where the lovely catering staff had prepared us some cheesy potatoes and smoked salmon (our first proper meal of the day!). We could have been eating lobster for all we cared, it was wonderful! On the way there I was cornered by a group of passengers in the bar carriage who requested a song. I don’t know why nerves didn’t take hold, especially with acapella of which I had never done, but I sang We’ll Meet Again and a song from my new act. They all joined in and we had a wonderful time!
The next day I made sure I was dressed dar more comfortably in my Heyday trousers and a knitted top made for me from an original pattern. I was now able to enjoy the journey far more! Learning from mistakes of the previous day, the train manager put the hilarious Rabbi on to the tanoy system with each stop and for regular information updates. He had us all in stitches!
I got to meet some fabulous people on the trip and spent most of Sunday collecting autographs in my souvenir brochure before breaking down in tears at the end of the journey when we pulled into Berlin for the last time. It was a wonderful experience and I met some amazing people who had been on the military steam train in the war and beyond!
Meeting a veteran on the steam train who rode on The Berliner when he was 19 years old!
COMMENTS…
Name: Sue underwood
Subject: military train
We had such a wonderful weekend on the military train in Berlin, you made it all the more special with your wonderful voice & burlesque show, you were wonderful. we were the loudest on the train, hope you enjoyed our singing. love sue & the rest of the gangxxx
Name: John R. Wesley
Subject: Berliner
Just going through the rushes of my very amateur video of Saturday’s train and have a nice shot of you at Marienborn with the loco. Sally and I will be thinking of you and Richard with much fondness on June 2nd. You really made the event swing from beginning to end – you both must have been exhausted, but what a fantastic contribution you made to an extraordinary and fabulous day.
Kitten von Food
vintage seaside humour
I HATE diets. Im not a fan of exercise either. I think being someone who’s weeks and weekends are so jam packed (especially with wedding stuff on top!), I am mentally exhausted at the end of it and it takes all my will power to get on that stepper machine.
I don’t want to crack nuts with my thighs, I just want to get them back into my trousers!
To help me along a little with trimming my muffin tops ready for the wedding, I decided to be a good girl and curb my nibbling, eating a bowl of cereal in the morning, raw veg and humous with a glass of chocolate Soya Milk (Im allowed a treat thank you!) for lunch and then some kind of equally dull dinner.
I don’t know what I was expecting to see in the longest 4 days of my life…maybe for my body to eat my bum fat like a cannibal on an all-you-can-eat nudist beach…but nothing, not even a wobble waving a white flag.
Im still struggling with my trousers and willpower. Why is it that when you need to be good, fresh tiger bread twirls it’s fragrant tassels at me and chocolate souffle’s give me a ‘come hither’ smile through their foil topped lids. The cullinary cads.
STOP PRESS!!! Kitten’s New Burlesque Act
This is an exclusive look at my new costume and act ‘Lili Mewleen’, which will be released from it’s burlesque shackles at the War and Peace Show 2012!
A nod to one of my favourite female icons Marlene Dietrich, this act features a 7 ft lampost made by Mr. Mew and a STUNNING Vollers corset that has a ‘quick release function’. I got to try on this stunner of a corset when I did the interview for The One Show and met the gorgeous Corina and her fabulous group of ladies in the factory. Knowing how much work goes into these British made corsets has given me even more faith in the UK industry!
I made the fascinator, garter and bustle. The dress was once a rather black lacy and frilly affair (once owned by a drag queen) of which I stripped down to the basics and started again with electric blue!
This fun act will also be staged at Twinwood Festival this year in a brand new entertainment hall, which will also house my swoon-fest Max Raabe!
OCD’s
Whilst dunking biscuits in my tea just now…erm, sorry Mr Mew, I mean eating an apple…it occured to me what strange OCD’s I have.
One of these is that I just lick each biscuit before dunking, so that crumbs do not get into my cup. If a particularly large bisuit (please visualise the splendour of a chocolate disgestive), I will also blot the biscuit on my tongue where bitten if a second dunking is required to finish the biscuit.
I think my fear of soggy mess at the bottom of my cup stems from childhood and I also can’t eat soggy bread or it makes me feel sick (although bread pudding is one of my favourite desserts!).
I also have another OCD, which involves cereal and the fact that I cannot eat it unless the milk is poured in a certain way.
Soes anyone else suffer from such things?
Kitten von Mew’s 2013 Pinup Calendar!
As some of you may know, I have been working on a 2013 pinup calendar, which will be released late May! Due to the last calendar being so popular (thank you so much for your support!) and selling out before Christmas, I wanted to find out whether anyone would like to pre-order their copy. You will receive yours hot off the press!
The format will be much like the 2011 version – A3, metal spiral bound and you can frame the pictures afterwards!
I have been working with the amazing Candee of Candee Photography to create this extra special, limited edition calendar and we are so excited about it! My friend Neil Howard (Puffer Nutter Extraordinaire) has done an absolutely stirling job with helping us organise shooting locations we would have completely overlooked or not been allowed into under normal circumstances too!
Some images (like the one above) from our shoots have been released, but we aren’t releasing any more until the calendar is ready!
So if you would like to pre-order your 2013 Kitten von Mew calendar, get in touch at kvm@email.com with the email heading ‘CALENDAR’ with the quantity and an address and I will keep your details until they are released! If you would like a signed copy, remember to let me have a name or message you want putting on the front!
Meet and Greet and Lemurs (oh my!)
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!
Handmade Boudoir Dolls – Mae Day
I have always longed for a vintage boudoir doll. Some people find them deeply disturbing and something of horror films, but I find most rather charming and even the smoking bed dolls make me smile. It is something about dolls made for grown women that makes the fact I still have my teddy bear seem acceptable…
Anyway, because of the price of the nicest examples of boudoir doll, I decided to try making my own. I adapted a pattern I found online for the limbs and torso, creating the alien-like body from felt.
I had great fun doing the face and used a doll face mould and cotton wool pads dipped in watered down PVA glue! Once dried I painted with acrylics. The texture of the cotton wool pads has given the face a wonderfully old look. I didn’t want this doll to look brand spanking new, I much preferred a more ‘look what I just found in this old attic trunk!’ look.
Creating the limbs and sticking on the face of the Mae Day. I later shortened the neck a little! Photo by Kitten von Mew
2 Boudoir Doll faces I created and painted. The 2nd one will be used for a wedding themed doll! Photo By Kitten von Mew
I originally wanted her to be lounging in lingerie and a Chinese silk robe, but unfortunately we mislaid the bag of silk remnants! I managed to create some French knickers out of two tone silk with old lace trim and a bra top to match. Because these dolls have iconically long limbs, she looked a little disturbing with no hair and more like something from Close Encounters as opposed to Brief Encounter.
After checking my scrap fabrics, I came across an old dress of my sisters with a great crochet overlay and tassels, which lent itself beautifully as a flapper dress! I used an uphostery tassel and beaded trip as decoration and made a long necklace out of some 1930’s and 50’s beads I had lying around. The choker is the clasp from a pearl necklace that exploded a few years back.
Taken by Kitten von Mew
Taken by Kitten von Mew
The stockings are made from one of my own seamed nylons that laddered and look aged and tattered as if she has been dancing all weekend!
The hair made all the difference and is beautifully soft alpaca!
Taken by Kitten von Mew
As a finishing touch I made her leather shoes from a sample swatch and a couple of antique pearl beads.
My Boudoir Doll Shoes made out of leather swatches. Taken by Kitten von Mew
Her hair is slightly more ‘poofy’ than I originally wanted, but as my first try, I am very proud of her!
She reminds me of Virginia from the 1971 Upstairs Downstairs. What was it with 1970’s period dramas where they would sneak in the bouffant hair do wherever they could get away with it?!
Upstairs Downstairs 1971
Mad Hatters Hen Party Photos!
Kitten von Mew by Candee Photography
On Saturday I had my amazing hen party! We arranged it at Candee’s house and she, Becky and I transformed the living room into an enchanted woodland for the occasion.
Mad Hatters Tea Party Decor photographed by Candee Photography
Candee’s partner Jacob did an amazing job making cupcakes and coconut macaroons. You would have thought he had a cottage industry going with the amount he managed to make. I felt like swimming through them like Scrooge McDuck and his room of gold coins…
Jacob icing cupcakes taken by Kitten von Mew
Becky made 4 incredible floor cushions in the shape of leafy hillocks. I nicknamed them ‘My humps, my humps, my leafy fleecy lumps!’ and each had a little ladybird button on it and wonderful detailing. I was amazingly impressed with her craft skills. She also made a huge bag of red tissue roses to adorn the front hedges!
John from The Cake Gallery made the most incredible looking and tasting cake you have ever seen. He made a little version of me, lounging in a sexy Alice costume on a Chaise Lounge! I have never had a professional cake made for me before and this is the best one I have ever clapped eyes or teeth onto! You have to see this guy’s creations, they are brilliant!
Kitten von Mew Cake by John at The Cake Gallery! Taken by Candee Photography
Candee did a brilliant job with ordering bits of decor, organising everyone and making the beautiful invites. Each one had a letter from the Mad Hatter and March Hare and was tied with a ribbon and little brass key! I wore the ribbon and key around my wrist at the party!
I made some chocolate and strawberry swirl Angel Delights and banoffee pies served in china cups and saucers, some talking flowers and a tiny door with the help of Mr. Mew! I hand painted wood grain on the front, a keyhole and bunny shape and then aged it. We were so pleased with the finished article and it was suspended on the front door as people entered.
Talking Flowers by Kitten von Mew photo taken by KvM
Fairy Door made by Richard and Kitten. Photo by Kitten von Mew
Kitten von Mew and the ALice in Wonderland Door made by Mr. Moo and herself. Photo by Candee Photography
Becky decided to come as the Cheshire Cat…leaving her smile everywhere…Candee had the most amazing Mad Hatter costume and makeup I have ever seen in my life, Jacob was King of Hearts and I was Alice!
Kitten and the Cheshire Cat! Photo by Candee Photography
Candee as the Mad Hatter! Taken by Jacob
I made myself a fascinator in the shape of a cup and saucer with a real spoon sticking out the top and Mama and wide brimmed rose hat with a Rocking Horse Fly stuck to it! She looked like an Edwardian lady and would have fitted right in at Ascot…
Kitten von Mew and her Mama modelling the Rose Hat! Taken by Candee Photography
Back of the Rose Hat. Taken by Candee Photography
Shona van Beers of Heyday Online made the perfect Queen of Hearts and screamed the place down at regular intervals with “WHERE ARE MY TWO FAT BOYS?!” and “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!” She made me laugh so much, it was hilarious!
Shona as Queen of Hearts! Taken by Candee Photography
My 2 friends ‘the Helen’s’ came as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee with matching bowler hats, braces and black trousers and shirts, Flick came as a Steampunk White Rabbit, Joanna had a fantastic costume with playing cards sewn onto it and my darling Kate was her usual gorgeous self, all the way from Manchester.
Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee enjoying Tweedle Tea...and me! Taken by Candee Photography
Joanna and Flick puckering up. Taken by Candee Photography
'The Bunny' Kate and Kitten reunited! Taken by Candee Photography
Jacob and Candee's cat wondering why there is all this food and non of it is on his plate...
So a HUGE thank you to everyone who made this day so fantastic. I had a brilliant time and you were all amazing!
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is Episode 12
For those who didn’t get to watch it, I got a ‘good airing’ with Katherine Higgins yesterday! Although they didn’t use the singing clips (wow…NOT a good hint huh?!) or me pulling out my money from the bra, there was a short clip of my fan dance before we got down to the deal.
On a plus note, the 3 pairs of stocking I bought ended up being 4 pairs! The pink packaging holds 2 pairs with a little motif on the ankle, so a definite bonus. Very pleased that my money is off to a good charity and the experience was well worth it.
Below are a few screen shots of the programme and you have 6 days to watch it here.
