Festive Handstands...

It's been a year of ups and downs, and upside downs for me. I've decided to celebrate the festive period with a series of handstands inspired by Mr Snowman here.... Merry Christmas...
...and a Happy New Year!

Panto#1

Back upto Pitlochry for my first of a few pantos this year.
Unfortunately I only have a few weeks up here so won't get to see the whole thing through to the end but its nice to be back!!!
Still a few wee cloths to paint though....

thorns galore.... lots of blue brick work...... all put together.....

Train train train......

So we have a wee show coming up very soon at Cottiers theatre. Its a cabaret night, so there some aerial, live music and a dj for afterwards dancey times. Its also my debut aerial performance- eeeek!!!

I'm doing a routing in my hammock, its been tough devising it and having the strength to get the through the whole routine without collapsing but I feel like I'm getting there.

Here's a wee sneak peak from my rehearsal video....

Wanna come and see us?

Top of the pyramid!!!

Being small has its advantages.....

Acrobats Galore..

I've kinda abandoned my little blog recently but I have been busy.

A few weekends ago I went to the Acrobatic Convention in Edinburgh. A whole weekend of aerial and acrobalance as well as some other cool stuff to try out! We had people from all over, London, France, Iceland......it was AMAZING!

I did quite a bit of acrobalance and as I was one of the smallest I seemed to get passed around the various tall people to be lifted. Good fun but my poor little arms were bruised afterwards.

I also did some trapeze, silks, more chinese pole and some tightwire (and discovered I am definitely not a natural at walking on thin wire!)

However, one of my highlights of the weekend was Teeterboard! I'd never done it before but after having a taster I'd definitely do it again. Its basically a big see-saw. The flyer stands at one end and you have two people who run and jump on the other which sends you up in the air. Its quite tiring when your doing the runnng and jumping part but I really enjoyed it when it was my turn to fly- heres a little video of my somersault... YAY! ( i can't seem to turn it round so its on its side)

Surely Seurat....

I had a few days work on a show for the Fringe, and got to do lots of nice painty things!!!These panels are reversable so my work will be on both sides...
(a wee bit of Rachel's jelly fish in the background)

One of the girls had already started working on this bigger painting when I got there but as we were running out of time, I jumped in to finish it.

Before...

After...

I still felt there was more work I could have done to it but as time was running out I had to pick certain areas to focus on and get them to the best I could....

House Climbing and Ankle Hanging....

My circus group had a wee BBQ at our friend Marta's house over the weekend.
Her and her husband are acutally in the process of designing/building their own house at the moment and even the Grand Designs team have been out following it. They've got as far as the foundations and have built the beam structure of the house.
So of course we trapeze ladies couldn't resist having a wee climb!

And a wee bit of that internet phenomenon planking (even though its not a real plank!).... Two of the girls Lauren and Claire did a little bit of fire poi for us. I've tried normal poi and found it hard enough to keep them under control, never mind adding fie into the equation!

As if that wasn't enough fun for one weekend, we did a special doubles trapeze class on the Saturday! Doing various postions and hanging by my ankles- alot of fun!! In most partner work there are two roles- the base (usually the one holding the weight), and the flyer ( the one that hangs). As I'm small, its easier for me to do the flying, but I like to try and base when I can. Some base action..... (Squeeze those abs!!)

Tall ships and circus sailors...

It was the Tall Sips races in Greenock this weekend. I remeber going to see them years ago and I went on a couple of them and had a walk about. They're really cool looking ships!

However one of my main reasons for going was that my circus buddies were perfoming! I was actually suppose to be in this show but as I was going up north I couldn't make the rehearsals, I still went along for support though!

And of course, I couldn't resist having a go too....

A wee Highland fling....

I went up north to Lochinver for a wee weeks holiday to visit some family friends. Its a little seaside village and takes about 6 hours to drive from Glasgow. Very remote but lovely scenery. I'm afraid this post is a bit of a picture bomb.

The dugs not too sure where they were going.....
THE BEACH!!!!

We went a walk upto to Stoer Lighthouse, and on route got caught in traffic (sheep traffic that is....)

WATCH OUT FOR TOADS (apparently...)

So my dad is really big on hillwalking and he likes to go up north as thats where all the mountains are. As there not much else to do around there, I decided to join him on a climb. So heres my first mountain experience....

The view from far away...

Thats our intended destination...

The view from the bottom (which we had to walk about an hour and a half to get to!)

On the ridge...

The view from the top!!!!!

I MADE IT!

Unfortunately it was sooooo windy at the tops that as soon as we got there, we had to come back down again, grasping onto any rock we saw as we descended!

We went out for dinner, and my mum had langustines (?). Although I'm vegetarian, I couldn't help but play with them!

A good week and a nice wee bit of relaxing time off. But now, back to the job hunt.....

Van Gogh Shrubbery....

I was in London recenlty and of course I took a wee visit to the National Gallery. At the moment there is an amazing representation on Van Gogh's Wheatfield with Cypresses outside, made from plants. I didn't realise what it was at first because I was so close but once I stood back I could see it. Its interesting becuase I imagine its going to change as the plants grow or die, creating a different image each time you go by. What a great idea!