Lydia The Tattooed Lady

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4zRe_wvJw8

My life was wrapped around the circus. Her name was Lydia.
I met her at the world's fair in 1900, marked down from
1940. Ah, Lydia.

She was the most glorious creature
Under the su-un.
Guiess. DuBarry. Garbo.
Rolled into one.

Oooooooh
Lydia oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia,
Lydia, the Tattooed Lady.
She has eyes that folks adore so,
And a torso even more so.

Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclopedia,
Oh Lydia the Queen of Tattoo.
On her back is the Battle of Waterloo.
Beside it the wreck of the Hespherous, too.
And proudly above waves the Red, White, and Blue,
You can learn a lot from Lydia.

La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

When her robe is unfurled, she will show you the world,
If you step up and tell her where.
For a dime you can see Kankakee or Paris,
Or Washington crossing the Delaware.

La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

Oh Lydia oh Lydia, say have you met Lydia,
Oh Lydia the Tattooed Lady
When her muscles start relaxing,
Up the hill comes Andrew Jackson

Lydia oh Lydia, that encyclopedia,
oh Lydia the queen of them all!
For two bits she will do a mazurka in jazz,
With a view of Niagara that nobody has.
And on a clear day you can see Alcatraz.
You can learn a lot from Lydia.

La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

Come along and see Buff'lo Bill with his lasso.
Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso.
Here is Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon.
Here's Godiva but with her pajamas on.

La la la, la la la, la la la, la la la

Here is Grover Whalen unveilin' the Trilon.
Over on the West Coast we have Treaure Island.
Here's Najinsky a-doin' the rumba.
Here's her social security numba.

(whistles)

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia that encyclopedia,
Oh Lydia the champ of them all.
She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet.
The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat.
And now the old boy's in command of the fleet,
For he went and married Lydia.

I said Lydia (He said Lydia)
I said Lydia (We said Lydia)

La La!

Wandering Lydia's Mehndi

As mentioned previously, I've gotten into doing henna body art. I started out with a kit from a local boutique with the idea of having something fun to do at the May Fair. CJ's teacher saw it and suggested that it could be a fund raiser for the class trip. There is a big Labor Day Parade down Main St. that we always go to because my friend lives there, so I plan to set up and do henna for the duration of the parade. The nice thing is that I wouldn't be trying to fund raise within our school community - we're all sick of fund raisers and pretty well tapped out. All money raised that day would go to the class trip but I figured that I'd have business cards out in hopes of getting some bookings for parties. I hand drew the business card with a boteh design around the contact info. When I showed it to my friend she said," You do know that there is a song about Lydia the tattooed lady, right?" Well, sort of vaguely, though it had nothing to do with my choice of name. Just another one of those random bits of serendipity that Groucho Marx sang it!
So I've been practicing on myself and studying at The Henna Pages: http://www.hennapage.com/, which I highly recommend for anyone who would like to try doing henna. Gotta go see what's going on downstairs. We are supposed to be going to a picnic.

Playing Hooky

What a fun day this was! I took a fieldtrip to two different ethnic markets today and not only did I get henna, rose syrup and yard long beans, I also found the elusive carrot pickle I've been looking for. One of my dearest friends craves kim chee the way I yearn for Pakistani carrot pickle. My son will have a couple of surprises in his lunch tomorrow - a small box of chocolate filled koala cookies and a strawberry jelly drink with an anime character on the label. Can't quite place the guy on the label but I know that I've seen him before. And, though it's hotter than you know where up here, I photographed a bunch of hats and uploaded them to www.pbase.com/jody. They're in the Wandering Lydia gallery. Finally, I hennaed my hand and came up to write a little here.

Getting an Award Is So Cool!

What a weekend! I'm just getting to process it today since I spent yesterday at school and taught my last clay class for the fifth graders. First the big news, My Lydia hats took second prize in the fiber category at the Bruce Museum Craft Festival!!! The day started with me walking by the other booths to set up and fighting down my doubts. This is a very nice high end craft show, by far the best place that I have shown my hats. But it was too late to turn back or worry about it so I got busy setting up. As with any outdoor event, the weather was an issue. Saturday was cold and wet with long stretches of rain which meant that attendance was low. I wore a wool hat all day and was probably the only vendor who didn't freeze. One woman actually offered to buy the sweater off my back! Sunday was the exact opposite, hot and sunny so foot traffic was up. I sold the majority of hats on Saturday but was glad for everybody else that Sunday cleared off. I assumed that people were not interested in buyig a wool hat on such a warm day, I got a lot of positive feedback. But late in the day my neighbor asked how I was doing and to my surprise, they had also done better on Saturday. The folks who braved the wet weather on Saturday were serious and came to buy. Sunday's attendance was better but it seemed that a lot of that traffic was just there to wander around on a pretty spring day. Well, one never knows... Still I am pleased with the experience though I don't plan to do another outdoor show until Sept.

Thank you, Susan Cooper

Today's post is a quote from Susan Cooper's last book in The Dark Is Rising Sequence, Silver On The Tree. I was reading the book while I was stumbling through my this-is-not-my-beautiful-life phase. Bran and Will have gone to the Lost Land to retrieve the crystal sword in order to defeat the Dark.

"Gwion sighed. "So the Dark did a simple thing," he said,"They showed the maker of the sword his own uncertainty and fear. Fear of having done the wrong thing - fear that having done this one great thing, he would never again be able to accomplish anything of great worth - fear of age, of insufficiency, of unmet promise. All such endless fears, that are the doom of people given the gift of making, and lie always somewhere in their minds. And gradually, he was put into dispair. Fear grew in him, and he escaped from it into lethargy - and so hope died, and a terrible paralyzing melancholy took its place. He is held by it now, he is held captive by his own mind. He and the sword Eirias that he made with him. Despair holds him prisoner, despair, the most terrible creation of all. For in great men, the mind can produce giant spectres of great power."

And now I am awake.

Hats Hats Hats!!

Yes, it's finally production time at Wandering Lydia world headquarters. The studio is humming, well, the fan is on anyway! My personal assistant, Miss Bumpus is on an extended coffee break downstairs. Oh, excuse me, she's doing dream research, trying to come up with stunning new ideas for me to develop. I'll be at the Bruce Museum Craft Festival on May 19th so if you're in Greenwich, CT that day please stop in to say hello. Today's picture has nothing to do with anything but I like blogs that have lots of images. That's all for now.

Lucy Mae Bumpus Must Die

GRRRR! My normally beloved canine personal assistant, Miss Lucy Mae Bumpus is in first place on my shit list today- literally. All it took was one moment of inattention during our after lunch walk for her to find and roll in a very nasty pile of stink. I had to frog march her directly to the tub for a good cleaning. Now we are both in bad moods. Though I'd have to say that she's gotten the worst of it. After all, how can she have a decent nap if I won't let her up on any of the beds? Don't worry, I won't actually kill her. Seeing her looking soggy and dejected is enough.

Merry Beltane!

It's been a rather pretty first day of May though the clouds are moving in this evening. The forcast for Saturday's May Fair sounds beautiful. How nice to have a festival without rain! Today's picture is one of my polymer clay brooches in the Puck series. Not exactly the Greenman, more of a Greenbaby!