It's time to try defying gravity

I traveled to London yesterday, and I am so absolutely beyond exhausted. According to my Apple Watch I walked just over 25,000 steps, and I was awake for a total of 27 hours (after an insomnia driven night of 2.5 hours sleep 💀) It was intense! And now everything hurts!

I started out at the V&A as there's currently a free exhibition on called Re:imagining Musicals which I was curious about. It's about 50% new stuff and 50% things that they usually display in the 'Theatre And Performance' section that was jiggled around and repurposed. The way they've moved everything around makes it much more interesting to look at so I hope they keep it like this from now on and it's not temporary.

The exhibition starts with a display dedicated to the world of Oz and it's many adaptations, including Wicked, which I obviously found really exciting. They had Elphaba's dress on display too, but as it was right at the beginning everyone was kind of bottlenecked into a small area which made it difficult to see on such a busy day. I wasn't bothered as they have Elphaba's dress on display at the Victoria Apollo too, and it's actually better as it isn't obscured by glass and you can even touch it if you want to. I was more excited by the 3rd edition of The Wizard of Oz sitting right there! What I wouldn't give for an early edition of that book.

Satine!! Now this is new. I have mixed feelings on Moulin Rouge! The Musical, but I felt quite emotional seeing this as it reminded me of seeing Karen Olivo descending from the top of the Al Hirschfeld stage wearing it. And the details are just gorgeous! That bead work!!

The set design was one of the best things about & Juliet (second only to the costumes!) so I loved getting to see scale models of the artwork behind it all.

I've developed mixed feelings about Frozen The Musical too, especially since the Frozen II additions. I've seen it on Broadway and a couple of times in London and ultimately decided that it's good and I love some of the additional songs, but it misses a lot of what I love so much about the movie. But I still loved getting to see Olaf! This is the version of him Elsa and Anna build out of toys when they're kids.

There was a lot more that I didn't photograph just as it's based on shows I'm personally less interested in so don't think it's restricted to just this. It's a pretty expansive exhibit and I'd recommend it!

I had hoped to also visit the Beatrix Potter exhibition at the V&A but their online ticketing service was down and I wasn't bothered enough to queue, so I decided to walk up to Oxford Street which ended up being A Mistake. Like, just get the Tube, why am I like this? I generally prefer to walk as London isn't that big and you can see so much more that you'd otherwise miss, but this was pretty far with nothing to look at and I don't recommend it. And because of all the walking I didn't really have a whole lot of time to do much else beyond grab some food and a lot of coffee. I did stop by the Disney Store as I'd saved up to get a Mickey Mouse jacket I'd seen just a couple of weeks ago when I saw Hamilton, but they didn't have it anymore :( Crushed.

Seeing Wicked was as special as always, although it seemed to be a bit of an off day for some of the cast and everyone around me was talking about it during intermission. Glinda was absolutely perfect, I remember not feeling too confident about Helen Woolf the first time I saw her (all the way pre-Covid, OMG!) but her Glinda has really grown on me and her performances are a real highlight. Mark Curry has taken over as the Wizard, and I really loved how natural he managed to make the role. To be honest the Wizard is a character I'm usually underwhelmed by, I think because he's choreographed so theatrically that it often just seems too over the top and corny but Mark made it work. And even though some of the performances were so-so I’m still thrilled to have seen it as there’s no such thing as a bad Wicked performance. It's truly my happy place and I just spend each and every show trying to soak in as many details as possible.

They had some new merch! I don't usually collect the Wicked snow globes, they're really collectible among fans but I've always thought the quality of the molding is kind of janky for how much they cost, but I just had to get this one. It's not often they take much notice of Fiyero, and I love his romance with Elphaba so much since reading the book. I even feel like they tried to deepen Fiyero's skintone a little too which made me happy and is good to see! You can see the back here too. Honestly the quality is kind of disappointing, I've bought more detailed snow globes from Disneyland Paris for half the cost, but I'm happy with the representation and how it'll look on my collection shelf. A good buy regardless!

I also got a necklace (the usher asked if I visited a lot as I bought both the brand new things and I felt so called out 💀), and I totally did not go to London for a bag but I bought one anyway and I adore it. I was walking past TK Maxx, not even going in, and saw it through the window and did a double take. My orange Kånken is getting really beat up looking and I've felt for a while it's probably time to retire it. This couldn't be more perfect!

One short day in the Emerald City

I went to see Wicked yesterday, mostly as I hadn't seen it in a while and it felt like the most convenient day for me to travel, but it ended up being the 16th anniversary show! I literally had no idea, and it's a weird coincidence as I accidentally caught the 35th anniversary of Phantom of the Opera last year too. It's like I have a sixth sense for these things, but no actual awareness.

It wasn't really a whole lot different from a regular show, I didn't even realize right up until the end when they gave a speech after the bows and dropped some confetti and balloons. It felt good to be back though, seeing this show always feels like coming home. Which is a phrase that feels so trite, but I don't know how else to describe it, I just feel the most 'me' when I'm there. Sharing my interests is something that I've always struggled with as it's not something people were ever kind to me about so I've felt like I had to hide my special interests so people wouldn't make fun of me, and it's still something I find difficult to open up about. It's funny because the more I talk about something then the less it probably actually means to me, which then skews people's perceptions of me which I get frustrated about. I'm working on it! But this show is so very important to me, and every time I see it is so special.

So - what's the most swankified place in town?

I saw Wicked yesterday, which was actually my second time this month. I always feel like I want to write about it every time I go, but when I'm just seeing my favorite show over and over there's only so much I can say about it? I do really, really love this cast though! They've had a complete cast change recently, and it really is like new life has been breathed into it and it's so exciting! Although Wicked is my comfort show, I haven't really gotten properly excited about it in a while so it makes me so happy to feel so emotionally connected to it again. I think a lot of it has to do with the chemistry of the cast which is incredible. Elphaba, Glinda, and Fiyero genuinely light up around each other and it makes it all feel so much more believable. I'm really happy that Fiyero is currently being played by a black actor too, Fiyero is finally canonically accurate! 🎉 In the original book Fiyero's an indigenous brown tattooed prince of a backwater tribe that he's trying desperately to support in the modern age, and it's such a huge part of his character and his connection to Elphaba that even though he's my favorite I still think it's such a shame the musical turned him into essentially a frat boy.

Otherwise I kind of went here, there, and everywhere around London as I was looking for specific things to buy. I started at Trafalger Square and was blown away at how empty it was, it's usually heaving with people and you can barely get near the fountains or statues. I figured going to a large, central bookstore would be my best bet for what I wanted, but it turned out not so! So I walked to Picadilly Circus, then on to Covent Garden where I stopped in the art store and Moomin shop. I really wanted a 5 year journal I'd seen in the Moomin shop a few months ago but they didn't have it, and just as I was about to order it from Finland on my phone I remembered there's another Moomin shop in Camden so I hauled myself over there. I really, really recommend this store over the Covent Garden one, it's so much bigger and better spaced out, and every time I've gone it's always almost empty so you're not climbing over people to look at stuff. And they had my journal, I got the last one! I'm inspired to give this a try as I feel like so much has changed in the past 5 years already that I love the idea of keeping track and seeing what I was doing or feeling on that exact day the year before, or the year before that. Afterwards I grabbed some food, before taking a slow mosey over to the theater. I always prefer to walk than take the tube if I can as I like getting to actually see the city instead of just snippets of it.

"It's good to see me, isn't it?"

I finally went back to London to see Wicked last night, and I don't even know if I have the words? The last time I saw this show was March 2020, a week before I left Europe to go live in Japan. And then, you know, something else happened. I remember feeling at the time like I was content to take a break from the show as I'd seen it so often by this point, but the old saying be careful what you wish for comes to mind as I didn't mean like this! It's almost the same cast as before it's temporary closure, with the exception of Sophie Evans now playing Glinda, and as she's my absolute favorite I couldn't be happier about that! I really think this current cast is perfect 💚

This is what I wore. This dress was one of the last things I bought in Japan before I left, I'd been admiring it on the mannequin in front of the shop for a couple of weeks but it was kind of expensive. Knowing it was the last time I'd ever have the opportunity to buy it made me go for it though, and it's probably one of my favorite clothing items I got while I lived there. I wore it with my Doc Martens sandals, which are not very comfortable but I'm persevering.An old punk in Camden called me 'Alice in Wonderland', so that made my day.

Dress - LilLilly // Sandals - Doc Martens // Headbow - Innocent World // Necklace - Tarina Tarantino

“You must go on a long journey before you can really find out how wonderful home is.”

It's slowly feeling more and more autumnal here and I can feel myself approaching my hibernation phase. Oh to be a bear! As I can't sleep all winter I've done the next best thing and have mostly been holed up with my illustration work and crafts.

I've been rewatching one of my favorite TV shows, BrainDead, which I realized I'd last seen two years ago in 2018! I'm having to use the US Amazon to stream it (thanks VPN!) as I guess because it's currently topical with the US elections that they've started charging to watch it when it used to be free. Because it's been a while I'd forgotten some of the finer details of the show and it really is hilariously funny. 

I also finally finished my Snow Queen project. It's been a lot of work as I was bubbling over with ideas during lockdown and am still playing catch up and digitally painting it all. I'm feeling a bit done with it all to be honest and am itching to work on something new but I still have about 8 different illustrations to finish.

I'm still working on my sketchbook though, just at a much slower pace. I drew these two portraits with ballpoint pen last weekend. I'd watched Joker for the first time since I'd seen it at the cinema and met Todd Phillips, and that whole thing was just such an experience that I was worried my very non-cinema sized screen would diminish it somehow. And also it's just that feeling of wanting to savor your favorite things instead of over watching it, you know? It inspired me to draw the Joker though. I'm tempted to paint the drops of blood on his face and perhaps the clown make up too, but I'm worried about spoiling it and losing some of the detail. I also drew Aaron Tveit because of watching BrainDead which he's one of the main characters in (and is the whole reason I ever watched it in the first place, let's be honest).

This is what I'm currently working on in my sketchbook, using actual paint for a change. I've been itching to draw something from Wicked as I've been thinking about how I used to see it several times a year and how inspired I'd feel at the end of each performance and I miss that feeling so much! I dug out my old sketchbook to look at some thumbnails I'd messily sketched out in my car on the way home from London after a show, and this was one of the them so I decided to finally give it a go. I was a little worried the perspective wouldn't work, but it was one of those rare moments where the image in your head comes out exactly as you want it too! I love using gouache as it's so satisfyingly matte and flat once it's dry. I'm using a different sketchbook to my usual brand, and I do really miss my old one but I'm also enjoying being able to use more materials and paint in it. The only issue I really have is that because the paper is so much nicer I'm struggling to really fill it up as I don't want to 'waste' it - which is generally why I steer away from fancy sketchbooks in the first place!

I've also been working on my memory journal, currently creating a spread for BrainDead as I like to record things I've enjoyed. I've also fallen down a rabbit hole of watching people journal on YouTube which is incredibly addictive! Including k-pop journals, which really isn't my thing but I just love their enthusiasm and I admire it really. When I was a teenager being passionate about anything was sneered at, particularly if you were a girl, and it's something that really stuck with me and made it difficult for me to express my interests as I constantly felt like I had to dial myself down to fit in, and I'm still trying to unlearn all of that. So although I don't like the topic personally I really admire how unabashed these girls are, and how creative it makes them! Creating journals and scrapbooks of things you like is nothing new, people have been doing it since the 1950s, but it's become much more aesthetic now and I love that. And it's just really fun keeping track of stuff you're watching, which songs you're particularly into right now, and your general feelings on it all. Our interests shape who we are so much that it makes sense to have a place to record it in a creative way.

This was not as nice as I'd hoped but I liked the packaging!

Otherwise I've mostly been trying to keep up with all of my other hobbies. The trouble with having so many is that there's always something to do, which is a blessing as I've never been bored in my whole entire life, but I can get a bit overwhelmed at how much I want to do and how few hours there are in the day. I'm currently trying to get back on track with reading as it's a hobby I've really missed and I've finally settled into a great book after a few duds. I'm also halfway through a knitting project, which I didn't take any photos of as it's not very exciting to look at right now but it's a triangle shape and learning how to shape knitted items feels pretty exciting as I'm still a beginner. And I've taken up hand sewing after discovering Bernadette Banner's channel over summer. I've sewed for years and made loads of my own clothes, but as much as I love the finished result of wearing the things that I've sewn I've always hated the actual v frustrating process of sewing and seen it as just a means to an end. So seeing Bernadette hand sew full clothing garments kind of blew my mind as I've always associated hand sewing with mending or finishing a hem. I was particularly inspired by her Lady Sherlock waistcoat and decided to attempt it for myself, so I've also had that on the go in the background. I've loved seeing it slowly take structure as I quietly sit with it on my lap in front of a movie rather than hunching over a sewing machine, and it's gotten me thinking about all kinds of things I want to sew next!

All that you touch and all that you see

When I was preparing to travel to New York I knew that I was going to want to stage door, but I'm super socially anxious and wanted something more to say to the actors than joining in the chorus of "you were wonderful!" So I decided that my artwork could make a good conversation point and wanted to gift some out. Some of my artworks are digital, but for the traditional pieces I don't like the idea of just giving away the originals, especially as you don't really know whether it's going to be appreciated or discarded. I'd hate for something I worked on for 5+ hours to end up in the garbage or thrown in a box with a thousand other fan works and barely looked at. I don't mean for that to sound any kind of way, I just think it's realistic to think like that as these people can't keep everything that they're handed as it would be too much. I decided to get some prints made up, but I didn't want them to look like prints as that feels a bit self promotion-y and gross rather than "here's a thing I drew that I want you to have because I'm a huge fan of you". So instead I had some giclée prints made on cotton watercolor paper as they look like originals and are nice and tactile. It was my first time ever having giclée prints made and it was so exciting seeing them! I love how they came out so much!!

My Wicked drawings are digital and have very dark backgrounds, so to help them look at home and more like traditional pieces I painted some watercolor washes in appropriate color schemes to replace the solid color backgrounds, and because I save all of my digital files with their original layers I was able to simply cut and paste the characters over the top. Because I use a lot of texture on my digital artworks I think this method really worked! I'm obsessed with the level of detail the giclée was able to pick out in my artworks too, usually I just have postcards made of my stuff which aren't super clear. I'd really love to sell something like this at some point as I think they'd look so nice framed together.





I was also seeing Moulin Rouge (which I wrote about here) and wanted to give something to the two leads Aaron Tveit (as he's my all time favorite actor) and Karen Olivo. I hadn't drawn any Moulin Rouge artwork at that point (which has since been rectified!) but I had a ballpoint pen portrait of Aaron so created something similar for Karen. I kind of hate how the Karen print came out tbh, but that's on me because I messed up the levels when I was preparing the file. There's a reason I usually photograph my art over scanning it and that's because I suck at making it look ok! I love the Aaron one though, it looks identical to how it looks in my sketchbook and there's so much detail in the giclée print that you can see every pen stroke and ink blob mark and it looks like an actual original and not a print. And as I only met Aaron it ended up being for the best anyway! He was really kind and gracious and seemed to really like it (and I forgot to tell him I even drew it until he asked if I had, doh! My brain just fell out at having him actually standing in front of me. So much for having my artwork as an icebreaker!)




Giclée print on the left, original drawing on the right. I even added the same tape to give it that extra authenticity 👌
I just wanted to share these pictures though because I loved how they came out so much! Because giclée prints are so expensive and I'd never had the originals to directly compare to before getting my own artwork printed up it was difficult to work out if it was worth the added expense, but now I'm a total convert!

With this perfect finale, the cheers and the ballyhoo

I saw Wicked yesterday as it'll probably be a long while until I get to see it again. And although I obviously enjoyed it, I'm happy to say that I'm content to take a break. I still love it like always, but it's definitely veering into the familiar and I don't want to see it so often that it loses it's magic as it's such an important happy place for me.



Sat in my usual spot, second row right under the Time Dragon!
Lisa-Anne Wood was playing Glinda and she's fantastic, I'd not seen her before but I really loved everything about her performance. I never understand it when they hide away the better actors as the standby and I always appreciate getting to see them in the role - I hate when people complain about having to see a standby, it's a treat! Laura Pick is Elphaba now, she's been the standby Elphaba for years but Nikki Bentley had to suddenly drop out which is a huge shame and I hope she's OK. I'd seen Laura before when she covered for Alice Fearn so knew I was in good hands, and I'm so happy for her that she's the principal now as she's worked so long and hard at the role. Unfortunately I’m still really underwhelmed with Fiyero which is a shame as he's one of my favorite characters. I still really loved Kim Ismay as Madame Morrible, she looks like she’s chewing a wasp throughout the whole thing. There's a new Boq and I really liked him too, but it does bother me though that Boq is the only character that they regularly cast black actors for when Fiyero is canonically an Indigenous person of color and always played by a white guy. It would be so refreshing to see him correctly cast just once! Overall I really loved it though! I nearly cried at the end as it was just so perfect, and on my way home I couldn't help but wonder that, if my dreams end up coming true, whether this could be the last time I see it in London?



They had some new merch, so of course I had to get it.
Otherwise I spent most of my trip running after my own tail a little bit, but I still enjoyed it! I went to Covent Garden and had a little wander round, and popped into Cath Kidston as I was debating whether to get any of their frog collection which I really like (I love frogs!), but they didn't have my size so I decided to head to the flagship store at Piccadilly. I stopped and got some scoops of ice cream from a market stall, salted caramel and raspberry sorbet and ate it on my walk over as the sun was actually pretty warm. I ended up getting the frog skirt from Cath Kidston with a surprise 10% off at the till, and then I walked to the Saatchi Gallery as on the Tube I'd seen a poster for a Tutankhamen exhibition and checking their website I couldn't see any mention of tickets so decided to head on over. I've been to the Saatchi before so expected that even if the exhibit was ticket only, at least they'd be other stuff to look at for free. Wrong! I walked 2 miles all the way there for nothing, it is ticket only and tickets were £25 and it's taken over the whole gallery. I was at a loss for what to do as I had an hour to kill but my feet were killing me. I considered going to the V&A but there was nothing I actually wanted to look at, so I jumped on the Tube instead and went to Foyles as it's one of my favorite places. I love the huge array of books they sell in that particular store, and there's just something comforting about bookshops in general.