One fine day whist driving to work, I actually listened to the radio for a change. Whilst I listened and wished I'd left home just a little bit sooner, an add came on. It was announcing that 'Australia's Got Talent' was coming to Darwin for season 5 auditions. Now the first thought that came to mind was not'boy oh boywhat song should I sing?!' but something more appropriate: 'Hmmm... I might make and wear a balloon dress to this thing?'. After all, I'd like a fighting chance at this opportunity! (I'd probably opt to audition with 'Take a Chance on Me' by ABBA, and blow any chance on me!)
With some discussion with my work colleague, we decided it would be infinately cuter if it was not just me, but also a cute little girl in a balloon dress to help amp up the 'Awwww' factor. After some thought, I asked my good friend Stacey if her sweet daughter Shayla would be interested. And so it came to be.
And so, of course I was sick that week. I had just flown home from visiting some great friends in Sydney and managed to catch a cold. This was Monday. On Wednesday, I had a children's Christmas party to twist at, which was two hours of non-stop twisting and then off to my 'real' job. Then Saturday I had a good sleep in, caught up with some friends and started twisiting the balloon dress I would wear the next day. At four in the afternoon. I know, I know... I like to punish myself I guess! And so there I was twisting madly away at my bestie's Christmas Party. The dress took about 6.5 hrs, and then I went home and got to work on Shayla's. I was in bed by 1:30 in the morning.
On the Sunday, off I went to a balloon twisting event for Family Day Care's Christmas Party from 9-1, and boy was I exhausted at the conclusion. I thought I might be able to leave by 11:30, but the solid line prevented that. Apparently I had some people waiting hours in line, which was great for my ego, but I was pretty sore by the end of it! A massive 1000+ attended the event, and there was so much for the children to see and do which was great! A couple of sweet sisters that I made a balloon lady bug and butterfly for came back and gave me some magnets they'd painted and then later a sausage with sauce. They were unbelievably sweet! As I twisted on, I was nervous that I might be late for the auditions, but tried to keep pretty optimistic. After the Christmas party ended, I was even more exhausted but had to keep on going!
I finished some embelishments to Shayla's dress, and off we (Myself, Corinna and Shayla) went to Crown Plaza to which we were rewarded with position 48. I was relieved as we weren't too late with all my effort in vein! Whilst we waited, I fixed some parts of the dress that had deflated overnight and then we got dressed. When we were called to ascend the stairs, there were still many people waiting upstairs. After we went to the registration desk, they very generously told us that we should go on next, as they could see we could not sit down comfortably and there was still a few hour's worth of waiting time. So I was extremely greatful.
After our picture was taken, we waited to go in next. Inside the room there was the Executive Producer and three other people. I was given the opportunity to speak and then made a wand for Shayla's outfit. They seemed pretty positive which was great, and they even remarked that it was something like what Katy Perry or Lady Gaga would wear. Left feeling pretty great, it went even better that I would have hoped. My biggest worry was being told we were too late to audition or the dress not fitting, luckily none of which happened.
No-one will find out how you went until February 4th and will only hear from them if you've been successful to go further. My proposition to them was to put on a balloon fashion show if successful, which would be a huge task but I'm willing to give it a go!
So that was a really long post and I applaud you for reading for so long! Thank you if you did read to the end, I really appreciate it. Don't forget to keep those positive thoughts rolling! ;)
