Hello there sweet kittens
I have update-y-ness, just for you.
So who wants to know what happens when Lydie & Jules go for a photo shoot?
Note: I do not own Matilda, & as far as I'm aware "Little Tyke's Photo Studio" doesn't exist, but if it does, I don't own that either.
& now, on with the birthday celebrations......
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“Hi, we have an appointment at ten o’ clock.” Willow informed the receptionist, handing the appointment card to the raven-haired girl sat behind the reception desk at Little Tyke’s Photo Studio.
“Oh, Rosenberg right? The little birthday girls?” The receptionist smiled as she read from the appointment’s book in front of her.
“That’s us, uhm, them, yes, Rosenberg is us.”
“It says here that the twins have been upgraded to the VIP package, so, if you’d like to follow me, the girls can go see Claire to get their hair done, then they can choose some pretty clothes to wear.”
Everyone followed the young woman along a small corridor towards the hair stylist’s room.
“Oh, I’m Sam by the way, if you want anything at all, just let me know.”
“O-kay.” Willow shrugged at Tara, the girls did not usually get this kind of treatment.
“Claire, these are the Rosenberg twins, do you think you can do something pretty with their hair?”
“Yep, no problem.”
Claire put down the magazine she had been reading and stood to greet the little girls.
She was in her mid twenties, dressed in black slacks and a fitted, black, sleeveless top; her short, spiked hair was bleached white with pink tips and she wore a small silver stud in her left eyebrow.
“Okay girls, first things first, which one of you cutie’s is Lydia and which one’s Julia?”
Once the twins had identified themselves they both jumped onto the black stools and waited patiently as Claire gathered the tools of her trade.
“Are you going to give us hair cuts?” Lydia enquired, watching the stylist in the large oval mirror in front of her.
“Do you need hair cuts?” Claire asked, looking to Willow for an answer. “I can do that if you like, it’s included in the VIP package.”
“Well, I guess a little trim wouldn’t hurt; just an inch or so off the bottom.” Willow answered uncertainly, running her fingers through her daughters’ hair.
Willow couldn’t help but have her reservations; it had taken a lot of time, and a lot of disastrous hair cuts, to find a stylist who knew how to cut the twin’s curly hair properly.
As Claire noticed the hesitation in Willow’s voice, coupled with the way she lovingly twirled soft, auburn curls around her fingers, the stylist instantly offered reassurance.
“Don’t worry, my sister has curly hair and I’m the only person she trusts to cut it. I’ll take extra special care of theses precious little curls.”
“Okay.” Willow agreed with a little more certainty and Claire produced two large capes, which she wrapped loosely around Julia and Lydia’s shoulders.
Lydia was the first to have her hair cut and, after waiting for quite some time, Julia became bored. Her boredom didn’t last long however, as she soon discovered that her stool was on wheels and she instantly began to push herself along the hardwood floor and spin the stool around as fast as possible.
“Jules go careful honey.” Tara warned, watching the little girls’ antics from where she and Willow sat on a soft, white leather sofa.
“I will Tada.” Julia giggled as she sped from one end of the room to the other.
“Okay little girl racer.” Claire called out to Jules when she had finished cutting Lydia’s hair. “Steer your chair over here and let’s get to work on your hair shall we?”
Jules pushed herself off from the wall and slid towards Claire, who managed to catch the little girl just before she crashed into the pine counter-top.
“Whoa there speedy Gonzales, no running over the hair stylist.”
“Sorry.” Jules blushed.
“No worries kiddo.” Claire smiled good-naturedly.
“Can I sweep up all the hair?” Lydia asked as she slid off her stool and walked over to where she had spied a dust pan and brush earlier.
“Sure, if you want to.” Claire smiled, noting the difference in character of the seemingly identical girls.
So as Julia’s soft red curls fell to the floor, Lydia used the little blue plastic brush to quickly sweep them into a little pile, along with her own shorn locks.
With both girls’ hair trimmed to Willow’s approval, it was time to decide on hair styles. Whilst Julia asked for her hair to be tied back in a braid, Lydia wanted hers left hanging loose, with two thin plaits that rested like a halo just above her ears and were held together at the back with a small clip which was decorated with a delicate white silk flower.
“How do we look?” Jules asked when Claire was finished.
“Beautiful.” Willow smiled at her daughters.
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When Claire escorted Willow, Tara and the girls back to reception, instead of Sam, there was a dark haired teenage boy sat behind the reception desk.
“Hey TJ, where’s your big sis?” Claire asked the youngster, ruffling his long brown hair, much to the boy’s annoyance.
“Sammy said to send the Rosenberg’s straight through to wardrobe, she’s waiting for them.”
“Thanks T.”
‘Wardrobe’ was an average sized room, filled with several rails of outfits and dressing up clothes; shelves of shoes; boxes of hats, hair bands, tiaras and the like and a chest of drawers full of costume jewellery. In other words, it was every little princess’s idea of heaven.
The next hour or so was a montage of the twins dressed in outfits ranging from faded denim overalls and straw hats; to ridiculous bright pink Cinderella style ball gowns.
There were pretty summer dresses; ballerina tutus; black tailored suits; pirate outfits with eye patches and a plastic parrot; Little Red Riding hood red capes and picnic baskets; over-sized dresses, high heeled shoes and hats accompanied by long strings of imitation pearls; and knee length blue velvet dresses with matching hair ribbons, which Tara loved so much that, if Sam had been willing to sell them, she would have bought them on the spot.
It was only when Jules and Lydia had gone through every other outfit imaginable that Sam produced the winning ensemble.
The white A-line dresses were beautiful and elegant in their simplicity, with fine golden stitching around the short puffed sleeves, the rounded neck and the calf-length hem. As the twins showed off the dresses to their parents, Sam found two pairs of angel wings made from delicate, soft white feathers and two daisy chain halos.
“You two look perfect.” Tara approved, smiling adoringly as the little angels skipped around the room bare footed.
“I think you’re ready for your close-ups girls.” Willow agreed, taking her little girls hands and following Sam through to the studio.
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The studio had hardwood flooring, white-washed walls and a high ceiling with a small sky-light providing the only source of natural light.
Apart from the door that they had just entered through, there were two further doors, one of which said ‘Office’, the other, a double-sized sliding door, which Willow explained was a built in store cupboard full of props and scenery.
Stood against one of the walls, was a white canvas backdrop which had various large lights, reflectors and a projector angled towards it, as well as a complex looking digital camera mounted on a tall tripod-like contraption.
Tara, Willow and the twins were seated at two small, blue sofas that were in one corner of the room whilst Sam entered the small office to inform the photographer that the twins were ready for their shoot.
“I’m gonna leave the twins in Beth’s capable hands now, but, is there anything I could get for you two?” Sam asked Willow and Tara. “Anything to drink?”
“Can I get a juice and Tara?” Willow turned to her love.
“Water thanks.”
“Just water and juice? We have wine, or coffee?” Sam informed them.
“No wine thanks, I’m driving.”
“And I’m pregnant.” Tara added.
“So no coffee either, just water and apple juice thank you.”
“Okay, I’ll be back with your drinks in a few minutes.”
As Sam left the studio through one door, Beth entered through another.
“Hi, I’m Beth and you little angels must be Julia and Lydia?”
The twins nodded to the petite young woman, who looked more like a nursery-school teacher than a photographer. She reminded Willow very much of Miss Honey, from the story of Matilda; she had the same kind face, soft voice and frail, mousy qualities that Willow remembered of the motherly character in her favourite childhood story.
“Right, little angels need a big white fluffy cloud to play on.” Beth thought out loud as she walked towards the store cupboard, Jules and Lydie skipping along just behind her.
“Ah, here we go.” The photographer produced a large, fluffy, cloud-shaped sheepskin rug and laid it on the floor in front of the canvas backdrop then made her way to a laptop that was sat on a table behind the camera.
Lydie and Jules stepped onto the rug slowly, marvelling at the softness and giggling as they wriggled their toes against the thick wool.
“It’s the softest thing I’ve ever felt.” Julia exclaimed, unable to resist the urge to lie down and let the fine threads tickle against her skin.
“Can we have a bed made out of this? Please Mommy? Please Tada?” Lydia laid on her stomach next to her sister and gave a tiny sneeze as the rug tickled her nose.
“You want a sheepskin bed?” Beth enquired with a chuckle as she searched the files on the laptop for an appropriate background.
“Is that what this is?” Lydia asked inquisitively.
“Yep.”
“No wonder sheeps sleep so good if their skin is this soft.” The little girl mused stroking the rug absentmindedly.
Having found the image she was looking for, Beth projected the scene of three cherubs floating amongst soft pink, orange, purple and white clouds onto the canvas backdrop.
“Are you two ready?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, we’re going to do some posed pictures first, and then we’ll get some props and things to play with so that I can get some naturals okay?
“Okay.”
Because Julia and Lydia were so comfortable, the first few pictures were of them laid on the rug. First they were laid on their backs, looking up into the camera; then on their stomachs; their chins resting in the palms of their hands, their legs crossed at the ankles and bent up at the knees. Then the girls were asked to sit up, crossed legged first; then with legs folded to the side; and kneeling down to sit lightly on their feet.
Next, Beth got several different sized padded blocks, covered them in a white sheet and took pictures of the twins sitting and leaning on them in various different poses.
A few posed individual shots were taken next, with Lydie and Jules taking turns to stand behind the camera pulling faces and making silly noises to make each other laugh.
The twins chattered and joked the whole time their pictures were being taken, all about their family, their parents, their new baby sister; they told Beth practically their entire life story as she kindly gave them direction on where and how to stand.
Once all of the posed pictures had been taken, Beth went back into the store cupboard, returning a minute later with a large gold ball, two silver hula hoops, a plastic glittery jump rope and several white feather pillows.
For half an hour the twins played together with the ball; giggled as they tried desperately to spin the hula hoops around their waists; and took turns seeing who could do the most skips with the jump rope.
Finally, the pillows were brought into play and after a few minutes of pillow fighting, there were hundreds of soft white duck feathers floating and dancing through the air like delicate snow flakes.
“Okay, we’re all done. Go and get changed and I’ll put these pictures onto a disc so that you can choose the best ones.”
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“But Tada, I don’t want to get changed, I like being an angel.”
“Aww, you don’t need a costume Lydie, you’re always an angel.” Tara placated the youngster lovingly as she removed the angel wings.
“Do you think they’ll let us keep the wings?”
“I doubt it honey.”
“Can we make some?”
“Uhm…” Tara inspected the wings with her expert artistic eye. “…sure sweetie, but not today.”
“Thank you Tada.”
Fifteen minutes later, everyone gathered around the computer in Beth’s office to see the pictures. The VIP package included seven framed pictures of varying sizes and, much to Willow’s delight, a copy of the disc with all of the pictures on. After some deliberation, they decided on a large 16” x 12” picture of the twins playing with the feathers, to add to the collection on the stairs; two individual 12” x 10” pictures, to hang at either side of the fire place in the living room; and four smaller posed pictures, one each for Buffy, Giles, Xander and Anya and Dawn and Kate.
“Okay, here’s your copy of the disc, I’ve sent your order through and your pictures should be delivered in four to six weeks.” Beth popped the disc into a plastic wallet and handed it to Willow.
“Thank you.” Willow and Tara both smiled gratefully at the photographer.
“Thank you Beth, it’s been very nice meeting you.” Lydie and Jules chimed in unison.
“It’s been so nice meeting you two little cuties too. Don’t forget to bring that baby sister of yours to see me when she’s born okay?”
“Okay.”
The twins skipped out of the studio hand in hand, waving goodbye to Sam, Claire and TJ who were all stood around the reception desk. Then everyone climbed into the car and they made their way home to get ready for the birthday parties.
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& the day's still not over yet - birthday parties in the next update.
Hugs
Jeanne