Furry Formal Masquerade

You can now cease wondering, my dears, what your Choklit was up to on New Year's Eve. We hosted a Furry Formal party, and it was ridiculously entertaining.

Exciting vintage cocktails with names like the Bull's Eye and the Bees Knees were skillfully served up by Cheshire Cat Meester Ralph and Skyeboy, who reprised his Angry Bunny costume to dashing effect.

My personal downfall was the Lion's Tail, an intoxicating blend of bourbon, bitters, allspice dram, lime juice, and simple syrup (recipe courtesy of the Boston chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails).

The loveliest part was how little overlap there was in the animals represented. We had the sexiest yak ever...

A three-toed sloth for our DJ (although he's exposing extra toes in this photo)...

There was a late arrival of a rather elegant chicken...

And a perilously amorous red fox who wore a Victorian fox-hunting jacket without irony...

And I shunned feathers and fur to be the only reptile in attendance - some sort of Cobra Flash-Gordon Enchantress. Here, surrounded by confused white furry things.

Photos by my love Stache and the ever-fabulous M. Mendelson. See more of M's party pics in her Flickr set.



The idea was partially inspired by these amazing collage portraits by artist Charlotte Cory - she published a book called The Visitors, where she added animal heads to found Victorian carte de visite.

I couldn't resist making them into an invitation where I wrote a little poem to lure in the beasties...




Scaled or feathered
beaked or clawed
waving-tailed
or gentle-pawed,
Softest fur
or forked of tongue
hoofed or horned
or poison stung,
Creatures creeping
great and small
bedecked in finery
for the ball...

Happy New Year to all my animal friends!