January and the promise of spring

In my soul I love january but I must confess that like most people I loath the weather.
 I am more at home in a soft warm day  walking barefoot in green grass with a light breeze around me then I am in the midst of winter with the rain, the mud, the icy air and the cold dark nights. It may be jumping the gun a bit but january always seems to breathe a promise of spring, of snowdrops, green grass and the possibility of actually being able to take off your socks and wiggle your toes.

When I thinkof spring I always think off ballet, The tradition is to have ballet in the winter with Cinderella, The Nutcracker, all the festive favourites but my love is the floaty, springlike effect created by the traditional romantic tutu. When you think of ballet you simply have to think Dega, his beautiful, soulful dancers in shades of blue and cream, yellow and grey, the traditional hues of spring.  I'm currently examining the possibility of making myself a full length romantic style tutu to celebrate to birth of the new year and I know for a fact I have a huge amount of both white and black tulle, the white being a lot softer fabric then the black so I may have a go with tea dying it as I'm not a fan of white and black seems to put a damper on the romantic notion.

I have found a couple of tutorials online from various sources, there is a nice on on ehow and another from balletshoesonmyfeet but I want to steer clear of too much poofyness as it really isn't my style.

I cant do a post on ballet without images of dancers and here are some of my favourite Dega paintings.