Hillary’s Bridals

Hi Friends. I'm still somewhat busy and trying to recuperate from the big day. I’ll post more of my daughter’s bridals and wedding pictures but for now please jump on over to Joshua Gene.com, our photographer’s website and have a look.

-Lynnae

Janeites, Get Out Your Crayons…

… And click on over to The Graphics Fairy for a page of lovely Regency ladies for your little holiday guests (or you) to color. It might be a fun activity to celebrate Jane Austen’s birthday next month. And nothing beats stress like taking a few minutes to relax and color.

While you are there, browse the categories on the right sidebar. I love using graphics from her blog on craft projects. Now I have a full page of Lady Catherines and Lydias to decorate in holiday colors.

Now where are those colored pencils?????

-Lynnae

My Halloween Brag Pictures

Here are a few shots of our creations this Halloween.  Here I am with two of my daughters.

  This is my daughter who is away at college. She is dressed as pop star Lady Gaga. You can see more about her Halloween here.

This is my second daughter. I made her the cute little poodle skirt. She loved it, which I love. She was wearing it to work and got dressed two hours early. And even though she had to work, she was listed on scavenger hunts for two different parties, so friends kept running in to take a picture with her or give her candy. Doesn’t that sound fun?

This is my youngest. She was a Secret Agent. We found a great little trench coat at a thrift store. The best place for costumes!

 

My Husband is pretty creative too. Here is his diorama of a pumpkin being killed and eaten by another pumpkin.

  And here is the finished product of my Princess Angel-Fairy costume. Even though I loved it, it was tiring after a while. I couldn’t really sit without crinkling my wings, and had to turn sideways to go through doorways. Being an angel is tough work.

I hope you all had a fun and safe Halloween!

-Lynnae

A Fashionista Shout Out

  Ladies, if you have never been to Reachel Bagley’s Blog,
 Cardigan Empire, go pay a quick visit. She gives great examples of styles to fit your personal figure, do’s and don’ts, great links to outfits, and more. And she does it all with sweetness and charm, including answering reader questions and offering a style booklet for your own body type. Check it out!

-Lynnae

Special Days

  Here we are with our sweet little second daughter, all ready for the homecoming dance.

Her friends mom invited parents to come in for appetizers when we brought the kids while waiting for the limo. As luck would have it, when we got there her power was out. She was a wonderful hostess, serving the appetizers that didn’t need to be cooked. Her home was lit with dozens of candles everywhere and there were darling Halloween decorations out. I hope I can always be as good at handling the unexpected! To top it all off, the limo was late. We stayed long enough to make sure the kids had a ride, but I think they were glad to get on their way and ditch the parents!

It stopped raining long enough to take some photos (about 100) with the backdrop of fall foliage.

Of Hemlines and Timelines

12:45 pm- I am supposed to be making a few alterations to my daughters homecoming dress…..to ‘bring it up to code’. Whether that’s Mormon code or Mommy approved code, it’s one in the same. I’ve been looking forward to it but now I find I keep stalling.  Every other household project I put off starts to suddenly seem more attractive. That’s me stalling. Sew the darn dress!

   I am definitely not a seamstress, but my little projects and alterations usually turn out pretty good. But who knows, maybe this will be the day I fail miserably.

1:15 pm-  The mom of another one of the double-daters just called all excited to chat about the get together time, which will be an amateur photo shoot for all the moms to fawn over our little darlings. I am so excited- and delighted she is doing this at her house because while I can be very enthusiastic, the thought of organizing and hosting events usually makes me get anxious and cry.

1:50 Daughter and I just got back from ordering the boutonniere. I also just realized that her skirt has black netting and I bought black tulle. So it’s time for a run ‘down the hill’ to JoAnn’s, which is actually a 35 minute commute.

Better get moving!

8:25 pm- UPDATE…I’m finished! Here’s a peek.

I added a little length with the black at the bottom, and an overlay of the netting so it matched what was already there. Even with the jacket the neckline was a bit low, so we found a black camisole that looks great, however I decided to add some black interfacing to the lace in front so it’s not so see through ( I slipped a paper in there so you could see it against the black of the jacket). I think it all goes great with the style of the dress. Now I just get to fret about doing her hair tomorrow.

-Lynnae

Thrift Store Find

I decided to join up with Junkin’ Monday today because I have the most awesome find. My Halloween costume.

Usually I don’t dress up much because I’m pretty busy trying to round up stuff for the kids. My husband will either wear a gross clown wig or put one of those nails with fake blood on his face (or both). But a while back he commented (teased) about how I like to get dressed up in dresses. This got me thinking……why not do it for Halloween? So I went about trying to find the perfect flouncy poofy skirt that I could put some tight princess like bodice with to create the ultimate girly costume- a Princess Angel Fairy.

 

Once I decided I wanted a poofy slip the thrift stores where I usually hunt for costume supplies had none to be found.

And then last week I was across town and happened to check the Goodwill, and I found it! My dream Princess Angel Fairy dress. And it fit. And it was el Cheapo!

I can’t wait to put the whole thing together. I can’t wait to answer the door to trick-or-treaters in it! Fun!

Easter Dress Project

Here's the finished look of the Easter skirt I made from the dress I showed you a few posts ago. The sweater I ended up using doesn't really allow the waistband to show, but you get the idea.

I cut off the top and shortened the zipper, took in the waist and reworked the waistband a little bit.

I have another skirt to revamp already and I'll put up pictures when I do.

Swirly Skirts

After my recent "Six Randon Facts About Me" post I decided I needed a picture of me with all my skirts. I pulled them all out of my closet and started arranging them. The I realized I needed to enlist the help of my 16 year old daughter. As you might suspect, getting your teenager to go along with some weird scheme like this is the most difficult part. But she got into the photo shoot and pretty soon was posing me and our dog with all the skirts. Here is one of the pics, me with 15 cotton skirts.

Jane Austen Society Annual General Meeting

I'm home from my wonderful trip to Canada for The Jane Austen Society of North America. It was a great experience, though it was so Jam packed with Austen goodness that I rarely had time to eat if the meal wasn't included in the convention with the time blocked out. I also rose around 6 and stayed up till at least 1 am each day, so I'm beat. On Friday night this was my fault for bringing a dress and gloves that still needed the little tiny buttons sewn on.
I drove up on Thursday afternoon, and after a little map confusion, arrived at the Hotel around 7:45. The first lecture was at 7:30, so I dropped my luggage in the room and when down for that hour, which was followed by another, smaller discussion group where people shared their favorite quotes from Emma.

In this room I recognized my roommate, and after the class was done she was heading down to the hotel lounge for a drink, so I decided I would go along to get a dinner of appetizers and a soda at 10:00 p.m.
The next morning at 9 was my 'reticule' class, where we sew by hand a cloth purse like they used over the turn of the 18th to 19th century. The kits were precut, linings and lovely fabrics, with trims and drawstrings in the packet. Some of them had beautiful antique lace or bead trims within the kit. Mine wasn't as fancy but I wanted one that matched my ball dress. Now that class had been an additional $35.00 fee, and I later saw a purse much like mine that a woman had bought pre-made upstairs in the Jane Austen Emporium for half the price it cost me to go to the class and learn to sew it by hand. Still, the class gave me a chance to sit with other ladies and get to know them as I was sewing, and I would do it all again.
Even thought the class was two hours, few people finished. I packed up my materials and put it all in a little gift bag so I could carry it around and sew during lecture classes. I finished, and this is the reticule you see me holding in the pictures.
About the speeches and breakout sessions- even though I love the information, class after hour long class of someone reading their presentation, even about Jane Austen, can get a little tiring. So the lighter side activities were, shall we say, SO REFRESHING! I’m not used to sitting still all day, and if I would have had more free time I would have taken a few laps around the block.
Quite a few ladies attended the entire conference in costume, and I wouldn't mind doing that if I had more of a wardrobe. It was very fun to see people dressed up.
Friday Night there was a play, “Mrs. Knightly Pays a Call: A Conversation at Randalls”. I went very early, skipping dinner so I could have a good seat. I have heard from many attendees that they didn’t enjoy the play because they couldn’t hear in the back of the room. It’s unfortunate. I really enjoyed it and the women who performed were great.

On Saturday during the lunch break there was a more informal play called “The Courting of Mrs. Elton”. My roommate went down early to hold a chair for me, and I arrived soon thereafter- thankfully, because the little room filled up fast and people were left out in the hall. I say this was informal, because the actors held scripts and read their parts as they acted them out, but it was a delightful comedy. I would love to report who was in the play, and can only say, having lost my flyer and being uninformed as I am, that the authoress acted the part of Augusta Hawkins, the future Mrs. Elton, and Juliet McMaster, to the intense delight of the crowd, played the role of Mr. Elton. This was one of my favorite events of the whole AGM. Worth missing lunch for and only eating a glass full of dry raisin bran from my room and a diet A&W to get me through till banquet time. I don’t mean for the lack of food to be a repetitive theme here. Perhaps it’s just to show you my dedication to Austen, opting to attend events rather than eat.
There were many good discussions and detailed interpretations of Austen's novels, and many people to meet and talk to while waiting for an event to begin. It is so easy to be friendly when we all have a common interest. As you know, I was matched with a roommate. My roommate and I got along well together and I think I did well in that department. I’m only sorry I left the light on so long on Friday trying to finish the sewing!

Saturday night was the feast and Regency Ball. The dining was wonderful. I had the roast pheasant, which was delicious. The Ballroom itself was a magical regency style ballroom with decorated walls and ceiling and three huge chandeliers. There was a large ornate stage at one end where the little orchestra was, and a dance mistress helped to guide us novices through the steps until we had caught on. There were several hundred people there, so often the dance formed three long lines. A lot of ladies danced with other ladies for a partner but it was fun because anyone who wanted to could give it a try.
I danced four dances. Each one probably went on for 15 minutes, and that would only get you halfway up the entire line of couples dancing. I’m told that a dance at a real ball would continue until the head couple has worked their way all the down to the bottom of the set and back up to the top again. So it is easy to see how one could go on till the wee hours of the morning.
We didn't do any dance for that long because they wanted to get through at least 8 and there were so many couples. Even so, we went until midnight and I was only thinking it was about 10:30. My favorite dance by far is the one seen in A&E's P&P at Netherfield, when Mr. Darcy first dances with Elizabeth. This dance is so beautiful. The couples mostly walk from place to place, weaving within their line, but at one point two couples join hands in a line facing the head of the room, and step forward for three, and back for three. The result over a whole ballroom is fabulous, because there is all this weaving and confusion, then all of a sudden everyone is lined up and the whole room moves forward in this wave, then goes back, then its all mixed up again. It really was a magical moment.
The very unfortunate name of that beautiful dance is Mr. Beverages Maggot. This afternoon I watched that section of A&E’s Pride and Prejudice to recognize the dance that I had learned. I was stunned, (though why should I have been surprised?) at how perfectly the dance was performed and how well choreographed their conversation was within the dance. I’ve always found it strange that Sir William Lucas stops to talk to Mr. Darcy during the dance, and Darcy is just standing there. Now I understand that they had reached the end of the line, and they wait out for a moment and join in again to head back up the set, turning from a #1 couple to a #2 couple. As they move back up the set they have less dancing to perform than they did at first, and more moments where they are just standing. This perfectly suits the agitated nature of their conversation and symbolizes the awkwardness of feeling by the time the dance is finished. I should have expected no less from the most perfect show ever to be seen on television.
Sunday morning I attended an Anglican church service across the street that incorporated texts written by Jane Austen. I checked out of my room after that, then attended the closing brunch, and finally a wonderful concert of music from the era of Jane Austen by Pro Musica, “A Jane Austen Parlor” It was simply beautiful!
Leaving my family for several days is a new thing for me. I think my trip was a success and I am already longing to go to another one. Next year is Chicago, then Philadelphia, but after that is Portland, so if I don't get to go sooner I will be planning for that on Oct of 2010.


See You there!