The Industrious Lady

                       Recently, I had the chance to go to a Swedish Christmas festival, and if there is anything that the Swedish know how to do, it's Christmas. The children performed a wonderful rendition of the St. Lucia Festival and everyone enjoyed the good company and even better food. This little dude right here just had to come home with us, He's a traditional gnome that Swedish folks traditionally put  in their homes as decorations.  What can I say, he was so fuzzy I just had to give it a kiss The blue dress was supposed to be a tribute to Queen  Sofia of Nassau who was the second longest ruling queen of the country. She was known as the Blue Countess for  the blue dress she wore when she stepped off the boat onto Swedish soil for the first time.  One of my favorite winter pieves is this knitted hood, which is based off of an 1856 opera hood pattern found in Peterson's. The puppy also approved of the new blue ski

In the pursuit of the perfect historical impression, I tried my hand at being a camp laundress. The first time I did a load of laundry, I flew into it blind with nothing but a piece of notebook paper with a few scribbles of instructions on it. Surprise, surprise, I ended up messing up... big time. There was a nice young man who I had a bit of a crush on who had offered up one if his white shirts to use during my test run. I went through the process, the bluing was added, the white looked fabulous waving on the line like the flag of surrender. Apparently things were going too well as I pulled the fresh smelling laundry off the line and pulled the iron off the fire to begin pressing the clothes, my 21st century brain did not even contemplate for a second that my hunk of cast iron was not temperature controlled and had been sitting over the fire for two hours. As I was patting myself on the back for such a job well done, the iron was placed on top of the shirt... leaving the perfect outli

The Holidays are upon us, and for those of us who love and know a lovely femme history lover, yet may be at a bit of a loss as to what to get them. Here is a little bit of a cheat sheet for gift buying, with 10 gifts for the female reenactor under $30                                                                                    Heather Sheen Earrings $24 Amethyst earrings, and are well documented as being period correct. And lets be honest, what lady doesn’t love a little bling in her life. These demure little gems are the perfect gift.Made by the beautiful Miss Sheen, these sweet accessories are a sight to behold. https://www.etsy.com/listing/240526686/genuine-amethyst-earrings-gold-plated?ref=shop_home_active_1 Amazon dry goods silk stocking $20 for a 100% silk stockings. I own a pair of these and lets just say they feel like luxury! Definately   bit more fancy than your typical wool or cotton camp stockings. http://www.am

The Journey may get crazy, some days may be dance through the  house in a hoop skirt from happiness, others are lay on the floor and cry. But no matter what happens, the good, the bad, the lacey and frilly, life is one big adventure and I am so happy to share my adventures with you all. I hope this blog brings knowledge and hopefully a few smiles as you read through each post. May the journey be sweet and the company  sweeter.

After deciding to break out of the civil war era shell, my first order of business was making a dress with a bustle and a train. Combine that with my love of all things Phantom of the Opera and you have the pink Christine Daee masquerade dress. Hope you guys enjoy! It still needs some tweaking, but this is what it looked liked before all adding all the pretty, frilly things. All in all, not the worst project.