Lost Edwardian

I am afraid that I've been quite badly neglecting this blog lately. I think so much of my creative energy has been channeled into other things lately. I also am really broke right now, which means that I have had virtually no new clothes for the fall, so everything is more of an exercise in remixing than a showing off of new lovelies. With that said, it's forced me to be creative with what I do have. So today, I did remix some things a bit, and we went outside to enjoy the fair autumn weather.

These photos were more of an experiment...we were trying to capture the mood of our Edwardian neighbourhood. I feel very strong historical vibes where I live. As someone who has had an intense passion for history throughout my life, living in a place with so much history can be both exciting and unsettling. I am always learning new things about our area, some that impress me and some that shock me.

This area is so old...there is a giant old tree right by our bedroom window. The tree is the width of a garden shed...it's absolutely enormous. We think it was probably here during the Civil War. Imagine that! What things that tree has seen. Behind our house is a field that up until just a few years ago housed a huge ramshackle Victorian house. It burned 10 years ago or so, but apparently it was used as a hospital during the Civil War. I'm not really sure if this is true or not, but I'm very curious to know more... perhaps there are strange artifacts hidden beneath the ground just a stone's throw away?

After watching the extremely moving and sad The People vs. Leo Frank (warning, there is a fairly graphic photo on the site...) on PBS the other night, it really haunted me to think that my house was here when all of that happened. My former boss, who is a wonderful local historian, was interviewed on the program, which somehow drove the story even closer to home. I don't know why things that happened here almost a hundred years ago affect and unsettle me so much, but they do. I think it proves the power of history, though, and the importance of respecting and observing it in order to learn from the mistakes (as well as the good things) of the past.

Jacket - H&M in Vienna

Ivory Sweater - Vintage, thrifted
Black Wool Skirt - Vintage, thrifted and hemmed
Tights - Target
Victorian Boots - my old trusties. :)
Antique Lace Hair Ribbons - Antique store in the mountains and a gift from a dear friend in Sweden

Do you live in a historic place? What do you know about it? Is it is a historical home, or a neighbourhood, or more general like a city or area?

A Season for Art

Happy November! I can hardly believe how quickly October sped by. I'm a little sad, because I love October, but I am so looking forward to what November will bring - namely (American) Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season! Speaking of which, I've been furiously working away in my little studio for the past several weeks getting ready. It's quite a funny thing, trying to come up with wintry ideas when the rest of the world is swirling with pumpkins and fall leaves, but the holiday season starts very early at Etsy. (with that said, I have waited until Halloween is safely passed before thrust the holidays on my shop visitors!) I have spent a fair bit of time in the past week listening to Loreena McKennit's album, A Midwinter Night's Dream, mainly because it sets me in the artistic mood without being too overtly Christmasy. If I were to recommend one holiday/winter album, this is it. It's too lovely for words to possibly describe.

Here is a small sampling of what's to come in the shop. These are all originals, but I do have a huge batch of prints coming in this week, so there will be a nice range of items and prices. :)

Clara
The Nutcracker Suite
Original Acrylic on 5x7 Canvas

Sugar Plum Fairy
The Nutcracker Suite
Original Acrylic on 5x7 Canvas

Saint Lucy
Original Acrylic on 4x4 Canvas
SOLD

Clarence
Original Acrylic on 5x7 Canvas

Millicent
Original Acrylic on 5x7 Canvas

I had fully intended on offering my Nutcracker Suite series of paintings as Christmas postcards. Indeed, I even ordered them, with such high hopes for my first ever holiday card collection. Much to my dismay, they arrived about 100 times darker than the file I had sent the printers (it was like someone set the brightness meter on -150), with digital scratches and terrible cutting marks around the edges of what were supposed to be lovely rounded edges. It needn't be said that I won't be selling these (and dare I say I won't be joining in on people's praises of Overnight Prints...), and I'm trying to rectify the situation. But sadly it means no cards. :( But hopefully I can make it up with plenty of lovely new paintings and prints! Some are wintry, some are not, but I am feeling quite happy with them and I hope so much that you will like them too!

Phantom of the Opera at the ASO

I don't think it could have been a better night for Halloween! The clouds were low and grey, mist hung in the air, and there was a crisp chill, smoky chill in the air. Perfect for...sitting in a fancy theatre surrounded by the "PBS Crowd", as I lovingly refer to them. (lovingly, as I happen to be one)

I spent my Halloween evening with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, as they accompanied a splendid screening of the 1925 film, Phantom of the Opera starring the wonderfully grotesque Lon Chaney and beautiful Mary Philbin. This has for a very long time been my very favourite silent film. Oddly enough, I've never seen the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical of the same name (though I am fond of the music!), but the story has long been one that has haunted and fascinated me.


I love how the film gives you the very real feeling of being in the Opera House, which is as important to the story as the Phantom himself. Wandering through the Paris Opera House for the first time a couple of years ago really brought Gaston Leroux's story to life for me. It's a place that I find so hard to believe is actually real, because when I walk inside, I feel like I am in another time and place. It is so sprawling and deep, and the shadows cast are strange and gothic. It's easy to see how someone could imagine such a frightening yet somehow entrancing story.

I'm so very glad that I was able to do this. The ASO's accompaniment was just wonderful, and moved with the film so smoothly that I kept forgetting they where there. I can't really think of a better way to spend a Halloween evening. One thing I also appreciated about going to see this was having the excuse to properly dress up! I opted out of wearing any costume, but I went with a slightly gothy 1920s silent screen spirit, in a silk drop waisted dress and wraparound braids.

Dress - Laundry

Velvet blazer - Primark
Tights - Target
Shoes - Madden Girl
Carpet Bag - Vintage, from an antique mall

I hope you all have had a happy Halloween!

Dark Shadows

I'm so sorry I've disappeared all week! What was originally a minor ear infection got a whole lot worse last week, so between getting on with projects and meeting deadlines, I was downing Tylenol, antibiotics and vegetarian noodle soup. I think I am on the mend now, though...at least I'm hoping. But enough of that! As we are getting verrry very close to Halloween, I want to share with you the secret project I have been working on for a friend. My friend is a huge fan of the wonderfully campy 1960s-70s gothic soap opera about time-travelling vampires, Dark Shadows, and for Halloween she is heading to a big event in New England at the old mansion that the show centers around. Naturally, a fantastic costume was in order, and as I did the costumes for her thesis film earlier this year, she asked me to do this personal costume for her.
The costume is a replica of the 1795 empire waisted riding coat and hat that the character Josette Dupre Collins wears when she first arrives at the Collinwood mansion.

Since it was a television costume, it wasn't a spot-on historical reproduction, but in that way it made it more fun, since we could play with fabric and not have to worry about everything being made of period-accurate materials and techniques. Rather, I used a lush, heavy slate grey taffeta with a beautiful mauve contrast for the collar. (just a note - the white dress underneath wasn't made by me, but she'll be wearing it with the coat and it's there to provide context)

The hems are just machine-done, since I was dealing with time limitation and the skirt is comprised of around 5 yards of fabric. I doubt the hem in the tv costume was hand-sewn, either, but in hindsight I wish I had had more time to do some things differently. But it is a costume and not a museum piece, so overall I am happy with it, and it looked lovely when my friend tried it on!

The hat was fun! I am not a milleneress, as much as I would very much love to be (and as much as I love hats...I would so love to take a millenery class), so the hat is just a simple miniature craft hat that I covered with gathered grey taffeta and sewed on lavender tulle, peach chiffon, and a whole garden of purple and lavender silk flowers. I think it achieves the effect well enough.

Overall it was a fun project, despite the illness. I'm doing fewer and fewer professional costuming projects these days (too many hours of work for not much money), so it's easy to get out of the sewing 'habit' when you're not doing it all the time. Sometimes I think I shy away from sewing for myself that often, because professional projects are stressful, rushed, and often involve 16 hour days with no breaks and it's easy to get burned out on sewing in general. But I have to remind myself that when I make my own things there are no deadlines, clients or long nights in the studio. I do have some lovely fabric that looks very lonely, lumped inside that plastic bin, so perhaps some time to make nice things for myself will come along soon.

By the way, speaking of this, I hope you are all scheming away at wonderful Halloween costumes! I can't wait to see what everyone in blog-land comes up with. As for me, I think I may be going to a silent film screening, so I'm trying to come up with something suitably wonderful and adorable. I promise next time it won't be so long between posts! I hope you're all having a wonderful week!

Odi et Amo Interview

Recently, I was asked by a very kind lady to do an interview for her beautiful interior design blog, Odi et Amo. I was so honoured - of course I said yes! It is up now, and you can read it here. Hopefully I don't sound too rambly and verbose - the questions, which centered in on my art and it's relationship to fashion, and vintage, were so much fun to answer!

Forgive me if the rest of the week might be a little quiet. I am in the midst of working on a costuming project for a lovely friend of mine. I will most definitely post pictures in a few days. Hints? Think vampires, but not quite what you may expect... ;)

The Highland Games

I do hope you aren't sick of reading my ramblings about our gallivantings! October feels like it's been a really busy and adventurous month and we've had so many opportunities to do fun things. That's part of the reason why I love this month so much. So many things happen in October, and one of the things that I look forward to the most is the Highland Games! Yesterday we donned our kilts and made the trek to the great auld Stone Mountain, despite my having a painful ear infection (I guess stemmed from that cold I had a couple of weeks ago), and revelled in the very chilly Scottish-style weather. Since I graduated from uni and moved away from Scotland, the Games feel like a link to when I lived there, with the British food vendors, kilted men wandering around, wonderful bagpipes, and British ex-pats. If I close my eyes and just listen to the sounds, I can imagine I'm on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.

Victorian Velvet Blazer - Primark
Black sweater - H&M
Kilt - thrifted
Tights - Target
Greek Messenger Bag - thrifted
Victorian boots - scrappy old trusties :)
Patrick's kilt - Armstrong's Vintage in Edinburgh
Patrick's knee-socks - Pitlochry in St Andrews

There were pipe bands aplenty, decked out in fabulous regalia, right down to their spats!

Kilts for every clan - neither of us are really Scottish (having lived there is my only claim!) so our kilts are just for fun. Some people take it very seriously though, and will invest hundreds of dollars in custom made kilts in their family's tartan.

There were so many fun vendors selling everything from baked treats for charity to vegetarian haggis. This one in particular had a vast array of British foods, including the biggest bag of tea (in contained 960 tea bags!) I have ever seen! It blows my mind to think that it could take you years to drink through all of that...even me, an avid tea drinker!

A silent film star in the most unexpected of places. It turns out that Alice Calhoun is of Scottish decent, and the Clan Calhoun had a little display devoted to her.

And of course, some very adorable Scottish animals! I have a soft spot in my heart for Highland cows ("heery heelin' coos"), and was doubly charmed by her (not so very) little baby, born just a few days ago on October 5th. They also had a display of sheep and duck herding by some very smart little sheepdogs. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it, I just had to include the sheep tushie photo!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

Cemeteries and Birthdays...

I think I've got a bit of a theme going, from ghost tours earlier this week to cemeteries! I suppose it is appropriate for October though. Hopefully you won't think me too gothic. :) In fact, we were not actually planning to go to the cemetery yesterday afternoon, but we were driving around and had some time to pass before meeting a friend for dinner, so we got out and walked around a little bit. It was really, really cold! Fall seems to have pretty much skipped us (for now, at least)...

The cemetery is a very quiet, vast place - it is a military cemetery, and not as beautiful and gothic as my favourite ones in Atlanta, but the simplicity on a grey, cold day made it seem more moody and pretty, and it somehow made the grand old trees stand out more. Despite the starkness of its aesthetic, it's quite a somber place, because so many unidentified soldiers from the Civil War are buried there. I think what also struck me is that it was created for Union soldiers - most of the people buried there are very, very far from home.

In other, more cheerful news, we also celebrated Patrick's birthday this weekend. It was fairly quiet, but we did go out for dinner and had some of his family over for cake. (homemade spiced carrot cake with cream cheese frosting - yum!) It went over very well! Inspired by and in honour of our trip to Savannah, I used this Paula Deen recipe and felt like quite the funny southern housewife for it.

Most of the day was spent scurrying around getting things done and cleaning, since this was the first time I've really 'entertained' since we moved into the house. It made me realize how little I've written about our interior decorating progress in this blog since we moved - I would have posted more pictures, but we haven't really had a chance to accomplish much yet. I still have lots of art lined up against the wall of my studio, waiting to be mounted in various rooms around the house, and we are still looking for a few pieces of furniture. In particular, we have two big, drafty hallways that are begging for some nice side tables, large paintings, umbrella holders, and warm rugs, but time, money, and pickyness have delayed those!

Promises for an entirely non-gothy, non-cemeterial, non-ghosty post tomorrow! :)

Savannah After Dark... Part II

I think most couples must go on nice dinner dates for their anniversaries. We went on a ghost tour. My mom thought this was extremely odd, and perhaps it is, but I personally think there is nothing more romantic than squeezing tight to your love during a scary ghost story!

In fact, we did go on a nice dinner date to our favourite Savannah Vietnamese and Thai restaurant, Saigon, (it's so vegetarian friendly and yummy!) before retreating to our B&B for a quick dessert and coffee out in the courtyard to energize for the two hour walk with our Sixth Sense tour guide. Savannah becomes a different place at night. Not scary, or really all that spooky to me, but calm. The streets and squares get very quiet as the tourists retreat to their hotels and dining spots, the SCAD kids hunker down to study, and the local business people go home to the suburbs. The occasional pub provides a warm glow, and the streetlights are pink, just like in Paris.

(I thought my vintage black feather fascinator seemed suitably dramatic for the evening!)

The ghost tour was really fun, and I am glad of that since so many tours can be hit or miss, too cheesy or too intense, depending on your guide. It was fairly historically based, yet still campy enough to be fun. (I must confess that after working at a museum that is rather infamous for being haunted, and never having a single weird experience, even in the darkest corriders at the loneliest times of the evening, I am a bit of a sceptic...but I do love a good spooky historical story!)
Alas, we did not see any imprintations of the past or little orbs, but there was a definite feeling of history that encompassed me as we traversed the dark streets of grand Victorian homes, many of them empty now for one reason or another. (I believe the economy has been hard on some of the homeowners...maintaining stately period homes can be unbelievably expensive)

432 Abercorn Street

...It is currently abandoned and becoming increasingly derelict. Apparently it is owned by a woman from Atlanta, but no one seems to know why no work has been done on the place since she bought it a few years ago, especially as the property is so valuable. It is said that construction workers are too afraid to take the job, knowing the history of the house. Patrick took the last photo through the letter slot - I'm so embarrassed to admit that I was too spooked to go up to the stairs to the front door!

The Mercer Williams House
The Mercer Williams House is where the real life events that inspired the book and film, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil took place. It was also the scene of another murder and two deaths by falling from the roof or balcony. Despite it's rough history, it is a very beautiful house. Jim Williams was an antique dealer and he restored the place from delapidation. I wish we could have visited the museum during the day, but that will have to wait till next time.

Sidewalk alongside Clary's Cafe
I wish my photos of the actual cafe had turned out in the dark. The cafe was established in 1901 and had plenty of fantastic vintage signage!

That is all for now. Have a lovely evening!

Savannah... Part I

We just got home from spending our first wedding anniversary yesterday (October 11th!) in Savannah, which is where we spent the second half of our honeymoon last year. I have posted about Savannah before, but every time I go I love it more and more. It's such a special city...there is no other place in the world like it, and all of the subtle Scottish architectural influences make it seem strangely familiar and ease my "home"-sickness just a little bit. I only wish we could have stayed longer, but it was all that work schedules could allow for. We managed to squeeze a lot into a little time though, and hopefully we'll be back before too long.

I took lots and lots of photos, so there are lots as I couldn't decide which ones to post! (Please also excuse my weak collage skills!) My outfit is nothing you haven't seen before, although it's been a little while since I've worn it. I had originally packed something else that was for slightly cooler temperatures (I knew it would be warm, but it was downright hot!), but instinct told me to throw this into my bag at the last minute.

At the Owens-Thomas House, a grand regency era mansion built in 1816.

A doorbell and letter slot outside of the Green-Meldrum House, which was General Sherman's headquarters during the Union army's Savannah occupation during the Civil War.

The outside of our hotel, built in 1847, and a rather fantastic iron street sign nearby.

Another outfit shot around the back of the Owens-Thomas House.

More detail shots from around town.

The Davenport House, built in 1820 and one of the first historic homes to be renovated in the downtown Savannah area in 1955, instigating a revival of interest in preserving and restoring the then-decaying historical architecture of the city.

These beautiful vintage police cars were parked outside of the Metropolitan Police Department. They were so cute, I just had to play pin-up girl for a minute.

Muslin Blouse - American Eagle
Vintage Geometric Print Skirt - Antique shop in Texas
Ballet flats - Scruffy old ones from Target
Grey Cotton Bag - Tippy Thai

I'll be doing a second post soon about our trip either tomorrow or Wednesday!

A Perfect Pumpkin Patch Anniversary

Sunday is our one year wedding anniversary, so in honour of the occasion, we are spending today and Sunday having fun and taking small adventures. (as much as work schedules could allow for - the next adventure is a surprise!) Last year, we stayed up in the mountains for the first part of our honeymoon and visited a very cute and very big pumpkin patch. It was my first pumpkin patch, and it did not disappoint. There is something so enchanting about rows and rows of all different types and colours of pumpkins, the smell of cinnamon and pumpkin pie wafting through the air, and hayrides with hilarious old country songs blasting over a loudspeaker in the background.
This year we decided to make the trek back up there and ended up scoring some fantastic pumpkins, mini pumpkins, a butternut squash (which shall become soup next week), and the most amazing pumpkin pie I have ever had. (oh yes, and a cute little pumpkin cookbook - which we've decided will be our traditional 1st anniversary "paper" gift to each other)

I took the opportunity to sport for the first time my Austrian dirndl, purchased from The Vintage Misfits some months ago. I decided very quickly, however, that I think it needs a bit of a hem. I had wanted to leave it as it came, since it reminds me so much of the beautiful dirndls that I remember seeing women wear in Salzburg as a little girl. But indeed, I don't have the many lovely layers of petticoats and little white apron to complete the look (and perhaps that might just be too much outside of Austria...!), and the hemline made me feel a little bit short and hobbity. Nonetheless, I just love this dress, because it's so feminine, and despite the skirt being too long, it feels like it was tailor made to fit me precisely.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, Hopefully early next week I will have some exciting photos to share of our Sunday adventures!