All posts filed under: Miscellenia

Rate the Dress: Worth IV does Zig-zags

Last week Fidelo summed up your reaction to the purple, orange and green 1870s frock perfectly: “This  should not work. It really should not work at all. The fact that it does is genius.”  And because it was genius, you gave it a rating of 9.3  out of 10, which is pretty much as close as we’re ever going to get to perfect! This week, I’m presenting a very different dress from a very different era, but I feel it has some of the same elements that made last week’s dress so successful: unusual choice of colour or pattern, clever construction, a balance of structure and femininity, and just a wee bit of cheek. This dress is also a fun one to present, because it’s by Roger Worth, the great-grandson of CF Worth, and one of the last designers of the House of Worth (the last was his brother Maurice).  You haven’t much cared for the second and third generations of Worths, but what about the fourth?  Did Roger manage to return to his great-grandfather’s …

And the winner is (plus bonus pictures)

After lots of time numbering comments and checking facebooks and pinterests and blogs and consulting random number generators, I’m pleased to announce that the winner of the giveaway is… # 49, Samantha of The Hot Mess Housewife   Congratulations Samantha! (even if she doesn’t like licorice, which is frankly disgraceful). I’ll be in contact shortly about shipping addresses and hopefully you’ll get your goodies just in time for Christmas! The good news for the rest of you is that Samantha didn’t want the Maudella pattern, so it will appear in a future giveaway! And, for the entertainment portion of this post, here is me in the Seven Year Stitch apron, making apple pies for Thanksgiving at my in-laws lovely house.

Duck attack!

My parents have flocks of ducks on their farm in Hawaii, and every time I go home for a visit I pester them to put a clutch of eggs on to incubate. Their ducks are mainly khaki campbells and mallards, but they keep a few muscovy ducks (muscovy are to ducks what donkeys are to horses – they can breed, but their offspring will be sterile ‘mules’) as mothers.  Muscovy are much better mothers than many other duck breeds – they are devoted nest sitters, and intensely protective of their young.  My parents let their muscovys (and muscovy-cambell hybrids) create nests and lay a clutch of sterile eggs, and then they swap them out for fertile khaki campbell or mallard eggs. On my last trip home they started a clutch of eggs the week before I arrived, to hatch the week I would leave.  I waited and waited, and the darn things didn’t hatch.  On my last weekend Mum and I went away to Kalaupapa  (if you haven’t read that story you really must), and …