I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and are looking forward to a New Year full of hope and happiness!
I had a lovely holiday with Mr D’s family: a lovely relaxed Christmas lunch with the unexpected treat of fresh-smoked trout, followed by an afternoon of playing with the aunt and uncle’s gorgeous kitties, browsing their amazing book collection, and modelling some fabulous ’60s and ’70s frocks that they had found at an op shop, to figure out what size they were. There was one early ’60s dress that looked like it came straight off the set of Mad Men, and had I only been shaped like the redheaded actress from that show, I would have fit it properly!
I received a lovely thoughtful selection of gifts: my family and friends know me well!
Mr D got me The Cut of Women’s Clothes (YAY! Now I can stop borrowing it from the library constantly! I had it out so often he was convinced I owned a copy!) and the drool-worthy Vintage Paris Couture! And he got me Raising Steam: the newest Terry Pratchett novel. Keeping with the book theme, a dear friend got me the DK Fashion book, which is such a fabulous overview.
My in laws visited Honiton in England this year, and bought me a metre of antique handmade Honiton lace from the museum there. So gorgeous!
And finally, small but sweet: my version of perfume. Real vanilla pods. Happiness in a little tube!
In return, I made lots of handmade gifts: two shirts for my mother, a shirt for my MIL, two shirts and some little bags for Mr D, a shirt and a skirt for my sister. I’ve been busy.
So, time to take some time off…
For the next few days I’m going to be off touring the wilderness with my sister the chef, who is back in the New Zealand for a visit. The blog is going to be on autopilot, but there will be posts – cute Felicity-ness, and collection tours, and a Rate the Dress, and the announcement of the HSF Challenge #7, all on schedule.
Unfortunately I won’t be able to respond to comments immediately, but I will get to them when I get back, so please do say hi (and hey, I know perfectly well you guys are capable of having an amazing discussion without me!).
And when I get back I’ll be telling you about lots more sewing that I’ve done, and dressing up and taking pictures, and my road trip, and a round-up of my 2013, and a look back at HSF ’13, and goals for 2014, and wilderness touring pictures, and SO MUCH MORE.
It’s going to be awesome!
My favorite thing about the holiday season is just how long it lasts. Thanksgiving, Diwali, Eid, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Years bring such a happy time. If you let it, the holiday lasts several weeks and provide great excuses and fun to be had–for longer than just one day (or just 8. Even 8 days is not enough!)
Have fun on your vacation!
I’ve ordered “The Cut of Women’s Clothes”, I’d been putting it off, but this is the last chance I’ll have to order books for some time as I’m on a spending diet from the new year.
A few other books might have snuck into my cart in the last few days too.
I’m so jealous of everyone’s libraries having the Cut of Women’s Clothes. I’m haunting websites to try and catch it for under $80 if I’m lucky. I’ve never read it but it’s referenced so much it’s gotta be a good addition to my personal library 😀 What a lovely collection of gifts!
Biblio,co.uk has it for 25 pounds sterling–that’s about $40.25 USD. Even with shipping charges, you should get it for $60-$65. Look here:
http://biblio.co.uk/details.php?dcx=453595024&aid=aa&t=1
I like to shop for such things using addall.com It’s a Google for finding books for sale–not the only one, but one of the best, in my opinion. It includes Abebooks and the other major on-line booksellers in its searches. I have a search box on my blog that does addall.com searches, if anyone is interested.
Whooooaaaa thanks! I hope it’s still available at the end of the week. (unlikely lol) That is seriously amazing 🙂
Well, I did manage to get it 🙂 It came out a little bit over what I was hoping to pay, but still about half the amount I usually see it for. My cat has taken to adoring it. I better make a dust jacket . Thanks again!
Happy Christmas and Merry New Year and have a wonderful time in the wilderness! I cannot thank you enough for being such a continuous and powerful inspiration in my sewing endeavors! The HSF is such a gift; even though I have totally fallen off the wagon, I am looking forward to jumping on board for 2014. The amount of support, encouragement, education, help, motivation, and fun that I have had working on my projects/drooling at others’ creations/diving into HSF-inspired research rabbit holes/panicking about deadlines has been a wonderful adventure. Your dedication to building this wonderful international community of historical costume enthusiasts is just splendid. I am so grateful for all that you do, and all that you share with us. May 2014 bring you every bit of happiness! Thank you!!