56 Search Results for: five for friday

Five for Friday: What I did in Hawai’i

I went home to Hawai’i to spend the December holidays with my parents. It’s the first time in 14 years I’ve gone back to Hawai’i in December, because I usually try to escape NZ in the Southern Hemisphere winter (June-Sept), not our lovely early summer. But I had an absolutely wonderful trip, and am so glad I went home. Here’s some of the things I got up to: 1. Eating lots of fruit My parents have a tropical fruit farm, and grow pretty much every tropical fruit you’ve ever heard of (except durian), and lots you haven’t. And I gorged on as much of them as you can possibly have every day without bad things happening… 2. Throwing a 9 course Christmas Eve dinner for 11 based on historical recipes I wanted to do something a bit fun and different for my parent’s big holiday celebration (which ended up being Christmas Eve dinner), and a formal, coursed dinner is definitely a novelty in Hawai’i – even more so if it’s historical! I melded historical recipes …

Five for Friday: Summer- Autumn-Winter-Spring-Summer-Again 2019 Catch up Edition

Published by The Dreamstress

Here’s a big catch up post of things I’ve been doing in the last 8 months year (this post has been a long time in the writing!): 1. I cut 13″+ off my hair I have crazy Rapunzel hair, and this year it got to be so long that I couldn’t even bun it properly, and so I put it in a braid (so I could keep the braid and use it for historical hairpieces) and went to my hairdresser and said “whack it off” He said: “how much?” I said “Oh, about 8 inches. Just above I put the middle hairband.” He said: that’s a little more than 8″, are you sure? I said “Yep” and he cut it off (and then made it all pretty). And then I took the braid home and measured it, and it’s 13″, braided! Here’s what it looks like post-chop: Well, looked like. The chop and photos was actually a few months back (in fact, the week after my last Five for Friday post). So many months …

Five for Friday: Questions about the Augusta Stays

Published by The Dreamstress

Today’s post is all about the questions we’ve been asked about the Augusta Stays. Can you wear them for different decades? What else could you use to bone them? Can they be made front lacing? What about strapless? And why did you include a theatrical version? 1. The Augustas are dated 1775-1789. Could I wear them for 1750s or 60s? How wrong will they look? We’ve got a lot of questions from people wondering how well the Augusta Stays will work for other decades in the 18th century. The Augustas were drafted to create the fashionable forward-thrust of the 1780s, and incorporate all the most common elements of 1780s stays: a very narrow front point and wide front bust, sweeping side bones, partial front lacing, and a high back. This combination of elements creates a specific silhouette: one particular to the date range we’ve given. However the cut and boning layout we chose means it is possible to change the shape of the stays with padding and additional structure while you wear them. The lack …