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Birds and bees and flowers and trees

Published by The Dreamstress

I love macro.  I think this has already been discussed.

I also love bugs and creepy crawlies, so that is where I direct my macro attentions.

Here are the macro  (and bird) pictures from the road trip.

A bug near Mount Sunday

Buzzy bees at Lake Clearwater

Honey time

Paradise ducks on Lake Wakatipu

Seagulls fishing on Lake Wakatipu

A butterfly near Te Anau, on the way to Milford Sound

It was a very obliging butterfly

I love that this photo looks like a painting

A scaup on the Mirror Lakes, on the way to Milford Sounds

Fuzzy ducklings on the Mirror Lakes

An inquisitive rock wren at Mirror Lakes

Even flies are beautiful in macro (taken in the parking lot at the Chasm)

A cicada at the Chasm, on the way to Milford Sound

An inchworm, Milford Sound

A bee in the torch flower, Moeraki

A ladybug on an apricot, near Christchurch

Rate the Dress: Princess Louise Marie in furry finery

Published by The Dreamstress

I suspected that last week’s Schiaparelli would be unpopular with some, but didn’t anticipate how many of you would consider it a ‘waste of time and material’.  The only love it got was as a potential costume for a Broadway  musical.  It rated a 4.9 out of 10.

Perhaps the frock of a Princess (and a nun) can tempt you to higher praise?  Drouais paints  Louise Marie of France in a dress of luxurious tobacco-coloured silk trimmed with wavy bands of fur and lightened by lace sabot sleeves.

Portrait of Princess Louise Marie of France (1737-1787), François-Hubert Drouais, ca 1770, Musee national des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon

The style of dress is somewhat old-fashioned for 1770 (Louise Marie’s sister in law, the charming Maria Josepha of Saxony, was painted in similar frocks in the early 1760s), and is rather sombre in tone.  Suitably un-worldy for a princess who was about to become a nun?  Or was Louise Marie, like her sisters, the other aunt-in-laws of Marie Antoinette, another “bitter old hag” who could not be bothered to dress properly?  Or is it technically suitable, but tasteless or ugly?  You decide.

Rate the dress on a scale of 1 to 10

Christmas and New Years prettiness

Published by The Dreamstress

I was given some lovely costume related prettiness for Christmas, and I picked up a bit more on my road trip.

First, my wonderful in-laws asked me for a wish list, and off of it, they got me…(drumroll here)…

Oooooh….

And….

Yum!

I’ll be reviewing all three of these as I use them.

Space was limited on the road trip, so all I picked up was these three bits of deliciousness:

Vintage coral velvet ribbon, vintage tortoiseshell mirror, vintage grass-green silk ribbon

The mirror has the cutest little wreath motif on the back.

What do you think? 1930s?

It also has some damage, and the tortoiseshell has shrunk, so I’m going to be researching how to conserve it, and blogging about that.

Finally, just before Christmas I found these gorgeous embroidered napkins:

Awwwww!

The handwork is exquisite, and the motifs are all different:

This one is my favourite. Are they dianthus?

Pansies and forget-me-nots

I don’t know what these flowers are called, but I photographed some of them on my road trip

Pink daisies (or chrysanthemums) and forget-me-nots

Shasta daisies and cornflowers

I suspect that there was a 6th napkin at some point.  I’ll just have to have 5 person tea parties with this set!