Well, if that headline isn't enough to get you reading this post, nothing is.
Hello. We have survived winter here in the Northern Hemisphere, and it was quite a mild one. However, our spring is being interrupted by a last smack from Winter: a couple inches of snow, some stiff breezes, and more cold temps. But it will not last. And I have hope.
So...update on the Period Clothing Exhibit. S. Plural. Yes. As most of you know, I own rather a nice amount of period clothing items, from 1770's through to the 1920's. The majority of this is on display at The Oldest House, along with a few items the House itself owns. I change things out seasonally, although the things owned by the House do not change.
I was recently honored by being asked to join the board of another Historic Home Museum in our area, French Azilum. You may not know it, and you probably won't believe it (I didn't at first) but here in northeastern Pennsylvania was the site where French Royalists built a little village for Queen Marie Antoinette to flee to, if she could escape France.
Well, she didn't. And the original structures in the village are gone. But the land is still there, and another Frenchman, LaPorte, built a nice, big, quite fancy house there in 1826--the LaPorte House. And as I am on the Board, I'll be bringing my expertise such as it is in period clothing to the items the LaPorte House and French Azilum, Inc. own.
I took a cursory view a few weeks ago, and they have some very nice things. The plan is to do this year more or less what was done last year, perhaps with a couple of small exceptions or additions: it depends. But next year, in 2017, I hope very much to be able to mount a clothing exhibit using mostly what French Azilum owns. I'll fill in with some pieces from my own collection, and a it's a very different sort of house to The Oldest House, the display at the LaPorte House will be quite apart from the Oldest House display.
I think this will be great fun, and I am absolutely gobsmackingly honored to think that I am now curating TWO Period Clothing Exhibits in this region. What an honor, truly, and I promise to do my best.
Ok, New Gown! Thanks to my friend Diana, I have discovered an absolute genius hidden away here in the Endless Mountains: this lady is a superb seamstress, but not only that, she knows how to work with antique fabrics! And...she LIKES that stuff! So last night one of the period clothing pages I follow posted this lovely shot of a gown from the late 1800's all embroidered at neck and hem with bees. There's lace and other stuff as well, but it was the bees that caught my eye. They may have been used by Napoleon (we won't discuss him, as I am descended from Louis VII of France, and so am clearly a Royalist!) but my name means 'bee.'
It was a no brainer, and half jokingly I sent the pic to my genius seamstress, Jean, and said, wanna make this for me?
Her reply: sure. Love it. Might be a little expensive tho.
My reply: full steam ahead! We've determined that we will bring the design forward a couple of decades, to about 1912, and give it more of an Edwardian than Victorian feel. I've sent her a rough sketch/photo of what I think I'd like and will have to set up a meeting with her soon so we can get started. It would be splendid if I had it to wear some time this year!
So that almost makes up for the fact that because of the aforementioned snow, I was unable to travel north (more snow, really awful roads and high winds) to the English Country Dance Brunch and Dance yesterday. Well, ECD classes resume the end of April, and there's a dinner in June, so I hope I'll be able to make that!
And finally...the new book. Yes, I'm on the last steps for the current murder mystery work in progress, due out late this summer. The newest murder mystery will be published the end of this week. But meanwhile, I've been thinking about what to do with Izzy ever since I left her in a rather precarious predicament at the conclusion of A CHRISTMAS IN TIME. All I can tell you is, I'm one chapter in, and having fun. When will this book publish? Probably this autumn. We hope the foundation project at The Oldest House will begin fairly soon now that our state budget is in place (that's another topic for another blog). With luck, we'll be able to have the annual Fancy Fair in October, and I'd like to try to have the new book...called CORRIDORS IN TIME...ready then. We'll see.
So, as always, thanks for reading. Find me on twitter at @LadyCourville, on Facebook as Deborah deBilly dit Courville and my page as Deborah L. Courville. Leave a comment, send me pictures, whatever. Thank you!
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