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Category: Frivolity

Fun posts

It’s Thursday. I’m going to be taking my oldest on one last college visit tomorrow and I’m casting about for something to post tomorrow, but my mind is shot.

Here’s a snap of my To Do List for the week. Note how many items are still not crossed off. And they include gems like “Fill out CSS Profile”. For the lucky ones who don’t know, the CSS Profile is a detailed financial aid profile required by some colleges (including my oldest daughter’s #1 school) which makes the FAFSA look like child’s play. I’m half-expecting a line item asking which extra organs we’re willing to sell online in order to afford tuition.

So I’ll take a quick break to fantasize about what I’d put on a Regency To Do List.

Gerard_Lady_Reading“Read a horrid novel”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tatting“Learn to tat”

There’s a nice article on tatting at the Jane Austen Centre website.

 

 

 

“Ride around the beautiful grounds of my country home”

ladylade

Well, that was fun while it lasted. Now I need to go back to financial aid paperwork.

Are any onerous tasks plaguing you this week? What’s on your fantasy Regency To Do List?

And before I go, let me announce the winners of the Lady Dearing’s Masquerade audiobook giveaway.

Rochelle Klieger, Jemma, Victoria Seaman, Louisa Cornell and Jo’s Daughter

I’ll email you the download codes, along with directions. Happy listening!

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

I read somewhere in my time wasting serious research online that the way to improve traffic to a blog was to cover certain topics so I thought I’d give it a try.

First, PETS. Here’s Samuel Johnson’s cat Hodge, of whom Boswell wrote:

362px-Hodgecat_flickrI recollect him one day scrambling up Dr. Johnson’s breast, apparently with much satisfaction, while my friend smiling and half-whistling, rubbed down his back, and pulled him by the tail; and when I observed he was a fine cat, saying, ‘Why yes, Sir, but I have had cats whom I liked better than this;’ and then as if perceiving Hodge to be out of countenance, adding, ‘but he is a very fine cat, a very fine cat indeed.’

colin-firth111COLIN FIRTH Picture of Colin Firth with wet shirt for no particular reason.

1814 v11 Ackermann's fashion plate 4 - Promenade DressNext, FASHION. PROMENADE COSTUME. From Ackermann’s January 1814: A Plain cambric robe, with long gathered sleeve and high arched collar, trimmed with net lace or muslin. A Spanish lappelled coat of fine orange Merino cloth; full epaulette ornaments on the shoulders: the whole lined throughout with white sarsnet, and trimmed with a raised border of white velvet or swansdown. A small, provincial bonnet of the same material as the coat, ornamented with a full curled ostrich feather. White spotted ermine or Chinchilli muff. Gloves grey or light blue kid. Half-boots of orange-coloured jean, or velvet. But she still looks cold.

firth2You may not ever have considered that when COLIN FIRTH plunged into that pond he might have encountered certain aquatic life forms. His attitude of discomfort may well have been not because he appeared in a state of undress but because he was anxious to get rid of certain attachments to his person

There is actually a bit of dialogue, struck from the script that goes as follows:

Darcy: Madam (bows). Would you have some salt upon your person?

Elizabeth: Salt, sir?

Darcy: A match, then?

Elizabeth: Oh, certainly. (Takes a matchbook from her reticule)

Darcy: The Meryton Go-Go Swingers’ Club? Ridiculous. Matches haven’t even been invented yet. I suppose I’ll have to wait until I get into the house.

Sucking_leech… Bringing us onto the next hot topic of HEALTH.  I thought this picture spoke for itself. I hope you appreciate that I passed over some truly disgusting pics to find one that showed the business but would not make you lose your lunch.

RichardArmitage05Talking of which, FOOD is always popular too, but I thought that instead, for a change, we’d have RICHARD ARMITAGE. Although I did find several artistic shots of his behind, I hate to tell you that it looked OK but pretty much like anyone else’s. Unless you were on very intimate terms with Mr. Armitage (and someone certainly was) you’d never have known whether it was his or his bottom double’s.

So there you have it, the Big Popular Topics and I expect our numbers will soar.

But seriously, is there anything you’d like to see us blog about here that we haven’t yet covered? Any celebrity bottoms?

I hope everyone enjoyed Christmas. Having had to drive 350 miles through the snow to visit family and dreading the same for the return trip today (I didn’t order this weather!) I’m looking forward to celebrating New Year’s at home.

It’s been a long standing tradition for us to make a special dinner, trying at least one new recipe. This year the new recipes are Chicken Kiev (accompanied by potato puffs and green beans almondine) and chocolate peanut butter pie for dessert. Then we’ll settle in to watch movies. This year it’ll be the Sherlock Holmes movies with Robert Downey Jr.

mrdarcyelizabethMy daughters have delighted me by agreeing to a Jane Austen movie marathon on New Year’s Day. So far we’ve agreed on the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle Pride & Prejudice. We’re still discussing which other films we can fit in. I’m thinking the recent Northanger Abbey with Felicity Jones and JJ Feild (whose name is so much fun to write, breaking that “i before e” rule). Maybe Sense & Sensibility, but which one? Maybe the girls would enjoy seeing Professor Snape as a romantic hero.

We’re still thinking about food. Should we go period or would that make things too complicated? The point of this day is to relax. I’m away from my period recipe books so will have to check later today if there’s something easy I can make.

Any suggestions about films and food for our Jane Austen movie marathon? How are you all planning to celebrate the New Year?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

(or, as we call it here, Thursday). I hope everyone is enjoying the post-Christmas glow, or if you had to return to work, that your colleagues brought in the leftover cookies.

bcSinglisanta was good to me this year, although I cannot guarantee it had anything to do with behavior–among my loot was Lucy Inglis’s Georgian London and The Black Count by Tom Reiss, and yes, Jane Austen bandaids! I am blessed.

And now on to the term Boxing Day. What does it mean? Let’s hear it from you history buffs.

1. It was the day that servants were given their Christmas boxes by their kindly employers. Jolly good, John Potboy. Here is three shillings and sixpence and a suet pudding, less five shillings and eleven pence in fines for drunkenness, swearing, and eating left over bread without permission, leaving you with a balance to be taken from your wages of two shillings and five pence. You may keep the suet pudding.

2. It was the day that misrule ruled downstairs in the house. Wild games of football using suet puddings as the ball, amateur drag shows where the butler dressed up as the housekeeper and sang popular songs, and rolling naked in the snow were just some of the charming local customs.

3. Ladies Day at Gentleman Jackson’s Saloon. Ladies of the aristocracy would have the run of Jackson’s famous boxing establishment to settle such affairs of honor as Almack’s vouchers,  slights, snubs, and stealing of fashion secrets, suet pudding recipes, or servants.

4. Black sheep disposal. Troublesome family members were lured into a box with only a suet pudding for sustenance and loaded on a ship going to the Americas. Those who survived frequently turned up to claim the title to the dukedom and display dreadful American manners in the drawing rooms of the ton.

Happy holidays everyone! Don’t forget to enter my contest at goodreads.com.

 

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It is too late for me to put anything on my Christmas list–Christmas is only two days away, yipes–but there is nothing to stop me from dreaming, is there?

So I might as well dream about receiving Regency gifts.

paula_34One item I would love to have is a Regency era nightgown. A reproduction of one, I mean. The nice thing is, I could probably get one of these someday. Here’s a particularly lovely one, from White Nightie.

I once had a nightgown something like this one. A college friend gave it to me. It had been her grandmother’s. I loved that nightgown and wore it for years until it wore out.

$(KGrHqMOKpYFILYtd)TIBSLRTv,RHw~~60_57I’ve always wanted a piece of Regency era furniture. A pretty chest of drawers or something. This piece on ebay would do very nicely, I think. It would be lovely to furnish a home with such furniture, although I’d opt for modern beds and sofas. And electric lighting.

$_3What Christmas list would be complete without jewelry? I’ve always wanted a genuine antique cameo. This one, also on ebay, is lovely.

What I should be doing, rather than dreaming of Regency gifts is wrapping some!

What do you wish for for Christmas this year? What do you have left to do?

Look on my website for the grand prize winner of the Harlequin Historical Authors Holiday Giveaway.