Every second Saturday of June is Connecticut Open House day. This is a day where over 200 attractions across the state of Connecticut offer free or reduced admission to encourage residents to explore local cultural and historical sites. Pahl and I decided to explore two open studios in Mansfield, CT, along with the rarely open Museum of Connecticut Glass in Coventry, CT. 

This particular weekend was incredibly sunny and warm around 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and most of the museum and the open studios were in old barns or buildings without any air conditioning, so we dressed for comfort for the day. Pahl wore his button down retro space cats printed shirt with black jeans and his strange sneakers that match the colors in his shirt.

When it's hot, I reach for lots of white, and cotton or linen, to deflect the sun. My white cotton dress with pink front bustles and hidden pockets, as well as the pink head bow is from MyViolet.  My Violet is a domestic store that designs everything in Los Angeles and partners with factories overseas to get their unique pieces manufactured. I've been low key obsessed with them for about two years and have wanted to incorporate more pastels into my general alt wardrobe. I think one of the most popular things they sell are a variety of pleated skirts with hidden built in shorts, so skorts if you will. And all of the clothing is made for adults sizes XS-5X. I have a variety of pieces from them, including footwear, so you'll be seeing that pop up periodically.   Additionally for my outfit,  I am wearing a pair of white with pink bows below the knee socks from Hot Topic, harlequin print purple and pink pastel Mary Janes from Hot Chocolate Designs, and a white lace choker with gold star motifs and a pink heart hand bag that I purchased a long time ago directly from China for my EGL wardrobe. 

The Museum of Connecticut Glass is located in the John Turner House at the intersection of North River Road and RT 44 East in Coventry, CT. Its mission is "dedicated to exhibiting, preserving, researching, and providing education about historical glass made in the numerous glassworks of Connecticut". If you're a resident of Eastern Connecticut, or attended UCONN, you've probably driven past it a million times, not exactly knowing what that building was or if it was ever open. Initially the museum was owned by UCONN for many years, but in 1994, the Connecticut General Assembly voted to entrust it to the developing Museum of Connecticut Glass. 

The museum's permanent offices and exhibits are located inside Capt. John Turner's house (circa 1812-1814), who was one of several incorporators of the Coventry Glass Company. This is the small two story home you can see easily from RT 44 and it is one of several original houses still standing in the National Historic Glass Factory District. A second building (a historic barn from 1935) across the street was acquired in 2005 for education and activity facilities. Inside this building there is a furnace room with a glass furnace where glassmaking is done the way it was done nearly two centuries ago. The museum is open to the public the third Saturday of every month between 1:00-4:00 pm from May through September. That's exactly 5 days total per year (not counting CT Open House Day). They will also be open this year on Oct 10 from 8:00 am - 1:00 pm for the Tailgate Bottle & Glass Show, so there's 6 actually. 

The logo for the Museum of Connecticut Glass, embossed on the shallow amber plate above, depicts a person in the process of making glass like it was done 200 years ago along with the tools that were needed to make it in a circular motif around the edges of the plate. You can buy your own glass plate for a $10.00 donation.
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I loved seeing all the old glass bottles and fragments around both buildings, but my favorite part was the recovered photographs. Glass production was a physically dangerous business. Glass is extremely hot and will burn right through you socks and shoes if you drop some of it mid-process on the floor. It's also very dusty as you need a variety of dry materials to make it.  You can see that there wasn't much wiggle room between machines and other equipment in the factory in the first photo. What broke my heart was to know that children were also employed in these factories as bottlers, which is the act of moving the newly molded bottles to a finishing oven.  It's so strange to realize we've come such a long way in the last 200 years in automating glass production and technology. I'm usually a big fan of doing things the old fashioned way---but in this instance, I would likely refrain!

 Fenton River Studio, aka the art of Shauna Shane was a delightful second stop of the day.  Shauna was one of the artist's participating in Art & Garden Tour of Eastern Connecticut, also held on CT Open House Day. This event encouraged individuals, families, and groups to visit artist's private gardens and studios in a self-guided tour around the towns of Ashford, Coventry, Mansfield, and Willington, CT. 

According to her website, "Shauna is a multi-disciplinary artist who works in a variety of painting mediums as well as sculpture. ___ She has received national awards for each of these mediums, and her paintings are known for and reflect her ability to communicate the energy, color, and the unique atmosphere of the scene." She also teaches classes and hosts other events at her studio.

We briefly went inside the studio to see her painting and pastel works, but she had to leave to give out awards for a show she was jurying elsewhere that day, so we mostly just walked around the gardens outside of her studio.  I absolutely adored the whimsical vibe of her garden and the mixed media sculptures. I loved how they were all part solid and part floral. I would 100% go back to just hang out and do some sketching or watercolor painting.

We still had exactly 36 minutes before both CT Open House Day and Art & Garden Tour of Eastern Connecticut closed for the day, so we ran over to Flying Dragon Farm Studio. It was a little tricky to get to as there was a very tiny sign on the road which led down a long dirt driveway with places to park on some grass. There were three different artists showcasing their work together inside the main barn. Mary Noonan, who owns the property, was showcasing her colorful impressionist paintings. Leanne Peters, one of her guest artists was showcasing paintings as well as illustrations that she had available as both prints and cards. Elizabeth Clark was selling and making jewelry, ornaments, wands, and fairy doors out of metals, wood, stone, beads, paper, resin, stone, and fabric. 

Again, we didn't spend a lot of time in the studio, but explored the garden, and what a property to behold! Behind the barn there was a lovely flower garden decorated with all kinds of repurposed and recycled materials, a labyrinth and a sculpture garden! The grass was kinda high way back there, so I was glad I chose to wear tall socks that day. 

It was such a fun "free" day going to the Museum of Connecticut Glass and visiting the artist studios and gardens. I learned a lot about early glass making and the history of the building, as well as meeting some of the local artists in that area of CT. So next year on the second Saturday of June when you plan on going to CT Open House Day, make sure to  see if there's anything else going on nearby whatever museum(s) you plan to attend!

The first Sunday in June 2026, my partner and I were supposed to go to the annual Milford Pirate Day Festival. We had everything planned with our outfits as well as how we were going to get there and when we were going to leave. That is, until the wee hours of the early morning the Friday before when my neighborhood was engulfed with multiple explosions. A chemical fire on a blighted property poisoned the surrounding air temporarily, and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection had to come into the neighborhood for cleanup. Naturally, I threw a bunch of random clothes in a suitcase while wearing a N-95 mask and headed for the hills for the rest of the weekend. 

One great hill to spend time on is Wickham Park in Manchester, CT. Clean air, delicately designed and maintained themed gardens, and a hill so grand you can distinctly see the buildings of downtown Hartford in the background. I had been to Wickham Park twice before. Once about fourteen years ago when a friend was getting married at the Cabin Garden and Amphitheater at the top of the hill, and again a few years ago at the Emerald Garden for a Steampunk meetup. In the time between my last visit and this one, they had actually added two new themed gardens (a Sensory Garden and A Garden of Art). I didn't even know there was also an Aviary and a Nature Center on the property at any point in my previous visits. This time, we were going to make sure we saw the whole park!

We situated ourselves near the outskirts and a park bench inside of the Lotus Garden.  From where we were seated on a picnic blanket on the grass, we had optimal viewing of the frog pond and fountain. You could hear all manor of bullfrogs and various insects well enough, but to see them with your eyes required a sort of intense gazing. We must have spent an additional twenty minutes after enjoying a picnic of crackers, cheese, fruits, hummus, raw carrots, and sparkling water staring into the frog pond. I used Pahl's cell phone to capture a bull frog mid-note. They are quite well camouflaged in the pond otherwise. Also pictured is my Peter Rabbit keychain I picked up in an after Easter sale at a CVS near my partner's home. It was a whole $7.99, but I felt it was very cute and would be the perfect accent in a lot of coordinates. 

After we packed up our picnic items and put them back in the car, we started walking around the park. Somewhere near the Lotus Garden there's a little walking path that has bamboo that completely engulfs you on both sides. I find it extremely peaceful and comforting to be inside the bamboo walkway. When you get to one end of it, it also make for an extremely impressive photo opportunity. 

My picnic outfit consists of a single short sleeve OP or one piece cotton dress from the Chinese indie brand Miss Point. It is light blue with a floral lattice all over print, added lace overlays near the bottom of the skirt, two very functional hidden pockets, a ladder lace drawstring waist band, and a couple of detachable pink bows I have added to the top of the yoke area. I am also wearing a straw hat that has a bowed hat band that completely matches the print of the dress. I'm pretty sure I was wearing either white or off white under the knee socks paired with my beige oxfords. The dress is so long, I can't tell what socks I selected for certain...either the ones with ribbons or plain ones. Sometimes longer skirts hide leg wear details, so it is something to consider when putting together an outfit whether having a decorative tight or sock is helpful or not. Since there was no specific theme other than "head for the hills", I chose a simple brown rattan cross body as my purse of choice. Peter Rabbit would stand out nicely hanging from something more plain anyway. I braided my hair in pigtails to add to the country look and keep it off my neck. 

Pahl decided to match my sort of casual turn of the century country style in his look for the day. He has a beautifully embroidered medium weight white cotton blouse tucked into black jeans with brown oxford boots at his feet. Over the blouse he has black overalls and over that he has a satin style navy and burgundy paisley waist coat, which he has kept unbuttoned. The look is completed with a straw boater hat with a matching navy and burgundy striped hat band. 

After walking around in the bamboo, we made our way up a rather steep paved hill. We discovered that there were several picnic areas with actual picnic tables and grills, a golf disc course, walking trails, and a large outdoor restroom with men and women's stalls on different sides. Eventually you'll see a modest wood cabin and a beautiful garden with various small gazebos. And all the way at the very top, there's a small stone chapel overlooking a grand expanse of the city below. I remember sitting on one of those stone benches for my friend's wedding all those years ago!  I thought to myself, with this outfit and the view, I have officially transformed into a Ghibli movie character!

But wait, there's even more park after that! As you make your way down the other side of the hill, you will have more choices to explore a playground, an Aviary, a Nature Center, Concessions (only open on the weekend) and two additional gardens!

The newest addition to Wickham Park, the Maron Family Garden of Art became open to the public in October 2025. In it seems to be a variety of modern style sculptures from different local artists surrounded by beautiful plants and architectural structures. The entire garden has a pathway that starts under a pergola and wraps its way down part of a hill that opens up to a large grassy area. In the large grassy area can be seen a very modern tower with a spiral staircase up two floors. Also further out there is a labyrinth with a section to sit down in center of it.  

You can get just as much walking back to the entrance of the garden as walking out from it.  I noticed two sculptures right away on my way out that I didn't notice on my way in. 

Overall it was a great time to visit the park and experience all of what it had to offer. It was also a great way to get my steps in with only a little bit of car traffic to worry about. Wickham Park is open daily from April through October, but requires an entry fee of $7.00 weekdays, $10.00 weekends/holidays per vehicle payable by CASH or CHECK only. There are also many small events throughout the season like Dinner Series, Arts and Crafts Programs, Concerts, etc. We actually went back to Wickham Park for the Taste of the Park Dinner Series in the Italian Garden in August 2026.  It was a lovely three course dinner with a cocktail hour prepared by a local Italian restaurant, except for the fact that it torrentially rained the whole time and we were not able to take any photos in the actual garden. So looking back, I am glad that we made an afternoon of the whole park back in June!

In May 2026, Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, MA happened to be having a series of weekends called "Yankee Ingenuity" dedicated to different parts of 1830's life for its residents as part of an overall celebration of America's 250th year as a nation. Each weekend of May was a different theme. I attended the PLAY weekend with my fashion group, from May 23-25, 2026, and then again the following weekend for the WORK program with my partner. 

For the PLAY meeting, I asked folks in my community to wear anything that they thought was particularly playful in subject matter or style. Color did not matter, but there was one stipulation--if you wore anything that vaguely looked like something an actor at Old Sturbridge Village would wear, be prepared to be assumed staff of the village. I didn't think any of us looked like we worked at the village, but folks still gave us the right of way on the horse cart and asked us where the bathrooms were. 

I don't like to be a coordinate repeater if I can help it, so I went through my dress collection and looked for a dress with a playful type of print on it (that I hadn't worn yet this year). I thought in honor of going to Old Sturbridge Village and it being the PLAY weekend, that I would wear my Animal Family dress from Chinese Indie brand Alice Girl. This dress features an underbust boned bodice with a printed skirt of cartoon animals wearing old fashioned outfits posing for a family portrait. It's weird and its wonderful, and has a hidden pocket on one side. Under the dress, I'm wearing a cotton blouse from Chinese indie brand Miss Point that came with a similar style underbust dress. Over that I'm wearing a hooded brown velvet caplet with white details on it. Over two braided pigtails, I'm wearing a flat brown floral "trivet" bonnet from the Chinese indie brand Infanta. The under the knee socks and cream and white and I've paired my look with brown suede oxfords for sensible walking throughout the museum. Also attached to my person I have a teddy bear bag, which is of course wearing a cream colored dress to match my coordinate, and a cream and light brown violin bag as an instrument is also something you PLAY with.  You might be thinking--end of May for long sleeves and a velvet caplet? Believe me I didn't think it was necessary either until the day of when it was overcast and on and off raining all day.  

Aly's coordinate was playful in an entirely different way. She used a dress that her mother made her that looks like it's from more than one time period. The back layer of ruffles looks like it could support a bustle undergarment from the Gilded Age but the shape of the skirt at the bottom has a more Edwardian hem. The royal blue short velvet jacket stands out nicely against the dress. She made the gloriously large hat from up-cycled gallon water bottles which she cut to make the shape and covered with fabric and other embellishments like faux flowers. 

Colleen is wearing the powder blue version of the jsk "Dreamy Egg" by Japanese brand Metamorphose. The dress features an all over repeating print of different eggs with rabbits, birds, ribbons and bows tied together with a star and moon motif. I'd count the print as being playful. To finish off the look, she added a round sun bonnet with faux matching flowers, a long sleeve white blouse, and white tights and rocking horse shoes. A pastel blue, pink, purple, and white cross body purse ties it all together.

Van's coordinate is the most obviously playful of the group. Her outfit features nostalgic 1980's toys/tv series including the Popple crop hoodie (with matching contrasting neon blue and pink Popple ears) and the Carebears glitter bowler bag.  Bright purple sneakers with neon lime green socks balance out the neon and black further up in her coordinate. 

Now as far as activities for the day, the museum had a lot of special events going on  that we could walk to and participate in as part of the regular admission. We only had about 4 hours by the time everyone arrived, so we checked out the doll making class in The Small House first. We missed the official class, but it ended up being okay as we learned everything we needed to know from the examples and the papers they left out on the table. 

On our way to the town square, we passed by a field of sheep grazing in a field. When we got closer to their pen, the lambs were right up against the fence accepting pets or lamb pellets from small children. While all the children and baby animals were gathered around the fence, I snapped this photo of one particularly photogenic lamb. 

At this point, we just missed the horse-cart and it was getting time to head back to the town square anyway so that we could learn dances of the time period just outside of the big barn. It was an activity that I really wanted to do so Aly made sure we didn't miss it. We joined in on 4 different country style dances that were accompanied by a live flute player as well as someone else with a tambourine. We learned partner style dancing in parallel lines that had fairly simple moves like catching hands, turning in a circle, making a bridge with your body, and skipping down a central line from the top to the bottom. I don't have any photos or videos of this because we were all dancing, so you'll just have to imagine it the best you can. 

To my utter luck and amazement, the horse cart returned just as we finished with dancing, and we were able to take the last ride over the covered bridge together on it. It's a first come first serve, and we were so well dressed, folks just thought we worked at the museum and gave us the right away. We got a seat right in front behind the carriage driver!

Once we got to the other side of the bridge, we checked out the farm, the black smith at his forge, and a substantial home that had several rooms and and an upstairs we were able to explore. 

We were starting to get a little tired so we checked the schedule one last time to see if there were any special events left for us to enjoy. Van saw that there was going to be a hurdy-gurdy demonstration in the Bullard Tavern. I didn't know what a hurdy-gurdy was, but I found out that it's a boxed string instrument that produces sound by means of a hand-cranked roisined wheel that rubs against the strings when you press on the tangents (small wooden wedges that pressy on the strings) at the side of the box. The wheel functions like a violin bow. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and a hollow cavity inside to make the vibration of the strings audible. I've been playing the cello as a hobby for over a decade, how hard could the hurdy-gurdy really be?

It turns out that actually pressing the buttons on the hurdy-gurdy is much easier for people with normal or large size hands. And the winding "bow" was something you had to crank pretty quickly to get a decent sound out of it. But I wouldn't consider the hurdy-gurdy sound particularly beautiful or easy to tune. It's kind of more of a party instrument where if you're drunk enough, you won't notice any wrong or off notes. I'm not even sure if you can change the pressure on the strings like you would with a normal bow and you certainly cannot pluck the strings either. But I can appreciate this earlier short lived instrument in its historical context. 

The last weekend in May was the Yankee Ingenuity WORK program. This particular weekend focused on jobs that New Englander's might have during the late 1830's. It was kind of a last minute decision for my partner and I to go to this event, but it was the last day that my comped ticket I received in a Christmas gift was able to be used. When we got up there, it turned out someone else had surrendered another comp ticket that was about to expire, so we got in for free! We had about 3 hours total to explore that afternoon and we still managed to see 3 special WORK related demonstrations.

The first one we saw was the annual sheep-shearing. A team of sheep shearers worked together to present this program at the back of a farm house. While chickens were walking around the yard, a man of medium stature and build straddled a sheep and carefully sheared off her hair, which was very thick with large manual shears, while the other person explained what he was doing and how even though she was trained on sheep shearing, she doesn't feel as confident yet shearing the sheep. A single sheep could take up to 4 hours, depending on the thickness of its hair and buildup and such. All of the sheep at the village are female, for safety purposes, so that they are more docile when it comes to shearing and so that they don't break the fences in the pasture areas. This individual sheep didn't seem to be terribly inconvenienced during the shearing, as it was still eating bits of grass located on the lawn even while the rest of its body was held down. 

The second demonstration that we saw was just sort of out in the street next to the herb garden. They were boiling and dye-ing wool. They said that the wool had to be boiled to make it soft as well as remove any dirt and impurities. Afterwards, natural vegetable dyes like those from roots and leaves would be added to the wool mash and the dye would seep into the wool. Sage green is truly made from sage! The only thing though about these natural dyes, is that they would eventually seep out or fade from the fabric as they were not made to last long term, so sometimes pieces of clothing would be re-dyed later on. 

After having a spot of lunch (we shared the chicken pot pie and I dare say it is one of the best ones I've ever had), we managed to walk into a clock making demonstration in the Bullard Tavern. The volunteer happened to be on the Board of Directors from the Bristol Clock & Watch Museum, and had brought some of those clocks with him to explain how they worked, along with the difference between early and later mechanisms and various clockmaking making tools. 

Basically in the early days, nearly every piece of the clock mechanism was made by hand, in wood, including cogs that fit together. In those times, owning a clock was only for the extremely affluent or royalty, as a single clock maker could only produce about 15-20 clocks per year. After the mechanism changed to a more automated cog making system, they were able to increase production at an exponential rate, and clocks became more affordable so that even people of modest means could afford them. 

Lastly, we went into the temporary indoor gallery for the Needle & Thread exhibit. This was in a section of the village I just didn't get around to visiting the weekend prior. Inside there were various examples of clothing from different seasons, as well as undergarments, thread, lace, and other devices and tools that were used to make clothing from that era. Both Pahl and I were wondering why these types of clothing are not available in the gift shop. Long story short, but the museum just doesn't have enough skilled staff to produce pieces like this for sale at the gift shop. We can still dream!!

You were probably wondering if I would wear a WORK themed coordinate for the second weekend, but like I said it was a last minute decision, so I wore a fun outfit I had planned on wearing that weekend regardless of where I ended up. This My Violet dress looks very cute and sweet styled pink with white trims, but it's actually dedicated to Gloomy Bear, which is a Japanese mascot of a pink bear that looks like its just mauled something with very sharp claws. You might be able to see the embroidery of its claws on the straps of the dress, but you wouldn't see the head unless I wore the hood part of the dress. I also wore the gloomy bear headdress, which is a white rectangle headdress with an applique of Gloomy Bear across it--his dripping blood claws on one side and his pink cotton ball tail on the other. Very subtle, very sub-verse.  Pahl really encouraged me on the pink and white candy stripe socks. The shoes are incredibly boring and do not match--it was again for safety and comfort walking around the musuem. 

Overall I had such a fun time during both weekends and I learned so much about recreational as well as work/life activities that New Englanders did in the 1830's. I really appreciated how these programs were part of the normal ticket price, which is about $27 if you buy online in advance, or $30 at the door. By being able to use my complimentary tickets, I was able to justify making even half days out of my visits, and turning around and spending that amount in food and/or a few things in the gift shop!  Old Sturbridge Village has lots of America 250th programs throughout the summer and into the autumn, so if that is of interest to you, please check out their offerings on their website.