Me, Mel, and K at Sweet Poppy's perfectly posed

So one of the things that it did in Connecticut a lot this year was RAIN. It rained every single weekend in September, and almost every weekend in October. Another person in my fashion community had planned a very fun meeting at Elizabeth Park in October that was rescheduled to late November because of rain. I felt like we still needed something to do, so I made what I assumed to be the easiest meeting possible-go to a local bakery and a farmers market. 

We met up at Sweet Poppy's Bakery, which is a Top 9 Allergen Friendly Bakeshop in North Branford, CT.  (Top 9 allergens include wheat (gluten), milk, eggs, soy, sesame, tree nuts, peanuts, fish and shellfish). Being wheat, lacto, and peanut sensitive myself, I was very excited to find a local bakery that not only made sweet things I could enjoy, but also made it affordable as well. I got to try the pumpkin bread and a hot tea, and my friends enjoyed other treats and the sweet tea. I also purchased cupcakes and cookies to share with my family for a special occasion later that day. It was all very good--even to people that are not sensitive to any ingredients! The bakery itself has a little bit of seating inside and a nice wall with sprinkles for some good photo opportunities.

For the theme of the meeting, I said anything fall colors, gingham, country, sweet, candy, and or Halloween theme. As for myself, I was inspired to wear Infanta's Little Red Riding Hood JSK that I had received in a Lucky Pack last year because it is wine red (a fall color), and has a country feel with the attached gingham apron. Last year I wore a very spooky coordinate for Halloween, so I wanted to mix it up and wear something totally sweet.

I mixed and matched both white and off white with my coordinate because the bottom lace in the jsk is off white so I paired it with an off white shirt, and used white and red patterned socks with a white bag to balance the white aspects in my JSK. The bonnet is also from Infanta, but technically goes with an entirely different JSK. I wear a lot of brown pieces in general and figured I could use a bonnet like this for many different jsk that I own.  This is also the first time that I am wearing my matte wine red Sheep Puff Elegant Lolita Bowknot Retro High Heeled Shoes.  I feel like I ordered them in April, and by the time they came, I wasn't incorporating wine red at all into my wardrobe. They waited about 6 months for their official debut. They are super comfortable and I am very pleased with them. 

Mel has a wonderfully sweet and spooky at the same time theme. She is wearing a dress with the Sanrio character Kuromi on it that is black with pink polka dots and accents. She balances the pink with a pink and white headdress. What is the most special about her coordinate is her matching bag. One side is black with a pink accent with Kuromi's face and the other side is pink with black accent with My Melody's face. 

K's coordinate actually perfectly balances with mine as she is wearing fall colors as well as an Infanta fairy tale theme skirt (it illustrates that of Snow White rather than Little Red Riding Hood). She balances out the primary accent colors of wine red and white in her skirt with her choice of leg wear, shirt, and cardigan.  The rose necklace is also a wonderful touch!

As far as getting to a farm market, the best I could do was a roadside farm stand. Unfortunately because of all the rain, the larger outdoor market with the pumpkin patch, gift shop and corn maze would have been terribly muddy for our beautiful shoes, and the other smaller one that had an indoor hay maze had unfortunately closed for the season the weekend before my meeting. So here I am standing in the mums for sale in front of a green house. We didn't spend a lot of time here...it looked like they might have been getting ready to close for the day and that it looked like RAIN again, so we took a few photos, bought some veggies and went our separate ways. 

When Pahl asked on our third date if I would attend the Jane Austen Regency Ball with him, I basically knew Jane Austen as the author of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, the former of which I was assigned to read over summer break twenty years ago in high school.  We'd already established by our third date that we were both very into alternative or historically based fashions, and both individually concluded that we intended to wear our pieces as frequently as possible. For me that meant mostly elegant lolita fashion and for him that meant anything that matched what I was wearing in color, era, or theme as much as possible. However, as I got to know him more, it turns out Regency Era England is one of his absolute favorites.

Not knowing much about Regency Era England, the fashion for men and women during that time period, or anything in particular about Jane Austen, naturally I said yes I will go with you! I'm more of an action research gal anyway...experience first, reflect later.

The Regency Era of British history is commonly described as the years between 1795 until the ascension of Queen Victoria in 1837, and is remembered as a time of refinement and culture characterized by distinct fashions, architecture, and style (at least for the wealthy). The Regency era overlapped with  Romanticism and many of the famous artists, musicians, poets, and novelists of the Romantic period were also prominent Regency figures such as Jane Austen, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Constable, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, etc.  I think the main reason the Regency Era is on our minds nowadays is due to the ever popular Netflix period drama, Bridgerton, which is set in a highly stylized version of Regency Era London. 

Bath, UK is about 90 minutes west from London using modern express rail. It's considered a ceremonial county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. It was founded by the Romans as a thermal spa, which became an important center of the wool industry in the Middle Ages. In the Georgian Era, it developed into an elegant town with neoclassical Palladian buildings, which blend harmoniously with the Roman baths. Bath really has so much to offer between the Bath Abbey, The Roman Baths (an UNESCO world heritage site), various tea rooms, and of course the Jane Austen Festival, the largest and longest running Jane Austen Festival in the world. 

The Jane Austen Centre celebrates her as "Bath's most famous resident" and puts on the festival every year in September. The 10 day event draws over 3500 people worldwide. I mean, that's a lot for a niche interest group, if you think about it. 

Entirely relying on Pahl's expertise and guidance for the fashion this time, we decided on "burgundy" and black as the main colors of our outfits. (I put burgundy in quotes because I always imagined burgundy differently but deeper bluer red works).  Pahl basically already owned the correct blouse, slacks, boots, and suspenders, but specifically ordered the waist coat and tie for the ball.  My gown was custom made by Robe d'Exception, through their Etsy platform. (A lot of people who attend the Jane Austen Festival make their own costumes. The best we could do was support a small business-which is equally good). 

For my accessories, I pulled out some from my lolita fashion pursuits. I wore my BBB (big black bonnet), a velvet choker, a waist belt that goes with an entirely different dress, white short gloves (see ball picture), and something like a reticule that my friend made me for my birthday (that has exactly 38 stitches in it to represent my age). I am wearing flats that I bought years ago for work. They're really cool looking, but definitely not Regency Era. It's a good thing my gown is floor length and you can't see them anyway.

I tried putting my hair in a bun and it was successful enough to keep my hair up, but it probably looked a bit messy from the back. All I can say is that I frequently need someone to help fix my hair or head piece, but I've got the makeup part squared away.

We did a very fine job of looking the part. People in Bath did not know we were Americans. They just knew we were part of the Jane Austen Festival.  However, we were not particularly well versed in the Regency dances of the era. And our outfits were kind of hot...we had anticipated it being a little cooler than it actually ended up being.  So we fumbled our way through some of the earlier dances and spent a lot of time enjoying watching others dance. I came back from the event thinking that I would like to learn more about this style of dancing so that I can not only look the part, but actually act the part!

September 2023 was a big month for us for traveling and trying new things. In the first week alone went to Boston to see the Arctic Monkeys at the TD Garden, and we attended a Steampunk picnic at Wickham Park. 

The Oddball Newt event "Summer's End Picnic" at Wickham Park in Manchester, CT started off in the Irish Garden.  Wickham Park is a non-profit private foundation whose property extends into Manchester and East Hartford, CT. It contains 280 acres of gardens, open fields, woodlands, ponds, picnic areas, and sports facilities and is local favorite for wedding receptions, fundraiser walks and other events. Wickham park is generally only accessible from April through October and normally it is $7 per car to get in. Luckily Oddball Newt was able to get them to waive the fee for this particular event.

I had been here once before for a friend's wedding and her wedding was located at the top of the hill where the cabin is. Turns out the Irish Garden is just a little bit after the entrance, to the right. There's a parking lot next to it.  It is a good site for small picnics and meetings. The gazebo wasn't open, but there were plenty of places to sit as well as take wonderful timeless photos of days gone by. You would never know that this garden had been completed in the summer of 2016 with the high stone walls, thin metal fence, and small stone tables. 

Pahl really exemplified the explorer theme in his look with his pinstripe pants, earthy paisley waist coat, spats over his boots, pith helmet with snow blind goggles and a cane. He's ready for anything! I kind of look like Jane from the animated Tarzan movie, except that I'm not wearing a full gown and a bustle. What I am wearing is actually two separate pieces from the Chinese Indie brand Tiny Garden. I've written about the shirt before because I wear it a lot. It was in fact that only off-white and 100% cotton shirt in my wardrobe and man it was hot! The sun knew no mercy, so wearing all cotton was imperative for me.

The real star of this outfit is the Dream Bouquet Elegant Sweet Lolita Skirt. This skirt is incredibly comfortable. I didn't notice that it had pockets on each side until I put my petticoat on and they magically appeared in the right place for me to utilize them! Now I normally wear the shirt under a jsk, so I didn't ever worry about the gapping at the bust that had suddenly almost become a fashion faux pas. I added a waist belt that kinda was supposed to cover that part...but it uh...had no backbone and sort of flipped over itself. Instead of fussing extra or trying to find an alternative last minute, I just went with it. I had been thinking I could use an under-bust corset in my life, but I feel like this minor experiment with this particular waist belt proved that I would need something much sturdier. 

As explorers, we could not help but get distracted away to other nearby gardens. This scene from the Oriental Garden is almost like a Monet painting, sans water lilies. But we do have ducks. 

We had a wonderful time exploring the park on our own, but we did miss most of the group photos due to a panic attack I had about yellow jackets. They were literally everywhere around the picnic site and more than a few times they did try to fly into my bonnet. After the third time of this, I freaked out and had to leave. The gardens within the park are absolutely stunning for photos and I would definitely like to go back wearing some different pieces, but maybe not for a picnic, unless it was really early spring when the yellow jackets aren't so desperate. 

It was a fine August day when my friend Amy invited us to see her art/reiki studio in the Dewart Building in downtown New London during the New London Arts Stroll.  Amy told us that it was not only an open studios for local artists, but also a Pirate Festival.  As artists ourselves, we could not pass up this opportunity to dress up in costume and meet and mingle with other artists. So naturally, we dressed like pirates for the entire day. 

If you look closely, we have recycled key pieces from our Renaissance Faire outfits. Pahl is wearing the same shirt he paired with a blue over shirt and the same leather boots he wore in previous costumes, as well as the over the chest sword holder. He also wore what he considers a relatively cheap waistcoat and added embellishments with a waist tie, eyepatch, ostrich feather in a felt tri-corner hat, and a skull cap (which you can't see). And yes, that is his natural hair, let loose and free-flowing. 

It took me a little bit longer to figure out my outfit. I recycled the purple peasant blouse that I wore from my courtesan style Renaissance faire costume, but I hemmed and hawed at the correct skirt and other accessories. I had purchased this hi-low high waisted skirt with skirt pickups about 3 years ago as a sort of fun costume piece that could go with a lot of different styles. Paired with fishnets and sharp looking coven boots from Strangecvlt, it still reads a little bit like lady of the night from the bottom up. To make the pirate theme more obvious, I put on a beaded and jeweled necklace, a black choker with a metal bird skull, long fingerless gloves with lace up ribbons on the side, and a bandana over my head. The finishing touch was the harness. It might not have been something a real pirate wore but it did add an edgy look.

I also wore bold makeup with my eyes and lips. Looking at us as pirates side by side, I saw two scary/serious looking people that I did not want to mess with. 

We basically visited every open studio in the Dewart Building, even the artists who were not on the featured list. Just as we were about to finish our tour, we stumbled upon John Morgan's studio. He works in the alternative photographic process known as wet plate collodion. In this process, a photographer sensitizes a glass plate, puts it in a ginormous camera with a huge lens which produces a negative on the plate when exposed to light, and has to immediately develop the negative within 10-15 minutes to ensure the image is not lost or compromised.

​I know a thing or two about alternative photography...I took it twice when I was in undergrad and wrote an entire unit on how to make digital negatives, mix chemicals, sensitize paper and other materials as well as focusing specifically on portraiture for my art education secondary preparation course.  I have worked in black and white film 35 mm as well as 120mm with single lens reflex as well as twin lens reflex, and the chemical processes of cyanotype, salt print, van dyke brown and gum bichromate. I have unfortunately developed a very strong sensitivity to working with almost all of these chemicals, and while I appreciate the amount of work and luck required to produce this sort of imagery, I can sadly no longer be the creator...but it turns out that I can be the subject. 

John had large lights set up with some nice looking old chairs and plants around us. He told us that we had to hold our pose for at least 15-20 seconds and to lean into the light, even though it was going to be very bright and temporarily blinding. It's a miracle that our faces are in focus while our bodies are out of focus using his suggestions. One thing that makes this type of photography special is that anything that is blue will appear almost white. I have dark blue eyes, but between the super bright lights and the nature of exposing chemicals on a glass negative in this style of photography, they are so light they are piercing. I also was glad that my lipstick held up through lunch and that my eye makeup didn't slide off my face. It made features of my face stand out that I don't usually notice. The soft texture of Pahl's hair against the hard stern look on his face also give him a completely different looking countenance than his usual knight in shining armor or regal aristocrat. 

So my advice to you dear reader is to attend any open studio available to you in your local area, and make sure you dress up in a particular style or costume. You never know when you'll make a new friend...or become a muse.