June through October in Connecticut is when there are about at least 6 equally interesting competing weekend events in the state vying for your time and attention. Coincidentally also happening the second weekend of June 2026 was Olde Mistick Village's Strawberry Festival. Souda had planned for the fashion group to attend on the Sunday of that weekend, so it didn't end up conflicting with CT Open House Day (which only occurs on the second Saturday of June). 

Now, I must tell you that the image above of the group has been altered a bit. Sarah H (second from left) warned the group that any and all themed festivals at Olde Mistick Village are insane. Not for the faint of heart. The village itself, which is more like a carefully curated  outdoor mall has free parking, but that parking becomes incredibly sparse during a festival weekend. The village has at least 50 additional vendors lining the village streets along with tons of food trucks and additional activities for children sprinkled around the village. The walkways become even tighter, but the stores are suddenly easier to shop inside of, because everyone is outside. Sarah had decided to go in the morning when the village opened for the day, rather than at the group's afternoon time. Their loved one snapped a photo of them and Pahl took that photo and added it to a group photo, which moved folks around a bit. In the original photo, everyone was standing in front of the display in the window, so by combining both Sarah's photo and a different group photo, we got a more interesting image with everyone in it.

I arrived at the appointed time, only by parking next to a weekday only business in a strip mall across the street from Olde Mistick Village. I hustled to stand in a shady spot across from Arisu, which is a Japanese themed pop-culture store that also sells Japanese snacks and some groceries. (Arisu is how the name Alice would sound in Japanese. And it's one of 3 Alice themed stores in the village itself!)  Everyone was struggling to find parking in the village, but they eventually succeeded and we spent time at Arisu, as well as Alice in the Village, which is an afternoon tea shop that sells macarons and other treats as well as flavored boba tea and other beverages. Alice in the Village used to be by reservation only, but now it's more of a casual place where you order your drink, pick it up, and then decide if you want to sit inside or outside. The group was actually larger than pictured if you include partners and friends, so if we had stayed inside, we would have been spread across 3.5 tables, but it was a beautiful day to be outside with just enough breeze to make it pleasant with a cold boba tea in one's hand. 

​Souda's coordinate suggestions for the event were to incorporate prints or accessories with strawberries, a cut or style that was indicative of spring/summer, any Sweet sub-style, and/or red clothes. I tried my hand at spring/summer, strawberries, and red clothes. I had purchased the Metamorphose Ladder Lace long length JSK in Bordeaux with matching bolero a few years ago under K's guidance around second-hand shopping on Wunderwelt, and I wanted to show it to her in person as well as wear something summery and red. Now it was another hot 85+ degree Fahrenheit day in Connecticut and I did something a little risque in the fashion, which is to wear the dress without a blouse under it. I thought, the bolero will be enough to adequately cover my shoulders. It pretty much was, although I felt I should have brought sunscreen, rather than just a parasol for SPF, as I forgot how intense the sun can be outside in June and July.  Additional accessories include a white lace choker with wine red colored ribbon going through the lace, a straw "trivet" bonnet with dark red ribbon tied under the chin, white lace wrist cuffs with bordeaux colored bows, short white socks, and my tan oxfords. Another star of the show is my purse which has an image of two rabbits wearing bonnets while surrounded by a vine of strawberries on each side. And of course my Peter Rabbit keychain is also holding a strawberry!

Since it was so hot outside, I encouraged Pahl to use natural fabrics in his outfit. He created a summer looking outfit with pops of red.  He started with a white cotton blouse and linen striped pants that also have wine red in them. He is wearing a deep red tie around his neck as well. Contrasting navy colored suspenders work with his straw boating hat that has a navy and burgundy striped hat band on it. Brown oxfords boots and his dark round glasses complete the look. 

If we look back at the group photo, we can see many interpretations of the summer, Sweet style, and pops of red themes. Sarah styled a Sweet Old School coordinate with lots of cotton pieces. A white short sleeve blouse with a peter pan collar is layered over an ivory eyelet ruffled skirt with white peeking bloomers. Over the blouse there is a red gingham vest with heart pocket appliques, and two kinds of necklaces, a cherry theme and a Vivienne Westwood silver globe. They have a white eyelet over the shoulder bag that matches their skirt, a red handled rectangle bag from Angelic Pretty that repeats the heart applique style and color. White utk (under the knee) socks with three dimensional cherries hanging off the side and white platform shoes. Sarah prefers cherries over strawberries. 

Souda's coordinate also leans more Old School. She is wearing a white short sleeve cotton blouse with a black single button vest over it. She has this paired with a black skirt with white lace ruffles on it. She is wearing white socks with little red bows going down the front as well as wearing a red bow at the neck. Ivory sneaker and a black and white headdress complete the look. It looks cool and comfortable for summer and incorporated a little bit of red.

Kendra's short sleeve OP dress amazingly hits every single one of Souda's suggestions. There are strawberries in the print (as well as chocolates), the dress is a perfect length for spring/summer, and it is definitely a Sweet cut and style. Peter pan collars, ruffled yokes, and shorter fuller skirts are all indicative of the Sweet style versus something that is more Classic style like my dress or K's. The strawberry chocolate otk (over the knee) socks paired with pink shoes and a pink bow in her hair definitely complete the look. 

K's brown dress with ivory lace and subtly ruffled hem is a Classic style. She paired it with an white short sleeve cotton cap sleeve blouse, white legwear, and bordeaux red colored shoes. To add the strawberry theme in, she is wearing a half style white cotton apron with embroidered strawberries on it and a ruffled hem. 

Ally went with red and summer! Ally's dress is a red sleeveless cotton dress with tiered ruffles at the hem. She paired it well with her white fabulous home made hat which she has swapped out the hat band for red gingham with, white sandals, and a matching red purse. 

While we were all hanging outside of Alice in the Village sipping our cold boba teas, we naturally sort of ended up in little groups socializing about things going on in our lives or other activities we were excited to participate in this summer. I was standing outside between Pahl and Ally for awhile having a little convo and then Souda said hey I drew this picture of you! I thought it was so neat how she captured the style of my coordinate in such a quick sketch!  

After finishing our teas, we attempted to walk around the village together as a group, but the pathways were just extremely narrow with hundreds of people, and everyone sort of got separated and did their own thing. Miraculously we all ended at Alice's Haunted Bookshop, which is a great horror themed bookstore right next to the Alice in the Village tea shop.

You might be wondering, where were all the strawberries at the festival anyway? This year the picking season for strawberries in Connecticut had only lasted about a week. Peak time was the previous weekend. I was a bit disappointed that there were not many strawberry themed dessert and food items for purchase at the festival, but what can you do? Local agriculture does not always align with festivals planned a year or more in advance. At least we did our part to welcome summer in our outfits for the event!

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.
​

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. 

During the last weekend of April this year, I made it my mission to attend the Fine Arts & Flowers special exhibition of art at The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford with my local fashion group. I had previously attended this event as a floral themed double date in 2024, and I felt like this would be the perfect introduction to the museum for members who may not have ever been the museum at all before. The group of members that attended was at least 13 people, so there is no one group photo where everyone is in it. I told the group to wear spring colors and/or to incorporate florals into their outfits for the event.

What makes the exhibition special is that selected artworks around the museum have been assigned to various artists, floral designers, and non-profit organizations to design a flower arrangement that echoes the colors and/or thematic motifs in the work of art. And these works are to be found all over the museum on every floor in every collection, including the huge porcelain collection on the second floor. The event also includes live musical performances, special teas and food offerings in the cafe as well as a local makers market. This event is an annual fundraiser for the museum so its cost is a little higher than usual. I was able to use a library pass to get one adult admission ($22)+ ($5) and one free admission + ($5) to get my entrance grand total to $32.00 for two people. I'd rather get in at a discount so I can use that saved money in the gift shop or at the cafe, because the Wadsworth Atheneum is one of Connecticut's largest art museums and I need little breaks if I want to get through most of it in a single day.

Since our group was so large, it was hard to walk around all together outside of the main pathways. Inside this room there are smaller galleries with ancient art works and lots of glass cases. Eventually I conceded to the idea that it may have been too difficult to keep everyone together and instead focused on exploring the museum with a smaller group until we all took a break at the same time for lunch at the cafe. 

I decided to play with layering in my coordinate. I started with the Woody Rose 2.0 dress from Chinese indie brand Miss Point in the purple and ivory color way. It showcases images of purple roses in a lattice like design throughout the print. There are additional purple details like a purple waist belt, ladder lace in the bodice, and additional matching pin on bows. I am also wearing the matching rectangle headdress with it. Under it, I am wearing an ivory mesh blouse with open princess sleeves. Over both the dress and the blouse I am wearing an apricot subtle polka dot mesh short sleeve cardigan that is about 3 inches shorter than the skirt of my dress. At the neck instead of a necklace, I  added a pin of an ivory bow with grey jewel. My earrings are white roses with gold bows above them. I wore purple printed tights that cannot really be seen too well, and I guess gray (they used to be ivory) oxfords for ease of walking around the museum all day. My purse is an ample white teapot cross body with a green and purple flower petals design on it. 

Pahl's outfit consists of his green wool suit with contrasting burgundy waistcoat and pocket square. He has a spring time themed bow tie along with a warm wool striped scarf. He is also wearing his Italian racing googles. He finishes off his sleek European inspired look with black oxfords. 

This work is located on the first floor of the gallery, just straight ahead beyond the main entrance of the museum in the Contemporary gallery to the right. I really liked the floral piece that was designed to echo the body proportions of the painting. To me it was subtle and beautiful. 

This work was on the third floor in the main hallway. It is a small painting of a man with his back turned to the viewer sitting closely to a woman he has an interest in. We cannot see her face clearly, but the colors used seem to be a carefully committed limited palette of blue and orange. The hallway was so much narrower for where these works were located, they put the flower arrangement on a pedestal within a 90 degree angle from the artwork. I liked how they incorporated the colors used in the painting along with little details like the man's hat and shoe. 

This expansive landscape painting has been reproduced in a compact miniature (in comparison) flower arrangement where the flowers echo the colors of Mount Etna and the surrounding landscape while they have incorporated clay sculptures of the ruins around the base of the container. 

I like how the floral arrangement artist manipulated the tree branches and flowers to look like they directly echoed the negative space seen in the painting. The smaller clusters of roses represent the skin tones of the two different women. I believe the larger brown stacked pieces that hang down may possibly reference their hair. There is also some lace trim at the base of the tree to represent the ornamental columns in the painting. 

Juan incorporated a beautiful spring sage green colored dress with lavender imagery at the bottom of the skirt. They wore it with a matching triangle headdress, lace collar and gorgeous lace apron. Johanna's dress has imagery of cats holding up little flowers along with other flowers depicted. They have brought a large stuffed cat bag that looks incredibly realistic, if not for the decorative jabot they put on its collar. And Hannah is wearing the sax colorway of Dim Light by Metamorphose, which incorporates imagery of candles, cameos, crosses, and roses with the matching rectangle headdress. 

In this photo we can see the rest of Hannah's coordinate with the patterned legwear and slim silver heels. We can also see Karlin's light pink dress which incorporates different illustrations of flowers all across the design, similar to ones you might see on seed packets. 

Colleen incorporated flowers by wearing a flower crown with colors that matched the light pink, purple, and blue in her skirt. I have no idea how she walked around the museum all day in those white platform rocking horse shoes. She is a braver person than me. Al's entire outfit is an ode to the anime "The Rose of Versailles", and specifically the character of Lady Oscar. She even hand painted images from the anime on the sleeve of her denim jacket and added rose patches to it for the event! Maureen is wearing a dress that incorporates a lot of floral imagery with scenes of men and women courting each other while wearing 18th century fashion on the skirt. The colors of green, orange, and yellow work perfectly to evoke spring. 

K's skirt and matching caplet had an all over pattern of cream, light pink and sax roses inside of cameos against a dark blue background. We are both representing Classic styling in this photo. I promise I was caught a bit off guard for this photo that K's partner took. I am smiling in my heart. 

I had separated from the group for a little while because Pahl needed to leave early but wanted to peruse the museum gift shop first. I found a lovely future birthday gift (for myself) that perfectly matched my dress that I also got to try on. On my way back up, I found K and her partner and asked them to describe the gallery they last were in with everyone. I found Colleen, Al, and Maureen in an obscure dimly lit gallery only accessible by a stairwell inside of another gallery on the third floor, but mostly everyone else had already left at that point. It was a little hard for me to accept that we could not always be in the same room at the same time together as host, but I am so glad that so many folks came out and showcased all their spring colors and florals in honor of the event!

I made my annual spring pilgrimage to see the cherry blossoms in Wooster Square a little late this year, almost a week after the actual festival. I think I've been visiting the park on or around the time of the festival for at least 4 years. I always meet up with my friend Sarah, who knows the lay of the land and we always have a walk and talk as well as both dressing up to take photos of one another with the blossoms. I had actually attended the Cherry Blossom Festival in 2024 with an outfit inspired by what I imagined a dryad living in a cherry blossom tree to look like, followed by my 2025 Cherry Blossom outfit which was a delightfully sweet style baby pink dress with sax (light blue) accessories and accents. This year I wanted to keep on theme with blossoms and flowers, but style myself a little Old School. 

This dress is from Japanese brand Bodyline and is one of my oldest pieces. My acquisition of it even predates the navy printed rabbit dress (in the last blog post), and it's actual production date was probably in 2018 or something like that. It is considered a sweet style dress, but I always style it more classically with Chinese and other local indie brand accessories. I am wearing a long sleeve translucent ivory colored blouse from Miss Point, a darker ivory and white trim headdress from Junyvette, an ivory choker from YingLuoFu, a pink with red jewel bow pin from Alice Girl, long ivory colored bloomers that stop just at the upper calf (I have them peeking out on purpose), white and ivory under the knee socks with ivory bows sewn on, wine red tea parties from Sheep Puff, an ivory and brown cross body purse of a very small cello, and an ivory parasol.  I was also wearing earrings as well as several rings on my fingers. I also did a little makeup and was feeling 90's romantic style, so I made the emphasis on my custom darker lip color (two different colors mixed together), and blush. A bold lip and neutral eyes looks very sophisticated, Parisian almost. 

While I'm still dressing like a slightly older Victorian child, Sarah moves us forward at least an entire century to the 1950's. Believe it or not, we did not talk about what we were going to wear or colors or anything before we met up, but there are similarities. She is wearing a white peter pan collared blouse with strawberry buttons and a cherry neck pin over a pink skirt with strawberries printed all over it. Peeking from the strawberry skirt is a beautiful white cotton underskirt. She then adds black tights with red hearts on them, and cleverly adds this vintage looking chunky heeled Fluevogs that are pink, white, and silver. To repeat the red, black, and white again seen on the bottom of her coordinate, she ties in a bright red cardigan with knit in black stems with white cherries. Red sunglasses again repeat the black and red. She is also holding a raspberry to her lips in one hand, and wearing a pink and strawberry crocheted scrunchie on the other. Honestly, this does look like some Old School street snaps of early EGL fashion from the late 90's/early 2000's, especially with just taking things your already own and layering them together excellently to balance out color. The only difference is that the shape of the skirt, even in Old School EGL would be slightly different, and the blouse would have probably have been tucked into the skirt. 

Now to be perfectly honest, I had missed the cherry blossoms in Wooster Square proper, but there were still some blooming across the street. So we went across the street for most of our photos for this blog post. But do you notice anything different about my look?

If you guessed that the pink bow with the red jewel was gone, you'd be correct. Somewhere between bending down and admiring some tulips and taking photos of Sarah, my pin had popped off my dress due to the cross strap interference of my tiny cello bag. It was a whole Thing of messaging Sarah and her husband the next day to recreate the photo evidence of when and where it was possibly lost and them visiting the location and successfully finding it hidden out of plain site in a bush.  So if you are taking photos just for fun, they can be used to find lost objects as well!

No Hanami meeting is complete without a little food. It was getting a bit chilly, so I went back to my car to grab my outer wear so we could go to The Loop by Hachiroku and its adjoining Japanese grocery store, as well as Elena's on Orange, a soft serve ice cream shop exclusively offering green tea flavor that week. 

I would definitely go back to both the Japanese grocery store and Elena's on Orange to try  different flavors of their soft serve ice cream. The restaurant The Loop by Hachiroku is a trendy and modern fusion of Japanese food and other cuisines paired with different adult beverages. The location we went to (and there are like 4 different ones around New Haven), was known for their wine selection. I didn't indulge in the wine, and while I found my entree to be an interesting fusion and flavor, I did not think for a moment that it would fill me up like the way a 500 yen (~$4.50) bowl of katsudon and raw egg over a bed of rice with some fresh veggies did way back when I was attending Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan over 20 years ago.  Next time I'm in downtown New Haven, I'll be sure to get a restock on the vegetable dashi, soba noodles, onigiri, and black sesame crackers. 

All in all it was a fun and memorable time, from taking such lovely pictures to losing and finding my ribbon again, and of course discovering fresh and lovely imported foods and treats from Japan locally accessible and available. 

March and April seem like the time of year for Alice in Wonderland themed tea parties. In the past I have attended two at the Old Lyme Inn, one of which I hosted last year. This year I wanted to do it differently. What if instead of spending time in one thoughtfully decorated room and having a creatively curated on theme menu for a few hours, we had an entire property with a pot luck based menu and a few rousing games of croquet?

The location of the venue was obvious. My partner has been collecting Alice themed tea cups  since moving into his home and has decorated his entire kitchen with characters from  Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I would be the communications lead and defacto party planner and his house would be the destination.  Color me shocked when we had 16 people RSVP to the tea party. (This is more than we can usually fit inside the room the Old Lyme Inn reserves for our group). I was initially worried about parking in the driveway, but then I learned that my partner intended for folks to park on the lawn as well so we could probably have had twice as many. 

I told folks to wear something inspired by a character from the books/movies, or just to have motifs that work like sweets, rabbits, time pieces, etc. Pahl of course is always the Mad Hatter, and I seem to vacillate between being Alice or the White Rabbit. Looking back at the group photo, I see a number of other Mad Hatter interpretations, as well as Rabbit themes. Perhaps they are the most popular to try. I also enjoyed Ren's version of the Red Queen on the lower right. I hope to one day be able to pull something like that off myself! 

Pahl's Mad Hatter outfit seems to keep getting more and more refined with each iteration. He pairs a cream colored collared shirt with an Alice in Wonderland themed light green bow tie, an earthy colored paisley waistcoat, matching striped pants, a long wine colored tail coat, brown oxfords, and a slightly off center black top hat with an emerald green hat tie on it. His posture and the expression on his face is utterly deranged.  But don't worry, this is about the extent of the madness he exhibited during the event. He is good at getting all those little details down like acquiring themed paper plates, putting finishing touches on the decor well into the night before,  and making sure guests have so much to eat that there are leftovers the next day.

I decided to be Alice while wearing a navy blue and white printed dress with rabbits in a dream state on the skirt. This is actually one of the first dresses I ever purchased, along with the blouse I am wearing. I've worn this dress for several group meetings at this point, so to make the coordinate a little different, I wore it with a long sleeved blouse (instead of short sleeve like in the past), as well as a half apron. This year I am also becoming more comfortable with wearing bows on my head, and I had this one for about three years before finally putting it together with an outfit. It is navy with gold trims and gold and pearl beading. To repeat the gold, I also added gold based jewelry as well as gold tea party style shoes. I am wearing printed navy tights as well. I wouldn't have normally had navy on navy, but the white apron visually broke up the navy more than if I had worn it without. For bags I had two--a functional pearly gold bow fanny pack, and a white rabbit stuffy backpack. I put the ruffled rectangle headpiece that came with my dress on my white rabbit bag--another thing I did not think to do in the past. It is one thing to dress one's self, but another to also dress up your bag!

Sarah M. pulled together a very nice white and black themed coordinate for her White Rabbit interpretation. Details like a floral dress with a white apron and a large black cape, black and white striped floral under the knee socks, and white boots with black accents soles and lacing tie it altogether. She craftily made the ears to her straw hat, and I was surprised when she told me her white rabbit head cross body bag was actually a gift card holder she found on clearance! You never know where you'll find accessories for an outfit!

The attendees brought so many delicious treats to the event!!  We requested that folks bring items that were either gluten free or vegan friendly. We've been to so many teas where food sensitivities or diets were not really available and we wanted to change that. Pahl made cucumber sandwiches (both vegan and vegetarian friendly varieties) while I made deviled eggs as well as spicy chickpea curry sandwiches (vegan friendly). Colleen made the pink vegan cake, Cole made salad and cookies, Jax made bagels, Van made protein muffins and brought purple peeps, Gary brought a no bake peanut butter chocolate pie, Sarah M brought the blue and purple macarons and spicy deviled eggs, Sarah F brought vegan spring rolls, and Aly brought a variety of cream puffs. Ren made a gluten free shepard's pie, but applied the mashed potatoes like icing on a cake (center). What I've learned thus far is that not only does this group know how to dress on theme, but also that they are quite skilled at speciality food production!

After a few hours of sitting and socializing, my body always yearns for movement, and I am glad that Jax volunteered to bring their partner's croquet set for the tea party. Outside of the table top Pall Mall game I played at the Masks & Mischief Bridgerton Masquerade Ball, I think this is the first time I've played actual croquet. Luckily Aly had played before and knew roughly about where we should be putting the wickets (or metal arches that the balls go through) on the lawn.

I definitely had a huge learning curve in Round 1 of croquet. It took me a few turns to figure out how hard to hit the ball with the mallet and get it to go anywhere in particular on the grass. Aly, Jax, Ren and I were the players in the first round. We only played a half game, so we zig zagged through the middle and right wickets to the other side and back. We were very cordial to one another, but what I learned is that every time you hit someone else's ball and/or go through a wicket, you get additional turns to hit your ball.  And that can be great and necessary with more competitive players. 

Round 2 of croquet brought much more competitive players.  These folks frequently took advantage of the wicket and ball touching and ruthlessly hit other players balls to knock them off course and gain additional turns. 

Playing croquet with this group I must admit I was more focused on watching other people's turns than my own. It was fascinating to see how the players positioned their balls to stay on course and knock others off while gaining so many additional turns in the process. Sarah M was way behind and the last to go in this round, but going last definitely is an advantage in this game. You can see the other players balls and plan accordingly your rise to the top. We thought the boys might be the ones duking it out, but Cole and Sarah M were very close at the end, with Sarah M becoming the winner!

After the second round of croquet and the group photo, most of the attendees left around the same time, but a few stuck around for some posed porch photos. 

We realized afterwards that we underutilized the porch as a place for guests to hang out. It is a fairly large porch and we probably could have fit everyone on it at once rather than socializing in two separate rooms inside. 

It was a pleasure to co-host the Alice Tea! I keep hearing about how much fun people had at it (and it's the end of June as I am recounting this wonderful event).  We are already planning to host it again next Spring, but to invite more people, including some of the neighbors! 

One of the groups I started last year was a sewing group comprised of three people. Two very eager to learn novices with one enthusiastic and experienced teacher. Even though I am a teacher of many things, this time I am the student. My friend Nina has over twenty years of sewing and drafting patterns experience, and she enthusiastically volunteered to teach me sewing. I have made things in the past with my mother's help, but for some reason, I have some kind of residual negative or fearful feeling around those times when she taught me.  My friend Barbara has a similar experience attempting to learn sewing in her youth from family members, and we both just wanted to get past those feelings and get into the good part of altering and making pieces that work with our wardrobes. 

At about the same time, I had joined a sewing discord specifically for EGL fashion. The intention of the group is to learn sewing skills with project "steps" to teach you how to work with and alter patterns to create accessories and eventually actual dresses and blouses for your wardrobe. There are always teaching assistants around online to help with sewing questions and many of the more experienced members are also into cosplay or historical fashion, so they are used to working with a variety of types of fabrics, trims, and machinery. 

So between the online group and the real-life friend group, I had essentially two accountability teams and I knew where I wanted to go with the sewing projects. The first time we met up as a group, it was more of a repair/alteration meeting where I needed to reattach a bustle in a pair of trousers and Barbara needed to hem some pants. 

Step 1 according to the sewing discord is to create an accessory for your wardrobe that is non-fitted commercial pattern with grain lines and notches. They even offered this free head bow pattern to get you started. I printed out this pattern and I was so eager to learn, Nina came over with some scrap materials she acquired and she showed me all the basic steps from laying out the pattern correctly, how to pin it, how to cut it, and how to follow the instructions. We each made a bow with scrap material in the course of an afternoon. 

If you look carefully, you can see there are two A pieces, one is just slightly less wide than the other. The initial pattern has you basically end up cutting out two A pieces, but you only need one. I made a creative choice to use both of them, but to make the second less wide. This probably would have been more obvious with a contrasting navy blue fabric, but remember, I had nothing at this point as far as notions, fabric, or trims, so this is the best I could do.

This bow is a bit floppy because it lacks interfacing, and really needs to have piece A and A.5 sewn to piece B, so that the A's don't slip out upon wearing. It's also not very big. It's probably the width of one's hand. Very subtle, demure. 

Months later after I had ordered the material, trims and notions I needed to actually do Step 1 following all the directions for the pattern, I made this entire headpiece all on my own one afternoon. See my intention was to make a red tartan and black head bow and matching ruffle heart tote bag because I have a lot of red tartan main pieces in my alt wardrobe, but nothing other than black to put on my head or for a bag.  Nina and I had started on the bag together, and it took us about three full sessions to make the bag, and then after all the learning from that project, I felt confident enough to revisit the head bow on my own.  I got the interfacing behind pieces A and B, and I even got black cluny lace trims, which I learned how to sew inwards on the edges so that when it was pulled inside out, it would appear as an unbroken trim all along piece B. I even attempted to cut scrap material on a bias and wrap and glue it around a metal headband. It was going so well. 

But as you can see, these bows do not look the same even though they are from the same pattern. It's because I accidentally swapped pieces A and B for every direction. This bow takes up most of your head. I'd say that's a perfect punk interpretation for the pattern. It actually looks really cool, and even the person who designed the pattern said they liked this mistake. 

These types of ruffle heart bags are very popular in EGL fashion, but I rarely see ones that are red and black tartan, so I decided to make my own. I purchased a pattern off of Etsy for this project, materials from Michaels's online, thread and other notions from Amazon like the interfacing, wadding, and pins.

While the head bow by itself would have qualified for a completed Step 1 project, the Ruffle Heart Tote bag taught me everything else I needed to know about how to make ruffles, pinning, and ironing seams. I learned so many things during the course of it, I felt a huge range of emotions from delight to various levels of frustration, even with Nina's guidance. New neural connections were happening in my brain as I learned to sew things backwards and inside out to reveal a complete product at the very end. Nina tried to reassure me saying that this project was a bit of a stretch for a beginner, but believed in me the whole time!

This is the initial idea of the front of the bag. The pattern doesn't tell you about adding a patch or adding lace trims on top. In fact, this little venture was an additional couple of hours of my time, trying to get that lace trim to stay down as I carefully sewed it down after already having fused the interfacing to the back. I also learned that the pins are not facing the correct way, they should be pinned inwards to the center of the heart so that when you are sewing you can pull the pins out before they destroy the needle of your sewing machine. 

I learned all about basting stitches from making the ruffles for the front and back of the bag. Another time consuming venture by the way. I throughly regretted choosing cotton twill and cotton thread during this step for my project. Basically you're taking a semi-stiff material that does not ruffle easily and putting in a few rows of loose stitches near the edge to pull and then pull down on the fabric, similarly to the way you would pull out a missing drawstring cord in a hoodie or sweatpants. I can't honestly tell you how many times the threads broke or how frequently I lost the basting stitch. The pattern's directions were not very specific either, just saying to try to make the ruffle even looking and to keep doing it until it fits around the heart shaped pieces. I think I did the front one in approximately 50 minutes, and the second one I lost track, as I had to take a few days breaks between the breaking and losing of the stitch.

After I got the ruffles down, it was time to add the handles in. I purposely chose contrasting red thread for this. It's not the most even sewing, but I did it. And again, it's a punk style bag---it's okay if things are a little off!

After that I had to make the grand sandwich. This photo shows me about to sew the wadding (structural lining) to the inside of both sides of the bag. I never took a photo of the actual black lining step, but that's basically sewn separately and then attached all around the bottom and sides of the wadding pieces with a tiny hole in it at the top. At this point you've got a giant thick heart shaped sandwich that a regular sewing needle may or may not be prepared for. If it doesn't break and you get to the end, you get to pull everything out of the little hole in the lining. It's like a magic trick and to be honest I still have trouble wrapping my head around that part. 

I imagine there's easy tote bag sewing projects, and then there's this tote bag sewing project. I finished both Step 1 projects in December 2025, and was ready to start using them in my wardrobe in 2026. I was also ready to start sourcing materials for the Step 2 project, which is to take a pajama pants pattern and alter it into bloomers of a style of your choice. I thought it would be a perfect time to get the group together, give everyone a copy of the Step 2 pattern to assemble on their own time, and go out on an adventure, starting at Cate's Sew Modern, a local sewing shop, a Goodwill to check out the textiles for sale (good for bloomers or mock up patterns), and a little social time at Bones & Botanicals, a witchy themed speakeasy in the heart of an otherwise unassuming strip mall. 

Nina wanted to know what we should wear to the speakeasy, and I initially I said black, but then I thought it was the perfect opportunity to test drive all my hard work on my Step 1 projects. 

My main piece for my look is a red tartan punk style bondage mini skirt from Tripp NYC. Even though this a printed tartan, it's very sturdy and has 4 deep functional pockets despite the level of purely aesthetic straps, zippers and d rings. I guess I took the bones theme to heart, and added an open shouldered t-shirt with a day of the dead face from the brand Sullen that I've had for years (seriously since probably 2012). To repeat the bones theme, I have medium gray tights with black skulls and crossbones on them. To add a little more black to balance out the tartan, I added a cropped length showman style black jacket from Killstar (which also includes unnecessary straps and d rings, and platform black patent mary janes that have metal rivets and additional metal dangling bits. I found a studded black choker in a drawer as well and you can see in other photos that I was wearing medium length black fingerless gloves. I was going for a vibe that combined feminine elements with an overall edgy execution. 

All in all it was a wonderful day. Barbara and I picked up some very interesting printed quilting cotton and notions at Cate's Sew Modern. We each got something at Goodwill- Barbara found a perfect King Size white sheet for her bloomers project, along with an entire new spring wardrobe. Nina found a beautiful pink with gold stars dress and I found her a matching gold clutch. Nina and Barbara found a black lace 3/4 sleeve crop top that they wanted me to try on, and it fit well so I purchased it.  At Bones and Botanicals, we were able to purchase snacks as well as cocktails, mocktails, and freshly brewed hot tea from their own house made blends. We spent a few hours there utilizing the various decks on the book shelf next to where we sat and talking about life and I suppose death in my case.

I was really happy to be wearing my Step 1 projects and have seamlessly fused them into other outfits since that point, so I am really glad I finally started learning to sew!  I know what the gaps are in my wardrobe and knowing now that I can alter or make something that truly fits me with support both in person and online makes a huge difference. This year I will be working on the Step 2 bloomers project, but next year I will be making my own dress! Hopefully once I get the basics of EGL patterning and assembling down, I can move into designing my own pieces that are historically inspired!

At the end of March 2026, my partner and I attended the Masks & Mischief Bridgerton Ball,  in Hamden, CT.  This Masks and Mischief Ball was similar to the first one we attended in October, where the dances were from the actual Netflix show from Seasons 1-3 of Bridgerton as well as Queen Charlotte, with the addition of at least three new dances from Season 4.  Another difference was that instead of a professional photographer offering couples and group portraits during the event, there was a separate games room with five different games to play including a table top Pall Mall (a pre-cursor to croquet)!  And there was a scavenger hunt that I did not participate in because I was committed to wearing my mask all evening and therefore detailed distance vision evaded me, for the most part. 

It was about a month and a half from our return from Venice, so we wanted to showcase our less historically accurate 18th-century costumes and pretend to be part of Queen Charlotte's court which focuses more on Rococo style rather than Regency styles. 

Pahl had purchased this burgundy 18th century outfit complete with blouse, arm cuffs, jabot, and matching tailcoat and trousers before we knew we were going to Venice. We initially thought it would be fine, except that later we learned that it wasn't historically accurate enough for the events we would be attending in Venice during Carnivale. The person who made it used plastic sequins and an embroidery machine to create the beautiful decorative edging design on the coat. We did not want to commit a faux-pas in Italy, but with Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte, the one thing that is always true is that both of these shows are historically-inspired and often mix fashion from different time periods together in the same outfit. And they are not that committed to historical fabrics or finishing techniques either. Bridgerton is definitely glamorous and fantastical, so if you are going to any Bridgerton ball, keep that in mind when dressing yourself.  

To this extent, Pahl actually mixed a gold/ivory Regency style waistcoat and black under the knee riding boots into his outfit. He also made this owl-like gold mask out of paper mache, clay, and gold leaf. 

My outfit is a combination of an OP from Chinese indie brand Miss Point, and accessories that Pahl bought me in Venice at La Bauta. The Lilyka Garden Classic OP from Miss Point features a striking contrast design with bow decorations on the chest, delicate pin tucks, elegant half sleeves, princess sleeves with ruffle cuffs, pockets on both sides, detachable waist ties, and a cotton lace ruffle hem.  I got the Green Wall Flower full set, which also included a giant back bow that pinned on the back of the dress in 6 places, a medium size wired bow on the waist, a bow neck brooch, a bonnet, and gloves. I also purchased the Forest Waltz 4-tiered Multi-Layer embroidered skirt in ivory thinking I could use it to extend the dress length to the floor, but when I put it on altogether along with the Nolaria High Volume White Puffy Petticoat, it was too heavy for me to dance in.

See, again, I got this dress way before I knew we were going to Venice, and I was under the impression that with the floor length skirt it would have been close enough to 18th-Century style because of the princess sleeves and the tiered shape of the skirt along with the ruched swirling ruffles at the hem, but it's not the right shape, at all. The skirt would need to be much wider to hold proper panniers, floor length as well, and the yoke of the dress while absolutely astounding with the delicate chiffon pintucks is unfortunately not at all like a decorative stomacher in a historically accurate 18th-century dress. 

But as I've said before, this works for a Bridgerton ball, especially if you're moonlighting as a lady of Queen Charlotte's court, because while it has elements of 18th-century fashion, it is tying in some 19th century choices in the patterning and construction. The rest of my accessories are hands down more 18th-century leaning from the under the knee socks with the ivory bows and the ivory and gold bow low-heeled fabric shoes. The mask and the cape are actually historically accurate pieces from Atelier La Bauta in matching velvet turquoise. The mask is a type of Columbina party mask, made with paper mache and covered in velvet, lace trim, and rhinestones, while the Velvet Cape has a hood and tie at the neck, and is lined with satin.  The fur stole is actually two stoles cleverly combined with a satin lining and tie that we purchased from a friend. It was particularly cold the evening of the ball, and I decided that the fur stole was necessary and not in fact, over the top.  I usually have a rough time wearing masks comfortably, but I have to say that this was the most comfortable mask I've worn in my life, so kudos to La Bauta for making a beautiful decorative and wearable mask!

​The dances at this ball are certainly more focused on "sweet little choreographies for couples", as well as some unchoreographed waltzing and mixer dances like dance from Season 2's "Harmony" episode and the lively Scottish-style dance from Season 4's episode, "The Beyond".  But don't assume you have to attend with a partner, dance with same person the whole time, or that your partner has to be the opposite gender. It's a free for all really--if you want to dance and find someone who will take the opposite role, all is fair!  I usually prefer to take a follow role, because I get confused easily when changing directions, but there are plenty of people who dance both roles! Everyone is very kind and it is okay to ask someone to "be on your dance card"; do not assume you have to wait for anyone to ask you first, especially if you are not a lead. I danced with just about as many women as men, and skipped a few dances to play a competitive game of Pall Mall with Pahl. I was way behind at first, but I came through as winner at the end! 

You might have noticed that I changed my shoes from my initial photo and that's because I'm so committed to dancing, that I'm wearing actual jazz shoes. If my dress was floor length, you might not have seen them at all. The waist bow is looking a bit skewed, but that's to be expected after dancing on the balls of your feet for some thirty minutes or more. Luckily the wired bow is very adjustable. 

It seems as if the folks that chose to wear spring colors are all centrally located, while the darker colors frame the sides and back of the group.  For more photos from this ball and the October one, go here. 

We had a wonderful time dancing and socializing with friends old and new. To be on the lookout for more events from the same dance instructor, Susan de Guardiola for Bridgerton, Regency, and other historical balls and events, please visit the Masks & Mischief page for upcoming events!

Before I left for Italy, I planned a fashion meeting around visiting The Institute Library in New Haven, CT to experience the library itself as well as the Forecast divination themed art show in The Gallery Upstairs that I was an artist in. The Institute Library is Connecticut's oldest independent circulating library, and one of the last remaining membership libraries in North America. It was founded in 1826, and its mission is to fulfill its historical purpose of "mutual assistance in the attainment of useful knowledge" for its Members and the New Haven community at large through literature, civil discourse, and the arts. It's free to visit it during open hours and they have a big bowl of candy. The library offers several free talks as well as low cost concerts in the evenings sometimes. If you become a member, you can take out the books as well as participate in their weekly programs like Low Key Bridge and Friday Night Jazz in the vinyl listening library. 

Having already visited the library twice before this meeting, I knew that my main fashion prompt for the group was  going to be to dress in dark academia style. Dark Academia is a literary internet aesthetic and subculture concerned with higher education, the arts, literature, or an idealized version thereof. The aesthetic is focused on boarding school uniforms, interior design, activities such as writing, poetry, ancient art, classic literature, well as classical Greek and Collegiate Gothic architecture. The fashion of the 1930's and 1940's such as cardigans, blazers, dress shirts, plaid skirts, oxford shoes and clothing made of houndstooth and tweed with a color palette consisting mainly of black, white, beige, browns, dark green and navy blue. The subculture draws on idealized aesthetics of higher education and academia, with books and libraries featuring prominently. The subculture tends to romanticize the finding of beauty and poetry in dark themes. Classic works of literature that inspire the aesthetic include The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and poetry from Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. 

The secondary fashion prompt was to wear an outfit that included border prints or accessories that fit with the Divination exhibition theme. The color palette still leaned in the darker/autumnal direction like dark academia, but members were encouraged to explore outfits with prints and accessories that depict divination tools like tarot cards, palmistry, astrology, or gothic undertones like skull faced cameos and ornate rings. 

Now believe it or not, this was one of the first times that I made a meeting and I had absolutely not a clue as to what I was going to wear. I knew that my wardrobe had the colors required to pull off dark academia, but how was I going to put it together? I always try to challenge myself to make something unique and not repeat a coordinate and I'm proud of myself for this one. 

The base layer is a JSK from Chinese indie brand YingLuoFu. The dress has a print of a study for a classical oil painting probably made around the Baroque era of an earlier time period's victory military parade. If you look closer at the plaque in the middle, it says Fortuna in Latin. The Wheel of Fortune is one of the Major Arcana in the tarot divination system, and classical art is part of the dark academia aesthetic. So I effectively met both fashion prompts, but the majority of my coordinate is still dark academia as I am still reading as a student rather than a romanticized divination reader.  Other ways I tied in the student aesthetic include the ivory bishop sleeved blouse with the neck tie and brooch under a fitted brown double breasted vest. I am wearing dark brown suede oxfords and a matching wool beret. For accessories I am wearing a long bronze necklace with a clock dial and a dark brown satchel style purse with the cogs and dials of clock that can be turned. My outerwear is hooded mid length dark green double breasted wool cloak, which is similar looking to what nurses wore in the 1940's.  It kept me warm on a very windy day!

Where I looked like a student of a boarding school, Barbara looked like one of the professors. She is wearing a long black skirt with a cream colored button down blouse with an amazing tweed blazer over it all. She has subtle pins attached to her blazer, and a pearl necklace with a large hanging pendant balancing nicely with the other colors and textures. The round metal glasses and the light brown felted hat speak of someone who has traveled the world (whether literally or through acquired knowledge) and you won't even know class is over because you will be so engaged in the story of her experience. 

I love to see a good Ouji (prince style) coordinate and Johanna really pulls it off quite well. They are wearing a long sleeved white ruffle stand collar blouse with black ruffle bloomers. Over both the blouse and the bloomers is a long black vest that cinches at the waist. A stellar red lace jabot with a large skeleton cameo and ties hangs at the neck. There are also other cameo pins on the lapels of their vest. They have black lace wrist cuffs and a black wool hat with accessories that match the red accents in their coordinate.  Professor or student, I'm not sure. They could easily be both!

Cole looks like she stepped out of the set of the Netflix show Wednesday. Her coordinate is more modern looking, but follows the Dark Academia aesthetic of the plaid skirt with a dark colored top and a long black brocade military style coat. Accessories include high black boots with ruffled knee socks, a black choker, and a Book of Spells crossbody purse.  

Jenna's coordinate definitely towed the line between student of magic and divination and librarian with a mysterious past. The dress she is wearing is Magical Artefact Ribbon JSK by Japanese brand Metamorphose. This was a very popular dress at this meeting---3 people were wearing it and one had the matching purple color way! The printed design on this dress includes books, cats, candles, stars, and writing with a witches/magic theme. Jenna repeated the stars in her hair accessories as well as in her over the knee socks. She also incorporates a gothic leaning theme with a bird skull framed necklace and a skeleton hand with black rose corsage attached to her black wool beret. 

Jax similarly pairs the Magical Artefact JSK with a black long sleeved blouse and black shoes. They are also wearing glasses with a decorative eyeglass chain. They are carrying a satchel with a luna moth theme on it. 

Colleen has purple hair like Jenna, but is wearing the green version of Magical Artefact. She has large round metal framed glasses, a black and a gold grimoire style book cross body bag. She has kept the rest of her accessories black with subtle silver accents so the focus is truly on the print of the dress.

I was surprised at the number of people who showed up for the meeting. After we took a series of candids and individual photos with Athina, we perused the gallery space and then the volunteer that day gave us a tour of the library which included how it is organized, how to use the card catalog, the kinds of collections in each part of the library, and the really special bathroom with the hand carved wooden toilet seat. Some of us took on a side quest to Strange Ways afterwards for unique patches, pins, and gifts and then ended our day at Claire's Corner-Copia, a well known casual vegetarian restaurant with a flair for meeting a variety of dietary needs.  It was such a wonderful day and I definitely introduced several people to the library who had apparently walked by it for years and/or never knew it existed!