From February 7, 2026-March 29th, 2026, I had the pleasure of having my most recent works of art in Forecast: Reading the Signs Art Exhibition at The Gallery Upstairs in The Institute Library in New Haven, CT. The show was curated by Martha Willette Lewis and it was my very first in person group show featuring some of the tarot prints, Other World prints, and my Norse Rune Zine. This particular show was about artworks invoking divination, and all of my most recent work IS related to divination. The timing, location, and type of work requested felt heaven sent. One of my personal goals in the past four years has been to move from the craft show/vending circuit to having my work in a gallery, so this was an important first step to getting into more galleries. 

Martha selected artists from all levels whether it be emerging artists or established artists for the show. Thirty artists were in the show total, and I wasn't sure what to submit or if there was a limit, but Martha encouraged me to submit as much as I wanted. I selected Equinox II, Mother, and Dragon Moon from my Other World's Series, The World and The Devil from my Major Arcana Series, and The Norse Rune Zine, which I allowed visitors to pick up and touch. 

The opening of the exhibition was one of the coldest days of 2026 that I can remember. It was about -10 degrees Fahrenheit with the windchill that evening, and while we had periods of snow melt, there was still plenty of ice and snow piled around parking spaces in downtown New Haven. I wanted to dress up for the occasion, but what to wear on such a bitterly cold evening?

I layered a stand collar black victorian style long sleeve blouse under a blue velvet ruffle dress with black fleece lined tights and dark brown fur lined boots. I put my hair into two side front hanging braids, and wrapped ivory colored ribbons around them to protect them from the wind. I wore my Mystic Eye necklace, faux fur hat (ivory with black highlights), a cool blue makeup look, and my trusty black crown and studded satchel. Of course I wore a long black wool coat over everything as well as cashmere lined leather gloves while outside. I never actually took my hat off the entire time. It was I suppose an essential part of the look, and the gallery upstairs wasn't that warm, especially at night, so it all worked out. 

Martha asked each of the artists to bring a food item to share for the opening ceremony and also requested it to be on theme with the exhibition. I made gluten-free Gingerbread cookies. Just the sort of thing that will warm you up on a frigidly cold winter night. I pride myself on my unique cookie cutter collection, and used my crystal balls, book of spells, and gingerdead men for the occasion. 

The artwork in the exhibition was so unique. During the Opening, I was able to talk to many of the artists in the show and ask others about their interpretations of the cards or prints in my work.

One of my favorite pieces was a needle point by artist Marsha Borden. It was a play on palmistry and what different lines and fingers mean in a modern context. I thought it was very clever.

Artist Nadine Nelson was doing divination readings with her Adrinka Divination deck, and one of the cards from this deck was also on the wall between the windows. She had such an inviting presence. 

Several artists submitted various card decks or examples of some of the cards that they had designed. 

There were also other collages as well as a few three-dimensional art pieces, one of which was a converted monopoly board into a spontaneously intuitive comment to the player to your immediate left. The artist showed me how to play the game, which was a somewhat complicated compendium of different divination tools and techniques. It involved selecting a spiritual looking marker like a laughing Buddha, using a skull pendulum to determine what direction to start, using a planchette to decide on which square to start on, rolling the dice to indicate how many spaces to move, selecting an action card if prompted, holding the card on your forehead facing the other players in the game, and telling the player to your left the first thing that pops up in your head. I was admittedly still trying to wrap my head around the order of the directions, so I told the person to my left something I was thinking of earlier that evening. 

Martha had also already planned a Closing Ceremony at the end of March, and had asked artists if they wanted to contribute to activities for attendees during the event such as offering readings, reciting poetry, or giving a presentation. I volunteered to do Rune stone readings with my illustrated Elder Futhark Zine.  The end of March was still cold, but not bitterly so, and I was able to wear the dress I initially envisioned for the opening to it. 

I paired a navy blue dress with gold flocked starts and moons from Chinese indie brand Souffle Song, with a cool gray princess sleeve blouse with a ruffle collar, very light blue diamond tights, a black hat with black and blue roses and silver hardware, black and silver accent boots, and a variety of jewelry including a gold necklace with divination symbols (like the crystal ball, tarot card, a hand), an evil eye bracelet, silver ornate earrings with a blue stone, a smoky quartz ring, lapis lazuli, labradorite, and azurite beaded bracelets, and a decorative gothic black and gold bracelet with ring extension. I felt a little bit like I was channeling Stevie Nicks between having long blond hair, the dramatic sleeves of my blouse, and the shorter black top hat. I am wearing the bounded hem Nolaria petticoat with this dress, and it is the first time that the bottom ruffles and bustle details really stand out in comparison to other times I have worn it.  

During the Closing Ceremony, Donald Brown recited poems that went along with each of his tarot cards above. He said that the poems were written in the 90's, and later he did the paintings that were inspired by the poems. I later gave him a Rune stone reading and he purchased one of my zines to to familiarize himself (again) with the stones. 

I originally illustrated all of the Elder Futhark in order to learn the meanings of the stones in about a week. The imagery I selected is a combination of simple recognizable symbols, Norse mythology, and Tarot inspired imagery based on the meanings of the divinatory system. I  used to think that it was somewhat random and might be hard for people to use or understand, but seeing all the different work in the show helped me realize that a lot of the artists and guests were already familiar with tarot and it was a good jumping point to learn more.  

Most of the other artists in the show volunteered to do tarot or oracle card readings, but I was the only person offering Rune stones. Most of the people I did readings for, it was their first time using Rune stones. I did about 6 or 7 one stone readings in the 90 minutes allotted for this activity, and then Martha transitioned the remaining guests to Kate Laity's presentation on tarot imagery and its origins. Before Tarot became a system for divination, it was a nobleman's game coming from Persia through northern Italy, into many of the symbols and inspired illustrations we recognize today. There was apparently a huge tarot exhibition going on at that time in Venice, Italy (just missed it while we were attending Carnivale), but the exhibit is coming to NYC this summer through part of October and it is my plan to see it! 

I was so honored to be part of the Forecast exhibition along so many talented artists in the local community. I also fell in love with The Institute Library itself so much so that I ended up hosting a meeting for my fashion group to the library while the exhibition was still up. Stay tuned for that in the next blog post!

The Caravaggio was incredible to see up close and from above in a small prayer chapel. They also had a cast of the main subjects and motifs in the painting that you could touch. I saw details in the cast that I had not perceived in the painting alone nor the very small photograph of it in my college art history textbook.

We managed to get to the train station before the sky opened up. We had difficulty with the ticket machines, so we used the ticket counter and help desk inside Napoli Centrale to buy our tickets for the local Regionale train.  It wasn't too far from Napoli Centrale, but it definitely went a lot slower than the Frecciarossa train and there were a lot of short local stops. Eventually we emerged out of a train station in a quiet suburban area with very little parking spaces for vehicles and no additional public transportation listed anywhere.  We had to wait a little bit, but Maria Pia picked us up. Her dad was with her in the car, and we got to meet him a little informally. She was dropping him off somewhere as well, but he wanted to meet us on the way. Then we went straight to Zane Abbigliamento, her mother's boutique. 

Inside, we were immediately greeted by their three maltese dogs. They immediately took to Pahl, who gave them tremendous levels of attention. 

While this was going on, they also had customers coming in (as they were open a little later for Carnival), and another cousin stopped by just to say hello randomly. He had a dog with him too and immediately all the little dogs were very excited and would not stop barking until he left. We had also been using Google translate to help talk to each other. Meanwhile, I had mentioned that I was looking for a coat, because the winter coat I brought with me was 18 years old, and I wanted to update it. I tried on a couple of coats, and then they straight out gifted me this gorgeous tweed coat. Mind you, it was the only coat that would fit me in the store (see Venice blog post for why I'm large/XL in Italian sizing).

A few hours later, Maria Pia and her mother gave us a driving tour of their hometown, Aversa. It has 29 Catholic churches, and we had another cousin who was a priest at one of those churches. He had just passed last year in his mid 90's.  Maria Pia was the only bilingual one in this adventure, so she was doing a lot of translating back and forth from Italian to English. Eventually we ended the evening with amazing pizza at a restaurant in Aversa. I don't think anyone in that restaurant spoke English, so we would have been entirely lost without Maria Pia. 

Going to Naples and meeting my Italy family for the first time was exciting and new but also not that surprising. A lot of the mannerisms and way people communicate with each other outside of the language barrier are exactly the same as with my mom's side of the family in the USA. The random family visits with no prior notification, the passionate talk of politics and history and culture and the five things going on at once at any given time were all very familiar situations for me.

It made me really want to go back and study Italian in more depth, so that I could communicate better with everyone, whether it be other 18th-century fashion enthusiasts in Venice or my family in Naples.  Next time I go to Italy, I will have waterproof shoes, a custom sized 18th-century dress, and a better command of the spoken language. 

After a three-year hiatus from international travel, in February 2026, Pahl and I embarked on a new fashion journey across the Atlantic Ocean to Venice, Italy to wear historical 18th-century fashions during one of the biggest cultural events in the world. Carnevale di Venezia, is famous for its elaborate costumes and masks. The event lasts roughly two weeks and concludes on Mardi Gras or Shrove Tuesday (the day before the Catholic season of Lent starts). The Carnival traces its origins to the Middle Ages, existing for several centuries until it was abolished in 1797. The tradition was revived in 1979, and the modern event now attracts approximately 3 million visitors annually. 

It has always been Pahl's dream to wear 18th century historical fashion in such a big way, and luckily last year he reconnected with his college friend Helen, who is heavily involved in the 18th century historical fashion scene within Europe. She is very dedicated to this fashion and has commissioned several outfits and accessories to wear at various events. She met small groups of people organically by attending prior years of Carnivale and hanging out in full costume in St. Mark's Square. As long as you are wearing a full costume, you are considered a "mask", someone who has dressed up for the festival. All sorts of people, from other tourists to professional photographers will ask for your photograph. And it's a great way to meet other people from all over the world just as passionate about the fashion. 

Helen was able to connect us with Flavia, a wonderful woman fluent in many languages who happened to be hosting a series of private themed parties requiring 18th century historical fashion nearly every day of Carnevale. We managed to get into one of her events, the Ciocco Barocco, and was waitlisted for a second. Helen also took us as her guests to a private welcome event at Ca'Sagredo, which we also wore our costumes for. 

You might be wondering where and or how we acquired our costumes and if we rented them or not. Pahl purchased his custom tailored fit on Etsy from TheClassicNine, which is a shop in Florida, USA (so he didn't have to worry about import tariffs and fees). His pants, waistcoat, and tailcoat were all made of silk with embroidered floral designs. The seller included the neck jabot. He is wearing a wig that was custom styled by Tamara A.M. In this photo, the black shoes with the heavy gold buckles he sourced from The Historical Emporium. His cane, silver mask, and tricorn hat were all purchased from La Bauta that day. 

Atelier La Bauta is the quintessential location for all of your 18th century and beyond needs. They have costumes you can rent or purchase, all kinds of accessories, as well as a separate mask shop. Everything is hand made and all masks come with a certificate of production. Atelier La Bauta is also widely known as a Historical Costume Maker and has had their designs featured in Netflix, Red Notice, and House of Gucci. We wanted to do the best job we could with historical accuracy, so most of my costume is from La Bauta.

It is a handmade reproduction of an 18th-century historical costume made of damask fabric. It includes a decorated skirt, a dress with a fully lined cotton bodice reinforced with stiffened stays, a pannier with stiffened stays to hold the dress, a choker, and a handbag. It laces up the back. The total cost of this gown was about $2500.00. We had purchased the gown in December from them, as we did not know what events at that point we would be able to get tickets for and could not figure out how many days we would need to rent it for at the time. (If you rent it for 3 days, it nearly pays for the entire cost of the gown). Plus time was running out at that point to book a high quality rental in my size. (I suppose my size needs are somewhat medium in America, but I'm basically a Large/XL in Italy sizing, and there were only 2 dresses left to rent in my size at the time).

My cape was also purchased from La Bauta. It is a turquoise blue velvet cape that has a hood and ties around the neck.  I am also wearing historical embroidered pockets just above the pannier under the skirt. They are somewhat accessible in slits behind the velour green section of the front of the skirt. My wig was also designed and styled by Tamara A.M, who also made the green chandelier earrings. I had brought off white cloth embroidered shoes with me for the trip, but it rained so much everyday and the streets were flooded to the point that I was actually wearing beige leather oxfords under everything. (How scandalous!). You can't see them anyway, and they soaked completely through so I have an interesting design on my silk stockings now as well as a permanent darkened patina on my oxfords.

We know that Tamara did our wigs, but who did the makeup? I did! I had purchased the second from the lightest matte foundation from Revolution Cosmetics as my base. I studied portraits of Marie Antoinette to see which colors to apply for the eye makeup. My friend Barbara let me borrow a very pigmented coral blush from Nude Stix. The lipstick is a combination of a coral lipstick from Urban Decay and a pink lipstick from M.A.C., both discontinued colors. I darkened my eyebrows with an eyebrow pencil and drew a beauty mark on my upper left cheek with a eye pencil first, and then one of those liquid eye liners that has a brush type head. 

I had also brought with me a linen shift, early 18th century stays, and a cotton petticoat to wear with this gown, but I could only get the linen shift on under it, and nothing else would fit. The dress has some boning in it, but it did not lift me like my stays would have. I love all the details of this gown, but it did not fit me comfortably as a result. It kind of pushed hard on my hips and tummy and the full weight of the fit was around 14.5 pounds (6.5 kilos). I am still figuring out how to modify it. It could use a good hemming so it doesn't drag on the ground (you can see the subtle waterline from the streets at the bottom), and at the very least a longer and stronger cord up the back to make room for my other undergarments.  I honestly think that the main problem is that it is not a Custom fit gown, and was made to be a general M/L. Whoever they modeled it after was likely a little taller and a lot less busty. 

The first event we attended in costume was held at Ca'Sagredo, a five star luxury hotel  located between Ca'D'Oro and the Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal. This location was just a few stops away from where our hotel was on the Rialto side of the vaporetto line (water bus), so it was an easy ride and walk in costume to the venue. As I understand it, just a decade ago Ca'Sagredo was a crumbling 15-Century palace, and then some developers came in and fixed it up, a lot. The welcome event was held by a cultural group in the region and the only way you could attend was to have a sponsor and cash at the door. 

I really enjoyed this welcome event. Helen introduced us to some of her friends and then let us enjoy the party at our own pace. I didn't know what to expect except for the special hot chocolate, so we ate before hand, but they had lots of food as well as prosecco available as part of our ticket. Seats were few and far between, so I mostly stood around and complimented others on their costumes. Sometimes it would lead to a conversation and other times that would be it, as there did seem to be a certain level of language barrier. I realized that people from all over the world came to Venice to celebrate Carnevale, and English was no longer the default common language. I studied French in high school, but I believe Italian would be the best language of choice, in this circumstance. 

A few days later after the welcome event, we donned our costumes again for a dance focused event held at Hotel Monaco on the Grand Canal. Hotel Monaco is also a palace that was originally owned by the Dandolo family and was the location of the first public 'Ridotto' established in 1638. A Ridotto is a place where nobles along with adventurers, swindlers, travelers, etc gathered to gamble, enjoy the company of courtesans and develop their social and political contacts. Casanova himself considered it the ideal place for his conquests. Nowadays they've updated the place to show a nod to the its origins along with a stark minimalism, especially on the first floor.

Luckily, they did not update the second floor, which led to an elaborate and beautiful ballroom with side rooms and furniture. 

I was having a hard time at this event, not because of the event itself, but a series of circumstances that led up to it. I was nursing an intense lower lid eye infection in one eye, and we decided to walk to the hotel rather than taking the vaporetto.  We got a lost a bunch of times and the bottom of my gown and shoes and socks got soaked through again because of that.

At the event we presented ourselves to the hostess and host as a couple in a court would, and then we were instructed in a series of court dances from the 18th-Century. The dance mistress had initially addressed everyone in about 5 different languages, but again, the primary default was Italian. Eventually all the instruction was in Italian only, and I was having a hard time keeping up trying to understand the directions and learn the moves, despite them being tremendously easier than anything from the Regency era or our Dances of Bridgerton class.

During a few of the earlier dances, I somehow ended up without a partner at all to dance with right away. I don't know if it was my fault or if some folks had just bailed unevenly on the dance, but I was very sad to be left out. I stood out and watched the dancing for awhile and tried one more time to join a dance that involved two stationary partners and one traveling partner. I did okay, but it was more vigorous and I felt that my wig was going to fall off at almost any moment.  We ended up calling it quits early, and I felt bad about leaving, but I also just needed to rest to help heal my eyelid infection. 

The whole experience for me was a bit like being a sparkle pony at a burning man event. I had my costume in order for the most part, but I didn't know anything about the location and was definitely not prepared for the local weather. I'd been to Rome and Florence before, but Venice is a completely different way of life. There are no cars and even though it's a little pricy, you should just use the vaporetto (water bus) to get anywhere because if you think you can walk somewhere, it's probably not as direct as you or Google maps thinks it is. There is the main canal but also a bunch of other smaller canals that connect to it, so where logically you would expect a road, there's a canal and a staircase bridge that leads you to the other side of something, not necessarily connected to the immediate area you were trying to get to. Even native Italians get lost in Venice, it's just something that happens. But it was very frustrating as a first timer getting soaked in costume trying to get to an event on time. 

In fact, the waterproof boots I had brought with me to wear on the trip outside of my costume, the heel had self-destructed upon arrival and we spent half a day finding new boots for me as well as new luggage for Pahl. Not to say that I'm complaining about fine Italian leather goods because they truly have some of the best craftsmanship in the world, but it was not something that I had initially budgeted for in my trip. I also knew wearing 18th-century fashion for women was going to be a lot of cloth, accessories, and investment, but I didn't know how much. 

I would like to do Carnevale again, but differently. I now have waterproof boots to wear and a lot of wonderful accessories, but I either need to get the dress I have modified or a gown that is a custom fit so that I am not in pain to wear it. Also, I'll definitely refrain from bringing any eye palette that might be nearing its expiration. And maybe it would help if we stayed in an Air BnB or a larger hotel room.  Our hotel bathroom was thankfully huge, but that was the extent and I had to walk sideways in my costume to get anywhere else in our room.

This however is not the final story of our Italy trip. Stay tuned for Part 2: Fashion and Family in Napoli!!!

The last fashion meeting that I attended in 2025 was for Winter "International Lolita Day". ILD day happens twice a year, every first Saturday of June and December, and it is an event that is done worldwide in every community so that people who wear the fashion can showcase their summer and winter looks. I had taken a big pause from planning meetings for the group to prepare for my next big international trip that involved even more elaborate historical fashion than last time, so Jax came up with a wonderful plan to go as a group to the American Clock and Watch Museum in Bristol, CT wearing either Holiday or Steampunk inspired outfits. Of course I managed to pull off both Steampunk and Holiday at the same time, if you count the Winter Solstice as a holiday.  

I had been building this white and gold coordinate for several years. About three years ago, I ordered the "Wishing Stars" JSK Style 1  (see a Witch's Tea) from Chinese Indie brand Soufflesong through 42lolita.com in the navy color way and I fell in love with the design so much I went back and ordered it in the white and gold color version. What arrived at my door step was a completely different design using the same materials. I was sent "Wishing Stars" JSK Style 2. When I reached out to 42lolita.com, they basically said it was an accident, and that it was actually nearly twice as expensive as the other one and I should just keep it and enjoy it. I'm never one to turn away a more expensive gift, but it did take time for me to build a new coordinate with this more elaborate styling. 

To keep in the theme of more elaborate styling, I had purchased the mini tricorn hat from the Chinese indie brand Fox Cherry. It is white with white ribbon and feathers and gold trims. About two years later, I ordered an elaborately pleated white and gold button down blouse with bishop sleeves from Chinese indie brand Miss Point. The tights are wonderfully opaque with a gold stamping design (similarly to the dress) gothic style design from Chinese indie brand Wulala Mew, and the shoes are a pair of Gothic style white velvet boots from Chinese indie brand Sosic called "Meteorite's Wound", which I had originally purchased for my white rabbit ouji coordinate. As far as jewelry I turned to USA based indie designers TxarraOtsoaOriginals for their Ivory Fairy Circle Crystal Heart Necklace in White, and to Dearest Victoria for their Filigree Heart earrings and ring set. For my bag, I added the Alice Clock Crossbody Purse by Chinese indie brand Kira in white and gold, in honor of the clock museum, steampunk fit in general, and that the time of daylight while brief, was going to get better from the solstice on out. For the finishing touches, I took a gold belt chain from a completely different coordinate and attached it to the front panels on both sides of the dress. It draped in such a way to promote additional gold and mystical symbols to commemorate the return of the light in the world around the time of the Winter Solstice. 

Even with my makeup, I used a warm gold eyeshadow on my top eyelids to indicate light and a silvery white eyeshadow on the bottom lid to indicate frost. I made my cheeks extra rosy, to show that it was cold, and as practice for my next fashion adventure in historical 18th-century costuming. The hardest part was getting the tricorn hat to stay on my head. It has two alligator clips on the bottom sides, and basically I weaved my hair into two sections secured by copious amounts of bobby pins and hairspray to attach it to. Much to my dismay, of course I could not drive with this hat attached to my head, so I had to carefully remove it and secure it once again when I arrived at the clock and watch museum. 

Clock and watch museums are inherently great places for Steampunk style meetings, because they indicate themes of industry, ingenuity, time and time-traveling. You could say that my Steampunk contribution outside of my clock bag was an outfit comprised of styling from different centuries.

​The other reason that Jax said that we could wear Holiday styling was because the museum itself was having a charity contest within for best decorated fireplace from local organizations. You could buy tickets to vote at the front desk, and the organization with the most votes would receive half of the funds raised while the museum would receive the other half. I was totally surprised and excited that I matched this particular fireplace design. 

Jax's coordinate matched this fireplace design really well. I recognized the organization who designed it as one I know and love, so I put nearly all my votes into their basket, even though I liked the other fireplace that matched my outfit just as much. Jax made their Grinch dress last year for their Mystic Aquarium meeting, and it was so cold, I think I saw their coat more than their dress, so it was nice to be able to see it and admire all the nice trim placement and styling. 

Another cute winter holiday look I enjoyed was Morgan's black confectionary and rocking horse design skirt paired with a more elegant bishop sleeve blouse and black opaque tights iwth gold stamping. The gingerbread man purse balances the sweet styling of the skirt and the bow headdress compared with the elegant blouse, tights, and shoes. I wish we got a photo side by side, because we could have been an nice juxtaposition between dark and light. 

Aly went for a candy cane holiday look and crafted this outfit herself. She is also part of the local steampunk community, and is able to modify clothing she has used for other events again in a new way. She was wearing a cross body purse that looked like one of those round red and white striped peppermint candies. 

Pahl was also both decidedly Steampunk and Holiday. He wore a dark green wool tweed suit with a red linen waist coat, a white blouse with I think a banker's collar, a green bow tie that he tied himself, black circular rimmed glasses, a black bowler hat, and shiny black oxfords. He also had two different pocket watches attached to his waist coat, and a slightly different wine colored pocket square to complete his look. I gasped when we turned the corner from the ticket office and found the gentleman clock. Pahl was dismayed that he did not bring one of his top hats or his great coat to match the clock man better. 

The museum itself has two floors and the big clock room is a phenomenal sacred experience every hour, on the hour when all of the big grandfather clocks and all the other clocks in that room begin to chime. They are all on a little bit of a delay so after one starts, another joins in and they are different tones and timbers. The whole experience is like a sound bath of bells and deep toned chimes and goes on for roughly two and a half minutes. When the chiming started, everyone was in quiet wonder and looking all around to see which clock may have made the sound. It was a magical experience, and I daresay it might have cleansed my aura. 

Cleansed by both the white and gold of my outfit and the chiming of the sacred bells of clocks marking the passing of time, I was ready to enter and embrace winter and prepare for my next time traveling adventure in 2026!

October 2025 was really tough for Halloween events. Somehow almost every single event planner decided that they would have their Halloween events on Saturday October 25, because the next Saturday was November 1 and therefore NOT HALLOWEEN anymore. However, Jax and I worked together to convince the Old Lyme Inn to extend their Spooky Tea service to November 1, 2025. The inn gave our group the Peterson room (which fits up to 15 people) and left all the Spooky decor up just for us. Since it was actually held on November 1, I decided to go all out with the Day of the Dead theme. I used to teach a unit on Day of the Dead to upper elementary school students with picture books, music, snacks, of course art making and a slideshow. The holiday may have the word "DEAD" in it, but it's a celebration  and remembrance of one's ancestors. And supposedly at that time of year, the veil is "thin" and its easier to connect with one's ancestors during that time. 
​
I decided that the best way to celebrate Spooky Tea and Day of the Dead was to dress up like someone celebrating their ancestors in a Day of the Dead parade. 

The main dress is from the Chinese indie brand AmaStacia. The name of this dress is "A Song Without Words". I had been looking for an all black long gothic dress for awhile and I found this one through Lolita Collective (a USA based store in Minnesota). It was the perfect dress to to layer a long sleeve high neck black mesh blouse under, but it was a little short for the effect that I was going for. I pulled out one of those long gauzy cotton hippie indie skirts that was really popular in the late 90's early 2000's out of my drawer to give it a little more length. To minimize the amount of mesh at the neck, I put on the Satin Ruffle Collar from Silversark. This is an exquisite statement piece and very comfortable to wear. On top of it I attached a silver spider brooch that has a pearl on its back. I wore drop pearl earrings and a long silver necklace with a large stained glass red coffin with a white rose pressed at the center. I wanted to fully cover my body, so I also wore black mesh gloves and a black veil over my hair with a red rose flower crown. I wore my Strangecvlt Coven boots with black tights under it all. 

And of course I did my makeup to look like a calavera (sugar skull). This is probably the third time in my life I have done calavera makeup, and I managed to do this in less than 30 minutes. I think I learned everything I needed to know about how to apply this kind of makeup to my skin at age 40 during the Clown Around City Point adventure and had acquired the right tools for the job thanks to Gothic Beauty Magazine Subscription Boxes with their Doom Dust Ultra Black Eye and Neck Powder and their Stark White Foundation along with a lovely group of black eye and lip pencils. The dark red eye pencil I found from a limited edition "Stranger Things" collection from Cover Girl. I didn't line around my lids or in my waterline because my eyelids are extremely sensitive and I avoid that area if I can. 

Pahl and I arrived separately to the event and when he got there he did not recognize me in plain sight. He said that I "looked like I had just come out of the grave, covered in rags, but then upon closer inspection the outfit was quite elegant." That's pretty much the vibe I was going for, so I'm glad I nailed it. 

The table and room was beautifully decorated in tones of white, black and autumn and each place setting listed a small menu that included the tea sandwiches, sweets, scones, teas and any extras you may wish to order such as cider or an adult beverage. They let you take these menus home, so it's nice for a scrapbook or memory page. The tea trays are stacked high with shareable delights. I do enjoy the Old Lyme Inn's seasonally appropriate menu and confections made by their in house chefs. It is a wonderful experience and when we dress up the staff makes a big fuss over us in a good way and helps us take group photos. 

If you thought any photo with me in it was going to be light hearted and fun like the others above, you'd be wrong. 

After the tea, I led a small group of folks across the street to the Florence Griswold Museum. The annual fairy exhibit was still up, but instead of going to see it, I just wanted to walk along the riverfront and take aesthetic photos. No one told us we had to buy tickets for the museum, and everyone along the way said that our outfits looked really great. 

The photographer in me knows there's something wrong with this next image as far as the light and the color balance, but it's really cinematic in relation to the theme of representing an ancestor who only had a few days to visit the earth before going back to the otherworld. 

It was such a gorgeous day and I'm glad I still got to get spooky with my outfit and makeup, even if it wasn't  October anymore. It was so fun to hang out with a large group and then a smaller group after the main event as well. 

The very last event we did in October 2025 was to attend the Bridgerton Masquerade Ball on Saturday Oct 25, 2025, run by social dance historian Susan de Guardiola and her friend Heath Herel. I was admittedly a little disappointed that I was not allowed to wear anything that would be spooky or remotely Halloween coded for this event, (so I made up for that big time in the next blog post).

Queen Charlotte and Bridgerton are a couple of Netflix series that are classy, romantic, and Regency inspired with both fashion as well as the social/political changes happening in the world at the time. There is a much more diverse cast than history would admit to us, but all of the actors are extremely talented. To even have the opportunity to dress up and learn the dances and be part of their world for just a little bit is an incredible experience. 

Susan de Guardiola is a woman of many talents. She teaches historical dance classes, lectures on dance history, writes papers about dance and delivers them at academic conferences mainly in Europe and America. She also leads balls and social dancing at events in historical costume, the most famous being the President's Remembrance Day Ball in Gettsyburg, PA, every mid-November. With all that in mind, she still went ahead and studied Bridgerton, which by all accounts is a fantastical depiction of what the Regency period fashion and social dances could have been like.

Susan's "Dances of Bridgerton" classes and ball is the real deal. She carefully noted Jack Murphy's original choreography of specific dances in each season of Bridgerton, as well as pre-quel Queen Charlotte and took time before and during the ball to teach attendees the steps as the live string trio performed the songs in real-time.  It was very classy and posh. Beautifully curated snacks like deviled eggs dyed slightly purple, special British cucumber mini-sandwiches, and small themed cookies or pound cake loaves were procured for the occasion. We drank punch and lemonade out of glass cups that had little ribbons of different colors attached to them and every attendee was given a dance card with small silver dangling pencils attached to them to write the name of the person who danced with them for each dance.  There were only about 10 dances on the card, but between dance instruction and then doing the actual dances with your partner, it easily took up the 3 hours allotted for the event. 

Now you might be wondering what we wore to this event. We are actually wearing nearly the exact same outfits that we wore to the Jane Austen Regency Festival in September 2023. This is the historically accurate Regency gown that Pahl had bought for me from a French Atelier on Etsy for the festival. It seemed over the top at the time, especially in Bath, UK because some people at the ball were wearing much simpler cotton gowns. However, after season 3 of Bridgerton came out, and all the female characters were ooh-ing and aah-ing about gowns from the boutiques in France, it all made sense. The only new additions to our outfits are that Pahl had his tail coat dyed a dark wine color (it was originally "burgundy" but it looked more red than anything), and we were required to bring and wear masquerade masks for at least half of the event.

My mask is a red embroidered over black lace mask that I was able to comfortably wear directly over my glasses. I think the "lace" would have been too scratchy of a material for me to tolerate directly on my skin anyway. The mask was $7.99 on Amazon, when I purchased it 3 years ago for the first edition of the Nevermore Masquerade Ball. Pahl on the other hand actually made his own paper mache mask in the style of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who created the Palace of Versailles during his reign. He had made this mask a few years before this event. He really likes masks and has quite a collection of them from characters representing the Commedia della Arte. 

We took this fun masked group shot with Deb and Angelica, two other students who studied in the Dances of Bridgerton class that we learned the dances with. The very cool thing about this photo is that Nina made 3 out of the 4 dresses pictured. Deb and Angelica commissioned Nina to make their gowns adjustable sizing, and of course Nina made her own dress as well. I love how colorful everyone else is compared to me and Pahl's deep burgundy and black. 

If you really want to get a feel for what it was like on the dance floor, check out this video that Heath took during the final "Harmony" mixer. (We did it twice---once with masks and once without). I honestly love the chaos moments where you sprint across the circle to find a new partner. Generally a man is always a lead, but some women are also leads. It can be important to pay attention to who is available. At no point does anyone get suddenly left out of of the dance when switching partners. We're all in the chaos mixer together!

I really enjoyed the event and I am so happy that there will be another one soon. The event is slated for Saturday March, 28, 2026, with an hour of dance instruction in the afternoon before the ball. There are also other prep classes for the ball and completely unrelated but equally fun courses available to learn from Susan. You can see her calendar of events here. 

I honestly was so impressed with how everyone dressed up for the occasion. At class, we are all wearing casual clothes, but when everyone was dressed up, they all looked very different! (I myself tend to dress as a pastel fever dream for class, so I'm sure others were surprised in the exact same manner). Everything about the event screamed classy from the food, serving ware, professional photographer, decor and the live string trio. If you want an elevated (but completely non-intoxicated) fancy dress up ball with instruction to specific choreography to re-live moments from Bridgerton---this is the ball for you!

To see all the photos from this event go to M.G.Norris Photography: Bridgerton Ball 2025.
​To find out more about the next Bridgerton Ball, please visit: Masks & Mischief: A Bridgerton Ball. 

One of the meetings I planned for my fashion community in October 2025 was a meeting I refer to as "Clown Around City Point". The goal was to dress as a cirque persona while walking a gentle nature trail located in the City Point neighborhood of New Haven, CT. I didn't know exactly who would come out to this, as I wasn't sure how popular clown looks would be with my local community. I also didn't know who would be up for doing so on a gentle nature trail abutting a salt marsh. All I knew was that it was going to be an awesome photoshoot, so I asked my friend Alan Kendzior if he would like to accompany us on our adventure and take photos, a role of which he immediately accepted months in advance. 

The official name of the trail we were on is the Long Wharf Nature Preserve, and it stretches from the Sound School parking lot all the way to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It is a short, gentle walk that literally goes under Interstate 95 in one part as well as meeting with the edge of the salt marsh in another. Except for the brief moment where you actually go under I-95 and the highway noise is a little intense, the rest of the trail is calming and restorative. I used to walk on it in normal clothes when one of my college friends lived down that way. Peak Connecticut autumn in mid-October was definitely going to be the perfect time to do this meeting. 

When I told folks what to wear for the meeting, I initially envisioned cirque performers from 19th century French and Italian circus advertisement posters. I encouraged the use of stripes, polka dots, and diamonds in the attire, and encouraged everyone to craft a persona and bring a prop. And to wear sturdy shoes!! I didn't want ANY accidents on the trail, so if the shoes didn't quite fit the outfit, that was okay because safety was my #1 priority. 

Aerial wore a popcorn themed outfit complete with popcorn skirt and matching bag! She also did her makeup to look like a sweet and friendly clown!  And her prop was a giant bubble wand---so fun!! Her partner Carl went with green and blue as his main colors and a matching striped top hat and bow tie. 

Jax made their own striped skirt complete with dangling gold star trim on the hem and paired it with black and white diamond socks, a black blouse, and a carousel purse. They also did their own clown makeup, something that I learned that they were somewhat of an expert in, as they practiced many different styles in the past. 

Barbara was kind of a cross between lion tamer and ring leader, with her gorgeous vintage purple with blue stars dress with lions jumping through hoops in the design, matching contrasting neck ruff, a black waist cincher belt, a purple adjustable petticoat that she decided to wear on top of the skirt, black and white striped socks and top hat, and white boots with hand painted cheetah print motifs on it. Her prop was a cane with a lion's head. 

I was basically the goth clown that scares away anyone normal from harassing the group. I decided to go for an ouji style look for this meeting, and while it took me about five minutes to put my entire outfit on, the makeup took by itself took over an hour. The props that I brought included a hula hoop and a black cat hand puppet (which looks convincingly real, almost like Salem in Sabrina the Teenage Witch). 

I had the perfect dress and everything for this event, but then there was the nature trail aspect and necessity of wearing sturdy shoes and layers to prevent from insects as well as poisonous plants (like poison ivy), so I switched to a simple black and white diamond centered ouji outfit. It's almost like the black version of my White Rabbit coordinate from the Alice Tea back in April 2025, but with a simpler outer coat and much more functional boots that I would not worry about getting mud or dirt on. The outer coat and shoes are from Killstar (a British online gothic clothing and lifestyle store), the blouse with the giant bow is from Lady Sloth (a Polish indie brand), the pants are from Putamayo (Japanese brand), the socks are from Dandy Puppeteer (a local vendor specializing in whimsical accessories and socks that fit most leg sizes), and the hat is from Fox Cherry, which is a Chinese indie brand. You might be wondering why I added red as my makeup accent color if there is no red anywhere else in my outfit, but you would be missing out on my purse. 

We really had a lot of fun clowning around in our personas. Here are more pictures from the event!

We had such a blast clowning around and since there were only five of us, we all fit in one car to stop by the food trucks located on nearby Long Wharf drive. If you can imagine a one way street lined with about 15 food trucks on each side, that's it! It is mostly Mexican style cuisine with other Latin American foods. Barbara and Jax knew their way around the trucks as they both worked nearby, and Aerial gave good suggestions on what I should order, as I was unfamiliar with a lot of the foods offered. We ate our food together on a picnic blanket Jax had in their car facing the ocean.  I am so glad there were other folks who wanted to clown around and also that Alan was there to capture all the special moments.

A few years ago in October 2024, I attended a much shorter meeting with my fashion community at the Railroad Museum of New England in Thomaston, CT. We wore Halloween inspired fits and rode the historical Pullman cars to the Pumpkin Patch, where we had several lovely group photos taken by an on board photographer. However, Pahl didn't make it to that meeting, and I wanted him to experience the joy that is the Railroad Museum of New England for himself. 

Now since I bought a ticket to the Pumpkin Patch ride, I am forever on the Railroad Museum of New England's email subscriber list. They have a lot of amazing programs throughout the year for young and old alike.  Several of their programs make a stop at our favorite western CT chocolate factory, Fascia's Chocolates in Waterbury. Also a few years ago at this point, I hosted a "Sweeten Your Spirits" tasting and tour program for my fashion community at the factory itself. You can check out our sweet group photo in the Google review, or check out my blog post about it here. Fascia's Chocolate's tasting tour made me into a chocolate snob, and I'm not mad about it. 

When the Railroad Museum of New England offered their Autumn Colors Limited excursion in mid October 2025, which includes a two hour leisurely train ride during the day to view the autumn foliage on the historical Naugatuck railroad line that also included a stop at Fascia's Chocolate factory, I jumped on it. Autumn Colors Limited is one of those unique excursions that could technically be for any age, but they did have a bar car, so your experience may vary. They had several different ticket prices to choose from, and it determined what kind of seats you would be sitting in. I paid for the $25.00 Premium Coach tickets (they were the same price as the regular Coach tickets, just to see what the difference would be), and we were in a slightly newer car (probably 1970's vs 1920's) with updated lighting and seats and two cars away from the bar car (which we did not indulge in). The Lounge Tickets, only $5.00 more provided lounge chairs that faced inwards on the car for ease of talking and communicating with others. I only know this because we had to walk through one of the Lounge cars to exit the train to go to Fascia's factory. 

I booked our ride on the first day of the Autumn Colors Limited program, which was a Friday afternoon. It was actually completely sold out and there were tons of people of all ages. We had planned to dress up in our historically inspired fits using Autumn colors as our palette. 

I had my heart set on wearing this dress from Japanese brand Metamorphose. I had purchased this dress at the tail end of 2024 on Wunderwelt, which is a Japanese website that sells used as well as new clothing. Technically I was initially looking for the brown color way of this dress, but when the red popped up in new with tags condition on the second hand part of the website, I went for it. This dress is the Ladder Lace Ribbon Medium Length JSK with Cape (Floral Print) in Bordeaux. I love florals, and I love the simplicity of creating the design of the dress with lace and ribbon placement. This might even be considered "old-school" style at this point. The material is very high quality with the flower printed fabric at 100% cotton, lined with satin, ribbon torchon lace and satin ribbon. This is one of those dresses that doesn't have a zipper, so you have to make sure that you can get the maximum measurement listed over your bust and hips into order to wear it. I had debated on getting the Plus Size or the Regular Size, and this is the Regular Size at the Medium length.  The cape comes with it and is very nice as well, although the satin lining does tend to make it slip around on the shoulders when it comes down to any kind of movement. The dress did fit a little tightly around my bust at first, but it does stretch and there is a lot of stretch. I have long legs, so with a pair of blocky oxford heels I was able to make the medium length work quite nicely, but there are others who have not been so successful (hence why I believe it was on the used site in pristine condition to begin with). 

For my blouse, I paired a Miss Point mesh champagne high neck blouse with sleeves under the dress. I also wore white wristcuffs with wine colored bows attached to them (even though the blouse itself has a flared sleeve cuff, I figured I really wanted to bring the wine red throughout the coordinate at all angles). I wore brown shoes because I was initially going to wear a brown floral half bonnet as my headpiece that would ABSOLUTELY NOT stay on my head. Besides, the ribbon was a much darker wine and there was brown lace...it was just all wrong anyway. Scrambling for another head piece, I grabbed the white and wine red rectangle headdress that exactly matched the choker that I wore with this outfit, but now the red was too bright. It just looked wrong on my head too. Lastly, I tried this inexpensive head bow that is a dark red with decorative white trim. The trim echos the edges of the torchon lace enough to look more cohesive despite being a darker wine red than the dress. I kept it on for my posed photos, but chickened out when I got to the museum after having to park super far away from civilization (my car really could have been its own stop on the train). You might be wondering why I didn't just buy the matching headdress when I got the dress. It's because it was not available to purchase. That's the one thing that can be frustrating with buying used items, you often get one or the other, and it is a rarity to get both at the same time!

Pahl had a much easier time matching all his pieces together, because they are part of a three-piece suit that he pre-ordered around the same time as when I purchased my dress. This is a green slightly tartan wool coat with matching trousers and bow tie. The waistcoat is a perfect contrast of dark wine as is the pocket square on the left chest pocket. This dark wine color is in the pants very subtly. Pahl matched his round black glasses to his black oxford shoes and slicked his hair back to look like a business man of the 1920's, to match the historical cars of course!

Sometimes we wear the same colors to match our outfits, but I daresay we were quite complementary on this excursion. And we perfectly matched the colors in the autumn leaves!  It was a little hard being the only two people in the entire excursion dapperly dressed up. Even the staff at the railroad museum were confused and asked us what the occasion was. Sometimes I feel like we are performance artists when we dress up in 20th-century clothes to go to a historical place while everyone else wears comfy modern sweats and cargo shorts with boots or sneakers. 

But when we arrived at Fascia's Chocolate Factory, the people who worked at the factory all remembered us and treated us like old friends! They wanted to know when we would be bringing a group back. They really appreciate when people dress up to go to the factory. I was able to get my favorite item from the factory, which is the 72% Semi Sweet Break-Up Bar. They only sell this at the factory itself, but it is a two pound solid chocolate bar with scores on it to help you break it. It's so thick it's hard to just break with your hands, so I recommend a knife and cutting board. One of these bars last me about 4-5 months, so I can keep my chocolate hoard adequately stashed. It's January as I write this, and I still have a little less than 1/3 of the bar left, so I am going to need to go back, probably in March for another. 

It was definitely the perfect date to celebrate autumn and I appreciated the group of older women who fought over taking our couples photo in front of the older train cars. The photo came out so well, we were able to use that photo in the 2026 Danielle and Pahl Calendar too!  After the train ride, we met at Clevelands' Country Store in Plymouth, CT, just a little ways up the street really. This added to our performance art experience as the store and eatery is housed in a completely restored 221 year old barn and has a sundae shop filled with all sorts of vintage candy to purchase. The portions on the sandwiches were extremely generous to the point that I did not have room for dessert and was still able to feed myself for two more meals. So if you find yourself in Middle/North Western, CT, don't pass up the opportunity to go to any of these places!

I've been studying and wearing EGL fashion for about four and a half years now. I know what I like and I know what I want, but sometimes what I like doesn't come in my size, or what I want doesn't exist yet. Enter Vietnamese brand Glittertale. Glittertale is a brand that specializes in making custom size garments to all of your specifications. You have to tell them all your measurements, preferably in cm rather than inches, and you can customize the fabric, lace, ribbon, and placement of an existing design from their Etsy shop. You can also send them a custom design of your own, or if you're already pretty savvy with a sewing skills, you can just buy the fabrics direct from them to make your own dress and accessories using the fabric.

Over the years, I started yearning for a tartan style dress. I have seen Japanese brands release tartan prints, but they're always more subtle than I want them to be. Summer Tales Boutique (a small and independent sewing studio for elegant and outspoken souls) out in the Netherlands  also offers custom sizing on their designs (including their Tartan styles), however I do not recall seeing a pink or lavender colored tartan available in their collection. In fact, only recently, have I seen the colors of tartan I really wanted in a dress or skirt from Russian indie brand Miss Danger, but I don't think they offer custom sizing, even though they do offer an exceptionally large size range of 14 different sizes!

So I went with Glittertale. Now I had actually designed this dress back in January/February of this year, so it is fitting that I write about my experience using them as we reach the conclusion of 2025. Earlier this year I had zero sewing experience, I could not identify the different kinds of lace or ribbon materials used in the construction of this dress, but I could tell you what I wanted it to look like in the end goal. 

The dress on the left, pictured above is the basic dress you can buy in this style. Glittertale has many more tartans to choose from, but I was set on this dark pink weave. I didn't like the thick black raschel lace used on the sides of the bodice or the tiers of the skirt in the mock up, so I chose a different rachel lace that comes to a pointed edge with rose cluster details inside of the pointed edges. I also changed the placement and type of lace on the bodice. Instead of two rows of ladder lace with pink flat ribbons tied over it, I made a pattern of the black with pink ribbon ladder lace and black rose lace without any ribbon bows. I actually hate the ribbons in the mockup (because they look cheap to me), so I asked them to not include them at all on the bodice and instead to make me black grosgrain bows that aren't actually sewn to the skirt (just safety pinned), so I can remove or rearrange them at my leisure. 

Now I wasn't going to just be satisfied with the dress itself in my custom measurements. I also needed matching accessories! I asked them to make a waist bow out of the tartan and add a completely different lace trim to it, that was not used in the JSK. I also drew a picture of the rectangle headdress I wanted them to make using a strip of the ladder lace with pink ribbon down through the middle of the tartan and surrounded by the same pointed black with rose clusters lace. Someone on their design team also found a smaller diameter of the black rose lace and sewed that on as well between the tartan weave and the original lace in my design. I appreciated that they did that. They understood what I was going for in my "Rebel Rose" dress and applied the same lace that was on the bodice, just smaller!

So they did everything I asked---and more! I would say that the only thing that is super frustrating is the wait time and the lack of communication. Mentally prepare yourself for a few months of radio silence after they get all your measurements and another couple of months to ship it to you. They claimed that my dress and accessories were done back in April, but first they were having their sewing equipment repaired, then they were changing their shipping operations (to prepare for international shipping changes), and there was still more delays, so the dress and accessories didn't actually get to my door until mid June. 

Another thing I did (and I'm glad I did it), was to actually send them my measurements about 2-3 cm larger than I actually am. The tartan is a heavy material, and when you add shirring to parts of it you could lose a few cm just because of how much tension is put on the elastic thread for that material.  Of course I didn't know any of this when I designed and ordered the dress, but when it finally arrived and I saw what I could design, it inspired me to begin to learn how to actually make things.  I'm currently learning how to make a ruffled heart tote bag and a matching bow. I now know how they made the waist bow and how they sewed on the trims for it. But knowing how to do it, does not mean that I can make it as well or as polished as they did, even in the 2.5 months it took to ship to my house, unless I practice making bows over and over and over again for just as long.

Now you might be wondering why I waited until December to finally wear this beautiful dress I designed, and let me remind you once again it is a true woven tartan. It's heavy and it's warm. I left the house wearing the 40 cm Super Puffy White Petticoat from the Chinese indie brand Sugar Girl. This is a beautiful and soft petticoat with many layers of tulle. Even though it is fine for my height, it is a little tight in the waist as I weigh a little bit more than the recommended weight. This petticoat is usually my go to for cotton or lightweight polyester dresses, especially in the summer, but as you can see it is doing almost nothing with the weight of tartan fabric. 

When I came home from the event that I went to in my tartan dress, I noticed my petticoat package from 42 Lolita had arrived. Basically they messed up on my last order and sent me the wrong jewelry item, and since their customer service is so great, they sent me two of their newly designed house brand petticoats to review on my blog. So here we are. 

The Nolaria 17.17" (45 cm) Organza Hoopless Puffy Petticoat is a 4 layered skirt of strong organza with a cotton lining. They also refer to this one as their "bounded" petticoat, as it has a little hem at the bottom of the skirt. This petticoat is their upgraded design which includes a longer lining as well as a wider waistband. I could immediately feel the difference in comfort compared to the Sugar Girl petticoat. It's also holding up the skirt of my dress in a modest way, so much that I can do something with my hands other than hold up one side of my skirt!  (Oh and I remembered to put the waist bow on---now you can see how much bigger it is than the little black bows!) This one is definitely going to become my new "daily wear" 45 cm petticoat. 

The upgraded Nolaria White Puffy Lolita Petticoat 17.7" 45 cm with Cotton Lining is what dreams are made of. Of all the petticoats I tried on that day (this was probably the fifth one), this is the first petticoat that really gave me the desired silhouette. It also has the same amazing organza layers, cotton lining, and very stretchy waistband as the other Nolaria petticoat. I loved also how soft and almost weightless this one was and I liked the "Unbounded" hem on this as well. I probably wouldn't wear this one everyday, especially if I was using public transport or in a tight area, but I do appreciate how it works so much better with my custom dress than anything else I currently own. 

I look forward to wearing my new petticoats and my customized dress as often as I am able together!!

Now I can tell you we've attended Old Sturbridge Villages Christmas By Candlelight program, but it was news to me up until last year that they also had a spooky October program called Phantoms By Firelight. Phantoms By Firelight is a special nighttime evening program held for three weekends in October after the daily hours of the museum had passed. I had wanted to go last year, but I had too many other events already planned, so I patiently waited an entire year for tickets to become available again. When they did, I reached out to Barbara and Jake to check their schedule and see if they could also go. They've been Members of the Museum for something like 10 + years, so all the staff gets excited to see them and they bought our tickets together so we could all just pay the member price (which saves $6 per ticket mind you)!  

The event description gripped me, "Wander fire-lit paths and step inside historic buildings, gather by the crackling bonfire for eerie-tales, and revel in the dazzling spectacle of fire dancers, soaring acrobats, and haunting melodies." Each building also had something death related--the cabinet maker was assembling coffins, the blacksmith was forging tools for a burial, and over near the farm, there was a staged 1830's wake. Also any Victorian era event of this nature would me remiss without human hair intricately woven into flowers as memories of the dearly departed or a jar of teeth, with a contest to guess how many teeth were in the jar. There were also unusual remedies for curing the body's humors and diseases, information about the origins of jack-o-lanterns, and other Halloween traditions. 

Despite all the entertainment included with Circus Vampyre performances and interactions with the staff in the buildings, there was also a Scavenger Hunt that involved clues and candy! We had to unravel riddles and collect stamps at multiple locations to piece together a mystery of a resident's untimely death to receive a delightful bag of treats as a reward. 

Now it's impossible for us to just not dress up for any occasion, but of course we wanted to dress up for Phantoms by Firelight. If you were a historical costumer like the people that work at Old Sturbridge Village, you would know that neither of our outfits were actually period or accurately historically based, but to the average attendee wearing sweats and sneakers, we looked like the staff. Now to be fair to them, the paths of the museum were truly fire-lit and once it was dark it was very hard to see anyone, except by their shadow outline. 

Pahl's outfit is brought to you mostly by the Historical Emporium. He is wearing an ivory blouse under a double breasted Regency waist coat (my Christmas gift to him in 2023), pinstripe high waisted wool pants stuffed inside black leather riding boots, a black wool tail coat, a primarily green with pops of coral and light blue paisley ascot, and a costume top hat with a large burgundy  hat band. 

I am wearing a black bat winged collar polyester blouse and a high-waisted green and navy blue pinstripe Victorian inspired skirt from Miss Point. (This skirt and its matching accessories were my 2023 Christmas gift from Pahl). Over the blouse I am wearing a black velvet caplet and a wool hat with a big pinstripe bow on it that matches the material on my skirt. I brought my "Book of Charms and Spells" handbag for the occasion and to match all the black in my coordinate. Lastly, I am wearing knee high black boots, mostly for comfort. Old Sturbridge Village is a lot of walking, and I wanted to be especially sturdy on those fire-lit paths. 

As we were walking around and collecting stamps and solving riddles (this took half the time mind you and it would have taken all the time if Barbara and Jake were not with us as they know all the names of the buildings and alternative ways to get to them), I noticed this red light on the side of the barn. I asked Pahl to orient himself so that it looked kind of like where his heart might be to compose in image of his love for me, even in shadow, or something like that. I like how you can see the outlines of our outfits quite distinctly such as our hats, his tailcoat, and the many layers of ruffles in my skirt. 

Did I mention it was dark? On the bridge over the water they had a fog machine going to add to the atmosphere. There were 6 portraits of actual people who had lived at one time but had met untimely deaths. One of these poor souls was the answer to the riddle, but we had to solve other riddles to make sure we had selected the correct one. You could read the information once you were on the bridge, but to approach it was intimidating for sure. 

How could you tell it was Barbara's silhouette above if I didn't even show you what she was wearing during the day??? She had a lovely purple and orange tartan dress accented with a long brown cardigan, brown leather Renaissance Faire boots, a bright orange infinity scarf, and a suede brown hat.  Barbara and I separated from the gents at one point to check out a fire show happening beyond the bridge while they saved us seats for the finale performance of the acrobat and fire troupe. 

The fire shows were interesting, but short. They also used modern music that I recognized to perform with, but I was kind surprised they didn't have a live person hauntingly playing a fiddle or something like that. The finale started late, and was a brief beautiful spectacle of a fire breathing performance, slight of hand from the magician, and a beautiful acrobat spinning on a hoop in the air. I am not entirely sure the Cyrkus Vampyr added to the already amazing programing that the museum had to honor death and what those traditions were like during the 1830's. I kinda wish I wasn't so treat motivated for the scavenger hunt and instead had spent a little time sitting around a bonfire and listening to some of the eerie stories.  

I think Old Sturbridge Village will be doing something like Phantoms by Firelight again, but I do know that this particular year was the final year for Cyrkus Vampyr, so who knows what kind of additional programming they will have next year!  On the way out, we stopped at the gift shop near the entrance of the museum so I could grab a second hot tea and use the restroom, and while everyone else was waiting for me, several people complimented Pahl on his "performance" assuming that he was one of the staff. 

Now I have been to the museum three times in recent years, once in December and twice in October. I have recently received a pair of tickets for regular day admission, so I will make a plan to attend in the spring of next year to see what that is like!  And who knows what I'll wear, but I probably won't look like the staff. Pahl on the other hand...now that's a different story!