Past Event - Riversdale House Museum

Here's a real blast from the past!  Five years ago - June 1, 2014 - was my very first outing with the Fabulosity Club!  This was just a day after Brian the Engineer and I got engaged, so I guess it's hardly surprising that I never got around to blogging about it.  And it turns out a good half of the pictures from the event were taken on Brian's phone.  I just scalped them off of Facebook when I saw the album he posted pop up in my "On This Day" memories!  

The event was a picnic and tour of the Riversdale House Museum in Riverdale Park, Maryland.  I'm probably not going to write much in this post, as I don't remember a lot of the details from five years ago, but you can read Maggie's post or Gloria's post about the event for a more contemporary account.

After a picnic on the grounds (of which I have no photos) we took a tour of the house, which was getting a face-lift:

Brian looked very dashing in his brand-new tailcoat and waistcoat.  He's wearing a cummerbund here because I hadn't made him trousers yet, and his modern pants have a much lower waistline.  

The inside of the house was very pretty:  

I believe the floor was a painted floor-cloth.

I don't know what our guide was showing us here, but clearly I liked it:

There was such great light in that room!  I'd like to go back now, with a better camera!

Brian got lots of crowd shots on his phone:

Look at all the pretty dishes!

I loved the wallpaper in this room:

It's fun to see all the pretty bonnets and hats!

The ballroom was the coolest:

We all loved this beautiful chandelier:

More touring:  

That was my first real digital camera!  Ah, memories.

We made such a nice-looking assemblage:

Brian got to sonic something:

And back outside, we re-enacted the proposal, just for kicks:

I don't remember who took these pictures for us, but thank you whoever you are!

Brian wore his aforementioned Blue Linen Tailcoat and Green Spot'd Waistcoat, which I had *just* finished in time for the "photo shoot" he had orchestrated - which turned out to be a proposal!  We had bought his riding boots on ebay, and "borrowed" the top hat from my dad.  (He hasn't gotten it back yet!  :p )  I also made his shirt, which is almost entirely hidden by everything else, and his "cravat" was a silk scarf I happened to have.  I hadn't made him a real linen one yet.

I wore my Blue Day Dress, Green Straw Bonnet, Green Paisley Shawl, Dotted Chemisette, and my Hartfield boots.

All the ladies lined up for a Regency wedgie shot - a trend which was in its infancy back then!

And a shoe shot, OF COURSE:

This is one of my favorite photos from the day:

Brian took a couple photos of me re-reading the letter he had written to propose to me:

And we wandered the grounds some more:

As I recall, there were strawberries growing in the garden!

Handsome fiancé is handsome:

Looking back through all of these photos, I'm realizing that I "met" a lot of people that day that I didn't really officially meet until years later!  Jess, Nastassia, Isabella, Amanda, and Judy - all amazing costumers and cool people to hang out with.  I was probably too shy/too loopy from being newly engaged to properly introduce myself to everyone at the time.  I know I met Gloria - who had organized the event - and Taylor - from whom I had just bought a necklace and earrings set - at the picnic.  I knew Maggie already, as she and I had been in the same costume masquerade skit at Star Wars Celebration III back in 2005!  Man, time flies.  

Past Event - Caledon Nature Hike

Another event I never blogged about!  On June 11, 2016, the Regency Society of Virginia gathered at Caledon State Park for a Regency nature hike.

Our guide in the woods was Mr. Callahan, a naturalist:

Whole families came out:

And I dragged Brian the Engineer along, in his Regency duds:

The assembled company listened intently to our guide before we ventured into the woods:

First he showed us some of the trees on the lawn of the house.

I wish I could remember what he'd told us, but that was so long ago!

Brian took over my camera, as evidenced by all the pictures of me.  :p

And we were off!  Into the woods:

I believe here he was showing us how to recognize poison ivy:

I love all of the bonnets:

I remember it was a hot day, and I was glad of my parasol for sun protection.

This was probably us looking for a bird that was singing up in the trees:

Mr. Callahan actually had an app on his smartphone that could identify bird songs (I should have gotten the info from him!) and he was playing one to get the real bird to sing back!

After our walk, we had a picnic and games:

I love photographing people playing Graces!

Brian always enjoys a good game of Cribbage:

And we had Battledore & Shuttlecock:

I snuck away and tried to get some arty shots of the picnic through the leaves:

And after the picnic we got some photos of the two of us:

It was windy, so my skirt was hugging my legs, lol.

And Brian also got some photos of just me, in my new Dove Gray Dress:

I also wore my ruffled chemisette and removable ruff, along with my cap and a straw bonnet I had refashioned from a thrift-store hat, and my Hartfields.

Brian wore his Blue Linen Tailcoat, Green Spot'd Waistcoat, and breeches that were formerly trousers.