Category: Frivolity

Fun posts

Happy Boxing Day

Updated on December 26, 2013 by Janet Mullany

(or, as we call it here, Thursday). I hope everyone is enjoying the post-Christmas glow, or if you had to return to work, that your colleagues brought in the leftover cookies.

Santa was good to me this year, although I cannot guarantee it had anything to do with behavior–among my loot was Lucy Inglis’s Georgian London and The Black Count by Tom Reiss, and yes, Jane Austen bandaids! I am blessed.

And now on to the term Boxing Day. What does it mean? Let’s hear it from you history buffs.

1. It was the day that servants were given their Christmas boxes by their kindly employers. Jolly good, John Potboy. Here is three shillings and sixpence and a suet pudding, less five shillings and eleven pence in fines for drunkenness, swearing, and eating left over bread without permission, leaving you with a balance to be taken from your wages of two shillings and five pence. You may keep the suet pudding.

2. It was the day that misrule ruled downstairs in the house. Wild games of football using suet puddings as the ball, amateur drag shows where the butler dressed up as the housekeeper and sang popular songs, and rolling naked in the snow were just some of the charming local customs.

3. Ladies Day at Gentleman Jackson’s Saloon. Ladies of the aristocracy would have the run of Jackson’s famous boxing establishment to settle such affairs of honor as Almack’s vouchers, slights, snubs, and stealing of fashion secrets, suet pudding recipes, or servants.

4. Black sheep disposal. Troublesome family members were lured into a box with only a suet pudding for sustenance and loaded on a ship going to the Americas. Those who survived frequently turned up to claim the title to the dukedom and display dreadful American manners in the drawing rooms of the ton.

Happy holidays everyone! Don’t forget to enter my contest at goodreads.com.

Posted in Frivolity | 1 Reply

Regency Gifts

Updated on December 23, 2013 by Diane Gaston

It is too late for me to put anything on my Christmas list–Christmas is only two days away, yipes–but there is nothing to stop me from dreaming, is there?

So I might as well dream about receiving Regency gifts.

One item I would love to have is a Regency era nightgown. A reproduction of one, I mean. The nice thing is, I could probably get one of these someday. Here’s a particularly lovely one, from White Nightie.

I once had a nightgown something like this one. A college friend gave it to me. It had been her grandmother’s. I loved that nightgown and wore it for years until it wore out.

I’ve always wanted a piece of Regency era furniture. A pretty chest of drawers or something. This piece on ebay would do very nicely, I think. It would be lovely to furnish a home with such furniture, although I’d opt for modern beds and sofas. And electric lighting.

What Christmas list would be complete without jewelry? I’ve always wanted a genuine antique cameo. This one, also on ebay, is lovely.

What I should be doing, rather than dreaming of Regency gifts is wrapping some!

What do you wish for for Christmas this year? What do you have left to do?

Look on my website for the grand prize winner of the Harlequin Historical Authors Holiday Giveaway.

Posted in Frivolity, Regency | 2 Replies

Regency Gift List

Updated on December 12, 2013 by Elena Greene

I’m just about done with my real Christmas shopping ; I’m still awaiting one item ordered online and need to pick up some candy for stocking stuffers. But in case anyone’s looking for gifts for a Regency-phile—or herself, I found some fun items online.

The Jane Austen Centre Giftshop always has some interesting items. I’m partial to sweet-smelling things and these “Scents of Austen’s World” candles sound lovely, especially the honeysuckle.

Since I’ve been playing piano again, with pleasure though not particularly well, this collection of piano music, “A Carriage Ride in Queen’s Square: Easy to Play Piano Pieces for Jane Austen’s Bath” also intrigued me. It’s described as a collection of “original compositions by Gwen Bevan, great-great-grandaughter of Jane Austen’s niece, Fanny Knight.”

I regularly direct my husband to the Republic of Pemberley Store for stocking stuffers and such. Pemberley Puddings looks like fun, along with the original Republic of Pemberley Cookbook

I love the “Amiable Rancor” section. Here’s a magnet from the collection. The text is from a letter from Jane to her sister Cassandra: “There was a scarcity of men in general, & a still greater scarcity of any that were good for much”.

If you’re feeling extravagant—or just like to window shop as I do and call it research—there’s one of my favorite antique jewelry sites: www.georgianjewelry.com.

Here are some Halley’s Comet earrings, from 1835, one of the years the comet made an appearance. Just a bit after the Regency but festive and a little geeky at the same time.

I also love the vivid blue enamel on this pearl and diamond cluster ring, c. 1790.

How’s your holiday shopping going? Do you ever treat yourself?

Elena
www.elenagreene.com

Posted in Frivolity, Jane Austen | Tagged gifts, jewelry | 5 Replies

Short but Sweet

Updated on November 29, 2013 by Myretta

Here’s my follow-up to a mighty sweet Thanksgiving. I’ll start right here by admitting that I love food (I know – who doesn’t?). My extreme love of dessert is thwarted by the fact that certain factors make it impossible for me to indulge on a regular basis. Thursday was one of the exceptions. I also misbehave (culinarily) on Christmas and the occasional birthday.

In between bouts of gustatory vice, I manage this sorry state of affairs by vicariously indulging in food web sites. One of my favorites is Great British Puddings. There are some great recipes although, if you’re in the US, you’ll have to do some conversions to get the ingredients right. Happily, the site includes a conversion table.

The picture I’ve included is, Sticky Toffee Pudding, one of my favorites. I believe this is considered a rather low-class choice in England. But who cares? I make this every Christmas and it could only be improved if I could get my hands on some honest-to-goodness clotted cream. But, even without it’s yummy. So, whether you want to bake or, like me, indulge vicariously, this might be right up your alley.

Do you have favorite food sites? Please share. One can never have too much vice.

Posted in Anything but writing, Frivolity | 4 Replies

Jama Day!

Updated on November 29, 2013 by Elena Greene

Janet is having technical difficulties, so there was no post yesterday. But the Riskies hope you’ve all had a lovely Thanksgiving and we are grateful for having such nice visitors!

As for today, since I’ve been working very hard lately, and so have my daughters (challenging academic loads and college applications for the oldest!) we’ve decided to do the opposite of the typical Black Friday.

The idea of a “Jama Day” came from this Peter Mayer song about spending a day in your pajamas as if “you don’t have a job, not even a resume.”

Our “Jama Day” is going to be a little more structured than in the song, partly because we’re doing it as a group and also because it’s not in my nature to be completely unstructured. Ironically, that would stress me out and being stressed out is not the point!

So we decided to do a Lord of the Rings marathon. We laid in a supply of easy munchies, some healthy (quacamole and chips, hummus and veggies) some not so much (M&Ms, donuts for breakfast and of course, cake). For dinner, we’ll have mushroom pizza in honor of the hobbits.