Tag Archives: dolls

Unexpected Gifts

Updated on May 10, 2010 by Diane Gaston

I hope everyone–especially the mothers–had a Happy Mother’s Day. My in-laws visited for the weekend and we went to the new Workhouse Arts Center, created from the former prison in Lorton, VA. It is a wonderful place where artists create and sell their art, everything from photography to textiles to glass to painting and sculpture. All kinds of creativity.

So it was only fitting that my daughter gave me “art” for mother’s day, a print she found in a thrift shop (she also bought me a necklace and my son gave me chocolates, which was a whole ‘nuther great gift).

I haven’t had time yet to look up what type of soldier this is. I think he’s French…Believe me, I have a few uniform books I can look though to find out. But I love him. Mostly I love that my daughter saw this print and thought of me.

Another thoughtful gift I received recently involved my uncle, aunt and her sister, who is no relation to me. A long time ago my uncle, who lives in Florida, asked me for the Regency Fashion print I’d used for a Christmas card. I sent it to him wondering a bit why he wanted to have it.

Then a few weeks ago, I received a HUGE box in the mail with this gift inside. My aunt’s sister makes these doll wall hangings as a craft. She copied my Regency Fashion print and made a doll of it
Isn’t this clever? Even the face is similar to the print. I love the way she made the hand holding the cape open.

Like my daughter’s gift, this was both unexpected and thoughtful. It went straight to my biggest obsession–The Regency. How grand is that?

Have you received a gift that was both unexpected and incredibly thoughtful?

Remember that my day to blog at Diane’s Blog is Thursdays! Come visit me then too.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged A Regency Christmas, dolls, mothers | 14 Replies

What a Doll!

Updated on January 4, 2010 by Diane Gaston

On January 10 our Risky Regencies guest will be my friend and debut author, Christine Trent. Christine marked the New Year by finding her book on the Barnes and Noble shelves for the first time ever!

I’ve been waiting for this book ever since Christine answered my question “What are you writing” with, “I’m writing a historical about a dollmaker who makes dolls for Marie Antoinette.” I just knew that she would sell that book and here she is in her local Barnes and Noble holding the book in her very own hands.

The Queen’s Dollmaker is receiving great reviews, including 4 stars from RTBook Reviews. I don’t want to say more because we’ll hear all about it from Christine herself on Sunday, Jan 10.

I finished the very extensive and coming right around the holidays revisions for Book 2 in my Soldiers Trilogy last night at 1 am and am too brain-dead to think of a wonderfully creative blog post. (You’ll get that from Carolyn, I’m sure!) I thought I’d just show you a doll.

Years ago, my friend Helen transformed this Barbie doll into a Regency lady to promote my second book, The Wagering Widow. The doll was part of a raffle basket we made up for that year’s Washington Romance Writers Retreat. The trouble was, I loved the doll so much that I stuffed all my raffle tickets into the bag. As a result, I won my own raffle basket!

And, guess what? The Wagering Widow is being re-released by Mills & Boon in February as one of their Regency High Society Affairs series. The Wagering Widow is paired with Georgina Devon’s An Unconventional Widow in a two-in-one volume and is available for pre-order at Book Depository where shipping is free!