Gothic Romances

It's still me, Nellie.  I know, two weeks in a row.  It's a miracle, right?  But I really do love the old books best compared to all the modern stories.  And this time I persuaded the human to expand the collection of gothic romances.  It's the Bronte Sisters collection, with Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte), Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte, and hello stock brooding moody hero Heathcliff), and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Bronte).

Jane Eyre is by far the favorite around here.  The human read it when she was 12 (on order from her grandmother, of all people, because she was supposed to be a young lady and not read all those hoydenish science fiction books.  And no more of those trashy Star Wars novels.) and again for a college class in Women's Studies.  Amazingly enough, after all that, she still vaguely enjoyed the book.

None of us can make any sense of Wuthering Heights.  Perhaps since none of us actually enjoy the tall dark brooding hero archetype.

Setting up a new bakery

Kana here.  I'm still not sure whose idea this was to set up a bakery.  We don't really have enough of anything, which means I'm the one baking.  Because after the last three incidents with food, potions, and the swapping of some vital ingredients, Lily has been banned from the kitchen.

Not that it stops her...

"Where do you want these cookies?"

"Wait, those aren't done yet!  They need something extra!"
"NO THEY DON'T!"

"Now they're magical snacks.  They'll turn whatever you're wearing
into a ball gown!"
"Lily, not actually helping here..."

"I am not actually involved in any of this.
This is so above my pay grade."

Jane Austen Novels

Regency romances, anyone?

Hi.  It's Nellie.  I'm really not here very often because it's usually Kana, Shep, or Lily who gets to show off our new toys, but none of them actually enjoy the classics.  (They're all geeks.  Samantha and I are far more traditional in our hobbies.)

And in this case, I'm the proud new owner of a set of (mostly) matching Jane Austen novels.

I have all the good ones:  Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Mansfield Park.  The human even managed to sit down and read them.  Or at least watch the BBC dramatizations of them.  The next step is convincing the human to make me the proper Regency dresses.  And perhaps a set of Georgette Heyer novels...

Wizard Robes, School Uniforms, and Wands

Wands up!

Kana here.  It is not so much that we are back as that the human is finally fed up with not devoting enough time to us.  So we're going through the backlog of projects and photos, and showing some of them off.

In this case, it's the Hogwarts uniforms we got last fall.  Let's not really go into how much the robes and ties drove the human to distraction...

I'm very much a Ravenclaw, and we all know Lily's a Slytherin.

Nellie and Sam are the 'good' girls in Hufflepuff and Gryffindor.

(Go look up what 'huffle' means in Victorian slang.  We dare you.)

All the sweaters and vests were cut down from the same girl's sweater the human bought at a bag sale.  And all the shirts have working buttons, even if you can't see them here.

We do not actually care what the Hogwarts uniform policy is.  It's 2017, and girls are allowed to wear uniform pants should they chose.

Can't cast magic without wands

And of course, we have our own wands.  Many many wands.  The wands are made from polymer clay around a core of wood, tin foil, and glass beads (to get the knobbly look).

We'll try to be around at least semi-regularly until the human is free from her latest bad idea of learning how to be an EMT.

Hiatus until June

Taking a break to deal with everything else going on.

Samantha in Montpelier

In the hotel lobby

Sam here.  The week before Christmas, the human, her male counterpart, and I took a little weekend trip to Montpelier, VT.  Since it was supposed to snow, I commandeered the new purple velvet cloak.  We stayed in the Capitol Plaza, right in the center of Montpelier.

First stop, the Vermont History Museum

The snow did not start Friday night when we drove up, but by Saturday morning, there was a lovely little snowstorm.  But the museum was right across the street from the hotel, and wonderfully deserted thanks to the snow.  It was just me, the human, and the museum employee (who gave the human a little sample book someone sent them.  It's too big for us, but the human will miniaturize it.).

The museum had some really interesting objects, like a Civil War medicine case of leather with little glass vials.  I do believe that the human should make us one.  Not shown here was the obligatory Bernie Sanders campaign poster from 1983 (it is Vermont, after all).

Outdoors, it was turning into a winter wonderland.

Christmas shopping at the Farmer's Market

By early afternoon, the snow had died down, and the humans decided to venture to their favorite distillery.  I came along for some nice scenery.  (The less said about the condition of the roads, the better.  The humans only drove into a snowbank once.)

Winter scenery

In the evening, we made a trip up to Burlington for dinner with the human's friends, and some lovely street scenes.

And when we got back to Montpelier, the tree in front of the state house was lit, so we went out for more photos.

Opening the Christmas Trunk

It's Nora this time.  It's still Christmas, at least until January 5th, which means we'll continue to post all about our holiday adventures for the next week.  Or until the human gets sick of it.  Which ever comes first.  We didn't get wrapped presents, but we did get this wonderful holiday trunk.

As for what's inside...

Lots and lots of wonderful things.

On the very top is a little vintage book on the wonderful and brilliant Lady Ada Lovelace, her of the computer programming and analytical engine and Fibonacci sequence fame (also a steampunk inventor, but that's a different story).  The human picked up the book from an antique book fair.  As it happens, collecting miniature books is a thing humans do, but the books are frequently rather pricey.  We won't tell you how much this one cost, but it was one of the cheaper ones, or so the human says.

The books was immediately claimed by Kana.

The trunk unpacked.

The rest of the holiday haul included a pair of lace fans and nosegays (claimed by Sam and Nellie), a vintage picture book of an old English garden (ditto), a music box and nutcracker (decorations for the house), various science models (Lily), a spice grinder (for the kitchen), drafting tools (Shep, though her real present is something much more entertaining), a vintage camera (Cauth), and a fancy holiday apron and cookie cutters (mine).

Smiling for the camera!