Today I went with Lyssa to Chatsworth House to see the Christmas decorations! Absolutely gorgeous, they are all based around the beautiful paper art of Jan Pienkowski, creating wonderful tableaus of shadow puppet style cut outs at various intervals through the house.

All the trees were in white and gold and many of the rooms had been adorned with fabulous swags of fir and twinkling lights. A truly magical experience. Chatsworth is always spectacular but at Christmas it is even more so.

Before going round the house we wandered through the grounds, admiring the fabulous shapes of branches and contrasts of leafs and statues, then we got lost in the maze... but so did everyone else! hurah!

We had booked online and had a wonderful afternoon tea in the carriage restaurant, led to our reserved table completely by passing the queue. The food was lovely, with tiny sandwiches and scones and cakes. They kept replenishing our pots of tea and refilling the cake stand too!!

Because it got dark early we were able to admire the illuminated trees at the front of the house and the dramatic floodlighting, what a lovely start to Christmas ;0

The effigy corset

Thought you might like to see my finished version of the Elizabethan "effigy" corset. It was created for Harman Hay for whom I'm also making a lovely Tudor open fronted robe, mmmmmm. They will be used for a living history display I believe.

I used the Reconstructing History pattern as a base, adding my own touches where I felt it needed it.

It has four fabric layers, the top one is silk, and over 90 boned channels...

Just discovered this extraordinary photographer whose beautiful work focuses on lush lush costumes and exotic models. Vena-Art is the name of her company, based in Belgium. She also organises a fabulous Ball type event which would be well worth a visit.

Every picture looks like a film poster for a fabulous fantasy period drama that I'd be just desparate to see!!!

Hope to see a lot more of her work in the future...

Just had to share this fantastic site with you all. The costumers guide to movies

It contains encyclopedic information on every costume of note from every "fab-frock" film, with loads of close up photos and details of film costume exhibitions around the world.

Readers of the site are encouraged to send in pictures they have taken from exhibitions, as well as contributing to a wonderful "same frock different film" article where the stars are the dresses who turn up in (often wildly) differing films.

Regency Ball

We had an absolutely glorious time at the Regency ball in Bath.

It was held for the first time at the assembly rooms , Imust admit the sight of 100+ couples dancing away in fabulous costumes was truly magnificent.

We all attended the dancing lesson and cream tea in the afternoon which was great fun and gave us a head start on the dances of the evening!

I went down with "the ladies", looking ever so haughty here and dashing Captain Adam. It was lovely to see some familiar faces and we made some fabulous new friends who had an equal capacity for tea and cake!

Everyone made their own gowns with just a little pattern cutting assistance from yours truly, and Lesleys gloves, all her own work, were truly spectacular!

We stayed at Bath youth hostel which is a lovely regency townhouse, although looking a little shabbier than we remembered. and also visited the fabulous thermae spa for a twighlight relaxation and gossip session. All in all a delightful long weekend!

Ladies Afternoon tea

In the spirit of life as art, My birthday party this year was a delightful tea party in the garden with ten lovely ladies. Poor Hubby was banished for the weekend but i did save him some cheese scones...

I baked many cakes and biscuits and got a bit carried away with the icing! These sweet Bollywood flower biscuits were inspired by Peggy Porschens fabulous book on cake decorating and the main cake was created to reflect the dining room curtains! Which are gorgeous gorgeous fabric from Hyena...

Altogether it was just too beautiful to eat, especially when presented on my grandmothers tea set, but we did anyway. Cheryl gave us taster reflexology massage which was absolutely wonderful, then of course it was cocktail time and we chatted over mai tais and white russians till the early hours!

What an elegant and refined Party!

Wedding Season

Just finished Katie Ffordes new book "Wedding Season" which was partly inspired by, wait for it, Me !

It is a wonderful romantic romp through the world of the wedding planners and designers/florists etc with lots of thwarted passions, mistaken romantic intentions and great descriptions of gorgeous wedding fripperies. Perfect summer garden or honeymoon holiday reading.

I am so proud to be named as an inspiriation in the credits, I was able to give Katie some insight into the design and making process of a couture wedding gown as well as running your own studio.

The details Katie absorbed whilst on the Kindred Spirits corset weekend shine through in the character of Elsa, the wedding gown designer!

Those who were also on the corset course will remember Katie was not as bad at sewing as she claims either, despite keeping us all entertained for the weekend with hysterical stories... hurah for 24 inch waists ;)

Her description of the regency party in the novel also reminded me that tickets for the regency ball in Bath in September are now sold out!!!

I shall be there of course, with my delightful friends for cake and champagne and perhaps a smidgeon of dancing....

Although not in this gorgeous silk gown which was created as last year for Kirsten, who got married in a castle!