Regency Dresses

Yesterday I was putting together some thoughts for the cover conference for the cover of my next book, The Spring Bride. I'm still writing the story, but in my case, because Im not a speedy writer, the cover is always finished long before the book.

They'd asked for some suggestions, and so, because the title is The Spring Bride, it'll be no surprise to you that there will be a bride on the cover. And it will be spring.

So I went looking for a few regency-era dresses for Jane, my bride.  Daisy, her sister, will be making the dress for her. Jane remembers her mother telling her about a beautiful pink dress she wore the day she met her future husband, and so Jane wants to get married in pink. It doesn't have to be all pink -- a cream dress with a few touches of pink would be fine.

Pinterest -- otherwise known as The Endless Tunnels of Gorgeousness. A place so easy to get lost in. Honestly, I could spend all day looking at stunning regency clothes. But I did manage to resist all the other gorgeous period collections. And I came up with a few possibles: So what do you think?

We'd need to make this one a little less apricot and paler for Jane, but I love it as is and I love the embroidered net overlay.

Such a pretty dress and the touch of pink roses around the hem and train are gorgeous. Not sure about the ninja scarf around the bride's face, though. :)

I loved this one with its lace overlay — this was very popular on FaceBook when I showed it.

Of course we'd need to do this in pink instead of blue, but otherwise, it's lovely, isn't it?

This was popular on Fb, too. I'm not so sure about the leaves. I do like the idea of appliqued and embroidered leaves, but these are a bit big for my taste. But the fabric of the gown is beautiful.

A lace veil or possibly a shawl. It's Spring, after all, and in England, so the weather won't be guaranteed sunny.

Or how's this if the weather is a bit nippy — a gorgeous cream pelisse, fastened with shell buttons.

I'm nowhere near writing that scene yet, so it might not be any of these dresses. In the meantime, oh dear, I might have to wander down The Endless Tunnels of Gorgeousness. I can justify regency clothes  because it's 'research' but there are luscious clothes from all eras, and all kinds of other beautiful things.

Which I must and shall resist. She says firmly. 

Really!

Do you have any favorites from the ones above?

Dried Fig Jam Experiment

I used to make fig jam every year, until my friends with fig trees sold up and moved — people can be so thoughtless. :)

I don't eat a lot of jam, but when the weather starts to get cold, I do like to have some tasty jam for the occasional piece of toast. And lately I've really been missing my favorite fig, lemon and ginger jam, so when I saw dried figs on sale, I bought some and am now making up the recipe... and hoping it works. Dried figs, oranges, lemons and grated ginger. 

So, the ingredients: (sorry, the quantities are vague because I'm making it up) 

2 packets of dried figs (2 x 375g) finely chopped.

Zest and juice of a couple of lemons, also finely chopped.

Flesh of a couple more oranges (because I had them and I figured more citrus wouldn't hurt.) 

a grated knob of ginger

Sugar.

1) Mix chopped figs, zest of lemons and ginger, and pour over sufficient boiling water to not quite cover.

2) Leave overnight. (As it happened I was a bit busy, so it sat in the fridge for several nights. The idea was to let the dried figs absorb the water.) 

3) If mix is dry, add a bit more boiling water. The next day it shouldn't have any visible liquid, just moist mush of figs.

4) Measure fig mix, and add not quite the same quantity of sugar. (I like it not too sweet)

5) Cook for 45 minutes, stirring regularly.

6) Test to see if it gels on a cold saucer, as jam should. My plan was: —

    a)  If it sets in a jammy way, cheer and bottle as usual.

    b)  If it doesn't, add more lemon juice and hope.

    c)  If it's still not setting try adding commercial pectin. (I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do this, because it would involve a trip to the supermarket.)

   d)  Otherwise, treat it as yummy syrup for ice cream, bottle and give to friends who eat lots of ice cream.

As it happened, version a) was the one that happened. Yay. That's my jam up the top. My mix made 7 medium jars and a bit left over. And here's how I plan to test it.

Do you make jam or is it too much mess and bother? What's your favorite jam?

When words fail...

I've been pondering on the failure of words to convey what you intend. Partly it's because I'm ditching a big chunk of the beginning of my current book, and starting again from scratch. Partly it's because a friend is currently ill, and a group of us sent her flowers and a simple message.

 Or so we thought.
Today she wrote to us and, to her thanks, added this:

Card read ‘think  of this as super placement’.  Now, I had enough functioning brain cells to realise something had been lost in translation, but what?  3am it struck me – super placement, soup replacement.

It gave us all a giggle, and I was reminded of some other failures of the "Chinese whispers" variety -- you know the old game, where one person passes on a whispered message, and they pass it on... and by the time you get to the end of the line the message bears no resemblance to the original.

These are of the cake decorating variety -- cakes ordered over the phone, and then... words fail. Or maybe ears fail.

I love this one, picturing the bride and groom (clearly keen gardeners) in green... and not a drop of green icing in sight.

But I don't think this was what was ordered, either.

And you know exactly what was ordered here:

Anyway, these gave me a laugh, and put me in a better frame of mind for restarting the book. There are plenty more of these cake disasters on the web — just google cake wrecks.