“Come on. Pull it tighter. I’m tough. Make it tight. Pull harder.” I remember my grandmother’s words like it was yesterday. Actually, it was 60+ years ago, and yes in the 1950’s and early 1960’s my grandmother still wore a corset. A trend she borrowed from the Victorian era. She grew up during the waning […]
What was the first Christian Fiction book you read? My answer to this question posed in a social media post: Christy by Catherine Marshall. Released while we were in high school in 1967, many of my friends and I read and thoroughly enjoyed this story of faith set in the Appalachian mountains of Tennessee. (Little […]
I met the girl in this photo when I was five years old. What I didn’t know then? Her story is a part of my heritage. Before my parents brought me home from the hospital, Dad started a doll collection for his little girl. He purchased a tiny porcelain doll dressed in a pink-smocked dress […]
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” ~William Shakespeare According to the Victorian language of the flowers pink roses speak of adoration, loyalty, gratitude, grace, admiration, joy, and strength. While we often select red ones for love, pink roses are a perfect token of a gentleman’s love for his lady. Besides […]
This weekend we celebrate Independence Day or the Fourth of July in America. Whichever name you call it, here are a few fun facts about the holiday. In 1958 Robert G. Heft, a 16-year-old student designed the 50-star flag as an assignment in his history class. The teacher gave him a B-, but when he […]
An author researches many topics along their writing journey. With my current work-in-progress set in the second half of the nineteenth century, my curiosity was stirred about children’s party games (and adult parlor games, too). Alice in Wonderland was written in 1865. An outdoor party game was croquet. You can learn about its history here. Many games […]
“Now I’ve got that song stuck in my head.” How many times have you said that? I’ve never said it. You heard that correctly. Any tune I attempt ends up a river of nonsense notes spilled out on the rocks. Sunday morning during worship I lamented once again my total lack of a voice, as […]
Roaring Twenties — The phrase brings to mind flappers, fringe and long beads; rising hemlines; jazz; Art Deco; economic prosperity; movies, telephone, automobiles, radios all gaining popularity. In the first year of the 1920s women received the right to vote. The date: August 18, 1920. My grandmother turned 38 years old the next day, and […]
My current work-in-progress (WIP) keeps me looking at all things Victorian. This article, How to Create Modern Victorian Interiors, caught my attention. Just last fall, I had the opportunity to drive by my Great Grandparents’s home in Chicago and click a few photos. The home was built for them in the 1890s, and it’s current […]
We’ve been forbidden human touch. We’ve become afraid of human touch, but we’re also missing it. In these days of COVID-19 lockdowns and social distancing extending far beyond the two weeks to flatten the curve, we’ve had one of our most basic needs stripped from us. Basic needs are usually considered to be water, shelter, […]
