Oct 22 2014

The Cherubs Will Help You With Your Corset Now

Today’s Wednesday Whimsy is about the 1880’s corset and the Victorian trade cards advertising that essential ladies’ garment. I picked my favorite cards to share….

I like the idea that little cherubs would appear to assist you in lacing up your “glove fitting corset” but I have the feeling more often it was like that scene from the movie “Titanic”, where Rose’s mother made the thing as tight as she could get it!

Here’s a quote from actress Sarah Gadon: “When you’re wearing a corset for a long period of time, things that were important to you hours before are no longer important, because doing them exhausts you.”

And Michelle Dockery of Downton Abbey: “I don’t mind wearing a corset, it informs your posture, changes the way you move, you can’t slouch.”

Author Ali Smith: “Words are like untying a corset – you can move into this great space with them.”

I don’t think I personally would have enjoyed wearing one, no matter how wasp-waisted it made me look in those petticoats and ruffles. Although I did read there were looser ones made for sports, such as bicycling. I should hope so!

These three actresses in the center card above appear to love their corsets, although you can’t see any effect under the pretty robes.
But I think perhaps this card below is my favorite:

Oct 15 2014

Wednesday Whimsy S Is For Shoes

S Is For Shoes and I’ve got more Victorian trade cards to share…it seems to have been quite a “thing” in 1880’s advertising to have a pretty shoe with a bouquet of flowers artfully arranged inside. The one above is my favorite, and was advertising the White Sewing Machine Company, with 700,000 of them in use by busy seamstresses at the time!

“Give a girl the right shoes, and she can conquer the world.” Marilyn Monroe I’m totally with her, although I suspect she andI were thinking of something a lot sexier than these pretty Victorian slippers I’m showing today.

“A shoe is not only a design, but it’s a part of your body language, the way you walk. The way you’re going to move is quite dictated by your shoes.” Christian Louboutin My secret wish for a long time has been to have just one pair of his shoes….don’t ask me where I’d wear them!

“I think I have something tonight that’s not quite correct for evening wear. Blue suede shoes.” Elvis Presley Oh yes, those blue suede shoes of his were something else all right.

“Let your dreams outgrow the shoes of your expectations.” Ryunosuke Satoro

“The time has come,’ the walrus said, ‘to talk of many things: of shoes and ships – and sealing wax – of cabbages and kings.” Lewis Carroll There was also a theme in Victorian advertising of people sailing the seas in shoes. And another theme of the ubiquitous cherubs playing in and around shoes.

The great thing about writing is that you always put yourself in the shoes of the character. If you’re doing it right, you can see into the heart of all your characters. Usually, when there’s a writing problem, it’s because you aren’t doing that. Peter Gould (Director of Breaking Bad)

Oct 8 2014

October for Wednesday Whimsy

I LOVE the month of October! Yes, ok I was born in this month, but I generally love the cool, crisp Fall weather and this is my favorite time of the year. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for October-themed or autumnal 1880’s Victorian trade cards…found a few to share today. I also scooped up an alphabet card, V for Veronica of course, although the maker of the card series seemed to feel the letter is best represented by volcanoes and vipers and vino.

We had a poem we had to memorize in elementary school, “October’s Bright Blue Weather” by Helen Hunt Jackson, published in 1893. Here’s the first stanza:

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October’s bright blue weather;

The poem goes on for six more stanzas along these lines, SO much bounteous praise for my favorite month, and then the poetess concludes:

O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October’s bright blue weather.

Totally works for me!

So the 8th is my birthday…here’s me hard at work tomorrow on the current WIP, because birthday or no, we authors must get the words out….I did actually learn to type on a typewriter nearly that old, a Royal that my Dad picked up for cheap at a thrift store when I was a kid. That’s why I still literally pound the keys, even on my nice laptop, because you had to use force to get those metal strikers to fly up and leave a letter imprinted on the paper.

And here’s me, trying on new earrings for the family dinner party we’re having to celebrate the event…She was actually advertising Magnolia Balm on this card. And then here’s The Author celebrating in the last card below:

The bottle contains “Compound Oxygen” created by Drs. Starkey & Palen of Philadelphia. The back of the trade card admonished sternly that this was “not a drug” and listed numerous Editors, Ministers, Foreign Consuls and Members of Congress who swore by the stuff. All I can say is she looks pretty darn relaxed and cheerful for someone who’s just “restored the Fountainhead of all mental and physical activity to a state of integrity, thereby causing her muscles, nervous system and organs to all act more kindly and efficiently.” GIVE me some of THAT!

Sep 17 2014

P is for Parasol on Wednesday Whimsy

This week’s Wednesday Whimsy is all about the parasol….couldn’t find too many quotes about them, other than this one from author Anne Sexton, in a poem entitled “The Kite: “The parasol girls slept, sun-sitting their lovely years.”

When I interviewed steampunk author Gail Carriger for my USA Today/HEA column awhile ago, of course she has written an entire series entitled The Parasol Protectorate. Here’s one quick Q&A from the interview:

Veronica: Which piece of steampunk “technology” in the series is your favorite invention and why?

Gail: I like the really silly ones. So I’d probably go for some of those in the Finishing School series, like Bumbersnoot (a steam-powered mechanical sausage dog), which are a bit more whimsical. In the Parasol Protectorate books, I’d have to choose Alexia’s third parasol, the one Biffy decorates. It’s the ultimate Swiss Army knife of parasols.

I don’t have any Victorian trade cards with parasols that multi-purpose, but some fun-to-look-at nonetheless. And I love the dress this lady to the right is wearing….

Humans weren’t the only creatures who needed parasols in the late 1800’s, as you can see from the cards below. (The one with the chickens reminds me of my author friend Pippa Jay, not because she writes terrific science fiction romance (although she does) but because she keeps “chooks”, as she calls them, in her Colchester UK home.

I think the lady mouse on her “slow coach” with her leaf or flower petal parasol is very endearing….I like the way she’s keeping her sang froid on that less than secure perch!

And two more photos below, although it almost seems the couple has a beach umbrella rather than a parasol but it fits my theme (almost), so there you are!