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1915 Afternoon Dress in Blue and White Lace with Pink Rose Inspired By Uneasy Money By P.G. Wodehouse

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I’m listening to Uneasy Money by P.G. Wodehouse right now. I love listening to LibriVox audiobooks of Wodehouse’s stories, because they are just so darn cute and light-hearted, and I can space out a little with them when I’m doing the dishes. I’ve listened to so many now that I’m good at guessing who ends up with who. Not that it is all that much of a challenge once you get about a fifth of the way through the book, but I’m to the point where I have only to hear a name and I think things like “Ah, there’s our main love interest” or “He’s just a red herring, his job is going to be to cause trouble for our heroine.” But I haven’t finished the story yet, so even though I feel like I have comfortably predicted all the pairings, please don’t tell me how things are settled at the end!

When reading or listening to a book, I’m always unconsciously open to clues as to when it was set, but I haven’t heard any so far. However, Uneasy Money was serialized starting in 1915, so I think that’s a pretty reasonable date for a dress. I like 1915 fashion, actually, because the skirts get a little fuller than they were in 1914, and it’s really quite cute. Compare March 1914 to November 1915, and you’ll see what I mean.

Contest is over, as of 9:00 PM, and no one guessed the exact date. Brian and I were married on August 9, 2003, so the closest guess was Trazy’s guess of August 5th. Congratulations, Trazy, and tell me which black and white dress you’d like for me to color and how!

Black and White 1700s Gown

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OK, this is intended to be a robe à la française, but it’s not precisely what one would call “extensively researched.” I was more going for “pretty”… It looks a little understated, but you have to imagine it made out of a nice brocade or something that would show up when it is colored.

I’m not putting it on the doll because the black and white ones look funny on a doll, but that doesn’t mean I’ve decided yet. Some people have suggested a thumbnail with the dress and one with the doll and dress, but where would they go? They would both have to be significantly smaller, or I would have to write a lot more to balance it out. Either way it would look repetitive to me.

I prefer having the dress on the doll, but I won’t decide one way or the other until the poll closes.

Let’s do a new contest… Thanks to Kelly for the suggestion!
What day is my wedding anniversary?
Post your guess in the comments! Again, the rules:
1) If you’ve already won this year, please don’t enter.
2) One guess per person per day.
3) If no one gets the exact date by 9:00 PM EST, June 9th, I’ll pick the closest guess.
4) I’ll give one hint each day the contest goes on.
5) If you were actually at my wedding, you don’t get to guess. (But I’ll color a dress for you anyway, Mom, just remind me…)

poll by twiigs.com

June Birthday Dress with Rose Lace and Red Underskirt with Pearls

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My mom’s birthday is today, and if I didn’t do a June birthday dress, well…

June’s flower is the rose, and one of the birthstones is the pearl. It was hard deciding what color of rose to base it on, but in the end I did yellow, pink and white dresses pretty recently.

Sorry for the brief post, I’ve been looking at a computer a little too long today!

The total number of visits my site got between April 1 and 30th was 19,629. That makes Dani’s guess of 19,632 the closest! Congratulations Dani, pick your dress and your colors and let me know your decision!

Strapless A-Line Wedding Dress with Feather Fascinator and Blue and Yellow Bouquet

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I’ve been thinking a lot about weddings lately — specifically Japanese imperial weddings, but weddings all the same. It seems like everyone (in America, that is: the sort of thing one wears for an imperial wedding ceremony is rather different) is wearing strapless gowns with A-line skirts in recent years, and I thought it might be fun to take a stab at one myself. Plus, it afforded more opportunities to play with the white gel pen!

I have no idea if blue and light yellow is a popular color combination these days, I just wanted to use some unexpected colors. The fascinator is based on one created by Brian’s cousin Emily. As for the choice of strapless-A-line itself, it’s been popular so long that I’m a little bored of it, but it’s still quite pretty and it has the further advantage of not being a pick-up skirt.

By the way, I’m taking a cue from the new paperdoll blog A Paper Closet and showing the outfit on the doll instead of just having it floating on an invisible mannequin. Check that blog out, by the way, and all of the other paper doll blogs I’ve put up on my blogroll, after losing all my links in a server move. There have been some great ones that started while I was on hiatus, like A Paper Doll Blog and Karen’s Paper Dolls.

You get one more clue today, before the contest ends…

How many visits did my site get between (and including) April 1, 2010 and April 30, 2010?

Don’t forget the rules…
1) If you’ve already won this year, please don’t enter.
2) One guess per person per post.
3) If no one gets the exact number by 9:00 PM EST, June 2nd, I’ll pick the closest guess.
4) I’ll give one hint each day the contest goes on.
– Sunday’s hint: It’s between 10,000 and 30,000
– Yesterday’s hint: The middle digit is 6.
– Today’s hint: The fourth digit (counting from the right) is an odd number.