Lady Holiday

Last night when I was supposed to be working on my paper, I got distracted by Etsy, and found some great crochet dress patterns! I'm going to make both of these dresses--I bought the patterns, which come from an old 1960's pattern book. I've been searching a long time for some good dress patterns for crochet, and it seems like they are all from the past. But we need to revive these things. Whatever happened to making your own clothes?

I feel like I've been neglecting my blog--hopefully you haven't missed me too much. There's just been a lot to do...actually, that's not a good excuse--I spent the other night watching music videos on Youtube instead of working on my paper. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I better get busy because I've only got a week to write this thing. It's about Victorian interior decorating, and I've been reading style books from the period, such as "Hints on Household Taste" by Charles Eastlake, who was the authority on what furniture styles to buy and how to arrange your home, back in the 1870's.

And I'm still thinking of topics for my thesis--yesterday I came up with at least five more. I realized that I'm particularly interested in symbolism and iconography and thats what attracts me to things like the Shaker drawings, religious artifacts, samplers and genealogies. Even gravestones. I could write about gravestone art! What I need to do is schedule a meeting with one of my advisors and see if she can advise me and help me narrow it down. It's just hard to know, not having begun the research, what has been done already, and what is out there that needs to be studied.

Anyway, I think I'm getting another cold...boo! Oh well. I hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day. I went to see Rufus Wainwright at Radio City Music Hall and had a very entertaining evening. He is quite the performer! His voice is phenomenal. I realized that he's pretty much a cross between Morrissey and Elton John, with a little bit of Neil Diamond (and Judy Garland!) thrown in. I left before the final encore, and I'm glad I did, because it sounds like things got a little over the top. I'm not Catholic, but I would have found his last song offensive. But I liked the rest of the show a whole lot: the costume changes, the fireworks, the decadence. Radio City Music Hall was the perfect place for it.