New friends and Dalnavert House
This weekend I met the main members of a local group called Victorian at Heart. They are two ladies, Wanda and Shirley, who enjoy making Victorian costumes to play dress up and go to cool places. (Just my kind of people!) We went to Dalnavert House (where I volunteered the other week) to take a tour and have iced tea and cookies on the porch. Wanda and Shirley have been kind enough to share their pictures with me (because I was silly and didn't take a camera) and I'm sharing some with you, so you can see my finished print polonaise, my awesome new friends, and the gorgeous house.
Here I am posing on the porch with a borrowed parasol and century old linen napkin (both belonged to Shirley). I really need a hat for this outfit. I really like this shot of the bustling in the back. This pictures is in the kitchen and I'm checking out the butler's pantry. This is also my super easy Natural Form hairdo, which is just a very low French braid with the end looped up and pinned. It doesn't require particularly long hair or hair skills. It also works as a bridesmaid hairdo if you're doing your own hair (used it twice last year, with slight variations).
Wanda is pictured here on the porch looking through the stereoscope that she brought. And Shirley is shown on the lawn in front of the lovely garden. All of the gardens have period-appropriate flowers and there is a garden for each of the four members of the original family who lived here.
These pictures are of the parlour and the daughter's bedroom. There are a couple of objects that are actually original to the house and belonged to the family, but most of the items are antiques of the period that were purchased when the house was restored a few decades ago. All the wallpapers are reproductions either based on the ones that were known to be originally in the house or similar in style to those that would have been there (as remembered by a grandson of the family who spent some time in the house in his youth).
We were welcomed warmly by the people who work at the house who were enthusiastic about our costumes and took pictures of us in the parlour. We also had a wonderful tour guide. Cool facts that I learned about the house: it was top-of-the-line with innovations for the time such as steam heat (you can see the brass radiators in many of the rooms), electric lights, and walk-in closets (as opposed to wardrobes and armoires). In addition to the call buttons (like bell pulls) there was also a shouting tube so that people (the lady of the house) could whistle or yell into a tube that went down to the kitchen. The top of the tube was in the lady's bathroom!
I should be volunteering about once a week there this summer and look forward to giving tours and showing people around. It's a beautiful house and I'm so glad that it's been saved and will not be turned into offices or something else.
Here I am posing on the porch with a borrowed parasol and century old linen napkin (both belonged to Shirley). I really need a hat for this outfit. I really like this shot of the bustling in the back. This pictures is in the kitchen and I'm checking out the butler's pantry. This is also my super easy Natural Form hairdo, which is just a very low French braid with the end looped up and pinned. It doesn't require particularly long hair or hair skills. It also works as a bridesmaid hairdo if you're doing your own hair (used it twice last year, with slight variations).
Wanda is pictured here on the porch looking through the stereoscope that she brought. And Shirley is shown on the lawn in front of the lovely garden. All of the gardens have period-appropriate flowers and there is a garden for each of the four members of the original family who lived here.
These pictures are of the parlour and the daughter's bedroom. There are a couple of objects that are actually original to the house and belonged to the family, but most of the items are antiques of the period that were purchased when the house was restored a few decades ago. All the wallpapers are reproductions either based on the ones that were known to be originally in the house or similar in style to those that would have been there (as remembered by a grandson of the family who spent some time in the house in his youth).
We were welcomed warmly by the people who work at the house who were enthusiastic about our costumes and took pictures of us in the parlour. We also had a wonderful tour guide. Cool facts that I learned about the house: it was top-of-the-line with innovations for the time such as steam heat (you can see the brass radiators in many of the rooms), electric lights, and walk-in closets (as opposed to wardrobes and armoires). In addition to the call buttons (like bell pulls) there was also a shouting tube so that people (the lady of the house) could whistle or yell into a tube that went down to the kitchen. The top of the tube was in the lady's bathroom!
I should be volunteering about once a week there this summer and look forward to giving tours and showing people around. It's a beautiful house and I'm so glad that it's been saved and will not be turned into offices or something else.