"To be properly accomplished, young girls learned such vital social graces as how to sit down, how to pour tea, how to tip the maid after a country weekend, how to put on gloves, how to write a thankyou note, and how to receive a diamond or refuse a pearl." ~Jeanine Larmouth I have been doing a lot of reading lately because I have had the flu (I am feeling much better now by the way - thankyou for all of your get well wishes!) and I found myself indulging in a few period romance novels. I love the language and the descriptions of social settings in Regency and Victorian stories. One afternoon I had just finished a book that I love and have read before and suddenly felt that I needed to tap into my novel's well of inspiration. I was still feverish and drippy at the time but I got out of bed anyway and cleared my vanity and began putting layer upon layer of things on it in an effort to create a "messy victorian" girl's dressing table. I thought - those Victorian girls must have had a little bit of clutter once in awhile what with all of the correspondences, party preparations, baubles and ornaments, etc that would have no doubt collected at some point on their desks and dressing tables. Certainly in upperclass households a maid might have tidied a little - but I was imagining the scene before the maid had been, just after a flurry of activity, perhaps captured in the moment after our imaginary young lady was interrupted in her activities. Flushed and short of breath I completed my little tableau and captured it with my camera before collapsing into bed for a rest before attempting to dismantle my creation and put my room back together. I hope you like the finished photos and the new drawing I have included! I think there might be a little bit of the graceful, fussy, feminine, and messy Victorian in all of us! I am linking to these blog parties today: What's It Wednesday Feathered Nest Friday Show and Tell Friday Drawing by Jennelise