This Week

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Good morning/afternoon/evening/whenever you read this!

These past few weeks have been busy ones for me. The good kind of busy, but busy nonetheless. I won't go into all the messy details, but suffice to say that blogging has been on the back burner for quite a while. So I'm taking the week off from blogging in hopes of writing several posts in advance. I'd love to bring more quantity AND more quality to Sprigged Muslin, and the best way I can think of to do that is to give myself a head start.

In lieu of Fashion in Film this week, have some link love from around the internet!

Maybe I'm late to the party, but I just found out about Librivox.org yesterday. For those of you (like me) who don't know, volunteers sign up on Librivox to make audio recordings of books, plays, and poems that are in the public domain. Of course, my nerdy, classic literature-loving heart is fascinated.

The other day, I watched this retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth with my family. At first I was hesitant about Macbeth being set in a restaurant (lots of meat butchering ensues), and I really did miss Shakespeare's language, but the themes of the play were so poignantly and perfectly translated to the modern day (especially some expansions made to Lady Macbeth's character that are hinted at in the original text). Definitely worth a watch, especially with the bonus selling points of James McAvoy as Macbeth, Keely Hawes as Lady Macbeth, and Richard Armitage as an understated Macduff.

This website will use Google Maps to drop you at a random place on Earth. I've been using it these past few days to just unwind and explore.

User Error! (+ links)

You saw nothing just now.

That was not the Decade Wednesday post you were looking for.

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Just a quick explanation for any of you that may have seen this week's Decade Wednesday post a bit early. Chalk it up to my absentmindedness. ;) Hope you enjoyed the preview. If you didn't catch my slip of scheduling, have some links to tide you over until Wednesday.

This fun site has several Regency themed generators such as character names, romance novel plots, and names for estates.

Foyle's War is coming back. I'm a huge fan of the show, but I'm a little apprehensive about this new series (set to air in 2013). After seeing Series 7, I'm rather of the opinion that the show should have ended when the war did. Still, I can't help but be a little excited that we'll get to see Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks puttering around in 40's-50's England again.

One of my favorite websites, ImprovEverywhere.com, has two missions involving people impersonating historical figures (specifically Anton Chekov and King Philip IV of Spain) in public places. Hilarity ensues. Just a tip, though, don't click on the witness account of the Anton Chekov Improv, it gets a little rough. ;)

Hapy a lovely week!

Historical Dress Up Games

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I have a confession to make. I love playing dress up games online. It's a way to let my childish side run rampant and to relax for a while. It ranks right up there with fan fiction for the top spot on my list of internet guilty pleasures. So, without further adieu, here are a few historically accurate games that I keep coming back to over and over again.

The Tudors Scene Maker has a huge amount of items hailing from the late 16th and early 17th centuries for both male and female characters, who can be customized and arranged in scenes. The combinations and possibilities are endless.

Savivi on DeviantArt.com created four great games: Regency Hero, Regency Heroine, 18th Century, and Soulless Victorian. All of them have great art quality, great clothes, and are greatly enjoyable.

Last but not least, we have my favorite game on the list, Erte Elegance, which allows you to build your own 1920s evening gown. It's deliciously glamorous, and you can tell that the creator of the game really did their research. 


Bonus Round: It won't be out for another month or so (unless you happen to have a subscription to Dolldivine.com, in which case you can play the beta testing version), but the Dandy Maker looks like it will be a doozy. According to the preview image, there's a whole section of the game devoted to cravats. Sign me up.

Traveling...

From the best source ever

This week, I'm hopping into my barouche and hitting the road. Unfortunately, this means I'll have to postpone the Decade Wednesday post on 1810-1820 until next week. In lieu of Decade Wednesday, here are a few gifts from around the internet:

My new obsession, Sense and Sensibility: The Musical. I love "If I Could," a clever, beautiful duet between Elinor and Edward.

It's not exactly polite or ladylike, but this database of Victorian crimes and criminals never ceases to entertain my macabre, Dickens-loving side.

I love looking through pictures of The Gatsby Summer Afternoon, an annual 1920's themed picnic held by the Art Deco Society of California. I want to go!

I can't stop watching this hilarious Jane Austen parody of the Old Spice Commercial. It's made even better after watching Job Hunters, a web series in which dear Mr. Tilney plays an unexpectedly lovable serial killer.