The Cup That Cheers - Seite 2 
Historical Food Fortnightly and A History of Royal Food and Feasting -- Tartes owt of Lente
Ingredients for Tarte owt of Lente. Photo: Elizabeth Urbach. So, I haven't exactly fallen off the end of the earth (again), but I haven't had much energy after working all day at the school. Now that summer has arrived, though, I'm only working half-days at the summer school, and also taking two online classes through FutureLearn. One class is called The History of Royal Food and Feasting
_Plucking the Turkey_ by Henry Walton, 1776, Tate Gallery. I won't be able to keep up with all the challenges this year, and will probably be finishing up the blog post and putting it online after the deadline on whichever challenges I can complete, but hopefully people will enjoy seeing the results anyway! Here is the challenge for February, in which I make a simple 18th century cap with
Historical Sew Monthly -- Procrastination (how appropriate!): A pre-Gold Rush California day dress
Version 1.0 of the California day dress ca. 1838. The Challenge: Procrastination (January 2016), Out of Your Comfort Zone (June 2015), and Stashbusting (March 2015). I didn't realize it until last month, but I neglected to publish the blog post in 2015 for the Out Of My Comfort Zone and Stashbusting Challenges, which were part of the original reason for this dress being made! 7 months is
The new year approaches!
Clipart from Webweaver.nu Well, Christmas Day has come and gone, and I don't know about you, but I'm never ready for it to be over! It's always a let-down to me, when all the preparation and holiday spirit is finished after one day; I much prefer the older tradition of 12 Days of Christmas! It's not like there's not enough treats to last at least half that long, plus, I always run out of
Holiday catch-up.
Thanksgiving Day--The Dinner_Harper's Weekly_, November 1858 Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you had a wonderful day, whether you spent it with family, or had a "Friendsgiving" with good friends instead of relatives! I'm still adjusting to the new living situation and job, and unfortunately, one of the things that comes with working with children, is getting sick! Everything my kids
Back from the San Francisco International Tea Festival!
Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco.Photo: Elizabeth Urbach. Today was the 4th annual San Francisco International Tea Festival, at the Ferry Building in San Francisco, and it was a fun day, although I did wish there was more to the festival than 15 to 20 vendors and 5 lectures. I did get to taste some really interesting teas, and purchased one of them, a Taiwanese black tea with a
Changes, good and bad
Image by Joy Coffman. Wikimedia Commons. Well, I haven't fallen entirely off the face of the planet, but it feels like it. Some dramatic changes have occurred, including the changing of my career (for the present), and moving to another house. I have left the history museum where I worked for 14 years, and I'm currently working at an elementary school while I plan for graduate school, which
Clothing the Californio, part 4 -- the Gold Rush era.
Governor Don Pio Pico, his wife, and nieces, ca. 1850, San Diego Historical Society. By the time California entered the United States in 1850, the social and political climate of the state was radically changing. Hispanic immigrants from Mexico, Central and South America, entered California and headed to the gold mines, bringing their own culture with them. Non-Hispanic immigrants
Clothing the Californio, part 3 -- the Mexican period.
Working-class man and women in California. Monterey State Historic Park. Photo: Elizabeth Urbach. After 1824, under Mexican law, the central government basically ignored California, but the Californios were given free trade and loosened domestic business regulations; when the Missions were secularized, some people received large grants of good Mission land from the government, and were
Clothing the Californio, part 2 -- re-creating 18th century Spanish California costume
Spanish girl and woman, and their Moorish and Indian maids. By Father Ignacio Tirsch, ca. 1770. Baja California. So, in analyzing the images of Spanish-era/18th century Californio women, these are the common clothing elements: white linen camisa (women's shirt/chemise) with medium-high neckline (no visible cleavage) edged with a gathered ruffle, with full elbow-length sleeves edged with a