The Serpent King, by Jeff Zentner, is the second book I read for the YA Book Club I joined at my library. (The last book I read for the book club was The Cruel Prince, by Holly Black).
I started The Serpent King at a tender time. I was spending a second weekend at the bedside of my grandmother, who was dying. Many of my most vivid memories of my time spent at her home were from my teenage years, when my friendships with my cousins were one of the most important things in my life and the summer visits, full of new experiences, were larger than life.
The house itself is full of senior photos of the cousins and grandkids, all of us gathered on shelves and side tables, frozen in time as 17 and 18-year-olds, and the home’s interior has barely changed over the course of the time I visited there from childhood until I was an adult.
When I first posted about the Victorian Strolls I was getting ready for, I had plenty of ideas but hadn’t done much other than internet research. Once I got into the actual construction, things got labor intensive, but it was so fun. Click through to see how I dressed each person in the family and where we found the costume pieces.
Goals for our first costuming adventure:
A. To look Early Victorian Era (1860’s) to those who know what they’re looking at, and to look 19th century/old-fashioned to everyone else. B. To have fun and be comfortable.
I spent the entire month of November collecting items from around our house, sewing, crafting, and buying things to put together our costumes. I used a combination of hand-me-down clothes and craft supplies (like ribbon) as well as costume pieces for the kids, as well as sewing several larger pieces for myself and the Chaplain, like a vest, period-appropriate dress shirt, and my Zouave Jacket.
This year, Sunday, December 1, 2019 marks the beginning of Advent.
If you’re looking for an activity to remember Advent with your school age kids, I want to tell you about the book we used last year, a gift from my mom.
Jotham’s Journey: A Storybook for Advent, by Arthur Ytreeide, is a saga told day-by-day throughout Advent. The story takes place in Bible times and climaxes with the birth of Jesus.
What are the highs and lows?
When I first started pursuing costuming in earnest, I could barely find any events for costumers in my area, at least, not if you didn’t want to be a re-enactor.
I gradually started discovering events, like this one in Troy, NY, for steampunk folks.
But I always seemed to find out about the events days after they happened, and I knew I’d never be ready in time for the couple of other costume/masquerade-type of events I discovered locally ahead of time.
Then, I found not one but TWO Victorian strolls near our house scheduled within a week of each other in December.
