Meet Jane (Jess) - January 2008

Jane (Jess) came into the family back in January 2008.

"Watcha gonna bring to the picnic?" asks Kirsten.

Kirsten's had earlier made some very imperfect homemade treats...ah, well, it comes from the heart? And those raspberry-strawberry things are tasty!

Elizabeth though is a master pastry chef...the tarts and bundt cake are quite fancy!


Meanwhile, for some strange reason, Josefina is baking bread in her horno...inside the room...

Of course, she's bringing bread and melons. (The shawl is custom made, but it matches the Harvest outfit quite well!)

Addy's is preparing her pie and has lots of flowers.

She has apple pie, meat pies, and candy...

Josefina and Kirsten get the picnic table ready...

Oh, oh, will all these dishes and treats fit on the table?

"Let's try it anyway," says Josefina.

Tada!

Whew! Need to sit down! When do you think she'll get here?

Squeaky, squeaky! Speak of the devil!

"Gasp! All for me!?" cries Jane.

"You're so wonderful!"

The Purpose of the Miniature Historian

I've loved literature and history my entire life. As a child, I read voraciously about the American Civil War and Revolution and delved deeply into Boston history. In college, I even took the rather impractical route of majoring in history. My dream jobs\ probably would have been a historical fiction writer, a Masterpiece theater production designer for PBS, or a product developer for American Girl. But the cold hard reality is that in order to earn a decent living, I've had to become a web developer for higher ed enterprise applications. So codes, databases, and portals for me. Yes, it is strange that someone who grew up daydreaming about the past, would feel so excited about technology and gadgets. But why not? I enjoy reading about human nature and feel rather optimistic that we humans will progress to right place.

Anyway, I do enjoy my work life and my co-workers, but sometimes coding and administrative work can get a tad dry. So to reconnect with my history love, I've started this blog, which document my American Girl collecting activities.

My main goals will be to write about:

Historical Fashion, featuring unique pieces I've collected from professional seamstresses; perhaps I'll even experiment in sewing myself

Architecture, Interior Design, and Material Culture, featuring a full-scale dollhouse for 18" dolls and my quest to fill it with relatively accurate miniature historical replicas