The Girlhood Gazette

Once again, I am making a blogging platform switch. I’ve come to prefer Blogger over WordPress just for overall ease of use, though I do love some of the things you can do with WordPress.

I realize I have not been very active blogging here, which is one reason I’d like to delete my WP and free up my hosting. I have to check on whether I can transfer the current blog address (maidensofvirtue.com/blog) over to the Blogger blog, but for now, the blog address is back at the old blog where I first started:

http://thegirlhoodgazette.blogspot.com/.

I will no longer be posting here on this blog – all posts have been transferred over to the other site. This one will remain up for a while as I still have comments to transfer over, which, unfortunately, have to be done manually. (Ugh!)

See you over there!

I’m sure most of you are familiar with Sense & Sensibility Patterns. If you do not follow their website frequently, however, you may not know about their Dollar Downloads, which are downloads of period articles on fashion, etc. that are actually from the era. There are a lot of early 1900′s and 1940′s-50′s available. These would be very interesting for anyone who loves historical fashion, especially for use in research if you are making an authentic gown. Each one is only a dollar! Check it out!

P.S. Like historical sewing and old fashioned things? Check out this new blog (and leave her a comment!): A Lass of Yesteryear

I’m very sorry for posting another advertisement-style post, but I’d like to ask for your help. I’ve entered a toddler’s bedtime story contest, and in order to win the contest, I need to get people to vote on my story. In short, I am trying to catch up to some people with over 2,000 votes (haha, I know… well, I can at least try). So I’m asking that if you read this, you would take a second to vote. AND if you are really nice, you’ll come back and vote multiple times – you are allowed to vote once every day! All you have to do is visit the link below and click the “vote” button. I’d also appreciate it if you would share this with your friends and/or family if you think of it. Thank you!

http://www.naturemadesleep.net/stories/285

(End of commercial).

I just found out today that Jasmine Baucham’s new book, Joyfully At Home is now available from Vision Forum! If you are not familiar with Jasmine, she has a blog with the same title as the book, where she writes encouraging articles for young women. If you have not visited her blog before, I highly recommend that you hop over there and read the archives!

At any rate, I have not yet read the book, but if it is anything like her other writings it promises to be a great blessing! Lord willing, I will post a review of the book at a later date after I have read it. For now, grab a copy for yourself!

I am thrilled that we have a new prize added to our photography contest, generously donated by our new sponsor, Fracture! If you haven’t heard of Fracture before, you need to check it out. It’s a neat new way to “frame” your photos. You upload your photo, choose a frame (or no frame) and Fracture actually prints your photo ON GLASS. My mom got one of my sister and me and the quality is amazing. The colors are so vivid, it looks as vibrant as when you view the picture on your computer!

Fracture is awarding a free photo print in the size of your choice to the winner of the photography contest! How exciting is that? Start entering now!

I just found out about this… Vision Forum has a brand new look for their website and until the 18th, they are having daily $1 deals on select products, free gifts with certain orders and free shipping! Click the banner below for details:

Miss Jocelyn over at Feelin’ Feminine is hosting a fun Jane Austen blog “tour” and giving away some great prizes! As you’ll see from that button there, it ends today… so I’m participating rather last minute. Ah well, better late than never, right?! (Click the button to see more details).

The premise of the “tour” is to create a Jane Austen related post(s) on your blog and enter them into one of the several categories listed on Feelin’ Feminine. I decided to go with the Digital Art category since that was the easiest for me, being that I am a graphic designer. I created a wallpaper for your desktop, featuring Jane and Elizabeth Bennett (from Pride & Prejudice of course!).

One reason I went with Jane & Lizzy is because everyone seems to focus so much on Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, and everything revolves around them in most graphics, pictures, etc. But one of the things our family most enjoys about Pride & Prejudice is the relationship between the two sisters. They are obviously very close and they are each other’s confidantes and – gasp – they actually…. like each other! Which is something of a foreign concept in today’s society.

You are welcome to download the wallpaper for your own personal use; I just ask that you respect my copyright of the design and do not sell or distribute it (if you want your friends to have one too, just send them the link to this post). Please comment and let me know if you use it! Unfortunately those were the largest images I could find and so they are a little pixelated – my apologies for that!

How to download: Click on the image. It will open up in a larger size. Right click on it again (Mac users hold Control while clicking) and select “Save Image As…” Save it to your computer and apply as you would any other desktop wallpaper.

(Credit for photos: Eras of Elegance. In addition, images in this graphic are displayed in good faith as a fair use under 17 U.S.C. 107. Any copyright infringement is unintentional, and will be remedied immediately.)

Designed by www.PrairieRoseDesigns.com

Last Wordless Wednesday I posted this photo:

I meant to post my Tell Me Thursday about it on Thursday like I was supposed to, but didn’t have time. So it’s coming late… on Monday.

Those of you who have read my blog for a while know I play the harp and I have been saving for my own bigger harp. Well, a little over a week ago I had a wonderful surprise. Back in March, I was able to order the harp, but the company was backed up on orders and told me it would be 6 months before it would be done. So I was prepared to wait till September to get my harp, and I was praying hard for patience (and at the same time praying that somehow it could be finished earlier – say, August).

Well, the Lord loves to answer prayers and He answered that one far beyond my hopes. A week or so ago I was working on a sewing project in the basement, and I heard a lot of screwing, banging around, and general racket going on upstairs. I, however, was deeply engrossed in making a ribbon flower, and absently thought my mom and sister must be hanging pictures (which would be very odd and besides, there was far too much noise to be only picture-hanging. But you must understand, ribbon flowers take a lot of focus).

Well, my mom called me to come up and “let the cat in.” When I came up, Mom had a video camera in her hand. That meant something was up! I still was clueless and had no idea… I walked into the family room and there… was… I’m sure you can never guess. Yep, my harp!!

Isn’t she a beauty? It sounds beautiful and I LOVE the deep, full bass notes. It’s been so much fun playing through all my old songs and hearing how much fuller they sound! Once again, a huge thank you to my friend, Raeanne, who let me play her little harp for nearly two years while I waited for this one… it was an immense blessing.

The Lord is good!

I apologize if you tried to visit my blog or website the last 2 days and got a “This account has been suspended” notice. Somebody hacked my site and started sending out spam, and thus everything was shut down while we resolved it. Thanks for your patience!