Regency Ladies' Weekend--Follow-up!

I think I can safely speak for Sally when I say that we had a BLAST at the Regency Ladies' Weekend at Riversdale House! I went expecting to have fun, but I had no idea that I'd actually learn so much useful information, too--about Regency-era furnishings and household items, clothing, food, cooking methods, games and dancing. I can now play the dice games Hazard and Newmarket and the card games Sept and Faro (and I can safely say that, had I been a Regency lass, I would have been addicted to the dice games and to Sept!).

I also know what it feels like to spend an entire day (or most of it) wearing a corset and other period trappings (note to those who might want to try a corset: make sure you put your stockings and slippers on BEFORE your corset is laced up and your gown is put on, because it's awfully hard to bend down to reach your feet once you're laced and clothed!). Pretty much everyone wore period clothes all weekend, which was a lot of fun. I even got a heretofore-reluctant-to-dress-up Sally to don a period evening gown for Saturday night's festivities!

Other highlights: the food--it was all simply delicious, particularly the sweet potato pie. What made it different? Rosewater! Gave it a very interesting (and wonderful!) flavor. The company--I met so many nice ladies--period reenactors, clothing experts, literature experts, aspiring authors. By the end of the weekend, we were all hugging goodbye and exchanging e-mail addresses.

Another fun highlight--the 'hurrahs and huzzahs' movie night on Friday. We watched a made-for-TV movie from 1987, based on a Barbara Cartland novel, Hazard of Hearts (starrting Helena Bonham Carter, looking about 12). It was so bad it was good--in a campy way. I'm talking EVERY possible romance novel cliche, thrown in for your enjoyment! Even the characters' names are funny (Lord Vulcan?!). Netflix it if you can, just for fun--if nothing else, you'll certainly laugh! Seriously, though, I actually enjoyed it--a lot--as bad as it was.

I'll leave you all with a group photo of ladies on the house's front stairs, in our finery (I'm wearing blue, standing on the top row between authors Janet Mullany and our own Sally MacKenzie)...



...and one last question, inspired by my viewing of Hazard of Hearts. Are there any movies that you *know* are terrible, yet you love anyway? You know, movies so bad that they're good? If so, share!