The slight spring breeze made the leaves of the over-hanging branch dance lightly. The shadows played and tossed on the open book that lay on her lap, on the soft folds of the light pink fabric that made up the lower part of her dress, as she sat on the stone bench at the end of the garden The air was clear and the sky was a light blue, dotted by only the occasional cloud. With the light sounds of nature surrounding her, the distant and cheerful chirping of birds, the gentle rustle of leaves in the slight, cool breezes, she found herself engrossed in her book, a romance novel. She never heard his footsteps, and never even noticed his presence until she saw his shadow come across the pages of her book. When she looked up she, her eyes were greeted by his beaming face, he had found her in the maze of the garden, like a knight coming to rescue his lady-love from the perils of a labyrinth.


This was the first thing that came to mind when I looked at the outfit I had made about a month ago again. I absolutely hate sappiness, but for some reason all I can ever write is romance stories. Maybe I eat too much chocolate or something, or maybe I'm really just a hopeless romantic at heart. Who knows?

Manga

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with the usual theme of this blog, but I think I've come up with an idea for a manga plot using the Manga Creators from Rinmaru Games. Even though I not really all that into manga, or even anime for that matter, this plot I've come up with could give me the chance to do some creative writing. So far the main characters are Nicole, Ren, and Chad Devereaux. All of the characters are students at Highpoint Preparatory School, a very prestigious school, and very hard to get into. Nicole and Ren are there through scholarships, while Chad comes from a very wealthy family with an aristocratic background, so he had no problem getting into Highpoint. Nicole is based off of myself, and Ren is loosely based off of Reno from the Final Fantasy VII series of games. Chad, who you will meet in later in the story, is based off of my ideal type(I can't help it if I have a weakness for rich, preppy boys with blue eyes and dark hair.)

In the first volume of the manga, Nicole, a very intelligent, girl falls for Ren, who is the tough, bad-boy on campus (the way we women usually do). Nicole is definitely intrigued by him, and he's smart enough to get into Highpoint, but lazy and gets into trouble, so he quickly earns himself a not too good reputation. Flash forward a few pages later, and Ren finally asked Nicole to go out with him, which is the beginning of their relationship. This is about as far as I've gotten with the plot, but this is all thanks to the Manga Creator, so I encourage any interested to check it out and see what kinds of story you can come up with.

I really wish I knew how to draw people and clothing really well, so I could design my own outfits. Until then there are still some really good historical dress up games. This one is a Gothic Lolita Dress Up. Yeah I know Gothic Lolita isn't really historical clothing, but it is based on Victorian era clothing, and this is the closest thing to Victorian clothes I could find that still had great graphics, easy to use interface, and a lot of character customization options. I really don't have any kind of story for this outfit, I just wanted to create something quick and simple, but at the same time a little revealing enough to show the choker and bracelets. I choose the background because it looks like a hall of a manor house, implying that the girl is well off.

Historical Games

It would be really nice if there was some kind of historical Sims-like game out. One that looked maybe like Sword of the New World but one where you can play in different time periods and be able to control and customize your character like the Sims games. Of course this game should be more historically accurate and realistic that SOTNW, but still with the same amount of creativity as far as characters and clothes are concerned. Ideas like this make me wish I had some input in game development though. I've been playing Uncharted Waters Online. IMO it's better than SOTNW, but the sailing parts it can get a bit dull, and some of the quests require a lot of time and traveling. Character customization is pretty good though, much better than the stock characters of SOTNW. I've tried playing Voyage Century, but the tutorial was practically non-existent, and the game play wasn't very exciting (when you start you have to kill crabs on the beach in order to get gold). So far the best history game I've ever played was the Age of Empires series, especially AoE III. I was literally addicted to this game until college cured my of my hard core gaming habits, that and the fact the Microsoft shutdown Ensemble Studios, the creators of the game. Still haven't tried to play any of the Civilization games, since I just feel that they are just copying AoE (I'm pretty sure AoE was the first RTS game out there). Railroad Tycoon is pretty good too, although there are no characters involved, just building railroads. Sid Meier's Railroads is pretty good too; the graphics are nice and the trains look very realistic. However, the game play is not quite as good as the RT series.

Welcome!!

So I created this blog in order to indulge my interest in and longing to be a part of a by-gone era. A lot of my nostalgia for historical time periods is fueled by my majoring in European History when I was in college. I have always loved the 18th century French aristocracy style of clothing, along with the more structured styles of the Victorian era, although my main focus of study in college was 19th century Russian history.

Everything was so stylish in this period, at a time when the aristocratic flair was what made a person in society, especially women (that and how many lovers you had). I guess my real appeal for the past was the important role of clothing as a status symbol, whereas now it's so easy to get knock-offs of expensive brands, or even the real thing at consignment shops or online bargains. Well unless someone figures out how to build a time machine and I can instate myself into the aristocracy, I guess it's just champagne dreams and caviar wishes!