Getting Ready to Get Ready - Evening at Ardenwood Tonight!

I have decided that I need to be really organized before getting dressed in Victorian.  I have had a couple incidents where I forgot the shoes first rule.....I had dressed up to petticoats on and then remembered, I need to put on the stockings and shoes.  My shoes are not the button up shoes of the Victorian era, rather slip-on plain black 1.5" heels, so they are not the problem.  It is the stockings (black tights) that are the problem at that point.  Once you get the corset on, your toast as far as putting on anything under it.  So everything has to come off to the chemise on, but not the corset yet.  (By the way, I did make French Drawers in the Challenges this year, but, shhh! I haven't used them yet.  There is a reason for this, tights and French Drawers would not work together, if you know what I mean.  So, until I can really trust my "clock stockings" actually staying up without strangling my thighs, I'm sticking with the tights.  But I digress....)

So in order to get everything in the correct order I lay everything out on the bed first, like so....

Tonight is the one and only 2013 Evening at Ardenwood (5pm-9pm).  So I am about to start to get ready.  The house always looks so lovely in the evening light.  I think I will be in the guest bedroom tonight.  Hope to see you all!

At least it isn't going to be as cold as it has been here lately, and it is NOT going to rain, AND this year we actually have heat (besides the fireplaces) in the house!