This year we’re going to spotlight some of you, our amazing readers, with a feature titled “5 Things”. It gives us a chance to get to know you, and for you to get to know each other. The winner of our “name The Newsletter” contest, Dana Ronevich, has graciously agreed to help us kick things off! We asked Dana five questions and here are her answers.
How /when did you discover Thimbles and Acorns? I discovered Thimbles and Acorns on Etsy while looking around at American Girl doll patterns, in January of 2013, then went to the website.
What is your favorite aspect of Thimbles and Acorns? What intrigued me about the site was the stories and historical information attached to each pattern.
What is your favorite historical era? I really love the Tudor era (mostly the six wives of Henry VIII), French Revolution (Marie Antoinette), and Queen Victoria.
What appeals to you about that era? I’m a history lover at heart and enjoy reading about the women, customs, court life, and clothing. I started as a teen, reading historical romances, mostly Tudor era, and it became a life-long passion of learning about these women, who are still written, filmed, and debated about almost 180-480 years after their death. They are infamous and some were women ahead of their time.
I think the attraction to these women, the six wives, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Kathryn Howard, and Katherine Parr- were all strong in their own way and somewhat educated in a time that most women weren’t, despite the fact that most history was recorded by men.
Marie Antoinette, never said “Let them eat cake”, it was 100 years before her by Queen Marie-Therese, the wife of Louis XIV. She came to France at 15 and became Queen at 18 with her husband Louis XVI, also 18. It took many years for her to conceive a child, her duty to produce a male heir, and her first child was a girl. Yes, she was frivolous and her husband was a 2nd son, never meant for the throne. Pestered to death by letters and ambassadors from her mother, the Empress of Austria. The French Revolution was coming about, riding on the coattails of the American Revolution that they aided America in.
Queen Victoria , an era named after her, a young queen, marrying the love of her life and losing Albert too soon. She spent the rest of her life mourning him. She had 9 children that reached the realms of European dynasties and an empire that spanned the globe. Learned about running her country through the help of her prime ministers and the support of her helpmate, Albert.
If you could go back in time and meet someone from that era, who would it be? What would you say to her / him? Gosh, I’d love to talk with each and every one of them!! Sit around a huge fireplace, some wine and just have a Royal Girl’s Night to talk about court life, opinions about women’s roles, if they had the chance to be recognized and find out what they thought about things that were going on in the world, how they would take action. Of course, you would have to include some fashion, the handsome men, gossip and shopping. I think they all would be surprised to see the technology that we have today and that they were all still very much alive on paper, film, and the many blogs, tweets, and pages devoted to them on Facebook.
I really enjoyed reading this article. Thanks so very much.
I enjoyed reading this as well! Thank you for such a fun newsletter, Shari…can’t wait to “get to know” more of your readers.