The Closet Historian

Same as it ever was. Do we think I should have like a truly radical mid-life crisis instead or something similar for the plot? Let me know. The oil painting grapes tutorial I tried: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3-isaorYvA The hydrangea I have added: https://www.provenwinners.com/plants/hydrangea

Sometimes I fear my choices might have migrated outside those befitting an entirely sane creature, but most art exists outside of one boundary or another right? So, naturally I chose to paint the ceiling mural for the sewing parlor next. Why? Because I already owned all the paint, so in many ways it

As you can see, I am facing the usual sort of delays around here: Picking something too ambitious to create in one week, and cats. Some of you may have seen the actress Zendaya wore a 1940's dress for one of the press events for the new Spider Man film. Now I have never seen a live action spider man

Once again the edit took longer than I had hoped and a video got pushed from Thursday to Monday...cest la vie. Inside baseball: I ended up re-filming the drafting clips for the front bodice of this dress and re-editing it during the making of this video because I wanted to redo things using a better

I managed to (finally, this took me days!) get the next volume of Drafting Dangerous finished up for publication this week! So here is a first look at the amount of snark questions about curved darts can stir up in me... Thank you for your patience, as I am super duper behind on answering comments a

I actually had a really good and productive week, and yet the next video won't be out until Monday 😅 Maybe good things take time!?! Let's hope so... Links to things mentioned: The Clark institute: https://www.clarkart.edu/? The Sarah Bernhardt inkwell: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/260045/self-por

I actually have a video ready a few days early for the first time in...years? I hope you enjoy this early bird peek at my pantry transformation and current china collection. I'm busy adventuring and working on little house/garden projects with my mom this week, but I promise I'll be back to sewing s

Whew, thank goodness for moon joy this last week am I right?!? I got a nasty little cold and it stole my voice, making finishing up my foyer decor video impossible because my voice is sort of an important component of the situation. So disappointed but determined, I tried to at least install the "ne

I have found a slightly more appropriate sconce for the foyer! It's still a reproduction, but at least it /looks/ like a gas fixture, even if it's technically even more modern than the little sconce it will be replacing. I drove out to a specialty vintage lighting shop and the couple running it were

The one where I'm maybe still a little tired from painting a floor, but also, the one where the burgundy floor is finally gone! Thank you again for your kind words and encouragement this last month. I'll admit I'm a little embarrassed now that I couldn't have just gone for the aloof and glamorously

In reality, I am in the middle of chipping old brittle plywood off of the floor in front of my front door, so sewing sounds a lot nicer right about now! I can't wait to have the woodchips and dust all properly cleared away, the floors finally painted, and the furniture back in it's place soon 😩 The

Look, at my lowest I operate from a place of fear. That is where the anxiety, shame, guilt, indulgence, reassurance seeking, and overreacting stem from. Fear. Being a person is scary. Because with any amount of kindness, success, attention, stability, comes the question: What could I possibly provid

Happy New Year!! Just a quick update this time, as I'm knee deep in my little fiction work break and eager to dive back in...Thank you for your support! The iridescent taffeta I mentioned: https://www.topfabric.co.uk/all-fabrics/metal-metallic-fabrics/iridescent-black-silk-lurex-taffeta.html Some Di

How to know it's not a re-run when she's essentially been saying the same thing since 2019? I don't know either pals. Thanks for hanging out with me anyway when I am such a broken little record. Links mentioned: Sleeping Around with Alayna Joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkfTADSEqWs&list=PL3XNH

Thank you for your support!! Now I promise I'll go get some writing in and help my brain feel far more buoyant ✨ Things mentioned: My tile pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/bmesposito/interiors/tile/ Everything Is Tuberculosis: https://everythingistb.com/ Freaks' in Hudson NY: https://www.i

Well I managed to get it done in time, I hardly know how! My legs hurt, my body is just a little bit broken, I stenciled a few hundred stars (I didn't count!), and the room is almost finished! I still have to make some window treatments, and a new curtain for the doorway into the (unfortunately ugly

Just keep stenciling ✨

Well the video is too much of a monster palls, it's gonna be an hour long ride for sure! I'm hoping to have the finished making of video up for you here on Monday evening. To make it up to you, I'll be making the antiquing show and tell video just for Patreon. I'll take you with me to pick up a chea

Just a quick note to say I've been working away on this month's Patreon video project, but of course I chose to make an intricate color blocked (updated version of my original Blade Runner inspired) dress so...it's gonna be down to the wire! I eliminated the side seams on the bodice and did beetle-i

Guess which photo is from my house and not theirs? Juuust kidding 😂 I have been extra MIA for the last week while my mom was visiting me from Colorado, and I really wanted to adventure down to Hyde Park New York to visit the Vanderbilt house there while she was in town. The house was completed in 1

Hello there! I have been painting, painting, and painting some more in the smaller closet (formerly that floral papered linen closet) upstairs. As you may know, I am sorta interested in fashion and have a bit of a vintage collection to contain. I still say brooches and sale shoes were better investm

Just about ready to sew at last ❤️ The chairs I mentioned: https://www.designtoscano.com/products/lady-alcott-victorian-balloon-chair-af51809? The faux butterflies I mentioned: https://www.moth-and-myth.com/

The room is a mess, but I am making progress! I took down the old blinds and put up the window cling. I went with Artscape Old English (https://artscape-inc.com/products/window-film-leaded-glass-old-english) becuase I could not find anything even close to what I actually wanted. I wanted a solid oli

I promised you a video...and here are some chaotic snaps instead grrr! Mostly because I'm trying to get enough footage and progress together for a video on the channel this week. I want to get a tiny bit more done before I spend all Wednesday editing though, so in order for you to still get a sneak

Getting there! I have finished 2/3 of the frieze on the back wall of the sewing parlor. My mom has arrived to help me get this room set up, and she grabbed this snap of me hunched and crunched into a pretzel tonight. I have to add the metallic layer, black details, and finish the stripes on this las

Well, I'm doing it. I really thought the white layer first (to provide a bright backdrop for the top colors) was the way forward; but while it worked fine on the perfectly smooth trial piece of plywood, on a hundred year old plaster wall? Not so much. The full design in the white is made up of 4 ind

The ceiling of the sewing parlor is painted (well for now, patterning to come later), the walls have 3 coats of 'avocado' and the trim 2 of 'onyx' in a nice satin finish. I have tried about a dozen different colors for the flower petals on the frieze design and have finally decided on a deco-ish Nil

Photoshopping the room into what I hope it will look like helps to keep me motivated. Now, remember the design I showed you all a few weeks back for the stenciling in the sewing parlor? Well, also remember the great computer freeze up of Jan 2025? Yeah...I lost about 75% of my photoshop files for th

Just as I start to recover from this nasty cold at last, I made a grand mistake-- I let Windows run an update. Then my PC stopped working, naturally. It no longer wanted to connect to my monitor, some driver was outdated somewhere, and it wouldn't boot up properly. Four hours of troubleshooting over

What do you get when you put exhaustion, stress, and winter together? You know the answer. I'll say though, /I/ didn't catch a cold, technically, it was my mom who caught a cold...and then gave it to me. So much for sharing desserts. Luckily she's the actual best, so we shall not hold her responsibl

A weekend update from reno-land, where today the boiler broke again and I don't have hot water or heating currently woo Here's hoping things get fixed up for good next week, have a good Sunday all and stay warm! A chaotic mini tour and update video! (YouTube)

Soooooo we knocked out a "built in" dresser thing from the 1930's in my walk in linen closet upstairs today, and organized all of the demo detritus (and cardboard) as well for some future junk removal, but I did not get a podcast recorded or edited 🥵 I have been working on the Victorian frieze desi

Whew! Three days in the car, two nights in hotels, and 1800 miles later my cats are in the new (old) house in New York ✨ In fact, I am typing this with a tiny silver/tan tabby named Oliver on my lap, and it's significantly slowing me down, since he insists on being held. He is very /very/ cute, so w

Hello all! My mom, me, and all three cats are on our way to New York. Yes it's going well, and yes, it's also extremely stressful 😩 I had a headache for most of the day and my lovely mom had to do all of today's driving. Hopefully I'll get a little more sleep and be of more use for the last leg of

You know, this 'avoids math' thing may just bite me. I bought three rolls, with all the windows and doorways, surely that would be enough?! Joke was on me, I had enough for ONE WALL. Less really, becuase let's just say I messed up a strip...and I only got 2 strips per roll anyway, eek! This was my f

Hellooooo! I have been MIA, but I had exactly one week to pack everything I own and load it onto a truck 🥵 See photo of the boxes filling my parent's dining room, oof. Then my dad and I drove the truck 1,945 miles from CO to NY. Gotta say, the roads in Indiana are awful! Learnt how to pavement, ask

Whew! A whirlwind few days here in New York, and I still need to build two epically complicated Ikea bookcases tomorrow. My brain is FRIED, but in a new way, in a "which small trash can do you want?" but I can't decide one more thing just now kinda way. In a access.brain.user//denied, 404 thought-no

There was a little surprise leaning up against the wall upstairs on my final walkthrough yesterday. I'm not sure what year this photo is from, but there are electric lines! (and a dog) I can show you the outside of the house! Because... The house no longer looks like this. The swags of neoclassical

The update we were waiting for. Last month's podcast: https://www.patreon.com/posts/dispatch-no-54-112919146 PS: If you are NY savvy enough to guess where I'll be moving...try to keep it to thyself and on the down low so I can stay safe on this internet of horrors. Thank youuuu PPS: Yes that is a wi

Pals, it's official, the mystery project will not be moving forward. I am actually quite relieved, excited to get started on things I had put off, and glad I will finally get to fill you in on the next podcast. I had said I'd update you when I knew more, and I finally got conformation the project is

Hello there! I ended up rather spontaneously taking apart the Arcana set today, and it turned out to be more exhausting moving all the pieces and flooring bits around than I was expecting. I wanted to film the finished dress I made for this month's upcoming patreon exclusive sewing video on a more n

Sorry I have been a bit missing! I really want to get back to you all and answer comments asap, just still playing catch up after that rude cold I had messing up my month. Thank you so much for your kind words and support ❤️ The cards I used to fold my fabrics https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0034YRN9U? a

It's a long one, but I have equal parts creative buzz and overworked dread to talk about, so...nothing new really! Thank you for your support! ❤️ edit: The Valentino robe thing https://www.pinterest.com/pin/5066618327362516/ except it's actually Dior...same designer okay!! I'm tired. It was from thi

It's so rare I have what feel like actual updates, but this time I've been adventuring all over the place and have travel stories for once! Luckily I'm all settled in back in the studio now to finish up some projects with lots of embroidery work. I hope you are having a great week so far and thank y

Hello there!! I got back from California last night and I'm working to get my act together! This month's sewing video and podcast are coming up asap, but I thought you might want to see this week's channel video before it goes live on Thursday ✨ Thank you for your patience and support, I am feeling

Whew. In news that surprises no one, not one person, not even my cats, I am behind where I wanted to be with my schedule. I am SO excited about the sewing projects in this next lookbook, and I very much want to finally put everything together, but I also don't want to rush all of the embroidery to b

Instead of my usual dispatch, the podcast, this month I have a short walking tour of one small section of London. I am now in the midst of convincing my cats I won't leave them again, doing laundry, and completely rescheduling my existence, but will return to you sewing shortly. Thank you so much fo

Thank you so much for your patience and support!!! I'm back home now and sorting through footage. I hope to have vlogs from my trip up soon, and if I finish in them in a timely manner I would love to preview them for you first, so I will focus on editing this mass of footage into something slightly

Chilling in the fog, hunting for lace, and getting a little green with envy, it's another podcast log from the year of our calendar 2020. The next time we chat I'll be able to discuss how the Victorian project went huh? How wild. Christine McConnell and her gorgeous new house: https://www.youtube.co

Hello everyone! I hope you are all safe and doing okay. I received a lot of the materials for my next big project in the mail this last week, so I wanted to unbox them with all of you since you are the ones making this project possible. Thank you so much for your support ❤ The millinery shop I menti