A Riddling Post

Hello! This is a post with pictures! Hooray for all those who've been wanting more pictures on our blog!;) Anyhow, I thought I'd take pictures of the progress on my riddle book. But first here's the part in Emma that inspired me to make this:

".....And the only literary pursuit which engaged Harriet at present, the only mental provision she was making for the evening of life, was the collecting and transcribing all the riddles of every sort that she could meet with, into a thin quarto of hot-pressed paper, made up by her friend, and ornamented with ciphers and trophies.

In this age of literature, such collections on a very grand scale are not uncommon. Miss Nash, head-teacher at Mrs. Goddard's, had written out at least three-hundred; and Harriet, who had taken the first hint of it from her, hoped, with Miss Woodhouse's help, to get a great many more. Emma assisted with her invention, memory and taste; and as Harriet wrote a very pretty hand, it was likely to be an arrangement of the first order, in form as well as quantity.

Mr. Woodhouse was almost as much interested in the business as the girls, and tried very often to recollect something worth their putting in. "So many clever riddles as there used to be when he was young- he wondered he could not remember them! but he hoped he should in time." And it always ended in "Kitty, a fair but frozen maid."

So there you have it! Alright, when I would sit down to add to my riddle book the first thing I did was to take a full 8 1/2" x 11 " sheet of textured paper and cut it so it was a square:

Then I figured out which riddles I wanted to use on the page:

Next came the fun part: Designing the page! :) I had a lot of different styles and themes, and I liked to incorporate little old-fashioned clips from the Victorian Trading Post magazine, sometimes.

Then I would finish pasting on the pieces and write down the riddles!

I thought this looked a little plain(especially on the corners) so I did a little more with it..

And "Voila!" A finished page of my book!

Sorry that these pictures aren't the best!

Here are pictures of the other pages:

So there you have it!! I hope ya'll enjoyed this post!Oh, by the way, so far I have about 35-40 riddles in there, and I'm still going!! But I'm sure I won't get half as many as Harriet!:)

-Sarah

How Are Riddles and Tea-Sets Connected?

They aren't. ;) Hello! Okay this will sorta be a catch-all sort of post. Rachel and I have had a lot of fun these past two days, searching for and making up rhyming riddles! Some of them are very ingenious, if we do say so ourselves.;) I think this collection of riddles will be a fun addition to my hope chest.

Now, the tea set right here is one that I am going to get very soon!!! Mom and Dad have started a tradition where when the girls in our family turn 13 they get a tea set. Well, on my 13th birthday, they told me that they had ordered a tea set for me. When it arrived the next week, I opened the case to find.... That almost every single piece was broken and shattered!! :0

That was very disappointing, but I knew we would replace it. After contacting the eBay store we'd bought it from, the lady said that she wasn't selling that pattern anymore, mainly because it didn't ship well!

After browsing a lot of websites looking for a different set, we finally found one that I liked and was within our price range. Well, at that time we were in the middle of building our house and our finances weren't in the best condition, so it had to get set on the back burner for a little while. (wow! I didn't mean to tell the whole story, but I might as well finish it:)

When all the busyness had died down some, I realized that my preferences had changed since I was 13. The set was more whimsical, and I thought that I would probably want a more formal one, that I could use in my future home.

So, we found the tea set (pictured above) and I really loved the pattern and size, and price of it!!! A couple of weeks ago our good friend was showing us this website called the English Tea Store.

And on it we found the exact pattern (Lydia) of the set I'd picked out and it was sold as a dinner set for 8 people! It includes dinner plates, dessert plates, salt&pepper shakers, platter, vegetable bowl, and soup saucer things, along with the whole tea set! So that is what we should be purchasing soon! I'm really excited, because it's been 2 1/2 years that I've been waiting.

Well, anyway, I hope ya'll weren't too, too, too, terribly bored by that, but I thought I should finish the story I started. So have any of you guys thought of any riddles that you know of?

By Leanna's Request

Hey guys! Leanna won our contest earlier this weekend, so she asked me to post about Scotland. As most of you know, I love that country! (Although I have small hopes of ever getting there! :)

She entreated me not to do any research though, so I have compiled a list of the to 10 reasons I love Scotland....



1. The Accent! I can think of no accent I would rather listen to! So eloquent and lilting! I think of Rashleigh Osbaldistone in Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy who was ugly, but they said that a girl could fall in love with his voice if she had never seen him. I would love to marry someone who, if not Scottish could at least do a fine impression of the accent for me! :)



2. Their vocabulary- who can resist smiling at expressions like "ding me daft", "bonny lass" "gang gyte" "wee bairn" and so many others!



3. The history! So many, many things have happened on Scottish soil! And they have the best names for their historical people! Bonny Prince Charlie, Mary: Queen of Scots, etc.



4. The spiritual heritage: Have any of you read about the Scottish Covenanters! I am fascinated by that group of hard-headed faithful men!



5. The heroes: Who needs a better role-model for men than William Wallace? (Unless you wanted to imitate John Smith or someone equally as great and godly!) William Wallace was a giant literally and morally! If a young man wants someone to be challenged by, just look him up, and listen to the talk Little Bear Wheeler does on him! But watch out! He had the worst death I've heard of in many a day! :( Very sad. I think I almost cried when I listened to the story of it!



6.The landscape: Have you ever wanted to see heather? I do! I echo Emily Dickenson's idea that though she had never seen the moor, she knew just what heather looked like. I've never seen a picture of it, but I can nearly smell it in my imagination I have such a clear mental idea of it! :)

Then the highlands! Such a wild and romantic landscape, if rather foreboding in places!



7. The national costume. Who can beat plaid? I find it very pretty, though, if you are to wear a kilt, be sure you are a VERY manly looking man, like Angus Buchan or someone of that sort! :)



8. Shortbread and tea! I like shortbread, and I wonder if they invented the pretty shortbread pan I have?



9. The names of places there: all over Great Britain they have the most poetic names for places!

Like Stratton-upon-Avon (or something equally cute like that)



10. Their names: I have grown to have a great fondness for Scottish names like Ian, Angus, Duncan, Mary, Jenny, Elana, Fiona, Ellen, etc. (And according to my Baby name book Rachel is a favorite in that wonderful country! :)



Oh! I have a numer 11: Their music!!!! The old ballads and songs are the most beautiful imaginable I feel! And the dancing! That makes 12 I guess!!! Sorry! :)



So now, I hope you know why I am so intrigued by Scotland! The only thing that would slightly frighten me would to swim in Loch Ness! ;)

Who knows but there might be some lone Pleseasaurus (sp?) left in there or something!

Okay! So much for my part of this post! Now Sarah wants to post something!



Hey Everybody! Sorry I haven't been posting stuff recently.
Okay, as some of you know, we've been watching Emma (and even since before that,) I've been wanting to make a book for my hopechest of a collection of riddles! So, I don't really want to surf the internet for riddles, I would much rather do it in a more quaint, and old-fashioned way.
Now, if any of you can contribute one of these puzzling rhymes, I would appreciate it. So just leave a comment if you can, and I'll use it in my book! :)
Thanks! I just thought this would be a fun and interesting collection to do!
-Sarah