Tag-o-rama, part deux

Lovely Fallon who presides over her aptly named blog has kindly tagged me and I am obliged to provide you with five facts about myself. Things you might not know about me -

1- Though the time period I specialize in as an art historian is eighteenth-century France, long before photography was invented, I am fascinated by early photography. I collect tintypes - essentially, a proto-polaroid that was developed on thin iron plates (e.g.). My fiancé and I are hoping to have a couple of tintypes made at  our wedding. I am especially excited to have one of my bouquet, like so:

by Heather Curiel

2- In third grade, I convinced my mother to buy me a Carmen Miranda costume for Halloween (actually it wasn't too difficult, she has always supported me in my campaign for eccentricity). Fruit headdress and all. It was the coolest thing ever. Too bad I chickened out right before and refused to wear it to school, realizing that my peers would not appreciate its fabulousness and would tease me mercilessly.

So fabulous.

3- It is also thanks to my mother that I have three godmothers...like Sleeping Beauty - but much more prettier. They are not fairies, unfortunately (as far as I know!!).

4- I share my birthday with Napoleon (August 15th, doncha know). I'm not sure whether this -- or my military history-obsessed father -- is responsible for my abiding interest in him and his first wife Josephine. I even have a Napoleon Swatch, courtesy of my dad, Christmas 1994:

5- I collect vintage needlepoint bags, attend the opera avidly, and wear turbans. Basically, I'm a little-old-lady-in-waiting. (Fallon is not alone in her grandma style). Some of my favorite grandes dames here.

Beatrix Ost, my idol.

I'm passing the torch to a bevy of charming bloggers - my friend Kate McAleer, owner of adorable chocolate company Bixby & Co, who writes about the travails and triumphs of being a young entrepreneur here;  Elizabeth Stilwell, whose blog The Note Passer I discovered via Pinterest; vintage-loving sewing blogger Sue of Sewing Steady; P. Gaye Tapp of little augury, whose formidable host of eclectic interests is greatly inspiring to me; and Heather Carroll, a fellow dix-huitièmiste (or eighteenth-century maven!) whose entertaining blog, The Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide to the 18th Century, I have been shyly following for some time.

You're it!!