BACK FROM THE FAIR

The Charles Dickens Fair in Riverside CA was this weekend. I was lucky enough to be able to go on Sunday. I was hoping for nice weather since it had been raining the past several days. But, the rain didn't go away.

My sister, Maureen, and I decided to still make the hour long drive in hopes that it wouldn't be rained out. We did decide to forgo the costumes though. We didn't want to get them all muddy if it was raining.

The rain didn't stop a lot of others from dressing up though so it was fun to see all the different costumes. The lady in the pink dress above was Queen Victoria...or so she thought.

The fair was smaller then I thought it would be. It was still lots of fun though.

There were vendors selling clothes, jewelry and hats and just about anything else from the Victorian times.

One lady was selling beautiful hat pins that she had made.

I enjoyed the hats. So many pretty ones.

They even had one booth where you could make your own hat. We didn't do that though. It was pretty cold and raining and we figured we could just make them at home.

There were several roaming entertainers. Like this magician. He was pretty good. The crowd seemed to really enjoy him.

This guy was a great juggler! He is even juggling for me while I took this photo.

This group was singing. They had the sweetest sound.

I enjoyed seeing people dressed up. They would be even be standing around talking. Just like you would have seen them back in the day.

There were so many wonderful costumes. Even kids got dressed up.

This guy cracked me up. He had his rat on his shoulder and even the rat was dressed up with a little top hat. His wife had another really big rat in her basket that she was carrying around.

All the vendors were really nice and friendly. It was fun just going in their booths to chat with them.

This was inside where the Fashion show was. This guy was going around entertaining everyone before the show started. He was really funny.

You wouldn't even know he was there and the next thing you know he would be tapping you on your shoulder, head or back.

No one seemed to know who he was or what he was. But, everyone liked him. He kept everyone laughing.

Then the Fashion show started. This is what the typical maid/housekeeper would have worn.

They had sleepwear. I loved the night gowns. I wish I had one like them. They looked so comfortable.

One part of the show had two woman coming out in their under garments and they put layer upon layers on showing how the woman would dress in the Victorian times.

It was interesting to see all the different items woman wore and what they were all for.

Each lady in the show had made their own dresses. I was very impressed!

They showed different looks. Day dresses, party dresses, mourning dresses.

I really enjoyed seeing all the different accessories. Things such as the fans, hats, jewelry.

It was hard to pick which dress I thought was the prettiest. Each one was beautiful.

The women back then really paid a lot of attention to their clothes. Each dress would have almost a story behind it.

Like this one, the shoulders are bare and the sleeves are made in a way that doesn't allow the woman to raise her arms very high.

This was done in an effort to make the woman seem more helpless and therefore the men felt like they had to help the woman and rescue her.

There were many different styles durning the Victorian times.

You saw the woman go from the big rounded hoop dresses, to smaller hoops, then no hoops but bustles and then no hoops and no bustles.

Each style was to reflect the parts of a body they woman to attract attention to.

There was even a dancing demonstration for us.

There were several little plays and skits going on all weekend.

Can you tell what Charles Dickens story this man is from?

We had a fun time, even in the rain. We will be going back again next year for sure.

The only thing we didn't like was the food or I should say lack of food. They had a few things to snack on but not much. So we decided we will go have a nice lunch before we go next year.