News for May 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Emporium Proprietor continues to do a lot of Volunteer Activities. When presented with a volunteer opportunity, our Proprietor asks herself, “What would Grammie Do?” The answer is always clear.

We support the following non-profit organizations and awareness building campaigns in our communities:

 

 

 

 

Seasonally, we offer Discounted Tickets to the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, with special rates for groups of people who are in school, and for elders and seniors. Please contact us with these requests!

 

 

 

And we are also please to introduce a place for you to express your interest in doTERRA Essential Oils  ~  From there you may also request Wellness workshops or private consultations.   As our friends over at Mrs. Greenbalms Healing Salves tells us, “the plants remember Paradise.” And as musician Laurie Anderson tells us, “Paradise is exactly where you are, right now, only much, much better.”

 

We are also continuing to offer our Letter Writing workshops at libraries and bookshops around the San Francisco Bay Area and on the East Coast. Stay tuned for upcoming class schedules and ways that you may participate or purchase supplies.

Jane Austen Mini-Convention in San Mateo, CA

Our friends with the Jane Austen Society of Northern California let us know that there was a mini-convention in the works for March, 2017, and we got prepared.

Our proprietor was able to find a suitable outfit to wear, created and loaned by creative and  talented Lynn McMasters, who also created the outstanding Timeline of Fashionable Hats for Ladies and Gentlemen during the time period of Jane Austen, that was on display at the Public Library in San Mateo.

We had delightful historical and literary presentations by a number of members of the Jane Austen Society, live music and country dancing.  Ann Morton provided delicious cakes and other desserts for our consumption. We had a game of Whist, presided over by Deborah Borlase. Our Proprietor offered a hands-on writing workshop for those who wanted to learn or revive their skills with the quill pen and ink, folding paper and sealing it with wax. We had a marvelous turn-out of all ages of people, met some old friends and made some new ones.

It’s now been requested that we help organize a program, like this one, as a fundraiser for the Vassalboro Grange in Maine, with Full Circle Farm founders Jody and Bernie Welch, our Proprietor’s sister and brother-in-law. So stay tuned, gentle readers, for more information about that event, coming your way in August, 2017.

Update on Costume Academy

On Sunday, March 19, 2017, the Greater Bay Area Costumer’s Guild will hold their annual Costume Academy in Berkeley.  Malvena Pearl’s Emporium will be there with many different wares. There will be several other vendors available there. They may include our friends from Decades of Style Pattern Company, Lynn McMasters, Renaissance Fabrics and possibly our Dickens Fair workshop friends Dorothy O’Hare of Farthingale’s Supplies and Persephone, owner of Fitting and Proper. We may have lovely beaded jewelry from Sandi Ball (morse code necklaces) and Brandi S. Mills of Many Moods Creations.

This event will be held in Berkeley, CA at Language Studies International, 2015 Center St, Berkeley, CA 94704. Drop us a line if you’d like more information!

Costume Academy 2012 MPE

2017 Events planned so far

SLD at Bellevue 2017

The photo above was taken at our friend Kristen Caven’s book release party, an event called An Afternoon at Caffe Florian. It was held at the Bellevue Club in Oakland, CA.

Just prior to the Afternoon at the Bellevue Club, our Proprietor attended a dance with friends in Alameda, CA that was a Hogwart’s Reunion Ball, hosted by PEERS. Evidence of her attendance is below.

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But wait! There’s MORE! Coming up in March, our Proprietor will be attending the Jane Austen Society of Northern California’s Mini-Con at the San Mateo Library. She will be instructing students in the art of letter writing, using a variety of historically appropriate quill pens, ink, sealing wax and paper.

We are getting sponsors for this event, and the most prominent is the San Mateo Public Library, where last year’s event was held and was a huge success.  So that’s on Saturday, March 25, 2017, from  Noon – 4:00 PM at 55 West 3rd Avenue, San Mateo, CA 94402. Many of us will be dressed up in our Regency attire, which is in no way required. There will be presentations, dance instruction, lectures on various Jane Austen related topics and of course hands-on workshops like this one on Letter Writing, entitled,  “Creating Regency Letters with the Tools of Jane Austen’s Time.” Who knows? There may even be tea served!quill

Events in 2016

4490625591_4ab86ee2e6_bOur Proprietor has been so busy, this year, she realized that she hadn’t taken the time to enter a proper Update for this season’s events.

The first photo is from the Blind Baby Foundation’s Beeper Egg Hunt, a few years back, with the pictured pals Kenny and Kate, plus Costumer’s Guild members (Helena, Lynne, Dawn and the Proprietor) creating the costumes and helping out. We had an Alice in Wonderland Tea Party for the young guests; and gathered contributions of tea, cookies and all sorts of raffle prizes from kind Oakland vendors.  That day at the BBF Beeper Egg Hunt was much fun.  So, this year, our Proprietor remembered that she might borrow the Alice costume that Helena created and is wearing in the photo for a similar event at the Camron-Stanford House! In the next photo she’s wearing the Alice dress, standing next to the amazing docent training officer, Molly (on her right) as they both admire the handiwork of  Dragonfly Cakes in Sausalito. “Eat Me,” the cake told Alice.

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March Hare Tea at the Camron-Stanford House, Oakland, CA with Molly (right)

 

 

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2016 Edwardian Ball, San Francisco

 

 

Here are some other photos from events we attended. The black, silk, beaded shirt was a gift from Sara, who received it from a design teacher. It was apparently beaded in Paris in the early 1900s, so the Proprietor wore it to the Edwardian Ball in San Francisco.

 

 

And here is evidence that the Emporium’s Proprietor does a fair amount of community work on behalf of women and girls. She’s performing the monologue called “The Flood,” in Eve Enslers’s Vagina Monologues. This year, with a cast of 9 women, they were able to raise $1,200 to give to Oakland Elizabeth House for women and their children who are homeless.

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V-Day at the Uptown Lounge. “The Flood.”
Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy's in San Francisco
Fires of Wisdom 2011 Tea at Lovejoy’s in San Francisco

 

We recently learned of the passing of our dear friend Jane Cudlip Coblentz King, Mills College class of 1942.  She is pictured, above, at the center of our group in the grey and black jacket. Jane was 93 years old when she passed last fall. She retired from tutoring just the year before and boy howdy, could she tell jokes, stories and remember Shakespeare, line, act and scene! She is dearly missed by our group of volunteers in Fires of Wisdom, the Mills College Oral History Project, pictured above. We miss her so much, some of us made a gift to the American Heart Association in her memory.

~~ Malvena Pearl’s Emporium staff also witnessed the glory that is/was the Pan Pacific Exposition, entitled Jewell City.    There are many images,  including a lot of stories, here. ~~

Finally, the Proprietor started off in January of this year assisting some clients with their outfits for the NOIR CITY Film Festival at the Castro Theater in San Francisco. Here are some happy film goers!

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Christmas time 2015

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

Since you may have missed hearing the carols at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair, here is another opportunity to hear these arrangements sung in a festive, Victorian setting. Tea will be served by the volunteers of the historical society.

Where?  at the Camron-Stanford House

http://www.cshouse.org/visit/

The Camron-Stanford House is located at 1418 Lakeside Drive on the banks of Lake Merritt in the City of Oakland. Open EVERY Sunday for tours at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. and by special appointment (call 510-874-7802).Admission

Adults $5.00 Seniors $4.00 Children Free

When? SUNDAY 12/27 – Tomorrow – between 1 pm and 4 pm

What? Tea and baked goods in a beautiful setting, surrounded by art work, the latest exhibit of the historical society and four part, acapella harmonies of Christmas carols from 1860 and earlier.

–Suzette L. Davidson, Proprietor
Malvena Pearl’s Emporium

holly

My grandmother’s Scrabble club

I promised to tell a story about my grandmother, for whom this blog was named.  I only found out about the weekly Scrabble club from one of her friends from her church, a Meeting of Friends in Vassalboro, which I used to visit in the summers, when I went back to Maine.  I heard about the Scrabble group at Grammie’s funeral  from one of the other players, when we were telling each other our favorite things about Grammie.

First, I have to tell you what prompted this. It was a reminder of one of my other Favorite Things About Grammie.

Recently, my friend K. lost a friend, on social media. Not by death or in “real” life. K. lost someone because her former friend didn’t believe in K.’s support of gay marriage. K.’s mother Ruth’s words ring true, in this case. They remind me of my grandmother. When a phone call came to Ruth’s mostly-Republican neighborhood in sport of Proposition 8 – or Proposition Hate, as many of us called it – that was opposed to gay marriage in the state of California, Ruth simply said she would not support Proposition 8. When asked why, Ruth replied, “Who are we to stand in the way of love and happiness?”

This is so in keeping with my grandmother’s words. We had a unique discussion about this topic, back in the early 1990s. Grammie was 92 years old. She surprised me with her candid thoughts and blew away any preconceived notions I’d had of how “the older people get, the more conservative they get.” This was not the case. Grammie was shocked to learn that Ross Perot, who was running for president, was firing people in his campaign when he thought that they were gay. Grammie was a lifelong  member of the Friends Meeting, the Quakers. She didn’t usually talk about politics or religion with me. But she was upset. She said, “You cannot tell just by looking at someone that they are a homosexual. That’s outright discrimination.” She explained that there were many gay people in her Meeting.

She didn’t say this at the time, but there were gay people in our family that had only come out to her, and she had kept their secret throughout her life. My young nephew was able to come out to his parents, and to me. Our uncle was not so lucky. Many of us guessed that my grandmother’s eldest son had a hard time after his return from WWII. He was forever changed by the experience of driving an ambulance in Normandy, at age 18 — after being raised a Quaker. I know that kind of experience would change anyone. Grammie always supported my uncle, with unconditional love, through his drinking problems, even when he was not able to focus on a career or on his own children or marriage. She never gave up on him. Later in life, he discovered tattoo art and opened a studio. He took his grandchildren with him to England, when he visited other tattoo friends there. He would bring back the most delicate tea cups for my grandmother’s china collection. He had what I would call a mural on his back of the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party from Alice in Wonderland. The only reason I know this is because I saw the photos that he gave Grammie of his competition in a tattoo show. He never showed me this body art, himself. But we were pallbearers together when Grammie passed. She was a very quiet, very loving person. Very respectful.

Back to the Scrabble club. The woman I spoke to at Grammie’s funeral said she was the youngest member of a Scrabble group and it was an honor for her to have been asked to be part of it; the other three players were all over 80 years old. She and her longtime companion had met my grandmother at the Quaker Meeting House. I learned that each Friday night, three of Grammie’s women friends would arrive at her house, with some snacks to share, to play Scrabble. The format was always consistent. They played the first three games in total silence. Then they’d take a break, laugh and chat, break out the snacks and have tea. The fourth game was much more relaxed and they talked while they played. She said she was really going to miss those games. They were run like clockwork, a vital part of her week.  And she said that my grandmother was one of the best Scrabble players she had ever met.

Now, I kind of knew this about my Grammie. My grandmother never told me about those games, nor did she ever talk about her religion. She’d invite me to go to Meeting and if I was too tired, no problem. She’d go and come back and we’d have the rest of Sunday together with visiting. If I wanted to go, she’d smile and she got to introduce me to her Friends. She was a very capable and gentle listener with a killer sense of humor and a contagious laugh. She loved listening to baseball games on the radio. Sometimes, when we were younger, we’d walk along the edge of her property, along the road where the black-eyed susans and daisies grew, and we’d pick up garbage. Just cleaning the neighborhood together. Making it tidy. Or we’d plant pansies in her yard. Sometimes we’d just sit on the porch and listen to the birds and the sounds of the occasional car going by. We didn’t really need to say anything. She loved to be with us, her family. She absolutely glowed, in that quiet way, when we’d visit.  Also, as I learned from this other Scrabble player — and other members of her Meeting — something I knew about her.  She gave the Best Hugs, Ever.  To EVERYONE in her church. I seriously have never known anyone like her. And that’s why she is my mentor, to this day.

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Gratitude

Once again, it has been quiet around the Emporium. We want to say Thank you to friends, old and new, who keep the creative inspiration flowing for us here.

Thank you, Roberta Lincoln, proprietor of Frog Fountain, who offers lovely, handmade doll outfits and toys via her Ebay shop.

Thank you, Hilda Westervelt, proprietor of Bellisima Couture for doll collectors, who offers amazing handmade couture garments.

Also thank you to Linda Wenzelburger, costume maker and convention-goer extraordinaire; and Scott Pennington, kilt-maker, for seeing me through the months of the Dickens Fair, 2014 and into January of this year.

Thanks to Beth Woolbright. Thanks to Scott Hamner for going for hikes and talking about singing, recently.

And this year, thanks to Eileen S. for volunteering with me at the Costumer’s Guild open house and finding time to have tea and talk about survival and the creative process. Also thank you to Judith H. Dunlap for making me feel welcome at the same event where I met Eileen. Here is a cupcake painting she made some years ago.

 

Starry Night cupcake cake, with a few nibbles.
Starry Night cupcake cake, with a few nibbles.

February 2015

February has seen the return of Lady V_Jay Jay in her pink outfit, as a greeter and fundraising for the Oakland 2015 readings of The Vagina Monologues.  Here is a photo of this year’s amazing cast:

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Thank you to all of our sponsors and to the people who helped us sell out the two evening shows, and fill the hall at the matinee, held at the Humanist Hall. All proceeds went to Bay Area Women Against Rape. 

THANK YOU:

AdvanceHealth Chiropractic & Rehabilitation

Ais Q. Harvey

Bacheesos restaurant

Bibliomania book shop

Cemora Vanetino-Devine

Chelsea Hill

Daryl Rodillas

Dr. Clo Lau

Ericka Schneider

Eva Salyer

Follies & Dollies

Get Goes Mobile Coffee

Greta Joseph & La Sagata

GwendOline PouchOulin

Howard Bloom

Jessica Opitz

Juan Romero

Kin Folkz

Liba Falafel

Lisa Marie Arens Insurance Agency

Liz Burden and Serenitea Handmade Soaps

Marcelina Verarde

Micha Bennett-Cauchon

Mystic Hands Massage & Body Work

Neena at Feelmore 510

Perch Cafe

Princess/Merlin Monroe/Chris Hughes

SpectrumQueerMedia.com

Splendid Colors

Suzette Davidson

Sweet Bar Bakery

Tanaya Hurst and Rogue Making

Tech Liminal

The Creativity Stimulus Package

The White Horse

Viscera Studio