Literary Events >> Fancy Nancy Tea Adventure

This Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity to attend a tea hosted by Adventures By The Book at the beautiful Westgate Hotel in downtown San Diego, CA with Christine de la Creme. Our Fancy Nancy Tea Adventure included a meet-and-greet with the illustrator of the Fancy Nancy book series, Robin Preiss Glasser, who may just about be the most fabulous person you will ever meet! Of course we opted to dress in fanciful lolita wear to celebrate the release of the book, Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet.

Our adventure began as soon as we stepped into the lobby of the gorgeous Westgate Hotel lobby, which literally felt like walking into the palace of Versailles, and for a moment we were able to live out our fantasies of 18th Century French court life! We made our way to the 3rd floor of the building to check in, and were surprised to immediately be rushed into a dress-up room where we were given the chance to record a 7 second video which would be turned into a flip book for us to keep. Such a cute idea!

After finding our table, and enjoying a serving of black tea with an assortment of tea sandwiches and desserts, we were greeted by the glamorous Susan McBeth, founder of Adventures By the Book, who introduced our guest of honor for the evening, Robin Preiss Glasser. Robin arrived in fashionable attire that would make Fancy Nancy herself proud, and was seemingly surprised when she saw me and Christine sitting at our table decked out in our lolita fashion! She explained how the story of Fancy Nancy came to be, how the author of the series based the stories on her own childhood, and was surprised the first time she saw Robin's interpretation of the now famous little fashionista. Robin actually designed Fancy Nancy with a Troll Doll in mind, can you even imagine?

She went on to read from the newest Fancy Nancy picture book, which was such a cute story, and afterwards offered quick etiquette lessons to the young girls in the room. She explained how instead of practicing good posture by balancing a book on your head, you should practice with a banana, because a true lady is always rocking her tiara, and how can you balance a book on your head with so many diamonds in the way? She also explained the story of placing your pinky outwards to show how regal you are (royalty of bygone days would wear signet rings on their pinkies to showcase their rank), and offered another etiquette test: place a gummy lifesaver on your pinky and begin to eat around the center, if you can eat down to the nub, and still have a gummy ring on your finger, you are indeed a true lady! Afterwards, Robin was available for pictures and book signing, and me and Christine quickly jumped on the opportunity to have our picture taken!

Robin expressed interest in our clothing, and was even thinking that someone should do a book based on the unique street fashion from Japan, so of course we left her our cards in case she wanted to contact us about this endeavor! We were so glad to have been able to meet her and spend such a wonderful evening in fanciful enjoyment, thanks to the awesome work by Susan McBeth, whom I was able to talk to about the Passion & Prose event that I attended in February (she didn't recognize me with the pink hair!).

After the event was over, Christine and I decided to head down to the lobby to take pictures, because it was so scenic and beautiful and perfect for taking lolita pictures! Overall, we had a wonderful time at the Fancy Nancy Tea Adventure, and were able to enjoy good food and even better company. I am very much looking forward to attending other Adventures By The Book events in the near future, and I hope you will too!