Dining Room is repainted

Today I went to the Columbus Gift Market which meant a long day and four hours in the car. It was worth the trip but also somewhat sad to see the effects of this recession on the market. Anyhow, when I got home I found that Karl had finished painting the dining room. It only took him 3 days and he did a great job. He corrected several wall and ceiling issues. The ceiling had a really rough repair (I did it) from 8 years ago when Francine and her triplets lived here. e Dianne recommended the colors. The swag fabric and paint colors next to the rug. The red brick color fabric will line the soon to be finished swags.

Dianne also suggested the brass for the medallion. I really like the way it picks up the same color in the chandelier, mirror and frames.

Lucy inspecting the progress.

Cumbria Trip and Beatrix Potter

Friday, after work, I went to Blockbuster to rent this movie...Miss Potter. It was released in 2006 and filmed in London, Scotland, Isle of Man and the Lakes District. Both of us liked the movie and thought the extra's were just great.

Here are some interesting facts of her life: Beatrix Potter (1866 - 1943) grew up in a privileged home in London. Her parents were social climbers who lived off their mutually inherited wealth. Her father was a barrister who rarely practiced law. The movie was somewhat sympathetic to her father, less so to her mother. She had an isolated childhood and was mostly raised by governesses. Her only sibling, Bertram was 6 years younger than she and sent to boarding school at an early age. The fact her education was not encouraged, due to her gender, was common at the time. She frustrated her parents by turning down all the eligible and "acceptable" young men. She loved animals, nature and science. She kept a diary from the age of 15 until well into her 30's. She wrote in code in this diary which was not de-coded until 20 years after her death.

Her life story is fascinating to me.

Here is one of her illustrations from The Tale of Two Bad Mice. This was her 5th book which was published in 1904. According to what I read today on the internet, the real inspiration for this book was Norman Warne's (her publisher and secret fiancee) niece's dollhouse. The movie portrayed Beatrix's childhood dollhouse as the inspiration for this book. Most of the movie's misrepresentation criticism's were fairly benign ones like this.

The part about Norman being her secret fiancee is true. The secrecy was a compromise her parents proposed. They did not want her to marry someone out of her class and asked her to keep the engagement secret until she returned from their summer holiday at the Lakes. Norman died of leukemia while she was away. Another criticism of the movie was that it misrepresented how he died. In the movie Norman's sister describes his symptoms as coughing a lot which apparently is not a symptom of this disease. In the movie Norman and Beatrix's last scene together has him dripping wet from rain at the railroad station saying goodbye to her as she leaves for her summer holiday.

Above is an illustration of Peter Rabbit and his sisters, Flopsy, Mopsy and Cotton-tail. The Tales of Peter Rabbit was her first book. A third criticism of the movie is that it did not explain that she actually paid to publish this book first and the Warne Brothers finally decided to publish after she sold several editions herself. When the Warne's published it in 1902 it sold 28,000 copies. Today this book has sold over 40 million copies in over 35 languages.

The next illustration is Jemima Puddle-duck and the gentleman fox. The Jemima Puddle-duck inspiration from a real duck at Hilltop Farm, her Lakes home she bought in 1905. Another criticism of the misrepresentation in the movie as Jemima's character was introduced in the film during Beatrix's courtship with Norman and in reality Jemima was not developed until far after his death.

The next pictures are sketches she did as a child and a picture of a young Beatrix. It is amazing to think she was this talented and probably not encouraged to do anything with her ability.

When she was 16 her family started going to the Lakes Districta for their summer holidays because the house they rented in Scotland was not available. The first year they stayed at Wray Castle near Ambleside (pictured below).

Beatrix became friends with the Vicar of Wray Church, Hardwicke Rawnsley, who years later would encourage her to publish her first book. This same Vicar was a co-founder of the National Trust which is headquartered at Wray Castle.

When she died in 1943 she left 14 farms and over 4,000 acres of Lakes land to the National Trust.

Anyhow, evidently the Potter family enjoyed their first holiday in the Lakes District as they spent the next 20 or so years summers holidays there in and around Windermere and Derwentwater This next picture is a watercolor she drew of Derwentwater which she later used as backdrop for one of her books.

Beatrix Potter bought Hill Top Farm, (above are pictures of her home on this farm) in 1905. This was her first step towards an independent life which was made possible because of her book sales. Her books The Tale of Tom Kitten and The Tale of Samuel Whiskers were based in and around her farm at Hill Top. Pictured below are the rats rolling Samuel Whiskers in an attempt to make him in to pudding.

In 1913 Beatrix married a local Lakes lawyer, William Heelis. William's hometown was Hawkshead, also the childhood home of William Wadsworth. The building below

was Williams law office which now is a gallery of Beatrix's art.

Below are pictures of the embroidery I have kept for 25 years and never completed. I started this project for my sister who was was pregnant with her first child. I was going on a trip to Europe that summer before my last year in college and this was the project I took to work on in the plane. Her first born child is now in grad school at Purdue.

So, now I think what I will do is embroidery "Jemima Puddle-duck" on the left hand side, above what I've embroidered so far.

Then on the right hand side I'm thinking I will embroider:

She set off on a

fine spring afternoon

along the cart-road

that leads over the hill.

She was wearing a shawl

and a poke bonnet.

Then I will frame it and use for Audrey's shutter bulletin board.

Holiday at The Lakes in September

This morning John bought our tickets to England for an 8 day hiking trip in the Lake District.

So here is the sequence of how this plan evolved:

• 7/2/09 John received an email from one of his college friends, also named John, that the previous day he had accepted a new job and he and his family will be moving back to Sidney, Australia in early 2010. John B, his wife Nicolette and daughters Ellie and Jasmine currently live in London. He works in finance and will be opening the Asia /Pacific office for his new company.
• 7/2/09 John N : Congrats... hope all is well.
• 7/2/09 John B: any interest in one last trip to Europe before we wander out
• 7/27/09 John N: hey Bert found cheap flights what does September look like for you? (I started looking when I realized we most likely aren't traveling to China in 09)
• 7/28 John B: Pretty open after 1st week
• 7/30 John N: We booked flights ... here's the dates. Initial thoughts are fly in, take train to Lake District and meet up with you later in trip. Look forward to seeing you, Nic and the girls.
• 7/30 John B: Cool. Been too long. We can recommend stuff. "Believe it or not, the girls are driving up to the Lake District as I write this... I'm joining them tomorrow evening for the weekend so we should have plenty to discuss. Cheers.
• 7/30 John N: "great. gladly take the advise of the 'advance party' "

So we have been having so much fun reading and researching this trip. Here is some of what I have learned:

The Lakes District, also known as The Lakes or Lakeland in 2,630 square miles located in rural northwest England. The population is about 500,000, unemployment listed as 2% and about 63,000 people are employed in the tourism industry. Tourism is the largest source of income for the region. It is estimated that about 14 million people visit the Lakes annually. Interestingly the sheep population is estimated to be around 2 million. This area is a mix of lakes, mountain, forests, woodlands and a whole lot of quaintness in general.

Here is what The Lonely Planet Guidebook we bought today suggests to bring for this trip:

1. good hiking boots with plenty of tread
2. good rain jacket "all those green pastures and lush dales come at a price; the Lake District is officially the wettest place in England and receives twice the national rainfall average"
3. comfortable day sack to carry goods
4. up to date map
5. binoculars (we just got some good lightweight ones from an event earlier this year), camera (now I really have a reason to get one w/ a functioning flash), and spare memory.
6. plenty of spare socks
7. taste of warm ale
8. calm attitude for queues

The Lake District is one of 14 National Parks in the United Kingdom. The Lakes lies entirely in the county of Cumbria and is one of England's few mountainous areas. This area was made famous during the 19th century because of poetry and writings such as William Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter.

Baby's 1st Bathing Suit

Today I bought this bathing suit for Audrey at Castle House, a designer kid's store in Hyde Park. The 70% off banner hanging in their front window is what lured me in. I drive by this store regularly on my way to the grocery store and have avoided stopping for weeks. So today when I did go in this shop I assumed the selection would be picked over and I would avoid buying anything. Yeah right. Anyhow, I bought this bathing suit for $11. It was the only 12 month size that was not pink. I not anti-pink (one of my friends is) but I definitely prefer something different. I also bought this Lili Gaufrette shirt for $15. I had never heard of this vendor before. My first buying job was in infants and toddlers. Ok, that was 20 years ago and I worked for a department store, not a boutique. But seriously I can not imagine someone paying $50 for a shirt for an infant. During my corporate retail career I also bought handbags. I googled this vendor and here is what I found out: "European children clothing line that has a chic and trendy style between fashion and revisited fashion", "one of a kind designer baby clothes". I find that crazy and amusing. I can't help thinking how funny that would sound in a funding proposal considering today's economy.

Well both of these purchases fit in Audrey's hat box where I have all the clothes I have purchased for her. This box is pretty full now. We have tried to buy as little as possible prior to our referral, mostly because of superstitious reasons. By we I actually just mean me since I don't think John has bought her anything yet. Anyhow, the hat box was my grandmother's. I have 6 of grandmother's hat boxes (and 4 hats) and I use the other 5 to store my own clothes. My grandmother was such a lady. She had 13 grandchildren and we all adored her. She loved to dress to the nines and despite the fact she was legally blind she worked (own a real estate company) up until she died at the age of 89 in 2004.

Next to the hat box are the books I've bought for Audrey so far. Book purchases are a different story. When I see one I like I buy it. Since this is a category I buy for the conservatory gift shop most of her books came from Krohn. Right now I'm up to 37 books, which considering we have been waiting for 3 years and 2 months shows considerable restraint on my part.

The chart behind the hat box is a "hundred good wishes" growth chart, a Christmas gift from Mom-mom and Grandad in 2007.

This bunny t-shirt is one of my favorites.

The next (very out of focus) picture is of Audrey's room. The poster is the ABC's of Cincinnati. Her bed will go where the black chair is now.

This room used to be a fantastic walk in closet. It has looked like this for almost 3 years now. After our dossier was logged in I wanted to paint it right away so it could air out and she wouldn't breath that new paint smell when she came home. Obviously that turned out to be a non-issue.

Several years ago, before we even thought about adopting, we bought these shutters at an antique store in Bloomington for next to nothing. They sat in our basement for a while until we decided how to use them. We framed them and attached a cork board for our baby's room. We thought this could provide some fun storytelling possibilities. At the top of this picture you can see the pie pan where an old potbelly stove was vented from this room a very long time ago. Our home was built in 1874 so it is interesting to imagine who spent time in this room. Some day I want to try to research our home's history.

This picture with the shutters open shows what we currently have on the board which is a poster of "Butterflies of Krohn Conservatory" on top of a map of Mt. Adams.

This is the first sweater Mom-mom (the name my mom's 1st grandchild gave her) knitted for Audrey in August 2006. Audrey will be my parents 15th grandchild and John's mother's 2nd.

The second sweater she knitted in October 2006.

The 3rd sweater from Mom-mom.

This is John's baby sweater and booties from 1964.

Oh, this dress is an exception to the hat box. I bought this in February 2007 and it is hanging in my closet on the 3rd floor.

Movie Night in Mt Adams July 2009

Last Thursday was another fun movie night in the neighborhood. The weather was unseasonable cool, 70 and no humidity. John and I brought chicken pad thai and spring rolls (from Teak) and got to Seasongood about quarter till 8. The band started around 7:30. It was a 15 people jazz orchestra and they were fantastic. They played mostly 50's music, in theme with the movie which was released in 1955.

Many more dogs attended this movie night than the movie night last month. The band encouraged people to dance. These 2 kicked off the dancing.

These little girls seemed to have a good time dancing in front of the band and lead singer.

Neighbors catching up.

The raffle before the movie included: fishing lessons at Mirror Lake, tickets to Playhouse in the Park, Art Museum membership, gift certificates to a Jeff Ruby restaurant, a big screen tv and amusingly a free movie screening (like the one in this picture) at your home. This was amusing because most of the audience does not have a backyard big enough to handle this screen, or for that matter a yard at all. In fact the winner of this prize (who is acutally in the picture on the stage pulling raffle winners) live in Highland Towers and has no yard at all.

Picture of John. After dinner and the raffle we opened the bottle of syrah we brought.

Dinner from Teak with my husband, a free movie and wine with the neighbors on a beautiful night in a great park all within walking distance of our home is my kind of fun.

The cartoon before the movie was Bugs Bunny Goes to Mars.

We got home around 11:30. Lucy was not amused when we put the glow necklaces on her.

Next movie is Philadelphia Story (1940) with Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart on Friday, August 21st.