Dinner on the Olympia (sister to the Titanic)

My sister is a history buff and former museum curator. She is facinated by the story of the Titanic and recently took us all on a cruise on the Olympia, sister ship to the Titanic. A month and a half ago 8 friends of Jennifer received invitations to dinner on the Olympia. In the weeks following we recieved other mailings with our identities, an authentic recipe or food to bring, our boarding passes and other historical info about lives and times of the passengers aboard the Olympia and Titanic. The guests at this cruise were all female and, since wine was to be served at each course, staterooms would be provided....cool.....a grown-up slumber party!!

We were instructed to dress formally and to dress up our outfits to reflect the period if possible. We took this to heart and embellished liberally:



As the cruise got underway, we received telegrams and gifts from our character's husband or companion:


It appears we were very pampered and appreciated women!



The table was beautiful....Jennifer collects dishes. She researched the menu and used one from the Titanic. The original was 11 courses. Jennifer edited it to seven.


At each place was an envelope containing a short script for each character to read...it told something about each woman's life. We were suprised to learn that there were several divorced and/or remarried women. Some of the women had careers in various fields and were more independent than we expected. My character was a Renee Harris... who produced plays.


Those Edwardians really knew how to eat. Everything was delicious. We each contributed something to the meal. Jennifer and Kevin cooked all the main dishes. Kevin stayed in the kitchen and manned the stove so Jennifer could mingle more. He's such a sport.



After dinner we retired to our rooms while Jennifer hid items for an "artifact hunt." There were papers with odd tidbits of information about our identies or the ship hidden around the house. The guest who found the most won a beautiful pair of earrings.


Another fun activity was making portraits. We each selected a pose from a book of John Singer Sargent's paintings. Then we took turns having our portrait made in our selected pose... we each received a sepia toned framed portrait as a favor. Here is one pose that we did of Jennifer, Holly and I:


And here is the whole group together:

That's me in the rocker with the bottle. Hmmmm. We finished off the evening by changing into our jammies and having a good old slumber party.

I know this party took a huge effort of time, energy and resources for Jennifer. But what an unusual evening! She carefully selected people she knew would be interested in the history and enjoy the dress-up and acting involved. We learned, ate, and laughed all evening. Thank you Jennifer!

Getting his kicks....

on Route 66!

Joe and I love the soundtrack from The Blues Brothers and the kids were raised on it...it was our traveling music. When they got old enough we let them watch the movie. It's one of our faves too...takes us back to our dating days. It came out the summer after I graduated high school.

We took these photos of Mike at the Polk-a-Dot Drive In on old Route 66 in Braidwood, Illinois. It's a wonderful 50's style drive in. If you ever get the chance you should stop in. You could have your photo made with Betty Boop or Elvis or one of the others around their building.

3 Generations of Handsome/Silly

Mike, Grandpa Joe, and Joe
These are three very good guys.

Sock Monkeys...

These guys and a few more to come are going to the shop. This is the first time I've made sock monkeys and they are pretty fun! The stripey one I made out of one pair shorty socks and one pair toe socks...stitched together to make the shorty socks long enough for monkey legs.
I made a little taggie blanket to go with the brown monkey...look at that cute sock monkey fabric. I'm planning to make four more of these monkeys. They are for a little room that I want to stock with baby and kids stuff...handmade and vintage. A young mother I know is making some baby blankets too.

New baby....

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know about our standard poodle Louie. He's such a sweetie and wins everyone over with his sweet personality. He's a cuddler...that's him snuggling with me on the couch.
Today my mom and dad (who are our neighbors) got a dog...he's a small standard and just as pretty as a picture. He's 11 months old. He was rescued out of a sad situation by a woman nearby who is a groomer. She has been working with him for a couple of months and he is coming around and learning to trust people.
Isn't he a cutie? Just look at those paws crossed so neatly. His name is Bojangles. They have been calling him Bo.

Shopkeeping.......

Once, several years ago my mom and I had an antique shop called Home Again. Actually we were two separate antique businesses sharing expenses on one store, but our stuff blends so well.
When we first opened we were in this tiny little store that used to be a barber shop. It was tiny but cute....really more the size of a few antique mall booths.
After a very short time we decided to move around the corner to the shop in the front of the building. Still a small shop, but it faced the square and was much bigger than our old one. Our husbands were so sweet about this....because they did a lot of work moving us in and then moving us again.

We stayed in this building for two years, but eventually we decided to close our doors. We had some wonderful loyal customers...intown and from out of town....but we just couldn't seem to generate enough traffic. When fuel prices went through the roof we closed our doors and moved to an antique mall. I was a little sad, but fine with this....it left me more time to be at home and I love that.

Fast forward to today....and there is a new development. We have a beautiful historic building in town that houses an antique mall...in fact ten years ago my sister and I had space in this mall and worked there a couple of times a month. Their manager is moving to a space of her own and the powers that be have asked me to manage the mall. I think the arrangement will benefit us both. The not-for-profit that administers the site gets a manager, and the manager gets a large amount of space in the store. After much consideration (I really like my time at home!) I've decided to give this a try. I'm excited, and a little nervous. Stay tuned.

God, grant me the Serenity...

Well now, you know with a shot this close up that the rest of the room is kind of messy right? But I just put fresh sheets on the bed and that's always such a nice feeling. Aren't these the sweetest pillowcases with roses and bluebirds? I got them at an auction some time back and I like them so much. Every night we go to sleep on these pillows and the prayer is certainly a good one. My teenagers are such nice people and so much fun, but you know how moms worry.....this prayer is a nice reminder that some things are just not in my control.

The blue paisley sheets are some Ralph Lauren that I picked up at TJ Max. I would love to get some more but I don't know the name of the design and haven't been able to find them on ebay or anywhere. If you know the name of the pattern please leave me a message...that might help me round up a few more sheets.

Patching

Our son patching holes in daughter's room. He has never done the painting and all before and he's less than enthusiastic about all the prep work it takes. This is, however, proving to be an educational experience. We are almost ready to paint. Took the windows to the glass guy yesterday........Joe could do the windows, but he's right in the middle of an outage at work and working insane hours.

Progress....

Joe took out the windows and I will drop them off at the window guy's on Monday. The putty is just falling out of them...and one was broken. There are four windows in this room. This took a while because they were pretty stuck...he has it scraped down to bare wood in the window frame. I'll be so glad to be rid of the old cracked paint.
Our hardware is pretty charming but most of the latches no longer work. We'll have to see if we can get them working.
I love these hinges. Looks like hugs and kisses to me.
And here's the inside.

We're Redoing Daughter's Room

I don't have a real before. The wood wasn't painted and is pine...and was filled with holes from years of hardware hanging. The walls were painted Pepto Bismol pink. There are hardwood floors, but the floor in this room was so stained from someone's pet that we put in carpet. This is how we decorated it for our daughter when she was about 4. I love the woodwork painted white and I think it is appropiate since the wood is just pine and it fits the simple folk type of house this is. The room was pretty, but these days it's just plain tired and chipped and in need of attention. These are old pics. It's been a nice room for all these years but now our daughter is 16 now and ready for a change anyway. She wants bright, bright colors and since I can easily repaint later we are going to indulge her.

Stay tuned...today we are scraping, filling, sanding............

Stewing

Some people love to cook. They love to chop, stir, and get a bang out of creating with food. I'm not one of those people. But I love having those people for friends! I do love to eat and I have a family that loves to eat so I've learned to cook. One of my favorite things to make and eat is soups and stews. This one is so easy and soooo good.

2 lbs stew meat
1 onion chopped
2 stalks celery chopped
2 potatoes chopped
6 carrots chopped
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. Sugar
2 Tbsp. Minute tapioca
1/2 cup tomato juice

Put it all in a covered pan and cook in a 250 degree oven for 5 hours.

That's it. Easy as pie...no easier. I usually add a couple more potatoes and another 1/2 cup of tomato juice because everyone here likes seconds.

About that Porch....

So, I finally found all the pics and took a few today...brrrr...cold out on the porch today!

Here's our house before we did the back "porch." As you can see a driveway leads to it...it was some kind of little carport. I'm not sure what we're going to do with that drive....

A little closer before. It had a hodge podge of windows...some missing...it was just a mess.
Here it is after. As you can see we do not have central air yet, so you get the pretty window air conditioners. We used the Screen Tight system and we bought it at Lowes. In fact all the supplies except the concrete and paint came from Lowes.
I can't believe I'm even showing this. This whole area was always stacked up with stuff to keep it out of the weather and it was awful looking...unfortunately we use this door all the time. It was dark and ugly and didn't have screens or glass in some of the windows, so it basically became an ugly storage shed...that you walked through to go inside :(
After. Soooo much better. It's actually one of our favorite rooms now. Water used to run in from outside because this floor was lower than the concrete outside...we added a several more inches of dyed concrete and now it's nice and dry!

Before:

After. We finished off the walls in siding matching our exterior siding. The ceiling is covered in beadboard:

Before (someone was even braver with color than I!):

After:

Before, coming in from the garage and patio:

After (in the cold...please excuse our kindling piled up there!):

Here's a shot of the ceiling just because I really like how it came out. Joe installed fixtures he salvaged from an old factory..green enamel. The trap door leads to a little storage space above the porch. We are going to replace that old seventies door with one salvaged from a victorian home near here.

All the work was done by my husband, Uncle Bob, my dad, Joe's dad and Joe's friend Tom. And then my mom and sisters and I painted. They spent a lot of hours helping us and we are eternally grateful!

Pretty Package

I mailed off an etsy sale and this is what the package looked like. The bookmark is made from the wool (felted, or fulled) from the skirt in the stack from the post below. And some vintage trim and button. Even the bead in the center of the button came from an old necklace. I'm giving the bookmark as a thank you for the sale...but I may make more to sell.

I didn't forget the porch pics...I found almost all the ones I need. The state of my photo collection is sadly unorganized. Most of my photos are actual paper prints since we just went digital recently. And let's just say I really need to spend a ton of time scrapbooking. And make it very simple so I can get a lot of years done fast!

Bag Sale!

Our local charity shop is clearing out the winter stuff...fill a bag for a dollar! I got some wool sweaters, wool skirts and jumpers, and corduroy. All for $2! Yea! Now to wash it all within an inch of it's life...hope it all felts nicely. Might not be able to find wool as easily now that everyone is getting ready for spring. I picked up the corduroy to try and make a hobo bag for the rest of the winter. They are jumpers and already have neat reinforced pockets that will make a nice front for the bag.

I'm searching for some before pics so I can do a post about renovating our back porch. Hopefully I can find them and get it together sometime tomorrow.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Had a little fun last night making valentines. And everyone got chocolate...Colleen too, but she's already eating hers. I found the perfect postcard for my bicyce loving husband while I was on vacation last year. I saved it for today because of the heart.

Snow Day!

Well, it was for almost everyone. I worked in the card shop downtown. We were one of the few businesses that wasn't closed by noon. You should have seen the poor guys who waited till the last minute treking into town....afraid they will be snowed in tomorrow for Valentine's Day. Very amusing!

My daughter was thrilled to stay home from school today, but my son left to go somewhere in his truck. For some reason, my 19 year old young man does not understand the need to reassure mom and dad that he's safe in this weather. Hopefully we'll hear from him soon.

Joe came home from work early and busted out the snowblower. Thank goodness for that tool! We have nothing compared to New York, but it's a pretty good storm for around here.

"Felt" like sewing

I've been having the best time making things out of the thrifted clothing I felted recently. These are a couple of the pins I made from old wool sweaters and suits. And another little piece of the tattered quilt. As I said before, I love sewing on this fabric. It feels so nice and doesn't ravel. It's been soo cold here lately, and in the evening I've been sitting by the fire watching TV and making these.
I figured out a way to cover the pin hardware too, so that the only part that shows is the pointy bit you need to attach it to a coat or bag. If you are interested I have these on etsy.

True Blue

Look at those lovely blues. I just sent them through the washer and dryer today and they felted up nicely. The GW store was having buy 2 get one free...I also got some reds. This could become very addicting.