Of Downton Abbey, Elizabethan Dresses, & the Biltmore Estate

Winter is  over and spring has come...


The second season of Downton Abbey is over until the third season returns next winter.






I am still thinking of that house. Well, maybe "house" isn't the right word, as it was filmed at Highclere Castle in England.

Highclere today with modern furnishings

Although I don't remember seeing this room featured in the series, isn't this library fantastic?

and those dresses

How I would love to visit, but this American girl can't swing an overseas trip right now.

The closest thing we have in the US to a castle like this is the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, one of my happy places. I've been there four times in my lifetime.

This was the country getaway of George Washington Vanderbilt the Third and his wife, Edith. They had one daughter, Cornelia, who was something of a rebel. When she grew up, she changed her name, moved to Europe, and never returned to her childhood home, even for her mother's funeral. It was said she disappeared because she intensely disliked the limelight. Very little is known of her life after she left the US.

She did marry and had two sons, George and William. After her death, the two sons divided the estate into two parts, with George developing the family's dairy, Biltmore Farms, into a successful real estate development firm, and William taking charge of the Estate, which he still operates today.

 Even though you can't take photos inside, these came from postcards. And these below we took photos from the veranda and the exterior

Sitting out here, it's hard to imagine why Cornelia would have left and never come back.

 

 

We were here on an unseasonably cool weekend in July. We had a weekend pass to visit the big house as often as we wanted, so we had spent one day sightseeing and decided to go for a quick tour through the house before it closed. 

Most of the visitors had already left for the day. We went very quickly through the house (which still took about 45 minutes), then went out to this veranda near the main staircase. It was about 75 degrees and there were large fans blowing cool air into the open doors. 

We sat in the chairs, relaxed, and gazed at the view. It's one of my happiest memories. It was the last vacation I took with my mother before she passed away a year later.

 

 

Standing here, looking over the grounds which stretch for miles, I feel a little like Lizzie Bennet when she saw Pemberley for the first time and said: "And of this place, I might have been mistress."

 Above is the view of the estate winery, as viewed from the Biltmore Inn.




Here is the exterior of the winding staircase:

 which was inspired by the Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire seen below:

...and a shot of the full exterior of Waddesdon Manor:


Even though the Biltmore is more closely modeled on French chateaus than English castles, it stands as the closest example I know of to a castle in the United States. I know I feel like a princess when I am there.

bikes on the beach

It's such a cold, gray day here that I was dreaming about being back in Cape Charles, Virginia, as we were last summer on vacation. I love old bikes, especially when they are all lined up at an old hardware store next to the beach, just waiting to be rented and ridden on the beach. These were so friendly, how could anyone resist taking these for a ride?

This little bike has a Hawaii license plate on it, although it was thousands of miles away from Hawaii. So cute!

The sunny sidewalk in front of the hardware store where the bikes were parked. They carried everything a person could possibly want to enjoy a day at the beach. And if you keep walking, eventually the street will end and the beach will begin!

Here are some wonderful images from the book The Relaxed Home by Atlanta Bartlett. I just love the look of these rooms.

Although my home doesn't reflect this right now, I love white. I first fell in love with it during a Christmas Tour of Homes. We walked into a typical 1980's suburban tract home and it was like stepping through a portal into the past. The owner had removed all the kitchen cabinets and appliances and replaced them with vintage models. The carpet had been replaced with hardwood. And the master bedroom was amazing. The owner had put a creaky screen door on the the master bathroom door. It sounded just like the screen door in the Waltons. Everything was white and very old. It was the most calm and peaceful house.

Even better are the little splashes of color against the white backdrop. Just a little touch is enough.

After seeing this photo I made a similar grouping of antique suitcases in my living room. I topped them with old books and used vintage irons as bookends.

This white floor is amazing!

DIY Kindle Cover Tutorials: Sew, Glue Gun, and No-sew

I got a Kindle from my husband for Christmas and absolutely love it. However, we traveled to Alabama the first week of January and I was frustrated trying to keep my Kindle in good condition since it has no cover of its own. I ended up storing it in a ski hat I wasn't using. It worked great, except that the lint from the hat had to be removed every time I went to read my Kindle.

I was rearranging some old books on a bookshelf when it struck me: why couldn't I make a Kindle cover out of an old book?

I remembered my uncle used to cut the middle of the stack of pages out as a child to hide things in. When the book was closed, the compartment was undetectable. Then I started checking online for tutorials on how to do something similar. These are the ones I discovered, and the best part is that they cost $10 or less to construct:

Come Together Kids has a great no-sew tutorial for someone like me, who wields a mean glue gun but couldn't sew to save my own life.

If you can't stand the thought of tearing apart an old book, here is another one from C.E. Grundler that is super-cute and uses a placemat instead of an old book. That toile fabric is simply adorable, but they also have another tutorial using duct tape if you want to save even more money.

Are you ready for this? Shelterness has 15 really adorable Kindle cover projects, including one that uses a cut out book like I was going to do. Of course, now that I've seen all the possibilities, I'm not sure which one I'm going to make. Warning: some of these require sewing skills and a sewing machine.

Will it be this one?

or this?

this?

or this one?

Inspiration: Audrey Hepburn - Rare Photos

Audrey Hepburn is an inspiring woman for so many reasons: her beauty, her kindness, her style, and her selfless nature.

She was always very modest about her acting ability and had only become an actress after she was unable to become a ballerina.

Despite her fame as an actress, Audrey wanted to be a mother above all else. She had trouble becoming pregnant and had several miscarriages. She did eventually have two sons, Sean Hepburn Ferrer and Luca Dotti. She thrived on  motherhood, but her marriages did not fare so well.

Still, she never stopped believing in love.

Audrey was devoted to causes that benefited children. In her later life, she devoted nearly all her time to UNICEF and traveled to many countries to encourage others to support UNICEF and other charities like it.

The best book I have ever read about Audrey was Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit, by her son, Sean Hepburn Ferrer. This is truly a love letter from a son to a mother, and a very moving tribute to the Audrey everyone loved so much.