Rabbit Holes Aplenty, New Discoveries And Delightful Adventures

My Dear Friends, and Mermaid Junkies,

Where to begin? Before I get to rambling about, I thought to tell you where I have been. My email was compromised to the most considerable degree, and so I was not remotely capable of signing into anything online. It's still not entirely repaired, but I shall do the best I can with what I have. I have been itching to get back to my blog. I have the story in its entirety in my draft folder. The whole bits and bobs of it, however, for this morning, I wanted to impart the lovely sentiments, and not dwell so profoundly on the negative. I've admittedly had enough negative with my email that I shan't revisit it still.

How To Feed Our Little Hen House On The Prairie

My dear friends,

How are you on this lovely beautiful day? It's tea time, my sweet friends. I made some banana bread to accompany our tea today. You're going to love it. I tried a new recipe this time, It's one with brown sugar.

As many of you know, I had wanted hens all of my life, and I can happily say, I love having chicken ladies. They are a year and a half now. My mother grew up on a chicken farm, as that was her gentries livelihood. I am learning every day that despite all the things I'm sure my mother knows about farming and chickens, I am continually researching for myself. I try and emulate the olden ways of homesteading. The Victorian era is my end all to beat all. (smile)

The Art Of A Festive Gathering

 

New Website Bubbling Up Soon!

My Dear Friends, Mermaid Junkies and Shoal Family, 

I titled this post as a festive gathering, because by the time I hit publish on this post  I do believe my book will be out into the Universe for all the world to read. 

I wanted to touch base, have a little visit and tell you each how much I appreciate your friendship, kindness and support with regards to my blog and my new storybook, "The Tale of MerryMaid Scarlette Rose.". 

A dinner party in celebration of Jane austen. I love this outfit and hope to replicate it at my book signings.

This is the final proof from the company that I am having create all of my formatting for my  storybook series. 

 If you ever decide to self~publish your very own books and would love a terrific company to format your books for you, I'd highly recommend Glendon at Street Light Graphics. Tell them I sent you. They are a wonderful company to work with.

I have begun scheduling my book signings with the list of tea rooms and book stores. Did I tell you that Oliver will be joining me at the signings? Isn't that a delightful idea? He seems to get all of the attention, so I figured he'd be a wonderful way to bring excitement to the children and parents. 

I am still working on it, but I figured out a nifty idea for a travel basket for Oliver. I had to put it off when my beloved took sick, but I'll have it all ready to go before my book signings. Oliver is asking that you bring him rose petals to munch on and he'll have his wooden cane that he uses in the story. {smile}

I wanted to chat a bit about the particulars of what's happened since I last posted about my dearest Gardener, for those of you that have contacted me and shown concern. Thank you so much for reaching out, it meant the world to me. 

This is a cropped illustration of a page from my storybook. The pixels look a little off but rest assured in the book they are very clear and perfect. I edit all of my photos to fit an aesthetic for my blog and social media so that's why the saturation looks the way it does in this photo.

I made some Geranium Rose Petal powder and cold cream. I'm mildly obsessed with this cold cream. It reminds me so much of the scent that my maternal grandmother used to wear. I can't get enough.

Do you like how I used old portraits and glued button eyes. I think It's an element of spooky, but on the subtle side. The little golden frame in the background is from the dollar tree. Did you know that these size frames are the exact size of lithograph photos. I buy the frames and just remove the paper art image inside and if the gold is too fake looking I will spray a light coat of brass or gold spray paint over it. these were perfect so I didn't have to touch them.  

A favorite of mine, the  double boiler. I received this as a gift from my dear Aunt Dianne on my mother's maternal side.

In between my visits back and forth to the hospital to stay with Jeffrey, I had some time to faff around the cottage and make a few things among my routine writing, cleaning and making ye Olde youtube Videos. The Victorians were very resourceful and used glass for all of their needs, and I try to do that also. I am a Mermaid after all, and the oceans are much better off If we are conservation conscious oriented. I save all my glass jars from the market. I clean them out and remove the labels, and I do age and distress the lids to look old. I made a dozen of beeswax candles, and I jokingly said on my IG stories that I only caught the stove on fire once. 

I swam down to the crystal market and found some lovely crystals to add to our collection. I also had some extra sticks from the gardens and made another wispy broom. Quite fitting for this time of year. You know how I fancy Halloween. I love Citrate crystals, do you? What is your favorite crystals?

Citrate {brown}: Assists in overcoming obstacles, increases feelings of self worth and confidence and helps build leadership skills. I think it's beautiful how so often I will go to purchase a crystal and before I go, I always set a little intention that the correct crystals will call my spirit, and that I will be drawn to them. It occurs every time. I had no idea what a citrate crystal was especially healing for , but my inner being knew. I also found a blue, and a green citrate. jeffrey got a blue citrate as well, along with a citrine on a necklace and two Jasper bracelets for healing. I thought those were delightful choices since it was his first week since out of the hospital and he's been awful weak. I have the most fun with him. It's so wonderful sharing time with those beautiful souls that inspire us to sing songs from the soul, isn't it?

 I don’t think it’s a coincidence that each day I bring my tray of crystals down from the shelf to prepare for meditation that Oliver immediately gets comfortable, lays down next to them and becomes sleepy. Animals know best where real alignment and energy stems from.

Did you know that all through my life, I was always drawn to crystals and earthly sentiments, but I was taught when I was a youth that crystals were evil and bad. I now know that even as a child I intuitively knew how much everything in my world has a spiritual nature to it.

Remember that what your heart calls you towards is always right. It doesn’t have to be right for anyone else, but you and you alone. Don’t let people convince you that God isn’t calling you forward, no matter what form it takes on. Trust your inner being, it knows! I love crystals and I know they make me feel calm and happy, so I practice with them everyday.

“You have to be in the world to understand what the spiritual is about, and you have to be spiritual in order to truly be able to accept what the world is about. So this is how you swim inward. So this is how you flow outwards. So this is how you pray.”~ Mary Oliver
I also had some spare time to hang my vision board for this year. I know it seems most dreadful that I had it made for so long, but it was stuck in the closet. It just took a simple nail to hang it under my Victorian frame. Do you find that you do that sort of thing too? I get busy doing a million projects and abandon many of them mid way through. Ask my mother and my Beloved Gardener, they will both tell you I am notorious for this type of antic.

I now embrace it and just tell myself I'm not inspired to finish it. I think it's about high~time we all cut ourselves some slack and say to ourselves that if we didn't do something, it's because we weren't feeling inspired, and that's A-Okay... We are too rough on ourselves, Ladies. let's be a bit more gentle with ourselves. Things always go much better when we don't use force and aggressiveness. Have you ever tried to push a wet noodle? Oh my... It's a travesty!{heh}

"A minute's reading often provokes a day's thinking."~W.H. Venable, 1872 I had some time , or should I say I will always make time for some reading. I found these lovely quotes from some of my Victorian literature.

"Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our minds the minds of sages and heroes. A good book is the precios life -blood of a master spirit treasured up on a purpose for a life beyond.."~J.F. Spaunhurst, 1896.

Writing: "Every new book must have, in the consciousness of it's author, a private history that, like mysteries of romance, would if unfolded have an interest for the reader, and by revealing the inner life of the volume show its character and tendencies." Sarah Josepha Hale, 1866.

This is my logo that I painted for my new branding and website. I must confess I have gotten my bloomers in a wad in more times than I can count while working at creating a header, oh my...Pixels are maddening {heh}. I practice the law of attraction and it still trifles me with how much I allow the little things to bog me down, such as attempting to create a new website by myself. Are you a website genie?

I took a break and walked to the park and spent some time just clearing my head. How has your life been as of late? I've missed you each and I think of you each so very often. I hope to see you around these waters very soon. If I happen to be in your area at one of my book signings, I sure hope you'll swim by and give me a hug and ocean kisses.

I will put up a list of the places and sightings when I have each event dated for certain.

Most affably yours til my next swim, raquelxxx

The Art Of Victorian Musings And Hints From Staffordshire Cottage

Might you pour some tea and let us have a little visit. I've missed you, and I have such particulars to tell you and a bit of some musing that only you might well appreciate. 

My choice of tea this morning is lavender and rose with a smidge of honey, I am pairing it with a few walker shortbread biscuits/cookies. A little further down in this entry I will share my  Victorian recipe of Walker shortbread. Last evening I finally took a moment to sit a spell and read my newest issue of Victoria magazine. I was especially pleased to see a sweet little entry about Beatrix Potter's celebratory birthday in England. What a delight! I do love Beatrix Potter as you may well know. 

As you can see here, Oliver is as gleeful about fall as I am. I do love a rabbit in photographs along with some flowers. 

As I am an artist and with my manuscript and illustrations off to the formatting company, I thought to send you a tad of Mermaid. I painted this so long ago, and it still reminds me of my beloved gardener. I imagine he looked like this as an infant boy. 

 I have an old wooden fence that separates us from the neighbours, and there is one piece of fencing that has long rotted away. I can't bear to replace it as I am rewarded with my neighbours bleeding hearts ever so daring to connect. I don't mind it one bit. Isn't the bleeding heart thus very England and holiday provoking in spirit?

 And since I have no children these days underfoot, these little ladies are my constant companions. Have I ever told you of their names? The red one with white-tipped tail feathers is named Harriet. We were told she was an Orpington, but I think she is something else. Any guesses out there, ladies? The Plymouth Rock {black &white} is named May. Her sister was called Flower, and she was killed by a racoon as a chick. The Black Australorp is Pollie, and the Rhode Island Red {to the far right} is named Henny Penny.

 They surely keep the bugs down and weeds from my rose garden. They love the rose garden.

 I was counting out my collection of oyster shells that I've been hoarding as I am planning to use them to make an excellent base for a laundry line. I need to make one that's portable, small in scale as our gardens are small and one that is appealing to admire. I should think that all things in our dwellings should be delightful and admirable to gaze upon, no?

 I do believe ladies that I have showed you once before in another post, the little bathroom I redid for $12.00. I had all of the other supplies in the garage. I will go into more depths in the newest entry, but I thought I'd share a little inspiration with you proving that we are only limited to our imagination when desiring to create beauty in our small abodes. I am beginning our 2nd bath this weekend with another many little redos. It requires my Beloved Gardener to disembowel the sink. He was very enthusiastic about how I was able to transform our small bath with such little money. I hope to do a second bath, such as justice. I will dedicate an entire post to that project in the impending future.

 I am currently switching out a few sets of our curtains in the cottage from linen to all lace. I am a lace person, and it makes the cottage feel a bit more Victorian in nature. That's the exciting thing about homes. If you desire to have your home a particular style, but it's not perhaps, built in the period you'd like, there is always a way to aesthetically change things to trick the eye.

 I have begun taking out my fall decor. Last year these leaves were sent to me from a dear friend in New England. To prep for the autumn brings me right to the edge of enjoyment.

 A beautiful Victorian image of a print I have had for many years. It speaks to me as a mermaid;  elegant and enchanting.

 A little painting I did for Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag of their son Gunner with some hummingbirds.

 A little Halloween decorating from last year. I am in hopes of tickling you with inspiration to begin thinking about such a beautiful, dreamy holiday approaching. I am frequently tempted to leave my cobwebs up all year round. {heh} Do you think anyone would pay notice?

 Are you a Halloween person? What's your favourite holiday? Do you celebrate Lammas? I began celebrating Lammas a few years ago. I have always incorporated traditions into my life, and I very much tried to create that for my children as they were young. I am still reminded by my children of how much they appreciated all the traditions I incorporated for them. They certainly make me so very happy, and it's such fun in sharing with the children all about their family heritage and genealogy. Do you have traditions? 

My little roses and herbs are getting along quite well. I have started adding potash to the roses and look how many blooms have shot out in the last week.

Another small image of the old home when I lived in Orlando. This was my formal Victorian dining room, so I didn't much care that the cobwebs were ridiculously placed. I so very much wish I had the old photos of this decorating, it was quite something, in my opinion.

I placed this image up as its another reminder of an idea for the cabinets here at Staffordshire Cottage. This is my old home, but I still quite enjoy this look of distress on the cabinets. It was a very time-consuming project but prevailed in the end because it saved me thousands of dollars when we went to purchase this home. There was an exact house right next door at the time we were looking to buy. The only difference was that the house next door was 60,000 dollars more than ours, and it was because they had replaced the kitchen cabinets before placing it on the market. I said oh, no! I'll just paint ours, and I would venture to guess ours will turn out a bit more charming. I must say I was right. The first thing that drew the lady to want our home was the kitchen. She really liked the cabinets. Our house sold in 2 days. This was over 9 years ago. Oh my! Where oh, where has the time gone?

I am still toying with whether I want to alter this look a bit. I had even thought to do the distress but actually paint the cabinets an olive green instead of beige. Below is the handle that I have picked out for the pulls.

Here's another designer tip. If you can not afford to overhaul a particular room per se, but you want to update it enough to where when you are having your morning tea and not feel dreadful in your own dwelling, remember that you can change little things and it will make a world of difference.

For instance, I am not at the leisure to altogether remove our kitchen cabinets as of yet, but I can add some techniques along with some paint, and some Victorian pieces and It will suffice for quite some time. The pulls are on the pricey end of the spectrum, but I can always remove the pulls and place them on new cabinets when the time arises.

 Another image of new lace curtains. I have been finding a mix of lace curtains at yard sales. I don't have all the windows provided for as of yet, because as we know, some things take a little time. I do know that Ikea has some relatively inexpensive lace curtains and I think I may drive over this weekend and pick some up for the sliding glass doors. I want to replace the doors for some french doors with glass knobs, but lace curtains will deter the eye for the time being.

This is what my old doorknobs looked like except the glass portion was the colour of the knob below. I am a mug for the colour green, as many of you already know.

 I worked at Anthropologie for a time, and I was able to get a discount.

I have many of these for cabinet pulls which I put on all sorts of things. The bathroom vanity cabinet, the pantry closet, sleeping room closet doors, wall hooks, or I might even drill a hole right into the wall to hang picture frames with chains. It's so very Victorian!

 I am sure you are fully aware of who this is! Meet Queen Mary of Scots!

 I spoke to you previously telling you how much I absolutely love the Walkers Pure Butter shortbread. Well if you know anything about the Walker shortbread or have purchased them you may be fully aware that for a tiny box of them, it's about 5 dollars. That's not too much truthfully, but I thought I might try my hand at baking my very own. It was 3 ingredients, how tough could it possibly be, correct?

• 1 1/2 Cups Plain flour
• 1/3 Cup White sugar
• 1 1/2 Cups Butter

Walker Pure Butter Shortbread 

1. Preheat Oven To 180 Degrees C.
2. Blend All Ingredients Well. Dough Will Be Stiff.
3. Press Into A 23cmx23cm Buttered Cake Pan. Prick Top With A Fork. Mark Into 24 Squares.
4. Bake In Preheated Oven For 15-20 Minutes Until Pale Golden Brown On The Edges. While Still, Warm Cut Into Squares~Prep time 15 mins › Cooking time 15 mins › Ready in 30 minutes let me just tell you, you get a mighty amount when you make them yourself. Here's the Victorian recipe I used, doubling my batch. I freeze one batch for later and eat the other now. It's also a lovely gift to give if you've been invited to tea or you need a house gift in a pinch. Add some wrapping, ribbons and a basket; and you will be all set and ready.

I am quite the mover here at the cottage, and I am not one to continually wear my Victorian boots daily. So I wear these little inexpensive {$7.00} ballerina shoes from Walmart. They are super comfortable, and they look adorable with all of my dresses. As you can see from the picture, they start to look scuffed and not so cute, but they don't have holes in them, so guess what I do? I actually decorate them with fabrics, trims, bits, bobs, tea-dyed lace and ribbons. That way, I can get more use out of them, and even when I am doing tedious strenuous projects, I still look approachable. I tried to match the designs from my old shoes below. Notice the darling brass mermaid?

I held a little tea party for myself on July 28; Beatrix Potters birthday!

Here is another view of our sleeping room. I found these pictures of Blue Boy and Pinkie at the thrift store for 3 dollars, and I had to have them. As a young girl, I always had these figures in my sleeping room. They are such delightful memories for me. I am removing the linen curtains and replacing with lace ones as well.

My dresser. I collect little glass vanity boxes, gloves and perfume,e bottles. My collection is in the beginning stages just as my new transformational life as a gardener's wife.

The jewellery music box is my Beloved Gardeners deceased mothers. It's one of the only belongings that he has and holds so dear that was hers.

Miss Potter {From My DVD}

An image of an outfit I am beginning. I bought the pattern below from Etsy, and I am starting on it this weekend. I am going to choose a soft calico, perhaps hemp ticking in taupe. The blouse is one I purchased from Historical Emporium. I love their Victorian shirts because they are comfortable and made of all cotton. I am a mug for a Victorian cotton blouse. I chose an ecru in colour as I am a gingered haired lady and the soft ecru looks much more spritely on my skin tone than a stark white. I will pair it with my favourite of all broach types; the cameo.

Courtesy of Historical Emporium

I hope this day finds you extraordinarily well. I also am hoping that you will sign up for my newsletter "The Current."

I do not send out that many and I pinky-swear that I won't be bothersome with endless mailings. I want each of you the opportunity to be entered into my contest to win a Merrymaid Scarlette Rose doll along with a care package and a copy of my storybook "The Tale of Merrymaid Scarlette Rose". It will be a charming little gift for a baby shower or for the upcoming Christmas holiday. My release date is the second week in September. I shall keep you posted. Follow along on my social media if you would like. The links are to the right of this blog on the side panel. 

Most affably yours til my next swim, Raquelxxx