pardee + do not disturb + halloween

my parents sent me and 3 friends [one, two, three] to the pardee house for a belated birthday tour and tea.

if you are local [or planning to visit], like victorian houses, cabinets of curiosities and strange collections then you should definitely go. the docents and tea-makers are all volunteers - they go ALL out . the tea was really amazing [see image 10 below for JUST the sweets - they even made me a birthday cake with chocolate leaves]. it's $5 for a tour [they have scheduled ones on wednesdays and saturdays, but you can schedule one for a group almost anytime]. a light tea + tour is $15 and a high tea + tour is $25.

the house is frozen in time as the pardee family lived there from generation to generation from the day it was built until the 1980's. they have left almost everything untouched - it can be a bit creepy [like seeing the calendar page of when they died] but also rather cool.

here's a slideshow of some of my photos [you may have to click out of a reader to view this]:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.



sometimes i do really like a task. husband wanted a do not disturb sign for his office door. he works at an animal hospital. sleeping dogs it is ! i used a free font - santo domingo - for the text.




so - costume is done for halloween !
in an old house in paris that was covered in vines
lived 12 little girls in 2 straight lines
in 2 straight lines they broke their bread
and brushed their teeth
and went to bed
the left the house at half past nine
in 2 straight lines
in rain or shine
the smallest one was madeline

the little decided this is who she wanted to be for halloween [from only a question if that's who she might want to me]
we have little black shoes too [which she loves wearing and is calling her madeline shoes]
i wanted to do the all yellow madeline because my favorite pages of the books are the ones in all yellow black and white.

i pulled the pattern from a coat of hers, and just altered it a bit - which having never pulled a pattern before i think i did OK !
here's where i was cutting it out.
felt like i was going back to my costume design roots as an undergrad.

can't wait to go trick-or-treating with her... even if she only wears the hat for 2 seconds.