The Usual Accomplishments

“…….it is very foolish to ask questions about any young ladies – about any three sisters just grown up; for one knows, without being told, exactly what they are – all very accomplished and pleasing, and one very pretty. There is a beauty in every family. –It is a regular thing. Two play on the piano-forte, and one on the harp – and all sing – or would sing if they were taught – or sing all the better for not being taught – or something like it…..”
So went Mary Crawford’s assessment of a family of daughters. I know she was wrong at least in part, I myself have three very pretty daughters. And between the three of them we have a healthy mix of drawing, painting, piano playing, ballet, writing of prose and poetry, solo music and choral, short video production, painting screens, and I know not what.
As a teenager myself, I had a vision for the type of home I wanted to someday create. I wanted a home that was peaceful and orderly, and I wanted a home filled with artistic expression and creativity.
It could be that my two dreams were at odds with each other. I grew up in a large family with creative parents. My mother was artistic and from time to time the whole crazy household would get swept up in some project. Sewing, painting, decorating, or art classes would spill out into half the house, while the rest of the house would be in shambles. These were busy times, and often the artistic vision would include a deadline- having the project done in time for such-and-such event. I will admit there were times when I would walk up to my friends house, breath in the quiet air, and fall asleep on a cool sofa while she did her work, cleaning a house that already looked spotless to me. But on the other hand if I wanted to make doll clothes there were always scraps at hand. In the garage I could find drapery remnants to use for throw pillows, tote bags, covering a table that was really a pile of boxes. You could sit and sketch without attracting attention. One summer my room-mate sister and I would sit in silence on our beds, each writing a serial style teen novel, for hours, until we swapped notebooks to catch up on the other one’s story. We had no TV at the time.
So I dreamed of finger painting with my babies, making messes and creating. But I also dreamed of having laundry done on time, having dinner done of time, regular shopping trips, and just a regular train of living. As I do this, many mundane little events fill up my days, until it’s been a year and I haven’t painted a thing with my girls. Then I tell myself I’ll do it in summer, and then summer is over and it never happened.
This past week I decided I was going to make it happen. I had a few canvas boards in the garage. I didn’t want to wait around for the time block that oils would take so I bought a bag of acrylic craft paints to augment the half empty and dried out lot that I have, we broke out the easels, and started to paint. My two DD’s 16 &11 painted with me in our light filled breakfast nook, and I think I’ve secretly decided I’m going to leave my easel out all summer, just to make it easy. I worked on a picture of my sis and I at Malibu Beach as children. It’s not done yet. I was going for a simple, almost paint-by-number retro kind of feel. I can’t wait to finish. My youngest daughter did a fine portrait of our dog Missy. It actually made me want to try one. My DD 16 is painting a picture from the recent Northanger Abby, where Catherine Morland is reading outdoors on a blanket. Their work is great, and I had so much fun, I found myself in the usual refrain of “Why don’t we do this more often?”
But I’ve decided to be easy on myself and just be happy that we did it!
Sometimes breaking from the routine and doing something artistic with the kids is quite an ‘Unusual Accomplishment’ indeed.

Mansfield is Home

Portsmouth is Portsmouth and Mansfield is home. That is what Fanny Price realizes after a month back in her Mother and Fathers house.This last month I've been so busy....graduation, recitals, children traveling here and there, and on top of that a 9 day cold/flu that was like something out of the middle ages....that I haven't had much inclination for posting. Life was too busy for me, to hectic for my naturally slow pace. So what did I do? Retreat into Mansfield Park. Mansfield Park is my home in a sense too. It's my home away from home, when the stress here seems too much. I collect those two or three families in a country village that I know so well. I adore Fanny Price. She is the sister of my heart. I follow her through her trials and injustices. I honor her for her self control and self awareness. I stash my novel and read a chapter whenever I get a spare moment, and before I know it, I'm feeling better, I've watched the progress of spring, and our calandar is all but cleared for the summer months.

All Five Out at Once

Here are some pictures from our Sister's Weekend.
Four of my sisters and I have a delightful soak and pedicure.

After the pedi we donned our flip flops and ran through the rain (this IS Seattle, after all) to an antique store. Here I am with two of my sisters playing dress up in hats at the antique store. I am on the left. It's hard to find a good bonnet these days!

Here you see five of us sisters and one sister in law Having lunch. We were quite refined until someone ordered the deep fried Mac and Cheese.

Domesticity

I’ve uploaded a few pictures of our ‘Sister’s day. There are still a few pix I want to get up here but frankly I find the whole photo entry system so confusing that I can only handle so much in one day. I definitely was meant for a less technological era! (Every time I want to post a picture I have to read the ‘help’ again to figure it out.)
I think my all my time with my sister brought on a burst of domesticity. We had discussed laundry a lot- what works and what doesn’t, so I had a chuckle when she called after her trip to say she had found a sign with the following notice…..
“The Laundry is DONE……..The ashes are in the fireplace.”
Did you know that in Jane Austen’s time much of the finer clothing, especially silks and men’s clothes, were rarely if ever washed, and were cut apart to be washed piece by piece and then reassembled! It kind of makes you thankful for the old Whirlpool!
Burst of domesticity #2- I normally plan menus for a week at a time before I go grocery shopping. I was feeling like everything was always so rushed and last minute that I had a brilliant idea- Plan dinners for the whole year! So I made twelve pages of grids and spread them out in front of my on the dining room table, then I was able to do five week sections, first filling in things we like and eat every month, then every other month, then say, once a quarter. After that I got out four or five cookbooks plus the dinner recipes I used to get from ‘Menu Mailer’ and filled in all the rest of the spaces with recipes I wanted to try or already like but rarely use. In the summer months I replaced regular dinners with things that are more hot weather friendly.
So, we’ll see how it goes. I’m one week into it and like it already. I’m still pretty flexible, no eat outs or special holiday dinners are planned, since I want it to be a perpetual calendar. Each month is made up of five weeks, starting with Sunday, so if the month starts on a Wednesday I just skip the first three blocks on the calendar. Because of this the first and last few squares are things we might not want to have as often.
The other day one of the kids commented on dinner, saying it was good. Then DH (Dear hubby) said “I hope you enjoyed it because we aren’t having it again until the third week in September” or something like that. He’s teased me about it but I bet deep down he thinks its cool!!!
While I am talking about him, I must say he felt like I was complaining about him in my last entry about the dollhouse. I don’t think it was bad, only the truth, he’s not sentimental about things like that. But that I understand that and have to say that he is a sweetie. Who else would take me to every new Jane Austen flick rather than just send me out with the girls or try to get me to wait till it went to the video store.
When we went on a date to see “Pride and Prejudice” when it was in the theater, it was opening night so a lot of hard core Janites were there. Well, the woman behind me was talking so much during the show, and in such an annoying way (a la Mrs. Elton) at some point I leaned to my hubby and said “I’m about to reach back there, pull her coat over her head and pummel her hockey style”.
He said “I’d give you 50 bucks. That would be so cool at a Jane Austen premier. He thought a fight breaking out at an Austen premier would be funny and make the papers. Good thing I'm such a peaceful person.

'Ello 'Enry

My good friend has a daughter who is on a semester abroad in England right now. LUCKY! Sorry for the interjection. Anyway, I’ve heard about her trip to the british library and Bath, and now I was shown tons of lovely photos from the gardens used in the recent ‘Pride and Prejudice’. Picture columned temples rising up out of the misty green garden. I think the pictures looked even more lovely than the scene in the movie, where it was overshadowed by the rain and the ‘Speed racer’ of a proposal scene. (I know, I know, we all don’t have five hours to spend).
They were lovely pictures.
On another topic, I had never seen the movie ‘Face Off’ and we had PVR’d it the other day so on Wednesday night we finally got a chance to watch it. It was a good, (and to me a little creepy) show, but I was puzzled by the role of Castor Troy’s weird brother. There was something oddly sweet and familiar about him…. Do you ever watch a show and your mind is racing saying ‘who IS that???’ About 45 minutes in I realized it was Henry Crawford!!! (aka Alessandro Nivola, the actor who played Henry Crawford in the Miramax version of Mansfield Park.) After that it’s all I see throughout the show.
If someone is in a Jane Austen show then they are like old family friends to me, and their identity is fixed. Well, the one exception would be Colonel Brandon, who despite playing in Austen, and being Snape, among many other roles, will somehow always be Hans Gruber to me.
Cue: Ode to Joy!
Happy Easter all, and enjoy the onset of spring!

Staring at the Pond

Today I am taking my daughter to the mall to go purse shopping for her 16th Birthday. Unless she’d rather go with her sister. I’m making a cake for a little celebration and she’ll have a bigger party later in the month. I’ve been too busy to sketch but I did add a little more art to the board. (Huh, a board for the bored…) If you saw that sweet new picture of Helen Keller as a girl, with Anne Sullivan, then you can imagine why I had to print that out and add it.
Saturday we went out with another couple for appetizers and desserts. I was surprised when the desserts came and the waiter slid over a dish of hot fudge with a straw in it….Hahahah, my hubby ordered it while I was away from the table because we had decided to split a piece of cheesecake but he knows I love the hot fudge. AAAhhhhh, I was positively giddy. Forget ‘chocoholics’…. I am a full fledged theobromine addict.
I do have a little Jane related story for you- I had a fun conversation with a new friend I thought I’d tell you about.
She was in England with a small group that was touring the lovely country home that we all know as Pemberly from the A&E BBC production. At one point she strolled over to the large window where she could look out across the landscape and at the pond below. Two other ladies joined her and they all stood quietly gazing out the window. Finally one of the gentlemen came over and said “Ladies, no matter how long you stare at that water HE’s not going to be coming up out of it.”

Taking a Likeness

I have just been dying to do some creative things lately and seeing that the real creativity is going to be in finding time. Right away oil painting is out. I can't really scrapbook unless I can leave the table covered for the next week or so. So I started one project, a sort of artsy, altered scrapbook looking bulletin board that I decorated a little and have plenty of room to add to when I get the creative bug and have a little time on my hands. I bought a small stack of old pictures from the antique store down the street, and came home and arranged them with black thumbtacks. ...The only thumbtacks I could find were magenta so I colored them with a sharpie.WELL>>>>> as it turns out, there was a really cute proud young soldier pic I put on, and my hubby being a bit of a military buff I said, "so where is this guy from?" And he just started laughing. It seems the crowning photo on the board was a Nazi. I had no idea. He said, "couldn't you see that swastika?" no, I just thought it was a bolt of lightning or something. Ugh. Now I suppose I have to take him off the board. I paid extra for that guy too. The antique store lady must think I love Nazis. Now my husband is teasing me all the time, and to make it worse the kids tacked on a picture of Anne Frank and a star of David from an add that had come in the junk mail. I'm taking him down. Then I had another brilliant idea for art in a small amount of time, the old standard, which should have occurred to me earlier, and that is sketching. So I dug out sketchbooks and decided I would commit myself to art by sketching a little right away. "Taking a likeness" as Jane Austen would say. I love the view of the pine trees and mountains outside my bedroom window, so that would be my first sketch. Good or bad, I did not care, I just wanted to be doing it in an artistic way. Then I decided I would really capture artistic passion by climbing out of my window onto the roof of the kitchen below, of course, for art's sake. Yes, sweetie, if you are reading this, I really did it. I took out the screen and climbed out and sat on the sloping roof with my book and pencil and started drawing. For about 90 seconds and then big fat raindrops started coming down out of nowhere, we were actually enjoying a reasonable sun break at the moment. For a moment I thought the watermarks on the paper would help express my passion and desire to make art. Then I decided to just sit up in the window sill where I would be covered.But I still feel joy not only at making art, but doing something different, something I don't HAVE to do.Yeah Me.