Tag: history

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Sharing a Marie Antoinette French-Styled Hutch for Mid-Summer

French Ethereal

Ahhh summer!!! Now that the shed is in and we have begun working on moving the fence, I am feeling happy and can decorate again… Today it is all about Marie Antoinette…

Last year’s thriftshop find ~ our happy couple having a tête à tête.

I was at Target last month sometime and found this fun Marie Antoinette card.. I LOVE what it says and it cracked me up! I am thinking you will enjoy it, too:

All I said was, ‘Let’s have cake,’ or ‘Let’s eat cake,’ or something like that, and suddenly everyone got all pissy!”

Poor Marie Antoinette… So misunderstood!… ;)’

Brittanica shared a fun video debunking the myth that Marie Antoinette said, “Let them eat cake.” She did say,

Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.”

This was written down by a writer named Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr who reported that he found the quote in a book, when Mademoiselle Marie Antoinette was just five years old!

Apparently it was already a popular phrase, and no, someone so out of touch with how peasants lived wouldn’t have understood why those people couldn’t afford to eat brioche, a wonderfully sweet bread…

Cake time!

I pose another thought…

Remember how you’ve heard in the past, or may have seen portrayed in movies, beggars or peasants coming to the back kitchen doors of estates and being given meals or bread from those kitchens??

What if brioche that was leftover from noblemen’s meals was shared with them??

Perhaps that is what Marie Antoinette was referring to…

Interesting thought, non?

Lightened this photograph a little so the English Springer Spaniel would show up.

Today, of course, we have food pantries and soup kitchens of which we can donate canned goods and foods to to share with people in need. Our IOOF (Odd Fellows and Rebekahs) group donates boxes full of foods every couple of months, several hundred pounds.

Here in the hutch

For our mid-summertime hutch, I thought about the abundance of hay and vegetables which will be coming into harvest very soon.

I’ve picked a few tomatoes already this summer and I’ve sprayed Tomato Set on all four plants hoping they will be pollinated again and set even more tomatoes! I’ve taken some of my white and green onion tops and planted them in the garden, too. I love watching their allium heads come up!

And of course there is always tea time! I was just reading about The Traveling Teacup over at Barbara’s site, Mantel and Table. So sweet! If I wasn’t working most of the year (and ended up being too worn out each day…), it’d be fun to send another teacup out there!

I did share the book Choosing to See by Mary Beth Chapman, wife of Christian singer Stephen Curtis Chapman. It is the story of the loss of their daughter and God’s hand in the family’s getting through this tragedy. Very powerful and I think you would enjoy it so I’ve linked it. I am not sponsored so just for you.

I had no idea that this post was going to go in the rabbit trail directions that it is taking, but sometimes we just have to Let go and Let God, right?

Apparently I was supposed to share this book with you, and I know I haven’t before. 🙂

source ~ Marie Antoinette on Wikipedia

Back to Marie Antoinette…

Then when my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were here last month, we drove over to McKinney and Farmersville. In Farmersville, Texas (about an hour away from here), Gini and I went into a cute clothing shop so she could pick up some Farmersville t-shirts and I found this dish towel…

It was a sign that I needed to put these two finds of Mademoiselle Marie-Antoinette together and make a vignette!

And this is how this this Marie Antoinette French-Styled Mid-Summer Hutch came to be!

I’ve put together everything French-related that I have, plus summertime harvest teacups and china. Many of these pieces are thrift shop finds.

The stack of plates are the new-to-me Castleton plates my mother-in-law brought from their IOOF thrift shop in Sacramento, California.

Same with the gorgeous hot chocolate pot ~ which couldn’t you see Marie Antoinette having a cup of cocoa seated in a chair designed to hold her poofy dress pulled up next to a small tea table??

A little dark and blurry ~ my bad! I didn’t pull out the tripod and chose instead to let the camera focus in manual as best it could! A piece of wall paper I’ve had sits in the background and which would work perfectly in a dollhouse… On my bucket list. 😉

And here’s the full hutch ready for company… and Marie to visit! 😉

Happy mid-summer, friends!

Barb 🙂

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The Story Behind This Patriotic Mantel…

French Ethereal

These colors don’t run… 

In my previous post sharing this patriotic mantel just a couple of quick highlight photos were shared. Today I am going to share the story of why I chose each of the items in this mantel scape.

How these small treasures honor our American patriots and veterans on this Memorial Day, 4th of July and Veterans Day…

Many of  you know my husband is a U. S. Marine Corps veteran who served eight years in California at Camp Pendleton and at H + S Battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. 

Between those two posts, he served seven months in the Gulf of Oman during Operation Desert Storm (1990-1991) aboard the USS New Orleans, part of the USS Tarawa group stationed in the Gulf.  For his part, he received the Navy Achievement medal, a gold crossed-palm trees Kuwaiti medal and another medal for helping during hunger relief in Bangladesh.



When the operation was first announced no one knew if this would be another Vietnam or erupt into another world war; there was no way to know. I was terrified for Charles and am grateful that he came home with only five crushed disks in his back (a slip off the ship’s ladder during a storm with a full 70 lb. pack on his back) and a permanent skin rash. I prayed a lot and so did everyone else whom I knew who had loved ones in the air or on ship or land.


This is us at our engagement party during the summer of 1987. Charles officially went into the USMC in January 1988.

The hair got a bit shorter after this photo was taken! This was phase one of the haircuts. 😉



It is with great honor and respect that I share this post with its leaning books about Congressional Medal of Honor recipients, Navy Cross recipients and other wonderful books written about our great nation’s military.

I have also included a book on The Civil War which my father stayed up until the wee hours reading it cover to cover when he was out to visit when my daughter was very small. I think he would approve of this post!
🙂

Why are they leaning?

These books are leaning to show the men and women who have fallen in the line of duty. The leaning also convey that our military service personnel may get knocked down in battle or by post traumatic distress but they get back up, dust themselves off and keep going. That is the way of a soldier ~ resilient, humble, God-fearing, loyal… and brave.

The burning candles are for those soldiers who didn’t get to come home ~ like the continuously burning light and watch (guards) at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery who stand at attention 24-7-365. These candles are for them.

The transferware plates

Two blue transferware plates show part of America’s history ~ “Independence Hall” created by Liberty Blue, Historic Colonial Scenes, on Staffordshire ironstone; and Johnson Bros. Historic America “Covered Wagons and the Rocky Mountains.”

I found four of the “Independence Hall” plates while thrift-shopping in California a couple of years ago and shared them in this past post.  The Covered Wagons plate was one given to me by my sister-in-law Linnea 21 years ago when I drove out with the kids to visit she and my brother Gene in Weatherford, Texas. Small world that it came back here…


Flow blue delftware and a French plate

When I was an exchange student to Germany in 1981 my host family took us to Holland for a long weekend. A little of the money I’d taken with me to Europe brought home this pair of Dutch Delft shoes with little twirling windmills plus this sweet Delft cow.*

They are reminders of that special time learning about the people and culture of the Netherlands, but here later in life they have also become reminders of the sacrifices made by the Dutch people in recent history during WWII. 

The Nazis entered Holland in May 1940 destroying cities and peoples in their wake. The Netherlands were finally liberated between September 1944 and April 1945 as part of the Allied Forces surrounding Germany and ultimately forcing Hitler and the Nazi party’s surrender.

*A little more about Delft and Holland in case you are interested.

France also suffered greatly with the Nazi invasion of WWII, therefore this French soup plate “Eglantine” by K + G, Luneville, France, is my tribute to the French resistance and the people of France and their part in helping to win the war. The quietly hidden fleur-de-lis on a ribbon of  gold also shares in this patriotism.


And of course a bouquet of flowers lies there for all the fallen and for all the victories our military members have seen in 243 years of America as a country. 


A special pin to share…


Mr. Ethereal and I will be watching war movies like we usually do on Memorial Day and having a few cookouts. But this year as in most years I spend time remembering… I’m happy to share this special mantel vignette with you.  Enjoy yours!
🙂




Happy Memorial Day,

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Places to Visit ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, Walnut Grove

French Ethereal
Travel has  and always will be a favorite thing for me to do and post about and today I thought I’d fall back and pick up a post I hadn’t shared from last autumn ~ a visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum, in Walnut Grove, Minnesota…

Timeline of world happenings which the Ingalls family would
have heard about by reading newspapers ~ those day’s “internet.”
The Laura Ingalls Wilder museum and learning center in Walnut Grove, Minnesota is housed in two main buildings. As you enter the first, you step into a large welcome center which houses an extensive bookstore and gift shop selling boxed sets of the Little House series of books written by Ms. Wilder.

The Little House books printed in various languages on display ~ love the French version of Little House on the Prairie (directly center)! On the right next to it is On the Banks of Plum Creek written in German with By the Shores of Silver Lake written in Spanish. The two left hand books are written in Dutch (think Holland), I believe.
Individual books from the series are also sold along with colorful calico prairie bonnets, aprons, tin cups and other memorabilia ~ all items enthusiastic readers would love to bring home as keepsakes from their special time playing “little house.”

This is a perfect place for teachers and homeschool families to take students as everything is interactive and geared towards studying the pioneering farm life.

The bookshop has every book written about Laura’s life and family including several books which talk about the harsh realities of the real life the Ingalls family actually lived.  Books about other celebrated Minnesota pioneers and first settlers, local birds and wildlife, and other topics are also available for sale giving readers a well-rounded education about life in Minnesota.

Can you spot the little iron which would have been used to press
one’s laundry?? 😉


After purchasing your ticket and following a pathway outside, you’ll gain entry to a two-room house set up much like what Ms. Ingalls and her family would have lived in during their travel days as pioneers.  The enclosed porch and front room display items from the 1870’s through the early 1900’s ~ items which would have been used in daily life for keeping house like this stove above.



Several years ago I visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in DeSmet, South Dakota. Both are great places to take your children to learn about life and growing up during the Westward Expansion and pioneer years of the 1870’s through the 1890’s.
I didn’t do a write-up at the time and I am not sure why but I did share about the prairie and some of the places to stay there in DeSmet and you can read about that here.

Sorry these are so dark! It was a rainy Minnesota day and these outbuildings were not lighted. I love this little school house moved to the property! This is exactly how schools were built and fashioned back in the 1870’s and 1880’s.

The house is put together as a home-style museum with many cooking items like sad irons, kettles for cooking over an open fire when traveling across the vast open prairies, and frying pans. Various tools which would have been used for taking care of livestock are also on display. Something I find interesting is that back then tin buckets were multipurpose items used for milking the family cow then taking lunch to school.

Laura’s actual writing desk and other things she owned.

I believe this is the Braille Bible which was used in the
Little House series on television during the 1970’s and 1980’s.

 Some items actually owned by the Ingalls family are on display and are showcased behind glass for everyone to see. 

In the second large room, the rear attached building, this room was dedicated to items from the Little House on the Prairie t.v. show from the 1970’s starring Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, and Melissa Gilbert as Laura.
Love this 1970’s era US Postal Service advertisement!
Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder are also on display in this room.  Printed in 40 languages I enjoyed looking at all the title covers as trying to decipher each one in their native writing! (See above)


Since this is a living history museum of Minnesota, war memorabilia is also on display in another room or building, I can’t quite remember.
My son Peter and DIL Justine checking out the clothing to try on.
😉
Veterans and their families have donated many of the items on display from WWI and WWII, mainly. Quite a nice display to learn about who served during the wars and in what campaigns they fought.

Quite fascinating to see history come alive!

Beyond the little house are a school building, church and some other living history buildings. A few leftover plants were still in bloom in mid-October. The one is a wild broccoli that came up on its own according to the caretakers inside. 

Local eateries are nearby too for lunch and the depression along Plum Creek still exists to the right of where I was in this photograph.  A short drive and then a short walk will take you to see the site ~ my photo next to the creek is about a 1/4 mile from where the Ingalls sod home was dug into the creek bed.
A little bright color at the bookshop’s entryway ~ seen on our way out.
The Laura Ingalls Wilder museum in Walnut Grove is really a fun place experience to what it must have been like to live like Laura Ingalls herself!

I highly recommend a visit there for yourself and your children and grandchildren ~ the history is fascinating and I loved seeing all the memorabilia and props from the television series.  Really a fun time!

On a side note…

A Little House on the Prairie Birthday Party
I HAVE to share this recent post from my friend Laura Ingalls Gunn of Decor to Adore as her daughter Alyssabeth was just the prairie belle of the ball at a young girl’s birthday party ~ this is a post YOU CANNOT MISS! 


Laura Ingalls Gunn is a direct descendant of Charles Ingalls brother James Lansford Ingalls and has been to several events as a representative of the Ingalls family, and you can find more as she writes about the costumes she creates and events here.



For more information you can follow any of the Laura Ingalls Wilder websites listed here.  I have followed the DeSmet site for years now and each place Laura actually lived has interactive living history museums.

The DeSmet museum hosts a Little House on the Prairie pageant each summer with other activities at several sites around the town of DeSmet, South Dakota. The cost for each activity and to enter the museum is minimal and a great way for children to learn about pioneer times in the area!

Here is a sweet site by Sarah S. Uthoff talking about the Ingalls Family ~ littlehouseontheprairie.com


Laura Ingalls Wilder Museums

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, Walnut Grove, Minnesota ~ 
330 8th Street, Walnut Grove, MN 56180 — 800.528.7280


Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum, DeSmet, South Dakota ~ tour a living history schoolhouse and tour other buildings brought to the museum site along with the final home on 3rd Street of Caroline and Charles Ingalls. The DeSmet cemetery is only a mile+ away as well as Laura and Almanzo’s first farm site, written about in The First Four Years. 

*Remember, everything had to be within walking distance though most folks had a horse and wagon ~ something that floored me when I went to DeSmet and saw how close everything was.




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Happy travel trails!
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A Belated 4th of July Patriotic Post and a Little History, too!

French Ethereal
Happy Belated 4th of July
to you all!
Hubby and I spent a quiet day ~ well, mostly!

Well, there was a bit of a hiccup in yesterday’s
grilling and getting things done plans…
While out with Yoda at the park in the morning
he walked off the path to sniff and etc.
and got his paw stung!
HE WAS NOT HAPPY.
{to say the least!}

So, we spent the rest of the morning at the vet’s office
our local Banfield Pet Hospital
and I was surprised to only get a bill for $11.
A number of years ago we picked up health insurance 
for Yoda even though we couldn’t get
health insurance for ourselves
{yes, it’s true ~ this was during the two years Hubby was unemployed
and underemployed.}
so yesterday’s surprise visit was covered
and mostly free!
That’s a woohoo in my book!


So the post I am sharing today that should have gone out yesterday… yah, never got finished to post in the morning.
It’s a random sampling of 
patriotic themed photos I’ve found everywhere here in Texas plus one photo from yesteryear of our sweet Amy and moi.
🙂
Here we are today
241 years later
a free and sovereign
nation
The United States
of America!


Several of these photos are actually from when I was at the mall in Frisco, Texas 
close to Memorial Day.

Cupcakes

These little Independence Day cupcakes I found 
this weekend 
in Sam’s Club’s bakery section.
And the nice thing about the 
day after any holiday?
Any leftovers in a bakery that are holiday themed?
They are usually on sale ~ so run on over
and grab a few for celebrating the rest of your 
4th of July holiday week!
:)’
TEMPTING GOODIES PATRIOTIC ~ our Statue of Liberty came from a French sculptor so
it’s appropriate that we include Americana-decorated mini cupcakes and French macaroons.
Also, too, since both of my children are grown 
and have moved from the nest
it doesn’t make much sense to bake a cake
that often as there is no one around to eat it
except me
and we can’t have that!
😉

Patriotic Handbags

These handbags that I found at Dillard’s back at the beginning of the summer are super cute and totally perfect for celebrating the 4th the whole month of July and also for taking to the beach from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
I have to confess I kind of have a bag fettish in that I have about 10 different large bags collected from different friends and family over the years.  We were also given a few shoulder bags from vendors
sharing their designs at Design Bloggers Conference this year and last year.  
My teacher also gave all of us aides bags for a present a year ago at the end of the school year.  That blue mess bag I chose, like this flag one above, squishes up small and fits easily into my suitcase.  
I used it when I flew to Cali in March for the conference.
Shoulder bags like these are so big that I easily packed the 
blue and white 
Independence Day china 
I’d found while thriftshopping one quick afternoon 
while I was there in our old hometown of 
Murrieta, California.

The Lego Americana Roadshow

Back also in March, I came across this traveling roadshow
of Lego buildings.  I decided to save them to share with you
for our
Independence Day
as they are so iconic of America’s beautiful architectural
and treasured historical buildings.
 They are perfect small-scale models of the actual
buildings themselves and Lego created new legos
to capture the spirit and architectural details
within each one.

















Coming from a teaching background I had to snap some photos 
with my iPhone to send back to my former classroom 
sending them to 
my teacher and the other aides to share 
with the students there.


The Old North Church was the first of the 
historic buildings 
I encountered that afternoon.
The Old North Church {or Christ Church
as it was known in 1775} is where Revolutionary War patriots 
Paul Revere and William Dawes would look to see
if there were one or two lanterns hung in the belfry
signifying which way the British troops were coming,
“one if by land” ~ marching by way of Boston Neck, 
or “two if by sea” ~ the latter referring to
how the British would row across the Charles River
and into Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hopefully I have this written out correctly!
I know my mother would give me heck if I were
steering you wrong.
She took on a publishing house when I was in
7th grade to let them know that the
Battle of Bunker Hill
was really fought on Breed’s Hill, a smaller hill, 
which was next to and closer to Boston.
Years later now, the Smithonian’s information
proves that my mother was right.
You can read the Smithonian’s account
by clicking on the pink highlight above.
🙂


***The poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Paul Revere’s Ride”
contained some errors as to accuracy but is a testament
to the intent and spirit of the Sons of Liberty and 
our American Colonial ancestors’ wish for equal rights
and representation in British Parliament.
Barring that, then those Colonists wished for 
total independence
as a separate and sovereign country.
A final view of the White House.
Happy Belated 4th of July!
I hope you and your family had a wonderful
day and enjoyed the town fireworks
public reenactments and readings
wherever you were!
Sharing with
Wow Us Wednesday ~ Savvy Southern Style
Blogging Fifty
Talk of the Town ~ Love My Simple Home
Totally Terrific Tuesday ~ The Savvy Apron
Welcome Home ~ Five Kids a Dog and a Blog
Vintage Charm ~ The Blue Willow House

Blessings to you,
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Art, Architecture and Prettiness in Tombstone, Arizona

French Ethereal
I thought I’d be able to finish out my series
about Tombstone late last week,
but it wasn’t coming together;
therefore,
it got pushed to this week.
🙂
So… Today we are heading 
back to Tombstone…


In light of our recent presidential election 
I thought I’d share this photograph
to kick off the architectural tour
of Tombstone’s beautiful buildings!

There is no particular political message
in this post ~ I wouldn’t do that to you!
I just liked the house and the 
Western Federal~style window casings
along with the sweet windmill out in the front garden.

I love the brick facade of this turn-of-the-last-century 
home here in Tombstone, Arizona.
It’s really interesting to me that when Tombstone 
was first built, the people who moved here either 
brought the architectural styles they already 
knew and loved with them
or 
they built the styles that were popular at the time.
We still do that, don’t we?
🙂

This is the courthouse that I shared before
and you can see the casements around
each window and how detailed they are
especially when compared to today’s 
typical aluminum builder~grade windows.
I love that brick, too!
Don’t you?


Look at the egg & dart moulding along the roofline!
Love that!
Plus who puts French fleur de lis and floral swags
on the outer edges of their buildings today?
Just lovely! 
I shot this building because of that moulding and because of
the beautiful lace curtains hanging in each of its windows.
Lovely against the crackled, peeling paint 
of the casements and the limestone bricks… 
sigh…

You can see some of the false~fronts on these buildings here on Allen Street.

Most of the homes in Tombstone were board and batten
originally; however, I saw that the homes that remain
are clapboard~style and stucco.
The stucco being much more in line what we use today.
The main historical buildings on Allen and Fremont streets
where businesses are have mostly brick facades
on their front elevations.
“False fronts” were popular then
making a building look more important
{and the second story more square instead of pitch~roofed}
and those can still be seen.


Moving into more of the art and prettiness
of Tombstone…
I shared this cabinet before and its lovely 
ironstone in my post
Tombstone ~ The Good, Bad & the Ugly
and I thought I’d get back to my favorite things
from Tombstone.
Beginning with this lovely sugar bowl, below ~ 
a little crazing in this piece’s glazing 
from time and age 
don’t detract from this piece.  
It is still beautiful.
I loved its simple beauty.

 Perhaps it got this way from being lost 
in someone’s attic?   
Maybe then it was rediscovered and 
after the finder’s considerable consideration 
the sugar bowl was donated to the 
Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park
where now it resides
for all to see.



This sugar bowl is a nice example of 
ironstone transferware 
which became wildly popular and available
to the middle classes as the engraving process
was improved.
 The resulting transfer of the inked images 
onto a parchment~type paper
were then cut out and hand~rubbed in pieces
onto each china blank.
The china pieces were then fired
(or were first painted with glazing then fired)
producing the transferware used then
and still in production today.

Tea Leaf ironstone is another one of 
the china patterns in the display cabinet, 
on the very bottom shelf.

According to the 
Har-Ber Village
website
gold luster tea leaf ironstone
has been produced since the mid-1800’s.
It began as a very heavy china and was later
produced in lighter~weight pieces.
Kovel’s
of auction house fame
writes that tea leaf is still produced in
gold luster as well as now being made
in a brown leaf.

Since I’m a big fan of tea
it’s interesting to see how many different
china patterns were created just to
celebrate tea!
🙂

Here are some of the Tombstone courthouse’s collection 
of silver cakestands, candleholders, and other
fine silver pieces.

This next display is a beautifully embroidered cloth
that a Chinese emigrant owned.
This man, Hop, ran the one and only 
Chinese restaurant in
Tombstone
and it had a hopping business
{perhaps where that saying comes from}.
I darkened this photo and intensified the colors a bit to show how vibrant the embroidery
would have been when it was first created.

The detail in this piece is incredible!

There are many other works of art
in this museum
especially Native American pieces
of pottery and bead work.

The history of the silver mining operations, 
the saloons and brothels are told here.
The Earps and the Clantons big gun fight 
is also recounted here.
Stories of Apaches Cochise and Nachise
(Cochise’s son)
are also told.
Theirs is a tale of cattle rustling and fights
with the US Army
along the Mexican-Arizona Territory border.

Lastly, I wanted to share this 1890’s satin dress.  
Fashion was very important to the ladies of 
western towns as this 
winter dress shows.

I hope you have enjoyed this historical tour 
of the many things which were important to 
the people of Tombstone, Arizona.
These people certainly lived out 
their town’s motto ~
“The town too tough to die.”

Surviving the area’s harsh climate and
 Tombstone’s even rougher ways and hard economy,
Tombstone’s inhabitants worked hard to make
their lives better and more refined.

Please feel free to share this and any of the
other posts I’ve written with your family
and friends.
And do write and let me know
you liked this post!
🙂
Blessings to you,
Barb 🙂









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Places to Visit ~ Fredericksburg, Texas

French Ethereal
Vereins Kirche ~ originally built in 1847 but torn down after the 50th anniversary of Fredericksburg’s
 founding, was rebuilt in 1934 to honor the first German settlers of Fredericksburg, Texas.
Continuing in our travel series
Places to Visit
I thought we’d go and explore the
 Texas Hill Country town
of
Fredericksburg, Texas…



Love the old “false~fronts” on these 1870’s brick
buildings here!
Fredericksburg is a lovely restored town with 
many places to shop including antique shops, restaurants, and 
old five~and~dimes like the one shown above.
Per Wikipedia, Fredericksburg “was founded in 1846 and 
named after Prince Frederick of Prussia. 
Old-time German residents often referred to 
Fredericksburg as Fritztown
a nickname that is still used in some businesses.[5] 
The town is also notable as the home of Texas German, a dialect 
spoken by the first generations of German settlers who 
initially refused to learn English.”
On the Saturday afternoon we were there
hundreds of people wandered their way from shop to shop.
Finding a parking spot was NOT an option as every stall along 
the main street was full so we drove down a side street to park
over a few streets.
I had {quite literally} an hour to run around
and photograph as much as I could
{never mind even window shopping…}.
We’d been up since 5:00am and had driven 400~plus miles 
already that day as we were really on our way 
through the state to bring our daughter and all her things
to her new home
another couple of hours away.
So…
This post is just a quick overview.
Next time I hope to share some of the wonderful
shops with you!
This lovely park was not far from where we parked
and may be an old Victorian park where then and possibly now
Fourth of July band concerts and other events
would happen under the shade of this large gazebo with its 
fashionable painted red tin roof.  One can just imagine the first
immigrants who settled the area coming and picnicking 
underneath these large leafy trees 
all the while tapping their toes as 
the day’s entertainers played many a
rousing song…
This is Fredericksburg’s jail built in 1885 ~ it served as the 
fourth jail in Gillespie county where Fredericksburg is situated.
Fredericksburg is in the heart of the Texas Hill Country at
an elevation of 1693′ above sea level.
Snowfall is pretty non~existent here with less than an inch
and only in 1941 having had a record of 8 inches!
Fredericksburg receives around 28″ of rain during the year
making for some of the most beautiful wildflower shows
you will find anywhere!

Limestone buildings are common in this area
as well as throughout Texas, I’ve noticed.
Fort Martin Scott 
was built and used by the US Army for a short time in the 1850’s
and is just to the southwest of Fredericksburg.
Below is a photograph of a painting
of the fort shown on a larger information billboard
near the limestone two~story building,
above left.
Pioneer Memorial Library
is the building in the upper lefthand photograph.
Freidhelm’s Bavarian Inn and Restaurant
is the quaint German~style building
in the photograph on the right.

Fort Martin Scott as it was in the early 1850’s.
My husband wandered on foot to a different area
than where I was and found this park with statues depicting
the smoking of a peace pipe and the signing of the peace treaty
between
John O. Meusebach and Commanche chief Santanna, 1847.

This treaty was between the people of Fredericksburg, Texas and
the people of the Commanche Nation.
To this day, this treaty is thought to be the only one known to 
not have been broken
between any Native American tribal nation and
any white settlers within the United States.

My brother Gene was stationed nearby in the
Dallas~Fort Worth area, about four hours away, when 
I drove out with my two kids to spend Easter with his family
over spring break in 1998.
It seemed then that everywhere we drove in the 
Texas Hill Country
there were masses of 
bluebonnets and wildflowers!

Driving around the Hill Country this summer was 
really a treat bringing back 
fond memories
of our kids’ early years and the special time
we had back then visiting with family.

The Saturday we visited 
Fredericksburg, 
I had {quite literally} 
an hour to run around and photograph 
as much as I could
{never mind even window shopping…}.
We’d been up since 5:00am and had driven 400~plus miles 
already that day as we were really on our way 
through the state to bring our daughter and all her things
to her new home another couple of hours away.
So…
This post is just a quick overview.
Next time I will share some of Fredericksburg’s wonderful
shops with you!
For more information on
Fredericksburg
please click on the name above.
 Let me know how you liked this
little tour of Fredericksburg, Texas!
I look forward to hearing
from you!

Blessings to you,
Sharing with
Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage
Uncategorized

Burning through Atlanta ~ 2016

French Ethereal

The Grand Hyatt
3300 Peachtree Rd. NE
Atlanta, GA 30305
Today’s post is all about the beautiful city of 
 Atlanta, GA…





When flying into Atlanta, you’ll notice three city-heads from the air: downtown, midtown, and affluent uptown
Buckhead.

The Design Bloggers Conference was held at The Grand Hyatt,
seen in the lead photograph above, was a beautiful hotel.


The Grand Hyatt
3300 Peachtree Rd. NE
Atlanta, GA 30305

Originally a small farming community, Buckhead grew into a bustling commercial center with high-rise apartments, condominiums and office buildings mixed in
with older homes.
Having original and remodeled homes still being loved and lived in since the late 1800’s is a testament to the people of Atlanta’s 
“love of home.”


Nice to see that Atlantians care about their historical homes 
and that not every old home needs to be torn down.
Taking care and having foresight to see that their city could be revitalized and modernized but still keep its personality is so important in today’s throw-away-mentality-world!

I was surprised to find so many Federal, Colonial and antebellum-style homes around Buckhead.  They reminded me of the homes
I’d see when visiting my parents in Connecticut.
It was almost a dejá vu feeling!
I love this combination of homes, personally!

Lots of personality to this part of Atlanta!



an asymmetric Colonial style home in Buckhead, Atlanta
I also love how homes here are set back farther from the street
and some have lovely covered porte-cocheres
on the side of the house.
This is where a horse and buggy would pull up to let family
and friends disembark back in the day.
🙂


Evening skies over the Buckhead area of Atlanta


A little history lesson for you…

Atlanta was originally named Terminus, a very apt name distinguishing the city as the Zero-Mile Post convergence for 
four major railroad lines shipping goods from the area
to the mid-west from the 1830’s to the 1850’s.  Hence, this is why 
General William Tecumseh Sherman
burned Atlanta to the ground during the Civil War
(all except hospitals and churches, although hospitals
were ordered evacuated) 
as the area was THE major distribution hub 
for military supplies coming into the South.



After the war, as Terminus’s economy resurrected, a movement to rename the city grew and for a short time Terminus
was known as Thrasherville. 
Shortly thereafter, though…

    ‘Gov. Lumpkin asked them [city officials] to name it after his young daughter instead, and Terminus became Marthasville. In 1845, the chief engineer of the Georgia Railroad, (J. Edgar Thomson) suggested that Marthasville be renamed “Atlantica-Pacifica”, which was quickly shortened to “Atlanta.” ‘ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Atlanta 

(and aren’t we all glad that the city was renamed?!)
The western sky as I walked back to my hotel after the first day
at conference.

A little garden tucked away at the Grand Hyatt, Buckhead Atlanta.



I love the feeling of this hidden gem of a garden ~
soooo serene, so ethereal!
Love the ferns and can you spot the Japanese pagoda?

While walking to the Design Bloggers Conference last Monday morning, I met a gentleman cleaning out a little store in one of these hundred year old homes that had been added-onto.
He was bringing out the most amazing old cabinets pulled from houses in the area… I could have brought home several chipped and peeling cabinets, nightstands, and a small buffet piece that he had!
I should have taken a picture but I didn’t think of that until later.
This shop was going out of business and this gentleman 
was just doing a little cleaning in preparation for a final sale.
Alas… another time!

😉

The Grand Hyatt Buckhead’s grand chandelier!
(wouldn’t you like to take it home?!)


This was a wonderfully quick trip ~ I learned soooo much about blogging, a bunch about marketing, and met many wonderful people whose companies were sponsors of the DBC.
I also met many great bloggers, a few of my personal favorite blogger mentors and I feel like I burned my way through Atlanta!
I hope you have enjoyed this little tour of
Atlanta’s Buckhead area.

Please click on the link:
Design Bloggers Conference
to read more about the DBC!



If you enjoyed this post and others, I’d love for you to become a
French Ethereal Friend!   Sign up over on the sidebar, thanks.
🙂
Let me know if there is anything you’d like me to talk about.
I’m thinking of a series of posts called Elements of Good Design
and if you have any ideas or would like to share something
please do!


Sharing with ~
Feathered Nest Friday ~ French Country Cottage

***All information came from Wikipedia and various entries therewith, including:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta

Happy Sunday and may the Lord
richly bless you,