Annie Laurie McDowell as a gracious, vivacious (and terribly funny!) lady who came to Los Angeles in the mid to late 1940s from Colorado to "become an actress". She studied and performed at The Pasadena Playhouse, was "discovered" and became the nightly personality on KTLA Channel 5, our oldest, earliest television station. It was her job to introduce the nightly guests and present the commercials. The station felt her name was too 'stilted', so they changed it to Candy McDowell. She and her producer fell in love and eventually married, with Candy 'retiring' to raise their family. She had quite a few fun, interesting stories about her years at Channel 5, with Dean filling in from his forty years at NBC. After retiring, they moved to Chatsworth, buying a condo adjacent to Chatsworth Park South and discovered The Homestead Acre there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_Hill_Palmer_House She, and her wonderful husband, Dean, joined the Historical Society and took on the restoration of the gardens at "The Acre", as their retirement project. It was there, I met them in 1983 at one of their open gardens, which were held monthly. Rather quickly, they had me joining them, volunteering at The Huntington Library in their rose gardens. My earliest 'funny colored roses' came through Candy, primarily from Peter Schneider (American Rose Rambler editor) who imported many and dedicated his rose, Eden Ellen, in remembrance of their daughter who was killed by a drunk driver. John MacGregor, Clair Martin's predecessor at The Huntington, donated a number of old and rare roses to help jump start the garden restoration. Several were already growing in the garden when Candy and Dean began their efforts. The Acre hosted an annual Rose Festival, featuring old, rare and unusual roses Annie Laurie propagated. It wasn't long until their festivals also included roses which had passed through my Newhall garden which were decent roses, but not exactly what I had thought, or hoped they would be, with cutting grown and seedling roses added to the mix. They spent "winter" here in the San Fernando Valley, escaping the summer heat at her grandfather's "cabin" in Beulah, Colorado. Each return brought something new and exciting for the garden from their summer exploits. The rose, 'Pike's Peak' was one find. The Pike's Peak seedling, 'Beulah Belle' was my 'thank you' to the member of The Belles who supplied the cuttings. The Beulah Belles was their ladies civic organization, though the self proclaimed purpose was to "get together monthly to celebrate birthdays and get sloshed". R. Arkansana "Peppermint", the stippled Arkansana, was another. Many came from Denver Botanical and most still grace my garden. There were many shared dinners, garden tours and visits and much local exploration over the years. Roses and a lot of laughter were the main themes. I'll let the entry in Comments section I posted to Help Me Find pick it up here. A number of years ago, Mel Hulse, of the San Jose Heritage Rose Garden, along with others from that garden, visited my garden in Southern California to obtain cuttings of my collection for their garden. One rose Mel was particularly struck by was Annie Laurie McDowell. At that time, it was simply referred to as Renae Seedling. Mel and others in San Jose began referring to it as "Super Renae" and Mel continued singing its praises. Along the way, I lost the original seedling to flat head apple borers. Mel maintained Annie Laurie McDowell and two or three other Renae seedlings he had collected from my garden. I wanted to name a rose for a very dear friend who was responsible for introducing me to The Huntington Gardens and Library and encouraging me to become a volunteer there. Super Renae was the obvious choice. I emailed Mel and asked if he could bring me as many cuttings and bloom spires as possible as we were to meet in Visalia at Sequoia Nursery to film a documentary about Ralph Moore. Being the kind gentleman he was and the loyal friend I'd grown to love, he not only brought me cuttings, but a large, foam ice chest FULL of blooming material! All were carefully wrapped and placed in ice to maintain them for the four days it would require before they could be taken to their potential namesake. We spent the time at Sequoia and accomplished our mission. I brought the ice chest home and called my dear friend, who invited me to join her for breakfast the following morning. I brought the ice chest and spent well over an hour cleaning and recutting the stems under water while she prepared our breakfast. When all stems were finished, I'd filled a large antique water pitcher with many dozens of bloom clusters in prime condition. The pitcher was her grandfather's, and we placed it on her grandfather's secretary desk. He was a doctor and the case was full of his instruments and medical books. We enjoyed our breakfast while admiring the pitcher full of Annie Laurie McDowell sitting on her grandfather's desk. At that time, Annie Laurie was about 71, so you have an idea of the age of the desk, equipment, books and pitcher and water bowl. Annie Laurie had sought the old Hybrid Tea, Annie Laurie, for years. It was an early Twentieth Century sport of Ophelia. The rose is extinct. Had it not been for the keen eye, dedication and kindness of this fine gentleman and loyal friend, Annie Laurie McDowell would have become extinct years before finally accepting the name of my dear friend. And, Annie Laurie wouldn't have had a rose she loved bear her name in her last years of life. I sincerely miss them both.

Bigshoes, I'm certainly not as ambitious as you. I start out with grocery store unsalted butter. I just follow the recipe posted on my blog. We had Saanen goats for a while, five of them. We loved them; they were so friendly and fun. We had three females and two "fixed" males. So, no milk. They were great natural lawnmowers for our five acre property. But, unfortunately, once my husband became so ill with congestive heart failure, etc., we had to sell them. We just couldn't take care of them any longer. But we do miss their antics.

I do like your colors, and I think they are very appropriate for Florida. Annie is right that I used to have to come up with new names for beige - we have almost 200 variations on that color, and my boss is known as "The Beige Lady". I used a lot of Italian, French, and (to a lesser extent) Spanish words to help come up with new names. I'm not so involved with that process anymore, but I do have to make up names for each new furniture design that I am working on, in order to be able to keep track of it. Many of the prototype names that I make up are kept for the final product, but one console that I names recently caused a bit of scandal. I named it the Satyr Console because the leg that I designed reminded me of a Satyr's leg - and my boss agreed and wanted to keep the name. However, some people in the company thought that the name sounded satanic or reminded them of bacchanals. They also objected to other parts of the satyr's anatomy, and so I was forced to come up with another name. Because of the unusual curves that I put into the leg, it also reminded me of the baroque Italian architect Borromini, and so we chose that instead. To my disappointment, many people do not know who Borromini was and even have trouble pronouncing it. I used to walk through our warehouse in the 1990s and find furniture with certain colors on it and say, "That must be going to Florida!" Last week I found an odd finish on some dining chairs (10 of them) that I had designed and said, "Those must be going to New Jersey," and as it turned out, they were! Color and pattern choices can be very revealing. We also did some chairs that had heavily carved and gilded frames with purple crushed velvet upholstery, and those ended up in Luther Vandross' house. I think we still have some of the furniture that we were making for him when he died. Our style is usually not that gaudy, but we will do it for a price! I like the clean lines that you have - the spaces you showed appear very calm and relaxing. Lars

Hey, gang! Major delays in posting....lots of house projects...then, our sweet baby boy arrived, so I've been otherwise engaged. :) Just a quick picture or two while the boys nap. These are outdated but were the first I was able to find quickly. I'll find the updated pictures later when I have more time and will share them with you. Quick note: The paint/wax are holding up beautifully. I'm glad, though, with little hands around, that I went with a colored wax (made my own color). It's been SO nice to not have to worry when our just-turned-two year old bang something on a cabinet or touches it with hands fresh out of the sandbox. :) And, yes, we had our first goop get on it last week: spaghetti sauce, which wiped right off without issue. I was impressed. Again, i going "new," I'd not have done distressed/chalk paint/wax, but for our current situation, this stuff is working out beautifully. HUGE sigh of relief from this time/funding strapped momma. :) As for paint, it took less than two cans. Wax took almost two. I *think*...it's been a while and I've had a few other things on my mind lately. LOL! Yes, I painted the hardware. Someone previously put shellac over it, and I couldn't get it off. The paint is working out well there, too. What a great surprise!! In the wide view, you can see it was taken midway through the waxing. Look at the top cabinets, and you'll be able to tell the one on the left does not yet have the colored wax applied. It just has a first coat of the clear wax. And, for the record, my then pregnant self never climbed up and put the last coat (colored wax) on the cabinet above the fridge. One of these days.... :) There's just so much to do around here! Slow and steady (or not).