Hi from Anne, Actually, the cross stitch and other embroidery kits were not pieced. They were what we call wholecloth quilts. You got the size of the bed with the embroidery kits. Bucilla was one of the kit companies for those kits and I think they are still available today. They had many kits and the cross stitch and other embroidery kits were really popular. It kind of went with the 50's where the people considered all the hand work to be kits. Men often did leather work and copper work (not to say women didn't do that but the men considered those manly man crafts) and the women did tole painting, crocheted bed dolls (they were plastic dolls with crocheted big skirted dresses.), crocheted and quilted potholders and some quilts were made too, but mostly people were trying to get their lives back on track to recover from WWII, and then Korea came along on the heels of WWII. And there was the communist scare, and people were busy building bomb shelters in their back yards. I wonder today how many of those are still intact? We had men returning to work and women leaving the more industrial world, though they did still work, but more things like teaching, nursing and secretarial work. There was a focus on getting women to "act like women" whatever that meant. It meant women worrying about cooking nutritious meals, housecleaning, having their hair look just right, having frilly and basically useless aprons, and very pretty dresses with shoes and purses matching and women wore gloves and hats to church and going out. People focused on banning books. Did you know that there is a list of banned books every year. In the 1950s, I think was actually an attempt to ban Nancy Drew books as being shallow and poor literature, but in reality, Nancy Drew represented the new woman, having a nice car and able to be proactive and solve crimes (they were not mostly what we could consider crimes today). I read them all, and to this day I still could go back and read them again and enjoy them as much as then. A childhood friend and I would read the same books and then act the parts in her backyard of Nancy Drew. So much fun in those days. We did not have shopping centers or plastic (i.e. credit cards) yet, so we traveled on the bus to go downtown, visit all the five and dime stores as they were called then, try on hats and go visit Mode O'Day shops. How many remember those? How truly wonderful they were. And we had layaway. It was exciting to buy something on layaway and look forward to getting it. I guess cars and appliances were sold on time payments. Did you know that the sewing machine was the first thing to be sold on time payments, and within a year of when they came out, some 75% of households had one. It is funny to see a quilt of those times, for often they were almost totally hand sewn, but they would always use the machine to show that they had one for it was prestigious. And they often hired women to sit in the store windows and sew what are recognized as heirloom quilts with fancy quilting (I actually saw an exhibit in Los Angeles of quilts Barbara Brackman, our favorite quilt expert collected, and it had one or two of those as I recall. I always say that because some days I don't recall what I had for breakfast the other day. Chuckles. Well, that era brings back a lot of memories. Gals wore summer dresses that were full and pretty and those underskirts that made the skirts stand out and we had matching sweater sets and beautiful straight skirts with pleats in the bottoms and other beautiful styles. When women wore pants, they often were capris with men's style shirts with sleeves rolled up and the bottoms out with curves on the sides. Saddle shoes and pedal pushers were common at school. And the men and young guys looked so cool with their duck cuts and their cool pink or gray or turquoise shirts and nice pants with belts. No bums hanging out with ugly underwear, tattoos or shaved heads or beards and long hair in braids or pulled back, which comes from the prison crowd. Ask me how I know that. I am a student of criminal justice, and next year when I am almost 75, I should graduate. Whoo hooo! So I see a lot of documentaries and photos of the criminal crowd in prisons, and that is exactly what these guys wear. Pretty ugly. I love the days when men always had nice haircuts and nice shirts and pants and they were all handsome. Have a great Thanks Giving everyone who reads this. I purposely spelled it that way. We can give thanks for all we have and we can give to those who do not. Anne always

My grandma eats sweets including homemade pies with 1-2 c sugar per pie, loves sweets in general, eats too many fried foods for my taste, doesn’t eat paint chips, bathes in a porcelain tub, and was JUST moved to a nursing facility this year since she’s losing her mobility (mind is still intact) and in another month she will be celebrating her 100th birthday. You don’t have to live in a bubble to live a long life. Much of your life expectancy is predetermined in large part by genetics. Use common sense and don’t lick the bathtub.

We moved in two days ago Kim :) It's taken this long to get the internet working (and it only works on the back side of the house LOL) More work to do I guess. Thank you :) We do love the house and grounds, although the sheer size is intimidating as you think about cleaning it LOL More so as we've moved in somewhat. Probably more so after we have 20 overnight guests next weekend. It was the oldest B&B in the pacific northwest, (35 years) prior it was an apartment building and prior to that a hospital, and then the original owners had it until their deaths. (early 20's) We are lucky that the folks who did the big restoration in the 60's and 70's didn't follow current fashion (painting all of the wood for instance) and they were sensative to the home. In addition, when the bathrooms were added in the last 20 years (another owner who was also sensative to the house) it was done incredibly well, taking a few feet of space from each room, but integrating them well (some B&B's cheap out and put the tubs and sinks in the rooms). They will be easy to upgrade to more victorian features (is that an upgrade backgrade?) There are three buildings on site. One is considered the carriage house (but really is the base of a 3 1/2 story water tower we will eventually rebuild). The other is the original gardners cottage. They take up one lot and the gardens take up the other. Talk about intimidating...too much garden LOL And on top of too much garden...I have 400 house plants (maybe not that but five or six per room). The poor things are doomed in my care. I'm thinking of a sidewalk give away very very soon to save their lives! Poor dears...even my husband feels sorry for them. I tried to convince my mother that they are guest gifts and that guests (her) must take one each time they visit but she hasn't gone for it yet (I sometimes think if she were senile my life would be much easier...) Today we turn the old office off the kitchen (our future family dining room after we remodel the kitchen, but that's a few years off) into a play room for DS. I hope this grand old home likes thomas the train LOL Oh here's a funny....we get about a dozen visits a day asking if we have a vacancy! It was funny but is getting annoying LOL They want tours and won't always take "private home" for an answer LMAO. "Oh dear...no rooms? Well can we just see it?" No go knock on the neighbors house and ask for a tour heh heh Oh let's see...nope not a B&B (I'm not nice enough since DS was born and keeps me up all night) :) And how many bathrooms? Sigh...12 Do you think the B&B potential guests might think that the tour includes a once in a lifetime opportunity to clean a victorian bathroom? I might let them in....

I love the casual comfort of your space, recognizing all the planning it took to achieve that feel! The wainscotting, soapstone, and hex tile floor make that happen for me, as do all the personal touches like the picture shelves and your lovely barnyard art. I love the thoughtful touches like the med cab placement, the shower' s window, and the foot-rest shelf in the shower - which I may be stealing! And saving the chute, even though that meant re-routing it, is just another example of the care and you took to get it right. I have a possible solution to the hand towel dilemma. Remember how farm kitchens often have those three-fingered towel holders under the sink to hold kitchen towels as they dry? The ones where the three rods come out from a center hinge and can be rotated into any position from all lined up together when not in use to spread far apart so that towels on them can dry? Ginger makes them now in two-rod style in nice finishes for the bath. 16" long. It would really match your farmhouse feel. Where to place it is your problem, you are thinking. I say, put it on the wall just in front of the vanity. You often step away from a sink when done, so the towel will be handy. Rings bunch up the towel and it takes longer to dry. Either this Ginger 0322-16 or any straight towel bar in a 12" or 16" size works, height-wise. Because I am on my Kindle and lost an entire post yesterday by touching somewhere on the screen on accident, I am going to post now, then try to link to the Ginger bar in another post. PS: I love the the violet wall color!