Imagination.......

I guess my daughter has been influenced just a bit by all that I do in my studio. (ha ha) She was playing with a friend the other day and they wanted to play "design studio". Raiding my fabric drawers and with very minimal cutting allowed - just alot of pins and imagination - they draped, measured and folded fabric over my child size dress form and created a few dresses. Just too cute! They were both so proud that they actually created a few clothing items!

I hope your summer has had a little imagination in it as well!

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MacBook Pro With Quad Screens

We had to post this video to give thanks to the crew over at mostlygeek.com. We absolutely love it and we are definitely "Geeking Out!" Be sure to turn up the volume when you watch it and try not to sing along...we dare you.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVYAycUKG4Q


For complete access to the article posted by mostlygeek.com, please follow the link below.

http://www.mostlygeek.com/2008/06/22/multiscreen-macbook-pro/

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the chick, the egg or the scrambled egg?

Baffled but hungry for brunch none the less.

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ale and quail

After the annual ale and quail society meeting that takes place at elmwood every year.......
one can peruse the family's ancient collection of bibles to beg forgiveness for their gluttony.

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Members of the fern family

Potted a new plant today, a maidenhair fern. I love their delicate little leaves and how they flutter with the slightest movement. I've always been smitten by ferns, I think i get it from my mother. Ferns in all forms- live ferns, fern illustrations, pressed ferns (as displayed in the museum of natural history).


I can relate to the Victorians who coined the term pteridomania defined as a madness, craze, or strong fancy, for ferns.

My great great grandmother Ella, a botany student, surely studied ferns in the Wellesley greenhouses and drew them in her botanical sketchbook, perhaps inspired by this popular book.

Wellesley College Sept 22th 1878

"Nellie and I went over to the gardens where the fall flowers are just in their prime. I think the display fully equaled anything I've ever seen there in the spring....Yesterday we began our first painting or rather first drawing lesson. I'm about discouraged. She gave me a branch of maple leaves which were fearful to draw and the wind kept on blowing them every which way."


Wellesley College Sept 13th 1878

"Nellie and I washed this PM. Had a long letter from Minnie. I've got my studies all arranged but presume they won't stay so for long. It is dreadfully hard for me to study after being out so long and the weather is fearful, hot and damp, so everything sticks."

Wellesley College Oct 16th 1878

"Miss Howard announced this morning that Wellesley College has been awarded a silver medal at the Paris Exposition- the highest award to any female college. A hundred dollars has been raised for the purchase of a large and fine collection of seashells. They were collected, many of them at great expense, by a lady in Cambridge- circumstances forced her to sell them and the ladies of C. have contributed 400 dollars and will give them to any institution which will give 100- I hope we shall get them. The chemistry examin. was splendid last night. I only had one mistake on my paper and Miss Hallowell complimented my botany sketchbook very highly."

Wellesley College Oct 27th 1878

"Miss Nelson said this morning that she would be going to dine next Saturday at the Parker House with four prominent biologists- Ha! Ha! All gentleman.


Oh friends- the journal entries go on and on. She has now decided to move to South Africa to teach and is touring Europe before she settles into her post.

Stay tuned. She meets a boy and sparks fly....

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princess turkey feather

Went to the Museum of Natural History to see the horse exhibit last week. While it was amazing, it was also amazingly packed with crying kids. I preferred the solitude of the "Hall of North American Birds", the owls are so enchanting.
Great Blue Herons will always remind me of home and the Chesapeake Bay.

Elmwood has this amazing Audubon print of a wild turkey with a vase of wild turkey feathers. I love that this house is so rooted in nature, even inside.


In New Hampshire I saw at least 3 flocks of beautiful wild turkeys and was lucky enough that they left some feathers behind for me to scavenge.

The smaller breast feathers inspired me to make a feathered headband, after all as a girl i was in the defunct YMCA program Indian Princesses (like a father daughter girl scouts but you pretend to be a native american tribe).

You even got to make up a very un-pc indian name, mine was Princess Jumping Jackrabbit.
First I striped the feathers of their down, just leaving the smooth tops.

Then I tightly wrapped each feather on my headband with matching thread.

It reminds me of a little girl's dress up indian princess crown. What fun.

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Ella, the great great.

Here's a little elmwood snapshot of a letter sent to my great great grandmother Ella Averill while she was in Cape Town, South Africa.


My great aunt Winky recently found Ella's journals and had them transcribed and bound. I can't remember ever enjoying reading something more (and that's saying something).



Wellesley College Sunday, Nov. 24th 1878

"A rousing indignation meeting was held in Chapel Thursday evening incited by the piece which appeared in the Harvard Advocate on Wellesley College and its girls. It is true that some "preps" have not behaved in a very ladylike manner over there, and some disgraceful things have been said and done in hotels, restaurants and on train cars. Well free speech prevailed- opinions of many from each class were expressed, some rousing speeches made and finally a motion was carried almost unanimously to discount everything unwomanly and not fitting for young ladies who were seeking a higher culture."


Wellesley College Saturday, Nov. 23th 1878

"Mollie Bingham has gone home- the oculist fears that her eyesight cannot be saved and that in a very short time she will be totally blind. A letter from her father was read in Chapel thanking students and teachers for the kindness towards her, saying that he wished her last looks might be upon the scenes of her childhood and her friends and family, and asking the prayers of the College that if it could be the Lord's will, a little ray of light soon might be left to her for the remainder of her life."


Wellesley College March 23th 1879

"Our costume party came off with great success Friday evening the 14th. I went as one of the fates. About every female character in poetry was represented, from Mother Goose to Queen Elizabeth. We decorated the gym beautifully. Each of the four beams being draped with the class colors, flags over the windows, Chinese lanterns, statuettes, busts and flowers scattered about promiscuously."

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