Unwanted Gift!

Started snowing at 11:00 am

   Well, ever get a gift and ask, why would some one give me that??? That's what happened to me yesterday.  10 inches of snow with a thin covering of ice on top. It started out with all the weather reports saying it was coming. Then on Facebook friends would say, It's snowing here and I would say not here. Then in about an hour it started. And boy did it ever come down. I could hardly see the river across the street from my shop. We got it all, 10 inches in just a few hours. When I walked home, poor Sissy was in over her head. Then latter when we went out for the last bath room walk, poor little short girl, was over whelmed. There was a thin coating of ice on top the 10 inches of snow. When we walked it went crunch, crunch. Sissy just was beside herself and looked at me as to say, what am I  to do. Well after a trip or two around the yard, snow up to my knees and over Sissy's head, we gave up. I warned her, I wanted no tear drops on the rugs. She was  good, at least I never  felt anything warm on my sock feet. When we came to work this morning, we were forced to walk down the middle of the street, they had been cleaned by our road people. Thanks to them it wasn't at all bad.
    The sun has been shining today and is above freezing, so some of it has started to melt. I guess when the  it gets colder tonight it will freeze again. What happened to the Ground Hog? I thought he said we were to have an early spring? Maybe we should have ground hog season ?.I just worry about all the jonquils that were popping up all over the garden. I guess under a snow blanket, they will be fine. I sure hope so,
    It was beautiful, I love a fresh fallen snow.Last night when Sissy and I  went out, it just glistened like diamonds, with the ice on top. But we soon took care of that ,as we plowed our way through. Maybe this will be Mother Natures last gift. I sure hope so, cause even though we have had a mild winter, I for one, have had enough. Come one spring and warm weather. I long for the flowers, spring is my favorite. I can smell the lilac as I type.
   You all come visit me any time. I will leave the lights on and Sissy Dog will always meet you with a jump and a kiss. The walks are clean and so is the parking lot.Be safe and be warm and pray for spring and pretty flowers. Richard

Middle afternoon, river is beyond the sign and gazebo roof, where did it go!

10 inches when I went home at 5:00.

Coming in May.

 



  When you live in a very small town, kind of in the middle of no where, you have to create some excitement to get people to come. We try and have a least one major event a month. Some work better than others.We depend very much on tourist. The one I am posting about today is a new one. I wish I could take credit for it, but I am afraid I can not.

   Clarksville is a very small historic town, founded in 1817 and located right on the banks of the Mississippi River. When I  grew up here, many years ago, it was an active town with  several grocery stores, clothing stores and other retail shops. Like many a small town ,the changing times have taken it's tole on Clarksville. But, unlike many other small river towns of it's size and age, Clarksville is alive and open daily.  Large box stores, like Walmart, have killed many of theses small towns. Mom and pop shops can no longer complete. Clarksville no longer is  full of clothing stores and grocery stores, but it is full of antique shops, art gallery and fun other gift type shops. Great efforts have been used to  fill and keep the shops open. The shop owners are a tireless group that works together to promote and keep  Clarksville alive. With just a pinch over 400 in population, we are proud to have some thirteen shops and 3 great places to eat. Clarksville has one of the biggest antique mall is this part of Missouri. There is over 40,00 square feet of treasures and things just waiting to be found. We also have one of the smallest antique malls in Missouri. That would be my shop, Downtown Antique Mall. While  I only have 7 dealers plus myself, they are special hand picked dealers, all of which do a beautiful job of display. Treasures changes often and we have to have good prices to complete. If you are looking for something special, odds are, you will find it in Clarksville.

   Clarksville not only is lucky to have wonderful hard working shop owners, we also have one of the greatest Mayors a small town could ever wish for. She works endless hours and devotes many resources to doing for us here in Clarksville. I am sure any town would be thrilled to have such a smart, talented, energetic and thoughtful Mayor as Clarksville does. Not only is she the Mayor, she and her husband have the most wonderful old fashion storefront antique shop around. Beautiful displayed with real antiques, it is a delight and a real treasure for our town. Our Mayor and her husband are the ones that have put our latest event together. It is called ,"Clarksville Antique Ramble," designed to bring shoppers to town and see what we have to offer here. There house , a charming old stone cottage, as well as My Old Historic House, will be open for tours during this event. My house is open most often, but this will be a first for there home. It is full of beautiful Victorian and early Federal pieces. Great lighting and wonderful things all available for the first time ever for public viewing. There is a small price of $10.00 for both homes. Other wise the event is free. Along with the shops full of stuff, we all are going to go all out and do extra displays of antique and vintage cloths and linens. Some for sale, others just for looking. We are in the early stages of this event. We are hoping for some outside vendors as well. I am working with the next town down the road, Louisiana, Mo. and there Historic Museum, to maybe share there large vintage hat collection. I'm hoping they will be on display at city hall.I am planning antique dresses laid on all my beds. My windows will be displayed as well with vintage linens, I already have the most wonderful old lace curtains.

   I am posting this early, so you can hopefully get this date on your calender. I know a lot of you all are far away, but please, try and make an effort. This would be a good time for tours, shopping and down home fun. Make your reservations in advance and if enough of you sign up, I'll throw a big blog party. Honest, for real!!
   Come anytime for a tour. I will always leave the lights on and Sissy Dog will meet you with a jump and a kiss. Happy blogging. Richard and Sissy Dog in Clarksville,Mo.

Sissy Says, " Happy Valentines Day!"

   Hope this week brings you all a lot of love and Happiness, especially for Valentines Day. I have a lot of love and special Happiness because of this little girl. Have a beautiful week. Richard and Sissy

Hour and Half till Dinner/Not quite Downton Abby!

    I have 3 friends that I often go out to dinner with here in the country on Saturday nights. We used to always go to the golf course here in town. Eagles Bluff is a beautiful golf course, 18 holes, and we are so lucky to have it in our little town of 400 people. I have never played golf, not my style, but the club house is lovely and on weekends it was open to the public. It was a casual place and the food was down home, comfort and affordable. Well they have closed for the winter season and that has left us without a place to go. We tried several other places, but was not the same. For the past couple of weeks I have just opted not to even go. Yesterday my friends came in and asked  if I wanted to dine out and the notion hit me, for us to dine at, My Old Historic House. Well this was around noon and I had to work in the shop till five, so I said about 6:30. They all agreed.

Welcome to my castle.No jumping right now Sissy.

      Clarksville, my little town, has no grocery store. The nearest is 30 miles, one way, from here. We do have a gas station/quick shop. It is small and limited. I had planned to make mac and cheese  this week, so I had most things needed for that. I always use cream of mushroom soup in my cheese  sauce and I did not have any. So to the gas station I went, they had a can, off brand, had to do. I make mac and cheese kinda as a complete meal. I add chunks of ham or in this case hot dogs.I had the slim makings of a salad and needed a desert. I asked my guest to come up with that. They have a home in Louisiana,Mo. 8 miles away. Where it has no grocery store either, it does have a Dairy Queen, Dollar Store and larger Quick Shops. I'll show you the desert latter!

    At 5:00 I hurried home from the shop. I live two blocks away. I  go several blocks, round about as I use that walk and time for Ms. Sissy, well you know why! As soon as we made it home, I feed her and lite the fire place in the kitchen( gas log) and shut the dinning room door. I just finished reading a book about Alminia, Countess of Carnarvan,of Highclere Castle. Highclere is the English country home that Downton Abby, the Masterpiece mini series is based on. Highclere was built in 1849 and has 100 rooms. At that time, central heat was not heard of, especially in a country house, of that size. The book  describes in great detail about when  Alminia was first married to the Count of Carnarvon and moved to Highclere. She was used to a more modest sized home that was warm.. She tells of how cold it was, and how only a few rooms were used in winter and she wore her fur coats in the house. Well, My Old Historic House,  does not have 100 rooms, only 14, but in winter it is cold. I have central heat, but the cost to run is more than I can afford. So I too, live in only a few rooms and often wear my coat, not fur, To warm up the dinning room for my last minute dinner party, I use the kitchen fire place and shut the dining room door. This takes a few minutes, that is why that was done first.

Love the hat, what would, Alminia -Countess of Carnarvon ,think?

I guess they liked it, almost all gone.

At least the silver was polished.

   Since I was having a guest that had never been to my home, I wanted to make it as special as I could, serving mac and cheese with hot dogs.I asked myself, what would Alminia do?? So I moved the French bronze and crystal candelabra from the mantle to the table, replaced the candles with fresh ones , dinner would be by candle light .I set the table with nice china and had full intentions to go to the yard and pick some magnolia leaves for added inspiration. Time was against me, as remember, I only had  one and half hours to cook and pull this together, And there is no staff at, My Old Historic House. Alminia had over 50 servants are her beck and call. I barely had time to throw the junk that was on the dining room table, upstairs in the closet.

The desert table is ready!

   My guest arrived and wearing there coats, we had a fast tour of the two parlors, and then into the warm  dinning room and kitchen. As I finished our  dinner , mac  and cheese needed a little more oven time,we all gathered around the fire. Finally it was done and to the dinning room we went. I wear about 5 layers of cloths in winter, by this time, the fire was starting to really warm the house, so as I excused myself, off came a few layers. Kinda seems like a comedy almost at this point.
   We dined on mac and cheese with hot dogs and salad. We had water and no bread. Alminia, Countess of Carnarvon, would  had to have smelling sauce.And for desert, Little Debbie's, right out of the box. I thought latter, I should have at least placed them on a silver tray.But we had good conversation and it was warm, after all.

It's cold in here, might want to leave your coat on!

The big finish!

  My guest left and I was left with a pile of dirty dishes. I rang for the staff, but no one came. Where was Mrs. Hughs when I needed her??? I washed them up, turned off the fireplace , replaced the  candelabra to the mantle, enjoyed the smoke rising as I blew them out.Went out for Ms. Sissy's last walk and was surprised to see we had a nice beautiful snow. All in all, I felt like it was another successful event at, My Old Historic House. Come by any time. Give me at least and hour and half and I'll fix us something to eat. Sissy will always meet you with a jump and a kiss, but I can't always promise you snow!!

A parting gift for my guest, a fresh fallen snow!

You all come back now.

 

Romantic Homes Magazine

    Well this is old news, but I thought I would share it with you anyhow.  My Friend, Elizabeth Maxson , from St.Louis,  and, Elizabeth House Blogspot,  used to write for Romantic Homes Magazine. She wrote this article and it was published in August 2008. I was very proud and pleased that this happened, as it was the first time, My old Historic House, was published. It has been in several magazines since, but the first is always a great send off.

    It was a cold day in January when Elizabeth drove all the way from St.Louis to Clarksville ,70 miles, to take pictures of my Victorian Parlor Dome Collection. I could not go, as I was working. I gave her a key and sadly gave up the rights to be there during this artistic process.Being a decorator and trained artist, it is hard to not be in the final judgement of the picture taking process.This is called," control", and I did not have it. Anyhow, I did give her the key and the rest is history. Elizabeth had told her editor at the magazine about my domes and her ideal to do an article about them. Unlike some writers, Elizabeth takes her own pictures. She uses natural light. So with all that in mind, I think the article came out beautifully. I had a couple of rooms unfinished at the time she took these pictures. Well Elizabeth is a very, how shall I say it, Shabby Chic kinda girl. The unfinished rooms really appealed to her. Cracked walls and peeling paint and wall paper. I was in constant fear that when the article appeared it would show these rooms. I gave her a blank canvas you see. Well where she did love these rooms and she did take photos there, she was kind to me and showed the better part of my house. I love the article, I think she did a wonderful job. I have to say, I was a little sad as it did not show more of the house. I have to remind myself, that the article was about the Parlor Domes, not the house. With that in mind, I gave her an A+.

   Some how, during the years, I had lost my copy. In fact, I had kinda of forgotten about this article. My neighbor was going through  magazines , came across it. She asked me if I 'd like it and of course I was thrilled. I have since added it to the collection of other magazines that features my house.I keep them open to the right page on the library table, Doesn't seem to hurt and usually does a little of impressing to point them out, when I give tours. What a brat I am. Sorry. No I am not!!!!!

    I was cleaning this morning, well if that is what one would call it. I took my sleeve and ran it across the library table. Yikes!!! I saw this magazine and thought it would make a nice blog post. Hope you enjoy. I tried my new printer scanner for the first time. I have never done this before. The darling thing, scanned them and sent them right to Picasa, where I downloaded them into a file. It was so easy and amazing. A whole new world has come into my blog head. I know it can be better and I promise to do that in the future. I love this computer. That is coming from a person who will not own a cell phone or buy anything that takes a battery. Go figure!

    I hope maybe some day you all can come and take a real tour. In the mean time, keep on reading. I will always have a light on and Sissy Dog will meet you with a jump and a kiss. I love comments, that's why I do this, so leave me one and you will get one back. Have a beautiful day!!