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Elsie de Wolfe's The House in Good Taste
I once saw a little serving-maid wearing a calico gown, black crosses on a white ground, and I was so enchanted with the cool crispness of it that I had a glazed wall paper made in the same design. I have used it in bedrooms, and in bathrooms, always with admirable effect. One can imagine a girl making a Pierrot and Pierrette room for herself, given whitewashed walls, white woodwork, and white painted furniture. more »
Mrs. Delany and her Circle, at the Yale Center for British Art
At the age of seventy-two, Mary Delany, née Mary Granville (1700–1788), a botanical artist, woman of fashion, and commentator on life and society in eighteenth-century England and Ireland, embarked on a series of one thousand botanical collages, or “paper mosaics.” These were the crowning achievement of a life defined by creative accomplishment. more »
Green Homes and Hemp
A wide variety of products can be made from hemp including carpeting, construction materials, textiles, paper, industrial oils, cosmetics and even food. Among those exhibiting at the Green Festival were Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps which offers personal care products. Nutiva sells edible seeds, oils and powders. It claims that hemp is the "world’s most nutritious seed." Dash Hemp purveys "upscale hemp clothing for men and women." Crucial Hemp markets products made from hemp fiber, including twine, clothing, and animal bedding. Nuhemp promotes a variety of pet products. more »
History by the Thimbleful
Managing to clothe eight children on a clergyman’s tiny salary must have been quite a feat. Mind you, this was in the days when mothers had to: (a) draw water from a creek or, if they were lucky, from a well; (b) cook on a wood stove, and keep the fire burning because it also heated the lower floor of the house; (c) wash clothes, including diapers, by hand; (d) wash and dry dishes for ten people and often more, by hand; (e) iron with a sod iron that was heated by setting it on the top of the stove, no thermostatic controls; (f) teach the younger children to read and write and cipher, when her husband was assigned to a remote posting where there were no schools; and (g) make or remake clothing for all members of the family. more »
