Good evening! Finally, I have found a moment in time to write a post.
Fall is around the corner, so we are talking Sunflowers today. Besides putting them in vase, I have some other ideas to do with these beauties.
Make a Monogram-- Trace a carve a letter out of an Oasis sculpting sheet, following the directions given. Reinforce the monogram by wrap- ping floral wire around the form and cover with pinned dry moss. Moisten the foam and insert 2" sunflower stems.
Porch décor-- Paint a crate you fave color, add potted plants and vase of sunflowers.
Home décor-- When we go to the sunflower farm over Labor Day weekend we are able to cut stems for a donation. These are usually quite large but I still like to use them on our dining room table. Most floral depts at local grocery stores have bundles ready for purchase. Sprinkle them around your house in a variety of bottles. Enjoy and have fun!
One full week of school is in the books! It was good to see the kids after break, they have all grown so much plus we have new buddies that arrived on Wednesday. Our Kinders come after the other grades settle in.
Thanks for hanging with me!
Our weekend promises to be a busy one. Still doing the purge thing. Up- stairs is in pretty good shape so I am off to the family room downstairs to make some since of it.
This armoire was my mom's it went with her bedroom set which a friend bought. I saved this piece for me. My initial thought was that I would use it in our living room, then the thought moved to my sewing room. Well, it sat in our garage for quite awhile, my light- bulb came on and I decided to move some things in the kitchen then use this as a replacement.
Did a bit of updating the handles. Traded the door handle for knobs and painted the drawer handles black. I'm going to paint a "chalk- board" on the left side some time soon. Now all my cookbooks have a nice home behind the doors and the drawers hold all sorts of goodies. Silly me thought I put the pic on with the doors open but no, another of the one above. Removed it.
Made a shirt for the first day of school. Used the old school stencils and paint.
Used the same stencils to make a new bag for my school drink mugs. Having a bag for them alleviates "juggling" the mugs when going into my building.
On Tuesday of this week Mr. Ken and I went to the movie theatre to see "I Love Lucy" colorized. It was so fun to see five Lucy episodes in color. Before it started the producers explained the laborious job of colorizing clothes, faces, furniture, set decorations etc. So very interesting! A DVD will be released on August 13th. It will have the episode we saw plus several more. Would be a great gift for a "Lucy" fan!
Yesterday, my first day back to school, we celebrated Mr. Ken's birthday! Saturday will bring more birthday fun.
I had a great summer, got A LOT accomp- lished, saw several friends for lunch and movies, saw a total of four movies, enjoyed time with Mr. when he had vacation days, hoping to start a book that I picked up from our library--our city opened a brand new state of the art library so we had to check it out of course. Now, it is back to school, last two days were in meetings, our kids come on Monday for 1/2 day and Tuesday starts the year off with a full day and we are off to the races for while.
Last Saturday we had the opportunity to tour a beautiful "home" in Lee's Summit Missouri about 30 minutes from our house.
The beauty pictured above is the Longview Mansion. A massive 22,000 square foot structure. It has 48 rooms, 6 fireplaces, 14 bedrooms and 10 baths. This was the "country estate" of Kansas City Lumber Baron R.A. Long (1850-1934). He also had a "city home" in Kansas City-- Corinthian Hall, which is now the Kansas City Museum.
In 18 months, Longview Mansion and 50 other farm structures were constructed in 1913 and 1914. It took 2,000 workers to turn 1,780 acres into this beautiful "farm."
Back in the day there were 51 buildings on the property including a horse race track, large greenhouses, barns with wood pegged floors, they had their own police and fire departments, a hotel for men, housing for employees, a church and a newspaper.
They were ahead of the time by having their own electricity, filtered water and steam heat.
The mansion is listed on National Register of Historic Homes. For many years it sat idle as ownership changed hands. today renovations continue to be done to fully bring this beauty back to what it once was.
The above three pics are views guests see as they walk out the front door looking north.
Above is the front hall as you enter the front door. Below is the grand staircase leading to the second and third floors. The front door is to the right in the pic.
These two pictures are of what would have been the "living room." The floor is original and the built in below came from Corinthian Hall. There is another directly across the room from this one.
Welcome to the dining room complete with swinging doors to the left and right. Restoration needs to be done on the fire- place. When it sat idle, vandals did some damage to the bottom base.
As I mentioned above restoration has been done to the home. In 2018, 3.2 million was spent in the restoration. It is billed now as an "Elegant Estate Venue." Above is the Pavilion which is used a lot for weddings. Below is a "sun porch" that leads into the Pavilion.
When a wedding is being held in the Mansion this room in these two pics is for the bride and attendants.
Down the hall is he room(s) is for the groom and attendants.
Do you know what this is? It is the upstairs laundry shoot. They maids opened it up and sent the laundry down to the basement.
This was the show horse barn for all of the horses that R.A. Long purchased for his daughter, Loula. From a very young age Loula loved horses. Today it is one of the schools in the Lee's Summit School District. There was a family on our tour, their older daughter goes to school here and her mom said it is fun to read all the history they have displayed.
Historic plague explaining the school to visitors.
As you can see it is named for Loula.
This is a burial marker for one of Loula's prized show horses. Revelation is buried there on stable/school grounds.
Love the clock tower.
A cute "Little library" right on the school grounds.
Remember the church, here it is today.
This is a picture of Loula Long Combs, world famous equestrienne and owner of Longview Farm/ Mansion. She dedicated her life to raising and showing horses. She entered her first show at a fair in 1896. For almost 65 years her horses won blue ribbons throughout the country, Canada and England. She was also known in the community for her philanthropy and love of animals.
This is Loula's husband Robert Combs, President of the Peoples Trust Company of Kansas City and horse lover. After their marriage in 1917, the couple lived in the mansion for many years. Mr. Combs passed away in 1961 and Loula passed away 10 years later. Such a fun place to tour and all the history!
Thanks for hanging with this one. It is such a beautiful home and I learned so much about a place I really had no clue about.
School's around the corner, posts might be hit and miss till I get back in the swing of things. ~Keep on Dreaming~
