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!
~Keep on Dreaming~
Folks, we have made to FRIDAY!
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.
Hope you have a great weekend!!
~Keep on Dreaming~
A little randomness on this Friday
afternoon.
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.
Hope everyone has a wonderful week-
end!
~Keep on Dreaming~
Happy August a day late .
Tech issues. :(
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~
