Hippy night

Martha had to create an outfit for her daughter Claudia today as her end of term dance was on, and she needed to dress up as a hippy. Lucky for Claudia, the fabrics in the stash included some "hippy" fabrics, and with some jeans cut off, a cool outfit was made in a couple of hours. Headband and all. 

I'll be sure to get a photo of Miss Claudia dressed up in her swanky get-up and post that soon. I'm sure she looked the part, and posed accordingly.

Natchez, Mississippi State 10 USA (6/4/11)

After leaving the last Plantation we kept heading North, as it was now after lunch so we decided to start looking for where we were going to spend the night. We crossed the State line into State number 10, being Mississippi. Yay!! We had already seen quite a bit of the old Mississippi River as it runs through so many states, but now we were actually in the State of Mississippi. So yes, a State line sign photo. (don't actually know what was going on in this photo with me sticking my chest out, or with my wild travel hair???)

We came across a gorgeous little place called Natchez which is situated on the mighty river itself, and what do you know, we found a gorgeous Plantation Mansion in town called "Dunleith" which was just lovely, and what do you know...they had a nice room available on the top floor, at the front of the house overlooking the front lawn opening onto the huge balcony.

Sounds just like me. Look at that bed!! Looks like me :) Ooh and what...$110?? Oh ok...no problem.

I feel like a queen....velvet curtains....omg! I love this. Wait till you see the balcony....

Look at this...I don't want to leave!

Can I buy this??? Can you see me on the verandah?

Robert, get me some wine, some chocolate. I'm not moving....except I think I need longer legs...

Heaven...

So relaxing after a few hours in the car...

  It has some cool history behind it too. The original home actually got struck by lightning, well the chimney did, and the whole home burnt down. Only the outside stairs remain at the side of the house. (Photo above) Then the new house was built and sold, and renamed. You can read about the history and the families here.

Ok, Robert is bored, we should go look around Natchez and get a real feed.....

 Look...the Mississippi. A bit blurry, but it's massive.

It is so wide, and runs so fast. its so loud.

Across the road, we found a cute little pub serving dinner. Natchez reminded us of Cairns, sitting across from the river, the weather was similar. It felt quite coastal. It was nice there. (Not quite as nice as our balcony) We bought some choccies and took them back to our balcony for dessert....they looked better than they tasted :(

 An older couple insisted on taking our photo when they saw us taking selfies :) We were struggling trying to get the river in as well as our heads. lol

Dunleith have a Castle behind it which has a nice restaurant in it too, which is where we had breakfast before heading further North to Memphis.

And today is our Kelli's birthday......Happy Birthday Miss Kelli xxx

Houmas House, Darrow, Louisiana (6/4/11)

Ok, so we now have the bug. The Mansion bug. The South is littered with Plantations, that are open for tourists to stay at, to tour through, to gush over, and we were hooked. But, we had just stayed at the biggest and the best in Louisiana, and it was going to take alot to beat it.

Not far away in Darrow was Houmas House. No where near as big, no intention of staying, we didn't know where we were staying tonight. Maybe a bit further up North, who knows. Hopefully another Mansion though :)

But we thought we'd check this one out anyway.

The lawns and grounds were gorgeous. That's one thing I loved, the big lawns and the massive 100 year old trees, the big verandahs. Beautiful.

Look at those trees, can't you just imagine sitting under them stitching, sipping on tea....or a wine??

A bit of history into Houmas House....

Spot me in the tree trunk??

It was all downhill from there....inside it was all clutter. We could touch everything, which was weird. At Nottoway, we couldn't touch anything, it was all too old. Our tour guide here was the lady in the purple shirt at the piano, she was lovely. But then she began to sing. Sing loudly....

Very loudly and louder....and said we could sit on the furniture, touch whatever we wanted....unlike other Plantation Mansions in the area...oops, little bit of tension there??? She was quite boistrous, but very friendly. I was a bit frightened of her...

The tour was ok, but I was keen to leave. It wasn't Nottoway. It was quite gawdy I thought. Not my cup of tea at all. Everything was jam packed in and just mis-matched.

Back in the car and looking for another one...they are everywhere...but I think Robby is over it.

I think the dogs in Dior wedding dresses did it......not sure though???

A little bit of crochet

Last year in Nundle some lovely ladies taught Martha & I how to do some crochet. They were extremely patient ladies...especially with me. I seemed to have two left hands. I did however, end up with a beany and a flower in the end. Mind you, the flower was gigantic, but it resembled a flower. The ladies did point out, that flowers aren't perfect in nature, so mine fitted in perfectly with nature. Way too kind I say :)

Anyway, as summer came along, I gave up on the crochet. Now it's heading to the cooler weather. Well, it's meant to be, Maddilen decided she wanted a purple beany for winter. So out came the crochet hook. I had kinda forgotten how to do it, but after pulling it apart three or four times, some help from Martha, a quick email to RetroMummy, and another beany was created.

So, I got my confidence back....bought a book on crochet, and wondered just how hard these granny squares could be. Or how hard reading a pattern could actually be. Ha. That should be a capital HA!!

Well, I did manage to get something that kind of looks like a granny square.....

Now, I know you are wondering why there is a white blob in my granny square. Well, the wool is actually a variagated wool, but for some reason, the colour only changed in that one spot. You can kinda see a blue spot in there too, in little spots....kinda.

Nottoway Plantation, White Castle, Louisiana USA (5/4/11)

One of my absolute favourite places was this. We stumbled across this mansion, like so many places in America, just stumbled across them. We were driving along and saw a sign for the Nottoway Mansion. Well, I'm a sucker for a nice house, and I just had to take a look. Well, we ended up staying the night. We were both in love with the place, and next time we go to America, we will definitely stay in the Mansion for more than a night. There are alot of photos but you will be amazed. It is actually owned now by a Sydney man and has so much history. It's well worth a visit. I could live in it. I love it.

Nottoway Plantation is in White Castle Louisiana which is kind of in between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Now, originally we were heading straight to New Orleans, but as the tornado warnings were pretty high in New Orleans we were told to stick close by here or to head North, so we avoided New Orleans for now, and didn't end up getting there.
You can actually read all about its history here. It's quite interesting to read about the family and the history of the home. I wish I had bought the book now. Roberts sister has been there apparently. We didn't know that at the time.

The mansion itself has been restored to its original glory and you can stay in it. It was actually completed in 1859 and has 64 rooms in the main mansion. They also have cottages on the property which are gorgeous, that is where we stayed. The rooms are ultra modern and roomy. They have their own kitchens, and are quite grand. We had a little balcony with rocking chairs, gorgeous gardens and all.

The restaurant in the Mansion was one of the best meals we had in all of America. The service was lovely, the food was to die for, the wine was lovely. I could honestly just stay there for a month. This is where I first ate grits. I did have grits elsewhere, but they were not nice anywhere else but here.

Check this out....what a front door and verandah?? Can you even see me?? Did you know why these mansions had two sets of stairs, one on either side of the house? One side was for the men, and one for the daughters of the house, as young men were not allowed to see the ankles of the daughters of the house before they were married, so the fathers of the house had two sets of stairs built....

If you stand on the balcony, and stand looking toward where I took the photo from, the Mississippi River runs right along there across the front of the house. Its magical & loud.

Nottoway was owned by the Randolf Family who are buried on the property. We actually met a lovely couple in the Randolf Cemetry and chatted for quite a while. They were as fascinated by life in Australia as we were by life in America and how different things are.

This was taken from the Cemetry. the lights you can see are the restaurant. back when the Randolfs owned the home, the restaurant was a bowling alley for the children.

The following photo's are courtesy of The Nottoway website as we weren't allowed to take photo's with a flash inside the restored home, as the flash slowly deteriorates the fabrics and artworks that are originals.
So, I borrowed them from http://www.nottoway.com/

This is Mrs Randolfs Parlour

 sitting room....

The dining room.....

The music room.....

The sitting/reading room...

This room was absolutley amazing. The White Ballroom. Everything was white &/or gold. The floor, the walls, the furniture. It was glorious. If you want a better look, go to the website. Its amazing. I wanted to stay in there, but as its a tour, you only get a certain amount of time in there. Its glorious.

They hold heaps of weddings in here, and I can see why. It's mezmerizing. The pictures just don't show it like it is in real life. I just wanted to stay there. It's magical and romantic. The floor is so shiny, glossy. I just love it.

Cannot wait to go back here!!