Red Rose and Snow White

Are you familiar with the fairy tale of Red Rose and Snow White?  I had a picture book when I was younger but have never seen it mentioned in pop culture since.  Well, I have a niece named Rose, so this story came to my mind one day, and I thought "let's revisit this tale".   

 Red Rose and Snow White are sisters who live in a forest cottage with their mother.  One winter night there is a knock at the door and they find a bear asking to come in and keep warm by the fire.  They become fond of him and the bear comes every night for the rest of the winter.  In the summer he leaves with the explanation he must guard his treasure from a wicked dwarf.

During that summer Red Rose and Snow White encounter a dwarf who has gotten his beard stuck in a tree.  The girls rescue him by cutting his beard, but instead of being grateful, he is grumpy.  Similar situations happen throughout the summer- the girls helping the dwarf in peril and he never being grateful.  Finally the bear is upon him and with one swipe of his paw he kills the dwarf.  The bear is turned into a prince revealing the dwarf had cast a spell on him.  The prince marries Snow White and  Red Rose marries his brother.

Here is an assortment of artwork I found, is looks like most of it is vintage.

Valentine's Gifts

 
I love giving to neighbors and friends at Valentine's Day.   There are no expectations, so anything is a delight to the receiver.  Chocolates, flowers and baked goods, such fun ways to show your love.

Last year I gave my neighbor a bouquet of beets because she doesn't eat sugar.  Wrapped with twine and cellophane, they made a pretty package.








This year I have found some unique dishes at Anthropologie.  I can't wait to give one each to my boys.
 I think they will love using them every night for their dinner.

And of course there is the cards and sentiments to consider.  Last year I wrote poems.  Here's an example:

Arthur,
You have a big big heart,
You like shopping at WalMart.
In swimming class you are the best,
Hundreds on your spelling tests!
Sometimes at recess you get sweaty,
At night you sleep with all your teddies.

This year I am going with the theme
"The hearts of the children turn to their fathers"
a scripture from Malachi 4:6 referring to family history. 
I am excited and I will share more later.

Peter Pan

My high school performed Peter Pan  during my junior year.  I wasn't very happy cast as an Indian; I struggled to learn the dances and there was no opportunity for standing out vocally.  Yet, these songs have found a fond place in my memories.  Pirates that sing and dance are funny.

 Even the Indian "Uga Wug" song compels me sing out when I randomly recall it.  But there's one song that I can really relate to...

"I've Gotta Crow"  sung by Peter Pan when he figures out how to get his shadow to stick to himself again.  Sometimes I am pleased with myself and I find this song coming to my head.

                                                         Here's Mary Martin performing.

Chicken

 This was our view of the beach in Kauai. We were treated to sun and waves for ten lovely days.

Below is what Utah looked like this January.  Quite a contrast.  Going back to the Hawaii picture,

can you see a rooster in the center next to the hedges? There are wild chickens all over the island.  The roosters would start crowing before sunrise and the hens wandered around the lawn chairs of the hotel property with their chicks looking for crumbs from the guests' snacks and lunches.

Well, there was one chicken who seemed to catch the attention of the hotel guests more than the others.  This chicken was 33 inches tall and 30 pounds.  A big one.  He would run from his mother, looking for the swimming pool or sometimes he wanted to explore and spy on the people around him.  I watched as the guests would smile and then start to look worried.  "Were is this chicken's mother?"  "Oh, he's yours?  Oh good."  They'd sigh with relief and then go on admiring his blond hair and blue eyes.

(Daniel's Dad has always called my boys "chicken" when they were little toddlers.  I think I've heard his Gran uses this term of endearment as well.)

Once on This Island

Where have I been?  In a tropical paradise  namely Hawaii.  Wow!  It is amazing to get away in the dead of winter.  Here is a favorite musical that I thought would be fun to share.

This show opened on Broadway in 1990.  It's the story of a peasant girl with elements of  Romeo and Juliet and the fairy tale The Little Mermaid.  Unfortunately there are no footage from Broadway, but here are vocal recordings.  A song introducing the main character and then a love song with action to follow.

Wedding Gifts

When I read  Project:Organization  by Marie Ricks last summer she had a chapter on wedding gifts.  Marie says keep your life simple by deciding ahead what you give out for family wedding gifts, friend wedding gifts and acquaintance wedding gifts.  A set gift or amount for each category, then there's no wasted time and aggravation with worry.

Marie Ricks gives garden hoses. It's a great idea.  Something useful that everyone has to buy for themselves.

                     I have given quite a few sets of Christmas stockings to newly weds in the past.

This year I branched out and made a Christmas tree skirt for my favorite babysitter.
 Definitely more time consuming. If I was to do this again, I'd need a pattern, because there was a lot of trail and error just going for it.

Daniel likes to give his male friends tools or guns when they get married.
I think I'm going to start giving out sewing kits.

These are sewing kits I made for my newly wed sister 'n law Sally and Luke's Kristina for Christmas.
The trick would be to make them assembly line style and have them ready to give out when announcements come in the mail.  

Ralph Lauren Collection

You watch Downton Abbey don't you?  Let's just indulge in a few pictures before I move on to my topic.

                          Last Sunday night's Episode One of Season Three.  It was a good one.

Okay, so I noticed that Ralph Lauren was sponsoring PBS and Masterpiece Theatre.  I wondered if he was being influenced by Downton Abbey, and if he had any 1910's or 1920's dresses in his collection.

                              I discovered no Titanic style dresses, yet it was still fun to look at his influence for the Fall '12 and Spring '13 Shows.

                            Yes, I see English "Weekend in the Country" with the tweeds and knits,
but I'd say 1930's is more influential in this line with the trousers and hats.

Click here to see the entire Fall 2012 Collection

Now just for fun, let's check out how different the Spring 2013 Collection is.

 
France and Spain are the influences and some 1970's.

 
Click here is see the entire collection.

One last thing.  It's January and the best time to go shopping because you can get 30% off already reduced prices.  I've been hitting all my favorite stores at the mall, but I had forgotten about looking online.  Here is the link to Ralph Lauren's Sale page.  His stuff is pretty pricey but gorgeous, and I did find several sweaters I like in $50 range.

Little Miss Austen

For Christmas my sister'n law Helen gave me the DVD of Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly.  I have never seen this film before and am not familiar with the story as I am with Sense and Sensibility.  But I knew   everyone raves about it and also the BBC version from the 1990's with Colin Firth.

So as soon as the boys were back at school and Teddy was down for a nap, I placed my pile of ironing in front of the television and was ready to enjoy myself.  What is it about the 1800's that makes their stories so cozy and so appealing?  Well I decided in those next two hours what book was going to be on my reading list this year.

The very next day, look what I found at the BYU Art Museum Gift Shop!  The cutest board book.

            A counting book for little girls.   I don't want to spoil your discovery so I will only show one page.

After looking online, I found this author and illustrator have also made counting board books on Romeo and Juliet,  Alice and Wonderland, Jane Eyre, Dracula, and A Christmas Carol.  Such a great idea.

The Holidays Sure are Fun!

I took down my Christmas decorations yesterday, and enjoyed my vivid memories of the boys decorating the tree.  I hope they will want to help for lots more years.  It was so much faster putting up the lights on the tree with Henry there to hand the string of lights back and forth.

On Christmas Eve we had a full house.  Helen and Mike with Clayton, Charlie, Rose and Isobel slept over. Also we had the pleasure of Sarah and Brock, Sam and Sally, and Kristina staying with us.  We had so much fun we forgot to put the kids to bed that night.   Santa almost missed our house because the children were up until eleven.  Opps.
                                                                Never fear, he came.

Daniel spent the next week taking the boys skiing at Sundance and Beaver Mountain Resort.  On New Years Eve we enjoyed a curry dinner at John and Terri's, and then a game of Charades.

The children finally lost interest and left the adults to a more competitive game.  Somehow Daniel was able to get his team to say Gattaca (the movie with Ethan Hawk).  Wow.

At 9:59 pm we all counted in the New Year with the East Coast, each of us (kids included) holding Martini glasses full of sparkling cider.  It was a Happy New Years Eve.

Camelot

Yay, I have recovered from the holidays and am back to Musical Monday!  My Christmas and New Years were both fantastic, but the house sure does take a beating when we're having so much fun.

I have the soundtrack to both the 1960's movie and Broadway productions of Camelot.  The story, the music. It's all so great.  Here is my favorite song "What Do the Simple Folk Do?"

Oh wait, maybe my favorite is "How to Handle a Woman"