A New Household is Established

Today my friends and I plan to begin helping our neighors establish a new household. We are forever rearranging spaces around here it seems. Our neighbors are a bit unusual. Not in a bad way, mind you...they are Elves and quite wonderfully unusual. Master Elrond and Lady Celebrian have been shifted from one house to another as guests for quite awhile. Now, they will have their own household in the small cabinet in the dining room. It will have three levels. We really do have our work cut out for us. For now, we simply moved Master Elrond's desk and Lady Celebrian's sofa into Master Elrond's office. He used to have more furniture, but our person temporarily packed it away when households were being rearranged. Unfortunately, she does not remember WHERE she stowed it. At least our resident Elves each have a place to sit until the rest of their belongings can be found

Our next steps are to help Master Elrond work on the walls. The Elves would like a castle type setting, so we will have to do some stonework. Lady Celebrian will be working on embroidering tapestrys for the walls. Most of us are rather inclined to assist Lady Celebrian. I will have to keep all of you updated on our progress. We must finish the house by December. That is when Master Elrond and Lady Celebrian's great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandaughter will arrive. With Elves being immortal, they tend to have great...great...great, etc. relatives. She is a teenager, and a bit headstrong from what we understand. We just hope she does not turn the new household upside down!

Hitty Rowan

Back Home at Last

Greetings Dear Friends!

My, my....I feel like it has been forever since I last wrote! I suppose because there have been so many changes since then. So much has happened with the wedding excitement and Fiance (now my person's husband) joining our household! I won't bore you with the details, else I would be up all night telling about it all. Let us just say the wedding was a wonderous day and then we danced the night away!

The next day, we headed to the beach!!! I fear I am not in any pictures. For some reason, my person was quite distracted and didn't pay me much mind during the honeymoon. No matter. At least I got to tag along and quite enjoyed seeing the ocean from my place in my person's beach bag, even if I did not get out much.

The ocean was quite turbulant, due to a passing storm. In fact, my people only got to actually swim in it the first day of our vacation. The beach was closed to swimming the rest of our stay.

My people at least enjoyed wading in the surf, even if they couldn't swim in the ocean. Well, until a jelly fish washed around my person's ankles. Now, I have heard my person let out quite a shriek at the sight of a spider. But, even I must admit I have heard nothing like the terrified shrieking strains of , "JELLYFISH!!! JELLYFISH!!!" as my person made a mad dash out of the water. A bit embarrasing, actually, but I don't suppose I would want to be stung by one either. Although, being made of wood, I suppose it wouldn't affect me much.

The jellyfish were everywhere, even on the sand. So, I likely wouldn't have got many photo opportunities even had my person been so inclined, since after seeing them all over the beach she seldom moved off the beach blanket again.

No matter. We found other things to do...like visiting the nearby Naval museum.

We saw all sorts of interesting things there....

And I even brought back my own plane...Not to mention my own boat along with my own piece of the beach...

And best of all, good memories to share with friends!
Hitty Rowan

The Countdown is Here

Greetings Friends!

It has been a few weeks since I last wrote. I am afraid wedding frenzy has quite consumed us here...between helping my person work and plan and sew and make bows I fear there has been no time left for writing. However, with only three days to go before the wedding on Saturday, my person stole a few moments to change me into my wedding attire. Relatives begin arriving tommorrow and there will be precious little time to change little dolls into their wedding finery. So, here I am, ready to provide support at my person's wedding. She found a quaint little basket (labeled as a "makeup case") that accomodates my dress and flower basket so I can be with her as much as possible during the next few days. Although, I fear she will have to make the walk down the aisle without me....but, I will be safely in the congregation with a friend so I might peek out and watch the procedings. Well, back to last minute bow making!

A Month to Go

Greetings Dear Friends!

Well, it has been a bit since I last wrote. During that time, our household has been quite consumed with wedding planning. With only a month to go, we are trying to help our person make sure all is in order before the "Big Day." This morning, we companions helped our person "take inventory." We actually look to be in good shape. Our hope is to do all that can be done in advance of the wedding week so that our person can enjoy visiting with family as they arrive that week. We hope to host an ongoing "open house" for whoever might want to drop by the last two days before the wedding (all hands will be needed for cooking pies, cheeseballs, and such that week). The girls are quite excited about all the pending festivities. I plan to take up my survellience post in the living room to observe and report on all activities the "big" week.

The next two weeks or so will be hectic in trying to pull last minute details together, but I think we are almost ready. I recruited the little girls of the household, and Rosina Fayette, to take inventory this morning.

I went with my person and Fiance's sister (secretly of course) to the fabric shop yesterday. We selected fabrics for table toppers, pew bows, and tulle bows for the reception. We will be quite busy bow making and sewing the next two weeks. Fortunately, Fiance's sisters and mother all sew and "bow make" and have offered their assistance, so we won't lack for help.
Rosina Fayette was particularly attracted to the wedding set with the feather pen in it. She would now like a fancy feather pen of her own. Perhaps later we can find an appropriate feather for her to make a quill of her own. Lily loved the idea of the "Unity Candle." Our person's mother and Fiance's mother will light the small candles right before the wedding ceremonies begin. Later, Fiance and our person will light the big candle together to symbolize their new unity along with the unity with their families. Being a bridesmaid myself, I helped our person shop for gifts for the other bridesmaids. We found lovely silver jewelry boxes embossed with silver roses and engraved with the bridesmaid's name for each person. I do hope they like them! Unfortunately, they did not come in my size. We found hankerchief's for each mother involved in the wedding.
I double checked my own wedding day trousseau to make sure all was in order.

Lottie loved the little silver ring decorations that will be scattered on the reception tables. There are even enough packages for her to have a few to keep and play with.

We found rose petals to scatter on the tables along with the silver rings.

Ms. Merriweather convinced our person to wear proper gloves, since it is a rather Victorian wedding.

We even have the something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue arranged.

My person will carry a new Bible, wrapped in a ribbon of pink and white silk flowers for the something "new." For the something "old," she will carry a "grandmother" hankerchief she gave to her grandmother years ago and a much older little prayer book her grandmother gave her before passing away tucked into the Bible. Her grandmother was given the prayer book in 1936, so it is quite old! I believe that although our person's grandmother cannot be there in person, she will certainly be there in spirit!

Our person borrowed a small card from Fiance to carry as well. As for the something blue, there is a small blue rose on our person's garter (although Ms. Merriweather is rather scandalized about me mentioning that). Now, after a bit of sewing, I think we will be ready for the "Big Day" only a month away!

Hopefully, I will get a chance to update you before then.

Your Friend,

Hitty Rowan

Fishing

Today I had a new adventure with my people (at the moment to be referred to as my person and Fiance...it is getting rather confusing trying to keep up with more than one human companion). We went fishing. I have never even dreamed of fishing at my size. After all, most fish are quite bigger than me and I don't fancy being dragged into the murky depths by a bluegill or catfish or such. However, I was set up with my own fishing rod quite near the bank. I could see minnows right near where I was sitting and tried my best to catch one. Catching a minnow might not seem like a worthy endeavor to you, but at my size, a minnow would be quite a nice catch.

I didn't succeed in catching anything. But, at least I fared better than my person. After a valiant struggle, she managed to wrestle to shore.....a cup filled with mud.
At least Fiance fared better than the both of us.
I know when I am in over my head. Actually, I decided to quit before I was in over my head...literally. I gave up fishing in favor of a nice walk through the woods. There were some lovely flowers in bloom.

And, I met the most delightful toad. You might be surprised that toads can be delightful. But they really are gentle creatures full of tales about the woods they inhabit. I could have listened to my new friend quite a long time, but my people decided to take the canoe out to try to catch fish that way.
I was rather nervous boarding the canoe. It wasn't very sturdy for one thing. It was already manned by a crew of spiders for another thing. Not that I am that frightened of spiders. But, my person is quite terrified of them. I, on the other hand, was terrified she might tip the boat with the fuss she was likely to make if one crawled on her in the middle of the pond. Fiance did his best to clear them out.
And, off we went. I enjoyed sitting on the side of the boat....carefully held in place by my person (and fervently hoping a spider wouldn't choose to hop on her at that moment).
We rowed out to the middle of the pond....

And cast our lines into the hazy water. I decided to keep an eye on my person's fishing line, since she was too busy keeping an eye out for stray spiders.
It really was a lovely day to float through the water. We didn't catch any fish on the lake, but the time was still well spent.
And, after such an adventure, I was more than ready to curl up on my person's quilt for a good night's sleep!

Your Friend,

Hitty Rowan

A Day at the Races

Greetings Dear Friends.

Yesterday Rosina Fayette and I had quite an adventure. We accompanied our person...well, since fiance came along I suppose we accompanied our people....to a day at the races. Horse races that is. We mounted our trusty steed (in this case Allanon the alpaca, but it is the best we could do) and off to Churchill Downs we went.
Churchill Downs is the site of the Kentucky Derby. We will not get to attend the Derby, but we attended the Kentucky Oaks race. The Kentucky Oaks occurs the afternoon before the Derby. While not the actually Derby, there is still plenty of adventure to be had and plenty of sights (and hats) to see.

Our day started early as we toured the "backtrack" where the horses and their attendants were busy preparing for the day.

Everyone was waking up....

Eating breakfast...
And freshening up for the big day.

The horses were out quite early and on the track to exercise before the races later in the day.

The people were also getting ready for the day....beginning with selecting their uhhmmmmm....obligatory headgear.

At least our people didn't quite go so far in their attempts to be creative with their hats.

It actually ended up raining for much of the races, so we all stayed inside Churchill Downs and watched the races on the big screens there....sipping Mint Juleps and watching the hats pass by.

At last it was time to say farewell to the Twin Spires. We shall never forget our Day at the Races, however!