suziebeezieland

shepherd's huts

 

I have always loved wee cottages, cabins, and caravans, so when I recently discovered shepherd's huts, I thought, "Yep, those are awesome."  (I'm sorry I didn't think anything more profound. I'll try to make up for that by quoting Thomas Hardy in a moment.)

In an article in The Telegraph, Adrian Tierney-Jones describes shepherd's huts as follows:

 

The shepherd's hut was a simple yet comfortable wooden home on wheels. In the past it was a common sight during lambing on the Wessex Downs when shepherds watched their flocks by night and day. It was kitchen, dining room, bedroom and parlour all rolled into one. When the sheep needed moving the hut came too – it was the ultimate rural mobile home.

 

In Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy (whose descriptions can drive me insane sometimes when I'm just trying to get to the plot, but he really does do a good job of telling you what a place is, even when he goes on and on) gives this evocative description of Gabriel Oak's shepherd's hut, and makes the idea of life outdoors under the big, starry sky so appealing:

To persons standing alone on a hill during a clear midnight such as this, the roll of the world eastward is almost a palpable movement. The sensation may be caused by the panoramic glide of the stars past earthly objects, which is perceptible in a few minutes of stillness, or by the better outlook upon space that a hill affords, or by the wind, or by the solitude; but whatever be its origin, the impression of riding along is vivid and abiding. The poetry of motion is a phrase much in use, and to enjoy the epic form of that gratification it is necessary to stand on a hill at a small hour of the night, and, having first expanded with a sense of difference from the mass of civilised mankind, who are dreamwrapt and disregardful of all such proceedings at this time, long and quietly watch your stately progress through the stars. After such a nocturnal reconnoitre it is hard to get back to earth, and to believe that the consciousness of such majestic speeding is derived from a tiny human frame.

Suddenly an unexpected series of sounds began to be heard in this place up against the sky. They had a clearness which was to be found nowhere in the wind, and a sequence which was to be found nowhere in nature. They were the notes of Farmer Oak's flute.

The tune was not floating unhindered into the open air: it seemed muffled in some way, and was altogether too curtailed in power to spread high or wide. It came from the direction of a small dark object under the plantation hedge -- a shepherd's hut -- now presenting an outline to which an uninitiated person might have been puzzled to attach either meaning or use.

The image as a whole was that of a small Noah's Ark on a small Ararat, allowing the traditionary outlines and general form of the Ark which are followed by toy-makers -- and by these means are established in men's imaginations among their firmest, because earliest impressions -- to pass as an approximate pattern. The hut stood on little wheels, which raised its floor about a foot from the ground. Such shepherds' huts are dragged into the fields when the lambing season comes on, to shelter the shepherd in his enforced nightly attendance.

If you liked Hagrid's cabin at Hogwart's, you will probably like Hardy's description (somewhat more utilitarian than JK Rowling's, but still, there are those words "cozy" and "fire" and "cheese") of the interior of Gabriel's hut. :)

The inside of the hut, as it now presented itself, was cosy and alluring, and the scarlet handful of fire in addition to the candle, reflecting its own genial colour upon whatever it could reach, flung associations of enjoyment even over utensils and tools. In the corner stood the sheep-crook, and along a shelf at one side were ranged bottles and canisters of the simple preparations pertaining to ovine surgery and physic; spirits of wine, turpentine, tar, magnesia, ginger, and castor-oil being the chief. On a triangular shelf across the corner stood bread, bacon, cheese, and a cup for ale or cider, which was supplied from a flagon beneath. Beside the provisions lay the flute, whose notes had lately been called forth by the lonely watcher to beguile a tedious hour. The house was ventilated by two round holes, like the lights of a ship's cabin, with wood slides.

These huts -- both reproductions and restored old huts -- have become quite popular again in England lately. People are sticking them into their gardens and using them as guest rooms and home offices and children's playrooms and whatnot. Tierney-Jones writes:

 

I can see the appeal. I caught sight of my first hut several years ago, parked on a bank behind a Georgian farmhouse on the Dorset Downs outside Blandford Forum. It conjured up images of the perfect childhood: the Famous Five, lashings of ginger beer in stone bottles, long, hot, drowsy summer afternoons, snug autumnal evenings drying mittens in front of the stove. Originally built in the early years of the 20th century, it had enjoyed a brief turn as a gamekeeper's hut before sliding into decrepitude. However, it had been lovingly and painstakingly restored by its farmer owner and looked fabulous. I craved that hut and lobbied long and hard for a hut of my own. "We don't have sheep," replied my wife, completely missing the point.

 

I'm afraid Mr. B. might also not get it if I lobbied for my own shepherd's hut, although that will probably not stop me from trying.  I will wrap it into my whole "let's move to England" campaign.

Plankbridge Shepherds Huts in Dorset (the actual setting for Far from the Madding Crowd) restores these old huts, and they are exquisite.  (There is a very interesting little BBC video here about their company. First you will have to sit through a short and amusing advertisement for Ireland.)  I could not get over the beautiful detail in their work, and how pleasing REAL WOOD is. I love real wood, don't you? :)  Here are several photos from their website.

Wouldn't it be sweet to sleep tucked between a little stove and the window? And that purse is cute.

I would sit there at that ledge and write and look outside at the sheep.

Craftsmanship is not dead.  Long live craftsmanship.

Sometimes grand estates come with dilapidated shepherd's huts that look like this:

And then the folks at Plankbridge work hard on them.

And then the hut can respectably return to its grand estate.

Butterfield Ironwork, also in Dorset, makes authentic replicas of these huts, and restores some of the rare old huts, too.  Here are some photos from Eddie's website.  I should mention that when it was cold, the shepherds would bring the lambs into the hut with them to keep the lambs warm.  And I imagine the lambs warmed up the inside of the hut, too.  So it might have been a bit smelly and noisy. But warm. :)

How would you even do a curved ceiling like this? It blows my mind.

Eddie uses western red cedar.  I thought this was so interesting:

Many of the modern sawmills do not like cutting western Red Cedar because the bark is very stringy and not at all suitable for modern peelers that strip the bark prior to sawing, as it jams up the rollers. It is also quite an abrasive wood to cut and soon dulls the teeth of a band saw. My rack saw bench was originally made by Stenna & Gunn of Tiverton in Devon around 1890 and I believe it was one of the very first of it’s type. It was originally driven by a Burrell steam engine, and apart from a period of about 10 years, it has been in regular use, which is a credit to those who made it 120 years ago. It’s able to cope with western Red Cedar very effectively as you do not have to peel the log before it is sawn. In addition, the old style teeth (55 of them) can be sharpened by hand with a file every hour or so, to keep them nice and sharp. With its old fashioned teeth, the saw creates chips rather than sawdust and this goes to the local stables for bedding, the horses prefer it. The off-cut of the logs (known as slab-wood) are used to produce charcoal in my kiln, which itself is used to forge to iron components required of my Shepherd’s Huts and, of course, the occasional BBQ.

Here is a little YouTube video about the sweetest little shepherd's hut B&B in Warwickshire.  You will practically feel the breeze in your hair when you watch it.

I will move there and you can come visit me.  We can drink tea and discuss how the sheep are doing.

lazy afternoon

i do this all the time! (i didn't know anybody else did!)

from xkcd (used with permission)

redesign

Ladies, I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get my holiday photos from England posted. I know I've kind of messed up the momentum by taking such a long break.

You know what happened? The Domino Effect happened, is what happened.

I started posting the photos and thought, gosh, they look so puny in this little 500-pixel-wide column.  So I wanted to wait until I could redesign suziebeezieland with a wider (600 pixel) main column.  (We've only got one sidebar column now, but I think we'll manage.)

But it took me a long time to get around to it.  I was avoiding the new TypePad interface.  But when I finally sat down to do it today, it turned out to be just fine.  It just took me awhile to figure out where everything is.

Why do I procrastinate? I do not know.

Anyway, now we have more space and I can s  t  r  e  t  c  h out a bit here and breathe with the photos, and the English countryside will now look expansive instead of squishy.  So our lovely Easter day photos are coming soon, followed by Bath, the Cotswolds, and Oxford.

I get homesick just thinking about it. :)

ps  Let me know if anything is looking weird to you as you look at this new design.  I've only checked it on a Mac using Safari 5.0.  Sometimes Internet Explorer messes up how it's supposed to look, so tell me if something is crooked or falling off the screen or anything. :D

summer schedule

Sometimes it's helpful to me to set up external systems that make up for what my inner self lacks in the areas of discipline and organization.  :)  

Case in point, our summer schedule.

This will doubtless seem overly rigid to those of you gals who are naturally on the ball and GET STUFF DONE, but having this schedule in writing will help insure that Claire and I do not fritter the glorious summer away in our pajamas watching television.

In fact, we've gone "t.v.-free" this summer, which made me want even more to chart out what we'd like to do will all those hours every day.

The schedule on top is our default, for the days we're home and have no other plans. Underneath, I wrote down our weekly standing appointments, which won't all happen every week, but again, it's a basic framework.

On Monday mornings, despite our t.v.-free-ness, I will rent a movie for Claire to watch, because on Monday mornings I'm always doing a lot of house-cleaning to get back to normal after the weekend.  I think she'll look forward to this lazy-watch-a-movie morning time more if it's for two hours once a week than she would if she were getting to watch t.v. every day.

On Tuesdays, we get together in the morning with my sister, nephew, and niece.

On Wednesdays, we'll go to the library.

On Thursdays, we'll go on a "field trip" . . . the beach, a museum, somewhere fun.

On Fridays, I'll try to schedule a playdate for Claire.

And Friday evenings are always our "family movie night".

Of course we won't be able to stick to the schedule all the time.  We'll have some little vacations, Claire is taking a few fun summer school classes -- Act Like Shakespeare, Art, Knitting, Drawing, and soccer camp, which will occupy her from 8:30 to noon for a total of three weeks throughout the summer -- and opportunities for fun pop up unexpectedly.  One of the nicest things about summer, I think, is having the freedom to say "yes!" to so many good things.  

But if I don't have some kind of guideline written down, I end up wasting too much time.  Sometimes I even waste too much time doing seemingly good stuff, like housework.  

Enough is enough, at some point, and you need to just go outside and play for a couple hours. :)

I also want to make a habit this summer of running our errands in the morning, before places get too crowded and it gets too blazing hot.  The "get-up-and-get-going" part of this schedule is probably the most important part for me. :)

I am especially happy about the "siesta" (1 to 3 p.m.) portion of our schedule. :D

Do any of you also have a summer schedule in writing? What works for you?

the langham in pasadena

We got our house tented for termites last week and had to be out for two nights while the noxious gas did its work.  We decided to make it fun, since the tenting started on Claire's last day of school, so we went and stayed at The Langham in Pasadena.

In the olden days this was known as "The Huntington Hotel" after Henry Huntington, who redesigned The Wentworth Hotel (built in 1906) and turned it into an elegant winter resort that opened in 1914.  The 1920s were the heydey for these types of hotels (fancy folks from cold climates came and stayed through the mild winters), and it has a fun, old-California vibe to it, so I thought you might like to see some photos. 

Our room overlooked the Horseshoe Gardens, and during our stay a couple weddings took place out there. So pretty. :)

If any of you has ever been on the "Tower of Terror" ride at any of the Disney parks, you'll recognize the turn-of-the-century Hollywood-style architecture. 

Inside, there are so many public areas full of interesting antiques and art. 

And outside, the grounds are lovely.  Claire and Bob swam one morning while I worked on my book. :)

We didn't eat here (we headed to The Counter, instead), but here is one of the patios off the restaurant.

This bridge is neat. Each gable-thingy has something Californian painted on it.

This is the view of the hotel if you're standing in the Horseshoe Gardens.

Claires always befriends bugs, wherever we go.

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more good things to watch

I thought I would self-indulgently mention some more things I have enjoyed watching over the years, because it's so fun to talk t.v. and movies.  

There is so much truly excellent viewing available, especially with Netflix, that you can pick and choose what you want to see, and fill your life and mind up with good characters and good plots and things worthy of your heart.  There's no need to sit in front of the telly sucking on whatever the networks want to feed us and nurturing mediocrity.  Power to the people! :)

Here, in no particular order, are some of my very favorites.

Babe

This is a tale about an unprejudiced heart, and how it changed our valley forever.

I claimed Babe as my favorite movie for many years.  I think folks who think this is a kid's movie are missing something.

It's about a very sweet heart that is tender and true.  And it's about a very good man who makes a very good choice.

It might be unusual to say that I would like to be like a pig, but I would be happy if I were like Babe.  He is a really good pig.  

I aspire to be like that pig.

Farmer Hoggett is also someone I respect.

We used a song from Babe for our wedding march: Camille Saint-Saen's Organ Symphony #3.

(Skip "Babe: Pig in the City," the sequel.  It's AWFUL.)

The Secret of Roan Inish

From that day on, it was forbidden to harm a seal on the island.

I'm not ALL about England and things English. Much of me is about Ireland and things Irish. :D  

This is such a beautiful film.  I probably watch it once a year.  Have you seen it, and did you like it? I love the Celtic myths more than any others, because they all involve the sea, and when you watch this movie, you can see the sea, but you can also smell it and taste it and feel it on your face.  I love this movie as much for its mood as for its plot.  (But I love the plot, too.)

I also like movies for adults that have children in starring roles. That's how our real lives are -- children are in starring roles -- but I've noticed that most adult movies use children as props instead of fleshing out the characters and letting them really act.  

Chariots of Fire

Lord Birkenhead: Liddell, he is your future king. Are you refusing to shake his hand? Does your arrogance extend that far?
Eric Liddell: My arrogance, sir, extends just as far as my conscience demands. 

I guess I'm dating myself with these choices, but maybe it will encourage some of you younger women to rent some older movies you've missed. :)  

Let's not forget the Scots!  Yay, Eric Liddell.  Chariots of Fire was my favorite movie for years and years, and is still much-beloved.  It has aged very well. (It also features a pretty astonishing who's-who of British actors . . . if you are a BBC regular, you will recognize many faces.)  

I remember very clearly seeing this in the theater in 1981 with my family, and of course the whole country ran out to buy the Vangelis soundtrack afterwards, it was so stunning.  The music has been overused so much that it has become humorous, but don't let that turn you off from seeing the film, which is excellent. 

It is a true story about two principled men during the 1920 Paris Olympics.

Dr. Finlay

Villager: Morning, Dr. Cameron! You're still here, then?
Dr. Cameron: I appear to be, yes.

More great Scots! :) This is a really engaging BBC mini-series (surprise, surprise) about three generations of doctors working in post-WWII Scotland.  I highly recommend it. The lead, David Rintoul, was Mr. Darcy in the first BBC version of Pride and Prejudice that I ever saw when I was in high school.  

You'll also recognize and enjoy Ian Bannen, Jason Flemyng, and Annette Crosbie if you're a British television or film enthusiast.

All four seasons are available through Netflix now, finally.

All Creatures Great and Small

"Oh, Mr. Herriot," Mrs. Pumphrey said, looking at her pet anxiously. "I'm so glad you've come. Tricki has gone flop-bott again."

All Creatures ran for seven seasons, and my whole family has fond memories of gathering around the t.v. downstairs in our house in Spokane on Sunday afternoons to watch the newest installment.  

I have to admit that the production values in this show now look very dated, but I am so very fond of it all that I don't care. The plotlines are delightful, the characters are very well-developed (the interactions between the mild-mannered James, the volatile Siegfried, and the irresponsible Tristan never get old), and it's all just lovely if you can get past the videotaped feeling.  

Give it a try.  If you don't like it, we'll still be friends.

It is, of course, based on the most-excellent books by James Herriott, but the show is great in its own right.

   

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Control died after a long illness, throughout most of which he continued to work. Besides, he hated South Africa. He hated everywhere except Surrey, the Circus, and Lord's Cricket Ground.

Before Alec Guinness was Obi Wan Kenobi, he was George Smiley, a retired British spy who is called back to work in order to find a mole in British Intelligence.  

And before Patrick Stewart was Captain Jean-Luc Picard, he was Karla, Smiley's Russian counterpart in Moscow Centre, the Soviet KGB. (Also, funnily enough, he played John Thornton in a 1975 version of North and South.  But I digress.)

This 1980 mini-series is based on John LeCarre's excellent novel of the same name, which I recommend you read before attempting to follow the mini-series.  (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is the first novel in a trilogy known as "The Quest for Karla," which is comprised of Tinker as well as The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley's People.  The first novel stands alone if you want to stop there. The Honorable Schoolboy dragged at the beginning for me, but I got into it eventually, and I loved Smiley's People.)

T,T,S,S is one of my favorite novels (definitely in my top ten) and I reread it, and rewatch this mini-series, every couple of years.  I don't think this is for everybody, but if you are an avid reader and have never read a spy novel, and think the genre is not for you, give Tinker, Tailor a try, because LeCarre's literary style transcends the genre, and his writing is exquisite.  I mean it.

I will tell you flat out that the mini-series is dark (I mean actually dark, as in "low lighting") (although it's also sometimes existentially dark, or rather, contemplative) and the sound is low and sometimes garbled.  You will probably have no idea what is going on most of the time if you haven't first read the novel.

But! If you get into the novel, and get excited about it, you will not be able to get enough of the mini-series, which puts American shoot-'em-and-chase-'em stuff to shame with its intelligent, laconic, thoroughly delightful hero and understated, grown-up dialogue.  It's really good stuff.  (I should mention that if you watch Dr. Finlay, you'll be happy to see a younger Ian Bannen also in Tinker Tailor.)

For me, the character of George Smiley is one of the most endearing in all literature, and Alec Guinness does him right.  I love George Smiley.  I would wear an "I love George Smiley" t-shirt if one existed.

And if you love the Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy mini-series, you're in luck, because they made Smiley's People, and it's fantastic, too.

And have I mentioned North and South? :D

Look back, look back at me.

north & south. holy cow.

I honestly didn't think anything would ever come along to knock the movie Pride and Prejudice (2005) from its number one spot in my strictly regulated internal hierarchy of screen favorites.  

I am, if you have never noticed, weirdly fastidious about my books and movies. I have no idea why I'm like this or why I feel compelled to be able at all times to identify my favorites, but for some reason I must be able to tell you, if you ask me, "These are my favorite books. These are my favorite movies."  And there are no gray areas.  I don't have any "sort of favorites."

Actually, I think I do know why I do this, but it's kind of embarrassing, so I don't really want to tell you. Here it is:  

I think some of my identity is wrapped up in my favorite books and movies. It is important to me to be able to know what they are, and why I like them, because I carry them around in my heart and wear them, kind of like jewelry for my insides, to know about and enjoy and think about all by myself in my head, whenever I want.  

I think they're magic.

I hope at least one of you knows what I'm talking about, but it's okay if you don't and you just all think I'm nutters.

So anyway, the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie was released on my birthday, and I saw it three times that week in the theater, and have watched it regularly on DVD at home ever since.  

When I say "screen favorites," I mean a theater screen or my television screen. I make no distinction between "favorite movies" and "favorite t.v. shows," because the bulk of my favorites are BBC mini-series, and most of them are better than anything I can go see in the theater.

So close on the heels of P&P 2005 were Little Dorrit,  Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, Cranford, Sense and Sensibility (the 1995 Emma Thompson one, NOT the 2008 Hattie Morahan one), Persuasion (the 1995 Amanda Root one, NOT the 2007 Sally Hawkins one), and, of course, the 1995 Colin Firth Pride and Prejudice.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but you get the idea.  I don't like all costume dramas, but all my favorite things to watch are costume dramas. 

So those (and whatever I'm forgetting to mention) are the ones I'd take with me if I got stuck on a desert island with a DVD player.  Those are the shows I would swear to if I was in a court of law and had to swear as to what my favorite shows are.  (I guess that's unlikely to ever happen. But it could. It could.) Those are what I watch over and over.  Those are what I'd tell you to watch if you asked me for a recommendation.  

But earlier this week (after a few false starts earlier this year when I got interrupted during the first half-hour and vowed I wouldn't try again until I could watch the whole four hours in two nights or less because it messes up the movie-watching ambiance to have the twenty-first century intrude on the nineteenth century), I finally sat down with Bob and watched North and South. (That's the 2004 British mini-series, NOT the 1985 American mini-series.) (It's talking about the north and south of England, NOT the north and south of the U.S.) (And it's starring Richard Armitage the British actor, NOT Richard Armitage the American politician.)

And then Saturday night I sat down all by myself and watched it all over again, all four hours straight in a row.  (I got up once to get a drink, and once to let the dog out, and once to let the dog back in, and that's it.)

All I can tell you is, holy cow.  

It's the best thing I've ever seen.  

divas

Bob and I are sitting here watching the Uruguay/France game, and this commercial just came on. Have you seen it already? I hadn't. :D

bits of the june garden

the domino effect

The whole craft room cleanup project became necessary because a few months ago, I moved the desk that was in the craft room into the living room.  I did this after I switched from a big, unsightly desktop computer to a nice little laptop, because I don't mind having the laptop on display in the living room. 

It has been pleasant to sit here when I write.  Our living room is bright and airy, and is farther away from the catbox than the craft room is. :)

This area is obviously still a work in progress -- I need to buy a lamp and get the bulletin boards and cubby filled up.  I want it to be a pretty work area, and I don't want to spend money on anything other than the lamp, so I'm going very slowly. I will post photos once it's all done.

But the desk is where the three tall bookcases used to be, so I moved those into the dining room for awhile. But that wasn't working for me, because it made the already-small-and-dark dining room feel even more claustrophobic.  

So Bob and I purged a bunch of books -- no treasures, just paperbacks and reference books we no longer use -- and that helped get us down to one-and-a-half tall bookcases full, rather than three.  So I'm trying to work those books into the craft room now.  (The low bookcases remain where they have always been, and are full.)  

I tend to start these chain reactions that would make a more fastidious husband cringe, because I will have three entire rooms in an uproar until I sort everything out.  I'm thankful Bob doesn't care. 

I am so determined that we can live comfortably and well in a small house, at least until Claire is six feet tall and is bringing her whole basketball team home for dinner. We might need to rethink things then.  :D 

But for the time being, I'm convinced that as long as I take inventory a few times a year and move things around when something is no longer serving our needs, this is a very good house for us.   Even though this is work, it's much less work than moving into a new house.  And it's a fun challenge, to declutter and make everything fit. :) 

Do you start these big chain reactions of organizing in your house, too, or are you better about just doing small projects one-at-a-time?  

craft room overhaul

Hannah has taken to sleeping in the craft room paper tray, but other than that, the craft room is not getting much use the past couple of weeks, because it's such a mess.

It hasn't changed much in the past five years, other than to slowly fill up with random stuff.  I'm not going to show you the closet or table right now because they're pretty bad.  :)

I still like the decoration and storage in there, but it really needs a good clean up, and since the computer and computer desk are no longer in there, I have a bit of space to work with. I'm wondering if I could somehow tuck a little twin bed in, for visitors.

Next weekend I'm hoping to clean it, paint it (it hasn't been painted in six years), and rearrange it a bit.  I may mark out the shape of a twin bed on the floor with tape, to show Bob. :)

I'm hoping to replace the old Martha Stewart "Drop of Blue" (from when she had paint at K-Mart) paint with something fresh and green.  Although so much of what we own is fresh and green . . . Bob and I were accidentally out last weekend in matching-colored shirts, because I gravitate so much to spring green that I buy it for both of us, and Claire, as well.

We could become a singing trio and wear spring green and travel around in my green car while I carry my green purse.  I love fresh, yellowy green!

I'm thinking about Benjamin Moore's "Stem Green".  This is in the PB Kids catalog and seems good in print, but you never know how it will look in real life.  (It's the green wall behind the bed.)

{from PB Kids catalog}

Do you have any house projects going on right now?  I'll let you know how the craft room turns out.

the new rug

Our big old beige area rug served us well for about five years, but a few months ago I decided its time had come, and I rolled it up and dragged it outside.  It was starting to look grubby even after I Rug-Doctored it. The rug had done a lovely job of protecting the hardwood underneath, because we put it down shortly after we moved into this house and had the floors finished.

So for a few months we just enjoyed the prettiness of the hardwood, and I thought about not replacing the rug at all.  It felt so airy and Scandinavian.  I always like "airy and Scandinavian." :)

But Hyacinth is so noisy on these floors at night when we're trying to watch t.v., and she missed having the rug to curl up on.  She just paced, click-a-click, and it was making us nuts.  

And the hope chest kind of disappears into the floor when there isn't anything underneath it, because the woods are the same color.  

I decided to go smaller this time -- our last rug was 7x9, but this new one is 4x6 -- so there is a bit for Hyacinth to enjoy, but we can still see the floors. I went online and fell in love with Dash and Albert's striped cotton rugs, but one of those would be terribly impractical in a bigger size because I couldn't throw it into the wash.  Our living room is often full of people eating and pets rolling around and shoes and crafts and life's general tendency towards entropy and mess.

So instead, I settled on one of their striped indoor-outdoor rugs, which is made of something totally fake, but gives the same look.  It is not one bit shiny . . . it's very matte, and looks just like cotton.  And it isn't perfectly soft like cotton, but if I was at someone else's house and didn't know that it wasn't cotton, I would probably think that it was. It feels smooth (not at all itchy or weird) underfoot.

And I have to tell you that after two weeks, there is not a single spot of dirt on it.  Claire spilled some raspberry jam on it, and it wiped right off with a wet paper towel.  And apparently the rug can be hosed and even bleached. 

You would not think a new area rug would make a girl so happy, but it does.

interactive world cup calendar

 

Go here to see a neat interactive World Cup calendar. Are you planning on watching any or all of the games?