Raven, the gypsy, tells a story

Hi Everybody,
   Well its been a typical day for Raven and Romney, and as the day starts to slip away, they finish up their chores for the evening. Romney checks on the chickens one more time and gives them fresh water

Raven hangs the last of  the faith charms in the resurrection tree. This is a special tree that grows on the property.  When the sick come to see Raven , she reads from the book of the Ancient of days, speaks mysterious words while she places her hands on the person, then she consults her book of herbal remedies and mixes up the appropriate remedy. When this is finished, she always has them pick a pretty charm from the tree with the instruction that they hang it in a place where they will see it often. Then each time they look upon it, they are to say out loud; thank you I am healed.

    Today had been a very busy day for Raven and she had seen many people, so she needed to replenish the tree.

    Raven thinks that since the evenings are starting to have a mild hint of fall, that she and Romney will  have dinner out side tonight. As she prepares the evening meal on the wood stove in the garden, she begins to tell Romney a story. It's a story of a lovely young girl who had beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes.
 As Mama talks, Romney weaves a pretty flower necklace for Traveler, their horse and places it around his neck.

     Mama tells her how this lovely girl wandered into the gypsy camp one evening many years ago. It was plain to see that she was a troubled soul, for though she wore what had been beautiful clothes of quality at one time, the young girl was quite disheveled and looked as if she had been living on the streets for some time. The first day that Raven saw her hiding in the bushes, watching the camp, she went over and offered her a bowl of stew, which the young girl gobbled with gusto, Raven could easily see that she was quite hungry and probably had not eaten in some time.
   There was one more thing that was also quite plain to Raven, the young girl was with child. The girl had not spoken a single word, so Raven asked her what her name was and where she came from, but this seemed to frighten the girl and she jumped up and ran into the woods, but the next day she came back and once again Raven fed her. This continued for several days, and Raven couldn't help but notice that the girl was also in ill health and had a terrible cough. Raven started treating her, but because she was pregnant, she had to be careful about what she gave her. Pretty soon the cough was almost gone but the girl remained weak.

       Romney wanders over to the stove and sits down to listen to Mama's story.

         Well as the day's turned into weeks, Raven gradually won the girl's trust and then one day right out of the blue, the young girl spoke, she said, Isabel, my name is Isabel and she began to sob uncontrollably. Raven went over and put her arms around her and did her best to console the young girl and slowly as she began to calm down, she began to pour forth her story.
        Isabel had been a young girl of privilege, she had been born into a wealthy and prominent family. Growing up she had a typical happy childhood, but as she became a teenager and closer to marrying age, her Mama and Papa started to seek appropriate arrangements for her, then one day it was announced, her marriage was arranged, she would marry the rich and titled son of one of Papas associates. Isabel was devastated, you see she was in love with Colin, a young man who was not rich and had no title

Well she begged and pleaded, but her parents would not hear it and finally the day arrived that she was to be wedded and Isabel did the unthinkable, she defied her Papa and refused to marry the young man. Her Papa was furious and disowned her, but she didn't care because her beloved Colin was waiting for her right outside the door and they were to be married that very afternoon.

        Isabel and Colin were indeed very happy in their newly wed state, but after only a few months of wedded bliss, war broke out and then the unthinkable happened, Colin was drafted.

 Colin went off to war and it wasn't long before Isabel discovered she was with child, she was elated and wrote Colin right away to tell him the news! For months they wrote back and forth and made plans, but suddenly the letters stopped coming and Isabel got the devastating news that Colin had been killed.
        Isabel suddenly found herself alone and unable to pay rent, she tried to do odd jobs but because it was war time, most people just weren't hiring help. Isabel decided she would go home and seek help from her parents, but Isabel's Papa was a proud man and he turned her away at the door, declaring he had no daughter! She never even had a chance to tell her parents she was with child.

Isabel knew of the Gypsy camp on the outskirts of town and decided to go there, thinking maybe she could get some food and that's why she was hiding in the woods when Raven found her.

      Raven convinced Isabel to stay right there with her, as she had grown quite fond of the young girl and considered her as a friend. Well the months went by and the day finally arrived, Isabel was in labor, but it soon became clear that this was not to be an easy delivery. Isabel was in a weakened state from all the sickness she had endured and as the hours dragged on it became clear to Raven that the situation was dire. Finally the baby was delivered, but Isabel was fading and as Isabel departed this world she made Raven promise that she would take care of her baby girl. Raven assured her that no matter what, she would take care of the baby.

      Romney sat silently for a moment thinking about all Mama had told her. It was a lot for such a young girl as herself to take in, finally she speaks, Oh Mama that's such a sad story, what ever happened to Isabel's baby?

      Mama answers, well now that's a story for another time my love, right now it's time for us to eat our dinner.

 Phew- that was a long one:-)     I better go see what is going on with Celestine, I think I hear her singing Spanish songs very loudly!

Celestine what are you doing up there, please get down from there before you get hurt

Is Celestine dancing in the fountain now? What on earth is the matter with her?

   

Uhm Celestine, you and water are not the best combination.

Celestine; Oh Darling you should join me it is marvelous, we can dance, we can have a party Yes?

Celestine what is this that you've been drinking ? where did you get this? Did this come from the Gypsy's house?

Celestine: You should try some darling, it's the best lemonade I've ever drank!!

UH Celestine does Raven know you drank this?

Well no Darling, she was busy and I was very thirsty, and I did not like to interrupt her, You see?

OH CELESTINE! I better go see Raven about this right away!

     Well I asked Raven about it and she just giggled and said don't worry, it will wear off in a couple of days.....A COUPLE OF DAYS ???  Heavens to betsy!! Well I guess I better go, I have to monitor Celestine's  activities for the next couple of days! Till next time,

Love and blessings to you all,

Teresa and Celestine

P.S,
 I was awakened this morning to this

Between Celestine's spanish songs and that dog howling in my ear, I thought I was having a nightmare! ;-)

Apparently Celestine not only " borrowed " Grandpa Harts mandolin, but one of his dogs as well?

Oh Dear, I better get right over to Grandpa's house and return his belongings, I'm sure he and Grandma are frantic by now!

See Ya Later

Review of the Valentine residence

Well hello everybody,
  Guess what? I finally figured out how to turn the brightness down on my camera so that it doesn't wash everything out so bad, Yeah! When my husband and I moved a couple yrs. ago we packed up the instruction manual to the camera and now we have no idea where it is ( don't you always seem to lose something when you move? argh!! ) Anyways, my hubby found the on line manual for me, yeah Hubby!! So what does this mean to you, you ask? Well I thought I would review the houses since I can take better pictures now, you know ones where you might actually be able to see whats in the rooms, Hee Hee!! I also have changed a few things since I first showed it to you, because all of my houses are a work in progress. I thought I would start with the Valentine house since it is the first one my husband bought me. As you may recall it was an anniversary gift and since our anniversary is Valentines day, it became the Valentines residence, It's located at 214 Anniversary drive ( OK it's actually in my bedroom, but play along with me Ok?) Well this kicked off a whole new passion for me and I am completely smitten with doll houses and miniatures now!! As if you didn't already know this, Hee Hee, sooo... with out further ado, here we go

When we bought this house it already had wall paper in it, so I chose to just work with what was there since Hubby wasn't to keen on removing it. This was challenging since they didn't all coordinate with each other and since I wouldn't have chosen some of them myself.

This is an overview of the whole house, I do hope to add electric to it at some point.

Downstairs, you have the kitchen to the far right, I've added all those pots on the back wall since the last time I showed it to you, they all came from  the lasaur restaurant in Paris, I bought them from Ebay

 The downstairs hallway and the dining room.

Some things have changed in the dining room. I took out the console table and mirror that used to be on the left wall and moved it to the living room/ parlour, I put that long table there, to hold their dishes and I need to get a tea cart for that wall and a mirror.

Second floor living room. The piano is made from a music box that my husband built some longer legs for and now its just the right size. The sofa and chair is the most expensive furniture in the house as it is bespaq, I've tried to do these houses on a budget and therefore I have to be a little bit creative. The rugs in the main rooms are made from scrap book paper that I added fringe or rope trim to, this worked great since I wanted to cover a lot of the floor because I felt the paper someone had chosen before me was just to dark.

 Second floor landing- I used velvet ribbon for stair runners.

 Elizabeth and baby Darlene's room, I made all the bedding.

 Woops these pictures got a little blurry huh? I wish they hadn't because there are some cute toys on those shelves, Oh well, I'll have to try to take better pictures of that in the future. Just when I was feeling so proud of my picture taking too, Hee Hee.

This is Victoria and Conrad's room on the third floor and I have to admit that I love this room, it just looks like a big Valentine doesn't it ? I made all the bedding in this room also and the tester over the bed is made from a box lid covered in lace and fabric. The picture over the wardrobe says, to my Valentine :-)

Upstairs hall way, the paper is the same pattern as the other landings but in yellow? guess they ran out of the other color?

 The bathroom had this blue wall paper but I am not that crazy about blue, so I decided to add the purple and tied it together with the  shower curtain fabric. I made the shower curtain stand from a coat hanger- by the way I'm not much of a seamstress, so I cheated and used fabric glue for all curtains and bedding, Shhh.. its our little secret OK?

 I painted the Dresser and mirror to match. It was quite easy to find pictures and such that mixed purple and shades of blue together.

These are the residents of the house, this is Dr. Conrad Valentine and his lovely wife Victoria and their two girls Elizabeth and baby Darlene and this is the staff ( minus the butler Mr. Dobbs, still haven't found him yet )

Left; Abigail the house keeper,  center: Sadie the cook,  Right: Annie the nanny. Well that's all of the Valentine house.
 I have a sneaky feeling I better go see what Celestine is up to!
         Celestine, what are you doing?

Celestine: I'm Trying on Clothes Darling, a girl needs more than one outfit to wear, yes?

Uh.. Celestine I already told you that most of Barbies clothes are too big for you and would have to be altered to fit.

Celestine: Well there you have it darling, Barbie is not as perfect as America has made her out to be, you see? I am considerably thinner, No? ( Well yes, more like Twiggy, but don't tell her I said so! )

Me:  UHM ....well what I want to know Celestine, is who's going to clean up this mess?

Celestine:  Well not me darling, I mean after all, I am just a doll and I cannot clean up messes!!

OH MY!

Well now Celestine has gone silent and is staring at me blankly... I suppose this is her acting helpless?? ( I'm not buying it, are you? )

Yep she's definitely giving me the silent treatment now-

I guess I better go, because it would seem I have a mess to clean up ;-)

Till next time, love and blessings to you all,

Teresa and Celestine

Meet Celestine

Hello Everyone,
  Well I hope your Labor day weekend is getting off to a great start!! I have a feeling mine is going to be interesting, you see Celestine has come to live with me and let me tell ya, this doll is proving to be a hand full already! She showed up after her trip from Canada ( Ebay ) and Immediately let me know she was sick of wearing that outfit, and she wanted her makeup refreshed right away!

So I repainted her lips and eyebrows, took the lays from around her neck and arm and promised her a shopping trip for clothes! She was not happy to have to wait till the next day to go shopping but I told her it would give us a chance to decide what kind of outfit she might like and where to find it, to which she replied, outfit?..... you mean wardrobe darling!! UH yes of course, wardrobe, silly me! :-) Now Celestine talks with an exotic Spanish sounding accent, which seemed odd since she was dressed like a Hawaiian, so I asked her about it and she told me she is from Barcelona Spain and has no idea why they dressed her in that ridiculous outfit and another thing she is not a little girl anymore since she was born in the 1960's and she would appreciate it if I would dress her accordingly! Well I don't know if she's having delusions of grandeur or what, but I'm not going to argue with her, besides she does an excellent Spanish accent, so Spain it is! 

So today arrived and we were off to shop!

When we got into the car Celestine insisted on riding here, 

Me: Celestine that's not really a good place for you to sit

Celestine: Well I have to be able to see to tell you how to drive darling, no?

OH DEAR

So we were off to Wal- Mart where we found an outfit she liked and would fit, this was no easy task as Celestine is both picky and very thin!

When we got to the car she demanded to have her new outfit put on, so I obliged her and she spent the rest of the ride home playing with the stereo, changing channels every 2 seconds, and wanting to know where is the channel with all the beautiful Spanish flamenco music?

Back home she spent several moments admiring herself in the mirror 

Then she wanted to know where we were taking her out dancing, when I said we weren't, she sighed with disgust and headed to the stereo in the living room, declaring in her exotic accent that she was a beautiful Spanish woman and she wanted to dance, to live , to dream!

UH Celestine careful with that knob......

Too late... I better go run damage control before the cops show up for disturbing the peace, I mean after all , what would I tell them?...That Celestine did it? Hee Hee

Till next time, Love and blessing to you all and a happy Labor day too!

Teresa and Celestine

Saturdays buy's and random things

HI Everybody,
  Can you believe it's Wednesday already? Remember when you were younger and older people would say stuff like, boy time is just flying by, and you really didn't know what they were talking about? Maybe this was because we were living each moment in the moment, instead of hurrying around trying to get everything done on a schedule or ahead of time- you know where your mind is always moving ahead to the next thing instead of just being present in the moment that you are currently experiencing. I've personally been trying to slow my thoughts down and bring them into the present moment, to pause and see the good that's all around me now, to realize that THESE are the good ole day's. I feel I used to do this naturally, but somehow in the last few years while we were going through some tuff things, I switched into survival mode and forgot how to take pleasure in the small things, the here and now. Life is rarely perfect for anyone, but I believe that if we take pleasure in the ordinary, we will often discover it to be extraordinary!! So in that vein of thought I took these pictures to share with you of the ordinary/ extraordinary day today :) This is my beautiful new Hugs N Kisses hibiscus in bloom, Lorraine if you see this, thank you !! Lorraine over at Flower Lady's musings posted about hers and I immediately went on a search for one- found it at home depot. It puts out different color blooms from the same plant, so gorgeous, go over and visit Lorraine at her blog to see her collage.By the way I put this out by the bird bath that I showed you a couple of post ago... which leads me to,

 Naughty squirrel,  there's no birds yet because this guy keeps emptying the feeder! Now don't get me wrong he's cute and entertaining, but a gal could go broke trying to feed these little piggy's :-)

 They just park right inside the feeder and eat until its all gone! Incidentally, I went and bought a new feeder that is supposed to be squirrel proof, I hope it works.

How was your weekend? Mine was so nice, my husband had the complete day off on Saturday and we decided to head to an auction in Leesburg, which is a town just up the road from us. There was a couple of dollhouse's for sale and lots of doll's, I didn't get the room box I wanted, but I got this little dollhouse and I just think it is the cutest little thing, I'm not sure what scale furniture it needs yet, I think  1/48 but I'm not sure. Haven't figured out the story that will go with this one yet, but give me time and I'm sure I'll come up with something, hee hee!! oooo I just love dollhouses, the possibilities are endless!!

My husband had to patch a hole in the floor where someone put a light in it. It's been stained now and you can hardly notice it.

And last but not least we got this pretty girl, she's had some restoration work but she is quite old. I think she is just lovely don't you?

She does a fine job of looking after her baby sister :-)

Well I guess that is all for now folks, please leave comments, as I love them so much, it lets me know someone is reading this and I value your input!! So till next time, Love and Blessings to you all,
Teresa

Uh Oh Grandma Hart is not feeling well

Hello everyone,
  Well it seems that Grandma Hart has taken to her bed with fever and a great deal of stomach discomfort. Victoria has spent the night trying to get the fever down and some fluids in her Mother, just as her husband Dr. Valentine instructed, but when the Dr. checks in the next day, she seems no better.

 Dr. Valentine decides it's time to pay a visit to Raven the gypsy woman, so he makes his way to the old servants house which is actually on his estate where Raven and her little girl Romney live. He remembers the day he found them camping on his property in the wagon that they were calling home, of course he was moved with compassion when he realized the woman and her daughter were on their own,so he quickly made a deal with her that she could stay in the old servants house and pay rent with fresh eggs, yarn and of course herbal remedies for his patients. It seemed like a win/win situation for everyone and so far he's never regretted it, Oh he's been questioned around town about the strange gypsy woman and her blonde,blue eyed child, but the Doc knows people are always curious and suspicious of that which is different. He arrives at the house and knocks on the door.

 Raven answers and invites Dr. Valentine in, after he carefully explains Grandma Hart's symptoms and tell's Raven he believes it is a case of the dreaded and sometimes fatal influenza, she consults her huge book that she call's the wisdom of the Ancient of days,all the while little Romney watches her Mama carefully, as Mama always tells her it's important for her to learn the old ways, the things that have been passed down from generation to generation

 Next Raven consults her Herbal remedy book and begins to mix some things together from various bottles and jars

 She sets the medicine on the table and explains the instructions for use to Dr. Valentine and then she does what she always does every time the Doc has gotten remedies from her, she speaks these words, Oh Ancient of days, you have sent your word and healed us of all our diseases and all of our destructions , and then she places her hands on the medicine and begins to speak in a language that the doc doesn't understand. The doc is always in awe, because there seems to be some kind of tangible power in the room as the gypsy woman speaks and so far the remedies have worked in some of the most difficult situations when nothing else has. Pretty soon the doc is on his way.

 Dr. Valentine goes back to Grandma's and administers the remedy as instructed and sure enough the next day, much to every ones relief, grandma is as right as rain, they all gather in grandmas parlor to visit and grandpa serenades his beautiful bride and says a silent prayer of thanks. Even the puppies are happy to see grandma better. As they chat and laugh and visit the day away, both the doc and Victoria think to themselves, what a blessing it was the day the gypsy woman came their way.
Till next time,
Love and Blessings to you all,
Teresa


P.S
I seem to have left poor grandma and grandpa hanging with their house only partially done, poor things, looks like I better get to shopping and decorating before they lose all patience with me!! hee hee