3 Fun Facts About the Downton Abbey House

I've finally joined the club - the Downton Abbey fan club that is. I was given Season 1 and 2 for Christmas and my husband and I have been watching them - trying to spread out the episodes so we don't run through them too quickly (we're still on Season 1 so don't give anything away. Okay?)
I was immediately drawn to the beautiful setting and had to find out more.  I did a little Googling and found out three fun facts about the house they used in Downton Abbey. 
1) Downton Abbey was actually filmed at a beautiful English country home called Highclere Castle located in Berkshire. Often TV shows and films will use the exteriors from real homes, but it is unusual to film the whole show in a real house rather than a set (although to be accurate the lower level servant's rooms were filmed on a set). I loved knowing that these were the actual rooms that they used.  

2) Highclere Castle is the home of the Carnarvons - the same Carnarvon family that uncovered the tomb of King Tut in 1922. The present Earl's great-grandfather funded the expedition that led archaeologist Howard Carter to discover the King Tut's tomb.  

At the entrance to King Tut's tomb in 1922 (from left to right): Lady Evelyn Carnarvon; her father, the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon; archaeologist Howard Carter; Carter's assistant.

An exhibit has been set up to commemorate the 90th anniversary of that discovery.  Now many of the artifacts from King Tut's tomb are on display in the basement of Highclere Castle.  You can read an interesting recount in this blog post about visiting the display.

3) Lady Almina, the fifth Countess of Carnarvon (and the wealthy illegitimate American daughter of Alfred de Rothschild) turned Highclere Castle into a hospital for wounded WW1 soldiers in 1914, much like happened in Downton Abbey.  The present Countess of Carnarvon has written a book about Lady Almina.

Have you caught the Downton Abbey bug?  I'm busy working on another Downton Abbey post so stay tuned.

Linked to The Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush

Pretzel Love

Last week Malcolm sent us a pretzel recipe that he and Christie had made together on Valentine's Day (Awww!  Isn't that sweet) ... and this afternoon William and I made them.  It was our first time making pretzels.  They are not difficult at all and are delicious warm from the oven - and even better with peanut butter spread on each bite.

Here's the recipe so you can give it a try if you are in the mood for fresh warm soft salt-topped pretzels.

Pretzel recipe
2 1/2 tsp yeast dissolved with 3 tsp sugar in 1 1/2 cups warm water

Blend in 4 cups white flour and some salt

Kneed dough until smooth (don't let rise) - add drops of water as needed if the dough is breaking apart

Cut into 16 even pieces 

Roll and twist into pretzel shapes

place on a greased pan
Glaze with milk and sprinkle with salt

Bake in a preheated oven at 425 degrees for 12-15 minutes

We usually eat the skinny crunchy store-bought pretzels and I can't think I've ever had homemade ones before.  They are as different as night and day and now I love both.  Have you eaten homemade pretzels?  Which do you prefer?

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Update:

My husband found the plate hangers for the missing fruit plates, but still no plates.  So in the meantime I have hung three pairs of other random plates that fit the space and the hangers. They are nice for a change and I'm sure the fruit plates will appear much sooner now that they know they have competition for the wall space.

Coral and Navy Tablesetting

I was at the thrift store this week doing what I do best on Friday at noon, when I found not one, but two tablecloths I liked. As soon as I saw this coral one I knew that I wanted to use it this weekend when we were having dinner guests.  

I paired the coral tablecloth with our Blue Willow dinner plates and used the blue and white Pottery Barn serviettes.  Don't you think coral and navy are such a lovely fresh combination? Orange and blue are opposites on the colour wheel so I assume that is why the coral and navy really seem to highlight yet compliment each other.  
In the centre of the table I used our collection of brass candlesticks from the $20 thrift store challenge (which you can read about here) - love the combination of heights and shapes.  And I bought some white flowers for the table - because the table needed white flowers to pull it all together.

Do you want to know something strange?  Do you see the nails on the wall on either side of the piece of art on our wall - that is where the fruit plates are supposed to go.  I took them down to hang the Christmas plates there.  When the Christmas plates came down in January, I hung some faux snowballs on the nails until Valentine's Day.  Now that Valentine's Day is finished I thought it was time to hang up the fruit plates again, but the trouble is I can't remember where I put them. I've looked all over the house ... and nothing ... nadda. I've been walking around asking everyone - if you were me, where would you have stored the plates? I'm hoping they show up soon. So strange, eh? Have you ever lost something like that?

Linked to Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill,
The Inspiration Gallery at Craftberry Bush,
Tabletop Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life,
Totally Tuesday at Madcap Frenzy

Wild Valentine's

I made these at the last minute for the students I work with at school. They were a huge success with the kids and didn't take long to make or cost much either. 

I went to the dollar store and bought three packages of stretchy lizards and dinosaurs (I was looking for anything wild). They were quite a bargain because you got eight animals per bag. I made up the cards on the computer - I found I could comfortably fit four cards per page, but it would depend on the size of your animal. I printed the cards up, poked small holes for the pipe cleaners using scissors, and attached the animals.  String would have been better because pieces of pipe cleaner fuzz stuck to the animals - not that the kids cared though.  I would love to have used baker's twine tied into a sweet little bow on the wild thing's back, but alas all I had was pipe cleaners so that is what I used.

I just thought I would pass along an idea to store away for next year.

Linked to Lovely Wreath Link Party at Bower Power

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day my friends. What are you doing to celebrate? Valentine's Day also happens to be our wedding anniversary so we will be having some fun treats for dinner, a nice bottle of wine, and I'll be giving this card to my husband. I made it in art class this week using Japanese mulberry paper that I painted with bold colours a la Kandinsky and then cut up and shaped into a heart. 

I recently read that in Finland Valentine's Day is called "Friend's Day" and is a day to celebrate friendship. Women in particular have embraced these holiday and now send cards and give gifts to their friends. Don't you love that - it's about remembering all your loved ones not just the ones you are romantically involved with. So my friends, I'm wishing you all a Happy Valentine's day - blowing you kisses and sending my love.