Greyfield. Day 1

Allison guessed correctly! We went to Cumberland Island for the weekend! :)

The last gift he opened was the history book of the island with the following note attached:

Pack your bags with warm clothes! The ferry leaves the dock this Friday at 12:15 to take us to the Greyfield Inn!

Consider yourselves forwarned! There are a lot of pictures and commentary but I don't know how to leave any of it out. It really was the most perfect weekend; from the weather, the other guests staying at the inn, all of the little details and I don't want to forget any of it! Please excuse all of the obnoxious historical commentary. The history teacher in me is coming out and I have no idea how to hush her up! ;)

***

And before we begin, a little background info about the island and where we stayed:

Thomas Carnegie (brother to the more famous Andrew Carnegie) bought a large amount of the island in the 1880's to build a winter home, Dungeness. He died in 1886 before the mansion was completed, but his wife continued to live on the island and raise their 9 children. When each of her children were married, she offered them all $10,000 to build a "cottage" on the island, hoping to keep her children close. With this wedding gift, her daughter Margaret Ferguson built a home, Greyfield, on the island in 1900. Her grandaughter, Lucy R. Ferguson inherited the home and her family later turned the home into an inn, the Greyfield Inn.

***

Friday morning we boarded the Lucy R. Ferguson to head over to the island.

Tracking our location on Will's GPS as we rode over to the island.

The last bit of "civilization" we saw for the weekend before heading out into open water.

Buh bye real world!!

The ferry ride lasted about 30 minutes and while we rode, any stress and tension I had just melted away. Literally. By the time we pulled up to the dock and caught a glimpse of the inn through the trees, I was loose as a goose.

One of the Greyfield's employees met us down at the dock to walk us up to house, while the porter took our bags. She was explaining the some of the history of the island and the inn when we turned the corner and saw it.

Um, yeah. Nice "cottage."

It took all I had not to run up the front steps, burst through the door and yell "I'm home! I'm home!" It was like every history class, southern literature book, and daydream I have ever had about stepping back in time and living a hundred years ago CAME TRUE!

Am I a total nerd to admit that? Oh well!

She gave us a quick tour of the house. First stop, the front porch. I could have stopped there, but we continued on...

beach towels on the front porch for guests

talk about southern hospitality! Every need we could possibly have was already taken care of, before we even had to ask! It was like staying at your rich grandmama's house who had prepared everything for you before your arrival.

Our suite for the weekend

sitting room off of the bedroom

our bathroom...

there were family pictures of the Carnegie family scattered all around the house. Like I said, like being at grandma's! But a very rich and famous grandma! All of the furniture, books, and pictures were original to the house.

After touring the house, we set out to explore the island.

The inn has bikes, kayaks, and fishing gear available for you to help yourself at your leisure. At this point, we had only seen the girl who gave us our tour. There is nobody around. ever. I think Will and I saw a total of about 20 people all weekend. You really feel like you have the run of the place.

everywhere you look, these gorgeous oaks with spanish moss are scattered around the grounds.

*sigh*

The island is basically uninhabited, but there are trails everywhere for biking and hiking.

We first explored the beach. The dunes are huge...reaching heights of 50 feet and there are wild horses that run free all over the island.

Then we headed down the main road to find the old mansion Dungeness.

Built in 1880's and abandoned in 1925, the mansion burned in 1959. Even though only the ruins remain, it still takes your breath away when you ride up the front entrance.

It had 59 rooms and took over 300 servants to keep it running!

the view of the marsh from the front of the mansion

wild horses taking a drink on the grounds of the mansion

beautiful!

After we left Dungeness, we headed to the Icehouse museum to read up on a little history of the island. This is a picture of Dungeness, back in the day, just to give you an idea...

and this is a picture of the Greyfield taken in 1908.

We learned how to use the self timer on the camera to take a picture since there was nobody around to ask!

At dusk, we headed back the the inn.

and snooped around the other rooms to see what they looked like. There are 16 rooms at the inn and only 2 other couples were there that night. This room reminded me of Anna Cate and Caroline and I found myself daydreaming, again, about living in this house a hundred years ago.

Will did a little reading in the sitting room while I showered for dinner.

another shot of our room looking into one of the dresser mirrors. If you don't like antiques, you probably won't appreciate the details but it really was like stepping back 100 years in time. There were very few lamps on and no electrical outlets. We were without television, internet, phone, and radio all weekend and it was heaven. All you heard was the wind rustling through the spanish moss outside and it was like therapy to just unplug from everything.

Before dinner, we went downstairs to the bar and fixed ourselves a drink...

...and then went into the living room to enjoy hor d'oeuvres by the fire.

At this point, we still had only seen 1 person at the inn the entire day.

However, all of that that was about to change as we were about to meet a lovely couple that would be the first of several different characters that we would encounter over the weekend!

to be continued...

Clues

Will is turning the big 3 0 this week!

To celebrate, we took a special surprise trip this past weekend. I'm still trying to find words to describe the past few days. It was, by far, the most fun we have had of the past 13 years of birthdays we have celebrated together! :)

The week before we left, he opened several gifts that gave him some clues to our surprise destination. I'll give them to you and see if anybody can correctly guess the destination.

(and pssst...no guessing for those of you who knew where we were headed!)

The first gift he opened was a pack of four candles and the card read:

romantic candlelight and cozy fires

p.s. - did you notice the scent of the candle?

(it was driftwood)

Second gift was wrapped in a tie box from JoS. A. Bank and the card on the outside read:

You'll need to pack a coat and tie, but you'll also need your hiking gear

Inside was a gift card to Books-A-Million for him to pick out a new book to take.

The last gift was also a book (a history book) of our destination and on the outside of the box, the card read:

you may want to catch up on the history, because there is lots of it!

And one more clue that he didn't have, but I'll share with you. A photo that was taken this weekend during our stay:

We are suppose to be imitating a famous photograph (although we look nothing like the people in the real photo!)

I hadn't seen the picture in several years and was working from memory and also from the direction of the three little old ladies who were taking our picture! But it is close enough to give you an idea...

Any guesses?

;)

One Last Christmas Hurrah

Before I can move on to sharing our adventures in January, I first want to share this last holiday post with some fun gift ideas and tutorials you may want to keep in mind for next year.

*Embellished Hand Towels*

My sweet sister-in-law made me this cute towel and I love it! It makes me smile everytime I see it in my kitchen. She made the fabric flowers using a tutorial similar to this one and then hand stitched them onto a white towel from Target. So cute! They would also be precious on a headband.

*Photo Ornaments*

I met Holly last year at a sewing workshop and have followed her blog ever since. She is super creative and I love all of her ideas! She shared this tutorial on making photo ornaments earlier in December and I made some to give grandparents.

* A Merry Cricket Christmas*

Will gave me a Cricket for our anniversary in July and I finally got the chance to put it to good use making Christmas gifts! I found some cute buckets at TJMaxx and spray painted them red (and some orange for tiger fans!) and packed them full of homemade yummies.

Lowes also carries buckets in the paint department that are great for monogramming and can be used for chilling wine or beer (think oyster roast or tailgating).

These drink dispensers are also great for showers, parties, and tailgating. My sisters and SIL's got these for Christmas! :)

I also used the Cricut to monogram these cute jute bags (found at Hobby Lobby) by using this freezer paper stencil tutorial.

*Felt Applique Tees*

Need an idea for the little boys on your list? I made some cute tees with felt, Heat-n-bond, and some colored shirts from Wal-mart and Target. Just check out etsy for some ideas and inspiration for appliques and create your own using this tutorial.

* Silhouettes*

My mom has mine and my sisters' silhouettes hanging on her bedroom wall and I love to see them everytime I'm over there. I used this tutorial to create some of Anna Cate and Caroline, but I cut mine out with tiny scissors instead of using the exacto knife. I love them so much and want to make some more to display on our bookcase in our house.

* Farmhouse Dolls*

The most time consuming gift I worked on were these dolls. I saw these farmhouse dolls listed in the PBK catalog this fall and knew I wanted to try to make some for the girls. For the doll head and body, I used my Rosie Posie doll pattern (but increased it by 40%) and stitched the face on with embroidery thread. I also sewed the shoes onto the legs with brown felt before I stuffed the legs with polyfil. For the dolls' dresses, I made a smaller template from Leila and Ben's Sweet Little Dress pattern on etsy. For their hair, I found this tutorial which explains how to make and attach the yarn. I braided the hair once it was in place and secured the braids with invisible ponytail holders. Oh, and I also added some dry beans to the body before I stitched them up for added weight.

I'll be honest, it was a very time consuming project. The girls really do love them! They play with them all day and sleep with them at night. All of the supplies I needed were leftovers I had stashed in my craft closet, but if you were going to have to buy everything to make them, I'd just go ahead and buy them from PBK. The dolls are currently on sale for $19.99 and I'd say that is a steal!

Oh, and as for the quilts...they were also finished in time to be opened on Christmas morning, but I'll save that for a post all on it's own.

Better late than never

A few from Christmas morning for all of the grandparents

;)

All Anna Cate asked for this year was a hula hoop, a princess jump rope, and a sewing machine.

Santa delivered on all three.

No picture of the jump rope, but he also brought a dress up box filled with all sorts of princess attire. It has been a huge hit!

And since Caroline didn't know what to ask for from Old Saint Nick, Anna Cate spoke for her and said she wanted a kitchen.

(Disclaimer: Santa worked very hard during several nap times and evenings on sanding, painting, and filling holes to make this kitchen good as new to match the one Anna Cate already had. Unfortunately, one of Santa's elves, who will remain anonymous, waited until Christmas Eve at 9:00 to pick it up and bring it home and Santa was mortified to find that the elf had used the original red handles instead of the pink ones that had been purchased to replace them. It is funny now, but oh the drama of Christmas Eve magic!)

***

Maybe Santa would have been more patient and in a better mood if he hadn't stayed up so late almost

every. night. of. December.

working on some special dolls.

This was both girls' reaction to them Christmas morning:

"Gee Santa, come on! what a let down! She doesn't walk or talk or wet her diaper."

But then they opened a special gift from Daddy...

a Baby Alive

(please note that Anna Cate's doll from Santa is face down on the floor)

and Caroline promptly removed her doll from Santa and replaced it with her new plastic, squealing, giggling, "so ugly she is cute" (as my grandmother would say) Baby Alive!

(also please note Caroline's doll which is face down on the floor behind the high chair)

Ahem. No crush to the ego there! :)

There is nothing like doing the dishes in your undies on Christmas morning!

Caroline's reaction to her baby everytime the doll would giggle. It looks like she is trying to eat her face, but really she just squeals really loudly at the doll. It is quite a hilarious site to behold!

And hopefully my sarcasm was taken lightly, because I really wasn't upset about the girls' reaction to their gifts. I knew that their handmade dolls wouldn't be a big hit on Christmas morning, but would become special once the shock of so many new toys wore off.

but I did learn my lesson:

no homemade gifts next Christmas unless they are finished before December 1!