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These are two of my favorite pieces of antique silver.
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What are they?
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Cobalt blue glass insert.
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😊
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Name That Silver… episode two.
On Southern Living’s advice….
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After our walking tour of Charleston we realized we’d skipped lunch and were starving. As it was too early for dinner, I did a little phone research and found a seafood place highly recommended by Southern Living magazine. They said the food was superb and to ignore the fact that the restaurant itself was a “dive”.
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Clearly their idea of “dive” and mine differ greatly because while admittedly this place wasn’t the Ritz Carlton, I’ve been in a helluva lot worse.
😉
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Naturally my husband wanted to sit at the bar.
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I’ve never had a strawberry daiquiri served in a mason jar before, but maybe that’s part of their dive-y charm.
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The hushpuppies? Meh.
Not great, not awful.
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My she crab soup?
Mama mia! It may not have photographed well but it was thickest, richest, creamiest crab filled thing I’ve ever had.
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To be honest I was pretty full after just that, but I was on vacation in the low country and couldn’t pass up an opportunity for shrimp and grits.
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I couldn’t…. but I should have, because it was awful. Yes, the shrimp were large and flavorful but the rest was simply a big bowl of slop. Too much pasty gravy, too soupy a consistency… blech.
I ate the shrimp and left the rest.
The husband? He had some type of inferior fish which was dry as a bone.
So much for taking Southern Living’s advice.
Aside from the soup the only thing that made me smile at this place was the poster in the rest room.
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😉
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News you can’t use.
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Because news you can use is so boring.
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Sure.
Nothing will go wrong there…
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Now that’s a bizarre headline if ever I saw one.
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My nipples have never felt imprisoned, but maybe that’s just me.
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There’s an article I am not going to explore further.
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What is this ongoing obsession with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce? A singer is dating a football player and I couldn’t care less…. but a good number of Americans think it’s a deep state conspiracy. I simply don’t get it.
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Yeah, I hate when that happens. If only he’d befriended a wombat instead..
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Oh, the things you find….
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Since work will be starting in the living/dining room and we have a new dining room set on order… it was time to clean out the old china hutch and get rid of the old table and chairs.
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Our contractor wanted the chairs, so out they went.
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The table, which was so horribly faded I thought no one would want it…. went to the farm across the street. With a brand new tablecloth to cover the discoloration.
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That left cleaning out the hutch which hadn’t been done in at least a decade.
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Lord Dudley wanted to help…. but didn’t.
Aside from dozens of candles, placemats, dishes, cups, saucers, platters, chargers, crystal decanters, napkin rings, extra cutlery, knives, holiday tablecloths and a soup tureen …. I discovered the family silver.
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Which all needed to be needed polished.
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And of course…. because this my china hutch?
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There was alcohol.
😉
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So…
Does anyone want a china cabinet?
🥴
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The dark heart of Charleston.
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Our next stop in Charleston was a hard one but I’m glad we went.
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An innocuous looking building, no?
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Perhaps from the outside .
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But its history was written in blood.
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It’s a small museum, but haunting.
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The building exists because this genteel city had to move its shameful business inside.
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There are disturbing artifacts…
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Each one worse than the last.
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And a few eye opening facts.
What are you worth?
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A guest speaker was upstairs when we were there and we sat in on her fascinating lecture.
I wish I’d thought to video it because though most of it made my jaw drop in horror, it’s our country’s history and we should all be made aware that slavery was more than the dehumanizing of a people and forced labor.
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It was a profitable business and the vast array of people who reaped the economic rewards surprised even me.
😰
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Next project, though not quite a new one.
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Bedroom windows complete, work moved back to the living room.
Remember when we redid the beam?
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And replaced all the stained and damaged ceiling?
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It looked so much better..
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But it wasn’t perfect.
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There was a clear line of demarcation between the old popcorn and the new.
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And though the stains had been Kilz’ed, primed and painted… they didn’t match either.
At the time our contractor had other customers waiting for work, and knowing that we’d be replacing the floor at some point…. we opted to wait to fix the line and repaint the whole ceiling then.
Then is now.
You know something will go wrong.
Stay tuned….
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Strolling through Charleston’s past…
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As I said before, Charleston is a city you need to walk. We ambled randomly after the French Quarter and still managed to find some interesting spots.
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Early settlements did love their walls.
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This is a charming southern city with a laid back atmosphere.
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And some ankle turning cobblestone streets.
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On one of those streets?
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A disturbing but important reminder of what went on here.
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Admittedly you have to view history through the lens of the day, but still. The horror brought me up short.
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Beautiful, yes.
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Interesting buildings? Sure.
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Quirky garden frogs hidden behind a wall of shrubbery?
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That too, but this is the south.
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Where monuments to slave holders still stand.
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It’s hard not to be affected by that, at least for me.
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So we soaked it all in and continued to explore.
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Marveling at how such a beautiful place could harbor such darkness.
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I think it lasted about 3 minutes.
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Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m talking about organization.
After four months, our bedroom is finally back together.
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Furniture is in place and windows are awaiting treatment.
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It’s amazing how much you miss nightstands until they’re gone.
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Lord Dudley Mountcatten was pleased his world was back in order…
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Too bad it only lasted a few minutes.
Because as soon as the bedroom was put back in order, the living room was emptied in preparation for the next project.
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So now the den is crammed full…
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The spare bedroom has chairs, tables and paintings.
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And the office floor has odds and ends.
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His Lordship is no longer pleased…
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But he’s doesn’t let it interrupt his nap either.
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Because we all need more rainbows in our lives.
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Rainbow Row… Charleston, South Carolina.
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No commentary necessary…
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Just stroll along with us for a while.
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I’d like to say you know it’s special if my husband is taking pictures…
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But the man was photographing a gutter downspout.
🥴
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Horse drawn carriage tour was my first choice…
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But we did one of those in Beaufort and the husband wasn’t on board for another.
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I can hardly believe it..
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We ordered them in July.
Installation started in October.
And a mere 4 months later they’re finished.
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Installed and trimmed.
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And the trim was a royal pain in the *ss because all the sills are joined.
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But they’re done!
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At least from the inside. There’s still a ladder outside because all the siding has to be reworked due to the different size rough openings.
But it’s progress… and that’s been a long time coming.
🥴
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River's world..... 