Southwest Bean and Corn Salad

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1 can Red beans, drained 1 can Great Northern beans, drained
1 can Black beans, drained 1 can corn, drained
1 small red onion chopped (or 4-5 green onions)
1 green or red pepper (or both), chopped
In a bowl combine all the beans with corn and peppers. Mix well and set
aside. In a small bowl, whisk together the following:
1/3 cup oil 1/4 cup tomato salsa
2-3 tablespoons cider vinegar 2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped (for garnish)
Pour dressing mixture over the bean mixture , mix well. Let stand at least
30 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. Just before serving, garnish with
the cilantro.
NOTE: is is so good with BBQ, hamburgers, hotdogs or anything
done on the grill.

Types Of Victorian Furniture

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The Victorian era spanned the years from the 1830s to 1900, when Queen Victoria was on the British throne. Interior design styles focused on the ornate and the historical, drawing on revivals of past eras of design. Furniture was considered a status symbol, and rooms were filled with many pieces, often not all the same design style.

    History

  1. Furniture production took a huge jump in Victorian times, with the advent of mass manufacture of many types of furniture. This made Victorian furniture more readily available to the middle class, and often these “reproduction” type pieces of furniture were not well made. Victorian furniture abounds in today’s antique shops because of this burst in production.

    2. Types

  2. Victorian furniture designers took their designs from earlier fashions, particularly the Gothic style and the Rococo style. Tudor and Elizabethan furniture was also reimagined and modified in Victorian designs. Furniture in Renaissance and Neo-Classical styles also were seen in Victorian-era decorating. English, French and Italian Rococo revival furniture pieces were among the most popular in homes, while artistically, the Gothic revival designs became the most influential to later generations, as they are now considered to be hallmarks of Victorian design.

    3. English

  3. In England, the Victorian styles of furniture were all the rage as they came out, and the trend in design was focused on England, as its queen gave her name to the age. “Englishness” was a quality prized in furniture. For that reason, the English oak became a popular furniture wood at this time, although it was not the most widely available wood. Revivals of classic English designers like Thomas Chippendale and Robert Adam became popular in the late Victorian furniture designs, resulting in many reproductions of their work produced for the large middle-class market.

    4. American

  4. Though America was no longer a colony of England, English culture and designs still had an enormous impact on American home design in the Victorian age, including furniture. Corresponding with the early Victorian designs in England was the so-called Eclectic period in American furniture, which drew on all the different types of revivals and influences that English furniture designers used in Victorian times, and combined them with simpler, colonial styles as well. In the last two decades of the century, when English furniture was progressing through its late Victorian phase, American furniture was turning more toward the Arts and Crafts ethos.

    5. Early Victorian

  5. The interior design and art style that preceded the Victorian age was the Regency style, a simpler style drawing on Grecian and classic lines. Early Victorian furniture shows a transition from these designs to more ornate, more highly decorated pieces of furniture, also called the “high Victorian” style. Furniture was designed for its location in the house and children’s furniture retained more simplicity. Classic, heavy Tudor-like furniture was to be found in men’s rooms and dining rooms. Designers mixed several styles in this time period, with no one style predominating the furniture market. Shoddy craftsmanship accompanied the rise of mass-market furniture, with lots of ornate decoration and veneers added to disguise poor joins and low-quality woods. The style that emerged was more heavily Gothic and Rococo with the added decorations. Furniture was carved intricately and upholstered in velvet fabrics for an expensive look. Ironwork furniture also came onto the market and was especially popular in bedrooms.

    6. Late Victorian

  6. In the later Victorian period, from the 1860s to the turn of the century, two major art and design movements began, influencing the end of the period and the development of other late Victorian styles. The Arts and Crafts movement and the aesthetic movement began to gain ground, both of which considered furniture as an art form. The extravagance of the early Victorian furniture came to be seen as wasteful, and painting furniture rather than carving it became fashionable. The amount of upholstering done decreased, and straight lines predominated over the flares and curves popular in furniture of the early Victorian age. Japanese designs were brought in to some furniture, and other designers were influenced by antique styles, including Etruscan and Egyptian.

Read more: Victorian Furniture Styles | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5382010_victorian-furniture-styles.html#ixzz0qemZMTOS

Annalee History

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Annalee Davis Thorndike is an important New Hampshire businesswoman and entrepreneur who built a home craft business in Meredith into a national company. Born in Concord, NH, in 1915, Annalee Davis Thorndike pursued her interest in art by making dolls. Her first creations were marionettes, then she began making cloth dolls. Children of the era typically played with cloth dolls with changeable clothes. Thorndike was not making toys, however. From the beginning, her dolls were in set positions, with the clothes sewed onto the doll. These were dolls for display, each with a story to tell. She began selling the dolls through the New Hampshire League of Arts and Crafts, which later would become the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen. As the Great Depression progressed, she created new dolls with varied materials. During the 1930s Annalee began making her popular skier dolls.

In 1941 Annalee married Charles “Chip” Thorndike, the son of a Boston physician. Chip had become a chicken farmer in Meredith. Chip and Annalee worked on the farm through the 1940s and 1950s, until poultry farming was no longer profitable in New Hampshire. Needing another way to make a living, Annalee returned to making dolls. She started in the kitchen of her Meredith farmhouse, helped by local women. Soon every corner of the house was taken over with doll parts. Thorndike not only employed several women in her home, she took work out to be completed in other women’s homes. Her husband Chip created clever wooden components for the dolls, including skis, ski poles, and little boats. It was Chip who designed the wire frame that held the dolls in position. The doll business was incorporated in 1955 as Annalee Mobilitee Dolls.

Annalee’s dolls from the 1950s appeared in promotions in Manchester and Boston store windows. The State of New Hampshire hired Annalee to create dozens of dolls to help promote tourism. Annalee dolls that were skiing, fishing, and hunting highlighted New Hampshire attractions at the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield, Mass., and at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

The success of the promotional programs launched the popularity of Annalee Dolls. By 1960, the dolls were being sold to retail outlets in forty states, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The company was by then a major Lakes Region business. In 1964, Thorndike moved the operation out of her house and into a “factory in the woods.” It has expanded several times since then.

The individual Annalee dolls document hairstyles and dress of the times, creating a lasting statement about life in New Hampshire since World War II. The exhibition reflected Thorndike’s artistic talent, hard work, and shrewd business sense. The display chronicled her experiences building a small home-based craft industry into a manufacturer of national importance, in the process telling a remarkable Yankee success story of perseverance and creativity.

Antique Doll Care

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Storage

Some people make the mistake of storing antique dolls in plastic boxes. This can lead to problems if moisture finds its way into the box and causes mold to grow on the doll’s clothes. The best place to store antique dolls is in a chest or cupboard. For added protection, you should wrap acid free paper around each doll. Also, you should never lay dolls down on their back for lengthy periods of time. Lay them face down to prevent their eyes from falling out.

Cleaning

Wooden antique dolls should never be exposed to water as this can leave a stain on them. For other types of dolls, you should only use distilled water and a soft cloth to to clean them. If you make the mistake of using soap, the residue can cause the doll to become discolored. Antique dolls made of cloth can be vacuumed safely by putting a layer of nylon netting on the end of the vacuum hose.

Decorations

Many people choose to display their antique dolls around their homes for decorations. If you do this, you should be sure to dust them whenever you dust your home. You should never put them in a place where they are exposed to excessive sunlight. Prolonged exposure to sunlight can fade the paint on the doll and also fade the colors of the clothes.

Insects

If you have wooden antique dolls, you should check them occasionally for insects. Insects can easily destroy wooden dolls. Once they have infected one of the dolls, they can quickly move on to the other dolls in your collection.

Temperature

It is common for people to leave their antique dolls in the basement or attic. This is not the ideal place for these dolls because of the fluctuating temperatures from season to season. Antique dolls should be stored at a constant room temperature.

Antique dolls should always be taken care of properly, especially when they may be sold in the future. If you take good care of them, you can be assured that your investment will pay off in the future.

Heart Embedded Candle

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