We hope you all are enjoying a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and are healthy and with family. Our own extended family celebration was much smaller as some family members felt uncomfortable gathering and others had recently fallen ill with COVID-19. We hope anyone who is suffering with this virus makes a speedy recovery!
As a result, Thanksgiving Day 2020 was an intimate and special occasion – thank you Diane and Don for hosting!
Back at the house we continue to make progress with sorting through boxes, placing oriental rugs, hanging art, and more.
In the living room, we hung one of our favorite paintings with a picture light over the mantle. Man, was that thing heavy… We cannot read the signature, but it looks like Josepn is the first name and the last name begins with an L…. Anyway we bought it more than 20 years ago at an antique store in Dayton, OH.
We also hung this oil painting that we purchased years ago at an antique store in Springfield, IL. We’ve searched many times but cannot find other work by a Colombo Carlo… It still needs a picture light.
And we’ve hung this painting by Marguerite Grossenbach, dated 1950. She was born in 1900 in Milwaukee, WI and died in 1996 in Davidson, NC. When she was 30 years old she married Charles Norman Barnum, the man who would go on to design the landing craft used on D-Day called the LCT (for landing craft tank). Isn’t that interesting? We picked up this piece at an auction in LeRoy, IL for $50. Fifty dollars!
More artwork, oil paintings and other media will be coming, but this is just how far we have gotten with this genre so far…
In addition to more traditional art, we’ve also hung some stained glass windows in the great room windows. We actually don’t remember where we purchased this set of four craftsman windows.
A window purchased at our favorite antique store in Bloomington, IL (Asahel Gridley Antiques) hangs in the mud room window at the end of the hall…
And in our master bathroom and bedroom is a set of 3 antique windows purchased in an antique store in Dayton, OH. These used to hang in the entryway of the lodge.
Since this is our first Thanksgiving in our new home we decided to do our own Thanksgiving dinner (round 2) on Friday night. I decorated with the few Thanksgiving holiday decor items I could find in storage and it was very cozy with a lovely fire in the fireplace as well as a bottle (well, not the whole bottle) of 1982 Chateau Gazin. The wine was FANTASTIC, which made me VERY happy because I have been worrying about our old wines’ integrity after the move and being out of proper wine storage for months. Thankfully we have 19 bottles of the 1982 and 1983 era French red wines left as well as 1 (ONE) of my mother-in-law’s favorite, a 1976 Chateau LaRoque. If that isn’t motivation to come visit us, nothing is…
I’ll close this post out by saying how grateful John and I have been for your support through this long journey of building our home. It’s crazy to think that it was mid-November two years ago when we first moved to Texas and began staying in a room in cousin Diane’s home. Thanks again Diane and Don for helping us have a “soft landing”! And thanks to all of you for stopping by!
Hugs, Libby
Dear Elizabeth and John,
Truly much to be Thankful for in the midst of missing the hugs and kisses from loved ones……
…..stay well.
Love,
Lorri and Rick
I enjoyed seeing the artwork anew & reading your descriptions! You know the whole Breidenbach clan would’ve already been there if it weren’t for COVID 19. I know your home is amazing & look forward to seeing it with y’all in it! It’s been very enjoyable watching the progress and it’s a bright spot in 2020! Love you John & Libby!❤️❤️❤️
Thanks Janet! It is definitely a work in progress! Can’t wait until you, Heather, Andy, and the rest of the family can visit! I miss our family time!