Our Tour of Fairlawn Mansion, Superior, Wisconsin

My husband and I recently went camping at Pattison State Park.  It is located near two cities:  Superior, WI and Duluth, MN.  Because it was so close to those cities, and we were camping for three nights, we had plenty of time to have some city fun, as well as outdoors fun.

If you need to catch up on those camping travel posts start HERE.  I write travel/lifestyle posts every Wednesday.  I also write gardening/design posts on Sunday and have already show-cased two gardens we visited on this trip:  The Flowers of Enger Tower Park,  and The Roses of Leif Erikson Park.

Fairlawn Mansion is located in Superior, Wisconsin.  After hiking all day in Pattison State Park and experiencing the unexpected early end to our beach adventure (read THIS POST for that story),  we decided to go for a drive and check out the town of Superior.  Both my laptop and IPhone needed to be re-charged and I could easily do that with my car battery adapter, plus, I was ready to sit down in a comfortable seat and enjoy some air conditioning by now anyway.

So off we drove, with no other plans than to look around and recharge our computer devices.  We checked out the downtown, and drove by Lake Superior, and then we saw the mansion.  Now, we've been to Superior before so we've seen this mansion before.  It's impossible to miss.  It sits right across from a giant lake!  We've always admired it's beautiful structure, but we've never been inside.  Well, no time like the present right?  So my husband went inside and found out that there was one last tour available for the day, so we jumped on it!  It cost $9.00 per person, and was about a one hour tour.

The mansion was completed in 1891.  It was built for the lumber and mining baron Martin Pattison (recognize the name?  Same as the park we camped in).  It originally cost $150,000 to build, and today it's worth over three million.

Anyone can walk around the outside grounds free of charge and unguided.  But to see the inside, you have to take a tour.  I usually don't like tours, because I prefer to see and study things at my own pace, but I enjoyed this one.  The best part about this tour is that they let you inside each room.  I can't tell you how many tours I've taken where the room was roped off and you had to peek inside a doorway!  They also let you take photographs inside!  That's another rarity!

Fairlawn is a Queen Anne Victorian Style house.  It features a four story turret with a widow's watch over the bay.  This home has unbelievable, gorgeous views of Lake Superior!

The first floor of the mansion is fully restored with gilded murals on the ceilings.

There were so many gorgeous fireplaces in this home.  This was one of my favorites.

The music room had this beautiful screen in it.

And this piano:

I think I took a picture of every single fire place in the mansion, and there were many!  Each one was unique and had it's own style.

A beautiful, hand painted design on the ceiling, above a light fixture.

All the bedrooms had very interesting beds.  I loved the pink wallpaper in this room.

Although we could no longer go up the widow's watch staircase and turret because it was no longer safe, we were able to walk inside the first level of the staircase and take some pictures.

There were three floors open to the public, and this is the view looking down from the third floor staircase landing.  Only the main floor was totally renovated.  The second and third floors were modernized back in the early 1900's when Pattison's wife Grace donated the home to the Superior Children's Home and Refuge Society.  These floors are now more "museum-like" showing pictures and stories of what it was like to be an orphan living in this home.

 While looking at all the old pictures, my husband picked up a picture of a man holding orphans on his lap and said "Hey, that's Babe Ruth".  I didn't recognize him, and the tour guide didn't mention anything about Babe Ruth, so I just dismissed it as a look-a-like.  When we got home however, my husband looked it up on the Internet, and sure enough, it WAS a picture of Babe Ruth!  My husband certainly has a good eye, because that picture was so small and faded with age, I couldn't believe he caught it.

Can you spot Babe in the picture below?

Fairlawn is open everyday, all year long, except holidays.  It even has a gift shop with the cutest hand-made items made by local artists and crafters.  I bought the prettiest purple necklace there I can't wait to show you in a fashion post soon!

Have a great day!  Amy

A Peach Floral Birthday Card

I have a lovely sweet and simple birthday card to share with you today.  The floral image is retired Stampin' Up! "Oh, So Lovely".  There is a narrow background stamp included with this set, and that I stamped with Tim Holz Antique Linen Distress Ink behind the flower.  The poppy was then stamped twice:  once over the background stamp image and once on a separate sheet of card stock.  I colored and cut out just the bigger poppy flower, and mounted it up on dimensionals.

 I put adhesive pearls randomly around the image and sentiment.

The sentiment is from PTI and the papers are white, Peach Parfait, and Almond.

I've added more stamps to my Stamps For Sale page for those who are interested.  Theres also a few new ones on Ebay.

Have a great day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

How to Wear and Mix Plaids

Plaid is everywhere this season.  Flannel shirts were very popular last season, but this season plaids have escalated to the top for the most popular print.  Don't believe me?  Take a trip to your local mall:  you will see every store inundated with plaids!  Plaid shirts, plaid dresses, plaid pants, plaid ponchos, plaid, plaid, plaid.

I spent a few hours at my local mall last week trying on various plaid items.  Like everyone else, I've fallen in love with the comfort and coziness of this print.  I tried on numerous plaid items;  and I found that not everything plaid worked for me.  I really wanted a plaid shirt dress.  I found one that looked great on a hanger, but when I put in on my body it looked like I was wearing my pajamas.  

I found that the color of the plaid item often determined if the item worked for me or not.  Lighter, pastel-colored plaids tend to look more pajama-like.  Prints that were too red came across farm-ish or looking like a lumber jack.  And I also couldn't determine if a plaid item would work for me just by looking at in on a hanger.  I really had to try it on!

So when I finally found this plaid shirt at J.C. Penney, I was hesitant to get too excited before I tried it on.  It isn't flannel.  It is made of a polyester/georgette material.  It is over sized, with a dropped shoulder,  and, my favorite part: it is super long!  It covers my butt!  Yeah! I'm always looking for tops that cover my butt so I can wear them with leggings and tall boots.  But they are super hard to find, and I usually just end up wearing short dresses as tunics.

 I really fell in love with this top.  It was so comfortable, and I thought I would get a lot of wear out of it all winter long.  My only complaint is that they didn't have my usual size, so I had to buy a bigger size. It could be a tad smaller on me, but I wasn't willing to pass this up, so I bought it anyway.

 Originally I planned on wearing this top with black faux leather leggings, but on this day I chose grey skinny jeans instead.  It is so versatile, because of the style and color, that I think I could wear it with just about anything.

Because the top is so big and baggy, I wore something tighter or more form fitting on my bottom.   That is why I chose skinny jeans.

The top is a little on the sheer side, so I added a tank underneath.  There are buttons on the neckline, so if I didn't want the tank to show, I'd have the option of buttoning it up.

To keep the outfit from looking too relaxed like I just stepped outside in my p.j.s,  I wore great dressy booties, a pretty black and white butterfly necklace (made it myself), and I carried a chic bucket bag (old, Express).

I also bought new booties on this shopping trip.  I know.  I have a problem.  I think I own five pairs of black boots now, and I don't know how many black shoes!  BUT, most of my black booties are either heels that I can't walk long distances in, or flats.  I wanted a pair of booties that had a heel, so they looked dressier, but I could still walk in them.  And these booties were the answer to my prayers!  The heel is thick and chunky, so I have my lift, but I can walk in comfort with them for hours!

They are by Liz Claiborne, sold at JCP!  And as always, I got a great deal on them.

The booties were originally $100, and were on sale for $59.00.  I had $15.00 rewards points on my JCP account, plus I had a $10.00 coupon on my phone, so I got them for $36.00!  Not bad, eh?

With fall being a transitional season, the mornings are colder than the daytime temperatures.  It was only 50 degrees when I left my home in the morning, so I started the day with a black vest (last season JCP) and a black and grey plaid scarf.

Many people wouldn't think of wearing two plaid items in one outfit, but it works because the plaids are in the same color range.

By mid-morning the scarf and vest came off for the temperatures rose to 72 degrees.

I did think the plaid print and over-sized style of the shirt added a few pounds to my frame; but keeping the lower half of my body "skinny" with tight fitting jeans helped.  

The shirt is also available in red if your interested.  I chose this color because I already own a red flannel shirt.

Have a great day!  Amy

Linking up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!