the moravian pottery and tile works

after visiting the mercer museum and visiting fonthill castle, we walked over to the moravian pottery and tile works for a tour.  the building is maintained as a working history museum and tiles are still handmade and produced like they were when henry mercer ran the site.  much like the museum and the castle, the building is made of concrete and decorated with the elaborate tiles.  

it was really neat to see how the tiles are made and the amount of work and time that goes into making each one.  (it totally explains why they are so expensive!). a few photos . . .

love, laurie

fonthill castle

after visiting the mercer museum on sunday, we drove a few streets over to visit fonthill castle.  before building the museum, henry mercer built fonthill castle as his home and as a showplace for his incredible collection of tiles, pictures, and books.

much like the museum, the castle is built of concrete.  it has 44 rooms, 18 fireplaces, 10 bathrooms, and over 200 windows!  the interior of the castle is covered (and i mean totally covered from floor to ceiling) with mercer's handcrafted ceramic tiles.

this place also gave me lots of harry potter hogwarts vibes with its narrow curvy staircases and hidden passages.  it was so unique!  here are a handful of the many photos i snapped . . .

love, laurie

the mercer museum

i had the day off work on sunday, so my parents and i took a little drive down to bucks county to visit the mercer museum.  the museum is a six-story concrete castle designed by henry mercer which was was completed in 1916 and is now an affiliate of the smithsonian.

the museum's collection features over 50,000 pre-industrial tools in order to offer a glimpse into 60 different crafts and trades in pre-industrial america.  it was a wild building to walk around and honestly i kept feeling like i was walking through sections of hogwarts from harry potter!  i'm glad i had my camera along for the day.  it took a ton of photos, here are a few . . .

love, laurie

kitten patrol

who needs security cameras when you have the cutest kitten patrol?!  so glad that this guy keeps a close watch over the neighborhood for us!

love, laurie

i'm not a fan of the yellow stripey things that fly!

as the weather starts to get warmer, the insects start to come out.  just the other day in the parking lot of the dance studio where i teach, i opened my trunk and found some type of bee sitting on the ledge of the trunk.  it caught me by surprise and i jumped.  ryan found another bee dead in our garage too.

i'm not a fan of the various assortment of yellow stripey things that fly around when it's warmer.  my friend nicole shared this guide on facebook.  it's both informative and funny (i never thought of bumblebees as flying pandas before, still not sure i would want to pet one).

enjoy the weekend (and beware of the yellow stripey things that fly)!

love, laurie

the cat statues at work have hats now!

i've mentioned before that the theatre where i work is in a building shared with 58 senior apartments.  one of the residents has these cat statues which she often decorates for each holiday.  during the pandemic she made them little masks and they have been wearing their masks ever since.  for easter a few weeks ago, they had the cutest pastel easter bonnets.  this week they got new spring sun hats with holes for their ears.  yes, she makes all of these cat statue accessories herself.  it's always the highlight of my day whenever these guys get new outfits!

and yes, there have been many times that they have caught me off guard and i have thought they were real rounding the corner to go down the hallway.  ha!

love, laurie

an afternoon of tech

the theatre had to be reset and restored after the dance show this past weekend, so yesterday afternoon we spent some time working on stage.  one of my favorite times in the theatre is when it's quiet like that and it's just the two of us working on lights.  we're able to get things done so quickly and so efficiently.  we had everything put back to normal in record time.  high five for team houser.

love, laurie

kids say the darndest things

the kids i teach at the dance studio are 2nd graders through 5th graders and sometimes the things that come out of their mouths are priceless.  i had a good laugh at some of the quotes that nyc school teachers shared of funny things that their students said.

love, laurie

kicking off dance show season

i mentioned on friday that we were working on a ballet production in the theatre.  the performances this weekend were the first live audiences we have had in the theatre in over 13 months!  it was good to have people back in the seats, but boy am i worn out today.  

love, laurie

welcome back, audience!

throughout the pandemic, we have had a handful of events in our theater.  over the past 13 months, all of the events have been private, filmed, or live streamed.  so, it's been over a year since we've had a live audience in the seats for a show.  this weekend we're thrilled to have our first live audience back in the seats for a ballet production.  (of course we'll be following all of the guidelines, and everyone will be masked and socially distanced from each other.)  we started working on the production this week with tech and had dress rehearsal with the dancers yesterday.  everyone kept saying how good it felt to be prepping a live show again and i agree!  i sure am tired and sore this morning though!  fingers crossed for smooth sailing this weekend with the public back in the building!

have a lovely weekend

love, laurie