Update!

I wrote to AskArt.com (which bills itself as the "Artists' Bluebook") to give them information on Georges le Serrec de Kervily's date of death and attached a photo of the portrait to illustrate the story.  A "content manager" wrote back a few hours ago to let me know that based on the information I supplied, they updated de Kervily's page to list his date of death as "c. 1952" and requested by permission to post the photo of the portrait on the page.  How fun!  You can see Aunt Betty's portrait on the site if you click here.

Great Aunt Betty and Count de Kervily

Well, I may have possibly debunked one Stringer family story about the origin of a bed, but I might have redeemed myself by actually helping prove the veracity of another family legend!  We have a beautiful portrait of Corey's Great Aunt Betty (an awesome lady who unfortunately passed away about six years ago) that was given to us when Betty's brother, Corey's Grandpa Stringer, downsized from a house to an apartment.  

With the portrait came some handwritten notes Betty had made about how her husband, Lewis, had made an acquaintance with a portrait artist.  According to the note, which was written on the back of a series of receipts, the artist painted the portrait of Betty for free in exchange for an unveiling party to publicize his services. The artist died "later the same night" of the party, according to Aunt Betty.  It was also intriguing that Aunt Betty referred to the artist using the title of "count".

I was switching on the lights yesterday evening and got to looking at the artist's signature on the painting.

I decided to do an internet search for "Le Serrec de Kervily" just for fun while I waited for the oven to heat up to bake the frozen pizza.  I may not be a gourmet cook, but I can at least pretend to be an amateur art historian.

I definitely found something!  It looks like this was probably painted by Georges le Serrec de Kervily.  According to one site, the artist was "born in Krakow, Russia on Sept. 27, 1883.  Of noble birth, de Kervily was a count in his native land.  He studied at Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.  By 1933 he had moved to Los Angeles and was active until 1947."  Another site shows an example of his painting that looks a lot like the one we have in both style and subject.

It's hard to see from the photo I took, but the date on the painting is 1952.  Who knows how de Kervily made his way from Los Angeles to San Antonio, Texas (where Betty and Lew lived) or what de Kervily did between 1947 and 1952.  Since none of the references to de Kervily include a date of death, it's probable that Aunt Betty's note is a strong clue to the year of de Kervily's passing.  I doubt de Kervily was accomplished enough to merit much more than a footnote in history, but it sure is a pretty painting with an intriguing story behind it that we are lucky to hang on our wall.  Looks like I might need to do some more research.  Good thing we have both a librarian AND an art teacher in the family to help me!

Beads, beads, and more beads

The obsession continues...

Mr. T

Lately, Peter has been reminding me a little of yet another '80s icon:

No, not because of Peter's awesome mohawk or thick beard.  Petey Boy has developed a love for Charlotte's Mardi Gras beads and suddenly knows how to get them over his head.  For instance, I walked into the bonus room this afternoon and found him like this:

And, I just realized I took the photos a little too soon.  Since then, he has added at least four or five strings to his collection.  I heard that my friend, Joslyne, was potty-training Zoey using strings of beads as incentives.  Perhaps Peter will respond to a similar incentive...

(And yes, I know they are a strangulation hazard.  They will all be put safely away unless Peter is supervised from now on!)

The new/old bed

Once upon a time, Corey's Grandma Stringer slept in a beautiful wooden bed.  Then, she handed the bed down to her son, Larry.  Larry then handed the bed down to his son, Corey, and now Corey has set up the bed for his daughter, Charlotte, to sleep in tonight.  The bed is probably close to 100 years old, and we had to build a special base for the mattresses since the modern ones wouldn't fit within the old bed rails anymore.

Funny story -- when I first started dating Corey, I was told the bed was hand made by someone at the farm when Grandma Stringer was a girl.  Later when we were in an antique store in Rochester, I found an identical headboard and footboard.  Larry was a little surprised when I called him over to show it to him.  Corey and I bought it and have been storing it at Barb and Larry's until such time as Peter is ready for it.  We'll just pretend that one was hand made at the farm too.

Daddy's little helpers

What does a woodworker need more than anything while he's building a platform for a bed?  Two toddler assistants, of course!

CJ took a break to check on the bird feeders.

Time to help with the sander.  This didn't last long, though.

Petey woke up from his nap and decided to ride through Daddy's workshop.

It got to over 60 degrees today, so it was actually warm enough to run around without coats on!

This was the longest Peter had spent outside since learning to walk.  He was in heaven!

As you can tell, CJ and PJ were LOTS of help.

Ready for summer to come!

The kids received this in the mail today (click to enlarge):

Looks like fun!

Go Cougars!

Our neighbors' son was nominated for the Coming Home Court at the local high school (this is like basketball homecoming), so we packed up the kids to go watch the game.  Corey put Petey in his "Centennial Prom King - 2027" shirt, of course.

"DID YOU HEAR ME?  I'M GOING TO BE PROM KING IN 2027!  ALL BOW BEFORE ME!!!"

Charlie Jo (wearing her spirit pigtails), loved bouncing around in the stands with Dan & Alicia.

Peter scoped out all the pretty girls.

Our little animal rescuer found the cougar mascot mural on the wall and proceeded to rescue it.

I'm not really sure what was going on there, but it looks like the Prom King is getting attacked by a cougar.

Our friend, Dawn, also came to watch the spectacle.  She took CJ down to meet the Cougar mascot.  CJ was both fascinated and nervous at the same time.

Here are David and his escort at the half time presentation.  David's good buddy, Ricky, won for the freshman class, but David will always be king to us!  Corey thinks I'm a dork for writing that.  Shut up, Corey.

More high chair photos

Why do I take so many pictures of the kids while they're in their high chairs?  Because they are captive, that's why!  They also get into really goofy moods while stuffing their faces.  Earlier this week, all I had to do was look down for a few seconds, wait, then suddenly look up and say "HUBBA!", and then Peter would dissolve into giggles.

Meanwhile, Charlie Jo was telling what I can only describe as the world's worst knock-knock jokes.  I am sorry to report that I can't remember any, but at least I took a cell phone picture of her guffawing at her own hilarity.

Lunchtime is a microcosm of oddities and far-flung food.  H E L P ! ! !

Fun with Granny Great and Grandpa Great

Charlie Jo and Petey Pie had the best time this weekend when their Granny Great and Grandpa Great came to visit en route to Florida.  CJ and PJ are counting the days until they come back!

First, Charlie Jo had to teach Grandpa Great how to manage the ranks of her duckie army. 

Then, Granny Great taught Charlie Jo how to make bird feeders from hollowed-out oranges and suet.

The monkey puzzle that GG & GG brought for CJ kept her busy for a long time.

For lunch, we took GG & GG to jail!  The Battleground Brewery is located in an old building that was once used to house criminals.  Perfect for our little darlings.

It's still a mystery why GG was feeding CJ cheese sauce with a knife.

When we got home, we tromped around in the melting snow to hang up the bird feeders.

After naps, GG took Peter for a ride on a bobsled!  (Well, it was on the Wii, but he still seemed to have a lot of fun.)

Next, we tried some Wii downhill skiing.  This photo is cute because you can see a framed photo from GG & GG's wedding day on the wall to the right of Granny Great.

We ended the day with an art project using super cool stamping markers and wearing a snazzy art smock.

Come back soon, GG & GG!

Charlotte and the navel orange

Charlotte was pretty impressed with the size of the navel on this orange and wanted to compare it to hers:

Anxiously waiting!

Granny Great and Grandpa Great are on their way driving from Michigan to Tennessee!  I cleaned the kitchen floor this morning and couldn't bear to see CJ and PJ mess it up, so we went out for burgers at lunchtime.  CJ asks me every five minutes if GG and GG are almost here.  I told her they would get here after her nap, and she furrowed her little brow.  Life is hard for an almost-three-year-old.