I don't know about you, but I LOVE Louisa May Alcott. I grew up reading Little Women over and over and watching both the 1949 version with Elizabeth Taylor and the 1994 one with Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes and Susan Sarandon. I loved many of her other novels as well. One thing I always found fascinating about her was that she spent a few summers right here in Walpole! In fact the home she stayed in used to be owned by a family member of ours. Her 1878 book Under the Lilacs, was inspired by her time here. The lilacs in Walpole are absolutely breathtaking! I love them so much that I wanted to name Lillie, "Lillabel", which means beautiful lilac, but couldn't quite win Jon over to it =) but at least we have been able to use it for her nickname! Anyway, my sisters, mom and I have been huge L. M. Alcott fans for as long as I can remember.
Last fall I mentioned to Anne Marie, (author of the blog Na Da Farm Life...with Anne Marie) that I was dying to find a photo of Louisa May Alcott that I could draw a silhouette from so we could offer a similar pillow to our Jane Austen one. Well, lo and behold, she informed me she had a book that she was pretty sure had a photo like that. Sure, enough she found it and it did indeed have the perfect photo to work from. She scanned it in to send me and also sent me some lovely photos of not only the book, but of her beautiful daughter reading it!
And now, thanks to Anne Marie, we are able to offer the Louisa May Alcott pillow cover!
(You can see how to build this little window seat with just a screwdriver and glue gun by clicking on this post here.)
I too, love Louisa May Alcott, having read many of her books when I was young. I just recently purchased an old book, the 1851 edition of the entire year of Peterson's Magazine. In the September issue is her first ever published work, a poem entitled, "Sunlight" under her pseudonym, Flora Fairfield. What an honor to have this in my possession!
ReplyDeleteWow - what a fabulous piece of history to have!
DeleteI love this post and I love your blog. Thank you for the great inspiration! Hope you don't mind that I added your blog to "My Favorite blog list" on my site soiledrotten.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteHappy Tuesday!
Alison
what a great silhouette pillow! I love Little Women as well. In fact, the 94 movie was shot on Vancouver Island in Cobble Hill and Victoria. I was going to University then, and they were filming right outside my apartment. It was fun to see the horse drawn carriages and actors in uniform with the streets transformed. My Mom lived in Cobble Hill, and she toured the house that was the family home in the movie. Lots of fun!
ReplyDeleteThat's so cool, Andrea!
DeleteWhen I was in 6th grade I always got my work in Social Studies class done early partly so I could read the biographies that were in the classroom. Louisa May Alcott was one as were Harriet Beecher Stowe and Amelia Earhart. These women obviously made am impression on my life since I remember it so many years later. Love the silhouette pillows! I think our daughter Beth was named as a result of reading Little Women.
ReplyDeleteAre. You. Kidding me!? This is my favorite post of the month! Louisa May Alcott is one of my all time favorites. Little Women was special to me in particular because we were four sisters growing up together, and we identified ourselves with the March sisters. My sisters decided I was Beth, and I try to take that as a compliment based on her character traits, and not as a prediction that I'd die young :/ The sister I blog with is our Jo. Did you and your sisters ever pick which characters you'd be in books? Maybe we are just weird, haha. The pillows are absolutely fantastic! I might have to find some room in my budget now... :) thank you for such a lovely post.
ReplyDeleteHaha - we did the exact same thing! Although we always fought over being Jo! =)
DeleteOh, Jenni, this is wonderful! I LOVE Louisa May Alcott. As a matter of fact, my middle name is Jo--named for my father's sister but absolutely inspired by the Jo from Little Women! (My mother was a big fan of Alcott's, too.) Honestly, from time to time I still read Little Women and Little Men--it helps me to regain my perspective on life and the way it should be lived. :)
ReplyDeleteSuch a great post - the pillow is beautiful! I just found your blog today - and I got to looking at the pictures and kept thinking "Gosh this looks like Virginia to me!". Then I saw you live in Williamsburg, and it all clicked! I'm just across the water, in Gloucester. It's so fun to find blogs that are local! You have a beautiful home!
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI adore Louisa May Alcott, too. Although my first love is Jane Austen.
Your creativity always inspires me to want to get out there and try new things...you do so many things SO well!
Hugs,
Anne
How do I get one of those LMA pillows :)
ReplyDeleteHi - You can click any of the pictures or this link :) (http://www.dearlillie.com/product/luisa-may-alcott-silhouette-pillow-cover)
DeleteAwesome. :) Thanks.
DeleteOh my gosh! How cool is that!? What a fun story to hear, and your friends daughter is just beautiful. I really like the name Lillabel... i can totally see that being Lillie's nickname. I call one of my favorite bloggers, whose name is Sissy, from Sissies Shabby Cottage Sissiebelle all the time... whether she likes it or not, smile, it just rolls off the tongue, and has a lovely southern belle essence to it that makes one think of swings on porches, and magnolia trees, and honeysuckle and summer nights... and what could be better than that...
ReplyDeleteCindy
I love Louisa May Alcott as well, but I've never heard of that book! Something else to add to my summer reading list. :)
ReplyDeleteI love her, too! I used to take the light out of my old glow worm and read Little Women under my covers at night when I was supposed to be sleeping :). I loved being completely enthralled with the lives of the March girls! Thank you for the sweet post. It made me smile and brought back some fun memories :)
ReplyDeleteAnd just when I thought I couldn't love dear Louisa more, I see these pillows! Miriam and I talked about these pillows with "ahs" and "sighs" over the phone. Absolutely lovely, as always. And even though I may have been the sister that got pegged as Jo growing up, may I just say that "being Jo" isn't all it is cracked up to be. After all, her hair was her "only beauty." (Now I'm starting to think I should have been fighting with Miriam over Beth this whole time!)
ReplyDeleteHaha - we always loved that line about her hair! We always fought over her though because we were such tomboys!
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