Gearing up for the next challenge.

Just a little bit of news here at Rose Cottage today as our person has been very busy sewing but NOT for us!  How can that be???

Anyway we will try to forget this travesty and focus on the positive.

Hitty Madge is pleased with the trunk that has arrived in time for the 'Trunk Challenge'.  Being our resident artist, she has grand plans for the design of it.

We are delighted that our person brought home this wonderful Bonsai tree for our Japanese garden.  We have to show her how to look after it though as she doesn't have a very good track record with Bonsai trees apparently.

Let's Go Fly a Kite Swap - Received

The Hittys at Rose Cottage just love to take part in swaps and as mentioned a couple of days ago one we have recently completed was the 'Let's go fly a kite swap' which we thought would be great fun.

Today we received our kite from JOC

Myself (Hitty Patience, playing Miss Flower) and Hitty Joyful (playing Miss Happiness) are thrilled with our kite.  We just need some good weather to be able to fly it.  Instead we have had days of rain!

The Japanese characters on the kite represent:

top left: kite, top right: wind, and bottom: carp.

Thank you Julie for a fabulous kite.

Minutes of the Meeting held last month.

Hitty Patience Reports:

So it has been a month since the Hittys at Rose Cottage held theirYellow Hat Meeting and AGM.  Due to all the other goings on in the cottage it has taken me longer to type up these notes than I had anticipated.  

You may remember that on the agenda were the following items to discuss:

Item 1: Hats

Item 2: Tea Room

Item 3: UK Hittys

Item 4: AOB which amounted to discussing items on last year’s list:

Finish round rug

Make some Pif gifts

Make at least one item per month

Make matching dresses and yellow hats for events and meetings.

The following was discussed and agreed.

Item No. 1:  Hats.  It was agreed that it was unnecessary to have matching dresses due to the work involved, but that more yellow hats were needed, and perhaps ones of a better standard than the ‘felt crowns’.

 

Item No. 2:  Tea Room.  Hitty Joyful is in charge of the new Hitty Tea Rooms and is working with the help of some of thee other girls to set up a Tea Room.  Many supplies and items will be needed, so this is a long term project for the girls.  A name is also to be thought up and put to vote.

Item No. 3: UK Hitty Girls.  It was agreed that a UK Contingent of Hitty Girls would be established with founder members being the RCH (Rose Cottage Hittys) and the WCD (Wren Cottage Dolls) with an invitation going out to the ‘Not-Quite-Hitty Girls' whom our girls believe one is at least a Hitty and the other very well nearly...good enough.  Invitation to be sent….

The aims of this society are to make visitors from other countries feel welcome and to offer friendship. 

We aim to meet up once every three months as appropriate and possible depending on situations and circumstances. 

This has already got off to a good start with the Inaugural Meeting held in Brighton on 21^st May 2014 with the Rose Cottage Hittys and the Wren Cottage Dolls in attendance along with guests from the USA – the Wizzy Hittys.

Item 4:  AOB.  Referring to the list from last year, we are pleased to announce that since our meeting that the round rug has been completed and is in situ in our living room.

A couple of PIF gifts have been made and sent off to a couple of ladies that we have noticed have been very generous on the HittyGirls group of late.

Quite a few items have been made in the last month, so we feel confident that we will be able to maintain making at least one item per month.

Matching dresses and hats.  As discussed in Item No. 1: Hats... it was decided that matching dresses were not required.

A couple of swaps have been taken part in and dresses were made as gifts for the UK Hitty Meet Up.

Hitty Ethel with the two dressses made for Inaugural UK Hitty Girls meet up in Brighton.

Hitty Ethel shows off the two dresses she made which were sent to Susan K and Kristen.

Hitty Kite Swap - Sent

This is the little kite I sent to Rochelle for the Hitty  'Let's go fly a Kite' Swap.

Hitty Patience is showing it here just before it was sent off.

The Reading of Attic Days.

The family have all been very excited about the arrival of Lucy the other day.  

Today Hitty Annabelle sat down with Lucy's book 'Attic Days: A Patchwork Tale' by Natalie Jo.  She was soon joined by Hitty Ethel, Miles and Brittany.

They all sit down and listen quietly as she begins;

"There was once a little bit of a doll named Lucy who was very lonely indeed"

Hey, she can't be lonely she has all of us now,  pipes up Miles.

Well of course not.  Hitty Annabelle reassures him.  But this is how the story begins and how she came to live with us.  Now please listen quietly to her tale...

"Her days were spent in the dim and drafty attic....

.....patchwork of memories that comforted her from the inside out."

Oh what a sad but wonderful story! Sighs Brittany.

Hang on a minute!  Exclaims Miles...How can her days of taking journeys be long past?  He asks.  It that were the case, then how did she get here?

Oh yes and where is her velvet cushion? Brittany asks

Perhaps it got lost on her journey here.  Hitty Ethel says.  Shall I make her a new one?

Oh yes please do!  Brittany and Miles reply together.

Right then, we will have a search through my fabric stash and see what we can find for Lucy.  Would you both like to help me?  Hitty Ethel asks.

Yes!  They both chorus in excitement.

So she can't be lonely any more can she?  Miles is heard to be asking as they wander off towards the sewing room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Italics in blue are direct quotes from the book 'Attic Days'  by Natalie Jo

The Inaugural Meeting of the Hitty Girls in Brighton

Yesterday morning Hitty Madge and friends set off on the train for the Inaugural Meeting of the UK Hitty Girls which was going to be held in Brighton.

Hitty Madge watches the scenery out the window from the train

She wonders how long it will take to get there.  She doesn't realise that she still has another train to catch!

At the next station she checks to board to see when the next Brighton train is due to arrive.

Finally she gets there.

A lot of time is spent chatting, laughing and drinking copious cups of tea !

Some of the group of Hittys together.

The Wizzy Hittys, The Wren Cottage Hittys and of course the Rose Cottage Hittys.

Our three people.

Captain Sag looks rather taken with Baby Hope who is tugging on his beard

Mrs Sag looks on with a rather worried expression....I wonder what she is thinking?

Later on there was a chance to go down to the seaside...

Hitty Madge wasn't quite sure she could call it a beach as it was very different to the beautiful beaches she had been on in New Zealand

Where was the sand she wondered?

Brighton Pier is in the background.

Like all good meetups there was an exchange of gifts.

Hiitty Ethel had made two special dresses along with the dress forms to give to their friends.

Hitty Madge was delighted with HER whale trunk given to her by the Wizzy Hittys.

Isn't it wonderful?

Hitty Madge gives Hitty Ethel the fabulous fabric given to them by the Wren Cotttage Hittys.

Hitty Cherry Jude, being the only girl who as of yet didn't have a kimono, gets to wear the lovely Kimono made by the Wren Cottage Hittys...although she is waiting on the Obi to keep it together.  It is a good fit for her.

Hitty Joyful admires the little teapot for the Tea Rooms that was also given to them by the Wren Cottage Hittys.

Isn't it sweet?

I help Hitty Granny Estelle put on the new slippers that the Wizzy Hittys gave us.  We thought that Hitty Granny Estelle would be the best person to have them as she has worked so hard all her life.

She is delighted with them, having never had slippers before.

Especially as they are RED  - surely all good shoes and slippers are red?

The fun card that came with the slippers.

Hitty Moana shows the postcard they got while in Brighton...it just about sums the weather up perfectly!

All in all a lovely day, if not exhausting!

The Tea Room and the Inaugural Meeting of the UK Hitty Girls.

Hitty Joyful, with the help of Hitty Granny Estelle,  has been busy doing a stock take of teacups and plates she has for the Tea Room she is hoping to open.  It seems that there are some missing and no where near enough at this stage...of course there is also the problem of no table and chairs either.  Still she has got a cash register!

Later on that day we discuss the upcoming Inaugural meeting of the UK Hitty Girls that is going to be taking place tomorrow. 

We are quite worried about whether or not to take Hitty Carol Faith along with us...concerned about her 'fainting' episodes.  Hitty Joyful points out that is it is only fair that we ask if she would like to come.

We gather as a group, to ask Hitty Carol Faith how she feels and if she is up to a day at the seaside.

Oh my!  She is rather surprised to be asked.

"Oh I would be delighted,"  she tells us as she stands up with dignity that surprised most of us.

Later on we assemble in the Japanese Courtyard all changed into what we have decided to wear on our day out tomorrow.  Sensible Hitty Joyful has her sun hat on.  

An Afternoon at Myddleton Gardens.

Hitty Madge discovered a gorgeous garden reasonably local to us yesterday and spent a delightful afternoon wandering round the grounds.

Myddleton House gardens are an oasis in the middle of a town set on eight acres and was established by Edward Augustus Bowles, who was one of Britain's most famous self-taught gardeners, artists and botanists.  He was born in Myddelton House in 1865 and died there in 1954.  He spent most of his life establishing these wonderful gardens that unfortunately fell into decay after his death, but have more recently been undergoing restoration work.  This is a wonderful garden to walk around and enjoy and there is much to see and I suspect that with the changing of the seasons, there will always be something new to look at.

There were several beautiful wisteria plants around the garden and they smelt exquisite.

Poppies in the kitchen garden.

The carp lake.

Rock garden

The old Enfield town cross which was rescued from a demolition site and is now a listed monument.

The old wisteria which is over 100 years old now.

The house itself isn't open to the public, but with so much to see and enjoy in the garden, that is no hardship.