Thursday, August 21, 2014

Why is it called a Chesterfield Sofa

If you were born in the forties, then you probably associate the name Chesterfield with a cigarette. If you are British, then you think of a leather sofa. 

Not any sofa, but one that is deep, buttoned backed with arms and back of the same height, and typically leather. In proper British speech, the name "Chesterfield" is only applied to this sofa. 

If you were King George the Third, then you would associate the name Chesterfield with Lord Phillip Stanhope, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, who is given credit for naming the sofa, having first commissioned the tufted leather sofa in the early 1700s.


Stickley London sofa


Stickley has adapted this idea with their own novel London sofa, incorporating the button arched back and the classically sloped English arm.

 
Stickley London leather sofa


Add a pitched slope to the back and you make for a perfectly comfortable seat. Now bring the tea at four and serve brandy after dinner.


Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Leo is the lion in the Zodiac

One is attracted to a Leo's zest for life. 


Leo, Sid Dickens memory tile





Leos can lift up one's spirits and provide encouragement when times are tough. Leos are warm spirited. They may come on strong, but they are social butterflies, not because they want to be but because people gravitate to and surround the Leo. 

He or she provides strength and encouragement.








I have to imagine that Leos don't like being on the bottom. Leos, after all, are caught up in themselves, born leaders, and self-centered. In a crowd, they stand out. 


A Leo is a friend indeed when you need one. Someone whose got your back.




Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Life moves at a slower pace in Upstate New York.


Lake Skaneateles, New York


It is August and the days are long, the nights are cool and bright. During the days, one gets out in the sunshine and sits by the lake or takes an excursion on a boat. At night, that is a different.


What better time than to picnic by the lake under the stars and enjoy the world class music of the Skaneateles Festival? It is going on now, four weeks of glorious music through the end of the month from Wednesday through Saturday. Bring a chair or a blanket and sit on the lawn before an historic three story colonial revival home located on Lake Skaneateles, one of the beautiful Finger Lakes in Upstate New York. Have a great time. 

See the schedule.

Lake side at Skaneateles



In nearby Manlius, New York, Nichols & Stone dining room tables and chairs continue to be manufactured by Stickley, keeping a tradition of fine craftsmanship that began in 1852 with the formation of Nichols & Stone, the oldest furniture making company in America. 



Nichols & Stone


The company's products reflect generations of New England craftsmen working to perfect their techniques of construction. The patina of the solid birch and maple woods are unmistakably Nichols & Stone. You need only look for the Nichols & Stone shield burned into each piece to know that you have chosen the very best, made by the oldest furniture name in America.