Beatrix Potter Treasures

Are you a fan of Beatrix Potter?  I am, and I know there are many others out there as well.       

        When we were expecting our son, I didn't want to find out the gender before hand.  But I knew that I wanted to decorate the nursery in a Peter Rabbit theme.  One of our spare bedrooms at the time housed my girlhood furniture, which was white/ivory and the other spare bedroom was just a catch-all.  We decided to use the furnished room for our nursery, and we got a white baby bed for the room.  We painted the walls a pastel blue with white trim, and proceeded to fill it with baby things.  These included a Peter Rabbit crib set with coverlet and bumper pads.  We also had a Peter Rabbit light switch cover and Peter Rabbit bookends.  We felt like the decor and the colors would be appropriate for a girl or a boy.    When we moved to this house 25 years ago, the room with my old bedroom suite ended up being the catch-all/junk room.  It basically stayed that way for the next 25 years.  Ironically, this was also the room that the previous owners used for their little girl's nursery, and it was painted in lavender with nursery border paper.  I'll spare you a picture of the way the room looked six weeks ago; 😉 just take my word for it that it was bad.  Anyway, when Covid-19 came along, my husband, along with so much of the world, started working from home.  After awhile, it became clear that none of the employees at his workplace would be returning to the office until next year, if that soon.  It looks like they will stay in business (thank goodness) but most of them may be working from home.  So we set about fixing a home office space for him.  With some re-arranging, I was able to keep my furniture in this bedroom, and we still had room to put a nice desk in for Hal.  Today, I'm showing you my desk, where I've displayed my collection of Peter Rabbit treasures.    

  

  I found this big Peter Rabbit book, a compilation of all the stories, at Barnes & Noble several years ago.  I couldn't resist getting it.  

  Here you can see the bookends I mentioned: my husband's brother and his wife gave us these at our baby shower.  The little bank was a gift from two of my very dear friends.  This desk is over 70 years old.  My maternal grandfather gave it to my mom when she was seven years old.  It was dark wood, probably cherry or mahogany, and when I was a teenager, my parents painted it to match the rest of my bedroom furniture.  It's a beautiful little desk, and it holds much sentimental value for me.    

  I've had mostly junk, nothing big and heavy, but still junk, stacked on it for the last umpteen years, so I was very glad to put my Peter Rabbit collection here.  

I recently ordered the tin online, and it contains tea bags, which I'll drink when it gets cooler out.  

  The cereal bowl and mug were gifts from my sweet mother-in-law before Will was born.  There's a plate and soap dish, too --   

  I just realized I need to find the soap dish.  Anyway, the set is Wedgwood, and my mother-in-law purchased it in England even before there was a baby on the way.  😊  The paint card lying here is probably the color we're going to have the walls painted in this room.  It's Sherwin Williams "Atmospheric."  

  

  I am enamored of Beatrix Potter's charming watercolors.  The fact that they're still popular just shows how timeless they are.   

   The book above is Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life, by Marta McDowell, and you can find it here.     

  

  

  

  When I chose a Peter Rabbit theme for our nursery all those years ago, I knew nothing about the author of the books.  In recent years, I've read a lot about her, and she was an amazing woman, wasn't she?  It pleases me to see how her work is still so beloved today, long after she has gone.  If any of you have seen the movie Miss Potter, I'd love to know what you thought of it.  I'm interested in watching it myself.     Sharing pictures of these little "baubles" may seem insignificant and silly, but I feel we can all use something light-hearted at the moment.  These are certainly worrisome times we're living in, and I think we've all been quite stressed with listening to the news, and just the worries of day-to-day life.  I do thank you for reading my posts here at House at Forest Manor.  Your visits and comments really do brighten my day.     Best wishes,