With Spring Around the Corner, Carlton Hobbs LLC Gets Energized!

Here's a look at some recent internet developments for Carlton Hobbs LLC, and how you can be a part of our online community: 

We've updated our blog with fresh, fun posts as well as a slightly new look, and we're ready to hear from you! Don’t know the difference between a bergère and a fauteuil? Can’t remember what a particular style is called? Want to know more about the origins of Egyptomania? Let us know! We are happy to answer your decorative arts questions and write about the topics you recommend. You can send your questions and blog suggestions to: blog@carltonhobbs.net

Carlton Hobbs LLC is going green! We've started a new green initiative in the office to increase awareness and reduce our impact on all things environmental. You can follow us on Twitter for tips and tidbits (we also use the #GoingGreen tag) or visit our new Tumblr site specifically for our greenery. We've got a lot of ideas, including setting up our new compost bin as soon as all of this NYC snow disappears! In the meantime, Dana and Jess are bringing their coffee and lunch to work in reusable containers, and Mike is doing his part at home by using gDiapers for his little one. 

Lastly, we're always looking to add to our Twitpic page with items for our "Art in the Everyday" series. If you notice a doorway, contemporary object, or even a vegetable that resembles a piece of furniture or art, take a snap and let us know -- your "everyday art" could be featured on our Twitter feed!

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Running for a Breath of Fresh Air!

On March 21st, Dana will be running in the NYC Half-Marathon in support of the Fresh Air Fund! 

As a member of The Fresh Air Fund’s half marathon  team, she is training on behalf of New York City children who visit Fresh Air host families and camps during the summer.  Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million low-income New York City children.  Many Fresh Air children have never run barefoot in the grass, watched stars at night or gone swimming in a lake. One child explains, “You get to see all the stuff you can’t see in the city, like fireflies!” 

  

Dana was lucky enough to spend her childhood summers in the great outdoors and wants to bring the same experience to Fresh Air children who rely on generous individuals to make summer fun! 

By participating in this year’s NYC Half-Marathon she'll help thousands of children enjoy simple summertime pleasures…and train for the NYC Marathon in November at the same time!

You can check out her "fund-racing" page here:  http://freshair.kintera.org/danadonadio and thanks for taking a look!

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Blockbuster Reincarnations of the Country House

What do Luton Hoo in Bedfordshire, Wrotham Park, in Middlesex, and Syon House in London all have in common?

Besides their majestic beauty, individual sections of these estates were compiled to create the fictional Gosford Park in the award winning film of the same name.

The English countryside has always been a popular hunting ground for historically accurate movie locations.  Some of the more popular films being Pride and Prejudice (Basildon Park), The Remains of the Day (Dyrham Park), and The Hound of the Baskervilles (Knightshayes Court). 

Belton House, featured in a number of BBC period miniseries and Castle Howard, most recently filmed for Brideshead Revisited, are a few other country houses that have benefited from disguising themselves as movie sets.  Some mansions have experienced increases in visitor attendance up to 120%!   The Historic Houses Association celebrates these giants and encourages film crew invasions. www.hha.org.uk

Large country estates were most popular in the 18^th and 19^th century.  Used as a weekend or seasonal escapes for magistrates, aristocrats and sometimes clergy, the country house was an entire world of it’s own.  Some estates employed literally hundreds of people.  But while the striking country homes that decorate the landscape are no longer recreational get-aways for England’s Ruling class, they still create entirely new worlds through the magic of movies. 

Be sure to check our upcoming blogs for another look at the use of British country houses, as well as American buildings, in film and TV--and don't forget to let us know which famous buildings you recognize from your favorite period movies! 

Photos: Wrotham Park, ©2007 Wrotham Park; Dyrham Park, and Belton House. © The National Trust 2003-05 

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