Historic Castles. What are they used for?

I just came across this contest: Enter to Win a Castle Getaway, so I wanted to send it to all of you, my cherished subscribers. I hope you find time to enter. It’s a cool opportunity to tour two of Doylestown’s unique castles and stay overnight at a nearby Inn.

If you’ve ever wondered what modern-day people do with historic castles, allow me to share how one of my design couples showcased Fonthill in Doylestown, PA.

First, a little history

Fonthill Castle was the home of archaeologist and tile maker Henry Chapman Mercer. It was built between 1908 and 1912, and it’s an early example of poured-in-place concrete and features 44 rooms, over 200 windows, 18 fireplaces, 10 bathrooms, and one powder room.

Henry was a proponent of the American Arts and Crafts movement and as part of his philanthropy, he built The Moravian Tile Works on his Fonthill estate. Moravian tiles are handmade ceramic tiles featuring intricate designs inspired by ancient and historical themes. Here is an example of one. If you tour Fonthill you will see that Henry used his Moravian tiles everywhere when building his home. They cover ceilings, floors, and just about every square inch of this castle inside and out.

Castles Today

Special events like fundraisers, beer festivals, and weddings love the modern-day Fonthill Castle in Doylestown, PA. It’s a popular venue choice among those seeking a unique, historical building with a specific artistic flair.

Here is how one engaged couple decided to celebrate this castle.

A castle-inspired wedding invitation

Stephanie & Clayton chose Fonthill for their wedding venue a few years ago and hired me to design their invitation suite. This was a unique opportunity to build a concept around an artistic castle known for its clay tiles and yes, the groom’s name was Clay so the project was lots of fun.

The concept & Design

We hired a watercolor artist to paint a Mercer Tile-like cover depicting Fonthill Castle nestled among the many places Stephanie and Clayton had traveled. I had the opportunity to write some interesting headlines while building the stationery suite. “The Art of Marriage” was the main headline and “Start with a Good Clay” kicked off their story. The mini-book invitation creatively told their love story and culminated by inviting guests to the affair.

Carry it all through

To carry the concept through the entire event, I commissioned time with local tile artist, Katia McGuirk to help us create the wedding favors. The three of us worked side-by-side with Katia and designed, pressed, glazed, and fired an assortment of clay pendants, each depicting one of Stephanie and Clayton’s previous vacations. The clay pendants were used as favors, and each table featured the story of a particular vacation. We created a rubber stamp of each vacation icon and they were used to mark the table cards as well as all the place cards at the entrance.

Italy Pendant and Table Card

Canada Pendant and Table Card

Programs

The wedding programs were also unusual. We designed large, round, double-sided cards, and attached dangling love notes. “The Marriage” side outlined the ceremony details while “The Art” outlined the participants. It was an unexpected design that mimicked the round favor tiles and intrigued guests.

Enter to win

So now you no longer need to wonder what people sometimes do in and around modern-day Castles. If you choose one for your next big event, I recommend going with the castle’s cool vibe and designing your event accordingly. I hope you win this Castle getaway, and if you do please drop me a line. Good Luck!

How to Design a Valentine Tree

Why I Designed a Tree FIlled with Love

As the Christmas season was coming to an end, I decided I wanted to enjoy our pretty tree a little longer. I knew I could get away with keeping our faux Balsam Hill Pine up through January dressed in its wintery guise, but what excuse did February have? That’s why, this year, I created a Valentine's Tree. Read on to see how I did it.

Transitioning a Christmas Tree

We created a pretty simple Christmas tree this year so the transition was easy. I first removed all of the Christmas balls but kept all the white lights and icicles. This step was very quick and with a semi-bare tree, I was able to then plan for February-appropriate decor.

Making a Valentine's Tree Topper

I considered keeping our glowing Moravian Star tree topper but decided that a Valentine's tree needed to better reflect Valentine’s Day. I considered a grapevine heart wreath covered in dried flowers but decided I’d like to just use found materials and make my own. This is how I did it.

Start with a basic shape

I took an old cardboard box and cut two identical free-form hearts. I then hot-glued a 10” doubled-up piece of floral wire about 4” deep inside the two panels and extended it out the bottom, so that I’d have something to wrap around the tree’s top branch. If I do it again, I will also extend the wire from each side so the heart has more stability when topping the tree.

Once the wire is secured, hot glue the hearts together. This step helps the topper to be more ridged and stable.

Designing the front of your heart topper

Start by designing one side of the heart with your dried flowers and moss. I used my professional-grade Ryobi glue gun, some reindeer moss, and the dried flowers I harvested this year. If you want to learn how to dry your own flowers, see my blog: Learn how to dry your own garden flowers. I didn’t have much of a design or plan, but I just kept filling in the cardboard as I went around the heart and eventually, one side of my heart was completely covered.

Designing side 2

When I finished side 1, I realized leaving the second side of the heart blank wouldn’t look very nice from the side view, so I cut up a coloring book, quickly glued it to the surface of the heart, and glued some leftover moss around the edges to finish it off. In retrospect, I would cover this side first with contact paper or something simple to make the job easier. You could also fill the back side with moss if you have it.

The Heart-Shaped Tree Topper

Here is the result. Not bad for a trial run. Later I’ll show you how it looks on the tree.

Hanging hearts on the Tree

Now the rest of the tree needed some LOVE-ly decor. I found these pretty heart ornaments in rose gold online. They are sold in sets of 45 so I only ordered one set. You can also get them in silver, pink, gold, red, and a pink, red & white combo.

Accenting with Vintage Valentine Cards

I also found some vintage Valentine ornaments to add some character to my tree. There are many types of interesting card ornaments to choose from on Amazon, so look around. Some are more childish which would be nice if you are creating this for your children or grandchildren.

The Unveiling

When all the little rose gold hearts and vintage Valentines were hung, I added a few large dried flowers and some colorful felt ball garlands that I had lying around.

I am very pleased with how this turned out and I’m happy I started a new tradition for our home. Don’t worry, if you’ve already removed your Christmas tree this year, you can plan for next February or grab some fallen branches from outside and place them in a garden pot to make a smaller Valentine’s Branch Tree. Anything is possible. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

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