lotso' pictures

I have cute girls. It is still a little weird for it to be girl's' --plural.

I have absolutely nothing to say, so I will look somewhere else for inspiration so that you have a somewhat interesting blog to read (besides the pictures, which are, without a doubt, the cutest you've ever seen). ;)

Okay, here it is. An excerpt from Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette.

From Chapter Forty-Two -- Gracious Living Without Servants

Maidless Entertaining:

It's a dull life without friends in one's home. (here here!) Therefore the woman who gives up servants, or who never has depended upon them, must strongly resist the idea that entertaining without at least day-help is impossible, or at least very difficult.

Most households have no outside hlep whatsoever. It is the rare thing to have a full-time houseworker (you're telling me!), rarer still to have anything approaching the full staff of even upper-middle-class living in the last century. But we can't all entertain away from our homes, and where the cost of outside entertaining is immaterial, it is still the warmer, friendlier thing to entertain in one's own home often, no matter how simple the hospitality must be.

If one must simplify one's living, it is important not to feel apologetic about it, or even try to explain it. Put away silver that is not regularly used....

So, the moral is, you can still invite people over even if you don't have fine china and your best silver. Good to know. More from Amy Vanderbilt later perhaps. Ta ta.