Wowzier! Imagine living here!

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A few days ago, I got to go along on a photo shoot for one of the magazines my daughter works for. I had loaned the style editor some things to help set the mood for the photos and as a result got to tag along.

It was a wedding shoot complete with: bride, groom, mother of bride, bridesmaid and flower girl. They even had a chef, Rolls Royce and wedding cake.

(This is where I should fill you in on how I rate weddings: the cake. I love cake. Hence operation pants fit. I was NOT offered a piece of cake, just as well as this was not a REAL wedding. All the same, I did wonder...was the frosting smooth or grainy? Filling or fruit?)

Anyway, the shoot was taking place in a very old and elegant mansion on Lake Michigan built in 1917. Think: Downton Abbey era. It is such a large house that when we entered, if we had not had a guide to get us to the shoot, I do not think we could have found it.

All of the models were lovely, and the dresses and accoutrements were all that one would expect from such an elegant venue.

I could not help but notice; it was a tired house. Everything about it was just a little worn down and neglected. True, it is for sale and has been for quite sometime. No one appeared to live there and it felt kind of sad. Houses need to be lived in and loved. Even ones like this.

It was easy to imagine, when it was first built how much thought and money was put into the completion of the project. The parties, the rooms filled with people, and the hallways bustling with servants making everything happen smoothly.

I hope it was filled with happiness and laughter and many, many children, after all, there at 27 bedrooms. I would like to think that there were at least 8 or 10 young'uns running around, sliding down the many banisters, getting in the way and having a ball while doing it.

I hope that it was not a sad and sorry place at the beginning with everyone discontent and unhappy. I would like to think, it had a time when it was filled with joy and love and contentment.

Bittersweet seeing such a house in all of its faded glory.