It’s summertime, so Flat Hitty wants to go to the beach. But not the ocean. One of her favorite beaches is actually on a freshwater lake instead. P.J. Hoffmaster State Park is on the western side of Michigan’s lower peninsula in Muskegon. The park features 3 miles of shoreline adjacent to Lake Michigan. Flat Hitty begins her day at the Gillette Sand Dune Visitor Center. She discovers an enormous model of a grain of sand. Here she is next to an outline of the state of Michigan, which is surrounded by the Great Lakes. About 40% of Michigan’s sand dunes are in public ownership. That means everyone can enjoy them!…
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Hitty’s Cradle
If you have been following the adventures of Flat Hitty in “Hitty’s First Adventure” and “Hitty and the Crows,” then you know that she endured some tough times in her first months with the Preble Family. During her first summer in Maine, Hitty spent weeks in a crow’s nest, being jostled by baby birds. After trying to escape, she got caught in the branches of the ancestral pine tree on the Preble farm. Although she was rescued, her clothes were in such a state of disarray that she ”was unable to be seen much in polite society.” So Captain Preble came to the rescue by building Hitty a “neat little…
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5 Reasons to Love Miniatures
What is it about miniatures that makes them so fascinating and appealing? Flat Hitty took a trip to the Midwest Miniatures Museum in Grand Haven, Michigan to find out. This museum was renovated over the winter to add brand new exhibits on the second floor. It is definitely worth a visit if you are a lover of miniatures. I have been there multiple times, but I wanted to come back to see the new exhibits. I’m happy to share these photos with my readers, who may not get a chance to visit in person. Click here to watch a video about the museum by Living West Michigan! The Midwest Miniatures…
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Hitty and the Crows
Last December I adapted chapter one of the book Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field to make a brand new storybook with updated color illustrations. “Hitty’s First Adventure” has gotten a lot of interest from Hitty collectors who appreciate having a new way to share Hitty’s story with a younger generation. Now I have a brand new storybook based on chapter two. Like the first storybook, “Hitty and the Crows” was written for the target age group of nine to eleven-year-olds. If you know any kids this age, I encourage you to share this link or give them a printed copy of my story. And of course, younger…
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Hitty’s First Adventure
December is the season of giving, and it’s the perfect time to share my very first Hitty storybook for kids. “Hitty’s First Adventure,” is an adaptation of Chapter One from the book Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field, with updated versions of the illustrations by Dorothy Lathrop. I shortened the story and rewrote it for a fourth-grade reading level. The target age is nine to eleven-year-olds. If you know any kids this age, I encourage you to share this link or give them a printed copy of my story. And of course, younger kids may enjoy having the story read to them. Click here to download Hitty’s First…
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Hitty’s Daguerreotype Photo
Hitty’s Daguerreotype photo is on display in the Stockbridge Library along with her other possessions. But there are actually two different Daguerreotypes: the real one in the library and the illustrated color plate from the book Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. In the real photo, Hitty wears a brown sprigged dress (see “Hitty’s Daguerreotype Dress”) and sits next to a white vase filled with roses. The photo is black and white, but her dress and the roses have been hand-colored. Hitty’s cheeks have just a hint of pink added. Above: Wendi’s reproduction of Hitty’s Daguerreotype with Michael Langton Hitty (left) and Hitty Sis (right). Did you know that Hitty’s photo…
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The Antique Shop
The Antique Shop on West 8th Street in New York City is where we first met Hitty in the book Hitty: Her First Hundred Years (see “Who is Hitty?”). She was sitting on a piece of paper next to a pewter inkstand, holding an old-fashioned quill pen as she began to write her memoirs. After narrating the entire story of her life, Hitty returned to the Antique Shop, making the shop a convenient bridge between Hitty’s past and the present day. “And so we return to New York and the Antique Shop on Eighth Street again, and I will bring my Memoirs to a close.” But the Antique Shop was…
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Niagara Falls Part 2
The next morning, Kitty watched the sun rise over the falls, an impressive sight. Then she put on her very best “garden party” dress with a matching lace hat and left the hotel. NOTE: This is the second part of Flat Hitty and Kitty’s trip to Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada (see “Niagara Falls Part 1”). Kitty and Flat Hitty met up at Tim Hortons for some coffee and doughnuts (yum!), before heading to their destination. The girls went to the Niagara Falls History Museum to see a special exhibit called, “It’s My Party: 1950s Women’s Fashion Exhibit.” The temporary exhibit was created by the Wedding and Fashion Museum (on…
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Niagara Falls Part 1
This year Flat Hitty and Kitty decided to go on vacation to see Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada. They were very excited to visit a new country and were eager to explore the falls. Flat Hitty wanted to see the falls up close and personal. She went on a touring boat called, “The Maid of the Mist.” The boat was electric-powered and very quiet, but the roaring of the falls drowned everything out. All the people on the boat wore raincoats. Flat Hitty was not concerned about a little mist. It’s a good thing she was laminated, because when the boat approached the Horseshoe Falls, she did get wet! Meanwhile,…
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The Preble Family
The Newbery award-winning book, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field is a classic story about a doll’s adventures and travels around the world (see “Who is Hitty?“). Now that the book is in the public domain, my goal is to help people rediscover the story. One of the ways I decided to do that is by creating new illustrations that make the story come alive. First, I made color images of Flat Hitty as a Bride based on the illustrations of Dorothy P. Lathrop. Next, I had the idea of making portraits of some of Hitty’s owners. None of Dorothy’s illustrations depicted people: they were all pictures of…
