The Parlor Cookie Jar Again

 

A few words on the Parlor's Cookie Consent banner...

The Parlor on Elegance of the Eternal

Happy Halloween!

Today also marks the end of the ELEGANCE OF THE ETERNAL auction held online through Bonham's.  I thought I'd share some thoughts...

The Parlor Cookie Jar--UPDATED

October 30, 2024--If you see a big red round thang in the lower lefthand corner of the screen on the main website, that just means consentmanager ran out of "page impressions" for the month.  You might not see the cookie banner pop up today and tomorrow, BUT. 

Parlor Pages

Real quick: the Parlor has restored the blog pages and menu here on the Parlor blog.  They reflect the way both this blog and the main website looked around the time of its massive overhaul.  Just for funsies, compare these pages to the pages on the main website as they are now!

Summer Is Almost Over...

...so, here is a newer version of the Destin, Florida beach house rendered from the sketch in The Witches' Companion by Katherine Ramsland...

The Parlor Renders on YouTube

A short little video of Mayfair Witches house renderings...

The Mayfair Witches' Garden

The flowers are chicory, which is used in Café au lait for its added taste

There are some uses for AI generated graphics, like garden graphics.  Witches and gardens are inextricably linked, and the Mayfair garden was described very thoroughly in The Witching Hour.

A Little Freshening Up In the Parlor...

The Parlor has been doing a little freshening up.  You will see on the main website that the name has been modified a bit to reflect that the site is about the Mayfair Witches. 

The Mayfair Witches Parlor Blog

Why did I pick this little guy for this particular post?  No reason, I just like it!  Anyway, this blog...

The Parlor Has Done a Little Bit of Renovating...

The Mayfair Witches Parlor is looking a little different...

The Parlor Is Busy! First Up--Names

On the main website, you will see something slightly different in the navigation menu.  Instead of "Come Into My Parlor Home", it says "The Mayfair Witches Parlor".

San Francisco and Victoriana

One page of the Parlor that has just sort of sat for a long time is the one formerly called Michael Curry and Victoriana.  There has been a slight change...

Tulane University Libraries Special Collections

 A very brief update: The Parlor has added a new section to the Site Resources and Bibliography page.

Lasher Appears

Replacing an earlier video with some of my own family in it with this Mayfair Witches-related video to keep content Mayfair Witches-related, this is the first upload with the new AI feature requirement.

Afternoon In the Haunted Garden of the Mayfair Witches

The Parlor's Dammit Doll

After countless aggravations getting to the point where it was ready for upload, I finally got it very close to what I wanted: afternoon beside the haunted swimming pool, surrounded by the equally haunted garden of the Mayfair Witches!

Stella Mayfair's Haunted Swimming Pool

This brief video, made from my 3D model in progress, gives just a peek into the progress of the Mayfair garden.  You can see a bit of the balustrade, and some colorful dots that are...flowers!

The Mayfair Garden In 3D

Spring is approaching.  One thing I have wanted to do for a long time is do my best to recreate the Mayfair garden in 3D.   I've already built most of the structural elements, the "hardscape".  The pool patio, the balustrades, even the swimming pool...

Aunt Queen's Cameos: Hidden Gems in Blackwood Farm

When I first read Blackwood Farm, there were many things (other than the timeline) that really caught my attention.  It was no surprise that Rowan Mayfair and Michael Curry were familiar with films like 'Immortal Beloved' and 'Gladiator'.  The book blended aspects of popular culture and the working class (at the time) in with mysterious tales of not-so-imaginary friends and mistresses from Hell, which I enjoyed.  There was another detail in the book that really intrigued me, though.

Aunt Queen's cameo collection.

A Little Mayfair Witches Ambience ASMR-style

The Parlor is trying something new.  It might have been mentioned before, but this new experiment is...ambience.  ASMR-style.

The Parlor Extends Deepest Sympathies to former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and Her Family

 

The Parlor has just learned of the sudden passing of Marco Troper, the son of former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.  A student at UC Berkeley, Troper was only 19 years old.

Deepest sympathies to Susan Wojcicki and her family at this sad time.  They are in the hearts and prayers of the Parlor.

The Parlor Has a New Look!

I've finally gotten around to making new graphics for Come Into My Parlor's banners and avatars.  This is something I've wanted to do for a while now.  Over the last several months, as the 3D Mayfair house project has made progress and I've made other graphics, the basic images for banners and avatars also developed.  Here's one graphic below:

The Parlor Announces A New Special--And Other New Stuff

The Parlor has been doing a bit of digging.  Kinda.  Before we get started, here, I tend to alternate between "the Parlor" and "I".  That can be very confusing, can't it?  Many creators do this alternating between referring to themselves in the third-person and simply as "I" in the first-person.  Not everyone likes this, though, and I've seen some viewers rail at other content creators to "STOP THAT!!!  YER NUTS!!!"

The Mayfair House--A 3D Update

I thought it was time I provided an update on my project, a 3D model of the Mayfair house on First Street.  There are some details I've added, some obvious, some not so obvious.  This update shows only part of the first floor, and there are certainly details I've not gotten to yet.  One is that there appears to be a door or window on the end of the butler's pantry that faces the pool and patio area of the garden.

This house as it is today, and as it became in Michael Curry's restoration of the Mayfair house in The Witching Hour, is a mixture of historic structure and modern amenities.  For example, you will see in the butler's pantry a contraption that might appear at first glance to be a microwave.  Nope.  It is an espresso machine!

One thing we Pacific Northwesterners have in common with New Orleans?  COFFEE!  We are serious about our coffee here, too.  New Orleans is famous for its cuisine, among other things, and its cafe au lait and beignets at Cafe Du Monde.  If you look at preparation instructions for their coffee, which you can purchase cans of to make at home, you'll see that it includes hot milk.  Just like espresso.

In the espresso machine is a milk frother, something necessary for both espresso and cafe au lait.  So, I definitely included it, which came from a kitchen model found on 3D Warehouse.  It is, in fact, a model of an actual espresso machine!

As the house emerges in the 3D model, more details will be added gradually.  But let's keep it a surprise, shall we?  Everyone likes nice surprises, right?

The only thing I am not going to be quiet about is the wallpaper in the double parlor.  Like the most recent exhibit of the master bedroom, it is TOO @$!# PINK!  Problem is, the photos we have all seen of the real double parlor don't show color images of the room when it did have wallpaper.  The only images of that come from the 1933 photos of the room.  I'll figure this out, though.  

Because I just can't help it!

A new video showing some of the first floor updates is now available on YouTube.  The model is shown with all shadow/sun settings turned OFF, so it is very bright.  If it is too bright for your eyes, you might want to dim the screen a bit to watch the video.

If you have any suggestions for what might work for the double parlor's wallpaper, or you know of details I might have missed or details to add, please do let me know in the video's comments.  I'll do my best to make adjustments or corrections--depending on what I am able to and what mood Buckie II (La Laptop) is in.

Stella Mayfair In 3D

I've been doing a little revising and improving upon the next Mayfair Witch in 3D, Stella Mayfair.   I'm still learning how to make 3D people in the way that I want them made, and that particular pose, I thought, was perfect for a ghost one sees in a mirror.

I've made a few modifications to 3D Stella, which I hope to display very soon.  Kinda fun to make a 3D model of a Roaring Twenties flapper!

Hmmm...Stella's Art Deco treasures...

For More on The Pink Room...

For a little more background on the model of the master bedroom and a few tidbits on the role it plays as a setting in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches series, I've included a little bit in a new addition to this page of the Parlor: Come Into My Parlor In 3D.

The Pink Room: The Master Bedroom

This is REALLY pink everywhere!  Hopefully, I will soon be able to reduce the amount of pink in the master bedroom.  In the meantime, this is the first room on the second floor I've worked on.  Quite a lot of progress on the room has been made already...

For Your Viewing Pleasure...

 Throughout the Parlor, there are videos embedded on pages according to topic.  These videos are on YouTube, as well.  There are also some playlists and videos from other platforms like Vimeo and Behance.  It's pretty amazing how hard it can be to tell what the video's screen resolution, bit rate and stuff is, but many of the Parlor's videos are much larger than what you'd see on YouTube's player.

The Parlor and Social Media

After careful consideration and a few incidents I have witnessed and was not impressed with, the Parlor will be reducing additional presence on social media for the time being.  Public social media, that is.

Rowan Mayfair By the Book

 Sometimes when a TV show or movie makes changes to some of the basic features of a character's physical appearance, it isn't always a bad thing.  One example is Rowan going from blond to brunette from page to screen.  It isn't one of the changes that bothered me too much when it came to Rowan's appearance.  I still wanted to show Rowan as Rowan Mayfair in the novels.  The model I found really did not need much in the way of changes, and even the sunglasses work.  Rowan had purchased some sunglasses on her trip to New Orleans to attend Deirdre's funeral, and they really do make her look glamorous, I think!

The Mayfair Witches in 3D

 

Now that I've been able to build (for the most part) a 3D model of the Mayfair house with interiors that can be shown even while the entire house is incomplete, I'm turning more attention to...the Mayfair Witches themselves! 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year from the Parlor!