Monthly Newsletter:March 2022 (No. 2)
Thank you for joining us here at Our Technicolor Life!
This is the second newsletter and monthly feature highlighting upcoming events, previous happenings, and general news of all channels of Our Technicolor Life.
We have a lot of new subscribers and we wanted to welcome everyone and thank you for following us! For those new to Our Technicolor Life, we are a husband and wife team that lives a vintage lifestyle and has a passion for the arts. We entertain, sing, travel, create, and host tea parties out of our historic home. Follow along each channel = TEA, TRAVEL, ENTERTAINMENT, ART, LIFESTYLE, & MORE that make up Our Technicolor Life!
Well those 28 dates of February sure flew by! Valentine's, snow days, Super Bowl, lots of brunch dates, day trips, tea parties, and lots of art kept us busy this past month.
TEA
WE officially kicked off the 2022 tea room season with a bridal shower private party. Our private party bookings are a great way to celebrate your special occasion. We host lots of showers - bridal & baby, birthdays, meetings, church groups, book clubs, etc. during the weekdays or weekend based on availability. Must have a minimum of 10 guests to attend. We've even created a handy dandy private party form if you are interested in booking your own private party! We did have a lot of dates get booked this spring in addition to already scheduled events so the next availability for private party bookings are into June dates.
Private Party Booking Form:
Check out our private party information page for photos, videos, and FAQ.
Photos of our bridal shower private party at The Old Capitol Tea Room.
Photos by Jeff Ketterman
Our first theme of the year was one near and dear to us! Since it was the month of love, we hosted our Tribute to Lucy & Desi Show tea party. Guests enjoyed tea hosted by Lucy & Desi and then provided lots of smiles and laughter as we performed our tribute show featuring iconic skits and songs. If you couldn't attend this event, we have good news! We have several public Lucy tribute shows coming this spring and summer. More on those dates and locations in our Entertainment section.
Photos of our Lucy & Desi Tribute Show Tea Party
Upcoming events are coming your way! Be on the look out for Mary Poppins Sing-Along, Alice & Hatter, and the return of Murder Mystery tea events! That's right! They're back! After a two-year hiatus, The Old Capitol Tea Room is so excited to be bringing back our murder mysteries with a brand new format. You will be asked to help us solve the murder using clues learned throughout the evening. Our murder mysteries will be held every other month on their usual Friday evenings starting at 8pm. The price is $30/person in accordance with our table seating chart. We have a fantastic group of actors for these murder mysteries, a heavy appetizer tea tray, selection of loose leaf teas, and of course our interactive Q&A murder mystery show! Our first mystery will be in April where we will be featuring fan favorite, "Not A Clue." Stay tuned for ticket sales!
TRAVEL
The Not So Long Trailer is still in hibernation but with a few warmer days this past month, we were able to take Ethel, our 1959 yellow Rambler out for a few field trips.
I am a huge brunch enthusiast and this month we tried The Cafe in their new location at 711 Brent Street. Since moving across the street from their previous location, they have expanded in size and made a connection to the Louisville Stoneware Company. We also checked out local favorite Morning Fork on Frankfort Avenue which had a fantastic brisket benedict! And after brunch, we saw that the circus was in town so we headed to the Kosair circus at Broadbent Arena.
Full blog about our afternoon at the circus...
Valentine’s Day Outing
My Valentine surprised me with tickets to the return of the Don Krekel Orchestra at Comedy Caravan in Louisville. It was such a treat and one that would turn out to be bittersweet. It would end up being the last concert Mr. Don Kreke; would be in attendance. He passed away February 23rd at the age of 82. Jeff and I had the honor of singing with his 17 piece orchestra many years ago for a theatre fundraiser and we will always treasure the experience. The Valentine's Day Concert had an excellent line up of love songs under the direction of Dr. Ansyn Banks who is also a professor of jazz trumpet at the UofL School of Music. The next show Monday March 14th at 7:30 will be a tribute to Don Krekel where they will be playing a number of Don's favorite songs.
We also made a day trip to a place we had been wanting to try for years - Lady Tron's in New Albany. This little sandwich and soup shop is "out of this world" good! This delightfully quirky space themed diner is one we will definitely be visiting again. One, because we are obsessed with the decor and two, because their menu is so tasty with a nice variety of combinations. Check our their menu board for daily specials here.
Full blog about our visit to Lady Tron's
Our day adventure continued with a road trip to Paoli, Indiana to see and hear the Hoosier Hometown Live radio show. The great local talent made this live radio show such an entertaining way to end the day featuring music, skits, fun local ads, an information Q & A of the French Lick West Baden museum, and songs. They host 4 shows a year and the next live recording will be in May. Listen to previous shows here!
We managed to fit one more brunch date on the books at one of our favorite spots - Selena's Willow Tavern out La Grange Road in Louisville. They have a menu that is a fusion of Creole & Sicilian Cuisine with New Orleans style fun. They host brunch on the weekends and you definitely want to plan ahead and make reservations. These brunches are not to be missed and the answer is yes, you always want to start with a basket of their fresh beignets. That Sunday at Willow Tavern ended up being one of the first nice hint of spring days with lots of sunshine. Deciding it wouldn't hurt us to walk off a bit of brunch, we took Ethel (the Rambler) out to Rose Island for a stroll around this once famous picnic grounds and amusement park.
For those that don't know, Rose Island is a place I know very well because I wrote a book in 2019 called The Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana. In this pictorial book from the Images of America series, I explored the many Louisville and Southern Indiana area amusement parks that thrived in the early 1900s. I've always had a fascination with this time period in America and amusement parks were in their heyday during that time. If you're interested in purchasing a book, you can do so on Amazon or directly from yours truly! If you would like to order directly from the author (me!) please know that 100% of your money comes to me and I can also personally sign a copy for you! Please email ourtechnicolorlife@gmail.com if you would like to order a copy from me. $22/book and $3/shipping.
Lost Amusement Parks of Kentuckiana
Full blog about our afternoon at Rose Island...
French Lick West Baden Museum
Inspired by the Q & A session during the Hoosier Hometown LIVE, we decided we needed to visit the French Lick West Baden Museum. It all tied into what was turning out to be our circus/amusement park themed kind of month! This museum is another gem of a place that we'd always meant to stop at but never had before. It features local history exhibits about the French Lick & West Baden resorts with all kinds of intriguing photos, information, displays, antiques, and a wonderful self-guided audio tour. My favorite part - and main reason for visiting - they have a humongous model of the Hagenbeck - Wallace Circus! It was amazing and I think had we not had plans to grab lunch at Ballard's in West Baden, I would still be at the museum looking at all of the incredible attention to detail and the shear amount of detail in their multi-room circus and town model. You have to see it in person!
We love visiting places that are right here in our own backyard, especially as we are awaiting camping season to begin.
ENTERTAINMENT
This month marked our return to The Limbo tiki lounge in downtown Louisville. It had been two years since we have been able to get back to live music at The Limbo with our band, The Tin Pan Alley Cats. We love The Limbo and have missed playing there! They currently have a Moulin Rouge theme in music and decor so of course we wanted to play along. The theme runs into March so make plans to join us March 16th for our next gig at The Limbo. Olivia Griffin, owner of The Limbo plans to have many more themes throughout the year be sure to stay tuned about what the new themes will be. We will be the featured entertainment on the third Wednesday of each month. You can see all of our dates under upcoming events. We ended up making friends with some patrons who came in for fabulous tropical tiki cocktails and it turns out they are from Brooklyn and live nearby a circus school. How's that for continuing with our unintentional but awesome circus month theme?!? We had so much fun at this gig and are looking forward to more tunes, more Moulin Rouge songs added to the set list, and even more costumes for our March date!
We do have several private bookings for our band this spring and summer! You too can book the Tin Pan Alley Cats for your upcoming event or function. We offer 2 hour set bookings and you can email us at ourtechnicolorlife@gmail.com about rates & availability.
Lucy Shows
OK! You remember way back at the beginning of this newsletter when I said we have more Lucy shows coming up....here's that part! If you missed our Lucy tea party, have no fear. We have the following shows coming up and each already has an event created under our upcoming events with further information.
-Granville, TN I Love Lucy Day - April 9th (12 and 2:30)
-Louisville, KY Lucy Week Celebration at Trilogy Health - May 19th (6:30)
-Madison, IN with Sallie's Small Batch Ice Cream - June 24th (6 and 8)
Having A Ball Podcast
And speaking of Lucy, I had the pleasure of chatting with the lovely ladies of Having a Ball Podcast! Co-hosts Erika Murrietta and Ziva Maples dive deep into the life of Lucille Ball, exploring many facets of her life. They take an episode by episode look at some of her most famous shows Lucille Ball was part of like I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, and Here’s Lucy. They will also take a closer look at some of Lucy’s movies, explore the creation and works of Desilu productions and learn more about Lucy’s costars throughout her long career spanning decades! This was my third visit with Erika and Ziva and during this podcast, we chatted about Lucy & Desi in Forever Darling. Check out the Having a Ball Podcast here for previous recordings.
The Music That Helped Win the War
Did you know we also have a 1940s tribute show? The Music That Helped Win The War, covers music from the early 1940s, along with actual radio news reports from World War II as well as real visual clips of news reports and of the entertainers themselves. The show is a bit of a history lesson, interweaving musical numbers, chronologically, from the beginning of the war in 1940 to the end in 1945. We portray some of that time period's most popular singers, such as: Judy Garland, The Andrew Sisters, Bing Crosby, Vera Lynn, Vaugn Monroe and Kitty Kalen, just to name a few. The music, history and radio news clips from that part of our past makes for a great trip back in time, remembering the sacrifices made and the victories that are eventually celebrated.
We have a few more dates available to book this show! If you are interested in booking The Music That Helped Win the War, please email us at ourtechnicolorlife@gmail.com for rates & availability.
Grey Gardens The Musical - And the award goes to...
The last day of the month sure went out with a bang! We attended the Arts-Louisville Awards Ceremony at the Art Sanctuary in Louisville where I am so thrilled to announce that Grey Gardens The Musical won awards for Best Director, Best Musical, and I am truly honored to say I won Best Actress in a Musical. Grey Gardens and the Beales have always fascinated me and this show was seriously a dream production and dream role that I never thought I would get a chance to perform. It was also with great excitement when I was asked to sing a song from the show during the awards ceremony. Stepping back into Little's Edie's shoes made my day!
ART
While the circus sure seemed to be the unofficially official theme of the month, Lucy was a very close second. I have been painting quite a few sets of my Fab 4 peg dolls featuring Lucy, Ricky, Fred, & Ethel. Each set is hand painted by yours truly and you can order a set from me here!
https://etsy.me/3K8qmKB
Mural Progress
I've also been hard at work on my mural project. This wall has been completely transformed into this gorgeous Edwardian ladies at sunset piece. The owners of the building fell in love with this painting which was originally an ad in a Parisian boutique and wanted to feature it in their soon to be bourbon lounge. Check out my time-lapse progress videos!
When we're not entertaining, hosting tea parties, or in Jeff's case at the office keeping trains moving across the country, we spend a lot of time painting. My art business Maiden.Kentucky also doubles as a mural service. For locals interested in a mural, you can email me at maiden.kentucky @gmail.com for rates and availability. More of my murals can be seen on my Facebook page, MaidenKentucky.
February also kicked off the start of my latest teaching efforts! I had my first two classes as the Masonic Homes new acrylic paint teacher. We painted some winter landscapes and almond branch flowers. I loved getting to meet so many of the residents and very talented painters at that! One of the residents, Thelma, I could chat with all day! She grew up in New York attending the latest showings at the MET, going to live radio recordings of the Perry Como show, and studied water colors in art school, designed textile patterns for a studio before becoming a well known interior decorator in a very chic New York City boutique.
LIFESTYLE
Antiquing this month has us hunting for some unique pieces. I had been on the look out for a car hop tray to take with us on Rambler roadtrips and I found a great one at Sugar Babe Antiques in Crestwood, KY! It’s a vintage TraCo Dallas USA car hop tray. This beauty is coming with us to the drive in this summer!
We are redoing the basement area of our house to have a more speakeasy bar vibe so I was in the market for one of these fun gagets and ended up tracking one down on eBay! A 1950s metal Bar Aid! It’s the perfect tool for the at home bartender not to mention a fun way to explore new cocktail recipes.
Thus concludes our lovely month of February! Let’s hope we are moving towards some more sunshine warm spring days in the month of March.
Please explore the website and share with friends & family! We try to make this website a one stop shop for all of our events. Don‘t forget to subscribe so you stay in the loop and check out our upcoming events section right on the home page!
Yours truly,
Carrie & Jeff
AT A GLANCE - MARCH EVENTS
💚 Private Party Booking - March 5th
💚Private Party Booking - March 6th
💚 Gilded Tea - March 11th
💚Private Party Booking - March 13th
💚Tin Pan Alley Cats at the Limbo - March 16th (8-10pm)
And I can’t wait to see you again at Yew Dells this year!
Awesome newsletter. Had no idea the depth of your versatility. Would love to attend a tea party with my granddaughter sometime during the summer. We try to do this around her birthday (she’ll be 7 this year) which is at the end of August.