Monthly Newsletter: March 2023 (No.14)
Welcome to Our Technicolor Life! We are a husband and wife team that lives a vintage lifestyle in full color through our many adventures in our tea room, travel, entertainment, and art. Follow along each channel that makes up Our Technicolor Life.
We are Jeff and Carrie Ketterman. During the day, Jeff is a General Manager with Kasgro Rail Corporation Management Division. With a fleet of over 500 heavy-duty cars, Jeff works daily to provide solutions to various needs of the multi-dimensional rail transportation industry. By day, Carrie is a painter, illustrator, and author creating murals, & paintings.
After closing up shop for the day. Jeff and Carrie host themed tea parties out of their historic home at The Old Capitol Tea Room, travel to festivals and vacation in The Not So Long Trailer, and have two bands, a 1950s style band, Rosie & the Rockabillies, and a 1920s style band, The Tin Pan Alley Cats. Each of these channels makes up our Technicolor Life.
TEA
After a little break and enjoying the living room area of our house the past two months, it is time to move the furniture around and set up the tea room tables and chairs for the 8th season at The Old Capitol Tea Room. Our Spring events are up and live for ticket sales and we currently have just a few tables left before being sold out for Spring. Currently there are tables available for our 1940s Music That Helped Win The War Tribute Show featuring 24 hit songs from the 1940s, 24 costumes, and an accompanying audio & visual chronological history of World War 2. This tribute show features the most live singing of any of our tea events so if you're looking for music, this is the tea event for you!
Be Our Guest, Lucy & Desi Tribute Show, Mad Hatter Story Time, Mary Poppins Sing Along, and Breakfast at Tea-ffany's have all sold out. At the time of this newsletter, we currently have 5 tables available for our Music That Helped Win the War Tribute Show on Friday March 31st at 7pm. Check out the links below if you are interested in attending this tea event.
Summer tea events will go live Wednesday March 29th at 11AM so mark your calendars for tickets to go live. We've got some exciting fan favorites returning to the tea room this summer and a few new additions!
Private Parties
Our private party information has been updated with a private party booking form and booking availability. In 2023, private parties will primarily be hosted on weekdays and weeknights with limited weekend availability. We host baby showers, bridal showers, birthdays, book clubs, church groups, meetings, etc. The cost is $35/person (kids and adults) and include a traditional afternoon style sweet and savory tea tray made up of finger sandwiches, desserts, selection of 3 loose leaf teas, and tax. We require a minimum of 15 people to book a private party and can seat 32 comfortably between our dining room and living room.
There is a $100 booking fee to be paid in advance to secure your desired date. This booking fee secures your date, time, and two hours in the tea room. This booking fee is non-refundable and does not go towards your final bill. October, November, and December are our busiest months of the year and private parties are NOT available on weekends. We are happy to look at weekdays and weeknights during these months. If you are interested in a private party, please fill out our Private Party Booking Form. We do require the $100 booking fee at the time of your booking to secure your date at the tea room. This booking fee is non-refundable and does not go towards your final bill. Final headcount and payment must be submitted one week prior to the event.
Private Party Booking | Our Technicolor Life
The private party booking form now includes party time frames for you to select. Our public tea events do take precedence over private parties. If we have a Friday/Sunday public tea event, we do not host private parties the Saturday in between.
Weekday Private Party Time Frames
12-2pm OR 1-3pm
Weeknight Private Party Time Frames -
5-7pm OR 6-8pm
Weekend Private Party Time Frames
12-2 pm OR 1-3pm
TRAVEL
Oddities & Curiosities Expo
We had the chance to check out the Oddities & Curiosities Expo 2023 that came through Louisville on Saturday. A lot of really interesting stuff on display in the various booths. I have always been intrigued by side shows, and most of my summers in my youth involved a trip to Coney Island where my dad and I would watch their side show. In fact, I got to be such a regular there that the acts knew me and would invite me and my dad on stage as a participant at times. My dad once laid on the bed of nails and I was the “human conductor” once! I had current running thru my body and they lit a torch by touching it to my tongue!! 🤣😜
We picked up a few cool things at the expo, including a “Ghost of Southern Indiana” book, and enjoyed people watching.
Napoleon Dynamite Movie Night
Well, that was fun! We had such a great time attending the Napoleon Dynamite event hosted by madhatterproductionandevents at Louisville’s Memorial Auditorium, last night. Not only did we get to meet Jon Heder (Napoleon), Efren Ramirez (Pedro) and Jon Gries (Uncle Rico), but we shared the stage with them for a dance off! Carrie (as Deb Bradshaw, Napoleon’s girlfriend), got to dance with Jon Heder, which was clearly the highlight of our evening.
The event got off to a rough start when the event space couldn’t get the sound to play for the movie that was to be shown before the Meet & Greet.
After an hour of trying without any progress, they sent out a distress call to the cast who had gone out to eat while the movie was to play. They came back to the theatre, were given microphones, and then proceeded to improvise with live voiceover, which was hilarious!
It’s also really nice to have crazy friends who like to dress up and play as well. 🥰
Lou Lou on Market
Checked out a great new restaurant, Lou Lou on Market in Louisville’s NuLu area on East Market St. It opened in December. Great food at a reasonable price, plus they have a great little speakeasy bar in the basement - Stave.
The New Orleans-inspired restaurant features some great Cajun dishes and NOLO signature drinks, their French 75 and Sazerac cocktails were spot on! Of course, as a NOLO inspired restaurant they feature Bananas Foster as a part of their dessert menu. Their offering is in the form of a decadent cheesecake.
We ventured down into Stave after dinner and Pete Peterson and his jazz combo was playing. Pete is unreal. I have never seen anyone’s hands cover as many keys and move down a keyboard as fast as Pete’s. His jazz combo, The Buzzard is there every Saturday and Monday night!
Cincinnati Cooke Family Road Trip
It had been awhile since we last had a proper Cooke Family outing so we made up for lost time and had a doozie of a field trip day to Cincinnati!
As any Roadtrip should, we started off with a visit to Plehn’s Bakery before heading to the Queen City. We used to ride bikes there every Saturday morning for breakfast so while there was no time for bikes, there is always time to stop in and pick up some goodies.
Our first Cinci stop was to the American Sign Museum. The American Sign Museum is dedicated to the art and history of commercial signs and sign making. It is also the largest public museum dedicated to signs in the United States, covering more than 100 years of American sign history in 20,000 square feet of indoor space, the museum is a walk through the ages of technology and design.
After the American Sign Museum, we headed to the Newport Aquarium. Jeff and I had been years ago and I remember really liking it and kept hoping we’d go again. This aquarium is fabulous and so many tunnel tanks to walk through, white alligator, incredible stingray exhibit, penguins, and a chance to walk the shark bridge suspended above a tank full of sharks! Too much fun!
And being in Newport, we grabbed some lunch at the Hofbrauhaus. We needed a bit of fuel for our one last stop to Jingle Jim’s! Talk about the ultimate Cincinnati getaway day!
Sacred Heart Model School City Champions
It’s s always a good day to be a Sacred Heart Model School alum but even more so on February 18th! Say hello to the 6th AND 8th grade basketball champions! It was excellent seeing some of my grade school teachers, high school basketball coaches, and a visit to my old stomping grounds at Assumption High School. Way to go Bears!!! Also I'm a little jealous that we have an actual mascot now for games. We've always been the Bears but we legit have a Bear!