BEQUEST
The Carter Settlement is a way of life, a renaissance hearkening to the days of olde dedicated to encouraging women and children to recall their flurry for a happy life.
The "Take Joy" Stillwater movement was mainly inspired by Tasha Tudor, Beatrix Potter, and Laura Ingalls Wilder.
FOUNDER
Raquel has loved and collected substances to live and create a life worth loving for many years. She's voyaged through worn pages, discovering the undercurrents of a world full of possibilities. Yet, hearkening back to the days of olde and living in the 19th century is where Mrs Carter always felt the most profound resonance. She longed to live a life of dreamy enchantment where fairytales become, indeed, spun stories that have so wistfully occupied her pen over the decades.
Since childhood, Raquel has lived purely in her imagination. She dreamt up a life of stone cottages, thatched roofs, tea rooms, chickens, flopsy bunnies and sheep. She thought what a wonder it would be to create a world where one could escape for a moment and give rise to reflect and envelope another time. How lovely would it be to take a carriage ride along dusty dirt roads in an actual horse and buggy? Mrs Carter conceived of creating small gatherings where like-minded folks who enjoy the pursuits of days gone by and transformational enlightenment might gather. Every beautiful soul strives to reveal what life is made of and attempts to unearth its true meaning of purpose. Yet, as human folk, we face hardships and experiences that challenge the very essence of who we are. How will we rise above life's challenges? Are we tenacious enough to keep our dreams stirring within or falter in defeat when the waves of life toss us to and fro?
In 2019, life dealt Mrs Carter a terrible blow when she received news that her middle son Sawyer was murdered at age 24. Raquel felt a deep compulsion to not become one of a grieved face in perpetual mourning and knew instinctively that her healing would be the device of her pen and paintbrush. In the early mornings of the fortnight of her son's passing, she wrote a dedicatory storybook about a small black sheep named Sawyer Lamb (The Tale of Sawyer Lamb). She also founded The Carter Settlement, a 501c3 non-profit organisation, to create an endowment for the legacy of her work, which in all ways envelopes the remembrance of her son.
The Carter Settlement is a village for like-minded folks who align with an inherent knowledge of self and wish to enhance their wonderful imagination through visual and magical experiences.
THE CARTER SETTLEMENT IMAGINATIVE PURSUITS
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"Rabbits and gardens go together like springtime and rain showers, like seasides and merrymaids."~Raquel M Carter
Philanthropic investors interested in furthering The Carter Settlement's mission through bestowing land (a gift in kind), endowments, or donations should email Raquel@RaquelCarter.com.
ASPIRATIONS FOR THE CARTER SETTLEMENT
The Carter Settlement, once completed, will be a replicated olde version of an English Victorian Countryside Village with themed cottages (a replicated schoolhouse/chapel from Little House on the Prairie), a tea room (Mrs Threadgoode's Pantry and English Tea Shoppe), Scarlette Rose Cottage, Elizabeth Robin's Writing Cottage, Mrs Carter's Mer~Cantile, Henny Penny's Henhouse, The Mermaid Apothecary, Sawyer Lamb's Cracker Shack Cottage, Mr Sir Barbaric's Water Garden, and Scarlette Rose Pond (The Academy of Swimming for Women and Children). Raquel intends to help conserve through agriculture farming by protecting the heritage breed (Florida Cracker) sheep.
The village cottages represent characters and spots originating from Mrs Raquel's storybooks.
One might delight in a visit to The Mer~Cantile, where you can collect Raquel's published books and merchandise or saunter over to Mrs Threadgoode's Pantry and English Tea Shoppe to delight in a cuppa tea, scrumptious savouries and confections. Along the way, you can waft through an excursion of Mr Sir Barbaric's Seaweed Garden or glimpse where the young folks learn their swimming skills at Scarlette Rose Pond.
[The Mer~Cantile will be stocked with fibre storybook characters {made by the wool of the Florida Cracker sheep at the farm}, storybook-themed tea sets, mermaid Victorian household products, victorian clothing, bespoke Victorian furniture, accoutrements {for the lifestyle of a landlocked victorian mermaid/merrymaids}, planner/agenda systems and logbooks.]
LEAVING A BEQUEST
After her passing, Raquel bestowed The Carter Settlement 501(c)(3) on the Preservation Conservancy of the State of Florida in order to continue the legacy.
"I dwell in optimism." Raquel M Carter
All ideas, concepts, and brand notions of The Carter Settlement, Stillwater and Mermaid Junkie Academy are Copyright and Registered ®© Trademarks 2014. *Mermaid Junkie Academy is a branch umbrellaed under The Carter Settlement. Mermaid Junkie is now known as The Academy of Swimming for Women and Children.
[The above photos are mine but are simply a visual idea of what The Carter Settlement will resemble upon completion.]
