Claudia — Page 1157

Around the House

April 9, 2015 at 8:49 am by Claudia

Because the last post like this one got such a positive response, here is another edition of Around the House, as seen yesterday.

4-9 Short

Because neither of us is.

Short, I mean.

4-9 parakeet lamp

Because all lamps should include parakeets.

4-9 impatiens

Because it’s almost time to move the impatiens to the porch.

4-9 Scoutie

Because she likes to catch some zzz’s.

4-9 lamp

Because I love the lines of this lamp.

And the perfect glass shade that I searched for and finally found.

4-9 whitelamp

Because this lamp is cool and has a cloth-covered cord.

4-9 books

Because I love books and pottery.

And before you ask, no, I only did a book of the first year of the blog.

4-9 currier&ives

Because this is an original Currier & Ives print/lithograph.

Very old, very fragile. Found at auction many years ago.

4-9 earbuds

Because earbuds must always be at the ready.

As well as pens, pencils, nail file, scissors and crochet hooks.

I have a quick question for you. I collect McCoy Pottery, as you no doubt have realized by now. Would you be at all interested in a short series of posts about those pieces, like the series I did about the egg cup collection? I did one many years ago, but I have a nicer camera now and many of you are newish readers. It might be fun.

Happy Thursday.

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Pondering: The Dollhouse, Food & (The Absence of) Flowers

April 8, 2015 at 8:52 am by Claudia

4-8 DH

I haven’t done a speck of work on the dollhouse in the last couple of months.

I have big plans for the rooftop garden, as you know. I began to gather some things for the garden several months ago. But I’ve done nothing.

During the odd moment or two, I would idly wonder why I didn’t seem to have any desire to work on the garden. After all, it was winter, I was stuck inside a great deal of the time, why not lose myself in a little garden design?

I finally hit on the answer the other day. All of the other rooms are finished – at least, they’re finished in terms of the major decorating elements. I’m sure I’ll add a thing or two along the way. The rooftop garden will be the last ‘room’ design.

And then, I’ll be finished.

I’m thinking I don’t want to be finished. That’s why I’ve been avoiding the roof. When that’s done, what will I do? Get another dollhouse, you say? Where would I put it? There’s only so much room in this little cottage and believe me, it’s all being used.

What’s a girl to do? Bite the bullet, I guess, and start on the rooftop.

But I’m not ready yet.

4-8 tj

It’s rainy and cold here, so nothing is going on outside. We decided to head to Trader Joe’s yesterday. Since it’s an hour away from us, we only go once or twice a month. After nicely filling our shopping cart, we headed back home, stopping to get Scout’s food at the Vet’s.

So I guess you can say that yesterday was all about food.

Shocking, I know, but I didn’t buy flowers. I’m not sure why. Maybe because I’m invested in the outside of our house right now? Anyway, mark yesterday down on your calendars. April 7, 2015: Claudia went to Trader Joe’s and didn’t buy flowers.

Don’s playing a gig in town on Saturday, with two of his friends backing him up. I can’t wait. Normally, I can’t go along on his gigs because I’d be away from Scout for too long. But this one is right down the road, so I’ll be there. I’m so excited!

Happy Wednesday.

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Nostalgia & The Clean Up

April 7, 2015 at 9:28 am by Claudia

What fun it was to read all your comments yesterday! Nancy Drew clearly sparks a lot of memories for all of us. Thinking about it led me to remember that I borrowed my Nancy Drew books from the library and from friends. I think I might have owned one or two, but I’m not even sure about that. We didn’t have much money and receiving a new book was a rare treat. As Vicki said, those were the days where we routinely went to the library or, in my case, bookmobile, and checked out lots of books. There was really no other option for me and it wasn’t at all a sacrifice. I had a few new books in my possession, but nearly everything I read as a child came to me via the library: the Little House Books, Nancy Drew, Beverly Cleary books (Fifteen was a favorite) – all the favorites of my childhood and pre-teen years.

If you didn’t get a chance to read the comments, you might enjoy going back to yesterday’s post. It sparked a conversation about books, Walt Disney and the Mickey Mouse Club, and more. I was happily steeped in nostalgia.

Ahem. I worked outside yesterday.

It’s been months since I could say that (I’m not counting shoveling snow) and it felt so good. My body will need to adjust to raking and bending over repeatedly, but it will. It was sunny and in the sixties and I started the massive clean up that is necessary every spring. Picking up fallen branches. Cleaning out garden beds.

4-7 big garden bed

I leave autumn’s fallen leaves on my garden beds for the winter. The leaves provide protection for the plants and serve as mulch. I don’t cut back plants because I want the birds to have shelter and seeds over the course of the winter. So once spring finally arrives, I rake all the old leaves out of the beds, and start to cut back the plants. I worked on the planter outside the kitchen door and two of the garden beds. As you can see, things are still rather stark around here, but I see buds on the lilac bush, baby sedums, and my day lilies are coming up:

4-7 babydaylily

The rhythm of the garden’s renewal is the same every year. Everything happens in a certain order and that brings a sort of comfort. Ah yes, there are the day lilies! There are the sedum! There are the beginnings of the catmint!

I have yet to really look at the rose bushes. The winter of 2013-14 caused some damage to them. The winter of 2014-15 was worse, so I’m preparing myself for what I might see. But as to the rest of my plants, having a perennial garden ensures that most of the plants are long established and less likely to be damaged. Fingers crossed.

I made sure I was finished by 2:30 so that I could plop myself in front of the television to watch the Red Sox in their opening game. They won. Huzzah!

By the way, I badly wanted Wisconsin to win the NCAA tournament last night. I was raised in Michigan with two Big Ten universities and so it follows that I cheered for the Big Ten university in this game. It was so close! I know some of you are Duke fans and I’m happy for you. But Duke has won this particular tournament a lot. I would have liked to see the underdog triumph.

Ah well.

New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page.

Happy Tuesday.

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Around the House

Pondering: The Dollhouse, Food & (The Absence of) Flowers

Nostalgia & The Clean Up

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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