Claudia — Page 1191

Scenes From the Cottage: The Den

January 18, 2015 at 8:48 am by Claudia

This time of year I am in full-on Nesting Mode. I look around our cottage and thank my lucky stars that we have a roof over our head and a charming one, at that. So I’ve been taking some pictures of the cottage. First up?

The den.

This room – where I write, blog, read, and where Don and I watch the tube – is full of things that are well worn, used and vintage. The only item that was new when we purchased it is the sofa. It’s now nineteen years old and on its second slip cover. Oh, and the rug, which is now 14 years old and has attained ‘well worn’ status courtesy of the dogs that have shared our life.

The den is smallish, sunken and until very recently, was not my favorite room here at the cottage. Then, after almost 10 years of dreaming of built-in bookshelves, we took the bull by the horns and stained some wood, added some standards and brackets, and now? I don’t know why, but those darned shelves have made all the difference in the world in my perception of the space.

I really love it here now.

It’s full of stuff. Every bit of space is in use. But that’s the way life is here at the cottage, where livable space equals about 1000 square feet and the owners have a lot of things that they love.

Some scenes from the den (as is, nothing styled):

Corners-Den 1

Corners-Den 5

Corners-Den 2

Corners-Den 6

Corners-Den 3

Corners-Den 10

Corners-Den 4

Corners-Den 7

Corners-Den 8

Corners-Den 9

Everything has a story of course, because that’s how we roll around here.

A flower print in a beautiful scalloped wood frame found for $15 at auction.

A pair of vintage lamps found in a favorite antique shop last year. We fell in love with them.

A blue/green table found at auction for $10.

Collections: egg cups, McCoy pottery, china, Roseville pottery, mini pottery, and books.

Well loved art hanging on the walls: an original Maxfield Parrish print, an original Currier & Ives ‘God Bless Our Home’ print (found at auction), the beautiful Lost Lamb print in its equally beautiful vintage frame.

A spinet desk made out of cherry, a lovely china cabinet (one of the first things I purchased when I moved to San Diego), an antique music cabinet, a $5 television/media cabinet (found at auction) and a $10 coffee table.

My blogging chair, found in San Diego. It’s vintage and needs to be reupholstered but, in the meantime, is sporting an IKEA slipcover.

The beautiful cigarette box I found in Edinburgh over 20 years ago – one of my very favorite things.

You can see that we don’t spend a lot of money on things. We’re always on a budget. Since we’re also naturally drawn to used, worn, and vintage, it all seems to work out rather nicely!

It’s not perfect. But perfect is boring.

I believe in letting a room evolve over time. It’s taken us almost ten years to find what works in this space. But now, it’s my favorite retreat.

More ‘Scenes From’ this week.

Happy Sunday.

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The Pantel

January 17, 2015 at 8:36 am by Claudia

No, not the Pentel, like the pen.

Not Pantone, like the colors.

No, my friends, I’ve come up with the newest trend in decorating. Magazines will come calling. Bloggers will be begging me for interviews. My work will appear in decorating books. I’ll be deluged with offers from major companies to use – for free – their appliances, their furniture, their lighting fixtures. You’ll start to see countless posts here on MHC where the tag line is something like, “Thanks to (fill in the blank) who graciously provided all of the major appliances in the kitchen.”

Bear with me. We’re constantly seeing mantels on decorating/home/DIY blogs. Right? Mantels redone for each season, or holiday. Vignettes (you know how tired of that term I am) on the mantels. Garlands draped from the mantel. Sparkly lights along the top of the mantel. Striking artwork or architectural salvage hung over the mantel.

Those of us without a fireplace or a faux mantel are left out of the loop. I didn’t grow up with a fireplace. The only time I’ve ever had a fireplace – and it was non-working – was when Don and I rented a little Craftsman cottage in San Diego. Would I like a fireplace? Yes. But, for now, there are no fireplaces at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. Nor will there be in the conceivable future.

Wait a minute. Hold on.

Pantel1

I have a piano. I decorate the top of the piano. I hang things above the piano.

Piano + mantel = Pantel.

Are you with me?

Pantel2

A beautiful McCoy vase filled with dried hydrangeas from my garden. A little white McCoy singing bird.

Pantel3

A funky sign. Two more McCoy birds in Aqua. A Bose radio/CD player topped with an antique napkin ring engraved with the name ‘Claudia.’

Pantel4

The antique lithograph of the Aquitania hanging above the pantel.

I have a Pantel.

I don’t change it out very often. I’m not one to change things up to herald a new season. Once I’ve hit upon an arrangement I like, I tend to keep it there for a while. I like this arrangement. Therefore, it’s staying.

But it’s my version of a mantel. It’s certainly as wide as many mantels. Wider, even.

It’s just as pretty as many mantels. It’s made of mahogany, for goodness sake!

It even plays music (and I’m not talking about the Bose, though that’s nice.) I was just making it play some music the other day. Take that, mantels. Where’s your music?

I find I’m liking it even more now that I’ve coined the term ‘Pantel.’

Everyone has a mantel. That’s so old school.

But a pantel, now that’s a horse of a different color.

What do you think?

Happy Saturday.

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Framed

January 16, 2015 at 9:02 am by Claudia

I escaped from the house yesterday. Suffering from a case of cabin fever, I asked Don if he wanted to take a little drive south to Target. Not all that exciting, but I had a little list of things I needed to buy and I just wanted to get out of the darned house. It was a wee bit warmer outside and sunny (lord, what a difference the sun makes in a winter day!)

We were forced to make a stop at Five Guys, forced, I tell you. So we went with it and bought an order of french fries. I’ve told you before that I think they are the best french fries ever, and they are. Oh my goodness.

That was my lunch for the day.

An addition to the corner I highlighted yesterday, courtesy of Target:

1-16 family photo

The family. Framed.

I used Shutterfly to have some copies made of three of the photos we shot that day. The ‘outtake’ is in a frame on the table next to the sofa. I’m planning on sending some copies to my sister, as well as a framed copy to my dad, who has been complaining that he doesn’t have an up-to-date photo of us. He’s right, he doesn’t. Hopefully, he’ll like this one.

Have any of you seen the British series Broadchurch? We are latecomers to this one. Several people I knew recommended it highly, so we watched it on Netflix. We watched 3 episodes the first night and last night we watched 5 episodes in a row! We couldn’t ‘put it down.’ Just like the best kind of mystery, this series was riveting. It was so well written, so well acted, full of characters that were multi-layered, highly complex; not always black and white, definitely in shades of gray. I can’t stop thinking about it today. It really got into my head and heart.

Watch it, if you can. There’s a second season that just started airing in England. I look forward to the day it’s available here.

Gotta say, the Brits just do these things better than we do. Yes, there are exceptions here that are ground-breaking and powerful, and I’m sure there are series running on British television that lean more toward average. I’ve seen them. But on the whole, there is so much more depth, so many more risks taken. There are roles that actors can sink their teeth into, roles for for older actors, roles for average-looking actors, not just pretty young things. Character actors who look real, who have wrinkles, or freckles, or graying hair, or a face that isn’t just like every other face are used again and again. Indeed, they seem to be respected and honored.

How nice to see people on screen who’ve lived a life.

Anyway, I recommend it highly. It’s unbelievably well done.

New post up on Just Let Me Finish This Page.

Happy Friday.

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Scenes From the Cottage: The Den

The Pantel

Framed

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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