Claudia — Page 1310

A Thank You and a Wee Bit of Panic

January 9, 2014 at 8:59 am by Claudia

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My dear blogging friends and readers, you are the best in the world. I’ve said it before and I said it repeatedly to Don yesterday. “I have the best readers!”

And he agrees.

Thank you for tuning in to American Experience: The Poisoner’s Handbook Tuesday night. Between the congratulatory comments here on the blog and those on Facebook, our cup runneth over. Again and again yesterday, I read your comments out loud to Don and he was simply delighted. He was amazed and grateful that so many of you took the time out of your busy lives to spend a couple of hours watching The Poisoner’s Handbook.

Don is a wonderful actor. He can do anything; he can move from Farce to a show-stealing and wildly funny Doolittle in Pygmalion to Shakespeare to the gravitas of Dr. Charles Norris. Though I’m pretty sure I’m his biggest fan, I’m not alone. He is highly respected by his peers and directors love working with him.

Yes, he is tall – over 6 feet 4 inches tall. The period look to the costumes he wore added a little bulk, as well. He’s an imposing presence on stage and on the screen. And yes, that was his wedding ring, the one I put on his finger, that you saw in the hand washing scene. (It gave me a little thrill, too.)

I, along with you, was fascinated by the subject matter. I found it riveting. PBS does this kind of thing so well, this mix of documentary, interviews, still photos and re-enactments. The production values were excellent, the design and look of the re-enactments were true to the period; it was simply wonderful. Edited to add: If you somehow missed it, you can watch it online at pbs.org.)

And now, Don has a message for all of you:

I am so moved by the wonderful relationship Claudia has with you, her readers and co-creators and family of Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I heard all your wonderful comments and great observations regarding the PBS program I was lucky to be a part of. I thank you each and every one for your kind words and insights. You make it all worthwhile.

Love,
Don

Thank you, thank you, dear friends. You made our day.

In other news: When I ordered our new mattresses, I was told that delivery would be on or around January 29th. Yesterday, I received a call saying they will be delivered next Thursday, January 16th. Yikes. Now I’m praying that everything I have ordered; a new headboard, bed frame, sheets, mattress pad, dust ruffle, arrives before the mattresses. I thought I had more wiggle room and it turns out I don’t. I surely wouldn’t have been quite so casual about the whole thing had I known they were arriving sooner rather than later!

There are other challenges. We have to rearrange the bedroom to accommodate the bigger bed. Then we have to coordinate everything else: moving the furniture out of the hallway studio (and where do we put that?), clearing space in and around the stairway downstairs, deciding where to temporarily stash our current mattresses that day because the delivery guys are going to take them away for us. There is so little space in this cottage that there is a domino effect for every move. If this moves, than that has to move. If I put this here, where do I put that? Needless to say, my head is spinning. I ordered everything, including the mattresses, online. The only thing I haven’t ordered is a blanket. If any of you have a California King mattress, can you answer a question for me? I don’t seem to see any cotton blankets that are that size. Am I to assume that King size blankets are used instead? That’s what I had to order for the bed coverlet, which, thankfully, has already arrived – I got it for half price at Garnet Hill. (That quilt on the bed that I made? Too small for the new bed. I will have to fold it up and place it at the foot of the bed.) I feel like I’m choreographing a highly complex dance. Help!

Just kidding.

Or maybe I’m not kidding…

Happy Thursday.

January Christmas Critter Felt Along

January 8, 2014 at 6:00 am by Claudia

Hello everyone! Time for the first installment of our Christmas Critter Felt Along. Dawn of Creative Cain Cabin and I have made the first two ornaments in the series, the woodland owl and bear, and we didn’t compare notes. You’ll find you can put your own stamp on the patterns, making them uniquely yours. I played around with some decorative stitching, but I’m out of practice. Hope to improve my skills with each new set of ornaments.

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Meet Mr. Owl and Mr. Bear. We discovered that our owls are very different from each other, but our bears are very much the same. I was going to go for a black bear, which is what we have in my neck of the woods (and which I’ve seen in our back yard!) but I didn’t have any black felt. But why not a polar bear instead of a brown bear? Or a purple bear? Or a pink owl?

I didn’t make a hanger for mine because I plant to pass these on to a special someone who just might want to hold them and play with them.

Dawn has put together the patterns and they are very easy to follow. You can stitch the pieces together with embroidery floss, or by machine. Or you could glue them together. Whatever you prefer. To download the Woodland Owl visit Dawn’s post at Creative Cain Cabin. Here’s the pattern for the bear.

Woodland Bear Felt Pattern

Click here to download Woodland Bear Ornament Pattern

Click here to visit Creative Cain Cabin to download the Owl Pattern

There you go. Just click, download and have fun!

You’ll need felt, embroidery floss, an embroidery needle and scissors, plus pins to pin the pattern to the felt. If you want to make a hanger, you’ll need twine or ribbon. Dawn shares some tips about the order in which to put these pieces together on her post.

On January 27th we will be having a linky part where we can all share our bears and owls! It will be such fun! So put that date on your calendars. (We’ll remind you, of course.)

So here’s to the first two of twenty-four Christmas Critters! Enjoy.

Happy Wednesday.

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A Gift

January 7, 2014 at 8:14 am by Claudia

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A gorgeous, spectacular sunset on what was a rainy, rather miserable day. Gosh, I love sunsets. I might have more pictures of sunsets than of anything else. Except Scout, of course.

That mail truck?

It was delivering a lovely package for me. My longtime friend Tracie, of My Petite Maison, had a sort of ‘flash’ giveaway on her Facebook page a while back and I won. Tracie has an online boutique that specializes in French Nordic Goods and she has impeccable taste and a beautiful home. Even more importantly, she has been a dear friend over the years I’ve been blogging. We share a deep love of all animals. Many times during Riley’s last year of life, Tracie was there for me. She nursed her beloved Zeke through his last months in much the same way I nursed Riley. She’s a dear, compassionate, loving person who just happens to live in a beautiful town in California. (Need I say I’m a bit jealous on this bitterly cold January morning?)

I hardly ever win a giveaway, so I was surprised and delighted when Tracie informed me that I was the winner.

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Excuse the blurry photo, but I just had to show Tracie that Scout was mightily intrigued by this package. I bet she could smell Bechet, Tracie’s beautiful dog.

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Here’s a better picture of Tracie’s beautiful wrapping. Sigh. It’s almost too lovely to open.

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Here’s what was inside. Vintage by Nina, a big, beautiful coffee table sized book full of amazing photos. Nina Hartmann is an internationally known stylist and lover of all things vintage, who runs the shop vintagebynina.com and also has a showroom in Sweden. This is her third book and it includes not only her work, but the work of eight other collectors and friends.

It’s Gorgeous with a capital G. I can’t wait to sit down with a cup of hot chocolate and indulge in the beauty of the photographs. And it’s autographed by Nina.

Tracie, being Tracie, also included some organic tea and some heavenly lavender.

Thank you, Tracie dear, for this generous gift. And thank you for your friendship.

My neighbors who are stranded in Aruba? They can’t get a flight out until Saturday. So yesterday, there was a flurry of messages back and forth on Facebook, a search for her house key (successful) and instructions on feeding the cats and fish, plus a little litter box cleaning. They had expected to be back by Saturday and it was now Monday, so those cats were happy to see us. They were waiting at the door and guided us right to their empty food dish! So we’ll be doing a little cat and fish sitting this week.

Tomorrow is the start of our Christmas Critter Felt Along. Dawn and I will be posting our first two ornaments, along with the patterns. I just made mine on Sunday and it was a lot of fun. We’d love having you join in.

And finally, the day has arrived! Don’s show, American Experience/The Poisoner’s Handbook, airs tonight at 8:00 on PBS (7 pm Central.) It’s a documentary with a mix of interviews and historical information and a reenactment, which is where you’ll see Don as Dr. Charles Norris. It’s the kind of thing that PBS does incredibly well and we are very excited to see the final product. We’re eating dinner early so that Scout can get through her hyper ‘Daddy is cooking!’ nightly craziness in time for us all to settle down in front of the television.

I hope you can see it!

Happy Tuesday.

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A Thank You and a Wee Bit of Panic

January Christmas Critter Felt Along

A Gift

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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