Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Book Review – The Unfinished Garden

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Good morning, everyone! I’m reviewing The Unfinished Garden by Barbara Claypole White today for TLC Book Tours. As always, I am provided with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

From the publisher (and me):

James Nealy is haunted by irrational fears and inescapable compulsions. A successful software developer, he’s thrown himself into a new goal – to finally conquer the noise in his mind. And he has a plan. He’ll confront his darkest fears and build something beautiful: a garden. When he meets Tilly Silverberg, widowed too young, he knows she holds the key…even if she doesn’t think so. Tilly has found salvation in gardening and has been able to turn her passion into a business. The demands of her business and the care of her young son give her the excuse she needs to hide from the rest of the world. When James demands that she take him on as a client, her answer is a flat no. And the story develops from there.

My review:

Though I am a romantic, I tend to shy away from romance novels. But this one sounded intriguing – two damaged people meet and forge a friendship, in spite of and because of their individual fears and pain. I tend to believe we are all damaged in one way or another and that sometimes we are lucky enough to meet that person who understands us and helps us heal. These characters, beautifully written by the author, are trying their utmost to move forward, in spite of their pain. They are compelling, honest and raw and I found myself cheering them on.

They are surrounded by a wonderful group of supporting characters. The story takes us from North Carolina to Tilly’s native England. The settings – both in North Carolina and England –  are written with great detail by Ms. White. The gardens, the flowers, the trees, the topography are so lovingly drawn, so vividly detailed that what emerges is not unlike a beautifully realized painting. When gardens and gardening are so much a part of the story, this attention to detail is greatly appreciated. The same attention to detail is given to each and every character. You cannot help but be drawn in to their world.

I never give away the plot. I will say that I love it when a writer creates characters that live and breathe and are real – warts and all. Barbara Claypole White has done that in this excellent novel.

About the author:

Barbara Claypole Write grew up in the English village of Turvey with big dreams of becoming a novelist. After a detour through women’s and medieval history at York University, she landed a job promoting London fashion. She was part of the first British Designer show, measured celebrities in their underwear, and worked for the queen of the international rag trade, Vivienne Westwood.

One day her boss sent her to New York, and she fell in love with an American professor who followed her around JFK airport. Eighteen months later, she was a faculty spouse, freelance writer and marketing director in Champaign, Illinois, a small Midwest college town. She also started writing her first novel – a love story set against the world of eighties fashion and AIDS.

Five years passed; then Barbara learned she was pregnant, and her husband was offered a distinguished professorship at UNC Chapel Hill. The family moved to the North Carolina forest and Barbara became a stay-at-home mom and a woodland gardener – factors that would shape her writing voice. She returned to her manuscript, took evening classes in writing at the local arts center and slammed into another detour; her young son developed obsessive-compulsive disorder.

From that moment, fascination with mental illness framed her life. She ditched her first novel and began writing Dogwood Days, which turned into The Unfinished Garden. She also joined a non-fiction project for parents of children with invisible disabilities and blogs through the highs and lows of OCD at www.easytolovebut.com. (Her son is now an award-winning teen poet.)

Barbara is consistently drawn to the theme that people who need each other find each other, and is hard at work on her next novel…when she’s not gardening.

There isn’t an official giveaway this time, but because of some delivery problems, I ended up with two copies of this book. Would you like a copy?  Just leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner on Friday night.

A Tweaking Quandary

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I have a teeny-tiny studio space just at the top of the stairs.

There’s just enough room for me, my Elna sewing machine and some fabric. To the right is a bookshelf and further on down the hall is a cabinet and my vintage dress form, Letitia. You can read about the whole shebang in this post.

Here is my tweaking quandary for this week: How do I find space for this?

This is the ‘new’ Featherweight my husband bought me as an early birthday present. Featherweights were designed to be portable, so putting it in the case is always a possibility. But the case smells musty (I’m working on that) and besides, it’s too pretty to be tucked away. But when it sits on my sewing table, it’s right next to the other machine.

You see my predicament. Limited space. I can always use it on the kitchen table. Or on the desk in the den. But I won’t always want to do that and, again, it needs a place to sit.

I have an idea. This table is currently sitting in the den. Since we no longer have a lamp sitting on top of it (it died – in fact the shade was transformed into this) the table is just sort of there. There are a few books hanging about on the little shelf, my vintage child’s piano is on the top. It doesn’t really do anything, especially since we added the coffee table to the den.

I’m going to digress here for a moment. Did I ever tell you the story of this table? Years ago, and I mean twenty+ years ago, I was a faculty member at Boston University’s School for the Arts. I had my own office which was rather spacious. No windows, though, only senior faculty had the coveted offices with windows. But heck, it was my own space. Most of us furnished our offices with a combination of battered office furniture and old props used in student productions. I found this table, which was unpainted at the time, in the prop room and commandeered it for my space. It was a wee bit fragile and needed some gluing. There it lived for a couple of years until I found a rent controlled apartment in Cambridge and needed furniture. I couldn’t afford much, as I was woefully underpaid, so it moved to my apartment. And, somehow, it moved with me to San Diego. And then to New York. That little table and I have a long history which makes it very precious to me. It reminds me of the days in Boston where I was working my tush off and having lots of fun. I painted it a few years ago and it looks pretty nifty.

So, why not move this little table upstairs and place it perpendicular to the sewing table along the wall (under the mantle shelf)? It’s narrow enough, 13 inches deep, and it’s sturdy. I think it just might work. Or will I be trapped in there between the two tables?

I’m leaning toward using it. Any advice?

I’m posting this early so I can link to my pal Brenda’s Tweak It Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday.

Topping it Off & Etsy

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This is the top of the white hutch in my kitchen. (Gosh, it’s hard to take good photos of the tops of cabinets and hutches! It seems to be so dark up there – at least in my house.) I used to have a rather large Fiesta collection and on the left are 3 of the pieces that I saved when I sold it. The heart is from Monica. The sheep are salt and pepper shakers that my sister gave me. I have a vintage pitcher under that wire cloche. The little guy is a fishmonger from the days when we collected the Dickens Village pieces from Department 56. Don added him to the display because he thinks the fishmonger looks like him. And on the right is an old ice cream bucket filled with dried hydrangeas.

Once I had taken that photo, I started looking at the tops of my other cabinets.

This is my hutch in the den. The birdcage on the left is vintage Hendryx. I bought it at Vignettes in San Diego. And you can see some of my pieces of Roseville pottery. I love Roseville. Hidden behind the pottery are some vintage books, including my dad’s schoolbooks.

Then I traveled on to the top of my big old white cabinet in the living room:

The ceiling in the living room is low. More pottery, mostly McCoy – the piece on the left doesn’t have a maker’s mark.

What about the kitchen cabinets?

Fortunately, our kitchen ceiling is high and I can display my pottery. On the left are two Fiesta coffee pots. The other four pieces are McCoy. That chartreuse vase is one of my favorites – very clean lines and  sort of Art Deco/Moderne handles. On the other side of the kitchen you can see these:

More McCoy.

I like using the tops of hutches and cupboards and cabinets for display space. And, frankly, I need it. I have so much pottery around here that if I limited my displays to shelves and the inside of hutches, I’d be in a sorry state. Do you use that space to display things in your home?

Shop Update:

There are 2 more Obsession Scarves in the Etsy Shop – I just added them.

 Update: Sold out. Thank you!

Another former student of mine won an Emmy last night – Abraham Higginbotham (Writer and Executive Producer on Modern Family.) Yay, Abe!

Happy Monday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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