Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Lampshades, Dollhouse and a Cold

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The dreaded seasonal cold/sinus thing has hit me and I’m not happy. There is some shopping yet to be done and what am I doing? Sitting here wrapped in a shawl, blowing my nose. I insist that this thing leave my body within 24 hours – preferably sooner.

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on our Christmas Tree. As I write this post, I am gazing upon our pretty tree. I love it. Oh, and I’m sorry that many of you tried to get the bottlebrush wreaths at Big Lots to no avail. I guess I am one of the few that found a Big Lots with some still on the floor – perhaps my neighbors don’t fully appreciate the beauty of these babies?

When I scurried out to Target on Sunday to get more lights for the tree, I found the perfect shade for the parakeet lamp. Yes, I know I said that I had found the perfect shade before, but I was apparently mistaken. This is the perfect shade.


It is such a pretty, soft shade of gray. Thank you, Rachel Ashwell, for your Simply Shabby Chic line.


Perfect. And it allows for a bigger light bulb. The other would only fit over one of those pointy chandelier lights that get too hot. This one works with a regular old light bulb.

The warm, cozy light that comes from little lamps placed around a room is one of my favorite things.

The dollhouse has been temporarily moved to the top of the music cabinet. And now my husband is thinking we should use the dollhouse table as our coffee table here in the den. It does look nice there. That means we have to begin another dollhouse table search. Though nothing has been done yet to renovate the dollhouse, some Christmas decorating has been happening:


Oh yes, that is Paul McCartney looking out the window. Don thought Sir Paul should pay a holiday visit to the dollhouse. Maybe he’ll play us a tune or two.

O Christmas Tree…You are Hard to Photograph

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Boy, I am not a professional photographer – that’s for sure! I remember having the same trouble last year. I just can’t get a photo that truly reflects the way the tree looks. These are pretty good, but the colors are more vivid, the lights are more sparkly – you know what I mean. I took these last night as I tweaked the tree’s final look. Pardon the television – our tree is in the den, and our house is tiny. The lights around the window were my husband’s solution as to what to do with the end of the final string of lights.


Here it is in daylight. After gathering vintage ornaments for several years, we’ve reached the point where 95% of the ornaments are vintage and the rest are ornaments that were given to us as presents or are from my younger days. I hadn’t realized how I had unconsciously created my favorite palette of pink and aqua until I looked at finished tree. And the clear lights really add brilliance to the ornaments. We love it.

I tried this one with the tripod – which was one of the recommendations I read during a google search. Unfortunately, I don’t know enough yet about f stops and shutter speed to do anything more with these!





This is the ornament that is always put on the tree by both of us. It is our Winston ornament. Winston was our first dog. He left us too soon, at only eight years old, not that many years after we moved out East. We miss him everyday.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of the tree!

More Decorating

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The tree is decorated…the saga has ended, thank goodness. I have to say it is the prettiest one yet. Clear lights have made a huge difference in the look of the tree. Now I am in the midst of the ‘how do you get a good photograph of the tree?’ dilemma. No matter how I try, the photo doesn’t do it justice. So if you can hang on a day, I will have some photos to share with you. I’m going to mess around with the camera and see what I can come up with.

You know my ‘wrought iron thingy’ that is on the table in the kitchen? The pumpkins are gone and this is what I’ve done with it for the Christmas season.


Simple, but pretty, I think. Have a wonderful day.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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