Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Little Pink Animals & Square #2

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My little pink pets are multiplying. Now we have two chicks (from Elyse) and a pink Scottie (from Meri.) Do you think they’re happy? They seem to be.


You realize, don’t you, that I am actually providing a close-up view of my amateurish attempts at embroidery? What am I thinking?

Square #2. A curtained window with a glimpse of spring – can you tell where my thoughts are? I’m making a discovery with each square – this one taught me that I should outline the square first, as I did in square #1. Lesson learned. I notice the window panes are a tad crooked, just like the ones here at MHC.

I’m off to start my research on the Shakespeare being done this summer at the Rep. The dollhouse has been cleared from the table temporarily. In its place: scripts and lots of books. I’ve made a deal with myself – I can do some fun things if I work on the texts in the morning. We’ll see how this works out.

(Pink flower watercolor from Helene)

Some Stitching & McCoy Monday

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Ah, it is Monday – we residents of Mockingbird Hill Cottage are hoping against hope that all is back to normal. We’ve had power outages, lots of heavy, wet snow and on Sunday we lost our cable, phone and going online was impossible for much of the day. Thankfully, every day we had power and cable by the time the Olympics came on. We are also very lucky – friends of ours who live south of us lost 2 trees and had no power for over 50 hours.

On to McCoy – this piece is a bookend/vase. For some reason, I only have one. The flower is hollow and is meant to be used as a vase. I found this early in my collecting days and it sits on the windowsill above the kitchen sink. It is one of my favorites – makes me smile! (Sorry the photo is a little dark but I didn’t get around to taking it until last night.)

I’ve stitching along with Amy’s 39 Squares. She makes these lovely embroidery samplers that consist of 1 inch squares in a grid. They have a spontaneous feeling to them – more freestyle and fun than traditional samplers. Amy has decided to do a square a day with a total of 39 squares in honor of her upcoming birthday. Those of us who are taking part will post a square a day so you will see, for better or worse, the fruits of my labor. I haven’t done any embroidery except for a stitch or two since I was a camp counselor in my early 20’s. Denim shirts were big then and each of us girls decorated our shirts with all sorts of embroidery. (I wish I knew where that shirt was!) Consequently, I am rusty. Today’s square is my first wobbly attempt at this.


The outline is a bit wonky – but I’m okay with that. I added a little flower button. I have to come up with a new square every day….Yikes!

Have a good day, everyone.

My Blog Book

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Hello everyone! We have had a rough couple of days – snow, sleet, wind, power outages – just plain yucky. Luckily, the longest power outage so far was just 2 hours. Though it is inconvenient, I realize it could be much worse. Nevertheless, I am well and truly sick of winter. Officially. Be gone, Winter! Welcome, Spring! (Am I jumping the gun, do you think?)


I’ve been wanting to share this with you for quite some time. However, I wanted my parents to have their own copy as a surprise, so I had to wait until they received their copy in the mail. What is it? It is my very own hardcover book containing the blog posts and photos from my first year of blogging. I got it through Blurb. Since I first put this together last summer, there are even more blog to book sites available, but I am happy with Blurb. (This isn’t a plug for Blurb, by the way, this is just my experience with this process!)

I wanted a permanent record of my posts as they do indeed chronicle our life here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I was so excited last summer when my copy arrived. Oh, I see several volumes lined up prettily on my bookshelf, just waiting to be thumbed through.

If you’re interested in something like this there are all sorts of price ranges and sites available. I chose a hardcover version. In the case of Blurb, you just go to their site, download the software and then get to work editing your posts and photos. Actually, it isn’t work at all – it’s fun.


I learned a great deal working on the first volume and just finished editing the second volume. Since I post a lot more than I did the first year, this one will be twice as many pages. I’ve learned more about editing the photos and I’ve changed the post font to the same font I use on my blog – papyrus. The only thing lacking is the ability to show my blog background on each page, but that is a minor complaint.

I don’t write in a journal. In fact, I tried for many years to journal and failed miserably. When I started to blog it quickly became clear to me that blogging was my form of journaling. I spend a lot of time taking photos and writing and editing my posts; I am thrilled to have a book which is a permanent record of them.

I’ll be sure to post about Mockingbird Hill Cottage – the second year when it arrives.

Hey, does this mean that I am a published author?

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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