Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for Claudia

Collecting Furniture For The Dollhouse

August 18, 2009 at 12:54 pm by Claudia

Look how happy the birds are about the new arrival at MHC! Oh my gosh, could this cabinet for my dollhouse be any cuter? (Frankly, my husband and I would like a life-sized version for MHC.) My friend Marsha wrote about a cabinet almost exactly like this one that she purchased at a show. The cabinet was made by Dollhouse Land. I fell in love with it and wrote her to ask about the maker and how to contact them. As luck would have it, Marsha was going to another show the next weekend and she volunteered to check out Dollhouse Land’s exhibit and buy one for me. Isn’t she a sweetie? She even emailed a photo of it from her phone!


I love it and can’t wait until it finds a home in the dollhouse. Moving on – the other day I was in an antique store and I saw these:


Now this will show my age, but I remember when these were a big deal. I was a kid – not sure what age – and Ideal Toys came out with a whole line of Petite Princess dolls and furniture. I remember thinking it would be so cool to have a collection of this stuff. My parents, alas, didn’t go along with that idea. The antique shop had several different items from the line in the original boxes.

Of course, I had to buy two of them – they were marked at a very low price. I bought the “Palace Chest” and a wing chair. The palace chest is made of plastic, but I think I could make it work in a Shabby Chic way in the dollhouse.

Do you see what I mean?

The wing chair is pretty flashy and would definitely have to be toned down. After all, my dollhouse isn’t a palace. I will have to perform some kind of magic.
It has potential, don’t you think?

And I finally got my Petite Princess furniture. Shall we say, a ‘number’ of years later?

Filed Under: dollhouse, miniatures 15 Comments

Dog Days (& Feasts)

August 17, 2009 at 11:23 am by Claudia

Greetings from MHC. It is hot, humid and we are certainly in the dog days of summer here. I stall as long as I can each day before I finally give up and turn on the air conditioner. Me + humidity = crabby, irritated and congested.

Speaking of dog days, Don and I were in Woodstock yesterday. You might remember I was going to hear him perform? (He was wonderful, by the way.) Our trip kept us out a bit past Mr. Riley’s dinner hour. Maybe an hour. Not hours. When we walked up to the side door, I spied this on the floor in front of the refrigerator. (This has been restaged. I was so dumbfounded at the time that I didn’t think of taking a photo.)


There were many torn pieces of paper and bookcover strewn everywhere. I ask you to imagine these extras. Riley had eaten my bird identification book.


When he was a newly rescued dog, he would get into things due to separation anxiety. Once he tore open Don’s backpack and ate a bunch of gum. He chewed up one of my McCoy identification books. We learned to put everything away that he might get into before we left the house. He hasn’t done anything like that in a long time. Until yesterday. He has always had a liking for books. When you or I like them, we read them. When Riley likes them, he eats them. I will occasionally catch him putting his teeth around the edge of a book as if to imagine what it might taste like. I always issue a sharp “NO!” and move the book out of the way. It seems that I somehow missed the foreshadowing of yesterday’s feast. Now we are back to putting everything up and out of the way when we leave. He knew he was a bad boy. At least he got some roughage in his diet.

I am in the midst of some new designs on the blog. Check out my new button on the sidebar. Mine doesn’t have code so if you want to add it to your blog, just take the jpeg. My banner will be changing, too. I thought it was time for an update. This is all being done by my friend Mandy of a la parisienne. She designed my sidebar labels, remember? I hope you enjoy it when it is all installed.

Oh, I was kept awake for hours last night with an itchy ankle from that darn yellowjacket. I thought I would go mad. Stay away from me bees, you hear?

Have a wonderful day!

Filed Under: blog, nature, Riley 17 Comments

Sunday Morning

August 16, 2009 at 9:06 am by Claudia


Early morning, Sunday. Love the soft light in the kitchen. You can see our little cow on top of the hutch. We bought him several years ago and named him Monty in honor of Montrose, the town we were living in at the time. Monty keeps watch over all things in the kitchen.


I’ve received some awards lately that I will be posting throughout the week. A wonderful blogger named Susan of The T-Cozy gave me her Kindred Spirit award. She posted about it here. Both Susan and I love pottery and are ardent collectors. She has a wonderful collection and a lovely blog. Don’t you just love the words “kindred spirit?” It reminds me so much of Anne of Green Gables…. I have been lucky to find so many kindred spirits through blogging. What a wonderful world has been opened up to me. Thank you, Susan. Please stop by Susan’s blog – you’ll love it.

By the way, I’ve created another page that lists my awards. Just scroll down the right column to the Awards/roses photo and click.

Yesterday I mowed…you guessed it…another yellowjacket sting in the other ankle. This is getting extremely annoying. We had the original ground nest treated – but there’s another one about 5 feet away! All I’m trying to do is mow the lawn…give me a break, bees!

I’m off to take the dogs for a walk before it gets too hot. This afternoon I get to hear my husband play and sing in Woodstock (the town, not the festival!) Have a wonderful Sunday!

Filed Under: nature 12 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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The Dogs

The Dogs

Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

Winston - Our first dog. We miss you, sweetheart.

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Lambs Like to Party

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