Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Caroline’s Tree

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Glue and glitter covered fingers, but it was worth it.

I’m so glad I decided to glue the ornaments on. I made the tree about 5 years ago and I’ve always tried to decorate it without disturbing the preserved princess pine. So I had to resort to draping bits of trim around the tree and, invariably, the trim would slip and fall and I would get frustrated.

This is so much better!

It’s very sparkly, much more sparkly than these photos indicate. I’m not sure why it doesn’t read that way.

All the ornaments are cut from trim I bought at Michael’s. We’re going there today or tomorrow to drop some pieces off for framing and I’m going to buy one more to tuck away and have as backup.

All day long yesterday, I kept looking up at the dollhouse. Makes me happy.

I hope Caroline appreciates her tree. One never knows.

I love this dollhouse. For most of the year, it’s turned the other way, with the exterior facing us as we sit in the den. So, when I turn it around for Christmas decorating, it’s like discovering it all over again. There are the inevitable things that need to be tweaked; something that’s moved, something that’s fallen needs to be reattached.

But gosh darn it, I’m proud of this beauty. Six years of work, and worth every bit of time and effort.

Caroline is done with her shopping – as opposed to me – and is getting ready to wrap presents.

And is that package for her or is it a present for someone else?

Just a simple bottle brush tree on the living room hearth.

In the meantime, my house needs decorating! It’s just about time.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

 

Sun, Slow Cooking & Mini-ing

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Just got around to answering comments this morning. I was going on 4 hours of sleep yesterday and I didn’t have the energy to tackle them! I got a good night’s sleep so I’m much better today.

Yes. We bought a crockpot – the 4 quart size, which will be just fine for us. We don’t eat meat, remember. Besides, we had no room for a 6 quart! I spent the morning clearing out the shelves that are behind solid doors at the bottom of our white china cabinet. As often happens, it was a job I should have tackled a while ago. A lot of the spray bottles and cleaners were out of date. I grabbed a trash bag and started dumping. The result is a much more organized cabinet and room for a slow cooker.

Don made Crockpot Quinoa and Vegetables from the Moms with Crockpots website and boy, was it good! We added some garbanzo beans for protein, as well. And we have leftovers! It’s just nice to change things up a bit. Added bonus: the house certainly smelled yummy!

We had a very cold but sunny day yesterday and we have one again today. After months of rain – much more than normal – and gray skies, I’ll take cold weather if it gives me sun. My mood immediately elevates. I’ve said this before, but I seem to be much more prone to blue moods when the skies are gray than I was when I was younger. Today? The sun is streaming in the house and it’s beautiful.

This is where I left off with the mini tree. Ornaments had started falling. Flowers from the green vase started falling. Claudia started screaming.

I didn’t work on it yesterday because I was so exhausted and I knew it would end up being an exercise in frustration. Today, however, I will. It’s going to be pretty when I finish!

And I’m going to finish attaching all these egg cups with the Tacky Wax I use for the dollhouses. I’m nearly 3/4 of the way through. Then I can safely move the cabinet to get to my Christmas decorations.

Okay. Onward and upward!

Happy Wednesday.

Gravel and Slow Cookers

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Our work with Item 4 yesterday took longer than we thought it would, but isn’t that always the way? Don rented a pickup truck, drove to the place that carries the gravel, had it dumped in the truck, drove home and then proceeded to shovel it out into a small wheelbarrow that we have (which is now ruined for garden work, of course). Then I dumped the gravel, while Don shoveled some more. My job was to spread it and carve out some sort of path from the driveway to the kitchen. We have some left over, which is being stored in said wheelbarrow under a tarp. If we need more to fill in here and there, we know we have some on hand.

Anyway. It took a long time. I was tuckered out. Don, who had to take the truck to a car wash and power wash it before he returned it, was even more tired. I’m glad we did it, though.

So no updates on the green mini tree.

This morning we spent an hour researching slow cookers – Don has been wanting to get one. Now, this is the thing about our kitchen: it may look spacious, but we have very little cupboard space. Hardly any. So, while Don was gung ho on a larger cooker, I, being the practical one (and often the downer because of that) kept insisting that we had to make sure we had a place to store it. And that meant we had to have the dimensions of the cooker. I balked at storing it on top of the refrigerator. I don’t like seeing too many small appliances out on the counters. In our case, we have to have the microwave and the stand mixer on the counter. But more? Nope. I drew a line in the sand. Since our kitchen and living room are essentially one big room, I’m very careful about it not looking too kitchen-y, something we could get away with if it was a separate room.

Would it fit in our dishwasher that we use for storage? No. And all the other cupboards were at capacity.

Finally, I thought of the china cabinet that we have in the kitchen. It will take some rearranging but we can do it – ONLY if we buy the 4 quart version and not the 6 quart. Besides, we don’t have kids, it’s just the two of us, so we don’t really need a big old 6 quart slow cooker.

Cleaning out the cabinet will involve getting rid of the juicer, another one of Don’s big passions that hasn’t been used for years. In fact, he forgot we still had it. I hope we’re more successful with the slow cooker. Don does most of the cooking and he wants to vary our menus a bit more and I’m all for that.

Riveting, right?

Maybe, maybe, after I’m done rearranging that cabinet, I’ll get to work on my mini Christmas tree.

Wish me luck!

Happy Tuesday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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