Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Trees, Wildflowers & Ferns in Unexpected Places

October 4, 2018 at 10:15 am by Claudia

It’s a beautiful morning. It’s so lovely to actually see the sun shining for more than ten minutes at a time! Golden light, leaves falling, the beauty of autumn.

The top of the big maple.

The house this morning:

These wildflowers are growing everywhere on the property.

Those specks are falling leaves.

This is one of those longed-for spectacular fall days. We deserve it, if I do say so myself.

I have errands to run today. 4 days until we leave! There’s so much to do in that time but I have to say this: I am so happy to be leaving this country for a couple of weeks. I’ve had it with the corruption running rampant in Washington and I desperately need a break from it all. And yes, if it was at all economically feasible and/or practical, I would jump at the chance to stay there for six months. I don’t know my country anymore and it’s always a good thing to experience another culture. Hopefully, it will help put things in perspective.

If I could curse on the blog as I do in real life, I would.

I was worried about the big Boston Fern on the porch. I expect the other potted plants to die, as they’re annuals, but the fern isn’t. I wanted to bring it in for the winter, but the only place I could see it working (it takes up a lot of space) was on the kitchen table. So, yesterday, while I was waiting for deliveries, etc., I brought it in and plopped it on the table. I had to raise the hanging lamp, as well. Fully expecting Don to hate it, I waited for him to come home.

He loved it. Actually, he was initially more enthusiastic than me! But now, we both love it.

Yes, it’s huge. No, I don’t know how it will do in the kitchen. But we’re going for it. We never eat at the kitchen table, it just becomes a repository for mail and sunglasses. We eat on trays in the den. And you know that we like eclectic and funky. We like putting our own stamp on our house.

As I said on Instagram: At the very least, it’s a statement.

Excuse early morning kitchen view.

Okay. Have to get a move on.

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: auction, flowers, houseplants, our trip to Europe, trees 35 Comments

The Score: The Auction Story

April 16, 2015 at 8:45 am by Claudia

I dropped a hint about this last week but had to wait for the package to arrive in my mailbox before I could tell you the whole story.

It still gives me a thrill.

A few weeks back I wrote a series of posts about my egg cup collection. And in one of the posts, I mentioned that my Doc egg cup, part of a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs series of egg cups that were made in 1937, has the most monetary value of any of the egg cups. Several years ago, the entire set (a rare find) could go for anywhere from $1000 – $2000. Nowadays, the individual egg cups routinely go for about $80 – $100, with $80 being closer to the norm.

4-16 doc egg cup

Doc, the one I own, was an eBay win several years ago. I got him from someone in Australia. I’m not sure what I paid, but it was a flukey win. Maybe because the cup lived in Australia, maybe because of the timing, but I think I got him for around $40, which was a steal.

In the years since, I check out the Disney listings on eBay about once or twice a year. Very rarely is  a dwarf egg cup available. Even more rarely (I can think of only once) is Snow White available. This year I took a gander when I was doing all the egg cup posts and there was a listing for the entire set – $699.

No can do.

There was also a listing for a Dopey egg cup. It was listed as Buy Now and the price was $95.00. I briefly fantasized about having enough cash to buy it, but I don’t. I also thought it was priced a bit high. There was an option to make an offer, and again, I thought about…maybe $80? But something made me hold off, most likely the reality of our budget, and I clicked on Watch Item instead. Eventually, the auction/buy now closed.

A few days later I received an email saying that the item had been re-listed. I clicked on over and the owner had decided to go the auction route and the starting bid was $19.50, which seemed surprisingly low.

Hmmmm.

What the heck, I said to myself, why not place a bid? So I did. My bid was for somewhere in the $30 range. For a couple of days I was the only bidder, which in and of itself I found shocking. Then one day I checked in and found another bidder had entered the auction. The initial bid of $19.50 had been changed to $24.50. I was still the winning bidder. I clicked over to the other bidder’s history and saw that he dealt in a lot of memorabilia, so I was immediately concerned that he would eventually outbid me.

A couple of more days went by. No more bids.

Now, I haven’t bid on anything on eBay in a long time, but in the days when I routinely bid there, there was a practice called Sniping, a paid-for, automated form of bidding that would put in a very, very last minute bid. If you were bidding by hand on your computer, watching for the auction to end, it was almost impossible to get another bid in after a sniping bid had been entered.  It was just too close to the end of the auction. I lost out on many items that way and it always infuriated me because it seemed like cheating. It also took a lot of the fun out of it for me. Sniping still happens. So I was wary of a last minute sniping bid on the egg cup.

The final day of the auction came – last Friday. It was to close at 6:10 pm. I had a work commitment in the middle of the day which kept me busy. What I was hoping for was this scenario: I could quietly sit with my laptop around 6:00 – undisturbed by dog or man – and be ready to up my bid if necessary. However, I set a limit which was not much more than my original bid.

Don had no idea any of this was going on, of course. What he didn’t know couldn’t hurt him, right?

6:00. I click over to the auction. The clock is live, counting down the minutes. No new bid. At this point, I am sure that the other bidder is going to come through with a last minute bid. He’s just biding his time.

6:05. The clock continues to tick. No new bids.

Surely he’s going to snipe at the last minute.

My body starts to tense. I open up new tabs on my browser and look at other sites/blogs to keep me from completely obsessing. I click back to the site about every 30 seconds.

6:07. I up my bid – just to give me an edge if someone comes in at the last minute.

6:09. I consider raising the bid even more but I stop myself. It’s all too easy to go crazy in an auction and I’m not going to do it.

The seconds tick down. The muscles in my body are tense. Adrenalin is shooting through my body. Don is in the kitchen starting dinner and has no idea what’s going on. I’m praying he doesn’t want to start some sort of conversation because I’m afraid I’ll have to cut him off with a terse “I can’t talk right now.” Five words eat up seconds on the clock.

10 seconds left. No bid.

5 seconds left. No bid.

I just know I’m going to see a new bid in the last 5 seconds.

The clock stops.

No other bid.

Am I seeing things? I refresh the page.

I got it for $24.50. That’s $70 less than the original asking price.

Oh my heavens.

As I try to control the out-of-control adrenalin surge, I refresh the page and see the magic words, “You won.”

I still don’t trust it and wait for an email. It comes a few seconds later.

Then I tell Don.

Oh man, that was fun! And rare. And I know how lucky I was.

4-16 dopey egg cup  1

Meet Dopey. He’s pretty adorable, isn’t he?

You know my dream is to collect them all. That may be impossible as I see them all too rarely and often they are sold as a set which is way too much money for me to spend.

But you never know.

4-16 dopey and doc

This makes me smile.

Welcome, little Dopey. You are so stinking cute.

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Tagged With: egg cupsFiled Under: auction, collecting, egg cups 50 Comments

Scenes from the Cottage: The Living Room

January 19, 2015 at 8:31 am by Claudia

We’re recovering from yesterday’s terrible weather. It rained all day long, which quickly turned to ice, black ice for those drivers who were unaware that the innocent looking rain was becoming dangerous. The result was terrible for many people: multiple car accidents, cars spinning out on roads and freeways, the eventual closure of the Thruway. Don had a gig north of us which he had to cancel. It was just too, too dangerous to drive. So we were stuck in the house all day while we tried to make Scoutie’s little corral safe by salting everything in sight. It was simply horrible. Today will be all about salting the driveway so we can get to the grocery store. I’m sick of this icy winter.

Nesting Mode continues, so I hope you don’t mind if I indulge in some more Scenes from the Cottage? Today we’re checking out the living room. I didn’t capture every detail, but there are plenty of photos elsewhere on the blog if you want to see more.

The living room and the kitchen are essentially one big room. There are lots of windows, so sunlight floods each room.

As Is, remember, so we have dark corners, rumpled sofas, and a dog.

Corners-Living Room 6

Corners-Living Room 1

Corners-Living Room 2

Corners-Living Room 3

Corners-Living Room 4

Pantel1

Corners-Living Room 7

Corners-Living Room 5

funtour-lambwiththepartyhat

mparakeets

Corners-Living Room 8

I threw in an older photo of the parakeet lamp because I forgot to take a picture of it the day I shot these photos.

I’ve had the loveseat since I lived in Boston, so that would make it about 23 years old. Like the sofa in the den, it’s had several slipcovers. The yellow chair was purchased new several years ago, as were the rugs.  The red chair was a $50 purchase from a San Diego antique shop. The wood chair was purchased at a local vintage shop right after we moved in here. It’s surprisingly comfortable.

The large white cabinet was found for $100 at auction. I love it, love it, love it.

The piano was my grandmother’s. The coffee table was refinished by our friend Rob when we lived in San Diego and we got it for a song.

You know all about the dollhouse.

The desk was free; found on the street and ‘reimagined.’

Once again, there’s lots of McCoy pottery scattered around the room, on tables, on the piano, under the dollhouse, on top of the white cabinet, on the sideboard. In fact, many of the colors I use in the living room and kitchen were inspired by the sherbet colors of McCoy.

The wooden ship was given to my dad by my mom.

The quilt on the floor was found at auction. It’s on the floor entirely for Scoutie’s comfort.

The lithograph of the Aquitania was a big find last year – a bit of a splurge for two normally frugal people. We bought it from a local antique shop. Words cannot express how much we love it.

The parakeet lamp was a birthday gift from Don.

The pillow on the red chair was a gift from Judy.

Monty the Cow was purchased right after we moved East. We love him. We’ve been known to move him from room to room so that he can see everything going on in the house.

I had a canvas print made of the Lamb With The Party Hat (this blog’s logo) and Don insisted, much to my delight, that we hang it in the living room.

The small print in the green frame is a postcard of a print that Don saw in a local gallery. The original print below it is a Norman Rockwell. We found it several years ago in the Berkshires.

The clock was found across the river in an antique shop (the same one where we recently found the Maxfield Parrish). We fell in love with it and put it on layaway. It was an anniversary present to each other.

The Hymns board was found in a local antique shop several years ago. I had to have it.

The fringed lampshade was found in California at Christie Repasy’s shop.

The dog comes with the house. She’s priceless.

You know that feeling when you walk in the door and you can’t help smiling? That’s what happens with this room. The living room makes me happy.

If you have questions about anything else, feel free to ask in the comments section.

Happy Monday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

 

Filed Under: antiques, auction, decorating, DIY, living room, vintage 62 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.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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