blog — Page 19

On a Mission and Some Blogkeeping

January 10, 2016 at 9:34 am by Claudia

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What the heck?

I just got this space set up and now I have to leave it! That doesn’t seem fair.

I really love my little office space, which is bright and inspiring and just what I envisioned. I wish I could wiggle my nose and transport it to Hartford. There are desks in the apartments – IKEA desks, by the way – but the top is made of glass. I will do my best to create a nice little workspace there, complete, I think, with a few pieces of pottery that will function as containers for cords, charging equipment, and pencils and pens.

I have much to do before I go. Today, thanks to your suggestions, Don and I will venture forth on a mission to find a pair of jeans. I don’t have a lot of time to look, nor do I want to order anything online without trying it on first, but we’ll check out Gloria Vanderbilt at Kohl’s. Bless my husband. He went along with me a few months back when I was searching for jeans. And now he’s offered to do it again.

It’s raining very, very hard here today. I can hear the sump pump going on in the basement. A thoroughly yucky day and not one I would normally venture out in if given a choice, but we have to.

Blogkeeping: I get a lot of requests asking me to recommend books to read. I just wanted to mention for those of you who are newer readers of this blog that both blogs – this one and Just Let Me Finish This Page – show my current read and the book I’ve just finished on the sidebar.

Also, the navigation bar on Just Let Me Finish This Page has a section called 2014-2016 Reads, with sub headings according to year. If you hover over the heading, the sub headings will show themselves. 2014 and 2015 have a list of all the books I read in that particular year and the month in which I read them. I don’t speed read and have no desire to – that would take all the pleasure from reading – but I read 73 books in 2015. If you’re ever looking for titles, for something to look for at the library, these lists might help.

Also, both blogs have a heading in the navigation bar titled Book Reviews. There you will find a list of the book reviews, complete with a link to that review. The list on this blog is the most complete, as it references reviews on both blogs – though not every review. I’ve been doing this for about 7 years and I’ve reviewed well over 100 books. But there’s a hefty list – about 98 titles – on Mockingbird Hill Cottage. Just Let Me Finish This Page’s list is limited to the reviews – about 40 – done on that blog.

Hope this is helpful.

Happy Sunday.

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Saturday Bits and Bobs

December 19, 2015 at 9:13 am by Claudia

12-19 office before

Office. Before. As you can see, everything is as we left it when we hauled the IKEA boxes upstairs.

We’ve decided to hold off on painting, perhaps because I hate painting, which might explain why we haven’t done the much-needed repainting of the kitchen. Every year, I plan on doing it. Every year, I don’t.

Anyway, we’ve decided to see how everything looks once we put the desk, chair and lamp together and move things around. But Don isn’t feeling well, so there’s no hurry.

On top of that, I finally hauled out the little white pre-lit Christmas tree and set it up.

And the lights aren’t working. Crap.

Maybe Christmas isn’t in the cards for us this year? Just kidding. But it does seem as if I’m getting messages from the universe to slow down and do very little.

A couple of things to mention:

• The email version of yesterday’s post went out about five hours late. I don’t know why this is happening, but it’s a Feedburner thing and I spent more hours than I would have liked to yesterday trying to figure it out. The thing is, I could pay for an email delivery service for the blog, but I already pay for enough to maintain this little piece of real estate, thank you very much, and since I have a nice amount of subscribers and I post every day, the amount I would have to pay is just something I would rather not do.

For those of you who subscribe via email, if you don’t get the post between 11 and 1, Feedburner is lagging behind and you should just hop on over and visit the blog directly. You know I post every day, with very rare exceptions. And why not come here directly? It’s prettier here than in the email, anyway.

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• This book is excellent. This is the first in a series of books featuring Detective Simon Serrailler. They take place in the fictional cathedral town of Lafferton. Susan Hill is an amazing, detailed, and thoughtful writer. There are at least five other books in the series and I cannot wait to get them all. I’m about 2/3 of the way through this one and I’m taking my time simply because the experience is so pleasurable.

• I promised you some links to the blogs of miniaturists who have entered the Creatin’ Contest. Their work is amazingly detailed and I can only dream of doing what they do.

From Pepper at MitchyMooMiniatures.

From MiniModPod.

From Brae at Otterine.

From Minibase.

From Nancy at Nancyland.

From I See Cerulean. More details here and here.

And even though Elizabeth at Studio E couldn’t finish her entry due to the loss of her mother, this post – dedicated to her mom – gives you an idea of what she’s doing and it’s amazing.

As I find more entries, I’ll post the links for you.

• I took some pictures of the article in The Dolls’ House Magazine:

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The photo of the fireplace is also featured on the Table of Contents page. That gosh-darned plastic fireplace that I wasn’t going to use, but one day pulled out of a box in a fit of desperation to slap some white paint over its original blah beige because I needed a fireplace. Another one of my photos of the fireplace is one of my most pinned photos.

Who’d have thunk it?

Happy Saturday.

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At The Controls Of My Starship

December 9, 2015 at 9:55 am by Claudia

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on yesterday’s post. I read every comment (well, I always do) but this time, I found myself reading them more than once. It helps to know that others feel the same way, that the free-floating anxiety and worry and, in some cases, outrage that we feel is shared by others. We need to draw strength from each other. And we need to take action.

As I sit here, sprained ankle on a pillow on top of an ottoman, cup of coffee to my right, iPhone next to the coffee, Kindle next to the iPhone, camera just a bit beyond the Kindle, laptop on my lap, I laugh out loud at the image I have of my “Command Center.” Oh, and now we’ll add coffee cake to my left, because Don just brought in a piece for me.

Gone are the days of being laid up and only connected to the world via a landline and the television set.

I feel like I’m behind the controls on the Starship Enterprise.

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I’m sharing two more of my Roseville Pottery pieces with you today. (I have a couple more Roseville scores on their way to me in the mail.)

The green basket is in the Apple Blossom pattern. As you can see, I am sometimes quite willing to buy a damaged piece. The third curve from the left has been broken off and there is a hairline crack that travels downward from there. I saw this in a local antique shop, priced at $25.00. I hesitated because of the damage and Don said I should buy it anyway because “It’s been loved and used. Besides, cracks let the light in.” An homage to Leonard Cohen.

So I bought it, and I’m happy I did. It would be three times, maybe four times the price I paid if it was flawless. But it isn’t, so I adopted it and now it has a home at the cottage.

The smaller brown piece is in the Bushberry pattern. This is the very first piece of Roseville I ever purchased. I found it in San Diego. At the time, Roseville prices were through the roof, so this remained my one and only piece for several years. It was living in the kitchen china cabinet, but I just moved it to the den, where, when the other pieces arrive and I rearrange the den china cabinet, it will live with its Roseville brothers and sisters.

Or, it just might stay on this music cabinet. We’ll see.

There’s a new scarf in the shop.

12-9 scarf in pompidoublog

This is the Obsession Scarf in Pompidou. Gosh, it’s so hard to capture the colors. It makes me crazy. The link to the shop is here.

A couple of blog housekeeping items:

• For some reason the email version of my post went out very late in the day yesterday. It should go out between 11 am and 1 pm. I suppose it was a Feedburner glitch. I’ll do my best to keep an eye on that today.

• WordPress has just had an update and there’s a chance that my comment reply plugin might not work. Can you let me know if you receive my replies to your comments? If you aren’t – and you know I reply to every comment – I need to know that and find an alternative plugin.

Thank you!

Happy Wednesday.

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On a Mission and Some Blogkeeping

Saturday Bits and Bobs

At The Controls Of My Starship

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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