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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:

12-19 article1

12-19 article2

12-19 article3

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.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Filed Under: blog, books, Ikea, The Dolls' House Magazine UK 32 Comments

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.

12-9 roseville

12-9 roseville2

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.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

 

Filed Under: blog, collecting, crochet, etsy, Roseville pottery 18 Comments

A Mini Tour of the Roseville & Blog Housekeeping

December 7, 2015 at 9:35 am by Claudia

12-7 don and scout

I took this a couple of weeks ago and posted it on Instagram. It occurred to me that you might like to see it.  Do I even need a caption?

12-7 roseville in cabinet

Since I’ve been obsessing and researching and doing a wee bit of bidding, I thought I’d begin to share the Roseville Pottery I have with you. It’s scattered around the house. We’ll begin with the interior of the china cabinet in the den.

The green cornucopia is in the Magnolia pattern. It was a gift from Sonja, a reader of this blog.

Next to it is the small vase in the Peony pattern. I won this for a great price at auction, along with the candlestick next to it, which is in the Gardenia pattern.

At the end of the first row is a vase in Snowberry.

In the back, a pillow vase in Zephyr Lily, also a gift from Sonja.

And next to it, a blue vase in the Freesia pattern.

I love this stuff. Can you tell I’ve been looking at a lot of it on eBay and Etsy? The pieces on Etsy tend to be listed at a higher price. eBay pieces are sometimes outrageously priced, but many start low and the opportunity for a steal is there. It depends on the timing, whether the auction ends during the work week or on the weekend, and, of course, the desirability of the pattern itself. The harder-to-find patterns go for much more.

I was on an informational site the other day where all the patterns were listed. Among the points covered were current availability and popularity. I got a kick out of discovering that my favorite patterns weren’t that popular at the moment. Good! That leaves me with a slight edge…maybe.

Some blog housekeeping:

• A reader watched one of the videos of Don and Dan playing their music and wondered how she could download the music. Right over there on my sidebar is a widget that says Where to Buy Don’s New CD. Click on it and you’ll be taken to the website and you can download to your heart’s content. Thanks for liking his music!

• I’ve rethought the categories in my navigation bar: Cottage Living  now includes Cottage Home Tour, Garden, Studio, and Small House Living; Craftiness  includes all my DIY posts and Feeling Stitchy. I’ve started a new category called Collecting, which, so far, includes McCoy Pottery and Egg Cups. And there’s a category called On the Road, where I’ve provided instructions on how to find all my On the Road posts.

I like this arrangement, which reflects my life and passions rather nicely.

• The winner of a copy of Dig Two Graves  is Linda! Linda, I’m sending you an email. Congratulations!

• Don’t forget to visit my post Sharing a Sweet Moment, where I rhapsodize about Marie Callender’s Frozen Desserts. If you leave a comment, you might just win a $100 Visa Gift Card!

And there you have it.

Happy Monday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Filed Under: blog, books, china and pottery, collecting, Don, Scout 18 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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