Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Chloe & a Big Thank You

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I’d like you to meet Chloe. Chloe accompanied me on my trip to San Diego last year and she has decided to come along for the visit this year. Knowing how much I would miss our dogs, my husband gave her to me last year right before I left MHC for a 6 month stay in San Diego. I miss them so much it hurts. I have a need to cuddle a furry creature and Miss Chloe fits the bill.

Thank you, my dear friends, for all the wonderful comments you left on my previous post. You inspire me and you lovingly push me to take a risk and go for it. How can I not? I have read your comments several times. Like Jodie, I believe that ‘we are the authors of the life we create.’ It is easy to forget that at times. Thankfully, I have all my wonderful friends to remind me. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – blogging has introduced me to so many generous, compassionate, caring, talented people.

For those of you who wrote to say that the reason you are drawn to this blog is because it is authentic and real: thank you. When I was working with Amber on the blog redesign a couple of months ago, I emphasized that I didn’t want it to look ‘too slick.’ That was the only way I could think of to express my sincere desire to keep MHC what it has always been: about our cottage, our life, our dogs, my creative endeavors, decorating and gardening. So the fact that you think this blog I write is authentic makes me very happy.

Well, it is Sunday night and I have finished a long, long week of work. The first few weeks of Rep rehearsals are always exhausting. 3 Rep shows are in rehearsal and I am also coaching a 4th production that is moving onstage this week. There are not enough hours in the day. Eventually, I will have more free time…but for now…this girl is tired. I have one day off on Monday and I have several errands to run. On Monday evening many of us will meet to honor the life of my friend Raul who died a few weeks ago. He was a Stage Manager at the theater for many years and a very good friend to both me and my husband.

Have a wonderful Monday.

My Blog Re-Design & Square #10

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Hello, everyone! Welcome to my newly designed blog!

A while back, I started enlarging my photos. I sought the advice of a few people, among them Cindy of My Romantic Home. Because of the limitations of the Blogger template I was using, I could only enlarge photos vertically (portrait.) That was fine for a while but sometimes I wanted to shoot horizontally (landscape) and in the course of cropping and trying to adjust the size for the template I would lose part of the photo. Frustrated by the same thing, Cindy recently redesigned her blog so that the width of the posting area is greater, allowing space for either size photo. She inspired me.

I loved the look of my blog. That was what held me back. (Change is hard sometimes, isn’t it?) But to be perfectly honest, though I loved the free background, I didn’t like running into it elsewhere in blogland. I wanted my-very-own-mine-only look. I also loved the sidebar labels, signature and blog button Mandy created for me. I wanted to keep them. I finally bit the bullet and asked Amber of Sprinkles on Top if she could design a new template, background and banner. She did. I am over-the-moon about this new look! Amber captured exactly what I was looking for. She is so good at what she does and is a joy to work with.

If you’re thinking of a re-design, visit Amber’s website. She is reasonably priced and has several different packages available. Amber has designed Cindy’s blog, Elyse’s blog and many, many others. Thank you, thank you, Amber!

Square #10:

(a landscape size photo)

Pardon any white dog hairs you might see. They are part of living with a white dog that has hair as silky and fine as a cat’s. I must admit that I was stumped for a while yesterday. It took a while for a bit of ‘square inspiration’ to hit me on the head. And I have 29 to go.

Have a great day.

My Blog Book

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Hello everyone! We have had a rough couple of days – snow, sleet, wind, power outages – just plain yucky. Luckily, the longest power outage so far was just 2 hours. Though it is inconvenient, I realize it could be much worse. Nevertheless, I am well and truly sick of winter. Officially. Be gone, Winter! Welcome, Spring! (Am I jumping the gun, do you think?)


I’ve been wanting to share this with you for quite some time. However, I wanted my parents to have their own copy as a surprise, so I had to wait until they received their copy in the mail. What is it? It is my very own hardcover book containing the blog posts and photos from my first year of blogging. I got it through Blurb. Since I first put this together last summer, there are even more blog to book sites available, but I am happy with Blurb. (This isn’t a plug for Blurb, by the way, this is just my experience with this process!)

I wanted a permanent record of my posts as they do indeed chronicle our life here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I was so excited last summer when my copy arrived. Oh, I see several volumes lined up prettily on my bookshelf, just waiting to be thumbed through.

If you’re interested in something like this there are all sorts of price ranges and sites available. I chose a hardcover version. In the case of Blurb, you just go to their site, download the software and then get to work editing your posts and photos. Actually, it isn’t work at all – it’s fun.


I learned a great deal working on the first volume and just finished editing the second volume. Since I post a lot more than I did the first year, this one will be twice as many pages. I’ve learned more about editing the photos and I’ve changed the post font to the same font I use on my blog – papyrus. The only thing lacking is the ability to show my blog background on each page, but that is a minor complaint.

I don’t write in a journal. In fact, I tried for many years to journal and failed miserably. When I started to blog it quickly became clear to me that blogging was my form of journaling. I spend a lot of time taking photos and writing and editing my posts; I am thrilled to have a book which is a permanent record of them.

I’ll be sure to post about Mockingbird Hill Cottage – the second year when it arrives.

Hey, does this mean that I am a published author?

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to browse, read and enjoy. All content is my own; including photos and text. Please do not use anything on this site without permission.

Disclosure/Privacy Policy can be found in the Navigation Bar under ‘About MHC.’

Also, I love receiving comments! I do, however, reserve the right to delete any comment that is in poor taste, offensive or is verging on spam. It’s my blog. If you’re a bot or a troll you’ll be blocked. Thanks!

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