Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Dog Days (& Feasts)

August 17, 2009 at 11:23 am by Claudia

Greetings from MHC. It is hot, humid and we are certainly in the dog days of summer here. I stall as long as I can each day before I finally give up and turn on the air conditioner. Me + humidity = crabby, irritated and congested.

Speaking of dog days, Don and I were in Woodstock yesterday. You might remember I was going to hear him perform? (He was wonderful, by the way.) Our trip kept us out a bit past Mr. Riley’s dinner hour. Maybe an hour. Not hours. When we walked up to the side door, I spied this on the floor in front of the refrigerator. (This has been restaged. I was so dumbfounded at the time that I didn’t think of taking a photo.)


There were many torn pieces of paper and bookcover strewn everywhere. I ask you to imagine these extras. Riley had eaten my bird identification book.


When he was a newly rescued dog, he would get into things due to separation anxiety. Once he tore open Don’s backpack and ate a bunch of gum. He chewed up one of my McCoy identification books. We learned to put everything away that he might get into before we left the house. He hasn’t done anything like that in a long time. Until yesterday. He has always had a liking for books. When you or I like them, we read them. When Riley likes them, he eats them. I will occasionally catch him putting his teeth around the edge of a book as if to imagine what it might taste like. I always issue a sharp “NO!” and move the book out of the way. It seems that I somehow missed the foreshadowing of yesterday’s feast. Now we are back to putting everything up and out of the way when we leave. He knew he was a bad boy. At least he got some roughage in his diet.

I am in the midst of some new designs on the blog. Check out my new button on the sidebar. Mine doesn’t have code so if you want to add it to your blog, just take the jpeg. My banner will be changing, too. I thought it was time for an update. This is all being done by my friend Mandy of a la parisienne. She designed my sidebar labels, remember? I hope you enjoy it when it is all installed.

Oh, I was kept awake for hours last night with an itchy ankle from that darn yellowjacket. I thought I would go mad. Stay away from me bees, you hear?

Have a wonderful day!

Filed Under: blog, nature, Riley 17 Comments

Awards

July 16, 2009 at 8:49 am by Claudia

I am a bit shy about these things, but I’ve been given 3 awards recently. Thank you!


The first is The Bella Sinclair Award, given to me by Marsha and Teresa. It was designed by Ces in honor of her friend, Bella Sinclair. She writes this about the award:

“I designed this award to celebrate art in the blogs and to honor the value of friendship, sisterhood, sharing and caring. It is to be awarded to the gifted, accomplished, eloquent and talented blogger whose friendship and influence inspire us to do our best. That I named it after Bella Sinclair is because she epitomizes all these things. She is an inspiration to many of us.”

If you click on Ces’s link, you can read the story behind the award. Thank you both for honoring me with this lovely award. It means more than I can say. Passing awards on to specific bloggers is usually something I shy away from, simply because all of you are so wonderful and have enriched my life tremendously. But for this particular award, I have chosen to pass it on to Kelee Katillac. She is an amazing blogger who designs for those in need with Design Gives Back, who cares about others deeply and who works for animal welfare. Kelee, I pass this award on to you.


I was also given the Primios Dardos award by Patti. Thank you Patti! It “acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his or her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.” I’m honored, Patti. I’m supposed to pass it on to 15 others, but I will pass it on to all of you wonderful bloggers who inspire me every day.


I was also give the Honest Scrap award by Teresa. Thank you, Teresa! I am supposed to tell you 10 things about me you don’t know, but I’ve done a few of these lists before and I think I’ve run out of ideas! Maybe a couple:

1. I go nuts for babies – I can’t help myself – I go all out to make them smile.
2. I have 10 nieces and nephews, 2 great nieces, 1 great nephew and another great niece on the way.
3. I love bookstores – I could, and do, spend hours in them.
4. Not a big fan of reality television, except American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance.
5. I’d like an iPhone (a secret desire) but don’t want to spend the money on one!
6. I’m not thrilled with the aging process – can’t believe I’m not 35 anymore…(that’s the age I am in my head.)
7. I used to sing and perform in musical comedies. I still love them best.
8. I would be a dancer in another life. I am in awe of their skill.
9. I love trees.
10. I can watch koala bears at the zoo for hours. I’d love my very own to cuddle, but I know they don’t like cuddling. At all.

I did better than I thought! I pass this award on to all my dear blogging friends.

Filed Under: blog 6 Comments

A New Etsy Shop and a Special for My Readers

June 6, 2009 at 9:54 pm by Claudia


Have you noticed my new sidebar labels? I love them! A couple of weeks ago I won a giveaway from Mandy at a la parisienne. Many of you already follow her blog and her French Lesson Fridays. This giveaway was for custom sidebar buttons, something I had been wanting for a long time. Look on my right sidebar – aren’t they wonderful? I couldn’t have been happier with the process. Mandy is wonderful! She asks questions about your blog, your style, and how you would like your blog to look. Then she sends a variety of font styles from which you choose several that represent your blog’s style. Then, as if by magic, something appears that, in my case, was absolutely what I had dreamed of.

After my sidebar buttons were designed, she also designed a customized button (scroll down to see my ASPCA button) that fulfilled my need to link to a cause I deeply believed in but stayed true to the style of my blog.

The good news is this: Mandy is opening her own Etsy store! She will be offering sidebar labels and Etsy store buttons/links. She will also design customized buttons like my ASPCA button. All of these offerings can be customized however you want – you get to pick titles, fonts and the color scheme. Her Etsy address is: www.alaparisienne.etsy.com.

Mandy would like to offer a special for my readers. Anyone who purchases a set of 5 sidebar labels by Tuesday, June 9th will get 8 labels for the price of 5. What a great deal!

Truly, the process was a delight from start to finish and I couldn’t recommend her more highly. She is a fellow blogger with wonderful taste. Go visit her shop and tell her I sent you.

Filed Under: blog, etsy 13 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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