Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Fog, Christmas Decorating, and the Shop

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This morning. It rained yesterday and this morning was quite foggy. I love a foggy morning!

We still haven’t taken the a/c units out of the windows, but we’ll do that this week. And it’s time to clean up the porch, empty the pots, rearrange a bit of the shed and store everything for the winter. So that’s the agenda for this week, along with getting our Christmas tree and hanging lights on the porch.

We already have our gifts and have opened them, of course, but that will not make a whit of difference as to celebrating Christmas. Lights, ornaments, decorated dollhouses, girls in Christmas sweaters, and Christmas music playing on the radio – all of it is joyous and also, in the best way possible, an escape from the world. And we need that right now. For a month or so, we can do our best to let go of worries and just be. I am fully onboard.

Today, I’m going to dust the dollhouse interiors and do some decorating.

Blythe Headquarters is also undergoing a subtle transformation:

The trees and the little deer are from Target. You an’t beat that store for inexpensive but tasteful decorations. Each shelf has a its own Christmas tree.

I sent off another package yesterday to a buyer who purchased two of my McCoy pieces. Got back home, knowing there wouldn’t be any more sales for a bit, only to get a message from Etsy later in the day that I’d sold another McCoy vase. So I have to go out tomorrow to get more packing material. With pottery, you have to be very careful. Everything needs to be wrapped in bubble wrap and then the box needs to be filled with padding and paper. I need more tissue paper, brown paper, and a couple more boxes.

I’m grateful for the sales, of course. I added a few items yesterday that are non-McCoy; a rare Susie Cooper demitasse set, a large Roseville vase which is exquisite but a bit too big for my cabinet, two antique hatpin holders (they’re gorgeous but have been hidden away in my china cabinet) and – oh yes – one McCoy planter in aqua.

The Roseville is rather expensive because it’s large and in excellent condition; the Susie Cooper pattern used in the demitasse set is on display at the V & A museum in London. If they don’t sell, I’m okay with that.

Anyway, shopkeeper Claudia is taking the day off today to indulge in play.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Pottery and Parkas

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Happy December! Next week, we will pull out the decorations, find the perfect tree, and hang the lights on the porch railings. I’m getting excited. There’s nothing I love more than seeing the tree lights from my chair in the den. What a difference it makes in our living room and in my mood!

I’ve now sold 9 pieces of McCoy. I went to the post office yesterday to mail 2 more boxes and thought to myself: good! – now I hope there’s a little break ahead because I’m running out of packing supplies and I’ve been to the post office 4 days in a row. Later that afternoon, I got an alert from Etsy that someone had purchased 2 pieces. So I packed them up last night and it’s off to the post office again this morning.

Remember my quick trip to Target last week for boxes and tissue paper and packing supplies? Somehow my cart veered off into the Christmas decorations section of the store. There I found what I had been looking for, some more of those Christmas sweater ornaments that I transformed into wearable sweaters for the girls. But something else was there, as well; little winter parka ornaments.

They came with attached ‘skis.’ Since they were only $3, I figured what the heck? I’ll see if I can make this into something the girls can wear, if only for a photo op.

These ornaments are glued together, so I carefully pulled the skis off and was able to remove most of the glue from the parka. Then I separated the front closing. Again, pretty easy, but the glue was harder to remove. And then, the neckline and the bottom of the parka had to be dealt with. I was hesitant to mess with the glue on the ‘zipper’ area because it was so near the edge of the fabric. But they do fit and it’s easy to style them as closed.

Here’s Mabel modeling one. Some arm positioning helps keep it closed, though on the white parka, the glue isn’t really a problem. I also bought a gold parka and a dark gray parka. These little ornaments are such fun for Blythe dolls. I think Barbie doll lovers use them, too.

I have to modify the new batch of sweaters and, hopefully, I will have enough for a holiday photo of all the girls. Fingers crossed.

Katie got to model the first attempt at adapting the parka.

Time to warm up my mug of coffee in the microwave.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

It’s Monday

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Before I forget, my Etsy shop is back up and running. I’ve spent the last several days taking photos and writing and posting descriptions of each piece. I think I had 13 or 14 pieces of pottery and I’ve already sold 3. After I finish this post, I’m off to find some boxes for packing. I have boxes, but they’re not the right size for these 3 smaller pieces of pottery. I’ll be adding more items over the next couple of weeks. The problem with Etsy is that they charge fees and that takes a chunk out of any profit. But of course, they’re a business and they have to. The shop, by the way, is ScoutHarper. It’s the same shop that Mere and I used to run together when she was making things and and I was crocheting tons of scarves. My right wrist has never recovered.

Right now, the inventory is mostly McCoy pottery. There’s a piece of Hull there as well.

My Christmas present arrived last Friday and since I have no will power whatsoever, the package was opened immediately. As was Don’s banjo, so we’re even.

Meet Chloe.

She was customized by MissEdith Dolls. Edith lives in Canada – Quebec, I think.

Here’s the back story. I’ve long wanted one of her girls because she’s a very talented artist (she also does portraits) and I love what she does with eyebrows and lips and all the subtle shades in the face up. In the past few months, my friends Susannah and Catherine have adopted MissEdith Dolls, which, let’s face it, made them even more attractive to me because I really got to see them up close. Catherine got hers secondhand, and by that I mean not directly from the customizer but from the owner. I adopt most of my dolls this way because the price is usually less than it was originally. Not all the time, but often. All my Ferro dolls have been adopted by previous owners, for example.

Anyway, I was messaging Catherine (who adopted my doll Mei) recently, and I asked her to keep an eye out for any MissEdith Dolls that might be up for adoption. A week or so later, she wrote me saying that she had just adopted another MissEdith but one of her dream girls had just become available at the same time and now she would have to sell the MissEdith doll. Did I want her? It was a doll that I had been watching for several months and one that I loved. I asked her to give me 5 days to decide. I showed her to Don. Don went a bit gaga for her. Anyway, long story short, we decided she would be my Christmas present and the banjo would be Don’s. Catherine lives in Singapore, by the way, though she’s from Ireland. This doll was picked up at Catherine’s home in Singapore on my birthday. FedEx shipped her on the following day – Wednesday – and she arrived at my house on Friday morning, Pretty darned fast.

Anyway, Catherine has adopted a girl from me and I’ve adopted one from her.

Chloe’s base doll is “Simply Lilac.” As it happens, another of my girls is also Simply Lilac.

And here they are, meeting for the first time. Hi, Olivia and Chloe!

It’s fascinating how different customizers come up with completely different faces from the same base doll.

Both of these girls have chin clefts though Chloe’s is more pronounced.

New girls are now having to perch on the shelf in a sitting position. There’s no available space for standing. I have to brace them from behind with various items; a piece of pottery for Chloe, a candle in a ceramic holder for Pru.

I made a trip to Target yesterday to look for boxes and bubble wrap, etc. I found some neat little Christmas trees and some adorable deer. So now, the girls’ shelves are being decorated for Christmas. I also found some of those sweater ornaments that I used for the girls last Christmas as well as some ornament parkas. I’ll share them with you tomorrow.

Now I have to get off my tush and figure out the box/package situation and get them in the mail.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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