Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Posing

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I’ve been feeling under the weather with allergies/sinus and yesterday was especially tough. Plus, I worked on our taxes and deductions for several hours. So, by the end of the afternoon, I was pretty fried.

What to do? Dress Sophie in her new outfit.

I’m not kidding! It was the first activity of the day to give me a wee bit of joy. So much so that I took some pictures – indoors and out.

(I promise not to make this blog about Blythe dolls, but if you will just indulge me at the beginning of this new adventure, I’d really appreciate it. I feel like I’m playing dolls again, but at a different level.)

First – indoors. In fact, right next to my blogging chair.

This outfit is adorable. Don loved the socks!

She’s way too big for that dollhouse.

Then outside – on a whim.

The minute my back was turned, she was climbing a tree. So much for a new outfit!

Communing with nature.

I have a lot to learn about posing these dolls for photos. They can’t stand on their own because the head is so heavy. So you have to prop them up, and I’m discovering a lot of tips on how to do that. Or you can put them on a stand and photoshop the stand out of the picture. But I don’t have photoshop. It will be fun to experiment when I have more time. Sophie’s body is adjustable, so I can position the arms and legs. Some Blythes have a special neck which allows you to tilt the head – but they’re more expensive. Sophie does not have that.

I’ve seen some extremely clever photographs out there. They’re a lot of fun.

For now, Sophie is back up on the music cabinet amongst the aqua McCoy.

Just wanted to mention the book, The Lonely Doll, by Dare Wright, which was published when I was a kid. I loved that book. It told the story of a doll and her bear friends in photographs and it was mesmerizing to this little girl. Apparently, there were ten books in all, all telling the story of Edith. Thanks to reader Margaret for reminding me of that series. I remember some people finding the idea creepy, but I loved it. I remember checking it out at our Bookmobile several times.

I got a lot done on the deductions yesterday. I’ll finish that up today and then I’ll type it all and send the info to our accountant tomorrow. I also have to prep today for a zoom session with Ben tomorrow.

I’m nicely busy.

It’s a lovely day today! Hopefully, I can take advantage of the light and get a little oil painting in this afternoon.

I hope you had a great weekend!

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

From Our Walk and Clothes for Sophie

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From our walk yesterday:

These huge boulders were completely covered by water a week ago. It’s extraordinary how high the river was.

The mountains as seen from the side of the road.

I received some packages in the mail yesterday and it was truly an international event.

Some tights from Emma Florence Paris (yes! from Paris):

And these boots from Northfield Primitives, based in Yorkshire, England:

I can’t believe how adorable they are. The seller also sent along some purple socks.

And, from St. Petersburg in Russia:

This dress, pinafore/jumper, and yellow socks – from Lena Little Dresses. Two outfits in one. The dress can be worn alone or layered with the pinafore. Sophie is going to don a new outfit later today, whether she likes it or not. By the way, Sophie has her own IG account, mostly because I didn’t want to spam my regular account with doll photos as not everyone gets them. It’s @Sophieandherpals. That’s as creative as I could be yesterday. The implication is that Sophie might be living with a pal soon. Stay tuned. I think it will be fun to pose her and experiment with photographing her. As Don says, and I quote, “She’s very  photogenic!”

It was pretty neat getting a package from Russia. First time for that. This particular shop makes wonderful Blythe clothes and, considering the distance, the package got here very quickly. It came in a lovely box.

Sophie already has more clothes than I do. Cripes, I’m merely hoping to replace my worn out, baggy jeans this week. That’s all I ask.

Today: deductions. We took a very long walk yesterday and then I did some chores and by the time I was thinking of starting that process, I was too tired. I’ve been waking up way too early lately and it’s taking its toll.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Goldenrod

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A lot of the goldenrod has already bloomed but this particular patch in the former corral has newly opened and it’s gorgeous. When the golden sun of autumn hits it, there’s nothing lovelier.

Our maple leaves are turning earlier than usual and quite a few are on the ground. I wonder if it has anything to do with all the rain we’ve had? I suspect it might.

Today is gorgeous. The mornings have been cooler, which I like. There’s something very cozy about a cool morning. We’re going to take a walk later today and then I have to work on our deductions since we always file an extension on our taxes and it’s time to get that info to our accountant. Not my favorite thing to do, but as the Brits say, “Needs must!”

Something arrived in the mail yesterday for Miss Sophie:

Boots! Handmade by Crafty Cora who has an Etsy shop. I can’t believe she can make these. The detail is amazing. Everything is so tiny that I hesitated to tie the laces; frankly, I’m not quite sure how to do it. For now, she’ll be one of those kids who never tie their laces.

We share something in common, Sophie and I. I have a little/mole beauty mark right above my mouth – just like she does – in exactly the same place. I found an old wide toothed comb to comb out her hair and that’s been added to the shoebox that contains her clothes. Eventually, I’d like to get something nicer than a shoebox, but thank goodness I didn’t recycle the box my new Birkenstocks came in!

At least she’s meeting my eyes now. I think she’s starting to feel more at home here.

She may get her own Instagram account. Not everyone is into the doll thing.

Thank goodness for Don’s tolerance of my somewhat whimsical passions. He gets it, at least as much as a grown man can get his wife suddenly playing with dolls at the age of 68. He oohs and aahs over things like the new boots, and my demonstration of how her eyes work, and gets a kick out of watching me dress her in new outfits. He has grown used to Sophie sitting on top of the music cabinet in the den, and never blinks an eye when it looks like she’s watching us as we eat our dinner. Bless his heart.

Interestingly, I don’t like dolls in dollhouses, partly because they never look as real and accurate as the furniture and decoration does. Plus, for me, life in any dollhouse is in my imagination and that’s where it stays.

I have my dolls that I’ve rescued and, now, I have this thing for Blythes. But I draw the line at dolls in the dollhouses. Go figure. It makes sense to me, but it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else.

We’re not at all surprised it’s been twenty years since 9/11 since it happened a couple of months after we moved out to the Northeast and that was twenty years ago. We lived right by the Hudson River in Westchester County and, sadly, those planes flew right over us.

We’ll always remember.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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