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You are here: Home / Archives for china and pottery

Back in the Saddle?

February 22, 2016 at 8:03 am by Claudia

I’m going to make an attempt to write a post every day, as has been the norm around here for several years. I may fail at times. You all know what’s been going on and that I feel emotionally and physically drained by (most recently) my father’s death and Scout’s death. That continues. Crying is the norm these days, for both Don and me. Exhaustion and erratic sleep are also a constant.

Don’t worry, we’re taking care of ourselves. Nevertheless, we are struggling.

Yesterday, we took a drive, thinking we’d look at a favorite antique shop. We did, but my goodness, it was disappointing. There’s a difference between vintage/antique and junk. Unfortunately, the vast majority of items being sold by individual dealers were what I would call junk. Of course, that might be another man’s treasure, and I certainly don’t go for high-end antiques, but somewhere there is a middle ground and it wasn’t in evidence yesterday. Lots and lots of ‘stuff.’

Ah well. We did split some fries, and they were yummy. There is that.

While I was in Hartford, I succumbed to some more pieces of Roseville pottery. One was waiting on our porch steps when we came home on Saturday. Another is on its way.

2-22 budvaseclematis1

This is a 7 inch bud vase in the Clematis pattern. It was a steal at $17.50. (I think I’m the only one who placed a bid.) You’ll notice I only share the price of a piece of pottery with you when I get a really great deal. Otherwise, I’m mum on the subject. $17.50 for any piece of Roseville would have been unheard of a few years back…maybe for a badly damaged piece. Maybe.

2-22 budvaseclematis2

The other side.

I’ve cleared a shelf in the pink cabinet in my office and I’m going to display some of my Roseville there. The pink vase I bought last month is there. This piece will be there. My Zephyr Lily console bowl is already there and the piece that’s coming later this week might live there as well. We’ll see.

This one is flawless – no chips or cracks. It matches the flower frog that Barbara gave me…

12-17 clematis flower frog_

Remember?

Clearly, Roseville is my current passion. I love all my McCoy and I have a lot  of it, so I am less apt to purchase anything new, simply because I have most of the pieces I want. I saw some McCoy yesterday; some of it I already had, some of it wasn’t my style. The same thing happens when I search on eBay.

But Roseville is another story.

What else? I’m currently reading the most recent Simon Serrailler mystery by Susan Hill. After that, I will be all caught up. Sob. I’m doing laundry and some minor cleaning. I have a lot of sorting and organizing and dumping to do around here, but though I think about it a lot, I’m just not motivated at the moment. In time.

Happy Monday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Tagged With: Roseville PotteryFiled Under: china and pottery, collecting, Don, grief, Roseville pottery, Scout 44 Comments

In the Mail

December 17, 2015 at 9:05 am by Claudia

First of all, this arrived yesterday:

12-17 meandmag

Since this is a selfie, the writing is reversed, but you get the idea, right?

I’ll try to take some photos of the article for you. I’m thrilled that Hummingbird Cottage is the lead feature and a photo of the fireplace gets a full page at the beginning of the article. Don hadn’t seen the article yet, so he read the whole thing and was quite chuffed! As am I.

Again, on a tough day, something lovely lightened my mood. Very grateful.

My ankle is much, much better. I still wear an ace bandage for some mild support and, more importantly, to remind myself that I have to be careful. The bruising has faded a great deal and, as I’m at the two week mark, I’m very pleased.

I hung the lights on the porch railing yesterday. They were modified by necessity as one of the strings wasn’t working and I wasn’t about to go in the shed and look through bins for some more. It’s just fine as is.

No little white tree yet, but maybe today. Or maybe not.

Barbara sent me a package that arrived earlier this week. It was full of lots of goodies. I didn’t take a picture of the lovely Christmas napkins and mints that come in a guitar-shaped tin and winter gloves meant to be used with an iPhone (huzzah!) but I did manage some pictures of the other treasures inside that box.

12-17 books

Yay! I finally have my own copy of All the Light We Cannot See! If you remember, I had it on reserve at my library and didn’t get a chance to read it before it’s due date. The second book is mystery that takes place in Canada (Barbara is from Canada) and I’m excited to read a new-to-me author.

12-17 robot

An incredible robot ornament – isn’t it neat? We’re calling it Mr. Robot, in honor of Don’s appearances on that series.

12-17 ghirardelli

A bag full of Peppermint Bark from Ghirardelli. Oh. my. goodness. As you might imagine, we’ve already had several. I love peppermint bark.

12-17 stereo

Eeek! For the Top Secret Project! This is perfect, Barbara! I haven’t done any work on the TSP since Dad’s death. I haven’t been in the right frame of mind. I am thinking about it, however, and I plan on getting back in gear when I have my little office/studio space set up.

By the way, the house that I’m using for the TSP was designed for the HBS Creatin’ Contest. I never had any plans on entering that contest, but many incredible miniaturists have entered their projects and I am blown away by their creativity. The deadline to enter was just the other day. I’m going to try to gather some links to their finished projects so that you can see them for yourselves. You won’t believe what they have created!

12-17 clematis flower frog_

And this was in the package. Roseville Pottery in the Clematis pattern. Barbara wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but I knew because I’d been watching one of these on eBay. It’s a flower frog. It was designed to sit in a matching console bowl, like the one I showed you the other day.

12-17 clematis flower frog rear

The rear view.

12-17 clematis flower frog bottom

See? There are holes in the bottom.

It’s gorgeous. Thank you, Barbara. I am blessed by your generous spirit.

I am blessed by every one of you who read this blog. Thank you.

I’m clearly celebrating Christmas a bit early this year.

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: china and pottery, Christmas, gifts, Roseville pottery, The Dolls' House Magazine UK, Top Secret Project 28 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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Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

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