Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Gifts from Bloggers, Pt. 2

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My dear friend Sue of Vintage Sue sent a surprise gift to me in the mail. That girl is something else. She has been such a generous friend. Sue doesn’t just send a box – she decorates the box. Here’s the back side of the box (yes, the front was also decorated.)

By the way, I always save Sue’s boxes! Sue is a true junker – she loves a flea market, an old antique store, or a great thrift shop. Here’s what was inside:

A treasure trove: paper ephemera, a vintage hankie, two beautiful pieces of fabric that I think might have been napkins, creamy vintage buttons, a pretty blue velvet ribbon, vintage jewelry, a great chandelier prism, a beautiful cuff that Sue made, more sea glass (Sue sent me some this summer) and rocks, and a piece of bark cloth! Oh boy! All my favorites. My sea glass collection is growing, thanks to Sue, who happens to live near the shore in Maryland. And I love rocks, not to mention vintage fabric, jewelry, ribbons and buttons. I love, love the cuff, Sue! The chandelier prism is hanging in the studio window already. And how about a close up of the bark cloth? This piece is truly gorgeous.

Sigh. Swoon. Happy Claudia.

I won a giveaway that my friend Kate of The Garden Bell had recently. She is a crocheter. In fact, her gorgeous posts and scrumptious photos inspired me to take up the hook again. She also dyes yarn. Those of us who won got a skein of yarn in our favorite colors. Here’s mine:

I can’t wait to make something with this! Thank you, Kate.

I treated myself to a little something from my friend Meri. She is so very talented and has been creating the most adorable shadowboxes lately. When I saw this one, I had to have it.

Isn’t it delightful? It is on the piano for the holidays, but will soon travel upstairs to the studio where I display it all year round.

Meri snuck in an extra for me, this beautiful ornament.

I have it tucked in with the silver balls and greenery that are displayed in a McCoy jardiniere. Thank you, Meri.

As you know, Don and I are far from our families at Christmas. My family is in Florida and Michigan and Illinois. Don’s is in California and Washington. We can’t really leave the dogs in a kennel as they were rescues and wouldn’t understand that that they weren’t being abandoned. And Riley needs more and more special handling. They wouldn’t do well in that sort of situation. So we make the choice to stay home here at MHC. These lovely presents and thoughtful gestures, along with your sweet holiday messages and lovely comments make my holiday brighter. Thank you.

Wonderful Gifts from Bloggers, Pt. 1

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I am so grateful for the friends I have met through blogging. You are all so dear to me. I hope you know that. Lately, wonderful surprises have been showing up in my mailbox and on my doorstep. I’d like to share some of them with you over the next few posts.

Look up at my header. Do you see the McCoy bird planter on the left? I have two of them in turquoise, and a smaller one in white.  I love them dearly. They may be my favorite pieces in my collection.

Yesterday I received a package from my friend Kim of Flowers and Art. Kim is enormously talented and among her talents are miniatures and dollhouses.  Imagine my surprised delight when I saw this:
Oh. my. goodness.
This chair is sitting on the dollhouse porch. Let me show you the scale:
Sorry, President Lincoln. I didn’t mean to turn you upside down! I’m delighted, amazed and so grateful that Kim took the time to make this priceless miniature. She also sent me this ornament that she created:
She used a Santa light cover, then created the giant snowball and the little snowballs in his lap and then painted his coat and cap in the perfect shade of turquoise! My favorite color. Thank you, Kim. I am blown away by your creations.
Remember my post about my love for the scent of pine? My friend Suzanne of Privet and Holly said she wanted to send me something that she thought I would like. It arrived yesterday.

Let me tell you, the scent coming from this votive is incredible. My husband said it smells better than the Frazier Fir sitting in our den! Suzanne has a friend who’s sister designed this scent for Thymes. I feel my shoulders drop just from the unlit scent of the votive. Imagine what it will be like when it’s lit! Thank you, Suzanne.

A blessing beyond measure – the warmth of friendship. More in the next post.

Reindeer and an Angel

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Do you like my vintage reindeer? I would say they were manufactured in the 50’s – 60’s. They remind me of my childhood. The awful truth: I bought these last Christmas to give to someone who was having a holiday party. I didn’t end up attending said party; I think I was under the weather. I discovered them in my craft closet this year. Now they’re mine.

It’s very cold here in our neck of the woods. But no snow. I watch the weather and see snow falling everywhere else. My goodness, Europe was really getting hit over the weekend. Airports were closed, train travel stopped. Here? Nothing. We may have ‘snow showers’ on Christmas. Translated: no accumulation. I know I will be up to my neck in snow later this winter, so I shouldn’t complain. However, it would be nice to have some white stuff on the ground for Christmas.

We moved out to the East Coast 9 years ago. Don is a Southern California boy and I had lived in San Diego for 8 years. We were ready for a white Christmas. Boy, did we get one. There was a blizzard that day. Snow, snow and more snow. It went on all day. I remember trying to walk through waist-high drifts to our vacationing neighbors’ house to feed their dogs and let them outside. It was a magical adventure. We were living in a tiny rented cottage and we felt warm and cozy while all that snow whirled and twirled through the air. I still love that feeling.

That was the Christmas I realized that because of a moving day glitch, all our boxes of Christmas ornaments had been put in an not-very-accessible storage facility and not in the cottage where they belonged. We had nothing. We had to run out and buy some very inexpensive ornaments from the local drug store. And that’s where this tree topper comes in. We had a beautiful glass tree topper that was, regrettably, in those darn boxes. I found this tin angel in a local shop. Her folk-art look was charming and I thought she would do nicely until we were reunited with our “in storage” ornaments. Well, we weren’t reunited with them until four years later when we moved to MHC. As we unpacked them all that first year here, we admired our glass tree topper once again.  We placed it on top of the tree. Pretty…but not our angel. The angel won out. And she has every Christmas since.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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