Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for color

Thoughts on Traffic Noise and Garden Colors

August 5, 2014 at 9:02 am by Claudia

Sometimes, when I sit here in the morning (or any other time of day) with the window open, all I hear is traffic: trucks rumbling by, cars, motorcycles. If I somehow tune into those sounds, the noise of it all becomes overwhelming. It’s enough to make me want to scream.

But how is it that at other times I’m not even aware of those sounds? Same amount of traffic; but I’m able to tune out all of that noise. I’m barely aware of it. I suppose it’s all in the level of concentration on whatever task is at hand. I didn’t sleep so well last night, so this morning I’m tired and a bit edgy. It’s harder to concentrate. So, it follows that I am hyper aware of all the traffic noise.

But if at some point today I am able to become completely engrossed in a book, all of that sound will fade away.

I’m looking forward to it.

Just one of things I contemplate during the course of a day.

tuesday - zinnia bud

Zinnia buds are little works of art.

tuesday - group of phlox

Walking by the big garden bed is such a pleasure these days because the scent from the phlox is so heavenly. Don tells me that when he lets Scout out late at night, the scent from those flowers fills the night air. We’ve determined that the white phlox has a stronger scent than the purple and pink volunteers that have sprung up in the bed.

tuesday - purple phlox

Though I have to say that the purple phlox is quite lovely.

I looked around my gardens the other day and I’ve come to the conclusion that there is very little red in my garden. I like red, in fact, there is quite a bit of it in my house, but I’m not so crazy about it in the garden. The bee balm is red, of course, and some of the first roses that bloom are red. Though, to be honest, those roses were yellow when I bought them. I wanted yellow roses. And I got them for a few years but since they were grafted, the red blooms eventually emerged. I’m not so crazy about that deep red.

Truly the most predominate color in the garden is purple in all its shades and variations, with white coming in a close second. There are pops of orange and yellow and pink here and there. But purple and lavender are the winners.

If you have a garden, do you find yourself continually drawn to a certain color? What about when you buy flowers for a bouquet?

(Don’t forget about the book review on Just Let Me Finish This Page. I’m giving away a copy!)

Happy Tuesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: color, flowers, garden 36 Comments

Tweaking the Home-Away-From-Home

August 23, 2013 at 9:29 am by Claudia

Short of ripping out the dark carpet and replacing all the furnishings, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of personalizing this temporary home-away-from-home. There are pops of color everywhere. I’ve brought tchotchkes from home, quilts, bark cloth remnants, vases, flowers, table runners, books.

During my visit home, I grabbed a few more things. Time to tweak.

pillowonsofa

I added the pillow to the sofa. All that darkish green (not my favorite color) needed to be cut by a pop of color. Actually this is an IKEA bolster pillow and the cover is a vintage pillow cover I found a few years back. It has also lived on our bed back home. I love the nubby fabric, which reminds me of forties-era curtain or upholstery fabric.

I also brought this, from my little studio back home:

chalkboard1

The chalkboard I made that normally hangs on the back of a door in the studio. (Gosh, this apartment is a truly difficult space in which to take photos. Windows on one wall only. Very dark. Frustrating.)

chalkboard2

Anyway, I like this board and, though I always plan on changing its message, somehow it remains. Though, now that I think of it, I might erase those words and substitute Leonard Cohen’s. Yep. That’s the ticket.

photos

I added some pictures of my loved ones. Another piece of barkcloth covers the dresser.

And the other day, some fabric I had saved my pennies for arrived.

fabric

Do you remember this Bonnie and Camille print? You can see it here:

quiltwithfriends

It’s in this quilt top, both in some of the quilt blocks and in the borders. I’m going to use it for the backing. Yesterday, the batting I ordered arrived, too. You know what that means: time to pin baste all three layers together and hand quilt this baby.

I’m excited. I can’t wait to hang the finished product on our wall back home.

Happy Friday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: color, decorating, fabric, On The Road, quilting 42 Comments

Pondering Purple

August 5, 2013 at 8:25 am by Claudia

puprleflowers1

Funny how a color can suddenly reappear in your world; not that it ever really disappeared. I’ve been pondering purple lately.

I bought this little plant at Trader Joe’s when we made a quick stop on our drive to Hartford. I liked the color and the tiny flowers and I wanted a potted plant for the apartment. I remembered the deep window sills from my previous stay and knew they would be a good home for this little beauty.

Then I hung this:

purplequilt2

A favorite creation of mine that had recently been in a stack of folded quilts, its gorgeous purples hidden from view.

It reminded me of my youthful passion for purple and lavender. In the tiny little bungalow where my parents raised 4 children, space was at a premium: two small bedrooms downstairs and a bigger bedroom carved out of the attic space. One bathroom. For a while there it was just my brother and me, so my parents used the attic room and we each had our own bedroom downstairs. But then my sisters came along and the scramble for space began. Long story short: I ended up sharing the attic space with my much younger sisters for several years. When my brother left the nest, I got to move back downstairs and I finally had my own room.

If you look on the sidebar, you will see this:

solitary

Oh so true. I’ve always needed time alone, in my own little space. But I rarely had it when I was growing up. It’s very hard to retreat into the bliss of solitary-ness when you’re surrounded by 5 other family members in a space where you can hear every conversation, every sound. So on that day when I was able to re-claim a downstairs bedroom, Mom asked me what color I wanted the walls to be.

Lavender. Absolutely. Lavender.

Lavender it was. Mom bought a matching purple-y print bedspread and curtains. I was in heaven. I could shut the door to my private space, play original Broadway cast albums endlessly, read voraciously and tend to my potted plants. I could decorate my room. Just for me.

Later, in the days when we all had our ‘colors’ done, I was categorized as a Winter. Winters look good in jewel tones, not unlike the colors in this quilt. So I started wearing purples and deep reds. I looked good in them. Even now, with my hair no longer the deep brown it used to be, I still look good in them. Purples again. But not lavender. No, that was too pastel for a Winter like me.

I’m falling in love with purples all over again. Seeing that quilt hung on the wall of my temporary living space makes me smile.

purplefabric

Catching a glimpse of a stack of purple fabric, nestled between reds and yellows, makes me happy.

purpleflowers2

Is there a color that calls to you from your distant past?

______________________________________________________________________________________

On another note: My friend Dawn just moved her Blogger blog to WordPress. (You should go visit her. It looks great!) When a blog is moved to WordPress, the feed has to be rerouted and anyone that followed with Google Friend Connect will no longer get updated posts. As for blogrolls, sometimes the URL has to be re-entered to update the feed even though the actual URL hasn’t changed. I have Dawn’s blog on my blogroll (up in the navigation bar) and I noticed it hadn’t updated since right before the move. So I deleted the URL and simply re-entered the same information. Bingo. It updated.

If you have Creative Cain Cabin on your blogroll, can you do Dawn a favor and update the information? I had to ask this same thing of my readers when I moved. And if you read the blog through Google Friend Connect, please resubscribe, either by email or through a reader such as Bloglovin.

We all have to help each other out here in blogland, right?

By the way, Dawn is currently adding all the information necessary to design graphics for fellow bloggers. She just did my watermark and my signature and I love the results. If you’re at all interested, stop by and see what she has to offer. It may take a couple of days for all the information to be available, but in the meantime, you can contact her via her email address.

Okay.

Happy Monday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: color, Fellow bloggers, On The Road 42 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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