cottage — Page 17

An Early Morning Chat

November 7, 2013 at 8:22 am by Claudia

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My sleep cycle has been problematic lately. So has Don’s. Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night for what must have been an hour or more, finally fell back to sleep and then promptly woke up again. Don was also awake for a long stretch. I finally admitted defeat and got up around 5:45 am. Don, who is much better at this than I, went back to sleep. Or at least I think he did. He hasn’t emerged from the bedroom yet.

Once I’m up, I’m up.

I can always tell when I haven’t had enough sleep. My eyes feel irritated and sting-y (as opposed to stingy.) I feel a wee bit edgy. I know that I could easily slip into ‘irritated mode.’ So the day becomes, in part, about trying not to descend into snappishness, trying to stay cheery and positive.

Don always says, “You can take a nap this afternoon.” But I don’t really nap anymore. Maybe, if I’m lucky, a doze of five minutes or so while sitting in my blogging chair that will take the edge off.

Though I’d much rather have had more sleep, I do like the early morning here at the cottage; still dark as I pad down the stairs, Scoutie asleep on the loveseat, coffee brewing, lamps lit.

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A pile of books and newspapers on the coffee table. And Vaseline. (I use the Vaseline for my feet, which get very dry in the winter.)

As is.

It’s a quiet time, with the sound of early morning traffic in the background. Scout wakes up, goes outside, comes into the den with me, and after some time in the ‘tunnel,’ promptly goes back to sleep again. I’m envious.

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As I write this, she is dreaming. Her little body is jerking and she’s making sounds of distress. What is she seeing in her dream? Now she wakes, opens her eyes, makes sure I’m here and then fades back into sleep. Peaceful again.

I love that girl.

Yesterday, I used a long extender handle with a brush and scrubbed down the side of the house that is north-facing and never fully gets the sun. It needed it. But boy, was it a messy job. A bit of chlorine-free, environmentally safe bleach added to a bucket of water, scrub, scrub, scrub, turn on the hose and rinse, more bleach, more water and on and on it went. The hose played tricks on me and doused me with water a couple of times. It was cold and gray and I was very wet at the end of the whole thing. Plus the dang extender handle locked into place and I couldn’t adjust it, so I had to do the whole job with the handle/brush at a weird angle because it was too long.

The house looks better. It was a task I should have attended to long ago. Working out-of-town for an extended period of time tends to put a lot of projects on hold. I have an ongoing list that plays on an endless loop in my brain. Do you have a To Do list that is always lingering in your thoughts? Don is sort of amazed by it. In the course of a routine conversation about something like the beauty of the leaves, I will suddenly come up with three things that have to be done that day. He can’t quite process the U-turns my thoughts can take. Is this a female thing? I don’t think Don’s thought process runs on the same switching system as mine.

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Ah, but all is well when I’m wearing my flannel pajamas. The other day, after a really bad bout of sleeplessness, I kept them on all day long. Defiantly. Happily. It was just the excuse I needed. And I broke out the hot chocolate.

By the way, I have been remiss in not announcing the winner of a copy of Backlash. The winner is Nancy Blue Moon. Congratulations, Nancy! Send me an email with your mailing address and I will pass it on to TLC Book Tours.

I used to do other giveaways on this blog but I have to say that nothing makes me happier than the opportunity to give away books. I’m passionate about them and love that I can share them with you.

Happy Thursday.

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Cottage Tour: Studio & Bedroom

November 2, 2013 at 9:05 am by Claudia

We watched one of my favorite movies last night, It Happened One Night. Perfection. Frank Capra, Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, a wonderful supporting cast of great character actors – what more could you ask for? Personally, I think this is Gable’s finest performance. Funny, romantic, brazen, outrageous, serious; he nails it all.

Can you tell that I’m still basking in the glow of a brilliant black and white comedy straight out of the Thirties? If I could have managed it, I would have stayed up all night because there were four Screwball Comedies on the docket on TCM. Heaven.

Today? We’re touring the bedroom (which is small) and getting a brief glimpse of the studio (which is even smaller.) By the way, I call it a studio, but it’s really just my little creative area. I’m thinking more and more that studio sounds a bit grandiose.

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We’ll have to head up the stairs, but first a view of the desk from above.

And my sneakers.

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The stairs were slippery for our dogs, so I had to come up with a solution. We couldn’t afford to carpet them when we first moved in, so I went to either Home Depot or Lowe’s (can’t remember now) and bought these pieces of carpet that are designed for stairs. Since I like things a little offbeat, I alternated blue and red for what I hoped would be a more interesting look. Eight years later, they’re still here.

That’s a Christie Repasy canvas at the bottom of the stairs and our vintage “Use Other Stair” sign is to the right. When I finish hand quilting my newest quilt, it will hang on that wall.

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A quick peek at the sewing niche at the top of the stairs. That skylight makes a big difference in the space. I’ve blogged about this creative space a lot over the years, so I’m only going to show a bit of it now.

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To the right of the sewing niche is a little bookshelf. And Lambchop (my muse).

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To the right of the bookcase is the door to the bathroom, then the door to the bedroom, then this cabinet. I snagged it for $75 on Craig’s List and eventually painted it this pale pink, which I had on hand from another project. Letitia, my vintage dress form is on the left.

That’s all for the studio. There are plenty of photos on this blog of the details – just search for “studio.”

The bedroom. Oy. We have cottagey eaves in both bedrooms, so we constantly wrestle with furniture placement. The fact is that there is very little wall space and a lot of eaves.

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Looking in from the studio.

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You can see how we’ve had to place the bed up against the slanted ceiling. I made the headboard when we were living in our rental after we’d first moved out East. A couple of years ago, I recovered it with this vintage fabric. Then I finished the quilt. Lots of pattern here, but the rest of the room is pattern-less, so it works. Don has the lamp I bought in Hartford on his bedside table because he really likes it.

That’s an oak blanket chest under the window that I repainted last year. With Chalk Paint. Turns out, I’m not a fan. There’s a post all about it here. That post also shows a closeup of the blanket chest. The two framed items on Don’s side of the bed are beautiful Chinese watercolors with bamboo frames. Don bought them years ago. And to the right you can see my favorite canvas:

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My cherubs. I saw this painting in Vignettes when I was working in San Diego about 4 years ago. It was hanging near the front counter. I fell in love with it. I went back home after my gig. The next year, I went back to San Diego for another gig. And the painting was still there. Lori, the owner of Vignettes, would see me gazing at it every time I came into the shop. Finally, I asked about it. It was expensive for this girl who buys everything at a deep discount – more money than I felt comfortable spending. But I loved it. I took a picture of it and sent it to Don. I imagine he didn’t care one way or the other but he heard that tone in my voice that said I had fallen hard for this painting. Then one day I went back to the store and Lori told me that she had been thinking of me. A couple had decided to buy the painting and had paid for it and had it wrapped when, at the last minute, they decided to buy something else. All Lori could think was “Claudia is going to be so disappointed when she finds out the painting was sold.”

That did it. I bought it and I’ve never regretted it. I also knew immediately where I would hang it. It has influenced the color scheme of the room, for sure.

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My side of the bed. The bedside table is an old typing table. That’s an Expedit shelf unit from IKEA in the background, filled with books.

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See what I mean? And you wonder why I want built-in bookshelves in the den. (Let’s not even discuss the boxes full of books out in the shed.) That’s a photo of my sister Meredith and me. Behind it is a photo of Riley and Scout and behind that is a framed photo of a beautiful double rainbow over the cottage.

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The other side of the room. Our wicker rocker is to the left. That dresser has been with me a long time, since the days I lived in Cambridge, MA and found it on the street, whereupon I enlisted the help of my friend to carry it for three blocks and then up three flights of stairs to my apartment. It’s been painted gray, then pale yellow, and last year I painted it in aqua and cream. (If I had a dollar for every time I’ve hit my head against the ceiling when using the dresser drawers, I’d be a wealthy woman.)

The piece next to it is a mini-sideboard that I use for sweater storage. It holds our behemoth of a television. Hey, it works and I’m not about to toss it while it’s still going strong.

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The bedroom, tucked under the eaves, has smallish windows but it gets a lot of light. I’d kill for one large standard wall, but what can you do? In an old house that has very little closet space, I have to make do with storage. So I store our luggage in the space between the headboard and the wall.

There you have it. Tomorrow I’ll share some of the framed artwork we have hanging in the upstairs half-bath.

Happy Saturday.

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Cottage Tour: The Den

November 1, 2013 at 9:06 am by Claudia

I woke up at 6:30 this morning and it was still dark. In fact, for a short time, I had no idea what time it was. It could have been the middle of the night. Now we’re headed for a time change which will be even more disconcerting. Getting dark at 4:30? Do not like. Why do we still do this whole time change thing?

I digress. Next stop on the tour: the den. As you probably know, the den is our hangout, our television/movie watching room. Speaking of movies, we watched a simply dreadful Vincent Price movie last night in honor of Halloween, the kind of movie that is so bad you cannot stop watching.

I miss baseball.

Anyway, the den is also my blogging room. In other words, I’m in here a lot. It’s sunken, just two steps down from the living room. It feels like a little secluded retreat.

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Looking into the den from the living room. We put those rectangular carpet pieces on the stairs to make it easier for Riley, and now Scout, to get down the steps. I’m not crazy about them, but I’d do anything for our dogs.

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The Blogging Chair. Yes, that’s where the magic happens, my friends. The chair itself is old and has a beautiful shape, but was covered in a sort of naugahyde-like fabric. And it’s desperately in need of entire re-upholstery job, which is low on the Must Be Done list. So I use an IKEA slipcover that doesn’t quite fit, but works in a pinch. I got the teal/green table at auction, along with another table, for $25. The rug is from Pottery Barn. We bought it about 10 years ago. Can you tell I like red? Especially in a cozy space?

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After several fruitless attempts at getting a good picture during the day, I resorted to an evening picture. And I like it. Because that’s when it looks the most warm and cozy and welcoming in here. The sofa? Old. We bought it when we first moved in together. It’s on its second slipcover. The springs are sort of shot, I eliminated the back pillows a few years ago because they drove me nuts and bought 4 red pillows to replace them. I like the shot of color. And that IKEA flowery print pillow (I have a few of them) is Scout’s pillow. Every night we move it so that it’s perpendicular to the position it’s in here and she nestles next to it. She sometimes obsessively licks it. It’s rather yucky at this point, but it’s hers.

The screen is an oak Craftsman piece from our former home in San Diego, which was a Craftsman style house. It originally had fabric panels but they had deteriorated, so I tied strips of fabric to the rods and placed it against the wall.

The floor lamp is a vintage find from our time in San Diego. It had a glass shade that didn’t match the lamp and I searched for months until I found the green and cream glass shade that completed the piece.

The large print on the wall is one of my favorite-ever auction finds. That wooden frame is scalloped. It’s big and heavy and I got it for $15. The coffee table was a steal at $10. The white side table was formerly brown until I painted it. Now it looks much more cottagey.

My dream is to have a wall of built-in bookcases behind the sofa. I’m going to make it come true.

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This is the watercolor painting that is on the wall above that table. We found it in San Diego. We fell for both the charming scene of a windmill and the frame.

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The vintage wire laundry basket was a Craig’s List find for $50. Have I touched that yarn recently? No.

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Our most recent find: these gorgeous lamps that were our anniversary gift to each other. This one is lit….

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And this one unlit. It’s been a few weeks now and I still can’t stop looking at them.

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This is an original Currier and Ives lithograph that I found at auction. It’s old and fragile and has some stains and I love it. I’m amazed at how vivid the colors still are. It hangs above the large picture window.

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One of my china cabinets is tucked into this corner. I bought this beauty the first year I was living in San Diego. It held my Fiesta collection, which has since been sold. (I’ve retained a few of my favorite pieces.) It now houses some of my favorite pottery and china, including McCoy and Haviland and some French pieces. On top you can see the vintage bird cage I bought at Vignettes in San Diego and some of my Roseville pottery. Behind them are some old books, including some of my dad’s school books.

You can see that the television is right next to it, where it has to be because there is a window to the right that we don’t want to block. Televisions are not all that attractive, but I’ll show you the cabinet on which it stands.

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I got this cabinet, which has no back, for $5 at auction. I painted and glazed it and changed out the knobs. I really love it. It holds the cable box and the dvd player.

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In the corner, our spinet desk, which used to be in the spot by the stairs where my desk now lives. I closed the cover, so it would look a bit less busy. The wicker magazine holder is vintage and we bought it years ago in San Diego.

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That’s a framed Norman Rockwell print of Main Street in Stockbridge, Massachusetts – one of our favorite places.

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The beautiful Lost Lamb print came from Debra of Common Ground. I saw it on a blog post that showed one of her retail spaces and I wrote her immediately. It has the most beautiful frame. The shadow box was from a vendor’s space in Heidi’s shop. The lady who ran that space was a friend of mine and she died rather suddenly a few years ago. Heidi gave me this piece as a memento. It was originally finished in a dark stain and the back was mirrored. I painted it and covered the mirrors with toile scrapbook paper. It now displays my miniature pottery.

Can you tell that I have a pottery obsession?

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We’ve come full circle. Just inside the entrance to the den is this music cabinet. Another auction find for about $25. I have a lot of sheet music, but it also stores other things that need to lie flat, like prints and dollhouse wallpaper. Some of my favorite vintage books are on top along with a silver candlestick (one of a pair) given to us as a wedding present by the founder of the Old Globe Theater, Craig Noel. Craig, who was a dear friend to both of us and a mentor to Don, died a few years ago. Underneath? Dog toys that are never used anymore but I’m sort of sentimental about. I can’t get rid of them. And to the left is a basket with quilts and throws.

The den is decorated but not decorated. It’s meant to be cozy, comfortable and enveloping – the kind of place where you can flop down on the sofa, cuddle, read, write, and pet a beloved dog. There are several pieces of furniture but I work very hard at not cluttering a space. Cozy clutter? Yes. Stuff everywhere? No. I edit what I hang on the walls and what I display. And, as always, everything has a story. Everything has a meaning to us.

If you ever came for a visit, I would probably drive you nuts sharing all those stories.

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Scoutie on her pillow.

More tomorrow.

Happy Friday.

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An Early Morning Chat

Cottage Tour: Studio & Bedroom

Cottage Tour: The Den

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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