Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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Chances Are, You’ve Already Got It

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Dear friends: Some shorter posts this week as I spend long days working in Manhattan on Anastasia. I’m not sure how many days, yet. I’m writing this one on Sunday afternoon. If, for some reason, you don’t see a post on a certain day, it’s simply because I have no time. These days will be 12 or 13 hours long, when I add in the commute.

A not-very-frequent observation on decorating and buzzwords:

The new home and hearth buzzword this season is Hygge. It’s being used to sell books, sell merchandise and sell people on a Danish word and the ‘lifestyle’ it represents. I’ve been amused by the books that are appearing on the subject, the tutorials and the blog posts on how to create Hygge. I’ve long thought that Hygge is something we already instinctively do – whether we live in a cold or warm climate, a house or an apartment, a tiny home or a tent.

I was pleased to discover an article on Houzz this week about this very subject. It confirmed my thoughts about the ubiquitous presence of Hygge. The article was entitled, “Busting Open 6 Nordic Design Myths,” one of which was Hygge.

Hygge is a Danish term/word for creating coziness and warmth. Presumably, those long Nordic winters have spawned certain decorating/coping skills that create that cozy feeling and that we need to learn over here on this side of the ocean.

But, in reality, as stated in a 2015 article on Houzz, Hygge is “spending time with the ones you love, in a home that is filled with light and well-loved items that fill you with everyday joy when you use them. You can’t buy Hygge, nor can you get someone to create it for you. It is the Nordic state of contentment that can only be found at home.”

Hurrah for the Nordic state of contentment that can only be found at home! I second that emotion. I’ve long felt the same way about my homes over the years, starting with my girlhood bedroom, through tiny studio apartments and onward to the home in which I currently live.

Most of us who love to create a cozy home filled with warmth and personality, who have things in our homes that have been collected and gathered, who love texture and textiles and comfy furniture, who love making a house or apartment a home, already do that. If what surrounds us matters to us and makes us happy – whether it’s furniture, books, objects, rugs, pets or people – then we’re already creating Hygge.

And if being in your home brings you contentment, then you’re already there.

I’m always a bit wary of trends and buzzwords and things like the ‘color of the year.’ I find them interesting, but I take them with a grain of salt. I suspect you do, too. If you love your home and have created a place that makes you happy, and that, at the end of the day, makes you sigh with contentment, congratulations! You’ve got Hygge.

And Rest in Peace, Al Jarreau. I filled many hours of my life playing your music, listening to your voice. Seeing you in concert was an incredible experience. Thank you. You will be missed.

Happy Monday.

 

Home For A Brief Visit & The Chair

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Oh heavens, it’s cold here! This morning it was 15 degrees, but it felt like 2 degrees. I’m sure it’s the same in Hartford. It’s supposed to hit 50 degrees on Wednesday. Go figure.

I successfully dodged the snow yesterday and made it home by about 11:30 am. There were snow showers along the way, but no accumulation. Don was here when I got home and after I unloaded the car, I saw a large box in the den containing…my new chair! When I ordered it from Pier One, I had it delivered to our local store, rather than pay the addition $150 to have it delivered. Cripes! No way. I figured that if it was too big for the CR-V, Don could borrow a friend’s truck and bring it home. It arrived on Wednesday and I got the message from the store while I was in rehearsal. I called them back to tell them Don would be picking it up in the next couple of days, but Don, that good guy, surprised me and picked it up the same day.

So we unpacked the box. But first, we took the chair it was replacing out of the den and managed to drag it upstairs to the studio. That chair is vintage and it’s very, very heavy. (I am determined to get it reupholstered because the lines are really lovely – I’ll take a photo of it sans ill-fitting slip cover later today.) It would be the perfect chair for Don to use downstairs in the living room.

We then attached the legs and I vacuumed the floor, and there it is:

Taking a photo in the den is somewhat difficult, as there are windows on three sides of the room. This was taken late in the afternoon yesterday. Isn’t it pretty?

And with the lights on. It’s very firm and for me, that’s good, because it gives great back support. It also sits a little higher than the other chair – interesting, because I was worried it would sit lower – and I really like it. Of course, my back has been having to adjust lately to two different beds, two different sofas in the apartment, neither of which has any support, and chairs in the apartment that are not meant for lounging, so it’s been complaining a bit.

Here is the profile of the chair:

That’s a sort of faux leather on the side.

Gosh, I’m crazy about it!

Today, there is laundry and cleaning to be done. And I have to take down our pretty white Christmas tree, which has been up a bit longer than usual due to the fact that I’ve been out of town and Don doesn’t want to mess with it. I brought the Christmas decorations I used in the apartment home with me, and I’m going to store them in the cupboard under the stairs.

We watched the documentary about Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds that premiered on HBO last night. It was lovely. But it was so bittersweet and poignant in the face of their deaths within a day of each other. The whole thing doesn’t seem real.

Tonight, Sherlock  with my husband and then tomorrow, it’s back to Hartford for tech rehearsals.

Happy Sunday.

Tuesday Thoughts

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• A curious phenomenon: a day off seems to pass so quickly, yet, at the same time, it seems to take forever. It’s Tuesday. I’m back to work with a run-through of the show scheduled for this morning. Yesterday, on that day off, I got in my car and went to Whole Foods, Target, Trader Joe’s and the bookstore. Errands accomplished, I came back to the apartment, put everything away, had some lunch, and the rest of the day seemed to drag on. This was due in part to gray, cloudy, cold and damp weather which did nothing to encourage me to take a walk or go exploring. I also missed my husband.

But now it’s a new day and I have to work and that’s a good thing. I did do a bit of reading yesterday and that was nice. And I started the morning today with more reading. And coffee, of course.

• I posted this on Instagram yesterday because I love all of the color and pattern in this little area of the apartment. After taking the  Christmas tree down on Sunday, I replaced it with this vase of flowers. I don’t seem to shy away from pattern. Or color. I bought the new Country Living magazine yesterday and it focuses on neutrals. Sigh. I have nothing against them and I like looking at the way in which people use them in their homes, but I have to say that I flipped through that magazine pretty quickly because a little of that goes a long way for me.

But it would be boring if we all decorated the same way, wouldn’t it? So vive la difference!

• I’m including a picture of my new wall calendar from Rifle Paper Company. It’s actually prettier than it appears here. I really like it. It will hang above my desk back at the cottage, but for now, it’s cheerfully hanging above this  desk.

• Changing Font:

Some might deem this next photo/screenshot political, but to me, it is simply further proof that a dangerously petulant child is about to become President. This, my friends, was one of that man’s tweets on New Year’s Eve:

 

I have no words for this. Well, I do, of course. But I’ll let this speak for itself.

Happy Tuesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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