dollhouse — Page 103

Snow, A Table & A Party

January 3, 2014 at 8:20 am by Claudia

snowymorning

Brrrr. There’s nothing like waking up at 6 am, grabbing a coat, hat and gloves and shoveling a path for Scout. Up the little hill, all the way around the dog corral and back down the hill again. Barely awake, coffee yet to be consumed, no bodily strength whatsoever. Like a wet noodle.

I came back in the door, ordered Scout outside, and collapsed in the chair.

I am just now coherent enough to start to write a post. There’s clearly a lot of shoveling on the docket for the day. I have no idea how much snow fell – several inches, for sure – but thank goodness it’s powdery. It wasn’t the heavy, wet kind that is so tough to shovel. It’s windy and cold here, with a wind chill that is taking the temp down to the zero mark. Tonight’s low will be 7 below zero. Yikes.

This is the time of year that I go into my fantasy world and pretend I’m back in Southern California with the warm sun on my face. A girl can dream, can’t she?

dhworktable

This arrived yesterday. It’s my work table for the Craft/Studio/Office room in the dollhouse. Isn’t it perfect? I haven’t decided whether I’m going to stain it or paint it. I may stain it, simply because so many pieces of furniture in the dollhouse are painted. Then again, I may paint it.

I want to tell you about two things. The first is a neat idea that my friend Dawn of Creative Cain Cabin came up with. Lucky me – Dawn asked me to co-host the party with her. It’s the Christmas Critter Felt Along. We’re going to be making 2 felt Christmas ornaments each month. Early in the month, we will post photos of the two ornaments, along with patterns and directions and a list of materials and then later in the month we will host a linky party where we can share our creations. So, by next Christmas, you can have 24 new ornaments. You can give them as gifts, or save them for your own tree. Here’s the neat thing: these are so quick and easy to make that you will be able to put them together in no time at all.

And you can make each one for about 20 cents. It’s that inexpensive. Dawn has written a great post about it today. Go on over and visit her post, and you’ll get an idea of what we will be making. So simple, yet so adorable. We will be posting the first two ornaments on January 8th, with directions and a list of materials, along with our own versions of each ornament.

I’d love to have you join in. I think it will be fun. And it takes very little time, which is a big plus for me!

I’m extremely late in posting this, blame it on the holidays, but the winner of a copy of The Seduction of Miriam Cross is Gina! I’ve already contacted Gina. I have some more reviews coming up in February, so there will be more opportunities to win.

Happy Friday.

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It’s Still Christmas Here at the Cottage

December 30, 2013 at 9:17 am by Claudia

In a small act of defiance:

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Another Christmas photo. Because, for us, the Christmas season is still here. Try as I might, I can’t understand removing all traces of Christmas as soon as that particular day ends. What?? It seems so abrupt, like pulling a rug out from under someone’s feet, or dangling a beautiful treat in front of someone’s eyes and just as it gets close enough to be fully experienced, it’s gone. Poof!

To me, the Christmas season lasts until New Year’s Day. To others, it lasts even longer – until Epiphany. And last night, as we were watching the Kennedy Center Honors and admiring our beautiful tree, we decided it will stay up until at least this Friday, which will be January 3rd. I’m in no hurry to get rid of the tree. I’m in no hurry to get rid of Christmas. This is one of the reasons I wait until the second week of December to decorate. I want to experience the holiday season fully and if I chose to decorate too early, I’d run the risk of getting tired of it all much too soon.

Of course, I know very well that everyone has different traditions. But, to me, the holiday season doesn’t end abruptly at 12 am on December 26th. I can only remember a couple of times in our almost twenty years together that we took down our decorations before the New Year and that was because we had to leave our house for work out of town.

Didn’t like it.

Though I am tired of all the Christmas decorating posts, however beautiful, that have been going on since right after Thanksgiving. So I promise to post only this one photo!

We had a lovely visit with our friend yesterday with stimulating conversation and lots of laughter. It ended much too soon. As always, when someone we know and love sees the house for the first time, it was dark and rainy. Go figure. When we first moved into the cottage, we were treated to a visit by Don’s brother and his wife. We were so excited to share our house and our beautiful property with them; they had been such a source of support for us as we made the move into home ownership. They drove up here from NYC, where they had been staying on business, and it rained torrentially. A rain the locals ended up dubbing ‘a hundred years rain.’ You could barely see anything for the rain. It didn’t stop until they had left to return to the city.

It’s happened repeatedly since then. What can I say? It’s strange, but true.

Practicing some close-ups of the dollhouse (forgive any specks of dust you might see):

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dhshells

dhwickerchair

dhfireplace

dhredsink

dhsofa

Happy Monday.

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My Dream Bathroom

December 22, 2013 at 9:12 am by Claudia

I like our bathroom for the most part. We need more storage. It gets cold in there because, for some reason, there is no baseboard heating. We have hard water and, therefore, hard water stains. But it’s fine. The walls are painted in a lovely aqua, the trim is white. All fine.

There is another bathroom that I have begun to covet. (I know coveting is a bad thing, but I’m being honest here.) It has become my dream bathroom. This particular bathroom isn’t something I found on Pinterest or in the pages of a magazine. It’s right here in the dollhouse that stands in my living room.

I ordered a bathroom sink a while back and it was on back order. It arrived in Friday’s mail. I did some tweaking and here it is:

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The whole thing was originally in the stain you see on the top of the cabinet. But I kept seeing red, the red that is in the shutters and in the wallpaper. So yesterday, I painted it.

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The red changes, depending on the light. No faucet yet, I have to order one.

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I’ve played around with the placement of things. The slanted wall on the left is definitely a challenge. I like the idea of the tub by the window. Originally, I had the sink on the opposite wall. But then I thought it might be fun to place it on the angled wall and have the mirror (when I find one) also at an angle. Why not? When I get a toilet, it will go on that same wall and won’t be the focus of the room, thank you very much.

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These rooms on the left side of the dollhouse are so narrow and tunnel-like that taking pictures can be frustrating. I can’t really fit the camera inside the room to get close-ups. Oy. And I have to turn on the floor lamp that is next to the piano to get some light into the room.

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The cabinet works nicely on this wall. The glass jar filled with sea shells was a gift from Marsha, generously sent along with some other starter items when I first bought the dollhouse. The wooden container on top of the cabinet was in the box that Maryanne sent. I painted it red yesterday. The flowers were in the living room. They look better here.

bathroomcabinet

Do you see what I mean? This is my dream bathroom. I want to take baths in that old-fashioned tub, surrounded by all this wonderful color.

I see a chandelier over that tub in the future. And sconces on either side of the mirror-that-will-be. Towels will be in the cabinet, along with all sorts of beauty essentials. Maybe a little table near the tub that holds a book or two, ready for reading while nestled amongst the bubbles?

Oh, yes. Count me in.

Your Holiday Bokeh shot for today:

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Happy Sunday.

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Snow, A Table & A Party

It’s Still Christmas Here at the Cottage

My Dream Bathroom

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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