dollhouse — Page 52

Snippets

April 9, 2019 at 9:43 am by Claudia

I took these photos late Sunday afternoon when the sun was hitting the rooms in the dollhouse. I posted them on Instagram Stories, but not all of you do IG, so I thought I’d post them here. The text on the pictures is a result of posting them on Stories (the equivalent of a caption.)

I love this house.

There. I’ve said it.

Sunny this morning after the fog burned off, but rain is coming this afternoon. Oh joy. I know we need it, and I’m grateful for it, but with the soil and grass continuously soggy, there’s not a lot that I can do out there!

We watched part one of the third season of Unforgotten on PBS. It airs on Sunday nights at 10 pm here (the NYC public television station.) Too late for us, so we watched it on demand yesterday. I love this series. Nicola Walker is consistently excellent in everything she does. We’re big fans. It centers on cold cases. Very well done.

Today’s egg cups:

Little boys – and a dog, to boot. These are favorites of mine.

And, as we watched the end of Shall We Dance with Ginger and Fred early yesterday evening, I saw this:

I ran out to the front porch to capture it. Gorgeous.

Happy Tuesday.

The Pink Cabinet

April 5, 2019 at 10:53 am by Claudia

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but you do know that emails of the blog posts come from a separate email address, and that I have no way of responding to you when you choose to comment via a response to the email? I still get a lot of comments that way – and I read them – but I can’t respond to them. So, if you really want a direct response, come to the blog and comment here. If you simply want to write to me and don’t care whether I respond or not, then have at it.

I say this today because I got a response like that from Claudia in Oklahoma about a month ago. I came across it the other day, when I was cleaning out my inbox. Claudia was responding to a post about Vintage by Crystal; she had fallen in love with Crystal’s whimsical spun cotton creations. And she asked how I displayed them. (I hope you’ve found a piece that you love, Claudia!)

So I went upstairs and took some photos for you. Keep in mind that my Santa that sits on a bell and my Butterfly Rider are displayed right here in the den. But everything else is upstairs in the office.

They’re in my pink cabinet in my little hideaway at the top of the stairs.

I’ll take you on a little tour.

The top shelf holds several pieces of Roseville Pottery, including a child’s plate. On the right is an antique napkin holder inscribed with “Claudia.” My friend Lynne gave that to me.

The middle shelf holds several pieces of cream-colored McCoy Pottery, as well as a pottery deer (maker unknown). In the back is a pink cardboard candy box that holds letters my grandmother exchanged with her youngest sister, Rhoda, when Gram was attending nursing school in Barrie, Ontario. I’ve read many of them. Rhoda died at the age of 15 in the flu epidemic of 1918, along with an older sister, Maggie. Grandma never got over that. And from what I’ve read, Rhoda sounded delightful – full of life, funny, and kind. I wish I’d known her. And Maggie. Both gone long before I was born.

The Friends framed motto was a gift from my friend Lori, who owns Vignettes in San Diego. The pink powder puff was hand made by a blogging friend from long ago, who, sadly, no longer blogs. The Swarovski crystal bunnies came from Barbara. On the left, a Vintage by Crystal creation that looks like my mom when she was a little girl. On the right, a Valentine girl.

The bottom shelf holds copies of the magazines and book in which I was published. On top are little trinket holders that I love. Next to them are two chocolate boxes; one from Harrods in London and one from Laduree in Paris. And a little Paris/Eiffel Tower medallion I bought several years ago from Vignettes. Another piece of Roseville (the hard to find, an even harder to afford Cherry Blossom). Behind it, four vintage glove boxes. And then more Vintage by Crystal.

The elf is a Christmas ornament and not from Vintage by Crystal, but everything else here is. The two bunnies were my very first purchases.

So, that’s how I display them. I don’t do seasonal displays as a rule; rather, I prefer to have things out where I can see them all year long.

I have eight pieces by Crystal and – yes – I succumbed once more during yesterday’s blog sale. I’ll show you that when it arrives. I hope this helps, Claudia! I hope you see this post.

I love all the pieces I have displayed in my three china cabinets, but I must admit, this one is my favorite. It’s my ‘private’ cabinet, tucked away in our office. It’s painted a pale pink, it sits perpendicular to my desk, and I can see some of my favorite treasures when I’m working there. On top of the cabinet are my dolls and a poster for Anastasia. In fact, I went upstairs yesterday to work on the dollhouse and take these pictures, however, I ended up simply faffing the inside of the cabinet. I added that paper that backs the bottom shelf.

I’ll go stare at it some more today. It makes me happy. And I’ll share some more views of my little corner of our office in the next couple of days.

It’s Easter time. Yesterday, I started to post a little round-up of egg cups on Instagram. The first? Bunny-themed egg cups.

Adorable.

Happy Friday.

Potpourri on Tuesday

April 2, 2019 at 10:54 am by Claudia

• A base coat of white for the rehab project.

Today, I’m going to open up the kit that Barbara sent me. I need to find those pieces, like the door, that are missing. I also need to fill in some holes. Those slots you see on the left and right are for the porch, but my vision doesn’t include a porch, so they need to be filled.

And all these rooms need a base coat of white, as well. Not the floors, but the walls and ceilings. I’m going to go with a different color for the shingles and I’m trying to remember if I did a base coat of white for the shingles on Hummingbird Cottage. I’m betting I did. Once I’ve done all that painting, I’ll start in on the exterior stones.

I’m starting to make lists, which is a good sign that I’m finally engaged with this project.

Why is it that I am suddenly into this project when I have lots of work to do outdoors? Couldn’t I have ‘scheduled’ this for the winter months?

Oh, Claudia, your ways are mysterious.

• It’s sunny today. The temp went down to 25 last night. So it’s still cold. By next week, the nighttime temps should be in the forties and I will no longer have to shuttle the Boston fern back and forth between the porch and the living room. The only thing I’ve done outside is to move two chairs back to the funky patio. The Adirondack chairs and the wire shelves are still at the storage space. In the meantime, I can start raking some of the Item 4 back onto the driveway; a tedious job, but it must be done.

• We watched a beautiful movie last night. It’s on Netflix. It’s Our Souls at Night, starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. Don watched it last year when he was staying in the city and kept urging me to watch it. We finally did. It’s simply lovely – a story about loneliness, being of a ‘certain age,’ and finding love when you least expect it. Such fine actors. This is the fourth movie Fonda and Redford have done together and you can tell they like each other, that they’re comfortable with each other. If you haven’t seen it, do watch.

We find ourselves craving simple, quiet films that concentrate on characters, that explore the everyday. This one is like that. So is Paterson.

• Don and I have been talking a lot about quality of life, of what we want this time in our life to be. Much is this is generated by the constant assault of this administration, the 24-hour news cycle, and the challenge of what we should let into our lives and what we should shut the door on. Just as we wouldn’t let just anyone into our house, I think we have to do the same thing with our consciousness. We’re trying to find the balance between taking action when needed and the peaceful, quiet life we want to lead here in the cottage. Though I don’t do organized religion, so to speak, I do believe in a Higher Power, God, Divine Intelligence, whatever name you might use. I’m very spiritual. I try to live a life that is not based on my ego, but oh, do I miss the mark – and frequently. I have so much to learn. Don is on his own spiritual journey.

All this is to say that we want to live a peaceful, loving, and joyful life as we move forward. We’d like to travel more. We want our cottage to be a haven, not a place where we are constantly expressing anger or outrage or feeling anything akin to hatred – all of which I have felt during the past two years. I no longer want to give someone else power over me. And that’s entirely my choice. It’s my responsibility. And that goes for the small annoyances and interactions, as well, even tiresome comments on this blog. They’re extremely rare, thank goodness, but I just need to let them go.

I’m rambling here, but it’s been on our minds a lot lately. How do we do what is right, what we believe is morally right, and come from a place of love, while still acknowledging the cruelty or reprehensible nature of the action? How do we protect our lives here at the cottage? How do we move forward in peace? I don’t want this portion of my life to be fraught with anxiety. Neither does Don. Changing that seems daunting at times.

It’s an ongoing process, but a necessary one.

Happy Tuesday.

Snippets

The Pink Cabinet

Potpourri on Tuesday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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