dollhouse — Page 53

April

April 1, 2019 at 9:06 am by Claudia

A very cold, but sunny morning. The temps were back down to the 20s last night.

Spring: You are crazy.

This cold weather will continue for the next couple of days and then the temps will gradually rise. I’m ready for full-on Spring, thank you very much.

We both woke up ridiculously early this morning. I won’t say what time. But we’re determined to be positive and sail through the day with flying colors. Wish us luck!

I did some minor faffing to the original dollhouse yesterday. Over time, changes of temperature cause things to fall off walls, or be jostled in some way or another. I rehung some pictures, a mirror, and a platter. Straightened up the sofas. Dusted the floors (with a paintbrush.) Usually, the dollhouse exterior is facing me when I’m sitting in the den, but I turned it recently – it inspires me for the work that must be done on the rescued dollhouse. It helps to remember all the steps it took to get to the finished product. So, when I turned it and looked closely, I realized some minor adjustments needed to be made.

I also painted a base coat of white on the exterior of my current project. I didn’t want any blue showing when I started the long process of attaching the ‘stones’ to the exterior. My plans yesterday for doing some work up in my office didn’t come to fruition. I did nothing but hang around with my husband, cuddle, and read. That was it. But it was awfully nice.

Someone asked the other day about sources for dollhouse furniture and tips for rehabbing a dollhouse, so it’s time to remind everyone that I have a heck of a lot of posts about Hummingbird Cottage and Don’s Studio under the Dollhouses/Minis tab on my navigation bar. There’s also a Source List, which I just happened to update last week. There’s lots of information for you there.

Okay. It’s Monday. It’s April. It’s sunny.

I’ll take it.

Happy Monday.

Groundhog Sighting, Dollhouse & A Question For You

March 24, 2019 at 10:30 am by Claudia

First groundhog sighting – not Henry, this guy was far too spry for Henry. In fact, I’m not even sure whether he lives on our property. I happened to look out the kitchen window and saw a groundhog on the ramp to the shed. Then he ran around the shed. (There’s another entrance to their home back there.) Then he ran around to the front and, to my surprise, jumped up on our overturned wheelbarrow.

Blurry. Taken through the window with my iPhone.

He was on the alert. He did this a couple of times, then he proceeded to follow the chicken wire fence toward the back of the property, stopping several times to stand on his hind legs and scout some more. Eventually, he ran across the back of the property toward my neighbor’s shed. And I know some ground hogs live there, as well.

Did he just wake up from hibernation? Is he looking for his friends? I’m not sure. But it sure was fun to watch him.

I worked a bit on the dollhouse yesterday. My English cottage concept involves stones. So I cut up some egg cartons (used by miniaturists for the texture) and played with paints.

Pretty good, but I think they need to be lighter in color.

And can you imagine how long this will take me to do? I woke up this morning feeling daunted at the very idea.

I also got about 2 hours of sleep last night, so that didn’t help. I went to sleep just fine. I woke up, went to the bathroom, and that was it for the rest of the night. Just dreadful. My sleep has been really off lately. I’m feeling ragged today, so I’m just going to take it easy.

A question for you: Don and I have been tossing around the idea of doing a podcast. Something that we would do every couple of weeks or so, where we chat with each other about the theater, our lives, life at the cottage, music, groundhogs, whatever. We’re sort of intrigued by the idea, but the big question is: Would anyone listen to it?

What are your thoughts? We wouldn’t inundate you with episodes, we might not even keep to a rigid schedule. Don could play a tune on his uke, we could swap stories about our careers and who we’ve worked with, and we’d be funny, to boot.

We’re going to research the whole thing because we haven’t a clue how to do one. But it would be fun for us and maybe fun for you?

Let me know.

The winner of a copy of How to Know the Birds is Susan. Now, there were several Susans who commented, but I’ve sent you an email, Susan, so you’ll know if it’s you. Please respond with your mailing address. Thank you to everyone who commented!

Also, I’m playing with the size of my photos? Are these too big?

Happy Sunday.

The Daily Routine & Some Sad News

March 21, 2019 at 11:09 am by Claudia

Such a beautiful sunny day yesterday! Today? Rain. Tomorrow? Rain. But I don’t mind. We need rain in order for the grass to get green, for plants to grow, for trees to bud. I’m just happy to see all of the snow gone!

I spent a few hours working on the dollhouse yesterday, doing the tedious work of getting rid of all the excess glue. Applying heat – in my case, with a hairdryer – softens the glue. But getting it out of there involves scraping or using your fingernails, which is what I did. My sore fingers this morning indicate that I did a lot of that. But huzzah! I’m done!

There’s still some excess glue around the windows, but that will be fairly easy to deal with. Next up: my plan for the exterior. And that, if I do it right, is going to take a long time.

I want to share two things with you today.

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while remember the story of Ashley and Pliers, the two horses that we fed every day on our trail walk. Ashley was the mother and Pliers the son. They were devoted to each other, but they lived in a muddy field and their owner was no longer capable of caring for them. They were in their thirties and Ashley was blind. Sometime she would fall and Pliers would stand guard over her. And Pliers wouldn’t let anyone get near her. He never left her side.

Some good neighbors intervened and temporarily housed them until the wonderful Catskill Animal Sanctuary took them in. That was 29 months ago. If they hadn’t taken them in, both horses would have died.

Today, on Instagram, there was a post from Catskill Animal Sanctuary:

“When 35-year-old blind Ashley, terrified of humans, and her 33-year-old son arrived here in October of 2016, we thought they had just weeks to live; they were dangerously attached to each other and had myriad health problems. In fact, Ashley’s back end gave out when she walked. But expert and exhaustive care (even helping them up when they couldn’t stand), exercise, and an abundance of love, likely gave them the best 29 months of their long lives. With their health rapidly declining and falls more frequent, it was time for our final act of love. Goodbye, teachers. Goodbye, old friends. Goodbye, Ashley and Pliers. You are forever in our hearts.”

My heart is breaking.

But without the Sanctuary, they would have been gone much sooner. Everyone at the Sanctuary lavished their time and care on them. Pliers began to feel less need to protect Ashley. He felt comfortable leaving her to come to the fence or for training. Ashley was tended by volunteers who were experienced in working with blind horses. The quality of life for both of them improved greatly.

I’m very sad. It’s hard to grasp that they are gone. But they went together and I know that it would have been impossible for either of them to continue without the other.

Farewell, Ashley and Pliers. You were loved by many.

You know what? That’s enough for today. I’ll save the other ‘share’ for tomorrow.

Let’s leave this post with a photo of these two beautiful souls.

Ashley.

Pliers.

Rest in Peace, my friends.

Happy Thursday.

April

Groundhog Sighting, Dollhouse & A Question For You

The Daily Routine & Some Sad News

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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