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You are here: Home / Archives for Don

The Tree & The Snow Globe

December 11, 2014 at 9:21 am by Claudia

Yesterday was one of those days where I was mildly, and sometimes not so mildly, irritated all day. It started with the discovery that my email had been hacked (don’t open any links from me) and went on from there.

You know that sort of day, don’t you?

When the time came around to decorate the tree, neither of us felt like it. I started to doze in my chair. Don started to doze in his chair. Thank goodness for my husband, who eventually said, “Let’s put on some Christmas music.”

And off we went.

Xmastree1

Xmastree2

Simple. I have to tweak a few things, some segments of cord are bit too evident, but this is basically it. Our ornaments are a collection of vintage Shiny Brites that I’ve gathered over the years and ornaments that have a special meaning for us.

Since the tree is in the den, I can’t really get a distance shot. Even these shots involve some gymnastics on my part.

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Xmastreeorn2

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I love them all, but my favorites are the bottle brush ornaments. They’re big and old-fashioned and I think they provide some wonderful contrast to the rest of the ornaments, giving the eye a place to land for a moment or two.

neccojar2

The Necco Snow Globe is in its new holiday home on our bookshelves. For those of you who are newer to the blog, I found this vintage Necco Candy jar a few years ago and fell in love with it. It’s quite large and was clearly used for display in a store. I lived not too far from the factory where Necco candy is made when I resided in Cambridge, so that makes this even more special. It has graduated sides with a definite Art Deco feel (love Art Deco, always have.)

neccojar1

The font on the lid of the jar is definitely Art Deco.

It holds various things throughout the year. Sometimes I leave it empty. At Christmas time, it becomes a snow globe. By the way, I use Kosher Salt for the snow. The kind of fake snow you can buy in the store doesn’t do it for me. The pieces are too big. Kosher Salt works beautifully.

There’s a wreath on the door. The lights are up on the porch. I’m still debating whether to put the little white tree in the living room this year.

I probably will.

I use less and less each year. I think it works better. Those decorations that I do use stand out more.

I got a late night call from a former colleague of mine last night and I’m going to do a wee bit of coaching for him tomorrow, which means I’ll be traveling to Manhattan. Don and I are planning to go into the city on Sunday, as well. He has a quick meeting with his new agents and then we’ll pop on over to see the tree at Rockefeller Center, something we always plan to do, but rarely get to do.

There will be a book review on Just Let Me Finish This Page today. I’m off to write it right now!

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: Christmas, decorating, Don 32 Comments

A Chatty Post

December 9, 2014 at 9:04 am by Claudia

So far, the weather ‘event’ is simply rain and lots of it. But I expect that to change as the day goes on. Predictions still vary, but the prevailing thought seems to be a wintry mix.

The dire predictions sure spurred me on, which probably is a good thing. We got our tree yesterday (a few days earlier than is our norm), I hung the outdoor lights on the porch railing, the ornaments have been brought inside from the shed. We’ll decorate the tree this evening.

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Not sure why the upper portion of the tree looks like it’s a different color. It isn’t. Probably the early morning light combined with the lamp light in the den. We always buy a real tree and our preference – since the days in which we first celebrated Christmas together – is for a Noble Fir. I’ll say this: it sure smells good here as I sit in my blogging chair!

Even with the weather predictions, I am proud to say I have stayed true to my ‘nothing until the second week of December’ rule. Of course, that probably only matters to me, but it does matter, because it nicely separates Thanksgiving from the Christmas season. Two different holidays. Two different seasons. Don feels the same way, maybe even more so, because he always needs to be motivated to get the tree. I think even the second week of December is too early for him!

And though I admire and applaud everyone’s Christmas decorations and tours here in Blogland, I would feel overwhelmed by having to meet a deadline that is just too soon for me. Besides, we decorate for us. Except for a slight variation here and there, we use the same beloved ornaments on our tree every year. We’ll put up the little white tree in the living room. I’ll put together the little Christmas snow scene in my vintage Necco jar. We’ll hang a wreath on the door. And that will be it. Oh, and the dollhouse will be decorated, of course!

You know what? It’s just the right amount for this little cottage. Simple. Serene. And, hopefully, pretty!

So far, except for the bare tree, the only decoration I have is this:

whitebottlebrushytree

On sale for $3.00 at Target. I have an excessive fondness for bottle brush anything.

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I also found this agate bookend at Target. It’s really heavy. I love agates and geodes and crystals and there were only two left (on sale) so I grabbed one. After all, the books on the new bookshelves need bookends, right?

I’ve given us a deadline. By Thursday night at 10:00, each of us must submit a list of what we want for Christmas. Right now, neither of us can think of anything except socks. Pathetic. As a girl who has a birthday in late November, it is sometimes hard to come up with yet another list of ideas. I’m trying.

By the way, Don just came in and presented me with a plate of hash browns, raisin toast and an avocado omelet.

Oh my god. That man makes a great breakfast.

I have a few dollhouse-related projects that I’m going to tackle today. It seems to be the perfect day for little projects. Hint: one of them has to do with Christmas.

Happy Tuesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

 

Filed Under: Christmas, decorating, dollhouse, Don 48 Comments

Curtains! (Not) Foiled Again.

December 7, 2014 at 9:29 am by Claudia

Saturday was rainy, a sort of dismal day. So we stayed in and I worked on the dollhouse. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been trying – and failing – to add a circular shower curtain rod to the bathroom, resulting in lots of frustration and cursing. I found some florist wire at Michael’s the other day that was thicker than what I had been previously using in my futile attempts.

I managed to pull it off yesterday. It’s not perfect. But it will do for now.

I also made a shower curtain out of linen. It’s a little heavy, so I might change it out in the future. But for now, I’m rather pleased with my sincere, if amateurish, stab at getting it done.

This is a darkish photo and I’ll try to get something better later on today. These narrow rooms are always hard to capture – the light needs to be just right.

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I actually tried to make little shower curtain rings out of some wire I had in my ‘making jewelry’ stash. They were pretty gosh darned cute, but in the end, I scrapped them and, instead, sewed the curtain to the rod.

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Whenever I manage to pull something like this off, I shout out to Don and make him drop whatever he’s doing to come see it. He is always appropriately impressed and gives me lots of “I’m proud of you” pats on the back. Thank you, Don, for being almost as excited about this little hobby of mine as I am.

Also found in Michael’s the other day:

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This map of the British Isles. Caroline is an Anglophile (as am I) and she displays this lovely vintage map above her work space.

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Today, we are going to give Scout a bath in the tub. One of us will have to hold her very securely while the other bathes her. We don’t want her to feel she has to do all the work of supporting herself. She’d get very tired, very quickly. So we’ll do it for her. The old girl needs a bath desperately and today is the day. Wish us all luck!

Tomorrow is the day we’ll get our Christmas tree. It’s been moved up in our schedule because we’re due for some sort of snow event on Tuesday. The jury is still out on how much snow we’ll be hit with. Don, get ready to fire up the snowblower!

Happy Sunday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Filed Under: dollhouse, Don, miniatures 25 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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