Don — Page 174

Re-Thinking the Studio/Sewing Space

February 6, 2014 at 9:08 am by Claudia

Over a foot of snow on the ground here with more coming on Saturday.

My head is spinning. February, you are a cruel mistress.

Thanks go to our neighbor who, as we were sitting in the house getting ready to tackle shoveling, started to snow blow the entrance to our driveway. You know, that place where all the heavy and impossibly hard to shovel snow plow build up is. What a lifesaver! Then he proceeded to do a bit more of our driveway as we shoveled the top and the paths to the doors and the shed. Even with his help, we were out there about 2 hours. Sore backs all around.

The bed? Oh my heaven. With tired bodies and the aforementioned aching backs, we sank in to that pillow top and slept blissfully.

I’m in love.

I’ve been making a few changes to my studio/sewing space. For quite a while now, I’ve felt it was too cluttered. What I found charming a year or so ago is now just plain too much. So, since we had to move some things to get the bed up the stairs, I used that time to to reconsider what I wanted in that space. I decided to clear everything off the mantel shelf and take everything off the walls. I’d already moved the bookshelf into the bedroom (it’s right next to my side of the bed.) While I was waiting for the new bed, I repainted the mantel shelf in a lighter shade of aqua and moved Mabel out of the way of the incoming mattress, which got me considering a new place for her to live.

studio8

Note snow on skylight. Makes for a rather dim photo shoot.

studio1

I wanted something more striking and graphic on the mantel shelf. One day I had the idea to create a display of some of my favorite egg cups, arranged in a straight line all the way across the shelf.

studio3

They always make me smile and their pastel colors look good on the aqua shelf. They are also a collection, variations of the same thing, and that makes for a more striking display. I bought that fifties-era print several years ago when I was working in San Diego. (I used that frame to display something else for a while but I decided to change it back. I missed it.)

studio4

Hello, cheery, happy egg cups! I’m glad you’ll be right by my side when I’m sewing.

studio11

Since I’ve been editing a bit in every room of the house, I had this pretty, but empty, frame sitting around. That adorable badge says Mockingbird Hill Cottage and I’ve always loved it, so I decided to hang it from the frame. I like it.

studio5

Remember those frames I was painting? There were from the dollar store – made of plastic, black and silver, the usual document type frame. I painted them the same aqua as the shelf and now they display the Studios Magazine and Romantic Homes Magazine features. I don’t know if you remember, but I had these in much larger frames before and they hung over the bookcase, which used to be on this wall. This is much simpler.

studio10

The little vintage spice shelf that holds The Lamb with the Party Hat has been moved to the right side of the sewing machine.

And I moved Mabel into the bedroom, where she remains, ready and waiting for a sewing session. The little table she was on just took up too much room in what is already a very small space. That’s the same reason I moved the bookcase. I wanted to make it easier for Don and I, especially Don, to maneuver around that corner.

Oh drat. I forgot about the Claudia program I just framed in the shadow box. I wonder if it should be part of this space?

I promise more photos when there’s light streaming in through that skylight.

Don leaves tomorrow. We’re already very sad but grateful, of course, that he has work. There will be two lonely girls here at MHC.

Don’t miss the chance to win a $1000 Target Gift Card. Visit my post on the new Cartwheel App.

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Snowathon

February 4, 2014 at 8:29 am by Claudia

windowreflection

I’m going to name this week The Snowathon.

The predictions were for about an inch of snow yesterday. Ummm…..not quite. It snowed all day long and I think we got at least 4 inches, if not 5. Roads were messy, traveling was unwise. So we were stuck here. We are expecting anywhere from 6 – 12 inches of snow on Wednesday. Don leaves for Boston on Friday. That leaves just about a day, if that, to take care of any business he needs to attend to before he leaves. And, to top it off, they are predicting a Nor’Easter with more snow Sunday into Monday. At that point, I will be the only snow shoveler around here and it’s hard to imagine where I’m going to put all that snow.

Not a big fan of February so far.

The bed is supposed to be delivered today sometime between 1 and 5. Don asked them to make sure it says California King on the packaging. (I did the same thing last week.) It does. I actually felt a twinge of sadness at leaving our little full-sized bed in the spare bedroom. That room, like the den, is sunken. You walk down two steps to get there. So it has a sort of attic retreat feel to it. I think we’ve done fairly well, we two tall people, adapting to the bed. Now we’ll have to adapt to a new one. Don will have three nights to sleep on it before he has to adapt to another bed in Boston.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments on our new addition to the living room. We love it and are absolutely sure that buying it was the right thing to do. Oh gosh, I’m itching to do some rearranging, rethinking, re-everything and once the mattress has been delivered and the old mattress taken away, I’ll be able to look at things more clearly. Not that I haven’t already been thinking about it. These aren’t big changes, more like little tweaks I want and need to make.

I’m also dreading the fact that Don is going away. We’ve done this many times and we know how to handle it, but it doesn’t make it any easier. He’s my best friend as well as my husband and I love being with him. We work well together. We like hanging out together. We sort of adore each other.

And he is my fellow snow shoveler!

Happy Tuesday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

A New Find For Our Cottage

February 3, 2014 at 9:45 am by Claudia

I think that what we bought the other day might surprise you.

I know some of you had an idea about what it might be, but believe me, I gave no hints in yesterday’s post. We bought something that I might not have noticed had it not been for Don, who pointed it out to me. As we stood there and stared, we found we couldn’t take our eyes away from it. We’d leave that particular area in the shop and then we’d circle back, together and individually. We took photos.

We knew right where it would go, where it had to go.

aquitania1

There it is, above the piano. It’s a chromolithograph of the Aquitania, circa 1913, one of three ships in the Cunard Line, ships that crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the heyday of transatlantic travel.

aquitania2

These chromolithographs were given to travel agencies to hang on the wall, extolling the wonders of ocean voyages. This one is in particularly good shape. The Aquitania was launched in 1913 and was part of Cunard’s ‘grand trio’ of ocean liners, along with the SS Mauretania and the SS Lusitania. The Aquitania’s nickname was ‘Ship Beautiful.” It was in service for 36 years and held the record for the longest serving Express Liner until into the 21st Century when the Queen Elizabeth 2 became the longest serving liner. The ship also served in both World Wars.

We both love the ocean and Don spent a lot of time on the Pacific Ocean in his youth. The ocean still calls to him. There’s something glorious about the vivid red of the funnels, the choppy seas, the smoke pouring from the funnels, the cloudy skies. I’ve tried to capture its beauty in these photographs.

aquitania3

We can’t take our eyes off it. It’s also highly collectible and a good investment, but that’s not really why we bought it. We bought it because we love it and we wanted it to be a part of our home.

You understand, I know you do. Something touches you, you can’t stop thinking about it. You know, deep within you, that you have to find a way to make it yours.

It is made for this spot above the piano. For the first time, the piano makes sense where it is. I’ve always had a bit of a problem with this massive piece in our little living room, with its dark mahogany finish. It takes up space, and though I love it very much, I struggled with how to make it work. Somehow, this lithograph with its intense colors and its dark frame, makes it all come together.

aquitania4

Some rearranging of the McCoy singing birds and the McCoy vase had to be done. I took away everything but the birds and the vase, then Don and I eyed the whole thing and this is what we ended up with.

bluebirds

Two on one side.

whitebird

One on the other.

aquitania5

I love the way the lithograph changes depending on the light. It gets dark and moody at times. Then a burst of sun through our windows changes it yet again.

We are more than a little in love.

By the way, the Miss Keyboard sign has been moved to its new home, above the picture window in the den. I can’t get a good shot of it yet because of the light from the window, but I’ll work on it. I was a bit worried about where we would put it, but it actually looks even better there than it did above the piano.

There you go.

Happy Monday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Re-Thinking the Studio/Sewing Space

Snowathon

A New Find For Our Cottage

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives