egg cups — Page 44

Clues

April 11, 2015 at 9:42 am by Claudia

I see sun.

I also hear a lot of wind, but I’m not going to be too picky.

Sunshine is good.

I’ve said it before and you know I’m going to say it again. And again. I am blessed with the loveliest readers; scratch readers…friends. One of those friends is Barb, who lives in Canada. She sent me a package and it just arrived yesterday.

4-11 egg cups wooden

I unwrapped these beautiful wooden egg cups.

I really love them. Let’s get a closeup of that wood grain:

4-11 egg cups wooden closeup

Beautiful.

Also included in this lovely package was this guy:

4-11 egg cups man

A little spooky in the most wonderful way. Something about the style of this one struck of chord in the recesses of my memory. I’d seen egg cups that were done in this same style.

4-11 egg cups man 2

When I flipped him over, the stamped maker’s mark was so faint that I could only make out two words:

4-11 egg cups man mark

“Royal” and “Made.”

Don joined in and eventually we found we could barely make out “…ong” and C in the center.

Okay, I thought. There’s a challenge. And you know I love mysteries and crossword puzzles and solving things.

So, I started searching egg cups online. Using the words ‘egg cup’ and ‘royal’ narrowed it down a bit. However, there are lots of pottery makers that use the word ‘royal’ in their trademark. Finally, I saw a blue egg cup in the shape of a dog that was very much like this one. Then I saw another. And finally, after looking at even more egg cups, I was able to see a listing that also showed the stamped mark on the bottom.

Bingo.

Royal Art Pottery
Longton
C
Made in England

Aha!

Don was great, by the way, looking at the mark, examining it closely, suggesting what search words to use. We were like the Hardy Boys, except we were the Hardy Boy and Girl.

Barb, thank you, thank you! My collection has grown quite a bit in the last week or so. I have two more finds I’ll share with you soon and even better, the story of an amazing score on eBay. The kind of score that happens very rarely and which sent my adrenaline levels through the roof as I watched the clock count down on the auction yesterday.

It took me a while to recover.

But that will have to wait until it arrives in my mailbox. I can’t wait.

Happy Saturday.

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Collecting, Collecting

April 6, 2015 at 9:58 am by Claudia

4-6 egg cups in a row

All of the various shelves that house my egg cup collections are full up, which has necessitated a new display here in the den. I’m always on the lookout for little ‘what-not’ hanging shelves, but until I find some this will do.

4-6 egg cups in a row 2

The four newest egg cups: On the left, a chick – a gift from Linda, the sailor – a gift from Scout and Don, the little boy – a gift to myself, and the rooster – a gift from Susie.

They make me smile.

Scoutie thanks you for all your Easter greetings. Saturday found me looking for those darn bunny ears in my sewing/craft/whatever closet. That ended up being a good thing because the closet was the kind of mess you see in old cartoons – you know, where you pull out one thing and everything else falls out of the closet. Don wasn’t home, so I took the opportunity to yank everything out of there. Three trash bags later, I had restored some semblance of order. I still have to go through all my fabric (yikes) but I hesitate because, even though I haven’t used much of it in years, I just might need it one day…

Here is Miss Scout at her most pensive – from my Instagram feed:

If you’re interested, you can subscribe to my Instagram feed by clicking here. I really love Instagram, but it does not replace a blog post. I saw a post from a favorite blogger the other day that said she could be mostly be found on Instagram nowadays instead of her blog. I was so disappointed. I understand time constraints and families and all that kind of thing – but an Instagram post is not a blog post. Nor should it be. When I flip through my IG feed, the whole idea is for it to flow rather quickly. If I find a post that’s too wordy, I keep moving. Blogs are for depth and words and stories. IG is for a quick peek into the lives of those we follow.

Today, after a couple of cold, windy and very rainy days, we have sunny skies and the temperature is supposed to hit 60 degrees. Huzzah! Boston plays baseball today. We watched the opening game between the Cubs and the Cardinals last night. We’re ready for baseball!

You all know I love collections, right? I love collecting things that I love. And, try as I might, I keep on collecting: McCoy Pottery, egg cups, bakelite, books, Roseville Pottery, miniature pottery, china, bride and groom cake toppers, fabric – I’m sure there’s more, but let’s stop there. Most everything I collect is on the smallish side, simply because we live in a tiny cottage.

I’m starting another collection.

I grew up, as I’m sure most of you did, reading Nancy Drew books. They were my first introduction to mysteries, which, all these many years later, remain my favorite kind of book to read. A while back, I found this book in a used bookstore:

4-6 nancy drew

There are all sorts of editions of Nancy Drew Mystery Stories out there. I grew up reading the ones with the yellow covers. But this one really drew me in. I fell in love with the illustration by Russell H. Tandy. He only did 25 of them, from 1930 – 1949.

These are the editions I’m going to collect. I love the vintage look to these covers, the period clothing, and Tandy’s particular style. I’ve done a lot of research, something I love to do, as you know. I see them on eBay and Etsy, so I know they’re out there. This will be fun! And won’t they look lovely on the bookshelves?

The winner of a copy of The Dead Key is Sylvia. Sylvia, I’ve sent you an email. Please send me your mailing address and I’ll forward it on to TLC Book Tours. Congrats!

Happy Monday.

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Scout and The Bath & Some Gifts

April 3, 2015 at 8:55 am by Claudia

4-3 scout bored 2

Bored, Miss Scout?

This is the view I had as I came down the stairs yesterday.

To be fair, it was a beautiful day out there, with temperatures in the sixties. We haven’t seen that around here since last autumn. All that sun and warmth made me want to get up and do things! Scout felt the same way. So her dad took her on a walk later that afternoon, where she did her little gallop and enjoyed being out in the spring weather.

Don had a gig last night and I took a nice long bath. But somehow Dame Scout, who I thought was sleeping peacefully, found out I was in the bath and came in to tell me she had to go outside and take care of some urgent business. So there I was, getting out of the bath, wrapping a towel around myself, and running to the door to let her out. Afterwards, I slipped back into the tub, added some hot water, grabbed my book and settled into my bubble bath. However, Scout felt she needed to monitor my bath and proceeded to come into the bathroom, check out the little basket of trash, sniff my pajamas, walk over to the tub for a pet, go back out the door – about 20 times.

Oh, that girl. She makes me laugh. Nearly 16½ years old and she’s still full of the devil.

I stopped by the post office yesterday and there was one of those wonderful little cards in my box telling me that I had a package waiting for me. Susie of She Junks, a lovely reader of this blog, sent me a present.

4-3 eggcup & Trinket dish

A beautiful egg cup with a rooster, edged in gold on the rim and the base. Marked: Japan. I love it. It’s so petite and pretty! She also included the lovely wooden trinket dish which was made by her husband Ted. Do you believe it? I can’t believe he made this lovely dish!

That’s not all.

4-3 jumping jack

A jumping jack for Don’s collection! He’s very happy to have a new member of the jumping jack family, Susie.

Thank you so much, Susie. You made our day here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I continue to be amazed by the generosity of my readers, who are, indeed, my friends. Thank you.

Happy Friday.

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Clues

Collecting, Collecting

Scout and The Bath & Some Gifts

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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