Fellow bloggers

A Little of This, A Little of That

March 14, 2013 at 9:25 am by Claudia

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• Don’s been back home for almost a month now and I’ve noticed a change in Scout. She’s been with us over 13 years and has lived through the prolonged absence of one or the other of us many times. It comes along with working in theater and film. She doesn’t like it when one of us is gone, but she’s pretty resilient. This time, however, when Don leaves the house to run an errand or go into the city for an audition, she goes into a funk. Though she hangs out with me for a little while, mostly she waits for Don. She goes into the living room and stares out the window. She parks herself on the floor of the kitchen facing the door. She starts at every noise, thinking it’s him. I will call out to her and ask her to come in the den with me, but she won’t. She never used to be that way.

More evidence that she’s getting older, that these things aren’t as easy for her anymore. She lost her brother recently, then Don went away for a long time. It’s too much for my little girl. Now I will be going away in a month. We really have to take her into account now as we make decisions as to who’s working where and for how long. We always have, of course, but now she is more needy, more vulnerable than ever. She’s our child and her comfort and peace of mind has to be a top priority.

• I’m finishing up an Obsession Scarf which will soon be on its way to a customer. Then I will start on more banners as they are currently sold out! Wow. I’m so glad you like them. Thank you to everyone who purchased one. Meredith and I just made our 99th sale on Etsy! How can that be possible?

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(I just realized that the color of this vase matches the color that’s used in my menu and the titles on the sidebar.)

• I want to steer you toward one of my favorite blogs – that of my friend, Martha. It’s called Poetry and a Cup of Tea and it is simply wonderful. Martha loves poetry and literature and all sorts of other things. She writes beautifully and shares her heart in every post. She also has a great sense of humor.

I think we were separated at birth. I cannot tell you how many times she has written about something that I remember from my childhood, or an author that I was sure no one else loved as much as me. Yesterday she wrote about The Fighting Prince of Donegal, a Disney movie from our youth, and the Scholastic paperback version of Disney’s story that she still has.

I had that book, too. And I watched that movie countless times when I was a kid. I had a huge crush on Peter McEnery, who played the lead.

And I thought I was the only one.

She’s written about The Barbie Game (yes, I had one) and The Girl of the Limberlost (one of my very favorite books ever.) She tells a great story and she always shares a poem with her readers.

Stop in and say hello. I’m crazy about her.

• I often talk about my grandmother and her skill as a needlewoman. She was a strong influence in my life and the life of my siblings. My sister, Meredith, just wrote a post about her. Click here to see some of my grandmother’s incredible handwork.

• Did you know I almost always respond to your comments? Yep. Right there under your comment. If you’re interested, you can either check back here or you can put a check in that little box that says you want to see the response via email. Then, as if by magic, my response is sent to your inbox. I can’t guarantee something profound every time, but I do my best!

• Today is your last chance to be entered in the giveaway for a copy of Prague Winter by Madeleine Albright. Just scroll down and leave a comment on that post, if you are interested. I’m picking the winner this evening.

Happy Thursday.

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Tinkered Treasures – the Book!

February 11, 2013 at 7:30 am by Claudia

I’ve been blogging for almost five years (next week) and early on, I met Elyse Major, who blogs at Tinkered Treasures. We became friends. Over time, we’ve done a swap, we’ve emailed back and forth, we’ve talked on the phone, and we’ve given each other presents and advice and encouragement. We were lucky enough to meet each other 3 years ago, almost to the day, when I was in Providence on business.

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We had brunch together and it was as if we had known each other forever. If I hadn’t had to be at a rehearsal, we could have talked all afternoon. Elyse is a wonderful writer. She is also a tinkerer, making charming and wonderful things from simple, everyday items you can find around the house or at your local craft store – always in her distinctive Elyse-style. She has always had a dream to write professionally – and she does. You’ll find her byline in many of your favorite decorating magazines. Now, she has realized another dream – to have a book published.

Cico Books graciously sent me a copy of Elyse’s new book, Tinkered Treasures, to review.

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Elyse describes her transformations as ‘tinkering’ because there is a sense of play involved. Tinkering is about “leaving behind any worries of perfection and appreciating the flaws. Tinkering is about making a little time to add playful details to your life.” If you’ve seen any of Elyse’s creations, you’ve seen that playful spirit. I’ve been the recipient of many Elyse creations. Here are a few:

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The tinkered can? Adorable and on page 60 in the book under the heading Desk Tidy.

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The clothespins? I have many and I love them. On page 28.

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This adorable clothespin doll? Page 30.

By now you’re getting a sense of Elyse’s whimsical, sweet, and refreshingly down-to-earth style. That style is beautifully realized in the design and layout of the book, with charming illustrations and clear, easy-to-read directions for each project.

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What can I say? It’s a wonderful book. These are easy-to-make projects. Fun projects. Elyse has been making these tinkered treasures for a long time – offering them in her Etsy shop, sending them to a friend just because, all the while playfully creating things from clothespins, cans, fabric scraps, jars.

I love it when I see a book of this type that is so true to the author’s sense of style. There’s not a false note. And I love it even more when someone who has a long-held dream makes that dream come true. I couldn’t be happier for my friend. And I can honestly highly recommend this wonderful, tinkered-treasure-filled book. It’s available on Amazon and is being officially published on February 14th.

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There she is. Doesn’t she look pretty? And happy? Hurrah, Elyse! And hurrah for anyone fortunate enough to buy this book. You will love it.

Happy Monday.

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Adding a (Mini) Fireplace

January 29, 2013 at 8:59 am by Claudia

Lately I’ve been watching reruns of Law & Order in the evenings – either Special Victims Unit or Criminal Intent. They are sort of perfect because I’m usually doing some sort of handwork and I can watch and concentrate on my task at hand at the same time. On Sunday night I was watching SVU and a new episode started. Didn’t look familiar to me. About ten minutes into the show I heard my husband’s voice. What a nice surprise! In this particular episode he played a psychologist. I do remember watching it when it first aired but enough time has gone by that I forgot how it started. Don’s done lots of different Law & Order episodes over the years. But I still get a kick out of seeing him!

Three Christmases ago (I had to search on my blog to find out exactly when this happened – aren’t blogs a handy way of keeping track of things?) Don searched locally for a dollhouse shop because he wanted to get me something for my dollhouse. Well, unfortunately, the only local shop closed about a month before I got my dollhouse. So he drove off on a quest and came back with this:

You can’t tell from this photo, but the actual color of the fireplace was tan, not white as it looks here. It’s made of plastic. I thanked him profusely but since I was just starting the dollhouse rehab at that point, I put it away. Eventually I decided that it didn’t suit my dollhouse’s style and that I probably wouldn’t use it and Don would forget that he gave it to me because he does that sort of thing.

But I had the urge to create something on Sunday and since the bookcase that I had planned to work on has somehow mysteriously disappeared, I pulled out the fireplace. What the heck, I thought. I’ll paint it. I wanted to eliminate the plastic look of the piece. My thought was to paint it white and then I ended up painting the bricks white as well – I wanted them to look like they’d been whitewashed, rather like the brick chimney in my living room here at the cottage.

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Still needs some tweaking and another coat of paint, but I do want the house to look gently aged. Eventually, I will get some sort of fireplace screen.

Can you see the blue backing behind the shelves?

I used some paint chips I had hanging around and cut them to fit the opening. The back of the firebox needs another coat of paint and that’s on my to do list. Or maybe some soot?

The painting on the mantel has been in my miniatures box for a long time. I just aged the original gold frame. The ‘old window frame’ is actually a cupboard door on a Michael’s hutch that I had taken apart for some reason or other. I decided it could be put to use as a vintage window frame that the house’s owner discovered by the side of the road. So I painted and distressed it. The armillary next to it was sent to me by another blogger who blogs at Canterbury Cottage, Lady Hawthorne. She generously sent me this piece from her childhood dollhouse.

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