Hartford — Page 19

Today is Saturday. Yesterday Wasn’t Saturday. I’m All Mixed Up.

January 2, 2016 at 9:42 am by Claudia

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I know there was a sunset photo on yesterday’s post, but I couldn’t help myself.

This happened last night. ‘Spectacular’ comes to mind.

And all I have to do is open the kitchen door and pop my head outside. Snap.

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I’m in the middle of my 4th mystery by Susan Hill. (I’ve ordered the next two and am crossing my fingers they arrive by the time I have to leave for Hartford.) Note the interesting mix of patterns here. The rug, in red, green and gray and the quilt that Scoutie uses when she’s in the ‘tunnel’ – red, black, green, blue, orange.

No one has ever accused me of not liking a mix of patterns.

That girl you see in the picture? Stay tuned…she has a big birthday coming up on Monday.

1-2 don'sdesk

The other side of our shared space. That desk is actually half of a dining room table. I bought it when I first moved to San Diego. The style is Renaissance Revival and I love it. It’s been our desk for years. It’s flanked by our necessary, but not very attractive, file cabinets, the copier, the modem and router and our phone.

Big Boy was found at a yard sale. It’s Don’s, but we both have memories of dining at that establishment. In his neck of the woods it was Bob’s Big Boy. In mine, it was just Big Boy. The gorgeous old black and white photo of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans was a find from Heidi’s shop and I grabbed it for Don. (Don met Roy Rogers once and got his autograph…which he eventually lost.) The desk chair is an old one from IKEA that I hastily recovered because it was black and covered in Scout’s dog hair. Don’t look too closely.

The wall between the windows is still in progress. Right now we have an old bedside table there holding a lamp. We’d like to hang a great print on the wall and find a vintage love seat.

I spent several hours yesterday going through old files and shredding bills by hand. For some inexplicable reason, our fairly new shredder is not working. More hand-shredding today, along with the beginning of my work on Romeo and Juliet.

Can I just say that I don’t want to go away to Hartford in the winter time? Or be away from Scoutie when she’s so frail? (Or Don, but he will be fine.) I’ve now worked in Hartford for several weeks at a time at least 6 or 7 times. I’ve seen everything there is to see. I have absolutely no idea what I am going to blog about. None.

Obviously I’m grateful for the work and I love working with Darko. But, man! I do not want to go.

Happy Saturday (Yes, I’ve finally figured out what day it is. Yesterday, I thought it was Saturday all day long.)

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Weekend Stuff

May 17, 2015 at 8:51 am by Claudia

5-17 mccoy

I have to be honest with you; the vase on the left just knocks my socks off. I am so in love with it. Is that wrong?

Don’t care.

My eye is drawn to it as I sit here in my blogging chair. I must look at it fifty times a day. And I’m more and more aware of what an amazing find this one was. When I first shared this vase with you, I mentioned that one of my reference books said it was hard to find but worth looking for. I was aware of that and I was also aware that in the 14 or so years I’ve been collecting McCoy, I have never seen it anywhere.

Recently I joined a group of McCoy collectors on Facebook. When I posted a photo of this newest acquisition, I had comments from many collectors saying how rare it was to find this vase. One of the members is a well known McCoy collector and expert and she couldn’t believe my luck or timing or whatever you want to call it. I think, in this case, that timing was everything. I was clearly the only person who had my eye on this – all the way through two separate listings. Someone asked me whether it had been listed as McCoy because sometimes we collectors find treasures because the seller doesn’t really know what they have. No, I said, the seller listed it as McCoy and even showed a picture of the McCoy mark on the bottom. How to explain my good fortune? Timing. And sheer luck.

I am absolutely head-over-heels in love with this vase. I’ve left it on the little spinet desk in the den because I think it looks sort of perfect there.

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It rained off and on yesterday and we had a big old thunderstorm last night. It’s very humid, which I could do without, but the rain was desperately needed. I spent much of the day upgrading the operating system on my Macbook Pro – something that needed to be done, but gosh, does it take a long time! While I was at it, I cleaned up the desktop on the Mac, changed to desktop photo to a pink peony and generally spruced things up.

Today, I’m off to Hartford for the last day of my work on Kiss Me Kate. That means four hours of driving. But I get to see a preview of the show and I’m really excited to hear it with full orchestra and an audience.

Happy Sunday.

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The Garden and Something New

May 14, 2015 at 9:15 am by Claudia

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The last of the trees to show its leaves – the catalpa – is getting ready to roll. I love this tree with its heart-shaped leaves and blossoms that appear in June. Unfortunately, that bloom will occur while I’m in Chautauqua. Ah, well. I’ll make Don take some pictures.

I ended up going to Hartford yesterday as many of you assumed given the fact that I hadn’t replied to any comments. (I did reply to your comments this morning, so if you asked any questions – and some of you did – check back.) It was a glorious day to drive there. I got to see some of the show, but unfortunately, Darko changed his work schedule, as often happens at this point in the process, so the work-through from the top of the show became something else – working the fights and some of the transitions. I think I took one note. Frustrating. I got home – having made a stop at Trader Joe’s – at about 7:30.

Thankfully, Don didn’t have to get up at some ungodly hour this morning to get into Manhattan/Brooklyn. His call is at 1:00, so he’s heading out the door at 8:45 to take the bus into the city and then the subway to Brooklyn.

Scout and I are going to hang out together today, while I do some weed-whacking, watering and lawn mowing. I love working outside! It makes me a very happy camper.

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At the top of the garden: a wonderful mix of grasses, crown vetch and daffodils. I love what I call a ‘riotous’ look to the garden; not too neat, more of a glorious mix. Both the ornamental grass and the crown vetch spread nicely. In fact, the grass and vetch are now growing outside the boundaries of this garden and are headed toward the Funky Patio. Good for them!

Something arrived in the mail yesterday. Hint: it starts with the letter M.

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I couldn’t help myself. I’ve never seen this piece anywhere in the past, not in a store, not on eBay, not on Etsy. In fact, one of my reference books says “This vase is hard to find, but it’s worth looking for.” It’s quite large, about 9 ½ inches high and 8½ inches wide. McCoy mark on the bottom. From about 1957.

When I first saw it on eBay, the seller had set a very high price for it. I figured it was because it was so rare. It was too expensive for me. I kept it on my “Watch” list and eventually it was relisted because the seller had made a pricing error. The new price was much, much more affordable and I put a bid on it.

I was the only bidder!

And now it’s mine. I love, love this one.

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Don said it reminded him of the Michelin Man. Maybe we’ll call it the Michelin Vase.

Faint crazing, gorgeous aqua glaze. Be still my heart.

Happy Thursday.

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Today is Saturday. Yesterday Wasn’t Saturday. I’m All Mixed Up.

Weekend Stuff

The Garden and Something New

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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