Welcome to Reality Shot Thursday. I just have to say that we have had simply spectacular weather lately. Brilliantly sunny, warm temperatures – so nice after all the rain, hurricanes and freak snowstorms of late. I’m really loving it.

If you haven’t noticed, my blog’s URL has changed. It’s still hosted by Blogger, but it’s now www.mockingbirdhillcottage.com. If you link to the old address, no problem, as it will immediately be rerouted to the new address. But the new address is shorter and easier to enter, so go for it!

Anyway, back to Reality Shot Thursday. This is the time that we post a little peek behind the scenes, go beyond the pretty photos we all love so much, or simply show the reality behind that pretty shot. Here’s mine:

This particular photo is one I’ve shared before, in some variation or other. This is part of my studio. You can see the vintage feedsack shoe bag that I use to store things in, a vintage horse show ribbon, some of my embroidery projects, a photo of Don and one of me when we were both about 6 years old, a dress my mother wore as a little girl, some pretty wrapping paper and a silk parasol from Japan. Right below the shoe bag is a beautiful set of Chinese nesting baskets that I store fabric in. I’ve taken many photos of this area and it’s even been part of an article in Studios Magazine.

What you don’t see is this:

The ugly paper shredder that I store right in the midst of all this prettiness. I hate shredding things so I would hazard a guess that there’s about a year’s worth of paper in there.

There’s nowhere else to put it. When it’s time to take a photo of the studio, out it goes for the shot. But it lives right next to my pretty Chinese nesting baskets and right under my mother’s sweet dress. Sad, but true.

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Publish your post. Please remember to link back to me.
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I don’t dye my hair. The dark brown that you can see near my neck is my hair color. Or was my hair color. Since my brown hair has lots of highlights in its natural state, when the gray started to come in it looked like just another highlight. Everyone thought I’d had it done professionally. I just left it alone. No dye. No rinse. Nothing.

Sometimes my hair looks brown and sometimes it looks gray. Depends on the light. If I venture into a public bathroom with overhead lighting, I am shocked at how gray my hair looks. The photo above shows a lot of gray hair as there is a skylight directly overhead. Most of the time, though, it looks like what it is: a combination of brown, gold, a bit of red and gray. But the gray has begun to win out.

To be brutally honest, I’m too cheap to spend a lot of money on my hair. I can barely remember to get it cut. I can’t imagine trying to keep up with my roots. I’d rather spend that money on something vintage (and I don’t mean me) or a good book. I’m quite comfortable with my gray hair. I’m in my late fifties…I’m not a young thing anymore.

So tell me: why did I react with shock and horror when I saw a gray eyebrow hair the other day? One in each eyebrow. I stood there, peering into the mirror, absolutely sure I was imagining things. But no, there they were. Intruders. I was appalled. Out came the tweezers and pluck went the offending hair. Somehow I drew the line at my eyebrows. I realize that I won’t be able to pluck those gray hairs away indefinitely; I’ll end up with no eyebrows. But for now, I have put up a sign that says “You are not welcome here.”

I’ve accepted my gray hair. I can’t accept the eyebrows. At least, not yet.

It makes perfect sense to me.

Hi everyone! It’s that time again. Time to share a real moment in time, warts and all. No prettily staged photos here!

This week I’m sharing something that might be viewed as pretty in another season, but was anything but pretty when it arrived last Saturday.

Heavy, wet snow which arrived on October 29th in the form of a Nor’easter and dumped about 8 inches of snow in my neck of the woods.

It also caused the loss of power to millions of homes. Thankfully, our power stayed on and we were spared. It has melted almost completely as I write this post. But we’ll never forget the snow that damaged trees and power lines and still-green vegetation 2 days before Halloween.

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If you’re taking part in Reality Shot Thursday:
Publish your post. Please remember to link back to me.
Click on the title for your post and copy that post’s URL from the top of your browser.
Use the linky tool at the bottom of this post and paste the URL into the appropriate box – just follow the directions.