Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Blooms and Miniatures

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In just a few days, everything has taken off around here. All of the crabapples are blooming or about to bloom. There are wee little leaves appearing on the maples. My neighbor’s flowering trees are in full bloom. It’s so healing.

Last year, we cleaned up the area in the front lawn where the weeping willow used to be. There was a sapling coming out of the ground – maybe around 5 feet tall – and we debated whether we should leave it or remove it. About 4 days ago, it suddenly had flowers – it’s a crabapple! It looks so lovely in the middle of the front lawn. I’m glad we let it be. At the time, I suspected it could be a crabapple because it had very smooth bark, but I wasn’t sure at all.

After haunting my local nursery, I was finally able to get some impatiens yesterday, as well as one of the hanging plants I always buy. So I spent the afternoon potting the flowers. As I was walking through the nursery, a woman saw me looking around and said “They said there is more coming tomorrow.” I guess I’ll be back there today or tomorrow. I still have to get some calibrachoa, lobelia, geraniums for the barrels, and some coleus for the pots in the secret garden.

I have to say it felt so good to see the porch starting to take shape.

My allergies are out of control, of course. Pollen, pollen, everywhere.

We’re going to have to mow the lawn in the next couple of days. Hurrah! I love  to mow the lawn.

I was online yesterday and I saw an announcement from my favorite online shop – miniatures.com – that they were closing. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I have been ordering from them ever since I started working on dollhouses – which was around 2010. They have everything, especially building materials. I also got the kit for Don’s miniature music studio from them. They are a family-owned business of 50 years and they’ve decided to retire. They’re based in Georgia.

Well, the shock has reverberated around the American mini world. I’m not kidding when I say I was stunned. The news caused me to really think about the Beacon Hill, which I had been considering selling. I just haven’t been able to get motivated to do anything with it. Renovating a dollhouse can be expensive, though I certainly could aim for doing it on a budget (like I have any choice!) That shop is the place I go to get things like baseboards, moldings, strip wood, and wallpaper glue. Knowing that there is a deadline for orders – June 9th is the last day you can order and everything is on sale right now – I decided to place a modest order, including Victorian style baseboards. I’m sure I’ll place another one before they close. The closing notice put me  on notice.

So I guess I’m hanging on to the Beacon Hill. As I said to Don, since it seems I’m being forcibly retired, what else am I going to do with my time?

I will miss miniatures.com so much. They were always so helpful and kind. It’s a gigantic loss for miniaturists.

Okay.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday,

Decorations in the Miniature World

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We got about 2 inches of snow and it’s quite lovely out there! Tonight and tomorrow will have lows in the single digits so I’m hoping the snow lasts through Christmas. Fingers crossed.

An interesting thing happened yesterday. I got a call from the USPS. My first thought was that it was a scam, but for some reason, I picked it up and it was a woman named Melanie from Customer Care in Albany, checking on the package from Spain that I had been tracking. I told her it had arrived but that I was checking on another delivery (the Etsy sale) and she started tracking it on the phone. She checked all the little details that we don’t see and said she thought she saw some movement and that she would get back to me on Monday. We had a quite a long conversation and she was really helpful. Sure enough, the package moved from Grand Rapids, MI to Richmond, VA later in the day. All in all, a very satisfying experience!

A little tour of some ‘small’ Christmas decorations:

The putz house village. When it’s sunny, the light comes through the windows of the houses – many of them look like stained glass.

The vintage Lake House. If you look closely, you can see the tree in the window.

There it is.

A glittery gold tree inside the entrance to the other vintage dollhouse.

And Santa arriving with a beautiful wreath.

I love these little touches, things that I know about, but no one else does. I doubt whether Don has noticed this Santa yet, but he will.

Whoops! I forgot about Hummingbird Cottage! (I’ve already shown you Dove Cottage, though I had to check back through my posts to verify that.)

The tree is always placed upstairs in the den.

A little tree in the bedroom.

And one by the front door.

A wreath on the newel post.

And the tree through the window.

The decorations in my real life house are kept to a minimum – the tree, the putz houses, a few little vintage treasures here and there. The rest of the decorations are in the miniatures. And that includes the doll cubbies, which I’ll share with you on Monday,

Tonight, The Shop Around the Corner, and on Sunday, It’s a Wonderful Life.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

 

Glitter, Miniature Decorating, Winterizing

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The tree is up in Dove Cottage. I was trying to focus on the tree, rather than the furniture – hence, the blurriness in the foreground. I aim to keep the decorating in the little houses as spare as the decorations in my big house: the Christmas tree, a few putz houses here and there, and that’s about it.

The Lake Cottage, Mockingbird Hill Cottage, and Don’s studio have trees. I may switch out the tree in Don’s studio with the vintage dollhouse in the kitchen. He doesn’t care, so why not? That way, I could get a glimpse of the tree through the windows of the house. Hmmmm.

I did a lot of work outside yesterday and it was incredibly windy! Lots of trips back and forth to the shed, as I begin to move porch pots for winter storage. I used a dolly to move the vintage pots that live in the secret garden to the porch. They’re really heavy! I also swept the floor of the shed. I’m getting ready to hang the lights on the porch, cover the sideboard with a tarp, and store the cushions for the winter. It’s really, really cold with nighttime temps dipping down into the teens. We – at least here in the Hudson Valley – are unofficially in winter.

The pansies are still going strong, though I haven’t looked at them this morning. I hope they hang in there as long as possible.

Four more girls wearing their crowns:

I’m having a lot of fun with this series. The photos have to be taken in the early morning, with a certain kind of morning light. Yesterday, I slept in, so there I was – no coffee yet – blindly grabbing Nina, trying to get everything in place for a picture.

Since Maeve has gold glitter on her eyelids, I couldn’t resist.

Such are my days; crowns, glitter, dollhouses, and winterizing….

Stay safe.

Happy Monday,

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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