Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Day Two Hundred Eighty-Two

December 20, 2020 at 9:37 am by Claudia

Two of my Vintage by Crystal Christmas beauties on the piano.

This is the first year that I haven’t purchased any new ones. That’s not to say I won’t in the future, but display space is at a premium here (they live in the pink cabinet in my office, which is full.) Plus, I’ve been buying miniatures and that’s where my wee bit of discretionary income has been focused.

Speaking of miniatures, if you didn’t read the comments yesterday, you didn’t see that I ended up ordering the Beacon Hill. I found it on Wayfair for less than it was listed for on the Greenleaf website. Plus, they ship quickly. It should be here on Wednesday, but with the way thing are going lately, that’s questionable.

When I wake up in the morning, I usually look at something I was excited about the day before with a jaundiced eye. I don’t know why that is, but it happens more often than not. Groggy, no coffee yet, congested? Who knows? So this morning, I wondered why the heck I bought it, it was going to be an enormous project, where would I put it – there is absolutely no spare room here, what makes you think you can build this monster…etc. The good news is that within about 10 minutes, I see things more clearly. A sip of coffee and feeling a bit more awake helps. Now I’m excited again. By the way, I’ve learned to ignore those first-thing-in-the-morning thoughts. I just wait them out, knowing sanity is on the way.

Don is incredibly supportive (he’s literally surrounded by dollhouses here at the cottage) and he was the one who pushed me to go ahead an order it. Plus, my fellow dollhouse lovers; Helga, Megan, Andrea (all of whom have their own Beacon Hills) and Barbara urged me on, giving me quite sound reasons why I should do it.

It’s a gray day today. I figure if we’re going to have lots of snow on the ground it should be sunny. Unfortunately, it isn’t. I think we’re going to get some snow showers later this morning.

I found the mini Christmas accessories I had been looking for. They were wedged in the back of a drawer. I had a moment of panic that in one of my vigorous “clean everything” phases I might have thrown them out.

Caroline will be self-isolating this year, as will so many of us. She’ll light a fire in the living room, then she’ll come upstairs to the den to open her presents, most likely while she’s on a Zoom call with family. Sound familiar?

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Filed Under: Christmas, dollhouse, miniatures, Vintage by Crystal 34 Comments

Day Two Hundred Eighty-One

December 19, 2020 at 10:34 am by Claudia

I’m running late this morning as I got waylaid by some stuff I had to do. It’s extremely cold here this morning. The wind chill was below zero when we got up. But it’s sunny out there and the snow is quite beautiful.

Don is trying to talk me into buying the kit for the Beacon Hill dollhouse. (My friend Barbara from Massachusetts also let me know of a kit for another house that was available on Craig’s List.) I’m going back and forth between the two, but the Beacon Hill remains my favorite.

This is the exterior.

(Photos courtesy of the Greenleaf Dollhouses website.)

And this is the interior. Bay windows, hallways, fireplaces, and nooks and crannies. It’s quite a bit larger than Hummingbird Cottage, so there’s that. Anyway, Don kept urging me to buy it as he thinks it would be a great project for this lockdown-winter. I’m almost there, but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.

I love the dollhouse kit that Barbara mentioned, too, but there’s something about this juggernaut of a house that is pulling me. I will most likely go mad trying to construct it and want to throw it against a wall and I have no idea where the heck I would put it.

Am I mad? You tell me!

Anyway, that’s what I’m wrestling with at the moment. As I start to wind down the construction work on Dove Cottage, I will be slowly collecting the other pieces of furniture that I need for that project and that takes time. In the meantime, I could start in on the Beacon Hill. Just as with books, where I have to have another book on deck, I feel the same way about dollhouses (or any project.)

We’ll see.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Filed Under: dollhouse, miniatures 68 Comments

Day Two Hundred Seventy-Seven

December 15, 2020 at 10:32 am by Claudia

I plopped this Santa in my piece of Russel Wright china and Don said it looks like Santa is traveling by boat to his studio. When you add in the blue-green color of the table, it makes sense! Santa is bringing a big star to the studio. Isn’t he thoughtful?

Today we do a little prep for the big old storm headed our way. There’s still some question about how much we’ll get – our local guys are saying 7 to 14 inches, which is a big spread, but it depends on where the storm is when it veers eastward and moves out to sea.

So. At least 7 inches. More likely 12. Oh boy. Most of it will happen overnight on Wednesday into Thursday and there will be winds and snow drifts. Oh boy again. I would have preferred about 4 or 5 inches. The snowblower will get moved to the porch to plug it in so that it can be charged. I’m going to empty the remainder of my porch pots and move the antique pots in the secret garden to the porch, as well as that outdoor furniture. Then I’ll cover the former kitchen island with a tarp, as I do every winter.

Yesterday, as I was putting in this floor, I had a message from my friend Kaliswa saying that someone was posing as me on Instagram. So grateful she tipped me off! Instead of claudiahillsparks, this account had my same photo and hillsparksclaudia as the account name. Shockingly, over 200 people had already followed it, people that were taken from my list of followers. Kaliswa reported and blocked it and I immediately reported it, saying the account was posing as me. I have to say, I’ve never seen IG work so fast, that account was gone within about 15 minutes.

The same thing happened to Don a few months back. In Don’s case, they copied a lot of his post photos as well. I reported it, as did several others, but it wasn’t deleted until I made Don sit down and report it himself.

Which begs the question, do these people have nothing else to do with their time?

Just as on Facebook (and I’ve made this mistake myself) make sure ‘follow’  or ‘friend’ requests are legitimate before you automatically click yes.

And consider using two-factor authentication. I’ve had that on IG for quite a while. It makes it virtually impossible for someone to steal your account (I’ve seen two cases of stolen accounts just this week) because the verification goes to your phone and you confirm who you with a special code. I believe Facebook has it, too.

Okay. Not that we didn’t already know it because we’re sane people who deal with facts, but the Electoral College confirmed Joe Biden as the President-elect. I’m sure there will be more shenanigans. I have no time for them. January 20th is going to be a holiday in our home!

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.

Filed Under: dollhouse, Dove Cottage, miniatures 32 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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