Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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A Peek at the Lake Cottage and Christmas Sweaters

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Both of us slept in today, which is rare – so I’m running behind. I haven’t even had my second cup of coffee! The endless rain and mixed precipitation has ended, thank goodness, and I do believe the sun is making an appearance. And next week’s forecast has changed to another round of “mixed precipitation” and maybe an inch or two of snow. We want more  snow like you originally predicted, thank you very much!

I’m not sure why we have such a need for a white Christmas this year, but we do. I have my suspicions, life has been tough for all of us. Anyway, fingers crossed.

The Lake Cottage is very hard to photograph. It’s very dark inside, it’s up on top of the china cabinet in the den, and I have to stand on the old ottoman to take the pictures. So, these are not the best, but frankly, this is what you’re going to get.

The exterior of the Lake Cottage. For those of you who are new to the blog, this is an antique dollhouse that I found a few years ago. It’s handmade and incredibly charming. But, because it’s handmade, I am reluctant to change it very much, as I can feel and see the love and care that went into its construction. I’ve not painted it and I won’t.

See? It’s funky but I love it. I consider both this house and the vintage dollhouse in the kitchen to be folk art. Therefore, they stay relatively untouched. I added the tree that I previously used in the modern dollhouse.

I had some other photos of the interior, but I’m going to retake them today. They’re blurry, most likely because I was balancing on the squishy ottoman when I was taking them. I’ll move one of the  kitchen chairs into the den this time. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, Miss Lucy is our model of the day.

I just knew she had to wear one of the red sweaters.

Oh my goodness, she’s adorable. I’m really so crazy about her.

I have to tweak the other red sweater and then I’ll have made them all Blythe-wearable. A group photo will be forthcoming.

For those of you new to the blog: Maria asked I could take detailed photos of the dollhouses and descriptions of the pieces I chose. I’ve already done that! All of that information is up in the navigation bar under “dollhouses/minis.” There are posts showing the progress of each dollhouse and there is always a final post in which I describe everything and give sources.

Okay. Have to go.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

 

Dove Cottage at Christmas

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We’ve been getting snow/rain/sleet/snow/rain/sleet and it’s supposed to last until tomorrow. It’s messy and rather ugly out there, not to mention dangerous. This is not the pretty snow that we had recently. Next week, hopefully, will be just snow. Don is disappointed that it’s raining and not snowing. They’re calling this a nor’easter. I’m calling it a pain in the tush.

A quick little tour of Dove Cottage at Christmas:

The owner had to move the furniture around to accommodate the tree.

As you know, I make these trees, starting with a cheap bottlebrush tree as the base. I glue pieces of lycopodium, which is a preserved pine, to the base. It’s very time consuming and a mess, as I get glue all over my hands. But much better in the end than a bottlebrush tree. I try to be as realistic as possible with my miniatures so that kind of tree wouldn’t work. As a small decoration, yes. You can see that I have a couple of small tabletop bottlebrush trees in the room, just like I have here at my life-sized cottage.

Sorry for the glare on the wallpaper. Light quality is very tricky in the winter. There’s a small bottlebrush tree on the island, too, but it’s hard to see here.

And on the front porch – a wreath on the door.

Tomorrow, we’ll visit the Lake Cottage.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Mini Decorations

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Over the next couple of days, I’ll share the Christmas decorations in the dollhouses with you. Nothing much has changed, but it’s fun taking pictures every year.

First up: Hummingbird Cottage.

Christmas is celebrated in the den on the second floor. There just isn’t enough room for a tree in the living room. Caroline hasn’t finished yet – there’s still a box of Shiny Brites on the stool.

Downstairs in the living room, a couple of Christmas touches:

Two bottle brush trees on the hearth.

(Note the back of the heads of Lily and Wren in the front door window…I forgot they were there when I took the picture! An interesting look at scale – those little dolls seem so tiny next to the Blythes, but they’re huge in comparison to the dollhouse.)

A wreath hung on the newel post.

I’ve decorated Dove Cottage and Lake Cottage (the vintage house in the den) as well.

As in real life, I don’t do a lot of decorating. In the case of the dollhouses, I make the trees and add a few touches, but I don’t like to spend a lot of money on miniatures I can only use once a year.

I just finished The Twist of a Knife, the book by Anthony Horowitz. I enjoyed it. It’s an easy read and it reminds me of an Agatha Christie mystery. I’m hoping to get an email from the library saying a book I ordered has arrived. Fingers crossed.

We’re getting more snow tomorrow – maybe 3 inches? And then we’ll get some rain. Next week, we might get 5 – 8 inches. Yikes! Of course, that can change, but we just might have a white Christmas.

Happy Birthday to my dear cousin Eileen, who reads this blog. I love you, Eileen.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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