Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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A Co-op, Some Sweet Corn, and Some Minis

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Two Sleepy People. That’s the name of a wonderful old standard by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser. That’s also the name of Don and Claudia at the moment. Both of us are more than a bit sleep deprived and it continues into today. Yesterday, I was determined to do something, despite exhaustion, so we got in the car and drove to a neighboring town that has a Food Co-op that I had just learned about via Instagram. We’ve lived here nearly 11 years and for some reason it wasn’t on my radar.

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Isn’t this the neatest little store you ever did see? It’s packed with fresh vegetables and healthy food. I stopped counting at 8 different kinds of potatoes. We were gobsmacked by the variety there.

I think we’ll probably join the co-op because we miss belonging to a co-op. We used to belong to one when we were living in San Diego. We’re certainly going to be shopping there on a regular basis.

What’s not to love? We drive through a countryside full of charming and funky homes, farms, winding roads, with mountains in the distance and we end up here.

On the way back home, we stopped for fresh sweet corn at our local farm stand. It’s truly the best corn I’ve ever had and I’ve lived a lot of places! We came home, had a yummy dinner and watched…you guessed it…another episode of Inspector Morse.

Try to contain your excitement.

In the mail yesterday: the newest Squint Box.

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The theme this month is A Mini Affair.

A Victoria’s Secret bag, a piece of Chocolate Opera Cake made by miniaturist Pei Li, a mini package, and an Italian Pasta Plate.

Wait! Do I see something in that Victoria’s Secret bag?

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Goodness me! Some frilly little unmentionables!

This monthly Squint Box shipment is always a delight.

T-minus 2 days and counting until I can purchase Louise Penny’s newest, A Great Reckoning. Yes, I know I can pre-order, but that’s not as fun! With a new book by one of my very favorite authors, I like to take part in my New Book Ritual: a drive to the bookstore, then a quick search for it on display, where I pick my very own copy, pay for it, and escort it back to the cottage.

Happy Sunday.

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In the Mail

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Red and I have problems. I love  red, but photographing it is always problematical. Whether it’s a red rose or a red sofa (as you will soon see) I can never quite get the tint/shade right.

I got a package in the mail yesterday – all the way from Australia. Gabrielle, who made the sofa for Don’s mini studio, made another one in red. For me, not Don. It’s a deeper red, but heck if I can get it to register, no matter how much I tweak it on Lightroom.

So just know that the sofa has less of an orange tint and more of a deep cherry tint.

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Not quite right. But enough of that. Isn’t it beautiful?

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Here it is in the loft. It might be a bit too long for this house, but I’m currently saving up for another house, so it may move around. Trying to photograph the loft yesterday was equally frustrating. Maybe I’ve lost my mini photography mojo? It needs some pillows, so I just might have to trot over to Brae’s Etsy shop.

Also in the mail on Friday: some wallpaper for the newest project, the half-scale Fairfield.

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These are William Morris prints in half-scale, along with a tile I might be using (lower right hand corner.) ItsyBitsyMini, where I get all my mini wallpaper, has most of their designs available in half-scale and quarter-scale as well as 1:12 scale. And their customer service is great. These arrived with a slight crease/wrinkle, which limits what I can do with them. ItsyBitsyMini promptly responded and is sending new sheets next week. Thank you!

And to top off my ‘packages in the mail,’ a big, heavy box arrived yesterday. I wasn’t expecting anything other than the sofa so I was, to put it mildly, quite curious! It was from my friend Donna and her daughter Amanda – Amanda designed the Bedrooms coloring book, remember?

Inside was a thank you card and a gift for hosting the giveaway. It was my pleasure to host it, since I’ve known Donna for such a long time. And Amanda sent me my own copy of the coloring book, so I was quite happy.

Here is what I unwrapped:

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A vintage set of Shakespeare, illustrated and in three volumes, and edited by well-known Shakespearean scholar, A. L. Rowse. Oh, my heavens!

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It’s beautifully illustrated and includes photographs from various productions. I never see this set in any shop or used bookstore. But Donna and Amanda have serious junking/thrifting skills (Donna has an Etsy shop) and somehow she found this.

Thank you, dear Donna and Amanda. I’m thrilled to have this in my library and will treasure it always.

Two brief-ish book reviews on Just Let Me Finish This Page today. Stop by!

Happy Sunday.

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Purple

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I am reminded every day of my love for shades of purple in the garden. It’s not something I plan. I don’t decide to go for a color scheme as some garden designers do. I just plant what I love. There’s purple phlox, purple coneflowers (lots and lots of them), purple hydrangea, purple catmint, and purple blooms on the crown vetch. There’s also a purple butterfly bush:

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Purple Liatris:

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And, much to my delight, there are purple flowers of the wildflower variety, that pop up here and there on the property.

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I’m not sure what this is called, but it’s on the property every year.

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This is what it looks like when it opens. So pretty!

Then there’s the Purple Loosestrife that pops up down by the culvert – it likes water. Yes, I know it can be invasive but in my nearly 11 years here, it’s never become a problem.

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I became fascinated by this bee. (I have a penchant for snapping pictures of bees.)

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I stopped trying to count the variety of bees on this property, including the honey bees in the catalpa. There are a lot. And that is a good thing! We need them.

I putzed around the house yesterday, watered the plants that needed watering, ran a couple of errands, and worked on the new dollhouse project.

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I put this together – the box for the fireplaces (one on each floor) plus the chimney. Lots of careful punching out of the pieces, trying to figure out the directions, sanding each piece, glueing and clamping. But it turned out well. Sigh of relief.

That was my dad’s screwdriver. I keep it up here in the studio with my tools.

Today? Mowing. Rain is due tomorrow, so we need to tackle the lawn today. And more work on this fiddly dollhouse project. I’m starting to enjoy it, though. The trick with this one will be making design decisions as I go, not my preferred way to work, but since this is half scale, it would be impossible to get my hands inside each room to wallpaper, for example. So I ordered some half scale wallpaper yesterday, after a futile attempt to find what I want in the scrapbook paper aisle. The prints were way too large in scale. I’ll need to paint as I go, as well. Yikes.

Don’t forget to stop by my post, Let’s Not Let Dryness Get in the Way. If you leave a comment, you’ll be in the running to win a $100 Visa Gift Card! #ad

Happy Friday.

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