Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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A Fantasy

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This is my piano. Many of you have seen it before on this blog. It was my grandmother’s piano. It’s a Chickering and it has a wonderful sound. It used to have ivory keys until they became chipped and cracked. When I had it moved to San Diego, I had the keyboard replaced.

My grandmother, my mom, my brother, sisters and various aunts and uncles played on this piano. It has a wonderful history that makes it priceless to me.

So why do I have crazy desire to paint it? (My grandmother rolled over in her grave as I typed those words.) It’s mahogany. The grain of the wood is pretty, but it is so dark. My grandmother had mahogany furniture, my mom had a mahogany dining room set – I grew up with dark wood. I’m not a big fan. Our living room is fairly light and airy. And then there is the piano.

But when I see photos like these (from Pinterest):

Or this one, a favorite, that has been on my desktop for a few years,
I want to grab a brush and some paint and go for it. Perhaps with some of that expensive chalk paint I’ve been reading about all over the blogosphere.
Upright pianos seem to take to being painted, don’t they? Maybe spinets and consoles (like mine) don’t adapt as well.
I’ll probably never do it. But I want to. What are your thoughts? Is painting a piano unthinkable to you? Or are you someone who would say ‘Do it!’

I keep hearing the words of my grandmother and mother in my head. And they are not pretty.

The winner of a copy of Just My Type is Mercedes Scott. Congratulations! Send me an email with your address and I will forward it on to TLC Book Tours.

Painting a Table & Missing Followers Gadget

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I see the Followers Gadget is missing again. It was there this morning but when I signed on about noon it was gone. My dashboard says I have followers, but when I click on the number the page is blank. I tried deleting the gadget and then adding it again – nothing. This seems to be an ongoing problem with Blogger and is getting very annoying. I’ve checked other blogs and their gadgets seem to be missing, too.


On to more pleasant things. I have this little table that I have had since I was teaching at Boston University. You can see a bit of it in this photo. There is a little back story on this table. When I started teaching at BU, I was very poor, having just left graduate school. My salary was not very much as I was just starting out. Boston has one of the highest costs of living in the country. Translate all this to: I didn’t have much and I could afford nothing. The Theater Department had 2 Prop Rooms – one in the main theater and a small one in the classroom building. The smaller room had all sorts of cast-offs donated by faculty and students that were used for acting projects. I needed a little table for my office and found this one in the shop. When I moved to a larger, rent-controlled apartment in Cambridge, the table somehow left my office and appeared in my apartment. And it has stayed with me ever since. (Disclaimer: I repaid that loan by donating some pieces to the prop room when I moved on to San Diego.)

Although it is a bit wobbly, I would never get rid of it because it is full of memories of that time in Boston. But I have been staring at it for a while thinking it needed something. You can see that it is tucked in right next to the piano and the piano is mahogany. Too much dark wood. As I am not about to paint the piano, I decided to paint the table.


Simple – but I think it lightens things up a bit. This part of the living room tends to be dark. Now I am going to paint two tables in the den. I keep wanting “lighter” here at MHC. By the way, this is paint I already had on hand – I used it for the kitchen island.


Speaking of the piano, it sounds so much better!

A Pretty Birdcage, A Pretty Sound & a Birthday

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Now, that’s a birdcage! I’ve had this photo (from Vignettes) for a while – I took it right before I left San Diego. This rusty, gorgeous piece was easily over 5 feet in height and 4 feet wide. I had to include it for my friend, Donna, who loves a good birdcage. I would have bought it for you, Donna, but as you can see it was already sold.

I have a few photos from California that I haven’t shared yet. Every so often, I’ll post one or two.


I love this bench. Oh yes…I would have happily taken this baby home. Alas, I was flying and this wouldn’t have fit in the overhead compartment. I miss Vignettes. I do.

After some investigation, we think the alarm went off because of a moth. When we took off the cover, a dead moth fluttered to the ground. I am happy to report that all was quiet last night.

Today the piano gets tuned!! I won’t say how long it has been, just know it has been too long. It is so out of tune that I can’t bear to play it. My husband says he misses the sound of the piano and the life and energy it brings to our house. As do I. So today my sweet piano will be tuned and I will play again.

Finally, Happy 90th Birthday to my wonderful father-in-law, Lee!! I love you and wish I was out in sunny California helping you celebrate!

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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