Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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You are here: Home / Archives for Scout

Scout, Flowers & The Dollhouse

April 5, 2014 at 9:29 am by Claudia

I see the sun peeking out this morning – very welcome after a rainy day yesterday. I look outside and think of the massive clean-up that awaits me, but since the ground is still soggy after all the rain and snow we’ve had, I think I’ll hold off until next week when Don is home. Then I can work outside for long periods without having to check on Dame Scout.

This is where she is right now. The sound of snoring provides the background ‘music’ as I write this post.

sleepy

Three weeks ago I went to IKEA and Trader Joe’s. Remember? And yesterday, exactly three weeks after I bought them, the pink alstromeria in the den kicked the bucket. But the white alstromeria flowers in the living room are still hanging in there.

stillhanginginthere

The leaves are yellowing but the blooms are still fresh. I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, but if you want to get some bang for your buck, buy alstromeria. I don’t have the funds to buy flowers that last only a few days. If I’m going to treat myself to some flowers, I sure as heck want them to last for a while. If you can buy a bouquet where the flowers haven’t opened yet, even better.

And besides, they’re lovely. I’ve been buying alstromeria for years. The tulips I bought at the same time? I loved them, but they lasted about 5 days. If that was the only bouquet I bought that day, I would have been disappointed.

On to the dollhouse. I go through periods where I’m not interested in doing any work on it and then, suddenly, something will jump start my creative process and I’m back in the dollhouse game. That’s what happened this week. A blogging friend of mine who is a miniaturist is sending me something for the dollhouse. She made it for a specific room and I am still gobsmacked that she offered to do it. It’s coming all the way from the other side of the world. I know what it is, but I haven’t seen it yet. Needless to say, I’m excited, which is putting it mildly! That will be a post in itself. I’m still amazed and awed by the generosity and kindness of bloggers. Oh heck, by the generosity of all of my readers, bloggers or not.

pottingshedsaturday

That knowledge is what got me thinking about the dollhouse and about the rooftop potting shed once again. I’ve got all sorts of plans for that space and I’ve been pouring over catalogues and websites. I’ve literally spent hours scrolling through all the dollhouse miniatures on Etsy. I bookmark every item that I think I’d love to have in my dollhouse. Needless to say, I’ve got a lot of bookmarks. Gosh, there’s so much I want to add to Hummingbird Cottage. It’s all in the tiny details and I haven’t spent a lot of time on those details yet because I’ve been working on the bigger picture. (You’ll notice the red paint has been removed from the Cherub. Much better. Still have to re-paint the ceiling.)

While digging through one of my dollhouse bins, I found something I bought about 4 years ago. I’ve been looking for it, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Of course, it was right there all along, but you know how that goes.

mirror2

It’s that mirror over the chest. I found it in the jewelry-making section of Michael’s. It had a loop at the top which I removed with wire snips. I was originally thinking of it for the bathroom but I now realize it is too small for that space. Much better here in the bedroom where the owner can stop and do some last minute adjustments when she’s getting ready for her day. I thought of painting the frame, but I like the pewter-y looking metal.

As for details, imagine some make up brushes and perfume bottles on top of that dresser. That’s the kind of detail I can’t wait to add to the dollhouse. But I’m on a budget, so it will take some time. That’s okay. I love the creative process, don’t you?

Happy Saturday.

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Filed Under: dollhouse, Fellow bloggers, flowers, Scout 22 Comments

On Her Rounds

April 2, 2014 at 6:44 am by Claudia

Thank you for your loving and compassionate comments on yesterday’s post. Your words help me in what is a difficult and stressful time. You are the best, my friends.

No walk yesterday for Scout. I wanted her to take it easy. She was tired and sore but she has such a strong spirit, such a zest for life. Later in the day, I went to the kitchen door to see if she was ready to come in from outside and I saw her loping, almost galloping, along as she ran in from the back of the corral.

I shook my head in wonder. That girl is amazing.

And then I immediately called Don to tell him about it.

She has her ups and downs. But she is, and has always been, the most magical, life-filled, spirited dog I’ve been lucky enough to know.

Here she is on her rounds (excuse the view of the toilet):

scoutonpatrol

scoutonpatrol2

scoutonpatrol3

She has to check out the bathroom; must sniff the trash, the toilet and the bathtub. Several times a day.

This will be a short post. I have to take the car in for some repairs this morning. We’re trying to keep our 13 year old car going as long as we can. Fingers crossed.

Happy Wednesday.

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Filed Under: life, Scout 63 Comments

Quilts, Books & Cheerful Clutter

March 28, 2014 at 8:35 am by Claudia

tunnelquilt1

Scoutie in the tunnel this morning. A month or so ago, after repeatedly seeing her land with a thud (it’s become impossible for her to effortlessly ease her body to the floor as she could when she was younger) I put a quilt by the chair. It provides a bit of a cushion for her. I also put one in front of the loveseat in the living room because she often sleeps there at night. Scout has always been a restless sleeper. She’s here, she’s there, she moves around a lot. And as much as I would love it if she slept on a cushy dog bed, she simply won’t. She likes the floor.

The addition of the quilts certainly won’t get the rooms in a decorating magazine, but I don’t care. Little girl’s comfort is what this is all about. Just as the addition of mats throughout the living room and kitchen helped Riley get around. They were unattractive, but they worked and they made his life easier and safer.

She’s getting a bath next week in honor of her father’s homecoming which will be a week from this coming Monday. I anticipate lots of father/daughter cuddles.

twoweekslater3

(See? The flowers have been there for two weeks and they’re still going strong.)

I’m reading a very good police detective mystery, The Keeper of Lost Causes, by a Danish writer, Jussi Adler-Olsen. I don’t remember how I learned about it, but one click later, it was loaded on my Kindle. At a discount. I see why these gosh darned eReaders are so convenient. Don’t worry. I’m still reading and buying real books, but space is limited here at the cottage, as you well know. I can only bring so many books in here. Anyway, I really like this book. The writer has a dry sense of humor and the story is really compelling.

Oh, I love reading. Love, love, love it. The ultimate escape. Life saver, imagination soarer, invitation to another world, delightful, insightful – reading is one on one. One being me and my imagination. The other one being the words on the page. We are in our own little world, the book and I. And no one will see the world created by the writer in quite the same way as me. Isn’t that wonderful?

Reading has always been and continues to be one of the greatest pleasures in my life. A thank you to my mom and to Miss Brown, my first grade teacher, for instilling a love of reading in me.

When I realize that my mom, who has dementia, cannot read anymore, it breaks my heart. She has always loved to read and could polish off a book pretty quickly. It has been a constant in her life. Not being able to read seems to be especially cruel.  I love you, Mom. I hope your imagination is taking you to worlds we cannot see; vivid and beautiful and peaceful.

I also seem to have inherited from my mom a tendency to leave stacks of reading material and paperwork all over the house. See above. My mom always had two end tables in the living room and each of them had a lower shelf. There were stacks of magazines there. One table held my mom’s magazines. The other table held my dad’s magazines. I have the same sort of thing going on here. I have a stack of reading material under the end table in the den. I have a stack of books under the table next to my blogging chair. I have a stack of things on the ottoman. And I have the stack you see on the coffee table. At some point, I get sick of it all and go through each stack, ruthlessly sorting and tossing.

But on some level, I find it enormously comforting to have stacks of things to read surrounding me. Thank goodness, Don doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, he’ll have his own stack on the coffee table in the living room when he returns.

Cheerful clutter. That’s what I call it.

Happy Friday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: books, Don, reading, Scout 45 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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