Scout — Page 61

A Bit of Cyber Housekeeping

October 26, 2013 at 9:36 am by Claudia

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Just had to share this photo of Scout that Don took with his iPhone. It cracks me up. You can see why the border collie rescue group temporarily named her Smiley.

Oh, I love that girl.

Autumn seems to be a time of cleaning and reorganizing. I’ve been doing my fair share of that here at the cottage and I’ve been doing a bit of that in my cyber world, as well. Just a little bit.

You may or may not have noticed that the links to my Etsy shop are missing from the blog. Meredith and I went into a sort of hiatus over the summer, the same as we did last year. Summer isn’t the best time to sell crocheted scarves and shawls. Or, for me, to work on them. Normally I would have re-opened the shop by now. But a few things are holding me back. I don’t seem to want to crochet or knit at the moment. I started a scarf and it sits on the desk where I left it 3 weeks ago – untouched and unfinished. More importantly, the shop’s success in the past has been wonderful but it also means I have to pay taxes on my sales – all well and good and as it should be. But most of my work income as a contractor (which is how theaters label me) is untaxed as well. As is my ad income for this blog. When you start to add it all up, it can become overwhelming at tax time. I keep receipts, of course, and deduct those out-of-pocket expenses necessary to make my inventory; yarn, packaging materials, etc. Nevertheless, it all adds up.

My gut tells me I need to cut back and since Meredith and I are both busy and neither of us seems to be motivated to create new inventory for the shop, I’m going to keep it on semi-permanent hiatus for the present. I’m not closing the shop – at least for now. But I’m also not linking to it. I’ve removed the link from the navigation bar.

I’ve replaced it with a link to my most recent book reviews. I’ve happily discovered that a lot of you really enjoy my book reviews and I started thinking that it would be handy to have the links in one place. So I went through the last year and a half of blog posts and made a list of all the books I have reviewed and added links to the review posts. (I was surprised at how many of them there were!) These aren’t all of the reviews, as I’ve been writing them for about three years, but they are the most current. I hope you enjoy them. I sure enjoy writing them. I have another one coming up next Wednesday and I think you’ll like it.

Speaking of book reviews, the winner of a copy of Killer Image is Christy. Congratulations, Christy!

I’ve also decided to discontinue A Favorite Thing.. I loved our little party and I enjoyed hosting it for you each week. I post daily, as you know, and it’s all original content. Adding the weekly meme and the visits to everyone taking part in the party took a lot of additional time. I hope you understand and I thank all of you who participated from the bottom of my heart.

Last but not least, why is it that light bulbs seem to burn out in clusters? Does that happen to you? We have recessed lighting in the kitchen ceiling that uses floodlight bulbs. One died about five days ago and I went to the store to replace it. No sooner had I returned home with my $7.00 bulb when another burned out. I hadn’t had a chance to get a replacement bulb yet which turns out to have been a good thing, because when I got up this morning and turned on the lights, another bulb burned out.

Are my light bulbs messing with me? Are they getting together at night to plot the timing of the next demise? Are they laughing behind my back?

Hmmm.

Happy Saturday.

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Saturday at the Cottage

October 19, 2013 at 8:40 am by Claudia

Around the cottage on a Saturday morning:

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The dried limelight hydrangea blossoms are from my garden, the little wooden box is an anniversary gift from Don and was made in Peru (and I see a white Scout hair on it!) Riley’s dish garden is growing and thriving, Don picked up the jade plant at our local farmer’s market, my current reading materials, and of course, Miss Scout.

It’s quite nippy this morning. I have a shawl around my flannel pajama clad body. Oh yes, I broke out the flannels about a week ago and you know that makes me happy. I finally re-shelved all my Shakespeare reference books. I was sick of seeing them in their Trader Joe’s tote bags, huddled in the corner of the bedroom where I dumped them three weeks ago. Now I have to sort out the big white cupboard that’s in the living room, so that I can shelve my script and research materials. That cupboard is long overdue for a toss and purge. I washed the slip cover that lives on the living room sofa – much better. Now I have to wash the one that covers the sofa in the den.

I’m slowly sorting, re-arranging (only a bit) and getting somewhat organized here after having been away for nine weeks. There’s much more to do, of course. In fact, it’s never ending. But I have to do it when I’m in the mood and somehow the cooler weather is helping in that regard.

The colors are spectacular in our neck of the woods. Leaf peepers and pumpkin and apple pickers pour into our area on the weekend. Why? Because we live in a beautiful place.

Happy Saturday.

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A Flower Frog and Some Feathers

October 11, 2013 at 9:10 am by Claudia

Apparently that scamp, little Miss Scout, managed to get on the computer and write a blog post! And then proceeded to answer the comments. She’s a Border Collie, you know; they’re very intelligent. Ah well, it’s good to get a day off from blogging every now and then. Scout as guest blogger – it somehow makes sense.

Also, before I forget, did you know I answer your comments right on the comment page? I think most of you are aware of this, but a lot of you have asked me specific questions lately and I want to make sure you know I always answer them. My answer is always right below your comment. To make sure you see them, you can do one of two things: check back in later in the day and see if I’ve answered, or, and I think this is easiest but that’s just my opinion, check that box right below your comment that says “Notify me of follow-up comments via e-mail.” When I answer your comment, you will get an email with your original comment and my response. There you go! One of things I love about this blog of mine is the dialogue that happens in the comments – it’s a true joy for me. Scout obviously likes it as well. She tells me she had fun answering your comments.

Now. I’ve been collecting feathers lately – here at home and in Hartford. I love bird feathers. But what to do with them? How to display them? They were on top of the sideboard but any gust of wind from the window or the front door could blow them away. I’m too cheap to frame them at the moment and I’m not sure I would want to anyway. So, the other day my eyes lit on one of my flower frogs and I had an idea:

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A flower frog turned feather holder.

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I’m rather pleased with this simple solution.

It sits on the sideboard, along with a piece of brown transferware that holds all my acorns and pods and pine cones. My little nature center.

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I used to have a bunch of wild turkey feathers but somehow I have lost them. We had a lot of turkeys hanging around on our lawn and they left me some beautiful feathers. Where the heck did I put them?

The morning glories are still going strong. I never get tired of looking at them and photographing them.

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