Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

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One Last Vignettes Visit and Home

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I’d like to wish my sister a very Happy Birthday! Her birthday is actually Saturday and she is in Amsterdam until Monday. Love you, Meredith! Your little sheep are in the mail – finally.

I will be leaving Sunday around 1:00 in the afternoon. Sunday is the 4th, as you know, and that means it is the 16th anniversary of the day Don and I met. We met at the beach. Our friend, Kathy, had a 4th of July party every year – she lived in a charming cottage in Ocean Beach. Yes, Don and I literally saw fireworks the day we met! And four years later, on the same date, he asked me to marry him. My long flights, coupled with the time difference, mean I won’t land until close to midnight. I may just make it home on our anniversary.

I drove out to Vignettes one more time this week. Lori happened to be there for a short time (she is recovering from back surgery) and I was happy I had a chance to say goodbye. Here are some photos:







The bird cage and the fabulous zinc table in the next photo were found at an estate sale. Whoever owned these loved this shade of blue. So do I. Sigh.


Do you remember the photo of a wedding dress that was in my last post about Vignettes? Lori told me someone saw it on my blog and fell in love it. I’m not sure who it was, but she purchased it. That makes me happy.

Given my strong feelings about not being away from my home for another spring and my increasing distaste for the direction in which this theater is headed, I have a feeling I won’t be back to San Diego for a while. I’ll miss all of my friends. I’m so glad I was fortunate enough to spend time with you. I wish you only the best!

I’ll probably lay low for a few days when I first get home. After some cleaning and weeding and cuddles with my husband and dogs, I’ll be back.

I just realized that this is my 500th post!

Chateau De Fleurs Marketplace

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I just finished reading the last Where Bloggers Create post! Whew! I need a nap.

You all know I am away from home and therefore away from all my creative supplies. So, even though I wanted to, I didn’t sign up for Lisa’s Outside the Box Challenge. Yesterday I said to myself, “Aw go ahead, see what you can come up with.” So I went to Target to buy the particular packaging required – this is a big Target in San Diego – and they didn’t have it! And there was no space on the shelf where it should have been. It simply didn’t exist. Darn it! I really wanted to see what I could come up with.

Then I thought I might join up with the Bloggerette Sorority (Karen’s wonderful idea) – but I can’t do the first assignment because I don’t have a printer here.

Sob.

Can you tell I need to get back home? I need my stuff.

Last week I grabbed a few hours in the morning and drove up to Christie’s place for the Chateau de Fleurs Marketplace. Christie moved to a new home this year and she andRita have started a monthly marketplace with all sorts of wonderful vendors. My schedule has been so busy here that this was the first time I was able to see either of them. I thought I’d take a couple of posts and share some photos with you. The photo at the top of the post is from one of the booths.


I absolutely went crazy for this. This fabulously creative woman, Lisa Loria, makes wonderful jewelry and also makes these – I believe they are called Bling Babies. She uses vintage lamp bases, a doll’s head and fashions these wonderful jewelry displays. She’s teaching a workshop on them this weekend that I wish I could attend. Isn’t this wonderful? Here’s another:


I must admit, the doll head without the body thing never did it for me. But now….I find myself loving them. What would Don do, I wonder, if I started amassing these? I mean, besides my Shirley Temple doll and my Tressa doll and the-one-that-I-can’t-show-you-yet-but-I-will-when-I-get-home?

Gorgeous. From Rita’s booth.


Another doll head – this time in a birdcage.



I’ll share the rest of the photos in a couple of days. I will miss all the amazingly creative vendors here. Such eye candy everywhere. If I were independently wealthy, here’s what I’d do: I’d fly out once a month, just for a few days, and drink in my fill of all my favorite sales and shops. Then I’d fly back home to my little cottage. Oh, and I’d be so wealthy that I wouldn’t have to worry about the cost of shipping big pieces. So I would buy everything I wanted. Because I was so wealthy, I would have already added an extension onto the cottage so that I had a place to put all this stuff.

Does that sound like a plan?

Vignettes, Part Two

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You must have known I couldn’t fit all the Vignettes photos in one post! Here we go:



I saw this painting the last time I was in the store. I can’t resist cherubs. Remember the painting I bought from Vignettes last year?


This was my big splurge and it now hangs in our bedroom. What is it about those little cherubs that gets me? Okay, on with the photos.



Rosaries and a vintage dress form. Sigh.



I always take photos of vintage birdcages for my friend, Donna.


Lori has a lovely vintage display cabinet that is full of beautiful things. Part of her collection of Bride and Groom cake toppers is inside as well as other sparkly things. (Lori had, at one time, a 400 piece collection of the vintage cake toppers. Many are for sale in the shop.) I was poking around inside and saw these gorgeous crowns. Turns out Lori made them! Let me show you a few:




Aren’t they beautiful? Lori is one talented woman. I started collecting Bride and Groom cake toppers in the past year. The collection started as a result of a giveaway I won from Linda Crispell. One of the wonderful things she sent me was a cake topper. My interest was sparked. I’ve picked up a few more since. I was planning on buying one of Lori’s before I left because I’m so crazy about her and thought it would be nice to have one that had been part of her collection.
Lori asked me which one I liked – of course I like all of them – but I pointed to one while I was in the midst of photographing her crowns. As I left, she handed me a bag and said it was a present. Guess what she surprised me with?



Aren’t they a happy couple? Now I have 4 wedding cake toppers! Thank you, sneaky Lori!

You know how much I love this shop. That must be evident after all my posts over the last year and a half. It is stunning – each and every time I go in. It never disappoints. Above and beyond that though, are the people who work there. Every one of them is warm, welcoming, charming and knowledgeable. I could chat with them all day. They have become friends. If you are ever in San Diego, drive out to Ocean Beach and visit Lori and her beautiful shop. I’m going to visit one more time before I leave. And that means more photos.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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