Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 1067 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

On Sunday

January 3, 2016 at 9:56 am by Claudia

1-3 TSPlivingroom

Just playing. I don’t think I’ll have any time to work on this before I have to leave. Gosh, I love that sofa. I’m so glad I ordered it. Now to get one for my real-life den…

The fireplace needs painting. But since it needs spray-painting that will have to wait for warmer weather.

I managed to put off my research yesterday. I was feeling a little out of it, so I figured today would be a better day to begin. The brain needs to be sharp, you know. And that wasn’t the case yesterday.

I did, however, make French Toast for my husband. And it was yummy.

I slapped some paint on the bulletin board. It’s not perfect, but I don’t care. I hung it in the corner because I didn’t want it interfering with the clean view in front of the desk: white desk, aqua mantel shelf, egg cups. Nothing hanging on either side of the mantel.

I’d rather have it off to the side, where it’s not in my direct sightline.

1-3 bulletinboard

Bulletin/Pin boards evolve over time, I think. They take on a life of their own as we add things from current projects, reminders, snapshots, ticket stubs…whatever. So this is very basic right now; things that have meaning for me, photos I like to see as I’m sitting at the desk.

I found that photo of my parents when I was in Florida. It’s from my niece’s wedding. They look beautiful and happy. That photo of my dad in uniform came inside a letter he sent me this year. Love the photo of the cast, crew and creative team from Our Town at Chautauqua this past summer. Such a lovely memory and a wonderful production. There’s Don and me at the beach in California many years ago. You might recognize the student I’m working with in that other photo. (We’re both a lot older now.) And there’s a card from Don that I especially love – all about life being an adventure – I wrote a post about it a while back.

That red is the same red I used on the Top Secret Project – might as well use what I have on hand, right?

It’s very cold out, but hey – the sun is shining! That makes such a difference! And I can hear the wind chimes right outside my window.

Happy Sunday.

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Today is Saturday. Yesterday Wasn’t Saturday. I’m All Mixed Up.

January 2, 2016 at 9:42 am by Claudia

1-2 sunsetspectacular

I know there was a sunset photo on yesterday’s post, but I couldn’t help myself.

This happened last night. ‘Spectacular’ comes to mind.

And all I have to do is open the kitchen door and pop my head outside. Snap.

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I’m in the middle of my 4th mystery by Susan Hill. (I’ve ordered the next two and am crossing my fingers they arrive by the time I have to leave for Hartford.) Note the interesting mix of patterns here. The rug, in red, green and gray and the quilt that Scoutie uses when she’s in the ‘tunnel’ – red, black, green, blue, orange.

No one has ever accused me of not liking a mix of patterns.

That girl you see in the picture? Stay tuned…she has a big birthday coming up on Monday.

1-2 don'sdesk

The other side of our shared space. That desk is actually half of a dining room table. I bought it when I first moved to San Diego. The style is Renaissance Revival and I love it. It’s been our desk for years. It’s flanked by our necessary, but not very attractive, file cabinets, the copier, the modem and router and our phone.

Big Boy was found at a yard sale. It’s Don’s, but we both have memories of dining at that establishment. In his neck of the woods it was Bob’s Big Boy. In mine, it was just Big Boy. The gorgeous old black and white photo of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans was a find from Heidi’s shop and I grabbed it for Don. (Don met Roy Rogers once and got his autograph…which he eventually lost.) The desk chair is an old one from IKEA that I hastily recovered because it was black and covered in Scout’s dog hair. Don’t look too closely.

The wall between the windows is still in progress. Right now we have an old bedside table there holding a lamp. We’d like to hang a great print on the wall and find a vintage love seat.

I spent several hours yesterday going through old files and shredding bills by hand. For some inexplicable reason, our fairly new shredder is not working. More hand-shredding today, along with the beginning of my work on Romeo and Juliet.

Can I just say that I don’t want to go away to Hartford in the winter time? Or be away from Scoutie when she’s so frail? (Or Don, but he will be fine.) I’ve now worked in Hartford for several weeks at a time at least 6 or 7 times. I’ve seen everything there is to see. I have absolutely no idea what I am going to blog about. None.

Obviously I’m grateful for the work and I love working with Darko. But, man! I do not want to go.

Happy Saturday (Yes, I’ve finally figured out what day it is. Yesterday, I thought it was Saturday all day long.)

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Hello There

January 1, 2016 at 9:16 am by Claudia

1-1 sunset

Well, hello there, 2016.

So far you look rather gray-ish and not very pretty. Maybe you’ll give us a glimpse of the sun at some point today?

Don got in gear yesterday and cleaned and sorted his part of the shared office space. We grabbed some storage bins and filled them up. So therapeutic! The room is looking much more spacious. When you consider that we had a bed, Don’s desk, two file cabinets, my grandmother’s large trunk, two chairs, 5 guitars, a linen cabinet and Don’s dresser in there, you can see how crowded it was. And why we avoided it like the plague.

Once we got rid of the bed everything changed. By the way, some of you have asked about the hallway. We moved Don’s vintage 30s waterfall dresser into the niche where I had my sewing machine. It actually looks good there. And we moved the pine cabinet that functions as our linen cabinet to the space formerly occupied by the pink cabinet. It makes more sense for the linen cabinet to be in the hall. All in all, it’s working out nicely.

So we made a little trip to the storage facility and dropped off some bins and other things. We made a mad dash to the bank because I had mistakenly torn a check that was sent to me in half. I know. What the ?? I was tearing up some junk mail and somehow the check got torn in half as well. Thank goodness I didn’t tear it into little pieces. The bank teller taped it together and the machine accepted it. Huzzah!

We had a slice of pizza.

Then we stopped by the used record store and came home with:

• A mint album (never opened) of Django Reinhardt (with Stephane Grappelli.) It’s fabulous.
• A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night (Harry Nilsson) – one of my favorite albums ever and one I have moldering away in the shed. Needed to be replaced. In mint condition.
• The Ballad of Sally Rose – Emmylou Harris (sealed – never opened.)
• Pete Seeger – American’s Balladeer (sealed – never opened.)
• Follies In Concert (Stephen Sondheim) – I have the album (in the dreaded shed) and the CD. I needed to replace the album because vinyl just sounds better. Hurrah, I did!
• Funny Girl (original Broadway Cast) – again, the album is in the shed. Time to replace it.

We’re having such fun! We came home and listened to a couple of our new finds and then had dinner, watched the New York Philharmonic/Live at Lincoln Center and then watched part of Taken 3 , which was so dreadful we laughed out loud.

Lights out by 11:00.

Today? Who knows?

Happy New Year to one and all. May this year be filled with peace and joy and fulfillment and happiness and love. I’m so grateful for your presence in my life.

Happy Friday.

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On Sunday

Today is Saturday. Yesterday Wasn’t Saturday. I’m All Mixed Up.

Hello There

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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