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Random on Wednesday

December 2, 2015 at 8:20 am by Claudia

• In the ‘what the heck?’ category, I woke up way too early this morning. Let’s just say it was before 5 am. I was too hot – it stayed relatively mild outside last night – and I was congested. We need to get a humidifier, STAT. Anyway, I tried and tried to go back to sleep and I couldn’t and after what seemed like hours of trying, I gave up and got up, knowing that Scout would have to be let outside very soon.

When one or both of us is sleepless and we’re trying to figure out what time it is, we try to get a read on the amount of traffic going down our road. There was no traffic when I first woke up. That doesn’t bode well for the rest of my day.

• I took a day off from crocheting yesterday. I had to run some errands and, quite frankly, my hands needed a rest. They’re tired. I’ve been at our local post office a lot lately, sending scarves to one and all. Now I’m working on some special orders, awaiting another delivery of yarn. Thanks to all who have ordered a scarf! I hope you like them!

• We are now watching the final season – season 11 – of Frasier. We have watched every episode, in order, and we’re already in mourning. There are been a lot of wonderful comedies on television, but I think I have to vote for Frasier as the best. Incredibly witty and smart writing, with double entrendres, references to all sorts of literature and drama, moments of pure, unadulterated farce, brilliant acting by everyone in that gifted ensemble. There is no other show I can recall that makes me laugh out loud as much as this one.

• Here’s some exciting news: I got a case for my new iPhone yesterday. It’s exciting to me, at least, because I’ve been extra cautious with the phone since it arrived, treating it with kid gloves, until I could get out and buy a case.

If it’s possible to fall in love with a phone, I’m truly smitten.

9-4 dollhouse late afternoon

• As of today (this may change) I have no desire to decorate the dollhouse for Christmas. And it’s usually the first place I decorate. I know where the Christmas tree that I painstakingly built last year is. It’s in a box in the closet in the spare room. But do I want to pull it out? No.

Sigh. This is just the way it is this year. I have to accept it.

• We are going to make the trip to IKEA in the next couple of days to buy a desk for yours truly. And we’re going to buy some white paint and paint the spare room. This house was flipped and every room is painted in the same sort of off-white/cream color. It’s okay, I’m used to it. But we decided we want white and bright in that space, so I’m hoping that we’ll be painting this weekend. The one thing I am motivated to do (there’s not much else) is create our little work space.

• Don made an apple pie yesterday. You can see a picture of it on my Instagram feed. It’s his first foray into baking a pie. It was delicious! He tells me he wants to make more pies. This is good, but it is also not-so-good for my waistline. And, wait a minute, Don! I’m the baker in this house. You’re the cook. You’re encroaching on my territory. I’m not so sure I like this pie-making-baking stuff.

Be that as it may, I’m off to have a piece of pie for breakfast.

Happy Wednesday.

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When Do You Start Decorating?

December 1, 2015 at 8:37 am by Claudia

12-1 insidethecabinet

A late afternoon peek into the china cabinet in the den.

That teeny little dog belonged to my grandmother, my dad’s mom. I never met her, as she died before I was born. Last year, my cousin Eileen sent it to me. My favorite aunt, her mom, had always had it on display and when she died, Eileen inherited it. Since I don’t really have much from my dad’s side of the family, this is a beautiful treasure I will always cherish.

Elsewhere in the photo: McCoy, my china pattern by Edwin Knowles way in the back, a piece of my great-grandmother’s Havilland china and a hand painted sugar bowl from France.

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Some of my Roseville. The edge of a framed picture of Riley and Scout in the back, along with a lovely piece of hand-painted china from France.

If my dreams could come true, I’d have a bigger house with lots of wall space for more cupboards filled with china and pottery. And room to hang a slew of Maxfield Parrish prints. And a fireplace. And a downstairs bedroom. And a mudroom – oh, how I long for a mudroom! Even if the only thing I could get out of the dream was a mudroom, I’d be happy.

It’s a rainy day here and I find myself not reading a lot of blogs because everything is about Christmas and Christmas home tours. This has nothing to do with the grief I’m feeling. No, I feel this way every year. Way too much Christmas, way too soon. We just finished Thanksgiving and, frankly, I need a little breathing space before catapulting into the Christmas season. When the line between holidays blurs, it reminds me of suburban sprawl, where a suburb morphs into another suburb which morphs into another suburb and no one can tell which is which.

Anyway, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you know my rule. No decorating until the second week of December. Even though we will be pulling back on the decorating this year, we will have the small white tree in the living room and we’ll hang the lights out on the porch and we’ll hang a wreath. But not until sometime next week.

I talk about this every year because I’m sure that some of us begin to decorate at about the same time our parents used to decorate. Mine never decorated early – always mid-month. And my dad’s family, influenced by my grandmother’s German roots, didn’t put up their tree until Christmas Eve. We didn’t do that, but Dad used to talk about putting up the tree and decorating and singing carols on Christmas Eve. I can see the appeal and I know many people who still do that.

The stores start selling all things Christmas earlier and earlier each year. Home Decor bloggers feel the pressure to have everything up and picture perfect by the day after Thanksgiving. Surely that must take some of the joy out of the season? Maybe it doesn’t and if so, great. But here’s my question: why do these posts have to be so early in the season? Is it due to competing tours? The pressure to be the first tour that’s up and running? Or maybe simple scheduling requirements? I don’t know.

Anyway, I can’t look at any Christmas home tours on November 30th. Or even the first week of December. I’m in the no-decorating-this-early zone.

What are your thoughts? If you celebrate Christmas, when do you start to decorate? Do you jump in the day after Thanksgiving? Do you wait a bit? I’m curious. I know all of you have your traditions. Some of you might be decorating this very minute!

Happy Tuesday.

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Where I Am

November 30, 2015 at 8:42 am by Claudia

11-30 mccoyandbooks

I’m calling this “McCoy and Books.”

I’m pretty sure those two categories are at the top of my I Love list.

I’ve been crocheting for hours at a time – too many hours at a time. Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I realized that it was the 29th. Exactly one month since my father died. How is that possible? Late last night, as we were getting ready to go to sleep, I told Don that I realized that having my mom and dad still alive here on Earth made me feel safe. And now that they’re gone I didn’t feel safe anymore. Of course, I immediately qualified that statement by saying it was entirely different thing than the ‘safe’ I feel with Don. But I didn’t really need to say that, because he understood. The protection and safety I took for granted all these years has disappeared with the death of my dad.

Dear friends, I try to balance the content of my posts. One sad post must be counterbalanced by several happy, chatty posts. As a rule, this isn’t at all hard for me to do. I’m usually pretty cheery. But it is hard at the moment. I’ve lost both of my parents in the past eighteen months. We have a lot of worries that are ongoing. Scout gets frailer by the minute and I worry about her constantly. The realization that we will lose her at some point is staring me in the face.

I relive those last hours with Dad. I remember something I want to tell him and then realize that I can’t pick up the phone and call him. He sometimes drove me crazy, calling several times a day about some little thing he needed to tell me. Now, I’d give anything to pick up the phone and hear his voice. Isn’t that always the way? Yesterday, I had the thought that I needed to tell Dad that I’m working in Hartford in January. And then I remembered.

It’s good for me to write this and I can only ask your indulgence as I sometimes share my feelings. I’m crying as I type this and that’s good. I need to cry.

Right now, I feel lost and sad. Christmas holds very little appeal, though we’ll celebrate the season in a modified way that feels right for us.

That’s where I am, my friends. Thank you for being there.

I do have another scarf in the Etsy shop – the Obsession Scarf in Wildberries.

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This is a photo of an earlier version of the scarf. Each one I make is individual because the placement of the colors within the skein changes. But the colors used remain the same. This will probably be the last one I will make in this colorway, so if you’re at all interested, I’d suggest you jump on it. Here’s the link.

Update: Sold! If you have a request, let me know.

Happy Monday.

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