Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

A Parrish Sky

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9-18 parrish sky

That, my friends, is a Maxfield Parrish sky.

Don called me over to the door, where he had been checking on Scout while she was outside, because that sliver of moon was so beautiful in the evening sky.

Lovely, simply lovely.

Still coughing, still feeling under the weather, but every day I feel a little less so. So that’s good.

We have a  friend coming on Sunday to spend the night, so I’ve been cleaning. A little here, a little there, nothing too taxing. There’s nothing like an impending visit to make you see all the dust and crumbs and dirty grout, is there?

I’m still reading The Girl in the Spider’s Nest. Normally, I would have finished it by now, but I haven’t always felt like reading or concentrating for any length of time. This morning, however, I read a nice big chunk. It’s really well written.

I had been planning on working on the Top Secret Project when Don was in the city this week for auditions. Those plans were scuttled when I got sick. Darn it! So there’s nothing new to report there. I plan to find some time this week to do some interior painting and flooring.

I forgot to pick a winner for the Coercion  giveaway. So sorry! The winner is Karen. Congratulations, Karen! I’ve sent you an email.

Must include a flower photo, as it won’t be long until I have no more flowers to share with you.

9-18 hollyhocks

My surprise hollyhock is still blooming. What a gift this plant has been! Hollyhocks aren’t annuals here and this one was self-seeded, so I’m not counting on seeing it next year. But who knows? Some seeds may find their way into another garden bed. That’s the wonder of gardening, isn’t it?

Happy Friday.

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Recovering

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9-17 butterfly bloom

This is the only photo I have for you, friends.

There’s been no time and I have no energy. I made it through the day yesterday on about 3 hours of sleep. I’m glad I went – the meeting was a good one – but it took every bit of energy I had to be coherent and articulate while sucking on cough drops, trying to thwart any annoying coughing fits.

I took an earlier bus so that I wouldn’t be late this time and even then, the trip was 2½ hours rather than 1½ hours. I usually don’t go in that early in the morning so I’m sure it was due to the morning rush hour. I left the bus station and walked the 14 blocks to the rehearsal studios where we had last week’s meeting. No one was there. After some texting back and forth, it turned out the meeting had been changed to another venue and I (along with another attendee) had not been informed of the change. That meant I had to walk another 24 blocks. I wasn’t a happy camper. But I shook it off when I finally arrived and we had a good and fruitful discussion.

I was well and truly fried by the end of the day.

But I got a good night’s sleep last night and that makes a world of difference. I’m still congested, still coughing, still under the weather, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks for all the great comments on yesterday’s post. I usually come home and reply to each and every one of them, but I was so exhausted that I simply couldn’t do it. Know that I read and enjoyed them. I wrote about the whole thing because I found it shady and deceptive and I wanted to alert any other potential readers who might make the same mistake I did.

More tomorrow when, hopefully, I’ll be feeling a lot better. Cross your fingers.

There’s a book review on Just Let Me Finish This Page today. I’m reviewing Dishing the Dirt  by M.C. Beaton. Click here.

Happy Thursday.

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A Bit of Chickanery

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9-16 zinnia

I’m (hopefully) off to NYC today, so I’m writing this post on Tuesday evening, as I have to get up at 5 am and get out the door by 6:15. No time to craft a post!

And I’m a wee bit cranky because I’m still not over this crappy ‘whatever’ that has taken over my head and chest. So, armed with a box of kleenex, cough syrup and cough drops, I’m off to spend a total of 3 hours on the bus and 3 hours in a meeting. Home will look pretty gosh darned good at the end of the day.

In the This Kind of Thing Really Ticks Me Off category:

The other day – Monday – Don was in NYC and I got out of my sickbed and drove to the grocery store to get some cough drops, etc. As I walked through the market, I saw the magazine rack. Now, you know I rarely buy magazines these days, but I spotted Flea Market Style, a magazine that I truly like.

A bit of back story: I hadn’t seen a new Flea Market Style in a while. I was aware of that somewhere in the recesses of my mind and, indeed, had seen Best of Flea Market Style  a month or so ago and didn’t bite. Those ‘Best of’ editions are always reprints of articles I’ve already read, with a hefty price tag to boot. I briefly wondered if it had been discontinued, as so many magazines have these days.

9-16 fleamarketstyle

Back to the magazine rack. I pulled out the magazine. Now I’m going to be totally honest with you. I knew I’d seen this particular photo before in a previous edition of the magazine. Whether it was on the cover or not, I wasn’t sure. But just to be safe, I peered down at the bottom of the magazine to see what the ‘display until…’ date was.

9-16 displayuntilNovember

Okay, I thought. That makes this current. Maybe they were recycling a photo for the cover? Now that I’m thinking more clearly (remember, I was sick) I realize how absurd that particular idea was. You can see the price: $9.95.

Sometimes, when you’re down and out, you just want a magazine to thumb through. And I’m not talking National Geographic. So I caved and bought it.

I got home, unpacked everything, made some hot chocolate and got out the magazine.

I quickly realized that if I had done more than a cursory examination of the magazine at the store, I would have realized that I had already read it.

I looked back at the cover.

9-16 reprintedbypopulardemand

And look what I saw.

Really? By popular demand? Were there thousands upon thousands of people clamoring for this particular edition?

Sounds very fishy.

Later, I googled the magazine and couldn’t see any recent editions available. (It was quarterly, if I remember correctly.) When I googled Ki Nassauer (the founder and editor) I now got this site: “KiNassauerStyle.” Hmmm. That lead me to her Facebook page where someone had asked a question about the availability of Flea Market Style  and was told that Ki was no longer associated with the magazine and was working on expanding her Junk Bonanza shows.

Which leads me to believe the magazine is no more.

This sort of thing speaks to something else I see a lot of in the magazine industry. Well-loved magazines suddenly cease publication; Country Home, Cottage Living, Flea Market Style (I presume.) Full disclosure: all magazines that I loved and mourn the loss of. Sooner or later, we see expensive editions of those magazines with heavy duty glossy covers and hefty price tags that are, in essence, filled with reprints of various articles from past editions of the magazine….you know, when it was actually being published. It’s apparently okay to decide to stop publishing those popular magazines despite disappointing subscribers and loyal readers, but the powers-that-be feel perfectly okay about milking that name recognition as long as they can. The first time the former publishers of Country Home  did that sort of thing, a lot of people were fooled into thinking it had resumed publication. Same thing with Cottage Living. And now we have The Best of Flea Market Style  and Flea Market Style (Reprinted by Popular Demand!)

If the potential reader is clear about the whole thing and then willingly makes the decision to buy a reprint or compilation of past articles, then fine. But if there’s a bit of the flimflam? That’s not so nice.

Yes, they did say it was ‘reprinted’ and if I’d been sharper that day, I might have seen that. But I wasn’t and I felt tricked when I fell for the whole thing. And let’s face it, it was in small print at the bottom of the magazine – on purpose. (I used my macro setting to get that shot, that’s how small it was.)

I was curious, so I looked for it and found the original – from 2011.

9-16 original

The original was Country Decorating Ideas #121.

The reprint is Country Decorating Ideas #175.

Exact same contents except for some updated ads.

From a not-very-happy consumer.

Happy Wednesday.

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Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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