Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Signs of Spring

April 4, 2015 at 9:31 am by Claudia

4-4 redsox&eggs

An iPhone/Instagrammy photo that captures this beginning of April: fabric Easter eggs and the Red Sox. Opening Day of the baseball season is tomorrow. The Red Sox are looking good this year. We’ve already watched a few exhibition games during Spring Training. Oh baseball, I love you. Welcome back!

I walked out to the leaf covered big garden bed the other day and uncovered a small area just to assure myself that something is happening out there:

4-4 sedum

I knew I could count on the sedum – always the first to show new growth. I keep the leaves on the garden beds until there’s no danger of below freezing temperatures. I’m hoping that will be in the next week. We have almost two acres here and there are woods and lots of trees and dead leaves and fallen branches and several garden beds to clean up. Brambles have to be cut back – ouch.

All the stones (called Item 4, for some reason) from our driveway that the snow blower propelled onto the grass need to be put back where they belong. That, by the way, is one of the most painstaking and irritating jobs there is in early spring. Last year, Don and I sat out by the driveway with pails by our sides, gathering up all the rocks that weren’t where they were supposed to be. And that was before we had our own snowblower that had to be used several times this winter. This year, there are even more rocks on the lawn, rocks on the patio, rocks in the garden. I used to rake them up, and I still do as much of that as I can, but last year I enlisted Mr. Sparks in the whole thing and I’m going to do that again this year.

Someday, we want to pave the driveway. Most people around here, however, have the same kind of driveway we do – part of country living, I guess.

It’s a quiet weekend around here. We have no big plans. We watched The Wizard of Oz  last night on TCM. Glorious. And, after decades of watching it, I still worry when I don’t see Toto in a shot. Where is he? Is he okay? Did he run off with Dorothy unaware that he’s missing? Then, he’ll suddenly come into the shot from offstage and I relax. Don understands, bless him. He knows I worry about that sort of thing.

What are your plans for today?

Happy Saturday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Filed Under: baseball, garden, movies, red sox 39 Comments

Scout and The Bath & Some Gifts

April 3, 2015 at 8:55 am by Claudia

4-3 scout bored 2

Bored, Miss Scout?

This is the view I had as I came down the stairs yesterday.

To be fair, it was a beautiful day out there, with temperatures in the sixties. We haven’t seen that around here since last autumn. All that sun and warmth made me want to get up and do things! Scout felt the same way. So her dad took her on a walk later that afternoon, where she did her little gallop and enjoyed being out in the spring weather.

Don had a gig last night and I took a nice long bath. But somehow Dame Scout, who I thought was sleeping peacefully, found out I was in the bath and came in to tell me she had to go outside and take care of some urgent business. So there I was, getting out of the bath, wrapping a towel around myself, and running to the door to let her out. Afterwards, I slipped back into the tub, added some hot water, grabbed my book and settled into my bubble bath. However, Scout felt she needed to monitor my bath and proceeded to come into the bathroom, check out the little basket of trash, sniff my pajamas, walk over to the tub for a pet, go back out the door – about 20 times.

Oh, that girl. She makes me laugh. Nearly 16½ years old and she’s still full of the devil.

I stopped by the post office yesterday and there was one of those wonderful little cards in my box telling me that I had a package waiting for me. Susie of She Junks, a lovely reader of this blog, sent me a present.

4-3 eggcup & Trinket dish

A beautiful egg cup with a rooster, edged in gold on the rim and the base. Marked: Japan. I love it. It’s so petite and pretty! She also included the lovely wooden trinket dish which was made by her husband Ted. Do you believe it? I can’t believe he made this lovely dish!

That’s not all.

4-3 jumping jack

A jumping jack for Don’s collection! He’s very happy to have a new member of the jumping jack family, Susie.

Thank you so much, Susie. You made our day here at Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I continue to be amazed by the generosity of my readers, who are, indeed, my friends. Thank you.

Happy Friday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

Filed Under: egg cups, Fellow bloggers, gifts, Scout 25 Comments

Fabric Easter Eggs & Why Isn’t There a Good Quilt Shop Around Here?

April 2, 2015 at 9:26 am by Claudia

So far, the day is starting off with a bang.

A (mostly) sleepless night.

On arising and opening my email: an alert from the bank. My checking account balance was much lower than I thought, due to a miscalculation on my part. All is well, but the higher balance I thought  I had would have been preferable on this Thursday morning.

The constant sound of a truck backing up – beep, beep, beep – from the distillery that is down the road from us. I might add that it wasn’t in existence when we moved here. Yes, I’ve complained, to no avail.

I do very little seasonal decorating, but I was inspired to pull out the fabric Easter eggs I made several years ago. They’re now sitting on the coffee table in the den.

4-2 fabric eggs 1

I had been working away from home for a long stretch of time – in San Diego. My friend Ingrid, who is a costumer, let me use her Singer Featherweight while I was in town. Obviously, this was before I bought Mabel but I ended up buying Mabel because I fell in love with Ingrid’s Featherweight. I filled a lot of time with that machine and ended up making two quilt tops and these eggs. The fabric egg tutorial is from Retro Mama.

4-2 fabric eggs 2

I figure we need some sort of Easter eggs around here.

4-2 fabric eggs 3

I wish there was a good quilt fabric store around here. There used to be one in Woodstock, but they moved even further upstate. There was also one just over the border in Connecticut, but the owner just retired and closed the shop. Online is fine and I’ve certainly ordered fabric that way. But there’s nothing better than being in a room full of bolts of fabric, looking at it in the daylight, pulling this bolt and that bolt….you know what I mean? Just like buying a book in an actual bookstore is preferable to ordering online from a mega-retailer. You get to see the book and hold it in your hands.

I miss looking at fabric. And Joann’s? No. Doesn’t work for me.

When I was living in San Diego, I went to Rosie’s Calico Cupboard constantly. It wasn’t far from where I lived. It’s a huge quilt shop, with so much fabric that it’s almost overwhelming. Oh, Rosie’s, I miss you. (I took my first quilting class there.)

Okay. I’m getting whiney. Off to make more coffee.

(The aqua bowl is Orange Tree, a vintage pattern that was made by Homer Laughlin.)

Happy Thursday.

ClaudiaSignature140X93

 

Filed Under: Easter, fabric, quilting 37 Comments

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Welcome!

Welcome!

I live in a little cottage in the country with my husband. It's a sweet place, sheltered by old trees and surrounded by gardens. The inside is full of the things we love. I love to write, I love my camera, I love creating, I love gardening. My decorating style is eclectic; full of vintage and a bit of whimsy.

I've worked in the theater for more years than I can count. I'm currently a voice, speech, dialect and text coach freelancing on Broadway, off Broadway, and in regional theater.

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Scout & Riley. Riley left us in 2012. Scout left us in February 2016. Dearest babies. Dearest friends.

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