Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 1272 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

A Late Spring

April 30, 2014 at 8:35 am by Claudia

I’m thinking that Spring is about three weeks behind this year. If I didn’t know what date it was, I would assume it was the beginning, rather than the end, of April. A long, hard winter and a late-in-coming spring. Yesterday? Rain. Today? More rain. I do take comfort in the fact that we will reap the benefits of all that moisture, whether snow or rain, in lushness of growth.

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This is the large garden bed. I took this photo yesterday. Last fall, when I was away in Hartford, a huge maple limb came down in a storm and fell on the garden. It stretched all the way across the middle of the bed.

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You can see the sawdust that still remains – a remnant of all the chainsaw activity the day after the storm. It was late September when I returned home, so I had no idea what plants might have been destroyed because of the damage. This perennial bed has been lovingly established over the past eight years and the thought of losing any of the plants made me very sad.

The good news is it looks like all is well. I can see the beginnings of most everything that was in the path of that limb. Time will tell, but it looks better than I thought it would.

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The hyacinths (mystery bulbs that I found deeply buried in one of the other garden beds) are gorgeous this year.

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My Annabelle hydrangea, ever reliable, is leafing out.

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Sedum Autumn Joy, long established when we moved here, is blessing us with its beauty.

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The lilacs are ready to open. (The blue tarp around our chimney is protecting us from leaks until we can scape together the money to repair it.)

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We’ve been doing a lot of bramble clearing and we have the wounds to prove it. What a pain in the tush – and the arms and the legs! We were clearing some of the brambles that are near the shed when I noticed this young tree, which was about to be overwhelmed by those pesky, thorny branches. I’m happy to say it has been freed. Does anyone know what kind of tree this is? The leaves are the maroon color of a Japanese or Norway Maple, but it is neither. I have a tree book somewhere around here and I’m determined to solve this mystery!

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And the weigela bush (it’s not a tree), like clockwork, has beautiful buds ready to open. I love this bush.

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Aren’t they beautiful?

I spent most of the day on Monday outside, clearing out garden beds, cutting back lavender plants near the kitchen, neatening up the stone edge that surrounds all the beds, pulling weeds.

I am passionate about gardening. I love it all, but I especially love perennial gardening. It takes patience. It’s not an instant garden. But one of the great joys of living here after years and years of apartment living and/or house renting has been the opportunity to create my very own gardens. The only bed that was established when we moved here was right next to the house and that area had only a few hostas and sedums. Everything else I’ve added over time. The beds now stretch from the driveway to the far side of the house, from the chicken wire fence to the shed. I love my gardens and I’m proud of them.

I wrote a post in 2012 called: Why I love Having a Perennial Garden. You might find it interesting.

Gardening, that meditative and peaceful process, takes me to another place where I lose all sense of time, which makes it the perfect activity during this period of mourning. It offers some respite from my grief.

It’s too early to plant seeds – that is at least another week away. But we did plant some wildflower seeds in an area to the left of the shed. I hope they take root. Our plan is to call it Shirley’s Wildflower Garden in honor of my mother. Cross your fingers.

On another, seemingly endless, note: Those of you who subscribe to this blog may have noticed a lack of posts lately. But in reality, except for Friday and Saturday of last week, I have been posting every day. This problem is due to Yahoo and AOL making changes in an effort to stop spam or spoof emails. I subscribe to this blog via Yahoo, AOL and Gmail and the only consistent delivery lately has been through Gmail, though I did get the post via AOL yesterday. I’ll say it again. Bookmark the blog. Visit directly. (Quite frankly, when you visit the blog directly, it helps my ad income.) Or subscribe through Bloglovin’. I’ve seen a few posts on how to fix this problem but the jury’s out as to whether it will work. So I’m not doing anything until I know, for sure, that the problem will be solved and that I’m not creating another problem in the meantime.

I’ve written about this several times but I’m still getting messages from some of you saying you haven’t received my posts lately. I can’t make you bookmark the blog’s URL or subscribe through Bloglovin’ but if you don’t, you probably won’t receive any updates. It’s up to you, my friends. I would sure hate for you to miss anything!

And finally, the winner of a copy of My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag…and Other Things You Can’t Ask Martha is Janet in Rochester. Congratulations, Janet! I’m sending you an email.

Happy Wednesday.

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Evolution of the Dollhouse – Part 2

April 29, 2014 at 9:34 am by Claudia

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What to do with this? Gaps in the seams, water damaged floors, dingy walls, unfinished staircases?

First of all, two coats of primer. Then, everything was covered with paint in whatever white I had on hand. I follow the same rule as the one I use in my real house: use what you have on hand, if at all possible.

I did so much research. Like many of you who are working on your own dollhouses, I scoured catalogs, read how-tos, looked at tutorials. Then I just went for it. (I’m trying to re-create the exact order in which I did the various parts of the renovation. That’s when having a blog comes in handy – I have the facts and figures right at my fingertips!)

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I decided to tackle the stairs first. I suppose I could have gone with the stairs as they were, but that was too modern for this dollhouse. So I ordered spindles, railings and newel posts. All were painted white. Then I fiddled with them, gluing the spindles onto the stairs, one by one, hoping I cut the railing accurately, adding the newel post. (Once again, I’m dealing with photos taken by my older camera, so bear with me. Oh, what a difference a good camera makes – especially with a dollhouse.)

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It worked! Since I was tackling the stairs, which were in the living room and den, I concentrated on those two rooms. After ordering some more spindles – I ran out – I did the stairs leading from the den to the bedroom next. This was the first really painstaking work I did on the dollhouse and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pull it off. So it was a little triumph when I did.

Floors were up next. I had this idea rattling around in my head. Rather than buy a sheet of faux wood flooring (not there is anything wrong with that) I wondered if I could make my own wood floors. Popsicle sticks? Coffee stirrers? So I did some research and found a couple of miniaturists who had done that very thing in their dollhouses. A valuable piece of information surfaced: stain and/or paint the sticks before gluing them down. If you paint them after gluing them down, they can warp.

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I ended up choosing narrow popsicle/craft sticks that I found at Michael’s – coffee stirrers were too narrow. I cut the rounded ends of each stick, then painstakingly stained each one. When I had stained several sticks, I played around with them on the living room floor.

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It was going to work. This was a long process, cutting, fitting, trimming and gluing. But what a difference it made. I really, really loved the look. By the way, I added that piece of wood in the corner to cover up a gap in the seam. I did that same thing in most every room of the dollhouse.

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I cannot tell you how excited I was when this floor was finished. I wanted old, slightly worn, beautiful floors and I got them. I did the exact same thing in the den. Same stain (walnut, I believe), same look.

Then I decided to take a stab at what would be the kitchen. I wanted something different there, so I changed the direction of the wood sticks and painted them white with some gray dry brushed on top of the white.

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I wasn’t entirely sure this would work. (Again, sorry for the photo quality.) The floor underneath was warped from water damage. But I reserved judgement because I had a feeling that when I started to add in the kitchen fittings, wallpaper and trim, it would look just as I had envisioned. I wanted the look of a floor that was very old and was preserved by the new owner, who appreciates old and vintage.

The next post in the series will cover choosing wallpaper and trim in the kitchen, living room and den.

If you’re interested in a tutorial on laying a wood floor in your dollhouse, visit my post How to Make a Hardwood Floor for Your Dollhouse.

Update on me: I’m hanging in there. But it’s been very, very hard, of course. This morning found me crying once again. And Dad seemed very fragile yesterday. My heart breaks for him. He took flowers to the nursing home to thank everyone for the loving care they gave my mom. It was his first time visiting since the day before my mom died. He even went into her old room to introduce himself to the woman who is now occupying her bed. Very brave and very giving. But, of course, it drove home the reality that she is gone. And that left him shaken to the core.

My dear friend, Darko Tresnjak, the Artistic Director of Hartford Stage and the man I have worked alongside on twelve productions, both there and at the Old Globe, was nominated for a Tony Award today! His direction of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder garnered a nomination. The musical itself has ten nominations, the most nominations of any production this year. My friends and colleagues, Linda Cho and Alexander Dodge, are also nominated for costume design and scenic design. I’m thrilled for all of them.

Happy Tuesday.

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Thank Goodness for the Dollhouse

April 28, 2014 at 10:04 am by Claudia

In the days since Mom’s death, I’ve found pockets of time to work on the dollhouse. Having a creative release has helped a great deal. On Wednesday, some items that I ordered from Carrie Lavender’s Etsy shop arrived. I also tweaked a couple of the items that Karen sent, as well as some things I had on hand.

Would you like to see them?

This will be a picture heavy post. I had a lot of things saved up to show you.

Do you remember this dress form? It was one of the treasures Karen sent me.

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It is made out of plastic and was missing the spindle/pole that extended from the base to the form itself. It needed some tweaking.

Here it is now:

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I thought the wire frame was too long, so I checked some photos of vintage dress forms that I found online. Sure enough, it was. So I cut off the bottom part of the frame. Then I used some silver Rub n’ Buff on the frame and base. After many attempts to make some sort of pole, I found that the wooden part of a Q-tip worked rather nicely. Then I found some linen fabric upstairs in my stash and fashioned the bodice of the form. That took some fiddling!

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And there it is in the studio/office, right next to the cutting table. Do you see that miniature tape measure on the table? From Carrie Lavender’s Etsy shop – A LavenderDilly Miniatures. Eeek! It’s so cute!

One of the tweaks I performed on Saturday was that shutter you see on the left.

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It’s the perfect place for the owner to stash notes she has received, post cards from vacations, or any sort of reminder.

Once I did that, I came up with another idea.

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I had this piece left over from a Michael’s hutch that I took apart. (The other piece that is just like this one is on the mantle.) The vintage wallpaper that I backed it with is a scrap that Elyse sent me. It will be a pinboard for the lady of the house. She’ll find it valuable as she works from this table.

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Added to the kitchen: the graniteware pots and pans came from Karen, the cutting boards came from Carrie Lavender, the enamel pans and cookie sheets also came from Carrie Lavender and the cake is from Karen. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but the tea towel is from Norma.

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An Aubusson rug for the living room – from Carrie Lavender.

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The flatware with cream colored handles – from Carrie Lavender.

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Another Aubusson rug for the bathroom – from Carrie Lavender. (Can you tell I am in love with her shop?)

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A close-up of the enamel baking pans and sheets. Incredible.

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There was some silverware in the box from Karen, so I made some dividers for one of the drawers.

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I added some posters to the walls of the potting shed – a butterfly chart and a botanical drawing that I found online and printed:

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I also made those seed packets.

A new Greengate tea towel from Carrie Lavender:

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And finally, I tweaked the unfinished wardrobe that you see in the very first photo (from Karen.) I’m still not entirely happy with it and I’ll be working on it some more.

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I want some of the furniture to be shabby, aged and slightly funky. And just like in my real house, I avoid matchy-matchy. I want the furniture to look like it’s been found a piece at a time.

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I wallpapered the inside.

And then I had to rearrange the bedroom of course.

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The mirror is also from Karen.

Whew! Truthfully, my friends, this kind of work kept me grounded during the past five days. It gave me a very much needed outlet, enabling me to lose myself in the creative process. In a sorrowful time, working on the dollhouse gave me joy. Thank goodness.

There are still problems with the email delivery of my posts, but I’ve found out it really isn’t due to Feedburner, but to a change that has been made by Yahoo and AOL and that most likely will be made by others in the future. To make a long story short, the emails never get to you because they are bounced right back by Yahoo and AOL – as if they were spam. There is a fix that I’m working on. I just haven’t had the time yet. But hang in there. Hopefully, it will work.

I’ll be back with another Evolution of the Dollhouse post tomorrow.

Happy Monday.

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A Late Spring

Evolution of the Dollhouse – Part 2

Thank Goodness for the Dollhouse

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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