Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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A Favorite Thing #11

November 9, 2012 at 8:00 pm by Claudia

Welcome, friends, to A Favorite Thing #11. I hope you’ve had a good week  – it’s certainly been an exciting one. As I write this 3 guys are down in my basement putting in a new boiler/furnace. The smell of solvents is so bad I had to take a walk outside for a while. So, though we are heating our home with portable heaters, we’ve had to resort to opening the windows, which sort of cancels out the heat, don’t you think?

Let’s look at some of last week’s highlights:

Brenda, of Cozy Little House, shared her new Strutting Rooster drawing. Brenda has a barnyard theme going on her mantel and this $6 find added another fun layer. Very nice, Brenda!

Pat, of Corn in my Coffee Pot, shared the Green Monster – her beloved computer, now all spiffily upgraded by her computer whiz brother. Same outside, all new inside. Don’t you love that green color?

Melanie, of Comfy House, shared her 3 babies with us – her rescued cats. Zippo arrived first and a pregnant Clementine arrived years later. Both of them showed up on their doorstep. Monkey was one of Clementine’s kittens. Aren’t they adorable?

Thanks so much for sharing your favorite things each week.

______________________________________________________________________________________

This week, my favorite thing is Baseball. Perhaps it’s because I’m in mourning now that the baseball season is over. I didn’t really fall in love with baseball until I was married, though I had attended some games in the past. When Don and I were living in San Diego, we started to watch the San Diego Padres. The ballpark was fairly close to our house so we went to see some games. Soon we were hooked. After we moved to the East Coast, we became Boston Red Sox fans. (I think I initiated that since I had lived and worked in Boston for several years.) We subscribed to MLB Extra Innings so that we wouldn’t miss a game. Through it all, we’ve also cheered for the Detroit Tigers (my hometown) the San Francisco Giants, the Rays and even the Mets. But never the Yankees! (Although we did go to a Yankees game in the old Yankee Stadium and had a great time.) Last year, for Don’s big birthday, I gave him tickets to a Red Sox/Yankees game at Fenway Park and we spent a wonderful day in Boston.

I miss you, baseball. I can’t wait for Spring Training. What the heck am I going to watch on television in the meantime?

Now it’s your turn! Share a favorite thing with us. By the way, some of you have asked about the red X that appears on your photo. It’s there so that you can delete your entry if you need to for some reason. It eliminates you having to contact me to edit your entry.

You can link up anytime from this evening through Sunday. Make sure you enter the URL of your post. If you’re unsure how to do that, just click on your post title after you’ve published it and copy the information in your browser address window. Come back here, paste the URL into your link entry and there you go! If you have any problems, drop me an email and I’ll help you out. Please link back to this blog on your post. That way, those that read your post and are interested in reading more can do so.

One of my concerns about link parties is that the very reason for them has somewhat gone by the wayside. They’ve become so big and there are so many of them that many bloggers don’t take the time to visit any of the other participants. Link parties are a way to meet new bloggers and share with each other and the only way to do that is to visit each other. So, please, take some time to visit everyone over the next few days. No rush. Stop by, introduce yourself, and leave a comment. It’s the neighborly thing to do. It’s also nice if you leave a comment here, as well.

 



Filed Under: A favorite thing 26 Comments

Sunset, Scarf & Scout (and Cold!)

November 9, 2012 at 9:15 am by Claudia

Oh boy. It’s friggin’ cold here this morning. I am currently wearing a wool cap, a shawl is draped around my shoulders and a quilt is draped around my lap. Yikes. Don threatened to take a picture of me in this get-up for my readers, but I squelched that idea. Our furnace/oil guy, Gino, gave us two space heaters to use and they are helping enormously but I’ve realized what a difference it makes when you have no heat coming up from the basement. Somehow the temperature in here seems much colder than yesterday morning when we still had some residual heat rising from the basement. The new boiler will be put in later today. It cannot come soon enough. It went down to 27° last night.

But even though this is a pain in the tush, it is nothing compared to what those who lost power during Sandy are going through. I just saw an update from one of my former students who lives in NJ with his wife and children. They are on their 11th day without power. 11 days. So I will shut my mouth now and cease complaining.

This was the view out my kitchen door last night. I was so intrigued by the cloud that is low on the horizon. Doesn’t it look like an angel’s wing? It was so beautiful. Far more beautiful than my camera could capture. I love sunsets. Winter sunsets seem to be even more extravagant in their beauty. Perhaps Mother Nature knows she needs to step up the color?

My favorite subject. Scout was in a playful mood here as we wrestled a bit on the living room rug. Oh that girl has such lively eyes. She will be 14 in January. How can that be? The other night, as it was snowing, I let her outside. I came back a few minutes later to see her frolicking in the snow: running around, pouncing, smiling. Thank goodness she still has a lot of puppy in her! I am totally besotted by her and always have been.

I’m missing Riley a lot lately. It’s been almost 3 months since we said goodbye to our boy. Remember the stories about Scout and Riley barking together? Scout would bark, then Riley would bark, then Scout would bark? Don and I would howl along with them. When I was playing with Scout the day this photo was taken, I started to howl. I hadn’t done that since Riley left us. She stopped her barking, gave me a surprised look and came over and licked me on the lips. When I did it again, she did the same thing. She knew. She misses her brother. So do I.

There’s a new scarf in the Etsy shop:

This one is in the softest wool and acrylic – really, it is so soft that even I (sensitive to wool) can wear it. Update: Sold Out. I’m starting another one later today.

I’ll be back later today – at 8:00 EST – for A Favorite Thing.

Happy Friday.

Filed Under: etsy, life, Scout 39 Comments

Featured and the Furnace

November 8, 2012 at 8:52 am by Claudia

Good morning! The good news is that we got very little snow. Just a smidgen. The bad news is that our furnace has stopped working. Oh joy. It’s very old and I’m very nervous that we may have reached the point where it has to be replaced.

Sometimes I miss the days when we could call our landlord. We’re waiting for Gino, our trusty oil and furnace guy, to check it out. I’m sitting here with a coat on over my flannel pajamas not-so-merrily typing away on my laptop.

I don’t know if you’ve discovered Jennifer Carroll’s blog, Celebrating Everyday Life, but it’s simply gorgeous. She is an amazingly creative woman. She owns an event planning company, she is a designer, a stylist, publishes a beautiful e-zine and designs beautiful printable paper products. Brenda and I discovered her blog a few months back and oohed and aahed over her wonderful sense of style.

I am honored to be featured today in Jennifer’s weekly series entitled {Blogs I love}. She wrote a lovely post about Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I would love it if you would stop by and read it. Thank you, Jennifer, for your generous feature and your kind words.

Okay. Gino is here and let’s see what he discovers. Cross your fingers for us. Update: The boiler is shot. Have to get a new one.

Happy Thursday.

 

Filed Under: Fellow bloggers, life 55 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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The Dogs

The Dogs

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

Winston - Our first dog. We miss you, sweetheart.

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Lambs Like to Party

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Thanks for visiting! Feel free to browse, read and enjoy. All content is my own; including photos and text. Please do not use anything on this site without permission.

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