Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

  • About MHC
    • Disclosure
  • Dollhouses/Minis
    • Hummingbird Cottage
    • The Studio (Formerly TSP)
    • Dove Cottage
    • The Lake House
    • The Folk Art Dollhouse
    • The Modern Dollhouse
    • The Beacon Hill Dollhouse
    • Dollhouse Source List, Information and Tutorials
  • On the Road
  • Collecting
    • Roseville Pottery
    • McCoy Pottery
    • Egg Cups
    • Bakelite
  • Press
  • Privacy Policy

A Favorite Thing Saturday #6

October 5, 2012 at 8:00 pm by Claudia

How can it be week number six of A Favorite Thing! But it is. So let’s look back at some of the contributions of week number five.

Haworth shared Mr. Tyger, a gift to her during a hospital stay. Mr. Tyger is beautiful and formidable and Haworth adorns him in his crown and a ring of holly during the holidays. Late winter brings some decoration in the form of Mardi Gras beads.

Becky is over-the-moon about her new laminate floors. I don’t blame her. After years of carpet, her beautifully decorated home looks even more beautiful, if that’s possible!

And Sarah writes about her Peanut Bird. The Peanut Bird used to belong to her father-in-law – whenever he wanted peanuts, he would go to the pantry and bring the bird out. Years later, it came to live in Sarah’s house and is now proudly displayed on her baker’s rack, bringing back wonderful memories of a beloved father-in-law.

———————————————————————————

This week I want to share another Favorite Thing with you. But do I dare to call him a thing? Oh no!

Meet our beloved Monty. Isn’t he handsome? Monty came to us when we first moved out east. We were living in a small hamlet and often went to another small town on the Hudson River to go antiquing. One shop, an adorable shop, that unfortunately didn’t last very long, had some of these cows on display. Each one was slightly different and I was entranced. So was Don. This guy with that innocent, slightly hang dog look, wormed his way into our hearts and we took him home.

‘Mont’ were the first four letters of the hamlet we lived in, so the name Monty was born.

I ask you, could you resist that face? He usually lives in the den, but I brought him out to the living room where the light was better. He told me he likes this stool and might he please stay here for a while?

Of course.

Now, it’s your turn!

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.

Enjoy and have fun!



Filed Under: A favorite thing 36 Comments

What I’m Loving Today

October 5, 2012 at 9:23 am by Claudia

 

Threaded Comments – I love having the ability to respond to your comments right away. Sometimes we even get a conversation going! It’s like you are right here in the room with me and we’re having a cup of tea or, in my case, hot chocolate and we’re having the nicest chat. Yay!

My new Facebook Page – Much to my surprise, I’m already enjoying the FB page and the dialogue that’s happening there. Who knew? I have a love/hate thing going with Facebook. I have a personal page and I usually check in on FB once a day, if only to say happy birthday to one of my friends. Since a lot of my friends are theater friends or former students, many of whom don’t even know I have a blog, my identity there has always been blog-free. (Every once in a while, Don would post something about my blog being featured in a magazine, but really, that was the extent of it.)

The new page is fun! Drop by, if you have a chance. Here’s the link. I hate the word ‘like’ in conjunction with the page, but when in Rome….

If you are inclined to like the page, please do!

These rather new-to-me blogs:

Going Home to Roost – Wonderful photography, projects, recipes, diy, you name it – all shared by the author, Bonnie.

A Cup of Jo – Written by Joanna Goddard who lives in NYC, it’s full of great information.

My Heart’s Song – Geneva and her husband moved out of their big suburban house and renovated a double-wide mobile home (what is now called a manufactured home.) The results are amazing. I admit to a huge fascination with this movement. Don and I would love to be debt-free someday, though it seems like an impossible dream at the moment, and I’m fascinated with the idea of buying one of these and putting our own stamp on it.

Scouting NY -If you love NYC, as I do, this blog, written by a movie location scout, will be absolutely fascinating. There’s so much history here. I’ve got Don hooked on it, too.

Head Butler – One of my favorite writers, Jessie Kornbluth, writes this blog. His aim is to be sort of a ‘cultural concierge’ and he writes about books, movies, music and life. Consequently, I discover all sorts of wonderful things I might not know of otherwise.

These e-Magazines:

Heart and Home magazine – This magazine is published via Great Britain. Love it.

Covet Garden – My absolute favorite. This is a Canadian publication. What I love about it is that it spotlights one person/family/couple and the way they live. The design is usually quirky, not too staged and the interviews are lengthy. One of my pet peeves about decorating magazines is that often the information about the people living in a space is way too short. The other is that sometimes a certain object or room is referred to, let’s say a vintage stove, yet there is no photo of it. Covet Garden, bless them, does it differently. And better.

And these:

More yarn arrived yesterday. That means more scarves for the Etsy shop!

This book. Oh my! I’m reviewing it on Monday.

I’ll be back at 8:00 pm EST for A Favorite Thing. See you then.

Happy Friday.

Filed Under: blog, blogging, books, crochet, etsy 26 Comments

Serendipitous

October 4, 2012 at 9:12 am by Claudia

Do you love a good story?

I have one for you.

A month or so ago, I was at our local grocery store, or rather, in the parking lot walking toward the store. A woman called out to me and asked me if she could share something with me. I said sure. Turns out I remind her of her mother; we both have longish graying hair, we look somewhat alike and we drive the exact same model and year of car (and my car, you remember, is 11 years old.) She had often seen me driving around town and would be certain she was seeing her mother but would then realize that, no, it was that other woman. This had happened many times. So she was glad to finally meet the other woman and introduce herself. We had a lovely conversation in the parking lot and I met her son, who was with her.

I like meeting people and I loved that story. I came home and shared it with Don.

Like many of you, I often start reading a blog which leads me to another blog which leads me to another blog and that’s the way I often find a lovely, new blog that I bookmark. I’ve found several lately. Yesterday, my friend Heidi left me a note on my personal facebook page with a link to a blog she thought I would like. I recognized the name of the blog because it was one of those recently bookmarked blogs. So I wrote Heidi back and told her I knew of the blog. She said the author was local. Really? I said. For some reason I thought the author was from someplace else, probably because she talked about visiting the Luckett’s store in Virginia. It turns out that Heidi meant local as in someone who lives in our very small town.

Well, I thought, how interesting! I will trot right on over to that blog and leave a comment introducing myself. Hi, I said, Heidi told me you’re a local blogger. So am I. It’s nice to meet you. And I left a link to my blog.

I almost immediately got a return comment. It said (I’m paraphrasing)...Um, Claudia? I’ve just gone over to your blog and seen your picture….do you remember a strange woman who approached you in the parking lot and told you how much you resemble her mother? That was me. It is a very small world. And I recognize your house. I could throw a rock and hit it, we live so close. We are neighbors!

I admit to a gasp or two. I looked at her photo which shows a short hair cut. When I met her, it was longer. It may still be. But yes, I could see that it was my friend from the parking lot.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Then I got obsessed with figuring out where she lived. If she lived that close to me, where exactly was it? She has a photo of her barn on a recent post. I studied it.

Bingo. I suddenly had an idea where she lived, which, if I was right, was around the corner from me. You understand I’m not talking about a suburban street here, but down the road and around the corner. When I told Don about it, his response was ‘Let’s hop in the car and look!’ So I looked at the barn photo once more, memorized it, and we drove off in the dusk of the evening.

I was right.

Her land backs up to our property. She lives in one of my favorite houses around here, one I’ve always admired.

She’s been blogging for six months and writes about home, garden, vintage – the sort of things I write about.

She has great style. The name of her blog is Breida with a B. Stop by and visit. She wrote about this same thing today.

It’s funny how you can meet someone, have a conversation, but have absolutely no idea that person is a blogger. Like you.

I’ve met bloggers who live far away from me. But to find one that lives around the corner from me? In my little town? What are the odds?

Serendipity.

————————————————

By the way, for those of you who want to see a photo of me with my new haircut, just look at my photo on the sidebar. That’s what it looks like. My hair grows very quickly and I had let it go throughout the time I was nursing Riley. I had 4 inches taken off and it now looks normal again.

On another note, I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming to the point where I finally established a Facebook Page for Mockingbird Hill Cottage. I have stayed away from this in the past because I felt I had enough to handle already and that adding yet another something I had to keep up-to-date was simply too much for this particular blogger. But I’m trying to grow my blog and some of you, along with many of those in the know, have suggested this. So, I did it. I don’t have a widget yet, but you can get there by clicking on the f under Contact on my sidebar. Or click here.

Would you do me a favor and click Like? The more of you who ‘like’ my page, the better!

Oh, I’ve been busy. Crocheting, sleuthing, meeting, creating, gasping.

Happy Thursday.

Filed Under: blog, blogging 65 Comments

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 1461
  • 1462
  • 1463
  • 1464
  • 1465
  • …
  • 1843
  • Next Page »
  • Email
  • Instagram

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.

Thanks for stopping by.

Searching?

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.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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.

Disclosure/Privacy Policy can be found in the Navigation Bar under ‘About MHC.’

Also, I love receiving comments! I do, however, reserve the right to delete any comment that is in poor taste, offensive or is verging on spam. It’s my blog. If you’re a bot or a troll you’ll be blocked. Thanks!

Archives

All Content © 2008 - 2026 Mockingbird Hill Cottage · Log in