Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 1548 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

One of Our Favorite Places

January 21, 2012 at 9:00 am by Claudia

Yesterday, we went on a little drive.

It had snowed a little overnight. There will be a lot more on the ground today – we’re expecting 6 inches.

We crossed the Hudson River.

Truly beautiful.

We ended up at our final destination:

Pardon our excitement but we found a Trader Joe’s just a bit closer to our house (it’s still an hour away) and much easier to get to. And it’s bigger!

The thing is, Trader Joe’s has such great prices, a trip every 2 or 3 weeks is worth it. We save a lot of money. And frugal is the word for 2012.

I also can buy these pretties for a few dollars.

Fresh flowers are simply a necessity in winter. Especially when snow is in the forecast, along with shoveling.

Fresh flowers, a mug of hot chocolate and some crocheting.

That’s the ticket.

Made in…

January 20, 2012 at 9:55 am by Claudia

Good morning on this wintry Friday. We got a little snow last night, about half an inch or so, with a bit more to come tonight. No big storm yesterday – just a quiet, pretty snowfall in the evening.

So far, so good.

We’re a sleepy bunch this morning. Riley has yet to get up to attend to business. I’m in my flannel pajamas, wrapped in a shawl, drinking my morning Peet’s. Scout’s in the ‘tunnel.’

Note pink flannel pajamas on the left.

I wore those pajamas all day yesterday, except for when I returned the rental car. I figured it might not be a good idea to arrive at the rental counter in pink flannel.

The trip to New Haven went well, but oh, was I exhausted! Not enough sleep the night before, lots of driving and a very late arrival back home at the cottage. I arrived in New Haven about an hour and a half before curtain, so I went to IKEA. It’s right next door and I needed some dinner and the food is good, but more importantly, it’s cheap. I called Don to say I arrived safely, played around with my iPhone and, after dinner, took a quick walk through the store.

I bought these:

The cost was about a dollar per glass. The pale colors drew me in and they’re nice and tall. We’ve managed to break every tall glass around here, leaving us with something close to a juice-style glass in size (also from IKEA) and some plastic crap. I figured these were a good investment. Why only 3?

I don’t know. I truly don’t know what I was thinking.

But here’s an interesting discovery:

IKEA of Sweden.

Made in China.

Is everything being made in China now? It sure seems that way.

Call me crazy, but perhaps the lack of jobs in this country and other countries might be greatly improved if we started manufacturing our products at home. It’s not rocket science. It’s just common sense. Why aren’t we taking care of our own?

You can’t walk through Target or the dreaded Walmart or any other store without seeing ‘Made in China’ on most everything.

By the way, this sweet little Nisse from the Danish company, Maileg?

Made in China.

Just think what a difference it would mean to the economic picture of every country if jobs and manufacturing were brought back home. The lines of eager job applicants would stretch for miles. We could get our citizens back to work, help them become independent again. Unemployment payments would greatly decrease.

Why aren’t we doing this? Perhaps the need for cheap labor should be trumped by the needs of our country’s citizens.

I could write a treatise on this, but I won’t. At least for the moment.

I’ll leave you with this shot of the sun rising over our back forty.

Happy Friday!

Thrifty Living 2012

January 19, 2012 at 9:00 am by Claudia

We’re starting a new series today – Thrifty Living 2012.

In this series, there will be five women sharing the economic struggles they and their families face in their particular region.

Each week, one of us; Brenda, Claudia, Elaine, Jen and Diane, will be featured with a topic on how we are living more thriftily in the year 2012. The rest of us will provide our own paragraph or so on how we apply that thrifty tip to our own lifestyle.

We run the gamut. Brenda is the only single family household. Claudia and Don live with their two dogs in New York. Elaine has a small daughter and grown children in Southern California. Jen and her husband have just relocated to another part of Canada and are looking for their first house. Diane and her husband live in Florida and are retired.

My story:

This series calls for an honest appraisal of how the woeful economy has affected our lifestyles, so I will be as honest as I can, while still protecting my privacy.

My name is Claudia and I live with my husband and two dogs in upstate New York, about 75 miles northwest of Manhattan.

Ten years ago, I left my full-time position as an Associate Professor and Resident Vocal Coach for a well-known theater program to move East with my husband. He’s an actor who, after having spent all of his professional life on the West Coast, found that he was getting more work on the East Coast. I was suffering from teacher burnout. Don was turning 50 and we figured it was now or never. I started to do freelance work as a Voice coach for the theater and Don? Acting is always freelance.

Since our move, we have had the usual fluctuations in income that come when both wage earners are freelancers. But the past 2 years have been terrible for us. Acting work has dried up, thanks, in part, to Reality television. (More on that next week.) Don has found himself in the same boat as so many of his actor friends, actors who have worked professionally for 40 years, suddenly facing the fact that there is little, if any, work to be found.

My work comes and goes. Theaters have had cuts in funding. Budgets don’t always allow for a coach. Something has to go and it can’t be costumes and sets, can it?

We bought a house at the height of the real estate boom and now make hefty mortgage payments on a house that is not worth nearly the amount of our loan. We’re struggling to get by.

We’ve never lived anything close to a lavish lifestyle. Our lifestyle has been extremely moderate. But now? We are having to cut corners on essentials. Every month the mortgage payment has to be made and the bills paid and we cross our fingers and hope that this month we’ll have enough.

I’ll share more with you next week.

To read the introductions of the rest of the team, please visit:

Brenda of Cozy Little House

Elaine of Sunny, Simple Life

Jen of Muddy Boot Dreams

Diane of Lavender Dreams