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Shutters

February 3, 2011 at 8:38 am by Claudia

When I’m not in the city, this is my schedule: get up, drink coffee in flannel pjs, put on old clothes and don’t take a shower yet because I will be shoveling, shovel, come back in the house, go back out and shovel some more, work on dollhouse, shovel some more, come in and take a shower. By this time it’s 4:00, so I put my pajamas back on and drink hot chocolate.

And there you have it.

I have to post this quickly as I am going back to Manhattan today. I painted shutters yesterday and glued them on in the evening.

What do you think? I’m really happy with the result. Now I am thinking about the new door and what color it should be….decisions, decisions.

Hope everyone has recovered from the ‘snow event.’

I’m Over it

February 1, 2011 at 11:25 am by Claudia

Looks like the birdbath will soon be totally covered in snow. I have had it. I woke up to at least 5 inches already on the ground with many more to come. We will have well over a foot more of snow by the end of the day tomorrow. I just started rehearsals yesterday and now I can’t get in again until Thursday or Friday. It’s too dangerous. Fortunately, my work doesn’t require me to be there every day. But I constantly have to think ahead and create a schedule that accomodates this endless, endless snow.

Look, I know I’m not the only one who is sick to death of this stuff. But let me whine a little. It has really impacted our lives. We’ve had to cancel or rearrange so many things since this all started on December 26th. I’ve really never seen anything like it. It’s depressing. I try to stay positive, but let me tell you, today is a day I just can’t get there. We’re struggling with a lot of worries right now, but somehow I think they might seem a bit less daunting if we could just catch a break with this weather.

That being said, those of you in the Midwest are really getting walloped. Please stay safe, stay off the roads, and be careful. My thoughts are with you.

And, I can’t seem to get a good photo of the dollhouse. I’m not sure why – whether it is a combination of the white color or the lighting in the den or something else. I’ve played and played with my settings this morning. I am frustrated! If any of you photographers have a suggestion or two, would you be so kind as to leave a comment? I’d so appreciate it. I’ve shut the blinds, opened the blinds, turned off the lamps, turned on the lamps, played with white balance, aperture, ISO – this was the best of the lot.

My order arrived yesterday from an online miniatures site. Can you see that the dollhouse is sitting on my new turntable? I love it. It will make working on it so much easier! My new shutters arrived as well. The shutters that I had on hand weren’t tall enough, so I’ve been using them to test some paint colors.

I started out with the turquoise on the right, but I think it is too bright. I added some gray to it and came up with the color on the left. I could just go with gray shutters, but I think that would be too matchy-matchy with the roof. What do you think?

I suppose I can paint some shutters today, when I’m not shoveling. And I will be shoveling most of the day. These are the times that I need to be reminded why we moved here from San Diego. At the moment, I have no idea why we made that decision. But yes, I know that come Springtime, I’ll remember exactly why we moved here.

Porch Club

January 31, 2011 at 7:12 am by Claudia

I’m joining my friend Jill of Gypsy Brocante at her first Porch Club. I grew up in a very small bungalow that housed our family of 6. Thank goodness it had a porch. Summer evenings were often spent on the porch, saying hello to neighbors, reading a book or watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. I then spent many years without a porch – in dorms and a series of apartments. When my husband and I rented a house in San Diego that had a porch, I realized how much I had missed having one. So when we finally bought our first home – this cottage – a big selling point was the porch that wrapped around 2 sides of the house. It’s a sizeable porch and it becomes another room in the summertime. The floor is made of bluestone.

Our old, rusty glider is covered in cushions and you’ll often find me there, reading or playing with the dogs.

There are hanging plants and potted plants everywhere.

It’s one of my favorite places and I like to sit there and watch the world go by.

As I look at these photos, I am only too aware that our 8th major snowstorm is on its way later in the week. It’s hard to believe that it will ever look like this again. I pondered the idea of posting a snowy photo of the porch…but I think I prefer to think of it this way.

I’ll be gone all day Monday working in Manhattan – it promises to be a 13 hour day! So I will be a little late visiting everyone. But I’ll be around, I promise.

Shutters

I’m Over it

Porch Club

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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