Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Thursday Snapshots

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On the hook:

In the mail:

Hanging in the windows:

In my in box:

1. Scarf #4. I’ll show you photos of #3 and #4 later this week.

2. My Moo minicards. They are smaller than the usual business cards and are popular with artists and bloggers. I love mine. I picked a favorite photo for the front. On the back is my blog URL and email address.

3. The infamous Big Lots Bottle Brush Wreaths are hanging in the living room and kitchen windows. I wrote at least 2 posts last year about scouring the entire Big Lots store and scoring 4 of them. I love them. However, one of the wreaths in the kitchen keeps turning slightly to the right. After 3 days of trying to get it to hang straight, I have officially given up.

4. I’m being taunted. Right after I wrote about wanting a new camera, this showed up in my inbox. Both my cameras have come from B & H (simply the most fabulous camera-and-everything-else store in the world.) It’s as if they can read my thoughts. They also send me a coffee-table-sized catalog every year which is on my bedside table. I look at the pictures every night. Visualization. Oh, and this morning I was reading the NY Times online and there was an ad for a rebate on Canon cameras staring me in the face as I tried to read an article. I’m being taunted, I tell you.

How is your day today?

Pining for Pine

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Have I mentioned that one of my favorite scents in all the world is pine? It may even be my favorite. I have a long history with pine. I grew up in Michigan. Summer vacation for our family was a camping trip to the Pigeon River State Forest. We started out in tents, then eventually graduated to a pop-up camper, and by the time I was in high school we had a trailer/RV. As we neared the campground and I caught my first whiff of pine, I knew we were almost there. (I didn’t particularly like camping, but I loved that piney scent.)  In my college years I was a camp counselor in the northern Michigan woods – more pine. To my mind, it was absolute heaven to be surrounded by pine trees. To this day, whenever I get a whiff of pine, I relax and feel my shoulders drop.

When I lived in Philadelphia in my grad school days, Wanamakers carried this wonderful pine bath from Austria. I bought it and used it religiously. A hot bath with the scent of pine was the perfect way to relax after a long day.  When I moved to Boston, I found it for a while at Crabtree and Evelyn or Caswell Massey (one of those ‘C’ shops.) But no longer. I search for it whenever I travel. I miss it so much it hurts. If you ever run across some form of pine bath, let me know please!

We always have some form of pine scented candle in our house. The best, bar none, are the ones from Aunt Sadie’s Candles. It’s their “Tree in a Can.” Heidi sells them in her shop and they sell like hotcakes every year.  I usually stock up on them for the long winter ahead.

But this time of year, I get the real thing. Right in my home. There’s nothing better. That’s why we always have a real tree here at MHC. Pine heaven. I don’t want an artificial tree. I love picking out a tree at our favorite nursery and that each year’s tree is different in size and shape from all the others we’ve had in previous years. Every year we say, without fail, “This is the prettiest tree ever!” This year’s tree is particularly well-shaped.  Let me show you.

Oooh, it’s pretty. It’s covered in vintage ornaments, as well as some newer ornaments that look vintage, like my favorite bottle brush ornaments:

(this was on my photo blog, hence the different water mark.)
A perfectly shaped tree loaded with cherished ornaments and the scent of pine? I may just stay in the den for the rest of the holiday season.
Thank you so much for all your compliments on Don’s video. (If you haven’t seen it, just scroll down one post.) I hadn’t planned on being in it, but the filmmaker requested my presence one day last week. Let me tell you, it was friggin’ freezing that day! The temperature was in the single digits. And when he asked us to lie down on the ground I thought he must be joking. He wasn’t. I was sure that little segment wouldn’t make it in the video, but I was wrong. Don says to tell you that the song isn’t on iTunes yet, but it will be soon. I’ll let you know when it’s there.
I’m off to do some shopping. And then back home to more crocheting and crafting. And hot chocolate.

Baths, Photographing Trees & Presents

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Oh lordy. Today is dog bath day. I’ve mentioned before that this is a major undertaking. Unlike those of you who blithely give your dogs a bath in your own home, we must journey several miles away to a dog wash. Scout and Riley are fairly large, extremely hairy dogs. Riley hates getting a bath. I repeat: Hates It. Lifting him into the tub will accomplish nothing but the spectacle of a big, wet dog escaping and then running around the house, shaking every part of his body. At the dog wash, we can put on his muzzle, secure him to the tub, and wash away…all the while telling him what a good dog he is. He gets clean, we don’t get a fear bite, and all is well. Scout, on the other hand, loves getting clean. She’s a girl, through and through.

We put this off until we absolutely have to. We have to. Afterward, both dogs will be exhausted. The next 10 days will be about chasing tumbleweeds of dog hair around the house. Hopefully, by Christmas all will be in order again.

We got our tree on Saturday. Yesterday, we decorated it. I’ll have some photos later in the week, though I always get frustrated trying to take photos of the prettiness I see in front of me. Last year, I googled ‘photographing Christmas trees and lights’ and read all sorts of advice, but the running theme through all the posts seemed to be that it is next to impossible to take a successful photo of a lit tree unless you are a professional photographer with lots of equipment. This year I will adjust my expectations.

Once again, I have been blessed with treasures from my friends. When my friend Elizabeth and I got together in New York, she gave me a little present.

You know I’m loving that dress form. What was inside?

Homemade caramels. Oh boy. They are scrumptious! Thank you Elizabeth!

My friend Betty wrote me a note around my birthday saying she had something in her house that kept reminding her of me and she had decided to send it to me. It came on Saturday.

Gasp! Yes, indeed – it reminds me of me! Is this not beautiful? Here’s the other side:

I’ve done some research. This pitcher was made by Hull and the pattern is Sunglow. Uh oh. The collecting urge is starting again. How many kinds of pottery can I collect? If you were in my home right now, your answer would be: ‘Apparently, a lot.’ I cannot help it. I know. I’m hopeless.

Hey, I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I never did drugs. I’m a vegetarian. This is a relatively harmless vice, don’t you think?

My new obsession? Saving my pennies for a new camera. (Sssh! Don’t say anything about it to my current Canon. ) I love my camera. I just want to be able to do more. I really love photography and it’s time to step it up a notch or two. Or three.

I’m just putting it out to the universe.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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