Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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.

The Where Women Cook Launch Party

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On a cold, cold December day, I made my way into Manhattan to have some fun at the party celebrating the first issue of Where Women Cook.

(my very own autographed issue.)

It was held at Chelsea Market – oh my gosh, what a fabulous place! It is full of wonderful restaurants and food emporiums and is in the old Nabisco Building. Oh, there’s also an Anthropologie there. You can bet I will be visiting it again, especially when I’m working on a coaching job in NYC this February and March. Many of the restaurants and businesses are owned by women. In fact, several of them will be featured in upcoming issues of Where Women Cook.

Interestingly enough, I ate very little while I was there. I was too busy gabbing. I did manage a cup of soup with my friend, Elizabeth Maxon. Elizabeth and I are blogging friends and we were so excited to finally get the chance to meet. She is featured in this issue – and she also contributed some of her photographs.

Elizabeth is wonderful. We talked and talked and if she hadn’t had to attend to other things (like signing copies of the magazine) we would have kept right on talking. We have theater in common – both of us were actresses for a time. Elizabeth is generous, funny and oh, so talented. I am in awe of her design style and her way with a camera. Speaking of cameras, I was lucky enough to be asked to take some photos with her camera, as well as Tiffany Kirchner-Dixon’s camera. Oh. my. goodness. I love my Canon but it is a very high end point-and-shoot. And I now realize there is a major difference between that level of camera and the next level of camera. I want one. I will have to start saving my pennies. It’s time to move on to the next level. Perhaps I should start a “Help Claudia buy a new camera” fund. Just kidding. Sort of.

What was so inspiring about this get-together was that it was about women celebrating women. So many talented women were there and each one was warm, friendly and charming. Usually, these events don’t seem to take place on the East Coast, so I’m really happy I had the chance to attend. I was lucky enough to be introduced around by Elizabeth and meet some wonderful women who are entrepeneurs and bloggers. The idea was to have the featured women sit at tables and sign copies of the magazine, as well as their books. There was a long line outside the door leading up to the 2 pm start time.


Here are some photos from the event:

 Elizabeth and Tiffany
MaryJane Butters in an adorable outfit, great hat and stole.
Elizabeth and Serena Thompson of The Farm Chicks. Celeste Shaw and Marcy Iverson on the left.
Molly Wizenberg, Jo Packham, the creator of Where Women Cook and Sarabeth of Sarabeth’s Kitchen.
Mamma Agata, Elizabeth and Suzy Eaton.
My blurry photo of Ree Drummond.

Wendy Addison was also there – for some reason I didn’t get a photo of her – darn! I’m sure I’ve missed a few others. If so, I apologize.
When I first arrived, I saw a woman who looked familiar. Turns out it was fellow blogger, Jane of A Pixie and a Gypsy.
It was a fun afternoon! But soon I headed out into the very, very cold weather and boarded the bus for home. When I arrived at the bus station, it was snowing! Our first, very light, snowfall of the season.
Hope you enjoyed this peek into the launch party. Today we bought our Christmas tree and I’ve made a little start on the decorations. We keep it pretty simple here at MHC.
It has been hard for me to visit everyone lately. I apologize. I will try to get around to you all this week. I also see some new commenters – thank you so much for leaving a comment. I promise to visit you soon!

The Pattern and a Party

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Happy Friday, everyone! Thanks so much for all the compliments on my garland. By the way, I fully intend to keep it up all year. Yes, it is the Christmas season and those little snowflake/flowers are perfect for the holidays. But I’m now realizing that I made it to grace my home every day of the year.

For those of you new to crochet, let me just say this: I taught myself how to crochet by reading books and, even more valuable, by watching videos on the internet. There are a ton of them out there. I am visual person. Seeing someone actually working with a hook makes a learning to crochet so much easier. Just google ‘crochet and video’ and you will be surprised at the links that appear on your screen.

This little flower is pretty easy. Let me give you the pattern, which is based on this pattern:
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Chain 6 and join with sl stitch to form a ring.

Chain 3 (counts as 1 dc), work 13 dc into a ring. Join the last dc to the first dc with a slip stitch.

Chain 1, turn.

Work a sc into next 2 dc. *Chain 4, sc in next 2 dc. Repeat from * five more times (creating 6 – 4sc loops).

Finish it off by slip stitching into the next stitch and weave the end into the stitches.

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That’s it – easy. sc – single crochet, dc = double crochet. When you see ‘join into a ring’ you do that by slip stitching the last chain on the hook into the first chain you made. I really just went with the pattern for the flower portion of the scarf and figured out how to isolate the flower. In the original pattern, the 13 dc are not joined together. For the purposes of this project, I slip stitched them together. You could make the flower bigger by increasing the amount of dc you start with. Just have fun with it. There’s no right or wrong. I had 7 loops on a couple of my flowers – who cares? It is supposed to look homemade and one-of-a-kind.

Have fun!

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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