Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

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Cleaning Up & Cats

December 4, 2009 at 1:05 am by Claudia

Well, the time has come. I have to do some cleaning. The little pumpkins must go – goodbye. The porch must be cleaned and everything stored away for the winter. I’d like to blame it on the relatively warm temperatures; I have never waited this long to tackle the job. I wrote about it last year – I think there is a part of me that thinks if I leave all the pots and cushions and hanging plants on the porch, I can stop the oncoming cold and snow. Never mind that the plants in the pots have been dead since that first hard frost or that the hanging plants look pathetic and forlorn. I try to deny that my beloved summer is gone for this year. I put my blinders on until I am shamed into packing it all up. I was going to do it the other day, but my excuse was that it was “too windy.” Yesterday I was “too tired.” Today, I will do it. Hopefully.

Husband and I have to deal with the moss on our roof, too. This is a job we really dislike. Don has to get up on the roof and spray it with a bleach and water mixture. Then we wait a while and loosen it with a brush, eventually hosing the whole shebang off the roof. The moss is tenacious, however, so we do the best we can. Our trees are wonderful, but they do shade portions of the roof and it has been so rainy here this year that the moss is worse than ever. Every time I am ready to force husband out the door and start this task, the weather gets crazy and we have to postpone it.

I had to add this photo of one of our neighbors’ cats:


I shot this through our kitchen window. I haven’t seen the cats in a long while and suddenly I see them all the time. They are descendants of the cats that used to live in MHC when the ‘Cat Lady’ lived here. All the older residents of the town know who she was. Let’s just say that she loved cats and had many of them. When she died, the house was sold and it had to be taken down to the studs so that it might be ‘refreshed.’ If you know what I mean.

Have a great Friday!

Filed Under: cats, porch 16 Comments

The Dresser

December 2, 2009 at 6:45 pm by Claudia

This is my dresser. I’ve had this piece for almost 20 years. Walking along the street one day in Cambridge, I saw this dresser sitting at the curb. I was pretty sure it was free for the taking. Just in case it wasn’t, I thought I would finish my errands and if it was still out there when I returned home, I’d find a way to get it up to my apartment. I didn’t own a car when I lived in the Boston area because I could get everywhere via public transit. So when I walked back toward my apartment and saw that it was still sitting there, I had to think fast. Luckily, my neighbor and good friend was home and I enlisted her help. We lugged the dresser home in the summer heat, a distance of about 4 city blocks. Then it was hefted up 3 flights of stairs.

I didn’t like the dark wood, so I painted it gray. It followed me out to San Diego when I moved there to take a new job. Eventually I painted it yellow and replaced the knobs with green glass knobs from Restoration Hardware.

When I painted the legs, I left some of the gray paint untouched because I liked way the contrast highlighted the carving.


The soft yellow (a shade by Ralph Lauren) makes me smile. Truth be told, it has become a bit battered, the drawers don’t close right and sometimes I want to replace it. I may do that in the next couple of years. I don’t know if I could let it go entirely, however. I’ll have to hang on to it, even it it means storing it in the shed. It reminds me of the streets of Cambridge, my wonderful apartment on Harvard Street, a time in my life when I was having all sorts of adventures. I had embarked on a teaching career, I loved Boston and teaching at Boston University, and I finally had an apartment with more than one room. It was a very special time in my life. I eventually moved to San Diego, met Don, fell in love and married. I left my single girl days behind. Happily. But I treasure those Boston memories…and the dresser is part of them.


Some of my favorite things are here. A McCoy dish with a bird whose tail feathers are broken (I have one just like it with the bird intact downstairs,) two pieces of Roseville Pottery, and a photo of my husband. There are several necklaces draped on the photo’s frame – Don says it looks like a shrine.

This is my favorite piece of Roseville. It is the Bushberry pattern – a cornucopia. Lovely.

Little did this dresser know that day as it was forlornly sitting out at the curb, that it would find a new home and cross the country not once, but twice!

I’m experimenting with making my photos larger – after pouring through all the tips online, I think I’ve found something that works with my template – what do you think?

Filed Under: vintage 24 Comments

I Admit it – I am a Pottery & China Addict

December 1, 2009 at 2:33 pm by Claudia

Yes…it is true. I love pottery and china. You already know about my love for McCoy, Fiesta, porcelain, hand-painted china…but have I mentioned Roseville Pottery?

I have about 7 or 8 pieces of Roseville. I have accumulated these slowly over the years. Frankly, Roseville is usually so expensive that I cannot justify the price. Every once in a while, I find a piece that is perfect, but often I will take a piece that has a tiny hairline crack, or a little chip that is so tiny that it hardly can be seen. These little imperfections can bring the price down to a much more affordable level.

About a week ago, Heidi and I were at auction and I saw the two pieces you see at the top of the post. I am so used to Roseville being out of my price range that I didn’t seriously plan on bidding. But then the price went so low that I grabbed Heidi’s number and started bidding. I ended up getting them both for $25.00. In Roseville-land, that is a steal. Heidi told me that lately Roseville hadn’t been eliciting much interest at auction. Oh really? Well, I’m interested!

Needless to say, I was very happy. Both pieces are perfect, with no flaws. I’ve been researching the patterns in my Roseville Book. I’m not quite sure about either of them because the book doesn’t show every color or item made in each of the floral lines.

I think this little beauty is Peony.

And this candle holder is White Rose. (If anyone knows differently, please feel free to correct me.)

I’ll share more of my little collection in future posts. I just love the flowers and the soft, faded colors. Aren’t they pretty?

Filed Under: china and pottery, Roseville pottery 20 Comments

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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.

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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

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