Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Signs of Life & Square #12

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Ah. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me. The last few days have been sunny and (relatively) warm. The massive yard and garden clean-up has begun. The first thing I do is look for signs of life, camera in hand. Raking the winter cover of leaves reveals little miracles. They are there – peeking out of the ground, buds emerging on bushes like my little lilac. Every year I am amazed at the rebirth of the garden, the grass and the trees. Small signs; but they give me hope after a long winter.

Square #12:


My version of a shabby chic chair…..

We’re in for 4 days of heavy rain. The sunny days are leaving for a bit but the temperature each day is getting warmer. I have a lot to do outside before I leave for San Diego. A lot.

Have a great day.

Pretty Basket & Square #11

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I was out looking for one of those old wicker sewing baskets the other day. The tin I was using to store everything to do with embroidery wasn’t really working for me. For a few dollars, I found this:


A little bigger than I wanted, but okay – not thrilled about the colors, though. Then I remembered that Tiffany of Shabby Scraps had done a post about prettying up old sewing baskets. Using only what I had on hand, I set to work and ended up with this:


I grabbed trims, ribbons, lace, millinery flowers and just glued them onto the basket. For some reason the measuring tape looks crooked in this photo – it really isn’t.


The lace and white flower came from my swap with Meri, everything else is from my meager stash. At least I got rid of the dark brown color of some of the weaving. It certainly looks cheerier. Maybe it will accompany me to San Diego? Sure would look cute in that apartment – and you remember – that place desperately needs all the prettifying it can get.

I worked outside cleaning out the garden beds today, then I came in and worked on the basket – so I stitched a very simple square – #11:


Oh gosh, now that I look closely I see another dog hair – this time courtesy of Riley! Think of it as part of my artistic vision.

Have a great day.

My Blog Re-Design & Square #10

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Hello, everyone! Welcome to my newly designed blog!

A while back, I started enlarging my photos. I sought the advice of a few people, among them Cindy of My Romantic Home. Because of the limitations of the Blogger template I was using, I could only enlarge photos vertically (portrait.) That was fine for a while but sometimes I wanted to shoot horizontally (landscape) and in the course of cropping and trying to adjust the size for the template I would lose part of the photo. Frustrated by the same thing, Cindy recently redesigned her blog so that the width of the posting area is greater, allowing space for either size photo. She inspired me.

I loved the look of my blog. That was what held me back. (Change is hard sometimes, isn’t it?) But to be perfectly honest, though I loved the free background, I didn’t like running into it elsewhere in blogland. I wanted my-very-own-mine-only look. I also loved the sidebar labels, signature and blog button Mandy created for me. I wanted to keep them. I finally bit the bullet and asked Amber of Sprinkles on Top if she could design a new template, background and banner. She did. I am over-the-moon about this new look! Amber captured exactly what I was looking for. She is so good at what she does and is a joy to work with.

If you’re thinking of a re-design, visit Amber’s website. She is reasonably priced and has several different packages available. Amber has designed Cindy’s blog, Elyse’s blog and many, many others. Thank you, thank you, Amber!

Square #10:

(a landscape size photo)

Pardon any white dog hairs you might see. They are part of living with a white dog that has hair as silky and fine as a cat’s. I must admit that I was stumped for a while yesterday. It took a while for a bit of ‘square inspiration’ to hit me on the head. And I have 29 to go.

Have a great day.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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