Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

Foggy Morning & Decluttering

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Another foggy morning. I love a foggy morning. I took this around 7 am and since then it has become bright and sunny. Yesterday turned out to be surprisingly humid and hot and today looks as if it might be the same. We’re back up to high 80s and low 90s through this next week and then it will cool down a little. I remind myself that it’s August, the month where it was always hot and humid when I was a kid.

I spent the morning yesterday cleaning and sorting through my section of the office/studio. I had to grab some time when Don wasn’t using the space and since he was running errands, I went for it. I reorganized some storage in the pink cabinet, threw out lots of stuff, straightened up the work areas. I moved a lot of my acrylic paints back to the little cart I keep in the corner of the room. All surfaces were cleaned and dusted (except for the shelf with my putz sheep – note to self: do that this week.) It looks much better. I’m in the final phase of the renovation of Dove Cottage, so the paint was no longer needed and all the tools that were sitting out needed to be corralled. Also: lots of paperwork and mail was parked on the desk and that needed to be sorted.

I feel so much better when the space if free of excess clutter!

Because both Don and I share this small space (and it’s jam packed, as you know) we have to make sure we stay in control of clutter. Neither of us functions well when we’re surrounded by a bunch of stuff that’s not in its designated place. I couldn’t get up there for a while because Don was always using the space. I’m glad it’s now clutter-free.

By the way, Andrew Cuomo needs to resign. He’s been terrific throughout the pandemic but he has lost the faith of women, the state legislature, and his constituents. I’m saddened that we are losing him, but unlike Republicans, Democrats take action when charges such as these are proven to be true. And that’s the way it must be.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

Miniature Armoire

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I swear I sense autumn in the air. It’s too early, I know. But there are subtle changes of light, cooler mornings, a different…look. I know I said this yesterday, but I also want to add that I’m feeling that nesting/organizing thing kick in that always occurs for me in autumn.

This week has been lovely. Cool enough to mow without too much sweat, the plants don’t need to be watered quite as frequently, cool mornings and evenings. By the way, last night I insisted to Don that it was Tuesday. He assured me it was Wednesday. This morning I checked yesterday’s post and sure enough, I said “Happy Tuesday.” Oy. I swear it gets increasingly hard to keep track of the days of the week – and I have a planner! We haven’t worked in a long time, the pandemic rages on, and one day morphs into another. Anyway, apologies for that. I’ve since corrected it.

I don’t know whether I posted this on the blog or on IG, but a few months back, after looking for an armoire/wardrobe for the dollhouse, I chose to go with something relatively inexpensive that I could paint or stain. The photo of the armoire showed the doors closing cleanly with no gap.

This is what I received:

I was not a happy camper. I’m familiar with this brand and yes, they manufacture inexpensive furniture, nonetheless, this was unacceptable. I wrote the seller and she tried to say that this uneven gap was there to allow for layers of paint. Ummm….no. I am not new to working with miniatures and that, my friend, is total BS. I told her I wanted my money back and she said she would refund when I sent it back to her. Okay.

A few days passed and I realized it wasn’t worth the hassle. Packing it up, taking it to the post office, paying to mail it – all for something I got for $12? I did leave a review complaining about the difference between her photo and the actual item I received, but I decided to keep it. I had an idea to add a strip of wood between the doors that would look like part of the wardrobe. I found one in my stash that was just right and I cut it to fit. Fast forward a couple of months to yesterday and I finally painted the piece.

Here it is:

I think it works! I’m very pleased with it and I don’t feel the need to have clothes hanging inside, so I’m okay with it as is. Plus, I had to put something that was a little heavy inside the armoire because it didn’t have enough weight. I will most likely replace the hardware, however. The knobs came with the armoire.

This will go in the bedroom. I’m still debating about the bed, which is lovely, but I can’t help thinking it’s too high in relation to the other pieces of furniture. I’m looking into other possibilities.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Miniatures, Caterpillars & Books

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I saw this guy on the milkweed yesterday. He’s actually much more petite than this photo suggests. I walk to the milkweed every day, hoping to see a caterpillar. I’ve seen Monarch butterflies lay their eggs underneath the leaves in the past couple of weeks, but this is the first time I’ve seen one of these guys. By the time I managed to bring Don over to this leaf, the caterpillar had moved to the underside where he was happily munching away. I wonder where he’ll eventually move to make his chrysalis?

We mowed the entire front lawn yesterday – both sides – and we were exhausted at the end of it all. Both of us fell asleep in our chairs mid-afternoon. But it looks good out there and the temperature was rather mild, perfect for mowing. The mornings have been cooler lately, making me think of fall. I’m not nearly ready for it yet, but I have appreciated the cooler temperatures. This morning was foggy and misty and quite beautiful.

I plopped the red chair in the studio, but I’m not sure about it yet. I took this at a point in the day when the late afternoon sun was shining directly in the dollhouse. Without that, the chair gets lost in the shadows. Now, I’m not at all sure I’m going to use the modern IKEA-like low shelf unit – it takes up a lot of floor space and I’d rather find something more period looking. So, after I deal with that, the chair might work in a place more toward the front of the room. Or, I might find something else that looks a little more worn, an old chair that would survive paint drips, etc. Something the owner could plop in when she’s taking a break from painting.

In other words, I have more to do in this space. The red chair may end up back in the living room or it might end up in a future project, i.e., the Beacon Hill.

Decisions, decisions…

Don is up in the studio as I write this, recording a song. He’s been intrigued by Nordic Noir since we watch so many series produced in Scandinavia. So I nudged him toward reading some Nordic Noir. He just finished a mystery by Ragnar Jonasson that we picked up at Oblong Books, and now he’s going to start the very first in the Wallander series by Henning Mankel. It’s good to see him reading some fiction again.

I’m still reading Elly Griffiths – number 6 in the series, The Outcast Dead – and I have another one on tap. Then I might veer off and read the new John Connolly and, of course, the new Louise Penny appears toward the end of this month. But I tend to hold off on reading a new Penny because I want to prolong the pleasure; I don’t want to read it right away and then have to wait an entire year for a new Gamache mystery. We do have a Louise Penny/Hillary Clinton collaboration coming out in November (or is it October?) and I’m looking forward to that, as well.

Books purchased last week at Oblong:

  1. Slow Horses  by Mick Herron. Eric Idle, who reads a ton of books, has a blog and each month, he lists what he read, with a little blurb about each book. He is a big fan of Mick Herron, a British writer who writes spy novels. So I picked this one up.
  2. Orfeo  by Richard Powers. I read his novel, The Overstory, last year. One of the best books I’ve ever read. It won the Pulitzer Prize. He wrote Orfeo  in 2014 – it’s about art, microbiology and Homeland Security.
  3. Rachel to the Rescue  by Elinor Lipman. I’m a big fan of Lipman, who writes witty novels that often involve romantic social satire – rather like Jane Austen. This one involves the Trump White House and an employee who is fired by the WH for criticizing Trump. Described as ‘mischievous political satire.’
  4. The Forger’s Daughter  by Brad Morrow. A sequel to the Forger (which I haven’t read yet) about books and literary forgery. It takes place in the Hudson Valley, a place I’m rather fond of.

Okay. Have to go.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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