Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

  • About MHC
    • Disclosure
  • Dollhouses/Minis
    • Hummingbird Cottage
    • The Studio (Formerly TSP)
    • Dove Cottage
    • The Lake House
    • The Folk Art Dollhouse
    • The Modern Dollhouse
    • Dollhouse Source List, Information and Tutorials
  • On the Road
  • Collecting
    • Roseville Pottery
    • McCoy Pottery
    • Egg Cups
    • Bakelite
  • Press
  • Privacy Policy

Day Two Hundred Eighty-Two

December 20, 2020 at 9:37 am by Claudia

Two of my Vintage by Crystal Christmas beauties on the piano.

This is the first year that I haven’t purchased any new ones. That’s not to say I won’t in the future, but display space is at a premium here (they live in the pink cabinet in my office, which is full.) Plus, I’ve been buying miniatures and that’s where my wee bit of discretionary income has been focused.

Speaking of miniatures, if you didn’t read the comments yesterday, you didn’t see that I ended up ordering the Beacon Hill. I found it on Wayfair for less than it was listed for on the Greenleaf website. Plus, they ship quickly. It should be here on Wednesday, but with the way thing are going lately, that’s questionable.

When I wake up in the morning, I usually look at something I was excited about the day before with a jaundiced eye. I don’t know why that is, but it happens more often than not. Groggy, no coffee yet, congested? Who knows? So this morning, I wondered why the heck I bought it, it was going to be an enormous project, where would I put it – there is absolutely no spare room here, what makes you think you can build this monster…etc. The good news is that within about 10 minutes, I see things more clearly. A sip of coffee and feeling a bit more awake helps. Now I’m excited again. By the way, I’ve learned to ignore those first-thing-in-the-morning thoughts. I just wait them out, knowing sanity is on the way.

Don is incredibly supportive (he’s literally surrounded by dollhouses here at the cottage) and he was the one who pushed me to go ahead an order it. Plus, my fellow dollhouse lovers; Helga, Megan, Andrea (all of whom have their own Beacon Hills) and Barbara urged me on, giving me quite sound reasons why I should do it.

It’s a gray day today. I figure if we’re going to have lots of snow on the ground it should be sunny. Unfortunately, it isn’t. I think we’re going to get some snow showers later this morning.

I found the mini Christmas accessories I had been looking for. They were wedged in the back of a drawer. I had a moment of panic that in one of my vigorous “clean everything” phases I might have thrown them out.

Caroline will be self-isolating this year, as will so many of us. She’ll light a fire in the living room, then she’ll come upstairs to the den to open her presents, most likely while she’s on a Zoom call with family. Sound familiar?

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Filed Under: Christmas, dollhouse, miniatures, Vintage by Crystal 34 Comments

Day Two Hundred Eighty-One

December 19, 2020 at 10:34 am by Claudia

I’m running late this morning as I got waylaid by some stuff I had to do. It’s extremely cold here this morning. The wind chill was below zero when we got up. But it’s sunny out there and the snow is quite beautiful.

Don is trying to talk me into buying the kit for the Beacon Hill dollhouse. (My friend Barbara from Massachusetts also let me know of a kit for another house that was available on Craig’s List.) I’m going back and forth between the two, but the Beacon Hill remains my favorite.

This is the exterior.

(Photos courtesy of the Greenleaf Dollhouses website.)

And this is the interior. Bay windows, hallways, fireplaces, and nooks and crannies. It’s quite a bit larger than Hummingbird Cottage, so there’s that. Anyway, Don kept urging me to buy it as he thinks it would be a great project for this lockdown-winter. I’m almost there, but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.

I love the dollhouse kit that Barbara mentioned, too, but there’s something about this juggernaut of a house that is pulling me. I will most likely go mad trying to construct it and want to throw it against a wall and I have no idea where the heck I would put it.

Am I mad? You tell me!

Anyway, that’s what I’m wrestling with at the moment. As I start to wind down the construction work on Dove Cottage, I will be slowly collecting the other pieces of furniture that I need for that project and that takes time. In the meantime, I could start in on the Beacon Hill. Just as with books, where I have to have another book on deck, I feel the same way about dollhouses (or any project.)

We’ll see.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Filed Under: dollhouse, miniatures 68 Comments

Day Two Hundred Eighty

December 18, 2020 at 9:49 am by Claudia

The sun finally came out yesterday. I shoveled and Don worked the snowblower. Even though the snow was relatively dry and fluffy, there was about 14 inches of it. And the driveway slopes downward to the street, which means the amount of snow down there is much higher. Since the county plows had been up and down our road several times, the mound of snow at the bottom of our driveway was huge. I don’t know how he does it. Our snowblower is really hard to push (I can’t do it on my own.) If we had to do it over again, we’d have purchased something lighter that I could manipulate as well. At one point, a stone got in the blades and the snowblower stopped. Don wasn’t sure if he needed to replace something, so he had to push it back up the drive (with no power). Impossible! So I went down there and we each took a handle and pushed it up the drive together.

Today, I’ll dig the car out. We were both exhausted after all of the cleanup and I can’t say enough about the work Don put in. At some point, we’ll have to hire someone to do this kind of thing and it can’t be a plow because the plows destroy all the gravel on the driveway as they push up (and down) the driveway. It would have to be someone with a snowblower.

Today, we take it easy – except for shoveling around the car.

In the meantime, both of us are waiting for packages that seem to have disappeared within the postal system. Everything with a tracking number has this message: “In transit, arriving late. Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility.”

In some cases, it’s been “in transit to the next facility” for well over a week. I’m now worried that presents won’t arrive in time for Christmas. I mentioned this on IG yesterday and so many people responded saying they were dealing with the same thing. I’m not blaming the USPS at all, I’m blaming Louis DeJoy, who did his best to hobble the entire system so that Trump could win. Add in a pandemic in which more people are ordering online than ever and you have a big mess.

Forgot to include a photo of the tree in the modern dollhouse. The only houses that don’t have Christmas trees are the vintage houses. They’ll get them eventually.

Okay. Have to go. I asked Don to hold off on recording a song until I finished this post. He asked me to join in on the chorus with some harmony, so I’m going to do a little singing today.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Filed Under: life 53 Comments

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 419
  • 420
  • 421
  • 422
  • 423
  • …
  • 1770
  • Next Page »
  • Email
  • Instagram

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.

Thanks for stopping by.

Searching?

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

A Note

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to browse, read and enjoy. All content is my own; including photos and text. Please do not use anything on this site without permission.

Disclosure/Privacy Policy can be found in the Navigation Bar under ‘About MHC.’

Also, I love receiving comments! I do, however, reserve the right to delete any comment that is in poor taste, offensive or is verging on spam. It’s my blog. If you’re a bot or a troll you’ll be blocked. Thanks!

Archives

All Content © 2008 - 2025 Mockingbird Hill Cottage · Log in