Mockingbird Hill Cottage

I’m a little late getting to this post because Don and I were chatting for a long time about our careers and the paths that led us there, the people who mentored us, the connections we made, the full circle moments…it was amazing. We only stopped because I had to write this post, Don had to use the bathroom, and he has phone banking training this morning. I did have it but I decided I’m more comfortable with text banking. I moved that training session from October 4th to tomorrow at 4 pm. So, we will have finished our respective training sessions by the end of the weekend.

I was thinking yesterday about the problems with scale in this antique dollhouse. My 1:12 furniture is too big. 1:24 would be too small. 1:16 might be right, I thought, so I grabbed some of the Petite Princess (by Ideal) furniture I had upstairs in the office and tried a few pieces in the living room.

Bingo. Petite Princess furniture was glitzy and sparkly and some of it is too much. I’ve used the white 3-drawer dresser in Hummingbird Cottage because it somehow works there, but that’s the only piece that translates to a different scale. I have another sparkly chair like these two (in gold) and a wing chair as well.

Here’s the wing chair on the screened in porch.

Of course, I don’t have to put anything in this house, it’s perfect as is. But I somehow feel the need to add some furniture here and there. It feels lonely just sitting empty. I’d love to leave most of it as is – yellow walls, red fireplaces – but add a couple of pieces of furniture (or more) to each room. A rug here and there, a painting on the wall…signs of life.

I was excited when I realized that scale worked perfectly. I could attempt to reupholster the chairs. That would be a challenge, but if it worked, it would transform the room.

I’ve talked about Petite Princess furniture before on the blog. Do you remember it? I loved it, I looked at the ads for it incessantly and I wanted my mom and dad to give me some for Christmas. Nope. Mom was not on board for that. I don’t know why. Maybe she suspected I’d get bored with it. I never forgot about it and years and years and years later, I found a couple of pieces in a local antique shop (the dresser and the gold wing chair) in their original boxes. I was just starting to work on Hummingbird Cottage. I snapped them up. Then a reader sent me some of her Petite Princess furniture and another reader sent me some as well. Now I have a nice little collection, some of which can be used in various spaces. My mom would have gotten a kick out of me amassing a collection in my fifties and sixties!

I have some ideas for the Modern dollhouse as well and I’ll share them with you tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

It was very, very foggy here this morning. Autumn often brings foggy mornings and I confess, I love them.

I swear, more trees have turned color overnight. It’s a little unnerving, how quickly it all changes. I’m not ready to leave summer behind but I guess I have no choice in the matter. Fall brings its own beauty, but it also brings a bit of melancholy. I have to fight that this every year but especially this year, because I can’t let myself plunge into despair. I refuse to cede my power. I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but make sure you have your plan to vote, if you haven’t already voted. If you’re filling out an absentee ballot, make sure you follow all the instructions to the letter. If you can, drop it off at a ballot box. If you’re going in person to vote, as we are later next month, be prepared. The wait may be a long one. I’ve already thought about what we’ll need to bring.

I know some of you might be shocked, but one of my favorite words is the “F” word. As a voice/speech coach, I work with the power of vowels and consonants and that word starts with a fricative (F) then goes on to one vowel (uh) and ends with a plosive (k). You can linger on the frictative, almost hissing it, and then you can pop the plosive. It’s a powerful and satisfying expletive.

Anyway, that particular word, which I won’t spell out here in case you find it offensive, is what I’m going to use now: FFF him and his evil minions! We will triumph. He’s losing and he knows it and he’s panicking. He already knows the only way he can “win” is by cheating. We know it, too. And we’re going to turn out in numbers too big to manipulate. If need be, he will be dragged out of the Oval Office in cuffs, his carefully coifed hair a mess, orange makeup/bronzer dripping down his face, overly long red tie practically strangling him. Next stop: prison.

I’m energized. Tomorrow morning, I have my training session for phone banking. As an introvert, this is not at all something I am comfortable doing, but I’m going to do it, nonetheless.

All hands on deck.

We played the video of Orange Man being booed over and over again. Music to our ears! And his comment that he couldn’t understand what they were saying was BS. You’ve only to look at his eyes to know he heard every word. Every word.

Okay. I have no idea what I’m going to do today. The usual, I guess. The sun has come out and it’s quite beautiful out there, with that golden light that only comes in Autumn.

Happy Birthday to my best friend, Laural. We’ve been friends for 56 years.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

 

 

You can see that the trees are starting to show some fall color. The tree turning orange is the maple on the far side of the house. There are splashes of red, orange, yellow and brown on the property. Yesterday was a beautiful day, nearly 80 and warm – but not too warm. Today will be the same. You’d better believe we’re appreciating this while we can.

Neither of us slept well last night. I’m sure you’ll understand why, especially if you watched Rachel Maddow. It took me a long time to get to sleep and then I woke up for long periods of time throughout the night. So we’re both feeling a bit ragged this morning.

I’m reading The Library Book  by Susan Orlean, all about the Los Angeles Public Library and the fire that nearly destroyed it and the mystery that surrounds the fire to this day. I’ve had it in in my TBR pile for over a year and after finishing the Louise Penny, I was reluctant to start any other fiction. It wouldn’t be fair to the new read. Best to read some nonfiction as a palate cleanser.

I did a little work on the dollhouse the other day, using some scrap wood that I had on hand. It’s hard to get a good photo as it’s the ceiling, but I added some wood beams.

The shadow doesn’t give the true color of the ceiling, but it’s ‘sea glass.’ There are five beams, plus a corner support in the corners of the room. I am close to running out of the scrap wood, so I stopped at five beams. I’m trying to use what I have. Next up will be the floor – wide planks, I think.

I signed up to do phone and text banking for Biden. There is a training session for both – my first training session is this Saturday (via Zoom.) Don has signed up to do phone banking and one other thing that I can’t remember at the moment.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.