Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Dear Shanna, whose portraits of our dogs hang on a wall in our living room, was kind enough to paint our groundhog! We waited to open it because we usually quarantine mail for a few days and then, of course, Don was ill. But we opened it the other day and it’s gorgeous!

Doesn’t it perfectly capture him/her?

In the interest of transparency, we are pretty sure this little one is not  Henry. In the beginning, we thought it was our boy, but then, as he began to come closer to the house to munch on the grass, we realized this was not Henry. The facial features are not the same; he’s not as gray, nor is he as big as Henry was.

In the beginning, he was getting into mischief. I caught him on the front porch and in the garden. (Henry would never do that.) But once he realized those activities were a no-no, he has behaved quite well indeed.

I don’t know if our Henry is around, but this guy is living under the shed, so I think we must come to the grips with the fact that he’s probably left us.

We love you Henry.

We haven’t named this guy yet, but when he was up to no good, Don called him “Shifty.” He now thinks that’s not fair to this little guy, so we’re waiting until we find the right name for him.

In other news, Barbara Vajnar, the creator of incredible miniatures under the name Bubba’s Country Cupboards, (including this one that I purchased two years ago) is retiring.

She is selling off the inventory she has left. Oh my. I will miss seeing her booth at the show – it was always my favorite. I was on eBay yesterday looking at miniatures and I saw one of her cupboards up for auction. When I clicked on it, I realized that Barbara herself was listing it and when I read further, I saw that she was retiring. She had a few pieces that were about to end and I watched in real time as one cupboard, which had a high bid of $191.00 about one minute before the auction closed, went from that price to about $450.00 at the end of the bidding. Amazing. These are one-of-a-kind, of course, and the workmanship is so incredible and detailed and impeccably done, that everyone wants to grab one of her creations while they can. I briefly considered bidding on that piece because I’d love to have another in my collection, but I didn’t. I would have been knocked out of the action within a second!

You all know that my mustard colored cupboard is one of my favorite pieces ever. Everything about it – the hardware, the cut-out design on the sides, the drawers and doors that open and close, the color, the impeccable detail – is stunning.  I’m so glad I caved and purchased this piece when I could! Thank you, Barbara. You will be missed.

And finally, I did another video tour on Instagram. This time, we are visiting the Folk Art Dollhouse. I just posted it this morning (I have to do these when Don is out on a walk.) I hope you enjoy it!

It’s going to be incredibly hot here today. I’ve already been out to water and we took a moment to sit on the glider while it was still comfortable out there. Now, we’re in for the day.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.