Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Mockingbird Hill Cottage

More Egg Cups & A Special Delivery

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Today – Double Egg Cups. Double egg cups are made with two cups; the smaller one is for eating a soft boiled egg out of the shell, the larger for eating an egg in the shell.

Back row, left: an egg cup from Hankscraft, a glass egg cup I found this year, a brown transferware cup by Mason’s Vista/England (one of the first egg cups I purchased), a flow blue egg cup.

Front row, left: a lovely egg cup from France that I found in San Diego, a flowered egg cup (reminds me of Clarice Cliff designs) that I found in a local shop, a rooster egg cup made by Holt Howard in 1961, and another transferware egg cup with no mark – maybe Johnson Brothers? I’m not sure.

We have a new member of the egg cup family. It arrived in yesterday’s mail:

You’re not seeing things. It’s Sleepy!!

He’s in perfect condition. That red dot on the cup is paint under the glaze, so it’s original.

Remember that auction where the price for Sleepy was way over the top? About $350 or more, if I remember correctly. I watched that auction daily and, of course, there were no bids. The auction ended. The next day, it was back up, this time with an opening price of $75.00 American. (A Canadian seller.) I watched it every day for 6 days. There were others watching, as well. On the final day, which was last Wednesday, I made sure I was home in time to watch the last hour of bidding. I waited until the last minute to bid, and, since there were no other bidders (what?) I won! Couldn’t believe it. Truly, I thought I’d be in some sort of bidding war because this dwarf is the hardest to find. In 17 years of watching eBay – 17 years! – this is the only time I’ve seen it up for auction.

Also, there are two different Sleepys out there.  There’s this one, which is the right one, the accurate Sleepy, and another one that looks exactly like Sneezy down to the hand to the nose. The only difference is the name. I don’t know why that happened. Did they break the mold and have to resort to using Sneezy’s mold? Anyway, that one is more common. So, to have the real deal is just thrilling! I’m going to keep my eye out for the faux-Sleepy, as well, because it would be fun to include it in my collection.

This is the most I’ve paid for a Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs egg cup. Previously, I think I paid $55.00 for Snow White – also hard to find. But it was worth it. If I hadn’t grabbed the chance I might not have had another opportunity.

Huzzah! After 17 years of searching, I have them all! A photo of the whole gang will be forthcoming.

That delivery yesterday and the news that Gardener’s World (with Monty Don) is again available on BritBox made my day. Thank you to reader Lani for alerting me! Watching Gardener’s Diary  is like meditation for me. I immediately feel my shoulders dropping. It helped relax me in the midst of all the coverup activity coming from the WH and the Attorney General yesterday, so that’s saying something!

More tomorrow when we’ll be winding down our little egg cup tour.

Happy Friday.

Little Scamps

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I worked outside for several hours yesterday. I used muscles I haven’t used in a while.

Oh my.

I managed to finish a first pass at clearing nearly all the garden beds. I’ll go back and do more in a week or so – which is fortunate, since we have a lot of rain in the forecast.

Sedum, hostas, daylilies, the very beginnings of all the coneflowers – they’re all there. The hydrangeas have green buds on them. Suddenly, all the surrounding vegetation – the brambles/wild roses, some of the smaller trees – are green. Oh, how lovely!

The first daffodils:

These are the daffodils that are right on the edge of the woods. In fact, I have a story to tell you. I stopped in the middle of loading tarps with leaves and debris when I saw the splash of yellow. Of course, I took the obligatory picture and while I as standing there, I noticed what looked like trash in the woods. Thinking it was a random plastic bag that had been blown there during one of our many “wind events” I headed up there to get it. Much to my surprise, there was not only the plastic bag, but all sorts of trash scattered about from one of our kitchen trash bags.

Then it came to me. About a week and half ago, some raccoons tipped over our trash can and there was debris strewed on the ground near the can. Don cleaned it up, took everything to be recycled, and that was that.

These little scamps grabbed a bag and took it up into the woods!

I went in the house, got a trash bag, and picked everything up.

Then I stood up, ready to head back to the trash can, and I saw another bag several feet away. More trash to pick up.

Then – far off in the woods – I saw ANOTHER bag. These guys had dragged three bags up to the woods. After cleaning it all up, I couldn’t help but laugh. Don and I were wishing we had some sort of infrared outdoor camera to record these hijinks!

I’m grateful the woods is still relatively bare because I could get to everything. It would be much harder to get in there come summertime.

Raccoons mess with our trash rarely and I’m hoping it stays that way.

Yesterday’s theme: Pairs.

On the left, morning glory egg cups found in a Paris flea market. Then the egg cups we found at Abbey Road Studios in London. Then, two beautiful bluebird egg cups from Germany. And finally, two wooden egg cups.

There’s a few more egg cup posts to share with you as we head toward Easter.

Besides the happiness at sharing these little beauties with you, I really enjoy seeing them all again.

Happy Thursday.

 

 

Garden Cleanup, Egg Cups & A Gift

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Now that the endless wind has died down, I’m going to work outside today and tomorrow. Rain is coming on Friday and throughout the weekend, so I have to grab some time while I can.

Meanwhile, in the yet uncovered big garden bed:

The hyacinths are blooming.

I’m tackling that bed today. Wish me luck.

Egg cups for today: Four double egg cups in the Harlequin pattern by Homer Laughlin. (Apparently, I forgot to remove the price tag on one of them!)

I received a lovely package in the mail from Kate, a reader of this blog. Kate asked me if she could send me two egg cups that she had in her home. Of course, I said yes. When the package arrived there were additional surprises!

First of all, two lovely lustreware egg cups.

Then two beautiful knives – my grandparents had a set of flatware like this.

And 4 cups/saucers made by Arabia in Finland. Are they demitasse? They’re on the small side. And this photo isn’t capturing the color, which leans a bit more toward green/yellow. They’re lovely – such simple and beautiful design. (I’ll try to capture the color in a future photo.)

Thank you so much, Kate! I’ve already made room in the kitchen china cabinet for the cups and saucers! The egg cups are in the cubby cabinet. And the knives have joined my stash of bakelite.

I’m blessed.

The winner of a copy of The Eighth Sister  is Marilyn! Marilyn, I’ve already sent you an email. Just send me your mailing address and I’ll forward it on to the publisher.

Happy Wednesday.

 

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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