Mockingbird Hill Cottage

In sorting through a box of photos and memorabilia that my parents had, I found some photos of my apartment in Cambridge. I sent them to Mom and Dad so they could visualize where and how I lived. Some of these you might have seen before because I have a set somewhere, as well.

These three photos are here for specific reasons.

Sorry for the light flash on the photo. I’m taking pictures of pictures because I don’t want to go upstairs and scan them.

The loveseat: That’s the living room loveseat in its original position in my apartment. I needed something that would fit into the recess created by the bay window. It came with two of those patterned pillows. I bought that coffee table for a song when I spotted it while taking a walk up Mass Avenue. I bought the rug, too. It lived in my apartment in San Diego, as well as our house in San Diego. Check out the diamond panes on the windows! Goodness, I loved that apartment. Tons of light. Perfect for plants, which I had everywhere. I had to leave all of them behind when I moved to CA, because you aren’t allowed to bring plants into the state – or at least, you weren’t allowed to back in 1993. My friend Eve, who eventually took over the apartment, kept them.

Fiesta collection: I started collecting vintage Fiesta when I was living in Cambridge. I found it everywhere, but my best source was a woman who ran a vintage shop in Somerville. When she found a piece, she would call and leave a message on my answering machine. No email yet. No cell phones. Just phone calls and messages. Also: no eBay. There’s another shelf of it to the left that is out of the frame. I loved that collection.

I eventually sold it to a collector when we were living in San Diego.

Why did I do that? I suspect we needed the money and I guess I wanted to move on to other things, but I regret it a wee bit. I did pull a few favorite pieces to keep; some salad plates, a huge platter, two coffee pots, a tea pot, and two large mixing bowls, a gravy boat, and a water pitcher.

But now that I look at that photo, why didn’t I save the red bud vase? Or the other mixing bowls (Maybe I did? Maybe they’re inside the other bowls? I’ll have to look.) Or that gorgeous yellow compote on the table?

The answer, I’m sure, is that they were the priciest items and so, I sold them. I can’t remember the total price of the Fiesta I sold, but it was well over a $1000.00. Again, no eBay. I did have a computer by that point, but the only way to sell was to find a user group of Fiesta collectors. That’s how I found my buyer.

The other side of the kitchen had that sink I told you about. And there was also a nice-sized pantry. I made the pillows on the chairs from a vintage tablecloth.

I sat in the chair on the left when I got the message that my brother died. I remember that very clearly. My friend Annette, who died last year, ran downstairs to comfort me.

In my bedroom, the table/desk: For the life of me, I can’t remember how I got hold of that retro table (which I loved). Did someone give it to me? I had very little money in those days and I don’t remember buying it. I must have left it behind when I moved to San Diego. (Why, Claudia? Why?)  This is the kind of table I have always loved. So what was I thinking? I must have felt that I had no room for it in my San Diego apartment.

I wore that hat everywhere. Big brim, floppy yet stylish. I loved it.

That red chair was part of a set of four that I took out of an apartment I shared with a roommate when we were going to grad school in Philadelphia. I’m not sure if they were actual Thonet or not, but I painted them a bright, glossy red. Sadly, I left them 3 of them behind in Philadelphia because there was no room for them in the apartment I was moving to in Boston – the smallest apartment I have ever lived in. I might as well have lived in a pod.

The Cambridge apartment had hardwood floors throughout. Two big windows in the kitchen, five windows in the living room, three windows in the bedroom, a bathroom with vintage black and white tiles on the floor and a long hallway that was wide enough to house three bookcases. The living room had a lovely non-working fireplace. Eventually, Mary, the owner of the building, died and all the apartments were converted to condos. I suspect that the very elements I loved – the pantry, the kitchen sink, the tile on the bathroom floor, the hardwood floors – were tossed in the upgrade.

Sigh.

There are other photos of the apartment on the blog. Just go to the sidebar and search for “Cambridge” and “apartment.”

A little walk down memory lane. And now I’m going to search for that yellow compote on eBay. Because, when I move the fern to the porch again in a month, it would look perfect in the middle of the kitchen table. Besides, it was one of my favorite pieces.

Happy Thursday.