Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

The Studio and the Impending Snow

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A bit more prep this morning and then we wait. The snow isn’t going to start until late afternoon and then it will fall heavily overnight and well into Sunday. We may not even be able to start snow blowing until Monday morning. Still a forecast of six to ten inches, which was the prediction a few days ago.

We’ll try to get a walk in today because it will be a few days until we can get back on schedule. The pie is made, Don’s gig went well, I’m still debating whether to pack away the ornaments today so I can just leave the lights on the tree until sometime next week. Still no needle drop and I added water to the base yesterday, so we’re good to go.

I watched Moonstruck  on TCM last night when Don was at his gig. A perfect movie on every level. Just a gem! I very seldom laugh out loud when I’m watching something alone, but I sure did last night. On my heavens, what a pleasure it is.

Some more photos of the studio. You have no idea how small my cubicle is and how hard it is to take a photo with so little room in which to maneuver. And the Beacon Hill blocks much of the light. Nevertheless, I try!

I’m having a hard time lately with WordPress. The quality of my photos, which I see clearly in my editing app, degrades the moment I upload the photo to WordPress. It’s really frustrating! This photo is much clearer in reality than you see here. I’ll have to do some research and see what I can find out about this problem.

Now, this photo is supposed to be blurry, so we’re good.

 

I’ll share some more photos on Monday. As well as snow photos, of course.

Okay, my friends.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

Snow on the Way and Some Photos of our Studio

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We’re bracing for the big storm headed our way. The forecast is for 6 – 10 inches of snow. Yikes! Don is making a run to the grocery store this morning to get a few things for the pantry and some bottled water in case we lose power. I am not ready to take the tree down tomorrow. No. I need those lights, especially during the storm. I may take the ornaments off the tree tomorrow and store them in the their bins. That will leave the tree and the lights, which will be beautiful and simple.

Don has a gig tonight and we’re grateful it wasn’t scheduled for tomorrow night!

A shot of my cubicle/studio/office. Every inch of space is in use. The remaining pieces of McCoy that haven’t sold yet are on the sewing table. I may choose a few more for the Etsy shop.

The Gene Marshall girls. The dark haired girl on the right is a Simply Gene, as is the redhead that is third from the left. Those girls come in a basic bathing suit and are meant to be used for wearing all sorts of ensembles. I purchased the black haired Simply Gene recently as well as that black dress. The dress design is called “Love After Hours” and it’s gorgeous. The collection is fairly complete, simply because I don’t really have room for many more – maybe one or two. But I will buy some of the gorgeous ensembles that were designed for Gene. They’re very reasonably priced.

There’s that darned shelf that was a pain in the tush to install.

A glimpse of Don’s desk:

That ship was my Dad’s. Don loves it, so it’s on his desk. (Dad would be very happy about that.) Some vintage cameras, Roy and Dale (I found that at Heidi’s shop many years ago,) stationary from our favorite hotel in Paris, and his hat from Escape to Margaritaville. Oh, and bolo ties that were his father’s hanging from the frame.

Okay. We’ll walk today but right now Don is making an apple pie. We have to have pie during the snow event!

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

 

Cleaning and Organizing

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Still going strong! Though I’ve noticed it’s beginning to dry out. The putz ‘village’ has been put away, as have all the little Vintage by Crystal figurines. But the tree is staying – at least for a few days. Which brings me to our weather forecast – we may be getting a lot of snow Saturday night into Sunday. If that’s the case, I’ll probably remove and store all the ornaments and lights and have Don take the tree up into the woods on Saturday. If we get a lot of snow, then Monday will be all about digging out, which would then take us to Tuesday, and that would be pushing it.

As I said to Don yesterday, we desperately wanted snow for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Now? We’re not so crazy about the idea! And as I look ahead on the calendar, it looks like I might be dealing with snow when I have to drive to Rochester. Right now, it looks fairly benign. We’ll see…

We’ve been very committed to our daily walks, so I’m giving us a big old pat on our backs. Yesterday, we were both busy with chores and figured we’d skip it, but later in the day Don decided to go and I joined him. I’m glad I did.

The office/studio was in a bit of chaos yesterday as I decided to tackle the closet. I needed to organize a few things and the closet was full of doll boxes. It was getting ridiculous. When I buy a doll, I tend to want to keep the box (they’re a specific size) in case I eventually want to sell it. And collector dolls, like the Gene Marshall dolls, are worth more when you sell them with the original packaging.

But since the Gene Marshall dolls are inexpensive and I think my little collection is complete, I’m not going to hang on to those boxes. And I don’t need 20 Blythe boxes. So I pulled out lots of them and flattened them for recycling, which involved lots of trips up and down the stairs and then outside to the porch, where we keep the recycling. And I threw out a lot of other stuff, as well. Every inch of space in the closet is being used, but it’s much more organized. I used one of the doll boxes for the Christmas trees that were on the Blythe shelves (I even labeled the box!) And I did the same for the dollhouse trees and Christmas accessories. And the putz houses. Here’s hoping I don’t have dig them out again next year because I inadvertently moved them.  Then I vacuumed every inch of the office and our bedroom.

After that, I sent an Etsy order off in the mail and returned a book to the library – the Michael Connelly, which was excellent. I’ve just barely started Wolf Hall  and will read more of it today.

We had a nice New Year’s Day. We ate our black-eyed peas. My husband was raised by a dad who was from Oklahoma and a mom who was from Texas, so he takes that very seriously. I think it’s a lovely (and healthy) tradition. Black-eyed peas are very good for you. And we watched the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which was absolutely fabulous!

Don has to get a shot in his eye today, which always looms over the entire day, bless his heart.

Okay.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

 

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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