Mockingbird Hill Cottage

I took the Christmas decorations down yesterday – since we don’t do a whole lot of decorating, it isn’t all that time consuming – and then I moved the egg cup cubby cabinet away from the wall, which is always scary, opened the door under the stairs, and stored everything for another year. Then I moved the cabinet back, which was a bit tricky this time around, but I finally got it in place.

Then I vacuumed like crazy.

(By the way, Don broke a glass yesterday and then I proceeded to break a glass and a bowl. What’s with us? We’re down to three glasses.)

I sorted through the sheet music in our music cabinet. That cabinet was one of the very first things we bought for this house. We got it at an auction. I have a lot more music than I had remembered, some of it from my childhood, some of it from my grandmother (a hymnal, and three songs from Oklahoma, which means the sheet music is from the 40s,) and my first Beatles Songbook, which I got when I was 11 years old. I wrote the names of each of the guys under their photos – in pencil. And look what I found:

Neither of us can remember how this got here and we were shocked and thrilled to discover it! Was it in my grandmother’s music? Doubtful. Was it from my parents? Also doubtful. Was it a gift from someone after we moved to the house? Or did we find it when out antiquing and forgot about it? Either is possible.

It’s getting framed, that’s for sure.

After all the chores were done, I moved the vintage dollhouse onto the coffee table in the den to give it a cleaning. Eventually, the exterior will need an even deeper cleaning but for now, this will do.

I took some pictures.

By the way, the chimney on the roof actually connects to the fireplace. I dropped something down there by mistake and the object ended up in the fireplace.

I put this in the living room to see if the scale worked and it does.

There are arched doorways into the adjoining rooms.

The other two rooms, which are small. And I can only get into the front room from the doorways, so that will be a little awkward!

This is the opening at the back of the house and it’s the only way to get into these rooms. There’s a high, vaulted ceiling. I briefly debated painting the walls, but it would be very difficult. I can’t lay the house on it’s front because the porch is there. I think I’ll put battery operated hanging lights on the ceiling just so I can see more of the room. But that’s down the road.

A corner of the house. Aside from a deeper cleaning of the exterior, I plan to leave it alone. These shutters, by the way, are adorable. They work. They completely cover the window space.

Just playing around. I don’t really have a large stash of miniatures – a few things, but nothing like other miniaturists have. The painting is a mini Wallace Nutting given to me by Barbara. The books were in my stash.

Since I’m currently working (or not working, which is more the case at the moment) on three different houses, and since we are back on a strict budget, I’ll have to take my time. That’s what I did with my first dollhouse. I did what I could, when I could afford it.

My thoughts are still the same with this treasure. Keep it rustic – maybe a little removable wallpaper, maybe not – and honor the work of the creator. Living room, bedroom, kitchen…and we’ll assume there’s an outhouse somewhere nearby.

I really love it.

We have a wee bit of snow on the ground this morning, but once again, it’s not covering all the grass. Still, it was neat to see some snow-covered tree branches this morning.

Happy Thursday.