Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 825 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Winter Chores

January 29, 2018 at 9:58 am by Claudia

You’re seeing the fruits of my labor of several hours yesterday. The ice slab, which covered the entire area next to the funky patio and out beyond the orange cones, has been broken up. I worked on it off and on yesterday. Since the temps were in the forties and didn’t go below freezing overnight from Saturday to Sunday, it was the perfect time to tackle it. It’s going to get cold again by mid week and will stay cold for at least another week, so it was now or never.

I was feeling sore last night, but I feel fine this morning. I’m going to throw some salt on the area this morning and run some errands. I’m having lunch or dinner with Rick and Doug today and tomorrow I’m going to look in on their sweet dog, Sam, while they are gone for the day. Then it’s off to NYC on Wednesday morning.

My sister has good news and she blogged about it, so stop by and read up on the latest!

Oh and I have to make cookies at some point today so that some guy I know will stop saying how much he misses eating them.

I’ll be in the city on Wednesday and Thursday and then I’ll come back home on Friday as the nighttime temps are going to drop into the single digits and that means running a drip. Maybe I’ll tackle that last wall in the kitchen? It needs a coat of yellow paint.

Happy Monday.

Organizing

January 28, 2018 at 10:20 am by Claudia

Yours truly here; sore as heck and pretty darned tired after a day spent cleaning out the den closet. The closet had become a black hole where stuff was piled so high that we could barely get the door open and I couldn’t summon up the energy to tunnel down to my toolbox. For over a year, I’ve been thinking that I needed to add inexpensive shelves to one side of the closet because it was clear to me that we needed a vertical solution to the mess.

Once I get an idea in my head, coupled with the energy to take it on, I don’t stop until it’s done. I took everything out of there, sorted through old VHS tapes, CDs, and DVDs, marking some for the Salvation Army, some for our storage space, and the rest for here. I grabbed two unused bins from the shed and filled them with CDs. I folded up the heavy iron CD shelf we were using and which was taking up valuable space. That all went to storage. I saved some CDs that we were likely to want to play. We figure if we really have an itch for anything that isn’t here, we can easily grab it from storage. In other words, if I’ve made a mistake in my keep/store decisions, it can be remedied. We do still listen to CDs. I have a nice Bose CD player and I’m not a big fan of Spotify, or even Pandora, though I do use Pandora occasionally. (I have issues with the way they screw over the recording artists, who see very, very little money from those streaming apps. I like to buy the music directly so that the money goes to the artist.)

Anyway, all that was sorted, two bags were taken to the dump, shelves were purchased at Lowes. I put the shelves together and put everything away and the whole thing is very satisfying. However, that made two days in a row of heavy lifting and my back is complaining today.

The only other thing I did was switch the position of two chairs at the kitchen table. It suddenly struck me that the green Hansel and Gretel chair (that’s what I call it) would look more interesting when viewed from the living room and den. I was right.

Today? A quick visit to the grocery store and rest.

Happy Sunday.

Thoughts on a Saturday Morning

January 27, 2018 at 10:14 am by Claudia

I’m sitting in the den, sipping my second cup of coffee, listening to classical music and feeling grateful that the sun has made an appearance.

Actually, I’m feeling grateful in general. I miss Don and wish I was with him this weekend, but we’ve come to the conclusion that it’s winter out there and visits will be decided by weather conditions. And coaching conditions. I work on Anastasia on Wednesday and Thursday this week, so I’ll most likely go in on Wednesday morning.

Taking a brief break.

I’m back. Don called and we chatted for a while. I love our morning phone calls. They sort of ground me for the day ahead.

Does this ever happen to you? You’re reading an article in a shelter magazine or even on a site like Houzz or Design Sponge and you become captivated by someone’s home and the way he/she has decorated it and then, as you’re about to finish the article, you read that they no longer live there and you’re incredibly disappointed?

That happened to me this morning as I was looking at a home in one of those special editions of Country Home magazine (which, it turns out, is a reprint, but since I didn’t see it the first time, I’m okay with it.) The house is in upstate New York and it was so individual and quirky and charming. And none of the furniture or pictures or accessories are there any longer. Makes me sad. Of course, with the time that elapses between photographing the space and actual publication, many things can and do change. I get it. But I always feel a wee bit let down.

I think I’m going to tackle the closet in the den today. It’s a black hole that has never been used in an efficient manner and since storage space is lacking in this house, I need to address it. I have some ideas, which include dumping all the VHS tapes that are stacked up on the top shelf. Really, Claudia? When is the last time you watched one? Why are they still there???

Happy Saturday.

Winter Chores

Organizing

Thoughts on a Saturday Morning

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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