Mockingbird Hill Cottage — Page 925 — Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Through My Window

March 20, 2017 at 9:25 am by Claudia

Imagine my delight when I saw these two sitting on the branch of a tree on the edge of the woods.

I love my mourning doves. I’ve been hearing them for while now, but this is the first time I’ve seen them.

This guy was on the tree near corral. (All of these photos were shot through the window in the kitchen door.)

In the midst of all the snow, these sightings give me hope that Spring will eventually come. I know today is officially the start of Spring, but…piles and piles of snow.

Though it is melting.

Today I’m going to gather together everything I will need in NYC. Tomorrow morning, I head south to the city to work on Anastasia. Though I’ll miss my little cottage, I am so looking forward to seeing it on stage at the Broadhurst!

We will ignore the elephant in the room: Don left about a half hour ago. I cried. I’m having a hard time with it.

The winner of Big Ideas for Small Spaces is Sandra. Sandra, I’ve sent you an email and I need your mailing address. Congratulations!

Another gardening book and giveaway is on the docket for tomorrow.

Happy Monday.

We Need a Whole Lot of Comfort Food

March 19, 2017 at 9:52 am by Claudia

Our reward for a snow-laden week:

Grandma’s Cloud Biscuits. Ummm! We haven’t had them in a long, long time. And frankly, we were too tired to deal with them earlier in the week. We’ll have some leftover for tonight’s dinner and maybe a couple for Don to take on the road.

We need a whole lot of comfort food.

Plan change: they’re running behind on Anastasia, so they won’t be having a run-through on Monday evening. I won’t be going in until Tuesday. Since they’re paying a lot for my hotel room, they’ll save a little money this way. At first, I was disappointed as we’ve worked this whole thing out so that both of us are leaving at the same time. After thinking about it a bit, I’m fine. It gives me a little time to organize after Don leaves. And, let’s face it, 6 nights in a hotel can get old quickly, so trimming it to 5 is okay by me.

And I can concentrate on helping Don get ready on this, our last day together for a while.

I can’t go there.

Fourteen Nancy Drews. Since I’m collecting volumes 1-26, I’m more than halfway there.

What did we do before we installed these shelves in the den? We’ve been here 11 years and most of that time we were shelf-less. Now, I can’t imagine life without them. When I’m sitting in my chair in the den, I constantly find my eyes drifting toward them. To yours truly, books are the best decoration. They say so much about a person, don’t you think?

If I had room, I’d build even more.

I’ve just started Jane Casey’s newest, Let the Dead Speak. I’ve reviewed some of her books and I am a big fan. We’re twitter friends and when I saw her tweeting about her book being published in Britain, I asked her when it was coming out in the States. Not until July. But then I visited Amazon and clicked on the British title and found I could get it through the Book Depository’s US branch. Whoo hoo! It arrived on Thursday and I started it last night. I’m taking it and Mo Hayder’s Birdman along with me to NYC.

And my Kindle. Because I live in fear of not having enough to read, so I always take more than I need.

By the way, The Dry by Jane Harper was excellent! It takes place in Australia and is beautifully written. It’s fairly new and I got it from my local library.

Have to go. There’s a lot to be done today, not the least of which is spending time with my husband.

Happy Sunday.

Fabrics in a Box

March 18, 2017 at 9:48 am by Claudia

I decided to stop (at least for a while) my monthly subscription to SquintBox. It’s been wonderful, but I feel that I have all I need at the moment. I’m not working on anything, have no place to put the little minis except in storage, so…that’s it for a while.

As I was looking at quilters’ blogs the other day, I came across a modern quilter who was writing about a modern fabric subscription box called Culcita. I was very intrigued. You can set it up in any number of ways and I chose the bimonthly subscription. Why? I could use some modern fabrics in my stash, I don’t have a quilt store nearby, and I thought this would be the perfect way to gather some fabrics I wouldn’t see otherwise. So, every other month, I’ll get a little box from Culcita.

Like this one:

It arrived in my mailbox yesterday (2 day priority mail!)

12 fat quarters; this month from Art Gallery Fabrics’ Take Shape line.

Lovely. Beautifully presented and such fun to open.

Included was a lovely handwritten welcome note, and a card highlighting this month’s fabric line.

Also included was a quilt pattern and two labels. Oh, and a fortune cookie with the fortune reading:

Eat, Sleep, Sew. Any questions?

This isn’t a sponsored post or anything like that. I’m just writing about it because it’s such a neat idea. Subscription boxes are the new thing, for books, minis, makeup, food, you name it. I’m not one who signs up for these things as a rule, but this particular subscription has a very fair price and I figure I can handle it every other month.

Okay. Now I have to run some errands before it starts snowing. Again. Only a couple of inches, but come on! Enough already. We’re both in prep mode, gathering together what we need to pack. In Don’s case, it’s obviously more complicated. I’m only gone for 6 days.

Happy Saturday.

Through My Window

We Need a Whole Lot of Comfort Food

Fabrics in a Box

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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