It is so cold here this morning! It’s now 9 am and I’ve been up for 3 hours – Don has been up even longer – and the house is still cold. Trying to stay positive, but cripes!
It’s sunny in that way it is on very cold days. This particular weather pattern is going to be here for at least 5 days. If we start going crazy here, I’ll be sure to let you know.
I finished the puzzle yesterday afternoon. I LOVE this illustration, which is straight out of my favorite era. The title of the illustration is “Swan Cottage.”
Can I live there, please?
Had to pause to warm up my hands.
Okay. What else? I played with dolls.
This outfit arrived in the mail a few days ago, all the way from China. This incredible seamstress goes by Quilizio on Instagram. Over the course of the past few months, I’ve studied her hip and contemporary designs. I really love them. But as sometimes happens, I couldn’t find a place to purchase them. So I contacted her through a Direct Message. She couldn’t be nicer. I ordered the outfit below.
The jacket has a hood. I cannot tell you how exquisite her stitching is! There are tiny white buttons that actually work, strings coming from the hood, and the white blouse has a beautiful button closure on the back. She made the leggings as well. Also: the boots. You can’t see them well here, but here’s a better picture:
She even scuffs them up!
She’s pretty darned amazing. I can’t conceive of doing this tiny work and doing it so beautifully.
And, just because she’s so pretty, here’s a closeup of Imogen.
Still cold. I’m going to go make some hot oatmeal in a minute.
Happy Saturday from Ice Station Zebra.
Stay safe.
while i am not into fashion, some inspiration is needed here. thank you for that.
hope you’re feeling warm and cozy, have a good day ahead.
slow start here. am okay with that.
kathy
ps … i’d say that you are living in a home even better than the home on that puzzle!
I’m not into fashion at all – for me. But I am sure am into it for my girls.
Stay safe, Kathy!
Bundle up and snuggle up with Don! It will be Spring before we know it as time flies these days! January is almost over already! Stay warm and stay healthy!
Thanks, Ellen!
Stay safe.
Just got out fuel delivery bill! Looks like I will be adding more clothing layers. Yes, the sun is out but no warmth here on Long Island. I was told we all need at least 20 minutes of sun exposure daily. I will be sharing a spot near the window with my blooming orchid plant today. Enjoy your cozy looking home and bundle up. Love your doll family . Beautiful skin tones. Where do they live? Is there a special place for them in any of your tiny homes? Stay safe and warm.
They live on the top of the music cabinet in the den. That’s where all the ‘group’ pictures have been taken.
They’re too big for my dollhouses. They are 1:6 scale and the dollhouses are smaller – 1:12 scale.
Stay safe, Maria.
OMG, that outfit is so adorable!
I know! I love it.
Stay safe, Lynda.
We watched the “News Hour” last night and they did a piece on Afghanistan and how the people are now suffering terribly under the Taliban.The extreme cold and no food , the children suffering. I wanted to reach into the tv and grab the children.I just can’t get them out if my mind.
Yes it is sooooo very cold here but I am sitting next to my wood stove. I keep asking my husband what can we do?
Maybe just give more to World Vision and pray the Taliban don’t take it.
Sorry for this rant, guess I am just a bleeding heart liberal. We have just so much to be thankful for.
It’s not a rant. It’s a reality and it’s heartbreaking. I understand. We feel the same way.
Stay safe, Linda.
Absolutely love her sweet dog. A wire-haired fox terrier!! I recently lost my sweet Isabel wire in early November. They are feisty but remarkably smart breed.
Shanna, who also comments on this blog, has a wire-haired fox terrier, as well. I’m so sorry that you lost your girl, Cindy. It’s always heartbreaking to lose a beloved pet. Sending you hugs.
Stay safe.
Oh, Cindy, I’m so sorry you’ve lost your Isabel. I’ve been smitten with the breed since the seventies and have had those painful losses, too. Our third is in her waning days and we are grateful for every moment she may have left. They do work their way into our hearts.
Shanna, so we have in common a dog nearing the end. Can I return a comment of comfort then, that I’ll be thinking of you, too; and pray for peace and love with your dog, every single day you still have together.
A fox terrier of any kind was my mother’s favorite breed. I’m so sorry you lost Isabel last November.
Claudia, you and Don should look into purchasing a small wood stove. They are not that expensive and would keep you both toasty and keep down your fuel bills if you use it as supplemental heat. A cord of wood would see you through winter, and you could probably get wood off your own land. I lived in Vermont and this worked really well for us.
We’ve thought of that, but we have absolutely no room for one between all the windows we have and the lack of available space. It’s furniture or a stove. That’s about it.
Thanks, Janet.
Stay safe.
Are Sophie’s eyes as amber colored as they appear on my screen? Beautiful.
Yes. But she has three other colors, as well1
Stay safe, Shanna.
All I can say is WOW to the new clothes!! Those boots are amazing!
My husband just said to me it’s warming up it’s 24. :)
57 more days until spring! I know we will have snow in March but at least it will melt quickly.
Sit in the sunny chair while you read!
xo
24 here, too.
Yes March snow isn’t so bad. This snow isn’t going anywhere soon!
Stay safe, Betsy.
Will it ever warm up? Of course it will….eventually. We have two or so days of decent…then drop to two or three days of frigid. But, the sun is setting later…so I’ll take that as a win.
Imogen is so stinking’ cute…love that outfit. Stay warm! ;)
We’re just in frigid right now. Yes, the sun is setting later. That’s nice.
Stay safe, Donnamae.
I have a relative living in Pittsburgh in a vintage home she purchased a couple of years ago; the furnace went out on Thursday morning. The temps outside are above zero right now, but I think on one of the days it got down to one degree above zero. The furnace was finally repaired this morning. Her indoor temperature even with space heaters (but with the absence of a working fireplace) has been in the 50s; and the even worse thing for her, because I’m betting she drinks 20 cups of coffee a day, was that the coffeemaker wouldn’t work.
Thank you for pointing out the exquisiteness of the doll clothes; I have so much appreciation for people who can sew, especially when it comes to the tiny garments.
I’ll share this and then I won’t talk about it again.
It’s been a long three months about our elderly dog, but we did a fair amount of diagnostic work during this time (is that the right word ..?.. diagnostic? … having veterinarians do more things to try to find out what is happening). We tried to do what wasn’t going to be too hard on her, but we needed more facts about the dog’s condition to help us with our decision-making as to her failing health. (She has had some good days and bad days [she’s old; back legs are weak]; but, mostly, she’s quite perky and alert; obviously dogs will try to mask anything wrong with them; but as the human ‘parent’/’owner’, you’re aware of change; the subtleties.) Of course there’s the factor of her age (large-breed dog nearing age 13), the irreversible spinal condition/hip thing which makes those back legs very unstable to where she is now risking a fall and apparently her bones are brittle; she’s gone almost completely deaf although we can monitor that and keep her very safe; and I guess it might have been a warning sign(?) that she had a small tumor on her nose earlier this year which we chose to remove but not biopsy, so I don’t know how much of a mistake that was on our part (it seems it would have made no diff; my thinking is just confused right now; I tend to want to beat myself up on stuff like this), but the critical new information is that the lump in her abdomen is likely cancer than not; and that the tumor is, for her, inoperable. It was always inoperable because of its location. It is wrapping around the liver; a large mass (larger than the vets had guessed), pressing on other internal organs like the spleen.
Because she has some anemia now and is losing weight, the one vet says she doesn’t think our dog could even make it thru an exploratory surgery for biopsy (much less an actual removal of the tumor) without bleeding out. So, there is no hope. We are at the end.
We’ve done all we can to fact-find without it stressing out the dear, very-shy and sensitive dog. For the short-term, we have some medications to help (palliative care) but we have to be in the planning stages now of ‘how soon’ (my husband almost had the vet euthanize her this morning after the final ‘report’, but I wasn’t with him, I wasn’t going to go thru this via phone; we wouldn’t be able to be with the dog for her last moments as the clinic has had an outbreak of Covid so no ‘owner’ is allowed inside the premises with their dog; we need a couple of days anyway for this to settle in with us). It can’t be long for her; we have to be brave, do the right thing; we absolutely will NOT wait too long, to just make it easier on us; believe me, in other years, we hung on for too long and it did not benefit the pets. I was glad to be given a resource of someone who will come to our home for a quiet, peaceful passing with comfort sedation and humane euthanasia.
My husband and I have been facing the certain inevitability here for awhile, but this is our ‘child’ and probably our last dog for our lives, so we don’t even know what to do with ourselves today; can’t focus on any real task or project or anything. I think I’ll go out in the car, look at something different for an hour (just don’t park under a tree with this very-gusty Santa Ana wind today [which is taking down trees in this particular event for the L.A. ‘basin’, I don’t know why more than at other times]). What will we do without our protector, best friend and biggest stress reliever, our sweet girl dog? But I know we’ll get through it. And we will not be selfish; we will not let our beloved dog suffer and further fail. (That was a big question this morning with this particular vet, in terms of assessing ‘suffering’ and pain; we’ve got a little bit of time; not much.) We’re not ‘special’ or unique; I know we all try to do the right things for our pets.
We’ve had too many people now who we personally know to have succumbed from Covid; there’s such a weight of grief out there in the world for our fellow humans. But we have our own grief in this house today. It’s hard.
Claudia, I know you know. Thank you for letting me spill. But I promise not to talk about it again. It’s a hard year for everybody so far; we need uplifting things, not sad things.
You may talk about this as often as you want/need to. Do not even think of editing yourself when you’re facing this impending loss, Vicki.
I talked a lot about both Riley and Scout as we headed toward those decisions. I needed to. You need to.
I am so very, very sorry to hear this news. I know you’ve been dreading this – worrying about your aging girl. It is beyond hard, it’s damn near impossible to come to terms with the loss of a beloved family member. I miss all my dogs, but since she was with us the longest, I especially miss Scout. It’s six years later and I can still feel her, remember everything about her and sometimes the pain is so intense, I can’t stand it.
We waited too long with Scout. Most definitely, we did. I was away working in Hartford. So we delayed something we should have done because of the logistics. I regret that to this day and I have asked her forgiveness repeatedly. I’m glad you and your husband are united in making sure her suffering is minimal.
It’s been a dreadful time for everyone but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t share our sadness and grief. My thoughts are with you Vicki. And with your husband. Please keep us informed. Please share your feelings when you need to.
xoxo
Claudia
Ah, Claudia. Thank you. It’s hard for me to hold back tears when you are SO KIND to me.
I too have been running thru my mind, all our dogs during our married life but even the dogs I grew up with (my first family; with my mom and my dad and my little brother), remembering the difficult endings when instead my husband says to stop focusing on THAT and instead think about the whole scope of the pets’ lives when, sure, maybe we made a mistake here and there (like not realizing a border collie needs daily activity and a ‘job’ for optimum wellbeing [what can I say; we were younger and clueless but well-intentioned, living on the Gulf Coast; the vet said it was too hot for her to be outside; my husband and I were away at jobs all day; she didn’t have enough stimulus indoors although she had three other canine companions {but how I found her … drenched and parasite-filled, skinny, down in a bayou/thicket; lost; it took my whole lunch hour to coax her out of there, in the rain; what was her future had I left her there, and the vet … he was a good one … said to me, “why can’t you just keep her, because you’re doing this dog no favors if you try to find the neglectful owner” but nobody came forward anyway}]; and I’ve been doing some cursing over advice of other vets thru the years … although we really only had one veterinarian who was, sorry to say, not such a good one … who thought the ultimate thing was to keep a dog or cat alive at all costs [extend life with a new and grim diagnosis when, for instance, our blind cocker was already age 15?], such that we know we put some of our pets thru too many surgical procedures, or medicines that were difficult for them, etc.) but mostly, like any loving pet ‘parents’, we tried to do what was right for our canine and feline ‘kids’.
So, remember the good times. Such LOVE they gave to us!
As I sit with her in her ending days now, studying her closely, I’m keeping a journal of this precious dog’s winning ways. I don’t want to forget a thing. Barely weaned, she was dumped in 2009 at a nearly-abandoned house on a half-acre/weedy corner in our hilly neighborhood which backed up to a remote canyon (thank God she didn’t wander further). It was a hot-hot-hot summer day; she had no water; was ravenous; just a 9-week-old baby thing (BIG baby; she looked older than she was). We don’t know how long she’d been there but it was at least 12 hrs; probably double that; she was riddled with fleas and had foxtails in her ears. From wherever she came, she was only their trash. But it was their loss, because she was our treasure. Our gift. She is perfect; always was, then and now.
Claudia, again, I appreciate your generosity; your empathy; your heart. Your words mean a lot to me and I will read them to my husband.
Much love to you.
xoxo
I am so humbled by the support of you and your readers; stunned at the heartfelt comments left for me about my dog. In a world which I sometimes think is unkind, kindness reigns on Mockingbird Hill Cottage blog. I am so grateful for this community. So grateful that you dedicate so much time and energy here, Claudia; so that we have you and everyone who comes here.
But I must step away for a little while. Get thru this next week or two. I’m pretty worried about my husband; he has his own unique bond with the dog. But I feel like I have a warm cloak around me of people who care; maybe it gives me something more I can give to him, what you all here have given to me. Thank you.
Take all the time you need, my friend. We are here and we’ll be here when you return.
Love to your husband, as well.
xo
Vicki, I’m so sorry that you are also going through the loss of your sweet dog. I know it is painful and I have no wisdom to offer, but I do feel for you. ((Virtual hugs.))
Just the fact that you commented means so much. Thank you, Shanna.
Oh, Vicki, I am so sorry for what you are going through at this time. These losses hurt so very very much. We have been married 49 1/2 years and have lost several dogs and cats, and each time it is heart wrenching. I can remember each and every one of them. It is the joy we experience when they are with us that allows us to make the decision to go through this more that once. Know that many of us are thinking about you and your husband and your sweet girl. ♡
Chris K, I am so touched by your words; thank you for writing; you just can’t know what it means to me … your kindness … when I’m feeling so wretched. We’ve been talking a lot of why we keep going thru the loss of pets (why do we do this to ourselves, again and again; it’s too hard) but it is, as you say, so joyful to be gifted with the love and companionship of our canine and feline friends.
Vicki I am so so sorry for the pain you and your husband are going through.
There are no words
But, Linda, there are words, because I have yours. Thank you, more than you know.
oh, vicki …
i am so sorry for what you all are going through. praying for you all to have peace about that decision and the comfort of happy memories and of God’s promises of eternal life.
keep taking care of yourself, too.
sending hugs if you want.
kathy
…hugs I want, and I’m glad I have yours, kathy; you are always the nicest person for everyone here on Claudia’s blog, and I appreciate your prayers and healing thoughts…
We’ve been in that position and it isn’t fun. I’m glad her furnace was repaired today. I imagine it took a long time for her house to heat up.
Stay safe.
I don’t ‘do’ social media but my husband read aloud her Facebook post which was full of wit and good humor about the temporary situation; believe me, the bigger deal than the cold was the coffeemaker!
xo
That puzzle picture is so beautiful and would great hung in your cottage! Also, the new doll outfit is amazing! So sorry to read about all the sadness from the comments of others. We’re living in a hard time, but how nice to have like-minded people to share thoughts with!
This group is so supportive and wonderful, Jenny.
Thanks so much.
Stay safe.
“This group is so supportive and wonderful…” — amen to that, Claudia.
They are. And you are a big part of that.
xo
ONE HOME I Lived in 3500 square feet
Too big to hear
Wood burner drove us out
We found small led type heater
It heated two rooms cheaply and safe
Liked it so much put one upstairs
I have an elderly friend in Indiana whom ises the fireplace thing that stands alone
My favorite was in my home
Gas logs
The best ever
Good luck
Thanks, Brenda!
Stay safe.
I am catching up on blogs. My dear younger sister died Jan. 6. She had fought cancer for over a year. I thought of your sweet sister and wondered if she could guide you on knitting for your girls? I was in freezing Mn. with my family but now back in nice warm Fl.
I am so very sorry, Gayle. Bless you and your family. Having lost my brother many years ago – also to cancer – I know how difficult this is. Sending you love.
Meredith could help me, but she’s extremely busy right now, so I’m going to see what i can do on my own.
Stay safe, Gayle.
Gayle, I am so sorry for the loss of your sister; deepest sympathy; cancer is awful (I know of what I speak; I’m in remission). I hope the warm light and bright sun of beautiful Florida brings you daily healing for each day ahead. Take care.
That puzzle is divine! And the little dog — the very best. He’s such a gem and darling with the girls! (Love the socks, too!)
Thank you, Jeanie!
Stay safe.