Magpie Cottage on Treacle Mine Road

A miniature setting should be able to stand on it's own without explanation, and I believe my Cornish cottage does that. However, since so much of this setting has memories or special meanings for me I will indulge myself and explain some of the bits and bobs that I consider quite special. In truth, this cottage has been about 20 years in the making, some of the pieces picked up during early trips to England. Once I constructed the room itself (it was a weekend project requiring my daughter's very able assistance) I found I already had most of the pieces that eventually found a home inside & outside the aged cob walls.

In Cornwall you are never far from the sea, so my resident is a fisherman with a model ship on the wall, and his nets drying outside along with a few glass floats and the odd seashell.  He is sitting down to breakfast - his wife has been up for hours and hot Cornish pasties for his lunch are cooling on the stove.

Don't miss the English Robin perched on the open kitchen window.

The table is set with a full English breakfast, a Brown Betty teapot, last weeks 'Beano' for amusement, and HP Sauce for the sausage. Someone has left a Meccano set of the Tower Bridge on the chair - I have a soft spot for the Tower Bridge My Tower Bridge Bathroom

That's a Cornishware jam pot with the cold toast.

 I knew exactly what kind of stove I wanted and I knew I needed just the right mantel. My son-in-law took on the task, choosing just the perfect piece of rhododendron branch and carving and finishing it to perfection. On it I placed a Toby Jug, pewter platter, a bottle of Beefeater's gin, ciggy's & matches - all traditional British brands. In the cupboard are more British brands - Wheatabix, Hobnobs, Smartees and all the necessary Cornishware dishes.

The magazine on the mantel is a Coronation souvenir.

For the wife, breakfast makings are just waiting to be cleaned up.

As much as I love the traditional English postbox, I love the way one finds the flat fronted mail drops stuck in the odd coutryside stone wall or cob building. Street names are also often posted on the buildings so as a massive Terry Pratchett fan I couldn't resist Treacle Mine Road for an address.

Peeping out of the barrel...what else...a hedgehog!

One last item needs to be mentioned, the cat lounging at the front of the cottage. Not just any old cat, this is THE Mousehole cat. A bit more here: Mousehole Cat

Most of the particularly English miniatures I have collected have been used in this setting. The word 'most' is important here because I find there is still a quantity of teapots to be dealt with. Stay tuned, Teapot Cottage is coming soon to a blog near you!

 More Magpie Cottage

I Love Doing My Laundry

One of the positive things about living alone, and with very little expectation of that changing, is that you can decorate any way you wish. This is even more positive if your taste in decorating leans toward the whimsical or the cluttered. In both cases, that would be me.

When I moved into my condo, faced with the normal problems of storage in such cases, I decided to put shelves in my laundry closet and paint it a lovely Cornish Blue. The shelves then became home to parts of my collections of Nippon China and Cornishware.

I firmly believe that collections should be displayed where you can enjoy them, this is in keeping with the philosophy that you shouldn't collect anything unless you love it. I do love both my Cornishware and my Nippon. Everytime I open the doors to do a load of laundry, I am delighted by the sight. Most people cannot say this.

Last week I was looking for a particular roll of tape in my tape drawer (yes, I have a tape drawer) and when I looked at the roll of blue painter's tape, I realized how close it is to the blue used in Cornishware. I thought, surely, there must be something clever I can do with this. It wasn't until I sat at my son-in-law's table and saw his roll of painter's tape that it hit me. My tape was the normal 5/8” tape, his was 2-3 times as wide. I asked him if I could have it. And being the lovely boy he is, he said yes, without even asking why. I am sure he could tell by the look on my face that I wouldn't tell him anyway.

And so.....here we are!

Soon, I will tell you what I did with my guest bathroom.

I am NOT a Hoarder...

Is a collection something you work at, or something that just happens as a result of your interests, affections, inheritances, or personal quirks?  I think it can be any of these things or a combination thereof and I suspect there are other reasons that have simply not occurred to me.  What about collections where you have lost all interest in collecting further, but still appreciate what you have accumulated? What about the collection you have inherited from your Mom or great aunt – something you are not remotely interested in but which for you hold a great fondness because of the previous owner?

I started reading a book once about people who collect, I thought I might find some insights about myself.  By the end of Chapter One I had rejected the premise that I had had a deprived childhood, that I was wreaking revenge on one of my parents for God-knows-what, or that I needed psychiatric help.  While these may all apply to a greater or lesser degree to the type of hoarder which reality TV has recently embraced, I am sure there are a great many collectors who quite simply collect because they are drawn, for whatever reason, to a certain type of object.

Yes, we sometimes overspend on our collections (I gather by now you have figured out I am a collector).  Personally I confess to a penchant for things that are numbered – things which have a finite number and a list I can gleefully check off as my collection grows.

When I was a very little girl my mother started a collection for me of little shoes – china, glass, etc.  I don’t know why she didn’t just collect them herself, but I expect she had been raised to think there was something wrong in spending money on something so patently useless, so in classic parental self-deceit she started buying me shoes.  In the interest of complete disclosure, I confess to starting a collection of small heart boxes for my daughter.  I have absolutely no idea what possessed me.  My daughter never actually collected heart boxes on her own and I never actually collected shoes.  But after disposing of the majority of the collection when I was in my forties, I now have a small collection of shoes which I treasure.



An undusted collection of citrus juicers

My house is afflicted with a lot of collections, some of which I began determinedly and with much enthusiasm.  Some just seemed to happen…they happen like this: you see (or are given) something which pleases you immensely.  You set it out where you can enjoy it.  One day you are walking through a shop and you see something similar which pleases you as much as the original, so you buy it.  Here is where it gets a little tricky.  Everyone knows that two items do not display as artistically as three so it is just a matter of time until you find the third and voila! you have a collection.  Pretty soon people notice you seem to have a fondness for Minnie Mouse, or Brown Betty teapots, or glass paperweights and come your next birthday you realize you couldn’t stop this collection if you wanted to.



Cornishware - named after the blue skies and white cob houses of Cornwall

I expect to share most of my collections with you at some point – with information, photos, and rationalizations.  But it has to be said here and now that if you think collections are just “clutter” you may find it disturbing.  I refer you to a blog I have been following for most of this year: A Collection a Day, 2010 by artist Lisa Congdon.  I see a lot of items I grew up with, and quite a few that sit in some of my collections. 

http://collectionaday2010.blogspot.com/



This is my studio bathroom wall inspired by Lisa Congdon

The important thing about a collection for me is having at least parts of it out where I see it everyday.  I think, for the most part, I am inspired to collect visually…antique postcards, or books by certain illustrators. 

We won’t talk about the numbered, listed thing – that might actually require a few visits with a shrink.  But I promise, I have no collections of plastic margerine tubs or old newspapers...and I can still walk anywhere I want to.