I Love Finding Stuff Like This!

   Shew! Is everybody surviving the heat? It's so hot in our house. Ken and I have been grateful for our 'Fun Days' just to have a chance to relax in some air conditioning! Our cats don't seem to be bothered by the heat, and the turtle is probably glad winter is over, and reveling in the warmth. 

  We got our second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine earlier this month. I still want to say that I fully support getting the vaccine so we can kill this virus off. I do have to also say that we had somewhat the same reaction this time as the first time. We both ended the day with fevers, and the next day we felt bad, (but not as bad as the first time.), and slept on and off all day. (Well, I did. Ken had to go to work in the evening.) My fever wasn't quite as high this time, (The highest it got was about 102.8 this time.), but I think I actually had a bit of an hallucination. I was dreaming that Fuzz, (who has moved out again), was here, and that there was a giant screen TV at the foot of my bed. Fuzz was standing behind it, and we were talking about the show that was playing. I woke up, but thought it was still happening. I couldn't get my eyes open though, and kept calling out, "Fuzz! Fuzz?!" It took me a while to realize that I don't have a giant screen TV at the foot of my bed, and that Fuzz wasn't here. I did finally get myself straightened out, and it was at that point that I decided I needed to do something about my fever! I got a wet wash cloth for my face and drank a lot of water!

  On one of our Fun Days recently I found this amazing thing.

It's a miniature wheat thresher!

Threshing machines are used to separate the wheat from the chaff. In other words, it separates the seeds from the stalks and dry, inedible stuff that covers the seeds.

Put the wheat in the funnely bit at the top...I think.

It's slightly smaller than 1/6 scale, comparing it to Tammy World, the doll 11 year old.

Both of them are a bit deep in the grass.

But I'm not going to be too picky. I love things like this. Who would have thought I'd come across a mini threshing machine?

"You put the wheat in here?" Yes. Now step back.

I'm not sure what that little flippy handle does. It doesn't turn all the way, just wiggles back and forth. Fuzz says it opens and closes the hole in the funnely thing.

"Like this?" Will you please?!

There's a handle on both sides there.

The other handle actually turns, making the wheel turn. 

"This handle?" Yes!

If I had some miniature wheat I could really...thresh it? (Yes. That is what it's called.)

"And this paddle thing inside turns?" Yes! Keep your hands out of there!

"Why?"

I think the hole is just so you can see the paddle thing. I don't think real ones have the hole.

The  wheat slides out on this slanted part.

I don't see how putting the wheat in the funnely thing gets it to the tumbly drum thing.

  At first I was  wondering, why did someone make this, and if you went to all that work, why would you donate it to Goodwill? Was it made for a school project? If so, that was one talented school kid. It seems very professionally made, but it's obviously handmade.  Then I figured out that it's made of bamboo, not wood. I found a similar one on line, also made from bamboo. It had some kind of Asian writing on it. (Mine has no writing.) Considering it's Asian origin, is it not a wheat thresher, but a rice thresher? Do they use things like this for rice too? If anybody knows anything about such things, let me know. 

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Doll Trouble by Helen B. Griffith

   The month, and the year in general, has flown by.  I've spent the last few days working on a project not for this blog, so even though I've had this post written for a while, I only just took the pictures. The last day of the month once again crept up on me. 

  This month's doll book is "Doll Trouble" by Helen B. Griffith, with illustrations by Susan Condie Lamb. 

"Doll Trouble" is actually a sequel to the book, "Caitlin's Holiday", but it works very well as a stand alone book. As explained in "Doll Trouble", in "Caitlin's Holiday" a girl named Caitlin spots a beautiful doll at a thrift store, laying in a case of pretty, hand made doll clothes. On impulse she 'trades' the doll she has with her, for the doll in the case. 

  The doll, named Holiday, turns out to be alive. Like, really alive. She can talk, and run, and do anything a person can do. Of course, Caitlin is the only one who knows, and Holiday has to be careful not to be seen being active by anyone other than Caitlin. Caitlin fears that if people found out, Holiday would be taken away and experimented on. I wondered at first if Caitlin was just pretending that Holiday was alive, but no. She truly is.

   In "Doll Trouble" we learn that Holiday misses her custom made clothes, and is jealous of  Caitlin's old doll, Jodi, who now owns them. (Jodi is the doll Caitlin 'traded' for Holiday.) 

  Jodi and the clothes are now the possessions of a girl Caitlin knows, named Jennifer. Jennifer is pretty unpleasant and forces her company on Caitlin, and Caitlin's friend Lauren. Jennifer doesn't take good care of the clothes or Jodi, and Caitlin begins to feel sorry for the doll she abandoned. 

The sorrier she feels for Jodi, the more jealous Holiday gets. Holiday is not only jealous, but heartbroken that her friend Caitlin would rather have Jodi than Holiday.

The trouble starts when Holiday finds out that Jodi is also alive. When Jodi begins to sabotage Caitlin, Caitlin blames Holiday, and her jealousy. 

In turn, Holiday is afraid she's losing Caitlin to Jodi. Holiday and Caitlin, once the best of friends, begin to fight. 

  The ending is pretty satisfying. It's funny, adventurous, and has a cozy finale with a special surprise. I won't give it away, but I will say there is a part that's reminiscent of Toy Story. Just so you know, Caitlin and Holiday do figure out what brought Holiday and Jodi to life, but exactly how is left a mystery.  

  The book is a simple to read chapter book of 128 pages. It's recommended for ages 8 to 12, but younger kids could enjoy having the book read to them. I thought the book was fun, and just the sort of thing Emma, with her very special Emma the Doll, would have enjoyed when she was a kid. I think it's a great book for kids who love their dolls, or just kids who like a good story about friendship and a little bit of adventure. There's nothing scary here. There's nothing creepy in the live dolls. It's basically a story about friendships.

  That's this month's book. See you again soon.

I Just Discovered Milly's Miniatures! A Look at A Tiny Robin Hood

   As I have mentioned before, Ken and I have been taking one or two days a week, when he's off from work, to just take off in the car and have a 'Fun Day'. We pick a direction and just drive off. If we come to something we think is interesting, we stop. Yesterday we ended up in a town an hour or so away, and were looking for somewhere to eat, when I spotted a store that looked like it had antiques amongst it's cottagy décor items. So we went in for a look. I was looking in a showcase when Ken pointed out a little Robin Hood doll. He was about 3 and a half inches tall, maybe, with nice detailed clothes and a tiny bow.

  He's standing on a piece of paper that says he's a 'Milly's Miniatures' and that he came 'From the birthplace of James Whitcomb Riley'. Below that, written in pencil, it says 'Robin Hood'.

He's stuck to the paper, which makes it hard to read. 

He has a velvet tunic and a brown pipe cleaner bow. I'm not sure what his feet are made of.  

I did have him out of the showcase, but I didn't think to have Ken take some pictures until he was put back and the employee had gone back to her other work. So, sorry, these are through the showcase glass and hard to see.

I was confused by the blob of fuzzy brown yarn in the lower part of his face. Is it a mustache? A furry mouth? What?

  I was quite taken with little Robin Hood, despite his weird fur blob mouth...or nose. but NOT by his price! He was $135! What?! 

  I had never heard of Milly's Miniatures. When I got home I researched 'Milly's Miniatures'. I found a picture of another Milly's Miniatures Robin Hood, and he doesn't have the blob. He does, however, have a satchel and a little arrow for his tiny bow, (which is wooden and not pipe cleaner like the other guy's.), and a feather in his hat. I could see something was missing from the other guy's hand.

This picture is from his 2018 auction listing, where he was estimated at $400 to $600!

 He was a local boy too, as his auction was in Parma Ohio. That's your neck of the woods, Barb.

I think the blob was originally a mustache. If he was made in the 1940's, the memory of 1938's "The Adventures of Robin Hood", with Errol Flynn and his tiny mustache, would have been in Milly's mind.

The outfit was certainly based on his, but where is Milly boy's tiny beard?

  It turns out that Robin was made by a lady named Mildred Davis. She made the dolls from the 40's to the 60's.  Mildred was born in 1900, and lived in Greenfield, Indiana. One thing I read said that the dolls were made to raise money for the Riley Old Home Society, at James Whitcomb Riley's birthplace in Greenfield. I hadn't heard of Milly's Miniatures, but I had heard about  James Whitcomb Riley's home though, because we see signs for it every time we go to Ivy's college. James Whitcomb Riley was a very successful poet who lived from 1849 to 1916. His work was extremely popular, and he did live readings, at one point earning $1000 a week. He was born in Greenfield Indiana, and his boyhood home is now a historical site. He later lived in Indianapolis, and the house there is a museum now, fully decorated in the furniture and style of the 1800's. Doll people may be familiar with James Whitcomb Riley's work without even realizing it. That's because Raggedy Ann was named after two of his most famous poems, "The Raggedy Man" and "Little Orphant Annie". ("Little Orphant Annie has nothing to do with the comic strip/movies/character 'Little Orphan Annie', but it is the source of the phrase 'the goblins'll get you if you don't watch out'.)

   I managed to find a picture of the little booklet that came with the dolls, that lists the dolls available. There was a group of dolls based on characters in Riley poems, a group of 'Indiana characters', and a group based on nursery rhymes. 

Ken wondered how many she would have made of each one. Good question, but I don't have an answer.

  If the dolls were 'from the birthplace of James Whitcomb Riley', that would make them strictly a local product. That would be why they were described on line as 'hard to find' and 'rare', and it accounts for that price! The only way they would originally have gotten out of the general area of Greenfield is if someone visiting Riley's home from far away bought one of the dolls and took it home with them. That's possible, since the dolls seem to have been sold as souvenirs from the home. Of course, I'm not sure how far people would have come in the 40's or 50's to see Riley's home, but they might have visited while passing through. It might also mean that a lot of local people might have visited the home and bought some of the dolls. They might be floating around here all over the place, especially in Indiana. That brings me back to Ken's question. If only one lady was making these dolls, how many could she possibly have made? Just how rare are they? Will I ever find another one 'in the wild'?

  The dolls originally came on their piece of heavy paper, like Robin Hood, inside a small box like a box jewelry comes in. There were two different size boxes because the dolls ranged from 3 to 4 inches tall, . They also came with the list, and a small paper describing the doll. The dolls have embroidered faces and cloth outfits. They seem to have a pipe cleaner armature, but I'm still not sure what those feet are. From what I can tell, it isn't metal.

  I've developed a thing for small dolls lately, like Tiny Town dolls, the Caco dollhouse dolls and the Baps dolls. Milly's Miniatures gives me another series to be on the hunt for, and-- yay!---they're local! I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for these little guys now. I'm anxious for the next time we head toward Ivy's school, not only to see Ivy, but to hunt down some of Milly's Miniatures.

Well That's One Less Thing Anyway!

   My camera problem is fixed. I'm embarrassed to say that it was really obvious. It makes me feel a little better that Ken didn't notice the problem at first either. He was switching newly charged batteries, and trying this and that. Of course, he might not have noticed what it was because it was something that shouldn't have been a problem in the first place! My memory card door wasn't closed tightly! I wouldn't have thought that would have been that big of a problem, because you can actually 'take' pictures without a memory card at all. (They aren't there when you're done, but you can go through the motions!) He said it was because there's a risk of shorting the camera or something, so the camera won't come on. Anyway, problem solved, and Ken didn't have to kill me for breaking the camera!

   So soon I'll give you a better look at some dolls I got at the doll show. As for part 2 of the doll show post, Ken and I have been trying to think of ways to get the pictures off his computer, ways that don't cost a million dollars. I suggested we could try putting the hard drive into an old computer that will actually come on. We do have one, but he thinks it might not work. (Before you ask, it will come on, but not much else.) We'll try. We have a lot of family photos on there that we need to retrieve too. I also bought some dolls online that I've been wanting. I found them for an amazing price and weirdly, no one bid against me. So I want to show you those.

  I also still have a wonderful story to tell you, with a great happy ending. That's waiting on someone else though, so that's not waiting on me.

  **Let me preface this next part by saying that I fully support getting the Corona virus vaccine. We desperately need to kill this virus off as soon as possible before it continues to mutate and becomes even more uncontrollable. Side effects are a small price to pay.** 

  As for what else I've been up to, Ken and I got our first dose of the Corona vaccine Monday. The shot didn't hurt much, as shots go, (and I am terrible with needles!), and we left feeling fine. Ken's arm was a bit sore most of the day, but I didn't even notice it. Then my shoulder/neck began to hurt when moved a certain direction, and my armpit, (lymph nodes) got achy and tender. I had a nauseous spell in the evening, but it got better. When we got home, (We were out on our 'Fun Day'.), we were both really sleepy and had a fever. Ken's was fairly low, at about 100. Mine was as high as 102.6, before I zonked out. The next day we both felt lousy, had low grade fevers, and slept on and off all day. Well,I did. Poor Ken had to go to work. I only got out of bed to pee, which, strangely, seemed to also be a thing for both of us that day. I didn't eat much, and couldn't stand drinking much either. It just didn't feel good in my mouth or taste good. That was unfortunate, since I maintained the low grade fever that went slightly up and down all day. It finally broke in the middle of the night, when I woke up sweating.

  I was pretty tired Wednesday, but had a fairly active day. Some of that tiredness could have been because it's so hot. I'm always draggy ,and feel lousy when it's hot. It didn't help that I was surely dehydrated from the fever and not drinking enough, (and peeing far too much!) The weird thing is, my hand, which had gotten to the point of all the fingers being sore and stiff, and my wrist hurting, improved during my fever. It went back and forth between how it's been lately, and almost normal. I've come to the conclusion that I may have psoriatic arthritis in that hand, because the fingernails on that hand are all lumpy too. I don't have psoriasis, but apparently the joint pain and stiffness can come first. Unfortunately, another of the symptoms is fatigue. No kidding?  I have so many things that can cause fatigue that it's a wonder I am ever awake. (To be honest, I'm not awake that much.)

  So that's what's going on. A post with pictures is coming soon! I promise!

World Doll Day and Some Updates

   Ken and I are still borrowing Emma's ancient computer. We still haven't gotten the other doll show pictures off Ken's computer, so part two of that post is still on hold. I was going to show you what I bought at the doll show, but then I remembered that all my camera batteries are dead, and my charger has disappeared! (What did I say last time? It's always something!) So that will happen when I get my batteries charged.

  To update about my fingers, you may remember I was having trouble with a couple of fingers on my right hand being sore and stiff. Well, it has never completely left, but there have been days when it was better. At the moment it's worse. It's more fingers, and my thumb, and has been extra stiff and painful. It may not be much, but I swear all the fingers are a bit swollen too.It has made it hard, or at least painful, to do things. It probably didn't help that I mowed the grass yesterday. 

  One day when the fingers weren't too bad I did some sewing and started to repair the big Linnea doll we found on the highway. I reattached the back of her head and her shoulder/neck. and sewed her legs where they had started to come off. I still need to put her one arm back on. That will wait until my hand is better, because the last work I did on her made it worse. 

  That reminds me. There are still a few dolls left from the ones we found on the highway. Still available are the sugar sack doll, the hand painted doll that needs resewn, the hand painted 'Wood n' Folks' doll, and the felt policeman with a stockinette face. If anybody is interested in a free doll, (but for the cost of shipping), don't forget to leave a comment on the original post that's linked above, and let me know which one you want, your address so we can figure shipping cost, and your email address so we can let you know. Beth in WV, don't forget to comment with your address so I can send you the postal cost for the doll you wanted.

  Thursday was Emma's 30th birthday, so we celebrated with her, her boyfriend AJ, her friends Zack and Erin, and, surprise! Ivy! We didn't know she was coming from Indiana, so that was great. She stayed until Saturday morning, so we got to spend a little time with her. She is staying in Indiana over the summer because she's doing an internship at the theatre. Emma celebrated turning 30 by getting nostalgic. She was thrilled with the rerelease of Pepsi Blue, one of her favourite drinks. She got some of that in, along with Doritos 3D, and Crispy M&Ms. The story behind the M&Ms is that Ken used to work in a store that sold the Sunday paper. He used to bring home all the leftover ads from it to get the weekly coupons. One week Emma scoured the papers and tore out all the coupons for free Crispy M&Ms, and spent the summer redeeming them. She ordered Papa John's pizza for lunch, which was one of the things we frequently did for her childhood birthday parties. To carry on the nostalgia I brought and hung one of her childhood Happy Birthday banners, and we gifted her with, amongst other things, a very soft mini Pooh Bear, since when she was a child we called her Pooh Girl.

  World Doll Day is coming up soon, on June 12th. 

 

You may have read about World Doll Day here or elsewhere. If not, you can read about World Doll Day at their website HERE. WDD encourages giving a doll to someone special on the day. It's also a nice day to give to children's charities, or to gift a needy child with a doll or other appropriate toy. The National Federation of Doll Collectors has online events planned. You can check out their page and keep up with what they're planning HERE.

 That's it for today. I'll see you again soon, when I get my camera batteries charged!

The Doll Book of the Month Club: Behind the Attic Wall

   This month's Doll Book of the Month Club book is "Behind the Attic Wall", by Sylvia Cassedy, and originally published in 1983.

  This is a creepy book, I have to say. I started it once before, and gave up. It takes a bit of getting into. Some kids may get bored before the really interesting stuff comes up, but hang in there. It gets quite creepy.

  The book concerns a girl named Maggie. Maggie is around 11 or 12 years old. After her parents were killed in a car accident Maggie bounced from one foster home and boarding school to another. As the book opens she has been sent to live with her aunts, after being thrown out of yet another boarding school. It seems Maggie has been something of a problem at all the boarding schools she's been in. The aunts' house she's sent to was once a school too. In fact, the classroom is still there, unchanged.

  Her aunts don't make her feel welcome, and in fact are pretty open with the fact that they don't want her there. They, and Maggie's Uncle Morris, who lives elsewhere, are Maggie's only living relatives, so they don't have much choice. Maggie doesn't like it in the big house where she feels unwanted. Of course, Maggie is pretty unlikable herself. She's been kicked out of foster homes and boarding schools for stealing and generally being a mean, disagreeable character. Her aunts give her a closet full of used, drab clothes and outdated cotton stockings that are worn with a garter belt,as well as a brand new rubber baby doll, for which one aunt has handmade pretty clothes and lace trimmed underwear. Maggie pokes the doll in the face with her thumb and tells the aunts she doesn't play with dolls.

 When Uncle Morris shows up at the house Maggie feels a little better. But Uncle Morris is likeably weird. Everything he says sounds like it's being said by a character in "Alice in Wonderland". If you've read the 'Alice' books you might know what I'm talking about: the strange, over literal answers to everything, that don't really tell you anything. That sort of  backwards reason. At one point one of the aunts, tiring of his 'jokes', tells Uncle Morris, It's time for you to take your leave." Uncle Morris responds with, "Take my leave? Where is my leave? Maggie, have you seen my leave? It's a shame to lose one's leave. Leaves don't grow on trees you know." At one point he cryptically says that Maggie is 'the one'. But at least Uncle Morris is friendly.

  Then we get into the creepiness. Maggie, who has already been creeping me out by having conversations with imaginary girls she calls 'The Backwoods girls", (They're her imaginary...not friends, really. They're not even real and she treats them badly.), starts hearing voices. The voices are faint, and seem to come from another part of the house. Maggie tries to find the source of the voices, and she eventually does. They're coming from the attic. But when Maggie enters the attic, there's no one there, just a couple of old china dolls and a broken china dog.

  The dolls are named Timothy John and Miss Christabel. They tell Maggie she's 'the right one', and that 'it's time' for her to join them. The dolls also talk in an 'Alice' type way, like Uncle Morris. (It seems more understandable with them, because they're dolls who live in an attic. It's reasonable that they don't know what things mean or how the world works. It's a little weird that they talk like Uncle Morris though.) It's not clear if Maggie is pretending the dolls talk, the way she hangs out with the the Backwoods girls, or if maybe Maggie has gone over the edge. The dolls explain that they can't be seen by anyone other than Maggie, or something bad will happen.

  It's a pretty dark story. I left it feeling that Maggie was never going to be a happy person, and maybe she would end up being a bit dangerous. It's not your happy little doll story. That's for sure. It isn't going to appeal  to everybody. Opinions of this book online range from 'beautiful' to ''terrifying'. It's described as 'Unforgettable...a beautifully written and very touching story' by the New Yorker, and 'Intricately woven...at once satire, fantasy, and tragedy', by The New York Times Book review.

  The age range for this book is listed as 8-12, grades 3-6. Sylvia Cassedy also wrote "Lucie Babbidge's  House', another creepy book with dolls. Most opinions seem to find that one even more confusing than "Behind the Attic Wall', and not as good, although some people seem to love it.

  I hate to ruin the ending for anyone, but I feel like this one needs to be told. It seems some people have trouble understanding the ending. If you don't want spoilers, this is the end of the post for you. If you want to read the book and want to read my thoughts on the ending, come back later. If you're leaving me here, I'll see you again soon. If you can't fight the urge for spoilers, read on.

***********************************SPOILERS**************************************

  Maggie's aunts' house used to be a school, run by relatives of Maggie's, a couple who died long ago. Near the end of the book, Maggie and the dolls have a party they've had planned for ages. During a game of blind man's bluff with Timothy John and Miss Christabel, Maggie gets caught in the attic with the dolls, by her aunts. The dolls instantly drop and become only dolls. Maggie can't get any response from them, even when visiting them a week later. (She has to sneak back to see them because her aunts ban her from the attic.)

  Later that day, Maggie finds Uncle Morris visiting the graves of the couple who owned the school. The long planned day of the party happens to be the anniversary of their deaths. It seems they died in a fire. The dolls in the attic had one scrap of newspaper they read all the time. There was a headline in the paper about a fire. The rest of the story was missing though. Obviously it was the couple who ran the school who died in the fire. Maggie realizes Uncle Morris has something to do with the dolls being 'alive', and she begs Uncle Morris to 'bring them back'. Uncle Morris gives his usual 'Alice' type answers at first, but then he gets contemplative, and says he will, 'When it's time." Shortly afterward, Uncle Morris dies of a heart attack.

  Maggie  is adopted, and leaves the aunts' house. The last lines in the book are Maggie, in her new home, with two sisters, remembering the last moments before she left the aunts' house. She had gone to the attic one last time, and found the dolls 'alive' again. She tells them she will visit again one day, and it will once again be just the three of them and the china dog.. The dolls correct her, saying, "Four." Maggie looks around to see a small bowler hat and walking stick like the ones belonging to Uncle Morris, only doll sized.  Timothy John and Christabel are obviously the couple who died in the fire, and obviously, Uncle Morris' spirit will be inhabiting a doll too, and joining them and their china dog. 

    It's a creepy ending. Had Maggie had been hanging out with ghosts the whole time, in the form of haunted or possessed dolls? What did Uncle Morris have to do with the whole thing? Did he somehow put the spirits in the old dolls? Did he control them? (Why did they talk like him if they were the school couple?) Otherwise how did he 'bring them back' when he died? Why is he becoming a doll too? Some people have said that maybe anybody in the family who dies becomes a doll. But Maggie's parents never became dolls. Somebody online suggested that Maggie only imagined Uncle Morris had anything to do with the dolls being 'alive', and that she only imagined Uncle Morris 'becoming' a doll, so she wouldn't have to lose him completely. Maybe Maggie imagined the dolls being alive in the first place, the way she imagined the Backwoods Girls. Maybe Maggie is a little touched. Maybe we aren't meant to be able to explain everything.

 

  

What Else Can Happen?

    Well, my luck is holding out. That's sarcasm, by the way. First my computer died last year, and I was forced to use Ken's. Then last week Ken's computer died. We ordered new computers, but they won't be here until July. So, we were lucky enough to be able to borrow Emma's old computer. Then there was another problem. Emma's 'old computer' really is old. We bought it for her when she was about 18. She's about to turn 30. Her computer is so old that it won't except updates any more. When we got it from her, her browser wouldn't support Blogger. That helps! So she said we could download another browser. We did, leaving her original browser on the computer because it had all her stuff already on it. So I was ready to get the second part of the doll show post up. I had it ready except for loading the pictures. But when I tried to load the pictures onto the computer, the memory card didn't show up. Ken got it to show up, but the computer wouldn't take any pictures because it was now too full, thanks to the other browser we downloaded. Ken said I could load the pictures straight from the memory card. So he set that up for me. I was sure I had left the pictures on the memory card when I did part one. Well guess what! I didn't! The rest of the pictures are on Ken's computer! So now I can't post part 2 unless we find some way to get the pictures off Ken's computer! It's always something!

 

  "In other news", this month marks my 8th blogaversary. You can read my very first post, about why I collect dolls, and what else I collect...and collecting in general HERE. I was going to do a giveaway to celebrate, but with all the computer goings-on I didn't. So, to celebrate getting the new computer up and running, I'll be doing the give-away then. Stay tuned for more details as we wait for the computer.           

  Next up: The highway dolls. You may remember, a few posts back, reading about the dolls Ken and I rescued from the highway. Debbie from Black Doll Collecting did indeed adopt the little mask faced doll in pink and white gingham. Beth in WV, your Diane Durand doll awaits you. Just message me with your address for figuring postal costs. Other than those two, nobody has asked about any of the poor highway dolls. I really can't keep them, as I have too many dolls I do want already, and want more. And I don't want to donate them, because their...'injuries' will surely get them trashed. I'd rather give them to someone who would like to try and rehabilitate them. It seems especially a shame to throw away the handmade ones. Someone put a lot of work and artistry into them. Most of them will just need a stitch here and there and some clean up.  Some will require a bit more work than that. They'd make a nice project for a warm summer when you're relaxing, or a cold winter when it's too cold to do anything besides nestle down in front of the fire or the TV with a nice cozy doll project. So if anybody would like one, or more, of the highway dolls, just leave a comment letting me know which doll or dolls you want, your address, for figuring the postal cost, and your email address, so I can contact you. Comments aren't made visible until I do so, so I will make sure your information isn't published. 

  So I'll be back in a day or so with the Doll book of the Month. Eventually I hope to be able to show you some handmade dolls I saw at the doll show, especially since I took the artist's card and promised I'd publish her details in the post. I also have a great story to tell you. (And it will have pictures!)  So it won't stay quiet around here.