The Doll Book of the Month Club: The Best Loved Doll

   This month's Doll Book of the Month Club entry was a recent suggestion from our reader, RagingMoon1987. It's a book I read to my kids when they were little. This month's book is "The Best Loved Doll", by Rebecca Caudill.

  The book concerns a little girl named Betsy, who is invited to a party at her friend Susan's house. The invitation says each guest should bring a doll. At the party there will be prizes given for the Oldest Doll, the Best Dressed Doll, and the doll who can do the most things. Betsy debates which doll to take. She has a beautiful bride doll, in a gown that might win best dressed. She has a mechanical doll that can sew, who might win the prize for the doll who can do the most things. She even has her great grandmother's doll, who might win oldest doll. And then there is her doll, Jennifer. Jennifer is well loved and well worn. Her face is damaged, she has lost a shoe, and her dress is ragged. Betsy considers which doll to take, and ultimately decides to take Jennifer, knowing she won't win a prize. 

"You aren't my oldest doll, Jennifer," said Betsy. "Your dress is a fright. And you can't do a single thing. But I do love you, dear Jennifer."

  At the party all the girls have brought their dolls. The girls play games while the dolls watch from the couch. 

  The girls and the dolls enjoy cupcakes, and later, Susan's mother awards the prizes. 

  It's a surprise when she decides to award an extra prize to Jennifer, as, you guessed it, 'The Best Loved Doll'. It's a wonderful lesson about valuing love and friendship over appearances. 

  I remember reading this book to my daughter Emma, whose favourite doll was a very worn, bald doll, who was given all the best doll stuff Emma had, and who Emma took everywhere.    

Here she is getting off the plane after a 'trip' to Doll Paris.

  It's a sweet, old fashioned story. I might also add that not everyone at the party wins a prize, and they're all okay with that. Not like these days when everyone gets a prize, so no one feels left out or cheated. It used to annoy me senseless when my kids were little, and everyone always got a prize at school events. On 'Fun Day' there were games of chance, but there was no chance anybody was going to go home without a prize. It was supposed to be so that none of the kids got upset that somebody won and they didn't. I thought that taught a bad lesson. Nobody had to earn anything, and in life, sometimes you don't win. You aren't always going to win. Did those kids grow up expecting everything to be handed to them, whether they deserved it or not? I also thought it devalued the effort some kids put in. Why bother if even the kids who don't try or care win anyway? Sorry. Rant over.

  Apparently "The Best Loved Doll" was based on something that actually happened to Rebecca Caudill's own daughter.

  The book is illustrated with simple drawings by Elliot Gilbert, coloured only in a couple of colours. It might be bland to kids these days, when everything has to be neon and sparkly, but it's quietly and calmly beautiful. Gilbert wanted the illustrations to 'reflect the timelessness of the story', and while they may look a bit dated art-wise, I think they are perfect for the story, which is, itself a bit old fashioned these days. Not that that's a bad thing.

  The book was originally published in 1962, an excellent year, which also produced me. I think it's still in print, or, at least, was not many years ago. It is a thin book, of only 64 pages, and is recommended for ages 5 to 8, grades Kindergarten through third grade. It's also recommended by me.

  That's it for this month's book. My shoulder has kept me from typing much lately, but hang in there. I'm still around, with more to show you.

It's Sweater Season Once Again! Shopping for Doll Sized Sweaters

   I hope everybody who celebrates it had a good Thanksgiving Thursday. We celebrated with the kids and my sister. 

  Today it's snowing here in Ohio. That makes it a good day to talk about this year's crop of doll sized sweater ornaments. 

  Target has four different sweater ornaments this year. I wasn't going to let them get away this year, so I nabbed them a couple of weeks ago. I chose these two.

The other two were a white sweater with an actual wreath glued to the chest, (making it impossible to just remove it and have a regular sweater.), and a red sweater with cable knit sleeves and a plaid reindeer on the chest. 

  The sweaters are only lightly glued to the teddy bear hangers they come on, and are easily removed.

  They fit Barbie sized dolls very well, as you can see on Made to Move here.

  Paul McCartney volunteered to pose in the other sweater.

He says it makes him think of a Wonderful Christmastime...

   He's 1/6 scale, and the sleeves are slightly short on him. But I think he has arms that are slightly longer than a Ken type doll. He was much more easy to get the sweater on though, because his hands are removeable! 

All the sweaters are $3.00, just like last year, and are available at your local Target store, or at  Target.com, HERE.

  World Market has sweater ornaments too. As usual though, they are made of very thick, rough yarn, and make for some awkwardly chunky sweaters. They are also a larger scale, and might fit a doll the size of Tonner's Marley/Patience/Agnes Dreary, but definitely not a 1/6 scale doll. They have several different types and a couple of sizes,(both as I described). You can find them at World Market, where there were more styles than I see on their website, and online HERE.

  Christopher and Banks has sweater ornaments again this year. I haven't seen them in person, but I have seen them in previous years. Their sweaters are more expensive than the previous two places I mentioned, but you get what you pay for. The C&B sweaters are made of a finer yarn, and so look way more natural on a doll. They are described as 3 1/2" in length and 3" in height. Huh? Isn't that the same thing in this case? I assume they are like the previous years' sweaters, which were 1/6 scale, or 'Barbie sized'. This year they have six styles. They are normally priced at $7.95, but at the moment they are 30% off if you buy them on line. You can find them at your local Christopher and Banks store, or online HERE.   

  Michael's craft store has Santa and Mrs. Santa jacket ornaments. They are described as measuring at 6.5 and 6 inches. I don't know if they are glued together/closed/on the hanger, or are even 'wearable' but they are cute, and would look cute hanging in a Christmas diorama at least. They sound like they'd fit a male 1/6 scale doll or large action figure of similar or slightly larger size. Unfortunately they are sold out online, so head to your local Michael's store. 

  Michael's also has a really cute vintage style radio ornament that plays a Christmas song. It's described as 4.75 inches. It's an online exclusive. You can fin d the teal one HERE. You can find the pink one HERE.

  Tito's Vodka has a doll sized sweater that comes free with their vodka in some stores. You can also get it online HERE. I saw the sweaters on the way home from Georgia, and they're super nice quality. They will fit a 1/6 'Barbie scale' female doll, but the arms might be too narrow for a male doll. The sweater will be a bit long on a female, but it will look fine. Actually, as I recall, with the last Tito's sweaters I got, they were all relatively 1/6 scale, but were all different sizes and lengths! Some had longer arms and some were shorter in length, so some fit a male better, and some a female. You'd better have a the doll you want it to fit with you and choose accordingly.

  That's it for this year's sweater crop. If you know of any others, please leave the information in the comments. 

Home from Georgia

   I've been home from Georgia for a while, but I've just been catching up on everything and suffering a bad shoulder. As for my trip, which you may remember was to celebrate my best friend Lori's 60th birthday with her, Tammy World joined me.

Ken insisted on documenting our trip.

  She was raring to go, and dressed for our cold weather. We figured she'd have to change into shorts when we got to Georgia, but when we got to Georgia, it wasn't much different.

      On the way I stopped at a rest stop to go to the bathroom. That's where I saw this.

  It's kind of a dumb slogan. Find what here? If you mean Ohio, well duh.

  I spotted Super Pig on the way. I think it was around Cincinnati.

  I  stopped several times to try to get Lori some KFC chicken livers, which, weirdly enough, weren't available in Georgia when she moved there. but were still available up here in some places. Well guess what: they aren't apparently available anywhere any more. Other than that, I stopped a couple of times to go to the bathroom, a couple of times to get gas, and once to get something to eat and take a nap. I also lost about an hour when I missed my exit and spent way too long trying to work my way around to the road I should have been on. I finally arrived at Lori's somewhere between 4 and 4:30 in the morning. By then it was already her birthday, but we saved presents until we got up, and went to bed. 

  The next day we ate out at Lori's favourite restaurant for her birthday. I had tried to get some whipping cream on the way to her house the day before, but I had waited until late because I didn't want to keep it unrefrigerated very long. I ended up waiting too late, and everything was closed except gas stations, and they don't carry whipping cream. Lori wanted to go do her grocery shopping ON HER BIRTHDAY, which worked out well because I was able to get some whipping cream. Why did I need it? Before leaving Ohio I had baked Lori a birthday cake. It's a great cake, (It's actually a Chocolate Midnight Torte.), but it has chocolate whipped cream in the middle and a chocolate glaze. That makes it super delicious, but it also makes refrigeration necessary. So I didn't finish the cake, but instead made up containers of the ingredients for the filling and glaze, (except that whipping cream), and took them with me. (Luckily I remembered the cake too!) So after we got back from the store, Lori went to take a shower, and I finished putting her cake together.

Okay. It's not the best looking thing in the world, but it tasted great. 

    While I was in Georgia we hung out, talked, laughed, ate, went to the mall, went to several antique stores, and watched spooky TV. We talk on the phone sometimes, but being together is different. Ivy always wants to know why we have to laugh so much. Well we don't have to, but I'm glad we do. What's wrong with laughing?

  While we were out one day we passed this place again, which I found amusing the last time I was there, but didn't get a picture of.

They are confused, either about what they sell, or the size of that chicken.

   We also came across a place that did prosthetics, whose sign featured a pirate with a hook and a wooden leg. We couldn't decide if we thought it was the most offensive thing ever, or if we would go there if we needed a prosthetic, because we loved their sense of humour.

  Tammy World wanted to show you where she'd been.

Sylvester.

And some of the local landmarks.

Like this old engine, Old Engine 100.

And the local Piggly Wiggly store.

  I also had a job to do while I was there in the sunshine. I ran out and did it one day while Lori was cleaning up her horses and having a couple of short rides. She has two horses, and I hurried back before she was done.

This is her backyard/riding arena.

Here's a preview of the work I went to do while she was working with the horses.

We'll see more of that project soon.

  And we spent some time with Lori's goats, who were too cute to leave out.

     There was still cotton in some of the fields.

You can see how overcast it was in this picture I took of the very tall, very straight pine trees.

But there were blue skies too...and this was on the same day!

These two pictures were taken a minute apart!

  I brought some Chess Squares, (a Southern dessert), home last year and everybody loved them, so I was going to buy some for everybody this time. I was disappointed to find that Carroll's Meats, the store where I bought my chess squares the last time I was there, no longer sells them! (I talked to Ken on the phone, and he asked me if I had gotten my 'chess pieces'.)  On the other hand, Lori and I went to an antique store I had gone to the last time, and a huge print of 1860's ladies in big dresses that I had considered buying last year was still there. Last year it didn't have a price on it, and it still didn't. I actually asked this time, but the store owner started out way too high for me. But I talked her down on the price, and this year I brought it home.

It's humongous.

  The day before I went home we went to a nearby town, (Where we saw signs for a guy running for something in town, who was named Ken Turnipseed. Sounds like a character in a kid's book), where we went to an antique store, and ate at a place called Three Crazy Bakers.

The lady at the bench is taking a picture of her dog, who was wearing ribbons on her ears.

The food was good, but I had the smallest piece of quiche known to Man, (or woman). I liked that they had pictures of themselves in famous places all over the world, with their backs to the camera, wearing shirts with their business logo on them. Cool way to promote your business. You never know when someone from Rome, Italy or Agra, India is going to see you and say 'Hey. That sounds like a great place to eat. Let's hike it over to that tiny town in Georgia and get lunch.' I'm being funny, (supposedly). It is cool.  

 I think I've mentioned before that Ken loves corn, but can never find yellow corn any more. On my agenda was looking for yellow corn, since corn season has passed in Ohio. I kept putting it off so the corn, if I found any, wasn't old before I went home. The night before I was to come home, we stopped at the grocery store, and right at the entrance was a bin of corn. It was yellow! Lori thought I was crazy when I started filling bags with ears. She couldn't believe I was getting so much. "How much corn can he eat?!" "You'd be surprised." As we did the rest of our shopping I kept saying, "I should get more corn." I think she thought I was kidding at first. I said, "You think I'm crazy, but I should get more." I did go back for more. In the end I had 39 ears. She thought there was no way he could eat all those before they went bad, and he wasn't sure either when I brought them home. But I know Ken. As of this writing it's still good and he only has one ear left. I only consented to eat two because Ken insisted. I don't like to eat it when he likes it so much more than I do, and can never find it.

   I left on the Saturday morning before Halloween. This magical looking driveway was basically around the corner from Lori's. I kept meaning to photograph it, so I did it at the last moment, stopping in the road to do so. Don't worry. I was keeping an eye on the empty road. Finally somebody came behind me, and I drove on. My camera battery had died any way!

  I had that giant picture standing behind the back seat because it didn't fit in the trunk. I had a cooler with 39 ears of corn in it. I had set up the front seat with everything I would need on the trip: my packed lunch, which I had bought the day before when Lori and I ate at Three Crazy Bakers, my snacks,(from an Asian grocery store in Ohio), some water, my sweater, for covering up when nap time came, and my pillow, also for nap time, and wipes, for cleaning, of course, (My mask, and hand sanitizer were both in the storage 'hole' in the dashboard.)

And Tammy, of course. The Books-A-Million  bag is up front so it doesn't get mashed. The back seat was pretty full.

  As I headed home I passed signs on the highway for another Carroll's Meats. I realized this was the bigger one, which I had called last year to see if they had kidney's for Ken. (So he could make steak and kidney pie. I don't eat meat or wear leather or suede. I would only do that for Ken, and Lori, who I had tried to get livers for at KFC.) I thought the bigger store might have chess squares, so I jumped off the highway to check. And yay! I got chess squares for everybody. They went into the cooler.

  I also pulled off the highway to get gas at Buck-ee's, a huge gas station/store. 

 

  I guess it's pretty new in Georgia, and people must still be checking it out, because it was unbelievably busy. The place was packed and people were buying stuff like there was no tomorrow. There were gifts, clothes, food, snacks, hot food like Brisket sandwiches, (which they are famous for, and one of which went into the cooler as a surprise for Ken.), and tons of beef jerky and pastries. There was a station for Icees, and there were a million flavour choices. 

I got cotton candy flavour, but it tasted like bubblegum.

  There were about a million gas pumps too.

  I arrived home in the early hours of Halloween morning. My shoulder had been bothering me before I left for Georgia, and all that driving made it worse. I took some muscle relaxants before bed for a couple of nights while I was at Lori's, and my shoulder got much better. Then, of course, I drove home, and it got bad again! 

  My shoulder is still awful. It pops around when I move it. If I'm lucky I can pop it just right and it stops hurting, but only for a minute, if I don't actually use it.

  And now to post this long awaited, (Ha), post!