The Doll Book of the Month Club: Drusilla

   The last Doll Book of the Month Club entry for the year, (But not forever. I'll still be posting the monthly book.), is Drusilla, by Emma L. Brock, who also did the illustrations.

  My poor copy got ruined in the fire. But I had been wanting to read it myself, and I wanted to share it with you, so I rescued it as best I could. It's a bit sooty on the outside, and mildew stained and torn up, but still readable.

It was published in 1937, and was in quite nice condition before the fire.

  Drusilla is a corn husk doll, made for a little girl named Sarah, by 'Aunt Polly', (who isn't really an aunt, just a friend of Sarah's grandma.). 

  Drusilla is made of corn husks, with stitched in jet bead eyes and a red silk mouth. Now, I've attempted to make corn hush dolls, and I don't know how you stitch anything into something that dry and brittle without it falling apart. But...

  I'm a lover of lists, and making them. I enjoyed the bit about what all was made for Drusilla: her dress, her bonnet, her bed and bedding, etc. 

  The book is told from Drusilla's point of view. But after the discovery that the family is moving to more fertile lands in Minnesota, the action pretty much just follows the family's story...until the last part of the book, where Drusilla becomes the focal point.

  As a lover of lists I also was interested in the family's choices of what to take with them on the wagon trip to Minnesota. Things had to be chosen carefully because there was very little room. Unlike most wagons to the Promised Land, this family also took an extra uncovered one to haul extra stuff. Still, Aunt Polly had a list that would choke a horse, and had to leave a lot of it behind.  The things she managed to sneak on the trip with her did prove useful along the way. In case you haven't figured it out, Aunt Polly is the comic relief in this book. She gets more page time than Drusilla.

  The trip is fairly uneventful most of the way. The wagon does get stuck in a huge pot hole, and there's a big rainstorm. But other than those things,  it's pretty much ride, eat, sleep, which I'm sure is how a lot of those trips went.

 But toward the end of the book things get more lively...until they don't. The trip continues after one exciting night. Then, Drusilla, sitting in the back of the wagon on the bag of corn seed, plops off when the wagon goes up a steep bank, crossing a creek. She lays there in the grass, while the wagon goes on to their destination, at least a day away.

  Will Drusilla be found? Will Sarah come back for her somehow? What will happen to her? I won't ruin it for you. 

  I enjoyed "Drusilla". I think my kids would have liked it when they were little. It's an easy read. The illustrations are cute too. Can recommend. But be forewarned that there are some stereotypical depictions of Native Americans. I'm also not sure about Sarah's father's advice to 'Treat them like White men, and they'll act like White men. Treat them like Red men, and they'll act like Red men." I think, unintentionally, he was saying that if you treat them civilly they'll act civilly, instead of treating them like they are about to attack, and attacking them first. That's obviously the right way to treat anybody if you want them to react in a friendly manner. It's an opening for discussion.

  That's the book for this month. We'll look at another doll based book next month. I've got some good ones lined up for next year. 

Doll-A-Day 2023 #365: American Girl Elizabeth

   Whoo Hoo!! I did it! 365 dolls in one tumultuous year! Whew! I wasn't sure I was going to make it, but I did. Soon we'll be back in our house, and I will be constantly working on clean up and repair, when I have lights and hot water to help me get things done. I anticipate being in constant pain and tired all the time! Even though I'll be super busy, I want to finish up the posts about our trip last year too, because I also have come so close to finishing those. I wish I had finished the posts on our previous trip to England. This time, I'm going to finish. There are lots of interesting things for me to show you from the last few days of our trip. In those days we visited Germany, Bruges, and Brussels in Belgium, and Paris. I will definitely be showing you that. And happy news, I found one of our missing memory cards from the trip in our bedroom a couple of weeks ago! It doesn't have much of the trip on it, but there is some. I think it's things I've already shown you, but I am glad I have the memory card!

  I wanted to end the year with a bang. I tried to think of a super wonderful doll to show you that would knock your socks off. In the end, I settled for this doll, in spite of the fact that I haven't cleaned the white mark off her cheek, or combed her hair. She's American Girl Elizabeth Cole.

She is a nice looking doll, with tight limbs and all of her original outfit.

I got her at a garage sale this past summer, for, let's say, a pretty cheap price. I wanted to sell her to make up for the signed Raggedy Ann I bought for myself. Once I discovered she had her ringlets buried in the sides of her hair and she could be tidied quite easily, I thought I had it made. But just recently I noticed that she has one flaw that can't be cleaned off, like that white splotch on her cheek can. Can you spot it?

Try again.

See it? She's missing the eyelashes on her right eye. Dang it!

I swear those were there when I got her! It's a shame, because everything else about her is so nice She has her complete original outfit, including her dress, which is bright and clean.

 

The ribbons are nice, and she has her pearl necklace.

Her shoes and stockings are also in great shape.

She has her shift too.

Her pinner cap is pinned to her head with a pearl top pin.

And she has her hair ribbon. 

  Elizabeth was the best friend of Felicity. Elizabeth was originally described in the book as having dark hair and brown eyes. This was changed either, as theorized, because she was played by a blue eyed blonde in the movie, or, as American Girl said, to distinguish her from Felicity. The book illustrations were changed to align with the new look.

She has her pearl drop earrings. Elizabeth was the first American Girl doll to have removable earrings, and she came with more than one set. And see? She does have her ringlets.

  Elizabeth was originally released in 2005, and archived only 6 years later, along with Felicity and her entire collection. Felicity was later rereleased, but not Elizabeth. 

  She's marked Pleasant Company on the back of her neck.

The tag in her pinner hat and her dress says 'made in China for American Girl'.

  If anybody wants to take Elizabeth, she's up for grabs. 'Cash grabs' that is. I will be asking for more than postage for her. Leave a comment with your contact information if you're interested. I two American Girls at home, and this isn't one I really want.

  Don't forget to check out the Doll Book of the Month Club post today too. 

  I'll be popping in every now and then next year, but not posting everyday. Whenever I do that, after every day posting, I feel like I'm goofing, off, like I should be doing it. But I'm going to have a lot of work ahead of me to get the house livable again. There hasn't been anybody but cats living there for a year. We had a bird in the house since we had no windows in Fuzz's room for a few days. I'm still finding poop spots. The whole upstairs, except Ivy and Emma's rooms, is covered with soot. So are the stairs and the stairway walls. I need to pull up the landing and stair carpet. Like I said, a lot of work.

  As I started to say yesterday, in the coming year I will be going through a lot of dolls and getting rid of them. Not my collection, but dolls we had to sell. When I get a chance, every now and then, I will be posting a doll that will be for sale. So stay tuned and maybe you'll see something you like. I'd rather offer the dolls here than have to resort to Ebay. I'll be offering everything for fair, if not downright cheap, prices. 

  Happy New Year everybody! See you soon!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #364: Blossom

   Here we go. Next to last post of the year! I won't be doing Doll-A-Day next year, because I'll be doing house-repair-of-the-day. That's likely to take up most of my time, although I will post occasionally. I still have dolls and things to show you, the rest of our trip to post, and I'm sure I'll be thinking of things all the time, or coming across things I want to show you. And, of course, Tammy World might want to pop in every now and then to say hello.

  For the next to last doll of the year, I was trying to decide. I had a few choices laid out. In the end I chose Blossom because I had already shown you her friend Six earlier this year. I found Blossom after Six's post. I found her at a thrift store in another town. We hadn't been there for a while. I was looking for something else, but I found Blossom, and some Fashionistas.

"Blossom" was a TV show that ran for  five seasons, starting in 1990. The character of Blossom was played by Mayim Bialik, who had made a splash playing the younger version of Bette Midler in "Beaches", two years before. (And many years before she showed up as Amy Farrah Fowler, a love interest for Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory.) Made by Tyco, there were three dolls in the 'Blossom' line, including Blossom herself, her friend, Six, and her brother Joey.

  They did a pretty good job making the doll look like Bialik.

I think the doll especially looks like her from this angle.

Tyco knew the teeth were a big part in getting the likeness right, and they bothered to sculpt the teeth as teeth, and not just a big blank white space in the doll's mouth. And accident or not, they bothered to also leave a strip of unpainted pink gum above the upper teeth.

Blossom has piano keys on her vest.

  Somebody tell me what these earrings are supposed to resemble. They are each different, and she has a necklace too.

  Her legs bend, but not very much. This is about it.

  The doll is about 9 inches tall. She could hang out with Bandai's Power Rangers girls, and not look out of place. 

  Okay. One more doll tomorrow and I will have completed a whole year of Doll-A-Day! Big cheer for me! In the coming year...well, we'll talk about that tomorrow. See you then!

363: The Muppet Christmas Carol Gonzo as Charles Dickens Funko Pop

   Christmas has passed, but the toys linger on. I spotted the Funko Muppet Christmas Carol figures online a few months ago and alerted Emma. Then she found the Amazon exclusive flocked Gonzo as Charles Dickens. We both got one. Ken gave me mine for Christmas.

  It's not just Gonzo. He also comes with Rizzo. Both ae flocked.

Here's the back of their box.

The Muppet Christmas Carol came out in 1992, when Emma was a year old. I took her to see it at the theatre. Some people will smirk at me saying this, but The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of the most accurate versions of the book, and uses more of Dickens actual prose than just about any version too.

Of course, it veers from the book in one big way: Instead of Jacob Marley, Scrooge's business partners are The Marley Brothers, Jacob and Robert. There were figures of the Marley Brothers this year too, (amongst other figures in the series), and an exclusive glow in the dark version of The Marley Brothers. Ken got me the glow in the dark one, but 'can't find it'. Uh uh. I have a feeling I know what I'm getting for my birthday...

  It was fitting that they made the ghostly Marley into two characters, and made them Statler and Waldorf. Jim Henson, who voiced Waldorf, and Richard Hunt, who voiced Statler, had both died in the two years preceding the movie. 

 I'm glad I got the flocked version of Gonzo. It's a bit more fun than the regular one.

Only his furry parts are flocked.

Rizzo is also flocked.

But they forgot to flock his hands.

  I suppose I could pass on the other characters, except I would like to have the Scrooge/Michael Caine one.

  Here we are at #363! You know what that means, don't you? It means I am in line with days of the year now! Two more days to go, and I have done every day this year, even with all that's happened. Check out today's other posts, and come back tomorrow for #364.

Doll-A-Day #362: Made to Move Barbie

  I already have a Made to Move Barbie, but I like her, and didn't want to rip her head off. But I need a very fair complexion articulated body for Tammy World's mom, Dolly. I didn't want to pay a fortune ordering one online. I finally found this one in a store not too long ago. Ken got her for me for Christmas.

Her box says 'You can be anything', and apparently, she wants to be a tennis player.

She has a tennis outfit on.

And she comes with a visor, tennis racquet, and tennis ball.

 

The ball has a littl hole, and the racquet has a little peg, so the ball can be made to stay on the racquet.

 

  And of course, being a Made to Move, she can, well...move. Or pose at least.

  She's not ugly, but I don't mind losing her head, (Ha). I'm not a fan of big eyebrows anyway.

  That's doll #362. Check out today's other posts and come back tomorrow for more as we creep up to the end of the year.