Mood:  accident prone

Not a lot going on, doll-wise. About all I got done today were minor errands. Dropped off a donation to GoodWill, returned library DVDs, mailed bills off, hit a couple yard sales. Not much out there this week, but if I had major scores every week, we'd be even more broke ! So it's nice that I tend to find stuff only once or twice a month, when I'm lucky.

Helped Beloved Hubby load up some stuff - and cracked my knee on the new ball-hitch on his truck. Oh, well. That bruise will go nicely with the one a few inches higher, gained from one of the branches I hauled Thursday bouncing at my tugging, then suddenly giving way - straight to my leg.

It's been a clumsy day - I saw some currency floating on a breeze, and hopped out to retrieve it. Hit my arm on that (*^% automatic seat belt slider...for a lousy dollar bill.

Maybe there's a reason a chunk of me refuses to go near the sewing machine today...

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  happy

It's unbelievable ! We went to the flea market to get ‘Cali', the Midge doll I've yammered about all week...and what did I see in the passenger seat of one of the ‘car sets' ?

Yup ! A bare-chested vintage Allan ! I couldn't believe it. I've nearly bid on him several times on eBay, just didn't want to pay exorbitant shipping on the ones I could afford. He was part of one of the ‘car sets' as I mentioned - the seller wanted $14. for him, a generic Mackie-faced blonde Barbie, and a semi-wrecked Mattel Jeep. I asked if she'd consider selling him separately, but she was reluctant. Oh, well. Dearest Son had found a bus in her booth he wanted, and I picked up ‘my' Cali, and she asked what I'd be willing to pay for Allan. I offered her $10. for him, Cali, and the bus, and she was happy with that. Whee ! No other vintage dolls - not even repros - were in evidence.

One thing that bothered me was how dirty his arms were. I know vintage dolls tend to have ivory torsos with darker limbs - so often, the dolls are as many colors as there are pieces. I contented myself with knowing he'd get a good scrub-down as soon as we got home. But for right that moment, there was a whole flea-market to tour !

Son got ‘Schoolhouse Rock' tapes, and our VHS collection gained A Mighty Wind and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back - all for just 50c each ! A few other minor finds, and we were gone.

And Allan got well-bathed. You can only imagine the dirt that came off him with some warm water, a toothbrush, and stale baking soda. Some spots - deep in his ears and in the corner of his left eye - never did come clean, but not from lack of effort. He cleaned up very well, and seems to have the exact same body as the vintage #2 Ken I found at a junk shop. Straight legs and the same...umm, hips. He has some hair rubs, a slight spot missing in his right eyebrow, a spot of white paint at the crown of his head, and his right hand has a bit of chew to it. You can see it a bit in the photo. But it's barely noticeable. Now that he's nice and clean, he looks so cute !

He seems to have only been in production for a year, although he was sold for several. For the best info about Allan - or pretty much any other male doll, made by any toy manufacturer - visit Keeping Ken ! Here's his page on Allan -> http://www.manbehindthedoll.com/ALLAN.htm . Take off the /ALLAN.htm for the home page, there's lots to see.

I figured I could tell if my new Midge was ‘California Dream' or ‘Cool Times'  - the only two Midge dolls bearing the ‘Steffie' face I so adore ! - by her earrings. Nope. ‘Cali' here doesn't have ‘em. But going by her green eye color (CT appears blue), I think I got a California Dream girl. Nice as the ‘Diva' head mold is, I'll always love a Steffie-faced Midge !

Her legs were worse than I thought, specked all over with small white circles. But, heck, with the dress I have her in, the other dolls will probably assume it's patterned hosiery. Since there's not much I can do about it outside PaintShopPro, I'm not about to let it bother me. Her poor hair has been in a ponytail so long, it's bent. Still, it's nice and soft, a beautiful color. It'll ease down eventually.

So, now that there's new dolls around, I'd best get back to the challenge of sewing for ‘em, right ? :)

Posted by dorriebelle at 4:08 PM CDT

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Mood:  lazy

Phil Foglio wrote me back, saying he'd love to see Girl Genius dolls, when I had time to make them. Well, if that isn't a challenge, I don't know what is ! I was talking with Beloved Hubby about it this morning - and this is actual dialog :

Me : So I was thinking of starting with her underwear. It's simple, and she certainly finds herself in it in public often enough ! (grin)

BH : Well, at least in the first book.

Me : You sound somewhat disappointed about that.

BH : Heck yeah, I am ! It looked so cute !

So now it remains to find a doll I think is Agatha-worthy, then print out a simple crop top and pantalettes pattern that I can do a lace-up on. Not difficult, especially if I go with a faux-lace.

Unfortunately, that's about it for dolls again today. But the laundry's all put away, dishes are done, and all the floors are clean - even under the sofas. First vacuum of the month is *always* ‘under and behind the sofas' time ! I also had time to move the branches Beloved chain-sawed to the backyard. I left ‘em in the front, in a driveway pile, anticipating the yard waste crew to be by tomorrow for pick-up. I even called to see what the rules regarding were. Hmpft. They barely pick up kindling, much less the big monster limbs we got ! So we made other plans.  

Now, if I can just figure out why my arms hurt...

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  a-ok

Nothin' at all doll-related today. I mean, nothin'. Closest I came to doll-time was the ten minutes I spent perusing eBay during lunch. Closest I got to the Studio was going in there to turn on the MP3 player/cube speaker, so Dearest Son could watch it while I listened.

What took all day ? BATHROOM CLEANING ! Nearly three hours of it. But the bathtub and the shower are so clean, you could eat off ‘em. I could turn off lights in those rooms, ‘cause everything was so sparkly clean. I haven't been able to give them a really good cleaning since I got sick, and lemme tell you, for all the sanitary plumbing in a bathroom, it gets the worst the quickest. I trust I need elaborate no further.

Tuna liked my cleaning efforts so much, she drank from the toilet instead of her bowl, which held bottled drinking water. Cats !

Dearest Son loves ‘Macaroni'. Played with him all day, inventing Lego cars for him to drive, and inviting him to have dinner with the family. He tore open the tail seam so he could use him as a puppet, but that's OK. Long as he enjoys his not-perfect penguin, I'm happy.

And my ‘scrubbing arm' hurts. Beddy-bye for me ! With two ibuprofen, please.

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  celebratory

Busy, busy day. Had to run to the bank, get Dearest Son registered for school (i.e., fill in the same paperwork I've done for the last three years), turn in library books and videos, do the grocery shopping and mail some bills. Whew ! About the only housework I got done was putting last night's dishes away.

Got to go to Dollar Tree - scored three new t-shirts for Dearest Son, and a set of pencil sharpeners and a lip gloss for me. I ordinarily wouldn't mention the sharpeners and gloss, but they're perfectly doll-sized ! The pencil sharpeners - there's six in the package - look like little fire extinguishers. They fit as well in Elphie's scale as in Barbie's. They do a pretty good job on pencils, too. The lip gloss comes in a round container, like Ben & Jerry's - ice cream for the family in sixth-scale, a largish single-serving for Elphie. They had various ‘flavors', but the "Gelato" kid didn't have ‘LIP GLOSS' written big and loud on the front of the container. So soon, Elphie's gonna have some Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream, and if it's still too hot, she always has a fire extinguisher handy. She's got four of ‘em...

The other two went to Dearest Son. I'll probably stash one in the office desk drawer, it really did do well on the two half-ground-down pencils in the holder. Three fake fire extinguishers are enough for the doll contingent !

Picked up the latest décor element for the Studio. It's a fuzzy white cube that changes color and pulses with whatever music source is plugged into it. Yup, it's a funky speaker. I was amazed at the brightness of the colors and how good it sounded.  Works with anything with a mini headphone jack, which is just about any electronic device these days. It was on markdown at our Mal-Wart, $5. down from $12-something. Wanted it because, while I adore the MP3 player Beloved Hubby got me, sometimes I don't want to use the headphones. The cheap speaker from Dollar Tree was beyond suckage. This one was quite nice, especially for the cash. It also came in pink and purple, but you know me, I'll almost always go for white, given the choice.

Dearest Son was already asleep when I finished ‘Macaroni', the Not-Perfect Penguin. His name sort of came to me when I had to fix several sewing blunders. I think he came out kinda cute. Only took about two hours, start to finish, and used less than a good handful of cotton balls for stuffing. His photo uses some yard-sale fabric pinned to my sewing chair as a backdrop !

After I took photos, I nudged Macaroni into Son's hand. His fingers curled around him, and, even in his sleep, he loosely hugged him. I think he'll like his surprise when he wakes up tomorrow ! They looked so cute, I took pictures of them together, too.

I'm working on a story to go with him, that I can type up and print out for him. I think I'll redo his pupils, they don't seem dark enough. While Macaroni isn't quite what I had in my imagination to begin with, he's still quite cute, at least to me, and I'm happy. Just hope Son likes him !

And that was my day. Whew ! I should be in bed, it's gonna feel sooo good !

Posted by dorriebelle at 11:55 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  on fire

Have no idea why it took me so darn long to get going today. Seems like I could come up with endless reasons to keep my rear firmly ensconced in this chair all day. Eventually, however, I did get up offa that thing, but about all I did was dishes.

I updated the home page, slightly. Changed ‘July' to ‘August', and deleted references to July 4^th in Aylene's ‘front porch' photo. Added a link to Studio Foglio's Girl Genius just beneath it. It's one of the reasons I had for parking my butt in this chair for so long ! Beloved Hubby and I read today's new strip this morning, and from there, I toured the sketchbook. That was good for numerous laughs ! If you tried to access GG from the last link I gave, I'm sorry. I'm an idiot, and gave the wrong address.

Try this one ->

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ . It works !

And yes, I am working on a GG-inspired costume for one lucky doll. I just have to pick which outfit I like best - that I can possibly make. I could easily do the underwear she keeps finding herself in during most of the earliest chapters, so I may start with that. Just for giggles.

Speaking of giggles, I did manage to price the stuffing I'll need for that magazine pattern penguin I was planning on making for Dearest Son. $6. Hmpft. I can *buy* a licensed Mumbles (Happy Feet) for $8. that isn't much smaller. And it dances ! Still, I'd like to make him something besides Thomas the Tank Engine blankets and Cars pillows. You know, something that isn't bedding. The stuff I've made him so far has turned out nice, and he's certainly enjoyed it all, but ya can't take ‘em on car trips to Dollar Tree or really show ‘em off to friends. He's still into penguins, so I hunted for penguin patterns that don't require multiple bundles of stuffing. Kind of a 'pocket penguin' of sorts.

About the only freebie one online seems to be the Linux penguin - > http://www.free-penguin.org/#dow , which is cute, and at around 12 to 14 inches tall, about the right size. But isn't what I want. Plus, it doesn't say how much stuffing is needed. Toured other web sites, and found one featuring interesting scans of various patterns from Japanese women's magazines. One in particular got my attention - it was for a purse and glasses case with an adorable miniature penguin as an appliqué. It got me thinking... so if you had a chill race up your spine about 9:45 Central tonight, it was probably the universe recoiling in horror at the idea of me thinking. Sorry.

About five minutes later, inspired by the appliqué, I sketched out a simple pattern. It would work pretty well in felt, and less than half a bag of dollar-store cotton balls would easily stuff his five-inch tall body. Nothing amazing, but even my pathetic sketch - I can't draw for love or money, or even both - held a sort of charm. He'd be small enough to be cute, quick enough to make so that when he invariably gets wrecked, I won't be upset, simple enough to experiment with, and endearing enough for Son. A quick check of the beyond well-stocked stash revealed that I already had everything - orange (beak, feet), white (belly, eyes), and black (body, flippers, and tail) felt, a large and rather old sack of cotton balls, a black Sharpie pen, and plenty of thread. I could even use some of the fabric that made Baby Ariel's outfit yesterday for Macaroni penguin hair. Macaronis are Son's favorite.

It's funny how I have it all. The orange felt is leftover from attempts at making Crissy doll shoes, the white is from my old craft supplies, purchased about ten years ago, and the black is from a Hobby Lobby sale during Christmas - I picked up a sheet of black to round out the '10 for $1.' rainbow I was buying. I even have glittery black felt, from an after-holiday markdown. Only paid 4c a sheet for those ! So I may well make a ‘disco' penguin, once I get the first one done for Son ! I also still have some red sparkle, left from the Christmas I made stockings for Son's preschool class. There may be some really flashy birds around here in the coming days...

Tomorrow's a busy day, though, so we'll see how it goes. I may well have photos of penguins for you ! I'd offer you the pattern, but once you see it, you can easily make your own. Goss knows it couldn't be difficult if I came up with it !

Posted by dorriebelle at 10:43 PM CDT

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Mood:  happy

Quiet day around the house. Well, once I finally got that last Blog entry to post. I have no idea why it does that. Just glad as all heck I use Word, so I didn't have to type it over and over each time Tripod lost it. I was creatively swearing at it for nearly an hour !

Dug out Dearest Son's old kitchen playset, and he had lots of wet, muddy fun cleaning it up. He'll probably play with it for another year or so, off and on, before he's tired of it. Since it's outside, he can play with it any way he likes, without tearing up his room. At this point, I'd rather he play with and wreck it than it rot away, nearly pristine, in the garage.

While he was doing that, I got to sew ! Looks like the new shirt pattern works just fine, it fits and closes in the back. Which is funny - I looked at the pattern and was so happy that it looked about right, I printed it and didn't program in a closure.  Just completely forgot to go back and add one. Luckily it was a simple little shirt, so I could draw in a simple fold facing with a ruler and pencil.

Shorts are still a bit baggy, but she can sit and stand, so I'm OK with that pattern, too. It's better than the blue pants, so we have improvement. I'm glad. Shoot, once I make her a dress with sleeves, I've about covered all of the major Doll Shop Deluxe areas I need to check. I'm so happy this isn't gonna be one of those prolonged DSD vs. Me wrestle-fests I'm unfortunately used to.  And I've used up a lot of small scraps on this project ! Got in a little photo manipulation practice in, too.

I also used one of the ‘scrapbooking embellishments' I bought yesterday. Printed out a photo of Elphie and Fiyero at the right size, cut it out, attached it to an old business card with a glue-stick, and poof ! Miniature photo frame ! The ‘frame' has little points at each corner, so I bent the top two in to hold the photo. The bottom two are just large enough to stand the frame up ! Yup, it stands unassisted ! And I can change the photo whenever I want. Plus I still have two frames left. Not bad for a buck and some change.

And that was about my day. Hope yours was fun and productive, too !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  irritated

But sometimes ‘grinning and bearing it' is difficult, because I'm so spoiled. Had my whole morning planned - a trip to Hobby Lobby, since I haven't been in months, and then a peek at the Hancock Fabrics sale if I still had money left, then donate our old plates and check out GoodWill. Maybe a yard sale or two, if I passed any interesting ones. I'd be back before lunch, and there's little chance I'd spend a lot.

So I was ready to go, happy and excited...and Molly wouldn't start. I have no idea why. It hasn't rained, I haven't left any lights on, nothing. She started yesterday, too. Grr. So, while my plans bit the dust, and Beloved Hubby was out of the county, dropping off estimates, there's no reason to let that completely suck up the day. I got back into a comfy ‘lay around' shirt and sewed the new-measurement Baby Ariel pants. And you get the first photo ! This is what she looks like with her hair down. The tiny holes in her feet are to let water drain - after all, she is a bathtub doll !

As bad and baggy as these pants are, you can imagine how much worse the first pair was - I just threw them out entirely. Much better this time, but very high-waisted - they came up to just below her arms ! - and rather baggy around the hips. But they fit and mostly went on easily, so I only adjusted her DSD ankle measurement, rechecked the hip, and altered her height.

The new pattern looks much better. Also printed out a blouse pattern. I'll keep this pair of pants, because even with the errors, they fit, and won't look too bad with a cute shirt. Besides, I've used up the discarded fabric generated when Beloved made shorts from an old pair of pants, so I may as well use what I've made from ‘em ! And on the next trial, I can use new material !

But first, I needed to check out the blouse, see if those measurements worked.  Decided to forego the facings, and just hem everything. It looks great but the fit...sort of yes, sort of no. It's great in the front, the neck and armholes are nearly perfect, but it doesn't fasten in the back, except at the top. Tweaked a couple more measurements, looked at patterns - maybe the next one will work. This is so typical of my ‘adventures' with Doll Shop Deluxe, I'm not even upset.

Checked the narrow tape measure. For the first two inches, it looks to be only about 1/8^th of an inch off. But by the time it approaches six inches, it's closer to a quarter inch. It isn't off by much, but it adds up fast. So I'll keep it in my purse, for quick scale checks. I'll have to find a narrow tape elsewhere for Doll Shop Deluxe measurements.

By then, Beloved was home, so we hit a few yard sales, and I rode up with him for a minor touch-up job, to keep him company. He stopped at a Hobby Lobby for me, but we didn't linger long. I did find some ‘scrapbooking embellishments' that looked like brushed silver picture frames to me. They were $3.47, but you know me - I paid $1.24 for the set of three. Now I just have to find some photos to fill ‘em ! One will look great on Elphie's table/vanity/desk.

After that, it was time to pick up Dearest Son from his day with the grandfolks and head home. Hopefully Beloved will have a few minutes to work on Molly tomorrow.

PS - Just about the time I figured I could start typing on the Tripod interface again, it lost the first version of this. And then the second. Then the four tries to save this as a draft. I've lost count of how many tries this took, just that it took longer to post than write. *&^%... Thank Everything I still use Word - and won't contemplate going back to this again

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:01 AM CDT

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Mood:  accident prone

Got Baby Ariel re-measured last night, but there hasn't been time to sew for her since. Wow. Some of those measurements were waaaay off ! I usually employ a narrow tape measure that retracts into a disc of sorts - it's convenient and thin enough for dolls. But after a third doll has to be completely re-measured and the original numbers are off, I'm starting to think that tape's messed up. I'll have to check it later.

After chain-sawing dangerously low-hanging tree limbs - the all-summer rains have made the trees and lawn grow like crazy - we decided to go out. Besides, Beloved Hubby felt bad when I got clocked by a good sized branch. Only a couple of scrapes and one small bonk on the head. Ironically, the smallest of the scratches hurt the most ! Once I was out of the shower (‘cause hauling limbs and holding the ladder in 90 degree heat is sweaty work !), nothing hurt at all. Until I nearly fell over an upturned chair in Dearest Son's room ! Grrrrr....

Since I got to choose our venue, we hit the bookstores ! I got to see the first issue of the new Barbie Collector and the latest Fashion Doll Quarterly, but bought neither. Is it just me, or have doll magazines - especially fashion doll magazines - really gone downhill lately ? All I saw was gush for the latest and greatest and price guides in between full-page doll store ads. Which also double as price guides.

BC was too many Mattel photos, not much article, with a single Marirose dress pattern that looked a bit involved - I have some experience with her patterns, from Vintage Clothing for the Fashion Doll. As usual, her stuff looks absolutely perfect but mine always leaves a bit to be desired. So I'm not exactly jumpin' up and down to get more of her patterns right now. The magazine lacked other projects or ideas, but had a surplus of  ‘hey, you don't have this $280. "Barbie" MAC lipstick, so you'd best get on it !' blurbs. Even the vintage articles - stuff Mattel wouldn't make money on - were more ‘this is worth $xxx now. Do you have one in YOUR collection ?'. Meeting/fan club/con coverage was also mostly ‘aren't you sorry you weren't here ?' than anything else, and most of the other bits and pieces were already out of date - like how to sign up for the Dallas convention. And does a true Barbie Doll Collector *really* need to shell six bucks to be informed of how to tell a butt-marked #1 1959 doll from a back-embossed ‘1966' one ? There's plenty of books and reference for that (shoot, I even have some of it on my website, but without lavish photos !), but there it was, even with the photos, it was still rather dry and boring.

Today was the first time I'd actually held an issue of FDQ in my hot little hands. The pattern for Tonner's Ellowyne Wilde - a Goth Lolita dress - was intriguing, but I have 90% of the basic style already, for both Barbie and Elphie sizes. Plus, while Ello is the same height as Tyler Wentworth, the bodies are different, so they can't share clothes or patterns without alterations. So why shell $10. for a pattern I can't really use ? The Tonner articles were friendly, if not particularly witty ("10 Things I Learned About Tonner - they really, really love dolls !"  my snark : how long did that take you to deduce, Sherlock ?), and the paper dolls were pretty, but most of the issue was a wash. My dolls are lucky to have shoes, much less hats made of doll hair, and drooling photos of doll accessories just don't do it for me. Plus ‘Rubber Stamping on Fabric' ? Umm, I just spent six hours making a great doll dress. You really think I'm gonna muck it up with a *&^%$ing stamp pad ?! And glitter ? Pssshshhh !

It just seemed like most of what I looked at were glossy photos. Nothing new or inspiring, unless you count the hopes that wallets would be opened and credit cards would be extracted. It's sad when you're still holding the magazine in your hands in the store and you're bored by what you're barely leafing through. Maybe I'm getting jaded. Or maybe I know the patterns won't be nearly as perfect as the photos. Or I'm simply tired of the ‘buy, buy, BUY ALREADY !' pressure that radiates from the magazines. If I wanted that crap, I'd get a two-inch-thick copy of The Knot or Bride's. Those things should come with handles sewn to ‘em. They're huge !

I did find something interesting - well, Beloved found it for me. A wonderful sixth-scale bass guitar ! Wow ! It looked more in Elphie's scale than Barbie's, but either way, it was six different kinds of cool. There were four varieties, but I preferred the electric bass Fender. It came with tiny picks, a stand, a strap, and a tiny cord and some sort of transmitter or amp that fit on the strap. It was a bit pricey at $20., but I'll definitely go back for it as soon as I can. I forgot to write down the manufacturer, and for some reason, every photo I've found shows it out of package and only one mentioned the maker and distributor, making it kinda hard to find online.

Here's a link if you wanna see - it's still out of the packaging, but if you look close, you can see those cute, tiny picks - >

http://www.fenderusa.com/store/enter.php?a=_098176pqikzhmxcf82oidf22&product=0999325000

So, pretty soon, you may see Elphie strummin' a new bass guitar !

Over dinner, I was telling Beloved about my quandary over the white-spot-legged California Dream Midge that the flea market seller had last Sunday. If I decided to shell the $4. for her, should I keep her original - i.e., not perfect, but definitely herself - or do I make her perfect by scrapping another doll ? It all gets down to whether or not I can deal with a damaged doll in Chez Insanity, really. Some folks can accept imperfections in people but it better not come near their doll collection ! And others have no problems with their dolls bearing damage and wear. We're all different, after all. Beloved listened attentively, and gave me his thoughts. He said my entire collection was a haven for slightly damaged dolls, even the ones bought new usually had some small issues, so if Midge wanted to wear pants all the time (like I do when I don't shave !), that'd be up to her. And me. But he kind of figured that Midge, like me, wouldn't want to sacrifice another doll for vanity, we'd rather deal with what we came with. And the others would just have to adjust if she wanted to wear a skirt now and then.

Can you believe *this* is the guy my parents thought wasn't good enough for me ?! In my experience, not many folk would put this kind of thought into any hobby that wasn't theirs. It's also sweet how he's accepted a new doll into the house without so much as a raised corner of one eyebrow. So, yeah, if the seller still has her, California Midge will be arriving, spots and all, to Chez Insanity Friday or Saturday next.

It's easy to be happy when you have my life ! :)

Posted by dorriebelle at 10:56 PM CDT

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Mood:  a-ok

It's funny to find myself in August. It seemed like July would be around forever. But the circus has to end sometime, or the town'd have to find something to do with all the elephant poo. Where I'm from, there's a competition amongst the average Joe & Jane to get to the gate first the day after, to clean up after the State Fair. Folks find money and prizes and sell the animal leavings to gardeners.

Other metaphors aside, I decided to print off the last pages of the pattern catalog this morning. Turns out, my little project only used about 1/3 of the cartridge. It was well-used before I started, and more than a third remains. So I'm happy I have it all, but a little sad it's all done with. This Big Summer Project only cost about $15., including the library printing. I redid the catalog while putting in the new sheets, freeing up some document protectors, so I only needed about half the package. The big cost was time, of course, but I learned a lot. Mostly about digital image manipulation ! And how ridiculously obsessive I get. I now look at the catalog/photo album and squee with happy. I used to shrug and push it out of the way, while looking for more important stuff.

One other thing I learned was that folks can't seem to get enough of creating ways to dress Barbie up as Scarlett O'Hara (Gone With The Wind) or Marilyn Monroe. I have six different sewing pattern versions of the green ‘Barbecue' dress and four of the white halter dress from Seven Year Itch. Three of the strapless pink gown from ‘Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend' in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, although you can say she's Madonna performing "Material Girl" instead. Somehow, I ended up with a copy of patterns for every.single.gown. Vivien Leigh wore, even if it was for two minutes, on screen in GWTW. I even have patterns for her ‘shimmy' (chemise).  You know, the one Rhett knows what she looks like without. It's weird because I have no intention of sewing any of ‘em - well, maybe that super-easy one from a German pattern magazine - but I can't ditch a single one, either. Nor can I stuff ‘em in the Lord Perry folder I use to keep over-complicated patterns out of sight = out of mind, but not deleted. I want ‘em where I can see ‘em, even though I have zero intention of using ‘em. Makes no sense to even me, but there it is.

Ironically, I want to make a halter dress for Elphie. Since she'd be the least likely to actually want something like that ! It'd be gorgeous on her, though, in the right fabric. And goss knows I got plenty of fabric, some of it somewhere just has to be ‘right' ! Sheer numbers, ya know...Maybe this time I can tweak and increase and proportion a Barbie pattern to the right size for Elphaba. Long as it's not pink, she can't really complain !

I'm hoping that I'll get to sew later today. For now, though, I'm gonna re-measure Baby Ariel, see if I can get those pants right this time ! I'm starting to  think the narrow tape measure I used has stretched or something.

Posted by dorriebelle at 5:28 PM CDT

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