Current Mood : Fun !

Did some more work on This Old Castle - it has paint on it now ! Only one small problem. Can of Fusion says I can apply more paint within 24 hours or wait until after 7 days. Eeek. I was hoping to be done with it in a week or so. Hmpft. Not sure what I'll do now, except for buying more paint along with the groceries tomorrow. The beige can says it covers 25 square feet, but I used the whole thing priming the front.

And knowing the 27 hours/7 day issue, at least I'll make sure to have my spray cans in a row before I tackle the interior. I'm secretly dreading that. It's kind of a make or break part of the whole deal, ya know ? But I've come this far, might as well go all the way !

Took Dearest Son to Dollar Tree, conveniently next door to Ace Hardware. He picked out a toy and a Pez dispenser (racing helmet) while I decided to go for it and buy the "Just Pretending" hair they sell for Halloween and dress-up fun. It's a sort of turquoise, very pretty. I was going to get the lime green, but I don't think it'd look as good on Casey as the turquoise will. So if I end up waiting for the castle to dry for a week, at least I can start her reroot !

And, as you can see, I got a Happy Meal doll - a My Scene skater, I don't know which one. I've heard that the My Scene line's been cancelled, so it may well be that it goes out on the roller skate line. That seems somehow wrong to me...

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:13 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Dazed and Confused (and a bit high on paint thinner)

Visitors to the main site may have noticed that something new has been added. Yup - a new page ! Might as well use up the space I have while waiting for my order for more to go through. Perhaps spurred on by yesterday, or just plain getting sick of intentions going nowhere, I packed up the Bright Pink Castle and the can of Fusion spray paint I bought Monday and took ‘em down to Beloved Hubby's workshop. He'd cleared a workspace for me inside, so I wouldn't have to use the windy backyard and the outdoor table. Waiting for me was a mostly empty jug of mineral spirits - paint thinner - that he said I'd need.

First order of business was to get all those *&^% cutesy stickers removed. I'll have a much easier time painting if I don't have to spray around and block off doves, bunnies, chipmunks, and puppies that I don't want anyway. I also removed the prop stickers - I hated those when I was a kid, too - as I'd rather have the shelves fulla stuff my dolls can touch. Took down the portrait over the fireplace and the mirror ‘reflection' - I'd rather have non-specific doll stuff there, and a real mirror. Even went after flowers, as those decals will be replaced by more dimensional stuff later.

At first, I started with scraping ‘em off with a razor blade. I figured any nicks would add character to the walls. But after several jumping skitters, it soon got too difficult to position everything I wanted to keep behind the blade. Beloved was right - the Fusion can said unweathered surfaces would need a wipedown with paint thinner - so I wondered. Would that help get these darn decals off  ?  

Oh, yeah ! A short soak, and those suckers almost came up by themselves. If you end up tackling a project like this, Goo Gone easily peels up stickers and their residue. But it's a lot more expensive than paint thinner. Beloved pays about $8. a gallon for thinner, and that'd barely get you a quart of Goo Gone. I put the razor away and peeled up about three dozen decals, wondering idly if NASA uses the same stuff to attach heat tiles to the Shuttles.  I kept the fireplace ‘flames' sticker, the cat in front of the flames, and the face to a mantle clock, but all the other stickers were gone. Alleluia !

Unfortunately, now the damage was visible. Plastic that was colored differently behind the stickers, just plain discoloration for no reason elsewhere, and all-over dirty. Structurally, it's still quite good, but if I ever wanted to play with it, I *had* to paint it now. Even clean, it looks bad. Beloved said there's no way he'd attempt to paint it - too many nooks and crannies, too much texturing. So watch me go where pros fear to tread ! I noted how things were put together, figured out how to remove some parts, and gave it a solid cleaning and wipedown. And that was about all I could manage. I need a primer coat before I put the textured paint on, so I have to go shopping before I lay anything on it.

And it's all documented on the ‘This Old Palace' page. Hopefully I can do a bit of paint shopping tomorrow, and keep going, but I'm already pretty nervous. It is a much bigger project than I thought. Still, I don't have much to lose - if I totally butch it, I'm sure Dearest Son would take it off my hands, or I could donate it. At least I will have done something with it besides move it from place to place and stuff it in a closet. And who knows, I may actually do a good job at it, or maybe show how *not* to do this !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:13 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Happy yet somewhat morose.

Dearest Son was home today - school holiday. He pretty much stayed busy discovering new facets of his Ultimate BumbleBee, and introducing him to the rest of the Transformers we have around the house. By Dearest's count, we have seventeen of the things...including four BumbleBees in various sizes now. Beloved Hubby got BB for him, as it was the only thing Dearest wanted for Christmas. Since Beloved's work is seasonal, we tend to do our big gifts early, and just do small stuff in December. More time to enjoy, I think.

If there's one thing I learned today, twice over, it was enjoy, celebrate, and live your life RIGHT NOW. After Dearest went to his grandparents' for a visit, Beloved and I hit a few yard sales and local stores. Pawn shop next to the tool place had a 10 DVDs for $29. sale, so you'll be seeing some new titles up top of these entries soon. We also picked up wood for various Beloved projects - including my dollhouse ! Eeeeee !

Picked up all the satin you see in the photo at one sale. The seller was very sweet, and let us play with her Lhasa Apso / Shi Tsu puppy. She was moving the next day, and basically gave me all of that for just $2. Some of the lighter colors are stained by the red, but even those can be used - on the blue, it comes out to a variegated lavender that's quite lovely. She said her mother used to sew, proficient at a professional level, and the satin was hers. She'd amassed collections during her life to enjoy during her retirement, notions and luxe fabrics for sewing, classical and wonderful books for reading. Shortly after her long-awaited retirement, her eyesight dimmed. She didn't have much time with the things she loved before she could no longer enjoy them, and she passed not long after her vision did.

In case I didn't get the lesson, it was repeated at the third sale. Second one netted me the blue and glitter ‘nightime stars' fabric on the far right. They had a fabulous tree house installed for their kids...who never used it. I mean, it was better than some places I've paid rent to live in. If I was 10 again, they'd have to toss food up to me, because I'd never leave the tree house otherwise. Anyway, the third sale got me the cool case behind all the fabric - it's one of those that changes pictures when it's moved, and has some girl dancers that resemble My Scene ads and the main character in Boogie for the Wii. The yard sale was difficult for them because they'd had a grandson pass recently, and some of the stuff was his. I'd heard of him in local news stories, but aside from the idle "OMG, how horrible for the family" thought, I didn't have a connection.

I could tell his story, but I don't feel it's mine to tell. If he had a legacy, it would be that everyone learn CPR and update the skill, and again, to celebrate, enjoy, and live life while you're here. I like to think that's what I'm mostly doing. Oh, I hate doing dishes, and sorting socks ranks, but I've learned so much by letting myself be who I am, and getting the time to do what I want that my life is wonderful. I just wish I could do something for his still-grieving family. It's been years since my CPR classes, so maybe that's how I can honor this life that has left behind so many voids...

Sorry, didn't mean to go all maudlin on you. But as someone who never knows where a yard sale will take her, I have to take the lessons I get via them to heart. I'd hate to have to repeat this one. I was nearly in tears by the time we got back into the car. We sort of shook it off with movies, but my thoughts return to a young man I never met.

Requiscat in Pace, A.

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:12 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Happy and Hopeful 

Didn't get to sew today - we had a massive clean-out at Beloved Hubby's shop, and he needed what little help I could offer. Best thing is, it's done, and it looks great back there now. The big pile of empty paint cans, leftover supplies, crappy third-hand pasteboard furniture, and other such detritus is gone. And I saw a scorpion ! I've never seen a live one before, just the embalmed ones that end up in ‘southwestern' type jewelry. Bolo ties, usually. It was actually rather cute, not much bigger than yer average household spider. Beloved didn't see him until I pointed him out. He's homeless now, unless he's in the Dumpster Beloved rented.

The big news is that sometime late next week, ‘Somewhere That's Green' goes ad-free. Yup. Soon as PayPal clears the funds I transferred, I'm signing up for more space on Tripod, and you won't have useless ads and pop-ups to deal with anymore. And I'll have a lot more space for photos ! I'm thinking of doing a photo album of all my dolls, and there's a couple more craft projects I want to post...

Not a lot else going on, but oh, the plans I have...let's see if I can make any of ‘em happen !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:12 AM CDT

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Current Mood : anticipation

I think I've worked out about the best way to sew for me. If I select and print the pattern, then cut out and Fray-Check it in the evening, I'm in a real rush to sew the next day. That's about what happened today. Rushed through the morning errands so I could get to the machine to finish the dress I started Tuesday night. It was complete and ready for photos before 11:30am - and that was with taking an hour to make the front strap and bow decoration !

Nice big image on the main page, under the flea market haul photos I'll take down next Friday. I used Meg (the one I bought last weekend, in the flea market photos) to model, and it looked so cute on her, she ended up with it. Y'know, at first, I wasn't sure about Meg. Her face is so angular, so stylized, I wasn't sure if I liked her because she was so unusual, or if I just liked her. I was indifferent about the film - great voices, derivative story. Plus, I was a bit afeared that I'd end up associating her with Fran Drescher - a fine actress (The Nanny) and hilarious comedienne, but her voice scratches at my nerve endings - if I bought her. Nope. I just love her eyes and her almost knowing smile.

That's kinda my problem sometimes, and why my purse strings seem so ridiculously tight so often. I'm reminded of all the dolls I bought new and used, and how many of them ended up redressed and donated. We're not flat-broke and redeeming soda cans from the side of the road poor, but I do have to watch my spending. Especially when I have so much already. I really don't want to repeat my past mistakes. So I rarely buy stuff, and it's only when I get a strong ‘pull' that I open my moth-breeding wallet. Even when it's a used doll for a buck at a flea market, in a nice or even original outfit, with the hair still in the factory set, I don't want to waste resources on a chance. It's often odds on favorite that the doll might end up at GoodWill in a month or three.

Yet somehow I took the chance with Meg. I'm glad I did. She really is lovely. I used the denim that's already made two or three pairs of male doll jeans, Jem's two-piece dress, half of Cali's shorts - and it was only part of a ‘stuff a bag for a buck' deal at a yard sale ! The floral print (perhaps too light to be paired with the denim, but I liked the way it looked) was a chunk of the left front of an Ann Taylor blouse. It was on the final clearance rack - 35c, or 3 for $1 - at one of the three thrift stores close by. I could go broke on that rack, just for fabric. They never have my big butt size on it, but I always find some goodie I can use ! That's why I only go there once or twice a month.

Got all the boxes in the garage broken down today. That clears more space for the pool table and general fun. It's funny how we had a rec room this whole time, but never used it. Tomorrow, I'll drop them off at the recycling bins...that are conveniently next to the GoodWill ! It's all part of my sinister plan !

But for now, it's day's end, and Dearest Son has Friday off. If I wanna sew tomorrow, I gotta get after it tonight, in about 10 minutes. What to sew next...what to sew...

Posted by dorriebelle at 9:31 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:11 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Thoughtful 

Sorta busy day. Several morning errands - had to replace the broom I broke, for one - and then I got to settle in to updating the website while the laundry spins. There's doll clothes (the filthy Esmerelda dress Megara was wearing, and the mommy-made one Jessie had) in there, so even doing the laundry involved my little hobby. Got the larger image of Timey's latest outfit posted on her page, and I noted again how that page bugs me each time I see it. If my layout & design class taught me anything, it's to recognize the dreaded Too Much Text, and that page had it bad.

But, what to put there ? I never had the paper dolls, or even the boxes to either doll. And there wasn't much for them out there when they were new. I hit Google Images for an idea, and soon hit it - another sign in PaintShopPro, with the dolls' box logos ! I could easily edit the original images, and add a bit of text. So, about an hour later, I had the sign that now graces the Timey Tell/Hi Dottie page. Felt good to make something. And I wasn't ripping someone else's image off completely. Maybe one day, when there's nothing left to want, I'll buy the Dottie and Timey paper dolls, and scan ‘em. But for now, this'll do fine.

Got tomorrow's sewing all cut out and Fray-Checked, ready to go. It's McCalls 9099, view D's dress. I've always liked the design of that one, and, truth be told, it's the main reason I bought it. That, and it was really cheap ! I may make view F, a sort of housedress/float later. I have (and wear) some of those m'self.

Oh, and the Esmerelda dress came out nice and clean. Happy !

PS - I started this blog four years ago today. 862 entries, and here we are, still ramblin' on about dolls and not much ! Extra happy !!

Posted by dorriebelle at 9:35 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:11 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Crafty

Happy October ! It was a big day for Beloved Hubby. Found him a new belt that fits (most are too long), and got the jacket he didn't want to get for himself at the thrift store. More about the thrift store later. He also scored a slightly worn - but in great shape - pool table, dirt cheap ! It's nothing fancy, but it's 7 feet long, and came with everything, cue sticks, balls, chalk, even a blanket to cover it when nobody's playing.

He called to tell me, and asked me to start cleaning up and moving what office furniture I could, because it'd go in there through the garage. Well, I had to clear a path through the garage first, and he was home by the time I got that done. Turned out that the garage space was better for the pool table than the office would have been, so it's out there. He and Dearest Son have had so much fun. I found and cleared a table for snacks and misc., and moved an unused computer chair out there, so at least one seat would have a back. We were using recycled five-gallon paint buckets for seating, and while that doesn't hurt my plush butt, it did bug my back after a while.

I'm not very good at pool - last time I played, I was on roller skates - but I have an idea I'll get better after a while. Got lots of good exercise cleaning the garage, too. I actually broke our broom sweeping out all the cobwebs and crud. It's been bugging me how dirty it was. Basically, we haven't touched the place since it was the staging area for the big move back at the end of February. During the week, I'm gonna break down all the boxes and get them recycled. That'll clear even more ‘stick space' !

I had a nice day, too. I'm the Pool Hall DJ, setting up MP3 music on the computer for the guys to play to, which is fun. I'm seriously considering asking for a mirror ball (you know, a disco ball that spins) for my studio...but I'm also considering asking for a portable one, so we can take it out to the new Pool Hall, too. And it'd be fun to use for a game of Boogie on the Wii ! Tacky ? Probably. But I've always adored mirror balls, so I don't care if it is or not. Dorrie want !

Anyway, went to the thrift store today that we went to yesterday, to get Beloved's jacket. It really looked good on him. Found a Liz Claiborne purse I liked for a big $2., not that I care about the label, it's just funny to me that I have one. Decided to peek in on the toy section, even though it was doubtful they'd have anything new. But they did. There was a Build-A-Bear Chinese pajama set - a red floral brocade with lime green frogs and cuffs on the top, with matching shorts. Hmmm...it was in a sealed bag, which I hate, but there was the possibility that it might fit Timey and Dottie. And it was cheap enough so that, if it was completely wrong for them, I could salvage the fabric.

So, what began today as a bear shirt and shorts is now a doll's skirt and top. Removed the inseam on the shorts and resewed it, then took out about an inch or so of elastic. From cut to FrayCheck, a walk of four feet and six seconds, the material had already begun to fray. Saw a lot of indifferent sewing, too, despite the ‘made with love' claims on the tag. The blouse was also too big, so I took it up in the back, mostly at the Velcro ^TM closure. Only took about an hour here and there, and Timey finally gets a new outfit.

I'll post a larger image on her page tomorrow. I'm darn tired now ! Hope you had a day of fun challenges and unique surprises !  

Posted by dorriebelle at 10:52 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:11 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Numerical logic

Today, Dearest Son did his first two doll customizations. He earned a Buzz Lightyear (Toy Story) doll for good behavior at school, and out of curiosity, I examined the new spaceman's feet. Would ‘Andy' be written there ? Nope, but Son's name was ! He also cut the hair of a spare blonde Dollar Tree doll quite short and placed her on a plastic horse, saying she was Woody. Didn't know his favorite cowboy had a bustline, and liked to ride full-body commando, but Son was happy.

Found a pair of white shin-high squishy cowboy boots in the shoe collection, and with minor scissor snips to the back, they fit the nearly flat-footed Jessie doll well. I didn't have much to fit her preteen Skipper body - never been a big Skipper fan, she was always the annoying little sister who tells Ken that Barbie was talking to Joe on the phone last night when I was a kid - but I found a Baywatch Barbie shirt that fit, and a slim faux-denim skirt to go with it. I'll probably add a row of lace to the skirt later. Son was a bit disappointed that I didn't have a cowgirl square-dance outfit ready to go in the ‘Barbie Kids' clothing bag, but he was OK with her current ensemble. Jessie got to drive his VW Beetle around, and he was introducing her to other toys, so I think she's been accepted.

Luckily I have a few vintage-type Skipper patterns around, and she fit the minidress/blouse I had that came from Teen Sweetheart Skipper. Plus her body mold is dated 1987, so I think she's a Teen Fun Skipper body with an original head.

Checked TRU and Mal-Wart while we were out - still no Enchanted Robert dolls. Kinda ranks, because Target.com has ‘em in stock, and they're liberally sprinkled throughout eBay. I'll get mine eventually. At least he's not an exclusive anywhere. Not to mention, I gotta slow my spending down. Winter's coming.

Not that it stopped me from buying two 50c nighties at the thrift store today. Four sets of tiny black buckles - yaaay ! Plus black stretch lace, elastic, sequins, beads, a bow, a pearl decoration, and some cool fabric. Not bad for a buck, but I've really gotta curtail even the cheap spending...eventually.

I'm beginning to tighten up the site. When I first got it, I'd take a doll photo, post it via Tripod's image storage, then use their image interface to resize it for a web page. If the photo was 1250 by 900 and took up 1.2MB of space, I could resize it on Tripod so it'd be smaller on the site - but it'd still take up the enormous amount of space. So I went through every photo on all the doll pages and made sure that all the images were either posted at the actual size, or I resized it in PaintShopPro and posted it again. Took two hours - Elphie's got lotsa photos - but I reclaimed a MB of space ! And some of the images, frankly, really needed editing. Some still do, darn it. Today, I hope to go through the rest of the site and do the same.

It made me curious about it all, so I thought it out. Going from 20mb to 1Gb is a large leap. So I looked up the byte<kilobyte<megabyte<gigabyte chart, went into File Manager for some numbers, and did the math. This might all be wrong, I darn near failed algebra in high school, but this is what I got. I'm using 16.1 of my currently available 20mb. Average image on the current site is 40kb, and there's nearly 250 of ‘em. Average text on a page (not including photos) is 71kb, and the blog is nearly half a meg by itself. With 34 pages on my site, that's 353kb, or about .35mb a page. Plus the blog, which is .436mb. When I upgrade to the GB, subtracting twice the current amount for the blog, and taking out what I already have up, I could possibly have over two thousand more pages - with pictures - and still not use all that space. Wow.

I just love having something to look forward to !

Posted by dorriebelle at 6:22 PM CDT

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

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Today's Mood : Havin' a Coke and a smile !

What a fun day today was ! I got to update the website a bit, and play with the new acquisitions. Photos of yesterday's major haul are on the main page, and this is the only place you'll see the Coke machine tin. I forgot to add it to the photo shoot, and was too lazy to set it all up again. Plus, the pictures were huge enough as it was ! Found out that only one Meg had these earrings - the semi-rare ‘Legend of Love' set. And I went and broke one of ‘em. Hope I can fix it.

And don't worry about me finding her a licensed Hercules companion. I'm not much on his body sculpt, so I figure a nice, thoughtful Ken will do nicely ! I've learned the hard way that divorcing a doll from its namesake and image is harder than I thought (Phoebus, Rosie O' Donnell, and Milo could tell you that, too).

Man, the ‘bendy' body Poison Ivy  has really is weird. It doesn't even bend well. I had to fight to get Ivy to sit, and still, she doesn't so much sit as leans. Yup, the legs aren't jointed - it's all solid ‘bendy'. Plus it feels weird. Like a not-squishy Stretch Armstrong. I can understand why the ‘bend and flex' body went the way of all flesh, perhaps a bit earlier than Mattel hoped. Soon as I find a standard body to fit her skin tone, she's getting swapped out. Probably the reason Harley Quinn was a standard-body doll wasn't due to negative consumer reaction to the bendy body, it was that tinting the rubbery ‘skin' red and black proved too difficult.

I'm gonna try to keep the website running as-is as long as I can. Winter's our hardest season, and Tripod doesn't do yearly billing. I hate to add another monthly bill unless I really need to. But once I upgrade, it'll be nice - I won't have to worry about space anymore, I can have a photo album and link images remotely, and you won't have to put up with their cheeseball ads anymore. The cheapest plan gives me 1GB of space, compared to the going-fast 20MB I'm using for free. I may just tuck a year's worth of payments in PayPal, plus the sign-up fee, and let Tripod tap that instead of a credit card. Beloved and I will have to chat about that later.

Turned in the old black and color inkjets to Office Max, and got $12. off a new black one. Shame they don't do the inkjet = ream of paper anymore, but at least I got a discount off my next few hundred pattern printouts. I've already selected what'll get sewn tomorrow...

<yawn> But that's a nearly a whole day away. G'night !

Posted by dorriebelle at 9:13 PM CDT

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

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Today's mood : so happy 

Well, that $20. I told Beloved Hubby that I didn't need to take to the flea market sure got gone in a hurry ! But I got some great stuff ! Six nearly-new dolls, a houseful of doll furniture, carpeting, and props - and I came home with change. Sure, it was only a buck and a quarter, but just one of those dolls cost somebody else more than I paid for all this stuff, so I'm excited !

I'll write all this up tomorrow, but I got the Jessie (Toy Story 2) doll, the Poison Ivy one, a Rockers ‘Derek', a lovely AA My First Princess, first series Happy Family Midge, and Megara (Hercules). They were all just a buck each, dressed. I've cleaned everyone, and brushed hair until my wrists hurt, but you all know I had a great time. I got carpet that'll look great under the Friend Ship airplane, and a Coke tin that looks like a bottle vending machine. The furniture included the much-wanted My Scene fireplace, nursery window (it'll eventually become a window seat), along with several bookcases, tables, and desks.

For now, though, I'm wiped out, and need to sleep. I'll make sure to post photos on the main site tomorrow ! I'm going through image storage space again fast, so I have to think about what to do about the site soon.

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:09 AM CDT

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