Current Mood : Busy and Happy 

Lots of errands to run today. Nothin' good at the thrift store but a pair of Beloved Hubby-size jeans. Levis he can get paint all over and not feel bad about wrecking. I found some gorgeous variegated pink flannel - it has stars and moons on it. Also a lovely variegated green with planets, stars, and moons on it. So I bought a half yard of each. Yes, I don't need fabric. Yes, flannel's usually a PITA to work with. But I loved the fabric, and a half yard of each was pretty cheap. At least I didn't go for the dollar table's scratchy, stiff polyester, although the print was pretty.

Went to the Shop to test out the paint over the Fusion-coated can lid. Seems OK, but it was slightly tacky and soft to the touch. So I decided to let the Fusion sink in until Saturday, and I'll test again then. Kinda felt good to have a break for a day or two.

PayPal came through just before noon today - you may have noticed something. NO ADS !! Wheee ! I even did a quick test, and I can remote-link site images now. I had to use The Doll Page for that before, and a lot of cut/pasting. Tripod now takes my 12.2mg out of my 1GB, instead of letting that stay free, but heck. I got more space now than even I can use for quite some time, so I shouldn't whine.

Also started a photo album. I'm thinking of doing one for the dolls - posting a new image and bio a day for each one - and another for misc. doll photos and stuff. I haven't posted the link on the main site, since I'm still playing with it, but here it is, just for you - https://dorriebelle.tripod.com/dolls_of_my_life/  . It'll probably change considerably, and there'll probably be more than one soon, but it's best to learn while doing. So I did this chintzy one. I'd say ‘Enjoy', but I don't know if anyone can !

Posted by dorriebelle at 9:33 PM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:15 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Happily playful

Long time ago, I was a HUGE Garfield fan. Round about 1983. Long time ago. I had one each of the main characters in stuffed animal form - the $10. seated Garfield was first, of course, then a small Odie for Christmas, a markdown Pookie (bear) leftover from Valentine's Day, and Arlene as a high-school graduation gift from best bud Sandra. I got her a carnival-size stuffed unicorn. What can I say, we understood each other. In '84, I had my first Christmas tree, and it was all Garfield - paper ornaments cut from wrapping paper and glued to scrap cardboard, a few plastic figurines, and a Garfield Angel, complete with wings and a wand, again from a half-off sale the year before.

Years pass, and after dozens of orange-cat themed gifts, my attention started to wane. There was one toy I always wanted but never got. The very expensive ‘standing' Garfield, darn close to life-size. I never wanted the huge three-foot-high one, but the one you could carry around like a real cat was forever out of my reach. It was $40. ! Lot of money to a girl makin' $5.15 an hour, which was decent for 1985, but not wealth untold.

Well, as you can probably guess, the stuff I had is long gone, and the one thing I always wanted but never got came to me via a thrift store today. For the princely sum of 25c. No tags, and his tail was draggin', but otherwise, in fine shape. It seemed rather silly to buy him, even for a mere quarter, when I'd long since ditched all the other stuff.

But I did. Used a toothpick and a long pin to fix his tail - basically, I shoved his stuffing around until his tail was straight - and cleaned up his face, brushed the fur. It's funny, I have so much stuff, and frankly, didn't even really want this toy until I saw him. But now...it's like the circle is complete.

Sorry there's not a lot of doll stuff to report. I updated the ‘Castle' sight, and I'm kind of burned out a bit. I'll probably take tomorrow off from it. House is a wreck, and we're gonna have to buy new clothes if I don't do some laundry soon.

But I hope one day you'll find a relic of your misspent youth, and have some fun with it. Soon !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

Updated: Monday, 2 May 2011 10:14 AM CDT

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Current Mood : Getting kind of tired of paint.

My neck is still hinked up, but at least I can turn my head today. I woke up yesterday in the middle of the night with it kinked, but I was so tired I went back to sleep, pain and all. Wish I'd tried to fix it instead !

I bought the Fusion paint to use inside the castle, but I really don't like the color. It isn't at all what I want. I'll probably hit Ace Hardware later, see if they have better colors. I sort of want a nice beige, but I got this dark grey/brownish stuff. Too dark and too gray.

Beloved Hubby was home today, and it was nice, working next to him in the Shop. I'll be kind of sad when this project's over. But, hey, I got a few dozen other playsets and props that'd benefit from a quick application of paint...

That reminds me, I never did post a photo of the fold-up bath and bedroom I got from GoodWill for a couple bucks. Once I get my new space, I should probably do a ‘housing and playsets' page ! I wanna show off the FriendShip soon. Should get the space Thursday or Friday - my bank's done it's job, now I'm waiting for PayPal to get off its digital hinder !

Oh, and for some reason, the Robert Enchanted doll is now a Target.com only purchase, not available at stores. Well, &^%$. I've been checking the site to see if our local store got ‘em, but today, there was no ‘check local store' button. Website only. Which means my $15. doll is now $21.50. That ranks. I'm about ready to give up on him. I have real problems buying a doll I've never seen before - and payin' $6.50 for five-to-seven-business-days delivery. Pfgh.

Well, tomorrow, we use the ugly Fusion we have to prime the inside. Hopefully Ace will have better colors to choose from. All else fails, I'll keep to my original idea of using the same paint inside as out. It's a stone castle, after all !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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

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Mood:  don't ask

Sorry to be so brief, but I'm fall-over wiped out. I've finished the castle exterior for now, unless I wanna get fancy with the turrets and windows. Helped Beloved Hubby with some work, too. Hinked my neck last night, and while I've been able to ignore it for most of the day, it's really singing now.

Hope your day was good !

Posted by dorriebelle at 12:01 AM CDT

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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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