May Day May Day—yoo hoo!

Friday, May 1 

is the opening day of the 

Dolly Diva Design Boutique!

    How fun is that!!! I have a whole plan planned it is as follows:

        Although I will be keeping a doll or two or six for myself, all the other dollies will be looking for new adventures and new horizons. They will be wanting to take their wardrobes with them, of course.

     Okay, here's what you do if you are looking for something in particular and want to get in touch with me other ways than writing to the blog. You can send me an email at 'ladymacregor at gmail dot com'. However, I only go there once or twice a day so please be patient. Of course you can leave a message in the comment section at the bottom of this post but that's pretty public. Just write to me at the email above and I'll get it. I'm also on several doll lists. However, if you write to the blog and ask that your comment be kept private, I'll do exactly that. 

      

(By the way, I need a replacement body for Madra. I will trade a reasonable trade for anyone who has one, we eat our own shipping costs.) 

Here follows a list of stuff I have my hands on right now:

    • Kentucky Derby Gene dressed in a green silk outfit w/ hat, gloves, purse, stockings and field glasses.

    •  2 horses w/saddles, saddle blankets, and so on, 1 trophy, 1 rose blanket, 1 bouquet (maybe two but not sure yet) of roses.

    •  Gene's racing silks, cap and boots.   

    •  Lots of paper things like cards with the horses in the races listed, etc. that are miniaturized copies of the real things!

    •  All my Trents except one­—the one in a tux—so he’ll have to go to other “studios” to find work! One of him has, wait for it, "flocking" hair!

    •  Ms. Gene, is tied down in her hatbox unscathed, though the hatbox was well and truly trashed by UPS on its way to me from the convention (which I couldn’t attend!)  {:(  I have made a sort of repair job with scotch tape. Anyone with patience and skill could repair it nicely and neatly should they so desire. It is only apart at the seams.  I don’t have the time to do the repairs myself. There will be no charge for the hatbox except if it is a couple bucks more for the shipping.

The Dallas Gene painted by Brian Bulkley 

• The Dallas Gene gift doll with a short, curly Gina Lolobrigida type "do" in a slinky white mermaid dress with red lined cloak (below), MIB only opened to look at and never seeing the light of day since Dallas 2006. 


 I am graduat-ing now from the 16ish" ladies to the American Model Goth, 2012 version. I've finally found The One. She is the perfect size for what I want to do—which I have explained a little while ago on this blog—which is to miniaturize my concert gowns.    
     Here’s where you come in! To do all of the stuff I really want to do dollwise and otherwise, I need the space I currently have filled with all manner of dolly stuff I no longer can't or don't want to use. You get to see if there's something you want, get it/her/him and play with same so that the ladies who live here now don't pine away in their boxes—or make such an infernal racket with their demands I can't think—which will free me to do all my other stuff not to mention the space to do it in, but I will be sewing for those few dolls I have left and making patterns and like that. One big slightly worn concert dress can make many mini-dresses. See where I’m going with this?
      Now that you know how I plan to spend the second half  of my life—means living to age 154—you see why I am forced to make more room available while enjoying myself in the process. 
     Okay. Done. Stay tuned. I’m off to the doll mines! See you Friday, May 1 anytime after 9:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time?I will be setting up a non-google site for myself—have the site but haven't developed it or anything. That's my next project. So for now, working through "Dolls For Sale", "Dress Making for Dolls", the old "HLAYG", or other sites. Just look me up on those sites and contact me there.

     See you soon!

Well, well, well! 

Here we are in a brand new year...

and I'm already deep in dollyland unearthing my treasures of pattern, yardgoods and trim. Are you encouraged? I certainly am! I'm finding all sorts of interesting things—dress forms for Gene et alia, a couple of Kentucky Derby winning horses, also their accompanying red rose wreaths (that's alliterative, isn't it?—even though it doesn't look like it!—good old weird English-language spelling) for their necks. That Louisville (Kentucky) Gene Marshall convention was my first! I went because I was born in Kentucky and got a chance not only to go to the convention but also to visit relatives—a lovely double-header. 

Back to the dolly part of the post, I also am pretty sure the trophy is hanging around here somewhere. Want to find that so I can present the horse, the blanket of roses, the rose bouquet for Gene and even her field glasses to you all—in time for the Derby. Perhaps I could even be persuaded to part with Gene herself in her lovely '50s-style pale green silk full flared-skirted suit with the big matching hat. 

Hats are always interesting at the Derby. The ladies go all out to get the most outrageous but becoming hat possible. Big competitive thing, that. The guys are interested in the horses and the mint juleps, not necessarily in that order. The girls are sometimes into the horses and juleps as well but the guys are interesting too... Back to the horse part: Gene also showed up at one point in a set of jockey silks! Everything from hat to boots. Wouldn't she just! They presented her with an honorary Kentucky Colonel-ship too. What a gal!

I went to the Derby once when I was in college. However, my fella and I sat in the bleachers as opposed to the ritzier, more expensive (by, to use horse racing lingo, a long shot!) grandstand. But at least we didn't have to stand in the sun in the midfield. Even on the first Saturday in May it can be very hot in Kentucky. However, snow showers have shown up a time or two as well!

Anyway, I had a very nice but quiet and reserved hat. But Gene, whose hat was much bigger (in proportion of course) than mine obviously, sat in one of the most important boxes in the front row of the grandstand and wouldn't really have needed those field glasses. They looked nice against her pale spring green outfit though. 

It's such fun getting into the dolly boxes again. It's been a while—you all know how long I've been promising to do that! It's truly wonderful to dig around. I feel like I'm on a treasure hunt, and I guess I am, no? I'll post now and then when I find something really amazing. I know there must be a lot of amazing lurking about in this room. I mean, the boxes and boxes and boxes! There has to be treasure hidden in all that trove—no? Stay tuned.