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!

Anybody want to tell me...

how it got to be FALL all of a sudden? It seems to me that it was summer just a few days ago. Sigh. I'm working diligently on...writing a novel. Yeah. That's what I said.

Maybe somebody out there in dollyland has heard of NaNoWriMo?

First of all here is a little something they put out on their site:

What in the world is that, you ask? Well, it stands for: NationalNovelWritingMonth. See? What do the underlined letters make? NaNoWriMo, of course! Thousands (I'm not kidding) of people all over the world pledge to write a novel in a month (November)—the folks who designed the project calculate that 50,000 words constitute a "novel" in this context at least—at high speed, throwing as much caution as you can muster to the winds and just letting the words flow. Some few people in the madly typing mass of would-be novelists are actually in pursuit of fame and fortune. The rest of us are mainly doing this to try to unclog the pipeline so some real work will be released, once we write something that is total trash and nobody expects more because of the breakneck speed at which we are working. If you divide 50,000 by 30, what do you get? *madly keying in the numbers in my online calculator* Well, this is what you get: 1666.666666666666666666666666........................... and so on, words—wait for it: A DAY. 

Now if this were say, TALKING? I would have my quota of words out before breakfast and the rest of the day would be, you know, like, free. But it isn't really like TALKING unless someone were following one around with a tape recorder hoping to pick up something wonderful falling from one's lips. I'm lucky when nothing disgusting, like crumbs or something, is falling from my lips. One must actually think up and type that many words every day for 30 days. *runs around room screaming and tearing out hair—making cat look funny*

But I digress. In this wonderfully freeing idea that no one is going to actually read, or even more horrifying, grade or in any way critique my, um, "novel" I can write any and every little thing that comes into my so-called mind. So far, there's actually a sort of murdery mystery sort of thing evolving, taking place last century, in the '60s in Louisiana, just north of Lake Pontchartrain (I even learned to spell that by writing this "novel"—proud of me yet?) in the swamps of the Pearl River. Because I've got an asignment of sorts but no one is going to grade me except on actually writing enough words and doing it for thirty days running, and I could write "Pontchartrain is a lovely lake" 10,000 times and make my quota, instead I do what I've tried to do before but failed. I could write an actual mini-book (50,00 is not a very long book after all) telling a real made-up story with a plot that goes from point A to point A and a half (knowing me) and it would still count. The whole idea of this deal is: You break through all your fears and bad habits and fears and laziness and fears... You get the picture?

And it becomes easier. You don't worry. You just think and type. I used to make up stories when I was a kid home alone having to entertain myself. But the minute I started trying to write them down? Ayeeeeee! Someone might see it and, you know, laugh and poke fun and say, "I suppose you think this is a real story or something." and I'd have to say, "Yeah, I think it is something but mostly it's something like nothing...you know, it sucks and all, and l can't really do this and I know it's an abomination and I should never even look at a crayon again much less a typewriter (yeah, we had those back in the day) and okay, I quit."

But this is fun and I'm having it! So. I'll get back to dollies again soon...MY soon, not necessarily YOUR soon, okay? I've got to do this. It's kind of like writing this blog but more like the blog would be if it were, like, say, a novel. Heh.

Love to all and the dollies and their doings and possibly I will get back to them soon, and even start sewing them some glamourous duds and making patterns for same and like that... I know, promises promises. Well, you never know. I never thought I would be 15600+ words into a novel either. Here's my wisdom of the day in a slogan wrapped in an enigma, etc. etc...."Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first!"

This is just a short 30-day "dessert" detour. You've been through those and even longer hiatuses—or however the plural goes—with me before. So, see you again back in Dollyland soon! (That's my idea of "soon" etc. etc. see above the paragraph above this paragraph...um, above.)

Okay, yes, you are right....

I am not opening the Dolly Diva Designs Boutique tomorrow. I am once again reneging on my promise. How will you ever trust me again? Oh. You haven't trusted me for a long time. Hmmm. All right. I deserve that. It is to be expected that when one cries "Wolf!" time after time after time, one tends not to be believed after about the second or third time and no wolf appears. So cries of "Wolf! I say, WOLF!!" will elicit not so much as a nod. 

So now what do I do? I wait until I have actually opened said Boutique. THEN I will go on line to every doll list to which I belong shouting at the top of my lungs, yes, but also putting live links out there so that with the click of a mouse, interested parties will find themselves instantly transported to Dolly Diva Designs Boutique with wonderful pictures of actually available items which can be admired...or not...as well as purchased...or not...but at the shoppers' whim. They will no longer be sent empty promises of goodies to come the date of which will then be put off to some future date which will then... No need to continue. I'm sure you get the picture, as it were, that you will NOT be getting the picture once again. 

No. I say do NOT expect the current "countdown clock" to actually coincide with the true opening day of this ephemeral Boutique. However, I will say that I have made a solemn promise to myself that I will get the thing going or die trying. I know that a date of my death would be more believable to you all than an opening day date, but hey, I plan no more. I only do! Just expect that the next time You hear from Me will be...well, the next time you hear from me. 

Am I ashamed of my inability to get this thing off the ground? In a word, DEFINITELY!!!!!! Will that get me off the dime? Oh, that is devoutly to be hoped and even more devoutly to be desired. Will you all please send me any extra willpower or determination or even energy that you have lying about the house? I do so need as much of same as possible.

But ask anyone who has dealt with me: If I actually promise you personally that I will do something or sell something, I do it immediately. If I, on the other hand, say, "I think I have such and such" or even "I know I have such and such but I just don't remember where I have put it...", not so much. I will eventually find "such and such" but by then the person's grandchildren or grandnieces and grandnephews will have been born, graduated from college and be off doing whatever so that the dolly item in question is less than needful in the moment in which the finding has occurred. Sigh.

But if there is an actual picture of an actual item on an actual page in my actual blog? It is sure to find its way speedily and posthaste to the hand of the one who desires same. Promise!!!! Even, SOLEMN PROMISE!

So, when the picture link appears in your doll list (be it HYLAG, urban vita, or any such like that), you may be sure that that particular item exists and I know where it is and it is poised and ready to fly to your mailbox at the drop of a PayPal message.

I plan... but no. I no longer discuss plans here. The next time you hear anything from me about Boutiques and such, it will be with a link attached! Tah, my dolly diva owners. 

So When Do I Start to SEW?

I've been very busy cleaning out my sewing room, deciding which dolls to keep as models and which to repaint to sell and which to sell just to get some space to work...so when do I start to SEW?

Designing, sewing, making scenery or at least photo-shoot sets, taking the photos, in short the art part of all this dolly thing is what I really want to do. I have enough material to make doll fashions for zillions of dolls and no time to make even one outfit. How discouraging is that?!

But also how challenging, I say to my Self. Self is a bit of a complainer and I have to buck her up now and again with a big talking-to. Now is one of those times. Self does not want to clean out the sewing room. Self does not want to go through the boxes and decide which dolls need to be sent to homes where they will be appreciated instead of staying in there in the dark—most of them "stitch-starch nekkid"—waiting patiently ( I hope!) for their moment in the limelight. They are movie stars, fashion designers, models, even the odd superhero like Batman and Wonder Woman. How long can they stay tucked away from the fame, glamor and intrigue they are meant to enjoy? And for which they must be dressed to perfection? What a responsibility I have! If only Self would cooperate, even just a little.

It is a battle, I must say. But I am willing to fight it, if only to remind Self that "a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, then your poverty will come as a robber and your want like an armed man." Eek! Scary, I say—very, very scary! I do know that Self is frightened ridiculously of poverty. If anything will get her up off her...uh...chair, the thought of having to give up ALL of her little pleasures... the occasional ice cream sundae or chocolate eclair, a good show at a good local theatre company once in a while, going to a really nice restaurant on her birthday (she hopes DH is reading this blog as that particular day is hovering on the near horizon)...are dear to her heart. I'll give her some credit. She isn't really much of a spendthrift although I do claim about 2/3rds of the dollies I have too many of are her fault! We won't go into the "props" she buys at thrift stores and on e-Bay! And did I mention the fashion books???

Well, sometimes, even with the threat of poverty hanging over her (and therefore MY) head, a little sleep, a little slumber is what we really need right now.

So, see you soon—and when next we meet, I really will have started to SEW!!!

(And I'd better as I have set myself to get this shop on the web in a mere....eeeeek!....twenty days!)

Hello, folks!

Sadly, it appears that my little laptop (Toshiba w/Windows 7 Home version) has bitten the dust on a permanent basis. It happened about 3 months ago but I was able to get it up and running by sacrificing everything on it! This time, being a learner (albeit a slow one), I put all my saving sort of things in a Dropbox so it didn't get lost. But sure enough, the Toshiba crashed again and this time refuses to respond at all. So now to make the decision: do I buy another Windows machine or return to my (much more expensive) first love—a Mac? I think it will be the Mac, expensive but more reliable. Besides I have three old G4s I can use as storage hard drives. They don't do Airport so I can't tie into the house wireless system without elaborate cables run from my computer area over hill and dale to my husband's server. Thus, I need a newer model. But I love Macs and have had them since my first in 1989 (gasp) until I had to have the wireless thing. Now, I will have my Macs and wireless too! In the meantime, I'm using the husband's machine. 

However, let's escape from the land of computer horrors to more interesting dolly-type things...

I am finally ready to put the doll room together. Are you amazed, readers mine? Well, you should be. It's, like, we needed another house to put our books in but we have finally got most of what we really don't need out of here and what we're keeping into the garage. A car? A car is supposed to fit in there? Who knew! Just kidding. This is California so we don't worry so much about cars in garages, at least not in our neighborhood! It's just a convenient, oversized junk room at our house which also happens to have a washer and dryer in it. But a car....? Not a chance! 

So far the books are in cardboard boxes but we envision shelves, to be much like our own personal library. Unfortunately, we will not be able to afford a librarian, though we probably would need two or even three! We both like books, you see, and I have several interests, dolls and vintage fashions (30s and 40s mostly), sewing, costume design, and like that. Then there are all the books on history and writing and art and music. That doesn't count the scores of scores (music, that is) which must find a home somewhere near enough to the piano so that I don't have to drive 10 miles to get what I need to learn for a gig, should one arise. All of the subjects require books, books, books and more books. I LOVE THEM. So does the husband and of course on different subjects so we don't share each other's books that much... You get the picture?

Oh wait. I did promise dolly talk. So I will invite anyone who wants to start a topic, ask me a question about the supposed boutique which has been promised for a couple of eons but which has yet to begin, or just talk about a pet project of your own, to make use of the comments section. I will be monitoring submissions so that we won't be inundated with spamish sorts of stuff and can stick to that in which we are truly interested, 'kay?

As for my own dolly stuff, I have told you that I am interested in making miniatures of my concert gowns. But I also have several Lutterloh sets from the late 30s and 40s which I want to try to make for my dolls. If I am successful, I will make copies of the patterns I use for the dolls and put them up for sale in the sewing section of the proposed boutique. I probably won't make more than one or two copies of the outfits themselves, as in sewing them—one for my doll of choice, the Tonner American Model Goth 2011, and one or two others  for Gene or Tyler to put in the boutique. 

What will go in the boutique first will be my excess Genes, Madras, and I think I'll even let my Violets go—at least one or two. Also, most of the clothes that came from Ashton Drake and a lot of the Integrity stuff as well will go into the boutique. I am more interested in my own designs, vintage stuff, and copies of my gowns than I am the original clothing that came on the dolls. I know they are lovely but one only has so much space one's life and abode, no? 

So my doll friends, do leave a note about what particular interest you have in these fashionable dolly divas...clothes, sewing, vintage stuff, design, what? I think a lot of us just still like to play with dolls. I know that's part of it for me. I didn't have dolls or toys much in evidence when I was a kid...too much bouncing about from pillar to post. Now I'd like to make up for that so when the larger ladies came to be, Gene et alia and then the American Model, I have stopped my searching and am ready to begin playing! And playing and playing and playing! 

The reason for the boutique is to share that play with other superannuated kids like me. If not now, when, eh?

Hope to hear from you all soon, okay?

This is my beautiful Gummers, formally Mortimer Montgomery Miaouzalot.

He was just about a month and a half past his sixteenth birthday when his sweet voice was silenced forever. 

I'm devastated. Here in our "new" house, as in the one we just moved to but is not in any way actually new, it seems the front door latch doesn't catch easily. The door was ajar long enough for the Gum to take a stroll outside--bad news because he was strictly an indoor fellow. My husband didn't realize that Gum was outside and shut the door. We missed him an hour or so later. By then, it was dark and he was nowhere to be found. We searched and searched but found no trace of him. I slept in the living room on the couch with both the front and back doors open enough for him to come in but he didn't. 

After searching for days and plastering this lovely picture all over town, the online local newspaper as well as the print edition, and Facebook lost pets page, we got a call with the worst news possible. As she was taking her kids to school, the lady had seen his little body on the street which intersects the street our house is on the morning after he had disappeared. We hoped against hope it wasn't he, but he hasn't been seen by anyone in our neighborhood or any of the surrounding neighborhoods. Neither has he been picked up by the local animal control people. 

We are forced to believe it was he indeed who met his end in a collision with a car...whose driver probably never even saw him or realized he had been hit. The little body was sighted on October 4 so it has been nearly a month since we lost him. I don't weep as often as I did at first, nor as violently, but it is difficult to bear all the same. I'm missing him desperately. It seems so odd not to have him here. Every once in a while I will see him asleep on a chair or on the couch and realize it isn't the Gummers but just a discarded sweater or my knitting or something. 

He was such a wonderful little creature, very intelligent and loving and funny. He constantly nagged us to play...he had his favorite toy which my husband would try to keep from him. He always caught it and would carry it away to his "lair" under one of the living room chairs, tail and head held high in triumph. 

Please forgive the long paean in memory of my little animal friend, nay, my beloved animal child surrogate. He was the last of our five cats and I had decided that he would be my last animal altogether. I am becoming more and more chronologically enhanced and would not like to pass on and leave a little creature wondering why he or she had been abandoned!

Thanks for listening! I just wanted to memorialize this beautiful loving little creature, hoping to work out some of my guilt and grief not only for his loss but also for the pain of knowing I failed him by not missing him sooner and failing to find him before he made the fateful decision to cross the street.  

Goodbye, Gummers. May you meet me in joy on the Rainbow Bridge in the not too distant future.