An Aries Knows (this site is more fun when people read and comment)
I needed a bathtub-type rubber duck for a photo shoot, and Lynne found one for me a few days ago. Definitely NOT a tiny duck–it even dwarfs Ken! He wasn’t part of the original photo, but this is a chance to show I decreased the size of his collar and removed the old “supersize” buttons to replace them with some of the smaller buttons I ordered. They are yellow like the duck!
I also used an uncolored coloring page in the original photo, which I then colored for fun.
And for Muppet fun, this.
Lynne arrived for a visit last Tuesday and stayed until today. I will miss her SO much. We had a lot of fun running errands and cooking and eating. One of our outings was to Jo-Ann’s for fabrics and things. While she did some hand sewing on a couple of quilts she’d brought with her, we talked and talked about the Neverending Saga, what’s left to tell of the stories, and whether I could get it all done in only two more novels, bringing the total number to eight. It remains to be seen, but we sure did laugh a lot–and maybe also teared up a time or two, because we do love these characters so much, and they go through some stuff before the series closes.
I’d mentioned a while back that I wanted to use a Vogue pattern to create about twenty shirts for my male Mattel dolls. (I shared a photo of the first one I sewed on September 23; the doll on the right in the photo below is wearing it.) I did another shirt while Lynne was here, and then between us, we cut out the patterns for eighteen more. She also gave me a ton of pointers and suggested some sewing products I could pick up to make my sewing a little easier.
I didn’t like the collar on that first shirt at all–too large. I tried making it smaller on the shirt on the left and thought it was much better. Lynne modified the pattern piece to make it easier for when we cut the fabric for the rest of the shirts. (I’m betting that first shirt will bother me so much that I’ll tear out the collar and replace it.) If you look closely, you may also see on the newer shirt the tiny blue buttons from the supply I ordered from an Etsy seller because I thought they’d be much better for doll clothes. They’re perfect!
Lynne also helped me go through all the Christmas bins that have been sitting in the office since May, when Lindsey and Tom purged and reorganized the Lean To (the storage space on our property). Since we don’t have a garage, in addition to storing stuff, it’s where all the yard equipment and supplies are, along with other random items helpful to homeowners. It also provides Tom workspace for fix-it projects. I’d wanted to reorganize and purge our Christmas decorations before we put the bins back in the Lean To.
As seen from outside, the Lean To is through those double doors and is about seven feet wide. I think I talked about the space but never showed the photo of it after they finished. Everything is so tidy and easy to find and manage, because Lindsey is an organizing wizard.
Looking in from the outside.
Some of the Christmas bins.
Writers’ stock of Timothy James Beck, Cochrane & Lambert, and Cochrane novels. Anyone need something to read?
Now all the Christmas stuff is back out there; Lynne took a few things she liked to add to her own holiday collection; I set aside some ornaments to donate to Goodwill; and my office space is back to normal.
Thank you Lynne and Minute for sharing a great mini-staycation with us! The Hall dogs have looked around for you both a few times today.
And now I sew. And write. A LOT of writing.
Today’s post is about a different kind of button from Sunday’s posts. Here to demonstrate is one of my character dolls. Hi, Elle!
This is how the average human-sized shirt button fits in Elle’s palm.
This is how the average craft button I can buy locally fits in Elle’s palm. I’ve used these buttons for doll clothes, and they work great as coat buttons or buttons on purses and other accessories, but the scale is a bit large for shirts and dresses.
Last week, I found a US Etsy account (important because of how I pay and how they ship) that sells 4mm buttons in large quantities at a great price. While this isn’t exactly 1/6 scale (i.e., human to doll size), it’s much closer. I fear actual doll size is best left to the manufacturers of dolls and doll clothes and those companies’ machinery. I have old eyes and arthritic hands, therefore need larger needles to be able to do the job.
But all the colors!
I tried to find poems or songs that somehow use “button(s)” in titles or text, but I wasn’t impressed with my search results. I decided to go with common phrases using the word “button.”
Can you think of others?
I had a post planned for today, and when I ran errands, I was even in a location where I could have gotten what I needed to complete the post. AND I FORGOT. It’s because I was happy about something I unexpectedly found there and let myself get distracted.
However, I picked up some fabric, too, because even though the writing will now move forward on the Neverending Saga, I always want a “thinking” activity between bouts of writing. Sometimes it’s coloring or painting, sometimes it’s writing other things (songs or poetry), and sometimes, like with the quilt mending I completed earlier this month, it can be sewing.
I already had some prints I wanted to use to make shirts and other apparel for Mattel Ken etc. dolls that I thought could work for the decade I’ve been writing.
Since not all my characters are groovy or trendy, I also picked up some solid cottons today for other shirts. These will all need to be washed and ironed before I can use them.
I cut out the first shirt, determined to follow the instructions, because back when I was sewing a lot, shirts were often a challenge (shown here: the fabric I chose, shirt front panels and collar, shirt back with yoke, and sleeves with cuffs).
Isn’t it ironic? Ken looks like the iron is holding him up (in a criminal way). But really, the wee ironing board I borrowed from Tim is doing that (in a helping him stand way). The shirt back is done, the collar’s attached, and now I need to sew in the sleeves and add their cuffs, finish the front, hem everything, and sew on snaps and (decorative) buttons. Tomorrow’s soon enough for all that.
This doll really does represent one of the characters in the saga. Not one of my favorites, but an important part of the story nonetheless. Playing with dolls: fueling my imagination since I was nine years old.
ETA: Here’s the finished shirt.
A little errand running today, which earned me this self-indulgence. Decadent, maybe, but at least that’s a reusable straw and the cup is recyclable.
I was thinking about my Wednesday post and remembered I’d saved this on my phone. Still makes me laugh every time.
I’m writing again. Makes me feel like SUPERMAN!
(Except not in a display box. Though Rhonda has said, when she’s in the hallway and passing the sanctuary with its gate to keep out dogs, how she feels like she’s at one of those historical landmarks where stanchions block visitors from some rooms. 🤣)
I keep several of my journals handy in case I want to use them for different things, and among those is a journal I labeled “Inspirations.” I created that one quite a while back, and here’s what’s in it.
The inside front cover page decorated with these stickers, because various birds in the corvid family are part of my inspirations.
The first page has this postcard of a Rothko painting. Seeing Mark Rothko paintings in person, reading books about his life, and collecting art books with photographs of all the paintings I haven’t seen all fall under the category of “inspirations.” I put a Rothko painting in Three Fortunes in One Cookie as an homage to Rothko’s work.
A couple of weeks back, I ordered some stencils with small patterns or shapes that I wondered if I could use on some of the wee canvases I paint, and I practiced with a couple of them on this page using gel pens.
That’s it! Those are the only pages with material in the “Inspirations” journal after all this time. Recently, as if I needed another one, I picked up this journal that appealed to me, also with the theme of inspiration.
The gel pens weren’t working that great, so I decided to try my fine point Sharpies.
And use the new journal to organize all the various creative projects I have in mind to do, working them into my writing schedule as well as other non-creative activities I need to take care of.
I knew Sharpies would bleed onto the following page, so I put a plastic sheet between pages. I don’t care if the ink shows on the page backs, because I’ll probably use those pages for mini collages that provide visuals of things having to do with characters or plot lines in the Neverending Saga.
Time will tell if this more disciplined approach toward balancing my creative projects works. I have lots of ideas of things I want to write, paint, collage, etc., and one thing I know about myself is that creativity begets more creativity. For example, there’s a project I began in 2021 related to one of the books in the saga. I’d put it aside to do other things, and this week, two years later, I finally finished it. I can’t share it because it’s a gift (as yet ungiven).
I can share this. Last Friday was Marika’s birthday, and since the first Spirograph painting I did (using INXS lyrics) was for her birthday in 2021, I was game to do another. When she asked about a possible painting using lyrics to “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I decided to do something similar on a couple of small (3-inch by 9-inch) rectangular canvases.
I really enjoyed painting those.
I like the way so many of the things I attempt: doll fashion or dioramas; painting, coloring, and collaging; and the journaling, fiction, poetry, and lyrics I write, can all blend and overlap to inspire me.
But I do have these now. It was surprisingly difficult to get Barbie (sold out everywhere), though I did see a couple of Kens locally and snagged one.
Sometime after school starts back (August 28 in Houston), a few of us will take in a matinee of the Barbie movie. I’m not impatient about it, and these are different times (I’m OLDER! more crowd-averse!) from when I dug taking in the opening night of the last few movies in the Twilight franchise. Watching the Twi-hards react was part of the fun–not to mock them. Joy and enthusiasm make me happy.
I’ll just keep avoiding spoilers and discussions so I can experience my own joy and enthusiasm. Barbie isn’t a trend for me. Barbie’s been a part of my happiness and creative life since I was NINE. That’s a long effin time ago!
Just found out: Today is Blogger Day! Still here and rambling on since 2004. =)
Happy Hot August! Today, when Tom finished work, we ran some errands, including picking up my new glasses!
New computer glasses.
New bifocals.
Now my eyes get to go through more adjusting, but I hope this will help get rid of some of the eyestrain and headaches.
Then… I picked up new Ken fashion.
Kind of cool that most of this Ken-wear is made from recycled plastic.
That sporty jacket just lent itself to this shot.
“Hi, Ken!”
“Hi, Barbies!”
Nope, haven’t seen the movie yet, so no spoilers please. Baseball, not the movie, has been on my mind, so I hark back to my list of missing things that I blogged about in December ’22. I realized that I might have a photo of one of those missing items on a different website I used to curate a long time ago. I checked my Flickr album and there it was, shot in 2007.
I know we had this cup when we moved into this house in 2015, and I think I know how it went missing. At some point when several of us were going somewhere, maybe Christmas shopping, or maybe after going our separate ways after a big dinner, someone grabbed it from my cabinet to use as a “go” cup, and it never found its way back home. No big deal, except the cup has a little bit of history; it comes from the era when what is now Minute Maid Park, where the Astros play baseball, was then Enron Park, before the collapse of Enron and the scandal that ended in founder Ken Lay’s bankruptcy and trials before he died while awaiting sentencing in 2006. Ken Lay was a huge part of Houston’s history, and I know people who worked at Enron, including one who was developing something with Lay that would have been a massive success (I say this with confidence because when things fell apart, someone else unconnected to Lay or Enron had a similar idea and it resulted in a globally successful online business that launched in 2007).
The other reason this cup is part of my personal history is how and when I got it. After the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001, you may recall that a whole lot of things shut down for a while, including large gatherings, for security reasons. A friend’s husband who works in the oil and gas industry often had tickets to events that he gave to clients, but since traveling and other activities were curtailed, he ended up with tickets to an Astros game and no clients in town to use them. So he and his wife invited Tom and me to attend an Astros game with them. Baseball wasn’t really my thing, but I was happy to go for their company, and I knew Tom would enjoy the game.
That game was the first time I’d really done anything after the attacks. I was doing contract editing at that time for a financial company, and the fallout to the financial markets put a stop to a lot of work, in my case, for several years. It felt SO GOOD to be out among people again. To be doing something that felt American and wholesome (as the old jingle says, “Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet!”) with my fellow citizens. It wasn’t that we forgot the national trauma we were experiencing, but we could remember that most of the world stood with us, supported us, and believed in us, reminding us to believe in the best of us. If I recall correctly, at the seventh-inning stretch, we saw a moving film tribute to the first responders at the tragedies in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
The cup is gone, but the memory remains, and it marked a turn in my attitude toward baseball (I have deeply unhappy memories connected to baseball from the 1980s). The change in me didn’t manifest immediately, but I was reminded again of baseball’s power to heal when the Astros won the World Series in 2017. Houston was reeling from the effects of the Harvey floods in late August. When the Astros took that title in October, it was the first time they’d won the series in the franchise’s history, and they were the first Texas team to win it. The impact on Houston’s mood, and my own (as we began to put our home and property back together after being flooded), was immeasurably positive. We had something to celebrate, something to feel good about, something good, not tragic, that brought us together as a community.
To be continued…
Recently, a Beach Boys-related account I follow on Instagram posted this commercial from 1987/88:
In late 1987, I was enjoying my job as a tech writer/editor and planning a wedding. I don’t think I owned a TV, nor was I Barbie shopping, so this mash-up of two of my favorite things (Beach Boys and Barbie) passed me by until I saw the Instagram post that immediately sent me scouring online sellers. This arrived late last week.
It’s not often a Barbie in an opened box comes with all the accessories, but this one miraculously did. For example:
Barbie’s sun visor and “flying disk” (probably couldn’t use the Frisbee® trademarked name) were still in their unopened plastic wrapper. They came with instructions for how to apply “labels” to both. And yes, the labels were also there.
In the same sealed package that held Barbie’s beach bag, hairbrush, socks, sneakers, and sunglasses.
The box also contained the original additional materials: a way to join the Barbie fan club, the World of Fashion that catalogs other Barbie accessories for sale, a disclaimer about Barbie’s earrings being unsuitable for small children, and a Barbie comic book sharing “The Treasure Map” adventure of Barbie and some of her friends!
This was already quite a wonderful find, but that it included the playable (at 33 1/3 speed) record (with some extra Barbie punch-out photos) was fantastic! The song probably featured no Beach Boys other than founder Brian Wilson singing all the parts (and doubtless playing most of the instruments, too), and Brian’s writing credits were shared with his manipulative, controlling therapist of that time and the therapist’s fiancee (later, wife). There’s a lot of history packed into that little record. I haven’t tried to play mine because I don’t want to risk damaging it.
Here’s a look at those treacherous earrings. I’ll get the rubber bands out of her hair (those things harden and eventually crumble, and I use less harmful plastic bands–they may weaken over time, but they don’t damage/stain the doll’s hair).
This provides a look at Barbie’s pink camera, still strapped around her arm. The cellophane tape that secured things inside the box, like the camera, has long since lost any adhesive quality, so it’s amazing this camera never fell out and was lost (since the top of the box had been opened). Somebody kept this on a shelf for a long time.
Other dolls were sold in the California Dream line, and here are some fun facts about them. (No reason to discuss the well-known Ken; and I have several similar to this one from 1981 and 1991.)
California Dream marked the debut of Teresa, Barbie’s Latina friend. Teresa still continues to be one of Barbie’s most-often recurring friends and has been represented by more Mattel “friend” dolls than any other except Christie (also shown here), Barbie’s African American friend who was introduced in 1968 and after many versions, was discontinued in 2005/06. In February of this year, Mattel produced a 55th anniversary Christie. I have at least seven Teresa dolls and many AA/Black dolls (Ashi, Shana, Nichelle, Nikki, and Barbie), and my Christie dolls are 1981’s Sunsational Malibu Christie and 1992’s Glitter Beach Christie.
Barbie’s longtime best friend Midge, seated, first appeared in 1963 and hung around until 1967, then re-emerged in 1988 with the California Dream Midge shown here. Midge later married Alan and began having children in the controversial “Happy Family” line. In 2013, Midge appeared again as a teenager who moved to Malibu on the webseries Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse, the whole “Happy Family” line possibly one of the first toy products to be “cancelled” over consumer protests. 😉 I have at least six Midge dolls, but the only Happy Family dolls I own are Midge’s parents, called only “Grandma” and “Grandpa.”
Current Photo Friday theme: Vintage
Barbie: 1960, ’61, ’61, ’61, ’65, ’66
Ken: 1961, ’62, ’61, ’62, ’61, ’61, ’61
Life in plastic: It’s fantastic. Couldn’t be a better day to share these vintage dolls. Let me know if you see Barbie, the movie.