Tag: dolls

Hump Day Happy

Sometimes I forget what I’ve posted about on here before, but it’s not like you all remember every word, right? RIGHT? (Other than you, Mark G. Harris.)

I don’t have many favorite memories of ninth grade Home Ec, but one of them involves Lynne’s mother, Elnora. I was finishing my sew-something-at-home project, and my mother agreed to let me spend the night with Lynne for the only time ever on a school night so Elnora could teach me buttonholes. Now I know my mother, who sewed all the time, certainly knew how to do buttonholes. Either she was tired of me and my fabric (Why did I choose brown?), or Elnora’s machine had a buttonhole function and Mother’s didn’t. In any case, Elnora taught me how to stitch buttonholes by hand, and I remember finishing up late at night when everyone was asleep, my eyes blurry and my fingers stinging from numerous needle sticks.

I thought about that incident last Friday when I was sewing–badly–deep into the night and getting frustrated. More than anything in the world, I wanted to call Lynne, wake her out of a sound sleep, and shriek, “I CAN’T MAKE THIS YOKE WORK!” She’d have deserved it, too, because of that time she threw The World According to Garp at my sleeping body in the middle of the night, but that’s a different story.

When Timothy, Mark, and I were sewing for Runway Monday, we made our own patterns. In my infinite quest to frustrate myself, I bid on and won some Barbie fashion patterns on eBay. Here, my model Faizah is wearing the result of my Friday night dementia. It doesn’t look exactly like the dress on the front of the pattern, but at least I overcame my Aries nature and FINISHED it. That makes me somewhat happy. Comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25, and Faizah will find YOU something in this book to be happy about.

It’d better not involve sewing.

 

 

Monday morning you sure look fine

Sitting here all haggard and bleary-eyed after a serious lack of sleep. A certain dog whose initials are Guinness was having some kind of issue that meant she paced or walked in circles all night. She was still doing it this morning, but now seems to be okay. I’ll keep an eye on her today, just in case. What I don’t get is: WHY do dogs always get actin’-crazy-sick in the middle of the night, forcing a refrain of emergency vet? wait it out? emergency vet? wait it out? to run through people’s minds for hours when they should be sleeping?

Guinness’s ordeal gave me time to look over some of my favorite photos and think of some of my favorite moments from last week. Even though I was sick most of the week (nobody took me to the emergency vet, either), it was still a good time.

This is just a photo I took while I was downtown watching the mad rush at the post office on tax day. Houston is a fun city to shoot at night, because though we have skyscrapers, there’s lots of space between them.

It was a week of wonderful things for some friends. venusunfolding moved into his new home with Matt. I’m looking forward to photos as they get settled in. And I’m wondering if our torrential rainstorms over the weekend made their move a soggy adventure.

davidpnyc finished his MFA thesis! One day I’m sure I’ll be buying the novel that will come out of it. Congratulations again, David.

Lila looks like quite the little rock star in these glasses that the Easter bunny brought her. Lynne got some great photos of Lila eating her chocolate rabbit, but my favorite image of the day was when Lila got her first swallow of a Diet Coke. Her eyes got all big, she immediately wanted more, and Laura shook her head and said, “Crack in a bottle.” We Southern girls do love our Coke, and after all, Lila’s grandmother was born in Atlanta, home of Coca Cola.

more behind the cut

Hugh Hefner, eat your heart out

Saturday evening, I began to think about Easter dresses, maybe because it’s been ten thousand years since I was forced lucky enough to pose for photos like these:

The Easter Bunny has made an appearance on this LJ before, and I decided to break out my needle and give him a reason to come back. Or six reasons, really.

For a look at the individual frocks designed by Becks and other Easterish shots, as well as to be up-to-date with my Top Models’ names (to differentiate them from look-alikes you may have seen on other designers’ LJs), check out the full photo set at Flickr.

Oh, and the Top Models want to remind you that although they chose other shoes for their photo shoot, white footwear is perfectly acceptable now that Easter has passed.

Crafty!

As many of you know, my 200-plus members of the Barbie family are individually wrapped in tissue and stored in my attic. This is because I’m not Anne Rice and can’t afford to buy and restore an old orphanage to house and exhibit my doll collection. On the day that I can purchase such a place, if it’s anything like St. Elizabeth’s, I’m moving in first. The dolls and I will then negotiate.

In the meantime, I need to keep some of my dolls at hand. By all accounts, the dispute over Project Runway has been settled, and the most recent season will finally air this summer on Lifetime. I don’t know if Mark G. Harris, Timothy J. Lambert, or anyone else will be interested in doing PR’s weekly design challenges for the Mattel Top Models. Even if we don’t, I still enjoy designing for special events (the Oscars) and holidays. But the dolls and everything they need were overunning my office and cluttering the Spoil Debby and Sometimes Lisa Guest Suite.

I needed a more organized solution. Lindsey and I were shopping in Texas Art Supply one day when we found a wonderful kit for youngsters who might be interested in sewing and designing for dolls. I didn’t get the kit, but it did inspire a PROJECT.

After some shopping around, I found this cabinet, deeply discounted, at Michael’s:

It’s divided into three cubes:

And then what happened?

Today’s theme is: Blue

Bluesday is brought to you by:


My First Ken® from 1991 and Barbie circa 1997.


When I went walking the other day, I shot photos of some of my favorite buildings in the ‘hood. It’s disheartening to realize how many interesting buildings have been torn down to make room for the monolithic eyesores that brought in more traffic, more people who don’t appreciate the quirky, offbeat character of this little pocket of Midtown Houston, and more strain on our infrastructure. (I’m always marveling that a lot that once had to support one basic bathroom, one basic kitchen, and maybe a washing machine, now may serve nine-plus toilets and sinks, three or more dishwashers, three or more washing machines, an outdoor sprinkler system–need I continue?)


When Tom and I were traveling at Christmas, we found this book in the bargain section of a Barnes and Noble in Dayton. I LOVE THIS BOOK. A longtime admirer of Blue Dog, I couldn’t be more delighted with the hundreds of Blue Dog paintings it contains, more than 160 of which have never been previously published in book form. If you (or someone you know) like(s) George Rodrigue’s work in general, or his Blue Dog series specifically, find and buy this funny, haunting little book.


Finally thanks to several really generous and kind friends and family, I got my birthday present. And guess what? It’s NOT like riding a bicycle. Apparently, if you’ve ridden a bicycle for decades, you develop an instinctive sense of balance and movement when you’re turning or climbing or stopping. And that doesn’t translate to a trike. Who knew? So I’m learning again how to ride.

I love the trike; it’s very light and easy to propel. Going forward on a straight road is no big deal. But turns are dicey, and I’ve nearly tipped over a couple of times. I’m sure it’ll happen sooner or later, but I’d rather it be later if it can’t be never. Of course, all of this is complicated by the aforementioned increase in traffic in the ‘hood since I first began riding my bike here back in, I don’t know, ’96?

I promise to wear my helmet and watch for idiots on cell phones who run stop signs, speed through school zones, pull into crosswalks, and whip in and out of parking lots without paying attention to anything smaller than their bigass vehicles. It’ll be an adventure!

Day 2, Note 1 from a Slug: Defending Barbie

This almost rouses me to cast off my slugitude, but I don’t want to rush things. In a comment to one of my posts, Jen sent me a link to an article about a West Virginia legislator (Democratic Delegate Jeff Eldridge) who wants to outlaw Barbies in the state because he says the doll’s emphasis on beauty over intellect is bad for girls.

I was going to respond in comments, but in honor of Barbie’s upcoming fiftieth birthday, I figure she deserves her own post. So, my thoughts (without bashing Eldridge or West Virginia, because I think that’s unproductive):

Don’t hate Barbie because she’s beautiful! She’s also smart. She knows how to change with the times. She’s had every possible career: model, doctor, astronaut, soldier, veterinarian, nurse, political candidate, princess, secretary, athlete, singer, girlfriend, journalist, dog groomer, cheerleader, mermaid, naturalist.

Why is it always toys perceived as “for girls” that everybody frets about, e.g., Barbies lower their self-esteem, or Easy-Bake Ovens or My First Sewing Machines trap girls in traditional gender roles?

Why does no one say that boys are set up to fail in life by “for boys” toys because they can’t live up to GI Joe’s physical appearance, or they’ll grow up to discover that they’re unable to spin webs and leap from building to building and save the world like Spiderman, or even sometimes not have the right stuff to get a job driving a dump truck or racing a car or being a railroad engineer or a fireman?

Why does conventional wisdom assume that boys are just having fun and know the difference between play and reality, whereas poor girls don’t get that concept so end up huddled in a corner feeling inadequate and popping Valium because they aren’t built to Barbie scale? THAT assumption, to me, is more demeaning than being given a pretty doll who is forever tiptoeing into her next adventure.

And seriously, I doubt I ever knew a single female who asked for this hairstyle or made wearing this dress her life’s ambition.


1995 Hallmark Sweet Valentine Barbie, gift of Lynne–one of the scrappiest women I know.

Hump Day Happy — Late Edition

This has not been my day to do anything with photos, computers, or cameras, so I’m very late posting. I found something absolutely scrumptious on Flickr. If you want to see an iconic group of Barbies, including the delectable Audrey Hepburn, check out madalosso.laura’s Icons set.

People’s ability to create something fabulous for Barbie always awes me. I felt it on Sunday night when I saw Mark’s Oscar dress for Figaro, and again when I saw Timothy’s latest creation for Nikki. In person, Tim’s classic design gives the illusion of constant movement.

 

Nikki has agreed to be a doll and find you something from this book to be happy about if you comment with a page number between 1 and 611, and another number between 1 and 25.