Who goes there? Please leave comments so (An Aries Knows)!
Sometimes you just have to bring your focus in to your own tiny victories.
The broccoli I steamed was cooked to the exact doneness/color I like.
Finished a chapter and could have immediately started another, but basically said, “Fuck it,” and had a beer.
During the time I was working so many hours, dolls were coming into the house because of gifts and my own purchases faster than I could catalog them. Apparently, this group never made it to the blog. They were part of a set called “Boo York, Boo York, a Monsteriffic Musical.”
Together, they’re called City Ghouls, and I’ve posed them with some of my guitars.
Luna Motthews, Daughter of the Mothman.
Mouscedes King, daughter of the Rat King.
Elle Eedee, Daughter of the Robots.
I’m always happy for a reason to show off my little monsters. Mattel stopped manufacturing the Monster High line in 2018, but rumor has it new dolls are coming out this summer. I HOPE SO.
Recently, during research I was doing for my work-in-progress, I thought about the old TV show “The Wild Wild West.” We did watch it when I was a kid, but I fear a lot of it was over my head. (I’ve never seen the Will Smith movie.)
Anyway, the show is often credited with helping create steampunk. Though steampunk is a fashion trend that mostly slipped right by me, I’m fascinated by it.
If I were sewing, which I’m not, I’d be daydreaming about how to make doll fashion from what I already own, including these little charms. Not pictured here are a bunch of keys. I love keys and locks.
There’s an abundance of memory for me in a tiny sweet gum ball. It was under the sweet gum tree in the front yard of our house in South Carolina where a whole new world opened to me. There were very few children on my block–the ones close to my age were boys who DID NOT play with girls, but mostly the kids were older than me.
I would sit on a blanket under the sweet gum tree with nothing much to do. There wasn’t a bookmobile like in our Georgia neighborhood. My mother hadn’t yet begun to build my library, and my parents’ books were too old for me. So I mostly had a few Nancy Drews or Hardy Boys belonging to Debby and David, with a couple of Spin and Martys thrown in. Not enough to keep a fast reader occupied for a summer. I’d outgrown my baby dolls and paper dolls.
Enter Nancy, the older teen girl from next door, who brought over two Barbies, two Kens, and a black Mattel case full of fashion. It was truly one of the kindest gifts I’ve ever received. Those dolls changed my world forever. They were my first characters as I created story after story for them, and no little girl ever loved her Barbie dolls more.
Thank you, Nancy Jones. You have no idea what an impact you had and what a giant world you gave me under that sweet gum tree. And if you ever read this post, there’s a much longer version here of this story–and photos.
On that post, I used a photo of a case similar to the one Nancy gave me. This is the actual case from Nancy, and I still have it:
Here’s another of my Prague buildings. The original house dated from 1357 and two houses were connected in 1358. It underwent various renovations through the years and may have been used as an inn at one point.
The exterior was refurbished in the Baroque style before 1773 and was repaired in 1800 when it was in danger of collapsing. After all that, despite protests, the house was demolished in 1904 and replaced by new buildings.
Oh, Marika, it never gets old. I hope they’re doing well, and I mean that sincerely.
Thank you!
Beautiful stone orb Debby gave me for my birthday. I knew she’d gotten me something back when we were shopping at our favorite antique mall. I hope when this pandemic is over, the mall has managed to survive somehow.
By the way, this thing weighs a ton. I could try to pose one of my Monster High boys as Atlas, but I can’t think of how he’d ever hold this up. I don’t know how Atlas carried the weight of the world. I wish I didn’t think I could.
Originally a Romanesque house, this was built between 1170 and 1200 in Prague. In the third quarter of the 14th century, it was rebuilt in the Gothic style. It was further modified in the 18th century and again in 1940. Št?pán of Kladsko, who owned the house at the beginning of the 15th century, named it Št?pánovskýof House.
The interior of the house still has stucco ceilings with oil paintings.
Not too shabby.
I went looking for my tiny leprechaun to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick’s Day and demonstrate the safest kisses during social distancing. Plus…chocolate!
He was in a display cabinet that’s been packed away since the Harvey flood. It previously hung in my office, but I used that wall space for something else. So now I’m thinking: another project to complete during the time of quarantine!
All of these little plastic things will be appropriately organized and moved to the toy chest.
Another of my Prague buildings, the Rudolfinum. It has a fascinating history under several governments and because of several uses.
Becky Trivia: Probably unrealized by either of them, the building links two characters from my novel in that one loves Prague and its architecture and the other once had an epiphany related to Czech composer Antonín Dvo?ák, who conducted the Rudolfinum’s first concert in 1896. I did not know any of this when I wrote about these things and would not know it now if these little buildings were not part of my New Obsession. Writing is magic.
Photo credit: Guido Radig