Good Morning, Friends!

What a beautiful sunny morning it is, too. It’s supposed to get up to 51 degrees today which means that even more of the last dregs of snow will melt. My neighbor built a five foot high sledding hill for his daughter from the driveway pile, and the manhole cover sized slab that’s left may disappear today.  It’s all good. (I hear there’s more snow in the forecast for another sledding hill)

In the meantime I am enjoying the sunshine here in Minnesota.

And because I travel through what I read, I am also enjoying the green and verdant summer in twelfth century Wales with a group of Benedictine monks. Not my usual companions. I started reading the Brother Cadfael (Kuud’ file) books.  Well, I started the first one. I nearly put it down when all of a sudden things got interesting. Now, I need to know how he’s going to prove the murderer did it without the twentieth and twenty first century tools. He definitely has common sense and life experience on his side—he was a crusader and had loved women before he retired to the brotherhood. Not that loving women would make you a better detective, mind you, but basically love and war gives you experience with what makes people tick.

Side note: what an odd phrase: “what makes people tick” Clocks tick, ticks bite, people don’t generally go around ticking.  One more reason to give a break to those who are learning English.

Side note: what an odd phrase: “give people a break”   A break on a person generally means a visit to the doc to have it re-set with a cast. Why would we——-never mind.

Back to Brother Cadfael in Wales. I have some ideas as to who did it but the red herrings are many.

Side note: what an odd——oh never mind.

I’ll let you know how he solves this whodunit.

In the meantime, I’ve been happily sewing and re-coifing dolls from my childhood. Do you remember the Ginny doll?  It was a girl doll about 8 inches tall. A girl doll as opposed to a baby doll. The Ginny doll was the expensive one and the Virga was the knock off that could wear the same size clothes and shoes.  I think my Virga came in a box of laundry soap. I have nothing to base that on but a fuzzy memory. The reason why I say the Ginny was expensive was that if you look for them now on eBay and if they have their original clothes, they could be $250.

My Virga was played with and loved, so there’s no way she’d be in any state to get $250. Mine was named “Miss America” because I thought the Miss America pageant was the best thing ever.

Side note: My, how attitudes have changed.

My doll also had a haircut. By me. It must not have looked as good as I thought because my mom quickly gathered the rest of it into a severe bun and the back of her neck and sewed it in place. There would be no more trimming of her hair!

And now I had a little girl doll with an old lady hairdo. Oh well. She was well loved.

But I don’t know where she went. She’s not with the rest of my dolls. In 2013 I went looking for her on eBay. I figured that with that hairdo she’d be a stand out.

I didn’t find her, but I found others with her hair color and even others without hair.  I found some clothes and I found some hair and I started collecting the Virga dolls, in honor of Miss America.

Lately I have been making them clothes. You see, in 2013, I also went looking for sewing patterns for these 8 inch dolls. And I found three McCalls and one Simplicity!  Unfortunately I started with the Simplicity pattern which didn’t fit well. I got frustrated and put it all away.  I mean, when you’re having to add a waistband to the slacks that are only four inches long to start with, it’s a recipe for disaster. At least it was for me.

This time I started with the McCalls and am happy to say that they fit!!!

Finding fabric with a small enough pattern is a fun puzzle and cutting out is a breeze. I do refuse to do set in sleeves, though. A woman’s got to have her limits, after all.

The next challenge is to give hair to the bald ones. I’ll let you know how that goes.

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Singer/songwriter and Minnesotan Ann Reed gives free short concerts from her home every other week. The next concert is on Thursday, March 25^th at 7 pm on Facebook. Just friend her to get the info. She is about the same age as I am and sings the songs of my era, accompanied by her acoustical twelve string guitar. Funny, touching, truthful and honest, they give hope and remember love. Tune in.

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The hubster cracked me up the other night.

Side note: what an odd —–oh forget it

He starts with, “You haven’t heard this in probably thirty years.”  And I’m thinking, oh boy, something romantic is coming.

And he finishes with, “Can you get me a beer?”

Sigh.

******why are you even looking?***

I found four pennies on my walk the other day! Either the snow had just melted and this was the winter coin loss, or people just aren’t picking up pennies any more. My guess is a little of A and a little of B. I pick them up, stuff them in my glove, clean them with hand sanitizer when I get home and then wash my gloves. And then they go in the found pennies container. And yes, when I see them, I say to myself, “See a penny, pick it up. All the day you’ll have good luck.”

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How many of you have ever raced against the batteries running out on your shaver while shaving your legs? Inquiring minds want to know.

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And how many of you have looked directly at the tea pot strainer and then dumped the loose tea directly into the tea pot without the benefit of said strainer? Anybody?

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How many of you have taken off in a snowstorm in the dark just to pick up the food you ordered, and considered it an adventure?  Just checking. We have to make our fun however we can.

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I would like my cats to learn how to pick up the tiny triangle tips of trimmed corners. It seems like the least they could do to help in the sewing room.

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Oh, and one more thing about sewing doll clothes. I won’t make button holes for the dolls’ dresses either, so that means snaps.  Did you know that if you use the small, small , small snaps that look proportional to the outfit, that as you are holding them to the fabric, thumb on top, index finger underneath, that the tiny snaps are so small  that when you sew from top to bottom, you catch your index fingertip because it hangs out under the oh so small snap??? And you do so consistently? Yep. That is a thing.

I’m thinking of switching to Velcro…

 

Well, it’s Friday  or in our house Fryday, so tonight means ProntoPups and onion rings. What does it mean in your house?

 

Have a wonderful weekend and tell someone you love them. Sending a virtual hug to all!

 

Love,

Janet