Blythe dolls — Page 15

Friday Bits

February 2, 2024 at 9:11 am by Claudia

♦ We woke up to the smell of propane. When the tank is running low, the smell becomes more intense. I quickly checked when the last delivery was. It was on November 21st. Since we get it every two months, it turns out the delivery is ten days late, as it should have been on January 21st. So I was on the phone at 8 am and we are now on the schedule for today. I guess I have to go back to calling them to make sure we’re on the schedule.

We were awakened by the sound of a truck backing up at 5:45 am but thankfully, after a half hour or so, went back to sleep. So we got up later than normal and that, coupled with the propane problem, has thrown me off. It doesn’t take much these days!

♦ I’ve done more research on the Shirley Temple doll and she is definitely a knock off, or ‘clone’ as I see in some eBay listings. The middle of her body is cloth and Shirley Temple dolls were all composition – no cloth. And the face molds of the Ideal dolls looked much more like Shirley. (I can see why my mom was pissed off!) Her hair is a bit more blonde, as well, though all the Ideal Shirleys were honey-blonde. Her hair is a bit brighter. She has the dimples, though. I took the rollers out and she’s looking okay, but I had to reset a few of them, so I’ll have a photo for you tomorrow, after I’m sure the curls are dry.

♦ One of my Blythe friends had some extra Mickey Mouse mouse ears, so I bought a pair and Chloe is modeling them. Too darned cute! I remember watching The Mickey Mouse Club every afternoon when I was a kid. I thought wearing one of those white sweaters with my name on it and a pair of ears would be the coolest thing in the world.

♦ I’m not sure what Lucy and Zoe are looking at, but they look disapproving. Shortly after this, they disappeared for a while. I have no idea what they were up to. Suffice to say, they returned with a look that said they’d dealt with whatever was troubling them. There’s a lot of activity here during the course of a day. With 18 girls, you can only imagine!

I suspect they’ve been in the kitchen checking out Shirley’s transformation and peppering her with questions.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Wednesday Thoughts

January 24, 2024 at 9:11 am by Claudia

♦ This girl always gets a lot of comments on Instagram.

It’s the hair, of course.

I wanted a Ferro Doll with curly hair for a long time. Though I envisioned her having dark hair, I ended up with this light-as-air curly blond hair. I’m happy it turned out that way.

♦ Oh, the weather. After a bit of snow late in the day yesterday, the rain turned to ice, and at some point today, it will turn back to rain. Any time ice is involved, we stay in the house until the issue is naturally resolved (if possible.) Looks like it will be resolved later today, so we’re going to sit tight in our little cottage.

♦ I’m trying to get motivated to start working on the Beacon Hill. For heaven’s sake, I’ve had it for at least 3 years and, except for my initial clean up and removal of unwanted large curlicues, I’ve done nothing. I think about it. I look at photos of other Beacon Hills. And I do nothing. Today, I’m going to look at IG miniatures accounts for inspiration. It’s huge, it’s blocking the light in my little cubicle, so it might as well block it prettily, you know what I mean?

♦ On a totally different subject, I want to address the cheapening of the standing ovation, something Don and I have observed for several years. When both of us were young actors, a standing ovation was rare. On those special occasions when you were on the receiving end of a standing ovation, my goodness, you felt as if you had landed on the moon! Everyone hugged each other backstage, holding that brief moment in time close. Amazing! Indeed, even into our middle age, they were rare.

Now? Every darned performance, the audience pops up immediately and applauds. It’s expected now, though why it is, I don’t know. It should be rare, magical, something to hope for but not count on.

I see a lot of theater, as you know. I can’t remember a time in the past 6 or 7 years – maybe even 10 years – where the audience didn’t stand and applaud. And, quite frankly, most of those performances, though good, did not deserve a standing ovation. They weren’t extraordinary, another word that is thrown around so much that it has lost its meaning. (I’m guilty of this occasionally.) Yes, applaud warmly, acknowledge the work of the actors and everyone involved, but don’t stand unless it’s remarkable.

The audience has made a collective decision that applauding means standing as well.

It doesn’t.

I feel sad for actors nowadays who will not experience the wonder of a true, unexpected, and rare standing ovation. It really was something special back in the day.

When the automatic standing ovation occurs, I stay seated. Occasionally, as when I watched Hamilton, I surge to my feet, as well. But only rarely.

There’s a whole list of things like this that have lost their original meaning and import and are now just another thing you say or do that means far less than it used to.

Don’t get me started on ‘awesome.’

This has been on my mind again since I saw the first preview of Dial M for Murder, which was okay but just okay. Nevertheless, like a collective jack-in-the-box, the entire audience popped up and applauded.

I stayed seated.

My thoughts for the day.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Back Home

January 19, 2024 at 9:35 am by Claudia

Well, let’s get the crappy news out of the way, first. On my way to Rochester, I stopped at a thruway rest stop to use the bathroom. The parking lot wasn’t crowded. I backed out of my space, then proceeded, very slowly, down the aisle toward the exit. Suddenly, I heard a crunching sound. A man driving a VW bug had backed out of his space and right into my car. Couldn’t believe it! His first words to me were “I didn’t see you.” He repeated that several times. I was upset, but kind, because I know how many times I’ve almost hit someone because I looked away for a moment. There was more damage to my car than his and, although he wanted to brush it off as something you could buff out, I have lots of scratches and a significant dent. I insisted that we exchange phone numbers.

And then I called Don, who said he would handle calling the guy. Long story short, after Don left a few messages, the gentleman returned his call and we will get an estimate for the damage. Thank goodness, it was a fender bender and I was driving less than 5 miles an hour.

The rest of the drive was uneventful and I arrived in Rochester. This time, I stayed in company housing, which is right down the street from the theater. Another loft-like space, not unlike the company housing at Hartford Stage.

The next afternoon, I coached a woman who is replacing the lead actress (who got a great job with the national tour of The Kite Runner) when the show travels to Dallas. I also worked with a couple of understudies. Then I took notes on the first preview, went back to the apartment, wrote them up via email and that was that. The next morning, I was up at 5:30 and started prepping for my trip home. On the road at 8 am and home by 1 pm.

Lots and lots of driving, and a few snow squalls on the way home, but no snow to speak of on the journey. It did snow in Rochester during the day on Tuesday, but much less than it snowed here. But it is snowing right now.

I’m satisfied that I did the best I can do on this show, given the time constraints. I need to mention how nice the actors are and lovely to work with. And I got to see Elizabeth, the Artistic Director, who is an old friend, and her assistant, Fiona – also an old friend – both of them were at Hartford Stage. I’m still coaching in a way, as I’ve been answering questions from the actors via voice message and email. I’m fine with that – anything to make them more secure as they head toward opening night tomorrow.

Pru accompanied me. Here she is when we first arrived at the apartment, standing on the window ledge.

I missed Don, of course. After so many years of having to be away from each other when working out of town, we really LOVE being together here at the cottage. It’s much harder to be apart these days. He felt it and I felt it.

What else? Not much. I’m still tired from the trip. Instead of taking it easy yesterday, I had to pack two Etsy orders as well as buy a box and more packing tape and going back and forth to the post office. So most of the morning was spent on that.

Today, I’m going to chat with my friend Doug at 10 am and then hang out with my husband.

Thank you for all your supportive comments the other day. I so appreciate them. I had a comment from someone who I’ve never heard from before telling me I was self-absorbed and whiny. It was quite mean and, despite my efforts to shake it off, it stuck with me a while. But I did shake it off, thankfully. Don’t know her. Never have heard from her before. The blog is about me and my life and I’ve been writing it for nearly 16 years, so what can I say? I write about myself. Don and I had a good laugh about that.

She turned out to be a nasty person and came back when I deleted her first comment. Very troll-like. So I blocked her.

It’s been a strange and stressful week. But last night, we caught up with the first episodes of All Creatures Great and Small and now, all is well.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

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