Gene Marshall dolls

Snow on the Way and Some Photos of our Studio

January 5, 2024 at 9:42 am by Claudia

We’re bracing for the big storm headed our way. The forecast is for 6 – 10 inches of snow. Yikes! Don is making a run to the grocery store this morning to get a few things for the pantry and some bottled water in case we lose power. I am not ready to take the tree down tomorrow. No. I need those lights, especially during the storm. I may take the ornaments off the tree tomorrow and store them in the their bins. That will leave the tree and the lights, which will be beautiful and simple.

Don has a gig tonight and we’re grateful it wasn’t scheduled for tomorrow night!

A shot of my cubicle/studio/office. Every inch of space is in use. The remaining pieces of McCoy that haven’t sold yet are on the sewing table. I may choose a few more for the Etsy shop.

The Gene Marshall girls. The dark haired girl on the right is a Simply Gene, as is the redhead that is third from the left. Those girls come in a basic bathing suit and are meant to be used for wearing all sorts of ensembles. I purchased the black haired Simply Gene recently as well as that black dress. The dress design is called “Love After Hours” and it’s gorgeous. The collection is fairly complete, simply because I don’t really have room for many more – maybe one or two. But I will buy some of the gorgeous ensembles that were designed for Gene. They’re very reasonably priced.

There’s that darned shelf that was a pain in the tush to install.

A glimpse of Don’s desk:

That ship was my Dad’s. Don loves it, so it’s on his desk. (Dad would be very happy about that.) Some vintage cameras, Roy and Dale (I found that at Heidi’s shop many years ago,) stationary from our favorite hotel in Paris, and his hat from Escape to Margaritaville. Oh, and bolo ties that were his father’s hanging from the frame.

Okay. We’ll walk today but right now Don is making an apple pie. We have to have pie during the snow event!

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Cleaning and Organizing

January 3, 2024 at 9:19 am by Claudia

Still going strong! Though I’ve noticed it’s beginning to dry out. The putz ‘village’ has been put away, as have all the little Vintage by Crystal figurines. But the tree is staying – at least for a few days. Which brings me to our weather forecast – we may be getting a lot of snow Saturday night into Sunday. If that’s the case, I’ll probably remove and store all the ornaments and lights and have Don take the tree up into the woods on Saturday. If we get a lot of snow, then Monday will be all about digging out, which would then take us to Tuesday, and that would be pushing it.

As I said to Don yesterday, we desperately wanted snow for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Now? We’re not so crazy about the idea! And as I look ahead on the calendar, it looks like I might be dealing with snow when I have to drive to Rochester. Right now, it looks fairly benign. We’ll see…

We’ve been very committed to our daily walks, so I’m giving us a big old pat on our backs. Yesterday, we were both busy with chores and figured we’d skip it, but later in the day Don decided to go and I joined him. I’m glad I did.

The office/studio was in a bit of chaos yesterday as I decided to tackle the closet. I needed to organize a few things and the closet was full of doll boxes. It was getting ridiculous. When I buy a doll, I tend to want to keep the box (they’re a specific size) in case I eventually want to sell it. And collector dolls, like the Gene Marshall dolls, are worth more when you sell them with the original packaging.

But since the Gene Marshall dolls are inexpensive and I think my little collection is complete, I’m not going to hang on to those boxes. And I don’t need 20 Blythe boxes. So I pulled out lots of them and flattened them for recycling, which involved lots of trips up and down the stairs and then outside to the porch, where we keep the recycling. And I threw out a lot of other stuff, as well. Every inch of space in the closet is being used, but it’s much more organized. I used one of the doll boxes for the Christmas trees that were on the Blythe shelves (I even labeled the box!) And I did the same for the dollhouse trees and Christmas accessories. And the putz houses. Here’s hoping I don’t have dig them out again next year because I inadvertently moved them. Then I vacuumed every inch of the office and our bedroom.

After that, I sent an Etsy order off in the mail and returned a book to the library – the Michael Connelly, which was excellent. I’ve just barely started Wolf Hall and will read more of it today.

We had a nice New Year’s Day. We ate our black-eyed peas. My husband was raised by a dad who was from Oklahoma and a mom who was from Texas, so he takes that very seriously. I think it’s a lovely (and healthy) tradition. Black-eyed peas are very good for you. And we watched the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which was absolutely fabulous!

Don has to get a shot in his eye today, which always looms over the entire day, bless his heart.

Okay.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

This and That

November 10, 2023 at 8:32 am by Claudia

Between the time change and Wonderland of Play, I swear it’s taken me the entire week to recover! Getting used to the time change always takes a few days, of course. And as I live a fairly low-key life these days, a huge event like WOP wipes me out. But it was oh so worth it.

I’ve been doing little chores around the house, one of which was installing a shelf in the office. It’s to the left of my desk between the pink cabinet and the wall. I’ve been messing with it for a few days; first trying to find the studs. They were a little too far away from the wall (a wall shared by the office and our bedroom closet.) This house was flipped and sometimes it shows. So then it was plan #2, using dry wall anchors. The first one worked perfectly. The second was a screw up on my part, I drilled a too-large hole so the anchor disappeared in the wall. Yesterday, I went to Lowes and bought new anchors, a new level (I can’t find the one I had,) some more spackle, and some joint compound for my work on the dollhouse. The shelf is in a narrow area bounded by the desk and the cabinet so it involved some bizarre body positions, but I finally did it.

It’s for my Gene Marshalls. On the left, Hello Hollywood (with a suit designed by my friend Doug,) Love at First Sight, a Simply Gene wearing Mandarin Mood, Iced Coffee, Tea Time at the Plaza, and Warmest Wishes – a special collaboration with FAO Schwarz.

This arrived in the mail:

I was on the waiting list at the library, but since our system involves many local libraries, my number in the queue was way too high. So I bit the bullet and bought it. I’m going to start it today. Speaking of books, I was ready to dive into a new mystery when I went to bed last night. It had great reviews. After 20 pages .I could go no further. The writing was terrible. Sigh.

That’s why Barbra has moved up in my queue.

And one more photo – the girls are fighting over this helmet. It’s Pru’s turn to wear it.

She’s still shoeless because Mom has run out of shoes. More are on the way. I thought this picture might give you a better view of the hat/helmet.

Okay. I’m due to have a chat with Doug this morning, so I have to get going and make that second cup of coffee.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Snow on the Way and Some Photos of our Studio

Cleaning and Organizing

This and That

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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