Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Life in our little cottage in the country

Friday Bits

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♦ 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.

 

 

Midweek Frosting

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Though not in the forecast for today – at least, when I last checked yesterday – we woke up to little snow. It’s still snowing now, but it’s very light snow and there won’t be any real accumulation.

But it’s always magical to see snow transform the landscape. Don called it ‘the frosting on the cake’ this morning and he’s right.

Our little Carolina wrens are singing away. Early this morning, I heard singing during the snowfall. I heard them several times yesterday. I get enormous comfort knowing there still hanging around. Sometimes, I see one on the porch railing. I’m sure that’s the guy who hung out here all summer and autumn. Or I’ll hear him cheeping and I’ll know he’s on the porch somewhere, but can’t see him from inside the house.

We had a nice walk yesterday. Since the forecast is fairly clear for the next week or so, I imagine we’ll do that every day. It was cold, but the air felt invigorating. We chatted the entire time, so it all seemed effortless.

Today, I’m going to clean/buff Shirley’s face. I will be using a cream that doll restorers use. Remember, you can’t use water on a composition doll. I’ll check the video again, but I’m pretty sure I put it on with a white cloth and buff very gently. The stuff I ordered to fill in the hole in the composition won’t arrive until Monday.

I know this Shirley is from Canada and a company called Reliable Toy Co., was licensed by Ideal to make and distribute the dolls there. So the original mold was the same. But sometimes, I think this girl might have been made by another company. I’ve researched as much as I can to no avail. Her face seem slightly different and her eyes seem smaller. But she has two dimples and an open mouth with teeth like all the Shirleys. And I’ve seen a few that look very much like Mom’s Shirley.

I’d love to find an 11 or 13 inch composition Shirley because they’re adorable and small, so easy to display. I think this one is 20 or 22 inches long, so she has to sit on top of the cabinet. What I am noticing in my research is that, except for the hole near her eye, which I inadvertently made, her face composition is in very good shape. I see photos of Shirleys with all sorts of facial cracks.

This is probably boring you, but it’s what I’m pursuing at the moment, so there you go!

The last day of January. Rest in Peace, Chita Rivera and Hinton Battle, superb performers on Broadway and film with multiple Tony Awards between them. Yesterday was a hard day for dancers and the Broadway community. These are enormous losses.

Forgot to mention that Etsy made me a Star Seller for January. I imagine that will go away tomorrow, but they were rewarding me for my sales and fast shipping and response. Sort of neat!

What are you up to today?

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Rain, Snow, Rain

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It rained yesterday. Then it turned to snow, and then, later in the day, it turned to rain.

Just plain yucky, though I will say that we enjoyed seeing the snow fall.

And now – pinch me – I think we have no rain in the forecast for about 8 or 9 days.

January in the Northeast should involve snow and lots of it. Maybe we’ll get walloped in February and March, but we’re almost at the end of January and there’s only been one significant snowfall and even that didn’t last long because the temperature warmed up quickly.

Let’s see, yesterday I took care of some chores, went to a zoom meeting, and did this:

Yes, that’s Shirley under there. She’s made of composition (made out of sawdust, cornstarch, resin, and wood pulp) and if you get composition wet, the doll will be ruined. So Shirley was covered in dish towels while I inspected the stitching on the wig so that I could decide where the curls should be. Her mohair wasn’t in very good shape to begin with, so my fingers are crossed. Will it be a bit better than it was? I’m not sure. I curled her hair years ago, but I didn’t use any water. This time, I did, per the YouTube tutorial that I followed. I also used those end papers that were a part of every permanent. It took me a couple of hours to put all the rollers in.

She’s sitting on the kitchen table. I offered to move her upstairs but Don is fine with her being there in her basket. I should leave the curlers in for at least two days. I may do three.

Then I have to figure out how to clean up her face and fill the hole in the composition near the corner of her eye. She also has some cracks in the composition on her legs but they don’t look too bad, so I’ll leave them alone. I found a product online (on eBay) that is made specifically for composition repairs and it’s very inexpensive, so I’ll be ordering some of that. The dress she’s wearing is one I ordered about 15 years ago from a dressmaker. It’s a repro of one of the dresses Shirley wore in the movies. But it doesn’t fit as well as I’d like. The one that was original to the doll was in horrible shape, so I had to let it go.

My mom would be shaking her head, wondering why I am doing this. Since she wasn’t all that fond of this Shirley made in Canada, she would say “Don’t waste your time!” But I’ve left her on top of the pink cabinet in the office for a long time and she needs some TLC.

We had a great FaceTime chat with Zachary the other day. His voice is quite deep now and he was very chatty. He’s so, so intelligent! He amazes me. He was fitted out for an EEG and had to keep that rigging on for 48 hours. (He’s had some seizures in the past and the doctor is trying to get to the bottom of them.)

Then Mere and I continued to chat and got caught up on things. A lovely surprise.

Another Etsy sale over the weekend, so I have to do some packing today.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Lambs Like to Party

Lambs Like to Party

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