Leonie

This is Leonie.

Originally she was All-Stars Midge, but a couple of days ago I finally got around to giving her a new poseable body. And somehow having that poseability, and the flat feet, brought out a young playful aspect to her personality. She is one of my very favorite dolls now.

Just being able to bend and unbend her arms--not have them locked into the dreadful bent-arm pose--seemed to give her a new sense of freedom in my eyes. And with the jointed (not the rubber bendable) legs, she can even ride a horse!

Several days ago I borrowed my daughters' two Barbie horses, Misty and Rainbow, and had some of the dolls go horseback riding. Leonie wasn't the first, but she was in the second group. And she seems to like horses, and riding. It suits her.



Here she is with the two horses.



Here she is riding with her friend and--sister? cousin? another Midge with a new body. (The other one doesn't have a new name yet.)









And here she is riding with Oliver.

Somehow I love the sight of dolls riding horseback. It gladdens my heart. I need some doll-horses of my own...I suppose the horses need saddles and bridles, too, but for now we seem to be getting along fine without them.

Leonie will be coming with me when I go to see family for Christmas, and I expect we'll bring a horse or two...

aerial firefighting over the mountains

Here are some pics of what I saw this afternoon:


A flare-up on Sunset Ridge (left)


A helicopter approaches


It positions itself over the flare:














and dispenses a well-aimed spritz of water:

















Mostly dousing the flames--





and then flying away...





This is the Station Fire in the San Gabriel Mountains over Altadena.

A few dolls...

Here are a few pictures of dolls I'm planning to restyle.

This is Jewel Secrets Whitney. I have always thought she was one of the pretties dolls ever, with her knee-length dark hair and sweet Steffie face--and she has wonderful eyes--but I could never understand why they made her lips such a pale pink. To me it detracts from the beauty of her face, to have her lips nearly invisible.

But I have been realizing that re-painting a doll's face is something I can actually do. I can make her look the way I think she should look. I can paint her lips a deeper shade of red.

Another thing I'd like to do for Whitney is find her a new body. I've decided that I really dislike the bent-arm body that Barbie dolls got in the 80's. And I've learned that if you know how, you can put Barbie heads on new bodies. It's not as easy as when I was little--we just popped the heads off and popped on another one--but it can be done. I'd like to give Whitney a body with jointed arms.

Here on the right is Midge of the All-Stars. She came to me from eBay when I was collecting variations of Midge. She wasn't in her original clothes--she was wearing this strapless print dress, which is nice enough, but the overall effect was rather dull. I do like her freckles and green eyes, though.

Today I took another look at her and took down her ponytail. I think she looked prettier right away. I'm going to try to get her hair to fall more naturally, and I might try to do something with those frizzy bangs!

And again, I think those pale-pink lips just don't do anything for her face. So I'm going to get a tiny paint brush and re-do her lips.

And I'm going to try to find a body for her that doesn't have the dreaded (for me) Bent Arms.

Now here is another Midge.


I like this Midge very much--though I wouldn't mind if she had freckles. (Of course, I can always add some if I decide to.) The main thing I want to do for Camp Midge is to find a body without bent arms. Which may be a bit of a challenge, since she has a rather unusual suntanned skin tone. I would rather have straight arms than bent, but what I would really like is jointed arms. So we'll see what I can find.

But other than that she is a really nice doll--I love her reddish-gold hair.

The last doll I have a photo of tonight is also a Midge. The Diva face is one of my favorites, though I don't always like what they do to it in terms of painting.



The last Midge is Hawaii Midge. She has nice straight arms, though I'd be glad to give her jointed arms. I like her red hair, I like that she has freckles, and I like the vivid lipstick.

But somehow I'm not crazy about her expression. I don't know, she looks vaguely smug, or something. I don't know if it's the Hawaii Midge dolls in general, or just this particular doll.

I'm thinking I may just repaint her face.

But not right away.

But if I were going to repaint anyone's face, I think it would be this one. Just to get a more pleasing expression.

So--this week I'm going to Michael's for acrylic paints and a couple of tiny, tiny brushes.

And then we shall see what we shall see.

a doll

Here is one of my favorite dolls.

Her name is originally Vitamin C, but I think she needs a name of her own. I'm still thinking of one.

She's not wearing her original clothes, either. And I added a braid to her hair.

She looks to me as if she were really thinking about something. But she doesn't feel she has to say what it is.

Sometimes a doll can be very good company.

imponderables

why was there an earwig on my sweater when i came home this evening? where did it come from and how long had it been there? it's one thing to find earwigs lurking on the kitchen floor, but on my sweater? after i had been out most of the evening? had it been there the whole time?

why do they call them earwigs? and what do they do with those pincers on their tail? do they use them, like scorpions? actually I think earwigs are pretty harmless. but i still don't want them perching on my clothes while i'm wearing them. or hiding behind the sugar bowl.

goodnight---under the gibbous moon...