Introducing Miss Honey Bear

The first of my packages arrived yesterday, and in it was the newest member of my porcelain doll collection—Miss Honey Bear! Isn't she adorable?? (OK, so she's technically not a doll, per se, but she's under 6” tall and had porcelain parts, so Lord willing I can get those room-boxes built, she'll be having tea with my other miniature dolls.)

As I hinted at in my last entry, Mom gave me a bear just like this one when I was four or five years old. We were doing a Christmas pageant at church, and all the kids were supposed to pretend to open presents. The bear was supposed to be mine, but one day after rehearsal I was tossing her in the air in the foyer and trying to catch her (and we all know how hard it is for five-year-olds to catch anything), and she landed on the big brick hearth of the fireplace, and her head was smashed to smithereens. A few years later I tried to glue it back together, but one piece was missing, so I improvised a pompom head instead. It looked hideous, but at least my poor little bear had a head! But from then on it all went downhill—it seemed like her porcelain limbs were always cracking or breaking. I remember tying some twine around one paw because it was cracked, and putting a piece of rag where the poor bear's heel used to be. Eventually I had to throw her away. :'-( So you can imagine how amazed and happy I was last week when I saw Miss Honey on eBay! :-D

This picture shows Miss Honey with Clothespin Dolly, who is modeling Miss Honey's predecessor's dress, which I saved. Dolly arrived last October with several other toys I used to play with at my grandparents' house when I was little (and not so little ;-) hee). Thanks, Grandma! Dolly's original dress (seen in this picture) is currently waiting to be washed, as I doubt it's ever been in twenty-odd years. :-O Miss Honey's clothes could stand a bath, too, but unlike Dolly, she hasn't anything to wear in the meantime, so I'm waiting till washday to strip her. :-P

Well, what with rearranging, unpredictable weather and three “gigs” (as our friend Shawn would say) at the end of this month to practice for...I still haven't been able to get any pictures of “Wood Violet” and “Chinese Blue” in their completed states. So for now here are some of them nearly finished:

(Top: "Chinese Blue" before cuffs were added. Bottom: "Wood Violet" ready for collar--seen to left of blouse)

I'm thinking I'll just wait till Summer, when the weather is more cooperative, and bribe ask my dear, long-suffering and very obliging brother to help me do a whacking-great photo-shoot, Lord willing and the creek don't rise. Then y'all can see what these blouses look like all finished, and I can really organize Tom's Page....

The neighbor boy and his dad came by this past week and reseeded the back lawn and fertilized everything, and we've had some rain to water it in, so we're looking forward to green lawns again—yay!

And if you'd like to see what else I've been up to this week...check my Etsy shop. ^_^

Later, people.

God bless,

~“Tom”~