Baby New Year

  When we were at the William Penn there was a big K & R baby as a prize which made me want an antique baby doll. I have a lot of German antique dolls, but they are all either girls or ladies, no babies. I do have some contemporary babies including a huge Rustie that Mummy brought me back from Florida while visiting a mutual friend and a Christening baby, but Kitty is my first antique. She's the same big chunky size as the flirty eyed one I'd seen at the doll club event, but she's older and prettier, more baby-like. She's an ABG, and I might have one of their chinaheads but none other. She had a bit of crazing to one leg and was missing some fingers all of which I remedied. Skinny dip satin spray paint and a buff fixes old doll bodies right up. I mended Mummy's Ideal bride doll this way, and I had thought I'd have to paint her green and start over, she was that bad. Polymer fingers can be painted with it too and glued right in place, so you'll really have to look to find the mend. She was naked, but now she wears my old baby dress and shoes. The cap and coat were Ron's mothers from the twenties. Ron and his brothers wore them too. Frankie and I are up to episode fourteen of forty-eight of The Great Courses Ancient Egypt. The professor is from Long Island, and we are really enjoying it. We only have through Sunday to finish them, so I'll chat later, but I had to share Kitty.