1777 Americana Inn: the lost video 9/17

The 1777 Americana Inn: Four

Inside The 1777 Americana Inn

The 1777 Americana Inn: One

My Night in Ephrata

   We are going to a fair tonight, and I have a lot of videos to upload, so stay tuned. I loved my first night in Ephrata at The 1777 Americana Inn. The lady at the cloister wants me to make brother and sister dolls; I have three in the works. I ought to make them in trade I love the homemade crafts the museum shop sells. I got an amazing Christmas gift there this year along with a bag of other goodies including a hornbook for Frannie, my Schoenhut, and bird fraktur recipe cards that are already in my mailbox. Who needs sleep? The inn's Black Forest Brewery is having a cutest dog contest to raise money for a K-9 unit in Ephrata. Can't believe I voted for the Brittany. I think that was Daddy, it was all about the picture. TTYL... ✨

Ephrata Cloister Cemetery: 9/17

Mehitable is Ready & More

   Mehitable is all ready for her night at the inn. She loves traveling with Mummy. The brother and sister cloister dolls are sculpted, so I might get them done. Doc Holliday may be on the back burner, but I still plan to make him and maybe even his mother and Kate. We'll see. I've got the Monster High Bootique Hotel on the way. I got a deal on a new one like I had the original high school. I like them because they fold up. So, there will likely be a third season of O, My Ra! Too bad. I was watching Rom Con Revenge while sculpting on Netflix. All of these con artists originated on fakebook. If you are expecting any kind of money from Fuckerberg selling our information and calling us "dumb fucks" for using fakebook, dream on: we'll be getting about thirty-five bucks a piece. TTYL... ✨

O, My Ra!

Working on It...

  I don't know how I got so backed up, but my beloved rugrats do demand 300%...  The seller ended my doll... Oh, hex. Mostly working in my Ebay shop, listing original art, like Dark Shadows...  Waiting for my latest Skelita. Might get the Bootique Hotel sooner than later. Also want a Vermont Teddy Bear ghost, missed him last year. Ron has gotten me three of those, and I love them all: Devil Bear, Vampire Bear, and Irish Bear. Doubt I'll have cloister dolls done for next week. Starve Acre, the novel, is even better than the film. Started that last night, (no sleeping), had to force myself to put it down. Want to finish that at the inn next week. I got a short of Frankie and the gourds. Working on it... Coffee is ready... TTYL... ✨

 

Update: Dolls, Ephrata, & the Rugrats

    I finally slept this morning for the first time in a couple of days. My stay at The 1777 Americana Inn in Ephrata near the cloister is finally booked. I have to make a couple of brother and sister doll prototypes for the cloister, working on it. Arthur and Frankie make it difficult for me to get anything done. Arthur has been sporting a man bun. I saw a dude yesterday with one. Arthur wears it better. TTYL... ✨

B&B in Ephrata, PA - 1777 Americana Inn Bed & Breakfast (Lancaster Count...

Fort Hunter, Liverpool, & More

  On my way back from Gettysburg in April I missed the York exit and wound up on route 15, an hour out of my way. I passed Liverpool along the Susquehanna, and told Ron. He surprised me yesterday with a tour of the 1755 stone house at Fort Hunter, Liverpool Union Cemetery, Grumpy's Books, and a fabulous forties diner. Picture memory ebooks and paperbacks are in the works. Meanwhile, I'm going to be getting my puppy soon. The Grady Twins sold so fast that I've been getting attacked by toy hacks, and people want my monsters. I have too many. I still haven't gotten to stay in the garden room at the 1777 Inn in Ephrata across from the cloister, so I will be listing another monster collection soon. You can fight over them. Dawn and Pippa? Not sure. We'll see... TTYL...

 

The Haunted Aquarium

  Oh, boy, it's a new year. I couldn't sleep last night and was super crabby this morning. Maybe it was the Jihadi in New Orleans, don't know. I'm sensitive like that. I was messing with Dame Darcy as usual over the Yellow Snow. I was really thankful for Isabelle Red Riding Hood, I can tell you. Anyway, I've been really into cleaning and exercising lately. Ron is ruining it with pizza, but you'll have that. Don't know why all I want to do is write. Free Great Courses this week which I love. Watched prehistoric Ireland and the southern American colonies, both were good, but I can't watch television. After finishing Fanging with Claude that was totally a happy accident, I'm supposed to be working on my Gettysburg game, dressing a Helen Kish doll as a Native American to sell, and painting What We Do in the Shadows paper dolls. All of these were put off due to Fanging with Claude. I'm so moody. The Haunted Aquarium, a childrens' book, is likely to beat them all. I've been drawing and painting birds and fish since I was a kid, I'm a natural. The Haunted Aquarium is going to be about Julius moving into Vishnu's haunted aquarium. I bet Frankie will have a part. So, Happy New Year! That's what's up. Nosferatu was my last Christmas gift from Ron. The acting is superb. Beware the Yellow Snow. Mummy wanted to name me Snow, but Daddy said I'd grow up to be a drug dealing stripper. I was stalked by an owner of a strip club in New Orleans who obviosly had syphilis in the family. No fooling me. Ron took me back to Ephrata Cloister the other night. I got a cd of American music (1586-1998): The Songs of the Turtle Dove, a turtle dove enamel pin, and a bird fraktur talking about love. No wonder the vampire LeSnot was made there. ☮, no, Really. 

Fanging with Claude

 

Dreams 10/12

   I thought I'd foiled my dream forgetfulness by leaving the closet light on and sleeping with a pad and pen at hand. If only I'd learn to decipher the dream script I'd be set: working on it. 

  First I dreamed of Matt Koett again, he'll be pleased to know. I've been told time and again by roosters to stop naming in my blog. I usually don't include surnames, and to avoid the commies I make 💩 up, (Bitch with the Hammer, Killary, Oogie Booger, Michael, Kid Smeller, Cabala Embarrass), but I don't have to be persnickety when it comes to Matt, never have. So back to the dream, or what I can make out of it. I was at home with my parents getting dressed in my childhood bedroom. Matt came over, and we were all going out to eat. Now, the final clue says "Darcr"... Oh! I just figured it out! Yes, it says Darcy. We met Dame Darcy while we were out, and Matt fell in love. It's nice to go back in time with Matt. I've always been good at deciphering scribbles and pronouncing names, why I was a hit as an English teacher besides being so much fun. 

  Anyway, the next dream was not fun, and what's more, I think I've dreamed it before. I was in the cellar of a corporation where I worked, I came down stairs and saw a blonde woman with a bobbed haircut dressed in blue work coveralls standing against an open stainless steel door. When she saw that I had busted her she became small and clay and tucked herself away in a plastic to go container, only I grabbed it, opened it, and squeezed her into mush. Too bad for me one of her many partners in crime saw me do it and called out for help. Now they were after me. They were all dressed in the blue coveralls. Still holding fast to the container and Play-doh mush girl I scampered away, but they were in pursuit. The place was very industrial: stainless steel, blue plastic, with a concrete floor. I had reached a metal fire escape outside. The first to catch up with me was a girl with a little brown ponytail. Here it says, "koaong"? No idea. Anyway, she was trying to kill me, they were shouting about what I'd done to Play-doh Girl, and didn't want it to get out. I hit Ponytail Girl in the head, hard, with a big rock and she fell from the fire escape. The chase persisted. Each time one would get close to nabbing me I'd disappear. I think I was beginning to do this lucidly as I try to pull myself from nightmares especially when I'm in mortal danger. There is another word I can't make out, "seinal"? Maybe it's signal as they were calling out to each other. I'll work on it. Maybe it's a Dream Word like the Dream People. It's an interesting new twist. Back to the dream, my pursuers were all men at this point, and I'd pop out of sight anytime they became too much of a threat. The final one was Matt Czuchry. He was standing against a set of lockers singing a song. The song went something like this: the girl you didn't get doesn't love me. The chorus sang, "evil grows". And, some people wonder, but no. I had nothing to drink. These dreams are the result of being out of wine. My favorite, Mad Hairy Fella, El Goru, from Spain, is in season. Yes, I’ve strayed a bit, which usually doesn’t happen, but it’s relative. 

Dreams 10/10

 

  I had three dreams, but the third has been lost to the ether. First, I was working in a department store with a tall blonde woman and two dark haired guys. We were wearing blue smocks. I was standing on a strange wooden stand that was something between a church pew and a music stand. The blonde was standing next to me. We were looking for something. I was on the ground and picked up a large polyglot crystal. It might've been rainbow or peacock obsidian. It was midnight blue with iridescent hues and shone like glass. I wanted it, I think, and asked one of the men the price. I think it was around seventy-nine dollars which wasn't bad considering the size and weight of it. 

  Next I was in something like Mummy's kitchen but it was different. Theresa and a boy were with me as well as Johnny ferret. There was a mossy little hole, very soft and green. I had stepped away for a minute and Johnny had vanished down the hole. I was upset with Theresa for allowing it to happen. I was looking for Johnny and calling him. Ron came in and asked what I was looking for. I told him Johnny ferret, and he asked what a ferret was. I explained to him that it was something like a weasel. Then, I noticed it was not a hole at all rather a pipe and that Johnny never could have fit through it. I found Johnny, was very grateful, and was holding and snuggling him. Wish I could remember the third dream, it wasn't bad. 

Dreams 10/5

   Forgot my dream. I remember a cave, women, a priestess, and Cleo DeNile. That's all. 

Dreams 10/1

   Dreamed I had a little dark haired girlfriend that traveled with her dog. She'd stay in hotel rooms with a middle-aged man who she worked with and the dog who might've been a Pomeranian mix. She was reclining at the pool showing me pictures of the man sleeping in bed. She was very friendly and animated.

Dreams 9/28

   Cannot recall much from most of the dream except for the end. I was teaching, and it was the last day of school. For some reason I did not have a way home, and an old student of mine, Rick, was more than happy to give me a lift. 

Ephrata Cloister Ebook

 

Soon to be available in paperback:

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Ephrata Cloister

We spent a rainy day at Ephrata Cloister. Picture booklets and ebooks will be available soon on Amazon.

Dana Keyes Author Page

 In 1732 Conrad Beissel founded Ephrata Cloister, now twenty-eight acres right off of West Main Street in Lancaster County, Ephrata, Pennsylvania. Beissel was a hermit seeking religious freedom and believed in the Second Coming which he thought would lead to a spiritual oneness with God. 

  The cloister served as a Revolutionary War hospital tending to two-hundred-and-sixty soldiers some of whom rest in nearby Mount Zion Cemetery, which has just been placed at the top of my to-do list. 

  Conrad Beissel passed away on July 6, 1768 at the age of seventy-eight. The community never quite recovered. The last chaste member died in 1813, they are buried in a peaceful cemetery on the grounds. It became a Baptist church afterwards until 1934. In 1941 the Pennsylvania Historic Museum Commission assumed responsibility and you can tour the grounds and shop at the museum shop which is loaded with charming homemade local crafts and music. I got some paper dolls and an owl finger puppet who I’ve named Conrad. He will become a wise hymnast in my current doll soap O, My Ra!  

 

O, My Ra!

Ron got some homemade lemon chocolate. It’s good. I got a couple of fraktur choral manuscript postcards too. Afterwards we ate at The Lincoln House. I had a vegetable bowl and an apple pear sangria, very nice. They have an Apple Dumpling Festival in the Autumn and a Christmas concert. We’ll be back, and I’ll probably pick up a cd and more. They sell the redware dishes like we got from Cornwall Furnace for the dollhouses, same artist I’m sure. My paper dolls are Pennsyvania German 1765-1800 by Jan Wood Zimmerman, 1988. The cloister is worth a visit for the shop alone. 

Ephrata Cloister