Himalya Quartz

  A crystal junkie, some of my favorites have come from India. I recently discovered Himalya Quartz on Ebay and ordered the top pink and green one last week. It's already here in the states. I'm used to packages from India taking a month. I could not resist the bottom citrine and just ordered it. I'm sure I'll be getting more crystals from the seller. They are some of the most beautiful crystals I've ever seen. I got three new ones in Gettysburg in April and two from The Crystal Cave a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure my friends will be thrilled because like dolls, I share crystals too. Makes me want another Himstedt, the boy from Nepal. I had friends from Nepal in college that Dame Darcy knows about, Vic and Nick. They were way cooler than Dusty and Rusty the Mormons. 🤣🤣 

Himalya Quartz

 

Queen Ann Doll

Lotus

  I got Lotus, who ought to be my last Himstedt. I'm back up to a dozen with one for sale. I've sold two. Lotus is my third Child of the World from 2005, I also have Ginger, (Maniloa), the Hawaiian, and Gypsy, (Munira), the Sinti Gypsy. Lotus, (Kida), is the Egyptian. I love vintage Health Tex clothes. As much as I love the dolls from this year I like dressing them in vintage and antique clothing. I do not like the samey samey outfits from The World Children Summit. Looks like they got a steal on some cotton. I sold my two German Play Street girls from 2004 to finance trips to Gettysburg. I did not need three German girls. I still have my original Tara. Anyway, I got Lotus from The Dolly Mama on Ebay. If you are a doll collector, I'd check her out. I love Lotus. I've got a huge mess to clean up, Monster High, (don't know when I'll get to finish O, My Ra!), supper, and more. TTYL...

Shop The Dolly Mama

 

Summer Dreams

   6/21

  Let’s kick off summer with sweet sleep and dreams. Here, we go! First, I was with Ron’s cousin Katie and a blonde girl. We were going on a trip, and I was the driver. Our means of transport was an old brown gutted trailer. I was trying to put the driver’s seat just right. Katie and I were acting as if it was a bus. The seat was not riveted to the floor. We moved it against some screen windows as if I could drive it from there. There was no steering wheel. 

  The next dream was dark and epic enough for me to try to use it for DOC. It took place in a hotel in Gettysburg where I think Mummy and I worked. There were three guests, a pretty blonde woman and her tall handsome husband and a young Marine who was rather small with a buzz cut. The place was laid out like a grand ancient lodge. It was lit by lamplight with old wooden furnishings and taxidermied animals. The lobby had the red glow that often accompanies my dreams. The large intricately carved dark wooden check in counter was the center of the place, the rooms branched off in a circular pattern. There was a lounge directly in front of the counter covered in a white sheet with fancy throw pillows. The next morning the Marine was ill, faint. I helped him back to his bed and offered him breakfast. I felt very bad for him and wanted him to stay another night, telling him to call off work. The blonde woman was haunted as well. She laid on the white couch while her husband joined Mummy and I behind the counter. The couple were dressed old-fashioned. The woman wore a gorgeous long white ruffled, form fitting, cotton frock. Her husband wore a green velvet jacket with a rust colored brocade vest. He said that one of the taxidermied animals had come to life during the night, backing up his wife’s story about a haunting. I told him that the bear often came to life. The Marine was getting ready to check-out despite my wishes. I wanted to give him my contact information. I had old postcards and slips of embossed heavy brown paper in the pigeon holes of the counter or front desk. None of my ink pens worked so I had to resort to pencil stubs. I wrote down a phone number. I told him I hoped that it was the right one, but wasn’t sure. I gave him a postcard with a print of a woman in a white gown with a fan lounging on a boat. The card had a lacy white scalloped border. His coach awaited him outside. 

  Ron was my costar in the third dream. We were out, and I had my queen bee bag that Susan had gotten me on my right shoulder. It was full of stuff and very heavy. I had a pulled muscle along my left thigh, my groin. The combination of the two forced me to walk very slowly with a limp. We were on the edge of a busy highway, it was afternoon. A white cinder brick diner was across the street to our right. Our apartment building, which looked like an old fifties style motel, lay directly in front of us. I was trying to cross the street, but was having a very difficult time not getting hit by a car. I was crawling, as I moved faster than walking. I called to Ron. Across the street, in front of the diner, was a tall wooden shelving unit with scalloped woodwork. The top shelf belonged to Ron and me. I was decorating it seasonally with a leprechaun and a little doll. A young white man with dark hair, wearing a black rock band t-shirt, was put out with me. He wanted to put his advertising material on the shelf which was situated in front of the busy diner. A fat white man in a long sleeved white Yale t-shirt, (Yale was printed in blue, orange, and yellow bordered letters), was giving me a hard time. I responded with a shitty comment about Yale. I took some of the advertising materials. One of the magazines had Zak Bagans from Ghost Adventures on the cover, it was sealed in plastic. The vignette was black and orange. Zak had a skull or a candle, or both. I thought, oh brother, still, I placed it alongside my dolls, to the right, with a pile of white papers, the rest of the ads. The wind blew all of the advertisements away. Now I had to cross the street again, to our apartment. The lobby had windows and metal postboxes. The door to the main hallway had a metal handle and lock. 

  The final dream, which I nearly forgot, was of me making a video with Ron and my grown son. My hair was long, and I could see all of my dental fillings on the screen of my laptop. I looked like I was in my twenties, much too young to have a grown son. I wore a pink printed halter top. I had to adjust the camera. Our son had short blonde hair and a neat beard. He was a Marine and was talking about how much they had helped him with funding. I was not so sure about this, but kept my mouth shut.

Dana's Dreams

Dana's Dreams Two

Jennie Wade Doll: (Gettysburg, The Civil War)

  Pleased with my first Jennie Wade doll. Up to chapter twenty-nine with my DOC notes. Going to have to make a Doc Holliday doll as well as the cover portrait. Thinking DOC ought to be funnier than Fanging with Claude, longer too, there is so much to work with. He crammed a lot of living into his thirty-six years. There will be a chapter devoted to each year. It's going to be another musical satire. Stay tuned. 

 

Sir Beltane, Sir Napsalot, & Mr. Magnolia

  The fairy cakes and Ron's fairy house are gone. Sir Beltane is mine. Sir Napsalot is Ron's since I sleep all day because he won't let me have a puppy. Mr. Magnolia stayed in the tree. Ron said it rained twice while I was sleeping, but these fellows stayed dry beneath the tree while I waited for their Super Glue to dry. Their faces are done with Sharpies, and they have a couple of coats of varnish all around. Ron had drilled holes in the nuts for me, and I wired them with pipecleaners. I am not selling them due to fragility, but they are a fun craft for kids while they are learning about trees. I like trees and puppies way more than people. I am working on my first Jennie Wade doll for the Jennie Wade House in Gettysburg. I am making two sizes: ten inch and dollhouse size. I probably won't get back there in awhile as my next plans are for The 1777 Americana Inn in Ephrata. I want to stay in the Garden Room. TTYL... 🎕

 

Beltane Celebration

Spring Fling

From The Mallen Lot

   I try to make the best of things. Best thing about being without electricity due to the WIND the past couple of days is I quit drinking as it was turning me into Mummy. Second best thing is that I finished Catherine Cookson's Mallen series. It was so good. I've got a lot of quotes to share from The Mallen Lot. Catherine did not drink as her mother was an alcoholic. Funny that I'm finishing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte' and Brooke Shields's There Was a Little Girl too as they are both about alcoholics. 

"Ruthie had a saying that God was good and the devil wasn't bad to his own. Well the devil she knew and the devil he knew must be running two different establishments because the gentleman over there had been less than kind" 

"How was it that no mistress, and not even the prospect of a wife, a beloved wife, could fill the void in a man who had craved mother love all his life?'

"The world had been created by a madman; God was a madman; no reasonable thing or power would create torture for no purpose. The experiences of the past months, the chaos in which the world was drowning was not, to his mind, the result of either a country's greed, or the ambition of nations; politicians of their own volition could not, he reasoned now, create such havoc, for the human mind could and would think, dissect, reason and then act in the end to preserve its own survival. No, there was a malevolent power, a mad God playing with the universe, and he was so powerful, so indiscriminate he directed his attention equally to families as to nations; he inflicted special torture..." 

"And from then, daily, without let up, she had prayed that something would happen to that sperm of hell, because that's all she was, that's all she had ever been, she had come from a hell raiser, and a line of hell raisers, and she had been a she-devil ever since."

"no one actually pitied Lawrence, for you couuldn't pity someone, no matter how mentally crippled, who continually emanated happiness; in fact the wise among them envied him his state." 

"Love is a terrible thing, Dan. No one should ever say that love is beautiful, it's a crucifixion."

"There was something building up inside her that was frightening her. It had been growing with the years, but since Christmas it had become like a great live thing gnawing at the inside of both her body and mind, and she was afraid of it, afraid that something would happen to cause it to break out."

"Well, he's dead, and as I see it there's nothing so dead as death; it's final, it's finished. And I'm as much against those who spend the rest of their lives weeping over the dead as I'm against those who make saints out of sinners once they are dead." 

"She was born to create trouble; as sure as the sparks fly upwards. Some people are made like that. Barbara was poison to everyone she touched." 

  I also have two more musical satires like Fanging with Claude in mind: DOC (Doc Holliday) and IKE (Eisenhower). I might've found my niche. Both will likely begin with cover portraits, we'll see... TTYL... ✨

Frankie's New Fang Out

   Sir Frankie Crisp loves his new fang out. He hits the pom poms like punching bags and plays the scratching post like a washboard. He basks in the hammock. He says thanks, Dad! Ron took me back to That Pet Place. I got a moss ball for Lennox too who has made a bubble nest. I had to move Uncle Otto, the Otocinclus, to his tank because it has developed some algae. Things are nearly back to normal after my Gettysburg trip. You'd think that I was gone for two weeks.  

Gettysburg Spring

   Available as an ebook, it ought to be released in paperback and hardcover soon. Purple Witch and I had such fun birthdays. Thank You! 

Gettysburg Spring

Gettysburg Three

Gettysburg Two

Gettysburg One

Labi Siffre - I Got The... (1975)

Let Me Rearrange That Too

  Frankie is relentless. My shakers I got in Hawaii when I was nine are now top shelf in the hall closet. Here he is in one of his many favorite spots, on the baker's rack. I'm working on rearranging that too. Other favorite places for Frankie to raid are behind the microwave, in the kitchen cupboards, (he's there right now), in the dishwasher, in the dryer, on the rooftops of my dollhouses that he can no longer check in to, and of course on top of my aquariums. Oh, look, he's terrorizing Cupid right now.

   Zsu Zse sold in twenty minutes along with most of the other dolls that I have listed and blogged about lately. I have some major Doll Magic going on just now. I wish I was not so looking forward to my Gettysburg trip. I don't like any kind of anticipation or expectations. That only leads to disapointment; I prefer to wing it. 

  When I took my little frog back to the pet store today in exchange for some Betta treats that Frankie had dumped all over the floor I saw a couple of gorgeous platinum Bettas and a marvelous baby blue twin tail half moon. I always see Bettas that I want when I have not got the room for them. Oh, hex. Anyway, TTYL, Ron is home and I've got to finish his supper. He 💖 Frankie. 

 

Helen Kish's Special Zsu Zse Barbary Coast

  Specially dressed for a doll shop tea in Texas, Zsu Zse is part of Riley's World. I had planned on dressing her as a Native American. My dolls are selling which means that Purple Witch and I are going to have great fun in Gettysburg. Thank You! 

Get Zsu Zse on Ebay

 

Dolls & Magic March Clearance

  While I'm on a roll, (Thank You!), and saving for Gettysburg I've spent the last hour going through and slashing prices in my Ebay shop. You'll find mostly handmade, one-of-a-kind art dolls and original watercolor paintings, but there are also dolls and books from my collection, you never know. Will I be listing more stuff? Maybe. I've been typing Minie' Ball Catch All, I've made it to page sixty-six already. We had Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza today. It's good, but like everything else very exspensive. I've got to start a playlist for Frankie. It's hard to believe we've only had him five months. He came into our lives and took over. He's sleeping by my feet. He's very touchy feely, I'm not. I had made a playlist for Shiner on his last birthday, all of his favorite songs. TTYL... 

Shop Clearance on Ebay (Thanks!)

Shiner's Songs

 

Minie' Ball Catch All

    Years ago I took all of my Civil War themed writings: poetry, short stories, a novella, and a novel and converted them into my series of five comic books, Minie’ Ball, that are now available bundled in hardback, paperback, and e-book on Amazon. Audio books can be found on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3urQOYEHtR22T6dk6upPHw

Dana Lee’s channel.  The poems can be found in Selected Poems by Dana Lee, but although typed and saved to floppy disc, the short stories, Ghost on the Highway, and A Dark Peace have remained unpublished until now. 

It's going to take a while, but I've been lazy and listless through this cold winter. It would be great if I had it done by the April Gettysburg trip. Doubtful, but you never know with me. I don't know what the cover art will be. The cover of Minie' Ball #5, perhaps, or this, inspired by my favorite Civil War literature, Diary from Dixie, by Mary Chesnut, maybe... The original is available on Ebay.

Get the Original (Good By)

Eisenhower Soldier And President

 

  "Eisenhower wrote that "only a man that is happy in his work can be happy in his home and with his friends." He continued, "Happiness in work means that its performer must know it to be worthwhile, suited to his temperament, and, finally, suited to his age, experience and capacity for performance of a high order."  Stephen A. Ambrose