Frankie Says

  Santa brought me a new bed. ✨

  Ron and I had a nice Christmas with Frankie. Frankie enjoyed all his stocking stuffers, home made from Joanna's Furnace, like the alpaca wool caterpillar finger puppet, the catnip Packers fish, (Not true that kittens don't get high off of catnip, Frankie was rubbing it on his head), and other cat toys and wonders to hunt and gut. The bed came from Joanna's too. I got My Mattress Topper and My Robe, (Thanks Mike!), and the box is big as a Frankie house. I also got a fabulous book from Pottsgrove Manor all about Punch. We already started to read that along with The Three Witches Magic Shoppe Adventures in Doll Land . That is a lot of fun. Ron loves Wyrd Trees too. We were laughing at 1947's It Happened on Fifth Avenue. I have to watch the end. I fell asleep as I'd only gotten three hours of sleep. Frankie woke me at four am jumping on my chest like a child. 

 

A True Ginny Christmas

    I had wanted a Ginny doll since I was a kid. I got my first, the one in the coat on the right, last year from a lady on Ebay that Ron had gotten my Hexican Himstedt, (Panchita, aka, Esmerelda), from. I got two of them, both from the eighties, still in their boxes, from her for eight dollars. I share, and had sent the spring one to Susie Blue Witch telling her that I planned on making them clothes like witches' dresses. Then, I won the one on the left, Norway from the seventies still in the box, at The Lancaster Doll Show. I also won Scotland that day who is wrapped up for Susie for Christmas along with The Three Witches Magic Shoppe Adventures in Doll Land. Last week at The Letitia Penn Doll Club's Christmas at The William Penn Inn, (1714), Ron won the centerpiece, everything here plus the original Ginny from the fifties in the middle. Both she and the eighties have sleep eyes, but the seventies girl does not. I still like my eighties one the best, although they say that the quality dropped in 1973 when they stopped making her in the U.S.A. I like them all for different reasons. Sadly they stopped making Ginny in 1995. I still get to have a true Ginny Christmas, and I will make them things once I'm done with Fanging with Claude. I've made it to page 185. I will get back to my Gettysburg game and all of that. TTYL... Happy Witches' Christmas! 🌟

Cupid

    Merlin passed away a few weeks ago. I was crushed, but he was fat and eating himself to death like Juno. I had been dieting him on bloodworms when Frankie came along. I think the added stress finished him off. I gave him an extra big seashell out in my fish cemetery. Cupid is the perfect Christmas fish. It has taken me this long to get pictures of him because he had been shy. He seems happy now. I had wanted a white Betta, I think they're called opaline, but Cupid is truly golden. I didn't even know that they existed. They had some deluxe Black Orchids like Lennox, but I only pick very healthy and friendly Bettas. They have to want to come home with me. Although I love the fancy Black Orchids, (Lennox is only a basic one), they didn't look too good. Cupid is gorgeous, and was only ten dollars. I find the less I pay for a Betta the healthier they are. Like dogs, the fancy breeds aren't as good. You can learn a lot from fish. It's true, being fat and stressed kills you too. 
 

Minou's Christmas Dress

   Minou was one of the first Himstedts I ever saw at Bear Trax near Borders in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, in the nineties. They had her and Tara, who I had ordered from Florida a year later and was my first and only Himstedt for twenty years. Minou is the Corsican girl. Ron got her for me a couple of years ago, and she looks darling in her handmade Christmas dress and hundred-year-old leather booties. 

Frankie Says

  My Christmas witch is clawsome. ✨

 

Letitia Penn Doll Club Christmas

Letitia Penn Doll Club Christmas

Ancient Noels

The Caroleer Singers And Orchestra ‎– Rudolph The Red•Nosed Reindeer (an...

I had this record! 🎄

O Christmas Tree (Your Ornaments Are History)

Trains at Cornwall

All Aboard!

Christmas at Cornwall

Christmas at Cornwall Furnace

    It was another fabulous holiday starting at Cornwall Iron Furnace (1742). They have yummy homemade cookies, cocoa, and Christmas tea. Last year it was so warm that we walked about the town, but today was cold; and although Mummy's Ewok coat is warm, the Christmas pants Theresa sent me several years ago aren't. I'm just happy they still fit as I wash everything in hot water and put it in the dryer. I have to fit into my handmade green velvet from the seventies for the Shoenhut gig at The William Penn next week that I've only worn to see Loreena McKennitt, so looks like I'll be fasting this week. Didn't happen today, afterwards we went to The Bluebird Inn (1859). I had a Merry Cranberry house cocktail served in an ornament that was off the hook, and their chili puts Trooper Thorn's to shame: all so good. They crumble cornbread on top. I'm going to have to remember that. I got videos of the fabulous trains, but I'm having technical difficulties uploading them. I'll keep trying. My beautiful Christmas cactus is blooming too. Frankie was a very good boy and napped with me when we got back. 🎄

 

Christmas at Joanna Furnace 2024

  Joanna Furnace is a charming way to kick start the holidays. We've been coming for seventeen years, but this was the best yet. We began the evening with supper at Stampede Barbeque. They have the best cider on tap. It's my brother's and my place, but Ron enjoyed it tonight too, and said that we can come more often. I think he was impressed as he thought he knew our cashier from wrestling and Amish Mafia. It's the same wonderful staff. I actually discovered this place last year at Apple Fest, they were selling cider. I love the hushpuppies and coleslaw, but Ron was impressed with his brisket salad and peanutbutter pie. Joanna's is usually packed, but not tonight. The dollhouse is new. I think somebody created it to look like the original furnace owner's mansion that was sadly demolished long ago. Best band ever! They usually feature a school choir, but this year was a gentlemens' brass band. I haven't been in the mood for Christmas music this year. Frankie and I have been listening to Shiner's favorite party songs because it's all new to Frankie. This band played all my favorites. They were great. I had gotten some Starry Slumber wine from the Sleepy Cat Urban Winery in Allentown, better than the sweet stuff I got last year. There were no letters in Kris Kringle's box at the general store where I get the little Civil War soldiers like I left in Jeremy's Room at The Farnsworth House in Gettysburg, so I left him a letter thanking him for Frankie. Actually we all had major Christmas scores as I got a dollhouse sized Heidi Lotte doll from the forties from Mr. Glass, the third doll I've gotten from him. He was also selling for the German woodcarver that I'd gotten a gnome from who could not make it tonight, so Ron got something handmade for his stocking that is still very light. It's not even his real stocking, the blue velvet topped with berries that I made him seventeen years ago, as the house is cat proof this Christmas. I didn't get everything out of the attic this year, certainly nothing breakable. Frankie was a very good boy, the tree was still up when we got home. He made out like a fat cat, his stocking is full. His stocking is from my childhood, and Shiner's first stocking. Shiner nibbled it's hand when he was a puppy. It's a cat in a Santa hat popping out of the stocking. Tonight a Packers catnip mouse and an alpaca caterpillar finger puppet were added, plus he got a hand knitted hooded cat bed. He's going to love it. Frankie loves boxes and bags. Shiner graduated to the big Tinkerbelle stocking that Mummy got me that Ron is settling for this year. Actually it's bigger, so I have some work to do. I also got a darling little knit bee and a new hat for Cornwall Furnace tomorrow. 

The Train

Light Maze

 

Christmas at Joanna Furnace 2024

Christmas at Joanna Furnace 2024

Frankie's First Snow

Dreams 1/4

 Dreamt I was spending Christmas with my friend Matt. I don't recall a lot of details, but it was a happy dream. There was candlelight and Christmas stockings. Matt was drinking old-fashions, and I told him they were nasty. 

Dawn Doll Clone

 I've got a Glori clone who I prefer to the Dawn dolls as she has a supple easy to dress body with nice legs, no green split knees. All clones are not the same. I saw one at the doll show who had a cheap hollow body like the dollar store Barbie knock-offs. I'd been looking for another like my Glori for some time. I got this one today from Canada, and she's gorgeous with a pale waxy face, long perfect lashes and glossy dark hair. She's not dark eyed Angie, but a blue eyed Dawn. I'm calling her Julie because I got a Christmas card from one of my English girlfriends today too, and this precious little sweater was stuffed inside. I'm going to have to paint another Pippa painting for her now. She has Pippa and Marie, maybe Penny, we'll see. Looks like Donatella's collection will not be ready for New Years afterall, but she's working on it...