Things Around the Yard and Current Project

Things are definitely blooming in the yard. I've been taking pictures and downloading them for the last two weeks, but I never seem to get around to posting them. Well, this should make up for it! Dad's been doing a really good job around the yard on the last several weekends. I've had to mow the grass about five time already and have been working on pulling thistles from the flower garden. All in all, the yard is starting to look nice and spiffy!

The first picture shows some of my transplanted Buttercups. Buttercups used to grow all around yards and banks when we were little, but the various sprays and chemicals seem to be successfully eradicating them. Before that happened, several years ago, Mom and I transplanted some of them into the flower garden. It had been a very small bunch, but it has certainly spread out. In fact, it's taken over a whole chunk of the pathway! The poppies are not doing well this year, but I did get a picture of a nice one. The hops plant had gone nuts. Dad cut a lot of the extra off the other day, so it doesn't look quite this wild anymore. It's actually growing up the clothesline beam --- it didn't even wait for the strings. The flowering trees are fabulous this year. This is the best Spring they've had in a lot of years. The locust trees have had blossoms on them for a full week now and still look beautiful.



The bottom two pictures are taken "of and at" the shed in the back. Believe it or not, you are seeing the front of the shed. We planted one of those Japanese Willow bushes on the right side, a Forsythia on the right front and one of those old Bridal Veil bushes on the left front. They have obviously done very well. We are beginning to realize that we need to put in some kind of arbor or something to open up a pathway to the door. The other picture shows our little bunny rabbit. We've had a rabbit living in our yard for years, and I love seeing him. He doesn't really love seeing me, though.



Now to take a look at the back of the shed! This is our current project, though I can't take any credit for any of it, yet. This is our "kitty cemetery". All of our special babes find their resting spot back here, so we wanted to fix it up. Dad has laid a bunch of bricks (a nice "free" find from Tradio some years ago) over the area where all the burials are. He's also making a border out of some left-over landscape timbers. I'm going to bring some hostas and lilies down to plant in the area. Oddly enough, one side is almost complete shade because of the Oak tree and the bushes. The other side is full, scorching sun. Hostas for one side and Lilies for the other! The pile of branches there is just from Dad's working out there.

Well, this gives everyone a pretty good idea of how things look at our house right now. More later.

More on Prince Hugh O'Donnell of Donegal

After the short post yesterday about Disney's film The Fighting Prince of Donegal, I thought that I'd post just a little more about the real Prince of the O'Donnell Clan. He was born in 1572, and his story begins quite early. In 1587 , when he was fifteen years old, the British abducted the young heir of Donegal and placed him in the prison of Dublin Castle. The British recognized the power of Hugh's father and hoped to squelch an Irish uprising by capturing the young O'Donnell. Three years later, Hugh tried to escape from the Castle but failed. During his captivity, Hugh's mother and father actually bargained with the British for their son's release. The O'Donnell's returned 25 Spanish captives to Dublin Castle, as well as paying an extraordinary sum of money to the British. Of course, just as you would expect, the British "agreed" to the bargain. They took the money and the prisoners, but refused to release Young Hugh.

"The Gaelic Chieftain"
Commemorating O'Donnell's victory at the battle at Curlew Pass in 1599

Finally, on Christmas night of 1591, Hugh and two O'Neil brothers escaped from the Castle. They had to walk across the mountains to reach Donegal. One of the O'Neils died of exposure on the way, and Hugh suffered from such sever frostbite that he lost both of his big toes. Hugh and Henry O'Neil did arrive at Donegal, though, which makes them the only people to successfully escape from Dublin Castle in the history of Ireland!

Hugh rallied the Clans for multiple battles against the British. All went well until he decided to side with the Spanish Armada at Kinsale. The Spanish and the Irish were defeated by the British, so Hugh escaped to Spain --- where he lived for some years. (The cause of his death seems to be debated. Some say that he died of a fever, but there was, apparently, documentation stating otherwise. I'm for the "otherwise" version, so we'll go with that!) Just as Hugh was planning to return to Ireland to rally the clans again, the British sent an Irish double-agent, James Blake, to poison him. Sadly for Hugh and Ireland, Blake succeeded. The O'Donnell was buried in a monastery in Valladolid, but that was torn down in the nineteenth century --- so, the spot of Hugh's grave is unknown.



O'Donnell Abu is considered the most famous song to sing the praises of Red Hugh of Donegal. They actually sing this at the end of the Disney film, but I didn't know that until just now! Here are the words to the song:

Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding
Loudly the war cries arise on the gale;
Fleetly the steed by Lough Swilly is bounding,
To join the thick squadrons in Saimear's green vale.
On, ev'ry mountaineer,
Strangers to flight and fear;
Rush to the standard of dauntless Red Hugh!
Bonnaught and Gallowglass,
Throng from each mountain pass;
On for old Erin, "O'Donnell Abu!"

Princely O'Neill to our aid is advancing,
With many a chieftain and warrior clan;
A thousand proud steeds in his vanguard are prancing,
'Neath the borders brave from the banks of the Bann:
Many a heart shall quail,
Under its coat of mail;
Deeply the merciless foeman shall rue
When on his ear shall ring,
Borne on the breeze's wing,
Tír Chonaill's dread war-cry, "O'Donnell Abu!"

Wildly o'er Desmond the war-wolf is howling,
Fearless the eagle sweeps over the plain,
The fox in the streets of the city is prowling -
All, all who would scare them are banished or slain!
Grasp every stalwart hand
Hackbut and battle brand -
Pay them all back the debt so long due;
Norris and Clifford well
Can of Tirconnell tell;
Onward to glory - "O'Donnell Abu!"

 Sacred the cause that Clan Connell's defending -
The altars we kneel at and homes of our sires;
Ruthless the ruin the foe is extending -
Midnight is red with the plunderer's fires.
On with O'Donnell, then,
Fight the old fight again,

Sons of Tirconnell,
All valiant and true:
Make the false Saxon feel
Erin's avenging steel
Strike for your country! - "O'Donnell Abu!"

Prince Hugh of Donegal & The Wonderful World of Disney

We've been enjoying The Wonderful World of Disney for the past week --- and more to go. When you hear the word "Disney", it's always the animated fairy tales that pop to mind. It is for me, anyway. Well, Disney made a lot of live-action films (just think of Fred MacMurray, Dean Jones, etc.), and it is those that we have been trying. How this came about is a long string of circumstances, but Elizabeth ordered a whole bunch from the library for us to work through. We've seen Hans Brinker (wonderful, sweet and definitely worth watching!), The Great Locomotive Chase (Fess Parker and Jeff Hunter in a real-life Civil War adventure) and The Happiest Millionaire (Fred MacMurray and a great cast in a hilarious Disney-style musical).

That's not all we've seen, though. We've been watching a bunch of them that are period stories in England, Ireland and Scotland. Specifically, The Sword and the Rose (the story of Mary Tudor, sister to Henry VIII), Kidnapped (not at all the type of story that I thought it was --- and absolutely fabulous!), Rob Roy (another great one!) and The Fighting Prince of Donegal.



The Fighting Prince of Donegal. Wow! It's the story of Red Hugh O'Donnell, a prince of Ireland who lived from 1572 to 1602. The story is based on some real events in the life of O'Donnell (of course, it's been modified for the screen!). He gets captured by the British and held in Dublin Castle. He escapes. He gets recaptured. He escapes again. He leads the clans in a battle against the British at Donegal Castle. He falls in love. Really, it's a fabulous story. Fabulously acted and so well produced. I really liked it. Peter McEnery, the actor playing The O'Donnell is as good as it gets --- followed by Andrew Keir as The McSweeny. I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone, so I won't say more.

The acting in Disney's film is great. The sets are great, and you'll see some beautiful painting by Peter Ellenshaw. Disney movies wouldn't have half of their beauty without the remarkable talents of Mr. Ellenshaw. Wow! So, if you haven't seen the story of the Prince of Donegal, then you should. :) It's just fabulous. More later.

Group Pictures with the New Poirot Dolls

Here are some "group pictures" showing some of my other needle felted dolls or sculptures standing with the new Hercule Poirot dolls. It's very hard to get pictures of them together as many of the dolls vary in size --- not to mention that some of them are sitting down. So, I posed them on the piano. It shows the scale of the different dolls, anyway!



First, here is Mom's Poirot doll standing with the two new ones. This makes three large Poirot dolls that I've felted, and it's amazing how each one has its own personality. In fact, I had so much fun making them that I've decided to start a Captain Hastings doll today! Captain Hastings is my very favorite character from the Agatha Christie books (particularly as portrayed by Hugh Fraser in the TV shows), so it's only fair to make a doll of him as well. :)



Next, here is a group shot that shows some of the more recent dolls (minus all of the gnomes). You can see that the Poirot shows have played a rather active part in my felting inspiration. The two dolls in center are based on the Meissen figurines and Victory Ball costumes as seen in the episode, The Affair at the Victory Ball. As of now, I'm planning on Captain Hastings next and, hopefully, Elrond after that . . . but things are always subject to change!

It's been absolutely freezing here all day yesterday and again today. We're actually having to heat the house again. Sad thing is, I have to go out and mow the lawn (I'm not a fan of cold and windy weather!). The good thing is that the sun is shining a bit, so maybe it won't be too bad. ;) More later.

Hercule Poirot Dolls: Two More Needle Felted Sculptures

I can't believe it, but I have now made twenty needle-felted wool dolls (or "sculptures")! These dolls have quite a story, too. Two and a half years ago, I made a smaller felted Poirot doll as a surprise Christmas present for Mom and posted the story here on my blog. It has been quite popular, and I've received quite a few comments and e-mails asking if I would make another Poirot doll.



One thing that you have to know about me is --- I don't duplicate any of my original handwork. I didn't always have strong feelings about this, but after a few trials of duplication (mostly because Elizabeth just had to have "the same" something) I soon learned better. When working with something handmade and without a pattern, it is impossible to make an exact duplicate. It never looks just the same and the person on the receiving end is always disappointed.

So, I stubbornly refused to make another Poirot. Then --- it happened. I got a really nice e-mail from a lady in another country who wanted to know if I would make a Poirot doll for her. I sent back a long e-mail explaining my reasons for not duplicating. And the fact that felting is really just my hobby. Well, she sent back a nice chatty reply, told me that she totally understood, but would I please keep her in mind if I ever felt like making another Poirot?



Elizabeth is a great sister. She and I talk about a lot of things, and on this occasion E. did a lot of talking. In fact, she talked me into agreeing to make one more Poirot. Not only that, but she actually talked me into making two more Poirots --- that way we could always list the other in our Etsy store. So, I sent an e-mail back to the nice lady saying I would be glad to make one. I even explained that I was planning on making two, so she could have a choice of outfits and colors. What I hadn't figured on was her writing back and saying that she would like both of them --- one wearing the classic light grey suit and the other in his cream-colored "Travel" suit. Wow!

So, for the last several months I have been working on two little Poirot dolls. Finally, yesterday evening, I put the finishing touches on them. Making one of a character at a time is great, but making two of the same was a bit challenging. It kept them at a similar shape and size, but it also felt like I was always making mistakes, since I had to keep "recreating" the same pieces all along the way. In the end, it really did pay off, though, as the finished dolls are an absolutely adorable pair!



Each doll weighs two ounces. They were made with .40 and .42 gauge felting needles and took approximately 110 hours to make as a pair. The doll in the light grey suit stands 8-1/2" tall and the doll in the "Travel" suit stands 8-1/4" tall. Dad made their canes out of wood and used metal beads for handles. The doll in the grey suit has a real sterling silver "stud" on his shirt, and the doll in the "Travel" suit has a fly-swatter made (also by Dad) of Buck Tail and Quill. The watch chains and fobs were made by Elizabeth and are made from real jewelry chain and a "dangle-y" jewelry piece for the fob. The lapel pins are made of some unidentified silver jewelry thing, and the flowers are felted. The doll in the light grey has a light pink rose the color of the "Hercule Poirot" rose as seen in the David Suchet TV episode How Does Your Garden Grow?.

Now that they are finished and sitting here, I am so happy that Elizabeth talked me into making them. They will be leaving for their home in a private collection in the next few days. Mom and Elizabeth are going to be sorry to see them go. Mom's just a teeny weeny bit jealous, as these two Poirots are infinitely superior to her doll. :) It is too bad that I won't be able to enter one of them in the State Fair this Summer, so the Mark Fain doll will just have to go alone! These Poirots certainly are cute, and they are even better in person than they are in photos.



If you'd like to see more photos of the dolls, you can see their photo albums by CLICKING HERE. So, I have made twenty dolls now --- and even duplicated a character. Poirot certainly lends himself to felt. I'm planning on taking some new "group shots" of some of the dolls tomorrow, so I'll post more later.

A Long Weekend, Painting and Jane Austen

We've had a pretty busy weekend. Dad took today and Friday off of work, which means that it feels like we're having an extra-long weekend. It has given him the chance to get a lot of work done outside. He's finished painting the fence at the side of the house and has been busy painting the garage. Just take a look at these before and after pictures of the fence in my Gnome Garden.



I spent Friday mowing the lawn and weeding in the flower garden. A lot of the baby Pin Oak trees that I've been nurturing since last Spring have come back and are budding. I weeded around them and checked them all out.

Thursday was a big rummage sale and we went grocery shopping. Saturday was the annual town garage sales. Not many this year, so it didn't take us very long. I've been working really hard on a custom order for two dolls. The end is in sight, which means that I want to see what they will look like finished.

Flowers are popping up and all the trees are budding. Some earlier trees, like the Crimson King Red Maple have full leaves already. We spent a couple of hours yesterday afternoon out photographing at a cemetery. We had a lot of fun, as there was a nesting Killdeer in one of the sections. She actually flew after Elizabeth once. She was out protecting her area --- acting injured and screaming her head off. Then, she would come and fly after you and flap her wings. I couldn't get really close long enough to take a good picture, but you can see her in the light circle in the right-hand picture.



We watched the 1996 version of Jane Austen's Emma --- for the first time, amazingly! We've loved the 1995 versions of Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility for years, but we'd never watched Emma. I really enjoyed it. It was just under two hours, and it wasn't as glamourous as some of the others, but I think that it was the most "realistic" of all of them. You really felt like they were real, normal people that you could meet today. Mr. Knightly was fabulous, too! Wow! Well, there isn't a lot more to report. This has all kept us pretty busy. More later.

Exchanging Plastic Food for Felt Food, etc.

The time always comes when you have to sort through childhood toys. We had a lot of toys. Elizabeth and I have always loved playing and imagining, and that was aided by things like Playmobil, board games, dolls, figures and the like. One of our all-time favorite things to play with, though, was play food. Little plastic pieces made to look like everything from hamburgers to ice cream. We've saved most of our toys in a big closet upstairs for use by our children one day, but . . .



Several years ago, as a family, we began really working at eliminating plastic from our house. We've successfully removed zip-locks, plasstic wrap, plastic water bottles and containers, plastic Christmas decorations --- and plastic toys. This was a reaction to the BPAs that are found in everyday plastic, not to mention the other chemicals that are in there, too. We kept the Playmobil, because it is a BPA-free plastic and would be impossible to replace. But Elizabeth and I decided that we would only keep a few plastic toys and work on replacing or substituting the rest. Play food was one of the things that we did keep, as it makes for fabulous imagination. Besides, what could replace it?

Well, we found out about felt food and that seems the perfect answer. A couple of months ago, Elizabeth and I bought some patterns on Etsy for various meals. This gave E. an idea of how to cut things out and construct them, so she started working on them a few weeks ago. Of course, being Elizabeth, she isn't making the food that's on the pattern! ;) It's coming along so well (and looks so cute) that we've decided to sell all of the plastic food that we played with as children. Not to mention the fact that this way we can make the kinds of food that we actually eat, where lots of the plastic food is not food that we would eat.


Elizabeth brought the bin down from the closet a couple of days ago and sorted everything into groups and counted it. There were 493 pieces!! Mom was having a bit of an emotional morning, as she has lots of memories attached to those toys, but after seeing the felt food versus the plastic --- there wasn't really any competition.

So, that's one of the things that we've been up to lately. I've also had to mow the lawn twice already, and Dad has worked on painting the fence around the gnome garden. Pictures of all that to come, but I see that this post is plenty long enough. Buddy and Kay came up for a visit yesterday, so that was a fun evening. More later.

Deanna Durbin: 1921-2013

Wow! I was coming down this morning to post a normal "daily" blog entry (frar from daily these days, but --- oh well), but Elizabeth and I woke up to an e-mail from a friend telling us that the news has just been released that Deanna Durbin died a few days ago. She was 91 years old. Amazing. Somehow, you always think of her at about 15 years, singing away!

She's Elizabeth's favorite performer, and we've watched her movies, sung her songs and all for years and years. We even wrote to her over ten years ago and received autographed pictures. Cool! This doesn't leave many of "our generation" surviving, but the great thing about film and recordings is that the beautiful music lives on. People will be able to enjoy Deanna for generations more. It will take some getting used to --- to really think of her as gone. More later.

If you'd like to see some great pictures of Deanna, then CLICK HERE.

Felting, Sewing, Cemeteries, etc.

Life is going on quite normally here. Elizabeth and I have been spending quite a lot of time working on sewing and felting dolls for the Etsy shop. I've got two felted dolls that I'm making for a special order, so while I've been working on those, Elizabeth has been finishing little Minikin dolls --- all but the heads, which I will add later. The felted dolls are really coming along, and I am almost ready to start their heads, which means that they are really looking like characters!

We made three new Poirot Minikins for a special order. They came out SO cute! There was Poirot in a dark brown suit, then Poirot wearing his smoking jacket (we were almost tempted to keep him!) and, finally, Poirot as a young man in his Belgian Police uniform. Elizabeth even made the tall hat and sewed it to him like he is holding it. Wow! He was pretty precious. Here is a picture of them, as words cannot do them justice. Well, to get technical, the picture doesn't really do them justice, either. You just have to see these in real life to get the real feeling. ;)



We had a laid-back Saturday. Dad spent the day at a fishing event with other members of his Fly-Fishing Club, so it didn't exactly have the feel of a Saturday. Elizabeth and I just worked on some more felting and sewing. Yesterday afternoon, Mom and the two of us went out to Chester Baptist church to take some photos for Find a Grave. This is where Elizabeth first got started researching the Swetlands, inspired by the grave of a nineteen-day-old baby --- Truannie Swetland. So, Elizabeth had her picture taken by Truannie! It was a beautiful day. We only had to wear light jackets, and the sun was shining. Can't beat that with a stick.

We watched The Hobbit again the other night. Boy, do I like that. Bilbo is so fabulous. Not to mention Thorin. Elizabeth has made a Thorin Minikin. I get to make the fur piece on his jacket and make his head. He is going to be one of the cutest things ever. I've been trying to talk Elizabeth into letting me keep him, but she says not. :(

Well, better get going, but I'll have to post more later.

Happy 7th Birthday, Kittens!

It hardly seems true, but Max, Avis and Iveta are seven years old today. Wow! It seems like just yesterday when their Mommy was in the dining room in that little box giving birth. She had seven kittens on the night --- seven years ago. One was stillborn, but the other six came out full of energy. They were all short-haired kittens, but totally different coloring. Let's see:

Manly -- Orange Striped
Max -- Black & White Tuxedo
Cadfael -- Dove Grey Striped
Aline -- Tortie-Tabby
Avis -- Tortoise-Shell
Iveta -- Solid Black

We had only rescued the Mama Cat, Olivia, a month before. She wasn't healthy and her kittens weren't very healthy, either --- not to mention being rather inbred. You couldn't ask for sweeter, better pets, though. Cadfael lived five months, but he had an enlarged heart. Aline lived three-and-a-half years, and just four months ago, we lost Manly. :( The picture on the left shows the six babies when they were just opening their eyes. Have you ever seen cuter bundles of fluff? Well, alright, so Samwise was probably the cutest kitten ever born. But his birthday is at the end of September, so you'll have to wait to see his picture until then!

Max and Avis and Iveta don't seem to realize what a special day it is. In fact, the only one that I could even snap a picture of was Iveta --- and we had to wake her up to do that! So, I'll post older pictures of the other two.



So, we're wishing "Happy Birthday" to our sweet, precious kittens. And we're a little bit sad, because we're missing Olivia and Manly. :( More later.

Concerning Our Normal 'Goings-On', etc.

Life is just going on quite normally around here. We had a fabulous Easter. Went to church in the morning and went to Keultjeses in the afternoon. Had so much fun gabbing and catching up that we weren't home until after 10:00pm!

Unfortunately, it seems that we picked up a cold on Sunday. In fact, the few times that we've been to church in the last couple of months --- we pick up a bug (hence the reason we've only been a few times). This time, though, it was a pretty bad one. Dad got it first with an awful stomach flu, which ended up lasting three days, instead of the typical 24 hours. Mom got it next, but her cold has been the sore throat and head cold type. Elizabeth has had it really bad --- both kinds. Thankfully, I got away with just a touch of the stomach bug.

This has kind of put everything at a bit of a standstill. Haven't gotten much sewing or felting done, but today looks like the first time that we'll get into full swing again!

I've had some Eliot Family wills to go through over the past week or so, and that's been fun. Dad went to his first Fly-Fishing Club meeting this week, which means that Spring must be just around the corner. We're having warmer weather this week, so it looks like all the possibilities of snow are over. Dad spent Saturday working in the yard (better man than me, Gunga Din --- it was cold out there!), and he has gotten things ready for me to "beautify" the kitty cemetery. Elizabeth and I are going to make a little garden out of it, as that will keep it from being weedy like it always is --- and make it easier to mow around.

That is about all of the fun news that I can think of. Not even a picture to go with anything. Let's hope that I'll have something fun to report in the next few days. :) More later.

Bilbo Baggins, 'The Hobbit and 'Lord of the Rings'

We like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. In fact, I don't remember the first time that Mom read The Hobbit out loud to us --- we were that little. Elizabeth and I drew pictures of Bilbo and his Hobbit Hole and of the dwarves' capes and hoods hanging on Bilbo's rack. We had little stuffed animals named after characters like Elrond and Playmobil sets that looked like Galadriel's Pool.

When the Lord of the Rings films started to come out in 2001, there was absolutely no way we were going to see the movie. Hollywood never does a good job of dramatizing books. They spoil the stories. They mess with the characters, etc. A year later and The Two Towers was just reaching theaters. Some friends asked us if we were going to see it --- friends who love the books. Mom gave a decidedly negatory answer and expressed surprise that they would watch Tolkien's fabulous stories messed up. They assured her that they were not very "messed up". Sure, some things had been changed, but the changes, in general, were for the better. The actors were great. The scenery and costumes great. We should see it. Now, these are some respected friends, and their opinion carried a lot of weight. In fact, it carried so much weight that we went out to the store that afternoon to buy The Fellowship of the Ring. A well-trained salesman talked us into buying the extended version (good thing, too!).

You guessed it. We liked it. No, that's wrong. We loved it. In fact, we went to the theater twice to see Two Towers. Elizabeth and I kept scrapbooks with our ticket stubs, NZ postage stamps and pre-release pictures for the third film. By the time The Return of the King came out we were so excited that we actually bought tickets to New Line's special event "Trilogy Tuesday". Select theaters across the nation played the extended versions of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers before starting The Return of the King at 10:00pm. There were breaks between the films --- long enough to go and eat. Mom, the two of us and Sarah C. went together.



After that, we figured that the "fun" was finished. Nope. Wrong again. Howard Shore (composer for the films) came to Cleveland to play his Lord of the Rings symphony at Severance Hall. Mom and Dad got tickets for that and we went up as a family. That was one of the coolest things we've ever been to. Wow! Can't even describe it in a blog post. Not enough space.

Since then, we've had fun watching the three films, in a row, on New Year's Day. News of The Hobbit films has popped up periodically, but when they were such a long time in coming --- well, we assumed that they wouldn't be worth watching. The 3D aspect cinched it. I can't see 3D in normal life, so there's no way that I'd want to sit in a theater trying to see 3D on the screen. The rest of the family wasn't keen on the 3D either --- besides, we'd already decided that the film wouldn't be good. Then we saw the trailer. This was some time in November, and it looked surprisingly good. Thorin looked fabulous. So . . . we talked ourselves into the idea of seeing it.

Back and forth we went, and then it came out. The morning after it was released we sat down and read reviews. Everyone voted that the quality was awful, the 3D made the film look like a 1970s British TV show and they had done a bad job "filling" the story out to make it long enough to warrant three parts. That did it. We'd just wait for the DVD. In fact, we'd wait for the DVD to get to the library and then we'd try it. We did such a good job of talking ourselves out of seeing it that we talked B&K into waiting for it, too.

So, I get a call from them a couple of weeks ago and B. tells me to make sure that we don't buy the DVD. They're buying it and will loan it to us when they've got it. Great! At least we don't have to rely on a library disc, as they always seem to be broken in spots. So, B&K show up last weekend with the movie. They bought it for us! Being that it was the weekend, well we all sat down to watch it together. Surprisingly, it was really good. Sure, there are some stupid parts and a few things a bit over done (e.g. the Dwarves' food fight, the falling bridge in the Goblin Mountain, the dying animals in Mirkwood and Azog the Defiler Orc), but the movie was really great.



We've actually watched it twice since, and by skipping a couple tracks (with the over-done bits) it's fabulous. Elrond is at his peak in this one. He was great before, but he's perfect now. He's actually better than the books. Gandalf is as great as ever. Galadriel is beautiful and just as perfect as before. The Eagles are fabulous. Did I say they were fabulous? Let me say it again: they're fabulous!

What really puts this, in my opinion, yards above the Lord of the Rings films is the fact that Bilbo and Thorin are manly. Nothing sissy about the heroes in this one. And, the producers obviously knew which moments were the best from the first three movies, so they "repeated" moments (similar to the originals) in places. With Thorin as the hero, instead of Aragorn, it's a lot better.



The crowning touch is really Bilbo. I think that he's the best Hobbit on film yet. He can say more with a blink than most other actors say with a whole line. He's funny and serious --- and great at either. His whole body talks and you never think that he even knows someone is watching him, let alone a camera. When it comes to Tolkien's characters on film, there are a few that play it exactly like the book. So perfectly that it's like Tolkien's words come alive. These would be Galadriel, Gandalf, Denethor, Sarumon and Ian Holm as "Old Bilbo". Well, Martin Freeman as Young Bilbo fits into this group without even blinking. There isn't a thing that is less than perfect about him. He's my favorite character from all the movies.



Honorable mention needs to go to some of the Dwarves, too, because some of them are absolutely fabulous. The costumes in this film are not as great as in the Lord of the Rings, and that hurts the quality of the film. The clothes and wigs are not as realistic or beautiful as they should have been. Also, a lot of the characters of the Dwarves are not developed, but that may come in the next film. Balin is fabulous. He's the older dwarf who was at Erebor with Thorin --- and has followed Thorin ever since. You couldn't ask for better. He's just great. Bofur is wonderful, too. He's dressed in an almost Tibetan or Mongolian "look" and has real character. When he's on the screen, you can't help but notice and like him. I always prefer older character actors. They are not so obviously conscious of their youth and looks, which means that they are playing a part instead of just trying to look good. However--- Fili and Kili are perfect. I really love them. They are the youngest Dwarves of the group, hot heads and ready for fighting. Well, the two actors are great and their spirit for adventure really shows in the characters. In fact, I am even set on making a pair of miniature dolls of them. They're that fun.

So, it's a lesson in making judgments before the movie is out. This was supposed to be a short entry to post some pictures of Bilbo and say just how much I LOVE him. I guess this came out way longer than I thought, but it is really a fun movie. It's not as depressing and dark as Lord of the Rings, and it's got real manly heroes. More later.

Rise Stevens: On Film with Bing and Nelson

Elizabeth and I found out last night that famous opera star, Rise Stevens, died on Wednesday. This didn't come as a "surprise", as she was 99 years old --- but it's like the passing of an era. She was the only singing star to appear in a movie with both of my favorite singers/actors. In 1941 she played Maria Lanyi, Nelson Eddy's wife in The Chocolate Soldier. Three years later, in 1944, she played Bing Crosby's long-time friend (and Metropolitan opera star), Genevieve Linden.



Not only was her voice fabulous, but she wasn't one of those opera stars that stood on the screen waiting to sing. You actually liked her as a character in the film when she wasn't singing.

The world is remembering her right now for her famous roles on the operatic stage. Carmen, Samson et Delilah, etc. But I'll always think of her singing Ave Maria in the church basement with Bing and the Robert Mitchell Boys Choir.

Another Beautiful Picture of My Cat, Samwise!

It's not easy to take a picture of Samwise, so for each one that turns out there are usually fifty or sixty bad ones. He blinks. He moves. He nuzzles the camera. But it's always worth the trouble, because he just looks so perfect if you can get a good shot of him. Well, two days ago I got one! The flash didn't even have to turn on --- which means that his eyes are wide open!



Poor Samwise is having a hard time dealing with the loss of Manly and Olivia. He stopped talking for weeks and just walked around with a droopy tail. Finally, he started meowing again (he's a real squeak-pot!), but now he's lost a lot of his hair. He's actually pulled some of it out himself. Poor baby.

Elizabeth and I have been trying to get some work done on various dolls this week. Mom's computer monitor died yesterday, so we had to deal with that. I've had some time to research the Eliot Family a little bit and have found some fun facts. We're planning on a fun day tomorrow, but that'll have to be in another post. (Not to mention that I still need to post pictures of what I bought last weekend!) More later.

Detectives Here, Detectives There . . .

Well, we have finally finished all of the little Minikin dolls from the big special order that we've been working on for the past several weeks. Boy, was this fun! The order was for ten dolls (to accompany the customer's first Minikin of Hercule Poirot) --- all themed after characters from various detective shows. Four of the dolls were Poirot's Friends, but six of them were other characters from other shows. Take a look at them. Aren't they cute?!

Doll Set: Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, Charlie Chan, Miss Marple, Nero Wolfe & Archie Duncan

In fact, we have had more people contact us about detectives than any other topic, so we're planning on changing the feel of the Etsy store to reflect the "mystery" theme. For the time being, we plan on making all of the Minikin dolls based on various detectives (and their friends). That means that Elizabeth and I are going to get busy today working on some more Poirot dolls and his friends. We're planning on offering all of these (and more!) for sale in our Etsy store --- and by special order.

Front Row: Poirot and Friends Doll Set

(Capt. Hastings, Mrs. Oliver, Miss Lemon, Inspector Japp & Poirot)

The picture above shows the complete special order of dolls. Holmes and Watson are my personal favorites, though Miss Marple is awfully cute. With this many different characters, we had a lot of fun with all of the variety in outfits and colors. We'd never heard of Nero Wolfe, but his lemon yellow shirt, striped tie and yellow hanky were cool! I'll be posting individual pictures of the dolls over the next week on our store blog, so check them out by CLICKING HERE.

We had a fun weekend (quite busy), so I'll be posting pictures and news from that as soon as I can get them ready. Gotta get felting now! More later.

What to do on a nice afternoon?

Nice weather (meaning sunshine) doesn't come often in March. When it does, you have to take advantage of it for the few hours that it's there. Well, it was one of those beautiful afternoons on Sunday --- and we had to go out. The morning was a bit grey, but by the afternoon it was gorgeous. Dad stayed home to tie flies for his Etsy shop, but the three of us girls grabbed our tool basket, the camera (with fully charged batteries) and jackets and headed out to two local cemeteries.



This is the first time that we've had a chance to head out to a cemetery in ages, so we were all pretty happy. The first one was a small place with about ninety burials still marked. Stones ranged from the 1840s to the 1870s --- with a few stragglers into the 19-teens. A lot of the stones were broken, fallen over and/or buried, so we had to pull out the tin foil to decipher quite a few of them. The pictures show Mom and Elizabeth in the process of reading some stones. N.B. Elizabeth's glasses! They are for far-away, which makes reading stones across the grounds a lot easier. Isn't she cute?!

The second cemetery is a large one with thousands of burials. It was started in 1824 and is still in use. Elizabeth and I are always on the lookout for stones of little babies and children, so we took a lot of pictures like that. We did venture into the old section for a while and found two stones (one shown on the left) that must be some of the original 1820s burials. The stones are hand carved and didn't even have dates or ages on them.

Weather is going back to the normal Winter stuff --- which is good. Elizabeth and I have been killing ourselves (take that far from literally) finishing a custom order of Minikin detective dolls. Wow, are they cute?! As soon as I'm finished typing here, I'm off to work on the last doll. Hoping to have pictures of them to post over the weekend. More later.