Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: New Year 2019

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: New Year 2019: Happy New Year to all!  May your doll dreams come true, and may we all have peace in 2019.  Out of the dark winter night, a light will shine...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: New Year 2019

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: New Year 2019: Happy New Year to all!  May your doll dreams come true, and may we all have peace in 2019.  Out of the dark winter night, a light will shine...

Healthy Eating Tips from and Old Mag

Women's Day Tips, Jan. 2018


The original article from last year is by J. Bauer. She suggests turmeric, sometimes mixed with black pepper to aid the liver and to get antioxidants.  I was having a talk with a friend of mine last week who said the same thing. 

Golden Milk recipe which includes ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and honey, all
with health benefits.

Kale, strawberries, green tea and lemon help with energy and healthier heart function.

These help with immunity and stronger bones; they also
can have fiber and can fight cancers.

Tomatoes are super fruits, and avocado is also great for gall bladder issues.  Also good for gall bladder are nuts, if you are not allergic, and lean, broiled met. Avoid fried foods!

Last Minute Holiday Gift Ideas on a Budget

Photo Collage for a Card.  See ellen_tsagaris Instagram for more holiday photos,
or my Flickr page.

 Holiday gift ideas for an handmade, thoughtful, but cost-effective holiday:

1. Cut pictures from old cards to use as collage for new ones.  Punch a whole in them and use pretty colored yarn or ribbons to make a garland or individual ornaments.  They are also great to cut out as paper dolls, or to decorate gift wrap.
2. For gift wrap, invest in some plain newsprint, which you can buy at Office Supply Stores like Staples or Office Max, and decorate with No. 1.  Or, use newspaper, B and W or the colorful funny pages and comics.  Plain brown paper decorated with dried flowers, bittersweet, holly, or evergreens is great.  Even fake florists picks work, and all the big craft stores have huge varieties already on sale.  Watch pets if you want to use  the bittersweet and holly.  The plain brown paper idea is also very Victorian.  Aluminum foil or Mylar paper is great, old wallpaper samples, and craft paper of all types.  Brown bags, either cut up, or used as decorated gift bags work, too.  Colorful or plain cellophane tied with pretty ribbons, especially silk, which can be recycled, are pretty.  I like to use lace as well.  If you are giving a large piece of linen or a towel, use it as a gift wrap and tie it all up with twine, raffia, or ribbon.  Save little toys and tiny      ornaments to decorate packages.  Costume jewelry and beads work well, as do holly leaves and tried twigs glued on to look like winter trees.  I also like to make snowmen from cotton balls, a trick my mom showed me, and glue them on the package.   There are oodles of ideas for hiding gifts, or wrapping tiny packages within huge boxes to throw off the scent, as it were.  I also love gift baskets, and use all sorts of containers, especially pretty boxes or vintage tins.  You can also decoupage or spray paint what you want.
3. Along the same lines, if there is a crafter in your family, go through your art/craft supplies, and create a craft box or basket for them.  I include pages from magazines I like to cut up and use, Victorian scraps, glue sticks, safety scissors, buttons, material swatches, little jars of beads and clay, small watercolor sets, colored pens and pencils, mini notepads, little sewing kits, pins, and      needles, pincushions, you name it.  Most of these are things I have, or they are supplemented from the dollar store.  Etsy is also a good source for finding kits of these materials reasonably.
4. Christmas ornaments with a lovely note or card are great office and hostess gifts.  Great Hanukah gifts are gold chocolate coins in boxes wrapped in blue Mylar paper.  Go to Marilyn Waters’ The Toy Maker site, just google it.  She has dozens of free printouts and projects for holidays, including easy boxes and favors for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, you name it.  There are other sites for creating paper toys, cards, and book marks for Day of the Dead, Purim, Ramadan, Christmas, and Kwanzaa.  Waters also has plans for Halloween houses and toy theaters, as well as games and paper dolls, all in color, all printable.
5. Select your favorite poems, write them, select images, and make a scrapbook for the holidays.  There are many images in public domain and clipart you can use.  Also, there are old magazine images and dozens of ideas from scrapbook stores or sites.  You can include recipes, or compile a cookbook, use family photos, etc.  You can also make calendars, albums or date books.  Kids love to do it, and it is a great alternative to the “Christmas Letter.”
6. Go to the dollar store, flea market, or craft store, and look for sales like mad.  For about ten dollars, you can build a theme stocking or basket for a child or teen.  You can put together Nativities for older recipients, a neat purse with cosmetics or toiletries, a roasting pot with cooking utensils and mixes, a bucket with carwash and car care paraphernalia, etc.
7. Vintage books, or dollar store books, stacked and tied with a pretty ribbon, also sold by the spool in craft stores and dollar stores, are wonderful for those of us who love to read.  They make great office gifts and contributions to silent auctions.  Check out Barnes and Noble, Borders, and  Walden, they are having more book and card sales than ever.
8. Bake, and package attractively as described above.  Most of my gifts will be baked goods this year, made from my Mom and Grandmother’s recipes.  When I cook from their handwritten, hand compiled recipes, I feel like they are standing next to me, telling me what to do.
9. Knitters and cricketers, do I have to say more?  Get moving!  Yarn is on sale everywhere, the dollar store has great deals.  You can do simple book marks for small gifts or stocking stuffers, edge hankies or doilies, you name it.  So, “Stitch and Bitch!”  You can combine knitting/crochet get-togethers with holiday parties, pot lucks, or tree trimming.  Kids can ge involved, too.  They can always make yarn dolls or ornaments wrapping yarn around Styrofoam.  Visit you local library book sales and stores for patterns, McCall’s Needlework and Crafts, and Martha Stewart Living magazines.
10. Kits, all kinds of them, simple and complicated abound this time of year.  They can be made as is, used, or adapted.  Michaels has great one’s for kids.  Get them unplugged and teach them to use their hands.
11. Having said that, there are digital programs and ideas out there, many free, for making family books and albums you “publish.”  You can also get these made at Walgreen’s and other photos centers.
12. One of the best gifts I got from an office friend was a box of Christmas cards.  She knew I needed them, but did not have time to get any or make any.  See what someone needs, even if it is small like this, and help out.  Offer to decorate someone’s tree, or help with yard ornaments. If you have the time, give an hour to baby-sit, promise to cook a casserole or covered dish [and do it!], take someone out to dinner, help with spring planting, etc., or with Holiday clean up if your recipient is hosting a gathering.  They will love you for it.
13. Have a gift for everyone!  I mean it!  Drawing names is great in big families, so is limiting gifts to children, but you can always print a book mark, enclose a favorite photo in a card, fill a bag with someone’s favorite candy, gum, or mints, buy a box of twelve ornaments at the dollar store, and hand one out to everyone in your family at dinner.  I handed out collage jewelry and small ornaments as favors at my wedding.  Everyone loved them.  I also made candy bags one Christmas as favors, and included ornaments made and decoupaged from luggage tags.  People still talk about them, and I will do something again this year.
14. Shop sales, shop all year, and put all in a plastic tub.  Think small, and use the prepaid post office boxes.  I go to all kinds of craft sales, rock shows, flea markets, and antique markets, and surf the net and old books for ideas.  I watch Create on PBS, and always have my radar on.
15. duplicate the simple gifts in Little House on the Prairie, Little Women, and other vintage stories.  Include a copy of the book, or a Bibliomania or Web URL so that your recipient can read the entire story.

Even in a recession, the holidays don’t have to suffer.  It really is the thought, and a few well-chosen and printed essays on that subject, wouldn’t hurt to be included in someone’s stocking.

Blessed Solstice

We've past it now, but I was beset and could not wish greetings.  It is another sad holiday for us, but we will get through it.  I take comfort in the landscape and the spirit of the season.  I recommend Rosamund Pilcher's novel, Winter Solstice, to celebrate the season.

An Apologia for Countess Erzebet Bathory: Frozen retells the Snow Queen, an Allegory for Erz...

An Apologia for Countess Erzebet Bathory: Frozen retells the Snow Queen, an Allegory for Erz...: Watching the "Frozen" Christmas special tonight, it struck me that this Disney retelling of the Snow Queen has a lot in common ...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Guest Blogger: Dr. David Levy, Skyward

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Guest Blogger: Dr. David Levy, Skyward: Once again, it is our pleasure to feature Dr. David Levy as our guest blogger. Skyward December 2018     Inner Starlight  ...

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: What I've Learned from Dolls

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: What I've Learned from Dolls: Devoting yourself to a hobby helps you learn a whole subset of skills in areas you never thought you'd be good. It dawned on ...

Rescued Food at the Supermarket

I saw something new earlier this week at the supermarket; rescued food being sold along side the regular displays of groceries and produce.  It was called "ugly" food, and included tomatoes and lemons.


Very interesting.  Here is the official website for food rescue if you are interested: http://www.foodrescue.net/

Public Domain

Thoughts on Toy Collecting via Tami Hoag's Dark Paradise

I recently picked up another Tami Hoag thriller; love her books when I want to immerse myself in escapist horror and mystery!  She is a friend of my friend, Kim Ostrum Bush, also a romance writer.  Kim was my mom’s student, and a doll collector.  I ran into her one time at the old Masonic Temple Women’s Club Antique Show where Ralph’s Antique Dolls used to set up.  Now, the MT is Terror at Skellington Manor, my favorite haunt, with great animatronics and an extensive doll collection.

 

The novel I’m reading is Dark Paradise, and it takes place in New Eden, Montana.  There is an attorney who is also a collector of many things, including toys.  His name is Miller Daggrepont.  Here are his thoughts on collecting:

 

This is where I keep my collections . .. I collect everything  Signs, toys, farm equipment you name it.  Never know when the next big rage will hit.  I made a killing on Indian artifacts when all the Hollywood types started moving in.  They think they’re going native when they hang an old horse blanket on the wall.  Damned fools, I say—not because of the collecting.  Nothing wrong with collecting.  They’re just damned fools in general!(95)

 

 

Here are some more links if you enjoy large toy collections.  Don’t forget the Strong National Museum of Play. http://www.museumofplay.org/

 

Jerry Greene world’ largest toy collection. https://rockandrolljunkie.com/2015/02/26/4109/

 

 

World’s largest toy museum Branson. https://www.bransonshows.com/activity/WorldsLargestToyMuseum.cfm

 

Toy soldiers: https://www.metro.news/worlds-largest-toy-soldier-collection-makes-a-killing/1038350/

 

 

 

Of Carving Pumpkins

Simple but effective.  I did one this year; haven't in ages!!

My favorite ghost and pumpkin model; I also have it as a blow mold lamp and candle.

Guest Blogger; Dr. David Levy- Skyward November 2018

Skyward

November 2018

 

More than two thousand years ago, getting loose change was about as easy as it is today. Hand a shopkeeper a silver dollar in today’s world, and you can expect four quarters in change.   What isn’t the same as today is the design of the coin one might want to get change for.  Hand the same shopkeeper a Roman coin from the first century, especially one with a bright comet engraved on its head, and one of two things might happen.  Either you’d get thrown out of the store, or the shopkeeper would treat you to dinner and then bequeath his children to you.  After all, if the shopkeeper read Shakespeare, he would know that the coin was celebrating Julius Caesar’s Great Comet, the comet that appeared in the northern sky during the games held shortly after the assassination of Juius Caesar on the Ides of March , March 15, 44 BC.  In Shakepeare’s tragedy Julius Caesar, Calpurnia even predicts the murder, and the comet: 

When beggars die, there are no comets seen;

The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

In Shakespeare’s play,  Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 B.C.  The play mentions neither the games, nor that they were played in celebration of the new emperor, Augustus  Caesar.  A bright comet was visible in the northern sky during those games.  It was widely interpreted as Julius Caesar’s soul on its way to the stars.  At the time, comets were omens.  Calpurnia was well aware that her husband’s death could be preceded or followed by a bright comet.   And decades later, Seneca, in his anxiety to avoid execution by the suspicious Emperor Nero, insisted that the bright comet of A.D. 61 was a favorable omen to Nero.  (It didn’t work; Nero had Seneca put to death.)

An early NASA image of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.

To engrave a comet on a coin may seem strange, but in fact, most people never get to see a bright comet, an apparition in the night with a head and flowing tail, in their entire lives.  I have.  My nights under the stars have been brightened by the light of more than two hundred comets.  Only a few of these comets were visible without the aid of a telescope, and most were only barely seen as specks of slowly moving haze.  But even these were magical.

Caesar Comet Coin, photo provided by Dr. David Levy.
The Caesar comet coin.  Thanks to Jeff Struve for his magnificent
image of the coin with Caesar's comet engraved upon it.

Comets have appeared in literature all over the world, in almost all languages, because writers since time began have seen comets and have become fascinated by them.  Writers like Geoffrey Chaucer, like Alfred, Lord Tennyson, like James Joyce, and like me.  I caught the comet bug when I was twelve years old.  Our teacher in the sixth grade, Mr.  Powter, wanted us to give speeches.  The topic I chose was comets.  I was interested in their appearances in the sky, their appearances in history, in art, and in literature.   What I knew nothing about was their role in the origin of life on Earth.  I was far too young to consider the possibility that when comets collided with the Earth, their debris included the CHON particles –Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen—the alphabet of life.  Thirty-four years later, one of the comets I helped discover taught me that lesson as it careened into Jupiter in one of the biggest events in the history of science.  This comet didn’t get onto  a Roman coin, or even a modern one, but it did find its way onto a German stamp.   Not too bad for a tiny comet that wandered through the solar system for eons, gradually got attracted into an orbit about Jupiter, and then, in a series of explosions, reconstructed our understanding of how life could begin on a world.

An image of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacts imprinted on a German stamp.

 

 

 

Two Doll Auctions, A Museum, and a Battlefield

This weekend, Theriault’s will be hosting two amazing auctions.  Sunday is a very unusual and complete collection of Barbies and friends.  Saturday involves the sale of the contents of Yesterday’s Child Doll Museum, formerly Vicksburg, MS. Both will be in Chicago ,and Theriault’s.com has all the details.

 

During the late 80s, when I was just out of school, my family and I took a terrific trip down South, which included Vicksburg.  We walked the battlefield, and while I personally do not believe I ghosts, I did sense a presence there.  It was moving and sad to see the Civil War monuments put up by northern and southern states, and to realize how closely camped both sides were on that field.

 

We also saw Yesterday’s Child, just my mom and dad and me.  I’m the only one left.  I think it was the last of our great road trips, though we took a lot of smaller ones in later years.  It was charming, and a very pleasant day.  I still regret we didn’t buy a small composition doll wearing a white faux fur coat, hat, and muff in the gift shop  They did not have much for sale, but the museum was a feast for the eyes.

 

My dad, ever loyal to me exclaimed as we walked in, “she has more than this!” That was Dad; he also built doll houses, hauled us all over to buy dolls while he sat in the car, he brought dolls for me from all over the world, carved little dolls from sticks, carried two very large Italian dolls for me when we were coming back from a trip to Europe.  He often drove back out of his way so I could get a doll I forgot to buy, and he learned what a Jumeau was.  My mom was my partner in crime when it came to finding dolls; she also dressed them repaired them. After a while, it wasn’t “Ellen’s” doll collection; it was “our” doll collection.

 

I hate to see any doll museum close, especially when I am busy creating mine, but this one’s closing is particularly painful for me.  The silver lining is that the dolls will go to good homes, to people who will care for them and carry on the museum’s legacy.  For me, doll collecting has become a lonely hobby, full of lovely memories. 

Scenes from The Fall; Autumn

Anymore, I live for October, for autumn in general. It has finally come, after another horrible, sad year.  We had more deaths this week, and cold winds and storms. Some of us have been ripped by hurricanes yet again.

Yet, I see hope in October's golden light.  As Barry Manilow's song goes, I hate it when October goes.  Halloween is my favorite holiday. And,you it leads up to my other two favorites, Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Mind you, I don't really celebrate anything any more, just memories of past celebrations.  My mom and dad are gone, now.  It hurts worse in the fall; we used to go on drives in the country and find fall festivals. My pumpkins came from the country, and we sought out caramel apples and antiques

Fee free to share your fall and Halloween memories in the comments sections.  I'm always happy to hear from you.



Praying Mantis

Country pumpkins

Ever since I read Tasha Tudor's Take Joy many years ago, I have hung seed bells as holiday
gifts for our local birds.

Autumn colors

My Japanese Maple Turning



Enjoy this video of a local house that does nearly all holidays like this!  There used to be two on the block, but now only this one.  Every year, he adds something!  There are other houses with ghosts and monsters that they make. Scary good!!

October Snow Storm; a Video

Guest Blogger: Dr. David Levy from Skyward October 2018

It is an honor and a pleasure for us to feature guest blogger, Dr. David Levy, noted author, astronomer, Shakespeare scholar, champion of the planet Pluto, and discoverer of  22 comets, either alone or with Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker
 

Dr. Levy was a co-discoverer of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 in 1993, which collided with the planet Jupiter in 1994.

Among his many awards, Dr. Levy won a 1998 News & Documentary Emmy Award in the "Individual Achievement in a Craft, Writer" category for the script of the documentary 3 Minutes to Impact produced by York Films .

Skyward—

 

October 2018

 

If you build it…

 

 

“If you build it,” said the voice, “he will come.” In eastern Iowa near the town of Dyersville, near a well-kept farmhouse, lies a regulation baseball diamond in the midst of a cornfield.  This is the field of dreams from the 1989 movie.  On the beautiful Sunday afternoon of September 9, Jeff Struve and I drove down to visit the site as part of the Eastern Iowa Star Party he had so well organized.  With impact crater specialist Jennifer Anderson and her husband David, we saw where one of my favorite movies was filmed.  Dr. Anderson had just delivered a stunning and lively lecture about her impact crater research at Winona State University’s geosciences department.

The theme of Field of Dreams revolves around baseball.  But even though I am a baseball fan, the movie’s influence on me was not about the sport but about the dreams.  It is about a dream I began to have in the fall of 1965 just as my interest in the night sky was advancing by leaps and bounds.  That fall, two Japanese comet hunters, Ikeya and Seki, discovered what would become the brightest comet of the 20^th century.  I first saw Comet Ikeya-Seki’s lovely tail rising out of the St. Lawrence River late that October, and I have never forgotten it.

Two months later, I began my own program of searching for comets.  It had three goals, to search for comets and exploding stars (officially referred to as novae, to discover a comet or a nova, and to conduct a research project on comets and novae.  Over the course of my life I have now discovered 23 comets, and when I co-discovered the comet that collided with Jupiter, I really felt as if I dipped myself in magic waters. And the research part, which connects to poetry and the sky, became my 1979 master’s from Queen’s and my 2010 doctorate from the Hebrew University.  Along the way, I have also made two independent discoveries of novae.

When I visited in September, the house and field looked exactly as they were in the movie.  The picket fence in front now has a sign that says “if you build it.”  The second part is left off.  I interpret its absence as indicating that not all dreams come true.  Maybe yours will, maybe it won’t.  But it is about the dream, whether it is baseball, the night sky, or anything else.  At the close of the film Ray Kinsella asks,  “Is there a heaven?”

“Oh yeah,” his Dad replies. “It’s the place dreams come true.”

          And if somehow your dream does come true, you could add the words of Ray’s skeptical brother-in-law:

“When did these ball players get here?”

House at Field of Dreams, David Levy

Field of Dreams, David Levy

Online Literary Magazine for CM 220, CM 107 Classes and Friends of KU: Monmouth College Online Blog for Teaching Writing ...

Online Literary Magazine for CM 220, CM 107 Classes and Friends of KU: Monmouth College Online Blog for Teaching Writing ...: This blog has very good content; scroll through older posts, too.  It is the result of a conference I attended. https://mc-wace.blogspot....

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Coupons, Paper Dolls, Paying it Forward!

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How to Join a Doll Club - Ruby Lane Blog

How to Join a Doll Club - Ruby Lane Blog: There’s more fun as well as safety in numbers. Collecting dolls is as social as it gets; great shows, conventions, shopping trips, museum tours, “collection hops,” the fun never ends. So, how do you find like-minded doll friends to share your hobby with? Join a doll club! Here’s how.

The British Museum Presents Fashioned from Nature

This looks like am Amazing Exhibit, and you can view online a video showing how Linen is made.  Wild photos showing skulls as hats, and all sorts of nods to this fall's global/folklore popular looks!

Website: https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/fashioned-from-nature?utm_campaign=589015_Fashioned%20from%20Nature%20-%20September%20new&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Victoria%20and%20Albert%20Museum&dm_i=45GA,CMHJ,AE9OX,1EITI,1

EXHIBITION  On now until Sunday, 27 January 2019

Fashioned from Nature

The first UK exhibition to explore the complex relationship between fashion and nature from 1600 to the present day

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Rescued Open House 2018

Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Rescued Open House 2018: Rescued Open House September 22, 10-4; September 23, 12-4   Come celebrate with Rescued , and perform good deeds while you s...

A few More Flower Pics

More Phantom

Pretty petunias

Colias

Mr. Frog Coductor

Very Green

Born Free

Resting

Near flight

Tuxie Ponders Autumn

Scenes from The Garden. Suddenly, it's Last Summer

Gnome sweet gnome

Mr. Squirre

Hide N Seek

Room with a View

I planted this

Hydrangeas a la neighbor

Butterfly with issues

She still flew away

Peace

A lush

Phantom

Local color

Impromptu Tea