Memoir; Writing your Life Story: "And So this is Christmas . . "

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The Creature from the Black Lagoon

Does anyone remember his name in The Munsters?  He was Uncle Something.  Watched the whole film tonight with Julie Adams, who recently passed away.  Shades of Frankenstein, i.e., his fear of fire and light, and Jaws was channeling him in the opening scenes where the hapless girl is swimming and the shark bites at her legs.  Julie Adams has the same thing happen, almost.  The monster doesn't get her.

I'm perverse in these monster films.  I end up feeling sorry for the monster.  This Creature film could be an eco lesson.  No one knew it was there; it lived in this Amazon lagoon forever, and the ecosystem  didn't seem to be upset, that is, till the scientists and fossil hunters show up.  It got poked; can we blame it for fighting back?

We watched on Svengoolie; I have a few Creature figures of my own, but as usually, Svengoolie featured a few more dolls and action figures representing the Creature.  I wrote about him on About.com years ago, and mentioned Svengoolie's various collections of monster dolls.

Weather isn't our friend this year; it snowed on Halloween. We didn't get to go out and give candy out, or hardly even decorated.  Brought my big pumpkin head scarecrows in, and most of my lawn ornaments.  Much too early, but we've had two snowstorms.

Keep the faith.  Think spring, and read seed catalogs.

American Doll and Toy Museum: Honoring Vets and Dolls!

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Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Museum Update

It is the Samhain; blessed be.













Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Museum Update: Happy Halloween!  We had snow today!  It ruined trick or treating.  So, here I sit watching Bewitched and Roseanne Halloween shows.  We pu...

So, I’m back!  Trying to keep up, but setting up the museum takes all I’ve got these days.  It is a small, but temporary space, a chance for us to begin while we pursue a larger building for our permanent home.

My friends have stepped up in unimaginable ways, from Michele, who made the building available, to Diane, her business partner who has helped with supplies, and costumes, and doll accessories, to Dick and Nancy who have offered their help in so many ways. 

Gloria, Caroline, Clara, Jill, Marie, Kathy, and Nancy S., and everyone else who has donated dolls to us, to the Friedken family for the little trike, and to everyone at Good Will, Salvation Army, Erin at Rescued, Dennis of The Treasure Chest, and our many friends in the antique and thrift community who have helped me, and given me encouragement and advice.  I wish my Mom and Dad were here, and my doll friends now gone, Mary Hillier, Stephanie Hammonds, Mikki Brantley, and so many more wonderful writers and doll artists, my friend and pen pal, R. Lane Herron who currently writes for Doll Castle News, and so many others.

Believe in your passion, follow it, and you will be happy.  Success is measured not by monetary gain, but by true happiness.  It has taken me my entire life to get here; I started collecting when I was three, and I never met a doll, or toy, I didn’t like.  I studied, my folks helped me travel, my Dad carried home dolls from all over the world, even one given to me from executives of Mitsubishi.    My mother made them, repaired them, dressed them, and put up with old things, which she really didn’t like.  At least, not at first; she changed her mind later.  My husband, Dino, has been a huge help, my editor, my best friend, my navigator in this journey. Our friend Greg, gone too soon, believed in me, and Mark, our other friend, contributed a lot.

I’ve had antique adventures with my friends Rosie, Lori, Nancy T, Danyelle, and more.  My Aunt Rosie and Uncle Tony looked everywhere for old dolls for me, and Rosie made them in her ceramics studio for me.  My Uncle Tom brought one home each week for me, and my Uncle George cruised Berkley and Lost Gatos looking for stores that sold dolls. My grandma’s collection of international dolls inspired my collection; two of them began it.  She also dressed dolls, sometimes over night.  Doll nudity offended her.

We hope to open November 30, 2019, Small Business Saturday; for the first time in a long time, I’m looking forward to something, and the sun is shining again.  Thank you to all who read me blogs and postings, and to those who have bought and read my books.

Thinking outside the Doll House, A Memoir, will be out soon.  You can read my entire doll story there.  Thank you, and I love you all!

An Apologia for Countess Erzebet Bathory: Guest Blogger; Dr. David Levy with Skyward, Califo...

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Dr. E's Doll Museum Blog: Kane County and The Doll Museum

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The American Doll & Toy Museum will open the first week of December!

After a lifetime of planning, it has finally happened!  more details will follow as the doll drama unfolds, but The American Doll & Toy Museum will open the first week of December!  This will be a smaller version of our collection because of space limitations, but there will be representative dolls from prehistory to the present, and a nice selection of doll houses, miniatures, toys and related objects.

Many of you also follow our main doll museum blog, Dr. E's Doll Museum, and you know that I am Dr. E and this is our unofficial name.  I started a new Facebook Page called American Doll

In and Toy Museum, and will follow up with a Twitter, Pinterest, and other social media accounts to spread the word.

We'll have a small book shop selling doll related objects, vintage paper airplanes, licensed merchandise books, and perhaps some small antiques from the shop behind us. We also have a GoFundMe Page for donations.  https://www.gofundme.com/manage/ellen039s-campaign-for-american-doll-and-toy-museum

There will be special events and give a ways.  We'll celebrate each season and holiday, too. There will be rotating displays of all kinds.

I plan on have a doll trinket to give to each visitor as a memento.

Many of you have seen  the displays of my dolls at various museums. I've collected since age 3, and have been planning this museum since grade school.  We will join a small neighbor hood near one of my alma maters called College Hill, which hosts other events and houses several antique stores, a cafe, a hometown bar and grill, a hometown barber shop, sports apparel shop and more.  We will be contributing to small business and to our community.

We welcome everyone; we aren't just for doll collectors and dealers, and we hope by embracing the general public, that we will also encourage young collectors.

Below are some of our citizens, and there is a YouTube video with more.

Doll Museum Video; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_TLGmyLKIw&t=158s

Butterflies are Free

Lately, when I go out to walk, or work with my flowers, butterflies surround me.  Usually Monarchs.  Maybe they are lost souls, or maybe they are thankful I tried to save one of their own.  Who knows. 

I really love them, and I'm glad butterflies are free.


All images public domain.

As the Green Hills Roll Along

The days may be near 90, but in the shade, the air is much cooler than it was.   Fall is near.  Cattails fill ditches along with Queen Anne's Lace; the sumac is turning colors.  Leaves are even beginning to fall and school has started.  I dread winter, but I love fall, and Halloween, of course.

The hills are still green, and the corn high.  There is no landscape like this, with weathered red barns here and there, and houses way to worn to be standing by themselves, but do.

I want to walk and walk through it all, to remember days with my family, now gone, when we went driving along the country back roads, looking for antique stores, or old barns holding sales, for tomatoes and sweet corn, and later, hickory nuts, taffy apples, and pumpkins.

No one buys me taffy apples any more.  Driving my Dad's car, I realize how much he loved taking to the road.  I do, too.  Long drives are when I can play audio books; I'm listening to The Hobbit, which I've read over and over.  It takes me back not just to Middle Earth, but to Saturday mornings when my folks would go out, and I would get up and dust the living room, and every other weekend, one of the other rooms of the house as well. I read, played Barry Manilow albums over and over, especially I Write the Songs, daydreamed about boys I kind of  liked, but would never approach, did my drivers' ed homework, and waited for my folks to get back so I could go to lunch with them and shop.  Life was pretty easy, and good. It included free meals out, my mom buying and washing my clothes, free books, antique shows, and vacations, sometimes twice a year.

It's different now. 

Memories sustain me, and flowers, and a whiff of pumpkin spice now and then.   

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