first post!

I'm very new at this blogging thing... intended to start one for the past year at least... so... don't know exactly what my focus will be... probably antiques, crafts, and artsy-fartsy projects.

I've collected antiques for the past 40 years and am slowly downsizing. My main interest has been collecting antique dolls and related items. I intend to share my collection of vintage photos of children with their toys... mainly young girls with their antique dolls. If you're a doll collector you may have seen some of them in a series I published in The Doll Reader during the early 90s called "Little Mamas".

The slide show I posted today was sort of an experiment as I happened upon a tutorial showing how to set up a slide show and post it. In the future I intend to post related photos in slide shows.

The other thing I'd like to share is the loss of my darling dog, Gertie, early Christmas Eve day. Gertie was an almost 14 year old Australian Cattle dog and was a delight in every way. I'd never had a dog and had no idea one could love a little dog as much as I loved Gertie. I miss her every day and still think I hear her padding around the house sometimes. She loved hiding her toys and I am still coming across little items she'd hidden... a few paper towels here, a well-gnawed bone there, and here a little piece of a paper plate she'd carefully squirreled away to be enjoyed later no doubt. (She loved paper!) Gertie was extremely intelligent and well behaved. She was just a complete love... she never met a stranger and people seemed to really 'take' to her (it is possible that's my imagination though...).

Whatever. I miss her something terrible and wish we'd had a few more years together. I 'inherited' Gertie 7 years ago when my best friend, Mary Van Osdell, died. Gertie was seven at the time and she came to me quite spoiled. I am proud to say I kept the 'spoil' level at an acceptably high level... and enjoyed every moment of it. My last gift to this sweet soul is to make a mosaic urn for her ashes. I'll post photos.