August is the cruelest month.

This has been a very trying three weeks for me, and I do apologize for the rather boring posts of late. The month of August is my annual nemesis, despite that my birthday occurs on the 19th (yep, yesterday--I'm mumblety-one!). Well, because of it, really, because I often take stock of the past year in the month of my birth, and often as not (because I am human and introspective), it comes up lacking. This month, my husband Kevin spent two weeks in Oregon with his brother, which he needed very much and I heartily supported; all the same, it left me sad and missing him terribly, much more than I'd expected. While he was gone, an old ex-boyfriend and his family had an emergency that I was able to help with, and I was and still am glad to do it; all the same, some older emotions I'd thought were dead and buried resurfaced, making me dub the whole thing The Weirdness.

So now, birthday over, Kevin safely home, The Weirdness becoming normal, and existential fever broken, I'm going to take stock of some of the really good things that have happened since my last birthday. Damned if they don't mostly involve dolls. Imagine that.

Martie

I started posting here about Martie almost as soon as I got her in October 2011, and she very quickly took over. I sometimes can't believe that I haven't had her even a year yet, because she's become so much a part of my everyday and creative life. She goes with me everywhere, routine errands and all, and is no doubt the single most photographed subject in my life, ever. Prior to Martie, I really didn't take all that many photos of anything; Kevin's the family photographer, not me. I didn't think photographically, as I'm a writer and a stitcher, not a camera dog. Martie has changed that, and I've taken well over a thousand pictures of her in the last ten months.  Martie has her own fan base, and sparked the name change of this blog, which started as Threads Behaving Badly and quickly turned into Martie Has To Be In Every Post.

Tonner Doll

They guy in the hat playing a pilot (although I think he looks a bit like a Good Humor man here, which makes me happy) is Robert Tonner, holding Martie (on his left) and my friend Sheilah Craft's Cami doll Cythna (on his right). Robert is THE Tonner of Tonner doll. Tonner Doll brought me Martie, and #dollchat--

  and all the great folks who make up Tonner Doll, and all the fans of Tonner Doll, and Tonner Con in May--

Well, I could go on, but I think you get the idea. I'd been a fan of Tonner Dolls and Wilde Imagination before this last year, but I got more involved with other fans with Martie, and am really impressed with how involved the company gets with its collectors. I've never encountered any company this responsive, involved, and personal, and by now Tonner probably owes me buckets of finder's fees and commissions for pushing other folks in their direction.

Elizabeth

She seems like a more recent addition than she actually is for me, as she was on layaway with Iris of Fabric Friends & Dolls for what seemed like forever, which involved a lot of planning ahead for her arrival. Elizabeth is a Dollmore Lusion Daish, who made my heart sing the instant I first saw the company photos, and I sold a LOT of dolls to be able to pay for her. She is very nearly the perfect doll, the one I've wanted but didn't know it since I was old enough to know what a doll is. I'd been pining for this doll for over forty years and didn't know it until I saw her. She's settled my doll-yearning heart quite a bit, and I can't get enough of her.

Dolls Behaving Badly

How very self-referential! This is a photo from the day I changed the title--look at that tiny hit count, some 24,000 hits ago. Wow. Whatever I could possibly say about it is right here, in the blog, and in my eBay store and on the Facebook page. My life is immeasurably richer because of this little blog about some dolls, and I thank every one of YOU for making it so.