Looks like 'Boys' Town' in this photo !

Current Mood : Better, with Beloved Hubby, Stephen King, and Clawd

Woke with my throat screaming again, but Beloved Hubby had prepared. I had ginger ale chilled at my elbow, with a container of pudding and a spoon waiting. Two generic Tylenol lounged next to the first morning prescription, along with a generous sampling of hard candies. My dearest love…

I croaked out my thanks, then put the pills and pudding to work, and savored the spicy sparkle of the ginger ale. Re-read the knockoff Chloraseptic spray-bottle – unlike the stuff I’ve had to choke down during my once-every-two-or-three-years ear infection, this stuff wanted to be spit out after 15 seconds. So I prepared a gargle of the recommended dosage. It never got down to where the pain lived, but an hour or so later, I’d finished two Nightmares and Dreamscapes stories and noticed I had far less pain than I’d met on awakening. I tried to figure out why this swallow hurt and that one didn’t, but I wasn’t clever enough to get a bead on it, or my fine sensory detection just isn’t that good.

Three hours after that, I’d had a nap and awoke again, this time in far less pain. It was almost lunchtime, and I got to enjoy a pork chop sandwich that my FIL had prepared, with almost no pain at all. I also got Morning Adoration in – but with Domino-kitty this time. Very rare for him to want the attention, especially from me, as he triggers my allergies (Oliver doesn’t, which is odd since he’s a longhair), but I was glad to give him what he wanted.

So how did I use the balance of my sparkling day ? Goofed around, watched Face/Off with Beloved, thanked FIL for a great lunch, although I couldn’t eat all of it, listened to a verbal Cars 2 fanfic from Dearest Son, scanned the latest Pucchi Collective blouse alterations, and re-watched Creepfast Club, the newest Monster High episode.

And I realized – I have 32 MH dolls, not counting the four I have reserved for Deborah. That means I can spend a day with each doll, making sure their hair is nice, and changing their clothes, forcing them to model whatever monstrosity has escaped my sewing machine this time, giving them a nice ‘bath’ of sorts, and posing them anew. Things get boring when they don’t get shuffled around and used, so that’s what I’m gonna do, set aside a little time each day to play with one specific doll. I’d enjoyed doing this before I got so ill last year, so I’m happy to start it up again.

Last night, during one of several times pain woke me up, I got to feeling a bit bad about Clawd. Mister Sweet 1600 was still rockin’ most of his issue gear, and his hair was still shellacked. Even if I just took off his suit jacket and brushed his hair out a bit, we’d both feel better about things. So I did. I’d heard so many tales of how his sideburns would come off if you were too vigorous about de-gluing his hair, so I took it gently, with a spray bottle of water and a fine comb. Also scissors. Once it was mostly free of the packaging hairspray, there were lots of stray hairs and too-long ones. But it looked a lot better. And honestly, he’s quite a bit hotter when he’s outta that jacket. Black really is  his color !  And I wondered – do his turquoise streaks match Nefera’s hair color ? It would make sense for Mattel to buy hair colors in bulk. Anyone with both dolls compared them ?

Got a little bored as studies drove Beloved to more isolated, less noisy areas, and decided to try a quick-and-dirty project before I restarted watching the MST’ed Daddy-O

online. Last year, one effort to restore my health involved wrapping my legs with long, wide Ace-type elastic bandages. I had six of ‘em, and it seemed like two were always in the wash. Months later, they weren’t needed anymore, and Beloved started to throw them out. I saved four – two for future medical maladies, two for sewing projects. I just knew I could use them for something…

So tonight, I did. Pulled out a slightly altered printout I had of Tarja’s tube dress – available for free here – and cut it from the first still-stretchy, not-pilled, unstained length I came to. I’d used this pattern on those four tube dresses from the Dollar Tree kids’ hat. Worked out OK, but it was so tight against her hips, you could almost see the joint outlines. Printed out a fresh, unaltered version, and that was much better. You’ll see it on tomorrow’s doll, DotD Cleo.

Tube dresses are so much fun – it’s great to have ‘em around just to slip a doll into when you’re doing fittings, they’re awesome for experiments, and they’re just the right ‘boom, done !’ fix when you wanna make something that doesn’t take forever, fussing, or frustration. Sure, I like sleeves, but I can always make a simple shrug out of another tube ! I’m surprised more dolls aren’t rockin’ the tube look for spring.

Mine probably will be ! (grin)