Our new house is still upside down, but I can surely see progress. Jack and our son in law Gary worked today to convert a large closet which was intended to hold a washer and dryer, and made a doll closet of it. It is wide and deep and has one shelf now in the center, The plumbing is gone, and there is a new switch to turn on planned lighting in both the upper and lower chambers of the space. Doors are planned, of either Plexiglas or perhaps French doors. But I do not need to wait on doors to house some of the dolls , they are presently standing and sitting all over my bedroom. They are very pampered dolls. Perhaps most major doll collections are aided and supported by caring husbands, I know my collection is. The washer and dryer will have to find a home in the garage. Pictures will come by and by as we settle in here.
At the same time that Jack and I have been moving, my Colorado daughter has moved home to Texas, and is now living in a house in this same block! She is alone now, her husband of 31 years having passed away in early April. So it is good to have her here nearby. I am greatly involved in both households, so am much stretched these days. We both are "housey" and have very different styles of nesting. Her rustic western decorating reflects her ranch upbringing, and her many years in the Colorado mountains. Aside from my affection for the old dolls which are later and mostly German, Jack and I remain dedicated collectors of early New England Americana. e
Welcome to My Red Cape. Long ago in another time my husband Jack and I lived in a little old red house. It was the stuff of dreams to us for the few years that we were there. I live there still a number of hours every day in imagination, with old dolls and paintings and fabrics and feather trees. I draw inspiration and happiness from the memories of that space in time and share some of it here with friends who remember how to step with Alice through the looking glass and take delight in whimsies and antiquities.
~Edyth O’Neill