Planet Nilknarf

August 2013

Welcome to Planet Nilknarf

Hard to believe this picture was taken nearly 30 years ago but that's how long Janette (in the Vinnie Vincent makeup) and I (as Gene Simmons) have known each other. I've known Della (Paul Stanley) even longer. This picture was taken in 1984 when Della and her friend Lisa (Eric Carr) were visiting from England. You don't see this lineup very often. Eric Carr and Vinnie Vincent date back to the Creatures of the Night tour when I saw KISS in Toronto back in January of 1982!! And here we are 30 years later and not that much has changed. We're still as wild and crazy as ever! Crazy enough to spend over $200 per person to see KISS at the Molson Amphitheatre on July 26th!! AY CARUMBA!! That's a MONTH FROM TOMORROW!!! This will be my EIGHTH KISS concert and Janette's second. My first was in 1979 on their Dynasty Tour, my second was 1982 on the Creatures of the Night Tour, then 1984 for the Lick it Up Tour. Then I didn't see them again until their Reunion Tour in 1996! Janette went with me to that one. Then in 1999 while I was an extra in their movie Detroit Rock City I got to see them on their Psycho Circus tour and in 2000, the penultimate time I saw KISS in concert was their so-called Farewell Tour! Last time I saw KISS was in 2009 when they were right here in Oshawa. I almost didn't think I'd get to go. Tickets were damned near impossible to get. They sold out within 20 minutes!! But on the night of the show I grabbed whatever money I had left lying around the house including all the American dough I had left over from my most recent carousel convention. I followed my heart across the Mid-Town Mall parking lot, over the bridge behind the art gallery and downtown to the GM Centre not seriously expecting to actually see KISS for real. I figured at best I'd get to talk to some of the other fans and take some pictures of them in their makeup but I was elated to discover a scalper who accepted $100 ($80 American and $20 Canadian) for a darned good seat! I gave no thought to how I'd get home even though the show didn't start until well after 9:00 and didn't end until way after midnight. All I knew was that this would probably be one of the rare times Dave was working afternoon shift and he'd actually be home before I was. He wasn't interested in going to the KISS concert himself because since Ace and Peter are no longer in the band he doesn't want to see Gene and Paul with two imposters!!

All in all it was still a magical night for me and I'm glad I went no matter what. Even if I said to myself I hope they don't do another concert again in Oshawa for a long time because it was so expensive! Of course the magic did not have to end! KISS has probably performed in Toronto several more times over the years and if I were still living there I might have seen them. Here we are four years later and this time it was Janette's idea to go to the KISS concert as an early birthday celebration for me. We decided we were going to make a special weekend of the whole thing and stay at a hotel after the show. Originally she'd suggested going to Niagara the morning after the show but I knew that would be too much. So Janette booked the room and I ordered the tickets. We paid more than DOUBLE per person compared to what I spent on the scalper last time I saw KISS so obviously a trip to Niagara has been out of the question this year! Nevertheless, I am looking forward to writing about every juicy detail as it happens and sharing my story with you lucky readers when it is done.

Cover Story

When I was working on my last quilt, the horse my friend Wendy had coloured gave me a very interesting idea. As you can see, she used markers that bled through to the other side of the paper, creating this wonderful high-contrast image in reverse. I thought this looked so cool that I decided I would try an Andy Warhol-inspired project embroidering this same horse in different colour schemes on different coloured backgrounds.

This picture was taken at Kerry's Place when I was working on the first panel. I put all four of them together to make a wall-hanging. You can see the finished results on this month's cover.

I may not be able to afford to go to Niagara Falls this year but I have had the pleasure of living vicariously through Janette this year. She and Mark have shared this video with me of her having a blast at the arcade! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JqwjSrlx268 I can hardly wait until next time. We are hoping we can go there together in early January to celebrate her 50th birthday! Maybe I'll try my hand at some of these wild and crazy arcade games, but the thing we're both looking forward to the most is the UPSIDE-DOWN HOUSE!!!

It was still under construction in this picture when Janette and I last visited together last April. Even though it's open now and she's been back to Niagara a couple times since then she's managed to save visiting this attraction until we can both go there together. It's not the only attraction of its kind though. Once somebody posted a picture on Facebook of an Upside-Down House in Poland and there is another at Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is one of those places on my Bucket List. Apparently it and Niagara Falls are a parallel universes! Both places have a lot of the same attractions; the Upside-Down House, Ripley's Museum, Guiness Museum, wax museums, and another Sky Wheel just like the one at Niagara. But there's also at least a carousel or two and the KISS COFFEE HOUSE!!!! Why would I want to go to Mytrle Beach if it has so many of the same attractions as Niagara? Well, there are the two things I just mentioned above, of course, and I would really like to see how their same things are different from ours. Obviously there would be a much different view from their Sky Wheel. Theirs overlooks the ocean. And, of course, their Ripley's museum would likely have a different assortment of things on display. Or since these items are on rotation from one Ripley's museum to another there might be things we already saw at the Niagara one that we'd run into there. How am I going to afford all these wonderful places over the next few years? Only God knows! I'm supposed to go to Kansas in September for this year's National Carousel Association Convention. SO far I've already booked my hotel room and registered but I still haven't bought my plane ticket. A return flight to and from Kansas is over EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS!! My travel agent says sometimes there are sales and she will let me know if a lower price comes up, but if nothing happens by my birthday I shall go into debt paying full price and gradually pay it off in the months to follow.

Next year's NCA convention is going to be in NEW YORK! And Janette wants to join me on that one! The only other time we've been to a carousel convention together was the Denver convention in 1994. Usually I've always gone by myself but I've gotten to know the same people who return year after year. We're one big happy family!!! Janette also wants to come with me next time the NCA convention is in Pennsylvania. Especially if we visit the Hershey outlet again!! I hope so! I would love to go back to Pennsylvania someday. I want to see the Pottstown carousel completed! Last time I was there it was still under construction! Here are some of the animals in the workshop:

Creations under construction are one of my biggest reasons for wanting to return to a place I've been before. And when Janette and I go to New York, it will be so exciting to be reunited with so many of my old friends from the carousel world. It will be such a thrill to see both the Nunley's and Coney Island B & B carousels up and running again after years of storage and restoration! Perhaps the thing I look forward to seeing the most when I go to Kansas is the Worlds of Fun carousel that used to be at Geauga Lake in Ohio. An Illions Supreme!!! http://nationalcarousel.org/psp/WorldsOfFunIllions/ That and the Kansas City Baseball carousel: http://nationalcarousel.org/psp/KaufmannStadium/ Especially their Frog Prince. All the information about this year's convention can be found here: http://nationalcarousel.org/2013Convention.html

I can imagine some people playing Devil's Advocate by saying You've seen all these pictures on the computer. Why must you GO there? Hello! I am about to say the same thing annoying breeders say about babies:

IT'S DIFFERENT WHEN IT'S YOUR OWN!!!!

Of course I'm talking about actually being at a place to take pictures myself rather than live vicariously through seeing them on a screen or in a magazine. There's something special about seeing those pictures and thinking I've really BEEN THERE! And even more so when I see the pictures I've taken. Once, back in the days before I had a digital camera I ran out of film and somebody said You can always buy postcards. Sure I can buy post cards but am I in the picture? When you're taking your own pictures at an actual place you may see things others don't. You may find examples of inside jokes. Where am I going to find a postcard with a picture of a Don't Like?

Random moments of goofy exuberance:

Left to right: Trout at Helena, Sheep at Carousel of Happiness in Nederland, being kissed at Three Rivers!!! And I'm not sure but these just might be Lenticular Clouds over Burlington, Colorado!!

Maybe not, but they looked interesting enough at the time. One thing I am looking forward to most about this year's convention is setting up my own art table where guests can have a seat and try their hand at decorating carousel horses for my quilt. I will put together a bag of supplies with my pages and set up an electronic picture frame to display a continuous slide show of all the art that's been created so far, as well as display pages of some of my work in progress.

Upcoming Events
Harvest of Quilts Settlers' Village Quilters are hosting their 10th Bi-Annual Quilt Show September 7th and 8th 10:00 5:00 at Kawartha Settlers Village. This years theme is With Hand and Heart and the guild is celebrating their 20th anniversary. Quilt Appraiser Rosalie Tennison will be in attendance. For further information, contact Pam Dickey at (705) 657-1926 or quilter1783@sympatico.ca YES!!! My quilts are going to be in the show this year after all! I couldn't be more excited! These are highlights from last time I was there:

You can see most of the highlights in this blog that I happened to come across when I was looking for info: http://quiltgal.blogspot.ca/2011/09/more-of-bobcaygeon-quilt-show.html and this one: http://trishmetcalfe.blogspot.ca/2009/09/bobcaygeon-quilt-show.html Autism Celebration Wednesday, October 9th, 2013, Father Leo J. Austin C.S.S., 1020 Dryden Blvd., Whitby, Ontario 6:00 to 9:00 pm, sponsored by Kerry's Place Autism Services Music, guest speakers and more!

Three Sheep and a Bunny

My latest quilt is finally finished!! YAAAAAAYYY!!! I must have started the Three Sheep and a Bunny quilt at least way back in September of last year! I'd like to thank my friend Lisa Pisano-Haley for the wonderful carousel print fabric she sent me. As you can see, I've been getting excellent mileage from it! When I saw all these squares with the horses the first thing I thought about was how much fun it would be to embroider my characters riding them. I also thought it would be fun to alternate these horses with scenes of Louella and the Ewetopia sheep enjoying various fun activities. You may recall that the very first quilt I made back in 2010 had a square with my logo and other assorted images including a white crayon. I chose the white crayon as a symbol of my need for teamwork. On its own, with nobody who knows how to use it, the white crayon is probably the

loneliest, most misunderstood and useless crayon in the box. However in the right hands it can also be the most useful:

In the middle, Olive, Gladys and Edna demonstrate how watercolour paints resist white crayon, allowing the letters to show through and at the end a clever unicorn demonstrates how scratching through a layer of darker colour reveals the white crayon underneath. Here is an original drawing from my sketch diary:

Along the top row, Louella carves and primes a PTC-style armoured carousel horse and the sheep apply the completed paint job:

In order to create a unifying theme I trimmed each square with the red and blue floral print fabric I

inherited from my mom's place. The original carousel horse print fabric had these jeweled borders which I made use of elsewhere, First on the last square of my We Are Family quilt that Joey bought and then for nearly every other square of the Magical Journeys quilt:

Both Three Sheep and a Bunny and Magical Journeys will be on display at the Harvest of Quilts Show at Settler's Village in Bobcaygeon on September 7th and 8th!

Dear Mom and Dad

Monday, July 15th Dear Mom and Dad, How's everything up there? Are Hugo, Coco and Rags there too? I miss our birdie but Dave won't let me have one because A. Our landlord doesn't want us having ANY pets and B. Dave's afraid HE'D be the one stuck doing all the cleaning. This has been our WORST ANNIVERSARY EVER!! Dave started feeling sick last Wednesday. Chills, fever, nausea. At first he thought he was just feeling sick from too many consecutive hot days. Then he thought it might be a virus. Turns out it's another attack of cellulitis. His leg's been flaring up again. Most of Saturday was wasted getting him ready to go to the hospital. Everything too SO LONG! I just wanted him to get there as soon as possible and get it over with. The worst part of all this ordeal was all the uncertainty. At least once he's at the hospital I know he's being looked after. I felt like a terrible wife for not going with him but there's really nothing I can do there anyway but wait. You know how I

feel about the hospital with my painful sensory issues. I had visions of the place being a zoo and him being stuck there overnight. All I could do was stay here and answer the phone. I am really glad that Janette got my email and was able to phone so she and Mark could offer comfort and encouragement. When I got off the phone with them I watched one of my favorite movies Xanadu. When it was almost over Dave walked in through the door. Seeing him there back from the hospital so soon was the happiest moment of our anniversary for me! He still had to go back to the hospital Sunday morning to be fitted for a pump while I stayed here to wait for his medical supplies to be delivered and last night he experienced some drama with his pump beeping like crazy every few minutes. Everywhere he's had to phone keeps giving him the runaround. It's a poorly designed system but at least we've finally gotten the help we've needed. God only knows how long he has to keep wearing this IV pump but we do know that once again he will be off work for several weeks. We've been through this before. His foot is quite badly swollen and I've had to do several chores I'm not used to in this excruciating heat. I've basically been in shutdown mode otherwise I'd be a basket case. It's definitely got to be worse for him since he's the one actually going through this while I am somewhat catatonic. It is like an OVEN outside today. I just answered the door to bring in another box of medical supplies. The KISS concert is only TEN days away and I've finally got my plane ticket for Kansas, not to mention made all my shuttle bus arrangements for arrival and departure dates. Everything is set for the Quilt Show in September too and Jean will be picking up all that stuff next Wednesday. I'm afraid that despite all these wonderful and exciting things coming up it's been hard to get excited about any of them with this cloud above my head. One day I just had to bite the bullet and go ahead and book my flight. Tickets are NEVER going to come down in price. $850 for a return trip to Kansas. At least so far there's hardly anybody on the plane. Maybe it'll stay like that. The fewer people the better! I looked into bus and train schedules but even though I'd only be spending $120, to go by train is 20 hours and to go by bus is 24!! And the train doesn't even come all the way from Toronto to Kansas. I would still have to take a BUS to Cincinnati! And BOTH journeys involve WAITING AT THE DETROIT BUS TERMINAL!! EEEEEEEEWWWW!!!!! Never again! I endured enough of that horrible place when I travelled to Sandusky in 2009!! Besides having to deal with the Detroit bus terminal would probably also mean having to deal with the Detroit Border Crossing Patrol. The woman who interrogated me on my way to Sandusky was such a bitch I was terrified she'd send me home!! She must have played Devil's Advocate with me for at least 20 minutes. I was the LAST person to get back on the bus and I was terrified they'd leave without me! What else is new? Well I saw this broom in my neighbourhood and it was so whimsical and colourful that I just HAD to take a picture. I looked up Ontario Place on the Internet for the day of the KISS concert but there is basically nothing left of Ontario Place but the Amphitheatre, the marina and some highfaluting banquet hall. It makes me sad that Ontario Place is closed down. Especially the Cinesphere. There's got to be a place where we can grab something to eat before the concert. At least we're buying sandwiches and Cinna-Bons at Union Station so we can enjoy lunch and breakfast in our hotel room. We are SO SICK of noisy restaurants full of bratty kids!! And last week I cut my hair!! It was driving me crazy in this heat so I just chopped it to about chin

length. Wednesday, July 17th Hello again. Sorry it's taking so long to finish this letter. You wouldn't believe the drama going on around here. I spent nearly the ENTIRE day on the phone with Alan hearing about the latest drama going on in his life whilst dealing with our own around here. I'll spare you the gory details. I finally told him I have to go because this place has no air conditioning and I've been sweating so badly I feel like I could knock a buzzard off a shit-wagon. You know what I mean. It never got too hot at your place. Our house was nicely nestled amongst the shade. At least that's how I remember it. And I could always go swimming in the lake. Those were the good old days. Before the Zebra Mussels took over. Now if I want to go swimming outside Anne or Jean's place I have to wear special shoes and I am ever so scared of tripping and falling. The other summer when I was in Ian's class I remember looking it up on the Internet and reading that the majority of summer injuries were due to Zebra Mussels! Anyway, as soon as I got off the phone I must have spent at least the next hour or two holed up in the bathtub reading the rest of Temple Grandin's latest book. I hope to have a review written before it's time to publish this issue, which I'll probably do the day before I go to Toronto to meet Janette for the KISS concert. I will always be grateful to you for the times you've helped me get tickets to their shows in previous years. Remember those times when we'd keep phoning and the lines were always busy! Now I can just order tickets online. The price is astronomical by comparison though. Back when we bought the tickets for the Dynasty tour in '79 $15.00 seemed plenty enough!! Anyway I've gone off on a tangent again as usual and when I finished Temple Grandin's book I started the latest read by John Elder Robison. You may recall that I've probably mentioned that he was actually KISS' guitar effects technician on that very tour. Anyway as I said, we've certainly been having our share of unwanted drama around here. (Is there any other kind?) Dave's dad had to take him back to the hospital because the incompetent nurse from Red Cross didn't put his IV back in properly and it was leaking all over the place. They refused to send someone over to fix it so Dave had to call his dad. As usual there was little else to do but hold fort. And you know what today is the anniversary of. The weather here these days has been UNBELIEVABLE!! We've had the most excruciating heat wave. Today we had rain but it wasn't enough. In fact it was raining and the sun was shining at the same time. I ran outside in my bathing suit but the rain was piss-warm. I recently learned that when it's sunny and raining at the same time, this phenomena is known as orphan's tears. Appropriate weather for what Janette and I both dub as National Lose a Parent Day. I'm glad today wasn't my birthday. Back in 2011 when I brought a bunch of nearly new stuff home from your house, among these things was a can of Lysol. I put it on the back of the toilet and of course when it was empty or almost empty Dave would throw it out. But strangely it would keep re-appearing. The other night Dave threw it out for the last time. Mom, do you keep putting it back? Why? I know I inherited my slightly twisted sense of humour from you so I wouldn't put it past you to do such a thing, even from beyond the grave! ;) Speaking of having a GRAVE sense of humor...I am thinking of doing THIS at the hotel when I am in Kansas for the carousel convention......

Imagine if EVERYONE at the hotel did this with their blankets whenever they left the room for the day and after the maid finished freaking out and got somebody to unwrap it, inside they would find a card that says:

BAZINGA!!!!
Well, that's it for now. Take care, Love, Margaret

Random Musings of a Seasoned Traveller

Yes, it has been a slow month for news. However, tomorrow is the big day already. It feels like Janette and I have been talking about the upcoming KISS concert forever and now it seems as though the big day has suddenly snuck up on us. We know we must be getting older when we feel like we actually wish the time could slow down and it feels like most of the excitement is in the anticipation leading up to the event rather than the event itself and just want to savor those days because we don't want it all to be over so quickly!! It's all the little details leading up to the magical event, all the planning and preparation. This goes for any given event, be it the KISS concert or the next National Carousel Association convention or whatever. More than half the fun has been doing research, figuring out where we're going to stay, what we're going to wear, where we're going to eat, what other activities we'll participate in. The last time Janette and I went on a trip together was our miserable trip to North Bay. Don't get me wrong. North Bay is a beautiful place and we had a wonderful time riding on the carousels as many times as possible and meeting Edna Scott. But I spent most of that trip severely traumatized by my aunt's unexpected angry outburst outside of Huntsville and the hotel we stayed at had to be one of the crappiest places I've ever stayed in. I can't believe we stayed there FIVE whole nights! But we didn't know any better and it was too late to change our minds. They only gave us clean sheets the day we arrived. We never did get pillowcases. Everything in the bathroom leaked or was covered in

condensation. We lived with damp toilet paper and the same soggy towels all week. How did we stand it? I even had my own towel in my suitcase but I was feeling so downtrodden that I totally forgot all about it. When and IF we ever go to North Bay again, we're making our OWN way there, probably on the train and we've learned that there is a relatively new Days Inn just up the road from where we stayed before. Days Inn has been a name we've come to trust for comfort, quality and service. We always stay at the same one when we go to Niagara Falls. I remember the first few times Janette and I went to Niagara Falls overnight. We always used to stay at a place called the Maple Leaf. The owners knew us because they already knew her. Janette and her family used to stay there before. Then they jacked up the price so we stayed at the Triple A or whatever it was called. Dave and I stayed at that place on our honeymoon too. For the remaining nights, not the first two. I don't even remember the name of the place Dave and I stayed the first two nights of our honeymoon. All I remember is that it was VERY expensive, at least $300 a night and it had the hear-shaped Jacuzzi bathtub that I'd always been dreaming of. And it was on Clifton Hill!

I will never stay at the Royal Triple A again because A. it was the place where Dave and I were staying when we found out that my dad had died and B. Janette and I stayed there just after I quit my job (WTF Was I thinking going BACK there anyway??) and there were noisy party animals next door. Now whenever we go to Niagara, the Days in on Clifton Hill is our second home. The last time Janette and I stayed there we had the BEST VIEW EVER!!!

It was even more spectacular at night when everything is all lit up.

Perhaps the first time I ever stayed at a hotel or motel I was only three years old. I don't even remember why my parents and I were there and it is certainly too late to ask them now. It was shortly after we moved from Scarborough to Forest Manor and I was upset because I thought we were moving AGAIN! I don't really remember much of anything about this trip however my mom said I cried all the time and she was at her wits end trying to get me to stop. I was probably upset because I wasn't allowed to bring Nancy with me. Nancy was my big doll. I've had her since I was at least two and she was the size of a real kid. We could wear each other's clothes. Nancy was more than a doll. She was a member of the family. I could do a whole post just about her. Nancy now resides at the Boyd museum where I donated her the day I took down my art exhibit, modeling pioneer children's clothing. For years whenever my parents and I went on holiday we usually stayed at our own trailer on Aunt Jean and Uncle Alex's property up north in Neustadt, Ontario and at the end of 1978, shortly after Della moved to England, we bought our cottage in Bobcaygeon which became our permanent family home in the summer of 1983. Meanwhile there was the One Summer We Decided to Do Something Different. It was August of 1976. I remember being pissed off because I was missing the Bay City Rollers concert at Maple Leaf Gardens. My parents and I took a road trip to Kingston where we went to Old Fort Henry. We took a guided tour and then we watched the battle re-enactment. That night we stayed at a hotel. We made sure we found a place that had a pool but never got around to using it. The next morning we took the Thousand Island Boat Cruise at Gananoque. We had been to a place there where we ordered breakfast and I had either waffles or pancakes, I forget, with ugly brown strawberries. At the end of the day we had no choice but to drive all the way home because our car wasn't working properly and I was burning up a fever. Mom thought I may have had food poisoning from the ugly brown strawberries! She ended up dragging me to Dr. Ho whom I hated! WORST DOCTOR EVER!!!! He wouldn't believe I was allergic to penicillin and prescribed this nasty liquid that I had to gag down several times a day and no matter WHAT I was taken to see him about that asshole ALWAYS nagged me about my weight! So we spent the rest of our vacation at the trailer and I spent several days in my bunk bed feeling sick with a nasty rash! I don't think I ever stayed at a hotel or motel again until I was in college and my class went to Ottawa. It was an exciting adventure. I ended up with a room to myself and mine was the only room with a bathtub! Everyone else just had showers. The highlight of that trip was seeing the M.C. Escher exhibit at the national gallery. I've been a huge fan of his work ever since. I will refrain from talking about any of my travels relating to my experiences with Katimavik!! My first National Carousel Association convention was in 1991 and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life! I don't even remember the name of the hotel I stayed at but I ended up sharing my room with Gwen, another woman who was travelling from Canada. We met at the airport and it was a real Godsend to have a travelling companion for that first journey to Sandusky, Ohio.

The next two conventions I went to in '92 and '93, I shared a room with my friend Richard. I met and became friends with him at that first convention in '91. And in 1994 FOUR of us shared a suite in Denver; me, Richard, Lisa and Janette. How did we stand it? Through the years I find that no matter where I go, most hotel rooms are pretty much basically the same. There's always a bed or two, TV, and a corner where I tend to pile my dirty laundry. And with all these years of staying at hotels I basically took for granted that they'd all have a bathtub. That was until I was unpleasantly surprised by the Timbers! That was where we stayed in Denver. I didn't even know that I could have traded for a room with a bathtub. I thought they were all the same. There was no pool either. I literally felt like a fish out of water because I had nowhere to soak. Sitting under the shower in a plastic chair didn't quite cut it. Especially when my joints were wracked with excruciating pain from altitude sickness, Now the first question I ask whenever I reserve a hotel room is whether or not the room has a bathtub!! I also have a few other idiosyncrasies including this one. I sleep better and feel much more at home if the window is to my left. That is because no matter where I've lived before, the window is usually to my left. I didn't want to go through the hassle of trying to change rooms so at last year's convention I asked if they could make my bed upside down so I could sleep with the window to my left.

And I never go anywhere without my creature comforts, pictured right, Lucy, The Cat or my Snuggie. Lucy is a heart-shaped leopard-spotted beanbag pillow filled with buckwheat and lavender. Mark and Janette got her at Winners for my birthday way back in 2001 and I sleep better with this pillow behind my neck. My in-laws know that I like anything leopard spotted so they gave me The Cat for my birthday just after Dave and I got married. And Dave gave me my leopard-spotted Snuggie at least 2 Christmases ago. I can't imagine life without it. My Snuggie has been great for naps when I don't feel like messing up the blankets, it has kept me warm on chilly bus trips and kept me covered on my way to the pool. Even if I'm only staying somewhere for one night I usually have to have these three things with me. And the tradition of the Travelling Dolls started in the spring of 2006. Janette suggested the idea of me making two little dolls that look like us in addition to our abundant entourage of critters who have joined us on our journey. These dolls have been with us everywhere over the years and I've had so much fun making clothes for them, often with fabric I've bought on my travels. In fact they will be going with us to the KISS concert. It seemed to take me forever to embroider the KISS T-shirts I made for them but the results were worth it:

As you can see, Waddle can hardly wait to go to the KISS concert either!! I've also updated my doll's hair to match my own. After all I've actually had purple hair for over a year already!! Well, that's it for now. See you next month!!!