A Garden of Virtues

Here is the first of my yard sale on Den of Angels. I haven't put up everything yet, just some things to get me by. I am hoping to make a couple sales before a certain auction ends so that I can buy a darling doll. http://www.denofangels.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4932894#post4932894

I am making a yard sale in Chantilly Lace right now. I am imagining clotheslines with pinned vintage clothing flapping in the breeze, and card tables covered with old tablecloths and scattered with my wares. I would love to make enough money from my sale to buy ... ? I don't know quite what I want to buy, but I have had a serious craving for a new doll this weekend. It was enough to make me start making a sales page and putting everything on it, including my Dollmore Model things. I have decided I don't want another Dollmore Model. There is a lot to be said for deciding something like that for myself, and I feel peace and certainty about it. I have to write about this as I do it. It's so hard. I fell out of love with Josette, but as I see these pictures of Ophelia I can feel her spirit. She was a lot like my mom's cat Bella. I sensed she didn't care much about me one way or the other. She was her own self-contained person. But she loved that camouflage outfit so...

Fanchon wore Franklin Mint's Jackie Kennedy peach dress and accessories and her own denim mules and posed amidst various vintage fabrics. I think she looks like a peach daiquiri personified. Taking these photos in an artificial environment in summer reminded me of quiet days at my grandparents' in the summer when I would make a beach indoors with beach towels and chaise lounges and drag all the lamps into one place to make it very bright. Then I would put on my swim suit and "bask" in the sun. I made a video slideshow of Fanchon in this dress since I am learning to use Sony Vegas software for longer and hopefully more complicated slideshows and videos. I am torn as to whether I should share it, because I know it is flawed. The song is one of my favorites, "The Ghost Woman and the Hunter," by Lacuna Coil. Watch the video "La peche" >>

The day before yesterday I spent all evening learning to use Sony Vegas. I love software, especially when I can make things with it. Vegas is very complicated for me. It makes my head hurt trying to understand all the different dimensions that go into editing video, but I really like that I can control every aspect. I have really wanted to make a doll video. I used pictures from my first shoot with Fanchon to make a very brief slideshow, and that was instructive. It gave me a great idea for my next photo shoot. Right now I am keeping the cube set up in the project room. Is it any wonder why I don't take more doll photos? My cat is hell bent on entering the cube. I spent several minutes last night carefully sealing the Velcro around the front end, because if there is the slightest ripple, he will pick his way in, which is a disaster. He gets hair on my background, wrinkles it, not to mention what he will do to poor Fanchon. He has maimed his share of dolls in our home. In addition m...

I will return. I just thought of the name that could be Josette's journal. The vintage fragrance. How divine. I decided there was no longer a need to be stubborn or retarded. Usually the best way to get what you want is to go to and ask directly. In this case I got about 80% of the way there. Like everything else nowadays, it's up in the air, but I feel really good that I affirmed something was important to me, that my feelings and wants mattered. I think what I really learned through my dreams is that Josette was a doll, not a character contained in my mind, and I want the doll, that doll, and that's a real feeling. What I did and do now is crazy by some standards, but I am ready to live with that. This last week I felt something really supernatural and it kind of pushed me over the edge into certainty. I was doing good this weekend until I thought of Je Reviens, and now I feel anxious. A.S., thank you for the goodness you send. I appreciate your well wishes deeply.

Nathan has had bad allergies lately. Yesterday we went to Coffee Haus and sat outside for about an hour. It was absolutely blissful, but he was affected by the time we got home and went to bed immediately, leaving me to roam around boredly in the dawn of my weekend-days. I did some thinking of what to do next for Fanchon. I haven't done any more photos for her, because I have wanted to give her a gothic look, and I haven't known quite what I wanted to do. I read through Gothic Beauty, then randomly remembered my Beast, and pulled him out of a box and put him next to Fanchon. I had intended to do a BatB story with Isabeau, but she will probably be sold (Item #2) soon, so I don't want to get attached. Fanchon is a little taller than Beast, but so much smaller in every other way, they look okay together. I was trying to decide today how long I have had Beast. His tag is ©1992, but I know I bought him a couple years after the movie came out. I remember buying him at Wal-mar...