We are having a rather cool Summer again, which has to do with the "Lake Effect" after such a cold Winter. If the sun comes out on a clear day, we can reach the 90s with no effort --- but we tend to have a lot of clouds and grey days. This isn't bad, since it keeps the temperatures down and the weather good for working. The yard is looking really nice. It was a good Poppie year, and the Garlic looks like it will be fabulous. It's already tall and the scapes are starting.
There was a lady at the flea market who has been collecting dolls since the '90s, and she had brought some of them to sell. She had about nine Gene dolls, a bunch of Lee Middleton babies and other things. I thought that she was only selling the doll clothes. Well, this was the first time that I'd ever actually seen a Gene doll in real life, but I had wished for one since we were about ten years old. I was "breathing hard", as Mom put it, but Mom and Elizabeth were not giving the dolls their proper attention. In fact, Mom made a passing remark (rather disparaging about the paint job on the eyes), and Elizabeth was pulling me on to go look at the Berenstain Bears. I finally convinced Mom to go back and have a closer look at them --- figuring that we could try to get one online after seeing what they were actually like. Well, we went back and the lady told us that she was actually selling the dolls --- not just the clothes! They look way more amazing in real life than in photos (even professional photos!). Mom and I were trying to figure out which one was most appealing, then Elizabeth looks at the Gene doll standing on the very end, and it looks exactly like Grace Kelly. She's wanted a Grace Kelly doll for years, but all of the "official" Grace Kelly dolls just don't look very much like her. Well, one of these Gene dolls looked tons like her, and Elizabeth was standing there holding it and admiring it. The lady came over and told us that if we wanted two dolls, she would give us a deal. Mom said that was great and that she and Dad would give them to us for our birthday (it was only a bit early!). The two of us were thrilled. Here are photos of the dolls as we bought them.
An amazing blessing came two days ago. I had called the same lady who had sold the first two dolls to us about buying some accessories and shoes for them. She had not taken those to the Flea Market, so she gave me her number and said we could work out a time to get together (since she lives not too far away). Elizabeth and I have been waiting (rather impatiently) every day since, and it finally worked out on Monday. She brought two big tubs of Gene outfits, accessories, shoes, hat boxes, etc., for us to look at. Long story short, she gave them to us for an amazing price (practically a gift!) and we bought it all!! We were up until midnight that night sorting through things and putting different outfits in bags, etc. It is so fun to see how God works things out --- even things like a collection of Gene dolls and accessories. Elizabeth and I put it all on the sofa yesterday for this picture. There were even some Tyler Wentworth dolls included in there. They are slightly bigger than Gene, but similar bodies. Elizabeth is really thrilled, because they are quite realistic and that appeals to her. We've been working changing the clothes on our dolls, so I'll post photos of them in their new outfits later!
Here are a bunch of photos in a slideshow. The car is actually very blue, but the trees are reflecting in the photos.