We are over 7000 Strong!

To the over 7000 folks who have visited and read my blog-Thank You! Each and everyone is welcome, and I appreciate you all.

I have been reading many books on dolls and collecting, some positive, in fact most, some not. I am enjoying Rheims' The Secret Life of Objects, and Garfield's The Error World [Stamps; remember Max Johl, the great Philatelist, was Janet Pagter Johl's husband!], which both have a balanced approach leading to the positive. Then, there is a book on hoarding, which includes collectors, which I stress is not the same. It is at Borders, and very cheap, but I resist reading it. I might get too depressed.

With the economy still bad, dolls and other collectibles remain a luxury. I am heartened and surprised online vendors and the antique stores and malls have kept going. That is because dolls are a passion, and a healthy one at that. My collections have kept me sane, and interested in life through very bad things. I don't sell, but have written books about them and been paid to stage classes and programs about them. I've been on television, and obliquely, on the radio, because of them. They were the special activity I shared with my mom, and she lives again when I am working on them or writing about them.

I love the variety of my collection, and was spurred on by Helen Young in this. I loved making dolls for others, too, and dressing them for my cousins and other little friends; I share Beth March's passion for this.

Have been reading the Lifetime Career School's course, and have been inspired to repair again, and pick up on dressing and restoring. It is a nice thing to do when money is tight, but also a good way to take inventory and keep things in perspective.

Now, I share my hunts with a small circle of good friends. They are not competitive, and we do not collect the same thing, and find things and share with each other. It is my mother's legacy continuing, and I know at least one of them goes with me in her memory, and in the memory of our good mutual friend Greg, was was taken from us too young and too soon. He loved antiques, and I dedicated my bibliography to him. He believed in me and the museum, and was always finding books and little dolls, even an autographed photo of Collen Moore.

Forgive my typing, and visit my other blogs. Enjoy your hobbies and passions, and let the nay sayers live in their sterile, smug little worlds. They will die sooner and be more frustrated.