Of autumn leaves and dolly parts

Yes, fall has descended quickly here in the Bootheel, with the sky dropping rain and the trees dropping leaves.  Here's what my driveway looks like.

The combination of rain and leaves has proven hazardous to my wellbeing, by the way.  Yesterday when Mama came to pick me up for lunch I stepped wrong on those wet leaves, and I slipped and fell and busted my rear.  I'm pretty sore today as a result.

Autumn isn't all bad, of course.  Indeed, it's more good than bad, with the insects and other small fauna coming out from hiding for one last hoorah before winter.  Last Saturday I made friends with this little guy.

I don't get to see snails in the wild too often, so seeing this one was a treat indeed.  He's pretty too, or as pretty as a snail can be.  His shell looks a little like polished petrified wood.  The snail was residing on one of my potted plants, but after the wind blew the plant over I had to rehome the snail.  As far as I know he's now slithering around in my sedum bed.

In dolly news I'm taking the first steps in the long process of putting Eva back together.  Legs for this type of china doll have proven relatively easy to find, and I've managed to land two pair for the choosing.

Right now I'm leaning towards the larger pair, but of course I want to show all of y'all how the pairs compare in size to Eva's head.

To tell the truth, neither pair is as large as Eva's original legs were.  So I found a larger pair on eBay, a pair that was advertised to be five inches long.

They're decent legs for a china doll...but they proved to be WAYYYYYYY too big for Eva!

Yeah...no.  Looks like it'll be the pair with the ribbed stockings, then!  I like that pair anyway, due largely to those molded stockings which weren't always present on china dolls.  I'll keep the other two pair for a rainy day; maybe I'll resell them or maybe I'll keep them in case I want to try making a doll from scratch.  Those large legs would be perfect for that.

My other package was also intended for Eva, but upon rereading the description on Etsy I knew it would be way too big.  It's this vintage doll bonnet, crocheted out of off-white thread and sporting a single pink ribbon.

The Etsy proprietor suggested removing the remaining ribbon if the asymmetry bothered the buyer, but in this case the buyer is not bothered with asymmetry.  As I said above the bonnet is quite large, too large for a china doll like Eva.  It isn't too large for American Girls though, and as it turned out it's not too big for Mama's old Kissy doll either.

Kissy received some old baby clothes from Coworker A about a month ago, and as y'all can see this little dress looks quite nice with the bonnet.  The dress is a bit too big for her...but then again most of my baby clothes for Kissy don't fit properly.  It's not like she looks bad, though, and at least I didn't have to put stress on her fragile little shoulders in order to get it on (I did that once and don't recommend it).  So this ended up working out well.  Thank goodness that little bonnet is a neutral color too, because now it can go with everything Kissy wears!

So that's Kissy dressed, Eva legged and me sore from falling on my butt.  That leaves me wanting some Icy Hot for my back and some arms for Eva.  Believe it or not, arms have proven tricky to come by, and when I do find them they're pretty steep.  Eva still has one of her original arms, so my best bet might be to get some self-drying clay and make a matching arm.  As simple as the old arm is that option is an attractive one.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987