You can leave your hat on

Uncle Charley's straw boater.

I know I need to post more often but Momma forgets.

All. The. Time. 

Anyway, I am proud to announce that Momma and I have opened a Hat section in my Etsy shop.

Momma began by wanting a straw boater hat for Uncle Charley and found instructions to make one at PixieFaire by Genniewren Designs: the Victorian & Edwardian-Style Boater Hat Pattern for 13-18 Inch Dolls.

It was fun and easy to make but it does take awhile. In fact it was so fun (and portable!) that Momma started looking around for more items to make using the same technique ... and realized she has been wanting doll-sized conical Asian hats for decades. So she made several of those as well!

AGOT #4 wearing the smaller version and Karito Kids wearing the larger version.

She made one larger for the Karito Kid doll Ling she hopes to find ... and can even go a little larger if so desired. 

Momma has also made the cutest little strawberry purses but is still working out the final details.

Stay posted!

Charley my Boy

I would like to introduce you to Charley, AKA Uncle Charley.

Charley is a repurposed Logan Everett of My Big Sister's. Charles Henry Huls was Momma's great-uncle who was murdered on Jan. 31, 1925 at The Ohio State University. Another young man, David Puskin, died the next day and four or five other men almost died.

The cause? Strychnine in the university's cold medicine.

Momma has been blogging about Uncle Charley for years and even had a rough draft of a book that was destroyed in our 2016 fire. We have purchased and collected mini items for years that reminded us of Uncle Charley and her grandfather. In particular we have:

• Samantha’s stereoscope — we had until our fire a stereoscope and 40-50 cards.
• Kit’s rolltop desk — Momma's great-grandfather had one which her brother still has.
• Kit’s typewriter — being the sons of a printer both her great-uncle and grandfather were prolific typists. Uncle Charley wrote most of his letters that way. We have several of Uncle Charley’s final letters home, including one he was typing on Jan. 31, 1925. Momma reduced it in size and trimmed it to fit into Kit’s typewriter.
• Kit’s Camera — Uncle Charley and Grandpa were given that same camera when they graduated from high school. We had it until the fire.
• Kit’s Overall Outfit and Boots — this is for Uncle Charley’s days at the maternal farm.

A fantastic Etsy seamstress made a “raccoon” coat for collegiate wear. Momma is making straw boaters using the fabulous Victorian & Edwardian-Style Boater Hat Pattern for 13-18 Inch Dolls pattern by Genniewren Designs from Pixiefaire.

Why make a doll based upon a murdered young man? Momma has spent so much time blogging about Uncle Charley and talking with a Columbus Dispatch reporter for an upcoming podcast that she wanted to remember the good times he had in his 22 years before the final, fatal two hours.

Momma left Logan’s eyes gray on purpose. One, we don’t know for sure what color eyes he had but we suspect brown. Two, it amused her to repurpose Logan because Momma and Uncle Charley were both born in Logan, Ohio.

She *might* someday make two brunette Bitty Twins into her grandfather and Uncle Charley based upon two photos we have.

-30-

Just call her General North Star

Harriet Tubman has (finally!) been posthumously recognized as a one-star brigadier general in Maryland’s National Guard. At a ceremony on Nov. 11, 2024, officials in her home state honored her military service during the American Civil War.

Born Araminta Ross about March 1822 in Dorchester County, Maryland, Tubman escaped slavery in 1849 and settled in Philadelphia.

She established the Underground Railroad and guided many "passengers" to freedom. Tubman then acted as a scout, spy, and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War, before she led an expedition of 150 Black soldiers of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry on a gunboat raid in South Carolina.

The Combahee River Raid (also known as the Raid on Combahee Ferry) was conducted on June 1-2, 1863, along the Combahee River in Beaufort and Colleton counties in the South Carolina Lowcountry.

There the Union ships rescued and transported more than 750 former slaves freed five months earlier by the Emancipation Proclamation, many of whom joined the Union Army.

Gov. Wes Moore called the Veterans Day occasion not just a great day for Tubman’s home state but for all of the United States.

“She knew that in order to do the work, that meant that she had to go into the lion’s den,” Moore said. “She knew that leadership means you have to be willing to do what you are asking others to do.”

Something many of our current leaders have forgotten.

General Tubman, I salute you.