Doll Lust

Our newest addition is slowly revealing herself to us. Her name is Miss Pearl Sparrow and she is the librarian on my Our floating bookmobile!

Pearl (as she will be commonly known) is a combination of both Miss Sparrow, the delightful librarian in Maud Hart Lovelace's Deep Valley books, and real-life librarian Nancy Pearl. 

Nancy Pearl (born Jan. 12, 1945) is an American librarian, best-selling author, and literary critic. She achieved broader fame with Book Lust, her 2003 guide to good reading. She is also the author of a novel and a memoir.

Our Pearl is a quiet, bookish 9-year-old girl. She wears glasses (like Me!), and adores clothing that is inspired by books. You should have seen her eyes light up when she saw the two Nancy Drew dresses (with book cover aprons!) and Paddington Bear outfit that survived the fire!

Pearl's two great ambitions in life are to grow up to be a children's librarian, AND become the inspiration for a Librarian Action Figure by Archee McPhee. 

Pearl is busy dusting and cleaning Our Library. Our books suffered extensive smoke and water damage during the fire and she has plenty of work to do. 

She has Tasked Me with finding a new bookcase. Our former bookcase was an empty whiskey gift box that formerly held three bottles in a former life. It made a great bookcase when it was on its side, so Momma and I need to find another, or maybe a wooden teabag display case.

Any ideas?

Betsy-Tacy Go Downton Addie

Momma and I have survived yet another Betsy's Ray of Sunshine!

Nine ladies (Dare I say, Perfectly Awful Girls?) from around the United States gathered this weekend in the sun-drenched historic Willo District in Phoenix to eat, drink, laugh, drink, play (the Wildly Inappropriate) Cards Against Humanity, drink, listen to the Hamilton soundtrack, drink, shop, and watch the final episode of Downton Abbey together - while drinking.

What brought them together? A deep love of the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace and a chance to eat, laugh, and drink together.

We greeted old friends, made new ones, and missed those who have gone to the Great Library in the Sky. 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and auld lang syne?

For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne.

Winona and her friends

We also have Betsy-Tacy and Tib's friend Winona, but she's an unaltered American Girl #25 wearing Addy's stilting outfit.

(Winona's a bit smug that she's the only unaltered girl in the group.) 

The dress is a bit long for the period but since Winona's a tomboy and loves bright colors such as red and purple so it seems appropriate for her. 

Momma got Winona a little pug to be her faithful companion, Toodles.

Queen of Summer

Naifi, a rewigged Josefina with knee-length braids, is a Syrian girl who moved to Deep Valley and was befriended by Betsy-Tacy and Tib in Betsy-Tacy Go Over the Big Hill.

When they first meet Naifi "her (Syrian) dress had a long skirt, like a woman's, very full, made of faded flowered cloth. She wore earrings like a woman's too. A scarf was tied over her head. From a rosy-brown face very bright brown eyes darted from Tib to Betsy and Tacy . . . her hair hung in long black braids tied in red at the ends. Her shoes were red too, and under her dress she wore (blue) bloomers down to her ankles."

Later they save Naifi from a group of taunting boys. When they next see her "... At first they did not think it was Naifi, for she wore quite an ordinary short dress like their own and ordinary shoes and stockings. ..."

Naifi has both traditional Syrian clothes (based upon the book's descriptions and illustrations) as well as contemporary 1904 clothes. Momma found handmade Afghan costumes for American Girl dolls at a local coffee shop and got two for Naifi since they are very similar to what she wears in the books.

When they discover she's a Syrian emeera (princess) they crown Naifi the Queen of Summer and she arrives in formal Syrian costume of "soft rich cashmere (skirt), purple in color and embroidered in gold, ... the short jacket was gold- embroidered too. Bloomers were tied at her ankles above little slippers of gold. ... and she was laden with jewelry ... bracelets, rings, earrings.... " Momma has the fabric and will make this for her someday.

Isn't that just like Tib?

Tib is tiny and dainty. Tib is the wealthiest of the three. Big, blue eyes and short, fluffy blond curls, but no freckles. Her mother makes all her clothes and they are the most elaborate. Tib is based upon their friend Midge.

Tib's a blue-eyed Pleasant Company doll (probably brunette from the traces left on her head) Momma got her wearing Tacy's wig. She has nice brown lashes which she wanted with Tib's pale blonde curls. Tib wears Sam's Spring Party Dress in the illustration by Lois Lenski in Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown.

When Irish eyes are smiling

Tacy Kelly has big blue Irish eyes, 10 red ringlets (the wig isn't perfect but it will do), and freckles. (She's a re-wigged Kit.) Tacy is painfully shy. She has a huge family so she doesn't have as much to spend as the other two. Tacy is based upon Maud's best friend Bick.

Momma thought about re-wigging a Kit since she has the blue eyes and freckles she wanted, but had purchased a re-wigged doll thinking she was Tacy. However, when Momma got her she knew she wasn't Tacy, but Tib wearing Tacy's hair! Thankfully, that wig peeled off.

Ray of sunshine

Betsy Ray has brown hair, freckles, and hazel eyes. Momma got an American Girl #23 for her and swapped the blue eyes for #21s hazel eyes!

Before high school Betsy wears her hair in short, perky braids and her "teeth are parted in the middle." (Think David Letterman.) Betsy is based upon Maud Hart Lovelace herself who was born April 26, 1892.

Betsy-Tacy and Tib

Momma has been Frightfully Busy lately and I have been Terribly Ignored, so Momma told me to publish some back stories.

Here are my dear friends Betsy-Tacy, and Tib - dolls Momma created, based upon the wonderful books by Maud Hart Lovelace.

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Momma used this illustration from Betsy-Tacy Go Downtown as a basis for the three girls: Betsy got Samantha's Middy Dress with Tam, Tacy got Samantha's Play Dress, and Tib got Sam's Spring Party Dress. All three got Samantha's Lacy Whites, as well as Addy's black Meet stockings, and either Addy's or Kirsten's black lace-up boots.

Oh, and you'll love this. The real-life girls that inspired Betsy, Tacy and Tib went to Pleasant Grove School!

Kindred spirits are not so scarce

Momma just got home from "Betsy's Ray of Sunshine."

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

The Maud Hart Lovelace online discussion list (Maud-L Listserv) is an electronic mail discussion group focusing on all things Betsy-Tacy as well as conversations of more general interest. 

Momma discovered the Maud-L Listserve many years ago and was instantly hooked..

She loves these old descriptions she found online.

According to Sharyn November,

The Maudlist is one of the best listservs I've seen -- more like a kaffeeklatsch than anything else. Yes, we talk about the books, but we also exchange life stories and recipes and jokes and mutual support. In fact, I even stayed with Carla Kozak when I went on vacation -- and no, I had never met her before. Maudvibes are sent when people are worried and blue, and they work! Trust me.

According to Julie Chuba,

I really enjoy all the little pieces of people's lives--little anecdotes, memories, traditions, different things people notice about books or stories I've read, etc. It's so much fun to hear about them, even though it may not have much to do with Maud Hart Lovelace or Betsy-Tacy. Becky's yummy-sounding meals, Katie's 4th of July, learning about Alice Austen from Diane, Poe's songs of the day, strange names (Dick Trickle finished me), Marsha Q.'s valiant attempts to keep on us on Betsy track, finding out about new books and movies and music--it's just a day brightener for me! I feel as though I a know a bit about a lot of you. Even though we probably have very dissimilar tastes and opinions and lifestyles, it's kind of fun to "get together" this way.

The members get together periodically to actually meet, eat, and explore the country. Betsy's Ray of Sunshine was scheduled from Friday, March 7 through Sunday, March 9, BUT the house party was still going strong when Momma came home to spend time with my Big Sister.

Events included: Happy Hour at Camelback Inn (great view of Camelback Mountain); antiquing in Glendale; desert walks/hikes; Phoenix Art Museum; a desert picnic at The Farm at South Mountain; talking/laughing/games/reading/whatever!

So, are you a Kindred Spirit? 


To subscribe or change your options on Maud-L, send e-mail to listserv@listserver.mtsac.edu. In the BODY of the message type one of the following according to the change you want make:

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Make sure you send the e-mail message from the account that you used to subscribe and that you omit or turn off any signatures in your e-mail message. If you have trouble subscribing to Maud-L, contact Arline.

 

The finishing touch

americangirl.com

When I heard new items for the Historicals had been released at American Girl, including my doppelgänger Addy, I raced to their website to take a gander.

While some of the new items are awesome, I was sadly disappointed by Addy's addition: Addy's Hairstyling Set.

Seriously? That's ALL?

For $22 "your girl can create a fancy hairstyle for Addy with this set! It includes:

• A snood that fits perfectly over her hair
• A pink cameo & bow
• A double-braid hairpiece for the finishing touch"

I think my snoods are better (Thanks Mama Lisa!) and so are my hose-clamp headbands.

americangirl.com

At least Betsy is excited. She hates her stick-straight hair and can't wait to get Rebecca's Hairstyling Set, which includes a pretend curling iron with a handle that opens and closes.

(You might recall in Betsy was a Junior by Maud Hart Lovelace that Betsy burned her bangs with a curling iron while getting ready for a dance.)

At least Rebecca got an costume, too.

 

Reading brings us unknown friends

I, of course, am (very) loosely based upon the American Girl Addy Walker books. But did you know my Dear Friends, Betsy, Tacy, Tib and Naifi, are based upon the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace?

National Reading Day is an annual event which celebrates and encourages reading by younger children. National Reading Day is celebrated in thousands of schools all around the United States. This literacy event is designed to help Pre-K through Third Grade students develop the literacy foundation they need to become lifelong learners. Schools, libraries, nonprofit groups, and parents participate in a variety of activities with younger readers on National Reading Day. Join in with the hundreds of thousands of other young readers who will celebrate National Reading Day on Jan. 23, 2014.

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

― C.S. Lewis

“She is too fond of books, and it has addled her brain.”

― Louisa May Alcott

 

Getting to Be Ten

Happy 10th birthday to my Big Sister!

Even though I had my birthday April 9, it wasn't official until my Big Sister's birthday, too.

This, of course, reminds me of my dear friends, Betsy, Tacy, and Tib.

As explained in Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, Tib turned 10 in January, followed by Tacy in March ... but they were too polite to say anything until Betsy's April birthday.

Oh, Betsy’s ten tomorrow
and then all of us are ten!
We will all be ten tomorrow,
We will all be ladies then.

Happy, happy birthday!

Happy birthday, Betsy!

Happy birthday, Betsy!

Author Maud Hart Lovelace was born on April 26, 1892, but until she was 50 years old she believed her birthday was the 25th (which coincided with the birthday of her namesake, Aunt Maud).

Her character, and My Dear Friend Betsy Ray of Betsy-Tacy fame, also celebrated her birthday on April 25.

Since I doubt Betsy wants to celebrate her 120th birthday, I think I shall join her for her 10th birthday party.

Close, but no cigar

I have decided what to do with the lovely cigar box the Artificer of my Dreams packed my goggles and brass rose in.

It will become my writing desk.

My Dear Friend Betsy Ray stores her stories in a cigar box at the beginning of Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown by Maud Hart Lovelace.

"The perch in the maple tree was Betsy's private office. Here she thought out stories and poems and wrote them down. Here she kept what she had written in the cigar box that her mother had given her and Tacy had helped her nail to its present place."

She later uses her uncle's theatrical trunk for her desk, but she never forgets her humble cigar box.

I figure if Betsy can create stories with a cigar box and a theatrical trunk, I can do no less with my cigar box. After all, it's Illuminati which is the plural of Latin illuminatus, "enlightened."

(Plus, it's a handy place for this Perfectly Awful Girl to store my pipe, cuspidor, rum and absinthe.)

Silence is golden

I was extremely interested last night to see that The Artist got the Oscar for Best Picture - the first silent film to get do so since Wings at the original Oscar ceremony in 1929.

The Artist takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1932 and focuses on the relationship of an older silent film star and a rising young actress, as silent cinema falls out of fashion and is replaced by the talkies.

In Wings, two young men who are in love with the same woman, become fighter pilots in World War I.

The Artist received four prizes Sunday, including best picture, best actor, best director, and best music.

Betsy-Tacy fans will be interested to know that Paolo Conte, who wrote the score for Wings, was the real-life inspiration for Marco Regali in Betsy and the Great World. Maud Hart Lovelace met Regali in Venice in 1914. He later moved to the United States to head the University of North Dakota music department where he composed the music for Wings.

I'll need to do more research though since for some reason Wikipedia credits John Stepan Zamecnik for the Wings score.

 

Let them eat cake

Happy National Chocolate Cake Day!

My favorite mention of cake appears in Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace. Betsy and Tacy became famous for their picnics, and it all started when they were 5 and eating supper on a bench at the end of their street. I don't know if it was chocolate cake, but I like to think it was!

Betsy always liked what she saw on Tacy's plate. In particular she liked the fresh unfrosted cake which Tacy's mother often stirred up for supper for her big family. Tacy knew Betsy liked that cake, and she always divided her piece. And if baked beans or corn bread or something that Tacy liked lay on Betsy's plate, Betsy divided that too.

My next favorite chocolate cake mention is in the same series, but the last book: Betsy's Wedding:

Tacy had left a chocolate cake, with fudge frosting half an inch thick, and it proved a boon.

Do you have any favorite literary chocolate cakes?

Nothing up my sleeve

What actually hides under Edwardian sleeves.

My dear Miss Sparrow and I (being the Perfectly Awful Girls that we are) were discussing a recent news article about literary tattoos.

That lead us to talking about the tattoos adorning her illustrious (illustrated?) ancestor's back.

I, of course, had my tummy signed by Evil Wil Wheaton - which is pretty darned permanent in my case.

But she and I started discussing literary tattoos and what we would get IF we were to get one.

Personally, I would probably get something from the Betsy-Tacy or Little House books. Or Spock's, "Live Long and Prosper." Or maybe my flag.

Or maybe, "My ♥ belongs to Momma."

Miss Sparrow declined to say because she was afraid I'd publish it here (true), but I think she secretly wants an "I ♥ Joe Willard" somewhere.

Any suggestions?

On the twelfth day of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Twelve drummers drumming
Eleven pipers piping, ten lords-a-leaping
Nine ladies dancing, eight maids-a-milking
Seven swans-a-swimming, six geese-a-laying
Five golden rings, four calling birds
Three French hens, two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree

While neither Momma nor I are particularly interested in social Greek organizations, I do feel obligated to offer my congratulations to Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's second oldest and largest black fraternity, which was founded at Indiana University on this date on Jan. 5, 1911. Since the fraternity's founding it has never limited membership based on color, creed or national origin.  

Personally, Momma and I tend to echo our heroine Betsy's thoughts after both she and her sister are soured on the idea during Betsy's junior year of high school:

That, thought Betsy, was the bunk. You couldn't make sisterhoods with rules and elections. If they meant anything, they had to grow naturally.... "I don't believe sororities would appeal very long to anyone with much sense of adventure."

Betsy was a Junior
Maud Hart Lovelace

I'm ALL for adventure! 

On the fourth day of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas
My true love gave to me
Four calling birds
Three French hens, two turtle doves
And a partridge in a pear tree.

Dec. 28, 2000 was a sad date in retail history when U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announced it was going out of business after 128 years.

Montgomery Ward was founded by Aaron Montgomery Ward in 1872. Ward had conceived of the idea of a dry goods mail-order business in Chicago, Illinois, after several years of working as a traveling salesman among rural customers. The business grew at a fast pace over the next several decades, fueled by demand primarily from rural customers who were also attracted by the innovative and unprecedented company policy of "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back", which Ward began using in 1875.

Laura Ingalls Wilder fans recognize the importance Montgomery Ward catalogues had for those who lived far from the big city:

For themselves, they decided to buy a present together, something they could both use and enjoy. After much studying of Montgomery Ward’s catalogue, they chose to get a set of glassware. They needed it for the table and there was such a pretty set advertised, a sugar bowl, spoon-holder, butter dish, six sauce dishes, and a large oval-shaped bread plate. On the bread plate raised in the glass were heads of wheat and some lettering which read “Give us this day our daily bread.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder

The First Four Years

That breadplate was one of the very few things to survive the housefire that destroyed their home a few years later.

One of Momma's treasures includes an identical antique glass breadplate. (She loves to collect antique china and glass patterns mentioned in her favorite kidlit books. So far she has Laura's breadplate and Blue Willow china as well as Tacy's china pattern in a teacup and saucer. She's trying to hunt down a sandwich tray in Mrs. Ray's china pattern, too.)

On the first day of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas

My true love gave to me

A partridge in a pear tree.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is an English Christmas carol that enumerates a series of increasingly grand gifts given on each of the twelve days of Christmas. Although first published in England in 1780, textual evidence may indicate the song is French in origin.

The 12 days in the song are the 12 days starting Christmas day, or in some traditions, the day after Christmas (Dec. 26) to the day before Epiphany, or the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan. 6, or the Twelfth Day).

Twelfth Night is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking."

The earliest well-known version of the music of the song was recorded by English scholar James O. Halliwell in 1842, and he published a version in 4th edition The Nursery Rhymes of England (1846), collected principally from "oral tradition."

In the early 20th century, English composer Frederic Austin wrote an arrangement in which he added his melody from "Five gold rings" onwards, which has since become standard. The copyright to this arrangement was registered in 1909 and is still active by its owners, Novello & Co. Limited.

If the "partridge in a pear tree" of the English version is to be taken literally, then it seems as if the chant comes from France, since the red-legged (or French) partridge, which perches in trees more frequently than the native common (or grey) partridge, was not successfully introduced into England until about 1770.

For fans of Maud Hart Lovelace, the song was allegedly imported to the United States in 1910 by Emily Brown, of the Downer Teacher's College in Milwaukee, Wis., who had encountered the song in an English music store sometime before. She needed the song for the school Christmas pageant, an annual extravaganza that she was known for organizing.

Since Tib's Browner was based upon Downer I wonder if Tib knew her?