Happy stuff yesterday, then.

Yesterday I suddenly realized it was time to move the antique dolls to a new good home. 

They date front probably the 1930s. One's a baby doll, with an imprint on the back of her neck indicating  that vintage. Fully dressed in original clothes complete with cotton stockings. Her first little owner gave her the necklace and the knitter jacket and hat.

The sassy lady in the green dtess is a 1930s fad, the bed doll. Often women and teenage girls liked them as home decor rather than toys.

I'd noticed this morning, on the floor,  a little hand! And a bandaid on the porcelain doll's wrist. A quiet repair by a cleaner, maybe? I wondered if it had been glued years ago and finally fell off again. They'd be nice enough to try a temp repair.

Anyway the fact I hadn't even noticed told me it was time.

So i put up a Freecycle post, which yielded, as you might expect, a bunch of requests. I'd specified that I needed day and time of planned pickup in the first response. This is to head off people who want a penpal email correspondence. 

So that eliminated people asking are they still available. Or saying I can come any time. Or saying reproachfully how can you just give them away.

But one lady said they were precious and she would love to take care of them,  gave three specific times and days, very organized and serious. I thought she'd be the right person. She turned out to be just that.

 She e-mailed me after pickup, from right outside, it turned out to ask if I still had a shoe, in the picture but not on the doll. I found a upstairs on the rocker. She must have kicked it off when I picked her up.

So I went to tape it, in an envelope to the door in case the taker needed to come back. Abd there she was, hovering in hopes! Too polite to just ring the  doorbell! So we had a nice chat and she said maybe this doll's Cinderella! She was so happy, perfect match. 

I told her the history -- cane to me from a friend clearing her mother's house after her death in her 90s, found them packed away. The daughter never saw then before. Imagine, her mother never even showed her.

 She was sad about it and asked would I take them. So I did, years ago. The porcelain doll needs repair -- eyes out, but in the box was a little bag with the eye parts and mechanism, now passed on, with the hand, to the new happy home with Darlene. Joy abounds.

This new vacancy created some ructions amongst the downstairs knitted crew of Dollivers, tiny Queen of England in blue, of course,  and the red-haired firebrand young politician, my mother's hero, Ellen Wilkinson, and the Dolliver Kennels dogs.  Also budgetigars.

I made all these long ago and the Dollivers had their own following on Field and Fen on their photoshoot adventures. They've been quieter recently, tired out from touring.

Anyway the new tenant of the upstairs rocket is the bear I knitted those boots for, one day with a bit of scrap yarn and a need to make.

The Dollivers were delighted their noisy downstairs neighbor had moved out and they're now planning to evict the other bears, which came from a friend. We'll see. Boot Bear is glad to get away from the noisy Dolliver Kennels dogs, so all's well.

And I had a happy email from the boss of the Handweavers Guild of America, about the inclusiveness of  Textiles and Tea.

I don't think she'd mind if you read it

I told you they were good people.

And the misery gripping my shoulder is starting to loosen its grip, yay. No need for pain help for a couple of days now, so I'm more cheerful there too. 

That and a visit from little granddaughter next door in search of her tennis ball lost in the pachysandra, which we found.

Then last night's brilliant track event, at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games  see it on YouTube, 

Eilish McColgan, her Mom in the stands, winner of this event in her own track days, tears it up for Scotland.

All good. We need all this.

Happy day everyone, tear it up!