Friday, February 11, 2022

...2.11...Friday Update...Madame Alexander Doll...Head Replacement...

...I started off confidently...haha...and put the pieces back inside her head...
...and then threaded the new cord up through the body...it's plenty long...but you can see where the problem is with this rebuild...those are her shoulder 'joints'??....and they're in my way...arghhhh...

...I'm guessing when they do this assembly the first time...those shoulder joints aren't there yet...
...then I got out the little toothed crimper that I had saved when I took her head off...and slid that onto the cord...and started cinching it up tight...and I wish that I could say it was easie peasie...but it was not...

...this was the point where I was seriously afraid I'd fail...and all those months of hair re-rooting were going to have been in vain...

...I absolutely could not get in there to get enough grip or traction on that cord to pull it tight enough to get her head not to be wobbly...

...so I called in the Man for some assistance...and I held the head and he pulled and pushed on the cord...but still we could not get her head tight enough...

...what I needed was something to get the crimper to press against beyond the shoulder joints...so...it's going to have to handle quite a bit of pressure...and so I put her aside for a bit...you know...to ponder...

...and my first thought was to use some wooden beads...one large one...maybe...or stack a couple...or a wooden spool...which I did not have...
...but then...serendipity...again...I know...it's absolutely amazing how the universe is always looking out for me and my little connundrums...HA!...

...when I went out to ride my bike...guess what I found just lying there in the road...it's the broken top off of some sort of wrench or ratchet thing-y...

...and my mind went immediately to how I could use that inside the dolly...crazy...I know...how my mind works...but I love it when a solution to a problem just presents itself like that...
...so I popped it into my basket...which I'm still loving by the way...

...when I got home...I went straight to the basement and drilled a hole in my new little 'solution'...came back upstairs and threaded it onto the cord...pulled everything nice and tight...and crimped the cord in place...
...and VOILĂ€!...her head is reattached ...and it doesn't wobble...
...I can turn it from side to side...and it stays where I put it...
...tilting up and down holds well too...

...so needless to say...I'm thrilled with how this ended up...now all I have to do is get her re-stuffed and re-stitched...and make her some clothes...

...the New System of Domestic Cookery reading continues apace...I'm on page 110...just into the Poultry section now...and I'm finding it all pretty gruesome and barbaric...anywhoo...I'm learning lots of new words...

...and there are a lot of Pigeon recipes...as well as Lark...and other small birds...yikes...

...and this quote is rather frightening...

"Game aught not to be thrown away even when it has been kept a very long time; for when it seems to be spoiled it may often be made fit for eating, by nicely cleaning it, and washing with vinegar and water."

...and in 1817...way before modern copyright laws...this book was originally published in England...hence the Moor fowl recipes...not sure we have any Moorland here...

...now...for the Read Harder update...
...I've penciled in a few more choices...and I've finished Hamnet...it was a super easy read...despite being mostly about a parent's worst nightmare...the death of a child...hope that's not giving too much away...

...so this weekend when I go to pick up the InstaCart...I'll take it back to the library and pick up the hold I have on the next book...totally chosen by it's super cute cover...from the list that the Read Harder folks sent me for #4. Read a book in any genre by a POC that's about joy and not trauma...but just from the cover I think it's a typical Young Adult romance novel...so that will be really different from anything I normally read...and that's what reading challenges and book clubs are all about...right?...

~Have a lovely day!

8 comments:

  1. Another successful repair by our intrepid Teresa. I love it. The washing of spoiling meat using vinegar and water or salt and water is something I grew up with and use it to this day. It's something most people who ate meat used to do. This trick is not for meat that has gone very very bad. You'll often find it's only the top layer and so it gets washed off. I know it must not be that appealing to a vegan. But it is frugality tip and in the very olden days one would have no choice if you were a farmer or a cattle ranching living far from anywhere and not having much in the way of cash.

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    1. Thanks Penny,
      ...it's been a lot of fun working on this doll...I'm looking for another one now for Little Sissie...haha...
      ~Have a lovely day!

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  2. Cool find on your bike ride. Glad it worked out as we can't have a floppy headed doll, can we?? That cookbook does sound a bit gruesome!! No thank you on the spoiled meat!!! Love, K

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    1. Hey K,
      ...yeah...I was amazed...and it worked so perfectly...
      Love,
      T

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  3. AWESOME JOB!!!! I love that you reattached it and used something that otherwise would have been trash. GREAT JOB!!!! This is so cool!

    I'm getting like NO reading time these days, what with homeschooling- well, I should take that back. I'm getting no ME reading time. My daughter and I are reading all sorts of great things together; I feel so fortunate that our children's department at the library is so well-stocked. :)

    Have a great weekend! :)

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    1. Thanks Stephanie,
      ...I'm still plugging away at the Read Harder Challenge...it's a good challenge and I'm definitely reading a lot of books that otherwise I would not...my old book club was like that too...we had a Sci-fi fan...a Romance Fan...a Thriller/spooky book fan...so there was a lot of variety...I miss the discussions a lot...
      ~Have a lovely day!

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  4. she looks lovely with her head on, lol. I am trying to squeeze in reading at least one hour during the day. I also read at night.

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    1. Hi Karen,
      ...thanks...the Man and I before Our Airman was born...had a habit of going to be an hour early...just to have that time to read...and then when we had a little one we usually read to him before bed...so I'm happy to be back to our old reading schedule now...
      ~Have a lovely day!

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