HI everyone,
If you were expecting churned butter today, it didn’t happen… maybe tomorrow! I AM anxious to give it a try.
I was working on getting my pictures together to show the “Year in Review!” that I hope you’ll participate in. I’ll show you all the doll dresses/outfits I made this year and you can vote for your favorites… Then I’ll announce the winner of who gets the title for DOLL OUTFIT OF THE YEAR! You can vote in the comments or you can email me with your votes. I think I have 23 dresses to show…
I wasn’t able to get all the pictures together and the commentary for them finished, so I will probably start showing them Monday.
But today we have some Lovely Ballerina’s who want to show off their beautiful tutu’s! Linda set them up and a few ladies asked to see them… THANKS for asking! Linda’s girls are dressed like little angels in these costumes. Here’s what she had to say…
The Swan Lake costume that Ivy is wearing and the Sugar Plum Fairy costume that Scarlett has on are some of the fancier ones that American Girl made. Emmy is wearing a Wellie Wisher dress and I gave her angel wings, which really is a Christmas tree ornament. I always wanted to be a ballerina when I was small, so I make sure the dolls all have ballet costumes. Unfortunately, my dreams of being a ballerina crashed and burned long ago!😊
Love to you,
Linda💕
(Linda, I wanted to be a ballerina too… when I was little, but my mom told me they practically lived on salads alone… that did it for me!) :o(
Come back tomorrow to see what’s next…
Blessings, Jeanne
Jeanne, I’m sure we’re all waiting to see your doll dress revue that will be coming up soon! It’s always fun to look thru the outfits, and I find that sometimes I’ve forgotten one or two, and frequently I’ll notice something I missed when you were first making that outfit.
Linda your ballet scene is wonderful. I fell in love with ballet the first time I saw someone dance “The Dying Swan” on the Ed Sullivan show, late 1950s. I was enthralled! I still love that piece of music (by Saint-Saens, if memory serves).
I’m particularly fond of your Swan Lake costume. In the first year or so of our marriage, Ron took me to see The Royal Swedish Ballet dance Swan Lake. It was wonderful! (He didn’t remember taking me, and asked, more than once, are you Sure you went with me?! LOL He was Not a fan of ballet at all!)
Sissy, I replied to your comment from yesterday’s post. And Joy, your mentioning something about a funny top that held cream flashed a memory into my head–for a fairly brief time I think they made milk bottles that had a sort of “waist” or pinched-in area about 3″ from the top of the bottle, the idea being, I suppose, that it would be easier to pour the cream out if it could be somewhat contained. I don’t know how effective it was, and I think shortly after that happened, we probably went to milk in cartons. Memory’s a bit fuzzy on that part, but I do remember the odd shape of those bottles. Must have been a doozy to try to wash!
Interesting about those old milk bottles, Charlotte. I can picture the bottle exactly, why I don’t know, and even remember the refrigerator. This would have been sometime in the early 50’s. 🙂
Around here, other person’s idea of going to the ballet is, go ahead and go. By myself of course. 🙂
Jeanne, I think most little girls will say they want to be a ballerina when they are little, but it never seems like a good idea later on! LOL Charlotte jogged my memory of watching the Ed Sullivan Show, and he would have various talented people on, several which were ballet dancers, and I would be there dancing along with them while they danced on televison, but that was maybe the late 40’s for me. And ballerina paper dolls were my favorites too!
As far as seeing a real ballet performance, my mother-in-law suggested that we take Jennifer and Brian to see the Nutcracker ballet at Powell hall here in St. Louis during the holidays. it was beautiful, but being only 2 and 3, or maybe 3 and 4 years old, they both fell asleep during the performance!
Thank you Charlotte, for the compliments, and Jeanne for showing the picture!
Dear Linda, your little dancers are adorable. I bet there is a ton of twirling in your house (smile). I love seeing the nutcrackers. I have a friend who collects lady nutcrackers. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Dorothy! Yes, twirling is done a lot here! I love that particular nutcracker but don’t have many, just a couple of taller ones, but a lot of little ones that are actually tree ornaments!
It must be interesting to see lady nutcrackers!
I know Jeanne has a nice collection of nutcrackers.
Thanks so much Jeanne and Linda for sharing your great ballet girls photo. Love their outfits. Little Emmy is adorable. 🙂
Thank you, Joy!
Linda, once again, thank you for the sweet photos! I never wanted to be a ballerina, even though I took dance classes when I was 6 and 7, but the one doll that survived being stored in our attic is my Madam Alexander Nina Ballerina doll. Her clothes are long gone but I sent her off long ago to be freshened up and she enjoys sitting in her chair in the guest room. My Betsy clothes fit her.
I will never forget watching my oldest granddaughter when she started ballet class. She and her friend were both about 4 or 5 wearing pink ballet outfits. They just kept giggling and fooling around. That same granddaughter kept up with it and stayed with ballet until she was in her early 20’s when the pandemic stopped it. They grew up in Seattle so I didn’t get to see her dance but a few times. I was able to take photos of her when she was 12 dancing as Tinkerbell. I could send Jeanne a couple of photos of that.
Please do, Sissy! I’m sure Jeanne and everyone else would love to see those sweet pictures!
Also send a picture of Nina Ballerina! I think Jeanne would do us all a favor if she made some ballet costumes! After all, she has the tutu’s down pat, (those little slips) and a top, plus headpiece, and ballet shoes (a first for her) would be easy as pie!
I’m definitely for a Madame Jeanne, ballet outfit too. Would be so cute. 🙂
I too would love to see your Nina and your grand as Tink. 🙂
Dear Jeanne, I am looking forward to seeing the annual Parade of Dolls. I will sit here on the sofa and root for my favorites (smile).
Thanks for sharing the photo of Linda’s lovely little dancers.
Hi Dorothy,
I commented to you yesterday. I hope you saw it.
Dear Laura, I had not seen the comment but of course I ran back (well clicked back) to read it. You made my day! I am so smiling here.
Thanks for giving me three “super” powers. I will gladly accept them because Jeanne’s sofa is resplendent with talented women.
I love my May title! I love May and I am glad you do too.
After the bleak Winter days where daylight is fleeting and the snow. while pristine when it falls, soon yellows, I welcome May and its promise of Summer’s warm hug.
(Okay this wasn’t a real poem but you get the idea – smile.)
And I DO have some Doll Convention news to share. I will share that next week.
Wishing you a lovely January 2!
Jeanne’s Doll Parade should be lots of fun.. I’m looking forward to it.
Sun’s coming up and it looks like it is clear. Yay. What a gloomy, cold day it was yesterday around here.
After seeing Linda’s girls in their party hats, I managed to finally finish up one of the clown hats I’ve been working on. Thanks for the needed push, Linda. 🙂
You’re welcome!
Thursday already! Happy Thursday dear friends.
Linda, your dear ballerinas are sweet! I love this scene.
I hope everyone has a happy marvelous day.
Jeanne, I am looking forward to your year in review! so many outfits!
Thank you, Rosemary! I enjoy seeing them like this too!
The parade of the year’s doll outfits is always one of my favorite posts.
Our family’s favorite story is about my sister, who was in Russia for a long conference on education. Various teachers snuck away from the conference to see various things, and eventually conference leaders forbade doing that. Nevertheless, J and a friend were determined to see the Bolshoi ballet, and left quietly to do that. At the box office they were told to go through a door to buy their tickets. Through the door, down the stairs, down a looong deserted hall they crept, finally finding an open door, where they were allowed to buy tickets.
The ticket taker refused to let them in, saying, “You. There,” pointing to a place by a wall. When everyone else had gone in, he pointed to them and said, “You. Now.” An usher appeared and they were led away. The friend whispered, “These are not going to be the best seats.” J said, “I don’t care as long as we see the ballet.”
The usher held a door for them. They walked through. They were standing in the tsar’s box. They sat down. The friend said, “Do you know what we’re going to see?” J said, “No. I don’t know Russian either.” The theatre went dark. The curtains opened. Swans took the stage.
Wow, Marilyn, what a memory for your sister. Swan Lake is my favorite ballet as well.
Loved seeing the three dolls dressed in their ballet outfits! And hearing about everyone’s ballet memories of either taking classes when young or watching real ballerina performances. My youngest daughter took ballet classes when she about 7….I remember going to our local ballet shop with her to purchase those first ballet slippers, leotard, the silky skirt to wear to practice sessions and the cute little overlapped short, pink sweater with a tie at the waist! I took ballet classes when I was 15 year’s old…. learning steps and how to “spot” were not as easy as professional dancers made it appear but the stretching warm-ups were a great exercise! I think the jointed, body shape of the RR Dolls and their sweet expressions will make beautiful little ballerinas….I have purchased several of the ballet outfit patterns, and one for the shoes, to try making this year! One pattern comes with the knitting instructions for the cutest leg warmers too, and I purchased the knitting needles and the yarn to try my hand at learning since I have never knitted. Talk about having all thumbs! I even bookmarked a site with a wonderful British-accented older lady teaching beginners how to start knitting….managed to learn how to “cast on” but may be casting on for a while since trying to move down a few rows doesn’t help me achieve what I am going for. I think I will need to watch someone actually do this in person and I need to keep trying. For now, I am thinking about sewing scrunched up leg warmers from a soft knit fabric I have! Same look…different method!
Elizabeth, when you do get those ballet outfits sewn, be sure to send the pictures to Jeanne!
I have never knitted either, so you aren’t alone on that!
Great, Jeanne, I knew if I dropped a few hints the “Year in Review” would be forthcoming.😁😁😁I do think there will some sad faces on the dolly shelf for those that realize they were not chosen all year.
Beautiful picture, Linda. I love the Swan Lake ballet outfit and wish I had been collecting for myself at that time. My mom and I took my daughter to see The Nutcracker and then we were blessed with free tickets to see Swan Lake as her violin teacher was playing for it and had extras. I loved Swan Lake. I didn’t want to be a ballerina although I did take lessons for a year and enjoyed dancing in the performances.
Laura, the Swan Lake costume came out in 2002, so I wasn’t collecting either. I got this one on EBay, in really good condition, but I will say that it is hard to close in the back because it closes with those clear plastic snaps, which do not hold up well, so the back of the costume is never shown. However, the feathers have held up very well. There is no Velcro on this outfit!
My Ballet story does not show me in a good light.
When my granddaughter was about 7 (I think) I bought tickets for her and I to go to the ballet to see Swan Lake. We don’t get these top concerts very often down here and I bought the tickets really early and put them on my dressing table mirror where I would see them (you know where this is going don’t you?) I had a call from my daughter in law to remind me that the following Sunday was the day of the ballet. The date and day didn’t really gel with me and I went to the tickets and found that they were for the week before! I had to ring up and confess to my DIL. She told Livvie and suggested she might call me and say it was OK. Livvie said “I don’t think I’m ready to do that yet”.
It does have a happier ending, a couple of years later I took her and Caitlin to see the Bolshoi ballet. It was an afternoon show but they got dressed up to the nines and thoroughly enjoyed it. I made sure I didn’t forget that time.
I remember the old glass milk bottles with the cardboard tops. The ones we had (in UK) had holes in the centre and two together were perfect for making pom poms. I remember the cream too which I loathed. I couldn’t drink straight milk at all because of the cream, it had to have something in it. In UK at school, we had free milk every day and I wouldn’t drink it. One teacher tried to make me and I threw up all over her. Served her right. Interestingly, I now have a lactose intolerance so don’t have milk at all unless it is lactose free and I NEVER, EVER drink it straight.
Have a happy New Year everyone
Oh my goodness, Anne, you forgot when the ballet performance was? At least you did get to go later to see a ballet!