Oh, You Beautiful Doll, You Great Big Beautiful Doll

Now I know I have told this story at least two or three times but I love the story so much and it is such a good illustration of me and my kids that I shall tell it again. 
A few years ago Lily found something at a thrift store most likely, and I cannot remember what the item was but it was eye-catching. That I know. She sent a picture of it to the group text and said something like, "I really love this but I don't know what to do with it." 
To which Hank replied, "Have you learned nothing from our mother? Hang it on a wall."
Oh, Hank knows me so well. He should as we sort of grew up together but that has nothing to do with those Seminole Indian dolls hanging on the wall in my room except of course it does. I decided to actually clean our room today and in that room I have a vanity I bought many years ago at an antique fair at the mall I went to with my friend Sue. I love that vanity. It was one of the few things I really spent some money on back in those days when I was a single mother in nursing school but it was just one of those things you know is meant to accompany you through life from here on out. 

It was made to be yours and has just been waiting patiently for you to come around, recognize it, and take it home. 
Which is what I did. I've now had it longer than I've had Glen or Lily or Jessie and that is a lot of years. Still, I love it and am so glad I bought it and when it gets very dusty, I am shamed and get out the furniture polish and rags. And that's what happened today. 
For a few years now, those Seminole dolls had been on the vanity, arranged carefully to all fit in but the problem was, very little else could fit and I thought about what Hank had said and in just a few minutes, Bob's your uncle, and those ladies were hanging on the wall. 
These dolls used to be found and sold all over Florida at many different venues. All of the theme parks like Jungle Gardens and Monkey Jungle and Cypress Gardens and Parrot Jungle (we were big on jungles for obvious reasons) and Weeki Wachee and Rainbow Springs and Homosassa Springs sold them in their gift shops and so did many roadside citrus shops where you could also buy marmalades, citrus candy, honey, orange blossom perfume, and ceramic alligator salt and pepper shakers. 
The souvenir business in Florida was strong before Disney came in and fucked it all up. 
You could even buy necklaces and earrings with scenes depicting mostly Florida sunsets made of butterfly wings at restaurants right by the cash register next to the York peppermint patties wrapped in silver and green foil, along with the toothpick dispenser. 

This is not the time to start a discussion on using butterfly wings to make jewelry with. It was actually pretty amazing but...yeah. 

I always loved the Seminole Indian dolls but only had one, I think, and I wish I had held on to it. Now they are "vintage" and as such, worth far more (monetarily at least) than they were when the Seminole and Miccosukee  women created them out of palmetto fiber, tiny beads, and fabric scraps. 
I began to be fascinated by and realize how much I loved them when I was probably in my fifties and began to buy them when I came across them priced so that I could rationalize the purchases. Linda Sue has also sent me some because she is not only an amazing and precious human being, she is also what I would call a "finder." 

And okay, let's just carry out this theme while we're at it. 
The vanity has a sort of shelf bottom near the floor and that is where I keep my sweet old babies whom no one would really want but me. They have a special pillow and a stuffed duck I made with cashmere from a sweater I had that basically fell apart due to age and moths. I brought them up to the bed today so I could clean their bed and the area around it. Many of you know these bebes and please, I beg of you, if you think they are creepy, just keep it to yourself. 

They are rescue dolls and I care for them very much. I may even love them. 
Whatever.

And that's a part of what I did today. Clean our bedroom, hang dolls on the wall (I did not damage them in the least) where I will look at them with more attention every day. I will also take more notice of the three dolls on the vanity below them which Linda Sue also sent me. 

I've made more soup tonight and achieved something I've never achieved before which is that I did not have to change pots in mid-soup-making because I let the soup grow to proportions inappropriate to our needs and the pot I started it in. 
I am so fucking proud. 
I am really not kidding. 

Clean sheets are on the bed and actually, they are not only washed and dried, they are new. 
Thanks, Costco, for Egyptian sateen cotton sheets that cost less than two good ribeye steaks. 

It did indeed freeze last night and was about 29° on the back porch when I got up. There was ice where we let the garden sprinklers drip.

There will be more freezes for the next few days and so nothing is getting unwrapped. 

And do not fear- martinis are DEFINITELY involved. 

Happy Friday, y'all. 

Love...Ms. Moon