Is This Thing On?

Once again, I have been visited by the black dog. I haven't felt like doing a lot, but I have made myself do a few things in the direction of putting up another doll post. However, I'm not completely there yet. So here, have a couple of pictures of Lake Erie at sunset.

Both my husband and I love the water, as do my daughters, and my in-laws. I'm sure the sun rises over Lake Erie too, but you couldn't prove it by me. XD

Ohio's mask mandate is being lifted on June 2nd. I'm hoping that will help improve my well-being.

Oh, here's something funny. My husband got two texts from our cell phone provider saying "Welcome to Canada!" while we were at the beach.

Depression

Barbie up above is providing a good picture of how I felt yesterday. I didn't have any interest in doing things that I normally enjoy doing; I didn't really have interest in anything. But I got this image in my head, and I wanted to photograph it. I hope that it is a good expression of my inner self.

Here's wishing that everyone who celebrates Mother's Day today had a happy one. Mr. BTEG and I went to Youngstown to celebrate the day with his sisters, their spouses, and our niece. The Dancer has been staying with one of her aunts since Wednesday. Her aunt and uncle found out on Tuesday that his mother had passed away, so the Dancer and I drove down on Wednesday, and I came back home that night. The Dancer also got to spend some nice time with her cousin that way.

Quck Post

Just throwing this up here to say that I am still alive, and I really, really want to post the next chapter in my story. But I had a bad weekend and a busy day today. And then finally one of the tires on my car got a big hole in it and shredded itself by the time I could get off the freeway. So I don't know how I'm going to be spending tomorrow, either. I'm too tired to even crop and throw up some pictures I've taken while shopping recently. I hope you all are doing well.

Doubt and Depression

As I like to do, I'm looking over my past year of doll collecting, and making plans and goals for the year ahead, which I'll post about. But while I have my own personal plans for sewing and painting, etc. for my dolls, my thoughts from a collector point of view are pretty gloomy. There are still Ever After High dolls out there that I would like to buy, but nothing good seems to be in the works for the line. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see it completely die out in 2017.

The announcement that Tonner is done with most of his lines was a huge surprise for most of the doll collecting community who follows his work. I was pretty certain there were going to be more Ann Estelle dolls coming out, and now there won't even be more Patsy dolls, or outfits that fit the 10" dolls. This will not help prices on the secondary market, which in my opinion are rather high already, considering how many dolls were produced, and how long ago the dolls were produced. All the 10" dolls, Ann Estelle, Petite Filles, and Patsy, seem to all be very popular among collectors still. There are currently 10" articulated bodies only for sale from Tonner, and I may try to pick up one or two on the chance that I might want to rebody one of my dolls, but I'm afraid they'll sell out rather quickly as people scramble to buy before everything is gone for good.

Makie is not in business anymore, either. In my plans for this year, was the possibility of getting another Makie doll, since I liked my first one. Unfortunately, this company too disappeared in 2016.

So in my doll collecting life, I really don't have any new releases to be excited about or look forward to. The only new dolls I might be interested in, for now, are Barbies, and Mattel is so hit or miss that I don't have a lot of confidence in what will be made this year. I will admit that at this time I am trying to power through clinical depression. Everything right now seems undo-able. But life continues.

ETA: I guess I can't absolutely say that there will never be any more Makie dolls. What I do know is that the company suddenly declared it was moving from the UK to the US. After that, there was no more news, and Makies are no longer for sale. It would be great if there was a chance that the dolls will be produced again, but it's been, I think, close to a year now with no news. Actually, I think orders for Christmas 2015 were cancelled at the last minute, but that's just a vague memory, and I can't find anything about it. I do know many people were upset because they had saved doll designs on the Makie website, which are now gone.