In which - (Re)introducing JT

Hi. And "meow" and all that stuff.

I'm JT.












You may remember me from Halloween 2013. I'm the - unquiet spirit, as Caroline calls me - who that West dude trapped in one of those spirit bottle things. Not pleasant. I managed to break out of the stupid thing and took over the body of a doll Caroline's person was working on. That was okay, but you know, there was stll the chance I could end up back in a spirit bottle. So I had to learn how to take a form on my own. I could have gone back to human, I guess, but I like the idea of being a black cat. So here I am.

Here's a little more of my story. So yeah, basically, I used to be human, but now I'm - well, whatever I am. It's not bad. I mean, I'm still around and all. And I still get to hang around with a bunch of my friends. Some of them are unquiet spirits like me and some are dolls - real ones, I mean - and some are devas like Scaramouche. I used to know her back when in the city. She hung out with the band I was in at the time. I think we were the first humans she made friends with. I'm not sure we were really the best choice, but she liked us, for whatever reason. And she was actually glad to see me.

I'm not afraid of that West guy coming back now - although I really do think he will at some point. He can't get me. I'm afraid he might be able to get to some of my friends - the unquiet spirits, that is - but if he does, I think we can rescue them. If Scaramouche can't, then her friend Devon's boyfriend can. Rafael himself is an unquiet spirit like me, from what I can figure out. I think he used to be some kind of Vodou priest - is that the right term? - from what Devon said. Anyway, he's from New Orleans, the scene of my last stand, just like Devon and her sister Gail and this other friend of theirs - I can't remember if Scaramouche called her Rue or Rhea.

So anyway, this is me.

And no, I have absolutely no desire to chase a stupid laser pointer. So don't even try that red dot thing with me. I'm not that kind of cat.















(JT is a Camilla Dynasty Wong in black. I think a black cat makes a pretty cool shell for an unquiet spirit.)

In which Hitty Emmaline's grandmother isn't who you'd think.......

"Here we go - now, let me fix your scarf. Good little baby....."

"Um, Paisley?" Zephyr said. "Why do they need scarves? Don't emperor penguins come from Antarctica?"

"They're babies. They can't keep warm the way the adults can." As you can see, Paisley seems to be establishing a home for baby birds. "Now, did you eat all your krill? Good boy!"

"That was krill? I thought you were making smoothies," Zephyr said.

I wondered why my blender was soaking in the sink....

"Hey everyone!" Tempest said, coming in. "You'll never believe who's here all the way from Florida!"

"Devon?!" Zephyr exclaimed, running to hug the new deva in town. "What are you doing up here?!"

"Trying to help some of the other devas put an end to this awful weather," Devon said.

"Problem is, we don't even know exactly where it's coming from," Tempest added. "Well, we know where, but we don't know who blocked the normal atmospheric patterns or why."

That doesn't sound good.....

"And here's Emmie! How do you like it here in New York?"

"It's nice...."

"I told you it would be."

"....but I still don't know why you had to sell the farm to those pixies. It wasn't losing money."

"Sweetheart, it was time for a change. I'd done all I could working with that land. It was time for someone else to take over. And you needed a change, too. All that time with those china head dolls wasn't good for you. You're a wooden doll, sweetie. You can afford to take chances that they can't."

It took me a moment to put it all together. "Wait. Your grandmother is a deva?!" She'd mentioned her Grandmother Devon awhile back, but I'd been expecting another Hitty. Not a deva who looked younger than Emmie herself.

"I was a linden tree deva before I learned to work with storms," Devon explained. "Emmie is carved from one of the branches of a seedling of the tree I was brought into existence to tend. So in a way, it makes me her grandmother."




"Are you and Rafael still together?" Emmie seemed at a bit of a loss for what to say.

"We are, indeed. He may be joining us later this year up here. I'm going to try to talk him into it, anyway. Right now he's working with manatees,"
Devon said.






"Devon is the one who sent me to find Tempest," Zephyr added. "Her sister Gail worked with her - Tempest, I mean - to turn that tornado that those awful storm devas sent toward that town."

"I know a good deva when I meet one," Devon said with a smile. "My sister should be joining us here pretty soon, too."

Not who I would have expected, but pretty cool nonetheless.....



Note: Devon is a tan Pukifee Ante from the FairyLand Halloween event. She was ordered directly from FL, We're still waiting on three other tan Pukifees ordered through DDE.

She's named after a pilot we saw on "Hurricane Hunters" whose first flight was through Hurricane Rafael (the one just before the infamous Sandy.) I do wish I could remember her last name, because she was totally awesome.

In which - Happy Birthday to me!

It's been two years already - wow.

And, just for the record, it was snowing the day I was made, it snowed last year on my bithday and guess what? We got four inches of snow this morning, too.

Next year, I want 70F weather, if that's not too much to ask.

So anyway, I got some new furniture, including a new chair. Okay, so it's not pink - it has butterflies on it, which is just as good.

The little chicks are Paisley's, by the way,,,,

She works with animals, but lately this girl's been getting more and more fascinated by everything space. And no, this pic was taken a few weeks ago - like, before we ended up with two feet of snow and a ton of ice under that.

She wanted something like the song "Touch the Sky." Maddy said we'd need to be a) on a train, which this isn't and b) she still hasn't figured out how to trick the camera into taking pictures of things like the night sky.













Anyway, it's been a cool couple of years....

The beginning....

The guys, John-John and Shel.

Woodstock! Too bad I could't get a photo with John Ashton....

Stockbridge. Too bad I couldn't get any photos with the original Hitty.....

The new and improved me....

Heatwave 2013....

Meeting my fella....

Christmas 2013....

New flooring....

Fawn arrives!

Daisy joins the family....

The day we found out the Satellite Paradiso album was HAPPENING!!!!!

We meet a real Findhorn deva, Aura.

The first sign of trouble - Tori the Perpetually Annoying.....

World Fishing Day. I wonder if this sort of thing ever happens to John Ashton?

The Scottish sisters - Aura and Paisley.

The amazing Scaramouche.....

Tempest, the storm deva with a conscience.

Although I have a feeling that when a deva facepalms at you, that's whe you know you screwed up.....

Hawthorne threatening to go all gangsta - or gladi-ata - on that dealership at the Kia place.

Clarence Fahnstock State Park....

 Zephyr, our heroic wind deva.

THE album!!!!!!!
















Does anyone else see a possible family resemblance between Kira and Daisy? How closely related are devas and pixies, anyway?




















 And last but not least - meet Fiona. She's the redhead. She's a friend of Aura and Paisley's from Findhorn. She's a former radish deva who now mostly works with birds.

And rumor has it that we may soon get to meet the Gulf Coast storm deva who helped Tempest turn that EF-5 tornado away from that little town - well, mostly away, anyway. And Kira has mentioned that a friend from Australia might be joining her here as well. So cool....

Looks like it's going to be another awesome year!









Note: Fiona is a Pukifee Vanilla. She arrived in December, but this is her debut in the blog. She was originally intended to be Paisley and Aura's middle sister, Rhiannon, but she had other ideas. Right now I don't know when or if I'm shelling Rhiannon, although I'd like to find the right Pukifee for her.

In which - Happy Birthday, Tom Baker! (The fourth Doctor (Who,) that is!)

"Uh, Doctor...." The Lady Madrigal Baker, better known as Maddy, looked around in bewilderment. Although really, given the steering on the Doctor's Type-40 TARDIS, she should have expected something like this. "This isn't Bellemar."

"So it isn't." Even the Doctor had to admit that he's been expecting sun, sand and beaches, not buildings....

Starring Paisley as the character my person's screen-and-nickname comes from, the Lady Madrigal Baker, and the fourth Doctor as himself...

Happy birthday, Tom Baker! Here's to many more!

In which - random photos!

So we're doing A Doll A Day on Flickr. Check out some of the photos.

The theme here was "Bright." But click on the photo and check out the cute little feathered photobomber outside.

Someone is threatening to file a formal protest with the ASPCA over getting her cage "Change"-d.

And this is why you shouldn't get "in between" a guinea pig and her food bowl.

Paisley: "Will you wait until I put the food in your bowl before you trample everyone to get to it?"

(No Hittys were harmed in the making of this photo.)

"New" year, new dress and that awesome new CD. And why is it so hard to find pink rocketship print fabric? Can't a girl be a space geek? Just sayin'.....

"Black and White." Not like there was much else in the way of color to begin with. One, it's January, and two, Scaramouche's wardrobe is almost as monochromatic as Maddys.....

"Dark." At least Aura didn't have to spend forty-five minutes sitting on a glass macaw for this one....

And last one for today - "Close Up." What can I say? Scaramouche is almost as much of a rock star as I am. Heck, she's almost as much of a rock star as John Ashton is.....

















Here's the link if you're interested: A Doll a Day 2015

Je Suis Charlie

Hey.

Maddy, Caroline's person here.

I want to be serious just for a moment.

Like I've alluded to before, I did aspire to be a journalist "once upon a time." I studied Public Relations and Media in college, with a minor in Sociology.

And I really did want to be the first reporter reporting live from the space shuttle someday. Or the moon. Or heck, Mars.....

But then Challenger happened and life happened and we still haven't gone to Mars and, truthfully, I think Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper would be far more qualified than I to report live from either Mars or the moon.

But I do want to say one thing.

I believe in respecting others' beliefs. It doesn't matter whether or not you agree with them. We need to respect one another.

However....

No matter how much someone insults you or what you believe, no matter what they say - or write - or draw - they have the right to express their opinion. You, likewise, have the same right to express your opinion, to ignore them, to engage in a thoughtful discussion, or to call them an effing douchecanoe and question just how closely their parents were related. Not that I'm advocating the last option, but you do have it.

But nobody has the right to take another's life for it.

I may not agree with what others say, but I'll defend their right to say it to the ends of the earth.

I won't defend it to the death, though. Because words and pictures are not something anyone should ever have to die for.

Ever.

In which - Zephyr

"Once blind and innocent, you took the narrow road
With your hope and your faith all neatly in a row....


















But on that great dividing line between love and what you wished to find
You stumble and you fall....

Look to where the colors flow, it's a fluid space where spirits grow
Unimagined on a hill...."
















Lyrics are from "Angelic" by Satellite Paradiso. I'd love this album even if John Ashton had nothing to do with it, but the fact that he does makes it even better.

Okay, yeah, and Maddy was getting all fancy and stuff with Photoshop Elements 13.