Off to the Dollywood Harvest Festival!

Today was the big day.  All the dolls had been invited to attend the Dollywood Harvest Festival, and they had been busy getting ready for months.  

Most of the other dolls were ready to go now except for Della.  She had been trying on dresses all morning trying to find the perfect one to wear.  

She thought that there was a teeny tiny chance that she might get to see Dolly Parton while she was at the Harvest Festival, and she wanted to look her very best.

Della finally chose a sleeveless baby blue and cream homespun cotton check print dress as the one that she would wear to the festival. She laid the dress on her chair while she went to search in Myra's scrap bag for two pieces of fabric to tie her blond curls up into ponytails with.

After searching around in the scrap box for a while she finally had to admit that there were no scraps of the dress in the box that were big enough to tie her ponytails with so she decided to pick out two or three different solid scraps to try on with the dress to see which color would look the best on her.

When she retuned with the scraps of fabric that she had found well there was her best friend Maggie Joe admiring herself in the mirror wearing the dress she had left on her seat.  

"Oh! This dress is so pretty!" Maggie Jo exclaimed. "I just love the colors!"

"Thank you!" Della replied. "I was just thinking that I had made the perfect choice myself!  Now will you please take it off so that I can get ready to go to Dollywood?"

"I don't think I will, Maggie Joe answered."  "This is the one I am wearing to Dollywood. You can just go find you another one." 

Della was speechless!  She could not believe that her friend would treat her this way.  "If you don't take my dress off right now then you will no longer be my friend", She sputtered.     

Maggie Joe did not even stop admiring herself to answer.  "I guess we just won't be friends anymore then!" she replied, "I am not taking it off."  she added.

Della walked away steaming with anger while Maggie Joe twirled slowly around in front of the mirror to get a better perspective of herself in the dress.

Della went back to looking at the dresses and finally chose a sleeveless purple and cream homespun check print dress.  She tied a soft cream strip of fabric around her ponytails, and stood back to look at herself in the mirror.

That baby blue dress would have looked so much better on me then it did on Maggie Joe with her dark skin and nappy hair she thought.   She guessed she was ready to go to.  

It was still some time before they were to be loaded into the van for the long drive to Pigeon Forge so she decided that she would just take a nap until it was time to leave.

Della woke up to a flurry of activity. Myra was taking each doll from the shelf and was putting them into a box for their trip to Dollywood, and as Della watched Myra picked up Lucy and her Goosey and placed them into one of the waiting boxes.

Finally it was Della's turn to go in the box.  Myra picked her up and sat her in the box, and there looking back at her with a big smirk on her face was her now X-friend Maggie Joe.

"Oh no you don't!" Della hissed at Maggie Jo. You got to go find another box to ride in!

"No! You go find another box!" Maggie Jo answered smugly. "Myra put me in first!"

Della started to say heck with it and just go throw Maggie Joe out herself, but before she could move Myra put the lid on the box, and placed the box in the waiting van. 

"It was dark in the box except for the cracks left on each side for handholds so after the excitement of getting ready for the trip that morning all the other dolls in the box were ready to settle down for a nice nap all except for Della who was wide awake now.  She couldn't have slept anyway.  She was just too dog gone mad at Maggie Jo.   

"I will pull her kinky little black curls out, and she will learn not to be so darn sticky fingered." she fumed to herself.

Della did not realize that she had spoken out loud until Goosie honked with sleepy surprise. Then all the other dolls in the box started fussing at her for waking Lucy's noisy goose.

After they had all settled back down Della decided to just look out the tiny crack in the box handle and watch the passing scenery through the window of the van.  She also decided to think about how she was going to get even with that sneaky no good X friend of hers when they got to Dollywood.

Finally after what seemed like hours they arrived at the Dollywood. 

Myra could not find the employee entrance that she was supposed to use to get into the park so she had to call the Dollywood office for help.

Chris who was the Harvest Fesitval Director told her to wait right there and he would come out to meet her.

Della was embarrassed for Myra when Chris led the way through the park to their booth on a golf cart while Myra followed closely behind him in the van.

Chris showed Myra where to park near her booth so that the others who were still arriving could get around her, and told her that he would send some employees around to help her set her booth up then he quickly left because he had many things to do that afternoon.

Myra started unloading the boxes of dolls, and sitting them in front of the booth while she waited for the promised help to arrive.

Finally all the boxes were unloaded so she started taking the lids off the boxes.  Finally Della was able to get a good look at what was to be her new home for the next 30 days.

The booth had a rough wall at the back with a small window with no pane.  It had had two flaps that met in the middle with a lock to keep it closed.  The other two rough walls did not have a window.  

The front of the booth was open all the way across.  It had a tent flap that rolled up on a long thick wooden dowel to serve as a door.  This tent flap had to be rolled up in the morning when the store opened at 10:00, and rolled down when the store closed at 6:00 in the evening.  

There was a  It was to be that helped to roll the flap up when the park opened in the morning and then helped keep the flap up when it was placed in a holder on each side of the booth. The dowel was then rolled down to close the booth when the park closed in the evening.

The back wall of the booth had a opening without a window pane or screen. All it had over the opening was two wooden flaps that met in the center and latched, and the two rough 
The only thing in the booth at the moment was a rough wooden counter top type stand that went half way across the front opening of the booth.

A little way in front of the booth was a bunch of seats and a stage, and over top of the stage was a large sign that said Dolly’s Family Reunion and the times that this family reunion were to be preformed.

To the left of the booth was a bridge leading over to the little kid rides, and to the right of Myra’s booth were other shed like booths and the public restrooms.

Myra did not have to wait long until her promised help arrived.

The two girls introduced themselves as Alice and Linda, and they told Myra that they would be the ones who would be relieving her for her lunch breaks.

They talked to her for a few minutes discussing what she needed to display her dolls on and they quickly left to locate the wanted items.

A few minutes later they returned on a golf cart that pulling a small trailer behind it that was holding two wooden bookshelves, what looked like a whiskey barrel, and some other wooden items.

The bookshelves were quickly placed with one on each side of the back wall, and Myra got to work placing the many 18” to 19” dolls on the bookshelves while Linda got to work putting shelf brackets on each side of the window to hold an unpainted wooden shelf board so that Myra could display her many nodders.

On the floor beneath the window Alice placed a wagon with one broken wheel where Myra placed Sailor Andy, and Missy.

On one side of the wagon Alice put a wicker lunch box with two openings in the top where Myra placed Lucy and her noisy Goosie, and on the other side Alice put a tall and narrow wicker basket with a square opening in the front and an opening at the top where Myra placed tall Gracie and Turnip.

The whiskey barrel had a false bottom in the top with a 6” drop which made it just perfect to display all Myra’s mini Raggedy Ann’s and Andy’s, and she quickly placed as many of them as she could in the top of the whiskey barrel.

Beside the whiskey barrel next to the opening of the booth Myra set a 24” tall by 12” square wooden box where she placed Dora with her arms hanging over the top of the wooden box on one side and Maggie Jo on the other side with her arms also hanging over.

Linda and Alice then went to putting hangers on each of the side walls so that Myra could hang her bag holder dolls.


To be continued....

Mystery in the Doll Room

Sailor Andy was still admiring the black ink tattoo that Myra had put on his shoulder earlier that morning.  It was a tattoo of an anchor, and Sailor Andy thought that it set off his outfit just perfectly.

Just then Myra came back into the room, followed by her 14-year-old grand-daughter Nicole who was spending the night.

Myra sat down in front of the computer to check her email while Nicole sat in the chair beside her.

Saillor Andy watched them while they worked on the computer.

"Well, I just sold Abigail and Gracie" Myra exclaimed to Michele. "I have had those two dolls listed on my website for so long that I had about gven up hope of ever selling them."

"Which two dolls are Abigail and Gracie?" Nicole asked.

"The two dolls sitting on the shelf with their arms around each other", Myra answered. 

The two dolls were sitting side by side with their arms around each other's shoulders.  

One doll was a black doll with black ponytails. She was wearing a blue and cream homespun check print dress with a big pink button on the bodice of her dress.  Her ponytails were tied with scraps of the pink fabric left over from the other dolls dress.   

The other doll was white with red pony tails.  She wearing a pink and cream homespun check print dress with a big blue button on the bodice of her dress.  Her ponytails were tied with scraps of the blue fabric left over the other doll's dress.

"Which one is Abigail, and which one is Gracie's?" Nicole asked. 

"Abigail is the white doll, and Gracie is the black one." Myra answer.

Nicole looked at them and laughed saying, "I can see why it took so long to sell them because they are both pretty homely."

Myra just laughed too as she turned off the light and followed Nicole from the room.

Sailor Andy was just starting to drift off to sleep when he heard a rustling noise somewhere off to his left. As he peered thru the slight light coming in through the window from the street light outside he was surprised to see Abigail and Gracie playing with the spool of crochet thread that Myra had absentmindly left on the shelf that morning when she came in to do his tattoo.

Sailor Andy was puzzled as he watched them play with the thread because they appeared to be tying knots in Myra's crochet thread, and he knew that Myra would not be happy when she saw it.

Abigail and Gracie both jumped when Sailor Andy asked "What are you tying knots in Myra's crochet thread for?"

"We are making a rope to climb down from the shelf so that we can hide," Gracie answered nervously as she started to bite her fingernail.

"Oh I love to play hide and seek!" Andy said excidedly. "Can I play with you?"

"No!" Abigail told him crossly as she glared at him. "You need to go to sleep now!"

Sailor Andy was disappointed that the two older dolls would not let him play!

The two dolls kept tying knots in the thread as Sailor Andy watched sleepily, and just as he was about to drift off he thought he saw them drop one end of the crochet thread over the edge of the shelf and start to climb down to the floor below, but he could have been dreaming.

"What did you go tell him that for?", Abailgail asked crossly as they started climbing down the make shift ladder.

"I'm sorry!" Gracie asnwered. "He just caught me by surprise."

"Well, You should have known the boy would have want to go to if you said you were going to go hide!" Abigail scolded her.

"I know! I'm sorry!" Gracie again apologized Then she thought that it was time to change the subject so that her cranky friend would quit scolding her so she asked, "Where are we going to hide anyway?"

"I have been thinking about that," Abigail answered. "I have an idea, but I don't know how well it will work!"

"Tell me anyway!", Gracie said excitedly.

"Well, Danielle brought her backpack when she came to spend the night, and we could just hide at the bottom of it until Myra gets tired of looking for us." Abigail mused!

Gracie could not think of anything better so they both got into Danielle's back pack and crawled down past all Danielle's stuff down to the the bottom of the bag.

It was early in the morning when some strange noises woke Practical Penny up. She knew even before she looked down from her perch on the doll shelf that Myra was searching for something again. Myra was always losing her things..

"What in the world is Myra looking for now?" whispered Whimsical Wendy as she leaned so far out to get a better look that Practical Penny had to grab her twin sister to keep her from falling off the shelf.

"You need to be more careful before you fall and break a stitch," Practical Penny quietly scolded her.

Whimsical Wendy dutifully scooted back and looked thoughtful for a minute. "Maybe she has lost her best fabric scissors that no one is allowed to touch," she whispered after thinking for a bit.

No! I don't think that is what she is looking for," said Practical Penny quietly. "I can see her scissors laying there on the table below us."

Whimsical Wendy thought for a few more minutes while Myra dumped out another box of craft items, and started putting everything back into the box piece by piece.

"Well maybe she is looking for her long doll needle again," Whimsical Wendy whispered again after a bit of thought. "You know that she is always losing them."

"No! "I don't think that it is the doll needles this time either," said Practical Penny quietly. "I can see two of them on the pin cushion down there beside Myra's sewing machine."

Whimsical Wendy’s forehead wrinkled in thought. "Well I see the muslin, the stuffing, the paint, the sewing thread, the embroidery thread, her needles, and her scissors so what else does she need to make a doll with she mused."

Just then Whimsical Wendy heard hubby say something to Myra from the other room. "What in the world are you doing in there?" he complained. "You're making so much noise that I can't hear the TV.

Myra left the box that she was searching through and walked to the door leading to the other room while she wiped a few stray strands of hair out of her eyes.

"I sold two dolls from my website last night," she told hubby, "They were supposed to be on the doll shelves, and now I can't find them anywhere. I can't figure out where they went."

Myra came back into the doll room and finished searching through the last box of craft items while the two dolls watched in silence. She must have given up on finding the two dolls because as the two dolls watched she began to straighten her room.

Practical Penny was thoughtful while she watched Myra clean. She remembered hearing a lot of whispering and rustling last night after the lights went out, and now Myra had told hubby that two dolls were missing from the shelves. She wondered which two dolls it could be as she looked around the doll room.

Her attention was drawn back to Whimsical Wendy when she anxiously whispered, "Which two dolls did Myra sell?" When Practical Penny looked at her sister her big grin had disappeared and tears were beginning to form at the thought of being separated from her twin sister Practical Penny.

"Well it could not have been either of us" Practical Penny told her twin sister quietly as she gave her a reasuring hug. "We are still sitting here in plain sight, and the two dolls that Myra sold are missing."

Whimsical Wendy looked relieved and her big grin started to form again at Practical Penny's answer.

"The only two dolls that I see missing are Abigail and Gracie." Practical Penny continued quietly. "Do you know where they went?"

Just then Practical Penny noticed Sailor Andy who was waving his arms and hands around like he was about to take to flight and fly down from the doll shelf.

"What in the world is Sailor Andy doing?" Practical Penny quietly asked Whimsical Wendy.

Just then the phone rang in the living room and Myra left the doll room to go answer it.

After Myra left the room Sailor Andy spoke up and said, "I was trying to talk to you in sign language!"

"I don't understand finger talk!" Practical Penny said crossly. "If you can’t speak and want to tell me something then just wait until Myra leaves," she said grumpily. "What did you want to tell me anyway?"

Sailor Andy swelled up with importance because he knew something that the other dolls did not know. "They must have ran away last night!" he told the other dolls excitedly.

All the dolls in the doll room started talking at once.

"Why would they run away?" demanded Fancy Pants from across the room.

"They could get hurt"! exclaimed Scaredy Cat from his perch next to Fancy Pants.

"Oh those poor dears" moaned Nurse Nancy, "They could bust a stitch and no one will be there to fix it for them!"

"Shhhhh!" demanded Practical Penny. "Let Sailor Andy speak!" "Now tell us why they ran away!" she demanded.

"When Myra got the order last night she said that she had sold Gracie and Abigail, and I guess they did not want to be sold so I guess they just ran away!" Sailor Andy explained.

"How could running away be any better than being sold?" asked Practical Penny.

"I don't know!" Sailor Andy replied, "I just know that they were here making a rope to climb down off the shelves last night when the lights went out, and now they are gone!" he explained.

Just then Myra came back into the sewing room followed by Nicole and all conversations between the dolls stopped.

"What are you going to do about the two missing dolls?" Nicole asked Myra.

"I have two more of the doll dresses made just like the ones I sold were wearing, and I have the materials to make two more dolls so I guess that I will just make them again."Myra answered.

"Are you going to tell the customer that you have to make them again?" Nicole asked.

"No, because the last time this happened the customer cancelled her order," Myra replied.

Myra got out her muslin and her patterns to make two new dolls, and Danielle sat down in front of the computer and went to facebooking with her friends while Myra worked.

Practical Penny looked around the now neat sewing room and wished that it would just stay this way so that Myra would not have to spend so much time searching for things.

Just then she noticed Black Bertha looking guilty and trying to hide behind Sandy Giggles. Practical Penny remembered that Myra had sold Black Bertha last year, and that Black Bertha had disappeared and did not come out of hiding until the customer had canceled her order.

To be continued......

A New Addition in the Doll Room

Chrissy Lou was awakened bright and early by Myra. 

Chrissy Lou looked over at her twin sister to see if she was awake yet, and saw that Missy Lee was trying to hold her collar out of the way so that she could look over the doll shelf to see just what was going on below.  

"Can you see what Myra is doing?" Chrissy Lou whispered 

"She is searching for something again", Missy Lee whispered back.

Myra finally found her scissors, and sat down in front of her sewing machine and started to sew.

A few minutes later she finished with her sewing, and she started to cut out, then turn, and then to stuff the object she had sewn while Chrissy Lou and Missy Lee watched intently trying to guess just what Myra was making.

"Maybe she is finally making us our two brothers Missy Lee whispered excitedly" as Myra got up and left the room.

"Where did you ever hear that we were supposed to have two brothers", Chrissy Lou demanded crossly. After all she was supposed to be the oldest, and the one who knew what was going on in the doll room. 

Chrissy Lou was immediately sorry that she had been so cross with her sister when she saw Missy Lee's bright smile begin to fade, and a big tear forming in one eye.

"Well I overheard Myra yesterday trying to find two names for boys that rhymed with Chrissy and Missy", Missy Lee answered tearfully. 

Just then Myra came back with a plastic shopping bag from the kitchen, and she began to clean off a corner of the table. 

Chrissy Lou made a mental note to herself that she should apologize for being so cross to her sensitive little sister as they both quietly watched Myra get out her paints. 

Myra finished painting her newest addition to the doll room, and laid it back on the plastic shopping bag to dry, and then she left.  

It was really quiet in the doll room after Myra left except for an occasional rustle from the center of the plastic shopping bag.

Chrissy Lou and Missy Lee climbed down from the doll shelves to go see just what Myra had been working on.  

They had almost inched close enough to touch the shopping bag when Missy Lee could not stand the suspense anymore. She started to ask Chrissy Lou "Can you see what Myra was working on?", but barely got the words "Can you" out when there came a startled howl from the midst of the shopping bag.  and both she and her sister fell back into twisted heaps on the table.  

Chrissy Lou was trying to peer around Missy Lee who had fallen on top of her when she saw two grey ears with pink centers begin to slowly rise up over the edge of the shopping bag followed by two green eyes and a pink nose with black whiskers sticking out from both sides of the nose.  

"It's a kitten", both Chrissy Lou and Missy Lee exclaimed at the same time, as the kitten bounced up out of the bag and came jumping towards them. 

Chrissy Lou and Missy Lee spent quite a few minutes trying to get untangled and upright to welcome the kitten to its new home in the doll room, but the kitten was so intent on introducing itself that it kept knocking them both back down again. 

They decided to name him Tigger because he was so bouncy.