Ivy and Ellie

Friday, May 17, 2024

A new edition to my Barbie Collection

In My Barbie World I had been wanting the Odelie Face Mold in the new Mermaid series. She is the most beautiful of Barbies as of late, and evidently a real steal for someone because I never received my first one from Amazon way back in January.

It didn't look promising. They didn't have them anymore. Only a few were made. I guess. Sure, I was full of envy watching all the You Tube about this Must Have! Of course, who wants a mermaid around in your collection. Well, Die Hards who never open the package I guess. But some of us really love playing with our Barbies. You know, making clothes and sets (although, I'm still on the thought process with most and someone always ends up with my box room..but maybe someday soon!

I had a body doner waiting! When I found out Amazon had some, I ordered it thinking it would get here soon, then they said Thursday. I was expecting another long expectation of waiting, but to my surprise, it came on Mother's Day! Definitely a sweet surprise!

I am calling her Ava at the moment...until I think of something better!

Ken in a kilt. Yeah, I got some plaid from the Craft Swap! Um, he needs a better name..I'm going for "Steen"! Um, his under shirt is made from a black balloon.

Wednesday, May 15, 2024

That Time I met a PopStar at a Party

It was all an accident, you know from the Get-Go. I wasn't even invited, but at the last minute Stevie said, "I know you've always wanted to meet him."

He grinned at me as if he knew he was my bestie even if only guys were invited to those late nights at the Lake House on LBJ.

Of course, I was not a guy, not even a boy. "Will, I have to come in disguise?"

Naturally, Stevie laughed. "I don't think so." He said it would be obvious, no matter how I dressed that I was not a guy. So we went with it.

Oh, what a crowd. Such a busy place, inside and out. A pool to boot. Some might have been naked for all I knew. Maybe I took a peek. God, did it scare me. Were musicians really like this?

So I was trying to find the bathroom. But there he was in a room, all alone.

"Anxieties?" I asked.

"You too?" Oh, that blank look on his face. All I wanted was to chug down some water.

"I know I shouldn't have come," I nodded, hoping I hadn't walked in on anything. Of course, he was a beautiful man, and I always thought secretly, he was using all those actresses to hide his real feelings.

"I don't know why I'm here, either," he shook his head as if no one seemed to take him seriously.

He poured me a glass of water. Asked my name. Of course, I knew who he was. We sat on the couch, pretending we were waiting for the inevitable.

"You didn't dress up for the occasion?" He looked me over.

"Oh, I didn't know I was coming," I told him giving him back the glass that he set on the coffee table. "My friend Stevie knows this place. He's..he's between boys, and well, he knew I often wondered about these parties." I told him it was Steve Martin who started these weekend getaways in early May, here in the hill country which wasn't all that far from the Austin City Limits.

"Steve Martin? Really?"

"Well, or so Stevie said his uncle used to come here then. I guess Mr. Martin sold the place. He's from Waco, you know."

"Waco?" Again he gave me a serious look with a lopsided smirk. "Truly, you know your towns around here, missy."

He talked about being a serious musician now. Said he'd started a band just after making it in choir in high school.

"You do have a soulful voice," as I recalled when he was in the Darling somethings so long ago, or so my mother told me.

He chuckled with an open smile. His hair was as messy as it ever was. But he wasn't boy anymore. Hadn't been a boy for a very long time now.

Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Fiction Tuesday - Damsel

You may have seen the Netflix movie with Millie Bobby Brown. Who certainly puts her acting abilities to the test in this dragon tale. There is also the book based on the screenplay by Evelyn Skye. You might find it very YA although, at our library it is in the adult section. It is a bit of twisted fate. The predicuments a man has put a woman in. As some may know, we've been there. We've done that, but this time there is the dragon,

“I will get you, princess,” the dragon rasped. “Like all the ones before.”
“I am not just one of the many! My name is Elodie!” she shouted. “And the other princesses had names, too. Beatrice! Amira! Charlene! Fatima! Audrey! Rashmi! Yoojin!” She yelled all the names carved in the Safe Cave wall. “You will remember them! You will respect them!”

Elodie never dreamed of a lavish palace or a handsome prince. Growing up in the famine-stricken realm of Inophe, her deepest wish was to help her people survive each winter. So when a representative from a rich, reclusive kingdom offers her family enough wealth to save Inophe in exchange for Elodie’s hand in marriage, she accepts without hesitation. Swept away to the glistening kingdom of Aurea, Elodie is quickly taken in by the beauty of the realm—and of her betrothed, Prince Henry.

But as Elodie undertakes the rituals to become an Aurean princess, doubts prick at her mind as cracks in the kingdom’s perfect veneer begin to show: A young woman who appears and vanishes from the castle tower. A parade of torches weaving through the mountains. Markings left behind in a mysterious “V.” Too late, she discovers that Aurea’s prosperity has been purchased at a heavy cost—each harvest season, the kingdom sacrifices its princesses to a hungry dragon. And Elodie is the next sacrifice.

This ancient arrangement has persisted for centuries, leading hundreds of women to their deaths. But the women who came before Elodie did not go quietly. Their blood pulses with power and memory, and their experiences hold the key to Elodie’s survival. Forced to fight for her life, this damsel must use her wits to defeat a dragon, uncover Aurea’s past, and save not only herself, but the future of her new kingdom as well.

Is the movie better? Well, kind of like the book. It's good but not great.