Cruising down the highway

Along Kamehameha Highway North Shore looking west

One of the things I love to do when I'm on Oahu is drive to the North Shore and along the only road that circles the island, King Kamehameha Highway. It is a beautiful drive whether you head east or west on the island. I'm not sure which part of the highway this is but no matter it's beautiful. I never get tired of looking at the mountains here. Although unseen, the ocean is just off to the right.

It seemed like most days when I headed for the North Shore it was overcast. The one thing I did while in Hawaii, each and every day, is head out doors. Unless I was sleeping I was outside. And I walked...a lot!  In Arizona it is rare if you can catch me outside, it's either to cold or to hot, but there wasn't a day on Oahu, even when it reached the 90's that I wasn't traipsing somewhere in the open air. Why would you want to stay in your hotel room when you can enjoy this?? :) I wish I had taken a photo of some kind of landmark so I could pin point exactly where on the island this is.

I saw a extremely funny show on Netflix a couple of days ago. I laughed so hard my stomach muscles hurt. It was Jeff  Dunham's Arguing with Myself. I absolutely love his stand up routine. When you are watching him you know in the back of your mind he's making the puppets talk but you sit there and with the other part of your brain consider each puppet an individual personality and you can picture them having 'lives' off stage. Jeff really brings them to life. I couldn't tell you if Jeff moves his lips or not because all my attention is on the puppet and not on Jeff unless he's "arguing" with Walter or Peanut or one of the other characters. My favorite character is Peanut and I just love Walter. The funny thing is, I can actually see Walter as a door greater for Wal-mart except I doubt he'd last very long as an employee with his attitude. LOL

Lately, for some reason, I've been on a Barbara Cartland graving. That is to say I have been wanting to read her books. It was through her books that I discovered the romance genre. I started reading them in the early  70's and have since amassed quite a library of her novels. She wrote over 160 novels so I'm not any where near having every book she wrote. What always appealed to me about the books is that she would include real people who actually existed as well as real places. Through her books not only did I go back in time but I traveled the world. She literally introduced me to the historical romance.

What also appealed to me was the covers of her books. I found out just recently that the artist was a man named Frank Marshall. There is a great site: http://barbaracartlandbooksandcoverart.blogspot.com/
that has posted some of the covers from her books. I'm in the process of reading one of her books now: THE WILD CRY OF LOVE which takes place in the Camargue region of France. The time period is 1899 and the Kodak camera (I happily own one of it's descendants) has just been invented. The heroine of the story, Valda , is determined to show her Stepfather that she DOESN'T need a man and can make a name for herself, so with the help of some Gypsy's who had been camping on her stepfathers land and  were headed for Saintes Maries de la Mar she leaves her home and heads for the Camargue. When I used to read the books I'd go to the library and look up the places and people Cartland would mention in her novels. Now, thanks to the Internet I can travel to the Camargue, see the area and gaze upon the white horses and black cattle of the region. I used to collect maps in order to "travel" the world but with Google maps I don't have to do that any more. In fact, I pretty much got rid of my modern maps. I have kept my vintage ones. I love the colors used in them and they were made at a time when map making was an art. As to the historical people and events mentioned in the books it is easy to find anything regarding history on the web. Someone, somewhere has written a blog about it or them. Whether it was for a class paper or some professor who is knowledgeable in the subject. It's just a matter of finding the person or event. I've always loved history which is why historical romances appeal to me more than contemporary ones.

I tried to find among my collection a paper doll that would match today's date and alas I didn't have one. Most of my newspaper paper dolls don't have dates. So I decided that if I couldn't find one from years ago that matched the date of a post I would post one without a known date. Eventually I will run across the date and rename it later. Someone is always listing an old paper doll on Ebay so I'll eventually be able to put a proper date to this particular paper doll. Since last time it was Tillie the Toiler I thought I'd do Boots this time. I always love how the artist has the garments 'blowing in the breeze'. Since summer is literally right around the corner here is Boots water skiing. I don't think it would be practical to wear the dresses while on skis but it does look good the way the artist gave the impression of movement. You can find more of my Tillie, Boots and Jane Arden paper dolls as well as some of my art work here: http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/270210829nnfFyl I set up my Webshots site to share my work and my collection with every one else.

It's time to call this blog entry finished. But before I do, let me share a page of another paper doll set that I designed back in the 80's. (Still hunting for the other sets...sigh) Since I was on a space theme the last tine

Space Princess original size

Space Princess enlarged

I will continue with it by presenting Space Princess. Her costumes include outfits from Science Fiction films such as Galaxina, Star Crash, Flight to Mars, the television show Buck Rogers, from the Star Wars comics and designs by a fellow paper doll artist Diana Ablard, and by me.  I'm in the process of enlarging the set and cleaning it up a bit. I did find the original of this one and if you look at the small version (which is the original) you can see how the tracing paper that I used to make the clothes really shows up. Years ago I would have had to use a projector to enlarge any of my drawings, now with Photoshop it's just a matter of scanning and enlarging the drawing to the size I want. (Or vice verse) I like the larger version better. I re did her face a little and I'm darkening in the lines on her costumes and she'll be spread out over more pages. There is a lot of repairing I have to do but in the end, I think it will be worth the extra work. I had considered keeping her the same size, enlarging her to fix where the tracing paper was visible then reducing her back down but once I'd enlarged her, re did her face, I liked it and therefore decided to offer the enlarged set for sale. The large set won't have the black border, I darkened it for Elfwood. They're really picky if there is more white showing so I made the outer portion look more like a frame. As a foot note the pose was inspired by an illustration in an old Frederick's of Hollywood catalog that my husband used to receive. Wish I still had it so I can show the illustration that inspired her pose. Ah well...

Until next time...Aloha!