Bethjoy.com

Since I was just doing a “test” to see how the blue screen worked I just made this extremely short little test. However, for the first time in Bethjoy.com history you can see two of me on the screen at the same time. Very cool this is and it means that I will be able to do better movies in the future, hopefully.
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I was looking at the Search Keywords (Top 10) list and they are: the, how, to royal, patterns, crowns, towel, dresses, animals, of. So this being what people have come to my website searching for perhaps I should write “How to make royal patterns for dresses, animals, and crowns out of a towel.” Unfortunately I don’t know how to do so, so I can’t write it. The two people who came to my website searching for “mccalls patterns archives” were probably disappointed but I’m certain the person who searched for “dollmarket” had something interesting to read.

And just how somebody came to my website with the search “home depot legal” I have no clue. “dogs bad habits”, “walmart company diagram”, “plastic canvas star wars patterns”, “discounted weeding dresses”, “repairing time strike on clocks”, “midi the horse cliff nobles” and “ice cream theme weddings” are a few of the other rather unusual things people have searched for and found my website. Which is why I think I’m going to try typing informative posts on obscure subjects hoping that people will stumble across my site during a search. And so far this month I’ve had 136 unique visitors.

Also, on a completely different subject, I’ve typed about three and a half pages on “The Rough Draft of a Love Story between a Handsome Prince and a Beautiful Princess”. The Princess has just been rescued for the first time, that I know of, by the handsome prince and they are currently riding off towards her kingdom. So far I have nineteen characters with names, though they are very temporary names. I doubt I will keep the name, “King Fatsoe” for a certain character as when he was born I doubt his parents could have known that one day the name would be very appropriate for him.

And also one character, Sir Ralco, has two sidekicks so I simply named them, Uno and Dos which One and Two in Spanish. I’m having a fun time with my “temporary names”. In a rough draft if you are having a problem with either a characters name, or a location, or an action or something you can just casually write something there and then, hopefully, go back later and replace it with something brilliant, or at least passable. So now it is either time to go to sleep, or write more on my story or do something else.

And here it is. It isn’t very much but it wasn’t meant to be. I mainly just wanted to test a few things. Watch Film

Today I worked in the shop. I definitely could not have called Mordor today because it was fairly cold out there and Mordor is very warm and sickening. Perhaps Caradhras would be more appropriate. And for those of you who don’t know, Caradhras is a mountain in middle earth that has a nasty reputation and is typically cold and snowy near the summit.

Though really, I don’t mind working in the shop. I used to not like it but now I actually enjoy it, to some extant. I really enjoy getting paychecks and I REALLY enjoy going shopping with the knowledge that if I see something I like very much I can buy it. I’m typically very careful with my money though, I never spend more than I earn though every once in a while I will borrow money from Mom but only if it is coming to me in the next paycheck.

But what does all of this have to do with an Arachnephobic and two deceased spiders? Well, as you might guess I have Arachnephobia which, providing I spelled it correctly, is a fear of spiders. I don’t really like them but I think I would prefer to be in the company of a deceased spider than a cobra. That was what I was thinking in the shop today while I was in the company of two deceased spiders.

I was working on putting Mega Gridlocks into boxes with the proper hardware. The basic Gridlock pieces were all in a huge crate, which had been kept outdoors for some time, and I was taking them out and putting them into boxes. A while ago when I was doing this same task I had encountered a spider, only that time it was alive so I was feeling a trifle apprehensive about encountering a member of the insect or spider species. Finally, I did.

I was reaching to pick up a gridlock when I noticed something on it. My first thought was, “Yellow Jacket, RUN!!!” but then it changed to “Spider, probably alive. Move back quickly!”. Then As I cautiously examined my thought changed to, “Probably Deceased Spider, Keep on Working but in Different Area of Crate”. So I kept on working until John came to check on me and I asked him if the spider looked dead to him. He said it did and very kindly moved that particular Mega-Gridlock to the other end of the crate away from me.

Things were going well for a bit after than when I encountered what I think was the mate of the first spider. Both spiders were a strange shade of Orange and had their eight legs curled up under them. John not being around I continued working, though extremely cautiously in case there were any other spiders or insects in the crate. Fortunately I did not encounter any and I think I worked a trifle quicker, though more cautiously, than I did before encountering the spiders. I was very thankful I didn’t encounter any snakes, I am far more ophiciophobic than I am arachnephobic. And as I just looked up on Google, Ophiciophobia is the Fear of Snakes. I actually have looked up quite a bit of information for this post, including whether or not a cobra is venamous, how to spell arachenphobia.

I found a rather neat site all about phobias. I do not think I have chrometophobia, ecclesiophobia, anthophobia, or graphophobia. However I am afraid I feel too lazy to mention what all of those mean, though perhaps I ought. Chrometophobia is the fear of money. Ecclesiophobia is the fear of church. Anthophbia is the fear of flowers. And lastly graphophobia is the fear of writing, which considering the amount of writing I’ve done over the past two years I don’t think I have. I do feel sorry for people who have panphobia, which is the fear of everything.

And in case you have ever wondered, Entomophobia is the fear of insects, Ailurophobia is the fear of cats, and Agyrophobia is the fear of crossing the street. And now with all of this cheerful talk about phobia’s I shall end this post.

This evening has been rather odd. At first I thought I would write a story and I wanted some background music so I put in a DVD that had a music video on it for a song that was very lovely. However I didn’t type a story and I started thinking about doing a music video and I thought about a poem I had recently read called Eletelephony which was written by Laura E. Richards. The reason I need to appologise to Handel as well is I combined a song written by that great composer, “The Harmonious Blacksmith” with “Eletelephony” and since I can’t sing… Well, I probably should have done some sort of visual with it but… I didn’t. I hope that you can enjoy the result. It took me some time to finally settle on which tune to sing it to, Clair de Lune did not work nor did several works of Chopin.

Listen to “The Harmonious Eletelephony”

If you want an explanation of these pictures, read the previous post. The young lady in the red shirt is me.

Tin Man and Toto Too

Now I know I’m not in Kansas anymore

Personally I work for cash

At a very early hour this morning I woke up, or actually I was awakened noisily. I don’t usually like to get up before six o’clock in the morning but this morning was different, we were going to the Dollmarket!!! After gulping down a glass of milk I transfered my stuff to the car and then settled down for a two hour continuance of my slumber while my Dad drove us to the Dollmarket. About forty-five minutes before arriving at our destination we stopped at Mcdonalds where I ate a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit with a milk.

We got to the Dollmarket about a half an hour before it opened. After intently peering through the windows of the sale room Mom said that it was time for a bathroom break so we stopped at Burger King. When we got back Mom suggested that I stand in line for the Sale room since from previous experience we knew that in the first few minutes of it being open rapid doll collectors would rush in grabbing every bargain in sight.

I was the first person to stand out in front of the store and I watched as the staff were making last minute preparations. As these involved taking displays out of the store and setting them up outside the door was open and apparently my look of longing towards the dolls inside with their sale tags was noticed because the lady in charge said, “You can go in”. I suppose my asking if I could do so had something to do with my being given permission to go in. It was so COOL!!! I was the ONLY customer in the sale room and I got in at least ten minutes before everybody else who had to wait until nine when it officially opened. I felt like a VIP. It was a foreshadowing of things to come…

Although several dolls caught my eye I ended up only getting a magazine at the sale room, and Mom was kind enough to purchase it for me. It was a Doll Costuming magazine and had a pattern in it that would fit my “big” fashion dolls, as in the ones that stared in Shortella. So that was a very nice find.

Since the main showroom was now open I walked in. The moment I did so I noticed that something very odd was going on. On the floor and in regular intervals were squares of yellow brick road. A Tin Man was walking around as were various other Ozish characters. Apparently the dress code for all of the sales people was Oz themed. When Mom came in a few minutes later she and I walked around and took my pictures with most of them. I did not have my picture take with the Wicked Witch of the West, Mom took her picture separately. One of the female salespersons was the cowardly lion. She had a sign on that said, “Will work for Courage”. I thought that that was funny.

There are a lot of dolls at the Dollmarket. the place is huge, maybe not as huge as the Caverns of Moria or even a Walmart Supercenter but still it is a very large store filled to the brim with dolls. Everywhere you look there some sort of porcelain or vinyl beauty crying “Take me Home with you!”. Unfortunately most of the cries must go unheeded for a long time since almost all of the dolls in the room are merely floor models and when go to the checkout and buy one you get one sealed in the box. So a doll must cry “buy me” quite a lot before she is finally bought.

I came in the purpose of buying a Tonner Fashion Doll. I had carefully researched them and I felt confident that that was what I wanted. Swiftly I followed the Yellow Brick Road to where the dolls I was seeking. Minutely I examined them. Lovely I thought them. But after showing each of my choices to mother and hearing her less than ecstatic opinion of each one I finally ended up settling on a doll that I had barely even considered during my online research. It was a Madame Alexandra Alex doll, or actually a Sofia doll though she was in the same line. She was very posable and I thought that she would be good for stop-action.

However before making up my mind on which doll I wanted I was drawn to a table that said “Door Prizes” on it. After admiring the dolls on it, especially a Basic Brenda doll that at the time I was considering buying I inquired how you become eligible for a door prize. Finding that every one who came was allowed to get a ticket and enter I wrote my name in the designated spot on the ticket and dropped it into the container and hoped to win the door prize. Mom did not enter a ticket.

Now, I had gotten up very early that morning and although I had slept in the car there was a slight matter of being awake past one o’clock last night which made me tired so after looking at most of the dolls in a rapid manner I went out to the car and took a short nap and looked at the results of Mom’s excursion into the sale room. She had two dolls and an outfit and some miscellaneous.

Being now refreshed and ready for further shopping I entered again into the sale room and continued my perusal of the beautiful merchandise. Mother had almost finished making her selections and was probably ready to check out. However it was still before eleven o’clock when the “VIP’s” were going to arrive. Several of the designers of the dolls were going to be there you see. Mom was ready for a bit of a break so we drove to a nearby McDonalds were dad ordered chicken strips with barbecue sauce and a diet coke. I do not like Barbecue sauce so dad was kind enough to get me ranch dressing. Mom had packed an ice chest with milk for me and peanut butter crackers so we had a good snack and rest before going back to the Dollmarket for the last time that day!

We entered again and Robert Tonner, designer of the Tyler Wentworth Doll amongst others, was there. But the Tonner catalogues were not so Mom did not buy one. She soon asked a lady in an Emerald Green gown to write down her order. Since the dolls are not supposed to leave their displays the numbers on their tags are written down by the salespeople who will also answer questions to the best of their ability. Mom was getting her order written down when I joined them and as they were in the near vicinity of the doll I had decided to get, I had her write that down as well as a set of three little fake cupcakes that were perfectly sized for my dolls. None of them are on diets you see.

Then it was time to stand in line at the checkout for a while. As I stood in line they announced the first door prize winner, it wasn’t me. In fact there were so many people in front of me that a half an hour later when they announced the next door prize I was still standing in line. Again the named that was called was not mine. However the person didn’t show up to claim it so a few moments later the lady called another name. That person didn’t show up either so I made a quiet suggestion, “Why don’t you call out Elizabeth Von Fange?”. The lady laughed and reached in and pulled out the next raffle ticket. It was completely unexpected to me but she picked up the announcer and said, “Will Elizabeth Von Fange please come to the front.” Of course I was already there and very excitedly I claimed my door prize! It wasn’t one of the dolls I wanted but hey, NEVER look a gift horse in the mouth, in other words, when you are given something for free don’t criticize it. I had borrowed a twenty dollar bill from Mommy to cover my purchases so when she came over and admired the doll I had won(it had a retail value of $30.00) I said, “You can have her if I can keep the twenty.” So Mommy got a door prize even though she didn’t fill out a ticket.

I was now at the cash register were I learned the news that the doll I had finally selected to buy was out of stock. So I just bought the cupcake set which was $4.00. I could hardly believe that on a trip to the Dollmarket I had only spent under $5.00 so I decided I needed to buy something else. As I had already won a door prize and as I really liked the Basic Brenda doll that was over there and as she was a Tonner Fashion Doll which was what I had come into the store with the firm determination of buying and as she was on sale for $25.00(the other doll had been $30.00) I had her written down and then went back in line to buy her.

Quite some time later, the person in front of me had had two pages of dolls and outfits, I had paid and was able to join Mom who had already gotten her numerous purchases. And then I got to see my cupcakes. When you buy something some one has to go back in the stock room and get it for you. As I had been in line Mom had gotten my cupcakes for me. They are really nice looking. As I waited for my new doll to come from the depths of the stock room I noticed that there were several “free” gifts being handed out to those who purchased certain dolls. As I had gotten a Tonner doll I got the Tonner gifts, which was a little ornament doll and a little tan bag which was just perfect for my doll to hold.

After this we went to the car and it was fairly full since we had a lot of stuff other than dolls already in it. Mom wanted to go to the Bass Pro Outlet(not sure on the name actually) and get Dad a new pair of special shoes so we drove there next. Being exhausted with my long stand in line I napped all of the way to our next stop. However when Mom and Dad went into the store I got out my new doll. Since she is a “basic” doll she was dressed in under things. I had brought a doll and a few extra outfits with me so I quickly dressed Brenda in a pair of blue jeans and a deep gold top that I had made myself. The tan bag matched the outfit perfectly and a pair of black boots made the ensemble complete. She looks very nice and I am quite pleased with her.

The next stop was Chili’s were we ate a lunch/supper meal since it was now about three. Then it was off to Mary Joes, a large fabric store with a gorgeous selection of fabric, and way less than gorgeous prices. Mom was looking for some fabric in particular and I was looking for some fabric that would make nice doll clothes since I was very pleased with the blouse I had made which Brenda was wearing. However the prices of fabric at Mary Joes are a bit higher than they are at Walmart, though the fabric is definitely more impressive. eventually I found the remnant bins and found four nice remnants which I bought. My total was about seven dollars.

We then walked down to a nearby doll and toy shop were I successfully resisted buying two dolls and three outfits that I really liked and almost would have bought. When I reached the car I was shocked to find that I had over fifteen dollars in cash still with me. When I had left for the trip I had had $36.00 exactly with me so I was shocked to find how much money I had left. I had expected to spend a LOT more than that.

After Mary Joes it was time to return home. I rested a bit on the way and looked at my new acquisitions and also the inside of my eyelids. When I got home it was time to write a post while the memories were still fresh, which is what I’m doing now. I had a WONDERFUL day today and I enjoyed it very much. Everything I bought was a good buy and I had several unexpected surprises, like getting into the sale room before everyone else and winning a door prize. And there still is some day left! Who knows what other wonderful things might happen today and in the future? God does.

Instead of leaving today to go to the vicinity of the Dollmarket we are going to leave tomorrow morning very early. I am very much looking forward to it, as well as going to a very neat fabric store too. It will be a long day but very fun! And it will probably end up taking a severe toll and my finances. However money has little value until you spend it…

If you remember some time ago I put on here a scene from a yet to be filmed movie, it had leaders of the rebellion trying to decide which pizza to order. This is the “rest” of the movie, though it isn’t really. During filming I left out a few lines and due to starting my lines before the camera started filming I lost the beginning of several lines. And also in this web version I cut the opening out so instead of a full minute of explanations and introductions of characters, you get right into the action.

This movie is quite unusual because only ONE outfit in it was sewn by me, and also an actual human being other than me is in it. Thought it was purely accidental, my Dad walked into the shot so I used it since it looks as though it is intentional. He is the man in the green shirt holding some papers, undoubtedly a person of great importance.

I hope you enjoy this film, what there is of it. Perhaps someday I’ll go through and revise and refilm it so it can be seen in it’s true glory. However for something a sixteen year old girl did all by herself, more or less, it isn’t that bad.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five

The past few days have been, interesting. I’ve stayd up late and woken up at a normal time and then been sleepy and tired all day and I haven’t been getting much writing done. Mainly because of either DVD’s or the internet.

Since the trip to the Dollmarket is imminent I have been preparing for it, both by doing online research and by playing with my existing dolls. It is really fun playing with my existing dolls, if you watch the movie a few posts back you can see what a result of playing with them is. I’m hoping to make a few more movies staring my plastic and vinyl friends.

It’s going to be a fun weekend since we, Dad, Mom and I, are leaving Friday afternoon for Greensborough where the Dollmarket is. We are going to stay Friday night at Embassy Suites and then Saturday morning the Big Event will be. There is a special evet going on at the Dollmarket, the sale room will be open and there will be some important persons in the doll world present.

I have about an hours worth of time to fill right now since everybody else is exercising and I am not and I must wait until they are finished to go home. It is only on rare ocasions like these that I wish I had my own car, or really I would prefer some sort of small backpack that when desired would unfold into a fast moving vehicle which would have sufficient safety features to please Mommy. A built in DVD player would be nice to as would be a piloting system where you would just say where you wanted to go and it would take you there. One of my fictional characters has vehicles similar to this one. Typically my bicycle will mysteriously change into one of these vehicles, when it isn’t a horse.

Now due to the fact that there are a LOT of distractions claiming my attention this post may or may not make sense or be grammatically correct. I suppose if I proofread this problem would be nonexistent but…

I still have quite a bit of time to fill so perhaps I’ll work on writing something else other than a post.