Custom Couture Crochet

(Pre-script: This post must be paired with the song, "Not Your Average Girl," so go down to the playlist and click on that song before you read this post. Don't argue, just do it. I'll wait.) (...still waiting...)

Grandma Angell had a drawer in her kitchen where she kept cheap plastic naked dolls. They all looked exactly alike, like cheap Barbie dolls without the cleavage. It was important for my young, impressionable mind and eyes to not be aware that such a thing as cleavage existed in the world. That was why I was not allowed to play with actual Barbie dolls. I was not allowed to play with Grandma's drawer of plastic naked dolls either. In fact, she only showed me the drawer one time after much whining and begging on my part. The dolls were being saved in the drawer for the moment when Grandma would pluck them individually out, free them from a life of always blending in with the crowd and never seeing the light of day, and don on their tiny doll frames custom couture crocheted dresses that Grandma had made. The dresses represented different cultures from around the world, and Grandma would send me two new fantastically clad dolls every birthday and Christmas. I loved my display of dolls in couture custom crocheted dresses; the only caveat was that my mom told me I couldn't play with them. That really threw a wrench in my plans, since, as you will surely recall, I was not allowed to have Barbie dolls. If I couldn't play with real Barbie dolls, at least I was hoping that I could play with these same height but lesser chested designer dolls. At least that. They would not gallivant with Ken, they would only look at each other and admire each other's gowns and customs from a distance.
Y'all, come close, and I will tell you a secret. It is not wise to give a girl a doll and tell her not to play with it. I still have those dolls in a box in the garage...somewhere...I hope...I'm pretty sure. Maybe I should dust them off and display them. But then my girls would see them and want to play with them. And then I would be compelled to tell them that that they could not play with my now priceless dolls. And I don't believe in telling little girls not to play with dolls, especially when the dolls are just within reach.

-XOXO,