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[ewein2412]

This is my birthday present from Amanda.



Basically, in the war of The Diddy Things, she wins. Although Sara’s comment was, “You are both as bad as each other.”



It made not be as blindingly obvious to everybody as it is to me that these are the heroines of Code Name Verity. It all arrived in the mail yesterday and it was like the scene in A Little Princess where they open The Last Doll. The room was in CHAOS as we unpacked everything. “Oh!” cried Ermengarde, darting forward, “she has got an opera glass in her hand - a blue and gold one!” … only in this case it was a gas mask, or a pair of aviator goggles, or a row of hairpins on someone’s tiny pajama pocket, or seamed stockings…



I can’t possibly do any of it justice in a couple of photographs but I do need to point out that the coats and flying jacket are FULLY LINED, and the gas mask bags are exact replicas of the 1940 ones I bought for us off eBay, and there are pockets in the coats, and their duffle bags are printed with their surnames. Beneath their clothes they are wearing tiny undergarments which I won’t show you. (Bear in mind that Amanda is the woman who once made me a John Constantine doll complete with earring, packet of Silk Cut cigarettes, and a tattoo of a tree on his bum).





Amanda says she found the patterns on eBay and etsy… then she had to go and do all the same research that I did about the ATA and the WAAF and the Special Operations Executive. As a result of this project her 5 year old daughter now has Barbies, because as Amanda’s partner pointed out to her, “You can't play with them and not let her…” And she adds that there are some scary people out there if the websites for 1/6 scale war time items are any indiciation. "There are all these WAR men dolls and websites for grownups... that is where I found the goggles and the map bag.”

Comments

[jess-ka.livejournal.com]

That is beyond awesome. (I love this kind of stuff.)

[ewein2412]

see me, I HAVE GOT MY FIRST BARBIES for my 47th birthday!

[miladygrey.livejournal.com]

Oh, they are wonderful. And now I reallyreally can't wait to read the book!

[ewein2412]

there aren't really any barbies in the book. hee hee. There is a seriously recycled sweater that plays a supporting role.

[camille-is-here.livejournal.com]

Amanda is awesome. But I always knew that!

[estara.livejournal.com]

Belated happy birthday, first of all.

And after that I'm speechless.

O.O

Kudos to Amanda!

[sovay]

and there are pockets in the coats, and their duffle bags are printed with their surnames.

That's amazing.

I read about a Mabinogion retelling, I think of you: Fflur Dafydd, White Trail.

Happy late birthday!

[ewein2412]

that looks interesting!

[ewein2412]

I thought of you last week, too, when we were watching A Matter of Life and Death. Have you seen it? What a WEIRD FILM.

[zalena.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Archer's other films? I think I Know Where I'm Going is my favorite... they are all pretty weird, though each has kind of awe-inspiring visual moments. I saw A Matter of Life and Death earlier this year, (http://zalena.livejournal.com/1210417.html) and I still don't know what to think of it, though I suspect I came down on the side of liking it. Their Canterbury Tale kind of got to me, too, though I have to say it was a long road to the payoff.

I love the miniatures. The tiny gas mask and the appropriately scaled prints on the dresses are perfect. They almost make the dolls themselves look grotesque by comparison. What an amazing birthday gift!

[ewein2412]

I have seen a bunch of their wartime films, which I love. I will have to work my way through some more!

Amanda said she had a hard time finding an appropriate blonde barbie that didn't look like a pole dancer. The dark one started life as Snow White.

[3rdragon]

I saw I Know Where I'm Going with my mother this past summer, because a friend of hers decided that we ABSOLUTELY NEEDED TO SEE IT. We had a fun movie night on the couch with popcorn, and quite liked it, but were somewhat puzzled why the friend had picked that particular movie as our must-see of 1940-whatever.

[ewein2412]

miriam, some day when you are back in the land of movie rentals, it is an ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENT that you see The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. I haven't managed to get tiboribi to see it yet either. (If it was in the cinema I would drag you both along with me and sit there SOBBING as the Mendelssohn plays. But then I am probably funny that way.)

my husband's comment, as I sobbed my way through this not-actually-all-that-sad film, was, "No more war movies for you!"

[3rdragon]

We could get a projector and a blank wall and make a pseudo-cinema. But we'd have to find a geographically compatible location to do it in.

Is it war movies, or just war movies with a particular Mendelssohn soundtrack?

[ewein2412]

it is really just this particular movie. And this particular bit of Mendelssohn.

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is actually on my list of things to do with my day off tomorrow, after I have tidied the kitchen and mopped the floor.

[ewein2412]

hmm, I see I already have I Know Where I'm Going on my rental list. A predictable sort of person.

[sovay]

I see I already have I Know Where I'm Going on my rental list.

That film was my introduction to Roger Livesey; I saw it before The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. It's probably still minor Archers, but I really like it. It has untranslated Gaelic and Pamela Brown.

[sovay]

Have you seen it? What a WEIRD FILM.

I have, although it's the Powell and Pressburger I liked less than I was expecting to. I love the dual layer of afterlife fantasy and scientific explanation (which crosses in the character of Dr. Reeves) and the endless escalator from one world to another, and there are great moments of strangeness like the camera obscura or the goatherd on the beach, but it felt more like their riff on Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) or "The Devil and Dan'l Webster" than their own mythos.

You should see A Canterbury Tale (1944), if I haven't praised it sufficiently.

Have you seen these?

tanita says:

[(Anonymous)]

Happy Birthday - goodness, what fabulous bits and pieces of awesome. I am terrified of collecting anything, because then I'd have to dust it, but this -- wow. I would be so charmed.

Re: tanita says:

[ewein2412]

it all came in a big tupperware tub, so I can put it away and keep it dust free. They don't collect dust while you're playing with them...

[tigertrapped.livejournal.com]

So amazing. And Happy Birthday! xx

[ewein2412]

thanks!

[tiboribi.livejournal.com]

I love the umbrella, and the hairpins lined neatly in a row on the pocket of her pajamas.

[ewein2412]

I know! (but actually my favorite thing is the hankie, because it is exactly like the one amanda made me for an engagement present)

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I glanced over this post before and thought, "Wow, cool details," but now that I have read Code Name Verity I know how amazing and perfect and brilliant these dolls really are. So thrilled for you! I too have a friend who makes me dolls of my characters, and it gives me such joy just to look at them.

[ewein2412]

wow, those are super! so pretty too.