I'm happy you enjoyed them, TVC. JJ, your's almost sounds like A-frame or townhouse. I made a townhouse once. It was so cute. The one I am saving for Katie is the one I bought that was almost 50 years old at the time. It has real glass windows. I decorated it to be old victorian and an old lady lived in it. I bought the sweetest old lady doll for it. I named her Mrs. Ticklefeather. I wish I could find her now. I had a small box with some special little things in it that I don't know what I did with. I've been wondering if I hid it inside one of the houses and it might still be there. Mrs. T. might be in there too. I keep telling "son" (as JJ says, only mine, not hers) to look for it. I've asked his girlfriend. Maybe she will look for it. I would love to find that box of special little things and Mrs. T.

I just had a brainstorm. I'm trying to come up with a cover for my next book. I think it's going to be Sweet Violets. Nostalgia, of course. I may not even market this book. I'm doing it as my "60th year" project. I might just do it for friends and family. I've been playing with cover ideas. Maybe I can put something together with miniatures and take a picture of it. I'll have to play with that idea tonight. I do have a teacup that I think has violets on it though, but the mini stuff could work. I don't want it to be all flowers. I don't have any pictures of violets, but I have lots of pansies. This will be personal stories about growing up, family stories, poems and some of my nostalgic stories from the papers and Rehal World stories about life as I see it now and things I've learned along the way. The muse has been hovering a lot lately.

I love the visual this paints for me Lousia and think its a great idea. You could always have the dollhouse in the background, like watermarked, and have the teacup in the forefront...just a thought. Whatever you do will be lovely!

Thanks, JJ. I have a chair in the dollhouse that has flowers on it that look like violets and I have a table where I have a vase and an old phonograph with a horn. I'm seeing some things in the dollhoue itself that I could use to create a picture for the cover. I like the idea of using the house itself in the background. Or, I have a bone china teacup that has blue violets on it. I could create a nostalgic still life with some lace, the cup, etc.

There was a song in the early 50s that Dinah Shore sang called Sweet Violets. My aunt and I used to play the 78rpm record on this big old RCA Victor phonograph that was in a mahogany cabinet. One of the stories will be about the phonograph and how my aunt and I used to sit in front of it and sing the song along with Dinah Shore. That's why I want the name for the book. It just all kind of ties in the way I want it to. But, is there any problem with using a song title as a title? One of the stories is called Puppy Love. But, that's a common phrase so I think I'm ok.

I know I'm going to get side-tracked shortly when Katie makes her appearance so I'm not getting too into it yet, but I am gathering my ideas.

Sweet Violets couldn't possibly be a protected (copyrighted) name, I don't think because it is generic. I would think that would fall in the public domain thing/law. Not being able to use that would be like not being able to use say, ... Twlight, or Moon, etc...Water....on and on. But it would be an easy thing to check out.

That's what I'm thinking. I worry too much. Gail said if I'm not planning on going global with it, I shouldn't worry about it. That name has been calling me. I almost used it on the last book until I came up with Carousel Kisses. I made a book of poem once with that title in a presentation booklet. I used a picture of mime from Disney for the cover, but it wouldn't fit with this.

Did I post this thread? Miniatrues? I just noticed that.

Not to worry...no spelling police around here, plus we speak LouisaEASE....