Although I'm not at all a conservator, never anxious to preserve and collect and keep, and usually have little trouble in passing on items to better homes, the departure of the bears was a bit different.
Bears have character the minute they're completed, and they definitely took up a bit of psychic real estate around here. So the large empty guest bed where they were all nestled until I got them all assembled now left a psychic space for me, too.
Which resulted in doing a bit with yarn and a curtain pull, and some pipe cleaners, while sitting up in my own bed last night with a Miss Marple on the DVD player. And a bit of lovely merino roving.
Smaller doll does not yet have a head, so her hair had to stand in. I was in bed and the wooden beads are one floor up, and require a search. But she still has character, even headless, oddly enough.
Reader Donna might recognize the Greek cloth, now starched and doing its bit to render my home a bit more gracious, and Judy might remember the curtain pull -- the other one went into a little denim purse I made for K. The merino roving came from the yarn store in Cape May, and I think the yarn is from the Red White and Blue thrift store. Sourcing is everything, heh!
So: when in doubt, make a doll!