Original Galena and the Crystal Visions Tarot

She looks a little unsure about it all, but here she is! One of the first Monthly Doll Galenas, with the original open eyes (the recent "Socialite" reissue has "romantic" eyes). She is in very good condition--I did swap out a hand hook and reglued one of her head magnets, but otherwise she is very well cared for, and I like her faceup. I haven't decided about her eyes yet--I need to look and see what the original ones looked like, because I might have them in my eye box. But I like these as well. It's so nice to have clothes for her--since she is on the standard old body, she has so many choices :D

Along with being bad and buying a doll (though really, the Galena was SO REASONABLE for such a classic doll) I also bought an inexpensive tarot deck direct from US Games System, the Crystal Visions deck. ( US Games is easy and good to buy from; fast shipping, literally hundreds of decks). I saw this one on The Truth In Story video channel, which consists of Kelly (who I actually think is a lit professor) puttering around with various decks and talking about her day and her cute dog. I normally just put the tarot videos on because they are soothing background noise and if she says something especially interesting I can back up and replay it. There are also *lots* of  videos on her channel, and if you want to see a card by card run through of a deck, and have an hour or two to kill, Kelly is your girl. She had this deck on one of her videos, and while she wasn't too excited about it, I loved the color palette and the fantasy feel of the deck. The artist, Jennifer Galasso, also does fantasy book covers, which might be why I like the deck so much. The photos on the web flatten out a lot of the detail and color on the cards, in person they are lovely and more detailed than they look here. Here is a few of the cards:

Aren't they pretty? The court cards are nice-- archetypes,not portraits, like the Fountain Tarot (which I find distracting, I always wonder what the artist's relationship with the Fountain Tarot models are--they are all family and friends). 

So this deck is a happy addition to my stash :D Kelly actually trimmed hers and while I kind of cringe at the practice, I had to admit it made the colors in this deck look even better, and the back is symmetrical so it didn't mar the back design.

Other than a doll and a deck, I have sewed a few more masks, bought a lot of masks, and toiled away on 3d products, trying to get stuff done before the end of the month.