pretty little maids all in a row

This is a story about the best Gramma that ever was. As I've mentioned before, I grew up in a sleepy little town in north central Pennsylvania, far from Amish country, Philadelphia, Pittsburg or all of the parts of Pennsylvania one usually associates with the state. We had 5 kids and my parents were lucky enough to live right next door to my Gramma (note:  "Gramma"not "grandma"...central Pennsylvania regional term). She was everything you could ever want a gramma to be. She was fun, smart, made the best chocolate chip cookies and homemade ice cream ever, loved to read to us, made all her own dolls, put out a spectacular Christmas display that filled the entire dining room, and played a great game of dominoes (no card games for her as that was considered a form of gambling ;) I was free to go over to her house whenever I wanted. She had a little corner of her kitchen that was meant for me, filled with dolls that she had saved from the dump, reconstructed, and fully outfitted with her own handmade clothes and knitted booties. She made tables and chairs for them out of cardboard oatmeal canister containers that she painted a wonderful shade of green porch enamel. She was as thrifty as they come. When I was back at my home over the summer, I discovered some little paper dolls that she had made up in our attic. This was so typical of her. By the looks of it, she had cut them out of a magazine and pasted them on cereal box cardboard, carefully cut them out, made little stands and of course, labeled them on their backs with what country they were from. Every thing she touched, she made special. When I saw these once again, I was inspired to do my own little versions. Some are a little closer in style to the originals than others and I wouldn't say that I kept them in true international costume, but I hope she would have liked them. I also used them to put together a little pattern collection that I will show to you tomorrow.

I'm the imp to the right of Gramma
along with my sister and brother.