Dolls a Plenty!

Finally, an update

2005-08-06T15:55:00.000-04:00

I've been rediscovering my love of dolls this week! I don't know what came over me, but I picked up my BJDs and started playing around with them. At first, I had made what I had thought to be an adamant decision to sell my two MSD sized dolls Harry (Too) and Hilly (AR Ren). My SD sized doll Charlie (Kawainino Anna) is my favorite, so I was just going to focus on her.

While I was pregnant, I had re-done both Harry's and Hilly's face-ups. I gave Harry a complete make-over, but since they caused me so much grief and pain the first time, I kept Hilly's lips the same. Both were also blushed properly. Husband took one for the team and sprayed them with Mr. Super Clear for me. :)

I was quite satisfied with the results, but everytime I took a photos of them, they just didn't look quite right to me. At this point, I realized that I never truly bonded with Harry. To be truthful, the only Too that ever really knocked my socks off was the original Too as shown on DoD's website.

But after seeing someone's really pretty Ren on DoA, I decided to take Hilly out and give her another chance. She was wearing a Poshdolls wig that I didn't really care for, and Tallina's blue eyes that no longer suited her. So I switched her back to my favorite wig and a pair of brown eyes.

A huge improvement! I think the reason this combination is so appealing to me is that she looks so similar to the Ren boy that AR used to have pictured on their website. That was the doll with which I originally fell in love.

So for now, I'm going to keep Hilly afterall. Harry, however, I will still sell. I also have various SD and MSD stuff that I will be selling. I hope to post it here first next weekend, before I resort to DoA.

Car Hop!

2004-09-04T23:10:00.000-04:00

I finally received my copy of Dolly Dolly 5 today. Yes, I'm one of those cheap people who has her HLJ orders shipped SAL. I also received the new Obitsu Slim male body and a W-2 head with black/purple hair. ^^

pp. 4 - 9: First off, I have to get my hands on the Ayumi Uyama book. *drools* That Alice photo layout is too die for.

When we went antiquing last weekend, I spotted a nice Bradley doll dressed in riding clothes for $7. I passed on her, thinking that I had no space to collect these rather large dolls. Today I mentioned to my husband that I'm kicking myself for not getting her. He said we could go back to the store next weekend. ^__^ I hope she's still there!

p. 15: That does it. I'm getting an F-8 head. *_*

p. 27: ADORABLE Licca chan dresses! They remind me of something that biscuitbear would sew.

p. 72 - 73: Aw man, another masterful Who's that Girl? custom! And Pucchi outfits to boot. I'm gonna get a Kana one of these days so I can customize her, oh yes I will!

p. 128: Mini freakin' gachapon machine. *dies*

And a random thought: Why does Dolly Dolly compel me to buy a Betsy McCall doll?

As always, flipping through Dolly Dolly sent me into a creative frenzy. So I grabbed one of my Artmark dolls that I bought about a month ago, took my scissors in hand, and started customizing. Here is the end result:

Okay, so she's not as cute as the girls in Dolly Dolly, but she's got some charm. I would have taken pictures of how I cut her free from her dress, but it was really messy business. Not at all the easy task that was presented in Dolly Dolly 4's tutorial. There was a lot of glue, some of which I couldn't remove. :P Hopefully, some of the other brand dolls will be easier to work with.

Girl with green eyes.

2004-08-31T21:49:00.000-04:00

I like to refer to this green as Big Trouble in Little China Green. I won't go into the plot of the movie, but suffice to say that the Chinese girl of legend in the movie had pretty green eyes just like this.

These are Realistic Glass Paperweight eyes from Mini World. Personally, I think these eyes are awesome. I don't have any high end eyes to compare them to, but at around $6 a pair, they can't be beat. Seriously--don't let the cheap price fool you.

The only draw back is that they only come in 7 different colors. :/ But hey, at least it's easy to collect them all.

Oh, and the dress was made by Tea Time Club.

Lounging.

2004-08-26T20:09:00.000-04:00

It was this photo opportunity that prompted me to use the pretty pink ticking pillow cases that I bought an antique fair a couple of weeks ago. Just another way dolls seem to drive my life. ^^

I know that I have mentioned this before, but I can't get over how thoughtful Hilly always looks. It amuses me to no end. :D

Harry wants some screen time too, but the kid needs a new wig first. I do have some pics that I took for a photo story, so he may make an appearance sooner rather than later.

More Random Doll Thoughts

2004-08-25T20:43:00.000-04:00

In a concerted effort to be more participatory in the larger doll community, I tried to find a thread at DoA that I could respond to, but I didn't have any luck. ;_;

I've been kicking around the idea of buying another large BJD head. Charlie could share her body or I could buy a Dollfie Dream body like JoAnn did. What's holding me back is not the expense, but the fact that even with only three BJDs, I feel crowded. This Monday, I re-organized my doll stuff in hopes that I could make more room for some books, and well, more dolls. ^^;

I managed to get almost all my Takara dolls in a display case, which freed up some room on my customized doll shelf. This exercise didn't do me a whole lot of good because now I have room for maybe 3-5 more 1/6 sized dolls and maybe around 6 new books.

This tells me that I should be selling stuff, not accumulating more.

Another thought that's been plaguing me is that I'd like to re-do Hilly and Harry's face-ups. I want to do them right this time, with Mr. Super Clear, soft penciled eyebrows, smooth blushing, and all that good stuff. Now that I have Charlie, who is just perfect the way she is, I feel like I can take some risks with H & H. I'm even considering sanding down Hilly's pointy nose which, to this day, I still can't convince myself to like. I wonder if I could wipe them clean, spray their heads with Mr. Super Clear, but all the while leave their lip paint intact. I'm fairly satisfied with their lips and would hate to have to attempt to paint them again (Hilly's in particular).

Hey, maybe that's something I could post to DoA!

Poor, poor Mira!

2004-08-24T20:24:00.000-04:00

She's such a mess. She came to me from Real Missing Link in a state, and never really recovered. When I received her over a year ago, one of her eyelashes had come unattached during shipment and her nose was scuffed. When I tried to re-attach her eyelashes, I managed to rub off some of her lower painted eyelashes. >_< Then one day, I noticed some of her lip paint had chipped off. Now, I see that much of her blushing has scratches. XP

Still, I play with her much more than her cousin Lana. Lana is princess perfect--I'm almost afraid to touch her! She just sits in her chair with her violin. Mira is my knock-around girl. She gets to wear all the cute clothes. XD

Random thoughts.

2004-08-18T21:35:00.000-04:00

Blogger's commenting system really sucks. For example, when someone comments on my blog, it sends me an automated message. This is good. However, the message doesn't indicate to which entry the comment relates, so I have to search around my blog to find it. I wonder if there is anyway to tweak the settings? I must investigate.

To my horror, they added that annoying search bar at the top of the page. Actually, once I was able to re-align my layout so that the bar wasn't cutting off the top of Charlie's head, it wasn't so annoying anymore. I guess it's better than some lousy ads. :P

I now understand why I hardly ever post to doll groups or communities. I always seem to mess up something and make an ass out of myself. Like at DoA, I responded to someone's post about a DD (Dollfie Dream) thinking that she meant a DoD (Dream of Doll). Dummy am I.

Then again, at least I don't make asinine posts about how it's customary for Asian dealers to snub us well-meaning American consumers. XP

Revolutionarygirl Pink!

2004-08-18T21:08:00.000-04:00

Last week, RestoreDoll had a awesome $2 sale on hair skiens that were "handled" at the National Barbie convention. Since I'm committed to learning to root properly, I thought that this was a good opportunity to stock up on hair.

Well, I've unofficially changed of their Hot Pink hair to Revolutionarygirl Pink, cause I swear, they must have snuck up to Utena Tenjou while she was napping and snipped off her hair!

So now I'm kicking around crazy ideas about making a long dreamed of Utena doll. I have the lame Sega CharaSelection version, so I wouldn't have to worry about sewing her a costume.

I wonder if I could do it? I think that I could, if only I can figure out how to root a part properly. :P

Just to prove that there is life beyond BJD

2004-08-17T21:08:00.000-04:00

Here is my fav-o-rite custom doll. She was the third doll that I ever painted and IMHO is to date is the best work that I've done. Not that I've done all that much work. ^^; It's hard for me to believe that I painted her almost a year ago.

Her name is Gwendolyn "Kit" Greer. Kit is short for Kitten, which was a pet name given to her by her father, a retired detective.

Kit works for a crime scene investigation unit (Okay, so I was watching C.S.I. Miami while I was painting her. On a related note, Gary Sinise owns David Caruso. Enough said.). Kit is a total workaholic, but it is her drive that makes her the best at what she does. Her job leaves her with little time for a social life, and she counts among her best friends a near genius fourteen-year old girl who lives in the apartment next door and her handsome, laid back C.S.I. partner, Shannon Lee (who has yet to materialize from my paint brush).

I wish all my dolls were as cool as Kit. Maybe if I painted more often, they would be. ^^;

New Guy on The Block.

2004-08-13T22:21:00.000-04:00

Run don't walk...Hobby Link Japan has the new Obitsu Slim Male Body in stock!

Where did the summer go?

2004-08-13T19:31:00.000-04:00

Who cares?! I love fall!! :D

We are having some serious autumn-like weather here in Pittsburgh. Makes me want to go out and shop for sweaters, wool skirts, and boots. XD

Which reminds me...most of the clothes that I have for my BJDs are for warm weather: shorts, sundresses, tank tops. Not that they're going to catch a chill or anything, but I'd like them to have some other seasonal clothes as well.

Still, I can't deny that summer suits Hilly.

The grass in our lawn looks pretty good, huh? XD

Hey waitaminute...all is well!

2004-08-12T18:54:00.000-04:00

While I was making dinner this evening, Mark called to me that I had a package. Since it was delivered by UPS, I knew it was my DHS package.

I turned around and was shocked to find a big box. Why on earth would they ship one item is such a big box. I shook it. Multiple things rattled around inside. Hmmm...now I'm curious. I abandoned my cooking and ripped the sucker open.

I reached in and pulled out...a head! I reached in again, and pulled out...another head! And another! And there are my SD sponge and glasses! Ooo, and a Volks catalogue too!

I had gotten my entire order afterall. :D

For some odd reason, DHS charged me separately for one of the heads, which was the $16.50 item on the shipping confirmation.

I will not doubt you again, DHS!

Gah, so stupid! >_<

2004-08-09T19:48:00.001-04:00

I had a feeling that this would happen some day. I put in an order with DHS for 3 rooted heads, a pair of SD sized glasses, and a SD cleaning sponge. All were In Stock when I placed my order.

Well, I just received a shipping confirmation showing my order value as $16.50. So I just paid $7.00 to ship one item. ;_;

I guess the items probably went out of stock while Frank was in Japan, and no one was around to update the site. Drat.

My new fixation.

2004-08-08T12:42:00.000-04:00

Mark found yet another local antique fair for us to frequent. I wasn't really expecting much, so I didn't even bother to set the alarm so that we could get an early start.

When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find a whole field full of dealers. And I was about 5 tables in the when I saw these:

Visions of the customized goodness in Dolly Dolly 4 flashed before me. I had to have them.

These dolls were popular in the 60's and 70's. I don't believe they served any real purpose other than room decor. The pair I found were made by Artmark. According to her box, the girl in the red is named Judy. Green girl did not come with her box, so her name will be left as a mystery for the ages. Bradley is the other company that produced these boudoir lovelies, under the name "Elegant Doll." And then there are the Dakin Dreamdolls, which are similar in concept. I think that the doll that was customized in Dolly Dolly 4 was possibly made by Dakin, because her face was a bit cuter than my girls, who look sort of tart-ish. ^^;

Still, I think these dolls are a lot of fun, and I will certainly keep an eye out for more in my travels.

Edit: Apparently, I was not the only one who was entranced by the girl in Dolly Dolly 4, for look who graces the cover of Dolly Dolly 5!

And they call her, Char-lieee!

2004-08-07T16:30:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who remembers that god-awful Charlie perfume jingle from the 70's? I hope not. ^^;

I decided to name Anna after Charlotte, Kristin Davis's character from Sex and the City. I don't know why, but the first photo that I saw of Anna reminded me of her. So now she has a cute boy's name.

Charlie is wearing one of the KK Workshop outfits that can be easily found on eBay. I was lucky enough to grab it when it was priced at $24.99. It's very well made--check out those french cuffs! I loooooove french cuffs!

I also splurged and bought her a good pair of boots from Posh Dolls. Up until this point, I've been pretty cheap when it comes to accessories for my BJDs. Actually, compared to some of the dolls maker brand shoes, Posh Dolls shoes are cheap. But these are nicely made and well detailed for the price. And it didn't even occur to me that I could have bought 2 pairs of shoes for myself at Payless for what I paid for Charlie's boots.

Really.

Doll Blog Rule #1: You gotta have projects.

2004-08-06T21:54:00.000-04:00

Now that I have a big doll, I'm trying to gather enough courage to try sewing again. I'm intimidated by most of the patterns in Dress Making for Super Dollfie Vol. 1, but the cute star dresses on page 17 look like something that I could handle.

Tonight, I made a trip to JoAnn's to pick out supplies. I wanted my dress to be original, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find a fabric/ribbon color combination that I liked. In the end, I picked out a purple fabric that just about matches one of the dresses in the book. :P

The 1/2 yard of purple cotton fabric, 1/2 yard of organza, spool of purple ribbon, purple thread, and tracing paper cost around $12. Add in the hours of aggravation from using my crappy $99 Brother sewing machine that I purchased from Wal-Mart 6 years ago, and I'm probably better off just buying a dress from Y!J.

No. Must not think like that. Must try. I will not fear organza.