Fifth time lucky perhaps?

I don't know what it is with Puki Fees but I just don't seem to bond with them, although I love them in other peoples photos, they just look so cute, they've never worked for me.  So what am I doing wrong?  I have now had 5 of them.....first of all I had Ante, she was a basic one with the little freckles across her nose.....very sweet.  She stayed a few months, but then I sold her, probably because I was bored with her and wanted someone else!!!
After Ante came Zoe.  She was really cute and I liked her too, but  again after several months she followed Ante out the door .
I continued to enjoy the tiny Lati Yellows but there was always something stopping me from having the same sort of fun with Puki Fees.  I have no idea what it is, they pose beautifully, they are incredibly cute, but they come here and then they go again.
However, not being satisfied with two PKFs having come and gone, I decided to get another Ante.  I really love looking at my friend Sue's Ante, so maybe it was just the first one wasn't right for me.  So I got another Puki Fee Ante from Denver Doll Emporium....got caught by customs and ended up with probably the most expensive basic Ante in Spain!!  But I didn't like her faceup!  It was soooo pale and barely there that I just couldn't warm to her.  I ended up removing the default one and giving her a new one myself, but I still wasn't satisfied so off she went to live with another person here in Spain, who would hopefully love her more than I did.

Did I learn my lesson, did I say "enough is enough" and move on?  Did I heck!  I went and ordered a Zoe, again from DDE but this time she came via my friend in the US who repackaged her and sent her as a 'gift', so luckily didn't get caught by customs......she left just a month or so ago to live in the UK.

Well that should have been the end of it really, shouldn't it?  Four Puki Fees came and went, obviously this type of doll is NOT for me.  Ahhhh, not so.  I saw this cutie for sale a couple of weeks ago on Den of Angels and despite her higher price tag, I decided to go for her!  Yes, I never learn!!!!  So yesterday my little Puki Fee Bonnie came to live in Spain from Hong Kong.  She has a gorgeous faceup by Andreja in Australia and is the sweetest little thing.  I'm really really hoping that she is the ONE for me and that she'll be staying!  I really really want to have a Puki Fee in my doll collection, so I'm hoping that this is The One!!!!

Please meet Kieran:

 

 And because today is El Dia de Andalucia, what better than a cute Puki Fee posing in front of our Andalucian wall tiles!

Caring for Baby....

I was having a clear out on my laptop and found this, I have no idea where it came from but thought it funny enough to share:

Beggars.....

This morning a young woman came to the front door, along with her small daughter, asking for money....I told her that I didn't have any, which is actually the truth as I've not been to the bank this week!  So she asked if I had any food as she has three small children to feed.

Well normally I send these people away empty handed as I've heard of several families here in our town where the husband is waiting in a bar and sends his wife and young children out to beg for money which they have to return to him in the bar, for him to buy more alcohol for himself.  One guy in particular has been seen outside the bar beating the crap out of his wife and daughter when they've come back empty handed.......

So I really hate to give them money anyway, and some of them don't even want food, they'll actually leave it in the kerb a few metres from the house!!!  But I felt for this young woman...and her child.  Both were clean and neatly dressed, they were polite and friendly...and muggings here fell for it! 

I gave her two large packets of soup and hope that she really will give it to her kids, if they are indeed hungry.

Of course hubby thinks I'm really silly and that these people 'borrow' kids to appeal to nutcases like me, and that now the whole world and his brother will be knocking at the door asking for stuff, and I'm sure he's right!  Actually I did get the same warning from one of the neighbours years ago when she told me that it was not a good idea to give any of them anything as they'll keep coming back. 

I guess I will have to take a chance!

Why am I so naughty?

I am naughty because I've just spent the last of my paypal money on another doll!  I've been really good in that up until now I have stuck to my rule that I will ONLY spend the money that I have in my paypal account, nothing more....no sneaking anything from the bank account, JUST my paypal balance.  However, today I sneaked 35 euros out of the bank....and my husband is going to read this and know!!!!

It's not really the amount because hubby is generous to a fault but it is the principle....I have been sticking to my own 'rule' for ages now but today I went and broke it.....However, I do have an excuse, and I feel it is a very good one too!  Although whether other, non dolly people, will see it that way, is another thing!  A dolly friend of mine in the Netherlands put a 'feeler' out for one of her dolls.  Now for those who don't know what a 'feeler' is, basically it is when someone is thinking of selling a doll (or other item) but is not entirely sure...so they put out a 'feeler' to see if there is any interest.  Well when I saw M's doll on Flickr with the world 'feeler' underneath, I could hardly contain myself.  I sent her a message so quickly, it is a wonder the keypad on my laptop didn't catch fire!  Because you see this is a doll I've admired from the day she got her, back in September 2011!  She is a beautiful Peaks Woods Lotti-Ani with a custom faceup by Peaks Woods themselves and is super dollfie size.  I've never had a doll from Peaks Woods before but have been told by my dolly friends who have, that the quality is excellent and they are lovely dolls to own.  So I was delighted when M replied telling me her price, which was really reasonable I have to say, and that I was the first person to contact her and she'd let me know by the end of the week if her 'feeler' would turn into a 'for sale'.  And sure enough, she contacted me this morning and I just had to spend all my money on her!!!!  Except that I was just short the postage....hence the 'theft' from the bank account.  :(  Sorry Brian!!

Don't you just hate it when you break your own rules!!!

Here are a couple of photos of the doll in question, obviously not my photos (they were taken by M, Lotti's now previous owner).....isn't she just beautiful!

She is coming with this wig and these eyes:

Close up of her lovely Peaks Woods custom faceup, look at those beautiful freckles!

Oh and on a final note....I have a heavy cold which is making me feel miserable and grumpy....so a bit of retail therapy was just what I needed.......Good excuse?  No, I admit, a very poor one, but I'm sticking to it!

Beautiful sunshiny day.....

Today it has been a beautiful spring like day and so although I felt really bunged up with a cold, we went into the garden for a while with the dogs....We sat in the sunshine whilst they played.  This was the first time that Choco has been in the garden because I've not felt comfortable with him going out there with the others...just in case a big bird swoops down and takes him, thinking he is a nice juicy snack or something! 

Anyway, I took quite a few photos of them all playing.....the usual 'action' shots with heads cut off and noses sniffing bottoms, the sort of thing that dogs seem to enjoy!  But a few came out ok (well I did say they were 'action shots' didn't I!) so here are some of them:

Suki teaches Choco to do the Okey Cokey....You put your left paw in....

 Lucy, Min Pin, keeps a watchful eye over them all...

 Yoda laughing!!!

 Ooooo, nothing like a good scratch to put a grin on your face!

 No more photos already!!!!

 Special Baby Kara! (actually they're all special really!)

 This is my best side!

 I can do 'sad' too, says Yoda!

 Hey!!  That's MY stick!

After a bit of doggy playtime, it was time for me to have the quickest of dolly play too!  So here are a few photos of my little Limhwa To You Sara in her new car!  You can see she is also a doggy lover as she has a spoiled pooch sitting up front there in her car!

A bit of dolly time during house training!

I think we've been spoiled by our three 'big' girls because each of them were house trained so quickly, using newspaper to do their 'busy' (as we call it)....Lucy, our Min Pin was always fussy and so it was not surprising to us that she was 'clean' within a couple of weeks of coming home to us.  Yoda, our second girl, was clean within a week, she just followed everything that Lucy did and we were amazed at this tiny Chihuahua using newspaper so well at just over 8 weeks old.  Kara came next and although we had a few accidents, she too followed her bigger 'sisters' and was quick to learn that the newspaper was where she was supposed to do her 'business'....However, the two new babies are a lot slower to grasp the significance of the newspaper!  Suki thinks it's there to pull all around the room or tear up into small pieces and scatter in the dog beds.  Whereas Choco thinks it's there to stand and look at as he relieves himself a foot or more from it!  :(

Thank goodness for tiled floors and the ever present mop and bucket!!

However, I do wonder if it is to do with the way things were at the breeders house.  Her garden door was always left open, all day and evening apparently, so all her dogs would have learned to just go outside to relieve themselves when necessary.  But I'm really not happy leaving the garden door open all day for several reasons.  Firstly it is pretty cold in our house already and I don't want to add to that by leaving the door open all day.  Secondly, in the autumn we had our door open for much of the day and evening and found that we'd been visited by field mice...who'd left me some  'presents' all over the place...YUCK!  And finally, I'm a little bit worried that if we leave our garden door open all day and the dogs are allowed to go in and out as they please, one of the tinies might get taken away by a hawk or other large bird, because Choco in particular is small enough to be mistaken for a nice meal by a big bird!!!! 

So for the moment I think I'll have to just keep plodding on with it and rewarding them as and when they get it right!!!!

And on the dolly front, I had a little bit of dolly time today when I left hubby in charge of the mop!  I took some photos of Bambicrony Judy with a different wig and think this one is perfect for her.  The TTYA dungarees are enormous on her but I pulled them down as much as I could and finally got the straps to actually sit on her shoulders.....they bunch up around the ankles as they are supposed to, and her Doc Marten boots help a lot to keep her from 'tripping up'!!  I think she looks incredibly sweet in these photos!

And I finally got the chance to try out the new eyes that arrived from Captured in Glass last week....I bought blue ones for Shae, my Unoa Sist hybrid and aqua green ones for Sasha, her full Unoa Sist sister.....I don't like the aqua ones on Sasha so she has already gone back to her previous aqua acrylics, but I'm leaving Shae with her blue ones for the time being to see if I can get used to them.  I think they make her look a bit too 'cool' whereas her brown acrylics made her face seem a little bit 'warmer'......

Sasha is wearing a restyled pale pink wig from Rosenlied...it used to have large spiral curls at the bottom but they soon became untidy and messy so I cut them off!  I do like this wig on her but it doesn't photograph so well as it looks in real life!

I do love these two girls though, and would love to make another hybrid one day.....perhaps with a Lusis or a Chibi faceplate......ah well, that is a project for another day!

Shae (Unoa Sist hybrid with DollnDoll Diamond body) on the left and her full Unoa Sist sister, Shasha on the right:

Playing catch up....AGAIN!

I can't believe how busy those two new little doggies keep me!  If I'm not clearing up after them, then I'm sorting out their bedding, playing with them or picking them up to cuddle them.....they are so incredibly squidgy!

Having said that, my three 'bigger' girls are just as cuddly and they need lots of their mums attention too, so sometimes, no make that 'often', I can be found on the sofa with not one or two, but all FOUR Chihuahuas inside my fleecy sweatshirt, with Lucy the Min Pin, tucked down the side of me between my thigh and the arm of the sofa.  I must say, they make lovely little hot water bottles!

This morning we went to the vet for jabs....Kara, Suki and little boy Choco all had to have their boosters.....Kara and Suki were fine but Choco cried a lot, poor baby.  I have to say that he is a bit of a 'man' though....everything seems to be a big deal for him compared to the girls!

Kara had her nails clipped too, which is such a challenge as she is soooo frightened of everything....she bit the soft fleshy part of the palm of my hand four times, but luckily didn't break the skin.  And I'd much rather she bit me than our lovely vet, Sylvia!!!  Poor little Kara, what could her life have been like in the first few months that she is so incredibly scared of so many things.  I really thought that after all this time with us, she'd have got used to things but no, she is more or less the same.  She still won't walk past us if we are standing anywhere, she has to wait until we have moved before she will do so.....and if we raise our hands up anywhere near her, she literally flinches, as if she is going to be hit....it is the saddest thing.

Doggies aside, hubby, me and the five dogs have just spent a week down at the coast where the weather was lovely, sunny and warm during the day but very chilly at night.  The beach looked so inviting but we were quite busy so I never got to take the photos that I intended taking, of my two Secretdoll Persons on the sand....perhaps next time. 

On the dolly front there have been some comings and goings.  I've sold a couple and bought a couple!  One of the purchases was a Bambicrony Ciao Bella Judy (2nd Edition) in tanned resin.  She arrived yesterday from Portugal and is very cute, but I've not had any time to take photos of her, although today I did get as far as dressing her, adjusting her eyes, hot glue sueding her and putting her wig on.  Perhaps tomorrow I will get to the photos.

Apart from that, nothing much else to write about, so I'll sign off with a, not very good, photo of 'snow' on the mountains which I took last week!