Visitors from the Motherland!!!

My mum and brother have come over to visit us from the UK, and staying until the 13th June, so there won't be much dolly time for me whilst they are here!  

Today we went to Nerja for our lunch which was lovely, we love Nerja, but it's starting to get quite busy there now that the summer months are almost upon us. I can't believe that in about three weeks the Spanish schools break up for their almost three month long summer holidays!!  

So in the absence of any dolly photos, here are some of the views from el Balcon d'Europa in Nerja....enjoy!!

Surf's up....

It's blowy this evening so the surf's up...but no-one about to ride those waves but me....and I'm staying on dry land!

Travelling light....?

Yeah right!!!!

This is the pile of stuff that went into the car for our trip to the coast!!!  You wouldn't mind if the place wasn't ours and we had to take bedlinen etc but this is just what I MIGHT need whilst I'm down there!  Everything but a small purple holdall and a black laptop bag belongs to me....oh and half a sack of dog food!!!!  

Somewhere amongst that lot are 6 dolls plus two more that I'm selling so they had to go too just in case they sell whilst I'm away, I can still send them; a sewing machine, a large bag of fabric, a box of threads, a folder of patterns, zips, elastic, trimmings, buttons!!!!  Brown wrapping paper, two different types of parcel tape, dolly outfits and shoes in case they fancy a change,  a plastic onion (don't ask!!), my laptop, tablet and Kindle, in fact everything but the kitchen sink.....as we have one of those already at the coast!!!!

No-one can say I'm not thorough!!!!

Oh!!! The indignity!!!

I was getting the girls and Alex ready to go to the coast tomorrow, and because I want to take all five of them, I've had to be a bit sneaky about packing them!  My husband is as good as gold but I don't think I can really get away with saying that I need them all as models for my sewing when basically they all have the same body!!!  So I've packed them like sardines in a shopping bag!!!  Of course the girls were not amused and were worried that their faces might get rubbed!

But then I had a good idea!!!  I would protect their faces with the big face protectors that I'd bought for my Blythes!  And I had just the right amount of them that everyone has one!

So although the girls aren't overly impressed with their new face wear, Alex is delighted and thinks he's going into space instead of to the coast!!!  He hasn't stopped singing "Ground Control to Major Tom...." since I put his on him!

If anyone is interested in information on these face protectors, just leave me a note and I can give you the link etc.

Fiona....

Fiona is my Little Fee Ante by Fairyland in South Korea.  She has been with me for more than 4 years now, having bought her from the US back in April 2009.  I have bought and sold several other Little Fees since getting Fiona but she is the only one who I've never had the slightest inclination to sell.  She remains my only Little Fee!

Fiona is 'natural' or 'normal' skin and has a default company faceup.  She is 25cm tall and wears a 6/7 inch wig.  Her eyes are 14mm.  The Little Fee body is really made so well, as are all Fairyland dolls to be honest, their posing to second to non and the jointing system is exceptional.  I've had a lot of BJDs over the last 8 years or so and have to say that I've not come across another company with such great posing dolls.

Here is Fiona trying on the Sugar Baby Love outfit that I got recently.  I think she looks so cute in it.

 

And some favourite photos of her from the past...

A Mori outfit commission...

I was asked to make a Mori outfit for my friends Mini Fee.  Mori girl style seems to be the 'in' thing now for some ball jointed dolls, and I have to say that I like it so much better than the Lolita or Goth looks that this look seems to have replaced.  Anyway, I finished the outfit yesterday and my friend has 'approved' it, so I will now share it below.

'Mori' is a Japanese word and the fashion style apparently emerged in 2007.  It literally means "forest" in Japanese and the style concept is "a girl who looks like she is living in the forest" The look is natural & earthy.  Mori girl has developed not only as a style, but as a lifestyle as well! Quirky girls who love vintage clothing, pocket watches, tea, moss or going snooping in the grandma's attic will feel right at home in this fashion style.  (WikiHow)

Most Mori outfits have layering to them and this one is no exception.  The whole design was drawn up by my friend, who then sent me the designs and the fabric.  I just made it.  So all credit goes to her!

The skirt actually consists of 4 skirts!  The first two are almost floor length, the innermost being buttermilk coloured knit and then the next one is of cream lace.  The third skirt is flared from the hips, having a 'yoke' instead of a waistband.  The final, outermost skirt, has an elastic waist and the bottom is made up of 'points'....I have left the hem unfinished, with just a row of straight stitches because I didn't want to 'lose' those points with a proper hem.  The edge of the fabric is fraychecked and actually reminds me a bit of 'leaves' which fits in quite nicely with the theme.

The short sleeved top is a leotard/body which cuts down on bulk around the waist, there is already enough of that with the skirts, so a leotard works much better.  Then the 'waistcoat' style top opens down the back with a false front opening.  It's fully lined and a little more loose than I'd have liked but I needed it to be this way so that it sat better over the waistbands.

Here are the photos.  The computer generated 'drawing' was designed and sent to me by my friend,  I hope you'll agree that I got pretty close to what she wanted!!

(Model: Fairyland Mini Fee Rheia, 41cm, default faceup, normal skin, wig size 7/8, eye size 14mm, slim MSD)

Mad moment!

Today I had a mad moment!!!  OK, that isn't actually news in itself because I often have mad moments, but I think this might have been completely crazy.  I actually thought about selling my Elfdoll Lovely Dami!!!  Shock horror!  The thing is, I've still got this urge to sell dolls.  It's really strange because it's not as if I really have to sell at the moment, but I just feel the need to downsize.   Having said that, I don't actually downsize for long because I end up spending my accumulated paypal balance on another doll.....!!

When I get the urge to sell a doll I usually would sell one that is easily replacable, in case I realise afterwards that I made a bad mistake, and, in this instance, Dami wouldn't really be a problem as she is not a limited edition.  However, she does have the older, immature body which Elfdoll no longer produces so that would be irreplaceable unless I found one secondhand.

But it was when I looked at her 'in the flesh' that I realised that no, she's not going anwhere at this time.....she is too cute!

EDIT: Dami is an Elfdoll Lovely Dami (MSD), normal skin, 41cm tall, size 16mm eyes, 6/7 wig and has very slim immature body.

This photo was taken in the garden, I made the outfit from a pair of girls (new) knickers!

Here (below) seen wearing an outfit by Robert Tonner for Ellowynne Wilde.

She has a style all her own! 

Another outfit made using a pair of little girls knickers!! (I buy them cheaply at a local cheap shop.....but cutting the outfit out is a challenge because of the small amount of fabric available!)

 

This photo was taken just before I went to London for a week.  Dami really wanted to come with me and as you can see, was completely prepared (she had more luggage than I did!!)  However, I was worried that she'd get damaged (she was new at the time!) and so I had to disappoint her!

Loulou gets some camera time....

It's been a while since either of my big Kaye Wiggs girls have had any attention.  I'm such a bad dolly mum because Loulou was still in her Christmas outfit until this morning.....how awful is that!!!
So she changed into this blue and white smocked dress that I made many moons ago, I think it's the perfect dress for spring.....Not so sure about those striped stockings with it though, but she wanted to wear them as she thought they looked nice...who am I to disagree!
Her nice new white shoes were a present from my friend Lene!  Thanks so much Lene, she loves them!!

 I do love this face!

The Brunettes....

Here are some photos of the Brunettes, Maggie, Alex and Little Miss No Name.  I have a couple of names in mind for her but will have to see which suits her best.  One of the names has been used here several times before, which is NOT a good sign as each doll has moved on!! Ooops!
So I'm looking for something that is just for her!  Suggestions always welcome!!

And finally, one of Alex on his own because I think he is a handsome little cutie!

Impulsive behaviour......

A couple of weeks ago I impulsively made a purchase on Ebay of a Sasha Brunette in Pink Dress.  Just as soon as I pressed that 'BIN' button so I regretted it.  However, there was nothing to be done, I couldn't go back on my 'commit to buy' so I went ahead with the purchase and she duly arrived....in fact she was one of my dolly parcels that I arrived home to from the coast.

When I opened the box, I have to say that the first thing that hit me was the smell.  No, it wasn't a horrible smell, it was the really lovely smell of new vinyl, which immediately brought back so many happy memories of Christmas as a child, when my mum and dad would sit down on Christmas morning with my brother and I, to open our presents from 'Santa'!!!  I've always loved the smell of new vinyl and it always evokes those wonderful memories as if it were just yesterday.

However, when I took the Sasha from the box and looked at her face, I have to say that I realised why I'd regretted my purchase.  Being a later girl (I saw in Dorisannes book that Brunette in Pink Dress was made between 1979 and 1982) I felt that compared to earlier girls, she had really awful eyes, they were so flat and lifeless.  I could have kicked myself. 

I took some photos of her and in photos she looked even worse, her eyes were dull and her hair was too full.  I'd gone from one extreme to the other, one brunette with falling hair and the other with too much hair.

I decided to put her up for sale on Sasha Mart, I just wanted to get back what I paid for her if possible.  But no interest.

Then last night as I lay in bed, I started to think....."why don't I make this girl my own?  Other collectors have dolls with 'enhancements', why don't I bite the bullet and enhance her?"  After all, no-one was rushing to buy her, and if I put her back on Ebay, I would lose lots of money.......I decided to sleep on it.

This morning I woke full of enthusiam for my idea.  I would make her a new outfit and then I would do something with her to make her more 'alive'.  So using my faithful chalk pastels I enhanced her eyes.  I used a very deep brown and just layered the pastel on the flat irises, slowly the colour built up and so I added her pupils again, this time using watercolour pencil.  I then redid the whites of her eyes, again using watercolour pencil, I drew lightly over her existing eyelashes and gave a brush of pale blue pastel to her eyelids.  Finally, I toned down her heavy handed eyebrows a little, just to make them less 'solid'.  I then combed her hair through and flattened it down with a sock.  I made her a new dress and a hat, added some white socks and brown sandals (the sandals aren't quite right with the dress but I don't have a lot of shoes for my Sasha's yet!) and although I agree she's not the wider faced brunette that I hanker after, finally I'm happy with her.  She is staying!!!!!

I hope you will agree that she is much more alive now!!!

And so to find a name for her!!

First the 'before' and 'after' photo!!