A new arrival.....

I've not done any sewing, dolly or otherwise, or had any dolly play time in about a month or more, and I have no real interest in my dolls at the moment.  However, that doesn't stop me from buying!!  In fact I have been really wanting to buy.....nothing I need, but who said 'need' comes into it eh? 

So a few weeks ago my friend in the US and I were chatting about a particular doll and both decided to order one.  We both bought on the same day and both dolls were shipped at the beginning of September.  Both dolls were coming from Greece and would you believe it, both dolls arrived on the same day too, even though my friend's doll was going all the way to the west coast of the US!

The doll is not a doll I'd normally go for, she's incredibly quirky looking and definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but she made me laugh.  I only have to look at her to make myself smile!  She is a Malisa by the Greek artist Chrishanthi of Ppinkydolls, who sells on Etsy.

When I saw the doll in her box I thought I'd made a dreadful mistake.  She was so pale and I really don't like pale dolls, also 'pale' doesn't really photograph well for me in the sunshine.  Also she had long spidery eyelashes, one of which had been crushed and was all out of shape because she'd been sent without any face protector.  BJDs are generally packed with face protectors because it prevents just such problems happening with the eyelashes as well as protects the faceup whilst in transit.

Here are some  before photos.  She is not wearing her wig in these photos but you can see her crushed eyelashes on her right eye (on the left of the photos).....and you can also see the messy thick glue that they were attached with.

My mum was here when the doll arrived and she couldn't stop laughing and said the doll was so ugly and like an 'alien'.....well that is like a challenge to me.  I was determined to make this little ugly bug into a cutie! 

First of all I removed the eyelashes that seemed like they were stuck on with super glue!  Then I removed the shine on her pink lips (I really am not into pink lips) and then I set to work giving her more colour. 

As you can see above,  I filled in her eyebrows as they were pale and nondescript, I wanted them to be darker so I used a couple of shades of ground down chalk pastels in brown, I then added more individual hairs to the eyebrows, using various shades of brown and grey watercolour pencils.  I used some black pencil around the eyes to fill in where the original eyelashes had been removed (the glue had taken some of the eyepaint with it when removed).  I added some more dark eyeshadow and then I worked on the lips.  I used various shades of red and brown chalk pastels which I applied with a small flat paint brush, building up the layers of colour and using Mr Super Clear Flat sealant between layers.  I filled in her mouth cavity with the same shades of chalk pastels and then I re-whitened her teeth using white watercolour pencil.  I also added some colour to her nostrils, her philtrum and the very sides of her nose, to define the shape of her nose more.  After that I added blush to her cheeks, forehead, chin and across the bridge of her nose.  I then sealed her again and once the sealant was dry I gave her new eyelashes.  I used one human size false upper eyelash and cut it in half then trimmed that down to size.  Her eye holes are not big compared to the size of her face, she wears 12mm eyes. 

When everything was dry, I put brown glass eyes in.  She actually came with a sort of two tone grey eyes but I preferred the warmth of the brown eyes.

The wig in the above two photos was the one she came with but I felt it wasn't quite 'zany' enough for her so today I looked through my wig box and found this bright auburn/ginger Tibetan lambswool one that I've had for ages.  I tried it on her and felt it was just perfect for this unusual and quirky girl!!  I've trimmed it about a bit to suit her better.

As you can see below, even with the extra blushing she now has, she still looks quite pale in the sunlight, but I'm happy with her new look.

She's a funny little thing, with a tilt of her head she can look so different from one photo to another!  I think in this photo (below) she looks quite happy.....

But in this one she looks really sad....poor girl, I wonder why?

And in this one, she looks almost annoyed over something!

She's wearing clothes borrowed from my Blythe dolls and shoes from Riley Kish....one day I will get around to making her something of her own, I mean who wears a strappy summer dress with woollen leg warmers and boots!!   And her name, by the way, is now Riley Mai!

Well thank you for stopping by, I hope you all have a good weekend ahead, so until next time....

Wedding revisited....

I can hardly believe that after a year in the planning, my son Brendan's wedding to his beautiful bride Virginia, has now been and gone.  Two weeks and two days and now it seems like 'ages' ago!!  Anyway, I thought I would share some photos of the day on here.  I did take my own 'proper' camera with me but the truth is I was so 'caught up' in the day that I never got to even take it out of it's case so am relying on photos taken by other guests, most of which were using mobile phones so the quality is not always great.  But regardless, I hope you will enjoy seeing some of the photos and memories of their day.  It was a fantastic wedding, the best wedding I've ever been to, to be honest, and I've been to lots, but it really was....OK I appreciate I'm prejudiced, but so many of the guests said the same!!!  One friend said to me that she'd had three of her own children's weddings and hadn't shed a tear but at Brendan's she cried buckets!!!  (It wasn't that bad, was it Carmelita?!! ;) )

The day started early with me having my hair done at 9am, my hairdresser did an 'up do' but in what she called an 'informal' style.  I was really pleased with it and it stayed in place for 15 hours and would have stayed more had I not taken it all out when I went to bed.  Thanks to a ton of hairspray and a million metal hair pins! :)

Here is us three just before we left the house....my stomach was doing somersaults and I thought I was going to be sick, I was so nervous!!!  Pity about the hanger in the background, I didn't realise that the neighbours would 'storm' the house to take photos of us!!!

(Apologies to those of you who are 'friends' with me on Facebook, you'll have probably seen all these photos posted by my hubbie and are sick to death of seeing them by now!)  Photographer below is my closest friend Magdalena.

Our closest friends, Magdalena and Joaquin had a surprise for Brendan, they'd secretly hired a convertible Chrysler LeBaron car to take us to the ceremony and wedding location!!  Brendan was delighted as he loves all things American...and it went well with his Converse sneakers!!

Virginia leaving her house with her parents and her sister:

Her parents had also hired a vintage convertible car for their journey to the ceremony, as a surprise for Virginia!

Doesn't she look just gorgeous!

The ceremony, in fact the whole wedding, was held in the open air.  It was so incredibly hot but fortunately there were a lot of parasols and shade!!!

The ceremony was beautiful.  Both Virginia and Brendan read out lovely 'statements' in both Spanish and English and Brian, my husband, actually wrote and carried out the ceremony.  The representative of the local mayor did the 'legal' bits...it was very emotional!  I was glad to have waterproof mascara! ;)

Below, in the first row sits Virginia's grandmother in pink, my mum and my brother.

After the ceremony the newly weds went off with the photographer and video guy for photos etc.  The 160 guests were served all sorts of lovely tapas and very welcome cold drinks....it was so incredibly hot, 36C in the shade!  Fortunately only two guests succumbed to the heat, two Spanish ladies, who thankfully were better later.

The following photos are random ones of the afternoon and evening.  The music and dancing was great fun, I had to admire the DJ who played non stop for more than 7 hours!!!  However, when this wedding was over at midnight, he then went on to his next wedding and didn't finish up until 8am the next morning.  Now that's what I call stamina!

I love this photo which is just so 'them'!!

 Enjoying all the delicious tapas....

The tables were all set out ready for the guests to sit down and enjoy the food to come.... 

An area was set out with 'props' for guests to have fun taking photos....this proved really popular with everyone!

Two of our Brit friends, Jackie, who lives quite near us and Lynn, (who with her husband Dave, owns and runs a bar/restaurant on the coast here in Spain), enjoying themselves!

With the help of my mum and Virginia's sister Rocio (who supplied me with photos of Virginia) I put together this collage to go on the wall at the reception....

The first dance of the evening..... 

 
The DJ played lots of fun music to get everyone up and dancing....not that it takes much for Spanish people to dance :)  They know how to enjoy themselves!

The Conga is fun in any language, don't you think!

My dear hubbie and me enjoying ourselves!

I love these photos, they are so natural!

It was such a relief to get my heels off and these canvas plimsolls on....and they matched my dress perfectly, don't you think!!! (My ankles were so swollen from the heat!!!)

My brother John with Virginia's mum Mari Carmen...

Friends and neighbours....

Another dear friend, Sue, (below) and my godmother's husband, Colin, who with their partners came over from the UK to share in Brendan and Virginia's special day....

My lovely godmother Mary, and her equally lovely husband Colin....

Brendan's two best friends from school, James and Eamon, who came over from the UK especially for the wedding...

The newlyweds are joined by their respective grandmothers and Virginia's mum, to watch a video made especially for them :)  By this point Brendan seems to have lost his shirt!!!!  Fortunately he got it back on again when he'd cooled down!

Brendan with my brother and my mum...

And with our closest friends, Joaquin and Magdalena...

And Brendan with his proud mum!

Two of Brendan's closest friends here in Spain, Mario and Mangas (Jose)...

Soooo, what is a group of archeologists called?  No idea?  Me neither!!  But below is just such a group, Virginia with her friends who are all in the same profession :)   What a great bunch!

Well I think I've shown you all enough photos but really hope you've enjoyed seeing them......I'm sure there'll be more once the professional photos are released.....please come back LOL!  Thanks so much for looking!

We really did have the best time, it was a day that was so incredibly special that I'm sure my family and I will be talking about it for ages.