Last is first!

My last dolly purchase of 2015 arrived on Monday, so she is also my first....my first of 2016!  I ordered her on Christmas Day to be exact, so she was my Christmas present to me from me!
The new girl in question is a resin BJD by the Italian artist Linda Macario http://www.lindamacariodolls.com/   Linda sells her resin dolls mainly through Jpop Dolls in the US and this is where I spotted my new girl, she was in stock! 
Her company name is actually Linda and she is tanned resin.  As you'll have already gathered, I particularly love tanned dolls, and even more so, tanned dolls with solemn or slightly grumpy faces,  so this little sweetie was just perfect for me.  She is 40cm tall and has a chubby child-like body shape.  I have renamed her Dylan.

Dylan arrived from Jpops with a pair of bright green glass eyes, really not my 'cup of tea' so I searched through my box of eyes and would you believe it, out of all the pairs I have (and I really have lots of eyes!!) I couldn't find a pair in glass that 1) fitted her or 2) suited her!   She takes an 18mm.  So she is currently trying out a pair of Glastic Realistic Acrylic eyes.....they are growing on me though so maybe they will stay a while!  I have also attached new upper lashes because these are more natural looking than those she came with, plus added some extra bottom lashes and eyebrows with watercolour pencils.

And of course she was bald!  As the majority of my wigs are at home and I'm not, she is currently borrowing a wig from my Kaye Wiggs Hope, whilst Hope is borrowing from one of my Little Darlings!!!!  It really is like Musical Wigs in this house!!!

When she was all ready to be photographed, I said to my hubby "You've got to admit, she's very cute!"  To which he replied "I'll take your word for that!"  Oh well, at least I'm happy with her!

Sorry about all the photos, I couldn't choose!  Oh, and /an added bonus, she can wear Sasha outfits!!!!  Although Sasha shoes are too wide, she is wearing a pair of Ruthsdolls boots below!!

"Hey, Mum!  I'm cold without hair!"

Ahh, now that's better!!  She may be wearing temporary eyes, a borrowed wig and too big boots, but she fits into a Vintage Sasha smock dress and shorts........what more could a girl want from life!!!! :) 

Thank you for looking and apologies for the repetitiveness of the photos, but hope you've enjoyed 'meeting' Dylan :)

"World Doll Day" Tag

A couple of days ago I was 'tagged' by Farrah Lily at Cozy Comforts and Dolls blog, which can be found here: http://cozycomfortsanddolls.blogspot.com.es 

The tag is to: 
1. List 3 favourite dolls from the ones you got last year.
2. List 3 dolls currently on your wishlist.
3. Tag 5 people to do the same thing! (Anyone with a home on the web, not just bloggers, can be tagged!)

So here goes, these aren't in any particular order:

1.  My 3 favourite dolls from ones I got last year.....

Of the three Sasha dolls that came to live here in July 2014, my favourite is definitely Núria, my beautiful redhead Ballet girl from 1969.  I saw her pop up on Sarah of Vintage Sasha's blog and knew immediately that she was for me.  She has such an expressive face, one moment she looks tranquil or sometimes sad, but she can also look quite annoyed too, it just depends on how the light hits her beautiful features!

Another favourite is Ellie, my Little Darling painted by Dianna Effner.  When I saw her up for sale on a BJD forum back in  I was immediately smitten and contacted the seller about her.  I wanted her so badly but was a bit short of the asking price, but the seller was lovely and agreed to wait a week or so until I'd sold one of my BJDs to get the balance!  Fortunately I sold a doll really quickly and this little beauty came to live her in Spain.  Readers of my blog will know that she's put me through some angst in the earlier part of this year, but I have to say that I've no regrets adopting her, I love her!!!

My next favourite of the three has got to be another of my Little Darlings!!  It is in fact Reece, my factory painted #2 sculpt which was released for the UFDC back in July 2014.  I saw several fro sale on Ebay and could see the potential in this little sweetie, so I decided to contact the UFDC directly and bought one from them.  As soon as she arrived home I changed her wig, then I enhanced her eyes slightly with glaze to bring them to life.  I love this girl too, she's so sweet and cheeky looking!!!

2.  Three dolls that are on my wish list.....

Now this is hard because I am not very good with Wish Lists....I tend to make a decision that I want to adopt someone then I will go all out to find that doll and adopt it if I have the money at the time!  If the doll becomes available and I don't have the funds then I will do my best to find them, usually by selling a doll that I know I can replace if I miss too much!!!  However, if money were no object, I would like a girl just like this one, she belongs to a lovely dolly friend who I'm sure won't mind me sharing his girl here.....I do believe though that if, in the unlikely event that this doll became available for adoption, there would be a very long queue!!!  

This is Steve's gorgeous No Philtrum Sasha from the 1960s......love her!!!

  
Another doll that I suppose we could say is on my Wish List, although she is actually already ordered and deposit paid, is this lovely girl being painted by the artist Lana Dobbs.  She's a tanned Little Darling #1 sculpt.  I have already been waiting 15 months so hopefully I'll have her by Christmas!!  

And finally, one day I would like an early brunette Sasha with non falling hair and a wider face!!  Not asking much eh?  ;)  The one below belongs to another lovely dolly friend, Kendal, and I'm sure she'll not mind me using a photo of one of her lovely girls who fits my description perfectly!!!

3. Tag 5 people to do the same thing!

OK so who to tag!  I think I'd like to hear from the five people below, but if you'd like to do this anyway, then please do....I'd love to read it!

Dee of Sasha Village
Jenni of The Bryn Derw Kids
Kendal of Kendal's Sasha Brood 
El Rincon de Bright
Cloud and Klaus


Please don't feel obliged to do this, I know people are busy but if you want to then please do share!!


 

Never say Never....

Last year I said that I wouldn't be buying any more BJDs, I wanted to get my numbers down and I have downsized a bit.....but last weekend I saw a very cute girl for sale on Den of Angels,  I wasn't looking for a new doll, honest!  I was only snooping about, I mean looking to bump up my own 'for sale' thread on there!!!  So there she was.  A bald, unpainted little girlie who just called out to me from the page.....what could I do but go and look at her?  And that was it, totally hooked and obsessed over this doll which I'd never seen or even heard of before.

She looked rather impishly at me and I was smitten!  But when I saw that she was being sold by someone here in Spain, I knew that it was meant to be, so I bought her and she arrived in two days!!!

This is Reira, she's created by a Spanish artist called Lola Palacios of Atelier Momoni.  Reira is 33cm tall and has a body shape that is very popular at the moment in the BJD world, her hips and bottom are large but her waist and bust are small.  It's a challenge to dress her because of this shape, but I think it'll be fun finding her style.  I do believe that this style of BJD is called 'artist' doll....but Reira is a 'true' artist doll anyway!!

Because Reira came blank (without any facepaint or 'faceup' as it is called) I thought I would give her a temporary faceup myself, before I decide who to send her to for a professional one.  One of my favourite faceup artists, Raven, no longer works on dolls, so I will have to look around for someone who has a slot available, but more importantly, who's work and style I really love!

So here are some arrival photos.....The box is 'stylish', quite plain with the Atelier Momoni 'crown' logo in cerise pink and company name in grey...

 

The doll came with a certificate of authenticity and a postcard sized sketch of the doll, drawn by the artist Lola Palacious

Inside the box, Reira was safely nestled in her lovely pink and white polkadot padded cushions.  You will see she came without eyes or wig.

"Hey, let me out of here!!"

"Phew...that's better!  Although I'd have liked something other than this cold tile to sit on!!"

Reira's skin tone is called 'toffee' and it really is a nice creamy tan.  I love tan dolls, with the bright light and sunshine here, they photograph so nicely.

Being the impatient person I am, I decided to start on her faceup yesterday afternoon.  Having sewn all morning, it was nice to put the fabric to one side and do some work on her.

"Are you ready?"

I use artist quality watercolour pencils and chalk pastels and Mr Super Clear Flat to seal between layers.  I'm not entirely happy with the end result but it will do for now!  Unfortunately by the time I'd finished it was dark so the photos are taken with flash....I planned on taking more photos today outside in natural light, but after yesterday's sunshine, today we have rain!

I'm not sure which wig she'll wear yet.  Her head is quite small, 5-6 inch wigs are too small though and 6-7 are a bit big.  The burgundy wig below is quite big on her whereas the brown one is a bit small!  I think she needs an exact size 6, which I don't have much of.  So I will be on the hunt for a new wig for her, I may even consider making her a Tibetan lambswool one....I think that style would suit her.  The eyes I've chosen are oval hazel brown glass.  I think she looks a little bit like a cat!! :) 

Here are some posing photos, she poses beautifully as she is completely double jointed, and can touch her face or her hair.  It was still raining as I took these so I apologise for the poor quality of the photos.....I will take more when the sun comes out!! 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my new girl and I hope you all have a lovely week ahead.  And for those of you with very cold weather and masses of snow....please keep safe and warm!

Starting as I mean to go on.......

Last week I decided that I wanted to adopt another Little Darling by Dianna Effner, I kept looking at them on Ebay but I'm not prepared to pay the high prices that they're going for second hand, so decided to have a look at the various artists who paint these lovely little dolls. 

I have recently been looking at girls painted by Nelly Valentino  and finally decided to go with her because I really like her work, she does the eyes so beautifully.  However, deciding on the artist was the easy bit, I then had to decide on the sculpt I wanted as well as the eye colour and style.  I wanted another #1 sculpt as I already have two #2's but I wanted her to be completely different from Ellie, but I also like the look of the #3 girls.  Although I've never really been into smiley dolls in the past, I really like the mischevious look of this latest sculpt and thought a #3 would make a nice addition to my Little Darlings family.    In the end the decision was too hard and I decided to go with both the #1 AND #3!!!  I figured that it made sense to pay the deposits now, as normal, and then the balance wouldn't be due until the summertime, when the two dolls were finished.  It also made sense to have two shipped together too, saving on postage!  Ohhhh how we justify our dolly purchases, eh?

So here are the two dolls that will eventually be coming here.  Obviously these photos are not mine and belong to the artist Nelly Valentino.  The first is a gorgeous #1 sculpt with light grey/hazel eyes, soft blushy face and no freckles.  Her eyebrows will be mid brown and her wig will be like the one below.

The second girl is the new #3 sculpt.  She has such a cheeky look about her that I couldn't resist her!   She will be painted like this girl with light grey/blue eyes and mid brown lashes and eyebrows.  However, I have asked the artist for a different wig, one that has a fringe like this but a single plait at the back, in the same colour as this one.  I feel that I already have a personality in my head for this girl and her name will probably be Ronan or Rowan as she is very like my friends little boy and his name is Ronan....and he is a bundle of mischeif too! :)

I'm really excited and looking forward to sewing outfits for both girls.  I hope that I'll love them both as much as I love the ones I have already! :)

A new arrival.....

I want to apologise in advance for all the photos!!!  I have been looking at these dolls for ages....they are 13 inch vinyl Little Darlings sculpted by the American artist Dianna Effner.  When I first started looking for one, the waiting list was about 6 months and me being very impatient, I didn't think I could wait that long for a doll to be painted and sent to me.  However, my interest in them didn't wane, in fact it got stronger and finally last month I ordered not one, but two of them, from different artists in the US.  Each artist is trained by Dianna in her beautiful eye painting techniques.  The eyes are amazing, they're like glass eyes but are actually created completely with paint techniques.  So I ordered a #1 sculpt from a newish artist called Pat Green and a second #1 sculpt from Lana Dobbs.  Pats waiting list is about 4 months so we're looking at about July.  However, Lana's wait time is 11 months so it'll be quite a long time before that little doll comes home.  I've since tentatively changed my order with Pat to a #2 sculpt, I'm just waiting to see examples of her work on the #2.  The good thing about these dolls is you only pay a deposit on ordering and the rest on completion of the doll, so my two 'balances' will be spread far apart.

In the meantime, I tried to be good but I couldn't!  I kept looking and looking at photos of these dolls on the internet and when I saw this particular cutie up for sale, I just couldn't resist.  I had to adopt her!  She is a #1 sculpt handpainted by Dianna Effner herself.  Her given name is Elena so I'm going to call her Ellie.  She has the most beautifully painted brown eyes and a little bunch of freckles across her nose.  She was being offered for sale on a BJD forum, otherwise I think she'd have been snapped up sooner than she was, I was really lucky to be able to bring her home.  And the seller was fantastic, sending her quickly and as a gift.  She only left the USA on Saturday and arrived here this morning. AND I didn't get caught for any customs charges!!!
I had made her this little knit dress last weekend as I know these girls only come in their underwear. The first wig is her default one, I might trim the curls a bit, but I really like it on her.

I love how she looks in this fur wig by Spite & Malice, soooo cute looking....this might be my second choice wig for her!

This is a Monique Gold wig, can't recall which one though.....cut shorter by me, she's cute as a blond but I think I prefer her as a brunette.

This is a mixed blond wig, made by Leeke World:

Another Leeke World wig, this time the same style but in brunette:

Right, I'm off to play some more!!!!  Have a lovely weekend everyone!