Well the temperatures here have been very high, it's not dropped lower than the mid 30s centigrade for weeks and last week we saw temperatures into the mid 40s. I always say that I love the heat, and it's true, I really do, and I'd be more than happy to have summer all year round, but even I had to admit that it was hot! Perfect weather for the beach though, especially later in the day when the sun isn't quite as intense. Having said that, apparently the weather this year has been perfect also for jelly fish, so we've had to be careful when swimming in the sea!
I haven't done much with my dolls for a while although I have sold a few and taken some photos of a few others. I am selling some vinyl dolls so will add photos here in case anyone is interested.
My BJDs are still getting most of my 'play time' and attention and today I took a couple of photos of the Fairyland crew. I would love to take the second photo in a beach setting, perhaps with a camp fire in front of them but we all know that that isn't going to happen with me! So here they are on our deck.
This first photo is of the Minifee girls, (all tan resin, all 42cm tall) it would have looked better if I'd had them standing further away from the 'backdrop' but they kept wanting to fall down so I thought it was too risky....I did NOT want to damage their faces!!
L to R: Chloe, Mirwen and Ris:
Now joined by the two Little Fee Antes: Fiona and Tyrone. Ris is strumming a nice chill-out tune for them:
Another girl who got a change of clothes, twice in fact, was Jo (Zwergnase 55cm Junior Miriam), in the first two photos she's wearing a summer dress I made from an American Girl sized pattern....
I really like this girls unusual face:
And here she is wearing a dress I made for her in anticipation of her arrival last year. I made the pattern from looking at a photo of a child's dress so it isn't perfect on her...but she's happy enough! ;)
Another thing that I've been doing this summer, apart from relaxing and reading, is making dolls eyes! I watched several videos on You Tube on how to make resin eyes and decided that I would give it a go. I love to change my BJDs eyes but I hate that I can only get the eyes I want from outside of Spain, from either Greece, Hong Kong or South Korea, and I sooo hate the long wait. By the time the eyes arrive I've often forgotten who it was that I ordered them for! So I ordered the supplies and also some silicone molds on line and thankfully they all arrived quite quickly. And I was off! I've only made 8 pairs so far and some of them have been...erm...pretty disasterous, but I have also had some small successes so I'm happy. And I will hopefully improve as I continue making them.
Here are the first ones, these came out a complete mess!!! I'm not sure what happened but the domes all went flat! And there were a lot of air bubbles......the little balls you see in the blue ones are not air bubbles though, they are tiny little balls that I found in a shop selling finger nail decorations!
The second batch came out a lot better, there were minimal air bubbles and the green pair are actually better than they appear in this photo....LOL....but not a lot!!!!!
And finally I was able to make a pair that were good enough to use! I wanted a pair of brown eyes for my little Secretdoll Meng as she came with a sort of lavender eyes that I thought I'd change. I know you can't see the details here but they are definitely wearable!
And here she is before her eye change, I had to add these photos as she looks so cute!
Now on to girls for sale. I am selling only vinyl dolls at the moment. I have a Gotz Happy Kidz Sophie looking for a new home. Sophie is quite a 'hard to find' girl these days as she is from 2012. She is a beautiful redhead in lovely condition and includes her full outfit with shoes and shoulder bag. The only fault she has is her knees are quite loose, although the hips are fine. She can stand on her own, but she really could do with those knees being tightened, I just don't know how it's done so I've not touched her.
I'm asking £125 for her plus postage from Spain. I do not have her large original box but she does have her wrist tags.
I am also selling this 18 inch girl by Robert Tonner, she is a Tonner My Imagination Deluxe Basic girl with jointed knees. She is all vinyl and comes with two wigs, the brunette in the photos and a blond one that has never been used. You may remember that I opened the pate on the top of her head under her wig and repositioned her eyes as they were very 'deer caught in headlights' looking. Her eyes are her original ones and are now held in place with eye putty. She will also come wearing her original underwear as shown in the photos. I don't have her box either but she will travel safely packaged to her new home.
I'm asking £75 plus postage.
If you're interested in either of these two, please email me:
dambuster0662@gmail.com
I will also be listing some other vinyl dolls in the next few weeks or so, so please stop by and see if there is anything that takes your fancy ;)
Finally I just wanted to add a couple of photos of my handsome son Brendan and his beautiful wife Virginia. These were taken last weekend at a wedding near Pisa, Italy. I thought they looked too lovely to just keep on my laptop, so thought I'd share here:
For a young woman who, as an archeologist, spends her working week thigh deep in mud, Virginia certainly 'certainly scrubs up well' as us Brits say!! :)
Thank you very much for stopping by, I hope you are all enjoying your summer and hope you also have a great 'rest of the week' !!
Big hugs Sharon xx
I love the doll photos. I think I can hear the guitar music if I close my eyes (chuckle).
ReplyDeleteYes, it is difficult to believe it is August already. The Summer did fly by.
Your son and his wife are lovely.
I enjoy reading doll blogs. Thanks for writing yours!
Thank you so much Dorothy for your lovely comments, I’m glad you enjoy doll blogs and therefore come and visit mine! I hope you will continue to visit and hopefully I will be a bit more active as the weather cools off a little!
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The months are just flying by Sharon! Don't know if it's because it's been so hot or what!
ReplyDeleteI love your three Fairyland girls, they look so good together. They look just like they have the summer off from school or college and are out to enjoy themselves.
The little Fee Antes look just right with them, like little sisters who want to be with the big girls.
You are so clever to be making eyes for the dolls ! It's so good if you can do it , I agree it's so irritating to have to wait weeks or months for things to arrive from other places. So good luck , if you get really good you could start selling them! :)
I'd love to say I've not been buying dolls but you KNOW it's not true! lol
Virginia , Beauty and brains, what a combination! I bet she even looks beautiful knee deep in mud while scrapping away at the earth uncovering ancient artifacts!
Thanks for the catch up and good luck making those eyes, I look forward to your next post whenever it turns up :) lol xx
Thanks very much Dee, glad you enjoyed reading the post. I'm having fun making the eyes, I made another two pairs today and they are better, although still I see I have some tiny air bubbles....but definitely an improvement on the previous ones. Hopefully it will continue in the same vein.
DeleteThanks for your lovely comments on the 'girls', your description is great because that was exactly my intention, to look like school girls who are off for the summer and enjoying themselves.
Yes Virginia certainly does have beauty and brains, and having seen her at work, I have to say that yes again, she really does still look gorgeous in the mud!!!
Big hugs xxx
All this talk of selling - how do you do it, I find it so hard. The photos of your Fairyland girls are so real, just as girls are. Your son and dil look great - very stylish x
ReplyDeleteWell it's hard at first Tricia but then I think of that nice paypal balance and what I can spend it on....it sort of motivates me LOL.
DeleteThanks for your nice comments, I love the BJDs for how real they can look in photos, I have seen photos (not mine!!!) where I've had to look twice because I've thought they were photos of real people!!
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Your dolls look fantastic as always. Good luck with your sales. Your son and daughter-in-Law are such a beautiful couple. We have had hot weather too. I am looking forward to Fall and hope we have a nice one. Yay sweater weather! Thank you for the lovely week’s wishes. I hope your week is a great one! 😊 xxx
ReplyDeleteThank you very much dear Ginger, and for your good luck wishes. I've sold some but still have others to sell, including the two girls above. I just need to sort them all out!!
DeleteI'm the opposite to you, I hate sweater weather to be honest, I LOVE LOVE LOVE sleeveless weather! I hope our summer will go on for some time yet :)
Big hugs xxx
Between us both, there is love year round! I am sending you hugs in your sunny Spain. ❤️ xxx
DeleteYou're so right Ginger!! And a lot of my Spanish friends love the winter.....we've got it all covered between us! ;) xxx
DeleteHello! I could say the same, where did July go and oh my it is August already. Schools will start in a week and it is time to pack things for a trip home and start the real life again. But I hope to stay a bit longer at the cottage, just for myself.
ReplyDeleteLovely photos and beautiful dolls. I do hope that the ones you are selling find a new great home.
Glad that you tried to make eyes. I have tried to make a pair with ordinary clay (FIMO), and it worked rather well. The ones you have made look great. The bubbles does not show so much, not at the first glance.
And your son and Virginia do look amazing!
Enjoy the rest of August and I have an Award for you at my blog. :)
Thank you Niina, I am just going to catch up with my friends blogs today so will have a look for the award.
DeleteThanks also for your lovely comments, I hope you enjoy a bit of tranquil time at your cottage, I'm waiting for the kids to go back to school here, although to be fair to them, I know that once they're gone I will be thinking that it's awfully quiet! I suppose it's just that I would like a bit more space in the swimming pool LOL!
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Lovely to see your dolls and your handsome son and his gorgeous wife. Stunning! Best of luck selling your dolls. I still find it so hard to let go of some of my dolls, but I really need to work on that! I'm right there with you as far as loving the heat and I'm glad you've been enjoying your summer. I have heard that the UK/Europe in general has had quite a long heat wave this summer and we've had the sunniest and warmest summer in ages here in upstate NY! I believe there was a record broken for the longest stretch of days "in the 80s" (above 26C) we've had in a long time! I'm loving it. :) Great to hear from you! xx
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for the lovely comments Farrah, it's good to hear from you. I'm glad to hear that you're having a great summer too and yes, we have had a lot of hot days despite the late start to the summer. I know that I kept on asking "when are we going to have those warm balmy nights that I love so much" but when they arrived, they arrived with a vengeance!!!
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I'm so glad you shared the photos of the eye-making results. That's so interesting to see!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe we're nearing the end of August now either!
Thank you, I hope you found it useful! I've had good fun making them, even though they're not perfect. I think making some fantasy ones might be easier as I have a lot of things I could use....but I never use fantasy eyes and doubt they'd be good enough to sell!
DeleteNooooo August went waaay tooooo fast!!!
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Thank you for sharing your experience with eye-making process. I have the same problem: I always forget to whom I ordered the eyes. I should think about eye-making too :)
ReplyDeleteThank you Ariadne, and you're very welcome. I would say to have a go at eye making, it's a lot of fun....a bit frustrating when you get air bubbles but fun all the same! And making fantasy ones are really fun, although to be honest I don't use fantasy ones! LOL
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