Pretty Maids all in a row....my Dianna Effner family

I just realised that I forgot to post these photos that I took the other day of my Little Darlings and my little Boneka Tuesday Child.  I took them especially for my blog, and then put them elsewhere and that was it!

So here are some photos showing all the girls together and some showing the same sculpts together.  I have to say that I was glad no-one had a camera on me when I was taking these photos.  I put some artificial grass down on the deck next to the fence, then I put an old sheet on the ground to lie on.  So far so good.  But my dogs decided that the artificial grass was for them, so they go and sit on it.  Right in front of where I wanted to pose my dolls.  I got down on the ground and started lining the dolls up.  Lucy decides that she wants to get between them and the camera, then she wants to lay on her back and push her chest into my face for tickles.  Then three of the Chihuahuas decided to run up my back, Choco started to dig into my hair, Yoda went up the back of my skirt and in the process pulled my skirt right up over my waist so revealing my 'not so sexy' knickers to the world.  And then the dolls started to fall like dominoes!

Honestly the lengths we go to to take photos of our dolls....thank goodness we're not overlooked is all I can say!

All the girls together, left to right:

Gem (#2 sculpt by Dianna Effner), Daniela (Boneka Tuesday's Child), Antonia (#1 sculpt by Nelly Valentino), Nikola (#1 sculpt by Nelly Valentino), Ellie (#1 sculpt by Dianna Effner), Reece (#2 sculpt UFDC factory painted) and Finn (#2 sculpt by Pat Green)

A closer look at the line up:

The #1 sculpt girls: 

The #2 sculpt girls:

And finally some photos of Antonia in her new outfit that came from a French seamstress in Germany!  The outfit consists of the dress which is half knitted and then a fabric 'skirt' attached and the hat.  I added the apple green spotted socks myself, to go with the green flowers on the skirt fabric.

Thank you for looking, I hope you all have a lovely week :)

The Little Darlings family.....

A few of my friends have asked to see all of my Little Darlings together so that they can compare them, so I thought I'd share some photos that I took today of all four of them and also with little Pip, my Ten Ping!  There are quite a few photos, so I hope you're not in any rush ;)

L to R: Finn (#2 sculpt painted by Pat Green), Reece (#2 sculpt factory painted Ana with enhanced eyes by me), Ellie (#1 sculpt painted by Dianna Effner) and Gem (#2 sculpt painted by Dianna Effner)

Below the girls have moved around in the line- up and you can see the differences to their 'skin' tone.   Gem, the new girl, now shown second from left, has a darker skin tone than Ellie and Finn, but is very similar in shade to Reece, the factory painted girl shown second from right.

Here, below, are my three #2 sculpt girls together, L to R, Finn painted by Pat Green, Gem painted by Dianna Effner and Reece, factory painted girl.  Although all three girls are the same sculpt, the #2 or the 'Asian' sculpt as I believe Dianna originally named it, because of the different ways in which they've been painted, they look fairly different.  Finn in particular looks less Asian, maybe purely because she has lighter eyes, as we tend to associate darker eyes with Asian people.

The two brown eyed #2 sculpts, Reece left (factory painted) and Gem (painted by Dianna Effner)  Seeing the two girls side by side you can see that they do look very Asian with their lovely almond shaped eyes.  Some people don't consider the factory painted girls to be of the same 'calibre' as the handpainted ones, and although I appreciate that a lot of work goes into the handpainting of the eyes, I have to say that I'm incredibly happy with my little factory painted girl.  As far as I'm concerned she is every bit as lovely as the handpainted girls!  :)   Although I admit I'm prejudiced! 

Below we have my two girls painted by Dianna Effner, Ellie the #1 sculpt on the left and Gem, #2 sculpt on the right.  Dianna painted Ellie in February 2014 and Gem is an older girl, having been painted in November 2010.  The difference in their 'skin' tone in this photo is very obvious to see.  Ellie has a lighter 'rosier' complexion whilst Gem has a more olive skin tone.  Both girls have brown eyes but Gem's are definitely very dark, almost black and her eyebrows are very fine compared to Ellie's thicker, darker ones.  I do feel very privileged to have both girls as I believe the waiting list for one of Dianna's handpainted dolls is at least 2 years!

Here are some individual photos of the girls ~ Gem:

Ellie, not a great photo though!

Gem again!

Reece, looking very serious!

And Finn, looking startled!  I have struggled with finding just the right wig for Finn and have another currently on order.  I hope that when it arrives it will be perfect for her.  I don't like the wig in the photo below, it looks too 'big' for her although it is her size!!

Finally, as requested, we bring little Pip (Ten Ping by Ruby Red Galleria) into the equation!  She looks very tiny in comparison to the Little Darlings but I do think with her Asian look she makes a cute little sister for Gem! 

 Sisters!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all the girls together and the comparisons.  If you'd like to see any other comparisons then please let me know in the comments and if I can, I will do them for you!

Thanks for looking and gave a great weekend!

Springtime for the Little Darlings....

My three Little Darlings by Dianna Effner, have been enjoying the spring sunshine.  I thought I'd share some photos of these lovely girlies....

L to R: Ellie, #1 sculpt painted by Dianna Effner and wearing an outfit made by me, Finn, #2 sculpt painted by Pat Green and also wearing an outfit made my me, and Reece, #2 sculpt factory painted UFDC souvenir Ana, wearing a Betsy McCall dress by Robert Tonner:
All wigs cut and style by me :)

My beautiful Ellie with her newly repainted eyes by Dianna Effner:

Sweet little Finn:

Cousins, Ellie and Finn:

Ellie, Finn and Reece:

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these Little Darlings of mine :)

Introducing Reece.....a UFDC 'Companion' Doll...Photo heavy!!! :)

The UFDC (United Federation of Dolls Clubs) held their annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, back in July and Dianna Effner was spotlighted at the event.   The souvenir doll, along with the 'companion' doll for the event, were both vinyl dolls sculpted by Dianna, however they are not artist painted but painted by the factory in China that produces the blank Little Darlings for Dianna and her artists to make into their gorgeous creations.

At first I wasn't particularly interested in getting my hands on one of the dolls from the event but as they started to appear on Ebay, I was increasingly drawn to the dark haired 'companion' doll, a #2 sculpt called Ana.  Ana was dresses as a little Indian girl and she just looked very cute in the sellers photos, so I decided to go ahead and get one.  However, I was outbid a few times on Ebay, so wasn't going to bother, but then I heard that the UFDC were selling off the 'extra' dolls and decided to go ahead and get one.  I had seen 'real life' photos on the Little Darlings Yahoo group and on Flickr and realised that despite the fact that the doll is not artist painted, she has so much potential....I'm so glad I went for her!!!  She arrived yesterday without any customs fees....that has to be a great start....and she really is as cute as a button. 

The doll herself is exactly the same as the Little Darlings.  The only difference, as I've already mentioned, is she's not handpainted by one of Dianna's trained artists, plus she doesn't have the manicure and pedicure that the artists ones come with.  She does however come fully dressed in well made outfit of tee shirt dress with, funnily enough,  ra-ra frills around the bottom, matching calf length leggings, sandals and a beaded necklace.  The outfit does up at the back with velcro.  Her wig is glued on, it is not bad quality either although mine was shedding a little bit, it has a straight fringe and two little pieces of hair pulled back at the sides into ponytails and these are decorated with long strings with beads on the end.  The wig actually feels like it could be artificial mohair, it's quite soft.  However, it wasn't the style I had in mind for her so I prised it off using the handle of a spoon.  Unfortunately her head underneath was quite stained from the wig, but it doesn't show with a new wig on so I'm not bothered by it.

I have ordered some Judikins Diamond Glaze from Ebay UK, after hearing that this is what Dianna and her artists use to glaze the eyes and give them that beautiful shine.  Hopefully that will be here at the weekend and I can give it a go on this new girl.

In the meantime, I've been having fun trying out wigs on her.....I won't bore you with the photos of all the different wigs, because we've been there, done that, already once this week, I'll just go on to show you the two I chose for her to try out.  She chose the outfit for herself ;)  I thought perhaps I'd finally got a 'girlie' girl to go with Ellie and Finn....until I saw her dirty sneakers!!!  I haven't had time to make her an outfit of her own yet, so she is wearing a mishmash of things that she found in the dolls clothes box!!! 

In the meantime, I cut the below wig shorter (this was the one I first tried on Finn and liked) and now it is a chin length bob....I think this will be Reece's wig for the time being as she looks so cute in it!

And here she is with her two artist painted sisters/friends:

Comparing the two girls of the same sculpt:

Bottom line:  Well the bottom line is, I know that Reece is not a handpainted doll, but quality wise, she is great!  I think she is a very cute doll with so much potential.  All I've done so far is change her wig and I'm sure you'll agree that she fits right in with Ellie and Finn!! 

If you want an alternative to the long wait for an artist painted Little Darling or the high prices on the secondhand market, then I would certainly recommend one of the UFDC Convention cuties.