Angel

Angel received a new camera in the mail.  She fancies herself as a bit of a photographer!  Now she wants a nice strap to hold the camera apparently.....so back to the sewing machine!

Happy Monday everyone!

An Amazing Coincidence!

I feel like just recently I'm always posting about new arrivals and today is no exception, but I must tell you the story behind this latest adoption because it was so funny how it came about.

The doll in question is called Ziya and she is sculpted by the French artist of Youpladolls.  My dear friend Sue in the UK had one of these dolls and I always thought she was lovely, so when Sue mentioned to me that she was thinking of selling her, my ears pricked up.  But it seemed Sue was a little bit undecided because the doll had been a surprise gift from her husband and she wasn't sure if she should sell or not, but the doll wasn't getting any attention.  In the doll hobby we collectors are like "if the dolls not getting attention then maybe it should go to someone who will love it more....bye!"

Anyway, Sue was undecided at that point and I thought that I'd wait until she listed her for sale before mentioning my interest.  I'm such a worrier that I was reluctant to say that I'd like to adopt her in case Sue thought I was after 'mates rates' or something!  So, as I said already, I waited in the hope that as soon as she listed her for sale, I could go for her at the asking price.  Alas, the saying 'he who hesitates is lost' springs to mind because the following day Sue happily tells me that she's sold her Ziya, the doll was snapped up straight away.  Oh well, I thought, it was not to be!

In the meantime, the artist behind the doll had had a stand at L Doll in Lyon, France and the event had just finished so I emailed her to ask if there were any dolls left over, I would be interested in purchasing one.  But within a few hours I'd had a reply to say that there weren't any tan dolls left after the event...so that was that, it obviously wasn't to be!

I decided that I'd just catch up on some emails that I'd been meaning to do for ages.  I started with another lovely dolly friend, Jane in the UK, as I'd owed her a reply for ages.  I started typing out my email, telling Jane all my recent dolly news and about the new arrivals.  Then I told her what I'd been up to and how I'd been trying to buy Ziya and what had happened.  I sent the email and moved on.  

Within minutes an email came winging it's way back to me from Jane.  She'd read about my search and was amazed that she had, that very same day, made a decision to sell her Ziya!!!!  Was I interested in her?  Well, how funny was that! The only reason Jane's doll was not yet up for sale was because she'd not yet got around to taking photos for potential buyers!  So of course I said yes!!!  I would love to adopt her doll and that's exactly what I did!!!

So Ziya arrived a few days ago, she took less than a week to arrive from the UK and she is lovely.  Her name previously was Angeline but I have shortened that to Angel.  Jane sent her wig, eyes, an outfit and shoes!  Such a lovely parcel to open 😃  The doll is tanned and she is MSD size, in fact she is a smaller MSD at 39cm tall.  She wears a 6.5 inch wig and 10mm eyes.  I've not taken many photos of her yet because I've had a very busy week but you can be sure that I'll be taking more photos very soon.

She was a little pale from living in the UK 😉 so I added some blush and some tiny freckles across her nose and cheeks.  They look a lot more prominent in the photos than they do in real life for some reason!  I've not sealed them so they will probably fade or rub off in time.

Here are a few photos of her for now, it was a very blowy day!   I hope you like her!

She has beautifully sculpted hands which you can just see in this photo below....

Well that's all I have for you today but hopefully soon I'll have some more photos.  I will also be posting some vinyl dolls for sale, including Gotz, Zwergnase and others.  I am also going to be selling one of my tiny BJDs, a Lati Yellow Cookie in tan, so if you're interested please watch this space.

Have a great weekend!

Big hugs Sharon in Spain xxx

November Already?

Oh my goodness, how did we reach  November already?  I was only half way through October, blinked and it was gone!  Well October was a busy month for us as at the beginning of the month my son Brendan came to visit for a week!  It was a lovely week, we had a lot of fun but the time just rushed past and soon he had gone back again to the UK 😢  But whilst he was here we went to the gym together, went out for meals and just generally had a great time!

Of course there was also a small amount of dolly time and I've been doing some sewing for my newest girls, the Little Cosmos Dolls, Bastian and Robin, as well as tiny Annic by Irrealdolls.

I made Sienna (Bastian) a pair of jeans....here she's wearing them with a Superman tee shirt that I made some years ago for another doll:

 
I wanted to get Sienna a new faux fur wig, but having looked around on Etsy and Ebay, I decided that I'd make one myself.  The problem is finding just the right sort of faux fur, I really don't like the faux fur that has a high nylon content.  Well as luck would have it, I just happened to be shopping in Lidl and there they were selling brown furry cushions, in just the sort of fabric I was looking for!  So I grabbed one, brought it home and unpicked it.  I then made a pattern and soon Sienna had her wig.  The fur is longer than her existing faux fur wig so I was able to pull pieces at the back into two little pigtails!!!

In the meantime, Annic by Irrealdolls, who is now called Anais, got a nice new outfit.  It was one I bought at the Dolly Day event in Barcelona back in June.  It was intended for my Hana Angel but it was too long on her, so Anais is the lucky recipient....I added the hat and the bag which I made many years ago although I think it would have been better in black...

I thought she looked very old fashioned and even more so in sepia....

Apart from that, little Pip, (Irrealdoll Enyo in Toffee) got changed into something warmer for the autumn....he's the first to get changed, I hope you're impressed 😁 .... let's hope I can get the rest changed before the winter turns into spring again!!!  His lovely striped jumper and hat are by my late and dear friend Maisiedoats, who passed away far too soon, his jeans are by yours truly...well me!!! 

Apart from that, nothing much else to tell you except to say that I have another new girl on her way home as I type!  She is coming from the UK and hopefully she will have arrived in time for my next blog post.  

I hope you all have a great weekend and thanks for visiting.

Big hugs Sharon xx

Oooh How Did She Slink In?

On the 4th October another little resin girlie managed to sneak her way into my BJD collection....as always, I will use my regular excuse that this little 'purchase' was my way of helping the Spanish economy!!  What a hero I am!!  But I do like to do my bit to help out my fellow countryfolk 😊

My latest arrival is called Annic and she is a 22.5cm tall resin ball jointed doll sculpted by Laura Garijo who is from Sevilla, Spain, and is the name behind Irrealdoll.  Laura groups her dolls by size and each grouping has a name.  The dolls belonging to this size group are called Setitas and Annic is the second doll of this size sculpted by Laura.  On Laura's website, Irrealdoll Annic she explains the inspiration behind the 'Annic' name:

"Her name was inspired by a beautiful deep blue mushroom known as "Entoloma Panniculus" in the scientific spheres"

Annic comes in two skin tones, 'Peanut', which is quite light and what is often referred to as 'normal' skin in the bjd world, and 'Truffle'.....I chose Truffle because as you'll know from reading my blog, I have a real fondness for tan skinned dolls.  The colour is lovely, very soft and creamy and I'm very glad this was my choice.

I chose Annic with the 'sad' faceup because, well you know that too....I love sad faced dolls!!!  She really does look like she's about to cry in some photos, which I find very endearing.  She arrived nude but with a pair of tiny, random coloured, 6mm glass eyes.  The eyes that I received were a light green but I decided to try her with a pair of slightly bigger, 8mm, violet although naturally for me, I would like to get her a pair of brown ones at some point.

I love this small size, she can wear lots of different Blythe outfits and even some (but not all) Blythe footwear.  Fortunately I'd bought 6 pairs of shoes and boots in advance of her arrival, so she's got lots of choice at the moment.  

Her wig size is 4 inches and I had a wig in mind for her but wasn't sure that it suited her once I tried it, but I've now cut it shorter so below you'll see photos of her before and after it was cut.  She's currently wearing a hat in the hope that it'll flatten the sides down a bit.  I do so wish that the doll companies made wigs that not only fit the size of the dolls head, but also were in scale.  I don't like wigs that have waaaay too much hair for such tiny heads!

Sam, my Elfdoll Hana Angel, has wanted a friend in her size and scale, for ages.  So now she is happy to have Annic to hang out with 😉 I think the two of them look quite cute together!

Here the two girls are playing "One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four!" 

Trying out a Blythe dress that I made years ago...

Photos taken today after her hair cut....I hope I don't regret it, the wig was nice but I just didn't want such long hair on this tiny girl!

Thank you for visiting!  I do so hope you've enjoyed seeing this little new arrival and hope you're all having a good week so far.  I might not be around for a week or so because my son Brendan arrives tomorrow for a weeks holiday with us.....he was supposed to arrive tonight but that's a story for another day.

Big hugs, Sharon xxx
 

 

My Little Cosmos Girls Again....

I'm really enjoying my two new girls from Little Cosmos Dolls, more so than I've enjoyed dolls in ages I think.  I've been sewing again for both of them and taking lots of photos.


Here is a dress I sewed a couple of days ago for Sienna (Bastian).....I used a very basic pattern and then added a white collar, I then made the socks and hat using some mustard coloured ribbed knit.  I made the leather bag previously....she looks all ready for school now!

 

Every time I look at her in this hat I'm reminded of Winnie the Pooh!  I think it's the 'ears' on each corner!  🌝

I also made this sleeveless summer dress, in fact I have made three of these dresses, one for Sienna and two others the same, as gifts.  The fabric was from a human baby dress that I bought especially to unpick.  I managed to get four dresses from it.  It's such nice fabric and looks like it's handpainted, although I'm sure for the price I paid for it, it clearly isn't!!

Today I finished off an outfit for Dylan (Robin).  I say 'finished off' because this outfit has been mostly made for ages, I just hadn't got around to finishing it.  I think the legs could do with being a bit longer on her but it wasn't intended for her, so I'd not adapted it.  I added the patch pockets by hand this morning, a challenge as I kept accidentally sewing the legs together!!  Cute rabbit hat is by Dafnery Dolls here in Spain.

You may have noticed something else about Dylan!  I have changed her eyes to brown glass ones, but more importantly, I have changed the colour of her lips to a lighter shade.  It's not that I didn't like the custom faceup by Under the Fern, but I just wanted her to have lighter lips.  So this morning I removed the existing ones and redid them in lighter shades of pastels.  I'm pleased with how they've come out.  

Here is a before and after comparison, before is on the left:

Apart from that, I have another new girl coming here early this week!  She is a ball jointed doll from another Spanish artist, this one based in Sevilla.  I love being able to support the individual BJD artists....and of course help the Spanish economy!!!  Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend and that the week ahead is good for you.

Big hugs Sharon xxx

A New Kid on the Block!

Robin from Little Cosmos Dolls arrived yesterday amid much excitement!  I ordered her back in April and have been waiting patiently for her to come home!

You may remember that I met the artist behind Little Cosmos Dolls, Sandra Locre, back in June at the Dolly Day 2018 in Barcelona, the post about that event can be found  here
and having met her and seen her dolls in real life, I was really keen to receive my doll....so much so that I ordered another of her sculpts from her on my return home!

As you all know, I love pouty faced BJDs, particularly sullen looking dolls, so Robin's face particularly appealed to me when I saw her up for pre-order back in the spring, so jumped at the chance to get her.

Sandra Locre describes Robin: "Robin has an aspect between sulking and sad, but don't be fooled, it is a tactic to get what she wants."  I guess Sandra knows, seeing as she was 'born' of Sandra's artistic talents.  You know there is something particularly lovely about receiving a doll that is created by the hands of a person you've met and like!

Robin is 29cm tall, all resin ball jointed doll.  She has size 14mm eyes and wears a size 6/7 inch stretch wig or 7/8 inch non stretch wig.  Below are some photos of her trying on wigs that I have in my wig box.  I think she looks cute in all the wigs I tried on her but what do you think?  Which is your favourite?

So here she is!  

Well that's just a small selection of wigs that I liked on her, it's so hard to choose but am leaning towards one in particular but you'll have to wait and see what one that is!  Will your preference be the same as mine? 

In the meantime, I think I need to make some new outfits for her too.  She is slightly taller than the rest of my girls in this category so the dresses look 'oddly' short on her, but no probs, I will enjoy sewing something just for her!

By the way, that's her 'nightie' that she's crept outside in.....I guess she thought that wearing it with her boots made it into a daytime outfit!!!

Well I hope you have enjoyed meeting Robin....who may end up being called Dylan as I sold another Dylan to get her!  I do like those boyish names for girls!

Have a great week ahead!

Big hugs Sharon xx

A little girl comes to stay....

Today a little girlie came to live here in Spain with us.  The little girl in question is a Disney Animator doll that has been customised by an artist in Germany.  She is a Rapunzel doll from the Disney film 'Tangled' and is about 15 inches tall, an all vinyl 'play doll'.  These dolls have five joints, neck, shoulders and hips.  They are good quality and when buying default directly from the Disney store are very well priced.  The dolls hair is very soft and silky. 

Rapunzel fits into Sasha outfits and below is seen wearing an smock dress and shorts which I made some time ago from a Sasha pattern.  Shoes and socks are also made for Sasha.

Because Rapunzel has extremely long hair I cut it into a bob which is shorter at the back and then tapers to longer at the front.  I love how her eyes are hand painted, they are so pretty and much nicer than the default dolls eyes which are sprayed on.

The nude doll has painted on knickers, as shown here: (not my photo)

And here she is with her newly styled hair:  (I would prefer the dress a little shorter on her if I make another one)

A close up of the handpainted eyes.....

I also have two of these dolls that are still in their default state, so now I plan on customising them myself.....watch this space!!!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this little review of a customised Disney Animator doll.

Have a great weekend everyone!