"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!!


 

A change of wig for Fiona....and dolly nudity!

Fiona is my Little Fee Ante by Fairyland in South Korea, and I have had her since 2008 when she came to me secondhand from California. 

Fiona/Ante is approx 25cm tall, normal skin, resin ball jointed doll.  The Fairyland dolls have about the best joints for posing that I've ever come across in my 9 years of collecting BJDs.  I don't think another company has yet come close to achieving the posability of these dolls to be honest.  I remember being amazed at the company's photos when they were first released and wondering if it was really possible to get them to hold such great poses, but yes, they can indeed hold great poses.  I thought I'd share some of those old photos with you which are from the Fairyland website.....warning dolly nudity!

The dolls also have magnetic wrists and ankles so that their hands and feet can be removed for easy dressing, as well as magnets placed inside the resin on their backs so that they can wear little resin wings and on their heads so that they can wear horns!!  You can also purchase additional hands, such as pointing fingers and little fists, as well as different faceplates such as 'winking' or 'sleeping'!

A funny little story about a lovely friend of mine who sadly has since passed away, and her Little Fee's magnetic hands.  My friend used to knit and sell on Ebay and one day she wrote to say that she'd lost her dolls hands, she'd looked high and low and couldn't find "the darn things"!  I made a few suggestions because I'd also had occasion to lose mine.....had she checked the metal legs of the ironing board?  Her buttons tin?  Anywhere metallic near to where she knits?  Yes, she'd checked all these places but they'd failed to turn up so she got onto the Fairyland company and ordered another pair.  A week or so later, she received an email from an Ebay customer in America to say that she loved the cardigan that she'd just received having won on Ebay, but did my friend know that there was a Little Fee hand in each of the sleeves?!!!!!  Mystery solved!  So although the hands don't usually just fall off like that, they have a little notch that keeps them in place, they'd obviously got snagged on the yarn in the sleeves and gone off with the cardigan!!!  It's always nice to have a pair of spare hands though, isn't it! 

Standing up straight showing the jointing system from the front:

 

And from the side, I love this pose because it's so like little kids stand when you tell them to "stand up straight"!:

And from the back:

A cute little pose:

Sitting down nicely, a typical child's pose whilst sitting on the floor to play!

 Another cute pose:

Standing on one leg:

A great TV watching pose!

Playing leapfrog with a friend!

Awww Little Angels!

Well I got a bit sidetracked there, didn't I!!  But I know that there are some friends who follow my blog, who, although they don't collect bjds, are still interested in them and their posing ability so I thought I'd share. 

So going back to Fiona, every now and again I change her wig to give her a new look and a new lease of life.....and nearly always change it right back to the original again.  Today she is wearing this pale blond one but I'm not sure that it's actually 'her'......I think this sort of short wispy style but maybe a darker blond?

Fiona is wearing a very simple summer dress which I made for her last week, the bodice is lined, and the sleeves are not inset, so it took me no time at all to produce and yet I think it looks really quite nice on her!!! :)  She's added her white leatherette summer sandals too!  Next time I would make it shorter in length though, I prefer to see children in shorter dresses so that they can run about and play without the extra fabric getting in their way! ;)

Well I hope you've enjoyed this little insight into Fairyland Little Fee dolls and their posing....and of course seeing Fiona, she, for me, is definitely a keeper! :)

Have a great week!!

Decisions, decisions....

Although I love my Sashas and my Little Darlings and they've been getting a lot of my attention recently, my love of my BJDs, which I've had since 2006,  has never really gone away and was boosted recently by my birthday present from my husband, which hasn't arrived yet so I will leave that for when she does! 

I've been looking at a BID (BID literally means Baby Iplehouse Doll)  by Iplehouse, a south Korean company that make beautifully realistic looking sculpts in various sizes, the BID is 26cm tall, a size I particularly like and am now tempted to add one to my collection.  I have actually had one in the past and for one reason or another sold her. 

I absolutely love the 'choosing' stage when buying a new doll, the joy of looking at the company's website, the researching of 'in real life' photos of the different sculpts on Flickr and Den of Angels....such a lot of fun, but sooooo time consuming!!!  And the narrowing down of the different choices.......I tell you, if I'd did this much research on my school homework as a child, I'd have been a brain surgeon by now! LOL

So here's who I've been looking at.  All of my choices would be in 'special real skin' which is a lovely creamy tan, because it  photographs best for me here in southern Spain where the light is so clear and bright. 

The first girl is called Bordy and I think she'd look wonderful in a Tibetan lambswool wig with maybe deep brown eyes, and bright colourful clothing (and we all know how much I like bright colours!)  just like a little Afro Caribbean child, don't you think?

(Photos by Iplehouse)

The other one I've been looking at is Bonnie, she's not shown on their site in my skin colour choice but these photos give an idea of her face shape.  I just find it very hard to visualise the other skin colour though.....I need to find more photos!  And so another search begins.......

Thank you for listening to my musings, I guess I should say to "watch this space!"

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Finding her feet.....or a new body for Olive!

Olive, my Jerry Berry Sleepy Berry,  has needed a new body for a while now as her original one had got very loose and she couldn't stand up without falling forward or backwards at the hip joint.  So I bought her a new body from Japan and it arrived about two weeks ago.  I fitted it and once she 'came around' from the 'operation' she was fine....of course she's had to get used to her new 'mobility' again!!!

Me: "What's up Olive?  You look a bit worried!" 

Olive: "I feel dizzy....my legs don't want to play with me today, they want to rest!" 

Me: "That's your new body Olive, you've just got to get used to it, that's all!"

Me: "Come on now, let's get you to your feet and get those new little leggies working for you!"

Olive: "My legs feel like I have eaten too many jelly babies!" 

Olive: "Wooooooaaaah!  It feels funny mum!  My knees don't want to be together anymore!"  (Such concentration on that sweet little face!) 

Me: "Now how does that feel?"

Olive: "Bit better! At least my nose doesn't hit my knees now, does it!!  And look!  I can do this!"

"And this!"

"I can lean like this!"

"And both hands out!"

Me: "Careful Olive, I think you're getting a bit too adventurous with your new body!"

"Aaaaaah! Oooops!  I think you were right mum!"  

Me: "Well while you're down there, you could check out your new ankles too!"

Olive: "They're great mum!  I can point my toes out like this!!!"

Me: "I think that's enough now for one day, don't you my dear!  You don't want to over do it now, do you!"

Olive: "Yep, I think you're right mum, I'll just sit down again on my new chair and have a little rest!  Thank you for getting me a nice new body mum, I really 'preciate it!"

Ahhh now wouldn't it be good if we could get a new body when the old one was faulty!

Thanks for reading my little 'story' of Olive's new body!

A stroll along the Prom....or Teddy visits Torrox Costa!

Today we went for lunch and a stroll along the promenade at Torrox Costa which is situated between Torre del Mar and Nerja, Torrox Costa is also the site of the remains of a Roman necropolis and villa located immediately west of the lighthouse, the remains are clearly visible even today.

I decided to let Teddy, my Gotz Toddler Erik, come along with us as he has been a particularly good boy modelling for me last week!  He borrowed his baby brother's dungarees (which were a little bit tight!) as somewhere in the middle of modelling he seems to have lost his only pair of shorts!!! Oooops!  So I know what I'll be making him when I next get a moment! :)

Excuse so many photos, I just love this boy to bits! :)

Brian said "tell HER to wave at the camera!"  I said "It's a BOY!  Teddy, give us a wave!"

This cannon is situated near the lighthouse, there's no plaque or anything but it looks like it's been hanging around there quite some time!

The good thing about being small is when your little legs get tired, you can have a nice snooze in mum's handbag :) 

Brian says "Take a photo of HER in front of the lighthouse!"  I said "how many times do I have to tell you, he's not a girl, he's a boy!"    "Looks like a blooming girl to me!" he says!
Men! Honestly!!!!!

This is a working lighthouse which was completed on the 1st May 1864.  It has a height of 39 metres above the sea and 26 metres above the ground.

The lighthouse was built using one of the towers of the ancient Castle which was destroyed by Napoleon´s troops in the early nineteenth century. In the walls you can see remains of a Roman villa with numerous mosaics, which we have yet to visit.  Next time we go to Torrox we plan on visiting the Roman remains as I believe they are particularly well preserved.

The sweetest little profile..... 

Besotted!

Little Teddy the Toddler, is absolutely besotted with the new girl, Cora, who's yet to tell me her name....everywhere she goes, so he is two steps behind her.  He tells me she is "Zotic" which I think means "exotic"!  Though where he gets his ideas and 'big' words from I really don't know....

 

I have to practice taking photos of Cora because as I expected she is more of a challenge for me with her very dark skin and eyes.....I thought by leaving the photos until the sun had almost gone down would help, but I think I left it too late and as a result needed flash!!

Fortunately Cora is a very easy going sort of girl and has no problems with letting me photograph her over and over again, neither does she seem to mind this little ankle biter following her around everywhere!