Overdue Blog Post and Doll meet pics

OMIGOSH!
So much has happened since my last post, and yet, so very little, haha.
Prepare for an influx of posts as I explain all!

After my Abigale post, I began working on some outfits for two of the characters.
The Bulk of those costumes are now finished, tho they still have allot of trims and details to be added. For me, seeing the two dolls I dressed and styled, really brought home what putting a photo story together would mean to me, and yes, all Green Lights are now on GO for this project, and I will slowly work on making it a realization  I ordered five cans of MSC about the time I decided this, and they finally arrived today, after six weeks. ( Yep, I should have posted this about six weeks ago, haha! ) So I can finally start putting on faces to truly bring my dolls to life.

In Late August or ehrm.. early July, such a baddie for forgetting ><
There was another doll meet! Gosh I really love going to them, those girls just add a whole new aspect to the hobby which inspires me so! And I got to see all of Alasse's Dolls as well as her amazing DVD collection and wonderful taste in Glee music, haha.

Of course we took some photos tho! and here are some of our fun little experiments!
Dreari is modelling the dress I made for "ABIGALE!"

AND! Alasse gave me this adorable tiny head! I just love that happy little smile and those cute chubby cheeks! I snagged a red wig for her, and am planning a sweet, red, freckle-headed, girl with green highlights in her make-up. I think I want to experiment with swirls too, bit of a modern pixie vibe for her maybe?

Hat Box Tutorial

I saw this adorable hatbox idea in a photo the other day, and I really wanted to try it!
So I made a couple boxes, and decided to share the tutorial here as well ^^

Hat boxes for your Doll!

ABIGALE! in pre-production?

I'm thinking of starting my first photostory, but I'm just really not sure I want to bother with the whPole thing.

I'v had in mind for a while now,a three part series titled "ABIGALE!"
Abigale follows the story of young man suffering from amnesia.
Waking to find his sole memory is the name Abigale, he determines to find this person and discover why he feels so drawn to the name and the person it is attached to. As the search begins tho, there are people wishing 
to entangle the youth, and his simple quest becomes mixed with lies and false impressions. 

Cast List
DoD Sha 
DoD Shall  
DoC Twin-B or Soom Adamelli 

I'v never been confident in my photography tho, and I'm always self conscious of my own stories. I just don't feel like I could create something I would be happy with.  It would also be something I would want to share, but I highly doubt anyone would want to look at it. Maybe a couple views from friends from people I asked to see it, and one or two pity posts. I'm just not sure. 

Pre-production Shot

The photo above is of the bed I finished making yesterday for some of the scenes. I also styled the wig, put clothing on my protagonist, and he looks pretty good considering he has no face-up. The wig is perfect for this character ( but terrible for Orophen, haha ), and I downloaded PaintTool Sai so I can start trying some real photo editing with eyes and lighting ( which I did here ). I think the picture is a great Pre-production shot, with a decent feel for what I want to do, and a good depiction of the character despite it being grainy and...face-up less.

 I just don't feel like it will be good, worth it or....anything. I showed my sister the pic and tried talking to her about it and she was like meh. I feel like if I can't get my own sister to take a look at this, I don't think anyone is going to, and I don't want to go through this whole thing if it's going to rot on my computer, die in the back pages of DoA, or just be another set of bad pictures on flik'r. I'll put in all this hard work, get nine views over the entire trilogy and maybe one comment for each. Or maybe I'm just wrong for waning a little acknowledgment when I put in effort. I'm just really not sure I want to bother with the whole thing...

For the BJD owner on a Budget!

Hello total of six blog readers xD

Very little doll happening's here while I save to go to Melbourne, but I wanted to quickly introduce to you to an up and coming website I think has allot of potential in the doll community.

Rags to Resin

( I can't get their nifty little banner to work darn it )
Rags to Resin in a website all about being in the doll hobby on a budget. It only has a few articles up right now, but they are a smashing read and really well written in a casual yet informative style.

They also have a FaceBook group, so go Like them there too if you're interested in seeing more ^^
http://www.facebook.com/RagsToResin

Hope everyone is weather as sunny as it is here!

Photo post

After waiting what seem like AGES! I My LeekeWorld GO finally arrived! Even the Host pmed me to check if they had arrived yet, but woe is the Australian postal service.
So I'll let the photos do most of the talking for me, shall I?

Lovely note and appropriately named gift tea

Shoes bought with Cadence in mind are definitely giving me
 a Lamalass and  Orophen vibe. Oh well, it's not like Cadence hasn't
 got four pairs as is, haha

                                       

Season Limited Colour.
Thought it was grey in the box, but it's icy blue!

Season Limited Colour
CAN NOT CAPTURE HOW LOVELY THIS COLOUR IS!

I'm SUPER inspired by all these wigs, and I suddenly remember each purpose I brought them for. 80% of them are for Dreari but I also got two for Lamalass, and one for Orophen, which I am not loving.... but c'est la vie. I'm highly looking forward to using the two red wigs I have for a Songsstory photoshoot that's been in my head the last few weeks, and the brown wig I have will be wonderful for a Victroia Francais inspired idea. I'm gonna need to order some MSC to keep up with all the face ups I want to give Dreari, HA!

Also on the cards I have a few sewing projects of outfits for these wigs that I will keep posted.
In the mean time I'm also sewing a Petticoat for my Boyfriend's Mother, a lolita miniskirt for my sister,a dn I want to make an SD bed for another photo story AS WELL AS making another Hime Gyaru dress for and playing Sims2/Catherine on Xbox and fidgeting with my new old Camera xD

Speaking off, I brought some dolly Re-ment props back from Brisbane with me. Very exciting time for dolls in the house, and I will be a worn out Jasmine by the end of it, phew

HELLO KITTY ICECUBES AND MAKER!

Did I mention
I also finished paying off my FL Body
I'm still waiting on my Souldoll body
I really need to get around to doing a ForMyDoll order
Doll meet up is on the 28th
My latest want is for a Gorillapod for photos, like crazy  <3

Thanks for reading!

Non Dolly Post

I haven't purchased something over $300 outside of my doll and lolita hobbies for a while, so this one gets a special post. 

Today I went out and brought home a new box, what was inside? Not a doll, or shoes, or even some glittery piece of jewelry ( Much better than that ). 

I FINALLY SAVED UP FOR MY NEW LAPTOP!

Oh it's so beautiful, I love it to pieces already, and I'm just posting this quickly before I run off to to give a full work out on Portal. I'v never had a computer that won't lag on sims, or can run graphics at a high level before, so I'm so exited to finally have a laptop to be proud of! ^^

Check out my Crobidoll Mouse-pad to go with it! Tei is such a cutie.

MonstroDesigns

I spoke to soon! The moment after posting my GETS! post, what arrives? My MonstroDesign order from Etsy.  Alright, stuff grab pictures!

What can I say about MonstroDesigns?
Stock didn't take long to make, or arrive
Products are a really great quality, LOVE THOSE WIGS!
I guess my only 'complaint' would be the packaging had a little to be desired. They were just stuffed in a box, no protection on anything but the glasses. Not really a biggie, But I would have liked them mm... maybe in a bag in the box. But seriously, wonderful quality on all accounts! Wish I was half as talented as the chick who makes this stuff,  just great ^^

You may also noticed Drea is again wearing Red...it's not intentional, just red is my favorite colour! Everything looks better in red, so I can't help but reflect that in my doll buys, and Drea is just sort of languid to wear what I like her to. I think she is getting a bit lonely being the only MSD in the house tho, but it will be fixed soon enough. 

Dolly GETS! [Pic Heavy]

Yeah, haha, very late in posting this, but I finally got everything in the mail!
I received 90% dolls stuff I ordered, including the shiny mica/micca? pigments from pearl-Ex and am just waiting on my MonstroDesigns order from Etsy.
PICTURES!

              

                                         Picked these up from The Sunday Markets at Willows.
                                               First pic is MSD hand for scale, second is SD hand for scale

Cadence got new threads! Pants are Dollmore Model pants and they fit 

amazingly around his big bubble butt, but are definitely too long in the  leg. 

Lucky I can just sew those up.

More new clothes for Caddy. He has about three white shirts, and I 

have come to the realization I just do NOT like this boy in white shirts. 
But Orophen seems to have picked up them instead, which is nice.
Pants from Raphael, another great fit!

and Orophen! Stealing one of Cadence's old white shirts, these pants are the first in

 Character item I really have for this boy, and he is rocking them. I'm not sure about the 

shoes, they look too big for him, I think. I put a pair of my glass eyes in him for this, but he 

really needs some in character eyes/wigs/everything, sigh.

After all this, I still have that Leeke order which is taking forever, and I want to get Orophen a couple ForMyDoll wigs, and I also have Rayna waiting in the wings. But all my doll spending is on hold right now! Because I promised I would buy myself a new laptop for the end financial year sales. My current laptop is about three years old, missing two keys, including the backspace key which is b!tch to press down,  and won't work unless plugged into a wall because the battery won't hold a charge. Yup, new laptop time! xD

Post again when I have something interesting to say, have a good day everyone!

Really, a Minifee!?

I blame Chair and Aja for this but this is what I picked up on the DoA MP tonight, haha.

Yes! After fidgeting and squirming about the over priced WS Ryeon head, a full WS Ryeon came onto the market. Lucky me, someone contacted the seller with an interest in the body, leaving me, the head!

I AM GETTING A MINIFEE!!!!!.... (head)

I am still not sure if Ryeon, Rena or Miyu is the one for me, but this is the first step. Hopefully having her head around will give me a feel for how this sculpt will be for Lenore, and I can go from there. oh gosh, me, really? a Minifee? I never thought I would see the day xDDD



...  SQUEE!!!!

Face-up slump

I'm just having one of those artistically awful moments.

Am I ever going to get good at face-ups? I thought I was improving, but nope, look at the gorgeous work by some artist. I feel like I'll never reach that, never get to the point where I'm captured by my own work.
I wanna give up and just start sending heads out. Why I don't just snag one of their slots and get exactly what I want, first go.

 What am I doing so wrong? *head desk*

DOUBLE POST!

Just a list of things I'm waiting on, more for myself than anything, cos I'm having hard time keeping track!

* = Not Doll Related
Capital Letter = First letter of DoA Username

Pink GLW*
Paying off Frill Marine AP JSK in Pink*
Paid deposit on Sugary Bones JSK*
BTSSB Heart Bag from Y!J*
AP Blouse from Mbok*
Pink and white socks*

Leeke World GO
MonstroDesigns
Shoes for Oreo
TaTa Pants from Q
2x Raphael shirts + Hoodie + Dollmore Pants + Raphael Pants from J
2x SD Jeans + 2x Boots from K
Skirt from N
Pearl Ex Mica: Powder Micropearl

And for those interested, I ordered the Mica powder this morning, and it has already been shipped!
SUPER WOW!!!

Dolly Plans

Right now there is something on the MP catching my eye and making me think.

Lenore is my, early Victorian style, Tim Buton Gothic girl. Well less gothic, and more....haunted.
My Original plan was to get a NS Minifee Rena, and buy all the heads on the MP to see which I liked most for her. But At the moment there  is an over priced head on the MP right now for Ryeon I'm thinking of getting, but my issue is, she's white skin. I was pretty obsessed  NS, but now that I think about it, with Lenore being 1) gothic and 2) a Pale Victorian Debutante, wouldn't WS be more in character?

So I'm asking my lovely six followers, what do you guys know about fairyland WS resin? Love it, hate it, find it annoying to look after. Basically, I'm just trying to get as many view points as I can.

Inspiration for Lenore

On a side note.
While I can't do face-ups right now, I ordered some Pearl Ex Mica off ebay today, to make my face-ups all Fairyland / Crobidoll sparkly. I Should make a list of what I'm waiting on....

Doll Meet round II

Ahaha, no update in a little bit, but fear not I'm not dead yet!
I actually wanted to update sooner, but I was worried that another text wall would look ugly and cluttering on my blog, haha.

So here is a snapshot friendly update!

What I Learned from Face-ups!

Now I know I can't claim to be a Pro or anything, but I just wanted to share some of my thoughts, and a little bit about some of the not so advertised lessons on Face-Ups that I have learnt and gained from personal experience since starting face-ups.

Text Wall coming at You...

Eye sizes

Took some photos of the 14mm eyes in my dolls. I'm getting much better at positioning eyes! When I first started they were just deer in head lights, but now I can actually get them to look less dead, haha. Still working on emotion, but Im' hoping sure that once I master how to draw eyebrows, my face-ups themselves will add some emotion to them.

14mm DoC

14mm DOT

14mm Soom Minette ( Excuse the unclean head )

Tender eye DoT ( You can see the blue-tak in the corners of his eyes )

And finally, we're having another doll meet on the 12th of May! This time with a theme! Something Red.
We're only meant to bring one red item for the doll/s we're bringing to wear, but I got an idea at work and now I just gotta have it for the meet , haha. 

I guess it's a bit Ero Lolita. I want to do a more crimson based face-up to go with  it, and a little red diamond/heart outline on her cheek or lip. Inspired the Illmasqua Theatre of the Nameless collection.
Rather than have wiring in the skirt, I plan to do it H.Naoto Cage skirt style, but i wonder how it will look sans peticoat....

Still have no idea what Cadence will wear, haha

Looking at You! [ Pic Heavy ]

So my eye order finally came in!

I ordered nine pairs of eyes from Captured in Glass over on DoA and here's a GETS post of what I got and a small review.

Birthday Wishes

Nothing crazy to report just MORE DOLL ORDERS! Oh gosh, when did I get so addicted?

I mentioned in my original post about my Shale head, that finding a Soom TinyGem body is near impossible. It still is, but apparently Souldoll Resin is a good match, so I put it on my list of wants, after more wigs, more eyes, a heap of clothes and a Minifee. In short, she wasn't getting her body for another few years. But I was still averse to having a doll head lying around that I couldn't use. ( Lamalass is a special case )

So everybody who knows me, knows I'v been only asking for one thing for my upcoming birthday and that would be a SoulDoll SoulKid body in WS.

Boyfriend said no, because apparently he has something better planned
Mum said no because they can't afford it ( and Mum can't work an online order form )

And I'm not going to ask my housemates/friends to drop $204, not including, shipping, on me. 

But! My sister mentioned it to my Dad and VIOLA! I'm on MSN sending them the site link!

He was actually surprised at how 'cheap' she was, he was expecting higher end $500-ish. But nope. I wouldn't have asked for her if that was the case.

So now I have a SoulKid Body in preperation to be sent to me. I don't think it will arrive in time for my birthday, but I have yet to check SDoll waiting times. Hope it's not too awful ><

I'll post some concepts pics Later. But I can say she's going to have a pastel/casual theme, with Teal / Aquamarine eyes and pink hair. 

Also I ordered a handful of wigs, and a pair of shoes in a Leeke GO. I should have them in about two months, but mostly I'm just waiting on eyes right now. They still have not arrived. 

OMG MY NEW GIRL!

THREE MONTHS OF WAITING ON A SIX WEEK ESTIMATE AND MY DOLL IS FINALLY HERE!!!

I had really, really hopped to do a box opening for this one, but with the way things worked out, it just didn't happen, which makes me kinda of sad, but it's mostly over shadowed by the fact I have a new doll xD

Her condition when she arrived was not super amazing, but nothing, oh my gosh bad. Her owner had told me she didn't entirely remove the old face-up, so I expected that, but her body was also a bit finger smudged and there was hot glue sueding in her joints. But my main issue is the scratch just above her right breast that I really wasn't expecting. She was also Sanded to remove seams, and has yellowed slightly around the sanded parts. 

I unstrung her and gave her a good clean down, which got rid of all the dirt, and right now she's got a coating of toothpaste on her to help remove some the yellowing. That gash is my only real issue, but it's nowhere I can't hide easily. I'll wash off the paste tomorrow and take a few snap shots before I start working on a face-up. I'm thinking of something with real ruby red lips. But so far, no idea! But at last I can use that pretty wig for what I intended ^^

 I do have a coupled bad quality picture to share tho!

Look at those eyes, I Just love them!

Close-up of the scratch

30 BJD Things in 150 Days - Reflection!

Today marks the end of my 30 BJD Things in 150 Days Challenge.
It was a big 150 day, and its surprising everything that can happen in a third of a year.

I really enjoyed this challenge, particularly in the last few weeks when I really got into it.
I didn't finish allot of items on the list, there are a few I still want to do.

It was a great experience to do and helped me get much more into my doll hobby, and I learnt allot and grew as a doll owner from it. I also have several new things I want to do because of inspiration I gained from completing task. I know it wasn't followed en mass, but It was documented well, just for me,and that's what matters most!

So here is a link to all the completed tasks

The Original Post

#2

#4

#27

#5

#1, #14 and #10

#13, #23, and #7

Final Tally  10/ 30

ooooo, I thought I did better than that ><

Well I could have done allot better, but as said, this was a fun experience.

I still plan on doing some of the items on the list, like a joint photo story with a local BJD enthusiast, Give Minette a Tan, and make a photostory, but those are things I can do at my own pace.

30 BJD Things in 150 Days #13, #23 and #7

The sun has decided to come! and I have to say I'm really loving it!

I have been getting in some good face-up practice with all this sunshine, and I'm seeing some improvement!
I finished the Face-up for number #13 and #23 yesturday, but I just finished taking the Photos for my "photostory" post. Okay it's not a photo story it's just going into the gallery, but when I took the photos I was planning on it being a photo story, so it's the thought that counts and I'm ticking it off the list anyway xD

I wasn't planning on doing Sorao's new face-up so soon, but about two days after the meet-up, I discovered some of the pastels had come off her nose, so I just re-did the whole thing ><
I think her's really shows my improvement, and my pics don't show it at all. I didn't give her brow hairs in this one as I wanted to see how that would look, and her lips are very soft. the face-up is more pinky IRL ><

So here's some pictures!

Sorao, still need eyelash practice

Orophen! My first boy face-up. 

God he looks tan, bleh!

Sorry for bathroom shots, it was dark and it had the best lighting

DoA Gallery Link!

Minnette's face-up is getting wiped tonight, so I finally took pictures of her, before it left. I want the next one to have a strawberry, cream and peaches feel to it, don't think I'll start it this week tho.