Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

Camera Frustrations...

So.. before I stopped taking doll photos and went on a long hiatus, my camera worked really well and did a great job taking pictures of fiddly little things. Lately, it's been pissing me off to no end because it doesn't seem to be doing as good of a job as it used to.

I keep thinking: "Is there a setting I had it on that I don't have it on anymore?" The answer is no. Then I realized something. I hadn't taken doll pictures since I moved into my house. I have a serious suspicion that maybe my lighting is the reason why my pictures are not turning out as good as they used to.

So, I was wondering if any of you knew or could point me in the direction of set-ups for lighting that aren't terribly complicated. I hate using flash because it's blows out alot of my details and just doesn't look very natural.

In return for the advice here are some pictures of Hyori I took trying to figure out if there was a setting on my camera that I was missing out on.

A Little Bit About Me...

I really don't have too much going on doll-related today - I have been waiting for the baby to go to sleep for like an hour now so I could head off and do some sewing. But she is pretty insistent that it's Saturday so she gets to stay up late! Well I suppose that's fair enough.

So today's blog is just going to be a little about me and my history with collecting dolls...

When I was just a kid Barbies and baby dolls were pretty much my major "things". The more realistic life I could give my Barbies the better it was. I remember my Barbie So-Much-To-Do Supermarket, Bank, and Post Office were my absolute favorite play sets (I have since gotten myself the Supermarket from Ebay but the Post Office and Bank are just a little ridiculously expensive these days). I remember using masking tape and creating roads on the carpet of my bedroom and setting up different houses and stores on my bedroom floor and leaving them there for days, until my mom came through and cleaned up my room again.

When I was about 10, I started to feel societal pressure that I was too old to play with dolls. I would go into the Barbie section of KB Toys, with a story in my head to tell any of my classmates if they walked in that I was "shopping for my cousin's birthday". I eventually grew so ashamed.. I remember the last birthday I had any kind of presents of dolls for.. I got a Dentist Barbie that had a Kelly sitting in the dentist chair. I swore to myself that I was just too old to still be playing with Barbies, and that I would just have to get interested in what everyone else my age was interested in.

But still it couldn't keep me away for long, I got into Sailor Moon during middle school and high school and started to collect the Irwin Sailor Moon dolls. I would dress them in regular outfits before school every morning and when I got home I'd put them in their sailor fukus. I'd make them interact with each other. I figured this was justified because it was being interested in anime, not in dolls and so I wasn't being "uncool".

I moved away to college and got married. I saw a picture of a Momoko one day online and I got re-interested. I discovered Junkyspot and Obitsus. That was it - that was the end. I was no longer going to be in denial.. who cares if my hobbies were weird or uncool. I was an adult and I would damn well play with barbies and dolls if I wanted to.

I met Liz, I got interested in BJD's. Eventually as our "characters" were interacting, a story began to form. Years later we are still revising things, adding and subtracting. We ran a photostory for a long time, then the forum it was on went down. Liz is an artist, so we decided we would do a graphic novel style format (the beginnings of which you can see on her blog). Our dolls still serve as our muses, our inspiration, and having them and places and things for them to interact with is extremely satisfying for us. After having Ivy, BJDs are just too expensive for such a massive cast, so I went back to my first passion - 1/6th scale. I dragged Liz into it and we are absolutely thrilled we've decided to make the change. It's just so much more available.

I am lucky because I have a husband who is really supportive of my hobby. As he tells me, "I can't get into it the same way you do, it doesn't do anything for me but I like them". And I always remind him it's way better then antiquing! When I quit my job as a child welfare caseworker to stay home with the baby, I really worried that my wanting to buy dolls or do doll relating things (which of course always involves money) would make him unhappy. But he is more then happy to discuss doll related purchases with me and give me an allowance! I always think I could never divorce him, because explaining this hobby is a very difficult sell to a lot of men!

So that's it.. a little bit about me and where I've been and am now on my doll journey!

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!

This was us at Hubby's parents at Christmas 2011

Liz and I at Ren Faire in 2010

Song Hyori is here!

My Ayumi arrived!! I am in love..

 

 

 

She has decided her name is Song Hyori. Hyori-ssi is a native of South Korea and had success as an actress in Korean dramas before coming to the US. Right now she is an in-house model for Circe Cosmetics and is in charge of hiring new models. Hyori does seem to have a side job though... nobody is sure what it is but she keeps very weird hours. It seems she may be searching for someone..

With so many of Adela's employees showing up, I really should probably make plans for her office space. I know Adela needs an office but I'm trying to come up with ideas - help me out guys!! Tell me what you'd like to see :)

Some thoughts and planning...

First I wanted to say - I think the format of my blog has screwed up where I can leave direct replies to people who are commenting. I almost always comment back - but now I am having to hit it as a general reply instead of a specialized reply. I just wanted everyone to know that kind of weird thing, so nobody thinks I'm ignoring them! I love all the comments so much..!

So onto dolls, my Ayumi has shipped and I expect she may be here tomorrow or Saturday!! I'm very excited. I am calling her my Valentine's Day present and Hubby seems to be happy with that label (it makes it so much easier when I buy my own presents!)

Something that's really been bothering me a lot lately, is that I keep stumbling onto a certain blog (not anyone who has subscribed to me or that I've subscribed to, just a blog that seems to always pop up on google searches for me). Not naming names, I find this person's negative comments about dolls or doll community really harsh and grating. This is a community that is built on mutual love.. and to argue with your readers or post comments continually on how "ugly" some dolls are seems counter-intuitive to me.

Everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion, but to harp on the sculpt of dolls, people's choices of fashion for their dolls, etc, seems to just want to breed drama and contempt. I am proud to say that I am not affiliated with those types of people, and the doll blogs I read are INCREDIBLY respectful in their opinions. I may not like the way a doll looks (for example I have no love for Tonner dolls) but I can appreciate people that do, and I see a lot of great inspiration and beauty that comes out of that realm.

I just find unnecessary hatefulness and stirring of drama to be really juvenile. I will never subscribe to a blog that feels that way, and I feel a lot of pity for the people that keep that kind of mindset because really they must be so bored or miserable with their own lives.

Anyway - onto chipper things... I've got some more organizing boxes and things. I really want to start on the Villa Bathroom and get decorations for the kitchen.. but I'll be darned if I'm not out of my dolly allowance for the month!! So I've been trying to figure out cheap ways to get the kitchen decorated and am open to ideas. I could sent along a file of printies to Hubby to get printed out for me.. but I guess i'm not sure what will look good as a printie and what won't!

I really need to allocate some money for spray paint, I could get a lot of spray painting done and feel accomplished without having to spend too much.

Anyway for all my bitching, I present you with some cute baby pictures. Ivy really enjoys dolls as young as she is (she just barely turned nine months old!). Her favorite doll is an Artsy head on a model muse body (the other parts made up Daniella!). But in these picures she's playing with this odd looking thrift store doll that I got some time ago because she had jointed arms and I thought she was interesting looking.

Man am I glad I had a little girl first!!

Maven and Daniella

Just a couple of my Barbie girls tonight.

Daniella Bingham is a sassy and talented cosmetologist at the Circe Cosmetics boutique. She can do hair, nails, makeup, you name it. She's been asked several times to be promoted to manager but she turns it down. She just loves what she does too much to move up! Right now she's really favoring the hairstyling side of the boutique.

When the 2.0 Basics came out, #8 was the first girl I knew i absolutely had to have. I think she is terribly under-rated and I don't see her very often. I unstiffened her hair to give it some more body.. I am thinking of giving her some highlights or something. I wish I had a body that matched her better then this fashionista one..

Maven is kind of an enigma. Nobody knows her very well and she just kind of comes and goes. She loves to make trouble and is terribly mischievous.

I hated the hair on #4. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it, so I did this and I absolutely love it!!


I've been debating the past few days on my next projects.. so my next few blogs are probably going to be musing on what I want to do next (and less pictures). I am thinking probably the bathroom because I really have everything for it right now (besides foamboard and spraypaint).

The Villa Kitchen

I want to thank everyone for their compliments on my kitchen. I have another diorama for a Japanese house (may be turned into a restaurant) but it's down in the basement (it's made of fiber board so it's really heavy and unwieldy) so I really count this as my only diorama at this point. I am debating on whether or not to do the living room or the bathroom next.

This is the kitchen for The Villa. Why the Villa and not the Manor? Well to be honest - the Manor as a huge gothic mansion is way too much work for me to undertake. With my limited space, it's smallest neighbor in it's shabby chic style is going to be way easier for me to do. I do plan on doing rooms out of the Manor, but as far as completed buildings, the Villa makes the most sense.

So here are some pictures of what I've gotten done on it this far. I am in desperate need of some decorations.

My to-do list for the kitchen:

- backsplashes
- inside cabinets
- print out doors and windows
- decorate!

Here are some pictures of Hekate enjoying some oysters and white wine. She really doesn't need to eat but she still enjoys the taste.

"*Sigh* Where is my male company?"