Quick Update

I am not very good at remembering to update my blog.  I really must bet better at this.

I have quite a lot going on at the moment at home, work and with all my hobbies.  My work hours have increased and as we all know, housework is never ending.  The increase in hours is only temporary but I am glad of it.  I am one of those strange people who love my job.

With regards my hobbies, I am following a magazine at the moment to knit up squares for a large throw/blanket.  I am enjoying this because it is increasing my confidence with different stitches and patterns.

I have a few things I still need to be working on for my dolls houses and shop.  I still have so many books to make for the shop.  The large bookcase is currently standing empty, and the bookcase in the house is also empty.  I am hoping to get a move on with those over the next couple of weeks and then all the dollhouses need to be sorted and tidied.  I have a feeling tacky wax will be required to keep all the small items in place.

Next year I am planning on going to Miniatura so I can get more of the items I cant get from our local shop or make myself.  I had some lovely items when I went to the one in March this year.  I am hoping to pick up another doll made by an artisan but this time for my house as I love the one I purchased for the shop.

With regards my larger scale dolls, I have had another increase to my BJD collection.  Watch this blog for current photos over the coming days.  I also have several items on order so I am looking forward to deliveries over the coming months.

I have decided to slow down with my collection though now.  Most of the dolls I have on my wishlist now are dearer and I am only planning on ordering one doll next year.

As you all know, I already own Mirai.

The next doll I plan to purchase will be Kizuna, along with a couple of items of clothing.  Fingers crossed I stay focused on my savings and don't get sidetracked by another doll along the way.

Well, I am off again now.  I am going to be working on my hobbies and taking pictures along the way so should have plenty of updates over the coming days, weeks and months.

Another new Beauty

Here is the arrival of my Resin Soul Dan.  She actually arrived a while ago but I have only just realised I have not introduced her yet.

She is my biggest BJD so far and is SD size.  All my other dolls are either MSD or YoSD size

I love her horns.  These are the extra horns I ordered with the painting and shading done by Resin Soul.  I am so happy with the effect and really glad I ordered the extra set.

These are the horns that came with her, again the shading was done by Resin Soul.  Love them.

And here she is.  This photo does not do her gorgeous face-up justice.  I do need to do something with her eyes, they are not sitting right in her head but I am considering changing them for some red eyes I have seen.

Now all I have to do is find her some clothes that do her justice.  Easier said than done I fear.

Once I have sorted her some clothing and hair, I will post some more photos of her, she poses really well and her hand sculpt is really lovely.

I can see her becoming a favourite quite easily

Sometimes you just have to go with it :)

Here he is.  I love his face up.  You will recognise him from a previous post.  Love him, but here he is wearing a new wig and in new clothes.  You would think that I would be ecstatic, after all, he looks great at first glance...

Unfortunately, his body and head dont match.  There is a gap around his neck and the skin colour doesnt match.  Still love his face though. :)

Of course, this then left me with an issue. A headless body...

Well, I have ordered a new head for this body.  I ordered the Xavier head, with the scar on face.  I am quite excited :) an unexpected treat.  Of course, I already have his clothes and wig so once the head arrives he will be complete.

Unfortunately, I am still left with a floating head.  Sad really, but I have treated him to a new wig and once I have some money saved, I will buying him a body that will fit. I still love him.

Mei Update

I am one of the lucky owners of a Resin Soul Mei (Can you tell I love her? lol).  She is just so pretty.

For a while now I had been waiting for clothes and a wig that I was I felt would be just right for her.  Luckily, Angelesque has a good range of clothing in addition to beautiful dolls and I found the perfect dress and wig for her.

Here is the view of her wig from the back.  I believe it is a For My Doll wig.

And here she is complete (for now).

Although I may buy her some more clothes in the future to change her look, I am really taken with her wig and it would need to be something really special for me to even think about changing it.

Mirai is Home

I have so much news but I am going to go through a bit at a time over a few days.

The first and most exciting currently is that Mirai (SmartDoll) arrived today.  This post is going to involve so many photos so beware haha.

Ok, predictable, but here is the outside of the box.  This was where the excitement began  :)

This was what it looked like in the box.  It was all so well packed and the outer box is very strong.

The bag is very pretty and so different from other doll companies I have come across so far.

This was the view inside the bag.  Mirai is very tall (60cm so the tallest doll I have so far in my collection) and at this point was kneeling in the bag.

She comes as a full set up but I did buy extras as well, so here are all of the clothes that came in the box you can see in the bag.

Anyway, here she is

And here are her 'default' clothes.

She is not the easiest to dress, as you can see.  I had to take her arms and head off to put on her top and her arms were so difficult to get back on.

Anyway... Moving on, the clothes are really well made and fit beautifully.  Her shoes are fabulous too and so detailed as you can see in this photo.

And finally, here she is.  This is not a head to toe picture as I wanted to show how pretty her face is.

To say I am happy with her is an understatement.  She is my most expensive doll to date but worth it.  She is such good quality and her wig is also beautiful.  I would definitely recommend her to anyone interested although I would also say to those undecided to look at the videos on youtube.

Mei is home

I just wanted to give a quick and somewhat belated introduction to Mei, my new Resinsoul BJD I ordered from Angelesque.  She was in stock and arrived a couple of days after I ordered her.

 

Here she is.  She is very pretty.

She is on the single jointed body and to be honest I was resigned to the fact her posing would likely not be up to what I wanted and would probably need to get her a body with double joints. However, she is posing better than I thought and so I think I will keep this body for her for a while.

Of course, as she was an impulse buy, she does not have any clothes or wig yet (although they are now on order).  I am also thinking of changing her eyes as I have seen some lovely dollzone eyes that I think will suit her... we shall see.

I have however got her a pair of Dollzone shoes again ordered from Angelesque which are lovely quality and do fit.

Mini Update

Although me being able to sit and make things has been limited, I have still made some progress on my minis.

Firstly, I now have a small bookcase and modern desk for the upstairs office of my pet shop.

I had tried facing the desk the other way round but it looks a lot  better this way round although this photo does not do it justice.

Here is a photo of how my pet is now looking  :)

Still so much to do, but getting there bit by bit.

And now on to my terrace house bedroom.  I was recently given a bedside cabinet  I love it and it looks great with my 2nd battery lamp I had bought from Miniatura.  

And here is the bedroom as a whole.  I still have a couple of pieces of furniture that I would like to buy (a chair and a bedside cabinet) and I have a dolls house for my dollhouse that is currently waiting for me to paint it as it is plain wood at the moment.

As you can see from this picture, along with a couple of pieces of furniture, I will need to add a few other accessories to give it a 'lived in' feel.

Terrace House Update

Just a quick progress update on my terrace house as I realised there had not been much done on this over the last few months.

Unfortunately there is not a massive difference so far but, this does at least show one of two of my Miniatura items in place.  Namely, the bag of knitting by the chair, the bag by the bookcase and the battery lamp at the back by the sideboard.

I have the most gorgeous mirror that still needs to put up, but it is very heavy and I have not found anything strong enough to hold it in place yet. but that will make a big difference once up.

Apologies

Apologies for my absence, one of my sons was injured in a hit and run accident.  He has been left with serious leg injuries which resulted in him losing 4cm of bone in his one leg and needing 6 operations in the space of 3 weeks.  He is currently back home recovering but he will be living with a frame on his leg for the next 18 months and a lot of further treatment and bone stretching to come.

Unfortunately the driver of the car has not been found yet but at least my son is alive and back with his girlfriend.

I will now be working on catching up with where I am and getting back on track with my hobbies again with the worst of it all hopefully behind us.

Impulse Purchase

A while ago I ordered a Resinsoul Dan and clothes from Angelesque...  By a while ago, I actually mean only a couple of weeks....

Unfortunately, in a bout 'of oh my I hate waiting', I accidentally hit the purchase button on an Impldoll Vivien Head with custom face up (by their in-house artist) on the same site.

All I can say is WOW, he is the best impulse purchase I have ever made. I am so happy, he is perfect.

When I saw the photos on the website, I had considered changing his eyes, but now his head has arrived, I have decided to keep them.  They seem to suit his character.

Of course, this impulse buy has now led to some 'necessary' purchases, as he obviously needed a body, wig and clothes haha...  I mean ooops.

Pet Shop Progress

Here is an update of my pet shop following my recent Miniatura trip.

As you may remember from previous posts on my shop, I seem to have spent a long time making very little progress.  Thank to my Miniatura outing, I found my inspiration to make an effort to sort the downstairs area.

Prior to this the ground floor had been very cluttered with a variety of pets.  I made the decision to take most of them out temporarily to tidy it up.  Once I have filled the shop with stock, I will bring a lot of them pets back in.

This was the downstairs after sorting and prior to placing my new items.

As you can see, It was looking pretty bare at this point.  I am happy to say that although there is still plenty left to do and most of the shelving still needs to be filled, with the new items in place, it is looking a lot more how I have pictured it.  I am now needing to save for the next Miniatura show in October this year.

The lady is looking very happy and at home in the shop.  I really do need to find a name for her and her shop now that I am feeling more happy and settled with the project.  I have to admit that I am feeling very happy too.  I am finally making progress again.

Along with saving for the next Miniatura, I also need to save to make a trip to my local Dolls House Shop as they have some furniture I want such as a new counter, computer desk and desk chair along with computer.

Miniatura Wonder

Last weekend was Miniatura weekend.  Me and my mum went to the show on Saturday 28th March in Birmingham and what a time we had.  We both made many purchases.  I have taken photos of most of mine and will show pictures of most of them in place over the coming days.

I will do my best to make sure I list the proper sellers names here and will update or change them where I see there is an error or the information is missing.  I do want to make sure that the correct details are by the correct seller.

Knitting bag  -   apologies seller details will be added at a later date

Baskets  -  A Basket Of

Mirror  -  details to be added at a later date

All these gorgeous metal items were from the same seller - sizes 1/12th and 1/24th scale - seller details to be added at a later date

All these items are 24th scale.  

I believe the fish bowl, rhubarb and cabbage  -   Pride of Plaice

This was a pre-owned bird in a cage, I could not resist and perfect for my petshop.

All the packets and tins in the photo except the flea rid and chinchilla food  -  Platts Mini Packages

I love this picture says who I got this from.  It is beautiful and I will definitely want to buy another one from her.  My apologies for the painting being upside down.  It is perfect for my 24th scale cottage walls.  I am soooo happy.

Not only was the smaller of the teddies perfect for my terrace house, but the larger ones are just right for my hujoo girls.  And they were so cheap at only £1 each.

Again these speak for themselves.  -  Heidi Ott battery lights perfect for my terrace house living room and bedroom.

I am a bit upset I dont have the sellers name for this beautiful lady.  She was my 'spoiler item' which is the name I give to the item I buy myself as a treat.  She is perfect for my pet shop.  I finally found a doll for my shop that I am 100% happy with.  Seller details to follow once I have found the leaflet out.

I am hoping this doll seller is at the next Miniatura as I definitely plan to go and I am wanting to buy another lady for my terrace house.

All in all it was a fantastic day and I made some great purchases all of which will have pride of place in my mini buildings.  NOW I CANT WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE hahahaha :)

New Girl

I just wanted to welcome the newest addition to my collection.

This is the Tangkou Girl - Gap Year.  Tangkou was the doll type that started my collection of dolls that are larger than what i consider the  typical dolls house scale of 1/12th.

She has a pretty face and eyes that change by pressing a button at the back of her head.  This photo shows my favourite eyes.  With each eye change, not only does the colour change, but so does the direction that the eyes are facing.

My apologies for not tidying her hair before taking the picture.  

She has a lot of accessories compared to a lot of the other Tangkou girls in my collection.  She comes with a hat, rucksack, sunglasses and shoes. and if more modern as well, sporting a t-shirt and jeans.

This picture shows her in her box.

All in all, I am very pleased with her.

I am looking forward to when I can have space to display all my dolls and doll houses on shelves so that I can enjoy them more easily.  At the moment, due to space restrictions, a lot of my dolls are having to stay in their boxes and my miniatures are scattered in a couple of different rooms.

Well, I am off again for now to have a read of some of the blogs of other people I follow.  I am still building up to starting to sew clothes for some of my dolls and I am afraid to say that blogs are one of my favourite forms of procrastination at the moment.

See you all again soon with an update :)