Dolly Haul

Some more items I received to add to my incoming Mi's hoard. I'm going to have to build a bigger closet soon enough!

First up on the list is the wig I ordered from Funnylori/Unstrung Hero BJD. As always it arrived promptly and is really quite lovely. The fur was suggested to be challenging, but honestly I'm not too worried about it. It's even tamer than I expected, and I've worked with similar wigs before. It's a nice brown with lighter tips, which is the look I'm going for. I've also started working on a wig that is brown and white, as the character has primarily brown hair with some lighter pieces throughout. So this wig will work nicely.







The next item I received is the necklace from Vanilla Mint Designs that I had mentioned last week.
It's even lovelier in person, especially with the way the beads shine. It appears to be very well made, and I am eager to try it out on Mi once she arrives. Shipping was quite prompt and it arrived nicely packaged. My only potential complaint was that it didn't ship with tracking, which is a little odd as I've rarely come across a seller who doesn't. I prefer to have it as the mail often works in mysterious ways, but at least in this situation it worked out well.











The final two items came from the same seller off of Den of Angels. The boots I purchased because they were inexpensive but cute, and would work well for a few of the outfits I have in mind. They are fairly stained on the heels/soles (which I was well aware of), so I think I will be reworking them a bit to cover those spots. It's hard to tell in photos, but they're actually a nice sparkly purple, especially when the light hits them.








The final item is a pretty knitted cloak that has a distinctly mori* feel to it. I think it will work well with some of the other outfit pieces I have already, along with some things I am currently waiting on and working on. The pin is also removable which is nice in case I want to use either item without the other.

Incoming Items

Here are a few things in the mail  for the new girl.

 Ersa Flora Sienna Gradient Eyes

Not actually purchased off Ebay (DoA instead), but I saved this photo of them. I want the new girl to have brown eyes, but I always struggle finding the right kind of brown eyes. More often than not brown eyes are too dark, and end up looking more like black. They can also be very dark in the eye wells, giving more of the "doll" look rather than something slightly more realistic. So these seem to be a good approximation, with sort of built-in highlights.

Beach Brown wig from Funnylori

I am in the midst of making a wig for the new girl as well (more on that later), but I wanted to have something on hand and also for variety. I picture her with a brown/white wig, which is what I am also crafting. I love Funnylori's wigs, and I could own at least one for every doll I have. This one may be a bit challenging due to the fur style, though I have owned similar furs from her in the past. So I think it will work out.

 Yellow Flats from Mint on Card Inc

I have the lovely yellow dress from anekochansdollies, and it seems to require yellow shoes. Plus, I have pretty much nothing the new girl can share shoe-wise with the boys, so I will be getting her several pairs as time goes on. 

Pink Dollzone Shoes from Mint on Card Inc

These were also from MoC, though they are now sold out. I wanted to have some shoes that would match the pink lolita dress from anekochansdollies, and also the mori set. These probably work better for the former, but the latter does have some pink as well.

Updates

Emmanuel's new eyes will arrive today, which is exciting. He'll finally have the blue (well and purple) eyes he needs.  It's amazing how something as seemingly insignificant as that can really change a doll.  His wig looks like it won't be here until the weekend or next week which is kind of unfortunate, but at least it has shipped.

I went out last night and picked up some more fabrics and accessories for an outfit I'm working on for him.  It's not really his style...at all, but Emmanuel is a versatile boy.  :)  Character-wise, he is pretty ignorant of fashion.  He can recognize when something looks good on someone else, but tends to associate that more with the individual than the clothes (i.e. outfits look good because the person is attractive).  He tends to dress in blues and greys and other muted colors, but as long as it's clean, he's happy.  He likes to blend in, more or less.  However, he's also a very chill individual, and he's happy to let people dress him up now and then. So while the fairy kei outfit I'm working on wouldn't be his first choice, I figured he could pull it off anyway. :)

But of course once I got back home, I realized that all the scissors in the house had mysteriously disappeared...meaning the sewing will have to wait until tonight or this weekend.  Oh well, at least it's all there and ready for me!

Shopping!

I did some shopping for Emmanuel III this weekend to remedy the wig and eye problem he's got going on.  He really needs a blond wig, so I picked up this one from FunnyLori.  I think that every doll I own will soon have a FunnyLori wig.

He also needed some eyes, which proved to be a bigger problem.  I usually go to Mint on Card for my eyes, as they have nice glass eyes.  However nothing in their 12mm section appealed to me, so I looked elsewhere. And looked.  And looked.  Nothing that struck me on DoA, nothing at Denverdoll, and I was feeling so/so about the acrylics Junkyspot had.  Apparently 12mm is a funny size.  Granted I am really picky about Emmanuel's eyes as well, which doesn't help matters.

So as a last resort I tried Ebay, and found these amazing eyes by Blueblood Doll.   They were a little more expensive than I normally consider for eyes, but they were just so beautiful.  And they fit my criteria of size, color, and location (USA yay!). These are the first pair of eyes I've liked for Emmanuel III, so I'm excited for them to come in!  They and the wig should be here later next week.  Just in time for some nice weekend photos I think.  It's amazing how a few little touches can really transform a doll!

New Eyes Preview

Nothing fancy, but I wanted to get a few shots of Emmanuel's new eyes.  They look awesome! :D

Goofing around with Ghost...

I keep starting updates, and then getting called away by work or personal stuff.  But I'm going to finish this one, really!

Unfortunately my computer has been felled by the combination of a virus and some mechanical issues inherent to the computer.  It's an older laptop and has had a pretty good run.  I will eventually re-work it into a desktop of sorts, but for now I need something that functions.  So I'm taking my tax return money and getting myself a Chromebook!  And any leftover "fun" money will go to the dolls.  I'm not sure there will be much, but we'll see.

In slightly more productive news, Arashi's new eyes/wig have arrived.  Of course I managed to delete the picture I had of his eyes, but here is one of the wig.  I purchased it from FunnyLori's Etsy shop, UnstrungHero BJD.  She shipped really fast, and the wig is spectacular.  Definitely one of the best if not the best fur wig I've received, and that's including my fave (Spite and Malice).  I went back this weekend and ordered two blind bags for Ghost, because I need some more SD wigs anyway and he could use some options.  It's a fantastic deal too, $10 for two wigs (normally $10 a piece) and shipping is very inexpensive. They've already shipped and might arrive today! (I checked while writing this, and it arrived a few moments ago!)

I will do little review with the wigs, so people can get an idea of the blind bags and the quality.

Package #1

DIY Wig

I found a great tutorial on DoA that illustrated how to take a cheap human Halloween wig and turn it into a doll wig.  Wigs have never been my area of expertise, though in the past year I've been experimenting more and more with making fur wigs.  But fiber wigs have always been beyond my patience/ability.  However this seemed easy, so I gave it a try. A $5 wig wouldn't be a bad deal!

It's not quite done yet, but here is my first attempt!  It actually came out okay, though it looks a little better in pictures than it does on. I still need to do some sewing and tweaking, but for $5 I'm happy.  I love the color on Ghost too!

Sometimes Ghost steals everyone's everything.  Uri's eyes, and one of his wigs.  Though at this point all wigs are sort of communal property. And the eyes just fit ghost so well I might have to buy another pair for Uri.

  

I learned over the weekend that one of my favorite bands, My Chemical Romance, has decided to go their separate ways.  It's been an amazing run that produced some fantastic music, art, styles, and friendships.  I'm sad to hear they are breaking up, but at the same time I can understand wanting to move on after this many years.  And who's to say they won't get back together at some point?  

So I'm thinking a MCR shoot is in order, especially with this hair.  Ghost should get a face up, and hopefully sueded tonight, and after that I'll just need to put together an outfit for him.  I've been collecting little bits and pieces of clothes that are MCR inspired, mostly from their Killjoy album, but also applicable to the others as well.  I have been sorting through it all as I unload boxes and bags at my new place, and realized just how much I have.  So there will be photos to come!

Of course I spent all that time yesterday writing out a long summary for Nowell, and as soon as I finished I thought, "Hmm...you know what I could change..."  Back to the drawing board again. ;)  But while I revamp him, here's some pictures of him with his new face up.

I decided I'm taking him with me to the Ren Faire on Friday, so I'll be working on his outfit tonight and tomorrow.  I'm still not sure what wig he's going to wear, but we'll figure something out.  I've got a few synthetic ones and a couple more fur that might fit him.  I love the orange color I just think I want something a little different for him.  Hmm..

Real life has taken over!

However, I'm working on beating it back. ;)

A few little updates...  Connor's name is changing once again, I think to something final this time.  I realized that I really do have too many Connors as it is one of my favorite Irish names, and I didn't want to add another to the mix.  So instead we will go with a name I had been thinking about, but wasn't sure if I wanted to use...Liam. 

I received Liam's tiny props, guns and coins and such.  They are awesome!  Really detailed, and perfect size. He's got some very Saints guns, a nice "Rambo" knife, and a rifle just because.  The coins are also fantastic in size and detail.  They really look like shrunken down versions of real coins.

He also has a new wig arriving today.  I love the brown one he's wearing, but he needs some variety.  Fur is nice, but I found a beautiful Leeke wig for him that's part of their "custom" wig series.  Basically they combine two of their colors to create a new kind of wig, and have offered them up for purchase for a limited time.  It's just the perfect color!