DollsArtCats

Back in 2012, Soom did a hugely popular Free Choice Event of their early fantasy dolls, where you could order things like Beryl, Cuprit and Topaz in any color as long as it wasn't the original color. You could also mix and match heads and bodies, though you had to buy a head and a body. So a lot of people ordered a) Vesuvia as a full doll (I have the one in Normal Skin, she was originally released in a lavender glitter resin) and b) a Topaz body with whatever head they really wanted. This was because the Topaz body was the cheapest one and the closest to the normal human body--she came with clear orange fantasy hands and feet, though since her fantasy feet you can't use to stand her up on, Soom also included human flat feet and heel feet with her. The problem later came when people took off the head they wanted and then popped out the headless body on the Marketplace--I think the normal skin bodies got picked up right away, because it's easy enough to get normal skin han...

Molly is the person who wrote the Porn Prison story. What, you haven't read it ? "I did not rent that"

The following is lifted from ofgeography.tumblr.com when i lived in spain, i worked as a “bartender” in madrid. i put “bartender” in quotation marks because my boss fernando trusted me with literally nothing but cleaning glasses and occasionally a CLOSELY SUPERVISED mojito. the bar was called “la chocita sueca,” which basically means “the swedish hut,” but can also, as far as i can tell, mean something VERY DIFFERENT and vERY RUDE. this led to a lot of general confusion from the patrons, who were always wondering whether i (the only super, super white person) was The Swede. "THIS BAR IS NOT NAMED AFTER ME," i would shout, trying to be heard above the music and the huge portrait of elvis that hung behind the bar. "I AM LITERALLY JUST HERE TO WASH DISHES AND MAKE TERRIBLE MOJITOS." "OK BUT ARE YOU SWEDISH?" they would ask me. "LIKE ARE YOU SWEDISH, THOUGH?" "nO." "ARE YOU SURE?" "VERY SURE."...

Yep, Iplehouse has done it again and put up a new EID woman for the Carved Heritage set, the sassy Scarlet . Here are Daniel Yoon's notes about her outfit (pix aren't fully up yet on the site) Right now I am pretending she doesn't exist, but if she becomes a standard in a year or two I might have to bring Scarlet home..I love her expression!

This is the sword that Akutenshi7 brought back for me from Dollism, with it's fabulous copper hilt. I just need to make a scabbard for it and put a tassel at the top--Coppersmith already has his belt. I spent part of the day familiarizing myself with the new camera, which is 90 percent like the old camera, but with a new, annoying user interface. I ended up going back to the Windows image handler instead because it's a lot cleaner and faster, and it seems to work fine. The new camera can generate larger files, which is nice. I still haven't quite made friends with the macro settings and the camera still struggles with full bright daylight and shadows, but it otherwise seems to be ok so far. The zoom setting is nice--this is a sparrow on top of a huge pile of deco straw at Home Depot, and he's about 10 feet above me here: Here is a couple of macro shots--Shushu was taken before I realized that I had the wrong setting, but she is just in room light, and she isn't ...

Just some filler pix of Artemisia while I figure out how to use my new camera--I left my old one at Mitsuwa and Akutenshi rescued it. She brought back the MOST GLORIOUS COPPER-HILTED RAPIER ever from Dollism, one of those Dollmore limiteds...and gave it to me. I am extremely spoiled. We won't even mention the custom wigs or the knitted shawl :D So more photos tomorrow in daylight.

I talked to K last night. She said she spent the evening hanging out with some friends, and that one of them, Dan, is now a professional archaeologist and K said I "made a good call" in not actually becoming an archaeologist. I said it was because I had found out it involved being on hands and knees in the dirt for hours with a ruler and a paintbrush, removing dirt an atom at a time, instead of hacking through the jungle with a machete to discover the ruins of Copan. K said no, it was "because bees." Dan said that most of what he did was dig test holes in sites before construction went forward in order to determine if there were remains of historical interest on the site, and that 99% of the time there was nothing; but bees. Usually the first shovelful will discover a treasure trove of ground bees-- and because Dan has gloves and long sleeves on they would head right for his face and neck. The real reason I didn't go for archaeology was because I had a chance...

This was taken around 6:24 in the morning, when two things happened--it started to smell so much like skunk in the bedroom it made my eyes water (I think a skunk likes to sit under the hostas right outside the bedroom window, but it's also looking like maybe one has figured out some nook or cranny just outside the basement to lurk in.) In any case, usually I just open the window on the other side of the house and try to ignore the smell, but there was also a bang from the kitchen and the cat decided it was time for me to get up NOW since she doesn't like skunks and/or strange noises. So I staggered out to the kitchen and it looked like metro Chicago was on fire,(though it was just the sun coming up) so I took a photo, and started to check around to be sure the skunk wasn't on the porch. No skunk on porch, or at least what I could see through the kitchen window--the back door was shut and locked. So I checked mousetraps under the sink. No mice. I fed the cat and took anothe...

J finally got his saw, sort of as his own birthday present. It's a Saw-Stop, which has a safety feature of being able to detect fingers too close to the blade and apply a brake to the blade (it's apparently dramatic to see how it works, I think there are YouTube videos of it). I'm happy with this, since J works in the shop by himself most of the time, and he needs his fingers. In reality, he's probably going to be fine since he worked for years in refineries, and is Mr. Safety. (At a party once another guy said to J, "Your job scares me" and he was a nuclear power plant operator at Salem ;D) On the other hand, I was worried about J getting this 300 lb monster up into the shop, but he made a rolling cart for it and didn't drop it on his toes. Here it is safely in the shop--it still needs the base (on backorder): You can see even with the cart it was heavy. Now I have to resist the temptation to present J with a long list of wood projects I want :D

Buff decided to move along some of her collection of interesting art objects, including 5 Mexican gods of unknown name and origin. I'm going to dig a bit--Buff thought they were possibly Mayan but I am not sure; they could be Aztec or Nahua inspired, though they were carved sometime in the mid 20th century, 1960-1980. I found out that some were sold as tourist items in a shop in Reynosa, Tamaulipas state, Mexico. (this via the helpful robertl4072, Robert Lochhead, who has an ebay store and more of these guys for sale, plus other neat items.) The stone is very heavy and dense, with reflective inclusions and very smooth and polished. Each god fits nicely in the palm of one's hand. I need to make a little case for them with something to keep them upright and in place, as they tend to want to topple over on their own. OK a bit of googling makes me think they are made of rainbow obsidian, which would explain why it feels like heavy glass. Later Robert looked at the photo here a...

Last weekend was Dollism, a big doll convention in Buffalo, New York, and there were a lot of dealers and a lot of fun events. I didn't go for many reasons, one of them being planes, but I was able to live vicariously through Akutenshi7's photos and WinonaFlammery's photostream , shown here. I don't know if you need to have a Flickr account to see them, but if you do, Winona seems to have covered almost everything. She also took a photo of the thing that would have cleaned out my wallet..eyeballs. (Hah "Just looking") But wait there is more! Here is ForeverVirginia's photoset as well! This is part of Soom's display--I like it because you get an idea of what their gray looks like.

Yomigaeri is listing a Rose Gray Iplehouse Luna Tamer on Den of Angels ( here--you need to be a qualified member to see the listing ) and while I have way too many pretty girls that I need to finish here, I have to admit I was tempted. It is challenging sometimes to get things out of Russia (I've bought small items with no trouble; it takes about a month for things to arrive) but EMS is pretty reliable, and Yomigaeri herself is a good seller. And look how cute Luna's face is! Yomigaeri did her faceup and I suspect made that adorable rockabilly dress too, which is included in the sale. Also included are the boots, that fabulous mohair wig, the necklace, the original box and certificate. One pair of feet are lighter (as often happens when one set is used and the other is in storage), but it looks like Yomigaeri sanded the whole doll down at one point to even out the color before she repainted the doll. Luna is on the old, sturdy EID body as well. Such a cutie!

more cute things here .

My friend Girrl has an interesting problem: she has a large Granado Jaden head and the desire to make him into a short, fairly flat-chested girl so he could hang out with her Erszabet, who I think is a petite 50-something cm girl. Because the Jaden head is so large, I thought the sort of androgynous Delf Boy body would have a big enough neck for the head but be curvy enough to make a flat-chested girl. Alejandro here has a big head--size 9 for wigs, but he looks fine on his own Delf body. Girrl also wanted some heel feet-- would the Granado Male heel feet fit the Delf ankles? It turns out they fit fine--I would hot-glue suede the ankles to stabilize them, buy you can see they fit the ankles ok: Since Alejandro is old and a bit mellowed, the new pink feet don't match his older normal skin, but a newer Fairyland body or even a 2010 or newer Luts Delf body would be the Normal Pinky color that these feet are. Girrl also wanted to see some alternate hands--here I have the original E...

It was a gorgeous day today, so I hauled out Sophie (who needs wiring desperately) and took some photos--she's wearing a Sewing Box Design coat, a Beachgirlnikita necklace, Dream Walker Horns, and some either kawaiimon or Beachgirl leggings. She's fun to dress, though she seems unwilling to share anything. (I bought the tights for Raisin, my Soom Migma).

I feel her pain.

It's just a simple tube of some pretty fab fabric. I will just put a bit of elastic at the waist and the top edge and finish the sequins on the bottom edge, it's getting to be fall weather here and I will want to start making "warmer" clothes for them-- because seeing the dolls sitting around with nothing makes me cold :D

brought in by Stripey. Not brought in by Stripey: toy helicopter that J bought. Stripey Did Not Want. Also, tried on Granado Gabe's head on the Maiden body. Didn't look bad until I put this blonde wig on him, then it was another Do Not Want. Tanglewyn looks sympathetic.

Mr Ropuha is being re-issued, and you can get him from jpopdolls.net--here is the information: ira-scargeear : Preorder period for Mr. Ropuha in moss skintone is opened on JPopDolls! Preorder ends on October 15th. Price: 230 USD. More details: http://www.jpopdolls.net/store/product.php?productid=4407&cat=429&page=1 I can personally attest to the fact that Mr. Ropuha is the Cutest Thing Ever, though the one I ordered last year lives with K and spends his time surfing the internet instead of gardening, which is what Mr. Ropuha would do here.