DollsArtCats

I've wanted to upgrade my Shushu's body for a while--I have never been a fan of the neck key design and finding her shoes...and clothes in general, was hard--she isn't Barbie sized, and isn't MSD/unoa sized, and Fairyland doesn't sell much for clothes unless you want fullsets, AND they now have a bewildering variety of bodies, so it's hard to figure out what fits what. But today was the Mitsuwa meetup, and I went and swapped for a Soulkid body, which is one of those "where have you been all my life" kind of doll experiences. For one thing, the Souldoll body is double jointed and has peanut knees and elbows; she's beautifully balanced, and has a clever if not entirely sucessful ankle design--the calves are the ball, rather than the ball being attached to the feet. This moves well and looks gorgeous but it means the upper edge of the foot is fragile, so she has had some repairs. Overall it's one of the loveliest bodies I have seen, especially f...

A surreptitious photo of large and small flower leggings at Forever 21, and the dress that came home with us:

This is Caracal0407's Shushu, who looks much better-behaved than mine. :D Caracal has a fabulous photostream--I especially love her Iplehouse Asa and her Soom FC Vesuvia, but she has a lot of gorgeous dolls; all sizes from the EID to the Lilycat slim cat-girls. It's well worth a visit!: Caracal's Photostream

Mom sent me some knitted goodies, she said that two of them were potholders or dishcloths, but one of them immediately became a chair cover for my new doll chair (actually a plant stand from a garden store, and the perfect size for Bird.) Bird received a magnificent scarf called "Firebird", which looks like a feather undercloak would look fabulous under it. Kalypso the Shushu immediately tried to make off with Bird's neck scarf: The last one shows the seat cover a little. And finally the gray cat asked me to stop goofing with the camera and feed him.(That is the camera lanyard he's pulling on.)

I have been selling off parts and loose heads, and this morning I shipped out the Miyu Minifee head, which means that Kalypso the Shushu need not share anymore. I don't know about you, but I think she looks pretty smug here. It was also warm enough yesterday that I redid the Davon head..I think he may end up being another one of those heads that I keep repainting, trying to get it right--but I like this faceup better than the last one. The wig is still a problem, but fixable. I'm still waiting for his body--it's on order, and I would have ordered a girl body for the Gitana head if I hadn't had a dolly buying spasm and bought the Vesuvia. It's also getting to be the time of year when I need to buy shoes, a visit from the electrician, and some flooring.:D

My mom, who probably should be inventing the next Bejeweled or Tetris, is instead amusing herself by knitting and crocheting. And for Christmas, among other wonderful things, she sent me some tiny knitted and crocheted things for my dolls. Here Kalypso shows off her new hat, which I stuck a scrapbooking flower onto with a small pin. (I suspect the hat will have all kinds of pins and feathers attached to it, depending on what else Kalypso is wearing). It is simply adorable. And here is a grainy picture of Bird, trying on one of the scarves that the humans here got for Christmas. He actually got his own scale scarf as well, but I need to take a picture of him in it during daylight hours, so the detail will show.

I have had (and sold) a lot of dolls--for one thing, you can usually sell a doll for what you paid for it, assuming that you bought a reasonable one to start with, and took care of it, and it's from a popular line of dolls. Since I was buying dolls off Ebay, I often got ones that were not perfect. Either I managed to fix them, or I would sell them again. This Shushu never had her neck mechanism work correctly, despite being restrung several times. I probably should have hot-glued her neck, but then I needed money and since she also had a "sleeping face" I sold her. (In the end this did not save me money as I eventually bought another Shushu.) Perhaps I am a "doll renter" at heart. I also had a discontinued Iplehouse SooRi and while I did not like the YID bodies at all, I did like his face. He lives in New Zealand now.

Deb in Texas got this alarming wig from Ebay--it is made of the most gorgeous mohair, but the side pieces just didn't hang right and a strip of the skin was always visible, plus it was just..odd. She sent it to me and I got out some scissors and started to investigate. Here was the problem--the extension on the sides were made by folding the skin in half, which made one side look good but the other side with a double wide strip showing: So I cut the strips on either side of the front of the wig off; took one strip, and cut that strip back open so it lay flat: Then I cut the flattened strip in half. Then I sewed one half to the left side of the front of the wig: Kalypso tries it on. Looking good so far. Then I added the other strip to the right side, and once again Kalypso was the tester: So now I know a good way to make mohair extensions look ok, and Kalypso has the HUGE purple wig that I think she will wear a lot--the hair is gorgeous! I would use a thimble the next...

Another day of mowing--a good thing I started early, a storm front is moving in. Because the petunias won't last, I took a picture. Kalypso was willing to pose, now that she is once more on the Minifee body: It was pretty windy. Stripey Cat was a little freaked out. It became obvious it was time to go in... Tomorrow we go sign stuff at the realtor's.

This pretty Shushu belongs to Sabina on Den of Angels, and she is the best-dressed shushu I have seen, judging from Sabina's Photobucket. The link is here for the whole set: http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee219/Aloedoll/Shushu/

Another doll person who reads my blog wrote to me and said "Fishcake! I have some crystal balls in my garage like the one in the Philadelphia Museum! Would you like one?" :o And so thanks to this kind person, I have my own ancient Chinese crystal ball, and the one in the Philly Museum is safe. I am amazed and grateful!

I made Kalypso, my Fairyland Shushu, a yarn wig--it's very delicate since it was spun around some purple thread, (which I pulled out), and now it is held together with just a little friction between the strands. Next time I think I will make stitched wefts to keep it all together, but for now she finally has a blue wig. She still needs her real clothes--this little DollZone dress doesn't fit too well.

I had spent some time carefully arranging flowers in her hand, sat up and poof! Away they went and she sat down suddenly. It's windy again today--I don't know why Chicago doesn't have a forest of propellers on every roof; they would never need coal fired electricity again. Below is my grey cat wanting to taste Kalypso's wig, and Kalypso saying "No."

I was digging around my hard drive and found a bunch of old doll photos, including my first ShuShu--she's one of the Type B Fairyland versions, and I can say I am glad I swapped her for a Type A, which poses much better than the confusingly older Type B. The only thing I don't like about my new one is the magnet hands, which are great for putting clothes on her and less great when they fall off.