DollsArtCats

Soom Gneiss My friend Andy made her a sarong! I like the look on her so much, I may dig through my print stash and make her some more island-style things. I have been busy with a cover and some house cleaning stuff, so I am a little behind on doll stuff. I did get a face on Honey, though! Soom Cass I still need to get her some eyelashes, probably from Mint on Card. I had to shoot some stock for the cover, so if you need a blank sky for something, there is a 3264 by 2448 version of this image for you to use without restrictions (it has a goofball filename because it's tagged to the cover rough I was working on).

Esmerelda, a Soom Gneiss (the original) is here gloating over the fact she not only has a tractor, but a tractor-themed top. Also, not shown, she rules over several semi-feral cats, and George, a large, regal, golden colored cat that looks like a Persian with a normal cat face. George is very handsome. (And spoiled).:D

J and I do the gifts for each other Christmas morning, and then usually hold off opening the other presents from relatives for later, so I can write thank yous at the same time. I had bought a roll of glittered ribbon from Costco thinking it would be great for the two bigger presents I got J, since it was fat, sparkly and on a big spool. And it looked great--but I hadn't thought what would happen if you tie it in a bow and then the recipient pulls it through the loops again to untie it--that neatly scrapes off all the glitter into a cascading pile on the floor, the couch, your hands..everything. I actually took the ribbon off the second one before I handed it to him, but since he had glitter even in his beard, we had to take an intermission so that he could take a shower and I could vaccuum the floor and the couch (I ended up taking the couch cover off entirely to put it in the wash.) There is a trail of glitter out to the trash cans, and on our front steps, and on the keyboard. I...

Some of the older Soom heads that were on the old body are quite large--Cass, Galena and Cuprit are all pretty big. Beryl turns out to be just perfect. For this latest release of Beryl they did resculpt her Romantic head, but whichever head you get will look fine on the new body. A bigger headache will be restructuring the old hooves to fit on the new knees; they won't be able to swap legs because the stringing is so different in the hips between the old and new versions. Most of the height difference is in the extra leg piece, though the old body torso is slightly longer.

When I ordered Gneiss, I didn't get her outfit; which in hindsight was a mistake--I should just get the fullsets to begin with, which would save me hunting around later for missing pieces (I still don't have her cloak or staff). I was able to get her dress, necklace and shoes only because RavenLunaloo was willing to share, and she did it as a favor, so I was lucky! Here is the necklace: Here are the shoes: The straps have little hearts at the ankle: So cute, obviously handmade and a lot of labor, too. And they do not fit on the older Super Gems, which is good or SophieCushion the Beryl would have stolen them. The dress is instead a top and a skirt, which I had not realized from looking at the promo photos. Here's the top--it's made of some kind of polyester crepe that must have been a bear to work with; and the design is neat--that bodice piece turns into sleeves, and then a decorative scarf down the back: Here is the skirt--it's a half-circle of the crepe, w...

Just a repost--I miss this guy! (Though he really hated winter weather, and we have had plenty of it).

Another photo from Tuesday's "procrastinating from painting" photo session.

I thought the older Soom Vesuvia (from 2008) and the newer Soom Gneiss (2012) didn't look much alike, until they were sitting together on my bureau--and now I can see a kind of "family resemblance" between them. The original Vesuvia was a slow seller, probably because she was a bit expensive compared to the base dolls people were used to, but I think partly because of the outfit...Soom makes wonderful clothes but this one wasn't quite in their style: http://dollsoom.com/eng/shop/item.php?it_id=1249033324 My friend Laura called it "the Goth Hooker outfit", which didn't quite fit the shaping of the doll herself or the sparkly purple surface (which I don't think they have done again, though they have done non-sparkling purple resin dolls since then). But Beryl also had a ridiculous outfit and people bought her like crazy. The clothing design in 2012 was great though--I loved all the concepts for that line-- and of course didn't buy any of the o...

I was sorting and putting up some doll stuff on the Den of Angels marketplace, when I saw these guys sitting together (A dream of Doll old Lahoo, and Valentine, a Simply Divine Harlequin by Stein Sculpture), and I had to take a photo. And since I had the camera and a lot of dolls out of storage, I took a couple more. Granado Davon: A slightly blurry modded Delf Lishe (Amethyst the Schemer, in front of Nick Jainschigg's Amethyst study): And a leftover picture of Noodles, Soom Gneiss; from St. Patrick's Day:

(The baby snakes were stolen from Reddit, and that is my Soom Gneiss, Noodles). By the way, I once asked J what caused the Irish Potato Famine, thinking I would get a scientific answer-- and he said , "You must have had relatives there." I do like potatoes. :D

In case you wanted to know if the new heads would fit on the old bodies--they fit ok, but the head looks a little small to me (also Gneiss is Normal Skin and Merry (aka the Cuprit/Amber body) is Cream White). And yes, the clock always reads 8:10.

I had a chance to buy an New Youth Iplehouse Doll body very cheaply..the catch was that it had..no head. I thought that I had plenty of heads here, and the Normal Skin is pretty easy to match, so I jumped on it. And here it is, with my Cream White SID Jessica in a supporting role. It's a nice body, a little startlingly loud (there are ratchets in the hips) but unfortunately Iplehouse, whether by accident or design, made a neck that I will either have to mod-- or find some odd head/native Iplehouse head to go onto it. The neck flares out at the top, and it will take a Soom girl head, but Gneiss at least looks strange sitting on there. I think I'd like an Iplehouse Asa or Eva head, but that means laying in wait for Iplehouse to decide to sell some extra heads, or park at the bottom of the Den of Angels marketplace, waiting for one to bob up. My plan was to make an "Alice" doll, since apparently no doll fancier's collection is complete without one. If I was smart...

My Soom Gneiss (who is called "Noodles" here because her snake head ornaments look like rice noodles) is the closest thing to a Christmas Angel I have right now. I am not putting her on or near the tree, though, since Stripey has already managed to hurl the small tabletop tree to the ground, along with the tablecloth, a dozen Christmas cards, a pen, and a cup of coffee. Here is the new Soom Girl body neck, by the way--you can see it sticks out a tiny bit but that gives her head a lot of movement and hardly shows, especially with a long wig.

Sixty-four centimeters..the old body measurements are on the Soom Gem webside, on the lower left-hand side, under the FAQ. I haven't found updated measurements on the site yet, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

This lady needs more clothes, although it would help if I cleared off the sewing table so I could actually sew her something. Work has distracted me, as well as discovering a bunch of the Age of Sail books and romances that I had not read before. ("Master and Commander" is one of them, as well as the very adults-only "False Colours"). I did find another tot-sized Halloween costume that some luckless doll will be modelling tomorrow. And here is our garden snake--this is the only time I have seen him (or her) I think the rain filled up the snake hole so he had to come up for air.

My East Coast friends are sweltering in 100F temps today (and some with no power in Virginia). It's not bad here with fans, and a wet washcloth now and then. We finally got some rain so the flowers are blooming. Here's some from last year I found on an old disk: And here for no reason, a flaming pink silly wig on Noodles, who looks cute, (if not very oracle-like), in it.

That's 8 neodymium magnets, baby! I had to glue them on separate days, the pockets are so close together inside her head. The snakes are very amusing and cute in person. Someone at Soom had fun designing them!

I think these are called Bells of Ireland, and they are growing at Cantigny, I think they are so pretty--the don't look real because they are so green and delicate. I am having fun with my own belle, Gneiss--I haven't even gotten all her magnets glued in yet. I wasn't supposed to play with her, just take some photos and put her away. I did take a lot of detail and comparison photos; this one is not safe for work but shows the old body and the new body together, with the changes highlighted: Old body on left (Jessica head, New Body on right(Gneiss) ) She poses so well I can stand her up by herself... on grass And yes, we have a lone lily in the back yard: And we went to Ikea today and discovered they have everything, even for very small apartments:

I was so sure she would be in customs, I was astonished that she came today. I was also so not ready, the house inspector was here and he recommended "a bulldozer" to fix the house. It's a fine house except for the roof, the walls , the foundation, the plumbing, the wiring, and the AC is in fact out of coolant and should not be used. Well, that was the final straw. We are not buying this house. We are buying one two blocks away, with a koi pond in the back yard (instead of on the roof).