Go Panthers!

I've been a Carolina Panthers fan since 1995...so, that's longer than I've been in the doll hobby.  I have a good amount of Panthers merch that I collected over the years (buttons, purse, figurines, stuffed animals, coffee mug, etc.), and it is awesome that I finally get to keep it out past the playoffs.  The Panthers will be in the Super Bowl on Sunday!  It's only the 2nd time they've been in the Super Bowl--the last time was in 2004, and they lost to the New England Patriots, by a slim margin of 3 points.  But at least they can say it's a return trip to the Super Bowl, as there are some teams that have never ever been.

Some of my dolls are out here in the living room showing their support for MY team--that's right, I have my own personal miniature cheering section here.  I'm hoping 2016 is the Year of the Panther!
I am slowly remembering the joy that the doll hobby was about for me. It seemed like for the longest time, I was burnt out on the dolls. I didn't want to anything with them, but I couldn't bring myself to sell them. Even though 2016 didn't really get off to a great start for me, my spirits lifted when the Carolina Panthers made it to the Playoffs. And then when they continued rolling on...and on...to the Super Bowl, that made me really happy. And of course, being part of the Panther Nation from Day 1, of course I had to do some kind of photo shoot with the dolls to commemorate this momentous occasion! And depending on the outcome of the game, there may be a post-game photo. If there isn't, then it's because the unspeakable happened. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. Now...if there was a way to make sure that Leonardo DiCaprio FINALLY gets an Oscar, then I would be elated.

Checklist for 2016

It seems like coming on here to post my resolutions is the first step towards failure. So let's see if I can beat it by calling this list a "checklist". The things listed here are things that I would like to focus on in this year, but I'm not calling them resolutions. That way, if I don't work on them, no biggie. They might get moved to the next checklist for another time, or scrapped altogether.

**Use hobby money to fund hobby items. This is a no-brainer, but now that I've closed my eye shop over on etsy, I definitely have less discretionary funds than I did before. It is now more critical than it used to be to sell unused or no-longer-wanted doll items to pay for the things I do want. I am also able to use gift cards to buy things that I want. I don't believe I have a huge wish list for my hobby, but then again, I said that last year, and I still brought home more dolls than I intended to. While I don't have any dolls on the list this year, I still have a few dolly-related things that I feel I need:

•  27cm white obitsu--ordered & paid for with amazon.com gift card (21 January 2016). I just need Chi the Pullip Banshee to be more poseable, so she will get an obitsu. I'm dying to try the button method using the tutorial posted on Pullip Home blog http://www.pulliphome.com/obitsu-button-method/ instead of trying to sand down the neckpeg as I've done in the past. I'm excited about it. 
• A wig--ordered & paid for with amazon.com gift card (21 January 2016). It seems I have the worst luck with dolls and wigs. For once, I actually loved the stock wig that my Pullip (Banshee) came with. Unfortunately, an entire line of wig hairs is falling off the wig (it seems like the weft isn't sewn on properly), and there is some strand breakage. This morning, there was a sizeable bunch of hair near her boots, and it just doesn't look as smooth as it did when I first de-boxed her. So keeping the stock wig isn't an option. A pity too, as I loved the blonde & lavender mix of hair that was her stock wig. I'm hoping the one I ordered will work out. 
• Miniature Katana swords--I need two of these for Shin. When he's not dressed in his werewolf stock outfit, I have him dressed like a Shinsengumi troop captain. And he needs two katana for this...right now, he's defenseless. The hard part is finding miniature weapons in the right scale for Taeyang. 
• AngelToast Aesthetics face-up for Pullip--(paid for with doll sales money) Kei started off as a Pullip Fraulein head that I got in a split. I had no concrete plans for her, and she just seemed to go with the flow.  She is by far the tallest Pullip I have as she is on a Zeenie Girlz body.  Her one wish was to have a gorgeous custom-face-up by AngelToast so that she can stand next to her Taeyang boyfriend without feeling slightly unpretty.  She started on her travels this afternoon, so we shall see.
• Another wig--  I hope to get Kei the perfect wig by the time she gets back from her spa time with AngelToast; I haven't been able to find one that I like.  It's easier now that I know what I want her final look to be.
• 4 hanks of hair from dollyhair.com.  My daughter's Pullip is in need of new hair.  This is one of the Pullips with a scalp, so I was hoping to re-root it.  I just need to find out what color(s) hair my daughter would like her doll to have.  I felt like the Blythe Re-root I did in the summer of 2015 went more or less smoothly, so I'll try again with Pullip.

**Keep on exercising at least 3-4 times per week. As I get older, I've noticed that my blood pressure is ticking upwards ever so slightly.  I am not yet at the point where I am on high blood pressure meds, and if at all possible, I want to avoid going that route, so one thing I've been doing ever since late summer was to exercise.  I've been more or less consistently doing a walk-jog for 35-40 minutes 3 or 4 times per week in the mornings before I go to work.  I find that I'm more successful if I start off my day with exercise than if I put it off until later, when it will never get done.  I still don't enjoy it, but at least I've been sticking with it.  In December, I hurt my ankle, so that limited my exercise time, and it's still hurting me, so I've not been as good with the exercise.  I'm down to maybe once or twice a week now, but I hope to get back on the wagon.

I guess that's about it for now.  At least, that's all I can think of.  I'll be back on to add more if I think of anything else.

Happy 2016 to You!

I meant to post an entry in December--just as one last nod to 2015, which was a very trying year for me. Unfortunately, that never happened, and I ran out of time. Where does all the time go? The older I get, the faster time marches on. If you think about it, when you're a kid, maybe 4 years old, you have to wait a whole year until your next birthday. A whole year to a 4-year old child is 25%, or 1/4 of their lifetime. That's a long time to wait. Conversely, for myself, from one Christmas to the next, it's just 1/40th of the time I've been around, and that amount gets shorter as I inevitably age. I hope that you had a lovely holiday season and you got to celebrate it in a way that was meaningful to you. While I struggled through much of 2015, it wasn't without some moments of joy. I lost my beloved grandmother in 2015, which was a huge blow to my family, but I believe we have been all been helping each other cope. In October, we took a much-needed family vacation to Disneyland! I've not been there in years, so I had really been looking forward to it. Life is in a constant state of flux. You have to experience sadness in order to know what happiness is. It's looking for the small moments of joy, or finding your happy place, which may not necessarily be the same thing for you as it is for others. It's also focusing more on hope and solutions rather than dwelling on your challenges and stressors at the moment. For most of 2015, I was in the dolldrums. Down in the dolly dumps. On a doll downswing. In a dolly depression. Whatever it was, it wasn't fun. This was a dark time when I toyed with the idea of selling everything and getting out of it altogether. I didn't feel like commenting on photos posted in my favorite online doll forums or on flickr. I couldn't muster any enthusiasm for participating in holiday swaps like I've done for the past five years. I barely submitted any entries for photo challenges on the forums I'm a fixture on. I turned into a lurker and lost my online forum voice despite the fact that I am a moderator on Dolly Market and Dollchemy. I thought that the Blythe bug was calling me, and I brought a couple custom girls home. I even embarked on a re-rooting endeavor, and that worked for a little while, but it was short-lived. It was so unsettling, and I thought I was really and truly done with the doll hobby. So much so that I contemplated on selling everything. But I didn't. For some reason, as I stared at all those little ABS & resin faces, I couldn't do it. I'd hear little voices in my head..."If you change my outfit, I bet you'll feel better." Or..."Fix my hair. It's falling into my eyes." It sounds weird, but I'd do it, and I actually did start to feel pretty good. When November rolled around, my husband surprised me with a 12th anniversary gift. It was a very large, flat (or tall), heavy box. I opened it and it turned out to be a curio cabinet that needed assembling. I had been upset that my current dolly shelf was breaking down, and it meant so much to me that he actually took it upon himself to get me a new shelf JUST for MY dolls. The husband tolerates the dolls, but doesn't quite share my enthusiasm for them. He'll admire them for a while and listen when I talk about them. He told me that he found a really good deal for this glass curio cabinet, and the price was even better if it was purchased unassembled. I don't mind putting together simple projects like that, so I tackled it one Wednesday before work. Once I broke down the old shelving unit and cleaned up the new one, I got to move all the dolly inhabitants back in. The downside is that it's smaller than my old shelves, so it's a lot more crowded. But look--it has a door! No more picking out lint from doll wigs. And despite my doll-depression, I still managed to bring home two more lovelies who had been on my wishlist for a while. This is Shinpachi the Valko (Taeyang) and Chi the Banshee (Pullip). They are both ebay purchases, which I felt were fairly good deals. The Taeyang was a pre-owned display dolly with all of his stock. His price was the lowest I could find. He got to me nicely packed in his box, but a little dusty and his left arm was unattached. I cleaned him up and reattached his arm--he seems to be fine. The Banshee I believe to be one of those Tuesday Morning $39.99 dolls that the seller was hoping to flip for $$$. I put in a low offer for her, was given a counter offer, and then I put in one final counter of my own. The seller accepted (I didn't think she would). I'm happy to have these two finally. Earlier in 2015, I had posted my doll resolutions. I haven't gone back to look at them, but I don't think I followed them all that well. The best laid plans...don't always get followed. I have a smaller list of doll resolutions but that'll be my next post. Gives me an excuse to come back here to check in. :) Until next time...

My first re-rooting project!

Is it hot where you are?  It's sweltering here!  I feel like this is the hottest summer I've ever experienced in all my years here.  I don't have the luxury of air-conditioning at home--partly because of the cost it would add to the electricity bill, and partly because of the hassle involved in getting the townhouse association to approve the installation.  I have fans that just seem to blow the hot air around, and it's the worst when there aren't any breezes around.  To keep cool, I've taken to showering in cold water.  It's pretty refreshing for awhile...and then just this week, I made an appointment with the hair salon and had the stylist chop off a lot of my hair.  It used to be past my shoulder blades, but now, I have a bob that reaches just to my lower jawbone.  That seems to be helping a little.  The only one who doesn't really like my new hairstyle is the husband, but well...it's not his hair, and he's not the one who has to deal with trying to stay comfortable in this awful heat.  My hair, my choice.

As if I don't already have enough keeping me busy, I thought it would be nice to learn a new skill.  I decided to give re-rooting a try! I have a Blythe doll waiting to be customized by Buzzingbumblebee of Bee's Dreamland. The doll is already in Norway with Bee, and in the meantime, I thought I would work on her hair. I used an old Blythe scalp that I had lying around, and what is good about it is that there are already existing holes I can use for the plugs. From all the tutorials I read, it seemed like punching holes in a CoolCat scalp would be the most tedious part.

I picked up five hanks of Barbie-length Saran from dollyhair.com in various shades of blue (Phthalo, Lagoon & Midnight). When I got my order, it seemed like a lot of hair, but now that I've actually started rerooting, I'm not too sure. I made quite a few mistakes and some of the hair strands already got trashed...snarls, tangles, breakage. Plugs too thick. Strands that got kinked when I used too much force pulling it through the hole. But now I think I have a better handle on the size the plugs should be.

It's slow going. I started in July, and that was when I did the part line and thatched it. I also started on the spiral on the crown, but I had to stop since I went on my trip. On my last day of vacation, I sprained my finger. That slowed things down considerably for me since my finger is still tender. I worked on the reroot for two hours today, and in that time, I managed to do the outer spiral shown in the photo.

It's a bit messier than I like on the inside. Too many stray hairs sticking out of the locked loops. But I think I'm improving. The reroot looks better from the outside, heh.

This girl is going to have blue hair. She's going to have a beach/ocean theme, and her name will be Shanty. I made up some pull strings with charms made of natural beads, beach glass and seashells. She's all put together in my head, and I am excited to see her completed.

Paloma has arrived

No matter how burnt out I am, just having the dolls around help make the days a bit brighter.  While I am still grumpy and a bit stressed out because of work, it's not really bad yet, and I can hold things together.  It'll be easier going to work now that I have Paloma beautifying my workspace for me.  Who's Paloma?  I'll get to that in a moment.  Read on for more details.

My love for custom dolls carries over into all doll types.  I believe I mentioned my desire for a custom Blythe by Bee's Dreamland.  The Blythe hobby is full of all kinds of cute custom dolls, but many of those dolls are "factory" Blythe dolls--that is, made up of parts supposedly stolen from a Blythe doll production factory, or fake Blythes, which I believe means they are made using molds made from genuine Blythe faces.  So, basically a recast Blythe.  My stance is that I don't go looking for knockoffs, copies, or bootleg products.  I try to get the real thing.  I don't have any Angelgate Pullips, and I frown upon recast BJDs.  In my poking around the Blythe hobby, I saw that there are many collectors who own both genuine Blythes, and fakies.  Some collectors shunned the fakies and customs altogether, and only collect Kenners or other stock Takara Blythes.

I thought that if you are planning on customizing a Blythe, it makes sense to use a fakie or factory Blythe since you're essentially sanding and carving away and there is very little of the original doll left.  Factory/Fakes are less expensive than genuine Takara Blythes, and by using factory/fakes as your base doll for a custom, it would save a stock Blythe from possible ruin, and preserve it for the people who would want to keep the Blythe fully stock.   But then I started to think a bit more.  Factory/fakies are still wrong because of the lack of honesty.  Somebody went and smuggled out parts that they didn't have any right to, or they made molds of Blythe's head so that they could make their own version of Blythe from it.  This is cutting into the money earned from the company that makes Blythe...if people take their money and spend it on factory/fakes, then that is less money that the company is getting.

Which brings me to Paloma...my Blithe doll.

blithe

blīT͟H,blīTH

adjective

adjective: blithe; comparative adjective: blither; superlative adjective: blithest

showing a casual and cheerful indifference considered to be callous or improper.

 Paloma is my sweet little custom girl from Bee's Dreamland.  I had wanted a Bee's Dreamland custom for months.  Ever since Bee had been accepting commissions, I had been searching for a secondhand, nude Blythe to send to her.  I found a few on ebay, but alas, I kept getting outbid.  This went on for many weeks, and I gave up on it for a while.  I thought about ordering a NRFB or new release Blythe, but I couldn't find one that I liked (hair, stock outfit & accessories).  If I am going to pay those release prices, I should at least like most of the doll.  And then I saw this custom on Bee's flickr, and read that she was in Bee's etsy shop.  The only downside was that the base was a fakie or factory doll.  My resolve to not purchase a fake/factory Blythe broke, and I made the decision to purchase this custom.  My thinking is that what's done is done, the doll has been customized, and I love the customizer's work.  It's not Paloma's fault that she's made up of factory/fake parts, that she's a Blithe, and not a Blythe.  I would love her the same regardless.

 Bee has been putting these beautiful butterfly wings on the eyelids of her custom dolls.  Look at her lashes!  Paloma is beautifully blushed, and exquisitely carved.  Her lips and subtle freckling are perfect.  I couldn't resist leaving her to sit on etsy any longer, and I had to have her.

This is Bee's trademark Bee logo that shows this is an original Bee's Dreamland custom.  Paloma is custom girl #9.  I'm hoping that Paloma won't be my only Bee's Dreamland custom. 

I know it is hypocritical of me to not support bootlegs, clones, factory/fakies, knockoffs, recasts, etc., and to have one in my collection.  At the end of the day, it is my collection, and my money, and it is finished, so no sense looking back because we cannot turn back time.  While I won't get any more factory/fake dolls, I think what I will do is to get a genuine Takara Blythe and have her sent to Bee to get customized.  And then I'll put it side-by-side with Paloma and I promise you that I would not love one more than the other.

Anyway, Paloma is my work doll.  She stands on my desk at work in the back office, and is kept company by my WWE Chris Jericho action figure and my plastic Finn the Human figurine.  Having her around to brighten up my office makes it easier to report to work.

If you would like to see more photos of Paloma the Blithe, please visit My flickr!

Summer Plans

As a librarian, it is a given that I love to read.  When a story really gets to me, I can immerse myself in that fictional world and get lost in those pages and pages of prose.  Some novels are just so good that I am sad when I reach the end and I have to bid adieu to the characters and the world that I have come to love.  The most recent instance of that came when I read and finished The Iris Fan by Laura Joh Rowland.  This was the final title in the Sano Ichiro mystery series, and it was a bittersweet moment when it finally ended.  For years, I'd been reading that series of mysteries that took place in feudal Japan.  It was like saying good-bye to old friends when I got to the last page.  This photo is a small sampling of my summer reading list.  In the summer, it is customary for me to choose novels that I want to read, as opposed to stuff I should read (for making sound purchases for the library's collections, or for recommending titles to our public library patrons, for example). Not pictured but definitely on my reading list this summer are also tons of manga titles.

Also on my reading list but not in the photo are the titles I picked out through my Kindle app on my phone, and downloaded e-book titles from the library's Overdrive app.  I have to admit that I am a reluctant e-book reader.  I think it's a great idea in theory, but reading all those words are hard on my eyes.  I can't read e-books for very long, so it takes me much longer to finish a downloaded e-book on my phone.  Maybe I can read an e-book for 10 minutes at a time versus hours for a print book.  I'm sure staring at a tiny screen for a long time isn't healthy for one's eyes anyway.  My optometrist told me that the use of smartphones and tablets is the reason why more and more younger kids these days are needing glasses.  He said that  staring at small screens changes the shape of your eyeball, so doing that for long periods of time each day isn't such a good idea.  I have bad vision, I'm really nearsighted, and I like to read, so I'm sure there is some truth to that.

My supervisor at work is temporarily assigned to another branch.  She voluntarily took the transfer, it is unknown how long she'll be out there.  I'm a little upset about this because we are now to cover the loose ends she left behind.  We're short-staffed, I'm busy with the library's summer reading program, and just generally irritated with this.  It was a sudden transfer, we weren't given enough lead time to prepare--she only informed the staff two days before she left for the other library.  So we weren't adequately trained on what we need to do.  It's very much a learn-as-you-go and wing-it type of situation here.  My co-worker is temporarily assigned to my supervisor's position and he's getting more pay now, however...he's not doing any additional duties.  I'm expected to pick up more of the duties that he's supposed to do but isn't and I just don't see how that's fair.  More work but no additional compensation?  Hmmm.  I'm nice up to a point, and as long as things are fair, I will work hard.  If you take advantage of me however, my teeth and claws will come out.

Dolly Update

It's been a long time. I've been in a foul state of mind ever since January. I just didn't feel like doing much of anything other than go to work, and get home to play videogames and read. I'm slowly getting back to normal, though. There has been some slight population growth of my doll shelves. Despite the overcrowding of my shelf, and my delusional self swearing that each doll will be THE LAST, I still end up with more dolls. So instead of lying to myself, I should just accept the fact that I'll continue to slowly obtain more doll residents and what I should really be doing is looking for a bigger shelving unit! 

In late December/early January, I asked Janeen (Doll Angel) to give Zen, one of my Taeyangs a custom face-up. I have a thing for custom face-ups, and even more of a thing for Taeyangs with custom face-ups. She was quick with the "plastic surgery" and I had my Taeyang head with his awesome new face within a couple of weeks, all for a reasonable price. The only reason Zen wasn't in my photos is because he didn't have a suitable wig...until now.





 

You may have seen Mayumi (a.k.a. Mokka) before. She arrived sometime last year, when I was still generally in a decent frame of mind.  She's a Nahh-ato with a custom face-up by Myufish. Mayumi previously lived with MissEdith and then Vanie. She's an island girl now (even though she loves wearing PaleAngelAccessories sweaters), and now that she's met Zen, she's not planning to leave anytime soon. Or Ever.  Mayumi's wig is getting on my nerves. I like the color, but it's seen better days and is very dry and frizzy. I see a new wig in her future.


Kei is the Pullip Fraulein head that I bought as part of a split. She was the good-natured volunteer in my Zeenie Dollz / Pullip rebodying experiment--you can probably see all about that in my thread on  Dollchemy.com   She enjoys towering over all the other dolls on her new body, and even more so in high-heeled shoes. While my preference is the older Pullips with the heavier, rounder heads/faces, I've got to say that this girl looks pretty good rewigged and rechipped.
 

 And last but certainly not least, this is Kyo. He had been hanging around as a headless body since I had sent his head on to Angeltoast to be given a pretty new face-up. I'm so glad that Angeltoast paints all sorts of dolls and isn't strictly BJD only. She told me that she has a Taeyang too so she's familiar with doing face-ups on them, and would be happy to give my doll a new look. While her price is quite possibly the most I've paid for a face-up on any of my dolls, I will say it was definitely worth every penny.



I had resigned myself to having Kyo being the only doll without a counterpart, but good thing for that split with Cornflower Blue, so I was able to get Fraulein's head.  Kyo and Kei are hitting it off quite nicely...they keep each other company on my doll shelf.