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.
 

Farewell, Grandma

This is one of my favorite photos of my grandma. I love how tough and sassy she looks. On January 16, 2015, my grandma passed away.  She was 96 years old.  In December, she fell and fractured her hip in two places.  The fractures weren't minor enough to leave alone and if she didn't have the surgery, she would most likely become bed-ridden.  My grandma had always been really active--she couldn't sit still and it seemed like she needed to be doing something, so that would never fly.  Despite her advanced age, and her heart issues, my uncles (her sons) and my grandma felt that they would go through with a hip-pinning procedure.  I was anxious the whole time, because I personally thought she was too frail to survive, but she was very strong and the surgery went very smoothly.  Unfortunately, while she was rehabbing in the hospital, she contracted the flu and then pneumonia, which she could never really shake.  The rehabilitation had been progressing, and at one point, we thought that she would be home for the SuperBowl.  But it was not to be.

I visited her at the hospital whenever I could.  I was fortunate that I had a couple of weeks vacation in December, so I spent many hours there with her.  We even had Christmas Dinner and New Year's lunch with her in her hospital room.  And when I went back to work after my vacation was up, I still visited her almost every evening.  But then I got sick and couldn't go for awhile...so the last time I saw her was the day she passed.  At that point, she was made "comfortable".  Grandma just looked like she was sleeping.

We had Grandma's funeral yesterday.  It was a really nice service, but what I didn't appreciate was the lecture the Buddhist minister gave us.  He pretty much told us that we were doing it wrong.  According to the Buddhist faith, when a person passes away, that is considered the 1st day.  And then every seven days, the family needs to hold a service for the next seven weeks.  This 49-day period is the amount of time the departed's spirit is undergoing training to attain the enlightened status that the Buddha achieved.  Each seven week's service is to encourage the departed to strive hard.  And the 49-day service is the most important one.  My grandparents were devout Buddhists, but the later generations, are less so.  Some of my relatives have converted to Christianity, while I don't belong to any particular faith.  I'm still exploring.  We uphold the Buddhist traditions as best as we can, but it was really very uncomfortable to have been lectured like that.  That was the only part about the funeral service that made me upset.  I think that my grandma really would have enjoyed seeing her family gathered together like that--I haven't seen some of my cousins in a long time since we're all pretty much spread out across the country.

So that is mostly why I've not posted anything in a long time.  It's just really hard to believe that my grandma is no longer here.  She's been a huge part of my life, every Friday evening we'd go to her house and I'd cook something or order food from a restaurant and we'd have dinner together--Grandma, me, the Husband and my two kids.  Thanksgiving was always at her house.  And Superbowl.  It was the gathering place for the whole family and it sucks that she's gone now.

Happy 2015!

Another year begins.  While I wasn't as active in writing blog entries as I liked in 2014, at least I haven't abandoned it entirely.  An occasional post is better than none at all.  I'll strive to continue to write a bit in this new year.

Being that it is January, I'm going to start with some things that I hope to focus on.  They are almost like resolutions, I suppose, but if I don't call them resolutions, I believe I'll be more apt to stick to them.  It's something psychological, obviously.

THINGS I'D LIKE TO FOCUS ON THIS YEAR

• Health.  I bought myself a FitBit One last month.  It's more to help me get an idea of how many steps I'm taking during the day, and how many flights of stairs I climb, and keep track of the hours I sleep at night.  I have the apps downloaded to my phone and ipad, so it's very convenient for me to get a good picture of the restless sleep I have during the night.  The app makes it easy for me to set silent alarms so that I wake only myself up and not my entire household.  It's also very easy to log the glasses of water drunk throughout the day, and keep track of calories.  It's like a food journal, but done on an app.  I already keep a food diary--an actual notebook that I jot down the stuff I eat--so it should be pretty convenient to transition over, I just haven't really done that yet.  The holidays (starting right around Halloween and continuing into the New Year festivities) really do a number on me with fewer hours of sleep, unhealthy eating and indulging, and more alcohol intake that I normally allow myself.  I'm looking to get back on track now that the holidays are over. I would like to decrease my weight a little--I still play the WiiFit Plus on my Nintendo Wii, and I'm a little tired of the Wii board kinda groaning when I step on it!  How rude.
• Family.  My children bicker all the time.  My older son has a short fuse and gets irritated rather quickly.  My daughter likes to bait him and then usually he lashes out at her.  It gets to the point that I get grouchy and I yell at them.  I hope to do less yelling at them...they are siblings and that's what siblings do.  They argue.  They irk each other.  I remember fighting with my sister when we were kids, and my parents used to yell at me.  I guess that's why I yell at my kids--it's learned behavior.  I hope to try to get them to try to get along more because  when I'm gone and my husband is gone, the only immediate family they will have are each other, and it would be nice for my two kids to have a harmonious relationship rather than one mired in hostility.  I also need to appreciate more what my husband does around the house rather than zero in on what he doesn't do or does wrong.
• Finances.  Life is just expensive.  Just when I think I have a handle on things, emergencies pop up!  I would like to commit to spending less money where I can.  It's really hard to live within one's means when the cost of living just keeps going up and my pay doesn't keep pace with it.  I was really proud that I paid off my monthly credit card balances each month on time in 2014.  I hope to continue to do so this year as well, and hopefully just use the plastic a little bit less to keep my balances from going sky-high!
• Doll Hobby.  I keep telling myself that I'm done with adding to my doll family, but I just don't think that is true.  The most I can do is slow down the rate of growth and thin the herd when it gets to be too much.  In 2014, I had a list of things I was allowed to spend my money on, and I stuck to it for the most part.  I had a few setbacks and impulse purchases, but it happens to the best of us, right?  Here are my doll-hobby items to focus on for 2015.

1. Blythe Doll to be customized by BuzzingBumblebee/Bee's Dreamland.  I keep trying to find a decently priced second-hand Blythe doll to be used as the base.  I'm not interested in TBL/fake/factory/knockoff Blythe dolls, so this is harder than it seems.  The Blythe hobby is so inundated with non-genuine Blythes and there is such a casual attitude towards them that finding the real deal is challengine.  I find some on ebay and then I get outbid at the last minute.  It's very frustrating. 
2. Isul Doll.  One of the rules for my collection is that each one of my dolls must have a counterpart.  So my Pullip : Taeyang and Dal : Isul ratios must be equal.  I have an unpartnered Dal and it's making me twitchy.  I already have an idea of which Isul to get (Light).  Ideally, I'd like to find a split partner for the stock, but that hasn't happened yet.  If the MIO Isul kits come out sooner rather than later, I'll probably give up on Isul Light and just get an MIO and find someone to give him a pretty face.
3. Get MIO Taeyang completed.  I have a MIO Taeyang for Mokka, my single custom Pullip.  Nanami the Veritas was fine with sharing her boyfriend with her but she finally said "Enough is enough.  You have to get your own man."  So Mokka's Christmas wish for a Taeyang of her own will come true...just late.  I'm sending the Taeyang for a face-up this week, but he still requires a wig. 
4. Obitsu bodies.  I need two obitsu bodies--one 27cm for my Pullip who is currently on a plastic BJD body and one 21cm body for Misa the DRTA.
5. Stay out of the BST/Marketplace areas unless it's to sell/downsize.  A really bad habit of mine is window-shopping.  If I don't go to the mall, I don't see all these fancy things that tempt me.  It's the same with the BST/Marketplace.  If I don't browse the listings, I won't get tempted and suckered into buying cool stuff that I want but definitely don't need.
6. Wrap up the cabochon eye business.  As fun as that was, I think the time has come to stop.  I still may make the eyes to donate to PUDDLE and for my own personal use, but as far as selling them and filling orders, 2015 will be the last year for that.  I intend to close up my etsy shop at the end of November at the latest.  It's not like there aren't tons of other crafters who do cabochon eyes--people can still get their eyes from other places.

Ho-Ho-Holidays

I hope your holiday season is off to a good start.  The months just fly by, don't they?  I can't believe it is now December.  My favorite holiday is Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving.  I love Thanksgiving because I get to spend it catching up with family members I don't get to see too often, and the food at our Thanksgiving potluck is always wonderful.  It's become somewhat of a holiday tradition to go shopping on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.  We're never ones to get too crazy, though.  It's more of a family bonding experience for us.

Now I like Christmas, but it's also somewhat of a stressful time for me.  I try my best to not let it get too bad, and it helps to stick to a budget and not give elaborate gifts.  I start playing Christmas music from November 1st all the way up until Christmas Day.  I've been baking up a storm of holiday treats--cookies, fruitcake, chex mix--but I still feel not-quite-right.  Things out of my control contribute to the craziness of the season.  I've noticed that drivers get extra careless and reckless from November on.  I also seem to encounter more rude people.  One lady came into the library and she was so unpleasant.  I wish I could tell her that she needed to remove her Santa hat if she was going to be that nasty.  I have to tell you that my heart isn't really in the holiday spirit this year.  I think it's definitely true that depression is more common around the winter holiday season.  I think I've got some of those holiday blues.

My dolls continue to be a source of comfort for me.  Even though I can go months without touching them, when I do sit down to fix them up, my mood definitely starts to lift.  One thing that I do is to participate in holiday swaps.  For a few years, I've joined the Holiday Swap at the Dal House forum.  That one is a Dals only swap--and since I've had just two Dals for the longest time, they'd alternate years.  In September of this year, I added two more Dals from ebay (one of them might be headed out, though).  I think I only can handle at the most three Dals at a time.  Anyway, I thought the new girl, Misa the DRTa would get a turn. 

 
Basically, you pick your Dal and then come up with a theme of some sort.  Misa is a little girl who has an odd fascination with skulls.  She's into skull-reading, and she thinks that Jack of The Nightmare Before Christmas is the coolest ever.  Anyway, you pick your Dal and theme, then another participant secretly picks you or is assigned as your sending partner and gets to work making or shopping for things that fit your Dal's theme.  That way, you can be sure that you'll get something you'll like instead of just random castoffs that you have no use for.  It is really fun, at least I think so anyway.  The dollar amount is $25, but I usually go over that since I like to spoil my partner.  Misa's swap parcel arrived yesterday, but since it was late when I got home, I couldn't open it.  I think we'll get around to it on Sunday.

This year, the Dollchemy forum came into existence.  Because I'm also quite active there, I thought I'd love to participate in Dollchemy's 1st Holiday Swap!  It was pretty much set up the same way as the Dal House swap, but all 1:6 Groove Dolls were welcome to join (no Ai Dolls, Pang-jus or minis).  Since my two Isul boys hardly have any clothes between them, I thought this would be a good chance to build up their wardrobe.  I decided to enter Kaz the Mori Motonari.  

Kaz received his swap gifts from Mollie the Melize & Lilcurly, all the way from the U.K.!  I took lots of photos and posted them on my flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/justlikewasabi/, but here are a few quick snaps.

Kaz was surprised by the avalanche of gifts!


 
I didn't expect so many little gifts for Kaz, but I think he was really happy about it since this was the first swap he ever participated in.  He'd always been a tad bit envious of Moe the Jolie and Tekka-Maki the Tezca getting swap goodies year after year.

I was most excited for these chocolates!  I've heard so much about Kinder Surprise, that I was thrilled to finally get the chance to try it for myself.  All expectations fulfilled and surpassed.  The Toffee Crisp was also really delicious.  I'm pacing myself with the others, but I'm sure I'll enjoy trying all the different varieties of U.K. sweets.


 

Kaz got so many cool things!
 
Lilcurly made a lot of the items--the Minecraft creeper felt toy, and all of the t-shirts, not to mention the Umbreon hoodie that Kaz is wearing.  I felt that she went above and beyond fulfilling the swap requirements.  She's a true treasure, that girl--and she's one of the reasons that the Pullip Hobby is so awesome.

Bonus Shot of me being a Pokedork in my own Umbreon hooded jacket.  I made that one year as a Halloween costume.

My Busy October

I always think of October as the official start of the Holiday Season.  I tend to get busy with holiday-ish activities and projects around this time, and this is one of the reasons why my blog posts have been sporadic.  I looked back and saw that there was just a single blog entry from me for October.  I've been keeping busy with lots of forum stuff, so my online time hasn't been as free.  I volunteered to be a judge for the Dalicious! photo contest on Dolly Market Forum.  It's almost over, and I can't wait to see who actually ends up as top winner.  I do know that the top 3 finishers in the contest will each take home a full-size Dal doll (Tina, Vendettina, or 6th Anniversary Jouet ), donated by PullipStyle and JPGroove.  Seriously, had I known those were the prizes, I probably would have signed up to participate instead of serving as a judge.  Although I have to admit, my photos cannot hold a candle to the players in this round of Dalicious!  Competition is fierce and the bar has been raised!

The Dal House forum is seeing a resurgence in popularity thanks to True Fan's efforts in reviving the forum.  For the month of October, members would visit the forum daily and make a post to earn an entry to win a full-size NRFB Dal.  If you started a thread/topic, you would earn an extra entry for the day.  There were a few bonus days where if you posted on the forum, you would earn 5 extra entries.  The Dals that the winner willl choose from are Monomono, Gloomy Bear, Kanaria, Lipoca and Pinocchio.  The Dals are generously supplied by True Fan.  The drawing will be in a couple of days, so it's interesting to see which Dal House member will snag a brand new Dal!  Is it selfish to hope it will be me? 

Another contest going on at The Dal House is the quarterly photo contest.  It used to be a monthly contest, but since participation had been dwindling, the contest was changed to 4x a year rather than 12x a year.  And since it took place in October, it benefitted from the recent Dal House resurgence.  There were 12 entries this time.  The theme of the photo was "Fall".  It's Fall here in Hawaii, but you'd never guess that because it's so hot and muggy.  It feels like summer, so I had to create Fall for the photo.  Here's what I went with...

 

I put Moe the Dal in the most Fall-appropriate outfit I could find.  The plaid top is a Moxie Boyz shirt and I found tiny fall leaves confetti at the craft store.  I made the rake out of floral wire, and the trash bag full of leaves is a little jewelry gift bag.  The mini pumpkin is from Pier 1, I think it was an old napkin ring--I just pulled the pumpkin off.

And then we have the newest forum that I'm a part of--Dollchemy!  Dollchemy also hosted a contest during the month of October.  This one was a Halloween doll costume contest.  Members would submit the photo via email to the organizer of the contest, and then the entries would be posted anonymously for Dollchemy to vote on.  The one with the most votes would win two packs of unopened, mysterious Rement.  This was my entry...

It's Akari the Spider Queen!

 

Akari is my pullip with a face-up by Buffdolls.  Akari rarely gets any photos, and spiders aren't her thing, but they sure are mine!  I'm happy to say that Akari's costume got the most votes, and I won!

 

At work, my co-worker organized a pumpkin decorating contest.  It could be any type of pumpkin used as a base--but you had to have done something to it for it to be eligible.  The finished entries were put out on display and the library patrons would vote for the ones they liked the best.  The entry with the most votes would win.  Here's what I did...

 

I basically got two smallish artificial pumpkins.  I had wanted two black ones, but could only find the one.  I suppose I could have painted the orange pumpkin black, but that would have required another trip to the store and I really wasn't feeling like it.  I used floral wire, tons of chenille stems, hot glue, embroidery floss and some eyes from my reject stash.  And my pumpkin spider took 1st place! 

 

While winning certainly is nice, to me, it's more important to participate.  I don't take these things very seriously, it's more fun for me than anything else, and if I win, then that's cool, but similarly, I would be totally fine with not winning.

 

Halloween was overall very quiet.  Not many trick-or-treaters showed up for candy--I think my son said there were about 25 kids.  I brought my daughter to the mall for trick-or-treating.  She was the only Princess Bubblegum there.  Tons of Queen Elsas from Frozen, though.  Here's a little shot of my two monsters in costume:

And lastly...I managed to snag these two cuties on ebay for a song--$62.99.  I always wanted a Drta and Monomono.  I put in a lowball offer expecting to be outbid by the auction's end, but it didn't happen.  The Drta is almost full stock--she's missing just her card & school bag.  The Monomono came without her monkey hat, but another boardie sold me one, so she's totally complete.

 

 

I hope October has been good to you.  I can't believe how fast the time is flying.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Everything with chopsticks

I've been thinking a lot about my diet lately.  I've been wanting to drop a few pounds for a while now.  I joke that I'm trying to lose the baby weight that I gained from my two pregnancies.  It wouldn't be so bad if my two "babies" weren't already 7 & 9 years old!  And now that I've hit the 40th birthday milestone, I think if I don't start trying something now, I can see how as the years go by, the weight will just pile on.  It seems that the difference between my pre-mom weight and my weight after I became a mom is 20lbs.  So sure, I'm a little heavier now, but my weight has been roughly the same for about 7+ years. 

My thyroid issue sure does complicate things, but I think that just means I need to work harder.  I just wish exercise wasn't so boring.  I hate the treadmill because I keep walking and I'm not going anywhere.  I don't like Zumba, and I'm very self-conscious of exercising in public, such as at the gym.  I'd take yoga, or pilates, or some other kind of class, but the ones in my area are all during my work hours.  I guess they are designed for stay-at-home-moms.

So basically, the rules I've now set myself will be to:

1. Journal every single thing I eat.  It's tedious, but making myself accountable for everything I eat has really opened my eyes.
2. Watch my portions.  I can fill half my plate with a tossed greens salad.  My grains (a garlic bread if having pasta, or typically brown rice) will take up a quarter of my plate.  The main dish will take up the remaining quarter.
3. If I want seconds, I can have another serving of the tossed greens salad.
4. Snacks are also carefully meted out and I can only snack twice per day.  That's a hard one for me as I realize that I like to snack.  I never realized how much I snacked before I began writing everything down!  I need to cut back on the processed snacks and incorporate more 'healthful' snacks like plain popcorn, fruit and veggies, nuts, cheese.
5. Eat almost everything with chopsticks.  This is a strange rule, but I've been carrying a pair of hashi wherever I go.  It's wrapped up in a nice furosiki so it doesn't get dinged up in my handbag.  Obviously, I cannot eat soup and breakfast cereal with chopsticks, but everything else, I'll take out my chopsticks to eat.  I found that it really slows me down--I used to be a really fast eater. So now, the chopsticks force me to take my time and register feeling food in my stomach. 

I do not know if I can sustain this during the upcoming holiday season, which is right around the corner.  But I figure that I can at least try this out until then.

A phobia of my own

Here's a little something about me:  I cannot stand the sight of my own blood.  I'm not sure when it all started; perhaps I had always been like this.  The very first time I knew that I was averse to seeing my own blood was when I was a freshman in college.  There was a blood drive on campus, and I thought I would help save lives and donate blood.  It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but I don't remember feeling nervous or stressed about it.  I filled out the form, and one of the blood drive staff members pricked my finger to get a drop.  It was fine until I was actually up on the gurney.  I watched, first with fascination, as the collection needle was inserted in my arm.  Then I watched all this dark blood collect in the bag.  It was the color of chili powder.  That's when I started feeling strange.  My breathing got shallow and rapid, and when the collection bag was full, the needle was removed, and I was told to sit up, but then I swooned, and the next thing I remember was the smell of ammonia and people standing over me with concern.  I was allowed to rest for 30 minutes, and afterwards, I had a doughnut and some Sprite.

About a decade later, during my stint as a Children's Librarian, I was at work prepping the storytime craft activity.  I was using the paper-cutter / guillotine and somehow nicked a bit off of skin off of my thumb.  Blood everywhere, and I did my best to cover it quick with a paper towel and hold my thumb above my head.  My thumb was throbbing and again, rapid and shallow breathing.  It felt like I couldn't get enough air.  It eventually stopped bleeding, but I was a wreck for most of the day.  I'm amazed I could even do storytime that day.

Fast forward to today.  Because of my thyroid issues, I periodically need to get my blood drawn and analysed.  This time, in addition to seeing if my medication was at the correct dosage, my doctor also wanted to check my cholesterol and blood sugar levels, so the lab would need a little more blood than usual.  I didn't think it'd be a problem--most of the time when I get my blood drawn at the lab, there is some minor discomfort, but I'd never done anything like pass out, like I did when I donated blood.  Today I went to the lab, and a phlebotomist whom I had never seen before serviced me.  I told her that I have tricky veins, so I asked if she could use the 'butterfly' needle.  She told me that it wasn't necessary.  She tied the elastic on my arm, and instructed me to make a fist.  I could tell that she couldn't see my vein.  But she pricked my arm anyway.  Nothing.  She told me to relax and then to make a fist again.  Once again, nothing.  And then one more time.  This time, the needle hit something, and it hurt like way more than usual.  I held my breath, which I know I wasn't supposed to do and I had to consciously tell myself to breathe.  The phlebotomist asked me if I was OK.  What I should have said was that "No, I'm pretty far from OK." but instead, I did the passive Asian thing I always do and said, "I'm OK, it just stings a little."  Her response was to shrug and say, "It's because the needle just hit the side of your vein.  I'll move it forward a little."  More pain.

It seemed to take forever, what should have been a routine collection of a few vials of blood.  And my poor arm...it is really bruised up, and it hurts.  If she had just used that flexible butterfly needle like I requested!  I'm dreading the next lab appointment and I will run for dear life before I let that particular phlebotomist work on me again.

I'm not afraid of needles.  I don't mind horror movies, and blood on other people.  It's just my own blood that I can't stomach.  I have one other phobia, but I'll write about that some other day.  Do you have any phobias or things that you are averse to?

My September update

I can't remember when I last posted to this blog! It's been far too long, and once again, it was probably illness that kept me from updating. So pardon me while I wipe away the layer of dust that has accumulated on my keyboard. There! Much better.

What have I been doing lately? Reading--I've just finished a couple of YA (Young Adult) titles. There's Noggin by John Corey Whaley, which was about a teen with a terminal illness who gets a second chance at life by having his head sawed off and transplanted onto a donor body. It sounds like an outrageous premise, but it was really enjoyable. I sympathised with the main character Travis because he wakes up healthy on his new body five years after he consented to this last-ditch path to survival and finds that everything is different and his friends are no longer 16-years old like he is. The other book I finished is Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige, in which your average teen outcast Amy Gumm is swept away in her mobile home during a tornado and wakes up in Oz, except that Dorothy has become corrupt with power and Oz is threatened. As a librarian, I find it helpful to read titles from a variety of different genres. No matter how many titles I cross off my list as I read them, it seems that I'm always adding more.

I've also been playing Animal Crossing New Leaf on my 3DS. This game is seriously addicting and it's been over a year since I've been playing it.  I've been working hard on making my town thrive. I've seen animal villagers come and go. I try to play at least a little every day since the few times I misplaced my game card, when I did eventually play again, I found that my favorite villagers had moved away. It might seem a bit strange that the loss of these fictional pixelated characters would affect me, but it did. In my town, I'm currently working on completing my bug and ocean life encyclopedia. I have only two more bugs to catch--a mole cricket and a dung beetle. I have about 6 more things to dive for and 6 fish to catch with my fishing rod. Eventually I want to get Katrina the fortune teller to open up shop on my town's Main Street. I've had the opportunity to play online with Vadafade whom I know from Dollchemy. She's visited my town and I traveled to hers...and one of her former town residents has relocated to my town.  I hope to play again with more dolly friends in the future.


I should add that I'm consciously going to try to improve my health and take better care of myself. I find exercise really boring, but I know it's a necessity because my job is more sedentary than active.  I take the stairs whenever possible and during my lunch break when I run errands, I walk more than take my car.  I have a couple of fitness DVDs that I will genuinely give a chance to. I use the treadmill but that is seriously torture to me. I've tried watching movies while I walk/jog on the treadmill, but I find myself wanting to just sit on the sofa and finish the movie without the pesky exercise getting in the way. I used to use the wii board with my Nintendo wii, but I think something is wrong with it. I know that weight loss is more dependent on diet than exercise, so I will try to be better about what I eat. Portion control, not eating as much processed foods, etc. I know what I have to do, the hard part is doing it! And not making excuses, but my underactive/non-existent thyroid is a huge factor in all this. Also contributing to my difficulty in weight loss, I believe is my IUD.

In my doll hobby, I always say I want to downsize or at least not get any more. I would like to free up unnecessary stuff, and for the most part, I have been slowly listing wigs and clothes up for sale. I need to do more of that...but it's just kind of hard to sell things these days. I've noticed things sit around for months with no bites from interested parties. And no matter how much I swear I won't get any more dolls, two dolls recently made their way here.   These are the two that have snuck their way in. On the left is Dice (Daisuke). He is the Taeyang Chosokabe Motochika who actually started off here in Hawaii with me when I pre-ordered him from PullipStyle in 2011. About a month after I got him, I needed some quick funds, so I let him go to a buyer in Chile. I always regretted having to sell him. But then in June 2014, I saw him up for sale from Chile--of course I had to get him back; I paid the same price I sold him for. I consider him a doll version of a homing pigeon. (He and Arashi--who I also sold and bought back). The pullip on the right is a custom Nahh-ato who first belonged to Miss Edith and then Vanie. I had always wanted a Nahh...but failed to get one when she was in stock, and then she was sold out everywhere or on sale for a price I was not willing to pay. I only really wanted a Nahh so I could have someone customize her, so when this pretty little thing with her Myufish face-up became available, I jumped on it. I'm glad I did, and I have no regrets.

The truth is it is unrealistic to go "cold turkey", but I just have no words. I made a list of things I would allow myself to buy earlier this year, and it seems I forgot about that. I guess I fell off the wagon a bit there; and I'm only human.  *grins sheepishly*

Here is my revised list of purchases for 2014:

• Mister Super Clear or Volks ZM spray (to finish off my Blythe & Yeolume customs)
• Tiny brushes (to finish off my custom dollies)
• Volks shine pearl (more customizing supplies)
• A secondhand Blythe to send away for custom face-up (I would like a pretty custom doll from Bee's Dreamland)
• A Makie doll

Let's hope I have the will power to stick to my newly revised list as we close out the rest of the year.

Check out Dollchemy.com

Do you like your dolls with a heavy dose of customization? Do you like to sew for your dolls, or create little props for them? You might want to check out the forum Dollchemy.com! It made its debut in early June. When the co-owners of Dollchemy approached me to be a part of the moderating team, I happily accepted. Dollchemy is growing slowly and steadily, and I don't know how unbiased I can be since I'm a moderator and of course I'm going to think it's awesome, but I seriously believe that. I think with this brand new forum, we each have the opportunity to contribute to a wonderful resource and hangout for members of the doll hobby, so no matter if you love BJDs, Pullips, Blythes, Monster High, My Little Pony, Pinky Street...all are welcome, as long as they are not recasts/bootlegs/clones/knockoffs/factory or TBL. So if you are looking for a new dollie-centric forum to hang out, or add to your list of virtual haunts, then please consider registering at Dollchemy.com. I hope to see you there!

Beni makes an appearance

I'm shockingly bad at maintaining my blog. I think that one of the main obstacles with this is because if I do anything that requires regularity, I start to view it more as a chore rather than one that I find fun. Another reason why I may not blog as regularly as I like is because my time is spread out over the internet at various sites. There are the usual haunts--Dolly Market, Blythe Kingdom, Den of Angels. And other time-suckers such as ebay and etsy. I also periodically check facebook for new posts and I also have to catch up with Flickr, ipernity, Tumblr and Twitter. I'm one of the few people who STILL does e-mail. In addition to all this, I'm currently taking an online course through my public library & Gale Education about becoming more assertive. Yes, it's true--sometimes I can be a real doormat; but I think a lot of that can be attributed to my culture and upbringing (Japanese-American), but that's a whole 'nother blog entry. Today I'd like to show you one of the projects I've been working on for weeks. It was my intention to take in-progress photos as they happened, and put them here and on various photo websites. But that just never happened. Sometimes I just couldn't find my camera, and other times, I just plain forgot. I'd get caught up in working and if I stopped for photo-taking, I probably would have lost creative momentum. Anyway, some background--I began wanting a Yeolume of my own ever since PODO was first released. This feeling intensified when I got to host Penny the Traveling Yeolume in April. I shopped around and when I found another collector getting rid of her Yeolume PODO for $60 shipped (even to Hawaii!), I pounced. There are a number of things that I didn't especially like about PODO when I saw her in person. I thought her lips were too pursed, for one thing. I wanted her to be more of a happy girl. Here's my one and only "in-progress" photo! And here's Beni all put together again. By no stretch of the imagination is her face-up in anyway perfect. It's decent, sure--and for now it suits her fine. Maybe later, depending how the face-up is holding up, and if I can find a face-up artist within my budget with open slots, then I would consider sending her out for a new, professionally done face-up. There are some areas that just don't seem as crisp and clear as the face-ups I've commissioned others for. For the face-up, the supplies I used were: Faber-Castell pastels, acrylic paint thinned out with water, and Prismacolor watercolor pencils. The sealant I used was Volks Zoukei-Mura powder spray. I used these insanely tiny brushes for her eyebrows and lashes. And Tamiya gloss for her lips. Looking at these photos, I think what I need to do is spray-matte her one more time with the ZM spray, and then give her lips another coat of gloss. I want those lips to really shine. This is pretty much the first face-up I did which I'm mostly satisfied with. I think that I could get better with practice, but I don't have a whole lot of blank heads to practice on. And no, the answer to that dilemma is not to buy more dolls.

Nanami of the Seven Seas

When I started in the pullip collecting venture, I just wanted one pullip and one taeyang.  And for a while, that was all I had.  I was happy to let them chill in their boxes.  But then I saw photos on flickr and I discovered doll forums and I knew that I needed to de-box RIDa and Timulus from their boxes--they wanted freedom.  But then they started "telling" me to go find their friends and family members.  And before I knew it, I had amassed a group of them.  Not only Pullips, Taeyangs, Dals, and Isuls, but also little teeny tiny BJDs. 

During this active collection growth phase, I wasn't content to just let my stock dolls be as they were out of the box.  Nope!  The part that I found most fun was customizing them to get them to look like how I wanted them to.  Change their hairstyles, their clothes, and wigs.  Find new bodies to put the pullips on so they could wear Barbie & LIV doll clothes.  Send them off to get new face-ups.  Give them eyes that look real.  All of that took money, and that's what I had been focusing on--making my dolls look like one-of-a-kind, special, unique things that I would truly love.  There were a couple of dolls that I've always wanted but because I had my hobby money earmarked for my customizations, I figured I'd get around to picking up those dolls later.  I never dreamed they'd sell out.  Nahh-ato?  And Veritas?  I was surprised when the dolls sold out...I remember that Nahh had been at $72.95 for such a long time.  I'm kicking myself that I never bought her from PullipStyle when I had the chance.  And Veritas...I can't remember what her price was at PullipStyle but when she was about to sell out, she was going for $160 not including shipping.  Too high for me.  So I shelved those dreams of ever getting either of them.

But recently, I was able to finally acquire a Veritas at a reasonable price.  A long-time collector on DollyMarket is downsizing and unloading many older dolls.  I've dealt with this collector before--she used to organize many GOs, and I've always liked her, so I felt comfortable approaching her when I found out that she was soon to be listing her Veritas for sale.  I made an offer and it was accepted!  I could hardly believe my luck. 

The whole time after I paid, I was anticipating something going wrong.  Would the doll have undisclosed damage in some way?  Would the postal system be careless in their handling of the box?  It took less than a week from when I paid until I received Veritas, and I'm happy that the worst I can say about her is that there is a slightly smoky smell emanating from her wig.  This doesn't bother me in the least, though--it reminds me of how the hotels in Las Vegas smell, which to some might be problematic, but it's a non-issue for me.

Veritas came almost fully stock--but rewigged.  The wig she came with is a Leekeworld wig that is close in color and style to the original.  I love her blushy face-up, and except for her eyechips, I'm totally pleased with her look.  Sometime later, I think I'll be re-chipping her, but for now, I'll just be enjoying her as she is.  I've named her "Nanami", loosely translated to "seven seas"....because of her nautical theme.  Cutest pirate ever!


Unfortunately, I had to let one of my tiny BJDs go. Since I am determined to stay in this expensive hobby, there needs to be limits, and rehoming dolls in order to afford other wants is an important part of this. The BJD I sold was a Pukifee Luna. While I will miss seeing that little cutie on my doll shelf, the truth is that I wanted a Veritas even more. It's all about prioritizing, isn't it?

Happy May!

I forgot my coffee at home today.  It's sitting in the microwave oven, since I had been warming it up to pour into my travel mug so that I could take it on the road with me.  I guess I got a little side-tracked before leaving the house, hence the coffee is now growing cold in the microwave.  I was already halfway to my workplace when I remembered.  I hate that feeling.  I suppose I could have stopped by Starbucks since there's one near the library, but it's always really crowded in the morning and I don't want to ruin my tardy-free record!  Just between you and me, I think my coffee tastes better than Starbucks anyway.  I really don't like functioning without my morning coffee, though.  I always get the meanest headache without my caffeine fix, and that makes me one grouchy librarian.  I wonder if I should pre-emptively take a Motrin to ward off any headaches?  My uncle says that the headaches brought on by lack of coffee is all in my head.  I wonder if it is?

Over on Dolly Market, the big buzz is that Groove Japan unloaded a bunch of older Pullip & Friends dolls onto PullipStyle.  Mike from PS is being nice enough to offer them to Dolly Market users first, and that thread is going live in a little under two hours.  When I first heard about it on Saturday, people were calling dibs on various dolls, and I didn't think it was all that fair, but overall, it never got really ugly and vicious.  I'm lucky in that I don't think there are any dolls in that lot that I would want--if there had been a Rovam or Veritas or Coral, I think I'd have been in trouble.  It's not like I am made of money, after all, and Rovam/Veritas/Coral aren't on my list of allowable things to buy for this year.  I guess if I did break my own rules, I could always find someone to sell, though I'm loathe to sell any of my beloved dolls.  Even when I'm not fawning all over them and they're just sitting pretty on my shelf, I still love having them around.

I'm so excited for Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, but that doesn't come out until November!  Other than that, I've mostly been playing Rune Factory 4 on my 3DS.  There are lots of things to do in RF4--save the town's dragon, farm crops, forge weapons and armors, mix medicines, cook.  And date.  The character I'm playing as is a tough but sweet fighter girl...and so I figure she needs some pampering, which is why I chose the attentive butler-in-training for her.  They've been on quite a few dates by this time, but I find that between the farming and the dating and cooking and participating in the town's festivals, there isn't a whole lot of time left for saving the dragon!  I guess it's really a game that teaches one to prioritize and learn time management.  Maybe I should have my two children play this game--they might learn a thing or two. 

I've also been reading--right now, it's Zoo by James Patterson.  It's a fast, easy read.  Suspenseful and fun, but nothing deep.  Until next time...

2/3 of 2014 to go!

Can you believe that it's almost the end of April?  That means that we are about 1/3 of the way done with 2014.  Amazing how fast time is flying by.  In about two days, it will be my birthday.  I haven't been excited about birthdays since I turned 21 and could legally drink alcohol.  I don't know why, though, since I had been drinking my way (responsibly) all through college with (practically) no incidents.  There was one time where I was out with friends, and we did bar crawls.  By the end of the night, I don't remember how I got to my dorm.  I don't remember many things about that night, like where my favorite MAC lipstick ended up, or what happened to one of my shoes.  The main thing is that I got home alright.  There was another incident where I had too many drinks at a nightclub, and they would not let me on the dance floor.  Which is good because I don't like to dance, so I'm not sure why I was trying to get on the dance floor anyway.  (?!)  That's the worst that's ever happened to me, and nowadays, when I have any alcohol, it's maybe one or two beers a week.  An occasional glass of merlot maybe a couple times a month? 

I thought it would be a good time to review my resolutions from the new year.  Remember those?  If not, you can simply read my New Year blog entry, or I can summarize.  My first resolution was to be more punctual and to come in on time or early to work.  The good news here is that I've been doing exceedingly well with that!  I've been late maybe once since I made the resolution.  The second resolution was to not take things personally; I'm still trying to work on that.  I'm getting better, though.  The third resolution was to lose some weight.  That one, I haven't done much.  It's hard because food is a common way for my family culture here--it's the way we bond!  We bake, we snack, we go eat at different restaurants.  Family parties involve lots of good eats.  Very hard, but I've been implementing the "No going back for seconds" rule and I've been trying to not snack as much. 

My last resolution was to stop spending money unnecessarily on my doll hobby.  I even made a list of the items I was allowed to buy, so I wouldn't have to go "cold turkey".  Let's take a look at my progress.

Yeolume.  (I just bought one secondhand for cheap.  She hasn't been shipped yet, but I hope all goes well).

Four doll wigs.  A few of them didn't look the way I envisioned in my mind.  But I plan on selling the ones I'm not using, so maybe that helps a little.

Three doll face-ups.  I've got all three of my dolls back from their face-ups and I love them.

So it looks like I bought whatever was on my list.  I could stop here and call it good, but I think it's best I be truthful.  Here are some other things I've spent money on:

• Two Dal dresses from an etsy seller.

And this is what I've got on my wishlist:

• A Pure Neemo XS body for my incoming Yeolume.
• A wig for my incoming Yeolume.

It's obvious that an incoming doll leads to outgoing money.

In other news, I've had Penny the Traveling Yeolume for almost a month now!  I haven't put as many photos here in my blog, but you can find them on flickr.  It's almost time to send her back, it was such fun to have her around.  I will admit that having her around spurred me to purchase one of my own.  Gah!  What a cutie.

A very special guest has arrived!

Gah! Has it really been about a month since I last updated my journal? I can't believe I let the entire month of March slip by without writing another entry. I'm not sure why it is so hard to keep up. I always think about posting something, and then I don't. In late fall of last year, pixachii on Dolly Market put together a Traveling Yeolume project. Penny is a Yeolume Podo, who has been customized by Myufish. Stock Podo is cute, but once Myufish put a little smile on her face, the little doll became darn near irresistible! Penny's travels kicked off in December--she headed to her first host in California, then to her second host in Florida, and then she returned to California to stay with her third host. I'm happy to announce that she's here with me for her Hawaii home visit. Penny arrived on April 30, and I get to have her around for approximately a month before I ship her to her next host.

I am not sure what I will do with Miss Penny while she's here.  My main problem is that by the time I get home from work, it is late, and then crappy indoor lit photos are my only option.  I do want to get some beachy shots in...I just hope the weather cooperates with my plans.