Sad Post

My Taid (Welsh for grandfather) passed away yesterday. It's difficult to describe how important he was to me. He supported me in whatever I wanted to do - he was thrilled when I got my BA at Bangor University and without him I'd never have gone on to do my Masters at Liverpool.

I'm happy that I managed to make him so proud. There is more I could say, I will miss him on my wedding day and when I have children. I'll miss him whenever I have any exciting news or career moves. It'll never be the same without him, but he did get to see what made him happiest - he never dreamed one of his grandchildren would make it to the college on the hill he used to look at when he was a young man living in Bangor. He got to go to a graduation ceremony there and it was for both of us. I wish he had made it to Liverpool to see me graduate a second time, but he was ill in hospital then. He saw me in a cap and gown again though, through the pictures we took.

I'm so proud he was my Taid and I'll miss him every day.

ישוע אמר: "אני התחיה והחיים. כל מי שמאמין בי, למרות שהוא מת, אבל הוא יחיה, וכל מי שחי ומאמין בי לא ימות."

Box Opening

This is the first time in a long time that I've had an entire new doll arrive. My last few dolls were floating heads until I could buy them bodies. Getting a whole doll at once is very exciting!

May I present...the box opening of Miss Mojito Collins!

I laid out all her parts to check that eveything was included, and discovered she had no feet!

This was a bit of a surprise! I can't string her without her feet and they're still in London for the time being. Happily, Lolly from Den of Angels was selling some Unoa feet on the Marketplace so I bought those. I don't mind having two pairs of feet for her, I can paint the toenails different colours and mix things up :D

The biggest surprise, aside from Mojito's missing feet, is how big Unoas are! I was prepared for her to be quite small and slim, but she's comparable in size to an SDC girl. I've owned a MiniFee in the past and I think MiniFee are definitely slimmer than Unoa.

 Here's here Leekeworld wig and her Enchanted Doll eyes. I had to remove the resin flash from her eyeholes before she could try her eyes. A quick trim with a craft knife and...

Here she is! The eyes are sadly too big for her, I think she needs at least a 12mm pair to show some white and look good. Her wig fits perfectly though, so I'm quite happy with that.

I can't wait to start putting her together. The next step is to trim off the flash and sand her seams down and after that I can try doing her face-up. I've been watching lots of tutorials to try and get my ideas together. I think I know what I want for her, I just don't know if I have the skill for it.

As a new girl arrives, another girl goes off to a new home! Melangell, my SDC Kurenai, is going off to live with my friend, which is awesome for me because I'm getting my friend into the hobby and I'll also get to still see the doll!

Mojito!

This is the little planning doll I've made for Miss Mojito.

I have adopted an unassembled Alchemic Labo Unoa Sist kit from the collection of my friend d.ark, who passed away in May this year. This kit is something to remember her by, because she adored her Unoas and was a fan of everything Araki. It's an unusual position to be in, to be excited for the arrival of a new dolly but at the same time miss the person the doll belonged to and know that if d.ark was still with us she'd be assembling the doll herself.

I'm hoping that d.ark would have liked the plans I have for this doll.

Mojito is going to be the embodiment of my favourite cocktail! Minty fresh and sparkly! I also recommend it made with pink lemonade - it's fantastic!

Awaiting her arrival, I already have;

• LR-102_D wig from Leekeworld in 'Pale Turquoise', which comes up as a nice minty green (I am still on the lookout for a true green wig though eagle-eyed folks)
• 12mm Enchanted Doll pupilless Milky eyes in a half light mint/half dark mint
• Wimukt mori outfit
• Dale Rae pink suede flats

I have been a bit frugal this time - the only new thing I've bought for Mojito is her wig. Her eyes, clothes and shoes are already in my doll wardrobe!

Closet clearing!

I kept promising myself I'd have a closet clear out, but I genuinely am now!

I've started listing shoes on eBay, more shoes will follow. Please help me by adopting my shoes! I keep them in great condition and many of them have either never been worn or worn just once!

Gwenllian's gone to the spa

Well, Gwenllian has now gone to Viridian House for her face-up. I'm going to miss her being around. It's been nice having my 'big 3' together, but when Gwenllian comes back with her new make-up she'll be perfect!

My last try at getting Gwenllian a body of her own didn't work out - there was a language barrier and a lot of misunderstandings - but I've found another SD13 body on the DoA Marketplace and I'm looking into that one now. It's an L bust, so if I do get this one, Gwenllian will probably inherit Morideryn's M bust body and Deryn will be upgraded! Deryn's steampunk outfit looks great on her, but it was made for dolls with a bigger bust!

Tomorrow I'm going to start working on the Ikea Duktig bed I bought months ago. I set it up perfectly fine, but it's a strange size. Only 1/4 scale dolls can lie down in it, but the bedposts are too chunky for them really. It really looks like a doll bed if you put a MSD-size doll in it. I want to convert it into a sofa for my big girls to sit on, because it'd look more correctly scaled for them.

What I need to do, is make a seat back from thick cardboard, make seat cushions and back panels and work from there. I'm going to make it so that it can be converted back into a bed if I want it to.