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.

Meet the New Girl!

Presenting Miss Gwenllian Cyffin!

This is the second doll I've had of this girl, (previously she was a Soulkid Snyder), I think the Volks Rose sculpt is the closest yet to finding her.

Gwenllian is at school with Morideryn and Mafonwen Enku. Whereas Deryn is outdoorsy and sporty, and Mafonwen is analytical and into mathematics, Gwenllian's passion and talent lie in languages. She has residual magic in her blood (her paternal uncle is a local cunning man and village leader), and although she isn't magical enough to attend the high class school of magic, Ysgol Gofannon, she is still considered 'upper-class' for a village girl due to her talents and connections, and is sent to school at Ysgol Graiglwyd.

Gwenllian's residual magic manifests in an incredible talent for languages - she can speak, read or write a language (with excellent comprehension) after hearing or seeing only a few sentences of the language and she is able to communicate with animals, which encourages her to be a vegetarian for ethical reasons - after all, who eats their friends?

Although her human friends are Deryn and Mafonwen, she has an 'Eastern Pointed Cat' (i.e. Siamese cat) named Arthur who is extremely chatty and friendly.

Gwenllian now has a middle-name, Rhosyn, after her sculpt :)

In the pictures she is wearing a mori girl outfit by Foxybrowny, Little Monica wig and Dollheart boots. Her face-up and eyes are by Volks.

While B's away...

I clearly have a shopping addiction.

B has been away at Download Festival this weekend and while he's been away I have bought;

• 1 Volks Rose head
• 1 Little Monica 'Simply Bob' wig in Dark Chocolate
• 1 Little Monica silicone wig cap
• Mori-Girl outfit set by Wimukt
• 1 blue polkadot playsuit by Dorset Clothing
• 1 BJD photo backdrop (a library)
• 1 pair Releaserain 4-strap SD shoes in Pearl Tan
• 3 new pieces of fabric (Russian Matryoshka, Little Red Riding Hood & stripe & anchor designs)

We're going to Liverpool in two weeks for a little holiday and I've paid for the hotel too.

I have a problem. It's so easy to just click on stuff!

I'm pleased to announce, though, that Momoko (my Dollfie Dream) is on layaway and her new owner will have her in two months' time. So in the spirit of out with the old and in with the new...I'm going to get a lot of the old out. I know I keep saying it, but I really do mean it this time.

Incoming...Shopping ban, what shopping ban?

More incomings!

It's summer time (not that you'd guess from the weather we've been having in Wales recently...), and that means I start thinking about all my unfinished stories and original characters again.

A character I've attempted to write about numerous times is a little girl called Gwenllian Cyffin, who has a strong nose, blue/grey eyes, a brown bob and a marvellous gift for languages. My first ever BJD (Soulkid Snyder) grew into this character and a whole world developed around her. I didn't want Gwenllian to stay a child for ever and her mini-sized self needed to be reshelled into a new resin incarnation. Sadly, she stayed in a box for over a year because I was too frustrated with her size to do much with her -- particularly as her two best friends (Mafonwen and Deryn) ended up being SD-sized dolls.

Both of the candidates for older Gwenllian can be seen in the above picture. Little Monica Reynell (in the brown wig) was the outstanding favourite for a very long time...but when putting her picture next to Maf and Deryn, I felt that Reynell looked older again. A girl in her twenties rather than a schoolgirl in her teens.

I then discovered (or re-discovered) Volks Bianka/Rose (Rose is in the pink wig)! Looking around on Mandarake, I found a Bianka for a very good price (but still out of my reach without a layaway.) My big breakthrough happened last night when I found a Volks Rose head on eBay being sold by a DoA member with a great reputation for a great price and (as it was payday) I didn't think twice.

So, Gwenllian-at-16 is going to be Volks Rose :) She will have to share Deryn's body for now because Gwenllian and Deryn are both taller than Mafonwen, but eventually I'll get her an SD13 body of her own.

The outfit in the picture is by Wimukt/Foxybrowny and sized for Volks SDGrG dolls. They are a bit slimmer than SD13s and SD10s but this outfit is quite baggy, so it shouldn't be a problem for her to wear. Gwenllian is a little bit mori and a little bit steampunk and a very cool character. I saw this outfit by Wimukt in March of this year, but only after it had sold! I hoped that Wimukt would re-release this outfit because it would be perfect for Gwenllian. Morideryn is my mori girl, but her colours are warm pinky, orangey browns. Gwenllian wears greys and blues.

The Simply Bob wig in Dark Chocolate (modelled by Little Monica Reynell) is Gwenllian's only wig. For as long as I've known her as a character, she's always had her thick brown hair bobbed (probably always will) and as soon as I saw the wig advertised on the Little Monica website, I knew it was perfect for Gwenllian. I bought the same style in 'carrot' colour for Deryn and I love everything about the wig. My other new favourite wig seller, Crobidoll, didn't have exactly the right colour I needed. Their CRWL-66 bob in 'Powder Brown' was the closest I could find and the colour was a bit too reddish.

The Volks Rose head I bought is coming with the default Rose eyes (grey/purple with black line Volks HG glass eyes), so Gwenllian should have the right colour...but if they're more purple than grey, I have some Hand Glass Craft eyes in turquoise that should look good. Gwenllian has steel blue/grey eyes and I think that when you're resinating an existing character, it's often the eyes that have to be perfect pretty soon after you start putting your character doll together. If you can see the character in those eyes, you can cope with the not-quite-right wig and the sort-of clothes and the nearly-there face-up. That's what I think anyway :)

Ultimately I will get Gwenllian on Viridian House's waiting list for a brand new face-up, but I don't want to arrange a slot until she's physically in my possession.

I bought the original Gwenllian in 2008 while I was struggling to write my undergraduate dissertation. She was my muse for that. Perhaps the new Gwenllian will be my muse now, and I'll actually finish something!