Alternative Reality

"Life is full of choices! Having stepped into a mysterious mirror portal, her reflection is caught between two worlds and she must decide to which reality she belongs. Should she enter the hurly-burly of Victorian London street life that feels so familiar to her, and yet so distant? Or perhaps the eerie neglected buildings, which are all that remain of a palace where once she was a princess." ~ Josaphine Wall

I can so relate to this painting . . . I often feel as though I am caught between a rock and a hard place. Like this week, wanting to work on my Nutcracker project on one hand, and catch up with blogging and friends on the other.

However,  having so much to do at home and knowing full well that taking on five dolls at once will need a lot of concentration and considerable effort, I decided to put the Nutcracker project on the back burner until after Christmas (hopefully I'll get them all finished before the following one).

That leaves me free to complete as many of the tasks I really feel like doing, while I'm in the mood to do them (ones that are simple and quick). :)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Big hugs,

X

Project Mc² Knitted Clothes 4 Sale

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Well here's a few photos of the new knitted dresses.

WINE

If you are interested, they are $15 plus Economy Air (no tracking) postage = $3.
If you want tracking, it would have to be sent as a parcel = $21.20.

United Kingdom, United States  approx. 7 days

Rest of the World it takes up to 14 days 

BLUE

Please the contact form at the bottom of this page to send me your email and address, so I can send you a PayPal invoice. Let me know the colour/s and I will ship the first working day after receiving payment.

LILAC ~ GREEN ~ YELLOW SOLD

The dresses were all looking lovely and straight on all the dolls when I began the shoot, but these girls are a real pain in the butt to stand, so hair got in their faces and the dresses twisted around when I handled them. oh BTW they close with two buttons at the back.

Thanks for looking!

Hugs,

X

Project: The Nutcracker

"The Nutcracker" is well loved by many and is perhaps best known as the inspiration for the a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. You may or may not have seen the ballet which is now produced by many ballet companies worldwide, but you would without doubt have heard of the "Nutcracker Suite" composed in 1892 by Pyotr Ilyich (Peter) Tchaikovsky (1840-1893).

Before your time? Well you surely have heard of "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms", a fantasy adventure film recently released by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

"The Story of a Nutcracker" by Alexandre Dumas in 1844, was an adaption from "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King" written in 1816 by Prussian born author E. T. A. Hoffmann (1776-1822).

The unabridged version I own, is simply called "The Nutcracker" and was published by Templar Publishing in 2016. It is beautifully illustrated by Australian graphic designer, illustrator and writer, Robert Ingpen.

Robert's astonishing creative vision has breathed life into more than one hundred books and delighted countless children around the world throughout his remarkable career as an illustrator.

For his "lasting contribution" as a children's illustrator, he received the biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1986.

His alluring illustrations have also been the inspiration for a number of my creative endeavours over the years, and in particular, for the five character dolls which I'm currently working on.

Marie: the eldest child of Dr and Mrs Stahlbaum. She is delighted with the shiny wooden Nutcracker doll that her Godfather Drosselmeyer has given her on Christmas Eve. However, once night time falls she finds herself in the middle of an adventure! Saving her doll from the evil Mouse King, Clara then travels to magical new lands.

Mamzell Clara: Marie's new doll which she received for Christmas.

Nutcracker Prince: the nephew of Drosselmeyer who was turned into the Nutcracker by …

Mistress Mousie:  mother of the seven headed Mouse King who leads an army of mice who secretly live in the Stahlbaum’s house.

A Princess: from the Marzipan Palace in the town of Candyburg.

Of course, as I am dressing dolls, I will use a touch of "artistic license" to achieve my own versions of the characters.

Both the story and music has become a wonderful part of our Christmas tradition and I would love to know if or how "The Nutcracker" is part of yours.
Big hugs,
X

Critters!

Last Friday hubby and I took Coco (our fur child) to have him professionally clipped. We were a little anxious, as he can be quite aggressive when he doesn't want to do something. The groomer, Abby, never showed the slightest concern when we told her about his recent antics when we tried to groom him. So we left him in her capable hands while we shopped, waiting all the while for a call to ask us to pick the little biter blighter up.

While shopping we came across these little animals in a gift shop window . . . I couldn't resist bringing them home. They will be just the shot to create a few Christmassy scenes with my dolls.

My PukiFees thought they were simply divine and would make perfect pets for them to play with. :)

We did get a call, much sooner than we expected, but not to say there was a problem, Abby had managed to get him done without a hitch . . . even his feet and bum, which is where I had always had the most problem and had scars to prove it!

Needless to say this little pooch will be visiting Abby on a more frequent basis in the future and we'll put the clippers away until we rescue another dog . . . hopefully one that doesn't bite!!

I know, looking at him in this photo, you would think butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, but this face can change as quickly as his mood. :)

Have a lovely week, big hugs,
X

Unboxing Ruruko

Late, but better late than never! Ruruko arrived Monday 12th November and it was a quick unboxing . . . the thing that took the longest to unwrap was her tightly cling wrapped arms! She was renamed Hatsuko (First Born) long before she arrived, and although I really love her, I can't quite get over how tiny she is.

I couldn't manage to put her shoes on over the stockings, so I replaced them with a pair I already had (borrowed from my PukiFees), and her hair accessory would not stay in place no matter how I tried to tie it. There must be a way for her to wear it, but it wasn't going to work for me today.

Her hair is really fine and a little crooked on the left side of her face, but I will neaten that when I have more time to play with her. The clothes are beautifully made, but still have Velcro . . . my pet hate, so will make her something else to wear down the track.

Have a wonderful dolly weekend.

Big Hugs,

X

Project: Seasonal Greeting Cards

With Christmas almost upon us, I thought it would be fun to make a few Christmas cards in dolly size.

You will need:
 your printer/scanner
card stock (preferably glossy)
rotary cutter or scalpel
metal ruler
cutting matt

 I used a few old Christmas cards that I'd kept, scanned the outside and saved it to my computer, then resized the images. Of course you could use copyright free pictures found on the net if it's easier.

I wanted my cards to be suitable for my larger dolls so all my cards were sized to 95 mm on the longest side when the card was fully opened. I then cut and pasted them to one A4 size sheet, printed them on card (at 72 p/cm or if you prefer inches, 182.88 dpi) and cut each one out.

Finished dimensions of the cards opened flat: 95 x 70 mm (3.75 x 2.75 in) approx.

Sorry about the colour, I know they're looking washed out. In hindsight I think the cards would have looked more vibrant had I used glossy card instead of the matt card.

This size is suitable for 16-18" dolls, as you can see by my little Animator doll.

I have reprinted them on 165 gsm glossy paper so you can see the difference it makes to the colour.

Hope you have fun making some for your dolls.

Big hugs,

X

Project: Pippi Longstocking 4

Well she's finally finished.

According to the story Pippi is dressed in a blue dress with red patches, all because she ran out of blue fabric. Realistically if you ran out of fabric, you would not add patches to a completed dress, you would simply cut the parts where you were short in a different fabric.

So that is exactly what I have done with my Pippi's dress. :)

Instead of patches, she has an odd red strap and a patch pocket.

It's a beautiful day here in Melbourne, the sun is shining and there's very little wind, so I'm off to enjoy it and perhaps take a few dolly photos. I hope you are all enjoying a relaxing weekend too!

Big hugs,

X

Found Pictures

I wanted to learn more about the dolls I was about to receive, so I went browsing and found there has been three separate releases of the Experiment Project Mc2 dolls so far. From the photos, it appears I purchased four dolls from the 1st release, one from the second release and a mixture of clothes from both 1st & 2nd.

1st Release

2nd Release

3rd Release

My parcel arrived this morning, very fast shipping considering yesterday was a holiday here in Melbourne. Four of the dolls have painted panties, the fifth has skin-tone panties. Three have flat feet, the other two high heeled feet. None of them will stand unaided. Though I did find some of my tiny shoes, from Blythe and PukiFee fit them, so will show them later when I re-dress them. 

I am really happy with their inset eyes and lashes, they are much nicer than I was expecting. Their face-ups are unblemished and the colours are lovely.

Can't quite figure out what they are made of exactly, but the body does feel different to the limbs and the heads are matt whereas their bodies are a little shiny. I think I shall have to rely on the doll experts opinion here.

Jointing is not too bad on most and they hold a pose reasonably well, though McKeyla's & Bryden's left knee and Adrienne's & Camryn's right knee just drops when in the seated position (legs straight out).

Some of the dolls had elastic bands in their hair, which I removed and used my Gotz doll hairbrush to attended to the slightly tangled hair on each doll. I was pleased at how easy it was to run the brush, and then a comb through. The one with the most frizz was Bryden's, which, as it had originally been tightly curled, came as no surprise. It will be interesting to see how it comes up after the spa.

Overall, I am happy with these dolls, although they are no way near as hefty as my BJD or vinyl play dolls, they still feel comfortable in my hands and will probably be keepers.

That's it for today, I'm off to play!

Hugs,

X

P.S. After I washed and conditioned Bryden's hair, it was looking much better. Now it's in rollers. :)

Project Mc2 Dolls

MGA (AKA Micro-Games America Entertainment) is an American manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1979. Among its product line up you will find the Bratz doll line, BABY born, Lalaloopsy, Moxie Girlz, and many other well known "toys".

Project Mc2 (pronounced Project MC-squared ) is an American web television series produced by DreamWorks Animation's AwesomenessTV and MGA Entertainment for Netflix. The series was first released on August 7, 2015 and MGA released their Project Mc2 dolls that same year with the tagline "Smart is the New Cool".

The Netflix Series Cast.

The original characters were: McKeyla McAlister, Adrienne Attoms, Bryden Bandweth and Camryn Coyle.

Camryn, McKeyla, Adrienne and Bryden

They have since added Devon D'Marco and Ember Evergreen.

So far, I have managed to find out there are two versions of these dolls. One version which is articulated, comes with a different science experiment or project for each doll and a simpler core version (NOT articulated), which includes just a beaker-shaped comb.

The experiment dolls have eleven points of articulation, a hard plastic body with a vinyl head and lower limbs.

You will notice the two versions are dressed differently though at 30cm (11.75 inches), both versions are play scale in size.

Now you all maybe wondering where this post is heading, and I can assure you it is heading down a completely new track for me. Thanks to my dear friend Sharon (the great enabler) I went browsing BblinkK's flickr and found these there.

They looked really interesting, and were the size doll that I have recently found I like, so after doing the research above . . . I made a small (yes I did say small, or if you prefer, tiny) eBay purchase.

They're "used" (I prefer to say pre-loved), but were a bargain at just AU$41 for the five including postage. I think there are two versions of McKeyla here (the one with pink hair is from the Invisible Ink Experiment & the one with dark hair on the right, wearing Adrienne's Volcano Experiment outfit, is from the Lava Light Experiment).

Devon & Ember were both missing, but I can always find them later. The dolls were listed "as is" so no experimental stuff (thank God), but they all had clothes and shoes (which I will eventually change).

Not a bad investment of the dolly pennies (I mean it's hard to find any doll these days with a price tag of just AU$8.20, even on the secondary market). With a visit to the beauty parlour for a spa bath, shampoo and hairstyling, I think they could look pretty darn good . . . what do you think?

Hugs,

X

Good Girl Gone Bad

Well for such a long time now I have been very good and not purchased any dolls . . . can you believe it? Yes, it's been SIX MONTHS! I didn't cave in once, not even when being tempted by Sharon. I was feeling so proud of myself, then . . . I saw the recent photo of Alejandra's CCS girl 17SS Ruruko (2017) and it was all too much, I could resist no longer.

However, when I saw how expensive she was (once her price was converted to AU$'s) I thought of Christmas and resisted. But wouldn't you know it, it was too late, I had been bitten by the bug and couldn't help myself and so the search for Ruruko began
.

AND GUESS WHAT??? I found her (on sale), she was one I could afford without breaking the bank . . . she's perhaps not quite as pretty as Alejandra's, but I really adore her wardrobe and I think she will do nicely . . . very nicely indeed.

CCSgirl 18SS Ruruko by PetWORKs Product Info:
Release Date May-June 2018
Ruruko is 1/6 in scale (about 8.5 inches in height)
Body: Pure Neemo Flection XS
Hair Color: Platinum-White
Eye Color: Ochre
Skin Tone: Natural

18SS Ruruko is wearing a CCSgirl outfit
(CCSgirl is a sister fashion brand of Close-Clipped Sheep)
Furisode Top
Obi-Ribbon Tiered Skirt
Headdress
Tights
Round Toe Mary Jane (STOC)

She is coming via slow mail and I will show more photos when she arrives . . . so what do you think? Am I really, really bad? Or was it time I indulged myself and had a new doll to call my own?

I'll be back posting again as soon as I have finished sewing. Hope you all have a wonderful dolly weekend!
Big Hugs,
X