A doll for Elphaba

I don't have a proper camera at the moment and have had to borrow a family member's iPad when I want to take pictures, so that has put a damper on the blog. I will continue to try to post every now and then, though.

First: I found another producer of miniature books. This is Ariel Books' "Tiny Tomes." They have a variety of different subjects.

I ordered a little Life of St. Francis and I'm very pleased with it.

Yesterday I went by a doll show, which was a lot of fun. I snagged some American Girl sets I'd been wanting. One of my favorite finds, though, was a Happy Meal Madame Alexander.

Elphaba got a lookalike doll of her very own!

It's hard to tell from this photo, but this doll's skin is significantly lighter than Elphaba's. 

I also got a Dorothy and a Tin Man.

 I think Elphaba would have liked to take Little Dorothy's ruby slippers, but unfortunately they're molded on.

There was a lot of amazing stuff at the doll show. One lady had hand-knitted sweaters, coats, socks and mittens for 18" dolls. I couldn't resist those mittens! Here's Nanea trying a set on for the first time.

The Next Big Thing: Update

The dollhouse has been painted, and I am currently working on furnishing it! It has two rooms, a storage space on the bottom, and that upper area for a third room. 

One of the things about this wardrobe is that it's a wooden frame with pressboard walls. This meant it was lighter, but it also meant everything had to be anchored into the frame. I'm just glad to have it all together and safely back out of the garage and into the playroom.

BEFORE AND AFTER:

Currently, I have a modern bedroom on the "roof" and the parlor on the upper floor. The bottom floor will be a kitchen, and beneath that is a small storage area.

It's hard to take pictures of this room because the humans' ceiling fan gets in the way.

Here's the parlor. It's currently looking very crowded because I decorated it for Christmas. (Doll furniture is deceptively large!) And here we have the reason it was so important to have those spacious ceilings: the Christmas tree. 

I'm still working on both of these rooms and finding the exact arrangement that I want. Still, they're mostly done as far as finding furniture goes (the parlor even has a little too much at the moment). What will need more work is the kitchen.

The Next Big Thing

I’m not dead! Things have been pretty busy around here, but the Big Ongoing Project is that… the dolls are getting a house! First I procured a little bit of space in our playroom after a large reorganization effort. There was weeping and gnashing of teeth. I was not expecting to find a "house" so easily, but I found an old wardrobe at Hope Chest that my dad actually pointed out to me. It's not exactly what I wanted, but it was relatively inexpensive, and it had doors - one of the top things on my wishlist. Doors = no cat wandering in and chewing the dolls' fingers off.

As you can see, with the dimensions of this thing, it was either going to be 2 huge floors/rooms or 3 cramped floors. I opted for two huge rooms and I'm going to squeeze in an extra room on the top of the wardrobe. It's been a slow process so far, but at this point we've got almost all the raw material we need. I hope to have more photos soon as we get closer to a finished product.

Some Belated Back-to-school Pictures

Wal-Mart's got some great new sets out now! I finally managed to snag a few, and the science and school sets lent themselves to a school setting - something I've been continually collecting stuff for. So Karol and Nanea are off to school!

Aloha, Nanea

So as you may have noticed, I recently brought Nanea home.

When I first saw pictures of Nanea I wasn’t a fan. I thought she looked too much like a Wellie Wisher. However, I actually do like the Wellie Wisher molds. Once I saw pictures of her in different lighting, she started to grow on me.

I have been keeping up with people’s discussions of current AG doll quality and I have to say, they are right. Nanea’s vinyl is soft and squishy. Not like rubber, but when I squeeze it there’s a noticeable give. By comparison, my older AGs have vinyl that’s firm as a rock. 

The whites of her eyes are also very bright and sharp. Her eyes are a little sunken and if I turn her to the side I can see through the socket to the white pegs of the eyes.

But she is a very pretty doll. I bought a couple of her sets - the swimsuit and the birthday set - and her little Brownie camera is probably in my top 10 doll purchases all year. (I was so sad when I realized I had missed Molly's travel set which included a camera - but now I have one!)

Picnic

"All right everybody, let's unpack!"

"Do you guys want soda, juice, or water?"

"I'll just play some music while I wait for the food to be ready."

"Be patient!"

"Pass me some of those condiments!"

"Grilling sure is thirsty work."

"Make sure to put on some sunscreen!"

"Guys, wait! We can't start eating yet. We're waiting for someone."

 

"Hey, everybody! Sorry I'm late!"

"NANEA!!"

DIY Ketchup and Mustard Bottles for your 18" Doll

MATERIALS

• markers
• toothpicks
• super glue
• carpet knife
• hammer and nail

For this craft, I used two markers which had dried out.

Step one: remove the end of the marker.

The plug is too long, so we used a carpet knife to cut it down.

This leaves you with the lid of your ketchup or mustard bottle. When it's glued to the marker cap, it'll look like this:

For the nozzle: hammer a nail through your bottlecap to make a small hole. Through this, slide a toothpick which will be your nozzle. Trim it down to fit inside the "bottle" and so that it'll be less sharp.

You can glue your lid to your bottle before or after adding the nozzle.

Finally, paint the toothpick or the entire cap to your preferred color.

Yum!