Thursday, June 28, 2018

A day in Kalmar

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Kalmar square, near the cathedral. And a nice tourist from Germany.
Not far from our cottage is the city named Kalmar, by the Baltic Sea. This city was one of the most important cities in the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries, with the Kalmar Castle as a center, because of the fortified town. 

Husband with my red bag and a tiny shopping bag.
This is an old mound (wall) from the time Kalmar was fortified.
Today there are stores, restaurants and sight seeings in these places.
From the mound above you can walk to this bridge to the prison.
It was opened in 1852 and it is still in use, making it the oldest prison in Sweden.
Before this building was built, the prisoners were kept at the castle.
The castle in Kalmar, with the towers and cannons.
My daughter took this photo during the evening, before we went back to the cottage.
Some parts of the castle in sunset.
We had some food along and sat in the first inner yard,
eating and enjoying the surroundings.
There is so much to see at this city and we often take a trip here. Some places are given to visit for us, like the toy shop Paddington and the castle. The town has several exhibitions, mostly at the castle and every year they host a medieval folk festival. At the castle you can experience the history and the tales from many years back. As an example we have the Kalmar Bloodbath, on July 1505, when the public execution of the town's mayor, city councillors and a handfull or the leading burghers happened. This was a retaliation for assisting the Swedes in retaking the city of Kalmar from the Danes in 1503. 100 years later there was a war between Denmark, Norway and Sweden. It was a wild time, but today it is so much calmer. Just a nice industrial city with cold oceanic climate.

Csilla sitting in the grass at the castle.

Csilla and the rose. The castle has a little garden.
I had Csilla along and she was really great to work with and take photos. I took a bunch of photos of the city, of Csilla and these you can see some of at my Flickr. And I bought some materials for the room, for Csilla. We had a lovely day as a family and now we are at the cottage - gardening, swimming in the lake, enjoying the sun and reading books!
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Sunday, June 24, 2018

Noomi, a Mokashura Duyou.

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Noomi is my third doll from the doll company Dollmore. I ordered her in September 2014 and she arrived in the end of that year. It felt like a rather short wait, or maybe I just had gotten used to the wait after the earlier doll orders. 

Noomi with her big eyes and new face up.
When I saw this doll at the first time, I thought that it was a doll in the size of Lati Yellow and similar. The last photo on the company's page said the opposite. Suddenly it was a huge doll. So, in some seconds I changed my mind. But I could not get her cute face of my mind and those adorable eyes just etched deep into my soul. After some thinking, looking at box openings, reading reviews on different sites - I took another decision. I ordered her with a face up, body blushing, clothes, shoes and two wigs. I went all in. And then I lived with an empty wallet. 

She came one early morning, the mailman said he was sorry and I stood there in my pajamas and my hair looking like a wild bird nest. I took the heavy box, went to my bed and started to slowly breathe, open the box and feeling the joy. Such a huge doll and so, so pretty. I was overwhelmed by the cuteness.

Face up done, ready for lashes.

"She can probably fly away with these lashes" was my first thought.

But with the eyes and wig, it did not look too bad.
This year I have had her for almost 4 years. Her place among my other dollies have grown and I really adore her. There has been some moments that have given me some serious thoughts of letting her go, especially her being so heavy and me having some issues with the tilting head and my carpal tunnel syndrome. These three things to not match. But she is still around and will be for a long, long time. When my hands cannot handle it, I give her to someone else in my family to hold so that I can take some photos. There is always a solution.

Peek-a-boo.
Noomi, with sunbeams and a new face up.


The Doll Shaming tag on Instagram was a really fun thing to do.
A smaller wig, a wig cap or even velcro is needed to keep the wig in place.
In the beginning of this year, I saw that her eye lashes started to literally fall apart. Decided to take those off, but the glue - a nightmare. It ended in a clean doll face and a new face up. My daughters bought some eye lashes to me, that I could use. And now she is back to normal.

Her legs, especially the knee joints has a life of their own.
It is ok as long as one does not twist the legs too much. 

Knees in right place, but as you see -
too much twisting makes some marks on the body blushing.
Nothing bad and it can be fixed, but anyway...

"What is this thingy?" A very good thingy.
The body has one on each butt/leg and makes her sit very stable.
No tilting, no falling back and no troubles getting her to sit.
Just perfect!
Tilting head gives a strange throat, almost like an Adam's apple.

Just a bit to make it better.
Her body is perfect in size and it could be amazing if the head was a bit tinier. And it would just be a little change in the back part of the head. I do not know if there has been any changes to the head with the newer versions of this doll. Maybe I will find out when my wallet is feeling better and I can order Noomi a brother. The boy version is just adorable.

Here are the measurements for Mokashura Doll.

- Height: 40.5cm (16inch) 
- Head: 32cm (13 inch wig) 
- Eyes: 28mm 
- Neck: 10cm 
- Bust: 19cm 
- Shoulder: 7cm 
- Waist: 18.5cm 
- Hip: 25.3cm 
- Foot : 5.5cm (width 2.8cm) 
- Shoulder to the end of finger: 16cm 
- Waist to the end of foot: 21.5cm 
- Hip to the end of foot: 17cm

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I hope that you are doing well. I am at our cottage right now, we drove here yesterday. I did some gardening that day too, so now I am a bit sore, mostly in the arms. Yesterday was sunny and even this morning had a warm fuzzy feeling, but then the rain came. Tomorrow we hope for a road trip in sunshine. Enjoy the new week!
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Thursday, June 07, 2018

A little throwback

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Two dolls from 2015
It is Thursday, so a throwback could be nice. I found two girls sitting on a book shelf in our living room and I started to wonder who long it was since I played with these two. Had to go back to my Instagram too see and I was amazed about the time. It was in April 2015. Three years.

From my Instagram.
Well, these two were my first dolls that I tried my so called skills on re-paint, face up and even material. I remember that I was waiting for the first sealant to arrive and I was so ready to do this. It was fun, I learned a lot.

The first doll is a Bratz, the one to the left. Originally she was a Bratz Yasmin, with those darker features and a beauty mark under her left eye. She was one of the dolls my daughters could give away, as long as she stayed here at home. The other one is Elyon, a character from the W.I.T.C.H comic series. The girls liked the comic serie and had their favourites. They watched the series many times and even had the books and comics to read. Well, it was mostly we as parents who read to them, until they started to learn themselves. We have some of the comics left, at the cottage. Elyon was my favourite, so when the dolls came, I bought one. The girls bought their favourites too.

This is Elyon's story, in the comic series:
"Elyon Brown is a heart-warming, kind, and caring teenager with straw colored hair in two braids. She is friendly and smart, however sometimes socially awkward, withdrawn and shy. Due to her young age, she is quite naive but her intelligence eventually leads her to the truth. is the Queen of Meridian, given the title 'Light of Meridian'. Elyon was born in Meridian, lone daughter to the Queen and King, and sole heir to the throne. However, after the disappearance of her parents, Meridianites named Galgheita (disguised as Mrs. Rudolph the Mathematics teacher on Earth), Miriadel and Alborn took her to Earth to protect her from her older brother, Phobos, who had plans to steal her superior magical powers. Elyon was raised there as a normal girl by Miriadel and Alborn under the aliases of Eleanor and Thomas Brown. She knew nothing of Meridian or her true identity."
I really like this story. And there is more, of course. The doll does not look anything like Elyon in the comic series and I may, some day, do her justice.

***

Well, otherwise it has been good over here. Hot, though and so much sun that everyone is amazed. We had over +30°C (86°F) in May and that is not normal at all. It felt like midst of the summer. The flowers that usually bloom about now, has already bloomed. The grass is not green, it is more light brown and dry. There has not been a drop of rain and the thunder storm that came last week, was just a couple of lightnings and ka-booms. Then suddenly the degrees drop 10-12°C, to just around +20°C. That felt cold, no fan was needed and it was time to get an extra blanket. I wonder how the summer will be, or if this was it?

I hope that you are doing well! Enjoy June!
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Friday, May 11, 2018

Weekend at the cottage

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A new week is almost gone and the weekend is getting closer and closer. Last weekend (Wednesday to Sunday) we stayed at our cottage in the southern parts of Sweden.It was a bit cold during the first couple of days, but then the sun arrived and made everything so much better. We had the funeral for my mother in law's sister Svea. It was a beautiful, but sad. Afterwards we just tried to keep up the spirit among us and for the brother Hartvig, who has lost two sister in a short time. He was happy to have company by us and my husbands cousin, too. 

During the weekend I did some gardening, took a walk and sat by the lake. And took a swim! The water was so extremely cold! But it felt good and I slept like a baby after that. 

Here are some photos from the weekend!

R2-D2 and C-3PO as cars, from Hot Wheels. Took this photo for the May 4th.

Some of the flowers at the funeral.
The old bridge and a area for the horses and sometimes even for BBQ party.

The very simple road to the lake.

Spring makes everything so light green.
During summer it is darker and when fall comes, it is yellow, orange and light brown.

Some parts of the road has gravel.
At the lake.

This is where I sit and breathe, think and enjoy my free time.

The lake Hörnen, where we swim. Some even fish, but I rather see the fish play and have fun.
Took along my little Blythe (Littlest Pet Shop Blythe) named Button. 

A house for the boats, fish nets, fishing rods and so on.
And Button, of course. 

Button sitting by the lake.

When I saw this the first time, I did not want to swim in the lake.
But the big fish does not swim near the people.
The smaller ones does and can even play with you, especially your feet.
The boars have made a mess, or just made it comfortable for themselves. There are many boars in these woods.
A boar family can be as big as 30 boars. Have seen and heard some.
There are even other animals like fox, squirrel, tawny owl, deer, moose and of course even butterflies, dragon flies, spiders, beetles, ants and so.

The forest has a lot of flowers, animals and insects. This blue flower is a hepatica.

Button sits among some wood sorrel. Those green leafs you can eat. They have a sourish taste. 

A secret portal? And where to?
This forest is a bit magical.

Here are some big ones. Would not call them pebbles, more steady rocks. There are a lot of
rocks around in these parts of Sweden. 

This is a windflower, an Anemone nemorosa.

Some rocks on pile. These have been either a part of a stone wall, a dwelling or a barn.
There are similar piles that have been an old grave.
This is the annex at our garden. The girls have their quarter there. Beds, furniture and lights.

And this is our cottage, built by my parents in law in the early 1960's. Two bedrooms, one kitchen, one bathroom, a dining place / living room and a tiny room for shoes, clothes and such.
So, this is a piece of Jakobstorp, a place where I spend my summers and free time as often as we can.  There is more, but that I can show you during our summer vacation. When the kids were small (before they started school) I lived here with them for about 6-7 months every year. Had a lot of help from the relatives who lived near and my hubby came every weekend, to be with us. I could study and work from there too, so it was a great time for us all. The kids grew up there and they love the place. And so do the rest of us. 

Hope that you are enjoying May and I wish you a happy weekend ahead. 
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