Fancy Joshua

Just a little photo story from a sunny day earlier in October. It has gotten colder by the day here, so when the sun suddenly appears you throw yourself out the door and just enjoy. I have been in the garden too, just to slowly and easy do some gardening. 

Around the cottage we have a lot of forest. At this time it is changing colors, the mushrooms are popping up here and there. My daughter found some chantarelle and that is a yummy mushroom! We have a lot of berries too - raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and lingonberries. 

Well, someone (Joshua) is a bit picky when it comes to his outfits. He was not really ready for a long walk, according to me. He, of course, did not agree!

Joshua had to mark on my clothes. I was ready for a walk in the forest, because you never know what you will meet. A cuddly dirty boar. A hungry moose. A curious deer. Or more likely a branch you stumble on and fall into a puddle. 

Enjoy October!

Genevieve at the cottage

It is May. I do not know where the months between my last post and this one went. I know that I have been busy with my studies and something new, genealogy. Yes, I have been deep into the study of families, family history, and the tracing of my lineages. I am just in the beginning when it comes to my relatives on my mother's side. On my father's side I do have a whole book, with relatives and lineages to 18th century. On my husband's side, my mother in law wrote down everything and I have those papers in a folder. It is very interesting, but time consuming. 

I hope you are doing well. At the moment I am at our cottage. We drove here for a couple of days ago, a month later than planned because I had studies, husband had work and the kids took a trip to the northern parts of Sweden to visit a friend. They stayed there for a while and had fun seeing northern lights, reindeers, lots of snow and taking trips with a snowmobile. 

Today I took Genevieve out of her box and took some photos. It has been rather cold, even here in the southern parts of our long country. But today it was really sunny and warm. Have not really had so many of my dolls out and about for a long time. 

I took her original clothes on too and put her head on a Judith Girl Doll body that has some supporting metal 'sticks' together with the strings for better posing. Genevieve's original body is the same body as Judith Girl Doll, but with different hands and heel feet, and does not have the metal bendable 'sticks' for good posing. She really can stand by herself, even if she is heavy, and she can hold her poses without snapping.

It was really nice to just walk in the forest and pose her and listen to the birds and the wind. I have missed that and hope to be able to do so more often. It has been even fun to play with the smart phone and the possibilities that a 'thingy' like that have, when it comes to taking photos. 

The nature is slowly waking up and I hope that the lake will soon be nice enough to take a swim in. Bentley has already been in the water, he can not resist it. I think it will take some weeks before I even try the water. Enjoy May!

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I took some photos of the metal 'sticks' too. It is called something, but I can not remember it at the moment. But if you know - tell me!

Little Project: Glasses

I started this project a while ago and posted the results on Instagram. Never got to the point to blog about it, though, until now. It is a rather simple project and you do not need so much for it - scissor, fabric, glue, some kind of plastic, cardboard and some patience. 

The outline drawn on paper and then glued on cardboard.

Did the same with the other details on the glasses.

Measure the doll from the side too, from the nose to the ears,
so that you get the right size for the frames.

I began searching for some outlines for glasses and found Luna Lovegood's glasses. She is a character from Harry Potter and has some fun looking glasses. Wanted to make a pair to my still unnamed Littlefee. I measured her face from ear to ear and started to make a outline. This outline and glued to a thin piece of cardboard, from a box similar to cereal boxes. Used some tiny scissors for the detailed parts.

The glasses, fabric and some plastic pieces in red and blue color.

Glued on the back, ready to get cut to the right size.

After this I picked one of my pink fabrics, that is like a sticker on the other side. It was easy to just place the cardboard on the fabric and then cut the rest out. I used old saved pieces from a curtain for a door opening and cut two circles for the glasses. Glued these on the back of the glasses and made some adjustments when the glue was dry.

Seeing the world in blue and red - like purple. 

It was a fun project. It did try my patience, because it was so tiny. I learned some - the next time I will use plastic instead of cardboard and make the glasses a bit bigger. And maybe choose a simpler shape. It took all in all about a football game to make these glasses. The rest of the family watched a game on TV and I am more into hockey, so I made these instead. 

Enjoy the new week ahead. 

Some sewing

Genevieve looking at Joshua in his new onesie. 

She had to try it.

It has been a while since I made something to my dolls. Since I got free from the plastic on my left upper arm and got an orthosis instead, I could make some smaller things. But now I am even free from the orthosis during the day and I can move the arm in a way that makes it easier to sew with two hands and not just using the one working hand/arm.

Box Opening: Joshua

Last week I got a number to track and I sure have been tracking. I was a bit afraid that it would be stuck in customs as my last order (Catish Reaa, Genevieve) and then I thought about the virus that is going wild. On the Swedish postoffice's homepage there is a notice that packages from and to China will not be delivered and will be staying at customs and will be there for a while. Well, Dollmore is not in China but sometimes you can not predict how the postoffice over here thinks. 

Gladly it went smoothly, even if I had to pay for it and I got my order from Dollmore - not delivered to the door as promised by the Swedish postoffice, but to an office nearby - in a week after it left Seoul. Husband, I and Bentley took a walk to the postoffice to pick it up. So much fun!

And here follows some photos! Noticed that the most photos are of his face, so I hope to take other photos later on. The weather has been foggy, rainy and cold. No one wants to be out. Hopefully some sunny days comes soon!

The big parcel on our living room table.

A body for Esmé and a broken arm

Hope that all is fine with you!

Well, let us start with some bad news. I have a broken left upper arm. Or as the doctor said, I have a spiral fracture humeral diaphyseal and some other beautiful medical words for some fractures in the  tubercle. About 10 days ago, I was on a walk with Bentley and suddenly I fell from a almost standing still position, as a timber, and hit the asfalt. Do not know if I was unconscious after hitting my head, but my first thought was that I must have a damaged face. But gladly no, my face is ok and so are my glasses. but my upper arm is a sad story. The X-rays are not pretty at all, in any direction. It was so close that surgery was needed. I was on a check up and the doctor said that the X-rays are showing good results and he is happy about my healing so far. First week I had plaster and the arm in 90 degree angle. Now I have an orthosis just on the upper arm and free motion in the rest of the arm. 

I am so proud of Bentley and his support. He lead me home and stayed by my side the whole time - calm, supportive and looking after me. 

And then to the good news.

Since the day when I suddenly decided to do the thing that I had said to myself to never do, I have been struggling with a body.

For a very long while ago I got a Narsha Zihu head, because I just wanted to have one. Had some plans to have that head on Esther’s body and then make a new one to Esther - but no, that is not for me because of my carpal tunnel syndrome. I did give it a try and had a blast during those moments, but I never got the hang of it. I may try it again, in the future. One should never give up.

So, long story made short. I got in touch with Dollmore and asked if they could give me some tips of what body could suit for a Narsha Zihu head and got a fast answer. Sadly they do not sell Narsha bodies, so I had to let that go. Thought about it for some seconds and then made an order. 

The body arrived very fast, but because I was at the cottage and not at home I had to wait until my hubby drove to us during a weekend. With joy, after dinner, I opened the box and put Esmé’s head on it. Perfect. 

I made her a wig and sew an simple outfit for her, so she would not freeze. Her boobs, though, give me some extra challenge. Her joints are so different and she is stringed well and has some light wire too, for great posing. She stands well and I am happy with the body. No floating heads! Esmé has her own body and so does Esther.

Simple box opening: Resinsoul Fei

Well, I took a plunge. Lately I have visited a site, similar to eBay, but a Swedish one. Put BJD in the search line, just in case and got a hit. There was a woman who had several BJD's for sale and one of these were a Resinsoul Fei. I started with visiting ResinSouls site, compared and calculated. She had even other ResinSoul dolls, but this Fei one just caught my eye. It was a doll she had for a time, but kept well in a box and in a drawer, protected from light. There were no bidding and excitement, just a 'buy now'-button. So I did that and made a payment to her and in just a couple of days from that a package arrived.

I have had her for a couple of weeks now and I am so pleased with her. She is really cute and I like the size she is. The clothes I have for my Narshas fit her well, so that is a big plus. She needs some re-stringing, as the seller even pointed out, but that is something I can do later on. She still stands well and the arms are ok to pose. 

She came in a well packaged box and with information, so that the post office would handle it carefully.

Cute stickers, a wig, the doll, a magic sponge and her dress, nicely packed.

A very simple comparison

In June I wrote a bit about my Mokashura Duyou, telling you about the heavy head and the difficult joints. Musume commented that she was curious to see how this doll looks compared to other dolls. So I took some quick photos outdoors at the cottage and here you can see the differences. 

Some measurements. I have Noomi, Zipporah, a Monster High doll, a 11 cm (4.33 inch) Obitsu body and a ruler, that is exactly 17,7 cm. That is 6.968503937 inches. Just for fun. Zipporah is a Dollmore Narsha, 35 cm. The Monster High doll is approximately 10.5 inch (27cm) tall.

Noomi feels huge compared to the headless Obitsu body.

Noomi was hard to put in this pose, especially with the legs. A mobility type of thighs would have been great.

Noomi's arm do pose very well and she can touch her face, head and have her hands on her waist, but from time to time these arms do as they wish. Pop. I but her arm straight, but she just did not want to do that. Probably a question of stringing.

Zipporah's and Noomi's head-caps. The difference is huge.
Noomi has wigs that are 13 inch and my two Narsha's have 7 inch wigs. 

Headless Obitsu body sitting on a mountain....erhm, on Noomi's head-cap.

Zipporah and Noomi, and their happy faces.

Well, that was for today. A very simple comparison. Hope that it gave you a better picture of the sizes. Noomi really is a baby doll sized cutie.

Enjoy the rest of the week!