Hoppy Easter!

Well, it has been a while and I hope that you are doing well. I am just fine, even if I have been a bit tired and have had pains in my joints. But Spring is here and the sun is shining, so I cannot be down!

At the moment we are at our cottage, enjoying our time and I thought I could blog from my phone. A year ago, during Easter, we had a lot of snow but this year there is no snow at all. At most we have had around +35 degrees celsius during the day and below zero during the nights. Blue skies, flowers, butterflies, birds, baby squirrels and other cute animals fill the forest and nearby places. I have been walking in the forest and even dipped into the lake the other day. This is not so normal for April, because it usually is colder and even snow at some places. Earth is getting hotter and that is no good thing.

During the evenings I have been listening to audio books and sewing, painting and making an new doll out of my monster high doll Howleen Wolf. She is now a blind rabbit. I tried to paint her with acrylics and it turned out rather ok for being my first try, but I still did not like the results. After watching some tutorials and repaints on YouTube, I went all in and made her new from scratch. Mask, clothes, shoes, details and ears. Put her wolf ears to the side on her head, covered her (messy) face with a mask made in clay (fimo) and decorated her shoes with fabrics and fluffy yarn. 

I sketched a outline for the mask and cut out a piece in the same shape from the clay. I put the dolls head in aluminium foil and shaped the clay around it. In the oven for about 8 minutes, then out and take the head from the foil and put the foil and mask back again for 2 minutes. Then, after all parts cooled, it was time to glue the mask on. I did this after making her hair and glueing some fluffy fabric on her head and the yarn wefths. 

And here she is. Her name is Asta and her dæmon is a bunny (a gift from Alasse, thank you) named Pavel. Enjoy the photos and Happy Easter.

Say hello to Aliisa

I am in a progress of giving my Monster High dolls a make over. Going through the bunch I have to see who needs a new repaint and who need a face up in general. I have had this Draculaura that Alasse sent me for a while ago. Had plans for her to look like a walking add for Harajuku Fashion, but it really did not suit her. Then I thought she would be a candy dream (details with candy made from clay and so on), but that sounded too sweet. Well, she is my sleepy head, all in pink. Meet Aliisa.

Polly's new you

I know that I said that I will not do this, but I did it anyway. Gave Polly a new face and a new hair.

Did it the usual way - making wefts, gluing, waiting and gluing again. I watched several videos, like this one, for an example. I did not have a hair straightener, but I used a thin towel, put the hair in between and pressed with an iron (medium hot) as I slowly pulled the yarn between the towel. The same result. It is so soft and you can style it just with your fingers, but… This red wig is really red and at times it is hard to take photos, because it reflects and does crazy things in different lights. It has been darker outdoors too, with the heavy rain, thunderstorms and cloudy weather. And hubby's smart phone, that he has at work, is so much better handling all these stuff than my older phone.

She still has her cute dress and she will keep it, but I made her a hat out of paper. The bow she had, just did not work anymore. Her face is really tiny, so it was a bit difficult to keep my hands steady and then I had trouble keeping the pens sharp enough. But I am rather pleased with the results, though. 

She is a tiny little cutie. Here comes some photos.

"So much fluffy hair, love it!"

Chilling a bit.

"Hey, what is in my hair?"

"You listen now! I am a Princess, with a capital P!"

Wish you all a lovely week
and
an even lovelier weekend ahead!

Noomi, a Mokashura Duyou.

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

------

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!

A little throwback

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!

Now it is too much...

On the road to Oslo, in Norway.

Strange metal skeletons in Oslo, Norway.

It has been a lot to figure out when it comes to all the paper work and after work, after my mother in law's passing. We just have an apartment to clean now and we will do that during the Easter holidays that are coming. Life was slowly getting into normal, as normal as it can be after these things. When we were on our way to Norway the other day for a little day trip, we got some sad news from my husband's cousin. 

My mother-in-law's, Anna's, sister Svea had passed away on 21st March, in the morning. I could not take that in and it broke me totally. I was sobbing and hugging the mobile phone for comfort and saying "no, no, no....". Could not understand.

We continued our trip, but felt like numb lost souls just floating. It was so surreal. We kept contact with my husbands cousin during the trip and he will arrange the funeral and we have promised to assist the way we can, if needed. 

Noomi's head, as seen on my Instagram

New lashes, bought by my daughters-

During the evenings I have been cleaning up my Mokashura Duyou doll, Noomi. Her lashes had in some way started to loosen and fall off, bit by bit. The eye lashes felt fragile and dry, so I thought that taking them off and putting in some new ones would be a thing to do. But the glue...the GLUE. It was glued with glue on glue and then the lashes, so I had some difficulties to get that sticky glue off. 

Oh well, it ended in a mess and then I was cleaning a doll head, that suddenly needed a new face up. So that is happening....and keeping me busy. Thought to share a review of her body and head some day soon.

Just wanted to let you know about the sad news and that we are OK. But it feels that it is too much now... 

Happy Halloween!

Halloween has not been a holiday over here in Sweden for so long, just a couple of decades. It came originally from USA, through immigrants from Ireland, as a popular culture to us. In the beginning it was a fun feast for children, who dressed up to something in the theme of horror or death. Lately even the adults have started to dress up. From the 1990’s it has become a popular thing to celebrate. The English term ”trick or treat” has been translated into ”bus eller godis” - mischief or candy!

And from candy is not so far to sugar and from there we end up on ”Dia de los Muertos”, a day that is celebrated in central and southern Mexico during the chilly days of November 1st and 2nd. Even if this in one way collides with the Catholic holiday called All Soul’s and All Saint’s Day, some combine their beliefs with the ancient beliefs of honoring their deceased loved ones. Here in Sweden we celebrate that day on the 4th November this year. It is a church day, remembering them we lost, praying and lightning candles. The graveyards look so beautiful with all those lights in the darkness.

I do not celebrate Halloween, but I thought that I could take some photos of Esther, with a sugar skull face up. I have always like sugar skulls and think that there is something beautiful with it. So, I thought I could give it a try. Made her a new pair of eyes too, of FIMO Clay. It was fun and I learned a lot. These eyes are not in the perfect shape, but I do love the purple color. Next time I will make the eyes a bit more rounded on the top. 

Husband drove me to Hammarby Hytta, a place with an old foundry and a nature reserve. The foundry was active between the years 1858 and 1923. The nature reserve has a valley that is from the time before the ice age. It was sunny and chilly day, but so lovely to be outdoors.

Enjoy the new week, have a Happy Halloween and say welcome to November.

New Esther

There she was, sitting infront of me with those sleepy eyes and that little damage on her upper lip. I looked at her, for several days, wondering, if I should or if I should not. It was in a way a Shakespearian moment, to do or not to do.

Esther in her softness

Gooliope

My first photo of her, in the box.

She came home with me on the 23rd September 2015. I had been in the big city shopping and at the same time I searched for this odd and big Monster High doll. The first time I saw her, I thought that she was too big with her 17 inches and too pink, but with time I started to like her more and more.

And yes, she is pink and tall. Her legs started to bother me and I felt that they were too long for the rest of her body. So I took the saw and fixed that. 

Don't ask. :) Here she is with the model filler on, the gray parts, first layer. 

Some projects!

It has been almost a month since our summer vacation started. So far, so good - it has been a lovely summer. Still have several weeks left to enjoy.

On the hottest day this summer, with +32°C and no breeze I decided to start a little project, that made me all sweaty and frustrated. Needed a little hand fan to keep me cool. And the projects are still going on. One is my Monster High doll Gooliope Jellington and the other one is my Ever After High doll Raven. They have their own stories and one day I will share these. 

Off with her legs!

Meet 真珠 - Shinju

One painting by (c) Juri Ueda
"dia de los muertos in red"

When I search for inspiration I usually take the highway to art - galleries, internet and social media. I have my favorites in Rudy Fig, Kelly Vivanco, Juri Ueda and Jasmine Becket-Griffith, just to mention some. Do you have some artists (painters, musicians, actors and so on) as inspiration?

This time I turned to Juri Ueda, a watercolor painter from Osaka, in Japan, who has been creating these wonderful paintings with a tiny bit of fantasy worlds since 2007. On paper.

First thin lines, just to see if it works.

When it comes to repaints and OOAK-dolls, I am no master at it, but I think it is fun to try new things, new techniques and I see the face of a doll as a tabula rasa, a blank slate. More accurate though, as an erased slate. I looked at my Madeline Hatter, an Ever After High doll and felt that she was rather dull and I wanted to do something about that. 

A little bit closer

So I cleaned her for the second time and stared at her, all naked. I got my inspiration from the painting above. In the beginning I felt that her face was a little bit small for this kind of art project, but the roundness she has made it work. I first tested to have the eyes with white acrylic dots, but that looked rather crazy, so I used my Derwent coloursoft white for that. Do you do repaints? What materials do you use?

Some steps more...

Shinju, in Apple White's sweater

Her white dots in the eyes look like pearls, so I gave her the name Shinju, 真珠, pronounced sheen-joo. It means "Pearl". I need to make her some clothes and in a later entry tell you her story. How do you name your dolls, figures and so on?

Next project

It is sweaty and warm over here in our kitchen. I have the windows open in every room and just hope that some soft wind will breeze my way. I have heard that it will be like this for the rest of the week. Hooray for them who like this, I do not. Gladly a more suitable season is heading our way - Autumn. Just love Autumn.

We left the cottage and the summer vacation some days ago and it was with a heavy heart we did that. The season that is coming now, is the best one. Seeing the nature change from green to all kind of colors and feel the crisp in the air. Hope to be able to take a trip later, when the girls have a week off from school in late October. 

Three helpless, scary mummies.

Howdy! We are next!

During the summer I have mostly been taking care of my BJD's. My Monster High collection have grown with two dolls and I they will be my next project in repaint. Bought those two at a local store for just 99SEK (around 10-11 USD), so I was really happy. At the moment I have three dolls, two Ever After High and one Monster High that have been just lying in a bag, looking like scared mummies. Need to help them first. So that will be my next project, after ordering some Super Clear UV cut-thing. Look forward to that. 

Hope you had a good summer! What's your plans for the lovely Autumn?

Paint or not to paint......

Howleen, with a repaint by me (well, not the eyebrows)

I have been very amazed with the professional artist out there, who do face ups and repaints dolls. I have tried this on several dolls and started out with some of the girl's dolls. Then I bought some of my own, mostly Ever After High and Monster High dolls. 

Look, I found an angry octopus!

The Ever After High dolls can be rather frustrating with the flat face - it can be hard to get things right and look similar on both sides and there is a risk that all ends looking like an accident. Eyebrows is something I have trouble with and holding my hand steady. So mostly I try to do repaints when I am alone or when it is calm at home (every family member in their favorite corner, busy with stuff they like). 

Gosh, such a big and heavy teddy bear!

I have been watching videos on Youtube, mostly Nicolle's Dreams and Will Store. There is lot to learn and I am a happy learner. Even if I from time to time just want to give up. My hubby sees that I feel good and are happy with this hobby, so he supports me and gives me uplifting thoughts. I have always loved to paint, but mostly on paper or on tree. Well, mostly flat surface. So you can imagine when a face of a doll comes near and are far away from flat. Help!

Roar!

Tiara!

That pink hair, love it!

I got a tip from Crystal, that I could practice eyebrows on paper - draw them and study how others do. Great advice. I would love to hear from you, what advice would you give me? Anything at all - materials, tricks, sculpts that are easy to work on, important things to think about and so on. At the moment I really like the sculpt that Monster High Doll Howleen has, easy to work with. I have a dream that one day do this on a resin doll. I can imagine that there is more to think about then, what is important and so. 

But I look forward to that.