I'm not dead, just busy with stuff.

In a week or two, I'd like to write about what left in my latest purge.  I also got a new camera, and I'm trying to learn all the functions and quirks.  Be back soon.

I finally got my dream Siamese cat!

He just wandered up out of the blue.  He likes to hang around in the evenings, and scuttles off in the mornings.  He doesn't have a collar, so I think I'll keep him.  He's a bit slower than my other cats, but they get along great!

BJD Loot Part 2: 3 Heads

Last summer, Doll Family-H discontinued most of their old molds.  I assume most weren't selling, and many were pretty rough looking.  I'd had my eye on this guy, but was cautious, so I split the doll with another collector.  I had three reasons.  First, if he showed up looking wonky, I'd only be out for a head.  Second, the body was 70cm tall, and that's just too huge for me.  Third, I was hoping they would have some updated smaller bodies after their revamp--they didn't.  The order was placed in the middle of August, it didn't ship until the middle of December.

Julian

He showed up looking fine, just as good as the pictures, maybe even better.  I ordered a 65cm body during their Christmas sale, hopefully it will come in a month or two.  He has sad eyes and a contemplative expression.  He looks quiet and a bit lost in thought.

I didn't want another large doll, but I also didn't want to let him get away.  He's not a popular sculpt, and since they're made to order, only a handful exist.

An Ping
I'm not sure what to do with An Ping.  I like the head, it has a soft Mona Lisa-like quality to it.  Unfortunately, it is also really tiny.  It was designed to have adult proportions on a 60cm body, while all my other dolls are 60cm bobbleheads in comparison.  It won't fit on the incoming 65cm body at all, and I don't have the space or budget to order a 60cm body just to match it.

Practice Head/Zhuang Qi
I bought this just for practice, before the first one I bought had even been delivered.  I finished a rough faceup on the first one, and completely fell in love with it once I put the eyes and wig on.  I'm glad to have it in Normal Pink tone as well.

Quality-wise, I think they're all OK.  The sculpts aren't as skillfully done as my Delf or Dollstowns, but IMO they're better than the Domuya and possibly Dollcatch/Customhouse ones.  Two have some superficial scuffs from the factory that I need to buff out.  Oddly, I think they sandblast or matte sand the entire head when they take off the seam lines.  They don't get the crevices, though.  That's my only real complaint.  It's sort of bizarre.

BJD Loot part 1: 3 Eyeball Grab Bags

I ordered some glass eye grab bags from Alice's Collections.  I don't know if they're all supposed to be B grade goods, most were a little asymmetrical in some way, but none were so bad they couldn't be used in some kind of doll.  I kept the colors I wanted and tossed the rest on eBay.

14mm Bag #1:

14mm Bag #2:

16mm Bag:

These are the ones I kept.  I especially like the spiral blue pair and the glittery green ones.  I don't think either are available on the usual websites or eBay, so they were a complete surprise.

Here are three pairs I really considered keeping, but I just don't have a doll for them.

The lovely pale blue pair has a spiral of fine white threading, they were so similar to the colored spiral pair that I didn't need both.

It was a great and inexpensive way to sample colors and learn what I don't like.  I don't think I'll do it again, at least not for a while.  The 14mm bags had too many duplicates and similar colors.

A quick lesson in the futility of NRFB playline collecting

I was digging through my shelf, looking for things to photograph and sell. I decided to part with Disney Store's second version of Jasmine, because I prefer the first.

Once I had her out in the sun, I realized something was amiss.  Some kind of stain has formed all over her pants.  I suspect machine oil from the factory has oxidized.  I can't sell it in this condition, I might as well take her out and enjoy her, and wash the clothes.

At least the doll is cute, and wasn't expensive.

1st wave Ghoulia Yelps, adieu!

The night my sewing machine broke, I decided to sell Ghoulia to partially fill the hole in my budget.  I photographed her, and the next morning, my digital camera died.  She sold a few weeks ago, and I'm kicking off another purge.

Even though I liked Ghoulia, I don't like having so much stuff.  I enjoy almost everything I have individually, but I own a mountain of fragile boxes of boxes.  I can't display everything at once, and things manage to get damaged in even in storage.

She was one of the first MH dolls I bought.  I'm starting to feel like I could happily thin my collection down to maybe a half dozen dolls.

TaoBao eyes part 2

Four pairs of low-end eyes with small irises.  Only the blue pair has any threading.  The others are from Mini Fairy Tales, here's their full shop, or just the tiny iris eyes.

All look good on their own, but only the all-green ones satisfy me in a doll.  The blue ones are good quality, but very bright, it clashes with the skin tones in peson.  My pictures:

Enough synthetic hair wefts to make five custom wigs for my dolls with abnormal head sizes.  A silicone head protector in 60cm and 60cm small.  One set of Happy Camille eyelashes in brown.

I haven't used the protectors yet.  The eyelashes are perfect.  The hair wefts are OK, but the seller sent 3 gray and 1 black instead of 2 each.  Eh.

Now I need to work on nice, new clothes for everybody.  It's cold and hard to find motivation.