By My Side

Right now, I am unable to use my big DSLR camera which is on a tripod. I'm not allowed to lift anything remotely with weight for 6 weeks and even after that, only small weights. So I am using my phone camera to take most photos. I have been so bored on "rest" that I have had my husband bring up dolls to me so I can take photos of them next to me hence the title of this blog, "By My Side."

Playlist: Sunny Mornings by Peder B. Helland

Sayuri got some new clothes recently that I ordered before I went into surgery. Sadly, only 1 of the 3 dresses I got fit her. The other two were too short but that's okay as they will work perfectly for my Momoko girls. 

Downtime

Inspiration is fickle. It comes as it will and there is no amount of forcing it to appear when it would rather stay hidden. And so, another length of time passes before I was able to post again. Despite my lack of inspiration when it comes to dolls, I have not been sitting idle. I have started sewing again and have been really enjoying sewing cloth dolls - something I have not done in a long while. But more on that later. For now, some photos of two of my dolls enjoying some down time after a busy week.

Doing it - Barbie Style

I was allowed an early Christmas present from my husband yesterday. I went into one of our local Department stores not expecting to get anything (was looking for clothes for Miss 4 who was with me) and spied two interesting looking boxes. When I opened the flap, I was excited to see the Barbie Style doll that I had wanted but didn't expect to get here in Australia - especially where I live! 

My husband told me to get it and it would be part of my Christmas present.

Introducing Barbie Style Doll #1 (Gold Label) which was designed by Barbie Style on Instagram.

Super impressed with the box design for this one.

Nera Makes Her Debut

Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to find one of the dolls I had planned to get eventually up for sale from a seller in Australia. The doll is only a year old but is in really great condition. She is Resinsoul Wei - YoSD scale in the light tan/coffee resin. She arrived yesterday - so fast! Her first owner actually requested her with human ears instead of the fantasy ears she originally comes with but that's okay as I actually would have done the same! I also got her cat ears and tail as well.

Welcome Nera to The Wayward Inn!

She is going to be my little half human, half feline girl who can communicate with cats. I still have to put in her eyelashes and she needs a bit of work as her knees are super kicky but that's normal for Resinsoul. I call it a quirk of these dolls. It's an easy fix with thicker string and sueding. 

Monday's Girls

Earlier in the week, a beautiful box arrived for me with lots of goodies from Kamelia. Today, I will showcase some of the Kamelia brand fashion pieces being enjoyed by some of my dolls. But first, let's begin the post with one of my rarely seen Silkstone girls.

On to the main event....

A Bit of Palm Springs

I had bought this adhesive contact a while ago and really wanted to use it so decided to cover one of my foam boards with this. I intend to use this backdrop for BJDs as well. I'm just really into this sort of green plant design at the moment.

I like that  this feels like the room is really high.

 She is definitely one of my favourite Poppy versions. I just love the silver hair and bold make up choice for her face. Plus she rocks these leather shorts. 

 Hope everyone is enjoying their week!

Get Messy and Paint

I've been a bit busy putting together some 1/6 scale furniture I purchased a few months back. I just haven't had an opportunity to finish these off until recently so I decided to get in there and finish everything all at once which meant a few days of painting and gluing and sanding.

But I'm glad I did. I feel like I actually accomplished something during my holidays. I only have a week left of it and as per usual, I thought I would be spending it doing way more doll related things than actually happened. Helena is my beautiful model again for this.

Trouble is A Friend

Introducing my newest addition to the Integrity Dolls, Mademoiselle Jolie, Kiss Me In Paris. This doll was released as a showroom exclusive gift set at the 2016 Supermodel Convention. She came with two outfits, lingerie and accessories. I think you could only purchase her at the convention, I can't really remember. I managed to find this girl second-hand, nude at a really good price from a collector here in Australia. I was pretty stoked with that as this was one of my big regrets. I didn't care much for her original clothing or accessories so it didn't bother me that I only got just the doll.

She arrived today and boy, is she worth the long wait. I am in love with her.

 She is one of the most stunning dolls I own in this line. I have to say, I am falling in love with these Nu Face girls. She is my only second Nu Face. The other is my Violet Variation Violaine Perrin. I feel the Nu Face girls have a really nice mature look to their face sculpts. On to the photos ...

Queen Amidala - Red Senate Gown Portrait Edition 1999

Well this was a super fast arrival. The seller only posted this two days ago and usually parcels would take five days to arrive from that state. Either I got really really lucky or Australia Post are working overtime. It also happened to arrive super early this morning, before 8am. Again, I'm in shock.

This is my Queen Amidala - Portrait Edition in the Red Senate Gown released in 1999. As I mentioned in a previous post, there were only a total of three dolls in the series; Queen Amidala - Red Senate Gown 1999, Queen Amidala -  Black Travel Gown 1999 and Queen Amidala Return to Naboo 2000. 

She came loose in her box but I believe this was the same for my other Portrait Edition doll. No stands were made for these dolls. She did sadly have some marks under her nose and on her chin which I managed to get off with some elbow grease. Thankfully. There is also a weird stain under her chin that I couldn't get off. When she came, she had a weird white cardboard collar around her neck which I've since removed. So the stain could be from this but I think it's more likely from the neckline of her gown judging by the colour. But you can't see it anyway so I'm not too worried.

The first thing I did was remove her clothing and shake it out good and proper and gave her an overall clean. She had a lot of dust on her face and head pieces which I cleaned. I inspected her body for any melting and her clothes for any flaws. Everything was in pretty good nick given her age. Of course, this doll was NRFB so she hadn't been played with, just displayed. There was some small damage to the box but that isn't a big deal to me.

A Spot of Sunlight

Time marches on so fast lately, I can't believe it's been a while since I last posted. In the midst of my sewing frenzy, I came down with a bad cold which set me back two weeks and with bouncing between the office and home for work now, I've not managed to find a slice of free time until today. Thankfully. I get a little bit nuts when I can't relax with my hobbies.

Hubby had to make an emergency run to the shops last night so I went with him (apparently working from home means he is running out of clothes to wear) and whilst there, I managed to find the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Barbie series. I wasn't planning on picking up any dolls to be honest as I recently made a big purchase earlier that morning (more on that in a separate post when the doll arrives!).  But this particular girl and her big cheery smile just made me feel happy plus I really like her shirt.

Yes, she stands quite well on the skateboard with no support. She did eventually fall backwards when a gust of wind came through but if not for that, she would have maintained this pose for quite a while. One thing I didn't really understand with Mattel's choice was not giving this girl a MTM elbow. Despite this, she can still touch her face so it's all good. Her knees also do not have the MTM knees. For the price point ($29 AUD), I would have expected at least MTM joints. Oh well, lucky she is so cute that she makes up for the lack of them. Overall I do love this girl and the accessories she came with. She also came with an additional long sleeve Tokyo 2020 shirt and a gold medal.

I Wanna Be A Rock Star

A photo session featuring Jade, an idol and rising star under the management of Olympus Entertainment. She was discovered three years ago on a street corner busking for spare change. It was her voice that attracted the attention of the talent scout.

Thanks to the public relations team, she shot to stardom quite quickly and has become the company's number one Idol. Her story is a work in progress.

Jade is my SuperDuck/Intergity hybrid doll.

Another BMR Comes Home

My final BMR doll arrived much sooner than expected. She was only shipped on Monday and arrived today. She is the blond girl with curly hair. I've already decided that her name will be Ivy.

Box Opening: BMR1959

My two BMR dolls that I ordered recently arrived to me this week, about two days apart! I've been looking forward to seeing these dolls in person and they do not disappoint! The gorgeous tissue paper wrap (if you have collected the Silkstone dolls you will know what I mean) makes these dolls feel like a luxury purchase but still at a really affordable price.

I honestly haven't even come up with a name for them yet so in this post, I will call them 'Man Bun' and 'Yellow Glasses'.

It's A Small Small World

Today turned out to be a pretty good day. I got a lot done, doll wise and was able to take some snapshots of the doll house and some new sets I made.

Happy Friday

Posting this one a bit late as I only have a few hours left of Friday. I had planned to post a bunch of photos surrounding the Eastern Queen from my fantasy story but ... I didn't like how the photos came out so you get Gabriella trying to figure out how to use the guitar and Lulu modelling her purple outfit for the day.

Hope you all have/had a good Friday. The weekend is ahead! Let's savour it.

Meanwhile in Madam M's house...

A quiet night at Madam M's share house means a good opportunity for some quick snapshots of the more rarely seen girls at their most relaxed state.

Anya enjoys a little time out in front of the television with one of the furbabies enjoying reruns of her favourite dramas. Just like Zoe, Anya is also a big K-Drama fan. Needless to say, those two have a lot to talk about when they get together.

Only This Life

Today, I figured since I still had the forest set up from yesterday's photoshoot, I might as well make use of it. This post features several different dolls going on their own little adventures.

Currently Listening to: BTS ~ Magic Shop

The MiniMe Doll

I saw a tag on Instagram called #MinimeDoll where collectors had that one doll that was a representation of themselves. For me, I would have to pick Zoe as I modelled her personality, hobbies, likes and dislikes off myself. So in that sense, she would be a good representation of me. Her fashion style is also very similar to my own. She also wears glasses like I do, except mine aren't electric blue (not that I haven't wanted glasses like hers, she just pulls it off better).

In today's quick photo, Zoe is watching "Bride of Habaek", a Korean drama inspired by the manwha, "Bride of the Water God". Incidentally, the same drama I binge watched today. I thought it would be neat having her doing something similar today.

Over to you... do you have a doll that represents yourself? He/She may not look exactly like you but maybe there's a doll that took its inspiration directly from you. I'd love to see a post about your MinimeDoll.

Reflecting on the 2019 Doll Year

How is it mid January already? I really need to stop starting my posts with this question because every time I blink, a good chunk of the month has come and gone! It makes me feel old!

After reading Xanadu's post on her 2019 doll arrivals, I felt inspired to reflect back on my own doll year and see who arrived in 2019.

Let's start with the Integrity Crew...

The First Day of a New Year {2020}

For one part of the world, it is the 1st January 2020. For the other part of the world, it's still 31st December 2019. Whichever part of the world you belong to, I hope the New Year is treating you well.

Yesterday, I posted about the last piece of artwork I did for 2019. Today, I wanted to post the very first photo session I did for the first day of 2020.

Today's gorgeous model is Freya.

 The New Year begins not with a bang but with a soft sigh. Freya wonders if this will be the year the cat and mouse chase will end. The Detective has been following the tracks of the infamous 'Valkyrie', the cyber world's most notorious hacker. She hadn't meant to leave breadcrumbs for him to follow. She'd just been distracted and the crumbs had been the result.