Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

It has been a hectic holiday weekend with shopping, cleaning and getting decorations down, as well as working on the Gothic Mansion diorama, which has taken longer than I expected. Above is a Blast from the Past with my Mistress of the Manor in her spooky hallway. This weekend the hubcap & I moved furniture about and did a major overhaul of our living room, in preparation for the holidays and the decorating we want to do this year. So I lost some major build time in the studio, but it was worth it. I will do Halloween a couple of days late, but on All Saints' Day * and All Soul's Day (November 1st and 2nd) when I will have time to myself.  I love Halloween, and this will give me time to get the Gothic mansion set up completely as I want it for the upcoming dioramas for Thanksgiving, and Christmas. 

So here are some 'Blasts' from the Past of my archives...enjoy!

                            Have a safe and enjoyable Happy Halloween!

                                            Lisa

Shopping at Costco....

While in Costco yesterday I had heard of the deals on American Girl dolls and accessories but never expected to see items for the fashion dolls. I was blown away. The item I really was taken with was the Frozen Snowflake mansion. 

Standing a whopping 52 1/2 inches and it was about 46 inches or more wide, with light up chandelier, fountain and ice throne, and a price tag of $159.99, it was awesome. I had already been to Hobby Lobby and thought, wow, I could dress up my Out of of this world Poppy like Elsa and my starlight Poppy like Anna....and there are those silver trees and blue trees that would go well in this hallway...and the diorama queen in me went nuts. I hate the blue stairway but figured I could work around it and spray it silver or something. Something about this dollhouse just screams to me even though I've never even SEEN Frozen and I hate the song after hearing it on the radio repeatedly. How WEIRD is that? BUT I LOVE THIS HOUSE. Sigh. The dilemna of a dollhouse nut in 1:6 scale......

Next on the aisle was the Grand Estate dollhouse...and so was the price tag at $149.99

This dollhouse was even larger than the Frozen mansion. A child would need a stepstool to play with it! It has a garage or a horse barn, depending on their whim, looks like a horse stable to me. An elevator that looks like one, a winding stair, a patio, lots of room. I could really do something with this even though the rooms are pokey, I was looking at it and I could paint that particle  board with the ugly graphics on it or paper it to look better. With a few select fine pieces of furniture, this could be a really modern home for my Fashion Royalty ladies ....
I really do like this dollhouse....

Onto the American Girl stuff. On the American Girl facebook groups, there have been alot of talk of sets. Here they are-

The Samantha Set. She runs about $119 and I am SOOOO tempted as I have wanted her but not willing to pay just that for the doll. She comes with her meet dress and two outfits. So yeah, am willing to pay that for her. Plus, I had to sell my two other American Girl dolls Felicity and Kit earlier this year. I would love to have Samantha as she is Victorian and would go well with my Rebecca. 

The Bitty Baby sets. They are running $99 and you get alot of bang for your buck if you're into Bitty Baby stuff.  Not my cup of tea, but it saves alot of money if you have a little girl who wants one.

The American Girl horse, complete with saddle and bridle, reins. $49.99 This one I am VERY tempted and will probably go back and get as I really want the carriage which does not come with the horse. This is very well made too. 

I want to order a reproduction Davida Huret resin 15 inch doll this year if at all possible and the horse would be perfect for her if she has a riding costume. Alot of the AG stuff is in perfect scale for the chunkiness of the Huret reproduction french fashion dolls. So that is one method to my madness of collecting the big stuff. 

American Girl stuffed pets. These were running about 24.99 and came with accessories or /and a book. Probably a better deal than from American Girl.

Mini American Girl dolls with books. They were running about $38.99 and they had Melody, Samantha, Julie, Mary Ellen, and Kit from what I could see. 

I also forgot about this Barbie house, but that was because it wasn't as spectacular as the Frozen mansion and the Grand estate house. I forgot the price tag, but it wasn't as as large as those two. Probably because it was so much smaller than the other two. People were taking pics like me of those two dollhouses.  

So run out to Costco and make room for one of those dolls or dollhouses! LOL...

Preparing for Halloween...

I am beginning to get back into the diorama building and setting up the Gothic Mansion Dark Hollows in my studio for some massive Halloween diorama pics. This time it is going to be altered to have the staircase and the adjoining graveyard and abandoned chapel which will be spooky.... for a Halloween party. 

Here are some fun shots I played with on picmonkey with Zombie bride yesterday when I was setting up the tables. I have some building to do with walls and such and the props to set up for the party. 

and behind the scenes shots....

Morticia is inspecting the placement of the tombs and tombstones in the cemetary....

So far so good, it just needs some trees, greenery, and other foliage to make it believable. 

Body-swapping Blythe....

I finally received my Pure Neemo body off of Ebay and I am really pleased. For weeks I had done in-depth, extensive, exhaustive research on the best bodies for Blythe and the factory clones (which my doll is - she's not a real Blythe, sniff sniff for the purists out there, but her price tag made me feel that way- $90!) so I had been at odds with her ugly Takara body. Her arms were ugly white and her body was a flesh color. Her knees would click bend like a Skipper body and her waist would turn, but that was it for articulation. Most of the time she would fall over if she was not on a sturdy waist stand. The despair of getting decent photos of her was going to change. I found out that Obitsu bodies were ok, BUT, most people did not like them because they did not hold the large Blythe heads up well. 

I also wanted my Blythe to be child-like, look like a little girl, to me that is the charm of most of the custom Blythes, dressed like adorable little girls getting into trouble. The Obitsu bodies and some of the Pure Neemo bodies you have to watch what you buy because of the large busts or boob jobs on them. I didn't need a Phicen pole dancing Blythe!! lol!

Changing or swapping out a body for your Blythe is relatively easy. I used a long thing screwdriver. I am sorry I didn't take step by step instructions and didn't even think of this until after I did this and her body was popped in. On the right is the old, Takara body and Alice has her new Pure Neemo body on. 

I purchased the Pure Neemo body off Ebay HERE

Pure Neemo bodies are made by the Japanese company AZONE, so everything is written in Japanese. The seller packaged the item very carefully and shipping was fast. This was a small busted body, serial number was PFL015-FLS. I have seen some people sand the boobs off completely with a dremel to achieve a flat chest for a small child or boy on this body. 

Lift the dolls' hair up and their neck string and pin it out of the way. Start by putting your screwdriver in the top hole and unscrewing that tiny screw first, and laying it aside. You are going to unscrew all three screws of the head.

Go onto the 2nd and 3rd bottom two screws, unscrew and lay them to the side.

Now you will come to opening the head. Take the head by the ears on the sides and squeeze hard to open the head. It should start popping open slightly with the pressure on both sides of the head, just enough so you can pop the cheapola Takara body out and the new body in. My Pure Neemo body is a little loose where the head will tilt back and forth. I have shown this picture the slight looseness around the neck opening. 

Some people close the loose opening around the neck stump because closing the head with tape, or a rubber bands, but I left it that way since the head seemed to close tight and I like her to be able to move her head, it looks more realistic. Her head isn't that wobbly to me and it looks a little more natural. 

I can understand why everyone who customizes Blythe likes this body. She stands well and looks far more natural. 

Now I think someone is ready to show off her new body!

Hudson's Bay Barbie

So what is how at Barbie Collector right now is Hudson's Bay Barbie which is a limited edition Canadian store exclusive. She is on sale at BarbieCollection.com with free shipping for a limited time, with a limit of 2 per order. She retails for $49.99 each. I got her for $29.99 with free shipping using my $20 quarterly reward.

                        *All images belong to Mattel and are not mine. 

She is really super cute and the poodle comes with a matching coat and even her cell phone has the stripes from the coat on it. She also has a coffee cup. I love this bag. 

Hudson Bay has a big Brand in Canada with these iconic stripes. Here are some photos of their products I stumbled across when I googled them on the internet. 

Pretty cool huh? I love the bunk beds in the nautical cottage , this would be perfect down where I live on a cottage on the river or the beach. And I adore those bags. 

Hudson Bay has also done a Barbie in this theme before. 

As well as others. This is not my photo, just one I googled. I know now everyone will be on ebay and the price of Hudson Bay Barbie coats and outfits will probably go through the roof! LOL. But the outfit is so equestrian or winter and fall-ish that it would be perfect for scenes for the dolls now. 

Can't wait until she arrives! Lisa

Va Fashion Doll Club October Meeting- the Raffles...

Wrapping up the meeting was our raffles. The raffles were items or giftbags of little items grouped together to be raffled off to defray the cost of the Christmas tea party which was to be held at The Jefferson Hotel in Richmond, Va. 

If you click on the link it will take you to an Italian marble breath taking lobby which is where the iconic staircase was copied from in the movie from 
Gone with the Wind so many years ago. In the gilded age, or the early 1900's, the Jefferson was known for having alligators swimming in the marble pools in the lobby while the guests took tea or had lunch. Now, the alligators are merely metal statues that stare at you amongst the ferns from those same marble baths. 

But onto the raffles!

The denominations of raffle tickets we could buy were $10- 10 tickets, $15 -15 tickets, and $25 -25 tickets if I remember correctly. It may have been 50 tickets for $25 . I bought $10 worth of tickets. You put your tickets in a pink bag with the photo of the item on the pink bag, which was usually next to the raffle item.  There were dolls,Outfits,  furniture, jewelry, bags, books, poster of Francie from Convention, gift baskets of lotion, key tags, soap, that were Barbie related, and all kinds of items sure to please. 

There were 20 raffle items. The rules were: You could only win 2 items, so if you won more than once, as each raffle was called, you had to put an item back if you won something you liked better. This was difficult for many people who won more than twice. There were alot of nice raffle items. 

I won her!!! I had been wanting her forever!! 

I really didn't expect to win anything at all. The other items on raffle are below-

The raffles went wonderfully well and it wouldn't be a doll meeting at Linda's (Jewelz) house without a visit to her doll room! So here are some fab pics of her fantabulous Barbie room!