Haunted Beauty has Arrived!

Haunted Beauty Vampire has arrived today! I have taken some photos of her with Count Dracula and his brides....for anyone who hasn't ordered her, I highly recommend this doll.

I adore the details on this doll, and I'm well pleased with her. So glad  I was able to get her before she is sold out. 

Barbietown at night...

Beware of Barbietown at night....especially when your date takes you to your door..Poor Lucy!

Today was a cold, long dreary and very rainy day. My knee has been acting up and it is hard to walk long distances so I have been putting heat on it after two or three days of icing it down. An old injury when I was active in roller skating as a teen. So I decided to take some rare time and inventory the props for the holiday scenes I would like to do- the lights on the trees still work, no bulbs missing. I took a pic with the overhead light on, one done with a flash, and another done with a small flashlight/penlight overhead casting shadows on the couple in front of the dollhouse. It really turned out wicked cool for Halloween. Lucy dressing up in the Lolita Victorian goth outfit must have attracted the Count's attention and hunger....here are some more cool scenes with this low light experimentation of the town...

Looks pretty good I think. Enjoy the pre-Halloween photos!

Making the best use of props...

I have been busy and not busy. Hard to explain. My schedule will be gearing up to crazy busy with commitments in October and though I have dolly time now, sometimes I am just plain lazy and do not wish to work on anything for the dolls, other than take photos. 

So with the arrival of Count Dracula and his brides, that pushed me to start on their castle/tomb retreat which cause McDonald's diner to be shut down for a small period of time. Really, I'm running out of room. Correction: I have run out of room. And the W Club doesn't help but twisting my arm to buy these wonderful snobby dolls who simply demand their own residence, shops, well...diorama nuts- you get the picture. 

Making the best of what props you have. I have a prop heaven for some people. One prop I have been wanting to use but never had the space for the dio (who has space for a castle in 1:6 scale??)  is this wonderful curio. I decided that with Halloween coming I wanted to do something spook-tacula and thought, how about a dining room for the Count and his brides with some gorey food...after all, they're always 'hungry'. The four blood chairs are perfect, now I'm trying to figure out a table base. 
Here is the diorama in progress...

Yes that is a jar of eyeballs in the Count's hand. I have been sorting thru my stash of items and accessories and that is a miniature jar of eyeballs I made back in 2005? I think for All Things Miniature forum , now defunct. It was actually an eyeball cane tutorial and the eyeballs were caned to look 'bloodshot'. You would probably have to google it now, as I have long forgotten my own tutorial, which is probably in my files on my mainframe. It makes a cool spooky prop for my Halloween dolls. 
Back to the curio- we had a short supply of these, but I loved them. They were perfect scale even though I have a small design of another curio in stock which measures 16 inches that will work for the fashion royalty dolls since they sometimes measure out to 13 inches, especially the Hommes. I think a china cabinet makes an impressive display. I still have to go thru my miniature china sets and fill it up. The Count has traveled extensively and has loads of knick knacks to fill it up with. 
I found another prop that will be useful for Ken or the Hommes and action figures as well at Hobby Lobby.

It is a set of miniature tools that are actually small tree Christmas ornaments. Take your 40% off coupon as they run 6.99. I haven't took any photos of them in use yet, The Scrap Box studio is still in building stages, so perhaps they will get some stage time there. They are very realistic looking and heavy resin.

This is the other style of curio I have that is the small one 16 inches I mentioned. I have a bunch of these in various stages of flaws on my eBay Auctions with low starting bids of 9.99 . (I have relisted Bewitching Hour Luchia and Lady in Waiting Dania Zarr with reduced prices on auction as well today tool ) I have used these curios before and want very badly if I ever get any time to do a museum scene with these filled with all sorts of antiquities for the  dolls. Here Joyful in Japan (Nellie) is modeling the curio. I think it will work, if the room ceiling is large enough and I balance it out with other displays to give that feeling of space to the room, like a museum room exhibit would have.
Enjoy! 

W Club Dracula & his Brides have arrived...

I know alot of people who collect Fashion Royalty, and they order dolls as soon as they are debuted. Feverish calls or emailing to dealers, looking for the best deal, to 'get the dolls' before they sell out. Most of the time, I have had to pass up on dolls, not that expensive, when they are debuted by the W Club because of lack of money...sometimes my budget just will not allow it. sigh. Such is the case when in 2011 Jason Wu unveiled his Count Dracula, and his Brides collection- as well as designing/collaborating with Ashton Drake to make the Countess, Lucy, and Mina as well as Acheron and Simi. 

I  have been looking for these dolls and saving and squirreling away my money when I hit on the idea maybe someone on the  WCLub forum would trade me dolls for some of my Bespaq furniture. And I hit the jackpot. I had only asked to trade for the Count, knowing I could get the brides I wanted from some dealers and/or collectors willing to sell them. This kind soul wished to trade me the Count, the Countess and Mina as well as the Ashton Drake Lucy and four of the blood chairs as he was interested in some 1:4 scale Bespaq furniture! 

Well...they arrived today and they are stunning! I had been working on a quick diorama for them to 'feel' at home. I intended it to look like a marbeled tomb but did not get to finish covering the foamboard walls on the ends with the contact paper. Dracula has settled into his signature Red Dragon chair and the brides are busily attending to his needs...Mina is serving a Bloody Mary she just caught, er, poured....

Today I am rushed so I cannot play and take as many photos I would wish...but enjoy the photos as it looks like Dracula and his harem have moved in!