Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Stuff and Thangs

EDIT: The amount of typos in this entry is STAGGERING. I am not going to fix them just because the eyebleed is too funny. Deal with reading my horrible typing skills!!! XD


Holy ef I've not been on here in weeks. WEEKS! I'm so behind now. So before I start trying to catch up with everyone, I'll do a quick (hur hur right) post of updates.

Personal
I'm not sure what I've been doing the last couple weeks, but it's not doll stuff. I haven't really touched them in weeks. Well, Sunday, but I'll get to that. Between the week-long struggle with my computer at work, and becoming obsessed with stalking Food Network Chefs on Twitter and Instagram, horrible, horrible allergies and general life, I've no time for dolls.

Well, I've had time for Alex, but not in doll form.

It did take a huge chunk of those weeks, but I did (more or less) get all his tattoos redesigned. I feel so much better about them now, they look more cohesive and less scattered around. I did it right this time, working on them as a group. There is a little tweaking to do still but if I had time and it wasn't raining every other day, I could start working on the dolls. I have a couple faceups to finish first though, so that won't start for a few weeks still.

After finishing them I had to do some art, cause he's 13 this year. If you haven't seen it everywhere I've posted it (seriously everywhere), here it be.

You can't see all the redesigns in that pic, but a few of them. I simplified the rose (hopefully making it easier for me to duplicate) and made it look more my style. I drew the 13 instead of using a font (now I want that tattooed on me somewhere lol), fixed the ones on his arm and back and added one. Now my logo and blog banner will be changing. I'm using the PiB on his arm as the header here, and my personal logo will have the 13. I just have to, y'know, do it. The computer debacle is keeping me from opening any of my files right now, so it might be a few days. Or I'll have to do it at home. Wat? No.
EDIT: I changed the banner. I bet no one noticed XD It's almost the same anyway....

If I'm brave, I will be getting my first (lame) tattoo this year. I have several, finally, that I think I could live with. Which has always been my problem....I'm an artist, if I'm getting a tattoo I am drawing it. I just change my mind so much, I can't bring myself to do it. Several years ago I realized I should get Alex if I got anything...he's been constant for 13 years, I doubt I'll get tired of him...but coming up with something I like has been hard. I've done lots of chibis, and not liked any of them enough, but I think I have it now. I need to consult, I don't know if it's doable...but if it is, I'm so doing it.

Dolls
So I said I wasn't doing much with dolls - not since my birthday when I went doll-shopping and then took hours and cleaned Alex off (he's so shiny and new).  That day I was with other doll friends and my Dad and his wife kept calling me because they knew this guy who was selling all sorts of doll-things, and so my roommate and I went in on a huge lot of stuff (totally unseen except for a few phone pics) for 100. That was April 12...we just got the stuff on Sunday.

Holy fuck it was worth it. Tons of really nice acrylic eyes, a drawer of eyelashes of all colors, lots of elaborate Kemper wigs, some of which are too big, but many of them can be sewn smaller with no effort at all. Lots of socks, some shoes and tools. It all came in this cute metal cabinet. Going through it was so fun! Some stuff was really for baby-sized dolls, and can't work, but we got so much that the 100 was well spent.

They also tried to get me to buy all this furniture, but having gotten lots of furniture in the past for really good prices, I declined, thinking he was over-charging. Yesterday my dad's wife called and said he'd sell me all of it for 40. DONE!!! Lol no clue where it's going, but I could probably seat all my dolls at once now XD

So the other doll things I did, was shuffle hands around. Poor Sage...she really has the words hands. I'm not a fan of those claw-like AOD hands at all. Plus I wanted diffent hands for both my Zaoll hybrids - I don't hate their hands, but they're kind of...manly lol for such petite girls. And Kimi and Cassiel are my girliest girls. I had put up a WTB for girl hands, including Delf girl hands, becasue the colors could be similar, and I would love extra hands for Jubliee anyway if they don't work for AOD or Zaoll. I got lucky and was able to buy two pairs, and finally Sunday I tried them all on everyone.

I tried them on Cassiel first, she's a Peakswoods Goldie head on a Zaoll body - the one that used to belong to Tween and now has no boobs. I had also blushed his hands naturally and sanded down the nails - cause he was a boy - so they were extra manly lol. The Delf hands are SO cute on her!! So she kept a pair. I tried them on Sage, but the match was extra horrible, and I really wanted to try them on Kimi anyway, so on a whim I put the Zaoll hands on Sage. OMG. So much better!! The match is not too horrible, and because she's so much bigger than Cass or Kimi they don't look so masculine on her. The posision is way more relaxed too, which is what I really wanted. Plus the Zaoll hands are all one piece, so there's no separating at the wrist, which I hate so much. She's even got better hand movement. Since her hands were my biggest pet-peeve with that AOD body, I think she's pretty perfect now. And she got new clothes on my birthday when I went to the doll store! Alex got jeans. XD They fit him too!!

Kimi got the other Delf hands, and I ended up giving her longer-nailed, purple manicured hands which even match better, as she's the newer of the two, to Sage, and the extra Zaoll hands will go in a box with all my other extra parts.

So that was fun. The Delf hands will need some toning-down as they're darker than the Zaoll bodies, but I can do that easily. They're just so much better this way. I left my WTB up, because I figure I can always use more hands. lol

So that's it! Hopefully I'll have more time in the coming weeks, and my work stich will be resolved so I can get some pictures of...someone. Anyone. lol

I hope everyone is doing well! :D

Friday, April 11, 2014

An Undertaking of Epic Proportions

Do you ever get a wild hair and do something so crazy that you wonder what who on earth got you into this mess and then realize it was you and have no one to blame?

I decided to redesign all of Alex's tattoo's yesterday.

This is a huge deal for me, not just because of the dolls (all thirteen of them. THIRTEEN) but because of the comic and all my art.

Thirteen dolls.

At least four of them are too young for tatts.

I'm wiping Alex I down this weekend (tomorrow, after a day of dolly fun with the peeps -- which is also my Birthday! Yay! Doll fun on my bday!! Also, my dog's birthday is the day after, and my cat turns 17 on the 27th (he old). And I ordered Alex april 7, in 2008 - so his bday is coming up too - may 6 - he's the only doll who gets anything at all) so he'll be all sparkly and clean as a wee babe. 2.5 was wiped already, III will be next and II was never actually re-tattooed after getting his DC body so he's already blank.

In the grand tradition of being experimented on, Alex I will be the first to get them back, though I have to do the designing first. I'm doing it the right way this time. Lots of sketching and placement on the body mock-ups I drew yesterday. A few of them will stay the same -- the Rose, Yin Yang, infinity thorn band on his wrist, the 666 and A&...Omega on his hands. He also has Life is Pain (what movie is that from?!?!?! GUESS!) on his back that won't change. Everything else is getting redone. I did the the tramp stamp on his back this morning and so far I don't hate it. I might have to think about it a little more before making it "permanent" though. The wings will somewhat the same though I want to change them up a little first.

So sometime in the next decade, all my Alexes might be finished. Maybe....
I don't know why I decided to do this now - When I have a hundred and fifty seven other doll things I have started and need to work on......but I've really needed to fix them for a while. I started adding "ink" to him years ago and only gave certain ones any significance....the rest were just tacked on him lol. I think I can do better. The thing that really bothers me is that I had his arms showing in my comic....oh well. Continuity, I don't has it.

Also I finished Woleverine's faceup....but I'm not sure how I feel about it. I have to look at it a little more I think. I might post a picture. I took a couple with my phone....but they're not great.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! :D

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Another post about Sage

This might be the last one for awhile. I won't have anything new to update! Maybe some Wolverine if I get his head done. BUT NOW IT'S RAINING A-FREAKING-GAIN!!!1111!1!!!!!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick post about Sage again because I have a tentative character and back-story for her, based off other characters in a story that is parallel to FC, but I will probably never do anything with. The other two main characters have both been dolls at one time and both sold to be reshelled sometime...never, so far. But now I at least know what mold one of them would be!

So anyway, Sage.

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Sage was the daughter of a very prominent family of Sidhe in Faerie, her parents were treated like royalty and she was engaged to the son of the King himself - Shaelean. She has a twin brother named Caelan, whom she was very close too growing up. They did everything together, including sneaking off to the human world to pretend to be people.

She had everything, wealth and popularity, looks and an amazing future....until she caught her fiance with her brother. With realization that Shae was only marrying her to be close to her brother Sage fled, intending to find her parents and call off the engagement. The two men followed her, and an altercation resulted in her plummeting down a flight of stairs into a suit of armor.

The horrible scars on her face from the accident (uh huh, I got it now - no redoing her faceup!!) were the perfect excuse to call off her wedding, but her family insisted (with encouragement from Cael and Shae). Rather than marry someone who didn't feel anything for her (Shae is hardcore into guys) or rat on her brother, Sage ran away to the human world to pursue her secret love -- writing.

Fast-forward several years and Sage is living in a crappy apartment, working as many hours as she can at the local coffee house (Dante's) and failing miserably at her writing career. She writes various fanfics and manages to keep up a blog of how much her life sucks (which only has about three readers, one of which is her co-worker, friend and one of many crushes, Jacob - who would be Uriel), but still has yet to find success in her chosen career.

She's often got her head in the clouds, or in her laptop. She's very envious of people with friends, lives, real jobs (not that being a barista isn't a real job, but she's a writer!)...and loves food and fashion. She's painfully shy, her scars and having to hide elf ears (huge elf ears!) have hurt her chances of making friends (in her own mind), so she's a loner. Her social life starts and ends with Dante's and the internets.

So yay! I not only have a story for her (which I thought of yesterday), but she fits into my Elves like a glove.

What you should know about my Elves:
Shae was a doll for many years: B&G Afra on the Volks SD13 body. He's Wyn's half-brother (Wynners is a prince! Who knew!!) and cursed by his step-mother. I sold the doll because even though I oringally came up with the character of Shae for that mold, he took a totally different shape in my mind after a while....as he developed I could no longer see him as the Afra. Someday I'd love to reshell him, but pretty much no one makes a masculine Elf sculpt....Some day....

Cael was also a doll for a time - B&G Nailo LE Fullset. He is the only doll to wear the wig Sage now has...but I never bonded with him at all, did anything with him, and I don't think I even owned him the same time I owned Shae....so he was sold off in parts. His character was created just to be Shae's boyfriend, he never had a sister until now. It's forbidden for him to be with Shae because Elves are all about procreating....and you can't do that with two dudes. If I ever reshell him now, it will be as that mysterious Juri 12 - the one that no one knows what line it really belongs too.....it looks a lot like Elf Karsh, which is Sage.

Wyn is half troll - his and Shae's father had an affair with what he thought was a human woman, but was really a hulder pretending to be human. She dropped the resulting baby off at daddy's house so her family wouldn't eat it. Poor Wynners grew up in a dungeon of shame, and was kicked out as a tween. Shae knew his brother and treated him well (was probably the only one who ever did) but did nothing to stop him from being tossed out on his rear. Neither Sage nor her brother ever knew Wyn existed.
Wyns half-trollness explains why he's so odd looking in my collection (huge face and massive eyes and floppy ears), and makes it easier to find a mold to be his brother...they don't have to look alike at all. Other than Alex, Wyn is the only doll have with a younger version.

Wyn is Isis's roommate and works at a Scene/Fairy Kei/Street Style fashion shop which explains his unique style (Wyn dressed like Wyn before it was cool *dons hipster glasses*). Unfortunately he will eventually be let go when the store closes and have to take a job as the daytime receptionist (reception person?? Receptatroll?) at the vampire infested Black Rose Agency, where he will not be hit on by Alex as he is actually a guy. Even if he doesn't look like it.

My entire universe of elves was invented just to explain Wyn XD

One more pic to show her whole outfits which is my favorite so far and most of it is parts of what I got in the recent trade

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The socks and scarf are the only thing I already had....

Monday, April 7, 2014

Project Wolverine: Getting there!

LOL so where I work we have a trivia night. This year the theme is geekery, and they have a whole category on superheros/villains and their real names vs their costumed crusader name. My boss and I had a mini contest to see who could get the most....I blew him away. And caught three mistakes they made when compiling the list.
All X-men related. Which makes me worried about the ones I didn't know....lol

Anyway
Last entry on Wolvie: here

It's been a while since I've done anything with him. I got the body in the mail (a while ago), it fit almost nothing I owned, but I managed to get him crammed into a white tshirt made for David (which is probably stretched out of shape now) that barely fit and couldn't even remotely be closed in back.

He also fit quite nicely into my most expensive pair of jeans :\\\ also David's, so I'll have to buy them again. Bleh. I made him a wig (twice, my first attempt didn't work out), and sideburns, which will be attached by glue (yes) after I get him a faceup.

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This is just with the sideburns shoved up under the wig...

and next to the rest of the group. He's actually pretty perfect height-wise. I think the head could be a tad smaller, but I like Cosmo as Wolverine, so it's staying.

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ugh. They're all still in those clothes >.< They all need a changing. Hopefully Gambit will get some decent pants soon. I'm debating shortening his neck too - possibly wolverines as well.

I don't have any shoes that fit, and what pisses me off the most is that Mirodoll has the shoes I need, and I didn't know until after the body shipped XD so I have to order from them again eventually.

Logan has sat on the shelf looking pretty much like that until last weekend when I finally decided to get over my fear and just boil him, but didn't get a chance. So for the last week he sat on my desk under a tshirt, with no arms. XD

Saturday I was supposed to go hang out at a friends house, but that got cancelled so I used that opportunity to do some boiling.

If you've never seen a Mirodoll body, you should know that they are a pretty decent, especially for the price (it was only $100) - however the hands are horrible.

I'm not a fan of the actual hands, there's really nothing wrong with them, but I don't like them. Then the wrist socket is oval. to compensate for that, the hand ball is also oval.....but since I didn't intend on using the hands anyway, who cares. The socket is the part that sucks. Not to mention it's WAY too small for the giant ball of the Dikadoll hands I bought for him to wear. Therefor, mods.

I hadn't had a concrete idea of what to try in order to get those hands on the body, but another Miro hybrider had boiled the sockets and reshaped them to fit the 60cm DK hands, so I thought I'd try that first, before I did any sanding and then rebuilding (because, no.). Boiling was easy. I literally just dipped the arms in the water, held them for a few seconds, then started working the hand ball into the socket. After a while, you could see the socket was much rounder than it started out, and though it wasn't quite big enough for the hand to go in perfectly, it actually works quite well!

I let the arms dry and cool over night and strung him up the next morning. It's great! They go on and unless you're really looking, you can't really tell they don't fit. Plus, they have a MUCH better range of motion than his original hands (which no longer fit the body). They are huge. I mean huge. But as he is a proportionately short man, I think it actually works in his favor. I mean, look at all the Marvel artist portrayals of him. Huge hands. The head is a 65cm head anyway. It needs big hands XD
They don't fist well though, which sucks. I have to find fist hands now anyway. Better for claws I think.

Even better, the shirt and cowboy hat I ordered came Saturday! It's amazing how much that matters. With an almost complete outfit (still no shoes....lol) he really looks like Logan. Or James. I'm old-skool, I can't think of him as James XD it hurts my childhood.

I'm  a little disappointed by the hat, for the money I expected higher quality....it has no shape so you have shape it yourself with the wire, so it really isn't a cowboy hat at all....it's a floppy hat with wire.
I've worked with it and managed to make it work, but IMO - not worth 30+ at all. The shirt is perfect though.

I don't have pictures -- I beheaded him and finally started his faceup (along with 3 commissions)....and now it's raining again (omg when will we stop getting weather?! WHEN?!??!?!??!11/1/1/1) so I'll never finish. But for real. He's coming together. I'm a little worried about how he's going to look with the rest of my X-men (he's very realistic - the others are very not), but not enough to care that much lol. He's kind of fabulous as an independent.

I need to start designing costumes for Gambit and Jubilee. I feel like Jubilee's black body suit shouldn't be too hard so that might just be as is, but Gambit needs something and he's a tough one. I kid of want to go current and use X-Factor colors - or all black like what he wore in the latest series. For some reason Jean was easy to recreate, everyone else not so much. Logan/James/Wolvie needs some kind of thing too....but I don't think I can get past the Wolverine mask. So he gets to wait. Possibly forever lol

I'm hoping to have a faceuped wolverine to update with soon...then body blush and eventually claws. He looks pretty good so far! To me at least lol

Thursday, April 3, 2014

It's the end of the world as we know it

EDIT THE SECOND: ok for real I am so done with today. Another power-outage, then yet another one (though this was planned and I was shut down before it happened) and we seem to be finished....but who can tell for sure?! And a run to the PO at lunch proved to be a huge waste of my time other than I found out I have a new mail person who apparently doesn't do things right. At least not yet. I am not happy with this change. I really trusted the old mail person...she was awesome. this one has pissed me off twice in one day now. Not a good start. >:|
And Blogger is pretending I only follow one blog. XD At least I have that one....

Today's weather consists of: Severe thunderstorms, deadly lightening, flooding and tornadoes. It's bad now and only supposed to get worse throughout the day and into the evening.

YAY! ......   :\

EDIT: Holy crap. After I had this all typed out but it was just sitting open on my desk our power went out for like, two seconds. Only half the power came back on. I don't have lights, and only one of my outlets works. We thought my computer might be fried but it finally came back on after unplugging everything and replugging it back in. Alarms are going off, lights are flashing, the building attached to ours but not technically ours was evacuated and people were running all over the place.....

But hey, Blogger saved my entry! :D

Also, today I am a girl!! I have a slip on under my dress!! I have never worn a slip as an actual slip and not as a shirt or extra layer of dress. I'm not even sure where I got this one from, I just found it one day in my room....but I thought it might help to keep my jersey dress and leggins from clinging together all day and riding up which is annoying and totally unattractive XD

So far so good. Who knew these things were supposed to be functional? My grandmother would be proud.

I know I've updated a lot lately but I have more pictures, and I'm expecting a lot of newness in the mail in the next few days so I'm all excited.

First some more Sage, rocking a new outfits. Well, old stuff I put together in a new outfits....and new to her...

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She is so much more fun as a girl, I'm almost embarrassed that I didn't want her head anymore....

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I don't think anyone has ever worn that sweater....
I would so wear this if I wasn't too tall for those skirts. I've never found one that would actually cover my ass :\\ Lucky for her she's a doll and can get away with that look.

This week I should be getting a bunch of clothes in the mail as a partial trade/sale. There's an AnotherSpace outfit included that I don't own....I kind of made it my goal in life (sad sad sad) to own all the SD13 boy AS outfits (I have like, two left to buy and I'm done. Maybe three. I think it's three. I need to get to work on that) so I'm kind of excited. I brought Uriel to work with me today with the intention of trying it on him first. It looks like something he'd wear.

There will also be a girl outfit that is perfect for Sage, which is great since this trade was negotiated about a week before she existed XD

My Dikadoll Aqua head shipped Monday. Or Tuesday....now I can't remember XD

Iplehouse shipped my very small order of a plaid shirt and Cowboy hat for Wolverine the day after I ordered it.

I have my Dollstown Elf body on order for Tween (I can't wait!!! Another Grail body crossed off the list! But it was a preorder so god knows how long it will take)

My Steam Bunny Rose LTF has been paid off so all I have to do is wait for that to come in (a million years from now)

I made a Tata's Paradise order of a few basic things I feel like my dolls need including a white wife beater for Wolverine (who will almost have his whole outfit...minus shoes XD -- my roommate is going to work on making him a jacket so that will be taken care of), and some pants I'm hoping will fit Alex, but if they're too big (which I'm sure they will be) they can go to Gambit. To makeup  for the pants that won't fit, Alex is also getting two shirts. There are some sleeveless shirts that almost everyone will be able to share....and I think that's it. I put way more thought into this order than was necessary, it took me about three days to double make sure I wanted what I was getting....and the two things from Iple were almost more than my whole Tata's order :\

And there is a Dollzone Carter I will eventually be getting as my birthday giftie! SO EXCITED!!
And so many dolls lol. I think I will be holding off on getting the Aqua head a body...I'm sure I have something he can share for a while.

And now some pictures Uriel, trying out his new fur wig.

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I like it, but it needs some more work. I really need to fix the bangs. And good god it gets messed up. I think it's because like Alex, Uriel has a certain hairstyle that need maintaining...and fur just goes totally cray. He needs some industrial strength hairspray.


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The colors are better than his fiber wig though. By far. It has been so long since I photographed him that the last pic I have he's still on the Souldoll body and has his old eyes. This is the F60 body that Sage's head came with and used to be on. His new eyes are from Safrindoll, and they're the same ones the Chibi and Mini Uri have. Consistency is fun! They look much better than the Dollmore eyes, though those served me well the first.....many years I had them in all my Uriels. I've had so many Uriels and combinations of Uriels...he's a pain in the ass. And the first version was really so perfect...I should have never sold him. But then there'd be no James, and I don't want to give him up...so I guess it's a good thing. And Uriel should be in NS anyway, so this really is better.

He's still a pain in the ass.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Versatile Blogger Award


I was nominated for this by Alasse Carnesir at Inn of the Wayward Misfits.

 Thank you so much! I had no idea blog awards existed lol but yay!
The rules of this award are that you choose 15 bloggers to pass this award on to, and tell the
award-giving blogger 7 things about yourself.







I've been reading comics (mostly Marvel, but I dabble in everything) since I was about 12 but I never thought to make my own until I was about to graduate college. 

My guilty pleasure is Glee. *shame*

I use Pinterest to tell me what to wear. Pretty much every day.

I went to school for art and graphic design, I am a full-time graphic designer, and people are still surprised when I tell them my degree is actually in what I do.

I am totally addicted to purses and bags.

I am actually shaped like a Dollmore doll, and have often wondered if that's why I like them so much (really long legs and no waist XD). It does kind of tick me off when people complain about how unnatural their proportions are.

I have a slight (read: huge) obsession with Muppets and all things Jim Henson. 
I mostly keep it a secret.

15 bloggers is a lot D:
I'm gonna cheat and only do a few