A Big Mail Day for Dollies

Yesterday was a very big mail day ....
First some Takara stock clothes arrived - I've been buying some of the older stock outfits for my girls as the quality was really good back then!   (and I must apologise for the low quality of these photos, my digital camera died and I'm using the phone camera now.)

My girls got a very nearly complete set of the stock for "I Love You It's True" (yep, Takara does do some odd names!)  Lots of pretty items in shades of blue plus sandals, funny pink socks and pretty undies (we like pretty undies!).  Also, most of the red evening outfit from "Love Mission" - evening dress, bustier, shawl and red shoes.

While Audrey and Imogen were trying on the new outfits another parcel arrived!

Audrey: "Can you do my dress up Imi?  I can't reach."

Audrey adores red shoes!!

Audrey: "Uh, now I can't bend, quick Imi, do up my shoe then we'll help Meerkat with the new parcel."

Meerkat: "I don't think this is yet more clothes ... it looks like a box here."

Imogen: "What, another sister!  Nah, that's quite small."





Imogen: "Ooooo nice cheese."
Audrey: "Hmmm, a shopping trolley, I guess that'll be useful for grocery shopping!  Nice red apple though."
Meerkat: "Bread - and it smells so good."

From inside the box, very muffled: "Hello there - can anyone hear me ... Hello ..."

 Some time later ...

Zucchini Flower: "Hi there, we can hear you, we'll get you out of there.  (quieter) She's another proper petite - I won't be the only Takara little one now."
Julia: "I guess this is why our Mummy Giant bought the extra crochet dress, wondered why she bought 4 sets when there were 3 of us."
Hilda: "Yes - there are matching bloomers too ..."
Meerkat - very quietly: "Lah dee dah - this baguette is going to be yummy with my new tapenade ..."




Zucchini Flower: "She has a nice dress already - but I think she likes pink things."






Julia (in the middle): "Looks like she's been in that box for Ages and Ages."
Annabella, still in the box: "A whole 9 years girls - I'm a 2005 release. And I really want to be released ... please hurry!"

Zucchini: "Annabella, you are like me - you've 2tone hair too and pretty coloured eyes like me."

Meanwhile, Julia and Hilda have found Annabella's pet / backpack ...
Julia: "Is it a rabbit or a kangaroo?"
Hilda: "hmmm, very confusing, the ears could be either and she has a pouch ... but no tail at all!!   We'll have to ask Auntie Bunny, she'll know."
(ed: Bunny is a Neo Blythe "Welcome Winter" and very knowledgeable about all the different breeds of rabbits)

 And we'll leave this post with a portrait of Annabella.  She is a Takara Petite "Tatianna Black" released in November 2005, so she has been exactly 9yrs in her packaging.

Her stock dress and bonnet are really pretty, as is her pet / backpack BunnyRoo.

She has lovely violet coloured eyes and 2tone blond hair that curls.

 

Making Blythe Doll Earrings from Pins - A Tutorial

Having boasted that I'd worked out a way to make earrings for Blythe from pearl-head dress-making pins, I was asked "How?"  so ... here is a tutorial.

Not all Blythe dolls have the piercings to wear earrings - in my dolly family only Audrey (a Simply Chocolate) has the requisite 'piercings'.

In this photo, the gold things on the left are the Takara stock stud earrings Audrey came with (she also has some optional op-art dangles that go on those studs).    
The pearls are what I made - from pins.

If you look at Takara's earrings closely you'll see that the posts are slightly flattened.  The idea seems to be to insert the earrings with the wider part going horizontally to doll's head (up-down)  then once inserted, if you turn the earrings, about a quarter turn, they lock in place.
This basic shape is what I try to replicate with the pins.



 
You need some pins, some jewelry-making pliers to bend the pins and something to cut the pins.


The wire cutters on the RH here are great for cutting,  and the little long-nose jewelry pliers on the LH are great.  The round nose pliers, here in the middle, are handy but the flat surface on the long-nose is required for the final 'squishing' process.

Cut the pin - about 1/2 an inch (that's 14mm) from the 'head'.  Be careful - work inside a box or something and wear glasses or goggles to protect your eyes from flying pin wire!

And bend the wire back on itself

This is the hard part and not all pins will bend nicely.  Those lovely black pins in the photos above were too stiff and strong - they resisted bending and finally the wire snapped.  These cheap 'pearl heads' were the most successful.




Try to avoid this cross-over thing happening as you are bending the pin.

 Use the flat part of the pliers to flatten the curve.  You need the wire to be a really tight U ... narrow enough to fit into the doll's ear piercing but not so narrow that it falls out.

Check the fit - remembering to insert with the width of that U-shape held horizontally.




The final tweaking for a perfect fit is fiddly, the teeny-est tiny-est squish with the pliers to make it perfect - just a bit too far and the earring is loose and will fall out! 

Audrey has decided that these red earrings are just perfect for Christmas!

Parcels - it's all about parcels

Getting a parcel is wonderful fun.  These days I don't get parcels from my grandmother so I find other ways to ensure that nice little boxes with lots of sticky tape all over them, keep arriving on the door-step. 

One way is to participate in (or organise) swaps of Blythe Doll goodies - which I do through Ravelry.   Violetta got to open the latest parcel ...  




 And she called Bird and Julia over because ...

Another one of US !!!

De-boxing a LPS Blythe can be arduous ...  there are lots of knots and things

Here are last - little Heidi the Hiker.  Julia likes her pantaloons and Bird approves of her ponytails. 

 Heidi offered everyone a 'lick' of her lollypop and then she showed off her
"'tremely cool sunglasses"   but Bird got the giggles ...

Those sunnies are really quite funny

 Meanwhile - Violetta had found more things in the parcel - all in pretty pink paper ...







 








"Well - this certainly IS a lovely dress and beautifully made but somehow I think it is more Audrey's style ... "

and here is Audrey wearing the completely wonderful Audrey Hepburn outfit ... dress, gloves, pearls and tiara!   thank you "Squishy10"   from Ravelry for a great swap outfit. 

I must show you the outfits I made for this swap - in a future post.

The other way to make sure you get parcels is to buy things on the www.  When people discuss the decline of "bricks & mortar" shops & shopping this factor is never mentioned - but surely one of the best parts of on-line shopping is the arrival of the parcel - and by the time it arrives you've almost forgotten what you bought and you get that wonderful 'parcel opening' thrill ...

One of the doll's house / miniatures companies had a special on some kits that you have to put-together yourself ... I couldn't resist getting some natty little tables - very useful bits of furniture for problem corners.

Not sure when I'll get the time to put the kits together ...
Of course I'd bought some other things too ... a jardinière on a pedestal (I'll plant a fake aspidistra in it) a very nice ham with garnish and 3 little mice.   


All very Beatrix Potter's "Two Bad Mice"   (only there are 3!) 
Now to get the "two red lobsters ... a fish, a pudding, and some pears and oranges." 

Tom Thumb doesn't even need to carve this ham - it is already sliced

And the LPS Blythes had a very nice dinner to welcome Heidi ...

A Cat & Doll Story

My elderly Cornish Rex cat felt somewhat neglected and ignored during a recent photo-shot ... she wanted to join in all the fun.

Lillian was still recuperating from her full-body-transplant operation (read all about that here) and was quite alarmed - so she fled the scene.  

But Audrey finds "lions" rather fascinating; so she stayed and was very brave ...

"Perhaps if I distract her with something shiny ..."

However, the cat wasn't very interested in Audrey's new blue art-deco bead ... and for a moment we feared the worse

"She's going to EAT ME !!!"

"Oh - she gave me a kiss"

But the Cat only wanted to smell Audrey ...

And now Audrey and the Cat are good friends.

"I think she likes me"