Vita Plastica

Hmm, I dunno what's wrong with me but I'm bored of dolls. Maybe it's because I know that all spare money will be going towards Christmas. Maybe it's because I lost the little thingy that attaches my camera to my tripod. Maybe it's due to Thanksgiving preparation and sick babies, which provided no time for my little friends. Maybe it's because my photostories are waiting for Comic Life and for a Dragon Body for my new boy head. Well at least my heart still skips a beat when I see my dolls in their homes, doing the same thing they did last week. And maybe I'll post some crap pictures just so I can take down the set and start the Xmas set. Maybe I'll get my mojo back at the end of the year with my new dolls/equipment/software. Maybe I just need a nice trip to Big Lots where I will say I'm going to get tree lights, but will come out with arms full of cheap doll stuff... Hey do any of you collect 16 inch dolls? I have a cast iron pot belly stove that I...

Ever have one of those days? Where you are totally unmotivated to do ANYTHING. Even, gulp, doll things? That was my Sunday. I suppose all the hormones and such just made me feel down. All I wanted to do was watch TV. But we quit our TV addiction, so I mostly just whined. Then the Hubs went out and got us a digital converter and antenna! We actually watched the Simpsons for the first time in ages. And realized, much to my horror 1. Iris loves Barney and 2. Barney was singing a version of Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough. Okay TV, I'm going to start slow with you... Anyway, I'll have some pics for you soonish. I practically have all of next week off so there is no excuse! (Except that whole carrying around another person thing) Oh but on Saturday I finished my nightclub set and realized even more the awesome posability of action figure girls. Everyone else was tumbling over with the least agitation, but Dusty held strong in her dancing pose. smooches, dani

Have you ever reached a point in your collecting where you're like "Okay, I have a problem"? I should have known this would happen during the Year of Luxury. When your main goal is to BUY, you're headed for trouble. I'm glad I decided to temper it with some craft work. Craft goals of the remainder of 2011? Collect/make/paint doodads for my mid century apartment. Speaking of mid century apartment, I said to the Hubs, "So what should Miho's other room be? A kitchen? A bathroom?" He vetoed both. "You already have a kitchen and a bathroom in the other houses. I think you need a new bedroom." Hmmm. So I found some homemade stuff on ebay. But then I found this bed on etsy! I saved it to my favorites, knowing it was meant to be if it was still there on pay day. The price was awesome too. Now I had set some money aside to pay for my laptop which is in the shop. So really there was money just sitting around. It's not like I was going to pay fo...

DUDE. So I'm cleaning up and organizing my studio. I decided to make my first, real collapsable background. I don't have all the stuff I wanted on hand so I put together some foam core scraps and started planning things out. I have about 4 "brick" wall sheets of varying stages of age, disrepair and discoloration. These were printed out from Jim's Printable Minis . Might as well have a project as my furniture order still isn't here. My studio (I still feel so pretentious calling it that) overlooks the front yard. And who do I see pull up? The most loved and hated figure in doll world, the mail man. But he was walking up the driveway with a BOX!!! My furniture is here!!! I got it at Liz Retros on etsy. I'm giving her a shout out at the risk that all of you will be buying her stuff and nothing will be left for me. I once read an article in one of those doll mags and this lady was being really secretive about where she finds her stuff and that's just not ...

I have a zillion things on order right now, from doll stuff to kid stuff and nothing had arrived yet! Each day I return home looking at my front step in excited anticipation and each time it's just a stack of flat packages which can only mean one thing: comic books for the Hubs. *Sniff* The day before yesterday was much of the same. I didn't even look at the pile of mail. But then, the Hubs sang, "There's something from Hong Kong...." YAY! Birthday prezzies! He got me two punk rock girl outfits. So cute, down to the little safety pins! Here are my models: The stockings are too big for skinny Dynamite legs, but they'll be fine for some of my other girls. The best part is that if you remove the safety pins, they're like another outfit. The jacket might lose the safety pins. Too many pins and you look like a total poseur. And yesterday, this arrived: (Hey Smidge , didn't you just win the same one?) I'm not impressed. The shoes are worse quality than ...

Oprah has a favorite things episode, right? Well I'm going to do a Favorite Things Blog Post. I don't have the riches like Oprah, so ya'll won't be getting anything. Sorry! Well at least I like cheap stuff. This month, it's thin flimsy wooden stirrers from Starbucks or your favorite local coffee chain. The ones with square ends, not rounded. The rounded ones are actually of better quality but they involve more cutting. I have loads of those too, but I haven't used them yet. They have come in very handy for someone like me who probably won't be working with wood and saws until we own a house (and I have a workshop) or the kids get older. Also, I'm not so good with making straight cuts out of any material. Thanks to these stirrers I was able to make Josephine's paneling as well as the wainscoting. Also I'm going to use them to frame windows because my cuts were just sad looking. I even have the foam core with grid lines! Maybe in the future I...

No, I have not taken that plunge and I don't know if I will ever. Not sure if I will find it as satisfying to play with oversized miniatures. I do love their realism though. Some of them are just gorgeous. But anyway, that's not the point. The point is that I mistakenly bought a pot belly stove for my dolls but it's huge. I'm not a fan of returns. I know, I'm nuts. But a piece of clothing will sit, unworn in the closet until it's time to do our charity closet purging. So I have a pot belly cast iron stove that will probably be suitable for 16 inch dolls. Anyone interested? If so I'll take some pics with my dolls so you can get an idea of the scale. I'm not great with the idea of selling things either, so it's yours for free. Maybe I'll charge you for shipping because that sucker is heavy. Lemme know. smooches, dani

Good Morning all, Yesterday, we tried to watch as many child friendly Halloween movies as we could. Iris already loves Nightmare Before Christmas (but doesn't let us leave the room while it's on. A bit spooked?), so we watched that again. Then the Hubs, always nostalgic and childlike pulled out Rankin and Bass's Mad Monster Party. Do you guys remember this one? Here's the trailer. So for both of them, I now watched them with a different eye, the one sixth eye. Look at those props! When you look at Nightmare before Christmas, you can see how everything was handmade. Such amazing work. And Mad Monster Party was no less impressive. I mean, cellophane as water? So primitive, yet so brilliant! Really inspiring stuff. You may recall a couple of posts ago, when I talked about the new living room set I just bought. I spent a majority of the weekend preparing for its arrival. I kicked Hana and Nadia out of their apartments. Sorry ladies! We'll set you up with something soo...

Oh no, did you hear Joe Tai died? :( http://rnddolls.blogspot.com/2010/11/rest-in-peace-joe-tai.html The doll world has suffered a great loss. See his dolls here: http://www.joetai.com/