Vita Plastica

Oh my friends, this is it, the end of my baby vacation. Three sweet months of pretending I'm a stay at home mom. So bear with me, the posts might have a delay. But I always say that and realize that I just love writing. It was my first baby long before (or long after) dolls captivated my interest. So I'll always be around. Anyway, let's get to it. My Doll Room: Since I am returning to work and my doll room is also my dressing room, it really needed some work. Again. Here it is before: And after: I get my workspace again, Dani's house (mustardy walls) joins the record store above the apartment building. The gypsy caravan gets stored. It just takes up too much room. My hutch was going to be a photo staging area but the shots came out terribly. We'll see. The euro sham pillow cases on the bottom are not glamorous but they hide the doll furniture well enough. It's hard to see how much nicer in there it is what with those damn cedar walls. Ugh, I can't wait t...

I didn't expect her until Thursday, but my Military Girl Momoko arrived!  She's adorable. But aren't they all?  I like the stand but it's a bit cumbersome. Plus she doesn't even need it.  I love that she comes with a tank top and panties. The suit will be going elsewhere. One day I'm going to have a customized Barbie airplane hanging from the ceiling of my fantasy doll room. So now the pilot has a nice outfit. By the way, please notice that I've added white contact paper to the kitchen walls. That jacked up butcher block will be dealt with soon.  It's yellow and blurry but I love this picture. Momokos have a great body.  Flexy ankles too.  Here she is with BFF Sooki, who pulling a Winehouse here. I was not prepared for the height difference, but it gives a little variety. My only complaint is that her face is pretty boring. They all look alike. Another complaint is the mouth. Her mouth looks really strange. Cartoonish. Well, too cartoonish. I ...

Forget pregnancy cravings, I have doll cravings! I've been obsessed with the idea of creating a goth style house for Sooki but she's 16 and making her an emancipated minor is just going to reek havoc with my storyline. And I decided that my dolls are frozen in time and not allowed to age. Sorry Sooki, you're 16 forever. But this goth palace idea keeps haunting me. hahaha no pun intended. There is so much cute goth/Victorian stuff out there. So many ideas for wall coverings and delightfully spooky 1:6 scale goodies to hunt for. So after much internal debate, I've decided to get Simi from Ashton Drake: Okay is she worth $150? No, not really but I'm a little in love with her. And really, Sooki's adorable and could go the Harijuku Goth Lolita route, but Simi's dead sexy (oh my god, really the puns are not intentional!) and could be my dominatrix goth chick. All my crazy patten leather get ups will have a home! I can use Stinker's Stuff walk in closet tutori...

Hi you guys. Tell me: How did you get into doll life? Leave a comment or blog about it. For me it was Indian Barbie. This was about 14 years ago: Being at the time obsessed with India and having never grown up with a Barbie that wasn't either black or blonde, I was amazed by her. I was just walking through Target minding my own business and there she was. I thought she was gorgeous. I named her Pria. I took a few pictures of her but without proper furniture it looked silly. And without fellow dolls, she was a useless knick knack. For the next several years, I would buy lots of dolls and furniture, then get sick of it and give them all away to my niece. I did this 2-3 times. Finally my niece grew up, packed it all up and gave it back to me. I did a couple of silly photostories, but mostly just posed them and didn't name anyone. I moved to NY and started doing a couple of silly photostories and making oh just the saddest looking sets ever: Then I found Fashion Royalty. I was sudd...

Happy Friday All! What a great night I had. The hubs and I ordered our new luxurious king sized bed, bought new bedding and I came home to a surprise: stuff from Smidgehouse ! I ordered a doll photography book and a set of lights from her and they were waiting for me, lovingly packaged. Thanks Smidgey! So tonight, I will be lounging in my enormous bed, reading about photography. Then tomorrow I'll set up my doll room (furthermore to be called my 'studio') and try some practice shots. But ya'll, it's payday and it's basically the Year of Luxury so what's say we buy something yeah? I know I said I could not fall in love with any more dolls but you never have enough do you? I was not very pleased with Dynamite Girls' Vintage Vinyl Collection. They look so cartoonish this time around. But the way other doll collectors photograph them can change everything. For instance Electropop Jasper. She looked like the dorky one of the set, the lonely and unloved. Afte...

Okay so my birthday isn't until Thanksgiving week, but the hubs decided to give me present #1 early. A new digital camera! I'm so excited. I've only just been fiddling around but I've gotten the best shots. It's a Nikon Coolpix L22. I don't know what that means, but it's red! He also got me a small bendy tripod (and a full tripod on its way). And not only that, but thanks to Smidge , I will soon be in possession of not only lights but the FDQ book I've been thinking about getting. My dolls goals for the new year are really taking off! Anyway here are some shots I just took: Nadia finally has a moment alone with her crush, Miho. Felix has had enough with Hana's overt flirting. Josephine and Ms. Fear look on. Goth teen with daddy issues, Sooki, escapes her sister's party with Aragorn Ken. With flash: And without flash: I think this is the best picture I've ever taken. I love this camera. Who's a good boy? Of course a better came...

When my daughter was born, I decided to take a break from photostories. Setting them up takes forever and you can never be quiet when working with plastic. Many naps were destroyed at the hand of dollplay. So most of this year was more focused on the crafty side. Spraypainting the Barbie pink out of perfectly good furniture. Creating some custom rooms for my little friends. A new year is upon us soon. Each year my friend Carey and I assign a name to our years instead of making resolutions (I always did love a theme). Then you make that year reflect what you want (by the way having a "Year of Abundance" and a "Year of Expansion" could result in a state of pregnancy. Just sayin'.) So 2011, which will begin with the birth of my second daughter will be the Year of Luxury. I can apply this to my dolls too. I am happy with the dolls I have and frankly I don't have room to fall in love with any more girls right now. Then I have to find her a boyfriend and make her...

I'm so excited! I did it. I bought Flight Pattern Kyori! A thought a very good price at $75. I was considering buying her nude but that would only save me about $20. I'm sure one of my other girls will be very happy with her outfit. So uh, I guess this means I need to get to work on my caravan, huh? I promise some pictures this weekend! Josephine's dining room is nearly done now. I just need to hang the chandelier and decide on a guest list for the dinner party. Hope you all have a great weekend! smooches, dani

As I stare at the unfinished gypsy caravan, I realize that this home belongs to no doll. Okay in my story, it will belong to my yet to be named Male Gypsy doll (Mattel's Fox Mulder doll). In La Vita Plastica, the men do not own homes. Maybe it's sexist but male dolls are only to entertain the females. So anyway, why would I bother finishing a home for a doll that didn't exist? So my friends, it is my goal to obtain a good gypsy doll. I was going to use a Model of the Moment on a Fashionista body (the one showing off her chichis). But since changing her body...Does this ever happen to you? You want to give new life to a doll so you change her body and suddenly her whole person changes? So gypsy 1 was okay on a M of M body but changing her just made her sort of cheap. And the M of M body just won't work for her job as a tarot card reader (with all the sitting involved). Anyway, if you're going to steal a man away from a $100 doll, you better bring it. So after doing...