Managing to Post

Well! My winter has been going pretty well as far as mood. Using my light box also helped me maintain something resembling a normal sleep schedule, instead of my body insisting it couldn't be nighttime, because there hadn't been any daylight yet! However, I wasn't really very motivated, which is different from being depressed. I have interest in doing things I find enjoyable, but my body hasn't been responding with physical energy to get things done. From experience, this should start getting better very soon, so I'm trying not to let myself get discouraged. I'm thinking that I should do as many photo shoots as possible through my more productive time of the year, although I've also been suffering from lack of concentration lately. It's frustrating being bored, because you can't even focus on a five minute YouTube video!

However, I'm doing a lot better today (after being sick for almost a week on top of everything else!) These are a few things that I've been wanting to share, that won't require a ton of writing on my part.

For one thing, I'm going to an annual Pullip doll lovers event called PUDDLE. This year it takes place on June 6th, in Elk Grove, Illinois, which is a suburb of Chicago. I've been wanting to go to another doll convention since the Tonner event, and there really don't seem to be that many out there anymore. The Barbie convention is out of my budget, besides which I'm not that big of a Barbie fan overall. I'm hoping that PUDDLE will be an enjoyable experience.

Partially to get to know other Pullip doll collectors before the convention, I'm going to be trying to post more Pullip pictures on my Instagram account. This is the best I could do last month, but March should be better.

Of possible interest to doll photographers are these two sets I saw in the #SNAPSTAR line. I think Aspen's studio is more interesting, as it has the star shaped spotlight *and* a separate spotlight with three color filters. Echo's set only has one spotlight, although it also has the "pink carpet" props. Anyway, these sets might be a budget opportunity to pick up some small-scale lights for photography.

I have so many posts that I've been wanting to make! Hopefully, the rest of 2020 will be better for this blog.

#SNAPSTAR Green Stand, and Barbie Comparison Photos

Boy, November really got away from me. I've been trying to get my Vitamin D intake and light box use at the right balance, and there were just too many days where I wasn't up to doing as much as I did during the summer. The BTEG family has also been busy with other things, including making six homemade pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving, but I'll talk about that after the doll stuff.

In the comments of my previous post, Rachael asked if the green stand would work with other dolls. I promised her I'd check the stand with one of my Cu-Poche dolls and let her know. I didn't think it would take so long, Rachael!

Looking at the two stands, you wouldn't think a doll could use both, would you? However, note that both stands have a round peg at the end, and that they are close in size.

Yes, my Cinderella Cu-Poche can actually use the green stand! Now, the green peg is very close to being bigger than the hole in the Cu-Poche back, so it's not a perfect fit, and thus the doll can fall off the green peg very easily. Then again, I haven't done a lot of photography with the white stand yet, so maybe Cu-Poche dolls don't stay on those that well, either.

Since the green stand does work with Cinderella, you know what I had to do.

I green-screened her onto a beach on my beloved Lake Erie, from a picture I took a few years back.

Here's some other examples of green screens I have done. These two are from last Christmas.

 I put Poppy skating into this picture of me taken on the ice many years ago.

And here are Madeline and one of her friends driving down a snowy road.

Lastly, here's a picture from the first chapter of my storyline, which I really need to get back to. I had to dress Hunter in clothes other than his customary green top, which would have disappeared right along with their green background. I do have blue screen capabilities too, but not a nice blue backdrop, at the moment.

Also in the comments, Dana asked if the #SNAPSTAR body could be used with a Petite Fashionista. Unfortunately, the answer is no. Dawn is very much shorter than the Petite Fashionista and the Skipper body, which I threw in for further comparison.

If you'd like to hear about the BTEG family Thanksgiving, continue below the fold.

#SNAPSTAR vs Liv

When the #SNAPSTAR dolls first launched, so many people compared them to Liv dolls, myself included. And since I wasn't interested in the #SNAPSTAR dolls themselves, I really just cared about seeing them with Liv dolls. I was interested in their similarities and differences more than the dolls themselves. When I found a #SNAPSTAR doll for a good price, this was my chance, and if you were interested in comparing these two dolls in more detail, I hope you'll enjoy this.

Meet Daniela Liv and Dawn #SNAPSTAR. In this picture, they don't seem to have much in common, other than inset eyes, and oversized heads.

However, there is one thing that makes them stand out from most other doll lines, and resemble each other. This:

Yep, both of these lines have removable wigs, and both lines also have/had separate wigs available for purchase to change your doll's look. (I say have/had because the Liv line is long gone, although of course you can still purchase Liv items second hand, including those spare wigs.)

Not only do the dolls wear wigs, they both have holes in their noggins for a wig post.

So of course, I had to know if the dolls could swap wigs. One thing I noticed during the wig sharing was that Dawn's wig cap is much harder, kind of like a hat. Liv wigs, at least in my experience, need to be almost peeled on or off. This is not easy either, as the wig cap, while not as hard as a plastic hat, is fairly stiff.

Here's Daniela wearing Dawn's wig. It really does change her look quite a bit, and although you can see some of her painted on hair in the front, it's not a bad look for her.

I could see her wearing one of the #SNAPSTAR wigs that had bangs or something, very easily.

While Daniela's wig did not fit Dawn quite as well, it doesn't appear completely out of place, and it changes her look too.

This wig is loose on Dawn, and the wig cap doesn't touch all of her head. It wouldn't be good for play, as it would fall off all of the time. But it doesn't look bad here, and I like being able to see more of Dawn's face than her wig shows.

Wigs aside, one look at Dawn and Daniela will tell you they can't share clothes or shoes. Liv can wear some Barbie clothes; I do know that. For this post, I wanted to look at the newer doll on the block. Naked doll with clothing and shoe images under the fold.