Happy Halloween!

Our three friends here are on their way to a costume party. I think they're going to get the best prizes, don't you?

You will be seeing more of me in November!

Chapter Five: A Letter

Addi and Sig started at the knock on Felicie's front door, but Felicie remained calm, at least outwardly. "It's probably someone coming by to get some of my produce or medicines," she said as she rose, and went to the front room of her cottage. Addi and Sig however, heard a tone of nervousness when she saw who was on her doorstep.

"Madame!* Welcome!"

"Isabel, please," said the visitor as she stepped into the cottage. "I'm passing through on my way to visit one of my friends. I wanted to take her a couple of your delicious jellies. I heard the berry crop was remarkably good this year."

"I'm honored. Please, take this comfortable seat here. It will only take a minute to get the jars out of my pantry."

This Isabel, however, did not sit, but followed Felicie into the kitchen. "Oh, forgive me, you have visitors already!" said the girl ingenuously.

"Yes. Madame de Corseul-Yverdia, meet my guests, Sigismund and Adolfina Jager. One of my friends from their area asked me to host them for a night. They're passing through," Felicie said firmly.

"Isabel, please," repeated the girl. "Titles are stuffy! Only my sister makes me use them."

Felicie rapidly moved to the pantry and returned with two glittering jars.

"Thank you, Felicie," said Isabel, laying some coins on the table. "My friend Rosamund will love these!"

"I hope she will," said Felicie, subtly trying to urge the princess towards the door.

"Oh, and I have a letter for you," Isabel added. "I imagine your postmistress was happy not to have to send someone out here. I hope you've enjoyed your stay here," she said to Sig and Addi. "Goodbye, Felicie!"

Felicie showed Isabel out, then returned and sat down with the letter. "You probably guessed that was Queen Eleanor's younger sister. She runs rather wild sometimes, but her sister spoils her. She's rather sharp, and oftentimes more curious than a princess should be."

"Rather coincidental, her visit," said Addi thoughtfully.

"Well, yes," said Felicie slowly. "I presume she was already passing this way, though, so perhaps... it's nothing."

"Let's hope so," said Sig cheerfully. "I hope your letter is good news. Should we leave while you read it?"

"Oh no," said Felicie. "I'm sure it's nothing important." She opened the letter and scanned over it quickly. "Hmm. Another coincidence. I wonder..."

"Is there something we can help with?" Sig asked after a minute or two.

"Well, you may as well know," said Felicie. "When my aunts fled this region, my eldest aunt moved to a quiet town named Beaumont, in the kingdom of Normandie. This letter is from her granddaughter, with whom I keep in touch. She's not part of the Marchen world, but she mentions in passing that there have been several break-ins in the capital city of Rouen, and she's worried, because the thieves have apparently moved on to the countryside. There's recently been a break-in at the summer home of the royal family, Roseraie."

Sig turned to Addi as she drew in her breath. "Roseraie has long been in the royal family of Normandie," Addi explained. "Supposedly, it was once a hiding place for one of the younger princes, who had been turned into... a beast."

Sig sighed. "I see. Felicie, do you know any Marchen who live there?"

"No, I only know my cousin. My aunt made the choice to leave the fairy life behind, for the safety of herself and her children. The truth is, my own fairy powers are rather limited. My mother worried about too much power leading to more evil. She only passed down some of her abilities to me."

"Louise might know someone," said Addi. "Ulfer clans try to stay in contact with at least the nearest clans in their regions."

"Hopefully she'll know someone to send to investigate, too," added Sig.

"Do you know, Sig, I think we ought to handle this ourselves," said Addi slowly.

Sig stared at his friend. He trusted her judgment, but he still felt his duty to point out that could possibly draw more attention to themselves than they wanted.

"More attention than you might know," said Felicie. "The current daughter of the king of Normandie is named Rosamund. She's likely to be the friend our inquisitive Isabel is going to visit, seeing as they're both royalty."

"That may make it all the important that it be you and I, Sig, that go."

"You know something, Addi," said Sig.

"No, I've guessed something. But I may very well be wrong. Do you trust me enough to draw possible attention to yourself, in the case that I am wrong? I imagine Louise can find someone else to accompany me."

"No, I've begun this, and I'll see it through. But I wish you could tell me what you suspect. You've always trusted me."

Addi sighed. "Let's get to Normandie and find out more about the situation. If we find what I think we will, I'll tell you what I'm thinking. We'd better get over to Louise's village and see if she knows a Marchen near Roseraie."



*Although the current story location is not in a unified France, it's obviously in an area of what today is France. I did some research on what princesses were called in French royalty, and my best guess is that Isabel's royal title would be "Madame de (her home kingdom.)  I'm taking a little license here, as the kingdom of France did not allow reigning Queens, as we see the Queen Eleanor is in this story. Therefore there really isn't precedence for what the younger unmarried sister of a reigning Queen would be called.

Shibajuku Girls Clothing Packs

I've seen information about the new Shibajuku Girls line of dolls online here and there. They have a sort of anime look, and their clothes are supposed to be based on Japanese harajuku fashion. I'm not interested in the dolls, but I did decide to check out a fashion pack when I saw them at TRU.

I didn't realize until I bought my second fashion at Target, that Rachael has already reviewed a Shibajuku Girls doll and her outfit, here. She's got some excellent comparisons of clothing swaps between the SG dolls and several different dolls. My post won't be nearly as comprehensive; I just wanted to show the two fashions that I bought. Also, while the fashion packs do come with one giant hair clip accessory, I didn't get pictures of those. The hair clips would suit a Pullip or Blythe or similar doll. The fashion packs do *not* come with the shoes or socks like the dolls come wearing.

The first outfit I bought was a black vinyl jacket and dotted tulle skirt. The skirt fits the Made to Move body, and closes in the back with Velcro. It's not exciting, but it is nicely made. Like the dress below, it has a ribbon underneath that goes between the legs. It fits a bit shorter on the Barbie body than I would like.

The sleeves of the jacket are far too small for a Barbie size doll, and also too short. I had to remove Ashlynn's hands to get the jacket on her, but the fit is fine once you get it on. The jacket is held together at the bottom by a piece of Velcro. For some reason, the sleeves are slightly gathered on the seam, which is odd for a "leather" jacket. I also nicked a small hole in one of the sleeves while cutting off one of those wretched plastic tags. Still, whenever Ever After High starts its motorcycle gang, Ashlynn will be ready.

Grrrr. I'm a Rebel.

Next is a dress, which I liked because of all the different colors, especially the ruffles at the bottom. It looks cute on Briar. For reference, this is a Ballet Briar who I rebodied. I also took down her bun/roll.

The facing of the neckline kept rolling up on Briar. I'm not sure if it's because of how it fits the Ever After High body, or if it will happen on the Shibajuku Girls doll it was actually made for. I can tack the facing down with thread, but the collar pieces don't lay nicely either. They're not completely finished underneath, only along the edges, which I think contributes to how they roll up. I suppose I could make a very tiny tack at the corners of the collar pieces, to hold them down. Or I could try steaming them flat with my iron. I'm afraid if I try to tack the collar pieces down, they will rip a hole in the dress.

The armholes in this dress are incredibly tiny, so the number of dolls it will fit are limited. I had to take Briar's hands off to get this on, just like the jacket above. The Velcro also sticks out a lot in the back. But at least the dress patterns go all the way around to the back *cough.*

At $9.99 each, these outfits are not *cheap,* although you do get the hair clip in addition to an outfit, if you're into those for your dolls. But these outfits don't really work for Barbie, who has fashion packs in abundance. There are no commercially produced Ever After High outfits, for example, out there, and a handmade dress from an Etsy seller will probably cost you more. The price point isn't bad considering these are somewhat uniquely sized. Also, if you like the outfits, but not the dolls, as I do, it's great to be able to buy the fashions separately. The other outfits I recall seeing were a pastel fabric jacket with a pastel tulle skirt, and the sailor schoolgirl uniform that Rachael reviews. If this first wave of dolls goes well, I hope we'll see more fashion packs down the line.

Ever After High Stuff

I finally decided to give Chinese website AliExpress a whirl, and my first purchase ended up being two pairs of Ever After High shoes. I picked them up from the post office today, and I'm happy with both pairs. Since they're not "official," they're not painted like many EAH shoes are, which I like, since they don't "go" with any particular doll's outfit or color scheme that way.

The first pair of shoes are from the outfit of Legacy Day Madeline Hatter. They look very pretty as Madeline wears them, with the teacups in different colors. I would also like these if they were all gold; Maddy's shoes are mostly bright gold, and I like the color. I'm not sure how well these shoes would take paint, however, since they are not solid plastic, but a bit more like rubber. In any case, they're beautifully detailed. Since I don't have a Maddy, Holly stepped in to model.

I could try just highlighting some of the details on these shoes with paint. That would be less of a worry than painting the whole shoe and wondering if the color will stain the doll's foot.

The next pair of shoes was designed for Cedar Wood. On Amazon, I saw a picture where the straps are a bright pink, and the leaves and the branches on the platforms made to stand out with some black shading behind them. Again, I might consider doing something with these shoes to bring out the patterns on the platforms. I also don't own a Cedar Wood, but since Ashlynn Ella not only loves nature, but can never turn down a new pair of shoes, she was glad to model for me.

Not only does Ashlynn have new shoes, but a very special furniture piece. I blogged about wanting to repaint this item about a year and a half ago, but I'm glad I never did. It belonged to a Cinderella doll set my youngest daughter had, appropriately enough, a shoe shop.

This bookcase reminds Ashlynn of her beloved mother, Cinderella. It even has a picture of her Dad, Prince Charming.

For now, I'm also going to display books from Legacy Day dolls on top. I only have one book right now, belonging to Briar. I'd like to get Legacy Day Ashlynn and Cerise Hood at some point, if their prices go down. Getting into Ever After High late, I missed getting some of the earliest dolls at good prices.

I have actually started painting some other furniture I have, now that the weather is warm enough (some days) to spray on an initial coat of Krylon before I start the actual painting. That will make up at least one other post, probably more. I'm documenting my work every now and then through the process.

Two more things:
1. I got both of my daughters watching the Ever After High webisodes. That actually made them interested in looking at my dolls! :) My youngest daughter even suggested she should get a Holly doll, and her sister a Poppy doll. My eldest daughter likes dying her hair, and just dyed one side purple, although it's more of a Raven Queen purple.
2. When I got my Legacy Day Briar in the mail, my husband brought the box in and opened it for me. At which point he said, "Briar? Don't you already have two of those?" (I do, First Chapter and Spring Unsprung.) I guess he does pay some attention to my dolls (although in this case I think a lot of that is because I've been buying dolls from our shared Amazon account.) He also watched a couple of EAH short videos with me, although he didn't get sucked in like my daughters' did. :)

Has anyone else gotten any doll items from AliExpress? I know SmallerPlaces has, and also BlackKitty.