October Instagram Challenge Day 9: Yellow

This one was a tricky one for me. I couldn't think of a lot of things related to autumn that are yellow, besides leaves. I did have a picture of one of my dolls next to some yellow violas, but that didn't feel very seasonal. Finally, I just went with Madeline's yellow hat. Fiona has just found it, to complete her Madeline Halloween costume.

Some of the upcoming challenges are a little bit tricky or overwhelming too, but I'm looking at this as a good exercise in discipline. Sometimes, if you really want to get a project done, you need to do the work even if you just don't feel like it. Sometimes, there are real physical or mental health issues, but many people, I think, just don't feel like doing a creative project if the spark isn't there. That's definitely been me in the past, but there are so many things that I want to accomplish, that I want to develop better discipline.

Twelve Days of Christmas - Day Four: Barbie

The Christmas holiday is a perfect time to catch up on craft projects!

Huge accolades to the Swedish knitter here who has put up over one thousand doll knitting projects for free.

J-Doll Punkka Street

This is the second J-Doll I got during the sale at Groove; the story of that purchase and the other review is here. This doll has been gracing the top of my blog for several months now, but I'm finally getting out her review. As always, this doll is named after a physical locale. Punkka Street is in Finland, "where an old castle sits amid surrounding forests and lakes." The theme Groove chose to use with her was "water sprite." I named her Anni after a Finnish vlogger I watch.

Anni photographs beautifully, but it was hard to capture the real color of her hair. The above picture was taken in our front bedroom, which faces north. I also took some pictures in my bedroom, which faces south. The southern pictures did not accurately capture the color of her hair. The ones in the north bedroom turned out better, plus I took a couple of pictures outside in the sunlight. Here is Anni wearing most of her outfit.

That's the last you'll see of those shoes. They're the same as the ones that came with Stephen Avenue Walk; they're way too big and don't really march the arch in her foot. She also has knee-high stockings, a dress with a thick belt, a small lace jacket, a hat and a purse.

Above she is standing, holding the purse that came with her. The purse is another wasted accessory, honestly. The faux leather has cracked and come off in multiple places, and I think this probably happened to all of these purses, and not just the display model. The color of her purse, shoes and the flower on her hat are also interesting to me. They don't match her hair, eyes, or the beading on her dress, nor do they harmonize. At least the hat is nice, so she could wear it with something else.

Here are up-close views of her jacket and belt. As usual for J-Doll, the jacket is a little on the small size. The belt is really more of what you might call a sash. There's actually a lot of material in it, sewn together in bunches, and decorated with beads.

I was not fortunate with Anni as far as cracking plastic issues. This is what her left arm looks like just below the wrist. Of course, she was a traveling display doll at one point.

And below are a couple of pictures I took of Anni in direct sunlight. I don't think the picture of the back of her head accurately captured her hair color either. It's probably actually closest to the pictures with the northern light. It's very nice hair, not super soft, but not overly coarse either.

She's a beautiful doll, and I'm glad I managed to get a good deal on her. She has too many outfit issues, plus the arm crack, to have been worth full price. Her delicate face and inset eyes are her biggest appeals; she'd make a lovely water sprite.

J-Doll Abbott Street Review

I've been holding off on buying any more J-Dolls, even though I had some on my wish list, because in my opinion, the retail price was just too high for the quality of the doll that you got. However, I was fortunate enough to read about sales at the online Groove Store that is in English and ships to the US. One of the sales Groove runs is a sample sale, which means dolls that were on display at conventions. The dolls usually don't come with a stand, and they may not have all their accessories. Supposedly Groove is very good about inventorying the sample dolls and letting you know what you're getting; there are no refunds. I ordered two dolls and it looks like both of the dolls came with all their accessories. The stands aren't that great, in my opinion, so I wasn't worried about getting one of those. I did end up not getting a stand with either doll. Shipping was also very minimalistic. This is how the box looked when I opened it.

When I pulled away the paper, the dolls were wrapped in plastic with their accessories loose. This is probably how they were transported to and from conventions.

Since I have a lot of great pictures of each doll, I'm going to review them one at a time. Today I'm reviewing the blond on the right. This J-Doll has the Type 4 body, and originally came out in 2010. She is named after Abbott Street, in Cairns, Queensland, Australia. Even after looking it up online, I can't really say much about Abbott Street. Some of it looks like a business area, some of it looks like residential, with gorgeous lines of trees on either side of the street. I didn't see many pictures of actual shops or housing.

So my girls needed names! I have named J-Dolls in the past, based on the streets they were supposed to represent. However, I just wasn't feeling Abby as a name for this doll. Since she's from Australia, I could have been somewhat cliche, and named her Sheila. I didn't feel like doing that either. I decided to name her after my favorite Aussie doll blogger, Rachael (only I changed the spelling; sorry Rachael!) So Rachel is her new name, unless the blogger Rachael objects!

Even though my first view of my new dolls was through plastic, I was reminded again of how delicate the faces of the J-Dolls are. Rachel also has shades of pale pinks and browns on her face, that come together really well with her hair and blue eyes. She's probably one of the prettiest J-Dolls I've bought yet.

Being from Australia, she of course has to have a hat. But Rachel seems to be a very girly girl, so she's put her own spin on it, adding a pink cameo on the front.

Some of her hair is held behind her head with a piece of off-white lace. I don't know how long that will stay on; it doesn't really seem to be firmly attached.

Her dress seems very boho, with her multi-tiered skirt. She has also decorated her dress with a belt and a chain, with circular and leaf-shaped charms on the chain. On her legs are lace knee-high stockings. She finishes her look off with what we in the US would call cowboy boots. Of course, she has also girlied the boots up by adding lace trim and applique.

As you can see in the middle pic directly above, she also has a jacket that she is wearing half on, half off. When I took pictures on the day with the Angelina Ballerina house background, I couldn't get the jacket on, because her right hand would not come off (and still won't!) However, I wanted to get some more pictures with better light, and this time, I managed to very carefully work the lace sleeve of the jacket over Rachel's right hand. With the left hand, it is far easier to do, as the fingers on her left hand are curled up. As is usual with J-Doll jackets in my experience, the jacket is very prettily detailed, but could have used a bit more material so you could see more of it from the front. Also, there is a loop in the threads woven through the top of her dress, where the thread got pulled. I'm going to have to try pulling the green thread straight, with tweezers.

And speaking of details, I really do like the details in her necklace, especially the fact that Groove used a lobster-claw fastener, which is rare in dolls Rachel's size. I also like all the lace and tiers in Rachel's skirt.

It seems, however, that the purse made absolutely no impression on me, since I only realized when I sat down to write this review, that I took no pictures of it at all! I didn't want to do a *third* photo shot with Rachel, so let me share this manufacturer photo, where the purse looks pretty much like what I got. Like her hat, the purse is made out of a kind of suede material, but Rachel has girlied it up with lace. Girlfriend really likes lace!

In the past, I've talked about my good fortune in getting J-Dolls that didn't have cracks in the plastic of their limbs. Well, my luck did not hold out here, although to be fair, these dolls were technically second-hand. I have no idea what previous handling these dolls had. Rachel's right arm has a crack near her shoulder joint.

When I went through my older J-Doll posts, I noticed that Abbott Street was on a wishlist I posted in 2015. Getting her in only two years isn't really that bad! I'm happy with the price that I paid for her, too. I've learned to enjoy these dolls for their beautiful faces, lovely inset eyes, and their poseability. The clothes and accessories can be hit or miss in terms of quality; I like most of what Rachel came with. Ironically, the boots are the sturdiest pair of J-Doll shoes that I've gotten to date, yet the lace on them makes the boots look a little off to me. Still, I am happy to have added her to my collection.

At Long Last, the Liebster Award

Presto tagged me for this award ages ago, and I feel guilty, because I've had blogger's block lately. I also have no idea who to tag for this. Eleven people is a lot to tag, and most of the bloggers I know have already been tagged for this. So I'm going to answer the questions, finally, and let it go. :)

1. What kinds of toys got you into collecting and customizing? 
Barbie got me into collecting, when I started buying them as an adult. I don't really do customizing, yet. I'm actually seriously considering passing off painting to my youngest daughter. She does a fantastic job painting miniatures for Pathfinder games, so I think she'd be a natural. I do have a Belle doll that has had part of her lip paint rub off; I keep meaning to make this my daughter's first doll project. :)

2. What's the coolest way you've repurposed something to work on/with one of your projects?
Oh dear. I haven't really done this, either. At least, not as an adult. As a kid, I had the Sunshine Family dolls, and they were all about making sofas out of milk cartons and dressers out of matchboxes. I've turned bookcases and shelves into diorama roomboxes as an adult, but lots of people do that.

3. Sonic or Mario?
Mario! Although my daughters regularly smoke me at MarioKart.

4. What do you do to find inspiration?
Since my doll projects involve sewing, I look at all kinds of clothes, from historic to modern, for real people and for dolls. My Pinterest account is mostly dedicated to clothes for inspiration.

5. What time period would you most like to live in, other than the modern one?
The turn of last century. There were still beautiful, elaborate clothes, but things I like having, like indoor plumbing, were also becoming more common.

6. When has a project just made you give up? Why?
As far as sewing projects, I've given things up when I try to create a pattern for something over and over, but can't get it to look the way I want. I've also tried knitting a blanket for a doll bed, and given up on that three times. One was when the pattern wasn't written correctly, and it took me several tries to realize the pattern was wrong, and not me. By that time, I was sick of the whole thing. One was a lacy blanket that was enjoyable to work on, but every time I made a mistake, I couldn't figure out which row was which when I unraveled. Lastly, I tried a pattern where I just couldn't get past the first few rows without making a mistake. I'm using the wrong yarn or something, at least for me, I think.

7. What's the most versatile tool in your arsenal?
Well, my sewing machine, definitely. But when I have to do hand sewing, my best go-to item is not a tool, but a book.

 Not only are there all kinds of stitches in there, but the directions are just right for me!

8. When has a project surpassed your wildest expectations? How?
I don't know that I will ever make anything that surpasses my wildest expectations. I'm a perfectionist, which means I can always look at something and say, "I could have done that better." I'll show you a picture I made for a contest, where I wanted 16" Gene to look like she came from 1907. I ended up happy with this one, because I thought the silhouette and general style were pretty much 1907. I drafted the pattern and made everything myself, including the hat.

9. What's your all-time favorite movie?
The Wizard of Oz. And somehow, doll manufacturers do seem to come up with some unique takes on the movie costumes, now and then.

10. What's a skill you want to learn someday?
Painting plastic furniture. Especially the extra touches that make an item really pop and look realistic.

11. If you could live in a fictional universe, which one would you pick?
Does Narnia count? I mean, Earth-as-we-know-it is part of that universe, but Narnia is its own place.

If for some reason I missed you being tagged, and you want to play, email me and I will give you eleven questions!