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.

International Cat Day

This morning I found out, via Simon's Cat, that today was International Cat Day! How wonderful that it takes place on Caturday! It is a day to promote feline health and welfare. I couldn't pass this day by, especially as more doll people seem to post pictures of dogs. Cats need (more than) their share of attention, too!

Our featured cat was originally a member of the Sunshine Family. I got rid of most of my Sunshine Family stuff, since it wasn't a good size match for anything else. However I did keep the cat and dog, although poor doggie has an eye missing.

Here Fern pets our orange kitty. She likes more animals than just pigs. :)

The only other two doll sized cats that I own (I think) are these two, whom I got as a table favor at a Gene doll dinner. They make good not-quite-grown-up kittens for the Sunshine Family cat, especially the orange one.

If you are a cat lover and have not watched the Simon's Cat cartoon videos, you need to start now. Here is the first, Cat Man Do.

Madeline's Horse and Carriage by Learning Curve

Between them, Eden and Learning Curve turned out some very nice dolls, pets, clothes, furniture and accessories for the 8" Madeline doll, based on the character who first came to life in a series of books by Ludwig Bemelmans. One of those was a horse and carriage for Madeline and a companion to go driving around the streets of Paris. I love carriages, and Madeline's seemed very nicely made, so after quite a while of looking on and off, I found one. Since Madeline is only 8" (20.3cm), I expected the carriage to be nice, but not exactly very large. Imagine my surprise when I found a box this size at my front door.

It was quite a handful to carry up to my bedroom. I was glad it was easy to get out of the box--four twist ties around the horse's legs, two around the carriage wheel, and a zip tie that can be seen where the dolls' feet would rest.