Drive-By Post: DRAGONS!

Robin got a new toy! Everyone needs their own Night Fury.

I found these in the How to Train Your Dragon toy section at Target. They're $2, and had at least two Toothless poses, and a few other dragons. I give mad props to the manufacturers for not making these blind-bagged - there are so many tiny tchotchke toys that I'd love to buy for the AG display, but I refuse to shell out $3-8 for something and not know if I'll like what I get.

(In other news, we saw Dragons 2 over Father's Day, and I loved it. There were a few issues with plot holes and characters I wish they'd done more with, but I love the ongoing theme of intellect and empathy winning out over brute force. Also, Toothless is one of the best animated characters of the decade, full stop.)

I'm also making progress on Elsa - the skirt is assembled and only needs the rosemaling painted on, and the shoes have their first coat of paint. Stencils have been my best friend so far!

Some Random Craftiness

Playing catch-up and catch-all in this post!

For Christmas, Pieface’s generation has finally grown to the point where we started implementing a gift exchange (she has seven cousins on her dad’s side, with #8 on the way  arrived on the 6th!). Pieface was paired with her youngest cousin, G. Now, a few years back, one of my sisters-in-law had made craft aprons for all the nieces and nephews, but little G wasn’t born at that point. So her mom asked me for an apron, and, when asked about colors/patterns, she said “Well, she likes red…and my nickname for her is Piglet.”

Bickety-bam, inspiration.

The apron is fully reversible, with a pocket on each side, and ties made of double-folded bias tape. 

The striped fabric is Graphix Stripes in pink and burgundy, from Fabric.com; the pink is solid broadcloth from JoAnn. 

I used measurements and the pattern from Aesthetic Nest (found via Google searching) – it turned out way too big for an 18-month-old, but at least there’s room to grow!

I also made a little Calcifer for my Taeyang Howl:

Calcifer, Howl's fire demon sidekick/servant/friend, is made of Translucent Sculpey (with a hint of orange mixed in). He's bowl-shaped - his inside is hollow - and I bought a pack of mini LED lights from Michael's to put in his innards.

I painted on some flame accents and his face with acrylics. If I were being completely book-faithful, Cal should be mostly blue-green in color, but he just wasn't reading as "fire" when I made a version in blue-green. (The final Cal was version #4 or #5...I went through a lot of unsuccessful prototypes.)

He sits quite nicely in Howl's hands, if I do say so myself!

I have quite a bit of crafty catchup to do - hopefully I can get pictures edited and posts up soon!

Happy Halloween!

Team Modern is prepped and ready for Free Candy Night!

Sunny: Luke Skywalker (poor Sunny - she always gets the thrown-together-at-last-minute costume. I need to do a dedicated costume for her.)

Robin: Astrid (with Trogdor as obligatory dragon)

Nasrin: Ren Faire princess (so pleased to have a costume that's modest enough!)

Lucy: Cinderella

Merrill: Carl Sagan (yes, the late astrophysicist. Merrill is that much of a nerd. :D) That Big Lots corduroy jacket is perfect for the '70's look! All she needs is a tiny copy of Contact.


So, Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it. Brush your teeth after chowing down, kids. And, remember:






HUFFLEPUFF HOUSE IS BEST HOGWARTS HOUSE. Let no chump tell you otherwise.

Have fun!

Still Alive, I Swear

...I seem to have a lot of posts titled with some variation on "I'm still alive!", don't I? Let's just say that, ever since my last post, life has happened in a big way. It's hard to believe it's only been two weeks since Gen Con, considering that in that time, my wee Pieface started school for the very first time, my car refused to start and had to be towed to a garage (where, infuriatingly, the mechanics could find nothing at all wrong, and it started just fine for them over the course of three days), I got called up for jury duty, my job has been blowing up with so many things to do and not enough time nor personnel to do them all, a good part of our neighbor's tree fell off during a storm, blocking the road and knocking out our electricity, we got the car back from the garage, and then decided to trade it in and buy a new car before it gave us any more crap.

Oh, and I have a cold.

So you can see where editing photos and writing up posts hasn't really been happening, yes?

Anyway, this weekend, I actually touched my AG dolls for the first time in ages (aside from moving them out of the way whenever necessary for costuming). Back-to-school time is on my mind - for the first time in eight years, I actually have to pay attention to academic happenings! - so I got everyone changed into their "first day" outfits and allocated their gear:




I am severely lacking in backpacks/bags for my girls.

New Year, New Doll Project

Hello, and happy New Year!

I hope everyone in blogland has had a good 2013 thus far. I'm just popping in to showcase my new doll project!

2012 was a very nice year, in that I had much more disposable income and could afford more doll stuff, and my collection grew accordingly. Now, though, I'm at a point where I'm sitting back and saying "holy socks, that's a LOT of stuff, am I really appreciating this or am I getting caught up in the Next New Shiny?"

So, in an effort to enjoy my collection and not constantly be chasing the Next New Shiny, I decided to take one photo a day of my doll stuff for all of 2013. One doll, a pair, a group, portraits, slice-of-life shots, whatever.

I'm collecting all the photos as a Flickr set here: Doll-A-Day 2013

Thus far I'm having fun with it, coming up with ideas of what to feature each day. Hopefully this feeling continues!

Behind the jump, a few photos from the set so far...

August: Adventures at GenCon

This August, I accompanied my husband to GenCon, a gaming convention in Indianapolis. Let me get this out front right now: my husband and I are both huge, unapologetic NERDS. I collect dolls, he collects LEGO, I sew costumes, he plays Dungeons & Dragons, we both love Star Wars and Doctor Who and Harry Potter and you get the point.

 This wasn't my first convention - I went to Prophecy, a Harry Potter-specific con in Toronto back in 2007 - but a tiny, fandom-specific con is far different from an established genre con that attracts 40,000+ people. This was an ADVENTURE.

 And, like on any adventure, Robin insisted on coming.

 

Catch-up: My AG Cribs

Have I really not posted anything since JULY?!? I have such a huge backlog, it's not even funny.
So I'm going to cheat a little bit, and repost something I did elsewhere. The AG>18 group had a "Cribs Week", where members showed off their doll spaces, so I gave a "tour" of the Dollcave.

This will also help me organize my list of things that need their own proper entries...

Never Grow Up's Fairy Tale Blog Party!

I love a good fairy tale, so I couldn't pass up Beast'sbelle's invitation to do her Fairy Tale Blog Party at Never Grow Up! So, behind the jump, my answers to a set of fairy-tale themed questions...

Moving, Once Again!

Lucy says "Welcome to my new room!"

The husband, the Pie and I are proud owners of our first home. While this house is old and has its wrinkles (howww did the last owner live without a vented kitchen sink and central air?!?), it has its perks...like a complete lack of loud neighbors and thin walls, and a spare bedroom to be the new Dollcave!

We're still getting settled in - I hope to have more pictures once every doll has found its place!

Saturday Craftnernoon Adventures: AG Pets!

Continuing the backlog clearout...it's Saturday Crafternoon Adventures, featuring Make Your Own AG Pets!

Okay, I'm pretty sure all of AG fandom had a simultaneous squee moment when we saw McKenna's hamster, followed by the biggest unsquee when we realized it was bundled with a bed that costs more than my monthly student loan payment. Like many others, I went for the DIY route.



Yep, it's a goldfish! He was inspired by my late Fishsticks, who was won in a carnival fishbowl toss game, and led a life of more longetivity and adventure than most fish.

Sunny's Continuing Adventures in Cornland

Sunny is my outdoorsy, vegetarian, eco-conscious pseudohippie. And living in an apartment with two indoorsy computer nerds and their nerdy kid is a little slice of hell for her. So she was super-happy to accompany me to my parents' place in farmland Indiana.

Clearing the Backlog: Friendship Photo Challenge #1

In August, my husband went to a convention, so I packed up The Pie and headed to my parents' for the weekend. While there, I got to borrow my mother's seriously awesome Canon PowerShot SX30 and took some photos for AG>18's monthly photo challenge. The theme was "Friendship":

We Return...to a Party!

ALL DONE MOVING! New apartment is much bigger, much nicer, and in a better part of the city, so YAY.

Anyway, it seems to be Party Time! Beast'sbelle over at Never Grow Up is holding a Disney Blog Party in honor of her 150th post (way to make me feel like a slacker, lol). Since I do have a great love for (almost) all things Disney, I gotta get in on this:

Popping in for a moment...

We're getting ready to move to a new apartment, so no new stuff right now.

(Yes, that's my entire doll collection right there, stacked on top of my dresser. This is one of those times I'm glad my collection is still pretty small!)

Excuse Me While I Flail With Joy

So, ever since I got back into the whole American Girl thing, I have loved the purple Jumper and Boots set from 2008.

Of course, it was retired right before I started collecting again.

So I've spend the last year scouring eBay, Craigslist, and AGPT to see if I could snag it for a decent price. (Needless to say, I don't consider the $35/ $40/ $50+ BINs a decent price.)

I won it on eBay, Monday night, for $22.50. LESS THAN RETAIL, even with shipping. I nearly went incandescent with flaily squeeful joy.

It arrived today, so here's Robin wearing the shirt and jumper:



Robs took one look at the boots and declared that Heels Are For Chumps, so she's modeling it with the Singing Star boots (plus her favorite necklace and signature hat).

After the New Stuffapalooza which was January, I spent nearly all of February in a state of doll burnout (hence why it took me forever to post again!). My burnout was cured by this bit of cuteness:



The Kid took a shine to Addy - I got her down one day and let The Kid see her, and instantly it was off to her room for hugs and storytime:



So now burnout is over, and crafting has re-commenced:



After Addy arrived, I was aflail with New Dress Planning. Felicity said, in no uncertain terms, that she would cut me if New Girl got a dress before her long-delayed Birthday gown was made.

Felicity knows where I sleep, you guys.

In which I recieve a Karma Beatdown

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: In my last post, I gleefully weaseled into my Christmas presents and did a sneak peek.

Turns out, karma's a...well, you know.

The next morning, I woke up covered, head to toe, in giant red welts, thanks to an allergic reaction to some amoxicillin.

I ITCH EVERYWHERE. Take my advice and leave your Christmas presents alone!

In prettier news, we got snow last night!



Also, Lucy and Robin are preparing for the holidays:



Lucy's skirt is still held on with pins. Velcro and I are not getting along today.

Hope everyone's having a happier Sunday than I am!

The Next Project, and More Small Doll Stuff

Okay. Okay. I have finally started it.

Not Felicity's birthday gown. Again. I keep thinking "I need to just do it already", but other things crop up and demand first dibs on the Sew Mini.

Nope, I'm talking about this:

Lots of Small Doll Stuff

So I had a load of shops to visit today (trying to finish Halloween and start Christmas, yikes), but I happened to find something for my dolls at each place!

Drive-by Posting

Just a few pictures from Saturday night life in Casa Nachos:



Work is going well on Lucy-as-Elizabeth's yellow gown. I'm using McCalls 3627D, same as my very first dress for Felicity, with a few alterations. Obviously, I substituted fabric ruffles for the lace trim at the neck and sleeves, and I'm forgoing the underdress + top design, and will just sew the skirt directly to the top.

I did this with Lissie's dress (the underdress + top design just seemed way too bulky on her), and hopefully I can preserve the point at the waist this time.

Also, I have to say this is going exceptionally well, considering that at some point, I lost the directions for the top.



My husband has a small collection of the Star Wars Galactic Heroes mini-figures, and I discovered that they are a great scale for AG. Robin is particularly fond of Chibi Vader.

(One day, one glorious day, they will make the Doctor Who Time Squad mini-figure line available in the US, and I won't have to shell out $50 for a set.)