Don't Call Them Dolls!

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So recently Anderson Cooper had a couple on his show who have a big obsession, with dolls.  Not just any random doll either. With Cabbage Patch dolls.  Now while I've never owned a Cabbage Patch doll myself except for two miniature ones and a knock off one I had as a child, I had the chance to buy one once a few years back from Walmart that had my birth date, and that alone almost had me shelling out the big bucks for a doll.  It was 60 dollars at the time for this doll that I honestly can't recall what she or he looked like. I just was a sucker for finally finding one with my birth date. Sadly they stayed on the shelf because I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much on the doll. 80 dollars on a tiny resin doll, sure, but 60 on a big poly filled doll, now way. Priorities people.


But back to Cooper's show, this couple really loves their dol...kids. They don't say the "d" word. The Cabbage Patch dolls are their kids or their babies. And no, this didn't come about because they couldn't have kids of their own, they have a grown daughter. It just started from curiosity and just expanded from there.  This couple was recently on a show on TLC showing their extreme collection. I have to see if I can watch it somewhere. I have to see how extreme this is. I do find it extreme that the couple lives in a tiny mobile home while their "kids" live in a climate controlled house roughly 6 times the size of their house. Now that's love and dedication for you there.  You have to hear some of the interview Cooper had with the couple, their daughter, and Kevin...their "son".


I don't know how I feel about how far the couple has gone with their collection. I mean I think it's amazing what they have collected, but they still have yet to build a house for themselves. The "kids" came first. You would think they would think about themselves first. I guess its the weird order of the priorities that gets me. I promise you I'd build myself a house first before building a big house for my hobby. But hey, to each his own. They seem genuinely happy, so more power to them.


And that's all I have to share with you today my lovelies.  Not doing much else dollwise right now because I am focusing on my health right now. I can't jump back into the hobby like I want until I am better, so please bare with me and the lack of posts.  They will return more frequently later on this year. For now a girl has got to be selfish and think about herself. :-) So yeah, talk to you awesome peeps again soon. Be good until then. Bye for now.  :-)


Exhausted from doing 20 miles on her bike (say what?),
Michelle

Still here.

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Hello my lovely doll lads and lassies, it's been a while.  I apologize for not updating here as much lately. I've either not been feeling well enough to do so, have had nothing to really write about, or have had other stressing issues like today. My mom had a "small" surgery, but she's been having issues with her heart and there was a worry that putting her under could make her have a heart attack, stroke, or even die. I think we all had that secret worry that we just refused to share until she mentioned it when she got home a couple of hours ago. I'm glad it's all over and hopefully we will learn something about what's going on with her. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers for me, will you.  Thanks in advance.

So as for me and the hobby, I'm still very much in it.  I just got a Jake Liv Boy the other day because I heard rumors the line was being discontinued, still have slight and hopeful doubt on that, and I needed at least one more boy to round out my characters for the story I want to work on AFTER I finish my initial story I started. I need to get started on that, but I don't have the space I had before with lack of the table I had. Still looking for a table or something and everything I find doesn't work. Thinking of going industrial and getting a folding table from Lowes or Home Depot. We'll see. I'm tired of the hunt and just want a flat surface to work on.

But I guess that's about it on what I've been up to. Just spending a lot of time not feeling well and very tired and exhausted. Been working on exercising and blogging on my weight loss Tumblr for motivation. I did start a doll and craft Tumblr to collect inspiration from. You can check it out here if you'd life. Follow me on there, especially if you are a doll blog. No, not switching to Tumblr, just really needed to blog about something and Tumblr is easy and barely needs any brain muscle to blog if you are in a lazy state of mind, which I have been lately. :-) 


And on that note I shall let you lovelies go.  I'll be back. Just need to get over this hurdle of a slump I'm in.  Hello to all my new followers! Thank you for your interest in my crazy world of dolls. I will have more to share with you all very soon, promise. Until then you guys and gals take care and I'll talk to you all really soon.  Be good until then. Bye for now.

Feeling sleepy again,
Michelle

Stuff Doll Owners Say

Hey guys!  So there is this new craze on YouTube where people make videos with "Things ___ say..." that is basically a video about, well, things certain people say.  The awesome AsenvaBJD has just uploaded a super cool, funny, and factual video called "Stuff BJD Owners Say", but trust me this will go for ANY doll collector.  I laughed my butt off at a lot of the things she said because they are so true.  So I had to pop on real quick and share the funny with you guys.




I hope you enjoyed that little laugh.  And I a off again. Still dealing with some nastiness health-wise, but trying to get better.  Also my computer is still messed up, but hopefully next week I will get it back to running without overheating.  Fingers crossed tight.  Until then I will be sparse with updates, but I will post when I can.  Talk to you lovely people really soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now.  :-)

Yawning and ready for sleep,
Michelle

Too Cute To Eat

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So I know we've all seen awesome miniature food from some great artists in the community, Corsetkitten I'm talking about you. ;-), but I doubt any of us would pass on a chance to see more awesomeness.  Jessica Hlavac from L.A. has the artful skill of creating tiny meals with unbelieveable detail. If you can't tell from the picture above, that's a "full meal" on a United States quarter.  In the article I read about her work there is a gallery of other foods she's made. One of my other fave pieces are the Twinkies and Ding Dongs she made.  They look sinfully good and are worth the whole look at the gallery...there's only a handful of pictures. :-)  But I just wanted to share this find with you guys.  :-)

 Sorry I haven't been around much.  My computer is still in need of work and trying to blog off my sister's computer is not easy, sticking keyboard, and also I've been focusing on my health and trying to get healthy again.  So I'm still here, just not here.  I'm spending time catching up on blogs for now, so expect to see me stop by to say hi.

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And I just wanted to say rest in peace Whitney Houston. I just loved her because she was an awesome singer and when I was a kid I wanted to be a singer and she inspired me.  I also loved her because here and I shared the same birthday.  I always thought my birthday and birth month was boring until I learned her and I had the same birthday. I'm so sad she passed.

And on that note I will close for now.  I hope you all are having an awesome weekend and will have an awesome week.  Talk to you soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now.

Thinking its time to get some sleep,
Michelle

3D Crafting?

So late last year I started contemplating making my own doll.  I have been looking at resin dolls ever since I took on the task of making my sister’s doll a wardrobe, and no it’s not done and yes I feel horrible about it.  Well I started looking at the mechanics of her doll and decided to research it some, my favorite online hobby.  Through my searching about how to make toys in general I came across 3D imaging and machines that can make 3D items right before your eyes.  It’s pretty damn amazing.  Here, have a look.

Now this machine is more of a personal one you can have at home, for a hefty price, and you can design and make your own toys.  But they have other machines that will design your items whole without splitting them up.  There are also services that you can have your item made in 3D, but that can also be pricey.

Further looking into these machines I began to wonder if it was possible to make a ball joint doll with these machines. I mean sure the material was strong enough to handle elastic going through it and being moved and rubbed against itself.  So I went to trusty old YouTube and searched for someone who may have done it.  My first several searches came up empty-handed.  It wasn’t until this month that I started looking at videos of people customizing dolls and making their own ball joint dolls that I finally found the video I’d been looking for.

Isn’t that neat?!?  I don’t know if she’s super delicate, but she is very nicely done.  I think I still prefer resin or abs or something a little more norm in the ball joint doll world, but this is a cool concept.  But then again if it is strong material, which I really do think it is, then this is just another cool option for making ball joint dolls.  I wonder how the material stands up over the years?  I wonder if you’d use the same customizing techniques on the dolls made from it as we do on resin or abs ball joint dolls?  Would we have to change the chemicals and items we use?  Does it absorb color like crazy?  How small of a doll could we crate without losing detail?  Could you imagine a 1/6th world we could completely create from just our own mind, some software, and a 3D printer?  Pretty cool huh?  I wonder where technology will take us next.    Speaking of technology, if you want to really create your perfect ideal 1/6th world, you could also look into this as well.

Technology, making it fun to be a doll collector.    And on that note I am off.  This was another old post I had waiting around.  Glad I finally got to it.  Really wanted to share it.  It’s amazing what computer issues can make you do.  I’ve been more active offline, I started exercise again, started reading again, and I’m going to try to do some writing before I pop off.  I’m feeling happily productive.  Oh and totally off topic, did you all know this year was a leap year?  I had no idea until I saw someone mention it on a weight loss board I am a member of.  Doing a February weight loss challenge, and WOOT, I’ve got one extra day next month to work it out.    Ok, I’m off.  Talk to you all soon.  Be good until then.  Bye for now. 

Feeling productive,
Michelle

Most Expensive Gingerbread House

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Wow, I’ve forgotten how I blog.  I wanted to make this quick post to try to clean up some things I’d been meaning to do and never gotten to, since I have to take my computer in to be cleaned soon.  I’ve got it working ok as long as I have a fan blowing on it.  Let me fill you in on something, it’s 33 degrees outside, my room is the coldest room in the house in the winter, my fan is right next to me blowing, and I’m wearing my jacket with the hood up.  In short, I do this for you. 

So around Christmas time I did a search for dollhouses because I was on the search for different ways to set up one, when I came across this interesting article about a gingerbread house made to look like a dollhouse basically.  It was located in Gothenburg, Sweden and basically instead of making your generic gingerbread house the person decided to show the inside of the house as well as the expansive grounds, and all of it, you guessed it, is edible.  Pretty neat right?  It’s 50 cm, a little over 19 and a half inches tall.  And why is it considered the most expensive gingerbread house?  In Sweden the house costs 35,000 SEK, or close to 3,000 Euro, if it were that price today it would cost us American peeps roughly $3963.90.  A bit pricey for a cookie house, for me at least. 

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But isn’t it pretty?  You can get some closer views of the inside here.  For food it is pretty detailed.  This all got me to thinking about how I would create a gingerbread dollhouse for actual dolls to reside in.  For one thing I think the house above is missing a gingerbread staple, candies.  I think it would have made it look more like a gingerbread house and not just a brown house covered in snow, kwim?

Then I started thinking, would I make it for 1/12th or 1/6th.  Now I would prefer 1/6th, but 1/12th seems like it would be easier to work with on a project like this, thinking size-wise and and all.  Maybe if I have a kid some day I will entertain this thought again and have them share in the fun of making it with me.  But I just had to show you guys this and try to bring some life back to the blog.  Still not back yet. I have a ton to do.  My emails are backed up again thanks to my computer, and so many other things are being pushed back. If you have emailed me I will get back to you.  Sorry about the super delay.

And that’s about it for this post. I will talk to you lovely people later.  Be good until then, by for now.

Wishing it wasn’t so cold in her room,
Michelle

Still here!!!

Computer issues. Mine needs a cleaning and will only stay on for short bursts before overheating. I will be back soon, I promise. Be good until then. Bye for now. :-)

Thankful for a loving sister who loans out her laptop,
Michelle