An Evening Of Chess At The Doll House! Also, Doll Plants DIY Ideas!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

Happy Tuesday! I don't know about your neck of the woods but in mine today is the last day of school! Hallelujah! We made it through another year. Looking forward what will hopefully be a laid back and restful Summer this year! I'll pray you have the same!

There have been so many things I've wanted to tell you about in Doll House happenings that I am sort of doing a multiple purpose post here. Recently I discovered Be Chic Forever YouTube channel and she has so many clever ideas! I just adore her Doll House and her sense of style. It's a bit different than my own, she is very 'minimalist' in her decorating scheme and I am more 'hodgepodge collector', but that's half the fun of making a Doll House is that you get to decorate it to reflect your own tastes. 

One of the crafts she showed how to make was doll sized planters and vases and I absolutely adored the way hers looked! Having 'plants' in her doll house made it look so much more 'real' that I knew I'd have to give it a go and try and 'make' a few of my own! So... In the photos in this post, you'll see what came of my attempts. 

Here is a vase of flowers I put together... The vase, naturally, was thrifted somewhere along the line... The picture of the bird and the two ducks are recent (like in the last week) thrifty finds! The picture of the duck is a OOAK Art Card! Isn't it pretty? It was only 50cents with the frame included! The ducks were 25c each, not a bad deal for $1.00. I think the ducks look like they were made to go with the vase, don't you? See that very faded photo of the girl in the heart frame? That was me when I was younger, on one of my first Military ID cards as a young Army wife. The other side has a photo of my husband from same place... Or maybe these were from when we were teens as AF Brats? I don't recall for sure. But I've had that frame since I was like 19 and a newly wed. So, as you can see, I've always loved miniature things!

This Tea Set was also a thrity find. I thought it was kind of funny that it was 'pre-priced' $2 from whereever it was originally purchased and then Goodwill marked it $1.99. No matter to me though, I thought it was certainly worth $1.99... Cos goodness knows I need more doll dishes. Right? Teehee.

Here it is in the box in case you like it and want to try and search for one yourself.

I love that it says you can use it with food! How funny.

Now, if you take a look at the top of the beautiful glass front bookcase you'll see a couple of 'potted plants'. The planters are wooden napkin rings I got at the Thrift Store!! (see photo on this link) I simply glued a circle tags I already had on hand that were the correct circumference to the bottom of them so they'd hold plants. There was a small hole in the tag but it wasn't like I was using any dirt. I used the leaves off of some flowers that I used to put in a vase for all three of them. The taller of the planters (on the clock) I simply glued two of the napkin rings together to make a taller one. I love how they came out and I have another batch of napkin rings I got at same time that I plan to make more 'planters' out of. How fun!

The adorable chess set that Josh and Frank are playing with? Also a thrifty find, it's meant to be a travel sized game for 'real people' but it makes a perfect doll sized chess set! I love it!

Frann is pulling out a few extra cups now that Spectrum and Oliver have arrived! 

I am going to have to let the rest of the 'story in photos' tell the story because Blogger ate up all my writing time this morning by taking half an hour to upload this post... Bummer.

I made this bouquet and so of course Josh Doll had to present the very first doll bouquet I ever made to Heather Doll. Right?

"I better get these into some water!"

"Thanks Josh!" 💓

I took a lot of these with a YouTube Video in mind... So once I get that to upload, I'll come back and post a linky in case you want to see it!

These are kind of funny photos but I wanted to show you the flowers on top of the hutch and the pink flowers in the vase below... Another couple I put together. I can see this might get addictive, this flower and plant thing because they are so cute and pretty easy to put together. Coupled with my apparent talent at finding little vases and vessels, I think I'll have more in the future. Haha.

Better run!

XXOO
Heather

Wigged Was the Answer!! Electra Gets New Hair!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!

Computer problems!! I've been having them and so didn't get a chance to post at all this weekend. I'd like to say that since I couldn't get on computer, I spent the entire weekend creating creating creating... Sadly, although I had a million ideas in my head but just couldn't muster the energy to implement them. Does that ever happen to you? I suppose all hobbies wax and wane. 

Don't get me wrong, I did do 'doll stuff' this weekend, I created a new doll house background so now I have three large backgrounds with the viney Contact Paper 'Wallpaper' like you see in the kitchen here. I like to have more than one of the same paper because then I can make very large rooms or rooms that expand into two (think living room and kitchen) with the same continual wallpaper. If that makes sense. 

I also re-dressed and combed out or re-styled the hair of several of my dolls. I find that incredibly relaxing and fun to do... And being as I have so many dolls I could likely change and style two or three a day and still end up with dust in the hair of a few anyway...? Teehee. Maybe not. I try to change out and style each doll at least once a season. (Ugh, that sounds terrible! But it's not like the sweat or get dirty, right?) I am rambling... Sorry about that! On to the subject of this post!

Electra got new hair!! The other day, in a previous post, I couldn't decide for sure, once I cut my Tolly Tot Electra's hair, if I should actually just let her keep her original, albiet shorter, hair. So, I decided to wash it and see what I thought afterwards...

Ironically enough, before I washed it, it looked reasonably cute in a 'shoulder length bob' sort of way and I thought I'd done a so-so job of cutting it. 

However, after her wash out and hot dip, you could really tell I have no idea how to cut hair. Haha. Seriously, there's a reason people go to school for that. Eh? Boy haircuts are more forgiving, I think and I've pulled off a few of those but girl hair is a different matter altother apparently. 

Poor dear! Looks a bit forlorn!

I asked my husband his honest opinion about how she looked and he said "Well, it's a bit choppy..." and I knew that, despite the fact that I loved how her hair likely was originally (Those purple highlights are so cute!) the fact was it was pretty much ruined. Oh well, at least I tried to save her hair before I chopped it all off. Eh?

I got her wig from EXQUISITEDOLLDESIGNZ Wig Shoppe. I actually took photos of the envelopes when they came in but I guess I forgot to post them in this blog draft. The package was identical to the first one though. This wig, I must report, was one of the tightest of the wigs I've ever bought. I literally had a moment where I thought it must've just been made wrong and I'd maybe have to send it back or something!? I kept yanking and tugging, having to repeat to myself over and over again that this wig was made for a doll this size, I got it on. At one point, I even went and measured the Tolly Tot head to make sure it's not a lot larger or something and it's the same. It seems like Sew For Dolls had a similar issue with one or two of the wigs from Exquisite Doll Designs but, as she said, one nice thing about it is that, once you get that wig on, you likely don't even need to glue it on because it is not going anywhere. I may try and push the end of the tip of my glue bottle under it at certain places just so it's 'glued' but maybe not because it's on pretty securely just with it being so tight.

What do you think? Isn't she adorable with her new wig? I think I am going to change her name now that she looks so much like a friend of mine. So I think Electra is going to become Jan. Maybe I'll let her keep Electra as her middle name but I've needed a Jan doll to represent one of my life long freinds in the Doll House and this little lady looks just like her with her now 'all white' hair.

Better run, out of time...!
Have a great week!
XXOO
Heather

Introducing Spectrum! Another OOAK Doll In The Doll House!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends!!

Uh oh... I've seemingly become somewhat obsessed with doll wigs and customizing lately. I mean, I've done many doll makeovers in my time writing this little blog here but the further I get into my doll hobby, the more bold I get in my choices. Since I do have quite a few dolls (And isn't that a nice calm way to say that about this Doll Army I've been building? Hahaha!) I guess I have decided that some of them deserve a bit more attention rather than collecting dust in their wigs. Right? All dolls need some love afterall. 

So finding the 'fantasy' colored wigs has been so much fun! I say 'finding' them as if I hadn't seen customized OOAK dolls on Pinterest and such. However, I guess I found the wigs so 'expensive' when compared to, you know, an entire new dolls (hair included!) that it seemed silly to buy them. If that makes sense? That being said, now that I really feel I need to stop buying dolls so much, spending 'doll sized money' on new wigs for the dolls I already own started to make more sense. Not to mention that I found the 'first' fantasy wigs I bought  were a really great deal. Finding those made me start to watch eBay for other pretty and affordable options in the fantasy wigs. So that's how I happened to find this one... For some reason, the night I found and bought it, it was marked only $13.99 plus $4.95 shipping! So less than $18 shipped!? What?! Naturally I bought it immediately because the other wigs in the sellers online shop were all in the $30 range save one that I also wanted to buy that was marked a dollar more than this one. However, sometimes when you've spent quite a bit of money on doll stuff your Doll Mad Money can run low and even another $18 isn't in the budget so I just purchased the one. When I went back to look the very next morning, the prices were both back up to $30?! So... Suffice to say I am totally stoked to have gotten at least the one for such a great deal!! (And trying not to kick myself for not buying that second one for such a steal too! LOL) 

So what is the shop? It is called Exquisite Doll Designs and they have both that Etsy shop and an eBay Store for Exquisite Doll . I linked the Etsy shop first because it seems she sells them a few dollars cheaper there (likely because lower fees than ebay I imagine).

So here is the wig as it arrived. I loved the little chevron printed bag and the wig was also in a plastic ziplock bag and a hair net with tissue paper in the cap of the wig to holds it's shape. Very top notch all around.

I decided that Adilyn (on the left) was going to be the one who would be getting a new wig. I originally found her for only $2.99 and brought her home and cleaned her up and admired her... But mostly she just sat on the shelf especially since I got her sister Aliyah  as a gift from my husband. Because I am not trying to play favorites but naturally the doll I got from hubby means at least a bit more to me than her thrifted sister. Is that wrong? Eitherwise, she was collecting dust in her hair. Poor dear. So... It was time for a whole new lease on life! 

Here are the two sisters next to one another for the last time where they both have the gorgeous jet black hair. Don't they nearly look like twins despite Adilyn being a Journey Girl and Aliyah being an Espari doll? Actually, poor Adilyn had been rather roughly played with at her last house and I suspect her hair was quite a lot thinner than it might've been when she was new out of the box. So a new wig wasn't totally out of the question in any case. 

They really are pretty sisters! They are named after a couple of sweet girlies I know in real life who used to be in the Awana program when I was a teacher so they really are special to me for that reason too.

So meet Spectrum Adilyn!! I gave her a new 'fantasy' name but kept Adilyn because I didn't want her to get some manner of identity crisis. Hahaha. She, in my 'doll stories' will still be Aliyah's sister... Just with fancy rainbow hair. 

Isn't she gorgeous!?!?! I know she is going to see a lot more time in Doll House photos now because I smile every time I look at her. 

The wig is really nice and I love it. I am positive that, as soon as June comes and my Doll Mad Money is replenished, I going to be purchasing at least one more. Maybe that is what I'll do, buy one a month as I slowly re-make dolls in the doll house who need more love? So if you're looking for a great doll wig at a great price, check out this great seller. I am sure they'll become a favorite of mine.

I changed the photos to grayscale like I like to do sometimes and thought it was so interesting that in these photos, you'd think she had blonde hair with highlights! Don't you think?

Better run!
Till Next Time!!
XXOO
Heather

Summer Gets a New Body!

Hi Doll Friends!

Once upon a time I gave a Positively Perfect Doll a doll armature because she had a soft body and couldn't even stand up on her own. However, sadly, even though she could stand up, she still had the shoulders that were really not too attractive in shoulders so mostly she just sat on a shelf. Recently, deciding I was no longer going to keep dolls I was luke-warm about, I decided I better do something with her or donate her. So... She got a body transplant.

I couldn't bring myself to part with her because I still think that this doll has one of the prettiest face sculpts I've ever seen and her hair is gorgeous!! So... All I needed was a doll body. Since I was weeding out dolls I wasn't 'in love' with, I had several options to work with.

I decided this doll's skin tone was as close as I was going to get and so it was the one.

So, off with their heads!!  Haha.

When I got 'into' the Our Generation Body that was going to be hers, I realized it was one of the poseable type and, in a way I've only seeen once before, the head was attached to the armature it had. Uh oh! Will the PPD Doll's head fit?!

Luckily they had nearly identical necks and so it worked like a charm.

You'll have to excuse my really dreadful looking stitches. This must be an older OG doll body because the fabric was more of a muslin and acted like it might fray and so I had to make my stitches really overlap the fabric if that makes sense. Luckily clothes will cover it up unless she wears a swim suit and then her hair will likely cover it up.

So... Meet Summer again! She's got a whole new lease on life and will make a great model in future doll photographs! Awesomeness! 

Better run!
XXOO
Heather