Where'd I put that gas mask?

I've been having a pretty dire writing dry spell lately, so I'm trying to channel energy into my dolls instead. Mostly this has meant some pretty pathetic attempts at teach myself to sew (How do you sleeves?!), but I've also been trying my hand at customizing again with mixed results.

Recently another local collector came by for a BJD spa day. Restringing, cleaning, body blushing, and faceups kept us busy. She brought her Minifee Chloe girl, Mimi, who I had fun restringing and repainting.

Here's Mimi before:

...and Mimi after:

Can you tell I had fun with the freckles? Because they were SO much fun. I'm mostly satisfied with how she turned out. Clearly I'm in dire need of practice, but her owner was happy, which makes me happy!

There are a few local girls with blank dolls, so I may get some more practice sooner rather than later. I'm (mostly) looking forward to it. Sunday it was a little too damp for spraying sealant, so I had some fun with the big kids instead.

D's already in serious need of being re-blushed -_-; She could probably use a new faceup, too. But that'll have to wait! I've got a hybrid in the works for later this year, and I'm desperately hoping that Unoalchemy doesn't go and do anything crazy, like a tan run of the Unoa Elder boys.

Still kicking

Well, hello there.

It's only been over a year, has it? Closer to two, more like. I could talk about everything that's happened since my last post, or explain why most of the pictures I've posted seem to have disappeared, but to be honest I'm still trying to understand exactly what happened, myself. Suffice to say that I took a bit of a hiatus from the hobby, but I'm back!

To be honest, I thought I might be done with collecting altogether. Enjoying the dolls I had left, sure, but done. Then I came across news of an Unoa lottery. Now, I should say that I've never won anything before. But Unoa's been on and off my wishlist since I joined the hobby ten years ago (!!!) now. I say on and off because, as previously mentioned, I seriously never win ANYTHING. I might have gotten a t-shirt once. And I could never find a doll I was really happy with on the secondhand market - something was broken, or there was significant yellowing, or the markup was crazy. I resigned myself to admiring Unoa from afar. I entered the lottery with a "might as well" and forgot about it.

Then I got the email.

Go figure, the one time I won something was when I had to pay for it. But no complaining here! I happily forked over for my prize, and prepared to sit twiddling my thumbs for months to come. Only months turned out to be more like a week, because the 13 tan girls offered up in the lottery were packed and ready to go.

And go she did, flying across the Pacific, breezing through customs, hitting my local PO just in time...for me to go on vacation.

I did say I never had much luck with these things, didn't I?

It was the Monday after I got back in town that I was finally able to pick my girl(s) up, and man was it worth the wait of 10 years (and then some).

"Paradise Skin" wasn't a term used anywhere in the lottery, but no complaints here. This would be my first Unoa AND my first tan doll, though I've wanted one for ages. And the term is accurate enough - her tan is a beautiful warm tone, like she's been hanging out somewhere warm and bright.

I quickly decided that the honkers on the large chest piece were a little excessive and swapped her out for the smaller boobs, going from one extreme to the other.

I'm really impressed with all the extras Unoalchemy included! I got Lusis and Sist default faceplates, the second chest piece, chibi feet, the clasped hands, elf ears, two wigs, and a nice set of gray eyes. I'm actually kicking myself for placing my order with Mako Eyes before receiving this girl...I rather like her defaults.

Sadly I haven't had much time to enjoy her, with work and errands. I've already packed the faceplates up to be sent off for their faceups. When they come back I'll take advantage of the nice lighting in my new place to get some decent shots (I hope). Will I say this is it for me as a collector? Who knows. But I can't remember the last time I was this over the moon with a new doll! I can't thank the folks at Unoalchemy enough for giving me a chance to acquire this beautiful girl, and I'm looking forward to watching her come together.