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Showing posts with label Angel of Dream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Angel of Dream. Show all posts

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Den of Angels

Not weeping angels, thank God.  No, the ball-jointed doll hobby is abuzz with the news that Den of Angels is closing.  This is kinda a big deal since Den of Angels is where a lot of folks in the hobby organize meetups, buy and sell, show off their dolls, and talk.  No, the site isn't going away completely; the archives and the databases apparently will still be up for reference, but no posting will be allowed after this August.  Now...while the admins claim the site will still be left up, I want a way to back up my dolls' biographies since they took a significant amount of time to plan out and I don't want to forget anything.  Good thing I've got the blog, right?  I admit that I've cut and pasted the dolls' bios straight from Den of Angels, since it was a lot to type out the first time.  I'll start with my oldest doll, the one I love the most.  Fair warning, his taste in music is predictable if you know me, LOL.

JOHNNY HAILEY
COMPANY:  Angel of Dream
SCULPT NAME:  Tao Hua Dao
DATE OF ACQUISITION:  March 12th, 2016
EYE SIZE:  16mm
WIG SIZE:  6-8 (I think his current wig is a size 7 with a silicone cap)

CHARACTER INFO:  John Alec Hailey is the lead character of the storyline. He was born in London, England in 1963. He grew up in a poor but close family with both parents and his sisters Anne and Libby. He excelled in school but mostly kept to himself due to bullying and an undiagnosed social anxiety disorder. In the middle of 1979 his parents died, and shortly thereafter Johnny and his sisters found themselves in a futuristic Martian town (Armenia City), without reason or explanation. Beings who deliberately fly to Mars are referred to by natives simply as immigrants, while beings who are summoned there by the Martians are referred to as "Transplants." Johnny, Libby, and Anne are Transplants, though their Martian friends have not revealed their reasoning for transplanting them.

Regardless of the Martians' reasoning, the change has been very, VERY hard for Johnny. He is kind and loyal, but do to his SAD he's very shy and quiet. Making new friends and settling into a new school have been challenging for him. Things are not helped by the fact that his new hometown is inhabited by elves, leprechauns, and more than a few Martians, one of which he read about in The Martian Chronicles (Ylla). As the only living male in the family, he has also taken it upon himself to be the breadwinner, and that's not easy either since he has to clothe, house, and feed himself and two other people. Despite all this, Johnny is slowly learning to relax around people and overcome the hurdles that have been dropped in his path. The local doctor got him properly diagnosed, and he's now getting the help he needs for his illness. He has succeeded in making a carefully selected group of comrades, and he even has the beginnings of a love life, something he's never had before. Johnny's eye is set on Johanna Skye, though he is completely unaware that she reciprocates his positive feelings. He is devoted to and fiercely protective of Anne and Libby, and he isn't particularly fond of Libby's boyfriend Niki.

If you take out the time travel factor and the mental illness Johnny is still a little on the eccentric side. He is a staunch conservative, a devout Lutheran, and an avid reader. H. G. Wells, Ray Bradbury, Hans Christian Anderson, and J. K. Rowling are his favorite authors. He passionately hates winter and loves springtime; in fact, his dislike of winter is so strong that I sometimes wonder if he's not got seasonal affective disorder as well! Johnny loves music; his favorite artists are Sir Elton John, the Hollies, the Moody Blues, and Electric Light Orchestra. His fondness for Elton John led him to take up the piano and singing, and he's quite good at both, though he's still working on overcoming stage fright. Ylla, who is a music lover, is helping him overcome that last bit. Johnny is also quite interested in girls, though he's still learning how to act around them without tripping over his words. He's a bit of a candy-gobbler, his favorites being HiChew, flying saucers, Licorice Allsorts and Skittles. He collects stuffed animals, which he treats like we treat our ball-jointed dolls. His grail is a Steiff bear, and if I can find one small enough, I plan on making that happen for my Johnny.


ALISTAIR ADALWOLF

COMPANY:  Dream of Doll
SCULPT NAME:  Elf Kirill
DATE OF ACQUISITION:  June 13th, 2016
EYE SIZE:  16mm
WIG SIZE:  7-8

CHARACTER INFO:  I love Johnny and always have, but he's kinda set in his looks.  I wanted a ball-jointed doll that I could "play with," and I fell in love with another Den of Angels user's Kirill, so I hopped on DoA's marketplace and found an affordable one for myself.  Rhidell was their name, so Rhidell, if you're out there, your doll remains alive and well and is in good hands.  Anyway, Alistair Rufus Adalwolf is of German and Welsh decent. He was born into a large family of werewolves who largely kept to themselves in the coal-mining region of south Wales. From this upbringing Alistair learned how to live off the land and how to take care of himself. During Alistair's adolescence rabies swept through his pack. Yeah, rabies. His father and most of his family died of the rabies, but Alistair had to put the remaining few (including his mother) down himself. Heartbroken over this tragedy (and his unwilling involvement in it), Alistair joined the Martian Settler Program and emigrated to Armenia City.

On good days Alistair can be found at school, acting like a normal, everyday seventeen-year-old. On bad days it's not uncommon to find him alone by the river, hunkered down under a tree sobbing. Alistair's despair stems not only from the death of his family, but on the fact that he is a werewolf, a being that is usually doomed to damnation after death. He turns to God on a regular basis for forgiveness and prays constantly that his soul will be spared. He does have his moments though, and when he does he's inconsolable.

In spite of his inexperience around humans, Alistair has a wide circle of friends and has managed to earn Johnny Hailey's trust. He hides his sorrow behind machismo and is seen by his classmates as an average student and a flirtatious clown who loves to laugh and joke. Sometimes he takes his jokes too far and ends up in detention, but for the most part he's well-behaved. Of course, full and new moons make his inner wolf come to the surface. As a result, Alistair has to take medicine every day to keep his transformation in check. He uses an injectable concoction of wolf's bane and some other things that he hasn't revealed to me yet. He uses this like diabetic humans use insulin, and when people ask him what he's up to, that's how he explains it. Only his closest friends know his secret, and none of them have figured out why the wolf's bane does not kill him outright. Even Guinevere, who mixes the medicine, is at a loss over that one.

Outwardly Alistair resembles your average seventeen-year-old, and that's how he wants it to stay. He likes barbecued ribs, Mexican food, and root beer, and if he had his way he'd eat nothing but those three things. His favorite colors are red, red, red, more red, black, and oddly, pink. "What's pink but a lighter shade of red?" he always says. Alistair likes flowers, particularly wolf's bane (what a surprise), daffodils, and painted tongue. He's interested in girls and enjoys a healthy platonic relationship with most of my girl dolls. His one exception is the orange mushroom-eater, Ju-hwang. Alistair and Ju-hwang have been casually dating for awhile, and he plans on asking her to go steady soon. Though his grades are only so-so, Alistair does enjoy a good book; his favorite authors are L. Frank Baum and C.S. Lewis. He enjoys the company of his friends and is fond of vintage arcade games, though the two don't always mix. Alistair has discovered that Ylla also loves arcade games...and much to his chagrin, she's unbeatable at Alistair's favorite game, Pac-Man.


GUINEVERE SKYE



COMPANY:  FairyLand
SCULPT NAME:  Juri 2013
DATE OF ACQUISITION:  Head A on September 13th, 2016, Head B on September 23rd, 2016.  She does not have a body yet.
EYE SIZE:  14mm
WIG SIZE:  7-8

CHARACTER INFO:  Guinevere Hollia Skye is an elf. She spent her life with her family, a seemingly close-knit but strict group of elves that harbored a mild distrust towards humans and the outside world. During her early years Guinevere developed two personalities, one for daytime (which she spent at home) and one for nighttime (which she spent on trap lines in the woods). This personality trait led to tensions between Johanna and her family, which wasn't as stable as she thought. Her overly-curious mother stepped out on her father multiple times, and one of these affairs resulted in Guinevere. Guinevere sought out her birth father who proved to be a member of a rival elf clan, and when the Skyes found out they disowned her. Guinevere subsequently joined the Martian Settler Program and travelled to Armenia City. She regrets nothing; she knew that the Skye clan was already planning to throw her out due to her split personality.

Guinevere tries to keep her mental illness in check, but there isn't much one can do for a split personality. By day she's demure, shy, and sweet, but by night she's bold, adventurous, and a little on the sarcastic side. Guinevere doesn't know why her family resented her for this split, but she does realize that it's confusing for her friends. She is thus trying to merge the two sides of herself into one happy medium. She's succeeded a little; both sides are brave and fiercely loyal, though Guinevere insists that both sides were always that way. Ylla begs to differ, saying that Guinevere's day personality was timid, while her night personality was two-faced and prone to volatile mood swings.

Guinevere's split personality makes her a bit unpredictable, but she is not a danger to herself or to others. She has managed to find a close friend in her Martian housemate Ylla K. Ylla is able to read minds and can thus predict what Guinevere is going to do. She has managed to deduce that Guinevere's personality shifts are prompted with the rising and setting of the sun, and less dramatically, with the changing of the seasons. This has done nothing to stop Guinevere's shifts, but she is better able to prepare for them. Ylla and Guinevere have slowly become inseparable, though they are quite different. While Ylla is calm and rational, Guinevere is easily excited and a hopeless romantic. Guinevere is also close to Chloe, who accompanies her on her foraging outings.

Since she is unofficially the town apothecary Guinevere doesn't have much time for a personal life. When out of school she spends her days gathering herbs and mixing her medicines. Her evenings are spent hunting for meat. She is particularly skilled at mixing the wolf's bane concoction that Alistair uses to control his lycanthropism. In fact, she is so good at this that Alistair doesn't trust anyone else to mix and fill his prescription. In spite of these time-consuming tasks Guinevere does enjoy a few hobbies. She particularly loves collecting blind-bag figurines. I've managed to put together quite a collection for her, too!

As I insinuated above, Guinevere has a fairly wide circle of friends, though her split personality makes her a little nervous around newcomers. To an outsider she seems quiet, but she's just trying to figure out whom she can trust. She gets along well with her roommates and with her schoolmates, and enjoys a close platonic relationship with Alistair Adalwolf. Her love interest is shy, naive Johnny Hailey, who is completely clueless to the situation. This drives Guinevere nuts, but she isn't sure how to resolve the situation. She doesn't know whether to leave Johnny be or to try and pursue her heart's desire. Both paths could potentially break hearts and end in disaster, but both could also end happily. Poor Guinevere is very conflicted, and her situation is worsened by both her split personality and the dissenting opinions of Chloe and Ylla, both of whom she respects. Chloe is convinced that Guinevere and Johnny would be perfect for each other, while Ylla insists that Guinevere will be happier pursuing another boy. Guinevere has told me that she feels like a leaf caught in a storm, being pushed and pulled violently in all directions. Despite all this turmoil, Guinevere remains cheerful and optimistic, confident that one day her puzzling life will fall into place.


CHLOE FAULKNER
COMPANY:  Bobobie
SCULPT NAME:  March
DATE OF ACQUISITION:  October 12th, 2016
EYE SIZE:  14mm
WIG SIZE:  5-6

CHARACTER INFO:  Chloe Ashling Faulkner is a leprechaun. Her past is ambiguous since she keeps much of it a secret; she has not revealed to me her age or her nationality, though her accent and name give away the latter as Irish. She lives in the same Martian town as my other characters, and even they don't have a clue how or when she got there.

Regardless of her mysterious past, Chloe is a welcome denizen of the town. She resides in a house with Ju-hwang, Ylla, and Guinevere. She is energetic and cheerful, much to the delight of her friends. She's also extremely mischievous, often joining Alistair in his practical jokes. She apparently is quite intelligent, as she does not attend the local school. This has proven to be something of a problem since most of Chloe's roommates are teenagers and have to spend most of the week at school. Chloe spends her free time weaving, cultivating apples and dandelions (not easy in Martian soil), cooking, and accompanying Guinevere on her hunting forays. While Guinevere hunts for meat, Chloe puts her knowledge of mushrooms to use. While Ju-hwang can eat any mushroom she chooses without ill effect, the other girls cannot. Thus Chloe has to know which mushrooms are safe for all of her roommates and which are only suitable for Ju-hwang's midnight snacks. On her downtime Chloe provides a listening ear to Alistair, who sometimes needs to shed tears or vent anger, and to Johanna, who suffers from a nasty case of love-sickness. She is my little Wishel Wozzeck's cousin, though neither Chloe nor Wozzeck has revealed to me how a leprechaun and a tiny humanoid can be related. The two stick to that story though, and they're close.

Chloe's age is ambiguous and her intellect suggests maturity, but her hobbies are very girly. She loves My Little Pony, Care Bears, flowers, and the color pink. Her small size means that she mostly wears childish styles, though like most of my characters anything is fair game. Being a leprechaun, she also loves gold and anything gold-colored. She is a hopeless romantic and would love nothing more than to see Guinevere and Johnny get together. This often puts Chloe at odds with Ylla, who wants Guinevere to think a little more rationally.

WOZZECK WINTERGATTAN
COMPANY:  Wishel
SCULPT NAME:  Unbeknown...I guess
DATE OF ACQUISITION:  November 15th, 2018
EYE SIZE:  N/A
WIG SIZE:  4-5

CHARACTER INFO:  
Wozzeck Alban Wintergatan has yet to reveal his full personality to me. I do know that he's a cheerful, relaxed little chap who loves to smile and put his new friends at ease, and I know that he loves his naptime. He also likes to play, but more often than not Wozzeck can be found zonked out in his favorite egg chair. He insists that my leprechaun Chloe is a distant relative of his. I've yet to figure out how a leprechaun and a tiny little humanoid can be related, but Chloe backs up Wozzeck's claims and the two have formed a bond. When Wozzeck is not sleeping he likes to play with his best friend Tatsumaki (unshelled at this time), though the two are complete opposites in terms of personality. Wozzeck, as I said, is a laid-back sort, while Tatsumaki (being a Pongpong) has boundless energy. Despite their differences Wozzeck and Tatsumaki are close, with Tatsumaki looking up to Wozzeck as a big brother figure.

And eight years later, Wozzeck still doesn't have much of a personality!  Tatsumaki, if I can ever shell her, WILL have a huge personality, as she's a FairyLand PongPong, and...well, this is what a good PongPong looks like.
I freaking love PongPong.  Unfortunately obtaining a PongPong is gonna be...well, it's gonna be a little harder to obtain one, since Den of Angels has a nice marketplace where one can buy, sell, trade dolls and doll supplies.  That was how I got Alistair, and Wozzeck, and Guinevere's heads.  Buying on eBay is risky since eBay is FULL of recasts, but when/if Den of Angels closes my only options are eBay or straight from the company.  That's still possible with some of my dolls' holding companies, of course!  Bobobie, FairyLand, and Angel of Dream are all alive and well, but Wishel and Dream of Doll are not, so Wozzeck and Alistair are all but irreplaceable.  Now is Den of Angels perfect?  No, no forum is, but DoA is (was) still a lovely way for ball-jointed doll fans to connect.  Looks like now we're stuck with Failbook unless something strange happens. 

Good thing for blogs, right???  I had been wanting to put my ball-jointed dolls in the blog more, but I can't carry Alistair and Johnny anywhere without the danger of dropping them, so they'll have to wait until I can move without a walker...or until I get them a nice carrying bag.  I've done that for The Doll Who Must Not Be Named.

Resin love,
RagingMoon1987

Sunday, August 31, 2025

So Random, July-August '25

At the beginning of July I was unsure what my immediate future held, so I combined two months again.  First picture was taken on June 30th, a few hours after the last random post went up.  I had yet another new dress for Chatty Cathy.  I was only then realizing that I had nothing patriotic for her, but this getup will do nicely. 
Or rather, it was new to her.  I'd had it laying aside since she looked so cute in white, but I was ready for a change.  I had someone comment on Cathy's hair when I shared this image on Failbook, by the way; the friend noted how red Cathy's hair is, and I don't remember it being this red.  I do know that Mattel hair from this era can change colors with time, so maybe that's the deal.  But if that's the case, then the change only took ten years.  But either way my Chatty Cathy is a strawberry blonde now and I'm not gonna knock it.

Also from June 30th came a Failbook memory, dating back to 2016.  Alistair decided to channel his inner C.C. DeVille.
I'd just gotten a fukubukuro wig bag for my ball-jointed dolls, and Alistair promptly claimed this one.  I'd gotten some beautiful champagne-colored eyes in another package, and the pairing made Alistair pop.  Up until this point I'd had a hard time bonding with him, but this combination made him.

Failbook memory again, this one from July 1st, 2021.
I'm glad I found this picture, as it's the only one I know of that shows all three Magic Nursery triplets in their original outfits.  Not long after this I threw Lulu (left) in a Build-a-Bear Small Fry dress and she hasn't been out of it since.

Another Failbook memory, from July 1st, 2016.  This one also concerns Alistair, and my attempts to tame his hair.
I thought Alistair might make a good decora boy, but as y'all can see Alistair is having none of it.  He reminds me a little of that scene from Beauty and the Beast, where the Beast is getting gussied up for his date with Belle...and a hairstyling session goes a smidge awry.  

July 2nd, in the aftermath of my visit to the hospital with a torn-up ankle, and possibly Day One of a depressed spell (I didn't really start perking up again until July 22nd).  One of my Failbook groups declared it Maryellen Week.  Alas, I have no Maryellen, but Silver Bird does.
Had I the room I would add Maryellen and Addy to my collection in a heartbeat.  I freaking love them both. 

My ankle was killing me that afternoon, so I passed the time by monkeying with the dolls I had within arm's reach (quite a few, LOL).  During this time Aimee gently reminded me that she hadn't been played with in awhile.  By the next evening I was in much less pain, so I moved Aimee up front and let her pose with Flower Magic Mary. 
My, oh my, the aesthetics sure changed in the twenty years separating the seventies and the nineties.  Big eyes were prevalent both decades, but...oh, I don't know.  There's more than just the clothes that tell me Aimee is older than Mary.  But of course dolls are ageless!

July 4th, 2016.  Another Failbook memory, another goofy wig for Alistair. 
I didn't like this one on him as much as I did the golden wig, and I think Alistair was ready for me to just pick a look for him already. 

Same day, present day.  I changed Terri Lee out of her patriotic dress and into something else.
This is a case of "I saw it in a window and had to have it."  I saw those jewel tones and knew my doll had to be the one who got it.  It's not tight across the shoulders like the patriotic dress is.

Same evening.  My mobility sucked on Independence Day, so I'd let quite a group of dolls accumulate on the back of the couch.
Flower Magic Mary and someone else's My Child doll are the focus here, but Candela Laura can also be seen on the right of the image.  On the left Aimee chose not to look at the camera this time; I joked that she was trying to be artsy like the members of Pink Floyd did back in the day.  In the linked image Syd Barrett is staring into space, while Roger Waters is turned away from the camera in an Alfred Hitchcock sort of way.

July 10th.  One of those pictures that I grabbed while I was getting ready for work.
Chou Chou and Xue don't look like the happiest little dolls, but they've become fast friends due to their somber expressions and their similar heights.

As I stated in a prior post, it gets chilly in Casa Pizarro, and Candela Laura decided to steal my blanket.
We can share, LOL!

July 13th.  I was watching a distant lightning show, and my pretty Francie was watching me.
Like me, Francie is thankful for what she's got (a home, new friends, a soft coat), but she also dreams of a life without pain.  Unlike Ilaria, Francie's broken knee does hurt her some.  Not long after this I stabilized it with some brightly-colored duct tape, and now Francie is happy again.  Treesa, Francie and the rest of the Pennsylvania Gang send their love.

July 15th.  This is Mariannina. 
Mariannina is another Furga doll, one that is quite popular on one of my Failbook groups.  Seriously, EVERYONE in that group has some variant of this doll.  Mariannina is small enuff to ride in the bag on my walker, and sometimes she does exactly that.
July 26th.  Alistair sort of got a redress.
All I had to do was take off his cardigan, cap, and scarf.  He was wearing a red T-shirt and a black tank underneath all along.  As if y'all couldn't tell, Alistair's favorite color is red.

July 27th.  Suzette made a reappearance after a long battle with mold.
I'd just cleaned her eyes, and one of them momentarily stuck shut.  Normally these dolls don't wink unless one manually holds their eye shut, but Suzette did it for me.

August 1st.  Johnny Hailey made a reappearance, with my present for Courtney Moore in tow. 
That, in his arms, is a Pillow People character, Mr. Sandman.  The Pillow People were pillows and stuffed dolls rolled into one, and they had a number of different themes.  Thunderclap, from the Nighttime Sounds category, is my favorite, though I'll maintain to my dying day that things that go bump in the night don't necessarily want to be my friends.  Yes, apparently the tagline for that subgroup of Pillow People was "These noises in the night want to be your friend."  When I was growing up the absolute last thing I wanted to hear in the middle of the night was a friggin' thunderclap, and I still don't 100% love it because it means I have to pop out of bed and unplug my phone, lest it get fried by an errant lightning strike.  But I still love the Pillow People character.

As for Johnny, his clothes are a little worse for wear than Alistair's, because Johnny was right next to my open window during a couple of very hot summers.  He's dusty and his clothes need a bath, and as usual Johnny is none too happy about it.
"Admit it, you forgot about us."

Y'know, I never realized until just now what a sad expression this head has!  Not the paint, but the head mold itself.  Here's how it looks without spectacles.  
Those eye wells...but then again, that's what I wanted.  All of my ball-jointed dolls have backstories with a healthy amount of tragedy, and Johnny lets his feelings show.  Alistair tries to hide his.

Oh, and that musical instrument by Johnny's side?  He's taken up playing the balalaika.
I have no idea why, but I like a well-played balalaika so I won't complain.  Marillion may have had something to do with it; I love their song "Estonia," and it features a balalaika.

August 2nd, 2025.  The resin takeover of Casa Pizarro continues.  This is Wozzeck, my eternally sleepy, eternally chill Wishel.  Despite my claim on his original post, Wozzeck is not a Festivous Wishel, but rather an Unbeknown.  Festivous had angel wings and a halo, and Wozzeck does not have those features.  Unbeknown Wishels COULD have angel wings and halos, but they could also have demon wings and little horns, or a single horn like a unicorn, or none of the above!  Unbeknown or Festivous, Wozzeck is a Wishel, and Wishels are tough to find.
His hair isn't that red IRL.  Surprise of all surprises, none of my ball-jointed dolls are gingers...not yet, anyway.  I do have a red wig, waiting for a doll to wear it, but that'll have to wait...that is if bugs haven't eaten it.  More on that at eleven.  I apologize for the glut of ball-jointed doll chatter.  I spent a decent amount of money on those dolls and am only now trying to pay attention to them again.  In the time that I've been away most of the Etsy shops I went to for BJD stuff have closed, so finding things for Alistair, Johnny, and Wozzeck is going to be no easy feat, but I've got several crates of stuff so it's all good. 

August 7th.  The first picture I got of Ayla Diamond.
I like these My Mini Babies a lot, but I only want the one.  I don't want her to have to share clothes with someone else, LOL!

And now for the eleven o'clock news!  August 9th I retrieved Chloe from Casa del Luna...and the aforementioned bugs had destroyed her wig!
Darn it, the shop where I got that wig isn't open anymore!!!  

August 16th.  Johnny got some new threads.
As usual Johnny doesn't want his picture taken, but since I'm bigger than him I prevailed.  His new clothes came from ETDolls, and since most of my favorite haunts for BJD clothes are no more I may hit this ship up often.

August 22nd.  Mama nearly measured herself in the middle of the night and knocked over some of my dolls in the process.  While I was setting things back up I got this picture of Bunnie Candie and Malinda Irisa.  Please ignore the Blue Emu in the background.  That stuff is good stuff.
Once again it's possible to see the difference between a neon Preemie and a non-neon.  These girls need Halloween clothes, but unfortunately finding themed clothes for Preemies is pretty tricky.  Take that back, Christmas items are semi-easy, but Halloween and fall?  Forget it!  I really need to whip out my sewing machine and start making doll clothes myself.

I must say, the past two months have been very dynamic.  At the beginning of July I was depressed, tired, and hot, and now the end of August has come and I'm...well, not depressed.  But I get frustrated more easily, and that's new.  I don't like that.  What can I say, going from gimpy but ambulatory to full-tilt crippled in less than a year is infuriating, and I don't think fibroid surgery is gonna be the cure-all I was hoping for.  But it's a step in the right direction.  Come the middle of September I'll know for sure what the future holds.

All of my love,
RagingMoon1987

Friday, August 9, 2024

So random, part four

It's been quiiiiiiet here on the blog lately...not on my end, but two of my best followers have very good reasons to not be swinging by.  Tam is assisting her husband (who, thank God, was improving last I heard), and Barb...Barb says the Cleveland area had a couple'a small tornadoes!  No one was hurt that I know of, but even small tornadoes can tear a lot of stuff up.  Barb says the power has been out for forty-eight hours now, though she's fortunate enuff to have a generator.  So, Barb and Tam, I love y'all both and I hope things will continue to improve.

As for me, life is...well, about the same as it was on the sixth.  The weather is pleasantly warm and very, very pretty, and I've been...well, not too lazy to mess and gom with my dolls.  These random picture posts never are popular, but they're fun to put together.  Today we start on June 24th, 2024, with Mumpy Terri Lee. 
I'd just put Terri Lee in her Independence Day dress, but I couldn't get her seated due to her joints.  So she's straddling the back of the couch.  As usual, Terri Lee isn't thrilled about this.  Is she ever???

To June 29th we go, and to two Cabbage Patch Kids. 
I like dolls dressed in yellow, and Cleopatra Chantale and Allie Kathleen fit the bill perfectly.  I also love their different personalities; Cleo looks like a noisy, jolly chatterbox, while Allie is more content to smile and hold her tongue.

July 1st, an unseasonably mild day.  I grabbed Little Honeymoon from Casa del Luna and brought her back here.
I think she's happy to be back at Casa Pizarra.  I know she's looking forward to having new stuffing (I promised her that before the year was over).

July 3rd.  Morgan sits pretty in her then-new dress.
She's not coming out of that dress anytime soon.  She's too stinkin' cute in it.  The materials are nice and thick, too!  I love this dress!

July 7th.  Someone on a Failbook group asked who everyone's emotional support Cabbage Patch Kid was.  This was my answer. 
Usually it's either Idalia Gale or Candela Laura, though I also use Cleopatra Chantale a lot, and sometimes Beryl June since a Failbook friend voiced a fondness for her.  The night before I took this picture Cleo was the one I cuddled with, because I desperately needed something to cuddle.  A close friend's fiancé died suddenly of a heart attack, under circumstances that were hauntingly similar to my own daddy's demise.  So the night between July 6th and 7th was hard for me.

July 8th saw a new addition to the Cabbage Patch, and a new addition to the baby doll nursery.  This is when Beryl June moved in.
An outtake from this post and this one.  I thought they all looked so cute together.  Present are Beryl June, Baby Needs-A-Name, Idalia Gale, and Susie Sad-Eyes. 

Also on July 8th I got this picture for an aborted post on doll hair.
Present here are Esmond Brant, Taniyah Yasmin, and Hugo Jack.  They have no hair at all, obviously, and sometimes I prefer that.  I have more bald Cabbies than this, but I thought three was plenty.

A random post that DID make it to publication was this one about dolls with freckles.  At the time I only had three living at Casa Pizarra. 
Candela Laura and Baby Needs-A-Name have a lot more in common than just freckles.  They date back to the eighties, they're both blonde, and they're both wearing pink.

Later that same evening I took this picture of Candela Laura and my neglected Checkerboard girl, Shannon. 
Unlike Baby Needs-A-Name, Shannon doesn't have a lot in common with Candela.  So this truly is a "just for the heckuvit" picture.  This next one, on the other hand...
...I took that for a reason.  I had a post planned for Shannon, but while proofreading it I found it drier than unbuttered toast so I scrapped it.  I do still owe Shannon a post of her own, though.  She's too cute a doll to be forgotten like I did.

July 26th.  I'd just bought and begun reviewing that infernal Decora Girlz doll, and I needed a pick-me-up. 
Okay, Decora isn't so bad, but getting her dressed was such a pain in the posterior that I needed some cuddle time with my soft kids.  Morgan and Alexandra Claire provided that support. 

July 28th.  It was a nice, quiet, sunny Sunday.  I'd glutted myself on ham steak, baked potato, and vegetables, and I was in the mood for something cozy. 
I guess all of my random pictures are cozy in a sense, because my dolls are always seated and comfortable.  Nathan Hunter, Lucey Dena, and Lucey's dog Ginger caught wind that Matt the Brat would be joining the Patch, and they spent most of the afternoon talking about what he might be like.  

As usual I have to have at least one Failbook memory.  This image dates back to July 29th, 2016.
Johnny Hailey and Alastair Adalwolf in their yukata.  Summers are hot where they live (their storyline is set on Mars in the far, far future), so this is what the denizens wear.  Johnny has a pocket watch tucked into his obi; he never goes anywhere without that.

August 3rd, evening.  Kitrick Randolph Fergus was slowly but surely settling in.
Little Maya is in his lap, and the season's second shellbug is nestled in his hair.  I read Little Maya's eBay post wrong and thought I was getting a little outfit that Lulu Achoo could wear.  Joke's on me, but Maya is awfully cute and very happy to make Randolph's acquaintance.  As to why Randolph is wearing a shellbug in his hair, I used to do that when I was little.  Drove Grandma crazy, LOL.

August 5th.  Hurricane Debby was in the news, and it was Bae Day Monday on my favorite Failbook Cabbage Patch group.  Bae Day Mondays have themes, and that day's theme was red hair.
From left, Cleopatra Chantale, Valencia Rose, Val's doll Titania Rosalind, and Kory Aryan. 

Same day, different pair.
Esmond Brant and Booful Beans occupy the same patch of real estate, and...well, I think they look cute together.  Also visible in the back are Nathan Hunter, Shelley Fred, Cara Raelean, and to the very far left, Hedda Get Bedda and Booful's brother Bedsie.  Hedda spends most of her time asleep, so she's a perfect friend for Bedsie. 
Good thing whatever illness she's got isn't contagious to other dolls!

<runs hand across throat>  That's a good place to cut it off...for now.  

Love y'all,
RagingMoon1987

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Winter wear

October tends to be a hinky month in Southeast Missouri.  The year I was born (1987) it was warm enough that Mama and Daddy had the windows and doors open on Halloween, and another year we had snow in the early part of the month.  So far this year we haven't seen any October snow, but it's hit freezing twice and it looks like it's going to again tonight.  It's cold enough that I got tired of looking at my ball-jointed dolls' bare arms and decided it was time to bundle them up.  From left I have Ju-hwang, Alistair, Chloe (seated), Hailey, and Johnny.  Hailey isn't really a ball-jointed doll, but she's close enough in size that I include her anyway.
Okay, so Hailey isn't as bundled up as I'd like, but until I can find a decent pair of leggings for her she'll have to make do.  Poor Johnny is not happy, by the way.  Don't let that smile fool you, because he hates winter even worse than I do, and that's saying a lot because I kinda, sorta, really HATE WINTER!!!  I think Hailey may be a little worried for his sanity, in fact!

Cheer up, Johnny.  I think it's supposed to get warm again next week.  And if I'm wrong...well, let's just say that you're not the only one who's dreading snow!  For the first time ever, I'll probably have to drive in it this year!!!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Monday, June 19, 2017

Story time!

If you've been in the doll hobby long enough you'll eventually have at least one story that will make your friends either laugh or raise an eyebrow.  I've got several, so I think I'll waste a few moments of everyone's time and share my moments of dolly humor.

STORY #1
When my sister was a toddler she had a peculiar way of treating her Barbie dolls.  Within five minutes of opening the box she'd disrobe the doll and...leave it that way!  Such behavior amused our parents and annoyed me, because even back then the clothes were the best part of the doll.  We never learned my sister's reasoning behind this until an incident involving Sonja, my Sun Jewel Teresa.
In her fairly recent Dolly Dress Discussion I spoke of Sonja losing her swimsuit in a humorous manner, and this is how it happened.  My sister was playing with the doll on a Saturday morning while Mama did laundry and Daddy and I watched a little TV.  As small children often do, my sister suddenly lost interest in Sonja and shifted her attention to some other play item.  She peeled Sonja's swimsuit off, tossed the suit in one direction, tossed the doll in another direction, and tore out of the room.  Daddy was stunned.
  "Hey, go over and get that doll!  Bring her and that swimsuit here!" he said.  I did as instructed.  Daddy spent the next few minutes dressing Sonja and setting her right, and set her on the coffee table.  A few minutes later my sister came back into the room, saw her doll redressed, and pitched a minor fit.  She proceeded to disrobe Sonja a second time, then ran out of the room again.
  "That little turd!"  Daddy exclaimed, and he once again made Sonja look decent.  Soon after my sister returned, and upon seeing Sonja dressed again she flopped onto the floor and threw a fill-tilt tantrum.
  "What in the world is the matter?"  Daddy demanded, bemused by this sudden tizzy.
  "WANT HER TO BE SMOOF!!!"  my sister shrieked, and she pulled off Sonja's swimsuit again and stormed out of the room.  We didn't try to dress the doll again, and the swimsuit eventually vanished.  It turned out that "smoof" was my sister's word for "smooth," and in this case "smooth" meant butt naked.  My sister never explained why she preferred her dolls "smoof" despite our repeated asking, and we eventually chalked it up to her toddler mind working in a very unusual way.  This story sets the stage for story two.

STORY #2
A month or so passed, and a few more dolls came into the house, some of which (oddly enough) were for me.  I wasn't a dolly lover during my early childhood, but I did get a few that I had to keep up out of my sister's reach, lest they suddenly become "smoof."  Anyway, one day my sister got this doll.
This is Maggie, and I have no idea which Barbie she used to be, but that's beside the point.  Maggie was the first doll either of us kids had seen with molded-on underwear.  Nowadays that's fairly common among play dolls, but back then it was a surprise for us.  My sister subjected Maggie to the usual treatment, taking off and promptly losing the doll's clothes...but since the underwear was molded on, there was no way it would come off!  And since it was TEXTURED, there was no real way for the doll to be completely smooth all over.  Not that my sister didn't try, of course!  She spent the better part of that weekend trying to get those molded britches off.  Finally she admitted defeat in dramatic fashion, flinging helpless Maggie across the room and screaming her lungs out.  This sudden outburst shocked us all, and we showered her with the usual "what's" and "why's."
  "WANT HER TO BE SMOOF!!!  SHE WON'T GET SMOOF!!!" my sister bellowed.  Daddy laughed at such an idea and gently explained that not all Barbie dolls could get "smoof."
  "I DON'T LIKE THAT DOLL!!!"  my sister wailed, and she made such a fuss that Mama put her to bed early.  When my bedtime came, about an hour and a half later, I could still hear her raising Cain over that doll.

STORY #3
This happened when I was...oh, I'd say about eleven.  In one of my parents' less-than-bright ideas my sister and I were packed into a single room (without consent or forewarning).  Supposedly it was for security reasons, but I think it was really so Daddy could have a man cave.  That got annoying after awhile, but that's beside the point.  At some time during the beginning of this arrangement I obtained my aunt's Chatty Cathy.
Now Chatty Cathy and her equally talkative dolly associates are creepy enough in the face without the talking feature, but this particular doll had a backstory to go along with the vacant face.  She no longer talks, and Daddy informed us that as the doll started to wear out her voice shifted from June Foray's to something more like Freddie Krueger's.  I found the story amusing, but it freaked my sister out a little.

Time passed, and Sister and I continued sharing a room.  Cathy occupied the tallest shelf in the room, flanked by our American Girls (just Felicity and Molly at the time), and their shelf was right in front of a window.  Every time light came through that window it made the stereotypical big shadows that one sees in horror movies, so the setting was perfect.  On one particular weekend a middle-of-the-night thunderstorm came through, one of those that comes out of nowhere during warm weather and scares the crap out of small children with overactive imaginations.  I was old enough at that time to know that not all thunderstorms spawned tornadoes...but my sister wasn't, and I could hear her thrashing about in the bed.  Remembering that Cathy was still on the top of the shelf, lording over the both of us, I lay very still in my bed and growled in my best June-Foray-meets-Freddie-Krueger voice, "WILL YOU PLAY WITH ME???"
  Sister gasped in horror.  "Was that you?" she asked in a small, frightened voice.  Being the evil sister that I am, I lay completely still, not letting on that anything was out of the ordinary.  About five minutes passed and she lay down.  Still thirsting for a good prank I continued my charade, this time growling "I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!"  Sister gasped again and whimpered for awhile, while I went back to sleep.

I learned much, much later (about ten years after the fact) that my prank had some very long-lasting consequences.  Sister informed me that she cried under the covers for the rest of the night, and she NEVER liked dolls again.  At Christmas she received another American Girl doll (Samantha that time), and she never once played with her.  Nor did she want to play dolls with me, especially if I brought along the possessed Chatty Cathy.  Within a year of that prank she'd given me both Samantha and Molly, stating that she wanted nothing more to do with them, and she's hated dolls ever since.  On a very recent visit home she ventured back into my spare bedroom where I keep my inanimate crew, and her response to the sight was "Dammit, that's a lot of dolls."  I'm mean, you say?  Read the next story, which is a classic "God'll getcha for that" moment.

STORY #4
This story took place about five years ago.  By this time I'd extended my collection to include a few composition dolls, including Tommy and Sally (better known as the Creepy Babies)...
..Anita, who is also a little creepy...
...and Lili Marlene, who usually isn't creepy.
I don't know who made Tommy (he's unmarked), while Sally, Anita, and Lili are Horsman dolls.  I like Horsman dolls almost as much as I like Ideal dolls, but that's beside the point.  I don't remember why, but one night I lifted Lili out of her basket and put her on the bed next to my head.  I occasionally did this to dolls, but usually the one I did this for was my mother's old Kissy doll, who is much loved among the family and isn't even slightly creepy.
See?  Wouldn't harm a fly.  Anyway, I put Lili on my bed next to my pillow, snapped off the light, and went to sleep.  The next morning I unfortunately woke early (never a good thing on a Saturday) and the first thing I saw when I woke up was this.
"HOLY S**T!!!" I yelled, half-jumping out of bed.  Then I remembered that I'd put Lili there the night before, for reasons I'd since forgotten and still don't remember.  Mama, who was in the next room, heard nothing, but Sister did hear and came running.  When I told her what had happened she burst out laughing and responded "That's what you get for scaring me with that Chatty Cathy doll!"  Indeed, it was. 

STORY #5
This happened about a year ago, when I was new to the ball-jointed doll hobby and when Johnny was the only one I had.  I wagged him around with me everywhere, so pleased was I to have my first BJD, and one of the places we often went was my grandmother's place.  To set the scene, here's what Johnny was wearing on the evening this story took place.  Normally his glasses are on straight; I must've knocked them sideways when I set the picture up.
I didn't intend for Johnny to be this big of a fop, but sometimes ball-jointed dolls have minds of their own.  Anyway, one of my uncles resides with Grandma...I think I referred to him as Second Uncle in a past post (I have two of them).  Anywho, Second Uncle is pretty stuck on himself.  If it doesn't have anything to do with spies, exercise, boxing, lousy modern pop music, or some trashy-looking young female, he doesn't care about it.  I'd already told him twice before that Johnny was/is a boy doll, but apparently this had gone out of his head once again.  So there I was, getting a stubborn old recliner ready for sitting in.  Johnny was nestled on a cushion waiting to be picked up, and I suddenly realized that my rear was between the TV and Second Uncle's line of vision.
  "I'll get my butt out of your way in a minute," I reassured him.
  "Oh, don't mind me," Second Uncle responded.  "I'm just sitting here looking at your Barbie."
  "Oh, he's not a Barbie," I casually responded.
  "He?" came the shocked reply.
Third time wasn't the charm, either.  I constantly have to remind Second Uncle that Johnny and his friend Alistair are boys.  I'll admit that they both look a little girly when they're wearing yukata, but this happens even when they're NOT in yukata!

On the other hand, Second Uncle has been very positive about the hobby.  Grandma is humorously negative, reserving a special vitriol for Johnny's unorthodox wig.  One evening she glanced over at the doll, turned to Second Uncle,  and said "Don't you think he's the ugliest thing?"
  "No, I think he's kinda neat!" Second Uncle responded.  That one time he remembered that Johnny is a he.  Undeterred, Grandma begged me to "get that poor doll a new wig!"  Johnny's character is supposed to have uncombable hair syndrome, hence my admittedly odd choice for a wig and my refusal to change it.

STORY #6
This one is the most recent, and...let's just say that I never expected to have to yell something this weird at one of my cats.  I was putting the Little Miss Revlon review together when this incident happened.  Remember that one?
Underneath her green dress Wendy wears a little pair of underpants in matching fabric.  As with 99.9% of my dolls reviews I had to take the her clothes off (WANT HER TO BE SMOOF!!!).  I set the clothes (dress, sash, shoes, petticoat, undies) aside in a fairly neat pile, took the pictures I needed, and started the redressing process.  All this went as planned until the redressing step, when I surprisingly discovered that Wendy's cute little skivvies were MIA.  At the same time, I noticed that my youngest cat Lily (not to be confused with Lili the doll) was swatting something around the kitchen floor.  Something green and flowered...
  "HEY!!!  You gimmie back those panties!" I yelped.  It took a short chase around the kitchen table, but I got the panties back, and the petticoat that Lily had also absconded with.  Life with cats is rarely dull, but that's one thing I NEVER dreamed I'd have to say to Lily!

Soooo...do any of y'all have any good stories?  Share your memories.

Yours truly,
RagingMoon1987