One step forward

First lines

They can see, even if the world is rather skew.

I have made some progress. It is fun, but I do not feel that I really can handle the art of doing face ups and re-paints. My carpal tunnel syndrome makes it a little bit hard because after a while I loose the feeling in the hand and the hand start to shake. You can not see it but I can feel it, those small tiny movements that make it hard to keep the pencils steady. 

But shame on me if I give up. Practice makes a master. I have a long way to go and I am going to practice and some day I may even take on a ball jointed doll and do her face up from the start. Eyelashes and everything. 

I learn a lot by testing re-painting dolls. How the color, the pencils, the spray and so on works. Step by step I know what to avoid and what is right. And during that time it is all about having fun.

In the beginning...

It begun here...

I was in our capitol, in Stockholm, on political events and we where on our way home when I took some time to visit a kind of 7eleven-store called Pressbyrån here. They had a very big section with newspapers and magazines of different kind. I walked around in this section and found a magazine about dolls. As I have been into dolls for a long time, since childhood, I thought that I could buy one and read about the hobby and what is new today. This was in 2006.

And I still have the magazine, in a very good condition, even if I have read in it for several times during the years. The magazine was more like a kick off and gave me an opportunity to visit the doll-sites that had advertising in it. I saved all the sites and started to visit them often, read about them, look at the dolls and how other collectors thought about the sites. Then I found my favorite place, Dollmore and started for my search after a doll. I even had Fairyland and Iplehouse on my list of favorite places. And so much cute dolls. And so little time. 

One of the first photos I took of her, 2011.

After 4 years of surfing, thinking, reading, wondering and having some kind of anxiety (do not wanna choose the wrong one and regret), I ended up here, at Dollmore and a Basic Sleepy Narsha. I made an order and started to wait. And wait. And wait. I almost got crazy of all the waiting and what a joy when she finally came home. She was and still are so beautiful. And it all felt right, she was the one.

My first ball jointed doll. Today she looks like this:

She is cute, even with that yellowish skin.

Annabelle

In our living room, Annabelle is making her moves
to try to be creepy. She is a very beautiful doll.

Before "The Conjuring" there was "Annabelle", says Warner Bros. True, I saw the movie "The Conjuring" and it was a creepy one and I am still feeling it down to my bones. It will not be a movie that I watch again, soon.

I have always been interested in ghost stories that have even a little bit of truth in them. So, I was intrigued by the movie "Annabelle". And then I just love dolls, so that combo was the best. I even like horror stories, so that was a plus. I have seen many of these horror stories and I am into those without the strange opening of doors, sounds, shadows and creepy faces that suddenly appear. I like those movies that slowly creeps you out and crawls under your skin, without you really knowing it. "Gone Girl", "El Orphanato" and in some way even "Silent Hill" are such movies.

Annabelle is not a typical really scary movie, it is a movie - well done though - but not so much of horror or creepy. I liked it but I felt that it lacked of the real drama. The doll alone was more creepier at some scenes than the scary scenes in the movie.

But, if you want to watch and learn about Annabelle this is the movie. Watch it and then you can watch the movie "The Conjuring". then you will feel and see the difference.

Snow

I am sitting in our kitchen and it is late evening over here in Sweden. It is silent and I thought I could post some lines here before I go to bed. It has been a gray day - cloudy and the solar eclipse just made it more darker. I did not see it, just felt the difference between dark and darker. And it has been raining almost the whole day. Until now. 

Snow. 

But as my mother-in-law says: "What has to come down, must come down".

It is like this over here. Snow when we are waiting for spring time and hard rain when we want to celebrate the Mid Summer Eve. So, we should not be surprised at all.

This weather did not make me want to go out to take photos, so I have been surfing the net. Found out that Dollmore are selling Blythe dolls. I was so happy about that! I have been drooling over those cute ones and even the tan Mokashura doll. So many dolls and so little time. I found my favorite one and two, though, when it comes to the Blythe dolls. On the Facebook site for Dolly Adoption, I have found many customized dolls especially Blythe. Cuteness for the eyes. 

I can hear the windy weather outside the kitchen window. It feels nice to be indoors. And now it is closing time so...

...goodnight.

What do you mean?

One Bratz doll that I got from the kids.

It was hard to get rid of the ordinary hair.

I took some colored yarn and put in two straws in every hole.

When I see these well done face ups and hair-do's on the internet, I wonder what it would feel and look like if I just gave it a try. I did not want to buy a new doll and then mess it up, even if that was my first thought. So I asked the girls if I could get one of their dolls. They have not been playing with those for ages, even if the younger one collects Monster High Dolls - so I thought I had one doll in just seconds. It took a while. They did not really want to let one of their dolls go. I understand them and promised that I will do my best and they will get it back. When I joked that I will sell them, the oldest (!) daughter said:

-Sell them?? What do you mean with that? SELL them?

Well, that was not popular. Said that it will not happen. If I sell some, it will be my own dolls.

Hope that I will get the spray soon, so that I can start to do the face up. Poor thing do not see a thing.