Noomi

Noomi, ready for a dance.

Such a cute face with big eyes

My favorite photo of her, the sporty one.
A happy girl in her best element, in the
nature. 

She came with a pink wig.

Chubby little face.

Shy.

Let's dance!

Noomi, the cute and sporty one with a Nordic spice.

1. What's your name? -Noomi. The spelling is from the Swedish version of the Biblical character Naomi and stands for "pleasant", "agreeable" and "my sweet".
2. What's your nationality/ethnicity? -I am a sweet mix of Finnish, Swedish and Arctic Bramble.
3. When where you born/how old are you? -I am rather young, born at the sunset in the Northern landscape, near the water.
4. What's your race (human, demon etc)? -Just a human.  But I have heard that somewhere in my family there is a Nordic Goddess, Eir.
5. Are you single/taken and who is your partner? (If single, who is your crush?) -Too young for that, but I long for a sister.
6. Sexual orientation (if any)? -Cute boys, duh.
7. Favorite hobby? -Sporty things and nature.
8. Favorite food/drink? -Ice tea! Cucumber water. And food...hmmm...so many, like meatballs!
9. Do you have a job? -That was funny, no I don't.
10. Favorite animal? -Owl and octopus

Basic info about the doll:

-From Dollmore, a sister to their doll Lusion Dahlia.
-Is seen as a baby doll with her 40,5 cm/16"
-Good things: Beautifully sculpted head, big sweet eyes. Pretty hands and feet. Good thing with some special parts that make it easy to change her clothes.
-Bad things: Heavy head, can make her tumble around when posing.

A little trip

Summer is on, but not the weather. It has been rather cold the last days and according to the weather forecast we have to wait some days before the warmth comes to us. But this is rather typical for the Swedish summer.

I'm at my mother-in-law, the TV is on, windows are open and I can feel the scent from the barbecue outdoors. Neighbors making some good food. It has been one of those sunny and calm days. I have been reading a Swedish book about a family who lost their mother and what can happens when the relatives meet after being a part for many years. 

One Direction at the stadium Ullevi.

Some days ago we went to Gothenburg and stayed at a hotel for some days. The girls had a One Direction concert with Early Entry Tickets. They wanted to be outside the stadium at 7 o'clock. They got good places in the first row at the concert and could almost touch Harry's toes. I and hubby went to the concert too after a day in the city. I have lived in Gothenburg since I was a baby, when my parents moved from Finland to Sweden, over 20 years. But as always, things change. Big cities are not for me now and it was too much people and too much stress. And not being healthy, made it much harder. But I came out fine from this experience and I am glad about that. Even if I am oh so tired.

For the dolls. And pearls I bought at a local store.

On that trip we even went to IKEA and I bought "HUSET" (The House) - sofa, table, bookshelf and a funny looking chair to my dolls. I will use the cardboard and cut out the windows, clock, mirror and frames and paint them so that I can use them too. The store had these in a nice display, but I could not find it - need to look for that later. 

My mother's grave.

We visited my mother's grave too. I a was a little sad for what I found. It felt that nobody had been there since I ordered winter flowers in late February. Those flowers were still there and everything around looked rather messy. I bought some new flowers, cleaned up a bit and have plans to make a visit in fall and buy some candles and decorations too.

Now I will continue to watch "Back to the Future" from 1985, it's on TV. Have a lovely weekend.

Paint or not to paint......

Howleen, with a repaint by me (well, not the eyebrows)

I have been very amazed with the professional artist out there, who do face ups and repaints dolls. I have tried this on several dolls and started out with some of the girl's dolls. Then I bought some of my own, mostly Ever After High and Monster High dolls. 

Look, I found an angry octopus!

The Ever After High dolls can be rather frustrating with the flat face - it can be hard to get things right and look similar on both sides and there is a risk that all ends looking like an accident. Eyebrows is something I have trouble with and holding my hand steady. So mostly I try to do repaints when I am alone or when it is calm at home (every family member in their favorite corner, busy with stuff they like). 

Gosh, such a big and heavy teddy bear!

I have been watching videos on Youtube, mostly Nicolle's Dreams and Will Store. There is lot to learn and I am a happy learner. Even if I from time to time just want to give up. My hubby sees that I feel good and are happy with this hobby, so he supports me and gives me uplifting thoughts. I have always loved to paint, but mostly on paper or on tree. Well, mostly flat surface. So you can imagine when a face of a doll comes near and are far away from flat. Help!

Roar!

Tiara!

That pink hair, love it!

I got a tip from Crystal, that I could practice eyebrows on paper - draw them and study how others do. Great advice. I would love to hear from you, what advice would you give me? Anything at all - materials, tricks, sculpts that are easy to work on, important things to think about and so on. At the moment I really like the sculpt that Monster High Doll Howleen has, easy to work with. I have a dream that one day do this on a resin doll. I can imagine that there is more to think about then, what is important and so. 

But I look forward to that. 

Button

Button on Flickr.

I was surfing around on the net for some time ago and looked at Blythe dolls. I have been wondering about if I should or should not have one in my doll family. I made some searches on Google and suddenly I saw a link to a site with Littlest Pet Shop and some small dolls that looked just like Blythe. Visited that site and seconds after I was calling for my youngest daughter to find the little doll she had in some of her boxes. A Blythe Loves Littlest Pet Shop Doll!

There she is, among friends.

Some minutes later she came and gave me a tiny doll with messed up hair and no clothes. I decided to clean her up, brush her hair, cut it a little so it looked nice and made her some clothes. I asked nicely if I could keep her and the youngest daughter said that I could - and added "have fun". She even searched for the things that came with her.

She is tiny in a good way. Fits my pocket or my bag and I can almost anytime I want to have a doll along and take photos if something catches my eye, just like that. 

And she is cute as a button. Therefor I call her Button. 

It's a strange doll thing...?

Zipporah and a little piece of Esther.

For several years ago, there was a program on the Swedish TV called "Outsiders". This program showed lifestyles, destinies and even health issues of a different kind. In one of the episodes the viewer could meet a girl who collected Ball Jointed Dolls. She had some dolls, with personalities and she saw these dolls as her babies, as a part of her family. Her parents and her boyfriend saw nothing strange with this and sometimes they even had lunch or dinner together with one or two of her dolls.

This was nothing I reacted on, but I reacted on the fact that she and her dolls came up in a program called "Outsiders". Is this how people see us who collect dolls of any kind? Or have a different hobby? As an outsider? It would be interesting to know.

I do not feel like an outsider, my hobby - my interest, my passion, my girls, my dolls - call it what ever you want, is a part of me and makes me the one I am. In the Swedish forums after the episode the discussions where rather harsh. Words as "nerd", "crazy" and "odd" came up. At the doll forums they thought that the picture of a doll collector was wrongly twisted. 

So, no - it is a lovely thing, this doll thing. Keep up the hobby, boys and girls! Don't take - as they say - shit!