Free time, and some Pullip pics

I've been quite busy with work these past few weeks that I haven't had much extra time to do anything besides chores, errands, and eating out (harhar). In fact, I'm only taking a break from work now because my brain is falling asleep. And come to think of it, I need a snack.

In other news, I've reinstalled The Sims 3 on my laptop and added a few expansion packs. Howdy, old friend! I've been playing Sims since the first ever version was released (a very long time ago) and it has always been an effective way for me to loose track of the hours. Ok so I shouldn't be wondering where all the rest of my free time went. But but but... having a pet horse in-game is sooo much fuuun!

So while my Sim was earning a motherload of Simoleons busking in the streets of Sunset Valley, nothing much happened for me IRL. Er, I mean I have been busy with work. Really! Ok, I'll just post a few pics of Indigo, my Pullip Tiphona. I've had her for some time but haven't posted any pics so far.

Here she is in her box. You can see my junk lying around in the background.

While Henri had horrible stock shoes, Tiphona has pretty decent ones. Her bag is cute too.

Here's a closer shot... she's so darn pretty! Hm, why don't I make a Sim that looks like a Pullip? That's an idea...

Hey Girl!

My sisters and I love watching New Girl because it's darn funny.Plus Zooey Deschanel wears the cutest clothes. There was a green and blue outfit that I particularly liked in one of the episodes so I made it for my Pullip.

More pics here and here

Injured thumb projects

Here are last week's small (literally small) projects - a felt bag and a dress.

Wigs

I spent a good few hours last week trying a few wigs on Candice. I went for the gray one for everyday wear.

Supplies: Gilders Paste

I've had my eye on Baroque Art's Gilders Paste for some time but only purchased a pot recently from Artbeads. It comes in a 1.5oz tin and sort of looks and smells like shoe polish. But what is it actually? It's a waxy tinted adhesive that you can use to add color or highlights to a variety of materials such as metal, wood, resin, ceramics, etc.

I got a pot of Guilders Paste in Patina because I love that turquoise oxidized look. You can use a rag or a brush or your fingers to apply it. I opted for a dried-up wet wipe.

I used a sweater guard I made a while back for this experiment. Ok time to try this stuff on the bee brass stampings. Just a light smudge...

I was supposed to put some on just the wings but eager fingers weren't so careful. I ended up getting it all over. :(

The bee on the right is my second attempt. Now that's better. I'm really liking Gilders Paste. Just a little goes a loooong way. It takes just a few minutes to become dry to the touch and 12 hours to completely cure. Beautiful effect too. The finish adds more interest to the stampings, like I unearthed this sweater guard from my grandma's chest of vintage goodies. Will definitely be trying out some other colors of this product too.

This week's loot

A few packages arrived the other day, mostly of beading supplies. I really really need to get started on my beading projects now. The doll wigs I ordered from CanCan also arrived. But I don't want to attack the task of changing Candice's wig with my thumb still not fully functional. Or maybe I will because I can't wait that long.

{supplies and a couple of doll wigs thrown in the mix}

Stitched

A carpentry accident has left my left thumb unusable for the past week. I finally got to start working on Wally's toy fridge, and I thought it would be a good idea to salvage the wood from my old closet. So after sawing up the wood to toy-fridge size, I was prepping it for sanding. Then I accidentally slashed my thumb with a putty knife while scraping off some extra stubborn 13 year old dried wood putty on one of the panels. Funny thing is, I didn't even feel a thing. It was the massive bleeding that freaked me out. Apparently it was a pretty deep (1.5 cm) arterial laceration - my finger was peeing blood. It had to get stitched. And a 1.5 inch section of a wooden tongue depressor was bandaged to my thumb to keep it from bending. Boo.

So today marks the first week of my stitched-up thumb. I haven't washed the dishes in a week. Hooray for that! But at the same time it's been pretty challenging to do a lot of menial tasks like opening a bottle or cutting the fingernails on my right hand. Needless to say, the toy fridge project has been put on hold indefinitely. Well, this has been a very unproductive week for me. And with that I'll leave you with a picture of our room. Because a picture of my mangled finger would be really gross.

Use Cases - FTW!

My vision is blurry after logging about 20 hours of writing systems analysis documentation. Just when I thought I've escaped from this life! All for the money, as usual. I'm so glad it's over for now.

Fabric shopping

Undoubtedly, one of the funnest things about sewing, for me, is shopping for fabric. It's an adventure - finding that perfect print for your project and at the same time being inspired by what you see. And being so in love with anything colorful and pretty, it's easy for me to go overboard. This is just a portion of the fabric loot I've amassed in the past two weeks.

{Fabric - floral, gingham, polka dots, lace and tiny ribbons all from Cotton Depot at Glorietta 5.
And then practically invisible tiny plastic snaps,
tiny pompom trimmings and even tinier buttons from Etsy}

While still on the subject of sewing -  I found this in Toys R' Us the other day. Micro Lalaloopsies! BAAAD! REALLY BAAAADDD!!

Making doll dresses

This past week, I worked on a couple of doll dresses. Well, they're so much better than my first attempt. Mainly because I was serious this time. :D I had my orange tracing chalk handy, to add to the seriousness of the whole activity. Many of the women in my family sew. My grandma's sisters are accomplished seamstresses, my mom sewed a lot too. And now my sister is making her career in sewing. I remember as a kid watching my grannies and mom sew, they used the orange chalk to trace. (But not my sister -  she uses fancy sewing stuff) So I just had to buy my own because I mean business!

I made a short dress for Sabrina using this floral fabric and a few strips of color-coordinated ribbons.

I was quite happy with this dress, though there's still a lot of room for improvement. As you can see here, the skirt's seam is actually at the front of the dress :D Luckily the shirring makes it less obvious.

This is the beginnings of a maxi tube top dress for Candice. Cutting the fabric was pretty straightforward. I just cut a rectangular piece of fabric to her measurements. What proved to be absolutely tricky when making this dress was getting the tiny garter through the equally tiny casing I sewed on the top part of the dress. After about 4 tries and throwing a bit of a fit, I finally got that darn elastic through.

 

Okay, so time for finished products. Here's Sabrina in her dress.

And here's Candice. I just hand-stitched the ribbon to the hem. The fabric is pretty sheer so it's peekaboo undies for now. Hehe. I still have to buy fabric for the lining.

Dal Darony

I named her Sabrina, after the last company I worked for (Sabre) -  I used some money from my last paycheck to buy her. At first I thought she was a cow, then found out she's actually dressed up as a dalmatian. Dal - dalmatian. Clever. She wasn't a serious choice at first. Because, come on, the outfit is a bit silly. But then I saw pictures of her without her dalmatian gear, and I was sold. Her faceup is so pretty and her simple hairstyle is just adorable.

See? Luuurve her! Maybe it would be nice to replace her eye chips though... thinking about it...

A lootful day

I opened a lot of boxes today - it was almost like Christmas. I was ecstatic when I found the Mini Lalaloopsy Tales on the shelves of Toy Kingdom the other day. I've been wanting them since last year and I didn't think they were going to get here that fast. Of course I had to buy me some! But there was no Alice lala, so she's still on my got-to-have list. So, I got Curls N' Locks, Coral Sea Shells and Snowy Fairest which are the cutest of the bunch. I'm still deciding if I should buy the others for the sake of having them. Err.. hm, maybe.

As you can see on the picture above, I bought some more Rement Disney vintage tableware (still no Chip and Dale salt and paper shakers) and a Disney Birthday Cake. I should really stop buying that stuff. REALLY. But the main event, of course, was my Dal Darony which arrived this morning. Hooray for the wonderful people at the post office! I might be one of a very few handful of people singing praises for the Philippine postal service, but the people at our town's post office are just the best. Quick and prompt service. Only one thing to remember when shipping to the Philippines - never use expedited courier services lest you be taxed heavily by customs. The people at customs probably think your package isn't worth taxing if you're not in a hurry to get it. I haven't had a lost package yet using slower services (like USPS priority international), so it works for me. But that's only for toys, snack swaps, craft stuff and jewelry making supplies. But for big, pricey electronic gadgets, I'd skip buying online altogether.

My first attempt at Pullip fashion

I'm working on my long dormant sewing skills.

Yesterday I was attempting to make a dress for Candice using a Blythe dress pattern and fabric from my sister's scrap pile. The fit was fine, it was my sewing that wasn't. It's not so obvious from this picture how horror movie and asylum-ish this dress is.

After that I picked up a few beads and a ball of crochet thread and made a quick necklace.

The finished product looks like seaweeds. 

Oh well. Try again tomorrow...

Mary Poppins wants her clothes back

Okay, so not posting too much about toys on this blog is not going to happen because look what arrived the other day - my Pullip Henri! Kuya Taniel, bringer of goodies (aka the mailman), handed me my package claim slip and I was out the door and driving to the post office in a snap. But ripping the box open had to wait because I still had to make a trip to the grocery store to buy ingredients for a magical green health juice type experiment. Very anticlimactic.

Back at home, I spent some moments staring at her while still in her box. She's just so precious, I was debating whether to unbox her or not.

I love her old world style even though she looks like she rummaged through Mary Poppins's closet. But I wish she could have left the shoes alone because they are hi-de-ous!

Cat eyes

What really drew me to her, though, is her face-up. Pretty, right?

* Henri is from the Dollte-Porte collection released last May 2011.

Gyu Gyu Pets, Teddy and the great outdoors

I spent this afternoon taking pictures of some of my favorite Rement stuff.

I was originally thinking of having a scene where Teddy is giving cooking lessons to some Lala dolls. In the end I decided not to put in any Lalas and instead added a super cute hamster from the Gyu Gyu Pets set. Those small critters are so cute. I think I'm going to have to troop to the Toy Kingdom at Greenhills to get some more!!

Shooting pictures of tiny objects so close to the ground isn't so easy. I don't particularly like sitting on grass and soil. And next time, I should remind myself to bring some bug repellent lotion. I love the final picture though. Check it out at TinyToy.

Ah the great outdoors! Someone is enjoying himself.

2012

2012 is here! I'm excited! May this be a good year for everyone. I hope all plans will get executed smoothly. And I'm excited about a new addition to my girls - she's arriving this January. In the meantime, here are some Lalas enjoying the New Year fireworks.