Happy New Year ~ 2010

A brief diversion from the dolls:
If you love blogging, cooking and/or just great movies rent the DVD Julie & Julia. I loved it. Meryl Streep is perhaps the most talented actress ever. Another movie we saw this week was Up In The Air.  George Clooney is still very nice to look at so many years after ER. It's worth seeing and has absolutely nothing to do with dolls - although the hobby of collecting could definitely be related to this movie. If you haven't seen it yet, go see Avatar. Then tell me what manufacturer you think will come out with the first articulated Na'vi doll. Every topic leads back to the dolls.
Yesterday I set up a temporary diorama or stage set for the larger dolls. None of my dioramas is permanently installed. I like variety. My doll cabinets are just for the dolls. The furniture and props appear in my photographs. I acquired in the last month three major pieces - Gene's Swan Bed, Tyler's Armoire and a Gene Convention souvenir which is a lighted dressing table. Unfortunately the table arrived broken and I am in the process of repairing it. When it's done, it will look better than new.
I like the furniture for the 16" dolls better than the furniture for the 12" dolls mainly because it is more substantial and truer to scale. Every sofa Integrity made for the FR dolls is too low to the ground. They are lovely to look at but too small. The liquor cabinet is too short. The best pieces are the bed and the large trunk. But due to their size and limited usefulness, I sold those items.
The only dolly stuff I did today was restyle an RnD Angels "Jaclyn"  wig. It was too long and fairly impossible to comb through so I swished it for a while in a diluted fabric softener solution, combed it through, rinsed it out with warm water and repeated the procedure until I could comb through the hair. When it was dry, I combed it again and decided to cut off at least 1/2". When I can't comb through a wig after all that, the fiber is damaged and must be removed. It looks great now. No pictures yet.
The RnD Angel wigs fit the AvantGuard dolls. They are a touch large but go on very easily. Use a rubbery wig cap and they are perfect. Check out what Rudy has remaining at the website. Remember that they will need styling before use!

http://www.rnddolls.com/site/angel/angel-fashion.htm

 This is just a sampling of what may be available. The price is right and Rudy is a dream to deal with.