Happy New Year 2015!

Wishing all my readers a wonderful New Year of love, good health, abundance and happiness.

Amidst all the chaos and unrest in this country and this world, I often look for a true joy I can focus on. Right now that is the love I have for my dog. For almost 12 years he has been our constant companion, playmate and loving pet. Rudy has changed our lives and enriched it in ways I can't even describe.

As many of you know, his health began to fail a year ago and his prognosis was as bad as it could get. I fear that his time on earth is drawing to an end. But for now I can look at him, talk to him and touch him. We've been spoiling the heck out of him. Why not? He's been such a good dog.

My love for him is my retreat.
Dolls are ought but mirrors.
My dog is my soul.

 I hope you have a joy and a love in your life.

My Collection: The Best of 2014

For this post, I basically showcase my own collection and some of what I have added this past year.  I've made some wonderful purchases, some so-so-average buys and a few mistakes.  My goal was to limit the adding of 12" dolls and concentrate on high-quality resin BJD 1/4 scale dolls, fashions and wigs

Resin BJDs accounted for nearly 1/2 of my expenditures. Integrity Toys got about 1/4 of the total. The rest went to Gene (and a convention), Tonner and another assorted dolly miscellany.

In looking back I could have eliminated everything Gene-related except for two custom fashions made by Matisse, Madra's dogs and an older Ashton-Drake Violet outfit (shown below.)  I'm just not into Gene any longer. I have sold all my Jamieshow Gene (and Madra, Violet) dolls except for one. They are lovely but not where I want to be.

JS Madra in AD Violet "Special Appearance"

The worst eBay purchase was several pairs of shoes from paul_zhangby and Zhang_young, whom I assume is the same seller, which purported to fit Sybarites. They don't come close. Many of their products claim to fit a wide range of dolls who have different-sized feet. What was I thinking to trust this type of advertising? He's still listing doll shoes like this: Brand New Pumps/Shoes /16" Doll Sybarite V3 JamieShow /Ficon /NUMINA /AG. Don't believe it! His shoes are gorgeous and edgy but won't do any good if you can't use them.


Most of the dolls on this 2014 list were discussed on my blog when I got them and not all of them are actually new releases, but they are new to my collection.

I'll begin with my first and only (so far) Deva Doll, Angelo. He has blown away all the competition from the rest of the big guys who live here. I'll let the photograph do the talking as he's already been introduced in prior posts. His face was painted by Chewin who also designed the fashion and wig.

Brunel from Kingdom Dolls hasn't been here very long and I want to play with her. It's a problem when I have too many 'new' dolls. No doll gets the time it deserves.  She is perfect.

Poor Angelo has been trying to date her but she's not having any of it.

Ficon Bonita in a Cheryl Wood wig.
I have quite a few wigs made by the talented Ms. Wood but this is my absolute favorite!
Bonita is a gorgeous doll with great posing ability.

I added two gorgeous Sybarites this past year and several Superdoll outfits.

-a repaint of Dionysis by Yian.  (Chewin wig)

-Fidele wearing Bitter Fern. I removed the pink bow which was at the waist. 

The outfit from Langtry and Madra's Dogs (Ashton-Drake) modeled by Toxica.

The outfit from Masque modeled by Neurotica. Mohair wig by Ilaria.

The outfit from Gateau modeled by Domina.

I never tire of looking at my Sybarites and their gorgeous fashions.

Moving over to Integrity Toys, their FR16 dolls, at first, didn't impress me. Once I started collecting their outfits however, the dolls began to grow on me. Their bodies pose beautifully.
This is Tyler head on a Tulabelle body wearing a FR16 Platinum Society. It's a favorite.

As far as their 12" dolls issued during the year, nothing made the cut except three from the convention.

Going off the track here for Gloss' "Evening Siren" Ayumi who is such an improvement over the original Ayumi I felt it deserved mention and images from her spotty past. :-)
It's a fact that the face-up makes or breaks the sculpt.

This is the After:

Here are the Befores:

If at first you don't succeed...

I always felt that Natalia's original and more ethnic sculpt was beautiful and should have been preserved.  She was gorgeous.  The "refreshed" sculpt looked just like all the other dolls with their pointy little noses and pucker lips. They're OK but this Natalia was special. "Femme du Monde" 2006.

However, Grandiose Natalia was a surprise. I actually like her a lot and added her to my collection. What is it about this particular doll? It's not the pointy eyebrows. She's just stunning.

And then there's Elise. She has become my favorite FR sculpt. I've given up on Vanessa and although two were added to my collection this year, they are not favorites.

In the following photo, one of the 2014 convention centerpieces, Elise Jolie "Intrigue," is shown with Adrian Von Lamberg "Night Vision" from the 2010 Dark Romance Collection. That was the last FR convention I attended and I had him at that time but I was not collecting male dolls. That changed this year as I sought to add some special Hommes to the tribe.

About two months ago I swapped with someone for an Avantguard which had been repainted. It was pretty awful once I saw it in person. My dear friend, Vin Trapani, rescued this doll from a dark drawer with his inspired re-repaint.
She is currently on a Tulabelle body and looking great.

Memorable 1/6 scale fashions:

Poppy "Glamorous Darling" and "IT Girl" adorn one of my mini Avantguard dolls and a Monogram doll.

This dress was created by V.Jhon. It is modeled by Tropicalia Vanessa.

So there you have it.

I haven't determined my goals with doll collecting for 2015. What I do know is that I spend way too much time where they are concerned. I want to put together a book showcasing my black and white NYC-era photography. That will take a long, dedicated piece of time.

I've had so much fun with dolls and doll people over the last decade or so but I have to bring back the joy that my creativity gave me and let it out of its holding cell.

Thank You, Designers

If you've watched Project Runway, you have certainly seen Tim Gunn go into the workroom to chat with the contestants. Before he leaves he often says, "Thank you, designers."  Of course he's known for many other expressions but today I want to focus on the 'thank you.'

If you're a member of the W Club, you have read the same expression every single time a new doll is revealed. It could also be "Thank you, design team." Some liaison is thanking the people who work for Integrity Toys for designing a doll to sell.

Let me ask you a question. When you're about to leave the supermarket, do you go up to the manager and say thank you for selling milk. Perhaps you like the packaging of a box of donuts. Will you write to the company thanking them for the pretty designs? Do you thank the post office for designing beautiful stamps every year? I think not. They want you to spend money on their products. You thank them by spending your money.

Why would a company thank itself for designing a product to sell to you? You're not going to buy it if you don't like it, are you? Do they do it to convince you that it's worthwhile?

We hope that everyone is as excited about these two dolls as we are! We would also like to thank XXX and the entire Integrity Design Team for the XXX Collection; this year has been simply outstanding for XXX!

The company should be thanking the buyers not their employees. 

There are endless reasons to say thank you to people. Here are a few that resonate with me.

So, this is my advice:

Gorgeous Gene Marshall Holiday Themed Photos by Tom Logan

One of my favorites and a top notch photographer, Tom Logan (CA) posted these photos today on Studio Commissary.  This is delicious eye candy!