Annual Facets Picnic

The weather turned out to be glorious for the annual picnic put on by Marcia Friend at her home in New Jersey. This was our fourth time and although the skies ahead looked ominous for a while, it was a sunny and mild day to sit outside and mingle with other doll collectors.

A dense line of clouds appeared over the bridge.

If you haven't been to Marcia's let me just say that seeing her doll collection is like going to a modern fashion doll museum. The dolls aren't just hanging out in cases, they are arranged in artistic tableaus with the finest furniture and props. While most of her collection on display consists of 16" dolls, smaller and larger dolls are included as well. In fact, her Cissy dolls are just to die for.
You might get a tiny idea from these shots:

Don't forget that you can click on any image to enlarge it.

Guests are invited to bring dolls along to display.

Paul Pham brought a OOAK Numina to display whose photo I have previously published.   Paul was surrounded most of the time by admiring collectors.

 

Adrian brought two of his Numina.

And there was food. Lots of yummy food. Rudy was a good boy. He stayed on the cool grass, under a table in the shade.

A fun part of the afternoon is the "free table." People send and/or bring doll stuff for this event. The crazed collectors (yes, I am part of that group) are held back until the GO signal is given and a free-for-all ensues. I was actually pushed very hard by a man whose name I don't even know. Some people are very serious about getting their free stuff. :-)

Our hostess:

But wait; there's more! Door prizes galore. Many were provided by collectors and many were provided by Wilde Imagination.  The prizes were very generous and lots of lucky attendees went home with great stuff.

It's always a fun day when spent with other doll people.

IFDC's Kesenia and Rayna Dolls

Once again, of the many benefits of being an international shipping buddy is getting to play with dolls that I do not own. Long Cool Woman Kesenia and Rock Me, Baby Rayna are temporary visitors to PA.

I rarely photograph dolls on stands however in this case, I could not remove the plastic from their legs so I decided to just go with it. The shoes on each doll are very nice with their tiny zippers that make it so easy to get them on and off. 

Underneath her jacket, Rayna wears a shirt that has string criss-crossed with the ends tied in a big bow. Not my taste so I put up the lapels of her jacket and tucked the strings inside. 

Each doll comes with very nice jewelry including a ring.

Nice ring but you may be able to see the difference in color between Kesenia's arms and hands. The hands are yellowish and the rest of her body is not. Not good. I guess if you wait long enough the body may yellow to match the hands.

Kesenia's sculpt is one of my least favorite as she was originally one of the Brides of Dracula.
Remember these?

However, in the LCW version, her mouth is painted with a darker pink lip color-shadow and her teeth aren't as large as other versions.

Long Cool Woman is the best Kesenia to-date IMO. I love her eyes which are two shades of blue-green. Her eyeshadow is a shade that goes really well with her lips. On her tan face, the pink is really pretty.

I'm wondering if IT will ever stop using the color-block look for the eye makeup, eyebrows and lips. It would be nice to see a more painterly approach to facial screening on a few dolls.

A Glimpse into Caren's Syb Boutique

Our dolly friend, Caren Castro, who has not been feeling well recently, posted this wonderful photo of some of her Sybarite gals. I asked her to describe the image:

This is my Syb boutique basically, has all the goodies a Syb would love around her. Limo is on the floor next to Tock and Karma wearing Everest, the slave set and Talc's belt. I call my Karma the "Protector of Couture". She is standing next to Trapeze wearing Thyme.

Caren Castro

I'd like to go shopping in that boutique!

Summer's End Nostalgia

Today on the blog entitled "everydayadollie" Lisa posted this beautiful and serene photo of Poppy Parker floating in the pool. The shot is so realistic and such a pleasure to gaze at.
Thanks to Lisa for the permission to reblog.

Poppy in the Pool by Lisa

Visit Lisa's blog: everydayadollie

Radio Days - A Look Back

Sandra Stillwell recently put on a convention in Cincinnati, Ohio called "Radio Days." Obviously the era was the time of high popularity of radio shows. There was no actual doll featured. The fashions of the era were the stars and several different manufacturer's dolls modeled.
Unfortunately the event coincided with our move and I was not able to go. I did purchase some of the little prop souvenirs. The radio is still available on Sandra's website. 
Click on the link to read about the planning and creation of the event. Sandra also has two sales pages where you can admire and purchase the remaining fashions and several other items from past events.

I'm a sucker for props and these are a wonderful addition to my ever growing collection.

Some of my favorite fashions are seen in the photos below:

Photo by Jeff Lega

Photo by Jeff Lega

Photo by Jeff Lega

Photo by Jeff Lega

Photo by Mike Basala

You can see many more fashions and read about the wonderful activities the conventioneers took part in by going to Sandra's blog.

At Last - Photos

The camera is unpacked but the lights are not. I'm not quite sure where they are as there are still about 200 closed boxes. Sigh.