by Elizabeth A. Allen
Here’s the latest census of small populations. This is only those out and about, not those in storage or progress. I have gotten rid of a notable number of out-and-about dolls, so it’s time for a census.
Total number of dolls out and about at both home and work: 83.
Dolls of Hardshippers [including Night and Day, who are no longer canonical]: 33.
Continue reading All my dolls, 05/15/2026The time traveler goes home, but this raises the question: Do the Elder Witches know what they’re doing?!
Continue reading Dorklets in…Boggle and the Time Traveler VIII!The Hippie has a magic box. Will it work to take Agnes home?
The magic box is an enamel pill box picked up from in antique store outside of Albany, NY.
Continue reading Boggle and the Time Traveler VII!The time traveler reacquaints herself with the Elder Witches under different names. Will they be able to help her?
Continue reading Boggle and the Time Traveler VI!Beans:
3 c warm water, 1 c dried black beans, 3 chipotle peppers and some adobo sauce from a can, minced garlic, oregano, cumin, salt, lime juice, chili powder, smoked paprika. Simmer until done.
The rest of the chili:
In a big flat-bottomed pot, put heat on medium.
Add 1 diced white onion and 1 lb ground beef. 1 diced yellow pepper optional. Keep stirring and breaking up meat with spatula. Cook until meat is browned and onion translucent, 7 to 10 min.
Add minced garlic, oregano, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, lime juice. Cook 1 min.
Add beans and stuff, 1 can jalapenos, 1 regular can corn, 1 can plain tomato sauce, 2 cans diced salsa style tomatoes. Stir.
Wait till the chili comes to a low simmer [blorp blorp] on medium. Simmer for 30 min.
Silencitx and Ethancitx are sure that the Magister can solve their problem with his magic mirror. Wait…he doesn’t have it anymore?!
For an atheist, Silencitx sure has absolute faith in the Elder Witches….
Continue reading Dorklets in…Boggle and the Time Traveler V!The dorklets decide to take the time traveler to the Elder Witches. But wait! The time traveler seems to know the Elder Witches under different names….
Continue reading Dorklets in…Boggle and the Time Traveler IV!The dorklets explain to the confused stranger that she is a time traveler who has come from the past!
Continue reading Dorklets in…Boggle and the Time Traveler III!This actually turned out pretty well, though insufficiently sinus-clearing. Next time I’ll cook the beans BEFOREHAND. I also have 1 lb. of ground beef waiting from the farmer’s market, where it cost $6.00, instead of from the grocery store, where my first lb. was from at the exorbitant price of $9.25.
Besides beef and beans, this chili requires white onion, 2 cans fire roasted diced tomatoes, 1 can plain tomato sauce, 1 can corn.
~1 lb. 90% lean ground beef and one diced white onion on medium heat. Add salt, cumin, minced garlic. 5 -7 minutes, till brown.
Add 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes.
Add 1 can plain tomato sauce.
Set aside on another burner to simmer on low. Add chili powder and smoked paprika.
Put 1 cup dried black beans in 3 c warm water.
Add 1 can diced tomatoes. Add minced garlic, 1 oz sliced jalapenos, cumin, salt, lime juice, chili powder, smoked paprika. Simmer for 1.5 hours.
Combine the meat and beans. Add 1 can corn. Bring to boil. Turn to low. Simmer for about 0.5 hour.
The dorklets try to help a confused person.
The confused person is a 1:6 scale doll from the 1870s. I have long wanted to use a 1:6 scale antique doll in photostories. What better way than for her to be a time traveler?
Continue reading Dorklets in…Boggle and the Time Traveler II!Yes, everyone’s favorite dorklets are back, this time with a game of Boggle! From left to right, that’s Little Theo, Ethancitx, Silencitx, and Little Allison.
Continue reading Dorklets in…Boggle and the Time Traveler I!Finishing our tour of the museum in midafternoon with aching feet and a need to sit, we went back to the inhospitable hotel, deposited dolls and stuff there, patronized Amped Coffeehouse to have a snack, and then drove to Black Dragon Antiques in Ballston Spa. This one-woman operation specializes in midcentury modern furniture and Persian rugs. Lyra, who has some experience with antiques including dolls and rugs, wanted to purchase a rug for the ground floor of her condo. I agreed to accompany her because I thought that, if rug shopping bored me, I could look at interesting antiques.
First we stood around for a half an hour, watching the owner and her assistant unearth area rugs from a pile about twenty deep, show them to a couple, and discuss their merits. I was fascinated because the owner knew what she was talking about. Eventually they chose a rug, had it tied up, and took it home.
Then the owner did the same with Lyra, peeling possible choices out of a pile, reeling off their measurements [which she could apparently eyeball—very impressive], and debating the attractions of the design and color scheme. Lyra found a long runner rug and a smaller one.
I didn’t take any pictures of the rugs, but I did photograph these wonderfully fetishy Erte prints. I like the one on the left best. It reminds me of bondage with beads or something. Orientalism meets Art Nouveau meets beaded shibari or something.
Continue reading To the Barbie exhibit at NYS Museum, Albany, NY: 03/13-03/15/2026!: Black Dragon Antiques and various 1:6 scale acquisitionsWe drove into Albany and parked very near the Empire State Plaza. Interestingly, the whole Empire State Plaza tries to hide much of the parking and shopping underground so that, aboveground, one primarily encounters the plain concrete plaza with reflecting pools and various planted trees.
From the plaza arise various skyscrapers characterized by vertical vent-like divisions that extend the full height and make them look kind of like the back ends of really tall air conditioners. Most of the skyscrapers are anchored at one end with huge rectangular tablets of white stone, clad in large square tiles. The tablets, about one-third the width of the skyscrapers, extend several stories above the skyscrapers’ roofs themselves and make me think of very very large elevator shafts. Some of the skyscrapers are actually on legs [actually just narrower parts of the buildings] so that one can walk through a one- or two-story arch underneath them. The arches underneath give the massive buildings an unusual, startling sense of lightness.
We went into the concourse under the plaza and looked at some of the public art installations while waiting for the New York State Museum to open. Then we hung around outside the doors to the museum, which, being under an archway, exposed us to a wind tunnel of damp, cold early spring air. We finally escaped inside a little before 9:30 AM and took some pictures in and around a lifesize [meaning 75% the size of a real car] Barbie car with us and our dolls.
The exhibit about Barbie dolls was okay. I didn’t learn anything from it that I didn’t already know, and the accompanying text mostly just praised Mattel as an innovative toy company and Barbie as an influential fashion icon. I particularly liked the display cases showing human-size fashions next to doll-size fashions inspired by them. I also noted that most of the dolls came from a collector’s private collection because Mattel did not have archives of past drafts and products during its first years. With so much to look at, I mostly just absorbed the sights of the displays, though I did take a picture of Ebru, a Black Barbie doll, sitting on the case of the first Black Barbie doll, who came out in like 1980 or something.
I much preferred the exhibit entitled “Hats of the Great Migration,” though it was more accurately an exhibition of fancy hats worn by powerful and influential Black church women in the Albany area in the latter half of the twentieth century. The single display case [I wish the exhibit had been more extensive] showed maybe twenty-five hats, each corresponding to a picture of the owner. A short description of the owner’s church-related activism often included a quote by the person or by a family member. I was especially pleased that several hats belonged to women who were still alive and carrying on the tradition of showing of their power, autonomy, fashion, and individuality through their Sunday best clothes.
Continue reading To the Barbie exhibit at NYS Museum, Albany, NY: 03/13-03/15/2026!: Ebru’s antecedents as a dollI met Lyra in Rutland, and we took her car to Albany. We drove on Route 4 West through a few towns, crossing into New York from Fair Haven into Hampton, then hitting Whitehall and Fort Ann as we skirted the southern edge of Adirondack State Park. These towns looked much like rural Vermont with high IRPs and many more abandoned houses than in Vermont. Then we hopped on Interstate 89 South through Glens Falls, Malta, Ballston Spa, Latham, and eventually to Colonie, location of our hotel. Urban sprawl characterizes much of the Albany area, whether it’s endless strip malls lining five-lane local routes or unvarying neighborhoods with quaint names [Retention Pond Estates, Scrawny Tree Manor, Wood Meadow Heights Lane] and no nearby town center. I found myself wondering how anyone escapes the strip malls or endless neighborhoods.
We arrived in the middle of the afternoon and did not want to stay in the hotel room. Instead we went to the Colonie Center, a megamall right across the street from the Travelodge. We wandered around Barnes and Noble. Because I hadn’t brought my phone, I pestered Lyra to take pictures of books that looked interesting so I could find them at a library and read them. I found a World’s Smallest Boggle board game, which Lyra said was too large for my 1:6 scale dolls, but which I bought anyway.
We ventured into the mall to Five Below, a store where prices are supposedly five dollars and below. Between the cheap cosmetics, the kawaii stationery, pends, and erasers, the charms for cell phones and backpacks, the extensive candy aisles, and the wide selection of blind box toys, the store clearly caters to kids between the ages of five and fifteen who want things that they consider cool, cute, and affordable. I think of it as analogous to the older staple of malls, Claire’s, although Claire’s focused more on jewelry and offered ear piercing. Nata introduced me to Five Below a few years ago when I visited her, and I like poking around there for fashion doll clothes or miniatures [often from blind boxes] suitable for 1:6 scale. Lyra did not know the glories of Five Below [because there are none in Vermont], so I introduced her. I got some Rainbow Brite branded fashion doll clothes for the dorklets.
For dinner, we went to Tanpopo Ramen in Albany. It was in a previously industrial section of the city with red-brick factories converted into loft apartments and restaurants in between boarded-up buildings not yet rehabilitated. With rust on its corrugated iron and old signs still hanging from its walls, this section of Albany reminded me of downtown Plattsburgh in which attempts at urban renewal coexist with urban decay.
We met Lyra’s cousin and ate salty, delicious ramen. I chose chicken for the protein and slurped it up with such gusto that it slopped on the front of my shirt. After driving through a spitting snow squall on our way into the city and shivering in our gelid, unwelcoming hotel room, we warmed up with our bowls of hot soup. The sake dilated our capillaries and gave us a superficial sense of warmth, but the ramen really made me feel warm from the inside out.
The next morning, we went to a diner in Latham. Though it was called 76 Diner and adorned out front with a picture of Colonial soldiers, it was founded in 1973, a fact that entertained me. This diner, though not an adapted diner car, nevertheless featured both a counter and booth seating. A plethora of mirrors framed in metallic finish reflected the glorious gardens of fake flowers in each window and along the top of the dividing wall separating booths from walkway. All booths had hanging lamps with stained glass shades mostly in golden brown with a floral pattern. The clank of silverware and clatter of dishes seemed to be the auditory equivalent of the bright flashes from mirrors and lampshades. It was so unironically old-fashioned and beautiful, in an over-the-top, joyful way, that I took a few pictures to immortalize a sense of its aesthetic obstreperousness.
Plus the food was good! Lyra and I both chose omelets containing lox, white onions, and cream cheese. The cream cheese melted enough to add moisture to the omelet coating, and the onions provided crunch, while the lox, of course, contributed some wonderful saltiness. We also had hash browns [fried potatoes] and toast, which for some reason always tastes very insubstantial at diners.
I discarded most thoughts of photostories when I arrived at the inhospitable hotel. I did, however, shoot some pictures of Ebru at the Latham 76 Diner keeping her teddy bear warm by wrapping it in her coat and pouring a lifesize packet of sugar into her doll-size coffee cup. This represented my most elaborate photostory effort of the trip.
Continue reading To the Barbie exhibit at NYS Museum, Albany, NY: 03/13-03/15/2026!: Latham 76 Diner [not really]Lyra and I took a quick road trip to Albany, NY, primarily to see an exhibit on Mattel Barbie dolls at the New York State Museum. Naturally I took a Barbie doll–Ebru. I packed a selection of props, and so did she, as we both thought that I would shoot elaborate photostories of her in the hotel and at the exhibit. However, the hotel proved so unhospitable and the exhibit so visually intense that my initial photostory of Ebru packing ended up being the most extensive one.
Continue reading To the Barbie exhibit at NYS Museum, Albany, NY: 03/13-03/15/2026!: Ebru packingI am now attempting to cook beans with the following recipe.
Put all in large pot. Crank to 7 until boiling, then down to 3 to simmer for 2 hours. See if food results.
EDIT: I feel like I put in too much water. :C
EDIT 2: Actually, most of the water simmers off.
As much as I hate cooking, I might have to learn how to cook beans. Here is a guide to cooking beans.
I’ve rearranged the small populations, so here’s a new census with new photos of those added or altered since last time. This is only those out and about, not those in storage or progress.
Additions and alterations:
Total number of dolls out and about at both home and work: 89.
Continue reading All my dolls, 01/01/2026This is one of those dolls where the parts recombined, came apart, rested for a while, combined with other parts, etc., etc., but I think this is the final combination. This is a Jakks Pacific Juku Couture head that somehow lost most of the cranium. I had to rebuild part of the neck hole and most of the skull dome. And I made a faux fur wig.
The body is an MGA RH Jr. Karma Nichols body that I sawed in two at the waist for some reason, probably to add a joint, but I ended up just regluing it back together. I removed the arched feets and replaced them with Obitsu 22cm feets. I took the nail polish off the hands and the lipstick and face paint [except eyebrows] off the head.
This is Jacob.
Continue reading A new kidsy has appeared!I have painted her hair and eyebrows sloppily with gold paint and her happily closed eyes with pinkish brownish lines. No paint necessary for the mouth, as the shadows look convincing enough. On close inspection, she’s a mess, but she looks so like herself that I don’t want to mess with the results.
First picture: Bb Silence says, “Magister, Magister! Up up up!”
Second picture: Bb Silence says, “Magister…”
Continue reading Bb Silence at six months — now painted!The game of gas station [and day care and candy store and nail salon and bank] ends with an airplane crash and lollipops.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Gas Station VII!More kidsies play gas station [and nail salon and day care and bank]…
Notice that the bank has the most important stuff [as far as the kids are concerned]: free lollipops and free pens.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Gas Station VI!Actually playing gas station! Well, sort of.
You can tell they’re Vermont kids because they want real maple syrup. 😉
The signs on Mini Ethancitx’s counter say MAPEL SKELITONS, CANDY!!, PAY FOR GAS HERE, and COFIN WOOPY PIES. [Mini Ethancitx is not a great speller.] The sign on Mini Meghna’s counter says MANICURES DONE HERE!
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Gas Station V!Mini Silencitx apologizes to Truthlet. They make up with help from an MGA Make It Mini Miniverse Mini Post that came with the mini jack o lanterns I got.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Gas Station IV!A small group of doll lovers meet sporadically at Brownell Library, and, for today’s meet, I decided to bring the residents of House Rainbow Barf and some Xmas props that I haven’t used before.
I supplied Jujube, Honorine, and Ishi, the ceramic tree, the string of lights, the gift boxes, and the 1:12 scale Xmas books. Lyra supplied the mini Barbie doll in the mini case [an ornament by Hallmark] and the mini trucks. Elias supplied the Zuru mini toys in packages.
Continue reading Jujube, Honorine, Ishi, and the Xmas propsAfter spending a lot of time on Halloween gingerbread house kits from MGA Make It Mini Miniverse, I also redecorated a mini resin gingerbread house that I found at Michaels, a craft store. The pictures below show the latest versions of my mini Halloween houses, all featuring the addition of 3D printed candy corn pumpkins. The first two photos show the Miniverse houses. The last photo shows the mini house from Michaels, where the scene is supposed to represent a snowy Halloween.
Continue reading Final Halloween gingerbread houses!Today I tried using clear resin for gelatin and a bunch of fruit inclusions. The lemon slices on top, orange sections, and grapes are from an MGA Make It Mini Miniverse fruit tray. The kiwi slices are nail art deco. It looks like a bunch of not-particularly-appetizing fruit trapped in gelatin, which is the intention, I suppose. Huzzah?
Continue reading Another gelatin salad for the Magister!This TRANSLUCENT TOWER OF TASTE is 1.625″ in diameter and made by AmysRetroMinis on Etsy. It’s so beautiful that I want to sob. I have had less success with my own gelatin salads with inclusions, probably because I haven’t been using clear gelatin.
Continue reading The Magister’s new addition to his gelatin collectionOver the years the Magister has amassed quite a few gelatin salad recipes and gelatin salads [and related molded foods] themselves. What started as a facetious appreciation of gelatin salads has turned into an enjoyable 1:6 scale obsession! Let’s check out his inventory….
Continue reading The Magister’s gelatin salad collectionI got a new MGA Miniverse kit that included a double decker silicone mold, so today the Magister got two more molded salads/desserts for his collection!
Continue reading The Magister’s double decker gelatin desserts!!Recently I got a 3″ tall, fully jointed, 3D printed version of Bb Silence, so naturally I had to show her to the Magister…. She’s supposed to represent Bb Silence at six months, for which she might be a little small, but that’s okay.
Continue reading BB Silence — now with articulation!The Magister approves. So does the mini Magister!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House IX!Silencitx installs the edible cemetery. Ethancitx licks a cookie. Who does that?!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House VIII!Silencitx adds pumpkins…and blood?!
[No dolls were harmed in the making of this episode.]
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House VII!Silencitx and Ethancitx make progress on the Halloween house.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House VI!Silencitx makes a tree. Ethancitx finds a piece.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House V!Ethancitx makes most of the house and then has a meltdown.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House IV!Construction begins. But wait! Silencitx detects a fatal flaw in the chosen materials.
It’s really hard to enjoy Halloween decorations when you know what actual, real-life, historical tombstones look like. This story is brought to you by my personal experience. In fact, I bought this mini haunted house specifically so Silencitx could criticize the included serving platter.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House III!Will Silencitx and Ethancitx be able to finish their Halloween gingerbread house without annoying each other?
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House II!I’ve been recently changing out some of the sets on my living room shelves. The witchy room has been converted into the Magister’s study because my witches don’t really employ herbs, potions, Tarot, and other conventional tools of the occult. Besides, the Magister’s study gives me a chance to show off all my miniature cemetery-related decoration because the Magister is the biggest Goth nerd ever. I plan to decorate the walls as soon as I figure out how to secure art to them.
The shuz store has been disassembled to make way for a second floor of the toy store. The store is really more of a shop for things for kids; while the first floor includes stuffed animals, dolls, board games, robots, toy vehicles, arcade games, small nonhuman animal figurines, etc., the second floor contains school supplies [backpacks, lunchboxes, thermoses], roller skates, skateboards, pedal cars, a tricycle, and a Zoltan fortunetelling machine, though I might swap that out for a display of classic children’s books. I plan on adding murals made of stickers.
Now I don’t have a place to show off my miniature shuz collection, and I’m starting to wonder if I should get rid of it!
Pictures follow, first of the Magister’s study [inhabited by the Toon Magister, Toon Ethan, Toon Clarity, and Toon Silence], then of the second floor of the toy store.
Continue reading Updated sets: the Magister’s study and the toy store’s second floor!Mini Silencitx gets rid of the baby doll in an advantageous swap.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Baby Doll III!Silencitx and Ethancitx discuss whether they can collaborate on a Halloween gingerbread house without violence. The gingerbread house is from MGA Entertainment Make It Mini Miniverse Halloween series 3. The two little kidsies in the first photo are Ertl Coca-Cola Kids that I recently purchased and restored.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…The Halloween House I!In my search for 1:6 scale kids, I came across Playground Kids made by Ertl. The headsculpt is copyright 1990, and they were made in the early 1990s. Each Playground Kid is a doll 7″ high with plastic head, hands, and shoes and a cloth body. Each doll comes with a toy, like a tricycle, a swing, a teeter totter, etc., that they can sit in or on and ride. Their hands are sculpted in clenched positions so that they can hold on to handlebars, swing chains, etc. They have rooted hair and come with hairbrushes. There were also eventually a line of smaller dolls with their own ride-on toys, also made by Ertl and representing younger children. Ertl also used the same kind of dolls branded as Farm Kids, with more agriculturally related toys. The Playground Kids concept succeeded well enough that it spawned imitators, which can be found on Ebay with searches like “playground kids clone doll.”
Anyway, Ertl collaborated with Coca-Cola to issue a line of branded dolls in this style along with branded toys. Unsurprisingly, the dolls are called Coca-Cola Kids. I found a lot of five Coca-Cola kids for slightly under $40.00 shipped. Well-loved and grimy, they came with tangled hair and none of their toys. I decided to see how I could fix them up and, given that I did not spend lots of money on them, perhaps experiment on them to make them more self-supporting and articulated, able to be integrated in my 1:6 scale world.
Continue reading New love for old toys: Coca-Cola Kids by ErtlMini Silencitx’s dad Harry helps her realize that she did a mean thing.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Gas Station III!Since the last view of all my doll sets, I have acquired a new bookcase, moved sets to different shelves, added some decoration with vintage stickers, and completed the Magister’s kitchen 2.
Continue reading All my sets, 09/26/2025I have fond memories of purchasing stickers, accumulating them in sticker books, and coveting them at stationery stores when I was a kid. I particularly liked stickers by Sandylion or Mrs. Grossman’s of non-licensed characters. Original designs and characters by both companies featured simple line art with vibrant, saturated palettes, expressive faces, and a wide range of imaginary creatures and activities popular with the target audience of middle-class kids.
Recently I’ve decorated some doll sets with stickers [mostly Sandylion]. I started on this project because I wanted to put stickers on the walls of my toy store set. I had stuck up a few sheets of stickers and, when attempting to remove them, peeled off the fake wood grain on the back of the bookcase. To cover this up, I decided to make a sticker mural for the wall of that set.
Concurrently I wanted to display some antique trade cards of a girl playing with a doll, but I didn’t want to use tape on them or plastic slipcovers. I covered a stainless steel sheet with white fabric and used it as a display board for the mini dorklets’ play room on top of my dresser in my bedroom. I stuck up the trade cards with magnets. I also displayed some stickers that I had gotten a few years ago when I was making miniature sticker books for my dolls.
Anyway I bought a bunch more stickers for my sticker decorations. All of them are from the 1980s and 1990s, and most of them are Sandylion. My most favorite ones I left on the original backing, but I did throw together a lot of them to make a poster for the toy store.
Pictures below.
Continue reading Decorating with vintage stickersWhen I first discovered collectible diecast 1:6 scale replicas of mid-twentieth century pedal cars that doubled as banks, I was thrilled because I thought I could use them as toys for my dolls. None of my dolls greater than 7″ high could fit in the car that I got in 2021, though, so I eventually got rid of it.
Now that I have smaller dolls, I remembered pedal cars as toys for dolls and tried again with another bank modeled after a pedal car, this one replicated a 1940 Garton fire engine. I could wedge a doll in the seat, but the fit was very tight. The high seat [accommodating a battery pack beneath] and large steering wheel reduced leg room.
I then tried to get another pedal car replica, this time of an airplane [1941 Steelcraft Spitfire Airplane by Murray]. I did not go for a bank this time, but for one of the Sidewalk Cruiser Series / Kiddie Car Collectibles put out by Hallmark. Unfortunately I ended up buying a tree ornament, thanks to photos that gave no sense of scale. After extensive analysis of Ebay auctions, I figured out that Hallmark Sidewalk Cruiser Series / Kiddie Car Collectibles referred both to 1:6 scale diecast and plastic replicas of mid-twentieth century kid’s vehicles and the 1:12 versions that appeared as tree ornaments. Not helpful, Hallmark. >:C
Armed with this information, I bought the 1:6 scale plane pedal car this time. I discovered that, unlike bank replicas of pedal cars, Hallmark replicas of pedal cars have lower seats, higher steering wheels, more leg room, and the ability to easily fit dolls at least 6″ high. Very exciting!
Now I wanted to upgrade the fire engine pedal car replica that I had originally gotten for something that I could more easily use with my dolls. Time to purchase another Hallmark replica, this time of a 1955 Murray fire truck, which arrived today. Comparison shots below.
Continue reading Diecast vehicles issued by HallmarkMini Truthlet’s gas pump is kicked to the curb, where Mini Ethancitx and Mini Meghna discover it.
To add to the irony of Mini Silencitx’s comment about playing gas station being for babies, Mini Ethancitx is two years older than her, and Mini Meghna is four years older than her!
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Gas Station II!Mini Truthlet makes a gas pump for Mini Silencitx.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Gas Station I!After recovering from dismemberment, the baby doll suffers further alteration at the intrepid hands of Mini Silencitx. Squirt squirt!!!
This use of a hollow molded plastic toy is inspired by my similar practice with My Little Ponies to make them piss water out their tail holes. >:)
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Baby Doll II!I just got a diecast 1:6 scale tricycle! It’s part of the Hallmark Kiddie Car Classics Sidewalk Cruisers collection, and it’s a replica of a 1960 Murray Blaz-O-Jet tricycle. I got it pretty cheaply because it’s missing the plastic pedals that fit onto the medal pedal assembly. It fits Mini Ethancitx, but not Mini Silencitx, so naturally the following conversation ensued.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Trike Riding!Mini Silencitx gets to drive the pedal car and races Mini Ethancitx on his roller skates! Who will win?
I took them and some supplies to my parents’ house today in case I wanted to take pictures. Shot in my parents’ driveway.
[No, I don’t know why the last panel is showing larger than the others.]
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Pedal Car Racing!I wanted to get another pedal car for the [mini] dorklets in the shape of a plane. With no measurements supplied by the seller and no items to provide scale, I couldn’t tell what size it was. It was too small for Mini Silencitx to sit in, but that didn’t stop her….
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Pedal Plane!I have revamped my doll sets [not shown in this entry] and rearranged who’s out, in storage, or gone. So here is a new census with updated pictures for those dolls who have been added or altered since the last census. Reminder that this census only shows dolls that are out and about, not dolls in progress or dolls in storage.
Additions and alterations:
Total number of dolls out and about at both home and work: 90.
Dolls of Hardshippers: Elder Witches x3, dorklets x7, Memory, Solace, Harry, Missy, Bell, big dorklets x7, mini dorklets x4, toon Hardshippers x4, bb dorklets x1.
Fraction of my dolls that are Hardshippers: 31/90 = 34.4%.
Continue reading All my dolls, 09/07/2025Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx ponder what to do with an unwanted gift, much to the consternation of Mini Silencitx’s older brother, Mini Truthlet.
Sharing my biases, my characters think baby dolls are kind of creepy.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…The Baby Doll I!I spliced Mini Ethancitx’s top half onto the lower half of an Obitsu body in an attempt to get him down to between 6 and 7″. Top-heaviness is much less apparent when he’s dressed. He can finally wear the purple sparkly Rainbow High tank top that I’ve been saving for some doll version of him!
Continue reading Mini Ethancitx with improved body!I had a diecast metal pedal car back in 2021 but never did anything with it because only my smallest dolls fit in it. I now have another one and more small dolls to fit in it! Behold the Dorkletmobile!!!!!
Continue reading The Dorkletmobile has arrived!It’s time for an in-situ census of the small populations to capture the changes in residents! Click on any pic to enlarge.
Total number of dolls at both home and work: 95.
Dolls of Hardshippers: Elder Witches x3, dorklets x7, Elva, Memory, Solace, Harry, Missy, Bell, big dorklets x7, mini dorklets x4, toon Hardshippers x6, bb dorklets x1.
Fraction of my dolls that are Hardshippers: 34/95 = 35.8%.
Continue reading All my dolls, 08/23/2025Les voici! I am in the midst of setting up the Magister’s kitchen part II, which has taken over the shelf where the shuz store used to be. The shuz store has taken over the lowest shelf on the same bookcase and evicted the reading room, which is currently on the floor.
Continue reading All my sets, 08/23/2025I saw many people whose clothes I admired. Otakuthon brings out people who want to see and be seen in clothes that they’re proud of, so people watching always proves a highlight of my convention. A selection of photos is below.
Here are some people wearing everyday clothes–no costumes. I love their street style!
The first person had wonderful flowy pleated green pants and elegant long yellow pumps plus fun patterned socks. I also appreciate people who go gray without coloring their hair. The second person coordinated their hair and their outfit like a fashion doll! The third person had a cute, playful design on their sweatshirt, and the fourth person reminded me of me in my twenties, although I never had rainbow hair. The fourth person had an amusing shirt and a great grin.
Continue reading Otakuthon, 08/07/2025-08/09/2025: People watching!!!We got up later this morning than yesterday, about 8:00 am. I dressed in my new t-shirt. Lyra wore her Japanese yukata with wooden cat earrings and a new calico cat hair clip that she picked up from the dealer room yesterday. We braved the enduring hazy sunshine, with warmer and more humid air than yesterday.
Continue reading Otakuthon, 08/09/2025: Morning, Pine, dealer room again, lunchI’ve put all my photos from the dealer room on August 8 in this separate entry.
Our fellow hordes flooded the dealer room on Friday, making navigation through the aisles difficult because clumps of people stopped dead right in the middle of the aisle, clogging everyone else up. The first time I went to the dealer room, I walked quickly, just trying to scope out what was there in the artists’ alley. Where possible, I went up one side of an aisle and down the opposite. I usually don’t pay much attention to the companies’ booths taking up the other half of the dealer room, but I was on the lookout for another t-shirt, so I did a speed run of that section. After hours of quick pacing on bare cement floors, my feet hurt. D:
Continue reading Otakuthon, 08/08/2025: Dealer roomWe rolled out of bed at about 7:00 am to another hazy, mild summer day. The temperature and humidity both mounted slightly compared to yesterday but remained bearable rather than sweltering.
Continue reading Otakuthon, 08/08/2025: Chinatown, panels, etc.Duplicating the photostory that I shot in the garden in front of the Palais on our first day of Otakuthon in its own post.
Pine tried to consult the paper Otakuthon map that I picked up, but it soon attacked and overwhelmed her, much to Sylvia’s consternation. Fortunately, the map on the reverse of my badge proved to be much more useful for their scale.
Continue reading Pine and Sylvia in…Map Mishap!I decided to go to Otakuthon after all because I desperately needed a distraction and a vacation to someplace other than Colchester, where I live, Essex, where my parents live, and Burlington, where I work. Waking up bright and early at 6:45 AM as if I were going to work, I noticed that haze continued to linger from Canadian wildfires. It has been fuzzing up the air since Sunday, and I have to keep washing my face because my eyes gunk up. We have had so little wind since then that the leftovers from smoke remain in the air, obscuring the sun. It was alarmingly red as it shone into my bedroom this morning.
I packed up all my luggage in my wheeled luggage [shown] and my small backpack [not shown]. Only after dinner that day did I realize that I had packed sufficient underwear and shorts but only a single t-shirt! Anyway, Pine got all ready too.
I picked up gluten-free treats from West Meadow Farm Bakery in Essex, as customary. I got a sticky bun for me and a citrus poppyseed muffin for Lyra.
Continue reading Otakuthon, 08/07/2025: Travel, hotel, and 1:6ers being sillyJust in time for Otakuthon, Pine arrived in the mail today. I worked from home, thinking I would have to sign for her because the package required a signature. However, the mail carrier left the package in a locked parcel locker, so a signature wasn’t even needed!!
I bought Pine, a Bardo Research Anitya with awake and sleeping faceplates, about a week ago for $1802.95 shipped because I really loved her sleeping faceplate and because, for once in my life, I could afford to drop that much on a semi-impulse purchase. I also just really wanted something to make me happy right now, and her sleeping faceplate’s expression really spoke to me. The expression seems to blend concentration and effort with relaxation, stillness, and tranquility. At the same time, the expression also reads as wistful, melancholic, or nostalgic. I interpret the expression as one in which the person is trying hard to maintain balance despite distractions. An alternative interpretation is that the person is trying to meditate but is experiencing distracting thoughts. Plus I love her affectionately and delicately molded ripples of flesh.
I quickly decided that her name was Pine, a lovely word with a dual meaning: both that of an evergreen conifer common to Vermont and that of a verb meaning “to long for.” Both meanings have their roots [hah!] in Latin. The arboreal source is pinus, and the verb’s source is poena, the Latin word for punishment, pain, and suffering. The multilayered meanings of enduring, durable, ubiquitous, soft-wooded but prickly tree and intertwined desire and pain make the name full of evocative character! I also decided that she’s a Hardshipper, but not a Saxon. I think her family has some more plant names in its history, though.
I usually like to paint my dolls myself, but I really like the default faceup on Pine [first pic]. I believe that it’s done by the Bardo Research sculptors, Alexei and Oksana Geets, who are Russians in the UK.
At 31cm, Pine is almost 1:5 scale at least in terms of body. You can see how she’s taller in bare feet than the Hippie is with shoes on [second picture]. You can also see how thick her legs are comparatively. The head, however, is completely 1:6 scale, so I’m declaring that she’s a tall fat person. She only fits in that magenta leotard [meant for 1:6 scale female action figures] because it’s so stretchy.
As I was figuring out what Pine should wear to Otakuthon, I first gave her a DollsAhoy blouse with integrated vest that I’ve had for like 25 years [second pic]. Then I tried a Mattel Sanrio Chococat dress for the top and added an MGA Rainbow High Shadow High basketball bag [third and fourth pics] and generic 1:6 scale plastic green clogs. As much as I liked the basketball bag [custom painted orange by someone else], it did not match her personality as much as the Rainbow High bag with the sun and moon on it. I added a Zuru Mini Fashion baseball cap because I don’t want to cover her beautiful skull with a wig, and she was ready to go [fifth pic].
I say that she has cheap clothes because the hat [under $5.00], Mattel Sanrio dress [under $5.00], and clogs [under $10.00] were gifts from @natalunasans. I paid under $10.00 for the Rainbow High bag and maybe $25.00 for the bodysuit.
Continue reading Pine, a Bardo Research Anitya and VERY expensive BJD with cheap clothesBb Silence and the Magister have been keeping me grounded and sane recently. It’s Hardshipverse canon that Bb Silence and the Magister first meet when she is about three or four months old. He reads her mind and discovers that she’s upset because her parents are calling her Lucy instead of Silence and because no one understands her. Before she learns words, she and he communicate telepathically, becoming great friends.
Bb Silence is a Zuru My Mini Baby series 2. The series 2 babies have less translucent silicone skin than series 1. They also have much more detailed facial sculpting and body sculpting [including open mouths and individual fingers] as well as varied poses. I got a blond one because Silence’s hair, like mine, starts out very light yellow and darkens as she ages. I also got one with one arm up so she could grab the Magister’s hand and bring it to her mouth. She likes to suck on his glove. That’s why the photos show his hand near her mouth. At first he assumes that she likes it because it calms her; then he learns that she interprets it as “Silence nursing Magister.” That is, she perceives that she is providing him calm, nourishment, and sustenance when she sucks on his glove. HELP I WUVS DEM.
Bb Silence arrived on July 21 without clothes, so I wrapped her in some toilet paper temporarily. I then sewed a stretchy bag with sleeves for her in the second picture. Finally, today, her professionally made pajamas came in the third picture. In the fourth picture, the Stylist and the Hippie watch the Magister totally absorbed in Bb Silence and wonder if they can broach the subject of having kids again.
Silence now has five dolls of her!!
Continue reading Bb Silence [and the Magister]A classic and childhood favorite featuring the ultimate dorklet!!
Continue reading “Book Cover” freebie contest render #3I wanted to do a cover of the novelization of Labyrinth that focuses on Sarah, her imagination, and her agency, as opposed to the actual cover, which has her trapped in a crystal ball held by Jareth.
Continue reading “Book Cover” freebie contest render #2The theme for the July 2025 freebie render contest on the Daz boards is “Design a Book Cover.” I’m unsure if this entry will be accepted because I made up both the title and the author, but I think it’s hilarious, so I’m posting it anyway.
Like many of my contest entries, it features the Spymaster as Rasputin, this time as a satyr with impressive eye-rolling skills [just like the human].
Continue reading “Book Cover” freebie contest render #1Silencitx and Ethancitx are safe and sound. That doesn’t mean they’re best friends, though. Ew!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure XIV!I don’t think I mentioned this here, but “To Be Beautiful III,” my entry in the freebie render contest on the Daz boards, won FIRST PLACE back in May! The prize was $15.00 in store credit.
I was so entertained that my brightly colored and obviously queer merpeople won! In case you forgot, here’s the picture. I imagine that the Spymaster is very pleased that he won in his Mer-Rasputin incarnation. >:p
Continue reading My digital silliness wins first prize!The Magister drops in [literally] on Silencitx and Ethancitx and saves the day.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure XVIII!Evidently Mer-Rasputin is now the star of an ongoing series of adventures….
Continue reading “Summer and Piracy” freebie contest render #3At the Goblin Market, Hardship’s local independent grocery store, an unusual person appears and examines things….
Lyra and I went to a doll and bear show in Sturbridge, MA, last weekend, and I got an antique doll with china shoulder head [head + bust] and lower hands. I know nothing about her except that she’s 12″ tall, from the 1870s according to the seller, and wearing handmade clothes from the period. I bought her specifically because she fits in with my favorite scale of dolls and, as you can see, easily becomes a fellow Hardshipper.
Continue reading Hardshippers in…The Time Traveler I!Back at the Elder Witches’ house, the Elder Witches discover the activated magic mirror. Their kids Night and Day do some detective work, and everyone reaches an alarming conclusion. Then the Magister disappears?!
Continue reading Dorklets Night and Day in…Balloon Boat Adventure XVII!Silencitx and Ethancitx encounter a dragon. Now what?!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure XVI!I got back from a weekend with Lyra. We went to the Sturbridge Doll and Bear Show in Sturbridge, MA, yesterday. I bought a 1:6 scale antique doll for $75, which was probably a little high. She has a cloth body with a china shoulder head [head and bust in one piece] and lower arms. She’s 12″ high, from the 1870s, according to the seller [Collins Gifts in Rye, NH], and very worried in her expression. Her clothes seem to be from that period too and handmade. I’ve been wanted to add a 1:6 scale antique doll to my small populations for some time now, and here she is: Agnes Clothilda Blood!
Continue reading Discombobulated time travelerThe dorklets have all converted themselves to digital to play pirates in my latest Daz freebie contest entry for “Summer and Piracy.”
Title: “The Dorklets Playing Pirates!”
Caption: It may look like a suburban backyard with a pool to adults, but to imaginative kids it’s Pirates’ Cove!
Continue reading “Summer and Piracy” freebie contest render #2 featuring dorklets!!The freebie contest theme this month on the Daz board is “Summer and Piracy.” My first entry features Mer-Rasputin [wearing the Neon Green Octopus of Pulchritude that he won in the Mx. Oceans beauty pageant in my last month’s entry] enchanted by a singing pirate.
This was supposed to be a more explicitly Pride-themed picture, with the pirate’s ship in the background flying a Pride flag, but I decided to zoom in on the couple.
Note: Quite a few entries are using the Pirate Treasure, Skull Cave, and Mr Gibbs [cosplay of a Pirates of the Caribbean character] pieces, so it’s fun to see the interesting and different ways in which people use the same things.
Continue reading “Summer and Piracy” freebie contest render #1Last month I renewed my long-dormant interest in digital art using Daz Studio. Besides working on a photo/digital photostory hybrid for my dolls, I’ve also been entering freebie contests on the discussion boards hosted by Daz, which makes Daz Studio and the most popular human models used in the programs.
I like to enter the monthly freebie contests. People in the digital rendering community love to make things and give them away as freebies, whether they are digital models, morphs [shapes for preexisting models], textures, poses, scripts, etc. Robust repositories of freebies exist in a variety of genres and qualities. You can make really cool pictures using only free stuff! I like the challenge because it’s the digital version of what I do with my dolls: putting different parts together to create something more interesting than the source.
May’s theme for the freebie contest was “To Be Beautiful.” The rules are to use at least 5 currently available freebies with links, no more than 5 paid products with links, to follow the theme, to follow the board’s terms of service [no nudity, basically], to list all products used, and to show renders before and after postwork.
Continue reading Back into digitally rendered art with some contest entries…Silencitx and Ethancitx play around in the Stone Menagerie. Aefra congratulates herself on a good idea, but it seems that she has spoken too soon!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure XV!Aefra [the tour guide] takes Silencitx and Ethancitx to a really cool cemetery. The warning on the gate is less cool, however….
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure XIV!My dolls of the Magister finally have clothes that more accurately reflects what he wears in my imagination and my stories. Well, actually, the clothes are simplified versions, adapted for the limitations of small scale, but they’re more true to life than anything else he’s worn.
Marvelous work done by Olha Dolls Fashion, a genius tailor who took my concepts and specifications and interpreted them in cloth!
Continue reading The Magister has his bespoke clothes!Silencitx and Ethancitx try to obtain their hearts’ desires. Ethancitx has better results.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure XIII!Silencitx and Ethancitx are on the ballooning part of their balloon boat tour!
Isn’t the balloon boat both silly and majestic? I love it!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure XII!Silencitx and Ethancitx get closer to a balloon boat ride! Traffic proves an obstacle, though.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure XI!We find out about the book Silencitx has been carrying around with her. We also make time for a gratuitous outfit change!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure X!Silencitx and Ethancitx go to the bathroom and have a snack because why not? They also have very different ideas of what constitutes stylishness.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure IX!Silencitx finds a magic story in the Book Nook. Silencitx, Ethancitx, the bookstore owner, and the bookstore owner’s baby have a discussion about farts.
Click on any panel to enlarge and see details!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure VIII!Silencitx and Ethancitx check out the Goblin Market. Silencitx is impressed. Ethancitx is overwhelmed. There’s A LOT going on. Silencitx saves the day.
Click on the pictures to enlarge them and read the elf workers’ signs. 😀
Note that I did NOT make anyone’s clothes for these “digital dolls,” as I call them. That requires skill in 3D modeling, which I have not yet quite developed.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure VII!Silencitx and Ethancitx learn very important information from the bear at the lost and found. And they meet some goblins!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure VI!A plot twist and a whole new art style await Silencitx through the mirror! So does Ethancitx, much to everyone’s relief.
All scenes through the magical mirror are made of digital assets arranged and then rendered in a program called Daz Studio. I think of my digital art as playing with digital dolls. Everything, from the models themselves to their textures to their shapes, can be purchased and combined in novel ways.
Both Silencitx and Ethancitx are both Genesis 8.1 Female base figures made by Daz Studio that I have reshaped and retextured to correspond as closely as possible to their doll versions. I got the stripes on their shirts by scanning the long-sleeved shirts that the doll versions are wearing and applying them to the digital shirts. They aren’t wearing their pink sweatshirts because I couldn’t find an affordable digital version.
I’ve been playing with digital art like this for over fifteen years, so I have a collection of thousands [!!] of digital assets. I’m excited to show Silencitx and Ethancitx having adventures that exceed the limits of my 1:6 scale stuff!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure V!Silencitx and Ethancitx make some ill-advised decisions, and the plot really gets going.
The Magister is one of the Elder Witches and Silencitx’s best friend, so of course she knows that he has a magic mirror. He’s also the head of the cemetery commission and really into historical gravestones, hence the wall art. We’ll see more of him and the other Elder Witches later.
The magic mirror is a 1:6 scale prop that originally came with a figure of John Constantine, a comic book antihero. He summons demons from hell [or maybe he just views them] through a magic mirror. The mirror is supposedly sculpted to look like something is coming out of it, but I don’t see it. Anyway, I’ve had it for years and finally decided to put it to good use.
After all that discussion about the balloon boat, Ethancitx dropped it along with his sweatshirt! Don’t worry–the balloon boat comes back later, albeit in a different form.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure IV!We find out what Ethancitx was working on…but why are he and Silencitx disappointed?
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure III!Siblings Night [with long red hair] and Day [with short brownish hair] discover that wet snow is really fun until it falls on you… Fortunately the Magister warms everyone up with hot drinks.
This photostory was shot under the eaves at the side of my new apartment building and inspired by the alarming sight of massive amounts of wet snow sliding off the nearby roofs. We got four inches of extremely slushy snow yesterday, and it’s already dwindling….
Continue reading Dorklets Night and Day in…Wet Snow!Silencitx and Ethancitx are still pestering each other. Yes, she followed him into his room to complain about him. Meghna shows up and weighs in on the shirts.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure II!Silencitx [with short brown hair] and Ethancitx [with long black hair] are next door neighbors. They get along rather well when they’re not getting on each other’s nerves, but right now they’re getting on each other’s nerves….
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Meghna, Ethan’s older sister, is the coolest and most fashionable person on the planet.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Balloon Boat Adventure I!I constructed Little Day magicked some Venus flytraps, and they’re so proud of themself!
Little Night [with long red hair] and Little Day [with short brownish hair] are the Elder Witches’ kids. They did some creative cooking, but they forgot about the Magister’s sensitive stomach. Fortunately they find a way around it. They’re all so sweet!
Featuring some MGA Make It Mini Miniverse drinks that I made this weekend!
Continue reading The Elder Witches and family in…Potion of Grossness!I put some of the miniature herbs and their labels in appropriate containers this morning. I also decided to change the label on the cilantro because I’m part of that genetic minority to whom the herb tastes like soap. The following photostory resulted. Featuring dorklets Night and Day!
Continue reading The Elder Witches and family in…The Magister’s Canned Goods III!One silly pun deserves another. The Magister responds in kind.
The paper plates are from another MGA Make It Mini Miniverse set, this one in the Happy Birthday series.
Continue reading The Elder Witches in…The Magister’s Canned Goods II!MGA puts out many cute little food packages in their Make It Mini Miniverse line of approximately 1:6 scale miniatures. Recently they came out with the Nature II series which included herbs that could be potted in miniature cans. As much as I like 1:6 scale fudz in general, I am a sucker for 1:6 scale canned goods, so I immediately got those sets with herbs and their tin can planters.
Continue reading The Elder Witches in…The Magister’s Canned Goods I!Toon Silence tries to use magic to create a Valentine’s gift for Toon Ethan. The results are unexpected, but she has a solution.
This photostory is brought to you by Valentine’s Day, the locally made Snowflake Chocolates, and my parents, who gave me the chocolates. [They were the perfect size for ME!]
Continue reading Toon Hardshippers in…Too Much [?] Chocolate!I rediscovered some miniature adhesive patches I commissioned about two years ago. One says BE GAY DO CRIMES. The other says 100% THAT WITCH. A photostory with all my favorite characters ensued. Technically no dorklets appeared. [Big Silence and Big Ethan are no longer dorklets.]
Continue reading A Hardshippers photostory: Being Gay and That WitchLater we three returned to Tech Park. The Spymaster, owned by @natalunasans, discovered a tree root that looked like a butt [hur hur hur] and pointed it out to his student Xeni, also owned by @natalunasans. She overplayed her shock and accusations that he was being cringe because…well…it really did look like a butt.
Continue reading Back at Tech Park: The Spymaster, Xeni, and the Butt Tree — also some majestic shots of the MagisterEmily, a Petworks Ruruko [redressed, with inner thigh sockets carved out for better sitting], meets the Toon Magister on @natalunasans dining table [guest starring my water bottle in the background]. [With @natalunasans and @roseinthelibrary, I use “dorklet” to refer to a kidsy who embodies the qualities of a dorklet–in this case, unabashed curiosity.] Emily feels somewhat intimidated by the Magister’s august reputation, but not so intimidated that she stops staring. The Magister tries to engage her with his usual combination of courtesy and straightforward respect. Emily isn’t sure how to take this.
Continue reading A dorklet encounters an Elder Witch!!Today, the last day of the year, we went to Tech Park near @natalunasans house and took pictures of our dolls rock climbing. Yes, it was about 55 degrees F that day.
Lizzie [with greenish hair] is my doll. The Spymaster [in purple, with cane] and Ruth Doctor [in polka dots, with locs] are @natalunasans dolls. [@natalunasans is obscured by an emoji because she did not want her face online.] The Jakks Pacific Disney ILY4ever Nightmare Before Christmas fan doll [with reddish hair, in patchwork skirt] belongs to Rose.
Includes a closeup of the Spymaster because that’s a combination of my digital headsculpt [with cheeks made fuller by @natalunasans] and @natalunasans addition of hair and paint job. I love how she painted him!
Includes behind-the-scenes photos taken by me and @natalunasans showing us taking pictures of our dolls.
EDIT: I just realized that all the pictures are watermarked with January 1, 2025, but I don’t feel like going back and altering all the panels.
Continue reading At natalunasans house: Lizzie and others hiking in Tech ParkToday, while in the midst of packing up to move, I took pictures of my doll sets without small populations in them, just so I could have record of how I arranged things. Then, when I set things up in my new place, I will have reference shots.
EDIT: I notice that I didn’t get pictures of sets in the living room, but I’m still posting these here for posterity.
Continue reading Doll sets before movingThis is how I prepared the latest permutation of my vegetarian chili.
Prepare 1 lb carrots by slicing. Put into food processor 0.25 lb at a time. Pulse for 1-2 sec until grated, not liquefied.
Prepare 1 large white onion in the same way.
Put carrots and onion in large flat-bottomed pot along with 1-2 tbsp [?] vegetable oil, 2 tsp [?] salt, 2 tsp [?] cumin, 1 tbsp [?] chili powder, 1-2 tbsp [?] minced garlic from jar.
All measurements are approximate because I’ve given up measuring. The oil keeps the veggies from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Putting some spices in the veggies at this point allows the flavors of the spices to penetrate the veggies.
Turn heat on to a bit less than medium. My current stove’s burners are measured in the following increments: low, 2, 3, 4, med, 6, 7, 8, hi. I set the burner on 4.
Start cooking. Stir with spatula or wooden spoon so as not to scrape pot’s bottom.
Meanwhile, dice 2 peppers. I like yellow or orange because they are sweeter. Add to the cooking veggies.
Cook veggies. Stir semifrequently. Watch larger pieces of carrot and onion from imperfect food processing. Cooking is done when larger pieces of carrot are tender and larger pieces of onion are translucent. This takes 15-20 min.
Remove pot from heat when done. Let cool. Refrigerate overnight. I do this because I dislike cooking and am very impatient; I would rather do two shorter stints of cooking than one extended one. Also refrigeration overnight allows the flavors to mingle.
The next day, take out the pot and put it back on the stove. Again I put the burner on 4. Add some vegetable oil to keep things from sticking. Stir semifrequently until simmering.
Add 6 tsp minced garlic from jar, 2 tbsp chili powder, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp dried oregano. Cook for about 1 min.
Add 2 cans diced salsa style tomatoes with garlic. Stir.
Add 2 cans reduced sodium black beans, drained. Stir.
Add 1 can dark red kidney beans, drained. Stir.
Add 2 regular cans corn, drained. Stir.
Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 30-60 min.
Meanwhile, heat 3.5 cups water to boiling in another pot. Add 2 cups uncooked jasmine rice. Cook until rice is all cooked and all water is absorbed. With a burner set on 4, this takes about 15 min.
Put all the rice in with all the chili. Mix it in with spatula.
This makes a whole honkin’ lot of food, about 15 days of lunches at 1 cup of food per lunch.
MGA’s Make It Mini Miniverse recently issued a set of miniature alcoholic drinks, and @natalunasans surprised me with three of them. Among others, I got the set that I was most excited about: the set with four tequila shots and a golden octopus to hold the glasses. I added red rhinestones to the octopus’ eyes and invented my own multicolor drinks with my various resins. Then I took pictures of [from left], the Hippie, the Magister, and the Stylist with their drinks.
Continue reading The Elder Witches and their octopus tequila shotsI decided to update some of my census photos because some small populations have left and some have updated or rearranged. This is probably the last census for 2024 because I hope to be moving soon! No particular order. Dolls in each pic are named from left to right. Click on any pic to enlarge.
Continue reading All my dolls, 11/23/2024It’s based on this vegetarian chili recipe by Cookie and Kate, from which I then concocted this recipe.
In a big flat-bottomed pot, heat oil on medium with lid on.
Then add one diced yellow pepper, [I forgot it this time] a diced white onion, 1 lb. diced carrots [I measured this time]. I added 1 tbsp minced garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, 2 tsp chili powder, and 1 tsp cumin at this stage so they could soak into the veggies. Cook until veggies are tender and onion translucent, 15 to 20 min.
Add 6 tsp minced garlic from jar, 2 tbsp chili powder, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp dried oregano. Cook for about 1 min.
Add 2 cans reduced sodium black beans in juice, 1 can reduced sodium dark kidney beans in juice, 1 small can jalapenos, 2 regular cans corn without juice, 1 can diced salsa style tomatoes with garlic. Stir.
Wait till the chili comes to a low simmer [blorp blorp] on medium. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for at least 30 min, but up to 60 min if you want.
I always love people watching at Otakuthon because I see people of all shapes, sizes, ages, colors, and abilities decked out in unusual clothes and showing themselves off. The creativity and confidence on display astounded me. Click on any photo to enlarge.
Continue reading Otakuthon 2024: People in costume!We began Saturday with a panel reviewing the last two decades of Japanese street fashion. Like the presenter on Harajuku, the street fashion expert had way more material and photos than she could reasonably cram into 45 minutes. However, with her more relaxed, informal delivery and asides, she engaged the audience and entertained us a lot more than the presenter on Harajuku did.
Because the Dollfest meetup was not until Sunday afternoon, at which point we would be gone, we looked at the 1:00 PM Saturday BJD marketplace/salesroom as an alternative to the meetup. It really wasn’t. Sellers [including Lyra] laid items out on tables and watched as curious crowds filed through. Some sellers talked a bit to each other, but not a lot.
I picked up a dress for Toon Ethan from a seller’s free pile, so I got some shots of Toon Silence admiring him below. Click on pics to enlarge. I also got shots of a ball-jointed raven doll, a doll made by French dollmaker Mouton en Sucre and owned by Quebecois BJD fan Dejected Raven. The raven had four swappable heads, only two of which are shown here. I also got a shot of Lyra’s Smartdoll Infinity [in lime green at left] and Volks Lorina [in dark green dress at right]. There was also a beautiful Smartdoll Reflection owned by Caroline.
Continue reading Otakuthon, 08/03/2024: BJD sales roomWe had to pick up our Otakuthon badges in person on Friday morning because the US Postal Service changed regulations for items in bubble mailers containing badges with RFID chips, so the badges could not be mailed as planned. [Also Otakuthon did not get its shit together to mail the badges early enough.]
Continue reading Otakuthon, 08/02/2024: Dolls being silly, Chinatown, hordes, and art purchases!!On the morning of August 1, Lyra drove from her side of the state to mine, arriving at my parents’ house at about 10:30 AM. From there we departed in the FLE car for Montreal!
The Travelodge, our cheap hotel of choice, required a three-night reservation. We decided to travel down on Thursday, August 1, and pass Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, departing Sunday morning. We anticipated arriving on Montreal by lunchtime, early enough for us to go to a museum that afternoon. We also thought that we would do shabu shabu at Kagayaki on Thursday night before the anime hordes descended on Friday, the first day of the con.
I got smart this year and brought clothes hangers [to dry sweaty clothes before putting them in laundry], a garbage bag [to separate dirty clothes from clean], extras of everything [because I sweat a lot around this time of year], and my own towels. For dolls, I brought two 1:6 scale Hardshippers, Toon Silence and Toon Ethan. I was considering bringing just one, but I started to feel guilty. Because they are partners, I didn’t want to bring one without the other and make them unhappy to be separated!
I also got smart this year by checking beforehand how long the border crossing might take. The US customs and border patrol’s website conveniently lists each border crossing, how many of each lane [passenger, commercial, pedestrian] are open, how long the wait is, and if there are any warnings. When we left my parents’ house, I saw a ten-minute delay [i.e., a ten-minute wait at the border] for the Highgate Springs crossing, where we have always gone into Canada. We hoped that our luck would hold and that we would not have to wait long to cross.
As we got within yards of the border, we saw one of those portable highway signs that forms digital text with each letter made of different formations. It said WARNING: CANADA AHEAD! We thought that was hilarious, as to me it implies that Canada is a surprise or toxic or both.
We were also highly entertained by an infographic sign of a speed bump because Lyra had seen a Norwegian version online. Apparently the Norse word for speed bump is “fartshumper,” which is naturally funny to us Anglophones because it contains “farts,” a scatological term. We were just saying “fartshumper” and snickering.
Anyway, we cleared the border in 10 minutes, which was the quickest weekday border crossing I’ve ever experienced! Once in Canada, we experienced bumpier local routes and highways, but no problems entering Montreal, parking the car in the usual garage a block away [$30.00 Canadian a day], and checking into the hotel [room 201, right by the elevator].
We identified a new favorite food shop in Chinatown for lunch and all other snacks. Coco, a chain of patisseries [sometimes in conjunction with bubble tea shops], offers delicious Japanese and Chinese pastries and other sweets.
For lunch we got sesame buns with red bean paste in them, which are crunchy because of the sesame seeds, dense, chewy, and fatty because of the doughy bun parts, and sweet [but not too sweet] on the inside because of the red bean paste. We consider them the perfect blend of sugar, fat, and protein, the perfect addition to a meal. We also got onigiri, which is kind of a Japanese equivalent of a sandwich with a filling [I had spicy beef], rice for the equivalent of bread, and a seafood wrapper to keep the whole thing together.
Continue reading Otakuthon, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 08/01/2024: “Warning: Canada ahead!”Mini Silencitx and Mini Truthlet’s parents try to teach them about Mr. Yuk stickers, which were stickers popular in the 1980s to denote poisonous household items. The dorklets have their own uses for Mr. Yuk stickers, however….
Continue reading Mini dorklets Mini Silencitx and Mini Truthlet in… Mr. Yuk I!Used some leftovers from various MGA Make It Mini Miniverse kits as well as some polymer clay decorations sold for nail art.
Continue reading Made some more miniature gelatin salads todayIt’s based on this vegetarian chili recipe by Cookie and Kate, from which I then concocted this recipe.
In a big flat-bottomed pot, heat oil on medium with lid on.
Then add one diced yellow pepper, a WHOLE diced white onion, A BUNCH OF diced carrots [2 CUPS?]. Cook until veggies are tender and onion translucent, 7 to 10 min.
Add 6 tsp minced garlic from jar, 2 tbsp chili powder, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tbsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp dried oregano. Cook for about 1 min.
Add 2 CANS reduced sodium black beans in juice, 1 can reduced sodium dark kidney beans in juice, 2 CANS jalapenos, 1 REGULAR CAN corn, 1 can diced SALSA STYLE tomatoes with garlic, and SALT. Stir.
Wait till the chili comes to a low simmer [blorp blorp] on medium. Simmer for 30 min.
Modifications from last time: Added a whole onion instead of half. Added more carrots. +2 tsp minced garlic. 1 tbsp smoked paprika instead of 1.5 tsp. +1 can black beans. 1 regular size can corn, not small can. Salsa style diced tomatoes because they’re cut smaller. Added salt at the simmering stage.
Results: I mixed half of this with rice and immediately took it for a week’s lunches. I froze the other half. As of July 15th, I just finished the first half after 6 days of lunches. It had a satisfyingly thick mouthfeel, robust flavors, and plenty of burn from the chili powder.
This evening, I thawed the other half, cooked rice, and mixed it in. Then I sampled the second half. Hooo-whee! The heat of the chili has intensified over time, and all flavors have coagulated, creating a thicker, more umami chili. It’s definitely going to be better the second week!!
Mini Truthlet tries to get away from it all with a little roller skating. Then Mini Silencitx shows up and wants to be just like her big brother.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Roller Skating at the Park!It’s based on this vegetarian chili recipe by Cookie and Kate.
In a big flat-bottomed pot, heat oil on medium for at least 10 minutes.
Then add one diced yellow pepper, half a diced white onion, about 2 diced carrots, and 1/4 tsp salt. Cook until veggies are tender and onion translucent, 7 to 10 min.
Add 4 tsp minced garlic from jar, 2 tbsp chili powder, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 1/2 tsp smoked paprika, 1 tsp dried oregano. Cook for about 1 min.
Add 1 can reduced sodium black beans in juice, 1 can reduced sodium dark kidney beans in juice, 1 large can green chiles, 1 small can jalapenos, 1 small can corn, 1 can diced tomatoes with garlic. Stir.
Wait till the chili comes to a low simmer [blorp blorp]. This is probably halfway between medium and low heat. Simmer for 30 min.
Modifications: Used white onion instead of red. Left out celery because I hate it. Probably added more than 2 carrots’ worth of carrots. Left out bay leaf. Added green chiles, jalapenos, and corn. Used only 1 can diced tomatoes because that’s all I had.
Results: I like the smoky notes from the paprika, the juicy crunch from the peppers, and the burn from the jalapenos. Add entire white onion and another can of beans.
Time for another census! For expediency’s sake, some of the the small populations are grouping in twos and threes for photos. They are not in any particular order. I just took them from the sets they were hanging out in and plopped them in front of a neutral background for photos. All photos list the dolls from left to right.
Total dolls out and about at home and work: 110.
Dolls of Hardshippers: Elder Witches x3, dorklets x7, Elva, Memory, Solace, Harry, Missy, Bell, big dorklets x7, mini dorklets x4, toon Hardshippers x9. Total: 34.
Fraction of my dolls that are Hardshippers: 34/110 = 30.9%.
Continue reading All my dolls, 06/08/2024Is the moon pie mystery solved?
Yes, I did complete this installment before the actual adventures on the moon [pie].
Continue reading Dorklets in…Moon Pie Adventures VII!Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx see someone familiar on the moon [pie]!
The hearse is a digital model; the person driving was composited into a render of the hearse’s interior.
Continue reading Dorklets in…Moon Pie Adventures VILittle Allison [in yellow jacket] and Little Theo [in sweatshirt] try to get a bird’s-eye view of things.
Continue reading Dorklets in…Moon Pie Adventures V!She is a Disney ILY4ever Snow White Evil Queen fan doll headsculpt on a Mattel Made to Move Barbie body. Hands are from the original Disney ILY4ever doll too.
I had a big fight with her hair. First of all, there was too much of it, making her head lean back when I put her hair in a ponytail. I cut down, but did not remove, a lot of hair around the crown of her head, thus reducing the bulk of the ponytail.
I also rooted a streak of neon green into her hair, which is the first and probably last time I have ever rerooted a doll. I also melted some of her blond hair when I was heating her head with a hair dryer, so I had to reroot some blond hair at the nape of her neck.
She’s wearing the Evil Queen fan’s stock dress turned into a shirt and all her stock jewelry [key earrings and knife bracelet]. Her glasses are from the Disney ILY4ever Mirabel fan fashion pack. Her shorts are from the Disney ILY4ever Sleeping Beauty Maleficent fan. There are MGA Rainbow High fishnets under her black fishnets. She’s wearing MGA Rainbow High boots too.
Little Night goes on an adventure. Little Day worries. Everything ends happily!
Continue reading Dorklets in…Moon Pie Adventures IV!Exploring the moon [pie]!
These pictures took a lot of compositing. First I took pictures of a Moon Pie from different angles. Then I used Daz Studio to render a sky from deep space. Then I took pictures of dorklets in various poses. Then I took each layer into Adobe Photoshop Elements and pasted them together, with the help of motion blur and Gaussian blur to imply motion and distance.
Note dorklets’ body language in the first shots. Little Allison [with sun and moon on her jacket] and Little Theo [in white sweatshirt] are holding hands because they are BESTEST friends. Little Meghna [in rainbow-striped shirt] has her arm around Ethancitx [in Hello Kitty shirt] because she’s keeping an eye on her younger b[r]other. Little Night [with long red hair] is reassuring her little sibling Little Day [in polka-dotted sweatshirt]. Silencitx is out in front blazing a trail!
In the next pictures Little Meghna is doing cartwheels because she likes gymnastics and other full-body sports.
Continue reading Dorklets in…Moon Pie Adventures III!The Magister makes homemade maple moon pies, which are very popular.
The homemade moon pies are played by small, individually wrapped mochi, which is why they don’t look much like moon pies. Just imagine the maple glaze, okay? :p
Continue reading Dorklets in…Moon Pie Adventures II!Because @natalunasans sent me some Moon Pies, I made a silly little photostory of two mini dorklets diving right into them. Then I started thinking about dorklets playing in a whole set made of Moon Pies, and this adventure was born…
For those of you who have trouble keeping track of these things, Silencitx and Ethancitx are the primary dorklets. Silencitx has short brown hair and a button-up shirt. Ethancitx has long black hair and a Hello Kitty shirt. Little Meghna, with curly black hair, is Ethancitx’s older sister. Little Allison [with headband] and Little Theo [with skirt] are some other neighbors of Silencitx’s. Little Day [in polka-dotted sweatshirt] and Little Night [with moons on her pants] are kids of the Elder Witches, which includes the Magister.
Continue reading Dorklets in…Moon Pie Adventures I!@natalunasans sent me her chametz in the form of Moon Pies, and she addressed the package to “Hardship Trayf and Chametz Inspectors,” which inspired me to enlist mini dorklets Mini Silencitx [blond] and Mini Ethancitx [black hair] for help. They dove right in…literally!
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Hardship Trayf and Chametz Inspectors!I filled in a blank shelf on a bookshelf in the doll room toy with some of my favorite set pieces, including an electrical experimentation board, various robots, and a dangerous pile of junk. The 1:12 scale denizens of House Rainbow Barf found new purpose in life as well. They had been lying around because I had banished them from the ~1:12 scale set in favor of putting mini dorklets there. Then I decided that Jujube, Honorine, and Ishi would enjoy pulling shenanigans in the lab of dubious science.
Continue reading New lab of dubious science set!Can’t go to sleep without a teddy bear…
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Mini Dorklets Sleepover VII!Stolen ice cream tastes best!!
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Mini Dorklets Sleepover VI!Did Mini Silencitx get new PJs…or did she just raid her older brother’s dresser?!
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Mini Dorklets Sleepover V!@natalunasans in chat with an online friend:
i wonder if they’re just coagulators
no what’s the word
it does have to do with sticking things together
like the news sites that don’t actually make new news stories, they collect up news stories from other news sites?
AGGREGATOR
omfg
Aggregator. Coagulator. Same difference!
The mini dorklets make a big mess and talk about the prizes they got in their fast food meals.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Mini Dorklets Sleepover IV!Mini Silencitx, Mini Ethancitx, Mini Meghna, and Mini Truthlet debate what to eat. That’s Harry, Mini Silencitx and Mini Truthlet’s dad, coming in to ask what they want.
Burger Queen is a fast-food place local to Hardship. Her Majesty’s Surprise is a kid’s meal with a toy in it.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Mini Dorklets Sleepover III!Certain toon Hardshippers were updated this weekend with items from a recent shipment of Disney ILY4ever dolls and fashion packs.
Continue reading Updated Toon HardshippersThe guests arrive!
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Mini Dorklets Sleepover II!Now that I have two mini dorklet sibling pairs [Mini Silencitx & Mini Truthlet and Mini Ethancitx & Mini Meghna], they demanded a sleepover…even though Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx don’t always get along.
Mini Silencitx may be a little asshole, but she’s right about gumdrops. They’re very waxy. :C
That’s Mini SIlencitx with the blond braid and the Hardship shirt, Mini Truthlet in yellow, Mini Ethancitx in silver and rainbow stripes, and Mini Meghna with the braid and jean jacket.
The set is one that I’ve never used for photostories before. It’s the sweet and snack shop that lives on one of my bookshelves in the living room.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Mini Dorklets Sleepover I!I was displeased with Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx being the same height. Ethan is two years older than Silence, so, at such a young age, the difference in height between the two would be noticeable.
To that end, I spliced the top half of the Mr. Z toddler body onto the lower part of an MGA Rainbow High Junior Karma body. I’m ignoring the double navels as well as the difference in color between upper and lower parts because the results work well enough for me. I’ve retained some necessary torso flexion and made Mini Ethancitx when clothed look like a pudgy kid who’s older than Mini Silencitx.
In the first pic of him dressed, Mini Ethancitx wears the pajamas from the rescently released MGA Rainbow High Junior Skyler. He also wears her slippers and carries her cosmetics case with some nail files and nail polishes in it. He looks adorable!!
Continue reading New body for Mini Ethancitx!Day makes some new plants with their magic. The new plants attract new friends. Hey, where did that tortoise come from??
Continue reading Big Day and Big Night in…Day’s New Plants!It has come to my attention that my doll photostories confuse some people because I have several dolls representing the same characters. Forthwith, an overview of Silence and Ethan, the two Hardshippers with the most 1:6 scale representations at four each.
Continue reading Two little dorklets and how they grewToday I finally finished my Toon Day 2.0. They now have their fur wig in the proper color for their long messy hair.
Continue reading Toon Hardshipper Day updated…plus all the toon Hardshippers together!I think I just leveled up in disgustingness of gelatins. The one on the left is Veggie Medley according to the Magister and Barf on a Plate according to Little Night. The one on the right is Spicy Volcano according to the Magister and Just Because You Can Doesn’t Mean You Should according to the Stylist. Even the Magister looks a little dubious about their edibility!
I think Veggie Medley is lumpy and slippery in a bad way that no one likes, while the Hippie figured out that Spicy Volcano goes nicely in tacos.
Veggie Medley is made of 1) clear resin containing chives, mustard seeds, and red pepper flakes, 2) translucent red resin containing whole cherry tomatoes, and 3) clear resin containing boiled egg slices and carrot slices, garnished with 5) boiled egg slices on top and 6) pickle slices around the base. Spicy Volcano is made of 1) orange “hot sauce” resin mixed with translucent red and translucent yellow resin with 2) layers of yellow “cheese sauce” resin, “hot sauce” resin, and translucent yellow resin for sauce and garnished with 6) grated cheese, 7) chives, and 8) red pepper flakes.
Continue reading The Magister’s gelatins, part III!My most recent forays into miniature things made with resin have been greatly enhanced by the baker’s dozen of colored UV resin bottles that @natalunasans sent me!
Continue reading The Magister’s gelatins, part II!Are they standing in awe or staging an intervention?
Continue reading “Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair — for I am the Master of Gelatin!”The Magister has a fondness for gelatinizing things. He has at least one cookbook all about encasing things in gelatin. In May, I even got him a mini gelatin salad all his own!
I unironically love the creative things people were doing with gelatin and aspic and jellied things, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. Ever since I made the Magister his own cookbook and got him his own gelatin salad, I wished that I could make my own mini gelatins.
MGA has been issuing an extremely popular line of Make It Mini miniature food craft kits that include little bottles of resin, little ingredients in little packaging, and little utensils. From previous sets, I have amassed at least 20 mini bottles of resin [meant to serve as cream cheese, soda, maple syrup, hot sauce, etc.], many cut fruits [including bananas, strawberries, and pineapple], and some vegetables and spices. I have been saving them to make veggie salads, fruit salads, desserts, and, of course, gelatin fudz. When MGA released Blue Razz Jelly, a mini reusable silicone mold for a blue raspberry gelatin dessert containing raspberries, I ordered my own small silicone molds, suitable for chocolates, as well as Blue Razz Jelly. I organized all my bottles of resin and all my inclusions [things to put in the resin] and waited eagerly for my vacation, when I planned to make many gelatin salads.
I started off on December 19th with one of the chocolate silicone molds. Unlike the MGA Make It Mini silicone mold, the chocolate molds are…well…chocolate-colored and opaque, which makes curing the resin a challenge. MGA uses UV-activated resin in the Make It Mini fudz, and anything that blocks the penetration of UV light, such as the opaque silicone of the chocolate molds, inhibits the resin setting. Putting in too many inclusions can also complicate the curing, as I discovered when my first experiment came out uncured on top because too many mini marshmallows blocked the UV rays. My first result did not look sophisticated and exciting at all, but it did look like a remarkably realistic culinary experiment performed by dorklets who cared more about stuffing it full of sweet ingredients and less about making something aesthetically pleasing.
Continue reading The Magister and his many mini gelatin salads!I’m disturbed by his pants, which impugn his old-fashioned sense of modesty by showing off the body parts underneath. I might have to add a floor-length skirt. Nevertheless, I’m very pleased with the simple paint job on the head and the ease with which the paint stuck to the resin and followed my directions. I thought I hated painting. Turns out I just really hated painting slippery [probably unwashed] resin prints.
Behold the Toon Magister! And Toon Silence! Help I wuvs dem!
Continue reading Toon Hardshipper 9 completed: The Toon Magister!Even in unfinished form, he looks so happy and gentle! HELP I WUVS HIM.
Continue reading More work on the Toon MagisterToon Truth has been completed! He is a Disney ILY 4ever Christmas male doll head, repainted and rehaired, on an Obitsu Slender Male body with neck and forearms painted to match, and action figure hands. His glasses are from a Mattel fat Fashionista Ken a few years ago, his shirt from Mattel Ken in the 1960s [?] from my friend Lyra, and his pants from Mattel Ken Fashionista fashion pack.
Continue reading Toon Hardshipper 8 completed: Toon Truth!Ever since HeroForge, an online character customizer specializing in tabletop gaming miniatures, introduced the ability to sculpt the miniatures’ faces, I’ve been making my favorite characters in the system. Naturally I improved my earlier versions of various Hardshippers, and I came up with a stylized Magister who looked both old and also very sweet and avuncular.
Continue reading The Toon Magister redux!I’ve been working since yesterday on two gingerbread houses. Both are miniature kits from MGA’s Make It Mini series of resin crafts holiday series. @natalunasans gave me three gingerbread houses, so I felt free to go wild with at least two of them. Each gingerbread house kit came with a snap-together house, gumdrops, white cream squirts, and white resin icing. I used ingredients from other kits to enhance my houses.
I thought that Night and Day would each decorate their gingerbread house according to their interests. Night would make a Gothy haunted Halloween house. Day would make a nursery — or “nrsre,” as they spell it creatively.
After I finished Day’s “nrsre” and got about halfway through Night’s haunted house, I decided to do a photostory of them making at least one of the houses. I had to use my extra gingerbread house, toppings, and mini shoebox [the brown-painted base for each house] to fill in for some of the earlier steps in construction.
Someone can’t be trusted around all the candy!! :O
Continue reading Dorklets Little Night and Little Day in…Gingerbread Architecture!Mini Silencitx is a smartass…
Continue reading Dorklets Mini Silencitx and Mini Truthlet in…My Older Bother I!I bought a lovely little limited edition Little Witch Doll, Seattle Grunge version, made by dollmaker Isabel Anderson. Down to $95.00 from $115.00 for a Black Friday sale, she ended up being $115.00 with free shipping. I loved her thick eyebrows, sculpted eyelids, and terminally unimpressed expression.
Continue reading Lizzie the unimpressed witchThe last dorklet to have a first version of her completed, Toon Theo is here!
Toon Theo originally started out as a Jakks Pacific Disney ILY Mickey and Minnie fan head on the same body. I swapped her lower body for an MGA Rainbow High one to represent the fact that Theo is shorter and fatter than, say, Allison.
Along the way, I grew dissatisfied with the similarity of all the Disney ILY 4ever headsculpts, so I changed Toon Theo’s head to a Mattel singing Asha head. [Asha is the main character of Disney’s most recent animated musical Wish.] With an erasure of her freckles, a repaint of her eyebrows, and a gloss of her eyes, she was ready to join her bestest friend and love Allison!
Now I’ve just got to do Toon Day 3.0, the Toon Magister, and Toon Truth!
That’s two more toon Hardshippers than I ever planned on… :/
Continue reading Toon Dorklet 7 of 7 FINISHED: Toon Theo!Sweet Sue got a new wig off Ruby Lane, an online marketplace, after years of looking frazzled and neglected. Her new wig may look frazzled, but that’s just because it’s as old as she is. The style looks much better!
Now I just have to do something about her bloomers always falling down…
Continue reading Sweet Sue got a new wig!The riveting drama continues!
Continue reading Mini dorklets Mini Silencitx and Mini Truthlet in…Chekhov’s Squirt Gun II!Silence has an older brother Truth. Because he’s six years older, he’s not usually part of the dorklets’ adventures. He is, however, very much like them in spirit.
I didn’t have any versions of Silence’s older brother in doll form up until now, but then I got an adorable Mattel Ricky head from Lyrajean. Ricky was a short-lived boy doll created as a friend for Mattel Barbie’s younger sister Skipper. He was only made for two years, and he looks like Mattel Allan, only younger.
Well, I moved the head onto a hybrid body made from the torso and arms of a Mattel Creatable World doll with hands from an unknown child action figure, pelvis, upper thighs, and feets from an Obitsu 24 body, and legs from a Spin Master Liv doll. I painted the hair gold to approximate a blond color and the eyes sort of hazel and dressed him in a Creatable World shirt, a pair of Barbie leggings that Lyrajean gave me, and Creatable World boots. I really wish that he bent better at the elbows, so I might work on that later, but he’s done for now. I did not intend to make any other Hardshippers to accompany Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx, but I now have Mini Truthlet, who’s somewhere between 10 and 14 years old.
Truth in all his forms is a huge computer nerd, so Mini Truthlet shows off his computing magazines, which I made this week from scans of actual vintage computing periodicals from the late 1970s and early 1980s, reduced to 1:6 scale. He also shows off his computer [played by a Mattel Barbie Magic Moves windup toy, just like the camcorder], his various TVs, robots, and his other electronics…and, because he’s kind of a weird kid, his favorite snacks.
Most of this set accurately represents what might be in a kid’s room in the early to mid 1980s…with one exception. The pump-action squirt gun that Mini Silencitx is sneaking around with is inspired by the Super Soaker, which didn’t hit the market until 1990. I don’t care. It’s instantly recognizable as a squirt gun, unlike some of my other 1:6 scale weapons.
Continue reading Mini dorklets Mini Silencitx and Mini Truthlet in…Chekhov’s Squirt Gun I!I took some pictures of the latest iteration of Toon Day with the rest of the finished Toon Dorklets…
Continue reading Working on Toon Day again…I bought the Jakks Pacific Disney ILY Bambi fan doll because I thought that the rooted blond hair and the smirk would be good for Toon Day.
Continue reading Toon Dorklet Day updated!“Do you know this guy?”
“Nah, I thought he was your friend.”
I finished potting all of the plants from MGA Make It Mini Lifestyle series. I had an extra hanging planter so I added a totally tentacular vine made of pipe cleaners. The sneaky hungry capybara is accurately scaled and a gift from @natalunasans.
Continue reading Big Night and Big Day [and a guest] in…The Plant Room 03!Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx make and eat their sweet pizzas.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Sweet Pizza III!Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx clean up.
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Sweet Pizza II!Mini dorklets Silencitx [blond] and Ethancitx [black hair] get a brilliant idea!
Continue reading Mini dorklets in…Sweet Pizza I!The Stylist offers to help Little Night and Little Day make caramel apples. The suggestion is dramatically vetoed. Everyone acts sarcastic and silly. Then they eat caramel.
This pointless story is brought to you by MGA Make It Mini Halloween series 1 minis and my deep antipathy against Granny Smith apples.
Continue reading Two dorklets and the Elder Witches in…Caramel Apples!Big Day prepares a pot and magics a plant into it. [Day has plant powers!]
Continue reading Big Day in…The Plant Room 02!This is the grownup version of Day the dorklet in their plant room. [They have plant powers.] Check out the details!
I arranged this set in the righthand side of my desk. The lefthand side of the desk, as you can see in the first photo, has my much-used sales counter, but it’s not part of Day’s plant room.
Continue reading Big Day in…The Plant Room 01!Mini Silencitx is reading when a kitty car drives past! It’s Mini Ethancitx’s latest toy!
RC kitty car is played by a Polly Pocket car with a mini articulated figure and accompanying pet cat. Thanks for the car, @natalunasans! The human figure is articulated at shoulders and hips, and both it and the cat wedge perfectly into the car. I love the kitty details on the car, especially the ears forming the rear-view mirrors…and the little tail in back. The antenna on the RC car is played by a sewing pin.
Continue reading Mini dorklets Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx in…RC Kitty Car!The Magister finally does what he originally intended to do and makes a sundae for him and his spouses.
Continue reading The Elder Witches in…The Magister’s Sundae V!Little Day picks flowers and doesn’t want any ice cream. 😀
Continue reading Little Day and the Magister in…The Magister’s Sundae IV!Little Night experiences the natural consequences of her actions: cleaning up the mess and…getting a bowl of ice cream?!
Continue reading Little Night and the Magister in…The Magister’s Sundae III!Okay, well, it’s not the Magister’s sundae yet because Little Night wants some ice cream. Unfortunately it gets away from her…
Continue reading Little Night in…The Magister’s Sundae II!I’ve got all of the ingredients for the Magister to make a sundae for his spouses the Stylist and the Hippie, so here he goes. We start with a detailed look at his kitchen.
The Elder Witches are over 375 years old, so I figure that the Magister has accumulated his favorite kitchen tools and appliances over time. My enthusiasm for tin lithographed toys coincides with the Magister’s affection for certain antique cooking tools. His stove is a child’s toy electric stove from the 1930s by Pretty Maid. The main kitchen unit is a Marx Toys child’s toy kitchen from the 1950s or 1960s. The chest freezer is an Ohio Art recipe card holder from the 1950s. Mini vintage appliances, an antique radio, and canned goods made with antique labels add to a sense of anachronism.
Continue reading The Elder Witches in…The Magister’s Sundae I!Toon Silence [who recently got a Mattel Made To Move Curvy body with great articulation] and Toon Ethan went for a walk this afternoon. Enjoying the low humidity [after days of gross air-moisture levels, interspersed with gross amounts of rain], they sauntered along the edge of Lake Champlain on the Burlington Bike Path. They were going to pull snacks out of their ridiculous bags and eat them, but I decided against it.
Continue reading Toon Silence and Toon Ethan in…Walking on the Waterfront!All the small populations out and about as of today. Most pictures are recycled from last time, except for new additions, pictures of people that changed significantly, and pictures that were bad last time so I retook them.
Continue reading All my dolls, 07/07/2023I’m just writing down her name somewhere so I’m less likely to forget it.
Continue reading Innovna, Mattel Signature Yara Shahidi head on Mattel Made To Move body!I moved the Kenner Bride head from @natalunasans over to a TB League/Phicen Lady Death action figure body for greater articulation. She’s wearing a Mezco Living Dead Fashion Victims dress, Mattel Barbie leggings with breakfast foods, a Mattel Barbie Extra motorcycle jacket, and bootfeet from an unknown action figure.
Even though she’s in Bride of Frankenstein makeup here, Fay Pompion is actually a regular person. She’s a voice actor and self-proclaimed “scream queen” known for screaming with great emotion a la Fay Wray.
Continue reading Fay, a Kenner Bride of Frankenstein head on an action figure body!!The only articulated body matching the Mattel Princess of South Africa head is a tall Mattel Made To Move body with freakishly elongated torso and legs. To reduce this doll to a more realistic height, first I set her next to a standard Made To Move body. As you can see, most of the extra height comes from the torso and the legs. I took 0.5 cm from the ankles and the wrists and about 1.5 to 2 cm from the middle of the torso.
Continue reading Johanna, a Mattel Princess of South Africa head on a Mattel Made To Move body!!We got up early and had a leisurely morning, leaving very early for lunch at Spice in Fort Mill, a pan-Asian place. We shared kimchi fries [crispy French fries with kimchi and spicy mayonnaise on top] for an appetizer. I had a bulgogi burger, which was a cheeseburger with kimchi and spicy mayonnaise. I could have used more kimchi on the top, as the cheese overpowered it, but it was still decent. Nata had drunken noodles with tofu.
Continue reading At @natalunasans house, July 5: Lunch and Douglas International AirportIn the semi-sequel to my earlier bento box photostory featuring Toon Silence and Toon Ethan, two of @natalunasans dolls eat the other two bentos I have. Her characters are custom 1:6 scale figures of two Doctor Who characters, Ruth Doctor [with red and black locs] and the Spymaster [with cane].
The cat is a gachapon miniature of a cat posed as the subject in Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream. I just put it in there to be silly and puzzle the characters.
Continue reading At @natalunasans house, July 4: The Spymaster and Ruth Doctor eating bentos [with a special guest appearance from the mini citxs!]I had some travel troubles last night. I was originally supposed to fly to @natalunasans house on July 3, but I received an alert on the afternoon of July 1 from American Airline, warning that my flights could be cancelled because of “severe weather.” As a result, I booked a one-way ticket from Burlington to Charlotte in the evening of July 1. I didn’t use my originally purchased ticket, so both parts of the round trip were cancelled.
I thought that both parts of my originally purchased ticket were cancelled due to the ambiguous “severe weather,” so I booked a one-way ticket from Charlotte to Burlington on Friday. After figuring out that my original ticket was cancelled because I hadn’t used the first part, I cancelled the Friday trip back and bought a one-way ticket back on Thursday.
This morning I talked to customer service and got a credit for the originally booked ticket that I didn’t use. Then I used part of that credit to purchase a flight from Charlotte to Burlington tomorrow, July 5. All other tickets that I had purchased from Charlotte to Burlington were cancelled.
Now I know that I can get “store credit” with airlines. I’ve never rescheduled flights before, and I probably should have turned my original itinerary into credit to purchase my July 1 flight from Burlington to Charlotte, but I did not know that I could. At least I used some credit on my July 5 flight from Charlotte to Burlington, so I didn’t waste that money. I also didn’t spend as much extra as I originally worried that I would.
All of this is to say that I really dislike air travel. I scheduled my return for July 5 instead of July 6 because I had arrived earlier. I didn’t want to overstay my welcome at @natalunasans house. All my flight changes and uncertainty worried me, and I felt a desire to return home as quickly as possible. Hopefully no “severe weather” fucks up my travel plans tomorrow!!
I took some pictures of @natalunasans dining room to illustrate what a comfortable, friendly house she has. There are lots of Colombian things around [as that’s her husband’s country of origin], Jewish things [as she’s Jewish], and cat things [because one-third of their family is Gatin!].
Continue reading At @natalunasans house, July 4: The dining room and projectsProbably the most extensive treatment of these Rement bento box lunches that I will ever produce, this photostory features Toon Silence and Toon Ethan having lunch. I imagine that this scene takes place in the courtyard of Hardship High. Weird plants are played by a plastic landscaping piece for use in an aquarium.
Continue reading At @natalunasans house, July 3: Toon Silence and Toon Ethan eating bentosWe hit a few stores that I don’t have up in Vermont, including Books A Million, Five Below, and Big Lots, this morning. At Big Lots, I picked up one set of Super Impulse Sugar Buzz minis in minis. Surprisingly, I got two options that will look great in my snack and sweet shop, even if I think Necco wafers are repulsive: Necco wafers and Mentos, both decently detailed and scaled for 1:6 scale.
At Five Below, I picked up a Mattel BTS Jimin doll for $5.00 just for the outfit. I have a Mattel Barbie Princess of South Africa doll on an articulated Mattel Barbie Looks body that @natalunasans assures me will look striking in that suit!
@natalunasans gave me a Kenner Bride of Frankenstein [on left in first pic] and a ThreeZero Michonne [character from The Walking Dead, on right in third pic. I hope to move the Bride onto a matching body and make her Fay Pompion, an original character who’s a voice actor and self-styled scream queen. The ThreeZero Michonne got a dress, yarn wig, and bright orange slides from @natalunasans stash. I think her name is Petra.
Continue reading At @natalunasans house, July 3: Projects [and bonus miaou!]The dolls have multiplied since the last time I visited, and they have taked over @natalunasans doll room! Proof below.
Continue reading At @natalunasans house, July 3: The doll roomWe didn’t do a lot because I was recovering from my exhausting travel. I slept late, wrote peacefully in the morning, and napped in the mid-afternoon.
Continue reading At @natalunasans house, July 2: MGA Make It Mini Cafe series 2Trying to avoid bad weather projected for July 3 [my original arrival date], I hopped on a plane a few days early and arrived at @natalunasans house on July 1st. My flight left Burlington International Airport at 7:30 PM and arrived in Charlotte at 9:50 PM. With lots of traffic in the passenger pickup lanes, @natalunasans took a while to find me and rescue me from the airport, so I didn’t get to bed until about midnight.
Continue reading At @natalunasans house, July 1: Guest bedroomTwo recently finished mini dorklets, Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx, go to the playground with Missy, Mini Silencitx’s mom, accompanying them. Oh no! Traffic jam on the slide!
Continue reading Dorklets Mini Silencitx and Mini Ethancitx in…Ginny’s Gym 04!My two youngest dorklets are finished: Mini Silencitx, aged approximately 5, and Mini Ethancitx, aged approximately 7. Mini Ethancitx was finished yesterday, but not posted about till today.
Mini Ethancitx is an Elfdoll Doona Ryung [?] faceplate and headback on a Mr. Z. 7″ action figure body. I painted the resin to match and sealed it with some very diluted Aves Apoxie Sculpt. I made eyeballs out of painted spheres of Aves Apoxie Sculpt, which I mounted in the eyewells with hot glue and then painted irises on. Wig is faux fur. Outfit is a teeshirt made for 12″ fashion dolls, a skirt [and undershorts] from Mattel Creatable World doll, and shuz from Jakks Pacific Juku Couture dolls.
Despite some carving out of the eyes, the doll does not really look like Ethan, but it sure feels like Ethan.
Continue reading Finished another dorklet: Mini Ethancitx!Repainted her eyebrows and gave her some shuz. Now she’s done!
Continue reading Toon dorklet 6 of 7 FINISHED: Toon Allison!Bell is an unusual doll, being a stylized, but not idealized, elderly woman. She’s a JPT X POP JPT-003 Hunter figure that I bought nude with heads. Head sculpt, torso, and hands are all sculpted to detail her loss of subcutaneous fat, prominent bones, and age spots. Unfortunately she arrived with a split down the front of her neck, so her head is kind of balancing precariously on her neck. She’s really amazing. I love her watchful expression.
Continue reading Put together Bell over the weekend!I finally got around to putting back together Aphanarit and Reeve, who were beautifully rehaired from their default states by Trini doll fan ZielaHime!
Continue reading Aphanarit and Reeve have new hair from ZielaHime!Today I finished my fourth doll of Silence: Mini Silencitx! This is when she’s just a very little dorklet, maybe about five.
Continue reading Finished another dorklet: Mini Silencitx!In the second part of today’s Ginny’s Gym photostory, Ginny’s Gym barely makes an appearance. Instead Silencitx and Ethancitx take a walk, have a drink of water, and [for once!] cooperate reasonably well.
The highly detailed water bottle would work better as a small water bottle for 1:4 scale, but it also functions as a large water bottle for a 1:6 scale kidsy. I have three with similar cartoony characters — Japanese gachapon, of course! — on display in my toy store. Ethancitx’s doll is a figure that I used to play with [and chew on the legs of] when I was a kid. Fun fact: At one point I had a hairstyle, shirt, pants, and shoes that matched this doll pretty well.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Ginny’s Gym 03!Little Allison [left] and Little Theo [right] went out to my front porch today and played on Ginny’s Gym, which I got from the Sturbridge doll show last weekend. This story also features Torie [reading], Zenaidion [drinking], Henrietta [swinging], and Bell [pushing swing].
Sadly, the glider swing does not fit Little Theo’s butt. It accommodates the narrow thighs of an Obitsu 24 [source of Little Allison’s hips], but not those of a Rainbow High doll [source of Little Theo’s body].
Continue reading Dorklets Little Allison and Little Theo in…Ginny’s Gym 02!Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx explore Ginny’s Gym.
I picked up this fabulous swingset from the Sturbridge doll show I mentioned earlier. It was $75.00 and in perfect condition, with original packaging and instructions! It’s made for 8″ Ginny dolls, and it’s from 1955 [!]. The dorklets are between 8 and 10″, but they’re determined to have fun with it anyway. I mean — how often do you find a decent 1:6 scale playground?!
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Ethancitx in…Ginny’s Gym 01!Drove across the state to Lyrajean’s new condo on Saturday, June 3rd, and spent the night. We left very early on the 4th for Sturbridge, MA, and the doll/teddy/miniature show at the Sturbridge Host Hotel. We took about two and a half hours to get there. We turned around and had a late lunch on the way back and arrive around dinner time back at Lyrajean’s house.
Continue reading Sturbridge Doll, Bear, and Miniature Show 06/03-06/05/2023The Magister, an aficionado of all kinds of foodstuffs, has an affection for gelatin salads. I even made a miniature cookbook, Gelatinize It!, to satisfy his interest. I just got him a 1:6 scale savory gelatin salad, including hard-boiled eggs, grapefruit, and other ingredients that do not go together :p , made by Harnett Studio. It was a charm to fit in the holes of ventilated foam clogs, but I removed the part that went into the base, so it is now a small platter with a flat bottom. Perfect for the Magister’s old-fashioned heteronormative kitchen!
Continue reading The Magister got a gelatin salad!The odd customer comes back to the deli counter of the Goblin Market, puzzling everyone.
For those of you who haven’t memorized everyone’s names, Ketch is reading Lettuce Do It! The Stylist is wearing rainbow stripes. Brocedony is pushing a shopping cart. Missy is holding a shopping basket.
I made Lettuce Do It! with a graphic from an old produce crate for lettuce. The woman looked WAY too excited just to be thinking about leaves…
Continue reading The Stylist, Ketch, Brocedony, and Missy in…Goblin Market Adventures 03!I improved the grocery store a bit in the past week. I made some more boxes of produce to add to the bottom shelves. From @natalunasans, I also got some cauliflower and a farmer’s market stand, which I boosted on a riser and used to display all my berries.
It’s all coming together! I still need some more labels [and to put up the ones on the floor], but I’m proud that my set with the most pieces nears completion!
Continue reading The grocery store has more shelves and boxes!I finally turned my midcentury modern Ohio Art recipe card tin into a chest freezer for the heteronormative kitchen. The recipe card tin has been playing a chest freezer for months, ever since the photostory The Chest Freezer, but I’ve wanted to improve it. So I lined it with white paper and bubble wrap on top to simulate built-up ice. I also covered the RECIPES label with one that said FREEZER. The bubble wrap reduces the amount of storage space, but it adds much-needed insulation and realism.
Continue reading The heteronormative kitchen has a freezer!Ketch has a surreal experience behind the deli counter of the Goblin Market with a weird customer. Missy witnesses.
The grocery store set continues to improve, this time with more posters behind the deli counter and magnets that are better scaled for 1:6 scale.
I made all the cookbook covers myself using graphics from vintage/antique canned food labels and fruit/vegetable crate labels.
Continue reading Missy and Ketch in…Goblin Market Adventures 02!I finally got around to upgrading the heteronormative kitchen today. NMI [my “plastic friends” according to @natalunasans] printed me some risers for the kitchen unit and my Pretty Maid stove so that they’re the right height for my dolls. I hot glued the risers to the kitchen and the stove. Then I added some significant shims to the front edge of the kitchen unit risers. Finally I cleared off the table and set everything up. The Magister shows off his kitchen!!
Continue reading The heteronormative kitchen is up!Latest improvements to the grocery store set include more signs for the deli counter and magnets that are better scaled for 1:6 scale and holding up signs.
Continue reading The grocery store has more signs and better magnets!Modded Toon Allison’s wrists and forearms to allow greater flexion, cut her hair, and dressed her up. She still needs shuz and repainted eyebrows, but she is close to done!
Continue reading Toon dorklet 6 of 7: Toon Allison!I printed out vintage fruit crate, vegetable crate, or seed packet labels for almost all of my produce section, laminated the pictures with tape, and then put them by the appropriate fudz.
Continue reading More labels and posters for the grocery storyCouldn’t wait to show off my grocery store in progress, so I incorporated the mess into a photostory. Sadly the mess thwarts Silence and Ethan, who are 16 and 18, respectively, but still interested in mischief!
Continue reading Toon Silence and Toon Ethan in…Goblin Market Adventures 01!I’ve always wanted to have a 1:6 scale grocery store set, but I’ve always been daunted by the amount of tiny packages needed to create a realistic market. Therefore I started with a produce section, thinking that I could leave all the other sections to the imagination. [Funnily enough, I said pretty much the same thing, in much the same words, when I first started this set.]
Continue reading Workin’ on the grocery store and produce section againI did a quick and dirty photo census of the hordes, with in situ shots of everyone.
Continue reading All my dolls, 03/15/2023Little Night, Ethancitx, and Little Allison show off their sticker albums and make some swaps. This is just an excuse to show off the sticker albums that I designed [front and back covers and inner covers], constructed, and filled with stickers according to the owners’ personalities. It’s also an excuse to show off some adorable stickers [the sheets that the dorklets are trading] in my small collection.
Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover IX!Little Night and Little Day arrive with their sticker book! [They share one.] Little Allison and Ethancitx whip out their sticker books too! We get to see Little Night and Little Day’s sticker collections.
Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover VIII!Ethancitx and Little Meghna show up with their luggage and 847 gallons of nail polish. Nail polish time!!
Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover VII!Little Allison and Little Theo prepare Little Theo’s sleeping bag and then read. Then Silencitx shows up with a huge amount of luggage and candy! I made the Headbones packages myself. The Headbones candy is played by beads.
Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover VI!My favorite adult Hardshipper will eventually be joining the Toon Dorklets. Yes, folks, it’s TOON MAGISTER TIME!! Continue reading It’s Toon Magister time!!!
Today I made Toon Day a fur wig, stripped most of original lip paint, and redid their eyebrows. Yup, that’s Day all right! Continue reading Toon Day has been completed!
I finished Toon Meghna today! Originally I planned for her to be Toon Ethancitx, but that didn’t work out. Continue reading Toon dorklet 5 of 7: Toon Meghna!
I recently got a new bookshelf and put up several sets for my dolls.
Continue reading New sets for dolls!Toon Ethancitx was originally going to be a Disney ILY 4ever Cinderella fan, but that turned out to be Toon Night. Then he was going to be a Disney ILY 4ever Ariel fan, but that turned out to be Toon Meghna, who’s still in progress. Then Nata reminded me that I had a toon Spymaster doll and, since both the Spymaster and Ethan are based on Sacha Dhawan, I decided to convert my toon Spymaster into Toon Ethancitx.
I trimmed off the sculpted hair and gave him a blank forehead instead. Then I repainted him, removing a lot of the shading and eyebags that the toon Spymaster had. I made him a wig of faux fur and dressed him in a comfy outfit with sparkles and purple and rainbows, and he was done!
Finally I finished Toon Silencitx! Continue reading Toon dorklet 3 of 7: Toon Silencitx!
I knew that I wanted to use a Disney ILY 4ever Jasmine fan [same sculpt as for Toon Silencitx] for Toon Day, but I didn’t expect to finish Toon Day first!
Originally I wanted to shorten Toon Silencitx’s body, so I took about 1.5cm of height out of the torso and 0.75cm out of the ankles. This made the body too short for her, but a perfect height for the youngest dorklet. I removed the tits and used the body for Toon Day.
Disney came out with some ILY 4ever 12″ fashion dolls early this month. They are teenage girls in Disney cartoon style wearing outfits inspired by various Disney princesses. I have very little attachment to Disney princesses and a generally critical view of the Disney entertainment conglomerate, but I immediately started seeing toon dorklets in the various headsculpts. Result: I am now making toon versions of all seven. I bought the Disney ILY 4ever Cinderella fan and Jasmine fan, intending to make Toon Ethancitx and Toon Silencitx first, but, unexpectedly, Toon Night was the one I finished first. Continue reading Toon dorklet 1 of 7: Toon Night!
Like Pippilotta, Big Night is a Takara Cy Girl CG02 head…now with the same vivid orange mohair hairs! Continue reading New hair for Big Night!
After hanging out bald for a while, Pippilotta finally got some new hairs recently. I used hot glue to stick small bunches of mohair to her head. Continue reading Pippilotta gets new hair!
The sleepover series continues into a new year as Little Allison and Little Theo clean up Little Allison’s room in prep for the sleepover. Whoops! They get distracted by a comic book! Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover V!
Little Meghna and Ethancitx go shopping.
Mannequins are played by MGA Rainbow High and Shadow High dolls. Store clerk is played by Novella, a Soom Uyoo romantic head on a hybrid resin body with bad articulation.
Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover IV!
Little Allison calls Ethancitx, who has some trouble finding the phone. He goes to get some cosmetics from his older sister Little Meghna’s room, but is caught by Little Meghna. Oh no, where is Little Meghna taking Ethancitx?!
Ethancitx is a custom 3D sculpted, painted, and haired sculpt by me on an extremely hybridized body. Little Meghna is a Mattel Barbie Fashionista partially repainted by me and rehaired with a wig, on a Spin Master Liv body.
Little Meghna likes team sports and particularly likes to run. She is, however, very sarcastic, and she doesn’t think much of motivational quotes and inspirational sayings. I made her posters with free Canva templates. Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover III!
Vaguely inspired by Love and Lemons’ Easy Vegetarian Chili.
1 white onion
2 tbsp minced garlic
oil
1 can 14.5 oz Signature Select diced tomatoes with chiles
1 can 14.5 oz Signature Select fire roasted salsa style tomatoes
1 can 15 oz Signature Select low sodium dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can 15 oz Signature Select low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can 4 oz Signature Select diced mild diced green chiles
1 jar 16 oz Green Mountain Gringo medium salsa
salt
a lot of steamed veggies [~1 lb.?]
Dice onion. Add oil to pan. Put in onion and garlic. Saute until onion is translucent. Add 1 tbsp [?] salt and 4 tbsp salsa.
Put all the other ingredients in a pot. Put the sauteed stuff in same pot. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Eat over rice with freshly squeezed lime juice and plain yogurt.
Results: A bit soupy. Drain salsa next time? Very good with plain yogurt. Cleans out the sinuses. Tastes really good even without lime juice, but the plain yogurt really boosts the flavor. Good, but not hearty.
Changes to make: Use 2 cans of diced green chiles. Use 2 cans black beans. Add 1 can corn. Omit salsa style tomatoes.
Silencitx has an idea for the sleepover. She calls Little Allison and then goes to buy candy at the Body Shop.
Silencitx is a Mattel Nutcracker and Four Realms Clara head, repainted and rehaired by me, on an Obitsu 24 body. Store clerk is played by Hot Toys Princess Leia from Star Wars A New Hope or whatever it’s called these days.
The Body Shop is played by two roomboxes made by Bitty House. Most of the furniture is from Mattel Monster High Coffin Bean sets, either G1 or G3. Most of the drinks and snacks are either from Mattel Monster High G3 dolls or G3 Coffin Bean.
A shot of the entire Body Shop set shows that the roomboxes have walls of different heights, much to my distress. I have to extend upward the walls on the left.
Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover II!
Little Allison feels overwhelmed by the mess in her room. She calls her friend Little Theo for help. Continue reading The dorklets in…Little Allison’s Sleepover I!
I’m moving in to my new place, a two-bedroom apartment. Dolls are going everywhere!! Continue reading Dolls all over my new place!
I love my new Dia de los Muertos roombox by Springfield-based Vermont carpenters and Etsy sellers Bitty House. Copying and pasting from my review on the site: “Bitty House’s 3/8″ plywood walls and floors ensure a durable product, and their expertise in regular carpentry translates into a meticulous attention to small-scale detail. This wonderfully designed three-piece set has a floor with faux boards, a long wall, and a short wall with a window. The floor piece has tongues that fit into grooves on the wall pieces. This tongue-in-groove mechanism works smoothly and allows the set to stand sturdily without adhesive or nails [though of course you could use these to put the set together permanently. Besides being cleverly designed, the set boasts exceptional finishing. Vibrant, playful, versatile, and worth your money!”
I would change just one thing about the roombox, however. The walls aren’t high enough. I’ve already ordered a second roombox in the same pattern, but with walls 20″ high.
The core Hardshippers are using props that come with the dolls from Mattel’s G3 reboot of Monster High: Draculaura’s bat-winged pretzels and cherry juice, Toralei’s cat food and milk, Lagoona’s Kelp Krisps and goldfish crackers, Clawdeen’s Howl Puffs, and Ghoulia’s Brain Puffs. Not a great fan of the dolls themselves, but I think the clothes and accessories are great, especially these spooky snacks. I suppose I could have made my own, but buying them already completed was easier.
Some furniture in this set, such as the purple couch with fangs, the clawed table, and the coffin-shaped bar table, come from the new Mattel Monster High Coffin Bean cafe playset. Amazing stuff and perfect for a ghoulish cafe in a town like Hardship, where Halloween is an official holiday!
Continue reading A new room set / room box / set and some G3 Monster High props
I made some party blowers / noisemakers for my dolls today.
I did this by cutting a plastic-covered paper clip into a short straight length for the core. I wrapped a short strip of origami paper around the core and pulled the core so that it stuck out one end to be the mouthpiece. For the other end, I took a twist ties off my bags of bagels and flattened it. [Fortunately it came with a party-like diagonal striped design.] I cut one end of the twist tie to make it tapered and hot glued it into the open end of the roll of origami paper. I then used the wire in the twist tie to pose the streamer end in the middle of uncoiling. BLAAAAAAAAAAT! SQUAAAWK!Continue reading The Elder Witches annoying each other with party blowers
…on the occasion of The Power of the Doctor, the Spymaster’s last DW episode, airing Sunday, I am taking the opportunity to remind myself of my extensive Tumblr paeans to Sacha Dhawan as the Master. They are all conveniently grouped under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag [and therefore impossible to find with Tumblr’s horrible search feature].
Originally posted on Tumblr, but Tumblr’s search function is shit, so I’m just posting it here in case I ever want to easily find it again.
I know what the Spymaster wants.
All Masters have always been defined by their desires for the Doctor. [No, I will not justify my choices of verb, nor will I explain the nuances. If you really want to know, PM me.]
Delgado wants to BEST the Doctor.
Pratt/Beevers wants to DESTROY the Doctor.
Ainley wants to BEAT the Doctor.
Roberts wants to POSSESS the Doctor.
Jacobi wants to FOLLOW the Doctor [before being clocked, that is].
Simm wants to HURT the Doctor.
Gomez wants to BEFRIEND the Doctor.
But what about Dhawan?
Dhawan seems to want a little bit of what each of his previous selves does. Some besting, some destroying, some possession, some befriending… His rather incoherent, throwing-spaghetti-against-the-walls-to-see-what-sticks plans seem to do a little bit of everything.
Ultimately, though, Dhawan wants MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING. Continue reading I know what the Spymaster wants.
@natalunasans got me the MGA Bratz x Jimmy Paul Pride dolls Nevra and Roxxie. I customized them by giving them haircuts, removing their [fabulous but too bulky] rainbow faux fur items, and taking off some accessories so I could better see their VERY GAY details. The groovalicious 1970s swirly designs on the packaging will be used as backdrops for my sets. Continue reading Customized Very Gay Bratz!
Besides writing and shooting a doll photostory about the Stupid Bags Collection [part I], I also worked on a few other things.
I tried to use Obitsu 24 knee joints to articulate the elbows of an MGA Rainbow Poopsie Surprise 14″ doll. It did not work as planned, so no pics.
Continue reading All in a day’s work: Various doll projects from today
The Shuz Store debuts its annual Stupid Bags Collection, much to Marie’s consternation.
The Stupid Bag Collection is inspired by the padlock, basketball, and THIS IS NOT A DESIGNER BAG bags from the recent MGA Rainbow High Mini Accessories Studio release. After inventing the Stupid Bag Collection, I found other stupid bags from some MGA LOL OMG dolls [the TV and the folded newspaper]. Then I supplemented then with some hilarious transparent backpacks from MGA Rainbow High Junior dolls. Behold — the Stupid Bag Collection!
Just to make it clear — I do not think that any of these bags are actually stupid. They’re weird, tacky, unusual, largely impractical, and amusing, but calling them Stupid Bags accurately transmits the Shuz Store’s sarcastic sense of humor.
Working in the Shuz Store today is Daisy Bee, a slightly repainted Mattel Barbie Fashionista 91 head on a modded MGA Rainbow High Delilah Fields body. Patronizing the Shuz Store today is Marie, a Mattel Generation Girl Dance Party Mari head on a Spin Master Liv body with Mattel WWE hands.
Continue reading Hardshippers Daisy Bee and Marie in…Stupid Bags I!
I visited LyraJean yesterday, and we hit two independent thrift stores run by the nonprofit Listen in the White River Junction / West Lebanon area. She keeps telling me about all the great doll stuff that she finds in the Listen stores, so I had hopes of scoring big. Continue reading Stuff from West Lebanon area thrift stores!
I’ve always envisioned Little Theo as a short, fat kidsy, kind of like Little Night, although pubescing earlier. Therefore an MGA Rainbow High body [from Mila Berrymore] seemed the best choice. Now that I have finally completed the mods today with the addition of a torso joint, I can show off comparison pics between a standard RH and Little Theo. Continue reading Making a short, fat kidsy: Little Theo on a modded RH body
In a sequel to the earlier dressing up stories, Silence and Night head to the Shuz Store before Halloween some 30 or 40 years later…
The “big dorks” of Hardship don’t appear in a lot of photostories, so I decided to invite them in. Silence is a custom sculpted, painted, and haired head on a BCS Clara body. Night is a Takara Cy Girl Blaze head, repainted by me, on a Hoy Toys female action figure body in “Cuban” skintone. Brocedony is a ThreeZero King Ezekiel head on a Hot Toys narrow shoulder male body. The Magister is…well, the Magister.
Yes, Night is missing her right eye. She showed up in Hardship under mysterious circumstances without it, and no one has ever learned what they were. Little Night has an empty eye socket to represent her lack of an eye. Big Night has a custom glass eye that’s entirely black, with a white skull where the pupil should be. I can’t paint such a minuscule skull, so just imagine one. :p
Continue reading Big dorks Silence, Night, and the Magister in…Dressing Up III!
Silencitx and Little Night discuss Halloween costumes.
In case it’s not obvious, the Elder Witches [the Magister, the Stylist, and the Hippie] are parents of Little Night and her younger sibling Little Day.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Little Night in…Dressing Up II!
The Shuz Store is ready for Halloween, and so are Silencitx and Little Night!
If you’ve seen any of the stories taking place in Hardship, Vermont, you’ve probably seen much of this stuff before. Masks are mostly J Dream gachapon. Vintage ad posters are graphics I made for some 1:6 scale pulp magazines a while back.
Continue reading Dorklets Silencitx and Little Night in…Dressing Up I!
The Stylist has proved very challenging to make a doll of, much like the Magister and Ethan/the Spymaster. Continue reading Stylist 3.0 — finally!!!
Megan Meehan, a character from Zombieville, has been through several bodies and styles over the years. The only constant remains her head, a Mattel Barbie Hispanic Sterling Silver Rose with a magnificent purple and white cone of hair and some facepaint enhanced by me. Here she is in her current form. Continue reading Megan the astronaut princess!!
Madam Violet, who contributed a story to my first charity anthology Master Works, also goes by queen-of-meows on Tumblr. A year or two ago, I gave her my 1:9 scale Thirteen, Missy, and Bill dolls because I wasn’t playing with them anymore. She was so thrilled that she vowed to return the favor with some equally wonderful things for dolls. She too customizes dolls, repaints them, and makes clothes for them. The package arrived from France earlier this week, but I did not get a chance to admire its contents until today. Photos of the choicest items follow. Continue reading Some gifts from a fellow doll lover!
Bubbles [mannequin] is a Shadow High Naomi.
Daisy Bee is on a Rainbow High Delilah Fields body.
Delilah Fields [mannequin] is on an RH Poppy Rowan body.
Emeraud is on an RH Sunny Madison body.
Leila is on an RH Robin Sterling body.
Ghoulia is on an SH Nicole Steele body.
Mirabel is on an RH Kia Hart body.
PJ is on an RH Jett Dawson body.
Rosie is on an RH Vanessa Tempo body.
Little Theo is on an RH Mila Berrymore body.
Wave 4 of Rainbow High characters introduces my mostest favoritest character, Delilah Fields, a diffident creative writing major. She is an albino Black girl with a pale yellow palette. The spectacular shirtdress on the doll, as well as the cute daisies and bees in her accessories, attracted me. The character’s personality on the show [which is surprisingly cute for an extended doll advertisement] and her focus also got me. Continue reading RH Delilah Fields inspires a new character, Daisy Bee!
My latest job has an actual office that I go to everyday. It has no windows, so lots of white walls to decorate. I am slowly making it doll-themed… Continue reading Dolls at my office
