One of my favorite 3-D models is a cartoon character, The Girl, created by Kim Goossens. I used her as the base for this picture of Frank, who is clothed in free EvilInnocence skirt and top because I’m not up for spending new money on 3-D. The engaging smirk! The gravity-defying boobs! What’s not to love?Continue reading I love The Girl!

The Old Library [the green part of the library complex] boasts a lifesize statue on top of its pointy dome. This naked silver figure, which holds a book, represents Sophia, or knowledge, but everyone in the library calls her Scanty Sophie. No one knows why she has no hair or clothes, but people generally agree that the sculptor, whose name is mercifully lost to time, couldn’t sculpt cloth or hair very well.

Anyway, old-timers at the library always tell newcomers that Scanty Sophie comes down from her pedestal and lurks around the fashion section, trying to find something to wear. Some people swear that they’ve seen her, but they’re also the same people who are certain that a dragon — a book wyrm, to be precise — slumbers below the library’s foundation.

Scanty Sophie is a textureless Daz model, the free Victoria 2. Her book is just a cube primitive rescaled. Continue reading Sophia, the symbol, mascot and haunt of the Library of Intellectum

…But I couldn’t help but go into my old account and order these Dystopia City Blocks 1-10 and 11-20. They’re just so beautiful — I’ve admired them since I first became interested in 3-D rendering — and, besides, they’re free. I’d love to do a multimedia doll soap opera using some of them as exterior shots.

In which we discover that there are two types of people in the world.

In which we find out how Pippilotta got her name.

In which we find out who Mark and Sibley really love.

In which we learn about Janet’s secret vice.

In which we look into Anneka and Will’s dreams.

I just had the pleasure of watching the first 4-ep [back when eps were 30 minutes apiece] adventure with the Fourth Doctor of Dr. Who. That adventure, Robot, appeared in 1974 and involved a morally conflicted robot being manipulated by elitist geniuses to promote nuclear warfare on Earth. Given that the Doctor was played at this time by Tom Baker, known for his indelible and classic portrayal of the Doctor, I was curious to see what Who Classic, as interpreted by a universally beloved actor, looked like.

I must say that I easily see why so many viewers adore Baker as the Doctor. With his buggy eyes, uncontrollable hair and facetiously long but always useful scarf, Baker projects an air much like Harpo Marx. Seemingly childlike in his non sequiturs and mood shifts, Baker conveys the impression of an intelligence and a personality moving much too fast for most humans to grasp. While light-years beyond humans in comprehension, Baker’s Doctor also enjoys playing with them, changing costumes, offering jelly babies and doing other performative flourishes that require an appreciative audience. I don’t think of him as an arrogant performer, but a self-satisfied one, always ready to prove how sparkling he is. His smugness, playfulness and utter confidence wrap up into an endearing whole.

As a whole show, Dr. Who was different in 1974 than it is now. With shorter episodes and stronger musical cues pointing out humorous moments, Dr. Who in 1974 comes across as more sit-com-like than dramatic. At the same time, the constant shooting, blowing up and cliff-hanging endings work against the sit-com frame, suggesting more of an old-fashioned serial drama. The show has an interesting hybrid form, and I can see why it appealed back then to viewers of all ages.

After reading The Red Tree twice earlier this month, I discovered that its author, Caitlin Kiernan, is to blame for a particularly memorable bit of fictional splatter, "Season of the Broken Dolls," that I read online a few years ago and then forgot all the salient details of, except for that it was about living art made out of undone and rearranged people.

Anyway, purely by chance, while looking into the rest of Kiernan’s oeuvre, I found out that she wrote "Season," and I knew then that it was the story that I’d remembered for quite a while. I even found a copy of it online, so here it is in its memorable, disgusting glory, memorialized for future use. It will never get away from me again.

In which Will meets his muse, Captain Thunderpussy, encore une fois.

In which Anneka meets her muse, Leonyssus, again.

I just watched 5.2 and 5.4, "The Beast Below" and "Time of the Angels." The latter appears to be the first part of a two-parter starring my favorite Dr. Who monsters, the Weeping Angels, who look like life-sized cemetery statues when one is looking at them, but transform into fanged killers when one doesn’t look at them. I can’t wait till the second part, "Flesh and Stone," to resolve the story!

I would like to report that I still like Amy better than the Twelfth Doctor; with her sharpness, briskness and quick thinking, Karen Gillan’s portrayal reminds me of a less infatuated, more intelligent Rose. Gillan seems to have more range than, say, Freema Agyeman.

However, even though I prefer Amy over Matt Smith’s Doctor, at least the Doctor has settled down a bit from the first ep and shown himself some more consistent personality. He’s slapdash, risk-taking and fond of waiting till the last minute for his genius to kick in. In his dramaticness [yes, that’s a word that I just made up] and unpredictability, he seems a close follower of Tennant’s portrayal.

In which the end and the beginning of Angelie’s story is reached.

In which Angelie hasn’t been around for a while.

Matt Smith, as the eleventh Doctor, and Karen Gillan, as companion Amy Pond, blast off in the season 5 pilot of Dr. Who with an episode light on plot and actual information and heavy on loosey-goosey antics from the latest incarnation of the character, whose David Tennant form I liked better.

As the Doctor, Smith plays a bouncy, funny, nearly addlebrained version of the BBC’s flagship alien, who talks faster and jumps around more than previous versions. Smith’s Doctor seems much looser and more out-of-control than even Tennant’s, kind of like a puppy whose feet are too big for it.

Meanwhile, with her crisp primness and matter-of-fact reactions to a spaceship in her front yard, Amy, as played by Gillan, offers a certain uptight confidence that is quite likeable. Possibly she is also a study in the faithfulness of human nature, given that she’s been waiting most of her life for the Doctor to come back.

So far, after one ep, the Doctor feels like a big collection of personality spasms and tics rather than a fully fledged character. Amy comes across as more well-rounded and -grounded. In this case, the companion transmits herself as more endearing and accessible than the Doctor. Meanwhile, there is some hope for Matt Smith, as he’s definitely demonstrated the comic chops necessary for the role. It would be nice for him to find the center of the character beyond the farce, however. So far, I haven’t seen it.

P.S. Despite the fact that it’s missing the signature long electrical warping sounds [weeeeee-ooooooooooo!], I do like the new theme. And the new TARDIS looks cool too.

Just as each actor who plays the Doctor brings something new to the role and makes it a different show, so each person who plays a major companion of the Doctor’s changes the balance of the show as well.

Rose, played by Billie Piper, seems to be the most quintessentially human of the Doctor’s companions. Neither particularly smart nor particularly stupid, she is notable for her compassion, even towards Daleks in season 2’s "Dalek," and her adventuresome curiosity that more than matches the Doctor’s in whatever form he’s in. Her constant sense of wonder toward her weird adventures and her ability to see the personhood of non-human aliens makes her the representative of the best of human nature. I think it also helps that Piper had one of the longest-running companion roles, allowing her a full range of emotions in her performance, which thus lets her sort of embody the full gamut of human sentiment. As an actor, Piper is convincing, competent and naturalistic, a permeable Mary Sue with adorable qualities.

Martha, played by Freema Agyeman, seems to be the most academical and dependent of the Doctor’s companions. With her doctor training, she represents human knowledge, but she does not seem to have the same voracious spirit of adventure demonstrated by Rose and Donna. She appears less interested in the awesomeness of space and time and more interested in the Doctor as a love object. Therefore she sticks like glue to him and gets very very anxious when he’s, for example, human in season 3’s "Human Nature" and "Family of Blood." She comes across as more desperate than the other companions of the New Who, probably because of her unrequited love for the Doctor. As an actor, Agyeman gives a performance with remote, high-strung and occasionally wooden notes. Even though I have a very cute doll of her, I dislike her the most of the New Who companions.

Donna, played by Catherine Tate, seems to be the most energetic and snarky of the Doctor’s companions. Her rubber-facedness matches perfectly with Tennant’s [see season 4’s "Partners in Crime" for brilliant examples], while her dry remarks demonstrate that she has a cool self-possession that she almost never loses. Thus she represents the human sense of humor and ability to take weirdness in stride. With her matter-of-fact negotiation of her role as the Doctor’s "mate" and her eagerness to fly around with him, she shows a sort of practical sense of wonder. She’s also the most mature character of the three companions. As an actor, Tate shines with comic flair and energetic snippiness.

The constant succession of Doctors in the long-running BBC TV show Dr. Who allows for the show to expand, taking on a new main performer, even as elements of it remain familiar. Therefore, Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor in season 1 of the New Who makes Dr. Who a different show than does David Tennant in seasons 2-4 of the same show. Where Dr. Who with David Tennant is much more of a whiz-bang fest of funny faces and physical comedy, Dr. Who with Christopher Eccleston is just as engaging, but dryer, more restrained. I find Eccleston’s delivery crisper and smugger, with an edge of arrogance that I don’t find in Tennant. I like Tennant best, but Eccleston rates a good second.

In which the group hears Anneka’s and Will’s writing.

After having sampled seasons 2, 3 and 4 of the new Dr. Who, with David Tennant as the Doctor and Billie Piper, Freema Agyeman and Catherine Tate playing companions, I have come to the conclusion that Dr. Who is a silly and wonderful show. It’s playful and a lot of fun in a way that I haven’t found too much TV to be.

At its best, Dr. Who is a paean to human curiosity and inventiveness, as personified by rubber-faced Tennant, the eternally childlike and brilliant Doctor. It also honors human compassion and bravery as modeled by the various companions. Tightly written and often witty, episodes display the boundless, questing imaginations of the writers and producers, an inventiveness brought to life by solid performances all around.

Watching this show really brings forth a sense of wonder, of continuous joy over the neverending story of a fantastic serial. Even though I have a crush on David Tennant [he smirks!], I wouldn’t recommend watching whole particular seasons, just eps here and there so that they mash together in a pleasing mass of seething ideas to inspire one to one’s own fictional endeavors.

Thank you to bella_fox for sponsoring my acquaintance with Dr. Who in the form of her link to downloads.

In which the writing group discusses Waverley’s and Sarah’s writing.

I bought Tanzen, now named Tamsin, from Andrea, and she [Tamsin, not Andrea] came in the mail today, barefoot, with a bonus off-the-shoulder red knit dress. I took a few pictures of her rainbow hair and, as I did so, she opened up, but still remained shy.Continue reading Tamsin, from Andrea

In which Angelie learns how to slow down.

My Shoezies site, hasbro shoezies: the definitive resource [ooooh, exciting!], is now complete. I just uploaded pictures of the Shoezies Showplace and my orphaned Shoezies. Go learn more than you ever cared to know about small plastic shoes at http://www.oddpla.net/shoezies !

Interestingly enough, I keep checking the Google search results, and hasbro shoezies: the definitive resource doesn’t come up, sob sob. All my LJ entries about Shoezies do, however. So does my Flickr stream, which is entirely made up of Hasbro Shoezies. I don’t understand it. Anyway, I set up links to the Shoezies site all over my Flickr stream.

I got a whole bunch of Shoezies and Shoezies knock-offs from sailorzeo yesterday, so I’ve updated my Shoezies site with photos of them all, including their names and collections where I can find it. The definitive Shoezies resource has expanded! Go here: http://www.oddpla.net/shoezies ! More than you ever cared to know about little toy shoes!

In which we learn more about the mysterious jogger.

The 2010 Harley Barbie and Ken giftset, $70.00, features a fully articulated Ken doll with wrist and ankle joints. He also has the headsculpt first introduced with Mattel's Edward [from Twilight] doll. Since I really like the headsculpt and the increased articulation, I look favorably on Ken. However, apparently the Barbie in this set does not have the same level of articulation. Why not? 1 step forward, 1 step back for Mattel.Continue reading 2010 Harley Barbie and Ken giftset: 1 step forward, 1 step back

In which the mysterious jogger is invited in.

I made a little Web site dedicated to Hasbro Shoezies and linked it to my Flickr photostream [yes, I have one now] with pictures of Shoezies and their use as 1:6 footwear.

In which Anneka and Will discuss what to do about their pushy muses.

Meat pencil toppers. They look 1:6 to me.

I think these Drip Clips would make a really nice 1:6 sink. Continue reading Drip Clips: 1:6 sink?

My two zombies meet.  Continue reading Zinnia Pascale questions Peter’s dietary choices.

Ebru shows off yet another one of my spoils from Andrea’s package. The package contained about 30 items of clothing for $25.00 total, and I kept 19 items, making each item just about $1.32, which is a bargain for clothing by my favorite designer for 1:6! As you can tell, the population is very happy with the results too. I think I need an "andrea" tag, just to keep track of the clothes and packages from her that I showcase here!   Continue reading Ebru in an an42 dress

Vat19 sells 1:7 shopping carts that have fold-out child seats and the ability to be shoved together, just like 1:1 shopping carts. Though they are a little bit small for 1:6, this video with a Barbie demonstrates that they can passably act as 1:6 carts.

I’m still coating his hair with matte gloss, but I thought I’d take a picture of Peter as he stands now. I still need a cutesy graphic, the equivalent of a My Little Pony, for his shirt. However, he’s finished for now. Since the last photo, I added purple to his shoelaces, blue highlights on the green and pink parts of his mohawk and a red wash to his eyes. I also gave him a safety pin hanging off of one earring. I thought he might cheer up after I fed him a lollipop, but he still looks intensely worried. 🙁
Continue reading Peter likes lollipops.

Anneka shows off another garment from the big batch of Andrea’s partly showcased yesterday on N’Yenya, Shaniqua, Materyllis and Janet. Dress is by Andrea, and sleeves are from a Barbie dress by Andrea.  Continue reading Anneka in an42 clothes

Below is a picture of Peter in progress. I’ve painted his boots green and his mohawk green and pink. I’ve also swapped out his white sleeves for ones with a stars-and-stripes design. Peter is unhappy and confused because his eyes are covered with masking tape. Continue reading Pink Squad +1: painting Peter

May I introduce Peter, standing in front of his packaging? I haven’t customized him yet, just turned his Rabid Weasels T-shirt around and trimmed the neckline in preparation for putting a different graphic on it.

I really like the attention to detail in this fig, especially the little buttons on his vest and the specially sculpted bootfeet in awkward, decaying positions. The Prometheus body is okay, with a decent range of motion around the neck and relatively tight joints, but I don’t like the caps on the shoulders that make putting the arms down by the sides difficult. I can’t wait to repaint him a bit and otherwise customize him and make him my own!

Continue reading Peter [Sideshow The Dead: The Punk] before customizing

I bought a bunch of various dresses off Andrea this week, and now some LHFers are modeling the results. From left to right, there’s N’Yenya, Shaniqua, Materyllis and Janet. My favorite article of clothing in the picture is N’Yenya’s dress. Janet’s shirt is adapted from a Barbie-sized dress. It, of course, has robots on it! Now if only I could get Janet to look at the camera… Continue reading N’Yenya, Shaniqua, Materyllis and Janet in clothes by Andrea

Visit my Shoezies Web site at http://www.oddpla.net/shoezies/ !
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Does anyone have any Shoezies that they don’t want, especially clogs or slides? I want them!
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I can barely find anything online about Hasbro’s Shoezies, unless I want to purchase said toys on Ebay, so I thought I’d write up a brief description and provide pictures for those interested.

Shoezies were a line of toys by Hasbro that first debuted in February, 2001, according to this article on About.com. They were pairs of miniature collectible shoes, in approximately 1:5 or 1:6 scale. Among the 36 styles were sandals, clogs, slides, flats, pumps, sneakers, roller blades, etc. Each pair came in its own shoebox with tissue paper. The shoes themselves were molded out of plastic in exquisite detail, with distinct lefts and rights, laces and texturing. Tread patterns were individualized for each pair of shoes, though all pairs had a five-petaled flower design on the bottom to signify that they were official Shoezies. Further accessories also included a Shoezies Display Center, a shoe-store-like shelf to shoe of one’s Shoezies, and little boom boxes, which one was supposed to "dance" the Shoezies too.

What were girls supposed to do with these "miniature collectible shoes?" Hasbro advertising suggested putting them on your fingers and "walking" around with them, but doll enthusiasts had other ideas. Collectors of 1:4, or 16-18", dolls such as Tyler and Gene discovered that Shoezies displayed well next to 1:4 shoes, though the dolls’ feet were too big to fit in the Shoezies. And 1:6 nerds, like me, realized that some Shoezies could either be slipped on bare 1:6 female action figure feet without adaptation. Or other pairs could be adapted as "bootfeet" for those female action figures with ball and socket ankle joints.

I have 5 pairs of Shoezies in my femfig footwear collection, and I use them in several different ways. The black ankle boots and the red hiking boots can be wedged directly onto ankle stumps. As you can see, the purple chunky soles and the grey athletic shoes have been modified to be bootfeet for Cy Girl/Perfect Body bodies. Finally, the T-straps in the lower left fit bare femfig action figure feet without any alteration.  Continue reading Hasbro Shoezies and their use as doll shoes

As much as I like Rement’s offerings, I get sick of their constant chocolate, cake and dessert sets. I especially like Rement appliances, animals and Western cuisine. The Candy Shop appeals to me because it contains animals and non-cake dessert. Continue reading Current favorite Rements from Candy Shop and Gyu Gyu Pets

I’m very far behind the curve with this news, but Sideshow has continued its The Dead series with more characters — no more women, of course! 🙁 — including a shambling Punk with a mohawk and sticky fingers. I really like him as a character base. Needs more color, chains and pointy ends, though. If I got him, I would decorate his outfit with safety pins and add some pink to his hair.

EDIT: I just bought him with the last of my Amazon credit, meaning that he only cost about $50.00. I can’t wait to improve him! Watch this space!

In which Will meets his muse.

In which Anneka and Velvette investigate a compulsive jogger.

In which Anneka disputes with her muse.

A lot goes on behind the scenes of LHF that most readers don’t know about. For example, Justine’s head popped off one too many times recently, cracking her Sculpey hair that I labored so long over. Exasperated with the fragility of the Sculpey, I plunked down nearly $20.00 for a size 4 Victorianish updo wig [style = Martha]. Result: I’m poorer, but Justine won’t break her hair any more.

Today I also got in the mail appropriate clothes for Waverley. As a 15cm Elfdoll tiny, she is one of my smallest dolls and also one of the most difficult to clothe. She was in a Bratz Boyz’ shirt and a pair of Kelly shorts, but those looked silly and impractical. I didn’t want to get her a dress either, since Waverley is more butch than that. I finally coughed up $23.00 for a little red-and-black-striped hooded sweatshirt and matching pants. So cute and perfectly in character too.

The upshot of all this is that I blow lots of money on even minor characters to make them conform to my vision of how they should be.Continue reading Doll updates: Justine’s new ‘do, Waverley’s new clothes

Ebru is a Sunset Edition Houda Mixi Doll by YNU Group. As a doll company, YNU Group’s goal with the Mixis is to recreate, in the dolls’ sculpts and skin tones, a realistic blending of two or more ethnicities. Regular editions of the 4 dolls in the series have straight, unjointed limbs and diverse outfits, but Sunset editions have jointed elbows and outfits of sundresses and sandals. Normally either edition runs $60.00 per doll, but they can be found for less on Amazon.com, where I got mine.

I recently picked up Sunset Edition Houda for under $30.00 including shipping. She comes packaged in a sturdy keepsake box lined with a bright blue and green map of the continents, not shown because I quickly deboxed her. Secured by ribbon ties, she is in collector-friendly shape, although her handbag is attached to the box with plastic.

Once freed from her box, Houda makes quite the impression. Her body is molded in warm, honey-colored tones, with light, silky, rooted red hair. Her simple, yet welcoming, facial screening depicts a friendly face with blue eyes and pink lips. Her headsculpt features an oval-shaped face with a tapering chin, full lips and a prominent aquiline nose.

As mentioned, Houda, like the rest of the Sunset Edition Mixis, has elbow joints that swivel and allow about 90 degrees of bend. She is also articulated at the neck, shoulders, thighs and knees [these last with click-stop joints]. Overall, the Mixis body sculpt contains a modest bosom, a thicker waist than the average fashion doll and a defined rear end, as well as shapely, muscular legs and slightly arched feet. Mixis don’t fit into fashion doll clothes unless those clothes are stretchy.

As for Houda’s outfit, she wears a green sundress printed with blue flowers. Darts make it fitted in the back, and the whole garment is lined, as is her matching blue handbag. Her wedge sandals [espadrilles?], being made of white and blue leather, coordinate with her dress.

Houda is definitely a doll for older kids [above 7] and/or collectors. She and the rest of the Mixis are great choices for doll dorks who like their dolls’ faces to have character and their goods to have quality.

Following this review are pictures of my Sunset Edition Houda, renamed Ebru. I have to say that normally I’d be swapping Ebru’s head onto a more articulated body, but she just looks so endearing and soignee as is that I can’t bring myself to give her a new body. I’ve decided that she has chronic lower back pain, which keeps her from sitting down and bending her knees a lot. Maybe she has plantar fasciitis too.

Ebru is standing in front of a netsuke shelf that I am working on, trying to make into a piece of a set.Continue reading Meet Ebru, a YNU Group Mixi

Maggie, Anneka and Will. Will is wearing an A-line dress that Andrea made for CGs with a reversed Jet pleather top as a corset. That pig he’s holding is from Andrea too. Thanks, an42!  Continue reading Maggie, Anneka, Will

In which Will confides in Anneka.

She likes clowning around. She makes me smile! I am continually impressed by the expressiveness and posing opportunities I can get out of her, even though she is not very articulated.

Continue reading Junebug is incredibly cute…also very playful.

In which Anneka admits to missing Will.

Buy the Season 1 book! Use coupon code HUMBUG for 10% off!

Use the coupon code HUMBUG when you buy the book of LHF Season 1 for 10% off. That makes the download version only $4.50! How can you resist? Answer: You can’t.

Signal boost for Vera Nazarian’s monstrous mashup between Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park and an original subplot containing mummies, vampires and other beasts. Regency manners meet things that go bump. Laughs result. It’s Mansfield Park and Mummies!!

Continue reading Mecha Angel clothes for sale

Hello LHF readers and fans! Season 1 is now available in print form! Just think of it…a book for your favorite doll soap opera!

You can buy a print or a download copy right here at Lulu.com: Love Has Fangs

Why should you buy it?

1. Support 1:6 storytelling!
2. It’s better than the online version. See below!

Being undead is the least of Anneka Richardson’s problems. There’s her 140-year-old boyfriend, Will, who borrows her makeup, the weirdo customers she encounters at her bookstore job and, to top it off, her beloved grandmother’s slow death by Alzheimer’s.

The first season of Elizabeth A. Allen’s online comic Love Has Fangs finally appears in book form. It’s all here — the vampires, the melodrama and the pink hair — in your favorite doll soap opera with bite.

This collection gathers together all episodes of Love Has Fangs: Season 1 as you’ve never seen them before. This is the new, improved version, better than what you’ve read online.

Episodes reshot for consistency
Tighter editing for better story flow
High-quality photos, better than those online, for fine-grained detail

Thanks for the comments, mouse clicks and patronage over the years!

In which Qingting comforts Anneka from her sadness.

I saw New Moon this weekend. It was a damn sight better than Twilight, since it had more plot and more active characters. However, I picked out at least 5 times where it could have ended before it actually did. Also, unfortunately, Robert Pattinson was absent for the bulk of the movie, so I couldn’t stare at his nose.

In which Viktor tries to get into Will’s pants [again].

So I really like my GOML Minuk, who I’ve turned into Maggie, but her overexaggerated lip paint makes her look like a child beauty pageant contestant. To improve Maggie, I erased her lip paint, and the deep indent for her lip line works great to great the impression of a mouth. See? She also has a slight, petulant smile, which was not visible in the original paint job. Continue reading Maggie: not a pageant contestant

…about an envious Goth whose popular and perfect twin sister becomes a vampire? Sign me up for Thicker Than Water: Vampire Diaries 1, not coming anywhere to a theater near you. Clearly I need to see this.

In which Anneka meets Qingting, friend of Chow’s and world’s youngest grandmother.

The CSS on the admin page for my WordPress blog, where I post eps of LHF, is broken, prohibiting me from making new posts. DAMMIT! I don’t know how to fix it.

Michaela started off in an earlier incarnation as a CG head on a CG 1.0 body, but, when I redid her, I put her CG head on an articulated Barbie body with Obitsu hands, then painted the arms and neck to match her head’s color. [Linked entry shows her before skintone matching.]

Michaela’s Barbie body, while being appropriately small and slight for a girl that was killed and vamped at 13, does not pose very well. But Michaela is a key player in the next few seasons [in the Anneka and Will vs. Thomas plotline], so she needs to pose well! That’s why she’s getting a Volks Dollfie Plus body. Though I have eschewed these bodies in the past because of their fragile floppiness, I choose one now because, unlike an Obitsu, the neck width of a Volks will make Michaela’s head look in proportion. Hooray!

In which Mark’s Halloween party is fabulous!

While wandering around, looking for another deck that appeals to me as much as the luxurious, out-of-print Bohemian Gothic Tarot, I found the slightly more cheerful, equally intriguing and phantasmagorical Tarot of the Sweet Twilight. Following the general Rider-Waite format of traditional U.S. decks, the Sweet Twilight differs from other, more staid decks with its loopy, curly, slightly cartoony illustrations. Bright, soft colors, large-eyed figures and vibrant depths all add up to a dreamy, melancholy set of pictures. It reminds me of a nighttime circus, compelling and yet slightly creepy. Being in print, the Sweet Twilight deck is much more affordable than the Bohemian Gothic [sob!].

So I was browsing around Aeclectic Tarot, idly looking through decks by theme, and of course I checked out the Vampire grouping. Among these I found not strictly a vampiric deck, but a dark and moody one in general, the Bohemian Gothic from Magic Realist Press. The deep, cool blues and jewel-like brights, the profusion of skulls and the disturbingly staring eyes, all in the style of Victorian lithographs, are heavily influenced by Gothic and Romantic tropes. Admire many of the cards at the deck’s own Web site. Then weep because it’s out of print and commanding nearly $400.00 on Amazon.com. Dammit…and I really liked that deck!

Sadly, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Tarot is never to be, but check out the crisp, clean darkness of the recently issued Vampire Tarot by Robert Place. Heavily inflected by the novel Dracula and other literary vampires of the 1800s, the Vampire Tarot has novel Major Arcana [such as Jonathan the Fool {hah!}, Mina, the Count, the Madman {Renfield}, etc.] and Minor Arcana. Its four suits are Garlic Flowers, Stakes, Swords and Holy Waters.

I am gratified to note that several of the cards refer covertly to the polymorphous perversity of literary vampires, with the Queen of Holy Water being the famous lesbian vampire Carmilla and one of the Major Arcana being the hungry, sadistic, omnisexual Brides [of Dracula]. Poe and his reanimated heroine Ligeia also appear, so the deck may more properly shade into Gothic and supernatural, rather than just the vampiric. It is pretty damn awesome, even though there is no Baudelaire card.

In which Mark shocks Will with some news.

Target is carrying an exclusive series of Kelly dolls, Merry Monsters, including an all-green one, who happens to have the best outfit, as Frankenstein’s monster. Also on the shelves are Barbie Fashionistas, which are your standard articulated Barbies with an under-bust and wrist joints. Unfortunately, 4 of the 5 Fashionistas are white, with no good representation of brown, black, green or any other color. MSRP for the Fashionistas is <$20.00. I need to get me to a Target to see if the Merry Monsters and Fashionistas are available!

A family photo occasions Jennifer’s new body, a DML Eve 1.5. The DML 1.5 body, much more robust and bigger than the original Momoko body, makes Jennifer’s head look slightly smaller, but I think this adds to the impression of her being a mature woman with kind of a baby face.

L to R: Jareth, Jennifer, Frank. Continue reading Jennifer has a new body!

These five dolls have names, but no designated characters. They obviously have personalities, but no assigned role in my fictional universe. Therefore they have the distinction of being dolls with no point besides looking nice.

Uh oh. Five pointless dolls is five too many! What shall I do?

Clearly they need to be incorporated into LHF!

Back row, L to R: Shaniqua, N’Yenya Clippee, Malgorzata Dawiskiba.
Front row, L to R: Dini, Dasu.

Shaniqua is a lovely Alvin Ailey Barbie. N’Yenya is a Fashion Royalty Monsieur Z doll repainted and with a new haircut by Andrea. Malgorzata is a Tao ninja head repainted by Andrea, haircut by me, on a ballerina Barbie body. Both Dini and Dasu are Jakks Pacific Juku Couture Girls.

As for personalities, in case you couldn’t tell, Shaniqua is shy, sweet-tempered and retiring, while N’Yenya is fun-loving and a bit sly. Malgorzata, called Gory, is blunt, straightforward and delighting in sick, twisted things. Dini is a rather skeptical smart-ass, while Dasu is intelligent, highly anxious and very picky about language. All of them dress as if they belong to the LHF universe, even if they don’t [yet].

Of the dolls shown, N’Yenya is my favorite and therefore most likely to appear in a main or side plot of LHF, if only because she, with her smirk and her stripey, starry tights, so clearly embodies the tacky snarkiness that many LHF characters possess.
Continue reading Dolls with no point: Shaniqua, N’Yenya, Malgorzata, Dini and Dasu

In which Anneka talks to her family and thinks of her grandmother.

Comments: In case it’s not immediately clear, the contingent at Anneka’s parents’ house is talking to her on speaker phone.

In which the dryer eats Will’s pants.

Comments: Just an excuse to show off my new laundry set, courtesy of Andrea.

In which Anneka and Will meet for the first time in a long while!

She looks like she’s star-gazing from my desk, swinging her legs. 😀 Continue reading Jennifer wishing on a star

Hey look — a book! April Hamilton offers on-screen views of The IndieAuthor Guide for free.

In which eggs meet a fiery doom.

Comments: Just an excuse to use my new Rement acquisitions, eggs from Eggs Etc. and a microwave from the earlier set of household appliances.

Andrea sold me a 1:6 laundry room [photo by Andrea] with washer, dryer, ironing board, iron, cabinets, detergent, soap, clothing racks, etc. Either someone’s getting a really spiffy basement set, or this is gonna be a laundry facility. Looks like the detergent, soap, etc. could be displayed as in a store.  Continue reading Laundry from Andrea

<victorydance> I just figured out how to make a PivotTable draw data from an ever-increasing range!!!!!!!!!! </victorydance> Gimme a trophy or three!

Yes!

YES!!

YES!!!!!

I’m King of the World!

In which Materyllis kicks Will out of her house.

From melopoeia. When we get older, this article by Tim Krieder, "The Referendum," says, we see that our string of choices in our life has inevitably foreclosed upon greater and greater numbers of options for us. We then look around us at our friends and acquaintances. We see in them representations of the alternative choices we could have made. We contemplate their jobs, their hobbies and their families. We wonder if we made the rightest and happiest choices for our own. Our own finitetude descends upon us like a wall, and we experience "the naked 3:00 AM terror of regret." [That time is, in fact, the dark night of the soul.]

What does it say about me that I’m not in "midlife" yet, but I still experience this sidelong wistfulness all the time?

In which Anneka confronts Michaela with the truth about Thomas.

Among the many Rements Andrea sent me, there was an old [2004?] set from the theme of animals having a tea time. I’m not one for animals acting like humans, but this little, fuzzy, pearl-wearing swine, lightly blushed on its cheeks and holding its strawberry cream cake delicately in its forefoot, endears me to it. I could just be responding to the strawberry cream cake, for which I have a weakness, however.  Continue reading Pig uses fork.

I’m linking to this article on Teatime Brutality about the lack of a Dr. Who canon because I find its observations on the relative primacy of fictionalities very interesting. It’s the glorious refusal to define a canonicity that allows fan fiction and reinterpretation to flourish. No, I don’t have anything else intelligent to say on the subject right now.

All sorts of good stuff from my collection, including steak, dumplings, soup, lobster, tropical drinks, cotton candy, blueberry muffins, cake mix, pasta, pretzels, cake, ice trays, 1:6 mystery meat in foil…. Some Rements still sealed! If you want it, please comment or PM me. Continue reading 1:6 food for sale, Rement and Iwako [erasers], $12 shipped

Nicely enough, Andrea shipped her with a hoard of Rement so she wouldn’t get hungry and also some clothes so she could dress herself in clashing LHF style.
Continue reading N’Yenya is here!

Rement is coming out with a Candy Shop in September. Normally I become bored with Rement’s endless iterations of cakes, chocolates and other sweets, but these candies seem novel. I especially like the "Animal Pops," lollipops in the shape of animal heads. LHF can make room for animal-headed lollipops, right? Continue reading Sweet! Rement’s doing a Candy Shop!

Stuck at age 15 since 1973, Sydneyite Nina Harrison has no special powers as a vampire. In fact, she and her fellow support group members are weak, sickly individuals with extreme photosensitivity and an unfortunate propensity to drop dead from sunrise to sunset. They do not seduce, swoop or loom; instead they dither and bicker among themselves, activities that come to an end only when one of them is murdered. Only then do our crochety invalids come alive as they try to solve a murder mystery without involving themselves in violence or blood. Awkwardness results as the characters flail about, much in the way that real people might if they realized they were in a storybook whodunit. While the vampiric whininess gets tedious, Catherine Jinks compensates with non-stop action and plenty of twists and turns, all the while remaining true to her vision of vampirism as a combination of addiction and disability. Though Jinks does not have a sharp enough flair in her writing to pull off a biting satire [instead, it nips occasionally], her relentlessly realistic depiction of average people trying to be superheroic is consistently appealing.

Monsieur Z Fly Girl starts off with heavily made-up and spaced-out eyes, like this. Photo by cloudz. Having gotten one in a trade, Andrea repainted hers with a clean, crisp style that makes her look like a 1950s piece of clip art in the best way possible. Andrea calls her Wella, but her real name is N’Yenya Clippee

.

I have purchased a lot of Rement from Andrea [from one hoarder to another], 15 complete sets for $35, plus miscellaneous odds and ends [including Iwako utensils]. There’s a lot of stuff I can’t identify, but this is what I can pick out:

• microwave
• cleaning supplies!
• cookies, cookie dough, cookie tools
• a whole bunch of veggies!
• school supplies!
• fast food
• pub meal?
• pumpkin pie
• pine tree?
• way more eating tools than I need

Continue reading Big batch o’ Rements = mine!

Strapya, home of 1:6 blood bags, also sells other useful 1:6 accessories, such as these wooden toys, including colored wooden building blocks. I could stock an entire toy room with 1:6 toys, dolls, stuffed animals, vehicles, balls, robots, horses, pull toys, child-sized furniture, all sorts of enjoyable things for young kids!

In which Materyllis tells Will about her sad past.

Comments: Will has Materyllis pretty well pegged in this episode. I’m not sure she likes the feeling of being transparent. She’s used to being aloof and intimidating, not sympathetic!

Val gave me some obnoxiously neon kitchen and cleaning tools from a mysterious source ["The Excellence Designer! Special For You Of Children Design!"] for my dollses. You can see them between one of my Juku Girls and Anneka. As you may notice, they are closer to 1:8 than 1:6, but they’ll still work!  Continue reading Kitchen tools from Val

Because why should you pay for something when you can get it for free?

http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/ 329 prompts for creative writing, just like it says in the URL. Sample: "What story can you come up with that has this quick plot: cancer comes back after three years of remission?"

http://www.writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts/ 10 pages of prompts from Writer’s Digest. Sample: "You wake up in jail and have no memory of how you got there. As you pace around the cell, you find five items in your pocket from the night before. As you look at each piece, the night slowly comes back to you. Write about your night, why you have these five items and how you ended up in jail."

http://www.creativity-portal.com/prompts/imagination.prompt.html The Imagination Prompt Generator randomly generates writing prompts for personal non-fiction writing. Sample: "My 10 favorite movies."

http://www.creative-writing-solutions.com/creative-writing-prompts.html A page of creative writing prompts from Creative Writing Solutions. Sample: "A jewel-encrusted box is found in an ancient abandoned temple. Describe the box, what is in the box, and the temple. See where it takes you."

http://www.writingfix.com/right_brain.htm WritingFix’s collection of generators for prompts. Sample: "An intimidating snail was slipping past my ice cream."

http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/892558 51 prompts collected by a writer. Sample: "Read the following line and create a short story or poem using it as the opening line. And then she died. (Thanks to the Muse’s Alley for providing the line.)."

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2006/5/4wiencek.html 13 Suggestions from mcsweeneys.net. Sample: "Write a short scene set at a lake, with trees and shit. Throw some birds in there, too.."

http://www.fifteenminutesoffiction.com/prompts.asp Fifteen Minutes of Fiction’s index of weekly writing prompts. Sample: "Write the events or conversations you imagine might happen if two famous people from different centuries were able to meet."

I want to write fiction, doll-less short stories, novellas, maybe even novels. What do I do with my current projects, LHF and Mary’s diary? How do I do what I want?

Her included outfit makes her look about 2, instead of 4 or 5, like I want her to be, but, as soon as she gets her pants, she’ll be good.

To make VLA’s eyes look less droopy, I erased her default lower eyelashes and eyebrows, then placed new brows in a quizzical, semi-raised position further up on her forehead [covered up by bangs]. Such a cutie! I can’t wait for her to star in some LHF side plot. Continue reading Very Little Anneka has arrived!

In which we learn more about what Anneka saw in Thomas. 

Today I got 2 Jakks Pacific Juku Couture Girls at Target for $10.00 each. They are 9" high cuties with rooted hair, inset eyes and a high level of articulation. They compare favorably to the 23cm Obitsu bodies, only of cheaper materials, more robust build and slightly less articulation [no double joints]. Best of all, their mix-and-match outfits have a definite eye-bleeding LHF flavor to them. See?

All I did was swap bits of their clothes around and repaint their eyebrows, which were originally very high on their foreheads. They don’t have names yet, but I already like the redhead best, even though I originally wanted the brunette for her elaborate hairstyle. Continue reading Jakks Pacific Juku Couture Girls, lightly modified

I currently have a regular Anneka doll and a Little Anneka doll, portraying her somewhere between 12 and 15. In new developments, I’m getting another small BJD, a Serendipity Aga Fairy Candy, and repurposing it as a Very Little Anneka between 4 and 6. My Dollmore Banji, which never had a character in the first place, is leaving to make room for Very Little Anneka. I even have a side plot in mind for Very Little Anneka, about her first occasion of activism when her family goes to a restaurant that is not accessible to her dad. ^_^   ^_^

I like this piece of jewelry for a Halloween costume, although it does not fit with what I want to be for Halloween [a modern vampire dammit!].

In which Materyllis works her magic on Will. 

Comments: Despite Materyllis’ gruff, prickly exterior, I think she’s truly a kind and thoughtful person. She’s just really lonely. She appears to like Will because he matches her in sarcasm!

In which we learn more about Anneka’s history with Thomas.

I bought this doll on a whim because it was [comparatively] cheap and pretty cute. It had no assigned character and, for the longest time, no clothes. Then it finally got the motley outfit shown below, but it was still without form and void without hair and personality. Today I finally gave it some hair, which certain gives it some more personality, but I still have no idea of a character. I even have no idea whether it’s a person or a doll, although Anneka and Will seem unconvinced that it is a doll.

Wait…wait…it just informed me that its name is V

elo. That’s VAY low, French for "bike."  Continue reading It has been remarkably unforthcoming about itself (Dollmore Banji).

What fresh poop is this? [Answer: It’s actually stale poop.] Stephenie Meyer is writing an "official guide" to four books of whingeing and sparkling, complete with "genealogical charts," in case you haven’t already figured out that the books are the bastard children of the worst romance novels ever. My favorite comments on this book come from this Amazon.com customer discussion: "Cash cow says moo" and "I’m pretty sure it’s just Spackle for the plot holes."

I am interested to learn more about this movie, as it is about a set of female twins in their late 20s and one uses a wheelchair and one walks!

< triumphant>After mastering the arcanities of PivotTables, I think I just figured out how to display the information in the way I want it displayed with a PivotChart!< /triumphant> I deserve another medal!!!

In which Will finds his visit to the doctor’s a bit too hot to handle.

From left to right: Geordie (Orientdoll So Ye, 12cm), unassigned DollMore Banji (14.5cm), Waverley (Elfdoll Kai, 15cm), Submit (Elfdoll Kathlen, 20cm), Susie (NotDoll Lucy, 20cm), Little Will (NotDoll Miriam head/Elfdoll Kathlen body, 20cm). Not shown are Little Anneka (Soom Uyoo head/Planetdoll Mini Riz body) and Absinthe (Elfdoll Kathlen head/Soom Uyoo body).

Continue reading Little dudes: my LHF BJDs under 9″

Here’s Waverley, who arrived today! She’s an Elfdoll tiny Kai with default faceup, eyes and wig. Her shirt is from a mini Bratz boy. Her shorts are from a Tommy doll. I wired her legs with a pipe cleaner and her arms with half of an unwound pipe cleaner. [Pipe cleaners are made of two slender wires twined together with fuzz in between the twines. I used one slender wire from a pipe cleaner to wire her arms.]

During hot weather, most of us like to relax with a cool drink. Waverley’s beverage of choice is beer. Just a few sips! Continue reading Introducing Waverley Parker

 My Alvin Ailey Barbie arrived today. As you can see in the first picture, she was allowed to keep her leotard top, but Absinthe claimed her full, fluffy skirt. Absinthe always makes me think of flowers and lace, which is odd, given that she’s much more of an anise and wormwood girl.

The second picture shows how different two instances of the same headsculpt can look on different people. On the left, Shaniqua, a kind, cheerful, rather shy person who doesn’t really like talking about how thin she is because she’s naturally that way and she doesn’t think it looks that good. On the right, Velvette, the sterner, more cynical person who can wither bullshit in its tracks and who comes across as tough and self-deprecating rather than just nice.

I love the Mbili headsculpt.  Continue reading Shaniqua the skinny

Here are 1:6 versions of three-quarters of the characters in my head (left to right): Jareth, Jennifer and Frank. Doll of me not included because it doesn’t have a head. Interestingly enough, the dolls don’t really look like the characters, but they accurately capture their moods: Jareth serious and shy, Jennifer energetic and innocent, Frank playful and sex-obsessed.

Jennifer, who is a Momoko, came in today, so her arrival occasioned these portraits.Continue reading Three-quarters of the family

<heavenlychorus>…how to make a Pivot Table in Excel 2007 for sophisticated reporting purposes. Given that I was banging my head against obtuse tutorials yesterday afternoon, today’s small achievement shines like a beacon from heaven between the stormy clouds of frustration and ignorance.< /heavenlychorus>

<grimdetermination>Next…a pivot chart.< /grimdetermination>

Someone award me a medal!

Waverley [and some Rements] shipped today from Denver Doll Emporium. With any luck, she’ll be here on Saturday, and I can experiment by putting her head on the Banji body, which is sturdier, with delicately expressive hands.

One year after first seeing it and liking it and after 365 days of unsuccessfully convincing myself that I don’t want her, I have an unassigned Lola head coming in the mail to me for the relatively low price of $12.00. Yes, that is low for a plastic 1:6 head. Shush. Can’t resist the sarcastic expression.

In which Absinthe talks to Mark to discern if Will is truly as wretched as she thinks he is.  

Comments: Absinthe, as you may recall, pines for Will. Certain that she has ruined his life by making him a vampire, she was most recently inspired in the last episode by Margie’s daughter Maggie to fantasize about the family that she and Will could have had. Now, not wanting to approach Will directly, she seeks information about Will’s current state from Mark, who ought to know about these things.

who thinks, has always thought and will always think that Monday is the first day of the week?

Kinjou and I were talking about Labyrinth in a recent chat tonight and how the ending, in which Sarah parties with the Muppets while Jareth flies away in the form of an owl, seems like a foul misstep, thematically speaking.

Our reasons, in conversational form, below:

me: Har de har har!

Kinjou recommends using soap flakes for snow in a 1:6 context, but Ivory has not made soap flakes for over 15 years [since 1993]. This recipe provides an alternative.

Andrea’s lighting set up.

Best repaint of a Monsieur Z doll ever: Wella, who reminds me of a 1950s piece of clip art in the best way. Simple, effective lines.

Tonight I am going to make 1:6 grass out of a doormat, as previously discussed here. Need to get me a lot of green and yellow paint and a big brush at the art supply store.

In which Michaela rhapsodizes about the glories of love and Anneka tries to talk some sense into her.

Comments: Anneka is drinking some of the orange juice that Michaela had in 3.1. Michaela’s having a banana split, probably as some comfort food.

Absinthe, as she currently stands, was a person who was excavated after her death and whose heart was burned in an anti-tuberculosis ritual to keep her father from getting ill. She turned this ritual back on him and drew his vitality away so that he ended up dying and she ended up living as a vampire. She’s also an avid student of her maternal grandfather’s Abenaki stories and teachings, despite her father’s depiction of her grandfather as ignorant and "savage."

I just realized today that something has to give in her character. Her identity as a patricide and her identity as a Native American do not go together. If, as I have established, she is a respectful student of her maternal grandfather, an Abenaki who has maintained the lifeways and culture of his ancestors despite prejudice, then she at least knows and heeds the basic tenet of Abenaki spirituality: All beings are equally important and honorable, bound as everything is in a complex web of creation and sustenance made and nurtured by the creative spirits of the world. In such a case, killing non-human things for food is acceptable if proper reverence is given, but to kill another human being in murder is unacceptable. It is an act of wanton cruelty that messes with the natural order of things. For this reason, Absinthe, if a spiritually observant and practicing (if rather isolated and half-taught) Abenaki, would not murder her father and sustain herself on his vitality.

All right, so now Absinthe’s story has a gap in it. She was born around 1812. She attended the Charlestown Convent School in her youth as an attempt to educate her and "civilize" her, but she enjoyed rough-and-tumble play with the Brickbottom Boys instead, although she did like the French. She died of tuberculosis, exacerbated by her father’s abuse of her, when she was 13.

Absinthe hung around the convent school until it burned in 1834 (in which she played an unwitting role). After that, she lurked among various institutes of knowledge until she met up with Justine and Marquis.

Something happened in here to convert her from a ghost to a Colonial vampire, something that also corresponded with the beginning of her passive corruption by Justine and Marquis. Whatever this event was, it sure didn’t involve her killing her dad.

I’m glad I never formally codified the tuberculosis-related parts of Absinthe’s story in main or tangential storylines. It’s all written up in her backstory, but has yet to be published, so it is still malleable. Clearly I need to work on making a more convincing Native American character, and part of that realism means giving her a backstory and set of actions consonant with her Native beliefs.

For $125.00, excluding shipping. Good to know, especially if I want to use one of those extra Kathlen plates lying around and turn it into a full doll with a character.

She still needs a white collar thing, her headdress painted white, a white veil, a chastity belt and her weapons, but she’s on her way to being ass-kickingly and chastely awesome. Don’t mess with someone who has such a stern expression. I really like this action figure because the facial sculpt clearly communicates a feline nature, even without ears or whiskers. At the same time, you can see a lot of grit, determination and personality in the sculpt. Captain Thunderpussy is an unusual and beautiful figure! [Well, at least her head is. As I mentioned before, I find Character Options’ body disappointing.] Continue reading Captain Thunderpussy in progress

In which Will is sick, but is it from spending time in Mark’s bed?! 

Comments: Mark is attempting to seduce Will by reciting a Baudelaire poem, “L’Invitation Au Voyage.”

As I have mentioned a few times, I’m looking for some 1:6 costumes/fetish wear for use in reshooting LHF 2.1. Also I just think it’s hilarious to have fetish gear lying around in the background of Anneka and Will’s houses. Makes you wonder about their sex lives….

So these are the items mentioned in the original version:

• Horned gas mask
• Dancing girl outfit
• Head harness with ball gag
• Viking helmet
• Wig with ringlets
• Captain Thunderpussy, the kitty pirate nun: wimple, cat ears, cutlass.
• Tex the harem starlet cowboy: cowboy hat, harem girl veil, six-shooter.

Here are the items I have procured:

• Clown mask [from ZC Girls’ Carol the bank robber]
• Dancing girl outfit [from Ebay from a special version of Mikelman’s Candi]
• Head harness with ball gag [digitally rendered in DAZ]
• Viking helmet
• Thunderpussy’s wimple and cutlass
• Tex’s cowboy hat, veil and six-shooter

Still looking for a gas mask.

EDIT: Just got a gas mask, some horribly blocky glasses and 2 pairs of bloomers from War Toys, my favorite loose 1:6 stuff dealer. Now I have completed my quest for 1:6 fetishwear. Also Absinthe can have some appropriate underwear!

Popular serial turned agreeable time-passer, Dresden Files the TV show follows Chicago wizard Harry Dresden as he uses his for-hire services to solve crimes, occasionally in collaboration with a magic-unaware police detective Murphy. Available on Hulu and mildly entertaining, this one-season show of necessity strips out lots of the mythos and back story that apparently makes the novels by Jim Butcher, upon which the series is based, so interesting.

However, I discovered an interesting thing just now. Guess who does the audio book readings for the Dresden Files series? JAMES MARSTERS!!!!!!! That’s hot. Must track down one of these.

As I now have a job, Waverley is on her way to me, bringing with her from Denver Doll Emporium some crack cocaine Rement that I have long pined for, such as Eggs Etc. [eggs! bacon!] and Mexican dinner [tacos!]. Also on its way is a Dollmore Banji, bought secondhand so as not to support a cheatin’ doll company. The Banji was an impulse buy and, as such, it does not have a designated character. It may become Will’s cherished Bru doll. Then again, maybe not.

If Will has a somewhat intimidating, very playful Captain Thunderpussy for a muse, Anneka has Leonyssus, a finicky, rather crabby merdude who severely dislikes her control freak tendencies. I have a feeling he’s the sort of person who spends lots of time looking in the mirror and combing his hair just to piss her off. Then, when she least expects it, he blows his conch horn, calling her to work. Her constant labors on her mermaid story make him complain that he’s overworked, but, when she tries to leave him alone, he demands attention. He’s very high maintenance, which translates as Anneka’s drive and compulsion to constantly write.

Lest we think that he’s some whiny, annoying drama queen, I should state that he’s more imperious, arrogant, sarcastic and snotty than whiny. He constantly thinks that he’s awesome, and he’s always trying to teach Anneka lessons, which don’t really work because she is ultimately in control. He would call himself "arch and slantwise;" she’d call him "someone with a delicate constitution."

I know the perfect construction for Leonyssus. He is an Obitsu Slim Male top with a bottom from a Mattel Mermaidia doll. He has a generic Slim Male head with askance eyes, half-closed, long eyelashes, and a smirk. Ideally he should have long flowing green hair. In my dreams, it’s in a very complicated net of braids interspersed with pearls, but I don’t have the patience for that. He has an incredibly impractical amount of pearl jewelry, cuffs, earrings, necklaces. He has a golden mirror and a golden hairbrush. He uses the magic mirror for scrying ideas.

CLEARLY I need to write a season in which muses run amuck.

Remember Cindy? In anticipation of my forthcoming Captain Thunderpussy doll, I tried to get an idea of possible outfits for the good captain. Cindy is modeling her bloody duds with the Aoshima fetish nun vinyl wimple. [Vinyl keeps bloodstains off, doncha know? 😀 ]

In other news, I am gonna either have to preserve Cindy better or throw her out. Like a real zombie, she keeps falling apart. Her head detaches from her body and, every time I squash it back on, her face paint chips. The end result does make her look more aged, however. Continue reading Killer zombie nuns: more scared of you than you are of them

Season 6 kicks off with a reunion between Anneka and Michaela and a disturbing piece of news on Michaela’s part.

Comments: As you may recall from the flashbacks in season 5, Michaela played a pivotal role in Anneka’s death. She warned Anneka that Dom was out for her blood, and she taught Anneka how to protect herself from vampires. None of this ended up helping, of course, but Anneka and Michaela did become friends. The two haven’t seen each other for a few years, though. In that time, Michaela has been doing some stuff that shocks Anneka….

In LHF 2.1, "Homecoming Costumes," Anneka and Will consider what to wear. They have just heard that Anneka’s grandmother, Minerva, is on her deathbed, so they must hurry up to Vermont to attend her. Unfortunately, if direct sunlight hits them, they, being undead, will burn up. Thus they turn to their extensive collection of fetish wear to find suitable cover-ups.

As they sort through their dress-up box, they try to alleviate their tension by clowning around. Will pretends that he’s "Captain Thunderpussy, the kitty pirate nun!" Anneka says that his character is no match for "Tex the harem starlet cowboy!" Will’s Captain Thunderpussy costume is a wimple, cat ears, an eyepatch and a cutlass. Anneka’s Tex the harem starlet cowboy is a pair of bunny ears [lost in translation], a cowboy hat, a dancing girl veil, star-shaped sunglasses and a six-shooter.

CLEARLY I need a Captain Thunderpussy doll. Fortunately, there is a kitty nun doll who only needs piratization to complete her transformation into the character. Recently a 12" doll of a Dr. Who character, Novice Hame of the Sisters of Plenitude, was released. Novice Hame is a nun from a race of cat people, so, as you can see from this review, she looks like a bipedal humanoid cat in a wimple and full nun robes. She just needs an eyepatch, a cutlass and some more piratical flair to make her into Captain Thunderpussy.

The more I think about it, the more amusing it would be for Captain Thunderpussy to actually appear in LHF as an overbearing muse figure. Will obviously has a weird, pornographic, parodic imagination, but he keeps trying to write poetry. Maybe Thunderpussy ["That’s CAPTAIN Thunderpussy to you, ya swab!!"] can point him in the direction of his true calling.

No, my "print to action figure" button still ain’t working. The mask was rendered separately, then pasted in as a separate layer and merged with a photo. Close enough for government work! I still want a real one though.

Still, now I know I can paste simple Daz objects into real scenes. This is good to know. Continue reading Fetish mask test: Anneka holding it

Fortunately it won’t actually be worn, but it needs to be a prop. It’s a combination face mask/ball gag/blindfold, and YES, it does have narrative relevance in LHF. Pictures below. Anyone have ideas? Maybe I should just cut off a Barbie face and sculpt from that?? [The different colors in the pictures are just so the different parts can be seen, although I do think those crazy colors are kinda cool.]

Continue reading I need help making a 1:6 mask.

I hope to get an Elfdoll Tiny Kai soon, 14cm of awesomeness, to be Waverley Parker. An unplanned character in the LHF universe, she will become a regular main character because, like Absinthe, I like her so much!

Since I do not know when I will be able to afford her, I content myself with thinking about Waverley’s room. For most of my 1:6 sets, I arrange a selection of my furniture, backdrops and decor, but this won’t work in Waverley’s case. Waverley is 1:6 for a person with her form of achondroplastic dwarfism, which means that she’s more like 1:3 scale in 1:6 scale. In other words, she is the 1:6 equivalent of a 60cm BJD’s height. Anyway, that means that, in absolute scale, she is more like 1:8 or even 1:12, much smaller than my 1:6ers.

So almost everything in Waverley’s room needs to be on Waverley’s scale, 1:8 or 1:12, except for a few items for her guests. I imagine that she has a 1:6 chair and some pillows for guests, but, as in a traditional Japanese house, she spends much of her time sitting on the floor. Nevertheless, I have been thinking about existing pieces of mine that I could use in her set:

• I have pillows and blankets for seating on the floor.
• Chow and Baozha have a low table that could double as Waverley’s.
• My ring box could work as a small end table.
• My Rement lamp [from the yellow dresser] would be the perfect scale to go on the end table.
• I have that pink tricorder that I can use as her computer.
• I have a cell phone that she can use.
• She can watch the Merry Strawberry TV.
• I have a small necklace box that could be a bed for her. It just needs padding.
• I’m sure she would use the mushroom and puzzle mats as throw rugs to keep the floor warm.

Rement offers plenty of accessories on the smaller side for Waverley’s use:

• Flirty Pink #3 has a nice little dresser.
• Merry Strawberry #4 has a little dresser with mirror and hairbrush, while #8 has a low table and a mat.
• Mushroom Paradise #7 has a little chair, while #8 has a shelf and a clock.

In which Velvette delivers a smackdown!!

Comments: Over the course of Anneka’s epic tale of her own death, Velvette has become increasingly dissatisfied with her social life. Now she’s finally doing something about it.

As I mentioned earlier, Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan have started a vampire trilogy with The Strain, first of three books about vampire-as-virus infesting New York City and the Holocaust survivor and public health official who beat back the plague.

In two words: don’t bother. The thoroughly pedestrian prose takes way too long to get into the story. [Why NO, we don’t need 50 pages about the strange airplane full of exsanguinated dead people; just tell us that it was creepy, but they’re dead, exsanguinated, filled with white stuff instead of blood, and there was a weird coffin onboard that disappeared. You can do that in 20 pages, 15 even, and ramp up the tension even more.]

The cast is so large and fleshed out only so far as stereotypes allow that it’s impossible to give a flying fuck about any of them. Their voices aren’t very well differentiated, and, like I guessed earlier, there aren’t any female characters worth blowing one’s nose at.

Not even the innovative reinterpretation of vampirism as a cancerous sort of virus that is motivated by blood-hungry worms in one’s veins can compete with the crashing bore of this book. del Toro’s vivid, cinematic, disgusting and memorable imagination apparently doesn’t translate well out of the filmic genre, even with the help of a ghostwriter. Stick to movies, Guillermo.

Verdict: Don’t catch this disease.

It is an Orient Doll Ye. At 12cm high, it’s about as tall as a Kelly doll, but cuter. Its smile looks pleased, rather than the default toothy Kelly smile, which looks kinda vapid. I got a great deal on one with a partial trade. No character designated for it yet, but I’m looking forward to its cuteness.

Kinjou and I were talking about it last night on chat while I was watching the pilot. Our color commentary follows: Continue reading Merlin the TV show

In which Velvette reveals her true feelings.

Commentary: Upon winding up the story of her death, Anneka fiddles with one of Janet’s many robots. It is actually a wind-up toy, Noggin Bops, that dances by swinging its hips! Meanwhile, Velvette takes Anneka’s advice in a different way than she expected.

Make it go away by making an offer. Continue reading 60cm boy stuff I don’t want

Sold The Jareth Experiment last night. Frank’s next on the chopping block. Hopefully I’ll be able to remove his faceup. I really haven’t been into 1:3 for a while and, try as I might, I can’t rekindle my interests.

So I just caught the first ep of season 2 of True Blood, thanks to the fastest download ever. Most of the plots are continuing from the first season in that people keep dying; Sookie continues to break up and make up with Bill, who keeps looking wounded and red-eyed most of the time; Sam keeps crushing on Sookie; Tara keeps love/hating her mom and getting closer to that creepy "social worker" Maryann; Sookie’s dumb brother keeps pursuing the vamp-hating church; and Bill’s vampire spawn Jessica keeps being petulant. The only one who’s had a real change in status is Lafayette, who’s being kept in a dungeon by Sheriff Highlights Eric for dealing vampire blood.

I find the multi-layered stories interesting and the characters fascinating, except for Sheriff Highlights. He can die and be replaced by someone who can convincingly play an law enforcer. I don’t know where people get off thinking he’s sexy because he’s not.

Of course, after everything, I keep coming back for Stephen Moyer’s portrayal of Bill Compton. I especially appreciate how he builds his acting on stillness and silence, but is able to generate expressive looks without devolving into sad puppy dog eyes. He lurks around looking bloodshot, haggard and cheese-colored most of the time, which is how I imagine your average vampire to look. I appreciate that the costumes and makeup people give him a scraggly, loose comb-over, a pale complexion and other traits that downplay his attractiveness. I approve.

After doing some work on Jareth’s head with brown, black and peach, I stuck his eyes in his head, plopped him on Frank’s body and eyed the result. Continue reading The Jareth Experiment III: A superior smirk

My experiment, previously detailed here, continues apace. After spackling covering the Sculpey mods, the prior epoxy mods and the resin with enough paint to cover a sail boat or, alternatively, all the color inconsistencies in materials, I am now putting features on the head. That means I am drawing outlines of eyebrows and lips with pencil, then using them as guidelines for the actual application of colors. Shown here are lips and eyebrows done in Prismacolor. Still need to add eyeliner, bruise the eyelids, smudge color up toward the eyebrows and put a line between the lips. Faaaaaaaahbulous, daaaaahling, no? Look at the symmetry! The subtlety! The realism, luminosity and perfection!! 
Continue reading The Jareth Experiment II: Cakin’ on the facepaint

In which Absinthe and Will have kids.

Comments: When we previously looked in on Absinthe, she was reporting to her foster mother, Margie, about her trip up to see her former jailer/father substitute, Ethan Stuart of the Colonial clan up in Salem. Her visit to Ethan reminded Absinthe just how attached she had been to Will, and her old feelings toward him are now only growing. She has bittersweet memories of the plans for the future that she and Will used to share.

This ep introduces one of Margie’s daughters, Maggie. It’s the older one, Laurie, who’s pregnant, of course!

Absinthe and Will’s imaginary daughter is portrayed by Submit, who will appear later in the future. For now, all you need to know is that there’s definitely a family resemblance between her and Absinthe. Like Absinthe, she is an Elfdoll Fantasy Kathlen head; the difference is that Absinthe has closed eyes, while Submit’s eyes are open.

Absinthe has two new dresses! One is a burgundy velvet gown with a horrendously large lace collar. It is from the Sentimental Valentine Barbie. I scored the outfit alone for ~$12.00 including shipping.

The other outfit is a blue dress with white collar and underskirt and wretched red bow detailing. It is from the Colonial Barbie. It was not one of my first choices, but it is simple, conservative and appropriate for Absinthe. I couldn’t resist the price either: $8.60 including shipping.

I think the Pioneer Barbie outfit would be best for Absinthe, but the prices are currently a little steep. I’d like to get the whole package or just the outfit for <$15.00.

In other news, I have had no luck finding shoes for Junior, a Kelly-based doll. Kelly/Tommy shoes are difficult to find and to keep track of, which makes them disgustingly expensive on Ebay and also impossible to procure from my usual fellow doll-loving sources. I don’t feel like spending a lot of money on a minor character, no matter how charming he looks.

I keep encountering problems when searching for clothes for Absinthe. I imagine that she wears clothes from the Victorian era, but all the Tonner Victorianish clothes that I want are expensive. I am left with 3 options:

Absinthe’s white shift, which she came with. Good for a nightgown or running around in the house, but not formal wear.
Leonora’s burgundy velvet dress, from Victorian Lady Barbie. Good for winter and formal portraits, but not spring/summer.
Justine’s purple walking suit, from P.F. Albee Barbie. Good for spring/summer, but has been stretched to boobular proportions by Justine.

However, it is possible to find other Barbie-based Victorian fashions. For example, Barbie with Cedric Bear, a dressing gown and nightgown combo, can be purchased for ~$20.00, if one knows where to look on Ebay. Victorian Tea Barbie [the plastic one], a white summer outfit, can be purchased for between $20.00 and $30.00.  Same for Gibson Girl Barbie, a 1910s working woman’s outfit. The Disney Mary Poppins Barbie, a very stylized white 1910s outing dress, can go for <$20.00. Sentimental Valentine Barbie, a dress for winter formals, has an outfit from the 1830s, more properly the period of Absinthe’s adulthood, and she goes for well <$20.00. No one wants her.

In which Mark gets aggressive toward Will. 

Comments: Charles Baudelaire, Will and Mark’s favorite poet, manages to be morbid, gloomy and terribly romantic all at the same time, perfect for indulging a bad mood or inciting lust.

So Shakesville talked about a woman who was raving about her bracelet made out of pressed beet slices and copper. I therefore clicked over to Margaret Dorfman, who makes bowls and jewelry out of thin layers of dried fruits and vegetables, then presses them together to make delicate, translucent works of art. Look at the beet and starfruit bracelets! They are so vivid and yummy. They are making me hungry.

The modded Dollshe Hound head that Armeleia did work on several years ago may easily be made into my mental image of Jareth [shown in recent Daz work] with the addition of modeling compound to the shaded areas. Too bad I don’t have any modeling compound or energy to follow through with this project. Continue reading Needs work.

The Strain, written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, imagines vampires as a virus and apparently contains no prominent female characters, which is pretty mind-boggling, considering that over half the threatened human populace is female. Nevertheless, I will read it and report back to my loyal follower about my thoughts.

In which Anneka reveals who exactly turned her into a vampire. [Hint: it wasn’t Will!]

Comments: Remember how Anneka said that Will’s vamping “didn’t work?” Now we learn why, with bonus commentary on the undead life from Bang-shi-fu, one of my favorite characters.