Video: Live staining demonstration!

Hi friends! This is kind of a follow up to the Stain Treatment video that I made a few months ago. I am going to demonstrate how fast and horrible staining can occur! T___T”

I’m using Sasara Kusugawa (version 1)’s default outfit, which is a notorious and known stain monster.

I always take very good care of my dolls and this “experiment” was the first time I’ve ever had anything stained so much and so intensely. (In order for the stains to show up on video clearly they actually look much worse in person T__T”) I should mention that I haven’t washed or soaked either the Saber Maid or Sasara’s outfits because they are known to continually leech black dye even after repeated washings and it will discolour the white parts of the outfit and give them a bluish tint. If you own these either of these outfits, you’re welcome to wash them but I’ve made the choice not to because I’d rather keep the outfits pristine in case I decide to sell them someday.

I’ve started filming the [Before] part of the stain removal so you can see how effective the Volks Dream Rescue cream is and I’ll post the results in a couple of days.

Err…. enjoy? *cringe*

Dec. 10, 2015 – Update:

Here’s the video showing the stain treatment using the Dream Rescue cream. It’s not a miracle product, but it does work very well.

– ♥ Archangeli

Fashion Friday: “Her Royal Highness” Hinata

Time to showcase another lovely outfits that I’ve recently acquired! This is this gorgeous custom set called “Your Royal Highness” created by Puppy52! I fell in love with the gorgeous print of the skirt and knew that I had to have this set – and most of the pieces are sized for the DDdy/DDdy3 body, which can be hard to find clothing for.

It arrived in a beautiful box and Hinata was very excited to receive this present! What can be inside?
Hinata's New Puppy52 Clothes

Alright, I’ll be honest, we were both super excited to open up the package so I forgot to take a photo of all the items inside, but here’s Puppy52’s photo from her blog –
puppy52 outfit

Puppy52 knew that this would be a gift for Hinata (since she’s my only DDdy! Hehehe!) and drew this beautiful picture of her! It’s so gorgeous!! *___* Thank you!
Hinata's New Puppy52 Clothes

I love how the jeans hug the DDdy3’s curves! Puppy52 omitted the belt loops on these capri jeans so there is less bulk at the waistband when tops are worn loosely over top of them.

Hinata's New Puppy52 Clothes

There are so many pieces that Hinata would look a bit silly wearing them all at once, so Serena is here to help model too!
Hinata's New Puppy52 Clothes

(Note: Fur stole on Serena by Volks)

This skirt is designed to fit on all Dollfie Dream body types and it’s so pretty! Hinata couldn’t let Serena walk away with it, so here she is modelling it with some cute coordinating stockings. Hinata is showing off a beautiful ‘Red Wine’ coloured wig to coordinate with this outfit set – do you like it on her?

Hinata's New Puppy52 Clothes

I’m thrilled to own this beautiful set! Puppy52 has just listed a new one-off set for sale as well – details are on her blog. If you like it, please support her wonderful work!

– ♥ Archangeli

Casual Portraits

I had a short photo session with a few of my girls this morning since the sun was shining and I was awake! (Believe me, after sleeping most of January away, this was quite something!) The first order of business was to take a new photo for my website banner – I hope you guys like it! I went with a soft pink wardrobe theme since Valentine’s Day is coming up ^__^” ♥

Group shot (cropped)

In a few days it will be Lily’s 2nd birthday! What better way to celebrate than with a few lovely casual portraits of my first Dollfie Dream!
Lily
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Lily, Annalise & Médée on VolksUSA Blog!

It’s hard to believe that November has come and gone. It’s been an amazing month – I had the chance to meet lots of new friends in the Dollfie Dream community across oceans, I celebrated my birthday in London and before the the craziness of December and the holiday season comes upon us, I just wanted to look back at the beautiful autumn months with a few photos that were featured on the VolksUSA blog today. ^___^”

VolksUSA

Lily and Médée Out for a Stroll

In other news, the Volks Dollfie Dream Xenosaga pre-order project for KOS-MOS and M.O.M.O. has opened and will be running until January 20, 2013. I’ve already placed my order – and advise anyone else that’s interested to do so too, this is a good opportunity to get a beautiful Dollfie Dream without having to contend with lotteries!

– ♥ Archangeli

Autumn Colours

The weather has started to turn cold and the air is getting crisp now that we’re in the middle of Autumn in Canada. This is one of my favourite times of of the year because the leaves on the trees start to turn colors before they fall and it’s very beautiful. There are some lovely old trees in my neighbourhood so I don’t have to go very far to enjoy the beautiful autumn foliage.

I’ve been waiting for the right weather so that one of my girls could wear this adorable coat – and Annalise was the lucky girl to wear it out today! Doesn’t she look lovely?

Annalise in Autumn

The falling leaves are very pretty and all the shades of red, yellow and orange are stunning.

Annalise in Autumn

Lily took little Médée out for a stroll to enjoy the pretty trees.

Lily and Médée Out for a Stroll

The days are also starting to get shorter – I’m noticing that the sun is starting to set earlier now.

Lily & Teddy

I’m enjoying this beautiful weather while it lasts, because soon it will be too cold to take lovely outdoor photos! >__<”

Annalise in Autumn

– ♥ Archangeli

Fashion Friday: Ruby & Sapphire

I’ve been meaning to make these Fashion Friday posts more regular, but the last one was months ago! >__<” I guess better late than never? Here are the lovely Sidonie and Lily showing off a couple of beautiful dresses from Volks.

Sidonie & Lily
They are the Night Blue Dress (released November 2011) and Wine Red Party Dress (released June 2012) and although they are fancy cocktail dresses they are well suited to a warm summer’s evening party.

The beautiful red satin of this dress drapes beautifully on Sidonie and looks so elegant. The hemline is asymmetrical giving the dress a modern twist. The inside of the bodice and the straps are lined in white to prevent staining on the doll, but the lower part of the bodice isn’t – which I thought was a silly oversight.
Sidonie

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Doll Family: July 2012 Portrait

With the addition of three new dolls to my doll family last week I felt it was time to take an updated photo of my doll family. Here are my girls having a welcoming party for Thaddeus, Siobhán and Sidonie!

July Group shot

My goodness how my collection grown in the past year and a half!

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Springtime Mini Doll Meetup

I invited whitefrosty and Machiko over to my house for a little doll party. Since I was busy hosting I didn’t get a chance to take many photos, so most of these are gacked from whitefrosty’s blog. Here are a few of the dolls: my Saber Lily, my sister’s dolls Zephyria, Ventus and Delilah, and whitefrosty’s Myles.


Photo credit: whitefrosty

Here are Ventus, Delilah and Myles – the blondes!~ hehe!


Photo credit: Machiko

Here’s Alisanne watching over the whole affair. While she wasn’t looking someone put bunny ears on her! LOL


Photo credit: whitefrosty

And notice something?! She’s got both shoes from her default outfit now! Hurray!


Photo credit: whitefrosty

And here’s Myles and Delilah rocking out in their Volks ducky suits! I could die from the cuteness!

I baked a batch of lemon scones so that we could have afternoon tea. I had Devon Cream in my fridge but didn’t have any jam, so we had to make due with creamed honey! Tasty, but not quite the same…

A Maid Dress for Saber Lily

After seeing the ridiculous prices the the official Volks Saber Maid outfit sells for on eBay, I decided to try my hand at making something similar for myself. I had to be careful since I didn’t want to her to get stains from the black fabric or thread… For my first trial I used white fabric and lined the inside but it looked to bulky so I scrapped that and went with white fusible interfacing as the lining instead.

Saber Lily in Maid Dress (Prototype A)

Things to tweak:
– neckline is too “modest”
– sleeves are too bell-shaped and not poofy enough
– skirt is too poofy which is why it’s bucking strangely in the photo.
– petticoat was too long
– need a larger opening in the back to get past Saber’s shoulders for easier dressing @__@”

Stockings, shoes, hat were purchased from Volks.

I need to fiddle with this design so I’ll probably remake this again in a few days.

Saber Lily goes to visit her cousins!

I’ve been accumulating some new wardrobe items for Saber Lily since I don’t want her to be wearing her white gown and armor all the time.

Today I took Saber Lily over to my sister Machiko’s house to meet her dolls. She’s been collecting BJD’s for a  few years but got into the hobby slowly. The size difference is astounding! Since Dollfie Dream’s are categorized as 1:3 scale dolls, they are about 60″ tall and in the same size scale as a Volks Super Dollfie (SD). My sister’s Mini-Super Dollfie’s (MSD’s) are half her size – they come up to her waist!

Here she is with Ventus and Zephyria, both Volks MSD Kits (a MSD Ken ’10 renewal and a MSD Myu Pureskin ’08) that my sister constructed from scratch and then painted their face-ups. The little cutie pie in the ducky suit is Delilah – a DollnDoll MO (2010) wearing the Pink Ducky Suit from Volks.

So adorable! I’m tempted to get a tiny doll at some point now! Delilah is so sweet!

Saber Lily Dollfie Dream makes it home!

Most of you know that Kev and I went on a shopping trip to Tokyo in January. We were able to fill lots of gaps in our collection, and unintentionally started collecting figures from a couple of new fandoms as well. Most of these new things will be staying in their boxes until we renovate the house and add some more display cases but the main new addition to our life is the Dollfie Dream Saber Lily.

She arrived today and here are some photos of her Box Opening. Here is the box, freshly opened. Saber Lily’s box is huge! The skinny little thing on the side is the box for her sword.

Here’s my cat, Charlie, checking out the contents of the box. It gives you an idea of scale to see his head next to the box.

This is my first Dollfie Dream so I’m not accustomed to how they are packaged. I’m used to the pomp, circumstance and care that resin BJD’s are given in packaging, so to see the doll wrapped in bubble wrap was a bit surprising to me! I was expecting pillows, tissue, layers of foam, etc.

Here’s a close-up of her lovely face-up.

I’ve re-dressed Lily so many times that I’ve become a pro at it, but it’s still an arduous task every time.

Here are some tips for putting on Saber Lily’s outfit:

– put on her panties and stockings first
– remove her top torso and slip the petticoat on from the top (it’s much easier than trying to stretch the elastic over her hips) and the overskirt (do not zip it up yet!)
– pull the garters from her stockings up from under the petticoat and use the elastic from the petticoat to keep them accessible
– put on her bustier; attach the garter snaps and do up the velcro
– I found it easier to tuck the bustier into the top of the petticoat elastic
– zip up the overskirt (do up the little tab first, then zip the skirt to avoid stretching and stressing the waistband)
– carefully put on the top of her dress

The neckband is a bit finnicky to put on because of the tiny loop for the hook. The easiest method I’ve found is to do up the neckband, remove the DD head, slide the neckband onto her neck and then re-attach her head ^__~”

Be careful with wearing the neckband too long. The brown fabric might cause staining if left on for too long.

The little loop at the top of the overskirt is very delicate.

However, it’s much easier to close the loop and THEN do up the zipper than the other way around.
Remember – LOOP first!

And here she is dressed up (sans armor) wielding Excalibur. She’s beautlifully executed and her clothes are very well made.

There are many other blogs out there with detailed photos of her armor and other bits so I don’t really feel a need to over-document this girl. She’s really stunning though, and I’m slowly getting the hang or fiddling with the Dollfie Dream body.