Some stuff I bought arrived while I was on my cruise – I had it sent to my sister’s place.
Here’s Alisanne showing off the beautiful Volks Elizabeth Rose Dress from the DP25.
Crown by Luts
Elisabeth Rose Dress by Volks
Necklace by me! (seriously, how hard is it to string some pearls onto thread… LOL)
My work takes me all over the place, so when I saw that my schedule would take me into Wolfheinrich’s neck of the woods we planned a meeting via Twitter.
We went out for ice cream and he brought his lovely new daughter Airy with him! Isn’t she lovely? He changed out her default eyes so she’s wearing some animetic eyes from CoolCat right now.
I got to see her lovely face sculpt and her sweet smile in person, and was very impressed with the quality of her outfit (everything is lined with light fabrics). I felt a bit sad that because I really liked her more after seeing her in person, and then Wolfheinrich told me that she was available on the Volks International site as a non-lottery item! Well – that did it! I went back to my hotel and bought her on the spot!
I also purchased Wolfhenrich’s spare Avalon sword for my Saber Lily. I was a bit concerned about how to bring it home, but it turns out it fit nicely in my suitcase! It went through 2 airport x-ray scans and no one batted an eye. Apparently Avalon is not a dangerous weapon ^__~” hehe. Please ignore the mess inside my suitcase >__<“!
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…
When Kev and I were in Japan, we made a deal that I’d let him get Saber Lily if in turn he’d also get me a doll. I fell in love with Volk’s SD16 “Daria” on site at the Shibuya showroom and had my heart set on her. Budget wouldn’t let us get both at the same time so I had to wait for my girl, and so here she is now as a belated Valentine’s Day gift from my hubby.
The box arrived today, and my cat Charlie promptly claimed it as his own!
Here’s Saber Lily sitting comfortably with little Richard (the “lion”-heart plushie) and visiting cousins Delilah and Ventus. Also note the presence of Angry Bunny – he shows up when things need to be censored! LOL
Immediately after opening the box I’m swamped with paperwork! There’s some leaflets from Volks USA about doll care, wig care and also a Volks USA Membership Card!
Saber Lily comes to check out what’s going on inside this massive box.
Her box is so pretty! Not as gigantic as Saber Lily’s but it has a lovely pearl finish to it.
Inside her box were her wig, extra feet/legs, guide book and her outfit.
Angry Bunny says: “No nudity!” He’s quite protective of Daria!
Saber Lily is curious about her cushioning and face-guard since she didn’t get this kind of special wrapping.
Here’s a close-up of her beautiful face-up from Volks.
Here’s Daria’s outfit (and legs) all laid out.
Notice the 2 LEFT shoes… >__<”
I’ve emailed Volks about this and hopefully I can get myself a RIGHT shoe… Otherwise this is pretty lame.
Ventus says “Is this thing a hat?”
Hehe, silly Ven! It’s a fur stole!
“Oh!… so THIS is what I do with it! How do I look”
Super fierce, Ven. Very fierce.
Here’s Daria after getting all dressed up. Just for height comparison – and even though I’ve got Daria on a doll stand because she’s wearing high-heeled boots that were sinking into the carpet all of these dolls can stand freely on their own 🙂
Daria is huge!
Saber Lily (Volks Dollfie Dream 2010)
Ventus is a Volks Mini Super-Dollfie Ken 2010 renewal
Delilah is a DollnDoll Heart Mo 2010
I really like the name Daria, and I still refer to her by her sculpt name every so often, but her new full name is Alisanne Medea d’Archangeli.
She looks quite angelic indeed borrowing this lovely blonde wig from Saber Lily but I think her dark eye makeup is a bit too heavy to suit her blonde hair – it looks a bit “off” to me (or maybe it’s just the colours of her outfit?)
Did you notice Delilah’s cute Baby Gloomy Bear suit? Machiko made it herself!
Here’s Delilah chilling out with my Teddy Gloomy.
Here’s some other stuff I ordered from Volks – mostly DD related goodies: body stockings, wig cap, hair styling stuff, etc.
And of course, Bubba claimed the shipping box for himself…
Since I don’t have her complete outfit at the moment, it was just annoying me to have her in her incomplete default outfit so I changed her into something completely different. I’ve been planning for her arrival for quite some time, so she already has an awesome collection of clothes. I picked up these awesome boots at the Volks Tenshi-no-Sumika showroom in Shinjuku-ALTA when I was there in January (they’re consignment, and not “official” items, in case anyone wants to go looking for them). The grey wig is from Mandarake Japan (I bought it when I was in Tokyo earlier in January); her outfit is by Volks, necklace I purchased at K-Books Doll in Ikebukuro, Tokyo.
She’s so gorgeous!
[UPDATE: March 17, 2011]
Volks responded to my email last night and offered a simple solution. I’ve already carefully packed up and mailed them back one of the shoes, and as soon as they receive it they will send me a replacement as well as a postal money order to cover my costs of mailing it back to them.
How’s that for awesome customer service?
I wonder where they are getting the extra shoe from. Maybe their display doll in the store? Or maybe some other customer ended up with 2 right shoes! Either way, I’m glad this is resolved so now I just have to wait for my pretty little shoe to come in.
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.
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.
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!
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.
archangeli 