Dark Dollhouse

Started the day making a quick body suit for Sasara so that she would be able to wear her default outfit. However, did not make any sleeves for her = She now got very black arms >.< Oh well.

Hubby made some lovely breakfast for me while I was packing up my suitcase and generally stressing around to get myself ready to go.

Actually headed out a lot earlier than usual reason being, was headed for Trocadero and meeting up with the DC crowd.

Got there and was picked up by Cookiedude_2332. Headed for the Technika machine and found Jezatron, Krowbar and GabrielVH hanging around Pocky who was superglued to the Technika machine.

For some reason I had imagined it to be one of those dancing games but no, something onscreen guitar hero like not sure >.< Have to google it at some point... Or maybe go try it.

Was only there a very short while, then we headed for the Royal Festival Hall. Arrived after a short trip in a VERY hot and sticky tube.

Lovely as always and Twirl had been the first on site again, as always lol! Definitely not a Londoner.

Some really nice fellow Scandinavians just passing through was at the meet but believe one of them is moving to London so hope to see her around more often.

Over the course of the afternoon it got stickier and stickier and people broke up a lot earlier than normally.

The DC people headed of for Japan Centre and Trocadero and I decided to stick with the Rezin crowd since I didn't really speak to them during the day.

Decided on dinner at Ping Pong just around the corner as convenient, fairly cheap and it had aircon! That was epic fun! Raven, Mau, Suvi and Twirl had never had dim sum before so it was really fun to introduce them to this new adventure.
Our waiter was really sweet and seemed to like our collection of dolls and figurines that invaded the table after we had finished the food and headed onto dessert.

Next time, it has to be Chinatown dim sum though, tastier and cheaper by far! Not sure if they do moist coconut balls there though…

Brought Mio with me on the plane and she did get quite a few stares from the cabin crew.

Other than that, did not really photograph her outside of the events that I took her too. Shame really but think I might have some hidden on my Iphone that I tweeted at the time… Will update Flickr if I dig them out ^^

Pino did get a bit more outside event camera time, she just turned out to be easier to do cute stuff with.

I managed to spend a fair bit of money on a few bits and bobs when in Tokyo/ Kyoto this spring.

Will be adding them to Flickr as I go along getting them unpacked and photographed.

Only thing I am regretting not getting was the long black Volks DD wig that I bought one of for Jezatron as they were sold out in black everywhere Oh well, another time ^^

This all came about after attending the SOAS DC event.

Kinda forgotten how but think I got chatting to Danny about it at some point, either at the event or afterwards online.
Mentioned that we, hubby and me, were of to Tokyo in a couple of weeks time and were gonna hit the Dollshow and Dolpa.
If I was interested in attending this Doll Summit thing that he was arranging with some other people on 3rd May, in between the two events?
Sure, why not ^^
Just had to sign up via tsubuyaku.fm – Easier said than done when you, as me, do not read or speak Japanese. Thank goodness for auto translate and general common knowledge about how websites are build *sweat*

Got Mio signed up to attend and was looking forward to it.

Then a couple of days before heading of to Japan, Danny Choo pulled out. He was planning on bringing a French TV crew but some of the Doll Summit attendants were not so keen on being on telly so he had to reschedule for Dolpa instead. Shame.

Was a bit split over this because, when I sign up for something, I sign up for something! Not because of who is going but because I actually do wanna attend whatever event it is that I am signing up to. However, as he was the only person I remotely knew and had ever spoken to + the fact that I still don’t speak any Japanese made me a little doubtful about the whole thing.

In the end, decided to just go for it!
After a little gentle pressure from various interest groups

Hubby went for an anime museum instead and general sightseeing and photo tour instead. Kinda got the impression that yet another day surrounded by dolls was not his idea of a good time

The Tama Centre turned out to be some way away from Shinjuku and central Tokyo in general + managed to get on a slow train as well heading out there. Nice scenery so pleasant but rather long train journey. Arrived around 3pm.
When arriving at the station found out that it was also the station for the Sanrio Puro Land, home of Hello Kitty. And it being Golden Week and children’s day you can imagine how packed the place was!
Loads of interesting stalls on the way up to the Tama Centre but did not stop and look. Next time

Arrived at the Centre and found the gallery, went in.
Glare!
And got the crossed arm gesture *no admission*
Tried to explain who I was and started pulling out Mio when I saw my Twitter name-tag *Dark Dollhouse* on the table and pointed at that instead. They all went *aaah*
Handed over 500yen and was in.
Wauw! So many Dollfie Dreams! And a plane! And loads of accessories! And SO much camera gear and tripods.

Was lead to an empty spot on a table and they indicated that I should put Mio down there and pose her.
Nice guys ^^ Shame, I have no idea who they were or what their usernames were or anything. Hate this language barrier thing!!! Seriously have to work on that Japanese for next time I go over there!!!
So, sat her down, posed her and wandered of to start taking pics of all the gorgeous custom faceups and gorgeous home made outfits. They just do it better than us, sorry us, but seriously, they are really Otaku in the real sense of the word.
Us, we do it very well too but they are just that little bit more crazy obsessive than most of us are. Know I am generalising but this is my blog and I am allowed to
Just very impressed with the whole thing m(_._)m

At first, Mio was all by herself, bit like me, getting the stares but no approaches, but then, nice girl came over and sat her MDD down. All customized by her. Started taking pics and saying *kawaii* – excellent! Finally something I understood lol.
More joined and I started approaching more people myself and indicating that I thought their dolls were amazing. Worked wonders. Got a few *thank you*s ^^
Unfortunately only got one business card :/ Shame, so many nice people there.

At some point shortly after I arrived there was a presentation round and I ended up with a mike in my hand O.O Bollocks!
Rambled something of in English and got an applause. Red face!

They started setting up for big shoot around 5pm and I headed back to Shinjuku to meet up with Hubby around 6pm.
Short but sweet ^^

Last time we arrived on the day of the Dollshow and this meant that I was majorly jet-lagged and we had all our luggage with us and hubby had to sit on it for the two-three hours it took me to ‘run’ through all the floors.

So decided that this time, we were gonna arrive a couple of days before so that well, I would be awake and not miss half of the thing and hubby could come in too!

Still managed to arrive late because I managed to get us lost at the station. Seriously, don’t ask. I think it was because I secretly did not want a MamaChapp…

Anyway, after 15 minutes of faffing around in the wrong direction we arrived at the Dollshow.

I spurted towards the Mai Little Alien stall to get some of Chun’s outfits for my DD girls but well, they were sold out in like *drumroll* 15 minutes >.<

Oh well, got talking to Mai instead and ended up buying a pair of her Unoa jeans as she had made enough stock to last more than 15 minutes *nudge nudge to Chun * – very nice quality btw!

After that rush I went for the Araki stand in the hope I would find the MamaChapp stand somewhere along the way.

Picked up a Little Princess outfit from there for my Chibis.

After that, was not too bothered since well, the MamaChapp was again not to be.
So we wandered the floors and took a few photos that well, turned out a bit random as the light was well, randon

Picked up a few bits and pieces but not a lot as I was hoping for a good number at Dolpa ^^

Great day!
Had a late lunch/ early dinner afterwards at one of the food places in the area with a food ticket machine.
Best dumplings ever!
For the amazing cost of 100yen!!!

Boring Wednesday middle of April gets interesting tweet message in my stream from Danny Choo. Just shows how often I check my mail…

Minutes later gets a phonecall.

The boring Wednesday all of a sudden have taken a turn to be interesting.

Having a chit chat and is asked if I do commissions?

Nah, not really, hobbying around for friends but that is about it but hey, why not, that could be fun ^^

So, if I can send him prices on stuff that I made previously and he will look at it once he is back in Tokyo. Cool stuff. Can do that!

So, I basically freak out and txt everyone who might be remotely interested in knowing this. They all seem to think I am slightly hysterical, which I probably am, but think it to be pretty cool all the same.

Thursday is Ashcloud day and funnily enough the day when Danny Choo is supposed to fly back to Tokyo.

Plan is to finish this before I myself was heading out for Tokyo end April and hand it over to him at Doll Summit.

Time however, is getting short as well, he is not back in Tokyo! Luckily he gets himself back to London and internet connection and the ball starts rolling with about a week to go.

Got a photo of what he would like and what colours to get it in: Orange and white. Cool, had that in my stash. Only had to go buy orange thread as well, did not have that.

Basically, did some test sewing that went really well a day, two days before flying of and finished the actual outfit the night before leaving at noon the next day!

It made me sleep very well on the plane!

Have seen it popping up in pictures recently on dannychoo.com and am well chuffed. Think it looks awesome!

Think I will have to make the tops for my own harem of girls at some point…

Was initially planning on going to Expo on Sunday but plans changed along the way.

First there was the big hoohaa about wristbands that had to be worn in order to even be allowed to be on Exel grounds. This meant a lot of people that I wanted to meet up with decided not to go anyway. They were either sticking to Saturday, for which they had bought tickets or just staying away, because they had no intention of buying one in the first place.

Me, I was going to wing it but then the YHJ! incident with Airi happened and since Jezatron was going Saturday and could not let the poor lad suffer a week more of waiting for his dream girl, decided that Saturday would be a good day to attend.

Also, turned out there was a figure.fm meetup being arranged by CookieDude_2332 on Saturday so another reason to go Saturday.

Decided Friday evening that lugging around big box that Airi came in as well as camera bag, suitcase and handbag was not gonna happen. Ordered a mini cab for 9am instead.

BAD idea.
First, driver went around the block because his GPRS told him that the street was over on the other side of the road. How about getting an AZ + learn how to read signs???
Secondly, he hit on me! Offered to come pick me up afterwards, free of charge O.o I am broke but I am not that broke!
Thirdly, he sent me a txt!
Lesson learned: Do not chit chat with your mini cab driver under any circumstances! Be grumpy and wear headphones!

Arrived at Expo with all my luggage and went to find the coffee bar with the nice couches. Bought breakfast and sat down to chill and announce my arrival.

Was soon joined by DOA peeps and later on the figure.fm/ DC crowd as well.

Jezatron seemed very pleased with his new wallet breaking purchase ^^

Me, I was enjoying having twin Mio’s.
Finished their rock chick outfits at 3am Saturday morning.
Found the GNR socks in Next Friday during my lunch break and instantly saw potential for some cool DD outfits.
After finishing Krowbars’ outfit around midnight started on my own thing.
Socks turned into sweaters. That was easy. Quick job. Only finishing was a time eater.
As short of time and really did want to go to bed at some point before I was getting up, I decided on skirts instead of hot pants.
Cut knickers without a pattern and for the skirts, well, dinner plates is a time saver for circles.
Each skirt, half a dinner plate.
Sewing them again was fast. Doing the garters was what took a loooong time. All by hand and bows are fiddly things to do.
Stockings, well, you should think that was fast but managed to cut the first lot too small so had to redo but yes, then it was fast.

Think these outfits will have to do for next Saturday’s Camden meet as well as I really wanna tidy up my fabric stash as it has gone a bit ‘Where’s Waldo’

Must say, this has been the best Expo meet I have ever attended.
Normally, sitting on hard concrete Excel flooring is not fun and too many random people hovering around makes me stress a bit about security.
Sitting in a coffe bar in couches with a limited number of people being able to hover around the dolls felt a lot more secure and relaxed.
Could do this again.

Thanks to all of you who made this such a pleasant day for me ^^

Was a great warm up to the Eurovision party I was attending in the evening

Great day yet again ^^

Was hoping that some of the people attending the Danny Choo SOAS talk was gonna pop by but unfortunately no, could have been fun! Maybe they will turn up at EXPO.

Anyways, found out that one of the people that I chatted to at the DC event was a friend of a friend of Mao’s and they had recently been out bowling. How small the world is!

Was good seeing Mao again after her being tucked away studying somewhere up North I think and great seeing a lot of new dolls and their owners.

Not so sure it was good seeing Horse and Blood dressed up as babies but maybe in some sort of weird parallel universe kind of way it might have been Dunno. Still speculating.

Actually arrived on time for a change, instead of my stupidly late arrival last time that made me miss like, well, everyone. And managed to have breakfast with hubby before leaving as well. And doing some pattern making but that is another story.

How fast times flies, I am writing this up three days later as I have just been so bogged down with RL overtime, wanting to finish other blog posts, uploading/ editing photos, socialising and brewing on a project.

Normally I go to bed around 11-12 the latest. This week it has been between12-2 >< I feel just a tad tired and worn out but it have been soooo worth it!

***SOAS here we come!***

Escaped work half an hour early and grabbed a tube to Warren Street station where everyone were already waiting for me when I arrived. We were four BJD peeps who went as well as hubby:
Blacraven066 who is also a Danny Choo fangirl and a regular on his sites (dithering more over in the figure section than the Dollfie Section though)
Madam Mau Mau who came along for the company and the adventure of it all as she is not really into the whole anime/ Japanofile thing and actually finds it somewhat mind boggling sometimes.
Jezatron is another happy Dollfie Dream girl owner who brought along his Yoko but had to leave Mashiro at home due to space issues.
Hubby is not really into the whole BJD thing. Did try to convince him to start buying DD girls so I would not have to but I failed miserably and had to fork out myself. Bollocks! He shares my interest in everything Japanese though so maybe one day

Arrived at venue, picked up some nice seats right in the middle of everything and started unpacking the boys and girls and taking some photos.
They were an instant hit!
And we were actually very surprised that we were the only ones who had brought along any dolls.

Danny Choo prepping the tech for the talk. Wonder what all the rest of them are doing? Bit like London road works. One man working, five others watching one man work

Mio trying to get some attention while the tech is still being prepped

Mauzi and Bunkum waiting for it all to begin

The unruly attention seeking DD girls making another leap for attention and again, they got it

Getting impatient now – looks like it is about to start

***The Talk***

Fangirl moment, do apologize: DANNY! 5 to 7 on big ben, we caught up with him about 10 minutes later further up/ down the bridge towards Westminster

Danny Choo started his talk with showing piccies of his teen-hood stash from his mums house.
Always good to be reminded that obsessing about stuff as a teen is quite normal.
My obsessions were Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Spielberg, Lucas, Michael J. Fox and movies in general.

And we are off. Danny’s collection of old mags, wauw, I used to have the same amount when I was a teen – they were just boringly German and American O.o

He went on to talk about how he wanted to learn Japanese and wanted to go and live and work in Japan.
Showed pics of his charts with Kanji written up on them and shared how he had bought cheap VHS tapes with manga shows, taped them and listened to them over and over.
I did not have to learn a new set of letters but I did do the tape thing with my American movies and taught myself English that way as I wanted to be able to watch movies with no subtitles.
And I wanted to go to Canada, US or London – Done Canada, US and ended up living and working in London.

Then there was a lot of tech issues and a lot of talk about fast cars that never really seemed to get anywhere so un-planned intermission came up.

But then we started seeing more and more of this blue screen of death until we finally saw, well, nothing

Unwilling intermission. Now bashing the tech.

Not too bad, gave me another opportunity to snap some more photos of my girls in their new tees and the rest of the attending dollies. Milo was there too! Yay! But he was rather subdued compared to his normal self. Think he was a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing and not having any other Puki Tribe members present might have made him a bit shy lol

Kamui and Milo taking a break as well from all the grown up talk and tech problems

I can never remember her name, how bad is that??? Raven’s lovely girl and Jezatron’s Yoko lurking in the background

Double balancing act. Yes, Fate did fall down. Mio however, stayed put until removed. Maybe it’s the hair…

While trying to fix the tech Danny made a little competition for goodies he brought with him from the land of the rising sun such as face masks with anime girls on them and branded DC lanyards. At one point it looked like he was gonna throw them so our first reaction was: Protect the resin! He opted for the first come, first serve principle instead *phew* Resin and vinyl saved! Watching people rush for the stage was hilarious! Funniest thing was the person, who has yet to reveal him/herself that grabbed the water bottle.

Danny brought gifts, some more useful than others… This face-mask with an anime girl on front maybe not so much… Crappy focus, do apologise, I am still getting to grips with this camera

Back to the fast cars, the news of a Mirai Chan maid outfit to which Jez and I gave each other the thumbs up and more inspirational talk.
You never know when you get hit by a bus.
Food for thoughts.

***The Food***

And then there was food, wine, orange juice and net-working.

Went to get a glass of red wine and got approached by nice older gentleman but cannot really remember what he said to me as, I believe it was his wife who started talking to me instead.

Conversation went something like this:

Older lady: Are those dolls yours?
Me: Yes
Older lady: Are you not ashamed of yourself?
Me: No
Older lady: You are killing feminism
Me: Well I don’t think I am
Older lady: Yes you are, you should be ashamed of yourself carrying things like that around
Me: Well, you are allowed your opinion, I am allowed mine
Older lady: I guess you are, I guess you are *eye roll*

Got my glass of red wine and returned to my friends who got a bit shocked by my tale of killing feminism.
Madam Mau Mau’s response was: We are not killing it. Feminism is the right to choose.
More food for thoughts.

Time to try an grab some real food proved hard with a doll in one hand a glass in the other but I managed to score myself a couple of pieces of chicken. Omnomnom!

From my Iphone – Omnomnom!

Madam Mau Mau and Blackraven066 did a good job of doing a quick posing of the dollies. And they were soon joined by multiple friends. Rin, Yoko, Figma Mio and others that I have no idea who was. Wicked! Good to see that others brought their toys as well although they were not so visible during the talk.

From my Iphone – All the girls we brought along

From my Iphone – Joined by friends

I later discovered that Figma Mio belonged to Twitterer @smokedchizzu who I unfortunately did not get to speak to as was a fellow hunter of the Tokyo Trooper Saturday with less luck than me and hubby. Shame. Would have loved to meet up.

***Locked out***

Not sure where the time went but all of a sudden it was dark and we got thrown out O.o

Boy was it cold! Do I love my Japanese fleece from UniQlo, Ginza or what??? I felt quite warm and snug compared to a lot of other people wearing their summer gear. I might look like a stuffed Michelin man but at least I am warm

Hung around because, well, I had this idea that I wanted a signature on the tees. How cool could that not be?!

Got talking to a cool looking kid in a Matrix style coat while hanging around who took a pic of me, Mio, Jez and Yoko. He did not have a business card but I did get his blog address on a used train ticket

But Danny Choo was swamped in fans and me not wanting to be rude and just generally hating to wait in line was just hovering until decision was made to go talk to his wife.
She was really friendly when we met on Westminster Bridge the other day and she really liked my Star Wars cap so could be interesting to have a chat with her.
And she is super nice! Had a chat about this and that and found our her name is Jay ^^ Or actually, it is something I am not able to pronounce although I did make an effort.

Jez came over all of a sudden as he had to catch a train, such a shame as he had not had a chance to say hi to Danny but we managed to get us snug into the crowd and catching Danny’s attention so he had a quick chat with him and got a handshake. Win!

Continued talking to Jay and another DC fan came over and chatted along as well + one of his friends had a try of holding Mio, that was rather funny as I think the whole price thing scared him a bit. Later realised that I spoken to him earlier and I had exchanged business cards. Fail.

MMM was getting cold and hungry and we decided to split.
The crowd had thinned out by now and Danny made a leap towards us just as we were about to call it a day.

Excellent!

Had a really long chat about dolls in Japan, how we got into DDs and BJDs, how we found out about Danny and well, stuffs ^^
Really good fun.
Had picture taken by Jay and made my lovely Chandler photo-face. Great, juuuuust great.
I must say, very proud of myself, I kept the whole fangirl thing to a minimum and think I was rather well-behaved and not rambling too much. Go me ^^

Introducing Mauzi to Danny. Wonder if he will be going for some Korean resin next time?

***Mackie D***

Off we went to the warmth under the Golden Arches.

Had a disgustingly dry Large McNuggets meal of which hubby ended up eating most as I could just not deal with it.

Food makes for good photo ops of the dollies and did get a few good shots, unfortunately only on the Iphone as the camera was stuffed into the bag and I could just not be bothered to get it out. Also, Mio and Fate was sitting on top of it which meant I would have to move them and all – such a hassle ><

From my Iphone – Much better ^^

From my Iphone – Kamui hugging all the napkins!

From my Iphone – Mauzi doing a Mackie D

***Home***

Not even sure what I did when I got home, think I downloaded pics and might have uploaded as well but not sure. This week has been a bit of a blur.

But know I at this point realised I did not get an autograph even though I had the pen ready in my pocket. Guess it just got really friendly/ cosy and normal so forgot all about being a fangirl. Somehow when people become real it seems strange to ask for them to sign their name on stuff…

And also remember I was in a very good mood and found the whole evening and run up to it, to have been a completely fantastic adventure even though I do apologise for me fan-girling around all over the RezinDollz forum both before and after. Thanks for putting up with me ^^

Can go back to being normal me again, quite like that idea actually. Less stress full ^^

So ever since Danny Choo announced that he was coming to London I had been thinking about how to dress the girls.

It started up really elaborate with wanting to dress them in Lolita gear. Realised that with current workload at RL job that was never going to happen.
Then it went to the phase of bodysuits and long boots. Only got one pair of long boots and another pair might not arrive on time.
Next one up was fitted short cap sleeved tees and short pleated skirts. Pleated skirts? Was I being nuts? Never done that one before so would take some fitting to get it just right so again, no time.
But the tee idea was pretty good and simple and maybe a short plain skirt… Or make it into a tee dress… Bit boring but fast… Maybe add a frill… Not very suitable in stretch fabric… Hmmm… Rummaging through my stash and found perfect thing: White frilly fabric bought in Marunan Shibuya, Tokyo! Cut it up and it would work perfectly as a frill at the edge of a tee. Right weight and everything. Perfect!
Already had stockings and knickers from my bunny print outfits so no need to worry about the lower part of the body as already dressed.
To make up for it being simple and well, rather plain I needed a print to make it a bit more interesting. Well, it could only be one thing: The Dancing Tokyo Trooper. And wanted it to be like a concert tee with the date on it. Bought some TAP paper a while back as it was being promoted as the printing paper that bonds to the fabric instead of sitting as a layer on top of it, so would work perfectly with the stretch fabric that I was planning on using for the tee dresses.
Idea generating done. Took a couple of days but got there in the end

Planned to do all this Saturday 10 April as I decided that I wanted to go to Brighton for a dollie meet Sunday.

Saturday morning I started of early in my search of… TAP paper! Could not find the stupid package so spent well, all morning sorting through papers and generally looking through my stash of fabrics and trims. No paper! Then, I open a drawer and in there, neatly tucked in with doll wigs and shoes lies a ziplock bag with… Well, you guessed it. Had I just opened that first my papers would still be in a mess ><

By this time it was afternoon and I was hungry and so was hubby. We went for lunch and well, that is another story mentioned earlier ^^
Something to do with a dancing Stormtrooper… Gave me the perfect pics for print of the tees though so time was not completely wasted

Arriving home late frozen solid and in no mood starting my project, also had some blogging to do so, well, no sewing got done on the Saturday.

Sunday was meet day and again, arrived home late and too tired to do any sewing.

Monday! Work work work and then home! Left, almost on time and went straight to the pattern paper.
Ding. Pattern done in less than 15 minutes.

First fit finished in 30 and no changes needed so initial sampling done in less than an hour.

Printing tests for sizing was over in three tries and ready to go to actual transfer paper.

Bit too big

Still too big

Just the right size

And the back

The print however took for absolutely ever! Bloody TAP paper did NOT work with iron on low settings but if turning up too high then the bloody fabric melted! ARGH! I ended up printing three or was it four sheets and ruining several meters of perfectly fine fabric until I found out: Put a piece of standard printing paper over the fabric. Turn the heat up on max. Iron back and forth for a minute and ta-da: Print stayed put!!!

First test print worked really well apart from it being ‘Through the Looking-Glass wrong ><

Finally!

Cut and printed an extra tee, did read that HE did not want pressies but hey, he did not say anything about his daughters
Finally could get onto the sewing part which worked fine until I forgot to change to foot on one of the hem seams and messed it up. Had to unpick it and again, took forever!

All done, dollies dressed, packed and ready to go at 2am in the morning.

And that is how you make Danny Choo Tour Tees ^^

Finished result at the “Creative Industries in Japan: an audience with Danny Choo” talk at SOAS, London.