Not been very active on the doll scene lately so was good to get to the monthly London meet this month ^^

Had a good chat with both old and new attendees and took a few photos.

Brought my new bunny Mamachapp that I am tempted to name Bunny, Sonja, Pino and Kanu.
Wanted to bring Chloe but just could not be bothered lugging her weight around in the heat.

Yesterday I finally got around to uploading my meet pics and some of them were of Lily’s last pose before Gabe was heading home with her.
Got her too but didn’t bring her.

Got the idea to let her play around with the White Album girls’ mic as her outfit made her look slightly 70′s punk chique in a kawaii way.

So, set her up in a dynamic “rocker” pose and started snapping away.

Added this pic to the Dollfie Dream group on Flickr and thought nothing more of it.
This morning noticed it had been faved a few times and had 26 views, not bad, pretty chuffed, nothing unusual for a meet pic that have been added to a group, normally gets a fair few views.

Then, this afternoon is checking my mail and there are literally loads of Flickr pings.
Bit puzzled heads of to Flickr to find out that this image have been viewed 500+ times and still counting and been added to 2nd page of Flickr Explore. Didn’t even know there was such a thing XD
(Edit: Well, it was on there but now it’s gone :/)
(Edit: Still there but have been bumped to #91 from #11 – oh well, fame is fickle ;D)

Not bad for a random pic of a random pose taken at a random doll meet in London by me with my new 50mm lens

Go me!

(Bugger – does this mean I will have to start taking this photography stuff serious now?)

Finished this commission in November last year but just haven’t gotten around to getting a blog post put together before now.

This commission was requested by GabrielVH at the same time as the school uniform.

The style itself was pretty simple so the tricky part here was the print: Where do you buy fabric that matches the anime?

Answer is: You make it yourself!
Put Gabriel on the job and with a couple of pics back an forth got the scale right, the colour combo and the direction of the print.

Sourced a textile printing company to make the fabric for us. There were loads out there but some were just too expensive or they didn’t provide chiffon material as an option.

Production was around a couple of weeks and received a really good product.

Will definitely consider this option for own projects going forward if the print in your head is just not to be found in the stores.

Got the lilac trim from the local fabric shop.

To finish it of we decided on giving it a scalloped edge by using crochet to match the look of the anime.

Really proud of how it turned out. Was very close to keeping it for myself

Before shipping it out took a l o t of photos of it – 495. Sorted these down to 45 that does not look completely identical and is not totally out of focus.

Silver dress, did not win anything but my own personal favourite

Gold dress won 3rd place in the costume competition ^^ Yay me! Thanks to all who voted for this one!

On a grey November Sunday morning I ventured out with my packed suitcases, camera bag and my ticket for the London doll event of the year: Midwinter Masked Ball.

Arrived at the pub before everyone else and started to be a bit worried that I had either gotten the address wrong or the dates mixed up…

Everyone finally started showing up about 15 minutes late and setting up could finally commence.

It was an epic day with lots of socialising, putting faces on user names, meeting up with new and old peeps, taking lots of photos, having a really good pub buffet, competitions and general sillyness.

A few of us ended up in Wong Kei for dinner which was equally epic although I am not a huge fan of their food, the company was brilliant!

Huge thanks to Madame Mau Mau of the Nacht Zircus for arranging this and hope that we can all help bring this back for next year if all goes well!

Not sure if we beat the Russians this time but we sure made a bloody good effort!!!

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…