Dark Dollhouse

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.

I have been waiting for these ever since they released the first teaser drawing back in 2008!!!

And then they release them right when the Unon is up for pre-order!!!

I need to seriously win the lottery…
Or sell some of the crew…
Or not buy another Unon…
Or maybe I just don’t need them…

Help?

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.

I felt a bit like the cast of ‘Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist’ today in their hunt for ‘Fluffy’.

Spent all bloody morning looking for my TAP paper to make cool prints for my dollie project for Tuesday’s talk at SOAS with Danny Choo.

Knew I had put it somewhere, just could not remember where. So had a rummage through all my papers for filing and fabrics and trims with no luck. Then I opened a drawer and ta-da! There it was. Nestled nice and neatly in among other related stuff like, well, trims and doll shoes >< (I think I need to have a prober tidying of my sewing/ doll area ><)

Anyway, after finishing this went out for lunch with hubby as my stomach had started eating itself at this point. Decided on Japanese at the local Bento Cafe.

Finished that and waiting for the bill thought I better check Twitter to see if Danny Choo was doing anything today in the sense of dancing around London. Read that he was headed for his dad's studio so actually thought not but, well, better check it anyway ^^

And 14.17: @dannychoo: Will be filming in armor from now at Tower Bridge > St Pauls, Westminster, Piccadilly, Oxford St. Heading out now. 東京トルーパーロンドンで活動してきます。

ARGH!!! No camera, ridiculous outfit but perfect cap: Star Wars!

Headed straight for the tube – big sewing plans all dumped as this seemed like much more fun and the weather was nice for once, so being outside seemed so much more attractive.

Decided to go for St Pauls as we thought we would never make it to Tower Bridge before he was long gone.
Got there at 3pm, sharp, and settled on first a pillar and later stairs.

Stared at the pigeons, of which one had a mohawk O.o and all the funny people walking by as well as being stared at and starring in several peoples holiday shots. Bleh.

No dancing trooper :(

Checked Twitter to see if there were anybody else out there looking for him @dannychoo and amazingly we were the only ones. Kinda sad really, had thought there would be more considering 70 have signed up for his talk through his site O.o

Tried @stormtrooper instead as there had to be people with smart phones in London who would be tweeting if a stormtrooper were passing by. I mean, how often do you actually see one of those walking around in broad daylight? And lo and behold @Roybott: http://twitpic.com/1ekzk2 – Why is there a dancing stormtrooper here?

He was at Tower Bridge! Excellent! Closing in but still time to get an ice-cream, which they apparently sell at rip off prices around tourist places. £5. Each. It was good though :D

Waited another hour. And another. Started getting really cold as the sun was disappearing and there were no more sightings. Decided to head home. When in the tube thought we might as well make a try for it at Oxford Circus since we were on the Central line. Got up and no crowds gathering anywhere. Hmm. Checked Twitter again and got a new hint to his whereabouts: @mattlopezdias A japanese stormtrooper just walked past me along the thames. he had his helmet in him hand. Pfffft no dicipline these super fans.

Right. Back to St Pauls! But, when we got there, completely empty, which we should have known as we were there when they closed so conclusion was, he must be heading for Piccadilly. Better check Twitter: @TerriAnnB http://twitpic.com/1em9ae Stormtrooper on southbank.
With Big Ben in the background he was obviously no where near Piccadilly but rather close to Westminster.

TAXI!

Got of right before the bridge 10 minutes later and headed first towards Westminster but concluded that they would probably not let him dance around there, crowd control and all, so headed towards finding a bus for either home or Piccadilly down Westminster Bridge – And there he was!!!

Dancing, being photographed and creating general public bafflement. Excellent!!!

We found Fluffy!!!

Now look very much forward to his talk on Tuesday at SOAS. Still got some Dollies to dress but ehm, well, naked is good too, right?
No, hubby is working on print idea I got, he is just sooooo much better at stuff like that than me so leaving that to him ^^
I just need to get some patterns made O.o

But, ehm, going to a dollie meet tomorrow so think it will be very sweet and very simple: Cut and Sew! So much for showing of my skills :P Nevermind, I am sure it will work and I will be sleep deprived on Tuesday :D

Right, have been thinking about this for a while and well, not done anything about it.

Well, still really have not done anything about it but at least I have posted a few sales threads on the ‘local’ forums so will see what happens there.

It is time for my grey couple to find a new home as they are seriously under appreciated here and they are taking up un-necessary space that I could definitely use for something more, for me, interesting like say, some more Dollfie Dream girls! They never even got a name… How sad is that?

And poor Bishop. Even though I do adore him, I never ever do anything with him and honestly, I enjoy making clothes for girls more and always have + he just does not inspire me to take any photos of him at all. Poor Dina and Dita, my love triangle will be gone if he does sell but I am sure they can have fun with each other

I just prefer girl dolls – think it is as simple as that.

Saying that, I have no plans of getting rid of my Unoa boys in various sizes but think that might be an Araki thing…

I was not planning on making anything for this meet’s Easter/ Spring theme because of my current obsession with FFXIII taking up all my spare time.

… Then I got this idea with girls with guns and bunnies and printing fabrics ><

So spent all Saturday cutting and printing and finishing this idea with help from hubby on making the bunny logo for my print.
And some of Sunday morning resulting in me arriving, well, around 2pm.

The whole summer time issue did NOT help. At all.

Annoyed at myself for getting idea too late to be better prepared as there were some people there I had never met IRL before and only got to see for a very short period of time due to me wanting to be creative, last minute style.

Grrrr. Note to self: Pack your bags the night before!!!

I had a great meet though! Despite being very fashionably late, not helped by chocolate festival outside the Royal Festival Hall or the crowds of people who obviously do NOT understand what 'elevator going down' means. Long story, boring explanation, next subject: I forgot to take ANY pictures of Luna O.o - Correction, any decent photos of Luna - shame on me!

Dollies are a great cure for FF addiction ^^ Not played for three days now! Record in the making after getting new FF game, like ever!