New Finds

I was lucky enough to win a couple of really nice Ebay items this week. I doIn't really have anything of interest to blog about so thought i'd share. I haven't received these yet, photos are direct fom the auctions. (I am still waiting for my box of amazing dolls that I blogged about, the suspense is killing me..)


Anywho, the first is this beautiful Big Eyed girlie. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her and so did someone else ;) Well I kinda got a bit carried away with my bidding (trying to get over their autobid) and spent WAY over my doll limit (which is normally around $35ea, + the $20 I normally pay in shipping) and ended up spending ovr $100NZ (around $80US) on her... OOPS lol she is amazing though! I might have to think about parting with some of my less lovely dolls to pay for this damn addiction! I could always sell some of my vintage dresses that NEVER wear haha
Isn't her outfit fabulous??? I wish I could get away with high waisted skirts.. but alas I am way too short and end up looking really weird.

Next are these vintage japanese dolly heads. I actually lost this auction but the seller had more so offered me a second chance (yay!). I have no clue what i'm going to do with these yet, maybe find some really cool silk flowers and stick them all in a vase. I do want to at some point attempt to make a doll body for one of my floating heads lol as I now have quite a few. I guess I could always buy a cheap bradley and rip off the head and use the body haha sounds quite gruesome.


Southern Belle Makeover

I recently bought a couple of ugly bradley dolls to remake into mod girls. I do wish they had bendy legs but I guess you can't have everything right? ;) To the left is the before (obviously) as you can see she is quite repulsive in this state. Her dress was torn at the bottom and her lipstick had completely faded.. not to mention that hat! Eeeeck. and on your right is the new and improved model!

Her new outfit is made from Sis Boom fabrics (which I just love). I repainted her lips and eyeshadow and also her shoes which were originally an off white. I added the little umbrella which I stole from one of my Italian Raincoat dollies. All in all, MUCH better.

Finally here is a picture or well two of my gorgeous baby girl... just because!

I am a terribly lazy blogger. Today my baby girl fell off a chair face first and chipped her cute lttle front baby tooth. I am SO so sad about it.. I guess at least it wasn't an adult tooth but still, :( Its not really really bad but bad enough that it's noticeable. I wonder if they could cap it, I don't know if they would bother though seeing as it's just going to fall out anyway.

Anyway, on to a more cheery topic.. The lovely City put me on to a neat website that creates custom lasercut jewellery (and anything else you can think of!) based on your own designs. The prices are pretty good too so i'm definitely going to look into creating some stuff.
Speaking of creating, I ordered myself 20 postcards and some sticker packs with my doll art/photography so they'll be available soon too.

I decided to get back into my sewing also and just tonight finished off a bag from my own pattern (basic flat bottemed tote). I can't follow commercial patterns to save myself so have to work it out from scratch. It turned out to be a lot easier than I thought but still quite time consuming as I had to satin stitch all the inside seams (I need an overlocker!) I have added a picture of the finished product. I can't decide wether I should keep this one or sell it off.. I also have no clue how to price it. The Alice fabric was $16US (so around $20 for me NZ) per yard and I used
just over half that plus other costs and labour (roughly 3-4 hours from cut to finish). Then I gotta factor overseas shippng which would be around $10 (which is much higher than if someone was to buy domestic usa so thats a bit of an issue as well. Damn being stuck on an island in the
middle of nowhere ;) I might actually skip etsy and try my luck on felt.co.nz or even trademe.co.nz that way its local and people expect to pay more ha sad but true.

I listed some of my brooches on etsy but last week but I haven't sold anything yet. I think the market is just too flooded with similar stuff. Oh well.

It is so cool to know that a couple of people are actually reading this and i'm not blabbing on to myself ;)

My massive (well 8 dolly) package hasn't arrived yet but I will post pictures as soon as it does. The amazing Annette (www.japanesesweetshop.com) sold me another amazing boxed sarco mop-pet doll w/dog (as well as 2 sweet mop-pet fairytale dolls) so my collection is definitely growing. At present (doll w/ dog wise) I have 6 mint, 1 kind of ratty (lol), 1 missing a base, and 3 more minty girls and a mystery fluffy haired girl on the way. Mystery because I spotted her amongst a bulk lot and asked the seller if she'd sell just her to me which she agreed to, $15 including shipping.. only problem is I have NO idea what condition she's in as the picture was small and blurry. I am hoping shes in good condition!! The ratty one i'm a bit annoyed about as the condition is much worse than the seller indicated.. actually the mail I received that day was awful. I received 3 dolls and all of them were dirty and worse than theirauctions indicated..sigh I guess you win some you lose some. I've posted pictures on flickr anyway so you can see for yourselves what I mean.

Okay i'm off to bed, ts 3am, oops.

I shall leave you with a photo of the sarco dollie (thanks annette!)

More Dolls!

I found all these beautiful dolls from a seller on ebay, I was lucky enough to get them at a great price too! Excuse the crappy little photos, I haven't received them yet so they are just the ebay pics. I couldn't wait and had to share!! I will write a proper update tomorrow.

Creation and Inspiration

I don't know what the heck happened to my photos in the last post.. They were fine last time I checked but half of them seem to have dissapeared into thin air. I am going to be trying a new style of blogging I think, just for fun.. I FINALLY got a imaging program on to this laptop so I can start creating again. I am however still waiting for my (err... all legal of course) copy of Adobe Creative Suite (which should be in the mail soon from my friend Rich in Canada). I've been without for so long, its been torturous not being able to do simple editing procedures (like smudge and dodge) one takes for granted when you have all the neccesary programs at your fingertips.

I want to start creating things again maybe to sell (at my new etsy shop? or craftwerk?) I had an idea of using some of my kitschy photos and getting them professionally printed (just 4x6) and mounting them as greeting cards.. that could be really cute, or even tiny printed gift cards. I have used tickle.co.nz in the past to print my phtos but every time they manage to mess up my size specifications, maybe i'll give them another chance as they're cheap, or I could just go to the mall and do it on one of those machines. Does flickr have any (international) print options yet? I haven't checked in awhile.. Last time I got myself some moo cards which are very cute, might get some more of those too.

Thinking out loud, thinking out loud.

Okay so next post will have photos and pretty things in a new format :D

Happy Easter :D

So not a lot has happened in the last few days worthy of blogging about.. I wrote a little rant about ebay international sellers here, which had some interesting responses.

Easter thus far has been fairly chocolateless im afraid! Recently I discovered that i'm slightly allergic to chocolate :( How awful is that? very very very. It's not a serious allergy but everytime I eat it my mouth kinda gets itchy and the inside of my mouth itches like crazy, so uncool.
I did eat the peeps and malt balls I got from Gretchen (shop66) and a tiny bit of a chocolate bunny (oops couldn't resist!) oh and a few chocolate hot cross buns (again, oops). Mmmm easter is definitely one of my favourite times of year.

I am considering starting up an etsy shop selling bits and pieces, I guess i'm a little hesitant because of the shipping costs (being so high) - will people want to buy from me? I guess I wont know unless I try.. we'll see. I want to go on a massive thrift trip sometime soon as I haven't been in ages (6 months!?). New Zealand isn't exactly awesome for amazing finds but there are hidden treasures everywhere.. I just gotta get to them before everyone else.

Here are a few things i've found in the last week..

• Vintage French Poodle Jewellery Box with three sided mirror. Made in Japan.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Vintage Chenille Chicks and Bunny
  
  
  

• Big Eyed Bradley Doll with Dog
  
  

• 3 Vintage Music Elf Knee Huggers
  
  
  
  

• Vintage Kitty Toys + Vintage Japan Address Book + Diary
  
  
  

And also... this 'miss twisty' holiday fair doll, these crochet cuties and this sweet sitting pose doll here!

Have a great easter weekend everyone (anyone? haha) I promise to be a little more inspiring next post.

Vintage Decal Dolly Stools

I found these cute little mini stools awhile ago but had no idea what to do with them so I put them away at the back of the wardrobe until today when I decided to try out some of my vintage decals on them. I wasnt sure how well it would work but they turned out much better than expected! I think they look so cute :D I almost dont want to put anything on them and cover up the sweet little designs.

They are the perfect size to fit about 3 average size pose dolls on. The round ones are 7"x7" across + 6" high and the square one is 8"x8" + 3" high. I think I am going to use the rest of my decals on the unpainted hat boxes I bought.. I just need to get some paint test pots first :D might have to find some more of those stools!

(isn't the word stool hideous? ahaha) Here are the close ups of the decals :

I wonder if anyone would be interested if I did make them to sell. The legs screw on so they are fully collapsable for storing/shipping etc. Hmmm

Wishlist..

I really want to start collecting animal planters again, especially deer and bunnies! I haven't really got much to write about today.. I have a whole heap of packages to box up to send tomorrow. I sold a whole heap of my memo pads so need to post those as well as a swap going off to Missouri. I was thinking about my doll collection and wether I should start focusing on a specific type, like the cute little girls with the chenille pups.. they are quite hard to come by and not cheap so it will mean I am forced to slow down on the buying which I really need to do anyway! I don't know.. I just love all of them and can't resist their ridiculously cute faces :D

Here are my current finds I am waiting to receive..

Well im literally being shoved off the computer by the old ball and chain as he wants to go to bed and im apparently not allowed to use the laptop in the same room while he sleeps.. it has to be pitch black and completely silent, ridiculous I say ;)

New Beginnings...

So I have decided to start blogging again.. to be honest I don't think I ever really started this one properly. I had a livejournal for many years but felt like too many people from the "real world" were being nosey an I just couldn't be bothered with the drama that went along with the community over there. Before livejournal I had my own personal website an as much as i'd like my own domain again I feel like there isn't really much point to it anymore. The age of social networking sites have somewhat eliminated the need of having one I guess.

I don't think I want to start airing my dirty laundry or anything like that, nothing overly personal.. I just want a place to write about things I love, stuff I find online and maybe the odd random rant here and there ;)

Now that i've done the obligatory introduction post, now what? well..

Today I received some pretty cool things in the mail. Receiving international parcels has become a bit of a habit recently.. I have been WAY overspending on ebay, its shocking. I am totally addicted to buying anything cute, vintage and japanese. At the moment i've been on a bit of an easter kick which is a bit silly as its prime easter shopping time so all the prices and bidders are are up, I should really wait until after April but I just can't resist some of the sweet things i've been seeing!

Now speaking of Ebay.. I am so pissed about all the changes that are going on. First it was the fee increase and announcement that sellers (as of May) will no longer be able to place engative feedback on buyers.. and now they have scrambled all user id's so its a pain in the butt trying to figure out (if at all) who you are bidding against. There are some positives to this such as people in certain circles who all bid for the same sort of items will no longer feel guilty for outbidding "friends" but I feel the negatives outweigh this. The most aggravating thing for me is scrambled ID = no search by bidder! I will admit to loving this (now non existent) feature. It is a fantastic way of finding items you may not have spotted through people you know collect the same things as you. Yeah its a bit cheeky but everyone did it so the likelyhood the same people I was searching, searched my ID also.

I am also really fed up with sniping services. I understand pro snipers logic that if you enter your maximum bid it should make no difference wether you are outbid 5 minutes or 5 seconds before auction close.. but like many people, my "maximum" is very rarely my MAXIMUM haha and I feel pissed that I don't get a chance to up the amount. Over on my local auction website trademe.co.nz I feel they've got things right. You only pay fees when items sell which means you can relist and relist until the item is sold and secondly they have a 2 minute auto extend which means anyone who plces a bid in those last 2 minutes extends the auction by another 2 which gives any previous bidders a chance to re evaluate their bids also. It also means the seller may make mre on items especially if two people really want it and keep bidding right at the end and it will keep extending until no more bids are placed in those final 2 minutes.

Wow, i've really rambled haha and all over buying crap online.. bit sad really :P

Speaking of crap, here are some more purchases from the last few days!

I was going to write a post abut my dollie makeover but I think I may leave that until next time. I've got a splitting headache and its already 1.38am so I think bed time may just be the answer...