Woman's best friend - Mila arrives!

This morning I got an EMS package from Eve Studio~ ♥ They have a variety of different BJD pets available and from the moment I found about them, I knew I wanted to get at least one doll from them! Then one day we were roleplaying and talked about our characters (Zinnia and Shagrilah) and how cute it would be if they had a dog as a pet... We browsed through Eve Studio's website and well, found just the perfect dog for them ^^;

Sarg already had Zhimor and now I have this little girl, her name is Mila :3 I ordered her on December 2nd, so it took a little less than 4 months, which just fits in the company's estimated waiting time of 3-4 months.

Scroll down a little bit to find out what kind of dog Mila is! ^^

When I opened the box there was this most adorable card ;___; ♥ It makes me really happy that I'm able to support such lovely artists that have a passion towards making these dolls~ You can really tell that they put a lot of love into this :)

On the other side of the card there were pictures of some of the dolls they offer :)

A note with my order info~ So Mila is a Russian Toy terrier :3 Eve Studio used to have this breed available only with a docked tail, but I requested them to release it with a natural, long tail... Docking dogs' tails is not allowed here in Finland and being personally against it as well, it wouldn't have felt right to have a docked dog as a pet for my characters, even if they're living in a fantasy realm instead of Finland X''D But yeah, I'm very, very happy that Eve Studio listened to my wishes and released this version some months after I asked! 

Now back to the box opening!

*squee*

OH HI TOO CUTE ♥

After taking the box opening pictures, I started playing around and trying out different poses for her, just to get a hang of her posability. She's a great poser I think and able to get into many realistic poses!

Here you may be able to see the texture of the material a little bit! It's not as smooth as resin, it feels a bit like sanding paper and also gives this fur-like feeling when photographed :) This material is also very light-weight compared to resin!

She seems to want some doggy treats.. ^^;

We had this cute dog bed for Mila and I even made a soft mattress to it, but we might've underestimated Mila's size and the bed is maybe a bit too small ^^;; Or it kinda looks like something that Shagrilah and Zinnia bought for Mila when she was a tiny puppy and even once she grew up (and outgrew the bed), she was so attached to her beloved sleeping place that wouldn't accept any other X''D Maybe that's how it went in the story, so that Mila can keep this small bed... She does look like she likes it lol

Aaand of course I had to take some test shots of Mila with her owner, Zinnia ♥

I was unsure about what size to choose, since there are not so many of these Russian toy terrier BJDs around and I couldn't find any comparison photos with SD sized dolls to help with my decision... So it was a bit of a gamble, but I think Mila looks perfect as 8cm! Not too small "handbag dog", but not too huge for it's breed either :)

I've been sewing for Zin and using her as a sewing model, which is why she's lacking a pair of pants  here ^^;; That shirt is new and I'm also slowly working on her wedding dress ;3

Just look at thiss ♥♥♥ I'm a huge sucker for the seeing deep bonds between dogs and their owners, I think it's one of the most beautiful things on Earth~ I can already feel that these characters will be very therapeutic to me when one day my own dear dog (now 10 years old) will no longer be here ;___;

Sarg is making some toys for Mila and I'm going to make her a cute collar with a name tag ♥ Hopefully we'll get to take a little photoshoot of the whole "family" since Sarg is coming over for Easter and will bring Shagrilah with her *3*

Miu's Easter spell

We have this Easter tradition in Finland when on the Palm Sunday a group of children disguised as witches go from door to door and give ornamented willow twigs in exchange for candy. The little witches will knock on the door, say this little "spell" waving the willow twig to wish good health and luck :) It's kinda similar to the Halloween's trick-and-treating, which is something we don't have here in Finland.

But anyway, little Miu was really excited about this and wanted to try as well!! We didn't have anything to dress her up as a witch, so Miu chose to wear this pink kitty hoodie - after all, Easter witches do have cats, don't they? ;3

Miu: "I'm ready, let's do thiiis!! :3"

Me: "Oh, okay ^^;"

Miu: "Here you go :3"

Miu: "Do you like it? :3"

Me: "Oh it's beautiful... Thank you!"

Miu: "Can I get some candy now, please? :3"

Me: "Of course! Let me see..."

Me: "There you go!"

Miu: "Ohhh, so many!! *w*"

Miu: "Yaay~ Time to eat some chocolate :3"

Me: "Just don't eat too much at once.. ^^;"

Miu hopes that even if you weren't familiar with this tradition before, you now know more about it! ♥ Who knows, maybe next year little Miu will be knocking on your door... ;3

Akuma Homura Nendoroid!

I unboxed this beauty a week ago and also took a few test photos :) These are quite repetitive since I didn't try out different poses or anything, just this one that I chose to display her in~ I love how she's dangling Kyubey like a piece of trash and looking like she's pondering what to do with it X''D

I took most of these with my 150mm macro lens, I've been thinking of trying to sell it or trade it for a 50mm macro since this one isn't so good for BJD photos. You pretty much need to be on the other side of the room or even go through walls ^^;; But after playing around with this lens, I found out that it's actually pretty neat for figure photos! Still not sure what to do...

A comparison photo with Ultimate Madoka Nendoroid ♥ These two look so adorable displayed together~ Madoka is missing her wings from this photo, since they're falling all the time and I didn't have the patience to try get them stay on for just one photo ^^;

Madoka has this nice thingie for her base, I kinda wish that GSC would've made a matching one for Homura as well, her base looks so plain this way :/ But I guess I could try making something myself too!

Aaand here's a comparison of the Nendoroid and Figma versions of this character ;3; I really hope I'll find a reasonably priced Ultimate Madoka figma at some point too to accompany this figma~

On another note, I just got a payment request for my March AmiAmi order, containing Eli Ayase Nendoroid, Azone Alice Tick-Tock Rabbit Himeno and some Azone clothes :3 *fingers crossed for fast shipping*

Welcome home sensei-chan~

The title probably already spoils it, so I'll just say it: I FOUND MY GRAIL AZONE MINAMI-SENSEI!! ♥♥ *___*
I've been looking for the brown-haired version with a reasonable price for months and this was only the second one I've seen for sale, even though I check Mandarake and Y!J daily! The first Minami-sensei I saw was like 2 months ago and it was gone before I could buy her. So it seems like she's quite rare, the other version I've seen pop up quite often. I really shouldn't have bought another doll right now, but with Minami I just couldn't risk that if I let this one go, I might not see another for many months ;__;

Photo © Azone

I had already bought this girl when I was writing the meet-up post, but since you never know whether or not you actually get an item from Mandarake until you get a confirmation... I'm a bit superstitious, so didn't want to mention anything before I was sure, fearing that if I spoke about it aloud I might end up not getting the doll after all and being all disappointed >3<

And speaking of being superstitious, I really think that Tiinyan's Minami-sensei was my Lady Luck here, so thank you SO MUCH for bringing your girl to the meet-up! ♥ I can't believe how she found her grail Candy Cotton Miu soon after I got mine, and now I found Minami-sensei on the next day from seeing hers in person XD Hope we can get some group pictures someday~

Sarg actually purchased the other version a while ago, she's already in the Finnish customs (with my Lil Fairy Erunoe) waiting for us to pay the custom fees! Sarg wanted to give her girl a Scandinavian name (Malla), so I chose a matching name to my Minami as well, since they're going to be sisters x3 My girl's name will be Janna!

Malla is the younger sister that often takes the students hiking and camping on her biology lessons, while the older Janna teaches languages and also sometimes substitutes on gym lessons~

Photo © Azone

And to celebrate purchasing Minami-sensei, I dressed some of my girls into their school uniforms and took a few photos ^^ Hopefully the second desk set will arrive soon (it was missing from my order and they offered to send it separately later) and Minami-sensei too, so we can take some fun school photos ;3;

Café meet-up ♥

We had a fun Sunday meet-up with some friends again, yaaay~ Sarg couldn't make it this time, but otherwise we had the same group as in the last meetup :) So there was me, Spica, Tiinyan, Janina and our new addition Elina, who I wanted to invite as well ♥

This time we went to a café and ordered some yummy things, I chose Daim chocolate cake and lemon ice tea :3 They were both delicious, I think I've never had ice tea that tasted so good! Hopefully we'll visit there sometime again! ♥ Though I'm such a cheapskate when it comes to food... I wonder how I can buy expensive dolls, figures, etc. without thinking "hey, that's expensive!", but every time I go to a café or a restaurant I cringe a bit at the prices, thinking how much stuff I'd get from a grocery store with the same amount hahah XD (Like 20 chocolate donuts from Lidl...) But oh well, I guess it's good to spoil yourself from time to time!

I feel bad that I didn't take individual photos of all dolls that were present, like Elina's cuties and Tiinyan's adorable Risu-chan Chiika ;___; The lighting wasn't superb so it was hard to get close-ups and I also kinda got distracted from the dolls itself and focused more on the fun chatting we had X''D Hope we can go on a picnic meet-up when the weather gets warmer, it'd be more fun to take photos outside~

This is what our table looked like after we unpacked all of our dolls! ...And other things XD

The beautiful Dollfie Dream ladies, Spica's on left and Janina's on right ♥ I've always wanted to see a DD in person and these two only made my DD fever grow XD I'm still trying to figure out if I really, really need one or could I just settle for enjoying pictures from other people, etc. >3< But boy, I do want one...

Janina brought along her Sonico nendoroid with a maid outfit!! ♥♥ I might need to add this to my Nendoroid wishlist, argh XD

This minty blue Mr. Alpaca was such a charming fellow as well~ I thought that I'd be safe from buying more Arpakasso plushies (already have two), but... Now I want more X''D I have one pink Arpakasso (with heart-shaped eyeglasses ♥) in the same size as this one, if the two met would we get a bunch of baby Alpacas?? XDD

Spica's Azone cutie and Tiinyan's Mamachapp ;3; Why must there be so many different dolls that are so damn cute... *trying hard to stick with BJDs and Azones only* XD

I didn't manage to get a properly focused photo of Tiinyan's adorable Minami-sensei, so I need to share this crappy one... Because it was so awesome being able to see this lady IRL~ ♥ It's my grail Azone at the moment ;___; There was this strange moment during the meet-up when we all were a bit farther away from the table taking photos and chatting... I happened to randomly look at this Minami-sensei and noticed that she was looking right at me!! With that hand sign I got the feeling like she was cheering me on about hunting for my own Minami-sensei ;___; (She actually might've been a true Lady Luck for me, we'll find out soon... )

Elina and Tiinyan left a bit earlier than the rest of us, we decided to go take a few quick photos in a place with a bit better lighting before leaving :)

The DD girls + Sonico ♥

And with Ceci and Miu~ My first impression on DDs was that I thought they're a lot easier to photograph than BJDs... I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like with BJDs you need to be super careful about how you pose them and were they're looking at, so that they don't end up looking weird, like Ceci did here ^^; But you could take a photo of a DD from any direction and it still looks damn cute! (Lol when I showed this photo to Sarg, she said that those cat faces on Ceci's socks look like they're looking at Spica's Yumeka's legs, thus the unnecessary edit... XDD)

And last, little Miu wanted to send greetings to all of you! ♥ 

"Hey! It was fun, please buy lots of Picconeemo friends :3 Thanks!"

...Um, okay ^^;

It was super fun, thank you all and let's meet again soon!! ♥

Love Live Nendoroids: Honoka, Nico & Kotori ♥

As mentioned in my previous loot post, I thought I'd make a separate post about my Love Live Nendoroids :) I also got some requests to show more photos of these, so here we go! ♥ I know that some of my friends/readers are hardcore LL fans (Janina, I'm looking at you >:D) and some don't know much or anything about the series, but I hope everyone could still enjoy this post ^^

And just to clarify, I'm not talking about the tiny Nendoroid Petites in this post, only the bigger Nendos :3 Once I have all girls as Nendos, I could make an update post with the Nendo Petites as well? XD They look so adorable next to these bigger ones, like babies hahah~

Here's a group photo of all the three girls that have been released so far, from left to right: Nico, Kotori and Honoka~ There are a total of nine characters and they'll be released one by one released every month :3 Eri was actually released last week, but my Amiami order has some pre-order items that haven't been released yet, so I still need to wait for a while before she gets shipped XD

These Nendoroids don't have many options parts, so they're relatively cheap compared to some others with more parts. For example, here's a photo of Kotori's parts; she only has one option face, two different arm/hand parts and one leg part (with a bended knee). You can still create cute poses, personally I think that these parts are quite enough :)

Honoka looks as cheerful and energetic as in the anime! I love this pose and I think GSC has especially nailed Honoka's expressions~

I'm not a big fan of Nico's character, but I think she looks really adorable as a figure ^^ She seems to get the cutest poses and parts for every single figure release, this Nendoroid is definitely not an exception! I chose this cute winking face and those hands because bawwww~~ ;3;

Kotori is definitely my favorite from these Nendos so far ♥ Though I guess that's not a surprise since she's also one of my favorite characters from the series (second, Nozomi being first) XD But I think her both face parts are super adorable~ I just realized that I might've chosen a slightly boring pose for her and I'm probably going to change it soon, but no matter what, she's still super adorable ♥

These Nendoroids are wearing outfits used in the song Bokura wa Ima no Naka de, which is also the opening song for the first season of the series!

I really, really love this series and can recommend it to anyone who'd like to see an anime full of cheerful girls, pretty costumes, dance performances and happy music ^^ It's the kind of series that may not have a mind-blowing plot, but has the power to make you smile ♥ There are also video clips of the characters' many songs on Youtube, if you'd like to hear some happy music~

Hope you all are having a great weekend~