Little café meetup

We had a small meetup with some friends yesterday :3 There were seven of us: me, Sarg, Tiinyan, Elina, Jaya, Spica and for the first time also Xaya! Janina was supposed to come too, but couldn't make it :( Hopefully next time we'll see her too!

Spica suggested that we could visit a contemporary art gallery before going to a café and we all agreed that it'd be a great idea! I'm usually a bit sceptical about art these days, but this Sensual World exhibition really blew me away, as the art looked just amazing O3O The artist (Emma Ainala) is clearly very talented and has her own unique style.

Taking photos was allowed, so have a few pics of the gorgeous artwork!

If you're interested, you can find more art and info about this exhibition here :)

After the gallery visit, we started looking for a café somewhere nearby and found Café Ekberg. It seemed like a nice place and there was enough space for all of us, so we decided to go there. The waitress kindly combined a few tables together to form one long table for us. I didn't realize to take a photo, but I ate a huge chocolate croissant - it was super yummy~ ♥

The lighting at the café could've been better when it comes to photography purposes, but I managed to get some decent shots to share!

There was this chocolate-themed art piece on the wall!

We had three Kikipop dolls at the meetup! (Sarg's, Spica's and Elina's)

Spica's lovely SQ Lab/MDD hybrid~ (You can also see me there in the background wearing white clothes XD)

SD sized anime dolls from three different companies - Azone, SQ Lab and Volks.

Picconeemos~ ♥ Miu and Hisui met a new friend, Koron in the center belongs to Tiinyan ^^

Spica's cute Tsukiko ♥

Jaya's Kiseki :3

Xaya's adorable girls, Mimmi and Emmi ^^ Loved seeing them in person~

Jaya's Dragos!

...Oh wait what's happening here?!

Spica's lovely little fennec fox ♥

Little fox matched nicely with Tiinyan's Viola :3

Tiinyan's lovely Maya also seemed to like this little fox ^^

Sarg brought her Naked Snake figure that tried to "blend in" with the other dolls by being more kawaii... :'D

The others seemed to accept this weirdo well, hahah...

Miu noooo, please don't take the knife O__O

Here's a group photo of all the dolls ^^ We had quite a nice variety of different doll types and sizes!

Thank you guys for the super fun meetup, hope to see you all again soon!! ♥♥

Souldoll Aehael box opening

My Souldoll Aehael finally arrived yesterday, after over 4 months of waiting! \o/ At first I was a bit unsure whether or not to post this box opening at all, since I've been feeling uncertain about this girl and considering selling her (even before her arrival), but after some thinking I figured that I'm going to give her a chance and see how it goes.

When I buy a new doll, I either buy one that fits an existing character in my and Sarg's story or in some cases I fell in love with the sculpt and want to create a new character around it. With Aehael it was the latter. However, during these months that I've waited for her I haven't gotten any ideas about her character and before yesterday the poor girl didn't even have a name... Which feels quite strange to me, since I'm used to having everything planned out before a doll's arrival ^^;

We chatted with Sarg and thought that Aehael could be Ophelia's little sister, so I started looking for a name that matches with Ophelia. Since it is a Greek name, I obviously looked at Greek names first and somehow tumbled on a bunch of mythology names. That's where I found the perfect one, Hespera. I think it matches nicely with Ophelia, without being too similar :)

Anyway, enough rambling for now! Let's move on to the photos :)

Yay there she is ;3; Besides Aehael, there are also a few Zenith girl hand parts that I added to my order after realizing that Lanarwen could use some extra hands!

All the stuff! Heel feet, horn, etc. were all packed separately :)

Souldoll always packs their dolls super carefully~ ♥ There's a face mask and Aehael's delicate fantasy ears were well-protected as well!

Slowly unwrapping...

Almost done!

I ordered my girl in sandy brown :) At the time I placed the order, I had no idea what it'd look like in person, but then Sarg's sandy brown Tera Zenith boy arrived and I knew what to expect. It's a really pretty resin color~ ♥

The horn is in gorgeous magenta-shaded transparent resin! I don't plan on using it though ^^; I only got this head instead of the human head because of the cute ears! The hole on the forehead can easily be covered with a wig.

Horn attaches to the head nicely with a magnet and seems to stay on pretty well. The color also matches nicely with her default eyes!

These are the eyes and wig that I was planning for her. The wig is one of Leekeworld's Art wigs and the eyes came with my Souldoll Junia. After trying them on Aehael though, I feel like they'd look better with pupils... So I probably need to buy another pair of eyes for her, and I'm still unsure about the wig as well ^^; Ugh, some dolls can be so difficult...

I do think she's a pretty doll and all, but I'm not bonding with her yet ;___; That's probably no wonder though, since she doesn't have a proper character plan nor faceup. Sarg promised to help me out with the faceup and maybe then I get a better idea on this girl and her future. I try to be optimistic, since I'd hate to part with this beauty! Hopefully things end up working out :3

She will be loved

Carmen is currently participating in a light-hearted BJD fashion contest, Instagram's Next Top BJD :D It was not hard for me to choose which one of my dolls to enter as most of my dolls have their own specific styles and color themes, but Carmen can wear multiple different styles and colors.

The first challenge was "Neutral plus a pop of color", so basically an outfit consisting of a neutral-colored piece and something colorful. I had just finished sewing simple nightwear for Carmen and thought that the colors fit the theme quite nicely ^^

Besides taking one photo for the challenge, I took some other photos just for fun to have a complete photoshoot for this blog :3 I'm having so much fun with the contest so far, this challenge gave me so much inspiration and I'm sure the future challenges will do just the same!

My anime menu for spring 2016

I didn't write anything about the autumn animes, since I didn't find anything interesting to watch in that bunch (my previous anime menu was for summer 2015). In this post I'm also combining animes from both the winter and spring season, since there's not much for me this time either ^^; I've actually been quite lazy with watching anime after last summer, since my main focus (besides doll stuff) has been on games...

Besides the ones I'm talking more about below, there's also Pri Para 3rd season, but I'm behind and haven't finished even the first season yet :c I did see a few other series on the spring list that I found interesting, but I think I already have a plenty to watch and adding more to the list right now wouldn't be a good idea. We'll see if I watch the other series at a later point ^^

Oh and if you're interested in seeing what anime series are currently airing or will be airing later this year, take a look at Anichart!

Rilu Rilu Fairilu: Yousei no Door

Current Progress: 4/??

This has to be one of the cutest animes ever XD Although I do love darker and deeper stuff, I really enjoy watching some overly cute and random animes that make me feel happy. I do love faeries a lot too~ It was actually fun to see that there are many familiar voice actors: Hanae Natsuki (Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul), Uchida Aya (Kotori from Love Live), Kusuda Aina (Nozomi from Love Live), Atsushi Abe (Mashiro from Bakuman) and Megumi Toyoguchi (Revy from Black Lagoon).

Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV

Current Progress: 1/5

How could a big Final Fantasy fan say no to this? >3< I'm so excited about the new game that'll be released in September and this anime adaptation seems great as well! Too bad that there will only be 5 episodes in total and the second ep most likely won't be released until June or so... Can't wait! The characters seem interesting and this'll be a nice treat while waiting for the game :3

Gyakuten Saiban: Sono "Shinjitsu", Igi Ari!

Current Progress: 2/??

This series is probably better known by the name Ace Attorney or Phoenix Wright :) It's another adaptation from a popular game. I've never gotten to play it myself, though I've always wanted to! I have high hopes for the anime series and I'm expecting an interesting plot with great characters. Since I've never played the game, nor read spoilers about what's going to happen (assuming that the anime will follow the same story), this'll be quite exciting >3<

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime 2

Current Progress: 0/12

To be honest, I lost my interest during the first season already and haven't finished even that ^^; The series does seem nice, but I've been having a hard time focusing on story-based animes lately... The second season will still go to my plan-to-watch list.

Terra Formars: Revenge

Current Progress: 0/??

This is a second season of Terra Formars. The basic plot is quite weird (humans fighting against giant humanoid cockroaches, what? :'D), but I still find this series surprisingly enjoyable! I've taken a liking to the characters (Michelle being my favorite, as she reminds me of my character Carmen ♥) and I really want to see what's gonna happen.

***

What about you guys? Are you watching anything this season? :)

Maru-chan's arrival

My first (and hopefully the only...) big Azone girl arrived yesterday! ♥ I've had my eye on the bigger Azone dolls as long as I've been into their smaller dolls, but there hadn't been "the one" for me until this new version of Happiness Clover Mocha :) The earlier version of Mocha was cute too, but I still thought that I'd wait if there'll be another doll that I like even more. It was the right decision for sure, this Mocha looks like it was made for me, hahah XD

I decided to name her Maru, which means "round" in Japanese~ I thought that the name is perfect for this round-faced cutie x3

Box wrapped inside a layer of bubble wrap! 

The box design is absolutely beautiful~

There was a plain white box inside the pretty box

And this girl was inside! ♥ I believe that some of the bigger Azone girls have rooted hair like Pureneemos, but Mocha is one of those that use wigs :) I forgot to take a photo, but there's a small area on top of her head that resembles the material of silicone caps and helps to keep the wig in place.

Maru with all the stuff she came with~

There are actually little magnets under her feet, so that she can stand on her metal stand base without any support!

Leaflet~

Some promo photos and an overview of her outfit and accessories

The backside shows some of the outfits that were available for separate purchase around the time her pre-orders started. The outfit on right actually looks like a bigger version of Sahra's a la Mode outfit ;3; It looks so cute and I would've loved to get it for Maru, but the price makes me cringe... I might try to sew something similar myself ^^;

Instructions on how the head and hands are attached. Useful information especially for people like me who have never handled nor seen this type of a doll in person XD

There are also some hair care instructions. I've never used Azone's doll oil mist before, since I don't really like the flat and wet-looking feeling the hair seems to get from it... But maybe if I used just a tiny bit, the end result would be good? I might give it a go at some point :)

Instructions on how to put on the clothes, there are quite many snap fasteners in this outfit ^^;

She also came with the same leaflet as smaller Azone dolls

Here's a comparison with Aya, one of my DD girls. She's on DDS body, which makes her about 58cm tall, DD base body is a few centimeters taller. I love the height difference, Maru looks like the perfect little sister ;3;

I love this girl a lot, she's even more cute in person than I expected and fits in with my DDs really nicely~! It was nice to receive a doll with some clothes for once, so I don't have to sew something in a hurry XD I like her fullset outfit a lot too, so I definitely don't mind having her around dressed in that ♥