Maiden of the North

I took some photos of Medeia (Iplehouse SID Eva) last time when I visited my parents' cottage, but due to other photoshoots, box openings, etc. I didn't manage to post the photos right away... Now that I'm at the cottage again, this time without dolls or camera, I thought that it'd be a good time to edit the earlier photos and post them, before I completely forget about them :D

Medeia lives in The Elven Kingdom of Solamnia (one of the fantasy worlds in my and Sarg's story), in a forest village which is the home for countless shape shifters (bears, wolves, ravens, deer, you name it). Solamnia and its surroundings remind us of Medieval period mixed with fantasy elements and European nature, and we've also been inspired by the world of The Witcher games. 

Meddy is a some sort of herbalist, she enjoys collecting herbs from the forest and preparing all kinds of remedies and potions to help the other villagers. She often takes long relaxing walks in the nearby forests and that's what I had in mind when taking her outside :3

The outfit is self-made (inspired by Iple's Witch Hunter set) and Sarg made the necklace :)

Taking photos outside turned out not to be such a great idea and I was only happy with these two shots... It was so cold (I was stupid and left my gloves inside, so my fingers froze instantly) and also insanely windy, thus Meddy's hair was all over the place and it was hard to make sure that the skirt covers the doll stand completely :'D I also felt like Meddy should've had more clothes to fit in the scenery better, I didn't want it to look like she was freezing there. Once the snow is completely gone, I hope to get better photos of her outside :)

I took a few photos inside and noticed that the wooden cottage makes quite nice photographing place for Meddy - it almost looked like she was at her own home. On the other hand, the lighting wasn't best possible, but I'm still satisfied that I managed to get at least somewhat decent photos :)

Meddy is here - Iplehouse SID Eva box opening~!

Can't believe that it's July already, time just flies, doesn't it? o3o I had planned to make a post or two earlier this week while staying at Sarg's, but we ended up not spending time at the computer at all and the mobile internet around the area sucks, so I figured I'd just make those posts after I get home ^^; There are a few general doll-related posts to make and I also have some new Azone photos from this week! Those will have to wait a bit longer though, since I have a box opening from today ♥

Right after getting back home, I was able to pick up my new Iple girl, from the post office! They tried to deliver the package in the morning, but sadly I wasn't home to receive her yet. Sometimes they try to deliver EMS packages twice, but this time I was lucky they only tried once so she was already waiting for me at the post office >:3

So, here comes Medeia, also known by the nickname Meddy :)

(The photos aren't the best quality and don't really do justice to her pretty resin color, but let's not focus on that X'D)

The huge box! (notice my dog in the top right corner...)

Got these boots for Meddy! I cringed at the price, but these were just too perfect to not buy ;___;

The inner box

The pretty Iplehouse logo :3 

Getting closer... Certificate, owner manual, etc. paperwork in the plastic bag

Backside of the certificate, I think this is an important thing to remember!

Looook, there she is!!! 

Hello~ ♥ This pretty face ^3^

Eva is one of those sculpts that I haven't always liked, at some point she was actually one of my least favorites from Iple's sculpts and I never could've imagined owning her... But things can change! Especially now after seeing her in person, I think this sculpt is going to make the perfect Medeia ♥

Stylish self-censoring XD

Iplehouse recently re-designed the hands for some of their dolls, here you can see the new SID woman hands! They look so pretty and realistic, I think I like them more than the older SID hands :3 I'll try to take a comparison at some point.

I also took these two photos of Medeia with her wig:

I'm still not 100% sure whether or not this will be her default style and color, but it'll do for now at least :3

I'm really loving her so far~ ♥ The poor girl doesn't have her own eyes nor any clothes yet, so I didn't take that many photos of her... More spam will surely follow later though >3< Makoeyes just shipped out the order containing Meddy's eyes, so hopefully those will arrive soon! I probably won't do her faceup before getting the eyes, so I can be sure to get everything right!

*sigh* Wish I had started sewing for her in advance, so I could've dressed her up already ^^; No such luck this time though, I've been awfully lazy... But at least I managed to buy the needed fabrics for an outfit I've been planning to make her, so I can start working on it right away! Being lazy AND slow, it might take a while before I finish anything, but I'm not in a hurry. It's fun to have WIP projects that I can work on when I have the time and inspiration :3

Incoming dolls - Iplehouse Eva and two Pureneemos

My Iplehouse girl crew will be growing by another member again, since I just ordered SID Eva in peach gold skin *w* ♥ I ordered her on 2-part layaway, which I'll be finishing next month :) Iplehouse's waiting times have been around 1-2 months, so there's hope that she might even be ready to be shipped once I send the last payment!

Character-wise she'll be Medeia, a sorceress/monster hunter in-training~ She is a brave, kind-hearted, strong-willed and loyal person, deep down also has a bit of a girl next door vibe to her. Medeia is an only child and ever since her birth she's been treated like a boy by her father, who had wished (and assumed) that his unborn child would be a boy. From young age Medeia has felt like she was a disappointment to her father no matter what she did and even agreed to start hard fight training under a monster hunter Aslak's supervision to prove that she was such as good as a boy.

Later on I got some inspiration for this character from Yennefer of the game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Medeia lives in a same kind of world as the characters in that game and of course she has a muscular companion Aslak (Sarg's IOS Jade), who has gotten some inspiration from Geralt, another character from the game. I could go on and on about the game, Yennefer, Geralt and their lovely relationship, I'm such a hopeless fan! ♥ That being said, we're still not looking to create "cosplay" or anything like that. Our characters Medeia and Aslak existed even before we found out about The Witcher games, but now they inspire us even more after the amazing game.

Hmm, Medeia will be my 6th girl from Iplehouse... This meme that was posted on a discussion thread on Den of Angels seems quite accurate hahah XD

***

Besides Medeia, I'm also waiting for a few Azone Pureneemos!

I managed to find this pink-haired version of Majokko Little Witch of Heart Chiika for pretty cheap from Yahoo!Japan *w* I spent quite some time hunting for this one... I did bid on some earlier, but they went over 15,000yen and I wanted to wait and see if I could find one for cheaper. The waiting paid off since the one I won was less than 10,000yen, despite being a fullset in great condition! I'm still waiting if I win some Re-ment items that I could combine shipping with, but in any case I'd expect this girl to come home during next month :)

I'm really excited to be able to get some cute twin Chiika photos with Nia, my white-haired Chiika~ I still haven't figured out a suitable name... The two Chiikas are twin sisters, so I'd like one that in some way matches with Nia >3<

Then this Pink!Pink! a la mode Maya.. ♥ At first I thought that I'd be able to resist this cutie, but a few days before her pre-order started, I decided that I do want her after all ^^; I ended up selling my Tick-Tock Rabbit Himeno since I didn't bond with her and thought that this girl could be my new Kirari~

It was a bit of a hassle to get her on preorder. First, I contacted one shopping service agent asking them to order her for me (being a Direct Store version, she wasn't available on Amiami or other international sites), but they never replied anything ; . ; Then I tried getting her through some other shopping services, but they couldn't help me either due to the quantity limit per doll set by Azone (they had obviously already ordered this doll for some other people). Finally I managed to place my pre-order through Treasure-Japan! ♥ Apparently Maya will be released in late June, hopefully near my birthday, hahah~

Sarg is getting the standard version and we're planning to swap the shoes, socks and maybe cardigans as well ♥ I don't know yet whether Kirari will be wearing this kind of clothes or if I'll let Shiori (Heartful Kiss Maya) steal this outfit X'D