Milkshake a la Mode

Hey everyone! Sorry I didn’t post sooner about what I have been working on. Some exciting real life things came up so I’ve been, and will be, occupied with other non-doll things for a while. I’m entering back into Corporate America. While I’m not excited to lose my freedom to do what I want when I want, I will definitely appreciate the steady paycheck… I’m sure you can understand that. I have one week before the craziness begins, so I’m going to try to push through this as much as I can between now and then but no promises as my focus will understandably be somewhere else this coming week. Anyway that’s neither here nor there, I’m here to chat about Chi’s apartment!

I did some more web research on Japanese apartment looks and layouts in addition to what I personally remember from my own 1K apartments there and had a rough idea of two possible layouts I wanted in my head. I originally thought I could just make it as I go without really planning it out too much. But after a few short minutes of trying to do a rough layout using the real furniture on a board of foamcore and a roll of paper to draw the plans on, I said there’s gotta be a better way to visualize this. I tried to scribble it down quickly on paper (at the time, I only drew apartments B and C) but still had a hard time translating what I drew into a 3D space.

I know Erica uses some 3D modeling program to do her layouts but, meh, I don’t have the patience to figure that out right now LOL So I used the program that I know well: The Sims 3. XD And I came up with the two apartments plus a third that I conjured up while playing Sims. At first I had leaned towards apartment B but after playing around in the 3D space, I reeeeally like apartment C. It’s quite a bit roomier than the tight A or typical B space but I think it lends itself to photographing very well. I’ll explain all three + one… Read more

Hey y’all! How was your holidays? Did you have a lot of fun? My holiday was hectic as always and I meant to post during the rush but was never really in front of my computer long enough to do so. I know I owe you guys a few belated posts like some christmas oriented photos, Inessa updates, what I got for Christmas, etc…. it hasn’t escaped me. I’m just occupied with other thoughts right now to focus on those (that always seem to be the case lately…)

Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to write about. I’ve finally decided to work on putting together Chiaki’s Japanese style 1k apartment (1k meaning “1 bedroom, kitchen & bath”, not “1000″ LOL) but to be honest, I’ve never made a diorama like this before. I plan to make it a full set with all four walls and all (3) rooms. I’ve been thinking about this project for a while and originally I had planned to make it out of wood but the scale, even as compact of an apartment it is, will still be quite large. I can’t leave the set out all the time so I needed to consider something a little more practical and cost efficient. That’s why I never really got anywhere with it because I had a hard time compromising.

After the holidays and sending all my energy to other people (they are worth it, I’m not complaining) I wanted to do my own thing for a bit and checked my projects list and was reminded of the apartment problem. So I said whatever and settled on using foamcore for construction. I’ve finished gathering my tools and materials for the basic construction today, so construction will start tomorrow.

Now I’ve worked with foamcore before and I’ll be honest, I’m pretty darn awesome with foamcore. Awesomely horrid. LOL My stuff was NOT impressive AT ALL. Cuts were horribly crooked, right angles were actually like 115 degree angles and everything fell to pieces with one touch. Just really shabby and unlike my usual self. XD XD XD I really didn’t have a clue how to work with this stuff… Still don’t actually LOL. But now I went out and gathered what I hope to be the proper tools to fix some of that. So it’ll be a huge learning (and most likely a laughably disappointing)experience but I thought I’d try to blog it all, step-by-step or close to it. It won’t be a tutorial, in fact I seriously would like to make a disclaimer right now that I don’t know wtf I’m doing so don’t copy me or re-post this as a how to. Please XD LOL But if you find what I do inspiring please try a similar project yourself, yea?

It’ll probably be a little boring seeing me re-invent the wheel but bear with me because I’m just gonna be posting honestly as I go along. Feel free to give tips too. Won’t guarantee I’ll implement them but it’ll be good to know for the future.

Dolls like to do their own thing when you’re not looking. You set them on display and the next time you look at them it looks like a party went on and there’s dolls passed out everywhere. LOL My dolls aren’t so crazy (they all get restrained by doll stands) but Inessa and Cardinal are apparently having a conversation on my desk. I wonder what they’re saying? Looks like it could be heated with the way Inessa’s hand is on her hip. LOL Do you have an idea what they could be talkin’ about?

Here it is, here it is! My want list for this year. XD Surprisingly there’s not a lot that I want. Is it just me or is the dolly world at a lull right now? There’s been nothing new to really whet my appetite so this list was a little difficult to come up with. =_=

First on the list is Orcara’s Art of Wine Collection!

I was skeptical at first about Orcara’s entry into the mini world because the first stuff they made were so similar to what Re-Ment was doing that I just considered them to be a knock-off company… but when they started doing the store sets I started watching them seriously. Now I can officially say “I want this!” Not only is it nice but it’s something Re-ment hasn’t tackled yet. So it’s so cool that Orcara’s coming up with fresh ideas. The mini world hasn’t died out yet folks!

Well shoot. Actually I’d take any Re-ment or Orcara miniature for Christmas. XD

The second thing I want doll-wise is something not really achievable– a MamaChapp doll. Their dolls are sooooooo friggin’ cute it’s not even funny. I’ve wanted one for a very long time in fact since their first dolls came out. I especially love their school kids, the boys and girls are really adorable. I wanted to buy one at Doll Show every time I went but I didn’t know how to buy one. LOL They’re made to order mostly and so buying any extras they had left over was never possible because they’d be sold out by the time I made my way to the top floor. XD So I only got to stare at their display case at the cuteness within. The sell on the secondary market for around $300 as opposed to the $100 they’re initially sold at. For such a tiny doll on an obitsu body, it’s not really worth $300 no matter how cute they are (even the Lucky*Star ones! Konata is so funny!)

So since they’re rather outrageous to ask for, instead I want Obitsu stuffs! If I can get some bodies and heads, I can make my own Mama Chapp styled dolls right? They use the Obitsu 21/23cm bodies and the respective 21HD-F01 heads. It’s not like their face paint is that hard to do. Large eyes seem harder to mess up on LOL so it would be a fun project to do– I just need the supplies! I’d love to make a few boy and girl dolls if I coouuuuld….

But that’s all the doll things I really want this year I suppose. There’s not a lot of things that are really grabbing my attention right now. Luckily I have video games to stave off the doll lull! I’ve been so behind on my games too XD I’ve been so occupied with playing compy games like Minecraft, Terraria and Sims3 Pets that my consoles have been neglected (except for the Wii thanks to Zelda Skyward Sword, eee! :3 )
I’m mainly interested in hack and slash games! I need to hurt some digital peoples to get rid of some of this holiday stress! XD Then I want to grow some plants and tend some animals after I calm down. LOL Therefore my list goes like this:

Dynasty Warriors 7 + Xtreme Legends [PS3]
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, then Revelations [PS3]
Yakuza 3 & 4 (because I seriously miss singing “Don Don Don, Donkeeeey…”) [PS3]
Rune Factory Tides of Destiny [Wii? PS3?]
Harvest Moon Tale of Two Towns [DS]

And then after dolls and video games, I would like an air freshener. No I’m serious. LOL Kinmokusei scented. Yea. I REALLY miss that smell so bad. T___T

I think overall that should make me happy this holiday season. :D

Oh! It’s Wednesday.

Inessa pic for you. :3 It’s getting colder, but her dresses are getting more exposing. Guess she’s really a “hot blooded woman” type *ducks*. LOL At least she has a scarf on! Seriously underutilized doll accessories, scarves are. XD
Alright! Off to work!

Sorry I didn’t post last week! Last week was NUTS with Thanksgiving and I totally forgot that it was my parents birthdays too. Both my mom and dad have a birthday two days out from Thanksgiving, before and after respectively. My brother and I scrambled for gifts and cakes, but we managed and they both enjoyed their birthdays. I should have taken a photo of the cake I baked my dad, it looked like a total Cake Wrecks cake but it tasted reaaaally good. LOL I’m all for presentation when I make doll stuff but when it comes to baking I’m not so good at it. I’m probably too impatient. XD

The week before, I was browsing Flickr and I saw Monika (Hegemony77) post some shirts she had sewn. I admire her clothes but never buy but this time they really caught my eye. One shirt in particular, the Tortoise and the Hare shirt I just thought was way way adorable. The way that the turtle’s holding up the flag like “Yay I wons!” and the rabbit still looks so determined like he’s gonna tackle that flag right from the turtle. LOL Plus I really liked the fabric that the print was on. It reminded me of a lot of yukata or maybe chirimen type of fabric. I quickly snatched it up before I regretted not buying it. I thought it would perfect for Chi’s wardrobe. I’m so happy I bought it, it was so worth it. （*´▽`*)

That was all that was doll-oriented last week. LOL The start of this week, we started putting up Christmas decorations. Since my mind was on it, I pulled out my mini tree. I have yet to put it together, since that takes a good three hour+ chunk of time, but I’ll be sure to snap a pic when the tree’s all decorated. I just love Christmas! :D

Inessa for this week! I realized I don’t take a lot of photos of my dolls from other angles other than straight on, so here you go. *sigh* I already have one miss racked up for my Inessa photos since I didn’t post one last week. T__T I’ll try not to miss another week because of the holidays.