Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

Super awesome badass. Want, want, want!

I ♥ Itokin Park

(this uncensored, unedited verbal diarhhea brought to you by extremely adorable blythe in wrestling bear mask and tuxedo)

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

I’m getting ready to post a limited batch of new mini pose dolls,  and just wanted to test out the new “subscribe” feature I added tonight. If you subscribe via email (the little form is in the left column, under Posey’s head) you can get shop updates delivered to your email (I promise not to spam!).

(photo by Linda, cute little guitar from Variation!)

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Since finishing up the last pose dollie, my work schedule’s doubled.  I’ve been spending weekends being lazy, housekeeping, and shopping!  My eBay want list has grown tremendously, and every week I must be responsible and not bid on wonderful things. I’ve been calling it my “weekly wants” - lovely things that I must use every ounce of restraint I posess to not pounce on!

The Daiya blender is total LUST.  Somebody buy it for me

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

After a tweet exchange about the many flavors of Kit Kat tonight, It got me wondering just how many flavors I have collected over time ( I save at least one of each which I hide away from candy-cravings).

It’s time to break open the sealed container marked, “JAPANESE SNACKS”…

I was surprised to find that I have only found 14 unique varieties!  I need to get to the markets more often! My Kit kat scavenging rule is simple: I must find each flavor organically, meaning no eBaying or asking people to send them to me. This “hobby”’s all about the joy of the hunt.

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

Thanks for playing this round of Fastest Finger!

Well, I learned a lot tonight. Thanks for bearing with me while I experiment with my selling method. Next time I may try a comment lottery so more time zones can participate. (and I will make sure that there are no crossposts to confuse commenters!).

Guess I just have to make more poseys!

♥

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

I’m very proud of myself. I finally got bitten by the spring cleaning bug and cleaned up just about every nook and cranny of the house (and there are lots of them!). When I was sick (for two months!), I just let the dust bunnies multiply and the fridge got gross. I will spare you the details, but as someone who is usually a total neatnik, I’d been very down about my space.

One big problem I was having was that I was making dolls at my tiny kitchen table. It’s about 5 feet round, and visible from the main room of my little condo. Just a constant mountain of fabric scraps, doll heads, and thread monsters, making it impossible for the room to feel tidy and forcing us to eat dinner on our laps. Something had to be done.

I re-arranged the spare bedroom (the furniture placement was horrible and I didn’t like even going into that room) and now I love my craft space.The room actually feels bigger, even though the desk is now square in the middle of the room and I moved all my craft supplies in there. It just feels like it’s inviting me to come in and get right to work.

The first order of duty was to put it to use! Paul and I worked all weekend in that room, and we managed to finish two-and-a-half big pose dollies.

These dolls use the pattern from dolly dolly 16, with slightly different materials after I made a prototype that needed a bit of improvement. I LOVE this body pattern. I’ve adjusted mine a bit to give her longer legs and slimmer hands - the original pattern has large hands that make it hard to dress her in sleeves with small cuffs. Oh, and did I mention that they fit Blythe clothes? Instant wardrobe! They have difficult-to-fit feet, so socks and tights have to be super-stretchy.  I need to buy a case of Volks fishnet tights!

Here’s my second girl.  Her face was a little  inspired by one of the sweetest little pose dolls I have ever seen, Eve. While I was painting her, I just kept thinking of what it would be like to be a fly on the wall while someone painted a vintage doll - I bet they did it in about 5 brush strokes! This face took me about 3 hours, including letting the paint dry between coats and practicing first on a styrofoam-ball-head. I like her a lot, but need more practice so that I don’t have to stress about shaking my hand and screwing up the eyelashes.

Paul made one too. He did a great job, despite my constant interruptions to give him instructions (It’s the “teacher” and bossy big sis in me). She’s got sparkly green eyes, just like daddy. While I was agonizing over getting skinny yarn to lie flat on my pink-haired girl, he decided to give her big fluffy black curls, which worked out wonderfully and went on so fast! I decided to make my second one a mohair girl, which I think may have been even faster. I wanted her to look like a fuzzy baby chick.

They are kind of a hybrid between Pose dolls and plush dolls. their limbs are wired so they pose really well, but their bodies are all cloth and fiberfill like a plush doll. If you use the pattern as it is, the doll is about 13 inches tall, but my little blonde has a couple of extra inches in her legs, so she’s 15″.  They also can stand on their own if you make their feet really stiff, which is fun for photos.

I think I will keep the two I have made so far for myself, only because they still have some flaws I want to work out, but I would love to make these to sell if there is interest in them. It’s fun to watch them come to life!

Anyway, I know I went off course from the tiny dolls for a bit, but I just had to try this pattern. I’ll be working on another batch of the micro pose dolls in the next few weeks.

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I’m really looking forward to the warm weather we’ve been promised, and some time to craft!

The little clip above is of some recent eBay purchases. My Japanese nodder collection is getting nice and diverse! I’m up to 8 with the addition of these two little pups and the elf girl. I’ve gotta cool off the eBay ing and focus on making things to sell!

(could this post use a few more exclamation points? Clearly I am just excited that my work week is DONE.)

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My pink sandwich cake was reposted by one of my favorite funny blogs: thisiswhyyourefat

awww yeah. That post just reminded me that  I need to make this again. It was delicious! (and expensive… I think I spent about 50 bucks on all the fancy fillings!  And it isn’t strawberry cream cheese, it’s just pink.)

A little background info, for those of you who weren’t around when I made this two years ago:

The Sandwich cake was lovingly made for our friend’s annual Tacky Party, a celebration of party-hosting gone wrong. Other dishes at the party included “Secret Treasure Loaf,” “Wiener Crown,” Easy-cheese and Crackers,” “Red hot Jello Salad,” and lots and lots of velveeta and spam.

Basically, anything that would be a candidate for the Gallery of Regrettable Food.

I’m getting lots of good ideas for the next party… how about wieners standing around in beans? Anyone for a turbaconucken?

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

It probably is, but who’s perfect?

A couple of weeks back, we were at the Volks store in Torrance and picked up dolly dolly vol. 16 (to try the pattern for the teeny dolls) and I fell in love with the big dolly in the same article!  I can’t believe I didn’t get this issue sooner.

I was a bit nervous to try it because soft-sculpting is tricky and I was terrified to mess up painting the face. the head has 5 layers of fabric/batting and I would not want to wreck one and start over! I finally got over my fear this weekend and made this girl. I followed the instructions to the letter, except I wired her so she can pose (the instructions didn’t show putting wire in her, but they must have, since she would be really floppy.)

She’s tall, but her waist/torso size is close to Blythe’s measurements (a little thicker in the waist but she’s soft so she can “suck it in” and share some clothes. I did buy her this sweet blue Volks dress just for her, though. I’m currently trying to figure out what size shoe she wears so she can get some maryjanes.

I strongly recommend trying out this pattern, the shapes are great and the photo-instructions are really thorough.

Mine’s not quite finished, but I had to take some pics to show. I can tell already that I won’t be able to get rid of her.

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

Hi guys,

There was a little mix up with a buyer on etsy, so I’m going to try an eBay experiment!  Midge, the brunette pose doll in cute tartan plaid - is up on eBay in a 3-day listing.  I’m starting her at my original price of $39.

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

I’m so glad that people like my little dolls and snap them up quickly.  However, I am worried about disappointing customers/friends when dolls sell out in less than a minute.

I will always have limited quantity runs of my dolls - I’m just not a high-volume kind of gal. If you saw my workflow you would laugh - I’t’s like, “make a shoe, eat a sandwich. sew on some pom-poms, watch RPDR…”

I like setting a price that I think it is fair, but I think eBay might be a more practical format to sell in, since it gives people a chance to at least bid if they want an item badly enough.

To be completely honest, the goal of these sales is not to make a profit - I make way less per hour on crafts than I would making websites.  Crafting though, is very theraputic for me and trust me, I need it right now (work is stressful and if I’m not careful I will get depressed and get nothing done). Ff I don’t sell what I make, my house will fill up with knick-knacks, and I hate to dust.

I’ve received a couple of requests to sell “preorders,” but the truth is that this is not a format I am comfortable with. The quantity I can produce is directly related to how creative and inspired I’m feeling, and that motivation disappears as soon as I have orders to fill. It starts to feel like work, which defeats the purpose!

What do you think is fair? etsy? eBay? quit my jobs and make dollies all day?

Originally published at Super-Junk. You can comment here or there.

I’m feeling very inspired by vintage things lately, and excited about all the “new-vintage” things that people are making. While perusing some of my friends’ favorites on Flickr (you guys have the best taste!) I came across these amazing little bead buddies by Variation .  I love vintage beaded crib-toys, so these were right up my alley.

I picked up these two so they won’t be lonely. I think they will sit on my desk or I might wear them as big chunky pendants on days when I need a little buddy with me.

Check out all her beaded buddies on J-critter’s Flickr!

Good luck with your new shop, J! You have a fan over here.

(photos by J-critter)

Originally published at Super-Junk. Please leave any comments there.

Hi all,

Just a quickie update that the 4 micro pose dolls (the 4 to the right in the above pic… the far left one is Vaughn’s!) I just made will go on sale this Friday, March 6, at 1:00pm PST in my Etsy Shop.

I finally found these cute little tubes to pack them in that fit over the base perfectly! I had no idea that finding inexpensive clear tube packaging was such a tricky thing!  I gave up on looking for shops that sell just the right size tube, and ended up just going to Dollar tree and finding easter candies that came in a tube with some goofy looking egg head on top. Exact perfect fit and now I have easter basket stuffers for the little kids on my list.

Originally published at Super-Junk. Please leave any comments there.

I consider myself more of a seamstress than a crafter, but today after finishing a batch of  these little micro pose dolls, I realized that I like making them so much because they do not involve the sewing machine at all! It felt good to break out the  craft supplies and just watch these little dolls evolve from blobs of clay and wire. I felt like I was back in my mom’s kitchen with the tacky glue,  ribbons, paint brushes, craft paints and sculpey scattered all over the table (heck, it’s the same table!).

As soon as the last dot of makeup goes on, they get their teeny little personalities. The redhead emerged as the leader of the group - she’s got a lot of sass in that 3-inch frame. The little pink and blue ones are both pretty mild mannered. The brunette (I call her “Midge”) is a bit of a narcissist, probably because it took me so many tries to get every hair in her pony-tail just so.

I worked out a bunch of kinks from my prototype - the ones I made to sell have softer hair, sturdier hips and ankles, and paler faces. I still want to improve the hands and feet - sculpting in miniature is not my strong suit.

Next weekend, I promised Paul (and myself) that I would try the other end of the spectrum and make a BIG doll. I’m excited and scared to try both soft-sculpture and actually painting a face that is more than a couple of dots.

I’ll announce soon when I am putting these girls in my shop - I want to perfect some clear tubes for them to ship and display in.  Pose dolls need tubes to be complete.

Originally published at Super-Junk. Please leave any comments there.

Just wanted to say a quick thank you for making my first sale incredibly fast!  I was shocked that by the time I looked at my own shop after posting, it was empty!

We’re off to the fabric store to buy some supplies for the next batch. I’m so happy that my dolls are on their way to good homes!

Originally published at Super-Junk. Please leave any comments there.

Just a heads up that I’ll be using this space to announce the availability of my handmade stuff so that Flickr doesn’t ban me.

Hopsy, the bunny girl, along with at least 2 other dollies I have in the works, will be posted in my etsy shop on Saturday, February 28, at noon PST.

This is the first time I’ve ever been on the ball enough to make something in advance for a holiday, so I’m psyched. Plus I’m excited to have something to sell again, I haven’t had a shop since I first got into dolls, way back in 2004 (or was it 2003?)!

1. What are your initials?
MMC

2. What is your favorite thing to wear?
new socks

3. Last thing you ate?
green tea cake kit kat


( why am i answering these when i have work to do? )

Do yourself a favor and get a Saffy! Get two! Get three and have foofy, buttery triplets!

seriously though, I am nuts for my saffy. Ebi got all the attention at first (she really needed it) but saffy is the one that made me jump up and down when the postal carrier arrived with my primas.

I named mine Ume, mostly to go along with Ebi, but also because she has such a cute little round poof of a head.

after an absolutely black weekend (I wrote a very long post on saturday and immediately deleted it, as soon as i put it out there I had to suck it back, but the short of it is that my immediate family has been completely betrayed by the rest of our surviving family over money, and it's the most disgusting feeling...)

anyway, there appears to be a light in the distance. spring has arrived and we're getting better at bouncing back from these cold moments.

several things cheered me up this weekend, including:

an awesome bunka doll and outfit from Christina. I love it so much. As soon as it arrived, i thought "this is going on Dash!




you have no idea how much amusement I got out of putting Dash in a bonnet and a bow.

( more bunka baby! )

* also must note that a few weeks ago, I broke down and had paul give dash proper makeup. she's never had green eyeshadow before and it took me some getting used to, but I am so happy that she's been fully restored now. it only took two years!