Play Date

Today I had a grown-up play date with Mcooper from American Girl Collectors.

You can visit her blog, Up To My Eyeballs in Dolls.

She brought her dolls Charlie and Grace.

Grace is an Extra Special doll, dolls which were specially designed to lovingly represent people with Down Syndrome. You can visit their website here: Extra Special Dolls.

I brought Samantha Parkington and River Song.

I had been wanting to take pictures of Samantha in her sailor dress for a while now. And Mcooper has offered to teach me how to restring her! Yay! There is no denying she is very, very wobbly.

Grace and River were so pleased to meet another doll with wild, curly red hair. They immediately took a selfie.

We wandered around the park, carrying dolls with us. Trees were climbed:

And so were fences.

A good time was had by all.

And then we all went home and took a well-deserved nap.

Yay for doll friends!

AGC Mini Quilt-A-Long

I am a member at American Girl Collectors, and we are having a Mini Quilt-A-Long. led by the wonderful member Woodbines. Every month she posts directions for two mini quilt blocks.

At the end of twelve months, we will have enough blocks for a doll quilt!

Or two in my case, I am making two of each block.

May is the second month of this Quilt-A-Long so far.

Here are all of my blocks to date.

I am using a scrappy color scheme.

 This is the Broken Dishes block,

This is is the Pinwheel block.

This is the Road to Arkansas block.

This is the Pennsylvania block.

And nine patches!

Although I have made doll quilts before, this Quilt-A-Long is giving me the courage to work with even tinier pieces than before. I am really loving this and can't wait to make next month's blocks!

More Muppet Mania

Here we are with more Muppet Mania, brought to you by Palisades!

The ghost came as an accessory with Uncle Deadly. He or she looks just like the Alice Cooper episode of the Muppet Show. The ghost has a clear plastic stand so it can "float."

I LOVE Pops. He is such a funny and sweet character. He is the best. You rarely see him from the waist down, but Palisades put him in slippers, based on shots of Pops in a parachute at the end of The Great Muppet Caper.

Can't you imagine him secretly wearing slippers behind the desk of the Muppet Theater?

I also love singing vegetables. Owning these cute little guys fills a void in my life. A VOID, I tell you.

The Newsman is a pompous weirdo, but a very funny one. I particularly love him in the Jonathon Winter episode, when he does NOT begin speaking Swedish. 

He is also great in A Muppet Family Christmas (the best movie ever). "Barometers are falling sharply everywhere!"

Palisades put him in some pretty snazzy shoes. I am not sure if their authority for his shoes was also The Great Muppet Caper, but it shows that he has better taste than you would expect from that jacket.

The realism of these figures is just so great. I am so happy they exist. In this world.

River Song

River is here!

Her hair IS very red, which is a little disappointing. It looked brown in the online maker. But at least it is gloriously curly!

She is VERY pose-able. 

She was very glad to get her hands on a gun. I found this one by searching ebay for 1/6 scale toy guns. It came with a holster and is just right for a Silence-trained assassin.

One thing I was surprised about was just how light she is. She is much lighter than some of my dolls of similar size.

River met an alien while exploring. Luckily, she is used to this kind of situation (she married an alien, after all!) and they quickly made friends. 

It was really hard to get her to sit- her legs won't go straight out in front of her and she had to sit on something- and I could not get her to kneel at all.

Her shoes are 3 D printed as well, and they don't stay on her feet well,

Also, I ordered a set of shoes to come with her, and those are the ones she is wearing. I think she was supposed to come with a pair of shoes of her own, in addition to the extras that I ordered, but she did not.

Another flaw is that her eyes are held in place with an eye mechanism, and one of her eyes slipped out of place within the eye mechanism when I was showing her to someone yesterday. He was taking pictures, she had one eye crooked, and it was making me crazy.

Overall, I am very pleased with her. For a more detailed review of Makies, I highly recommend the Toybox Philosopher. 

Effie

Glythia

Makies

Makies are 3D printed dolls that you can design yourself. They are made in London. These little dolls are great posers from what I hear.

I do not have one yet, but she is on her way!

I broke down and ordered a Makie because they were on sale and because I wanted a River Song doll. I love River Song, and I hate the action figures that are out there. This would be a cartoonish representation of River Song, of course. I really liked the doll I designed. and the sale was the tipping point.

River was mailed today, and her picture was posted on the Makie Instagram account!

She doesn't look exactly the way I pictured her, but not in a bad way. In an intriguing way.
She looks paler than I though, and her hair is more reddish, and she looks surprisingly serene.

I am trying to decide if I will touch up her face-up when she arrives. I also really want a toy gun for her- and I am eyeing a dress on etsy.

 I am looking forward to seeing her in person.

She needs to hurry up and get here!

Galley-oh-hoop-hoop!

On the Muppet Show, Kermit occasionally visited the Planet Koozebane and interviewed the aliens who lived there.

In one interesting interview, Kermit was able to film the mating ritual of the male and female Koozebanes, the Galley-oh-hoop-hoop.

Palisades made a Reporter Kermit figure that came with Koozebane figures. I did not buy this figure, but someone who only wanted the Kermit mailed me the Kooozebanes, and, I think, Rowlf's piano.

Here we have the Galley-oh-hoop-hoop!

Here is the whole happy family.

The Galley-oh-hoop-hoop always makes me laugh, and I am so happy to have these figures. 

The baby is especially adorable.

The male and female Koozebanes can move their arms: the baby is all one piece.