3 posts tagged “japan”
Back in January, I wrote a monster post about some dolls I have and some dolls I wanted and some other things; now I can write a follow-up, since I've been expanding my doll collection lately. (This will have to do as a post topic; I haven't been making much lately, really.)
I finally did get Pullip Veritas in May, for my birthday. She came from Hobby Link Japan, a great shop -- I totally recommend them. Much less expensive than on eBay, and because it was Golden Week and they were low on stock, I was able to joke about getting "the last Veritas in Japan!" (This is not actually the case; they restocked a few weeks later.) She's much prettier in person.
(HLJ is a perfect place to buy any of the kinds of things you'll see in this post -- including Re-Ment miniatures by the case box!)
I had some personal issues in May, and to cheer myself up, I wound up buying this:
I believe Light and Misa come with their respective notebooks (of doom), but L just comes with some extra hands (which, as the photos show, allow him to examine things and pose in some of his characteristic positions). The dolls are capable of assuming almost any pose that a real human might be able to. Here's a detail version of one of those shots....
It turns out that I have some old (bought in 2005) Re-Ment miniatures that are exactly the same type of cake that L is depicted eating. Serendipity! If I ever take him out of the box, there will be cake photos.
At any rate, two dolls in one month! Who can live at that speed? My next acquisition just arrived the other day, though I found her on eBay when I had a 10%-off coupon, and she came with free Pullip shoes, too... a really good bargain. She's another one you may recognize from January's big doll post:
She also has special eye chips, nicer (IMO) than the standard ones that my original Blythe had (I didn't care for the pink or amber-brown). I think these are special shades of blue, violet, green, and brown.
The trouble -- concern at the prospect of becoming a creepy old lady doll collector. I try to keep it cool. ;)
I need to stop drafting posts and then not actually posting them.
I haven't been posting much lately because I'm super-duper busy as heck. Both the lead bloggers at DIY Life (one is darkmatt3r) stepped down at the beginning of March, and a couple of other ladies and I replaced them (the fact that it took three people to replace two harried ones, and the fact that all three of us are still very busy, might give you an idea of how much work we're talking about).
I wrote two long things in March, too. My article about Hinamatsuri, a holiday I think is really nifty because it involves super-fancy dolls, didn't get a ton of hits (but maybe people will discover it over time). There are some craft patterns at the end... a paper diorama, little cloth dolls, etc.
I also did a free knit/crochet pattern round-up for Easter: bunnies and lambs (or, if you prefer, rabbits and baby sheep). More cuteness per column inch than I knew what to do with. I want to make just about everything I listed, but I can't justify doing so. Anyway: Bunnies and Lambs to Knit, Bunnies and Lambs to Crochet.
I'm getting back on those "best free patterns of the month" columns, but skipping a few months. I have notes for a month that I'm not going to cover, so I will post them here. Later today, probably.
W/r/t my last post, I haven't yet bought any dolls. I did find that my local Japanese market is selling a few basic Re-Ment sets, so I bought one (single, not case) box of "Kawaii Kitchen" and one box of some food-based set. I don't think these are the new Americanized versions. Most of their other candy toy sets are based on, like, Power Rangers or some kind of mecha.
I banged my finger up pretty good last week, and in doing so, learned something: if you have a choice between Hello Kitty Band-Aids and non-Hello Kitty Band-Aids, get the Hello Kitty ones. They're bigger than the WaterBlock style anyway, and they will make you smile (at least, they will if you are me). I've been covering my bandaids in porous clear tape, then wearing a rubber finger cot every time I have to wash my hands.
I have managed to get a friend totally obsessed with Death Note. Now we are having long philosophical debates about A) whether or not we would use the Death Note, and how, and B) our deep, abiding love for L. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you clearly spend your leisure time more wisely than I do. (To be fair, though, everyone I know who sees the show becomes mildly obsessed with it. This includes my previously-animation-hating mother, who has also fallen hard for Ratatouille and anything from Studio Ghibli.)
(I'm also giggling at the moment, because Law & Order: Criminal Intent is on, and the suspect's last name is Morrissey, so they're saying things like, "I DON'T THINK MORRISSEY COULD HAVE PLANNED THIS ON HIS OWN," and I'm like, NO, HE WAS TOO MISERABLE, HE WILL BE CAUGHT WHEN JOHNNY MARR TURNS HIM IN....)
I've been sitting on this for a few weeks...
I'm writing for DIY Life now. I'll be posting on general craft and DIY topics, but most specifically on knitting and crochet. (If you click that link, you can see a picture of the pitcher I use for iced tea and Kool-Aid. It came from Target earlier this summer....)
A post that I'm particularly proud of went up today: Pottercraft. Check it out!
That post just about ate my brain. What happened was that I found a bunch of things myself, with the help of Flickr and Wists and the Craftster search function and so on, along with some patterns I already knew of. Then I found out that most of that material was completely obviated by the Leaky Cauldron and Freshisle Fibers sites, and could be condensed to two paragraphs. There was much gnashing of teeth & I was really mentally exhausted. I feel like I approached the topic backwards, and could have saved myself a lot of time if I'd looked to see if the Leaky Cauldron had a craft area first. They've gone around the internet asking almost anyone who comes up with an original pattern or way to duplicate a Potterverse item if they can use the pattern on their site.
I don't really do Harry Potter-inspired crafts, but I like the books and I have a lot of friends who are deeply into that fandom, and I've been aware that stuff is going on. One thing I didn't put in the post was about a woman in the UK who was trying to make over her wheelchair for book-release night; I left it out because she hadn't finished the project yet.
Another post I wrote this week was on kanzashi, which ppl might like. I actually want to review two books that do really interesting things with kanzashi forms (& other traditional Japanese craft stuff), but I think I will space out the Japanese content a little. Kanzashi are the hair ornaments associated with kimono - there are metal ones that tinkle, but I wrote about hana kanzashi, which are detailed flowers made of fabric.
