A Slouchy Beanie

 I love this version of Orlando bald, and since his arrival I have been meaning to get out the crochet hooks and attempt to do some beanies for him. This weekend I dusted them off, watched some Youtube videos to "reacquaint" myself with the crochet hooks and took a stab at doing a beanie for him. It's a little slouchy as I used the same basic pattern I used for the girls and didn't take into account the fact that he doesn't have any hair. 

You can see here it is a bit slouchy, but slouchy works too. I'll tighten up the pattern next time to see if I can get one that fits a little closer to his head. Upside is the girls can wear this one too.

The crocheting will add some versatile knit pieces to the doll's wardrobes, and I do enjoy it once I get in a rhythm. It also will give me something productive to occupy my time this afternoon while waiting on the new Jamieshow Moments of Joy collections unveiling. I'm hoping for lots of cool pieces for the guys since they were absent during the last Go East release.

 

Getting Ready for 2023

Alexis is getting ready to ring in the New Year this weekend in a gown from the Dangerous Love collection, wig also from the Dangerous Love collection. She's also hoping her new friends from Paris (Bonjour Paris collection) will arrive early in 2023.

Jamieshow will also be revealing a new Muse collection this weekend called Moments of Joy on Dec 31 at 4pm EST. I am equal parts excited and afraid for this collection!  I REALLY don't need to buy anything else so soon after the Go East collection, and with the Bonjour Paris collection due to arrive early next week (hopefully). I was hoping I could limit myself to clothing for the new collection...........and from the previews, there is a black suit for the guys that is a MUST have for me. I know myself though, and if there is a new sculpt, or heaven forbid Eshe finally puts in a second appearance..............or Ginnie is in this round, I'm probably NOT going to stick to that plan. 

In the meantime, I'll take a few days to really enjoy the dolls I currently have, and prepare to enjoy the new characters that will be arriving with the Paris collection, and keep my fingers crossed there isn't as much in the Moments of Joy collection that I 'have to have', as there was in the Go East collection.

Holiday Selections Part 2

 Just a couple of dolls to share for today's holiday installment post. I finally de-boxed Home for the Holidays Ginger Gilroy. I love Ginger's sculpt. I think I would like her as much as Poppy if we got as much variety with her as we do with Poppy. I have 3 of her 4 incarnations up until this point, and would love to see some variation in her screening and a hair color. I'd also love to see a sunkissed or light honey skin tone for her, I think she would be stunning as a brunette or raven with one of those skin tones. That being said, I do like this version of her. The hair color is such a pretty shade of red. Almost a cherry shade.

I'd also love to see a bright cherry red lip for her instead of the pink she has sported in all her versions so far. I thought from promos that Home for the Holidays had red lips, but they aren't red, they are a very deep pink.

The other doll that got some holiday photos this morning was Weekender Lukas. I redressed him in one of the Jamieshow suits from last years Enchanted Holiday collection. I love that the Integrity men can share with the Jamieshow guys. Jamieshow has done some fantastic clothing for their men so far, and the shoes are really awesome.

I have a love/hate relationship with Lukas much of the time. I'm not gaga over all the versions of him as a lot of collectors are. I do however love this version of him. The sunkissed skin tone with dark hair suits him well. The fade haircut is done really nicely.

He may overtake Leading Man Lukas as my favorite version of Lukas to date. I like Tantric too, but I wasn't collecting avidly when that version of him came out and I'm not paying secondary market prices for him, so I'm not counting that version of him in the mix. I seem to like the darker skin tones for him.

Holiday Selections Part 1

 I finally got the East 59th ladies in my cabinet dressed for Christmas, along with my Silkstones and Poppy Parker's. Gosh I have way too many dolls in the cabinet these days and it took me a lot longer than I expected to get them all changed. I thought I'd share round one of the holiday photos here. I have been lucky enough to pick up quite a few holiday fashions from Gwendolyn's Treasures over the years. The first couple outfits are from Gwen. I love the variety she offers and everything is always so beautiful.

Della was first up in a beautiful poinsetta dress in shades of mauve and gold.

This is the Merry and Bright version of Della. Her most recent incarnation, Burnt Champagne isn't all that different except for eye color.

Merry and Bright has gray eyes, Burnt Champagne has brown.

And since I was talking about Burnt Champagne Della, here is that version of her. She is dressed for the holidays as well, in her original outfit.

Both of the Burnt Champagne girls, Della and Victoire.

Afternoon Intrigue Constance also donned one of Gwen's dresses.

This is probably my favorite version of Constance to date, although I really like Festive Lights a lot too. 

Poppy is wearing her own jumpsuit. I thought the color was perfect for Christmas. Desert Dazzler is my favorite Poppy to come along in a long time. She's just a totally stunning doll IMHO.

And a close up of her gorgeos face.

Lastly for today's holiday installment, Resort Ready in an adorable dress from Candypinkfashions on Etsy. She paired the dress with Plum Powers wrap.

I love Resort Ready too, although she's much harder for me to photograph than Desert Dazzler. Both gorgeous club dolls from last year though! I can't wait to see the rest of the Palm Springs dolls in person.

A Little Holiday Shopping

 December has once again gotten away from me. I always have big plans to dress all the dolls up and take lots of pictures and while I've taken some, I haven't taken as many as I would have liked so far. Today I did get Orlando out for some time in front of the camera. I have several sweaters from Gwendolyn's Treasures for the guys that she did quite a few years ago and I wanted to see if they would work for the Muse men. I was happy to find out that they fit great.

I think the hat also was made by Gwen, but I've had it quite a few years and I've actually forgotten with 100% accuracy as to where it came from. I do however like it on Enchanted Orlando.

His scarf, pants and shoes are from Integrity. (Although you can't really see his shoes in these shots). Hopefully this weekend I'll have a chance to get a few of my Muse girls in front of the camera.

Old Hollywood Vibes

 As soon as I saw this robe on Etsy from DollsFancyWorld I knew I had to have at least one color for my girls. I love the glamour of Old Hollywood and this robe reminded me of that time period. The robe came in several different colors, but since  I just paid downpayments on the JS Go East collection as well as my balances on Bonjour Paris, my funds were limited so I chose to go with the pink first. If it's still available when my coffers replenish I'll probably go back for another color. I chose Nicole to model first, as she's new here and I wanted to spend a bit more time with her in front of the camera.

I should have taken my makeup brush to her face before I started the photo shoot.........the darker resins pick up every last bit of dust, but she's still beautiful.

I'm so thankful I was able to pick up this version of Nicole. She has quite a bit of attitude and I love her makeup.

Premier Nicole

 I came to the Jamieshow Muses collection later in the game. It was during the leftover's sale from the Summer Kisses collection that I first decided to bite the bullet and ger my first Muse (which was Summer Kisses Sasha). Once Sasha was home, I knew I was in trouble and that this line would become a focus for my collection journey.  My hope is that I will eventually own one of each of the sculpts in the line. Nicole was one of the sculpts I had not acquired yet. My favorite version of her was her Premier version, but she didn't come up for sale very often, so I had no illusions of being able to add her. My hope was that eventually there would be a version of her that I would like as much.  Last week, the opportunity arose to add Premier complete as she came, and I jumped on it, even though the timing wasn't the best with balances for Bonjour Paris due and preorder deposits for Go East due as well. I'm not sorry! She arrived yesterday and is really lovely.

I chose Look 6 from the Enchanted collection for her to wear in her first photos. It suits her really well. Nicole's resin is the darkest of the resin shades offered by Jamieshow up to this point. It is called "chocolate", and while it is a beautiful resin color, it presents challenges to photograph. (at least for me), I had to play quite a bit to get the white balances right.

The darker resins also show dust much more than the lighter resins due and sometimes you can't even see the particles with the naked eye, but the camera picks them up.

I'm really glad to have a representative of Nicole here in the chocolate resin. It will be fun to compare the three darker shades once Michael and Sabina arrive, who have two new shades of resin, Cappuchino and Mocha respectively. I love the variety with the Muses line.

The Power of Paint

The 2022 fall/winter collection of the Jamieshow Muses went up for preorder this past week. The men are sitting this go around out, which I would have thought was a good thing for my budget, but I'm finding it REALLY hard to narrow down my choices among the 6 women in the offerings this time. We have three new Muse sculpts this go around: Natalie, Lan and Sakura. The other three offerings are Bella, Sasha and Lilly. Upon first glance I thought I would go with the three new sculpts, but as I noted in my last blog entry Bella called to me LOUDLY, so she will be coming home. I'm also having a REALLY hard time convincing myself that I don't "need" Sasha. Below are the 6 new lovely ladies in the Go East collection. Promotional photo is by Jamieshow/Owensu.

As mentioned above, upon first glance I thought I could pass on Sasha as I already have two versions of her, Summer Kisses and Dangerous Love, but this Go East version of her is so "soft" by comparison. It almost doesn't even look like Sasha. Below you can see the two versions I own compared with the new Go East version on the far right. VERY different, right? Just goes to show the power of a face up.

I'm thinking I may just have to bite the bullet and preorder her anyway, or I might live to regret it when the actual owner pictures start showing up. In the meantime I got Dangerous Love Sasha out for some new photos today. She's a very sultry version of Sasha. In these shots she's modeling a gown by Santiago Lopez (on Etsy).

Sasha isn't my favorite Muse sculpt, but she is very expressive and I do really enjoy photographing her.

Bella

 Just a bit of fun playing with Bella today. She wasn't a doll that was on my radar at all when she was introduced in the 2021 Jamieshow Fall/Winter Dangerlous Muse Doll Collection. I looked at her promos and thought, she was an easy pass. As is often the way though, when she was delivered and new owners started sharing her on the boards I had regrets that I didn't fully realize her potential from her promo shots. Luckily I was able to pick her up in the leftovers sale. Over the past year, she has become a doll I reach for often to photograph. Ginnie still remains my favorite Muse sculpt (on the Femme side), with Alexis close behind her, but Bella is a firm third place for me. When I saw the new version of her released in the most recent Go East collection for Fall/Winter 2022 I was immediately drawn to her (and she WILL be coming to live here.) Not going to make the mistake of passing on her this time and living to regret it. Today I decided to get Bella out to model the last outfit I have from the Enchanted collection, that has not been photographed on a Muse doll. Look 6. Look 6 is a frothy confection of cream lace.

This outfit wasn't on my radar when the Enchanted collection was released either and I didn't preorder it. The promo shots had a huge head piece that wasn't to my taste. I also ruled it out thinking the skirt might be too big.  Below photo by Jamieshow/Owensu.

When it was available in the leftovers sale, and I had a little bit of leftover funds to be able to purchase it, I took a chance thinking it would look good on Ginnie with her tan skintone, or maybe Sabina, who is coming from the Bonjour Paris collection. I had every intention of letting Dangerous Love Ginnie model it first, but she's currently wearing the green caped gown (Look 13) also from Enchanted and I like her in it so much I didn't want to change her. I started looking at the rest of my girls and thought since Bella has become my resident redhead, that maybe she would pull off this gown well. I do think she looks quite stunning in it.

Since I didn't purchase any of the headpieces I wanted a wig with a little volume on top, and I think this one fits the bill nicely.

With Bonjour Paris collection due to arrive at the end of this month, I wanted to get the last of my Enchanted items photographed in order to be able to fully enjoy the Paris collection as it arrives. Come to think of it, I still have an outfit from the Dangerous Love collection that I was saving for the fall to photograph. Hmmm..............guess I need to look around the dollroom to see which of the girls might like to model that one. In the meantime, one last parting shot of Bella.

Spirit of the Season

 I've been lucky enough to pick up several Halloween designs over the years from Gwendolyns Treasures on Etsy so this year I dressed my Integrity crowd for the season and took some photos. First up Summer Splendor, one of the Victoire basics. I love this screening for Victoire with the fuller lips.

I have the outfit style above in two color ways, the second was claimed by Spice Poppy, a doll I have wanted ever since I first saw her, and was finally able to add to my collection this year. I think she will prove to be incredibly versatile.

Another new Poppy added this year, Resort Ready. She was actually one of the five club dolls for 2021, but arrived in 2022. She's the first time Poppy has been done in the dark A-tone.

Luxurious Leisure Constance claimed this Gothic Alice interpretation dress.

Love the mask.

I thought Blue Gold Victoire would be a good choice to model this dress with her orange hair.

And the last of my Halloween designs by Gwen modeled by my favorite Integrity doll so far this year, Desert Dazzler. What a gorgeous Poppy! She was also a 2021 club doll who arrived in 2022. She's a definite keeper!!

Look at that face! I love everything about this doll!

One more just because she's so pretty!