And Now....Introducing Me...

For those who know me, they are probably falling out of their seats to see me actually post pics of myself online.  These were taken a few months ago and probably the first pics I've allowed to have taken of me in many years.  And you can see why. I'm simply not photogenic at all and never have been. And like I need photos to add more pounds on me.  LOL

The second pic is of me with my beloved new car that I bought last year.  It is a 2009 model Ford Fiesta Zetec.  This is the 4th car I've ever owned and my very first brand new car.  Before that the 'newest' car I owned was the last one which was a 1996 model Ford Festiva.  Funnily, all my cars, except one, have been Fords.  I still remember my trusty first car, it was a bright yellow, 1997 TD Ford Cortina.  I really loved that car and it was very good to me but sadly, I ended up having to sell it as in the end the rust was getting to it and at the time I just did not have the funds to get that fixed.  My second car was 1978 VB Commodore.

This car is a real luxury for me what with the power steering (trust me my Cortina had no such thing) and cruise control and other stuff that new cars come with these days.  But I would have to say that my ultimate dream car is a 1967 Shelby GT Mustang (aka Eleanor from the movie Gone in 60 Seconds).  I have always had a bit of a thing for Mustangs.  Unfortunately, the 6 figure price tag for my dream car leaves it way out of my price range but hey....if I ever won the Lotto.....

Introducing Sabrina

This is our cat Sabrina.  She used to be a stray cat but Darren tempted her upstairs one day with some food and she has stayed with us since.  That was about 10 years ago.  We used to have 2 cats - our other cat, Kira, a manx, passed away earlier this year.  She was 13 years old.

I don't know what it is about cameras but it is damn hard to get any half decent pics of Sabrina.  As soon as she sees the camera she just moves or looks away.  In this picture she looks kind of brownish in tone but she is actually a really dark grey tabby.  Here she is sitting in one of her favourtie spots - on the top of her cat post by the dining room window, enjoying the sun rays.

Big Ben Barbie

This year Mattel released a new line of dolls called Landmarks of the World (ummm...well I think that is what it is called...LOL).  So far there are 3 in this series - Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty and Big Ben, which you see above.

I chose this doll because I really liked her dress and overall colouring.  I did intend to use this doll for re-dressing as the dress is removable but so far, I kind of like her as is.  The hands of the clock on her dress are plastic and can be moved around but do not move on their own.  

Recently I was able to see the other two dolls in this line at our local TRU but did not like them enough to bring them home.  I was close to getting the statue of Liberty Barbie as he has a really nice face and hair but the hair is so full of gunk I decided it's not worth it.  Hopefully there will be more dolls in this range but we will see.

Erin and Erin

These two lovelies are from Integrity's Nu Face line called Erin.  I had taken a couple more pics of them but they came out so bad that they were not worth posting.

The blonde Erin on the right is the very first doll produced and she is called Young, Rich and Famous - as you can see she has a pierced nose and blonde hair with a bit of regrowth showing through.  The raven haired Erin came in an FAO exclusive gift-set called Power Couple.  She came with a male doll but I was able to find her for sale from a friend a couple of years ago.  She has a nice gothic style look to her with her raven hair and she comes with a most amazing red gown that I have re-dressed on one of my silkstones and boy was that dress hell to get on.  LOL

Basically Lea

Here we have another of the Barbie Basics line with the Lea face mould so I call her Lea.  She was probably one of the more sought after of this line.  She is meant to be Asian of origin but I think she looks more Eurasian than Asian.

One thing I'd really like is an authentic looking Asian doll.  I think the closest doll would have to be Tonner's Mei Li but I don't collect dolls larger than 11.5 - 12".  Still this one is one of my favourite and she looks fabulous in red.

Fashionista

This Fashionista doll is called Sporty because she came in a sporty style outfit.  Personally I thought she has a really lovely face and it seems to be rare to get a brunette in the Fashionista doll range.  She does have the big head syndrome (BHS) which is starting to get a bit annoying but still I think she has a lovely face and hair.

Giselle Ma Belle

Here we have the lovely Giselle in a cute little outfit from a Fashionista closet set.  I don't know about you bit it is kind of reminiscent of the Disco days.

Basically Barbie

I probably have mentioned this before, but earlier this year Mattel released a line of 12 dolls called Barbie Basics.  These were a group of dolls dressed in basic black dresses (of different designs) and of different colours and ethnicities.

I'm not sure what number this doll is but I do remember the date I bought her because it was the same night I waited in a long line to get the new Iphone 4 which was released here on July 30.  LOL  Darren and I took turns in the line so we didn't lose our spot and I wanted to check out the Kmart at this shopping centre.  It was one of those nights when I just had an urge to get a new doll and eventually I decided to buy this lovely doll.

I would say her nationality is meant to represent Latino/Hispanic.  To me, she just has a lovely face and I like her slightly darker blonde hair - a change from the usual platinum or very light blonde hair.  However, I've been debating whether to cut her hair into a bob to match the length of har rather long fringe.  What do you reckon?

A Little Bit of Aphrodisiac

I bought this doll recently from my lovely friend Jan.  She is a mini version of Integrity's Avant Guard dolls who are 16" tall, called Aphrodisiac.  This is also my first wigged doll.  I swore black and blue I'd never get a wigged doll because it is such a hassle to get wigs etc., but I saw so many wonderful pics of her posted on various doll forums, that I decided I really like her.  Then I saw Jan had her for sale and the rest is history.

She does have quite a dramatic look - I guess you'd call it a Haute Couture look.  It's just nice to have a doll with such a different look to her and I hope to get a few more wigs for her at some stage.

It was a bit hard getting this wig, which she comes with, to sit on her head but I found some double sided sticky tape which seemed to do the trick.

Apple Martini

Ugh!  I'm sorry about the first pic - just too much exposure there but it was the best of the full length pics and I just wanted to show the outfit in full.  This is an OOAK outfit made by a very well down designer in the doll collecting world called OVAZ.

This outfit iniitally caused me a lot of grief because I had never bought from OVAZ before but have always known him to be of good reputation over the years.  There was a point where I had given up on ever receiving this outfit and actually had to file a Paypal claim for the first time in my 12 odd years of doll collecting but fortunately the outfit did arrive (it actually was sent 2 weeks after I paid for it) and I could cancel the claim.

I've always admired OVAZ' designs and despite the issues in actually receiving the outfit, I am not disappointed in the outfit itself.  It is very nicely made and I love the colour.  The dress is made of lycra so it can pretty much slide on any 11.5 - 12" doll body.  Personally, I think green looks best on redheads so I put this one on one of my favourite silkstones - Day at the Races.

The Best of Friends

Yes, I am still alive!  I knew I had not updated my blog for a while but didn't realise until tonight just how long it has been.  Good news is I have some more new doll pics to share - well I hope it is good news.  LOL

Here we have a relatively new range of dolls made by Mattel called the Monster High Dolls.  These dolls are just sooo cute and thanks to the lovely Jan, I was able to get these 2 best of friends above - Frankie Stein and Dracu Laura.

These dolls are about the same height as the Bratz dolls and do look similar to the Bratz however, their bodies are way smaller - their waists are about as thick as my thumb.  And they have articulated arms and legs.  I doubt these dolls will ever make it to the shores of Australia but I just could not resist them.  They're just really cute and fun and currently sit on the shelf above my computer monitor.

Paparazzi Bait Adele

Last, but not least (for now), we have Paparazzi Bait Adele.  Again, this was another doll I had put away as one to get rid of but I have changed my mind (for now).  I think what put me off most was how I ruined her hair.  The doll originally came with much tighter curls but they were so filled with gunk it wasn't funny.  So I decided to try and was that gunk out and this is the result.  Some might big, messy hair.  I am just so HOPELESS when it comes to hair.

But she is still a gorgeous doll and here she is wearing a whole mixture of stuff - the dress is from a Barbie Basic, those luscious leopard print shoes came with Adele, the belt came with something over the years as did the hat.  The cute dog came with a Barbie Basic accessory pack.  

Darius

In these pics we have Darius who was one of Mattel's first line of dolls with the 'Model Muse' body.  As you can see the MM bodies come in various 'posed' positions as also depicted in the Barbie Basics dolls I have posted pics of.  

There have been a lot of comments in the doll community on how 'thin' the bodies are but it does not personally bother me as I have never associated fashion dolls with real life body image.  Also, these dolls don't seem as popular because they are not articulated.  Whilst I do lean a bit more towards articulated doll bodies now, I still do appreciate those that aren't as well.  The way I see it, most of them are just posed at that moment when they reach the end of the cat walk.  LOL

This is another Fashionista closet fashion with earrings and bracelets added.  Many people have also said that this doll resembles Paris Hilton a lot.  Sadly, I can see the resemblance (I peronally cannot stand Paris Hilton) but I think she has less plastic than Paris.  LOL

Teresa

Teresa is looking both Mod and current in her cute little fashion.  I think I have mentioned previously that I went through a bunch of my dolls and put aside some that I may try selling at a later stage due to dolly overload....well Teresa was another one I had put aside and I don't know why now.  Good thing I have not gotten rid of those dolls yet...bad thing is that eventually they probably will all end up back on display.  LOL

And again I've taken a pic of her cool boots.

Rock Chic

This is Then and Now Barbie wearing a cute and funky little rocker style outfit that came with another Fashionista closet fashion I found about a month ago.  The cute little ankle boots came with one of the Barbie Basics accessory paks.

A lot of the Fashionista closet fashions are really cute but I have to admit that I am starting to get a bit of a pink overload with them.  I mean I like pink as a colour but I don't want every single fashion to be pink.  Let's hope Mattel eases up on all the pink SOON....don't hold your breath though.

More Luchia

Once again we have Luchia, looking a bit contemplative in this picture.  Here she is wearing a Randall Craig fashion - I can't remember the name of it though.  I do know the outfit came in 2 colours - a blue and a red version.  This red version was the more limited and one I had coveted for some years and finally I was able to buy this outfit for a good price from a friend who needed to raise some $$ quick.

I only have a few Randall Craig fashions.  They can bit a bit on the pricey side but they really are very well made and worth the $$ if you can spare them.

Christie

This is the lovely Christie with those luscious pink streaks in her hair.  She is wearing an FR outfit that was a conventiono exclusive from a few years ago.  The outfit actually came with pink boots which are pretty cool but I thought these amazing Barbie shoes looked much better in this instance.  

My dolls have so many shoes it would put Imelda Marcos to shame ten times over.  LOL  

Snow Bunny

Okay so the background really doesn't fit with her outfit but it's all I have.

This is a cute little Fashionista closet outfit I got a couple of days ago which I thought suited her perfectly.  I added the tights and boots.  This outfit came with the same style boots but in pink and I didn't think it really went well enough with this outfit.

I love her sweet face and soft hair.

Caliente

I think I have the name right (I used to be so good with all the doll names but now there are so many that I find it hard to keep up..LOL), this is a Monsieur Z (MZ) Caliente doll.  The MZ dolls were made by Integrity but are no longer in production.  This is the only MZ doll I have in my collection.  I bought her from a dear friend - I just could not resist her red hair - very close to the colour of my hair.  LOL

She does have a bit of a larger head than normal and her eyes are kind of comic book but I still think she is lovely.  She is on the first FR articulated body but with a smaller bust.  In this pic she is wearing a dress I recently bought from another dolly friend.  I'm not sure actually if it is an OOAK or not but I put the white ribbon around the waist.

Urban Geisha Kyori

Hello again.  Time to upload some more dolly pics.  Here we have one of my favourite of the Fashion Royalty dolls - Urban Geisha Kyori.  As you can see she is still on her original non-articulated body.  I would love to tranfser her to an articulated body but don't have a spare matching body and there is that worry that I will ruin something if I did do a body swap.

Kyori was supposed to be the 'Asian' doll in the FR line but as you can see there is not much of an Oriental look to her at all.  Still, what I love about her the most is those smokey eyes and the pale lips.  She has a kind of 60's mod look to her which can also transform to many other looks.  Here in this pic she is wearing a Disco Barbie fashion which fits her perfectly.

Day at the Races

This one of my favourite of the red haired silkstones called Day at the Races.  She has beautifully soft, wavy hair and I also like her colouring.  There was a time when almost every silkstone that came out had the usual blue eyeshadow.  After a time I started to get really bored with the silkstone line as were other doll collectors but fortunately Mattel listened (for a change) and we now get more silkstones with different colouring.

Hopefully some day Mattel will start making the silkstones with articulated bodies as the lack of articulation has certainly turned many collectors off them.

In this picture she is actually wearing an FR outfit but I can't remember where that little leopard print bag came from.

Then and Now Barbie

Here we have the Then and Now Barbie that came out last year to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the release of Barbie.  Not too long ago I found her for sale at TRU for only $18 and I needed a little pick-me-up that day so I decided that was a pretty good price and bought her.

She has a lovely face and such soft hair.  It took me a little white to find one that had the most even looking fringe but I finally got there.  LOL  I actually put her on one of the Barbie Fashionista bodies which are articulated.

It's nice to have these articulated bodies on the dolls as they do make for easier posing but sadly I find myself less imaginative with posing my dolls than some other collectors.  Somehow I find myself putting them in much the same pose when I take my pics.  LOL

Baby Blues

I love the 2-toned hair of this Barbie and her piercing blue eyes.  They probably don't show up so well in my pics but she just has the most amazing blue eyes.  I"ll have to try and find a blue outfit that will really make those eyes stand-out.