My Limhwa Lily arrived today!  I've loved Limhwa dolls for a very long time, so finally ordered one last Monday, from the Junkeyspot, the only US distributor. They didn't have any blank ones in stock, so I purchased one with a face up.  

Limhwa is a one-woman operation. Artist Ji-Youn Jung sculpts the dolls and casts them herself. My Lily reminds me of my Narae, which isn't all that surprising, since Ji-Youn Jung studied under Bimong, who created the Naraes.  

Lily is MSD size, and stands about 43 cm tall.  She came with both flat and high-heel feet, as well as some blank resin high-heel shoes.  She's a very pale 'normal' resin, and has very light eyebrows, so will need light hair. I ordered a pair of lovely light blue eyes, but they still seem a bit too dark. 

I'm not sure if it's the eye colour, or the size of the iris. I lightened her eyes in Photoshop 
in the next picture, and love how they look, but don't want to do that for every photo.
  Maybe I should try a size smaller.

She has absolutely nothing to wear, so i wrapped her in some ivory lace.  I was thinking something Fantasy Medieval. 

She's also going to need her body blushed - especially those lovely, expressive hands.


Lily has quite some range of motion, but her body seems a bit loose, and nowhere near the sturdiness of an Iplehouse doll. Not sure if she needs tighter stringing, sueding, or wiring. Or I just need to learn how to work with her.

I picked up my KID Milly boy a few days ago, and as with all older boy dolls I'm having trouble getting him to look as masculine as I'd like. Most sculpts are way too feminine, and the tiny necks don't help. I specifically chose Iplehouse's Milly sculpt because it is the most masculine-looking of all their KIDs. But boys have thicker necks in real life, and the KIDs all have very slender necks, so I've tried to bulk out his neck area with a turtle-neck and chain mail. 

But wigs are the biggest challenge of all. There's no such thing as masculine boy wigs available anywhere. I had purchased two brown wigs for him - a short and longer one, for his contemporary and Fantasy personas, but in the end I decided he worked best as a blonde. And the one I have on him right now just says 'Joan of Arc' to me. But 'he' can't be a 'she', because he has a 'boy' body.  So I need to try make him a mohair wig more suitable to a rough and rugged boy.

He also needs some soft leather shoes to go with his pants and leggings.  Right now the black plastic 'frog shoes' he's wearing, look totally out of place.  Another option would be to make him a kilt, which he can wear with some nice tall leather boots I have. But I have to check to see if there's enough tartan fabric left over from his cloak. If not, then there's always the option of choosing a different tartan and making a new cloak, as well as a kilt. 

I've decided that I prefer my new little Robin Hood costume on Ringo. 
I find it works better with his lighter skin tone  and hair colour. 

Ringo and Holly make a cute little 'Robin and Marion'. It turns out I miscalculated how many bows and quivers full of arrows I needed for my Fanatasy characters, and I made 5 bows and 4 quivers, but it turns out I needed one more of each. So for now I'm one set short, so my little pair will just have to work like a team. Ringo with the bow, and Holly with the quiver full of arrows.

I picked up my Milly boy last night, but am having trouble choosing a wig for pictures. Boys are always a challenge, as I don't want them to look too 'girly'. The wig I liked best when he was blank, doesn't work as well now that he's painted. I hope one of my other wigs works, because I'm not keen on making a wig from scratch. 

Then there's the issue of shoes. When he was blank, I had him wearing a pair of black frog shoes, since I don't exactly have a wealth of boy footwear, especially not anything suitable for his particular character. But somehow a brave Fantasy hero can't be seen traipsing around the countryside in some black plastic, gardening shoes. So I need to make either a pair of suitable rugged footwear, or see if I have enough fabric left over from his cloak to make a kilt. Then I can use the black boots I have.

As to his name, I think I've decided on Milo, as opposed to Miles. One is German, the other English. Both mean 'Soldier', or Master Builder, who is a confident, organized leader of large undertakings. Sounds about right.

Because he's the 'birthday boy', Efreet is the last to try Pin-the-tail-on-the-Donkey

Bonnie ties on the blindfold, and makes sure he can't see...

...... right where it should go.     Efreet is the winner!

"That was a fun birthday!"

For Efreet's party, I printed out a tiny version of 'Pin-the-Tail-on-the-Donkey'. 
The children thought it was a lot of fun.

They all took turns trying to pin their tail onto the Donkey....

Ringo was disappointed that he missed....

Today is Efreet's Birthday!  He arrived a year ago today, and was my second little boy, although he was the first one to appear in photos since he came with a face up. 

I'm throwing him a party this afternoon with some of his friends, but its too hot and humid outside (with thunderstorms in the forecast) so we are stuck inside. It's rather hectic, but I am trying to take photos when I can.S0 far I've managed to take the obligatory 'official' birthday portraits.

Efreet with all his friends, posing with the cake....

...and Efreet with his two best buddies....

Well, time to get back to the party.  Hopefully there will be more pictures tomorrow.

With all the little Fantasy costumes I've been making lately, I keep taking dolls down to the lake to look for photo settings.  But it's become extremely challenging.  Lake Ontario water levels are way up - about a foot above normal - so all my usual spots are underwater, and what shoreline is left is very narrow and wet. We went to a new location that worked a month ago, but the path down to the beach was washed out and now there's a metre high drop off - which I can't manage.  So I had to resort to 'hand-held'......

.....and using an old concrete 'ruin'....

I'm almost finished the little 'Robin Hood' costume I've been working on all week.  

I still need to finish painting his bow - and the four others under construction.  
However, I realized I'm a bow short, so will need to make yet another one.

Went to Fabricland today, because I ran out of brown cotton for linings. But there was a 
big sale, so several other green, beige and brown fabrics followed me home as well. 
So now I'm all set to make a whole bunch more Fantasy costumes.

Today is 'Teddy Bear Picnic Day', so i thought I'd revisit the cute photo story I shot last year. 

To see the whole story, just click on the photo..

I've started another costume in my small Fantasy series. I was inspired by a cloth elf doll costume I made many years ago, which is more or less along the lines of an embellished, 'traditional' Robin Hood costume. But now that I'm part way along I'm starting to question if I've made a big mistake.  How do I transform a 'traditional Errol Flyn, Men in Tights' Robin Hood costume into something that would fit into Lord of the Rings?

I know stuff often looks completely wrong when I'm partway through, so I've decided to trust my instincts and push on. I'm hoping with the addition of lots of embellishment and accessories, that it will still work out. If not, then someone will have a nice Hallowe'en costume come October.