Part One: The Dream Doll Room at the Doll Club Party ...

Okay, before I even get started here I should state that I will have to break this down into multiple blogs. There are TONS of quickly taken photographs (aka the opposite of awesome). I tried my best to capture everything, but once you see what I’m referring to, I think you’ll understand. So, here goes…

Our doll club party took place at Julie’s house. She has the mother of all doll rooms.  Her diorama set up made me rethink how I do EVERYTHING in my dolly-verse. She had amazing tips/tricks and great stories to go with the various rooms and pieces she has used. It was an informative and amazing opportunity to talk with her about her exceptionally creative and breathtaking doll room displays.  She has been working on this doll room for nearly 17 years, so none of this happened over night. And I want to thank her for giving me permission to photograph, and share all of her hard work with each of you via A Doll Affinity.

When you first enter the room this is what you see…

 In the above picture, you get a good view of the diorama shelving. What you can't see of the room is the other shelf on the far left. The stores and dioramas in this corner shelf join and flow together. You will see them later in this post. I should also note that her shelving was custom made by her dad, and he skillfully installed track lighting in each area. My camera flash also ruins your ability to see that. Again, I am apologizing on behalf of my camera and it's oftentimes clumsy operator.

 I love the cloud paper. The effect in this room literally takes your breath away.

 Next, you see her very stylishly dressed ladies posing in their respective cabinet. 

What you may not realize from the photographs below is that in most of the shelves the dolls go back a few rows. She has some multiples, but a lot of her multiples are my favorite dolls of all time. :)

 So pretty!!

Please excuse my flash on the doll cabinet's glass. 

My camera decided it didn't want to cooperate. Surprise.  Or perhaps the fault is all mine for being too excited to think the shot through. 

We will begin the room by room tour with the shelf below.....

The diorama's are very detailed and I tried to break most of them down into 2-3 shots to capture as much detail as possible. I encourage each of you to click on the pictures so that you may see better detail. You won't regret it. :) 

The first store I went to was the "Western Shop".

 Sorry that Papa Cowboy and his son went kind of blurry. Auto focus...ugh. 

On the plus side, you can see a lot of detail on the vest and saddle rack. ;)

 

The next room in this shelving unit is the Native American's store. 

 How cool is the black stand holding the beautiful pottery?! :)

This next diorama is part of one of the "New to you! Consignments". The other part is in the adjoining shelf.

Candle holders, a small wine rack and stylish magazine cutouts helped to create this amazing little shop!

This makes me want to shop til' I drop! :)

The last diorama in this shelf is one of my doll dreams.

Introducing half of the"Shop and Go Market." 

 

 

Look at the little cutie in the ducky rain slicker! And the Coca Cola machine!!

 I didn't get a chance to ask her where all of the realistic produce came from.

I will definitely make a point to ask in the future.

Onto the next shelving unit located to the immediate left of the one in the pictures above.

Yes, it does just keep getting cooler! ;)

I am going to go backwards this time, because we just covered the first part of the "Shop & Go Market", and the "New to you! Consignments." Both of the bottom Dioramas in this shelf are the 2nd parts of those, or perhaps these are the first parts. Either way, they are the same shops continued. :)

The Bottom Diorama in the next shelf is the other side of the "Shop & Go Market." 

I don't know why, but I fell in love with the area in the above picture.

Look at the little pretzels and slushies/icees! :D

 

The following pictures are from the other part of "New to you! Consignments."

Another genius use for candle holders in 1/6 scale retail! 

Love this!!

SHOES!! SHOES!! SHOES!! :D

Can anyone say SHOES?! I love a good pair of cute shoes! 

It doesn't show, does it?

The last 2 shelves I will be showcasing in Part One of the "The Dream Doll Room" tour are the top 2 dioramas in this shelving unit. They make up an Antiques shop!!! This is jaw dropping in person. You can stare at it for days and continually find something you missed.

The top level of "Antiques and Treasures"...

The Second level of "Antiques and Treasures"...

 Well, there it is, Part One of the tour. I will try to have Part Two up and running tomorrow. :) 

I have no idea how many parts there will be. All I can tell you is that they will be amazing. I took these pictures thinking of each of you, as we all love outstanding dioramas! :)

Oh, and as for the rest of the doll meeting. There was delicious food galore! Sadly, I didn't think to take pictures of it. I just ate it. Imagine that? ;) 

The charity raffle (all money is donated to a charity of the club's choice) was a blast. Many members bring in nice doll stuff and they place brown paper bags in front of each item. You purchase 30 tickets for $20. Or, 12 for $10 and yes I made that complicated for them. If any of you gals read this...sorry about that. Thank you for helping me out Laura! :)

I spent $30 in tickets and won the following (except for the Alexis Liv doll, she was won in the Doll Story I mentioned in my last post):

 The Happy Family stuff you see was part of an amazing diorama put together by one of my fellow doll club members...

I brought it home and tried to re-create it with the space 

I had available in order to photograph it better. However, the first picture of it is the original. 

You just can't see it very well due to the odd lighting.

Here are some pictures...

And it came with this adorable NRFB Baby Krissy set...

 At the time of writing this everything has been worked into my own doll room, or stored away.

I have taken pictures of it, but I will leave that for a later post. 

I will say that one of the stores in my mall got a serious upgrade! :)

Hope all of you had a great weekend and I look forward to hearing from all of you!! 

-Cat of A Doll Affinity

Not posting for a week= MONSTER POST! *Rawr*

I haven't blogged for several days. But that is because tomorrow is the last doll meeting/party for the year. Next meeting will be taking place sometime in January.  I have been a busy girl getting ready! :) I finished cleaning up donations this week, and I took a couple of pictures (please excuse the poor quality of some of the pics in this post, as I have been taking them on the fly)...

 

It's a rather large box which is awesome! I went through my stuff again, and found more to get rid of. I can't ever seem to hold onto things I don't think I'll use for long. Purging my doll stuff regularly feels great. Plus it's nice when I can make room for new stuff. Although, this purge was for very different reasons, as most of you already know, this purge was done in the spirit of giving. <3 

So, after spending most of my week preparing the above box, I readied a doll for a game that we'll be playing at the party tomorrow called "Doll Story." I think that might be an unofficial name for it. Please correct me if I have it wrong. Anyway, we each bring a dressed doll in nice condition that we don't mind parting with. Someone reads a Barbie story, and every time the word "Barbie" is read you pass the doll to the person next to you (not sure if it is passed clock wise or counter clock wise).  Whichever doll you're holding when the story ends is the doll you get to keep. :)  I had a naked reproduction doll lying around in plastic for over a year. I made her a skirt and a top, and decided she would be my "doll story" doll.

Here she is...

 

Not what I consider my best work, but at least she isn't naked. 

The skirt is actually from a relatively simple pattern I made.

I've been doing that quite a bit lately.  The sewing bug has bit me.

Next, we are each supposed to bring some sort of food for everyone, and I volunteered to make my Mamaw's amazing Pineapple upside down cake. I make it every year during Thanksgiving and Christmas in her memory. <3 It turned out beautiful. I sprinkled some extra love into it (brown sugar). I do cook, but it isn't my favorite activity. No Betty Crocker over here.  ;P

Look yummy? :)

Last, but not least, I got these two gals dressed for Show and Tell...

 I know you've seen Kiko and Florence, but the girls at doll club haven't. 

Miss Florence (on the right) is rocking another dress from the very talented Joan of Joan's emporium on eBay.  It's my favorite dress so far. The green one Sienna wore in episode 13 is a close second! :D

That covers doll meeting, now onto a new purchase that I mentioned in my last post. 

He is Hypnotic Francisco. <3  

This handsome fella arrived earlier in the week, and will be appearing in Doll Drama soon. ;)

He's already made a friend. 

Pickles, (my cat) and Eli. So cute! And no, I do not generally let Pickles snuggle with my dolls, but they just kinda bonded. My sweet boys. Although, I think Eli's sweetness ends here. *hint* ;)

Here is a better shot of just Eli..

*drool* Eh ehm...I had hoped to have a character profile prepared for him, but I haven't made it that far yet. More than likely he will have one next week, and don't worry I will blog about it when it is posted. :)

More exciting news...Nahla has a mom and dad!! Yay!!! I have been working on finding the perfect family members for her. I still need her oldest sister, her brother, and their Aunt (Nahla's mom's sister). Stay tuned this is going to get confusing!!! Haha! ;) 

Vanessa, these dolls are gonna be so down for that therapy session. These dolls are about to spiral into being even more out of control.....*rips out hair and laughs wildly* 

Um, maybe I need some therapy too...? :D

I present Nahla and Chandra's mom and dad...

 How cute are they? :)

Still making final decisions on their names. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment! I love suggestions. ;) 

Oh, and FINALLY...I updated the mall again. 

 The twins have been working at 'Fire and Ice Fever' for a  few weeks now. 

They seem fascinated by their latest customer. I wonder why... :)

^ Chandra at work.

Again, sorry about the photo quality being absolute crap.

I was in a rush, but you get the idea.

Well, that's all for now. I will more than likely post a blog about how doll meeting/party goes sometime this coming week. Oh and Persephone's sister should be making her debut as well. ;)

Play on, and have a STELLAR weekend! 

Thank you for reading all of my insane ramblings. 

You're the best! <3

-Cat of A Doll Affinity

TOKIDOKI INSPIRED OOAK FINISHED! :)

I finally got around to creating the eBay listing for the OOAK I created. 

You can find the listing here.

25% of her final sale is being donated to Matthew 25 Ministries. 

Turning my creative efforts into something positive and helpful is a dream of mine. ^_^  

Here is the finished doll...

 In other news, Episode 14 will be postponed. I have a VERY busy week ahead of me. 

My hope was to do a Thanksgiving episode to introduce Nahla and Darius as a married couple to her family. However, with the last doll meeting on the 19th, commissions, and cleaning up the rest of my donations I just won't have time for a week or two. 

I may post little mini photo stories here on this blog to bridge the gap. I have Nahla's parents ready to debut their character profiles sometime this week. Now I am working on developing Persephone's family further. Oh, and a new Fashion Royalty hunk is coming my way....

(NOT MY PICTURE)

 

I think I may already have a place for him in the Doll Drama series. ;) 

Well that is all for now!

Thank you for stopping by! ^_^ Play on!

-Cat of A Doll Affinity

Tokidoki inspired OOAK by me :)

So I have been working diligently on this doll all week. She should be completely done sometime tomorrow. But, I had to share what she is like thus far. I should re-name myself the impatient artist. ;)

Please excuse my terrible bedroom wall. :) My room is in the finished attic. 

I made her top and bubble skirt, hand painted on her tattoo, re-painted her lips (going to seal them tomorrow), made her a headband and bracelet, painted her finger nails, and of course I re-rooted her. ;)

The following picture shows off a new hair blending technique I discovered. She is re-rooted in white and sea foam green/blue saran hair. The ends look tipped in white. It is really beautiful in person but here is a picture to attempt showcasing it...

 

I was inspired to do this doll from all the Tokidoki madness. The plan is to auction her off and donate a percentage of the money to a reputable charity. I will give everyone further details as I have them. :)

I decided it was best to turn my negative feelings into something positive. 

Thank you for stopping by!! And a HUGE WELCOME to all my fast increasing followers!!

I send lots of dolly love your way!! 

-Cat of A Doll Affinity

Episode 13...Ready for your viewing pleasure! :)

Please excuse the longer blocks of text in this episode. I tried to ensure you would be able to read it so don't freak out when you first see it. Relax, read, and enjoy.

Sienna is wearing a lovely green dress from Joan's Emporium in this episode! Links for her sites can be found here! :)

Kiko makes her debut at the end of the episode. Let me know what you think!!

CLICK HERE TO WATCH EPISODE 13 ON YOUTUBE!

 

Thank you for watching, commenting, and following! ^_^

-Cat of A Doll Affinity

Nahla's first Family members revealed, and much more!!!

Warning: This entry is full of pictures and details the exciting fun that has been going on in the world of A Doll Affinity! All comments welcome! 

I haven’t blogged in a few days, and with good reason. Many of you saw the re-rooted Kiko (Haven’s younger sister), but what I haven’t yet stated is that within 2 days of completing that re-root I started and finished another “one day” re-root. Yes, I have gone re-rooting mad! I still have to re-root Persephone’s sister, but I haven’t yet ordered her hair. Ah, and Kiko’s character profile is up, and can be found HERE (just scroll down).  I have 2 customizations I am working on to sell. Stay tuned for those, as I hope to have them done this week.  But if I only complete one I will consider it a triumph.  They are far more involved than a lot of my other projects. 

Here is the 2^nd re-root I did last week. I named her Florence, in honor of one of my FAVORITE music artists, (see video below pictures if interested).  I know she doesn’t look like her, but she is the closest redhead I have in her resemblance. I found the dedication appropriate because Florence + The Machine’s new album just dropped a few days ago.  She is formerly a Mystery squad Kenzie, and I re-rooted her in a 3 color custom blend.  See Tracy, I finally got around to her! lol

 Music video by Florence + the Machine ^^

I have super exciting news on the front of Nahla’s family.  She has a sister named Chandra, and Chandra has a lovely little family of her own.  (See pictures below and Chandra’s character bio HERE just scroll down) Finally some cute little ones! Don’t worry there will be more, Nahla has a rather large family.  I plan on slowly introducing those characters as Doll Drama progresses.   I also received Nahla’s Dad today. No pictures of him yet, but they will be posted once Nahla’s mom gets a body.  If any of you have a body that would match Barbie Basics Jeans 2.0 Model #8 that you are willing to part with please contact me at crushed.velvet.orchid5@gmail.com . My only request is that the arms are at least articulated at the elbow. A larger bust size would be even more ideal, but I am willing to accept just jointed elbows. Oh, and reasonably priced is a huge plus too! :)

Here is Chandra and her Family… 

 

Pictured Above: Nathaniel, Chandra, Markus, and Tiana

On a final note, I had finally found the perfect father for Haven and Kiko. Here he is… 

But much to my horror I woke up today to see that they allowed me to pay for something they didn’t actually have in stock. So my money was refunded, and I am back at square one. If any of you have seen or know where I can find the fella in the picture above please let me know. William, of 1/6th Point of View, has been such a HUGE help with action figure information. If any of you have any questions about action figures, I recommend you ask him. Thanks again William! He is the reason I knew what body to put this head on. I refuse to give up on finding action figures for Doll Drama. Mattel just doesn’t offer all I need. So, it’s time to branch out. A lot..

Episode 13 is coming tonight, and Kiko will be making her debut! I hope all of you will be tuning in and leaving your amazing feedback! Sending lots of  love to each of you and all that you do! 

Thank you for following me!!

-Cat of A Doll Affinity

Presenting Haven's Sister Kiko...

Kiko is formerly a Benetton Osaka Barbie. 

The link isn't my picture but that is what she looked like before I re-rooted her and placed her on a Liv body. She will be Haven's younger sibling, but don't let her stature fool you. Kiko is not a teenager. I blended a couple shades of brown through her black hair to give her subtle highlights.  I haven't added her character bio yet but I will let everyone know when I do. 


She was re-rooted in one night! I am so excited to introduce her into the doll drama. :)

 

I think this girl is going to be a blast! :) 

Thank you all for reading! 

-Cat of A Doll Affinity