This time I'll write about the latest happenings and plans for the next month.
Random quote of the day (overheard on the way to the city): "But you can't bbq a unicorn!"
First of, Real,- Minis! Today was the last day of the promotion (which, according to posters and flyers, should have ended on the 19th already). We spent 77,- Euro and got this:
Mo spent rougly the same amount but at the brandnew Real,- superstore further out. He got this:
That's mean! We got five and he got 29! (Correction: He mailed that one fell out of the bag, he got 30!) The cashier was in a good mood - it was the last day before her holiday. ; )
So that's that. Still, I'm 1000% satisfied. The items were free, after all, and I got a lot of them as gifts from others. I own 39 of the 59 items and have over 100 items total. Together with the "good" things from Re-ment I can fill up two shops. I took a photo already, it will become a Foto Wacky Wingling.
Next topic: dolls. Yeah, yeah, you tough guys can skip this. ;)
My hobby money for May is already spent - and severely overspent! - for dolls, fabrics and buttons. Today I recieved three blank Pullips/Taeyangs. One of them will become Eloya, a Giselda is being worked on already. Tomorrow I'll rewrite the article about the Pullip Make It Own series since there are two new skintones for the ladies! I can tell you that much already: The "Tanned" doll looks really swell while the "Fair" doll looks just the same as the "Normal" one no matter what kind of light source I use. Now I hope that in June or July there will be new skintones for Taeyang too so I can build the darker Takchi.
Most of my money was spent on Monster High though since after watching almost all movies and all webisodes I could find I'm totally on a trip. Finally I have a clear picture of the various characters! (And Draculaura is not unlike Giselda, actually.) Very annoying: To get the man Gil I had to buy a set of 5 dolls for 80 Euro although I already own one of the girls and wasn't even interested in the others. Separately he would have cost me 300,- though. I had to pay extra to get the zombie guy Slo Mo too. I would like to have a word with Mattel about this kind of sales practice but afaik enough other fans already voiced their opinion on this.
Of the guys I'm still missing Holt Hide and Invisi-Billy. The latter is - to my knowledge - not been made into a doll yet but it would be swell if one day he was. Holt can be bought from private sellers for 300,-. It was a suuuuper idea by Mattel to publish a second version of him in the US only and only for one specific chain of stores. That one's even easier to get! (/sarcasm) Could you please make a third doll of him and make that less scarce than the others? Thanks!
I made an inventory than and it was terrifying. The picture on the left shows my current collection. You don't have to count - it's 90 dolls. 90! I only own half of the published dolls at best, rather less. As you can see many characters have several versions. (Abbey Bominable takes the cake with a whopping seven versions. (blue skin, white hair, on the top left)) It would be sweet if the pretty outfits would be sold separately, but as that never happened for Barbie it will sure as hell never happen for MH. Usually I try to be selective, only buying new characters and only those that I really like. But then Amazon or Real,- sell something for half price again and/or I can't resist the outfit or new hairdo, or there's another grand new theme or a set where you get additional free outfits with the doll... The playsets often come with an exclusive doll I don't really need too.
Over the next days I will finish the inventory and take photos of all missing characters for the gallery. Afterwards I will have to part with a few of my sweeties with a very heavy heart, since I don't have any space left. :(
For Monster High I own many playsets too, e.g. the school itself, the diner and the street cafe. Now that I know more about the characters I will definitely sit down and think about stories for photo comics again. In the near future there will be polls about the couple of the year and somesuch too - after all I have 8 men by now! Perhaps there still ARE some doll fans here! I also want to remodel some of the dolls that get separated out into fantasy princesses since for a long time I had an idea about a story a la Sailor Moon in the middle ages. With a second cast that doesn't have to switch between modern and classic outfits for comics all the time that should be easier.
For that I have to sew a lot though but I plan anyway to hole up at home in May and do nothing but clear out stuff (in case of a later move), draw and sew resp. take photos or write stuff for the website. Okay, except for the various appointments at doctors.
So I hope to get a lot of sewing patterns done soon too!
So, what else?
The tutorial to sew Owlie is done in theory but then the editor started to act up and shows the article without any free spaces, rendering it next to unreadable. My husband is looking into that. As soon as that is done I'll do the translation. That's keeping up a lot of articles.
Next week I'll get x-rays done to find out what causes the pain in my back and on the 30th I'll get an ECG since my doctor is worried about my heart. Still have to make an appointment for the tinnitus but I'm not very optimistic about that since this ear specialist sint me home years ago when I had my first tinnitus with the words "It's just a little tinnitus, go home and learn to ignore that!". Therefore I bought a ginseng med yesterday at the pharmacy. It's for dementia actually but also used for tinnitus. Let's see if it helps a bit. The lady at the pharmacy was shocked that there was no therapy tried on my. Well, I'm used to that. My eye problem was never solved either, I still go to bed once I start to see double since I never got glasses. And that's one of the more harmless things I was sent home with. It would be nice if this time they'd find something and help me with one of my health problems (no matter which!) but for the time being I'll stay pragmatic and wait. Doh!