Introduction

Let’s see what this blog is about! Please scroll to the section you are interested in.

Who 

My name is Arina (sounds like “arena” for English speakers), I’m 26 and I live in Eastern Europe. I like to look at beautiful things. It just happens that beautiful things are often too expensive or impossible to find, so I have to learn to make my own. I have been making most of my jewellery for several years and now I have an obsession with fashion dolls. I’ve been able to collect a full shelf thanks to my loving husband. Due to their size, they require very little materials, which is perfect for me because I have a hard time finding art and craft supplies here. I want to repaint them and dress them all into tiny versions of clothes I’d like to wear.

What

You can expect to see projects, progress pictures, questions and tutorials mostly related to doll customizing and jewellery. I still consider this my personal space where I can occasionally write about other things that interest me – such as cats, cooking or general life.

Why

I've been on deviantArt and dolls-n-daggers for a while and as much as I hate writing, I decided to go ahead and create a blog. I like to dissect every step of a craft project, and dA is about the finished product (boring!). I found the support I was looking for at dolls-n-daggers, but a forum doesn’t lend itself to lengthy stories with pictures.

Another reason to write down everything I’m doing is that I begin a lot of things that I never finish. I hope that sharing my thoughts and experience with others will give me the necessary boost in order to complete more projects.

Language

My native language is Romanian. If there is a demand to post in Romanian (which I highly doubt), I will do so. I decided to use English because: 1) everyone understands it; 2) I can never find the punctuation on the Romanian keyboard; 3) since I learned a lot of stuff from the Internet, I have no idea how to translate many craft terms. Some things I couldn't explain at the store include: 
 - bias tape (They had some on display, so I just pointed to it “give me... this!”)
 - retarder (for paint)
 - crimp beads 
 - fray check (still can’t find anything even remotely close)

Don’t hesitate to correct my English. I need to improve.

Comments 

I will remove spam, offensive and rude comments. Anything else that pops into your head, you are free to write. I have very few people to discuss crafts with, so I will appreciate your every input. Grammar Nazis are very welcome too!

Writing style

I find it very difficult to express myself in writing and it takes me forever to give birth to a coherent paragraph. I will try to keep my thoughts organized, but ask if anything is unclear. I promise I’m much handier with the pliers than I am with words :) I hope you will find my blog interesting and useful!