Resolutions

Yesterday was my first blogoversary. Yay, I guess? I don't have many accomplishments to be proud of. It's not bad, it's a great improvement over the B.B. (before Blogger) era, but I still have a lot of things to work on. I'm glad I decided to start this blog. It kept my scattered brain somehow under control. I can easily count everything I managed over the past year. This is exactly what I'll do in this post - celebrate my little victories and plan new conquests.



So, exactly one year ago I started out with a shelf of 11 Barbies and a Ken and three Monster High in a corner on the TV table. I was reading less than five (I think?) doll blogs through email updates. Three items of clothing and two pairs of shoes were in the making. During this year, one piece of clothing and one pair of shoes got finished. Then I made another pair of shoes and some stockings. Three Barbies, 13 Monster High and one J-doll arrived in my home (then one MH left to a friend). I started tackling doll hair care and then went up to my elbows in it. Seriously, most of my dolly time was spent fixing hair on all the new dolls, mostly glue leaks. I tried some hair styling - cuts and curls. Prepped a head for reroot, found yarn for it, all that's left is to find time. Rooted a few plugs into Ken's head.

More fixing went into outfits - correcting seams, widening skirts. I don't have a tutorial up for that last one yet. I have a fresh picture of my MH shelf, can you guess the other three modified outfits?

Not all the dolls are here - some are busy.
Oh, and I have a collection of cat decorations.

Just for balance, this is the "Barbie" shelf. It's grown, too, but some dolls are at Mum's.

There's a Pinterest board where I want to keep my WIPs together. The Pinterest account, too, was created last year. I'm not an avid pinner and for me it's a handy tool for organizing my ideas. It's where the doll haircuts are waiting patiently for a post, too.

Layered and braided. Used to be Picture Day Draculaura.

There are 10 tutorials that I did manage to write. I even wrote the first of hopefully many jewellery patterns, although I didn't make a single piece of (human) jewellery this year. I took my seed beads out one time, but it was to make a tree. Another non-doll related creative project was a drawing. I hadn't drawn anything in ages before it.

An important change the blog brought was that I got to know a lot of cool bloggers (see many of them here ---------------->). I'm very grateful to have found likely-minded people with whom I can share this hobby. Here in my city, hubby is pretty much my only active supporter (brings dolls and lets me go nuts with them ^^). I have a hard time finding doll supplies for what I want to do, because OOAK-ing seems to be non-existent here and there isn't sufficient demand for 1/6th crafting. So this online community is my refuge and every little interaction in the form of a greeting, comment or advice goes a long way. I've become more confident and active thanks to the encouragement I felt and I found myself able to scavenge interesting fabrics and broken earrings from complete strangers (more on that another time). I have a nice stash now, waiting to be put to good use :)

A while ago, there was a short discussion about New Year's resolutions on the doll forum. That's what I said there:

"I'm actively looking for a fancier (but not too expensive doll), like a J-doll (or Ellowyne - a girl can dream?). I want to diversify a bit my doll collection, post on the blog more than twice a month, reroot my first Barbie and Ken, repaint at least the 4 faceless dolls I have, make a traditional outfit, a Santa costume, a secret cosplay costume, a secret corset, finish my boots, make shoes for two barefoot dolls... More sewing, jewellery and shoe making would be very welcome. First of all I need to find a desk, a lamp and get rid of a kitten I'm fostering."

So far, it worked out pretty well. I gave away the kitty (to a nice girl! don't worry), miraculously came into the possession of a J-doll, so far posted more than twice a month, put a dozen plugs into Ken, Barbie has all the necessary supplies too, just need some time for it; the materials for the secret cosplay costume are 90% gathered, the second boot is started. I don't have a proper lamp and desk yet but I have to think of something to make repaints possible. Those paints aren't going to keep forever. I want to make the traditional outfit by August, but it's the second year I keep looking for white chemise fabric and I can't find anything remotely close.

To these I will add:
- making a picture header for the blog
- wigging J-doll and the Draculaura she'll be borrowing hair from
- making lots of punk doll jewellery. Hubby wants us to do some spring wardrobe revisions and I made a list of stuff I want. I've been meaning to try nail stamping for a while. I hit the beauty supply store. To make the following perfectly clear, the extent of my nail decorating knowledge is covering polish smudges with floral stickers from a 10-year old sheet. So anyway... I opened the page and gawked at the things people put on, and even in their nails. Guys. This is doll jewellery heaven! I wishlisted all the studs and metal things, and then some tiny framed(!) cameos and rhinestone mixes. The only catch is that they sell these things in huge quantities, so now I'm thinking I'll need to look into opening an Etsy or Ebay store where to dump all the experiments. (All information and advice about that is very welcome!)

There, I got caught in a brainstorm again. I'll say good bye now, but I'll be back soon with an Easter post. I invite all readers who have a blog to write their blog "birthday" in the comments. How did writing a blog benefit the activities you write about? Do you set any goals, and if yes, how often do you do it?
If you don't have a blog, do you consider writing one?

To more fulfilling years
~(^^)
The Black Kitty