Wooden Alphabet Puzzle

I gave my niece this alphabet puzzle and she has familiarized herself with it in a week. The puzzle had to be put away afterwards because she got bored, haha. She just turned two last month.

Video below:

Crafting, Jacqueline and Letting Go

I haven't been making a lot of crafts lately; just a few things I could do here and there with the amount of time and motivation I had at the moment...

I finally made a miniature laptop! But this laptop is pretty funny because the screen is obviously Windows and the keyboard is a Mac! The things you can do with crafting, haha! It's just made of advertising pages that I cut out and stuck on card stock and black foam sheet.

For reference, here's Lottie with the laptop!

This kid is spoiled, I swear. She has iPads, cellular phones... now a laptop. LOL.

And I finally got around to working on this Takara kitchen counter that I bought at a thrift store like 2 or 3 years ago. It was so cheap because the chrome paint job on the counter has chipped, and it has missing drawers and doors. I don't mind though. Anyway I painted a first coat of silver paint on it. I didn't finish painting it in one sitting because I didn't use a primer so the paint don't really adhere to the plastic unless I wait for the coat to dry first. It could have used some sanding, definitely, but at the time I began working on it, I couldn't find my sandpaper, haha.

It's a good size for Lottie. I'll think of something for a photo shoot. Besides, I do have a lot of miniature food and dining items that I can use for this counter.

And oh my gosh, I found a Fresh Doll while thrifting! She's Jacqueline from The Fresh Dolls, and she's missing a hair plug on her hairline, which is entirely my fault because I'm such an intense doll hair brusher, lol. And it's not noticeable because have you seen her hair? Look it's huge!

I love finding black dolls that I like for my collection. Maybe next time I can make a post about all the black dolls I have. It's not a huge collection, but it's growing and I find these dolls more interesting than blonde/white Barbie dolls, sorry.

Oh and I'm thinking of pronouncing her name "Jay-Quell-in" like in that Substitute Teacher video from Key and Peele. If you haven't seen it, you should!

Lately I've been trimming down my collection and sold a few of them on Facebook. I guess you can say that I'm using the KonMari method, somewhat. I mean, there was a time in the past that I really enjoyed these dolls, but I don't feel the same way now anymore. It's rather time to appreciate the good times and let another person enjoy the dolls I'm letting go. An example is this set of Spice Girls figures I've had for so long. 

OK, they're not dolls, but this is actually a good example because I've had these figures for a decade, I think. And I've asked myself so many times why I've held on to these figures.

Well first of all, it took me a while to complete them. I didn't even know I would be able to, so this set reminds me of how luck was on my side in finding all of them for a very good price. I know they're collectibles, but I'm not really a big Spice Girls fan, to begin with, so collecting Spice Girls memorabilia isn't really in my agenda. Sure, I like Victoria Beckham (nee Adams) and enjoyed Spice Girls songs back in the day, but I don't feel the same amount of adoration for them as I would feel for, say, the Backstreet Boys, which I really really loved when I was younger. So if the memory of me finding them all is the only thing that's sparking joy (Haha, very KonMari), then would a photograph of this figure set be enough? And I told myself, yes it would be enough. At the moment, someone I know has reserved this set and I'm waiting to be paid. I'm so ready to move on.

I hope to be able to blog more. I want to even talk about those dolls I've sold but those would be for a different blog post. Cheers!

Getting Rid of All My Doll Boxes

As the title of this post says, I am getting rid of all my doll boxes. It's been a long time since I've saved them all, but I haven't done any recycling or crafting at all that would make me use these boxes, so I've decided to add them to my growing pile of paper that I can sell at the junk shop. I'm surprised that I no longer feel anything for all these cardboard. I can finally let them all go.

[APRIL 14th:

OMG I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED 

MY VIDEO ON YOUTUBE! SORRY!]

/In the end I saved the Spirit Riding Free box and another acrylic packaging, for making doll eyeglasses. LMAO what am I doing?!

On a different note. I've started hand sewing again! I made three pants for Lottie so far in two days. Why I haven't used my sewing machine, that's another topic, lol.

Aaaaaand before the Easter season ends, I have to get those tiny plastic eggs that I saw at Expressions. They'd make good balloons for Lottie!

I Went To ComicCon Asia 2018!

I wasn't really planning to go, but my friend invited me to go with her to ComicCon Asia, so I did!

 

I arrived at the venue at around 11 am but had to wait for my friend til 1pm. We got in there and there were a lot of people inside the convention center.

Some of the life-sized statues at the venue: Loki, Spider-Man, Colossus and The Incredible Hulk.

We met Elmer Padilla, whose work is pretty amazing! He makes toys out of scrap material like rubber slippers and upholstery. His Hulk and Thor figures were already gifted to Hollywood actors Mark Ruffalo and Chris Hemsworth. Out of the bunch displayed on his table, my favourite was Hellboy.

He said that he began making toys from flip-flops because he cannot afford to buy the action figures that he wanted. He reminded me of why I started with my hobby, and it was great that we share the same sentiment regarding toys and recycling.

Who knew that our local actress Regine Tolentino would delve into the world of cosplay?? Here she is dressed as Miya from Mobile Legends.

We both got a free cup of flavoured beer. It was rather tasty.

The pass I got is an all-access media pass! I wasn't prepared for it though, lol. Here I was at one of the media rooms btw, just hanging out til 3pm, so that we could attend a talk in one of the meeting rooms. We were able to hear Ricky Nierva from Pixar Animation Studios talk about his journey at Pixar. Very inspiring man!

We were not allowed to take pictures during Ricky's talk, and we also were not able to take pictures with him afterwards because we had to rush to the press conference in the nearby room!! A press conference! It's my first to attend one as part of the media!

We were all in this small room. Lucky that my friend and I managed to find some seats before the room became full.

In front were the following people: 

• Daina Menezes, the host,
• Pauline Sofia Laping, the producer of ComicCon Asia,
• Walter Jones, the original Black Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers,
• Holland Roden from Teen Wolf,
• Dacre Montgomery from Saban's Power Rangers and Stranger Things,
• Feodor Chin, Carolina Ravassa, Anjali Bhimani, and Jen Cohn, voice actors for Overwatch the video game.

I was most excited about Walter Jones and Dacre Montgomery because I enjoyed the Power Rangers very much so! And I have a small collection of Red Ranger toys so seeing Dacre Montgomery, the newest Red Ranger, in person is pretty awesome!

It would have been nice if Stan Lee was able to make it, but due to his current health condition (he had pneumonia), his appearance got cancelled. Also Sen. Manny Pacquiao was not able to make it because of conflicting schedule, but he actually turned up later in the evening!

Here is Pauline Laping addressing whatever happened with Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter) who was supposed to guest at ComicCon Asia.

Walter Jones, the Black Ranger, y'all!

And I am not sorry for taking a lot of pictures of Dacre Montgomery. He looked so dreamy, and his Aussie accent was lovely to hear.

After the Q&A session ended, the guests all stood up in front so that the media can snap their photos together.

After the press conference, my friend and I went back to the main floor. It was at this time that my phone was about to die. Clearly I was ill-prepared for said event. I wasn't able to take a lot of photos, but that's okay.

There was a booth about Pacific Rim: Uprising on the main floor, and it reminded me that I need to watch it!! I love the first movie, so I hope this sequel does not disappoint.

Despite the convention having a lot of controversies and logistical errors, my friend and I enjoyed our time at ComicCon Asia. If I had more time, I could have had my photo taken with Dacre Montgomery!!! But I had to leave so soon because I have work to do at home. Like I said, I wasn't prepared for the event! If I knew what to expect, I would have cleared my whole day for this convention, hahaha.

Miniature Jukeboxes

I got myself some miniature jukeboxes!

The one on the left is a replica of a Wurlitzer jukebox, while the other one is an AMI 200. Both mini jukeboxes are battery operated (requires 3 AA batteries), and light up and play one song for a minute! I filmed some videos:

This one plays Only You by The Platters.

This other one plays Diana by Paul Anka.

These jukeboxes are not the right scale for my Lottie dolls, or are they? In any case, I know I can wing it when I finally take diorama pictures!

My Doll Boxes

Doll boxes were accumulating in my room. I had to make a decision.

Moana Bootleg Doll

I found these bootleg Moana dolls!

Out of curiosity, I bought one.

It cost me P150.

At home, I deboxed her. It was really easy.

"Good ideal partner I grew up"

Out of the box.

Side glance! I believe this is the sculpt from Disney Store!

Her hair is curly. Quite unruly but it was really soft. And I was surprised that it is also generously rooted for a bootleg doll!

Her top.

 Her skirt.

Her neck knob. It was easy to behead Moana. I think it's also necessary because the halter strap isn't removable at all, and I won't be able to put it on and off with the doll head in the way.

I was surprised that the skirt has a ribbon attached to it, to keep the skirt from riding up the waist.

Not bad.

Most of the body is made of hollow plastic, while the arms are rubberised. Also the built in necklace looks cool.

I compared the bootleg body to Rhian's. Rhian is the name of my Curvy Barbie.

At the back, her necklace isn't painted silver anymore.

For fun, I made bootleg Moana wear the skirt I made for Rhian a while back. I haven't continued working on this custom dress yet. Sigh.

I have to say, it looks cute on her.

Oh yeah.

/Later I learned that Fake Moana can stand pigeon-toed! I think this might come in handy for photo shoots!