Think of one colour you would never put on a doll with red hair. OK, make it three colours. Would orange be on your list?
I’m sure fashion police is out to get me now 🙂
When I was browsing through thrift-store dresses to harvest for fabric I decided, against all common sense, that this design would suit Merida. Doesn’t it, though?
And yes, it’s a real tiny ice-cream cone! And yes, I’m the one who ate the chocolate on top…
The dress is once again based on the Mimi Sewing Pattern for Disney Animators’ Collection, however this time around altered to make the dress sleeveless. I still have no affiliation with the author of the pattern 😉 It just really is quite versatile.
For the longest time I couldn’t establish what it was that inspired me to make a sleeveless collared dress – in all my life I never considered this type to be cool or pretty, and suddenly I decidedly wanted one, at least for my dolls. Then I had an epiphany – Blondie Lockes, Enchanted Picnic! I saw her and her dress a few times and it subconsciously grew on me 🙂 Apparently this creation is the first to marry my EAH and DAC interests 🙂
Merida, being the brave princess that she is, is not afraid to stand on the swing.
It is not easy to get additional shoes for Animators’ dolls, but I was lucky to find this one pair online. These are not strictly DAC shoes and are slightly big, but they look just fine with socks. I think they are adorable. Having new shoes opens new outfit opportunities 🙂
I don’t know why one of her socks keeps turning up but it was beyond my power to stop it.
I still have one overdue summer photo set, and then I can start acknowledging that the seasons change 🙂
P.S. You can also view the above photos on Flickr, if more convenient.
Doesn’t everyone look forward to summer, the time when the weather is great, when you can take a break from everyday chores and… pack your dolls for holidays? I sure did, and months ahead.
I imagined I would be taking one of the Animators’ girls – they would be adorable posed in the sand, doing whatever toddler things toddlers do on the beach. Alas, my imaginations were confronted with reality – the reality of my suitcase which couldn’t possibly hold a 16 inch doll – not if I also wanted to take a sweater or two, anyway. And when you’re looking for the highest concentration of summer beauty per inch, Ashlynn Ella is the perfect pick. In the end, I wasn’t even disappointed with this sudden turn of events.
Ashlynn Ella from the Mirror Beach line (with my polymer clay ice-cream)
All Ashlynn Ella dolls seem to share a few pleasant characteristics – a lovely golden complexion, green eyes and cute, natural-looking strawberry blond hair. And yet it was the Mirror Beach version that stole my heart. It all comes down to, I think, her perfect coral lips. I just love this lip colour, on her and overall (I’ve been trying to find a matching lipstick for myself, but nothing has measured up to my expectations yet).
Coral accents appear all throughout the doll’s outfit, brightening it up and holding it together. There is also a skirt, which must be made of pure magic, otherwise I don’t know why I’m so bedazzled with it. It’s light, translucent and oddly tutu-shaped for a beach cover-up, but something about its ballerina-like charm speaks irresistibly to a girl’s heart. Let’s not forget the equally magical filigree print.
I mentioned earlier that I was only able to find this doll second hand, and even so I considered myself lucky (they were long sold out everywhere). Not having much choice I had to settle for one without the sunglasses that came with the original set.
I gave her some other beach accessories instead, such as a beach towel and binoculars. The binoculars date back to my original toy collection from my childhood. They came with a confused mishmash of knock-off Barbie accessories which included an arbitrary number of shoes per type, hats, permanently closed umbrellas, golf clubs and other beauty necessities.
Also, it was my idea to braid her hair – I like her with her hair undone, but this is cute too, and makes way more sense to me 🙂 We wouldn’t want to get seaweed in her perfect hair, would we now?
The doll’s swimsuit is very pretty. I would definitely wear it, only perhaps without the frills on the straps. I also appreciate the fact that it is separate from the skirt and can be used as a top to mix and match with other doll clothes.
Photographing the doll at the beach was great fun, but it turns out that not even sand is quite to scale. The ripples in the sand look more like dunes in comparison to her, and at the wrong angle the landscape takes on the appearance of a doll desert. Which could be interesting, but that’s an idea for another time.
At least the Baltic Sea was kind enough to produce a seashell small enough for Ahslynn to enjoy 🙂
Unfortunately, the Baltic doesn’t perform quite so well when it comes to the colour of the water. But I love it anyway 🙂
Apart from the binoculars, golf clubs and such, I was also able to unearth an old Barbie photo camera. The shape was very nice, but it was one solid colour (you’ll never guess which colour ;)). My husband was nice enough to repaint it for me at 9pm the night before leaving for holidays. Because that’s when I remembered I didn’t want it (spoiler alert) pink 🙂
Sand everywhere……and twice so, because I couldn’t make up my mind on the photos.
Somewhere at this point I was reminded that sand is the enemy of all cameras, toy ones and real ones alike. I briefly lost the tiny one altogether, but was able to miraculously find it by feeling in the sand in the spots I had visited. As for my real camera, I may have gotten a few grains of sand into the lens mechanism :S In the end I got it out without any permanent damage, but it was a scary moment.
…but since it was still on and open anyway, I proceeded to take these last few photos:
Basking in the summer glow.
Even the doll has sand in her hair. And probably joints. But don’t worry, she was alright after rinsing a few times with tap water.
I enjoyed posing Ashlynn Ella at the beach – she does seem to belong there. As for the Disney dolls… maybe next year 🙂
If you’ve been nice enough to drop by Muscellaneous during the summer, thanks a lot! But I also owe you an apology – there hasn’t been much to see. I have been taking doll photos as usual but never got to sorting and editing them. Oops! I intend to start fixing that now.
I have decided to start a Flickr account to supplement my blog. I am always a little sad to see horizontal photos all squashed and tiny in the blog posts, and I figured that Flickr would be a good alternative viewing option (plus you can save precious storage space by embedding pictures from there to here). The blog is of course staying – I like to to think of it as my little personal HQ in the vast Internet and a place to share thoughts in-depth, and that’s something I want to keep.
There isn’t a lot to see on my Flickr yet, but there sure is something! I have already uploaded a batch of summer doll photos for an upcoming post. It is coming soon with more details and insight, but feel free to take a sneak peek 🙂 In the future, I would like to update both platforms at more or less the same time.
Eventually I would like my Flickr to have all my earlier photos as well, but I think I will work on that gradually, re-uploading photos when the season is appropriate for a given theme. Something in me just can’t get used to the idea of re-uploading winter, spring and Easter photos right now.
Not to mention I’m not even done with the summer ones, so… stay tuned 😉
muscellaneous 