Everyone Needs Playtime

In our hectic, modern lives, many of us focus so heavily on work and family commitments that we never seem to have time for pure fun. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we stopped playing.

When we carve out some leisure time, we’re more likely to zone out in front of the TV or computer than engage in fun, rejuvenating play like we did as children. But play is not just essential for kids; it can be an important source of relaxation and stimulation for adults as well.

There doesn’t need to be any point to the activity beyond having fun and enjoying yourself. By giving yourself permission to play with the joyful abandon of childhood, you can reap oodles of health benefits throughout life.

Featured post

Challenge Meme

Seven years ago I issued a challenge to celebrate 20 years of the modern BJD, that I had also done three years previously. As things have be...

Monday

Project Mc2 Dolls

MGA (AKA Micro-Games America Entertainment) is an American manufacturer of children's toys and entertainment products founded in 1979. Among its product line up you will find the Bratz doll line, BABY born, Lalaloopsy, Moxie Girlz, and many other well known "toys".

Project Mc2 (pronounced Project MC-squared ) is an American web television series produced by DreamWorks Animation's AwesomenessTV and MGA Entertainment for Netflix. The series was first released on August 7, 2015 and MGA released their Project Mc2 dolls that same year with the tagline "Smart is the New Cool".

The Netflix Series Cast.

The original characters were: McKeyla McAlister, Adrienne Attoms, Bryden Bandweth and Camryn Coyle.

Camryn, McKeyla, Adrienne and Bryden

They have since added Devon D'Marco and Ember Evergreen.

So far, I have managed to find out there are two versions of these dolls. One version which is articulated, comes with a different science experiment or project for each doll and a simpler core version (NOT articulated), which includes just a beaker-shaped comb.

The experiment dolls have eleven points of articulation, a hard plastic body with a vinyl head and lower limbs.

You will notice the two versions are dressed differently though at 30cm (11.75 inches), both versions are play scale in size.

Now you all maybe wondering where this post is heading, and I can assure you it is heading down a completely new track for me. Thanks to my dear friend Sharon (the great enabler) I went browsing BblinkK's flickr and found these there.

They looked really interesting, and were the size doll that I have recently found I like, so after doing the research above . . . I made a small (yes I did say small, or if you prefer, tiny) eBay purchase.


They're "used" (I prefer to say pre-loved), but were a bargain at just AU$41 for the five including postage. I think there are two versions of McKeyla here (the one with pink hair is from the Invisible Ink Experiment & the one with dark hair on the right, wearing Adrienne's Volcano Experiment outfit, is from the Lava Light Experiment).

Devon & Ember were both missing, but I can always find them later. The dolls were listed "as is" so no experimental stuff (thank God), but they all had clothes and shoes (which I will eventually change).

Not a bad investment of the dolly pennies (I mean it's hard to find any doll these days with a price tag of just AU$8.20, even on the secondary market). With a visit to the beauty parlour for a spa bath, shampoo and hairstyling, I think they could look pretty darn good . . . what do you think?

Hugs,
X

Friday

Good Girl Gone Bad

Well for such a long time now I have been very good and not purchased any dolls . . . can you believe it? Yes, it's been SIX MONTHS! I didn't cave in once, not even when being tempted by Sharon. I was feeling so proud of myself, then . . . I saw the recent photo of Alejandra's CCS girl 17SS Ruruko (2017) and it was all too much, I could resist no longer.

However, when I saw how expensive she was (once her price was converted to AU$'s) I thought of Christmas and resisted. But wouldn't you know it, it was too late, I had been bitten by the bug and couldn't help myself and so the search for Ruruko began
.
AND GUESS WHAT??? I found her (on sale), she was one I could afford without breaking the bank . . . she's perhaps not quite as pretty as Alejandra's, but I really adore her wardrobe and I think she will do nicely . . . very nicely indeed.

CCSgirl 18SS Ruruko by PetWORKs Product Info:
Release Date May-June 2018
Ruruko is 1/6 in scale (about 8.5 inches in height)
Body: Pure Neemo Flection XS
Hair Color: Platinum-White
Eye Color: Ochre
Skin Tone: Natural

18SS Ruruko is wearing a CCSgirl outfit
(CCSgirl is a sister fashion brand of Close-Clipped Sheep)
Furisode Top
Obi-Ribbon Tiered Skirt
Headdress
Tights
Round Toe Mary Jane (STOC)

She is coming via slow mail and I will show more photos when she arrives . . . so what do you think? Am I really, really bad? Or was it time I indulged myself and had a new doll to call my own?

I'll be back posting again as soon as I have finished sewing. Hope you all have a wonderful dolly weekend!
Big Hugs,
X

Sunday

Project: Pippi Longstocking 3

This is the second time I have attempted this post! The first time I accidently zapped the whole darn thing after I had uploaded photos and typed a good four paragraphs . . . was NOT HAPPY JAN!
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I began my post with an excerpt from Chapter One (Pippi Moves into Via Villekulla) in my Pippi Longstocking book by Astrid Lindgren.

"Her hair was the colour of a carrot and it was plaited in two tight plaits that stuck straight out, Her nose was the shape of a very small potato, and it was completely covered with freckles. Under her nose was an exceptionally wide mouth with nice white teeth.

Her dress was quite odd. Pippi had made it herself. It was supposed to have been blue, but there hadn't been enough blue material, so Pippi had decided to sew on little red patches here and there. On her long thin legs she wore long stockings, one of them brown and the other black. And she wore black shoes that were exactly twice the length of her feet."

As you are already aware, my Pippi has carrot red hair. I have since combed out the curls, plaited and wired them. Freckles are now scattered over her nose and she already had a wide smile that showed off her tiny white teeth, so that needed nothing.

I've begun from the bottom up, although I have selected the fabrics for her dress too, but more on that later.


 I didn't have any brown socks, so I tea dyed a white pair of baby socks and the black doll stockings I found in my stash were far too long, so I cut the top off one, made a hem at the top and threaded elastic through to hold it up.


The extremely large shoes Pippi wears in the story, were hard to come by. I had lots of large shoes, but not black, though I did find a pair of long boots that were large, but not quite twice as long as my Pippi's feet. They are, however, certainly much bigger that her feet (probably half the length again). I thought they would be okay if I cut the height of them down to a size that looked reasonably like shoes.

So that's what I have achieved so far, pictures of the dress will follow later.
Big hugs,
X