Little Women for Sale!

This will be a very short post since it's Thanksgiving and there's food to cook!  Here's a picture of all four March sisters together:

In back from left: Meg, Beth, Amy
Jo in front.

Jo

The last of the Little Women dolls is finally complete!  I saved Jo for last because she is the main character in Louisa May Alcott's books, and also because she is the favorite March sister for many readers.  

Having watched several of the Little Women movies recently (along with the PBS miniseries), I feel like Jo is the one who has had the most variety in her portrayal.  Winona Ryder played the character fairly straight in the 1994 movie, Saoirse Ronan amped-up Jo's tomboyish feminism in the 2019 movie, and Maya Hawke gave her--in my opinion--a perfect mix of fire and heart in the miniseries.

Because of the striking differences in those three actresses, though, I didn't come away from the shows with a solid idea of how my Jo doll should look.  I did know that I wanted to start with the spunky Emma face mold, though, and its subtle, lopsided smile:

~1999 My Twinn doll with the Emma face.

Beth

I'm back!  Finally!  In the past month I've bought a house, sold a house, and packed half of the things I own.  Now I get a blissful two or three weeks of normal-ish life before I actually have to uproot and move out of Maine.  I forgot how hard moving was.  However, it makes me appreciate the simple, calm things in life a lot more, so I'm extra-delighted to be here ready to share Beth with you!

As you might remember from my introductory Little Women post, I chose a very pale Caitie doll to play the roll of the beloved but ill-fated Beth character:

1997 My Twinn doll with the Caitie face.

Amy

Well, this girl took a while to show up, didn't she?  Two things are responsible for the delay, the first is just that moving is hard work, and it's taking up more and more of my time.  The second thing is that Amy is one of my troublemakers!  Her makeover was not a smooth ride.  However, Amy March's personality has a bit of sass and troublemaker in it, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

Amy was one of the two characters in this series who I thought had an obvious My Twinn counterpart (Madison!).  The Madison face is beautiful, like Amy, but Rebecca and I also agree that the face looks a bit haughty.  I don't know if Amy March is haughty, per se, but she's certainly proud and likes luxurious things.

With all of this in mind, I chose a pale-vinyl Madison from 2001 to play the part:

My Twinn doll from 2001 with the Madison face.

Meg

I'm excited to finally be able to share this collaborative Little Women project!  As I mentioned last time, I leaned heavily on the sewing and research skills of my friend Rebecca from Stitch in Times Designs for this collection, and I've also had a lot of fun sharing ideas with Rebecca along the way.  I'll give you a little peek into her creative process as I present each doll.  

To get started, though, let me tell you what I've been up to for the past few days: I photographed Meg, watched the 1994 version of Little Women while editing the photos, decided I didn't like Meg's hair, re-did the hair three times, photographed her all over again, and then watched the PBS miniseries of Little Women while I edited those photos.  It's a good thing that the hair finally turned out in a way that I could tolerate, because I've cried too many times in the last few days and don't think I could have handled another version of the story!  How many times can a person watch Beth die?

I've composed myself for the time being, though, and am ready to introduce Meg.  Meg started out as an 01 vinyl Catherine from 2001.  The Catherine mold is fairly common and doesn't tend to get a lot of attention, but I've always liked the sweet smile and large eyes on this face:

2001 My Twinn doll with the Catherine face.

The Little Women

Whew!  I have about ten different things going on in my life right now, and it's a real battle to find time in the workroom with the Twinns.  However, I'm determined to finish this one very special collection before the move completely consumes my life.

Back in February, I began corresponding with Rebecca from the Stitch in Times Designs Etsy shop.  Rebecca is a seamstress who makes beautiful historical clothing for dolls like American Girl, A Girl for All Time, and My Twinn. Rebecca and I decided to collaborate on a project, and chose Little Women as a mutually-inspiring theme.  Now, 7 months and 215 messages later, I consider Rebecca to be a good friend...and an incredible artist.  Wait until you see what she made for these girls!

My challenge over the next few weeks will be to create dolls that are worthy of Rebecca's outfits.  Here's what I had to work with (see if you can guess each doll's character!):

My Twinn Little Women (before picture).

The TBP Virtual Garage Sale

I'm probably jumping in way over my head, but I started the store over at Toy Box Philosopher yesterday.  Here's the link.

I plan to use this store to list some "quick fix" My Twinns in the future.  These will be dolls that either didn't need much work or that I didn't have time to blog about....and I'll try to keep them all under $100.  For now, the shop just has a few play dolls and some Tonners.  I'll keep adding inventory every day.  Check it out if you'd like, and feel free to offer suggestions about the kinds of things you'd like to see for sale!

Ariels for Sale

The Ariels are all ready to find their new homes!  These gemstone girls were an unruly bunch to pack into one photo, but here's my best attempt:

My Twinn dolls with the Ariel face mold.

Mariel

I'm pretty sad to be at the end of my Ariel experiment.  I've learned to love this face even more than I used to, and I've really enjoyed finding subtle new ways to paint the mold.  In fact, I know the contours of this face so well at this point, it's going to feel really strange to work with a different doll next week!  In a perfect world I'd do this kind of series for every My Twinn face.  That would be so much fun!

The Ariel variation that I saved for last is the one that I assumed would be my favorite.  Three guesses about what her coloring is going to be...the first two guesses don't count.

This lovely girl's original pale green eyes didn't stick around for very long, but they gave me all the inspiration I needed to get started on this makeover:

2002 My Twinn doll with the Ariel face.

And the Winner is...

I decided to try out a new random drawing site this time, just to change things up.  This spinning wheel is from WheelofNames.com and I think it's a lot of fun!  I especially appreciate the fact that the program announces the winner, because I would not have wanted to call this one--it's a nail biter!

Here we go...

Directions for the winner are after the jump!

Ambriel

The doll I'm going to show you today was not a troublemaker at all.  In fact, everything about her makeover process was smooth, fast, and fun.  The delay in my post has more to do with the fact that my world is shifting in strange ways these days.  My eldest son and his girlfriend moved out at the beginning of the week, and this was both exhausting (moving furniture is hard) and sad (I love them!).  I'm also going to move to a new state myself in the next couple of months, and that's a big emotional adjustment.

Still, before the chaos of moving envelopes me, I'm going to work on as many My Twinn dolls as I can.  I'm also in the process of setting up an online store over at ToyBoxPhilosopher.com where I'll sell off many of my remaining dolls in a virtual garage sale.  I'll keep you updated about that in the weeks to come.

But this week, it's just business as usual.  I have the second-to-last Ariel makeover in my Abundance of Ariels collection to share with you, and this girl is a non-Denver giveaway doll.  To enter for a chance to buy this doll for $2.20, please see the rules at the end of the post.

Her initial appearance was not especially promising:

2009 My Twinn doll with the Ariel face.

Liriel

I feel like in every collection I put together, there's a troublemaker: a doll whose makeover has a bunch of rough patches.  The Ariel repaints had been going so smoothly, I suppose I should have been anticipating some trouble at this stage...and yet it always manages to take me by surprise.

Meet my latest troublemaker, a 2002 Ariel with a beautiful skin tone and the hint of a smile:

2002 My Twinn doll with the Ariel face.

Sariel

Unlike Gabriel, the doll I'm going to show you today was one of the most inspiring Ariels in the whole group.  She really stood out from the pack with her dark hair and distinctive eyebrows.  While (spoilers!) I didn't preserve very much about her original appearance, those eyebrows gave me the idea I needed to make this girl different from Cassiel and Gabriel.

Thanks to Lilium's excellent suggestion, this version of Ariel will be named Sariel (yet another angel name!) which I tend to shorten in my head to the cute nickname Sari:

2001 My Twinn doll with the Ariel face.

Gabriel

Of the five Ariel dolls that I have left to work on, two of them came with bad staining on their limbs.  The stains are nothing like what I found on Cassiel, but the marks will still take a while to fade.  While the Remove-Zit is working its magic on those limbs, I've been focused on one of the un-stained dolls.

Despite the relatively good condition of this girl's body, for some reason I found her uninspiring.  Sometimes a doll's original appearance--no matter how beat-up or dirty--will speak to me in some way and give me ideas about what her makeover should entail.  With this girl, something about her heavy, blonde bob and pale, generic face paint left me feeling neutral.

To make matters worse, her fair coloring and heavy bangs made it really hard to take well-lit, clear pictures of her.  She was always trying to fade away into the shadows:

2001 My Twinn doll with the Ariel face.

Cassiel

I'm already feeling a bit frazzled by too many Ariels!  Everything was fine when they all still had their original wigs and eyes in place, but now that I'm starting to dismantle each doll and remove her eyes and paint...well, it's getting hard to tell everybody apart!  I've labeled all of the Ariel bits that are strewn around my workshop, so at least nobody will get matched up with the wrong body parts.

I didn't want to add to this confusion by naming all six of the dolls Ariel (kind of like Dr. Seuss' Too Many Daves...), but I did want to choose a naming theme that would acknowledge this celebration of the Ariel mold.  So, I decided that all of the girls should have names that end in -iel.

The first doll I'm going to share is the one I've been working on the longest.  I bought this girl in February and have been gradually fixing her up ever since.  She's a 1997 Ariel who I re-named Cassiel:

1997 My Twinn doll with the Ariel face.

An Abundance of Ariels

We're hunkered down here in Maine, waiting for whatever is left of Isaias, so I figured I'd get something posted before the power goes out.  I hope everyone further down the coast is doing ok!

The next collection is going to feature one of my favorite My Twinn faces: the Ariel mold.  This face is extremely common, and so there are always plenty of Ariels on the secondary market.

I was looking at my stash of dolls the other week and realized that I've amassed *five* Denver Ariel dolls with the same skin tone!  Apparently my fondness for this face (and its relative affordability) have caused me to accumulate an abundance of Ariels:

My Twinn Ariel dolls from the Denver era.

Royal Recommendation Results

I have a fairly large princess project on the horizon (not the next thing on my list, but perhaps later in the summer?), and I need your help!  Without revealing too much about the project itself, I'll tell you that I have Katie, Denika, Lenora, Danielle, and Madison molds to choose from for three of the characters.

I have my own opinions about which face should be which character, but I'd love to see if there's a consensus on who should be Belle, Cinderella, and Rapunzel.  I've attached pictures of each mold as a reminder.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the poll!  After 94 responses, I felt like a consensus was reached.  Results are after the jump.

Sharon

This is just a quick post to show off a doll from my own collection.

Ever since I started to get serious about My Twinn dolls, I've wanted a girl with the Sharon face mold.  The Sharon face is considered very rare, and so it's taken me a very long time to find one!  I finally found my girl, though, and I didn't have to pay a fortune for her.

This Sharon is a lovely example of the mold, with gorgeous dark brown eyes and delicate face paint.  She wasn't in need of many of my restoration skills, but she needed a new wig.  I recently found a wig that's worthy of this treasured doll, and it's the Meredith wig from ZaZou Custom Dolls:

Denver My Twinn doll with the Sharon face.

The Unicorn Twinns

I tried to fit all eight of the unicorn girls into the same photo, but that ended up being a circus.  Instead, I left Tula out of the group shot (since she already has a home) and omitted poor Ramona from the photo session completely (since she's in a different scale).  Even then, Nora had to photo-bomb the shot in order to be seen!

The Unicorn Twinns!

Nosedive Nora

Now that Tula has her new home, it's time to share the last Unicorn Twinn so that all of these cute girls can move out!  I really love having this happy, colorful bunch in the house, but I think that a collection of eight dolls was too much!  I'll be focusing on smaller groups in the weeks to come.

The last girl in the group has the Allison face mold, which is not a face I've ever shown on this blog before.  It's not generally considered a rare face, as far as I know, but I don't see it very often.  In fact, I've only ever had two Allison dolls in my house: this one and another that I'm keeping in my personal collection.

1997 My Twinn doll with the Allison face.

And the Winner is...

Thank you to everyone who entered for a chance to buy Tula for $2.20!  In case you missed my update in the previous post, I'm doing the drawing a bit early today because I have an online event to attend later in the day.

I used the Teach Starter random name selector again because it's free and super-easy to use.  The name that appears on the video screen before you hit play is not necessarily the winning name.  The screen gets stuck in different places for some reason.

Here we go!

There's more information (and a photo of the final screen--in case the video isn't working) after the jump!

Two-Dollar Tula

I know I posted Layla just a day or two ago, but my house is becoming overrun with little unicorn girls!  I wanted to get the last two dolls posted quickly so that this happy herd can find their new homes.

Today I'm going to share the third doll in my series of giveaways.  These giveaway dolls aren't completely free, but I offer them for $2.20 on Etsy to the winner of a drawing here on the blog.  If you're interested in a chance to buy this particular doll for a super-low price, just follow the instructions at the end of the post--and good luck!

This doll was a fairly generic non-Denver Madison when I first got my hands on her:

2006 My Twinn doll with the Madison face.

Layla's Little Finger

Sorry for the delay in between posts, but somehow I got working on three dolls at the same time again, which always slows down my blog progress.  Despite what I said last time, I have three more Unicorn Twinns to show you, one of which will be another $2.20 "giveaway" doll.

Two of these remaining girls will be showcasing wigs from ZaZou Custom dolls.  Danielle from ZaZou has ordered a whole new supply of 13-inch wigs, and they're all fabulous!

One of those new ZaZou wigs was perfect for this special girl:

2013 My Twinn doll with the Denika face.

Olivia from Overseas

Way back in July of 2019 (almost a year ago--ack! Where does the time go?) I got an Etsy message from Purple_Monkfish suggesting that I take a look at a My Twinn auction in the United Kingdom.  The doll was in terrible shape, but the auction price was only a few pounds and the poor doll had been re-listed twice.

I can never seem to pass up an inexpensive My Twinn in desperate need of a makeover, so I jumped at the chance at got myself a cheap and challenging new project!

This girl is a bit different from the other dolls I've offered for sale.  She is among the very first dolls that the My Twinn company ever made, and so she does not have an articulated body.  These early dolls are not as valuable on the collectors market as the poseable My Twinn dolls, but their quality is very high. To sweeten the deal, this particular girl has a slightly rare face mold (Jessica) that I'd never seen in person before:

1996 My Twinn doll with the Jessica face mold.

Angry Arya

Ok, so I know I said that I was never going to buy a 2003 My Twinn doll ever again.  I may have even said it more than once.  However, when I saw this pale, squish-faced, angry-looking Danielle on eBay for a very good price,  I knew I had to break my own rule:

2003 My Twinn doll with the Danielle face.

Re-Do Ramona

I'm doing something a little different with today's makeover.  I mentioned in my last post that Henna was the last Helen-faced doll that I had (in that size), but I actually have one more Helen to share with you!

Some of you have seen this girl before:

18-inch, 2013 My Twinn doll with the Helen face.

Try Again Henna

Sorry for my inattention to comments this past week, but it's been a busy time!  My eldest graduated from college (with a virtual ceremony) so I was doing my best to make the day special while also a surprise...a difficult mission in a small house with 5 people!  It was a really fun weekend, although I feel bad for kids all over the world who are missing out on important events and milestones, not to mention their normal routines.  Congratulations to any other 2020 graduates out there!

I'm back with another Unicorn Twinn today.  This is a 1997 Helen that I worked on for the first time in my Toy Box Philosopher days.  She came to me looking like this:

1997 My Twinn doll with the Helen face.

Wig Rescue Rani

A while ago my husband and I were taking a walk through our neighborhood and a little girl galloped past, caught up in some fast-paced imaginary game.  This girl held my attention, not just because of her happy, flushed face and mismatched outfit, but because she was wearing a headband with ears and a sparkling unicorn horn. The encounter filled me with happiness, and I've kept the image of that little unicorn girl in my head as I work on this next group of dolls.

For the past several weeks I've been restoring five dolls at the same time, with three more waiting in the wings.  These girls don't represent any special characters from a story or a movie--they're just regular girls--but they're all dressed in colorful unicorn-themed clothing...and they're all wearing unicorn headbands!  I affectionately (and un-creatively) call them the Unicorn Twinns, although I'm also working hard to make sure they're anything but twins, by choosing different coloring and face molds for each girl.  The Unicorn Twinns are all outfitted by the talented Julie Kelly of Fairy Tale Blessings.

It is a gorgeous, sunny week here in Maine, and so I felt like this was a great time to start introducing this happy, colorful, diverse group of dolls.  I'll start things off with a 2008 Kate who has a medium skin tone:

2008 My Twinn doll with the Kissy Kate face.

The Hogwarts Girls!

I had some time over the weekend to get all four of my Harry Potter-themed dolls photographed as a group.  They were a well-behaved bunch for the most part, although Hermione has a bit of trouble looking straight at the camera and Luna is about three shades paler than the rest of the girls, which really confused my settings!  Here they are:

My Twinn Hogwarts dolls.

Luna

Here I am--at last--with the final doll in the Harry Potter series!  I'm nowhere near the end of re-watching all of the Harry Potter movies, though.  With five adults all trying to get work done in this house, there's not a ton of time for watching movies.  Still, just thinking about the characters and watching a few of the movies has been really fun.

When I first got the Audrey doll that I used for Sterling, I thought she'd make an excellent Luna Lovegood.  Maybe it was just because she was super-pale and came with a long, slightly messy blonde wig?  However, a doll from my personal collection kept calling out to me, insisting that she was a better choice:

1997 My Twinn doll with the Wendy face.

Cho

Things have gotten interesting here in Maine this past week.  We've had a snowstorm, high winds, tree branches on the roof, and several power outages mixed in with the underlying pandemic situation.  The nice thing is that none of this actually slowed my progress on the next Harry Potter doll: Cho Chang.  However, Cho's makeover process did plenty to slow itself down!  I'll tell you the whole story, of course.

I added Cho to my mix of Hogwarts girls because I really like this character from the books and movies, and also because I had a re-pour Pearl head on my hands that I was excited to use:

My Twinn re-pour Pearl head.

Ginny

I can hardly believe it's April already!  Time has taken on a strange new way of passing and I barely know what day it is anymore.  Regardless of the day, spring has sprung here in Maine and it's lifting the spirits of everyone in my little town.  I hope you are all feeling a similar buoyancy amid the new restrictiveness of life.

In keeping with this bright weekend, I have a sunny redhead to share with you today!  Ginny Weasley is the second in a series of four Harry Potter-themed dolls that I'm currently working on.  Hermione can be seen here, while Cho Chang and Luna Lovegood are coming next (in that order).

With Ginny, I knew immediately what My Twinn mold I wanted to use.  Even though I'm trying to stick with the books' descriptions for hair and eye color choices, I can't help but be influenced by the movie actors when I'm choosing a face mold.  Danielle's features (especially her mouth) remind me of a young Bonnie Wright.

Here's the specific Danielle that I chose for this role:

2002 My Twinn doll with the Danielle face.

Hermione

For those of you who used to read the Toy Box Philosopher blog, you'll know that I love the Harry Potter books and movies.  I really enjoyed reviewing several Hermione Granger dolls (this one is my favorite).  Because of this obsession, I knew from the very first moment I visited Doll Clothes by Carole that I wanted to use Carole's amazing handmade Harry Potter costumes to create a small series of My Twinn dolls from this wonderful fantasy world.

The next four dolls that I'll share here will be based on Harry Potter characters.  Two of them (Hermione and Luna) will wear full Hogwarts robes while the other two (Ginny and Cho) will have simpler costumes to keep their prices lower.  These dolls will all be posted on Etsy at the same time--once the collection is complete.

I decided not to make Harry Potter himself mostly because I was unable to find appropriate glasses or a good wig.

I'm going to start this series with my favorite character, Hermione.  There isn't a My Twinn face mold that fully captures Hermione's sassy, expressive personality, but I settled on the Denika head because it has a bit more character than the other faces I have on hand:

1999 My Twinn doll with the Denika face mold.

And the Winner is...

Thank you to everyone who joined in for a chance to win Valerie for $2.20!  Here are all of the names that were entered:

The odds were pretty good this time!  See the video with the winner after the jump.

Virus-Free Valerie

Well, these are some crazy times, aren't they?  I've spent the last two weeks moving three sad and slightly overwhelmed kids out of their colleges and back into our tiny house.  We're having fun, but we rarely go outside.  I'd love to hear how all of you are doing--please tell your story in the comments if you feel like it.

I was photographing my next doll for the Etsy shop when it occurred to me that a better idea might be to hold another giveaway!  We all need something fun (and inexpensive) to cheer us up.  So this doll will be offered for $2.20 on Etsy to whoever wins my little raffle drawing (see the rules and how to enter at the bottom of this post).

I searched my doll stash for a girl who didn't need much work, and I found this lovely Rosemary.  I saw her on eBay and thought she was one of the most interesting versions of this face mold that I'd ever seen.  I named her Valerie because it means "strong and healthy," and that's what I'm wishing for all of us right now:

1997 My Twinn doll with the Rosemary face.

Snap Decision Safiya

I feel very fortunate to have been able to work on this lovely doll.  She is extremely rare.  I found her on eBay (with her sister, Orla the autumn fairy) at a $200 Buy it Now price.  By some lucky chance, I saw the auction shortly after it opened.  I knew, looking at those two beautiful black dolls, that they would sell in mere minutes, but $200 is a lot to invest at one time.  So I had to make a tough, split-second decision on whether or not to buy them.  My main concerns were if they'd be restorable (they were in pretty bad shape), and if I'd be able to find materials that would do them justice.

Needless to say, I clicked that tantalizing Buy it Now button, and it was definitely a good choice.  Orla is currently off ruling the fairy realm in another state, and this girl was able to reach her potential with the help of a custom-ordered ZaZou wig.

Meet Safiya (sah-fee-ah), whose name has African and Arabic roots and means pure and wise:

1997 My Twinn doll with the Catherine face.

Signing My Work

The other day a friend from Etsy mentioned that I should think about signing my dolls.  I was so flattered by this comment, but I'd never really thought much about it.  Maybe that's because most of the hard work and artistry on a My Twinn doll was done 20 years ago--and not by me!

But I love the idea of giving each doll I work on a little token to document their time here.  Maybe even something that could travel with the doll to future owners and point them back to all of the information in this blog.

Here's what I came up with:

My Twinn Project Shop necklace!

Elegant Elsie

I'm always on the lookout for a new source of wigs, since fun hair is a great way to add diversity to the dolls I restore.  A few months ago, I was admiring the 11" American Girl wigs at ZaZou Custom Dolls and decided to ask if they could make some 13" wigs for My Twinns.  To my delight, ZaZou's owner, Danielle, was happy to special order this size of wig for me!  She took a ton of time and effort to make sure the fit was exactly right, too.  I ordered five different styles of wig and they arrived just a few weeks ago.

Because Danielle had to order each wig in batches of 10, and because I only needed a few of each style, there are still some 13" wigs for sale over at ZaZou if you're interested!  The wigs are beautiful, and I highly recommend the shop.  One note: the 13" Merina wig is not as red as it looks in the photo.  It's the same color as the 11" Bohemian Gingersnap wig.

As you can imagine, I was eager to work on a few dolls who could model these new wigs!  One of the girls is a very special doll who needs a lot of work, so I wanted to select a second doll who could be completed fairly quickly.  This is where my elegant Elsie--who looks like she barely needs any work at all--came into the picture:

1997 My Twinn doll with the Kelsey face.

Aurelia, the Gold Fairy

I'm sharing the last fairy with you today!  I'm a little sad that this foray into the fantasy realm is coming to an end, but I'm also really excited about the girls that I'll be working on next.  Among other things, I have some beautiful new wigs to show you, some glorious dresses, a few familiar faces from a popular story, and more unicorn fun!

But I'm getting way ahead of myself.  For today, let's focus on the gold fairy, Aurelia.  I chose this name because it means "the golden one," but also because Mr Darcy Colin Firth's character in Love, Actually falls for a beautiful woman named Aurelia and I adore their awkward, epically romantic story.

This is how Aurelia looked when I first got her:

2002 My Twinn doll with the Michelle face.

Sterling, the Silver Fairy

My efforts to share this doll with you yesterday were thwarted somewhat by the escape of my little mouse guest, Paddington.  Paddington came to me as a very dehydrated tiny baby who was trying to die in our downstairs bathroom, and I've been taking care of him while we wait for a warm spring release date.  Sadly, during our weekly cage change, Paddington ran up my arm and escaped into the kitchen!  I spent most of yesterday searching for him, but to no avail.  I'm pretty sad--he was a really fun little friend to have around.

In any case, I'm here to show you the silver fairy a day late.  I searched high and low for a good name that means silver, but it was much harder than I thought!  There are a million names that mean gold, but silvery names are more elusive.  I finally settled on the name Sterling, which doesn't mean silver, but is associated with silver of excellent quality.  Here is Miss Sterling:

2003 My Twinn doll with the Audrey face.

Gold and Silver

One of the final two fairies is complete, so I thought I'd give a little introduction here before she makes her debut!

These two fairies represent silver and gold.  I originally planned to have their outfits designed and made by a new artist, but that artist sews for human babies, and unfortunately her dresses didn't work for My Twinn dolls very well.  Still, there's a happy ending because Julie from Fairy Tale Blessings stepped in, worked her magic, and made these two sprites some absolutely lovely dresses!

The idea with these fairies is that they will deliver some of the charm of the seasonal fairies, but for about half the cost.  The silver fairy is a 2003 Audrey and the gold fairy is a 2002 Michelle.  Here's a "before" shot of the two of them together:

A 2003 pale My Twinn Audrey and a 2002 My Twinn Michelle.

Marina the Mermaid

Some of you might remember that when I first introduced the seasonal fairies, I had a pale, wig-less Ariel chosen to represent summer.  However, when it came time to start pairing the fairies' wigs and outfits, I noticed that the green wig I'd chosen for Ione didn't match her dress.  However, the green wig was an uncanny match for the sea-green factory eyes of wig-less Ariel!  That wig and that doll were clearly meant to be together.

In addition, something about the ocean-like shade of the eyes and wig made me think of mermaids.  I was reminded of the dreamy, muted-color scenes at the beginning of the movie The Shape of Water. Also, the doll has the Ariel face mold, which always makes me think of The Little Mermaid.

In any case, I set the green-eyed Ariel (and her wig) aside and finished the seasonal fairies with a different doll and a different wig.  I also sent a message to Julie Kelly of Fairy Tale Blessings to ask if she would be willing to design a mermaid costume for a My Twinn doll.  To my delight, Julie said yes!

So, I'm back today to share my first (and probably only) mermaid with you!  I named her Marina, which means "from the sea:"

2001 My Twinn doll with the Ariel face. 

Poppy of the Prairie

Hello again! As you might remember from a few months back, I intended to include a few less expensive fairy dolls as part of my last collection.  I still intend to do that, but I've run into another snag with the outfits.  So, while my hero Julie Kelly works on a solution for me, I figured I'd finish up some dolls who have been sitting around for quite a while.

The girl who I'm sharing today is a doll I've had since last summer--just after I started this blog, in fact.  She's a pale Denver Caitie who came to me looking like this:

My Twinn Caitie from 1999.

And the Winner is...

Thank you to everyone who was interested in Serafina!  I really love giveaways and hope to do them more often this year.  There were 18 entries to win Serafina, and I used a random name selector from Teach Starter to pick the winner.

Next time I'll probably have to limit the giveaway to registered accounts--just to avoid multiple entries from one person.  I have no reason to think that happened this time, but it just occurred to me that it was possible.  I hate to exclude people, though, so if anyone has a good idea for how to fairly include anonymous accounts, I'm all ears!

Here we go...

Nearly-Free Serafina

Happy new year!  I've been taking a very long and indulgent break from doll-making these last few months, and it's been fantastic.  However, I'm starting to feel antsy and am ready to get back to work!

I actually planned to post this particular doll before Christmas, but things got away from me and the doll put up a significant fight.  As usual, I'll tell you all about it.

This was meant to the the third doll in the series of Grab Bag Girls who would get to wear casual outfits from Fairy Tale Blessings (the artist who made the fairy outfits).  She's a 2003 girl with creepy eyes, a pale skin tone, and the Catherine face mold:

A 2003 My Twinn doll with the Catherine face mold.