Thank you for the encouragement. good advice and general peer pressure yesterday! ;) She’s lovely, and she makes such a nice addition to the family. Especially Arion was happy to meet her, methinks.

She’s a girl of typical sad JP quality, though – her wrist was either broken before I opened her or it broke as I started handling her, and both hands have stains from her coat. Obitsu, here we go – good thing I am getting my salary in a couple of days! ;) Since she won’t stay minty mint, I am also strongly considering repainting her lips, since I never was a fan of open mouthed Pullips. Maybe I’ll try and make her lips a little bit more realistically chapped while at it, and with added shading? We’ll see..

Her stock outfit is among my favourites, though I have to say that the tee confuses me a little. I mean, what’s with the dark pink and purple against all the green of the rest of her casual wear outfit? Hm. I also thought she was coming with a coffe-to-go cup, but luckily I had a thermo mug ready for her once she was out of her box. ;)

The arrival of Em makes my current girl count 18; a nice number for nine months worth of collecting. :) There’s another girl joining soon, though- I couldn’t resist when yuhime put her close-to-mint Carol up for adoption… There’s something about those sad eyebrows of hers, and of course the fact that she’s a type1 body – my favourite of the Pullip bodies so far (haven’t seen a type4 yet). Thank you for the hold, Yuuki – only a couple of days left now! <3 Sebastian should also be on his way, except for the fact that I haven't ordered him yet, heh.. Quite frankly, he scares me a little..! I would probably have to re-chip him first thing... I just finished watching the anime a few days ago, and it was .. disturbing, to say the least. x_x;; The March release has been postponed anyway... (I am not sure whether to take it as a sign or not...)

Poor Em (Haute NY) is still in her box… I really like how she looks, and of all Pullips she’s got the stock outfit which is closest to what I’d want to wear myself. It’s this thing about her being limited and that I’ve gotten her NRFB, though – should I keep her that way, or should I debox? What would you do? Is she likely to rise in value? I am thinking perhaps not, being that she recently went on sale – have any of the other limited dolls ever done that?

Except for a couple of wig shots for the Photo Request section at the Pullipstyle forum, I haven’t taken any pictures this weekend. I have been busy on flickr, though – yesterday I did a massive contact cut, from 130-something to a count of 55. I have been adding people because of their awesome photography skills, or their beautiful dolls, or whatever caught my attention, but yesterday I decided I just want to keep the ones who I have some kind of interaction with – either on flickr or elsewhere – as contacts. I can always find those other awesome pictures in any of the groups I am a member of, right? An important downside of having too many contacts is that you miss out on much of the action from your friends. I thought that some of my friends were just having a break from doll photography, but while doing my cut yesterday I discovered that this was not the case – their photos were simply “buried” on page 3 an onwards of my contact list, and I had never browsed that far. I will make sure to check at least two pages back each day now, and the cut definitely helped too!

.. and finally finding time (and joy!) in spending with the dolls again. Em (Haute NY) was picked up from the post office today, but she’s not been unboxed yet. I’ve been in doubt whether to keep her NRFB, being that she’s a limited and all, but I reckon I will most probably rip her box open once I’ve posted this. ;) My pouty little beautiful lati white still hasn’t got a name, but she’s got a huge place inside my heart! :D <3 These were two photos I took tonight, she spends her days when I'm at work - and nights, of course - in a bed I've made her, surrounded by tiny toy miniatures.

She would perhaps look a _little_ bit happier if I made her some kind of pouch or traveling case so that she could come with me wherever, but for now she will have to be content with at least having somewhat her own “room” here at home. ;)

Woot, yay for fast shipping! I paid for Haute NY the 19th, and two hours ago (of course after closing hours) she arrived to my local post office. 5 days, that’s almost a new record! She’s the first Pullip of mine who’s gotten her name even before she’s arrived – I originally called my ALa “Em”, but with her gone I don’t feel bad about recycling the name. Besides, ALa Em was named after singer/songwriter Emily Haines, while Haute NY Em got her name because of her green hair. Yes, I know, totally creative. :P (haven’t yet checked out the name directory at PS to see how many others have come up with the same brilliant idea…).

Other than that, not much to report. I haven’t been much around since Thursday or so, work has been crazy again – I had to work on Saturday and Sunday, and didn’t sleep between Sunday and Monday (deadline Monday at noon…). Just spotted PS’ new layout (which I loved!), and will take “the round” now to check on my flist and other boards. I did take a few pictures of my gorgeous Belle (still nameless) before diving into the work load – played around with Photoshop actions on one of them:

Haute NY is on sale – “only” $94.99 at the hautedoll.com website! I just ordered mine..! *off to do freelance work to pay the bill*

Edit// Whoa, they’re fast..! This just in: “The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on March 19, 2009 to expect your package for mailing.”