ManikaManila Tiangge 2013 + People's Choice Award!

So after 10 million years, I finally have a proper blog post! XD

Last October 26, ManikaManila held its annual Tiangge (which means "bazaar" in Filipino). It's not quite a convention yet, but we're getting there! This year, the event was sponsored by popular BJD clothing brand, Doll Hearts!

Me and some of my closest friends in the hobby were among the concessionaires. I sold mostly doll accessories like scarves, necklaces, headbands and books. The books were a hit! I managed to make a good profit, which was awesome, but what was even more awesome was that I won People's Choice for the Photography Contest! YAY!

Check out that fabulous logo and website by the equally fabulous Nix!

People's Choice Award, awwyis! Miette and her friends definitely worked their magic. 8D

Me and my booth. It's a littly messy, but homey! I was going for the shabby chic look. ^^

The event was intimate, but it's showing a lot of promise. The Philippine BJD community sure is growing fast. 8D I'm super proud of my community. Great job guys! For more photos of the event, click on ahead.

WARNING: IMAGE HEAVY POST AHEAD!

A Doll Raffle for the Victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan

Last week, the strongest typhoon to ever hit landfall came here in the Philippines and devastated the Visayas region, leaving so much death and destruction in its wake. For a clearer picture of what happened, you can go here and see for yourself.

This strikes close to my heart since I have relatives living very near the places that were severely affected by the typhoon, but thankfully they are all safe and doing okay. I'm really grateful that my friend Trisha has started a fundraiser in the form of a doll raffle to help the victims.

Taken directly from Trisha's blog:

A DOLL RAFFLE FOR THE VICTIMS OF TYPHOON YOLANDA

Typhoon Yolanda, the world’s strongest tropical cyclone to ever hit land, made landfall in the Philippines early last Friday, November 8 2013. The super typhoon with the international name Haiyan has left an unspeakable amount of devastation in its wake. The most recent news from the Department of Social Welfare and Development estimates a total of 9.5 million people affected by the typhoon, either by loss of property, livelihood, or loved ones, a number of the country’s poorest provinces ravaged directly by the typhoon.

My name is Trisha Descallar, and I am a BJD owner and enthusiast based in Manila, Philippines. My part of the country was not too terribly affected by the typhoon, but I am still, nonetheless, affected by the plight of my countrymen in Eastern Visayas.

In 2011, Typhoon Sendong hit my country, dumping one month’s worth of rain in just one night on Northern Mindanao. I was already very active in my local BJD community then, and decided to go out on a limb and combine my hobby and my desire to help in order to raise funds for relief operations. Utilizing the power of my friends and social media, that little endeavor of mine managed to raise $332 or P14,445, which was promptly turned over to Simbahan Lingkod ng Bayan, a Jesuit organization based in my school, the Ateneo de Manila University.

Now, it is 2013, and I would like to once again appeal to the generosity of my friends in the doll hobby.

DONATE TO TYPHOON YOLANDA RELIEF OPERATIONS AND GET THE CHANCE TO WIN EITHER A MYSTIC KIDS 1/4 BJD OR A LUTS TINY DELF OF YOUR CHOICE!!!
Mechanics:

0. This raffle is open internationally. The mechanics in this post are for international users. Users from the Philippines, please click here.

1. Each donation of USD 10 (ten American dollars) is the equivalent of one (1) raffle entry. There is no limit to the amount of raffle entries you can earn, so the more you give, the more chances you get of winning.

2. Make your donation directly to the Philippine Red Cross via Paypal only. Their Paypal donation page can be found here.

3. Send a screenshot of your Paypal donation receipt along with the confirmation number to trisha.descallar@yahoo.com, along with the following details:

Email Subject: DOLL RAFFLE DONATION INTERNATIONAL - [LAST NAME, FIRST NAME] 

Full Name:
Facebook URL: (write N/A if not applicable)
Tumblr URL: (write N/A if not applicable)
Shipping Address:
Cellphone Number:
Email Address:
Paypal Address:
Confirmation #: (for Paypal donations only)
Total Donation in US Dollar:
Doll of Choice:

This step is crucial for your entry to be acknowledged.
4. I will reply to your email to acknowledge your entry/ies, and assign you a raffle number. This number will be based on the chronological receipt of your message as it appears in my inbox. All entries will be replied to and acknowledged.

5. The accepting of raffle entries will close on December 13 2013, Friday, 11:59pm. Any entries received after this time will not be counted for the raffle draw.

5a. The aforementioned time is based on the Philippine timezone. Please see here for details and do the necessary conversion.

6. A winner will be selected via random.org. The winner will be posted here on this blog on or before December 15 2013, Sunday.

6a. The aforementioned time is based on the Philippine timezone. Please see here for details and do the necessary conversion. 

7. I will coordinate with the winner in private about how the prize will be ordered and received. I will post status updates here about how that process is going here on this blog as well.

The Prize:

1. The winner of the raffle can choose either one (1) Mystic Kids 1/4 or one (1) Luts Tiny Delf. Only one (1) winner will be chosen and only one (1) doll will be won.

2. The Mystic Kids 1/4 will be ordered from Alice’s Collections and the Luts Tiny Delf will be ordered from Luts.

3. The choices available for the Mystic Kids 1/4 are as follows: Victor, Caroline, Evelyn, Francis, Gene, Illy, Lillian, Natalia, and Sean. If the winner wants a Mystic Kids 1/4, these are the only choices available for the prize.

3a. The resin colors available for the Mystic Kids 1/4 are as follows: Normal Pink, Normal Yellow, White. If the winner wants a Mystic Kids 1/4, these are the only choices available for the prize.

4. The choices available for the Luts Tiny Delf are as follows: Hansel, Gretel, Louis, Alice, Peter, and Dorothy. If a winner wants a Luts Tiny Delf, these are the only choices available for the prize.

4a. The resin colors available for the Luts Tiny Delf are as follows: Real Skin Normal, Real Skin White, Real Skin Brown. If a winner wants a Luts Tiny Delf, these are the only choices available for the prize.

5. The raffle prize is only valid for the dolls mentioned in #3 and #4. The raffle prize is non-transferable and is not convertible to cash.

6. The raffle prize is absolutely only for the blank head and doll body. This does not include any options such as faceups, body blushing, clothes, special resin colors, and the like.

6a. The winner, however, can choose to add the difference for these extra options. This will be discussed with the winner once the winner is chosen.

Please help me spread the word by reblogging this post or sharing about it on Facebook. More entries means more money raised for the relief operations of the Philippine Red Cross, which will make both me and you very happy, a more entries means more chances for you to win a doll of your choice for a fraction of the cost, which will make you very happy. Everybody wins! 

Please donate and spread the news via social media if you can! Maraming salamat po!

It's the Little Things

Being a hero doesn’t mean you need to risk your life to save others. A hero is someone who does their best to make the lives of others better, even in the simplest of ways such as giving extra clothes to those who need it.

~*~

Hello! I'm alive... just incredibly busy haha! I long for the day I get to spend my time queuing blog posts. ;_; Anyway, this photo is for ManikaManila's Photo Contest. The theme is "Hero". I think I did well with what I had, but I gotta say, I may need to throw in the towel because entry #4 blew me away. @_@ My fingers are still crossed though!

Happy birthday, my deer!

♥♥♥ Belated happy birthday, Blair!!! ♥♥♥

I'm such a bad owner! ;A; My free time has been eaten up by the work monster this past month that's why I missed celebrating Blair's 2nd birthday. Huhuhu... Glad that Blair isn't the demanding type. At least Miette and their animal friends came up with a cute little cake for the occasion (it's actually a piece of chocolate-coated polvoron lol). Great job, guys! xD

I also apologize for not posting the entire month of September. Like I said, I've been swamped with work and have yet to get my blogging groove back. I'll try my best to update more often. On a positive note, one of the things keeping me busy involves crafting dolly accessories. I might open a little shop soon. Fingers crossed!

Kawaii in Manila

It's been a gloomy week here in the Philippines. A huge storm decided to make the country its temporary home and it has left so much destruction in its wake. These are trying times, but Filipinos are tough people, so we'll definitely persevere. If you'd like to help out, you can donate to the Philippine Red Cross here.

Lucky for us, the area where we live in was spared from the floods. I just spent the past few days cooped up at home, which was fine because I'm a homebody anyway lol. I also got to spend some much-need time with the dollies, yay! Having them around definitely made my days brighter.

Speaking of brightening things up, if you're in the Philippines and you're into all things ~*kawaii*~, do check out Kawaii in Manila! They are having a Kawaii Lifestyle Workshop this September 14, packed with the most sugoi activities that every Japanophile will love. For more details, visit their Facebook page or check out the poster below.

Those Creepy Dolls: BJDs in Music Videos

As some of you might know, I'm a huge Kpop fan. I usually only watch out for the few groups that I really love, but just this week, a relatively new Kpop act called Ladies' Code released a new music video and it immediately caught my attention. The reason? A BJD is featured prominently in the video and song cover art.

And judging by the song's cover art, you can already tell how the doll figures into the music video.

Yep, it's there to amp up the creepy factor. In the video, the girls are seen playing and destroying dolls (thankfully the BJD remained unscathed lol!) with vapid looks on their equally doll-like faces. Their doll-like quality gets more highlighted as they themselves become dolls as the video progresses. The "creepy doll" concept is nothing new in music videos though. BJDs have been used for the same purpose in other such videos. Below are some examples.

While I do like that BJDs are getting more exposure in pop culture and even though I have a thing for creepy, macabre concepts, I’m beginning to find it tiresome to see dolls portrayed as creepy things in media. They’re works of art, after all! How about featuring them in a different, possibly a more positive light? Like focusing on their beauty at the very least.

What do you guys think? Have you seen other artists use BJDs in their music videos?

Faceups // Soom Ivory for Jan

Real life has been keeping me busy and away from my dolls. ;w; I miss playing with them. So far my bonding time with them consists mostly of Instagram lol. Despite my lack of dolly time, I managed to squeeze in a faceup commission for my friend Jan.

This is Addie, which is short for Adelaide. She's your typical girl-next-door: bubbly and quite romantic. Jan wanted her to have a natural faceup, but with a smoky eye, so this is what I came up with. I'm happy with how she turned out! :D

The Big, the Baby and the Bitty

Remember that post I did not too long ago about doll plans? Looks like the plans are about to change! I still plan on getting a Feeple60 Rona first (I already have clothes prepared for her), but the rest in my old list are up in the air. The reason for this change?

Blairfeels.

Big, Baby & Bitty Blair: Delf Arwen, E-line Boni, and Pukifee Mio

Recently, I've been thinking of getting Blair in other sizes, namely SD, YOSD and Tiny sizes. It's no secret Blair's my favorite, but I always thought that my future dolls will all be different characters. It made more sense to me at the time. Why would I want the same character in several(!) different sizes? What use would I have for them if I'm not the type who has a "story" for their dolls?

I still don't have the answer to that. I just know I want to do it. I really, really do. The aesthetic of these dolls that appeal to me so much, and I can't help but see Blair in all of them.

What do you guys think? Have you ever felt this way about a certain doll/character of yours? Did you get them in several sizes, too?

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Meandering on Mamegomas!

Miette and Dae have called a truce in the name of Mamegoma riding. It's an activity best spent with your frienemy, after all. ;)

Happy Thursday everyone!

Dae and the Mamegomas belong to my friends Arvie and Lala.

Miette lives with me.

Brick by Boring Brick

There hasn't been a lot going on with me dolly-wise recently. I've been saving up for a Feeple60 girl, so I'm cutting down on my spending, which means it's gonna be a while before Blair and Miette get any new stuff haha! Sorry, girls. ;)

I did purchase a couple of stuff for Blair before my spending hiatus, and this fabulous Foxybrowny set is one of them. It's freaking adorable! The prints kind of clash but they still manage to look so pretty together. It's all so very hobo-mori chic, which I love. ♥♥♥

Costume Embroidery for Game of Thrones

The third season of Game of Thrones concluded this week and now I don't know what to do with my life. LOL. Just kidding. In all seriousness though, I have a small hole in my heart where the show used to be. I can't believe us fans have to wait for another year for the new season to arrive! :(

Replace with "I NEED GoT IN MY LIFE!"

Even though the wait will be hard, the show is one of the biggest TV productions there is nowadays, so the wait won't be in vain. Every little detail is carefully planned and designed, and the amount of work and dedication put in every set and costume is astounding.

AND THOSE COSTUMES. My gosh. I recently stumbled upon the website of Michele Carragher, one of the costume designers of the show. She's done incredible embroidery work on some of the costumes! Her attention to detail is ridiculous. I was blown away.

It's too bad we can't see much of it in the show, so here's my little tribute to Ms. Carragher's work. Below are some of the costumes she's done for the show. Click on the photos for a better view. SPOILERS AHEAD!

Sansa's wedding dress was one of my favorites in the third season. Love the little story on the embroidered sash. It starts out in the back, with the joining of the Tully fish and Stark direwolf (Catelyn and Ned's wedding), then the war between the Starks and Lannisters, symbolized by the intertwined direwolves and lions, and how the Lannisters now have a hold on Sansa (hence the lion on her nape).

Cersei is probably the character with the most wardrobe changes in the show. This dress looked simpler than her other looks (I'm talking about that gorgeous armor dress!), but check out all that embroidered detail on her shoulders and sleeves! It's so opulent, which is perfect for her character.

I always thought Catelyn Stark's costumes were more austere than the other characters', but seeing this photo makes me wanna rewatch the show just to see her other clothes. I thought the scarf was a plain one, but wow, they really put a lot of detail into it. I love the Tully fish embroidery!

The Qartheen costumes were some of the more colorful ones in the show, but I never noticed that there were bugs on their clothes! Kinda cool, kinda creepy. I guess it's a clue about Qarth in general: looks can be deceiving.

Who knew even pirates had luxurious clothing? Salladhor Saan's costume is proof that even pirates dress fancy!

And now we arrive to Dany. I gotta say, initially, I was disappointed with her wardrobe this season. For a good part of the season, she's been seen wearing the same dress... well, that's what I thought. It turns out that they're all different! Notice how in the first dress, the "dragonscale"-like pattern is isolated on her shoulders.

After she sacks Astapor, the pattern grows and crawls down to her chest. It's a subtle hint of her transformation from wannabe queen to full-fledged conqueror.

And by the end of the season, she's become the mother of an entire nation. Now the scales are all over the upper part of the dress, with added gold embellishments. Stunning, just stunning.

Definitely a dress fit for Daenerys Stormborn, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, and the Mother of Dragons!

 

There are a lot of other costumes from the show that I want to feature, so you can look forward to that in the future!

Photo source:  Michele Carragher's Official Website