rosiewalks

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when you get the cyber goth doll itch again and out pops a cyber goth Mara Pinkerton

im super happy with how she turned out, exactly what i envisioned

bonus blacklight!

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Way back in the heydays of DOA, I posted a photo shoot of Winter as teen Calvin, napping with his Hobbes plush. I was rather proud of that one, though I over-processed it wildly 😅

Now I found the plush again! So have this spiritual successor - a slightly older Calvin tired after a day at the office, with good old Hobbes at his side.

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June Hobby Recap

Favorite Photos

⭐Overall: Lala with the legos (also my favorite lighting)

⭐Restyle: Abbey buzz cut

⭐Cover Model: Frankie as Skeleton Tree. My favorite because my kid helped me style and pose them.

⭐Couple: Bubbles and Dru

⭐RH rainbow pic: Blue Amaya

Numbers and Stats

Number of dolls photographed: 37ish

Dolls acquired: 0

Hobby things acquired: 0

Dolls sold: 0

Memoa Uploads: 37ish

Looking back

Mailed Summerween cards

Listed sales on Discord

Sent some dolly gifts

Photographed (nearly) all of my RH dolls for Memoa

Shaved Abbey's head

Looking forward

I really, really need to finish Mellie's afro

And make some more progress on Cyber Shadow

And list things for sale on ebay (or possibly some other ecommerce platform - the fees on ebay are absolutely bonkers)

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Cover Models: June Reads

Not pictured (because I read them on libby and can't figure out how to take a doll photo with a digital cover): A Proposal to Die For 3/5 Paladin's Grace 5/5 Of Salt and Shore 4/5 The God and the Gumiho 4/5

The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman. 2.5/5 stars.

Read this for the second quarter family book club, and had I not had reason to finish it, it would have been dnf. It was very melodramatic, and I think would have been better as a real historical account. The beginning part was very gripping (and upsetting), due to the pandemic of it all, but from orphanage onward it was so-so.

A Natural History of Empty Lots by Christopher Brown. 3.5/5 stars.

I color-shifted Honey's hair in post to make it match the grass better.

This was not what I was expecting, so let's get that out of the way right off the bat. I was expecting Bill Bryson, and I got more Thoreau. Now, with the correct idea of what this book was, it was more enjoyable. I loved the idea of finding/seeing wilderness wherever you are, and that connecting with the natural world, even as it grows out of a drainage ditch, can bring benefits to your sense of self and community.

Pretty dense and somewhat meandering. There was more memoir to it than I anticipated. There were a few passages that really stood out to me, and I think the last paragraph of the book summed up the whole thing very well: "In a world governed by human reason, we experience an abundance of surplus and a poverty of meaning. ...Even in the most urbanized human terrains, those wonders can still be found - most often at the edges where the pavement ends and the wild is allowed to express."

If you want a short version, check out this article.

How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Ledman Barrett 4.5/5 stars.

This book is dense, especially the first half. It also made me rather uncomfortable: my feelings aren't real? I just make them up? Then who am I as a person, and a soul? Useful in the end and certainly thought-provoking. I really appreciated the chapters on mastering your emotions, and emotion and illness. Some quotes that I'll be trying to work into my anxiety and illness management:

Every mental activity has a physical effect as well. You can put this connection to work for you...

Reframe situations, that is, find the most useful categorization in the service of action.

Cultivate the experiences you want to construct again in the future.

Recategorize anxiety as merely a sign that the body is coping.

When you feel bad, treat yourself like you have a virus, rather than assuming that your unpleasant feelings mean something personal.

Skeleton Tree by Kim Ventrella. 3/5 stars.

A competently-written middle grade, but I wish there'd been more to it. I wanted it to be scarier/spookier, dang it! Like The Skull by Jon Klassen.

Field Guide to the Haunted Forest by Jarod K. Anderson. 5/5 stars

A lovely book of poetry by someone I used to follow in ig. Update: He has a tumblr and I've now followed him here! I'm planning to buy the three-book omnibus, The Haunted Forest Trilogy. My favorite line: "Every memory is a ghost and the house they haunt is you."

Wilde in Love by Eloisa James. 2.5/5 stars.

Alright, I think I'm done reading Eloisa James, until she comes out with more of the viscount series. I really enjoyed Viscount in Love, but the other two I've read (four nights with the duke, and now this Wilde book) I have liked much less. I loved the skunk-as-pet in this one, and the chase through the bog at the end. I also mostly liked Willa, and her desire to not be a conquest. However. It's still a conquest novel! She literally is treated as a prize to be won, and I'm not about that. I'm also not about "she's a virgin, he's not" nor "she's a virgin but still somehow totally down for and good at sex." And if I have to read another tall, gravel voiced mmc I'm going to scream.

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It is nice to buy clothes for my upcoming Blythe and Pullip dolls. Annie can always try and test them for me:) One of the newest pieces is this cute top, which can be paired with so many things! Annie can wear it perfectly and I hope my future Pullip doll will love it too 🖤🎀

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I really need to make a checklist so I know which photoshoots I've already posted on here, cause I have absolutely no idea at this point.

Anyways, here's Jae-Seong

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I got a mystery email from UPS today and I was so SO in high hopes it would be Johnny's body as the wait time hits 1 year next week.

Turns out it's my Stacy's Pink Ocean/Conarium Doll Order which i made... last month.

I mean yeah it's cool a new doll comes home and I can finally do something ELSE THAN SEWING after like forever but I was so happy for the brief few hours I had the chance of it being Johnny's body T__T

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Happy Pride! Rainbow High rainbow

I have 22 RH dolls (not counting the very wip Cyber shadow), and I photographed all but one for Memoa this month. Mellie (delilah fields) is still in process, because I haven't finished her afro. I'll add her in once her hair is finished.

Left to right, top to bottom is: Tempest, Genevieve, Saffron, Rosebud, Poppy, Sunny, Cher, Jade, Ophelia, Daphne, EVA, Gilly, Amaya, Avarice, Malice, Miss Edith, Phaedra, Nyx, Cruella, Kaylee, Acheron.

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Photo dump 6/24/25

Random photos from the last several weeks that I like, but don't really have a larger narrative or story behind them.

Rearranging my display shelf and sprucing up some outfits and this happened. So they're girlfriends now.

Said shelf, post sprucing.

Realized cozy!Lala coordinated well with the Lego orchid, so she got her own photo.

Bubbles and Drusilla for Pride. Bubbles is still looking pretty dead in the eyes; I'm working on it. But at least her head's not so floppy anymore!

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I knitted that cardigan entirely in lace but with baby merino. It was my first time knitting lace I didn’t made a sample didn’t have a pattern so I let you imagine how well it got xD buuuuut with a lot of blocking and arrangement while taking the pic it does look ok!

Same for the dress! I sew that one last year with a very very complicated fabric (but so pretty 🤩) made the pattern on the go and it was… special let say! All in all it’s a good look for spring I feel! Flowers blooming but still cold! Spring is my favorite season so far! Especially for bjd clothes!

Ofc Rowen looks lovely even if she’s more a Autumn/winter girl in my opinion! Rin will portray srping and summer better but Im still waiting for her wig 😭

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Found my stash of Capsule Chix, and decided to hybrid my fav Zombae doll onto one of the bodies.

I had to fill in the head cavity with some hot glue to make up for the size difference in head pegs, but I'm thrilled with how perfect this match is.

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Sophie Hatter

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I want to share things that other doll folks make, and have been trying to decide the best way to do that. For now, I'm going to schedule reblogs of other peoples' creative doll endeavors for Saturdays, with the tag "weekend share". It might change in the future, but for now, we'll try this.

If there's something dolly related you really want me to see, feel free to tag me or send me a message.

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New Lurk for Abbey

I was lurking on r/monsterhigh, saw this buzzed Abbey by TasteThePain, and promptly fell in love. Before giving my Abbey the Big Chop, I waited 24 hours to make sure I wasn't about to make a rash, hormone-fueled mistake.

Here's Abbey before:

Like yes, of course she's adorable. But I hate that her horns are lost in all the poofy, poly hair. Plus, I just don't like to touch poly and it's not fun to play with.

But oh my gosh, I absolutely love her now. I can't stop looking at her, photographing her, and carrying her around with me!

Abbey is wearing SH Demi's top, SH Natasha's skirt, SH Heather's shoes, and some SH necklace. I did her extra blushing and ear piercings.

This was also a journey of finding shoes to fit her. So far I've found she can wear SH Heather's ankle pumps (pictured), RH Bella's pearl heels, RH Skylar's slime boots, and RH Blu's platforms.

Experimenting with some different accessories:

This was a drastic cut and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I think Abbey looks incredible.

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Neon Cyborg: a very, very wip project

One of my goals for this month is to make tangible progress on my cyberpunk restyles of Neon Shadow. I'm not the first one to do this -- Chimichangacongaline has done Harley and Mara, and it's better than anything I'll ever do. But comparing leads to despairing and I'm not about that! I'm gonna make my stuff regardless :)

So in an effort to actually make some headway on this project, I'm going to do something out of my comfort zone and document the wip-iness of it all.

Things I've done:

Renamed them all. Harley is now Vision, Mara is Vox, and Uma is Verstaan.

Done Vision's cybergoth-y pigtails, and Vox's reverse french braids.

Swapped Verstaan's eyes.

Styled them all (no sneaky peaky).

Here you can see Vision's pigtails. I'm testing out this little button battery LED harvested out of my kid's light up soccer ball. I want to replace one of the doll's eyes with a lightbulb. While this one is basically the right size, I want one with a switch, so I can run a wire out the back of her head and be able to turn the light on and off. I think I have something from a little thrifted ceramic piece that I can use, but I'm very new to electrics and it will take more learning and experimenting to get something workable. Luckily, I have a couple of RH fodder dolls for just that purpose.

Verstaan got an eye swap with Sunny. I think the green eyes pop really well against her pale skin and purple hair. I plan to give her a braided fauxhawk hairstyle, as well as paneling lines on her face and some kind of Borg-like, molded earpiece possibly with a radio antenna.

Vox, who I don't have a WIP picture of yet, will get a respirator mask. I think I'll make it out of paper mache and spray paint? I'm not feeling very confident, but that's part of what this project is about: trying to stretch my creativity and comfort zone, even if it turns out badly. They're just dolls, after all!

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Cover Models: May Reads

DNF: The Circus Infinite; The Last Dragon of the East

Not pictured: Upon a Starlit Tide and Out of the Blue, both mermaid books -- I try to read some mermaid themed things in May :)

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams. 4/5 stars.

Well, the Technocracy is even worse than I thought, if even just half of these things are true (or if they're all half true). Before I read this, I assumed that the worst of the Horrors visited on us were fallen into and just not repaired. By this account, it seems that the Horrors were actively manufactured and maintained. The author witnessed and was part of some truly terrible things and it boggles my mind that she stayed as long as she did (and was fired). I guess it reads to me like an abusive relationship: the writer kept thinking she could "fix it" and was seemingly so enmeshed and strung out that she failed to make principled decisions. This is not to excuse her hand in this (though she herself does not do much wrangling with her own role in the Horrors), but is good to bear in mind.

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo. 4/5 stars.

I love ooky spooky fairy tales and magical realism, so this was right in my interests. If you need hard magic systems with firm rules, this will not be the book for you. The magic is mostly unexplained, existing entirely on vibes.

The Girl from the Sea by Molly Knox Ostertag. 3/5 stars.

Cute little graphic novel. Not groundbreaking, but I liked the art. The sea girl in this one is a selkie.

A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit. 3.5/5 stars.

I couldn't decide on Whiskey or Rowan for this book, so you get both.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The basic message was interesting, but as my spouse put it, the book "had more chapters than points". The long quotations, some an entire page long, overwhelmed the narrative/analysis. I appreciated learning more about 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina -- both events I remember happening, but was too young to really understand the impact. (Technically I didn't finish this book until today 6/2, don't come for me. I read the bulk of it in May.)