Arrived!

We've arrived at the JW Marriott where the convention is being held.  The dolls love the bed in the hotel room- it's pretty bouncy.  Everyone is excited about the ice cream social tonight!

Buc-ee's

Us and the girls stopped at Buc-ee's.  We got some food and Christine got a new shirt.

Lunch stop

Our first stop: lunch at Kairi's favorite spot.  We made happy meals for the dolls so they could eat, too!

On the road again!

We are headed to the annual United Federation of Doll Clubs convention in San Antonio, Texas, and are going to blog our trip.  Kairi's AG doll, Christine, Janet's Lulubelle and Half Pint are coming with, and helped us load the car.  Woohoo, we are so excited!

Janet and Kairi

Doll Show Finds

We visited the Hill Country Doll Show and found a few things!  One of the dealers made us a great deal on a Strawberina, so Kairi got a replacement for the one that broke last fall.  I bought a dress from Honeybee as usual, and Kairi got a groovy Barbie chair.

Beach Time

Libby Relaxes at the Beach in her New Beach Chair

Lulubelle and Libby came along on our beach vacation and showed off new clothes and a new chair.  Lulubelle is wearing a dress made from the Half and Half Kit from Affordable Designs (www.leeann.ca under the Sewing Patterns menu).  This was a fun kit that I hand sewed, but it can be machine sewn.

Lulubelle in her Half and Half Dress

Lulubelle in her Half and Half Dress

Libby is wearing a tunic made from a kit by Doll Project (http://www.etsy.com/shop/DollProject) and leggings made from a pattern by MHD Designs (http://dolloutfits.com/patterns/aeriens/index.html).  She's lounging in a beach chair by Stillpoint Woodworks (http://www.etsy.com/shop/StillpointWoodworks).  It's a great little chair that fits Barbies, 10" collectible dolls, etc.

Libby Kicks back in her Beach Chair

Gnome likes it!

A Little Doll Surgery

Poor Bleuette!

Bad dog!

We are not the only ones in our household who love dolls-- unfortunately, our Pug got a hold of Kairi's resin Bleuette from Ruby Red Galleria (http://www.rubyredgalleria.com/) last year and chewed up her hands.  We were pretty upset (the dog not so much), but I had hopes we could fix her.  Recently, I contacted Ruby Red Galleria and was able to get a pair of replacement hands (Yay!) so today I replaced them, and have the pictures here to share.

New hands from Ruby Red Galleria

The resin Bleuette is a merging of new and old-- Bleuette was a french doll given away when little girls subscribed to the magazine La Semaine de Suzette.  She had a jointed composition body and porcelain head, and was made from 1905 to 1960 by several different dollmakers.   The magazine would have a clothes pattern for Bleuette in every issue, so there are dozens and dozens of patterns out there (see http://www.thebleudoor.com/Libraryhome.htm for free copies), making her very popular with doll lovers.  Ruby Red Galleria is a doll company in Hong Kong that decided to make a modern Bleuette-- she is made of resin and ball-jointed like modern BJDs (Ball-Jointed Doll).  She is a great incarnation of a great doll, and we have lots of fun with ours!

A BJD is made up of doll parts strung together with elastic, and you can repair or change them fairly easily.  The next picture shows the elastic that the hand is hooked to:

I just pulled the hand out to expose the elastic.  A good way to do this would be to use a hemostat, a tool that clamps on to the elastic and prevents it from pulling back into the doll.  I didn't have one, so I used my fingers and was careful not to lose the elastic.  The next picture shows the new hand hooked on before I removed the old hand, just in case!

Then I removed the old hand and released the new hand into the joint!  All better!

She feels much better!