I’m finally getting around to sharing a few photos that AlphaZ and I took on our trip to Japan in October. It was a wonderful vacation, even if it got off to a bit of a rough start @__@” Cin & I had some difficulties with trying to travel on a stand-by pass and in the end decided it wasn’t worth wasting our vacation days traveling back and forth to and from the airport and bought full-fare tickets on United Airlines to get us to Tokyo. For me, it was an interesting peek at how another airline functions, and since we had confirmed tickets it was rather stress-free. In the 2.5 day head start that AlphaZ, Squall18 (aka Bosu) and Sarcasm-Hime had, they tackled a lot of touristy things and shopping!

AlphaZ took Rin and Serena to the Volks showroom in Akihabara and took a few photos. He accidentally mixed up their wigs, but it’s interesting to see Rin-chan as a blonde! ^__~”

There was a very regal photospace set up in the showroom. The girls look like they are doing a special news report for AKB0048! Haha!

Rin looks rather cute as a blonde – it’s very different from how she usually looks.

AlphaZ also took some lovely night time shots in Asakusa that I wanted to share. These are shrines around Senso-ji Temple -

The last time we were here, Tokyo Skytree was still under construction. I think we missed the grand opening by a few weeks, which is for the best since I heard that the lines to go up to the observation deck were insanely long. We did visit Skytree on this trip, but here is a gorgeous shot of the tower lit up at nighttime -

More to come soon!

- ♥ Archangeli

Happy New Year Friends! I have some catching up to do on my blog, which I hope to do in the next few days ^__^” My first little doll meet this year was in sunny Hong Kong! The weather was such a nice change from the harsh winter that I’ve been experiencing this year in Toronto. I met up with XOHimitsuOX and we went to a beautiful park in Sha Tin to take pictures of a couple of our girls. I didn’t bring my DSLR with me as it’s too heavy to bring for such a short trip overseas, so I only had my iPhone. I’m rather surprised how well some of these photos turned out!

As you can see, I dressed Alice for the arctic weather – haha! She’s so overdressed, but by Hong Kong standards it was a nice “autumn” day.

Saber onee-chan is so tall!

The afternoon sun created a beautiful golden glow.

Photo by: XOHimitsuOX

We climbed a tall hill later in the afternoon and it got a bit chillier, so Alice bundled up a bit.

It was wonderful to be able to get out during daylight hours and take some pretty pictures! Thanks for hanging out XOHimitsuOX!

Photo by: XOHimitsuOX

- ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):

Alice looking out from my hotel room over Mong Kok.

I’ve been meaning to post these pictures for a long time, but kept forgetting. Since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, it was appropriate to share them finally! Here is Sidonie as the Queen of Hearts! ♥

- ♥ Archangeli

By now most of the Volks doll collectors in North America have heard the sad news that Volks USA will closing it’s doors after March 16th. I took the opportunity to pop by earlier this month to avoid the rush of people visiting the store the last few weeks. My hubby, AlphaZ, came along with me and we brought Magdalena (Volks DD KOS-MOS) and Annalise (DD Rise Kujikawa) with us to hang out with InnocentSaké and her hubby, David for breakfast before heading over the Volks USA showroom.

The Volks photo-space was still set up for Christmas, so I brought some hearts along to give a  Valentine’s Day vibe. (I won’t judge though, I’ve been to lazy to take down my own Christmas tree >__<” ) InnocentSaké brought Melon (DD Mashiro Mito) and Yuri (DD Saber Lily) with her! We spent some time upstairs chatting with Vicky and Kimberley (two of their new staff) and shopping before heading down to goof around in the photo area.

Yuri says “Hi!” – she is wearing new Arietta Project resin eyes. They have an almost decal-like look to them because the clear resin dome over the iris of the eyes are not as pronounced as most other eyes (i.e. they are low-dome eyes). It makes them very easy to photograph.

Melon’s green Arietta Project eyes suit her beautifully.

I brought Annalise and Madgalena because they look great together since both girls have more realistic sculpts. They look so cute in their coordinating bear outfits!

One of the new Japanese staff members has trying to conceal his amusement while we were taking this photo – Dollfie High Kick! Kyaaa!!!

The store itself is in a commercial office area, very out of the way from any other stores but you’ll know you’ve come to the right place when you find this sign outside!

There were still quite a number of fullset dolls available for purchase – missing from this board is Dollfie Dream M.O.M.O.

For those who plan on visiting the last weekend, read the Volks USA blog about the events that are happening. There are some lottery events (shopping, a special tea party) and appointments to meet the Doll Doctor. Although the showroom is closing, web store will remain open and the staff have told me that they will still offer in-person pickup of purchases (if you are ever in LA!). I hope that some of you are able to visit in the next couple of weeks to show them that we will miss them!

- ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):

The same day we were in Los Angeles, there was a Dollfie Dream meetup in Toronto >_<” I was sad that I couldn’t attend, but I was working (well, a bit of work mixed in with fun!). AkaTG took some great pics of the Toronto meet and they are on his blog

One of the highlights of my trip to Japan in October was having the chance to visit the Volks Tenshi-no-Sato showroom in Kyoto. It is their gorgeous flagship location and an absolute must for any Volks doll collector. Admission is free, however reservations must be made in advance. The staff at the store had no record of our reservation, but luckily AlphaZ had a copy of the confirmation email saved on his phone! (For future visitors, I recommend printing out a copy of your reservation just in case!) It was actually quite easy to get to Tenshi-no-Sato from the train station, however I found this guide on Angelden.net to be very helpful.

Unlike other Volks showrooms that also carry their hobby kits (model airplanes), Tenshi-no-Sato is dedicated only to dolls and the special relationship that owners have with them.

After unpacking, we left our bags with the staff and borrowed a lovely basket to carry our dolls in during our visit.

There are indoor photo areas, but the true gem is the Japanese garden outside. Since the weather was beautiful and sunny we went outside to take advantages of the beautiful garden.

Rin changed into a lovely kimono to compliment the beautiful surroundings.

The koi were as big as Rin! ^__^”

After walking around and taking lots of photos, we did some shopping in the store in the basement level. There were a few ‘Sato-only’ items, and I noticed that some popular outfits that were sold out in Tokyo were still available. After shopping we stopped into the café to have a snack. We had a sweet potato pastry and a slice of apple pie. I like the white chocolate garnish with the Tenshi-no-Sato logo on it, and the café had floor to ceiling windows overlooking the garden.

After our afternoon tea and desserts, we set about taking photos in the many photo areas set up on the main floor of the showroom.

Everything was set up for Halloween and autumn -

This is one of my favourite photos of Serena. ♥

I was finally able to see this gorgeous throne in person. It is so beautiful!

I loved this setup with the antique looking frames.

On the second floor of were two exhibit rooms. One showcased all of the Volks standard Super Dollfie models, and the other had all of the limited edition Super Dollfies. It was amazing to see some of the very limited and rare collaboration dolls that I had only ever seen photos of. Photos aren’t permitted in the exhibit rooms but I took this one near the elevators. ^_~”

The top floor had a big empty room which I assume is for special events, and had a nice panorama of the area.

AlphaZ and I had a lovely day at Tenshi-no-Sato and it really is a serene and special place for any Volks doll collector. If you ever have a day to spare in Kyoto, I highly suggest visiting!

- ♥ Archangeli

Super late night video blog!

Goodnight!

- ♥ Archangeli

This weekend was the final one that the Volks USA Tenshi-no-Sumika would be open to the public before closing it’s doors indefinitely. AlphaZ enjoyed his visit in early February so much that he was determined to go back one last time. On Saturday there was a discount sale, as well as the opportunity to purchase some of the showroom’s display dolls at the “Dollfie Orphanage.” I arrived with our aunt around 10am and we drew numbers out of a box to determine what order we would enter the line – I got #96, and there were about 160 people in line by the time the shop opened. I met Obiwanivan and JoltFiend while we were waiting around for the store to open.

I finally got the Gothic Wing Chair that I have coveted for 3 years! It was the showroom piece and it was discounted 40% – what an amazing deal! That was the only thing I was truly hoping to buy, but then my heart was captured by Super Dollfie Ryo and I adopted him to be cared for by my sister, Machiko. Here is is with big sister Serena on Saturday evening -

Everyone that came by the store received a special surprise gift – mine was this cute doll-sized “I ♥ SD” necklace. It’s 0.925 silver and came in a adorable little Super Dollfie pouch, with a note from Hideyoshi Shigeta, the store manager.

Meanwhile, AlphaZ was across town lining up for a completely different special event! He left the house at 6am to line up at Gallery Nucleus to meet Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Art Director Yusuke Naora at a signing event as well as to purchase an early release of FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster.

He spent hours lining up in the hot sun in order to get his autographed copy of the game @__@” This was around 2pm in the afternoon…

He was actually very lucky – even though he started out the morning being about #120 in line, by the time he got into the gallery he was #197! The volunteers didn’t do anything to prevent people from cutting into the line, and people who had cash were able to jump the line a little bit since credit card transactions took longer. Luckily AlphaZ had cash with him, or his day would have been ruined.

After a day filled with lining up and driving across the city, we went to Sugarfish in Sherman Oaks for dinner with our aunt before heading home.

On Sunday there was a Tea Party event at Volks USA, and there was such a huge interest in it that the store held a lottery the week prior to the event to decide who would get an invitation! I had hoped that PlasticFantastic and TheBobness would also be able to come and we could make a special weekend out of it, but sadly they didn’t win invitations >_<”

Here’s AlphaZ with Rin entering the tea party. (Ooops, Rin didn’t have her shoes on yet!)

Photo: VolksUSA Facebook Page

When we arrived to the tea party, we drew a random number out of a box – it didn’t make sense to have another lineup draw since there were only 53 people at this event?! It all became clear as we went inside and saw something hidden behind a pink fabric cover… Here is Kuni Shigeta telling us about what is going to happen -

Just like at Dolpa, the Ten-Rai-Jin prize game! Now I understood what the numbers we drew were for! No bingo games though! ^__~”

There was also a little display of prizes to be won – Komame plushies, the Komame head bucket, and maybe some other surprises? (At Dolpa you can win postcards and notebooks @__@” )

I won a “Forever Rose” that was a special Super Dollfie 15th Anniversary item at the last Tokyo Dolpa. I thought it was a silk flower, but it is actually a genuine rose that has been specially treated! It came in a cute little Komame bag.

Photo: Obiwanivan (Ivan Aburto)

I forgot to take a picture, but this was the person who was #1 in the game, and also won a Forever Rose.

AlphaZ was luckier – he won a Komame cat head bucket!

Nekoconeko also won a Komame head!

But the luckiest of all got to welcome home super tiny Super Dollfie Tenshi dolls! Here is the Rei-Tenshi that Ksusha won -

Obiwanivan, Innocentsaké and myself at the Tea Party event with Saber Lily, Momoko and Serena on our arms.

Photo: Obiwanivan (Ivan Aburto)

Serena and Komame with a yummy pastry (made by Snowfern Clover)

She brought cake to share – here is InnocentSaké and Momoko!

Serena snuggling up with SDGrB Hajime Saito and SDGou Isami Kondou who belongs Ksusha

Here I am in a Shigeta sandwich! ^__^” Hideyoshi Shigeta on the left, who is the new general manager of Volks USA and MIKEY (Akita Shigeta) the main artistic designer of Super Dollfie and doll makeup artist.

I made a point to chat with Hide-san and tell him that the Canadian customers are hoping for bigger and better things from Volks USA! Ksusha’s blog has a video of Hide-san’s closing speech.

AlphaZ and I had a very memorable weekend in L.A. and felt very privileged to attend the Tea Party. We didn’t know what to expect – we just wanted to show our support to Volks International to show that there is an active and passionate community in North America – and we also came home with lots of Volks souvenirs!

Photo: VolksUSA Facebook Page

One last picture of AlphaZ and me. We decided to bring Rin and Serena since they had also come with us to Tenshi-no-Sato last autumn and it felt somewhat appropriate for them to come.

Photo: Obiwanivan (Ivan Aburto)

- ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):

We were awoken at 6:30am yesterday morning by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake!

Here are some fluffy palm trees. Something to remember since we’re expecting freezing rain in Toronto tomorrow T__T”

Even though AlphaZ was able to attend the January Dollfie Dream meetup in Toronto, it feels like I haven’t been at one in ages @__@” I’ve missed seeing everyone and their pretty dolls! Since the weather is still bitterly cold and gross we met at Go For Tea in Markham. The theme for this month’s meetup was “Spring, please come soon!” since March has almost finished and it is still snowy and cold. Most of the girls were dressed in hoodies, sweaters and other cute casual wear and some colourful chicks added a bit of colour to the group!

Alice wore a light sweater with a nice green coat on top. but she doesn’t seem amused with this bird on her head @_@”

AkaTG’s Alice doesn’t seem to mind this little birdy on her shoulder though!

I also brought Sakura Matou with me – she doesn’t come out too often but she looked very pretty in this forest maiden outfit from Volks (called the Lady Wizard set).

This lovely girl is Tallenvyart’s Emiko – I love her feminine makeup and soft colours.

Tallenvyart also brought one her tiny resin dolls with her. This is Havaamiel, a Soom Yrie sculpt.

AkaTG also brought Horo with him, and she’s in a casual hoodie instead of her usual garb.

PlasticFantastic brought Yoko and her new little twin sister Poppy! She’s has a modified faceup by La”nsy and is so cute!

Poiyo brought MOMO who looks very pretty as a ginger. Maybe I’m getting used to seeing pictures of M.O.M.O. dolls but her sculpt is growing on me a bit :3

Momiji – Anime North’s mascot character – came out too! I always know it’s convention season when I start seeing more of her!

Wherever Momiji is you’re sure to find her biggest fan, AgentPanda’s Penny, not far behind! Look at her cute lamb apron dress! It’s so cute!

AgentPanda also brought her sweet ducky-face Mallie. Here she is with PlasticFantastic’s little Eruno!

This is Tanu-chan’s DDH-05 girl named Bonita (Bonnie). This is one of the pre-painted heads from Volks, but Tanu is also a wonderful faceup artist and I love seeing the custom work that she does. Of the dolls at today’s meetup, she also painted Emiko, Momiji, Penny and Mallie.

MrCool brought his pretty Yukino. In her orange coveralls, she’s ready to get down to work on fixing up a car! ^_~”

Meo brought one of his unique customized girls with him – this is Manami and she has an open-mouthed design and her tongue can be repositioned too!

Although Go For Tea isn’t the most convenient for transit, it’s close to the highway so it’s good for carpooling. Since it’s a bit out of the way, it’s usually not very busy on weekends at lunchtime and the staff don’t mind if we hang around for a while since our group usually racks up a big bill. There are lots of delicious food and drink options for every budget. This time I had the Beef Paper Hot Pot, which is what is sounds like – a paper “bowl” over an open flame with broth and vegetables, with condiments to season the broth and you add the meat ‘hot-pot’ style. It’s delicious!

A selection of some of our teas and smoothie drinks.

They have an assortment of thick toast with toppings (sweet or savory) and cakes. Eruno is very happy about cake!

Too much socializing? Alice needed a bit of quiet time. Haha!

It was great to see everyone and catch up on stories, and pick each others brains for ideas about travel, food and doll hobby gossip. I hope to be able to see you soon before the craziness of Anime North is upon us!

- ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):
Since the February meetup was at Go For Tea too, the staff remember us. We racked up a big tab both times, we don’t leave a mess and tip nicely so they like us (which is good, since we like coming here too!) and now we are VIP’s!

(Note – May 30, 2014: I realized that this post has been in “Draft” format for over a year! Ooops! Since the weather was so poor this spring, maybe it was a good thing I delayed this post since I feel like I missed out on springtime this year. Enjoy these lovely photos!)

Hanami literally means “flower viewing” and although it traditionally applies to the spring viewing of cherry blossoms (sakura), it can also apply to plum blossoms (ume) or other flowering trees in the springtime. I had hoped to visit High Park this year, but alas this past winter was one of the coldest on record! The trees bloomed very late this year and didn’t last for long. Instead, I’m sharing these previously unseen photos from when PlasticFantastic and Sam came over to my house to hang out last spring, and we took some lovely photos with the flowering trees around my house during periods when the sun peeked out.

Here are Serena, Rin and Mio wearing in beautiful wa-loli dresses! Wa-loli is a genre of lolita fashion that combines traditional Japanese clothing styles with lolita elements.

Draping sleeves typical to kimono and yukata, an obi and a poofy skirt with a petticoat worn underneath are common in wa-loli style.

The dark pink flowers on this tree are beautiful. Rin’s white dress is so striking against it!

Mio looks hungry. Don’t eat the flowers Mio!

Nia looks like a lovely flower herself. She’s so pretty!

Lily usually doesn’t leave the house since hubby is very protective of her, but since we were only going 10 feet out the front door, I took her out for a few lovely photos.

I have to confess, I’m not actually sure what kind of tree this is. I think it’s a type of crabapple tree? Regardless, it’s so fluffy and beautiful!

Sidonie is usually very stoic, but these pretty blossoms softened her heart a little bit.

Little Cirno is very happy to see the pretty blossoms!

Springtime really is my favourite time of year! After a long, dreary winter it’s so nice to see these beautiful colours.

Of course it’s even nice when you get to share these spring blooms with friends! Thanks PlasticFantastic and Sam for coming over, and bringing your cuties with you too!

- ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):
I was so delighted that one of the photos from this set got chosen to be used in the Anime North 2014 program to highlight Doll North’s programming!

Hanami literally means “flower viewing” and although it traditionally applies to the spring viewing of cherry blossoms (sakura), it can also apply to plum blossoms (ume) or other flowering trees in the springtime. I had hoped to visit High Park again this year, but this past winter was one of the coldest I’ve ever experienced in Toronto! As a result, the trees bloomed very late this year and the blossoms didn’t last for long.

A couple weeks ago, I went on an early morning outing to the park with AlphaZ, Machiko and LiterallyTony in the hopes of glimpsing some of the sakura blossoms.

Due to recent rain, most had already fallen off the trees, and many of the blossoms had already turned to green leaves. >_<”

Even though most of the sakura had already fallen, it was still nice to wander through the park in the early morning hours. It was very peaceful – mostly other early-bird photographers wandering about, since any families planning lunchtime picnics were still at home :3

My favourite spot is down by the water where the willow trees are.

Once the sun started coming out the lighting was very harsh and it was harder to take nice photographs >_<”

We wandered the park a little bit looking for nice spots that weren’t too sunny and found this gorgeous flowering magnolia tree! Isn’t it stunning?

There are some beautiful flowering tress in front of my house, but they were at their best last weekend while I was away at Anime North. Here are a few previously unpublished photos from last spring of Moe out in front of the house enjoying the pretty blossoms.

I was pretty bummed that we weren’t able to organize a doll meet at High Park this year, but between snow, rain, and working it was difficult to get everyone together. I’m glad that I was able to capture a few sakura photos, even if they weren’t as spectacular as last year.

- ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):

Kevin at work taking pictures in the park, hehehe.

I have no idea what kind of bird this is, but his orange and black colouring is really striking!

Hi everyone! The weather has finally warmed up so last weekend a few of the Toronto Dollfie Dream owners had a low-key little doll meet at High Park. I love having our outdoor meetups since it usually means lots of lovely photos of the dolls since we can move around a bit! It feels like ages since I’d last seen everyone so I spent most of my time hanging around and socializing while AlphaZ was the one taking most of the photos this time. Nurlindae knew of a great little spot in the park that was out of the way and perfect for us to settled down and be out of the way of prying eyes. The theme of this meet was “summer” – which basically meant anything goes! ^__~”

Since I’m still dealing with the mess from my renovation I only brought 2 girls with me – Alice and Gabi and I dressed them in pretty summery dresses

PlasticFantastic brought three girls with her – Haruka (who is smiling at the end of the big group shot), Yuki and Mio, who is wearing a pretty berry-hued wig.

Yuki looks so lovely in this pink plaid dress.

Nurlindae brought beautiful Lynari with her, as well as a few of tiny resins kids :)

I love their little dresses! She made the outfits for her dolls herself.

Photo: di-chan123

AkaTG brought Alice and Horo and he took some great photos of them – be sure to check them out on his blog!

Photo: AkaTG

I love this “Dark & Light” photo that AkaTG took of our Alice dolls.

Photo: AkaTG

Di-chan’s little Sakura custom is so cute. She has epic ahoge!

Photo: di-chan123

Since the theme was “summer,” Nkei brought Summer (DD Rise Kujikawa) dressed in this lovely deer & mori-style dress and we nicknamed her “Bambi” for the day.

Photo: di-chan123

AlphaZ took Gabi for an adventure in the woods and took some lovely photos.

After hanging out in the park for a few hours, we headed over to Kinton Ramen on Bloor Street for dinner! Sam got a special certificate for having finished 10 bowls to date – and most of us finished every last drop too!

Photo: @kintonbowler on Instagram

It was nice to have a relaxing day where I wasn’t stuck in the house painting @__@” I’m looking forward to next month’s meetup! If you’re in the Toronto area and want to join us, check out the details regarding next month’s meetup on the DollfieDreams.com forum!

Until next time!
- ♥ Archangeli

I had a short layover in Vancouver earlier this week, but the timing worked out so that puppy52 and her hubby were able to meet up with me for breakfast! It was a short little meetup, but I brought Gabrielle (Volks DDS Akira) with me to visit.

We went out to a Hong Kong-style diner called Lido for breakfast. I really felt like I was transported back to Hong Kong – fast paced vibe, a bit noisy, fast and tasty food, and amazing pineapple buns (Bolor bao)! Since there was a lineup of customers, and the tables weren’t the cleanest (>__<”) we migrated over to the Aberdeen Centre before bringing out the dollies. Puppy52 brought her newest girl – the manual version of Smart Doll Mirai!

Mirai is the product of a lot of hard work and dreaming by Culture Japan founder Danny Choo. She’s similar to other 1:3 vinyl dolls on the market, but since Danny is also a collector himself, he took it upon himself to tweak certain things that he didn’t like with other dolls available on the market. Here she is standing next to Gabi, who is a Dollfie Dream Sister. You can see they are quite similar in height and overall proportion – well, except that Mirai has a lot more going on in the bust area! (She is wearing the optional Large bust).

I got to pose and play around with Mirai’s body, and the built-in telescopic stand that she comes with. It’s very handy and makes her very stable – so stable in fact that I decided to goof around a bit and be a bit daring! I remember reading a long time ago the Volks designed their DDS (or maybe it was the DD3?) body so that it was strong and stable enough to support the weight of another doll! I wanted to see if Mirai could do the same – and she can!

Interestingly, Gabi is a bit taller when both of the girls were sitting down – look at the height of their shoulders.

There’s an animatronic giant insect installation set up in the mall right now – it’s a bit creepy, but not too creepy since I’ve seen Atlas Beetles, Hercules Beetles and other giant bugs when I visited a bit museum last autumn in Japan.

No visit to Aberdeen Centre is completely without stopping at Mazazu Crèpe! This is the Caramel Strawberry Cheesecake crèpe with milk flavoured soft serve ice cream! Mmmm!

It was great to catch up with Puppy52 and her hubby! Thanks for coming out so early to hang out! I hope to be back soon!

- ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):

Oh my! What’s going on here?! ^__~”

I’m so sorry for the lack of posts and updates! In addition to sorting out the mess from finishing up our renovation, my desktop computer is now dead >_<” I have my photos from last months meet up saved, but I won’t be able to upload them for a little while. So consider this a bit of a placeholder post until I can update it later on.

In mid-July we tried to meet up on the Toronto Islands for a lovely beach picnic, however the day turned out to be gray and rainy so we had to hide indoors at an alternate location. Luckily Marché is not too far away from the ferry terminal so we were able to regroup and meet there instead.

I brought the newest addition to our doll family – Sasara Kusugawa! A few friends guessed that this was the mystery girl that I brought home a few weeks ago ^^ Technically she is AlphaZ’s new princess, but she’s slowly growing on me. She’s much prettier in person than I expected.

I also brought Gabi with me – if she looks a bit different it’s because she is using the special one-piece SS-bust torso. She looks so slim and svelte!

Serena came out too because she really wanted to go to the beach! She even had brand new bikini – but alas she’ll have to save it for another time.

As soon as I get a new computer and download my photos I’ll update this post with more photos!

I met up with my cousin, her boyfriend, as well as fransgaard and GabrielVH this past weekend for lazy Sunday dim-sum at Ping Pong. I was a bit late since my flight was delayed but the point of lazy Sunday is taking things at a very slow pace. (At one point our food was taking a bit too long, and after we inquired about it we were offered a round of complimentary drinks!) After lunch Gabe and I went for a walk to try to find the bus stop made entirely of LEGO in front of Hamley’s toy store.

It was quite cleverly done!

Since Gabe and I both had DD’s with us, we went out to a nearby park to take a few photos while there was still sunlight.

I love being able to see my London friends on my layovers :) but on this particular visit I was bringing home a very special parcel. Here’s Alice helping me out with it. Can you guess what’s inside? ^_~”

– ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):
Our fabulously girly drinks from Ping Pong –

This month we decided to take our doll meet to a completely different location! We tend to stick around Toronto, but we have lots of attendees that come from out of town so we decided to spend our day out in the Niagara region. We met up at the botanical gardens for a little picnic. This is the best time of year for fresh peaches, apples and other fruits and we purchased some from a local orchard.

What we underestimated was how windy it would be! Here are the dolls before girls started getting blown over, and huge tree branches started falling from the sky!

It was absurdly windy so I didn’t take very many photos. Does this look like PlasticFantastic’s Yuki and Rin are relaxing in the grass? Nope – the wind blew them over!

AlphaZ took Rin on a little adventure and managed a few snapshots before coming back to the group.

When the flying leaves became too much to bear, we packed up and drove into Niagara-on-the-Lake to enjoy the town. We did a bit of window-shopping before having a wonderful dinner at the Olde Angel Inn.

This ended up being a small doll meet since the dates overlapped with Dollism in the US, but it was a lovely day nonetheless.

– ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):

PlasticFantastic and I being fabulous :3

Most of you know that I adopted a SmartDoll Mirai a few weeks ago from TheBobness ^_^ I had her with me at Anime North at the Dollfie Dream panel that I hosted with PlasticFantastic, and she was also at PlasticFantastic’s figure collecting panel and hung out with us at the Nominoichi on Friday evening. She was extremely popular and I was pleasantly surprised with how many people recognized her.

I recently placed an order from the SmartDoll store to order some awesome boots and a couple of other accessories for Mirai and I made an unboxing video when the parcel arrived today. I rarely buy things specifically for one particular doll (I like my girls to be able to share!) but these suede boots were too lovely to pass up!

– ♥ Archangeli

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since my last update but I wanted to share my unboxing video for Sheryl Nome! I ordered Sheryl and Ranka the first day they because available last November, and now after almost a full year they both arrived! I’m so excited to share this box opening with you! I didn’t realize until I was splicing clips together that it was almost 40 minutes long! >__<”

There’s a tutorial about how to put in the CoolCat aluminum reinforcement pieces in this video. If you are already familiar with them, you can skip that part of the video.

Updated information about the outfits:

Valkyrie (Default) outfit: I checked the bustier 24 hours after putting it on Sheryl to check on the blue and red threads that I was concerned about didn’t leave any stains. I’ve put some tape over them just to be safe.

Lion Dress set: the top is lined in grey on the inside. I had Constance (Alisa) wearing it for about 3 hours and the socks didn’t leave any marks on the tops of the thighs or on the bottoms of her feet.
I’ve had updated reports from XOHimitsuOX and thebobness that the threads on the top of the socks can leave stains (after a few days). I personally didn’t have this problem, but my dolls are in a cool, dark space with little humidity. If you live in a warmer or more humid climate then take appropriate precautions! The gloves can stain the hands a little bit where the seams are – it’s a problem with the thread that Volks used rather than the fabric.

Sheryl Casual Date Outfit: The inside of the blouse is not lined, but the black shorts are lined in a pale grey inside. Sidonie (Saber Extra) wore it for about 3 hours and had no signs of staining from the shorts or the socks.

Ranka’s video will be coming soon!

– ♥ Archangeli

Hi everyone!

I hope you enjoyed my box opening for Sheryl Nome. That video ended up being SO long that I had to split Ranka into her own video but this one ended up being really long as well @__@”

– ♥ Archangeli

Hi friends! This is kind of a follow up to the Stain Treatment video that I made a few months ago. I am going to demonstrate how fast and horrible staining can occur! T___T”

I’m using Sasara Kusugawa (version 1)’s default outfit, which is a notorious and known stain monster.

I always take very good care of my dolls and this “experiment” was the first time I’ve ever had anything stained so much and so intensely. (In order for the stains to show up on video clearly they actually look much worse in person T__T”) I should mention that I haven’t washed or soaked either the Saber Maid or Sasara’s outfits because they are known to continually leech black dye even after repeated washings and it will discolour the white parts of the outfit and give them a bluish tint. If you own these either of these outfits, you’re welcome to wash them but I’ve made the choice not to because I’d rather keep the outfits pristine in case I decide to sell them someday.

I’ve started filming the [Before] part of the stain removal so you can see how effective the Volks Dream Rescue cream is and I’ll post the results in a couple of days.

Err…. enjoy? *cringe*

Dec. 10, 2015 – Update:

Here’s the video showing the stain treatment using the Dream Rescue cream. It’s not a miracle product, but it does work very well.

– ♥ Archangeli

Plastic Fantastic and I hosted a panel at Doll North yesterday morning. This was our most well attended panel yet – both for humans and dollies!

Thank you everyone for coming out, participating and bringing your beautiful dolls!

If you weren’t able to attend, we recorded the panel! Turn the volume up and watch it in HD!

(Bah! WordPress isn’t formatting the embedded video so Click HERE to go to Youtube)

– ♥ Archangeli