Ever After High's Cerise Hood

I am not really a fan of the previously released Ever After ladies (those clothes, those heads; meh). However, once the price goes down, way down, I intended to get the 2 pack that has the male huntsman in it because I thought he was interesting and I would have used the lady for her articulated body. Then I saw Cerise at Walmart.

She is not actually posed like this in the original packaging. I had deboxed her before taking a photo so I stuck her back in. And yes, I actually paid the full price of $19.97 for this doll. Shocking, I know, but I just found her outfit rather cool and I wanted it, and I wanted it now. It's got this urban, tartan, goth feel and I dig it.

Back of Box

Detail

Her story is another thing that intrigued me, but it also misled me. Based on this story I thought she was hiding wolf ears under her hood. She is, but they are the mildest wolf ears ever. They just have a slight point. Not even a Vulcan point at that. I'm not loving her face, even though it's nice and melancholy, but, if she would have had actual wolf ears, ala Clawdeen, then I might have found her head more appealing.

Love the insert artwork

The story inside of her Bookmark

Her accessories. That ring falls off easily.

Her cape is put together pretty well.

So called "wolf" ears. Pfft.

The outfit is so very well made and the materials are lush. I'm impressed with the quality, the cut, the sewing; everything. Some better detail could have been added to her boots but that's minor to me and I'll add it myself anyway.

One thing I learned is that unlike Monster High bodies, the Ever After bodies are a near perfect fit for Disney heads. I don't know why though, because the knobs and neck bulbs look the same to me. Guess they aren't though.

I plan to shrink Cerise's head and if it doesn't get as small as I would like, and I doubt it will, then I'm giving her body to this thrift store Snow. I have always intended to repaint and turn this Snow into a Neemo [visit Heather's blog for more on Neemo's]. However, this is my first time finding a smaller articulated body that Snow didn't bobble head on. I will shrink Snow's head down more, but even without doing that, like I said, it's a darn good fit.

I surprised myself paying full price without breaking a sweat, but there must have been a full moon or something swaying my usual cheapness. I'm not paying full price for those Barbie Style dolls though - I'm still mad about that.

Jackie Evancho $4.99 at TRU

Nope, I don't know who she is. The back of the box says she was "on one of America's top TV talent shows." I just got her because I could see through the box she was articulated and she was on sale for $4.99. You only have until today (Saturday) to get her if interested.

Removing her head was hard as heck. When I have a head I don't want I usually make a slice up the back of the neck and it comes off easy peasy. Not this thing. I sliced it, I tugged it, I tried to cut it with scissors and it broke my scissors! I finally had to cut her face off.

After opening the face could I see that the entire head was attached to a second neck that was adhered to the knob. It was then easy to just slice through this primary rubber but no way can you get it without opening the face.

Unclothed you can see that even though they have different manufactures, the body is the same as that of a Moxie Teenz.  For more info on Moxie's, try these other posts I've done:

• Moxie Modifications
• The Operation Was a Success
• Moxie Wear For Other Dolls

The Moxie can bend backwards farther, but I don't know why you would want her to do that anyway.

In order to house her speaker and player components, the Jackie has a thicker waist and her back isn't as concave.

I had to dig through my Thrift Store dolls to find a large headed doll that even slightly matched her skin tone and this was the only one. The others were too tan or too pink or they had normal sized heads.

The match isn't exact, but it's the best I'm going to get.

Since my doll's face is much older than Jackie's, I removed some of the more juvenile aspects of her outfit; the sash around the waist, the big bow in the back of the dress and that awful, glitter filled, purple tulle at the bottom of the dress.

Taking off the sash left a small purple section at the back, but meh, it's not worth it to get a seam ripper and take that off.

I have a very limited amount of Moxie shoes and they are mostly boots. Luckily, they can wear the [Harumika Fashion] shoes if you take off the protrusion at the bottom that fits into the Harumika doll stand.

Even if you have no desire for the original doll or don't feel like modifying her as a body donor, I think it was worth $4.99 just for that awesome microphone. That's like a sweet 1940's mic and it tilts up and down and can be removed from its base. I dig it.

I'm also going to keep her scalp because I think I can make a nice curly wig out of it one of these days.

Good shopping and good eating!

No More Articulation For Fashionistas?

My Target has the latest male Fashionistas in stock for $10.99 and when I first saw them I was like, "What in the holy crap is this?!" For a second I thought maybe it was just a regular playline version, like the beach dolls, but no, it said "Fashionista" on the side of the box.

Seriously, no articulation at all and the hair is molded?! And then I turn the box over and realize the entire line has no articulation. This some bull dookie. I thought the whole deal with being a Fashionista was their posabilty and runway fashions. Why would they take that away?

Meanwhile, Target also has Katniss and Peeta and they are AMAZING. I love her sculpt and his sculpt looks even better than the real actor (no offense). When the promo photos came out I decided I wanted the Finnick doll. However, having seen him in person at ToysRUs, he does not look as handsome as the promo pics so I'm in no rush to get him.

Even though I applaud whoever developed this Hunger Games line, the person that green lighted these stiff behind Fashionistas is a douche. Okay, the clothes are rather adorable, so I'll give them that, but no articulation?! Man, get outta here.

What To Do With Yoga Mats

Tuesday Morning had these yoga mats on clearance. I already have a yoga mat that I barely use. However, since the price was so good, 40% off $9.99, I was sure I could do something dolly wise with them and grabbed three.

My clearance luck was with me once again because one of them rang up as $0.00 so the lady gave it to me for a dollar and I got all three for $13.91. Score!

The most obvious thing to use them for is as a photo or wall backdrop. They are 24" x 68" so it gives you plenty to work with even though the color choice is rather garish and/or blah.

The most ambitious thing I wanted to use one for though was as a piece of asphalt. Yoga mats have that nice bumpy texture that I figured would look like asphalt or concrete if painted. This was also the perfect thing to try spray painting on. If the paint smell was too much for me I'd rather it be done on something like this that I can trash rather than furniture or something I want to keep.

Walmart only had one of these cans and it was barely enough to cover the mat. I got the "for plastic" version because I have no idea what a yoga mat is made of but I knew I was going to be rolling it up and I figured the plastic paint version would have more flex to it and be less likely to crack.

I sprayed this outside on concrete instead of grass because I didn't want bugs to get on it. However, I didn't realize that my cardboard underneath wasn't wide enough. When I lifted it up, there was a faint, but clearly visible, paint square on the concrete. Luckily, the concrete was dirty and dusty so I was able to sweep the paint residue up. Whew, I would have been in trouble!

I painted this six days ago and the first couple of days I thought I was going to barf the smell was so bad. I left it outside for eight hours when I initially painted it but then the weather got cold so I had to bring it inside. Ugh. There is only a faint lingering odor now that isn't so bad.

I actually need to spray a layer of polyurethane on the mat because EVERYTHING sticks to it. Even little spiders got stuck in it. I don't know if the poly will eat the mat, so I wanted to take some photos before hand, in case it does.

Here are some of the ways I want to use the "asphalt."

As a walkway, but I don't think it works so well.

 

As parking spaces. I like this a lot!

 

As a street - I like this too!

 

You could also use it as a basketball court but I didn't have time to make that. If I can control the stickiness factor, this might be one of my better ideas.

11/19/13 Edited to Add:

Success! I purchased this sealer from Walmart and it worked great. After applying one coat it was nice and dry to the touch within 10 minutes, as advertised. I still waited about 30 minutes to apply another coat. I just wanted to be on the safe side in case I missed any spots. It comes in flat and gloss. It also doesn't smell as bad as the paint, nor does its smell linger as long. It's good stuff!

12/5/14 Edited to Add:

Over a year later and I now know that neither the paint nor the sealer will retain its hold on a yoga mat. See video below.

Tuesday Morning Knockoffs & Only Hearts

I went to Tuesday Morning this weekend and found some really cheap ($3.99) Barbie knockoffs. When I first saw the box I thought someone had replaced a Barbie Basics with a clone until I realized it wasn't actually a Barbie Box.

Cute face, but clothing poorly sewn

Comparison to actual Barbie Basics

Comparison to actual Barbie Basics

Back of Denim Box

Back of Little Black Dress Box

Talk about being a serious clone. Of course I've seen hundreds of clones, but never one packaged to exactly mimic a Mattel product. The backs of the boxes are gorgeous, but too bad they relate in no way to what's inside the box. I almost bought one of the denim ones until I noticed how poor the stitching was on the top.

They also have a "I Can Be..." line but the clone brand is called "I Want To Be..."  Dang, they even copied the use of ellipses. Her outfit is generic, but still okay for $4.99. They had a floor nurse and a pilot as well.

The store also carried a HUGE selection of Only Hearts girls:

Does anyone who have them know if the clothes will fit a Monster High body? Those are some high quality outfits they have on. I don't know that I want to pay $7.99 for clothes though since I don't want the doll.