Finished!

Yay!  Now I can finally start playing with dollies again!  I managed to finish my kitchen tiling project this week. 

I have the W Club exclusives "Truly, Madly, Deeply" Agnes and "High End Envy" Erin on order, and they'll be here somewhere around the first or second week of September.  I'll be sure to photograph them for you.  Just got an e-mail asking for the remainder of my payments for the two.  So excited!  They will be my very first Agnes and Erin. 

Now that my kitchen is done, I'll actually have time to start photographing dollies again.  Yay!

What I've been up to this week ...

The tiles are made from recycled glass.

OK, this is so TOTALLY not doll-related, but I wanted to share what I've been doing this week.  My very first kitchen remodeling project!  The house I live in never had a tiled wall behind the kitchen stove, meaning every time oil or grease splattered, it would end up staining the painted wall behind the stove.  Not any more!  I finally decided to tile it myself.

My first step was watching literally 7-8 tutorial videos on Youtube on how to make a tiled backsplash for the kitchen.  I've never used mortar before in my life.  I've never used grout before in my life.  LOL.  This whole project has been a first for me.

Blue painter's tape outlines the area where I will put the tile.

Anyway, I just managed to finish the tiling today.  I was so pleased with the results that I decided to tile a spot right above my kitchen sink as well.  These pictures show my stripped-bare kitchen during the work.  The blue lines around the edges of the project are blue painter's tape. 

The mortar has to dry overnight before I can do the grout and caulk the edges.  Not done yet!  But ... the major work is done. 

The mortaring and tiling begins!

After a full day of work, the tiling is finally done.

I had some tile left over, so I decided to do a spot above the sink as well. 

A ponytail-free Sunshine Games

Well, I did it.  I took down the ponytails on Sunshine Games.  This is what her hair looks like with just a gentle washing and comb-through.  I just used liquid hand soap to wash the hair.  ... I did NOT boil the hair (that would have straightened it).  The waves are quite nice!

She does have a small bald spot in the back, but it's completely covered by hair and I don't see the need to do a partial re-root on her like I did with my Holiday in the Hamptons Poppy Parker.  I'm sure the small bald spot was put there to keep her hair from being too full, since it was meant to be in ponytails.  She does have a nice side-part all the way down her scalp, so that keeps the small bald patch from showing.

I think she looks quite nice with her hair down.  I think she looks thoughtful in these pictures rather than sleepy.  She's wearing the shirt from "Most Sophisticated" Sabrina, as you can see. 

Just a clarification:  The small bald spot really IS small.  It doesn't take up half of the back of her head or anything, just so you know.

Pre-orders rolling in!

I think I was the last in the doll community to get these three Poppys, but they're finally here!  The second I opened the boxes, Day Tripper became my instant favorite of the three.  Her eye screening is nice; her eyes are an interesting turquoise, and the yellow eyeshadow doesn't look at all garish in person.  The freckles are even done nicely.  My biggest disappointment is that her cute yellow boots are unusable.  The zippers in the back are stuck.  I wish they'd stop putting those tiny zippers on boots!  Grrrr!  Her yellow hat doesn't fit well, either, and won't stay on.  Besides those things, though, I adore her.

The Happening and Sunshine Games are nice, too, but look slightly sleepy to me... a combination of that eye screening with the applied lashes.  My Dream Teen Poppy had applied lashes, too, but didn't look sleepy ... just drop-dead sexy.  I still like them even more than I thought I would.  The sequined dress on Happening is wonderfully crafted, and her earrings are nicely made and very cool. 

The ponytails on Sunshine are SO COMING DOWN!  They're all right, but I bet she'll be even prettier with her hair down.  I LOVE her skin tone.  It's a very light tan that's just beautiful. ... lighter than the tan skin on Sweet Confection, but darker than the "normal" Poppy Parker skintone.  I saw that someone else posted on another doll forum that the head on their Sunshine Games didn't match the body.  Mine matches perfectly.

Well, I hope that was a thoughful review.  Overall I quite like these three, although I'm not sure they're going to be my favorite Poppy Parkers of all time or anything.  The new eye screenings are just not my favorite, although they're OK.  I'm not sure whether I'll bother sending the yellow boots back to Integrity to be replaced.  I haven't decided yet. 

Please click on the pictures to make them bigger. :)