Where my witches at?

Halloween isn't really a big thing in Denmark. Some people celebrate it, but most don't. I have never celebrated it, but I love using special occasions like this to take themed photos of my dolls.

Back in June, I bought four pairs of leggings from StarrshineDesigns on Etsy and among them was a pair of Halloween patterned leggings that you only somewhat can see in one of the photos. Tori loves Halloween, horror and everything spooky so I thought they were perfect for her. I looked through my doll clothes and found what would be most witch-like. It would've been cute with a little witch hat, but this scarf works fine too.

Box opening: My queen has arrived

On Thursday last week, I received my Iplehouse SID Ashanti. It took me a while to make this post as I've been sick and haven't felt like doing much, but yet I've been a bit busy at the same time, so I haven't relaxed properly.

I'm so impressed with how fast Iplehouse are! I placed my order on September 11th and they shipped her on the 27th. Then it took nine days before she arrived in Denmark which surprised me a bit. Normally, I'm a pretty patient person, but I grew so impatient as EMS usually is faster. Then I had to wait for the letter about customs fees and this also took a few extra days, but then I finally got her!

She is just pure perfection! I'm so happy that I was able to get her before she was discontinued. ♥ Her name is Sakina and I still don't know much about her character except that she's from Kenya and fled to the UK with her parents and younger sister when she was 12, and that she, of course, also is a model, as most of my other characters. Someday I also want to get her sister, Inaya, whom I plan to be a Merry Doll Round Zuri.

The weather was weird when I did this box opening. One moment the sun was out, the next it was gone and this went on throughout all the photos, so don't mind the changing colours and light.

On the same day I also received an order from Volks, but more about that further down.

I love getting multiple things on the same day!

Tip on uploading good quality DSLR photos on Instagram

Edited on September 24th as I forgot to include a few things. 

This post has been long in the making since I had to re-write it a few times and kept postponing it because of this. Anyways, on to the subject.

I've been experimenting a bit with uploading my photos to Instagram and at first, I thought I had it all figured out, but as I did some more testing I got confused. I was almost finished with writing a mini tutorial about this topic, but I did, even more, testing and finally figured out what worked for me.

The reason behind all my testing is that I have been experiencing some bad decrease of the quality of the photos I upload to Instagram. This is with my DSLR camera and not my phone camera. It has been like this for some time now, but I never bothered to look for a solution before now.

Here are some examples of the compression Instagram has done to my photos. The original photo is on the left and the one from Instagram is on the right.

It's pretty bad as you can see.

A few changes in Thalia's story and style

I'm so bad at sharing stories about my characters! When I have changes that I want to blog about I realize that I never shared what the story was before.

So let's start with a bit of the old story about Thalia. She used to be the lead singer in a goth rock band with all men beside her, but she grew tired it and formed an all-girl goth rock band with two of Lise's old characters. After Lise changed her characters I still had "permission" to say that Thalia was in a band with Trisha and Isabelle. Also, she was in an open relationship with Trent whom I don't own anymore. At this time Thalia's fashion style was mostly casual goth and then more dressed up for the band.

Here's a photo of the girl band, Niveous, from a little over a year ago that I also never shared on my blog.

Box opening: Pureneemo Calico Yuzuha

I received my Sahra's a la mode Meow × Meow a la mode Calico Yuzuha (DS Ver.) on Monday last week. She will be my last new Pureneemo for a good while beside the Wizard of Oz Himeno that I already have pre-ordered and won't be shipped before next year. To my surprise and luck, she arrived without custom fees, meaning that I could put about $70 aside to Ashanti.

On the sad note, though, her shoes were missing. I have contacted Fabric Friends & Dolls and they contacted Azone about it. They will get a pair of shoes with their next shipment and send them to me. I had actually seen a box opening video of this Yuzuha on Youtube where the shoes also were missing. She had tried it once before where it was the whole shipment of dolls that didn't have their shoes. I was a bit nervous that mine might be missing too, but since it took some extra time for my Yuzuha to ship, I assumed it was because they held them back to add the shoes. Apparently not, but at least I will get the shoes.

Her name is Asuki and it's sort of a tribute to my first BJD, Hazuki, whom I don't own anymore. Years after naming him Hazuki I learned that it actually mostly is a female name. I didn't want to name her exactly the same, so Asuki it is. She goes by the nickname Asu-nyan, inspired by the anime K-on!

Erika is covering my address. xD