❤ What I've been doing during my long silence... ❤

I know I promised I'd get back into my blog and cataloguing my collections and I really did have every intention in doing so... I still do, but something totally mind blowing happened to me and as it turned out the best thing ever!

As you know, towards the end of 2016, I lost my Dad and for a long time I really didn't have much interest in anything to do with Social Media, socialising and certainly not showing off my dolls.

 I didn't want to go anywhere, see anybody and just cut myself off from the world for a while... Until one day towards the end of January,  I discovered I had a message on Facebook so I checked it out, it was kind of odd as already that month two guys I was friends with in my teens also got in touch.

Les was an old friend's ex boyfriend, I rescued a rat from a girl I knew who wasn't looking after him and got Les to give him a good home,  the other was Lee former guitarist in  Acrimony (I loved that band!) and Lifer he was another old and now ex-friend's ex boyfriend whom I met when she introduced us when I was 12!  

I hadn't seen either of them for around twenty years. Catching up with them both really helped take my mind off the crap time I had been going through and of course as Lee, loves music and is still in a band (Woven Man), he put me onto some very cool bands to listen to which I had no idea existed! 

 I was loving all the new Doom Metal, Thrash bands and Stoner Metal I was discovering and then the most amazing thing happened...

I got a message out of the blue from a guy called Paul, we met in school when I was 16 (he was 14) after being introduced by a mutual friend.

 We both loved Slayer and Acrimony (he was/is friend's with the other guitarist in Acrimony - Stu' O'Hara, who now plays for Sigiriya)... As soon as I saw him I was smitten, by the time lunch break ended we were a couple.

Back in those days there were so many good local Metal bands and we used to go to gigs most weeks, there's never been much to do in "The Valleys" if you aren't old enough to get into one of the Village's 8 pubs.

The cinema (run by a group of volunteers) gets a few films each year, a couple of weeks after they've been shown in Swansea's UCI - not all of the films they show make it this far into the mountains though so unless you want to see the same film repeatedly for 3 weeks or don't like the other two that are going to be shown you're a bit stuck, especially now the swimming pool - open air mind you, pumped full of highly chlorinated river water, and only open during Summer months - has now shut down... there's nothing here for teenagers.

So we'd either hang around in a huge group inside and spilling out of  The Bus Stop listening to Metal on someone's Boom Box or following local bands, which had the added bonus of meaning we could get into local pubs to watch the band and while we were there... get drunk!

Anyway, long story short, I was stupid, I broke it off with Paul and broke both our hearts.

I moved away to college, moved back, got my Degree in Fine Art, had a Son and after years of disastrous relationships decided to give up on the whole idea.

I never did forget about Paul though, or stop regretting letting him go.

 In the mean time he'd done much the same except his Degree is in Electrical Engineering and he doesn't have children.

While we were catching up, I found myself feeling the same way about him as I did all those years ago... I guess it was inevitable that we'd end up on a date, well one date led to another, to another and...

In April 2017, we went to Bristol to see Acid Reign, a band he introduced me to all those years ago.

I met the bassist Pete Dee just before the gig and got his autograph on a poster I managed to snag from the Ladies, after the gig I got the other band member's as well, except for Marc Jackson the drummer 'cos I was drunk and got confused!

Since then we've seen Alice Cooper, Max & Iggor Cavalera, Overkill, Shrapnel, The Mission (UK), Children of The Gravy, and had a holiday in Shropshire.

Last month we went to see Sigiriya, are going to see Saxon and Diamond Head this week, we're booked for Cannibal Corpse in March, the Frost & Fire Festival in May and Iron Maiden and Power Trip in August.

I've been having a blast.

I haven't had much time for dolls, but I have got my hands on a few new BJDs which I'm happy to say Paul has helped me re-string - he doesn't understand the whole "Doll thing" or Doll Customising (He'd never heard of this before I told him) but he says "If it makes you happy it's all good" and as he knows about wires and electrics, he's perfectly happy to help me wire up my dolls houses too- what a guy!!

Where I've been...

You may have been wondering where I've been since 5th October, well it's been a long and painful time for me and there are so many things I've had to face that although inevitable I hoped I'd never have to...

My Dad went into hospital for a routine hernia operation and all went well but at age 74 with only 1/4 of his lung capacity due to emphysema - a result of 30 years underground as a coal miner - it was a worry.

 He caught an infection, it led to pneumonia and then he caught a secondary infection, the decision was made to place him on life support as his lungs were having a hard time coping...

They kept him unconscious for several weeks and it was a huge worry but he came through it ok.

He made a full recovery, and the consultant was so happy with his progress that he decided to release Dad earlier than they originally told us he'd be home.

He didn't need physio and as he'd recovered so well and due to the time he'd been on life support his wound had healed so he didn't need to have visits and dressings from a nurse.

He was sent home with an appointment to see his consultant in a month...

Dad came home on the 2nd November, he was so happy to be home and after an hour Aaron helped him up to bed as he insisted he wanted to sleep in his own bed.

About half hour later he got up and came downstairs where he spent a few hours alternating between his nebuliser and oxygen.

Next morning after sleeping on the sofa and breakfasting with Mum, he sent her off to buy a new ceiling light for the hallway.

Aaron and I spent the morning with him, having our breakfast, Dad was on top form, we were all laughing and joking and he set to and sorted out his drawer putting things in order.

He asked Aaron to fetch him his oxygen, we helped him hook himself up and a little later he became unresponsive, then unconscious, we got an ambulance. Mum came home and after looking him over the first responders wanted to take him to the ambulance do some tests and stabilise him before taking him to hospital.

We waited outside to be told we could go to hospital with him, I could see them doing CPR and I just knew... They got a second ambulance team to assist tried more for ages... then came and told us his heart had stopped and they're trying desperately to restart it.

The took him to hospital, we followed and waited for ages, several of the staff from the Intensive Care team came to assist when they heard he'd been brought in...

It was too late... my Dad is gone.

We had formalities to attend to, police identification and saying goodbye in a viewing room, I took Mum's hand and led her like she was my child...

Dad's funeral was on the 29th November and as you can imagine, I've really felt like shit so I've been quiet.

I've started to write a little in my drafts, it's helping, but I'm not always feeling it,

Decisions, Decisions...

I know I promised more Monster High posts and all you've had so far are Pee-wee Herman & Living Dead Dolls, I got a bit sidetracked and started rearranging my blog.

I discovered that I'd mislaid a few Living Dead Doll posts and as I want to make my labels more coherent and and easier to navigate, I've started to go through the vaults to try and find them, what I discovered was a multitude of Living Dead Dolls all in one hot mess of a post with no obvious labels*  and not all of my Living Dead Dolls at that!

*well it was posted quite a few years back, when I was still quite new to the blogging concept (Originally posted on My Site, Multiply under title  My Living Dead Dolls - Yayness!!  Dec 31, '08 11:39 AM), then uploaded to Flickr around the same time, then posted to here too!)

So I decided I'm reposting and reorganizing, so I apologize if you've seen these dolls and photographs before but sadly most of my collection is in storage so I'm not able at present to update many of the older pictures.

Anyhoo, I'll be back on track soon enough - there's hundreds of plastic humans to show off still, hopefully, you'll bear with me and stick around!

Hugs,

P.S That Schitzo close up photograph doesn't belong to me I cropped it from somewhere, sadly it's been so long I don't recall where... If it's your's congratulations on owning such a gorgeous little guy, and please accept my apologies for the photo theft... Come to think of it, I'm not sure the other mini close ups are mine either, my camera was absolutely pants at the time.

So if you recognise your pic's, let me know and I'll credit you, hugs again, Herbie x 

☠ The Problem with Monster High Dolls... ☠

Since being introduced to Monster High Dolls in 2010 by an online fellow doll loving friend (Thanks Kyle!), and beginning my quest to own Frankiestein - she was the only one I really wanted until a few months later when they hit the U.K and I found them in my local Argos...

                                       

I bought both Draculaura and Frankiestein and thought I was done until I got them home and really looked at them, I went back the next day for Lagoona Blue & Clawdeen Wolf!

 But that was definitely it, I had the new Monster High Dolls and I was happy, I had no reason to buy any more.

But, no... Along comes Kyle again and shows me his recently acquired Ghoulia Yelps doll, and nagdabbit a ZOMBIE!!!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/venivididolli/5075841134/

 I was smitten and so my quest began again, after that there really was no hope for me.

 I'd discover the new dolls through my American friends, wait for what seemed like an endless amount of time before they arrived in the U.K and sadly not all of them did so... 

I'd obtain, discover a new release, wait again... ad infinitum.

Just having to have them, it was truly terrible to behold!

I'm now of course totally hooked, even the ones I thought looked bloody stupid when I first saw them and vowed I wouldn't buy, somehow crossed my palms with the intention of being victims for customising... 

But alas no - when they got into my sweaty mitts, I saw their merits and *sigh* add that to the collection too!

It's gotten so bad that the ones that were originally bought for customising and subsequently ended up in my collection had to be replaced as I couldn't shake the idea of how they'd look customised!

Now my collection is somewhere in the late double figures and fast approaching trebles but of course that's not it either... those tricksy folks over at Mattel go and release the  Create a Monster range - a doll customiser's dream! 

I don't think I need to tell you what happened then?!

                                                   

Mattel weren't done either it seems was I ... 

They  released playsets with cool creepy themes and now I'm at a loss as to how to categorise / display / photograph & upload all my beauties.

Starting with the boxed dolls seemed like a plan but of course I now have more of them to show off too, it really is never ending...

I think I need some kind of Monster High Doll AA!

I should probably make another start so the next few posts will be Monster High themed, I just hope you guys are ready for it!

Hugs,

Hi everyone ... I'm back!

Wow, It's been crazy amounts of months since I've been able to get back on here and post some of my many treasures to show you...

Unfortunately the reasons for my very extended absence without as much as a peep of warning are many and most caught me by surprise and sent me into a huge tail spin for all those months. 

I don't really want to drone on here about my woes as this is where I come as a kind of therapy (Dolly - Heaven!) but one thing I will tell you is I ended up having to relocate at 3am a couple of weeks into February due to my stupid pain addled brain forgetting I left a tap running and voila 1 flooded house... It rained in my hallway... from the lights! 

So of course the electric went off and with it the phones, neither myself or Aaron had credit on our mobiles, so we had to wake up our neighbours, use their phone to wake up my parents and get Mummy to come right away and take all my babies to her house, lizard, snake and all - it took until 10am the next day to get everyone in and settled, still on the plus side my cats are very happy with the move as they now have over an acre of land to roam about in, Roxy of course has always loved hanging out at "Grandma's" so she was happy about our misfortune.

Another wonderful thing that happened is the old laptop I was using began to die and blogging without a keyboard and trying to use an onscreen one which doesn't always work, and to cap it off the WiFi card went and I was reduced to using an old dongle which was patchy at best so meh - no posts for poor little Herbie

Still I treated myself (eventually) and today my brand new laptop arrived so as I've now got myself signed into everything and imported lots of other stuff and hooked it up to the Nas,  here I am excitedly typing away and feeling a total sad sack for being amazed how much easier blogging on a working laptop is! 

Here's one awesome thing that happened during that time - well April to be exact, my sis-in-law decided she definitely wouldn't be able to keep her dog now she'd returned to work, so as we arranged in December...  Rocco of course moved in, and now Roxy has a little brother - they get on great, he's ridiculously placid and stupidly cute...

Of course I have to show off a photo' of my new baby boy, so here goes:

Rocco's first bath in his new home.

Behold Sir. Rocco of Pugsleydale taking his first bath in his "new home"... Aaron spent a full five minutes lifting him up, looking into his face and laughing hysterically, over and over until he had trouble breathing, mean really but well he does have one of the most derpiest of derp faces I've ever seen!

Anyhoo,

I hope you're all sitting comfortably as I have a lot (and I mean A LOT) to share with you all so grab yourself a cuppa and prepare for bombardment!

Hugs,

Blog Problems, Hijacking and a Cat with Thumbs!

Now that I've finally managed to publish my last post on The Muppets Show Board Game, I thought I'd share with you a few problems I regularly encounter whilst writing my blog posts and in fact any other writing I attempt to do, on computer or even with a pen and pad and more often and not while drawing...

                                                           

First off I should mention something that most of you should already know - I'm a cat person, I spend the majority of my time literary covered in them, at any moment in time, while I write my posts, mostly lying in bed with a bottle in my back unable to move much, I'm pounced on... 

My feet have all manner of chew marks from where I've become a Human cat toy while I slept, and my chest to my knees has between 4 and 6 cats draped across it at any one time, with my crazy jug dog squeezed in amongst them somewhere or more often than not, on her side being suckled as she keeps producing milk to feed her 2 and 1 year old "kittens"...

Lord. Melchett suckling Roxy

I'm also the subject of suckling, Tingle has been doing this to me since we first met when he was a few weeks old, and is more often than not stuck to the side of my Pikachu Onesie paddy pawing away and dribbling everywhere, but I digress.

Mr. Tingle suckling "his" Pikachu!

One thing that happens often is that my keyboard gets hijacked and that's really what I'm trying to share, but you know me I have to do these ins and outs of a duck's arse introductions first!

Mr.Tingle - Suckled himself to sleep

So,  first up is Mr. Tingle's contribution to my Muppets post...

I know Miss. Piggy is violent towards Kermit, and this is technically Domestic Abuse but, seriously Tingie - GBH?

I think that's pushing it a bit far!

Lord Melchett & Roxy

 Here's another one of Melchett suckling Roxy, just because it's blooming cute!

Roxy Derp -  The Cat Mother!

And here's one of Melchy having a sleepy on Aaron, which shows off his thumbs pretty well, he actually has two fully formed thumbs but one of these has a smaller thumb coming out of the side.

Lord Melchett & Aaron

He has extra toes too, but it's his sister Zelda who really takes the Polydactyl cake as she has a total of 28 fingies and toes, whereas Melchy only has 11!

Princess Zelda

Their brother Tingle only has extra toes, his front feet are like any other cat's and their little sister Moogle doesn't have any extras!

 Zelda's front left paw.

I took this picture of Zelda's left front paw when she was a kitten, it shows her two thumbs, she has three on her right front one!

Anyhoo, I digressed again...

Melchie puts those thumbs of his to good use, whilst I was writing my last blog post he decided he'd do his best Miss. Piggy impression *sigh*!

This isn't the only time this has happened though, the weirdest thing about it is when the cats do Google searches it is never for things that don't exist, for a while they had us worried, they seemed hell bent on World Domination, but thinking about it living under Feline rule would actually be preferable to living under this Government hauh hauh!

Wanna see some more?  Well alrighty then!

Mistress Moogle

This is Moogle  apart from being tiny and adorable, she's also a bit of a nutter, now I'm fully aware that most if not all cats are mental cases, cat logic being what it is, but Moogie Boogie Woogie, takes the biscuit... 

That said she's not quite as bad as her big brother Ziggy was as a kitten, he walled himself up and we had to remove half the wall to free him, he went swimming in a bath full of hot water and he tried to throw himself out of a second storey window - all this is made much more insane when you consider that he is such a scaredy cat that he freaks out if anyone sneezes!

Moogle hijacked my keyboard and wrote this... 

At first glance you might think "gibberish" but if you read it aloud it sounds suspiciously like "Ziggy" - so why would she search Google for Ziggy and what did she hope to find?  

 Possibly this video I uploaded to my YouTube account some time ago!

This is one of several videos I took of Ziggy & Vimes as kittens suckling upon Roxy's teats, she got so into being a mum that she produced milk for them to drink - not bad for a virginal dog that was still technically a puppy herself!

Talking of Ziggy...

Mr. Ziggy looking smug!

Both Ziggy and Vimes went through a stage of keyboard hijacking and Googling all manner of things we didn't know existed, unfortunately, due to frantic saving after two laptops died and still not quite sorting everything out yet... 

I can't remember where I put Vimes's contributions (involving climbing gear & N.A.S.A)  - I'll have to update this later when I find them...

Clearly a hacking attempt in both English and Welsh, which is kind of weird considering he's Scottish, but meh he does live in Wales so I guess it makes sense!

This one, of course pleased Aaron, he likes to think of the babies being as "nerdy" as himself and it's not just any Anime, oh no, It's Naruto - he glowed with pride!

                                                                             Sir Vimes

Sir. Vimes - Interested in N.A.S.A and climbing equipment, which is quite apt, the climbing stuff not the N.A.S.A thing, as when he was small we worried he may have eye or balance problems as he had problems climbing and judging even the shortest distances, he's over that now and thankfully didn't even need all those crampons and such that he was planning on making us buy!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Hopkins the 3rd

 This is "Wolfie" Aaron found him as a stray while in college and took him to the nearby Vet' for safety, after discovering they'd only keep him one night, then back to possible danger for him, Aaron agreed to foster him until his owners could be found.

 Facebook posts, posters and left phone numbers gained no response and so Wolfie is now a beloved member of the family and like the others he likes nothing better than to hijack keyboards and try to play Aaron's MMORPGs.

In fact he's getting to be so much of a nuisance that we're seriously considering getting him his own "Kitty Scratch Pad Laptop" complete with mousey!

http://odditymall.com/

 But of course I digress once again, Wolfie's keyboard hijacking escapade had us shocked and saddened at his choice of research material...

It seems our little Wolfie may in fact be a closet racist, why else would he want to find information on that vile group the KKK?

Oh Dear!

 What's worse is I can't look at his face any more without seeing this moustache superimposed over it...

Hitler, sorry I meant Wolfie!

I feel pretty guilty because he is a lovely little guy and probably couldn't help it but hmmm what if? 

Greebo Hopkins

or Greebee as I like to call him is our most recent stray, he was hanging around my garden for about a week in June, and run away every time we went near him... 

Then one night he turned up on our doorstep, straggly as anything and battered from fights,.after several attempts Aaron finally managed to coax him closer to the door and went to get him some food...

After eating a whole tin of meat, he let Aaron tickle him, that's when he discovered the poor sod had this evil looking wound, he brought him inside, gave him another tin of food and I bathed him, rubbed some tea tree enthused Vaseline on him, then made arrangements to take him to the vet...

One car ride, a check over,three injections and £50 later, it turned out he had an infection - if left it would have killed him ...

Greebo & the hideous wound

I also de-flea'd and wormed him, over the last few months his fur has gone from scabby and scruffy to silky and smooth!

Greebo's now fully healed he has quite an impressive scar though...

 He no longer "wolfs" his food down as he's gotten used to having two meals a day and biscuits in between.

He loves his toy catnip mice, ball and catnip drops, sleeping on a human bed with a human to cuddle up with instead of a dirt floor, and having a Daddy!

He also now only cries when he wants company!

He's so lovable it seems strange he ended up a stray, still he's now a very happy "Hopkins"!

Unlike the others he is more interested in having a warm bed to snuggle up on than stealing keyboards and using two £30.00 Gaming Mouse Pads as scratching posts (mentioning no names - Wolfie!) so far he hasn't commandeered anything other than Aaron's bed!

I guess only time will tell... 

Laters,

                                      

I think I owe you an explanation ...

It's been quite some time since my last post and I have such a backlog of things to share, promises I've made and have yet to honour and so many new dolls and customs  I need to catalogue, play with and show off..

There are many reasons why I've been silent...

 I've been ill, my Dad's been in hospital for an operation, some of my furry and scaly babies have been unwell and needed their Mum / Grandma, I've been so lethargic and sleeping like Rip Van Winkle with a dodgy alarm clock.

And I'm just getting over a Wisdom Tooth infection which means I now have an extraction to look forward too, my laptop died and it's taken a while to get everything I had onto this new one and uploading photographs from my camera is a total palaver on this machine...but really all these reasons become excuses as to why I've been so neglectful of late...

I've told myself quite sternly that I have to get back on the case and soon too.

I had my birthday in June and was pretty spoilt with a load of new dolls, Living Dead, Hasbro's Universal Horror, a few new resin dolls, some Novi Stars, Lollipop Girls, Rosie O'Donnell, Monster High,  Art books, reference books, novels and nostalgia, Art supplies and an Ai doll.

The two new Makies arrived a while back as did Aranya the Lammily doll and the Coojoo Hujoo, I made her a wig, it's a first attempt so a little shoddy, fabric and doll parts for Ooak and loads more besides!    

                                                                         

I'm well up for sharing and will get on the case real soon, sadly right now my biggest problem is finding the time to get on the case.
                                         
I've also just had one of my dolly dreams come true... I have a funny little new girl who'll be moving in on Tuesday and I can't wait to tell you all about her soon!

I guess all that remains to say is I'm sorry and will be back in touch soon.

Take care,
Hugs,