Neon’s A Doll A Day… Again (2020)

[Elfy]

Great idea to use the vinyls as the 3 witches from the Scottish play.

[neon_jellyfish]

Look at you, getting all literary and high-brow with Shakespeare and stuff! 

Marvelously moody setting! Your lighting here is excellent, with the gravestones barely visible in the background, and Frankie looking particularly malevolent. Well, as malevolent as Frankie can pretend to be, at any rate!

Each time you post these vinyls I find myself regretting not having collected them.

That cauldron... that's from one of the Monster High sets, right? I must have one around here somewhere, it looks familiar. Although... it's actually much smaller than it appears in this photo, right? It's a good size for minis, but rather unimpressive relative to regular-size figures, as I recall. Still, I must look for the one I'm fairly sure I must have... somewhere.

And speaking of cauldrons, I could have sworn the initial "kettle" prompt for the May Scavenger Hunt said "cauldron," which I thought was pretty cool. But I was wondering if that was a translation issue, as the description sounded more like a teapot or kettle.

Thank you very much!!!

The cauldron is the one that came with Ghouls Rule Frankie, and it's more like Halloween punch bowl, but it works as a fullsized cauldron for the vinyls.

Um, no? That one was always a kettle (like from the very start, when I was putting together my spreadsheet), because I wanted that batch to be Alice-y. Also, that prompt doesn't have a description, never had... I mix kettle/tea kettle/teapot, because they work slightly differently in Czech, but I wouldn't mistake them for cauldron, such a key piece of equipment...

The lighting is great so ditto what davidd said.   I love the shadow on the tombstones too. Your girls are pretty!
Great picture! I have a pic of my mini pullips around a candle that reminds me of this I have to find now!

Thank you!

Sig Richelle is my favourite one - she’s so pretty.  All the Rochelles are pretty though.

And the vinyls gathered round the cauldron plotting is cool.

Rochelle is such a sweet and pretty ghoul. Rochelle army is one of my bigger ones, I have six of her, although one is in dire need of repaint, poor creature has that unfortunate kind of wonk that makes her look mentally impaired.

Thanks!

Both a little spooky.  Hmmm, what is that trio plotting... or seeing....?

... My oldest orchid is losing her spots, she's almost twelve years old, she started losing color after cca ten years. But that's just fading due to her age, not changing to parent color.

Well that's really interesting; I didn't know about that.  A university botany prof once said something about plants being basically immortal, when they can be divided, or produce keiki or offshoots or runners or whatever, and I tend to think of them as potentially like that.  My first orchid, I've had about 30 years; it's a mini and hasn't changed colour.  I wish there were orchid shows around here too -- I went to one in Nova Scotia years ago which was where the potinara came from.  Lesson to self for the future:  when you get 5 seedlings in a pot divide them up so as not to get into the same mess I've had with it now, where I had to literally cut it apart.  

Today is broken. I'm going to find someone to complain to and demand a replacement or a refund.

I'm sincerely sorry you had a day like that, but, I absolutely LOVE this line and I'm sure I'll have a use for it in the future!
Hope tomorrow gets reinstalled properly.

Oooh, 30 years! Coooool! I hope I'll manage to keep my darlings alive that long. My fading one is one of those cheap phals that you see half dead and discounted in grocery stores after they've been weeks without sunlight while being carefully drowned by personnel, because nobody bothered to keep track of who watered what and when. I asked about her fading color in a garden center that also provides consulting and they told me it happens to some plants with age. When I googled more about it, I found that some hybrids are also prone to changing color rather than just fading.

Great idea to use the vinyls as the 3 witches from the Scottish play.

Thank you!


Day 150

I have a mig pic of GR Frankie today. She's one of my favorite Frankie releases.

[werepuppy]

This is a very stunning Frankie release, I can see why she's one of your favourites.

[Aichan]

Wow does she glow in the dark?  She looks like a pretty , pensive girl. Very nice lighting!

[davidd]

GR Frankie? GR for GReeeeen????

Oh, wait: Ghouls Rule. Or in this case, GReeeeen Ghouls Rule!

It impresses me how you are able to get black costumes to show up so nicely against a black backdrop.

[Lejays17]

Frankie looks sad in this shot, which isn’t how I think of her. Not as perky as Draculaura - no one can be - but pretty perky.

[Elfy]

She looks very wistfulness. The stitching scar is almost like a tear track.

[neon_jellyfish]

Thank you very much, everyone!

Wow does she glow in the dark?

No she doesn't, she just has similar shade of green like things that do.


Day 151



I imagine they're frolicking to Benny Goodman's Sing Sing Sing...

[davidd]

The joint is jumpin'! What a fun pic! I love it!

{EDIT TO UPDATE} - When I flipped on the radio in the car a few minutes ago, it was not Swing Swing Swing, but the radio station was spinning a Benny Goodman platter, Jersey Bounce! That was a fun coincidence!

[werepuppy]

Aww, there's a sense of real joy and fun here.

[Alliecat]

That's really cute! And a nice portrait of Frankie too.

... one of those cheap phals that you see half dead and discounted in grocery stores after they've been weeks without sunlight while being carefully drowned by personnel, because nobody bothered to keep track of who watered what and when.

Insert long rant about how it takes years to get them to blooming size and then the stores kill them in as many weeks... what a waste
My ex.perience has been "weeks without sunlight while being carefully dessicated by personnel" because it seems like nobody waters them. Can't count how many phals I've pulled out of their pots in the store, to see if they had any good roots & looked worth salvaging. Some of my rescues came as half-price castoffs because the flowers had died but they still had some roots. There's a narrow window between a good deal and a dead plant.

[Elfy]

The 2 dancing look like they’re about to jitterbug.

[Lejays17]

The dancing pair looks like they’re having a great time - lovely sense of movement to them.

[neon_jellyfish]

Thanks, everyone!


Day 152

Tonight, Oddwickshire observes the National Vampire Night!

National Vampire Night is mostly celebrated in Quirkmore, because all vampires flock here to greet the vampire queen - Duchess Callidora. Callidora hosts a ball for the most noble of vampire families and a few select non-vampire guests. Queen Isadora calls it 'Calli's midnight snack party' and always makes time to attend, Elazar is also always present as Her Insane Majesty's bodyguard. He likes this ball, because it's a good exercise in stealth mode - vampires have something like thermovision, and he is homeothermic (he is human, after all), so escaping vampires' sights requires a lot of effort. It became the favorite party game of the ball. At first, vampires won about a half of all games, but this is Elazar we're talking about, so he figured out the trick soon, and now he wins practically all the games. The only one who can always find him no matter what is his wife. Callidora's Blood Bank S&M Squad* prepares a special performance every year. It often involves real sword fights. The guests love it. Iaso and other healers not so much.

* In case you don't remember, the Blood Bank Squad is group of Callidora's fans with masochistic tendencies and almost unhealthy, well, no..., totally unhealthy desire to serve her and be devoured by her, which she tolerates, because she's too shy to ask for blood, so being offered some saves her a lot of trouble. She'd prefer for them to be a little less ardent about it, but oh well, one can't have everything.

There's also another ball for less noble vampires, and humans and other supernaturals can attend that one.

If a human goes outside on this day/night wearing something red, it means it's OK to ask them for, ehm, a bite. Conscious, verbal consent is still required, but wearing red and refusing is considered to be poor behavior, so keep that in mind.

If you're not interested in dancing, there's a ton of fun to be had around the town. I'd recommend visiting the annual vampire glass exhibition. Vampire glass is a special type of glass that was developed especially for vampire homes. Thanks to constantly overcast weather and the omnipresent, everlasting, and very thick fog, sunlight isn't that much of a threat for Oddwickshire vampires, so they don't need to completely wall up all windows, but they're still vulnerable to it, so they use this special glass that blocks UV completely. It comes in dark, rich colors, and with numerous effects, opalescent or glow-in-the-dark ones are particularly pretty. Vampires love stained glass windows, most of them feature ornamental designs or typical vampire imagery, but wealthier vampire families often have windows depicting their important ancestors or events from family history. The exhibiton is always beautiful, the glass is displayed in wrought iron window frames of all shapes (the traditional gothic arch is still the most popular, though), with lamps and torches cleverly placed around them, so you can admire how light passes through them.

Coffin makers usually choose National Vampire Night to present their newest models. Since practically no one stays dead in Oddwickshire, you won't find many traditional coffins, but you can find all sorts of coffin-shaped furniture. Beds of all kinds and sizes (including coffin cradles), bath tubs, bookshelves, dollhouses, dressers, you name it.

Streets are full of stalls offering many variations of Bloody Mary, including some alcohol-free strawberry ones for kids. They're my favorite. I once saw an elder lady order one and ask for a celery stalk to be put in it.
Oh, and avoid booths with black banners with red tassels.

Another popular thing are shadow plays. Oddwickshire vampires don't naturally cast shadows, but they can create and manipulate them if they want, and it became a tradition that on Vampire Night, various amateur theater troupes give short shadow plays on improvised stages on streets.

At midnight, a peculiar group of people gathers at a secret place (it's always somewhere else) to be... initiated. It's a very secret ritual, only Callidora and a few of her assistants know the details, and it's better not to ask. While a lot of people choose to become vampires after their death through a patented Schwarzgrabs' procedure, being turned while still alive holds a special meaning, most often it means being accepted as a part of a noble vampire family. I don't really know the details. Callidora's eyes tend to start glowing in a rather unsettling fashion if someone asks about it, so I just don't.

Speaking of Callidora...

[davidd]

I really want to see the vampire glass exhibit sometime! It sounds eerily beautiful! The coffin furniture would be fun as well.

I may very well need to watch the 1931 Dracula film tonight, as this amazing description of National Vampire Night has really put me in the mood!

Marvelously detailed overview of this fascinating Oddwickshire/Quirkmore celebration!

And yes, speaking of Callidora... it is no wonder she has a fan club of fawning sycophants, as she is quite breathtaking... even before the fangs come in to play!