Market Aftermath

Markets are evil, evil things.

Two years ago, a lovely Blythe collector set up a modern doll market for Barbies, Blythes and BJDs (plus any other modern dolls which are bypassed by the other doll markets). I have been to every one since then and most of the time have kept myself to simply purchasing BJD clothing.

The final market of last year I started looking at some of the Blythes. I joined up with a few Blythe forums and started to price them. I had a good look at custom Blythes and have pretty much decided that if I got a Blythe that I would get a customised one.

I went to the first Market of the year yesterday and spotted a Very Vicky for sale.

... she's now mine.

I haven't decided on a name yet, although Magnolia is the name which keeps going through my mind, so that may be what she is called later. But I have already started to consider how I will customise her.

I would love to have her hair re-rooted with mohair, but having had a search for people to re-root her (since I'm unsure how to do it myself) it seems like I might have to wait, since there aren't that many who do it. So I'm now considering saran highlights.

She will most definitely get a new face up which will be matte - being able to see myself in her face is not a good thing, especially not when taking photos! The other thing she needs is some new eye chips. I have to decide on which ones and from where and how I will change them... etc. etc. etc.

And I have to pick a customiser to help me! I would prefer an Australian for the first one, so I have to do some more digging around!

Confusion follow up... Delivery!

So he arrived today!

I found the Mega Gem sized box to fit the feet in amusing... though they are UBER feet.

Beast hands... extra height with extra leg and checking out the specs.

The wings propped together (still debating on super glue and blutack) and the toggles for his back

Rasmus!

The outfit... that cape is heavy!

Of website errors and confusion

So I have been mired in confusion since Thursday. On Thursday I went into the SOOM website to pay the next instalment on my Arkose. I followed all the instructions and had got to the last bit when it informed me that there was an error with Paypal. It suggested that the payment hadn't gone through.

So I paid it again, and it went through fine. I refreshed the page, to make sure that the payment had gone through this time... and it came up with "Left to pay: -$1.00".

So even though I hadn't MEANT to pay Rasmus off he suddenly was paid off.

Later that day - roughly lunchtime, I got an email stating that they had changed the status of the order that I had. I immediately thought "Surely they haven't shipped him already!" - they hadn't, they'd just changed him to "before shipping."

The next day I was randomly checking the status of my orders on the SOOM website, when I noticed a blue note next to Rasmus... "on shipping." I hadn't received an emailed shipping notice, so I clicked into the invoice to see the EMS tracking number. No number was listed.

I checked later on Friday - no number. Saturday... no number. Sunday... no number. Monday (this morning)... no number. So at roughly 3pm, I put a question on the board about the lack of tracking number and querying the lack of a number - had he really been shipped or had they stuffed up like the paypal notice stuffed up earlier?

I was out for dinner when I got the email "SOOM has updated the status of the order"... My thought was that SOOM had corrected an error and placed Rasmus back on "before shipping".

I logged on, expecting to see a green notice... instead it was blue! I looked into the invoice, and there was a tracking number. I checked it...

Rasmus made to Australia yesterday and made it into Melbourne this morning... it is likely that he'll be delivered tomorrow (since today was a Public Holiday).

....! So confusing!

Her Royal Highness, Vesna

So if you're not a follower of my flickr stream, you might unaware of the arrival of Vesna, my SOOM Clozel.

She actually arrived on Friday, but although I asked my brothers about parcel arrivals - neither of them had seen a delivery man. Frequently I am advised by a card when delivery men haven't found me and have left a parcel at my local post office. When I got home, there was no card, so I was a little disappointed.

When the tracking finally updated at about 6:30 to show that there had been an attempted delivery and my package was residing at a post office, it was too late to go out and get it. This immediately caused a problem - not all post offices open on Saturdays. Those which are run by the Postal Service - Australia Post, are never open on Saturdays and are almost always closed by 4:30 Monday to Friday. The other type of post office, those which are franchises, can be open on Saturdays and often set their own hours.

I am "lucky" enough to live between two post offices. One is a outlet, run by Australia Post, which closes by 4:30 Monday to Friday and isn't open on weekends. I am only able to get to this post office on certain days after work - Thursdays and Fridays, simply because they are the only two days a week that I finish before 4pm.

The other post office is a licensed franchise, which is usually open until 5:30pm Monday to Fridays and 9-12 on Saturdays. It depends on the courier to which post office my parcels go to. Without a slip, I have no way of knowing on Friday afternoon, where my parcel had gone.

So... either I can collect my parcel on Saturday morning at the licensed post office, or I have to wait until Thursday when I get out of work early enough.

Enter problem number 2. I make appointments well in advance and for this particular Saturday, I had made a 9 am appointment at my hairdresser (red/pink... woo!) and I often spend a couple of hours in the hairdresser and if its busy, it can be up to three hours. So I spent the morning stressing over whether or not I would have enough time to collect the parcel before going to the hairdresser or if I would finish before the post office shut and if I didn't then I'd have to wait until at least Wednesday to get my parcel.

Luckily the salon wasn't all that full and it didn't take as long as normal and I was able to get her! She doesn't have a faceup yet, since I took it off when I originally ordered her, and nor does she have her final eyes yet, they're still coming from the maker. But she has her wig and her magnificent outfit and those wings...

Unlike all of my other SOOMs, she isn't wearing her fantasy feet - I haven't really unwrapped them at all. I did unwrap one, and it wouldn't stand up on its own. So I think I'm going to consign them to the storage box and find another pair of feet for her. Currently I want to find a pair of CW Migma feet, they will better match those of the Arkose, and since Rasmus (my incoming Arkose) and Vesna are meant to be twins, they will match very well.

The other reason for this is that the Migma feet weren't all that popular, so there are a few pairs floating around on the MP. I haven't bought a pair yet, but I'm looking for both them and possible faceup artists for her head. I'll be looking for a slot for her in the near future.