Melody Valerie Tropical Sunshine

Spring Giveaway Sonali is off into the world via UPS and is now going to live the good life in her new "Forever Home" with Ms. Nickel. :)

As a celebration of her new life elsewhere (hopefully outside of her box, which she has lived in for awhile), we thought we'd feature our own Sundari in her Melody Valerie Tropical Sunshine dress. She sure is a beautiful doll and she looks pretty fantastic in this brightly colored frock!


Yes we finally get around to posting about Tropical Sunshine from the Melody Valerie Spring 2010 Line. We are so slow! We posted our intro video back in April, which you can see here. And now it is already halfway through June! Where does the time go?

Anyways-- Melody Valerie Couture is on vacation right now--- but they'll be back later in the summer to start planning for the Fall Line. Woot!

For now, we can just drool over the dresses we already have! Tropical Sunshine was destined for Sundari. She looks fantastic in bright, bold colors and girly dresses really complement her flowing locks and soft eyes. Our favorite part about this dress is how the colors play with each other, moving back and forth across the dress-- for example, how the yellow fabric breaks down into the turquoise pleats from the yellow bow on the low waistline. It really is an amazingly designed piece-- and it must have taken f-o-r-e-v-e-r to sew all the squares and rectangles together and to get the fit just right!

In our pictures you can see Sundari shopping in "Paris" for something to decorate her bedroom. The print you see behind her comes from DKim's Etsy shop, and it is titled "Softly as I Leave." DKim has sold over 2400 prints and originals since joining Etsy in 2006. That's a lot of sales! And you can see why- her prints are beautiful!

And what are Sundari's accessories for this photo shoot? Her necklace is a bright turquoise hair elastic-- yes, very chic. ;) And her shoes are Josefina's from AG--- but they don't fit our Pre-Mattel Josefina's chubby toes. :( But that means she won't get jealous when Sundari wears them.

Please enjoy our pics below!

So be sure to check out the Melody Valerie Couture Etsy shop when it re-opens for business with the Fall Line (eventually) and read their blog here for news and updates from the studio. :)

Spring 2010 Doll Giveaway Handmade Item!

Hopefully by now, you all know that our Spring 2010 Doll Giveaway is currently happening. If you don't know what I am talking about- Click Here! and be sure to enter your name by May 31st, 2010. The lucky winner will be named on June 1st, 2010.

So what is this post about? Well, for (almost) every doll that we give away we also include a handmade item from one of the many talented seamstresses that we talk about on this blog. This time, we decided to commission a unique item for the giveaway. Next time we will probably do some Liberty Jane separates for the Summer 2010 Doll Giveaway.... but for now, we are still working on Spring.....

We found this picture of a dress created by "Another Space" for Ball-Jointed dolls, or BJDs as they are sometimes known, at the Dollmore.net online store.


BJDs usually have some amazingly awesome clothing options available for them all across the Internet. Why? Well they are collected all over the world by women, men, and children--- creating a rather large, diverse market for many types of BJDs and many types of BJD clothing. Hence, BJDs and their clothing can be manufactured by many different high-end companies all over the world-- unlike AG dolls which are trademarked and can only be made by AG. And in turn--- high-end, mass-manufactured clothing for AGs can then only really be made by AG.

So the heart of this issue is: Many people would/could buy a $75.00 outfit for their $400.00 Limited Edition BJD.... but how many people would/could buy a $75.00 doll outfit for their $100.00 AG doll? Probably not as many, and so doll clothing companies (besides AG) don't tend to create a diversity of high-end, AG-sized clothing to rival that of the BJD world. But yet, the Liberty Jane Spring Line sells for that much and more consistently. The answer to all of this (in our opinion) is this: Foster more of an AG adult collector community and one will be able to sell a lot more high-end, expensive clothing for AG dolls. Hmmm... deep thoughts...now my brain hurts....

As much as we'd love to collect BJDs as well as AGs, we can only really afford one dolly obsession at a time. Heehee. So when we found this really cute Another Space BJD dress, we thought: "Hey, why don't we ask someone to make it as an AG dress?" It is our homage to Another Space, à la AG.

So who do we ask to make it??? Etsy seller Doll Closet immediately sprang to mind, so we asked her if she was willing to dive into this unique project. And she was! So she made us two dresses, one to keep and one to giveaway. Our giveaway dress is being modeled today by our Sundari, so you can see what it would look like on Sonali (one of the giveaway choices). And our own dress is being modeled by Marvelous Me, Nora Demington. I get to show you a unique look courtesy of Doll Closet, Liberty Jane, and Etsy seller Pirate Camp....but we will get to that later....

First, here is Sundari in the purple, black and white dress for the giveaway.....

The following pics are of Marvelous Me in my dress and accessories. The hat is a custom-made creation from Etsy seller Pirate Camp, specifically crafted to go with this dress! The "belt" is the black raffia tie from a Liberty Jane package (heehee). The striped leggings are from Etsy seller Doll Closet, currently available in her shop. And the boots are from Liberty Jane. Looking at these pics, I just realized the dress might look pretty cool with a black tee or tank top under it too... hmmm, something fun to think about for future photo shoots..... Anyway, here I am looking awesome!

And our final pics for today: Sundari and I looking contemplative in our fantastic duds! :)

Hope you like this custom-made dress as our Spring 2010 giveaway item! And big "Thank Yous" go out to Doll Closet and Pirate Camp for working with us on these projects!!!!