Lydia's Dolls: September 2016

Wrapped in dreams...

Monday, September 26, 2016

agh sorry bout the quality you can click on the pic to make it bigger :-*

Hi guys sorry for missing my Sunday post yesterday, my illness has gotten worse the last few weeks and I'm kinda snowballing. So I had some photos I took a while ago and wanted to share because I started to experiment with indoor photography.

Now I thought it would be fun to wrap her up in ribbons and as I was doing this I was thinking about dreams and passions. I think specifically my sister's dream of being a ballerina (hence why June is in a tutu) and being wrapped in a dream.. Yeah kinda random but that was what I was going for! Haha

And the idea of not just thinking about dreams but actually pursuing them, mm that's just been some brain food I've been chewing lately!

I haven't taken many photos this week but I have been building some miniatures and working on a project for my dad which is really fun and I'm planning on building an room/diorama thingy so that I can set up rooms and practice more 11" indoor photography like that! I'll try document that and tell ya how it goes!
Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Happy Doll Loving

Lydia

My first photoshoot in the park!

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Hello all! Ok so I have just been on a high this past week! The positivity that I received from my last post on here on Instagram was so incredible, but also reading your stories and seeing your inspired just made me more inspired! I was so filled with inspiration and ready to take photos but the weather decided to throw days of rain at us and shows no signs of stopping! So that rained on my parade, maybe I'll have to finally learn how to take photos inside O_o I have felt a bit crummy the last few days but have been on a editing spree! But as promised I am gonna show you the pics I took at my local park last week!

Now I am experimenting a lot with my photography, i want to push my boundaries and learn new things so the new things I tried were.

1. A FLIPPING PUBLIC PLACE

2. It was 12 noon not my usual time and golden (4.30pm coz it's winter)

3. Using a proper reflector which I still have really no idea how to use, but hey we're all friends right?!

Also I've recently been experimenting with my editing system and figured out, after ages of failing, how to blur the background a bit more! So my photos will vary I just love playing around with my pics!

When selecting these photos I found it so hard to find and non blurring ones, I didn't realize it but I must have been shaking so hard! Lol that's embarrassing but it's the truth and I want to be honest with you guys, I was darn nervous taking these photos but I had my younger sister with my and she was happy taking pics and rearranging the doll and such. It will get easier with time!

I have never taken a photo like the one below, with the light reflecting so much onto the doll and I did not really know what to do but I just went with it!

So to finish, this was my first photoshoot in a very public place! I was nervous as hell, I will admit that! But I am gonna go out again because I enjoyed it and I am one step closer to overcoming the fear! Yes people walked past and probs thought I was weird but who are they to me?! I don't need their opinions in my life! Go out my lovelies and enjoy your dolls and who cares what anyone else thinks right!? Haha #dollypride

Happy Doll Loving

Lydia

Conquering my fear, one small step at a time

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Hello my lovelies I hope you all had a great week! I have been quite busy, I had an NCEA drama assessment on Thursday and I was stressed all the week for that and then my sister came up from down south and visited so it was so awesome to see her again! But it's Sunday, post day, so today I wanna get personal and talk about something that I've been thinking about all week and that is slowly overcoming my fear of taking photos of my dolls in public.

Since I started this hobby back in 2014, I have been afraid of what people will think of me and my love of dolls. To be honest I was insecure. I have social anxiety anyway and just the thought of people seeing me and judging me would send me in to a frenzy. It got so bad that I would only go outside next to my back door to take photos for, I kid you not, for a maximum of 3 minutes.

I actually started hated taking photos of my dolls because I was so uncomfortable and I didn't know why?! I should be enjoying this should't I?!

Well I had a few months at end of last year and the first half of this year to step back from doll photography due to my illness and I actually moved towns to a larger city. And I decided that it would be a new start for me, a clean sheet.

Here I would pursue my passion of doll photography and wouldn't care what people thought of me, I was sick of my anxiety overriding my love for the hobby.

It took a while for me to pucker up the courage, I started off taking pics in my garden but it's very exposed and people can see in. And in the past if someone walked past I would have bolted inside, I'm not joking. But I forced myself to stay still and keep taking photos whenever someone walked past and you know what?! It's not too bad! People just walk past! They don't stare throwing fruit at me or shouting horrid things at me, they might smile to themselves and carry on their way.

My garden is on the other side of that fence

My problem was that I had just blown everything all out of proportion and actually stunted myself and my enjoyment of my dolls but now, like I have totally changed my mindset! Yes I'm not superwoman running around the main streets with my dolls but I have actually moved from taking photos from inside my property to outside of it. As you can see in these photo the fence Cas is standing next to, we are on the public street.. in front of people! And I was ok! I didn't die! :D

One thing that has really helped me is, now bear with me, is having my younger sisters with me. I have 2 younger sisters; one is 9 and the other is 7 and they love taking photos with me! They make awesome reflector holders guys! I just have to to let them take photos from time to time or they get cranky and walk off! But having them with me really helped me keep calm when I was in public and I didn't feel as if everyone was looking at me. Obviously they don't care they just wanna take photos with Lydia's camera!

But do you know what.. You will be proud of me. I have also stepped TOTALLY out of my comfort zone and went to a local park and took photos! Like many many people go to this park.

I know, but I had my little sister with me and my mum told me that no one actually cares what you're doing! Just do it! Thanks for the pep talk mum. And do you know what?! It was one of the most relieving things I've ever done, I've gone back twice since and taken pics! (lol I still need to edit the pics, I'm lazy i'm sorry)

The reason I'm writing this post is because you may be in the same boat as me; you aren't alone. It's totally normal to be afraid of what people will think of you and your dolls.

I think that many young girls (and some guys, shout out to guys doll collectors!) are in this hobby and of course at that age where they are insecure, and are not really sure what they want the world to think of them. I was like that at 14-15 whatever, but I have been through a bit these this past year and I LOVE dolls. I'm not ashamed of it, I shouldn't be. And I want it not to be a secret, I will happily share it if someone asks!

I enjoy taking photos of them and blogging about them and no one should feel that society will shut them down for what they love.

It will be hard to forever eradicate the fear because it was so strong in me, but these are baby steps and I want to thank you guys for supporting me either on here or instagram.

And i encourage you, if you are struggling with taking doll photos in public, here are some things that helped me on my way,

1. Set yourself mini goals. In may be taking photos by your letterbox not round the back where its more private, start off small.

2. At the beginning have someone with you if that makes you feel better, like a younger sibling or a parent to hold something and look important lol!

3. Document your progress! If you have a blog or a AGIG account tell your followers what your doing and post the photo and how you felt and such! This will keep you accountable, I will be doing the same on here!

Well my lovelies, this post is getting rather long but I feel it needed to be said! Have a lovely weekend and see you back here next Sunday!

Happy Doll Loving!

Lydia

Barbie

An ornament inspired project (Part 3) Oregon & The Bunny

Sunday, September 04, 2016

Alrighty guys this is Part 3 of An Ornament Inspired Project! If you haven't read Part 1 & 2 click on the numbers and go check them out!

Bad quality progress pics for this post too, but not a too bad one of Oregon is start us of eh?

smile for the camera honey!

The Doll

Fun Fact; I actually purchased Oregon on my first and only trip to a Target store when I visited the US last year! So she's pretty cool :) But I chose her for this look because I wanted a bit of diversity in my models for this project and also she looked REALLY nice in the pink! Like really nice :D

The Fabrics

I didn't have trouble choosing the fabrics for this dress, my sister had some scraps of the hot pink left over from when she made pillows last year and I bought this cute floral one a while ago and found it in the bottom of my fabric box. They both just sing together so they were a match!

The Muse

As you can see this little bunny was so dirty! Like gross! But I actually didn't clean her before making the dress, no idea why i guess I couldn't be bothered honestly, and I didn't realize that there was actually purple flowers in her flower basket! I didn't incorporate and purple into the dress and now you know why ;-*

I cleaned her the same way I did the fox, just warm water a bit of hand soap and a clean toothbrush and VIOLA! All shiny!

The Design

Some of the things I wanted to take from the ornament and add into the dress:

1. FLOWERS! Loving the flowery feel I was getting from this bunny!

2. The colours I was gonna use were pink and white.

3. The vibes I was getting/ thoughts that were going through my head

~relaxed

~ picnic

~ barefoot

~flowery

~ spring

~graceful

I cannot draw for the life of my I know.

Now it may seem weird that I used words like picnic, flower, graceful but I think that's just the way my brain works! I'm just giving you guys a peek inside my head with these posts ^.^ But I used these words when I was sewing and setting up the photoshoot and it really helped me bring in character and such.. Yeah..

The Hair

As you can see from the design, I had multiple ideas for what to do with her hair, I was going to try make a flower crown coz guys I love flowers crowns like I want so many flower crowns for my dolls its not funny, I need to learn to make them! So I think that will be a project for another week!

But if you read the making of Apollo's outfit you would of known I had a bit of trouble with the headscarves but the universe must have wanted Oregon to have a headscarf because first try, I tied a piece around her head and it looked fabulous!

(Well it was late so I couldn't be bothered making it look legit but I liked how it turned out!)

Also I always have Oregon's hair in a big bun, that's just her signature hairdo and it works! So I am very happy with the way her hair came out!

Accessories

And also right from the start I knew that she wasn't going to be wearing shoes with this outfit because I was going for the relaxed, sitting on the lawn look, I don't know she just wasn't going to wear shoes ok!
Now i wish I had a doll picnic basket because I wanted to set up a little picnic photoshoot

but i did my best :)

She kept the brackets that she had when I bought her just to jazz up her outfit but I was going pretty minimal on the jewelry.

It took me 3 photo attempts to finally get nice photos of Oregon in this dress! I went out on 3 separate occasions and they all looked really off, or the editing just didn't look right. I used some of them in these posts but you know when some photos don't just click with you? That was happening with me.
But I needed to get this post up so I though it I just merge them all together we should be good! Lydia's logic :)
And that brings us to the end of Part 3 of An Ornament Inspired Project, I had such fun making these dresses and they were a challenge too. Which one was your favourite?

Or Oregon's?

Check out Apollo's post here

I thought this would be the end of an ornament inspired project but my dad handed me 2 new ornaments a few days ago! I'll show you in other a future post I can't get the photo over! Maybe I'll try make a outfit for an American Girl doll next time

Haha but don't worry it will be a few weeks before a get those posts up! I have other posts planned! This will probably be a continuous thing I'll try group all these posts together under a Label. I need to sort that situation out! Ok enough rambling! Goodnight my lovelies!
Happy doll loving
Love Lydia

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Wrapped in dreams...

My first photoshoot in the park!

Conquering my fear, one small step at a time

An ornament inspired project (Part 3) Oregon & The Bunny

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