Hello Kitty at Michael's

Ok, it's back to "Kitty shopping" again, at least briefly! I still do have more photos to post, but let's start with an easy set. On friday night, my friend and I were poking around in Michael's (as part of my ongoing, unfruitful quest to buy a frame) and my friend discovered some Hello Kitty stuff in this dollar aisle sort of section. (I know, I know, what happened that my Kitty Radar did not spot this immediately? What can I say, I was distracted by my frame shopping... ^^;) I'm not sure how much of the country has Michael's stores (they are a chain of Art & Craft supply stores), but if you don't have Michael's around, maybe some other craft store is selling these too. Kitty is popping up *everywhere* lately, I feel like! Michael's has had some Sanrio stuff before, but nothing too regular. All of the stuff had the "Kitty 35/Kittylab" (I don't know if this has an official name, but it's the Kitty with the raincloud image - it reminds me of Kittylab, but probably has nothing to do with it!) type packaging, so whatever company licensed this line, they are sure making the most of it!

The stuff at Michael's fell into two design themes: Hippie/Peace Kitty and "Old Skool" sort of Kitty. (In other words: stuff that reminds me of Kitty designs from when I was a kid) ;P


The two items at the ends are pads with magnets on the back, so you can stick them on your fridge (for instance!) and write shopping lists. The two in the middle are your usual mini spiral notebooks. I bought the mini notebooks but not the shopping list pads. I have to share my fridge, not sure it would be well received to put a Kitty shopping list up... ^^;


These are sparkly tattoo stickers. I bought both, even tho somehow the fact I will never use them seems even worse when they are tattoos then it does when they are stickers... >.<


Letter sets. I guess these turned out to be $3 each, instead of $1. So I'm glad I decided to limit myself to just buying one of the designs. I liked the 'old skool' one a little better, so that's the one I picked.


This was a really cute idea, I thought. It's one of those puzzle-type erasers that are all the rage right now, but instead of just random pieces fitted together, this is like a Kitty paper doll. Even tho it was adorable, I didn't end up buying it...


I did buy this, which is why it's a much nicer photo! XD These are pencil topper stampers. Seems like a combo that doesn't really need to exist, but who minds that? Stampers are fun!

Happy Birthday Suu!

Well, as my Pinky:St photos are the supposed focus of this blog (not that you'd know it recently) it's about time I gave them a dedicated post! I have so many things I wanted to post about, but my time/energy has been lacking lately. I'll try to get a few more things up soon. But back to the topic at hand - Anime Boston was two weeks ago, and it feels like it just happened yesterday! ^^; But more significantly, Anime Boston was also Suu's 'birthday'. Suu was my very first Pinky:St figure, and believe it or not, she was effectively my first toy since I was a kid. I mean, yeah, I bought a few anime figures here, a few stuffed animals there, but I wasn't doing any real collecting of this stuff. Certainly I had never thought about buying dolls - even as a kid I didn't like those! But I was at a convention, I had money burning a hole in my pocket, and lots of stuff was on sale because it was the last day of the convention. So when I saw this cute little figure with lots of attitude, on sale cheap (and not even blind box!), well... it seemed like something fun to spend my money on. I didn't think much of her, but then ended up getting a couple more at otakon. I actually can't remember the exact timing of it all anymore, but at some point after that, I started thinking I wanted to buy some more, so I looked them up on the internet. I quickly stumbled across the Pinky forum, and... the rest was history. That was the first forum I ever joined, the first time I ever thought of taking pictures of toys, the first time I saw pullips, etc. I got my first digital camera for Anime Boston too (I just can't honestly remember if was the *same* anime boston or not) and taking pictures of Pinkys started out as a way to practice taking photos (they didn't move, which was a plus. I had been taking photos of flowers, but Pinkys were even better!). I think even my Hello Kitty addiction took off not long after buying Suu. So, really, Suu was the little figure that started it all. (Poor Suu...? XD)


Here's Suu outside Anime Boston this year with her best friend Arisu. Arisu was one of the 3 from Otakon. She started off having the personality of a girl that liked to change her look a lot because she was the one I always tried the new hair pieces on, but eventually I put that grey hair on her and somehow it's stayed on her ever since. I also stopped giving my Pinkys names and personalities after a while, but the original crew still has personality for me.


Here's Suu and Arisu with their boyfriends Akito (Sakura) and Hikaru (Rui). I have a couple of 'boy' Pinkys, and these are the first two I made into boys. I never really change their outfits because there's so few 'boyish' looking Pinky outfits... XD They're hanging out at Artist Alley at my friend's booth. Arc is there too 'cause she's also a favorite. (I have 3 Arcs (!), but this is the original and favorite!)

Just for fun, here's some of my first ever Pinky:St photos - I think they still hold up pretty good!




(that's Arisu in her original redhead version)

I was sort of sad that I saw very few Pinkys for sale at this year's Anime Boston. I think they are not as popular as they used to be for sure, but it's also not helping that there's not as many new releases lately... Ah well, at least they still make them! Can't wait to get some more! XD

Ok, that's all for now! I'll try to get up a shopping post soon!

Favorite Photos - Newest Pullip

I have more shopping photos to post, but haven't had time to post them because I was busy with Anime Boston and now I'm busy with work. (boo) But I figured I'd post something up about my newest Pullip, because I finally got her wig on her for her 'debut' at Anime Boston, and I'm really happy with the way she looks. I'm also really happy with the photos I took of her, even if those photos didn't get a lot of views/comments. A lot of times the photos I take that I myself like the best are not the ones people pay attention to. I am not exactly complaining (well, maybe a little - it's disappointing!) but it does make me wonder, because I'm always trying to take better photos, and it makes me wonder why those photos aren't getting the attention I thought they would. And that's my little lead-up to posting these two photos! I think I *also* want them to get attention because both of them felt 'risky' to me - I pushed myself to do something I was uncomfortable with to get the shot, and I was happy with myself for doing so because I liked the results.



This was my 'welcome' photo for Natsuki, she's still completely stock. I know there's not necessarily anything innovative about the pose, but what I am happy about is that a. both she and the background are lit nicely. Frequently I end up with a dark foreground (which is bad when your foreground is her face!) or an overexposed background (which is disappointing when you are on location). I can't say I did anything brilliant to get my lighting right, just realized that she was going to need to be in that patch of sun to my right. But I'm still feeling my way through figuring these sorts of things out, so I was pleased to have gotten it right for once!

And in this case, the background was important, because it was something I thought was suitably dramatic for her, and getting to that location was scary! I climbed to the top of a parking garage. I'm sort of afraid of parking garages on the best of days - they don't feel structurally sound, I don't like heights, there's all those murders in movies that happen there - plus I was on foot instead of in a car and it wasn't precisely a public parking garage. It belonged to a condo. So I was expecting to be yelled at (for trespassing or suspicion of terrorism or something - hanging out on top of a parking garage IS a bit weird) or run over (or just jumped, even tho it was 3pm on a sunday - thanks movies!). Or maybe for the garage to just pick that moment to fall down. That sort of thing usually leads to a hasty and disappointing photo, but I held it together this time and it worked out.

The second photo of Natsuki (and friends) that I wanted to post was also a case where I was pleased I held it together and actually (more or less) got the shot I wanted. I'm also, once again, pleased not to have washed out my background. I don't know if it is me or the camera, but I have a really hard time with this. (it's probably me. I just like to pretend it might be the camera) I was biking back from Anime Boston between the Charles River and downtown - there's a bike trail and a very skinny park there. It's always crowded. So i like the idea of taking photos there, but there's so many people, I always feel weird. But I really wanted a nice photo of these 3 together and I figured I'd just do it. But the sun was setting fast. I missed the really nice highlight on their faces fighting with Talia's hair, and Faraday's pose is a bit off, but otherwise I was pretty happy!



And doesn't Natsuki (in the middle) look nice with pink hair? I have 5 dolls with pink hair now tho, this is a bit absurd. Oh well. At any rate, I hope this all doesn't sound too self-promotional, I don't get to bore too many people in my real life with these sorts of stories, and isn't that sort of thing what a blog is for? ;P