Lammily Rocking London Clothes Set Review

Today I will be unboxing and having a look at the Lammily Rocking London clothes set. I have to admit, the set arrived in the mail some time ago. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll have realised that I have many interests, and they tend to wax and wane seasonally. Or perhaps my dolls just like to hibernate over the Winter?

There are 7 outfit sets available for the First Edition Lammily Doll, themed by cities/countries of the world. It took me some time to decide which set to pick. Normally I would have chosen brighter colours -- for example, the Strolling in Paris set appealed to me very much. However, my main interest in dolls is making clothes for them, so I chose the Rocking London outfit because I thought the colours and components would match best with clothes I'm planning to make for Emmy. The set includes:

★ grey turtleneck jumper
★ tartan skirt
★ tweed jacket with attached belt
★ black leggings
★ black shoes
★ houndstooth scarf

My order was sent in a padded mailer bag, enclosed in a plastic satchel. I thought the packaging was adequate and the contents were protected well. The clothes set comes in a flat cardboard package with a plastic window. The window isn't that large and it's difficult to see the clothes themselves, but there's a half-length photo of Lammily wearing the set on the front, so you can have a preview of what's included. On the back of the package, there's another full-length photo of Lammily rocking the outfit, and some fun facts about London.

The outfit components are arranged on a backing board and attached to the board and to each other with thread and pintags. Many many many tiny little pintags that took a lot of delicate scissor work to extricate. I'm not that good with scissors at the best of times, but I finally managed to separate all the clothes without damaging anything. From here I'll look at each component separately, in the order that I put them on:

* the leggings: The leggings seemed to be made of a thick polyester with very little stretch. They were extremely tight and difficult to put on. In fact, I didn't think there were going to go over the hips at all for a while. I was worried about pulling too hard in case I cracked the stitches. I did eventually get the leggings all the way up, but I was pretty close to giving up and throwing a tantrum! A small child would definitely need adult help to get these leggings onto the doll. Even though they're made of thick, good quality material, I was disappointed at how difficult they were to put on.

* the skirt: The skirt is made of a checked material which frays easily. There were a lot of loose threads which I snipped to neaten it up. It might have benefitted from being overlocked rather than straight-sewn to avoid this problem. The tartan pattern isn't as vibrant as I might have expected, but it's the same fabric as shows on the box and online, so you can't complain about that. Once on, the skirt fits nicely and the mid-thigh length works well with the leggings. The curved seams fit well over Lammily's hips and show off her curves nicely. Once the loose threads were neatened up, I was happy with this garment.

* the jumper: The grey marle turtleneck jumper has 3/4-length sleeves and a matching ribbed fabric at cuffs and neck. It was a little difficult to get onto the doll, but not any more than clothes I've had experience with previously. Everything seemed fine until ......

The jumper doesn't fit over Emmy's hips! It's not wide enough to meet properly at the bottom and forms an open V-shape. Also, the velcro on one side is shorter on one side than the other.
However, from the front Emmy looks so good that I have to forgive the issue at the back. The figure-hugging fit is very sophisticated.

* the jacket: The jacket is well-made with some lovely details like the notched collar and silver buttons. The lining is made of the same tartan fabric as the skirt, and also has a lot of loose threads around the armholes. A bit of careful snipping solved this problem. The jacket has an attached belt made of shiny black ribbon with a silver buckle. A small child would need help doing up the buckle as the ribbon needs to be threaded through. The buckle is not attached to the belt and could easily slide off and be lost. Sewing the buckle onto the end of the ribbon would have been a simple solution and I will probably do this myself at some point. Despite this, overall I love the jacket. It fits Emmy well and looks very smart.

* the shoes and scarf: The houndstooth scarf is made of nice fabric with no loose threads. It's long enough to tie in a knot around Lammily's neck. The black low-heeled shoes are good quality as well. They slip on and off easily. However, Lammily's feet are moulded flat, so heeled shoes don't really work. The the toes point upwards, it's more difficult to stand the doll up, and it just looks strange. It seems that, just as Barbie can't wear flat shoes, Lammily can't wear heels! On the other hand, it's nice that Emmy finally has something more dressy than a pair of sneakers to wear.

I only purchased one outfit for my Lammily doll, as they are rather expensive and I wanted to see what the quality is like before spending more. I purchased this set for an introductory price of US$19 -- the price of all the sets has now gone up to US$25, the same as the doll itself. The exchange rate is very poor at the moment and that works out to be about AU$35. That's a pretty steep price for an accessory set!

The set has some really nice pieces in it -- the jumper and jacket in particular, and the leggings will match well with many different outfits, so I'm glad I purchased the Rocking London set. Bearing in mind the cost and my wanting to make outfits though, I have to conclude that I would not purchase any other sets from the official line. Well ... unless it was something amazing like a Mori or Decora outfit....

My September

Spring came early this year ... and then it went away again. At the end of August, the Spring wind began. It's the same every year: the breeze is just as biting as ever, but there's a different feeling to it -- a feeling of anticipation. The fruit trees feel it and begin to bud. The birds start to sing again. Just when you think it's too late to turn back, the weather turns and it's just as cold and rainy as it was in the middle of Winter. It wasn't until the last week of September that Spring began in earnest. September was the month for apricot blossoms, fruit tea and billowy scarves.

What I've been writing ... 
 

My main interest in the last month has been in writing posts for the blog. I have at least 6 unpublished posts in the pipeline on everything from dolls to food. I haven't written any stories or essays in a couple of months though, and sometimes I feel bad about it. Then I remember all the blogging and I tell myself that it's good practice.

What I've been  making ...  

I've developed a sudden interest in my Rainbow Loom again. Creating simpler ones using the Finger Loom is a good brainless craft for TV-watching time. I thought of making some necklaces too, but depending on the colours I want to use, I'll probably need to buy more supplies. There's just no other way!

What I've been  reading ...  

I finally finished Gertrude Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. I put it down for a long time, and in the end it took me almost 2 years! Alice B. Toklas was the life-long companion of the modernist author Gertrude Stein. The "Autobiography" is written from Toklas' point of view, but is not only written by Gertrude Stein, but almost entirely about Gertrude Stein as well! Poor Alice comes across as merely wallpaper in her own biography.

As I've mentioned before, I found the first half quite slow-going, as it mostly consists of Gertrude's repetitive name-dropping of artists and writers she hung out with. Stein's stream of consciousness style of writing, while radical for its day, is quite passe now and at times, a little annoying. The stories of delivering supplies to the troops during World War I are much more engaging, as is the tale of her stormy friendship with Ernest Hemingway. I was also impressed by the time when Stein wrote a whole essay by the light of a streetlamp, sitting outside in the cold waiting for her car to be fixed. Now that's a true writer.

Alice, Gertrude and Basket the poodle.
It wasn't until I neared the end of the book that its implications occurred to me. Can an autobiography that isn't written by its own subject really show the truth? To what extent did any of these events really happen? Did Stein truly try to write from the point of view of her companion or was she experimenting with an alternative form of biography? What purpose did it serve to pretend to be someone else? Did writing with this buffer between her and her audience affect what she wrote? ... And what did Alice think of all this?

One last thing -- I read the book on my ebook reader and my epub conversion software did a very good job in converting all of the French names in the book, however at one point near the end, it converted 'Gertrude' to 'Germstrude'.

What else I've been doing ...  

My "reverse bucket list"....

became addicted to SpudBar ~ got the Epic Breeding Cave and a 3rd and 4th island in Dragon Vale ~ saw 2 plays including Antigone ~ decided not to re-subscribe to the theatre next year as there was only one play that interested me ~ finished reading 3 books ~ was assertive ~ ordered a new doll ~ was given my first pathtag, ordered several more and joined the pathtag club ~ made a Chan-Rio ~ started playing Tiny Tower again ~ picked some oranges from my tree ~ ordered more clothes for my Lammily doll ~ tidied my shoe area ~ joined Gaia Online ~ bought another new doll ~ went to Daiso ~ wrote a list of 101 Things in 1,001 Days ~ found and saved the LibraryThing Top 106 Unread Books list ~ Kondo-ed my email account ~ made Pasta Naporitan [blog post coming soon] ~ tidied my collage materials ~ went to 2 new restaurants ~ had a board games day ~ went clothes shopping ~ pre-ordered the new Lammily doll ~ put my Unseen Ninja phone-call-making skills to use ~ wrote a couple of haiku ~ got the souvenir Faire Dragon and Weather Station in Dragon Vale ~ got a massage

Yet Another Public Holiday

A new state-wide public holiday is coming up soon in Victoria, Australia. Unfortunately, its announcement wasn't met with the excitement and undying gratitude of the public that the Government probably expected. Grand Final Friday falls on 2nd October, the Friday before the AFL (Australian Football League) Grand Final. Yes, it's a holiday devoted to sport, and it's not our first one!

Picture source.
Objections to the new holiday came from various sources. Traders were not happy as they would have to pay their staff double-time wages, and business would drop the same way it does for other public holidays. Politicians from opposing parties called it a cynical grab for votes. Even the AFL weren't happy. You see, that day is reserved for the traditional Grand Final Friday parade through the city. Normally, city workers on their lunchbreaks make up a fair proportion of the audience and without them, the Grand Final Friday parade could be a fizzer.

And why am I putting "Grand Final Friday" in capital letters anyway, when it wasn't even a thing until a couple of months ago?!

Many others thought it was all a bit pointless, really. We already have enough holidays devoted to sectarian religions, racist colonialism and flimsy excuses for drinking and gambling. Not everyone likes football. Why add another holiday that will possibly only serve to divide the community?

Picture source.
The only one who seems to be pleased that there's a new public holiday is the downtrodden footy fan on the street. Despite our laidback image, Australia ranks near the bottom of the world when it comes to public holidays, with 9 national holidays per year, and 1 to 2 extra state-wide holidays per state. I'm certainly not saying that we don't need an extra holiday! To date, in the state of Victoria, there's been a big gap between holidays in Winter. Queen's Birthday is at the start of June. Melbourne Cup day, a statewide holiday and the other sport-related holiday that I referred to earlier, is in November. That's five whole months of Winter grind to get through betwen public holidays. It's been a source of public commiseration for years. So a new holiday that breaks the drought is very welcome, but we already have one based around sport -- perhaps we could have thought of something different?

Picture source.
As I mentioned, most of the other states in Australia have 1 or 2 state-wide public holidays a year as well, but none of them are sport-related. The ACT has Family & Community Day. Western Australia has Western Australia Day. Not very original, but at least it's something everyone can relate to. South Australia has Proclamation Day, though it falls the day after Boxing Day so I think they're just trying to get an extra day at Christmas! Northern Territory has Picnic Day. Picnic Day! What a wondrous thing! Not only does it celebrate picnics, but it also celebrates the freeing of indentured labourers. That's a holiday everyone can get behind.

Whether you like football or not, we have a new public holiday. I'm sure everyone will spend it doing things they enjoy, whether sport-related or not, so who am I to complain? All I know is, I have a three-day weekend coming up, it's Spring and life is good.

Picture source.

101 Things In 1,001 Days

The Spring air must be making me feel enthusiastic, because I decided follow the lead of Kathryn of I Don't Know Much But I'm Learning, and start a 101 Things In 1,001 Days list. Either that, or I'm completely batty. I already have a 1,001 Things To Do Before I Die list, which I downloaded and then modified parts to suit my interests. I've completed a grand total of 381. It sounds like a lot, but the first 50 or so involved things like holding someone's hand and opening a bank account, so they were crossed off automatically! Many of the rest involve travel to various places in the world, so I'll just have to be patient for those. Other items are things I won't be able to do until I'm older, like retiring. At least ... I hope I'll be able to retire one day...

You may notice that I arranged the items on the list by subject in Dewey Decimal order.
I'm such a nerd.

I also already have one of those lists of *0 Things To Do By Age *0 .(Ha, did you think you would find out my age that easily?). I started this one a bit late at age *6 and had to fudge it a little bit because several years later I still haven't done three-quarters of them!

Go overseas again is definitely on the list.
Yet another list of things to do seems a bit rash, but I just can't help myself. I'm a list maker at heart. Having a few lists of different lengths instead of just one massively long one keeps my motivation higher. Plus, a lot of the items were things I was going to do anyway, but now I can have the satisfaction of crossing them off a list! I also cheated just the teensiest bit and backdated it by one day so I could add a new restaurant I'd been to the day before.

I've posted the list here, and there's a link to the page in the tab just underneath the header, so you can check up on my progress at any time.

Maybe I'll finish unpacking all of my books.
I don't have quite this many though!

How I Kondo-ed My Emails

I accidentally deleted the post I was going to post today, so I wrote this instead!

I'm still reading Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and working through the exercises. In my research, I noticed a couple of tidiers who added their computer and/or electronic life to their list of categories to tidy up. Initially, I didn't think of adding this to my list, but for some strange reason, I suddenly decided to Kondo my email account this weekend.

I wish this was my kitty!
THE STATE OF MY EMAIL ACCOUNT BEFOREHAND

I've had my email account for a long time, over 15 years. In that time, I've received a lot of emails! I thought I had set up a smart system for dealing with them. I have folders for different types of emails and I set up 'rules' for them. For example, all emails from knitting and crochet newsletters that I subscribe to went straight to my 'Crafts' folder. Ditto for recipe newsletters and emails from Etsy. I had folders for storing things like receipt emails from Paypal. Emails I wanted to read or action straight away stayed in the Inbox. I also had various deletion rules set up such as "delete emails from __ after 3 days".

I thought I had it all sorted out. But when I had a really good look at my email account, I realised it was a mess. I had a folder called 'To Read Soon' which had emails from 2007 in it! Some of the folders had over 2,000 emails in them! Despite regular attempts to clear my inbox out, I had trouble keeping it under 500 emails. Some of them were over 5 years old. This system was clearly not working.

WHAT I DID TO CLEAR IT OUT

* I deleted all of the rules -- all 150 of them! That way, all of the emails come straight to my inbox -- there's nowhere for them to hide. I can decide then and there if I want to read them or not. There were a lot of rules pertaining to newsletters I don't subscribe to anymore, so it was good to clear those out as well. Also, I don't get to check my email that often anymore, so I might have been missing out on some that are set to be deleted after 3 days.

* I deleted a lot of old emails. That newsletter about Virtual Libraries from 10 years ago? I'm not sure that's going to be so relevant anymore. I deleted those without even looking at them. The 100 unread emails I still had from Etsy Success which I subscribed to when I had my Etsy shop? The one which I closed down in 2008? All gone.

* I deleted any paypal receipt emails or purchase confirmations that were more than a year old. I then combined this folder with the one where I keep my website signup confirmations and other similar useful emails. I might need to go through this folder manually so that I don't accidentally delete anything important.

* I unsubscribed to a lot of other newsletters that I'm not interested in anymore, either. I unsubscribed to Fine Cooking newsletter because, even though I like collecting recipes, I have a backlog of over 2,000 emails from them, and that's enough recipes for anyone! I'm still thinking about whether to delete many of the older ones without looking at them.

* I amalgamated some of the folders and renamed them to make things more streamlined and less ambiguous. For example, instead of 'Crafts', I have 'Craft Courses' and 'Art Courses'. Now that the craft emails are coming directly to my inbox, I'll either read or delete them straight away. If they relate to an e-course I've signed up to, then I'll move them to the folder. Hopefully this will make me think about which emails to save instead of automatically saving all of them.

I deleted nearly 3,000 emails this weekend, but I still have a long way to go.

MY PLEDGE

* Just like Marie Kondo's rule that your house tidy-up must be finished within 6 months, I want to have my email tidied within that time also. I will spend half an hour a week tidying my email account until it's in tip-top shape!

* If there are still any unread newsletters after 6 months, well, they just weren't meant to be read. If I find that old newsletters are sitting in my inbox or other folders unread, I will delete them and consider unsubscribing.

* I guess "Inbox Zero" is the ultimate, but I'm a bit too daunted to make that one of my goals at this stage!


All photos today are from Pinterest.

Chanrio >> Sanrio Character Creator!

I'm home sick from work today, but I thought I'd share this Chanrio Creator that I've been having fun with this week.
Note: I was not able to use the site with Firefox, but had success with Chrome.

The most important instructions are in English as well as Japanese, and I had no trouble figuring it out, but if you need extra help there's a tutorial here.

With my first Chanrio I went the Kawaii route, then tried Mori with my second one:

As you can see, there weren't too many Mori options -- my look is still more Kawaii than Mori! Kawaii was my first love though, and I've been pondering lately how the two could be combined. It's a slight shame that there's no option for red hair, otherwise they'd look more like me, but if you're a kimono fan, there are many to choose from -- you'll be in heaven!

In other news, my Marie Kondo book arrived yesterday and I've started reading it. She's a very interesting person!

My August

August was a month of two halves for me. As I mentioned last month, I had the first two weeks off for a 'staycation' or as I preferred to call it, a 'home-iday'. Far from the excited frenzy of crafting and home renovations that I pictured in my fevered brain, I actually spent most of it sitting around playing computer games. Week 1 was to be our relaxing week, and Week 2 our going-out week, but I developed a bad cold at the start of Week 2 and spent most of it sleeping and playing more computer games. Almost everything that I did, I've already posted about! So this month's update might be a little sparse.

What I've been growing ...
Remember last year when I grew sweet potato cuttings? This is my harvest. I left it too late to dig them up and most of them were rotten. Oops. I'll try to be more prompt next year.

What I've been seeing ...
I took Husband to the Melbourne Sea Life Aquarium, as he'd never been there before and my last visit was many years ago. The fish and other marine creatures were truly beautiful. The photos don't do justice to them at all.

There was a particularly fun new room where you can colour an outline on a piece of paper, scan it in, and it will appear on the giant projector screen. There were 8 different types of sea life to choose from, and on the screen they behave just like the real animals. My fish swam back and forth in a school with the other children's fish, whereas Husband's jellyfish blobbed along the bottom.

What I've been playing ...
I started playing a new ipod game called Dragon Vale. It's a cute little game where you have a theme park which doubles as a dragon breeding facility. The aim is to breed adorable little dragons together to create new hybrids and collect all the different varieties. Husband has been playing it for a while, and I've been bombarding him with questions about it: "Is it worthwhile having lots of decorations?" "Should I buy the Colosseum or save up for a larger breeding cave?"

What else I've been doing ...
A relatively new tradition where I list all the other stuff I did last month, relevant or not...

made congee for the first time ~ discovered Celebrity Chef China ~ got halfway through organising my makeups ~ did parts 2 and 3 of the art journalling course ~ went to the art gallery ~ did my first painting on canvas ~ made puffy crackers ~ found a floating island in The Blockheads ~ walked to the duck pond again ~ made roast potatoes ~ went to a board game day where I played many new games and a 9-year-old taught me how to make Rainbow Loom bracelets on my fingers ~ found a Gem Tree in The Blockheads ~ pruned the roses ~ made a Shaun the Sheep costume ~ made a decision to look after my health better ~ refreshed my favourites list on Etsy ~ bought a vintage haori on Etsy ~ walked an extremely long way to get to lunch with a friend ~ went to 2 birthday parties ~ wrote several blog posts ~ read a paper on the records continuum ~ bought a new plant friend ~ fertilised the fruit trees and roses ~ baked scones which came out more like rock cakes ~ picked oranges from my tree ~ baked cupcakes for Cupcake Day