The 5 D's...

[magkelly]

Delilah (one who languishes seductively) Class Act/Debut
Dahlia (flower from the valley) Dark and Defiant
Damia (spirit of nature) Pretty in Pink Repaint
Dacia (of Dacia aka Romania) Once Bitten Twice Shy
Dinah (Variant on Diana, Goddess of the Hunt and Moon) It's 10 O'Clock...

These are the names I've settled on for my 5 D's. There's been a little bit of name shuffling because of my getting the Class Act/Debut Delilah doll and finally deciding she had the most right to be Delilah. I also shorted Damiana to Damia because it seems to work better and basically is the same name anyway, meaning-wise. Actually the 10 doll loves Dinah and it seems to fit her bubble gum personality to the T so it all worked out just fine. In the end I think they are all named very well for who they are.

Damia is very much a little earth spirit, a pixie type. Delilah is a bit lazy and she has a way of beguiling you that I can't quite explain. I find I'm always picking her up and cuddling her and walking around with her, even when I don't intend to. Dahlia+Noir=Black Dahlia. Noir can also mean night in French so either way it fits though actually I named her for the Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia, because I've always felt a strange sympathy for her. Her life and death it's always been a rather morbid source of fascination for me. Dinah, well it's a form of Diana and we all know who Diana is in mythology. She's the eternal virgin, the ever young huntress, the lover of animals and that's my Dinah to a T. She's the youngest, lightest, and most playful of all my D's, truly "girly" at heart. Dacia, I haven't actually met as yet but little vamp that she is I have a feeling her name will be perfect for her as Dacia is the ancient land that became Transylvania which of course is now world famous for it's dark scary tales of vampires, werewolves, ghosts and the like and of course for Vlad Tepesh aka Dracula who of course inspired a certain famous fictional vampire count...

Pics to follow here of the first 4 in a day or so when I am finished taking and editing them. Dacia pics to be added when I finally have her in hand. Sorry it's taken me so long. There's a lot going on around here right now and I've also been sick again and not a little depressed because of having to put my cat down earlier this year. I just did not take losing him well. I'm brooding still, I admit. Too many years and too bad much stuff that we went through together. It was incredibly painful to lose him, particularly since it was via euthanasia. I'm still weepy on and off and I find it's really hard to talk about.

[Calivano]

Wow! I look forward to seeing the pictures! I have a pretty in pink, but I haven't done anything to her bit change her wig and give her new clothes. I'd like to see her repaint! Hey, I'm sorry about the loss of your friend. I took it pretty hard when I lost my Daisiey. I hope you're not being hard on yourself, you know you did the best you could. Little lives like that are so precious because they are so short, indeed it's humbling. I hope you feel better. ((hugs))

[magkelly]

I have PIP's outfit pretty much split between 2 dolls. When I got the 10 doll and saw how pink and girly she was she just got that outfit by default though I had a pastel rainbow wig I had in mind for her almost immediately. My Debut Delilah, she got the wig and it looks like like it did on PIP. She's not painted quite like most of the pics I've seen of that debut doll. She does not have the original default face up. Her brows are close though not exactly like PIP's but otherwise she really looks very close to PIP except for those things and having the old body. Her liner is much thinner and much more natural. Her lip color is very close to that of the PIP doll as she came to me just a bit more intense. Getting her is almost like having PIP in pink the original back again. She was on the old body and did have the staining on her butt and knees, otherwise I'd really wonder if she wasn't a post 2010 issue doll. I know that they did change some of the later the debut dolls to the new body and that they added tights to protect her from staining but I wasn't aware that they'd also given them the PIP type face up. It almost looks to me like they put the head from the PIP or maybe the Steampunk doll on the old body and put her in the debut outfit.

PIP is nice in the demo pics but the one I got her face color was really washed out compared to the pics which was why I ended up repainting her. She just wasn't quite doing it for me as she was. Debut she's like PIP only a bit better than the way I got her. If my PIP had looked like her, had not looked so washed out, I don't think I would have repainted her. I'm thinking it's just a case of factory paint variation and different people doing the painting but I really feel like the debut doll looks more like the illustration pics of PIP than the PIP I got actually did. They supposedly did the same thing with the Steampunk doll. The ad for it shows her with tons of liner and bronze lips but the ones I've seen for sale she's got the default face up with the pink lips, just like my Debut and PIP.

My brother actually offered to get me a Steampunk Delilah the other day for my birthday. She's easy to get on Ebay for like $75-100. He said he'd get her and put her up till then if I wanted her. I'm thinking about it but I'm not too sure I want her. I'm not crazy about the actual outfit for all I love the wig and boots and if she looks like debut then there's not much point. I'll just end up repainting another D and given how hard the PIP one was I'm not sure I want to do that. But I wouldn't have to pay for her. 5 dolls is more than enough I think but I get tempted when I see them on clearance. It's hard to resist a BJD at $75 even if she is vinyl knowing she was twice that originally particularly when a family member is saying "Go for it. I'll pay for it."

I'm actually thinking of asking him to help get me a pair of Miro bodies instead. A couple of the bodies shipped would be about $135. At least I'd have a pair of BJD bodies to put heads on when I can afford one. He'd spend like a $100 on Delilah. I'd rather add $35 to that and have my bodies. The heads might take me quite a while to acquire but it seems more sensible to me to let him buy those then to buy me another Delilah.

[Calivano]

Wow, a true Delilah Lover! Hey Ive got a question about her feet. I've bee trying to change her feet to flat feet, but they are really hard to get out. Online, I have read that i could ruin the doll by just pulling out her feet. Some have suggested trying to warm up the vinyl by using a blow dryer. Have you changed her feet? Are they supposed to be that hard to come off?
Its kind of hard for me to find clothes that fit her, but I guess maybe I havent been trying hard enough to find them. i put on some clothes for her from an Ashton Drake Hannah Montana, but no luck. They fit too big. Also, I tried to put on another dress from an Ashton Drake, but that didn't fit either. I guess I have go to etsy and maybe buy one actually made for her size.
I really like the steam punk Delilah, but you're right about the dress. It isn't steam-punk enough for me, lol. Youre lucky your brother will pay for your doll! Its nice to have family that cares for you in that way. Makes me feel warm inside! lol.

[magkelly]

The feet on the dolls with the original body are tougher to get off than the feet on the newer body (and they are about 1/4 bigger) but I've been able to get them off to swap by sort of wiggling them out even without a heating pad. Pulling them directly out though I think you could crack an ankle. I think using a heating pad or running them under hot water is a good idea but still wiggle, from side to side, don't pull. As for clothes Delilah fits into MT shirts boy or girl and boy pants, Ken shirts and pants though the pants end up being capris on her, and a lot of 16" fashion doll stuff. I've had her in Tonner, Alexander, and Gene casual clothes and that works just fine. So do some Ty shirts but not pants and skirts.

Her old feet are too big for almost anything. The new ones are too big for most Ken shoes but I have found some other 12" guy doll shoes I had that fit her. She also fits into these goofy plastic sneakers I have tons of that I don't know what doll they came from. The newer doll body can fit into some 16" doll shoes though that's only if they are not closed like pumps. I've decided I'm actually going to sand her new body feet down a bit with the rotary tool to make them fit Tonner type shoes. It would not take much. She's almost fitting into them now. A little bit off her heel on the back and sides and she'd have a lot more shoes and boots to wear.

It wouldn't work on the old feet as I'd have to take off too much and it would look freaky but I do think I can get the newer doll body feet to work better. Her flat new feet they're actually more adaptable than her heeled feet in some ways. I've found some translucent plastic loafers that work and those sneaks and I've made a few pairs of leather moccasins for her now, easy stuff. I'm working on designing a pair of clog type heels for her now. I'll be carving bottoms out of wood and using leather for the uppers with some beading on those. I've got the tops almost done but I still need to go get some balsa to carve the heels out of. Later when I get more experienced at making doll shoes she'll be getting tons of fancy heels, boots et all. Once I get started I'll probably be making shoes all the time. I really enjoy designing them so I'm not too worried about the older doll body and it's feet. I'll be making her a lot of shoes even if she can't wear much other than the ones that came with her.

Her shoes are mostly not of very great quality anyway. The PIP heels one of them came off several times so I finally removed them entirely and made them flat sneakers. Her black boots the metal eyelets are half off and I've changed them once. Her black flats the buckle strap broke first time I went to put them on another doll and I found the ones on her boots almost impossible to work with so they went too. I've seen pics where the loafer bottoms are half off. Mine seem fine but I'm not really expecting much. QC at Ashton Drake has really gone downhill apparently.

I'm also told she fits into Ellowyne Wilde stuff but I don't have any of her stuff to try because Ello and her gear is way too expensive for my budget. Just buying one of her outfits usually costs as much as a whole doll on clearance and most of the time you don't even get shoes or a wig. Too much $$$ for only an outfit, IMHO. The Tonner outfits have gone that way too which is why I rarely buy clothes anymore. Doll prices too. I can't afford to hardly buy anything from them anymore unless it's at the end of the run and on clearance. $30 for a pair of heels or a wig. It's ridiculous. This kind of BS is why I've resorted to learning to sew and make my own shoes and why if a new doll hits my shelf it's actually not from the newest collections 90% of the time.

But Delilah is not that hard to outfit actually. Because she's so close to being Tonner sized there are quite a few things out there that fit her. I'm still not sure of the MSD shoes thing, haven't bought any yet, but I have seen pics of her wearing shoes meant for them and according to a video on You Tube that I saw, Kitty Blue I think it was, she's swapping them on and off her MSD dolls all the time so they must be of similar enough size for a Delilah doll's feet.

I've also used some Teen Trends jeans on her. They're a bit loose in the waist but can be pinned in the back or altered to fit. Tops and dresses fit too, but I'm not sure I'd use any of their tops on her sans a bodysuit. You do have to be careful with their stuff as it's not always colorfast. I made sure to wash those jeans a few times first and even so she has tights under. There are a lot of things out there for her outfit-wise. It's mainly just her feet which can be problematic and like I said, at least with the new feet, I intend to work on that.

Someone has done that, used a dremel on a pair of her feet and she's now wearing Ello boots and all kinds of Tonner shoes. I read that on the old Delilah board. If you are brave enough to go there it could make all kinds of options possible. I have an extra set of feet coming with the OBTS doll. At this point I've got sets of both flat and heeled feet that fit the old dolls and the new so I can afford to play with that set a little. I'm going to carve the heeled feet a bit and see what happens.

[magkelly]

The OBTS Delilah is here!!!! She's a truly lovely doll. I really love this version of the pale skin tone and now I'm very glad I have the RV doll coming later in June. They're supposed to be the same except for RV's lips being red, not rose. She's on the older body and no stains, in fact she had TWO pairs of tights with her. One for the OBTS vamp outfit and another for the regular one. She likes her jeans and uggs for now she says, and she wants to stay blond, for now, though I told her about the dark spectrum rainbow wig and she did like that idea a lot! (Thought she would, grin.) She swapped shirts with Dinah and gave her the pink sweater. Then she said to give Dahlia her bat dress et all to wear. She's a very obliging and generous girl this "D" doll.

At first I was disappointed a bit with her brown eyes. I pulled them out and they were not at all like the ones in the ads. They're straight brown, not variegated, not very vampire-like at all. But then just now I was checking out her necklace and fangs and that and I found a THIRD pair of eyes in there, yes, they were the variegated ones. I don't know how it happened, someone goofed at AD I guess, but I apparently got an extra brown regular set. The blue ones are a lovely shade of deep blue and I like those. One of my other "D's" has blue eyes but they are not the same shade and the contrast is nice. So far it's two blues, two greens, one hazel.

I'm not sure what RV is going to have as yet. I'm not crazy about flat brown but I do have like 6 pairs at this point that do fit her. I think I want something different for her, maybe dark gray? Honestly for all that she has holes for teeth I don't think my OBTS is much of a Goth girl and I think she agrees with me on that. Practically the first thing she did was to hand Dahlia her extra clothes and she totally disdained the pink hoodie sweater and the baby colors knit hat. They are just not HER, she says. Neither is "Dacia" apparently. We're going to have to figure out her style together I think. I have a feeling it's going to be interesting. She does strike me as the dramatic type...

I was waiting on her to take pics of the 5. Tonight I'm going to put up a backdrop and go at it for a bit, see what happens. Pics here tomorrow.

[magkelly]

Actually make that title the "6" D's...

Delilah (one who languishes) CA-D
Dahlia (from the valley) D&D
Damia (spirit of nature) PIP
Dinah (Variant on Diana, Goddess of the Hunt and Moon) ITS-10
Della (Noble One) OBTS
Dacia (of Dacia/Romania)RV

[Calivano]

The hair that my PIP comes with is starting to get matter from over playing. Its a hassle trying to comb it out with fabric softener, so I think i want to guy a new wig for her. I guess Ill have to add Velcro if i want to buy one for her. Know any good sites where i can buy her a wig that is ready to go? While I'm at it, I think I want to buy some new eyes for her. What do you make of black hair and blue eyes? I've always admired that combination in people, even though its rather rare. But I want my Delilah to have "that look" and I think that combination will draw attention to her. Thoughts?

[magkelly]

The hair that my PIP comes with is starting to get matter from over playing. Its a hassle trying to comb it out with fabric softener, so I think i want to guy a new wig for her. I guess Ill have to add Velcro if i want to buy one for her. Know any good sites where i can buy her a wig that is ready to go? While I'm at it, I think I want to buy some new eyes for her. What do you make of black hair and blue eyes? I've always admired that combination in people, even though its rather rare. But I want my Delilah to have "that look" and I think that combination will draw attention to her. Thoughts?

http://www.animestuffstore.com/doll-wigs-c-6047.html

This site is great for interesting and not too expensive doll wigs in DN size. I love the styles. I think they are perfect for her. Actually I'm just finishing putting together an order now. I'd love to buy about 10 of them but I'm going to have to settle for 3 for now. Delilah does look good with blue eyes and black hair, yes. I like green with her a lot. 3 of my dolls have various shades of green and hazel green eyes. Two of them have blue eyes, but different shades but they're are blond and brown-blond respectively.

I like the look of Delilah with dark hair and blue eyes, but in my house the only doll that I really like in a black wig is D&D and she looks so good green eyed that I don't want to change them. I might do that with RV when she comes though I am leaning more towards a smoke gray pair or maybe the vampire pair that came with OBTS for her. I haven't really decided on the eyes though I do I think want her to be a brunette.

I don't know though. That could change. My plans for them change a lot. I never seem to know beforehand what my D's are going to want to do with themselves. What I think I want and what they sometimes want it's often different things. I've ended up swapping wigs, changing out eyes from what I thought I was going to use, clothes, NAMES. They definitely have a mind of their own these dolls, laugh. Ask her. If she's anything like my D's she'll tell YOU loud and clear, grin.

[magkelly]

It's going to be the 7 D's.

I found a OBTS on deep clearance and I was even allowed to put her on lay-a-way. She's the last one they have apparently but she's going to be mine. I'm going to sell all her extra clothes to pay for her. I won't need a second OBTS set after all and they're so cute they should sell fairly easily. That bat dress in particular, it's really adorable. There are a lot of other BJD's out there that fit into her clothes and at this point I have a growing pile of her stuff I don't want, main parts of certain outfits that I would have no problems selling. If I put the whole thing together I could easily end up with enough for her and for part of the BJD heads actually.

But still there will be no Barbies, MH, no thrifts, et all for a long while around here. I'm going to be spending my $20 monthly doll allowance on her and maybe two resin BJD heads for quite a few months. I did order those 3 wigs too but I really doubt I'll buy much else for the rest of the year. I've still got to save for a new or used WR cam body too and between that and the dollie plans I won't have much to spend on anything else. As it is I'll probably be eating a lot of cereal, almond butter and honey sandwiches and rice noodle ramen bowls for the next few months paying for it all!

I'll have OBTS-2 by July or August though and I do plan on repainting her a bit. I don't think I want to change my OBTS that I have now except maybe to give her another better wig. I like her way too much to repaint her, but I also think with the pink pale skin, the rainbow wig and a fantasy face up that this Delilah will make an excellent OOAK and I really want to try that. I'm a total glutton for punishment obviously... The idea of repainting another DN really gave me pause. I really wouldn't do it on the one I have, risk ruining it but with a double I figure I'll be okay even if it takes me a few months, cough,laugh, to get it right...