Happy Monday, everyone! How are your craft endeavors going? Do you have plans for the week, or have you already set aside a special duration of time just to work on a project? How do you stay organized when you’re crocheting, or crafting? 🙂
To start off this week, I think it’s time–and the other Buddies here agree–for another of our family members to have an introduction. This post is long overdue, and I’ll explain why. (One thing: if you prefer seeing the pictures first over words, please scroll down a ways. Otherwise, enjoy reading!)
One of our family members, Jessie, arrived in 2013 (yes, one of the doll family members, not a human 😉 ). We had tons of fabulous playtime together; I can’t believe how young I once was, and where the time went… Anyway, in the last year or so I decided it was time to put her away, along with several other dolls, and focus on school. Aside from the sane reason of dedicating more time to studying, I deeply regret that decision, for many reasons.
Now that there’s a lot more time to get back to crafting and being creative, I want to reintroduce the dolls as characters, and get to know them better, design things for them, let their real personalities shine through. I know, it sounds slanted that I’m working on this only now. I just miss having that never-ending creative spark, something to make it all worthwhile. Crocheting things for these dolls again is sure to bring that ambition back, at least part of the way. And to make them feel loved again, which is something they should always feel, regardless of how busy I am.
Despite the limited time I may have with Jessie (and the other girls) after this summer, there is still time to bring her back out, let her have some fresh air and start making things for her again… something I miss beyond words.
So, in sum, I guess this is a “semi-introduction” sort of thing. Jessie’s still hibernating at the moment… she won’t be up and about for awhile more. With that in mind, those of us who are blogging can at least give her the introduction she deserves, in advance.
Now for some info on who Jessie really is:
If you are a fan of the doll company Götz (and for good reason), you’ll know that there are quite a few dolls who go by the name of Götz Happy Kidz. They are, in my opinion, one of the best masterpieces Götz has ever created. They are realistic, super pose-able (with 9 joints!), perfect models for handmade items, and, I think, really affordable. (At the very least, they are strong competition for the slightly less-lifelike mainstream doll lines out there… you know what I mean.) If you haven’t heard of the Götz doll company, go check out their website. They’ve been around for decades, and create excellent, high-quality dolls that are meant to last a lifetime.
Jessie is a Götz Happy Kidz Sophie doll from 2012. In later years, Götz changed her demeanor and appearance, from a spunky redhead in casual attire to a brunette ballerina for 2013 and beyond. (The names and face molds of the Happy Kidz dolls keep swapping around over the years, as do their eye/hair combinations.) This Sophie from 2012 was being discontinued. And, if you’ll stick around and hear more about our family, you’ll know that we have a ‘thing’ for discontinued dolls. 🙂
At this point, I suppose it’s also time to bring a few things to attention. First, Mom and I usually discover these dolls just by browsing around online–or “window shopping,” as Mom likes to call it. (Occasionally we do hear about certain doll brands from other blogs, very rarely by talking with other folks IRL.)
Second, most of the dolls in the family came from choices made by Mom, and which I typically hadn’t noticed before. About 50% of the dolls were chosen by me, and the other 50% were noticed and chosen by Mom. What Mom does is she looks for dolls that are super lifelike, very special, and remind her of a certain someone (ahem) years ago.
Jessie was one of those dolls. One thing I will say is that Mom loves the promotional photos that come out for a lot of the dolls; though only a select few really catch her attention, which is how I tend to feel as well. Kidz ‘n’ Cats dolls Sophie (same name, different doll), Amber and Alister are good examples. The expression, the look in their eyes… you get the idea. 🙂
We already had one highly pose-able doll at the time: Kidz ‘n’ Cats Nikola, who I adore to this day. When we first saw Happy Kidz Sophie, Mom pointed out how cute and lifelike she was, and how she’d be a perfect sibling for Nikola. I was also curious to see how well this doll posed in comparison to Nikola, though I never really got around to doing a photo comparison… may try that some other time.
And so, around this time of June in 2013, Sophie came home. I renamed her Jessie because she reminded me of Jessie the cowgirl from Toy Story 2. So yeah, that’s why. All these dolls have special names. 😉
What made me suddenly remember her, and want to bring her back out into the open air and summer breeze after all this time, was this small collection of photos Mom found from our “doll story” archives. This series was taken, yes, in 2013, nearly four years ago.
So here she is! In, for the most part, her original outfit, and working on a special blue fuzzy project. I’d long since taken out Jessie’s original braids (never one to keep dolls’ original hairdos, hehe). I did my best to edit out the graininess of the photos and make it easier to see:
As you can tell, Jessie enjoyed helping me out with this ‘assignment.’ 🙂
Her limbs are super versatile and easy to pose… and there’s so much detail in the way she’s sculpted. Look at how easily she can hold the crochet hook, and make something!
Well, now that she’s actively returned to my mind and crochet planning, that’s where she’ll stay. I have plans for bringing her back to her funny, adorable self, and working on new patterns for her once she’s more active. Now it’s time to build her personality… I know for a fact that she doesn’t like warm smoothies, and that she’s into anything science and STEM-related. We shall see what else comes from this. 🙂
In any case, stay tuned for more on Jessie, and her siblings (and crochet)!
Until then!~
