Doll Masterpieces

Never thought I'd ever be crazy about dolls... but I finally am when I'm no longer considered a child anymore... 

It all began with Noel Cruz. His dolls are created by rubbing off the original paint on a doll and repainting by hand. Cruz prefers to copy celebrities. But, what makes his work unique is his amazing ability to make the dolls spitting images of the celebrity. He sells his creations on ebay. Currently, he is auctioning Orlando Bloom and Madonna as in Dick Tracy.

Cruz painting the Mary Poppins doll.

Cruz's Nascar Doll

However, though, I was extremely impressed... I didn't give the dolls a second thought... that is until I bumped into Marina Bychkova's work... 

The only reason why I didn't care for Cruz's work is that I'm not too fascinated by celebrities... However, I LOVE LOVE the ethereal fantasy dolls. Bychkova's dolls are so fairy tale like (I've always been obsessed with fairy tales, and their beauty far exceeds real human beauty... It's like a freakish exagerrated beauty... And, each one is COMPLETELY handmade. 

Plus, she makes quite a few Asian dolls, which I love! 

Not sure why this doll has male bits... Is it supposed to be one of the Asian boy girl beauties??

Here are my three favorites below:

I just love the range of movement these dolls have... You can put them in such elegant poses!

I'm sure these dolls cost more than just a pretty penny and prices are not displayed on her site. 

Anyway, I think it's great to see dolls as artwork that can be considered as masterpieces! 

Let's Talk about Race

Race has always been very vague. There are clear differences between Northern Europeans and Southern Europeans, Northern Asians and Southern Asians, Northern Africans and Southern Africans, etc, yet, most everybody describes everyone through a few basic colors. I always note South Asian vs North Asian... but that's just because I'm Asian.

It's interesting that Europeans have told me before that they find it surprising that Americans don't believe Hispanic people are white!

Anyway, the thing that got me thinking about all of this are these very funny pictures from Playmobil. Please don't take offense to me... Take it to the toy company, if you must.

Hispanic

White Family

Black Family.... Notice that the father's collar is popped.

Lol... Asian man with a camera...

They obviously forgot some races such as Native American, Middle Eastern...

Engagement!

Travis is my fiance!
On September 29th, Travis proposed to me! We were in Le Jardin Exotique on the side of a mountain overlooking Monaco. We had a trip in France and also spent half a day in Monaco.  

The funny thing about all of this is that I knew about the engagement, way beforehand. Travis is really bad at keeping secrets like these. I knew that he was going to be doing it sometime during our trip abroad and was so afraid that I was going to be somewhat emotionless during the proposal as I've known about the plan for so long. I spent so many car rides to home or the office tearing up just thinking about the moment to be... 

Since the surprise was gone and I was expecting it, I thought it wouldn't be as touching. But, wow, when he got down on his knee, I couldn't even stay standing up.  I just started bawling... like not one tear or two.. but tons... In fact, I heard his voice but couldn't recall anything that he was saying. 

According to Travis, I didn't even say yes... I swear that I said, "of course." But, he claims all I did was say, "mm-hmm."