Monster Crafts

This was definitely not the post I was planning to make, but turns out it was the post that I felt like writing. To be fair, I have been very busy with both work and my German classes. On top of that, I've had doctor appointments and other things that have kept me busy, so I haven't had much time to work on anything doll-related, despite how much I wanted to. Since it hasn't been possible to make any sort of craft project, I thought it could be a good idea to do a short doll review, because those are much easier to do, and I have a ton of dolls sitting in their boxes. Today is finally time to review Barbie Looks #16, which came out ages ago, but I really want to talk about her. Mr. Monster bought her as a gift, but I can't remember if it was for my birthday or for Christmas. Anyway, she's been sitting in her box for way too long. This doll came out with the third wave of Barbie Looks. Contrasting with the first two waves that had more muted color schemes, this wave ...

Hello again doll friends! I can't believe I've managed to find time to post twice in a month, even if this is a short post.  As I mentioned on my Board and Batten tutorial , I wanted to make at least two more walls with that same design. Since I had already done this for the blog, I thought it would be a good idea to make a video for my YouTube channel, which hasn't been updated in over a year.  The footage isn't great, but I hope it's helpful. It is quite hard to film while working on a larger project like this. Smaller projects like the miniature paintings were so much easier! Mr. Monster did help me a bit this time around, so I could get a better angle.  I painted this wall in the color Blue Harbor by Americana Acrylics . I personally love the color blue, even though it's not super trendy right now. I don't know about you, but I feel like the combination of the board and batten + the color gives the wall a coastal vibe. Let me know what you think.  I wo...

Hello and welcome back to a new post on the Travelling dolls series, a series where I take my dolls with me on trips and talk a bit about the places that I visit. This is the third post of this series, and so far you seem to enjoy these type of posts.  This year I won't have any holidays from work until September, so we weren't planning to travel this summer. However, it turns out that there were two days of bank holiday falling on Thursday and Friday, so we had a nice mini-holiday of 4 days. This is long enough for a quick escapade to somewhere that isn't too far away. So, we picked Teruel, which is roughly 3 hours drive from where we live. Teruel is the capital of the province of Teruel, Aragón. Teruel is well known for its gastronomy, being very popular the ham from there (jamón de Teruel). It's also well known for it's beautiful towns and the mudejar style buildings that still remain ( Read more about Mudejar architecture  in this article from UNESCO ) . We do ...

Hello again my dear dolly friends. It's been almost a month since my last post. A bit longer than I expected, but at least I haven't been gone for months. I did mention last time that I was working on a wall and that I would post the tutorial "very soon". Apparently, "very soon" just means a month later, but never mind. I do have a bit more spare time, but I haven't really taken the time to sit in front of my computer and work on this post. But finally, here we are. I've been making background walls for a while on this blog, mostly plain walls in a variety of colors. I have tried making textured walls to make them more interesting, but one of the things that I've wanted to tackle for some time is architectural dimension. I did add a bit of that with the wainscots I made for my larger walls, but nothing that would take up the full height of the wall. To be fair, my other walls are huge, but now that I'm working with smaller walls, I feel it...

And so am I. It's been a while since my last post, a bit over 4 months. As I stated there, life was pretty busy with studies and the internship, so I wasn't expecting to come back before the summer. But, finally, here we are.  I was planning on coming back with some doll related content, which I still don't have ready, but, since lots of things have happened, I thought it would be better to do a little catch-up post and the doll stuff will come later. Last time I was here I told you that the classes were done, that I just needed to work in the internship full-time, work on the final project, and take the A2 level German exam. Well, all of that is done, and currently I am working at the same place I've been doing the internship, for a little bit more than part-time, but not full-time (which is fine for me). The pay is a bit better with a regular contract than with the internship contract, and I already know the ropes around there, so I'm not starting brand new. I don...