Small-time Hijinks

Looking back at 2025, and plans for 2026

Retrospective on 2025

Overall, it was a good year in the hobby. I had one especially lovely thing happen: an online friend was able to get SDGrG Ranma for me directly from Dolpa 53. I'm still so grateful and happy for that. And I ordered my second-ever Full Choice System doll, 22 years after I ordered my first FCS (also my first-ever ball-jointed doll), which was a great experience.

I had more potential doll time than ever before, since my daughter is a little older, though whether I actually used the time well is another question that I hope no one asks... We played dolls together more than ever before, and she got a Licca-chan doll of her own. Sharing the hobby with someone I love so much is pure joy.

Dolls I bought in 2025

  • Volks MSD Hewitt (arrived in February)
  • Volks SDGr girl Ranma, switched to a DearSD body (arrived in May)
  • Claudia, my Volks SD13 Nono bought via the Full Choice System and moved to a DearSD body (arrived in July)
  • Dollshe Grown Bermann OE head (arrived in October) plus 18M Classic body (arrived in September)
Portrait photo of a male resin ball-jointed doll (MSD Hewitt). He has a childlike face, pale blue-grey eyes, a red-brown wig, and wears a ruffled white shirt with pintucks and lace. A ball-jointed doll with toddler-like proportions and big anime-style eyes, with bobbed blonde hair. Female ball-jointed resin doll with pale skin, long blonde hair in ringlets, and big wide purple eyes. Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with short black hair with 90s-style bangs, thick spidery lashes and a very amateurish faceup.

For completeness, I should mention that my two DoDollsDream dolls (Petronella, a Miss Marionette Lullaby Miss Ao, and my unnamed Teacup Marionette Lullaby Lottie) arrived in 2025, though they were pre-ordered in 2024.

Other numbers from 2025

Dolls bought: 4 (plus a few bodies). I'm very happy with this number. I'm running out of space in my small doll/sewing/hobby room, and also running out of mental space to enjoy them all.

Faceups completed: 4. I'm happy with most of them. I thought this would be more than in 2024, but it turns out I also did four faceups in 2024 (one of which is on a doll I plan to exchange, so it never saw the light of day).

Clothing items sewn: 2. I also sewed a couple for my Blythe and Licca-chan dolls, but I'm only counting the two dresses I made for ball-jointed dolls. I wish I had written about the process and posted proper finished photos, because I don't have them for either dress. I like one of the dresses I made, but the other was weirdly-proportioned and may need re-sewing.

Knits knitted: At least 4? I definitely finished at least 4 BJD-sized knits (of course I don't have photos) and maybe more, and I started a few others. I like them all, but knitting is my comfort zone and I've been doing it for ages, so the results are more predictable than when I sew.

Blog posts posted: 7. I posted 10 in 2024, so this isn't an improvement. I'm not too bothered about the quantity here, but I find myself wishing I had documented a few projects or doll arrivals.

Types of other dolls I started buying: 2. Early in 2025 I had a bit of a Barbie moment, and late in 2025 I had a Licca-chan moment. I'm not mad about it, but I also think I have enough of both for now. (I'll also only buy second-hand Barbies from now on, because I don't like the quality/price point of current products from Mattel, or their use of AI.)

Plans for 2026

Buy fewer than four dolls. I don't have physical/mental space for more and while the hunt for a doll remains exciting, I find I occasionally feel anxious when they arrive and I wonder if I'll have the time to do something with them.

Maybe sell some dolls or doll heads, if over 2026 I find there are some I really don't touch.

Maintenance: Get my Volks Masha and old FCS F-28 head sent in for paid exchange, because they are both banana babies. If I do this, I also need to get a new SDGrB body in pureskin white for the FCS F-28 head.

Collapse some doll boxes, especially boxes for dolls I'm really sure I don't want to ever sell. I did this as an experiment with a doll box that I don't care about, and it worked really well. This sounds like such a basic point, but it would give me back a lot of space and make me feel more organised. I might also try putting the doll box cushions in vacuum-seal bags.

Write regular blog posts. When I look back through, I'm really happy that I kept the blog going, at least for myself (I have no idea if anyone reads it; I don't have any analytics).

Document more sewing/knitting/crafting projects. In 2025 I only wrote about one knitting project. I would love to have a proper record of what I was working on, and I think it might encourage me to be a bit more organised as well.

Take more photos. A huge part of my enjoyment in this hobby is taking photos, so I should do it more often. Maybe even with props and backdrops?

Historical sewing for dolls: I've had some projects in mind for years (like an 1895 cycling suit for my SD16 Lady Oscar, or a period-accurate 1650s outfit for Robin, my SDGrB Williams, considering Volks's Oath of the Silver Coin timeline). Maybe 2026 can be the year I finally work on them?

Generally, I hope to use my time even better in 2026, spend time with each doll, work on my skills, and document all the things. Happy new year, and I hope 2026 brings good things to everyone who reads this!

Christmas 2025

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone reading this had a good day, whatever you got up to. It's a secular festival for me and my family, with presents and food and relaxation, and we managed to tick all those boxes and then some.

This year there wasn't a doll for me under the tree, but there was a new camera lens - a nifty fifty (a Canon RF f1.8 50mm, to be specific). I'd been thinking about it for ages, because while my 35mm lens is fine, I thought I would like the 50mm better for doll photography.

Hazel was my first model, and of course, I had to put her in front of the Christmas tree and stop the lens all the way down to get some nice bokeh.

Portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long auburn hair, wearing a high-necked yellow and white dress. She is in front of an out-of-focus Christmas tree.

I should also (belatedly) introduce Claudia. She's a FCS F-07 (or Nono) from earlier this year when there was a special time-limited event at Volks's Tenshi no Sato, and you could order this otherwise-unavailable head. I bought her with boyish make and put her on a DearSD body for maximum cuteness.

I put them both in red for Christmas, but I've been doing some Christmas sewing (which is obviously not finished in time for Christmas) which I hope I can finish before the end of the year.

Portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long blonde hair in ringlets and big sparkling purple eyes, wearing a red dress. She is in front of an out-of-focus Christmas tree.
Half-length portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long auburn hair, wearing a high-necked yellow and white dress with puffy sleeves. She leans against a human-sized chair, holds a hat in one hand, and is in front of a Christmas tree. Half-length portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long auburn hair, wearing a red and white dress with a large white sailor-like collar. She is sitting with her hands in her lap in front of an out-of-focus Christmas tree. Portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long blonde hair in ringlets and big purple eyes, wearing a red dress. She is looking away from the camera, to the side. Half-length portrait of a female ball-jointed doll with long blonde hair in ringlets and big purple eyes, wearing a red dress. She has one hand in front of her mouth and behind her is a Christmas tree.
Two female ball-jointed dolls sit in front of a Christmas tree. They are both wearing red dresses. The doll on the left is smaller, with long auburn hair and a wistful expression. The doll on the right is larger, with big purple eyes and long curly blonde hair.

After this one photo session, I can say I'm very happy with the new lens, and with the fact that I have Christmas photos up only slightly late.

Looking back through my posts this year, I see I've taken photos of Hazel more than any other doll. SDMs are very portable... and she's just got such a soulful expression. I keep thinking about getting another SDM, but in 2026 I would like to work on managing my collection size. I don't feel comfortable indefinitely adding new dolls, and I'm running out of space anyway.

I may do a separate post about 2026 plans, but the short version is that I want to finish all unfinished dolls (two of which involve paid exchange at Volks due to extreme yellowing) and do more sewing, knitting, and photography.

I hope everyone has lovely winter holiday period, and good wishes for the new year! May all your dreams, doll or otherwise, come true in 2026.

Dollshe Grown Bermann and faceup chatter

I always loved Dollshe Bermann, but the timing was never right to buy one - and then later, I heard that it became unwise to buy from the company due to long delivery times. There was a re-release of Bermann's sculpt with some slight changes, called Grown Bermann. I was lucky enough to find a Grown Bermann second-hand, and even luckier to find a matching body at the same time.

Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with short black hair with 90s-style bangs, thick spidery lashes and a very amateurish faceup.

I'm the world's most amateur faceup artist. Every time I do one I see glaring mistakes that seem like they should have been obvious at the time. But he has a faceup, and I finished it just before a week of rain where I can't spray the necessary sealant, so it's sort of a win?

My list of self-criticisms: the lower lashes are far too thick and there's too much dark shading on the outer edges - it's unbalanced. His mouth somehow looks smaller than when it was unpainted (too dark, maybe?). All the lines are generally messy. And are the eyebrows a tiny bit too high? I probably need to do this a few hundred more times before I get better.

Portrait photo of a male ball-jointed doll with short black hair with 90s-style bangs, thick spidery lashes and a very amateurish faceup.

The eyes are nice, but I'm not convinced by the wig, which is really low quality and sheds if you even so much as glance at it. I'm actually second-guessing if he should have black hair, but that would really need a faceup change unless we imagine that he's wearing mascara. Maybe he is. Maybe he's going for a Brian Molko look from the 90s.

I've been finding it hard to find space and time for doll things, lately. And it's so, so, SO much easier to fall into easy consumerism, especially if you have to hunt something down, which makes it even more exciting when you find it, and then you have to wait for the parcel, following the tracking (tiny dopamine bursts all the way when it updates) and finally the item arrives and... you do nothing with it because you're tired.

I think I am at or reaching doll capacity, so I need to train myself back into the habit of doing all the other things I enjoy about the hobby (really, buying dolls is the smallest part of it, but it became the thing I do most). So while this faceup isn't exactly what I envisioned, I still finished it, and I am really pleased about that. (I even put in eyelashes, which is actually the worst thing ever.) He has a face. I took photos. And I'm knitting him a jumper.

(Does he have a name? Of course not.)