Los Angeles Dolpa Thread (Nov. 24 & 25th)

I had fun browsing through Dolpa as a "Boyfriend dragged along." The President guy is definitely a character. I was impressed that he was impressed with the guns I was packing for the dolls and that he could correctly identify most of them.

And then I ended up buying my first doll there.

 

So who did you get?

 

Exactly us! My sister and I were giggling about that right now I went to your page, luv him - you must put up some photo stories if you get a chance! Daeron has a secret brother....Ramaluceriön - he creeps out the guests at our halloween parties occassionally. Lady Diamond will post pics of him...

 

Lol, welcome to the 'our world'.

 

I picked up a Yo Kuuta. Didn't get the clothing set though.

 

Woot! You have drunk the Dollie Kool-Aid!!!! It's all over now!! Who did you get?

 

LOL. I picked up my SECOND Kuuta. He's THAT cute. Now I have twin brother, Christopher, and Nikki. The Yo's are a one way trip to Cute Hell. Be warned. I have Rengemaru, Kuuta x 2, Shinn, Yuki, and Sweet Dream Piccolo. I don't know how I managed to resist Ayumu, and Popo.

 

I can't wait to see those pictures... I have posted a photo story or two... Let me find the links...

First Photo Story with old, horrible Volks Faceup.

When the Boys get new bunk beds. The boys being Daeron's sons, Lucien, and Marzo.

Daeron is a Pacific Coast Forest Elf. He's about a thousand years old, likes Tropical Drinks, nice clothes, watching sunsets, and rain.

 

XD I can't believe Dolpa is over ;____;!!!!!! it was so much fun!!! [especially the faceup workshop ;___;!!!]

 

I want to thank all of you for sharing all the Dolpa fun and excitement here.
I had planned to go to Dolpa too, but some family health developments caused me to let it go for this year. I hope to go someday though.

Love the photos and stories!!! I'd love to see faceup class results too. Congrats to all of you who got to attend!!!

 

who is the finisher for Anais? she's too stunning

 

I reached my home now.
Thank you very much to all of wonderful people
It was indeed wonderful time. I'm very glad to meet all of you!!!!!

I'm fine!

*Love*
ria_ria

 

:: hugs out to Ria_Ria!!! :: I do hope we get to see you in Japan next year!!!

As for consignment items, I managed to be one of the first there. I was only paying attention to the boy items, of which I saw 4 Junky Monkey outfits, 2 Pure Drop outfits, 2 Villiage Pine outfits before the horde closed in (there were more, but I missed them). I snatched up 1 Pure Drop and 2 Junky Monkeys (swooned at how much money I was spending) and stepped back.

I'll post up pics in a few minutes of the 2 combined Junky Monkey outfits on my boy (so amazing!!!). Brighnasa got the other Pure Drop, and I'm pretty sure that there will be tons of photos floating around of her Moroq Reisner looking drop-dead gorgeous in it.

 

Very happy to know you are safely home, dear friend.

 

Could someone please please please post a photo of the one off Anais? I would be so grateful!

(oops...sorry. Just found the photo thread!)

 

Dittos!
Did they happen to mention any plans fo ranother Dolpa here in the States?

 

I definitely think that there will be another Dolpa here in the states if not more! At least the way Mr. Shigeta talked during the dinner seemed to suggested that.

 

Oh yes. There must be more. Hopefully far enough away from our wedding to attend!

No more one-off tries though! I'm done there, I think. Perhaps FCS instead if the budget allows!

 

LOL FCS is addictive--once you start, you'll have so many ideas it's crazy For whoever asked about some of the consignment items, here's a shot of my Raven in his Junkie Monkey outfit:



And Brighnasa's Fox in his Pure Drop:

 

If they decide to have the Dolpa in LA again, I sure hope we can choose Sato heads. It would be like a dream come true!

 

Lady Samhainne: I realize I saw that second doll on Sunday in that outfit. Didn't realize it was pure drop, then again, I am still very lacking in knowledge of the various popular vendors.

 

Ohh, you have a Dark Michael! He is so lovely. I think he's worth all that trouble, definitely I got to see Christy's in person and he was really beautiful.

Haha the "old" comment! Mr. Shigeta is so cheerful and jovial - he's really funny!

It was good to see you at the party, Alex. I only wish I got a shot of my boy with whoever you brought to the party! (By the way, that is not my Kai in my avatar, but my Sasha, Isis. And yes, I will keep my promise to you!)

 

We had a great time at the Dolpa. It was wonderful to meet all the DoA personalities in person.

My daughter and I were lucky enough to win the one-off Anais. I say both because her name was called, but my credit card paid . We agreed to joint custody. She has a beautiful face up by Aone. She also has double lashes. I've never seen that done before, but on Anais at least, it's fantastic.







And also a photo of the dreaming school A that I used during the painting class. He was intended to be just practice, but my daughter fell in love with his face, so here he stays.



looking very spiffy in his sailor suit


and look ma, I can almost touch my toes!

 

WOW!! I love your School Head A's faceup. Was that your first time?

 

I remember some of your dolls!!
I was bought my sweet dream nana & two boys.



Is anybody remember me?

 

@Arie Joo: I remember seeing your SwD Nana. I thought her dress looked splendid!

 

Julia - congrats on winning a one-of! She's gorgeous! Your school-A came out really, really well too! :-)

I had so much fun at the NY Dolpa that I wish I had been able to be at the LA one too - you all sound like you had so much fun! :-)

 

Julia! I am really overjoyed for you and your daughter. Anais is so special, and yours is beautiful. A rich and amazing faceup!

 

Julia congras on winning that Anais. That was the one I was admiring the most from the previously posted photos. The double lashes are indeed lovely on her

 

I remember your lovely boy and his Heisejinyao uniform! My Tony was wearing the same uniform that night. (He had straight blonde hair, & didn't have the hat on.) He was mortified to show up at a party when someone else was wearing the same uniform, but I thought it was wonderful. XD I will post my pictures on the photo-thread later once I upload them.

Julia, congrats to you and Alyssa! I loved the Punk Rock Las Vegas outfit on that Anais. And your new sailor boy looks adorable with freckles.

 

Not my first time, no. I've always had problems with the lower lashes though and wanted to get instructions on how to do them better. He turned out pretty well and now I'm ready to re-do the rest of my dolls.

Alyssa and I were both thrilled to have won Anais. Although we've gone to almost all of the Volks LA events, this is the first time we've won anything

 

Congratulations! Anais is soooooooooo wonderful! Thanks for the close up too, my camera couldn't get good pics of her ^^

 

Congrats on the Anais, Julia! She was my favorite (I had to put in for her, but I was pretty glad I didn't win, as my budget couldn't really handle it.) And I remember Micky and president Shigeta talking about the freckles on your boy

 

I only recognize Pure Drop because I won one of her/his/their outfits on a one-off last year. They do some AMAZING work with this soft plastic-y material to make armor. Other than Pure Drop, I'd likely only recognize Jaggerstone Chic and Soijimomo if I saw them. The rest are lost on me. (Which is a shame, because otherwise I could shop for them on Y!J!)

 

LOL...Mikey was giving instruction at our face-up table. Alyssa asked her why Volks hadn't yet offered any dolls with freckles. Mikey said she wasn't sure that the Japanese audience would appreciate freckles, but that it was a good idea and perhaps they would release a freckled doll to the American fans in the future and perhaps they would call her Alyssa. Lyssa responded that she liked the idea that Volks might release freckled dolls in the future, but said she would be just as happy if the doll was named something else .

 

Ria! I had such a good time meeting you! I am so happy and lucky that I was able to spend so much time with you! I hope you come back someday to visit and I fell in love with your little boy good to know you are home safe!

I had a blast! my only complaint is that I did not get to meet so many people that I had wanted to! congrats to all of the winners of the one-offs, that was exciting and there were so many beautiful dolls to be had!

 

My feelings exactly. I am sure that I was within chatter-distance of SO many people. However, I suffer a nasty case of social space-cadet syndrome...I can get very airheaded when I'm in a room with a lot of people I know at once, and it's very hard to keep track of everyone. I feel bad when I've missed a person that may have wanted to say hi or wanted me to say hello to them because I'm either talking to someone else or distracted in some wacky way. It's happened in the past, and I always feel bad for it.

But I think, all in all, everyone here I at least saw at a distance or saw their dolls. So here is a box of "HI! Hey!" Ohlookithepretty" to make up for any I missed

*slides over shiny box!*


By the way..I REALLY want to do a thank you card to the Shigetas and the Store for the Dolpa. I'm wondering if we could send both to the Torrance store and perhaps they may forward? I also thought Aimee posted a while back a Japanese address....

 

I can't believe that my body decided to catch a stupid cold just before the weekend and that I lost my voice on Sunday. Still, I managed to have a great time, mostly because of all the wonderful people I got to see and meet there! The Shigetas were as nice and kind as always. It was so amazing to finally meet sweet ria_ria -- I actually started crying when she finally found me on Sunday. Gothiclibrarian is just as adorable and nice in person as I expected and it was great to meet her. It was wonderful to see my sweet friend, sunflowerdolly, again and I can't thank her enough for putting up with me as a roommate and watching my table for me on Sunday. Actually, there are so many people that I was happy to see that I could be listing all day, so I'll just send all of you big *hugs*!

Congratulations to everyone who won something!!! I really thought that this would be my turn to bring home a little tenshi, but it was not to be. I picture myself as a little, old lady someday at the 40th LA Dolpa finally having my number called, hobbling up to the podium, getting my tenshi and dropping dead on the spot.

Huge thanks to everyone who bought something from my booth on Sunday! There were so many gorgeous things at the all the vendors booths and I hope that everyone did really well. I managed to earn enough to cover my trip and have a little extra left over to bring home an A&P outfit for my sweet Jun (Kikyou). He looks so adorable in it -- must post pics soon.

The makeup class was fantastic and I felt so lucky to have Mikey and Saifa as our teachers! I learned so much and was amazed that in just two hours, I managed to do a halfway decent faceup. I'm still going to redo it, but I learned so many useful techniques -- especially the ones for removing boo-boos -- that I'll be able to practice at home.

Thank you again to everyone who came up to talk to me and put up with my croaky voice! I can't wait until next year and hopefully won't have the plague again!

 

Julia what kind of eyes does your Anais have? The colour is gorgeous.

 

Ooh, I hope this is true! Also I would love to see a MSD Toppi one-off with freckles by Mikey. That'll would be awesome.

 

Ooh! Me too! I wanna thank the Shigetas, the store and the SD Doctors. Without the Dolpa, Melody would have never been fixed. She looks much happier since then.

 

It was very nice to meet you too ria_ria!
I already can't wait for the next LA Dolpa!

 

Nikki - I always enjoy seeing you at the L.A. parties! You're one of the nicest people there and always have a beautiful boy or girl to show me! I didnt bring a carry-around bjd this time, as I took down 3 for the customization contest and the maintenance class, and had to have room for any, ahem, more that I might bring back home
And hey, didnt YOU bring back a little cutie??!!?? ( You're sooooo lucky!!!! )
And was it my imagination, or were the Shigetas even more ACCOMODATING and GENEROUS than usual???? Alex

I didn't bring a camera to the dolpa so I didnt get a shot of your new YJ one-off boy!!!! Hes a good looking guy too, so bright-eyed!

 

Was so wonderful to finally meet you in person.. You are as elegant and kind in person as on the boards!

This was such a wonderful and special event, not only due to the kindness of Volks with their many many wonderful presents, but to see all the people in this hobby once again.. Can't wait til the next event!

 

I'm so glad you had a wonderful time, ria_ria!!! I was praying that you would. Maybe next year we can meet too! *big hugs!*

I'm so happy that everyone had so much fun! Maybe at the next NY Dolpa I'll get lucky and win a Sei/Rei Tenshi too!! *prays very hard*

 

Oh! Does anyone know what other changes were made to the FCS? I know they added two more heads and welcoming dress, but the website made it sound as if there was more. Anyone know?

 

Aww, thank you very much, Lady Samhainne I'm very happy I could talk with you! I asked your name twice, I'm sorry ^^; but I remember you well now :-D Congratulations on getting Pure Drop outfit >w< :Hugs* Brighnasa's Reisner was incredibly beautiful!!!


Merangel, thank you very much! I'm glad I could talk with you by phone ^_____^ Thank you very much for sending such a gorgeous flower to my room!!!!!




Julia, thank you very much for spending wonderful time with me :-D I'm very happy I could meet you in person! Congratulations on your beautiful One-Off Anais >w< You did a great job on your sweet dream A!!


Arie Joo, I know your doll! I was in the line for limited items and took your dolls photo nearby The one with black tops with black jeans was me. (Can you recall? ^^ Thank you very much for sharing your beauties :-D


SDink, thank you very much for spending wonderful time with me :-D The lunch with you was so fun!!! You are beautiful and elegant >w< I was quite happy to meet your Harley, yaaaay!! ^o^


SaiBySai, oh, you are the winner of One-Off Williams?! Then I know you! Why couldn't I talk with you? T__T Congrautlations on your beautiful Williams!!!!!


Kellyhime, I was so happy I could meet and hug you!!!!! Thank you very much ToT It really was wonderful to meet you in person. I send you many hugs again. *Hugs* ^///^


Onihime., thank you very much!! :-D It was very nice to meet you and talk with you~ It means a lot for me to be able to attend this Dolpa and come back my home!


Rolopuppet and Gina! Thank you very very much for taking care of me with your big love!!!!! You both are wonderful. I'm very lucky to have you as friends. Thank you very much for spending wonderful time with me


Anavel, thank you very much for lovely gifts (choco boxes and lovely candies) for my children They were SO excited and pleased with your gift!!!!! And you were unbelievably kind to me. Thank you very much for taking me to a great Chinise restaurant and treating me to dinner
Izam (we went to the restaurant together), thank you very much for everything I was very very glad I could meet you and could spend fun time with you


Sandie and Lyn, thank you very much for your kindness My children were VERY excited and pleased with your gifts!!!!! They are playing with them now in fact! *Many hugs*



Cammy, thank you very much It means a lot as you know well! Please visit my LJ days later. I'll report this Dolpa!

 

Thank you dear!

It was actually my fiance' that they drew (the very tall fellow that I think startled Mr. Shigeta a bit), but yes, the sparkly-dressed redhead that chased him to the table with her credit card was me

I'm sure that we'll try to catch you at another event

 

That was you? I think between Williams and your fiance, you're a very lucky girl! He's very handsome!

Congratulations on your amazing luck at the dinner. ^_^

 

Oh! I did misunderstand! "you = that handsome man"! ^o^
I agree with Kimber Rose Your fiance looked like a prince I wish I can have next chance to talk with you in USA or in Japan!

 

The whole event was so much fun, but way too short! I was delerious from lack of sleep the entire time, so I know I didn't connect names to faces very well. Thank you to everyone who stopped by the orangebabydolly table to say hello!
The Saturday dinner was surprisingly delicious and the sheer number of prizes was shockingly generous. Our table had the good juju apparently; I won a pair of Volks pattern books, idrisfynn and strangeangels each won a Sei Tenshi, JennyNemesis and Kiyakotari each won a Rei Tenshi and Alyssa (and Julia) won the Anais one-off. I think it's because naranjita asked Kallisti to lick her lottery number for luck.
Once we'd packed up the vendor's table on Sunday I managed to eavesdrop on Ciera teaching a painting class for a few minutes and I learned a lot just from that! Next time I'm definitely signing up for one. And Ciera was the cutest ever.

 

Had a fantastic time meeting so many DofA members and people who buy Volks dolls from us at Kerbey Lane. So much thanks to Mr Shigeta,his daughters, son, and helpers. The faceup artists were all wonderful and so much fun.
Was such a treat to meet Ria Ria in person, she is absolutely adorable and sweet as can be. Glad you made it home fine Ria Ria. I was the one in Gina's room and we spoke several times. I won the Re-Tenshi sleeping angel that you took a picture of.
So nice to finally meet and chat with Julia and her cutie patootie daugher Alyssa.
My Dolpha memories will last with me for the rest of my life. Thanks to all!!

 

I had a wonderful time as well. I finally won a Sei Tenshi this year . I'm glad I met so many wonderful people. I hope to see everyone next year as well. This was a wonderful experience, full of memories.

 

Ria Ria, it was so much fun to meet you in person. I loved seeing your L, he was so cute! Thanks for bringing him while we were all waiting in line Sunday morning.

It was the best thing to see so many friends from Austin BJDC and past Dollpas. I hope I can see you guys more next time. Thanks especially to Karen for rescuing me a couple of times, lol.

 

You both are so sweet! I think he blushed a bit when I told him your sentiments. He's very flattered Gee, -I'M- blushing, for that matter!

 

Thank you ria_ria! It is indeed very special to get to meet you in person this weekend! You came all this way to attend this special event and I am happy you went back home with many good memories! ^__^

Here are 2 group pictures of my boys with your boy during dinner. I will show you.... Your boy was indeed even cuter in person!




I will PM you our own group picture in private later. Please come back to visit again very soon!

 

I didn't win anything in the Customization Contest this time, I didn't put in for a one-off (I've already won one--at the second LA Mansion Tea Party, luckily!), and didn't win anything in the lottery (oh, well!), but was happy with my little gift at the end of the night: a nice dark-metal necklace with multi-colored jewels. Here's my Cyndy2 wearing it--


I didn't arrive very early on Sunday, so most of the limited outfits were gone by the time I got into the Volks booth. It was a nice orderly line to get in, though! No running or pushing!

I did get a kimono for my girl (someone threw it back on the table!). And there was just so many lovely things to buy from the US vendor tables. I wish my budget was larger (like everyone else, I'm sure!). I bought two cute Yo-sized renfaire outfits by clochette at her and dollovely's booth, some lovely green eyes from Ginarolo's booth, a sword with leather sheath and sandals from sunara, a lovely lace cheungsam from asnbutterfly, a garnet ring from orangebabydolly... I've wanted an AppleAvenue coat for years, but sadly had to refrain from buying (too poor at the time!)--same went for kellyhime's lovely dresses ... other vendors, like Oriental Boutique, I've already bought an outfit of kimono/hakama/haori from on ebay... Here's some of my booty--


I took one of the makeup classes--the 5:30 one with Saifa, translated by Mikey. It was great--although my painted head sucked! But I'm confident that I can do better if I try again.

I wish I'd actually met and talked with more of you. I tend to want to hide in crowds (they make me nervous!), so I didn't go out and look for people. It may have helped if we all had convention-like badges with user-IDs and real names in big letters! As it was, I am terrible at remembering names and faces.

But it was a wonderful time! I was exhausted afterwards!!!

 

Aw, it's always a pleasure to see you, Alex! Perhaps next year we'll see each other at a NY Dolpa if I can make it ^^

Yes, I did bring back a little angel with me! I've named her Winslow. Here's the little sweetheart:



And my "lucky charm", Harper:



The Shigetas' generosity increase with every Volks event I attend it seems. I feel so lucky to have gone to some of them!

Congratulations on the Kun, Alex!! Please introduce her to us soon. She is the cutest SD standard IMO.

 

I was so happy to be able to go t his weekend. things have been super busy and stressful for me lately, so it was really nice to have such a great two-day party, as it was...

those of you who said hi or talked to me, thanks so much for being so sweet. Everyone is so friggin nice!!
I can't believe I finally got to meet gothiclibrarian and ria-ria, FINALLY!!
I was sitting next to ria ria early early on Sunday morning while waiting for VOLKS to open and I didn't even know it was her. she figured it out and then we were able to talk while we waited the hours for VOLKS to open! what a nice surprise!

I feel so spoiled that VOLKS brought SO MANY awesome people to this dollpa.... I mean Mr Enku, all the faceup artists (yeay! Valico, Saifa, Ciera... Mikey... so many!!!) XD I got double hugged by Ciera!
it was like the whole VOLKS family was there. I wonder if they had enough staff to run the VOLKS stores in Japan that weekend?
only sadly Mrs. Shigeta wasn't well enough to attend. she is so sweet. I hope she will be ok.

taking the makeup class with VALICO... she is so adorable. She taught us so many things in the 2 short hours she had, I couldnt believe it. even how to use pearl powder. I went into the class thinking that I was just going to "do it" because I'd said I always wanted to. But I hadn't painted a faceup for YEARS. I didnt really WANT to paint faceups anymore. I even gave away or threw away all my paints and gear.
but after the class I was so inspired by what she showed us that I want to go out and get some paints and try again. (just for fun of course)

I'm so tired right now, I want to gush about all the sweet things that happened... but all I can say is that it was wonderful, unforgetable... and I'm so grateful. I hope Volks continues to have events like these all over.

I can't get over how generous and genuine they are.

my friend char was really sick this weekend, and she's had a hard month, too... and when her number got called and she won a rei-tenshi, I almost started crying! It's so cute, too. little sleeping baby with pink wings... so tiny! I'm glad to finally see them in person too, after hearing about them through Sarah (rest in peace... ) It was nice that they brought up Sarah again and are keeping on with the Make a Wish foundation. (double the final charity doll bid!)

and looking forward to the next slew of cute corny jokes from Mr. Shigeta!

I know if you send thankyou cards to VOLKS USA, they will forward them. Kagi-san and Kuni-san (and all the VOLKS usa staff) had a big part in planning the dolpa too, and they work there. I know they've scanned stuff or forwarded to JAPAN before.