Caption Competition Winner(s)!

Thanks to everyone who entered; we had a good laugh judging the entries!

Typically, we couldn't pick one we both liked best, so two lucky people will be winning a THING...

Duckie's Favourite by AtomicBlythe

Elin:: "Eh, err, whadidyousay?"
Plum:: "I said, "In 26 spacetime dimensions, these extra unphysical states wind up disappearing from the spectrum. Therefore. Bosonic string quantum mechanics is only consistent if the dimension of spacetime is 26."
Elin *rolling eyes*:: "Oh, right, then."

Fil's Favourite by Sioux (which I nearly disqualified for being such a dreadful pun...)

Elin: What do you mean they've only been calling you Four Eyes for 3 days?Plum: Well, from what I've heard, they've been making fun of you for 2 wigs!

Well done guys! If you can drop me your addresses to duckiemonsterSPLATgmail.com, I'll get your things sorted and in the post as soon as possible :)

Caption Competition

Competition now closed, thank you!
Winners will be announced at 20:00 on 03/03/13... ooooooooooooooh!

Okay, okay... so no videos today. But d'you want to win... a THING*?

Then all you need to do is drop a comment with a caption for this photo! It can be a conversation between the two girls, a random statement, whatever you like.

Plum is on the left. Elin is on the right. 

Best caption will be chosen by myself and the lovely Fiiiiil this Saturday evening (2nd of March), possibly with the aid of Plink, Melchie and any other Makies who are wandering in the general area. Entries need to be posted on the BLOG by 20:00 GMT so's we can have a good read and decide.

Get creative!

*the THING will likely be something for your doll, either an item of clothing or a fun accessory. Please state in the comments if you're a Makie or a Blythe collector, so's I can choose/make your thing... and of course, leave a bit of time for me to get the thing made and posted!

More birdies, hoorah

It was a great weekend for birdwatching last weekend. We had all the usual visitors but with a lovely snowy backdrop, a couple of ones who visit only rarely (long-tailed tits, goldfinch) and then I happened to look out my kitchen window and see six of these hopping around in the leaves along the side of the driveway.

I had no idea what they were at first, but their behaviour was a lot like a blackbird or thrush foraging for insects.

Happily, the BTO guide to garden birds is arranged for duffers like me to be able to find things quickly; I was being visited by six redwings, which are a rather rare type of thrush that visit this country in winter. The snow had driven them out of the fields and onto my driveway in search of food.

Our resident blackbird, who has been known to dive-bomb us when we get out of our cars in breeding season, saw them off fairly sharpish. I caught glimpses of them amongst the trees later in the day, but not anything as good as all six, rummaging in the leaves.

This weekend coming, I'll be setting an hour aside to take part in my 3rd Big Garden Birdwatch. Sign your garden up here!

Plinkography: Snowmageddon!

Hulloes!

Plink here, with some more tip-top Plinkography for you.

Apart from enjoying the bracing weather, Friday provided a great opportunity to watch some of the wildlife in the garden in the snow.

One stupid dove... ah ha ha... 

TWO stupid doves... ah ha ha... 

Would've been nice of it to turn around... 

Pirate the Cat. He's not keen on snow. 

Very soggy squirrel

Posing Robin

Hope you had fun in the snow too! Back soon with more Plinkography!

Moo!

Here at Makie Couture, we're a big supporter of Silicone Roundabout businesses, and we've been fans of Moo ever since they printed our first cute Moo cards for swapping over pints at Oxford flickr meets (*takes a moment for some nostalgia*)

The Accursed Frame of Moo, which is on my hallway wall.
2008, representin'

Of course, we had to get some up-to-date Makie Couture business cards sorted for the Makie meet...

Classy!

...and some fun stickers!

TINY HATS!

The sticker books are great value, and with reasonable P&P and a pretty swift and speedy service, you can't go wrong. Of course, you can go even less wrong if you clicky this linky here, because you'll get 10% off of your first order*.


*and I get some Moo points towards my next purchase. But hey, I bring you all this entertainment for free, so it's worth it, right?! 

Fuzzy Grey Combo

We're going all Autumnal here at the Welsh Institute for Makie Sciences today. Whilst I'm indulging in a bit of nesting (soup, home made bread, gentle housework pootling, cups of tea and making up fresh beds), Plink decided it's time to show off her fuzzy grey combo set.

Light's not bad at this time of year. 

Melchett's not a bad photographer, I have to say.

O hai!

Oh, now that's just cheesy.

Don't fall off, Plink!

Plinkography; the Bugs and Beasties Edition

Hullo! And welcome to some more Plinkography!

Intrepid Plinkographer strikes again!

Last week, I left Melchett cleaning up after the giant squid and took a wander around my local nature reserve with my shiny new macro lens... amazing!

Bzzzzzzzzzt.... mmm, tasty flowers... 

Blue, flappy, skinny.

Like a landed helicopter.

This dude was nomming on a fly.

Ahahaha, he's got his MILLION EYES ON ME.

More Plinkography soon!

On the subject of face-ups.

In vanishing rapidly down the portal known as 'doll collecting' (which is, incidentally, not something I intend on doing. A couple of Makies is plenty!), I've noticed that as is always the case with something creative, the owners of the items just can't keep their hands off of 'em.

I have to say, I'm absolutely in awe of some of the work out there. A quick shuffle through the 'Blythe custom' group on Flickr and you can find examples of superb work from around the world.

There are eyelids with dainty paintings, piercings galore, a whole host of vampires and these gorgeous calavera designs.

M Calavera, by Kittytoes with kind permission.
Click the photo to check out her flickr, it's epic!

Of course, we can't leave Makie too far behind, so I was completely delighted to find that the community has attracted a supremely talented artist on board, Sioux.

Mushroom, Sioux's Makie, helping out with the design process.

Apparently this isn't her best work and just a trial run, but look how delicately this enhances the features. The brush work around the eyes is astonishing.

The eyes! The lashes! The lips! THE HAT!

*faints*

From Makie to MAGIC

Sioux, you can come and do your 'not best work' for me any day of the week!

All photos in this post by Sioux, reproduced with permission. Go to her flickr and tell her how awesome she is. 

Plinkography: Wildlife Edition 2

"Hulloes!

Hullo!

Well, the human is completely zoned out on anti-histamines*, so I stole her 70-300mm lens and went outside to track some hedgehogs!

Here's one:

Spiky

Hrum. Hedgehogs are tricksy, and it would appear that most of my photos are blurry. I know! I'll do what the human does with mediocre photos and turn them black and white!

Blurry?

Bang and the blur is gone!

Schnurfly!

Oooh, classy.

Spiny!

Hey! This next one is in focus! We'll leave it in colour!

Spectacular!

If you're a fan of hedgehogs, check out the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, who do cracking work in the areas of hedgehog welfare and research. They also sell fantastically cool hedgehog-themed merchandise. Woo, hedgehogs!"

*I have, at last count, 18 separate mosquito bites on my body, ranging from places ordinary (stomach, calf) to completely unmentionable (unmentionable) to utterly weird (back of ankle, right thumb). Chlorphenamine and I  do not get on well, I'm currently having difficulty both focussing my eyes and not falling asleep. Ahahahahahahaaaaaaaa... this Blog post is brought to you by modern pharmaceuticals and the letters 'z, o, n, k, e and d". It's quite frankly a miracle I got to the end of it.

Shoes and coffee...

...two things that make girls tick*, and it would appear that Makies are no different. Prof Plink has spent her Saturday morning trying on new shoes, fresh off of the plane from Hong Kong and stopping for a tasty caffeine-laden beverage.

Pink DMs and black converse! Woo!

Mmm coffee... yes, that is a tiny creamer and a tiny tiny packet of sugar. Whee!

I'm impressed with the Re-ment miniatures sets. Mine came from Amazon, ordered last week and arrived from Hong Kong today (surprisingly speedy, all things considered). They're a good scale for Makies and the detail is superb. The only slight snag is that they're sold blind-boxed, so you don't know what kit you're going to end up with (this is why I now have a washing-up set sat downstairs), but there are plenty of open sets available on the bay of E for your delight and perusal.

Not entirely sure what happens if you mix Makies with caffeine. Shall be finding out shortly, no doubt.

*yes, this girl too.

Prof Plink

Today, there has been a lot of dressmaking for me. This afternoon, however, there was a short outbreak of SCIENCE, precipitated by the arrival of my nerd glasses and Makie bits.

Staring wistfully into the middle distance, Professor Plink ponders
the exact wording of her Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

The project is cooking right now, but we'll bring you results hot off of the lab bench as and when they happen... assuming things don't get all explodey first. Always a risk with Makies.

A sneaky peak...

Yup... stare into the distance... no. Don't pull a f ace... 

New outfit unveiled tomorrow, but here's a beauty shot to tide you over.