The Basco lighthouse was the closest to the small town of Basco, Batanes’ capital. On the ground you have a spectacular view of the sea and the rugged land, while from the top of the lighthouse, you see the town sprawled below.

This is Sayuri at one of the first places we visited in Batan Island, Batanes. Me, along with my favorite travel buddies went to the Philippine’s northernmost province last November 8 - 11, 2008.

Blu Tack is the original reusable adhesive. The unique formula makes Bu Tack distinct from all the imitations that have attempted to challenge its market dominance. Blu Tack offers a clean, safe and a simple alternative to tapes and pins. The product was discovered in England during the development of a Bostik industrial adhesive. Blu Tack was originally white during the concept stage, but fears raised in consumer research about the new tack being mistaken by children for sweets that led to the tack becoming blue.

Source: Blu Tack Website

I find Pullips especially hard to pose standing up with their oversized heads. Even with the sturdier Obitsu bodies, posing is still a tricky affair, involving several minutes of positioning and re-positioning joints and body parts. Tina kept on sliding on her chair, and though she probably wouldn’t mind, I don’t want her exposing more skin than she has to, so I made her sit on a small lump of Blu Tack. Sigrid, on the otherhand, can stand for a couple of minutes, but would topple over at the slightest provocation. Some Blu Tack placed at the soles of her shoes solved the problem.

The chair and the pose is so perfectly Tina. I love how her smile seems to be so innocent and sweet, yet her eyes betrays her with its mischievous gleam. This chair, which looks like the mutant son of Arne Jacobsen’s Ant Chair and Series 7 Chair, is a perfect fit for 1:6 scale dolls. Unlike its Danish modern counterpart, these chairs comes in a very affordable price tag: Php 88 each from Clipper!

I definitely on the wrong angle with Sigrid here. Her bang and the shadow cast by it obscured parts of her eyes, making it look like a lifeless black pool. You can somewhat see the whites of her eyes if you squint hard enough, but on first sight, it looks as if her eye socket is empty!

Tina is wearing a wine-colored 9″-10″ 53a wig

Still, I wanted Tina to have long hair. Since I was buying from Cancan’s eBay store, my choices were limited. Of the wigs listed, this one appealed to me most, particularly because of its color. The 53a J-series wig only featured BJDs in its sample page, so I only had a vague idea how long the wig is. I knew it’d be too long for Tina, but I didn’t expect it to be this long!

I’m still undecided what to do with her hair. I initially thought of having it trimmed, but my sister said not to cut it anymore, since it’s unlikely Tina would be tripping over it when she walks. Oh geez I certainly hope she wouldn’t be walking on her own!

Sigrid is wearing a red & black r59a size 8″-9″ wig

Obviously, I loved the red and black combination. The colors of the J-series r59a wig from Cancan suited her pale skin so well. As for her personality? Maybe. Yup, after four months, I still haven’t fully discovered Sigrid’s personality. Maybe her true personality will come out with this new look?

Sigrid (RIDa) and Tina (Nina) are both sporting J-series wigs from Cancan. As a first time wig buyer, I have a million questions — which size should I buy? Does the wig really look like the one in the picture? Would the hair be soft, would it be manageable? Good thing there’s Kaoko to answer all my questions.

In their website, Cancan says their wigs are on pre-order basis, which means the wigs won’t be available ASAP. You can, however, buy from their eBay store, which has a limited stock offering. Since I couldn’t wait, I opted to buy from their eBay store. Cancan was on vacation when I ordered, so there was a bit of a wait until she got back to get my orders processed and shipped. It took about three days after she got back from her holiday to ship my package, and it took about two weeks for it to arrive.

The wigs were well worth the wait. The hair were so soft — so much so that I find myself longing that my hair was as good as theirs!

Of course, this means positioning the Pinky closer to the open area of the house, where there is more light. Great thing about this, of course, is that they’d look as if the room is the perfect scale for them! At 1:12, the room is comfortable for the Pinky’s height, but it still looks rather odd, specially when placed near household fixtures.

However, if you’re just shooting outside the house (using it as a backdrop) or inside the rooms, this is actually pretty nice.

One thing I noticed about Melissa & Doug toys though, is that their doll houses have different scales. I saw this doll house that certainly wasn’t 1:12, and there was another that looked as if it’s 1:16 or even 1:18. Eitherway, Melissa & Doug is another brand to watch out for Pinky-scale doll houses and furnitures.