Kung Hei Fat Choy

Happy Lunar New Year!  Kung Hei Fat Choy is the way you greet someone on Chinese New Year in Cantonese, Gong Xi Fa Cai in Mandarin.  Yay learning!  I wish all of you prosperity and abundance in the coming year.  It's the year of the monkey!

How auspicious to have a new doll to share with you on this festive day!  It's very appropriate because she did travel from Hong Kong to be with us tonight!  Her face sculpt is distinctively Asian, and as an Aisan-American, I appreciate this nod to my heritage.  I hope you like these photos of her.

 I've never been a collector to have a grail doll in mind.  However, this one comes very close to a grail. I've been a fan of the doll's creator since her blogging days, she started her blog one year before I started this one.  She was a building a Fashion Royalty dollhouse.  She may be part of the reason I thought it was even possible to do such a thing LOL.  When she released her very own fashion doll, I wanted one, but I quickly squashed the thought.  At the time the price was unimaginable and I wasn't working with that scale.  So, I let it go...

 Last Christmas, when I fell hard for another artist's doll, I knew I wanted a partner in crime for him.  (Asher of New England is getting a second wave ready for market right now by the way!)  I immediately thought of Inamorata.  If you look through my blog, you'll find that all of my dolls have a partner in crime!

 Long story even longer... I contacted Emliacouture and now I have Chiharu, that's the name Emliacouture gave her.  I'll call her Melody Chiharu, or just Mel.  Her name can mean "song of a thousand springs."

She is an Inamorata from Emliacouture.  She is wearing an Inamorata fashion called Vertebrata.  Her face sculpt is  Miao, and her body and skin tone are from the first wave of the brand.  They were first released in 2012.  Emliacouture releases a Limited Edition (LE) batch every so often, but one can also purchase an OOAK from her.  When you do so, you get to specify the attributes for the face-up.  It's really a fun experience.  I was lucky enough to get one of her last two Miao in peach skin tone.  Check out the creators photos of this doll here, they put mine to shame, but I try.