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Wow, where to even start???? I had really great time, and saw a lot of people, most who knew me from where I don't know... (If I looked blank when you said hi, it was just me trying to figure out - uhm... do I know this person's name? and where do they know me from).
Saturday, November 19th, 2005
I got a late start on Saturday leaving San Diego (family brunch), but made excellent time (traffic was flowing, or should I say, speeding?). I hit the mansion for tea party exactly on time. Parking was fine (wide street), so no problem. God, what a beautiful place (and I forgot to take a picture of the outside!), huge, on a hillside, with a VIEW of the ocean!!!!!!!!! (again, needed a picture, were talking MONEY view!). Not much of a line getting in, greeted at the door by the president of Volks (wow), got a sticky badge, info letter, and one-off tickets, shook hands, and inside the doors into a marble floor, flowers leaves everywhere. I ogled the one-offs, all posed on stands decorated all over with leaves (the plastic vines), with numbers, pictures and prices with each one. Then I went to find my friends![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mercy_asakura wolfemeister and Tom & Bill, to find out they got there way early (1 pm) since they lived in LA, and got let in early! JEALOUS!
Setting Sora (my SD13 Jun) out on the table they were at on the back patio around the pool, I then wandered around. Inside the kitchen was the massive Buffet. Here I thought, tea-party, they might have cheese and crackers. They definitely went ALL out. Not only wine (besides water and soft drinks), but several chilled salads - noodle & veggie dish, fruit, rice & veggie dish, grilled salmon (YUM!!), brownies, crackers, two kinds of soft cheese, rolls, cookies, strawberries, nuts. A LOT of good food. The next room over had the dolls available on Sunday at the store (more than I was expecting really), again, set up on stands or on furniture, arranged with leaves around them, and an 8x10 with their photo, name and price. A reading area was in the center of this room with various magazines and books on SD's. I also found in the back room, a guy who was fixing and restringing dolls, for free! He was quick, professional, and had a waiting line!
After we were there for a bit, the president greeted us (translated at first), then read a section on his own in English, about how glad he was we came, telling us what would be happening and when, and to enjoy the party.
More mingling and greeting by everyone, the time came to collect the one-off auction coupons. You wrote your name, the # and a phone # on the voucher and put in ONE bowl. They then took them all out, sorted by #, and put that #'s vouchers only in at a time and drew the winner. So really, each one had a fairly small stack. You could enter a number of different #'s, but only win once. I don't think it came up, as I don't think anyone won twice and had to choose. I could be wrong on this BECAUSE I WON ONE and was in the kitchen filling out forms!!! OMG! I wasn't really expecting to win. I never do. I put in for three of them. I put in for the onemercy_asakura wanted to give her a 2nd chance. I put in for one that appealed to me (the Lucas in black and red), and, as an impulse, but in for the F-19 Sunlight Skin one with the fancy red outfit. A close friend wanted a Sunlight, and admired Tom's, and I've been trying to get her into the dolls.. and well... you can guess which one I won... The F-19 Sunlight guy in Red!! OMG. Now, I sure hope she likes him, because I guess I've now got a one-off with an amazing faceup, costume and eyes!
The drawing involved lots of screaming, and lots of happy people. They then continued to draw numbers (we each got a number coming in), and gave away a LOT of free raffle items. Not only 10 Sei-tenshi, but wigs and clothes (and at least 5, maybe more, sets of each).mercy_asakura got picked and won a Sei-tenshi, I also got drawn, and won of clothes (3 SD outfits).
After that it was farewells, and to pick up a gift on leaving, one for everyone (a bag with 2 postcards, a signed thankyou from the president, and chocolate). I took a bit longer, as I went into the back to wait for them to box up my One-off to take.
What a day! Needless to say, after that, back tomercy_asakura's place, dinner and crash. Too excited to sleep though.
Sunday, November 20th, 2005
Up early, Ugh, to pick up Tom & Bill and caravan down to the store and stop for breakfast. We arrived at around 9:30am or so, and there was probably about 30/40 people in line. The line went across the front of the store, then wrapped around the front sidewalk. At 10:30, they told us that they would move the line to the back of the store, and we would pull for our line #'s (the line lottery). I was expecting this, and I think most people were. The number pulling went fairly well, Though it does split up groups. Of our group, I got the lowest #57. The next was #90, then #149, #188 and one somewhere in the 160's I think. There seemed to be around 200 handed out, though there might have been more. A lot who got over 200 just left and didn't stick around. After re-forming the line in groups, and putting us in order and wrapping back to the front of the store, they started letting in.
Thank goodness I got a good number. They then went down the line (in order), and gave the choice of slips of paper for the dolls. A whole rainbow of names. You could pick, then they'd move on to the next person. You could get more than one doll (though I didn't try, or know if you could get more than one of the same). I managed to get bothkeeley_keena's Sweet Dream Lucas AND a Mai for rdwayneright. There were two Lucas's when they reached me, and about 4 Mai's. I knew mercy_asakura was farther behind me, so I grabbed the Mai and then later, took it back to her. And I was bad and picked up a Toppi for myself. I don't need another doll, really.
I was also the doll fairy!!! When I took the Mai voucher tomercy_asakura, a girl near her asked me who was left (they had run out of Shizu about 7 people in front of me, upsetting the girl about 4 in front of me). She ALSO wanted a Sweet Dream Lucas. I had to tell only very few left. Later, once I was inside, someone gave up their voucher, and one of the staff walked around with a clip broad with vouchers you could take if you wanted. I saw a S.D. Lucas, grabbed it, and ran outside to find the girl. She was ESTATIC. Yay! Then, I also saw another Mai, and I grabbed that too (I want the Kimono). Later, after giving an abandoned voucher to the employee with the clipboard, someone saw me do that, saw what was in my hand that I had, and practically shook me down asking if I REALLY wanted Mai, and could she have it, please. I'm a sucker for little japanese girls in tears. so I gave her the voucher. She better not have been a scalper.
It was really hot outside, a WARM summer like day in late November? That's what Santa-Ana's do. The Volks staff, including the president handed out water and softdrinks (leftovers from the party), they had a number of chairs, but couldn't do much about where the sun was. All around helpful.
The store was small, Hot (broken A/C) but they were prepared with fans, and with not enough SD13 BOY stuff. Lots of eyes, wigs and frilly girl dresses. Plus a whole wall of supplies, like tools to fix, paint, scrape, sand, pull, elastic, putty, etc. They had no Yo-SD wigs (bummer). And very few outfits for them, but I did find two. I also picked up some eye putty, wig shampoo and a pair of metallic eyes. And a frilly dress for my new Toppi. The FCS line was doing brisk business and a I looked a bit over heads at the selection of heads, bodies, eyes, etc on display. The whole store had posters dolls, lots and lots of leaves and nicely decorated and neat. I think they needed more SD stuff, the whole bottom floor was 1/6 and all that.
I was in and out of the store beforemercy_asakura even got IN! So, I ended up wandering around a lot, taking with friends further back in line and such.
Lessons learned: Bring a hat (Kellyhime was SMART!), bring a cooler of drinks, bring a small fan (for summer), and have a non-doll friend that can do 'get drinks/food' errands. Heh. Enough of a list?
All didn't get through the store and out until 4pm. It was a long, tiring day, and we were STARVING. Time for food, lots of cold drinks, and then I had to drive home. Whew. And I didn't take enough photo's. I took some waiting at first in line, but then got busy and didn't.
Grand total - 3 dolls (thank goodness at least one maybe two are NOT mine), several frilly dresses, 2 yo-sd outfits, one pair of eyes, eye putty, wig shampoo and more than enough money spent.
Saturday, November 19th, 2005
I got a late start on Saturday leaving San Diego (family brunch), but made excellent time (traffic was flowing, or should I say, speeding?). I hit the mansion for tea party exactly on time. Parking was fine (wide street), so no problem. God, what a beautiful place (and I forgot to take a picture of the outside!), huge, on a hillside, with a VIEW of the ocean!!!!!!!!! (again, needed a picture, were talking MONEY view!). Not much of a line getting in, greeted at the door by the president of Volks (wow), got a sticky badge, info letter, and one-off tickets, shook hands, and inside the doors into a marble floor, flowers leaves everywhere. I ogled the one-offs, all posed on stands decorated all over with leaves (the plastic vines), with numbers, pictures and prices with each one. Then I went to find my friends
mercy_asakura wolfemeister and Tom & Bill, to find out they got there way early (1 pm) since they lived in LA, and got let in early! JEALOUS!Setting Sora (my SD13 Jun) out on the table they were at on the back patio around the pool, I then wandered around. Inside the kitchen was the massive Buffet. Here I thought, tea-party, they might have cheese and crackers. They definitely went ALL out. Not only wine (besides water and soft drinks), but several chilled salads - noodle & veggie dish, fruit, rice & veggie dish, grilled salmon (YUM!!), brownies, crackers, two kinds of soft cheese, rolls, cookies, strawberries, nuts. A LOT of good food. The next room over had the dolls available on Sunday at the store (more than I was expecting really), again, set up on stands or on furniture, arranged with leaves around them, and an 8x10 with their photo, name and price. A reading area was in the center of this room with various magazines and books on SD's. I also found in the back room, a guy who was fixing and restringing dolls, for free! He was quick, professional, and had a waiting line!
After we were there for a bit, the president greeted us (translated at first), then read a section on his own in English, about how glad he was we came, telling us what would be happening and when, and to enjoy the party.
More mingling and greeting by everyone, the time came to collect the one-off auction coupons. You wrote your name, the # and a phone # on the voucher and put in ONE bowl. They then took them all out, sorted by #, and put that #'s vouchers only in at a time and drew the winner. So really, each one had a fairly small stack. You could enter a number of different #'s, but only win once. I don't think it came up, as I don't think anyone won twice and had to choose. I could be wrong on this BECAUSE I WON ONE and was in the kitchen filling out forms!!! OMG! I wasn't really expecting to win. I never do. I put in for three of them. I put in for the one
mercy_asakura wanted to give her a 2nd chance. I put in for one that appealed to me (the Lucas in black and red), and, as an impulse, but in for the F-19 Sunlight Skin one with the fancy red outfit. A close friend wanted a Sunlight, and admired Tom's, and I've been trying to get her into the dolls.. and well... you can guess which one I won... The F-19 Sunlight guy in Red!! OMG. Now, I sure hope she likes him, because I guess I've now got a one-off with an amazing faceup, costume and eyes!The drawing involved lots of screaming, and lots of happy people. They then continued to draw numbers (we each got a number coming in), and gave away a LOT of free raffle items. Not only 10 Sei-tenshi, but wigs and clothes (and at least 5, maybe more, sets of each).
mercy_asakura got picked and won a Sei-tenshi, I also got drawn, and won of clothes (3 SD outfits).After that it was farewells, and to pick up a gift on leaving, one for everyone (a bag with 2 postcards, a signed thankyou from the president, and chocolate). I took a bit longer, as I went into the back to wait for them to box up my One-off to take.
What a day! Needless to say, after that, back to
mercy_asakura's place, dinner and crash. Too excited to sleep though.Sunday, November 20th, 2005
Up early, Ugh, to pick up Tom & Bill and caravan down to the store and stop for breakfast. We arrived at around 9:30am or so, and there was probably about 30/40 people in line. The line went across the front of the store, then wrapped around the front sidewalk. At 10:30, they told us that they would move the line to the back of the store, and we would pull for our line #'s (the line lottery). I was expecting this, and I think most people were. The number pulling went fairly well, Though it does split up groups. Of our group, I got the lowest #57. The next was #90, then #149, #188 and one somewhere in the 160's I think. There seemed to be around 200 handed out, though there might have been more. A lot who got over 200 just left and didn't stick around. After re-forming the line in groups, and putting us in order and wrapping back to the front of the store, they started letting in.
Thank goodness I got a good number. They then went down the line (in order), and gave the choice of slips of paper for the dolls. A whole rainbow of names. You could pick, then they'd move on to the next person. You could get more than one doll (though I didn't try, or know if you could get more than one of the same). I managed to get both
keeley_keena's Sweet Dream Lucas AND a Mai for rdwayneright. There were two Lucas's when they reached me, and about 4 Mai's. I knew mercy_asakura was farther behind me, so I grabbed the Mai and then later, took it back to her. And I was bad and picked up a Toppi for myself. I don't need another doll, really. I was also the doll fairy!!! When I took the Mai voucher to
mercy_asakura, a girl near her asked me who was left (they had run out of Shizu about 7 people in front of me, upsetting the girl about 4 in front of me). She ALSO wanted a Sweet Dream Lucas. I had to tell only very few left. Later, once I was inside, someone gave up their voucher, and one of the staff walked around with a clip broad with vouchers you could take if you wanted. I saw a S.D. Lucas, grabbed it, and ran outside to find the girl. She was ESTATIC. Yay! Then, I also saw another Mai, and I grabbed that too (I want the Kimono). Later, after giving an abandoned voucher to the employee with the clipboard, someone saw me do that, saw what was in my hand that I had, and practically shook me down asking if I REALLY wanted Mai, and could she have it, please. I'm a sucker for little japanese girls in tears. It was really hot outside, a WARM summer like day in late November? That's what Santa-Ana's do. The Volks staff, including the president handed out water and softdrinks (leftovers from the party), they had a number of chairs, but couldn't do much about where the sun was. All around helpful.
The store was small, Hot (broken A/C) but they were prepared with fans, and with not enough SD13 BOY stuff. Lots of eyes, wigs and frilly girl dresses. Plus a whole wall of supplies, like tools to fix, paint, scrape, sand, pull, elastic, putty, etc. They had no Yo-SD wigs (bummer). And very few outfits for them, but I did find two. I also picked up some eye putty, wig shampoo and a pair of metallic eyes. And a frilly dress for my new Toppi. The FCS line was doing brisk business and a I looked a bit over heads at the selection of heads, bodies, eyes, etc on display. The whole store had posters dolls, lots and lots of leaves and nicely decorated and neat. I think they needed more SD stuff, the whole bottom floor was 1/6 and all that.
I was in and out of the store before
mercy_asakura even got IN! So, I ended up wandering around a lot, taking with friends further back in line and such.Lessons learned: Bring a hat (Kellyhime was SMART!), bring a cooler of drinks, bring a small fan (for summer), and have a non-doll friend that can do 'get drinks/food' errands. Heh. Enough of a list?
All didn't get through the store and out until 4pm. It was a long, tiring day, and we were STARVING. Time for food, lots of cold drinks, and then I had to drive home. Whew. And I didn't take enough photo's. I took some waiting at first in line, but then got busy and didn't.
Grand total - 3 dolls (thank goodness at least one maybe two are NOT mine), several frilly dresses, 2 yo-sd outfits, one pair of eyes, eye putty, wig shampoo and more than enough money spent.
