Doll Book Shop – My Latest Craft

I finished my latest craft project today, making a doll sized book shop!

I’m a literature student and I love collecting dolls and making rooms to display them in so I guess it was only a matter of time before I made something like this! I took inspiration from tutorials by MyFroggyStuff on YouTube and combined that with my own ideas. Before I started I wondered if this project was going to be too ambitious but I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

As with all my doll rooms, this started off as a cereal box that I cut open the front side on and then covered the edges in paper.

Next I started to make the outside of the bookshop. Using a doll as a guide I cut out a piece of wood grain scrapbook paper to be the door. The wood print paper is from that pack I found in my haul the other week. I cut out a sign for the shop and a window that I’d made on the computer and printed out. The window is a photo of some of my books that I edited so it looked like a window display.

Usually I don’t bother decorating the outside of the box but on this occasion I wanted to make a shop front. I covered half of the outside with white paper and half with more wood grain scrapbook paper. I then glued the sign, window and door onto the box. Now the store front is finished.

With the exterior completed it was time to start working on the inside. I used a doll as a guide to figure out what would be the right size for this book print scrapbook paper I found in Hobbycraft. Once trimmed down I glued the book print into the box and then covered the bottom half with white paper.

I decided to use more wood grain paper to cover up the seam between the two sides of the book print paper and suggest a beam in the shop. I then used (even more) wood grain for the flooring and glued in another edited picture for a window. This is a photo of a street that I took in San Francisco, I guess that means this book shop is in California!

With the basic room completed the book shop needed furnishing. I found this box in The Works, I think it’s meant to be a jewellery box but I’m repurposing it as a book case. I made mini books by gluing images from flyers, catalogs and leaflets onto card from an Amazon order. The books fit nicely into the book case and went in the room.

For some finishing touches I took a frame that I had left over from The Superhero Hangout and framed this little quote from The Doctor (if you’re wondering the quote is from 2006’s Tooth and Claw). I also added the ottoman poofs that I had made previously from a MyFroggyStuff video, they’re really easy to make as they are just old socks!

So here’s the finished room with various dolls using it! I like that this is a room which can be used by various characters. This room has a lot of pattern and texture however it doesn’t feel like it’s too much. I also like that it’s a space that I can expand further with the potential to add extra books and extra shelving units in the future.

Lois Lane YA Novels – Review

Yesterday I finished reading Triple Threat by Gwenda Bond, the latest novel in the YA Lois Lane series. Yes, I mean Lois Lane as in Superman and Lois Lane.

About a fortnight back I read on Twitter that there was a series of YA novels about Lois Lane starting her career as a journalist. I was intrigued and thought it might be worth a read. I bought the first book, Fallout and have been hooked since then. The Lois Lane series is about a young teen journalist investigating weird and unexplained things in Metropolis. That basic premise reminds me a bit of The Sarah Jane Adventures, which in my opinion is a very good thing. It is a YA series but these are entertaining and gripping mystery novels that transcend the clichéd tropes of YA. Reading this series has definitely shifted my opinion of Lois Lane. Before I kind of just assumed that she was the stereotypical superhero girlfriend damsel in distress. After reading the series that opinion has been changed. To put it another way, when I saw a rumour that Lois Lane was going to get a DC Superhero Girls doll I didn’t understand why, now I really hope they release one!

Fallout is the first book in the series and sets the general tone for the series. Lois Lane is newly arrived in Metropolis, she’s trying to stay out of trouble and make friends. Lois is successful at making friends with her team of young journalists at The Daily Planet’s new teen aimed news site. But she completely fails at staying out of trouble as she starts to investigate something strange happening at her new school. This book deals with bullying and technology being misused, out of the three books I would say it is the most concerned with real world issues though it still has a strong sci-fi mystery.

Double Down then continues the story. Lois is now more confident in her abilities as a journalist and takes on an ambitious new assignment. I think this book really highlighted one of the biggest strengths of the series, the supporting cast of characters. Lois has a strong group of friends – whom she befriended in Fallout – and in Double Down they are just as important to the plot as Lois Lane herself. Also Double Down has arguably some of the most intense moments in the entire series as Lois gets herself into a situation that turns out to be way more complicated than it initially appeared.

Triple Threat is the latest novel in the series. It pulls together several loose ends from the previous books. I feel that if I say too much I will possibly accidentally spoil Fallout and Double Down.  But if Triple Threat is the last book in the series then it’s a satisfying ending, however I really hope that there’s a fourth book!

As someone who is a pretty hard-core DC Comics fanboy I found it really interesting to read a series about the DC universe before it becomes the more recognisable DC universe. What I mean by that is when these books are set Clark Kent has yet to become Superman, Barry Allen has yet to be struck by lightning, Diana Prince has yet to leave Themyscira and so on. This makes the stories of Lois Lane’s investigations even more interesting as weird stuff is not yet widely accepted as part of daily life for people within the novel.

I’d recommend the Lois Lane YA series for comic and superhero fans, fans of mystery novels and in general people who enjoy reading stories about competent female protagonists who know what they want and go get it. With Lois Lane getting her chance to shine in these novels, Wonder Woman finally hitting the big screen very soon, Supergirl on TV and the DC Superhero Girls toys quite widely available it’s good to see that DC have made such a serious commitment to their female characters. Long may it continue!

Doctor Who – The Pyramid At The End of The World Review

A tale of misdirection in this week’s Doctor Who.

The Pyramid At The End Of The World carries on from last week’s episode Extremis. It opens with one of the most entertaining previously recaps that Doctor Who has ever done, we saw clips from Extremis contrasted with Bill going on a date with Penny. After that the episode then unfolded following from the promise that was set up in the conclusion of Extremis. The mysterious Monks are now ready to enact their plan and take over the world. I wanted a big alien invasion and that’s what we got, however it’s an alien invasion unlike any we have seen before.

At first it appears as if the Monks are manipulating the world’s most powerful armies but it turns out that was just a distraction. The significance of the scenes in the lab weren’t initially obvious, but then we learnt what the actual threat was and suddenly it fell into place. By the end of the episode we still don’t actually know what the Monks are really after. I always find Doctor Who stories that have twists and turns throughout to be enjoyable and this was one of those types of episodes. Much like Extremis I think this is an episode that would benefit from a rewatch.

The Monks are definitely one of the weirdest adversaries we have seen in Doctor Who and I suspect they’re going to end up being one of the most well remembered monsters. In my first few reviews of this series I kept mentioning that I wanted to see an interesting new monster and a real big bad, the Monks definitely fit that description! They’re clearly very powerful and very cunning but we still don’t really know that much about them. The scariest thing is often the unknown and the Monks are definitely something of an unknown quantity. Where did they come from? What is their ultimate end game? Why have they chosen Earth as their target?

Bill has been awesome since week one. Every week I keep praising Pearl Mackie’s performance as Bill Potts and this week was no expectation. For every companion there tends to come an episode where they are forced to make a difficult decision without the guidance of the Doctor. Think Martha Jones in 42, Amy Pond in Amy’s Choice or Rose Tyler in Dalek. I think The Pyramid At The End of The World was that episode for Bill Potts.

I’d like to know more about Penny – Bill’s date from last week and this week. It would be really irritating if the first Doctor Who companion to be in a homosexual relationship whilst travelling in the TARDIS didn’t get a properly developed relationship. Obviously it seems that Bill and Penny are just on a first date at the moment, but no one wants to see a repeat of Mickey Smith and Martha Jones randomly being paired up in The End of Time after no interaction between the two of them for what feels like little more than just ‘they’re both black and both single’.

I was a bit disappointed to find out that next week’s episode is continuing the overarching story that started back in Oxygen. On the one hand it is creating a truly epic tale with lots of twists and turns but at the same time I was enjoying having standalone episodes like we got at the beginning of the season. I guess we’ll just have to wait until it’s all concluded to decide for certain if it was worth linking (at least) four episodes together like this.

In conclusion, this week Bill continues to shine in an intriguing story that was not quite what it seemed as the TARDIS team faces one of the weirdest and most powerful enemies in Doctor Who.

Doctor Who – Extremis Review

Spoiler warning, it probably is impossible to talk about this episode without giving a few spoilers. This episode is best watched without knowing what’s going to happen so please only read this review after watching the episode.

First off, Pearl Mackie once again was excellent as Bill Potts. Bill is a really likeable companion and she brings a great sense of excitement as she sees new things. But Pearl is also great at delivering the emotional beats that are necessary, there’s more to Bill than her one-liners.

Speaking of companions, I like Nardole. He’s been a good addition to the main cast and Matt Lucas brings a welcome dose of humour which is something that has been missing from the programme over the past couple of years. I also liked the revelation in this episode that River Song sent him to look after the Doctor. It’s nice to get a reminder that even though River has gone she certainly hasn’t been forgotten.

I think the plot of this episode can best be described as the Doctor Who version of The Matrix. But before we got to that twist this was an episode about a mysterious book that should not be seen. I liked the mystery aspect of Extremis, it was an intriguing concept which was interesting to watch unfold. I simultaneously wanted Bill and the Doctor to read the Veritas to find out what it was but also really didn’t want them to. I also really liked the twist when it turned out that everything we had been watching was actually a simulation and the Doctor was really sat outside the Vault all along. This is one of those episodes that will be good to re-watch once you know how it all ends.

Extremis has filled us in on what’s in the Vault. I was really hoping that the Vault was going to turn out to be a series long arc and so I was disappointed that we got a more or less full reveal in episode six. After Knock Knock it was not a surprise to learn that it was Missy lurking in the Vault but it was still interesting to learn the how and why. I really don’t like Missy but she wasn’t actually that irritating in this episode, the flashbacks to her where nicely used throughout the episode and I liked the way that they contrasted what was happening as the story unfolded.

Missy wasn’t actually the main villain for this week. Instead we got some zombie like creatures – I don’t know what they’re called yet but the BBC Doctor Who website is calling them the Monks. Their design kind of reminds me of the humanoid form of the Pyrovile’s from 2008’s The Fires of Pompeii. After the first few weeks lacked proper monsters these were interesting creatures to see. We don’t know much about them yet which is intriguing to watch. However they are clearly very powerful and they are planning a massive invasion of Earth.

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m out of the loop but I was surprised to find out that this episode leads into next week’s episode, I thought it was another standalone story. I actually really like the way that Oxygen, Extremis and The Pyramid at the End of the World will all link together. It reminds me of how back in 1975 The Arc In Space, The Sontaran Experiment, Genesis of the Daleks and Revenge of the Cybermen all linked together. Each one can be viewed as a story in its own right but they all link together.

In conclusion, this was an interesting episode with an intriguing concept and finally some really cool monsters! Extremis also did a good job at tying up several dangling story threads whilst also setting up a second half. Once again Series 10 has given us another solid episode of Doctor Who!

My Haul – In Summer!

It was a fairly modest amount of stuff in this week’s haul but I thought it was too fun not to share!

First up is this book of wood print scrapbook papers. As you may remember from my doll room posts (Disneyland Paris and the Superhero Hang Out) I like to use scrapbook paper as wallpaper for a doll room. There’s various types of rooms that wood prints are useful for and it can also be used for furniture. Wood printed paper is usually really difficult to find but at £3 for a book AND 10% Student discount this was a really good find!

This fabric was just too fabulous not to buy. I have literally no idea what I want to do with it but it was just far too good not to purchase!

And finally is my fourth Olaf plushie! I still love Frozen, I’m not going to Let It Go. This Olaf is wearing the hat and holding the walking stick from his song In Summer. I found him in the clearance section of Sainsbury’s and paid just £6.50 for him which is a good price, especially given how soft he is! As I was walking around Sainsbury’s doing my weekly grocery shop I had my favourite snowman sat in the bottom of my trolley!

Doctor Who – Oxygen Review

‘Space the final frontier…’ I liked this episode from the moment it opened with the Doctor quoting Star Trek!

Now, before I start this review properly I’m going to give a spoiler warning. I don’t think it will be possible to write about this episode without talking about that last minute twist. So be warned!

Oxygen was essentially a base-under-siege episode. A classic Doctor Who story type that has been done many times throughout the shows history. Tonally I’d say this base-under-siege was most similar to 1977’s The Robots of Death and 2007’s 42. Oxygen has that constant sense of pressure and the constant building of obstacles and challenges much like 42. But it also has a similar tone to The Robots of Death with the thing that the mining crew rely on turning against them and picking them off.

Even though it was a fairly standard format for Doctor Who this episode definitely gave us something new. The concept at the heart of the episode - oxygen is being sold to space explorers - is an intriguing one. The episode did a good job of exploring what that would mean for humans travelling through space in that future. However admittedly it become reduced to just ‘we’re fighting space suit zombies’. Not that I mind, I have been saying for the past few weeks that I’ve been wanting proper monsters and this week I finally got them! But I would have actually liked to have seen the episode delve into the concept of oxygen coming at a price a little more, admittedly 45 minutes is a little too short to go too in depth but if Oxygen had been a two parter then that would have been interesting.

Peter Capaldi is nailing his performance as the Doctor each week. This is what I have been wanting from him since he took over the role. He had some speeches about saving people that wouldn’t have felt out of place in a Matt Smith or David Tennant episode. This is a Doctor enjoying saving the universe, something that we haven’t really seen much of from the 12^th Doctor prior to Series 10. He can be dangerous but he is also compassionate, funny and most importantly a hero.

As for the thing at the end of the episode that I mentioned at the start of this post… The Doctor is blind now. I did not see that coming, after all it’s not unusual for someone to get hurt during an adventure but it rarely tends to be permanent. Except this time it is permanent. The Doctor is now blind. I’m interested to see how that is going to unfold during the rest of the series.

So overall this was another solid episode that was reminiscent of Doctor Who at its best. I’m starting to feel that this season is almost giving us a Greatest Moments of Doctor Who and I am absolutely fine with that!

Student Life - Surviving Coursework Season

Well we’re currently coming to the end of coursework season, thankfully!

Around the end of the semester suddenly there’s coursework due in for absolutely every module. And every one has lots of coursework. Literally the only thing that seems to be concerning anyone is making it to the end of coursework season. Seriously for the past fortnight I have been unable to talk to another student without one of us mentioning coursework.

• I’m a naturally organised person, this becomes a very useful trait during coursework season! I’m not one of those people who tries to deceive themselves into thinking that they’ll get all their coursework done over Spring Break – let’s be realistic, no one actually manages to do that! But I always know when my deadlines are and work through my essays methodically in order of length and due date. I plan to do things ahead of time so that I don’t have last minute panics, but even so I still find it a bit of a stressful time.
• For me it feels particularly strange this time around as next time I go through coursework season I am going to be on my year abroad!
• I’ve noticed this year that I really like to do drawing and colouring in during coursework season. At the moment I’m working on a DC Comics colouring in book and the Warhol colouring in/doodle book that I bought at the weekend. I’m definitely a fan of adult stress relief colouring in books though I also always seem to use them more during coursework season.
• I try to force myself out of the house at least once a day just so I don’t feel like I’ve been cooped up inside all day. Even if it’s just going down the local charity shop it still helps to get out of the house. The past couple of days have seen a sudden spell of sunny weather and I’ve been going out to enjoy my local parks.
• Another thing that I find helps to keep me grounded is to maintain my usual routines as much as possible. For example I will still go out shopping on a Saturday morning. I also try to cook a big meal from a cook book on at least one evening during the weekend. And recently I make sure that I watch Doctor Who on a Saturday night!

So there’s some of my rambling about coursework season. I am aware that in writing this post I am continuing to talk about coursework. I apologise if you came across this post whilst procrastinating and now you’re feeling guilty because you still have one last essay to write!

Doctor Who – Knock Knock Review

I don’t think this week’s episode was the best, especially given how good the past few weeks have been, but it was good to see a story that gave us more of a glimpse into who Bill is. Also, warning you now but there’s some spoilers in this review.

From 1989’s Ghostlight, to 2007’s Blink, to 2013’s Hide, the haunted house that is actually being inhabited by aliens is a reoccurring story throughout Doctor Who. I think the choice to do this story trope with Bill’s search for student housing was an interesting one. I was expecting that to play out in a comedic way like 2010’s The Lodger but I think this episode actually had far more in common with Hide. The first part is a spooky story about a house where something weird is happening and then in the final part we find out that it’s actually not what we first thought and it is something more emotional.

Knock Knock had some very unnerving monsters. Not in the way that the Silence or the Weeping Angels are unnerving. Just it really made my skin crawl when we saw the space lice things swarming and crawling around. However, I’m still wanting a really big bad monster. But going by the next time trailer I might finally get the big bad monster as next week’s thing looks very similar to the Vashta Nerada.

Once again Bill was the star of the episode, Pearl Mackie once again delivered a great performance. I have a feeling that Bill Potts is going to end up right up there with Sarah Jane Smith and Rose Tyler in the all-time best companion rankings. Bill keeps asking questions and seeing things in new and interesting ways. In this episode we also got to see how being with the Doctor has started to change her, much like when Rose Tyler returned home for the first time in Aliens of London. One of the problems with Amy Pond, Rory Williams and Clara Oswald was that we never really got too much of a glimpse into their lives away from the Tardis, and when we did it never felt that developed. Knock Knock gave Bill friends and showed her dealing with something instantly recognisable, student housing! And also it made me laugh when Black Magic by Little Mix was the song that came up on her phone, particularly as I’d been listening to it earlier!

I was wondering during the past week if Bill’s sexuality was going to ever be addressed again. So often in Sci-Fi/Fantasy when LGBT characters actually appear the writers will have a brief moment  then never mention their sexuality again – like Sulu in the most recent Star Trek film for example. However we had another reference to the fact that Bill is a lesbian in tonight’s episode.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I love that this series is partially set in and around a university. Having a companion who is a student is an obvious but great idea. Having the Doctor at a university is also an obvious but great idea. It’s just so entertaining to watch! Though maybe I’m biased as I am currently a student.

I was disappointed by the vault scene at the end of the episode. I was really hoping that the vault was going to be something that was only kept in the background but this week I felt it was a little too much. I think that it’s going to turn out that Missy is locked up in the vault and she’s going to break free from it soon.

Overall Doctor Who finally seems to be back to the standard it should be. Not every episode is an all-time great but this series is still proving to be definitely worth watching, long may it continue.

My Haul – Free Comic Book Day and More…

It’s been a while since I last did one of these haul posts but as today is Free Comic Book Day I decided I’d do one again.

Today is Free Comic Book Day, which is exactly what it sounds like. Comic Book stores are giving away free comic books today, you don’t even need to buy anything! (Though it’s kind of rude to just take the freebies and not buy anything.) I bought the Supergirl issue and then got the Secret Empire, DC Superhero Girls and Wonder Woman comics free! Even better is that those were the three I really wanted from the selection available for this year!

The comic theme continues with this X-Men Pop Up book. I found it in a reduced price book shop, his is genuinely a thing that exist and I had to buy it because it has pop up pages dedicated to my two favourite X-Men, Storm and Cyclops. It’s actually a really nicely made book and a good one to add to my Marvel collection. And the retro comic style makes it even more interesting.

Moving away from DC and Marvel I bought an Andy Warhol colouring in/doodle book. It was reduced and when I saw it I more or less instantly bought. I love pop art, Warhol is one of my all-time favourite artists and I love colouring in so it was a must buy for me!

Staying with the creative theme, I bought this nautical themed fat quarter of fabric. I reckon it will be perfect for a skirt for my Ariel doll (hence why she’s holding it in the picture!)

Final thing. This is a weird one, Sainsbury’s are doing free packs of Lego trading cards when you spend £10 or more in store so I got 2 packs with this week’s food shop. I feel like this is the start of yet another collection…

And that’s it for this week. I think I am going to start trying to make the haul posts a regular thing again.