Tonight's doll photo is Arouet! Interrupting the studio shots for this one. It was a gorgeous evening so we went out for a walk, and Arouet came along.

Arouet is an Angel Region Present Jade Version one. (Link is to basic version)

Arouet belonged to two different people before he came to us. In his original incarnation, he was a little fire spirit that I adored to pieces. When his owner sold him I was heartbroken because I couldn't afford him at the time. As luck would have it, he was bought by a good dolly friend, so I got to stalk him a little more. When she in turn was ready to sell him, we were able to sell Amandine's original body for part of the cost and pay off the rest. (Leading to the saying that poor Amandine had to sell her body to get a boyfriend. :p) Arouet was the first doll I ever did a faceup on. The version he has now is his second one. The full story (minus photos) is here.

Arouet is Bellamy's human twin brother, who his mother carried back to the mortal world. He was raised in France in the mid-eighteenth century, until a random loop in time flung him out of danger and on to Diderot's doorstep. His relationship with Bellamy is still a little rocky, but he gets on very well with Diderot and someday hopes to ask Diderot for permission to marry Amandine. He wants to find out more about his past (and make sure he's staying put) before he does that, though. He's adapted well to living in the future, but he can't quite get used to the music.

Arouet was our seventh doll. He arrived in August of 2006.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of the dolls in their Halloween getups, but there are a few. ^_^ We live in a historic downtown area that gets a hell of a lot of foot traffic for Trick or Treating, but we don't have a lot of space to store decorations so we never get to do up the front of the house as much as we'd like. (really the block goes nuts. It's like a block party.) So this year I decided to do up all the dolls in fancy dress and put them in our window for everybody to see as they stopped by for candy. The kids didn't much care; they were overstimulated already and only hoping for more candy. :p But the responses of the adults were awesome. ^_^

( miscellany pics! )

Naturally, because it's a month from Halloween, Cracker Barrel has its Christmas wares on sale already. We were on a road trip last week and picked up a little MSD-sized sweater on an hanger, which was posing as a tree ornament. But really, we knew it was just what Arouet had been looking for to get through the chilly months ahead.

( +1 more pic! )

The hanger is also doll-sized, and the sweater was attached with two stitches that were easy to remove. There is no back opening on the sweater, and the neck hole is small, but after stretching it with my fingers I manged to get it over Arouet's melon-head without any trouble. The sweater fits like a charm. There was one other style: the same green but with a white reindeer pattern. Other stores may have other styles-- let me know if you turn up any others! I'd love a red one for Bellamy.

We thought the kids could do with a style overhaul, and this is just what turned up out of the drawers. Amandine and Arouet have taken to sky piracy like ducks to chinese pancakes; we might not ever get them back.

They might even have some company before long.

( +7 more & 1 in color )