Ila's doppelganger

Ok, people, here it is. Ila's doppelganger, evil twin, lost self or just a doll that looks like her. My mom got the idea to order a custom doll ("won't it be wonderful for her to know what she looked like as a baby?"-- I hesitated to tell my mom that Ila could always look at picutures). I thought about it and since little Ila sort of looks like a doll at times, I was all over the idea.

Until I started thinking about how weird dolls really are.

Think about all the creepy movies you love, or good episodes of the Twilight Zone. Wasn't there always a doll lurking somewhere in it? Wasn't the doll possessed?

Once I got over the idea that dolls aren't really possessed, I was totally behind the idea of getting a custom doll of Ila. To find a suitable dollmaker, I combed probably 30 awful websites, I mean truly awful websites with awful custom dolls, learning that what I wanted was a "portrait doll" and deciding I wanted a porcelain doll, not a vinyl doll. I finally landed on the Dollhaven website where not only was the proprietor a dollmaker, she was a sculptor. And her website was good compared to what I'd seen. Her sculptures looked like they captured something of the original, so I figured she would have a decent aesthetic sense.

As I researched the options, I found that a truly custom doll, sculpted to match Ila would be $1800. Ouch. A little expensive. The next best option was for the dollmaker, Tammy, to recommend a doll mold in her extensive collection and would later customize the hair, coloring, eyes, etc. That would only set us back about $250. We decided on the latter option.

To make a long story short, I talked to Tammy, sent her 4 pictures of Ila, chose a mold out of 3 she recommended (she cited a 70% likeness). It took a while to make, but we opened it the day before Christmas and were pleasantly surprised.

In the photo, the dress is a little big, as I didn't like the original outfit I picked out for the doll. She's not wearing sweatbands around her elbows, those are part of the doll structure (eeks, have I crossed the line into bonafide nutdom? I called the doll "she"). I really want to get a snap of both of them in the same outfit before Ila gets too big.

What do you think? Creepy or cool?