Blythe can be a large part of who we are. After all, as the people who own these beautiful, sassy and incredibly demanding dolls, we do a lot for them. We buy them new clothes, new shoes, we’ll find them new sisters or friends and then we start learning how to sew, knit, crochet, and how to cobble together little leather boots. Not that I have done the latter just yet, but a certain someone keeps on teasing me that he’ll find me sewing little leather bits together one day. With so much involvement that this hobby takes from us, I just have to wonder what your spouse or significant other thinks of Blythe and your hobby.

My boyfriend freaked out the first time I changed Sophie’s eyes for him. It may have been because I somehow neglected to tell him (while gushing about Blythe) that their eyes changed. And he thought the pinks were reds (I was showing him over the webcam) and he thought she was evil. He’s changed his tune (now), but it was pretty darn funny when it was happening.

For me, I don’t live with my boyfriend so he doesn’t have too much interaction with any of my dolls. I’ll occasionally have one in my bag and pull her out and he’ll comment on the clothes or the hat or “Hey, didn’t she have different coloured eyes…?” and I have to remind him of the pullstrings and what they’re used for (again). He hardly ever remembers anyone’s name (except for Sophie, because she’s my “original Blythe” as she was my first). To him, they’re pretty, but they’re not anything that he’d really want to ever own for himself. Granted, he’s the kind of person who could be happily working away on a car or any other kind of type of machinery or drinking beer and watching the latest UFC fight on pay-per-view. (And I thought I had expensive hobbies…) But nevertheless, he’s never said anything bad about my dolls because he knows that they make me happy. Plus he thinks it’s neat that the community’s just so involved and there’s so much creativity going on.

How does your SO feel about Blythe being in their lives, even if it’s just slightly on the fringes of their lives? Are they involved? Do they mind helping you pose your dolls or carrying them out in public?

This week is a simple little DIY project for you: making Christmas (or any other holiday) cards for your dolls!

What you’ll need is:

• Cardstock or paper in any colour – you can most certainly use scrap pieces and I encourage it!
• Pens – thin ones in multiple colours
• Little holiday-stickers
• White-out/correction pens
• Scissors
• Ruler (optional!)

So I found these scrap pieces of coloured paper that were mostly square to begin with, I’m going to pretend that they are. I folded over the edge until I had a size of a card that I liked (one half of the card is 1.5″ x 1″ – so unfolded the card is 3″ x 1″). You can cut out as many or as little of these as you liked – I decided to cut out 7 of these so I would have 1 card per doll.

I like to use my ruler to make sure I get a really good crease on the fold so it doesn’t look like a wimpy fold (is there such thing as a wimpy fold?). Once you’ve got a good fold into the cardstock, you can go ahead and decorate the front however you want.

You can choose to write something on the inside (or not), it’s entirely up to you. Depending on if you like to decorate for  your dolls so they can celebrate the holidays as well, you could put up a string and hang a bunch of the cards up, like so:

Isn’t that pretty nifty?

If you decide to make some holiday cards for your dolls, be sure to share them here!

So I thought I would start a new category of posts: Questions of the Week! I’m not sure if I’ll actually get a new question up every single week, it all depends on if I a) remember or b) can come up with something, so we’ll see how it goes!

I know we all have our own little wishlists of what Blythes we want to get next. Or at least most of us do, because it’s sort of just how the hobby goes. You get a new Blythe and you’re still thinking about all the other ones that you don’t have yet. Because that’s just the way things go. If only Blythes were as expensive as cars, maybe we wouldn’t be considering getting a new one all the time (although, I don’t know, some cars are fairly inexpensive and some Blythes could pay for my university tuition for a full term, plus maybe even the textbooks).

At the top of my wishlist (besides a Kenner!) would be Sunday Best and Aztec Arrival, both BLs and both kinda whimsical and shy looking. I adore looking at photos of them!

So this week’s question of the week is:

What’s your top (or few top) dream wishlist Blythes? As in, if you had the most unlimited amount of funds ever, what doll would you get?

This question is excluding: Kenners.

But this question does include: stock dolls, customized dolls, anniversary dolls and super-hard-to-find Blythes.

I’ve been tagged a few times on Flickr to do this meme, so I thought I would share it with you. All you need to do is make a list of 11 doll related things that you’re wishing for in 2011 (you can accompany photos of everything in a mosaic, but if you’re lazy – like myself – you’ll just come up with the list).

1. Red-headed Kenner – because, you know, it’s one of the few molds I’m still missing a doll from… I’d love either original hair or a mohair reroot for that carrot-red.
2. Sunday Best BL – Meg/irulethegalaxy’s Sunday Best (Goose) is the *prettiest* SB ever, and makes me want one, every time I see her photo (click for pic).
3. Prima Dolly Paris or Simply Vanilla – I would love to have a white-headed FBL in my dolly family!
4. Aztec Arrival BL – I have a ‘thing’ for the ‘softer’ looking BLs, I guess!
5. Simply Bubble Boom! – love her hair, love her stock name!
6. Pukipuki Pong – always a super happy looking doll! I’m in love with this tiny cuteness, I blame Sioux/milkandkisses for this dolly lust though (click for pic).
7. More dolly photo props – I love the idea of Re-Ment, I just don’t like the price of it (time to go shopping for polymer clay, perhaps?).
8. Doll clothes – Sophie’s a bit of a snobbish clotheshorse, Eden only likes wearing pink, I have picky dolls…
9. Doll shoes – Like I said, everyone’s picky (or maybe I’m the picky one…)
10. More eyechips & the courage to do more mild customizations.
11. To do more interviews – if you want to help make this wish come true, find out more about getting featured on BlytheLife.com!

And now I tag everyone who reads this to do this meme on Flickr or on their blog. 😉

A certain trio of Prima Dolly Blythes come with little slippers, and another certain yellow-headed Blythe comes with a pair of little slippers as well! I set out to make a few pairs of cute little felt slippers for my dolls and here’s what I did:

You will need:

• Felt – You can find this at dollar stores and craft stores, they generally have a lot of different colours. There is acrylic felt (which is generally cheaper) and wool felt (which can be more expensive, and you’re less likely to find this at dollar stores).
• Thread – Matching the colour of your felt or a contrasting colour.
• Sewing needle
• Needle Theader (optional)
• Scissors
• Pencil or Pen
• Scrap paper
• Decorations – Ribbons, little gems/rhinestones, beads, little fake silk flowers, etc.

What I did first was trace around my doll’s foot. It’s okay if it’s not entirely even because it’s just a rough trace, you can even out the lines and such after. Once you’ve traced it, you’ll want to make sure your lines are even and that the slipper base is symmetrical (so you won’t have to have a left and a right slipper).

I drew lines to see where the edges around my doll’s foot was and then added some more to it at all sides so there’d be extra fabric needed (or else the slipper wasn’t about to get on.

The two paper pieces I used for cutting out my felt pieces. You’ll want to cut out 2 of the half-slipper pieces and 2 of the slipper base pieces.

If you trace the completed slipper base again, put your doll’s foot on top of it and figure out where you want the top of the slipper to go. Draw a line and when you’re happy with that, cut out that piece as well.

You can either pin the paper pieces to the felt or hold it in place when you cut. You’ll want to cut 2 slipper bases and 2 slipper tops.

My felt pieces: 2 slipper bases and 2 slipper tops!

If you’re going to add decorations to the top of the slippers, now would be a good time to do it. Try your best to put the decorations on at the same spot on both pieces.

Once that’s done, you’ll want to match up the pieces to each other and then sew it together.

I used a straight stitch, which is simply going in and out of the felt. You can experiment with different types of stitches for a different look.

And there you have it, one pair of completed felt slippers for your doll that you made yourself! You can make a pair of each of your dolls or perhaps even make them slippers that will match their favourite pajamas? Be sure to share photos of the slippers you’ve made!