First thing, I want to thank Michelle for being kind enough to offer to put this on BlytheLife.com. You might remember who we are; we were the first give away on here – a Rob & Sioux headband set give away. This time we are here asking for a bit of help.

Last year Rob’s little three year old little niece, Alissia, became extremely ill. After several trips to the hospital, doctors decided to perform a CT scan and they found a tumor in her brain. Alissia was flown to another hospital via helicopter and had emergency surgery. It was quite a difficult surgery and later the doctors discovered that the tumor was cancerous. Alissia was diagnosed with a very rare and rapid growing form of brain cancer.

Alissia is very strong and the doctors and nurses are amazed by her. They tell her parents how astonishing it is because most children going through what she is do not have her energy and strength.

Unfortunately, in these past few weeks Alissia has been having very difficult treatments and tests. Alissia will need a stem cell transplant very soon. This is why we’re here. Over the weekend, I (Sioux) set up a small donation site with Alissia’s father and mother and her uncle, Rob.

If you would like to donate or spread the word Alissia’s donation site is located here: For Alissia (4alissia.blogspot.com).

Thank you all so much for your time and generosity

xoxo
Sioux

Earlier this week I was contacted by Vicky who’s looking to find some crafters who make wigs and shoes for Blythe dolls.

Vicky is working on expanding her online shop (based out of the UK) to carry both Blythe dolls and Blythe accessories, which I think it’s pretty cool. Right now her site contains a lot of super cute items, you can check out Chick.co.uk to see what the shop is currently carrying.

If you’re interested in getting some more information about how your potential partnership will work, please contact Vicky at vicky@chicki.co.uk for more information.

I have a hard time finding fabric prints that at a size that won’t overwhelm my dolls. There are a lot of cute prints available online, but I have a hard time making myself want to pay for the cost of shipping that it can cost to have things delivered to Canada. Which means that I’m constantly on the look for small, adorable and doll-friendly sized prints. And here are a few suggestions of places to look for small print fabric.

1. Your local thrift store. It’s not just a great place to look for that elusive thrift store Kenner, but if you go to the kids clothing section, you’re bound to find a lot of clothes that come in small prints. The beauty of looking at baby or children clothes in the thrift stores is that they’re generally in pretty good condition. This is because babies grow really quickly and grow out of their clothes before they get to wear out the fabric. The bonus to thrifting is that the clothes will be generally inexpensive (or at least they should be!) and you should be able to get a few articles of doll clothes, even from a baby or toddler’s clothing item. Just be sure to throw everything into the washing machine first (or wash by hand, if that’s your thing) before using, you don’t know where it’s been.
2. Your local dollar store. Now this may not apply to you, but a few dollar stores that I’ve gone to carry socks (in plain colours and in stripes and other prints), t-shirts (mostly for babies/toddlers) in cute prints as well as underpants (!) for kids and adults. The underpants usually come in some of the best prints and I’ve come across things like lip prints, ice cream cones and cute stripe patterns. It’s definitely worth a look!
3. Your local department store. Or any place that has a clearance bin for children’s clothing. It’s a lot like the thrift store suggestion: a lot of children’s clothing has a lot of cute prints and they’re generally small because, well, babies and kids are small people.  I don’t usually buy things out of the clearance bin at department stores because I feel that it’s usually cheaper if I go for the thrift store, but sometimes there’s some incredibly adorable prints that you can’t find anywhere else or something that’s steeply discounted that makes it a great deal.

If you have any other suggestions for places to find cheap and inexpensive small print fabric, be sure to share below in the comments.

I’ve found myself focusing on older release dolls lately. I love looking at photos of BLs, EBLs and SBLs. RBLs don’t really grab my attention all that much (besides my own RBL dolls!) and while I’ve fallen for a few of the FBL dolls, I haven’t gotten one (yet!). I never get tired of looking at Goldie and Kozy in photos and I definitely love seeing Sunday Best and Aztec Arrival in the photos that show up on my Flickr contacts photostream (many thanks to everyone who takes photos of their BLs to keep my love for them alive).

Do you focus mainly on the older release Blythes or the newer ones?

I haven’t found very many newer release dolls that have made me very interested in them. Besides some of the FBL girls that have come out with fantastic new hair colours that haven’t before been seen (the skating Simply trio would be the ones I’m referring to), most of them just haven’t peaked my interest in a way that those BLs and EBLs do.

Belarus and I would love to do an interview with you!

If you’re a relatively new Blythe/dolly-related crafter, customizer or blogger, I’d love to hear from you!

March is going to be a month all about showcasing the new and shiny talent in the dolly community (as well as tips and tricks for those wanting to start out selling or blogging) and I’d love to interview some people for BlytheLife.com!

The interview process is incredibly simple! It’s a question-and-answer type of deal and most interviews are between 9 to 12 questions long. You get to send me photos of your very best work [with permission from photographers if it’s not your photo(s)] to show-off in the interview post.

So all you need to do is let me know that you’re interested in being interviewed for the March Blythe Talent Showcase here on BlytheLife.com and you can let me know either by commenting before or heading over to the handy-dandy contact form on the How to Get Featured page (and let me know in the comments box that it’s for the showcase).

Looking forward to hearing from you!

P.S. If you are a dolly blogger, please consider submitting the URL of your blog for some awesomely free exposure right here on BlytheLife.com by submitting your URL in your comment on Wednesday’s post.