Photo by Rebecca/Squirrel Junkie.

What I like about Blythe is that they’re the perfect size to still have their own toys without getting too small. Blythe is versatile in the way that a lot of miniatures do work well for her, and that includes smaller toys. There’s some crafters out there than make their own little stuffies and toys for their Blythes and it just looks so cute when Blythe is playing with her toys. I’ve taken photos of my dolls with the original Polly Pockets and it’s pretty darn cute!

Do you take photos of your Blythes with their toys?

The Blythe Shopping Directory is a blog written by Lucy (also known as lucy_goosey) and it’s such a great shopping resource! Lucy writes about shops (mostly selling clothing) that are geared towards Blythe. If you’ve never shopped somewhere or don’t really know how great or poor the quality of something is, she talks about it!

Lucy’s post go from focusing on one particular shop that she’s shopped from to highlighting several shops that sell knitwear. She spotlights shops she loves, shops she hasn’t had the chance to shop from (yet) and her favourites that are currently available in store. I think one of the fun things about the Blythe Shopping Directory is that Lucy will talk about well-known designers as well as people who are just starting out or those without very large fanbases. She reviews products as well as blogging about her favourite stores.

What I absolutely love about the Blythe Shopping Directory is that I’ve discovered so many new-to-me Blythe clothing shops since I started reading it! Lucy even highlights shops that will be vending at events like BlytheCon (UK or otherwise).

Blythe Shopping Directory does take submissions! So if you notice that your favourite shop is missing from her site or if you want to submit a post about a shop that you love and talk about the things that you’ve bought, Lucy will publish guest submissions. After all, it’d be quite the feat for her to buy something from everyone’s shop (and a lot of money!).

I’ve been asked multiple times before why I never really talk about budgeting when it comes to the Blythe On A Budget series. There’s a really simple answer for this: I’m not an accountant (or a debt collector) and nor do I play one on television. My way of budgeting is a lot different than most other people. For starters, I only work 4 months out of the year (full time studies plus the commuting aspect of being a full time student does not lend itself well to a part-time job in my area).

How I justify my doll purchases is I look at my total savings account amount, minus the amounts needed for all tuition money needed still (up to May), minus an appropriate amount for textbooks (I budget $100 textbook money per class – I usually do not use all of this but have gone over once or twice, unfortunately), minus an appropriate amount of money for entertainment, food, miscellaneous purchases (I look at the number of birthdays that I’m likely to buy/craft gifts for; if it’s November/December I budget more for the holiday shopping). And then at the end of all my minusing, I see how much I have left over.

I always try to shop smart when it comes to Blythe. I look for good deals on dolls and also on good deals on the shipping. A lot of the time, most people are fairly sensible about what they charge for shipping (and handling!) fees, but sometimes people are slightly outrageous (for instance, if it costs them ~$20 to ship a doll to me in Canada and then tack on an excessive $30 on top of that, I’d be more than a little choked over that). I also have my boyfriend screen potential doll candidates for me. I’ll send him photos, talk to him about it. Sometimes he’ll gently remind me that I already have other dolls that look exactly like the one I’m wanting to buy (they’re never actually identical, different molds and all, but he does point out huge similarities, especially in hair colour). But he knows me well enough that I won’t ask him if he likes a doll unless I’ve already figured out if I can afford to get her, I just need to figure out if I want her badly enough to buy her. Sometimes I do, sometimes I’ll buy her. Sometimes I realize, after thinking about her and talking about her that I don’t really  need to get her.

What you should do is look at your total take-home pay in a month (or a year, or whatever length of time you want to look at). And start minusing from that the amounts of money that you need to spend every week/month/year. So you minus things like rent, an average amount for food, (necessary) entertainment, transportation, clothes, gifts, etc. You take away all of that and then see how much money you have left over. But since you’re all so much more responsible than I am (right…?!), you’ll also remember to minus an amount to go into a retirement fund (I’ll get to that, once I’m ‘really’ working). Once you take away from your take-home pay all the amounts of money that you need to spend, you’ll figure out the amount of money that you have to spend on more fun things.

If you have $50 left over for fun things, you don’t need to spend all of it every month. Say you really want to get a new doll, but $50 isn’t going to get you that Goldie of your dreams. But saving $50 for a few months will. It’s all about what you do with the money that you can spend.

Start a separate (as long as it’s free) savings account and have that $50 (or whatever amount) of money deposited into that fun account every month. When you’ve got that special purchase in mind, you’ll have the money there without needing to do some mental math of how much leftover fun money you have from the previous months.

Blythe is meant to be a fun hobby. It’s not fun to completely blow your monthly budget out of proportion because you decided to buy 5 Kenners in one month and now your electricity’s going to be shut off and you have nothing in your pantry except for a jar of peanut butter which may or may not be expired (ew). It is not the end of the world if you do not get that doll right now. There will always be another doll. There will always be another cute dolly-designer dress. And it’s okay to say no to buying a doll just because you cannot cut into the amount of money that you need for food. Having a new doll is nice, but being able to eat is just as nice and far more important.

Just remember to have fun. It’s a lot easier to be happy about the dolls and dolly things that you have if you can afford them without taking away money from something that’s more important in your life.

I have a lot of doll shoes. Not as much as some people, but it still seems like a fair bit to me because it’s a lot more pairs that now much I have for myself. The unfortunate thing for both my girls and my wallet is that despite the amount of shoes that I have, my dolls generally go around without shoes. (In fact, two of them went to BlytheCon without any shoes on!) This week’s question is all about those little shoes that are just so easy to collect:

Do you have a lot of doll shoes? Do your Blythe generally wear those shoes?

Before my first Blythe Meet (which happened to be the Early Bird Meet that happened in Portland the day before BlytheCon), I had never met another person who was interested in Blythe dolls and I had never seen anyone else’s dolls in person besides the ones that I own. And as lovely as my dolls are, none of them are Kenners or BLs or FBLs or customized (well, besides chip changes, gaze correcting and sleepy eyes).

I got to meet people that I had spent the last two years talking to online. I got to meet people from all over that all share one thing in common: love for a certain type of dolly with big eyes that change colour with a blink.

It did take me a moment to warm up to people, I wasn’t entire sure what to expect because I had never been to a Blythe Meet before. To me, a meet was all about meeting people. And their dolls. I wasn’t sure what people would end up discussing, I didn’ t know what to expect because all I ever saw in photos of people’s meets were of dolls and people holding onto dolls.

I got to see Kenners for the first time. I even got to hold a Kenner and hear that soft and quiet little pip that they make when their string is being pulled. I got to meet people who share a love for Blythe, which was a great experience because it was something I had never had the chance to do before.

Some tips that I do have for other people who don’t know what to expect but are going to attend a meet:

• Have water with you – getting to talk to people is fantastic, but it does make you feel thirsty after a while.
• Have food! If the meet is for more than a small handful of hours, it’d be a great idea to have food. The Early Bird Meet that happened in Portland went for about 2.5hrs and I was hungry at the end of it.
• Dress appropriately for the weather, especially if the meet goes into the evening. I was also cold (and I wasn’t the only one).
• Have spare camera batteries! I definitely needed to swap out my battery partway through the meet.
• Wear your name tag somewhere that is easily seen. Also, put both your first name and the screen name that people are most likely going to know you as.