Thank you so much to everyone who commented on the cardigan. It was a really fun knit and I’ve done a ton more since then (my poor fingers!), so there will definitely be another cardigan (or some other kind of handknit) giveaway in the future! But for now, let’s focus on a certain little green cardigan…

And the winner is…
Click to read more of this entry.

When I first started collecting Blythe, I noticed that some people on Flickr had more than one of the same type of doll. There’d be photos of two Samedi Marche dolls together or two Mondrians or two Kozy Kapes. And I just thought that was so boring to have twins. Because to me, at the time, with all this variety, why would you want to have identical dolls taking up room when you could have something else taking up that room?

But that was back in 2009 when I had three dolls and I just thought it was so awesome that all my dolls had different hair colours from one another and they were all totally different. Because that’s what I thought would matter most to me – variety. But now that I’m looking at my dolls… I wouldn’t mind another stock Margaret Meets Ladybug (MML has gorgeous special stock chips and a cute pull!). And I recently (in December 2011) got Simply Bubble Boom (Moxie) and Simply Sparkly Spark (Mollie) and I’ve been calling the pair of them my “fraternal twins”. This is mostly because SBB and SSS (along with STT, who I’m not getting) were part of a ‘trio’ and they belong together.

Looking at photos of twins (or triplets) is pretty fun. I like trying to figure out who is who in the photos. Sometimes there is an obvious difference (shorter hair or some other distinctive change), but having twins is so very awesome to see in photos. I’d love to have twin Mondrians one day, but I may have to settle for (one day!) getting just the one.

Do you have twins/triplets/more? Would you want them? And if yes, which dolls?

Why hello, there! I know Sunday isn’t usually a day that I post on, but I’ve been asked a few times about what sort of schedule that I keep with posting so I thought I’d do a post for you all.

I generally have posts going up on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I recently added the Shopping Saturday feature which, as the name suggests, goes up on Saturdays. But here is my current schedule, it’s always subject to change, but I do try to stay consistent with what goes up on what day. I’m always willing to consider new features or series if anyone has any suggestions (send me an email at michelle@blythelife.com or use the Suggestions page).

• Sundays – generally posts do not go up on Sundays aside from exceptions like this post
• Mondays – usually Question of the Week, unless replaced with something else
• Tuesdays – day of rest/no posts usually
• Wednesdays – usually Blythe On A Budget, unless replaced with a mini-series (like the Doll Blogging series or Treasures for Dollars series)
• Thursdays – day of rest/no posts usually
• Fridays – Various things go up on Fridays that include, but is not limited to, Freebie Friday Five (generally last Friday of each month), interviews and/or giveaways, articles, random thoughts/musings. I’m hoping to include some more tutorials on the site that will probably go up on Fridays (if not Wednesdays).
• Saturdays – Shopping Saturday

So, with the addition of Shopping Saturday, you can expect to see an average of 3-4 posts per week. I’m always open to guest posts (check out how you can contribute) and doing interviews, so be sure to get featured on BlytheLife.

One of my goals for 2012 is to create at least 2 clothing items per month for my dolls. In January, I knitted 7 cardigans. Of those 7, I made two light green hooded cardigans with little (functional!) pockets. Here’s some information about the cardigan:

• Knitted with a 70% cotton, 30% acrylic blend
• Has a non-functional hood (for Blythe) – the hood will fit Licca or Skipper dolls
• There is no button or any other kind of closure
• It’s a light honeydew kind of green
• It took approximately 2.5 hours to knit (while watching television, so take that into consideration as well)
• And you have the chance to win one of the cardigans (one for my dolls, one for you)

You can get up to two (2) entries for this giveaway draw and you can enter until Tuesday February 7 2012 at 11:59pm PST. The draw will be held on Wednesday February 8 2012 and the winner will be announced on BlytheLife.com. Remember to use a valid email address for all comments. If you win, I will be emailing you to get your address.

The giveaway is open to all international addresses.

Please only use one email address and one IP address per person, those using multiple email addresses for more entries will be disqualified.

Mandatory Entry: Comment below about the giveaway, anything at all.

Bonus Entry #1: Tweet about the giveaway (make a separate comment below with a link to your tweet – not to your Twitter profile or feed).

@blythelifecom is having a giveaway! You could win a handknit cardigan by @chelleshocks http://bit.ly/wI5p7v

Image from stock.xhng user przybysz.

Valentine’s Day is in a very short two weeks! Why not show your Blythes that you love them by helping them celebrate it? After all, you should show your appreciation for your dolls as well as other loved ones in your life. Some great things about Valentine’s is that there are a lot of inexpensive options out there and I checked out my local dollar store to see what was available:

• Fine sand paper ($1 per package) – perfect for reducing that shine
• Red, pink and white felt ($1/3 sheets) – nothing says “I love you” like a new coat
• Lace ribbon ($1/spool) – good for trims or even has a hair ribbon for your favourite doll
• Pink and white yarn ($1/ball) – it’s time to show you care with a new sweater for your plastic love
• White, water soluble glue ($1/bottle) – might not be Aleene’s, but it’ll still work for eye chips
• Hair elastics, hair barrettes ($1/package) – shiny little baubles for your favourite doll’s hair
• Boxed Valentine cards ($1/box) – show that you love, with something that says that you do

There are a lot of things that you can find at your local dollar store that can be used for your dolls, above are just some examples. As for me? I opted for buying a few sheets of felt for some craft projects, and picked up a sheet of baby pink felt for Blythe projects.