Every month’s last Friday (almost every month…) is part of a feature on BlytheLife.com, Freebie Friday Five. Welcome everyone to this month’s instalment! I mention 5 things I love every month that’s free to do/read/see.

If you have any suggestions for next month’s Freebie Friday Five, please don’t hesitate to email me! Maybe you have a site you think that I should feature or a pattern that’s free and up on the web? Tell me!

For the month of June, I wanted to highlight doll communities that are out there for doll enthusiasts. All of the communities are free to join and make accounts on, you just need to read over their forum rules

1. Blythe Kingdom – a popular forum, you do need a ‘referral’ in order to register an account, but it is very active. There is a Buy/Sell/Trade section, a section on customization and an off-topic forum, among other sections.
2. This is Blythe – a big Blythe forum that’s run by Gina Garan, author of This is Blythe. There’s also a shop (that sells dolls, customization goodies, clothing and shoes), a Buy/Sell/Trade section and lots of posts! It is less active than Blythe Kingdom, but there are a lot of posts still on the forums that are relevant.
3. The Blythe Doll Community – on Livejournal. You don’t necessarily need a LJ account to read the posts, but you will need an account to edit any posts that you anonymously post.
4. We Play With Dolls – You will need to get an account to read all the posts, but there are some public sections. I love the forums for sewing, crafting and customizing and greatly enjoy reading the posts there. Be sure to check it out! It’s a fairly big Australian Blythe community.
5. Knitting for Blythe – on Ravelry. You do need a Ravelry account in order to join the group and read the posts, but it’s a good group! And it’s not just knitting either – people also discuss crocheting and sewing for Blythe as well as other topics.

If you know of a site, group or activity that you think I should highlight in next month’s Freebie Friday Five, let me know! Comment below or email me.

I’ve gone through and noted down the names of the people who posted the last 100 non-spam, non-giveaway entry comments. So for some of you, you had multiple entries because you’ve commented more than once in the last 100 comments. After I noted down the last 100 people, I used a random number generator to choose a winner!

What you’re all probably wondering is “Giveaway? What’s being given away?” and the answer is one of my cardigans. This one, in fact:

(And yes, I was just working on it. And yes, it will be done before I pop it in the mail!)

And the winner is…

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There are a lot of little things that I own that I love to use in photo props. There’s so much Re-Ment and other brands of miniatures out there that I’m sure there are many favourites. Miniatures can add such realism to the photo, bringing the dolls to life and it just makes it more interesting sometimes. My favourites? Laptop. Some of my girls like surfing the internet while I’m not at home…

What’s your favourite miniature item?

I got asked a while back what the difference was between ‘grail dolls’ from the different types of molds of Blythe. I think part of the confusion is that people refer to certain Blythes as being ‘grail dolls’ but they are not a different type mold.

Type of Blythe molds that (currently) exist:

• Kenners – 1972 – no longer being produced
• BL – no longer being produced
• EBL – ‘Excellent’ – no longer being produced
• SBL – ‘Superior’ – no longer being produced
• RBL – ‘Radiance’
• FBL – ‘Fairest’

Calling a doll a ‘grail doll’ is just another way of referring to a ‘wish list’ or ‘dream doll’. Any doll that you really want can be called a grail doll. In my experiences as a Blythe enthusiast, I’ve referred to several of my dolls as ‘grail’ or ‘dream’ dolls (Love Mission, Margaret Meets Ladybug and a red headed Kenner).

I always forget that a lot of people already have a Pro account sometimes! It was nice to see the reasons why people would like a Pro account and I’m sure we’re all interested in who won…

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