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

If you have any suggestions for next month’s 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 August, I found 5 places on the internet that I kept going back to again and again and I decided to share them with you!

1. Blythopia.com – the Blythe community’s answer to an easy to read guide to what stock doll is that? Also has great sections on Kenners, Petites and Middies as well as dress sets, shoe sets and accessories that were officially produced by Takara.
2. Blythe Directory – a great Tumblr website that’s easy to navigate! You can look up various Blythes to see photos, find release information. You can also search via appearance (hair colour), by mold type and by release date. At the time of writing, some details are still missing (particularly under release dates), but you can still find a lot of information regarding various stock Blythes of your choosing!
3. I’ve been obsessed with looking at photos of Middies lately! For those who are also in love with Middie, there are several Flickr groups – the one I’ve recently joined is called Middie Blythe.
4. Junko Wong‘s blog has been fun to read in August. It’s bilingual and has lots of fun photos, not necessarily always about Blythe. It’s interesting to see what she has to say about new releases though!
5. Lastly, I’ve been looking at more and more photos of customized Blythes (uh oh!) and there’s another Flickr group that I frequent as well that’s all for custom Blythes.

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.

Hello, BlytheLife fans! Today’s post is going to be a little different. For starters, it was written by me, Sophie!

For those who aren’t familiar with me, I’m a Cappuccino Chat RBL. I’m also the Queen Bee in the house, ahem, and I’m here to talk to you about my favourite shoes. Now, I have a pretty extensive shoe closet that my annoying sisters keep borrowing from, but they’re all mine.

I’m going to show you my top ten pair of shoes and I also want to know what your favourite shoes are! And, if you could be so kind, encourage Michelle to buy them for me? After all, I’m writing this article and I’m not getting paid! (Michelle: I don’t get paid either!)

Pair #1 & 2 – Simply Lilac and Simply Peppermint boots

Pair #3 – Vintage lace-up boots (non-squishy)

Pair #4 & 5 – Black and white Mary Janes

Pair #6 – (Vintage) Brown riding boots

Pair #7 – Thigh-high white boots (Hollywood)

Pair #8 – Black flats (vintage Skipper)

Pair #9 – (Barbie) Ankle boots (assorted colours)

Pair #10 – Granny-style boots (Velvet Minuet)

I’ve mentioned bringing Blythes to work before. I happen to work in an office setting for a summer job and I got a desk (in a cubicle) where I set my Blythe on the desk next to my computer monitor. Sometimes people notice, sometimes they don’t. After getting moved to a corner cubicle where nobody comes to visit, I’d brought a Blythe far more often to work to keep me company. Dolls are fantastic company in that they don’t fuss, they don’t make a mess (generally) and they’re great at keeping quiet while you’re trying to work to meet a deadline or answer an important email.

Do you bring Blythe to work?

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There are three spots available each month at low prices. All funds go towards keeping BlytheLife up and running!

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This is part two of my “Thoughts on…” mini series. Part one was on Kenners.

I had just stock Blythes for a very long time. For just over three years, that’s all I had. Sure, I did minor customizations here and there, but I didn’t really count them as ‘custom’ Blythes. Gaze lifting, sleepy eyes, chip changes. Such things do not turn a Blythe really into a customized doll, at least not a fully customized one.

I saw fully customized Blythes for the first time in 2011, in a little city called Portland. I saw many types of Blythes for the first time. I saw BLs in person for the first time, Kenners, customs, dolls with little teeth (vampire and otherwise). But customs were something that I love to see in photos. Well done customs can be amazing works of art. Good customs are also many pretty pennies. I understood the appeal of customized Blythes – they are unique, they have pretty chips, they have neat hair, their arms bend in funny locations. They’re interesting and it’s nice that they’re theonly one in the entire world that looks exactly like that. You don’t get that feeling with stock Blythes.

And then in July I got my very first custom Blythe. Spray matted, all pretty new chips that don’t come standard with any stock Blythe.Mohair with streaks. She even came on a Licca body. Suddenly I was thrown into the deep end. I knew how to pose Takara bodies easily, I’d been used to them for three years! But a Licca body? I was not use to posing those… Nor was I used to the giant poof of mohair. I was use to straight plastic hair that stayed the way I wanted it to.

But I have to say… It’s nice not to see my reflection in the mirror. It’s nice that she’s boggled and that her eyes roll easily. It’s also nice to have some more expression in the body with the Licca arms and legs.

I’ve become quite smitten with customs since Halo arrived. I don’t know if she’ll be my only customized Blythe in my dolly family, but for now she is my only one.

And that makes her pretty special.