Blythe has had a serious influence on how I decorate my space.

When I was at my summer job, I had a ‘doll wall’. This was a wall where I had printed out photos of some of my personal favourite photos that I had taken of my dolls. Mostly Kenners (as you can see) featured, my dolls had a strong presence in my work space even when they weren’t there physically.

At home, I have Blythe-related things on my bulletin board. I also have dolls lined up on my desk, two sets of drawers that I had purchased just for holding dolly things, and just toys in general everywhere. If I were a child, I think I’d be very happy with the alarmingly heavy presence of toys in my room.

With the onset of Blythe in my life, I’ve found myself more drawn to girly things and vintage (or vintage-esque) things. That’s not to say that I didn’t like girly things before, I just like them more now.

What kind of influence has Blythe had in your home (or work) decor?

After realizing her claim to internet fame last week, Sophie the self-proclaimed fashionista has decided to dedicate some time towards educating the masses on her ways of being a plastic fashionista. Sophie has already stated that she will not be writing every single week, but her new column will be called Love, Sophie and she’s entirely interested in knowing about your favourite designers and shops because she seems to think that she’s getting paid to write this column (she’s not).

Hi everyone! My name is Sophie. You may recognize me from 365, which took me very, very long to complete (against my will). I’m the first Blythe in the House of Chelleshocks, which entitles me to be the first to wear new clothes in the house. I have a bunch of annoying sisters and I live with Michelle, who doesn’t always buy me new clothes. This is my new column, Love, Sophie.

This week I’m going to be telling all of you about how to get new clothes. And this isn’t just ‘new to you’, although being thrifty and wearing vintage is a very ‘in’ thing to do right now. This is all about getting new-new clothes.

The first thing you need to do is to either have access to your human’s wallet, Paypal account or credit card. Once you’ve gotten that, it’s super easy! Once you have any of those three, you just need to go onto the computer when your human isn’t around and buy things! And they just come in the mail to you! Yes, it’ll likely be addressed to your human, but if your human is nice (or forgetful), they’ll just think they bought it instead.

If you don’t have access to your human’s wallet, you’ll need work your human until they say yes. My favourite methods are:

• Bait and Switch – Ask for something really expensive and ask for it repeatedly. After they tell you no because it is so expensive, bring up something that’s not as expensive. Chances are they’ll say yes!

• Complain – This doesn’t work all of the time, but sometime it does. Like when my sisters are constantly borrowing my shoes and not putting them back properly, I just mention it to my human that they’re not really “mine” anymore (even if they are) and how I really wish there was more than one pair of white boots around, for example. Next thing you know, she’s offering to buy you a pair to compensate for your troubles.

• Woeful Woecakes – Be really sad about the fact that your human keeps bringing in more sisters, or the fact that she doesn’t have time for you anymore. Be very sad. And when your human asks what would cheer you up, point them in the direction of that cute outfit (don’t forget to include a link to new shoes!).

I hope these methods are helpful to you in your quest for getting new stuff! Sisters can be okay sometimes, but most of the time they’re just busy touching all your things! Don’t try to mail off one of your sisters though, humans frown upon that unless they’ve already lined up a new human for your sister (ask me how I know…).

Until next time, stay fashionable!

Sophie is a mostly stock Cappuccino Chat that came to live with me in June 2009. She loves shoes, new clothes, playing with her hair, fashion, magazines full of fluff and shopping. She aspires to be a model and would like to model for some of the ‘great’ dolly fashion houses one day.

Photo by sxc.hu user shadowkill.

Most of my dolls that I had bought were funded by savings that I happened to have and could afford to spend. My first Kenner was funded solely by overtime from my summer job and tax credit cheques from the government (a perk for being incredibly low in annual income?). My latest doll that I purchased was funded in part from funds raised over selling sundries online and some money from my summer job that I could afford to part with.

The costs of a Blythe rises and falls over the course of the year. It can be hard to tell when a doll is going to rise in price or not, but a good rule of thumb that I consider is to watch the market for a couple of weeks for the particular doll that you want (this, of course, applies only to stock dolls). Does the doll come with all of her stock or just partial? Is she nude? Has there been any customization (spray matte, Licca body, hair trim/cut)? Do these changes change how you feel about her? No? Great! Watch the price going over a small time period to see what the general trend of the price is her before you make your first move. It’s important to consider the time of year as well – generally there’s times when Kenners are at an all time low (months leading up to Christmas) and at an all time high (April-May, when income tax returns are being issued).

How do you save up for a new doll?