With a new year come new resolutions made in the hopes of making oneself become more… active. Be it in mind, body or soul, I bet more than one of you had decided that this was the year you would do a 365 challenge. It is a long, long challenge. I should know, I completed one with Sophie a while ago, and failed one with Eden. 365 challenges seem simple enough – take a photo of something or someone every day for the duration of a year. 365 photos, the commitment to both take a photo and to upload a photo. That’s where I fell behind a bit. And then more. And more. And more. Because it is a commitment and I think that anyone who makes it to 365 is awesome, amazing and kinda an inspiration. Even if all you do is take photos of your Blythe with your textbooks while you’re busy studying, you still took a photo and shared it with the world. I used that as an example because I took many photos of my Blythes with textbooks. And homework. And possibly even a few with my stethoscope when it was new and shiny to me.

365 photo challenges are hard. But there are a lot of options out there! There are some challenges where you take photos of the same thing every day (like 365 Days Blythe) and others where it’s okay to change things up (such as Kenner 365). If daily photos aren’t your thing, there are weekly challenges available too, like 52 Weeks of Kenner Blythe. Much like a marathon, the difficulty doesn’t lie in the beginning, but in middle and end. When I started my 365 project with Eden, I was very energetic about it, very eager to do it right and actually upload photos on time. Then I fell behind on uploading, then taking photos, then finally admitting that I was out. The beginning is easy. It’s when you have the notion of taking on such a task to begin with and you don’t realize the effort that it takes to perform such a long-term project until you’re further in.

No matter what photography challenge you decide to undertake, remember that it is an impressive feat no matter how far you end up. And also remember that it’s okay when other priorities in life take over – nobody’s going to be any less impressed with how far you’ve come when it comes down to it. Life comes first, a photo a day can wait.

Besides weight loss, smoking cessation and the goal of not eating out as much, one of the common resolutions that people make for the new year is to be more organized. I am no exception when it comes to that one because I do want to become more organized and be able to find things a little easier. One of the areas that I wanted to organize a bit more were my doll things – the dolls themselves, clothes, shoes and accessories. Now the shoes were fairly well organized to begin with, I use plastic boxes that have built-in partitions to keep the pairs of shoes grouped together so it’s already easy for me to find full pairs at a glance.

I buy my plastic boxes at a chain craft store – you can find similar ones at different shops (hardware shops, dollar stores, other craft stores). I always wait for a sale though, unless you’re in a hurry you can always wait for a sale. I believe I got these at 50% off, so they came to under $1.50 before tax.

The clothes for my dolls typically live in two plastic drawer sets. Each drawer holds different things, and to keep things even more organized, I keep clothing sets and clothes made by the same designer in plastic bags. I picked up drawer sets at a hardware store and resealable plastic bags at a dollar store. Keeping like-items in bags makes it easier for me to dig through the copious amounts of doll dresses and it makes it easier when I get the urge to dress a bunch of girls in clothes by the same designer.

I want to further organize things. I have a small collection of eyechips that haven’t been given to a particular doll yet, and customizing items for the small pangs I get towards the notion of attempting to customize a doll. Plus I really want to start building up a wardrobe for my solo Middie, so I plan to get another box (not a full set of drawers…) for Middie items! Because I really don’t want to mix in Middie things with full-sized Blythe items.

A lot of people keep things a little bit more organized than me – I’ve seen those gorgeous shelves with dresses on real 1:6 sized hangers hanging on rods like a closet. That’s a little too organized for me, I’d much rather just be able to grab and go when it comes to dressing the dolls that I have.

My best tips: get boxes, or drawers, organize items with other like-items, remember where they are kept and always, always remember to put them back where they belong as not doing so it the best way to mess up the system.

Since Flickr announced (and rudely made some) changes to their website in 2013, the photography community as a whole was in an uproar. What was the point of paying for Pro? What do you mean that there would be ads on Flickr? And free accounts really get that much space? When they made the announcement, I did some research into alternative options to Flickr – noteably Ipernity.

Quite a few members of the Blythe/doll community that was on Flickr had moved to Ipernity, but I noticed that many people did move back or just uploaded to both websites instead of just the one (Ipernity). Flickr still has many active Blythe groups, and many new doll photo uploads every day. Sometimes it slows down with the number of new uploads, but with all the integration between platforms and the increased use of smartphones, Flickr uploads still occur on a regular basis. For me, I can’t recall the last time I uploaded a photo taken with my camera – but I do upload photos with my phone (via Instagram or the Flickr app itself) frequently. As much as I think the Flickr website is still bad compared to the previous one, I’ve gotten used to the layout and the navigation. On the flip side, I still think the updated Flickr app (for Android) is still quite an improvement. Plus, with the changes, I now have better access to the Groups I follow and easier to comment, but I still wish there was a way to properly ‘reply’ to people.

Have you successfully migrated away from Flickr?

This is a question that I get asked often by people who a) aren’t into Blythe and are unable to tell the difference between Kenners, Takaras and ADGs and b) those who are into Blythe, but think that crusty old dolls don’t hold a candle to their shiny, new Neos. And, let’s be honest now, I didn’t think much of Kenners either. But I also thought that I wouldn’t have one because Kenners are a) expensive and b) all special and vintagey.

For those new to the world of Blythe, Kenners were the first Blythes to be manufactured (aside from the prototypes for the design). They have copyright information on the back of their torso that talks of General Mills, 1972 and the now-defunct toy company Kenner. They were also made in Hong Kong, when it was under British rule (history factoid for you all). Kenner made a lot of other toys as well, so if you’re looking up “vintage Kenner doll” on eBay, you’ll find other dolls besides the big-headed Blythe.

Blythe in 1972 came with 4 standard eye colours. If you’ve ever seen the original television advert, you’ll know that they referred to the orange as brown and the pink as purple. And, if you’re (un)lucky with your vintage Kenner dolls, you’ll know that sometimes with time (and perhaps poor storage over the years), the vintage eye chips will fuse with the white eyeballs that the dolls have. Short of chipping away at it to remove it, you’d be hard pressed to swap out the eyechips even if you wanted to. And yes, there are those who will customize the vintage dolls while others simply restore them to their previous glory.

Those who are turned off by Kenners for their imperfections don’t need to look far for photos of them with cracks and other faults. Pelvic cracks, missing legs, torso cracks, missing arms, broken necks, yellowed eyes, cloudy chips, missing pullstrings, scalp tears, missing plugs, frizzy hair that looks like dish scrubber. There are a lot of issues that a Kenner can end up with. And some dolls do need a lot of restoration work, if you want them to be more Blythe-like and less grunge-like.

I personally love Kenners. I have three of my own and they’re the gems in my collection (please don’t tell the others). I find that the older dolls tend to have more character about them, and the little quirks that they have from age make them more interesting to me. So while I may not have a family of just Kenners, I quite like them (a lot).

Like custom dolls though, they’re not for everyone. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes about all different types of Blythes. But there is no denying that there is a sense of allure when it comes to these older Blythes, and without them we never would have had the Blythe dolls that we know and love today.

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT! IT’S

Over the next 12 months there are a lot of fun things planned for BlytheLife. I’m looking forward to: more interviews! more giveaways! more fun!

And to start it off right, here’s a little shout-out to the January sponsors of BlytheLife.com:

• Endangered Sissy – who I interviewed in November!
• SplatterGirl

I have so many fun things planned for this year! If you want to take part in the fun, check out how you can get featured, get reviewed or make a suggestion for what you want to see on BlytheLife! There’s also Shopping Saturday and Blog Blurb Wednesday!

Best wishes to you and your family (dolly and otherwise)!

And fingers crossed that I can achieve all of my 2014 resolutions.