Hello, my adoring fans! It’s time for a little love from me, Sophie! Did you miss me? I bet you did!

I thought I’d share some dolly secrets with you all, yes dolly secrets. It’s secrets that we, the Blythes, have from you, the humans. And don’t worry, my plastic-fans! You and I both know that the humans will just brush this off because there’s no way that their sweet, innocent little Blythes would ever do anything wrong.

Secret the First: We know your log-in information. For everything. Yes, this includes your email (so we know when you ‘won’ that eBay auction for a new sister) and your Paypal account. Did you not think it odd that several new lots of shoes arrived in the mail? You probably chalked it up to late-night bidding and drinking a wee bit too much… Don’t worry, it could have been that as well. *coughcough*

Secret the Second: When we say that we’re pleased about having a new sister, we’re likely lying. And if we say we’re not lying, we’re definitely lying. Nobody is ever happy about a new sibling. Just ask your own children if they relish the idea of sharing all their toys and clothes with a younger version of themselves. And when we get older? Definitely not. I have sisters who think my shoe closet is fair game. My shoe closet. No, nobody is ever happy. I don’t mind them, I suppose, but I’d be an only doll if I had the choice! Except for maybe Kindred, everydoll needs a sidekick.

Secret the Third: … I think I’ve said enough for now! I may be inclined to share more later! Teehee!

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.

I confess, I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to Blythe. Then again, Blythes aren’t a necessity of daily living, so I guess we’re all a bit spoiled in that regard when it comes to being able to own the luxury that is Blythe…

Of all of my Neo Blythes only two were bought second-hand/used – the first being my Velvet Minuet, Kindred, and the second being my mohair Friends with Blythe custom, Halo. All of the rest of them? They were all NRFB. Which led me to thinking – I’m probably not in the norm when it comes to Blythe collectors, or there wouldn’t be such a busy doll marketplace for used and customized Blythes. So clearly if I’m not in the norm, I must be the odd one out. Which leads to more thinking about the idea of who buys what kind of dolls.

I have 11 Neos – 2 were secondhand (stock used and customized), 9 were NRFB (never removed from box) and I had the pleasure of taking off all that tape. I also have 3 Kenners – all of which were bought used and definitely not with stock clothing or boxes. Oh, and 1 Middie that was NRFB, and 2 Petites (one used, one NRFB – both gifts).

Do I just love to torture myself with a bunch of tape, ties and really bad box hair?

The answer is: probably.

Do you buy NRFB, minty, or bait dolls?

As this year’s March Talent Showcase winds down to an end, I’d like to take a moment and thank everyone who entered and all those that I interviewed for sharing their talent and skills with the community, and with me.

Many thanks to Monika of Orchid’s Designs, who generously decided to give away 5 gift packs full of goodies! Each gift pack will consist of postcards, sample pages from her Dolly Fashion Sketchbook and a knitted scarf for Blythe.

Click to read more of this entry.

It is a fun and creative process for me to come up with posts and topics to write about for BlytheLife.com. I spend more time writing posts than I do taking photos of my Blythes (shh, don’t tell them that!). But from time to time, I like to invite you, the readers, to make your suggestions for what kind of posts that you would like to see me do. You’re a creative bunch and it’s good to get the thinking caps! I give credit for ideas that I use, and I welcome suggestions of all sorts!

Note, any inappropriate suggestions will obviously not be used. Any suggestions for me to go and buy up Kenners to give away will also not be entertained!

Hi! Hi! I’m not a Blythe, but I wanted to say hi! So hi!

Some topics that you may want to think about include crafts, ideas for Blythe On A Budget posts, customizing tips (remember that I’m a chicken when it comes to anything with carving!), what you want to know my thoughts on, perhaps?

You can comment below with your suggestion or use the Suggestions form!

So this is the first year that I’ve used Rafflecopter for the March Talent Showcase giveaways. In the past giveaways that I’ve used it, it’s been great and makes it a lot easier for me to do the raffles as well as verifying entries because I can filter the entries into similar types (e.g. comments, Tweets, blog posts). However, with the March Talent Showcase giveaways, I have noticed that several people have been entering without doing the requirements for entries (commenting is the big one), or they have been entering with the different emails to double-dip and put in extra entries.

Giveaways are something that I organize here on BlytheLife to spread the enjoyment of Blythe to everyone who visits. I do check the entries and verify that they’re valid before doing a draw. Entries into a giveaway that are not valid are removed prior to doing a draw. These names/emails/IP addresses of those who attempt to gain extra entries into a giveaway are noted down and these people are permanently banned from participating in future giveaways (yes, if you are banned you could still ‘enter’ in via the Rafflecopter, or comment on other posts, but I do remove entries regardless if you’re cheating in later giveaways or not). I used to take the time (and effort) to issue warnings, but I don’t see the point when people blatantly cheat. So why should I bother to do so when some people go out of their way to ruin the fun for everyone else?

In addition, I’ve seen some people commenting, but not entering into the giveaway!

If you do comment, and you’re interested in the giveaway, you need to enter via the Rafflecopter widget. Without entering, it will read that you have 0 entries. Once you complete the requirements for an entry (e.g. commenting), and say so in the widget, it will say that you’ve earned 1 entry. If you see that it still says 0 entries earned, you haven’t entered! And if you have commented or Tweeted about a giveaway, I do want you to earn your entries.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!