The majority of my Blythes used to live on my desk (prior to that, they were on a set of drawers). I got into Operation: Clean Room this summer, which still struggling to be realized on the grand scale, but I did manage to do some things to get my life a bit more organized. I haven’t gotten everything quite to where I want it just yet, but it’s getting there.

I started off by going to Michaels when they had a craft storage sale (50% off!) and then there was an additional coupon that could be applied to sale items (even better!) so I bought myself a small shelf unit. It now lives on its side, on top of my desk. I essentially have six cubes on my desk where the majority of my Blythes live on top of. Each cube has been slowly filled with goodies. The shelf unit I picked is a Recollections shelf unit (it’s called Recollections 6 Cube Organizer) because I had the time to wait for it to go on sale. The total price, after tax, ended up being less than $20CAD for the unit, which was a lot cheaper than similar looking shelves from other stores. At full retail price, it would have been more on par with other stores, so it was a better deal overall after applying the sale discount and additional coupon.

I won’t be showing you the other cubes, mostly because they’re a tad disorganized still (whoops), but one of my cubes has Cedar (Monique Magnifique) and Bennett (Margaret Meets Ladybug). They have some trouble standing up straight on the clover Blythe stands because their hair makes them quite top heavy, so they get to sit on the pink KLIPPAN from the Ikea HUSET furniture set. There’s some other minis in the cube with them, just because.

Directly below that is a cube that consists of my CDs, as well as pencils, pens, gel pens, highlighters and my lovely Smidge House sofa where Joy (Doll Leaves BJD) and Kitty Brighton (Jackie Ramone Middie) hang out.

And you’re probably wondering about the rest of my dolls were, here they are are on top:

From left to right is: Kindred (Velvet Minuet, SBL), Sophie (Cappuccino Chat, RBL), Belarus (Love Mission, EBL), Eden Mouse (Punkaholic People, RBL), Moxie (Simply Bubble Boom, FBL), Minnow (Hi-Ho! Marine, RBL+), Tertiary Jane (Simply Peppermint, RBL), and Mollie (Simply Sparkly Spark, FBL).

For those wondering, my Kenners (Emmalynn, Primrose, and Lillian Rose), as well as my custom Blythes (Halo and Cameo) are often not on display. This is due to lack of space and stands. They are often wrapped up and tucked away unless they are attending a meet, or taking part in a photoshoot.

Last week I talked about my thoughts on public doll photography, something that can be difficult for me even five years into the Blythe hobby. This led me to start thinking about the other ways that I can celebrate my love for Blythe without having a Blythe in my hand.

My phone wallpaper is of a photograph of one of my Blythes, Primrose. It’s been this image for a very long time now and I still don’t feel a need to change it because I love it so much. I do get asked occasionally why my wallpaper has such “giant freaky eyes”, which leads me to start chatting about dolls. By having Prim as my phone wallpaper, I can literally carry her around with me all the time.

I have a teeny tiny Blythe photo above the keyboard of my laptop. I often don’t get asked about this aside from classmates who are sitting to my immediate right and can see it clearly. It’s a Blythe sticker that came from mail that I had received from Katie of 2:22am/Kult of Kulta.

My wallet is a Blythe wallet. It makes me super happy to have Blythe around all the time. I bought it in Vancouver’s Chinatown in about 2010. It has shown some wear and tear over the years, I’m cringing the day that I need to replace it – shall I go classic and get something timeless and likely leather? Or go Blythe again and find something on eBay?

Lastly is the newest addition to the subtle ways that I can share my love of Blythe, and that is with a hot pink flocked pullring necklace. A nod to both Blythe and BlytheLife at the same time. The flocked pullring is by Nikki of Luxie Lou.

I could wear my BlytheCon Seattle t-shirt, but that is definitely less-than-subtle. I haven’t figured out to inject more subtle Blythe into my life (I haven’t gotten a tattoo yet… probably not though).

How do you have subtle signs of Blythe love in your everyday life?

Doll meets are ridiculously fun! I am really fortunate to live in an area where there are a lot of other Blythe enthusiasts, and I’ve become really good friends with some fantastic people. Prior to 2011, I never met anyone who also had a Blythe doll, or collected them, locally or otherwise. After having met people in “real life” that had Blythe dolls, it was really inspiring because I got to meet people who customized dolls and crafted beautiful things for dolls. Meeting people who also love the big-headed (in more ways than one) doll has made me appreciate Blythe so much more. We don’t just talk about dolls at our meets though, we talk about what’s going on in our lives, big life changes (some examples include: new houses, jobs, baby!, and pets). We hang out, chat, eat food – most of our meets are all pot-luck style to lessen the burden on the host. We come together and eat, chat, eat some more, take photos of dolls, and did I mention eating?

Of course, sometimes some really odd and kooky things happen at our meets as well. Generally speaking, there are not Blythes harmed… (No worries, she was only in pieces for most of the meet…)

Have you ever attended a doll meet?

I like taking photos of Blythe, but I am not a photographer by any means. I use a point-and-shoot camera sometimes and my cell phone most of the time. For a long while, after getting my first smartphone, nearly all of my photos were taken with my phone – I recently changed this after ‘rediscovering’ my trusty Sony Cybershot. And even after five years into this hobby, I’m still shy about photographing dolls in public unless I’m with other people who have Blythes out. The idea of strangers watching me bugs me. Strength in numbers works well for me.

A little while ago, I went out to take some photos and instead of bringing a Blythe along, I brought my Petworks Usaggie, Kanin. Dressed in a cute top and a scarf that is woefully inappropriate for the weather, I took him out for photos. And it was fun! I got a lot of photos of him with beautiful backdrops that is British Columbia.

Kanin is wearing an “I Love YVR” LuxieLou top and a rainbow scarf (by me/Michelle/chelleshocks).

I was with other people (my sisters) but not other doll people. Strength in numbers again, but a little less dolly involved and just having people around. There were quite a bit of people around – it was a beautiful sunny summer day in British Columbia, everyone comes out in droves to soak up what little vitamin D we can get throughout the summer months. So there were people, and I did see quite a few people watching me as I held out Kanin to take photos of the water, the lighthouse, and boats.

It may have helped that Kanin is smaller than Blythe is, and perhaps he draws slightly less attention. Or maybe I’m just starting to care less about what people think of me? Maybe I’m not as shy about public doll photography as I think that I am. Who knows.

I recently got asked by a friend if I prefer my (vintage) Kenner Blythe dolls over my (modern) Takara Blythe dolls, and I didn’t really have a straight forward answer for that.

See, if you were to ask me about my top favourite Blythes in my current collection, I would start talking about the same four as I am painfully predictable in that manner:

Clockwise from top left: Primrose (Kenner), Eden Mouse (Punkaholic People, RBL), Emmalynn (Kenner), and Sophie (Cappuccino Chat, RBL).

But do I prefer Kenners over Takaras? To me, they’re sort of in different ‘classes’ of Blythe. Much like how I wouldn’t necessarily compare Middies to Neos/Kenners or Petites to Middies, because they’re in a different grouping all their own. There is something special about Kenners that has never been perfectly replicated in a Neo Blythe. Maybe it’s the fact that they are just so different even if you have the ‘same’ ones, or the smell, or the fact that I just adore the glow that they have, the sweet Kenner pip, and the ease of how they can look so sweet one moment and look like they’re rolling their eyes at me the next.

I love them for different reasons. By now everyone knows that the majority of my doll family is stock (or mostly stock) and that’s because I prefer stock dolls over custom dolls. But does that mean that I’m going to go up and sell my custom dolls tomorrow? Of course not, because I love them for different reasons. I appreciate the dolls for their own characteristics. Much like how I think of Kenners differently from Takara Blythes, I think of customs as being different from stock dolls – because they are.

Essentially it boils down to a few things for me. I play favourites with my dolls, I have fully admitted to this. But I still love my ‘non favourites’ just the same because they’re mine. Like a child who hoards the dollies from the toy box, I love all of my Blythe dolls. If I had to sell off all of my Takaras and only keep my Kenners, I would not be happy. And that would be true if the situation was revered with selling off all of my Kenners and only keeping my Takaras.

In short, I play favourites – but I still love all of my dolls and I welcome both Kenners and Takaras into my dolly family.