Photograph by Chun/Puppy52Dolls.

If you’re coming to Vancouver, BC for BlytheCon Vancouver, here are some things that you might want to remember to bring along:

• Doll stands for your dolls. Because most everyone will have similar stands (e.g. the clover stands), I would recommend putting a label on the bottom with your name or user name. This handy tip is borrowed from Louisa of Blythe Couture who always remembers to bring stands and she has them labelled!
• Despite being in Canada, we do get a lot of sunshine – especially in the summer. I would recommend bringing a refillable water bottle, a hat, and sunscreen! Of course, mind the fluids/liquids restrictions for carry-on luggage. And if you are bringing bottled sunscreen and other toiletries – zipped top bags are your friends to prevent spillage and having clothes soaked through with sunscreen.
• Your transit trip plans! We do have a public transit system here, Translink. This covers our buses, Skytrain, and sea bus! There is no “official” mobile app, but Translink does have a mobile website that is pretty handy for planning your trips. Look up your transit trips ahead of time to save time. There are many locations throughout Metro Vancouver that have free WiFi networks.
• Bring a reusable shopping bag (or pick one up here for cheap!). A lot of grocery shops here charge extra for plastic bags (usually $0.05/bag). Help out the environment by bringing a reusable bag to carry out your purchases while you’re here!
• Chargers – for your phone, camera, laptop, and any other electronic devices that you plan on bringing along. Also, spare camera batteries and portable cell phone chargers/power banks are an excellent idea! If you are coming from outside of Canada, be sure to put your cell phones into airplane mode or purchase a travel plan so you don’t get dinged with horrible roaming charges for hopping onto a Canadian cell network.
• Copies of your flight information and contact details of whatever hotels you’re staying at. Always a good idea to have a hard copy on you in case something happens to your phone/tablet/laptop computer (e.g. water submersion, down a flight of stairs…) or you realized you had uploaded all that information to Google Docs and the moment you need it, there’s no free WiFi around and you didn’t buy a travel plan for your phone.

Save travels to everyone who’s venturing via car, bus, plane, boat, bike or feet to Vancouver for the weekend!

I will be at the pre-BlytheCon meet on Saturday, August 8th. I’ll be the awkward one holding Sophie, the Cappuccino Chat that rules the wardrobe here with an plastic fist. While Sophie won’t be attending BlytheCon Vancouver (she decided that needing to be at the venue at 7am for set-up was going to interrupt some far more important beauty sleep!), she will be hanging out the day before because that’s more her style. For Sunday, August 9th, I will be bringing some dolls you may expect and some that you may not… Any guesses on who?

Today’s the last last day of online ticket sales for BlytheCon Vancouver! Sales had been extended from July 31st to August 4th to accommodate those who were unable to purchase tickets prior to August. Behind the scenes, things are coming along splendidly as we finish getting everything together and put the finishing touches on everything.

Photograph by Chun/Puppy52Dolls.

If you haven’t already, pop on over to the BlytheCon Vancouver website to see what fantastic donations we’ve received! Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets until end of day today!

Proceeds from BlytheCon Vancouver will benefit the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society (O.W.L.), who will also be at BlytheCon Vancouver with some of their volunteers and educational birds! We’re very excited that we’ll be able to make a donation to a local non-profit that cares as much about BC’s wildlife as we do.

The troubles with Middies is that I got really used to the Neo/Kenner Blythe size. Because all of my dolls are on either stock or Licca bodies, there isn’t that much of a need to have a secondary wardrobe for a different body shape. This may be different if I found myself needing to dress for a Pure Neemo body or a Mimi Bobeck body.

Unfortunately for Middie Blythes, they are naturally smaller than Blythe. Their bodies are a lot shorter and slimmer. Every single one of their features makes them just smaller than Neo Blythe in general – which they should be because they are a “little” sister – but it just makes for trouble with clothing them or keeping them in shoes because there is only so much one can do with trying to put Neo-sized tops as a Middie-sized dress, which isn’t to say that I don’t try to do that on a regular basis (because I totally do).

Now the real question is: do I want to carry around a Middie at BlytheCon? On one hand, I may be tempted to buy things for my Middie dolls and that wouldn’t be a very good thing due to my personal challenge of crafting my Middies’ wardrobe (why do I issue out these challenges to myself?!). On the other hand, if anyone is selling shoes that could possibly fit Middie, I will have a model right there to try them on. Or perhaps I could just ask people to slap my hands if they see me reaching for a Middie sized dress (or shirt, or pants, or skirt…)? I’m not entirely sure how well that will work for me though – it’s always tempting to buy things at any BlytheCon (in my experience of attending two). Luckily, I will be limiting myself based on the amount of cash I have on hand. I won’t be buying any dolls, but I will be able to buy a few little treasures here and there!

But if you were to choose a Middie to bring along – would you bring a Jackie Ramone or a Yellow Marshmallow?

Middie Monday is a feature that is published on the first Monday of each month! A guaranteed monthly post on Blythe’s little sister – Middie! If you have any suggestions for a future Middie Monday post, please send me an email or use my Suggestions form!

Kitty Brighton’s wearing: top/chelleshocks, capris/unknown.
Lydia Melbourne’s wearing: dress/chelleshocks.