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Cuteness is a Well-Dressed Doll

Written on April 21, 2016 at 4:00 pm by Michelle
Filed under: Musings

It will be no surprise to you that I like cute things. Tiny shoes, pretty dresses, lovely dolls. I love them all.

I recently took the time to actually change the outfits (!) on a couple of my dolls to give them some love. I find that often times when I get into ‘busy times’ I neglect my dolls on a regular basis. This isn’t done on purpose nor with malice. When I was in school, this happened because it was because of midterms, papers, projects, clinical, or finals (so basically whenever I was in school and should have been studying). Now that I’m working, it’s because I work a lot, pick up shifts, and during my relatively rare downtime, I wind up making plans to be out of the house because I don’t want to spend what precious time I have off from work cooped up indoors. But for me, Blythe is a primarily solo indoor activity when I’m not attending a doll meet – so by making plans to be out and about, this generally, means less dolly time. And I really like dolly time.

So, I made some time to redress some dolls. Not all of my dolls get neglected – often times Prim will get an outfit change, and so will Eden. I play favourites, what can I say? And then I took some photos because pictures, or it didn’t happen.

I redressed Kindred and Belarus. I felt like these two had been wearing the same outfits for a while. I know Kindred’s been wearing this dress for over a year at least! So this is the before:

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And this is the after:

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Do you fall into periods of doll neglect like I do? What makes you pick up the dolls and give them some attention again? Join the conversation below in the comments!

Belarus’s wearing: dress/Puppy52Dolls (she was wearing dress/ericaduh).
Kindred’s wearing: shirt/handmade (can’t remember maker), shorts/Nostalgic Pop stock (she was wearing dress/unknown vintage).

QOTW: Who do you shop from?

Written on April 18, 2016 at 12:00 pm by Michelle
Filed under: Question of the Week

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I tend to shop from Blythe clothing sellers that I know – either in person or people that I’ve developed friendships with online. I like doing that because I end up supporting people that I know, and there’s something special about owning something and being able to say something who it’s from. It’s the bonus of being in a hobby community where so many people are talented and able to create things for the dolls that I love. On the flip side, I love browsing through Etsy and Artfire and finding new-to-me vendors because it lets me become introduced to some new faces in the doll community – and supporting that new talent is important as well!

Now if only shipping to Canada wasn’t that expensive…

Do you shop from sellers that you know, or give strangers a chance?

Little Steps, Big Steps

Written on April 15, 2016 at 12:00 pm by Michelle
Filed under: Musings

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I do not often take dolls out for photos in public. This is a rare event for me. I’ll do it at Blythe meets (safety in numbers with other dolly enthusiasts!) or if I’m in a secluded enough area where there aren’t people around (e.g. when I’m out for a hike with my sister and we’re the only ones on the trail). I don’t like drawing attention to myself and genuinely avoid taking a doll out in public where people might see because I don’t like it when people are looking at me. But I went out yesterday (with my sister) to a tulip festival and I brought along a Blythe…. And I actually took her out for photos despite there being people around (other attendees, the workers).

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And yes, some people stared at me (and Prim). There were some children who made comments (one little girl got very upset and told her mom “She got to bring her dolly!” while pointing directly at me). No teenagers or adults made any comments, at least not directly to me, beyond an older woman who commented on how ‘darling’ the dress was that Prim was wearing. It might seem a little thing to anyone who’s been in the hobby for a while and routinely pulls their doll out for photos wherever they go, but this a big step for me – and I’ve been in the hobby since 2009 so it’s been a long time coming!

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Primrose’s wearing: dress/Endangered Sissy.

Who Lives Here: Emmalynn

Written on April 13, 2016 at 6:15 pm by Michelle
Filed under: Article with tags:

Who Lives Here is a little feature on BlytheLife to shine the spotlight on the dolls that live with me! Here’s to you, and me, getting to know my dolls a little bit better.

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This is Emmalynn. She was Blythe #7 and Kenner #1 – she was also the first Blythe I won via auction on eBay. She’s not the most perfect Kenner, but who is really? I find Kenners are interesting in that they all have their own quirks. Emmalynn came to me with a pelvis crack (so both of her legs were able to pop out at will), messy hair, and general dishevelment.

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But she was all mine. I had a summer job the year that I got Emmalynn, and I worked a lot of overtime. I fell in love with Kenners after attending BlytheCon Portland in 2011 because I got to see Kenners in person for the first time ever. So that summer after the convention, I worked (a lot) and saved all of my OT pay towards a Kenner. It worked out well, because that was “extra” money that I wasn’t setting aside for school expenses. It was, in a sense, fun money. And what better fun than a new-to-me Kenner?

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I actually did all of the restoration on Emmalynn myself. I detailed her arrival and restoration on BlytheLife over a series of posts: 1, 2, 3, 4.

Emmalynn is my only Kenner that is 100% Kenner – Primrose and Lily both have Takara Blythe pelvises and legs due to them only having one leg between the two of them when I got them. She has all of her eye lashes, and a sparkling personality that I love. She’s one of my favourites for a very good reason. She does have some flaws still, but there are things that I don’t focus on because of her delightful presence in my life. I really enjoy my Kenners, and Emmalynn is no exception!

Things I’m Looking Forward To

Written on April 8, 2016 at 2:30 pm by Michelle
Filed under: Musings

I do not have any incoming dolls. I’m not that excited and stalking the post carrier every time they come to my door. I’ve been very busy with work lately – it’s been a never-ending cycle of work, sleep, work, sleep, work. Which is both good and bad, mostly because work is good, and it allows me to afford things like Blythe!

I have a NRFB Petite that I will be unboxing soon – I bought myself the Intensive Care Petite Blythe (she comes dressed like a little nurse!), who is themed as an animal/veterinary nurse and comes with a book. I’ll be unboxing her soon and then sharing that experience soon. I’ve been holding off on it because I really want to have the time to sit down and enjoy the unboxing since I’ve never unboxed a Takara Petite Blythe before.

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I also have two books coming to me. The first is Dollybird Vol. 23, which has a feature on BlytheCon Vancouver. I didn’t know there was going to be a write-up about BlytheCon Vancouver, so I’m really excited about that. In case you’re relatively new to BlytheLife, I was one of the four organizers for BlytheCon Vancouver. It was quite literally years in the making and like a blink, it was over. We were able to make a fantastic donation to the Orphaned Wildlife Rehabilitation Society on behalf of the BlytheCon Vancouver attendees. If you’re in the Metro Vancouver area, O.W.L. is having an open house to showcase their rescue efforts and some of their resident/educational birds on April 23 & 24, 2016.

The second is a book released by someone that I met and befriended in Vancouver last August, Satomi of HANON. Luckily for me, she’s releasing her DOLL SEWING BOOK – HANON in Japanese with English translations. I’m not sure what I would do if the book was only in Japanese (it’d probably just hang out on my shelves with my Doll Coordinate Recipe books?), but I’m looking forward to this because I completely spaced on buying one of her dresses or patterns at BlytheCon Vancouver. It feels like a second chance to owning Satomi’s work.

I’m still going through all of the comments that BlytheLife received in the month of March – and there were a lot! I’m filtering out and removing all the spam comments, but it does take time. Once I’m done that, I’m going to draw a name or two for the winners of that lovely little giveaway I promised all of you. I will be sharing photos of the prize and names of winners very soon.

The last thing that I’m looking forward to is actually a couple of months from now, but I’m looking forward to July 1st. July 1st is BlytheLife.com’s birthday/anniversary. It will be BlytheLife’s 6th birthday and I have some very exciting plans in the works to help celebrate 6 years of BlytheLife. It’s kind of crazy to think that I’ve spent nearly 6 years writing about dolls. I started this website about halfway through my first undergraduate degree and since then I’ve completed another Bachelors, started working, and have seriously expanded the doll family. Speaking of which, I need to do yet another updated family photo since Lottie’s arrived.

What are you looking forward to in your Blythe life?

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