I love books. I loved books prior to entering the Blythe hobby, and that love of books didn’t get dwarfed by the always growing doll family. Beyond the staples of This is Blythe and Blythe Collection Guide Book, I have an assortment of other books – all related to Blythe. The majority of these books are sewing related (let’s not discuss how little I actually sew in comparison to the amount of books that I have…), and some of them are just mooks that happen to have a few patterns in them, but are also filled with articles and lots of beautiful photos. I used to buy up these books at an alarming rate (!) to the point where I could have probably bought another doll for how much I put into the books, but I do love them. I’ve slowed down considerably in recent years – this is mostly due to the lack of shelf space rather than lack of funds.

My most recent acquisition is Dollybird Vol. 23, which has an article featuring BlytheCon Vancouver! As many of you may recall, I was one of the organizers for the first Canadian BlytheCon. When I found out that the mook would have a feature on BlytheCon Vancouver, I had to get it. It was clearly part of my organizer duties to get my hands on it (even though I got it in hand several months after the fact). My other most recent purchase is a copy of HANON’s DOLL SEWING BOOK. Beautifully detailed with very clear photo instructions (with written instructions in both Japanese and English – very important if I ever decide to actually sew something out of it!).

There are still some books that I would love to get my hands on (some more of the Doll Coordinate Recipe issues, for instance), but at the same time I’m more picky about what doll books I go out and buy now because I have so many. Decisions, decisions!

What Blythe related books do you own? Do you have any to recommend? Share your thoughts below in the comments!

When I first started collecting Blythe dolls, I thought that Kenners were grossly overrated (and overpriced) and that customs were some kind of far-fetched dream for me because who pays $300+ for a doll. Yes, back when I first started in the hobby (2009), I saw beautiful customs being priced at $300-400 and thought that was grossly expensive.

Little did I know that the norm by 2015 would be that they start at the lovely price of $500 and only go up from there!

Fast forward to 2016, and I own three of those “overrated” and “overpriced” Kenners. I wouldn’t trade them for anything because I’ve since been enchanted by their vintage charm. I also own two custom Blythes, which I was lucky on because I didn’t spend over $500 each on them (the perks of buying custom dolls secondhand for customizers that aren’t the current trending artist – not that there is anything wrong with buying the work of who is hot right now! If I could afford it, I totally would). But back in 2009 when I went from buying a Cappuccino Chat in June and a Love Mission a mere month later? I did not imagine and could not imagine buying a Kenner or custom, because that was something that I always thought was out of my reach. It wasn’t something that I thought that I would be able to afford or even something that would be within my purchasing power.

At the time, I also didn’t see myself owning a BL (they cost many pretty pennies, even then!), any custom with a reroot, or an Ashton-Drake Galleries Blythe. BL because they were expensive, a custom with a reroot (because they were expensive), and an ADG because photos of dolls with the green undertone to the plastic was just not appealing. Funny how things change over time!

Is your Blythe collection what you imagined it to be?

This may come off like the ultimate first world problem, but for people who collect things, it is a genuine question. If you’re buying a never removed from box (NRFB from here on out) doll – do you unbox the doll or do you leave her in her pristine boxed glory?

My first Blythe was NRFB, and I opened her straight away. Of my seventeen full sized Blythes, ten of them arrived to me NRFB (the ones that did not are: three Kenners, two customs, one SBL, and one BL). Mildly spoiled, I know, and I’ve unboxed pretty much every single one of my dolls – except for one.

The only doll that I haven’t unboxed (although I have lifted off the clear cover…) is my ADG (Ashton-Drake Galleries) doll that I bought just this year. There are a few reasons for this and they’re kind of different from my usual reasons to pull the doll out. The primary reason why I purchased an ADG was because I didn’t already have one.

One of my goals has always been to own at least one of each mold, and after (finally) getting a BL this year I really wanted to finalize my collection by rounding it out with a lone ADG. A local Blythe enthusiast was downsizing and I jumped at the opportunity to give her ADG a new home. It worked out great! She got a sale and I got the doll that I was ‘missing’ from my collection. I got her for the purposes of filling out my collection, I really haven’t felt the need to play with her. Her purpose in my doll family is to fill a blank space that an ADG was meant for. This is also coupled with the fact that I love her box. I love that they did a reproduction of the original Kenner box and it just feels like it was meant to be displayed. There are a few of the Takara boxes that I feel were made for display purposes as well (Margaret Meets Ladybug’s house-shaped box certainly falls into that category!), but there’s something special about the reproduction Kenner box that makes me want to leave her in there.

I just don’t feel a need to unbox her. Further, she also does not have a name because of the fact that she’s been left in there. Is that terrible of me? I don’t feel a sense of attachment to her, but it’s also not to the point where I feel like I would just sell her at a moment’s notice because she does fill a gap in my collection to the point where I do feel like my collection is “completed” (at least for now, I do want to get a few more BLs eventually, but probably not any time this year).

Do you unbox your Blythes, or do you leave them in their untouched boxed condition? Comment below and join the conversation!

Things have settled down at the new BlytheLife Headquarters, hopefully it’ll be smooth sailing from here on out!

While this website is dedicated to Blythe, I do have other dolls too! I thought it’d be nice to share them, since I generally otherwise do not take very many photos of them at all as they don’t (typically) attend doll meets or get brought out for photos. I’m a bad dolly owner (most of the time).

Meet Joy, a Doll Leaves BJD (Ding Ding):

And Kanin, a Petworks Usaggi, who is a very dapper sweater-wearer (but he never wears pants):

And a very adorable, yet very nameless (still), Hujoo Nano Freya – because I couldn’t resist the adorable cat and needed one in my life (badly).

Not included are a handful of Monster High dolls, a couple of mini Lalaloopsy dolls, and assorted figurines – far too numerous to count.

Actual Blythe content to resume soon!