I love spring and daylight savings and all the things that brings sunshine to me earlier and longer. I love sunshine. It makes for better photos outdoors, better photos indoors (when the curtains are open), and overall a better mood to be in. While I adore winter and the chilly air and the snow (which we did not get a lot of in my part of British Columbia – I’m rubbing it in, I know), there’s nothing that beats sunshine and the warmth of the sun’s rays on my face.

Sunshine, however, can be bad for Blythe. Hair colours can fade or change (Miss Sally Rice, anyone?) and it can also fade stock or custom face-ups (boo!). But it makes for a great addition for photos and making colours so much better in photographs. Gotta love it!

Taken with natural light (from a window), Cameo wears
Plastic Fashion (dress) and Endangered Sissy (tights).

Daylight, natural light, is always best for photos. I find that artificial light can alter colours in photos from their true selves. Of course, I can always correct these using Photoshop (something I do use when editing my photos). It’s nice to have to do as much work with an image before using it though, because it just makes my life a lot easier! Three cheers for sunshine and better photos!

That you’re being watched?

Sometimes with a row of dolls, it feels like I’m being constantly watched. Constantly. This feeling sometimes makes me feel like I need to change what direction the dolls look in, or maybe given them some more attention and change the direction they look in.

From left the right, the dolls are wearing: Kult of Kulta (Sophie), Buttonarcade (Eden Mouse), ericaduh (Moxie), Plastic Fashion (Minnow and Tertiary Jane), and charmachine72 (Mollie).

There are twenty-four hours in every single day. We all get the same twenty-four hours, but we all do different things with them. At this point, I’m in my last practicum for school so I do 12 hour shifts at the hospital that is bookended with a long commute (40-50 minutes one way). So all in all, by the time I get home, that’s 14 of my 24 hours gone in a day. That doesn’t leave room for much else when you have to consider that I need to sleep in order to function at my next 12 hour shift, which is often the very next day. On the other hand, working 12 hour shifts means that I usually have several days between sets of shifts where I can do whatever I want, which is really nice. However, these days off tend to happen on weekdays and not weekends, and I end up working on homework anyways because that is the life of a student.

So on my days off, I pull a doll off of a shelf, maybe fix her hair, maybe change her outfit (although really, that doesn’t happen often at all…), and then I set her back on a stand or a chair because that’s where they hang out. It’s hard to find time for them sometimes because on my days off there’s laundry to do, groceries to buy, food to cook, sleep to catch up on (mmm, sleep!). The dolls don’t always get a lot of attention, but I’m making a conscious effort to spend a little bit of time with them on my days off because it’s the little moments, the little things, that remind me to breathe and just take a moment for myself (and the Blythes).

Sometimes (only sometimes!) when I haven’t touched my dolls in a while, I feel a bit guilty for having them. Sometimes it’s because I’m aware of their value and “oh, I suppose that money could be put towards something else like X, Y or Z”, and sometimes it’s because I get feelings of “I bet someone else would have fun with them or appreciate them more”. And then I think about how I would feel if I were to sell them and that just squashes all those feelings because nope! Blythe is a ‘happy’ place for me and darn it, I’ll keep my dolls if I want to – even if I haven’t touched them for several weeks because I’ve been busy with schoolwork or busy at the hospital.

I have a couple of dolls that rarely attend meets because of how gigantic their hair is and troublesome it is. I have a couple of dolls that don’t go out simply because I don’t have a large clothing selection for them (ahem, the Middies…). And that’s when I start to be more aware of who goes to meets, and the fact that I really ought to make more clothes. With that in mind, the next meet I go to should really include either Bennett (Margaret Meets Ladybug) or Cedar (Monique Magnifique) or maybe both!

Maybe feeling a wee bit guilty is a good thing? It does make me aware of who needs a bit more attention in the doll family, but it also makes me aware of the fact that I don’t want to sell my dolls (and nor do I need to at this time). Just because I don’t spend as much time as I used to with them on a regular basis doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate them just the same.

Do you ever feel guilty about not spending more time with your dolls?

As mentioned earlier, I’ve given myself a $15/month limit (budget) for dolly things. I actually didn’t buy anything doll related in February but last weekend? I bought this beauty:

It’s a Barbie playset that I found at Target Canada for 40% off (all Target stores in Canada are liquidating, and currently all toys are 40% off original retail prices). So between my budget for February and March, this fit in quite nicely with just under $10 left over to spend on something – this will probably roll into April for me though.

A photo booth! There’s some cute fun props – not all of them work well for Blythe (or Middie… or Petites…). There’s a space for your smart phone (for better photo taking of course), and cute details on the inside where Barbie and her friends take photos. This surprisingly works well for Blythe, mostly because she is the same size as Barbie. I have many plans for modifying this fun little set.

My sisters have pointed out that the toy is for children ages 3+, and then I point out that I definitely count in the + category of being over the age of 3.