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?

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.

Sometimes I muse about getting another Middie Blythe. After all, if having one Middie is awesome, having two must be even more awesome, right? And then I think about it some more, and change my mind.

There are stock Middies that I am interested in (a certain Marshmallow one comes to mind), but I haven’t pulled the figurative trigger on that yet because I’m just not a good Middie owner. Realistically, I am fully aware that Middies are just dolls. Dolls don’t have real feelings and don’t feel temperature by wearing a sweater in the summer and aren’t aware when I leave them in the same outfit for like half a year. I get that. But at the same time, having a doll that just hangs out that I don’t really play with makes me feel like I’m cluttering up my living space.

That and I really don’t have many clothes that are Middie-sized, so it does make me reluctant to continue to add to the Middie part of my doll collection because I just don’t have the clothes (or the shoes!) for them. Yes, I do have some Middie-sized shoes but I don’t have nearly as many as I do in Blythe-sized. And as much of an effort as I had put into amassing the Blythe collection, I don’t fancy doing the same for Middie when it comes to just… things. I think that’s one of the reasons why I decided to hand craft my Middie’s wardrobe – I want to be inspired and creative when it comes to Blythe (and the other sizes of dolls). This mindset didn’t last very long because I do go through periods where I just don’t do much with my dolls aside from picking out, redressing her, and taking her to a meet. And then she’ll stay in that outfit until the next time that she happens to attend a meet.

This is one of the reasons why I think photo challenges like 365 are great for people who want to become more creative and take more photos. But alas, that is just not in the cards for me at this time. And my only Middie girl will continue to be the only Middie for a while long… If only because I don’t need another reminder that I don’t make enough things for the dolls around here.

What do I do when I’m not blogging? Umm… Think about what to blog? When I am not thinking about Blythe or creating new content for BlytheLife, I am:

Doing schoolwork or I’m at clinical (a.k.a. practicum). Last week I just began my third, and last, year of nursing school. As the school year gets busier, I tend to write most, if not all, of my blog posts well in advance of them publishing. Education, to me, is both a right, a privilege, and a luxury. On all levels, it is something that enjoy (even when I don’t) because learning is wonderful and I quite like learning.

Hanging out with friends (dolly friends & non-dolly friends).

Browsing the internet to see what new dolls I want. The correct answer is “all of them”, by the way. Of the Blythe variety, I don’t often fancy after ball-jointed dolls unless it’s very specific ones. Unicorn or deer BJDs? Yes. Wants. I don’t even know the stock name. Click to read more of this entry.